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Forums - Politics - Israel-Hamas war, Gaza genocide

SvennoJ on 30 May 2025

Madrid condemns Israel’s approval of 22 new settlements

Spain has strongly condemned Israel’s recent approval of 22 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, warning the move violates international law.

“The settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law, undermine the viability of the two-state solution, and are a threat to peace,” Madrid’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Spain also expressed concern over Israel’s intensified military operations in the West Bank.

It additionally denounced the demolition of Palestinian homes, increasing settler violence and the forced displacement of thousands of Palestinians – calling these acts clear violations of international humanitarian law.

“Peace in the region requires the realisation of a sovereign Palestinian state, comprising Gaza and the West Bank, with East Jerusalem as its capital,” the ministry said.

Blah blah blah, nothing but empty words.


Finland condemns Israeli approval of new settlements

Finland has denounced Israel’s approval of 22 new settlements in the West Bank. “Settlements are illegal under international law,” Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen said in a post on X.

“Creating deliberate obstacles to the two-state solution is unacceptable and runs counter to international efforts to advance peace.”

More words.

German minister says future weapons deliveries to Israel will depend on Gaza situation

Germany will decide whether to approve new weapons shipments to Israel based on an assessment of the humanitarian situation in Gaza, Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has said in an interview with the Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

Wadephul questioned whether Israel’s actions in Gaza are in line with international law. “We are examining this and, if necessary, we will authorise further arms deliveries based on this examination,” he said.

You should have stopped all weapons shipments over a year ago. Genocide with less starvation is fine? Germany, you're doing it again.


Freedom Flotilla Coalition to launch new expedition after drone attacks

The “Madleen” is due to disembark from Catania, Sicily, on Sunday in an attempt to reach Gaza and break Israel’s months-long blockade of Gaza.

The group said the vessel, named in 2014 after Gaza’s only fisherwoman at the time, would be moving forward despite repeated threats “because the world has waited too long to take bold action”.

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and Game of Thrones actor Liam Cunningham are expected to join the next sailing.

Earlier this month, drones attacked the previous aid ship, the Conscience, while in international waters, in what the coalition said was a “deliberate act of aggression and intimidation”. The coalition blamed Israel or one of its allies for the attack.

“We call on all governments to guarantee safe passage for our vessels and to uphold the basic principles of humanitarian law,” it added in its statement. “And we call on all people of conscience: do not look away.”



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SvennoJ on 30 May 2025

Macron says France may toughen stance on Israel over Gaza aid

President Emmanuel Macron has said France could harden its position on Israel if it continues to block humanitarian aid to Gaza, which is “creating a situation that is untenable on the ground”.

“If there is no response that meets the humanitarian situation in the coming hours and days, obviously, we will have to toughen our collective position,” Macron said, adding that France may consider applying sanctions against Israeli settlers.

“But I still hope that the government of Israel will change its stance and that we will finally have a humanitarian response.”

Oh just fuck off already with your fake concern. "Could" harden its position, as in slightly harsher words. "May" consider applying sanctions against some Settlers. Europe is fucking weak and fully complicit.


Still may and could is too much for Israel

Katz pushes back against Macron’s warning

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has hit back at French President Emmanuel Macron, after France said it could harden its position on Israel if it continues to block humanitarian aid to Gaza.

“This is a historic moment for settlement, a crushing answer to the terrorist organisations and a clear message to Macron and his friends: you will recognize a Palestinian state on paper and the paper will be thrown into the dustbin of history,” Katz was cited as saying by Israeli media, while on a visit to the Israeli settlement of Sha Nur.

The minister further vowed to build a “Jewish Israeli state” in the occupied West Bank, a day after the government announced the creation of 22 new settlements in the territory.


Israeli foreign minister slams Macron for ‘crusade against the Jewish State’

Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has lashed out against French President Emmanuel Macron, who said earlier Paris could harden its position on Israel if it continues to block humanitarian aid to Gaza.

“President Macron’s crusade against the Jewish State continues,” it said on X. “The facts do not interest Macron.”

The ministry argued that there was no humanitarian blockade on Gaza and that asserting the contrary was “a blatant lie,” despite UN top officials and international organisations having repeatedly stated that Israel has blockaded all entry of aid since March 2.

“Instead of applying pressure on the jihadist terrorists, Macron wants to reward them with a Palestinian state. No doubt its national day will be October 7,” it said, in a reference to Hamas’s attack on Israel on that day in 2023.


Israel’s national security minister mocks Macron over Gaza criticism

Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right Israeli national security minister, claims “Macron plays into the hands of Islamic terrorism”.

“His flattery of Hamas will not end with a simple slap upon exiting the plane, and even a helmet will not help,” he wrote on X in reference to Brigitte Macron appearing to slap the French president in the face upon arrival in Vietnam earlier this week. He also posted an AI-generated image of Macron wearing a helmet while standing next to his wife.

In the online post, which was published in French, Ben-Gvir also said “Islamic terrorism will explode in the faces of all French citizens”.

“By the time Macron understands this, it will be too late. Citizens of France, wake up.”

Ben-Gvir is among the most extreme ministers in the most far-right government in Israel’s history, and has long been advocating for blocking all aid entering Gaza and fully occupying the Palestinian territory.



SvennoJ on 30 May 2025

Israeli settlers block aid trucks enroute to Gaza

Activists and Israeli media published video on social media this morning showing settlers blocking the road in front of aid trucks near the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom to Israelis) crossing between Gaza and Israel.

According to Israeli media, activists from the Tzav 9 movement and families of prisoners are blocking the passage of aid trucks into Gaza.

The scenes show several trucks stopped on the road.


Translation: Activists from the Tzav 9 movement and families of captives are currently blocking aid trucks for Hamas near the Kerem Shalom crossing.

 

New settler outposts reported in occupied West Bank

Israeli settlers have established new illegal outposts in the Umm al-Quba plain and in the Balata area, north of the town of Bruqin, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reports.

Separately, the news agency said settlers from the Telem and Adora illegal Israeli settlements northwest of Hebron have organised a provocative march along Route 35, reaching the entrance to the town of Idhna, west of Hebron.

The march comes after the Israeli army closed all side roads to the town with earth mounds to prevent the movement of Palestinian residents.


Israeli military arrests dozens, seizes money in occupied West Bank raids

The Israeli military reports that its forces carried out numerous raids across the occupied West Bank this week. The army arrested 80 “wanted individuals” and confiscated several weapons, as well as seven million shekels ($2m) in “terrorist funds”, it said.

In preparation for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot that starts on June 1, the Israeli military also reported reinforcing its forces across the occupied West Bank with “several combat companies”.



SvennoJ on 30 May 2025

Israel aid blockade making Gaza ‘hungriest region on Earth’: UN

Israel is blocking all but a trickle of humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said, with almost no ready-to-eat food entering what its spokesperson described as “the hungriest place on Earth”.

Spokesperson Jens Laerke said only 600 of 900 aid trucks had been authorised to get to Israel’s border fence with Gaza, and from there a mixture of bureaucratic and security obstacles made it all but impossible to safely carry aid into the region.

“What we have been able to bring in is flour,” he told a news conference. “That’s not ready to eat, right? It needs to be cooked … 100 percent of the population of Gaza is at risk of famine.”


Desperate scenes as Palestinians shot at while trying to get aid

Israeli forces have opened fire on desperate civilians this morning, who have gathered on Salah al-Din Street in a desperate attempt to get food from recently established food aid distribution centres, run by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

It’s desperate to see similar scenes every single morning.

At least 20 Palestinians have been reported wounded, according to medical sources. In a separate incident, one Palestinian was shot and injured by Israeli snipers close to Rafah city as he was approaching the designated distribution point.

The number of Palestinians killed in the past 72 hours while trying to get aid has reached 10, and such repeated incidents highlight the serious and severe dangers Palestinians face to get aid.


Death toll in Gaza since Israel’s war began reaches 54,321

We’ve gotten an update from the Health Ministry in Gaza, which says at least 54,321 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s war on the enclave since October 2023. The ministry also reported that:

  • Another 123,770 Palestinians have been wounded since October 7, 2023.
  • At least 72 deaths and 278 injuries have been reported to hospitals in Gaza over the past 24 hours, not including hospitals in the north of the enclave.
  • “A number of victims remain under the rubble and on the roads, unable to be reached by ambulance and Civil Defence crews.”
  • Since Israel broke the ceasefire on March 18, at least 4,058 people have been killed and 11,729 others have been injured.


Gaza death toll may be much higher than reported, new research shows

A new study suggests the death toll from Israel’s war on Gaza may be much higher than official figures. Al Jazeera’s Hind Touissate spoke to Francesco Checchi, one of the researchers involved in a statistical analysis, who says the number could be as high as 95,000.

Probably even higher. The 'official' death toll is only the bodies that made it to a hospital. All those left under the rubble, buried in mass graves, buried by family members, eaten by dogs and those 'disappeared' are not included in the count.



SvennoJ on 30 May 2025

At least one Palestinian child casualty every 20 minutes in Gaza: UNICEF

The UN’s child rights agency (UNICEF) says more than 50,000 Palestinian children have been reported killed or wounded in Gaza since Israel’s war began in October 2023.

“One child, every 20 minutes,” the agency wrote in a post on X.

“This is the destruction of childhood. Of life itself.”


‘I don’t think we can ever forgive ourselves for letting this happen’

Christos Georgalas, a doctor who has volunteered at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, says Israel is carrying out “a war against children”.

“The vast majority of the victims that I treated, the trauma patients, were children. I’m talking about children [who are] 6, 8, 9, 10 years old,” he told Al Jazeera from the Greek capital, Athens.

Georgalas praised the resilience of local Palestinian doctors and health workers, who have been “selflessly and tirelessly” working to treat people in Gaza in extremely difficult conditions.

“But on the other hand, I cannot unsee … the images of maimed, traumatised, killed children,” he said. “It’s something that I don’t think we can ever forgive ourselves [for] – for letting this happen.”


At least 14 killed in Israeli attack on eastern Khan Younis

The Israeli attack hit tents where displaced Palestinians took refuge in the city in southern Gaza.

The death toll since dawn today has now risen to more than 30 people.



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SvennoJ on 30 May 2025

‘US-Israel plan to instrumentalise aid is ineffective’: MSF

Doctors Without Borders, also known by its French acronym MSF, has said the “disastrous start” to the food distribution coordinated by the newly created Gaza Humanitarian Foundation confirmed that “the US-Israel plan to instrumentalise aid is ineffective”.

“Through this dangerous and reckless approach, food is not being distributed where it’s needed most but is instead directed only to areas where Israeli forces choose to amass civilians,” Secretary-General Christopher Lockyear said in a statement.

“This means the most vulnerable – especially the elderly and people with disabilities – have virtually no chance of accessing the food they desperately need.”

It added that “the claim that this unprincipled, failing mechanism is necessary to prevent the diversion of aid is false” and that the initiative appeared to be “a cynical ploy to feign compliance with international humanitarian law”.

Controversial new Gaza aid group isn’t screening recipients — despite being established to keep supplies from Hamas

https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/30/middleeast/gaza-humanitarian-foundation-screenings-hamas-intl



The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which is operating in the strip with US and Israeli approval, was established amid Israeli accusations that Hamas is stealing aid in Gaza and profiting off its sale. Humanitarian organizations have said there is no evidence tying significant diversion of aid to Hamas, and Israel has presented none publicly. But it is those claims that have prompted Israel to seek to replace traditional humanitarian organizations with GHF, which they said would prevent Hamas from obtaining the aid.

Yet GHF appears to have fewer safeguards in place to ensure aid reaches those in need than United Nations aid organizations, like UNRWA, which typically does check identification and relies on a database of registered families when distributing aid.

A journalist working with CNN who entered one distribution site and multiple Palestinians who collected aid at several sites said they faced no security or identification screenings before entering. Several eyewitnesses said criminal gangs and merchants were taking advantage of the situation, paying people to make trips into the distribution sites to collect aid boxes they could then resell.

CNN video filmed outside the aid site shows several groups of young men hauling away aid boxes on donkey carts, while hiding their faces with their shirts and asking not to be filmed.

...



SvennoJ on 30 May 2025

Palestinians seeking aid ‘walking into military base, not humanitarian site’

Operations at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started on Tuesday … [but] today there was no aid distribution going on. From the early hours of this morning, a lot of people showed up at the [three] sites where food was supposed to be distributed.

People were told there was not going to be food distribution [and] they were shot at by the Israeli military. They were chased by the quadcopters. As many as 20 people were reported with various injuries.

People are telling us that the sites that are managed and operated by the GHF are metres away from where the Israeli military is stationed. They can see the tanks, they can see the armoured vehicles. The armoured surveillance [is] around the clock, as they were waiting to get to the tables where the food parcels are available.

They say, “We are walking into a military base, not a humanitarian site”.

There are also reports of enforced disappearances. A lot of families reported that many of their children, many of their family members, who went to the sites … have gone missing as they were trying to get food.

It’s a combination of desperation, hunger and now the enforced disappearances – coupled with the ongoing shooting by the Israeli military.


UN envoy slams Israel’s ‘brutal humanitarian camouflage’

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, has accused Israel of deliberately misusing humanitarian language to facilitate “the commission of atrocity crimes in Gaza”.

“Israel pretends to promote humanitarian solutions in order to continue its control of Gaza and sustain its systematic denial of life-saving humanitarian aid to the starving population in the besieged strip,” Albanese said in a statement.

“It is a deliberate strategy – aimed at masking atrocities, displacing the displaced, bombing the bombarded, burning Palestinians alive and maiming survivors,” she said.

“All camouflaged behind the language of aid, to divert international attention from legal accountability, in Israel’s attempt to dismantle the very principles upon which humanitarian law was built.”



Zarkho on 30 May 2025

Thanks for your efforts updating about the situation. I can't understand the silence, and even complicity, of european governments when forced displacement, ethnic cleasing and pure genocide are being commited in prime time and with the whole world watching... 



SvennoJ on 30 May 2025

Zarkho said:

Thanks for your efforts updating about the situation. I can't understand the silence, and even complicity, of european governments when forced displacement, ethnic cleasing and pure genocide are being commited in prime time and with the whole world watching... 

I don't want to be this cynical, but it's a combination of pure racism, skeletons in the closet and greed.

There's plenty trade between Israel and Europe, in weapons, surveillance tech and goods. And I suspect Israel has plenty 'dirt' on all the countries they sell surveillance tech (tested in Gaza) to, like Pegasus spyware.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/nov/14/nso-pegasus-spyware-whatsapp

Despite France voicing 'concerns' they went out of their way to have Israeli defense firms present at the weapons expo https://www.eurosatory.com/en/ last year, which is coming up again this year in a couple weeks.
https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/french-court-reverses-ban-israeli-firms-paris-arms-show-organiser-says-2024-10-31/

Plus Europe is scared. With centuries of colonialism, genocides and slave trade in their past, backing the ICJ and ICC now could open the door for other countries to come demanding recompense. 

And Europe is still mostly ruled by old white people, institutionalized racism all throughout their governments. Islamophobia is huge in Europe. I grew up in the Netherlands and despite the Dutch claiming they're not racist, they are. I've seen it myself against my mother, but also against migrant workers and nowadays fully against Muslims. France is only voicing concern and promising to back a 2-state solution to keep the peace with a large Muslim community, however still not taking any actions.

It's not much better in Canada. It feels more tolerant here, yet online comments are not any better. And our government isn't doing anything concrete either. Canada 'reconciled' with its dark past by adding a land acknowledgement statement in official documents and events. Yet indigenous people are still being taken advantage of, colonialism never stops.
https://theconversation.com/not-in-the-past-colonialism-is-rooted-in-the-present-157395
Lot of work still to be done. Where I live indigenous land has been appropriated again to build more houses and expand truck transfer hubs. The community managed to delay the project by 10 years, but now they're building anyway.


Sadly I can understand the silence and complicity, they've done it all before, still doing it, only concerned about how openly Israel is going at it :(



SvennoJ on 30 May 2025

Trump says ‘very close’ to Gaza ceasefire deal

The US president has said he believes his administration will have an announcement later today “or maybe tomorrow”. “We have a chance of that,” he told reporters from the Oval Office.

The White House said yesterday that Israel has “signed off” on a ceasefire proposal that the US sent to Hamas for consideration.

The Palestinian group said it is still evaluating the plan. As we reported earlier, Hamas said in a statement today that it is consulting with other Palestinian groups and factions on the ground in Gaza on the proposal.

A Hamas official said yesterday that the US-backed plan its current form would only result in “the continuation of killing and famine” in Gaza.


Hmm where have I heard that before, recent history repeating.

Gaza ceasefire deal closer than ever, Biden says August 17 2024
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5ydpwe520go

Blinken says Israel agrees to U.S.-backed ceasefire proposal, urges Hamas to do the same August 19 2024
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ceasefire-blinken-israel-hamas-negotiations-1.7298070

But Israel always throws up new demands, new red lines


Hamas first accepted ceasefire last May

Israel Gaza: Hamas says it accepts ceasefire proposal May 6, 2024
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68964108

Since then Netanyahu has only been adding more demands and red lines while killing more civilians and destroying more civilian infrastructure.


I doubt anything will come of it this time :( However Netanyahu has become a bit of a nuisance for Trump, at some point he'll lash out at him. But will he actually tell him to stop like he stopped Netanyahu from bombing Iran again.

The last hope for Gaza, a temper tantrum from TACO... Has the world really sunk this low.

Maybe bring this up again (2021)



Trump must end Gaza aid scheme, back UN agencies: CAIR

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has urged US President Donald Trump’s administration to end its support for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation amid deadly violence and chaotic scenes at aid distribution points this week.

“It is obvious that putting the task of distributing food and aid to the people of Gaza in the hands of the Israeli government and American mercenaries has been a terrible idea and a complete failure,” CAIR said in a statement.

“Opening fire on starving people as they desperately seek food is a level of criminality that cannot be tolerated,” it added.

“We call on President Trump to end the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and return the task of distributing food and aid to international organisations like UNRWA and others qualified to do so.”

The UN and other leading humanitarian groups have also criticised the foundation for failing to adhere to humanitarian principles, such as independence and neutrality, and said they will not cooperate with its operations in Gaza.