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Forums - Politics - Israel-Hamas war, Gaza genocide

SvennoJ on 09 July 2025

France’s Macron calls for UK support on Gaza

French President Emmanuel Macron, who is paying a state visit to the United Kingdom, has addressed both houses of the British parliament and called for an unconditional ceasefire in Gaza.

He then urged the UK to work together with France on recognising a Palestinian state, calling it “the only path to peace”.

“With Gaza in ruin and West Bank being on a daily basis attacked, the perspective of a Palestinian state has never been put at risk as it is,” Macron said. “And this is why this solution of the two states and the recognition of the State of Palestine is … the only way to build peace and stability for all in the whole region.”

Rome Statute countries must explain why Netanyahu flights allowed in airspace: UN expert

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, says the governments of Italy, France, and Greece “must explain why they provided airspace and safe passage” to Netanyahu, even though he is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“Italian, French and Greek citizens deserve to know that every political action violating the international legal order, weakens and endangers all of them,” Albanese wrote in a post on X.

The countries, which are all parties to the Rome Statute, are “obligated to arrest” the Israeli prime minister, she said.

The United States, which is currently hosting Netanyahu, is not a party to the statute. The Trump administration recently sanctioned four ICC judges, accusing them of taking “illegitimate and baseless actions” against the US and its allies, including Israel.



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SvennoJ on 09 July 2025

Israeli torture of Palestinian prisoners ‘widespread and systematic’: UN expert

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, says the torture of Palestinian prisoners has become commonplace since October 7, 2023.

On social media platform X, Albanese responded to a post about the 2024 gang-rape of a Palestinian prisoner by guards at the Sde Teiman detention facility by saying the assault was “not an isolated case – it’s part of a pattern”.

“Since October 7, torture against Palestinian prisoners has become widespread and systematic. Both male and female detainees have been subjected to sexual violence, including rape,” she said.

Albanese said this was not only a matter of “cruelty: inflicting severe physical or mental harm on members of a group ‘as such’ is a constitutive element of genocide”.

“How much more evidence do people need to understand what is happening?”

The number of Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons has hit its highest number in a quarter of a century.

Rights groups say there are 10,800 Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli jails. At least 50 are women, and more than 450 are children. More than 3,600 are held without charge or trial. Their detention can be extended indefinitely.

These figures don’t include all detainees arrested from Gaza and held in the Israeli army’s military camps.

At least 73 Palestinians have died in prisons and military detention facilities since October 2023. Rights groups accuse Israeli forces of abuse, torture and medical negligence.


US sanctions UN expert Albanese over Gaza reporting

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced sanctions will be imposed on UN special rapporteur for Palestine Francesca Albanese for her investigations into Israel’s war on Gaza.

“Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated. We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defence,” said Rubio.

Albanese this week hit out at countries that allowed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fly over their airspace en route to the United States, suggesting they may have flouted their obligations under international law.


Amnesty boss ‘dismayed’ by US sanctions on UN expert

Amnesty International’s chief has criticised the United States for imposing sanctions on UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese.

Secretary-General Agnes Callamard defended Albanese’s investigations, saying she’s “working tirelessly to document and report on Israel’s unlawful occupation, apartheid and genocide, on the basis of international law”.



SvennoJ on 09 July 2025

‘War criminal nominates his enabler for Nobel Peace Prize’

In the latest instalment of the “can’t-make-this-sh*t-up” contest in global politics and diplomacy, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has nominated United States President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.

In other words, the person currently presiding over the genocide of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip has proposed that the world’s top peacemaking prize be awarded to the primary enabler of that genocide – the man who in March, announced that he was “sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job” in Gaza. That “everything” has entailed billions of dollars in lethal weaponry and other assistance.

Protesters slam Big Tech’s role in Gaza war outside AI for Good Summit


About 100 activists gathered to protest outside the opening of the AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva



SvennoJ on 09 July 2025

Gaza death toll rises

At least 105 Palestinians have been killed and 530 injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza in the past 24 hours, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry. The toll included seven aid seekers killed and more than 57 injured, the statement published by the ministry on Telegram said.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed a total of 57,680 people and injured 137,409 since October 7, 2023, the ministry said.

The total number of aid seekers killed since the US- and Israel-backed aid mechanism was introduced on May 27 has reached 773, with more than 5,101 Palestinians waiting for aid also injured.

Number of aid seekers killed near Rafah rises to 8: Medical source

We’re getting reports that eight Palestinians were killed near the GHF aid centres as they were approaching to get food aid. Their bodies were taken to Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis.

What is adding to the danger and confusion is that GHF did not share any information about times and locations where aid distribution would take place. So, Palestinians continued to gather near these aid centres in the early hours.

The GHF’s only aid site in central Gaza has now suspended operations, in a move that is expected to last at least a week. The GHF says this is part of an effort to improve the capacity of its warehouses.

The three aid hubs that remain operational are in the south, meaning that for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in central Gaza, the route to get aid will be a lengthy, dangerous trip on foot.

This concentration of aid in the south corresponds to what Israel is outlining under its proposal for a so-called “humanitarian city” amid the ruins of Rafah, which would see the transfer of Palestinians from other parts of Gaza. Palestinians are saying they fear Israel might forcibly prevent them from returning.


‘Decimated’: Gaza under-five mortality rises 10-fold since war began, says MSF

A survey of Doctors Without Borders (known by its French initials MSF) staff and their families has revealed an “appalling” death rate in Israel’s war on Gaza, the charity says.

The retrospective mortality survey of 2,523 MSF staff and their family members in Gaza found that the mortality rate among Palestinian children under five had increased 10-fold, compared with Ministry of Health estimates before the outbreak of the war.

For babies less than one month old, the mortality rate was six times higher, while among all those surveyed, it was five times higher.

Amande Bazerolle, deputy manager of MSF’s emergency department, condemned Israel’s “disregard for children’s lives”. “The children of Gaza are being decimated,” she said.

Israel carpet-bombs eastern Gaza City

It’s been 15 minutes so far since this major attack and black smoke continues to fill the skies after the eastern part of Gaza City was hit. We heard multiple explosions, massive ones, we had to duck and take cover. We could feel the building we’re in shaking. It seems to be a targeted killing by Israel, but no confirmation yet.

The entire street was hit by these bombs. People who are caught in this have been wounded. We can hear ambulance sirens on the way to the scene. People are scrambling for shelter.

An estimated 20 bombs were dropped by Israel’s army on an area best known as Jaffa Street in the densely populated Tuffah neighbourhood of eastern Gaza City. These were “quake bombs”, they shook the buildings. There are reports of damage and devastation to many buildings in that area.

Civil defence workers and paramedics are unable to reach the scene to help victims as Israeli quadcopter drones continue to hover in the sky. Many of the residential areas caught up in the bombing were full of people. We can confirm from one survivor that a four-storey building was hit by at least two missiles and brought to the ground, completely flattened.

No warning whatsoever was given to the area before this mass bombing of eastern Gaza City.


Israeli attacks across Gaza kill 74

Israeli attacks have killed 74 people across Gaza including 19 in the northern part of the enclave since dawn, medical sources tell Al Jazeera. Among those, eight people were killed by Israeli fire while waiting for GHF aid.



SvennoJ on 09 July 2025

Israeli soldiers force Palestinians to leave their homes in West Bank’s Jenin


Paramedics help a Palestinian woman carry her belongings as an Israeli soldier enforces a displacement order on a house in the Jenin refugee camp, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Tuesday


Israeli forces detain over 30, including children, in occupied West Bank raids

More than 30 people, including two children aged nine, have been arrested in Israeli army dawn raids across the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office (ASRA) says.

The raids took place in Bethlehem, Salfit, Jerusalem, Qalqilya, Hebron, Nablus and the Balata refugee camp on the latter city’s outskirts, according to the group.

Former prisoners were among those arrested.


Israeli forces place mobile housing units in Palestinian-controlled area of Hebron

Israeli forces have helped transport mobile housing units on to an empty plot of land in the Tel Rumeida area of Hebron, in the southern occupied West Bank. The trucks transporting the housing units were accompanied by Israeli military vehicles.

Issa Amro, coordinator of the Youth Against Settlements group, has told Al Jazeera that the mobile housing units were placed in territory designated H1 – referring to the section of Hebron that is under the civil and security control of the Palestinian Authority.

He said this was the first time this had happened in Hebron, adding that it was a dangerous development.


Israel receives bulldozers from US held up by Biden administration over Gaza: Report

Dozens of Caterpillar D9 bulldozers and other equipment has arrived in Israel from the US after months of delays, according to Israel’s Defence Ministry cited by the Times of Israel newspaper. The report said the shipment for the Israeli army’s ground forces was received at Haifa Port.

In November last year, it was reported that the Biden administration was holding up the sale of the D9 bulldozers due to the Israeli military’s use of them to raze homes in Gaza, the newspaper said.


US denounced for providing Israel ‘machines of destruction’

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) condemned the reported delivery of dozens of US bulldozers to the Israeli military as it attacks Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

“The Trump administration must stop using American taxpayer dollars, American weapons and American equipment to fund the Israeli government’s literal destruction of Palestinian life,” said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, CAIR’s national deputy director, in a statement.

“Sending bulldozers that will be used to destroy more Palestinian homes and steal more Palestinian land deepens our nation’s moral and legal culpability in the Israeli occupation’s crimes.

“These machines are not tools of construction – they are tools of destruction, dispossession, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid.”


Israeli military bulldozers destroy a road at the Jenin refugee camp



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SvennoJ on 09 July 2025

Israel signalling plans for occupation of Gaza ‘in the long term’: Ex-Israeli envoy

We’ve spoken to Alon Liel, former director general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, about Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz’s controversial proposal for a “humanitarian city” on the ruins of Rafah. Critics say the plan for forced displacement amounts to a blueprint for war crimes.

Liel, a former Israeli ambassador, said that it was clear that Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu was insisting on Israeli control of Gaza “in the long term”.

“This ‘humanitarian city’ is one of the spins, one of the ideas that will prolong the stay of Israel there,” he said. “He’s postponing the discussion of Gaza ‘the day after’, because he doesn’t want any Palestinian involvement in the future of Gaza.”

He said Netanyahu did not “care what the world is saying” in response to the proposal. “There is no world, there is only Washington, only Trump,” Liel added.


Israeli plan for city on Rafah ruins ‘aimed at ethnic cleansing’

“The diabolically named ‘humanitarian city'” proposed by Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz to concentrate 600,000 Palestinians in southern Gaza’s Rafah “is a plan for ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people,” says analyst Adel Abdel Ghafar.

The director of the Foreign Policy programme at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs told Al Jazeera that it is not clear how serious this plan is since Jordan and Egypt refused to receive any Palestinians forced out of Gaza since they believe Israel will never allow them back in the enclave.

“If it is serious, it is a blueprint for ethnic cleansing,” he said.


British minister ‘appalled’ by Katz’s plan for ‘humanitarian city’ in Rafah

The UK’s minister for the Middle East and North Africa, Hamish Falconer, has slammed an Israeli proposal for a “humanitarian city” to be established in the ruins of Rafah.

Falconer posted on X that he was “appalled by Israeli Defence Minister Katz’s proposal to move Gaza’s population to Rafah”. “Palestinian territory must not be reduced. Civilians must be able to return to their communities,” he wrote.



SvennoJ on 09 July 2025

‘Greenlight to Israel’s genocide’: Amnesty urges suspension of EU-Israel agreement

We have a new statement from Amnesty before a key European Union foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels on July 15, in which the future of the EU-Israel Association Agreement will be decided.

“When foreign ministers meet next week, there can only be one outcome: suspend the agreement,” said Eve Geddie, director of Amnesty’s European Institutions Office.

“Anything less is a greenlight for Israel to continue its genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, its unlawful occupation of the whole occupied Palestinian territory, and its system of apartheid against all Palestinians whose rights it controls.”

Her comments follow the European Commission’s long-awaited review of the agreement that was presented on June 23. While the review confirmed that Israel is breaching its human rights obligations, it failed to recommend concrete action, according to Amnesty.

“Every day the EU fails to act, the risk of complicity in Israel’s actions grows,” Geddie said.

US official bypassed safeguards to fast-track $30m to GHF: Report

A US State Department official bypassed nine mandatory counterterrorism and anti-fraud safeguards to approve a $30m aid package for the Gaza aid group backed by Israel and the Trump administration, a news report says.

According to an internal memo obtained by the Reuters news agency, Jeremy Lewin, head of the State Department’s foreign aid programme, signed off on the funding just five days after the GHF submitted its proposal on June 19.

The June 24 memorandum, bearing Lewin’s signature, noted the group’s plan failed to meet “minimum technical or budgetary standards”. Despite that, Lewin approved the funds after consulting aides to Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s negotiator on Gaza, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s office.

“I’m taking the bullet on this one,” he wrote, suggesting the move would be controversial.

The documents underscore the Trump administration’s prioritisation of GHF, despite its lack of experience and mounting criticism over its deadly aid operations. Hundreds of Palestinians have been shot and killed by Israeli forces and US contractors while seeking aid from GHF distribution sites in Gaza in recent weeks.


Netanyahu claims US and Israel ‘in lockstep’ on Gaza

Benjamin Netanyahu says he and Donald Trump are “in lockstep” over Gaza, but insisted he will not accept a ceasefire deal “at any price”.

Speaking at the US Capitol, Netanyahu told reporters, “President Trump and I have a common goal. I want to achieve the release of our hostages. We want to end Hamas rule in Gaza. We want to make sure that Gaza does not pose a threat to Israel any more.”

Netanyahu denied Israel is attempting to forcibly expel Palestinians, saying: “It’s called the freedom of choice … If people want to leave Gaza, they should have the right to do so.”

His comments come after Israeli media reported Netanyahu told Likud lawmakers the military is demolishing every building in Gaza to push Palestinians to leave.



SvennoJ on 09 July 2025

Hamas says it agrees to release 10 captives in Gaza

Hamas official Taher al-Nunu says the group is prepared to free 10 abductees to ensure the unhindered flow of desperately needed aid into Gaza and stop Israeli attacks.

Al-Nunu said the group agreed to the latest truce proposal and “offered the necessary flexibility to protect our people, stop the crime of genocide, and allow the free and dignified entry and flow of aid to our people until we reach a complete end to the war”.

Negotiations are under way on two key issues: the unfettered entry of aid and “mechanisms” aimed at the forced displacement of Palestinians, he added.

Israeli troop withdrawal lines in the first phase of a ceasefire should be drawn up in a way that does not affect Palestinian lives and “paves the way for the second phase of negotiations”.

Issues on Israeli troop withdrawal, aid flow, US guarantees: Hamas

Hamas says it is continuing intensive efforts to ensure “success” in the latest round of ceasefire negotiations to end “the aggression against our people”.

“As part of its commitment to the success of the ongoing efforts, the movement has demonstrated the necessary flexibility and agreed to the release of 10 prisoners,” Hamas said in a statement.

“The core issues remain under negotiation, most notably: the flow of aid, the withdrawal of the occupation from the Gaza Strip, and the provision of genuine guarantees for a permanent ceasefire,” it added.

The Palestinian group said that despite the difficulty in negotiations because of Israel’s “intransigence”, Hamas continues to work “diligently and in a positive spirit with the mediators”.



SvennoJ on 09 July 2025

Main events on July 9th

  • Since dawn, Israeli attacks across Gaza have killed at least 74 people, medical sources told Al Jazeera.
  • Talks to secure a ceasefire continue as Israel and Hamas put out statements on points of contention, including the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
  • US President Donald Trump said there is a “very good chance” of a ceasefire deal, “this week or next”.
  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he and Trump are “in lockstep” over Gaza, but reiterated he will not accept a truce deal “at any price”.
  • Hamas said it is continuing to take part in truce negotiations, and announced it would release 10 living Israeli captives during the ceasefire.
  • Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza issued a desperate warning as its fuel supplies run out, with the facility in the “crucial and final hours”.
  • The US imposed sanctions on the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese, citing her work on Gaza.

Plan to expel 2.3 million in Gaza is a ‘crazy fantasy’

The fallout continues over the Israel-US plan to forcibly displace all of Gaza’s people into a cramped camp housing hundreds of thousands.

Michael Milshtein, an Israeli expert on Palestinian affairs and former military intelligence officer, called the plan to move Palestinians south through the Morag corridor a “crazy fantasy”.

He said the current ceasefire negotiations could crumble over the Israeli demand because it signals to Hamas that Israel does not intend to withdraw forces after the ceasefire expires, something Hamas will not accept.

“For Hamas, it’s a no-go,” he said. “If those are the terms, I can’t see Hamas agreeing.”


‘We want a full ceasefire’

Aid groups say Israeli restrictions and the breakdown of law and order have made it extremely difficult to deliver humanitarian assistance to Gaza, leading to widespread hunger and fears of famine.

In the sprawling coastal al-Mawasi area, where hundreds of thousands of people live in tents after being forcibly displaced from their homes, Abeer al-Najjar said she struggled during the constant bombardment to get food and water for her family.

“I pray to God that there would be a pause, and not just a pause where they would lie to us,” she said, referring to an earlier ceasefire that Israel broke in March. “We want a full ceasefire.”

Her husband, Ali al-Najjar, said life has been especially tough in the summer, with little access to drinking water.

“We hope this would be the end of our suffering and we can rebuild our country again,” he said, before running through a crowd with two buckets to fill them from a water truck.



SvennoJ on 09 July 2025

"Netanyahu Is the Problem": Ex-Bernie Adviser Matt Duss on Why Gaza Ceasefire Remains Elusive


President Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House for a second straight day Tuesday, as Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, claimed Israel and Hamas were nearing a breakthrough on a ceasefire agreement.

Israeli media are reporting Netanyahu is under "extreme" pressure to reach a 60-day ceasefire deal, but Netanyahu's "interests and the interests of his government remain to make this a perpetual, ongoing war," says Matt Duss, executive vice president at the Center for International Policy.

The U.S.-Israeli proposal would see 10 living Israeli hostages released, along with the bodies of deceased hostages, in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. Hamas negotiators are also seeking the withdrawal of Israeli forces, guarantees for an end to the war, the resumption of humanitarian aid shipments overseen by the U.N. and the International Committee of the Red Cross, and an end to the operations of the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

Israeli Soldier Details Arbitrary Killing Of Civilians In Gaza!

During an interview with Sky News, an anonymous Israeli soldier admitted that he and his fellos soldiers in Gaza killed Palestinian civilians at random, with decisions to shoot sometimes based solely on a commander's mood. He described how prolonged exposure to such violence leads to the normalization of killing and a breakdown of moral judgment.

Jimmy discusses similar historical accounts from the 1948 Nakba, where Israeli soldiers admitted to committing atrocities, including mass killings, rape, and burning villages, which some survivors recount with disturbing detachment. Such violence has been central to Israel’s founding and ongoing actions in Gaza and the West Bank today.