Israeli forces carry out raids, arrests across the West Bank

Israeli forces have stormed several areas across the occupied West Bank over recent hours, including:

Palestinian pseudo-3D stealth game Dreams on a Pillow looks set to hit £150K crowdfund target early

"A land full of people being made into a people without land."

A video game charting the true story of the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Arabs in 1948, has secured three-quarters of its crowdfunding goal with over three weeks still to go.

Dreams on a Pillow - a "pseudo-3D stealth adventure game about a land full of people being made into a people without land" - tracks Omm, a young mother from an olive farmers' family in al-Tantura. With Omm, you'll traverse historical events and stories of the Nakba as she attempts an escape towards Lebanon in the North.

The crowdfunding page explains that Palestinian game developer Rasheed Abueideh is "asking for your support and blessing as he sets out on his largest game project so far, which has been a dream of his for almost a decade". To date, it has realised £104.5K of the £155,823 Abueideh seeks to raise and is set to close on 13th January.

"Almost exactly a decade ago, as an Israeli invasion tore through Gaza, Rasheed Abueideh recognised the power of games: they let players step into someone else’s reality," the description explains.

"Not long after Rasheed began development of Liyla & The Shadows of War, a game that brought to life the harsh realities of living under invasion, apartheid, & occupation. The development was fraught with obstacles and rejections: Apple declared the game 'too political', and temporarily banned the game - and while publishing funding in the games industry were aggressively funding games, a Palestinian game was deemed 'too controversial'. Rasheed persevered, and Liyla became a global phenomenon."

Abueideh said Dreams on a Pillow is "proof that games can tell the stories of anyone, anywhere". For more, head on over to the crowdfunding page, where pledges range from £24 to £8000.

https://www.launchgood.com/v4/campaign/dreams_on_a_pillow

I'm glad to help fund this project. It looks quite far along already.

US Dismisses HRW Genocide Report, Defends Stance Despite Amnesty Findings | Dawn News English

The U.S. State Department rejects HRW's genocide claims against Israel in Gaza, citing high legal thresholds. Vedant Patel defends the U.S. stance despite Amnesty International's findings. Journalists Said Arikat and Jennifer Hensler raise pressing questions on accountability.

Syria: Western Hypocrisy, Israeli Expansion & The Fall of Assad

“Western policy has nothing to do with values in the Middle East”

The BRUTAL Things Committed By Every European Colonial Empire

Amnesty accuses Hezbollah of violating international law

Rights organisation Amnesty International has accused Hezbollah of violating international humanitarian law in Israel because of indiscriminate rocket attacks in its war with Israel.

“Amnesty International documented three Hezbollah rocket attacks on civilian areas of Israel in October 2024 that killed eight civilians and injured at least 16 more that must be investigated as war crimes,” the organisation said on Friday.

Hezbollah did not distinguish between combatants and civilians, as required by international humanitarian law, Amnesty continued. In Israel, civilian homes have also been damaged and destroyed due to the “reckless use” of unguided missiles.

Amnesty recently accused Israel of four “unlawful air strikes” on residential buildings in Lebanon, resulting in many deaths, and called for investigations into whether these were war crimes as well.

Amnesty also criticised Israel’s evacuation orders in Lebanon as inadequate and, in some cases, misleading.

Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,800 people and wounded more than 15,800 in Lebanon since October 7, 2023. Hezbollah has killed at least 76 Israeli soldiers and 45 civilians in the same period.

Amnesty has accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Germany calls HRW report on Israeli acts of genocide in Gaza ‘shocking’

Germany says Israel should address allegations made in a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report that it is committing “acts of genocide” in Gaza by deliberately depriving Palestinian civilians there of access to clean water.

“The report joins a series of reports from international human rights organisations. These reports are, of course, shocking,” Federal Foreign Office spokesperson Christian Wagner said at a news briefing in Berlin.

“And I think it is really urgent that the Israeli government, so to speak, deals with these allegations and addresses them.”

‘Utter deprivation and unimaginable suffering’ for Gaza’s children: UNICEF

UNICEF says children in Gaza are “cold, sick and traumatised”, and 96 percent of women and children cannot meet their basic nutritional needs.

“Gaza must be one of the most heartbreaking places on earth for humanitarians. Every small effort to save a child’s life is undone by fierce devastation,” Rosalia Bollen, a UNICEF communication specialist, said in a statement.

“For over 14 months, children have been at the sharp edge of this nightmare, with more than 14,500 children reportedly killed, thousands more injured.”

Bollen added that amid the festive season, when families celebrate “togetherness”, the reality for children in Gaza is “fear, utter deprivation and unimaginable suffering”.

“Winter has now descended on Gaza. Children are cold, wet, and barefoot. Many still wear summer clothes. With cooking gas gone, many are searching through rubble for scraps of plastic to burn,” Bollen said, adding that in November, an average of 65 aid truckloads entered Gaza, compared with 500 truckloads daily before the war.

BBC In CIVIL WAR Over Gaza: Exclusive

Read my exclusive investigation into the BBC's civil war over Palestine coverage here:
https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/bbc-civil-war-gaza-israel-biased-coverage

Owen Jones Investigates The BBC’s Pro-Israel Bias

Reporting by Owen Jones reveals that many within the BBC do not view the organisation's coverage of Israel as impartial.


Top comment:

How the BBC would have reported on the Battle of Britain: "London: Many British people were found dead in their houses this morning. Churchill used citizens as human shields to protect himself. London declared war on Germany on 3rd September 39, and Germany was just defending itself..." Interviewer: "Do you condemn the RAF?"

CNN, reporter retract claims on Syria rescue ; Rifat Jawaid looks at dubious past| Janta Ka Reporter

CNN has been forced to clarify that a report by its chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward on the supposed rescue of a Syrian captive was not true. The man later turned out to be a former intelligence officer of the former Al-Assad regime.

Rifat Jawaid looks at the CNN’s questionable past.

The Cyprus-Gaza maritime aid corridor was a harmful publicity stunt

Since the October 7 Hamas attacks and the start of the latest Israeli military offensive on Gaza, calls for unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid to the Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip have remained unanswered.

As violence continues with no end in sight, the need for humanitarian aid in Gaza has drastically increased.

Aid packages airdropped by Jordan and France provided temporary relief to a limited number of people, but did nothing to ease the suffering of the masses.

In many cases, these initiatives served only to provide political capital for responsible governments, allowing them to appear engaged while avoiding the difficult decisions and actions necessary to make a real difference.

The most high-profile, costly and overall harmful example of such symbolic aid initiatives was the US-led effort to establish a temporary maritime corridor between Cyprus and Gaza to deliver aid. Initially hailed as a vital humanitarian lifeline that would allow aid deliveries to bypass heavily contested land routes and swiftly reach target populations, the project has proven fraught with inefficiencies and complications.

Reportedly, the idea of a maritime aid corridor was first proposed to US President Joe Biden and Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu within the first few weeks of Israel’s all-out assault on Gaza. According to the Reuters news agency, Israel believed this would be an “important step” towards disengaging economically from the enclave. After months of political wrangling, the corridor became operational in May, nearly seven months after the beginning of the conflict.

The launch of the aid operation received much fanfare across the world and was applauded by the US and its European allies alike as an important step to prevent famine in the besieged Strip. The cost of the project was also considerable. The US government allocated about $230m to the operation, deploying 1,000 US soldiers and sailors along with 16 ships. The United Kingdom government is also known to have contributed to the mission.

Despite its high-profile launch and considerable price tag, the humanitarian impact of the maritime corridor has been extremely limited. Due to various issues, the corridor operated effectively for only 20 days before it was officially abandoned.

According to a report by the US Agency for International Development’s Office of the Inspector General, the US expected to deliver enough aid to feed 500,000 people for 90 days. However, in the end, only about 8,100 metric tonnes of aid – equivalent to just one day’s worth of pre-war aid deliveries by truck – was delivered through the corridor during its brief operational window.

In the end, the cost of the maritime corridor was not only financial. This stunt, which at every step put Israel’s interests above the needs of Palestinians, also had a heavy humanitarian cost because it politicised aid and helped Israel undermine with impunity international humanitarian law (IHL), which clearly forbids the blocking of aid to a civilian population.

Not only was the Israeli military, which is the very reason why Palestinians are in need in the first place, given a say in how and where this aid was delivered, but it was also allowed to inspect aid packages in Cyprus before they began their journey to Gaza. All this raised serious questions about the impartiality of the mission. Furthermore, it created the impression that certain actors can disregard IHL, or worse, try to use it to reach their political and military objectives.

The failure of the Cyprus-Gaza maritime corridor and other similarly symbolic initiatives in Gaza do not harm only the Palestinians left without aid. They also harm everyone, everywhere affected by conflict because they undermine the very foundations of humanitarianism and humanitarian law.

The people of Gaza, like everyone affected by conflict everywhere in the world, deserve more than symbolic gestures. They deserve a truly impartial, efficient and unhindered flow of assistance to alleviate their suffering.

Thousands of Syrians celebrate new government in Umayyad Square

Thousands of Syrians, many newly returned to the country after the fall of Assad, celebrated their new government with fireworks and the new flag in Damascus’s Umayyad Square.

US drops $10m reward for arrest of Syria’s new leader after Damascus talks

A senior diplomat has announced that the United States is dropping a $10m reward for the arrest of Syria’s new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, after an uprising that toppled President Bashar al-Assad.

Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf made the announcement on Friday after she and other US officials visited the Syrian capital, Damascus, to hold talks with the new Syrian administration. It was the first visit by US diplomats to Syria since al-Assad was removed from power earlier this month in a lightning offensive, led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group.

The US, however, had designated HTS a “terrorist” organisation in 2018. Al-Sharaa — also known as Abu Mohammed al-Julani — is the group’s leader and was once aligned with al-Qaeda. Leaf said the US decided to drop the reward for al-Sharaa after receiving “positive messages” during Friday’s discussions, including a promise to ensure that “terrorist” groups cannot pose a threat.

“Based on our discussion, I told him we would not be pursuing the Rewards for Justice reward offer that has been in effect for some years,” Leaf told reporters. “I also communicated the importance of inclusion and broad consultation during this time of transition,” she said. “We fully support a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political process that results in an inclusive and representative government which respects the rights of all Syrians, including women, and Syria’s diverse ethnic and religious communities.”

Leaf’s trip to Syria — alongside Daniel Rubinstein, a former special envoy for Syria, and the US government’s chief envoy for hostage affairs, Roger Carstens — came as Western countries have been mulling whether to lift “terrorist” designations for HTS. While the designation comes with a series of sanctions, it does not prohibit US officials from speaking to the group’s members or leaders.

Reporting from Washington, DC, on Friday afternoon, Al Jazeera’s Rosiland Jordan said the US government’s view is that dropping the reward for al-Sharaa’s arrest will allow it to better promote “what the US and other regional partners want to see, which is a productive, safe and secure Syria”.  Jordan added that the move is “not a quid pro quo, per se” — but Washington does want to find out what happened to several Americans who went missing in Syria during the country’s civil war.

That includes journalist Austin Tice, who disappeared near Damascus in 2012. “And so [the US diplomats] wanted to reaffirm those discussions, and HTS has said that it would do all that it could to try to find out where Austin Tice is, so that he can be returned to his family here in the United States,” Jordan said. “Again, not a quid pro quo, but a chance for the Americans and the Syrians to really talk about how they can work together in the weeks and months ahead.”

Meanwhile, on Thursday, the US admitted it had about 2,000 troops in Syria, more than double the previous estimate. The US started sending troops to the country in 2014 with the stated objective of defeating ISIL (ISIS), but US forces remained in Syria after the group’s territorial defeat in 2017.

On Friday, the US military said it carried out an air strike that killed ISIL leader Abu Yusif, also known as Mahmud, in the eastern Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor. The attack took place in an area previously controlled by Syrian government and Russian forces, the Middle East-based Central Command of the US military (CENTCOM) said.

“As stated before, the United States- working with allies and partners in  the region – will not allow ISIS to take advantage of the current situation in Syria and reconstitute,” CENTCOM commander Erik Kurilla said in a statement. “ISIS has the intent to break out of detention the over 8,000 ISIS operatives currently being held in facilities in Syria. We will aggressively target these leaders and operatives, including those trying to conduct operations external to Syria.”

On Thursday, the Pentagon suggested that the US is not planning to withdraw its forces from Syria in the near future, saying that ISIL remains a threat in the country.

You could support HTS to curb ISIL, instead of letting your ally Israel destroy all military infrastructure...

Main events on December 21st