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Forums - Politics - Israel-Hamas war, Gaza genocide

SvennoJ on 04 August 2025

Nurse killed in airdrop operation in Gaza

A medical source tells Al Jazeera that one Palestinian man has been killed when an aid box dropped from the air fell in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.

The victim was identified as Uday al-Quraan, a nurse at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah.

Humanitarian organisations have long warned that airdrops are dangerous.

Beyond putting lives in danger, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said last week that airdrops were a “distraction” and smokescreen, urging Israel to allow the UN and its partners to operate at scale “without bureaucratic or political hurdles”.


Humanitarian aid packages are airdropped over Gaza


Killing of healthcare worker highlights danger, unpredictability of aid airdrops

A healthcare worker at al-Aqsa Hospital has died after one of the airdropped pallets fell on his tent.

Gaza is a very small and densely populated place, and if these pallets are being dropped in Israeli-controlled areas, then it’s very difficult and dangerous for Palestinians to go and take these aid items.

It’s important to note that these airdrops are unpredictable. There is no safe place that they could be thrown, and also there is not a lot of empty land for these airdrops to happen. That’s why there are a lot of Palestinians who are being injured, or even killed.


Gaza families wait endlessly for loved ones who vanished searching for food

In addition to more than 1,300 people confirmed killed while approaching GHF-run aid distribution sites in the besieged Gaza Strip, many other aid seekers remain missing, leaving families trapped in an agonising wait.

One anguished father, Khaled Obaid, has been searching for his son Ahmed, who disappeared months ago while trying to reach the Zikim crossing in northern Gaza for aid.

“He went to bring aid to help me, his brother and sister, who lost her husband in the war,” Obaid told Al Jazeera. “He hasn’t returned.”

“He went because we are hungry. We have nothing to eat. Life has become unbearably expensive, and we have no money to meet even our basic needs,” added Obaid, who said he has reported Ahmed’s disappearance to all official bodies but has received no information.

Similarly distraught is Asmaa Khrais, whose husband, Fadhi, failed to return several weeks ago after heading to the Morag Corridor in southern Gaza in search of aid.

“He went out to get some flour,” Khrais, a mother of six, told Al Jazeera. “For nearly three weeks, we had been grinding lentils to make some food for our children. He had no choice but to go seek aid near the Morag Corridor. Since then, we’ve heard nothing from him.”


Forty-three percent of examined pregnant, breastfeeding women malnourished: Aid group

The women had sought treatment at Save the Children’s clinics in Gaza in July, according to the NGO.

It said that 323 of the 747 women the organisation had screened during the first half of July were malnourished, impacting their ability to feed their newborns, adding that mothers have been asking for stocks of infant formula to ensure their babies can be fed if they die.

The number of malnourished women was three times the number screened in March, when the government of Israel reimposed a total siege on Gaza.

“Since April, staff at Save the Children’s two primary healthcare centres operating in Gaza have reported monthly increases in the number of pregnant and breast-feeding women found to be malnourished, with food, water and fuel almost entirely unavailable,” the NGO said.

According to the Save the Children report, some malnourished mothers without breast milk reportedly give their babies water mixed with ground chickpeas or tahini.

Infant formula has not been allowed to enter Gaza due to the Israeli government-imposed siege on supplies. There are about 55,000 pregnant women in the enclave, according to the United Nations.



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SvennoJ on 04 August 2025

US lawmakers sign letter pushing for Palestine state recognition: Report

More than a dozen Democrats in the US House of Representatives are calling on the Trump administration to recognise a Palestinian state, Axios reports.

The push reflects growing concern among US lawmakers over the deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza after 22 months of war.

It comes after recent moves by the UK, France and Canada, which have signalled shifts in their positions on Palestinian statehood.

The letter, initiated by California lawmaker Ro Khanna, has reportedly gained new signatories, including Chellie Pingree, Nydia Velazquez and Jim McGovern. They join nine others who had previously signed, including Greg Casar, Lloyd Doggett, Veronica Escobar and Andre Carson.

“This tragic moment has highlighted for the world the long overdue need to recognize Palestinian self-determination,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter to US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to the news website.

Should be pushing for ending genocide support first... Talking about this now is nothing but deflection from the holodomor being carried out.



No major shift in Israeli public opinion, despite starvation: Analyst

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Ori Goldberg, a Tel Aviv-based analyst, has said the starvation in Gaza has not yet caused major shifts in Israeli public opinion.

“The scenes are not generating more empathy towards the plight of the Palestinians, but they are generating some discomfort,” he said. “It’s no longer possible to deny what’s happening in Gaza, and it requires more and more effort to claim, as Israel has for the past two years, that no death that take place in Gaza are Israel’s responsibility.”

Goldberg said a large portion of the Israeli public has “consciously detached itself from reality”.

“Israel sees itself as doing only what it has to, and therefore is completely exempt from any responsibility to anything that happens in Gaza,” he said.

“We don’t want to do it, you’ll hear from Israelis, but as long as we have to do it, we’re going to do it as powerfully as we can to send a lesson that will never be forgotten,” he said.


Israelis protest for an end to the war in Gaza and the release of all captives outside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office in West Jerusalem

The lesson that will never be forgotten is how morally bankrupt and radicalized Israel is. Brave protestors that go against the grain, although even most of these aren't protesting to stop the atrocities.

Two wounded in Israeli raid in southern Lebanon: Reports

The attack targeted the town of Khiam in the Nabatieh governorate, Lebanese media has reported.

The footage shared by local media and verified by Al Jazeera showed the aftermath of the strike, with smoke rising from a building.

Initial reports said that two people were injured in the raid.



SvennoJ on 04 August 2025

Rashid Khalidi: End U.S. Support for Israel


Democracy Now! speaks with Rashid Khalidi, author of "The Hundred Years' War on Palestine,", who has family in the West Bank. "I think it's time for this idealized vision of Israel to shatter and for people to come to terms with the fact that we are funding and financing this ethnic cleansing, this genocide, this theft, day by day by day, of people's land in the West Bank," says Khalidi.



Eyewitness Testimony From Gaza, Syria, and the Donbas EXPOSES Mainstream Media | Eva Bartlett


Today I’m talking to Eva Bartlett, a US/Canadian Journalist in Russia who has been reporting for many years from wars and non-western conflict zones, including Gaza, North Korea, and the Donbas.

Every Gaza Child Should Starve To Death", Demands Leading Israeli




SvennoJ on 04 August 2025

Israeli government votes to dismiss attorney general: Reports

Israel’s cabinet ministers have unanimously approved the firing of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara – a prominent government critic – according to Israeli media reports.

The dismissal will not take effect until after Israel’s High Court decides on the process’s legality, according to The Times of Israel. But ministers say they plan to leave Baharav-Miara out of future hearinsg and committee meetings.

Baharav-Miara has been leading the prosecution of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu during his corruption trial.

Following the vote, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi urged for a replacement to avoid “a governmental vacuum to be filled with mounds of unfounded legal interpretations”.


Israeli court suspends dismissal of attorney general

The High Court of Israel has issued an interim order that freezes the the government decision to dismiss Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, according to Israeli media reports.

In a decision that came right after the governments move, the court clarified that the government cannot strip Baharav-Miara from her authorities, the report said.


What is Netanyahu on trial for?

As we reported earlier, Israel’s government voted today to fire Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, who is heading a corruption trial against PM Benjamin Netanyahu. The controversial move has since been frozen by Israel’s top court.

Nevertheless, it has sparked accusations that Netanyahu is trying to shield himself from accountability. So what exactly is Netanyahu on trial for?

  • The Israeli prime minister is charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust, including for allegedly taking lavish gifts from businessmen in return for political favours and striking policy and regulatory deals for more favourable news coverage.
  • Facing up to 10 years in prison, Netanyahu has been accused of dragging out and even exacerbating the Gaza war to avoid the trial, which began in 2020.
  • However, US President Donald Trump has come to Netanyahu’s defence, urging Israel to pardon him and calling the prosecutors targeting him “out of control”. Trump has even suggested the US could leverage its aid to Israel to protect Netanyahu.
  • The latest standoff has raised the prospect of a constitutional crisis, as critics accuse Netanyahu of continually using his executive powers to stall the trial.


Israel’s justice minister says attorney general not wanted

Yariv Levin has said Gali Baharav-Miara should resign, accusing the attorney general of trying to “force herself” on a government that does not want her.

The statement comes after a unanimous cabinet decision to dismiss her from office, which was frozen by an interim order by the Israeli High Court in the last few hours.

“It would be appropriate for you to refrain from an attempt, which will not succeed, to force yourself on a government that has no confidence in you and which cannot effectively cooperate with you,” Levin told Baharav-Miara in a letter cited by The Times of Israel.

“This is how anyone who puts the good of the country and the management of its affairs before their personal interests, and who respects the elected government and proper and democratic governance,” he added, according to the report.

Members of the Israeli government have denied the effort to remove Baharav-Miara is connected to her role in prosecuting Netanyahu’s corruption case.

Terminating my tenure against law: Israeli attorney general

Gali Baharav-Miara has responded to the government’s move to dismiss her, a move which, as we reported earlier, has been paused by the Israeli High Court.

“The government’s decision just made to terminate my tenure violates the law,” she said as quoted by the Yedioth Ahronot newspaper .

She added that “political pressures and actions contrary to law will not deter us from continuing to perform our duties with statesmanship, professionalism and integrity”.

“We will continue to assist the government in advancing its policies in accordance with the law, enforce the law equally and uphold the rule of law,” she said, according to the report.



SvennoJ on 04 August 2025

The US isn't merely complicit, it's been driving the genocide / ethnic cleansing

US House Speaker Johnson says West Bank ‘rightful property’ of Jewish people: Republican official

Earlier, we reported that US House Speaker Mike Johnson has travelled to the illegal Israeli settlement of Ariel in the occupied West Bank, a visit organised by a pro-Israeli advocacy group.

Johnson hailed the land’s religious significance during a luncheon with local leaders and said he believes Jewish people have a “right” to it due to his religious beliefs, according to Israel’s Arutz Sheva media.

Johnson has close ties to the evangelical community in the US, segments of which believe Jewish people must be in control of Jerusalem for the second coming of Jesus.

“Every corner of this land is important to us,” Johnson said, in comments carried by Arutz Sheva.

“Being here, in the place where our faith began – this has great significance. The Bible teaches that Judea and Samaria were promised to the Jewish people, and they belong to you by right,” he added, using the Israeli term for the occupied West Bank.

The chairman of Republicans Oversees Israel, Marc Zell, also said he attended the event, posting on X that Johnson said “the mountains of Judea and Samaria are the rightful property of the Jewish People”.




PA slams US House Speaker Johnson’s visit to illegal West Bank settlement

As we reported earlier, US House Speaker Mike Johnson has travelled to the illegal Israeli settlement of Ariel in the occupied West Bank, where he said the Palestinian territory is the “rightful property” of the Jewish people.

In a statement on X, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned his visit and “inflammatory statements on the annexation of the West Bank”.

“The ministry considers this a blatant violation of international law, international legitimacy resolutions, and the Arab and American efforts to stop the war, halt the cycle of violence, and achieve calm,” it said.

The statement added: “The ministry also views it as an encouragement of settlement crimes, settlers’ actions, and the confiscation of Palestinian lands, in clear contradiction with the declared US position regarding settlements and settlers’ attacks.”



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SvennoJ on 04 August 2025

Prominent Israeli actor lashes out at artists calling for Gaza ceasefire

Idan Amedi, an Israeli singer and actor who was wounded while fighting in Gaza last year, has criticised a group of local artists who signed a petition urging an end to the war.

The petition – signed by nearly 1,000 artists – reads: “We call on everyone involved in shaping and implementing this policy to stop! Do not issue illegal orders and do not obey them! Do not commit war crimes! Do not abandon the principles of human morality and the values of Judaism! Stop the war. Release the hostages.”

Amedi called their statement “fake news”.

“Step into a tunnel for a moment. Fight for just one day like tens of thousands of reservists, and then go ahead, sign petitions,” Amedi, who starred in a popular series called Fauda, wrote in a social media post.

“There is no other army in the world operating in such a densely populated area with as minimal civilian casualties as ours. It’s proven. Go check,” he wrote.

The statement comes after about 600 former Israeli security officials warned in a letter to US President Trump that Israel’s war aims had already been met, and that continuing the war risked Israel losing its “security and identity”.

It's not proven, it's a lie. Just women and children alone in the official death count rule out the minimal civilian casualties claim for urban warfare. The actual death toll is far higher and most of the men killed aren't Hamas fighters either. 

But you got to believe what you need to believe to be able to live with yourself after committing genocide.

There is no other army in the world that is as lawless while bragging about war crimes as the IDF. (Sure the Russians are no better, but they get shot if they don't obey and don't claim the moral high ground...)


Ex-Israeli security officials’ letter to Trump underscores ‘hopelessness’

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Yossi Mekelberg, an associate fellow at the UK-based Chatham House, has said today’s letter from 600 former Israeli security officials underscores that little faith remains in Netanyahu’s government.

That was evidenced, Mekelberg said, in their decision to address the letter to US President Trump, who they see as the only individual with the leverage to force a stop to the war.

“We are talking here about 600 of the most senior former security officials,” Mekelberg said.

“They don’t even write this letter to the Israeli government because they gave up on this government,” he said.

“It comes from a sense of hopelessness. They think that the only way to get out of this situation is to ask president Trump to intervene,” he said.



SvennoJ on 04 August 2025

Israeli army says dozens of aid packages airdropped into Gaza

An Israeli military statement says 120 humanitarian aid packages have been airdropped throughout Gaza in an operation joined by six countries.

The United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Germany, Belgium and Canada joined the operation, the statement said.

It added it was the first time that Canada has taken part in such an operation.

Humanitarian officials have criticised the reliance on airdrops as dangerous in densely populated Gaza. A nurse was killed by such a drop in Deir el-Balah today.

They said it would be far more effective for Israel to allow in more aid through land crossings.

120 packages, 7.5 planes, about 105t, about 5-6 trucks worth, about 0.8%-1.0% of daily needs.


Maybe even less

https://www.elliotlaketoday.com/national-news/canadian-armed-forces-airdrop-aid-to-palestinians-in-gaza-11031202

Canadian aircraft carried out an airdrop of nearly 10,000 kilograms of aid to Palestinians in Gaza on Monday as Prime Minister Mark Carney warns of a deteriorating humanitarian crisis in the region.

The Canadian Armed Forces flew a CC-130J Hercules aircraft over the Gaza Strip to conduct the drop, said Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand and Defence Minister David McGuinty in a media statement.

10t only in the Canadian plane, half a truck. or 5,400 2,200 calorie meals. I hope we're more serious about fighting the forest fires and not drop half a bucket of water on it and call it a day.


28 children being killed per day in Gaza: UNICEF

The UN’s children’s fund has decried the scale of children being killed in Gaza, which it says averages out to 28 a day – “the size of a classroom”.

“Gaza’s children need food, water, medicine and protection. More than anything, they need a ceasefire, NOW,” said the UN agency.



Day’s death toll in Gaza rises to 74: Hospital sources

The latest death toll since dawn includes at least 34 aid seekers, hospital sources tell Al Jazeera.



SvennoJ on 04 August 2025

‘Steep uptick in gunshot wounds’ near aid sites

James Smith, an emergency physician who spent several weeks volunteering in Gaza, has described Israel’s continued attacks in the enclave as “profound barbarity”.

“This is really an escalation in the intensity of Israel’s violence,” Smith told Al Jazeera from London, adding that his medical colleagues in Khan Younis, Deir el-Balah and Nuseirat are reporting “a steep uptick in gunshot injuries” in casualties near aid distribution sites.

“Absolutely every one of these patients will require long-term rehabilitative care,” Smith said.

“Given that hospitals and health centres are responding every day to not only one mass casualty incident, but often upwards of 10 distinct mass casualty incidents, the ability to prioritise long-term rehabilitation is extremely difficult,” he said.


‘Absolutely dystopian, horrendous’ toll on patients in Gaza: Aid worker

Caroline Willemen, a Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) project coordinator working in Gaza City, has told Al Jazeera that every day she sees the physical and mental health ravages of the war.

She noted that while prosthetic limbs and other medical equipment for amputees was limited before the war, the situation has reached “absolutely dystopian, horrendous” numbers. Those who have recently lost limbs struggle to heal amid the malnutrition and lack of clean water.

“They are not healing the way they should, because on top of everything, people are not just wounded, they also don’t have access to sufficient food,” Willemen said. “Many of them are living in tents without access to water.”

Willemen also discussed the mental health toll the ongoing fighting has taken on those in Gaza, describing a recent conversation she had with an 11-year-old patient.

“We were joking together, and then she tells me, very seriously, ‘I wish a very big bomb would fall all over Gaza and we could die all at the same time, instead of dying very slowly, one day at a time,'” she said. “For me, that encapsulates what is happening to the soul, the spirit of people here.”


Health workers in Gaza ‘give me hope’: Aid worker

As we reported earlier, Al Jazeera has spoken to MSF project coordinator Caroline Willemen from Gaza City.

While Willemen explained the dire conditions and acknowledged how far off future reconstruction and rehabilitation remain, she said she is given hope every day by her Palestinian colleagues.

“I have never seen more humanity than I have encountered in Gaza, and that is the one thing that gives me hope that, yes, it is possible,” she said.

“We need the international community to step up to their moral obligation to make this stop and to help the recovery. But I have an unwavering belief in the fact that it is possible when I see Palestinian colleagues work every single day.”



SvennoJ on 04 August 2025

Netanyahu weighing expanding Israeli operations in Gaza: Reports

Israeli media has reported that the Israeli Prime Minister has been weighing expanding operations in Gaza. Israel’s Channel 12 reported the plan could include efforts to seize the entire enclave, but a decision would be made during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

Israeli media also reported the plans being considered involve the military launching operations in areas where captives are believed to be held.


Israel’s Herzog calls on ICRC to act ‘by all means’ to help captives

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog says he has spoken by phone with International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) President Mirjana Spoljaric and urged the humanitarian organisation to urgently intervene to get aid to Israeli captives in Gaza.

In a post on X, Herzog referred to “horrifying images” of captives Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski, who were seen gaunt and frail in recent released footage from Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

“I stressed that their lives are in imminent danger,” Herzog said of his conversation with Spoljaric. “I asked of her that the Red Cross should act immediately and by all means at its disposal, in order to assist the hostages, and provide them immediately with food and critical medical care.”

The ICRC, which has acted as an intermediator in past captive exchanges between Hamas and Israel, has so far not had access to captives held in Gaza.

On Sunday, Hamas’s Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Obeida said the group is open to the ICRC delivering aid to Israeli captives, but that humanitarian corridors must first “be opened in a normal and permanent manner for the passage of food and medicine to all our people in all areas of the Gaza Strip”.


Germany should consider Israel sanctions: MP

A senior lawmaker in German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s coalition has said Berlin should consider sanctions on Israel including a partial suspension of weapons exports or the suspension of a European Union-wide political agreement, according to a report.

The call by Siemtje Moeller, the deputy leader of the Social Democrats (SPD) parliamentary faction, reflects a sharpening of rhetoric from Berlin against Israel which has yet to yield any major policy changes however.

Moeller, whose SPD joined a coalition with Merz’s conservatives this year, wrote a letter to members to her party after returning from a trip to Israel with Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul last week.

“My assessment is that the Israeli government will move little without pressure,” she said in the letter as reported by the Reuters news agency.

Recognition of a Palestinian state should not be “taboo”, she said, adding that Israeli statements that there were no restrictions on aid to Gaza were not convincing.

Moeller also called for the immediate and unconditional release of the captives held by Hamas. She said Hamas must no longer play a role in a political future in Gaza.



SvennoJ on 04 August 2025

Casualties from Israeli attacks near Nuseirat, Deir el-Balah

We are getting reports of casualties from several attacks in central Gaza. One attack injured a group of Palestinians to the north of Nuseirat camp, according to an ambulance source cited by our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic.

Meanwhile a drone attack injured a child near the city of Deir el-Balah, reports the Wafa news agency.

UN says aid deliveries remain severely restricted

Despite Israeli vows to allow more aid to access Gaza, a spokesman for the UN Secretary General has said the “realities on the ground remain largely the same”.

“Aid that has entered remains by far insufficient for the starving population, and our convoys continue to face impediments on their way to delivering aid,” Farhan Haq told reporters, adding some missions take up to 18 hours to complete, with teams sometimes forced to wait 10 hours on dangerous, congested roads.

He added that no shelter supplies have entered the enclave since March. While some food aid has been able to enter, it is often “offloaded by the hungry crowds before reaching its destinations”.

The high energy biscuits and baby formula brought into Gaza for pregnant and breastfeeding mothers “still a fraction of what is needed”.

Meanwhile, malnutrition among children “is reaching catastrophic levels”, he said.


A Palestinian family sit outside their tent in the Daraj neighbourhood in Gaza City

 

How Colonizers Force Starvation — Then and Now


The zionist colony is forcibly starving Gaza. They have inherited their tactics from older colonizers who perpetrated older genocides - in Ireland, Namibia and Poland - so let us look to the past to understand what lies ahead.