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

SvennoJ on 04 September 2024

‘If Israel or Hamas have to make reasonable changes to get a deal, they should do so’

A senior US official not named by Reuters told the agency that there has been a “frustrating” negotiating process with Hamas on a ceasefire deal.

The official said a Palestinian prisoner exchange and areas of Israeli withdrawal are remaining obstacles to a deal. While there is nothing in the agreement which mentions the Philadelphi corridor, the dispute lies in whether that area counts as a densely populated area from which Israel would withdraw.

The official added that Israel’s security concerns will be prioritised in any deal and that the recent killings of six Israeli captives by Hamas have brought the matter of a ceasefire deal to greater urgency.

The official also stated that if Israel or Hamas have to make reasonable changes to get a deal, they should do so.

In Biden's original proposal Israel would withdraw from all of Gaza. Why is it now a negotiation of areas of Israeli withdrawal.

But this does read like Hamas made some concessions, yet it still hinges on the Philadelphi corridor. Which is of course densely populated, Rafah is all along the border...

Anyway it's just a way for Netanyahu to sabotage the deal, it's not even in Israel's interest to keep soldiers there. Monitoring solutions have already been proposed. Soldiers would only provide targets for resistance, sitting ducks.

Anyway it's not really about Gaza anymore. Gaza is now mostly a smoke screen for the advance of ethnic cleansing in the West bank.


Israelis ‘feel angry, desperate and betrayed by their government’: Advocate

Yuli Novak, the executive director of Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem has told the UN Security Council that Israelis feel “angry, desperate and betrayed by their government”.

“During this week, hundreds of thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets,” Novak said.

“They have understood that the Israeli government does not want to retain their hostages in the deal, but to continue the war indefinitely,” she told the council’s 15 members, in a briefing delivered via videoconference.

Novak added that the Israeli government has been “cynically exploiting” the “collective trauma” Israelis experienced on October 7, “to violently advance its project of cementing Israel’s control over the entire land”.



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SvennoJ on 04 September 2024

‘Palestine with no Palestinians’: Ambassador Mansour at UNSC

Ambassador Riyad Mansour of the State of Palestine spoke at today’s meeting of the UN Security Council.

Here are some of the key quotes from his address:

  • Israel is seeking to impose a military solution to the conflict by disappearing the nation.
  • Instead of ending the Nakba, Israeli fascist extremist leaders have decided to try to bring it to its ultimate conclusion, Palestine with no Palestinians.
  • In recent days, Israel has killed more than 30 Palestinians in the West Bank, among them six children and two elderly people. It has destroyed refugee camps and civilian infrastructure, besieged and attacked hospitals and carried out countless air strikes.
  • In parallel, Israel is advancing its settler colonial agenda with more and more settlers.
  • Israel wants you to believe its military aggression is about security, but it knows by experience that it is actually creating the conditions of insecurity. No one is naive enough to ignore what this is about. It is about the land.
  • All Palestinians are guilty of being Palestinians and for wanting to live on their land, the land of their ancestors. Their sentence: ethnic cleansing, apartheid, arbitrary detention or death.

Here are some additional quotes from Riyad Mansour’s speech to the UN Security Council:

  • Should we allow Israel to continue this genocide against the Palestinian people while pretending to negotiate a ceasefire? Don’t listen to me. Listen to the families of the Israeli hostages.
  • I’m sure that all of you have been watching … what the entire Israeli population are doing, including hundreds of thousands of people. They know Netanyahu does not care about the hostages.
  • We said months ago we wanted to see Palestinian and Israeli families reunited in life, not in death.
  • Colonial plans require death to prevail on both sides, to convince everyone there is no solution possible to ensure that there can be no two states, no two peoples coexisting side by side. We must not let them prevail.
  • As Israel carries on with this genocidal onslaught, those who have survived faced violence and death at every corner, starvation and disease, besieged by trauma and despair, displaced from one bomb shelter to destroyed hospital to mass grave to another.

‘Palestine remains the most important test for the international law based order’

  • While we are grateful for the international mobilisation through WHO and UNICEF and others to stop the spread of polio among our children in Gaza, the fact remains Israel’s war machine continues undeterred.
  • In a few days, all of you will have a chance to send a clear signal that the unlawful Israeli occupation must end, that this colonial supremacist rule will not be tolerated, that the rights of the Palestinian people must be respected in accordance with the determinations of the [International Court of Justice], the highest court of the land, in accordance with the universal rules of international law.
  • Palestine remains the most important test for the international law-based order, a test it cannot afford to fail.



Condemn ‘barbaric’, ‘terrorist’ Hamas: Israel’s ambassador at the UNSC

Danny Danon, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, also spoke today at today’s meeting of the UN Security Council.

Here are some highlights of his address:

  • We hear many voices demanding that we hold our efforts, lay down our weapons and question why we continue to fight Hamas in Gaza.
  • Let me be clear, Israel is committed to bringing every one of these hostages home. It is our top priority. But make no mistake, the roadblock to their release is not Israel. It is Hamas.
  • I call on this council to direct its energy where it is most needed … an unequivocal condemnation of the barbaric, terrorist organisation that continues to hold innocent lives.
  • You have a moral obligation to adopt a simple resolution, which would say the Security Council condemns Hamas, their atrocities, designates them as a terrorist organisation, and demands the immediate release of the hostages. I cannot understand why all of you cannot raise your hand and vote for this language.




US still stalling

US ambassador tells UN Security Council diplomacy ‘has not failed’

Linda Thomas-Greenfield has told the UN Security Council that diplomacy “takes effort and, unfortunately, it takes time”, as some council members questioned why a US-backed resolution adopted by the UN body almost three months ago was yet to lead to a ceasefire.

“We know that the best way to rescue the remaining hostages and alleviate the suffering of Palestinian civilians is through a negotiated ceasefire deal,” Thomas-Greenfield told the council at a meeting in New York.

She went on to address the Israeli people, saying that the Israeli government “can accept” the deal on the table, in apparent contrast to past US statements that Israeli leaders had already accepted the proposal endorsed by the Security Council in June.

“The Israeli people should understand that the deal on the table is one their leaders can accept because this is a deal that ensures Israel’s security,” she said.



UN Security Council members frustrated by lack of progress on ceasefire

This was the second emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in less than a week on the situation in Gaza.

Israel wanted to talk about the six captives who were discovered dead in Gaza over the weekend. Algeria wanted to talk about violations of international human rights law in the West Bank. But the overarching sentiment from members of the UN Security Council was frustration.

Frustration that the ceasefire they endorsed in resolution 2735 three months ago has yet to be accepted by Israel. A ceasefire that called for the release of the captives, as well as the withdrawal of Israeli forces from all of Gaza.

The United States said diplomacy takes time. Other council members, like Guyana and Slovenia, said more needs to be done to bring this conflict to an end and threatened to take further action if progress isn’t seen.



SvennoJ on 04 September 2024

Opinion: In Gaza, Israel aims to destroy civil order, but it is failing

As the head of Gaza’s ambulance services, Hani al-Jaafarawi, had one of the toughest jobs amid Israel’s genocidal war on the strip. Even before October 7, his staff were stretched thin, overworked and under constant threat. After the start of the war, al-Jaafarawi was hands-on in the medical response.

Hospitals, clinics and all health facilities were under extreme threat, and every day al-Jaafarawi’s life hung in the balance. But on June 23, the balance tipped away from him when Israeli forces attacked the Daraj Health Clinic in Gaza City, killing him and four other civilians. His only crime was his dedication to the civil defence of Gaza’s beleaguered population.

The murder of al-Jaafarawi was part of Israel’s systematic campaign to destroy civil services provision in Gaza. It has purposefully targeted and killed medical personnel, Palestinian Civil Defence workers, ambulance drivers, rescue teams, police forces, civil engineers, utility workers, aid convoy drivers and civil society leaders with the aim to create chaos and lawlessness in Gaza and to demoralise the population.

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/9/4/in-gaza-israel-aims-to-destroy-civil-order-but-it-is-failing

Deaths, injuries in Gaza’s al-Mawasi following Israeli bombing

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting that there are deaths and injuries after an Israeli bombardment targeting the tents of displaced Palestinians in the al-Mawasi area west of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

The psychological warfare of Israel’s hovering drones

Israel has escalated the use of small drones, also known as quadcopters, to drop bombs on Gaza. First deployed in 2000, these drones have killed hundreds and injured thousands.

For Palestinians in Gaza, the constant presence of these drones is a form of psychological torture, severely impacting their mental health.

Four killed in Israeli attack on tents near Al-Aqsa Hospital

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting that an Israeli attack on tents housing displaced people near Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza has killed at least four people.

The Wafa news agency said the victims included children and women.

We also have more updates on the Israeli attack on al-Mawasi, which the military had previously designated as a “humanitarian zone”. Wafa said at least one person was killed and 10 others wounded in the attack.

Last edited by SvennoJ - on 04 September 2024

SvennoJ on 04 September 2024

Palestinians decry collective punishment as Israeli siege on Jenin continues

Israeli vehicles and troops keep patrolling the area near the Jenin refugee camp as well as the city of Jenin, and Palestinians have been telling us that the destruction is continuing not just to the roads, but also to the homes inside the camp.

Many people have been lacking a lot of medicine and food. And they’ve been trying to see where the Israeli vehicles are to try and avoid them and go to search for some food and some medicine.

The municipality officials were talking about damages that will cost $13m to fix just two days ago. But since then, Israeli forces have caused more destruction and the municipality is saying it cannot reassess the damage and the losses that have been incurred since then.

It’s still a continued operation where Palestinians say the destruction is one main part of it, calling it collective punishment.


‘There are snipers everywhere,’ says Jenin health worker

Medical workers at a hospital near the besieged city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank told Al Jazeera they are keeping the windows of the emergency room closed to prevent snipers from shooting inside the facility.

During a previous Israeli raid, they said an Israeli bullet penetrated the window and got lodged in the doors of the lift, without wounding anyone.

“It’s very stressful,” said Hadeel Yahya, a Palestinian midwife.

“Even opening the curtains and seeing them scares me. I know that there are snipers everywhere. And the windows overlook the street that they’re patrolling. They don’t care. If they want to shoot towards us, they will. And they won’t care that they’re around a hospital.”


Three killed in Israeli attack on vehicle in Tubas, West Bank

At least three people have been killed and another seriously injured in an Israeli attack on a vehicle in Tubas in the occupied West Bank, the Wafa news agency is reporting.

The attack came as Israeli forces continued a raid on the Far’a refugee camp, south of Tubas, Wafa added.

Death toll rises to five in Israeli attack on Tubas

An Israeli attack on a vehicle in Tubas in the occupied West Bank has killed five young men and seriously wounded one other, the Wafa news agency is now reporting.


Israeli forces evict families, set fire to a house in Jenin

More on the continuing Israeli military operation in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, which is currently in its second week: The Wafa news agency is reporting that the Israeli military sent in additional troops to the besieged city and refugee camp of Jenin on Wednesday evening.

The soldiers have forcibly displaced Palestinian families in the city’s al-Jabariyat neighbourhood and also torched a house in the refugee camp, Wafa reported. They have also bulldozed Nazareth Street north of Jenin, which connects the city to villages nearby, Wafa said.

As we’ve been reporting, the siege of Jenin is part of a large-scale Israeli military operation in the northern occupied West Bank. At least 37 Palestinians have been killed in the raids, which have also targeted the cities of Tulkarem and Tubas.



SvennoJ on 04 September 2024

Amnesty calls for probe into Israel’s ‘wanton destruction’ in Gaza

Amnesty International said the Israeli military’s campaign to expand a “buffer zone” in the occupied Gaza Strip should be investigated as the war crimes of wanton destruction and collective punishment.

The group said analysis of satellite imagery from the Gaza Strip showed Israeli forces have cleared a zone ranging from approximately 1km to 1.8km wide along the territory’s eastern boundary.

Soldiers have used bulldozers as well as manually laid explosives to unlawfully destroy agricultural land and entire neighbourhoods, including homes, schools and mosques, it said.

“The Israeli military’s relentless campaign of ruin in Gaza is one of wanton destruction. Our research has shown how Israeli forces have obliterated residential buildings, forced thousands of families from their homes and rendered their land uninhabitable,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s senior director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns.

“Our analysis reveals a pattern along the eastern perimeter of Gaza that is consistent with the systematic destruction of an entire area. These homes were not destroyed as the result of intense fighting. Rather, the Israeli military deliberately razed the land after they had taken control of the area.”


A Palestinian woman holds her daughter as she walks past the rubble of houses destroyed in Israel’s war on Gaza in southern Khan Younis, July 10

ICC Prosecutor Khan says he received threats from Israeli supporters

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has told Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun he’s received threats from supporters of both Israel and Russia since pursuing charges against their leaders.

In the interview, Karim Khan also referred to pressure from US lawmakers who voted to impose penalties on ICC officials after he sought arrest warrants for Israeli leaders.

“You cannot allow an attack on the court,” Khan said. “Then you have no rules-based system.”

Khan also appealed to Japan to support the court’s work, noting it had been the court’s biggest financial supporter.

The Hague-based ICC was established in 2002 to prosecute individuals for international crimes, including genocide and crimes against humanity.



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SvennoJ on 05 September 2024

Algeria tells UN Security Council plight of Palestinian prisoners ‘too often ignored’

Algeria’s ambassador to the UN, Amar Bendjama, has told the UN Security Council that Palestinian detainees have been “silenced” and “abandoned by the international community”.

“They endure torture. They endure abuse. They endure denial of access by the ICRC in a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and human rights law,” Bendjama said at the meeting in New York on Wednesday.

Bendjama noted that 24 Palestinian detainees have been killed in Israeli custody since October and that Israeli forces are still withholding the bodies of 552 Palestinians from their loved ones, including some who died many years ago.

“Just this Monday,” he added, “the Israeli forces brutally executed Ayman Abed through beating and torture.”

“Do you know what Ayman Abed’s crime was? Nothing. He was arrested solely to pressure his son to turn himself in,” Bendjama said.

Families of US captives want Biden to make deal with Hamas, without Israel: Report

The families of US citizens held captive in Gaza have asked the White House to make a deal directly with Hamas to secure their release, NBC News is reporting, citing five people familiar with the discussions.

The Biden administration is reportedly currently considering the option, NBC News added.

The report comes after Biden on Monday said Netanyahu is not doing enough to secure a Gaza ceasefire deal, in rare public criticism of the Israeli leader from the US president while hundreds of thousands of Israelis have also taken to the streets expressing frustration at the Netanyahu government’s handling of the captive exchange negotiations.



SvennoJ on 05 September 2024

Israeli forces storm al-Ein refugee camp in Nablus

The Wafa news agency is reporting that Israeli forces are raiding the al-Ein refugee camp, west of the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank. The operation comes as Israeli forces continue their raids on refugee camps in the governorates of Jenin, Tulkarem and Tubas.

Earlier, at least five people were killed in an Israeli attack on the Far’a refugee camp in Tubas. Wafa reported that Israeli forces also shot another Palestinian in Far’a and prevented medics from reaching him.

 

Israeli forces kill Palestinian teenager in Tubas, drag body using bulldozer

The Wafa news agency is reporting that Israeli forces shot and killed the 16-year-old Palestinian boy in Far’a refugee camp in the Tubas governorate in the occupied West Bank.

Soldiers “fired several bullets at the child, abused him and prevented ambulance crews from reaching him”, the agency reported. “Then they dragged him out of the camp using a military bulldozer,” Wafa reports.

The agency identified the victim as Majed Fida Abu Zeina. The killing came as Israeli forces also bombed a vehicle in the city of Tubas, killing five other young Palestinian men early this morning.

 

Death toll from Israel’s West Bank raids rises to 40

The Wafa news agency is reporting that the vast majority of those killed since Israel launched its militarised operations on August 28 were in the northern governorates of Jenin, Tulkarem and Tubas.

Here’s the breakdown:

  • 21 in Jenin
  • eight in Tulkarem
  • eight in Tubas
  • three in southern Hebron

As we’ve been reporting, the latest deaths occurred in Tubas, where five young Palestinian men were killed in a strike on their car, and a 16-year-old child was shot dead in the Far’a refugee camp.

 

Israeli forces increasingly targeting children in occupied West Bank

In its latest assault on the West Bank, Israeli forces have killed at least 39 Palestinians, including at least six children.

A 16-year-old child was shot dead in the Far’a refugee camp and his body was dragged out of the camp with a bulldozer, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. He is the latest young Palestinian to be killed by the Israeli army as it conducts one of its largest operations in the territory in years.

A Palestinian teenager was shot in the neck by an Israeli sniper on Tuesday as he was going to a mosque with his father in the Tulkarem refugee camp on Tuesday.

A 16-year-old girl was also killed in an Israeli raid earlier this week.

Israeli forces have destroyed refugee camps and civilian infrastructure, besieged and attacked hospitals and carried out countless air strikes. Since October, at least 646 Palestinians, including 148 children, have been killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the occupied territory, according to Palestinian health officials.



SvennoJ on 05 September 2024

Israel, Hamas in agreement on most paragraphs in bridging proposal: Report

Citing a senior Biden administration official, AP is reporting that Israel and Hamas are in agreement on 14 of the 18 paragraphs in the proposal meant to bridge gaps between the two sides in the ongoing ceasefire talks.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AP that Israel and Hamas have technical differences about one paragraph and deeper differences about three paragraphs of the proposal.

Those three paragraphs focus on the number of Palestinian prisoners who would be released in exchange for Israeli captives during the first phase of the three-phased ceasefire deal.

The official said the dispute has been further complicated by the killing of the six Israeli captives whose bodies were found in Gaza on Saturday. Now, “you just have fewer hostages as part of the deal in phase one”, the official was quoted as saying.

Separately, Hamas has also raised objections to Netanyahu’s insistence on remaining in the Philadelphi Corridor, saying that position is in breach of the bridging agreement’s call for Israel to leave densely populated areas of Gaza. The US official, however, told AP there is no direct mention of the Philadelphi Corridor in the bridging proposal.


Philadelphi Corridor ‘ploy made up by Netanyahu to prevent agreement with Hamas’

A former Israeli negotiator has said that while a quick deal with Hamas is possible to end the war, Netanyahu is intentionally obstructing it by insisting on Israeli control of the Philadelphi Corridor, which he called a “ploy”.

“I’ve talked to numerous military personnel in Israel who all agree that this war could end in three weeks,” Gershon Baskin said.

“Israeli military correspondence revealed its army has not found one single smuggling tunnel that goes underneath the Philadelphi Corridor. So this is obviously a ploy made up by Netanyahu to prevent agreement with Hamas.

“Hamas told me in private conversations that, if the war ends in three weeks, they would be willing to release all the Israeli hostages. Of course, they are demanding that Israel release a significant number of Palestinian prisoners. But it’s a deal that can be made.”

The majority of Israelis, he added, would favour such a deal, as their top priority is bringing home the captives. “But the society is very divided,” he added. “There are those [in Israel] who believe that if we bring the hostages home and make a deal with Hamas we are just inviting another October 7. And there’s a great deal of fear.

 

Palestinians in Gaza wish to die rather than live through more violence: Study

ACAPS, a Swiss research group, has published a study on how Israel’s war is affecting the mental health of Palestinians in Gaza.

The report, based on interviews with humanitarian responders, says:

  • There has been a significant increase in mental health issues across Gaza, including widespread depression, anxiety and trauma.
  • Both adults and children are expressing the wish to die rather than live through further displacement, violence and deprivation.
  • Almost all of the estimated 1.2 million children in Gaza are in need of psychological help. Problems include depression in children as young as five, anxiety, suicidal thoughts and regressive behaviours such as bedwetting.
  • While security is a basic minimal requirement for effective mental health support, there is no safe place in Gaza.


SvennoJ on 05 September 2024

Israeli rights group accuses government of pursuing ‘Jewish supremacy’

The executive director of the rights group B’Tselem has condemned Israel’s actions over the past 11 months in Gaza, accusing it of pursuing a goal of “Jewish supremacy” since its founding.

“To understand the Israeli government’s criminal conduct over the last 11 months, you have to understand the overall goal of this regime,” Yuli Novak told the UN Security Council on Wednesday during a session on Palestine.

“Since Israel was founded, its guiding logic has been to promote Jewish supremacy over the entire territory under its control.”

Novak criticised the government for exploiting the collective trauma from the October 7 attacks “to violently advance its project of cementing Israeli control over the entire land”.

She said Israel’s ongoing war on the Palestinian people includes daily war crimes in Gaza manifesting as “expulsion, starvation, killing and destruction on an unprecedented scale”.

UNRWA chief says Israel must allow international press into Gaza

UNRWA head Phillipe Lazzarini has denounced Israel for barring international press from accessing Gaza for the past 11 months.

Palestinian journalists “continue to hold the torch despite far too many of them have been killed”, he said. “[They] have my admiration.”

Since October 7, Israel has faced accusations of systematic abuses, including the killing of more than 120 Palestinian journalists and media workers in Gaza, and the arrest and arbitrary detention of at least 49 journalists.

Lazzarini said the entry of international media to Gaza “is a must” and called on news organisation to exert pressure on Israel to enter Gaza and “report freely”.


Hamas says Netanyahu sabotaging ceasefire talks to prolong Gaza assault

Hamas has issued a statement on the status of Gaza ceasefire talks, accusing Netanyahu of intentionally dragging them out so Israel can “prolong the aggression against our people”.

Netanyahu’s demand for open-ended Israeli control of the Philadelphi Corridor is one “trick” to this end, said the Palestinian group.

So rather than hash out new proposals, Hamas said, Israel’s government should be pushed to “adhere to what has [already] been agreed upon”.

The statement echoes remarks by senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan, who told Al Jazeera yesterdat that the US should pressure Israel to accept a US-backed ceasefire plan put forward by President Biden in May.



SvennoJ on 05 September 2024

Israeli forces paving new road along Philadelphi corridor: Report

Video footage shows Israeli forces paving a road along southern Gaza’s Philadelphi corridor, which Prime Minister Netanyahu has pushed to be kept under Israel’s control.

The footage, shared by Israeli news site Serugim and verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking agency, shows numerous Israeli bulldozers and heavy construction equipment driving through the road under construction by night.

The road is to serve as a quick access route for Israeli forces to key strategic areas, such as the Egyptian border, reports Serugim.

As we’ve been reporting, Israel’s security role at the Philadelphi corridor has become a major hurdle in ceasefire negotiations. Netanyahu is pushing for Israel to retain open-ended security control of the corridor, while Hamas demands Israel’s full withdrawal.


Egyptian army chief visits Gaza border

The Egyptian army’s chief of staff, Lieutenant General Ahmed Fathy Khalifa, has made an unexpected trip to the border with Gaza to review security measures, according to an army spokesperson cited by Egyptian state television.

Egypt and Gaza share a 12km-long (7.5-mile-long) border, divided by a 100-metre-wide (328ft-wide) buffer zone called the Philadelphi Corridor.

Egypt views a prolonged Israeli presence along the corridor, which Netanyahu has insisted on, as a violation of the Camp David Accords.

Hamas also opposes Israeli security control of the corridor, making it a key sticking point in ceasefire negotiations.


What was Netanyahu’s map and ‘plan for Gaza’ all about?

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/5/what-was-netanyahus-map-and-plan-for-gaza-all-about

On Monday, Netanyahu appeared on TV to talk about the war on Gaza.

He stood in front of a map with bombs drawn on Gaza, interspersed with cartoon “masked men”.

Netanyahu’s presentation suggested partitioning Gaza into three parts.

He wants to keep the entire area north of the Netzarim Corridor in ruins. The corridor established by Israel cuts across the Strip south of Gaza City. There would be no reconstruction in the area, and people would not be allowed to go back to their homes.