By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

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

SvennoJ 1 hour ago

Killing of Sinwar ‘severe blow’ to Hamas

Israel’s killing of Sinwar is a “severe blow” to the Palestinian group, Hasan Barari of Qatar University says.

“It was unexpected that he would die at this moment… It could demoralise the movement in the short term, but the idea of resistance is rooted in the Palestinian society,” he said. “So, it is not about Sinwar himself, but it is about the fact that Israel has been occupying part of Palestine for a long time.

“Sinwar was saying that the Israelis were expecting the Palestinians to behave as a kind of obedient to the occupation, so he resisted that,” he stressed, adding that Hamas will recover from Sinwar’s death by appointing a new leader soon.


Sinwar’s killing will not change anything on the ground

What people have been asking is whether Sinwar’s death will end the war. That’s the priority that remains across Gaza, whether people agreed with Sinwar or not.

They want the war to end and to be able to go back to their homes and an end to the mass killing of people. The way it’s been perceived, even by those who opposed Sinwar’s strategies, is that he was blessed with a warrior’s death, fighting oppression.

But the death of one person won’t change anything on the ground.


Official says Hamas ‘cannot be eliminated’, does not confirm Sinwar killing

A senior Hamas official says the Palestinian group cannot be eliminated with the killing of its leaders. “Hamas is a liberation movement led by people looking for freedom and dignity, and this cannot be eliminated,” Basem Naim, senior member of Hamas’s political bureau, told AFP.

In a statement, he listed several Hamas leaders killed in the past and said their deaths had boosted the group’s popularity. “It seems that Israel believes that killing our leaders means the end of our movement and the struggle of the Palestinian people,” Naim said.

“Hamas each time became stronger and more popular, and these leaders became an icon for future generations to continue the journey towards a free Palestine.”


Qassam Brigades says Sinwar ‘ascended facing the enemy’

The armed wing of Hamas has also issued a statement mourning Sinwar, saying he “ascended facing the enemy, not retreating”. “It is a source of pride for our movement to put leaders before soldiers, and for its leaders to lead the caravan of martyrs of our people,” Qassam Brigades said.


Iran’s foreign minister hails Sinwar’s ‘selfless struggle for liberation of Palestinians’

Abbas Araghchi has issued a statement after Hamas’s confirmation of Sinwar’s killing, saying the leader of Hamas “bravely fought to the very end on the battlefield”.

“Yahya Sinwar did not fear death but sought martyrdom in Gaza,” the Iranian foreign minister wrote on X. Araghchi said Sinwar’s fate was a “source of inspiration for resistance fighters across the region, Palestinian and non-Palestinian”.

“We, and countless others around the world, salute his selfless struggle for liberation of the Palestinian people.”


In Gaza, Sinwar seen as a man ‘blessed with a warrior’s death’

A lot of people have been talking to us about their reaction to the death of Yahya Sinwar, and in fact, how people feel is mixed.

The majority of people hope that this will bring an end to this war and end to the mass bombardment and the return of displaced people to their homes in northern Gaza and other parts of the Strip. And also a full withdrawal of the Israeli military.

There’s also this group of people who are just coming to terms with the fact that this is what Yahya Sinwar wanted. When he started this, the Al-Aqsa flood, this is the fate that he was after.

Seeing him, seeing the image emerging from the site where he was staying, speaks a thousand words. The man was not in tunnels.

He was not hiding. He did not surround himself with captives as the Israeli prime minister and the Israeli military pushed forward for a whole year – that he protected himself by surrounding himself with these captives.

He was there by himself, no captives. He fought till the last breath of his life. He even threw a stick at a drone that was inspecting the place to check who was inside the building.

That’s the image. He is largely being perceived as a person who has been blessed with a warrior’s death – fighting colonial oppression across the Gaza Strip.



Around the Network
SvennoJ 1 hour ago

Who will succeed Sinwar?

Here are some names that could replace Sinwar:

  • Khaled Meshaal – Led Hamas’s political office from 1996 to 2017.
  • Khalil Hayya – Appointed deputy of Hamas’s political bureau in August this year.
  • Mousa Abu Marzouk – Founding member of Hamas and its first chairman from 1992 to 1996.
  • Muhammad Ismail Darwish – Chairman of the Hamas Shura Council since October 2023.
  • Mohammed Sinwar – Leader of the military wing of Hamas and Yahya’s brother.

In terms of who will succeed Sinwar, the question is whether Hamas will choose someone from outside or inside Gaza, Hassan Barari, professor of international affairs at Qatar University, has told Al Jazeera.

Leaders in Gaza face difficulties in making decisions due to logistical and communication reasons, he said.

“I would assume that most likely they would pick one from the outside, maybe Khalil Hayya, as the deputy, and the guy who is involved in all negotiations,” Barari said, adding that it’s a priority for Hamas to have a leader so as to claim that their organisation has survived despite the numerous assassinations over the years.


Hamas likely to have a bifurcation or a hydra approach to leadership

Beverly Milton-Edwards of the Middle East Council on Foreign Affairs says after the assassination of Haniyeh in Iran, it appeared in public that Sinwar was taking over the whole of the movement, including the armed wing as well as the political bureau.

“But at the same time, the leadership met internally and reached [an agreement] to form a decision-making that there would be a parallel leadership, which included [deputy leader] Khalil al-Haya, who knows, grew up with and was close to Sinwar,” she added.

The analyst said it is likely that the movement will have two leaders in the future and has many senior figures among the prisoners in addition to other locations.

She also said what is happening is “a bifurcation or a hydra approach” to leadership, adding that “the leadership or the knowledge about leadership” is likely to become more secret.

Beverly Milton-Edwards reminded that similar secrecy was carried out when Hamas was founded after the first Intifada – the mass demonstrations by Palestinians that started in 1987.


Sinwar exposed Israeli propaganda: Palestinian politician

Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, says the Israeli prime minister “wanted an image of victory” but Sinwar, at the end of his life, “gave the world an image of Netanyahu’s failure” instead.

“All the lies [Israel] told about Sinwar were exposed – that he was hiding behind civilians, taking them as human shields, proved to be a lie. The lie that he was hiding behind Israeli captives was also proven to be a lie, and the claim that he was running away and hiding in tunnels was exposed,” Barghouti told Al Jazeera, noting that Sinwar was in Rafah fighting the Israeli army.

“Sinwar revealed how wrong the Israeli propaganda was not only about him, but in general of the situation,” he said.

Analysts say a year of war has changed Israel

After killing more than 42,000 Palestinians in little more than 12 months of fighting in Gaza, many of the reasons Israel stated for starting the conflict remain unfulfilled, analysts tell Al Jazeera.

Its internal security seems even more precarious than when it started fighting on October 7, the day of a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel during which 1,139 people died and about 250 were taken captive.

Israel claimed on Thursday that it had killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who is accused of planning the October 7 attack – a man it had long said was the root of all evil. But instead of talking about a ceasefire and negotiating for the captives’ return, Israel seemed to become even more belligerent.

Analysts say that a year of conflict has strengthened the far right and emboldened an increasingly messianic leader.

Translation: The chief of staff: “We will not stop until we catch all the terrorists who were involved in 7/10 and return all the abductees home.”

For many Israelis, Tel Aviv-based analyst Ori Goldberg said, through the last 12 months, war had become part of Israel’s existence.

“People believe that war is necessary,” he said. “We believe it with a passion, even if we no longer know why or to what purpose. We just know that, whatever the problem, war is the solution.”

Meanwhile, 12 months of bloody attacks on Gaza and, more recently, Lebanon have caused major deeper societal changes in Israel, exacerbating long-held divisions and creating chasms in a society that Israeli academics have suggested may be on the point of collapse.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/10/18/israel-emerges-from-twelve-months-of-war-a-changed-state-analysts



SvennoJ 1 hour ago

Hezbollah says fighters entering ‘escalating’ phase of war with Israel

Hezbollah in Lebanon has announced that it will “transition to a new and escalating phase in the confrontation with Israel”, which will become clear in the coming days.

In a statement, the group also said that Israel’s military losses have reached about 55 soldiers killed and more than 500 injured since the start of Israel’s ground offensive in Lebanon on October 1.

Hezbollah also announced that it has destroyed 20 Israeli Merkava tanks, four military bulldozers and two surveillance drones in recent fighting.


45 killed in Israeli attacks across Lebanon in 24-hour period: Ministry

Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health reports that 45 people were killed and 179 injured in attacks across the country on Thursday. The latest casualties bring the overall death toll in Lebanon to 2,412 people killed and 11,267 wounded since fighting broke out between Hezbollah and Israel one year ago.


Israeli military says rocket barrage fired at northern Israel

About 15 rockets have been fired from southern Lebanon towards northern Israel in recent hours, according to the Israeli military.

Rocket sirens were activated in the coastal city of Acre and the surrounding communities in the northwest of Israel. Some of the rockets were intercepted, while others landed in Israel, according to the military.

The Israeli air force also intercepted an unmanned aerial vehicle off the coast of northern Israel overnight, according to the announcement. There have been no reports of injuries or damage in either incident.


Israeli army says it killed Hezbollah commander

The Israeli army has claimed it has killed Mohammad Hussein Ramal, a Hezbollah commander, in Taybeh, southern Lebanon, in an air strike. It also said it located and destroyed rocket launchers primed to attack northern Israel, while its troops uncovered Hezbollah weapons in southern Lebanon.

The Israeli Air Force also attacked a cell it said was preparing to fire an antitank missile at Israeli troops operating in southern Lebanon.


Israel conducts deadly attacks in southern Lebanon

Several people have been killed and wounded by Israeli air attacks across Lebanon, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

The attacks caused extensive damage to buildings and infrastructure, according to the agency, which reported deadly attacks in the town of Ansar in the south of the country.

The agency also reported air and artillery attacks in various towns including Hanine, al-Duwayr, Sajd, Khiam, Ramiyah, Barashit, Dabbal, Aita al-Shaab, al-Dhayra, Maroun al-Ras, Bint Jbeil, Majdal Selem, Hadatha, Yater, al-Bustan, Yaroun, Marouhin, Tarbikhah, Kfar Rumman, Dibel and Jabal al-Rafii.



SvennoJ 1 hour ago

Israeli army says suspicious aerial targets intercepted

An Israeli army statement says the objects were shot down by jets after crossing into Israeli airspace from Lebanon in the morning. The projectiles triggered sirens in northern Israel.

Separately, it said it identified fighters crossing from Jordan into the south of the Dead Sea region and killed two of them after they opened fire on Israeli forces.


Jordan rejects claim its soldiers crossed into Israel

Jordan’s official news agency, quoting a military source, says Israeli claims that the country’s soldiers crossed the border into Israel are not true. The agency posted on its website that there was “no truth” in the reports.

The Israeli military said it had identified what it called “a number of terrorists” crossing from Jordan into Israel south of the Dead Sea region and had killed two of them after they opened fire on Israeli forces.


Israeli military members walk next to the Dead Sea near the scene of a shooting attack after Israel’s military said it identified attackers crossing from Jordan, in southern Israel, Friday


Suspicion, resentment, trauma, destruction – Beirut on the edge

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/10/18/suspicion-resentment-trauma-destruction-beirut-on-the-edge

“No phones!” barks a burly man as he sails past us on his scooter.

I’m out in the city working with Al Jazeera’s correspondent, Ali Hashem. His friend and fellow journalist, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, who is with us, has just taken a picture of a beautiful old building, nestled among the usual shopfronts and apartments in a busy street in Basta, central Beirut.

An Al Jazeera cameraman describes his crew’s attempts to report from Beirut, navigating the fear and anger palpable on the bombed-out streets.


A scene in central Beirut, captured on October 11. A digger clears a mountain of rubble following an airstrike


UNIFIL promises to stay in Lebanon

A UNIFIL peacekeeping mission spokesperson says the 10,000-strong mission would remain in Lebanon despite several direct attacks by Israeli forces in recent days which he described as deliberate.

“We need to stay, they asked us to move,” said UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti by videolink from Beirut. “The devastation and destruction of many villages along the Blue Line, and even beyond, is shocking,” he said, referring to a UN-mapped line separating Lebanon from Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Asked about the downing of a drone near its ship off the Lebanese coast on Thursday, he said: “The drone was coming from the south but circling around the ship and getting very, very close, a few metres away from the ship.”


Lebanon’s PM says he rejects Iranian interference in Lebanese matter

Lebanon’s caretaker PM Mikati said he rejected Iranian interference in a Lebanese matter, after the speaker of Iran’s parliament said Tehran was ready to negotiate with France on implementing a UN resolution concerning southern Lebanon.

UN Resolution 1701, adopted in 2006, calls for the border area of southern Lebanon to be free of weapons or troops other than those of the Lebanese state, with the aim of keeping peace on the border with Israel.

The speaker of Iran’s parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, made his comments in an interview published on Thursday.

“We are surprised by this position, which constitutes a blatant interference in Lebanese affairs and an attempt to establish a rejected guardianship over Lebanon,” a government statement quoted Mikati.

He added that negotiating to implement UN resolution 1701 was a matter for the Lebanese state.



SvennoJ 1 hour ago

WHO accuses Israel of blocking medical specialists from entering Gaza

The World Health Organization (WHO) has accused Israel of barring medical specialists from entering Gaza to support clinics in the besieged enclave, according to German news agency DPA.

The WHO said eight organisations and more than 50 specialist personnel have been affected by Israel’s blockade since August. The specialists, who intended to give various medical services to patients and psychological support to healthcare workers, were blocked from working in medical facilities including the European Gaza Hospital and the Nasser Hospital.

Israeli authorities have denied two medical organisations, Glia and US nonprofit the Palestinian American Medical Association, from entering Gaza, the groups said this week.

This marks the first instance in which Israel has denied entire aid organisations access to Gaza, according to the WHO.



Head of human rights organisation slams Israel for ‘war crimes’

Israel has not only violated the sovereignty of Lebanon but also that of Iraq and Syria, killing many innocent people, Muhammad Shahid Amin Khan, world chairman of the International Human Rights Commission, said.

“Netanyahu is a war criminal… the US is facilitating [those attacks],” Khan added.

He urged the International Criminal Court to “act according to its charter”.



Around the Network
SvennoJ 1 hour ago

Israel’s military siege of northern Gaza



Deaths, injuries as Israeli military bombs home in Shati camp

Israeli fighter jets bombed the Qadiri family home in the Shati refugee camp in the west of Gaza City, northern Gaza, killing a “number of citizens” and injuring others, the Wafa news agency reports.


Two bodies recovered in Jabalia

Medical sources tell Al Jazeera that the bodies of two people killed in Jabalia in northern Gaza have been recovered. They were killed in Israeli bombardment.

Separately, Israeli raids and heavy gunfire are reported in the coastal area of al-Mawasi in the west of Rafah in southern Gaza.


Israeli warplanes attack 150 targets in Gaza, Lebanon in one day: Military

Israel’s military said its air force carried out an estimated 150 attacks on sites in the Gaza Strip and in Lebanon on Thursday, including munitions warehouses, rocket launch sites, and sniper and observation posts.

During the night, “the combat team” of Israel’s Givati Brigade joined forces with Division 162 in the siege and ground offensive against Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp in the north of the territory, the military said. Attacks by the air force on Thursday in Jabalia had “eliminated dozens of terrorists”, the military added.

An estimated 400,000 Palestinians have been trapped by the Israeli military’s two-week-long siege of the north of the Strip, where supplies of food, water and medicine have not entered and rescue workers are unable to recover the bodies of people killed in the streets and trapped under the rubble of buildings bombed by Israel.


Scenes of chaos at hospital in the aftermath of Israeli attack on school

Al Jazeera’s Moath al-Kahlout, reporting from the Jabalia refugee camp, says the Israeli army bombed a school in the centre of the camp. Reporting from the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya – close to the camp – as casualties arrived, he said the vast majority of the injured were children.

Ambulances were seen arriving at the scene as well as a horse cart, carrying a wounded person. The school was full of displaced Palestinians, our correspondent said, reporting from the extremely crowded hospital as more casualties arrived.


Israel sends more troops into northern Gaza

The Israeli military says it has sent another army unit to support its forces operating in the Jabalia refugee camp, where it has been carrying out a major offensive.

The Israeli military said its forces, which have been operating in Jabalia for the past two weeks, killed dozens of fighters in close-quarters combat on Thursday and carried out air strikes. At least 28 Palestinians, including children, were killed in an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter in Jabalia, a health official has said.

The Israeli military claims its operation in Jabalia aims to stop Hamas fighters from regrouping for more attacks. It has laid siege to northern Gaza since last week, trapping tens of thousands of people without access to food and water. Residents say the Israeli forces operating in the region have been blowing up roads and houses as they thrust further into the territory.


Number of people killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza rises to 42,500

The Health Ministry in Gaza has released its daily report of the people killed and wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza. It said at least 62 people have been killed and 300 wounded in the latest 24-hour reporting period.

The new figures brought the number of people killed since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza more than a year ago to 42,500 with 99,546 people wounded.



SvennoJ 1 hour ago

Arrests, violent clashes during Israeli West Bank raids

The Israeli military has carried out raids in the occupied West Bank in recent hours, according to local media reports. They include:

  • The city of Qalqilya has been stormed and two men have been arrested
  • The city of Tubas has been stormed, with Palestinian groups targeting Israeli forces with explosive devices and bullets
  • The village of Husan, west of Bethlehem, has been stormed


UN warns against settler violence during olive harvest season

The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned “that Israeli settler violence in the context of the ongoing olive harvest season is threatening people’s safety and livelihoods”, UN Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq told a news conference.

Haq said OCHA has documented at least “32 attacks by Israeli settlers, during which 39 Palestinians harvesting olives were injured and about 600 trees and saplings were vandalised, sawed off, or stolen” since the start of October.

Decrying the deteriorating situation in northern Gaza, Haq said intense hostilities and Israel’s evacuation orders have led to a significant loss of access to critical water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities.

According to Haq, “water production from municipal wells is currently at zero” in areas such as Jabalia and Beit Lahiya.


Israeli soldiers intervene against Palestinian farmers who continue to harvest their olive trees despite Israeli attacks in the village of Qasra and foreign activists who support them in southeast of Nablus, West Bank on Tuesday


Israeli settlers steal sheep from Jurish village near Nablus

Israeli settlers have stolen a herd of sheep from the village of Jurish, southeast of Nablus, Wafa news agency is reporting. A group of settlers, protected by Israeli soldiers, attacked a young shepherd while he was with his sheep at the junction of Jurish village, according to the report.

Israeli forces detained the shepherd at the scene and the settlers stole the sheep and headed towards the nearby illegal Israeli Migdalim settlement, Wafa reported.


UN denounces Israel’s use of ‘war-like’ tactics in occupied West Bank

The UN humanitarian office has denounced Israel’s use of what it described as “war-like” tactics against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, saying nine Palestinians had been killed in a week.

“Israeli forces have been using lethal, war-like tactics in the West Bank, raising serious concerns over excessive use of force and deepening people’s humanitarian needs,” spokesperson Jens Laerke told reporters at a Geneva news briefing, saying nine people had been killed between October 8 and 14, including one child.

Laerke added that Israeli forces had accused most of those killed of being involved in attacking Israelis.

Since October 7, 2023, more than 750 people have been killed in the occupied West Bank with more than 6,250 injured, and at least 11,200 Palestinians imprisoned.