Australia’s Liberal Party leader slammed over call to ban Gaza refugees

The leader of Australia’s main opposition party, Peter Dutton, has come under fire for calling on the government to ban the entry of Palestinian refugees from Gaza.

Independent legislator Zali Steggall, during a heated discussion in parliament earlier today, told the Liberal Party leader to “stop being a racist”, and accused Dutton of trying to paint all Palestinians as “terrorists” and “not worthy of humanitarian aid”.

Members of the Australian cabinet and advocacy organisations also criticised Dutton, who earlier this week called for a bar on refugees from Gaza due to possibility of Hamas sympathisers entering the country, according to media reports.

Education Minister Jason Clare invited Dutton to his western Sydney electorate, where some 1,000 Palestinians from Gaza live.

“These are people who’ve had their home blown up, who’ve had their school blown up, who’ve had their hospital blown up, in some cases, have had their kids blown up,” Clare told reporters on Wednesday.

Nasser Mashni, president of the Palestine Advocacy Network, urged all elected representatives to condemn Dutton’s “stoking of racist stereotypes, under the guise of national security”.

Mashni told the Australian Associated Press that Canberra had “rightly supported” Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion and was “morally obliged to offer the same levels of support, compassion and care” to Palestinians fleeing Gaza.

Israel’s military campaign cannot wipe out Hamas: US officials

In 10 months of war in Gaza, Israel’s military has considerably weakened Hamas, but continued bombings are now yielding diminishing returns and exacerbating civilian suffering, according to senior US officials quoted by The New York Times.

“Hamas is largely depleted but not wiped out, and the Israelis may never achieve the total annihilation of Hamas,” said Ralph Goff, an ex-CIA official who worked in the Middle East, to the US newspaper.

Joseph L Votel, who previously headed the army’s US Central Command, said while Israel has been able to “disrupt” Hamas and take out many of its leaders, only negotiations could bring about the release of Israeli captives still in the enclave.

Netanyahu cannot be only decision-maker on ceasefire: Former Israeli PM

As Qatari, US and Egyptian officials gear up to mediate the latest round of talks between Israel and Hamas, Ehud Barak, Israel’s former prime minister says that current PM Netanyahu is not authorised to be the sole decision-maker on whether a deal is acceptable to Israel.

“I expect the negotiation team to demand that Netanyahu bring decisions to the cabinet,” Barak said, in comments carried by Israeli Army Radio. “This is the structure of the regime in Israel. Netanyahu must not be allowed to make all the decisions on his own, he is not authorized to do that.”

“If Netanyahu continues to refuse, I expect [the negotiating team] to also address the public,” he added.

Netanyahu has been accused by observers and analysts, both Israeli and international, of sabotaging previous rounds of ceasefire talks.

Netanyahu turned Israel into ‘pariah state’, says Israeli general

A retired Israeli general has accused Prime Minister Netanyahu of intentionally misleading the public about the Gaza war for his own personal interests.

In an op-ed for Israel’s Maariv newspaper, General Yitzhak Brik said that despite being aware that Israel’s military cannot fully root out Hamas during the war, Netanyahu has continued to insist on marching towards total victory so he can stay in power.

“Neither the well-being of the people nor the security of the state concerns Netanyahu, but only his personal survival at any cost,” wrote Brik.

He added: “The almost year-long conflict has caused us to lose our standing in the world. The state of Israel has become a pariah state, isolated and regarded with disdain, and even our closest friends in Europe are turning their backs on us.”


‘High stakes but low expectations’ for today’s ceasefire talks

The parties that are going to be involved in these talks are the US, with a delegation led by CIA chief Bill Burns, Israel, with a delegation headed by Mossad chief David Barnea, Egypt, led by its intelligence chief, and of course, Qatar, represented by Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

The question is how involved is Hamas going to be in the coming hours. Hamas released a statement saying they do not want to enter into new negotiations. They would like to be presented with the framework they say they agreed to in early July – from the deal presented by US President Joe Biden in late May.

There’s a lot of questions about how exactly all of this is going to unfold. The atmosphere around these talks is one of high stakes but low expectations. But there’s a very concerted effort by the mediators to make sure something productive can be achieved in the coming hours.

Israelis stage pro-ceasefire rallies in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem

Dozens of Israeli protesters have gathered in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem to urge for an immediate ceasefire and captive-release deal, as their country’s delegation gears up for another round of talks today in Qatar.

Zahiro Shahar Mor, a relative of an Israeli captive in Gaza, joined a crowd of protesters in Tel Aviv.

“We need a ceasefire to get them all [Israeli captives] back,” he said, blaming the Israeli government for “torpedoing any [ceasefire] effort for the past 10 months.”

He added: “We put very little hope in the Israeli delegation’s seriousness to sign the deal and we call upon the nations of the world… to help us put as much pressure [as possible] on both parties, especially the Israeli government.”

Scuffles in New York after pro-Palestine protesters disrupt Harris campaign event

Police in New York City have scuffled with and arrested several pro-Palestine protesters in the borough of Harlem after the demonstrators disrupted a campaign event for the Democratic presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, according to activists and media reports.

The activist group Within Our Lifetime, which organised the protest, said in a post on X that the police “ruthlessly beat and arrested protesters in Harlem” after they held a “noise” demonstration to disrupt the Democratic Party’s campaign launch event for Harris.

“They waited until the event ended and the cameras left, then began to attack us with batons, tasers and pepper spray,” the group said. There was no immediate comment from the New York police.

According to US’s Fox News and Israel’s i24News, the confrontations took place after the protesters stormed an afterparty following the event and set off smoke bombs in the area.

_{Pro-Palestinian protesters gather outside a campaign event for Democratic presidential candidate and US Vice President Kamala Harris in New York City, US, on August 14}

Palestinian armed groups collaborating in combined mortar attacks in Gaza: Monitors

Palestinian armed groups have continued to attack Israeli forces, command posts and supply lines along the Netzarim Corridor south of Gaza City, with fighters from three separate groups firing mortar shells at the Israeli-built military access road on Monday, monitors report.

The corridor – which cuts through the Gaza Strip east to west and was built by the Israelis to allow for the rapid deployment of troops – has come under daily attack over recent weeks, US-based defence think tanks the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP) report.

In southern Khan Younis, fighters with Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and the Mujahideen Brigades carried out a combined mortar attack on Israeli forces operating in the east of the city, the ISW-CTP report, while the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades mortared troops operating in the nearby az-Zanna area.

The National Resistance Brigades also mortared Israeli soldiers near the Rafah border crossing on Wednesday.

Three killed by Israeli shelling in Gaza City

Three Palestinians have been killed in a dawn strike by the Israeli army on Gaza City’s Sabra neighbourhood, Wafa news agency reports. Others were injured in the attack, Wafa’s report says, in which Israeli warplanes hit a house belonging to the Khaziq family.

Israeli forces also shelled the Islamic complex in the Sabra neighbourhood.

Attack drones hover over skies of central Gaza, Khan Younis

The skies of central Gaza and eastern Khan Younis, according to local reports, are clouded with surveillance and attack drones, creating a very intimidating atmosphere for people.

The way these drones launch their attacks is unpredictable. In many cases, people have been on the streets walking by a building or driving their car when an attack killed or critically injured them.

The Israeli military has launched many of these attacks without any prior warning, disregarding the lives of civilians, including women and children.

Israel’s military claims to kill 20 fighters in Rafah

In its latest war update, Israel’s military says it has targeted and “eliminated” numerous fighters in Rafah and Khan Younis, while destroying extensive military infrastructure.

Twenty of the fighters it struck were based in Rafah, the military said, while an undisclosed number were in Khan Yonis. It identified one of those in Khan Younis as a “tactical-level” operative with Palestinian Islamic Jihad who had fired projectiles towards Israel.

In its last day of operations, Israel’s air force also destroyed 30 Hamas sites, including explosive-rigged structures and weapons depots, the military said.

Israel’s latest military attacks in Gaza have also killed numerous civilians, including three children by shelling in Khan Younis.

UNRWA rebuilds critical water well in Khan Younis

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, has restored a major water well in Khan Younis that was destroyed months ago by Israeli military operations.

The well now serves as the largest supply of drinking water for displaced Palestinians in the area, pumping out more than 500 cubic metres (17,657 cubic feet) of water per day, said the agency.

Despite its impact, water access in most of Gaza remains scarce, with many families “forced to travel huge distances in sweltering temperatures for such a basic need”, said UNRWA spokeswoman Louise Wateridge.

“Others are not able to access [clean drinking water] at all, forcing them to survive on dirty water,” she added.

Sixteen arrested in Hebron in occupied West Bank: Report

Israeli forces have carried out a wave of arrests in Hebron governorate in the occupied West Bank, rounding up 16 Palestinians, including a lawyer, reports the Wafa news agency.

During their raid in the governorate’s town of Halhul, Israeli forces shot a gas canister at a local home, causing a fire to break out, said Wafa. Additionally, in the town of Sa’ir, Israeli forces raided a family’s shops and seized some of their goods, it said.


Wounded Palestinians shot dead after West Bank drone attack: Rights group

Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP) has accused the Israeli military of shooting dead three Palestinians who were seriously wounded and lying on the ground after a drone attack in Tammun village in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday.

Based on documentation collected after the killings, the child rights group said the three young Palestinian men, including 17-year-old Mohammad Bashar Hasan Bani Odeh, were seriously injured but still alive when a military vehicle arrived at the scene of the attack.

When the Israeli soldiers realised that Mohammad and the other two injured men were alive, “they ordered a nearby ambulance driver to leave at gunpoint….and proceeded to fatally shoot each of them at point-blank range”, the organisation said in a statement on their website.

The bodies of the three slain men were then “confiscated”, DCIP said.

Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP, said foreign governments need to act now and place sanctions on “Israeli forces who have been allowed to brutally kill Palestinian children with impunity for decades”.

IRGC member dies in Iran after being wounded in Israeli air strike in Syria

The commander-in-chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has confirmed that a member of the elite force who was wounded in an Israeli air strike in Syria has died.

Hossein Salami said in a statement carried by state media that Colonel Ahmadreza Afshari, a member of the IRGC’s aerospace division, succumbed to his wounds.

According to the commander, Afshari died today after being transferred to Iran for medical treatment after being targeted in an air raid in the first half of the Iranian month of Mordad, which will end on Wednesday.

Gaza’s death toll of 40,000 is ‘grim milestone’: UN rights chief

The UN’s high commissioner for human rights has issued a statement on Gaza’s mounting death toll, which exceeded 40,000 today, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

“Today marks a grim milestone for the world,” said Volker Turk. “This unimaginable situation is overwhelmingly due to recurring failures by the [Israeli military] to comply with the rules of war.”

“As the world reflects on and considers its inability to prevent this carnage, I urge all parties to agree to an immediate ceasefire, lay down their arms and stop the killing once and for all,” he added.

https://youtu.be/6wrhzDBvhEc?si=ePcDkNRujqlK7NFc

Anti-semitism is on the rise again because of the actions of the Israeli government.

The idea that Hamas controls what footage comes out of Gaza is beyond ridiculous. And even if it is, it's all faked?

It doesn't matter anyway since the footage IDF soldiers post on Telegram is plenty evidence of genocidal intent, dehumanization, apartheid, occupation, annexation, abuse, torture, and so on.


Watch this