Just one blurb of news from Gaza :/


At least 7 Palestinians killed by Israeli attack on Gaza’s Nuseirat camp

At least seven people have been killed and many wounded by an Israeli air attack on a house in central Gaza’s Nuseirat camp.

The house was targeted on Tuesday morning, the Palestinian Civil Defence said in a statement, adding that its teams recovered seven bodies and rescued a number of wounded people from the site of the attack.

Anadolu Agency quoted a medical source at al-Awda Hospital as saying that the victims included a woman and three children. The report added that the Israeli strikes severely damaged surrounding buildings as well.

Meanwhile, Quds News Network reported that Palestinian footballer Mohamed Khalifa was among the victims of the attack.

Medical sources have told Al Jazeera that at least 13 people were killed in the coastal enclave today.

On Monday night, one Palestinian was killed and many were wounded by an Israeli air strike that targeted the home of the Meqdad family in Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, north of Gaza City.

In addition, nearly two dozen people were killed on Monday evening in an attack on a building sheltering displaced people in northern Gaza.

“Twenty people from one displaced family from Beit Lahiya and Jabalia, who were making their way to Beit Hanoon city, were killed,” Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir el-Balah, said. “That includes men, women, children, as well as elderly Palestinians.”

Footage shared on social media, and verified by Al Jazeera, shows residents on Tuesday collecting the bodies and lining them up on the street.


In central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah, Israeli naval forces detained six Palestinian fishermen who tried to sail into the Mediterranean Sea earlier on Tuesday, Reuters news agency reported.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 44,758 Palestinians and wounded 105,834 since October 7, 2023.

"Unleashed": Report Details How Israeli Soldiers Brutalize West Bank Palestinians in Hebron

A new report by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem documents a shocking rise in harassment, detention and abuse of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron.

The report includes testimony from 20 Palestinians who were attacked by soldiers in the city center of Hebron between May and August 2024, apparently chosen at random and detained for spurious or arbitrary reasons. The victims describe being punched, kicked and sexually abused, beaten with rifles, clubs or chairs, being whipped with a belt, having foul-smelling liquid poured on them, and, in one case, even being stabbed by Israeli soldiers.

The violence in Hebron is part of a larger Israeli "war against the entire Palestinian people" and directly connected to the genocidal assault on Gaza, says B'Tselem international outreach director Sarit Michaeli. She says that given the dehumanization of Palestinians by top officials in Israel since October 7 of last year, "it's not surprising that Israeli soldiers who listen to Israeli leaders will act in a way that reflects this dehumanization." Michaeli adds that such abuses are often broadcast and celebrated. "None of this is being done in a secretive way. It's all being done in broad daylight."

Ex-Israeli Defense Chief Admits Israel Guilty Of Ethnic Cleansing

Rethinking the UN: Reform or obsolescence? | The Stream

Francesca Albanese provides insights into how existing international frameworks can evolve to meet the challenges of the 21st century and beyond. We explore the evolution of the United Nations and examine international law as well as the role of the International Criminal Court in holding nations accountable.

Netanyahu takes the stand for first time in historic corruption trial

For the first time in Israel's history, its prime minister is on trial. On December 10, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the stand for the first time in his long-running corruption trial. Charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust, Netanyahu will testify three times a week, the court said, despite the Gaza war and possible new threats posed by wider turmoil in the Middle East, including in neighboring Syria. He denies the charges and has pleaded not guilty.

He's talking shit, HTS are enemies of both ISIS and Al-Qaeda, all the locations Israel have struck have been locations nowhere near ISIS cells which are largely in the South of Syria and desert area, Israel has almost entirely struck in West Syria at former Assad forces bases, airfields, etc. Nothing to do with ISIS and Al-Qaeda, Israel is just bombing the shit out of largely abandoned storage facilities because they don't trust HTS with them or they want to make it harder for HTS to fight back when they inevitably ask for their stolen land back.

The only ones fighting ISIS right now are the SDF and America because they're too far away from HTS to even pose a problem, if they were close enough, HTS would kill them. Now that doesn't mean there's no bad factions near Israel because there's dozens but all Israel has said is "armed individuals" and they've used that as an excuse to now steal more Syrian land and extend the buffer zone when they could have instead worked with a clearly desperate for allies, HTS and said "Hey, there's some assholes coming across our border, can we sort them out together?"

Erdogan and Netanyahu couldn't even give the Syrians a day of celebrations before trying to steal land of their own.

Both of them are scum. Both of them are currently the biggest threat to Syrian stability.

Lol...stability. At the moment we have various islamic (terror) groups not yet fighting against each other for the prizes. 

The certain losers in this turmoil are the Syrian women. Whatch the girls being removed from schooling, women forced to wear burkas sooner than later.

Erdogan does his usual thing, while the US hesitates and meanders around, as usual. And Israel actually did the right thing immediately: Take out the Syrian marine and air force within one short day before that stuff goes into the wrong hands (ISIS, by the way, is still there and the first thing the "winners" did was ending the attacks on ISIS). Iran is the obvious loser at the moment and the Russkies are not far behind them.

Let's see how Syria is evolving in the next weeks. I can see fracturing the whole country into tribal regions, solidly fighting each other because only they are the "true muslims". You just can't reorganize the whole country into something reasonable after 50 years of Assad total control.

What I find most annoying is all the political (usually right wing) parties in Europe calling all Syrians to get out of thir countries and return home asap, now that it is safe..

I'll rather have hope instead of being permanently negative about things never improving, it's all too often an attitude amongst Westerns that there's no hope for these Middle-East countries and it's a pretty shitty attitude, a lot of us in the West treat these regions like they're a bunch of savage animals and they'll never stop fighting and there's nothing to be done.

I've repeatedly said that we shouldn't trust the HTS fully but we should give them the opportunity to see if their actions match their words and so far their actions have matched their words, instead of assuming the worst, which could backfire massively, how about we take advantage of the fact that they clearly want our recognition in order to push good change in Syria?

Ironically, I've seen far more Westerners dooming Syria than I see Syrians dooming Syria right now...In fact all I've seen from Syrians is a mixture of hope, celebrations and cautious optimism. I've seen the various religious leaders in Syria who are apparently meant to hate each other and kill each other, instead uniting and forming alliances for now.

Israel did not do the right thing immediately, that is exactly the excuse that Russia uses to justify the invasion of Ukraine, "we need to protect ourselves so we're going to steal some land" already beyond the already stolen land that Israel has taken which the international community doesn't recognise as Israel's and only America does and only under Donald Trump.

HTS and ISIS are strong enemies, it was HTS who killed the ISIS leader, HTS has not "ended the attacks on ISIS" they've just not came into major contact with each other and HTS has a bigger issue right now than dealing with a bunch of unorganised terrorists scattered around Syria, they are far from a significant force nowadays inside of Syria.

Currently HTS is trying to organise a proper form of government for a stable transfer of power, trying to gain international recognition and moderate themselves to achieve that end, while Israel is land grabbing and Türkiye is using their SNA proxies to slaughter the Kurds. Right now it's very much Türkiye and Israel causing the instability while HTS are trying to provide stability.

Now I could be wrong and I've already repeatedly said that I'm not sure I trust HTS but for lack of a better word, we could "manipulate" them into doing the right thing now, they want to be removed from terrorist lists, have sanctions lifted, form proper diplomatic relationships with us? Then we can tell them to show proper moderate policies, equality treatment, in exchange for all of these things.

And Türkiye has already broken America's rule about not crossing the river into Kurdish territory, their SNA proxies with Turkish air support have crossed and are clashing with SDF. Meanwhile Israel has stolen land in the South. HTS is not involved in any of this fighting, although Türkiye backs them so they're not likely to get in Türkiye's way or say anything about it.

Netanyahu: "We want relations with the new regime in Syria, but if Iran is allowed to consolidate its presence, we will respond strongly‎" - Not sure who this is meant to be directed at considering HTS hate Iran and their Hezbollah proxies. Could you know, ask HTS if they need assistance with Iran/Hezbollah instead of forcing your way in.

Israel’s Netanyahu decries ‘absurd’ charges at corruption trial appearance

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has taken the stand for the first time in his long-running corruption trial, rejecting what he described as “absurd” allegations against him.


Appearing at a crowded courtroom in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, the embattled Israeli leader said the charges levelled against him were an “an ocean of absurdity”.

Israel’s longest-serving prime minister faces charges of bribery, fraud and breach of public trust in three separate cases. He has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

He took the stand for about four hours and will resume testifying on Wednesday. His military secretary twice handed him written messages, the first time requiring a recess and underscoring his having to do double duty as prime minister.

He attacked the Israeli media for what he called its leftist stance and accused journalists of having hounded him for years because his policies did not align with a push for a Palestinian state.

“I have been waiting for eight years for this moment to tell the truth,” Netanyahu told the three-judge court. “But I am also a prime minister … I am leading the country through a seven-front war. And I think the two can be done in parallel.”

Netanyahu’s appearance at the trial comes as Israel continues its assault on the besieged Gaza Strip amid soaring tensions in the region.

Critics have accused the prime minister of extending Israel’s 14-month assault on the besieged Gaza Strip to maintain his stay in power. They also say he is blocking a ceasefire deal that could release dozens of Israeli captives held in Gaza.

Outside the court, dozens of protesters gathered, including members of the families of captives held in Gaza. Israel’s offensive on Gaza has killed more than 44,500 people, mostly women and children, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Three cases

Israel’s prime minister is on trial in three separate cases which were filed in 2019 – Case 1000, Case 2000, and Case 4000. Netanyahu stands of accused of accepting luxury gifts from a billionaire Hollywood producer in exchange for assistance with personal business interests.

He is also charged with allegedly seeking regulatory favours for media tycoons in return for favourable news coverage.

His testimony follows years of scandals that have swirled around him and his family, who have gained a reputation of enjoying a lavish lifestyle at Israeli taxpayers’ expense.

Since the trial began in 2020, the court has heard prosecution witnesses in the three cases, including some of Netanyahu’s former aides, who have turned state witnesses. The prosecution has tried to portray the prime minister as an image-obsessed leader who broke the law to improve his public perception.

The testimony, set to take place six hours a day, three days a week for several weeks, will take up a significant amount of Netanyahu’s time, prompting critics to ask if he can capably manage a country embroiled in a war on multiple fronts.

A verdict is not expected until 2026, at the earliest, and Netanyahu will have the option to appeal to the Supreme Court.