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Forums - Politics - Israel-Hamas war, Gaza genocide

‘State of alert’ at central Gaza after Israeli attack on refugee camp

Palestinian ambulance workers and other first responders have been rushing into al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah with wounded people. Reporting from outside the facility in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said Israel carried out strikes on Bureij refugee camp.

“We understand a school sheltering displaced families has been hit by two consecutive air strikes,” he said. Citing medical sources, Abu Azzoum said at least one Palestinian child was killed. Others have been reported injured.


At least 17 killed in Israeli attack on Gaza school-turned-shelter

Several others have been reported injured in the attack on the school sheltering displaced families in Bureij refugee camp. As we reported earlier, the Israeli military carried out two consecutive air strikes on the building.


Many Gaza wounded in critical condition after Israel school strike

A spokesman for the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital says several people wounded in an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced families in Bureij refugee camp are in critical condition.

The spokesman for Deir el-Balah-based hospital said there was not enough medical supplies to deal with the influx of the injured.


Death toll in Israel’s attack on Gaza school rises

The death toll from Israeli strikes on the school shelter in the Bureij refugee camp has now risen to 20.

Hamas denounces Bureij attack as ‘heinous war crime’

The Palestinian group has condemned Israel for “targeting defenceless civilians in places of refugee and shelter”. “The Bureij massacre is a heinous war crime that requires the prosecution of the occupation’s leaders in international courts as war criminals,” Hamas said in a statement.

Hamas called on the international community, including the UN, “to break their silence and take urgent and effective steps to stop the massacres” in Gaza.



Israel’s plan to expand war in Gaza means ‘sacrificing’ abductees: Hamas

Hamas has warned Israel’s plan to intensify its onslaught on Gaza would mean “sacrificing” those being held captive.

“The approval of the [Israeli] occupation cabinet of plans to expand its ground offensive in Gaza represents an explicit decision to sacrifice the Israeli hostages in the enclave,” Hamas said in a statement.

It called the Israeli decision “a reproduction of the cycle of failure” over the past 20 months without “achieving its declared goals”.

Hamas said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments about expanding the war on Gaza “reflect his insistence on committing more crimes against civilians under a cover provided by the US administration”.

It called on Arab and Islamic countries, the UN, and the international community “to take immediate action to curb the fascist occupation government, and bring its leaders to international justice”.

It’s believed 59 captives remain in Gaza with 24 alive, according to Israeli estimates. By comparison, more than 9,500 Palestinians remain imprisoned in Israel and are subjected to torture, starvation, and medical neglect, according to Palestinian and Israeli rights organisations.



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US again says it is not involved in Israeli strikes on Yemen

A defence official tells Al Jazeera the US did not participate in the Israeli strikes on Sanaa today.

An official told Al Jazeera on Monday that the US was also not involved in that day’s strikes on Hodeidah.


Trump announces end to Yemen strikes amid pressure from Dems, MAGA

Trump’s bombing campaign of Yemen has sat uncomfortably with his pledge on the campaign trail to disengage the US from foreign wars.

Several key figures in his Republican Party criticised the escalation, saying it did not fit into the America First foreign-policy ideology Trump has long espoused.

A cadre of Democrats and at least one Republican – Senator Rand Paul – have also questioned whether the six-week bombing campaign extends beyond Trump’s presidential power.

Under the War Powers Resolution, the executive branch may introduce US military personnel into a hostility only if it is done to thwart an imminent attack. Otherwise, such acts require approval from the US Congress.

The Trump administration has said the strikes on Yemen fall under presidential powers, pointing to the Houthi strikes on US commercial and naval ships. Trump said the Houthis agreed to pause those strikes although the armed group has not confirmed the claim.

Oman says it mediated US-Houthi ‘ceasefire’

In a statement, the Gulf country says it conducted “recent discussions and contacts” with the United States and “relevant authorities” in Houthi-controlled Yemen.

The “efforts have resulted in a ceasefire agreement between the two sides”, it said.

“In the future neither will target the other, including American vessels, in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait, ensuring freedom of navigation and smooth flow of international commercial shipping,” the statement said.

The Houthis have not yet confirmed the agreement.



It all sounds a bit fishy

Speaking about the Houthis, President Trump said the US is going to stop dropping bombs on Yemen. He said the Houthis have given some kind of pledge not to attack shipping lanes and wind down their activities.

There’s no evidence of that whatsoever. He was asked what his source is, and he responded, “Oh no, it’s a very good source” and giggled with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio – like we know the source type thing.

But there are no reciprocal statements yet from the Houthis.

I wonder what the Houthis got in return...

Yeah looks rather one-sided

Houthis to evaluate US halt of ‘aggression’ after Trump announcement

The head of Yemen’s Houthi supreme revolutionary committee, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, says the US halt of “aggression” against Yemen will be evaluated.

He said the group would continue to support Gaza to end the war there, indicating the ceasefire with the US did not include a halt of the group’s attacks on Israel.

Translation: With Trump announcing the cessation of US aggression against Yemen, it will be evaluated on the ground first. It is a victory that separates American support for the temporary entity from a failure for Netanyahu, and he must resign.


Israel is continuing bombing Yemen regardless

Netanyahu, Katz call Yemen strikes a message to Iran

The Israeli prime minister and defence minister call the attacks on Sanaa part of the response to the Houthis strike on Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv on Sunday.

“Our choice of when to respond, how to respond, and what targets to strike is a consideration that we are constantly making,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “We will settle accounts with whoever attacks the state of Israel.”

Katz added: “Whoever harms us – we harm them seven-fold.”

“This is also a warning to the head of the Iranian octopus: you bear direct responsibility for the attack by the Houthi tentacle against the state of Israel, and you will also be held accountable for the results.”

Both Katz and Netanyahu said Israel’s attack will undermine the Houthis’ transport abilities. Observers have noted Saana’s airport served as one of the few means of travel for civilians living in the Houthi-controlled area.


And the Houthis will continue targeting Israel

‘No turning back from supporting Gaza’: Houthi official

Mahdi al-Mashat, head of the Houthis’ supreme political council, issued a message of defiance in the face of Israel’s recent attacks, saying the Yemeni group will not abandon Gaza “no matter the cost”.

“What happened proves that our strikes are painful and will continue,” al-Mashat said, as quoted by the Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah TV.

He warned that the Houthis’ response to Israel “will be devastating and painful”.

“No aggression will deter us from our decision to support Gaza until the aggression stops and the siege is lifted,” al-Mashat added.



Now it's starting to make a bit more sense

US-Houthi deal ‘creates momentum’ for US talks with Iran

Clara Broekaert, a research fellow at The Soufan Center, says the Trump administration is hoping to show “a certain amount of goodwill” and “evidence of [its] diplomatic skill” ahead of the US president’s visit to the Middle East this month.

As we’ve been reporting, Trump will travel to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates in mid-May.

But on the US-Houthi deal, Broekaert noted “one very clear missing component” of Trump’s announcement is what the agreement means for ongoing strikes between Israel and the Yemeni group.

“It seems to be a much more limited deal, primarily focused on commercial vessels going through the Red Sea,” she told Al Jazeera.



‘Israel is really becoming a nuisance’ for Trump

Akiva Eldar, an Israeli political analyst, author and journalist, says the announcement of a US-Houthi ceasefire without Israel being informed beforehand marks a major development in bilateral relations.

“There is a completely different era now, and I think for Netanyahu this is a big surprise,” Eldar told Al Jazeera.

He highlighted how Trump recently surprised Israel by announcing the US is in talks with Iran and news reports saying National Security Adviser Mike Waltz was removed because he was “trying to negotiate some kind of strike on Iran with Israel without the approval of the president”.

“Those days when Netanyahu and the Israeli government were like the tail wagging the dog are over,” Eldar said.

Trump’s visit next week to the Middle East does not include a stop in Israel “because for him Israel has nothing to offer the United States. … Israel is really becoming a nuisance. The message is in the itinerary,” he added.

Germany’s Merz voices ‘concern’ on Gaza, to send foreign minister to Israel

Germany’s new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has voiced “considerable concern” about the Gaza conflict and said he would send his foreign minister to Israel this weekend.

The conservative Merz, 69, long a strong supporter of Israel, said that Israel has a right to fight the Palestinian group Hamas but must follow international law.

Merz, who took office on Tuesday, said Germany’s new foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, would travel to Israel at the weekend and that “we are currently preparing this trip together”.

Speaking to public broadcaster ARD, Merz said: “We view the developments of the last few days with considerable concern.”

“Israel has the right to defend itself against the brutal attack by Hamas terrorists on October 7 and everything that followed,” said Merz.

“But Israel must also remain a country that lives up to its humanitarian obligations, especially as this terrible war is raging in the Gaza Strip, where this confrontation with Hamas terrorists is necessarily taking place.”

He added that “it must be clear that the Israeli government must fulfil its obligations under the international law of war and that humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip must be provided”.

The walls are closing in on Netanyahu, which could be very dangerous for everyone in and around Israel...



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Rights group petitions Israel’s top court to halt West Bank demolitions

Adalah, a legal centre defending Palestinian rights in Israel, has petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court to seek “an immediate freeze and cancellation” of home demolition orders targeting communities in the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli army is targeting more than 100 homes and buildings in the Nur Shams and Tulkarem refugee camps, in the northern West Bank, Adalah said. The area has borne the brunt of an escalating campaign of Israeli military violence in recent months.

“This morning, the military began demolishing buildings in Nur Shams, reportedly destroying 18 structures,” Adalah said in a statement.

“The military ordered the demolition of approximately 104 civilian buildings, home to at least 1,000 people – primarily refugee families who have already been displaced and are currently sheltering in nearby towns. Most residents were never informed of the demolition orders and thus they were denied any opportunity to object, in violation of basic due process.”

Adalah has accused Israel – which has argued the demolitions are a matter of “military necessity” – of violating international humanitarian law, including prohibitions on the destruction of civilian property and collective punishment.

The Supreme Court ordered Israel to respond to Adalah’s petition by Wednesday, the rights group said.



Trump says he is not planning to visit Israel as part of upcoming trip

US President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House that he is not planning on visiting Israel at the tail end of a trip next week to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

While the White House hadn’t confirmed that Israel would be part of his upcoming trip, there have been widespread rumours in diplomatic and national security circles that he would extend his trip to visit the US ally.



At least 22 people killed in Bureij school attack: Gaza Gov’t Media Office

The Gaza Government Media Office says 52 Palestinians also have been injured in the Israeli attacks on the school-turned-shelter in the refugee camp.

“The number of displacement centres bombed has reached 234 so far in flagrant violation of all international and humanitarian laws,” the office said in a statement.

“We condemn in the strongest terms the horrific massacre against civilians and the US administration’s alignment with the occupation.”

The office also called for international action to pressure Israel to end what it called a “war of extermination” against Palestinians in Gaza.


Palestinians inspect the site of the Israeli attacks on a UN school sheltering displaced families in the Bureij camp in central Gaza

Aid ‘simply not available’ for large numbers of people in Gaza: UN

Speaking to reporters, Farhan Haq, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, says humanitarian operations “are on the verge of shutting down” as fewer UN member states pressure Israel to allow aid access.

He noted the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs earlier said Israeli authorities continue to deny access to fuel reserves in some areas, including Rafah.

“For large portions of the population, the sort of things that we’ve been providing for the last year and a half are simply not available any more, either because of lack of food, lack of fuel or lack of facilities that are undamaged.”

Haq warned “more and more of our operations are shutting down.”


State Department: Palestinian affairs office to be subsumed into US embassy in Israel

The move means there will no longer be a distinct unit that deals with Palestinian affairs and has direct contact with Washington.

The US had for decades maintained a consulate – first in occupied East Jerusalem, then in West Jerusalem – that handled relations and was distinct from the US embassy in Tel Aviv. The consulate signalled to many the longstanding US support for a two-state solution.

But in 2019 during his first term, Trump moved the US embassy to Jerusalem, closed the consulate and created the Palestinian Affairs Unit, which was under the control of the US embassy in Israel.

In 2022, US President Joe Biden’s administration renamed the unit the Palestinian Affairs Office and re-established its direct contact with Washington.

The latest move means contacts between the unit and Washington will again need approval from top officials at the US embassy in Israel, The New York Times reported.

State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce played down the wider significance of Tuesday’s announcement, saying it reverted to policy back to where it was during Trump’s first term.

Policy that led to Oct 7 and the current genocide....



Main events on May 6th

  • United States President Donald Trump said that he reached an agreement with the Houthi rebel group to end US strikes on Yemen, hours after Israel carried out attacks on the airport in the capital city of Sanaa.
  • The Houthis have yet to confirm details of the agreement, and have said they would continue attacks on Israel in solidarity with Gaza.
  • A spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says that humanitarian operations in Gaza are “on the verge of shutting down” as an Israeli blockade plunges the Strip further into a humanitarian catastrophe and cuts off access to food, water, fuel and aid.
  • Palestinians say they will refuse Israeli orders to leave their homes – after Netanyahu said that Gaza’s population would “be moved” as part of a new round of military operations aimed at setting up a permanent Israeli occupation of the Strip – which they see as a prelude to their permanent expulsion.



A little detour to Sudan today, drawing parallels (and inspiration) from Israel's tactics


How RSF is adopting Israel’s ‘template for genocide’ in Sudan

For years, Israel has used human rights terminology to whitewash killing civilians, now the RSF is doing the same.


In this still from a video, displaced Sudanese children are seen at a shelter in a school after being evacuated by the Sudanese army from areas once controlled by the paramilitary RSF in Omdurman, Sudan, on March 23, 2025

On April 11, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) stormed the Zamzam displacement camp in Sudan’s North Darfur, burning huts and shops, executing medics, and firing at fleeing civilians.

According to monitors, at least 500 people – men, women, children and the elderly – were killed, and hundreds of thousands were forcibly displaced

The attack provoked global outrage, prompting the RSF to double down on propaganda it had been spreading for months about Zamzam – that it was actually a military barracks.

Zamzam was a military zone … so the RSF decided that we should evacuate civilians,” RSF adviser Ali Musabel told Al Jazeera, without providing evidence for his claim. “We didn’t want civilians to get caught in the crossfire.”

By labelling Zamzam a military zone, the RSF was trying to apply the same model Israel uses to justify bombing hospitals and schools in the Gaza Strip, said Rifaat Makawi, a Sudanese human rights lawyer.

“This is not a coincidence: it is a deliberate practice aimed at stripping civilians of their legal protection by labelling them as combatants or instruments of war,” he told Al Jazeera.

A template for genocide

Throughout Sudan’s civil war, the RSF has used human rights jargon and terms from international humanitarian law (IHL) – the legal framework designed to protect civilians in times of war – to carry out atrocities.

For years, Israel employed this practice in an attempt to ward off criticism for killing and oppressing Palestinians, according to legal scholars. Since launching its genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, it has doubled down.


It claims hospitals in Gaza are Hamas “control-and-command centres” – trying to justify attacking health facilities, which are protected under IHL. It also claims Hamas hides among civilians to use them as “human shields” to justify disproportionate and intentional attacks against those same civilians.

In addition, it has branded its mass expulsions of civilians as “humanitarian” evacuations, giving people hours to pack up their entire lives and get out of the way of Israeli bombs, if they can.

Israel stands accused of genocide by rights groups and United Nations experts for its war that has killed at least 52,567 Palestinians.

And the RSF is increasingly adopting Israel’s strategy, local monitors and legal experts say.

“The fact that the claims made by the RSF in Sudan resemble the claims Israel is making in Gaza … reveals the emergence of a template to commit mass extermination and even genocide,” said Luigi Daniele, a senior lecturer on IHL at Nottingham Law School.


A satellite image shows burning buildings in the Zamzam camp for displaced people in Sudan’s North Darfur after it was taken over by the RSF, April 16, 2025

The UN accuses both sides in Sudan’s war of committing grave crimes, such as killing and torturing prisoners of war, since a power struggle between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) erupted into an all-out civil war in April 2023.

Human rights groups accuse the RSF of perpetrating additional atrocities, including carrying out a possible genocide against the “non-Arab” communities in Darfur.


From Janjaweed to human rights language

The RSF emerged from the nomadic “Arab” militias in Darfur, which became known as the Janjaweed (devils on horseback in Sudanese Arabic) for the countless atrocities they committed.

The army used the Janjaweed to crush a rebellion by sedentary farming “non-Arab” communities that started in 2003. The sedentary communities were protesting against their political and economic marginalisation in Sudan.

SAF and RSF were closely aligned until at least 2021, when they came together to overthrow the civilian administration with which they had been sharing power after a popular uprising toppled autocratic President Omar al-Bashir in 2019.

Shortly after the coup, the RSF signed a memorandum of understanding with the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) to receive human rights training.

Now, the RSF and its political allies are using human rights terminology to try to whitewash their atrocities.

On March 8, an RSF-backed political alliance, Tasis (Foundation), tweeted: “We stand in solidarity with Sudanese women in their recent ordeal, where they have faced particularly tragic conditions and been subjected to horrific violations, as a result of the unjust war.”


Tasis made no mention of the reports published by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, which accuse the RSF of widespread sexual violence and rape throughout the war.

During the raid on Zamzam, the RSF reportedly abducted 25 women and girls and raped others, according to the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa, a local monitor documenting sexual violence in the region.


“What I see today in Darfur, and specifically in Zamzam, is not merely a violation of the IHL, but evidence of its distortion and transformation into a cover under which the gravest crimes are committed,” human rights lawyer Makawi told Al Jazeera.



Finishing the (Sudanese) genocide?

The Zamzam camp sprang up in 2003, 15km (9.3 miles) from North Darfur’s capital, el-Fasher, to shelter “non-Arab” Zaghawa and Fur communities, which fled Popular Defence Forces’ violence during the first Darfur war.

Both communities suffered genocidal levels of violence and were expelled from their lands by the state-backed Janjaweed. Zamzam soon became a symbol of the atrocities they endured.


A makeshift bunker dug by civilians in el-Fasher as a hideout from clashes between the RSF and the Sudanese army

Some 350,000 people settled in the camp, swelling to more than half a million as the RSF and the army went to war and the paramilitary group captured South, East, West and Central Darfur states in late 2023.

In April 2024, the RSF besieged el-Fasher and surrounding towns after the Joint Forces – a coalition of “non-Arab” armed groups formed to fight the government in the past – shed their neutrality and sided with the army.

Given the RSF’s track record of enmity towards “non-Arab” ethnic groups, the Joint Forces feared widespread ethnic killings if the RSF captured the entire state.

The RSF blocked aid from anyone not aligned with them, leading to famine in Zamzam. As civilians withered away from hunger, the RSF began claiming that Zamzam was a “military base”, revealing its intention to attack.

“This claim that there was a military base in Zamzam was never correct … we had some people who acted as a police force, but there were no military leaders in the camp,” said Mosab, a middle-aged man who survived the killing in Zamzam and now languishes in the nearby town of Tawila.

Musabel, the RSF adviser, told Al Jazeera that the high civilian death toll was due to the Joint Forces using “human shields”, without providing evidence.

 

Ethnic cleansing

The RSF has also mimicked the Israeli tactic of carrying out mass expulsions under a humanitarian guise.

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has pushed 2.3 million Palestinians into smaller and smaller pockets of land, which it describes as “safe zones” in Gaza.

Israel bombs or invades those areas, claiming they “became military targets” due to the ostensible presence of someone from Hamas there.

“What Israel has done in Gaza, in reality, has been issuing mass expulsion orders under threats of extermination, which is a declaration of intent to commit international crimes,” Nottingham Law School’s Daniele said.

On April 11, Tasis posted on Facebook, calling for civilians to flee Zamzam through what it called “humanitarian corridors” leading to nearby towns such as Tawila and Korma.


Screengrab of the Tasis Facebook post claiming it was helping safe humanitarian evacuations

Yet on April 27, an RSF commander was seen announcing the detention of a group of unarmed men who fled Zamzam through a supposed humanitarian corridor to Tawila, in a video verified by Al Jazeera’s authentication unit, Sanad.

He said the men had sided against their Darfuri brethren and with the traditional elite, represented in the “Arab” Jalaba tribes who live in central and northern Sudan and comprise much of Sudan’s military and political elite. He added that they might kill the detained men to serve as an example to others.

The RSF has framed its war against the army as a fight on behalf of peripheral tribes against the central elite, while at the same time committing egregious abuses against the most marginalised tribes in Darfur. [Like Israel is now using the Druze as excuse to keep attacking Syria, while discriminating against them in Israel]

The detainees were relief workers, according to local monitors, who fear they were killed. Al Jazeera was unable to confirm their fate. Survivors told Al Jazeera that the RSF had carried out ethnic cleansing, possibly amounting to several war crimes.

“Some of us were executed [by the RSF] along [the road out of Zamzam] and others were violently displaced,” said Mohamed Idriss*, who walked for 13 hours before arriving in el-Fasher.

“We were exposed to so many violations, [the RSF] committed massacres and ethnic cleansing,” he told Al Jazeera.


No ICJ advice here

ICJ dismisses Sudan’s genocide case alleging UAE backing of RSF rebels

The top United Nations court has dismissed a case brought by Sudan accusing the United Arab Emirates (UAE) of breaching the UN Genocide Convention by arming and funding the rebel paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in Sudan’s deadly civil war.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) said on Monday that it “manifestly lacked” the authority to continue the proceedings and threw out the case.

https://www.icj-cij.org/case/197

In its Order, the Court observes that it may indicate provisional measures only if the provisions relied on by the applicant appear, prima facie, to afford a basis on which its jurisdiction could be founded. The Court further notes that the United Arab Emirates (the “UAE”), when acceding to the Genocide Convention, formulated a reservation to Article IX, seeking to exclude the jurisdiction of the Court.

(Article IX: Disputes between the Contracting Parties relating to the interpretation, application or fulfilment of the present Convention, including those relating to the responsibility of a State for genocide or for any of the other acts enumerated in article III [III (e) Complicity in genocide], shall be submitted to the International Court of Justice at the request of any of the parties to the dispute.)

Having regard to the UAE’s reservation to Article IX of the Genocide Convention, the Court observes that Article IX of that Convention cannot constitute, prima facie, a basis for the jurisdiction of the Court in the present case. It follows that the Court cannot indicate the provisional measures requested.

Moreover, the Court considers that, in light of the UAE’s reservation and in the absence of any other basis of jurisdiction, the Court manifestly lacks jurisdiction to entertain Sudan’s Application. The case will therefore be removed from its docket.

The difference between Palestine and Sudan is that Palestine has ratified the Rome Statute, Sudan has not. UAE and Israel haven't either, but in this case it's 2 non parties asking the ICJ for a ruling, while in the case of Gaza they do fall under the jurisdiction of the ICJ.



Meanwhile RSF continues attacking Aid lifelines

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/7/port-sudan-explosions-lifeline-for-aid-comes-under-attack-for-fourth-day



Since Sunday, Port Sudan has been the target of drone attacks that the army has blamed on the Rapid Support Forces.

Targeting Aid has become the norm now, in Gaza, in Yemen, in Sudan.

Last edited by SvennoJ - on 07 May 2025