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[VIDEOS/PICTURES] Bloodshed in the land of Palestine - 2023 Edition

US-Israeli soldier posted videos showing detonation of Gaza homes and mosque

An American-Israeli man deployed in Gaza with a combat engineering unit of Israel’s armed forces posted videos online that show indiscriminate fire at a destroyed building and the detonation of homes and a mosque.

One video posted by the man, Bram Settenbrino, and filmed from the shooter’s viewpoint, shows dozens of rounds being fired into the ruins of a building. Another video shows what appears to be an armored vehicle’s fire-control system trained on a mosque before it is razed to the ground. Others depict the detonation of several homes as soldiers cheer.

It is not clear whether Settenbrino personally filmed the videos or was involved in the acts depicted in them, but the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Settenbrino did not dispute the videos’ authenticity. The videos recently went viral on X, drawing accusations that they showed “war crimes”. Settenbrino wrote in a message to the Guardian that the videos were “taken out of context” but declined to elaborate. “I have not committed any war crimes whatsoever,” he added.

After the Guardian reached out to Settenbrino and his family, his father published a response attributed to his son through Arutz Sheva, a news site associated with the settler right. “The machine gun fire video in question was suppressive fire in an area cleared of civilians after my team was attacked by Hamas terrorists from that area. The mosque that was blown up was being used to house armed terrorists and weapons stockpiles and used as a base to attack IDF soldiers.”

The soldier’s father said his son had “sent a congratulatory video dedicating a detonation to honor a friend’s new marriage”, and that the family business had received threats since the videos began circulating.

Israeli soldiers have shared scores of videos during the 10-month war showing themselves mocking Palestinians in Gaza and destroying Palestinian property. Some have been used as evidence in the genocide case against Israel at the international court of justice (ICJ). Israeli forces have killed more than 39,000 Palestinians since the beginning of the war, displaced most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents and destroyed more than half of the strip’s structures.

With thousands of Americans serving in the IDF, potential misconduct documented by soldiers themselves raises uncomfortable questions for US officials about their willingness to enforce federal law against citizens acting in an overseas war the US government funds and supports.

The extensive destruction of property, when “not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly” is a violation of international law regulating conflict and a war crime under US law.

The US has an obligation to ensure respect for the Geneva conventions, a series of international treaties regulating armed conflict, said Brian Finucane, a former legal adviser for the US Department of State. “If US citizens are violating the Geneva conventions or committing war crimes in Israel and Palestine, that implicates the US’s obligations,” he said, adding that under the federal War Crimes Act, the US has the authority to prosecute perpetrators of war crimes when either the victim or perpetrator are US citizens, or when perpetrators of any nationality are on US soil.

The IDF did not answer questions about why the mosque and homes in Settenbrino’s videos were targeted but has regularly claimed buildings it destroyed were used by Hamas fighters. Combat engineering corps usually plant explosives inside buildings they identify as targets and detonate them remotely, a more controlled demolition than bombing them from the air or from a tank.

The video showing the destruction of the mosque is dated 10 December, approximately when Settenbrino’s unit was deployed in the north of the strip. Israeli forces partially or fully destroyed more than 500 mosques in the strip since 7 October, Palestinian officials said in March.

Rights groups have called on the Biden administration to investigate crimes committed in Gaza as potential violations of US law. Ahead of the trip to the US last week of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Center for Constitutional Rights urged the US Department of Justice to investigate him and others responsible for serious crimes being committed in Gaza, “including potentially US and US-dual citizens”.

Brad Parker, CCR’s associate director of policy said: “Federal criminal statutes prohibit and criminalize genocide, war crimes, and torture, among other serious international crimes.

“US officials, government employees approving or facilitating continued weapons transfers to Israel, and individual US citizens currently serving active-duty roles in the Israeli military should definitely be concerned about their own individual criminal responsibility.”

Since the start of the war in Gaza, US efforts to crack down on violence against Palestinians have focused on the West Bank, where officials sanctioned a handful of settlers, freezing assets they may hold in the US and blocking American individuals and institutions from doing business with them. While the sanctions also include a ban on travel to the US, this would not extend to Americans. “But there are other tools available to the US government,” said Finucane, noting that citizens committing crimes abroad could be prosecuted in US courts.

An estimated 60,000 US citizens live in settlements in the West Bank. Many are deeply ideological, inspired by extremist figures like Brooklyn-born Baruch Goldstein, who massacred 29 Palestinians in Hebron in 1994, and Rabbi Meir Kahane, whose party was designated a terror group in both the US and Israel. The justice department did not answer questions about whether it is considering any action against settlers who are US citizens.

Americans in the IDF

An estimated 23,380 US citizens serve in Israel’s armed forces, according to the Washington Post – a figure the IDF did not confirm but probably includes both Americans traveling to Israel for the purpose of service and Israeli-raised soldiers holding dual citizenship.

A spokesperson for the US state department did not answer questions about Settenbrino and referred questions about US obligations regarding its citizens’ actions in Gaza to the justice department. “We do continue to emphasize that the IDF must abide by international humanitarian law,” the spokesperson wrote. The justice department did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

A spokesperson for the IDF declined to comment on Settenbrino specifically, citing privacy concerns, but said in a statement that “the IDF examines events of this kind as well as reports of videos uploaded to social networks and handles them with command and disciplinary measures”. The spokesperson declined to say whether the IDF regulates soldiers’ use of social media but said that it refers cases of suspected criminality to the military police for investigation.

The state department spokesperson was not able to confirm the number of Americans serving in the IDF, as citizens are not required to register their service with the US government.

Settenbrino has been deployed in Gaza since the beginning of the war with the Handasah Kravit, the IDF’s engineering corps. An Eagle scout raised in New Jersey, he moved to Israel as a teenager, becoming one of an estimated 600,000 US citizens who live there. He first joined the Israel dog unit, a civilian group that trains and deploys search-and-rescue dogs, and later enlisted in the IDF.

Last year, he received an “Outstanding Soldier of the Year” award from his division, according to his father, Randy Settenbrino, who has written about his son in op-eds for Israeli and Jewish publications.

‘Destroying homes is a day-to-day activity’

Settenbrino’s videos were first circulated in July by a prominent X account under the name Younis Tirawi that regularly surfaces videos posted by soldiers. Israeli soldiers have also shared videos of themselves playing with children’s toys and women’s underwear, the burning of Palestinian food supplies and rounding up and blindfolding civilians. Another video recently shared by Tirawi and originally posted by a member of Settenbrino’s unit showed the deliberate destruction of a water facility in Rafah.

One video by an IDF soldier, depicting a huge explosion in Gaza City as the soldier says “Shuja’iyya neighborhood gone … peace to Shuja’iyya” was screened in January before the ICJ as part of the genocide case brought by South Africa against Israel and others were cited during the proceedings.

“There is now a trend among the soldiers to film themselves committing atrocities against civilians in Gaza, in a form of ‘snuff’ video,” the South African lawyer Tembeka Ngcukaitobi said in court. He cited examples of soldiers recording themselves destroying houses and declaring their intent to “erase Gaza” or “destroy Khan Younis” – potential evidence of genocidal intent.

Such videos have rarely led to consequences. The IDF spokesperson said that when military investigations determine that “the expression or behavior of the soldiers in the footage is inappropriate […] it is handled accordingly”, but did not offer examples.

“The vast number of such videos online demonstrates that the military leadership isn’t even trying to discipline the rank and file,” said Joel Carmel, a member of the Israeli veterans group Breaking the Silence.

He added: “More importantly, the issue is less about the videos themselves and more about what it says about the way we fight in Gaza. Destroying homes and places of worship is a day-to-day activity for soldiers in Gaza – it is the opposite of the ‘surgical’ strikes on carefully chosen targets that we are told about by the IDF.”

Whether the US would ever prosecute American citizens fighting for Israel is as much a political question as a legal one.

“The US government could prosecute these US citizens if they participate in war crimes,” Oona Hathaway, director of the Center for Global Legal Challenges at Yale Law School, told the Guardian. “Politically, however, that’s unlikely, for all the obvious reasons.”

THE GUARDIAN
 

Israeli strike kills at least 10 Palestinians in Gaza school sheltering displaced​


Gaza’s civil defense agency said an Israeli strike struck a school compound in Gaza City on Saturday, killing at least 10 people.

“There are 10 martyrs and several wounded due to Israeli bombardment on Hamama school,” agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP. The Israeli military confirmed the strike, saying it had hit a Hamas command and control center located inside the compound.

Bassal said the compound was housing Palestinians displaced from their homes in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas militants.

The military said the compound was being used by Hamas militants to manufacture weapons, adding it was a “hiding place for Hamas terrorists.”

The Israeli military has repeatedly accused Hamas of using civilian facilities as command and control centers or to hide their commanders and militants. The Palestinian group denies the accusation.

The war in Gaza erupted after Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, which resulted in the death of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Militants also seized 251 people, 111 of whom are still held hostage in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.

Israel’s withering military campaign has killed at least 39,550 people, according to the territory’s health ministry.

 

Middle Eastern stocks tumble on regional tensions​


Stock markets in the Middle East ended lower on Sunday amid tensions in the region following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, a day after an Israeli strike in Beirut killed a top military commander from Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

A high-level Israeli delegation arrived in Cairo on Saturday for an attempt to resume Gaza ceasefire negotiations, but returned home later in the day, the Egyptian airport authority and Israeli media said.

Saudi Arabia's benchmark index (TASI) slid 2.4%, dragged down by a 10% plunge in aluminium products manufacturer Al Taiseer Group and a 2.7% drop in Al Rajhi Bank. Among other losers, oil giant Saudi Aramco was down 1.3%.

Hezbollah forces on Friday resumed rocket and artillery attacks against Israel, ending a lull along the border following Israel's killing of the Lebanese group's military commander in Beirut.

The Qatari benchmark (QSI) lost 0.7%, with petrochemicals maker Industries Qatar falling 0.7%. Outside the Gulf, Egypt's blue-chip index (EGX30) declined 2.9%, with all the constituents of the index in negative territory, including E-Finance for Digital and Financial Investment, which was down 8%. Separately, Egypt's net foreign assets (NFAs) stayed positive for a second straight month in June, having been deeply negative for more than two years, central bank data showed.

 
Israel returns ‘decomposed’ bodies of 89 Palestinians to Gaza

Israel has returned the bodies of nearly 90 Palestinians killed in its military offensive in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Ministry of Health has said.

Yamen Abu Suleiman, the director of the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, said on Monday that it was unclear whether the bodies had been dug up from cemeteries by the army during the ground offensive, or whether they were “detainees who had been tortured and killed”.

He said the bodies would be examined in an attempt to determine the causes of death and to identify them, before being buried in a mass grave at a cemetery near Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.

Gaza’s Government Media Office said Israel had sent 89 bodies as “bones and decomposed bodies in an inhumane manner”.

It said Israeli forces had “stolen” 2,000 bodies since October 7 from dozens of cemeteries, which they bulldozed during their ongoing military offensive.

The office added that Israeli forces also previously dug up graves in Khan Younis, Jabalia and the Tuffah neighbourhood in Gaza City, and transferred the bodies to “unknown places”, an action amounting to a war crime and a crime against humanity.


www.aljazeera.com

Israel returns ‘decomposed’ bodies of 89 Palestinians to Gaza

Gaza office says Israel has ‘stolen’ 2,000 bodies since October 7 and sent some of them in ‘an inhumane manner’.
www.aljazeera.com www.aljazeera.com
 
What a monster this Smotrich guy is. He is okay with starving 2 million Gazans.

Source: https://www.timesofisrael.com/smotr...tarve-2-million-gazans-but-world-wont-let-us/.


Smotrich: It may be ‘justified’ to starve 2 million Gazans, but world won’t let us​

Far-right minister expresses support for resettling Gaza, says October 7 wouldn’t have happened had it not been for 2005 disengagement from Strip​


(Eyad BABA / AFP)

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich implied on Monday that he believes blocking humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip is “justified and moral” even if it causes two million civilians to die of hunger, but the international community won’t allow that to happen.
“We bring in aid because there is no choice,” Smotrich said at a conference in Yad Binyamin hosted by the right-wing Israel Hayom outlet. “We can’t, in the current global reality, manage a war. Nobody will let us cause 2 million civilians to die of hunger, even though it might be justified and moral, until our hostages are returned.

“Humanitarianism in exchange for humanitarianism is morally justified — but what can we do? We live today in a certain reality, we need international legitimacy for this war.”

Smotrich asserted that barring humanitarian aid from Gaza was more likely to get all the hostages being held by Hamas released, as opposed to the current hostage-for-ceasefire deal that is being negotiated and only ensures the release of some.
“Everyone wants to bring the hostages back, but the deal only gets a minority of hostages and condemns the majority and therefore it’s not right and not moral and it endangers the nation,” he said, adding that he was against releasing terrorists from Israeli prisons in exchange for hostages.
Click to expand...
 
Israeli attacks kill 12 Palestinians in occupied West Bank

Israeli attacks, including air strikes on the Jenin refugee camp, have killed at least 12 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank in one of the deadliest days in the territory in recent months, the Palestinian Health Ministry has said.

Five people were killed in the Jenin air raids on Tuesday while two were fatally shot by Israeli forces in Kafr Qud in the northern West Bank. One young man was also killed in Bethlehem, according to the health ministry.

Reporting from Jenin, Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim said Tuesday morning’s strikes in Jenin came after Israeli forces raided the area on Monday afternoon, targeting a money exchange shop and claiming it was linked to financing the group Hamas, which governs Gaza.

Ibrahim reported that an Israeli raid had prompted an armed confrontation in Aqqaba, near Tubas, on Monday.

“According to local sources, the Palestinians discovered an undercover Israeli unit that was surrounding one of the homes, leading to armed confrontations. Then, Israeli forces used force against Palestinians, some of them doing nothing, not participating,” she said.


www.aljazeera.com

Israeli attacks kill 12 Palestinians in occupied West Bank

Two Israeli air raids hit Jenin refugee camp as clashes and shootings kill more Palestinians in the occupied territory.
www.aljazeera.com www.aljazeera.com
 
Last missing Israeli victim of Hamas attack declared dead

The last person listed as missing from the Hamas attack on Israel 10 months ago has been identified as killed, Israeli authorities say.

Bilha Yinon, 75, was murdered along with her husband, Yaakov, at their home in Netiv Haasara, when hundreds of gunmen from Gaza attacked communities in southern Israel on 7 October.

The Yinons' home was burnt to the ground, and while Yaakov's remains were found, there was no trace of Bilha, although she was known to have been with him at the time.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had now determined "after complex testing" of evidence in the area of the house that Bilha was killed.

Previously even fingertip searches in the ash and debris had failed to find as much as a trace of Bilha's DNA.

The couple's children had long accepted their mother was murdered on the day of the attack, but her death has only now been officially declared "based on a combination of findings", the IDF said.

Bilha and Yaakov were together in their house, on the edge of the border with Gaza, when it was attacked on the morning of the invasion.

One of the couple's daughters, Maayan, said her father WhatsApped at the time to say he and Bilha were in a safe room and could hear shooting and rockets.

"The house got a direct hit and was on fire within minutes," Maayan told Israeli TV in February.

Virtually the whole structure was reduced to ash.

Writing on X, Maoz Yinon a son of the couple, said his parents did not die in vain.

"They did not die for this war. They died for peace.

"I have no doubt in my heart that [Bilha Yinon] would be so proud of the journey my family are on - with Israeli and Palestinian partners - to create a path to peace, through hope and reconciliation," he said.

Hamas gunmen killed about 1,200 people in the unprecedented attack, and took 251 others back to Gaza as hostages. The attack triggered a massive Israeli military offensive on Gaza and the ongoing war.

More than 39,600 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli campaign, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.

BBC
 

Netanyahu ‘sorry’ October 7 attack occurred​


“Of course, of course. I am sorry, deeply, that something like this happened” he said

The right-wing leader is Israel’s longest-serving prime minister and has long billed himself as a staunch protector of Israel’s security

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview published Thursday that he was “sorry” that Hamas was able to carry out its October 7 attack, without explicitly taking responsibility.

Netanyahu, who has resisted making an apology for security failures over Israel’s worst-ever attack and focused on destroying Hamas, was asked if he would apologize during an interview with Time magazine.

“Apologize?” he was quoted as replying.

“Of course, of course. I am sorry, deeply, that something like this happened. And you always look back and you say, ‘Could we have done things that would have prevented it?’” he said.

The right-wing leader is Israel’s longest-serving prime minister and has long billed himself as a staunch protector of Israel’s security.

Shortly after the October 7 attack, Netanyahu posted on social media that intelligence services had failed to anticipate the Hamas operation and warn him.

He deleted and apologized for that post after numerous Israelis accused him of deflecting blame and jeopardizing national unity.

In the interview, Time asked Netanyahu what his message would be to a political rival who presided over the country’s worst security failure.

Netanyahu replied that it depended on whether the leader could lead Israel “to victory.”

“Can they assure that the postwar situation will be one of peace and security? If the answer is yes, they should stay in power.”

Hamas on October 7 carried out the deadliest attack in Israel’s history. A total of 1,198 people died, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Palestinian militants seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 39 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,677 people, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.


​

 

Israel says it struck two schools in Gaza, with reports of 12 people killed​

The Israeli military has said it struck Hamas command centres embedded in the areas of two schools in the Gaza Strip, which it claims were used to carry out attacks against Israeli troops.

The Palestinian civil defence service said 12 people had been killed in strikes on two schools in eastern Gaza.

“Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, surveillance, and additional intelligence,” the military said.

“The school compounds were used by Hamas terrorists and commanders as command-and-control centres, from which they planned and carried out attacks against Israel Defence Forces troops and the state of Israel,” it said.

Independent
 
State of panic’ among Palestinians in eastern parts of Khan Younis

Reporting from Khan Younis, southern Gaza

There’s a state of panic among Palestinians, especially those in the eastern parts of Khan Younis and those who have received the leaflets and the warnings by the Israeli forces to evacuate to the western parts of Khan Younis in al-Mawasi.

These people went back to their houses a couple of days ago when there was another warning for them to evacuate during the past couple of weeks. The same exact area is being called for evacuation.

Those same exact families – children, parents with all their belongings – were scattered on the streets for weeks because they did not have any place to evacuate to when the Israeli forces warned them.

Palestinians do not have any place to go to, everywhere is packed. One million displaced Palestinians are squeezed in Deir el-Balah. And here in al-Mawasi, Khan Younis, we are seeing people’s movements, looking for a place to set up their tents.

But people want a place where there’s access to water, where there’s no garbage. Here, where we are, there’s a huge pile of garbage, just beside us and that’s why not a lot of people are setting up their tents over here.

Source: Al Jazeera
 
US, Egypt and Qatar call on Israel and Hamas to resume talks

The United States, Egypt and Qatar have released a joint statement calling on Israel and Hamas to resume negotiations over a ceasefire and hostage-release deal.

The statement said the three nations had forged a "framework agreement" that had "only the details of implementation left to conclude”.

Israel said it would send negotiators to the proposed talks, which are pencilled in for 15 August in Doha or Cairo. Hamas did not immediately respond.

The renewed diplomatic push will be seen as an attempt to stop regional tensions from spiralling out of control, after Hamas’ leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated last week. Iran, blaming Israel, has vowed a response - though Israel has not commented directly on the killing.

In a joint statement, the three nations invited Israel and Hamas to restart talks on 15 August "to close all remaining gaps and commence implementation of the deal without further delay."

"As mediators, if necessary, we are prepared to present a final bridging proposal that resolves the remaining implementation issues in a manner that meets the expectations of all parties," it said.

The statement was signed by US President Joe Biden, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

It said the framework agreement was based on “principles” previously outlined by President Biden on 31 May - which would start with a full ceasefire and the release of a number of hostages - and endorsed by the UN Security Council.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement on Thursday evening he had spoken with Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant to brief him on changes to US forces in the region and "reinforce my ironclad support for Israel’s defense".

"I also stressed the importance of concluding a ceasefire deal in Gaza that releases the hostages," he said.

Despite numerous rounds of talks, the challenge of reaching a ceasefire and hostage release agreement has so far proved elusive.

Hamas is pushing for a ceasefire, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the conflict can only stop once Hamas is defeated.

On Thursday, Israel continued its bombardment of the Gaza strip. Gaza's Hamas-run civil defence force said it hit two schools, killing more than 18 people. The Israeli military said it had struck Hamas command centres.

Any proposed talks could be made even more difficult by Hamas’ decision to elect Yahya Sinwar as its new leader, replacing Haniyeh.

Sinwar, who Israel holds responsible for the planning and execution of the 7 October attacks, is seen as one of the group's most extreme figures.

Amid fears of an attack from Iran or its allies, Israel’s security cabinet met in an underground bunker on Thursday, instead of its usual meeting place, Israel’s Channel 13 reported.

BBC
 

EU head demands Gaza ceasefire ‘now,’ backs August 15 talks​


European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen says there needs to be an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, adding to international pressure for a truce deal between Israel and Hamas.

“We need a ceasefire in Gaza now. That’s the only way to save lives, restore hope for peace, and secure the return of hostages,” von der Leyen writes on X.

“Thus I strongly support the efforts led by the US, Egypt, and Qatar to help achieve the peace and stability the region needs.”

In a joint statement Thursday, the three countries’ leaders invited the warring parties to resume talks on August 15 in Doha or Cairo “to close all remaining gaps and commence implementation of the deal without further delay.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says the country agreed to resume Gaza ceasefire talks on August 15.

www.timesofisrael.com

EU head demands Gaza ceasefire ‘now,’ backs August 15 talks

* * *
www.timesofisrael.com www.timesofisrael.com
 
Dozens reportedly killed in Israeli strike on Gaza

Gaza's Hamas-controlled civil defence agency says dozens of people have been killed in an Israeli air strike on a shelter in a school in Gaza City.

Israel's military said it had struck the location on Saturday, describing its target as a Hamas command centre embedded in the school.

According to Gaza's civil defence agency, the strike in the Daraj district killed at least 90 people and injured dozens more.

The BBC has been unable to independently verify the figures.

"The death toll is now between 90 to 100 and there are dozens more wounded," agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP news agency.

"Three Israeli rockets hit the school that was housing displaced Palestinians."

Earlier in a Telegram post he described the scene as a "horrific massacre" saying crews were trying to control a fire in order to rescue the wounded and retrieve bodies.

Israel's miltary said it had "precisely struck Hamas terrorists operating within a Hamas command and control centre embedded in the Al-Taba'een school".

Earlier this week, the Israel Defense Forces said they had targeted Hamas "command and control centres" within two schools in Gaza City.

Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 people in an attack on Israel on 7 October, taking 251 others back to Gaza as hostages.

That attack triggered a massive Israeli military offensive on Gaza and the ongoing war.

More than 39,600 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli campaign, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.

BBC
 

After school strike, UN rapporteur accuses Israel of ‘genocide’​


An independent, UN-appointed rights expert accused Israel of committing “genocide” in its Gaza war after an Israeli strike targeting a school on Saturday killed 93 people, according to local rescuers.

“Israel is genociding the Palestinians one neighborhood at the time, one hospital at the time, one school at the time, one refugee camp at the time, one safe zone at the time,” Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Palestinian territories, said on social media platform X.

Israel was carrying out such strikes against Palestinians using “US and European weapons,” Albanese said.

“May the Palestinians forgive us for our collective inability to protect them,” she added.

In a report issued in March, Albanese said there were “reasonable grounds” to determine that Israel had committed several acts of “genocide” in its war in Gaza.

Israel, which has long been highly critical of Albanese and her mandate, denounced her report as an “obscene inversion of reality.”

She has said that “of course” she also condemned Hamas for its attack on Israel which triggered 10 months of war in the Gaza Strip.

Special rapporteurs are appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council but do not speak on behalf of the UN.

 

Woe be to the apartheid regime​

====

Israeli attack on Gaza school renews calls for US to end support for Israel​


A deadly Israeli attack on a school in Gaza has renewed calls for the United States to stop providing staunch support for Israel, including weapons transfers that rights advocates say are fuelling atrocities in the Palestinian enclave.

The Gaza civil defence agency said more than 100 Palestinians were killed and dozens more were injured on Saturday when Israel launched an attack on al-Tabin school in Gaza City.

“The US & allies are claiming a ceasefire is near. But all Palestinians see is more death, dislocation, & despair. The genocide continues,” James Zogby, co-founder and president of the Arab American Institute, wrote on social media.

“It past time to end the charade. Israel doesn’t want peace or a ceasefire. Why are we still sending Israel weapons?”

On Saturday morning, CNN journalist Allegra Goodwin said in a post on X that the US news network had confirmed a “US-made GBU-39 small diameter bomb” was used in the deadly Israeli attack on al-Tabin school. Al Jazeera could not immediately verify that report.

The attack comes as US President Joe Biden has faced months of public pressure to cut off the supply of weapons to Israel amid its war on Gaza, which has killed more than 39,700 Palestinians since early October.

Source: Al Jazeera
 
Israel's cowardly attacks continue.

It doesn't seem like they want the war to stop. They are making excuses to prolong the war and kill innocents.
 
Kamala Harris says 'too many' civilian deaths in Gaza

US Vice-President Kamala Harris has condemned the loss of civilian life in an Israeli air strike against a school building in Gaza on Saturday.

More than 70 people were killed at the building which sheltered displaced Palestinians, the director of a hospital has told the BBC.

Ms Harris said "far too many" civilians had been killed "yet again"and reiterated calls for a hostage deal and a ceasefire, echoing comments made by the White House.

An Israeli military spokesman said al-Taba’een school "served as an active Hamas and Islamic Jihad military facility", which Hamas denies.

Speaking at a campaign event in Phoenix, Arizona, Ms Harris said Israel had a right to "go after Hamas" but also has "an important responsibility" to avoid civilian casualties.

Saturday's air strike has been criticised by Western and regional powers, with Egypt saying it showed Israel had no desire to reach a ceasefire or end the Gaza war.

Fadl Naeem, head of al-Ahli Hospital where many of the casualties were taken, said around 70 victims were indentified in the hours after the strike - with the remains of many others so badly disfigured that identification was difficult.

Israel's military said it had "precisely struck Hamas terrorists operating within a Hamas command and control centre embedded in the al-Taba'een school".

A statement by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israeli Security Agency said "at least 19 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists" were "eliminated" in the attack.

IDF spokesman Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said “various intelligence indications” suggest a “high probability” that the commander of Islamic Jihad’s Central Camps Brigade, Ashraf Juda, was at the Taba’een school when it was struck.

He said it is not yet clear whether the commander was killed in the attack.

The BBC cannot independently verify casualty figures from either side.

The Israeli spokesman said the casualty figures released by Hamas officials "do not align with the information held by the IDF, the precise munitions used, and the accuracy of the strike".

Hamas described the attack as a "horrific crime and a dangerous escalation" in Israel's "war of extermination against the Palestinian people".

US National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said Hamas had been using schools "as locations to gather and operate out of".

"But we have also said repeatedly and consistently that Israel must take measures to minimise civilian harm," he added.

Israel has attacked several such shelters in Gaza in the past few weeks.

According to the United Nations, 477 out of 564 school buildings in Gaza have been directly hit or damaged as of 6 July, with more than a dozen targeted since.

Al-Taba’een school housed more 1,000 people - having recently received dozens of displaced people from the town of Beit Hanoun, after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes.

The building also served as a mosque and the Israeli strike hit during dawn prayers, witnesses said.

Jaafar Taha, a student who lives near the school, told the BBC the sound of the bombing was followed by screaming and noise.

"'Save us, save us,' they were screaming," he said.

"The scene was horrific. There were body parts everywhere and blood covering the walls."

Salim Oweis, spokesman for the UN children's agency, Unicef, told the BBC the attack was "really outrageous".

"All those schools are really packed with civilians, children, mothers and families, who are taking refuge in any empty space whether it's a school or it's a mosque, whatever it is, even in hospital yards."

This strike has again drawn graphic attention to a controversial dynamic of the Gaza war.

Israel claims that Hamas is using civilian infrastructure to plan and carry out attacks, and that is why it has been targeting hospitals and schools - sites protected under international law.

Hamas has consistently denied the accusations.

Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 people in an attack on Israel on 7 October, taking 251 others back to Gaza as hostages.

That attack triggered a massive Israeli military offensive against Gaza and the current war.

More than 39,790 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli campaign, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.

BBC
 

Putin to meet Palestinian leader Abbas tomorrow​

The Russian president will meet on Tuesday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is visiting Russia, according to Russian news agency TASS.

Abbas is in Russia on an official visit at the invitation of Putin, Palestinian Wafa news agency said.

Abdel Hafiz Nofal, the Palestinian Ambassador to Russia, told Wafa that Abbas will discuss with the Russian leader the efforts to stop the war in Gaza and the ways to transport humanitarian aid into the enclave.
Click to expand...


Source: Al-Jazeera.
 
Hitman said:
Meanwhile your brotherly nation Pakistan does nothing other than keep watching despite being the only Islamic nation with nukes.
Click to expand...

These Bollywood fantasies are becoming too much 😂

You want Pakistan to use nukes ? You do realise there will be a huge nuclear war turning the world into darkness. No more pop or movies !
 
rpant_gabba said:
Maybe if hamas surrenders, there will be peace
Click to expand...
They will never say that.

Hamas is responsible for all of this mayhem. They had no backup plan. Their idea is to attack Israel and become Martyr.

Bhad me Gaye oridinary Gaza citizens. If Hamas had any care for Gaza people, they would have never attacked Israel.

But our resident bleeding hearts will keep crying without even saying a word about Hamas.
 
KingKhanWC said:
These Bollywood fantasies are becoming too much 😂

You want Pakistan to use nukes ? You do realise there will be a huge nuclear war turning the world into darkness. No more pop or movies !
Click to expand...
So what you're saying is Pakistan is capable of doing nothing other than provide lip service which they are champions at?
 
Hitman said:
So what you're saying is Pakistan is capable of doing nothing other than provide lip service which they are champions at?
Click to expand...

No they should do more, i agree with you. But being a nuclear power direct war will end the planet. Give the resistance weapons until Israelis move back to Europe, they can’t endure bombs on them for too long
 
KingKhanWC said:
No they should do more, i agree with you. But being a nuclear power direct war will end the planet. Give the resistance weapons until Israelis move back to Europe, they can’t endure bombs on them for too long
Click to expand...
So why hasn't Pakistan done it till now?
 
Israel keeps up strikes in Gaza as fears of wider war grow

Israeli forces pressed on with operations near the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis on Monday amid an international push for a deal to halt fighting in Gaza and prevent a slide into a wider regional conflict with Iran and its proxies.

Palestinian medics said Israeli military strikes on Khan Younis on Monday killed at least 18 people and wounded several. Meanwhile more families and displaced persons streamed out of areas threatened by new evacuation orders telling people to clear the area.

Later an Israeli airstrike killed five people in the Zeitoun suburb of Gaza City, and two others were killed in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, medics said.

As fighting continued, Hamas reacted sceptically to the latest round of Egyptian and Qatari-brokered talks due on Thursday, saying it had seen no sign of movement from the Israeli side.

The group said on Sunday that mediators must force Israel to accept a ceasefire proposal based on ideas from U.S. President Joe Biden, which Hamas had accepted, "instead of pursuing further rounds of negotiations or new proposals that would provide cover for the occupation's aggression".


Reuters
 
Hitman said:
Meanwhile your brotherly nation Pakistan does nothing other than keep watching despite being the only Islamic nation with nukes.
Click to expand...
What do you mean they dont do anything? They tweet nonstop about it and talk for it hours together at the UN general conference :)
 
KingKhanWC said:
These Bollywood fantasies are becoming too much 😂

You want Pakistan to use nukes ? You do realise there will be a huge nuclear war turning the world into darkness. No more pop or movies !
Click to expand...
The day Pak uses nukes against Israel, sorry but it will be wiped off the map by Israel and US and it will cause unmitigated harm to the entire SC.
 
Bhaijaan said:
Israel has the right to their homeland. Bharat will always support them. If needed we will not think twice before activating the Hinjew.
Click to expand...
The way most Hindutva defend the genocide and documented rape, and hope that Nukes should be used in this genocides' against the aggressors then one would be inclined to believe that 'HinJew' is an authentic ideology.
 
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HalBass9 said:
The way most Hindutva defend the genocide and documented rape, and hope that Nukes should be used in this genocides' against the aggressors then one would be inclined to believe that 'HinJew' is an authentic ideology.
Click to expand...

Bharatiyas do not support all that you mentioned. We are for peaceful transfer of Palestinian Muslims to the 50 Muslim countries and for our brotherly Jews to be left be whelp alone with their solitary Jewish homeland.

Regarding Hinjew you know very little. Its deep state stuff and I’m not sure if I have the clearance to share much on it here.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
US says it aims to 'lower temperature' in Middle East

The US is aiming "to turn the temperature down" in the Middle East, the country's ambassador to the UN has said, as fears of an Iranian retaliatory attack on Israel loom.

On Tuesday, Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the UN Security Council in New York the US wanted to "deter and defend against any future attack and avoid regional conflict".

There are fears Iran could retaliate against Israel following July's assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran - something Israel has not taken responsibility for.

US President Joe Biden suggested reaching a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in Gaza could help deter Iran from launching an attack on Israel.

"That's my expectation but we'll see," he said when asked by a reporter on Tuesday.

"We'll see what Iran does and we'll see what happens if there's any attack, but I'm not giving up," he said, while exiting his plane during a visit to New Orleans, Louisiana.

A new round of ceasefire talks is scheduled to take place in either Doha or Cairo on Thursday.

But Hamas official Ahmad Abdul Hadi has reportedly said Hamas will not take part in the talks, according to reports by the New York Times and Sky News.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed plans to travel to the Middle East on Tuesday to participate in negotiations on ending the war in Gaza.

International mediators from the US, Egypt and Qatar have been pushing for a ceasefire deal that would see Israeli hostages released to their families and Palestinian civilians returned to their homes.

Meanwhile, Washington has also approved a shipment of arms sales worth $20bn (£15.5bn) to Israel - the arms will take years to reach Israel.

At the Security Council meeting in New York, Ms Thomas-Greenfield called for a ceasefire deal to be finalised.

"A broader regional conflict is not inevitable," she said.

"The United States’ overall goal remains to turn the temperature down in the region, deter and defend against any future attacks, and avoid regional conflict," she added.

"That starts with finalizing a deal for an immediate ceasefire with hostage release in Gaza. We need to get this over the finish line."

But Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, accused the Security Council of not doing enough to stop Israel's military operation in Gaza.

"Wake up. Stop finding excuses. Stop imagining that you can reason with the Israeli government so it stops killing civilians by the thousands, imposing famine, torturing prisoners, colonising and annexing our land, all while you appeal to them, call on them, demand them to stop," Mr Mansour said.

Israeli ambassador Gilad Erdan claimed Hamas used civilians as human targets in Gaza.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.

More than 39,920 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Hundreds of people have also been killed in the almost daily exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and the Israeli military across the Israel-Lebanon border since the day after the start of the conflict.

Amid a flurry of international diplomacy to de-escalate tensions, Iran on Monday dismissed calls from the UK and other Western countries to refrain from retaliation against Israel for the killing of Haniyeh.

Israel, which did not say it was involved in Haniyeh’s assassination, has meanwhile put its military on its highest alert level.

The US has warned that it is preparing for “a significant set of attacks” by Iran or its proxies as soon as this week, and has built up its military presence in the Middle East to help defend Israel.

BBC
 
Hitman said:
There's news that the US has provided Israel with additional weapons worth $20 billion a couple of days ago.
Click to expand...
Hypocrite. That is what US is. On 1 side, they are giving Israel weapons and all the support so they can continue killing and the other side is they wants all of this to finish.
 
BouncerGuy said:
Hypocrite. That is what US is. On 1 side, they are giving Israel weapons and all the support so they can continue killing and the other side is they wants all of this to finish.
Click to expand...
US since 1945 has cared about 2 things -

1. Themselves
2. Israel
 
Theanonymousone said:
This is what makes people turn to darker path. One mans revolution is another mans terrorism.

It is heart breaking to see an incident like this. I hope Netanyahu is put in prison to make him accountable.
Click to expand...
The reason all of this is happening is because he knows nothing will happen to him. Israel has America's right hand over it's head.
 
Despite conducting genocide in Gaza, this war has also taken a toll on the Israeli economy. Check it out here:

 
Latest Updates

At least 36 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks yesterday while another 20 killed this morning

Five people were killed by Israeli security forces in the occupied West Bank’s Tubas governorate this morning during Israeli raids, including four who were killed by a drone strike on the town of Tammun.

Source: Al Jazeera
 

Hamas official says group is losing faith in US as mediator in Gaza ceasefire talks​


A top Hamas official said the Palestinian militant group is losing faith in the United States’ ability to mediate a ceasefire in Gaza ahead of a new round of talks scheduled for this week amid mounting pressure to bring an end to the 10-month-old war with Israel.

Osama Hamdan told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday that Hamas will only participate if the talks focus on implementing a proposal detailed by US President Joe Biden in May and endorsed internationally.

The US referred to it as an Israeli proposal and Hamas agreed to it in principle, but Israel said that Biden’s speech was not entirely consistent with the proposal itself. Both sides later proposed changes, leading each to accuse the other of obstructing a deal.

Hamas is especially resistant to Israel’s demand that it maintain a lasting military presence in two strategic areas of Gaza after any ceasefire, conditions that were only made public in recent weeks.

“We have informed the mediators that … any meeting should be based on talking about implementation mechanisms and setting deadlines rather than negotiating something new,” said Hamdan, who is a member of Hamas’ Political Bureau, which includes the group’s top political leaders and sets its policies. “Otherwise, Hamas finds no reason to participate.”

It was not clear late Wednesday if Hamas would attend the talks beginning Thursday.

Hamdan spoke amid a new push for an end to the war, sparked by the Oct. 7 attack on Israel in which Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people and dragged about 250 hostages into Gaza. Israel responded with a devastating bombardment and ground invasion that has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians and decimated wide swaths of the territory.

There are now fears that the conflict could ignite a wider conflagration.

In an hourlong interview, Hamdan accused Israel of not engaging in good faith and said the group does not believe the US can or will apply pressure on Israel to seal a deal.

Hamdan claimed Israel has “either sent a non-voting delegation (to the negotiations) or changed delegations from one round to another, so we would start again, or it has imposed new conditions.”

Israeli officials had no immediate comment on the claim, but Israel has denied sabotaging talks and accuses Hamas of doing so.

During the interview, Hamdan provided copies of several iterations of the ceasefire proposal and the group’s written responses. A regional official familiar with the talks verified the documents were genuine. The official offered the assessment on condition of anonymity in order to share information not made public.

The documents show that at several points Hamas attempted to add additional guarantors – including Russia, Turkey and the United Nations – but Israel’s responses always included only the existing mediators, the US, Egypt and Qatar.

In a statement Tuesday, the Israeli prime minister’s office said some changes it has asked for were merely “clarifications” that added details, such as to clauses that dealt with how Palestinians will return to northern Gaza, how many hostages will be released during specific phases and whether Israel can veto which Palestinian prisoners will be released in exchange for Israeli hostages. It accused Hamas of asking for 29 changes to the proposal.

“The fact is that it is Hamas which is preventing the release of our hostages, and which continues to oppose the outline,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this month.

Hamdan, however, claimed that more than once Hamas accepted in whole or in large part a proposal put to them by the mediators only to have Israel reject it out of hand, ignore it, or launch major new military operations in the days that followed.

On one occasion, one day after Hamas accepted a ceasefire proposal, Israel launched a new operation in Rafah in southern Gaza. Israel said the proposal remained far from its demands.

Hamdan said that CIA director William Burns told Hamas via mediators at the time that Israel would agree to the deal.

But, he said, “the Americans were unable to convince the Israelis. I think they did not pressure the Israelis.”

US State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters Tuesday that Washington is making great efforts to prevent an escalation of violence and end suffering in the region.

“We are working around the clock every day,” he said. “Everyone in the region should understand that further attacks only perpetuate conflict and instability and insecurity for everyone.”

Negotiations have taken on new urgency as the war has threatened to ignite a regional conflict.

Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah are mulling retaliatory strikes against Israel after the killings of Hamas’ political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran and of top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut. Israel claimed the latter strike, but has neither confirmed nor denied its role in the blast that killed Haniyeh.

After a brief truce in November that saw the release of more than 100 Israeli hostages, multiple rounds of ceasefire talks have fallen apart. Around 110 people taken captive remain in Gaza, about a third of them believed to be dead.

Hamdan accused Israel of stepping up its attacks on Hamas leaders after the group agreed in principle to the latest proposal put forward by mediators.

Israel said that a July 13 operation in Gaza killed Mohammed Deif, the shadowy leader of Hamas’ military wing. More than 90 other people also died, according to local health officials.

Hamdan insisted Deif is alive.

Two weeks later, Haniyeh was killed, with Hamas and Iran blaming Israel. Hamas then named Yahya Sinwar, its Gaza chief seen as responsible for the Oct. 7 attack, to replace Haniyeh – who had been considered a more moderate figure.

Hamdan acknowledged there are “some difficulties” and delays in communicating with Sinwar, who is believed to be hiding deep in the network of tunnels in the Gaza Strip. But Hamdan insisted that this does not pose a major barrier to the negotiations.

The most intractable sticking point in the talks remains whether and how a temporary ceasefire would become permanent.

Israel has been wary of proposals that the initial truce would be extended as long as negotiations continue over a permanent deal. Israel seems concerned that Hamas would drag on endlessly with fruitless negotiations.

Hamas has said it is concerned Israel will resume the war once its most vulnerable hostages are returned, a scenario reflected in some of Netanyahu’s recent comments.

All versions of the ceasefire proposal shared by Hamdan stipulated that the Israeli forces will withdraw completely from Gaza in the deal’s second phase.

Recently, however, officials with knowledge of the negotiations told the AP that Israel had introduced new demands to maintain a presence in a strip of land on the Gaza-Egypt border known as the Philadelphi corridor, as well as along a highway running across the breadth of the strip, separating Gaza’s south and north. Hamas has insisted on a full withdrawal of Israeli forces.

Hamdan said the group had not yet received in writing the new conditions.

Hamdan acknowledged that Palestinians have suffered immensely in the war and are yearning for a ceasefire, but insisted that the group couldn’t simply give up its demands.

“A ceasefire is one thing,” he said, “and surrender is something else.”

 

Are they going to get exposed soon?​

====​

Will the UK’s new Labour government halt arms sales to Israel?​


As the United States clears the way for the sale of $20bn of weapons to Israel, pressure on the United Kingdom to cease such arms sales has stepped up amid reports that some sales could be restricted in the coming months.

Between October 7, when Israel’s war on Gaza began, and the end of May, the UK granted more than 100 export licences for the sale of weapons and military equipment to Israel, official figures show. The value of these deals has not been revealed.

However, between 2008 and the end of 2023, the UK granted export licences for arms deals to Israel worth 576 million pounds ($740m). The total value of arms deals granted in 2023 is estimated at 18.2 million pounds – still far short of the more than 200 million pounds granted in 2017.

Palestine activists have called on the government to cease the sales of arms to Israel as its war on Gaza has killed nearly 40,000 people with thousands more missing and presumed dead under the rubble of buildings. More than 92,000 people have been injured.

Despite this, the previous Conservative government, which lost power to Labour in a landslide election in July, decided in May that there was no reason to suspend arms exports.

It cited the UK’s arms export rules, which state that export licences should not be granted if there is a “clear risk” that they would “facilitate a serious violation of International Humanitarian Law (IHL)”, and said there was no evidence of this.

However, since the Labour Party came to power, its stance on the Gaza war has differed from that of its predecessor.

In recent weeks, Israeli and British news outlets have reported that the UK may be about to announce a partial suspension of arms exports to Israel.

Source: Al Jazeera
 
Hamas will not join Gaza ceasefire talks, senior official says

A senior Hamas official told the BBC that it will not participate in the indirect talks on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal due to resume in Doha on Thursday.

The Palestinian armed group wanted a roadmap for implementing the agreement and would “not engage in negotiations for the sake of negotiations in order to provide cover for Israel to continue its war”, the official said.

He reiterated that the roadmap should be based on the proposed deal outlined by US President Joe Biden at the end of May and accused Israel of adding “new conditions”.

Israel’s prime minister has denied doing so and said Hamas has been the one demanding changes.

The talks are still expected to take place even without Hamas, as US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators say they could use them to put together a plan that resolves the remaining issues.

They suffered several setbacks last month and have been suspended since Hamas's political leader and chief negotiator, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated in Tehran.

The US hopes that finalising a deal could deter Iran from retaliating for the assassination against Israel - which has neither confirmed nor denied involvement - and avert a regional conflict.

The US has ramped up its diplomatic efforts ahead of the talks.

On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Qatar's Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said in a phone call that "no party in the region should take actions that would undermine efforts to reach a deal," a state department statement said. Mr Blinken also spoke separately to Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, the state department said.

US President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris were also briefed by their national security team on the latest developments in the Middle East, the White House said.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 39,960 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

Last week, the leaders of the US, Egypt and Qatar issued a joint statement calling on Israel and Hamas to resume urgent discussions on a deal that would bring relief to the people of Gaza as well as the 111 remaining hostages, 39 of whom are presumed dead.

A framework agreement was "now on the table with only the details of implementation left to conclude", they said, adding that they were prepared to present a bridging proposal that overcame their differences if necessary.

Israel responded by saying it would send a team of negotiators to take part in Thursday’s talks. But Hamas - which is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the UK and other countries - asked the mediators to present a plan based on where talks were a month and a half ago instead of engaging in any new rounds of negotiations.

On Wednesday, a senior Hamas official confirmed that its representatives would not attend the meeting, despite many of them being based in the Qatari capital.

“We want a roadmap to implement what we have already agreed based on President Biden’s ceasefire plan and the Security Council resolution, which guarantees Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, specifically from the Philadelphi corridor [running along the border with Egypt], and allows the return of displaced persons to northern Gaza without restrictions, and allows the flow of humanitarian aid,” he told the BBC.

“It is Israel which added new conditions and reneged on its previous agreement,” he added.

The first phase of the deal outlined by Mr Biden on 31 May and endorsed by the UN Security Council would include a "full and complete ceasefire" lasting six weeks, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from populated areas of Gaza, and the exchange of some of the hostages - including women, the elderly and the sick or wounded - for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

The second phase would involve the release of all other living hostages and a "permanent end to hostilities". The third would see the start of a major reconstruction plan for Gaza and the return of dead hostages' remains.

On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that unpublished documents showed Israel had relayed a list of five new conditions in a letter on 27 July, which added to the principles it had set out on 27 May and Mr Biden presented days later.

It said the May proposal had talked of the “withdrawal of Israeli forces eastwards away from densely populated areas along the borders in all areas of the Gaza Strip”, but that the July letter had included a map indicating Israel would remain in control of the Philadelphi corridor.

The report also said the letter had added a stipulation that an agreed upon mechanism should be established to ensure only unarmed civilians returning to northern Gaza were allowed through the Israeli-controlled Netzarim corridor, which effectively divides the territory in two.

In response to the report, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office issued a statement saying the charge that he had added new conditions was “false”, describing them instead as “essential clarifications”.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu’s 27 July letter does not introduce extra conditions and certainly does not contradict or undermine the 27 May proposal. In fact, Hamas is the one that demanded 29 changes to the 27 May proposal, something the prime minister refused to do,” it added, without providing details about Hamas’s demands.

Later on Tuesday, President Biden conceded that the negotiations were “getting hard”, but vowed that he was “not giving up”.

He also said he believed an agreement would help avert the possibility of retaliation against Israel by Iran, Hamas’s main backer, for the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh.

When asked by a reporter if Iran “could... stop doing action if a ceasefire deal is possible”, he replied: "That's my expectation but we'll see."

Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in the Hamas leader’s killing, has warned Iran that it would “exact a heavy price for any aggression”. Iran has dismissed Western calls for restraint and insisted that “a punitive response to an aggressor is a legal right”.

Haniyeh has been succeeded by Hamas's leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, who was one of the masterminds behind the 7 October attack. Mr Netanyahu said on Monday that Sinwar "has been and remains the only obstacle to a hostage deal".

BBC
 
More than 40,000 killed in Gaza, Hamas-run health ministry says

More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed as a result of Israeli military action in Gaza since the 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel, the Hamas-run health ministry says.

That number - 40,005 on Thursday - equates to about 1.7% of the 2.3 million population of the territory - another sobering indication of the human cost of the war.

Alongside the fatalities, satellite image analysis suggests nearly 60% of buildings in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed since the beginning of the war.

In the past few months, the southern city of Rafah has suffered the most damage, imagery shows.

The health ministry’s figures for the number of people killed do not differentiate between civilians and fighters.

However, its breakdown of identified reported fatalities says a majority are children, women or elderly people.

This month, Israel’s military told the BBC that more than 15,000 “terrorists” had been killed during the war.

International journalists, including the BBC, aren't able to report from Gaza to independently verify figures from either side.

In the past, figures from the Gaza Ministry of Health (MoH) were widely used in times of conflict and seen as reliable by the UN and international institutions.

It only counted deaths registered in hospitals with these entered in a centralised system along with names, identity numbers and other details.

However, by late last year the MoH was unable to function effectively with overflowing mortuaries, fighting in and around hospitals and poor internet and phone connectivity.

The Hamas Government Media Office (GMO) in Gaza began publishing numbers of deaths including reports given in “reliable media”.

UN agencies started to incorporate this into their data breakdowns as well as MoH figures when updates were available.

More recently, Gaza’s MoH has begun to incorporate those reported as killed in the war including by family members online in its overall tally.

However, it also counts separately the number of unidentified bodies among the total number killed.

The UN now quotes these figures, with officials attributing them and stressing that their Gaza teams cannot independently verify them due to the conditions on the ground and the high volume of fatalities.

Israel has consistently questioned the credibility of the information. In May, the Foreign Minister Israel Katz described it as “fake data from a terrorist organisation”.

Several experts have said the actual number of people killed as a direct result of the war in Gaza is likely to be far higher, with local officials estimating that about 10,000 bodies remain under the rubble of buildings hit by Israeli air strikes.

And even with a halt in fighting, researchers point out that in addition to the number of people killed as a direct result of the war, many more could die from indirect causes, such as disease and hunger.

Ultimately when the war ends, efforts to recover bodies and trace the missing should allow a clearer idea to emerge of the number killed, including a figure for combatants. The UN and rights groups, as well as the Israeli military, can be expected to carry out their own investigations.

Satellite image analysis suggests that around 59.3% of buildings in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed since the beginning of the war.

The damage analysis, carried out by Corey Scher of City University of New York and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University, compares images to reveal sudden changes in the height or structure of buildings.

The southern city of Rafah has sustained the highest rise in damaged buildings since March, according to the expert analysis.

The majority of the destruction came after Israel launched an offensive on the city on 6 May. The military says that taking control of the area and eliminating the remaining Hamas battalions is crucial to achieving its war aims.

In satellite imagery analysed by BBC Verify, large swathes of the city can be seen to be left in ruins - particularly around the border with Egypt and neighbourhoods to the north and south.

Social media videos verified by the BBC and footage shared by Israel’s military shows that areas across Rafah have been damaged or destroyed by aerial bombardment as well as demolition by Israeli forces on the ground.

In the image below we see a large section of cleared buildings immediately adjacent to the border.

Satellite imagery shows land has been cleared along the so-called Philadelphi corridor – a buffer zone along the 14km (9-mile) border with Egypt.

BBC Verify’s analysis of the imagery showed Israeli military vehicles in several areas where building clearance had taken place along the corridor. This includes a small neighbourhood located where the border meets the coast which was flattened within a month of the Rafah operation starting.

On the ground footage filmed by an Israeli soldier also showed that an observation tower was later built in the area.

The operation has also destroyed key Rafah landmarks which includes the border crossing, several major mosques and the city's main market.

On 7 May, videos verified by the BBC showed Israeli tanks crushing a "Welcome to Gaza" sign at the Rafah border crossing.

Video posted on the same date also showed damage to the blue dome of the Abrar mosque. Satellite imagery captured subsequently showed the building was later destroyed.

In another social media video shared on 27 June, roads and green lawns that once centred around Rafah’s famous Al-Najma roundabout were now churned up, with nearby buildings heavily damaged.

The war began when thousands of Hamas fighters stormed into southern Israel on 7 October, killing about 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

BBC
 
BouncerGuy said:
More than 40,000 killed in Gaza, Hamas-run health ministry says

More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed as a result of Israeli military action in Gaza since the 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel, the Hamas-run health ministry says.

That number - 40,005 on Thursday - equates to about 1.7% of the 2.3 million population of the territory - another sobering indication of the human cost of the war.

Alongside the fatalities, satellite image analysis suggests nearly 60% of buildings in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed since the beginning of the war.

In the past few months, the southern city of Rafah has suffered the most damage, imagery shows.

The health ministry’s figures for the number of people killed do not differentiate between civilians and fighters.

However, its breakdown of identified reported fatalities says a majority are children, women or elderly people.

This month, Israel’s military told the BBC that more than 15,000 “terrorists” had been killed during the war.

International journalists, including the BBC, aren't able to report from Gaza to independently verify figures from either side.

In the past, figures from the Gaza Ministry of Health (MoH) were widely used in times of conflict and seen as reliable by the UN and international institutions.

It only counted deaths registered in hospitals with these entered in a centralised system along with names, identity numbers and other details.

However, by late last year the MoH was unable to function effectively with overflowing mortuaries, fighting in and around hospitals and poor internet and phone connectivity.

The Hamas Government Media Office (GMO) in Gaza began publishing numbers of deaths including reports given in “reliable media”.

UN agencies started to incorporate this into their data breakdowns as well as MoH figures when updates were available.

More recently, Gaza’s MoH has begun to incorporate those reported as killed in the war including by family members online in its overall tally.

However, it also counts separately the number of unidentified bodies among the total number killed.

The UN now quotes these figures, with officials attributing them and stressing that their Gaza teams cannot independently verify them due to the conditions on the ground and the high volume of fatalities.

Israel has consistently questioned the credibility of the information. In May, the Foreign Minister Israel Katz described it as “fake data from a terrorist organisation”.

Several experts have said the actual number of people killed as a direct result of the war in Gaza is likely to be far higher, with local officials estimating that about 10,000 bodies remain under the rubble of buildings hit by Israeli air strikes.

And even with a halt in fighting, researchers point out that in addition to the number of people killed as a direct result of the war, many more could die from indirect causes, such as disease and hunger.

Ultimately when the war ends, efforts to recover bodies and trace the missing should allow a clearer idea to emerge of the number killed, including a figure for combatants. The UN and rights groups, as well as the Israeli military, can be expected to carry out their own investigations.

Satellite image analysis suggests that around 59.3% of buildings in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed since the beginning of the war.

The damage analysis, carried out by Corey Scher of City University of New York and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University, compares images to reveal sudden changes in the height or structure of buildings.

The southern city of Rafah has sustained the highest rise in damaged buildings since March, according to the expert analysis.

The majority of the destruction came after Israel launched an offensive on the city on 6 May. The military says that taking control of the area and eliminating the remaining Hamas battalions is crucial to achieving its war aims.

In satellite imagery analysed by BBC Verify, large swathes of the city can be seen to be left in ruins - particularly around the border with Egypt and neighbourhoods to the north and south.

Social media videos verified by the BBC and footage shared by Israel’s military shows that areas across Rafah have been damaged or destroyed by aerial bombardment as well as demolition by Israeli forces on the ground.

In the image below we see a large section of cleared buildings immediately adjacent to the border.

Satellite imagery shows land has been cleared along the so-called Philadelphi corridor – a buffer zone along the 14km (9-mile) border with Egypt.

BBC Verify’s analysis of the imagery showed Israeli military vehicles in several areas where building clearance had taken place along the corridor. This includes a small neighbourhood located where the border meets the coast which was flattened within a month of the Rafah operation starting.

On the ground footage filmed by an Israeli soldier also showed that an observation tower was later built in the area.

The operation has also destroyed key Rafah landmarks which includes the border crossing, several major mosques and the city's main market.

On 7 May, videos verified by the BBC showed Israeli tanks crushing a "Welcome to Gaza" sign at the Rafah border crossing.

Video posted on the same date also showed damage to the blue dome of the Abrar mosque. Satellite imagery captured subsequently showed the building was later destroyed.

In another social media video shared on 27 June, roads and green lawns that once centred around Rafah’s famous Al-Najma roundabout were now churned up, with nearby buildings heavily damaged.

The war began when thousands of Hamas fighters stormed into southern Israel on 7 October, killing about 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

BBC
Click to expand...
So a question. You keep posting all these news articles and updates on the war. What is the solution you think Palestinians want? What should be the solution? Hamas a terrorist group says there should be no state of Israel at all. Israel is going nowhere. So how to solve the impasse? Is a 2 state solution still the best option in your opinion? Why dont they sit and talk and save civilian lives and work out a solution? Nobody wants to answer the tough questions.
 

New round of Gaza ceasefire talks begins in Qatar​


A new round of Gaza ceasefire talks was underway in the Qatari capital Doha on Thursday afternoon, an official briefed on the meeting told Reuters, with Israel’s spy chief joining his US and Egyptian counterparts and Qatar’s prime minister for the closed-door meeting.

The talks, an effort to end 10 months of fighting in the Palestinian enclave and bring 115 Israeli and foreign hostages home, were put together as Iran appeared on the point of retaliating against Israel following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31.

With US warships, submarines and warplanes dispatched to the region to defend Israel and deter potential attackers, Washington is hoping a ceasefire agreement in Gaza can defuse the risk of a full-out wider regional war.

Hamas officials, who have accused Israel of stalling, did not join Thursday’s talks. However mediators planned to consult with Hamas’ Doha-based negotiating team after the meeting, the official briefed on the talks told Reuters.

The White House on Thursday urged all sides to attend the talks in order to get a deal implemented, urging Israel and Hamas to compromise and saying progress is still possible in coming days.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby, in an interview on CNN, also said information shows Iran has not moved off its threat to attack Israel, including potentially through proxies. The US is watching the situation closely and is prepared, though “hopefully it doesn't come to that,” he said.

Israel’s delegation includes spy chief David Barnea, head of the domestic security service Ronen Bar, and the military’s hostages chief Nitzan Alon, defense officials said on Wednesday.

CIA Director Bill Burns and US Middle East envoy Brett McGurk represented Washington at the talks, convened by Qatari prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, with Egypt’s intelligence chief Abbas Kamel also in Doha.

Israel and Hamas have each blamed the other for failure to reach a deal but in the run-up to Thursday’s meeting, neither side appeared to rule out an agreement.

A source in the Israeli negotiating team said on Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has allowed significant leeway on a few of the substantial disputes.

Gaps include the presence of Israeli troops in Gaza, the sequencing of a hostage release and restrictions on access to northern Gaza.

In the lead-up to Thursday’s talks, Hamas, which rejects any US or Israeli intervention in shaping the “day after” the war in Gaza, told mediators that if Israel made a “serious” proposal that is in line with Hamas’ previous proposals the group would continue to engage in negotiations.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters on Thursday that the group is committed to the negotiation process and urged mediators to secure Israel’s commitment to a proposal Hamas agreed to in early July, which he said would end the war and required a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.

Even as negotiators arrived in Qatar, fighting continued in Gaza, with Israeli troops hitting targets in the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis.

After months of a war which has laid waste to Gaza, killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, and driven almost all of its 2.3 million population from their homes, there was a desperate desire for an end to the fighting.

“Enough is enough, we want to get back to our homes in Gaza City, every hour a family is getting killed or a house getting bombed,” said Aya, 30, sheltering with her family in Deir Al-Balah in the central part of the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands have sought refuge from the fighting.

“We are hopeful this time. Either it’s this time or never I am afraid,” she told Reuters via a chat app.

In Tel Aviv, families of some of the hostages protested outside the headquarters of Netanyahu’s Likud party.

“To the negotiating team - if a deal is not signed today or in the coming days at this summit, do not return to Israel. You have no reason to return to Israel without a deal,” said Yotam Cohen, whose brother Nimrod Cohen is a hostage in Gaza.

The hostages were taken in the Hamas raid on southern Israel on Oct. 7 in which the militants killed some 1,200 people, triggering the war in the Palestinian enclave.

In a statement Hamas issued late on Wednesday jointly with some smaller factions, it reaffirmed the outstanding demands the factions wanted a ceasefire agreement to achieve.

The group said negotiations “should examine mechanisms to implement what was agreed upon in the framework deal submitted by mediators that would achieve a comprehensive ceasefire, a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces, breaking the siege, opening crossings and reconstruction of Gaza as well as reaching a serious hostages/prisoners deal.”

Iran’s threat of a response to the killing of Haniyeh has added extra gravity to the talks. Three senior Iranian officials have said that only a ceasefire deal in Gaza would hold Iran back from direct retaliation against Israel.

But a possible escalation from the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement in southern Lebanon is also weighing on the outlook.

Following a missile strike that killed 12 youngsters in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on July 27, Israel assassinated Hezbollah’s senior military commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut, prompting vows of retaliation from the movement.


Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging regular fire for months but the exchanges have been kept within tacitly understood red lines that risk being erased if the conflict escalates.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement in Haniyeh’s killing. The US Navy has deployed warships and a submarine to the Middle East to bolster Israeli defenses.

 
Loss of life in Gaza ‘unimaginable’, aid group says

US-based humanitarian organisation Mercy Corps CEO says it is hard to “fully comprehend” the death toll from Israel’s war in Gaza, which has now crossed 40,000.

“These are not just numbers – each person killed was someone’s son, daughter, mother, father, or grandparent,” Tjada D’Oyen McKenna said in a statement.

“The scale of loss is unimaginable yet shows no sign of stopping while conflict, preventable hunger, malnutrition, disease, and illness continue to claim lives in Gaza every day. It is time for those with the power to end this carnage to take action.”

Source: Al Jazeera
 
Israeli settlers torch West Bank village

Dozens of Israeli settlers have set fire to houses and cars in a village in the occupied West Bank, with the Palestinian health ministry saying at least one person has been killed.

The settlers - some of them wearing masks - threw rocks and Molotov cocktails as they attacked the village of Jit, near the town of Nablus, on Thursday evening, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.

The Palestinian health ministry said a local villager in his early 20s was killed and another person critically injured in the chest. The IDF said it was examining the report of the fatality.

Israeli political leaders condemned the attack, pledging to punish the perpetrators. One Israeli national was detained in Jit, the IDF said.

Footage has emerged on social media purportedly showing houses and vehicles set ablaze in Jit late on Thursday.

Plumes of smoke are seen rising above the village.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement that "those responsible for any criminal act will be caught and prosecuted".

Israeli President Isaac Herzog wrote in a post on X: "This is an extreme minority that harms the law-abiding community of settlers and the settlement as a whole and in the name and status of Israel in the world during a particularly sensitive and difficult period.

"Law enforcement officials must act immediately" to bring those responsible to justice, Mr Herzog added.

In a statement, the IDF said its forces were deployed in the village "within minutes" of receiving reports of violence, shooting in the air to disperse the crowds. Attackers were then removed from Jit.

The IDF added that a joint investigation was launched by its forces, Israel's security agency Shin Bet and the Israeli police following the "serious incident".

The US said attacks by settlers were "unacceptable and must stop".

"Israeli authorities must take measures to protect all communities from harm, this includes intervening to stop such violence, and holding all perpetrators of such violence to account," a White House National Security Council spokesperson said.

Palestinians regularly accuse Israeli security forces of allowing groups of violent settlers to attack their villages.

According to OCHA - the UN office for Humanitarian Affairs - there have been more than 1,000 attacks by settlers against Palestinians since October, with at least 1,390 people - including 660 children - displaced.

Lethal violence has frequently accompanied the attacks. OCHA recorded 107 that led to Palestinian fatalities and injuries, 859 causing damage to Palestinian property.

International attention has been focused on the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip - but the scale of settler violence has prompted the US, the EU and the UK to impose sanctions on some settler leaders and, for the first time, against entire settler outposts.

BBC
 
Israel-Hamas war: 'Closer than we've ever been' to ceasefire deal, says Biden

A ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas is "closer than we've ever been", according to Joe Biden.

However, speaking at the White House, the US president cautioned an agreement was "not there yet".

Following two days of talks in Doha, Qatar, senior officials made positive noises about the direction of negotiations.

Negotiators are due to reconvene in Cairo, Egypt, next week to try and finalise the deal.

"I don't want to jinx anything... we may have something," Mr Biden told reporters in the White House's Oval Office.

He added: "But we're not there yet.

"It's much, much closer than it was three days ago. So, keep your fingers crossed."

Mr Biden has previously expressed optimism that an agreement could be reached, only for talks between the parties to break down.

A source with direct knowledge of the talks told Sky News they were "cautiously optimistic" an agreement could be reached.



news.sky.com

Israel-Hamas war: 'Closer than we've ever been' to ceasefire deal, says Biden

A source with direct knowledge of the ceasefire talks, which took place over two days in Qatar, told Sky News they were "cautiously optimistic" an agreement could be reached.
news.sky.com news.sky.com
 
Israeli army orders fresh evacuations in Gaza as fighting continues

The Israeli army ordered people in south and central Gaza areas it had previously designated humanitarian safe zones to leave on Friday, saying Hamas had used the areas to fire mortars and rockets at Israel.

Residents in Deir al-Balah, a last area still not entered by Israeli forces since the war began more than 10 months ago, said shelling had intensified and tanks had crossed a perimeter fence into the city.

Israel said warning flyers and text messages had been sent out in the eastern part of Deir al-Balah and another area north of the city of Khan Younis, where tens of thousands of people have sought shelter from fighting in other parts of Gaza.

“The advance warning to civilians is being issued in order to mitigate harm to the civilian population and to enable civilians to move away from the combat zone,” the military said in a statement.

Social media and Palestinian news footage, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed hundreds of families streaming out of Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis on donkey carts, rickshaws and other vehicles laden with salvaged belongings.

Commenting on the new evacuation order, UNRWA, the main UN agency in Gaza, said people “remain trapped in an endless nightmare of death and destruction on a staggering scale”.


www.brecorder.com

Israeli army orders fresh evacuations in Gaza as fighting continues

CAIRO/JERUSALEM: The Israeli army ordered people in south and central Gaza areas it had previously designated...
www.brecorder.com
 
Do not undermine Gaza ceasefire deal, warns Biden

US President Joe Biden has warned all sides involved in the negotiations for a possible Gaza ceasefire deal not to undermine efforts.

Biden declared that “we are closer than we’ve ever been” to a ceasefire following the latest round of negotiations, but a senior Hamas official expressed scepticism.

The president also announced he was sending Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Israel to continue the "intensive efforts to conclude this agreement".

His comments come following a joint statement by the US, Qatar and Egypt - stating that they had presented a proposal for a ceasefire and hostage release deal that “narrows the gaps” between Israel and Hamas.

Any sign of progress in the Qatar talks is regarded as essential by governments desperate to avoid the war in Gaza spiralling into an all-out regional conflict.

The mediators said that the past two days of ceasefire discussions had been “serious, constructive and conducted in a positive atmosphere”.

Technical teams are expected to continue working over the coming days on the details of how to implement the proposed terms before senior government officials meet again in Cairo, hoping to reach an agreement on the terms set out in Doha.

Mr Biden later said in a statement that he had spoken separately with the leaders of Qatar and Egypt, who had expressed "strong support" for the proposal.

He added that he was also sending Mr Blinken back to the Middle East to "reaffirm my iron-clad support for Israel’s security" and to "underscore that with the comprehensive ceasefire and hostage release deal now in sight, no one in the region should take actions to undermine this process".

While the mediators' statement is clearly a positive development, there is still a long way to go before a ceasefire is agreed.

Nevertheless, Mr Blinken told US reporters that he had become more optimistic than ever that a deal was in reach but said if he revealed why, he'd "give it away".

Asked when a potential ceasefire might start, he said "that remains to be seen".

This is not the first time the US president has said he thought a deal was close and not everyone shares his cautious optimism.

A senior figure from Hamas - which did not participate in the talks, but was in contact with Qatari and Egyptian officials - told the BBC: “What the movement’s leadership was informed of today regarding the results of the Doha ceasefire meetings does not include a commitment to implement what was agreed upon on 2 July.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, meanwhile, said he appreciated the efforts to “dissuade Hamas from its refusal on a deal that would release the hostages”.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 40,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

A deal agreed in November saw Hamas release 105 of the hostages in return for a week-long ceasefire and the freeing of some 240 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Israel says 111 hostages are still being held, 39 of whom are presumed dead.

The first phase of the deal outlined by President Biden, based on Israel’s 27 May proposal, would include a "full and complete ceasefire" lasting six weeks, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from all populated areas of Gaza, and the exchange of some of the hostages - including women, the elderly and the sick or wounded - for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

The second phase would involve the release of all other living hostages and a "permanent end to hostilities". The third would see the start of a major reconstruction plan for Gaza and the return of dead hostages' remains.

Meanwhile, Israel's military operation in Gaza continues, with new evacuation orders being made for several blocks in northern Khan Younis and Deir Balah - further shrinking the humanitarian zone.

Israel said the blocks had become dangerous for civilians “due to significant acts of terrorism" and the firing of rockets and mortars towards Israel.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) said: “Once again, fear spreads as families have nowhere to go. People remain trapped in an endless nightmare of death and destruction on a staggering scale.”

What is now making the need for a ceasefire deal even more urgent is the fact that the polio virus - which is spread through faecal matter - is now circulating inside the Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought refuge from the fighting.

"Let’s be clear: The ultimate vaccine for polio is peace and an immediate humanitarian ceasefire," UN Secretary General António Guterres said.

BBC
 
Gaza ceasefire talks to resume next week after no breakthrough in Doha

US, Qatar and Egypt issue optimistic statement that may also be aimed at stalling Iranian retaliation against Israel

The latest round of Gaza ceasefire talks have ended in Doha without a breakthrough, but a new date next week has been set for further negotiations to attempt to end the 10-month-old war.

A White House statement signed by the co-mediators Qatar and Egypt described a fresh proposal that built “on areas of agreement” and bridged remaining gaps in a manner that allowed for “a swift implementation of the deal”.

In another statement late on Friday, Joe Biden said the “bridging proposal” offered the basis for a final agreement on a ceasefire and hostage release deal, adding: “With the comprehensive ceasefire and hostage release deal now in sight, no one in the region should take actions to undermine this process.”

Though the two statements struck an optimistic tone, dozens of rounds of indirect talks between Hamas and Israel have failed to achieve a deal since a short-lived truce collapsed in December.

The hopeful language may also be aimed at further stalling Iranian retaliation against Israel after the assassination of the Hamas political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran last month.

There are widespread concerns that an attack on Israel by Iran could spark an intense regional conflict.

The US president, Joe Biden, said: “We’re not there yet,” but added that a Gaza ceasefire deal was “closer than three days ago”. However, a Hamas spokesperson accused Washington of trying to create a “false atmosphere” without any genuine intention of stopping the war.

The new push for an end to conflict came as the Palestinian death toll in Gaza climbed past 40,000, according to local health authorities.

Diplomatic pressure has mounted on Israel to make concessions when talks resume in Cairo next week.

Speaking in Tel Aviv on Friday after a meeting with his Israeli counterpart, Israel Katz, David Lammy, the UK foreign secretary, said Israeli officials told him they were hoping they were on the verge of reaching a deal.

“The time for a deal for those hostages to be returned, for aid to get in in the quantities that are necessary in Gaza and for the fighting to stop is now,” Lammy said.

Speaking alongside him, the French foreign minister, Stéphane Séjourné, said this was a key moment “because it could lead to peace or war”.

Katz said in a statement that Israel expected its allies not just to help it defend itself against an Iranian attack, but to join in attacking Iran afterwards.

The death of Haniyeh came hours after an Israeli strike killed Fuad Shukr, a top military commander in Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, which has exchanged near-daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces.

Hezbollah has promised to avenge the killing of Shukr and, in a clear message to Israel, on Friday released a video, with Hebrew and English subtitles, that appeared to show underground tunnels where trucks were transporting long-range missiles.

Israel’s military offensive in Gaza continued on Friday. Israeli forces issued evacuation orders to people in southern and central areas previously designated as “humanitarian safe zones”, saying Hamas had used the areas to fire mortars and rockets at Israel.

Israel said warning flyers and text messages had been sent out in the eastern part of Deir al-Balah and another area north of the city of Khan Younis, where tens of thousands of people have sought shelter from fighting in other parts of Gaza.

“The advance warning to civilians is being issued in order to mitigate harm to the civilian population and to enable civilians to move away from the combat zone,” the military said in a statement.

Aya, 28, said she had “felt fear, shock and confusion” after learning of the evacuation orders, but decided to flee Deir al-Balah when she heard the sounds of bombing close by.

“Things deteriorated quickly after rumours began to spread about the approach of tanks. Everyone started screaming from panic and we ended up escaping with our children, leaving our tent and most of our belongings behind,” she said.

Any sustained assault on Deir al-Balah could force tens of thousands of people to flee again to other parts of the devastated territory.

Commenting on the new evacuation order, Unrwa, the main UN agency in Gaza, said that people remained “trapped in an endless nightmare of death and destruction on a staggering scale”.

Expectations were low for this round of ceasefire talks, which began on Thursday. Hamas, which did not participate directly in the talks, has accused Israel of adding new demands to a previous proposal that had US and international support and to which the militant Islamist organisation had agreed in principle.

Both sides have agreed in principle to the plan Biden announced on 31 May, but Hamas has proposed amendments and Israel has suggested clarifications, leading each side to accuse the other of trying to undermine chances of a deal.

Hamas has rejected many of Israel’s demands, which include a lasting military presence along the border with Egypt and a line bisecting Gaza, where Israeli forces would search Palestinians returning to their homes to root out militants. Hamas has nonetheless said it is committed to the talks.

There are also disagreements over the sequencing of any ceasefire, whether it would mark a definitive end of hostilities and how many Palestinian prisoners would be released from Israeli jails in return for about 110 remaining hostages seized by Hamas in its shock raid into Israel in October last year. Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in that attack.

THE GUARDIAN
 
Qassam Brigades says it killed Israeli soldiers in Gaza City

The armed wing of Hamas says on Telegram that its fighters “detonated two antipersonnel devices in two enemy pockets and clashed with the remaining soldiers with machine guns”.

It also said the attacks left soldiers dead and wounded in the vicinity of the University College in the Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood, south of Gaza City in southern Gaza.

The statement added fighters saw the landing of a medical evacuation helicopter.

Al Jazeera
 

Gaza ceasefire progress is an illusion, says Hamas​


Hamas has described suggestions of progress on an Israel-Gaza ceasefire deal as an illusion, after US President Joe Biden said he was feeling "optimistic".

Following two days of US-backed talks in Qatar, President Biden said on Friday "we are closer than we have ever been".

However, a senior Hamas official told the BBC there had been no progress and mediators were "selling illusions".

Israel said it "appreciates the efforts of the US and the mediators to dissuade Hamas from its refusal to a hostage release deal".

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.

More than 40,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

A ceasefire deal agreed in November saw Hamas release 105 of the hostages in return for a week-long ceasefire and the freeing of some 240 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Israel says 111 hostages are still being held, 39 of whom are presumed dead.

In a recent joint statement, the US, Qatar and Egypt stated that they had presented a proposal for a ceasefire and hostage release deal that "narrows the gaps" between Israel and Hamas.

Israel has said any ceasefire deal would require the release of the remaining hostages. Some have already been released, while others are thought to have died in Gaza.

Relatives of hostages still in Gaza are calling the current negotiations as the "last chance" to get some of them out alive.

After 10 months of war and thousands of casualties, there is overwhelming pressure for a breakthrough.

A wider regional conflict, in the event of talks between Israel and Hamas collapsing completely, is a distinct possibility and is something all of those involved are fearful of.

The mediators said that the past two days of ceasefire discussions had been "serious, constructive and conducted in a positive atmosphere".

Technical teams are expected to continue working over the coming days on the details of how to implement the proposed terms before senior government officials meet again in Cairo, hoping to reach an agreement on the terms set out in Doha.

While the mediators' statement is clearly a positive development, there is still a long way to go before a ceasefire is agreed.

This is not the first time the Mr Biden has said he thought a deal was close - and not everyone shares his cautious optimism.

Neither Hamas nor the Israeli government have been quite so upbeat in their responses.

Israel says its position and core principles have remained unchanged and were "well-known". It accused Hamas of refusing to agree to a deal for the release of the hostages.

Above all else, Israelis want to see the remaining hostages released but many are sceptical that is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s primary goal. He has insisted that a "total victory" over Hamas is his government’s priority.

Meanwhile, Hamas’s new leader, Yaya Sinwar, continues to show few signs of compromise.

Asked about President Biden’s statement, the senior Hamas official told the BBC "what we have received from the mediators is very disappointing. There has been no progress".

Hamas is understood to have dropped its demand for a permanent ceasefire in favour of Mr Biden's proposal for a six-week pause in which an end to the war could be brokered.

Mr Biden's ceasefire proposal also included the withdrawal of Israeli forces from all populated areas of Gaza, the staggered release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, and the return of dead hostages' remains.

The "bridging proposal" put forward by US, Egyptian and Qatari negotiators will be the subject of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s negotiations in the region and should form the basis for the next talks in Cairo at which all parties, including Hamas, are expected to attend.

That proposal reportedly "closes the remaining gaps" between the two sides’ positions which could allow for “a rapid implementation of the agreement”.

It might sound straightforward, but there are big obstacles to overcome and there is still absolutely no trust between senior Israeli or Hamas figures.

They’re being dragged to the table - perhaps against their wishes - by others fearful of what could happen in the event of failure.

Hamas and its allies are convinced the US administration is trying to buy more time.

If Iran attacks Israel, it will appear as if it is Hamas which undermined the negotiations.

Hamas does not hide its desire for Iran and Hezbollah to attack Israel and for the escalation to turn into a regional war.

They believe a strong blow to Israel will weaken Mr Netanyahu and push him to accept a deal.

For his part, Mr Biden warned "no-one in the region should take actions to undermine this process".

Meanwhile, Israel's military operation in Gaza continues, with an air strike in the early hours of Saturday morning killing 15 people in the al-Zawaida neighbourhood of central Gaza, according to the Palestinian civil defence authority, a rescue service.

Spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP news agency nine children and three women were among the dead.

Israel has not commented directly. The Israel Defense Forces said on Saturday morning it had "eliminated a number of terrorists" in central Gaza, including one that had fired at Israeli forces operating in the area.

The Israeli military has issued new evacuation orders for several blocks in northern Khan Younis and Deir Balah - further shrinking the humanitarian zone in which thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought refuge from the fighting.

Israel said the blocks had become dangerous for civilians "due to significant acts of terrorism" and the firing of rockets and mortars towards Israel.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) said: "Once again, fear spreads as families have nowhere to go."

Pressing the need for a ceasefire deal is the circulation of the polio virus - which can spread through faecal matter - is now circulating inside the Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in Gaza.

"Let’s be clear: The ultimate vaccine for polio is peace and an immediate humanitarian ceasefire," UN Secretary General António Guterres said.

www.bbc.com

Israel-Gaza ceasefire progress is an illusion, says Hamas

US President Joe Biden had said a ceasefire was "closer than we have ever been" following talks in Qatar.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 
FearlessRoar said:

Gaza ceasefire progress is an illusion, says Hamas​


Hamas has described suggestions of progress on an Israel-Gaza ceasefire deal as an illusion, after US President Joe Biden said he was feeling "optimistic".

Following two days of US-backed talks in Qatar, President Biden said on Friday "we are closer than we have ever been".

However, a senior Hamas official told the BBC there had been no progress and mediators were "selling illusions".

Israel said it "appreciates the efforts of the US and the mediators to dissuade Hamas from its refusal to a hostage release deal".

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.

More than 40,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

A ceasefire deal agreed in November saw Hamas release 105 of the hostages in return for a week-long ceasefire and the freeing of some 240 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Israel says 111 hostages are still being held, 39 of whom are presumed dead.

In a recent joint statement, the US, Qatar and Egypt stated that they had presented a proposal for a ceasefire and hostage release deal that "narrows the gaps" between Israel and Hamas.

Israel has said any ceasefire deal would require the release of the remaining hostages. Some have already been released, while others are thought to have died in Gaza.

Relatives of hostages still in Gaza are calling the current negotiations as the "last chance" to get some of them out alive.

After 10 months of war and thousands of casualties, there is overwhelming pressure for a breakthrough.

A wider regional conflict, in the event of talks between Israel and Hamas collapsing completely, is a distinct possibility and is something all of those involved are fearful of.

The mediators said that the past two days of ceasefire discussions had been "serious, constructive and conducted in a positive atmosphere".

Technical teams are expected to continue working over the coming days on the details of how to implement the proposed terms before senior government officials meet again in Cairo, hoping to reach an agreement on the terms set out in Doha.

While the mediators' statement is clearly a positive development, there is still a long way to go before a ceasefire is agreed.

This is not the first time the Mr Biden has said he thought a deal was close - and not everyone shares his cautious optimism.

Neither Hamas nor the Israeli government have been quite so upbeat in their responses.

Israel says its position and core principles have remained unchanged and were "well-known". It accused Hamas of refusing to agree to a deal for the release of the hostages.

Above all else, Israelis want to see the remaining hostages released but many are sceptical that is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s primary goal. He has insisted that a "total victory" over Hamas is his government’s priority.

Meanwhile, Hamas’s new leader, Yaya Sinwar, continues to show few signs of compromise.

Asked about President Biden’s statement, the senior Hamas official told the BBC "what we have received from the mediators is very disappointing. There has been no progress".

Hamas is understood to have dropped its demand for a permanent ceasefire in favour of Mr Biden's proposal for a six-week pause in which an end to the war could be brokered.

Mr Biden's ceasefire proposal also included the withdrawal of Israeli forces from all populated areas of Gaza, the staggered release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, and the return of dead hostages' remains.

The "bridging proposal" put forward by US, Egyptian and Qatari negotiators will be the subject of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s negotiations in the region and should form the basis for the next talks in Cairo at which all parties, including Hamas, are expected to attend.

That proposal reportedly "closes the remaining gaps" between the two sides’ positions which could allow for “a rapid implementation of the agreement”.

It might sound straightforward, but there are big obstacles to overcome and there is still absolutely no trust between senior Israeli or Hamas figures.

They’re being dragged to the table - perhaps against their wishes - by others fearful of what could happen in the event of failure.

Hamas and its allies are convinced the US administration is trying to buy more time.

If Iran attacks Israel, it will appear as if it is Hamas which undermined the negotiations.

Hamas does not hide its desire for Iran and Hezbollah to attack Israel and for the escalation to turn into a regional war.

They believe a strong blow to Israel will weaken Mr Netanyahu and push him to accept a deal.

For his part, Mr Biden warned "no-one in the region should take actions to undermine this process".

Meanwhile, Israel's military operation in Gaza continues, with an air strike in the early hours of Saturday morning killing 15 people in the al-Zawaida neighbourhood of central Gaza, according to the Palestinian civil defence authority, a rescue service.

Spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP news agency nine children and three women were among the dead.

Israel has not commented directly. The Israel Defense Forces said on Saturday morning it had "eliminated a number of terrorists" in central Gaza, including one that had fired at Israeli forces operating in the area.

The Israeli military has issued new evacuation orders for several blocks in northern Khan Younis and Deir Balah - further shrinking the humanitarian zone in which thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought refuge from the fighting.

Israel said the blocks had become dangerous for civilians "due to significant acts of terrorism" and the firing of rockets and mortars towards Israel.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) said: "Once again, fear spreads as families have nowhere to go."

Pressing the need for a ceasefire deal is the circulation of the polio virus - which can spread through faecal matter - is now circulating inside the Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in Gaza.

"Let’s be clear: The ultimate vaccine for polio is peace and an immediate humanitarian ceasefire," UN Secretary General António Guterres said.

www.bbc.com

Israel-Gaza ceasefire progress is an illusion, says Hamas

US President Joe Biden had said a ceasefire was "closer than we have ever been" following talks in Qatar.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
Click to expand...

It was an illusion from day one.

Israel doesn't seem interested in a ceasefire. They are making excuses after excuses to prolong (or even escalate) the conflict.
 

Two Palestinians killed in Israeli attack on car in Jenin​


We now have more information on the Israeli attack in Jenin that we just reported on.

According to the Health Ministry, two men were killed when the Israeli drone struck a car in Jenin, north of the occupied West Bank.

The ministry said the two men’s bodies were taken to Jenin Governmental Hospital.

Source: Al Jazeera
 
Shame for Israel that even Narendra Modi has called for ceasefire now
====
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi put pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday to implement a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, Anadolu reports

Modi urged deescalating the situation in the Middle East during a telephone conversation with Netanyahu.

“We discussed the current situation in West Asia. Emphasized the need to de-escalate. Reiterated our call for an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and continued humanitarian assistance,” said the Indian prime minister.

India refers to the Middle East as West Asia.

Cease-fire negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, facilitated by Qatar, the US and Egypt, are ongoing in the Qatari capital.

Officials will meet again in Cairo before the end of next week, hoping to reach an agreement to end the war in Gaza, according to a joint statement by Egypt, Qatar and the US on Friday.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an attack last October by t Hamas.

Since then, an Israeli offensive against the enclave has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians.

Source: Middle East Monitor
 
Apartheid regime scripting her own demise
====
Az-Zawayda strike happened ‘just as ceasefire talks in Doha came to an end’, Despite the ceasefire talks, Israel has continued its attacks on Gaza

Recent strikes targeted the centre of the besieged strip, targeting family homes and buildings that housed displaced Palestinians.

Since dawn on Saturday, at least 34 people have been killed, including 15 of a family killed by an Israeli air strike on az-Zawayda.

“It’s a hideous massacre in every way,” Omar al-Dreemli, a relative of the victims, said. “They were all dismembered. There wasn’t a single complete body. What’s the reason behind it? We don’t know. Why were these civilians killed in this way?”

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir el-Balah, said much of the az-Zawayda town has been reduced to rubble… as has the majority of Gaza.

“This latest strike happened just as ceasefire talks in Doha came to an end, before resuming in Cairo next week,” said Mahmoud. “The US described the talks as promising.”

Source: Al Jazeera
 
Defense ministry expects 100,000 disabled IDF veterans by 2030, half to be related to mental health

A recent forecast by the rehabilitation division of Israel's Defense Ministry expects there to be 100,000 disabled IDF veterans by the year 2030, with half being related to mental health.

According to the data, since October 7 the rehabilitation division has seen 10,056 wounded individuals. The Defense Ministry is now discussing a strategy to absorb and treat those wounded in the war, on top of approximately 62,000 disabled IDF veterans already being treated by the division before the war.

Source: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news...button&utm_campaign=live_blog_item#1781008177.
 
Don’t much about him but nice to someone having the courage to speak so bluntly & truthfully . Must watch

 

Top US diplomat Blinken visiting Israel as Gaza truce efforts set to resume​


The United States’s top diplomat is visiting Israel as part of Washington’s efforts to secure a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza in which more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the besieged enclave since last October.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken was set to arrive in Israel on Sunday, days after the US put forward proposals that it and mediators Qatar and Egypt believe would close gaps between Israel and Hamas. Truce talks are expected to resume in Cairo in the coming days after two days of negotiations in Doha this week.

Mediators have said they presented a bridging ceasefire proposal to both sides and that negotiations were making progress, but they also cautioned that there is still work to be done.

In Israel, Blinken is expected to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials.

Israel’s negotiating team on Saturday expressed “cautious optimism” on the possibility of advancing a deal, according to a statement from Netanyahu’s office.

However, Hamas has called for a ceasefire plan outlined by Biden in late May to be implemented instead of something that introduces “new conditions” from Israel.

Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Al Jazeera that Netanyahu remains the main obstacle to a ceasefire and an exchange deal for the remaining captives and Palestinian prisoners.

“From day one, we said we will not accept a temporary arrangement, it was done in November 2023, and the Israelis undermined that,” Hamdan said.

“So we want a full arrangement … including a ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from all parts of Gaza,” he said.

www.aljazeera.com

Top US diplomat Blinken visiting Israel as Gaza truce efforts set to resume

US, Qatar, Egypt are mediating to secure ceasefire and captive swap as the death toll in Gaza rises to more than 40,000.
www.aljazeera.com www.aljazeera.com
 
Disrespect for Palestinian life disconcerting’: UN special rapporteur

Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, has criticised a recent White House statement which focused on Israel’s security as a reason to end the war on Gaza.

“40,000 ascertained casualties, yet the focus remains on Israel’s security, whatever that implies,” she wrote, demanding an immediate ceasefire.

“The disrespect for Palestinian life is disconcerting.”

Source: Al Jazeera
 
No justification for the UK’s continued arms sales to Israel, yet somehow it continues”.

The resignation came as the British government carries out a review of its export licensing rules for arms to Israel. David Lammy, now the foreign secretary, called in opposition for a “pause” in sales but since taking office has said he is looking at curbs on “offensive weapons in Gaza”.

Lammy’s review has been delayed because of the widening Middle East crisis and because of the legal difficulty in distinguishing between offensive and defensive weapons.

While that review goes on, lawyers have submitted claims to the high court in London of Palestinians being tortured, left untreated in hospital and unable to escape constant bombardment. The lawyers are seeking a court order blocking further arms sales because of what they say is a clear risk that the weapons would be used to commit breaches of international humanitarian law.

Weapons manufacturers seeking export licences to sell to Israel say they have been told that new licences have been suspended pending the review.

Smith, who says he previously led a government assessment of the legality of arms sales to different countries, said on Monday he had raised his concerns with the foreign secretary and at “pretty much every level of the organisation”.

Asked what response he had been given, he replied: “I resigned because of this issue, so you can put the pieces together. But suffice to say that any response was not satisfactory.”

Source: The Guardian
 
Blinken says Israel accepts Gaza proposal, urges Hamas to do same

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had accepted a "bridging proposal" presented by Washington to tackle disagreements blocking a ceasefire deal in Gaza, and urged Hamas to do the same.

Blinken spoke to journalists after a day of meetings with Israeli officials, including a 2-1/2-hour meeting with Netanyahu. The top U.S. diplomat had said earlier that this push was probably the best and possibly last opportunity for a deal.

Talks in Qatar seeking a ceasefire and hostage return agreement last week paused without a breakthrough, but were expected to resume this week based on the U.S. proposal to bridge the gaps between Israel and Hamas.

Blinken's visit comes as U.S. President Joe Biden, opens new tab faces mounting election-year pressure over his stance on the conflict, with his Democratic party starting its national convention on Monday amid pro-Palestinian protests and worries about Muslim and Arab American votes in swing states.

However, with the Palestinian Islamist group announcing a resumption of suicide bombing inside Israel after many years, and claiming responsibility for a blast in Tel Aviv on Sunday night, and medics saying Israeli military strikes killed at least 30 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Monday, there are few signs of conciliation on the ground and fears of wider war.

"In a very constructive meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu today, he confirmed to me that Israel accepts the bridging proposal - that he supports it," Blinken told reporters in Tel Aviv.


Reuters
 
Biden says Gaza protesters 'have a point' after thousands gather at DNC

Thousands of marchers took to the streets for a mostly peaceful protest near the Democratic National Convention (DNC) on its opening day, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to US support for Israel.

But several demonstrators were arrested when dozens of them broke through a security fence around the Chicago venue.

The turnout appeared to be well below the tens of thousands that organisers had hoped for and short of the 15,000 they claimed turned out.

Later in the evening, President Joe Biden acknowledged that the protesters "out on the street have a point" in his primetime convention farewell speech.

"A lot of innocent people are being killed, on both sides," he said, adding that a US-brokered ceasefire - which has so far proved elusive - was necessary.

Protests in Chicago have highlighted divisions among Democrats over one of the most contentious issues on the left of American politics, US support for Israel’s war in Gaza.

At one point during Monday's protest, a small group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators knocked down a fence around the convention security perimeter and streamed through.

Chicago Police said the protesters did not breach an inner security fence and that the situation was quickly contained. At least four people were detained.

Many of the Gaza war demonstrators said they saw little difference between Mr Biden and his Vice-President Kamala Harris, who is formally accepting the Democratic White House nomination this week after the president dropped out of the race last month and endorsed her.

“The Democratic Party may present a new face, but its support for Israeli repression remains unchanged,” said Omar Younes, a co-founder of Jisoor, a Palestinian youth organisation in Chicago.

Another protester, Tallis George Munro, said he would definitely vote for Ms Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, but did not want to give them a “free pass” on their support for Israel’s war in Gaza.

Mr Munro, from Cleveland, Ohio, said he was more worried about what he described as a "bigger threat" – the policies of Republican nominee Donald Trump.

"We are close to white Christian nationalism with Trump," he said. "That is the biggest problem in this country now."

Other protesters told the BBC they would vote for Green Party candidate Jill Stein, or they would not vote at all.

The rally-goers also heard from independent presidential candidate Cornel West, a philosophy professor and left-wing activist.

"This is not about some Machiavellian politics or some utilitarian calculation about an election," he told the crowd. "This is about morality."

After months of legal wrangling over the route, protesters followed a 1.1 mile (1.8km) path around the DNC site, chanting slogans including "No justice, no peace, US out of the Middle East" and "Kamala Harris is a cop, all this violence has to stop" – a reference to the vice-president's career as a prosecutor and California attorney general.

The demonstrators also chanted "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free".

This refers to the land between the River Jordan, bordering the occupied West Bank and Israel in the east, to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. Anti-semitism monitors say it calls for the destruction of Israel but pro-Palestinian groups deny the slogan is hateful.

Earlier in the day, a small contingent of pro-Israeli counter-protesters briefly rallied on the edge of Union Park, where the pro-Palestinian march began and ended.

The march drew people from neighbouring states and further afield. Karyna Lemus attended as a member of the Colorado Springs People’s Coalition.

She said she’s been involved in the Palestinian rights movement for decades.

“I hope they hear us inside,” she said of the DNC delegates.

Protests will continue for the rest of the week during the convention.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.

More than 40,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

BBC
 

Six hostages' bodies retrieved, Israel's military says​


The bodies of six hostages being held by Hamas have been retrieved from the Gaza Strip, Israel's military has said. A statement from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the bodies of Yagev Buchshtab, Alexander Dancyg, Avraham Munder, Yoram Metzger, Chaim Perry and British-Israeli Nadav Popplewell were recovered from the Khan Younis area on Monday.

Five of their deaths had already been announced by Israel, though it was thought Avraham Munder could still be alive.
The overnight recovery operation was carried out by the IDF alongside the security agency Shin Bet.

The six men had all been kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz and Kibbitz Nirim, near Israel’s border fence with Gaza, during Hamas's attacks on southern Israel on 7 October.

In a statement, the Hostage Families Forum said the recovery of the bodies had provided the families with "necessary closure", adding that the return of the remaining hostages from Gaza "can only be achieved through a negotiated deal".

In June, Israel confirmed the deaths of Mr Popplewell, 51, Mr Peri, 79, and Mr Metzger, 80. The IDF stated the three men had died during an Israeli operation in Khan Younis.

In July, the IDF also confirmed the deaths of Mr Buchshtab, 35, and Mr Dancyg, 76, stating an investigation was being carried out into the deaths . Israeli media reports citing military sources stated at the time that there was a “high probability” that at least one of the men was killed by Israeli fire.

Official Israeli estimates suggest there are 105 hostages remaining in Gaza, 71 of whom are thought to be alive. Four other hostages were already in Gaza prior to 7 October, two of whom are believed to be dead.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said in a statement the bodies were retrieved after a "complex operation", adding that Israel would keep working on “dismantling Hamas".

Israeli President Isaac Herzog "we send our heartfelt condolences and a warm embrace to the families"."We must not stop for a moment from working in every way possible to bring back all the hostages," he added.The Hostage Families Forum called on the Israeli government to "do everything in its power to finalize the deal currently on the table".
Negotiations over a long-sought-after ceasefire and hostage release deal are ongoing, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken currently on a tour of the Middle East to push for agreement.

Mr Blinken arrived in Egypt on Tuesday, where he will meet Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, and is expected to continue pushing for a deal.

On Monday, Mr Blinken said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to a US "bridging proposal" for a deal, after the pair met in Jerusalem. Mr Netanyahu described the discussion as "positive".

The IDF said on Monday that it had expanded its operation in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, and the outskirts of the central town of Deir al-Balah.

Five people were killed in an Israeli air strike on an internet distribution facility in western Khan Younis on Monday, according to local health officials.

A medical source also told AFP news agency that three people were killed in Abasan, east of the city.Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October by Hamas gunmen, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.

More than 40,173 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

Source: BBC
 
The insanity continues
====
Israel has killed 12 Palestinians in a strike on Mustafa Hafez School in Gaza City, the Civil Defence says, where “hundreds” of displaced people are sheltering

Hamas accused the US of shifting the terms of ongoing ceasefire negotiations and showing “blind bias” towards Israel, as top diplomat Blinken continues his trip to the region in Egypt.

The Israeli army says that it recovered the bodies of six people taken captive by Hamas from Khan Younis, as the families of the remaining captives demand the government reach a ceasefire deal.

Thousands of people took to the streets of Chicago to protest against the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza as the Democratic National Convention kicked off in the city.

At least 40,173 people have been killed and 92,857 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks on October 7 and more than 200 were taken captive.

Source: Al Jazeera
 
33 Palestinian prisoners from Gaza described severe abuse at the hands of Israeli guards at the infamous Ofner prison who have been released by Israel.

"I was detained by Israeli forces at the Karem Abu Salem [called Kerem Shalom by Israel] crossing. I was there helping with the delivery of humanitarian aid to our people. Then I was taken and interrogated; beaten up and humiliated," said a man who was held for 37 days.

Mohammed, one of the prisoners released in Khan Younis with handcuff marks seared into his skin, was asking to make a phone call because all he wanted was to tell his family he is alive.

Hubadeen Muqati, another freed Palestinian, told Al Jazeera he was detained for almost three months.

"I was tortured day and night. My ribs were broken, shoulders dislocated. We were subjected to all types of torture, beyond anybody’s imagination," he said.

"All detainees lost at least 90% of their physical capacity. I was blindfolded and handcuffed for 70 days in a row. All of us abused, humiliated and tortured."

The Israeli military, which regularly detains civilians in Gaza, periodically releases some back into the enclave. Many have reported being tortured and abused.


Al Jazeera
 
US criticises Israeli PM's 'maximalist' ceasefire stance

A senior US administration official has pushed back at reported comments by Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing the Israeli prime minister of making “maximalist statements” that are “not constructive to getting a ceasefire deal across the finish line”.

It comes in the midst of an intense round of regional diplomacy by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, as Washington tries to drive forward progress on a ceasefire and hostage release deal.

On Monday, Mr Blinken had talks lasting three hours with the Israeli leader in Jerusalem.

He later said Mr Netanyahu had accepted Washington’s so-called “bridging proposal” aimed at trying to solve sticking points and bring Israel and Hamas closer to a deal.

According to an Israeli media report, Mr Netanyahu later told a meeting of hostage families that he "convinced" Mr Blinken that the deal must see Israeli troops remaining in areas of Gaza he described as “strategic military and political assets”, including along the southern border with Egypt.

The reported comments appear to have irritated the US administration.

"We saw the prime minister's comments, specifically on some of these items," said the senior official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"We’re certainly not going to negotiate in public but what I can say is that the only thing Secretary Blinken and the United States are convinced of is the need for getting a ceasefire proposal across the finish line."

"We fully expect that… if Hamas were also to also accept this bridging proposal, discussions will continue on some of the more technical... details.

“I would also just add that maximalist statements like this are not constructive to getting a ceasefire deal across the finish line and they certainly risk the ability of implementing level, working level and technical talks to be able to move forward when both parties agree to a bridging proposal.”

The senior official’s remarks followed Tuesday’s round of talks between Mr Blinken and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in the coastal city of El-Alamein.

Egyptian officials are said to be strongly opposed to the idea of Israeli troops remaining along Egypt's border in Gaza.

Following his stop in Egypt, Mr Blinken travelled on to Qatar for further talks in Doha - the last stop on his Middle East tour.

The BBC has been travelling with the secretary of state and asked him about the conversation shortly before he left Doha.

He revealed for the first time that the American bridging proposal included a "detailed plan" about Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

"The agreement is very clear on the schedule and locations of IDF [Israel Defense Forces] withdrawals from Gaza and Israel has agreed to that," said Mr Blinken.

Asked by the BBC whether Mr Netanyahu's reported claim that the Israeli leader had "convinced" Mr Blinken to keep troops in Gaza, he said: "I can't speak to what he's quoted as saying, I can just speak to what I heard from him directly yesterday [Monday] when we spent three hours together," he said.

"[That included] Israel's endorsement of the bridging proposal and thus the detailed plan. And that plan among other things includes a very clear schedule and locations for withdrawals."

Asked whether the proposal was for a "full withdrawal", Mr Blinken said he would not comment on the details of the plan.

Hamas said the latest ceasefire proposals constituted "a coup" against what had been agreed upon in earlier negotiations, and reiterated its wish that a ceasefire plan for Gaza be based on where talks were in July rather than any new rounds of negotiations.

BBC
 
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