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

SvennoJ 5 hours ago

Israeli army planning for more fighting in Gaza, Lebanon, West Bank

The chief of staff of the Israeli military offered a short assessment of the current situation as ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon are mostly holding.

“Along with the intense defence preparations in the Gaza Strip, we must be prepared for significant operations in Judea and Samaria in the coming days in order to preempt and capture the terrorists before they reach our citizens,” Herzi Halevi said in a statement. “Judea and Samaria” is a reference to the occupied West Bank.

Halevi also instructed Israeli forces “to formulate plans for continued fighting in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon”.


War fighting continues to roil Israel’s jobless rate

Israel’s economy continues to absorb shockwaves from the war on Gaza with more than 22 percent of the labour force temporarily absent from work in December after being called for military reserve duty.

Israel forged a ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon in late November. Prior to that it was fighting both Hezbollah and Hamas in Gaza, requiring a massive call-up of reservists.

The percentage of women temporarily absent from work because of military service rose to 6.3 percent in December from 5.4 percent in November. Israel’s employment rate stood at 61.2 percent in December.

Smotrich threatens to ‘bring down the government’ over fighting in Gaza

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a staunch opponent of any Gaza ceasefire agreement, refused to commit to any specific date for leaving the Israeli government when asked by reporters.

“We do not need to talk about one day or another. If we do not return to fighting, I will bring down the government,” Israeli media quoted him as saying.

“I demanded and received a commitment from Prime Minister Netanyahu that Israel would return to the campaign to destroy Hamas and eradicate this threat to the State of Israel.”

Unlike far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and his allies, Smotrich has yet to quit the government, but maintains the ceasefire will hurt Israel. The government and army have sought to reassure the powerful ultranationalist factions represented by the two ministers that Israel will keep military control of Gaza.

Smotrich confirmed that his Religious Zionist Party will retain its Knesset seats after Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit quit the coalition.



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SvennoJ 5 hours ago

Houthis to limit attacks in Red Sea to solely Israel-linked ships

Yemen’s Houthi fighters have signalled they will limit attacks in the Red Sea to only Israel-affiliated ships as the ceasefire in Gaza enters its second day.

The group said it’s “stopping sanctions” on the other vessels it previously targeted since November 2023 in support of the Palestinians under attack by Israel’s army in Gaza.

For Israeli ships, those “sanctions … will be stopped upon the full implementation of all phases” of the ceasefire, a statement said.

“In the event of any aggression … the sanctions will be reinstated against the aggressor state.”

The Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since Israel began its war on Gaza.



Shipping industry cautious after Houthis say they’ll limit attacks

A spokesperson for Germany container shipping group Hapag-Lloyd said the company is still monitoring the situation. “We will return to the Red Sea when it is safe to do so.”

The Houthis have attacked ships in recent months based on outdated information, said Jakob Larsen, chief safety & security officer with shipping association BIMCO.

“In recent months, they have made several false claims about successful attacks, thereby slightly undermining their credibility. Assuming the ceasefire holds and the US also refrains from using force, shipping companies are expected to gradually resume operations through the Red Sea.”

Insurers are also waiting for test voyages to determine if sky-high war-risk premiums would ease.



SvennoJ 5 hours ago

Israeli forces demolish another Palestinian home

Israeli authorities have demolished a Palestinian house in the city of Rahat, in the Negev region of southern Israel, citing the lack of a building permit.

According to local sources, hundreds of Israeli troops and demolition machinery arrived in the area on Monday morning and surrounded the home of the Sheikh al-Eid family.

Last week also, Israeli forces demolished a home in the village of Saffuriya, northwest of Nazareth, after forcibly evicting the family following physical confrontations. The home was destroyed despite legal action in progress and a court session scheduled for January 27.


Israeli soldier killed, 4 wounded in West Bank blast

An Israeli soldier was killed and four others wounded by an improvised explosive device during a raid in the occupied West Bank.

The blast occurred in the town of Tammun, south of Jenin, Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported. The soldiers were in an armoured vehicle when the bomb detonated.

Israel intensified incursions in the West Bank since the beginning of its war on Gaza. Last week, an Israeli drone fired three missiles at people in the Jenin refugee camp, killing six Palestinians.




Call for sanctions over Israel’s ‘colonial settlement system’ in West Bank

Countries must impose “deterrent international sanctions” against Israel for its “colonial settlement system” in the occupied West Bank, Palestine’s Foreign Ministry says.

The international community has been “consistently warned” about the dangers of “escalating settler attacks against Palestinian citizens”, a statement said.

“While [the Palestinian Authority] holds the Israeli government fully and directly responsible for these attacks, it also holds the international community accountable for its failure to stop them and compel the occupying state and its forces to dismantle these militias and remove their protection,” it added.

The ministry “strongly condemns the policy of imposing collective punishment” on the Palestinian people and hindering the movement of its citizens, as well as allowing Israeli settlers to “consistently violate Palestinian rights”.

 
Securing Palestinian leaders from Israeli jails key to national unity

Mustafa Barghouti, general-secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, says Israeli will be under pressure to free senior Palestinian politicians held in prison if it wants to secure the release of high-ranking military officials captured by Hamas.

“This will have a useful impact because those leaders are some of the ones very much for Palestinian national unity. A person like Marwan Barghouti, who is a friend of mine, would be very conducive to pushing our efforts towards national unity, especially because he’s from Fatah,” he told Al Jazeera.

“The big question is whether they’ll be able to stay in Palestine or be forced to leave. As you can see, Israel is forcing so many people to be deported, which is like adding insult to injury. Not only are they holding and torturing them in prison for a very long time, in addition they deport them out of their country.”

Barghouti said national unity should not be just negotiated between Fatah and Hamas but all Palestinian groups, followed by national democratic elections that haven’t been held in more than 20 years.



SvennoJ 5 hours ago

Could Gaza genocide continue in the occupied West Bank?

Yara Hawari, a senior analyst with Al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network, says while the Gaza ceasefire is a positive step the danger to the occupied West Bank from an Israeli invasion continues to rise.

“It’s brought about a huge amount of relief that the bombardment will stop, but I think crucially the ceasefire does not mean an end to the occupation neither in Gaza or the West Bank,” she told Al Jazeera.

“So people are under no illusion that this means an end to Israeli control over their lives. I think people are pessimistic as to whether the ceasefire will actually hold because they know the Israeli regime is already trying to sabotage it.”

Hawari noted the situation in the occupied West Bank “remains as precarious as ever”.

“We saw a year of genocide in Gaza go unchecked so the big question is could they do the same in the West Bank? I’m afraid without accountability measures the answer is yes.”


Israeli military warns of "significant operations" in the occupied West Bank

The Israeli military chief on Monday warned of the possibility of “significant operations” in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

“Alongside the intensified defensive preparations in the Gaza Strip, we must be ready for significant operations in Judea and Samaria in the coming days – to preempt and capture terrorists before they reach our civilians,” Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, chief of the general staff, said in a statement, using the biblical term by which some Israelis refer to the West Bank.

“Those who engage in terror, like in Gaza, will be dealt with as in Gaza,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said during a visit to the West Bank earlier this month.

In the shadow of the war in Gaza, Israeli security forces have been engaged in intense conflict with militants in the West Bank for more than a year, including in the Jenin refugee camp – deploying tactics, such as airstrikes, that were once nearly unheard of there.

More than 500 Palestinian civilians were killed in the West Bank in 2024, according to the UN. Since October 7, 2023, Israeli forces and Jewish settlers have killed at least 169 children in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the UN said.

Meanwhile, 2024 was the third-deadliest year for Israelis in the West Bank since data collection began in 2008, according to the UN, which recorded the deaths of 34 Israelis – 15 soldiers and 19 civilians. Of those civilians, seven were settlers.


Gaza Ceasefire: Palestinian Lawyer Says Women, Children Released by Israel Faced Torture, Starvation



As the ceasefire in Gaza has entered its second day and appears to be holding, we begin our coverage in Ramallah. "We're hoping that it will continue, the Israelis will continue to release prisoners. And, of course, we have no guarantees they will not be rearrested again," says Tala Nasir, a lawyer with the Palestinian prisoner and human rights organization Addameer. She also notes that many of those released are coming home in poor health. "They were starving inside the prisons," Nasir notes.

Last edited by SvennoJ - 3 hours ago