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

SvennoJ on 25 August 2024

‘Her body had been torn in two’: Tales from Israel’s attack on al-Tabin

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/longform/2024/8/25/echoes-of-a-massacre-tales-from-israels-attack-on-al-tabin-school

Sumaya Abu Ajwa had woken up for the dawn prayer with her two foster daughters, 16-year-old Nuseiba and 14-year-old Retaj, and their mother when two Israeli guided bombs fell on the al-Tabin School, killing more than 100 displaced Palestinians.

“I found the younger girl and held her in my arms. Her blood was pouring onto my clothes, but I could sense that she was still breathing,” Abu Ajwa told Al Jazeera, adding that Retaj died of her wounds a short time later but the search for her big sister continued.

“I went back into the flaming prayer room over and over, looking for her. I couldn’t see her anywhere. Then someone told me that she was under the rubble, so I went to look where they said.

“When I reached her, I found her, and her body had been torn in two.”


Israeli military issues another evacuation order for Deir el-Balah

The Israeli military has issued a new order to displaced Palestinians in a designated block in eastern Deir el-Balah to immediately evacuate ahead of an expanding ground invasion.

Avichay Adraee, the Arabic-language spokesman of the Israeli military, told Palestinians the area is “currently considered a dangerous combat zone”.

At least 100,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced, many not for the first time, from Deir el-Balah in the past few days, with some not even able to find space to set up tents as the Israeli military keeps shrinking the tiny Gaza Strip.


Palestinian women and children sit in the back of a vehicle as they flee Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on August 21


Palestinian patients flee Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital

Palestinian patients are fleeing Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip after the Israeli army ordered the evacuation of nearby areas.




Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital still providing services: Health Ministry

The Gaza Health Ministry says the hospital in Deir el-Balah is still working and its staff is staying on the premises to provide services to the sick and wounded despite Israeli orders to evacuate the nearby areas in central Gaza.

“The Israeli military announcement has caused panic among patients, some of whom have left out of fear that the hospital would be raided like other medical facilities,” the ministry said in a statement.

“Despite this, medical staff are staying put and fulfilling their obligations, at a time when there are 100 patients remaining in the hospital, seven of whom are in the Intensive Care Unit."



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SvennoJ on 25 August 2024

Several people killed in Israeli attack on northern Gaza: Civil Defence

Three people have been killed in Israeli shelling of a group of people in the Dawlat area of the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza city, the Gaza Civil Defence says. Earlier, we reported Hamas’s armed wing claiming Palestinian fighters had successfully conducted an ambush in Zeitoun.


Nearly a dozen bodies recovered in southern Gaza

At least 11 bodies have been recovered from a house in the Hamad area, west of Khan Younis, after a bombing by Israeli forces, Gaza Civil Defence says.


Palestinians carry out a body in Hamad City, Khan Younis


Choatic scenes as central Gaza residents evacuate after Israeli orders

Palestinians have shared videos on Instagram documenting the displacement of residents from Deir el-Balah after Israeli evacuation orders. The videos show residents carrying their belongings with some even transporting mattresses on their backs as they navigate crowded roads.

Earlier in the day, the Israeli military issued a new evacuation order in an area of eastern Deir el-Balah amid an expanding ground offensive.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C_GY4QdtZ-K


Hamas’s armed wing says it fires rocket at Tel Aviv

The Qassam Brigades says its fighters have launched an M90 rocket at the Israeli coastal city. “This is in response to the massacres being perpetrated against civilians and the forced displacement of our people,” it said in a statement.


Israeli attacks reported near Gaza City hospital: Civil Defence

Israeli forces are carrying out shelling in the vicinity of the Friends of the Patient’s Hospital west of Gaza City, Gaza’s Civil Defence has said. Earlier, the group said three people had been killed in an Israeli shelling of the Dawlat area of the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City.


Israeli army says reserve soldier killed in Gaza

Shlomo Yehonatan Hazut, 36, from Ashdod was killed in combat in the central Gaza Strip, the army has said in a statement. More than 300 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the war on Gaza began nearly 11 months ago.



SvennoJ on 25 August 2024

Hamas says it stressed permanent ceasefire in Cairo talks

The Palestinian group has spoken about the ongoing ceasefire negotiations in the Egyptian capital. Here is a translated summary of what it said:

  • The movement’s negotiating delegation left Cairo after meeting with mediators in Egypt and Qatar and listening to the results of the last round of negotiations.
  • The movement’s delegation demanded that the occupation be bound by what was agreed upon on July 2, in accordance with a plan laid out by US President Joe Biden and a UN Security Council resolution.
  • Hamas confirmed its readiness to implement what has been agreed upon to achieve the interests of Palestinians and stop the aggression against them.
  • In Cairo, it stressed the need for any agreement to include a permanent ceasefire and a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
  • It also stressed the necessity that any agreement include the freedom of return for Gaza residents to their homes, relief and reconstruction, and a captive-prisoner exchange deal.


‘No time to lose’, UN peace envoy says

Tor Wennesland says a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip is needed as is the release of Israeli captives being held there. “There is no time to lose,” he said in a post on X.

“Ongoing ceasefire/hostage release talks in Cairo are crucial to saving civilian lives, reducing regional tensions and enabling the UN, in cooperation with the PA [Palestinian Authority], to accelerate efforts to address the pressing needs of Gaza’s long-suffering population,” he said.

His comments came after a meeting with PA Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.


The Muslim American vote can’t be taken for granted

As the US presidential election approaches, the race to attract voters has intensified. Among the different constituencies the Democrats and Republicans are battling over, there is one that stands out: the Muslim community.

Although Muslims constitute roughly 1 percent of the American population, they are an important voting bloc because they are concentrated in swing states, which are often narrowly won in elections.

In this election cycle, the Muslim community seems more united than ever over a single political issue: the war in Gaza.  Any candidate hoping to win over large segments of Muslim voters would have to address community demands for an end to the bloodshed in Palestine.


US cannot be ‘credible mediator’ while arming Israel

Analyst Rami Khoury says Washington has not been putting any serious pressure on Israel, despite rhetoric about stopping the civilian suffering in Gaza.

“They’re continuing to give Israel the money on the guns and the diplomatic protection that it needs. And this is one of the problems. The United States cannot be a credible mediator while it is also the primary funder, military provider and diplomatic shelter of the party that’s conducting the genocide, which is Israel,” Khoury, a professor at the American University of Beirut, told Al Jazeera.

“This is totally bizarre and no other place in the world would accept this.”


Malaysia’s Ibrahim slams ‘inaccurate narratives’ on Gaza

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim says the Western world needs to stop trying to control the international media merely for the sake of highlighting “inaccurate narratives” about the ongoing war in Gaza.

Inaugurating the All-Malaysian Mosque Summit for Al-Aqsa and Palestine in Kuala Lumpur, he stressed that the West does not need to teach the Muslim world about the “meaning of democracy, human rights, and sustainable development,” Anadolu reported, quoting the Malaysian state-run Bernama news agency.

“We need to be clear and cannot be determined by the Western countries that want to start the narrative on October 7,” Anwar was quoted as saying.

​“The continuous destruction [in Palestine] happened since 1948, followed by the direct invasion of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in 1969. In fact, now the destruction continues, whether infrastructure or human and genocide. This is what happened,” he said.



SvennoJ on 25 August 2024

US says still working towards Gaza ceasefire deal in Cairo

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan says Washington is still working in Cairo towards reaching a ceasefire deal in Gaza, adding that the US is concerned about the conflict escalating into a broader regional war.

Sullivan, who was speaking to reporters in Halifax, Canada, said the Biden administration is in constant communication with Israel about the situation with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Hamas earlier this evening in a statement said its delegation in Cairo demanded that Israel be bound by what was agreed upon on July 2, following a plan laid out by US President Joe Biden and a UN Security Council resolution.

While the Palestinian group confirmed its readiness to implement that deal to achieve the interests of the Palestinian people and stop the destruction of the Gaza Strip, it stressed the need for any agreement to include a permanent ceasefire and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

US says the work continues as Cairo talks end without a deal

Going into these latest negotiations, we heard from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken who said that this could be the last best chance for a ceasefire deal.

So, now that the talks have concluded, the Biden administration is still trying to send a somewhat optimistic message. We heard from the national security adviser to President Joe Biden, Jake Sullivan, who repeated much of what they’ve been saying – that they don’t want to see this go into a wider conflict in the region and that they are still working towards a ceasefire deal.

We also got a statement on background from a National Security Council official who told Al Jazeera that the talks were conducted in a “spirit of trying to reach a final implementable agreement from all sides”, including Israel and Hamas, and that the negotiations will continue over the coming days through working groups to further address the remaining issues and details.

So, exactly what are those remaining issues? They’re not going into specifics but they are trying to send the message that the work continues. This is a huge priority for Biden. So in the days to come, we are going to see what the president is willing to do to try and get these talks across the finish line.

So far, he hasn’t seemed willing to put much pressure on Israel at all.

I would say the US is only encouraging Israel, negative pressure, here's some more money and bombs. Oh and we weren't serious about sanctioning that criminal Settler army battalion, forget we said that, here have some more funds.

Actions speak louder than words.



Hamas, Israel turned down compromise proposals in Cairo: Report

The Reuters news agency is reporting that neither Hamas nor Israel agreed to compromise proposals presented by mediators in Sunday’s ceasefire talks in Cairo. The agency cited two Egyptian security sources.

The proposals included alternatives to the presence of Israeli forces on the Philadelphi Corridor and the Netzarim Corridor, but none was accepted by the parties, the Egyptian sources said.

They added that Israel also expressed reservations on several of the Palestinian detainees that Hamas is demanding the release of and demanded their exit from Gaza if they are released, the sources added.



SvennoJ on 25 August 2024

Pro-Palestinian protests as students return to Columbia University


Pro-Palestinians protesters gathered outside Columbia University as new students arrived on campus on Sunday

The protest comes months after Columbia University dismantled the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at the university which sparked similar protests on campuses around the world.

The protest also comes as Columbia University President Minouche Shafik, who spoke out against the protests, recently stepped down to take up a new role in the UK government’s Foreign Office


Explosion reported on bus in occupied West Bank

The Israeli military said there has been an explosion on a civilian bus near the Palestinian village of Marah Rabah in the occupied West Bank.

“The bus was damaged. There were no casualties,” the military said in a post on X. Israeli forces have set up roadblocks in the area and are hunting for the suspects, it added.

The military did not provide further details.

Marah Rabah is near the illegal Israeli settlements of Gush Etzion and the city of Bethlehem.

Ugh, back to the eighties. Bombs on busses. The situation continues to devolve.



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SvennoJ on 25 August 2024

MSF reports panic as explosion rocks Al-Aqsa Hospital

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, says it is considering suspending some services at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital after an explosion near the facility “triggered panic” and caused many people to leave the area.

“This situation is unacceptable,” MSF said in a post on X.

“Al Aqsa has been operating well beyond capacity for weeks due to the lack of alternatives for patients. All warring parties must respect the hospital, as well as patients’ access to medical care.”

It added that Israel’s evacuation orders for the area have left “hundreds of thousands displaced people with a so-called ‘humanitarian zone’ of just 41 square kilometres [16sq miles] in which to seek shelter”.


Rocket from Gaza lands near Israel’s Rishon Lezion: Report

Israel’s YNet News is reporting that a rocket fired by Hamas landed in an open area near the city of Rishon Lezion, south of Tel Aviv.

“No injuries were reported,” it said.

Earlier, Hamas’s armed wing – the Qassam Brigades – said its fighters launched an M90 rocket at Tel Aviv “in response to the massacres being perpetrated against civilians and the forced displacement of our people”.


Five Palestinians killed in Israeli attack on Gaza City

The Wafa news agency is reporting that at least five Palestinians were killed and several others wounded after Israeli forces bombed a house near the Friends of the Patient’s Hospital in Gaza City.

The report followed several deadly Israeli attacks across Gaza City.

These include an attack on al-Shuhada Street that killed and wounded several people and on the Dawlat area of Zeitoun neighbourhood that killed three people, according to rescue workers and our correspondents on the ground.

A deadly Israeli attack was also reported in southern Khan Younis. The toll was not immediately clear.



SvennoJ on 26 August 2024

HRW accuses Israel’s military of torturing Palestinian health workers

Human Rights Watch has called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate Israel’s military for the custodial torture of Palestinian doctors, nurses and paramedics.

The group said it interviewed eight released health workers who described mistreatment in Israeli custody, including humiliation, beatings, forced stress positions, prolonged cuffing and blindfolding, and denial of medical care.

“The Israeli government’s mistreatment of Palestinian healthcare workers has continued in the shadows and needs to immediately stop,” said Balkees Jarrah, acting Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

“The torture and other ill-treatment of doctors, nurses, and paramedics should be thoroughly investigated and appropriately punished, including by the International Criminal Court,” she added.


Media groups urge EU to suspend treaty, impose sanctions on Israel

Some 60 media and rights organisations have called on the bloc to freeze an association accord with Israel and adopt targeted sanctions, accusing it of “massacring journalists” in Gaza.

“In response to the unprecedented number of journalists killed and other repeated press freedom violations by the Israeli authorities since the start of the war with Hamas, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and 59 other organisations are calling on the European Union to suspend its Association Agreement with Israel and to adopt targeted sanctions against those responsible”, the groups said in a joint statement.

The period following Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7 and Israel’s devastating retaliatory assault on Gaza “has been the deadliest for journalists in decades”, the letter said.

“More than 130 Palestinian journalists and media professionals have been killed by the Israeli armed forces in Gaza since 7 October… The targeted or indiscriminate killing of journalists, whether committed deliberately or recklessly, is a war crime,” it stressed.

The call comes ahead of a meeting by EU foreign ministers in Brussels on August 29.


Only 3 out of 18 water wells functioning in Deir el-Balah: UN

The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) reports that only three out of 18 water wells in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah are functioning, resulting in an 85 percent water shortfall. “Not only are people in Gaza in constant fear for their lives, but they struggle to meet even their most basic needs,” the organisation said in a post on X.

The Israeli military continues to expand its ground invasion of the area, with the latest evacuation order yesterday displacing more Palestinians.


‘Slow authorisations and frequent refusals’ as Gaza aid drops

Israeli authorities continue to challenge humanitarian operations in the Gaza Strip amid their expanding ground attacks, the World Food Programme (WFP) reports.

According to the world’s largest humanitarian organisation, “aid workers grapple daily with slow authorizations and frequent refusals when they ask for permission to move” while looting and public order issues are frequent, especially when convoys are forced to wait for hours at Israeli checkpoints.

“In the last two months, WFP has managed to bring in only half of the 24,000 MT [metric tonnes] of food aid required for operations serving 1.1 million people,” it said.

According to the latest report by the UN’s Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 19 percent of 147 planned humanitarian missions to northern Gaza were impeded between August 1 and August 22, with 31 percent denied, and six percent cancelled.

The amount of humanitarian food assistance that entered southern Gaza in July was one of the lowest since October 7, OCHA said.



SvennoJ on 26 August 2024

Israel’s new evacuation orders in Gaza


Al-Aqsa Hospital to remain open: Gaza Health Ministry

The ministry says as a result of the Israeli evacuation orders around Al-Aqsa Hospital, some patients left the facility due to fears of an Israeli attack. It said the hospital staff will continue to treat the roughly 100 patients who remain there, seven of whom are in intensive care.


Palestinians evacuate patients from Al-Aqsa Hospital after the Israeli army demanded evacuation in an area east of Deir el-Balah, Gaza, on August 25


Israeli forces attack central Gaza school sheltering displaced Palestinians

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting that several people have been killed in an Israeli attack on a school that was sheltering displaced Palestinians north of the Nuseirat refugee camp.

The Wafa news agency also reported on the attack, saying women and children were among the dead and wounded. It identified the building as el-Ezz Ben Abd el-Salam School.


Two Palestinians killed, others injured in Deir el-Balah attack

Two Palestinians have been killed and several others injured after an Israeli air attack hit the eastern part of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza. Local sources cited by the Wafa news agency said Israeli warplanes targeted a gathering of civilians at the entrance to the al-Jafarawi neighbourhood southeast of Deir el-Balah.

Israeli artillery strikes also targeted the vicinity of the Malaysia Quran School north of the Nuseirat refugee camp, with intermittent artillery shelling reported southeast of al-Musaddar town.


Seven killed in Israeli bombing in Gaza City: Civil defence

The service’s spokesman says on Telegram that several other people have also been injured in an Israeli bombardment on a group of Palestinians in Gaza City.



SvennoJ on 26 August 2024

Israeli troops shoot dead Palestinian man in occupied West Bank

The Wafa news agency is reporting that Israeli forces have shot dead a Palestinian man in the town of Yatta, south of the city of Hebron. Citing the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Wafa identified the man as Iyad Ayed Abdul Najjar, 46, and said he was shot in the head. He died immediately, it said.

Abdul Najjar’s killing takes the number of slain Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since October 7 to 645, Wafa reported. The figure includes 147 children.


At least 15 Palestinians arrested in occupied West Bank

Israeli forces have arrested at least 15 Palestinians, including former prisoners, in the occupied West Bank during raids since Sunday night.

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society and the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs said the detentions took place in Nablus, Qalqilya, Hebron, Bethlehem and Jerusalem, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.

The organisations emphasised that Israeli forces are primarily targeting former prisoners, as evidenced by their arrest of a man in Nablus, who had been released on July 30 after spending nine months in so-called administrative detention.


Israeli settlers storm Al-Aqsa Mosque compound: Report

The Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that Israeli settlers have stormed Islam’s third-holiest site under the protection of Israeli police officers.

The storming of the compound is a regular occurrence even though entering any part of it is forbidden for Jews due to the sacred nature of the site, according to Jewish law.

Israeli authorities have also repeatedly barred Palestinians from entering the site for Friday prayers since October 7, forcing many to pray on the streets near the Old City. Israeli forces have also attacked Palestinian worshippers inside the mosque.


‘Rape in the name of God’: Israeli settler threatens Palestinians

Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has released the following video of a group of settlers harassing Palestinians in the occupied West Bank’s Hebron town and threatening them with sexual assault.

The incident took place on Sunday morning when many masked settlers arrived with a vehicle and a herd of cows on the land of a Palestinian family in Khirbet Wadi a-Rakhim in the South Hebron Hills.

One of the settlers names the infamous Sde Teiman prison, where a Palestinian inmate was recently gang-raped by Israeli guards, and threatens the Palestinians with “rape in the name of God”.



SvennoJ on 26 August 2024

Ben-Gvir says he will build synagogue at Al-Aqsa Mosque compound: Report

Israeli Army Radio reports quoting far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir that he will build a synagogue at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City.

Jews refer to the compound as the Temple Mount, and some believe that it is where the first and second ancient Jewish temples once stood.


Gantz says no change in historic status quo of Al-Aqsa Mosque

The head of the opposition National Unity alliance says “despite the provocative and irresponsible rhetoric by some, Israel is committed to preserving this historic status and has no intention on changing it”.

“The freedom of worship will always be guaranteed at the holy site,” he added in a post on X.

Gantz said he expects little from PM Netanyahu “who allowed an irresponsible arsonist to bring us down into an abyss in exchange for political peace”, apparently referring to National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

“But there are responsible parties in the government and coalition who are expected to do something,” he stressed, adding: “Condemnations and nice words won’t suffice here, and history will judge you for being part of this dangerous endeavor.”


Israel’s Lapid slams Netanyahu for tolerating Ben-Gvir

Opposition leader Yair Lapid condemned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for keeping the far-right politician in the government. “The whole region sees Netanyahu’s weakness against Ben-Gvir,” Lapid said on X.

“He can’t control the government even when it comes to a clear attempt to destabilise our national security. There is no policy, no strategy, no government really,” he said.


Palestine ministry condemns Ben-Gvir’s plans for Al-Aqsa Mosque

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry has condemned the Israeli national security minister’s promise to build a synagogue in the holy site and the compound’s storming by Israeli settlers who also performed Jewish rituals.

Itamar Ben-Gvir is trying to push the region towards a state of “perpetual conflict” and is undermining regional and international efforts to end the war on Gaza and the “genocide” of Palestinians, the ministry added in a statement.

“The ministry holds the Israeli government fully and directly responsible for the consequences of this incitement by Ben-Gvir and others like him, particularly in turning the conflict zone into a cycle of violence that is difficult to control and may never end,” it said, calling on the Arab and Muslim nations to act.


Israel’s Ben-Gvir calls for ‘decisive war’ with Hezbollah, takes aim at defence minister

The national security and defence ministers of Israel are publicly attacking each other again amid the latest disagreements over handling the fallout of the war on Gaza.

Yoav Gallant, the defence minister, said in a post on X that changing the status quo of Al-Aqsa Mosque would be a “dangerous, unnecessary and irresponsible act” after the far-right security chief, Itamar Ben-Gvir, promised he would build a synagogue there.

Gallant said Ben-Gvir’s actions endanger Israel’s national security and its international status, also defending the “pre-emptive strikes” and other bombings of Lebanon that Israel carried out on Sunday.

Ben-Gvir punched back in a post on X, saying Gallant “bows down to Hamas and drags” Israel into a bad Gaza ceasefire deal while pursuing a “defeatist” policy against Hezbollah.

“Israel must not be content with a single pre-emptive strike, we must bring a decisive war against Hezbollah that will remove the threat in the north and allow the residents to return home safely,” he wrote.