Martin Indyk, who was Washington’s ambassador to Israel under the Clinton administration, has warned that Israel risks pushing its closest ally past its “limit” and jeopardising its weapons supplies if it proceeds with a planned invasion of Rafah.

“Israel should understand that the Biden administration’s level of frustration about mishandling of the humanitarian situation in Gaza has reached the limit,” Indyk was quoted as saying in The Washington Post.

“If Israel launches an offensive in Rafah without adequately protecting the displaced civilian population, it may precipitate an unprecedented crisis in US-Israel relations, even involving arms supplies.”

Minnesota’s ‘stunning’ uncommitted vote reveals enduring problem for Biden

The concept behind the Michigan protest was simple: Cast a vote for the “uncommitted” option in the Democratic primary, instead of supporting US President Joe Biden. The idea, activists say, is to send a message that Democratic voters will not tolerate Biden’s unequivocal support for Israel’s war in Gaza. And that message appears to be gaining steam.

Last week, over 101,000 Michigan residents cast “uncommitted” ballots in the Democratic primary, for around 13 percent of the vote. This week, on Super Tuesday, Minnesota saw nearly 19 percent of its primary votes go to the “uncommitted” category – an even higher ratio of voters, despite the last-minute nature of the state’s protest.

The results mean that 11 Minnesota delegates, alongside two from Michigan, will represent the protest at the Democratic National Convention in August. They also show the protest movement against Biden extends beyond Arab and Muslim voters, analysts say.


White House seeks list of all upcoming Israel arms shipments

The White House has tasked the State Department and the Pentagon with compiling a roster of pending arms transfers to Israel, reports Axios, citing four US officials.

The officials said the request was not an indication that Biden is considering suspending or conditioning Israeli weapons shipments in the near future. However, it does come as Biden faces growing scrutiny for his staunch backing of Israel — and amid US fears that Netanyahu cannot be deterred from a likely bloody invasion into Rafah.

Earlier this week, over 30 Democrats in the House of Representatives penned a letter to Biden stating that Israel’s expected invasion of Rafah would likely disqualify it from US aid because Israel has not provided “credible assurances” it would respect international humanitarian law.

Former US Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk, in comments to the Washington Post today, said: “If Israel launches an offensive in Rafah without adequately protecting the displaced civilian population, it may precipitate an unprecedented crisis in US-Israel relations, even involving arms supplies.”


Israel’s evacuation orders in Gaza illegal: UN special rapporteur

On October 13, an Israeli tank crew fired shells at a clearly marked group of journalists near the Lebanese border, killing one Reuters reporter and injuring six others, including two Al Jazeera reporters.

An analysis by the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), commissioned by Reuters, has found that the journalists were also targeted with machineguns, likely fired by the same Israeli forces. “It is considered a likely scenario that a Merkava tank, after firing two tank rounds, also used its machine gun against the location of the journalists,” TNO’s report said.

“The latter cannot be concluded with certainty as the direction and exact distance of [the machinegun] fire could not be established.”

AFP Global News Director Phil Chetwynd, reacting to the finding, said: “If reports of sustained machine gun fire are confirmed, this would add more weight to the theory this was a targeted and deliberate attack.”

_{A journalist’s car burns at the site where Reuters videojournalist Issam Abdallah was killed and six others were injured in Alma ash-Shaab, southern Lebanon, October 13, 2023}

At least 110 Palestinian prisoners are being held in overcrowded cells at the Etzion detention centre in the southern occupied West Bank. The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs pointed out that food was insufficient and of poor quality, in addition to the medical negligence of sick prisoners and a significant shortage of clothes.

Prisoners have had to alternate sleeping times due to the lack of beds. Tighter security measures and continuous attempts at provocation and extortion were carried out by soldiers against the prisoners, it reported.

Lawyer Jacqueline al-Fararja was recently able to visit 33 prisoners, most of whom were beaten up, abused and humiliated before being arrested. She said marks of torture were visible all over the prisoners’ bodies.

The provisional measures issued on January 26 by the ICJ ordering Israel to facilitate the flow of aid in Gaza to avert the possibility of genocide are not being fulfilled, a report by Refugees International has found, despite Israel’s claims to the contrary.

Claim: In its defence to the ICJ, Israel argued it has actively eliminated bottlenecks and improved the entrance and distribution of aid in Gaza.

The report revealed that Israeli authorities have “erected unnecessary hurdles, complicated logistical processes, and an unpredictable vetting system, rendering the inspection regime overwhelmingly burdensome with layers of bureaucracy and inspection and limited working hours”.

Claim: Israel claimed that it expanded capacity for aid delivery to Gaza.

The average number of trucks delivered in February fell by 50 percent compared with the previous month, according to UN data cited in the report. Critical crossings like the northern Erez and Al-Muntar [known as Karni to Israelis] remain closed, impeding access to the north of Gaza.

Claim: Israel argued that it facilitated access to water, medical supplies and evacuations, fuel delivery and logistics.

While Israel has allowed a “very limited flow of aid to enter the territory, the report said this must be assessed in the full context of a clear pattern of wider obstruction of relief deliveries to Gaza, and its conduct of military operations that systematically obstruct effective humanitarian action within Gaza”.

South Africa’s ICJ request is ‘proper under international law’

Israel has accused South Africa of acting “as the legal arm of Hamas” after it again petitioned the ICJ to take measures against Israel. “South Africa continues to act as the legal arm of Hamas in an attempt to undermine Israel’s inherent right to defend itself and its citizens, and to release all of the hostages,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry said.

“The repeated requests for provisional measures made by South Africa in order to assist Hamas are yet another cynical exploitation of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, which has already twice rejected the baseless attempts to deny Israel its right and obligation of self-defence,” it said.

Clayson Monyela, a spokesperson for South Africa’s Department of International Relations & Cooperation, dismissed the accusations. “South Africa has spelled out its concerns in its application to the ICJ. They [Israel] know what they are doing. It is absurd to keep saying that South Africa is acting on behalf of Hamas,” Monyela said.

South Africa on Wednesday asked the top UN court to order further steps against Israel, after it “breached” provisional measures issued on January 26.

Five months into Israel’s war on Gaza, the Israeli government has “lost all credibility” in its claims to protect civilians in the besieged territory, a UN human rights expert has said, appealing for an urgent end to the “dehumanisation of displaced Palestinians”.

Paula Gaviria Betancur, the UN special rapporteur on the rights of internally displaced persons (IDPs), said Israel has used its evacuation orders to forcibly transfer and confine civilians in “unliveable conditions”, and that any assault on Gaza’s Rafah city, where some 1.4 million Palestinians are sheltering, would force people to flee to “conditions of certain death”.

“Although Rafah has already come under periodic attack by Israeli forces, a full-scale ground assault would lead to unimaginable suffering,” Gaviria Betancur said. “Any evacuation order imposed on Rafah under the current conditions, with the rest of Gaza lying in ruins, would be in flagrant violation of international humanitarian and human rights law, forcing people to flee to conditions of certain death – deprived of food, water, healthcare and shelter,” the expert said.

Paula Gaviria Betancur said Israel has obstructed and weaponised humanitarian aid, despite a binding order by the International Court of Justice to take immediate steps to permit the delivery of basic services and humanitarian aid to Gaza as part of measures required to prevent the commission of genocide.

Instead of following the court’s order, Gaviria Betancur said, Israel launched a campaign to discredit and defund the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), “the backbone of the humanitarian response in Gaza”.

Israel also continued to attack aid convoys and health facilities, and assaulted aid seekers themselves, she said, noting that hundreds were reportedly “massacred and injured” during attacks on civilians queueing for food aid on February 29 and March 1.

“I am horrified by the depravity of killing civilians while they are at their most vulnerable and seeking basic assistance. These constitute atrocity crimes of the highest order,” she said.


_{Israel’s claim on ‘flour massacre’ contradicts evidence: Amnesty official}

World must ‘abandon fiction’ Israel will respect international law, says UN expert

Paula Gaviria Betancur ended her statement by noting that a “staggering” five percent of Gaza’s population has been killed and wounded in Israeli attacks, while more than 75 percent have been displaced.

She urged the international community to remember the humanity of these victims, and said the world “must abandon the fiction that Israel will respect the principles of international humanitarian and human rights law in its military operations”.

“An immediate and permanent ceasefire, coupled with meaningful measures to document and ensure accountability for atrocities as well as secure the fundamental rights of Palestinians in Gaza, is the only path forward for the sake of our shared humanity,” she said.

UNRWA plans to use an Israeli military road bordering Gaza to test its suitability for delivering humanitarian aid to northern parts of the enclave, according to an official. Jamie McGoldrick, the UN aid coordinator for Palestinian territories, said the UN has been pushing the Israeli military for weeks to use the road near the Gaza fence. Israel has become more cooperative following an incident in which its forces opened fire on Palestinian aid seekers in Gaza City, killing more than 100 people, he said.

“Since the incident last week, I think Israel saw quite clearly how difficult it is to deliver assistance,” McGoldrick said, adding that the UN had seen “much more cooperation from Israel as a result of that realisation”.

Aid to northern Gaza is currently delivered through Rafah in southern Gaza and driven through the besieged Palestinian territory. The proposed new route would see aid trucks escorted through Israeli territory, avoiding fighting and insecurity.

The Israeli government essentially approving 3,500 housing units in three different illegal settlements across the occupied West Bank. This is the first time since the beginning of the war on October 7 that we have seen approvals for housing units in illegal settlements. Leading up to the war as well, in occupied East Jerusalem, 3,700 units in illegal settlements were approved.

This development comes after Israel’s finance minister and known ultra-nationalist Bezalel Smotrich said that there would be illegal settlement expansions in retaliation for a shooting that took place at one of these settlements in February.

It is worth mentioning that he is not just the country’s finance minister. He also holds a role within Israel’s Defence Ministry. So he is in charge of some civil affairs within the occupied West Bank and primarily those that oversee and approve settlement housing units. They can be approved at his demand.

Additionally, in comments from Smotrich that were made this morning, he said that in the last year, there have been 18,515 housing units in illegal settlements approved. So we can expect construction in the occupied West Bank to begin on those three illegal settlements totalling 3,500 housing units.

Israel’s illegal West Bank settlement plans face global condemnation

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/7/israels-illegal-west-bank-settlement-plans-face-global-condemnation

Qatar joins global condemnation of planned Israeli settlement expansion

Canada instead protects the illegal sale of occupied land, WTF.

A court in Canada’s Quebec province has issued a temporary ban on pro-Palestinian protests within 50 metres of a synagogue and four other Jewish community buildings in the city of Montreal, according to media reports.

The injunction, which took effect for 10 days starting on Tuesday, came after the Montreal chapter of Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) held a protest against an Israeli real estate event at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue. The IJV, one of the four groups that served the injunction, said the event was marketing property in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Sarah Boivin, a member of IJV, described the ban as “completely ridiculous”. She told CTV News, “It is pretending like these protests are against Jewish people while the Israeli military has just massacred 30,000 Palestinians. It’s completely devoid of context and they’re completely ignoring the fact that we as Jews are co-organising these demonstrations.”

The other groups served the injunction were Montreal4Palestine, Palestine Youth Movement Montreal and Alliance4Palestine, according to CBC News.

The Israeli army has raided dozens of homes in the West Bank and detained 20 Palestinians, including two women – journalist Bushra al-Taweel and activist Sumood Muteer. Quoting witness accounts, Quds News Network reported that al-Taweel was beaten up by an officer who insulted her before she was arrested.

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said 57 journalists have been detained since October 7, with 38 of them still in jail. The organisation added that 22 of them were detained without charge. Since October 7, at least 424 Palestinians, including 113 minors, three women and 12 prisoners in Israeli custody, have been killed in the West Bank alone.

At least 7,450 Palestinians have been detained since the start of the war in Gaza.

Israel examined 400 bodies when it stormed the health facility in southern Gaza last month. None of the bodies it examined was of Israeli captives, reports Israel’s public broadcaster Kan.

Almost 130 Israeli captives remain unaccounted for in Gaza, but about 30 of them are believed to have been killed.

Hamas claims many captives have been killed by Israeli bombardment and says it cannot establish a full account of those who remain alive until Israeli military attacks cease.

‘We were telling them we surrender’: Gaza girl recounts Israeli bulldozer attack

There’s been an ongoing intense bombing campaign overnight and in early hours of this morning with constant artillery shelling of the eastern part of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military seems to be disregarding global pressure and continuing with its plan of establishing a buffer zone.

We were told by residents in eastern part of Rafah that the vast majority of their homes were destroyed or severely damaged. Their agricultural lands and farms have been razed all for the establishment of this Israeli buffer zone.

Air strikes seem to be concentrated these days on the central and eastern parts of Gaza. In Deir el-Balah and Nuseirat, 17 people were killed, mostly from displaced families from northern Gaza who were told at the time to evacuate to avoid being bombed.

Last night, at least five people were killed as they were waiting for aid at Nabulsi Roundabout, the same location where the flour atrocity took place earlier.

Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes buried in mass grave in Rafah

Thousands of children are on their own in Gaza

A group of top UN experts say in a statement that “international crimes continue to take place on a daily basis in the Gaza Strip” by the Israeli military. The experts, including UN special rapporteurs on extrajudicial executions and torture, said the October 7 attack by armed Palestinians may have seen actions amounting to enforced disappearances and ill-treatment of captives.

They also said Israel’s actions since have resulted in the “deaths of tens of thousands of protected persons, including a large number of children, women and the elderly, which may amount to grave breaches of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, including war crimes and crimes against humanity”.

Their statement welcomed provisional rulings by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for Israel to stop acts constituting genocide, but warned that “much more needs to be urgently done in order to effectively and measurably stop any further carnage in Gaza”.

Gaza facts that ‘should keep us all awake at night’: UN

UN says most aid missions into northern Gaza blocked by Israel

Veteran aid worker says Gaza crisis ‘worst’ of his career

5,160 tons, which are over 11,000,000 pounds of humanitarian aid, were transferred to the Gaza Strip yesterday alone.
There are no limits to the amount of humanitarian aid that can enter Gaza.
The full figures can be found on our website: https://t.co/mjOUmOnFjc pic.twitter.com/GSFAuCSNvr

— COGAT (@cogatonline) March 7, 2024

More daily gaslighting and lies. However it shows it's only 18.5 tons average per truck, or 20 tons avg for Wednesday.
If they can get 257 trucks in in a day, why is it under 50 on most days. And it still needs to be 500 a day at least.

Overall avg, 152 days, 104 per day. 1/5th of what's needed to maintain 2.3 million people in Gaza.

Israel ‘consistently, groundlessly’ blocked Gaza aid operations

UN’s special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Tor Wennesland, says all settlements are “illegal under international law” and they were a “driver of conflict” in the occupied West Bank, he said in a statement.

“I urge Israel to cease all settlement activity [and] refrain from provocative actions.”

Earlier we reported Hamas’s delegation team had left Cairo where discussions on a new truce deal with Israel were ongoing. Husam Badran, a member of Hamas’s political bureau has just spoken to Al Jazeera on the future of the ceasefire talks.

Here are his translated comments:

•  The Hamas delegation has left Cairo to meet with the leaders of Hamas for more consultations. It is clear that Netanyahu and the Israeli government were insisting on playing with all the parties.
• They are not responding to the main demands not only of Hamas but also of the Palestinian people, which include reaching a ceasefire, allowing displaced people to go back to northern Gaza to their homes, allowing humanitarian aid to go freely without conditions and the reconstruction of Gaza after the war.
• The US government is not an impartial and fair mediator. The US is supporting Netanyahu politically, militarily, and financially.
• What is said by the US is all mere statements without a real will to stop the war or to reach an agreement, even a temporary agreement. The US must put pressure on the Israelis.

Jack Lew, the US ambassador to Israel, has commented on the talks for a truce in Gaza saying they have not yet “broken down”. “The differences are being narrowed. It’s not yet an agreement. Everyone’s looking towards Ramadan, which is coming close,” he said at a conference in Tel Aviv, referring to the Muslim holy month starting next week.

“I can’t tell you that it will be successful, but it is not yet the case that it is broken down,” Lew added.

As we reported earlier, Hamas said its delegation had left Egypt but talks on a truce will continue next week. The Palestinian group also said Israel has “thwarted” mediators’ attempts to broker a deal before Ramadan.

The latest report by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) details “critical food shortages” in markets across the Gaza Strip, some of which have resorted to reselling humanitarian assistance. “Due to the insufficient flow of goods, more than half of shops surveyed between February 7 and 15 in Deir el-Balah and Rafah reported a decrease in food stocks, and a notable portion indicated a complete depletion of their stocks,” it said.

Food staples such as eggs, dairy products, vegetable oil, vegetables and rice are in shortage, and prices are surging at an exponential rate after the start of the war, with the annual rate of food inflation in Gaza reaching 118 percent in January 2024. “In addition, the [consumer price index] for food has risen by nearly 105 percent since the onset of hostilities, significantly diminishing people’s purchasing power,” the UN said.

If you kill all the civil police (cause they're 'Hamas') the void will be filled

Groups of masked and armed men, called the People’s Protection Committee, are patrolling Rafah, on the lookout for black market pricing.

The commander of the US army’s Central Command (CENTCOM) says its area of operations – the Middle East – is facing a situation the likes of which have not been seen for decades.

“Today, the central region faces its most volatile security situation in the past half-century. This is not the same central region as last year,” said General Michael Kurilla, testifying today before the Senate Armed Services Committee. “The convergence of crisis and competition make [the CENTCOM area of operations] the most likely region to produce threats against the US homeland, trigger a regional conflict and derail the national defence strategy.”

Kurilla said Iran has “exploited what they saw as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reshape the Middle East” in the Gaza war, using the “axis of resistance” it backs across the region. He said the Iran-aligned network of political and armed groups in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon boasts “advanced, sophisticated weaponry”.

Benjamin Netanyahu says IsraeI will ignore international pressure and push on with its planned offensive on Rafah – Gaza’s southernmost town, which is full of displaced people living in crowded and unsanitary conditions.

“There is international pressure and it’s growing, but particularly when the international pressure rises, we must close ranks, we need to stand together against the attempts to stop the war,” the Israeli prime minister said.

The military would operate against Hamas all through the Gaza Strip, he said, “including Rafah, the last Hamas stronghold”. “Whoever tells us not to act in Rafah is telling us to lose the war and that will not happen.” he told a soldiers’ graduation ceremony at a military training base.

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares announces the donation at a joint news conference in Madrid with the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, who called for the opening of land border crossings into Gaza to allow aid in.

Albares said the 20 million euros ($22m) was being given to UNRWA so it could carry out its “crucial” work in Gaza.

UNRWA, which is the main humanitarian agency in Gaza, has been facing an unprecedented funding crisis after its main international donors, led by the United States, cut their funding over Israeli allegations that some of UNRWA’s staff took part in Hamas’s October 7 attacks on southern Israel.


Trudeau, I'll never vote for the Liberals again, pos.

This week, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Associated Press news agency cited unnamed government sources as saying Canada would reverse its January 26 decision to pause funding for UNRWA.

However, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, when asked directly whether this was the case, has said Ottawa was waiting for the results of an internal UN probe into Israeli allegations that 12 UNRWA staff had been involved in Hamas’s October 7 attacks, in which 1,139 people were killed.

“We’re not making any announcements today. … We will continue to look at this situation. We will continue to watch the UN as it looks into what’s happening within this organisation,” he told reporters in Toronto.

“The ongoing humanitarian crisis and disaster in Gaza is heart-wrenching for everyone. We know how important it is to get aid into Gaza,” Trudeau said, adding that people in the enclave faced starvation.

President Joe Biden will announce the plan in his State of the Union address, a senior US official told Al Jazeera. The official said the operation will not require American troops to be on the ground, and that US personnel will remain on ships as they deliver aid, the first shipment of which will come from Cyprus.

The official did not provide details about how the pier would be built, but said that it would take several weeks, and that the US would coordinate with the Israeli army regarding the security situation on Gaza’s coast.

An unnamed Israeli official quoted by Reuters news service says that the country “fully supports” the creation of a “temporary dock” on the coast of Gaza in order to deliver humanitarian aid by sea. The official, who according to Reuters spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Israel will coordinate the development of the port with the US.

Earlier, a senior US official told us that President Joe Biden plans to officially announce the creation of this aid port during his State of the Union speech. Biden and other US officials have slammed Israel repeatedly in public comments for blocking the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip, but Israel has continued to do so.

Israeli officials speaking anonymously to Israeli media are welcoming the decision by the Biden administration to set up this port in the sea that will help with the delivery of aid. This official also said the Israelis will be involved in the planning with the United States.

Reports mentioned that there will be screenings of this aid at that port in Cyprus, where it will then go on to its final destination in Gaza. So the Israelis are going to be involved in this, but their level of involvement is still unknown. Once the president of the United States formally makes that announcement, we can expect more information.

Additionally, Israel’s war cabinet is meeting this evening. So it could be something on the agenda for them to discuss as well.

UN spokesperson says all avenues to get more aid into Gaza is ‘good’

No wonder Arab countries are hesitant to help rebuild Gaza...

Israeli forces raid Qatar-funded Hamad neighbourhood in Gaza’s Khan Younis

_{Palestinians inspect the damage to a building after an Israeli attack on Hamad City in November}

A leader in the Qassam Brigades has spoken to Al Jazeera, detailing the close relationship the group has with Yemen’s Houthis, who have been carrying out attacks on commercial and military ships in the Red Sea in sympathy with Palestinians in Gaza.

Here are some of his comments:

• The Houthis informed the Qassam Brigades that the recent escalation in the Red Sea is due to the Israeli occupation’s intentions to attack Rafah and the continuation of the starvation policy.
• The Houthis sent the Qassam Brigades a letter to ask for its opinion about negotiations to release the crew of a ship they are holding.
• The Houthis confirmed that any decision regarding the detained ship and its crew exclusively rests with the Qassam Brigades.
• The Houthis informed the Qassam Brigades that its strategic decision was to continue the battle of the Red Sea until the aggression stopped and the siege on the Gaza Strip was lifted.
• Communication and coordination between the Qassam Brigades and the fighting fronts in Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq has been continuing since the first hours of the start of the Al-Aqsa battle.
• The United States tried directly and through mediators to stop the fighting on each front separately, but its attempts were rejected.
• The decision of all fronts is not to stop fighting until the aggression on the Gaza Strip stops.

Houthi leader says more missiles launched since October than 8-year war