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

SvennoJ 2 days ago

A family of 15 missing under debris after Israeli attack on Gaza City

Overnight in Gaza, an Israeli attack on a tent site in Deir el-Balah killed three people.

And in the northwest of Gaza City, a whole family is still missing and trapped under the rubble. The civil defence is doing its best to remove bodies from under the rubble but has only removed four of the family members.

It’s estimated there are at least 15 family members under the three-story building that was flattened to the ground.

These repeated attacks – deliberate against families – continue to unfold, causing more tragedies among Palestinians.



At least 45,805 Palestinians killed in Gaza

The Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 45,805 Palestinians and injured 109,064 since October 7, 2023, the Palestinian enclave’s Health Ministry said. It said 88 Palestinians were killed and 208 were injured in the past 24 hours.

What would the death toll be if a war of the same scale was launched against other countries?

The Israeli military has killed 88 Palestinians across Gaza in the past 24 hours. An attack on a home in Gaza City killed 13 members of one family, with several people remaining, with many feared trapped under the rubble.

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, the death toll among Palestinians from Israel’s war on Gaza has soared to nearly 46,000. That is almost 2.2 percent of its population.

Let’s compare this figure with hypothetical death tolls in other countries to understand it better. If a war of the same scale were launched against Israel, wiping out 2.2 percent of the population would mean more than 220,000 Israelis being killed.

In Ukraine, the killing of 2.2 percent of the population would mean a death toll of 845,000.

In the US, it would be the equivalent of killing 7.6 million Americans.


Eighth baby freezes to death in Gaza

An eighth baby has died of hypothermia in Gaza as temperatures plummet amid the Israeli genocide.

“I am the mother of Yousef. I lost him. They didn’t give a single moment to feel happy with my baby,” the infant’s mother told Al Jazeera. “He died because of the very cold weather. He slept next to me and in the morning I found him frozen and dead. I don’t know what to say,” she said.

“No one can feel my misery. No one in the world can understand our catastrophic situation. Yousef was fine. He was born healthy … I lost Yousef forever.”



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SvennoJ 2 days ago

Israeli settlers attack Palestinian farmers near Ramallah

The settlers threw stones at agricultural workers in the villages of Abu Fellah and al-Mughayyir, near the city of Ramallah, according to witnesses. They set fire to one Palestinian home on the outskirts of Abu Fellah, the witnesses said.

Amin Abu Aliya, the head of the al-Mughayyir Council, told the Wafa news agency that Israeli forces were deployed at the eastern entrance of the village to provide protection for the settlers during the attack.

The UN’s humanitarian agency (OCHA) said settler violence in the occupied West Bank reached record levels in 2024, with nearly four incidents reported every day.


Israeli forces wound four Palestinians in Nablus

Israeli forces have shot and wounded Palestinians during a raid on the Old City in Nablus in the occupied West Bank, according to the Wafa news agency.

Sources from the Red Crescent told the agency they treated four people for injuries to the abdomen and the hands and transferred them to the hospital.

Israeli forces also arrested two Palestinians on the outskirts of Tulkarem city overnight after raiding and searching their homes, Wafa reported.


Israeli forces carry out more arrests in the occupied West Bank

Here’s a breakdown of the latest arrests, as reported by the Wafa news agency:

  • Two men from the Aqabat Jaber camp, south of Jericho. They were identified as former prisoners Khaled Ezz el-Din and Adi Khalil Saeed Kamal.
  • Five people, including two brothers aged 17 and 18, from the governorate of Hebron.
  • Two people, including 14-year-old Karam Saber al-Shaer from the town of Tuqu, southeast of Bethlehem.
  • One person from the town of Silwad and another 19-year-old from the village of al-Mughayyir.


Israeli forces kill Palestinian south of Jenin

Israeli forces have shot dead a Palestinian identified as Hassan Ali Rabaya in Maithalun, south of Jenin, the Palestinian Ministry of Health reports.

Earlier, we reported that Israeli forces wounded at least one person while raiding the town in the occupied West Bank, prompting confrontations with Palestinian fighters.


Israeli woman stabbed in occupied West Bank: Report

Israel’s public broadcaster reported a suspected stabbing attack on an Israeli woman in the village of Deir Qaddis, west of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

The woman reportedly arrived in the village to wash her car, the broadcaster said.


At least 20 Palestinians detained in occupied West Bank: Report

Israeli forces have detained at least 20 Palestinians, including children and former prisoners, over the past 24 hours, according to a joint statement by the Palestinian Authority’s Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, Wafa news agency reports.

The statement said the detentions took place across several occupied West Bank governorates, including Hebron, Bethlehem, Tulkarem, Jericho, Ramallah, and Jerusalem. Israeli detentions of Palestinians surged following the outbreak of Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023.

Additionally, Israeli forces killed Hassan Ali Rabay’a, 40, in the town of Meithalun in Jenin district, Wafa said. The forces surrounded his home, opened fire on him, detained him, and later announced his death.

His body continues to be held by the Israeli authorities, the news agency said.



SvennoJ 1 day ago

Main events from Januari 5th

  • Hamas and Israel are debating the details of a potential ceasefire agreement, with the Palestinian group telling the Reuters news agency that it has approved a list of 34 captives presented by Israeli authorities to be exchanged as part of the first phase of the truce.
  • Israeli forces continue to pound Gaza, killing at least four Palestinians in an attack on southern Rafah and two others, including a child, in the central Bureij refugee camp.
  • An eighth baby has died of hypothermia in Gaza as temperatures plummet and Israel continues to severely restrict the entry of humanitarian aid, including blankets and winter supplies.
  • In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces killed two people, including a 17-year-old boy, during the storming of the Askar refugee camp near Nablus and launched more raids across the territory, including the city of Qalqilya, and the towns of Qusra and ar-Ram.
  • The Israeli newspaper Haaretz says Israel’s government is preparing to assist soldiers who may face arrest for participating in war crimes in Gaza when they travel abroad. So far, complaints have been filed against Israeli soldiers in South Africa, Sri Lanka, Belgium, France and Brazil.
  • Lebanon says Israel has committed nine more violations of the ceasefire agreement that took effect on November 27, bringing the total number of breaches to 392 incidents.



Hamas provides Reuters with list of 34 captives it agreed to set free

As we’ve been reporting, Netanyahu’s office has denied a Reuters report that said Hamas has approved a list of 34 captives presented by Israel to be exchanged in a possible ceasefire deal.

It issued a statement earlier on Sunday afternoon that said, “As of now, Hamas has not given a list of hostages.”

Reuters is now reporting that a Hamas official has provided the agency with a copy of the list showing the names of 34 hostages the Palestinian group has agreed to set free in the first phase of a possible ceasefire deal with Israel.

 
Hamas says it needs a week of calm to identify which captives are alive: Report

The AFP news agency says a Hamas official has also told the agency that the group “has agreed to release 34 Israeli prisoners from a list presented by Israel as part of the first phase of a prisoner exchange deal”.

The anonymous official told the AFP that the initial swap would include all the women, children, elderly people and sick captives still held in Gaza.

But Hamas needed time to determine their condition, he said.

“Hamas has agreed to release the 34 prisoners, whether alive or dead,” the official said. “However, the group needs a week of calm to communicate with the captors and identify those who are alive and those who are dead.”



SvennoJ 1 day ago

Gaza reoccupation will be ‘recipe’ for ‘regionwide radicalism’

While talks indicate a ceasefire may be close in Gaza, whether both parties are seeing eye to eye on a potential deal is still uncertain, according to Galip Dalay, a nonresident senior fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs.

“For many on the Israeli side, [a ceasefire] has been reduced to hostage release … whereas for the Hamas side, for the Palestinian side, it’s not only about the hostage release … it’s about ending the war, it’s about withdrawal from Gaza,” Dalay told Al Jazeera, speaking from Istanbul, Turkiye.

“And unless there’s real pressure from the United States, unfortunately, we cannot be sure what is going to happen here … whether Trump will make a difference, that we don’t know yet,” he added.

As the war rages on, there is also less chance that more captives will come out alive, Dalay said. “The quicker the deal is done, the better for the hostages, but also for the Gazan people,” the analyst said.

However, a ceasefire should not evolve into ideas about a reoccupation of Gaza, including the construction of illegal Israeli settlements there, as some ministers have been touting, Dalay warned.

“That will be a recipe for catastrophe, for [the] next catastrophe, and that will be a recipe for regionwide radicalism.”

Video shows Israeli forces infiltrating West Bank camp in an ambulance



The footage from a surveillance camera, verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad agency, shows the moment Israeli special forces infiltrated the Balata refugee camp using an ambulance on December 19.

The raid resulted in the death of two Palestinians, including a woman.

Nicola Perugini, a professor of international relations at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, noted the Israeli move came as its military accuses Hamas of using medical facilities for military purposes in Gaza, something UN officials say it has offered scant evidence for.

“The Israeli army hiding in an ambulance to carry out an operation in Balata refugee camp, Nablus. The same army that destroyed Gaza’s hospitals based on the fabricated accusation that they are a network of military command centres,” Perugini said in a post on X.

Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for Palestine, also slammed the Israeli actions.

“Misusing the protected status of medical vehicles and personnel is a flagrant violation of the Geneva Conventions and may constitute a crime of perfidy. By systemically disregarding IHL [international humanitarian law], Israel has rendered the legal frameworks meant to protect civilians, completely meaningless,” she wrote on X.



SvennoJ 1 day ago

Netanyahu worried prisoner exchange with Hamas could topple his gov’t

In Israel, people are frustrated that captives remain in Gaza and surprised that, in recent weeks, Israeli military activity there has intensified, according to Alon Liel, the former director general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry.

“Generally speaking, Israelis are quite surprised that the intensity of the military activity is growing. I think the general feeling here was a month or two ago that [the war] will fade away and slow down, but it is not,” Liel told Al Jazeera, speaking from Tel Aviv.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, still faces the problems of looking like he has no victory in the war, and that any prisoner exchange with Hamas could topple him, he added.

“Any exchange will involve the release of many prisoners we have in our jails, and might – and probably will – topple his government,” Liel said.

“So he’s trying to manoeuvre and trying to find the point in time in which we will not be seeing the Hamas people and their supporters dancing in Gaza when they get the prisoners back and describing the result as a victory.”


Families of Israeli captives slam PM for backing partial ceasefire deal: Report

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz is reporting that the relatives of Israeli captives have criticised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for promoting a partial ceasefire proposal that would secure the release of only some of the Israeli captives held in the Gaza Strip.

The paper said statements were made at a press conference hosted by the Hostage and Missing Families Forum.

Haaretz quoted Yaron Or, the father of 30-year-old Avinatan Or, saying, “My son is being left behind. That’s what the prime minister decided. He decided that it was better not to decide”.

“These are just a few living hostages. Hamas decided in advance to free them, and not for free… I say to all of Israel, after this little deal, there won’t be another one,” he is quoted as saying.


Trump reiterates threat on release of Gaza captives

The US president-elect has renewed his earlier threat that there will be “hell to pay” if the captives held by Hamas in Gaza are not released by the time he is in office in about two weeks.

Asked what he meant by the previous threat during a radio interview with a conservative radio talk show host, Donald Trump said: “Exactly what it says – if those hostages aren’t released by the time I get to office, there will be hell to pay.”

Trump said he does not believe he has to get into details, but added that his response would not consist of saying “don’t” to enemies, as he accused outgoing President Joe Biden of repeatedly doing since the start of the war on Gaza. Trump also said “I’m with Israel” but “also for peace”.

A group of families of Israeli captives held a press conference in Tel Aviv earlier today, sending a direct message to Trump in English. “Please don’t leave any hostage behind, please make sure all hostages are coming back home,” they said.


Young Israelis ‘say we don’t want peace’, says former Israeli diplomat

Alon Liel, a former director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, spoke to Al Jazeera about the attitude of younger generations in Israel towards the war on Gaza. “They’re accepting the fact that there is no alternative to fighting, and this is the majority, especially the young people today,” he said.

He added that as part of the older generation in Israel, he can remember a time when even the right wing used to say they wanted peace.

“Now young people … say we don’t want peace. We will not benefit from peace,” he noted.

Liel said that he believes it is “a very dangerous attitude that is developing” and there needs to be “a very fundamental change in the thinking of Israel, and maybe a fundamental change in the attitude of the international community to the conflict, too”.



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SvennoJ 1 day ago

Bodies recovered after latest Israeli attack on southern Lebanon

The Lebanese Civil Defence reports that its emergency responders have so far recovered the bodies of seven people after the latest Israeli attack on the town of Khiam, which took place this morning.

It had earlier said at least five bodies had been recovered, with a search operation ongoing after the attack on the town located near the border with Israel.

Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement in southern Lebanon continue as Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that an Israeli tank targeted a house on the outskirts of the town of Aitaroun in the Bint Jbeil district with a shell.


Lebanese army deploys in Naqoura as ceasefire committee meets

The Lebanese army says in a statement that its units have finished stationing around Naqoura-Tyre in coordination with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). Naquoura is in the far south of Lebanon on its border with Israel.

This came amid a meeting of the five-member committee that supervises the ceasefire agreement reached between Hezbollah and Israel. The senior adviser to US President Joe Biden, Amos Hochstein, led Washington’s delegation in the Ras an-Naqoura meeting, the army said.

The Lebanese army added that Israeli military forces withdrew from the area, and also released images of its forces joined by UN peacekeepers.

This comes amid ongoing violations of the ceasefire agreement by Israel, which has been launching deadly attacks and demolishing homes in southern Lebanon.

Yemen’s Houthis claim to thwart British, Saudi intelligence operation

The Yemeni group has released videos that it says show how it identified and arrested spies working on behalf of the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia.

The security services of the Houthis released a statement that said British and Saudi intelligence “sought to attract, recruit and train espionage elements for the purpose of carrying out intelligence activities targeting the country’s strategic capabilities”.

This purported effort was mostly focused around Houthi missile and drone manufacturing and launch sites, it said, along with monitoring of homes and movement of a number of Yemeni leaders amid Israeli threats of assassination against them.

“The information obtained confirmed that British intelligence officers used Saudi territory as a centre for managing and implementing intelligence activities,” the group said, also airing blurred-out videos of forced confessions from alleged suspects.



Translation: Security services reveal some scenes of the moment of arrest of British and Saudi intelligence spies.



SvennoJ 1 day ago

Israel continues to attack al-Awda, the last-remaining hospital in North Gaza

Relief International says al-Awda Hospital in North Gaza has become the last partially functioning medical facility in North Gaza after heavy bombardment of the nearby Indonesian Hospital rendered services there “impossible”.

Al-Awda, however, is also under an Israeli evacuation order and the hospital has come under attack in the past two days, including assaults that destroyed its fuel tank and its last generator, the aid group said.

Relief International, which provides support to al-Awda, said there are currently 63 staff and 34 patients inside the hospital.

“The facility has no electricity but continues to receive patients, providing the best possible treatment with no fuel, and a severe shortage of medication and medical supplies. Staff are terrified and awaiting clearance for the safe evacuation of patients to Gaza city,” it added.

The group’s CEO, Craig Redmond, called on Israel to end the targeting of civilians, health staff and health infrastructure.

“We are very distressed about the situation facing patients and health staff at Al Awda’s hospital in Jabalia. Right now, it is critical that they are granted safe passage to evacuate and leave the facility,” he said.

Israel has defended its raids on Gaza’s hospitals, claiming Palestinian armed groups use them for military purposes, but the UN’s human rights chief, Volker Turk, told the Security Council last week that the Israeli military has not provided evidence to back that claim.


Israel intensifies attacks on Gaza amid truce talks

Israeli forces have killed at least 194 people across Gaza in the period between Thursday and Saturday, many of them in residential areas. Children and babies are among the wounded.

The surge came as Israel and Hamas continued indirect negotiations in the Qatari capital, Doha.

The Israeli military said it had targeted more than a hundred Hamas sites.


Palestinians search for casualties at the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Gaza City, January 5

Satellite images show Israeli forces intensifying demolitions in south Gaza

Satellite images, obtained by Al Jazeera’s Sanad Agency, show that the Israeli military has stepped up the destruction of homes and agricultural lands in the al-Mawasi area in southern Gaza.

The images, taken between December 9 and January 1, show widespread demolition of buildings and structures and bulldozing of land and greenhouses in the area, which is located the Tal as-Sultan neighborhood, west of the city of Rafah.

The destruction carried out by the Israeli army extended 2.2km (1.4 miles) into the Gaza Strip from the Egyptian border, Sanad said.

The area, known as “Rafah Mawasi”, was crowded with displaced people in the early months of last year, before Israeli forces launched a ground operation in Rafah and forced hundreds of thousands of displaced people to move to the al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis and Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.



SvennoJ 1 day ago

Gaza death toll rises to 45,854: Health Ministry

Gaza’s Health Ministry reports that a total of 45,854 Palestinians have been killed and 109,139 people have been injured in Israel’s genocide since October 7, 2023. It said Israeli forces committed three “massacres” in Gaza within 24 hours, killing 48 people and injuring 75 others who arrived at hospitals, our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic reported.


WFP condemns Israeli attack on its convoy in Gaza

The United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) says that Israeli forces opened fire on its convoy in Gaza yesterday in an incident it described as “horrifying”.

The agency said that its convoy of three vehicles carrying eight staff members was struck by 16 bullets near the Wadi Gaza checkpoint, causing no injuries. The convoy was clearly marked and had received prior security clearances from Israeli authorities, a WFP statement said.

The Israeli army has attacked aid convoys in the Gaza Strip numerous times, causing deaths. The most recent incident came last month, when an attack on Palestinian security guards escorting an aid shipment killed at least 12 people and injured dozens.


Israeli bombing in Nuseirat refugee camp injures 40

More than 40 Palestinians have been injured after an Israeli drone bombed a school housing displaced people in the north of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic report citing medical sources.

Meanwhile, another Al Jazeera correspondent reports there have been casualties in an Israeli bombing on the al-Mawasi area, which houses displaced people to the west of the city of Khan Younis.


Children among casualties of Israeli attack on al-Mawasi

We reported earlier how the Israeli military again bombed the so-called “humanitarian zone” near Khan Younis.

Videos released by activists and local platforms on social media, which were verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad agency, showed children comprised most of the people injured in the attack.

The wounded arrived at Nasser Hospital for treatment, with local sources reporting that the bombing of al-Mawasi led to the killing of a Palestinian woman.



SvennoJ 1 day ago

Three killed in bus shooting in West Bank: Report

Three people have been killed in a bus shooting in the northern occupied West Bank, Reuters news agency reports. Israeli medics say gunmen opened fire on the bus, according to the report.


Seven others wounded in occupied West Bank bus shooting

Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said at least seven others were wounded in the attack, which occurred near the Palestinian village of Funduq on one of the main roads crossing the occupied West Bank, according to The Associated Press. The identities of the attacker and those killed are not immediately known.

Citing Magen David Adom, The Times of Israel reported that two of the victims – women aged about 60 – are in critical condition. The five other victims are moderately wounded.

Israeli forces said in a statement on Telegram that gunmen opened fire towards a civilian bus and vehicles adjacent to Funduq. It said the army has set up roadblocks and is encircling several towns in the area.



Oh look, the BBC suddenly woke up.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdjgv1r4x81o

Doesn't matter how many Palestinians get killed by Settlers, only Israeli deaths are news.


Israeli forces detain factory workers over West Bank bus attack

Israeli forces have detained a number of factory workers in the village of Imatin, east of Qalqilya in the occupied West Bank, our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic report.

This comes after three people were killed and seven wounded in a shooting attack on vehicles, including a passenger bus, near a village in the occupied West Bank.

Meanwhile, Israeli settlers have attacked Palestinian vehicles near the village of Burin, south of Nablus, our colleagues report.


Israeli rescuers and security forces at the site of an attack near the village of Funduq in the occupied West Bank



SvennoJ 1 day ago

‘Nablus and Jenin should look like Jabalia’, Israeli minister says

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says “[the village of] Funduq, Nablus and Jenin should look like Jabalia, so that Kfar Saba does not become Kfar Aza, God forbid”, referring to a town in central Israel and a community near Gaza that was affected in the October 7, 2023 attacks.

He made the comments on X following a bus shooting attack earlier today that killed three people near the Palestinian village of Funduq in the occupied West Bank.

Smotrich demanded Netanyahu should call an urgent cabinet meeting today “to discuss a change in perception and the true eradication of terrorism in Judea and Samaria [the occupied West Bank]”.


Israel plans ‘permanent military presence’ after West Bank shooting

Israel’s national broadcaster Kan reports the Israeli military will be immediately accelerating work to build a bypass road around the Palestinian village of Funduq in the occupied West Bank.

This will happen starting tomorrow [Tuesday], and there will be a “permanent military presence along the route” in the coming weeks, it cited an unnamed military source as saying.

Israeli forces also set up barriers and disrupted traffic on main roads in Nablus and conducted raids in the area after this morning’s shooting, which killed three Israelis in the occupied West Bank.

Translation: The occupation forces continue to storm the village of Immatin, east of Qalqilya, raid a school and several homes, conduct searches, and close the entrances to the village after the Funduq operation.


Israeli military keeps tight hold over West Bank checkpoints after shooting

The military has set up new checkpoints and held many it was already running across the occupied West Bank after the shooting attack this morning that killed three Israelis. Israeli soldiers abruptly set up two checkpoints, blocking routes that connected key areas northeast of Nablus.

Local sources told the Wafa news agency that dozens of vehicles were searched, causing severe traffic jams. Israeli forces also obstructed an ambulance. Military measures were reportedly tightened at the Tayasir checkpoint east of Tubas, and soldiers closed one of the main roads leading into Tulkarem.



Translation: The occupation forces continue to close the Jabara Road – one of the entrances to Tulkarem – since the morning hours after the shooting attack in the village of Funduq.


Israeli military launches huge manhunt after West Bank bus shooting

The Israeli military has released initial findings of a probe into the incident, saying at least three Israelis were killed and eight others injured.

They’re saying that three gunmen opened fire, not just at this bus, but actually at two other cars, which is where those Israelis were killed. One has been identified as a police officer from another illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank.

This happened near an illegal settlement on Route 55, which connects to the Palestinian city of Nablus.

We’ve heard from some Israeli officials, including the prime minister, who have said that Israel will go to great lengths to pursue the suspects and bring them to justice. That is why the Israeli military is conducting a huge manhunt in the area, closing off several roads, villages and other areas.

We also heard from the National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has repeated his call to sever security cooperation with the Palestinian Authority and put more checkpoints across the occupied Palestinian territory.

He also repeated his remarks that the right of life for settlers in the occupied West Bank trumps the freedom of movement for Palestinians.