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

SvennoJ 2 hours ago

Pope suggests international study into possible genocide in Gaza

Pope Francis has suggested the global community should study whether Israel’s military campaign in Gaza constitutes a genocide of the Palestinian people, in some of his most explicit criticism yet of Israel’s conduct in its yearlong war.

In excerpts published from a forthcoming book, the pontiff said some international experts say “what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide.

“We should investigate carefully to assess whether this fits into the technical definition [of genocide] formulated by international jurists and organisations,” the pope said in the excerpts, published by Italian daily La Stampa.

Francis, leader of the 1.4-billion-member Catholic Church, is usually careful not to take sides in international conflicts, and to stress de-escalation. But he has stepped up his criticism of Israel’s conduct in its war.


Israel slams UN committee’s Gaza genocide claims as ‘false’

Israel has condemned the United Nations for what it described as “anti-Israel fabrications” after a UN committee said Israel’s warfare in Gaza is consistent with the characteristics of genocide.

“The UN is breaking its own record when it comes to biased reports, singling out Israel and anti-Israel fabrications,” the Foreign Ministry said late on Saturday.

The UN special committee said in a report that Israel was “intentionally causing death, starvation and serious injury” in the Gaza Strip, accusing it of “using starvation as a method of war”.

But the ministry dismissed the accusations as “false claims”.

“The … report is an appalling example of the transformation of the UN into an organisation which is used as a pawn by terrorists who attack civilians in a democratic state,” it said in a statement shared by spokesman Oren Marmorstein on X.

The UN committee had said “through its siege over Gaza, obstruction of humanitarian aid, alongside targeted attacks and killing of civilians and aid workers, despite repeated UN appeals, binding orders from the International Court of Justice and resolutions of the Security Council, Israel is intentionally causing death, starvation and serious injury”.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry, however, insisted its “activities are directed solely at dismantling Hamas’s terror capabilities”.

The United States, Israel’s biggest supporter, rejected the UN committee’s charges, which it said were “unfounded”.


‘This is terrorism’: Israeli officials react to flares fired at Netanyahu’s home

Israeli officials and politicians are issuing public statements after three suspects were arrested when two flares landed near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in the central town of Caesarea.

Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar said in a statement that it was “a very serious incident that is far from a legitimate protest”. “We will not accept any violent activity against the symbols of the state. Each case will be treated with the utmost severity,” said Bar.

Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister Yariv Levin accused the perpetrators of “seeking to dismantle the country from within”.

Former war cabinet member and opposition figure Benny Gantz wrote on X: “If the suspicions are true and activists are behind the firing of flares at the premier’s residence, it should be said clearly: this is not protest, this is terrorism.”



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SvennoJ 2 hours ago

Protesters in Brazil rally for Palestine ahead of G20 summit


People wore masks of US President-elect Donald Trump, US President Joe Biden and France’s President Emmanuel Macron


Hundreds of protesters marched in support of Palestinians in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday, in a demonstration aimed at world leaders about to converge on the city for the G20 summit



Israel’s Herzog to skip COP29 in Azerbaijan over ‘security considerations’

The Israeli President’s Office said Isaac Herzog is cancelling his planned trip to the UN’s climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, citing “security considerations”, according to the Times of Israel.

The Israeli daily did not elaborate but said that several Israeli ministers and officials would still be attending the meeting.

It added that “Israel’s delegation is taking place under tight security, given the country’s proximity to Iran, though Azerbaijan itself is seen as an ally of Israel“.



CAIR slams ‘Genocide Joe’ Biden over inaction in Gaza

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the US’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organisation, has condemned the US president’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza.

CAIR said in a statement: “While the world witnesses daily atrocities by Israel in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Lebanon, ‘Genocide Joe’ Biden remains silent as the far-fight Netanyahu government uses American weapons and his administration’s support to slaughter civilians, destroy their homes and force their children to starve.

CAIR said its statement follows reports from Gaza of “dogs feeding on corpses, a prominent Palestinian doctor tortured to death in an Israeli prison, the killing of a Palestinian journalist in an Israeli drone attack, the Israeli burning of a Gaza school storing aid supplies, an Israeli massacre at a school in Gaza, illegal Israeli settler attacks on Palestinian homes, and Israeli field executions in northern Gaza”.



Protesters block Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem

Protesters have blocked the entrance to PM Netanyahu’s office building in Jerusalem, according to Israeli media. They are demanding his resignation, new elections and a deal to swap Israeli captives held in Gaza with Palestinian prisoners.

The footage shared on social media shows dozens of protesters sitting on the ground, obstructing the building’s entrance.

Translation: How much more blood will be spilled before the culprit goes? Now blocking the entrance to the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem, just before the cabinet meeting. In the first row of the blockers at the meeting on the road is Brigadier General Mil Amir Hashakal.



SvennoJ 2 hours ago

Five killed as Israeli forces attack Gaza’s Bureij

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting that at least five Palestinians have been killed, including a child, in an Israeli attack on a house in the Bureij refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip. Several people were also wounded.

The attack came as medical sources raised the number of people killed in Israel’s attacks on Gaza Strip on Saturday to 51.


Dozens of casualties as Israeli forces attack Gaza school, barbershop

Israel’s attacks on Gaza today included an assault on the UN-run Abu Assi school in the Shati refugee camp in the north. Medical sources say at least 10 Palestinians were killed and 20 others injured. Among them were several women and children.

This school was sheltering thousands of displaced Palestinians. Most of them had fled areas in the north, including Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoon and Jabalia.

This wasn’t the only target today. Israeli forces also continued to attack Beit Lahiya and residents there are reporting nonstop shelling and explosions. Let me remind you that for more than 40 days, the northern Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli siege, with people trapped without access to food, water, medicine or aid, and with continuous Israeli shelling and air strikes.

Israeli forces also targeted a barbershop in Gaza City, where five Palestinians were killed, and attacked a family gathering in Khan Younis and five more Palestinians were killed. The escalation in air strikes, shelling, drone and quadcopter attacks comes as the health and humanitarian situation across the Gaza Strip continues to deteriorate.




Death toll from Israel’s attack on Gaza’s Bureij rises

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting that the death toll has risen to 10 people. Photos published by the Anadolu news agency showed several people with head injuries and covered in dust being taken to hospital after the attack. The wounded included children.


Rescuers wearing head torches help a Palestinian injured in the attack



SvennoJ 2 hours ago

Israeli soldier killed in northern Gaza fighting

The Israeli military said in a statement that the family of the soldier, who was 21 years old, has been notified. At least 376 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since October last year, according to the AFP news agency.


Five killed in Israeli attack on Rafah

Al Jazeera Arabic’s correspondent is reporting that an Israeli bombing has killed five Palestinians in the eastern neighbourhoods of the city in the south of the Gaza Strip.

It’s been more than six months since Israeli ground forces invaded Rafah, promising a “limited” operation against Hamas fighters in the city where more than 1 million Palestinians had been sheltering.


Israel kills 5 in central Gaza

Our team on the ground in the Gaza Strip reports that five people were killed, including a child, in an overnight Israeli strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp. Many others were “critically wounded” following the air attack on the residential building of the Abu Armana family, our correspondent says.


Israeli army destroying ‘whole neighbourhoods’ in north Gaza: Report

The Palestinian media report that Israeli forces are in the process of demolishing tens of residential buildings in the Jabalia refugee camp. Reports of mass demolition of buildings have been coming throughout Israel’s siege of northern Gaza, continuing for more than a month.


Gaza death toll rises

At least 43,846 people have been killed and 103,740 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, 2023, the enclave’s Health Ministry says. Of those, 47 Palestinians were killed and 139 wounded in the latest 24-hour reporting period, the ministry added.



SvennoJ 2 hours ago

‘Tens’ killed in Israeli strike on Beit Lahiya

Our correspondent on the ground in Gaza, Hani Mahmoud, is reporting that the attack we reported earlier on the area in north Gaza hit a five-storey residential building hosting about 100 internally displaced Palestinians.

Witnesses told Al Jazeera that many people were killed, and medics told Reuters that “tens” of people were killed and wounded. The number of dead remains unclear because an insufficient number of paramedics were able to reach the site of the attack, Mahmoud said.


Gaza Civil Defense: ‘We are unable to help the people of Beit Lahiya’

Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for the Gaza rescue organisation, says it cannot reach the site of an attack on Beit Lahiya, north Gaza. “The department received appeals from residents of a house bombed by the Israeli occupation in Beit Lahiya, but we cannot move to rescue them,” he said.

Two bombs hit a five-storey residential tower in the northern Gaza city, killing “tens” of people, according to medics.


Health Ministry: ’30 percent of victims in Beit Lahiya massacre are children’

Gaza Health Ministry’s Director-General Munir al-Bursh has given Al Jazeera an update on the latest developments:

  • Israeli forces deliberately bomb civilians late at night so that no one could save them, al-Bursh said.
  • Yesterday, Israelis prevented the entry of a UN humanitarian convoy carrying medicines to Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza.
  • Almost 30 percent of the victims of the Beit Lahiya massacre today are children.
  • There are between 20 and 30 people under the rubble in Beit Lahiya who cannot be reached.
  • More than 12,000 wounded people are in urgent need of treatment abroad, but Israeli forces are preventing them from travelling.
  • They deliberately target doctors, even while they are in their homes, to prevent them from providing their services.


Funeral at Al-Aqsa Hospital for 17 Palestinians killed in central Gaza

Here, inside the Al-Aqsa Hospital, there was a mourning for the 17 Palestinians that we reported on earlier, who were killed across different areas in the central Gaza Strip. Among them are at least four children.

We saw mothers crying, bidding farewells to their loved ones. We also hear continuous shelling, explosions and Israeli planes above the central area.

And to make matters worse, the health situation and humanitarian situation are not getting any better. People are struggling to find food and get access to medicine and clean drinking water.


Mourners carry the body of a Palestinian killed in an Israeli strike, at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza Strip, November 17


Preliminary death toll from Israel’s Beit Lahiya strike at 72

Gaza’s Government Media Office says the strike, which we reported earlier, hit a residential tower in the north of Gaza housing six Palestinian families. Dozens more are wounded.

And as usual, while CNN reports the assassination of the Hezbollah spokesman, nothing (yet) about today's massacres in Gaza. 72 dead in one strike is now too low (too common?) to report on.



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SvennoJ 2 hours ago

96 killed this morning across the Strip: Media office

Israeli attacks on residential buildings in Beit Lahiya, Nuseirat and Bureij in Gaza have killed 96 Palestinians since this morning, the Gaza media office has said in a statement that condemned the attacks.

“The occupation army knew that these houses and residential buildings contained dozens of displaced civilians, most of whom were children and women,” the statement said.

The media office said it holds Israel, as well as the US administration, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and other “countries participating in the genocide” fully responsible for the “continuation of the ethnic cleansing war”.

At least 300,000 tonnes of ‘solid waste’ on the roads in Gaza: Report

The damage to transportation and communications infrastructure across the Palestinian territory has reached $4.8bn as a result of direct Israeli attacks, Wafa news agency reported Palestine’s Minister of Transport and Communications Tariq Zourob as saying.

At least 300,000 tonnes of “solid waste” are reportedly on the roads across the Gaza Strip, Zourob said during a meeting with private sector representatives from the Strip at the Palestinian embassy in Cairo.

In June, UNRWA reported waste of an estimated 100,000 tonnes building up near people’s tents in central Gaza alone.

‘An unfolding of horrific events’ in northern Gaza

Devastation keeps evolving in a much more difficult, much more challenging situation for those who remain in the northern part of the Strip.

What we’re seeing is an unfolding of horrific events echoing some of the worst events happening in history. We’re seeing a systematic destruction of every means of life in the northern part of the Strip.

This includes not only residential buildings, but many public facilities, infrastructure, roads – anything that supports people’s existence in the part of the Gaza Strip being destroyed.

Attacks in the early hours of this morning hit a group of residential buildings. Close to 70 people have been killed, and again, with the exact same pattern of civilians being the target of these attacks inside their homes where they were taking shelter.

Many of them are displaced people who moved to north Gaza from other areas and ended up with their relatives, in-laws or friends who decided to host them until the aggression ends. But it doesn’t seem likely to end anytime soon.


Displacement from Beit Lahiya continues

Dozens of Palestinians are being forced to leave their homes in Beit Lahiya as Israeli attacks on northern Gaza intensify, Reuters reports.

The Israeli army sent tanks into Beit Lahiya and the nearby towns of Beit Hanoon and Jabalia, the largest of the Gaza Strip’s eight historic refugee camps, last month after isolating all three areas from Gaza City.

Hamas wants a deal that ends the war, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is stalling, despite near-daily demonstrations protesting his stance and calling for a deal to end the war and bring back the captives.



SvennoJ 2 hours ago

Masked Israeli settlers burns homes, cars in raid on West Bank village

Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are calling for international intervention to stop escalating attacks by Israeli settlers. It follows another assault – this time on the village of Beit Furik near the city of Nablus.

“They did not leave anything, the electricity pole, and all our belongings, the couches, the water tank, they did not leave a thing,” said Mahmoud Hannah, a resident.




Israeli forces raid towns, villages across West Bank

Here’s what we know so far:

  • Israeli soldiers are arresting Palestinians in the town of Jabal Mukaber in occupied East Jerusalem, Al Jazeera Arabic reports.
  • Israeli forces stormed the town of al-Khader, south of Bethlehem, firing tear gas and sound bombs, with no reports of injuries, the Wafa news agency reports.
  • Israeli raids were also reported in Nablus, Osarin and Birzeit, Al Jazeera Arabic reports.


Aftermath of Israeli settler attack on Beit Furik


Armed Israeli soldiers patrol near a Palestinian car that was burned by Israeli settlers in an attack on Beit Furik, in the occupied West Bank, on Saturday


Dozens of masked settlers invaded the Palestinian village on Saturday, destroying property, including water tanks, witnesses said


Israeli army arrests 15 Palestinians in West Bank

Israeli forces have arrested at least 15 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank, including a child and former detainees, during a raid overnight, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society reported.

It said in a statement the arrests took place in the governorates of Salfit, Qalqilya, Tulkarem (north), Ramallah, Jerusalem (centre), and Hebron (south). The arrests came with widespread acts of abuse as well as sabotage and destruction of residents’ homes, it said.



SvennoJ 2 hours ago

Forty-five suspects identified in Amsterdam football violence

https://nltimes.nl/2024/11/17/police-identified-45-suspects-amsterdam-riots-unblurred-photos-suspects-released

Dutch police say they’re investigating 45 people for violent crimes in relation to unrest surrounding an Amsterdam football match involving an Israeli team last week, with nine already identified and arrested.

Police are “looking at all crimes committed in the run-up to the game and in its aftermath”, Dutch police Chief Janny Knol said in a statement, after the violence erupted in the Dutch capital on November 7.

The number of suspects is expected to increase “based in part on the analysis of a large amount of footage”, police added.

Tensions flared during last week’s football match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and the local Ajax team after Israeli fans chanted anti-Arab slogans, vandalised a taxi, and burned a Palestinian flag in Amsterdam’s main square.

Does that include Israeli hooligans that started the riots or just going after their own citizens...

NYT CAUGHT Deleting Fake Amsterdam Video


 

How Israel Defied the U.S.'s 30-Day Warning on Gaza


On Oct. 13, the US gave Israel 30 days to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza or face possible US policy "implications." Zeteo's Prem Thakker brings you a day-by-day breakdown of how Israel has since made things worse. Thirty days passed, and the US government is making no policy changes, determining Israel has not violated US law and “has taken a number of steps” to address its demands. But reports from Gaza reveal an entirely different reality – Israel not only failed to comply, aid groups say, it made conditions worse.