Hamas says Netanyahu trying to justify war crimes with false claims

The Palestinian group has released a statement in reaction to Benjamin Netanyahu’s press conference, saying his claims constitute a “desperate attempt to exonerate” Israel after it killed more than 61,400 Palestinians in Gaza, including more than 18,000 children.

The Israeli prime minister is trying to “justify war crimes” and distort facts, Hamas said, adding that his use of the term “liberation” is an attempt to distort the reality of occupation “that will not cover up the crime of extermination, killing, and systematic destruction for more than 22 months”.

“His talk about ‘not wanting to occupy Gaza’ is merely deception hiding his plans for forced displacement, destruction of the means of life, and installing an authority subordinate to him.”

Hamas also said Netanyahu is using the captives to prolong the war, and that his claims about allowing large volumes of aid into Gaza are false, as the aid that enters covers less than 10 percent of the needs of the starving enclave.

Israel’s gambit – Massacre the Palestinians, subjugate the region?

By offering nothing except continual massacre for the Palestinians, and attempting to subjugate the surrounding areas to its will, Israel finds itself “in a predicament of its own making”, argues former Israeli adviser Daniel Levy.

Levy, president of the US/Middle East Project, spoke on Al Jazeera’s Bottom Line and said that Israel has put Arab leaders in a bind, as regional disgust grows towards Israel for its war crimes in Gaza.

And while Western governments and cultural institutions have been carrying water for Israel for decades, argues Levy, some have begun “acknowledging things they worked hard not to acknowledge for an awfully long time.”

Has Israel created a predicament it can’t escape with its zero-sum path for the Palestinians and regional overreach?

Hundreds arrested at London protest supporting Palestine Action

UK police have carried out the most arrests in a single day for a decade, detaining about 500 peaceful pro-Palestinian protesters in London for “terrorism”. The demonstrators expressed support for the banned activist group Palestine Action and condemned Israel’s war on Gaza.

Many said the crackdown violates free speech and targets peaceful dissent.

Palestine Action co-founder calls arrests ‘momentous act of collective defiance’

Huda Ammori, co-founder of Palestine Action, has labelled the mass arrests at protests against the group’s ban as “an unprecedented attack on our fundamental freedoms”.

Her comments come after 466 people were arrested in London on Saturday for allegedly showing support for the group, which the British government proscribed in July under “anti-terrorism” legislation.

Ammori said images from the weekend showed “peaceful protesters – including many elderly or disabled people – being dragged off by the Met Police as ‘terrorists’ for holding cardboard signs opposing those war crimes by Israel and supporting the group which disrupted the flow of weapons from Britain arming Israel’s genocide”.

She added: “Everyone can see that it’s the Israeli army – not civil disobedience protesters in Britain – who are committing acts of terrorism.”

UN special rapporteurs have previously condemned the proscription, saying that “acts of protest that damage property, but are not intended to kill or injure people, should not be treated as terrorism” and describing the ban as a “disturbing misuse of UK counter-terrorism legislation”.

‘I’m retired, and I’m not scared’: hundreds arrested at Palestine Action protest

The Guardian spoke to protesters and bystanders in Parliament Square, London, at the largest demonstration relating to Palestine Action since the group was proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the UK government. More than 530 people were arrested at the protest on Saturday, which was organised by the campaign group Defend Our Juries. The Met said it was the most arrests it had made related to a single operation in at least the past decade.

Report: Countries that airdropped aid refused to bring it by land due to lack of trust in Israel

Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that several of the countries that Israel has recently allowed to drop desperately needed aid over Gaza have refused a request to bring in aid via trucks on the ground.

Haaretz cited the Israeli army, which said that the countries did not believe Israel when it told them that the aid would reach those in need.

Haaretz did not name the countries in question.

Countries such as the UAE, the UK and Holland have been dropping aid on Gaza since late last month, much to the dismay of the UN and other international humanitarian organisations.

Critics say that the airdrops of aid amount to a drop in the ocean of what’s needed, and that they are humiliating for Palestinians, who are forced to scramble and fight to get to the aid packages.

What’s more, the airdrops have proved dangerous for Palestinians, with a 15-year-old boy being killed yesterday after he was struck by a falling aid pallet.


So they don't trust Israel to distribute the aid and instead decided to pretty much burn the aid money on for sure aid not reaching those in need...

Two pages back:

Aid drops providing less than 1 percent of Gaza’s food needs

"All of the combined airdrops of aid into the Gaza Strip over the last week have totalled about the equivalent of 15 aid trucks, which is less than 1 percent of what Gaza needs on a normal day for basic survival”.

Shehada, a senior fellow with the European Council on Foreign Relations, says “complicit countries” are participating in parachuting aid into Gaza, “not to address the hunger, not to end it, but to sustain it [and] cover it up” with “headline-grabbing gestures”.

Yeah that last line nails it.

Israel’s opposition leader blasts Netanyahu, Gaza occupation plan

Israel’s opposition leader Yair Lapid has released a video message to say PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s press conference with foreign journalists was a “horror show” that “replaced reality with a presentation”.

“The implication of what Netanyahu proposed today is that the hostages will die, soldiers will die, the economy will collapse and our international standing will crash,” he said.

Lapid also reacted to a report by Israel’s Channel 12 that said the plan will cost billions of dollars within several months, increase the country’s deficit by 2 percent, and lead to widespread budget cuts in areas such as healthcare, education, and welfare, as well as an increased likelihood of an additional credit rating downgrade.

He said the plan means that Israel will also have to pay “from our children’s education and from our tax money” to compensate for the “mistake” of Netanyahu.

Ultra-Orthodox Israelis protest Haredi draft dodgers’ arrest

Israeli media have released footage showing hundreds of Haredi Jews gathering during a demonstration in front of a prison where several students from ultra-Orthodox institutes who received draft orders and refused to report to the recruitment office were detained last weekend.

The demonstration reportedly took place in front of Prison 10, located in the Palestinian town of Beit Lid in the Tulkarem governorate of the northeastern occupied West Bank.

A quarrel broke out between the demonstrators and residents who complained about the noise.

עשרות חרדים בהפגנה מול כלא 10 על מעצרם של שלושת המשתמשטים בשבוע שעבר. (גל"צ) pic.twitter.com/8w6oNdjgiP

— זירת החדשות (@ZiratNews) August 10, 2025

Al Jazeera correspondents Anas al-Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqeh killed in Israeli attack

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting that Al-Sharif and Qreiqeh were killed in an Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip, along with cameramen Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal.

Attack on journalists was targeted, al-Shifa Hospital director says

The director of the hospital in Gaza City says that the attack, which hit a tent housing journalists outside the entrance of al-Shifa Hospital, appears to have targeted them directly.

As we’ve been reporting, Al Jazeera journalists Anas al-Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal were killed in this strike a short while ago.

In a statement announcing the killing of al-Sharif, Israel’s military accused the journalist of heading a Hamas cell, and of “advancing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and [Israeli] troops”.

The Al Jazeera Media Network had recently denounced the Israeli military for what it called a “campaign of incitement” against its reporters in the Gaza Strip, including, most notably, al-Sharif.

‘I lived the pain in all its details’: Anas al-Sharif’s final message

Anas al-Sharif’s X account has just posted a message, written on April 6, 2025, accompanied by text saying, “This was what our dear beloved Anas requested to be published upon his martyrdom”.

“This is my will and my final message”, al-Sharif begins. “If these words of mine reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice.

“By God, I have exerted every effort and strength I had to be a support and a voice for the people of my nation, ever since I opened my eyes to life in the alleys and streets of the Jabalia refugee camp.

“I lived the pain in all its details. I tasted grief and loss repeatedly. Despite that, I never hesitated to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or misrepresentation, hoping that God would witness those who remained silent, those who accepted our killing, and those who suffocated our very breaths.

“Not even the mangled bodies of our children and women moved their hearts or stopped the massacre that our people have been subjected to for over a year and a half.

“I entrust you with Palestine, the crown jewel of the Muslims, and the heartbeat of every free soul in this world.

“I entrust you with its people, and its oppressed little children, who were not granted enough time to dream and live in safety and peace.

“Their pure bodies were crushed under thousands of tonnes of Israeli bombs and missiles, torn apart; their remains scattered on walls.

“I entrust you never to let chains silence you or borders confine you, to be bridges towards the liberation of our land and people, until the sun of dignity and freedom shines upon our stolen nation.

“I entrust you to honour my family.

“I entrust you with my dearest daughter, Sham, whom the days didn’t allow me to see grow up as I had dreamed.

“I entrust you with my beloved son, Salah, whom I wished to stand by, supporting and guiding, until he became strong enough to carry the burden and continue the message after me.

“I entrust you with my beloved mother, whose blessings in prayer brought me to where I am, and whose prayers were my fortress and guiding light. May God strengthen her heart and reward her on my behalf with the best of rewards.

“I also entrust you with my lifelong partner, my beloved wife, Umm Salah, Bayan, whom the war separated me from for days and months. Yet, she held steadfast, like an unbending olive tree, patient and resilient, bearing the responsibility in my absence with all strength and faith.

“Be a support for them after God Almighty.

“If I die, I die unwavering in my principles, and I bear witness to God that I am content with His decree, believing in His meeting, and confident that what is with God is better and everlasting.

“Oh God, accept me as a martyr, forgive my past and future sins, and make my blood a light that illuminates the path of freedom for my people and my family.

“Forgive me if I fell short, and pray for me with mercy, as I have upheld my promise and neither changed nor faltered.

“Do not forget Gaza…

“And do not forget me in your righteous prayers for forgiveness and acceptance.”

Anas Jamal Al-Sharif
06.04.2025

Death toll from strike on journalists’ tent rises to 7

The Director of al-Shifa Hospital has announced that the death toll in the strike on a tent for journalists has now risen to seven.

Israel bombed journalist tent hours after Netanyahu said he would let some foreign media into Gaza

The Israeli army’s attack on a journalists’ tent outside al-Shifa Hospital, which killed five Al Jazeera staff members, came hours after the Israeli prime minister told foreign media he had decided to allow some foreign journalists into the Gaza Strip.

“In fact, we have decided, and I’ve ordered, directed the military, to bring in foreign journalists, more foreign journalists,” Netanyahu said at the news conference in Jerusalem.

“There’s a problem of assuring security, but I think it can be done in a way that is responsible and careful to preserve your own safety,” he added.

The Israeli authorities have long prevented any foreign media from entering the Gaza Strip, while it has deliberately targeted and killed close to 200 local Palestinian journalists since October 2023.


Israeli military admits to deliberately killing Al Jazeera journalist

The Israeli military has shared a statement acknowledging that it attacked and killed Anas al-Sharif in the Gaza City area.

It claimed that al-Sharif, a well-known correspondent for Al Jazeera Arabic, was acting “under the pretence of an Al Jazeera journalist” while actually working for Hamas.

The Israeli military also claimed that it took steps to minimise harming civilians before the attack on a tent housing journalists outside al-Shifa Hospital, which killed at least five journalists.

CPJ warned that Israeli ‘smear campaign’ against al-Sharif could be a percussor to an assassination

In October, Israel accused al-Sharif and “a number of other journalists of being terrorists without providing any credible proof”, Jodie Ginsberg, the chief executive for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), tells Al Jazeera.

“We warned back then that this felt to us like a precursor to justify assassination, and, of course, last month… we saw again, a repeated smear campaign”, she said.

“This is not solely about Anas al-Sharif, this is part of a pattern that we have seen from Israel… going back decades, in which it kills journalists”, Ginsberg said.

“It accuses journalists of being terrorists and then provides no credible proof, and it’s no accident that in October, Anas [al-Sharif] was one of the journalists raising international awareness of an increased incursion by Israel into Gaza, and increasing… offensive, and, of course”, she said.

“He warned last month about the starvation facing journalists… and we saw then the accusations repeated, and, of course, now we are seeing a new offensive, plans for a new offensive, in Gaza, the kind of thing that Anas has been reporting on for the best part of three years.”