No comment from Netanyahu on the Israeli captive reported killed in Gaza

Protests in Tel Aviv, yet again, as the families of Israeli captives demand that their government reach a ceasefire deal in Gaza that would secure the release of the remaining captives. The protests come as the military wing of Hamas released a statement saying that one female captive was killed and another injured in an Israeli attack on northern Gaza.



There has been no comment from the Israeli government, but the Israeli military has acknowledged the announcement, saying they will investigate and stay in close contact with the families of the captives who are desperate to have Netanyahu listen to them.

The Israeli prime minister, for his part, issued a video statement that did not mention that news, but really tried to defend himself against several reports in a series of scandals on the leak of confidential information, including some news that he was personally behind the derailing of negotiations for a deal back in August.

The Israeli minister of defence is also saying that he did not restrict the mandate of the negotiating team, which hasn’t been negotiating for months now.

For now, the families of Israeli captives have reached out to US President-elect Donald Trump, asking him to intervene, because they believe he might wield a lot of pressure and effect on Netanyahu.

_{Israeli families of captives held in Gaza and their supporters protest outside the Defence Ministry in Tel Aviv on Saturday}

Israelis are worried about the country’s ‘international standing’

A ceasefire agreement is more likely to transpire in Lebanon rather than Gaza as that is “more urgent” for the US, according to Alon Liel, a former Israeli diplomat. “[The Americans] are devoting a lot of energy to the arrangement in the north, and there is no one that could really mediate an agreement in the south,” Liel told Al Jazeera, speaking from Tel Aviv.

Meanwhile, Israelis are currently focused on “the killing of a religious envoy in the Emirates, in Abu Dhabi, and the message that Hamas published about the killing of one of the hostages”, he added.

They are also concerned about Israel’s international standing, given the International Criminal Court arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant, Liel said.

“What especially worries me now is that there will be a massive Israeli campaign against the ICC, and probably also the [International Court of Justice], to the point that [it will threaten] the continuation of their operations,” he said. “And this is a strategic thing, a dramatic thing for Israel’s international standing.”

Still, Netanyahu has managed to strengthen his political standing domestically, both in the Knesset and electorally during the last month because another small party joined his coalition, the former diplomat explained.

However, clashes between his office and the security establishment are also “really worrying”, said Liel.

Israel and Lebanon are ‘some distance away’ from reaching any agreement

Abdullah Al-Arian, an associate professor of history at Georgetown University, Qatar, says the intensity of Israel’s military activity in Lebanon shows that the two countries are “quite some distance away from reaching any kind of an agreement”.

“We’ve seen now that the Israeli forces are willing to target UNIFIL positions, that the Lebanese military itself is being targeted,” Al-Arian told Al Jazeera, adding that the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 is “more a question of Lebanese state sovereignty and its violation, repeated violations by Israel”.

Al-Arian said as long as Israel insists on maintaining the right to “violate” Lebanese sovereignty as a “condition of the negotiation”, a ceasefire agreement is unlikely.

Lebanese PM says Israel’s attack on its army is rejection of ceasefire efforts

Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Israel’s attack on an army centre in the town of al-Amiriya in southern Lebanon is a rejection of any potential ceasefire.

“The messages of the Israeli enemy, rejecting any solution, continue and are written in Lebanese blood, in a brazen rejection of the solution being discussed,” Mikati said in a post on X.

“The government, which expressed its commitment to implementing international resolution 1701 and strengthening the army’s presence in the south, calls on the countries of the world and international institutions to assume their responsibilities,” he added.

Resolution 1701, implemented after the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, called for the Lebanese armed forces and UN peacekeepers to be the only military presence between the border with Israel and the Litani River, about 30km (19 miles) to the north.

Israel names Netanyahu ally as US ambassador

The Israeli government says it had approved the nomination of Yechiel Leiter, an ally of Netanyahu, as the country’s ambassador to the United States. The announcement comes after US President-elect Donald Trump named hardline conservative Mike Huckabee as his choice for US ambassador to Israel under his incoming administration.

“The government has unanimously approved the appointment of Dr Yechiel Leiter as ambassador to the United States,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

A former adviser to Netanyahu, Leiter, 65, is originally from the United States and currently lives in a settlement in the occupied West Bank. Close to the US Republican Party, Leiter used to be one of the leaders of the Yesha Council, an umbrella group representing Israeli settlers in the West Bank in the 1990s.

He is also a member of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party and currently works as a strategic adviser to Israeli think tanks. His son, Moshe Leiter, was killed in combat in November 2023 in the Gaza Strip.

Yechiel Leiter will take on the ambassador role after Trump’s inauguration next year, succeeding Mike Herzog, President Isaac Herzog’s brother, who was appointed in 2021. Leiter is a fierce critic of outgoing US President Joe Biden, slamming “American pressure” during the war in Gaza in an interview with private Israeli channel Tov in January.

Dying in ‘hell’: The fate of Palestinian medics jailed by Israel

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/11/24/dying-in-hell-palestinian-medics-jailed-by-israel

One of Gaza’s most prominent doctors, Adnan al-Bursh, may have been raped to death, recent revelations show. He’s not the only one.

Al-Bursh was arrested by Israeli forces at Kamal Adwan Hospital and entered a prison system that Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem describes as “hell”. Israel often imprisons healthcare workers like him, holding them in horrific conditions in the name of “investigation”.

Four months later, Ofer Prison guards dragged al-Bursh and dumped him in the prison yard, naked from the waist down, bleeding and unable to stand, according to a statement provided by Israeli human rights organisation, HaMoked.

Recognising him, some of the other prisoners carried Al-Bursh to a nearby room, and he died moments later.

https://x.com/FranceskAlbs/status/1858304872963010840

....

Israel often detains healthcare workers like Dr Al-Bursh, holding them in horrific conditions for “investigation”.

“Most of the doctors and nurses [held by Israel who spoke to PHRI] reported that the investigation was ‘fishing’ for information, but they weren’t accused [of] any charges,” Naji Abbas, Physicians for Human Rights Israel’s prisoners’ department director said.

“Our lawyer visited dozens of healthcare workers who [are] still in Israeli detention for long months without charge or having a fair trial, most of them didn’t ever see a lawyer,” he added.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza reports that Israel has detained at least 310 Palestinian healthcare workers since the war on Gaza began in October 2023.

Many of them have reported abuse and cruel treatment including the use of stress positions, withholding food and water and sexual violence, including rape.

“The healthcare workers we’ve spoken to have been held for anywhere between seven days and five months,” Milena Ansari of Human Rights Watch (HRW) said, whose August report on the arbitrary detention and torture of healthcare workers documented the matter.

“Many aren’t even charged, they’re just asked general questions, like: ‘Who’s your Imam?’ ‘What mosque do you go to?’ or even ‘Are you a member of Hamas?’ but without providing any evidence,” she said.

....

Accounts of the widespread torture and mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons are longstanding.

However, all the analysts Al Jazeera spoke to noted two distinct stages in the dramatic deterioration in conditions and surging abuse: firstly after the appointment of Itamar Ben-Gvir as national security minister in 2022, followed by the explosion of maltreatment of detainees that followed the onset of the Israeli war on Gaza in October 2023.

“They don’t care if you’re from Gaza or Jerusalem, whether you’re a doctor or a labourer – if you’re a Palestinian, you’re the enemy, ” Shai Parness of the Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem said.

“It’s brutal and it’s systematic,” he said of a system that B’Tselem’s August report, Welcome To Hell, characterized as “a network of torture camps”. “It’s not just violence, humiliation and sexual abuse, it’s everything,” Ansari said.

“Accounts of physical and sexual violence were common. Of those who had been abused physically, injuries around the head, shoulders and, in the cases of men, from between the legs and the bottom are fairly common,” Ansari added.

She detailed the case of one paramedic who told HRW of having encountered another detainee, bleeding from his anus, who described how three Israeli guards had taken it in turns to rape him with their M16 rifles.

Horror continued in the article

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/11/24/dying-in-hell-palestinian-medics-jailed-by-israel

Palestinians forced to flee Gaza City in the dark

Videos verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad agency show Palestinians fleeing parts of Gaza City after Israel’s army threatened that the Shujayea neighbourhood would become a “dangerous combat zone”.

One video showed a woman and her children using the lights from their phones to try to see as they fled the area on foot.

An “urgent warning” shared by Israeli spokesperson Avichay Adraee on social media telling Palestinians to leave the area was posted at about 6:30pm local time [16:30 GMT], about two hours after sunset.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCuaU-jNnzp

Six Palestinians killed in Israeli attack on central Gaza

Israeli forces bombed a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing at least six people and wounding three others, according to the Wafa news agency. The bombing on Saturday evening dismembered the bodies of the victims, the agency reported.

It came as medical sources said at least 38 people had been killed in Israeli attacks across the enclave since dawn on Saturday.

Four killed in Israeli attack on Bureij refugee camp

Two children were among the four people killed in the Israeli bombing of a house in the refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, according to Al Jazeera Arabic.

Casualties as Israeli forces bomb tent in Maghazi refugee camp

One person was killed and three others wounded in the Israeli drone attack on the refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, Al Jazeera Arabic reports. The attack came as Israeli forces also bombarded the nearby Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps.

Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital wounded in the leg

The Palestinian Information Center has published images of Dr Hussam Abu Safia lying on a hospital stretcher as others wrapped a bandage around his thigh. The outlet said the doctor was wounded from shrapnel from a bomb dropped by an Israeli quadcopter while he was checking up on patients inside the hospital.

“My injury is an honour,” he was quoted as saying.

Earlier, we reported that successive Israeli attacks on the northern facility – one of two partially functioning hospitals in besieged northern Gaza – killed at least two people and wounded 12 medical staff on Saturday. The assaults also disrupted the electrical generator, oxygen supply network and water supply.

Israeli forces also raided the facility in October and detained nearly all the medical staff there. They told Abu Safia to evacuate the facility but he had refused. Later, Israeli forces killed the doctor’s son in a drone attack on the hospital – an assault he described as punishment for having refused to leave.

Translation: “My injury is an honour for me,” says Dr Hussam Abu Safia, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, after being injured in an Israeli drone strike on the hospital. 


Israel’s attacks on Kamal Adwan Hospital

Israeli forces have attacked the medical facility several times since launching their siege on northern Gaza on October 6. The UN’s human rights office says the attacks come despite no reports of combat activity near the hospital’s vicinity or the use of its facilities by armed groups.

Israeli drone attack kills one in Rafah, injures others

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic report that an Israeli drone attack on the Khirbet al-Adas area in Rafah has killed one Palestinian and injured others. Israeli artillery shelling also injured several people in the Tuffah neighbourhood in Gaza City, our correspondent reported.

North Gaza hospital director gives update as Israeli attacks continue

Dr Hussam Abu Safia, Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, has sent a message from the northern Gaza Strip, which is still under Israeli siege. Abu Safia was injured yesterday in Israeli shelling of the hospital.

Here are some highlights from his message:

Palestinian boy wounded as Israeli forces raid West Bank camp

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting that the boy was wounded when Israeli soldiers opened fire during a raid on the Balata refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. They cited reports from the Palestinian Red Crescent.

The Wafa news agency also reported Israeli raids in the city of Hebron and the towns of Yabad and Sebastia.


_{Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir walks with Israeli settlers and armed soldiers as they storm the Ibrahimi Mosque to mark a Jewish holiday in Hebron, West Bank on Saturday}

Almost 12,000 arrested in occupied West Bank since October 2023

The total number of arrests in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has amounted to more than 11,800, according to the Commission of Detainees Affairs, the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.

Since October 7, 2023, there have been near-daily Israeli raids, the groups said in a statement, adding that there are:

Why Israel Is RIGHT To Panic Over ICC Arrest Warrants - w/. Dr. Alonso Gurmendi

Israel's ferocious response to the International Criminal Court's arrest warrants shows how panicked their authorities are. I'm joined by the brilliant Dr. Alonso Gurmendi (London School of Economics) who explains why the arrest warrants could be a game changer not just for Israel and Palestine, but reflect dramatic changes to the entire global order.

PM Trudeau Says Canada Will Arrest Netanyahu

Hind Rajab, 300 Days Later: No Justice

300 hundred days after Israel killed Hind Rajab, the US continues to provide Israel with the same weapons that reportedly killed the 6-year-old Palestinian child, her family members, and the medical workers who were sent to save her.

Despite extensive evidence and multiple independent investigations, the Biden administration has failed to demand accountability. Over the course of nearly a year, the State Department has gradually tweaked its messaging, but the consequent effect has remained: deflection and deference to Israel.

The US feigned concern for Hind. It continued to defer to Israel to investigate itself for murder. And now, the US has reached a new steady state: There is a “factual dispute” that they cannot speak to.

This is how the State Department’s narrative has shifted over the past 300 days.

Nan Goldin Opens Exhibition In Berlin With Fiery Speech Against Israel | United States | Dawn News

At her Berlin exhibition opening, American photographer Nan Goldin condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza, calling them genocide and comparing them to historical pogroms. She criticized Germany's response to Palestinian protests and expressed solidarity with Gaza. The event sparked controversy, with the Neue Nationalgalerie distancing itself from her statements.

Israel’s Gantz calls on Netanyahu to bomb Lebanon government offices

Israeli opposition leader Benny Gantz urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to attack Lebanon’s government facilities in Beirut, which so far have been spared relentless strikes.

“The Lebanese government is allowing Hezbollah to operate freely. It’s time to take strong action against its infrastructure and assets,” Gantz said on X.

Avi Ashkenazi, a military analyst for the Maariv newspaper, suggested in an article that the premises of the Lebanese parliament would be a viable target for the Israeli army. “The parliament building is part of Hezbollah’s political infrastructure and could serve as a refuge for its members,” Ashkenazi said.

He also suggested that the Israeli military should destroy 10 to 20 more buildings in Beirut’s southern suburb “to ensure dominance in the area”.

Lebanon suspends schools in Beirut until end of December

Lebanon suspended in-person classes in the Beirut area until the end of December, the Education Ministry said, citing safety concerns after a series of Israeli air strikes this week.

Education Minister Abbas Halabi announced “the suspension for technical institutes and private higher education institutions in Beirut and parts of the neighbouring Matn, Baabda and Chouf districts starting on Monday.

The move was made “for the safety of students, educational institutions and parents, in light of the current dangerous conditions”.

Israeli ground forces face ‘fierce resistance’ in south Lebanon

Today was probably the most intense day since the beginning of this war with at least 49 attacks by Hezbollah on Israeli targets – whether inside Lebanon or in Israel. Hezbollah launched about 340 rockets. There’s also the Israeli ground incursion in Lebanon or what Israel calls the ground “manoeuvre”.

Israel is trying to take two strategic towns on the border. One is Naqoura, a town on the sea. The Israelis have been advancing through several other villages, and they were positioned on al-Bayada, a strategic hill overseeing the Mediterranean, and also in other areas in the district.

But today, Hezbollah forced the Israeli military to retreat after launching four attacks with antitank guided missiles on the Merkava tanks and destroying them, according to Hezbollah statements.

In the southern city of Khiam – a strategic town on the border – Israel is trying to push in but its forces are facing fierce resistance.

Israel claims multiple attacks on Hezbollah ‘military headquarters’

The Israeli military announced it attacked “12 military headquarters” in the Dahiyeh area of ​​Beirut this evening. In a post on X, the army said that among the targets hit were Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters and its coastal missile unit.

Earlier, an Israeli strike on an army centre killed a Lebanese soldier and wounded 18 others in the southwest, between Tyre and Naqoura, Lebanon’s military said. Israeli army attacks have killed more than  40 Lebanese troops since the start of the war between Israel and Hezbollah, even as Lebanon’s military has kept to the sidelines.

Just like Hamas command centers, they are in every building... 12 headquarters, sure.

Three people killed in Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon

Lebanon’s National News Agency said the deadly attack took place in Zibqin, a town in the Tyre district. The latest attack came after Israeli forces launched several air attacks on the Tyre region amid fierce battles with Hezbollah fighters.

Hezbollah rockets, missiles continue to fall on Israel

Hezbollah fires rockets at targets in the heart of Israel, in Petah Tikva, Nahariya and Haifa. According to the Israeli army, hundreds of rockets and projectiles were fired from Lebanon across Israel.

Extensive damage was reported in several direct impacts that included two military installations. Cars were set on fire and buildings were heavily damaged. Residents in Israel’s most populated area took cover in shelters and safe rooms.

Israel’s sophisticated air defence systems did not intercept all the rockets. Some people were treated for injuries. At least one was described as serious.

Rockets kept falling into the night, with shrapnel reaching Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank – where there are no shelters or sirens. Several people were injured in the Tulkarem refugee camp and buildings sustained damage.

Discussions on a possible ceasefire deal with Lebanon continue without a breakthrough. Until such a deal is struck, it’s expected that negotiations will persist under fire – and that the targeting of Tel Aviv in return for attacks on Beirut will stay in place.

Top EU diplomat visits burns unit in Beirut hospital

Josep Borrell has expressed doubts about Israel’s willingness to reach a ceasefire in comments he delivered after meeting patients who had been burned in Israeli attacks at Beirut’s Geitaoui Hospital.

“Now, once again, we are hearing that a ceasefire is imminent, and as I said, I heard it many times. I heard it in Lebanon, I heard it in Gaza – and it seems that, once again, Israel is putting new conditions for this ceasefire.”

“And I hope that the people who are not willing peace, the people who continue pushing for war, have to be accountable for what they are doing,” Borrell added.

“I don’t see any reason that could justify a single day more of pain.”

_{Borrell and Lebanon’s prime minister, Najib Mikati, met with patients and hospital staff as the EU delivered surgical kits to the hospital}

What’s happening in the ceasefire talks between Israel and Hezbollah?

Several media outlets in Israel and the US say the Israeli government has agreed in principle to a ceasefire in Lebanon. The reports came as the Israeli cabinet met to discuss a truce on Sunday night.

First they came for...
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/martin-niemoeller-first-they-came-for-the-socialists

Israel sanctions Haaretz, says publication hurts Israel

Israel’s government has approved sanctions on the country’s oldest newspaper, Haaretz.

Its Communication Minister says the publication hurts the legitimacy of Israel and its “right to defend itself”.

Israeli air force drops bombs on northern Gaza hospital

Al-Aqsa TV reports Israeli quadcopter drones again attacked the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya as the weekslong military onslaught on northern Gaza continues.

Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked the hospital, its medical staff and patients, and damaged the facility’s generators, fuel tanks, and main oxygen station.

Israeli forces kill child, young man in West Bank raid

Israeli forces have shot and killed a 13-year-old boy and a 20-year-old man in the town of Yabad in the occupied West Bank, according to the Wafa news agency.

The soldiers shot the two Palestinians at close range during a raid that triggered clashes in Yabad, which is located near the city of Jenin, Wafa reported. The soldiers prevented ambulances from reaching the two Palestinians until it was clear they were both dead, Wafa added, citing medical sources and eyewitnesses.

At least 794 people, including 167 children, have been killed in Israeli attacks in the occupied West Bank since October 2023, according to officials.