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

SvennoJ 7 hours ago

Guterres says UN will not give up on its three objectives in Gaza

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres says Palestinians in Gaza are being subjected to an “intolerable level of suffering” as Israel’s relentless attacks continue.

Guterres told reporters in Geneva it is the role of the UN to have the international community pressing for three “essential” points to be followed by Israel and Palestinian group Hamas.

“First, for the ceasefire to be fully respected. Second, for humanitarian aid to have access to Gaza in an unimpeded way. And third, for the unconditional release of hostages,” said Guterres.

“And we will not give up on these objectives.”


Turkiye will increase its efforts to reinstate truce in Gaza: Erdogan

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Ankara will increase its diplomatic efforts to stop Israel’s “massacre” in Gaza.

Erdogan added that his country will work to establish calm and restore the ceasefire in Gaza.

“Those responsible for the brutality of martyring more than 400 of our brothers will be held accountable for every drop of blood they shed,” he said.

“The Zionist regime has once again shown that it is a terror state that feeds on the blood, lives and tears of the innocent with its brutal attacks on Gaza last night.”


EU foreign policy chief says Israel must end strikes and resume aid to Gaza

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas says Israel must return to negotiations.

“The EU deplores the breakdown of the ceasefire in Gaza and the deaths of civilians, including children, in Israeli air strikes. Israel must end its military operations and resume entry of humanitarian aid and electricity to Gaza. Hamas must release all hostages immediately,” Kallas said in a social media post.

“Palestinians and Israelis have suffered immensely over the past year and a half. The resumption of negotiations and progress towards the second phase [of the Gaza ceasefire] is the only way forward.”


Israel returning to war feels ‘almost natural’ after weeks of ceasefire violations

At the UN Security Council, the US ambassador said that Hamas is the only one to blame for the breakdown of the ceasefire.

It doesn’t take that much argument to see that this is totally false. Hamas has been urging the parties to stick to the ceasefire agreement. The United States and Israel wanted a different version of the ceasefire agreement, and that is the one that Hamas “rejected”.

Hamas wanted a ceasefire as it was signed, and as it was conceived by the US President Joe Biden on the basis of the ideas presented by the Israeli team to the mediators.

But be that as it may, it’s clear today that for Israel, the ceasefire meant that Hamas will cease, and Israel will fire.

We have had so many violations of the ceasefire in the past several weeks that going back to the war felt almost natural.



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SvennoJ 6 hours ago

Israeli plans for Gaza attacks kept within a small circle

The Israeli army claimed that Hamas was planning some sort of an attack before the strikes but again provided no proof of those claims in its statement.

As we have seen, this is a pattern by the Israeli military throughout 15 months of fighting – in fact since October 2023. According to the Israelis, the plans for the attacks were drawn out by the military last week and given to Prime Minister Netanyahu and his defence minister.

They were kept within a small closed circle because the Israeli officials did not want the information to be leaked. They said they wanted these attacks to be a surprise even though the civilian casualties within Gaza have been catastrophic.


Netanyahu says Israeli strikes on Gaza ‘only the beginning’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Tuesday’s air strikes in Gaza are “only the beginning” and that all ceasefire negotiations will take place “under fire”.

In a recorded statement broadcast on national television, Netanyahu said Israel would press ahead until it realises all of its war goals – destroying Hamas and freeing all captives held by the group.

“The previous releases proved that military pressure is a necessary condition for freeing hostages,” he said.


Bibas says return to war endangers remaining captives

Former captive Yarden Bibas, whose wife Shiri and sons Kfir and Ariel Bibas were killed while being held in Gaza, said the resumption of the war endangers the lives of the remaining captives.

The Israeli government has said that the Bibas children were murdered by their captors, while Hamas maintains that they were killed in an Israeli air strike.

“Israel’s decision to return to fighting brings me back to Gaza, to the moments where I heard the sounds of explosions around me and where I feared for my life as I was afraid that the tunnel where I was being held would collapse,” Bibas said in a social media post.

“My wife and children were kidnapped alive and were brutally murdered in captivity. The military pressure endangers the hostages while an agreement brings them home,” he added.


Israelis protest against resumption of war without captive releases



SvennoJ 6 hours ago

UAE warns of repercussions of military escalation in gaza

The United Arab Emirates has condemned the massive Israeli attacks on Gaza that killed hundreds of people.

“The UAE has condemned in the strongest terms the Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip, that led to the deaths and injuries of hundreds of Palestinians, which constitutes a breach of the ceasefire agreement reached in January,” UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

“The UAE warns of the consequences of any military escalation which threatens to cause further loss of innocent life and exacerbate the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip,” it added.

“The UAE has called on the international community to undertake urgent steps to halt escalation, affirming the importance of implementing immediate efforts to reach a ceasefire and safeguard civilians.”


MSF says Israel bombing Gaza with intensity not seen since beginning of the war

The aid group Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, has called for the resumption of the ceasefire and says Israel is subjecting Gaza to collective punishment.

“In line with the tactics that the Israeli authorities have applied since October 2023, they have once again chosen to collectively punish the people of Gaza – with the explicit approval of their closest ally, the United States – striking with an intensity not seen since the early stages of the war,” Claire Magone, general director of MSF France, said in a statement.

“Israeli forces undertaking these latest ruthless attacks and evacuation orders make us fear that a new phase of military operations in Gaza is about to begin,” she added.

“Palestinians in Gaza will simply not be able to withstand this, neither physically nor mentally. Their hopes of recovering at least part of their previous lives are being shattered.”


Palestinians in Gaza ‘incredibly traumatised’ as Israeli attacks resume

People here are barely coping. The ceasefire offered them hope and its collapse plunged people into relentless bombardment and displacement. They are incredibly traumatised, grieving and struggling to cope with the aggravating number of air strikes.

We see how families have started moving from the areas that are marked as active military zones by the Israeli military in the early hours of this morning.

Every round of Israeli strikes makes survival much more difficult. People feel very vulnerable in the face of this unprecedented escalation.


Gaza’s hospitals feel like ‘armageddon’

As Israel carries out some of the heaviest bombing of Gaza since the start of the war, medical workers say that hospitals are being overwhelmed with the dead and injured.

“A level of horror and evil that is really hard to articulate. It felt like armageddon,” Dr Tanya-Haj Hassan, a volunteer with the Medical Aid for Palestinians aid group, told The Associated Press news agency.

She said that the Nasser Hospital emergency room in Khan Younis was chaotic, with patients, including children, spread out on the floor. Dr Ismail Awad, working at a clinic with Doctors Without Borders, said the number of patients was “overwelming”.

Scarcities of medical supplies have been exacerbated by Israel’s decision to cut off aid to Gaza two weeks ago, as well as electricity one week ago.


Israeli attacks on Gaza ‘inflicting staggering levels of death and suffering,’ Amnesty says

Amnesty International’s Secretary-General Agnes Callamard said “today is a desperately dark day for humanity” as she condemned Israel’s renewed attacks on Gaza.

“Israel’s genocide and its unlawful air strikes have already caused unprecedented humanitarian suffering in Gaza. Today, we are back to square one,” she said in a statement.

“The world cannot stand by and allow Israel to continue inflicting staggering levels of death and suffering on Palestinians in Gaza,” she added.

“We urge all states to uphold their obligations to prevent and punish genocide and to ensure respect for international humanitarian law, by pressing Israel to end its attacks and to facilitate the unconditional and unhindered entry of humanitarian aid.”



SvennoJ 6 hours ago

Israel ‘delusional’ if it thinks military operations will work, Hamas says

Hamas spokesperson Osama Hamdan has told Al Jazeera that Israel is “delusional” if it thinks it can change the ceasefire agreement by escalating its military operations.

“They were surprised that we were committed to [the ceasefire] and that every step that was taken by the resistance was in line with what we agreed upon, while everything that Israel did was after consultations with the Americans,” he said.

“So if they think that such operations will change the agreement, they are delusional.”

He said that Netanyahu is suffering from “megalomania” and is trying to escape the corruption cases against him by resuming the fighting.

“The agreement we agreed in 2024 was violated and rejected by the Israelis but then they had to commit to it again in 2025. Now, as they are trying to reject or destroy this agreement, but it will not lead to the results the Americans and Israelis hope for,” he said.

“That’s why it’s better for the Americans to go back to their senses and understand that what is happening will only create more instability in the region.”

UN report warns of ‘significant expansion’ of illegal West Bank settlements

A report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights says Israel has ratcheted up the building of settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem while increasing violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians has gone almost entirely unpunished.

Here are some key findings:

  • From November 1, 2023, to October 31 last year, 612 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces and settlers while 24 Israelis were killed in attacks and clashes with Palestinians.
  • A “significant expansion” of Israeli settlement construction occurred with steps taken to build 20,000 new settlement housing units in occupied East Jerusalem. An additional 10,300 units are “in the pipeline” in the occupied West Bank and 49 new Israeli “outposts” have also been established.
  • During the same period, dispossession of Palestinians increased with 214 Palestinian properties demolished in East Jerusalem and 1,779 in the West Bank due to failure to obtain building permits, which Israel categorically denies to Palestinians.
  • Those demolitions resulted in the forced displacement of 4,527 people in the West Bank, a 200 percent increase from the previous reporting period.
  • There was an average of 118 acts of settler violence per month, up from 108 in 2023, which was itself a record-breaking year.

‘I am outraged by the Israeli airstrikes in Gaza’

That’s what UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said in a post on X.

“I strongly appeal for the ceasefire to be respected, for unimpeded humanitarian assistance to be reestablished and for the remaining hostages to be released unconditionally,” Guterres added.

Israel’s renewed bombardment has drawn condemnation from many governments and humanitarian organisations.

You can see some of those statements here.


Last edited by SvennoJ - 52 minutes ago

SvennoJ 54 minutes ago

Syria says Israeli strikes aiming to undermine ‘stability’

Syria’s Foreign Ministry has condemned deadly Israeli attacks on its soil a day earlier, accusing the country of seeking to sow instability.

A ministry statement denounced “in the strongest terms the recent Israeli air strikes on Deraa”, in southern Syria, on Monday, adding that “this aggression is part of an Israeli campaign against the Syrian people and the stability of the country”.


Israel forces hit sites in central Syria

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says Israeli jets struck a military site in central Syria, the latest such attack in recent days.

According to the UK-based war monitor, “Israeli air strikes targeted a missile battalion” near Homs city. It reported explosions in the area but no immediate word on casualties.

A Syrian security source told Al Jazeera that Israeli raids targeted Syrian army positions in Shinshar and Shamsin in the countryside near Homs.



Houthi media reports US strikes on Yemeni city of Saada

Media channels linked to Yemen’s Houthis have reported strikes by US forces on the city of Saada, the birthplace of their movement in the country’s north.

“A strike by the US aggression” targeted the Saada governorate, said the Houthis’ Saba news agency and Al Masira TV, while witnesses told the AFP news agency there were three attacks on the area.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Iran-backed group – who have pursued a campaign of attacks in what they say is solidarity with Palestinians – launched a missile at Israel, which the Israeli military said was intercepted.

Meanwhile, US air strikes on Yemen killed at least 53 people over the weekend.


US continues attacks on Yemen for fourth night

The US military’s Central Command has confirmed that its attacks on Yemen are ongoing, with a post on X saying it is carrying out “continuous operations against Iran-back Houthi terrorists”.

The Houthis’ Masirah news has reported that US strikes hit several areas in recent hours, including Saada and the port city of Hodeidah.


Houthis report fourth attack against US warships in 72 hours

Houthi fighters said they launched another attack against US warships in the Red Sea, their fourth time firing on the USS Harry Truman aircraft carrier and other vessels in the past 72 hours.

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the operation involved “a number of cruise missiles and drones” targeting the US carrier group, which thwarted a planned US attack on Yemen.

“This operation has successfully achieved its objectives,” Saree said in a statement shared on social media.

Saree said the “US aggression” would not deter Yemen’s “steadfast” support for the Palestinian people, and attacks on Israel would escalate until Israeli forces ended their attacks on, and blockade of, Gaza.

Earlier, the Houthis fired a missile towards Israel for the first time since January, when a ceasefire agreement was reached between Hamas and Israeli forces. The Houthi missile was launched hours after Israel carried out a surprise attack on Gaza, shattering the ceasefire and killing more than 400 Palestinians, including many women and children.

Israel said it intercepted the Houthi missile before it reached the country’s territory. Local media in Yemen also reported that US strikes hit several areas of the country in recent hours, including Saada and the port city of Hodeidah.



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SvennoJ 50 minutes ago

US Muslim rights group says Trump must ‘stop this madness’

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a US Muslim civil rights group, has called on Trump to pressure Netanyahu to end the war.

“President Trump must stop the madness after the government of indicted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu renewed its genocide and slaughtered hundreds of Palestinians, including women and children, during the holy month of Ramadan,” Director Nihad Awad said in a statement.

“Without strong actions to push back against this renewed orgy of slaughter, mass destruction, forced starvation and ethnic cleansing, the Israeli government will continue to act with impunity and our government will remain as complicit with genocide as it was under the Biden administration.”


‘One of the largest one-day child death tolls in Gaza in history’

Israeli attacks on Tuesday killed at least 174 Palestinian children in Gaza, causing “one of the largest one-day child death tolls” in the territory’s history, the civil society group Defense for Children Palestine has said.

“Israeli forces have signed a death warrant for Palestinian children in Gaza as they carry out nonstop attacks, continue to destroy civilian infrastructure, and prevent any humanitarian aid from reaching Palestinians in need,” Ayed Abu Eqtaish, the group’s accountability programme director, said in a statement.

“This is nothing short of genocide.”


British FM says civilian casualties from Israeli attacks on Gaza ‘appalling’

“The civilian casualties from Israeli strikes overnight are appalling,” UK Foreign Minister David Lammy posted on his X account.

He urged all parties to “re-engage with negotiations” to “surge aid and secure a permanent end to this conflict”.

“Diplomacy, not more bloodshed, is how we get security for Israelis and Palestinians,” he said.


Spanish PM responds to Israeli attacks on Gaza

In a post on X, Pedro Sanchez described the bombardment as “Atrocious. Sad. Unacceptable.”

The Spanish government has been a vocal supporter of Gaza, with Sanchez announcing last year that his country would formally recognise Palestinian statehood.



SvennoJ 46 minutes ago

Main events on March 18th

  • Despite international condemnation, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s devastating attack on Gaza was “only the beginning” and that military force would continue until captives are freed.
  • Israeli police forcefully dispersed demonstrators in Jerusalem who were demanding an agreement for the release of captives held by Hamas and protesting against the resumption of Israel’s war on Gaza, Israeli media reports.
  • Hamas spokesperson Osama Hamdan said Israel was “delusional” to think it could alter the Gaza ceasefire by escalating attacks, adding that Israel’s actions “will create more instability in the region”.
  • Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree says the Yemen-based group fired two ballistic missiles at Israel’s Nevatim base in response to Israel’s renewed attacks on Gaza.
  • The US has launched new air strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, hitting the city of Saada, according to local media.
  • Israel’s surprise attack on Gaza killed at least 174 Palestinian children on Tuesday, inflicting “one of the largest one-day child death tolls” in the enclave’s history, Defense for Children – Palestine, a rights group, said.
  • Amnesty International said the world cannot stand by and continue to allow Israel to inflict “staggering levels of death and suffering” on the people of Gaza.
  • The European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called on Israel to end its attacks, saying the EU deplores the end of the ceasefire and the killing of civilians in Israeli air strikes.

Emergency workers collect ‘pieces of flesh’ after Israeli bombing

Four hundred people have been killed, and there are still many missing and trapped under piles of rubble, as the attacks were very massive. Very intense.

As one Civil Defence crew member described to us, they had to literally collect pieces of flesh from nearby areas of people who were killed, including the bodies of children and women.

It’s very calm in the hospital, here in the courtyard, but inside its wards, it’s quite a struggle for the medical staff who have been working throughout the day, intervening and trying to hold as many cases as they can.

Many of the cases that are quite treatable are not going to be treated in the hospital here simply because doctors had to make a choice about which cases to pay attention to first.

They had to prioritise these cases simply because of the acute shortage of medical supplies.

So this is, by itself, an element that has been grinding down on the mental and the physical wellbeing of the medical staff and surviving family members in the hospital.


A Palestinian stands near a tent destroyed by Israeli attacks in the al-Mawasi area, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday

Israel blocking ‘life-saving’ health supplies at border says UN

In its latest situation report, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said that the hospital equipment left waiting to get into Gaza includes “20 ventilators for neonatal intensive care units and nine portable newborn incubators”.

Israel’s renewed bombardment is placing increased strain on health resources, OCHA added, noting that the general director of Gaza’s Ministry of Health, Dr Munir Al Bursh, has called for field hospitals, beds and operation rooms to help meet demand following Israel’s renewed bombardment.

A joint UN assessment found that no hospitals in Gaza are fully functional and that 13 hospitals and four field hospitals remain non-functional, while Israel’s newest displacement orders cover areas where there are at least three primary healthcare (PHC) facilities and one field hospital.



SvennoJ 44 minutes ago

Israeli police assault demonstrators protesting in Jerusalem

Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reports that police have used force to disperse demonstrators in Jerusalem calling for the release of captives held by Hamas and protesting against the resumption of the war on Gaza.

Video clips showed police officers dragging protesters and beating others.

Protesters have called for further demonstrations in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on Wednesday.


‘Bring them home’ – Israelis protest for captives held in Gaza


Casualties rise as north Gaza sky ‘clouded’ with Israeli attack drones

Apart from the attacks, drones are everywhere in the skies of Gaza City.

The northern parts of the Strip are clouded with these drones that keep buzzing and causing much concern and worry for the already traumatised and displaced population.

For the past hours, we were able – from this point where we are broadcasting from – to hear the sound of falling bombs on areas in the northern part of the Strip, and on a tent site in the northern part of Gaza City, causing further civilian casualties.

In the earlier evening hours, at a site in Deir el-Balah, two people were reported killed – confirmed by Al-Aqsa Hospital.

There have been more attacks on other public facilities across the eastern part of Gaza City and the northern part, causing further civilian casualties and pushing more people into further internal displacement in the western part of the city.


Israeli raids on southern Gaza kill 10

Earlier an Israeli attack on tents housing forcibly displaced people in Gaza’s southern Khan Younis killed a mother and child. Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Gaza now reports that 10 people have been killed in early morning Israeli attacks on Khan Younis and Rafah.


People flee as drone activity seen as indication of more Israeli attacks to come

These attacks, coupled with the ongoing heavy machineguns and the deployment of quadcopters, particularly in the eastern part of the Strip, have pushed more people into moving towards the central part of Gaza City, seeking temporary shelter in either tent sites or they are forced to move into temporary shelters in buildings that are near collapse.

This is something that has been posing a real risk and hazard for people who are seeking some sort of safety in the midst of this evolving, horrific situation.

A similar situation is repeating itself in Gaza’s central area and further into Khan Younis where a mother and her daughter were killed in an attack in Khan Younis City in the earlier hours.

The attacks continue, and as long as there are drones in the skies of the Gaza Strip, the expectation is there will be a rise in the aerial attacks and that is what’s causing much of the concern and worry among people here.

Israeli forces arrest Palestinians, open fire in West Bank raids

At least 10 Palestinians have been arrested in an Israeli raid on the village of Farkha in the Salfit governorate of the occupied West Bank, according to local media sources, cited by Al Jazeera Arabic.

Israeli forces also shot and wounded a young Palestinian man in the al-Ein refugee camp in Nablus, then refused to release him, Al Jazeera Arabic also reports.

Meanwhile, the Wafa news agency reports that Israeli soldiers opened fire in the Dura area, near Hebron, injuring three Palestinians.