Thousands march in Liverpool for total halt of arms sales to Israel

More than 15,000 people marched in Liverpool to call on the UK government to stop all arms shipments to Israel.

“I keep coming because I see a genocide livestreamed to my phone every day with women and children killed, and seeing our government do nothing in response,” protester Sue Houseman told Al Jazeera at the rally.

“I find frustration that we can’t stand up and be humane and look after people who are just being punished and killed and slaughtered, having their water cut off and their food cut off. And our government just doesn’t act. I feel like I’ve got to hold them to account.”

Protesters in the British city of Liverpool are marching to express their frustration with the government of Keir Starmer, which has so far been 77 days in office.

Many on the left of the Labour movement feel let down by Starmer, as they say it has failed to condemn Israel and call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. They are calling now for an arms embargo and for a total ban on arms production to and for Israel.


_{A protester wears a mask depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a demonstration in support of Palestinians in Gaza in Liverpool}

US Muslim group denounces Biden for ‘enabling and excusing genocide’

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has condemned US President Joe Biden for failing to stop Israel in its bloody war on Gaza that now threatens to ignite in Lebanon against Hezbollah.

“Instead of enabling and excusing genocide, President Biden must take concrete action – including an arms embargo on Israel and a forced ceasefire – to rein in the out-of-control Netanyahu government that carries out daily massacres of women and children in Gaza and the West Bank,” said Nihad Awad, CAIR’s national executive director, in a statement.

“The slaughter, ethnic cleansing and forced starvation of the Palestinian people – and the denial of their humanity – must end.”

Relatives say escalation with Lebanon leaves Israeli captives at more risk

The families voiced concern about Israel’s military escalation with Hezbollah, accusing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of sacrificing “the captives’ lives for the sake of his own political survival”.

In a statement, the families’ representative said a deal to release those being held in Gaza should have occurred before any military escalation or widening of the conflict.

An Israeli air raid targeting Hezbollah officials in Beirut on Friday killed at least 37 people, including three children and seven women.

About 100 captives remain in Gaza, at least one-third of whom are believed dead. More than 100 others were released in return for Palestinian prisoners in November, and eight have been rescued by Israeli forces.


_{Demonstrators in Tel Aviv protest against the Netanyahu government on Saturday}

The brutal fact is: These captives are dead. They are the only leverage Hezbolla has against Israel. There is no way Hezbollah will let these hostages escape.

Hamas and PIJ have the hostages in Gaza, some are still alive. It is indeed the only leverage Hamas has against Israel.

Hezbollah's leverage is the continued displacement of some 80,000 Israelis that have been staying in hotels since the tit for tat exchange between Israel and Hezbollah began. Hezbollah has plenty rockets to keep threatening the safety of Northern Israel. Plus they can always get more. Unlike Gaza, there are many ways to smuggle stuff to Lebanon.

The demands of Hamas and Hezbollah for a ceasefire are mutually aligned though. Full withdrawal of the IDF from the Gaza strip and a permanent ceasefire backed by the USA.

Hamas has been willing to trade the hostages since the beginning, the whole goal of Oct 7 was to get leverage to get their people out of Israeli detention. (Next to drawing the world's attention back to Gaza and the West Bank) 3 of the 6 dead hostages retrieved a while ago were on the list to be traded in phase 1. They were still alive until the rescue operation which led to their deaths. (Still unclear what happened, died in cross fighting or executed)

The depressing fact is, the longer the war goes on, the more chances the rest of the hostages will die. (As well as more deaths in Israeli detention centers Forty-four Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli military custody from Oct. 7 through July 2, according to an Israeli military written response to a question from Physicians for Human Rights Israel) As of Sept 1 there are still 97 hostages in Gaza, yet nobody knows how many are still alive.

The BBC made a list of the remaining hostages
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67053011

B'Tselem keeps track of Palestinian 'hostages' in administrative detention (No charges, no access to legal representation, secret 'evidence')
https://www.btselem.org/administrative_detention/statistics


The brutal fact is, Netanyahu needs to keep the war(s) going to stay in power. His corruption trial is waiting for him as soon as the war ends, as well as investigations in his role in Oct 7 and of course all the war crimes since. Perpetual war is his only safety.

There is no end goal here. Netanyahu can't stay PM forever, I think...
He's on his 7th term already if Wikipedia is correct
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_prime_ministers_of_Israel
Effectively 3 terms, 1996-1999, 2009-2021 (4 terms with early re-elections), 2022-now
16 years, 359 days as of 21 September 2024 (first term: 3 years and 18 days; second term: 12 years and 74 days; third term: 1 year, 267 days)

And he's leading again in the polls...
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-08-19/ty-article/.premium/despite-gaza-netanyahu-is-topping-the-polls-in-israel-again-he-should-thank-iran/00000191-6b46-d87e-a9b3-6f7f795d0000

The only way out of this is sanctions, stop arming Israel, end the political cover. It's the USA that keeps the wars going by giving Netanyahu everything he wants. If not, Netanyahu will lead Israel to its destruction while dragging the whole region down into more deaths and destruction.

At least 23 people still missing after Beirut blast

It was one of the fiercest Israeli bombardments of the nearly year-old conflict. In southern Lebanon, people described huge explosions that lit up the night sky and shook the ground as Israel carried out its latest strikes.

Hezbollah-aligned Transport Minister Ali Hamieh told reporters at the scene of Friday’s deadly attack in a Beirut suburb that at least 23 people were still missing.

At least 38 were confirmed killed, including 16 Hezbollah members along with women and children. More than 60 people were wounded.

“The Israeli enemy is taking the region to war,” Hamieh said.


_{The scene of the Israeli air strike in a Beirut suburb}

Man ‘lightly injured’ in Hezbollah attack on northern Israel: Report

Israeli Army Radio is reporting that a 60-year-old man was “very slightly injured” after Hezbollah fired 10 missiles at Israel’s Ramat David airbase in northern Israel.

The outlet added that Israel’s military is responding to the missile volley with attacks on southern Lebanon. The Israeli military in a post on X said it intercepted most of the missiles and that a “fall was detected in the area”. It said the incident was under review.

As we reported earlier, the Israeli military said it has launched about 400 attacks on southern Lebanon since Saturday afternoon.


_{Smoke billows at the site of an Israeli air strike on the outskirts of the southern Lebanese village of Zawtar late on Saturday}

Hezbollah claims attack on Israel’s Ramat David Airbase

In a statement on Telegram, the Lebanese group said it fired dozens of missiles at the Ramat David Airbase in northern Israel.

Hezbollah said the assault was a response to Israel’s repeated attacks on Lebanon as well as in support of Palestinians in Gaza.

In a separate post, the group noted that Ramat David is the airbase where Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday that the “centre of gravity” in Israel’s war has shifted to its northern border with Lebanon.

Hezbollah targets farthest point in Israel since October 8

Hezbollah has issued a statement claiming responsibility for attacking the Ramat David Airbase to the east of Haifa with what it described as the Fadi 1 and Fadi 2 missiles.

This is the first time that Hezbollah has launched rockets towards this area. It’s the farthest point since the beginning of the October 8 front in Lebanon.

Given the pictures and the videos are coming [put], many of the projectiles that were seen, some of them were intercepted. Though we are seeing some impacts here and there.

The statement released by Hezbollah said that this is in retaliation for attacks on different regions and areas in Lebanon and the fall of civilians.

They kept distance from saying that this is in retaliation for the attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday, the pager attacks… and the assassination of one of its commanders. That would mean that there might be more retaliation coming.

Israeli forces raid Al Jazeera’s bureau in Ramallah

Israeli soldiers carrying guns have entered our bureau in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. They’ve told staff members there to evacuate within 10 minutes and leave any equipment behind.

Israeli raid on Al Jazeera bureau comes amid intensifying crackdown on journalists

As Palestinian journalists, we know that Israel and the Israeli military try to always prevent us from doing our jobs.

Just last week, when we were covering events in Jenin, an Israeli vehicle approached the Al Jazeera team and fired tear gas near us to try and prevent us from covering the massive Israeli raid on the town of Qabaltiya near Jenin in the occupied West Bank.

So it is no secret that the Israeli forces do not want Palestinian journalists to be telling their story.

We have also lost our colleagues. In 2022, Shireen Abu Akleh, who was covering an Israeli raid in the Jenin area and the Jenin refugee camp, was killed. And since the war started, we’ve been seeing more crackdowns on journalists. We’ve been seeing many of them being arrested by Israeli forces, spending a lot of time in jail, accused of inciting against the Israeli occupation or saying that they are involved in terrorism.

So the crackdown on journalism, on free speech, on people trying to expose the illegality that is the Israeli occupation and its violation against Palestinians is not something new but definitely has been increasing since the war started.

It’s been a concern for all of us, especially at Al Jazeera, that the office is going to be closed in Ramallah to follow what has happened in Israel but now we’re looking at these difficult pictures of the office being raided.

I watched this video, very informative, great analysis.

Exploding Pagers and Shattered Credibility with Sami Hamdi

Sami Hamdi has been at the fore of the conversation about how Muslims should respond to the unparalleled attack upon Gaza. The brutality with which the Israelis now act with impunity is clear for the majority of the world to see, but the West remains immune to its crimes. That’s partly because the West does not and cannot see Israel as anything but a benevolent project in a region that requires a Western presence. A colony. An imperial parasite whose crimes are erased by those funding its campaign of annihilation. Israel is not, as the conventional wisdom suggests, out of control. It is a project of the West. The West is Israel and Israel is the West. The two are symbiotically linked. Their destiny is one.

This past week, we have seen the latest escalation, the systematic use of communications pagers and walk-in talkies to kill and maim indiscriminately across Lebanon and parts of Syria. The response in much of the Western press has been to praise the action as creative and daring. But what lay behind this escalation, what is Israel’s game plan, and where do the Muslim rulers now sit, almost a year after this act of mass murder?

Also making good points

Human Rights Lawyer DISMANTLES Israel Supporters In REAL Time

Craig Mokhiber, former UN Official, joins Katie to respond to trolls in chat as well as debunking myths surrounding Israel, Hezbollah, and Lebanon. Craig had this to say; "Hezbollah is not an organization that exists out of hatred of Jews. That rhetorical device used, to justify every kind of atrocity, you would think that by now the people who use it would realize it doesn't work on anyone. People are more sophisticated. They know that Hezbollah is not an organization that is dedicated to hatred of Jews.

Israel does not represent the Jewish people as we've said so many times in our conversations. That's utter nonsense. Israel is accountable for those harms because it violated the principle of distinction and the principle of precaution under international humanitarian law."

_{Craig Mokhiber is an American former United Nations (UN) human rights official and a specialist in international human rights law, policy, and methodology. On October 28, 2023, Mokhiber stepped down as the director of the New York office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). In his final letter to High Commissioner Volker Türk, he harshly criticized the organization's response to the war in Gaza, calling Israel's military intervention a "textbook genocide" and accusing the UN of failing to act.}

Israeli soldiers raid and order closure of Al Jazeera’s Ramallah offices

https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/22/middleeast/al-jazeera-ramallah-israel-raid-intl/index.html

Israel’s military has raided and ordered the closure of Al Jazeera’s office in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, the network said.

Al Jazeera broadcast live footage early on Sunday of Israeli soldiers entering its offices in Ramallah, capturing the reactions of bureau chief Walid Omary and staff members live on air. Video broadcast by Al Jazeera showed one soldier informing Omary of a military order to close Al Jazeera’s office for 45 days.

Reading the military order given to him on air, Omary said staff members had only ten minutes to take their personal belongings and cameras and vacate the office. When Omary asked the Israeli soliders why the office was being closed, he was told the reason had been provided in the written military order.

Al Jazeera’s office in Ramallah has been operational for decades. It became even more essential for the network after Israel shut down its Jerusalem office and seized some of its communication equipment in May, prompting condemnation from the United Nations and rights groups over what they said were Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s moves to restrict press freedoms.

After Al Jazeera staff left the Ramallah office, live footage showed Omary and others in the street outside, as the journalist said soldiers had taken over the office and were confiscating materials.

Shortly after, as Israeli soldiers approached Omary, the live video feed was cut, and Omary could be heard saying that soldiers had taken the camera and broadcast equipment the team had been using.

CNN has contacted Al Jazeera and the Israeli military for comment.

The Foreign Press Association (FPA), which represents foreign press in Israel and the Palestinian territories, said it was “deeply troubled” by what it described as an “escalation which threatens press freedom.” The FPA called on the Israeli government to reconsider the decision.

The Israeli government has long complained about Al Jazeera’s operations, alleging anti-Israeli bias and accusing the network of being a “mouthpiece for Hamas.”

The Qatari-based news network, which has produced on the ground reporting of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, denies this. Several of its journalists have been killed or injured since the Gaza offensive began after the October 7 attacks.

Israeli soldiers tear down slain journalist’s posters at Al Jazeera’s office

Al-Omari, Al Jazeera’s Ramallah bureau chief, is reporting that Israeli soldiers are tearing down posters of slain Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, which are up on the walls of the network’s bureau in Ramallah.

Videos taken from outside the bureau captured the scenes.

قوات الاحتلال تمزق صورة الشهيدة الصحفية شيرين أبو عاقلة خلال اقتحام مكتب الجزيرة وسط مدينة رام الله pic.twitter.com/SeUvzML3SN

— هدى نعيم Huda Naim (@HuDa_NaIm92) September 22, 2024

Translation: Occupation forces tear up a picture of killed journalist Shireen Abu Akleh during a raid on Al Jazeera’s office in the centre of Ramallah.

Abu Akleh was a mainstay in homes across the Palestinian territory, the wider region and for Arabs and Muslims globally. She was killed when an Israeli soldier shot her on May 11, 2022, while she was reporting from Jenin, in the occupied West Bank.


_{Photographs of Shireen Abu Akleh on Al Jazeera’s office building in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah}

Palestinian Journalists Syndicate condemns attack on Al Jazeera bureau

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate issued a statement, which includes the following: