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

SvennoJ on 08 March 2024

CENTCOM announces strikes on more Houthi positions inside Yemen

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) says its forces carried out more strikes within Yemen yesterday, targeting four Houthi antiship cruise missiles and one unmanned aerial vehicle in the country. CENTCOM forces also intercepted three UAVs shot towards the Gulf of Aden from Houthi-controlled parts of Yemen, it said in a post on X.

The announcement comes as Yemen’s Houthis ramp up attacks on what they say are Israel-linked vessels in the Red Sea area in reaction to the Gaza war – and after joint US and British air strikes hit Yemen’s Hodeidah airport on Wednesday, Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV reported.

The Houthis have blamed the US for backing Israel’s “genocidal crimes” and further inflaming tensions in the Red Sea. “We [the Houthis] hold America responsible for the repercussions of everything that happens in the Red Sea,” a Houthi spokesperson said yesterday.

Incident reported off Yemen’s Aden: UKMTO

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, which monitors Middle East waterways, says it has received a report of an incident 50 nautical miles (about 93km) southeast of the Yemeni city of Aden in waters where Houthi rebels have been attacking ships.

Israeli jets destroy house in southern Lebanon: State media

Israeli warplanes have raided a house in southern Lebanon, according to the Lebanese state media. A report by the state-owned National News Agency said that the house located between the villages of al-Mansouri and Majdal Zoun was completely destroyed.

Both villages are located only several kilometres away from the border with Israel. There have been regular exchange of fire between the Israeli army and the Hezbollah group over the border.

Israeli military strikes southern Lebanon

Al Jazeera correspondents report Israeli artillery shelling near the town of Kfar Shuba in southern Lebanon. Israeli media earlier reported three rockets launched from southern Lebanon had landed in open areas in northern Israel. The Lebanese National News Agency said Israeli shelling targeted an area between Houla, Mays al-Jabal and Tallet al-Ruwaisa.

Lebanese media also reported strikes near the towns of Ayta al-Shaab and Khallet al-Warda. The Lebanese armed group Hezbollah claimed to have hit Israeli soldiers east of the al-Samaqa site in the occupied Kfar Shuba hills and at al-Raheb.


Smoke rises after an Israeli air strike on the southern Lebanese town of Ghaziyeh

Israeli military says seven rockets fired from Lebanon

The projectiles were launched from Lebanon at the Upper Galilee area with two intercepted by the Iron Dome air defence system. The other five hit open areas and caused no damage or injuries, according to the Times of Israel newspaper. Sirens sounded in the communities of Dishon, Malkia and Ramot Naftali.

Hezbollah confirmed in a statement on its Telegram channel it targeted “the enemy’s artillery positions in Dishon with Katyusha rockets” at 18:18pm local time (16:18 GMT).

Israeli military hits Hezbollah positions after rocket fire

The Israeli military released aerial footage of what it said is one of several air raids on southern Lebanon. Fighter jets hit a building used by Hezbollah in Marwahin, infrastructure in Labbouneh, and a position in Aita al-Shab from which the armed Lebanese group several hours earlier launched rockets into northern Israel.

The Israeli military said a secondary explosion was seen after the last strike, indicating explosive devices were stored there. It said Hezbollah fired several rockets into Israel and said it retaliated.







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SvennoJ on 08 March 2024

I don't condone this kind of vandalism, but it made the news, destroyed oct 7 as the start of the conflict and nobody got hurt

Protester spray-paints Arthur Balfour painting at Cambridge University

A demonstrator with the Palestine Action group spray-painted and slashed a historic painting of Arthur Balfour, the British statesman who in 1917 pledged as foreign secretary to establish “a national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine.

The UK-based pro-Palestinian network published the video online. The incident happened in Trinity College at University of Cambridge, where Balfour graduated.

“Written in 1917, Balfour’s declaration began the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by promising the land away — which the British never had the right to do,” it said.




Finally a little sense

‘Catastrophic situation’: Canada to resume UNRWA funding

Canada will resume funding the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen says. He did not give a timeline. Ottawa announced a pause to the funding in January after Israel alleged some staff at the agency were involved in the October 7 Hamas attacks – accusations still under investigation.

“Canada is deeply concerned by the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza that is worsening by the hour. Help must reach civilians as quickly as possible,” the department of Global Affairs said in a statement.

“Women and children are bearing the heaviest toll … Most of the population is severely food insecure and there is a growing risk of widespread famine. Access to life-saving medical services is heavily limited.”

‘We sacrifice our blood for Gaza,’ say protesters in Yemen

Yemenis in Houthi-controlled areas came out in large numbers to support the Palestinians as the armed group continues to fire at cargo and military ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Yemeni media said “millions” more came out on the last Friday before the start of the holy month of Ramadan. Al-Sabeen Square in the capital Sanaa was again the main site of demonstrations, with many people arriving armed with rifles and daggers.

“We sacrifice our blood for Gaza,” they can be heard chanting in large numbers. “And what’s coming is greater, greater.”

The Houthis professed their attacks will continue until Israel’s war on Gaza ends and humanitarian aid reaches Palestinians.



SvennoJ on 08 March 2024

UNRWA: Israel forced staff to falsely admit role in October 7 attacks

The UN’s Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) says some of its employees were forced by the Israeli military to falsely state that the agency supports Hamas and that its staff participated in the October 7 attacks.

A report by the agency dated February 2024 said unidentified Palestinians, including several working for UNRWA, were detained and tortured by the Israeli military to make false statements. UNRWA communications director Juliette Touma was quoted as saying it plans to hand over the 11-page report to agencies inside and outside the UN to document potential human rights abuses.

“When the war comes to an end, there needs to be a series of inquiries to look into all violations of human rights,” she said. Israel has been pushing to dismantle UNRWA based on its allegations that some employees took part in the October 7 attacks and the organisation works with Hamas.

“Agency staff members have been subject to threats and coercion by the Israeli authorities while in detention, and pressured to make false statements against the agency,” the report says.


Benjamin Netanyahu wants ‘an endless war’

Marc Lamont Hill speaks to Ami Ayalon – former head of the Israeli navy and ex-director of Israel’s security service – about Israel’s violations of international law in its war on Gaza.




Hamas armed wing claims drone attack on Israeli soldiers

Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, claimed a rare drone attack against Israeli positions inside the Gaza Strip. It said fighters managed to drop two antipersonnel mines from a drone on an “enemy army headquarters” east of Beit Hanoon, in northern Gaza.

Hamas also said a Palestinian sniper killed an Israeli soldier on Thursday in Beit Hanoon, and fighters ambushed six Israeli troops inside a residential apartment in Hamad City in southern Gaza, killing all of them in close-range combat.

The comments come after the Israeli military showed footage of soldiers raiding residential buildings in the Qatar-funded Hamad neighbourhood, which has also been heavily bombed since the start of the war.


Hezbollah claims five attacks on Israeli positions

The armed Lebanese group claimed a total of five attacks on Israeli positions using missiles, rockets and artillery. On the eastern side of the border fighting with Israel, Hezbollah said it targeted soldiers and vehicles with missile and artillery fire in two attacks in the area of Kfar Chouba.

On the western front, it said its three attacks used artillery shells, a missile and Katyusha rockets to hit Israeli soldiers and positions, including in Jal al-Alam. Hezbollah earlier confirmed three more of its fighters died in Israeli attacks.


Israeli forces again target aid seekers in northern Gaza

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic report several people have been killed and wounded after Israeli forces opened fire on aid seekers at the Kuwait Roundabout in Gaza City.

More than 100 people were killed last month after Israeli troops opened fire on hundreds waiting for food aid southwest of Gaza City, as the besieged enclave faces an unprecedented hunger crisis.

Gaza’s Health Ministry calls the attacks on aid seekers part of Israel’s ongoing “genocidal war”. It pressed the international community to “urgently intervene” to forge a ceasefire as “the only way to protect civilians”.


Palestinians carry aid in Gaza City this week


Three more children die of hunger at al-Shifa Hospital

Three more children died of malnutrition and dehydration at Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital, according to the Health Ministry in the besieged enclave. It brings the official death toll from malnutrition and dehydration in Gaza hospitals to 23.

The number only reflects the confirmed cases that have reached hospitals. The ministry previously said “dozens” more are silently dying of starvation imposed on them by the Israeli military.





SvennoJ on 08 March 2024

US to deploy 1,000 troops to build Gaza port

We have more details from the Pentagon on its plans for a floating port in Gaza. Major General Patrick Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, told reporters in Washington, DC, that the US military plans to deploy 1,000 troops to transport and build the port.

Planning for the port system is still in its early stages, Ryder said, adding that it could take up to 60 days to make the plan a reality.

The port system involves two separate components, he said, the first being the construction of a floating, offshore barge that would be able to accept aid deliveries. The US military would then move aid from there to a floating, 1,800-foot-long (550-metre) causeway anchored to the shore.

Ryder said no US troops would enter Gaza, even temporarily, to complete port construction, adding that details about who will be taking the supplies ashore from the causeway are still being worked out.


US port plan ‘a ruse most of the world can see through’

Rami Khouri, from the American University of Beirut, challenged the US plan to build a port to receive desperately needed humanitarian relief.

“It certainly is a public relations exercise, but it also has many complex dimensions – only a few of which are noble and the rest probably pretty sinister,” he told Al Jazeera. “The problem is the people of Gaza are starving because of policies of the US government, European governments, and others, which is to allow Israel to make them starve.”

Khouri added the plan “is a ruse most of the world can see through” and could give Israel even tighter control over what gets into the Strip in the future while completing “the ethnic cleansing of Palestine”. “I’m just waiting for the day the Israelis come and bomb the port because they’ve bombed everything else that the EU and other donors have funded in the occupied territories.”


Houthi leader raises questions over US port plan for Gaza

A top Houthi official questioned the details and goals of the US plan to build a temporary port to get humanitarian aid into Gaza. Houthi revolutionary committee leader Mohammed Ali al-Houthi noted in a post on X it remains unclear whether the 1,000 US troops the Pentagon says constructing the port will serve as builders or protection for builders.

“The Rafah crossing does not need to be built, aid is piling up in front of it, and the only thing that is required is guidance to bring it in,” he said.

Israel will use the “weeks” the US and others say is needed to build it to further use starvation as a weapon of war against Palestinians. He said Washington is only trying to maintain a “guise of humanity” with its support for the port.


Biden’s maritime aid plan a ‘glaring distraction’, MSF says

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, has blasted the Biden administration’s plans to deliver aid to Gaza by sea as a “glaring distraction” from Israeli’s “indiscriminate” and “disproportionate” military assault on the enclave.

“The food, the water and medical supplies so desperately needed by people in Gaza are sitting just across the border. Israel needs to facilitate rather than block the flow of supplies,” Avril Benoit, executive director of MSF USA, said in a post on X.

“This is not a logistics problem; it is a political problem. Rather than look to the US military to build a work-around, the US should insist on immediate humanitarian access using the roads and entry points that already exist.”


Maritime aid plan ‘too little, too late,’ former US aid offical says

Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International, has welcomed Biden’s plan to deliver aid to Gaza by sea welcome, but said it was “too little, too late”.

“Large-scale famine mortality is about to begin. Biden is still way behind the curve and unwilling to take the steps needed to avert that,” Konyndyk, a former disaster relief official in the Biden and Obama administrations, said in a post on X.


Deadly airdrop accident shows urgent need for ceasefire: UN

The United Nations says the deadly airdrop on Gaza highlights the need for unfettered access by land routes for aid delivery.

“We’re extremely saddened by the reports of people who have been killed during airdrops… This should be a reminder of why we need an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, why we need more access by road, why we need better coordination with the Israeli authorities and better deconfliction,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said.

“[The] tragic accident is a symptom of the fact that we do not have an environment in which we can do large-scale, predictable humanitarian delivery.”

NGOs blast Israel over halt in visa renewals for aid workers

Israel’s decision to halt visa renewals for international aid workers in Gaza and the occupied West Bank is disrupting humanitarian outreach efforts just when they are most vital, a coalition of humanitarian and nongovernmental groups has said. Israel’s welfare ministry paused visa renewals last month after saying it did not have the resources to probe applicants’ potential links to armed groups.

Faris Arouri, the director of the coalition, said that at least 99 humanitarian workers have seen their visas expire or have visas that will expire in the next six months. “These are people who are known to Israel, who have been screened before,” Arouri was quoted as telling the Associated Press.

“We see this visa ban as part of the collective punishment that the Palestinians have been facing since October 7. This is part and parcel of Israel’s attempt to block the world from really seeing what’s happening on the ground and to block aid from entering.”

 

‘When is enough enough?’: WHO chief reiterates call for ceasefire

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), has reiterated calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, condemning what he called a “full five months of hellish conditions” in the Palestinian enclave.

“Almost 31,000 people have lost their lives, 72,000+ have been injured, thousands are missing,” he wrote in a post on X

“406 attacks on health care, 118 health workers are in detention, 1 in 3 hospitals is only partially or minimally functional,” he noted.

“When is enough enough?” he asked.

Last edited by SvennoJ - on 08 March 2024

SvennoJ on 08 March 2024

‘It’s Bisan From Gaza, And Israel Is Trying to Push Us Into The Desert’



US Aid Drops KILLS Palestinians



I Witnessed a Holocaust in Gaza: Palestinian-American Author



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SvennoJ on 09 March 2024

Google fires employee over pro-Palestine protest at Israeli tech event

Google has fired a software engineer who disrupted a company-sponsored Israeli tech event in New York City, according to media reports and a campaign group.

A spokesperson for Google told the Middle East Eye website that the employee – who disrupted a keynote address by the head of Google Israel, Barak Regev, on Monday – was terminated for “interfering with an official company-sponsored event”.

Videos of the incident showed the employee speaking out against Google’s Project Nimbus, the company’s $1.2bn cloud computing contract with the Israeli government. He was heard shouting “I refuse to build technology that empowers genocide” and “Project Nimbus puts Palestinian community members in danger.”

No Tech for Apartheid, a campaign group, accused Google of engaging in a “clear cut act of retaliation”. It said the dismissed worker was “proud to be fired for refusing to be complicit in genocide”.

Bernie Sanders slams US Congress over ‘absurd’ hypocrisy on Gaza

United States Senator Bernie Sanders has slammed US lawmakers over the “absurd” hypocrisy of expressing concern over the suffering of Palestinians while continuing to support Israel’s war in Gaza.

In withering remarks directed at his colleagues in Congress, Sanders said lawmakers were engaging in the “fiction” that they are powerless to stop the death and suffering.

“It is absurd to criticise Netanyahu’s war in one breath and provide another $10bn to continue that war in the next. But perhaps the most remarkable thing about this disaster is the fiction we tell ourselves here in Congress, and that is that there is nothing, just nothing that we can do,” Sanders said.

“Everybody knows what is happening,” Sanders added.

“We see it every day in the news and see the pictures of the emaciated children, of people bombed while they sleep. And yet Congress pretends as if we are powerless to stop it.”

Instead lets focus on the alleged rapes during Oct 7 again

US ambassador praises Japan for scheduling meeting on alleged sexual violence during Hamas attack

The US ambassador to Japan has praised Tokyo for exercising “true leadership” at the UN Security Council by scheduling a meeting to discuss allegations of sexual violence during the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7. “Japan is setting the eyes of the world to see the full horror and depravity of Hamas’ use of sexual violence as a weapon,” Rahm Emanuel said in a post on X.

“We will not turn our back, turn our eyes away, or place our hands over our ears when it comes to the victims’ stories from October 7 and afterward. Japan is exercising true leadership.”

Japan, which currently holds the presidency of the UN Security Council, will chair a meeting on Monday to discuss a report by UN experts that found there are “reasonable grounds to believe” rape and gang rape occurred during the October 7 attack on Israel.

The report, however, did not draw conclusions “on attribution of alleged violations to specific armed groups”.

Hamas has denied that its fighters carried out sexual violence during their incursion into southern Israel.

And are they going to discuss the systematic abuse, including sexual abuse, by the IDF and in Israeli prisons as well?

Since 2002 at least https://www.omct.org/en/resources/urgent-interventions/israel-inhuman-and-degrading-treatment-including-sexual-harassment-of-palestinian-women-and-girls-detained-in-neve-tertze-womens-prison-ramle

https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/02/israelopt-un-experts-appalled-reported-human-rights-violations-against

The underlined sentence says enough. It's not about the victims, it's to further dehumanize Hamas (and Palestinians)

More double standards

China urges UNSC not to forget Gaza during vote on Sudan

China has appealed to the UN Security Council not to forget about Israel’s war on Gaza as the group adopted a resolution calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities in Sudan during the month of Ramadan.

“While adopting a resolution on a ceasefire during the month of Ramadan in Sudan, the Security Council must not forget that the people of Gaza are still suffering under bombardment,” China’s deputy UN ambassador, Dai Bing, told the council. “The international community must push for immediate ceasefire.”

Russia’s deputy UN ambassador, Anna Evstigneeva, meanwhile accused the US of “double standards” by “dragging out the adoption of a document on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip”. “The USA time and again uses it to veto, plays for time and demands that we wait for some results from its direct diplomacy on the ground. Nothing of the sort is proposed for Sudan,” she told the council before the vote.

Russia abstained from the vote, while the remaining 14 council members voted in favor of the British-drafted resolution.

War erupted in Sudan on April 15, 2023, between the Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The UN says nearly 25 million people – half Sudan’s population – need aid, some eight million have fled their homes and hunger is rising.


Sudan is facing an even larger hunger crisis

https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/03/1147287

The northeast African country is already in the grip of the world's largest displacement crisis, the UN World Food Programme, WFP, noted. 

Fighting between the Sudanese Army and a rival group known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has left thousands dead and eight million displaced.

A staggering 14 million children are in desperate need of lifesaving assistance, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) also said in a recent alert amid repeated concerns that the conflict may spillover Sudan’s borders, threatening lives and peace in the region, unless the fighting stops. 

“Twenty years ago, Darfur was the world’s largest hunger crisis, and the world rallied to respond. But today, the people of Sudan have been forgotten. Millions of lives and the peace and stability of an entire region are at stake,” Cindy McCain, Executive Director of the WFP said.

Another mess creating by the UK: Since 1956, when Sudan first gained independence from the United Kingdom, there have been only 11 years of peace.

 



SvennoJ on 09 March 2024

Biden’s SOTU on Gaza: Israeli Daughter of Freed Hostage & Palestinian American Professor Respond




Shocking CNN Report Puts Israel To Shame




Biden's ABSURD Gaza Port Plan Dismantled


 



LurkerJ on 09 March 2024

Gaza port yeah?

takes months to build yeah?

Just so that more get more Gaza's displaced closer to Israel wants them yeah?

Will cost us billions upon billions and Israel will still be the one controlling it and have an oversight of what goes in and out yeah?

This is what gets Biden a standing ovation these days, get the fuck out, sycophants.



SvennoJ on 09 March 2024

Some background on why Saudi Arabia are dragging their feet to help out. They want a deal with the US for nuclear technology in trade of normalization with Israel and backing a 2 state solution.

Saudi Arabia's Incentive To Sell The Palestinians Out Is Terrifying



They say it's for electricity, but pretty clear they want nuclear weapons as well. (Saudi Arabia, perfect place for solar and wind power and plenty oil to finance a green future)


Maybe give them Thorium salt reactor tech, safer than Uranium, no need for water, can't be used for weapons.



China is already building them

The Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics is gearing up to launch the world's first molten salt and thorium nuclear reactor, the TMSR-LF1, set to go live in 2024. This monumental achievement marks a transformative stride in the evolution of nuclear technology.Sep 28, 2023





China is running ahead in both green energy and nuclear. Amazing what you can accomplish when you don't spend a huge part of your budget on killing people.




SvennoJ on 09 March 2024

Israeli Activists Attempt To Deliver Aid To Palestinians In Gaza

Israeli activists did all they could to deliver much needed aid to starving Gazans before being turned around by police.




Trying to reason with protesters blocking aid. So brain washed about Hamas Hamas Hamas Hamas Hamas, and fully believe it's their right to prioritize Israeli lives over millions of starving Palestinians. Somehow thinking starving 2.3 million people will bring the hostages back.




The illusion of aid in Gaza | The Listening Post