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Forums - Politics - Israel-Hamas war, Gaza genocide

SvennoJ on 27 July 2025

Israelis protest for deal to free captives held in Gaza


Israeli demonstrators take part in a protest to demand the immediate release of captives held in Gaza in Tel Aviv, Israel, July 26


Indonesians protest Israel’s starvation of Gaza


Indonesians held a ‘Stop Starving Gaza Now’ protest in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Sunday


Australians in Sydney protest against Israel’s siege of Gaza


The protest came as Australian PM Anthony Albanese said his government would not recognise Palestinian statehood ‘imminently’



Around the Network
SvennoJ on 27 July 2025

Australia’s Albanese says Israel’s blockade of Gaza clearly breaches international law

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says that everyone can see that Israel’s blockade of aid entering Gaza is a “breach of decent humanity, and of morality”.

He made the comments in an interview with the ABC public broadcaster.

“Quite clearly, it is a breach of international law to stop food being delivered, which was a decision that Israel made in March,” he said.

Asked about whether Australia would follow France in recognising a Palestinian state, Albanese said that it was not something his government planned to do “imminently”.

He said Australia would make the decision as “a way forward if the circumstances are met”, but then asked: “How do you exclude Hamas from any involvement there?”

The Palestinian group has said it would cede control of Gaza to an interim government backed by the international community in exchange for a permanent ceasefire, but that it would not lay down its arms as long as Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory continues.

And Australia is breaking international law since Australia ratified the Genocide Convention Act 1949 and is obligated to prevent genocide. Not keep sending weapons. https://declassifiedaus.org/2025/04/26/confirmed-australian-weapons-sold-to-israel/


UK’s SNP threatens to force vote on Palestinian statehood

A minor opposition party in the United Kingdom’s parliament has threatened to bring forward legislation on recognising Palestinian statehood, and “force a vote” if Prime Minister Keir Starmer continues to oppose the move.

The Scottish National Party (SNP), which pushes for the independence of Scotland, said it would table a “Palestine Recognition Bill” when parliament returns after its summer recess if Starmer does not change his position.

The SNP threat comes after more than 220 British MPs, including dozens from Starmer’s Labour Party, demanded that the UK follow France and recognise a Palestinian state.

“Unless Keir Starmer stops blocking UK recognition of Palestine, the SNP will introduce a Palestine Recognition Bill when Parliament returns in September and force a vote if necessary,” said Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s leader in the UK parliament.

“Keir Starmer must stop defending the indefensible, finally find a backbone and demand that Israel ends its war now,” he added.

The SNP holds nine seats in the 650-seat parliament.



SvennoJ on 27 July 2025

US senator criticises GHF operations in Gaza

Democratic Senator Cory Booker says it’s been “heartbreaking” to witness the “catastrophic hunger and suffering of civilians” in Gaza, and called for an immediate and drastic surge in aid to the besieged enclave.

“It is our collective moral duty to ensure that humanitarian relief reaches those who need it most urgently. The strategy of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has not worked,” he wrote.

As we’ve been reporting, Israeli forces and US mercenaries have killed more than 1,000 Palestinian aid seekers since the GHF began its operations in late May.

Booker also said aid must not be diverted by Hamas, despite the New York Times reporting a day earlier that the Israeli military has never found proof that aid is being diverted by the Palestinian group.

“Every moment of delay will cost lives and cause irreparable harm to the health of children, pregnant women, and other civilians,” the senator added.


Rubio says ceasefire deal could happen ‘any day now’

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has told Fox News that Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, has been working “day and night for weeks” on ceasefire negotiations.

“They’ve made a lot of progress, and they’re close,” Rubio said.

“We’re optimistic and hopeful that any day now, we will have a ceasefire agreement where at least half the hostages, including the deceased, will be released, and at the end of that 60-day period, the remaining hostages will be released,” he said.

Speaking about the captives still held in Gaza, Rubio said: “The good news is every American is out now. We care about all the hostages.”

“There’s a very simple solution to what’s happening in Gaza. Release all the hostages, lay down your arms, and the war ends for Hamas,” he said.

Rubio’s remarks come days after Witkoff said Washington was cutting short its involvement in the negotiations, claiming Hamas had shown “a lack of desire to reach a ceasefire”.

You've been saying that for months. Just like Ukraine ceasefire can happen 'any day now'



SvennoJ on 27 July 2025

Israel announces ‘tactical pauses’ in parts of Gaza

The Israeli army says it will allow a “local tactical pause in military activities” in parts of Gaza for “humanitarian purposes” from 10am to 8pm, starting today.

The pauses will take place in al-Mawasi, Deir el-Balah and Gaza City “every day until further notice”, it wrote on X. “The decision was coordinated with the UN and international organizations following discussions on the matter,” it added.

The Israeli military says it has designated “secure routes” in Gaza for aid delivery on a permanent basis. These routes will be safe from 6am to 11pm local time, “to enable the safe movement of UN and aid convoys for the delivery and distribution of food and medicine to the population throughout the Gaza Strip”, it added.



Israeli president welcomes military pauses in Gaza

Isaac Herzog made the comments in a statement on X. “I welcome the major steps announced by the Israeli leadership and military to strengthen and upgrade the humanitarian response in Gaza — particularly the decision to implement humanitarian pauses to protect civilian lives and allow the safe delivery of aid,” he wrote.

The Israeli president also called on the UN to do its part, suggesting inefficiency by the global body and aid diversions by Hamas were to blame for the food shortages in Gaza.

UN agencies have rejected those claims, noting that Israel – which controls all crossings into Gaza – continues to deny most of its requests to bring aid into the besieged enclave. They also say there is no evidence of large-scale diversion of aid by Hamas.

Which Israeli Military officials themselves have admitted, as well as USAID
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/26/world/middleeast/hamas-un-aid-theft.html
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-07-26/ty-article/idf-officials-say-no-evidence-hamas-systematically-stole-un-aid-in-gaza-nyt-reports/00000198-46ed-db91-a1df-efef44060000
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-862272
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/26/world/middleeast/hamas-un-aid-theft.html
https://abcnews.go.com/International/usaid-analysis-finds-evidence-widespread-aid-diversion-hamas/story?id=124092822
(Nice how they leave out the 'no' in the URL....)

UNRWA chief says aid diversion claims were part of effort to discredit humanitarian groups

Philippe Lazzarini has said that discredited Israeli claims that Hamas was stealing large quantities of aid were part of a wider campaign by Israel to box out humanitarian organisations like the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and seize greater control over aid distribution.

“No proof of aid diversion in Gaza,” he said in a social media post.

“Claims were only aimed at tarnishing the reputation of the humanitarian community & attempting to replace it with a diabolic and politically motivated distribution scheme. It’s time for principled and at scale humanitarian response including through UNRWA.”



Meanwhile the US continues to back the GHF

Last edited by SvennoJ - on 27 July 2025

SvennoJ on 27 July 2025

Egypt sends aid trucks to Gaza as Israel announces humanitarian corridors for UN convoys

The Egyptian state-affiliated Al Qahera News reports that trucks have started moving towards Gaza from Egypt. Footage on social media shows what appears to be a convoy of aid trucks from the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing.

Translation: Humanitarian aid trucks move from Egypt to the Gaza Strip, carrying large quantities of food supplies.

Relief supplies from Jordan move towards Gaza

The Jordanian Public Security Directorate has shared footage of what it said were Jordanian relief convoys moving towards Gaza. The footage shows trucks loaded with goods moving on one of the roads.

Translation: Happening now, huge Jordanian relief convoys are moving towards Gaza.

 

Former UNRWA spokesperson calls for Gaza’s land crossings to be open ’24/7′

Former UNRWA spokesperson Chris Gunness says Israel announced its “tactical pauses” for humanitarian purposes because the “horses of genocide and ethnic cleansing” have left the stables.

“Gaza’s land borders must immediately be opened 24/7, making these undignified airdrops unnecessary. Let’s not forget that over 100 people have been starved to death by Israel. [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu must face international justice for the crime of starvation,” Gunness told Al Jazeera.

Gunness explained that Israel implements “huge obstacles” to the UN and other aid agencies.

“Israel has shown itself, time and time again, to say it’s going to be letting in aid. Then of course, it gets delayed, they get rerouted, the convoys get shot at. Once they arrive, the warehouses and the food distribution services and centres have been destroyed and damaged by Israel,” he added.



Around the Network
SvennoJ on 27 July 2025

‘Fundamentals’ of Israel’s Gaza policy is the problem, says ex-Sweden PM

Prominent former Swedish politician Carl Bildt, who is currently the co-chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations, says Israel is “adjusting its policies” in Gaza in reaction to world outrage.

However, Bildt said, “it’s not the details in the policies that’s the question – it’s the fundamentals since breaking the agreed ceasefire”, referring to the deal to stop the fighting that Israel unilaterally broke in March.

Bildt was commenting on a social media post by Phil Gordon, former NSA to then-US Vice President Kamala Harris.

“The Israeli government’s decision in March to break the ceasefire, blockade Gaza, and escalate militarily will prove to have been catastrophic,” Gordon wrote. “It made no real difference against Hamas, led to immeasurable additional suffering in Gaza, failed to free any hostages, further divided Israeli society, and took a huge and undoubtedly lasting toll on Israel’s reputation.”



Israel on its way to becoming a pariah state: Israeli MP

Ram Ben-Barak, a member of parliament representing the Yesh Atid party and former deputy director of Israel’s Mossad, has told the Maariv newspaper that his country is “not North Korea and we do not want to become a pariah state in front of the entire world, but we are heading in this direction”.

“We won this war about a year ago, excellently, much better than we expected, and every day that passes, we undermine this achievement,” Ben-Barak said.

“If we do not take real steps, we will soon need visas to enter Europe – and they will not grant them to us either,” he added. “Whoever wants to live this way, let them support this government.”

It already is, but you are correct that you're on the way to becoming another North Korea, a more dangerous expansionistic one in fact continually attacking its neighbors and stealing more territory.



SvennoJ on 27 July 2025

People are ‘skin and bones’ because of starvation in Gaza: Humanitarian worker

Liz Allcock, head of protection at Medical Aid for Palestinians, spoke to Al Jazeera earlier from Gaza City.

Allcock has been to Gaza multiple times, but since her latest arrival nine weeks ago, she says the difference has been the “scale of starvation” and “the number of people that you see walking around who are literally skin and bones”.

“Money really has no value here when there is nothing to buy, and the total blockade on Gaza has had monumental and cumulative impact on people’s health and wellbeing … everybody in Gazan society – no matter who they are – is suffering from critical food shortages,” Allcock said, adding that 25 percent of people in Gaza were at risk of acute malnutrition.

Allcock said people were showing her their ribs as she walked around Gaza City, and putting their hands to their mouths, desperately asking for food.

She added that the scale of starvation in Gaza was “a barbaric indictment” of Israel’s “lack of adherence to its obligations”.


Aid workers ‘playing catch-up’ to save malnourished children: Medical Aid for Palestinians

Here’s more from Liz Allcock of Medical Aid for Palestinians, who spoke to Al Jazeera earlier from Gaza City.

Reacting to the news that Israel would allow for secure routes for aid deliveries, Allcock said humanitarian organisations would “have to play catch-up” to help Palestinians suffering from starvation.

“The rate at which we may be able to bring in nutritional supplements to treat these young infants is going to be outpaced at this point by the number of children who are going to die as a result of complications directly resulting from malnutrition,” Allcock said.

“If we aren’t able to scale up to the extent which we were able to during the ceasefire earlier this year, then we’re in a real battle against time,” she added.


Yasmine holds her malnourished two-month-old daughter, Teen, as they await treatment at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza on July 24


Red Cross says healthcare system in Gaza in ‘catastrophic’ condition

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says it has been treating Palestinians shot while waiting to receive aid and the Strip’s healthcare services are in “catastrophic” condition.

“I spoke to a mother who had gone with her 15-year-old daughter to try and access food for their family. Many of these women are now the main provider for their extended families,” Felicity Gapes, the ICRC’s deputy health coordinator in Gaza, said in a statement.

“This young girl saw her mother shot and bleeding on the ground. They told me they thought it would be safe, but now they know ‘nowhere in Gaza is safe.'”

Gapes added that Gaza’s healthcare system is in “catastrophic” condition and requires “a rapid increase in supplies, equipment, and personnel”.



SvennoJ on 27 July 2025

Israel kills 53 in Gaza attacks since dawn on Sunday

Since dawn, at least 53 people have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza, amid “tactical pauses” in fighting to deliver desperately needed aid to Palestinians, medical sources told our colleagues.

Among the dead were 32 aid seekers.


Israeli air strikes hit humanitarian safe zones in Gaza

There was an air strike on Gaza City, and this is one of the areas that was designated as a safe area and where the Israeli forces are going to halt their military operations. According to Palestinians in that area, they said that a bakery where Palestinians were baking food was targeted.

There have also been reports that a number of Palestinians have been killed and others have been injured.


UN teams will do all they can to reach Gaza’s starving people, aid chief says

Reacting to Israel’s announcement of pauses in fighting in some areas of Gaza and secure routes for the entry of humanitarian aid, UN aid chief Tom Fletcher says the UN’s teams on the ground will use the opportunity to reach those in need.

“In contact with our teams on the ground who will do all we can to reach as many starving people as we can in this window,” Fletcher wrote in a social media post.


Gaza City attack kills woman and 4 children

More details on the attack our correspondent Hind Khoudary mentioned earlier in Gaza City, which took place after the beginning of Israel’s pause in fighting in the area. Gaza health officials said the attack on an apartment killed a woman and her four children.


Palestinians try to secure aid supplies in Beit Lahiya


Palestinians carry away aid supplies that entered Gaza through Israel in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip


Flour trucks looted in Gaza City during aid deliveries

A couple of hours ago, just seven to 10 trucks filled with flour were allowed into the northern part of the Strip. Not all of the trucks made it to Gaza City. Hungry crowds surrounded them, and people who were desperate for one bag of flour and other basic necessities looted those trucks.

These trucks could not make it to the heart of the city, where the vast majority of displaced people are located. What’s really concerning now is that this only further complicates things on the ground, and it will further exacerbate high prices on the black market.



SvennoJ on 27 July 2025

Jordan, UAE airdrop 25 tonnes of aid

Jordan and the United Arab Emirates have parachuted 25 tonnes of aid into the Gaza Strip in their first airdrop in months, a Jordanian official tells Reuters.

Footage verified by Al Jazeera shows parcels of aid falling in a northwestern area of Gaza City although it is unclear whether the aid drops shown are part of the Jordanian and Emirati campaign.


An aircraft drops humanitarian aid over the Gaza Strip, as seen from Israel

That's less than one aid truck, but with only 7 trucks entering it's something.


Israeli army airdrops are ‘good optics'

What happens is that these parcels that are dropped from the air can injure people. In fact, they have killed people before. They are dropped in remote areas. As we saw, they were dropped overnight in a dangerous and remote area called al-Sudaniyah, west of Gaza City.

And people rushed there and battled for a sack of flour or lentils. This is not a way to ensure the people who need the aid can get it.

This is not a solution to the Israeli-imposed blockade or starvation. But it’s good optics, at least for the moment. It can be used by the Israeli army to say they are working on relieving the crisis, which Israel denies even exists to begin with.

The population in Gaza needs a lot more than food. There is a shortage of baby formula, water, fuel, medical supplies – all of that needs to be brought in in an orderly fashion, and it needs to reach the UN to be distributed to those who need it the most.


Desperation in Gaza City amid mass hunger


Israeli aid airdrops are an effort to avoid more substantive aid distribution

What we’re seeing is a repeat of a failed attempt to feed hungry people. Gaza has turned into a testing lab. The Israeli military is experimenting: every failed act, every failed attempt, every failed policy in order to avoid taking responsibility for enforcing starvation.

Airdropping food is not the answer. When we compare it to the more sufficient mechanisms managed and operated by the United Nations elements on the ground – UNRWA, and the other organisations like the WFP – they are more efficient and more effective, and they are able to give the needed aid delivery to designated areas.

Airdrops, most of the time, involve risks and danger. Just as it started last night and in the past hours, many of these pallets fell on displacement sites, fell unpredictably on tents housing displaced Palestinians, injuring a number of them.

So it’s not efficient. And it creates infighting and quarrels, because people are rushing to the sites where the pallets are dropped. People will do everything they can to obtain a food parcel.



SvennoJ on 27 July 2025

More than 59,000 people killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023, at least 59,821 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and 144,851 wounded.

In the past 24 hours, Israeli attacks across the enclave have killed at least 88 people and injured 374. At the same time, hospitals recorded six new deaths due to malnutrition, bringing the total number of deaths from the starvation crisis to 133, including 87 children.


One-third of Gaza has not eaten ‘for days’: World Food Programme

The statistics from the World Food Programme (WFP) highlight the sheer scale of the hunger crisis in Gaza.

A third of Palestinians in Gaza have not eaten for days, and nearly half a million are enduring “famine-like conditions”, the UN agency said.

“An agreed ceasefire is the only way for humanitarian assistance to reach the entire civilian population in Gaza with critical food supplies in a consistent, predictable, orderly and safe manner – wherever they are across the Gaza Strip,” the WFP said in a statement.

“The WFP has enough food in – or on its way to – the region to feed the entire population of 2.1 million people for almost three months,” the statement added.


‘Now is the time for action,’ says WFP chief

The executive director at the UN’s World Food Programme, Cindy McCain, says now is the time for action amid pauses in Israeli fighting to allow the increase of urgent aid deliveries in the enclave.

In a post responding to a statement by the WFP calling for a ceasefire and stressing the importance of food aid, McCain said that the new Israeli measures were necessary to allow for a surge in food assistance.

“[The] WFP has teams on the ground and enough food to reach people in need across the Gaza Strip at scale,” McCain wrote.