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Forums - Politics - Israel-Hamas war, Gaza genocide

SvennoJ on 27 April 2025

Israel launches drone attack on southern Lebanon

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting that there has been an Israeli drone attack on the town of Halta in southern Lebanon.

At least one person was killed in the attack, according to Lebanon’s Al Mayadeen TV.


Israeli military claims drone strike in southern Lebanon, says it kills Hezbollah member

Earlier, we reported that an Israeli drone attack on the town of Halta in southern Lebanon had killed one person, according to Lebanon’s Al Mayadeen TV.

The Israeli military has now taken responsibility for the strike, stating on its Telegram channel that it “eliminated” a Hezbollah member who “advanced” the group’s attempts to “re-establish itself in the Halta area”.


Israeli military issues Beirut warning

The Israeli military has now warned residents of the Hadath neighbourhood in the Dahiyeh suburbs south of Beirut to evacuate the area around what it called a Hezbollah facility.

Adraee, the Israeli military’s Arabic spokesperson, said in a social media post people should “immediately” move away from the building. The order suggests Israel will strike the Lebanese capital area for the third time since the ceasefire came into effect in November.


Israel attacks Lebanon’s Beirut

Israel has carried out an air attack on southern Beirut after issuing a forced evacuation warning. Footage showed a huge plume of black smoke rising over the capital’s southern suburbs of Dahiyeh after the attack.


Israel exploiting Lebanon’s weakness

Hezbollah keeps saying that its patience towards Israeli violations of the ceasefire is not endless, suggesting that it may eventually respond to the attacks.

But the Lebanese group is not in a position to renew the fighting against Israel. Hezbollah suffered withering blows during the war last year. It lost its top military and political officials. Moreover, its rocket arsenal has been depleted, and its supply routes from Iran via Syria have been compromised with the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Inside Lebanon, Hezbollah is facing growing calls to disarm, with its domestic political foes blaming it for the widespread destruction that Israel unleashed on Lebanon in the conflict.

Meanwhile, the ill-equipped Lebanese Armed Forces are incapable of – if not unwilling to – take on the Israeli military. And so, absent of any meaningful deterrence, Israel has been acting with impunity in Lebanon.

It has continued to occupy parts of southern Lebanon in breach of the truce. And it has been carrying out attacks across the country almost daily. The bombing of Dahiyeh today is a jarring reminder of the new balance of power.



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SvennoJ on 27 April 2025

Israel’s latest attack on Beirut unprovoked

When Israel struck Beirut in March, it was in response to a rocket launch from Lebanon that targeted an Israeli border town – although Hezbollah had denied responsibility for the attack.

Early in April, the second Israeli attack on Beirut since the ceasefire came without warning – to assassinate a Hezbollah military official. The strike killed four people.

Today’s evacuation order and bombing were unprovoked. They come amid near-daily Israeli violations of the truce and attacks in the south of the country.


Israeli drones return to Beirut’s skies: Report

Lebanon’s National News Agency reports that Israeli drones are flying over the southern Beirut suburbs of Dahiyeh after the attack.


Lebanon’s president urges US, France to pressure Israel to end violations

Joseph Aoun condemns the Israeli attack on Beirut and calls on the US and France to “assume their responsibility” as the sponsors of the ceasefire in Lebanon and tell Israel to end its violations of the deal.

The president said Israel is undermining stability in Lebanon and escalating tensions, posing “real dangers to the security” of the region.

Smoke could be seen rising from the Beirut suburbs of Dahiyeh after the Israeli strike, but there have been no reports of casualties.


Israeli drone strike reported in southern Lebanon

Several Lebanese media outlets report that an Israeli drone has carried out an air strike in the al-Majidia area in the eastern sector of the border.


Hezbollah MP calls for UN complaint against Israel

Ibrahim Mousawi, a legislator in Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, tells Al Mayadeen TV that the Israeli attack on southern Beirut is a violation of all of Lebanon and its national sovereignty.

Mousawi urged the Lebanese government to submit a formal complaint to the UN and call for an urgent Security Council meeting to address Israeli abuses.

He also suggested that Hezbollah will not disarm. “There are points of strength that remain in Lebanon, including national unity, including the unified position, including the weapons that remain,” Mousawi said. “And so talks need to stop about [giving up] any point of strength that we should hold onto now more than ever.”



SvennoJ on 27 April 2025

Israel says it targets facility storing ‘precision missiles’ in Beirut

The Israeli military says the attack on the Beirut suburbs has destroyed “an infrastructure where precision missiles” were stored by Hezbollah.

It did not provide proof for its claim. No secondary explosions were reported after the Israeli attack.

“Storing missiles in this infrastructure constitutes a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon and a threat to the state of Israel and its citizens,” the military said in a statement.

Hezbollah argues that the truce with Israel – based on UN Security Council Resolution 1701 – only restricts the group’s military presence near the Israeli border, south of the Litani River, not across all of Lebanon.



Israel’s claim of targeting missile storage in Beirut ‘doesn’t fit’

Elijah Magnier, a political and military analyst, notes that there were no secondary explosions after the Israeli strike on Beirut today. He added that with the warning, Israel gave Hezbollah “ample time” to move any assets that may have been in the area.

“All that doesn’t fit, really,” Magnier told Al Jazeera.

While Israel said the purported missiles in Beirut posed a threat to its security, Magnier said the timing of the strike helps Netanyahu domestically by turning attention away from the controversies he is facing at home.

“He’s saying: ‘Look, I’m destroying missiles in Beirut that most probably were directed toward Israel, and I need to concentrate on that. Allow me to concentrate on defending you,'” Magnier said, referring to Netanyahu’s strategy.



Hezbollah MP: ‘Where are the missiles?’

Ibrahim Mousawi, a legislator in Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, dismisses the Israeli claim that the strike in Beirut targeted a facility storing precision missiles.

“Where are the missiles that they claim were stored in the targeted area?” Mousawi was quoted as saying by Lebanon’s National News Agency. “And how could anyone store missiles – and precision missiles, as they say – in residential areas?”

The parliament member added that the Israeli attack and warning that preceded it are a “crime of terrorising” the population and part of Israel’s psychological warfare against Lebanon.


Lebenese rescuers extinguish a fire at a site hit in Israeli strikes following evacuation orders in Beirut's southern suburb on April 27

CNN: "Hezbollah has not yet commented on the matter." Just peddling Israeli lies again.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/27/middleeast/beirut-lebanon-strike-israel-latam-intl/index.html

The target of the strike was a Hezbollah facility in Beirut which stored precision missiles, according to a joint statement from Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz. 

Last edited by SvennoJ - on 27 April 2025

SvennoJ on 27 April 2025

Two killed, 10 wounded in US strikes on Yemen’s Sanaa

We’ve been covering the US’s continued attacks on Yemen. Earlier, Yemen’s Health Ministry reported that eight people were wounded in the strikes on two areas of the capital, Sanaa.

The ministry now says two people were killed and another wounded in al-Sabeen, while nine others were wounded in Bani al-Harith, including two women and three children.


US air strikes reported in Yemen’s Amran

Two strikes have hit the Harf Sufyan district in the northern governorate of Amran, the Houthi-run Saba News Agency reports.


US air strike hits Yemen’s capital Sanaa

The Houthi-run Saba News Agency reports another US air strike on Sunday evening, this time in the Bani al-Harith district in the north of the capital, Sanaa. US air strikes were earlier reported in Amran governorate, to Sanaa’s north.


US attack in Yemen kills eight: Report

The Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah TV reports that US strikes in the Bani al-Harith district, north of Sanaa, have targeted three homes and killed eight people, including children.



SvennoJ on 27 April 2025
Qatar still working with partners to move to next phase of ceasefire: PM

Here is a summary of the translated comments from Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, at the news conference in Doha:
  • The state of Qatar wishes to express its concern about the ceasefire collapse and the continuation of the Israeli aggression, which has resulted in destruction, death and suffering for more than two million people.
  • It also wishes to confirm that it is working towards international efforts to continue implementing the phases of the ceasefire achieved through the efforts of the US, Qatar and Egypt.
  • Qatar is still working with its partners to move to the next phase of the agreement, to fully implement it to include the release of all the captives and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces.
  • The state of Qatar cannot accept the starvation of the Palestinian people or allow the use of humanitarian aid as a weapon of war.
  • The Qatari people are known for their openness, acceptance and tolerance, and the state of Qatar is not trying to benefit politically from the war.


Key to peace is two-state solution: Turkish foreign minister

Here’s a summary of Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan’s translated comments at the news conference in Doha:

  • We discussed Gaza today because Israel is “ethnically cleansing Palestinians” in violation of international law.
  • In the current situation, it is crucial to pressure Israel to accept the ceasefire.
  • The key to a just and peaceful solution for the Palestinian cause is the two-state solution.
  • In the communication group in the Islamic and Arab committee in Antalya, we have confirmed that we’ll continue our efforts to ensure that both peoples, Palestinian and Israeli, will live in peace and prosperity based on the two-state solution.


Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani says he noticed some progress in the Gaza ceasefire talks on Thursday.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said in recent days Hamas had shown it would be more open to an agreement that goes beyond a ceasefire in Gaza and aims for a lasting solution to the crisis with Israel.

On April 19, Fidan and Turkiye’s intelligence chief, Ibrahim Kalin, held talks with Hamas officials in Ankara to discuss the latest efforts for a ceasefire.

Netanyahu dismisses idea of Palestinian state – again

The Israeli prime minister says establishing a Palestinian state will not lead to peace.

“The idea is folly, nothing more than folly,” he said.

Netanyahu added that Israel has decided to “go around the Palestinians” and their demands for a state and negotiate directly with Arab countries to forge formal ties with them.

The 2002 Arab Peace Initiative conditions recognising Israel on the establishment of a Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank and Gaza with East Jerusalem as its capital.

But the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco signed diplomatic agreements with Israel in 2020 despite the continuing occupation. Sudan also agreed to join the normalisation accords, but it has not established official relations with Israel.

Netanyahu acting like ‘imperialist ruler’ of region: Mustafa Barghouti

The Palestinian politician has slammed Netanyahu for saying that the idea of establishing a Palestinian state is “folly”, urging Palestinian unity and an end to the “illusion” of compromise with the Israeli government.

“Netanyahu has clearly revealed that the aim of normalisation with the Arab world is to liquidate the Palestinian cause,” Barghouti said in a social media post.

He added that Netanyahu is acting like a “hubristic imperialist ruler of the entire region”.



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SvennoJ on 27 April 2025

Pro-Palestine activists disrupt London Marathon to protest against Israeli siege, war on Gaza

Two pro-Palestine demonstrators and supporters of the Youth Demand group have been arrested after throwing red powder paint during the London Marathon to protest against Israel’s war and blockade on Gaza.

An image shared by the group shows two people standing in the middle of the road wearing T-shirts that said: “Youth Demand: Stop Arming Israel.”

In a statement, Youth Demand said: “Gaza is running out of food. Arming genocide crosses the line. We won’t be bystanders.”

Marathon staff removed the protesters, and the race passed unobstructed, the Metropolitan Police said, adding that the paint appeared to be chalk-based and was not expected to present a hazard to the runners.



‘I refuse to be complicit in a genocide funded by our politicians’: UK activist

We have some more information from Youth Demand, the group whose supporters briefly disrupted the London Marathon to protest against Israel’s war and blockade on Gaza.

The group, which describes itself as a youth-led civil movement “calling for the government to impose a full trade embargo on Israel”, identified the two activists who threw red powder paint in front of the men’s elite race as it crossed Tower Bridge as Willow Holland, 18, from Bristol and Cristy North, a live-in carer from Nottingham.

In a statement, it quoted Holland as saying: “Thousands are being killed in Gaza, our government is making no effort to stop it and no other course of action, marches or rallies, has worked. I refuse to be complicit in a genocide funded by our politicians.

“Profit should never be prioritised over basic decency, we’re taking action for human lives and human rights. We don’t want blood on our hands, we don’t want to be forced into complicity with a genocide. We need more people in resistance, refusing to be complicit whilst upholding international law, now more than ever.”

Meanwhile, North said: “The people in Palestine are running out of time. We have tried all other avenues to get the government to stop arming Israel and yet our government is still enabling a genocide. They are making the UK people complicit in breaking UK domestic law by using our taxes to arm a genocidal state, breaking humanitarian international law.”

Protest in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza takes place in central Sweden

Activists in Sweden’s fifth largest city, Vasteras, have organised a march in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The protesters carried small, blood-stained shrouds, representing the bodies of children killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza. The majority of the protesters walked in silence on Saturday while others chanted slogans using megaphones, and a drummer led the march.

Protesters made their way through the centre of the city, carrying banners that read, “Sweden, stop selling weapons” in Swedish and “Not war, it’s genocide” in English.



SvennoJ on 27 April 2025

Main events on April 27th

  • Israeli forces have killed at least 50 people in Gaza, including several people sheltering in tents in the so-called “safe zone” of al-Mawasi.
  • Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun calls for international pressure to stop Israel’s attacks after the Israeli military bombed what it called a Hezbollah missile storage facility in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
  • Ibrahim Mousawi, a legislator in Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, has dismissed the Israeli claim, saying the attack and warning that preceded it are aimed at “terrorising” the Lebanese people.
  • Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has once again dismissed the idea of establishing a Palestinian state to reach peace, calling the proposal “a folly”.
  • Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani says there has been “a bit of progress” in talks aimed at securing a new truce in Gaza.
  • US forces continue bombing Yemen, killing at least eight people in air raids on three homes in the capital, Sanaa.

‘Unimaginable horror’ in Gaza as Israeli attacks continue

The Israeli military has carried out more deadly attacks. Civilians and more children, unfortunately, are among the casualties.

We’ve seen some heartbreaking footage, of the body of a brother and that of his sister being hugged by their surviving family members on the floor of the morgue of Al-Aqsa Hospital.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces are continuing to attack tents in the central area, including Deir el-Balah city and the refugee camps, as well as here in Gaza City. The eastern part of the city, the Tuffah neighbourhood, has been under relentless Israeli attack for the past three weeks, and the Shujayea and Zeitoun neighbourhoods, too.

We’re also keeping an eye on this evolving story of a residential home that was bombed and destroyed completely. Four people were initially reported killed, and then within half an hour, four more were recovered from under the rubble.

The Palestinian Civil Defense is saying there are more people still buried and missing underneath the huge pile of rubble. But the rescue effort had to stop because of nightfall and Israeli drones filling the skies of the eastern part of the Gaza Strip.

That’s unfortunately the scenario of every attack at night time – rescue efforts and missions have to come to an end, given the risk involved in continuing this work.

The death toll is not just numbers. We are talking about fathers, mothers, infants – innocent people lost in moments of unimaginable horror as the attacks continue.



SvennoJ on 28 April 2025

Israel increased military spending by 65 percent in 2024

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) says that global military expenditure rose to $2.72 trillion last year, in the “steepest year-on-year rise since at least the end of the Cold War”.

Israel’s military expenditure reached $46.5bn in 2024, a 65 percent increase on 2023, and “the steepest annual increase since the Six-Day War in 1967”, SIPRI said.

Israel’s “military burden rose to 8.8 percent of GDP, the second highest in the world,” SIPRI added.

Lebanon’s military spending also rose by 58 percent in 2024, although its overall spending was much lower than Israel’s at $635m.

By contrast, SIPRI found that Iran’s military spending fell by 10 percent in real terms to $7.9bn in 2024, in part due to sanctions.

“Despite widespread expectations that many Middle Eastern countries would increase their military spending in 2024, major rises were limited to Israel and Lebanon,” said Zubaida Karim, a researcher with the SIPRI Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme.

Palestinians in Gaza are experiencing a ‘new inferno’: ICRC director

Pierre Krahenbuhl, the director general of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), made the comments at the annual Global Security Forum in Doha.

“Gaza is experiencing and enduring … death, injury, multiple displacements, amputations, separation, disappearance, starvation and denial of aid and dignity on a massive scale, and just when the all-important ceasefire led people to believe they had survived the worst, a new inferno was unleashed,” he said.

“This includes the trauma of families of Israeli hostages who face a never-ending nightmare, and of the families of Palestinian prisoners. Over 400 aid workers and 1,000 healthcare workers have been killed in Gaza, including 36 from the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement,” he said.

Israel kills 71 Palestinians in the past 24 hours: Ministry

Gaza’s Health Ministry has just issued its daily statistical report on Palestinian casualties in Israel’s war on the enclave.

  • In the past 24 hours, Gaza hospitals have reported 71 people killed by Israeli forces, including 14 bodies recovered from under the rubble, and 153 injured.
  • Israel has killed at least 52,314 Palestinians since launching its military offensive on October 7, 2023. A further 17,792 people have been injured.
  • Since resuming its offensive on March 18, Israel has killed at least 2,222 people.


Palestinian girls look at the rubble of the Abou Mahadi family home destroyed in Israeli strikes in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip on April 28


Ambulances run out of fuel in southern Gaza: Civil Defence

The Palestinian Civil Defence says ambulances in southern Gaza have run out of fuel, with eight out of 12 vehicles out of order amid an ongoing Israeli blockade on humanitarian aid.

In a statement, it warned that with only four vehicles, its responses to residents will be limited, “threatening the lives of hundreds of thousands of citizens and displaced persons in shelters”.

“We hold the Israeli occupation responsible for the worsening suffering of our people in the Gaza Strip due to the ongoing war and the continued imposition of the blockade,” the statement said.

“We renew our call to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and international organisations to take immediate action to open the Gaza Strip crossings, allow the entry of fuel, and supply institutions and equipment working in the humanitarian field.”



SvennoJ on 28 April 2025

At least 30 killed in US attack on Yemen detention centre: Report

We’ve been reporting on a US attack on a detention centre holding African migrants in the northern province of Saada.

The Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah TV says the prison housed 115 inmates and that at least 30 people were killed in the attack. Another 50 were wounded and have been transferred to hospital for treatment. Most of their injuries are critical.

Yemen’s official Saba agency, citing a security source, says there are dozens of victims and that rescue teams have been putting out a fire caused by the bombing.

There was no immediate comment from the US military.

The US Central Command issued a statement before news of the strike broke, seeking to defend its policy of offering no specific details of its extensive bombing campaign.

“To preserve operational security, we have intentionally limited disclosing details of our ongoing or future operations,” CENTCOM said. “We are very deliberate in our operational approach, but will not reveal specifics about what we’ve done or what we will do.”


Footage shows human bodies at Yemen detention centre

The graphic footage, aired by Al Masirah TV and verified by Al Jazeera, shows several human bodies lying in the rubble of the bombed-out detention centre for African migrants in Saada.

Other footage showed wounded people receiving treatment at the General Republican Hospital in Saada. The hospital said in a post on Telegram that dozens of people were killed and that at least 50 wounded people had arrived at the facility.


Death toll rises in US attack on Yemeni detention centre: Report

The number of people who have been killed in this detention centre for African migrants in Saada has risen to 68, and 47 others have been injured, according to the Houthi-affiliated news outlets.

A rescue operation in Saada has been going on since 6am. The rescue teams have transferred the first 55 people to the hospital who were injured, and we have witnessed some deaths among them, so the death toll could increase further.

So far, we have witnessed a spike in US air strikes in different areas across Yemen.

Last night, US jets bombed different areas, in particular Sanaa and Saada. In Sanaa, three houses were attacked, according to Houthi media outlets, and so far, eight people have been killed, among them children and women.


Rescue efforts in Yemen hampered by ‘all-out destruction’

This is the second bloodiest attack by the US forces since they began their offensive.

Saada, where this detention centre is located, is a stronghold of the Ansar Allah [Houthis]. It’s in the north of the country and has been hit hard over the past one and a half months.

The rescue teams are facing difficulties in transferring people from the site of the attack because of what they describe as the all-out destruction of that facility.

The African migrants are using Saada as a step towards what they say is a better life in the Gulf states.


Houthi spokesperson slams US attack on Yemen as ‘brutal crime’

The Houthi spokesman has condemned the US attack on the detention centre housing African immigrants.

Mohammed Abdul Salam wrote on X that the US “brutality” would “not cover up the military failure it is suffering in its aggression against Yemen, and continuing the aggression will not bring it any achievement”.

He added that the international community’s silence on the air strikes “encourages” Washington to continue its attacks on residential areas, “misleading” the world to believe these are “military targets”.

“Washington’s resort to such claims does not make them a reality. Rather, the real reality is that Washington deliberately and premeditatedly intends to commit crimes and terrorism,” he said.



SvennoJ on 28 April 2025

Israeli forces arrest 3 high school students in West Bank raid

Israeli forces have arrested three young Palestinians during a raid in Jaba town, south of Jenin, in the occupied West Bank. The three high school students were arrested after their homes were raided and searched, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.


Several students suffocate on tear gas fired by Israeli forces near Bethlehem

The Wafa news agency is reporting that students on their way to school suffered from suffocation after inhaling toxic gas fired by Israeli forces in the town of al-Khader, south of Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank.

Local sources told Wafa that the Israeli forces stormed al-Khader, positioning themselves in the Tall area of ​​the Old City, and fired sound bombs and tear gas, causing several students to suffocate.

More recently, schools in al-Khader have experienced an escalation in Israeli attacks on students, either through the firing of sound bombs and tear gas or by pursuing and detaining several of them.


Israeli forces order residents to stop construction north of Jerusalem

Local sources told Wafa that Israeli authorities stormed the town of Al-Jib, north of Jerusalem, in the occupied West Bank, delivering notices to a group of residents, ordering them to stop construction on three homes and caravans used for raising livestock.

According to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, Israeli authorities carried out 58 demolition operations last month. These demolitions took place across the occupied West Bank, including Nablus, Tulkarm, Jerusalem, and Salfit.

Israel has been demolishing Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem before the current war on Gaza – a practice rights groups and campaigners have dubbed a violation of international law.


An Israeli flag is set atop the Palestinian Ayoub Abdel-Basit al-Tamimi family home, which was allegedly taken over by Israeli settlers last month in Hebron city near the Israeli illegal settlement of Tel Rumeida in the occupied West Bank.