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

Netanyahu defies pressure over Palestinian state

Benjamin Netanyahu has again insisted Israel should retain security control over all the Palestinian territories.

The Israeli prime minister said this condition was "contrary" to a future Palestinian state being established.

His comments on Saturday defied pressure on his government from the US and others to commit to future Palestinian statehood.

Mr Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden discussed the future of the Palestinian territories in a call on Friday.

The Israeli PM's latest intervention appeared to deepen a public divide between his government and the US over future governance of Gaza and the West Bank when the Gaza conflict comes to an end.

The US believes a future Palestinian state alongside Israel - known as a "two-state solution" - is vital for long-term stability. But the White House acknowledged this week the US and Israeli governments "clearly see things differently".

Speaking to reporters after the two leaders held a call for the first time in almost a month, Mr Biden insisted a two-state solution was still possible with Mr Netanyahu in office.

"There are a number of types of two-state solutions. There's a number of countries that are members of the UN that... don't have their own militaries," he said.

But on Saturday Mr Netanyahu doubled down on his position, which he has held for much of his political career and repeated earlier this week.

A statement released by his office read: "In his conversation with President Biden, Prime Minister Netanyahu reiterated his policy that after Hamas is destroyed Israel must retain security control over Gaza to ensure that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel, a requirement that contradicts the demand for Palestinian sovereignty."

Also on Saturday, in a post on X - formerly Twitter - he said Israel must retain "security control over the entire area west of Jordan", an area which also encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank territory.

The comments will dampen hopes in some circles that the Gaza crisis could result in Israeli and Palestinian leaders restarting diplomatic negotiations and kickstarting the dormant peace process.

Mr Netanyahu's increasing isolation abroad comes amid growing unpopularity at home and protests over the fate of the estimated 130 hostages still being held inside Gaza by Hamas.

Hamas killed about 1,300 people - mostly civilians - and took 240 hostages in their surprise attack on southern Israel on 7 October.

Thousands of protesters, including relatives of those still missing, gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday, urging Mr Netanyahu to reach a truce to allow the hostages home.

Gil Dickmann, whose cousin was captured on 7 October, said: "Dear Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, we believe that you can bring them back. We believe in you.

"We know that you can sign this deal and bring about this victory to all the citizens of Israel. Just do it, Bibi. Just do it. Bring the hostages back home."

Israeli forces have continued to push into southern Gaza in search of top Hamas officials, who Israel believes are hiding in Khan Younis, the strip's second biggest city.

Locals have reported intense fighting in the area in recent days, including around the hospital. Israel says it raided a military compound and found underground explosives.

Officials from the Hamas-run health ministry said on Saturday 165 people had been killed in the territory in the past 24 hours, and the number killed overall since the conflict began was nearing 25,000.
​
www.bbc.com

Israel-Gaza: Netanyahu defies Biden over Palestinian state

The comments deepen a rift with the US which believes a two-state solution is vital for long-term stability.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 
BouncerGuy said:
Netanyahu defies pressure over Palestinian state

Benjamin Netanyahu has again insisted Israel should retain security control over all the Palestinian territories.

The Israeli prime minister said this condition was "contrary" to a future Palestinian state being established.

His comments on Saturday defied pressure on his government from the US and others to commit to future Palestinian statehood.

Mr Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden discussed the future of the Palestinian territories in a call on Friday.

The Israeli PM's latest intervention appeared to deepen a public divide between his government and the US over future governance of Gaza and the West Bank when the Gaza conflict comes to an end.

The US believes a future Palestinian state alongside Israel - known as a "two-state solution" - is vital for long-term stability. But the White House acknowledged this week the US and Israeli governments "clearly see things differently".

Speaking to reporters after the two leaders held a call for the first time in almost a month, Mr Biden insisted a two-state solution was still possible with Mr Netanyahu in office.

"There are a number of types of two-state solutions. There's a number of countries that are members of the UN that... don't have their own militaries," he said.

But on Saturday Mr Netanyahu doubled down on his position, which he has held for much of his political career and repeated earlier this week.

A statement released by his office read: "In his conversation with President Biden, Prime Minister Netanyahu reiterated his policy that after Hamas is destroyed Israel must retain security control over Gaza to ensure that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel, a requirement that contradicts the demand for Palestinian sovereignty."

Also on Saturday, in a post on X - formerly Twitter - he said Israel must retain "security control over the entire area west of Jordan", an area which also encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank territory.

The comments will dampen hopes in some circles that the Gaza crisis could result in Israeli and Palestinian leaders restarting diplomatic negotiations and kickstarting the dormant peace process.

Mr Netanyahu's increasing isolation abroad comes amid growing unpopularity at home and protests over the fate of the estimated 130 hostages still being held inside Gaza by Hamas.

Hamas killed about 1,300 people - mostly civilians - and took 240 hostages in their surprise attack on southern Israel on 7 October.

Thousands of protesters, including relatives of those still missing, gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday, urging Mr Netanyahu to reach a truce to allow the hostages home.

Gil Dickmann, whose cousin was captured on 7 October, said: "Dear Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, we believe that you can bring them back. We believe in you.

"We know that you can sign this deal and bring about this victory to all the citizens of Israel. Just do it, Bibi. Just do it. Bring the hostages back home."

Israeli forces have continued to push into southern Gaza in search of top Hamas officials, who Israel believes are hiding in Khan Younis, the strip's second biggest city.

Locals have reported intense fighting in the area in recent days, including around the hospital. Israel says it raided a military compound and found underground explosives.

Officials from the Hamas-run health ministry said on Saturday 165 people had been killed in the territory in the past 24 hours, and the number killed overall since the conflict began was nearing 25,000.
​
www.bbc.com

Israel-Gaza: Netanyahu defies Biden over Palestinian state

The comments deepen a rift with the US which believes a two-state solution is vital for long-term stability.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
Click to expand...
It doesn't matter what he says because a Palestinian state is destined to happen in future and Israel may not be around then
 

Israel has lost 195 soldiers since start of ground invasion. Real number is possibly much higher.
 
More than 25,000 people have now been killed in Gaza since Israel's offensive began, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

It said there had been 178 deaths in the last 24 hours, making it one of the deadliest days in the war so far.

As fighting continued, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again rejected creating a Palestinian state.

The White House has said the US and Israel "clearly see things differently" when it comes to a two-state solution.

Israel began its offensive following the 7 October attack in which Hamas fighters killed 1,300 people in southern Israel and took more than 240 hostage.

The air and ground operation - which Israel says is aimed at destroying Hamas - is currently focusing its offensive on southern Gaza, where it is convinced top Hamas commanders are holed up in, or beneath, the city of Khan Younis.

That is where the Israeli military said it had discovered another tunnel, some 830m (2,700ft) long and containing booby-traps and blast doors.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) footage showed what appeared to be a tunnel with mattresses and cells inside - it is where Israel believes around 20 Israeli hostages, including children, were held at various points. None were found when the tunnel was discovered, though.

Israeli soldiers have also faced renewed attacks in the north of the Gaza Strip, where Hamas is said to have seized an opening around the town of Jabalia as Israel moved troops and tanks south.

More than three months since the conflict erupted, Israel - whose army far outstrips Hamas' capabilities - is still facing significant resistance across Gaza.

US intelligence agencies reportedly estimate that the Israeli military has killed 20-30% of Hamas fighters, which falls far short of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's stated aim of "completely destroying" the armed group.

The classified report is also said to have found that Hamas still has enough munitions to continue striking Israel and Israeli forces for months, raising the spectre of a prolonged war in which Israel could get bogged down.

The apparent slow progress, the fact no top Hamas commander has yet been captured or killed, and the collective trauma over the 130 or so Israeli hostages still missing, is prompting growing anti-government anger in Israel.

Hamas killed about 1,300 people - mostly civilians - and took 240 others hostage in their surprise attack on southern Israel on 7 October.

Protests are continuing by relatives of those still held by Hamas, calling for Mr Netanyahu to prioritise their release over the potentially impossible aim of destroying Hamas. And a still relatively small anti-war movement is also demonstrating, horrified by the damage wrought on Gaza - one of the most intense and destructive military campaigns in recent history.

Most Israelis have rallied around their flag - but not around their prime minister, who, according to a recent poll, only 15% of the public believe should stay in office once the war ends.

How it does end is the subject of growing disagreement between Mr Netanyahu and Israel's western allies. After speaking to US President Joe Biden for the first time in almost a month, the Israeli prime minister reiterated his rejection of a future Palestinian state.

In a post on X - formerly Twitter - he said Israel must retain "security control over the entire area west of [River] Jordan", which also encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank territory.

Mr Netanyahu has been fiercely opposed to a Palestinian state throughout his political career. But by repeatedly asserting it now, an increasingly unpopular prime minister appears to be doubling down on a view that he feels chimes with the majority opinion in a nation too horrified by the attacks to countenance an independent Palestinian state.

His apparent fight for political survival is clashing with exasperated Israeli allies, who hope that the current bloodshed could force both sides into meaningful diplomacy over a sustainable two-state solution.

UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps told the BBC earlier that Mr Netanyahu's stance was "disappointing". The White House has said the US and Israel "clearly see things differently".

Antonio Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations, went further, calling the refusal to accept a Palestinian state "completely unacceptable". He added it "would indefinitely prolong a conflict that has become a major threat to global peace and security".

Source: BBC

www.bbc.com

More than 25,000 now killed in Gaza, Hamas-run health ministry says

The grim milestone comes as Israel presses its war in Gaza and rejects calls for a Palestinian state.
www.bbc.com
 
Israel approves plan to transfer Gaza tax funds to Norway

Taxes collected by Israel and bound for Gaza will be held in Norway, instead of being sent to the Palestinian Authority (PA), which exercises limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to a plan approved by Israeli officials.

“The frozen funds will not be transferred to the Palestinian Authority, but will remain in the hands of a third country,” said a statement released on Sunday by the Israeli prime minister’s office.

“The money or its consideration will not be transferred under any circumstances, except with the approval of the Minister of Finance of Israel, not even through a third party,” it said.

In line with a deal reached in the 1990s, Israel collects tax on behalf of the Palestinians and makes monthly transfers to the PA pending the approval of the Ministry of Finance.

While the PA was ousted from the strip in 2007, many of its public sector employees in the enclave kept their jobs and continued to be paid with transferred tax revenues.

But nearly a month after the October 7 attack – when Hamas fighters launched an unprecedented assault into southern Israel killing at least 1,139 people, according to an Al Jazeera tally based on Israeli statistics, and taking about 240 captives – Israeli authorities decided to withhold funds earmarked for the Gaza Strip.

In response to the money deduction, the PA refused to accept a partial transfer of money.

“Any deductions from our financial rights or any conditions imposed by Israel that prevent the PA from paying our people in the Gaza Strip are rejected by us,” said senior PA official Hussein al-Sheikh on X.

“We call on the international community to stop this behavior based on piracy and stealing the money of the Palestinian people and force Israel to transfer all of our money,” he added.

Nour Odeh, a political analyst based in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, said Israel was using its leverage over the tax revenues to “punish” and “weaken” the PA.

“It’s a way for Israel to assert how much control it has on everything, including the PA’s ability to function. It’s not clear if the PA would be willing to accept conditions, because it would be humiliating to walk back its pledge to not take the revenues with the deduction of Gaza’s share of it,” she told Al Jazeera.

“[WIthholding the revenues] will have a huge impact because those employed by the PA won’t receive their salaries at a time when many are starving due to Israel’s siege and war – people need that money to survive.”

Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir was the only member of the government to oppose the plan to send the funds to Norway.


www.aljazeera.com

Israel approves plan to transfer Gaza tax funds to Norway

Palestinian Authority official Hussein al-Sheikh says ‘any deductions from our financial rights’ would be rejected.
www.aljazeera.com www.aljazeera.com
 

Algeria: Israel’s depriving Palestinian people of their most basic rights a ‘disgrace to humanity’​

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has slammed the Israeli occupation’s violations of international humanitarian law and depriving the Palestinian people of their most basic rights, saying they are a “disgrace to all of humanity”.

The president reiterated his country’s full and unconditional solidarity with the Palestinian people until the establishment of their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.

He stressed “the close connection between the right to development and the people’s right to self-determination in accordance with the principles of international law and international legitimacy resolutions, which are the principles that the Global South has always defended.”

Last week, Tebboune highlighted the Israeli crimes committed against the Palestinians, saying: “The barbarism of the continuous attacks launched by the Zionist destruction machine on the occupied land of Palestine and the arrogance of the inhumane practices of the occupation soldiers against the defenceless Palestinian people, including women, children and infants, especially in the Gaza Strip, are the ugliest forms of terrorism and the ugliest manifestations of oppression and abuse, in full view of the entire world. They are a clear example of the international community’s failure to impose controls and restrictions that apply to everyone without selection or discrimination, as Israel flouts international legitimacy resolutions and refuses to submit to Security Council resolutions and respond to the peace option without being held accountable for that.”

Source : Middle East Monitor
 
Dozens reported killed as battle rages in Gaza's Khan Younis

Dozens of people are reported to have been killed in intense Israeli strikes on Khan Younis in the south Gaza Strip, as battles between soldiers and Hamas fighters rage on the ground.

Residents said tanks had surrounded a hospital and university where thousands of displaced people were sheltering.

Ambulances were also trapped and unable to reach the wounded.

Khan Younis has been a recent focus of Israeli forces, who are convinced top Hamas commanders are holed up there.

On Sunday, the Israeli military said it had found an underground compound in the city where it believed about 20 Israeli hostages had been held.

Meanwhile in Israel, a number of hostages' families on Monday interrupted a finance committee meeting at the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, to call for the government to do more to secure their release.

One relative shouted: "We won't let you breathe until our kids come back."

As the US, Qatar and Egypt try to mediate, Hamas has demanded that Israel ends the war and withdraws its forces before the hostages are released. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected such a deal, saying it would amount to a capitulation to "monsters" and mean soldiers had "fallen in vain".

Hamas gunmen took about 250 people hostage and killed 1,300 others when they carried out an unprecedented cross-border attack on southern Israel on 7 October, Israeli authorities say.

At least 25,295 people have been killed in Gaza since the Israeli military launched a large-scale air and ground campaign in response, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. More are believed dead under rubble.

On Sunday evening, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told hostages' families that troops were "engaging in a forceful operation in the Khan Younis area, and it will expand".

Overnight, Khan Younis was pounded by heavy Israeli bombing. Explosions were seen lighting up the sky and constant gunfire was heard in videos.

In the morning, Israeli tanks were reported to have advanced into western areas of Khan Younis and closed in on the city's two main hospitals.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said Israeli forces were besieging the area around al-Amal Hospital, which it runs, as well as its headquarters and nearby ambulance centre, and that it was deeply concerned about the safety of staff, patients and displaced civilians inside them.

"The area now is extremely dangerous. They are hearing strong bombing in the area," spokeswoman Nebal Farsakh told Al Jazeera TV. "Everyone who tries to move out or who goes out in the street is being targeted."

She added that PRCS ambulances were trapped and unable to respond to reach wounded people in the area, and that a telecommunications blackout meant staff were only able to contact each other via VHF radios.

Smoke was also seen rising and gunfire heard in the vicinity of Nasser Hospital, the largest medical facility still functioning in Gaza.

Palestinian media cited the hospital's surgical director as reporting that it had received 50 dead and more than 100 wounded since the night.

Gaza's health ministry said dozens had been killed or wounded west of Khan Younis on Monday, and that people had been forced to bury 40 bodies inside the grounds of Nasser Hospital because it was not safe outside.

A doctor in the emergency department told Reuters news agency that the hospital was overwhelmed by casualties and "on the brink of collapse".

"With the siege on the neighbourhoods close to Nasser [hospital], it is very difficult to deliver medical aid to the hospital, and it is very difficult to continue treating the patients," Ahmed Abu Mustafa said, adding that there were "no pain killers, no anaesthesia, or any medical resources".

A health ministry spokesman also told Reuters that Israeli troops had stormed the al-Khair Hospital in the al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the reports from the three hospitals. However, it has previously accused Hamas of operating inside and around medical facilities - a claim the group has denied.

Shelling was also reported around the Al-Aqsa University, in al-Mawasi, where thousands of displaced people are staying.

"We can't leave... it's dangerous and I fear for the little ones," Younis Abdel Razek, who was sheltering there with his family, told AFP news agency. "They said the al-Mawasi area was safe, but they lied."

The Israeli military has told civilians to move for their own safety to what it calls a "humanitarian zone" in al-Mawasi. The thin strip of mainly agricultural land runs along the Mediterranean coast, south-west of Khan Younis.

The UN estimates that 1.7 million people have been displaced by the past 15 weeks of fighting, many of them multiple times.

UN Secretary General António Guterres warned on Saturday that disease and hunger were "deepening" among them.

"People are dying not only from bombs and bullets, but from lack of food and clean water, hospitals without power and medicine, and gruelling journeys to ever-smaller slivers of land to escape the fighting," he said. "This must stop."

Source: BBC

www.bbc.com

Dozens reported killed as battle rages in Gaza's Khan Younis

Residents say Israeli forces have surrounded a hospital amid fierce fighting in the south Gaza city.
www.bbc.com
 
US calls on Israel to protect staff and patients as military reportedly storms Gaza hospital

The White House has called on Israel to protect innocent people as Palestinian officials said the Israeli military had stormed one hospital in Gaza and placed another under siege.

National security council spokesperson John Kirby said on Monday Israel had a right to defend itself but added: “We expect them to do so in accordance with international law and to protect innocent people in hospitals, medical staff and patients as well, as much as possible.”

Israeli troops advanced for the first time into Gaza’s al-Mawasi district near the Mediterranean coast, west of Khan Younis, the main city in the territory’s south, in what some Palestinians said was the bloodiest assault so far in January.

There, they stormed al-Khair hospital and were arresting medical staff, Gaza health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al Qidra told the news agency Reuters. The hospital is just inside the safe zone at Mawasi, where the Israeli military had said it would not carry out operations.

There was no word from Israel on the situation at the hospital, and the military spokesperson’s office had no comment.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said tanks had surrounded another Khan Younis hospital, al-Amal, headquarters of the rescue agency, which had lost contact with staff there.

“We are deeply worried about what is happening around our hospital,” said Tommaso Della Longa, spokesperson for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Qidra said at least 50 people were killed overnight in Khan Younis, while the sieges of medical facilities meant dozens of dead and wounded were beyond the reach of rescuers.

“The Israeli occupation is preventing ambulance vehicles from moving to recover bodies of martyrs and the wounded from western Khan Younis,” he said.

Volunteers with the Red Crescent also said strikes hit four schools west of Khan Younis – two of them inside the Mawasi “safe” zone – causing an unknown number of casualties. They said the organisation’s ambulances could not reach the sites.

Israel says Hamas fighters operate in and around hospitals, which Hamas and medical staff deny.

Elad Goren of COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry branch that coordinates with the Palestinians, added that: “A particular effort led by a dedicated team has been put on making sure civilians have access to medical care.”

Residents said the bombardment from air, land and sea was the most intense in southern Gaza since the war began in October.

Israel launched an offensive last week to capture Khan Younis, which it now says is the principal headquarters of the Hamas militants responsible for the 7 October attacks on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.

On Monday the Israeli military claimed it had found weapons, explosives and rockets and destroyed tunnel shafts and underground infrastructure in recent days in Khan Younis. It also said three Israeli soldiers were killed on Monday in southern Gaza.

The newest phase of the war has brought fighting deep into the last corners of the enclave packed with those fleeing bombardment. At least 25,295 Gazans have been killed since 7 October, Gaza health authorities said in an update on Monday.

Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents are now penned into Rafah just south of Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah just north of it, crammed into public buildings and camps of tents made from plastic sheets lashed to wooden frames.

“This is the seventh time I get displaced,” Mariam Abu-Haleeb told the Reuters news agency, as she sat in a car surrounded by her possessions.

“Where should I go? Should I go to Rafah? Rafah is like one street. What do they want from us?” said Ahmad Shurrab, who was fleeing Khan Younis with his family and said he had also been displaced multiple times.

Ahmad Abu-Shaweesh, a boy, described sheltering in the Al-Aqsa University only to find it coming under attack. “We hardly made it out … We didn’t expect the tanks at the university’s gates,” he said.

Gaza has had no communications or internet service for 10 days, hampering ambulance dispatches to areas targeted by Israel and preventing people from checking on one another and on the whereabouts of Israeli forces.

At Nasser hospital, the only major hospital still accessible in Khan Younis and the largest still functioning in Gaza, video and photos showed the trauma ward overwhelmed with wounded being treated on a floor splashed with blood.

Reuters reported that graves were being dug within the hospital grounds because it was not safe to venture out to the cemetery. Authorities said 40 people were buried there.

In Brussels, Palestinian Authority foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki told reporters the situation in Gaza was out of control and asked the European Union to call for a ceasefire.

“The health system has collapsed. There is no way for injured Palestinians to be treated in the Gaza Strip and they are not able to leave Gaza for treatment outside.”

Israel says it wants to annihilate Hamas. But Palestinians and some western military experts say that may be unachievable given the group’s diffuse structure and deep roots in Gaza, which it has ruled since 2007.

Although Israelis overwhelmingly support the war, a growing number say the government should do more to reach a deal to free Israeli hostages, even if that means reining in its offensive.

About 20 relatives of hostages stormed a parliamentary committee session in Jerusalem on Monday, demanding lawmakers do more to help free their loved ones.

Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a group of relatives there was no truth to reports of a deal to free hostages in a ceasefire.
​
www.theguardian.com

US calls on Israel to protect staff and patients as military reportedly storms Gaza hospital

Medical staff arrested at al-Khair hospital, Palestinian officials say, while al-Amal hospital surrounded by tanks
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
Israel says 24 soldiers killed in Gaza in deadliest day for IDF since war began

Israeli forces suffered their most deadly day since the start of the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza, with 24 Israeli soldiers killed, most of them in a single incident.

Reservist units were clearing houses in central Gaza on Monday when two buildings exploded and collapsed, killing 21 soldiers, according to the Israel Defense Forces. Three additional officers were reported killed during fierce fighting in the southern city of Khan Younis, bringing the IDF death toll during the ground operation to 219.

Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defence minister, said it was a “difficult and painful morning”, adding that “the fall of the soldiers compels us to achieve the goals of the fighting”. He also said: “This is a war that will determine the future of Israel for decades to come.”

Israeli forces had laid mines inside the buildings in central Gaza ahead of a planned demolition. The mines are thought to have been set off by a rocket-propelled grenade fired at a nearby tank, although the cause of the explosion was still being investigated, said Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the chief IDF spokesperson, on Tuesday.

Israel launched a punishing air and ground offensive in Gaza with the goal of destroying the Palestinian militant group in response to its surprise October 7 cross-border attack. At least 1,200 Israelis were killed in the assault and about 240 taken hostage, according to Israeli figures.

More than 25,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to health authorities in the Hamas-ruled territory. International aid groups have warned of an unfolding humanitarian disaster in the enclave, where Israeli forces have reduced large swaths of territory to rubble and an estimated 80 per cent of residents have been displaced from their homes.

More than three months into the campaign, the IDF is still labouring to dismantle Hamas as a fighting and governing force, with the group’s senior leadership still alive and more than 130 Israeli hostages in captivity.

A weeklong ceasefire in late November facilitated the release of more than 100 Israeli hostages, but diplomatic efforts towards a renewed agreement have stalled amid growing pressure on the Israeli government at home and abroad.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the possibility of halting the war despite growing pleas by relatives of the remaining hostages to secure their release “at any cost”.

Senior opposition lawmakers, influential media figures and even some members of Netanyahu’s war cabinet have indicated in recent weeks that the safe return of the hostages should take precedence over other war aims, including Hamas’s defeat.

“Contrary to what is being said, there is no genuine proposal by Hamas, this is not true,” Netanyahu told the hostages’ families in a meeting on Monday.

The prime minister said Hamas was demanding Israel end the war in Gaza, withdraw its forces, release members of the Nukhba unit that led the group’s October 7 attack on Israel and leave Hamas in power. “Were we to agree to this, our soldiers would have fallen in vain,” he said.

SOURCE: https://www.ft.com/content/e298e1e7...ft&token=2cc99163-99db-4b8d-b363-af3f9fb36e77​
 
BouncerGuy said:
Israel says 24 soldiers killed in Gaza in deadliest day for IDF since war began

Israeli forces suffered their most deadly day since the start of the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza, with 24 Israeli soldiers killed, most of them in a single incident.

Reservist units were clearing houses in central Gaza on Monday when two buildings exploded and collapsed, killing 21 soldiers, according to the Israel Defense Forces. Three additional officers were reported killed during fierce fighting in the southern city of Khan Younis, bringing the IDF death toll during the ground operation to 219.

Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defence minister, said it was a “difficult and painful morning”, adding that “the fall of the soldiers compels us to achieve the goals of the fighting”. He also said: “This is a war that will determine the future of Israel for decades to come.”

Israeli forces had laid mines inside the buildings in central Gaza ahead of a planned demolition. The mines are thought to have been set off by a rocket-propelled grenade fired at a nearby tank, although the cause of the explosion was still being investigated, said Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the chief IDF spokesperson, on Tuesday.

Israel launched a punishing air and ground offensive in Gaza with the goal of destroying the Palestinian militant group in response to its surprise October 7 cross-border attack. At least 1,200 Israelis were killed in the assault and about 240 taken hostage, according to Israeli figures.

More than 25,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to health authorities in the Hamas-ruled territory. International aid groups have warned of an unfolding humanitarian disaster in the enclave, where Israeli forces have reduced large swaths of territory to rubble and an estimated 80 per cent of residents have been displaced from their homes.

More than three months into the campaign, the IDF is still labouring to dismantle Hamas as a fighting and governing force, with the group’s senior leadership still alive and more than 130 Israeli hostages in captivity.

A weeklong ceasefire in late November facilitated the release of more than 100 Israeli hostages, but diplomatic efforts towards a renewed agreement have stalled amid growing pressure on the Israeli government at home and abroad.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the possibility of halting the war despite growing pleas by relatives of the remaining hostages to secure their release “at any cost”.

Senior opposition lawmakers, influential media figures and even some members of Netanyahu’s war cabinet have indicated in recent weeks that the safe return of the hostages should take precedence over other war aims, including Hamas’s defeat.

“Contrary to what is being said, there is no genuine proposal by Hamas, this is not true,” Netanyahu told the hostages’ families in a meeting on Monday.

The prime minister said Hamas was demanding Israel end the war in Gaza, withdraw its forces, release members of the Nukhba unit that led the group’s October 7 attack on Israel and leave Hamas in power. “Were we to agree to this, our soldiers would have fallen in vain,” he said.

SOURCE: https://www.ft.com/content/e298e1e7...ft&token=2cc99163-99db-4b8d-b363-af3f9fb36e77​
Click to expand...

Israel have now lost 210 soldiers since their Gaza ground invasion started (real number is possibly much higher).

 
BouncerGuy said:
Israel says 24 soldiers killed in Gaza in deadliest day for IDF since war began

Israeli forces suffered their most deadly day since the start of the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza, with 24 Israeli soldiers killed, most of them in a single incident.

Reservist units were clearing houses in central Gaza on Monday when two buildings exploded and collapsed, killing 21 soldiers, according to the Israel Defense Forces. Three additional officers were reported killed during fierce fighting in the southern city of Khan Younis, bringing the IDF death toll during the ground operation to 219.

Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defence minister, said it was a “difficult and painful morning”, adding that “the fall of the soldiers compels us to achieve the goals of the fighting”. He also said: “This is a war that will determine the future of Israel for decades to come.”

Israeli forces had laid mines inside the buildings in central Gaza ahead of a planned demolition. The mines are thought to have been set off by a rocket-propelled grenade fired at a nearby tank, although the cause of the explosion was still being investigated, said Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the chief IDF spokesperson, on Tuesday.

Israel launched a punishing air and ground offensive in Gaza with the goal of destroying the Palestinian militant group in response to its surprise October 7 cross-border attack. At least 1,200 Israelis were killed in the assault and about 240 taken hostage, according to Israeli figures.

More than 25,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to health authorities in the Hamas-ruled territory. International aid groups have warned of an unfolding humanitarian disaster in the enclave, where Israeli forces have reduced large swaths of territory to rubble and an estimated 80 per cent of residents have been displaced from their homes.

More than three months into the campaign, the IDF is still labouring to dismantle Hamas as a fighting and governing force, with the group’s senior leadership still alive and more than 130 Israeli hostages in captivity.

A weeklong ceasefire in late November facilitated the release of more than 100 Israeli hostages, but diplomatic efforts towards a renewed agreement have stalled amid growing pressure on the Israeli government at home and abroad.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the possibility of halting the war despite growing pleas by relatives of the remaining hostages to secure their release “at any cost”.

Senior opposition lawmakers, influential media figures and even some members of Netanyahu’s war cabinet have indicated in recent weeks that the safe return of the hostages should take precedence over other war aims, including Hamas’s defeat.

“Contrary to what is being said, there is no genuine proposal by Hamas, this is not true,” Netanyahu told the hostages’ families in a meeting on Monday.

The prime minister said Hamas was demanding Israel end the war in Gaza, withdraw its forces, release members of the Nukhba unit that led the group’s October 7 attack on Israel and leave Hamas in power. “Were we to agree to this, our soldiers would have fallen in vain,” he said.

SOURCE: https://www.ft.com/content/e298e1e7...ft&token=2cc99163-99db-4b8d-b363-af3f9fb36e77​
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You live by the sword...
 
Netanyahu: We’ll fight Hamas until ‘complete and absolute victory,’ as was the will of Israel’s fallen soldiers

Israel must continue fighting until it achieves a “complete and absolute” victory, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declares, asserting that this is the will of Israel’s war dead.

Appearing to address concerns regarding Israel’s war plans, Netanyahu tells legislators during a special Knesset session marking the 75th anniversary of the Israeli parliament that “we have defined the goals of the war and they exist and are tangible — to bring down the rule of Hamas and bring all our hostages home.”

“Today the best of our sons are buried in the soil of Israel,” he says, adding that “we will continue to strive with determination to defeat the cruel enemy and continue the national renaissance, thus fulfilling the wishes of our mighty sons, mighty in spirit and action. Their will could not be clearer.”

"Two months ago our commanders and soldiers took over the Hamas parliament in Gaza. A fictitious parliament. There are no free and democratic elections there,” Netanyahu continues.

“Even on this sad day, in our real parliament in Jerusalem we see a picture of victory. The founding day of the Knesset expresses the victory of our people, freedom, democracy and political sovereignty.

“There is and will never be any compromise on matters that concern guaranteeing our existence and our future for generations,” he continues, claiming that Hamas “deluded themselves” that Israel is weak and would break under attack.

“This is a war for our home. It must end with the eradication of the aggression and evil of the new Nazis. The one who attacked with rape and murder brought upon themselves unprecedented destruction with their own hands,” he says.

Source: Times of Israel

www.timesofisrael.com

Netanyahu: We’ll fight Hamas until ‘complete and absolute victory,’ as was the will of Israel’s fallen soldiers

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www.timesofisrael.com www.timesofisrael.com
 

Why is the US scared of Israel despite global condemnation of its support for the Zionist regime?​


The US government claims to be the champion of democracy and human rights, and is ever ready to highlight heinous acts of discrimination around the world. However, when it comes to calling out the crimes of Israel and bringing it to justice for its atrocities, Washington finds itself numb, dumb and lip-locked. Such duplicity is incomprehensible to many analysts, bearing in mind that Israel is totally dependent on the US not only for its military hardware and technology, but also for milking enormous amounts of financial aid to fund its budget deficit and war crimes.

Why, despite being reliant on the US, is the Israeli regime totally indifferent to US concerns? How can it feel empowered to tell the US to mind its own business and to ignore concerns regarding its large-scale slaughter of Palestinian civilians?

Pro-Israel lobby groups… basically buy the loyalty of US politicians

In answering such questions, we need to consider the fact that the US is not, in fact, a proper democracy; it is a plutocracy, a dollar democracy where candidates for political office rely heavily on campaign funding. It is here that pro-Israel lobby groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) come into play as major donors to campaigns which basically buy the loyalty of US politicians, who are thus compromised and easy to manipulate. Any US government proposal that AIPAC deems to be unfavourable to Israel stands little chance of becoming law. Or Israel is given special treatment to avoid the consequences of existing human rights laws concerning arms supplies, for example, as we have seen recently.

Moreover, the US has a large evangelical Christian voter base that drives politicians to throw their weight behind the wayward actions of Israel no matter how grave they are and how complicated the consequences might be. These Christians believe that the survival of Israel is vital for the second coming of Jesus and the Apocalypse. Their pressure on US politicians makes sure that they side with Israel; even the slightest empathy for the Palestinian cause is a no-go zone.

As the de facto government in Yemen imposed its own sanctions on Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians facing genocide in Gaza, and has targeted shipping in the Red Sea connected in some way to the occupation state, the US has put together an international naval coalition to attack Yemen, rather than seek to stop the genocide. The protection of Israeli trade rather than Palestinian lives is another glaring and despicable example of Washington’s submissive attitude towards Israel. The apparently default position of the US sacrificing its resources and personnel for the security of Israel is totally incomprehensible, bearing in mind that Israel has never sent its troops to protect US assets anywhere in the world. On the contrary, as far back as 1967, Israel attacked the USS Liberty off the Sinai coast of Egypt, killing 34 members of the crew and wounding 173 others. No action was taken against the occupation state, and survivors of the attack have maintained ever since that there has been a cover-up by successive US administrations.

Another great injustice on the part of the US has been its use of its veto at the UN Security Council to protect Israel from the condemnation of the global community. As former US President Richard Nixon said in his book Beyond Peace, Israel has no significant strategic value for US interests since the end of the Cold War, making US protection even more irrational.

In all of this, US politicians know that they can rely on a compliant pro-Israel media in America. We have seen journalists and news anchors parroting Israel’s “self-defence” narrative repeatedly. This in turn not only emboldens US politicians, but also Israel itself in its brutal military occupation of Palestine. Anyone who stands up against pro-Israel politicians will find themselves facing character assassination pieces in the mainstream media. The demonisation of Representatives Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others is a key example of this.

And look what happened to President George Bush Senior who, despite riding high in the popularity stakes after the 1990-1991 Gulf War against Iraq, failed to be re-elected. Why? Because he withheld loan guarantees from Israel due to its illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. The pro-Israel lobby rallied against him, which cost him a second term in the White House.

Another example of the cost of standing up against the Zionist state was the late US Senator Paul Findley, who served from 1960 to 1981. His anti-Israel stance eventually cost him his position, as noted in his book They Dare To Speak Out.

The issue at stake is the freedom of US politicians to exercise their role responsibly with a clear conscience, and withdraw their blanket support from Israel and hold it to account for its occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestine. The US has the leverage to do this, with its military aid and diplomatic cover at the UN for Israel. It is time for American politicians to grasp the Zionist nettle and, no doubt, save many lives in wars in the Middle East that threaten the whole world. If they do this, then “Genocide Joe” aka “Butcher Biden” will have a more honourable legacy than aiding and abetting the mass murder of Palestinians, children and women especially. The same is true for politicians in the UK, Europe and elsewhere.

The world remembers and honours individuals like Nelson Mandela much more than the US presidents who have supported a state which was founded on terrorism and has killed and oppressed the Palestinians for more than 75 years. This unquestioned support for the apartheid state of Israel has not only cost the US billions of dollars, but also international goodwill. It’s time to ditch parasitic Israel, before it kills off completely the ideals and foundations upon which the US was built.

Source: Middlle East Monitor
www.middleeastmonitor.com

Why is the US scared of Israel despite global condemnation of its support for the Zionist regime?

The US government claims to be the champion of democracy and human rights, and is ever ready to highlight heinous acts of discrimination around the world. However, when it comes...
www.middleeastmonitor.com www.middleeastmonitor.com
 
Israel planning 'permanent army stations' in Gaza

Israel’s military has drafted plans to establish permanent outposts in Gaza, an Israeli officer has told Middle East Eye.

News of the plans comes despite international pressure on Israel to accept a two-state solution with the Palestinians and withdraw its army from the coastal enclave.

Earlier this month, the Israeli army announced that it would move into a “low intensity” phase of its war with the Palestinian group Hamas, in which heavy bombardments of Gaza would be replaced by targeted special operations.

There have been no signs of this materialising on the ground, though, with the military continuing its heavy shelling both in northern Gaza and areas around Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, where intense clashes are ongoing.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said quite openly that the Israeli army will continue its operations in Gaza until Hamas is destroyed in the area and that, "in the future, the state of Israel has to control the entire area from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea.”

Both Israeli and US intelligence assessments have indicated that Hamas is far from being eradicated, and Netanyahu’s determination to “bring complete victory” has put him at odds with many inside Israel, including fellow war cabinet member Gadi Eisenkot, who has said that the “absolute defeat” of the armed group is not a realistic objective.

The Israeli military officer, who asked MEE not to report his rank and name, said that Netanyahu and his government associates had already asked the army to establish permanent bases in the Gaza Strip, excluding the possibility of any post-war Palestinian administration in the enclave.

The officer said the order to build up the military installations was given verbally.

“We have received orders to determine the locations of permanent army stations within Gaza,” he said. “The defence ministry and the army informally assigned a small number of officers for this purpose.”

The officer added that the worst-case scenario imagined by Netanyahu and his allies is to turn Gaza into the occupied West Bank, where the Israeli army has a free hand to do whatever it wants, from raiding houses to arresting Palestinians without a warrant or a court order.

“Netanyahu and his far-right war cabinet are not planning to withdraw from Gaza,” the officer said. He added that the prime minister is looking for ways and models to ease the international pressure over the army operations in Gaza by scaling down its presence while still maintaining it.

“This model is a more militarised version of the West Bank,” the officer said. “I have served in the West Bank. Gaza will not be like that place, there will be more frequent military stations and more soldiers.”

The Israeli army had not responded to Middle East Eye’s request for comment by the time of publication.

Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported yesterday that "thousands of dunams of Gazan territory will remain under Israeli control after the war".

Israel’s bombing campaign and ground operations following the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel have now left more than 25,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, dead.

There is an ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, with more than 60,000 Palestinians wounded, disease rife and available drinking water scarce.

Responding to pressure from EU diplomats to end the war and take steps towards a two-state solution with the Palestinians, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz floated the idea of an artificial island off the coast of Gaza, which Israel would control to monitor aid into the coastal enclave.

“I think that the minister could have made better use of his time and focus on the security of his country, bearing in mind the high number of deaths in Gaza,” Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, told reporters after the presentation of the plan, which included a video.

Source: Middle East Eye

www.middleeasteye.net

Israel planning 'permanent army stations' in Gaza

An Israeli army officer has told MEE that 'Netanyahu and his far-right war cabinet are not planning to withdraw from Gaza'
www.middleeasteye.net www.middleeasteye.net
 
I guess this is something Israel has been saying from the start of the war, and this action will perpetuate the situation into a forever war.
 
FearlessRoar said:
I guess this is something Israel has been saying from the start of the war, and this action will perpetuate the situation into a forever war.
Click to expand...

I think it was their goal from the very beginning. Look up "Greater Israel Project".

I expect them to annex Gaza and West Bank and then may try to do the same in Jordan, Syria etc. (using various excuses).

They have already taken land from Syria (Golan Heights).
 
Cricket Warrior said:
This clearly shows that Israel's intentions are solely focused on genocide.


[
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What we are witnessing is the full manifestation of evil on the Earth.

They knew he was being interviewed, they knew he was waving a white flag, they knew he was a civlian leaving but they killed him to show the world, they do not care.
 
If people think Zio*ism wont bother them due to their location, they need to understand what is at play here.

Their aim is to bring their Messiah, for this a huge world war must take place.

Must watch.

 
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Khan Younis: UN says nine killed at Gaza shelter as fighting rages

At least nine people were killed and 75 injured when a UN facility sheltering civilians was struck in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, the UN's Palestinian refugee agency says.

UNRWA said two tank shells hit its Khan Younis Training Centre during fighting in the city's western outskirts.

Its commissioner condemned the "blatant disregard of basic rules of war".

Israel's military said it had ruled out that the incident was the result of an air or artillery strike by its forces.

It added that it was reviewing Israeli operations nearby and examining the possibility that it was "Hamas fire".

Israeli troops have been battling Hamas fighters as they advance into western Khan Younis, a day after the military said it had completely encircled the city.

Clashes and bombardment around the city's two main hospitals have also left thousands of patients, staff and others unable to leave.

The conflict was triggered by an unprecedented cross-border attack by Hamas gunmen on southern Israel on 7 October, in which about 1,300 people were killed and about 250 others taken hostage.

More than 25,700 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

An estimated 1.7 million people - nearly three-quarters of the population - have also been displaced by the past 12 weeks of fighting and many of them are sheltering inside UN facilities or near them.

The Khan Younis Training Centre is one of the largest UNRWA shelters, with between 30,000 and 40,000 people said to be living inside its grounds.

UNRWA says the compound is clearly marked, that its co-ordinates have been shared with Israeli authorities, and that it and the civilians inside must be protected under international law.

However, at least six displaced people were killed and many more injured when the training centre was struck on Monday during intense fighting in the surrounding area, according to the agency.

UNRWA's Gaza director, Thomas White, told the BBC from the nearby town of Rafah that on Wednesday afternoon a building housing 800 people who had fled northern Gaza was hit by two tank rounds.

"We've got a team on the ground there now with the shelter management team. At this stage, it looks like there are nine fatalities and over 75 people injured," he said.

"Of course, the challenge now is to try to get medical care for those people in a situation where effectively the major hospitals in Gaza are operating at very limited capacity."

Mr White said UNRWA officials had been in constant contact with Israeli officers and that they had been given assurances that such facilities were safe.

"So, despite all of that co-ordination, the reality is that the Israeli army has not been meeting its obligations to protect civilians, to show due precaution when operating in areas where there are civilians."

In response to UNRWA's reports, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said: "After an examination of our operational systems, the IDF has currently ruled out that this incident is a result of an aerial or artillery strike by the IDF."

"A thorough review of the operations of the forces in the vicinity is under way," it added. "The IDF is also examining the possibility that the strike was a result of Hamas fire."

Vedant Patel of the US state department repeated Washington's calls for the protection of civilians in Gaza.

"We deplore today's attack on the UN's Khan Younis training centre," she said, and called it "incredibly concerning".

Earlier, the IDF said its troops had "launched a divisional manoeuvre on West Khan Younis" that was targeting Hamas "outposts, infrastructure, and command and control centres".

"Dismantling Hamas' military framework in western Khan Yunis is the heart of the logic behind the operation," it added.

The IDF also said that Hamas "exploits the civilian population, exploits shelters and hospitals" - something the group has denied.

Gaza's health ministry meanwhile accused the IDF of "isolating hospitals in Khan Younis and carrying out massacres in the western area of the city".

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said the al-Amal Hospital, which it runs, and its local headquarters were under "siege" by Israeli forces, trapping patients, wounded people and an estimated 13,000 displaced people.

The organisation alleged that three displaced people were killed after being targeted at the entrance to the headquarters on Wednesday morning.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned on Tuesday night that its staff inside the nearby Nasser Medical Complex - the largest hospital still partly functioning in Gaza - had reported bombing and heavy gunfire nearby.

"They are currently unable to evacuate along with the thousands of people in the hospital, including 850 patients, due to roads to and from the building being either inaccessible or too dangerous."

The IDF has issued evacuation orders for western parts of Khan Younis, including those where Nasser and al-Amal are located. The UN estimates there are about 88,000 residents and 425,000 displaced people in the area.

Mr White told the BBC that tens of thousands more people were now on the move, heading south to Rafah, on the border with Egypt, where as many as 1.4 million are already sheltering.

In another incident in Khan Younis on Tuesday, a cameraman for the UK's ITV News filmed a Palestinian civilian being shot dead on a main road about 1.7km (1 mile) south of the UNRWA shelter.

Five men are seen walking towards the combat zone holding a white flag, before there is a burst of gunfire and one of them falls to the ground. It was not clear who opened fire.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was asked in the Parliament on Wednesday whether such pictures would prompt him to push for a ceasefire in Gaza.

He replied: "No-one wants to see this conflict go on for a moment longer than is necessary and we do want to see an immediate and sustained humanitarian pause."

Efforts involving several countries to try to reach a ceasefire are ongoing, with one plan said to include a month-long truce and phased release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.

But both Israel and Hamas appear to have rejected proposals, and hopes of any progress have been dampened.

Egypt's President, Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, meanwhile accused Israel of deliberately holding up aid deliveries at the Egyptian-controlled Rafah border crossing as "a form of pressure on the Gaza Strip and its people over the conflict and the release of hostages".

However, an Israeli defence ministry agency co-ordinating the deliveries with Egypt and the UN rejected the claim, insisting that "there is no limit to the amount of aid that can enter Gaza".

SOURCE: BBC
 
Qatar has said it is "appalled" by remarks attributed to Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he apparently called its role as a mediator in the Gaza war "problematic".

Israeli TV broadcast what it said was a recording of Mr Netanyahu telling the families of hostages held by Hamas that "you don't hear me thanking Qatar".

"They have leverage... because they finance [Hamas]," he reportedly adds.

Qatar said the comments, if true, were "irresponsible" but "not surprising".

The tiny Gulf emirate has had high-level contacts with Israel since the 1990s, but they have never officially established diplomatic relations.

Qatar has long championed the Palestinian cause and hosts political leaders of Hamas, which is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the UK, the US and other countries.

It is has also provided hundreds of millions of dollars of aid for Gaza, which has been subject to a crippling blockade by Israel and Egypt since 2006, when Hamas won legislative elections. The blockade was tightened the following year when Hamas reinforced its power in Gaza by violently ousting Palestinian Authority (PA) forces.

Since 2018, Israeli governments have allowed Qatar to pay the wages of tens of thousands of civil servants in Gaza's Hamas-run government, financially support the poorest families, and fund fuel deliveries for the territory's sole power plant. Qatar insists the funding was only for civilian and humanitarian purposes.

Source: BBC News
 
More than 70 delegates voiced serious concerns about the ongoing humanitarian “catastrophe” as the conflict in Gaza approaches its fourth month.

Council members alongside the wider UN membership on Tuesday established the major theme of the debate: urging Israel to accept a two-State solution or risk a perpetual war which is an increasing threat global stability.

The Palestinian people’s right to build their own fully independent State must be “recognized by all”, and any refusal to accept the two-State solution by any party must be “firmly rejected”, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said at the outset of that meeting.

“The two-State solution is the only way to address the legitimate aspirations of both Israelis and Palestinians,” he told the Council.


Some of Tuesday’s speakers called for the Council to overcome its veto-led impasse and stop the bloodshed and “humanitarian disaster” in Gaza.

The 15-member organ tasked with ensuring international peace and security must also hold Israel more accountable for an ongoing “genocide” against Palestinians, some speakers insisted.

Ambassador Sidi Mohamed Laghdaf of Mauritania addresses the Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question.

UN Photo/Evan Schneider Ambassador Sidi Mohamed Laghdaf of Mauritania addresses the Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question.
Mauritania’s Ambassador Sidi Mohamed Laghaf, speaking on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), said the deliberate killing of civilians was indicative of the intent to commit genocide. Raising a range of concerns, he pointed to the mass destruction of civilian infrastructure such as hospitals and rejected any efforts to forcibly displace Palestinians, which in itself “amounts to a war crime”.

Israel’s denial of essential supplies is already exacerbating a humanitarian catastrophe, and a swift intervention is needed, he said. Indeed, the international community must immediately put an end of all these crimes and hold perpetrators accountable, including for the mass detention of Palestinians, in line with international humanitarian law.

“The Council must do more to enforce its own resolutions, prevent further crimes of aggressions and acts that amount to genocide and ensure Israeli respect for and compliance with international law,” he said, calling for action to end the war, provide international protection of Palestinians and ensure the creation of a humanitarian corridor.

The only way forward is through a two-State solution, he stated.

There is a need for ‘real diplomacy’: Brazil. Ambassador Sérgio França Danese of Brazil addresses the Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question.

Brazilian Ambassador Sérgio França Danese underlined the need “for real diplomacy and true political will” that enables effective multilateral action to end the conflict and forge a path to revive the two-State solution.

“Now, we are witnessing the cruellest war, one that seriously threatens the prospect of a peaceful co-existence between Israelis and Palestinians,” he said, calling for “an immediate ceasefire in Gaza before there is nothing left to be saved”.

What is urgently needed are the provisional measures requested by South Africa to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), with the aim of preventing the risk of genocide by requiring the immediate ceasefire, but that does not tackle the root causes of the conflict, he said.

Help end the war now: Iraq
Deputy Permanent Representative of Iraq, Abbas Kadhom Obaid Al-Fatlawi, said the siege and collective punishment of Palestinians continues, and the Council has failed to act, leading to a “humanitarian disaster”.

Israel has been ignoring calls for a ceasefire, even though UN Member States have adopted two resolutions at Emergency Special Sessions to stop the aggression.

The latest developments in the Occupied Palestinian Territory will have serious consequences in the region, he continued, warning that the conflict will spread beyond the borders if ongoing practices persist and the Council fails to shoulder its responsibilities.

“Expanding the conflict will not provide a solution,” he said. “The solution lies in the Security Council adopting a resolution to stop this war.”

Syria rejects bid to make ‘executioners into victims’. Alhakam Dandy, Deputy Permanent Representative of Syria, addresses the Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question.

UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe Alhakam Dandy, Deputy Permanent Representative of Syria, addresses the Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question.
Recalling the devastation in Gaza, Syria’s Ambassador, Alhakam Dandy, said Israel is using prohibited weapons, including phosphorous, and is committing crimes against humanity and crimes of genocide.

Some countries are attempting to legitimize Israel’s actions, "making executioners into victims" in the name of self defence.

Israel must be held accountable, he said, calling on the Council to adopt effective and immediate measures to end Israeli attacks and to halt impunity.

Expressing support for South Africa’s related case at the ICJ, where provisional measures are expected to be made public this Friday, he said heinous violations also have been perpetrated against Syria.

Source: UN news
 

The latest on Israel's war in Gaza​

At least 20 people were killed and dozens injured after shelling struck an area near Gaza City where people were awaiting aid delivery, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.

The director of the CIA is expected to meet in coming days with Israeli, Egyptian and Qatari negotiators to discuss a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas, according to a US official.

The UN says a dozen people have been killed after one of its shelters was shelled in Khan Younis, a focal point of fighting in southern Gaza.

Source: CNN
 
Gaza Health Ministry: 20 Palestinians Killed in Strike on Food Aid Queue

An Israeli strike on Gaza City killed 20 Palestinians and wounded 150 who were queuing for food aid on Thursday, Jan. 25, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said, in what a Palestinian coalition called a "war crime."

The Israeli military said it was looking into the report. The National and Islamic Forces Follow-up Committee, a coalition of militant and political groups, said Israeli forces targeted the civilians waiting for relief aid. Dozens were killed and injured in a "war crime and genocide," the group said in a statement.

Also in central Gaza, Palestinian health officials said an Israeli air strike at nightfall on a house in Al-Nusseirat refugee camp killed six people.

In the south of the enclave, Israeli tanks battered areas around two hospitals in Gaza's main southern city Khan Younis, forcing displaced people into a new desperate scramble for safety, residents said.

Meanwhile, in the north, a World Health Organization official described the food situation as "absolutely horrific" and humanitarian workers said rare deliveries of aid were mobbed by desperate people who were visibly starving with sunken eyes.

Most of the Gaza Strip's 2.3 million population is now squeezed into Khan Younis and towns just north and south of it, after being driven out of Gaza's northern half earlier in Israel's military campaign, now in its fourth month.

Gaza health officials said at least 50 Palestinians had been killed in the past 24 hours in Khan Younis, where Israel has shifted full-blown military operations after starting to pull forces out of northern areas it says it now largely controls.

"There's no safe area, where shall we go? Stop the war, it is enough,' a Palestinian woman said in Rafah, on Gaza's southern edge.

In its latest update, the Israeli military said forces in Khan Younis were fighting militants at close quarters and were using precision air strikes and snipers to take out multiple Hamas targets.

Palestinian medics said Israeli tanks had cut off and were shelling targets around the city's two main still-functioning hospitals, Nasser and Al-Amal, trapping medical teams, patients, and displaced people huddled inside or nearby.

Israel says Hamas militants use hospital premises as cover for bases, something the Islamist group and medical staff deny.

Two U.S. officials told Reuters that the U.S. has created a channel with Israel to discuss concerns over civilian casualties of the Israeli military in Gaza.

Through the channel, which has been active for the last few weeks, Washington raises with the Israelis "every specific incident of concern", a U.S. official said. The Israelis investigate and provide feedback to the Americans.
​
SOURCE: REUTERS
 

Report: 66% of Gazans suffer from waterborne diseases​

Some 66 per cent of the Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip suffer from the spread of waterborne diseases such as cholera, chronic diarrhoea and intestinal diseases, due to the lack of drinkable water and the closure of all water desalination plants as a result of Israel’s genocidal bombing campaign in the Strip, the Palestinian Environmental Quality Authority (EQA) has said.

In a statement issued yesterday, the EQA said the Israeli bombing of sewage lines has caused them to flood and led to a health and environmental catastrophe.

The EQA confirmed that the Israeli occupation’s aggression resulted in the uprooting of about 50,000 trees and the bulldozing of thousands of acres of agricultural land, nurseries and gardens, which leads to increased desertification, loss of biodiversity, deterioration of soil quality and increased carbon dioxide emissions.

It added that it aims to expose the Israeli occupation’s crimes against the environment, which negatively impact climate change.

Source: Middle East Monitor
 
BouncerGuy said:
Trudeau balancing act on Israel-Gaza annoys both sides of debate

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has tried to walk a fine line on the Israel-Gaza conflict. But by seeking to appeal to all sides, he has pleased no-one.

On Thursday, Israel's envoy to Canada had a request for Mr Trudeau - that Canada "leave no room for misinterpretation" on a matter that the ambassador said was "crystal clear".

The matter was South Africa's allegation before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Israel, accusing it of genocide in Gaza. Israel has slammed the claim as false and "grossly distorted".

It was not the first time Canada's prime minister has been asked to define his country's position on the case currently before the UN's highest court.

Over the last few days, Mr Trudeau was asked to clarify numerous times where Canada stands on the ICJ case, after its close allies - including the US and the UK - rejected it.

Mr Trudeau first told reporters that while Canada supports the ICJ, that did not mean it supported "the premise" of the case, a statement that was widely interpreted as a dismissal.

He then said that Canada would abide by any ruling issued by the ICJ, but refused to comment on whether Canada agreed with the genocide allegation.

It was the latest in a string of public statements that have led to accusations that Canada is mincing its words on a conflict that has sharply divided Canadians and much of the world.

Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Conservative opposition party, said at a press conference last week that Mr Trudeau "sends out some of his MPs to claim that they support calling Israel genocidal when they are talking to one group of voters. And then he sends out another group to say that they're against calling Israel genocidal."

Throughout the conflict, Mr Trudeau has been broadly in line with Canada's Western allies, repeatedly condemning Hamas's deadly attack on 7 October, while saying that Israel has right to defend itself. Like the US, UK, European Union and others, Canada classifies Hamas as a terrorist organisation.

At the same time, he has also underscored the need to protect civilian lives and allow humanitarian aid inside Gaza.

And on Thursday, he criticised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his statements against a future two-state solution, saying that Canada believed it was "the only way forward" for peace in the region.

When pushed, however, Mr Trudeau has struggled to clearly explain Canada's position on the ongoing war, frustrating allies and opening himself up to criticism.

"Almost every step he's taken in this conflict has had the effect of upsetting everyone at different times," said Shachi Kurl, president of the Angus Reid Institute, which regularly polls Canadians on national issues.

That includes members of his own Liberal caucus, who, like the public, are deeply divided on the matter.

On 20 October, Mr Trudeau was met with boos and shouts of "shame" at an Ontario mosque, where he made an unannounced visit. That same day, he was sent a letter signed by 23 members of his own caucus urging him to advocate for a ceasefire.

But when Canada backed a UN General Assembly resolution for a humanitarian ceasefire on 12 December - a break from its historic support for Israel - tensions flared within Mr Trudeau's caucus.

Liberal MP Anthony Housefather publicly criticised the government at the time, saying it was "unacceptable" for Canada to throw its weight behind a ceasefire resolution that did not explicitly ask Hamas to drop its weapons.

The response forced the Trudeau government to release a lengthy statement explaining its vote and reiterating its support for Israel.

Some have argued Mr Trudeau's vagueness may be part of a larger political calculus, especially given where most Canadians stand on the issue.

Polling done by Ms Kurl's institute in November indicated that among Liberal voters, an almost identical number of people - about 20% - sympathise with either Israelis or Palestinians.

Meanwhile, a large chunk of Canadians - about 31% - sympathise with both equally.

"In terms of the overall population, there is perhaps more of an understanding that this issue is profoundly complex," Ms Kurl said.

Still, the apparent ambiguity may be costing Mr Trudeau's Liberals some support, at a time when they are trailing behind Mr Poilievre's party in the polls.

Aurel Braun, a professor of international relations at the University of Toronto, said he had seen an "unprecedented change" in what traditionally has been very strong support for the Liberal party within Canada's Jewish community.

The prime minister's stance was not viewed as "a lack of clarity", he said, but rather as "a huge moral and ethical failure" at a time when antisemitic incidents were on the rise in Canada.

Meanwhile, many Muslims are also frustrated with Mr Trudeau's lack of consistency, and with the country's politicians in general, according to Stephen Brown, head of the National Council of Canadian Muslims.

"You would never have seen that response prior to the conflict," said Mr Brown about the prime minister being booed at a mosque. The ambiguity was especially "hurtful", he said, at a time when Islamophobic incidents in Canada had also spiked.

While Mr Trudeau has irked both sides, Ms Kurl noted that his comments, at least so far, have not caused any members of his own Liberal party to defect, despite "very passionate voices" within it.

"It has been perhaps outwardly awkward for the prime minister," Ms Kurl said. But "he has managed to keep his caucus together
​
BBC
Click to expand...
lol at balancing act , such a puff piece he has taken Israel’s side in UN voting where it mattered.
 
Israel will seek to stop the UN agency for Palestinian refugees from operating in Gaza after the war, a minister said Saturday, after Israel accused several UNRWA staff of involvement in Hamas's October 7 attack.

Israel was aiming to ensure "UNRWA will not be a part of the day after", Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on X, formerly Twitter, adding that he would try to gather support from the US, EU and other major donors to the agency.

Palestinian militant group Hamas on Saturday slammed Israeli "threats" against UNRWA, urging the UN and other international organisations not to "cave in to the threats and blackmail".

UNRWA said Friday it had sacked several employees accused by Israel of involvement in Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack, prompting the United States to suspend critical funding.

The head of the agency, Philippe Lazzarini, vowed to hold "accountable, including through criminal prosecution" any UNRWA employee found to have taken part in acts of terror.

In response to the firings, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pledged to conduct an "urgent and comprehensive independent review of UNRWA", his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

The US State Department said it had "temporarily paused additional funding" to the agency while it reviewed the claims as well as the UN's plan to address concerns.

Twelve employees "may have been involved", it added.

Australia and Canada also said they had suspended their funding to the agency.

Israel's relentless bombardment and siege of Gaza began soon after Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attacks that resulted in about 1,140 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

Militants also seized about 250 hostages and Israel says around 132 of them remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 28 dead captives.

Israel has vowed to crush Hamas and Gaza's health ministry says the Israeli military offensive has killed at least 26,083 people, about 70 percent of them women and children.

Source: Barron's

www.barrons.com

Israel Says Will Seek To Stop UN Agency's Activities In Gaza After War

Israel will seek to stop the UN agency for Palestinian refugees from operating in Gaza after the war, a minister said Saturday, after Israel accused several UNRWA staff of involvement in Hamas's October 7 attack.
www.barrons.com www.barrons.com
 

UNRWA claims: UK halts aid to UN agency over allegation staff helped Hamas attack​

The UK has become the latest country to pause funding for the UN agency for Palestinians, UNRWA.

It comes after the agency announced the sacking of several of its staff over allegations they were involved in the 7 October Hamas attacks.

The UK government said it was "appalled" by the allegations made by Israel.

The US, Australia, Italy, Canada and Finland have already suspended additional funding to the UN agency.

Created in 1949, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, provides health care, education and other humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. It employs around 13,000 people inside Gaza.

Since Israel began its offensive in response to the 7 October attacks, UNRWA has used its facilities across Gaza to shelter hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians.

It says it has ordered an investigation into information supplied by Israel.

Israel has long accused different branches of the United Nations including UNRWA of bias and even of antisemitism.

Speaking to the BBC, the organisation's former chief spokesperson, Christopher Gunness, said that the suspension of aid to UNRWA was disproportionate and can only lead to further suffering in Gaza.

Mr Gunness believes UNRWA has demonstrated its zero-tolerance policy by sacking the staff members before their internal investigation was complete.

"One million displaced people are currently taking refuge in and around UNRWA buildings. They are the ones who will suffer as a result of this decision," said Mr Gunness, adding: "The curtailing of UNRWA services will also destabilise the region at a time when Western governments are trying to contain a regional conflagration."

On Friday, an adviser to the Israeli prime minister told the BBC that the 7 October Hamas attacks had involved "people who are on their [UNRWA] salaries".

Mark Regev said there was information showing teachers working in UNRWA schools had "openly celebrated" the 7 October attacks.

He also referred to an Israeli hostage who, on her release, said she had been "held in the house of someone who worked for UNRWA".

"They have a union which is controlled by Hamas and I think it's high time that the UN investigated these links between UNRWA and Hamas," he added.

The allegations prompted reaction from major donors.

"The UK is appalled by allegations that UNRWA staff were involved in the 7 October attack against Israel, a heinous act of terrorism that the UK Government has repeatedly condemned," the UK Foreign Office said in a statement.

"The UK is temporarily pausing any future funding of UNWRA whilst we review these concerning allegations," it added.

Source: BBC
 

South Gaza battles rage as heavy rain hits displaced further north​

DOHA/GAZA, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Israel pressed ahead on Saturday with its campaign against Hamas in Gaza's Khan Younis area, while bad weather hit displaced Palestinians seeking refuge further north in the battered enclave.

Residents reported heavy aerial and tank fire across Khan Younis, a part of southern Gaza that has become the focus of Israel's ground offensive against Hamas, and around two main hospitals there.

Hamas said its fighters fired an anti-tank missile at an Israeli tank in southwest Khan Younis.

The Israeli military said it killed at least 11 gunmen who were trying to plant explosives near troops and others firing rifles and rocket-propelled grenades at soldiers in Khan Younis. Over the past week, it added, commandos killed more than 100 militants and raided weapons warehouses.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, allied with Hamas, said its fighters were engaging Israeli forces in the area and had fired rockets into Israel.

The Gaza Health Ministry said Israeli strikes hit near the largest functioning medical facility in the south, Nasser Hospital, and Al-Amal Hospital, where one person was killed in the courtyard, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.

The Israeli bombardment was compromising healthcare and endangering the lives of doctors, patients and displaced people, said ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra.

The Israeli military says it is in contact with hospital directors and medical staff by phone and on the ground to make sure that they are running and accessible. Israel says Hamas operates in and around medical facilities, an allegation the group denies.

In a ruling on Friday, the World Court stopped short of ordering a ceasefire but ordered Israel to prevent acts of genocide against Palestinians and do more to help civilians. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said afterwards that the war aimed at eliminating Hamas would continue.

In the southern city of Rafah, Zainab Khalil, 57, displaced with her family several times until reaching shelter not far from the border with Egypt, said the International Court of Justice's ruling was important but not enough. "We want a ceasefire now," she said.

UNRWA PROBE
Israel launched its air, sea and land offensive after militants from the Hamas group that rules Gaza stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and abducting 253.

Some 26,257 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 65,000 wounded so far, including 174 killed in the last 24 hours, Gaza health authorities said on Saturday. The majority of the enclave's 2.3 million population has been displaced.

Israel says 220 soldiers have died since it launched its ground offensive. It says it has killed at least 9,000 Gaza militants so far, a figure that Hamas has dismissed.

Residents and Hamas militants reported fighting on Saturday in the central and northern parts of the enclave, where heavy rain flooded tents of those displaced, forcing some to seek alternative shelter in the middle of the night.

On Friday, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said it had opened an investigation into several employees suspected of involvement in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and that it had severed ties with those staff members.

The Palestinian foreign ministry criticised what it described as an Israeli campaign against UNRWA, and Hamas condemned the termination of employee contracts "based on information derived from the Zionist enemy".

In Rafah, where over half of Gaza's people are now taking cover in shelters and tents, the Gaza Health Ministry said an Israeli air strike killed three people in a house there.

It was not immediately clear who the casualties were and there was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
In the occupied West Bank, one man was killed in an exchange of fire with Israeli forces near Jenin, residents said.


Source: Reuters
 

Palestinians slam suspension of UNRWA funding by some Western nations​

Top Palestinian officials and Hamas have criticised the decision by some Western countries to suspend funding to the United Nations relief agency for Palestinians and called for an immediate reversal of the move that entails “great” risk.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) earlier said it had opened an investigation into some employees that Israel alleges were involved in the October 7 attacks that triggered the current conflict.

On Saturday, Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Secretary-General Hussein al-Sheikh said the countries’ decision “entails great political and humanitarian relief risks”.

“At this particular time and in light of the continuing aggression against the Palestinian people, we need the maximum support for this international organization and not stopping support and assistance to it,” he wrote on X, urging the countries to “immediately reverse their decision”.

Italy, Australia, Canada and the United States said they would halt funding to the agency, while European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the 27-member bloc would “assess further steps and draw lessons based on the result of the full and comprehensive investigation”.

The United Kingdom, Finland and the Netherlands also joined the growing list of countries to pause financial aid to the UN agency, whose facilities where displaced Palestinians sought shelter have been repeatedly attacked in Israeli air raids.

Hamas on Saturday slammed Israeli “threats” against the agency, after Israel accused several UNRWA staff of involvement in Hamas’s October 7 attacks in southern Israel that the authorities there have said killed about 1,140 people.

“We ask the UN and the international organisations to not cave in to the threats and blackmail” from Israel, Hamas’s press office said in a post on Telegram.

On Friday, UNRWA said it had fired several employees and that it had opened an investigation into the allegations.

“The Israeli authorities have provided UNRWA with information about the alleged involvement of several UNRWA employees in the horrific attacks on Israel on October 7,” said UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini.

“To protect the agency’s ability to deliver humanitarian assistance, I have taken the decision to immediately terminate the contracts of these staff members and launch an investigation in order to establish the truth without delay.”

UNRWA was founded in the wake of the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 to provide hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees who were forcibly displaced with education, healthcare, social services and jobs. It started operations in 1950.

The cash-strapped agency today supports nearly six million Palestinians in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, as well as in neighbouring Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

Source: Al Jazeera
 
SERIOUS ALLEGATIONS AGAINST UNRWA STAFF IN THE GAZA STRIP

From Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner-General

AMMAN,

“The Israeli Authorities have provided UNRWA with information about the alleged involvement of several UNRWA employees in the horrific attacks on Israel on 7 October.

“To protect the Agency’s ability to deliver humanitarian assistance, I have taken the decision to immediately terminate the contracts of these staff members and launch an investigation in order to establish the truth without delay. Any UNRWA employee who was involved in acts of terror will be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution.

“UNRWA reiterates its condemnation in the strongest possible terms of the abhorrent attacks of 7 October and calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all Israeli hostages and their safe return to their families.

“These shocking allegations come as more than 2 million people in Gaza depend on lifesaving assistance that the Agency has been providing since the war began. Anyone who betrays the fundamental values of the United Nations also betrays those whom we serve in Gaza, across the region and elsewhere around the world”.

 
Palestinians condemn suspension of UNRWA funding by Western nations

Top Palestinian officials and Hamas have criticised the decision by nearly a dozen Western countries to suspend funding to the United Nations relief agency for Palestinians and called for an immediate reversal of the move, which entails “great” risk.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) earlier said it had opened an investigation after Israel alleged that some of its employees were involved in the October 7 attacks that triggered the current conflict.

This has prompted at least 10 Western countries to withdraw or temporarily pause funding to the agency, a move the head of UNRWA called “shocking”.

“Suspension of funds threatens humanitarian work in the region, especially in Gaza,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement late on Saturday, urging countries who have frozen funding to “reconsider their decisions” as Gaza faces the risk of mass starvation.

Earlier, Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Secretary General Hussein al-Sheikh said the countries’ decision “entails great political and humanitarian relief risks”.

“At this particular time and in light of the continuing aggression against the Palestinian people, we need the maximum support for this international organization and not stopping support and assistance to it,” he wrote on X, urging the countries to “immediately reverse their decision”.

The United States, Australia, Canada, Italy, Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Scotland have halted funding to the agency, whose facilities where displaced Palestinians sought shelter have been repeatedly attacked in Israeli air raids.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the 27-member bloc would “assess further steps and draw lessons based on the result of the full and comprehensive investigation”.

Ireland and Norway, however, expressed continued support for UNRWA, saying the agency does crucial work to help Palestinians displaced and in desperate need of assistance in Gaza.

Investigation

Hamas on Saturday slammed Israeli “threats” against the agency, after Israel accused several UNRWA staff of involvement in Hamas’s October 7 attacks in southern Israel that the authorities there said killed about 1,140 people.

“We ask the UN and the international organisations to not cave into the threats and blackmail” from Israel, Hamas’s press office said in a post on Telegram.

On Friday, UNRWA said it had fired several employees and that it had opened an investigation into the allegations.

“The Israeli authorities have provided UNRWA with information about the alleged involvement of several UNRWA employees in the horrific attacks on Israel on October 7,” Lazzarini said.

“To protect the agency’s ability to deliver humanitarian assistance, I have taken the decision to immediately terminate the contracts of these staff members and launch an investigation in order to establish the truth without delay.”

He did not disclose the number of employees nor the nature of their alleged involvement but said that “any UNRWA employee who was involved in acts of terror” would be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution.

Soon after that on Friday, the US announced it was halting funding to UNRWA because of the allegations against what it said were 12 employees who “may have been involved” in the Hamas attack.

Canada’s International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen also said on Friday that Ottawa had “temporarily paused” additional funding while UNRWA conducts a thorough investigation.

Aid freeze

On Saturday, the UK said it had joined the US in “temporarily pausing” future financial aid for UNRWA, which is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions from UN member countries.

“The UK is appalled by allegations that UNRWA staff were involved in the 7 October attack against Israel, a heinous act of terrorism that the UK Government has repeatedly condemned,” the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said in a statement.

Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said his country was joining its allies and cutting its support for the agency. “Allied countries have taken a similar decision. We are committed to providing humanitarian aid to the Palestinian population while protecting Israel’s security,” he posted on X.

Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong said she was “deeply concerned” by the allegations against UNRWA but welcomed the agency’s investigation. “We are speaking with partners and will temporarily pause disbursement of recent funding,” she wrote on X.

The Dutch minister for trade and development, Geoffrey van Leeuwen, announced a freeze in funding while the investigation is ongoing. “The accusation is that the attack was committed on October 7 with UN money, with our money,” he told public broadcaster NOS on Saturday.

Germany’s Foreign Office also paused funding, saying: “Until the end of the investigation, Germany, in coordination with other donor countries, will temporarily not approve any new funds for UNRWA in Gaza.”

‘Halting’ UNRWA’s activities

Israel has praised the countries that have halted their support to the UN agency, saying it wants to completely stop its operations after the war on Gaza has ended.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Israel “aims to promoting a policy ensuring that UNRWA will not be a part of the day after, addressing other contributing factors”.

“We will work to garner bipartisan support in the US, the European Union, and other nations globally for this policy aimed at halting UNRWA’s activities in Gaza,” he said.

UNRWA was founded in the wake of the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 to provide hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees who were forcibly displaced with education, healthcare, social services and jobs. It started operations in 1950.

The cash-strapped agency today supports nearly 6 million Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, as well as in neighbouring Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

The agency’s shelters in Gaza have also been repeatedly targeted by Israeli missiles during the war, despite pleas for safe passages to deliver humanitarian aid.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has pledged to conduct an “urgent and comprehensive independent review of UNRWA” in the aftermath of Israel’s allegations.

At least 26,257 people have been killed and 64,797 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7.
​
SOURCE: ALJAZEERA
 
Here's what a Holocaust survivor has to say regarding Israel-Palestine conflict:

My name is Reuven Moskovitz and I am a Holocaust survivor. I, as a holocaust survivor cannot live with the fact that the State of Israel is imprisoning an entire people behind fences. It's just immoral. What happened to me in the Holocaust wakes me up every night and I hope we don't do the same thing to our neighbors. - Reuven Moskovitz

Reference: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/holocaust-survivors-gaza_b_5607625.
 
Israeli forces warn Palestinians of any attempt to return to northern Gaza

As winter continues to add challenges to the displaced people of Gaza, Mohammed Asad, MEMO’s correspondent in Gaza, reports that Palestinian families displaced south of Gaza, have had an initiative of marching back to their homes in the north seeking proper shelter. Asad reports leaflets being dropped by Israeli aircraft issuing a warning to the displaced community of such attempts. The displaced Palestinians in the southern areas lack the basic capacity to live in dignity, as according to Asad their tents cannot provide shelter from the rain or the cold, in addition to the drastic conditions of lack of food and water supplies.

Source : The Middle East Monitor
 

UNRWA: Gaza aid agency says it is 'extremely desperate' after funding halted​


More countries have halted funding to the largest UN agency operating in Gaza, as the crisis deepens over the alleged role of some staff in the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel.

Japan and Austria said they were suspending payments to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

The US, UK, Germany and Italy are also among those who have suspended funding.

UNRWA has told the BBC it is "extremely desperate" and that "the humanitarian needs in Gaza are growing by the hour".

The agency has sacked several of its staff over allegations they were involved on 7 October, when Hamas gunmen infiltrated Israel, killing about 1,300 people - mainly civilians - and taking about 250 others back to Gaza as hostages.



www.bbc.com

UNRWA: Gaza aid agency says it is 'extremely desperate' after funding halted

More countries halt aid to UNRWA over the alleged role of some staff in the 7 October Hamas attacks.
www.bbc.com
 
Israel troops to ‘go into action’ soon at Lebanon border: minister

Israeli troops will “very soon go into action” near the country’s northern border with Lebanon, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Monday, as tensions surge amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Gallant told troops near the border with the besieged Gaza Strip that others were being deployed to Israel’s north.

“They will very soon go into action… so the forces in the north are reinforced,” Gallant said.

He added that reservists would be gradually released “to prepare and come ready” for future operations.

Since the outbreak of war between Hamas and Israel on October 7, the Lebanese-Israeli border has seen near-daily exchanges of fire between the Israeli army and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, a Hamas ally.

Israel’s army chief Herzi Halevi said earlier this month that the likelihood of war on the northern border has become “much higher”.

“I don’t know when the war in the north is, I can tell you that the likelihood of it happening in the coming months is much higher than it was in the past,” Halevi said.

More than 200 people, most of them Hezbollah members, have been killed in south Lebanon by Israeli fire since October 7, according to an AFP tally.

On the Israeli side of the border, nine soldiers and six civilians have been killed, according to Israeli officials.

Gallant said Monday that Gaza were running out of supplies and ammunition, but the war against Hamas “will take months”.

www.brecorder.com

Resurrecting dead IP gas pipeline project

* Visiting Iranian foreign minister presents ‘workable’ solution
www.brecorder.com
 
UK considering recognising Palestine state, Lord Cameron says

Britain is ready to bring forward the moment when it formally recognises a Palestinian state, the foreign secretary has suggested.

Lord Cameron said Palestinians had to be given a political horizon to encourage peace in the Middle East.

He is beginning his fourth visit to the region since being appointed foreign secretary in November.

The UK has a responsibility to set out what a Palestinian state would look like, he told a Westminster reception.

The Palestinian people would have to be shown "irreversible progress" towards a two-state solution, Lord Cameron said.

"As that happens, we - with allies - will look at the issue of recognising a Palestinian state, including at the United Nations," he told the Conservative Middle East Council.

"That could be one of the things that helps to make this process irreversible."

The foreign secretary also urged Israel to allow more humanitarian support into Gaza and said it was "ludicrous" that vital British and other aid was being sent back at the border.

Lord Cameron said the last 30 years had been a story of failure for Israel because it had failed to provide security to its citizens.

Only by recognising that failure, he said, would there be peace and progress.

Britain has long supported a two-state solution, where Israelis and Palestinians could live side by side in separate countries.

But Lord Cameron is suggesting Britain could give formal, diplomatic recognition to a Palestinian state not as part of a final peace deal, but earlier, during the negotiations themselves.

At the same time, there would have to be a new Palestinian authority "stood up quickly" with "technocratic and good leaders" able to govern Gaza, he said.

Lord Cameron added: "Together with that, almost most important of all, is to give the Palestinian people a political horizon so that they can see that there is going to be irreversible progress to a two-state solution and crucially the establishment of a Palestinian state.

"We have a responsibility there because we should be starting to set out what a Palestinian state would look like, what it would comprise, how it would work and crucially, looking at the issue, that as that happens, we with allies will look at the issue of recognising a Palestinian state, including at the United Nations.

"That could be one of the things that helps to make this process irreversible."

As part of any long-term deal, the foreign secretary said Israel would need to see all hostages released, with a guarantee that Hamas could not launch attacks on Israel and its leadership had left Gaza.

He said a deal would be "difficult" but not impossible.

On the ongoing efforts to end the war in Gaza, Lord Cameron said a pause in the fighting was needed now and there were "hopeful signs" about the negotiations under way.

"There is a path that we can now see opening up where we really can make progress, not just in ending the conflict, but progress in finding a political solution that can mean peace for years rather than peace for months," he said.

The real challenge would be to "turn that pause into a sustainable ceasefire without a return to the fighting, he said.

"That is the prize we should be looking for, and more than that, not just how you go from pause to sustainable ceasefire, but how you go from there to a set of political moves and arrangements that could start to deliver the longer term political solution," Lord Cameron said.

"Although it is incredibly difficult, although efforts in the past have failed, we cannot give up.

"If the last 30 years tells us anything, it is a story of failure.

"Ultimately it is a story of failure for Israel because yes, they had a growing economy, yes they had rising living standards, yes they invested in defence and security and walls and the rest of it, but they couldn't provide what a state most wants, what every family wants, which is security.

"And so the last 30 years has been a failure.

"And it is only by recognising that failure and recognising that true peace and progress will come when the benefits of peace and progress are greater than the benefits of returning to fighting."
​
BBC
 
Israeli soldiers dressed as doctors, nurses kill 3 Palestinians with silenced guns in hospital raid


Israeli soldiers disguised themselves as doctors, nurses, and civilians raided early Tuesday a hospital in Jenin City, north of the occupied West Bank, killing three Palestinians, including two brothers, with gun silencers.

Ten personnel of Israeli special forces dressed in doctor and nurse uniforms, as well as ordinary civilians brandishing automatic guns, raided the Ibn Sina Hospital and used silencers to kill three youths, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported, citing sources in the hospital.

The three slain Palestinians are identified as Mohammad and Basil Al-Ghazzawi, and Mohammad Jalamna, with 25-year-old Basil receiving medical treatment in the hospital when Israeli soldiers attacked, the news agency said.

In a viral video posted on the social media platform X, Israeli soldiers are seen brandishing guns and terrorizing staff and patients inside the hospital. One of the soldiers, dressed entirely in black, can be seen forcing a Palestinian to drop to his knees with his hands raised.

Panic was visible among those inside the hospital when Israeli soldiers entered with guns in their hands and appeared to be screaming at the patients.



tribune.com.pk

Disguised Israeli forces kill 3 Palestinians in hospital raid | The Express Tribune

10 Israeli special forces personnel raided Jenin's Ibn Sina Hospital in West Bank, killing 3 youths, media reports
tribune.com.pk tribune.com.pk
 
sweep_shot said:

Subhan Allah. Amazing.
Click to expand...

In the UK this horrible brutality in Gaza has really made so many think. The resistance of the resistance and the courage of the Palestinians is seen in awe here by many now. Mosques are filling up with so many converts now.

 

Hamas studying three-phase Gaza truce plan as Israeli hardliners warn PM​

Hamas has confirmed that it is studying a three-phase proposal for a truce in Gaza, while hardline members of the Israeli government have threatened to collapse the coalition if any deal is not to their liking.

The Palestinian group’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh confirmed on Tuesday that he is studying the proposal, thrashed out in Paris over the weekend, to halt the war and enable the exchange of Israeli and Palestinian prisoners.

Haniyeh said in a statement that the group is “open to discussing any serious and practical initiatives or ideas, provided that they lead to a comprehensive cessation of aggression”.

Hamas also said that the plan must ensure the “complete withdrawal of the occupation forces from the Gaza Strip”.

The group’s leadership, he said, had received an invitation to Cairo to reach an “integrated vision” on the framework agreement.

Three phases
In a statement sent to Reuters, Hamas said the proposal involved three stages. The plan has been sent to Gaza to obtain the opinion of Hamas leaders there.

“The Hamas leadership will meet to discuss the paper and express its final opinion on it,” the statement said.

Sources told the news agency that the first phase would consist of a pause in fighting and the release of elderly, civilian women and children hostages.

Major deliveries of food and medicine to Gaza, facing a ruinous humanitarian crisis, would resume.

The second phase would see the releases of female Israeli soldiers and another increase in aid deliveries and restoration of utility services to Gaza. The third phase would see the release of the bodies of deceased Israeli troops in exchange for Palestinian prisoners freed, two sources said.

The Hamas statement said the second phase would also involve the release of male military recruits.

“Military operations on both sides will stop during the three stages,” it said. The number of Palestinian prisoners to be released is to be left to the negotiation process “at every stage, with the Israeli side preparing to release those with high sentences,” it said.

The ultimate aim of this phased approach is the end of the war and the release of male soldiers held captive in Gaza in exchange for Israel’s release of additional Palestinian prisoners held in jail.

If Hamas does agree to the framework proposal it could still take days or weeks to settle logistical details of the truce and the release of hostages and prisoners, an official told Reuters.

Progress
Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, said the framework discussed in Paris is based on elements of an initial proposal made by Israel and a counterproposal made by Hamas.

“We tried to blend things together to come up with some sort of reasonable ground that brings everybody together,” he said at Washington’s Atlantic Council think tank on Monday.

He added that “good progress” was made on a possible deal during meetings between intelligence officials from Egypt, Israel and the United States over the weekend.

The Qatari prime minister noted that Hamas has previously demanded a permanent ceasefire as a precondition to enter negotiations. However, he suggested that there is hope its stance may have shifted.

“I believe we moved from that place to a place that potentially might lead to a ceasefire permanently in the future,” he said.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad group in Gaza said it will not engage in any understandings regarding Israeli hostages without ensuring a comprehensive ceasefire and the withdrawal of the Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, the group’s secretary general Ziad al-Nakhala said in a statement on Tuesday.

‘Government split’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said Israel would continue its war in Gaza until “absolute victory” over Hamas.

He ruled out releasing “thousands” of Palestinian prisoners as part of any deal to halt the fighting and said the army would not withdraw from Gaza.

“I would like to make it clear… We will not withdraw the IDF [army] from the Gaza Strip and we will not release thousands of terrorists. None of this will happen,” he said in an address at Eli settlement in the occupied West Bank.

Netanyahu is under significant pressure from the families of the remaining captives held by Hamas to reach a deal to secure their release.

Hamas killed at least 1,139 people in Israel and took about 240 captives on October 7, according to Israeli figures.

However, Netanyahu is also being pushed to continue the war by hardline coalition partners in his government.

Commenting on the reported truce negotiations earlier on Tuesday, far-right Israeli Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir appeared to suggest that a deal with Hamas would trigger a government collapse.

“Reckless deal = Government split,” Ben-Gvir wrote on X.

The national security minister is known for his inflammatory commentary on the conflict. However, his Jewish Power (Otzma Yehudit) party is a major player in Israel’s ruling coalition.

Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Jamjoom, reporting from Tel Aviv, said anonymous Israeli officials confirmed that the government signed off to a deal that was presented to Hamas. This includes a pause in fighting and the release of Israeli captives in Gaza in exchange for thousands of Palestinian prisoners.

Jamjoom said that while right wing government members were against the deal, Yair Lapid, Israel’s opposition leader and former prime minister, said he would support the government if it meant bringing the captives homes.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was also expected to land in Israel on Saturday for his sixth trip to the region since the war started to discuss post-war scenarios in Gaza, Jamjoom reported.

Escalation
The proposals were circulated to Hamas as fighting intensified in Gaza.

Heavy Israeli strikes and urban combat across the besieged enclave killed 128 more people overnight, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.

An Israeli ‘hit squad’ also killed three men that it labelled as “terrorists” in an undercover operation at a hospital in the occupied West Bank.

“The world must put pressure on the occupation to stop these massacres and war crimes, including the policy of torture to which our people are exposed in the areas of the West Bank, executions and arrests,” said Haniyeh.

Amidst the uptick in fighting, Israel has charged that around a dozen staff of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) took part in the October 7 attack, leading key donor countries including the United States and Germany to suspend funding.

Haniyeh said that the decision of countries to suspend contributions was a “clear violation” of last week’s International Court of Justice interim ruling, which called for increasing humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Countries cutting aid support Israel’s “occupation through starvation and siege”, the Hamas chief asserted.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
 
Hamas says it is studying proposal for new pause in Gaza fighting


Hamas's political leader has confirmed it is studying a new proposal to pause the fighting in the Gaza Strip.

Ismail Haniyeh said the group had been invited to discuss a framework set out by Israel, the US, Qatar and Egypt.

It reportedly proposes a six-week truce, when more Israeli hostages would be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners.

Mr Haniyeh stressed that Hamas's priorities were a permanent ceasefire and full Israeli withdrawal, but Israel's prime minister ruled them out.

Benjamin Netanyahu insisted the war would not end until "total victory" had been achieved, which he said meant the elimination of Hamas and the release of all hostages.

The conflict was triggered by an unprecedented cross-border attack by Hamas gunmen on southern Israel on 7 October, in which about 1,300 people were killed and about 250 others taken hostage.

More than 26,700 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

During a week-long ceasefire in late November, 105 Israeli and foreign hostages were freed in exchange for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

Israel says 136 hostages are still being held, although about two dozen of those are presumed to be dead.


www.bbc.com

Hamas says it is studying proposal for new pause in Gaza fighting

A framework reportedly sets out a six-week pause in the fighting to allow more hostages to be freed.
www.bbc.com
 
Israeli intelligence report details UNRWA workers’ alleged involvement in October 7 attack


Israel alleges that 13 employees of the United Nations’ main relief agency in Gaza were associated with Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel and took part in varying capacities, ranging from involvement in kidnapping hostages to being told to set up an operations room, according to the summary of the intelligence shared with CNN by an Israeli official.

The Israeli official shared with CNN information and allegations Israel had gathered on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which employs around 13,000 people in Gaza and provides humanitarian support including education, healthcare and food relief, to the enclave’s population.

CNN has not seen the intelligence that underlies the summary of allegations and cannot corroborate Israel’s claims about individual staffers or about the agency’s dynamic with Hamas and other groups operating in Gaza. The summary does not provide evidence to support its claims.

Of the 13 UNRWA employees alleged to have been associated with the attack, the Israeli document alleges 10 were Hamas operatives, two were Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives and one is unidentified.


 
China’s Foreign Ministry doubled down, Wednesday, on its proposal for a “broad-based, authoritative and effective” international peace conference on Palestine, Anadolu Agency reports.

Beijing “stands ready to work with all parties” to hold the conference “as early as possible” to “formulate a concrete timetable and roadmap” for the implementation of the two-State solution, said spokesman, Wang Wenbin, according to a transcript of a news conference in Beijing that was released by the Ministry.

Encouragement for a peace conference comes as the death toll from Israeli attacks against the Gaza Strip has jumped to 26,900 since 7 October as the onslaught entered day 117.

Nearly 66,000 have also been injured in the attacks.

Wang told reporters that China was ready to support Palestine and Israel in “resuming peace talks soon for the ultimate peaceful and harmonious co-existence” between Palestine and Israel, and between the Arabs and Jews.

Noting President Xi Jinping’s three-point proposal, including an international peace conference on Palestine, Wang said: “China’s proposal is increasingly recognised in the international community.”

Source: The Middle East Monitor
 
“Israel is refusing the entry of a significant amount of aid to Gaza for unclear reasons,” UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, has warned.

In a press statement issued yesterday, the UN official added: “We continue to face the frequent rejection for entry of much-needed items into Gaza by Israel, for unclear, inconsistent and often unspecified reasons.”

“We must also have access to civilians in need across Gaza. At present, our access to Khan Younis, the Middle Area and North Gaza is largely absent,” he added.

“The ability of the humanitarian community to reach the people of Gaza with relief remains grossly inadequate. This is not for want of trying.”

He emphasised that anyone who has been displaced from their home in Gaza should have the right to return voluntarily as required by international law.

Since 7 October, Israel’s genocidal military operation in Gaza has forced more than 1.7 million Palestinians out of their homes. Many of them have been displaced multiple times, as families have been forced to move repeatedly in search of safety.

Almost 66,000 have been injured, many losing one or both their limbs with Israel banning the entry of crutches in the enclave and thus leaving them immobile.

Source: The Middle East Monitor
 
The Bald Eagle said:
“Israel is refusing the entry of a significant amount of aid to Gaza for unclear reasons,” UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, has warned.

In a press statement issued yesterday, the UN official added: “We continue to face the frequent rejection for entry of much-needed items into Gaza by Israel, for unclear, inconsistent and often unspecified reasons.”

“We must also have access to civilians in need across Gaza. At present, our access to Khan Younis, the Middle Area and North Gaza is largely absent,” he added.

“The ability of the humanitarian community to reach the people of Gaza with relief remains grossly inadequate. This is not for want of trying.”

He emphasised that anyone who has been displaced from their home in Gaza should have the right to return voluntarily as required by international law.

Since 7 October, Israel’s genocidal military operation in Gaza has forced more than 1.7 million Palestinians out of their homes. Many of them have been displaced multiple times, as families have been forced to move repeatedly in search of safety.

Almost 66,000 have been injured, many losing one or both their limbs with Israel banning the entry of crutches in the enclave and thus leaving them immobile.

Source: The Middle East Monitor
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Israel clearly want to displace and/or murder Gaza population.

Sickening.
 
Hamas Gives 'Initial Positive Confirmation' On Truce Plan: Qatar

Hamas has given "initial positive confirmation" to a proposal for the cessation of fighting in Gaza and the release of hostages, Qatar's foreign ministry spokesman said on Thursday.

US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators met with Israeli intelligence officials in Paris on Sunday where they proposed a six-week pause in the Gaza war and a hostage-prisoner exchange for Hamas to review.

"That proposal has been approved by the Israeli side and now we have an initial positive confirmation from the Hamas' side," Majed al-Ansari told an audience at a Washington-based graduate school.

A source close to Hamas said, however, that there was still no consensus on the proposal.

"There is no agreement on the framework of the agreement yet... and the Qatari statement is rushed and not true," the source told AFP in Gaza.

The Qatari foreign ministry spokesman said there was "still a very tough road in front of us".

"We are optimistic because both sides now agreed to the premise that would lead to a next pause," said Ansari.

"We're hopeful that in the next couple of weeks, we'll be able to share good news about that," he added.

The Qatar-based leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, was expected in Cairo on Thursday or Friday for talks on a proposed truce.

Previously, Qatar mediated a one-week break in fighting that began in November and led to the release of scores of Israeli and foreign hostages, as well as aid entering the besieged Palestinian territory.

The war was triggered by Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of around 1,163 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on the latest official Israeli figures.

Militants also seized about 250 hostages. Israel says 132 of them remain in Gaza including at least 27 people believed to have been killed.

Following the deadliest attack in Israel's history, its military launched a withering air, land and sea offensive that has killed at least 26,900 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

A Hamas source told AFP the three-stage plan would start with an initial six-week halt to the fighting that would see more aid deliveries into the Gaza Strip.

Only "women, children and sick men over 60" held by Gaza militants would be freed during that stage in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israel, the source said, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the talks.

There would also be "negotiations around the withdrawal of Israeli forces", with possible additional phases involving more hostage-prisoner exchanges, said the source, adding the territory's rebuilding was also among issues addressed by the deal.
​
SOURCE: https://www.barrons.com/news/hamas-gives-initial-positive-confirmation-on-truce-plan-qatar-38ce91bd
 

Political opposition to Gaza war not seen in US since Vietnam​

A letter signed by more than 800 official in the US, UK and the EU criticising their government’s support of Israel is the latest in a string of actions with which the US president has been confronted since the fall.

This comes at a significant time because Joe Biden is 10 months away from trying to win a reelection. But it is getting increasingly difficult for him to get his message out.

In Michigan, as he was trying to campaign, he was being name called “genocide Joe.” This is the kind of political opposition that has not been seen in this country since the Vietnam war and Americans have been very much rallying around this message every time the president tries to speak.
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Reference: Al-Jazeera (link: https://aje.io/dwrlul?update=2671617)
 
The UK could officially recognise a Palestinian state after a ceasefire in Gaza without waiting for the outcome of what could be years of talks between Israel and the Palestinians on a two-state solution, David Cameron has said.

Speaking during a visit on Thursday to Lebanon intended to tamp down regional tensions, the foreign secretary said no recognition could come while Hamas remained in Gaza, but that it could take place while Israeli negotiations with Palestinian leaders were continuing.

UK recognition of an independent state of Palestine, including in the United Nations, “can’t come at the start of the process, but it doesn’t have to be the very end of the process,” said Cameron, a former prime minister.

“It could be something that we consider as this process, as this advance to a solution, becomes more real,” Cameron said. “What we need to do is give the Palestinian people a horizon towards a better future, the future of having a state of their own.”

That prospect is “absolutely vital for the long-term peace and security of the region”, he said.

Britain, the US and other western countries have supported the idea of an independent Palestine existing alongside Israel as a solution to the region’s most intractable conflict, but have said Palestinian independence should come as part of a negotiated settlement. There have been no substantive negotiations since 2009.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has repeatedly rejected the creation of an independent Palestinian state after the war, and has even boasted in recent weeks that he was instrumental in preventing Palestinian statehood.

A move by some of Israel’s key allies to recognise a Palestinian state without Israel’s buy-in could isolate Israel and put pressure on it to come to the table.

Cameron said the first step must be a “pause in the fighting” in Gaza that would eventually turn into “a permanent, sustainable ceasefire”.

He added that in order for the UK to recognise a Palestinian state, the leaders of Hamas would need to leave Gaza “because you can’t have a two-state solution with Gaza still controlled by the people responsible for 7 October”, referring to the deadly Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.

Hamas has so far taken the position that its leaders would not leave the enclave as part of a ceasefire deal.

Cameron said the UK is also proposing a plan to de-escalate tensions on the Lebanon-Israel border, where the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israeli forces have been trading fire near daily for the past four months, sparking fears of a wider war.

The plan would include Britain training Lebanese army forces to carry out more security work in the border region, he said.

Source : The Guardian
 
Canada Considers Sanctions on 'Extremist' West Bank Settlers

Canada is looking at imposing sanctions on "extremist" settlers in the West Bank, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday, a day after the U.S. took action against four Israeli men accused of being involved in violence in the occupied territory.

"We are looking into how to make sure that those responsible for extremist violence or extreme settler violence in the West Bank are held to account for it," Trudeau told reporters in Waterloo, Ontario.

Since the 1967 Middle East war, Israel has occupied the West Bank of the Jordan River, which Palestinians want as the core of an independent state. It has built Jewish settlements there that most countries deem illegal. Israel disputes this and cites historical and biblical ties to the land.

The West Bank saw its highest levels of unrest in decades during the 18 months before the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, and confrontations there have risen sharply since Israeli forces launched their retaliatory offensive on Gaza.

"Violence in the West Bank is absolutely unacceptable and puts at risk peace, stability in the region and the path toward the two-state solution that is absolutely essential," Trudeau said.

Trudeau's comments add to signs of the West's growing displeasure with the policies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On Thursday, U.S. President Joe Biden issued an executive order that aims to punish violent Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, where Palestinians envisage a future state.

Britain, the European Union and more than a dozen partner countries including Australia and Canada have called on Israel to take immediate and concrete steps to tackle settler violence in the West Bank.

Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people and captured about 250 hostages during the October 7 attack on Israel. The Israeli assault on the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip in response has killed more than 27,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry and flattened most of the densely populated enclave.

Trudeau has consistently said Israel has the right to defend itself after the Hamas assault, but he has gradually hardened his tone as the civilian death toll in Gaza has mounted.


www.voanews.com

Canada Considers Sanctions on 'Extremist' West Bank Settlers

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's comments add to signs of the West's growing displeasure with the policies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
www.voanews.com www.voanews.com
 
Thousands join pro-Palestine marches in London and Edinburgh Demonstrations first in UK since UN’s international court of justice ordered Israel to ensure acts of genocide not committed in Gaza

Thousands have marched in London and Edinburgh as pro-Palestine demonstrators called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

Saturday’s marches were the UK’s first national demonstrations since the UN’s international court of justice ordered Israel to ensure acts of genocide are not committed in Gaza.

About 10,000 marched in London on Saturday. Along with other protesters, Jewish and Zionist groups backed calls for a ceasefire, displaying banners calling for the Israeli leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, to secure a hostage deal and chanting: “Netanyahu, shame, shame, not in our name.”

Other protesters carried banners that read: “End the killing”, “Free the children”, “Freedom to Palestine” and “Boycott Israel”.

Thousands of pro-Palestine supporters also gathered in Edinburgh on Saturday in support of an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Arranged by the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, spokesperson Mick Napier said: “Israel needs to act on last week’s Order of the World Court, which requires that it take measures to prevent further genocide, and stop preventing aid getting to the 2 million people of Gaza. The only way that is possible is with an immediate ceasefire, which is what we are calling for. While the Scottish Parliament has at least called for a ceasefire, the UK government, as usual, has been entirely complicit in Israel’s crimes.”

In London, Scotland Yard estimated about 10,000 demonstrators had marched through the West End, with the crowd swelling to 20,000 for the speeches in Whitehall. BBC reports described the atmosphere as “peaceful”.

Police said people were seen trying to disrupt the protest in Haymarket and a woman was arrested on suspicion of setting off a smoke bomb or flare.

A second woman, who was allegedly chanting slogans that may incite racial hatred, was arrested over a suspected public order offence.

Organisers had expressed concerns that the Metropolitan police would take a harsher approach compared with previous demonstrations, accusing the force of bowing to political pressure from the government to restrict the marches.

The Met said officers monitored the march for offensive placards, chants and banners and that it used CCTV to spot other offences and find suspects. It had previously announced officers would be authorised to demand the removal of face coverings they believed were being worn to conceal a person’s identity, throughout the borough of Westminster, from 10am on Saturday to 1am on Sunday. The force said this measure would not apply to religious face coverings.

Chris Nineham, the vice-chair of Stop the War, said: “This is yet another example of the police attempting to criminalise Palestine protests and in the process chipping away at civil liberties. They are deliberately trying to raise tensions and to create the impression that people marching for peace and an end to a genocide are a threat to society. It’s an absolute disgrace.”

After having told organisers on Wednesday the Met would not allow demonstrators to end with a rally on Whitehall, where marches have regularly ended, the force made a U-turn on Thursday and said the march could end near Downing Street.

A request for two end rallies, including one in Trafalgar Square, was denied, however, with the Met saying they would have hundreds of officers on duty but fewer resources than on previous march days to police the protests.

Source: The Guardian
 
Norwegian FM: Palestinian state essential for Middle East peace

Espen Barth Eide discusses Norway’s peace efforts in the Israel-Palestine conflict – from Oslo Accords to advocating Gaza truce.

Tracing Norway’s diplomatic journey from Trygve Lie’s pivotal role as the first United Nations secretary-general to its instrumental part in the Oslo Accords, a landmark agreement in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Norway has long been a beacon of international peace and neutrality.

Its commitment to these principles faces new tests with the current war on Gaza, raising questions about its arms export policies and the indirect implications for regions in turmoil.

Amid these complexities, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide talks to Al Jazeera.

Source: Al Jazeera
 

Palestinians hope Blinken visit can deliver Gaza truce before Rafah assault​


DOHA/RIYADH, Feb 5 (Reuters) - The top U.S. diplomat met Saudi Arabia's de-facto ruler on Monday in a visit that Palestinians hope will deliver a truce in Gaza before a threatened Israeli assault on Rafah, the border city where about half of the enclave's population is sheltering.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Riyadh at the start of his first Middle East trip since Washington brokered an offer, with Israeli input, for the first extended ceasefire of the war.

Blinken's meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman lasted about two hours, and the secretary did not answer reporters' questions as he returned to his hotel.

The offer, delivered to Hamas last week by Qatari and Egyptian mediators, awaits a reply from militants who say they want more guarantees it will bring an end to the four-month-old war in the Gaza Strip.

"Impossible to say if we’ll get a breakthrough, when we’ll get a breakthrough," a senior U.S. official told reporters during the flight to the Saudi capital. "The ball right now is in Hamas’ court."

Beyond the truce itself, Blinken aims to win backing for U.S. plans for what would follow: rebuilding and running Gaza, and ultimately for a Palestinian state - which Israel now rejects - and for Arab countries to normalise ties with Israel.

Washington also seeks to prevent further escalation elsewhere in the Middle East, after days of U.S. air strikes against pro-Iranian armed groups across the region.

British defence minister Grant Shapps told parliament on Monday that the air strikes had depleted the ability of Yemen's Houthis to target Red Sea shipping but the threat was "not fully diminished".

Israel has pressed on with its offensive and threatened a new ground assault on Rafah, a small city on the southern border with Egypt where over half of Gaza's 2.3 million people are now living, mostly in makeshift tents.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, visiting troops on Monday, said Israeli forces had killed or wounded more than half of Hamas' fighting forces and would carry on until "total victory".

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri dismissed Netanyahu's assertions, and said he was "playing the game of making delusional victories" in the face of continued resistance.

The ceasefire proposal, as described by sources close to the talks, would see a truce of at least 40 days when militants would free civilians among remaining hostages they are holding, followed by later phases to hand over soldiers and dead bodies.

The only truce so far lasted just a week in November.

"We want the war to end and we want to go back home, this is all that we want at this stage," said Yamen Hamad, 35, a father of four reached by messaging app at a U.N. school in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. The area is one of the few where Israeli tanks have yet to advance, and is jammed with tens of thousands of displaced families.

"All we do is listen to the news through small radios and view the internet looking for hope. We hope that Blinken will tell Netanyahu enough is enough, and we hope our factions decide in the best interest of our people."

Source: Reuters
 
IDF has lost 225 soldiers in Gaza. This is the official figure but real number is probably much higher than this.

Reference: https://www.timesofisrael.com/soldi...-gaza-fighting-raising-ground-op-toll-to-225/.

Soldier killed in southern Gaza fighting, raising ground op toll to 225​

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Fighting continued in Gaza on Sunday with the IDF announcing the death a day earlier of Sgt. First Class (res.) Shimon Yehoshua Asulin, a 24-year-old resident of Beit Shemesh.

Asulin, of the Combat Engineering Corps’ 924th Battalion, was killed in battle in the southern Gaza Strip, the army said.

He was the 225th soldier to have been killed in Israel’s ground operation in Gaza.

As fighting and strikes against the terror group continued across the Strip, the IDF said troops raided a building in Khan Younis used by a senior Hamas commander.

The Paratroopers Brigade raided the multistory building, which the IDF said was used by Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade commander to manage the fighting against Israel. In the building, the IDF said, the troops located weapons and military equipment.

In a separate raid, the IDF said, the soldiers found a cache of RPGs in an apartment. The IDF said the Paratroopers Brigade also killed several Hamas gunmen in close-quarters combat over the past day, as well as an operative who hurled two grenades and approached soldiers with a knife.

The Givati Brigade, also operating in Khan Younis, killed a gunman approaching them and directed an airstrike on two more operatives heading toward a building, the IDF said.

Also in the southern Gaza city, the IDF said a fighter jet struck and killed a Palestinian Islamic Jihad sniper.

Meanwhile, in northern Gaza, the IDF said the 401st Armored Brigade killed seven Hamas gunmen over the past day.

The IDF said the Israeli Air Force carried out several strikes across Gaza over the past day, including Hamas rocket launching positions and other infrastructure.

The Navy also carried out strikes along the Strip’s coast, aiding the ground forces operating in the area. The IDF said Navy vessels hit several Hamas and Islamic Jihad sites, including a building where operatives were gathered.

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said that at least 92 people were killed overnight, including in what the terror group’s media office claims was an Israeli airstrike on a kindergarten in Rafah where displaced people were sheltering.

There was no immediate response from the IDF over the claim. The figure could not be independently verified.

Hundreds of thousands of Gazans have poured into the southern city of Rafah to escape fighting elsewhere in the Strip after the IDF urged them to evacuate other areas in the months since the war began.

The United Nations has said the town is becoming a “pressure cooker of despair.”

The European Union on Saturday expressed deep concern over the Israeli military’s apparent intention to take its battle against Hamas to Rafah at Gaza’s border with Egypt. The prospect of a ground war in the city has raised fears about where the population would go to find safety.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned that conflict is likely to spread throughout the region unless a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is reached, after US airstrikes hit dozens of sites in Iraq and Syria used by Iranian-backed militias and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards following a deadly drone attack on US soldiers in Jordan.

Escalations between the US and Iranian proxies began after war broke out between Israel and Hamas when some 3,000 members of the terrorist group infiltrated Israel from Gaza on October 7 under a barrage of rockets, killing approximately 1,200 people and taking another estimated 253 hostage.

The war has led to the deaths of more than 27,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since October 7, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry. The terror group’s figures are unverified, don’t differentiate between civilians and combatants, and list all the fatalities as caused by Israel — even those believed to have been caused by hundreds of misfired rockets or otherwise by Palestinian fire.

Israel has said it has killed some 10,000 Hamas members, in addition to some 1,000 killed in Israel in the aftermath of the terror group’s October 7 invasion and onslaught.

Amid reports of an imminent announcement by Hamas on whether the terror group will agree to a proposal for a deal that would see hostages released in exchange for an extended pause in fighting, increased humanitarian aid for Gaza, and the release of Palestinian prisoners, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due to make his fifth crisis visit to the Middle East to push for the proposal, the State Department has said.

French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne, whose country has close ties with Lebanon, is also making a trip through the region, according to a spokesman.
 
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So one one hand, Biden calls him a bad guy, and on the other hand gives Israel billions of dollars...
This is how he tries to look like he's empathic to the Palestinean cause for the sake of getting re-elected while pandering to Israel imo

 
US reviewing Hamas response to hostage deal framework, will discuss with Israel

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday the United States was reviewing a response from Hamas to a framework on a deal for the release of hostages as part of an extended pause in fighting in Gaza.

Blinken said at a press conference in Qatar that he would discuss Hamas’ response with Israeli officials when he visits the country on Wednesday.

Blinken declined to discuss the details of the response.

Washington would use every tool available to reach a pause in fighting that would build upon an earlier release of more than 100 hostages, Blinken said.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done, but we continue to believe that an agreement is possible, and indeed essential,” Blinken said.

The United States was determined to use any pause in the fighting to build a diplomatic path forward to a “just and lasting peace” in the Middle East, he said.



www.brecorder.com

US reviewing Hamas response to hostage deal framework, will discuss with Israel

DOHA: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday the United States was reviewing a response from Hamas...
www.brecorder.com
 

Hamas responds to Gaza truce deal, Blinken says agreement 'possible'​


DOHA/GAZA, Feb 6 (Reuters) - The Palestinian militant group Hamas said on Tuesday it had delivered its response to a proposed ceasefire deal for Gaza that would also involve the release of hostages, and the United States said it still believed an agreement was possible.

No details of the response were immediately available.

The Israeli prime minister's office said late on Tuesday that the details of the Hamas response were being "thoroughly evaluated by the officials involved in the negotiations".

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on a lightning tour of the Middle East, said Washington was reviewing the Hamas response and that he would discuss it with Israeli officials when he visits the country on Wednesday.

However U.S. President Joe Biden, while acknowledging "some movement" on a deal, described the Hamas response as "a little over the top", without elaborating. "We're not sure where it is. There's continuing negotiations right now," he said in Washington.

In Doha, Blinken said, "There’s still a lot of work to do be done, but we continue to believe that an agreement is possible, and indeed essential." He spoke at a news conference with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani after Hamas delivered its response.

Sheikh Mohammed described the Hamas response as "positive" overall but also declined to give any details.

In its statement Hamas said it had "dealt with the proposal in a positive spirit, ensuring a comprehensive and complete ceasefire, ending the aggression against our people, ensuring relief, shelter, and reconstruction, lifting the siege on the Gaza Strip, and achieving a prisoner swap".

A Hamas official who asked not to be identified reiterated to Reuters earlier on Tuesday that the Palestinian Islamist movement would not allow any hostage releases without guarantees that the war would and Israeli forces leave Gaza.

Source: Reuters
 
Israel-Gaza war: Hamas responds to proposed Gaza ceasefire plan

Hamas says it has given its response to a framework proposal for a new ceasefire in Gaza.

The details of the deal - set out by Israel, the US, Qatar and Egypt - have not been released.

It was earlier reported to include a six-week truce, when more Israeli hostages would be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners.

Israel and the US have both said they are reviewing Hamas's response.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is currently in the Middle East, said he would discuss Hamas's response with officials in Israel on Wednesday.

While Mr Blinken has given no indication of how the US views the response, President Joe Biden described it as "a little over the top" - suggesting the Israeli leadership will not easily agree to what the group is asking.

A senior Hamas official told the BBC the group had presented a "positive vision" in response to the framework but had asked for some amendments relating to the rebuilding of Gaza, the return of its residents to their homes and the provisions for those who had been displaced.

The official said Hamas - which is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the UK, US and other countries - had also asked for changes relating to the treatment of those injured, including their return home and transfer to hospitals abroad.

The proposal was sent to Hamas around a week ago but a representative told the Reuters news agency it had taken them until Tuesday to respond because parts of it were "unclear and ambiguous."

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al Thani has described Hamas's response as "positive" in general.


www.bbc.com

Israel-Gaza war: Hamas responds to proposed Gaza ceasefire plan

Israel and the US say they are reviewing the response, which Qatar has described as "positive".
www.bbc.com
 

Gaza: Palestinian returns to his area but hardly recognises where he lived​

Tamer Kaskeen managed to return to his neighbourhood in Gaza City recently, but he hardly recognised the place where he lived. It was hard for him to locate the site of his home, which was destroyed by Israel during its devastating onslaught against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

When he finally identified the place where his house once stood, Kaskeen, 50, broke down in tears at the loss of his home.

His neighbourhood, known as Almukhabarat Towers area in the north of Gaza City, came under heavy Israeli ground attacks that destroyed almost all buildings and infrastructure. Kaskeen and his family were made homeless amid the cold weather, and lost hope of ever returning to their home.

“I thought I could return to my home, to find a room inside, but I found nothing, I can’t stop shedding tears,” Kaskeen told Anadolu. “The house of my neighbours — Al-Ghoul family — was not destroyed but was set on fire. It is also uninhabitable, and the family is scared to stay in it as its cement structure is weak.”

He added that he had worked for years to build his house and suddenly, in a matter of minutes, it was gone. “Should I wait 10 years for it to be rebuilt? When will my turn come to have it rebuilt?”

When asked about the situation regarding food and medicine in the northern areas of the Gaza Strip, he said: “There is no medicine and food for our children at the moment. We can bear such circumstances, but the children’s immunity is weak… The Israeli occupation forces are fighting the children and women.”

According to Kaskeen, he tried to shelter his family in one of the buildings in the area which is still under construction. “I am tired, I don’t know what to do. I went to schools but found them destroyed; I went to the Egyptian Towers but they were also destroyed.”

The Israeli army left a swathe of destruction in the areas it attacked, which became very apparent after their withdrawal from several areas in the north of the enclave. That’s when Palestinians posted videos on social media showing the scale of the destruction.

On Thursday, the Israeli army withdrew from several areas in the north of Gaza City and other areas in the north of the territory for the first time since the start of its military ground operation on 27 October.

The apartheid state has since been engaged in a genocidal offensive in Gaza, which has killed at least 27,585 Palestinians and wounded 66,978 others. Although nearly 1,200 Israelis were said to have been killed in the Hamas incursion in Israel on 7 October, it has since been revealed that a number were killed by the Israel Defence Forces.

The Israeli offensive has left 85 per cent of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine. At least 60 per cent of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Source:The Middle East Monitor
 

Israel’s war on Gaza: Truce deal plan reasonable, realistic – Hamas​

Al Jazeera has obtained a draft proposal by Hamas suggesting a three-stage Gaza ceasefire plan in response to mediation efforts by Qatar and Egypt. It includes the withdrawal of Israeli forces and phased-exchange of Palestinian prisoners for Israeli captives in Gaza.

A Hamas official has told Al Jazeera the “reasonable and realistic” counterproposal specifies deadlines and that any disagreements could be “ironed out” through negotiations.

US Secretary of State Blinken is in Israel to discuss Hamas’s response to the proposed truce deal and an Israel-Hamas prisoner swap after visits to Egypt and Qatar.

At least 27,708 people have been killed and 67,147 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The death toll in Israel from the October 7 Hamas attacks stands at 1,139.

Source: Al Jazeera
 
Netanyahu rejects ceasefire proposal, insists on total victory over Hamas

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday total victory in Gaza was within reach, rejecting the latest offer from Hamas for a ceasefire to ensure the return of hostages still held in the besieged enclave.

Netanyahu renewed a pledge to destroy the Palestinian Islamist movement, saying there was no alternative for Israel but bringing about the collapse of Hamas.

"The day after is the day after Hamas. All of Hamas," he told a press conference, insisting that total victory against Hamas was the only solution to the Gaza war.

Hamas had proposed a Gaza ceasefire of four-and-a-half months, during which all hostages would go free, Israel would withdraw its troops from the Gaza Strip and an agreement would be reached on an end to the war.

The Hamas offer, the contents of which were first reported by Reuters, is a response to an earlier proposal drawn up by U.S. and Israeli spy chiefs and delivered to Hamas last week by Qatari and Egyptian mediators.



 
Hope this bloodbath ends asap and that too on a permanent basis. These cease-fires are not a solution that can work for too long.

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Gaza ceasefire hopes alive with more talks planned

Mediators from the U.S., Qatar and Egypt scrambled to forge a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in their four-month-old war in the Gaza Strip after America's top diplomat on a Middle East mission said there was still hope for a deal.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he saw room for negotiation, and a Palestinian Hamas delegation led by senior official Khalil Al-Hayya was due to travel on Thursday to Cairo for ceasefire talks with Egypt and Qatar.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday rejected Hamas' latest offer, calling it "delusional," and Hamas urged Palestinian armed factions to go on fighting.

"There are clearly nonstarters in what (Hamas has) put forward," Blinken said on Wednesday at a late-night press conference in a Tel Aviv hotel, without specifying what the nonstarters were.

"But we also see space in what came back to pursue negotiations, to see if we can get to an agreement. That's what we intend to do."

Before heading back to the U.S., Blinken was due to hold meetings in Israel on Thursday, including with family members of hostages still held in Gaza who have clamoured for Netanyahu to make winning their freedom his top priority.

Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza, proposed a ceasefire of 4-1/2 months, during which all hostages held in Gaza would go free, Israel would withdraw its troops from Gaza and an agreement would be reached on an end to the war.

The Hamas offer was a response to a proposal drawn up by U.S. and Israeli spy chiefs and delivered to Hamas last week by Qatari and Egyptian mediators.

Israel would be willing to let Hamas military leader Yahya Sinwar go into exile in exchange for the release of all hostages and an end to the Hamas government in Gaza, a half-dozen Israeli officials and senior advisers have told NBC News.

In response to the Hamas plan, Netanyahu renewed a pledge to destroy the Islamist movement, saying there was no alternative for Israel but to bring about its collapse.

"Surrendering to the delusional demands of Hamas ... will not only not bring the release of the hostages, it will invite another massacre. It will invite a grave disaster for the state of Israel that none of our citizens is willing to accept," the Israeli leader told reporters on Wednesday.

"Continued military pressure is a necessary condition for the release of the hostages," Netanyahu said.

Israel began its military offensive after Hamas militants from Gaza killed 1,200 people and took 253 hostages in southern Israel on Oct. 7.

Gaza's health ministry says at least 27,585 Palestinians have been confirmed killed, with thousands more feared buried under rubble in Israel's offensive since then.

In the only truce to date, lasting a week at the end of November, 110 hostages were released and Israel freed 240 Palestinian prisoners.

Netanyahu, whose domestic popularity is at rock bottom, faces public pressure to continue working with international mediators toward an agreement in Gaza.

A poll of Israelis released by a nonpartisan think-tank, the Israel Democracy Institute, this week found 51% of respondents believe recovering the hostages should be the main goal of the war, while 36% said it should be toppling Hamas.

Washington has cast the hostage and truce deal as part of plans for a wider resolution of the Middle East conflict, ultimately leading to reconciliation between Israel and Arab neighbours and creation of a Palestinian state.

Netanyahu rejects a Palestinian state, which Saudi Arabia says is a requirement for the kingdom to normalise relations with Israel.

ISRAEL EXPANDS ASSAULT ON RAFAH

Israel has recently focused on capturing Khan Younis, the main city in Gaza's south. But last week Israel said it would expand its campaign into Rafah, where about half the enclave's 2.3 million people are penned against the border with Egypt.

Many have relocated several times to escape Israeli attacks, and they face dire shortages of food and risk of disease.

On the ground in southern Gaza, residents said Israel stepped up its assault on Rafah in the early hours of Thursday. Israel claims Rafah is now a bastion of Hamas combat units.

Two Israeli strikes hit two houses in the area of Tel Al-Sultan in the city, residents said. Hamas media said seven people were killed and 11 injured.

Footage on Palestinian media showed frantic efforts to rush the injured to hospital. Reuters could not independently verify the details.

 
Israel-Gaza war: Netanyahu orders military to plan evacuations from Rafah

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the military to prepare to evacuate civilians from the southern Gazan city of Rafah ahead of an expanded offensive against Hamas.

Some 1.5 million Palestinians are in Rafah to seek refuge from Israeli combat operations in the rest of Gaza.

It comes a day after the US warned Israel that an unplanned invasion of Rafah would be a "disaster".

Aid groups say it is not possible to evacuate everyone from the city.

Mr Netanyahu told military and security officials to "submit to the cabinet a combined plan for evacuating the population and destroying the battalions" of Hamas, his office said on Friday.

"It is impossible to achieve the goal of the war without eliminating Hamas, and by leaving four Hamas battalions in Rafah. On the contrary, it is clear that intense activity in Rafah requires that civilians evacuate the areas of combat," the statement added.

Earlier this week, Mr Netanyahu said he had ordered troops to "prepare to operate" in Rafah and that "total victory" by Israel over Hamas was just months away.

He made the comments while rejecting Hamas's latest proposed ceasefire terms.

Most of the people in Rafah have been displaced by fighting in other parts of Gaza and are living in tents.



www.bbc.com

Israel-Gaza war: Netanyahu orders military to plan evacuations from Rafah

The Israeli PM's order comes after the US warned against an unplanned invasion of the Gazan city.
www.bbc.com
 
Any Israeli military advance into southern Gaza’s Rafah area could cause mass deaths among the more than a million Palestinians trapped there, with humanitarian aid in danger of collapse, aid workers said on Friday.

Israel has threatened to advance from Khan Younis, Gaza’s main southern city, to Rafah, where the population has increased five-fold as people have fled bombardment, often under evacuation orders, since Israel began its assault on Gaza’s ruling Hamas movement.

Some 1.5 million people are now jammed into filthy, overcrowded shelters or on the street in a patch of land hemmed in by Egyptian and Israeli border fences and the Mediterranean Sea as well as Israeli forces.

Doctors and aid workers are struggling to supply even basic aid and stop the spread of disease.

“No war can be allowed in a gigantic refugee camp,” said Jan Egeland, Secretary-General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, warning of a “bloodbath” if Israeli operations expand there.

“Expanded hostilities in Rafah could collapse the humanitarian response,” NRC added in a statement.

Reuters has in recent days filmed the funerals of civilians killed in recent days by Israeli strikes.

Israel says it takes steps to avoid harming civilians and accuses Hamas militants of hiding among them, even in shelters - something Hamas denies.

A total of 27,947 Palestinians have been killed and 67,459 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since October 7, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Friday.

Some 107 Palestinians were killed and 142 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.

A doctor who left Gaza last week described Rafah as a “closed jail” with fecal matter running through streets so crowded that there is barely space for medics’ vehicles to pass.

“If the same bombs used in Khan Younis were used in Rafah, it would be at least a doubling or tripling of the toll because it’s so densely populated,” said Dr Santosh Kumar.

The development charity ActionAid said some people were resorting to eating grass. “Every single person in Gaza is now hungry, and people have just 1.5 to 2 liters of unsafe water per day to meet all their needs,” its statement said.

Humanitarian agencies say they cannot move people to safer areas because Israeli troops are positioned to the north, and that the aid that is allowed into the enclave is not nearly enough to go around.

“All our shelters are overflowing and cannot take any more people,” said Juliette Touma, spokesperson for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

Source: Al Arabiya English
 
Israel appears to be in breach of ICJ orders on Gaza, senior UN official says

Israel appears to be in breach of the orders issued a fortnight ago by the international court of justice requiring it to take immediate steps to protect Palestinians’ rights and cease all activities that could constitute genocide, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied territories, Francesca Albanese, has said.

The Israeli government was given until 23 February to report to the ICJ on what it has done to comply with six orders the court issued, including one relating to ending incitement to genocide and another requiring immediate steps to improve the supply of humanitarian aid.

Senior western officials say that despite hours of negotiations with Israeli officials there is at best a marginal and incremental improvement since the 26 January ruling. “Safe to say, it’s dire and getting worse,” one said.

The ICJ did not direct Israel to announce a ceasefire, as South Africa had requested, but by very large majorities the judges did make orders that were intended to have practical effect.

First, Israel was required to “take all measures within its power to prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to commit genocide” in relation to Palestinians in Gaza, after the court found “discernibly genocidal and dehumanising rhetoric coming from senior Israeli government officials”.

Second, the ICJ required Israel to “take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance”.

Israel was further required to take all measures within its power to prevent, within the scope of the genocide convention, the killing of Palestinians, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent births.

Many lawyers have interpreted this to mean that the acts mentioned are not prohibited so long as Israel undertakes them without genocidal intent – which Israel says is the case, and which the court will not test in full until later. Albanese, however, said she disagreed, and that the ICJ had mandated Israel to cease all activities that could constitute genocide.

Despite this, she said, the violence and the demolition of civilian infrastructure had continued, aggravating the harsh living conditions in Gaza. “The fatalities are not solely the result of bombings and sniper attacks,” she said in an interview with the Guardian. “They also occur due to a scarcity of medical supplies and treatment, and, most distressingly, due to inadequate access to food and potable water, forcing consumption of contaminated or polluted water.”

At least 1,755 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the court order.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said Israel has an “unwavering” commitment to international law and to its “sacred commitment to continue to defend our country and defend our people”. He has described the ICJ case as a “vile attempt to deny Israel this fundamental right”. The US – which has supported Israel in the aftermath of Hamas’s 7 October attacks – has called it “meritless”.

““Like every country, Israel has an inherent right to defend itself,” Netanyahu said. “The vile attempt to deny Israel this fundamental right is blatant discrimination against the Jewish state, and it was justly rejected.”

Lawyers have argued that the extent of Israel’s compliance with the orders is a test not only of the top UN court’s authority, but of other signatories to the genocide convention.

Yussef Al Tamimi, a visiting fellow at New York University school of law, pointed out that ICJ case law – notably the Bosnia v Serbia ruling in 1996 – specifies that states have the responsibility “to employ all means reasonably available to them, so as to prevent genocide so far as possible”.

He said that applied equally to states with “the capacity to influence effectively the action of persons likely to commit, or already committing, genocide”. In the Serbia judgment, the ICJ found “a state bore responsibility if it was aware, or should normally have been aware, of the serious danger that acts of genocide would be committed”.

This places stricter obligations on states that provide financial, intelligence and military assistance to Israel’s campaign in Gaza, he said. South Africa’s lawyers intend to press further over Israeli compliance with the ICJ’s orders and third parties over their obligations.

The case accusing Israel of genocide was brought by South Africa but others have since taken action. Nicaragua has asked to join the case on the basis, it says, that Israel is breaching the convention, and Algeria – the current lead Arab nation on the UN security council – has tabled a resolution endorsing the ICJ’s orders and adding that a humanitarian ceasefire is the prerequisite for them to be implemented, something the court itself did not say.

The US is opposed to the resolution. “This draft resolution could put sensitive negotiations in jeopardy, derailing the exhaustive, ongoing diplomatic efforts to secure the release of hostages, and secure an extended pause that Palestinian civilians and aid workers so desperately need,” the US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas–Greenfield, said a week ago.

Independent of the ICJ, Belgium has banned arms sales to Israel, Japan’s Itochu Aviation has informed its Israeli partner it will end strategic cooperation by the end of February, and the Dutch appeal court will decide next week whether or not the government is entitled to sell F-16s to Israel.

Yuval Shany, the Hersch Lauterpacht chair in international law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said Israel’s presentation to the ICJ could become a dynamic process rather than the submission of a single report.

“It is open to South Africa, on the basis of significant factual changes on the ground, to seek a change to the language in the order, or more substantially to seek new orders,” he said. “In the case of Armenia v Azerbaijan, Armenia twice failed in bids to seek modifications, but twice succeeded in adding new orders … the 26 January orders may not be the last word.”

Shany said the two most important concerns in the court’s orders last month were aid and incitement.On both , it is hard to argue that Israel has been in compliance. The central evidence on incitement is a conference organised by the ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit in Jerusalem three days after the ICJ ruling, in which the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, articulated a twin-track approach – encouraging the exodus of Gaza’s inhabitants while encouraging the influx of Israeli settlers. He argued it was “a correct, just, moral and humane solution”.

At the same event the chair of the major settler organisation Nahala, Daniella Weiss, was more explicit. Asked what would happen to the 2 million Palestinians in Gaza, she said: “The Arabs will move.” Just as Israel “doesn’t give them food” in order to pressure Hamas to release the hostages, so too should Israel “not give them anything, so they will have to move”, she said. One of the videos shown at the conference was a clip of soldiers waiting to join the ground invasion chanting: “There are no innocents in Gaza.” The conference was attended by 11 cabinet ministers and 15 members of the coalition.

The US described Ben-Gvir’s remarks as inflammatory, but the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who depends on his support to remain in office, has been silent. Similarly, little has been done to stop the stream of IsraelDefense Forces messages glorifying victory over the Palestinian people rather than Hamas.

The most serious infraction has occurred over the order concerning aid. The UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs reported on 5 February: “In the northern Gaza and Gaza governorates, the humanitarian situation has reached an exceedingly critical state, exacerbated by existing restrictions that impede the delivery of essential aid.”

It also pointed out that the Israeli authorities denied access to 56% of humanitarian aid missions planned for northern Gaza (34 out of 61) and 25% of missions planned for the middle area (28 out of 114) in January. Since 26 January the number of trucks allowed to enter Gaza, an inadequate metric, never exceeded 218 and was typically below 150.

Israeli rightwingers have blocked the Kerem Shalom crossing to prevent the entry of aid into the strip since 26 January and police have so far not removed their tents. The UN also noted that despite promises, checkpoints had not once been opened at 6am when operational conditions were optimal for delivering aid.

Many western governments which have engaged in months of fruitless negotiation to increase aid see an accumulation of bureaucratic hurdles and a reluctance to do anything that might help Hamas.

Cogat, the Israeli military body that liaises with the UN over aid, insists the humanitarian crisis is not as described by the agencies. It pointed out that 15 bakeries were operational in Gaza on Thursday, providing more than 2m loaves, rolls, and pitas a day for the local population. The number of operational bakeries had risen from 10 to 15 over the past two weeks, it said.

British and US officials think it would be possible to double the amount of aid entering Gaza relatively quickly, and are assured by Israel that its strategic intent is to “avoid a humanitarian catastrophe”. They also admit, however, that as long as Israel approaches each tactical and operational decision across the board on the basis that goods may be diverted to Hamas, the outcome can only be insufficient aid.

Kate Ferguson from Protection Approaches, a British NGO, told the UK foreign affairs select committee this week why the US and UK response to the ICJ case matters: “You cannot have approaches to mass atrocity crimes that are inconsistent. Inconsistency is the enabling factor for impunity everywhere.”

SOURCE: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...of-icj-orders-on-gaza-senior-un-official-says
 
Hamas on Saturday warned that there could be “tens of thousands” of dead and injured if the Israeli military attacked Rafah, in the far south of the Gaza Strip.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week said he had ordered troops to prepare to go into the city, crowded with displaced Palestinians, as it hunts down those responsible for the deadly October 7 attacks on southern Israel.

The announcement has prompted concern from foreign governments including the United States and aid agencies grappling with a growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza as a result of the war.

Hamas said in a statement that any military action would have catastrophic repercussion that “may lead to tens of thousands of martyrs and injured if Rafah... is invaded.”

The Palestinian militant group that controls the Gaza Strip said it would hold “the American administration, international community and the Israeli occupation” responsible if that happened.

Rafah, on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, has become a last refuge for civilians fleeing a relentless Israeli bombing campaign elsewhere in the Gaza Strip.

The UN says about half of Gaza’s 2.4 million people are now sheltering in the city, with many sleeping outside in tents and makeshift shelters, and mounting concern about lack of food, water and sanitation.

On Friday, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said a major Israeli offensive in Rafah “can only lead to an additional layer of endless tragedy.”

Netanyahu has ordered military officials to draw up plans for “evacuating” Rafah alongside “destroying” Hamas fighters in the city.

Witnesses reported new strikes on Rafah early Saturday, raising fears among Palestinians of a looming ground invasion.

Source: Al Arabiya

 
Saudi Arabia on Saturday warned that an Israeli invasion of Gaza’s Rafah will have extremely dangerous repercussions.

“Invading Rafah… which is the last refuge for hundreds of thousands of civilians whom the brutal Israeli aggression displaced will have [grave] consequences,” the Kingdom’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

It also reaffirmed the Kingdom’s “rejection and strong condemnation of forcibly” displacing people, and renewed its call for “an immediate ceasefire.”

“This [continuous] violation of international law and international humanitarian laws [makes it] necessary for the [United Nations] Security Council to hold an urgent session to prevent Israel from causing an imminent humanitarian catastrophe whom everyone who supports the aggression will be responsible for,” the ministry added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week said he had ordered troops to prepare to go into the city, crowded with displaced Palestinians, as it hunts down those responsible for the deadly October 7 attacks on southern Israel.

The announcement has prompted concern from foreign governments including the United States and aid agencies grappling with a growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza as a result of the war.

The UN says about half of Gaza’s 2.4 million people are now sheltering in the city, with many sleeping outside in tents and makeshift shelters, and mounting concern about lack of food, water and sanitation.

Source: Al Arabiya

 
An Israeli strike about 60 kilometers inside Lebanon’s southern border on Saturday targeted a Palestinian figure close to Hamas but he survived, four security sources told Reuters.

Three other people were killed, including one Hezbollah fighter, the security sources said.

The strike was much deeper into Lebanese territory than the usual exchanges of fire between Hamas ally Hezbollah and the Israeli military, which have been mostly limited to the border region. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Souce: Al Arabiya

 

Six-year-old Gaza girl found dead days after pleading for help​

Relatives found the body on Saturday of a 6-year-old Palestinian girl who had begged Gaza rescuers to send help after being trapped by Israeli military fire, along with the bodies of five of her family members and two ambulance workers who had gone to save her.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society accused Israel of deliberately targeting the ambulance it sent to rescue Hind Rajab after she had spent hours on the phone to dispatchers begging for help with the sound of shooting echoing around.

“The occupation deliberately targeted the Red Crescent crew despite prior coordination to allow the ambulance to arrive at the site to rescue Hind,” the Red Crescent said in a statement.

Israel’s military did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the Red Crescent statement.

Family members found Hind’s body along with those of her uncle and aunt and their three children still in a car near a roundabout in the Tel al-Hawa suburb of Gaza City, the official Palestinian WAFA news agency reported.

Another of Hind’s uncles, Sameeh Hamadeh, said the car was peppered with bullet holes.

The plight of Hind, revealed in harrowing audio clips of her terrified conversation with rescue workers 12 days ago, underlined the impossible conditions for civilians in the face of Israel’s four-month assault on Gaza.

The war began on October 7 when Hamas fighters attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and seizing 253 hostages according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s military has since overrun most of the tiny Palestinian enclave under an intense bombardment in a conflict that has killed nearly 28,000 people, according to Gaza health authorities.

During the course of the war, the Israeli military has said it takes steps to avoid civilian casualties. It has faced strong international criticism over the toll of dead and injured.

The audio clips released by the Red Crescent earlier this month recorded a call to dispatchers that was first made by Hind’s teenage cousin Layan Hamadeh, saying an Israeli tank was approaching before shots rang out and she screamed.

Believed to be the only survivor, Hind stayed on the line for three hours with dispatchers, who tried to soothe her as they prepared to send an ambulance.

Source: Al Arabiya
 
The Bald Eagle said:

Six-year-old Gaza girl found dead days after pleading for help​

Relatives found the body on Saturday of a 6-year-old Palestinian girl who had begged Gaza rescuers to send help after being trapped by Israeli military fire, along with the bodies of five of her family members and two ambulance workers who had gone to save her.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society accused Israel of deliberately targeting the ambulance it sent to rescue Hind Rajab after she had spent hours on the phone to dispatchers begging for help with the sound of shooting echoing around.

“The occupation deliberately targeted the Red Crescent crew despite prior coordination to allow the ambulance to arrive at the site to rescue Hind,” the Red Crescent said in a statement.

Israel’s military did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the Red Crescent statement.

Family members found Hind’s body along with those of her uncle and aunt and their three children still in a car near a roundabout in the Tel al-Hawa suburb of Gaza City, the official Palestinian WAFA news agency reported.

Another of Hind’s uncles, Sameeh Hamadeh, said the car was peppered with bullet holes.

The plight of Hind, revealed in harrowing audio clips of her terrified conversation with rescue workers 12 days ago, underlined the impossible conditions for civilians in the face of Israel’s four-month assault on Gaza.

The war began on October 7 when Hamas fighters attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and seizing 253 hostages according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s military has since overrun most of the tiny Palestinian enclave under an intense bombardment in a conflict that has killed nearly 28,000 people, according to Gaza health authorities.

During the course of the war, the Israeli military has said it takes steps to avoid civilian casualties. It has faced strong international criticism over the toll of dead and injured.

The audio clips released by the Red Crescent earlier this month recorded a call to dispatchers that was first made by Hind’s teenage cousin Layan Hamadeh, saying an Israeli tank was approaching before shots rang out and she screamed.

Believed to be the only survivor, Hind stayed on the line for three hours with dispatchers, who tried to soothe her as they prepared to send an ambulance.

Source: Al Arabiya
Click to expand...
Down with the Israeli army and government. The most wretched people on the face of the earth.
 
What does Saudi Arabia’s position on Palestinian state signal to US, Israel?

The Saudi leadership has made statements about Palestinian statehood before, but Wednesday’s statement clarifying the kingdom’s positions on conditions for normalization with Israel was a direct signal to the White House that achieving such an outcome requires ending the war in Gaza and recognizing a Palestinian state.

The statement outlines the traditional benchmarks that Saudi Arabia has long advocated, such as the call for recognition of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with east Jerusalem as its capital. But it also addresses the war in Gaza, demanding a halt of "Israeli aggression" and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territory.

Loud narrators

The confusion has a great deal to do with the nature of Saudi-Israeli relations as defined in Israel and the United States.

Source: Al Monitor
 
Many pro-Palestinian activists in Latin America have been relying on social media to disseminate information about the war in Gaza that is generally left out by the region’s dominant press conglomerates.

Some activists have managed to attain audiences large enough to force the traditional means of communication to replicate or at least mention their content.

The most important of such channels is Palestina Hoy (Palestine Today, @HoyPalestina on X), a Spanish-language account with over 566,000 followers.

Created only four years ago, the profile has become one of the most visited in the world, ranking 32 on the list of top X accounts at one point since the war broke out on Oct. 7.

It is now among the 140 most visited X profiles, according to one of Palestina Hoy’s administrators.

“Before the attacks we had 200,000 followers, and it has grown exponentially since then. It could be even larger if it wasn’t for the censorship we suffer on the internet,” the administrator told Arab News on condition of anonymity due to safety concerns.

The administrator said the channel began with a website in 2020, conceived to provide information about Gaza and the West Bank.

A team was established and the project began to grow. “We’ve been covering events in Palestine on a daily basis from the start,” the administrator said.

Members of the Palestinian community in Venezuela take part in a protest against Israel's military operations in Gaza and in support of the Palestinian people at Bolivar Square in Caracas on October 12, 2023. (AFP)
All content is taken from official accounts of Palestinian organizations, news agencies, and independent journalists whose work has been verified by the team.

They take extra care to avoid publishing fake news, the administrator said, adding: “Those are sources that are available to anyone. We don’t have people in the field sending information to us.”

Part of their effort is to translate Arabic-language content into Spanish. The group is not connected to any Palestinian organization, does “not receive even $1 from anybody to do that work” and is totally independent, the administrator said.

On Instagram and Facebook, Palestina Hoy has to deal with several restrictions. Videos showing Palestinians injured or killed are constantly blurred. Its content is not visible on users’ feeds, appearing only for followers. Live feeds are frequently interrupted. On Facebook, restrictions are even bigger, the administrator said.

Source: Arab News
 
The Bald Eagle said:

Six-year-old Gaza girl found dead days after pleading for help​

Relatives found the body on Saturday of a 6-year-old Palestinian girl who had begged Gaza rescuers to send help after being trapped by Israeli military fire, along with the bodies of five of her family members and two ambulance workers who had gone to save her.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society accused Israel of deliberately targeting the ambulance it sent to rescue Hind Rajab after she had spent hours on the phone to dispatchers begging for help with the sound of shooting echoing around.

“The occupation deliberately targeted the Red Crescent crew despite prior coordination to allow the ambulance to arrive at the site to rescue Hind,” the Red Crescent said in a statement.

Israel’s military did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the Red Crescent statement.

Family members found Hind’s body along with those of her uncle and aunt and their three children still in a car near a roundabout in the Tel al-Hawa suburb of Gaza City, the official Palestinian WAFA news agency reported.

Another of Hind’s uncles, Sameeh Hamadeh, said the car was peppered with bullet holes.

The plight of Hind, revealed in harrowing audio clips of her terrified conversation with rescue workers 12 days ago, underlined the impossible conditions for civilians in the face of Israel’s four-month assault on Gaza.

The war began on October 7 when Hamas fighters attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and seizing 253 hostages according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s military has since overrun most of the tiny Palestinian enclave under an intense bombardment in a conflict that has killed nearly 28,000 people, according to Gaza health authorities.

During the course of the war, the Israeli military has said it takes steps to avoid civilian casualties. It has faced strong international criticism over the toll of dead and injured.

The audio clips released by the Red Crescent earlier this month recorded a call to dispatchers that was first made by Hind’s teenage cousin Layan Hamadeh, saying an Israeli tank was approaching before shots rang out and she screamed.

Believed to be the only survivor, Hind stayed on the line for three hours with dispatchers, who tried to soothe her as they prepared to send an ambulance.

Source: Al Arabiya
Click to expand...
Still could not get over it. Curse be on all the Israeli forces.
 
The Bald Eagle said:

Six-year-old Gaza girl found dead days after pleading for help​

Relatives found the body on Saturday of a 6-year-old Palestinian girl who had begged Gaza rescuers to send help after being trapped by Israeli military fire, along with the bodies of five of her family members and two ambulance workers who had gone to save her.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society accused Israel of deliberately targeting the ambulance it sent to rescue Hind Rajab after she had spent hours on the phone to dispatchers begging for help with the sound of shooting echoing around.

“The occupation deliberately targeted the Red Crescent crew despite prior coordination to allow the ambulance to arrive at the site to rescue Hind,” the Red Crescent said in a statement.

Israel’s military did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the Red Crescent statement.

Family members found Hind’s body along with those of her uncle and aunt and their three children still in a car near a roundabout in the Tel al-Hawa suburb of Gaza City, the official Palestinian WAFA news agency reported.

Another of Hind’s uncles, Sameeh Hamadeh, said the car was peppered with bullet holes.

The plight of Hind, revealed in harrowing audio clips of her terrified conversation with rescue workers 12 days ago, underlined the impossible conditions for civilians in the face of Israel’s four-month assault on Gaza.

The war began on October 7 when Hamas fighters attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and seizing 253 hostages according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s military has since overrun most of the tiny Palestinian enclave under an intense bombardment in a conflict that has killed nearly 28,000 people, according to Gaza health authorities.

During the course of the war, the Israeli military has said it takes steps to avoid civilian casualties. It has faced strong international criticism over the toll of dead and injured.

The audio clips released by the Red Crescent earlier this month recorded a call to dispatchers that was first made by Hind’s teenage cousin Layan Hamadeh, saying an Israeli tank was approaching before shots rang out and she screamed.

Believed to be the only survivor, Hind stayed on the line for three hours with dispatchers, who tried to soothe her as they prepared to send an ambulance.

Source: Al Arabiya
Click to expand...
People who are still justifying this barbaric attack by Israel are the worst people on earth. How could the world ignore these kinds of acts. She was only 6. Martyred with many of her age.

Israel is a shameless state and those who are justifying are the same too.
 
Israel-Gaza war: Warnings mount as Israel plans Rafah offensive

Israel is facing growing international warnings over its planned offensive in Rafah - the city in southern Gaza crammed with Palestinian refugees.

UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron said "over half of Gaza's population are sheltering in the area", while Dutch FM Hanke Bruins Slot said there could be "many civilian casualties".

Saudi Arabia warned of "very serious repercussions" if Rafah was stormed.

Gaza's Hamas rulers said there could "tens of thousands" of casualties.

Israel launched its operations in the Palestinian enclave after more than 1,200 people were killed in southern Israel on 7 October by Hamas gunmen.

More than 27,900 people have been killed and at least 67,000 injured in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Many Gazans have ended up in Rafah having been forced to flee their homes elsewhere at least once.

Saturday's warnings came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his military to prepare to evacuate civilians from the city ahead of an expanded offensive against Hamas.

"It is impossible to achieve the goal of the war without eliminating Hamas, and by leaving four Hamas battalions in Rafah. It is clear that intense activity in Rafah requires that civilians evacuate the areas of combat," Mr Netanyahu's office said.

The prime minister also rejected Hamas's latest proposed ceasefire terms.

The US has already warned Israel that an invasion of Rafah as part of its assault on Gaza would be a "disaster", while the EU and the UN both expressed their own concerns.

Aid groups say it is not possible to evacuate everyone from the city on the border with Egypt.

Some 1.5 million Palestinians are believed to be in Rafah, seeking refuge from Israeli combat operations in the rest of the Gaza Strip. Most of them are living in tents.

In a social media post, Mr Cameron said he was "deeply concerned about the prospect of a military offensive in Rafah.

"The priority must be an immediate pause in the fighting to get aid in and hostages out, then progress towards a sustainable, permanent ceasefire."

Meanwhile, Ms Bruins Slot described the situation in Rafah as "very worrying".

"Many civilians in Gaza have fled south. Hard to see how large-scale military operations in such a densely populated area would not lead to many civilian casualties and a bigger humanitarian catastrophe. This is unjustifiable," she added.

Also on Saturday, the Saudi foreign ministry issued a statement that warned against "targeting the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip, which is the last resort for hundreds of thousands of civilians forced by the brutal Israeli aggression to flee".

The ministry also repeated its "demand for an immediate ceasefire".

SOURCE: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68266335
 

Israel’s strikes on Gaza’s Rafah kill nearly 100, injure hundreds more​

The Israeli regime has conducted extensive air raids and artillery strikes on the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, killing and injuring hundreds of civilians, mostly women and children.

According to Palestinian media, the regime’s brutal attacks on people's homes and mosques in Rafah have so far killed nearly 100 civilians while leaving at least 230 others wounded. Dozens of people are also trapped under the rubble.

A Palestinian Health Ministry official said Gaza's hospitals cannot handle the large number of casualties caused as a result of the Israeli attacks.

The new strikes came after Palestinian media reported that at least 11 Israeli soldiers had been killed in an ambush by Palestinian resistance fighters near the city of Khan Yunis, also in the southern part of Gaza.


The strikes also occurred at a time that more than one million people, above five times Rafah's usual population, have fled to the city amid Israel's brutal onslaught on the coastal territory.

An international humanitarian organization warns against intensification of Israel
The regime's aggression against Gaza has so far claimed the lives of over 28,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, leaving more than 67,700 others wounded.

Israel's genocidal war started after Gaza's resistance movements carried out a historic operation against the occupying entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

Source: The Press TV
 
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