SvennoJ said:
I agree, however Israel isn't even letting people out for their regular hospital treatments in Egypt nor Jerusalem. They're even trying to deport Palestinians that were hospitalized in East Jerusalem into Gaza. |
Awful stories.
West bank slowly gets treated more and more like Gaza
Israel strikes Nur Shams refugee camp with drone during raid
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports a bombing inside al-Manshiyya neighbourhood in the occupied West Bank refugee camp. The target of the strike is unknown at this time, says Wafa, due to a tight security cordon placed on the area by Israeli forces, who began a raid on the camp east of Tulkarem earlier.
“They deployed snipers in its vicinity and declared the camp a closed military zone, from which exit and entry are prohibited,” Wafa says, adding that Israeli forces are not allowing ambulances to respond to distress calls from a number of casualties that have resulted from the raid.
Heavy gunfire and the sounds of explosions can be heard throughout the camp.
Two killed in Israeli drone attack on West Bank’s Nur Shams refugee camp
Two Palestinian men have been killed by an Israeli drone attack on Nur Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Red Crescent has said, according to the Wafa news agency.
Video verified by Al Jazeera shows one of the men being taken to Thabet Thabet Governmental Hospital in nearby Tulkarem.
We reported earlier that the drone attack on al-Manshiyya neighbourhood was part of an Israeli raid on the camp on the Nur Shams refugee camp. As many as 50 Israeli military vehicles have raided the camp, declaring it a closed military zone, prohibiting entry and exit of Palestinians, Wafa reported.
Israeli raids across the occupied West Bank
The Israeli raid on the Nur Shams refugee camp is one of several across the occupied West Bank tonight.
Israeli forces have arrested two Palestinian boys aged 16 and 18 years in the village of Husan, west of Bethlehem, Wafa reports. According to the Wafa news agency and local news reports verified by Al Jazeera, Israeli forces have also raided:
The early morning raids come after the Israeli army and internal security agency Shin Bet said in a joint statement that an Israeli jet struck two “senior Islamic Jihad operatives inside a vehicle in the area of Jenin” in the occupied West Bank.
Mourners carry the body of Fakher Basem Bani Jaber during his funeral in the village of Aqraba, near Nablus, on March 20
Israeli forces shoot Palestinian at West Bank checkpoint
Israeli media is reporting a Palestinian man carrying a knife has been shot by Israeli forces at a checkpoint near the Israeli settlement of Gush Etzion, some 34km (21 miles) south of Jerusalem.
The man has injuries to his lower body and has been taken to hospital for medical treatment, according to Israel’s Ynet news site.
The shooting comes after an Israeli drone attack killed two Palestinians in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestine Red Crescent. An air strike late on Wednesday targeted a vehicle in Jenin, killing three Palestinians.
More violent raids near Ramallah, Hebron
Israeli forces have stormed the Am’ari refugee camp in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank and severely injured a young Palestinian. Israeli troops also arrested three Palestinians near Hebron – two from the Arroub refugee camp and one from the town of Beit Ummar.
This follows our earlier reports of Israeli raids in more areas throughout the occupied West Bank, including Nur Shams refugee camp, the village of Husan west of Bethlehem, Jalbun northeast of Jenin, Yabad southwest of Jenin, and the city of Qalqilya.
Death toll in Israeli raid in Nur Shams rises to 4
Israeli forces have killed two more Palestinians during their raid on Nur Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, bringing the total killed during the latest incursion to four, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.
During the raid, Israeli bulldozers have also dug up roads and torn down infrastructure in the camp, which is regularly targeted in Israeli army raids.
Jenin residents go on strike following Israeli drone attack
Palestinians in Jenin are going on strike to denounce the killing of three young men from their city in an Israeli drone strike yesterday.
The men – Mahmoud Bassam Rahal, Ahmed Hani Barakat, and Muhammad Abdullah al-Fayed – were killed when an Israeli drone-fired missile struck their car as it passed by a hospital in the Jenin camp, according to witnesses cited by the Palestinian Wafa news agency.
The Israeli military and internal security agency Shin Bet described two of those killed as “senior Islamic Jihad operatives”. Today’s protest strike in Jenin will affect “all aspects of commercial life” as well as public and educational institutions, reports Wafa.
Fighting in the North still escalating as well
Hezbollah targets Israeli soldiers near border
The Lebanese armed group says it attacked Israeli soldiers stationed at a building in the Metula area on the Israel-Lebanon border. Hezbollah said it also hit the Israeli army position in the Avivim settlement.
The armed group has engaged Israel with cross-border attacks since Israel launched its war on Gaza. More than 300 people have been killed in Lebanon, including some 240 members of Hezbollah, while about 20 Israelis have been killed.
The fighting has also forced some 90,000 people to flee southern Lebanon.
Israeli raids resume in southern Lebanon
Israeli jets have launched raids on the Lebanese villages of al-Adisa and Kafr Kila, while artillery targeted the town of Yaroun.
The raids took place after Hezbollah claimed multiple attacks overnight on the Israeli town of Metula, a gathering of Israeli soldiers in Avivim and an Israeli vehicle entering the Baghdadi military site opposite the Lebanese town of Meiss el-Jabal.
The jets also caused sonic booms above Nabatieh and Iqlim al-Tuffah.
Dozens of former US officials pen letter urging Biden to take firmer line with Israel
Almost 70 former US officials, diplomats and military officers have urged President Joe Biden to take a firmer stance with Israel over its actions in Gaza, as well as the expansion of settlements and failure to respect civil liberties in the occupied West Bank.
“The United States must be willing to take concrete action to oppose” such practices, the group said in an open letter to Biden.
The collection of a dozen former ambassadors, as well as retired State Department officials and former Pentagon, intelligence and White House officials, also said that this concrete action must include “restrictions on provision of [US] assistance [to Israel] consistent with US law and policy”.
The letter also highlighted growing dismay in the US over the mounting death toll from Israeli operations in Gaza, and while it said an assault on Hamas was “necessary and justified”, Israel’s actions “have been marked by repeated violations”.
Netanyahu tells US Republican senators that Gaza war will continue
Benjamin Netanyahu has told Republican Senators that Israel will continue its efforts to defeat Hamas in Gaza, US lawmakers have said, after the Israeli prime minister addressed them via videolink.
“We asked … him for an update, and we got it on the war, on the release of the hostages and in the efforts to defeat Hamas. We told him Israel has every right to defend themselves, and he said that’s exactly what they continue to do,” Senator John Barrasso said.
Netanyahu’s speech came almost a week after Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s Democratic majority leader and the US’s most senior Jewish politician, gave a speech branding Netanyahu an obstacle to peace and urging elections be held in Israel.
Earlier we reported that US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson said he was considering inviting Netanyahu to address Congress.
Netanyahu tells US senators 28,000 people killed in Gaza
On his virtual call with US Republican Senators on Wednesday, Netanyahu estimated the death toll in Gaza at 28,000, Senator Josh Hawley has told The New York Times. That figure places the number killed in the besieged enclave since Israel began its offensive in October at 4,000 lower than Gaza’s Ministry of Health, which estimates at least 31,923 deaths as of March 20.
Hawley told The New York Times that Netanyahu insisted that Israel was making every effort to minimise civilian casualties. “He was very mindful of it, he talked about it at some length,” Hawley said.
It's likely much more than 31,923, yet still 28,000 in 6 months is a horrible number, especially with over 13,000 children killed.
Israel submits assurances to US on use of weapons
The Israeli government has submitted written assurances required by the State Department that weapons it received from the US are not being used to violate international law in Gaza, the Reuters news agency reports, quoting an unnamed US official.
Israel had until March 24 to submit its written assurances, and the State Department will now assess by early May whether its claims are credible and report its findings to Congress.
President Joe Biden issued a national security memorandum last month reminding countries receiving US-supplied weapons to abide by international law. It also, for the first time, required the US government to submit an annual report to Congress on whether countries are meeting those requirements.
Oh well, if they said so. Writing it down doesn't make it true in the least.
The effects of propaganda
Israelis protest outside UNRWA office in Jerusalem
A small group of Israeli protesters picketed outside the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) office in occupied East Jerusalem on Wednesday calling for the organisation to be disbanded.
The group waved Israeli flags, laid down bloodied body bags, and held signs with slogans including “UNRWA = Hamas”.
In January, Israel accused 12 of UNRWA’s 13,000 staff members of participating in the October 7 massacres, resulting in many major Western donors withdrawing funding to the embattled UN agency.
UNRWA says Israel has still not provided solid evidence to support these claims, and many donors – including Sweden, Canada and the European Union – have since reinstated funding to the agency, which provides life-saving assistance to Palestinians in Gaza.
Don't ever bring a baby to a pro Palestine demonstration in Israel...
US submits Security Council resolution but exact wording unclear
The US has circulated a draft UN Security Council resolution calling for an “immediate ceasefire tied to the release of hostages” in Gaza, US Secretary of State Blinken has said.
But Al Jazeera’s Diplomatic Editor James Bays says while the development “sounds very important”, the “exact language” of the resolution is important. Bays said that in a non-finalised copy of the US resolution obtained by Al Jazeera, it was ambiguous what the US was actually demanding.
“It’s certainly the strongest language yet, but is it what the rest of the Security Council wants in terms of a demand for an immediate ceasefire? Or is it just as a resolution where the Security Council would say an immediate ceasefire is something that’s very important?” he said.
Blinken’s latest Middle East tour began in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday. Today he will head to Cairo to meet with Arab foreign ministers and a senior Palestinian official.
What does the US-submitted draft resolution say?
Al Jazeera has obtained a copy of the draft resolution submitted by the US to the UN Security Council.
It reads: “The Security Council determines the imperative of an immediate and sustained ceasefire to protect civilians on all sides, allow for the delivery of essential humanitarian assistance, and alleviate humanitarian suffering and towards that end unequivocally supports ongoing international diplomatic efforts to secure such a ceasefire in connection with the release of all remaining hostages.”
What does that even mean?? It says to deem a sustained ceasefire essential / urgent, yet only to support ongoing diplomatic efforts. So not demanding a ceasefire at all, just to keep negotiating, which has just resulted in prolonging the war so far.
What to know about the latest draft resolution
We’ve asked Al Jazeera’s Diplomatic Editor James Bays to unpack the text of the US-submitted draft resolution:
“It is also about the specific language, and also how other Security Council members are going to view the resolution because this is not the only draft resolution that’s floating around.
“The language of other resolutions that the US has vetoed have demanded a ceasefire. This one uses the words, ‘determines the imperative’, so it says it is important that there is a ceasefire. It is not really demanding one now and the ceasefire seems to be also directly linked to the release of the people held by Hamas and other groups in Gaza.
“My suspicion is that what the US is trying to do is have this resolution ready while the talks continue in Doha – the idea being that you get some sort of deal in Doha for a ceasefire and a release of the captives, and then you pass this resolution in the Security Council. That, I think, is the timing but we’ll need more clarity.”
So just for a political 'win' then...
Palestinians desperate for a ceasefire
Palestinians in Gaza are drained as they wait for a possible durable ceasefire. They are desperate for a semblance of peace and stability in their lives. They are going through a worsening hunger crisis, especially in the north where there is acute famine that has killed at least 27 children. Resources and basic supplies remain scarce.
All of this is happening as they endure an intense bombing campaign, which has so far killed close to 32,000 people, mostly women and children. It is a very difficult period for Palestinians and they are desperate for a ceasefire.
Netanyahu will go down in history for ‘using hunger as a weapon’ in Gaza
French Senator Guillaume Gontard says Netanyahu will go down in history for “using hunger as a weapon” in Gaza.
In his speech at the Senate General Assembly on Wednesday, the president of the ecologist group in the French Senate said history books would write that Israel caused an explosion of violence in the Gaza Strip after October 7.
He quoted EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell when he labelled Gaza as “the world’s biggest open-air graveyard” while adding that the “apocalypse-like” situation in Gaza has been noted by journalists and doctors.
Lapid calls for halt to Rafah operation, deal with Hamas
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has called on Netanyahu’s government to strike an immediate deal with Hamas to return all captives held in Gaza.
In a radio interview, he said eliminating Hamas and its battalions in Rafah would then be possible while the most urgent matter was to end the tragedy of the captives and their families. He warned Netanyahu against launching a ground invasion in Rafah because it risks putting the deal in jeopardy.
He also warned Netanyahu against giving a speech to the Republican Party in the US Congress because it would deepen the crisis with the Biden administration.
Israel determined to take Rafah despite ‘potential breach’ with US
Israel will take control of Rafah even if it causes a rift with the US, a senior Israeli official said, describing the southern Gaza city where more than one million displaced Palestinians are sheltering as a Hamas bastion harbouring a quarter of the group’s fighters.
Speaking to the podcast Call Me Back, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer said Israel would hear out US ideas for Rafah, but the city would be taken whether or not an agreement was reached on the evacuation of civilians.
All aboard the stall train
UN agencies, 36 countries discuss aid to Gaza through Cyprus
Officials from 36 countries and UN agencies have gathered in Cyprus to discuss how to expedite aid to Gaza via a sea route launched last week.
“We are discussing how we can max up operational capacity both in terms of departure and means of transport and also in relation to the reception and distribution methodology,” said Constantinos Kombos, Cyprus’s foreign minister.
Delegates would also discuss the creation of a fund to coordinate operational activities of the initiative, Kombos said, although he clarified it was not a donor’s conference. Asked how many vessels could be departing Cyprus with aid once the initiative is at full operational capacity, Kombos said “as many as possible”.
A vessel left Cyprus last week and distributed aid in Gaza as part of a mission operated by Open Arms, World Central Kitchen and the UAE, with the support of the government of Cyprus. Another two are expected to depart in the coming days, subject to weather conditions.
Still waiting on that 2nd delivery.
Satellite images show 35% of Gaza’s buildings destroyed or damaged: UN
The United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) has compared high-resolution satellite images of Gaza collected on February 29 with images taken before and after the start of the latest conflict.
It found that 35 percent of all buildings in Gaza – 88,868 structures – had been damaged or destroyed. Among these, it identified 31,198 structures as destroyed, 16,908 as severely damaged, and 40,762 as moderately damaged.
This represents an increase of nearly 20,000 damaged structures compared to the previous assessment it did based on images taken in January when the total figure stood at 30 percent.
“The governorates of Khan Younis and Gaza have experienced the most significant rise in damage, with Khan Younis seeing 12,279 additional damaged structures and Gaza experiencing 2,010,” UNOSAT said.
“Khan Younis City has been hit particularly hard, with 6,663 newly destroyed structures.”
Israel aiming to ‘eliminate anything that walks or breathes in Gaza’
Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara says Israel’s latest attack on the al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza has shown that, rather than eliminating Hamas, it is attempting to “eliminate anything that walks or breathes in Gaza”.
What’s more, Bishara added, no distinction is being made between the armed wing of Hamas and the government officers carrying out their civic duties.
“Anyone who works for a ministry under Hamas and their relatives is considered punishable by killing,” Bishara said.
Israeli military blows up building at al-Shifa Hospital
Local Palestinian media is reporting that the Israeli military has blown up a building used for specialist care at the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
The Israeli military raided al-Shifa on Monday saying it had intelligence that Hamas fighters were sheltering in the medical complex. It said that it killed about 90 Palestinians during the raid, while 300 suspects were interrogated at the complex and more than 160 were detained.
Nine killed as Israeli attack targets home in central Gaza
Israeli bombardment hit a home in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing nine Palestinians, our colleagues on the ground are reporting. Residential buildings were also hit near Gaza’s northern coast.
Israeli army issues evacuation warning for al-Shifa Hospital
Hani Mahmoud, our colleague on the ground in Gaza, is reporting that the Israeli army is warning the displaced people in al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City to evacuate immediately or it would be bombed. Judging by the pattern of bombing at the hospital and areas around it, it seems like the entire complex will be destroyed, he added.
Al-Shifa Hospital still under siege, nearby buildings bombed
We now have more from Hani Mahmoud, our colleague in Gaza, who is reporting that the Israeli military is still operating aggressively inside the al-Aqsa Hospital building, causing a great deal of damage to the property.
“They demolished the hospital’s entire specialist care centre, a brand new building that was set up to help Palestinians who need surgery,” he said. “The Israeli military is now ordering everyone inside the hospital, including medical staff and patients, to evacuate immediately. Otherwise, the entire facility will be blown up.”
At least 140 people have been killed inside al-Shifa, according to an Israeli military statement, but it hasn’t been verified whether these people were Hamas members as the Israeli military claims, or civilians.
“Meanwhile, an intense bombing campaign also continues in the vicinity of the hospital. More residential buildings are being targeted and destroyed while people are still inside, denied the opportunity to evacuate.”
Israel’s latest attacks hit Gaza City, Deir el-Balah, Nuseirat camp
Israel’s latest round of attacks throughout Gaza have killed and injured dozens of Palestinian civilians, according to Wafa news agency.
Victims include:
| SvennoJ said: Dozens of former US officials pen letter urging Biden to take firmer line with Israel Almost 70 former US officials, diplomats and military officers have urged President Joe Biden to take a firmer stance with Israel over its actions in Gaza, as well as the expansion of settlements and failure to respect civil liberties in the occupied West Bank. |
The question now is how does he take on West Bank, settlements and theft are effective but this new Middle East Map will need something more drastic.
Can't fault the guy, he means what he says.
Owen Jones reacts to the documentary of Oct 7 by Al Jazeera
This segment is incredibly important, this is because I have been repeatedly taken by surprise at how many times I heard the narrative that the "USA can't do anything to stop Israel", not just on these forums but even on the media, it was very disappointing to hear John Stewart pushing this narrative on hugely popular show as well. Many on the left is busy looking for excuses to exonerate Biden.
Genocide Joe is not just complicit.
| LurkerJ said: This segment is incredibly important, this is because I have been repeatedly taken by surprise at how many times I heard the narrative that the "USA can't do anything to stop Israel", not just on these forums but even on the media, it was very disappointing to hear John Stewart pushing this narrative on hugely popular show as well. Many on the left is busy looking for excuses to exonerate Biden. Genocide Joe is not just complicit. |
He's full on in on it. I don't believe anything he says since the day he lied about seeing evidence of beheaded babies with his own eyes.
He said himself to be a Zionist on Oct 27
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/i-am-zionist-how-joe-bidens-lifelong-bond-with-israel-shapes-war-policy-2023-10-21/
Bombs from atrocities were traced back to US made ammunition
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/12/israel-opt-us-made-munitions-killed-43-civilians-in-two-documented-israeli-air-strikes-in-gaza-new-investigation/
December 11 report
https://truthout.org/articles/israel-used-22000-u-s-provided-bombs-on-gaza-in-just-six-weeks-report-reveals/
In just the first month and a half after the October 7 attack by Hamas forces, Israel deployed over 22,000 U.S.-produced bombs on Gaza, according to intelligence figures provided to Congress and reported by The Washington Post on Saturday. In that time, the U.S. transferred 15,000 bombs to Israel, including 2,000-pound “bunker busters” that experts say are not normally for use in densely populated residential areas like the Gaza strip, and over 50,000 artillery shells.
If these numbers are accurate, it means Israel dropped roughly one U.S.-supplied bomb on Gaza for every 100 people living there in just six weeks — an astonishing show of force in such a short period of time.
The US is the key in keeping Israel covered politically and armed to the teeth to keep going. Biden does nothing but make excuses for Netanyahu, pretending to work on a ceasefire which only results in repeatedly blaming Hamas for not accepting total surrender.
The scary thing is, the Republicans and Trump are even worse, hence Netanyahu now pandering to the Republican party. Israel does listen to the US telling them no to a ground invasion of Rafah. At least they have so far. But the US is find with continuing to bomb entire families off the map and not letting more aid in.
The US needs to be dragged in front of the ICJ. Plenty Republican senators have called for the total destruction of Gaza, ethnic cleansing or kill them all. Biden keeps providing weapons while defunding UNWRA and putting it into law that UNWRA can't be funded again until at least 2025.
Blocking ceasefire resolutions just to replace them with weak worded ones Israel can ignore.
Biden is not just complicit, he's been providing intel as well next to bombs.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israel-seizes-trove-intelligence-hamas-gaza-us-help-rcna144365
The intel comes from hard drives, cellphones, laptops, maps and other material seized during Israel’s invasion of Gaza, as well as electronic eavesdropping conducted by the U.S.
Biden Admin Deployed Air Force Team to Israel to Assist With Targets, Document Suggests
https://theintercept.com/2024/01/11/israel-air-force-targeting-intelligence/
The information used to conduct airstrikes and fire long-range artillery weapons — has played a central role in Israel’s siege of Gaza. A document obtained through the Freedom of Information Act suggests that the U.S. Air Force sent officers specializing in this exact form of intelligence to Israel in late November.
Since the start of Israel’s bombardment in retaliation for Hamas’s strike on October 7, Israel has dropped more than 29,000 bombs on the tiny Gaza Strip, according to a U.S. intelligence report last month. And for the first time in U.S. history, the Biden administration has been flying surveillance drone missions over Gaza since at least early November, ostensibly for hostage recovery by special forces.
But several weeks later, on November 21, the U.S. Air Force issued deployment guidelines for officers, including intelligence engagement officers, headed to Israel. Experts say that a team of targeting officers like this would be used to provide satellite intelligence to the Israelis for the purpose of offensive targeting.
And now this
Israel's Gaza assassination campaign: US approved, sent intel to IDF - report
https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-793122
Following October 7, America began providing signals intelligence by eavesdropping on electronic communications.
American officials have seemingly greenlighted and supported the Israeli assassination campaign in Gaza and abroad, according to a report on NBC on Thursday, citing unnamed American and Israeli officials.
The report cites claims from American Congressional figures that seizures of intelligence were behind the assassination of Hamas number 3, Marwan Issa, last week. The unnamed officials, both former and current, claimed that the US had stepped up intelligence-gathering operations in Gaza.
About Us |
Terms of Use |
Privacy Policy |
Advertise |
Staff |
Contact
Display As Desktop
Display As Mobile
© 2006-2024 VGChartz Ltd. All rights reserved.
Currently Online 
