By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Politics - Israel-Hamas war, Gaza genocide

SvennoJ on 13 March 2025

Israeli forces ‘laying siege’ to West Bank’s Tulkarem, Nur Shams refugee camps

There have been widespread detention campaigns across the occupied West Bank. Most prominently, they targeted people in Hebron city.

However, there was also a raid in Nablus city as well as escalating violence in the northern occupied West Bank, specifically Tulkarem. There, the Israeli army is setting up permanent positions that basically lay siege to the city’s two refugee camps – Tulkarem refugee camp and Nur Shams refugee camp.

Elsewhere, in Ramallah, for example, a 66-year-old woman was detained from the Umm ash-Sharayet neighbourhood. It is unclear why this woman was arrested or whether she will be released any time soon.

We’ve seen over the past few days Israeli soldiers turn certain community centres throughout the occupied West Bank into interrogation centres, where they arrest a large number of Palestinians, interrogate them – with many reporting being beaten and treated quite severely – before releasing them hours later.

We’re not sure what the circumstances in Ramallah are. But there has been an intensification of violence since the ceasefire in Gaza. Statements by the Israeli government say that the escalation is here to stay, at least for the coming months.


Israel passes military order to seize Palestinian land in West Bank

Israeli forces issued a military order today to seize about 0.74 acres (0.3 hectares) of land in the village of Hares in the occupied West Bank, Wafa reports, quoting local sources.

Omar Samara, the head of the Hares village council, confirmed the order on land belonging to local Palestinian residents.

Samara explained that Israeli authorities have given landowners just 24 hours to appeal the decision.

He urged international and human rights organisations to take immediate action to halt the confiscation, which he said threatens the livelihoods of local farmers, Wafa reported.


Israeli settlers attack various Palestinian villages across West Bank

Israeli settlers have launched a number of attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, Wafa, the Palestinian news agency, reports, noting that:

  • Settlers razed a tract of land belonging to the villagers of Iskaka, east of the city of Salfit, according to local sources.
  • In the Masafer Yatta area, south of Hebron, settlers attacked Palestinian shepherds and stole 13 sheep, according to local sources. The incident took place in the village of Khirbet al-Fakhit. Nidal Yunis, head of the Masafer Yatta Council, confirmed the attack, saying it was part of the ongoing harassment faced by local residents in the area.
  • Settlers also attacked Palestinian maintenance workers in the Wadi al-Rakhim community, located in the southeastern area of the city of Yatta, according to local activist, Osama Makhamreh. He said that settlers alongside Israeli forces attacked Palestinian maintenance workers from the Southern Electricity Company’s Yatta branch while they were working to maintain the electricity network. They also caused damage to the company’s vehicles and seized equipment during the raid.
  • Near the village of Naqoura, northwest of Nablus, settlers hurled stones at Palestinian vehicles. Mohammad Azem, head of the Joint Services Council for villages northwest of Nablus, said that a group from the illegal settlement of Shavei Shomron attacked citizens’ vehicles in the area.


UN documents 54 attacks on health facilities in West Bank since January

The UN’s Stephane Dujarric says the World Health Organization (WHO) has verified 54 “attacks on health centres in the West Bank, including four deaths and nine injuries” since January.

Dujarric said 20 health facilities are not functioning due to the violence.

Israel has stepped up its deadly raids and attacks in the occupied West Bank this year, especially after the truce in Gaza came into effect.



Around the Network
SvennoJ on 13 March 2025

UN accuses Israel of ‘genocidal acts’ in Gaza for targeting reproductive healthcare facilities

The UN Commission of Inquiry has said Israel had “intentionally attacked and destroyed” the Palestinian territory’s main fertility centre and had simultaneously imposed a siege and blocked aid, including medication for ensuring safe pregnancies, deliveries and neonatal care.

The commission found that Israeli authorities “have destroyed in part the reproductive capacity of Palestinians in Gaza as a group through the systematic destruction of sexual and reproductive healthcare”, it said in a statement. It said this amounted to “two categories of genocidal acts” during Israel’s war in Gaza.

Of its five categories, the inquiry said the two implicating Israel were “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction” and “imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group”.

“These violations have not only caused severe immediate physical and mental harm and suffering to women and girls, but irreversible long-term effects on the mental health and reproductive and fertility prospects of Palestinians as a group,” the commission’s chair Navi Pillay said in a statement.

Israel “categorically rejects” the allegations, its mission in Geneva said.

‘Sick document’: Israel blasts UN report on ‘genocidal acts’ against Palestinians

Israel’s Foreign Ministry has strongly condemned the report, calling it “one of the worst cases of blood libel the world has ever seen”, referring to accusations against Jews in Europe of using Christian blood for ritual purposes, which often inspired deadly attacks on them.

“It accuses the victims of the crimes committed against them. Hamas is the organisation that has committed horrendous sexual crimes against Israelis,” it said in a post on X. “It is indeed a sick document that only an antisemitic organisation such as the UN could produce.”

Israel often makes allegations of anti-Semitism to respond to its well-documented abuses against Palestinians.


Netanyahu slams UN report on genocide, sexual violence in Gaza as ‘absurd’

The Israeli prime minister is the latest high-level official to take aim at the expert UN report accusing Israel of acts of genocide and sexual violence in Gaza.

In a statement issued by his office, Netanyahu said the report is full of “false accusations”.

“The anti-Israeli circus known as the UN Human Rights Council … once again chooses to attack the State of Israel with false accusations, including absurd claims” of destroying sexual and reproductive healthcare facilities in Gaza, said the statement.


UN report on ‘genocidal acts’ to give boost to ICJ case against Israel

The United Nations report is detailed and not very easy to read. It contains very graphic details and testimonies from not only the victims but also the perpetrators of these acts.

The report relies on information and videos published by the soldiers themselves documenting themselves carrying out some of the acts detailed in the report. This includes humiliating Palestinian detainees, assaulting them, and stripping them down to their underwear.

The report also talks about the targeting of health facilities, including Gaza’s main fertility clinic. About 4,000 embryos were deliberately destroyed in that attack, in effect denying thousands of families the possibility of giving birth.

The report also talks about acts of sexual violence committed against Palestinian detainees, men and women alike. This includes rape by foreign objects of men and women in Israeli custody.

Israel has categorically denied the conclusions reached by the report, with former PM Bennett saying the UN has become Hamas’s useful idiot.

We’ve heard these kinds of accusations and statements against the UN before, but they really don’t hold up in court. As we’ve seen before, the International Court of Justice rejected Israel’s claims and attacks against the UN and found that there’s plausible evidence for genocide. This report will only increase that plausibility in the eyes of legal experts.


UN report on Israel’s attacks on reproductive healthcare could end up in ICC, ICJ

Former UN relief chief Martin Griffiths told Al Jazeera he predicts the report will be formally submitted to the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, adding that it was “very good the UN now itself is talking about genocide”.

“As you know, it [UN] has been very careful about that word in the past, but now this is a gateway,” he added.

Moreover, Griffiths said the report goes beyond reproductive health and attacks on women and girls, examining the broader conditions imposed on Gaza, describing them as “life-threatening”.


Al-Basma IVF Centre in Gaza City, Gaza’s largest fertility clinic, was struck by an Israeli shell



SvennoJ on 13 March 2025

No alternative to military action in Gaza: Senior Israeli lawmaker

Hanoch Milwidsky, a deputy speaker of Israel’s Knesset, has advocated sending the military back into Gaza and occupying the whole territory.

“I don’t see any alternative to military action there,” Milwidsky, a member of the right-wing Likud party, told Israeli media. “If we want to follow the Trump plan, we need to fully conquer Gaza.”

Milwidsky acknowledged that returning to war would risk the lives of Israeli soldiers and captives, but said “that’s unfortunately a price that must be paid” to fully defeat Hamas.

“What’s the alternative? Build fences again? Set up checkpoints again?” he asked.



Israeli occupation ‘root of all sins’: Israeli ex-army general

Amiram Levin, former commander of the northern region in the Israeli army, has stated that the Palestinian conflict “must be resolved and cannot be contained”.

In an interview with Israeli media outlet Maariv, Levin emphasised that without addressing the Palestinian issue, “there will be no serious normalisation with the Saudis or the Lebanese.

“The continuation of the Israeli occupation is the root of all sins,” he said. “Peace is elusive, and we must reduce the occupation and draw borders where we return to being a Jewish majority without returning to the 1967 borders.”

Levin also argued that relinquishing certain territory is in Israel’s best interest.

“It is in our interest to get rid of large areas where a large number of Palestinians live, not because it is good for them but because it is good for us.”



SvennoJ on 13 March 2025

UN aid chief expresses shock at seeing dogs fattened from eating corpses in Gaza

Tom Fletcher, the head of the UN’s humanitarian affairs bureau, has spoken to reporters about what he witnessed in Gaza during a recent visit.

“It was much, much worse than I’d anticipated, and I’d really prepared myself for the worst,” he said.

“The devastation, the desolation in northern Gaza is even greater there than it is in the south, and for miles and miles, it’s just rubble. My staff were trying to find a way back to their homes, using GPS, because there were no landmarks to navigate by. You couldn’t see what was a school, what was hospital, what was a home,” he told reporters.

“One of the first shocking things I saw driving in is the dogs going through the rubble. And I said to my colleague who was with me, why are the dogs so fat? And he said, well, because the dogs are looking for corpses. And you notice that the people are thin, and then you see that for miles and miles and miles.”

As we reported earlier, Fletcher also called on Israel to end its punishing blockade on Gaza, saying supplies of aid are at risk of running out “very, very fast”.

“The fact that we’re not getting fuel in means that incubators are being switched off,” he added.


Palestinians resume search for buried bodies at al-Shifa Hospital

It has been an emotionally exhausting moment for many people who ended up burying their loved ones here when Israeli forces laid siege to al-Shifa Hospital and then stormed it and killed many people.

There are nearly 100 graves here.

This used to be the back yard of the hospital and it served largely as a parking lot before being turned into a graveyard.

Some of the graves contain more than one body, as families had to bury their loved ones quickly because of the snipers that were stationed around the hospital.

Over the past hour, many family members have arrived here, digging for the bodies of their loved ones buried here. These are the families who were able to identify the graves because of the markers they left behind.

However, many of the graves do not have these signs. They remain unidentified, believed to contain victims whose families were either killed and did not have anyone to bury them. Or they were buried by health officials and volunteers.

For many families here, this is an agonising time. Some still don’t know if their loved ones were killed, detained by the Israeli military, or taken from evacuation centres or their homes in northern Gaza. Over the past month, they have searched across the Strip, hoping to find answers since the ceasefire began.


Civil defence crews recover 48 bodies from Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital for proper burial

Gaza’s civil defence now says 48 bodies have been recovered and are being transported for proper burial. According to civil defence officials, 38 of the bodies have been identified with the help of relatives, while 10 remain unidentified.

The director of civil defence stated that clearing all the bodies found at the hospital – approximately 160 – will take several days.

Israel holding on to the bodies of 676 dead Palestinians, group says

The National Campaign to Retrieve Martyrs’ Bodies, a Palestinian advocacy group, says Israel is retaining the bodies of 676 Palestinians in freezers and military burial sites, known as “cemeteries of numbers”.

The number rose this week after the Israeli military took the bodies of three Palestinian men it killed in Jenin in the occupied West Bank early on Tuesday.

The withheld bodies include those of 60 children and nine women, according to the group.

For decades, Israel has been taking the dead bodies of suspected Palestinian fighters to use as a bargaining chip.

Last week, Trump slammed Hamas for holding on to the bodies of Israelis after the October 7, 2023 attack. “Only sick and twisted people keep bodies, and you are sick and twisted,” the US president wrote in a social media post.



SvennoJ on 13 March 2025

Dozens of bakeries shut down in Gaza amid Israeli blockade: Media Office

Ismail al-Thawabtah, the director general of the Government Media Office in Gaza, has provided an update on the latest humanitarian situation in the enclave amid the ongoing Israeli blockade of aid.

Here are his translated comments:

  • This closure has disrupted the entry of fuel and cooking gas, causing dozens of bakeries to cease operations.
  • The systematic closure policy and denial of fuel entry have not only disrupted bakeries and vital institutions, but have also completely paralysed the transportation sector, disrupting the movement of citizens and limiting their ability to reach hospitals and medical centres.
  • We warn of the disastrous repercussions of this closure and call on the international community and human rights and humanitarian organisations to take immediate action to pressure the Israeli occupation to open the crossings urgently.


Aid groups reducing food rations in Gaza, UN says

The Israeli blockade on aid to Gaza will lead to “more dire consequences on the ground” if it continues, warns UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.

“Our partners report having to reduce food rations to prioritise assistance for as many vulnerable people as possible,” Dujarric told reporters. “The food security situation could sharply deteriorate unless the flow of aid into Gaza resumes as quickly as possible.”


Gaza health official makes plea for oxygen generators

Bassam al-Hamadine, an assistant undersecretary in the Health Ministry in Gaza, says the enclave “urgently” needs at least 10 oxygen generators to replace equipment that had been destroyed by the Israeli military.

Patients are “suffering in intensive care units and operation rooms due to the lack of access to oxygen supplies”, al-Hamadine said in a statement.



Around the Network
SvennoJ on 13 March 2025

Israeli attacks target Gaza City homes

Israeli forces have fired at Palestinian homes in Gaza City’s Shujayea neighbourhood, report our colleagues on the ground. It is unclear if the attacks caused casualties.

They follow a series of Israeli military assaults in the enclave yesterday, including one that killed six people near the central Netzarim Corridor and another that killed a Palestinian girl in Deir el-Balah.


Israeli military claims central Gaza attack

Israel’s military says it carried out an aerial attack earlier today on a group of people who were “attempting to plant an explosive device” near its troops in central Gaza.

The claim follows our reports of Israeli fire near central Gaza’s Maghazi camp, which injured at least one person.

Yesterday, Israel’s military carried out a series of attacks in the enclave that killed a total of eight people, including a woman near Rafah and a girl in Deir el-Balah.


Israeli gunfire targets central Gaza’s Maghazi camp

We are getting reports of another Israeli attack in central Gaza, this time in Maghazi camp. Israeli gunfire in the area has injured at least one Palestinian, report our colleagues on the ground and Palestinian media.


Israeli drone kills Palestinian child in Gaza City

The Palestinian news agency, Wafa, reports that an Israeli drone opened fire at Palestinians in the Shujayea neighbourhood of Gaza City, killing a three-year-old child. The report identified the victim as Amjad Abad.



SvennoJ on 13 March 2025

Amnesty urges action to protect Palestinians after UN report

Amnesty International calls on the international community to take “urgent action” to protect Palestinians in light of the UN report that documented that Israel has systematically used sexual and reproductive violence against them.

“These damning findings are another clear illustration of the devastating impact of Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its use of gender-based violence to oppress Palestinian women and girls across the Occupied Palestinian Territory and to use sexual violence to perpetuate oppression on Palestinians of all genders, especially in Israeli detention centers,” Lauren Aarons, Amnesty’s senior adviser on gender, conflict and international justice, said in a statement.

“The report exposes yet again the horrors of Israeli atrocity crimes in Gaza, and how they specifically impact women.”


Another Palestinian child killed in northern Gaza

An Israeli drone has struck a tent in Beit Hanoon in northern Gaza, killing a child and injuring his mother, Al Jazeera Arabic and Wafa report.

Earlier, another Palestinian child was killed in a drone attack in Gaza City.


US liberal Zionist group denounces Gaza blockade

J Street, an advocacy group that describes itself as pro-Israel and pro-peace, slams the Israeli government for blocking humanitarian assistance from entering Gaza.

“The Netanyahu government’s decision to cut off aid and electricity to Gaza could soon plunge desperate Palestinian families back into the throes of hunger and disease,” the group said in a social media post.

“This does nothing to secure the hostages’ freedom nor disempower Hamas.”



SvennoJ on 13 March 2025

Main events on March 13th

  • In a new report, UN experts accused Israel of carrying out “genocidal acts” by systematically destroying women’s healthcare facilities and using sexual violence as a war strategy during its war on Gaza.
  • Hamas said the report confirmed the reality on the ground that Israel has committed “genocide” in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the findings “absurd”.
  • Israel’s repeated violations of the fragile ceasefire in Gaza continued, including a drone attack in northern Beit Hanoon, which killed a child and wounded his mother. Another child was killed in a drone attack in nearby Gaza City.
  • Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem has dismissed alternatives to the current Gaza truce framework – including a US-proposed 60-day extension – saying the group remains committed to “what has already been agreed upon”.
  • UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the World Health Organization (WHO) has verified 54 “attacks on health centres in the West Bank, including four deaths and nine injuries” since January.
  • Israeli fighter jets carried out a bombardment around the village of Jennata in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border, in the latest violation of its ceasefire with Hezbollah.



Calls for action after UN accuses Israel of genocidal acts

The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor says the commission’s report “ought to be a wake-up call for all pertinent states and organisations to take immediate action to fulfil their responsibilities under the Genocide Convention, rather than just sitting on paper”.

It said the continued inaction on Israel’s crimes “has directly or indirectly contributed to the ongoing crime of genocide in the Gaza Strip, and is thus legally and morally indefensible”.

Many people of conscience have now lost faith in the international system and the principles of justice and equality, because of the “persistent disdain for the reports and recommendations of legitimate independent entities, as well as [states’] preference for political interests and considerations over moral and legal obligations”, it added.

Earlier, Amnesty International also called on the world to take “urgent action” to protect Palestinians in light of the “damning findings” by the UN commission.



As truce falters, mothers in Gaza again mark children’s names on their bodies

Palestinian aid workers say families in Gaza are unable to pick up the pieces of their lives and plan for a return to normalcy because of the uncertainty over the fate of the ceasefire.

“Our lives can’t be further from normal. Forget about opening a faucet and getting water, or flipping a switch to get light,” said Shorouq, a project manager at the Palestinian organisation Maan Development Center. “With the news that the ceasefire is faltering, mothers around me are again writing down names on their children’s forearms.”

The practice is aimed at making sure the children are identified if they are killed in an Israeli attack and buried in a marked grave instead of an unmarked one.

Amal, who works for the Women Affairs Center, says hope is “limited” in Gaza.

“Before the ceasefire, we hoped to die together with our children when the time comes, and prayed our bodies remain intact instead of ripping to pieces,” Amal said. “Since the ceasefire, one war largely stopped but many more battles broke out ahead of women.”

“There are no homes, no water, no electricity. Who even talks about these things in 2025?” she asked.

Hala, a UN protection worker, said the worst part is the uncertainty.

“It is impossible to return to any kind of normalcy if you can’t at least count on the slaughter being over,” she said.

Sweden to provide $29.5m for Gaza

The Swedish government has approved a new support package of 300 million Swedish krona ($29.5m) to address “the acute needs of the civilian population” in Gaza.

The funds will go to UN agencies to support efforts for food distribution, emergency housing, as well as medical care and sexual and reproductive health, the government said in a statement.

“The implementation of the first phase of the ceasefire in Gaza has resulted in an extremely urgent increase in the supply of humanitarian supplies. It is now of the utmost importance that the partners adhere to the ceasefire in Gaza, that unhindered humanitarian access is ensured and that all hostages are released immediately and unconditionally,” said Benjamin Dousa, the Swedish minister for international development cooperation and foreign trade.

The UN’s humanitarian agency (OCHA) says at least $4.07bn is needed to meet the most critical humanitarian needs of people in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, but that countries have so far only disbursed $173.6m.



SvennoJ on 13 March 2025

Dr Hussam Abu Safia’s lawyer reveals abuse he faces in Israeli prison

A lawyer for the former director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital says he’s being subjected to abusive and degrading treatment in an Israeli jail.

Ghaid Qassem told Al Jazeera that Dr Hussam Abu Safia is being denied medication for his various health issues.

Palestinian women working in illegal Israeli settlements face exploitation

Oxfam has released a new report on the “harrowing daily realities” faced by vulnerable Palestinian women working in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The group said women interviewed for the report spoke of being forced to work without contracts, sometimes in hazardous working conditions, over long hours, with some being subjected to harassment.

More than 6,500 Palestinian women currently work in Israeli settlements, primarily in agriculture and manufacturing, with the number steadily increasing.

Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam’s policy lead for Palestine, called for international action to end the exploitative employment of Palestinian women in these settlements.

“Palestinians living in the West Bank are growing increasingly dependent on settlements for jobs but this is less by choice and more the result of decades of Israeli policies that have eroded the Palestinian economy,” she said.

“Israeli settlement expansion, land confiscation, and restrictions on Palestinian trade, movement, and development have created conditions of poverty and unemployment, forcing more Palestinian women into exploitative labor. The international community must act to dismantle these injustices and ensure Palestinian women have access to dignified and lawful employment within their own economy.”

Sounds like slavery...



Israeli military shoots, arrests 8 ‘infiltrators’ in Jordan Valley

The Israeli military has said its forces shot and arrested eight people attempting to cross from “Jordan into Israeli territory” in the Israeli-occupied Jordan Valley area.

“Prior to the arrest, the suspects approached the forces in a manner that posed a threat to them. The forces responded by firing at the suspects, and injuries were identified,” the Israeli military said in a statement.

Israel’s Channel 14 news outlet has said the wounded people were “migrant workers”.

Israeli forces kill two in Jordan Valley: Report

Earlier, the Israeli military said it attacked eight people attempting to cross from “Jordan into Israeli territory” in the Jordan Valley of the occupied West Bank.

Israel’s Kan public broadcaster now confirms two people wounded by Israeli forces in that incident have died from their injuries, while the remaining six were taken into custody.

Israeli media reports suggest the group were migrant workers.

“While conducting searches, two suspects suddenly jumped out of the bushes at us, so we opened fire. Those were seconds when a quick decision had to be made. As soon as you sense danger, you open fire,” an unnamed Israeli soldier present during the incident told Kan.



SvennoJ on 14 March 2025

Israeli court releases suspect who shot Palestinian man in Jerusalem

A magistrates’ court in Jerusalem has ordered the release of an Israeli man accused of shooting a Palestinian municipal worker into house arrest.

The Times of Israel, quoting witnesses, said the Palestinian man, Ahmad Nijam, was shot in the leg in downtown Jerusalem on Wednesday when “a mob of young Jewish extremists chanting ‘Death to Arabs'” attacked him.

Judge David Shaul Gabai Richter, however, ruled on Thursday that although the incident was one in which a weapon was used, “I do not believe that the defendant can be deemed a … criminal.”

Footage – recorded by Nijam’s acquaintance, and posted on X by Israeli human rights group Mistaclim – shows the victim writhing on the ground in pain as two others, including an Israeli soldier, stand nearby.

According to the Times, Nijam told Israel’s Channel 13 that the mob approached him and demanded to know why he was in the area generally frequented by Jews. He said the Israeli suspect ordered him to the ground before shooting him in the leg.

Nijam also told Channel 13 that upon his release from hospital, Israeli authorities summoned him for questioning asking why he was out so late.



Translation: Yesterday, there was a terrorist attack on King George Street in Jerusalem. He didn’t open editions or even a morning prayer. Or Udi Segal did not broadcast. The terrorist, armed with a licensed gun, was Jewish. And the victim is a Palestinian resident of Jerusalem. The police called it a shooting incident.