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

SvennoJ on 14 August 2024

Latest Israeli strikes on Gaza Strip kill at least 16

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic report that at least 16 people have been reported killed in predawn Israeli attacks that targeted central and northern Gaza.

We reported earlier that two people had been killed in Israeli artillery shelling of an apartment building in northern Beit Lahiya city and three people were killed and several injured in an Israeli attack on a house in the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza.

Strikes in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City have also been reported.


Four killed in attack on south Gaza apartment: Civil defence

The Palestinian rescue organisation says in a statement that its crews recovered the bodies of four people. It said that they were killed when the apartment they were in, owned by the al-Tawil family, was bombed by the Israeli army in the city of Khan Younis.

Fighting and bombardment remain intense in the eastern areas of the city after Israel launched a new offensive last week, displacing nearly 70,000 residents from their homes, according to the UN.


Israeli military claims to strike 40 sites in Gaza within 24 hours

Israel’s military says its troops, supported by air forces, have killed numerous fighters and destroyed Hamas military infrastructure in southern and central Gaza over the last day. Among the sites it targeted are sniper posts and missile launch sites, it said, adding that its warplanes hit 40 targets.

Israeli attacks in Gaza have also killed numerous civilians in the last day, including several children in an apartment in Deir el-Balah.


Long-range Hamas rockets launched from site near Israeli forces: Monitors

The two long-range rockets fired at Israel’s Tel Aviv were launched from a site just 1.5km (0.93 miles) from where Israeli forces were operating in the east of Khan Younis on Tuesday, war monitors report.

One of the Hamas rockets landed in the Mediterranean off the Israeli coast with the sound of the explosion heard in Tel Aviv. The second rocket failed and did not enter Israeli territory.

According to US-based think tanks the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP), the Israeli military issued mass evacuation orders for Gaza’s Bani Suheila area – the rocket launch site – hours after the M90 rockets were fired at Tel Aviv.

The rocket fire marks the first targeting of Tel Aviv since May by Hamas and comes as Palestinian fighters continue near-daily launches of short-range rockets into Israel despite more than 10 months of grinding war in Gaza.

Though Hamas’s long-range rocket supply is dwindling, Israel’s military assesses that it is still capable of attacking targets in central Israel or occupied Jerusalem, the ISW-CTP report.


Twenty killed in Gaza in latest Israeli strikes: Report

The Wafa news agency now reports that Israel’s early-morning strikes in Gaza have killed at least 20 people, up from our earlier toll of 16.

They include:

  • Seven killed in a family home in the Nuseirat camp
  • Four killed in a residential apartment in Khan Younis
  • Three killed in a home in the Maghazi camp
  • Three killed in Rafah’s Tal as-Sultan neighbourhood
  • Two killed by sniper fire in the town of Bani Suheila, east of Khan Younis


Two civil defence members killed in Rafah

In a statement on its official Telegram channel, the Palestinian rescue organisation says that two of its team members, “Fire Sergeant Suhaib Adel Abu Taqiya and Sergeant Hussein Diab Abu Jamous”, were killed in an Israeli attack in southern Gaza’s Rafah.

The statement says that they were killed by “Israeli bullets”, and that the two men’s deaths bring the total number of civil defence personnel killed during Israel’s war on Gaza to 82.

The 82 were “martyred while they were still at work providing humanitarian services to our people in the Gaza Strip”, the organisation said.


Three children killed in Khan Younis neighbourhood

Israeli forces have shelled the Khan Younis neighbourhood of Batn al-Samin, killing five people, including three children, reports the Wafa news agency.

Israeli helicopters have also fired shots to the east of the neighoburhood, said Wafa, without reporting additional casualties.

The attacks come after our earlier report of a lethal strike on a residential apartment in Khan Younis, which the Israeli military issued expanded evacuation orders for yesterday. The latest evacuation orders for Khan Younis, Gaza’s second largest city, have pushed at least 75,000 Palestinians out of the area, according to the United Nations


Two Palestinians killed, multiple injured in Israeli strikes in Gaza

The Palestinian Civil Defence in Gaza says its paramedics in Khan Younis retrieved the body of one Palestinian who was killed and two others who were injured.

They were hit by an Israeli strike on a residential apartment in the Batn as-Sameen area, south of the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society also released a video that showed its paramedics transporting the body of a Palestinian killed in a drone strike in northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoon.



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SvennoJ on 14 August 2024

Heavy clashes reported in occupied West Bank’s Tubas city

Heavy gunfire and loud explosions have been reported in the occupied West Bank city of Tubas where local Palestinian resistance fighters have confronted an Israeli military incursion, according to local media reports.

Palestinian fighters report detonating two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) amid the ongoing clashes which began when Israeli troops poured into the city and surrounded a home in a predawn raid.

According to our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic, the Israeli forces fired antitank grenades at the besieged house and also bombed a vehicle in the city.

Images and video clips shared on social media show clouds of smoke following explosions and the sound of sustained and heavy automatic rifle fire.


Israeli military says Palestinian killed, others wounded in raid on Tubas

The Israeli military statement follows reports of intense clashes and explosions in the occupied West Bank city of Tubas and the nearby town of Tammun.

According to the Israelis, they have “eliminated a terrorist and hit additional terrorists during exchanges of fire”. Arrests have also been made.

We reported earlier that loud explosions had been heard in Tubas as Palestinian resistance fighters fought an early-morning raid by Israeli forces, who surrounded and besieged a Palestinian household.


Palestinian man killed by Israeli forces in Tubas identified

The victim of an Israeli military raid on Tubas city in the occupied West Bank has been identified as Fayez Fawaz Abu Amer.

According to the Wafa news agency, Abu Amer was shot after his home was surrounded by Israeli forces in an early-morning raid. Local media reported that Israeli forces fired antitank grenade shells at the besieged building to force the occupants to surrender.

The Israeli military said earlier that it had “eliminated a terrorist” and wounded others during the raid on Tubas. Local media report that the victim’s body has been removed by Israeli forces.

Palestinian fighters said they detonated two explosive devices during armed clashes with the Israeli forces who stormed Tubas.

Translation: New reinforcements heading towards Tubas city, coinciding with the ongoing aggressive military operation.


Clashes continue in Tubas

Confrontations are still ongoing in Tubas. They’ve also moved to the neighbouring area of Tammun. We know that Israeli forces have surrounded a house [in Tubas] and killed one Palestinian.

Local sources are reporting [more casualties]. We cannot confirm because medical teams have not been able to get there yet.

How did it all start? It started when undercover Israeli units raided Tubas and were discovered by Palestinians.

Tubas has an armed battalion. Mainly what the young men [who join the battalion] try to do is confront Israeli forces militarily when they enter Palestinian cities. But they’ve also made progress in making improvised explosive devices, basically trying to stop Israeli vehicles from moving.

There has been a lot of incitement in Israeli media lately regarding Tubas, with calls for the Israeli security establishment to crack down more on Palestinian resistance there.


Israeli drone hits occupied West Bank, killing 3

The Wafa news agency, citing security sources, reports that three young men were killed today when an Israeli drone bombed a group of people in the West Bank town of Tammun.

The town is southeast of Tubas, where an intense Israeli raid is taking place during which at least one Palestinian has already been killed.

Wafa’s sources say that Israeli forces are holding the young men’s bodies and the Palestine Red Crescent says soldiers prevented its crews from reaching the site of the bombing.


Death toll rises in Israeli drone strike on occupied West Bank’s Tammun

We can hear the sound of a drone. Local sources tell us they hear the sound of armed confrontations between Palestinian fighters and Israeli forces from time to time.

Israeli forces raided this whole city and its surroundings in the early hours of the morning. They surrounded a house and shot a Palestinian dead. Then, armed confrontations expanded to a nearby area called Tammun. There, an Israeli strike hit a car and killed four other Palestinians. This was confirmed to us by the governor of Tubas, who said Israeli forces took the bodies with them.

We’ve seen an extensive increase in the use of aerial strikes by Israeli forces that is making the lives of Palestinians more and more difficult.


Israeli forces demolish 5 Palestinian structures in Hebron

Israeli authorities have demolished five structures belonging to Palestinians in Hebron in the occupied West Bank, with the UN also confirming reports of demolitions.

According to UN data, Israeli forces have demolished more than 11,000 Palestinian structures in occupied territories since 2009.


Israel arrests 12 in latest West Bank raids

Israeli forces have rounded up 12 Palestinians, including one minor, in raids across the occupied West Bank since last night, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.

The arrests took place in the governorates of Qalqilya, Hebron, Nablus, Ramallah, Jerusalem and Tubas.

They bring the total number of Israeli arrests in the West Bank since October 7 to 10,100, said the prisoners’ society.


Israeli military shoots US citizen in occupied West Bank

Last week, the Israeli military shot an American citizen in the leg when he was in the occupied West Bank in non-violent support for Palestinians and to raise awareness about the occupation.

The wounded man and bystanders told Al Jazeera the Israeli military shot at him, but the army said this was “accidental” while the US State Department expressed “concern”.



SvennoJ on 14 August 2024

Several rockets fired towards US base in Syria amid regional tension: Report

The Reuters news agency is reporting that an Iran-backed armed group fired six rockets towards a US airbase in a gas field in Syria’s Deir al-Zor province, but the projectiles did not hit the facility.

The agency cited two US officials and a security source.

The attack comes as the Pentagon reported that eight of its personnel were injured in a drone strike on another base in Syria last week. Seven US personnel were also wounded in a rocket attack on the Ain al-Assad base in Iraq last week.

The uptick in attacks on US troops comes as the world awaits an Iran-led retaliatory attack against Israel over the assassination of Hamas’s Haniyeh in Tehran and Hezbollah’s Shukr in Beirut.



Israel’s military claims strikes on Hezbollah sites

Israel says its air forces hit several Hezbollah military sites, including a rocket launch site, yesterday in southern Lebanon. One of the targeted sites was near the southern village of Kfar Kila, while the other was near the village of at-Tiri, it said.

Last night, we reported that Hezbollah fired three rounds of rockets at Israel, without causing casualties.


Israeli military says no casualties after Hezbollah rocket attacks

The Israeli military confirms that rockets entered from Lebanon but says they fell in open areas and there were no casualties.

It also released aerial footage to show that it directed another air strike against a “military structure” being used by Hezbollah in the area of Aita al-Shaab in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah has claimed five attacks on Israeli positions so far today, including multiple rocket strikes. It said it targeted an Israeli military site in the occupied Kfarchouba hills, a barracks in the occupied Shebaa Farms, and the Shtula settlement among others.


Ten wounded in Israeli air raid in southern Lebanon

Lebanon’s Health Ministry confirms that 10 people have been wounded, with three suffering critical injuries, after an Israeli air raid targeted the town of al-Abbassieh in southern Lebanon’s Tyre district.

The country’s state-run National News Agency reports that the injured have been taken to multiple hospitals in the area.



SvennoJ on 14 August 2024

US envoy meets with Lebanon’s parliament speaker

Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to US President Biden who has been repeatedly dispatched to the Middle East for Israel-Lebanon mediation, is back in Lebanon for another round of talks.

After meeting with Lebanon’s parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally, Hochstein was asked at a media conference whether he thought war between Israel and Lebanon could be averted.

“I hope so, I believe so,” he replied.

Hochstein also told journalists that he and Berri discussed “the framework agreement that’s on the table for a Gaza ceasefire”. They both “agreed there is no more time to waste and there’s no more valid excuses from any party for any further delay”, he said.

Speaking at his Beirut press conference, Hochstein stressed that a potential Gaza ceasefire deal could pave the way for a “diplomatic resolution” in Lebanon that prevents regional conflagration.

“We have to take advantage of this window for diplomatic action and diplomatic solutions. That time is now,” said Hochstein. “The more time goes by of escalated tensions … the more the odds and the chances go up for accidents, for mistakes, for inadvertent targets to be hit that could easily cause escalation that gets out of control.”

He added: “Here in Lebanon we believe we can get to (the) end of the conflict now, today. We recognise that there are those who want to tie it to other conflicts. That is not our position,” Hochstein said.

“We continue to believe that a diplomatic resolution is achievable because we continue to believe that no one truly wants a full-scale war between Lebanon and Israel.”


Israel-Lebanon border clashes expected to continue

The US envoy [Amos Hochstein] stressed the urgent need to bring about a diplomatic solution because of what he described as escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah along their border. He says this can be achievable, but he also knows there can be no diplomatic settlement until there is a permanent end to the war on Gaza, which has been Hezbollah’s position since October.

Hezbollah does not see the US as an honest broker in this conflict. Hezbollah believes that every time he [Hochstein] comes here, he relays threatening messages from the Israelis. Hezbollah has made it clear that they do not want all-out war. Yes, they want to retaliate for the killing of their top military commander, but they have repeatedly said that they did not open this front to destroy Israel, but to help Gaza.

So, the hostilities along the border are expected to continue, but whether or not they will widen will all depend on what kind of a response Hezbollah takes.



SvennoJ on 14 August 2024

UN rapporteur takes aim at talk of Israeli settlers in Gaza ‘in less than one year’

The UN’s special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory has called out contemporary Israeli “settler-colonialism” in a post on social media.

In a brief comment above a video of an Israeli TV studio discussion, where far-right settler leader Daniella Weiss speaks about settlers entering Gaza “in less than one year” and Israelis already “snapping up plots of land”, Francesca Albanese said: “In their own words. Settler-colonialism, 21 st Century.”

In the studio discussion, Weiss speaks about “a sense of historical rhythm” and how a long-term Israeli military presence in Gaza would lead to a “copy/paste” of “what we did in the West Bank and also in the Golan [Heights]” – which have remained under Israeli military occupation and illegal settlement for decades.


Israelis march on Al-Aqsa Mosque for second day

Crowds of Israelis have stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound for the second straight day and performed Talmudic rituals there, reports the Wafa news agency.

Yesterday, thousands of Israelis, watched by security forces, marched on the holy site and performed Jewish religious rites, which are banned at the location. Among the activists was far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who told the crowd Israel was making progress in establishing “sovereignty” there.

The minister’s visit was denounced by numerous Arab states as well as the US, which said he had “demonstrated blatant disregard for the historic status quo” of Jerusalem’s holy sites.


Thousands of Israeli soldiers treated for PTSD since October 7: Report

At least 10,056 Israeli soldiers have received rehabilitation care since the Gaza war broke out, reports The Times of Israel, citing the Defence Ministry’s rehabilitation department.

More than one-third of those soldiers -about 3,500 – have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or other mental health issues, according to ministry figures cited by The Times of Israel.

Thirty-seven percent of them have limb injuries, it added.

Since October 7, Israel’s military has named 690 soldiers as having died in combat.



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SvennoJ on 14 August 2024

Ilhan Omar wins Democratic primary

The US legislator, who is a fierce critic of Israel, has clinched the Democratic nomination for a fourth term in a victory for the progressive wing of her party.

The Minnesota legislator, one of four progressive women whose 2018 election created the group known as The Squad, is expected to easily win the November 5 election.

Omar’s victory comes after fellow Squad members Representatives Jamaal Bowman of New York and Cori Bush of Missouri lost their party primaries to opponents who had won substantial support from the pro-Israel fundraising group AIPAC.


Ilhan Omar poses for a picture with supporters after announcing her victory in the Minnesota Democratic primary election at Nighthawks in Minneapolis, Minnesota, US, on August 13


US exhibiting ‘many red flags for genocidal processes’: Lemkin Institute

A prominent US-based multinational NGO reports that it is “deeply concerned by the devaluation of life in and by the United States” as it shows a plethora of genocidal red flags.

According to the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, those include “extreme political divisiveness, institutional ossification and breakdown, political corruption, dependence on special interests, a highly militarised security sector, and widespread pessimism as well as popular disengagement from a political system that is increasingly unresponsive to the needs of ordinary people”.

“It is never in the interest of a state to commit genocide domestically, to countenance the rise of genocidal ideologies and groups, or to aid, abet, condone, or give diplomatic cover to genocide overseas,” the institute says.

It also calls on the US, among other things, to create anti-genocide mechanisms and dialogue at the national level, challenge the dominance of military spending, agree to adhere to its own laws on military support for foreign countries, and become a member of the International Criminal Court.


Israel attacked ‘nearly every inch of Gaza with US-made bombs’

Jewish Voice for Peace, a US-based advocacy group, has made a map of the more than 70,000 bombs that Israel has dropped on the Gaza Strip since October 7 using UN satellite data.

“With the US as its collaborator, the Israeli military is carrying out the goal of Zionism: the complete and total ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land,” the group says.

“The US isn’t just allowing the Israeli government to commit a genocide, it’s actively assisting it. It’s well past time for a weapons embargo. We demand a complete end to US funding, arming, and backing of the state of Israel’s oppression of Palestinians.”



‘Enabling genocide’: Melbourne orchestra cancels pianist’s performance over raising Gaza awareness

The UN’s special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territory says the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s cancellation of a prominent pianist’s performance after he dedicated a piece of music to journalists killed in Gaza is enabling the genocide in the enclave.

“Those who suffer genocide are the most unprotected, and humanity obliges us to stand up for them, using all means at our disposal, starting with our voice,” Francesca Albanese said in a post on X.

Musician Jayson Gillham was scheduled to perform at Melbourne Town Hall on Thursday, but he was dropped after he discussed the media workers killed in Gaza after a Sunday performance.

“The killing of journalists is a war crime in international law, and it is done in an effort to prevent the documentation and broadcasting of war crimes to the world,” the musician told the audience, adding that Israel has killed more than 100 journalists since October 7.

In an email to those who wished to attend Gillham’s next performance, the orchestra said the pianist’s remarks “have caused offence and distress” and offered “a sincere apology”. The orchestra has made its social media accounts private after online backlash.



SvennoJ on 14 August 2024

Netanyahu under little pressure to reach ceasefire deal

While mediators are hoping a new round of ceasefire negotiations this week could lead to a long-sought deal, there may be little to discuss as the basic parameters remain unchanged, said Abdullah al-Arian, associate professor of history at Georgetown University in Qatar.

“We know what the parameters of the agreement look like. … We’ve seen acceptance, at least on the Palestinian side, of the parameters, especially those that were laid out by US President Joe Biden back in May. And of course, we’ve seen nothing but Israeli rejection since then,” al-Arian told Al Jazeera.

He added that while the US has publicly lobbied for a ceasefire, it has done nothing to pressure Israeli leaders to reach an agreement.

“If anything, [Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu] is under more pressure from members of his own government not to accept the ceasefire proposals,” said al-Arian.


Israeli captive families demand Gaza deal, call for march

The group representing the families of Israeli captives still held in Gaza has urged the Israeli negotiating team heading for mediated talks to keep working until a ceasefire and exchange deal is in place.

The families also announced that they will demonstrate and march in Tel Aviv, with speeches also planned for family members.


12 arrested at ultra-Orthodox protest against military draft

At least 12 people have been arrested after hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews protested in northern Israel against being drafted into the military.

Demonstrators gathered near the Michve Alon military training base, according to national broadcaster Kann, after they were summoned to report to a recruitment centre.

Israeli police said in a statement that the protesters “blocked traffic routes and lit a fire near the gates” of the military base, according to the Times of Israel.

The demonstration also reportedly turned violent, with participants throwing objects at police and soldiers guarding the base.


There have been many Haredi protests against conscription since the start of the war on Gaza, with this image showing a protester clashing with an Israeli police officer on a horse at Tel Hashomer recruitment base, in Ramat Gan on August 5


Israel releases blueprint for new West Bank settlement

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says Israel has published plans for a proposed settlement in the occupied West Bank, framing it as a response to growing global recognition of Palestinian statehood.

“No anti-Israel or anti-Zionist decision will stop the development of the settlement,” said Smotrich, who heads a pro-settler party and himself lives in an Israeli settlement. “We will continue to fight against the dangerous idea of a Palestinian state. This is the mission of my life.”

Smotrich said the new 60-hectare (150-acre) settlement, called Nachal Heletz, will form part of the Gush Etzion settlement cluster and connect the region with nearby Jerusalem.

In June, Israel announced it was going to legalise five outposts in the West Bank, seize huge swaths of Palestinian land and establish three new settlements, which are illegal under international law.



SvennoJ on 14 August 2024

The irony, but true in the case of Israel-Gaza...

Abbas says Russia is fair mediator, should take part in peace negotiations: Report

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has blamed the US for trying to box Russia out of Middle East peace talks and says Moscow should play a rule in such negotiations.

Speaking to Russia’s state-owned TASS news agency while visiting Moscow, Abbas said Russia “has always sought and is seeking ways to resolve the issue peacefully”.

“America has always wanted to exclude Russia from this process,” Abbas added. “We do not accept under any circumstances the exclusion of Russia from any format for a Middle East settlement because it has a truly fair position on the Middle East issue, based on international law.”


Israel’s ‘terrorist’ labels on killed Palestinian journalists must end: CPJ

The Committee to Protect Journalists has called on Israel to stop making “unproven claims that journalists slain by its forces are terrorists or engaging in militant activity”, and demands international, swift, and independent investigations into these killings.

The New York-based watchdog said: “Since the war began on October 7, 2023, Israel has used questionable and sometimes contradictory evidence to label at least three journalists killed by the [Israeli army] as members or suspected members of a militant organisation.”

“Smear campaigns endanger journalists and erode public trust in the media. Israel must end this practice and allow independent international investigations into the journalists’ killings,” said CPJ programme director Carlos Martinez de la Serna.

“Even before the start of the Israel-Gaza war, CPJ had documented Israel’s pattern of accusing journalists of being terrorists without producing credible evidence to substantiate their claims,” he said.

The journalists whom CPJ says Israel has smeared include:

  • Al Jazeera correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul, killed along with freelance camera operator Rami al-Rifi near Gaza City by an Israeli drone strike on July 31, 2024.
  • Al Jazeera journalist Hamza Al Dahdouh and freelancer Mustafa Thuraya, killed in an Israeli strike on January 7, 2024.
  • Yaser Murtaja, a photojournalist for Gaza-based media production company Ain Media, who was killed by Israeli fire in 2018.

 

AFC condemns Israel’s detention of Palestinian football chief

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has denounced Israeli authorities for detaining Jibril Rajoub, the president of the Palestine Olympic Committee and Palestine Football Association (PFA).

We reported yesterday that Rajoub was detained by Israeli forces as he returned to the occupied West Bank via Amman. Although he was released, his passport was confiscated, and he has been summoned for further questioning on Thursday.

The AFC said it was “alarmed by the violation of Rajoub’s fundamental rights, particularly his freedom of movement to conduct his duties as a sports leader, especially as the president of the PFA”.

Rajoub has previously been threatened with imprisonment by some members of the Israeli government for campaigning to bar Israel from the Olympics and football World Cup because of its violations of the Olympic Charter and FIFA regulations against apartheid in sports.



SvennoJ on 14 August 2024

Israel approves new settlement on Palestinian UNESCO site near Bethlehem

Israel has approved a new settlement on a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the occupied West Bank, its far-right finance minister has said.

Bezalel Smotrich, who also heads civil affairs at the Defence Ministry, said his office had “completed its work and published a plan for the new Nahal Heletz settlement in Gush Etzion”, a bloc of settlements south of Jerusalem.

All of Israel’s settlements in the West Bank, occupied since 1967, are considered illegal under international law, regardless of whether they have Israeli planning permission.

“No anti-Israeli and anti-Zionist decision will stop the development of settlements,” Smotrich, who lives in a settlement, posted on X. “We will continue to fight against the dangerous project of creating a Palestinian state by creating facts on the ground.”

The Israeli anti-settlement group Peace Now denounced the plan, calling it a “wholesale attack” on an area “renowned for its ancient terraces and sophisticated irrigation systems, evidence of thousands of years of human activity”.


The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization said the village was recognized urgently in view of "construction of a separation wall that may isolate farmers from fields they have cultivated for centuries."

https://english.alarabiya.net/life-style/travel-and-tourism/2014/06/21/Palestinian-village-Battir-joins-UNESCO-world-heritage-sites

The Nahal Heletz settlement, which received preliminary approval along with four others in June, lies between Gush Etzion and the Palestinian city of Bethlehem, south of Jerusalem, an Israeli settlement watchdog, has said.

Peace Now said it will flank houses in the Palestinian village of Battir, a UN World Heritage site known for its stepped agricultural terraces, vineyards and olive groves.

“These actions are not only fragmenting Palestinian space and depriving large communities of their natural and cultural heritage, they also pose an imminent threat to an area considered to be of the highest cultural value to humanity,” the organisation said in a statement.

According to a European Union report, last year Israel advanced plans for 12,349 homes to be built in the West Bank, the most in 30 years. Some 700,000 Israeli settlers now live in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem.

Palestinian ministry denounces building of new Israeli settlement

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that Israel’s appropriation of hundreds of acres of land in the Bethlehem area for the illegal Nahal Heletz settlement “comes in light of the international failure to implement the relevant UN resolutions”.

In a statement carried by the official Wafa news agency, the ministry stressed that the international community’s failure “encourages Israel to continue West Bank land confiscation and the deepening of its colonial project”.

The ministry also said that the increased demolitions that have accompanied the acts of land appropriation “constitute a blatant disregard of international resolutions, international law and the advisory opinion issued by the ICJ”.



SvennoJ on 14 August 2024

More injured in Israel’s Lebanon attack, including children

Lebanon’s Health Ministry says in an update about the Israeli air raid on al-Abbassieh in southern Lebanon that the number of injured has risen to 17, with four in critical condition.

In a statement cited by the country’s state-run National News Agency, it reports that 12 of the wounded are Lebanese, four are Syrians, and one is a Palestinian.

A 17-year-old boy is among the critically wounded, with other emergency cases including a 16-year-old boy, an eight-year-old girl and a Lebanese woman.

The Israeli military, which has carried out numerous air raids and assassinations in Lebanon since the start of the war on Gaza, has not commented on the al-Abbassieh air raid.


Hezbollah launches rocket attack on Kiryat Shmona after Lebanon attack

Rockets have hit Israel’s Kiryat Shmona after its army bombed a crowded area in Lebanon’s al-Abbassieh that targeted a motorcycle. Hezbollah said it launched a volley of Katyusha rockets on the northern Israeli area in retaliation, with local authorities reporting damage but no casualties.

Hezbollah has claimed seven attacks on Israeli positions today, with another using “squadrons of suicide drones” to hit a gathering of soldiers along the border.

Translation: Moments of a number of rockets falling on the settlement of Kiryat Shmona without activating the sirens.


Casualties reported after Israeli strike in southern Lebanon

Lebanon’s Health Ministry says one person has been killed and one wounded following an Israeli attack on the town of Blida. Earlier, we reported that Hezbollah hit Israel’s Kiryat Shmona area after its army bombed a crowded area in Lebanon’s al-Abbassieh, targeting a motorcycle.