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

SvennoJ on 11 March 2024

Quelle surprise

Aid ship’s departure from Cyprus delayed

A ship carrying 200 tonnes of food aid for Gaza remained docked in Cyprus on Sunday night due to “technical difficulties”, according to Cypriot radio (RIK). The Open Arms ship, which was expected to leave the port of Larnaca on Sunday afternoon, may not leave until Monday morning, RIK said.

Once the ship sets off, its journey is expected to take some two days. The government of Cyprus has previously said a team that includes Israeli officials will inspect the ship’s cargo before its departure.


A rescue vessel of the Spanish NGO Open Arms at the port of Larnaca, Cyprus, March 10, 2024


‘Patients in dire need for blood transfusion’ in Gaza

The Gaza Strip has 1,100 patients with chronic kidney disease who need three treatments a week. Patients suffering from chronic kidney disease are dependent on life-saving dialysis treatment and that’s under threat because of Israel’s siege on Gaza.

Israeli’s attacks on Gaza have left majority of hospitals out of service. The few that remain partly operational are facing severe shortages of medicine, supplies and medical staff.

“Three members of my family must have their blood cleansed,” a Palestinian told Al Jazeera. “The journey to the hospital is a challenge. A shortage of food and nutrition and a lack of clean water all adds to our suffering. We are losing weight and hit with fatigue and exhaustion. Many patients are now in a dire need for blood transfusion, which is not available.”




How far my country of birth has fallen.

Far-right Dutch leader Wilders meets Israel’s Herzog

Netherlands’s far-right election winner Geert Wilders says he met Israeli President Herzog and pledged his full support to Israel in its fight against “terror”. Wilders, who is aiming to lead a new government after his nationalist PVV party won elections in November, has long been a staunch supporter of Israel.

“I told him I am proud that he visits the Netherlands and that Israel has, and always will have, my full support in its fight against terror,” Wilders said in a post on X. The Israeli president was in the Netherlands to attend the opening of a Holocaust museum in Amsterdam on Sunday amid protests.



Resignations at Guernica magazine after ‘genocide apologia’ article

Several members of political and literary magazine Guernica’s all-volunteer staff have resigned over the decision to publish an essay deemed as a “hand-wringing apologia for Zionism and the ongoing genocide in Palestine”, as former co-publisher Madhuri Sastry put it.

The essay, written by Israeli translator Joanna Chen, was titled “From the Edges of a Broken World”. It was retracted by the magazine, which stated: “Guernica regrets having published this piece, and has retracted it. A more fulsome explanation will follow.”

April Zhu, who was senior editor, said the article treated something “deeply abnormal” – such as “occupation, apartheid, genocide” – as a “sad, even if complex, reality”, in effect normalising it. Other resignations include Ishita Marwah, formerly a fiction editor, who described Guernica as “a pillar of eugenicist white colonialism masquerading as goodness”.





Families of captives lose faith in Netanyahu government

The families of the Israeli captives have also lost their faith in the Israeli security establishment, and in the army’s ability to return their loved ones from Gaza, according to Walid Habas, a researcher at the Palestinian Forum for Israeli Studies – Madar.

“The families of the Israeli prisoners are not stupid. They know the Israeli army directly participated in operations that killed more than 10 captives. It also failed to free any of them, except for two who were not in the possession of resistance groups in exchange for money,” he told Al Jazeera.

Protests within Israeli society have escalated against the Netanyahu government due to its inability to return the captives; however, they are not enough to threaten the coalition government or overthrow it, Habas said. “However, if the protests are bolstered by the larger movement that was igniting the streets of Israel in the spring and summer of 2023, the equation may change,” he added.



Around the Network
SvennoJ on 11 March 2024

Israeli raid targets southern Lebanon’s al-Jebbayn town

Lebanese media is reporting an Israeli raid on the outskirts of the town of al-Jebbayn in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah claims attack on military site in northern Israel’s Jal al-Alam

We are receiving updates on the cross-border tensions between the Israeli army and Hezbollah. The Lebanese group said it targeted a military outpost in Jal al-Alam, close to the west of the border, “with appropriate weapons and directly hit it”. It said it conducted the attack at 10:25am local time (08:25 GMT).

Hezbollah’s statement came shortly after aerial warning sirens sounded in northern Israel. The Lebanese media said earlier that Israel’s warplanes bombed a location on the outskirts of al-Jebbayn town in southern Lebanon.

Israeli army says drones landed in open areas in occupied Golan Heights

The Israeli military has said two suspected drones, which crossed into the occupied Golan Heights from Lebanon, landed in open areas. No casualties or damage were reported.

The army statement comes after reports of aerial warning sirens in the occupied Golan Heights and northern Israel. Hezbollah confirmed launching an attack, saying it targeted “the defence headquarters in Kaila Barracks” in the region controlled by Israel.

Israel’s army says it strikes two Hezbollah compounds

Israel’s army says its jets have struck a Hezbollah military compound in southern Lebanon’s Jebbayn area. The military said on X that its jets attacked another military site belonging to the group overnight.




Missile-related incident reported off Yemen’s Hodeidah

A missile-related incident has been reported west of Yemen’s Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, according to the British maritime security firm Ambrey.

Separately, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said it had received a report of a sound of an explosion near a vessel 131km (71 nautical miles) southwest of Yemen’s port of Saleef.

The UKMTO said the vessel and crew were safe, adding that the coalition forces on duty in the region are investigating the incident.

Three US-UK raids target western Yemen’s Saleef district

Yemen’s Houthi-linked media outlet Al-Masirah reports that the US and British air forces have carried out three raids targeting the Ras Issa area in the country’s Saleef district.

The announcement came after we reported that the UKMTO said it received a report of a sound of an explosion near a vessel 131km (71 nautical miles) southwest of Yemen’s port of Saleef.

Three more US-UK raids reported in Yemen

The Houthi-linked media outlet, Al-Masirah, has reported that the US and British aircraft carried out three raids on the Al-Araj area in Bajil district of Yemen’s Hodeidah governorate. We reported earlier that according to the same source, three raids by the US and British air forces targeted the Ras Issa area in Yemen’s Saleef district of Hodeidah.



hellobion2 on 11 March 2024

Now the US is thinking of building a port to bring aid to gaza. Very interesting how this will unfold.



BiON!@ 

SvennoJ on 11 March 2024
hellobion2 said:

Now the US is thinking of building a port to bring aid to gaza. Very interesting how this will unfold.

Read back through the pages and you'll see it will likely go nowhere.

It will take months to complete the temporary floating port, where large ships are supposed to dock to unload aid onto smaller vessels that can take it to shore or likely the port of Gaza. (Which is a shallow port for small fishing boats) There it will need to be unloaded onto trucks and we're back to the original problem of distributing the aid throughout the strip.

It's just another PR stunt like the Air drops dropping 20 to 30 thousand meals a day on Gaza (and crushing a few civilians in the process) for 550 thousand starving people in the North. Israel will still maintain control over the aid and will inspect everything in Cyprus before ships can leave on a day long journey to this proposed temporary floating port off the coast of Gaza. The pilot ship "Open Arms" is already delayed again.

Much more Aid is needed a month ago. This seems more to be another way to control Gaza, close more land entries and only allow future supplies in by military port.



SvennoJ on 11 March 2024

Everything Israel says, they do the opposite

Israeli police pushing Jerusalemites away from Al-Aqsa: Analyst

Firas al-Dibs, a specialist in the politics of Al-Aqsa Mosque, says Israeli police are waging a long campaign to prevent Palestinians from entering the compound that began even before Ramadan – and intensified after October 7.

“In the past few days, police issued orders to prevent many Palestinians from entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and arrested many from their homes in addition to assaulting worshippers,” al-Dibs told Al Jazeera.

“There is also widespread police deployment throughout the city as well as an intense militarised presence in the alleyways of Jerusalem’s Old City and continued settler incursions onto the compound – all as part of a systemic Israeli policy to rid the mosque of worshippers.”

Palestinians worried about restrictions at Al-Aqsa during Ramadan

Israeli authorities have said that they are not going to restrict the number of worshippers at Al-Aqsa Mosque in the first week [of Ramadan], but that this could change based on a weekly security assessment according to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Last night we saw there were restrictions. Many young men who were not able to enter outside ended up praying in Jerusalem’s Old City outskirts, some of them in the cemetery near Lions’ Gate. Now, this evening will be quite a testament to how the rest of Ramadan will go because Palestinians who we talked to are afraid of these types of restrictions.

They are afraid they’re not going to be able to go into Al-Aqsa for these nightly tarawih prayers that are only happening during Ramadan.

Heavy security presence near Al-Aqsa Mosque as thousands gather to pray

As Palestinian Muslims celebrate the first day of Ramadan, the Islamic Waqf Department in Jerusalem has announced that 35,000 worshipers have gathered at Al-Aqsa mosque. As people gather at the mosque to pray, local sources are reporting that a large number of Israeli police are present at the Damascus Gate, one of the main entrances to the Old City of Jerusalem.

In addition, video verified by Al Jazeera shows the intrusive search of a young Palestinian man by Israeli police in the Bab al-Sharia area, near one of the gates of the Al-Aqsa compound.

Palestine foreign ministry condemns restrictions on Al-Aqsa Mosque

The ministry says in a statement that “continued aggression against Al-Aqsa is the shortest way to blow up the entire conflict arena and bring it into the furnace of a fire that is difficult to control”. The ministry also calls for “urgent and serious international intervention” to stop Israeli moves against holy religious sites.




Around the Network
SvennoJ on 11 March 2024

Settler attack causes injuries in occupied West Bank

According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, three people have been injured in an attack by Israeli settlers in the Masafer Yatta region, south of the West Bank city of Hebron.


Israeli soldiers tie up and drag Palestinians after occupied West Bank raid

This video, which has been verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad unit, shows how Israeli soldiers tied up a group of Palestinians and dragged them away with a rope. This happened after a raid on the village of al-Issawiya, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.



Israeli opposition leader says ultra-Orthodox must serve in military

Yair Lapid is carrying on with his opposition to the military service exemption for ultra-Orthodox Jews, saying the Israeli military “is stretched to the limit”. “If there is a flare-up in the north, there are not enough soldiers to manage it,” he said in reference to a potentially expanded war with Hezbollah.

“Today, there are 66,000 ultra-Orthodox youth of conscription age. That’s 105 battalions that don’t enlist,” he said in a speech posted on his accounts online. Lapid has advanced legislation – still under debate – that says those who evade military or civil service will no longer be eligible for state funding. “If they don’t enlist, they won’t get any money,” Lapid said.

This comes shortly after Yitzhak Yosef, the Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel, said ultra-Orthodox Jews would leave the country en masse if they are drafted into the military.


Complaint calls for Israeli chief rabbi’s removal over conscription comments

An Israeli watchdog group says Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef “crossed every red line” when he threatened a mass exodus by ultra-Orthodox Jews if they are forced to serve in the military as it wages war on Palestinians.

The Movement for Quality Government in Israel says in a statement on X that it has written to the ombudsman of the Great Rabbinical Court of Appeals to bemoan a “flagrant violation of the rules of ethics for judges” and the politicisation of this sensitive issue. The group said it demanded the court “to investigate the complaint, and if it is justified, to remove Rabbi Yosef from his position as judge” in the court.

Tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Israelis could be drafted into the military if their exemptions are lifted, a move that is gaining popularity among Israeli officials.



SvennoJ on 11 March 2024

Palestinians killed in Israeli strike on southern Gaza

Our correspondent in Gaza reports that at least one person is dead and others wounded after the Israeli army targeted a house in the town of al-Qarara, northeast of Khan Younis.

Israeli air strike in southern Gaza kills family of human rights worker

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) says the family of Yasser Abdel Ghafour, deputy head of its fieldwork unit, has been killed in Israeli shelling of al-Mawasi in the southern Gaza Strip. Israeli forces fired several artillery shells at displaced families in al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis, designated by Israel as a safe evacuation zone.

“As a result, 14 civilians from the displaced families were killed, including four children and three women, while eight others were injured. Among the casualties were 10 civilians from Yasser Abdel Ghafour’s family.”

“Since October 7, many houses belonging to colleague Yasser’s family had been repeatedly bombed in Khan Younis, killing tens of them while many are still trapped under the rubble of their destroyed houses,” the organisation said. Among the victims were Yasser’s sisters, brothers and uncles who were killed with their sons and daughters. Those who survived fled from Khan Younis to seek refuge in the al-Mawasi area, where they were bombed again, the rights group said.

Israel continues raids on Hamad neighbourhood in southern Gaza

The Israeli military has released new footage of ongoing raids on residential buildings in Gaza’s Qatar-funded Hamad City. It said the close-combat commandos from its Egoz unit engaged in a fire fight with armed Palestinians and showed footage of an Israeli soldier firing a Matador missile at a unit in the residential building.

It said three Palestinian fighters were killed and a woman and two children who were inside the building were transferred to receive medical care. The Hamad neighbourhood, located in the southern city of Khan Younis, where an Israeli ground invasion has been advancing for weeks, has been heavily bombed since the start of the war on Gaza.

Sara Netanyahu appeals to mother of Qatar’s emir on Gaza captives

Sara Netanyahu, the wife of the Israeli prime minister, has written to the mother of the emir of Qatar to appeal for the release of captives held in Gaza. “I urge you, in the spirit of Ramadan, to leverage your significant influence to work towards the release of the Israeli hostages,” she wrote to Sheikha Moza bint Nasser al-Missned in a letter published by the office of the Israeli prime minister.

Sara Netanyahu pointed out “woman to woman” that 19 women are among the captives. “We cannot remain silent or stand back when the dignity and safety of women are at stake,” she wrote.

The overwhelming majority of more than 31,000 Palestinians killed by the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip since October 7 have been women and children. Sheikha Moza, 64, is a high-profile figure in Qatar who leads the country’s massive state-owned nonprofit organisation, the Qatar Foundation.



Yes the hostages need to be released. However how tone deaf are you to appeal to Qatar while raiding and killing more people in the Qatar-funded Hamad City. Not quite in the spirit of Ramadan... A ceasefire would be and will also allow the exchange of hostages.

Israeli rights groups slam lack of humanitarian access in Gaza: Report

Twelve of Israel’s most prominent human rights organisations have signed an open letter accusing the country of failing to comply with the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ’s) provisional ruling that it should facilitate access of humanitarian aid into Gaza, the UK newspaper The Guardian reports.

Signatories include veteran whistleblower group Breaking the Silence and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.

“As members of Israel-based civil society committed to human rights and the rule of law, we condemn the fact that Israel has so far failed to change its behaviour based on the measures imposed by the ICJ, as well as the fact that humanitarian aid to Gaza dropped by 50% in the month following the ruling,” the letter reads.

UNRWA: Aid truck turned back because of medical scissors

Phillippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, says a truck loaded with humanitarian aid for Gaza was turned back by Israel because medical scissors were onboard.

“Medical scissors are now added to a long list of banned items the Israeli Authorities classify as ‘for dual use’. The list includes basic and lifesaving items: from anesthetics, solar lights, oxygen cylinders and ventilators, to water cleaning tablets, cancer medicines and maternity kits.”

He said in an X post: “An entire population depends on humanitarian assistance for survival” as conditions grow worse in the Gaza Strip.



SvennoJ on 11 March 2024

Palestinian minister to speak at UN on Gaza women’s suffering

Palestine’s UN delegation has presented the team that will represent the state at today’s session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women. They are led by Amal Hamad, minister of women’s affairs of  Palestine, and will be “speaking on the inhumane suffering of Palestinian women in Gaza”.

Palestine envoy tells UN that settler sanctions should encompass whole communities

Riyad Mansour, Palestine’s envoy to the United Nations, says sanctions should include an entire illegal Israeli settlement built on Palestinian land, rather than individual settlers. He told a meeting of the UN Palestinian Rights Committee in New York that such settlements “stem from an illegal system” and must be treated as illegal as a whole, reports Al Jazeera Arabic’s Rami Ayari.

Mansour is also following up on his position that Israel’s membership in the UN General Assembly must be frozen as Tel Aviv has rejected the interim rulings of the UN’s top court on genocide in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian team is also pushing for a full membership for Palestine at the UN.

Israel coerced some agency employees to falsely admit Hamas links: UNRWA report

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) says some employees released into Gaza from Israeli detention have reported being pressured by Israeli authorities to falsely state that the agency has Hamas links and staff took part in the October 7 Hamas attacks on southern Israel.

The assertions are contained in a report by UNRWA reviewed by the Reuters news agency and dated February 2024. The report details allegations of mistreatment in Israeli detention made by unidentified Palestinians, including several working for UNRWA.

The document said several of UNRWA’s Palestinian staffers had been detained by the Israeli army and the ill-treatment and abuse they said they experienced while they were held included severe beatings, waterboarding and threats of harm to family members.

“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, including that the Agency has affiliations with Hamas and that UNRWA staff members took part in the 7 October 2023 atrocities,” the report said.

UNRWA, which provides aid and essential services to Palestinian refugees, is the subject of Israeli allegations made in January that 12 of its 13,000 staff in Gaza took part in the Hamas attacks on Israel. The Israeli accusations led 16 countries, including the United States, to pause $450m in UNRWA funding, throwing its operations into crisis.

US progressives push back against AIPAC’s influence as war rages in Gaza

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/11/reject-aipac-us-progressives-join-forces-against-pro-israel-lobby-group

Prominent progressive organisations in the US are joining together to push back against the political and electoral influence of the country’s most powerful pro-Israel lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

More than 20 advocacy groups launched a formal coalition called Reject AIPAC to organise against what they called AIPAC’s campaign to​​ silence the “growing dissent in Congress” against Israel’s war on Gaza.


Protesters gather near the offices of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee on February 22, 2024, during a rally in New York City demanding a ceasefire and an end to Israel’s attacks on Gaza



Another war criminal

Netanyahu meets with Indian national security adviser in Israel

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has received Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval in order to “update” him on Gaza, Netanyahu’s office says in a post on X. “The sides also discussed the effort to release the hostages and the issue of humanitarian assistance,” his office said.

The Hindu nationalist government of India has stood staunchly behind Israel amid its war on Gaza, overturning decades of support for the Palestinian cause, and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi established warm relations with Netanyahu as he began his premiership in 2014.



SvennoJ on 11 March 2024

CNN Confronts Israel Protests BLOCKING Aid: 'NOT ONE LOAF OF BREAD'



And some more details on the ongoing 'under the radar' arms sales from the US to Israel

Israel Fans FREAK Over Jonathan Glazer Oscar Protest


Israel Killed Hostages on October 7th, Al Jazeera Doc Shows



And more on the botched 'forensic' investigation, the Hannibal directive, debunking systemic rapes and western media ignoring the peaceful mass protests in 2018, 2019 which were met with brutal violence, over 60 people killed in a single day, 8 thousand wounded, kneecaps shot.

This is why Netanyahu wants an endless war to shuffle this under the rug. And keep repeating the alleged systematic rapes to keep the focus of what really happened on Oct 7. Hubris, ignoring a known plan, ignoring warnings from female staff at the border noticing suspicious behavior, after sending a lot of the border troops to the West bank to harass Palestinians. Then a totally botched response which killed many more people than saved.

The plan was known over a year in advance, yet instead of training for a well directed response, they allowed to have the Nova music festival close to the border.

Bibi HUMILIATES Biden With Rafah 'Redline' REBUKE



And more on Biden's delusions



SvennoJ on 11 March 2024

Look who's banging the rape drum. Where is the evidence...

US says ‘evidence is damning’ on October 7 in UNSC meeting

After Russia said the UN report on October 7 sexual violence is being politicised, the US tells the Security Council (UNSC) there is no room for doubt. “The evidence before us is damning and devastating,” said US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield. “The question now is how will we respond? Will the council condemn Hamas’s sexual violence or will we stay silent?”

She also said that if Hamas “actually cared about the Palestinian people”, it would agree to the six-week truce agreement that the US and others had pitched. Hamas rejected it as it did not offer a permanent ceasefire. The agreement would bring more aid into the Gaza Strip, Thomas-Greenfield said.

She also pointed out that the US has put forward a new resolution to “pave the way to a cessation of hostilities and towards a lasting peace” that also condemns Hamas.

The US has used its veto power in the UNSC three times since October 7 to kill resolutions aimed at ending or scaling down Israel’s war on Gaza.


Russia points to imbalances in UN report on October 7 sexual violence

In the UN Security Council meeting on the sexual violence report, Russia reiterates its condemnation of the October 7 attacks but says more information is needed. Russian representative Maria Zabolotskaya pointed out to the council that the UN special rapporteur released her report on sexual violence after travelling to Israel and the occupied West Bank under Israeli approval whose parameters remain unclear and that she did not visit Gaza. Rapporteur Pramila Patten was also unable to meet the actual sexual assault victims of October 7 and her data mostly came from the Israeli government.

“Only after a comprehensive and objective study of the situation in its entire geographical extent will it be possible to draw any conclusions,” Zabolotskaya said, adding that Russia categorically rejects attempts to manipulate the important issue of combating sexual violence in the conflict.

“We consider it unacceptable that the suffering of people who have experienced sexual violence or accusations of this serious crime become a ‘bargaining chip’ in political games,” she concluded.


UN rapporteur denies suppression of sexual violence report

The UN’s special rapporteur on torture in conflict, Pramila Patten, has explicitly rejected the Israeli claim that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres tried to suppress her report on sexual violence in Hamas’s October 7 attacks.

“I must be clear and categorical: There has been no attempt by the secretary-general to silence my report or suppress its findings. On the contrary, I received his full support, politically, logistically and financially, and he also gave clear instructions for the public release of my report and its immediate transmission to the Security Council,” she told the emergency council meeting convened after a call by the US, UK and France.

She also emphasised again that her finding that there was “reasonable grounds” that sexual violence occurred on October 7 does not legitimise further violence by the Israeli military but rather creates a “moral imperative” for a ceasefire in Gaza and to bring the captives back from Gaza.


Palestinian envoy points to UNSC double standards on sexual violence

Riyad Mansour, Palestine’s envoy to the UN, has reminded the Security Council that not a single meeting has been held on evidence found over many years by the UN on sexual violence committed by Israelis against Palestinians.

He said he hopes an unbiased approach will replace this trend from now on and pointed to gaps in the special rapporteur’s work.

While Rapporteur Pramila Patten’s report did not go into details since existing UN evidence points to sexual violence being committed against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, she did not invite any of those entities to present evidence on Monday in New York.

“Let the facts speak; let the law decide,” he said, pointing out that Israel has flat-out refused to cooperate with many UN fact-finding missions and rights inquiries over the years in “its failed attempt to hide the truth”.



Honour Ramadan by ‘silencing the guns’, says UN chief

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has renewed his call for a ceasefire as Ramadan starts and has also called for “removing all obstacles” to the delivery of humanitarian aid. “At the same time – and in the Ramadan spirit of compassion – I call for the immediate release of all hostages,” he said.

“The eyes of the world are watching. The eyes of history are watching.”