Rights group demands probe into Israeli attack on Australian-Palestinian student

The Australian Centre for International Justice (ACIJ) is calling on the Australian government to act after a 20-year-old Australian-Palestinian dental student was “shot through her apartment window” in Abu Dis, in the occupied West Bank, on November 15, 2024.

ACIJ said Raneem Abu-Izneid was left with “shrapnel injuries to her scalp, face, neck and chest” and later had her right eye surgically removed.

“It is deeply regrettable that the Australian government has failed to meaningfully address the concerns and requests raised on behalf of our client, Raneem Abu-Izneid, a 20 year old Australian citizen left blind in one eye following a shooting that we allege involved the Israeli Border Police,” ACIJ’s acting executive director, Lara Khider, said in a statement.

According to the ACIJ, the Israeli Border Police have acknowledged their officers were firing live rounds at buildings in Abu Dis on the day of the incident.

“It is alarming that despite five months having passed since the attack, neither Australia nor Israeli authorities have publicly acknowledged the incident or made an announcement on the commencement of an investigation,” Khider added.

Vast majority of West Bank residents killed by Israel die in north: UN

OCHA has found that as of Thursday, more than 90 percent of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank this year were in the six northern governorates of Jenin, Tubas, Nablus, Tulkarem, Qalqilya and Salfit.

From March 5 through Monday, Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians, including two children, and wounded at least 130, the UN agency reported.

Amid a widening Israeli military operation in the West Bank, the UN and its partners are providing food, water, sanitation and health services to families displaced by the military.

The report found that in Jenin city, at least “15,000 people still depend on water trucking to have access to water”.

“Since the beginning of the Israeli forces’ operation in the northern West Bank on January 21, humanitarian partners have distributed over 3,000 hygiene kits, about 320 water storage tanks, 20 mobile latrines, and more than 1,000 solid waste containers,” it said.



Bangladesh reintroduces ‘except Israel’ phrase on passports

The phrase “valid for all countries except Israel”, which was printed on Bangladeshi passports for decades, was removed in 2021 during the later years of now-ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s tenure.

Nilima Afroze, a deputy secretary at the Home Ministry, told the Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) news agency that authorities had “issued a directive last week” to restore the inscription. It will in effect bar its citizens from travelling to Israel.

The country’s support for an independent Palestinian state has been steadfast. On Saturday, about 100,000 protesters gathered in Dhaka in solidarity with Gaza.

Houthis claim launch of two ballistic missiles at Israel

Earlier, we reported the Israeli army announcing that air raid sirens sounded in different parts of the country.

The spokesperson for Yemen’s Houthi fighters has now put out a statement regarding the firing of missiles towards Israel.

Here are his translated comments:

Five killed in US strike on Yemen’s Sanaa province

Houthis say US drone shot down in northwestern Yemen

We have been reporting on US strikes on Yemen that have killed at least five people.

The Houthi group in Yemen has now put out a statement addressing the US attacks, saying that an American MQ-9 drone was shot down in the airspace of Hajjah governorate by a locally made surface-to-air missile.

Hezbollah cedes most military sites in south Lebanon to the army: Report

The AFP news agency is reporting that most military sites belonging to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon have been placed under the Lebanese army’s control.

The agency cited a source close to the Lebanese armed group. “Out of 265 Hezbollah military positions identified south of the Litani, the movement has ceded about 190 to the army,” the source was quoted as saying.

The ceasefire deal that ended more than a year of conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, including two months of full-blown war, states that only UN peacekeepers and Lebanon’s army should be deployed in the south.

It also mandates Israel to withdraw all of its troops from Lebanon.

But Israel has kept soldiers on five hilltops inside southern Lebanon and has continued to launch air attacks across the country, including the capital, Beirut, claiming it is targeting Hezbollah fighters and weapons caches.

More than 250 former Mossad members call to end war and return captives

Israeli news outlet Ynet has reported that more than 250 former Mossad intelligence members have signed a letter calling for the end of the war on Gaza and a return of the captives held in the enclave.

The letter by the former Mossad agents was initiated by the retired senior officer Gail Shoresh and signed by three former heads of the intelligence agency.

This comes after army reservists signed a letter to call for the immediate return of the captives, even if it means changing the army’s current directive. In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the letter, calling them “marginal and extremist”.

Israel’s defence minister says attacks on Gaza will ‘intensify’ if Hamas does not accept deal

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz says the military is expanding its security zone in northern Gaza after capturing the Morag Corridor separating Rafah from Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Saturday.

Katz wrote on X that along with the issuing of forced evacuation orders for Palestinians, the army’s actions are to exert “heavy pressure on Hamas in favor of returning to the outline of releasing the hostages”.

“The more Hamas persists in its refusal, the more the [Israeli military] activity will intensify – while continuing to thwart its operatives and destroy its infrastructure. Gaza will become smaller and more isolated, and more and more of its residents will be forced to evacuate from the fighting zones,” he added.

Earlier, Hamas said in a statement that the widespread attacks on Gaza would not secure the return of the captives held in the enclave – only a prisoner swap would.

On Saturday, the group sent a delegation to Cairo to restart ceasefire negotiations.

Demand for BBC’s shutdown grows after misleading headline on Gaza hospital attack | Janta Ka Reporter

The BBC is facing unprecedented outrage over its latest headline on the attack of Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City. Angry people including some prominent names in journalism and academia are now demanding that this publicly-funded media organisation be shut down.

Global News (Canada) isn't much better, same script from Israel for the presenter to read out, but at least they show a little bit of the people at the scene.




All the mainstream media is rotten to the core. I can understand it from North America as all the media is controlled by old rich white assholes. Yet the BBC still goes on public funding? Owned by the British government which is infiltrated and complicit as well...

Main events on April 13th

Pregnant woman pulled from rubble in Jabalia

We have more on the deadly Israeli assault on the northern Jabalia refugee camp. The Associated Press news agency, citing the Indonesian Hospital, is reporting that the death toll from the attack, which hit a house on Sunday afternoon, has risen to seven people, including two women.

Among the survivors was a pregnant woman, Alaa Manoun. She appeared to be in shock when she was pulled from the rubble onto a stretcher and taken to hospital. She later wept after learning that her youngest daughter had been killed, along with her husband and mother. Two other daughters, aged 4 and 7, were injured.

Manoun had a broken ankle but otherwise seemed OK, according to a doctor. No scan was available, since the only machine in northern Gaza was at al-Ahli Hospital, now damaged.

“We don’t know whose body is this and whose body is that,” said a neighbour, Abdallah Dardouna. “There is no resistance, there is no Qassam, no Hamas, there is no one here. It’s only civilians here.”

Death toll in US bombing of Yemen rises to 7, children among wounded

The Health Ministry in Sanaa reports that after another person was confirmed killed in last night’s US air raids, the number of casualties has risen to seven killed and 29 wounded, including one in critical condition.

Houthi-run media said the target was a ceramics factory near the capital. The ministry said five children and a woman were among the wounded, and that the victims were workers of a factory as well as residents of houses next to it.

US strikes in Yemen killed 123 in less than a month: Ministry

The Houthi-run Health Ministry reports that at least 123 Yemeni people, including children and women, have been killed and 247 others wounded in US air attacks since March 16.

It condemned “blatant US aggression on the homeland and its direct targeting of civilian objects and civilians”, including the attacks on the factory near Sanaa last night that killed seven people and wounded 29 others, including five children.

“This crime, added to the criminal record of the American-Zionist enemy, is a full-fledged war crime and a flagrant violation of all international laws and conventions,” the ministry said.

It called on Arab and Islamic peoples, along with human rights organisations, to protest against the attacks.

UK’s Energean signs new gas supply deal in Israel

UK-based gas producer Energean says its Israeli subsidiary has signed a gas sale and purchase deal with Kesem Energy to supply fuel for a new power plant in Israel.

Under the agreement, which represents more than $2bn in revenue, Energean Israel will supply Kesem’s new plant with about 12.5 billion cubic metres (441 billion cubic feet) of gas over the 17-year lifespan of the contract.

Energean, which primarily operates in Israel, has been benefitting from increased gas demand in the country due to rising electricity needs and coal phase-out plans.

The company aims to double its production in the coming years, primarily by developing new prospects in Israel.

More Israeli soldiers, graduates join call for end to Gaza war

More than 1,600 former Israeli army paratroopers and infantry soldiers have joined the band of military personnel demanding a deal to bring captives back from Gaza and end the war.

The group said they want the captives returned, “even at the cost of halting the fighting”, to save Israeli lives, according to Yedioth Ahronoth and other Israeli media.

More than 170 graduates from an elite tech leadership programme of the Military Intelligence Unit signed their names to a separate letter calling for an end to the war and the return of captives.

The calls are the latest among growing voices from within the military pressuring the government to end the war. Air Force reservists, doctors, ex-Mossad members, navy reservists and military intelligence members have been among those signing similar letters.

Israeli military doctors call for end to Gaza war to secure captive release

At least 200 Israeli military doctors have signed a petition demanding the return of captives from Gaza, even if it means ending the ongoing war, according to a Sunday report by Israel’s Channel 13.

“We, reserve doctors in the various units in the Israeli army, demand the immediate return of the captives and an end to the fighting in the Gaza Strip,” the doctors wrote in the petition.

The petition reflects mounting frustration within Israeli military ranks, with the doctors emphasising that the war has strayed from its stated goals.

“After more than 550 days of fighting that have already taken a heavy toll on Israel, we feel with pain that the continued fighting in Gaza is intended primarily to serve political and personal interests without a security purpose,” they said.

Hamas says it will free captives if end to Gaza war guaranteed

A senior Hamas official says the Palestinian group is ready to release all Israeli captives in exchange for a “serious prisoner swap” and guarantees that Israel will end the war in Gaza.

Hamas is engaged in negotiations in Cairo with mediators from Egypt and Qatar – two nations working alongside the US to broker a ceasefire in the besieged territory devastated by 18 months of Israeli bombardment.

“We are ready to release all Israeli captives in exchange for a serious prisoner swap deal, an end to the war, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip and the entry of humanitarian aid,” Taher al-Nunu told AFP.

He also accused Israel of obstructing progress towards a ceasefire.

“The issue is not the number of captives,” al-Nunu said, “but rather that the occupation is reneging on its commitments, blocking the implementation of the ceasefire agreement and continuing the war”.

“Hamas has therefore stressed the need for guarantees to compel the occupation to uphold the agreement,” he added.

Israeli news website Ynet reported on Monday that a new proposal had been put to Hamas. Under the deal, the group would release 10 living captives in exchange for US guarantees that Israel would enter negotiations for a second phase of the ceasefire.

The first phase of the ceasefire, which began on January 19 and included multiple captive-prisoner exchanges, lasted two months before Israel resumed the offensive after violating the ceasefire many times. Israeli opposition politicians, former army officials and families of captives have accused Netanyahu of waging the war for his own political interest.

Several members of Netanyahu’s cabinet have called for voluntary migration of Palestinians from Gaza, which campaigners say is a euphemism for ethnic cleansing.