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Forums - Politics - Israel-Hamas war, Gaza genocide

SvennoJ on 14 April 2025

US approves more military equipment to Israel

The Pentagon announces that the US State Department has approved the sale of engines used on military vehicles to Israel in a deal worth $180m.

“The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to US national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability,” the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement.

“This proposed sale is consistent with those objectives.”

Israel receives billions of dollars in US weapons and military aid despite accusations by UN experts and rights groups that the Israeli military is carrying out a genocide in Gaza.

Last year, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu over alleged war crimes in Gaza, including using starvation as a weapon of war.

Lebanon’s president says army ready to secure border if Israel withdraws

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has told Al Jazeera that the army is ready to fulfil its duties and secure the southern border if Israel complies with UN Resolution 1701 and withdraws from southern Lebanon.

“The military and the state are ready to shoulder their responsibilities in controlling the borders,” Aoun said.

The president added that the army has already “achieved a lot” in terms of taking over Hezbollah positions such as tunnels and an army depot both south and north of the Litani River.

He said pressure must be put on Israel to comply with the UN resolution, which in 2006 called for a full cessation of hostilities, the pull-back of Hezbollah forces from areas south of the Litani and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon.

The Israeli military continues to occupy parts of south Lebanon in violation of the November 2024 ceasefire agreement that emphasised the 1701 resolution.



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SvennoJ on 14 April 2025

Main events on April 14th

  • Israeli forces have killed two Palestinians sheltering in a tent in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza and one person sheltering in a tent near al-Mawasi in the south, with the death toll since Monday morning now rising to 15.
  • Hamas said it is “studying” the Israeli ceasefire proposal but reiterated that calls for the group to disarm are a “red line”.
  • The US State Department approved the sale of engines used on military vehicles to Israel in a deal worth $180m.
  • The Houthi Health Ministry said US attacks on Yemen have killed 123 people since mid-March.
  • Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has told Al Jazeera that the army is ready to fulfil its duties and secure the southern border if Israel withdraws from southern Lebanon.
  • US authorities have detained Mohsen K Mahdawi, a Columbia University student activist from Palestine who also holds US permanent residency.

Israeli forces target tents in southern Gaza

One of the latest air strikes on the Gaza Strip was in Khan Younis, where Israeli forces targeted a tent sheltering displaced Palestinians. According to medical sources, at least 10 Palestinians have been injured in this attack, and they were transferred to Nasser Hospital.

Doctors are saying most of them are in a critical situation. Most of Gaza’s hospitals are overwhelmed and drained because there have been zero medical supplies entering the Gaza Strip for more than a month now.

There has also been another attack on the western parts of Khan Younis, where injuries have been reported and those people have been transferred to Nasser Hospital.

It’s not only happening in the south but also in the eastern parts of Gaza City. In Shujayea, there has been ongoing live ammunition and also more residential houses have been targeted by Israeli forces. According to the civil defence teams and ambulances, they’re saying that they are unable to reach that area because Israeli quadcopters are attacking anyone who is approaching.

It’s not only the ongoing air strikes. Hospitals across the Gaza Strip are overwhelmed with injured Palestinians, and doctors are saying that there are a lot of challenges to treat them.

Palestinians are saying that they are not safe wherever they go because the Israeli forces are targeting different areas, even al-Mawasi which is supposed to be a safe humanitarian zone.


UN says nearly 70 percent of Gaza now under Israeli displacement orders

The spokesperson for the United Nations secretary-general has issued a statement saying that Israeli “displacement orders” and “no-go” zones now cover almost 70 percent of the Gaza Strip.

This leaves “Palestinians in Gaza with no safe place to go and little to survive on”, spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

“The secretary-general once again voices his strong concern as aid continues to be blocked, with Israel not having allowed any humanitarian aid or other essential supplies in for more than seven weeks,” Dujarric added.

“The humanitarian consequences are devastating, with food stocks running out, water production drastically dropping and shelter materials almost totally depleted.”

The UN secretary-general also called for the ceasefire to be restored and for all captives to be “released immediately and unconditionally”.


Smoke rises from Israeli bombardment on the east of Gaza City on Monday



SvennoJ on 15 April 2025

Gaza death toll reaches 51,000

At least 17 Palestinians have been killed and 69 wounded in Israeli attacks across Gaza in the past 24 hours, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.

“A number of victims remain under the rubble and on the roads, unable to be reached by ambulances and Civil Defence crews,” the statement published on Telegram said.

The latest figures bring the toll since Israel broke the ceasefire on March 18 to 1,630 killed and 4,302 wounded, the ministry said. Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 51,000 Palestinians and injured 116,343, it added.


Hamas disarmament aside, Israel intent on ‘mass expulsion’ in Gaza

Even if Hamas disarms, it is “very unlikely” that Israel will withdraw from Gaza and the war will end, according to Mohamad Elmasry, an associate professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies.

“Everything that Israel is telling us is that Hamas aside, they are fully intent on mass expulsion,” he told Al Jazeera.

“They have an agency set up to facilitate the mass transfer of Palestinians. This has absolutely nothing to do with Hamas,” Elmasry added, referring to Israel’s revised ceasefire proposal which includes the condition that the Palestinian group disarm.

Hamas, in turn, is likely never to agree to such a demand, he said.

“Hamas has already agreed to give back all of  the captives … in exchange for the end to the war, they have agreed to step down as governors of Gaza … they’ve proposed a 10-year-long truce, and they’ve also agreed to disarm if Israel withdraws and ends the occupation.”


Dissent in Israel grows as military signs petitions to end war, prioritise captives’ safety

Over the past weeks, thousands of members of Israel’s military and members of civil society have signed petitions calling for an end to the war on Gaza.

Here’s what we know:

  • Last Thursday, nearly 1,000 Israeli fighter pilots signed an open letter demanding the “immediate return of all our hostages without delay, even at the cost of stopping the war immediately”.
  • Most signatories were retired and about 10 percent were on active reserve duty. The Israeli army said all those on active duty would be fired, a move fully backed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
  • Reservists from Intelligence Unit 8200 issued a statement in support of the pilots.
  • On Sunday, hundreds of Israeli writers, poets and literary figures signed a similar letter calling for the government to get the captives back “even if it comes at the cost of halting the fighting”, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported.
  • On Monday, some 1,500 former and current Israeli armoured corps, including former Prime Minister Ehud Barak and former Chief of Staff Dan Halutz, called for an end to the war.
  • On the same day, more than 1,600 veterans of the paratroopers and infantry brigades signed a letter insisting on the need to stop the war.
  • About 200 Israeli military doctors wrote another petition calling for an end to the war, saying the conflict has strayed from its stated goals.
  • Israeli Army Radio reports that a group of 150 Golani Brigade members added their names to the thousands of signatories calling for an end to the conflict.
  • Open letters were also published by a group of officers and reservists from the army’s special operations and cyber directorates.


SvennoJ on 15 April 2025

‘Education in Gaza a casualty’ of Israel’s war on Palestinian territory: UNRWA

After 18 months of Israel’s war on Gaza, the territory’s children have been left “displaced, traumatised and deprived of education”, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said.

According to data from a cluster of organisations working on education in humanitarian crises, 70 percent of schools in Gaza have been hit directly by attacks.

Nearly 90 percent of schools in Gaza need significant rehabilitation or reconstruction. And among the schools in need of repair or rebuilding are 162 UNRWA-operated schools in Gaza, which once provided education to hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children, the organisation said.


A UNRWA-run school destroyed during Israel’s military offensive lies in ruins in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on April 14


Rights group says Israeli attacks on hospitals eliminating ‘means of survival’

Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq says that Israel’s attack on the al-Ahli Arab Hospital on Sunday is part of a “pattern of genocidal attacks on health facilities, vehicles, equipment and staff”.

“This latest attack on a medical facility follows the demolition of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, the last cancer treatment centre in Gaza, on 20 March 2025,” Al-Haq said in a post on X.

“Less than half of Gaza’s hospitals are still partially functional, struggling to deliver care in damaged buildings and facing severe shortages of medical supplies due to Israel’s total blockade,” Al-Haq added.

“Not only is there no safe place in Gaza, but Israel… has also eliminated the means of survival for Palestinians facing daily aerial bombardment, ground attacks, starvation, disease, and exhaustion,” it added.


Israel hits field hospital in Gaza’s al-Mawasi, kills medic

At least one person has been killed and nine wounded in an Israeli air attack on the northern gate of the Kuwaiti Field Hospital, in the al-Mawasi area near southern Gaza’s Khan Younis city, according to the hospital.

The killed man was a medic, and other casualties were all patients and medics, spokesman Saber Mohammed said.


Field hospital attack shows Israel’s ‘deliberate intent’ to destroy heathcare in Gaza: Ministry

Gaza’s Health Ministry has condemned the Israeli air attack on the Kuwaiti Field Hospital in the al-Mawasi area of southern Gaza’s Khan Younis governorate, which killed at least one medic and injured nine people.

“The targeting confirms the occupation’s deliberate intent to inflict greater damage to the health care system and threaten the treatment of the wounded and sick, even in hospital beds,” the ministry said in a statement published on Telegram.

“The occupation’s crimes against medical facilities will not cease as long as there is no firm stance from international and humanitarian institutions. The Ministry of Health reiterates its appeal to all international and concerned parties to provide protection for hospitals and medical personnel,” it added.



SvennoJ on 15 April 2025

Netanyahu expresses to Macron ‘strong opposition’ to establishment of Palestinian state

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told French President Emmanuel Macron that the establishment of a Palestinian state would be a “huge reward for terrorism”.

The remarks were made during a phone conversation between the two leaders, according to a statement released by Netanyahu’s office. Macron said last week that France could recognise a Palestinian state “in the coming months”.

As always projecting, Israel was founded on terrorism


Macron tells Netanyahu ordeal of Gaza civilians ‘must end’

France’s President Emmanuel Macron says he told Israel’s leader in a phone call that the suffering of Gaza civilians “must end” and that only a ceasefire in Gaza could free the remaining Israeli captives.

After the talk with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Macron also called in a post on X for “the opening of all humanitarian aid crossings” into the besieged Palestinian territory.



Maldives bans Israeli tourists to protest ‘acts of genocide’ in Gaza

The Maldives has announced it was banning the entry of Israelis into the luxury tourist archipelago in “resolute solidarity” with the Palestinian people. President Mohamed Muizzu ratified the legislation shortly after it was approved by parliament on Tuesday.

“The ratification reflects the government’s firm stance in response to the continuing atrocities and ongoing acts of genocide committed by Israel against the Palestinian people,” his office said in a statement. “The Maldives reaffirms its resolute solidarity with the Palestinian cause.”

The ban will be implemented with immediate effect, a spokesman for Muizzu’s office told the AFP news agency.

The Maldives, a small Islamic republic of 1,192 strategically located coral islets, is known for its secluded white sandy beaches, shallow turquoise lagoons and Robinson Crusoe-style getaways. Official data showed that only 59 Israeli tourists visited the archipelago in February, among 214,000 other foreign arrivals.

The Maldives had lifted a previous ban on Israeli tourists in the early 1990s and briefly moved to restore relations in 2010.



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SvennoJ on 15 April 2025

Israeli operations in Lebanon continue to kill civilians: UN

At least 71 civilians, including 14 women and nine children, have been killed by Israeli forces in Lebanon since a ceasefire came into effect in November, according to Thameen Al-Kheetan, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

He said in a statement published on the UN website that “the violence must stop immediately” and called for “prompt, independent and impartial investigations into all allegations of serious violations of international humanitarian law”.

“Those found responsible must be held to account,” Al-Kheetan added.


Israeli drone hits car in southern Lebanon

Our colleagues are reporting that an Israeli drone hit a car in the town of Aitaroun in southern Lebanon. The Lebanese Ministry of Health reported that “one person was killed and three others were injured, including a child,” in that attack.

Israeli forces agreed to a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah in November last year, but both sides have accused each other of violations. Israel has also delayed a promised troop withdrawal in January and continued to occupy several hilltops in south Lebanon. It has carried out near-daily attacks on the country, claiming it is striking Hezbollah fighters and weapons.


Israel claims to have killed Hezbollah ‘commander’ in southern Lebanon

Israel’s military has claimed it killed a Hezbollah “commander” in an air strike near southern Lebanon’s Aitaroun.

“Earlier today, the [military] struck and eliminated a platoon commander in Hezbollah’s Special Operations Array, in the area of Aitaroun in southern Lebanon,” it said in a statement.

The Lebanese Ministry of Health earlier reported that “one person was killed and three others were injured, including a child”, in that attack.

Israel has been accused of violating its ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah hundreds of times since it first came into effect in November 2024.



SvennoJ on 15 April 2025

Israeli attacks kill at least 13 since dawn, Palestinians ‘waiting for a pause’

Palestinians do not trust the Israeli side because there have been continuous breaches of ceasefire agreements. Palestinians are being pressured. There have been many restrictions imposed on them since the war resumed. They are waiting for a pause – any type of relief – because they have been in this struggle for the past year and a half, and even if this pause is temporary, Palestinians are waiting.

The latest attack was in Deir el-Balah, where Israeli forces hit agricultural land. No casualties were reported. In Jabalia, Israeli forces attacked a house in a refugee camp. The house was located between evacuation centres.

Since dawn, at least 13 Palestinians have been killed, but it’s not just the ongoing air raids and bombardment. It’s also the mass starvation and this blockage imposed on the Gaza Strip.


A Palestinian child named Osama Kamal al-Rakab, struggling for survival in the town of Bani Suheila, faces body weakness related to malnutrition in Khan Younis, Gaza on April 14


Lab builds prosthetic limbs from recyclables to aid Gaza’s child amputees

According to the UN, Gaza is now home to the largest group of child amputees in modern history. The Red Cross estimates that between 5,000 to 6,000 Palestinians have lost limbs since October 2023.

In the modest lab where Hossny Muhna works, they are building artificial limbs from recycled materials and whatever else they can find in the wake of Israel’s ongoing blockade. “We are delivering critical services to amputees amid a sharp surge in limb loss caused by the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza,” Muhna, the lab’s communications officer, told Al Jazeera.

“So far, we have followed up on 507 new amputation cases and are currently providing therapy to 306 individuals. However, we face severe shortages in prosthetic devices and essential materials due to the suffocating Israeli blockade and continued attacks, which are driving amputation numbers even higher by the day.”

For patients, especially children, these locally made prosthetic limbs are more than just tools – they are lifelines. “I was injured when my home was bombed in Gaza City. I lost my limbs, but I began to feel hope again after receiving a prosthetic. Now, I can return to daily life – I go to the market, visit friends, and live with a sense of normalcy once more. Alhamdulillah,” Taleb al-Shawa told Al Jazeera.


Palestinian girl Silla Abu Aqleen, who lost her right leg during the Israeli military offensive, holds her artificial limb during a physiotherapy session at the Gaza City municipality-run Artificial Limbs and Polio Centre


Israeli forces systematically destroy homes

As we are reporting now, we can see an Israeli drone hovering at low altitudes. Heavy artillery is targeting more buildings in the eastern parts of the Shujayea and Zeitoun neighbourhoods in Gaza City.

Eyewitnesses told us throughout the day that there is a systematic demolition of homes, not just to prevent people from going back to their homes in the area now, but also to pressure them in the future so they won’t find any shelter.

Fighter jets, drones and military helicopters have been involved in strikes since the early hours of this morning and patrolling the entire eastern area, the area around the Netzarim Corridor and Khan Younis in the south.

Most recently, in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza close to the Al-Aqsa Hospital, a Palestinian who was working on a rooftop doing maintenance on an internet network point he was operating was targeted and killed.



SvennoJ on 15 April 2025

Hamas calls for ‘serious steps’ to end Israeli blockade on Gaza

Hamas has chided the ongoing blockade on aid into Gaza, saying Israel has been preventing the entry of “all essential items necessary for life, including food supplies, medicine and fuel” for seven weeks in a row.

The Israeli siege comes in addition to the army “targeting water wells and desalination plants, and obstructing relief operations and food distribution centres”, the Palestinian group said in a statement.

Hamas urged the UN and the international community to take action “to stop the policy of mass starvation, ensure the access of humanitarian aid, food and medical supplies to civilians in the Gaza Strip, and to reconsider the system of international laws and conventions that are violated daily by the government of war criminal Netanyahu”.

The group renewed its call to Arab and Muslim countries to help aid in ending the “unjust blockade of Gaza”.


Hamas says contact lost with US-Israeli soldier after Gaza bombing

The military wing of Hamas has announced it has lost contact with the team guarding US-Israeli soldier Edan Alexander in Gaza after “direct Israeli bombardment” targeted their location.

“It seems that the occupation army is deliberately trying to kill him and hence relieve themselves from the pressure caused by the dual-citizen prisoners in order to continue its genocide against our people,” said Abu Obeida, spokesman for the Qassam Brigades.

On Saturday, Hamas had released a video giving proof of life for Alexander, which was filmed sometime last week. In the video, Alexander appealed to Trump to get him out of Gaza and urged the US president not to believe “lies” told by Netanyahu.


‘Be prepared’: Hamas releases warning video on Gaza captives

After its warning over the loss of contact with the group holding US-Israeli captive soldier Edan Alexander, the armed wing of Hamas has released a video directed at captives’ families.

“Be prepared. Soon your children will return in black coffins with their bodies torn apart by shrapnel from your army’s missiles,” the Qassam Brigades said in the video, which is accompanied by footage from a previous handover of Israeli captives’ remains in coffins to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

“Your leadership has signed the decision to execute the prisoners in the Gaza Strip.”



SvennoJ on 15 April 2025

‘Incredibly unpopular’ Netanyahu poised to prolong Gaza war to maintain government: Analyst

The Israeli prime minister’s calculations remain as they were before as he drags on the fighting and killing in Gaza, says Dan Perry, Israeli affairs analyst and the former regional editor of the Associated Press news agency in the Middle East.

“Netanyahu has clearly decided that he can’t let his government fall, which it probably would if he ends the war, even in exchange for the hostages,” Perry told Al Jazeera from Tel Aviv.

“Israel walked away from the deal it signed under pressure from the US in January, which would have ended the war,” he said, adding that Hamas does not wish to lay down its arms under any circumstances, either.

“It really looks like Netanyahu is willing to prolong the war, even though the vast majority of Israeli public would like the war to end and get back the hostages while they also wish Hamas was gone,” Perry added.

The analyst noted that the government is incredibly unpopular and walking a tightrope. On the one hand, the far-right would bring down the government if the war ended. “On the other hand, if they plough on like this, polls show they would lose the next election. So Netanyahu is essentially between a rock and a hard place,” Perry said.

Israeli military greenlights plans to continue Gaza attacks

The Israeli military has signalled its intent to maintain intense attacks on Gaza, especially its northern parts.

Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir earlier today visited the battered Shujayea neighbourhood in the northern part of the enclave, according to a statement and footage released by the army. He was accompanied by the head of the division leading the devastating ground assault on the region.

“The Chief of Staff approved the operational plans for the continuation of the fighting both defensively and offensively,” the military said in a statement.


Rescuers check the site of Israeli bombardment on a residential building in Gaza City’s Shujayea neighbourhood while smoke from another strike billows in the background


Netanyahu visits soldiers in northern Gaza

The Israeli prime minister has visited Israeli troops in the northern Gaza Strip, according to his office. We reported earlier how army chief Eyal Zamir was also in the north of the enclave, planning more attacks with top commanders from the besieged Shujayea neighbourhood of Gaza City.

The top Israeli officials are pushing ahead with devastating attacks on the enclave as they demand Hamas disarm in exchange for a limited ceasefire that would release Israeli captives as well.



SvennoJ on 15 April 2025

UN says West Bank displacement at ‘record levels’

The UN humanitarian agency, OCHA, also says that “violence is surging” in the occupied West Bank, according to its latest monthly update.

“Aid groups are stepping in, but we must not let the West Bank become another Gaza,” OCHA’s office in Palestine said in a post on X.

According to OCHA’s data, 44,285 people were displaced in January and February 2025 in the occupied West Bank. Of those, the vast majority, 38,710 were displaced by fighting between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian fighters in the north of the West Bank.

A further 2,765 people were displaced because Israeli forces destroyed their homes while 837 were displaced due to settler violence and access restrictions, OCHA said.


Israel’s Ben-Gvir storms occupied West Bank’s Ibrahimi Mosque

Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has once again led a group of settlers in an unexpected visit to the Ibarhimi Mosque in Hebron, sources have confirmed to Al Jazeera.

The head of the ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party also took to the stage to discuss internal Israeli political affairs, including the government’s efforts to oust internal security agency Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar amid a row with the prime minister.

Ben-Gvir has made multiple controversial visits under armed guard to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound during the war on Gaza as well. This latest visit to the Hebron mosque comes as hundreds of Israeli settlers have entered Al-Aqsa Mosque in the past three days to mark Passover.

Israeli forces arrest 14 Palestinians in occupied West Bank: Prisoners’ Media Office

At least 14 Palestinians have been arrested by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office. The majority of the arrests came in the Jerusalem governorate where three people were arrested in the al-Issawiya neighbourhood of occupied East Jerusalem and three in the town of Anata.

In the governorate of Ramallah, three Palestinians were arrested in the town of al-Mazraa ash-Sharqiya and one in the village of Kobar. In the city of Tulkarem, one man was arrested in the neighbourhood of Ezbet al-Jarad and another in Ezbet al-Tayah.

Two more Palestinians were arrested in the governorate of Nablus, including one in the town of Beit Furik and another in the city of Nablus.


Settlers steal 250 sheep after assaulting Palestinian in West Bank: Report

Israeli settlers reportedly have attacked a young man this evening while he was herding sheep in Wadi Qelt, west of Jericho, and took the livestock. A local Bedouin rights activist told the Wafa news agency that settlers smashed the Palestinian’s phone and took 250 sheep belonging to his father.

Another major settler attack was reported in the nearby Arab al-Malihat community, north of Jericho city. Backed by Israeli soldiers, settlers stormed in from three directions with the aim of scaring Palestinians away from their lands.