[VIDEOS] The Palestinian and Israeli conflict

Zionists Terrorizing and traumatizing pre-teen Kids; dragging them from their homes to jails

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="es" dir="ltr">Policía israelí arresta a un niño de diez años mientras su hermana les ruega que lo dejen ir. <br>"El pueblo escogido por Dios"<br>"Israel tiene derecho a defenderse"<a href="https://t.co/LLx0q7c0kt">pic.twitter.com/LLx0q7c0kt</a></p>— Luigino Bracci Roa (@lubrio) <a href="https://twitter.com/lubrio/status/1397026557764513793?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 25, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
This is the daily life of Palestinians in West Bank that are under occupation and martial law.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/M_vG_tONW84" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
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Dozens of Palestinian journalists say blocked by WhatsApp
Journalists in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank as well as Gaza, said their accounts had also been blocked.

Messaging app WhatsApp has blocked the accounts of dozens of Palestinian journalists following this month's fighting between Israel and Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas, reporters said.

Shortly after a ceasefire went into effect at 2:00 am on Friday (2300 GMT Thursday) ending 11 days of deadly conflict, two journalists in AFP's Gaza City bureau received notices from WhatsApp in Arabic informing them their accounts had been blocked.

Other journalists, in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank as well as Gaza, said their accounts had also been blocked.

A crew from Qatar-based satellite news channel Al Jazeera said their accounts had later been restored after they lodged complaints with WhatsApp owner Facebook.

The vice president of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, Tahseen al-Astall, said "around 100 journalists" in Gaza had seen their accounts blocked.

Advocacy group urges Zuckerberg to cancel plans to launch Instagram for kids

As a necessary part of reporting on both sides of the conflict, Gaza journalists receive Hamas statements, including via WhatsApp, even though the Palestinian militant group has been blacklisted by the European Union and the United States, accused of belonging to "groups and entities involved in terrorist acts".

The Arab Center for the Development of Social Media said the blocking of WhatsApp accounts was not an isolated incident.

In a new report, the group, based in Israel's third city Haifa, documented 500 cases in which Palestinian "digital rights" had been violated between May 6 and May 19.

"Content and accounts were removed, reduced and restricted, hashtags were hidden, and archived content deleted," the report said.

Some "50% of these reports were about Instagram, 35% Facebook, 11% Twitter, and 1% Tik Tok.

"Companies did not provide an explanation for the deletion or suspension in the majority of their responses to users," the report said.

"However, the reasons presented to users included hate speech, violation of community standards, requesting proof of identity among others."

Facebook panel to review requests to remove 'harmful' content

We have seen an "escalation against digital rights of Palestinians" in recent weeks, 7amleh campaigner Mona Shtaya told AFP.

Social media remains an important tool for Palestinians, many of whom believe traditional media coverage does not sufficiently capture the reality of the crisis.

Tensions came to a boil earlier this month over the looming expulsions of Palestinian families from their homes in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah to make way for Israeli settlers.

Israeli air strikes and artillery fire on Gaza killed 253 Palestinians, including 66 children, and wounded over 1,900 people in 11 days of conflict from May 10, the health ministry in Gaza says.

Rocket and other fire from Gaza claimed 12 lives in Israel, including one child and an Arab-Israeli teenager, an Israeli soldier, one Indian and two Thais, medics say. Some 357 people in Israel have been wounded.

https://tribune.com.pk/story/2301726/dozens-of-palestinian-journalists-say-blocked-by-whatsapp
 
Dozens of Palestinian journalists say blocked by WhatsApp
Journalists in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank as well as Gaza, said their accounts had also been blocked.

Messaging app WhatsApp has blocked the accounts of dozens of Palestinian journalists following this month's fighting between Israel and Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas, reporters said.

Shortly after a ceasefire went into effect at 2:00 am on Friday (2300 GMT Thursday) ending 11 days of deadly conflict, two journalists in AFP's Gaza City bureau received notices from WhatsApp in Arabic informing them their accounts had been blocked.

Other journalists, in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank as well as Gaza, said their accounts had also been blocked.

A crew from Qatar-based satellite news channel Al Jazeera said their accounts had later been restored after they lodged complaints with WhatsApp owner Facebook.

The vice president of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, Tahseen al-Astall, said "around 100 journalists" in Gaza had seen their accounts blocked.

Advocacy group urges Zuckerberg to cancel plans to launch Instagram for kids

As a necessary part of reporting on both sides of the conflict, Gaza journalists receive Hamas statements, including via WhatsApp, even though the Palestinian militant group has been blacklisted by the European Union and the United States, accused of belonging to "groups and entities involved in terrorist acts".

The Arab Center for the Development of Social Media said the blocking of WhatsApp accounts was not an isolated incident.

In a new report, the group, based in Israel's third city Haifa, documented 500 cases in which Palestinian "digital rights" had been violated between May 6 and May 19.

"Content and accounts were removed, reduced and restricted, hashtags were hidden, and archived content deleted," the report said.

Some "50% of these reports were about Instagram, 35% Facebook, 11% Twitter, and 1% Tik Tok.

"Companies did not provide an explanation for the deletion or suspension in the majority of their responses to users," the report said.

"However, the reasons presented to users included hate speech, violation of community standards, requesting proof of identity among others."

Facebook panel to review requests to remove 'harmful' content

We have seen an "escalation against digital rights of Palestinians" in recent weeks, 7amleh campaigner Mona Shtaya told AFP.

Social media remains an important tool for Palestinians, many of whom believe traditional media coverage does not sufficiently capture the reality of the crisis.

Tensions came to a boil earlier this month over the looming expulsions of Palestinian families from their homes in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah to make way for Israeli settlers.

Israeli air strikes and artillery fire on Gaza killed 253 Palestinians, including 66 children, and wounded over 1,900 people in 11 days of conflict from May 10, the health ministry in Gaza says.

Rocket and other fire from Gaza claimed 12 lives in Israel, including one child and an Arab-Israeli teenager, an Israeli soldier, one Indian and two Thais, medics say. Some 357 people in Israel have been wounded.

https://tribune.com.pk/story/2301726/dozens-of-palestinian-journalists-say-blocked-by-whatsapp

Yet another example of Zionism's fascist antiques.

And of course, Telegram is better than this Zionist controlled app, anyways. Shame on you Zuckerberg.

"Democracy and freedom" "Freedom of speech"
 
Brilliant statement from Ireland, actually using the word annexation.

The Irish know too well the experience of settlerism, colonialism and bigotry.
 

This is a very interesting video, highly recommended, by an ex US Military Chief of Staff. He forecasts that USA will eventually cut off Israel as it's become a liability for USA.
 

This is a very interesting video, highly recommended, by an ex US Military Chief of Staff. He forecasts that USA will eventually cut off Israel as it's become a liability for USA.

Thanks for sharing.

Israel is a Zionist fascist regime where 51% of land is owned by the state and a few families. Every time Irgun terrorists aka IDF kill Palestinians, Netanyahu's popularity rises who basically is ruling thanks to the amount of blood he sheds.

Of course, USA/Europe's laws and all the speech of "freedom and democracy" is just hypocrisy.

Western peoples are starting to get fed up this whole façade that depends on "Anti-Semitism" card by multiple Zionist lobbies.
 
Thanks for sharing.

Israel is a Zionist fascist regime where 51% of land is owned by the state and a few families. Every time Irgun terrorists aka IDF kill Palestinians, Netanyahu's popularity rises who basically is ruling thanks to the amount of blood he sheds.

Of course, USA/Europe's laws and all the speech of "freedom and democracy" is just hypocrisy.

Western peoples are starting to get fed up this whole façade that depends on "Anti-Semitism" card by multiple Zionist lobbies.

This whole episode was started to save Natanyahooo's political carrier. He had failed to form a government after multiple tries and was also facing an impeding criminal investigation. His opponent was asked by the President of Izra to form a government and that guy was talking with Arab Israeli political party to be part of the coalition. To torpedo that coalition, this devious man started the expulsion of Arab families from Sheikh Jarrah and give those properties to ZioExtremists to get the hardliner vote. That whole snowballed into a massive escalation. He was expecting a little bit of protests from Arab but their heavy handedness and assault on Masjid ul Aqsa led to Hamas launching rockets. I think he salivated at "teaching" Hamas a lesson but was stunned at the amount of rockets launched that over whelmed their Iron Dome system. The cease fire was put in part because they exhausted their missile supply and US most probably said they will not re-stock until they ceased bombing of Gaza.
 
Some stuff from the link above:

One tactic of management is to make a huge number of arrests, including of children. The killing of settlers by Palestinians is made rare by a feat of control that is achieved through collective punishment and mass intimidation. After half a century, the Israelis have tens of thousands of informants, whom they have recruited primarily with bribes and blackmail. Palestinian communities know they are infiltrated, and so the fabric of trust is eroded, which further limits acts of resistance. And when there is resistance, the IDF rounds up whoever they can, shuts down shops, and lets the villages sort out for themselves who is or isn’t innocent. Night raids have proven a very effective means for scaring people and reducing the likelihood of riots. Soldiers bang on the door. If the door is not opened quickly, it is rammed open. Palestinian fathers typically try to get to the door as quickly as possible to open it, for fear of having to install, later, a new door. Recently, soldiers have forgone knocking, and prefer to quietly torch doors off their hinges so that they can enter silently. For Palestinian residents of the West Bank, the threat of waking up with an Israeli soldier in your bedroom, a soldier wearing a balaclava and pointing a semiautomatic weapon at you, is an effective means of control.

Whomever the soldiers are there to detain is cuffed with zip ties. Sometimes the detainee is a child. Sometimes the commander has no paper with a name. Sometimes the name is merely written on his hand in ballpoint pen. The individual is then blindfolded as standard procedure, put on the metal floor of an IDF vehicle, taken somewhere and put in a shipping container to wait. Why? It’s the middle of the night and the interrogation center doesn’t open until 8 AM. The soldiers go somewhere to smoke and drink coffee while they wait. By the time a child who has been arrested is questioned, he has been ten hours in a blindfold. He is hungry, thirsty, sleep-deprived, his hands are in pain, and his parents do not know where he is. The Israeli soldiers will ask the child not, Did you throw stones, but, Why did you throw stones. At first, Gerard Horton told us, children often deny any wrongdoing. Soldiers will then show the child photographs of his own home, of his parents, brother, and sisters, and inform the child that ruin will come to his whole family if he does not confess. Eventually the child will confess—to any occasion in his life when he picked up a stone, or thought about it, or was with someone who threw a stone, or knew someone who threw a stone or thought about throwing a stone. The interrogators all speak Arabic, but the confession documents, which a judge will review, are only in Hebrew. Invariably, the child signs. In most cases, children are not told of their right to silence, nor told of their right to a lawyer. Regardless, as Horton pointed out, “Most children do not carry the name of a lawyer in their pajamas.”

After their confession the children are transferred to prison and held without bail. A child lucky enough to get a lawyer from an NGO (Israel provides no legal aid to West Bank residents) will be pressured mightily to plead guilty. There is no point in declaring innocence, since 99.47 percent of trials result in a guilty conviction. An anecdote was supplied to us about a rare scene in which a lawyer got an acquittal. The translator stopped proceedings because he did not know the word for “acquitted” in Arabic. Children leave prison, and this court process, angry and distraught. There is no reason to tell the truth, they realize. There is no reason to trust or listen to adults. Everything is pointless.

We learn all this from Gerard Horton and then we enter Ofer military court, which smells of the broad open canal of human **** surrounding the buildings, which are actually just trailers. The stench seeps into every court proceeding. I watch a trial concerning a Bedouin farmer who drove his tractor accidentally on a road that had been temporarily banned to Palestinians. The IDF arrested him and dismantled his tractor into a pile of parts. He is asking to get it back, but instead he will be fined for the infraction of driving on a closed road. The proceedings are entirely in Hebrew and he is provided no translator.
 
This whole episode was started to save Natanyahooo's political carrier. He had failed to form a government after multiple tries and was also facing an impeding criminal investigation. His opponent was asked by the President of Izra to form a government and that guy was talking with Arab Israeli political party to be part of the coalition. To torpedo that coalition, this devious man started the expulsion of Arab families from Sheikh Jarrah and give those properties to ZioExtremists to get the hardliner vote. That whole snowballed into a massive escalation. He was expecting a little bit of protests from Arab but their heavy handedness and assault on Masjid ul Aqsa led to Hamas launching rockets. I think he salivated at "teaching" Hamas a lesson but was stunned at the amount of rockets launched that over whelmed their Iron Dome system. The cease fire was put in part because they exhausted their missile supply and US most probably said they will not re-stock until they ceased bombing of Gaza.

Zionism definitely have received a very harsh reality check here. What Hamas is throwing at them costs around $400 ...

Speaking to the Jerusalem Post newspaper, missile expert Uzi Rubin estimated the cost of the short-range Qassam rocket fired by Hamas to be somewhere between $300 to $800 each. Rubin, an Israeli defense engineer, pointed out that Hamas's best rockets are “relatively simply made” and “inexpensive.”

On the other hand, each missile of Zionists' costs American taxpayer around $40000 per missile whilst each battery costs $50 million.


Even some groups from Lebanon side had the opportunity to test Iron Dome's efficacy.

The sad part is Israel only killed a bunch of kids and their dictator had them celebrating in the streets.

Oh and they can only dream of doing a ground operation inside Gaza. People who live inside Gaza do not have bomb shelters, they're prepared to die and they will take down coward Zionists with them if they come toe to toe in Gaza.

Are Zionists prepared to die? I don't think so.

That's why I am 100% sure Israel can't win this war. A month ago, I would have said they can do airstrikes and destroy Gaza completely but Hamas' response (and Palestinian resolve) has changed my opinion. Zionist airstrikes will be met with thousands of rockets.

That leaves only one possible solution:

Israelis must overthrow Zionist regime and Palestinians must throw away warmongers in case of peace talks. Sitting on the table was the only solution, ever.

Times for countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and USA to push for peace.

Otherwise, only death and misery awaits Zionists and Palestinians.
 
Qatar has pledged $500m to reconstruction in the besieged Gaza Strip, the Gulf state’s foreign minister announced, following a ceasefire that ended the worst fighting in years between Israel and Palestinian armed groups in the coastal territory.

“The state of Qatar announces $500 million in support for the reconstruction of Gaza,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said in a tweet on Wednesday.

“We will continue to support our brothers in Palestine to reach a just and lasting solution by establishing their independent state.”
 
Zionism definitely have received a very harsh reality check here. What Hamas is throwing at them costs around $400 ...



On the other hand, each missile of Zionists' costs American taxpayer around $40000 per missile whilst each battery costs $50 million.



Even some groups from Lebanon side had the opportunity to test Iron Dome's efficacy.

The sad part is Israel only killed a bunch of kids and their dictator had them celebrating in the streets.

Oh and they can only dream of doing a ground operation inside Gaza. People who live inside Gaza do not have bomb shelters, they're prepared to die and they will take down coward Zionists with them if they come toe to toe in Gaza.

Are Zionists prepared to die? I don't think so.

That's why I am 100% sure Israel can't win this war. A month ago, I would have said they can do airstrikes and destroy Gaza completely but Hamas' response (and Palestinian resolve) has changed my opinion. Zionist airstrikes will be met with thousands of rockets.

That leaves only one possible solution:

Israelis must overthrow Zionist regime and Palestinians must throw away warmongers in case of peace talks. Sitting on the table was the only solution, ever.

Times for countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and USA to push for peace.

Otherwise, only death and misery awaits Zionists and Palestinians.

The two state solution has already been rejected by Israel, people seem to forget, they were not having any of it when Yasser Arafat put it forward and even assinated their own PM.

For now with all this war mongering, right wing zionists will remain in power for the foreseeable future, SA and Egypt cant do anything. only western countries can pressure Israel to sit at the table which they arnt now but with increasing pressure from protests in there own countries, things could change from there.
 
[MENTION=66515]finalfantasy7[/MENTION] its useless speaking to Gilly Hes firmly on the side of the occupier

He wants hamas to lay down arms and israel will come to a fair settlement with the palestinians lol

He can see all the violence from the occupied but not the 20 times higher murder displacement and subjugation from the occupier first

Just like israel he keeps talking about the effect of apartheid hamas hamas hamas hamas but conveniently is ignoring the cause of it israel israel israel israel

i know,been on this forum for yrs - his stance never changes,
 
Israel and Hamas to face investigation for possible war crimes following 11 days of fighting

Israel and Hamas will be investigated for potential war crimes after the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution in favour of action.

The resolution was passed by 29 votes to four at a special session in Geneva; the UK, France and Japan were among those who voted against it.

A commission of inquiry will now be established to look into "all underlying root causes of recurrent tensions, instability and protraction of conflict".

Israel's foreign ministry strongly dismissed the investigation and said it would not cooperate with a body that has "built in anti-Israel majority, guided by hypocrisy and absurdity".

"Any resolution that fails to condemn the firing of over 4,300 rockets by a terror organisation at Israeli civilians, or even to mention the terror organisation Hamas, is nothing more than a moral failure and a stain on the international community and the UN."

Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, said Hamas was a "jihadist, genocidal, terrorist organisation" and accused the group of using Palestinian civilians as human shields to conceal its rockets.

The United States, which did not take part in the vote, has said it "deeply regrets" the move because it "threatens to imperil" recent progress in the region.

https://news.sky.com/story/israel-a...crimes-following-11-days-of-fighting-12318677
 
Israel and Hamas to face investigation for possible war crimes following 11 days of fighting

Israel and Hamas will be investigated for potential war crimes after the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution in favour of action.

The resolution was passed by 29 votes to four at a special session in Geneva; the UK, France and Japan were among those who voted against it.

A commission of inquiry will now be established to look into "all underlying root causes of recurrent tensions, instability and protraction of conflict".

Israel's foreign ministry strongly dismissed the investigation and said it would not cooperate with a body that has "built in anti-Israel majority, guided by hypocrisy and absurdity".

"Any resolution that fails to condemn the firing of over 4,300 rockets by a terror organisation at Israeli civilians, or even to mention the terror organisation Hamas, is nothing more than a moral failure and a stain on the international community and the UN."

Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, said Hamas was a "jihadist, genocidal, terrorist organisation" and accused the group of using Palestinian civilians as human shields to conceal its rockets.

The United States, which did not take part in the vote, has said it "deeply regrets" the move because it "threatens to imperil" recent progress in the region.

https://news.sky.com/story/israel-a...crimes-following-11-days-of-fighting-12318677


This is a waste of time and energy Nothing will come of it as usual with the likes of the usa and uk vetoing them

Just add it to the list of the many unresolved resolutions gathered over the years for this conflict
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">“They are intentionally targeting minors.”<br><br>Palestinians, legal experts and activists note a worrying shift in the number of children being arrested as Israeli police announce ‘Operation Law and Order’ <a href="https://t.co/GODYCP1gDc">https://t.co/GODYCP1gDc</a> <a href="https://t.co/uaJrQzRlSH">pic.twitter.com/uaJrQzRlSH</a></p>— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) <a href="https://twitter.com/AJEnglish/status/1398226715936165889?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 28, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
This talk happened in a Church.


Watched the video.

The book he mentions in this video:

The General's Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine
by Miko Peled


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A review written in Goodreads.com (2014):

I will never be the same after reading this. Where do I even start?

Mine is the tale of an Israeli boy, a Zionist, who realized that his side of the story was not the only side and chose to cultivate hope in a situation most call impossible.

This is about Miko Peled's journey. His father's influence. The death of his niece in a suicide bomb attack that only further strengthened his resolve. It is enlightening, moving, at times, almost too much to read.

His father was the famous General Matti Peled. A hero for the Israelis for his military finesse and ruthlessness. A man who went on to become a peace activist. Who received death threats and hate from the very people he fought wars for. That right there should tell us everything about the VERY toxic Israeli mentality that goes with Zionism and Nationalism. Calling someone an "Arab lover" is an insult. Fraternizing with the "dirty, stinking, Arabs" is frowned upon. Two groups of people who live that close, and aren't allowed to intermingle.

It wasn't long before friends stopped inviting him and my mother to social events. He became a political and social pariah

And let me clarify, his father was NOT against the Zionist state. He was ONLY against the continued oppression of the Palestinians and believed they deserved equal rights. THIS was the man other Israelis sent death threats to, THIS is why he was accused of treason.

One point he came back to often was that the best thing America could do for Israel was to stop selling it weapons and giving it free money.

It amazes me, that an ENTIRE population of Israelis, and people around the world, choose to blindly believe the propaganda they are told by ANY government, let alone the Israeli govt.

Israeli citizens were led to believe that the Arab armies were coming to rape and murder them

Miko Peled talks about the days he was proud to wear the red beret and serve "his country", but how he was often uncomfortable with the orders.

.. that if anyone so much as looked at us, we were to beat them, or as he put it, "Break every bone in their body." {{snip}} But soldiers do not ask questions; they follow orders.

Where, oh where, have we ALL heard that before?

I cannot say how much I admire Miko Peled and his sister, Nurit's, minds. After Nurit's daughter died in a suicide bomb attack. She did not blame the oppressed and desperate Palestinians.

As she saw it, every Israeli politician who did not end the Israeli occupation and oppression of Palestinians was responsible for the deaths of Israelis and Palestinians. She reasoned, and still does, that this is not a question of policy or inability to reach an agreement but callousness, greed for land, a desire to rule, and a lack of will to end the conflict.

The sheer amount of fact and history in this book is overwhelming. How he went around reading up on Israeli historians and academics who corroborated NOT what he had been told his entire life by his government, but the "other" side of the "conflict" (and books he has mentioned which I have every intention of reading, except for the ones in Hebrew.. which unfortunately I won't be able to.)

It opened the door to a discussion most Israelis are fiercely protective about - which is, what did the Zionist forces REALLY do in 1948?

And you know what kinda people are fiercely protective of certain topics? The ones they get defensive about? The ones they know deep down inside they won't like the answer to. And that makes it all SO much worse.

The new state did not allow any of the Palestinians who left to return to their homes and land. They were to remain refugees forever.

About halfway through the story, Peled talks about the first time he actually SOCIALIZES with the dreaded Palestinians. Admits his fear, the fear that had been instilled in him by his people. And overcomes it, slowly, but surely. And it was a wonderful thing to read in an otherwise harrowing story.

It just made me realize HOW dehumanized the Palestinians are to most Israelis. No wonder they don't care, no wonder they call for Palestinian blood, and cheer for it. For generations they have been told that the Palestinians are no better than rabid dogs out for blood. They don't SEE the women, the children, the fathers, the grandparents. They CHOOSE not to see them. They have built an apartheid wall to separate them. They have no guilt.

The ugly concrete structure was built around the city by Israel to separate Palestinians from lands that Israel wants to settle. {{snip}} You could also see work being done to expand the wall and tunnels to allow Israelis settlers to travel from Israel to the settlements in the West Bank without having to see or interact with Palestinians.

He has been arrested numerous times by the Israelis, his own people, for things like making trips to the Occupied territories for peaceful protests, charity, taking supplies to those in need. (He recently got arrested once again for protesting for Palestine.)

My own people had arrested me for doing something good. My disillusion with Israel had sunk to a new low.

The sheer cruelty of the Israelis was mind boggling. Honestly, I just had not imagined it could be that bad. And that's saying something when you see the pictures of devastation in Gaza. Miko Peled's account is nowhere near as graphic, nor written dramatically, but in it's quiet earnestness, it is just as effective.

Gaza has essentially turned into an enormous concentration camp.

Since the early 1950s, Israeli commandos have conducted "punitive" operations against the people of Gaza - in spite of the fact that the people of Gaza never had an army and never posed a military threat.

Facts like how, OF COURSE, Israel was a staunch ally of South Africa in the apartheid years. How it used ethnically based oppression for decades to achieve it's gaol of creating a Jewish majority in Palestine.

I, of course, especially loved how Israel claims the same ******** over and over again for decades, and the world still sits silently by.

To make things worse, Israel claimed that notices were given to the local population that the attack was imminent and that people should leave areas that were going to be bombed. One can only imagine a mother or father sitting for days anticipating the onslaught, yet knowing full well that there was no escaping it.

Borders closed, no bomb shelter luxuries that the Israelis boast (for those pesky Hamas rockets), nowhere to hide themselves or their children. And sitting there waiting. While the Israelis sit at the border and view the bombing as if it were a display of beautiful fireworks.

.. was a continuation of an ongoing war, a war that aims to complete the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. I heard stories of people who drove to the Gaza border to sit on lawn chairs and view the bombing.

The searing hypocrisy of the Israeli military and police even when they were trying to arrest him shocked me.

"Look, he is an Israeli citizen and he has rights. It's not a Palestinian that I can just beat up and throw in prison."

There is an entire population of people. Who act like that. Think like that. Justify their heinous crimes like that. Do EXACTLY what was done to their ancestors.

The Holocaust lasted for 4 years (1941-45, the systematic genocide of the Jewish people), they had been persecuted since 1933 before that. The world is still reeling from the atrocities committed. The Palestinians have been enduring their holocaust for decades more. Will the future ring with the screams of the dying innocents for centuries to come? Or will history turn a blind eye to this as the world is doing now? Will we be telling our children that there once were Palestinians who lived on Palestinian land? Who had their own culture and identity? But are no more? Will we all continue treating Israelis as EQUAL victims? As bizarre and ridiculous and illogical as that is?

Miko Peled is way more hopeful than I about a resolution to this. I see no light at the end of this dark and bloody tunnel. I see no way the world will EVER be able to make up for ignoring the plight of the Palestinian people. I see no way that most Israelis, who deliberately do NOT want to educate themselves on facts, will ever see the truth.

But I find a glimmer of hope in the stories of the hundreds of Israelis who have searched for the truth themselves, and not trusted their ruling class (like none of us should).. the groups of Jews who condemn the "state" of Israel. The ones who realize that Palestinians are their fellow human beings. And there is no greater reason to NOT kill them.

This book is a MUST read for anyone who wants a harsh, but real, look at the situation. Miko Peled, and MANY Israelis after and before him who spoke of similar things, have NO reason to lie. And have always backed up their information with facts. The blind to the truth Zionists can condemn them as traitors and liars. But the truth is, they have NO reason to do so. And EVERY reason to share the truth with the world. It made me cry more times than I can count. But I would read it all over again just to educate myself. And to realize that this, unlike what our politicians tell us, is NOT a complicated issue. It is simple. It is straightforward. And it comes down to the world condoning the massacre of innocents. That is it. That is all.

I stand with Palestine. (even though I will probably never have the strength of heart that they do, to continue going on and making a life for themselves from the rubble and debris and blood soaked streets the Israeli occupiers leave behind.)
 

Palestinians, activists, and supporters have gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC in support of Palestine, demanding that the US stop its $3.8 billion aid to Israel.

Of course, Zionist powered media will never give coverage to these Americans who are demanding their pro-Zionist government to stop aiding illegal state of Israel.
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">"As an Israeli Jew, I not only have the ethical duty to declare that these things not be done in my name — I have a duty to act against them and stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people." <br><br>Israeli Jews demanding national pressure against apartheid. <a href="https://t.co/9KhF1t7xhQ">https://t.co/9KhF1t7xhQ</a></p>— Abraham Gutman 🔥 (@abgutman) <a href="https://twitter.com/abgutman/status/1399023442486247429?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 30, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

This is why anti-semitism from a stupid minority is fundamentally counterproductive to the Palestinian cause. Respect to progressive Israeli Jews like Abraham Gutman.
 
I've been following the Palestinian issue actively since probably 2002. There's 1 rule about these conflicts: 2 weeks after a big round of violence, Israel starts to harass Gazan fishermen in their own territorial waters. It starts to harass people in West Bank checkpoints. A man gets shot by a sniper for 'walking too closely to the separation wall'. Another man gets shot in the leg. A few get shot in the eye with rubber bullets. An Arab gets killed in his car for driving threateningly near soldiers. These incidents start to pile up and they never make the news in western media. But the aggravations and aggressions and oppressions of the occupier begin to pile up until someone fires a rocket or kills an Israeli and then the media wakes up and asks why are the Arabs attacking Israel again? Just like NYtimes just published "After years of quet, Israeli-Palestinian conflict exploded". Meanwhile their Jerusalem correspondent literally lives in the house of a Palestinian reporter who was ethnically cleansed from there in 1948. While CNN's Jerusalem correspondent posted a photo of a cake celebrating her cousin joining the IDF..


From a news website comment section
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="ar" dir="rtl">لقد دهسته سيارة الاحتلال بسبب وضعه علم فلسطين على دراجته.. ولم يكتفِ الجنود الإسرائيليين بدهسه فقط بل قاموا بشده وجره بطريقة مسيئة..<br>هذا ما يفعله الاحتلال الاسرائيلي بالأطفال في فلسطين.<br> <a href="https://t.co/8JooDWx2mX">pic.twitter.com/8JooDWx2mX</a></p>— Fatima Ftouni (@ftounifatima) <a href="https://twitter.com/ftounifatima/status/1399064336698679299?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 30, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Translation: He was run over by the Zionist settler's car because he placed the Palestinian flag on his bike .. Not only did the Israeli soldiers run him over, but they pulled him and dragged him in an abusive way.
This is what the Israeli occupation does to children in Palestine.
 
From a news website comment section:

I've been following the Palestinian issue actively since probably 2002. There's 1 rule about these conflicts: 2 weeks after a big round of violence, Israel starts to harass Gazan fishermen in their own territorial waters. It starts to harass people in West Bank checkpoints. A man gets shot by a sniper for 'walking too closely to the separation wall'. Another man gets shot in the leg. A few get shot in the eye with rubber bullets. An Arab gets killed in his car for driving threateningly near soldiers. These incidents start to pile up and they never make the news in western media. But the aggravations and aggressions and oppressions of the occupier begin to pile up until someone fires a rocket or kills an Israeli and then the media wakes up and asks why are the Arabs attacking Israel again? Just like NYtimes just published "After years of quet, Israeli-Palestinian conflict exploded". Meanwhile their Jerusalem correspondent literally lives in the house of a Palestinian reporter who was ethnically cleansed from there in 1948. While CNN's Jerusalem correspondent posted a photo of a cake celebrating her cousin joining the IDF..

Moreover there are Zionist companies recruiting settlers in Europe/USA/Latin America, these people are provided free housing, loans and per diem, all they have to do in keep on occupying Palestinian homes.

Palestinians are born in their country, they live and die there.

The Zionist rats, on the other hand, will jump ship as fast as they came in.
 
What do you want to happen with what is today Israel, West Bank and Gaza?

Please pick from one of 3 options and explain situation

1) Israel takes control of all of these lands for one state.
2) Israel should be disbanded and the independent country of Palestine should be formed on all these lands. Jews to leave or live under Palestinian rule
3) There should be a 2 state solution with shared control of Jerusalem.

Disucuss.
 
I guess idealy a shared state under secular law where both muslims and jews with the odd christian can live, but its never going to happen, therefore the 2 state solution is more realistic.
 
Conflict?.

Palestine’s ambassador to the UK, Husam Zomlot praised the chairman of an English football club after it flew Palestine’s national flag during a match at its stadium.

Dale Vince, who presides over League Two team Forest Green Rovers FC, said the flag was raised in solidarity with the Palestinian people and compared the violence and occupation faced by Palestinians to the current plight of Ukrainians.

In response to the gesture, Zomlot sent an acknowledgment letter to the Gloucestershire-based club, and even invited the team to visit occupied Palestine.


Earlier this week, Vince had published a series of tweets where he drew parallels between Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Vince said both territories are suffering from invasion, sieges, and occupation, with civilians being killed and hospitals and homes being destroyed.

"Palestine has been under siege by Israel - by air, land and sea, for decades. The US allows this, pumps billions into Israel to support its economy and military and uses its veto to block any meaningful action by the UN," he said.


Several footballers and UK football fans have shown solidarity with Palestine over the years, notably the Scottish Premiership club Celtic FC, who often fly the flag in honour of Palestinians.

Other footballers, such as Manchester United's Paul Pogba and Manchester City's Riyad Mahrez, have waved the flag to show Palestine solidarity.

Their gestures came as Israel waged an 11-day war on the besieged Gaza Strip in May last year, which killed more than 200 Palestinians.

https://english.alaraby.co.uk/news/palestines-uk-envoy-praises-english-club-flag-gesture
 
Funny things come up when you spend an afternoon randomly searching the net. Of all the pieces I've seen on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this is one of the best from an unlikely source. Ian Gilmour wasn't a Marxist hippy or a contributor to electronic intifada, but a moderate British Conservative (a dying tradition) who served in Margaret Thatcher's Cabinet !

This analysis excoriates American ineptitude, Israeli deception and Arab weakness. I had no idea Anwar Sadat, hailed in Western circles for his bravery and courage (translation: giving Israel nearly everything they want) was so naive and pathetic as a negotiator. Sadly this was written in 1982 and not much has changed.

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v04/n03/ian-gilmour/america-and-israel

On America:

It will be seen from Mr Riad’s book that American politicians can be divided into two classes: some, like Johnson, Nixon and Kissinger, were happy to follow pro-Zionist policies and despite occasional exasperation to be the willing tools of Israel; others, like Rusk, Rogers, Ford, Carter and Vance, tried to be even-handed between Israel and the Arabs and not to lose sight of America’s national interests. But whichever class they belonged to, whether they were willing or unwilling, they all ended up playing Israel’s game and abandoned the search for a comprehensive peace. Israel ultimately controlled American policy whoever was nominally in charge of it.

On Sadat:

Although inexperienced in international affairs, he seldom took the advice of his talented experts, and expected his generosity towards other nations to be reciprocated: and no amount of experience to the contrary altered his behaviour. He continued to cast his bread on the waters even though it virtually never came back to him. Combined with this naivety about the ways of the world was a marked distaste and inaptitude for detailed negotiation. Such an attitude would have led to trouble whoever his partners or opponents had been: in negotiating with Kissinger and the Israelis it was crippling.

Sadat’s visit to Jerusalem in November 1977 was a superb and courageous action. But even here Sadat seems to have had hopelessly unrealistic expectations of its likely results. He evidently thought that the Israelis would be so impressed that their objections to withdrawing from the occupied territories would evaporate in the euphoria generated by his visit. Begin, as he should have known, does not suffer from that sort of euphoria.
 
I guess idealy a shared state under secular law where both muslims and jews with the odd christian can live, but its never going to happen, therefore the 2 state solution is more realistic.

So a new state made up of East Palestine and West Palestine then.

What happens to the Israeli settlers in the Occupied Territories?
 
Five Palestinians, including several gunmen, have been killed in a major Israeli raid against a militant group in the occupied West Bank.

A sixth Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli troops who were attacked with stones in a protest against the raid, Palestinian medical sources say.

The operation in the northern city of Nablus targeted the recently formed Lion's Den group.

The group killed an Israeli soldier in a shooting earlier this month.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had locked down Nablus for the past two weeks amid an intensive search for the killer of 21-year-old Staff Sergeant Ido Baruch, shot dead in an ambush close to a nearby Israeli settlement.

There has been an intensification of violence between Israel and Palestinians in the West Bank in recent weeks amid an ongoing Israeli operation to root out militants following a wave of deadly attacks against Israelis earlier this year.
 
1 Dead, 14 Wounded After Explosions At Two Jerusalem Bus Stations
The twin blasts struck half an hour apart, police said, noting that explosives experts were at the scene with police and forensic scientists "collecting evidence and scanning the area for suspects."

Jerusalem: At least one person was killed and 14 wounded in two separate explosions targeting bus stops in Jerusalem Wednesday, security and medical officials said, with Israel's public security minister calling them "attacks."
An explosion at a bus stop at the western exit from Jerusalem killed a man and wounded 11. A separate blast at another stop a short distance away damaged a bus and wounded three people, the hospitals treating the casualties said.

The twin blasts struck half an hour apart, police said, noting that explosives experts were at the scene with police and forensic scientists "collecting evidence and scanning the area for suspects."

An AFP photographer at the scene said the blast had ripped a hole through a metal fence behind the bus stop, with an electric scooter and a hat lying on the ground.

The photographer said the second blast had torn through the side of a bus.

Jerusalem's Shaare Zedek hospital said a man had died of his wounds from the first explosion. Doctors were treating another person in critical condition, two seriously wounded and two lightly wounded.

Hadassah medical centre said it was treating six people injured in the first blast and another three people lightly wounded in the second.

'Horrified'

Public Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev said he spoke with the police chief and was "briefed on the two attacks in Jerusalem."

Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, praised the bombings.

"We congratulate our Palestinian people and our people in the occupied city of Jerusalem on the heroic special operation at the bus stop," Hamas spokesman Abd al-Latif al-Qanua said.

The European Union's ambassador to Israel said he was "horrified by the terror attacks".

"I express my deepest condolences to the family of the victims and wish a speedy recovery to all injured. Terror is never justified," Dimiter Tzantchev wrote on Twitter.

Defence Minister Benny Gantz was holding consultations with the head of the Shin Bet internal security agency and senior military officials, his office said.

Violence has flared this year, particularly in the occupied West Bank, where the Israeli army has launched near-daily raids since a series of deadly attacks on Israeli targets earlier this year.

Following Wednesday's bomb attacks, the Israeli military announced two checkpoints near the flashpoint West Bank city of Jenin had been closed.

During the second intifada, or uprising, in the early 2000s, Palestinian militants repeatedly planted bombs at urban bus stops, including in Jerusalem.

ARY
 
One person has been killed and 14 others wounded by two separate explosions that targeted busy bus stops in Jerusalem, Israeli medics say.

The first blast was reportedly caused by a device left at a bus station on the city's outskirts. It wounded 11 people, one of whom died in hospital.

The second blast came close to a bus stop in another part of the city. It left three people with minor injuries.

Israeli police said the explosions were suspected Palestinian attacks.

This year has seen a spate of deadly gun and knife attacks targeting Israelis, triggering waves of Israeli military raids in Palestinian cities in the occupied West Bank.

But the use of explosives in Jerusalem would be the most significant attack of its kind in years.

BBC
 
Pope urges Israelis, Palestinians, to seek dialogue after surge in violence

VATICAN CITY, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Sunday urged Israeli and Palestinian authorities to make greater efforts to seek dialogue following recent deadly bomb attacks in Jerusalem and clashes in the occupied West Bank.

Speaking to tens of thousands of people in St. Peter's Square for his Sunday blessing, Francis said violence was "killing the future" for both.

Two bombs exploded at bus stops on Jerusalem's outskirts on Wednesday, killing a 16-year-old boy and wounding at least 14 people in what appeared to be an attack by Palestinian militants. A 50-year-old man, died of injuries on Saturday.

Late on Tuesday night, a 16-year-old Palestinian boy was shot dead by Israeli forces during clashes in the Israeli occupied West Bank city of Nablus.

The pope mentioned both incidents, calling the Jerusalem blasts "vile", and saying that he was concerned about the increase of violence in the past few months.

"Violence kills the future, interrupting the lives of the youngest and weakening the hopes for peace. Let us pray for these young people who died and for their families, especially for their mothers," he said.

"I hope that Israeli and Palestinian authorities take the search for dialogue to heart in a greater way, building reciprocal trust, without which there will never be a solution for peace in the Holy Land," he said.

Reuters
 
Three Palestinian men have been killed by Israeli forces in two separate incidents in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials say.

Two were brothers in their 20s who were reportedly shot dead as clashes broke out with Israeli troops near Ramallah.

Israel's military said suspects threw petrol bombs at troops during an operation and that they returned fire.

The third man was shot dead after two Israeli army jeeps out on patrol broke down near Hebron.

The military said its forces were shot at and that improvised explosives were thrown at them.

Israel carries out search-and-arrest raids almost every night in the West Bank, where at least 140 Palestinians have been killed this year, most by Israeli fire.

More than 30 Israelis have also been killed amid a spate of gun and knife attacks by Palestinians.

Jawad Rimawi, 22, and Thafer Rimawi, 21, who were students at Birzeit University, were killed on Tuesday about 16km (10 miles) north-west of Ramallah.

Palestinian sources said the brothers had visited a relative in the village of Beit Rima as Israeli forces carried out an operation in the area.

As the forces withdrew, confrontations broke out with dozens of young Palestinians, who threw stones and petrol bombs at them, the sources added.

The Palestinian health ministry said the brothers were shot and taken to a local hospital, where they died.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that a "riot was instigated by a number of suspects" during a "routine" overnight activity.

"The suspects hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails toward the soldiers, who responded with riot dispersal means and live fire," it added.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-63792604
 
The right wing government is coming to power now. They will be brutal to the oppressed.
 
PM Modi "Reiterates India's Unwavering Support To Palestinian Cause"

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday reiterated India's "unwavering support to the Palestinian cause" on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people, an annual United Nations-organised observance.

"On the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people, I reiterate India's unwavering support to the Palestinian cause," PM Modi said in a statement.

"India's ties with the friendly people of Palestine are rooted in our common history. We have always supported the Palestine people in their pursuit of economic and social development with dignity and self reliance," he added. "We are hopeful that direct talks between the Palestinian and Israeli sides will resume to find a comprehensive and negotiated solution."

In October this year, India presented a cheque of USD 2.5 million, part of the annual USD 5 million support pledged to Palestine, to a UN agency that will directly benefit schools and health centres to support Palestinian refugees.

Since 2018, India has given USD 22.5 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

"On behalf of the Government and the people of India, I extend my best wishes to the people of the State of Palestine in their journey to achieve statehood, peace and prosperity," PM Modi said in the statement.

India-Palestine relations stretch back nearly half a century. In 1974, India became the first non-Arab nation to recognise the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). Fourteen years later, India was among a few countries to recognise the Palestine State. Diplomatic relations with Palestine increased in 1996 when India opened a Representative Office in Gaza, which was later shifted to Ramallah in 2003.

NDTV
 
<b>‘Executed in cold blood’: Palestinians react to public killing</b>

Palestinian activists and social media users have called for a response against Israeli crimes and killings against them.

The killing of a Palestinian man by an Israeli soldier in broad daylight in the occupied West Bank has sparked widespread anger among Palestinians, amid calls on social media to escalate resistance acts against the Israeli occupation.

The last moments of Ammar Mufleh, 23, were captured on video on Friday by an unknown Palestinian.

Footage showed Mufleh being held in a headlock by an Israeli soldier, as two other men try to wrestle him away. Mufleh then appears to strike the soldier and attempt to take hold of his rifle before the soldier pulls out a handgun and shoots him several times as he falls to the ground.

In the immediate aftermath, Israeli forces took away Mufleh’s body, denying him a funeral – a well-versed humiliation and control tactic against Palestinians who are shot dead by Israeli forces. Confrontations broke out in the town and several Palestinians were subsequently injured, local media reported.

The incident took place in the occupied West Bank town of Huwara, south of Nablus, which went on a commercial strike the following day in protest at Mufleh’s killing.

The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned the shooting as tantamount to an execution, meant to escalate already spiralling violence in the occupied territory.

Palestinian activists and social media users used the hashtag “Huwara Execution” in Arabic and called for a response to Israel’s crimes.

Abdelrahim al-Sheikh, a lecturer at Birzeit University, wrote on Facebook: “There is no option for the Palestinian, who has sprung out of this land, except to defend himself in the face of the terrorism of the [Israeli] occupier.”

A statement issued by the Lions’ Den, a Palestinian multi-factional armed group, called on people to block the roads and take to the streets in protest.

The group said it carried out “shooting operations” at Israeli targets in the vicinity of Nablus, after midnight, as well as firing at an Israeli military point on Mount Gerizim.

“We call on our brothers, the fighters of the factions, to close ranks and direct our guns together in order to avenge the blood of the martyrs,” their statement said.

Radwan al-Akhras, a Palestinian writer, pointed out that this is the 10th Palestinian to be killed by Israel in 10 days, and said they are not merely statistics, but people who had families and loved ones, hopes and dreams.

“The scene of the cold-blooded execution of the Palestinian youth #Ammar_Mufleh by the Israeli soldier is one of the most difficult scenes I have seen in my life,” he wrote on Twitter.

Rising tensions have made 2022 the deadliest year since the end of the second Intifada in 2005, with at least 207 Palestinians killed in the occupied territories of the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and East Jerusalem.

For their part, Israel’s police said in a statement that its border guards were approached by several suspects when one “pulled out a knife and stabbed one of them”.

The guards “responded by shooting one suspect and neutralising him”, the statement said, adding that one of the guards suffered minor injuries.

Palestinians dismissed this version of events, saying that Mufleh was unarmed and that the alleged murder weapon was not found.

Ahmed Majdalani, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) Executive Committee, said that the Israeli occupation forces had executed Mufleh in full view of the whole world, and is a clear sign of the “new fascism” in Israel.

“This documented and clear crime requires the International Criminal Court to try the occupation soldiers and stop dealing with the occupation as a state above the law,” Majdalani added.

The PLO’s human rights body said that there are changes in the firing instructions and the behaviour of the Israeli forces in the occupied territory, based on the new aggressive policy of the most far-right Israeli government against the Palestinians, which “establishes a new stage in the conflict”.

Palestinians and rights advocates fear a more aggressive policy under Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu, who has cobbled together the most far-right Israeli cabinet.

Netanyahu has roped in Bezalel Smotrich, who opposes Palestinian statehood, and Itamar Ben Gvir, a far-right anti-Palestinian religious settler, in his cabinet.

Ben-Gvir, a settler from Kiryat Arba in the occupied West Bank, has been convicted of incitement to racism, destroying property, possessing a “terror” organisation’s propaganda material and supporting a “terror” organisation. Ben-Gvir also wants to expel “disloyal” Palestinian citizens of Israel.

The far-right Religious Zionism Party, led by Smotrich, supports settlement building in the occupied territories. The party will hold the authority over Israeli settlement activity in the occupied West Bank under the Netanyahu government.

The International Human Rights Foundation called on the international community to take up sanctions against Israel.

“The police execution of the young Palestinian Ammar Mufleh must not go unpunished,” the foundation tweeted.

“Such assassinations by agents of the Israeli state are too common and constitute a clear violation of human rights. The International Community must adopt sanctions.”

Nasser Kanaani, the spokesman of Iran’s foreign ministry said Mufleh’s death “deserves a global reaction, but the daily crimes of the criminal Zionist regime are not condemned by human rights claimants, nor is a fact-finding committee formed for those crimes.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/12/3/executed-in-cold-blood-palestinians-react-to-public-killing
 
Disgusting but unfortunately sometimes Palestinians give them a reason as sickening as it is to say.

You don't need to give them a reason to commit daylight genocide so any excuse will do
 
Rocket Fired Into Israel Amid Violence In West Bank: Report

Jerusalem: Palestinian militants fired a rocket from Gaza into Israel Saturday without causing any casualties, the army said, as a surge in violence grips the occupied West Bank.

There was no immediate claim for the attack, the first in a month according to the army.

However, one of Gaza's larger armed factions, Islamic Jihad, had threatened to retaliate after Israeli troops killed two of its leaders in the West Bank town of Jenin on Thursday.

Witnesses said the Israeli army swiftly riposted by firing on two observation posts east of Gaza City, operated by the territory's Islamist rulers Hamas.

The rocket attack came as a surge in bloodshed in the occupied West Bank sparked international criticism of the Israeli army for its use of lethal force against Palestinian civilians.

Criticism has focused on the killing of Ammar Hadi Mufleh, 22, in disputed circumstances in the town of Huwara, just south of Nablus, on Friday.

United Nations Middle East peace envoy Tor Wennesland said he was "horrified" by the killing "during a scuffle with an Israeli soldier".

The European Union said it was "greatly concerned about the increasing level of violence" which had seen 10 Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces in recent days.

"Such unacceptable facts must be investigated and there must be full accountability," EU foreign policy chief Joseph Borell said.

"Under international law, lethal force is only justified in situations in which there exists a serious and imminent threat to life".

According to the Israeli version of events, Mufleh tried to force open the door of an Israeli couple's car before stabbing a border policeman.

A senior border police officer then shot Mufleh dead, saying that the Palestinian had made a grab for his weapon.

Palestinian municipal official Wajeh Odeh told AFP the shooting followed "a quarrel".

"An Israeli soldier pushed the Palestinian to the floor and shot him from zero distance," Odeh said.

The Israeli foreign ministry responded angrily to the criticism.

"This reaction is a total distortion of reality," it tweeted in English. "This is NOT a 'scuffle' -this is a terror attack!"

Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said he fully supported the border police officer's decision to open fire "to save lives".

"Our security forces will continue to act resolutely against terrorism," he said.

At least 145 Palestinians and 26 Israelis have been killed in violence in Israel and the West Bank, including annexed east Jerusalem, this year, the heaviest toll since 2015.

NDTV
 
3 Palestinians Killed By Israeli Forces In Occupied West Bank: Report

Israeli forces killed three Palestinians on Thursday in the flashpoint city of Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said.

"Three killed by bullets from the Israeli occupation during its aggression in Jenin at dawn today," the Palestinian health ministry reported.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request to comment on their latest operation in Jenin, one of the near-daily raids across the West Bank launched in the wake of deadly attacks targeting Israelis earlier this year.

The Islamic Jihad terror group said Thursday their fighters were engaged in "fierce clashes" with Israeli forces in Jenin.

A surge in violence this year has seen at least 150 Palestinians and 26 Israelis killed across the West Bank, Israel and the contested city of Jerusalem.

The toll includes more than 40 Palestinians killed in the Jenin area during Israeli forces operations, including militants, children as young as 12, and veteran Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

Israel has occupied the West Bank and east Jerusalem since the 1967 Six-Day War.

NDTV
 
Israel deports Palestinian-French human rights lawyer Salah Hamouri
Hamouri, a Jerusalem resident without Israeli citizenship, was detained under administrative detention without charge in March

Israel has deported French-Palestinian human rights lawyer Salah Hamouri, accusing him of security offences against the state of Israel, the Israeli interior ministry said in a statement.

Hamouri was escorted early on Sunday morning to the airport, where he boarded a flight to France, with his campaign saying there was no legal recourse for him to take.

Hamouri, 37, a Jerusalem resident without Israeli citizenship, had his residency status revoked on 1 December on charges that he was active in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, classified by Israel and its western allies as a terror group.

“During his life he organised, inspired and planned to commit terror attacks on his own and for the organisation against citizens and well-known Israelis,” a statement from the interior ministry said.

A statement from the Hamouri campaign called the deportation a “war crime” and said it constituted a breach of international law.

“Wherever a Palestinian goes, he takes with him these principles and the cause of his people: his homeland carried with him to wherever he ends up,” Hamouri said in a statement.

Hamouri was most recently detained by Israel under administrative detention without charge on 7 March until 1 December, when Israel revoked his residency and stated he would be deported.

He was previously detained by Israel between 2005 and 2011 after being accused of attempting to assassinate Sephardi rabbi Ovadia Yossef, the founder of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, but has always maintained his innocence.

Hamouri was released in December 2011 as part of an exchange of Palestinian prisoners for Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier released in October 2011 after five years in captivity in the Gaza Strip at the hands of Hamas.

The French consulate in Jerusalem had no immediate comment on Sunday.

The overwhelming majority of East Jerusalem’s more than 340,000 Palestinians hold Israeli residency permits but few have citizenship in Israel, which considers the entire holy city as its eternal, undivided capital.

The Palestinians have long sought the city’s east, which Israel captured in a 1967 war and later annexed in a move not recognised internationally, as capital of a future state.

Jessica Montell, executive director of HaMoked, which represents Hamouri, told Reuters that other Jerusalem residents had been charged with breach of allegiance and had their residency revoked in the past but could not be deported as they held no other citizenship.

Hamouri’s case, therefore, set a precedent for the deportation of Jerusalemites who held alternative citizenship, Montell said.

“Because he holds a second nationality, that makes him more vulnerable to deportation,” said Montell, adding that she expected similar cases would emerge more frequently with a new rightwing coalition expected to form Israel’s next government.

“We can only expect that all of these measures will accelerate with this new government coming in.”

The Guardian
 
<b>Palestinian-French rights lawyer Hammouri deported by Israel</b>

Hammouri had been held in Israeli administrative detention based on ‘secret evidence’ without charges since March.


Israel says it has deported Palestinian-French human rights lawyer Salah Hammouri, capping a years-long attempt to expel the Jerusalem-born advocate who had been in detention without charges since March.

The deportation came amid calls for French President Emmanuel Macron to oppose the deportation to France, whose foreign ministry spokeswoman had previously said Hammouri “must be able to exercise all his rights and lead a normal life in Jerusalem, his city of birth and residence”.

France’s Foreign Ministry condemned Israel’s deportation of Hammouri after he landed in Paris, saying it has “taken full action, including at the highest level of the state, to ensure that Mr. Salah Hamouri’s rights are respected, that he benefits from all legal remedies and that he can lead a normal life in Jerusalem, where he was born, resides and wishes to live.”

It was not clear what, if any, steps the French government might take.

Hammouri landed in Paris just before 10am local time. Wearing a black track suit and black and white keffiyeh, or Palestinian headscarf, around his neck, he was greeted by his wife and a group of supporters.

Some hugged him, and others clapped in support.

Speaking to reporters, Hammouri accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and said his deportation was meant “to show the generations that nobody can resist Israel.” He vowed to fight the order.

“I will continue my right to resist against this occupation until I have the right to go back to my country,” he said.

Earlier, the Justice for Salah campaign released an audio message from Hammouri, which he said was recorded as he was being “forcibly deported and uprooted from my homeland”.

“Be assured my beloved homeland that I coercively and forcibly leave you today. I leave you today from prison to exile,” he said. “But rest assured I will always remain the person you know. Always loyal to you and to your freedom.”

In a brief statement on Sunday, Israel’s interior minister, Ayelet Shaked, called Hammouri a “terrorist” and confirmed he had been deported. Hammouri’s Jerusalem residency status had previously been revoked by Israel in 2021.

Israeli authorities have said Hammouri is an activist in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Hammouri has denied the allegation.

A field researcher with the Ramallah-based Addameer prisoners’ rights group, Hammouri’s detention in March sparked condemnation from local and international rights observers.

In early December, Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, charged that Hammouri had been detained “in retaliation for his tireless campaigning for an end to Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians”.

She called the detention part of Israel’s “chilling long-term policy aim of reducing the number of Palestinians in East Jerusalem”.

“Unlawful deportation from the occupied Palestinian territories constitutes a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention and a war crime,” she said, noting that such crimes would fall under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“Deportation carried to maintain a system of apartheid constitutes a crime against humanity.”

Hammouri, a 37-year-old father of two, had been held in Israeli administrative detention, which allows for the imprisonment of Palestinians without trial or charge based on “secret evidence”, which neither the detainee nor his lawyer can view, for an indefinite period of time.

Israel has long maintained the policy is necessary for security to prevent state intelligence from being released, but the Israeli human rights organisation B’tselem says the method is used “as an alternative to criminal trial … when [the authorities] do not have sufficient evidence for indictment”.

The organisation labels the procedure “punitive and retroactive” and says Israel uses it to “detain Palestinians for their political opinions and for engaging in non-violent political activity”.

The detention order was renewed in June and September, with the deportation announced on Sunday coming at the end of the latest extension.

In a tweet late on Saturday, the HaMoked rights group, which had been fighting Hammouri’s deportation, questioned whether France would support the “deportation of a member of the indigenous population against his will”.

France has not released a public statement on the deportation.

In a letter published by the New Arab last week, Hammouri, who is among a cadre of rights workers suing Israel after their phones were allegedly hacked by Pegasus spyware made by the Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group, detailed his detention, which he called Israel’s “eighth attempt to expel me”.

He had previously served a seven-year prison sentence on the charge of plotting to kill a former chief rabbi of Israel, a deal he took in lieu of deportation to France, although he has always denied the allegation.

His wife, Elsa Lefort, had also been deported earlier.

“These are the means of forcible expulsion, of gradual uprooting from my land, my home, my social surroundings, my history in this place,” he wrote.

“But these are not my memories alone, but those of a people whose Nakba (“Catastrophe”) has not ceased since 1948, experiencing daily arrest, expulsion, surveillance, monitoring, harassment, killing and displacement,” he said.

On Sunday, the Justice for Salah campaign called the deportation a “horrifying escalation in Israel’s systematic practices of ethnically cleansing Palestinians from illegally annexed and occupied Jerusalem (al-Quds)”.

Palestinians born in occupied East Jerusalem are not granted Israeli citizenship. They are instead given permanent residency, which can be revoked.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022...h-rights-lawyer-hammouri-deported-from-israel
 
India To UN: No Alternative To Two-State Solution For Israelis, Palestinians

India stressed that no alternative to the two-state solution can guarantee peace between Israel and Palestine and said that direct negotiations are the only path to peace.

While addressing the United Nations Security Council, Indian Permanent Representative to the UN, Ruchira Kamboj said, "No alternative to the two-State solution to guarantee lasting peace between Israel and Palestine and direct negotiation the only path that can lead us there."

"India has consistently advocated against all acts of violence," she added.

Ms Kamboj reiterated India is deeply concerned with development in the West Bank, Jerusalem and Qazi. Violent attacks and the killing of civilians have taken many Palestinian and Israeli lives. Acts of destruction and provocation are also continuing, she said while briefing UNSC on the middle east.

"Resolution 2334 was adopted by this council to reaffirm the international community's firm commitment to preventing the erosion of a two-state solution. It calls upon parties to prevent acts of violence against civilians and stresses that all settlement activities must cease and underscore the need to exert collective efforts to launch credible negotiations," India's Permanent Representative to the UN said.

The UNSC adopted resolution 2334 in 2016 by 14 votes, where the Council reiterated its demand that Israel immediately and completely ceases all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem. It underlined that it would not recognize any changes to the 4 June 1967 lines, including with regard to Jerusalem, other than those agreed by the two sides through negotiations, the UN said in a statement.

The Council called for immediate steps to prevent all acts of violence against civilians, including acts of terror, as well as all acts of provocation and destruction. It further called for the strengthening of ongoing efforts to combat terrorism, including through existing security coordination, and to clearly condemn all acts of terrorism. The Council called on both sides to observe calm and restraint, and to refrain from provocative actions, incitement and inflammatory rhetoric in order to de-escalate the situation on the ground and rebuild trust and confidence.

Also by the text, the Council called on all parties to continue to exert collective efforts to launch credible negotiations on all final-status issues in the Middle East peace process, and within the time frame specified by the Middle East Quartet (European Union, Russian Federation, United Nations, United States) in its statement of 21 September 2010. It called upon all States to distinguish, in their relevant dealings, between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967, according to the statement.

NDTV
 
India Abstains On UN Resolution Regarding 'Violation' Of Palestinian Rights

India has abstained in the UN General Assembly on a resolution that asked the International Court of Justice for its opinion on the legal consequences of Israel's "prolonged occupation" and annexation of the Palestinian territory.

The draft resolution 'Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem' was adopted by a recorded vote on Friday, with 87 votes in favour, 26 against, and 53 abstentions, including by India.

The resolution decided to request the UN's highest judicial body to "render an advisory opinion" on "what are the legal consequences arising from the ongoing violation by Israel of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, from its prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem, and from its adoption of related discriminatory legislation and measures."

It also asked the Hague-based top UN court, "how do the policies and practices of Israel... affect the legal status of the occupation, and what are the legal consequences that arise for all States and the United Nations from this status?" The US and Israel voted against the resolution, while Brazil, Japan, Myanmar, and France were among those that abstained.

Before the vote, Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, said that the "outrageous resolution" calling for the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice is a "moral stain on the UN and every country that supports it. No international body can decide that the Jewish people are "occupiers" in their own homeland. Any decision from a judicial body which receives its mandate from the morally bankrupt and politicised UN is completely illegitimate." Mr Erdan added that the decision to hold a vote that deals with Israel on Shabbat is another example of the "moral decay" of the UN, which prevents Israel's position from being heard in a vote whose results are predetermined.

He added that at the UN General Assembly High-Level Week in September 2021, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced in his remarks that if Israel did not withdraw to the 1967 lines within a year, the Palestinians would turn to The Hague. "Today's vote is the realisation of Abbas's ultimatum," he said.

Following the vote, World Jewish Congress President Ronald S Lauder said in a statement that the vote at the United Nations exemplifies an ongoing pattern of bias against Israel, and "we applaud those 26 countries, including the United States, who voted against this shameful resolution that seeks to isolate and demonise the Jewish state."Mr Lauder said the "measure is a direct outgrowth of the biased Commission of Inquiry on Israel, whose commissioners have made antisemitic comments and who have been unabashed critics of Israel. Referral of this issue to the ICJ is yet another barrier to dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians."

Mr Lauder said peace in the region "can only be negotiated by the two sides directly involved." World Jewish Congress is an international organisation representing Jewish communities in more than 100 countries to governments, parliaments, and international organisations.

NDTV
 
The UN General Assembly has asked the UN's highest court to give a legal opinion on Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories.

The resolution was backed by 87 countries but opposed by 26 others, including the UK and US.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) issues binding rulings, but it cannot enforce them.

Friday's vote came a day after Benjamin Netanyahu was sworn as prime minister of the most hard-line Israeli cabinet.

Israel occupies the West Bank, and although it pulled out of Gaza the UN still regards that piece of land as occupied territory.

Israel claims the whole of Jerusalem as its capital, while the Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state. The US is one of only a handful of countries to recognise the city as Israel's capital.

Palestinians claim the West Bank, along with Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip for their hoped-for future state.

Palestinian officials hailed the UN vote as a victory. Nabil Abu Rudeineh said it was time for Israel to be "held accountable for its ongoing crimes against our people".

Israel's new prime minister, for his part, described it as "despicable".

"The Jewish people are not occupiers on their own land nor occupiers in our eternal capital Jerusalem and no UN resolution can warp that historical truth," Mr Netanyahu said on Saturday evening.

BBC
 
The UN General Assembly has asked the UN's highest court to give a legal opinion on Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories.

The resolution was backed by 87 countries but opposed by 26 others, including the UK and US.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) issues binding rulings, but it cannot enforce them.

Friday's vote came a day after Benjamin Netanyahu was sworn as prime minister of the most hard-line Israeli cabinet.

BBC
 
In provocation, Israel far-right minister enters Al-Aqsa compound
Israeli far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has entered the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, in a move Palestinians call ‘unprecedented provocation’.

Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir has entered the compound that houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem, in a move that threatens a backlash from Palestinians who have labelled the act an “unprecedented provocation”.

Ben-Gvir was seen touring the site on Tuesday under heavy security.

“Our government will not surrender to the threats of Hamas,” Ben-Gvir said in a statement published by his spokesman, after the Palestinian group that governs the besieged Gaza Strip warned such a move was a “red line”.

...
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023...el-far-right-minister-enters-al-aqsa-compound
 
Palestinians have condemned a visit to a contested holy site in Jerusalem by a far-right Israeli minister as an "unprecedented provocation".

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has called for a harder line towards the Palestinians, walked around the site surrounded by police.

Competing claims to the compound bitterly divide Israel and the Palestinians.

Tensions have risen with the advent of Israel's new nationalistic government.

Mr Ben-Gvir's visit was his first public act since the government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was sworn in five days ago.

The hilltop site is the most sacred place in Judaism and the third holiest in Islam. It is known to Jews as the Temple Mount, site of two Biblical temples, and to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif, the site of Muhammad's ascent to Heaven. The entire compound is considered to be al-Aqsa Mosque by Muslims.

Jews and other non-Muslims are allowed to go to the compound but not pray, though Palestinians see visits by Jews as attempts to change the delicate status quo.

Mr Ben-Gvir, leader of the Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, has long said that he wants to bring about a change to the rules to allow Jewish worship at the site. There is no indication that Mr Ben-Gvir prayed during Tuesday's visit.

"The Temple Mount is open to everyone," he tweeted, accompanied by a photograph of him surrounded by a security cordon with the golden Dome of the Rock in the background.

BBC
 
Extremely provocative move.

Israel understands the potential consequences of its actions full well, it’s quite frightening what their new majority government could do.
 
That what happens when you have right wing religious influenced parties win election, be it israel, Turkey, india .
 
UNSC meeting called over Al-Aqsa Mosque
UAE, China raise concern as Israeli Minister enters mosque courtyard n occupied East Jerusalem

The United Arab Emirates and China called Tuesday for a UN Security Council meeting after Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir entered Al-Aqsa Mosque’s courtyards in occupied East Jerusalem amid warnings of unrest.

The Council is expected to convene on Thursday, diplomats said.

The visit drew fierce condemnation across the world, with the US, Israel's closest ally, expressing deep concern over the recent developments.

''We're deeply concerned by any unilateral actions that have the potential to exacerbate tensions precisely because we want to see the opposite happen,'' State Department spokesman Ned Price said

''The United States stands firmly for the preservation of the historic status quo with respect to the holy sites in Jerusalem.''
He added that any unilateral actions undercutting the status quo are ''unacceptable.”

For Muslims, Al-Aqsa represents the world’s third-holiest site. Jews, for their part, call the area the Temple Mount, saying it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognized by the international community.

Express Tribune
 
The Foreign Office (FO) on Wednesday “strongly condemned the insensitive and provocative visit” of Israel’s new far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to the Al Aqsa mosque compound a day earlier.

The visit had angered Palestinians and drew a slew of condemnations — including from the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkiye and Jordan.

In a statement today, the FO asserted, “Al Aqsa [mosque] is a holy site revered by Muslims around the world.”

It added that a “violation of its sanctity offends the religious sensitivities of Muslims and inflames an already tense situation in the occupied Palestinian territories”.

The FO demanded that “Israel must cease its illegal actions and respect the sanctity of Muslim religious sites in the occupied Palestinian territories.”

The statement reiterated Pakistan’s “strong support for the legitimate struggle of the Palestinian people”.

It also renewed Pakistan’s call for a “viable, independent and contiguous Palestinian State with pre-1967 borders” and with Al Quds (Jerusalem) as its capital, in accordance with the relevant United Nations and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation resolutions.

DAWN
 
Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Israeli far-right politician and leader of the Jewish Power party, has visited Al-Aqsa Mosque's courtyards many times before. But never as a minister in the Israeli government.

That is what made Tuesday's visit from the country’s new security chief pregnant with danger.

It sent out the signal that elements within Israel's government are determined to smash the historic status quo arrangements which have kept peace, one way or another, for centuries. With calamitous consequences.

Ben Gvir's visit sent out the signal that elements within Israel's government are determined to smash the historic status quo arrangements

The status quo arrangements are the set of understandings which have allowed the three great religions to maintain a relative peace. They were formalised in the Treaty of Berlin, signed between the Ottoman empire and the European great powers in 1878.

And with the fall of the Ottoman empire after the First World War, the Hashemite dynasty took over as custodian of Al-Aqsa Mosque. The current custodian is Jordan’s King Abdullah II.

The agreement stipulates that only Muslims are allowed to pray in al-Aqsa while non-Muslims are allowed to visit al-Aqsa under the supervision of the Waqf, a joint Jordanian-Palestinian Islamic trust that manages the affairs of the mosque. Jews, according to this understanding, can perform prayer by the Buraq Wall, or what is known in English as the Western Wall. Meanwhile, Israeli authorities retain security control over the mosque.

In the past, senior Israeli politicians (and Israeli security services) understood the need to preserve the status quo - after Israel conquered Jerusalem in 1967, then defence minister Moshe Dayan ordered Jewish intruders off Al-Aqsa and handed back the keys to the Waqf.

The same applies to the religious establishment. The chief rabbinate of Israel made it clear that Jews should not visit "the Temple Mount" - or what Muslims call al-Haram al-Sharif- because its sacred status meant it was impious to do so

Read more at

https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/israel-palestine-al-aqsa-seizing-control
 
US Warns Israel Against Change In Status Of Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque

The United States on Tuesday voiced concern about the visit of a far-right minister in Israel's new government to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, holy to both Jews and Muslims, and warned against any change in the status quo.

"The United States stands firmly... for preservation of the status quo with respect to holy sites in Jerusalem," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

"Any unilateral action that jeopardizes the status quo is unacceptable."

State Department spokesman Ned Price separately said the United States was "deeply concerned" by the visit of Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has a history of inflammatory statements and was given a key security position in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's latest government.

"This visit has the potential to exacerbate tensions and to provoke violence," Price said of the visit which was widely condemned in the Islamic world.

Price said the United States has had "direct conversations today with representatives of the prime minister's office regarding this visit."

NDTV
 
<b>Israel approves punitive response to Palestinian moves at ICJ</b>

<i>PA rejects Israeli measures, which include a moratorium on Palestinian construction in parts of the occupied West Bank.</I>

Israel’s right-wing government says it has approved a series of punitive measures in response to a Palestinian bid to push the International Court of Justice to give its opinion on the decades-old occupation.

The measures announced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing security cabinet on Friday include using Palestinian money to compensate the families of Israeli settlers and soldiers who were attacked by Palestinians, and imposing a moratorium on Palestinian construction in some areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Netanyahu’s office said the measures were a “response to the Palestinian Authority’s decision to wage political and legal war against the State of Israel”.

In a tweet, Itamar Ben Gvir, the far-right security minister, said he hopes that more measures will be taken “against those who support terrorism and try to put pressure on Israel”.

Israel, which collects tax money on behalf of the PA, would use 139 million shekels ($39m) from PA funds to compensate victims of Palestinian armed attacks and would also offset the stipends the PA pays to Palestinians who carried out attacks and their families, said Netanyahu’s office.

The moratorium on Palestinian building, it said, would apply to a part of the West Bank called Area C, which accounts for 60 percent of the occupied territory and is under full Israeli control.

The PA’s foreign ministry denounced the measures as a reflection of the Israeli government’s “racist colonial programme” against Palestinians, as well as a “flagrant violation” of Israel’s obligations as an occupying power.

“These decisions are condemned and rejected both in relation to money and other measures they are planning,” said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

— Al Jazeera
 
Pakistan, speaking for the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) at the UN, has condemned the visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound by Israel’s new far-right security minister.

His remarks came after a UN Security Council (UNSC) meeting at which the 15-member body’s members called for preserving the historic status quo at Jerusalem’s holy sites.

“We strongly demand that such acts have to be stopped and they have to be stopped, forthwith”, Ambassador Aamir Khan, deputy permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, told reporters at the UNSC, alongside all the ambassadors of Islamic countries.

The Pakistani envoy said the group met prior to the UNSC meeting at the request of Palestine’s Permanent Observer to the UN Ambassador Riaz Mansour, and condemned Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gviri’s action.

“We have to deal with such situations with the strength and the force of international law,” Ambassador Khan added.
 
Israel Orders Removal Of Palestine Flags From Public Spaces

Israel's new far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on Sunday that he instructed police to remove Palestinian flags from public spaces.

Israeli law does not outlaw Palestinian flags but police and soldiers have the right to remove them in cases where they deem there is a threat to public order.

The directive from Ben-Gvir, who heads an ultranationalist party in Benjamin Netanyahu's new government and as minister oversees the police, seems to take a hard line in requiring their removal.

It follows the release last week of a long-serving Palestinian prisoner, convicted of kidnapping and killing an Israeli soldier in 1983, who waved a Palestinian flag while receiving a hero's welcome in his village in northern Israel.

Ben-Gvir, in a statement, said that waving the Palestinian flag is an act in support of terrorism.

"It cannot be that lawbreakers wave terrorist flags, incite and encourage terrorism, so I ordered the removal of flags supporting terrorism from the public space and to stop the incitement against Israel," Ben-Gvir said.

Arabs in Israel account for around a fifth of the population and most are descendants of Palestinians who remained within the newly founded state after its 1948 war of independence.

They have long debated their place in Israel's politics, balancing their Palestinian heritage with their Israeli citizenship, with many identifying as or with the Palestinians.

NDTV
 
Concerns are rising in Israel over the actions of the new government and the potential for a serious escalation with Palestinians in the West Bank.

A large anti-government protest took place in Tel Aviv last weekend and there is a prospect of further demonstrations in the city and in Jerusalem.

Attempts by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to force the police to use water cannon against protestors have reportedly been rejected, but the police have agreed to take a tougher stance on demonstrators displaying Nazi symbols.

https://news.sky.com/story/tensions...ardens-policies-towards-palestinians-12785090
 
Pakistan backs ‘two-state formula’ to end Palestinian-Israel conflict

Pakistan told the UN Security Council (UNSC) on Wednesday that the ‘two-state formula’ offers the only viable solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and the rising extremism in Israeli leadership “must not be allowed to foreclose the two-state solution”.

Ambassador Munir Akram rejected all Israeli measures and attempts to alter the historical and legal status quo of Al Aqsa mosque and demanded full respect for the status quo at Al Aqsa and all other holy sites in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Pakistan urged the Security Council to “act swiftly and resolutely to bring a halt to all such Israeli violations, ensure its full compliance with international law, and implement its own resolutions”.

Ambassador Akram said Pakistan was looking forward to the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the legal implications of Israeli occupation.

...
https://www.dawn.com/news/1732420/p...te-formula-to-end-palestinian-israel-conflict
 
Nine Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials say - the deadliest in years.

An elderly woman was reported among the dead in the flashpoint town of Jenin.

The Israeli military said it had acted to foil major attacks by a Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) "terror squad".

During an attempt to arrest the militants, three opened fire towards the troops and were killed, it added. A fourth surrendered and was arrested.

"The security forces operated to surround the building in which the suspects were located," an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) statement said. "Two armed suspects were identified fleeing the scene and were neutralized."

"One of the suspects who was in the building surrendered himself to the security forces. IDF combat engineering soldiers entered the building in order to detonate two explosive devices used by the suspects, where there was an additional armed suspect, who was neutralized by the soldiers at the scene."

The IDF accused the militants of being "heavily involved in planning and executing multiple major terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers".

Oher Palestinian gunmen opened fire at the troops during the raid, according to the military. The troops responded with live fire and "hits were identified", it said, adding that it was looking into "claims regarding additional casualties".
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Israel continues to massacre innocent Palestinians with impunity. Killing of 10 Palestinians including an elderly woman in Occupied West Bank calls for the strongest condemnation. Sustainable peace in ME is linked to two-state solution. Pakistan stands with people of Palestine &#55356;&#56821;&#55356;&#56824;</p>— Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) <a href="https://twitter.com/CMShehbaz/status/1618894377572794368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 27, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
Israel has carried out air strikes on Gaza in response to rocket fire as tensions soar in the wake of a deadly army raid in the occupied West Bank.

Six rockets were fired, reports from Israel say, with Israel attacking what it said were militant sites.

There were no reports of injuries on either side.

Militants warned of a response after nine Palestinians were killed in the Jenin raid, which Israel said was to thwart "imminent terrorist attacks".

Two rockets were fired around midnight (22:00 GMT Thursday) but were intercepted by Israel's anti-rocket Iron Dome system, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said. Air strikes swiftly followed, targeting what the IDF said was an "underground rocket manufacturing site" in the central Gaza Strip belonging to the Islamist militant group Hamas, which governs the territory.

A second salvo of rockets was fired hours later, landing in open ground, shot down or falling back down in Gaza, the military said. Israel subsequently hit a site which it said was "a significant centre of Hamas terrorist activities" in the northern Gaza Strip.

No group admitted to firing the rockets, though Israel holds Hamas responsible for all attacks from Gaza.
 
10 Palestinians Killed In "Deadliest" Israel Raids In Years

Israeli forces in the West Bank killed 10 Palestinians on Thursday, officials in the occupied territory said, nine of them in a raid the Israeli military described as a counterterrorism operation.

The bloodiest day in the West Bank in years erupted during a raid on the crowded refugee camp in the northern city of Jenin, where gunshots rang through the streets and smoke billowed from burning barricades.

Palestinian health officials put the death count from the clashes at nine, adding that 20 people were wounded before Israeli forces withdrew mid-morning.

The military said Israeli forces came under fire during a "counterterrorism operation to apprehend an Islamic Jihad terror squad" and shot several enemy combatants.

Since its records began in 2005, the United Nations has never logged such a high death count in a single operation in the West Bank.

A tenth Palestinian was subsequently shot dead by Israeli forces in Al-Ram, near Ramallah, the Palestinian health ministry said.

Official Palestinian news agency Wafa said the man was shot in clashes that erupted during a protest over the Jenin killings.

The violence prompted the Palestinian Authority to announce it was cutting security coordination with Israel, a move criticised by the United States.

Among those confirmed dead in Jenin was Majeda Obeid, 61, who lived some metres from the house targeted by the Israeli forces.

Her daughter, Kefiyat Obeid, told AFP her mother was shot as she peered out her window at the clashes.

"After she finished her prayers, she stopped for a moment to look and, as she stood up, she was hit in the neck by a bullet and she fell against the wall and then to the floor," the 26-year-old told AFP, as bloodstains soaked into the rug of their home.

'State of panic'

The military said the incursion targeted Islamic Jihad militants who were allegedly behind attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians and, according to Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, were planning "to conduct a terror attack in Israel".

Three Palestinians were shot in a firefight, while Israeli forces shot a further two "fleeing the scene", an army statement said. Israeli forces also shot a sixth suspect inside a building, and other Palestinians were hit after firing on troops, the army said.

"Claims regarding additional casualties during the exchange of fire are being looked into," it added.

There were no casualties among the Israeli forces, the military said.

Wisam Bakr, director of the Jenin Government Hospital, said there was a "state of panic" in the paediatric ward, with some children suffering from tear gas inhalation.

The Israeli military told AFP "the activity was not far away from the hospital, and it is possible some tear gas entered through an open window".

Jenin resident Umm Youssef Al-Sawalmi said homes were hit during the raid. "Windows, doors, walls and even the refrigerator, everything was damaged by the bullets," she told AFP.

Islamic Jihad spokesman Tariq Salmi vowed that "the resistance is everywhere and ready and willing for the next confrontation".

The latest deaths bring the number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank so far this year to 30, including fighters and civilians, most of whom were shot by Israeli forces.

Saleh al-Arouri, deputy leader of Palestinian group Hamas, which rules Gaza, vowed that Israel "will pay the price for the Jenin massacre".

'Bloody massacre'

Shortly after midnight (2200 GMT), two rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israeli territory, according to witnesses and local security sources.

They were intercepted by Israel's air defence system, an army spokesman said.

Washington earlier Thursday announced US Secretary of State Antony Blinken would travel next week to Israel and the Palestinian territories, where he will push for an "end to the cycle of violence".

US regional allies Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia all strongly condemned the deadly Israeli incursion.

The mounting count follows the deadliest year in the Palestinian territory recorded by the UN.

At least 26 Israelis and 200 Palestinians were killed across Israel and the Palestinian territories in 2022, the majority in the West Bank, according to an AFP tally from official sources.

UN peace envoy Tor Wennesland said he was "deeply alarmed and saddened by the continuing cycle of violence in the occupied West Bank".

Thousands flocked to funerals in Jenin, as the Palestinian presidency announced three days of mourning. It charged that Thursday's raid was happening "under international silence".

"This is what encourages the occupation government to commit massacres against our people in full view of the world," said Nabil Abu Rudeinah, spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

NDTV
 
At least five people are reported to have been shot dead at a synagogue in Jerusalem, with others injured.

Israel's ambulance service reported 10 victims in total, some of them seriously wounded.

Israel's police department said that the suspected attacker had been "neutralised".
 
Eight Israelis killed leaving synagogue in East Jerusalem
Benjamin Netanyahu promises immediate action after gunman opened fire on people in worst terrorist attack on Israelis in years

Eight Israelis have been shot and killed as they left a synagogue in East Jerusalem, in the latest episode of spiralling violence across Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories over the past two days.

A gunman in a car waited on Friday night until Shabbat prayers ended at a synagogue in Neve Yaakov, a neighbourhood of Israeli settlers in occupied East Jerusalem, before opening fire on people as they left the building, a preliminary Israeli police probe said. The attack came on International Holocaust Remembrance day.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said medics declared five people dead at the scene and said that three more died while being treated in hospital. At least nine more victims are understood to be in critical condition.

Addressing reporters at Israel’s national police headquarters, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had held a security assessment and that Israel would take immediate action with “determination and composure”, without giving further details. He called on the public not to take the law into their own hands.

...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...is-killed-leaving-synagogue-in-east-jerusalem
 
Two people have been wounded in a suspected terror attack in Jerusalem, a day after a deadly shooting outside a synagogue.

Israel's national emergency medical and ambulance service said it was called to a "shooting terror attack" on Saturday morning.

It comes a day after a Palestinian gunman shot seven people dead near a synagogue on the outskirts of the city.
 
Israel's prime minister has promised "strong" and "swift" response after two separate attacks by Palestinians in Jerusalem over the past two days.

The attacks took place after an Israeli army raid in the occupied West Bank killed nine people.

Ahead of a security cabinet meeting, Benjamin Netanyahu said he would seek new measures to "combat terror".

Israeli's army also said it would be reinforcing troop numbers in the occupied West Bank.

His comments came after Israeli police said a 13-year-old Palestinian boy was behind a shooting in Jerusalem's Silwan neighbourhood on Saturday that left an Israeli father and son seriously wounded.

An Israeli police force spokesperson previously said the assailant ambushed five people as they made their way to prayers, leaving two in a "critical condition". The 13-year-old was shot and injured by passers-by and is being held in hospital.

In a separate shooting on Friday at a synagogue in East Jerusalem, seven people were killed and at least three more injured as they gathered for prayers at the start of the Jewish Sabbath. The gunman was shot dead at the scene.

The man behind Friday's synagogue attack was identified by local media as a Palestinian from East Jerusalem.

Police have arrested 42 people in connection with that attack.

Israeli police commissioner Kobi Shabtai called it "one of the worst attacks we have encountered in recent years".

Palestinian militant groups praised the attack, but did not say one of their members was responsible.

Mr Netanyahu called for calm and urged citizens to allow security forces to carry out their tasks, while the military said additional troops would be deployed in the occupied West Bank.

"I call again on all Israelis - don't take the law into your hands," Mr Netanyahu said. He thanked several world leaders - including US President Joe Biden - for their support.
 
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called for Israel and the Palestinians to take "urgent steps" to restore calm amid escalating violence.

Speaking in Jerusalem, Mr Blinken reiterated US support for a two-state solution as "the best way" to bring security to the two sides.

Israel's new government opposes the creation of a Palestinian state.

The visit comes after two gun attacks by Palestinians in East Jerusalem at the weekend killed seven Israelis.

At a news conference following talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, Mr Blinken expressed his condolences for what he called the "horrific terrorist attack".

The attack by a 21-year-old Palestinian targeted worshippers near a synagogue on Friday night. Hours later a 13-year-old Palestinian opened fire on a group of Israelis, wounding a father and son.

Two Palestinians were also shot dead in separate incidents in the occupied West Bank ahead of Mr Blinken's arrival.
 
Several Palestinian militants have been killed in an Israeli army raid near Jericho in the occupied West Bank, Israeli and Palestinian sources say.

The death toll is believed to be five, though it has not been confirmed if all the fatalities were gunmen.

It is the latest in nearly nightly operations by the Israeli military targeting militants in the territory.

The raids, and attacks on Israelis, have come during a particularly bloody period since the start of this year.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Sunday night's operation aimed to arrest a "Hamas terrorist cell" which it said was behind a gun attack a week earlier on a restaurant near a Jewish settlement close to Jericho. No-one was injured in that attack.

Hamas, the militant Islamist movement which controls the Gaza Strip, is less prominent in the West Bank. Palestinian towns and villages there are mostly governed by the Palestinian Authority (PA), which is dominated by Hamas' secular rival, Fatah.

The raid, coupled with activity by a Hamas cell, is unusual in Jericho, which has a relatively high concentration of Fatah-loyal PA security forces.

BBC
 
Israeli forces have killed five Palestinian gunmen in a raid on a West Bank refugee camp, security officials said.

The raid was in a response to a botched attack on Israelis, and is likely to further exacerbate tensions in the region.

The Palestinian president’s office called the violence a crime, urging the United States to pressure Israel to hold back on its incursions.

The Israeli military said the raid was meant to apprehend a militant cell that staged a botched shooting attack on a restaurant in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank.

The violence comes amid one of the deadliest periods in recent years in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and in the first weeks of Israel’s new right-wing government, which has promised to take a tough stance against the Palestinians.

The Israeli military said it was operating in the Aqabat Jabr refugee camp to apprehend the suspects behind a failed shooting attack last month at a West Bank restaurant, where attackers allegedly were thwarted by a weapon malfunction.

The attackers then fled the scene, the military said, adding that they were members of the Hamas militant group that rules the Gaza Strip and has elements in the West Bank as well.

The military said it was searching for the militant cell behind the shooting after it sealed itself inside a home in the refugee camp.

During the search, troops encountered the gunmen and a gun battle erupted.

The military said several of the gunmen who were killed were involved in the attempted attack on the restaurant.

A statement from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ office said: “The new Israeli government is continuing its series of crimes against our Palestinian people.”

The Israeli security officials said two of the five killed were Hamas militants involved in the attempted attack. The three others were gunmen who had exchanged fire with troops during the raid.

Hamas said it mourned the deaths of the members of its armed wing, without specifying how many had died. Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said the violence would be met with a response.

“Our people and their resistance will not delay in responding to this crime,” he said.

Speaking at an event at the site of a recent deadly Palestinian shooting attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed earlier reports by Israeli security officials that five gunmen were killed.

The raid comes days after an earlier incursion in the Aqabat Jabr camp, which is near the Palestinian city of Jericho, a desert oasis in an area of the West Bank that rarely sees such unrest, where troops were also searching for the suspects.

Since the shooting at the nearby settlement, the Israeli military has blocked access to several roads into Jericho – a closure that has placed the city under a semi-blockade, disrupting business and creating hours-long bottlenecks at checkpoints that affected even Palestinian security forces, footage showed.

Monday’s violence comes days after an Israeli military raid on the Jenin refugee camp killed 10 Palestinians, mostly militants but also a 61-year-old woman.

The next day, a Palestinian shooting attack outside an east Jerusalem synagogue killed seven people, including a 14-year-old.

The Israeli army has ramped up near-nightly raids in the occupied West Bank since a series of deadly Palestinian attacks within Israel last spring.

The Palestinian Authority, in retaliation for last week’s raid into the Jenin refugee camp, declared a halt to security coordination with Israel.

Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed last year in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, making it the deadliest year in those areas since 2004, according to figures by the Israeli rights group B’Tselem.

Since the start of this year, 41 Palestinians have been killed in those territories. Some 30 people were killed in Israel by Palestinians in 2022.

The Israeli army says most of the Palestinians killed have been militants. But stone-throwing youths protesting against the incursions and others not involved in confrontations have also been killed.

Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war. The Palestinians seek those territories for their hoped-for independent state.
 
17-Year-Old Palestinian Boy Shot In The Face By Israel Army, Dies

Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian teenager in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday, the Palestinian health ministry said.

The ministry announced the death of Hamza Amjad al-Ashqar, 17, who was "killed by a bullet in the face fired by the occupation (Israeli) soldiers during the aggression on Nablus."

The Israeli army said it was "checking" the details of the incident.

A Palestinian security source, who was not authorised to speak to the media, said Ashqar was from the city's Askar refugee camp.

Three people were arrested during the Israeli raid on the city, the source added.

Separately, official Palestinian news agency Wafa said around 20 Palestinians were arrested in Burqin, near the flashpoint city of Jenin.

There has been a mounting death count from a spate of Israeli raids in West Bank towns and cities in recent months.

On Monday, Israeli forces killed five suspected Palestinian gunmen in a raid in Jericho, in the Jordan Valley, after a days-long search for suspects in a shooting in a restaurant near the city.

Since the start of the year, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has claimed the lives of 42 Palestinians -- including attackers, militants and civilians. Six Israeli civilians, including a child, and one Ukrainian civilian have been killed over the same period.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since the Six-Day War of 1967.

Last year was the deadliest year in the West Bank since the United Nations started tracking casualties in the territory in 2005.

There were 235 deaths, with nearly 90 percent on the Palestinian side, according to an AFP tally.

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