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

SvennoJ on 16 October 2024

US threatens Israel but deploys troops, revealing policy inconsistency

The deployment of an advanced United States anti-missile system to Israel, along with 100 troops to operate it, marks a significant escalation in US entanglement with a widening Israeli war that Washington has already heavily subsidised.

But the deployment – in anticipation of an Iranian response to an expected Israeli attack on Iran – also raises questions about the legality of US involvement in Israel’s conflicts at a time when US President Joe Biden’s administration is facing growing backlash over its unwavering support for Israel.

Two recent developments — the announcement that the US will deploy troops to Israel to operate the THAAD missile defence system and a letter sent by US officials calling on Israel to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza or face unspecified consequences — underscore the contradictions of an administration that has effectively done little of substance to rein in Israel’s ever-widening war.



AIPAC says US letter to Israel on Gaza aid sends ‘dangerous message’

The powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) lobby group has condemned a leaked letter from US officials giving Israel a 30-day deadline to implement “concrete measures” to reverse the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza.

“Threatening to cut off American support for Israel… weakens our ally, undermines American interests, and sends a dangerous message to our common enemies,” AIPAC wrote in a post on X.

AIPAC is one of several pro-Israel lobby groups that have invested record amounts of money campaigning against members of the US Democratic Party who criticised Israel’s war on Gaza, including Representative Cori Bush who lost her primary election in August.


US warning Israel about Gaza aid while giving weapons just more shallow ‘concern’: Analyst

Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, said the US letter stating that Israel has 30 days to increase the amount of humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza or risk losing access to US weapons funding is more of Washington’s year-old diplomatic cover for Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

“The Biden administration is trying to create a paper trail and it’s been doing that for the whole year. We’re kind of familiar with it. On the one hand, they provide the arms, and on the other, they present the Israelis with certain reservations that they make public,” Bishara told Al Jazeera.

“There is always some sort of American reservation about this, that and the other thing. While at the same time providing more and more arms. More and more money. And more and more diplomatic shield to Israel as it carries out its genocide. And, as it carries out its war crimes in the West Bank and in Lebanon,” Bishara said.

“Every time an American says, ‘We are ‘concerned’ – one should only roll their eyes. Because we know that when 1,000 children died [in Gaza], they were ‘concerned’. When more than 40,000 people died, they were ‘concerned’. When Israel expanded the war into Lebanon, they were ‘concerned’. It’s not working any more.

“The ICC prosecutor has already asked for Netanyahu and Gallant to be put on trial by the International Criminal Court for weaponising hunger. And now, Mr Blinken and Mr Austin want to tell us that the United States is ‘concerned’ about famine. Give me a break,” he added.



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SvennoJ on 16 October 2024

Israel says 50 projectiles launched from Lebanon into Upper Galilee region

Israel’s military said “about 50 launches” have been detected crossing from Lebanon into northern Israel.

According to the military, “some” of the launches, which can include rockets, attack drones and other projectiles, were intercepted by Israeli aerial defence systems while “crashes were detected in the region”.

The Israeli military did not report on casualties or damage to infrastructure resulting from the attack.


An Israeli patrol on the Israel-Lebanon border near Dovev in the Upper Galilee region of northern Israel

UNRWA says some Lebanon shelters at ‘full capacity’

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, says it is operating 11 emergency shelters across Lebanon, several of which are at full capacity.

UNRWA added that humanitarian access has been “severely restricted” in the south of Lebanon, where the agency’s work in three Palestinian refugee camps has been limited to providing sanitation and water services.

Lebanon is home to at least 500,000 Palestinian refugees according to the most recent figures from UNRWA.



Fear and defiance as Israeli missiles target Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley

Israel has intensified it bombing campaign in eastern Lebanon with the Bekaa Valley experiencing multiple air attacks that hit residential areas near Baalbek city on Tuesday.

Dr Ghassan al-Bazzal of the Al Mortada Hospital recounted how an Israeli air strike hit so close that the medical facility was damaged.

“The strike hit just 100 metres [328 ft] away. We sustained a lot of damage. The upper sections were severely damaged: The windows, the glass, the solar panels, the x-ray room, the labs,” al-Bazzal told Al Jazeera. “We had patients who were being treated because of previous air strikes. We had to transfer them to another hospital,” he said.

Baalbek resident Yunus Ramadan said all homes within 500 metres of the site attacked had been damaged. Despite the danger, Ramadan said he would not leave his home.

“Everything has been damaged. Of course, I am afraid. If you are not afraid, then you are not human. If you had been here when the missile hit, then you also would have been afraid. I’m never going to leave though. Even if my house collapses on my head,” he told Al Jazeera.


People walk past a destroyed building following an Israeli air strike in the village of Douris southeast of Baalbek in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley on October 15


Damage and debris outside the entrance of Al Mortada Hospital in the village of Douris, after an Israeli air strike, southeast of Baalbek City in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley on October 15



SvennoJ on 16 October 2024

Israel orders residents in Beirut’s Dahiyeh to flee ahead of imminent attack

Israel’s military has ordered the immediate evacuation of residents in the southern suburb of Beirut. The military posted a map of the Haret Hreik area of the city’s Dahiyeh suburb and told people to move away from a building highlighted in red.

Residents were warned to move at least 500 metres (1,600 ft) away from the building and surrounding buildings, claiming it was a “Hezbollah facility”, against which the military “will operate in the near future”.


Israeli air strike hits Beirut

Witnesses have told the Reuters news agency that the strike hit the Lebanese capital’s southern suburb and a plume of smoke was visible after the sound of an explosion.


Israel says strike on Beirut targeted underground weapons storage site

Israel’s military has said its fighter jets bombed a Hezbollah weapons depot in a southern suburb of Beirut. The strikes targeted “combat equipment that was stored inside an underground warehouse”, the military said in a post on social media.

There were no initial reports of casualties.


Smoke from Israeli strike on Beirut ‘doesn’t suggest’ Hezbollah arms dump hit

This strike took place at about 6:50am. It was actually three air strikes that we hear took place in the Dahiyeh area. We don’t actually know which building was targeted, but the Israelis say that this was an underground storage facility for Hezbollah weapons.

If it was that, the kind of smoke that we are seeing, and the kind of damage that we are looking at, doesn’t really suggest that it was an arms dump. Because, if it was an arms dump, when you strike it, those arms go up too [in the explosion] and the damage is so much wider.

This has been a period of relative calm in the Lebanese capital … But after five days it’s now back to Beirut and a very serious attack against that southern suburb.


Israel strikes Beirut after US assurances not to

Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Tuesday that US officials assured Lebanon that Israel would tamp down its strikes on Beirut. He added Washington was “serious about pressuring Israel to reach a ceasefire”.

Israel has not struck the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital since late last week after hitting the area on a near nightly basis for weeks in attacks that destroyed buildings and killed scores of people.



SvennoJ on 16 October 2024

Hezbollah says rockets fired at northern Israel targets overnight

Hezbollah said its fighters carried out four rocket attacks overnight on the “occupied city of Safed” in northern Israel as well as the Dalton, Dishon and Yiftah areas in the north.

In a post on social media, Hezbollah said a “large rocket barrage” was fired at Safad, and rockets were also fired at Israeli artillery position in two of the three other areas in the north that were targeted between 01:40am local time (10:40 pm GMT) and 03:40am (00:40 GMT).

Israel’s military said earlier that “about 50 launches” were detected crossing from Lebanon into northern Israel in the early hours of Wednesday morning. “Some” of the launches were intercepted by Israeli aerial defence systems while “crashes were detected in the region”, the military said.

The Israeli military did not report on casualties or damage to infrastructure resulting from the attacks.


Almost 340 Israeli artillery, air strikes in 36 hours on southern Lebanon

Artillery shelling from Israel continues and air strikes are also continuing throughout the day. The Israelis have suggested that they’ve hit 140 Hezbollah targets yesterday alone. That brings the total in the last 36 hours to nearly 340 individual artillery or air strikes in the southern Lebanese border area alone, a lot of them concentrated near to where we are right now.

The Israelis also say they’ve gone in and destroyed – on the ground – rocket launchers and Hezbollah infrastructure in those front-line villages on the border with northern Israel.

However, Hezbollah is saying that they are fighting back. They are fighting back on the ground and 24 hours ago they did say – and it hasn’t been confirmed – they said they managed to shoot down an Israeli drone.


Smoke rises following an Israeli attack on the town of Khiam in the Nabatieh governorate, southern Lebanon on Tuesday


Death toll from Israeli attack on Qana rises to 15

The death toll from an Israeli strike on the Lebanese southern town of Qana has risen to 15, Lebanon’s civil defence agency says. At least 15 others were wounded.

Qana, 10km (4.5 miles) southeast of the main city of Tyre, was the site of an Israeli artillery strike on a United Nations compound in 1996 that killed dozens of civilians.


Israeli navy attacks Hezbollah infrastructure

Israel’s naval forces have struck dozens of Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon in coordination with troops on the ground, the military says.

Israeli military evacuation orders now affect more than one-quarter of Lebanon, according to the UN Refugee Agency, two weeks after Israel began incursions into the south of the country that it says are aimed at driving back Hezbollah.

Israel has turned up the heat on Hezbollah since it launched its offensive into Lebanon after killing Hezbollah leaders and commanders, including its secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah.



SvennoJ on 16 October 2024

‘Belt of fire’ after Israeli air strikes on southern Lebanon

“For now, 11 strikes have mainly hit Nabatieh [town] but also its surroundings,” its governor says. The intense raids “formed a kind of belt of fire” in the area. Casualties were inflicted but a precise toll was not given.

The southern city was hit for the first time on Sunday when an Israeli air strike destroyed its Ottoman-era market, killing at least one person and wounding four.


Rescue workers survey destroyed buildings in Nabatieh town, south Lebanon


‘It’s a massacre’: Israeli strikes kill mayor and others in Nabatieh

Local authorities are reporting Nabatieh Mayor Ahmad Kahil is among those killed. “The mayor of Nabatieh, among others … was martyred. It’s a massacre,” Governor Howaida Turk said.

Kahil was inside the town’s municipal building when it was attacked, said Turk. Rescuers said several others were killed.


At least 5 killed in Lebanon’s southern Nabatieh town. Search-and-rescue operations for survivors are ongoing.


UN Lebanon envoy urges protection of civilians after Nabatieh strike

The UN special coordinator for Lebanon says civilian suffering is reaching an unprecedented level after an Israeli strike in the south killed at least five people and hurt 43, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

“Today, Israeli air strikes hit the town of Nabatiyeh in southern Lebanon, yet again,” Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said in a statement, adding that “civilians and civilian infrastructure must be protected at all times.”


‘Still pulling people out of the rubble’ in Lebanon’s Nabatieh

We’re hearing from sources that Israel’s attack on the southern Lebanese town was on a regular civic meeting in the local municipality building.

There was a concentrated period of Israeli air strikes, not just on the mayor’s meeting but also residential buildings around the area. Rescue teams are still pulling people out of the rubble. Six people have now died, including the mayor.

The strike comes after Nabatieh was attacked a few days ago where its historic marketplace was completely destroyed by fire. It was so severe rescuers had to wait a few hours before they could get to the people trapped inside.


Smoke billows after Israeli air strikes on the southern Lebanese town of Nabatieh



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SvennoJ on 16 October 2024

Fighting in Lebanon taking a ‘huge toll’ on displaced civilians

The United Nations asked for $426m in aid to try and deal with the 1.2 million Lebanese displaced from the southern part of the country as well as the southern suburbs of Beirut.

About 900 schools have been turned into temporary shelters for the displaced. But it’s not nearly enough. The government is saying it’s been stretched to the limit when it comes to resources.

As a result, we’ve seen people sleeping on the streets of the capital, along the corniche, in their vehicles and any place they can find.

This is all taking a huge toll on the fragile infrastructure in this country. The government is insisting that a ceasefire is the only solution to be able to deal with this current escalating violence between Hezbollah and Israel.


Israel seeks to ‘close’ front with Hezbollah with eye on Iran

Sultan Barakat, a professor at the Hamad Bin Khalifa University, says the increase in Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon over the past 36 hours shows its desire to hurriedly “close the front with Lebanon” as it prepares to strike Iran after the missile barrage last week.

“They [the Israelis] need to do something to restore the deterrence they’ve had for many decades in the region, but it would be very unwise to do so while they’re still at war with the Lebanese,” Barakat told Al Jazeera.

Israeli may not be able to completely neutralise Hezbollah, but it wants to weaken it enough to secure a UN-backed ceasefire that will keep the Lebanese group on the sidelines during a war with Iran, he added.

“This is why they’re intensifying their attacks at the moment, and this needs to be done before the American elections,” said Barakat.


Hezbollah claims it hit Israeli forces near bordee

The Lebanese group says it attacked a gathering of Israeli soldiers in Maskaf Am with artillery shells.

Hezbollah also claimed an attack on the settlement of Karmiel with a barrage of rockets.



SvennoJ on 16 October 2024

Iran’s FM to visit Jordan, Egypt, Turkey in push to ‘end genocide, atrocity, aggression’

Abbas Araghchi will visit Jordan, Egypt and Turkey in a “diplomatic reach-out to countries of the region to end genocide, atrocity and aggression,” a spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry said in a post on X.

Iran’s top diplomat has been on a regional tour focused on Israel’s war on Gaza that has seen him travel to Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Syria and Saudi Arabia in recent days.

During a visit to Muscat earlier this week, Araghchi told Iranian state television that indirect contact between Iran and the US through Oman has been halted due to the situation in the region.


Iran warns of ‘decisive’ response if Israel retaliates for missile attack

Iran’s top diplomat told UN chief Antonio Guterres that Tehran is ready for a “decisive and regretful” response if Israel attacks his country in retaliation for a missile attack.

“Iran – while making all-out efforts to protect the peace and security of the region – is fully prepared for a decisive and regretful response to any adventures” by Israel, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said during a phone call on Tuesday evening with Guterres, according to a statement from his office.

Araghchi also appealed to the United Nations to use its resources “to stop the crimes and aggressions of the Israeli regime and to send humanitarian aid to Lebanon and Gaza”.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said last week his country’s retaliatory measure for the Iranian strikes would be “deadly, precise and surprising”.


Iran, Jordan top diplomats meeting over regional tensions

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is meeting with the Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi as part of a regional tour to de-escalate regional tensions, reports Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Jamjoom.

Before the stop in Amman, the top Iranian diplomat visited Syria, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon.

“At every stop, Araghchi stressed Iran wants peace but added that Tehran will retaliate should Israel attack his country,” said Jamjoom, reporting from the Jordanian capital"



SvennoJ on 16 October 2024

UNSC told Yemen risks being caught in spiral of regional violence

Hans Grundberg, the UN special envoy to Yemen, has told the UN Security Council (UNSC) that Yemen’s Houthis and their attacks on Red Sea shipping risk dragging the country further into military escalation in the region.

Grundberg and the UN’s acting humanitarian chief Joyce Msuya called for Houthi attacks in the Red Sea to end.

Addressing UNSC members, Grundberg said that “hopes for a brighter future” in Yemen were “falling under the shadow of potentially catastrophic regional conflagration”.

Houthi fighters have targeted more than 80 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since the war in Gaza started a year ago. The Yemen-based group say they are targeting Israeli-owned vessels and ships frequenting Israeli ports in an act of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza amid Israel’s war on the territory.

Msuya said the UN was also “very alarmed” at the ongoing attacks by a US-led military coalition on Yemen’s Hodeidah and the smaller port of Ras Isa.

Delta to pause flights between New York, Tel Aviv until end of March

Delta Air Lines says it will suspend flights between New York’s JFK airport and Tel Aviv through to March 2025 because of the escalating conflict and safety concerns in Israel.

The airline – which had earlier suspended flights to Tel Aviv through to the end of 2024 – said it issued a travel waiver for all customers who were booked on its flights to travel to and from Tel Aviv.

Several airlines have suspended services to Israel and Lebanon, while also revising schedules to avoid Iranian and Lebanese airspace, in an attempt to ensure passenger safety as security concerns rise in the region.


‘There will always be deliveries’: Germany assures Israel of arms supplies

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has promised Israel further arms deliveries for its ongoing military offensives in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.

“There are deliveries and there will always be further deliveries. Israel can rely on that,” Scholz said in remarks to parliament. The chancellor said Germany must keep Israel “in a position to defend its country”.

“Israel can rely on our solidarity – now and in the future,” he added.

Scholz said humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza is still needed, and rules of international law had to be observed in conflicts in the Middle East.

Always on the wrong side of history...



SvennoJ on 16 October 2024

‘Now or never’: Belgium deputy PM urges recognition of Palestine

Petra De Sutter says her country must “resolutely opt for international law by recognising the Palestinian State”.

“It is now or never. Our proposal on the recognition of Palestine is before the House today. The lack of action is culpable neglect,” she posted on X.


‘Missing in action’: Where has Palestinian Authority been since October 7?

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was in his element at the UN General Assembly last month, thanking 124 countries for voting yes on the first-ever resolution introduced by Palestine at the assembly.

Abbas also condemned Israel’s yearlong war on Gaza, ongoing incursions and settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank.

But for many Palestinians, who are reeling from the deadliest year in a long history of violence, Abbas’s words at the UN felt tired and irrelevant.

Yara Hawari, co-director of the Palestinian think tank Al-Shabaka, told Al Jazeera that while the PA “paid lip service” to the tragedy Palestinians were facing, it also continued its role as a “subcontractor” for the Israeli occupation by suppressing protests and resistance in the West Bank.

“Really since the beginning of the genocide in Gaza, the Palestinian Authority has been absent from the scene, making a few comments here or there, or statements that really do nothing,” Hawari said.

“But there have been no concrete actions to support Palestinians in Gaza,” she said.

The PA is a puppet government for Israel, no wonder Palestinians rally behind Hamas.



SvennoJ on 16 October 2024

‘Worst restrictions’ as Israel blockades Gaza: UN

The United Nations says restrictions on aid to Gaza are the worst since Israel’s war on the Palestinian territory began in October last year.

“We see now what is probably the worst restrictions we’ve seen on humanitarian aid – ever,” said James Elder, a spokesman for the UN’s children’s agency UNICEF.

He noted there were several days where no trucks were allowed into Gaza by Israel with Palestinians in the north cut off from food, water and medicine during a 12-day ground invasion and siege by Israeli troops.


UK, France, Algeria call UN Security Council meeting on Gaza aid

Britain’s foreign secretary says the UK, France and Algeria have called an urgent meeting at the UN Security Council to discuss the desperate and devolving humanitarian situation in Gaza.

In a statement, David Lammy said Israel must ensure civilians are protected and routes open to allow life-saving aid through.

“The humanitarian situation in northern Gaza is dire with access to basic services worsening and the United Nations reporting that barely any food has entered in the last two weeks,” Lammy said.

Food supplies to besieged Gaza have fallen sharply since Israeli authorities introduced a new customs rule on some humanitarian aid. No goods have been allowed into northern Gaza since Israeli forces launched their latest ground incursion.


Oxfam says more than 80 percent of food aid failing to reach people in Gaza

A new report on conflict-fuelled hunger by the UK-based charity says nearly half a million people in Gaza are starving during the ongoing war in the coastal enclave.

“As conflict rages around the world, starvation has become a lethal weapon wielded by warring parties against international laws, causing an alarming rise in human deaths and suffering,” Emily Farr, Oxfam’s food and economic security lead, said in a statement.

“Nearly half a million people in Gaza – where 83 percent of food aid needed is currently not reaching them – and over three-quarters of a million in Sudan are currently starving as the deadly impact of wars on food will likely be felt for generations.”

Oxfam called on the international community, including the UN Security Council, to hold accountable those responsible for “starvation crimes” under international law.