/leftypol/ - Leftist Politically Incorrect

>>481166
>Pro-Palestinian protests grow despite police crackdowns
Solidarity reflex got triggered, that's an encouraging development

Turkey's justice minister calls for ICC case against Israel

Yılmaz Tunc, Turkey’s justice minister, has called on Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), to complete an investigation into Israel’s crimes in the war in Gaza and open a case against the country.

He said on X: “Preventing the crime of genocide is the raison d’être of the International Criminal Court. The culprits are clear, an investigation should be opened urgently, precautionary measures should be taken, and the criminals should be arrested.”

He added that the delay in the case encouraged Israel’s attacks, diminish the trust in the international law and made the ICC ineffective.

“If no action will be taken regarding the bombardment of refugee camps, when will it be taken?”

Israel bombs farmland as hunger spreads to southern Gaza

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic report that an Israeli raid hit agricultural land near the Egypt-Gaza border, south of Rafah.

Israel has for weeks insisted on launching a ground invasion into Rafah, despite UN agencies and aid groups warning it would result in “catastrophe” for the more than 1.5 million people sheltered there.

Hamas: If US decides ‘that this must stop, it will happen’

Osama Hamdan says that during three months of negotiations to end Israel’s war on Gaza, there have been “some forward steps”.

“I think the mediators, our brothers in Egypt and Qatar, they are doing a good job. This is why we are still hoping to achieve the main goal, a complete ceasefire and withdrawal from Gaza,” he said.

However, Hamdan said the war could end immediately if the US decided it should.

“We have to talk about the real position of the United States because that is the main issue which will affect the position of the Israelis, and mainly Netanyahu,” Hamdan told Al Jazeera. “If the United States administration has said clearly to Netanyahu, enough is enough… I assure you that will happen.”

Unnamed Israeli official says army will move ahead with Rafah invasion: Report

Israeli news media are reporting that Israel will not agree to end the war and that the army will go through with its planned incursion into Rafah.

“Contrary to publications, Israel will not agree to the end of the war – the [Israeli army] will enter Rafah whether or not there is a truce for the release of our hostages,” Israel’s Army Radio said on X, quoting a “political source”.

Channel 12 News also posted on X a quote from a “political official” responding to reports of progress in the ceasefire negotiations: “We will not agree to the end of the war, we will enter Rafah.”



Israeli forces target journalists covering West Bank

What we do know is that they’ve been stopping ambulances from going in, and they’ve also been targeting the news teams that are inside the village (Deir al-Ghusun) and carrying out any sort of news gathering that they can at this stage.

We know at least one news crew had their camera shot and damaged, and we do know that they’ve been targeting … according to reports from the news teams on the ground inside the village … snipers positioned on rooftops have been trying to zero in on the news teams that are on the ground inside the village at this time.

Israel tightens controls around Jerusalem’s Old City: Report

The Israeli forces have tightened their checks around Jerusalem’s Old City for Christians who want to celebrate the “Great Saturday”, a holy day linked to the Orthodox Easter, according to the Wafa news agency.

Local sources told Wafa that Israeli troops ramped up controls at the entrances of the Old City, and prevented many Christians from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Pro-Palestine supporters demonstrate in Austrian capital

Online videos, verified by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking unit Sanad, show dozens of pro-Palestine supporters protesting in Vienna while calling for an end to the war in Gaza.

Images show demonstrators waving Palestinian flags and holding signs saying, “Free Gaza”.

Israel has a ‘deliberate plan to kill children and women’: UN official

Figures from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees show 37 children in Gaza lose their mother every day. It’s being described as a “war on women”.

“In no war in recent history have we seen this appalling, deliberate targeted attack on women and children as we’ve seen in the war on Gaza,” said Reem al-Salem, the UN special rapporteur on women and girls.

She said Israel has been targeting Palestinian women for decades, but the current war shows zero consideration for their safety. “They are experiencing a full-blown genocide, they are being exterminated. There are few places in the world where we’ve seen something like this.”

Al-Salem noted nearly 15,000 children and 10,000 women have been killed in seven months of Israeli attacks. “If this is not a deliberate plan to kill children and women – the foundations of Palestinian life and society – then I don’t know what is really.”

‘Invading Rafah will not be a walk in the park’: Hamas

A senior Hamas official warned Israel against attacking Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah where 1.5 million people are sheltering from incessant strikes.

The comments come after a day of apparently fruitless negotiations in Egypt with both sides unwilling to move from their core demands.

“We confirm that invading Rafah will not be a walk in the park and the occupation will pay a heavy price for any adventure it embarks on. It will end in failure,” the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.

If no ceasefire deal is struck, Israel would bear “full responsibility for insisting on entering Rafah instead of ceasing the aggression”.

‘Negotiate now, resign later’: Israeli protesters demand action from PM

Several thousand people demonstrated in Tel Aviv in favour of a negotiated release of Israeli captives held in Gaza.

There was also loud criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and calls for new elections. Protesters held banners and signs saying, “Negotiate now, resign later.”

The father of one of Israeli captive said the far-right government’s own survival seemed more important than the hostages. He called on the government to agree to a ceasefire in exchange for their return.

‘A deal on the table, government needs to go ahead and sign’
Mohammed Jamjoom
Reporting from Tel Aviv, Israel

There has been a sense of growing frustration. We’ve heard from demonstrators throughout the evening because they’re saying this is a critical time, a crucial moment, and a ceasefire should be entered into.

Over the last hour, we’ve heard chants over and over again from people saying, “look there’s a deal on the table, the government needs to go ahead and sign”. They’re afraid if a deal doesn’t get done now, it may never come to fruition.

The crowd here wants to see a delegation sent to Cairo. The government has said for days now, it won’t send a team to Egypt until it gets a positive response from Hamas to the latest offer. News reports in the last hour say far-right ministers are thanking Netanyahu for not sending a delegation to Cairo.

Far-right ministers in Netanyahu’s coalition have repeatedly said they don’t want a ceasefire, which would mean an end to the war and no invasion of Rafah. It’s a very complicated situation, a very fraught moment.

Hamas: Israel still refuses to end war during ceasefire talks

A senior Hamas official tells Al Jazeera, “The occupation is obstructing an agreement by insisting on continuing the war. The Zionist entity is seeking a deal to recover its captives without linking this to ending the aggression.”

The Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity, reiterated the group will “under no circumstances agree to an agreement that does not explicitly include stopping the war on Gaza”.

He accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being the main obstacle to getting a deal done. “Our information confirms Netanyahu is obstructing an agreement for personal reasons.”

Netanyahu – who faces criminal trials in Israel and potential war crimes charges abroad – has been accused of extending the attack on Gaza to remain in power.

Violence breaks out as Israeli forces raid occupied West Bank town

Video taken by Palestinians and shared online show clashes erupting between residents and Israeli forces in the town of Beita after a raid on the area.

Israeli incursions in the occupied West Bank have intensified since the war on Gaza started on October 7. More than 490 Palestinians have been killed and about 8,500 arrested over the past seven months.

Palestinian doctor denied entry to France after working in Gaza

Ghassan Abu-Sitta, a doctor who spent 43 days in Gaza helping treat those wounded in Israel’s war, said he is being denied entry to France where he was scheduled to make a speech at the Senate.

Abu Sitta was placed in a holding zone at the airport and will be expelled, according to French Senator Raymonde Poncet Monge.

“Fortress Europe silencing the witnesses to the genocide while Israel kills them in prison,” the renowned British-Palestinian plastic surgeon said.

Students in Switzerland join Gaza protests

About 100 students occupied a building at Lausanne University in a move to protest the war in Gaza, demanding an end to scientific cooperation with Israel.

“Palestinians have been dying for over 200 days, but we’re not being heard,” one protester told Swiss television. “Now there’s a global movement to get governments to take action, but it’s not happening. That’s why we want to get universities involved now.”

The university said the occupation could continue until Monday provided it did not disrupt work on campus. “We universities are not called upon to take political stands,” the rector Frederic Herman told RTS radio.

Students in Ireland join Gaza protest wave

In Dublin, students at Trinity College built an encampment on Friday that forced the university to restrict campus access today and close the Book of Kells exhibition, one of Ireland’s top tourist attractions.

The camp was set up after the student union said it had been fined 214,000 euros ($230,500) by the university for losses caused by protests in recent months, not exclusively over Gaza.

The protesters were demanding that Trinity cut academic ties with Israel and divest from companies with ties to Israel.

Student union President Laszlo Molnarfia posted a photograph of benches piled up at the entrance to the building housing the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript created by Celtic monks in about 800 AD.

Trinity College said it had restricted access to students, staff and residents to ensure safety, and that the exhibition would be closed on Saturday.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/5/4/israels-war-on-gaza-live-talks-in-egypt-set-to-steer-wars-direction

Israeli government votes to shut down Al Jazeera: Reports

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that the Israeli government has voted unanimously to shut down Al Jazeera in the country.

The Reuters news agency also reports that the Israeli cabinet has decided to close down Al Jazeera’s operations.

More on Israeli cabinet’s decision to close Al Jazeera

The Reuters news agency now reports that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet voted unanimously to close Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel, according to a government statement that did not stipulate when the decision might take effect.

The cabinet vote came after Israel’s parliament passed a law allowing the temporary closure in Israel of foreign broadcasters considered to be a threat to national security during its war on Gaza.

More details on the move to shut down Al Jazeera

Israeli newspaper Haaretz is reporting that the government has authorised Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi to order the cessation of the channel’s broadcasts in Israel, both in Arabic and English language; to close its offices in Israel; to confiscate equipment used by its personnel with the exception of telephones and computers. The communications minister has also been asked to limit access from Israel to the network’s website.

According to the Israeli government decision, Karhi has the authority to ban the channel from operating for 45 days, relying on the recently adopted law regulating the closure of media institutions.

Israeli forces strike town in southern Lebanon: Reports

We are receiving reports that Israeli fighter jets have targeted the town of Meiss el-Jabal in southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese Civil Defense has reported injuries.

Since October 8, Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and the Israeli military stationed in northern Israel have traded fire, killing hundreds and displacing thousands on both sides. In recent months, the severity and frequency of the cross-border attacks have increased, leading to fears of a greater regional conflagration.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/5/5/israels-war-on-gaza-live-neither-side-willing-to-budge-in-truce-talks

Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan on the ban

The Knesset [parliament] passed a law on April 1 that allowed the prime minister to ban Al Jazeera. He has now enacted that law.

Let me take you through some of the definitions within the law:

They have banned our website, including anything that has the option of entering or accessing the website, even passwords that are needed, whether they are paid or not, whether they are stored on Israeli servers or outside. The website is now inaccessible.

They are also banning any device that is used for providing content that includes my mobile phone. If I use that for any kind of news gathering then Israelis can simply confiscate it.

Our internet access provider, which simply hosts aljazeer.net is also in danger of being fine if it hosts the website.

The Al Jazeera TV channel is completely banned, and transmission by any kind of content provider is also banned. And holding offices or operating them in the territory of Israel by the channel.

It’s a wide-ranging ban and we do not know how long it will be in place for.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/5/5/israels-war-on-gaza-live-neither-side-willing-to-budge-in-truce-talks

Sixty-five rockets fired from Lebanon at Israel: Army

Sixty-five rockets have been launched from Lebanon at northern Israel in one of the largest attacks since the start of the war, according to an Israeli military statement quoted by local media.

Earlier, aerial alert sirens sounded in a number of settlements close to Israel’s border with Lebanon, warning of incoming rocket fire.

Israeli civil rights group requests High Court delay gov’t ban on Al Jazeera

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that the Association for Civil Rights in Israel has submitted to Israel’s High Court a request for an interim order to delay the government’s decision to close Al Jazeera.

On its website, the association says the ban – which it labelled the “Al Jazeera law” – “violates freedom of expression, the right to information and freedom of the press, and blocks citizens and residents from receiving a variety of information that does not fit the Israeli narrative or is not broadcast on Israeli media channels”.

Satellite, cable providers take Al Jazeera off air in Israel

Messages have appeared instead of Al Jazeera’s broadcast on a number of satellite providers, including “Yes” and “Hot”.

The message displayed by Yes read: “In accordance with the government decision, the Al Jazeera station’s broadcasts have been stopped in Israel.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/5/5/israels-war-on-gaza-live-neither-side-willing-to-budge-in-truce-talks

Funny Cornish man discusses the very odd conduct of Columbia university's Rebecca Weiner: professor/lawyer/NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence and Counterterrorism/Israeli agent extraordinaire. That's gotta be like growing up to be an astronaut ballerina pirate mermaid from Castle Grayskull.

>>481189
>The Knesset passed a law on April 1 that allowed the prime minister to ban Al Jazeera. He has now enacted that law.
<worst april fools joke
The attack on press freedom comes ahead of the Rafa massacre. Which makes it look like they're planning for a really big blood bath.

>>481203
<an astronaut ballerina pirate
To be honest that sounds kinda awesome, and not something you'd use to describe these Zionist tools.

Cornish man is correct it does appear like she's a Zionist foreign agent. But she probably could not do this unless the US state security apparatus tolerates it.

>>481214
>The attack on press freedom comes ahead of the Rafa massacre. Which makes it look like they're planning for a really big blood bath.
Bingo!

Yemen’s Houthis say insiders working with US, Israel thwarted

The Houthis in Yemen have suggested that they have uncovered and stopped Yemeni agents who worked with the US and Israel to derail the group’s attacks, which it says are aimed at stopping the war on Gaza.

The Houthi-run Saba news website said security services will on Monday reveal details about “thwarting the intelligence activities of the American and Israeli enemy”.

Nasreddin Amer, a top executive at Saba and the vice chairman of the Houthi media authority, said in multiple posts on X that details will be revealed about “spies” who collaborated with the US and Israel to “strike the capabilities of their country and to stop our support operation for oppressed people in Gaza”.

He added that “they tried to strike at our operations at sea and stop the missiles” in reference to the dozens of attacks the group has launched in waters near its shores.

Hamas rocket attack kills three Israeli soldiers, wounds 11 others

The 10 rockets that Hamas launched at the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing between Gaza and Israel have left three Israeli soldiers dead and 11 others wounded, according to the Israeli military.

Military spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a statement that three staff sergeants, namely 19-year-old Ruben Marc Mordechai Assouline, 19-year-old Ido Testa and 21-year-old Tal Shavit, were killed.

The 11 soldiers who were wounded include two soldiers from the 931st Battalion and a soldier from the Shaked Battalion who are listed as in serious condition.

Israeli officials had claimed the attack had targeted “humanitarian aid”, with Hamas saying it hit a military headquarters at the crossing – which has now been closed by Israeli authorities.

Qassam Brigades says Israeli soldier sniped in central Gaza

The armed wing of Hamas in the Gaza Strip has released a video that shows one of its fighters sniping an Israeli soldier in the central part of the enclave.

The Qassam Brigades said the Israeli soldier was hit south of the TAl al-Hawa neighbourhood along the so-called Netzarim Corridor that the Israeli military has constructed across Gaza to separate the northern and southern parts.

The video then showed a military ambulance deployed to transport the soldier.



Israeli settlers attack Palestinians in multiple West Bank towns

Israeli settlers have been behind several new attacks on Palestinians across the occupied West Bank as the war on Gaza rages.

Settlers attacked farmers in the past few hours in the town of Kafr Ra’i south of Jenin, according to the Wafa news agency, which said the farmers were prevented from entering their lands.

It also reported settler attacks on two Palestinian-owned homes in a Bedouin community northwest of Jericho, coming hours after members of the community received notices from Israeli authorities to demolish eight homes, a sheep barn and a solar energy complex.

Settlers also reportedly attacked Palestinian civilians’ vehicles west of Nablus and threw stones at them.

Greek FM says now is not the time for a review of Israel defence deals

Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis spoke with Al Jazeera about Greece’s close ties with Israel and peace efforts in the Middle East.
Gerapetritis emphasised his country’s robust defence ties with Israel amid its war on Gaza. He asserts now is not the time to revisit their largest defence deal, including a $1.6bn contract for Greek air force training.

Iran’s Zarif takes jab at Arab normalisation with Israel amid Gaza ‘genocide’

Javad Zarif is taking apparent aim at Saudi Arabia and Jordan for mulling political normalisation with Israel amid the war on Gaza.

“American student protestors being brutalised by US security forces have a much greater claim to protecting Palestinians than the Custodians of Holy Mosques,” the former Iranian foreign minister says in a post on X.

https://twitter.com/JZarif/status/1787086379387588801

Reporters Without Borders condemns Israel’s Al Jazeera shutdown

The French-based organisation said it “strongly condemns freedom-threatening legislation that censors a TV network for its coverage of the war in Gaza”.

The Qatar-based network Al Jazeera described the move by the Israeli government as a “criminal act” and warned that the country’s suppression of the free press “stands in contravention of international and humanitarian law”.

Israel continues to ‘deny humanitarian access to UN’: Lazzarini

The head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) says Israeli authorities continue to deny humanitarian access to Gaza.

Philippe Lazzarini himself was denied access to the besieged enclave for the second time this week, he said, also reporting “an increase in the denial of humanitarian access and attacks on humanitarian workers and convoys”.

“Only in the past 2 weeks, we have recorded 10 incidents involving shooting at convoys, arrests of UN staff including bullying, stripping them naked, threats with arms & long delays at checkpoints forcing convoys to move during the dark or abort,” Lazzarini said on X.

Al Jazeera banned by Israel for ‘brave journalism’: ECFR’s Bildt

Carl Bildt, co-chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), points out that Al Jazeera has been reporting from inside Gaza throughout the war, showing the disturbing realities of Israel’s war to the world.

“You might agree or disagree with [Israel’s] policies, but it has been brave journalism,” the former Swedish prime minister wrote in a post on X.

“As a result they are now banned by the Israeli government.”

Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Israel’s decision to shut Al Jazeera

The watchdog group says the move could set a dangerous precedent for other international media and news outlets working in the country.

“CPJ condemns the closure of Al Jazeera’s office in Israel and the blocking of the channel’s websites,” Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna said in New York.

“This move sets an extremely alarming precedent for restricting international media outlets working in Israel. The Israeli cabinet must allow Al Jazeera and all international media outlets to operate freely in Israel, especially during wartime.”

‘Israel should stop committing atrocities rather than silencing’: HRW

Omar Shakir, director of Israel and Palestine for Human Rights Watch (HRW), has slammed Israel’s decision to shut down Al Jazeera’s operations, saying that the network has been a critical source of information on Israel and Palestine and a main source of news for Arab audiences.

“Their offices have been bombed in Gaza. Their staff have been beaten in the West Bank. They’ve been killed in the West Bank and Gaza,” he said, adding that Israel is trying to set a precedent to muzzle the media and cover up its atrocities.

“Rather than trying to silence reporting on its atrocities in Gaza, Israel should stop committing them.”

Israel joins ‘dubious club of authoritarian governments’ after Al Jazeera closure: FPA

The Foreign Press Association – which represents the international media working in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory – has published a statement in which it says Israel’s ban of Al Jazeera “should be a cause for concern for all supporters of a free press”.

https://twitter.com/FPAIsPal/status/1787121735449329997

Shutting of Al Jazeera like closing down ‘free press’

Israeli journalist Gideon Levy has called Israel’s shutdown of Al Jazeera a “shame”.

“I can tell you as a viewer … not as a commentator, and not as a writer, that for me the last seven months Al Jazeera English … was one of the most important sources of information about what’s going on in Gaza,” he told Al Jazeera.

“To close it down means closing down the option of a free press.”

Levy, a columnist at Israeli newspaper Haaretz, speculated that the shutdown may be politically motivated to pressure Qatar in the ongoing truce negotiations.

“Al Jazeera is a Qatari network. And Qatar is one of those [countries] that are pulling and pushing for a settlement [to reach a truce deal in Gaza], some deal,” he said.

“[Israeli PM] Netanyahu is doing everything possible in the last two or three days to sabotage a deal.”

Still no response from US on shutting down of Al Jazeera in Israel
Rosiland Jordan
Reporting from Washington DC

We’re still waiting for some sort of comment from the US government. We’ve reached out to the White House. We’ve reached out to the State Department, but … it is still early on Sunday here in the United States. So it may be a while before we get some sort of comment.

Now, of course, there has been some reporting earlier on in the war in Gaza suggesting that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had made appeals to Qatari officials to put pressure on journalists at Al Jazeera to tone down some of their rhetoric in their reporting.

The State Department has refused to confirm that this conversation ever took place.

US stopped delivery of ammunition to Israel: Report

US President Joe Biden’s administration halted a shipment of American-manufactured ammunition bound for Israel last week, US media outlet Axios has reported, citing unnamed Israeli officials.

According to Axios, this is the first time since the war on Gaza began last October that the United States has prevented a weapons shipment to the Israeli army.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/5/5/israels-war-on-gaza-live-neither-side-willing-to-budge-in-truce-talks

11 homes in Rafah hit as Israel intensifies attacks

Gaza’s civil defence office said its crews in Rafah are dealing with “several attacks” on inhabited and uninhabited homes in the southern city.

It said Israeli forces have hit 11 homes between Sunday evening and the early hours of Monday. The attacks have resulted in dozens of people killed, wounded, and missing under the rubble, Palestinian officials said.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/5/6/israels-war-on-gaza-live-israel-pounds-rafah-as-truce-talks-stall

Hezbollah claims rocket attack on Israeli settlement

The armed Lebanese group has claimed a 10th and final attack for today on Israeli positions, saying it used rockets to target the Margaliot settlement in northern Israel.

It said the attack is in response to Israeli attacks on villages and civilian homes in southern Lebanon, especially on the town of Meiss el-Jabal.

Hezbollah used dozens of rockets in its strikes today, with the Israeli military confirming that more than 60 were fired. In response, Israel said it struck some of Hezbollah’s launch sites, in addition to mounting attacks on Hezbollah military infrastructure.

Israeli military shells Syria after rockets fired at occupied Golan Heights

Israeli media reported earlier that rockets were fired from Syria at the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The Israeli military has now confirmed that two rockets were fired from Syria and that they hit open areas near the northern community of Ramat Magshimim without inflicting casualties or damage, the Times of Israel reports.

It also said the military shelled the launch sites inside Syria with artillery strikes.

Several rocket attacks have been launched from Syria on the occupied Golan Heights since the start of the war on Gaza, with the Israeli military retaliating.

Israel has also been significantly ramping up its decade-long bombing of Syria since the start of the war, especially hitting targets linked with Iran or Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/5/5/israels-war-on-gaza-live-neither-side-willing-to-budge-in-truce-talks

Israeli military orders Palestinians to evacuate from eastern Rafah: Reports

Israeli media outlets are reporting that the Israeli military has begun ordering Palestinians living in neighbourhoods in eastern Rafah – near the perimeter fence with Israel – to evacuate from the area.

Israel’s Army Radio said the order comes before a “military attack” and that the Palestinians are being told to move towards camps for displaced people in Khan Younis and al-Mawasi areas.

Israeli designated evacuation zones are not safe for Palestinians
Hani Mahmoud
Reporting from Rafah, Gaza

This evacuation order follows what seems to be the failure of ceasefire talks in Cairo, and the insistence of the Israeli prime minister on expanding the ground invasion into Rafah city.

It also comes in the aftermath of the Hamas attack on the Karem Abu Salem crossing, and an intense Israeli response, in which they carried out 11 air raids, targeting areas in the eastern parts of Rafah city.

And this seems to be the targeted area now.

Local residents of the eastern parts of Rafah City have been ordered by the Israeli military to evacuate sharply and immediately to the western part, to the evacuation zone al-Mawasi, an area has previously been designated by the Israeli military as a safe zone.

Now it’s important to point out that so far all the evacuation zones designated by the Israeli military has not been safe for the displaced families. In fact, these areas have been constantly under attack, whether in western Khan Younis or here in Rafah, where 1.5 million people are sheltering.

It is also worth pointing out that in the last couple of days, people have started moving on their own volition, because of the lack of progress in the ceasefire talks. They have started packing their stuff up and started moving, but not necessarily to the evacuation zone, because of their mistrust in believing the Israeli narrative.

Netanyahu’s insistence on Rafah offensive stalls truce talks: Report

The New York Times reports that an Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity and Mousa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas official, both blamed the Israeli prime minister for stalling the current truce talks.

The Israeli source is reported as telling the newspaper that the two parties were close to an agreement a couple of days ago, but Netanyahu’s comments about a planned Rafah offensive had forced Hamas to “harden” its demands.

Abu Marzouk told the newspaper, “We were very close, but Netanyahu’s narrow-mindedness aborted an agreement.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/5/6/israels-war-on-gaza-live-israel-pounds-rafah-as-truce-talks-stall

Netanyahu asked Qatar to fund Hamas in 2018 letter: Report

The Israeli prime minister in 2018 asked the Qatari government to continue transferring $30m to the Gaza Strip monthly, the Israeli Ynet news site has reported, citing “a secret letter” sent to the Gulf state’s leadership.

The publication said the letter has only been seen by a handful of people since being sent by Benjamin Netanyahu.

In the letter, the prime minister said funding Hamas would preserve regional stability and avert a humanitarian crisis, according to Ynet.

After Qatari officials demanded further assurances, the US government agreed to a request from Netanyahu and sent an additional letter to Doha that, in effect, ensured Qatar that funding Hamas would not be considered funding terror, the report said, adding that the letters from Netanyahu and then-US Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin ultimately “satisfied the Qataris”.

Israeli defence minister tells US counterpart Israel had ‘no choice’ over Rafah offensive

Yoav Gallant has told his American counterpart, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, that Israel was left with “no choice” but to launch its offensive on Rafah.

In an overnight phone call, ⁠Gallant updated Austin on Sunday’s rocket barrage launched from Rafah on an Israeli army position on the border, his office said.

The minister is reported to have blamed Hamas for refusing any proposal that would allow for a temporary ceasefire proposal.

⁠Gallant’s office said Gallant then told Austin, “There was no choice left, and the meaning was the start of the Israeli operation in Rafah.”

Israel says ‘around 100,000’ will be evacuated from eastern Rafah

A spokesman for the Israeli military told journalists it is evacuating “around 100,000 people” from eastern Rafah, ahead of an expected ground assault there.

The international community has warned Israel that a military operation in Rafah, where 1.5 million Palestinians are sheltering, would be “catastrophic”.

Palestinian group claims to destroy Israeli army site in central Gaza

Palestinian armed group Mujahideen Brigades has said that its fighters destroyed a military site in central Gaza with a barrage of short-range rockets.

The group said on X that the strikes in the so-called Netzarim corridor were carried out together with the Brigades of the Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa, another armed group.

The corridor, named after the Netzarim Jewish settlement in Gaza that was dismantled in 2005, was built by the Israeli army to separate northern Gaza from its southern part.

Palestinian armed groups carry out frequent attacks against Israeli forces around the corridor.

Netanyahu heckled at Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony

Israeli media outlets Haaretz and Channel 12 have posted a video on X in which a man is seen calling on Netanyahu to resign as he was about to lay the state wreath at an official Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony.

“How many signs does it take for a prime minister to go home?” the man shouted.

Tens of thousands of antigovernment protesters have regularly marched in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, calling for new elections and accusing Netanyahu of prolonging the war on Gaza to keep himself in power.

Holocaust Remembrance Day is observed as Israel’s day of commemoration for the approximately six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust.

https://twitter.com/thelitt80824365/status/1787399883852300386 (repost)

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/5/6/israels-war-on-gaza-live-israel-pounds-rafah-as-truce-talks-stall

>>481256
>Netanyahu heckled at Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony
Genocide Ben going to a Holocaust Remembrance ceremony while he orchestrates another one. Such incandescent hypocrisy, you'd think he'd have melted or combusted

*ϟϟreal would've been the best present for mr. Shitler.
<I tried to stop them my fellow goys! Now look what happened!

So it seems in another stunning display of self-awareness, it's been decided that this year's Pulitzer prize for journalism has been rewarded to the New York Times. Even though they're currently embroiled in a story fabrication scandal so conspicuous that even their comrade-in-propaganda the Bezos Post is commenting on it. Pulitzer has decided to award the Times for their "international reporting of the Hamas attack on Israel and the war in Gaza."

>>481261
Yeah they turned the Pulitzer price into a farce by not giving it posthumously to the journalists that were murdered in Gaza while trying to get the word out.

It looks like people in these positions of power are increasingly living in opposite-world where up is down

>>481267 meant for >>481266

>>481267
>>481268
The Pulitzer has been a farce for a long time, this one is a real mask-off moment though.

Displaced Palestinians in central Gaza rejoice amid Hamas acceptance of truce proposal

Video footage obtained by Al Jazeera shows displaced Palestinians living in tents at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah celebrating Hamas’ss announcement.

“We are living with great joy, and we thank Qatar, Egypt, and everyone who stood with us to stop the war,” Abeer Salibi told Al Jazeera.

“It is an indescribable feeling … and we hope that any truce will continue.”

Maha al-Sarsak, a displaced woman from the Shujayea neighbourhood in Gaza, said she had been displaced for seven months.

“We hope the ceasefire efforts will continue until we return to our homes,” she said.

Israel has yet to respond to Hamas, but a short while ago said its negotiating team is “studying” the proposal agreed to by the Palestinian group.

Haniyeh to Iran’s foreign minister: ‘Ball in Israel’s court. We are honest in our intentions’

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian has spoken to Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh after the latter said the Palestinian group has agreed to a ceasefire proposal made by mediators.

Amirabdollahian said he was told the following by Haniyeh: “We sent Hamas’s response to the plan proposed by Egypt and Qatar to stop the attacks of the Israeli regime, exchange prisoners, lift the human blockade, and … now the ball is in the opposite court. We are honest in our intentions.”

After evacuation order, Israeli army announces strikes on Rafah

The Israeli military says it is currently conducting targeted strikes against targets belonging to Hamas in the eastern part of the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

The army, in a brief statement, said that more details would follow.

‘Nonstop’ bombing of eastern Rafah ongoing
Tareq Abu Azzoum
Reporting from Rafah, southern Gaza

There has been an escalation of air raids and artillery bombardment in the eastern part of Rafah.

We’re talking nonstop bombing of residential houses. The vast majority of residents there have started to flee the area where the Israeli military is trying to mobilise more troops.

Eyewitnesses that we have been in contact with say they have heard movement of Israeli military tanks across the Gaza separation fence with Israel.

That’s absolutely terrifying … and contradictory to the general atmosphere of positivity around the negotiations.

Israeli war cabinet decides to send negotiators for talks, continue Rafah operation

Ofir Gendelman, the Arabic language spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, says on X that the proposal Hamas agreed to for a ceasefire in Gaza is “far from Israel’s necessary demands,” but that a delegation will be sent nonetheless.

“The war cabinet unanimously decided that Israel would continue the operation in Rafah in order to exert military pressure on Hamas,” Gendelman added “with the aim of pushing forward the release of our kidnapped and achieving the goals of the war”.

Hezbollah claims three attacks on Israeli positions

After a day of ramped-up attacks on Sunday, the armed Lebanese group had a more subdued Monday in its border fighting with Israel, claiming three attacks in its end-of-day report.

Hezbollah said it launched “dozens of Katyusha rockets” at an Israeli military headquarters located in the occupied Golan Heights, in response to an earlier Israeli attack that hit the Bekaa region in Lebanon.

Claiming a new attack on the Metula settlement, the group said it hit a group of Israeli soldiers and their vehicles, inflicting casualties and damage.

Lastly, Hezbollah claimed a direct hit on “technical equipment” on the Israeli-Lebanese border.

Syrian soldier dies after Israeli raid: Monitor

A Syrian soldier has died of his wounds after Israeli raids on the country’s south, which came in alleged retaliation for rocket fire, a war monitor has said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the country’s 13-year-old civil conflict, reported late Sunday that “groups affiliated with Lebanon’s Hezbollah shot three rockets from Syrian territory” towards the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

In response, Israeli forces targeted “three positions in Deraa province” in southern Syria, said the Britain-based Observatory.

It said that “a member of the [Syrian] regime forces was killed” after being wounded in the bombardment.

Palestinians killed as Israel continues to bomb Rafah

Gaza’s Civil Defence announced on its Telegram channel that its crews are “still recovering a number of [dead] and injured people” from under the rubble of a house hit by Israeli warplanes a short while ago.

It added that it was able to control a fire that broke out after the strike.

Al-Quds Brigades fires rockets towards Israel

The armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad says it has launched rockets from Gaza towards southern Israel in response to Israeli air strikes on the Strip.

“We have targeted Sderot, Nir Am, and settlements in the Gaza envelope with rocket barrages,” the al-Quds Brigades said in a statement, referring to a zone of southern Israel close to Gaza.

The Israeli army said sirens sounded in communities near the besieged and bombarded territory.

Iran welcomes Hamas response to ceasefire proposal

The Iranian foreign ministry spokesman says in a short statement that Iran welcomes the Hamas response to “stop the genocide machine of the Zionist regime” in Gaza.

Nasser Kanaani called the move by Hamas significant in terms of the “political intelligence of the resistance”, and a different representation of its success on the field of battle.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran supports the plan presented for the realisation of the rights of the Palestinian people, including the immediate and sustainable cessation of attacks and crimes by the Zionist regime, the lifting of the cruel blockade against the Gaza Strip, the release of Palestinian prisoners, the complete and unconditional withdrawal of the Israeli occupation forces from the Gaza Strip and the reconstruction of the ruins”, the statement reads.

Jordan’s FM says Netanyahu risking ceasefire by bombing Rafah

“Tremendous effort has been made to produce an exchange deal that’ll release hostages & realize a ceasefire,” Ayman Safadi said on X after the Israeli army announced it would be carrying out strikes on Hamas targets in Gaza’s southern city.

“Hamas has put out an offer. If Netanyahu genuinely wants a deal, he will negotiate the offer in earnest. Instead, he is jeopardizing the deal by bombing Rafah,” Safadi said.

Hamas says Palestinians ‘will not back down from demands’

Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh has had a phone call with Ziyad al-Nakhalah, the head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad on the group’s acceptance of a proposal by mediators.

Hamas said in a statement that the two leaders emphasised that “resistance factions will not back down from their demands”, including a ceasefire, a comprehensive withdrawal of Israeli troops, an “honourable” exchange of prisoners, reconstruction of Gaza and the lifting of the siege.

“The two leaders also reviewed the procedures required to ensure the implementation of the agreement after the resistance took its decision based on a conscious vision of developments in the current situation at all levels,” a statement from Hamas said.

‘Cabinet must turn Hamas acceptance into a deal’: Captives’ families

The main organisation created by the families of captives who are still held in Gaza has welcomed the Hamas announcement.

“Now is the time for the Israeli government to prove in action its commitment to its citizens,” the Hostage and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.

“The cabinet must take the acceptance by Hamas and turn it into a deal for the return of all of them. The return of the abductees is the key to Israeli security.”

The families have been behind dozens of large-scale protests calling for the return of the captives since the start of the war on October 7 and have been ramping up pressure on top Israeli officials to agree to a deal.

‘The country will burn’: Families of Israeli captives demand a deal

Several families of Israeli captives held in Gaza have blocked the major Begin Road in Tel Aviv to demand that authorities agree to a deal to bring back their loved ones.

In a televised interview with Channel 12 that is being widely shared online, the mother of captive Matan Zangauker directly addressed Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to say he needs to be a “leader” and reach an agreement.

“If our government and prime minister miss this chance, which is probably my last chance to see Matan return home and for other families to see their loved one return home, I will bring out all Israelis,” said Einav Zangauker.

“The streets will burn, the country will burn… You cannot play like this with people’s lives.”

Conservative US judges boycott Columbia graduates over campus protests

A group of 13 conservative US federal judges promise they will not hire law students or undergraduates from Columbia University due to pro-Palestinian protests on campus.

In a letter to Columbia President Minouche Shafik and Law Dean Gillian Lester, the judges, all appointed by former US President Donald Trump and most based in Texas, called for “serious consequences” for students and faculty who participated in demonstrations.

“Both professors and administrators are on the front lines of the campus disruptions, encouraging the virulent spread of anti-Semitism and bigotry,” the letter reads.

The university earlier on Monday cancelled its main graduation ceremony due to the ongoing protests.

Pulitzer board awards ‘special citation’ to journalists covering Gaza

The 2024 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation has been awarded to “journalists and media workers covering the war in Gaza”.

The board of the prestigious awards did not name specifically “Palestinian” journalists – a record number of whom have been killed by the Israeli military in Gaza since the start of the war.

Ceasefire proposal includes three phases, including permanent ceasefire

Sources have told Al Jazeera that the Egyptian-Qatari proposal Hamas has agreed to would include three phases, with each lasting 42 days.

A truce would begin in the first phase, along with an Israeli withdrawal from the Netzarim corridor that Israel uses to divide northern and southern Gaza.

A second phase would include the approval of a permanent cessation of military and hostile operations, and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

The proposal also includes a provision approving an end to the blockade of Gaza in the third phase.

Hamas deputy leader says US President Biden personally committed to implementation of ceasefire deal

Khalil al-Hayya confirmed to Al Jazeera that there are three phases to the ceasefire deal, but added that mediators had told Hamas that the United States president was committed to ensuring the implementation of the agreement.

There has been no confirmation of this from the American side.

Al-Hayya added that the first phase would see the return of displaced Palestinians in Gaza to their homes, and the flow of aid, fuel and relief materials into Gaza.

He added that 50 Palestinian prisoners would be released for each female captive held by Hamas in that first phase. In the second phase, Hamas would release male captives for an undetermined number of Palestinian prisoners.

The third phase of the agreement would include the start of the implementation of a reconstruction plan for a period of three to five years.

‘We will survive until we get our freedom’

A young Palestinian man says he wants the world to know that Palestinians will survive the war on Gaza.

“We feel so happy that finally Hamas has agreed about the ceasefire but now we are waiting for an Israeli agreement and we hope that they will say it,” he tells Al Jazeera from Rafah.

“It’s after 212 days of genocide, of displacement, of killing of children, women and elderly, even nurses and doctors. It’s about time we have shown the world that we have survived.”

“Gaza is so small but we have survived after 212 days of attacks by the most advanced technical weapons against us. We will not forget and we will not forgive. Everything we have witnessed in this war will be written in history. Palestinians will survive until we get our freedom.”

“We have survived to return to our lands.”

Cheering Palestinians react to news of ceasefire agreement

Displaced Palestinians are ecstatic after hearing that Hamas has agreed to a deal for a ceasefire, especially after fearing an imminent ground offensive on Rafah.

“We hope Allah will facilitate this and we can return to our homes,” a man from Gaza City in the northern part of the enclave told Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum in Rafah.

“All praise be to Allah that they didn’t invade Rafah,” a Palestinian boy said. “We would like to thank all those who stood by our side and stood by Gaza.”

“We want a political solution, not just a military solution,” another Palestinian said. “For that, we must struggle to have independence from the Israeli occupation and to stop the aggression in both Gaza and the West Bank.”

“We want to see the international community stop Israel’s escalation on the Gaza Strip,” he continued. “We want to go back to our houses. Our families are very sad, but this evening after this announcement ,we see the majority of our people happy.”

Hamas statement on ceasefire in full

“The mujahid brother Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Hamas movement’s political bureau, had a phone call with the Qatari Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani, and with the Egyptian Minister of Intelligence, Abbas Kamel, and informed them of the Hamas movement’s approval of their proposal regarding the ceasefire agreement.”

Released captives, families demand ‘truth’ on negotiations: Report

Six Israelis released from captivity in Gaza, along with the families of those remaining in the enclave, have reportedly written a letter to war cabinet members Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot to demand the “truth” about mediated negotiations with Hamas.

They blame Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for deliberating sabotaging an agreement and effectively “abandoning the hostages to their deaths”, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

“We watch in horror at what is happening, and demand to know what happened on Saturday,” the letter reads.

They also deem the planned offensive on Rafah at this moment a death sentence for the captives.

“Why aren’t you telling the Israeli public that they can allow themselves to stop the war in exchange for a ceasefire?” they asked in their letter. “And why did you support action in Rafah when it is clear that it endangers the hostages and distances the possibility of their return? Go public and tell the truth.”

Israel keeps main humanitarian aid crossing into Gaza closed for second day

The Israeli military confirms that it has kept the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing, the main aid crossing from Israeli territory into besieged Gaza, closed for a second day due to “security reasons”.

The Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) office, which is in charge of organising aid entry into the Gaza Strip, said 35 aid trucks crossed into northern Gaza today via the Beit Hanoon (Erez) crossing that was reopened last week for the first time since the start of the war.

The Karem Abu Salem crossing was closed on Sunday after Hamas fired 10 rockets at a military installation near the crossing, killing four Israeli soldiers and wounding at least 10 others.

A short while ago, the White House said that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu told US President Joe Biden that he had agreed to reopen the crossing.

UN experts condemn Israel’s ‘sexual assault and violence’ in Gaza

Seven UN special rapporteurs have issued a statement condemning “unacceptable” violence by the Israeli army against women and children during the war on Gaza, particularly sexual violence and enforced disappearances.

“We are appalled that women are being targeted by Israel with such vicious, indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks, seemingly sparing no means to destroy their lives and deny them their fundamental human rights,” they said

The statement pointed to “continued reports of sexual assault and violence against women and girls, including against those detained by Israeli occupation forces”. It also cited UN reports saying women and girls in Gaza were victims of enforced disappearances.

Special rapporteurs are independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council. They do not speak on behalf of the UN.

Referring to Hamas, Israel’s mission in Geneva alleged the experts had “once again chosen to ignore Hamas’s systematic militarisation of health facilities and civilian infrastructures in the Gaza Strip, voluntarily and actively using the population as human shields”.

“In issuing such a statement, the signatories try to create an alternative narrative, parroting the agenda of a terrorist organisation that is actively destroying the lives of the Palestinian population in Gaza,” the Israeli mission said.

Belgium working on more sanctions against Israel, deputy PM says

The comments came from Petra De Sutter after she met with Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki, adding that the two had “discussed how Belgium can help to end the atrocities” in Gaza.

“We will continue to push for recognition of the State of Palestine, and full UN membership,” she added in a social media post.

MSF call for immediate ceasefire in Gaza
Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, says a military offensive on Rafah would be “catastrophic” in light of more than one million people residing in the southern Gaza city, most of them displaced.

“People in Gaza need an immediate and sustained ceasefire,” the group said on X.

‘We hoped this day would never come’
Save the Children is warning that time has run out to protect children in Rafah following Israel’s evacuation order in advance of the looming ground assault.

“We hoped this day would never come,” said Inger Ashing, CEO of the charity, warning that an incursion would not only risk the lives of more than 600,000 children but would also severely affect the humanitarian aid response for Gaza.

“Forcibly displacing people from Rafah while further disrupting the aid response will likely seal the fate of many children,” Ashing added, urging countries to “act now” to protect civilians and prevent atrocities.

“The government of Israel must abide by the prohibition of forcible transfer and deportation of civilians under international humanitarian law and provide civilians with essential necessities for survival. Now more than ever we need an immediate, definitive ceasefire, implemented by warring parties. There is so much more that can and must be done to save children’s lives.”

US Republican senators threaten ICC over Israel arrest warrants: Report

The threat came in a letter sent by 12 Republican senators from the United States, including former Senate leader Mitch McConnell and Texas’s Ted Cruz. The letter admonished International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan for reports that the body was investigating Israel for war crimes committed in Gaza.

“Target Israel and we will target you,” the senators said in the letter, obtained by the news website Zeteo. “If you move forward with the measures indicated in the report, we will move to end all American support for the ICC, sanction your employers and associates, and bar you and your families from the United States. You have been warned.”

The ICC has demanded an end to threats against it last week. Media reports have indicated that the ICC might issue arrest warrants for Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/5/6/israels-war-on-gaza-live-israel-pounds-rafah-as-truce-talks-stall

Two explosions reported near ship travelling south of Yemen’s Aden

The UK’s Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said it has received a report of two explosions in close proximity to a merchant vessel traveling some 150km (82 nautical miles) south of the Yemeni city of Aden.

According to the UKMTO, the “master of the merchant vessel” said all crew and the ship was safe following the explosions, the Reuters news agency reports.

Houthi fighters in Yemen have launched repeated drone and missile strikes on shipping in the Red Sea, Bab el-Mandab Strait and Gulf of Aden that they say have links to Israel.

Staunch supporters of the Palestinian cause, Houthi officials say the attacks on shipping will end when Israel ends its war on Gaza.

Israeli envoy says US must ‘completely stop funding’ UN if Palestinian statehood endorsed

Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan has denounced a UN General Assembly (UNGA) draft resolution that would recognise Palestine as qualified to become a full UN member, saying it goes against the organisation’s founding Charter.

“If it is approved, I expect the United States to completely stop funding the UN and its institutions, in accordance with American law,” Erdan said.

US law stipulates that Washington can’t fund any UN body if it grants full membership to any group that lacks “internationally recognised attributes” of statehood.

The resolution, which UN General Assembly members could vote on this Friday, will serve as a global survey on support for the Palestinian bid.

If passed, the resolution would recommend that the UN Security Council (UNSC) “reconsider the matter favourably”, after the US vetoed the Palestinian application for full membership last month.

Any application to become a full member requires approval from all 15 UNSC members and then the UNGA.

Israeli tanks enter Rafah, push close to border crossing with Egypt: Report

A Palestinian security official and an Egyptian official have told the Associated Press (AP) news agency that Israeli tanks have entered Rafah, reaching to within 200 meters (almost 220 yards) from Rafah’s border crossing with neighbouring Egypt.

The Egyptian official told AP that the operation appeared to be limited in scope. The official, as well as Al-Aqsa TV, said Israeli officials had informed the Egyptians that its forces would withdraw after completing the operation.

The Israeli military declined to comment on the reported tank incursion.

AP said the Egyptian official, located on the Egyptian side of Rafah, and the Palestinian security official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to the press.

Columbia cancels graduation ceremony in wake of protests

Columbia University has said that it will cancel its main graduation ceremony following weeks of intense pro-Palestine protests on its campus.

The graduation ceremony – normally attended by more than 50,000 people – was set to take place on May 15, but the university will now hold smaller, school-based events.

“Holding a large commencement ceremony on our campus presented security concerns that unfortunately proved insurmountable,” said university spokesperson Ben Chang.

“Like our students, we are deeply disappointed with this outcome.”

MIT student calls on university to end ‘drone swarm’ research with Israeli military

MIT science student and pro-Palestinian protester Darsh told Al Jazeera’s correspondent Teresa Bo that the university must divest from Israeli interests, particularly ending research with Israel’s military.

“The obvious objective of this encampment is to stand with the people in Gaza and also to ask MIT to divest from the [Israeli military]. It takes money from the [Israeli military] to do research on drone swarms,” Darsh said.

“We don’t want that happening any more.

“There has been so much support from the community today, it was beautiful to see. When they threatened [protesters with] suspension and arrest and eviction from the encampment, there were only 30… And now we see many people who came in really quickly to help support us.

“I think what’s going on now is bigger than any type of graduation or arrests that may happen. There are 5,000 university students in Gaza that have been killed. That’s the same as the MIT undergrad population.

“There are so many children that can’t go to school in Gaza because their schools got bombed and flattened… I don’t think anyone in the world deserves to go to school as long as they [students in Gaza] can’t.”

MIT students defy deadline to end Gaza solidarity encampment
Teresa Bo
Reporting from Cambridge, Massachusetts

It’s been a tense day here at [the Massachusetts Institute of Technology] campus mostly because students have set up an encampment where I am standing right now.

This encampment was later on surrounded with a fence by the police, and students took that fence down and retook this part of the campus after being told that they were going to be evicted by the police.

Students here are demanding an end to the war on Gaza.

They are demanding divestment, which is an end to the use of university funds being invested in companies that students say are profiting from the war.

They are also singing, “Hands off Rafah”, among many other things.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/5/7/israels-war-on-gaza-live-israel-blasts-rafah-fate-of-ceasefire-uncertain

>>481274
>Israeli envoy says US must ‘completely stop funding’ UN if Palestinian statehood endorsed
israel throwing a fit

Israelis invade Rafah in south Gaza as Palestinians continue to fight in north

Antony Loewenstein, author of The Palestine Laboratory, which focuses on Israel’s military-technological complex, said the Israeli attack on Rafah comes at a time when Hamas fighters were continuing to operate in the north of the territory, which demonstrates that Israel will not succeed in eliminating “the idea” of Hamas.

“I think what Israel will find, even if they go into Rafah with lots and lots of troops and they try to destroy more tunnels or try to get more Hamas leaders, what they’ll find, as the US found in Iraq or Afghanistan after years of occupation, you cannot actually successfully occupy territory without insane amounts of troops. Millions of troops, which Israel does not have,” Loewenstein told Al Jazeera.

“Even if Israel is in Rafah, what we are already seeing in other parts of Gaza – the north and elsewhere – is Hamas forces still operating, still existing, still fighting. That will continue,” he said.

“It is impossible to finally, militarily destroy Hamas. You can degrade them, to be sure … But you cannot destroy the idea of what Hamas is – for better or worse,” he said.

Gaza aid halted as Israeli tanks take control of Rafah border crossing

Reuters reports that aid flow to Gaza has halted through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt following Israeli forces taking control of the Palestinian side of the frontier.

Three sources in humanitarian relief told the news agency that shipments of crucial supplies had halted.

Senior UN officials have repeatedly warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in Rafah should Israel launch a ground invasion of what was until recently a last refuge from Israeli attacks.

WATCH: Israeli protesters call on Netanyahu to accept truce deal
Pressure is building on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at home, after Hamas agreed to a ceasefire proposal brokered by Qatar and Egypt.

Thousands of people held demonstrations in Tel Aviv, demanding the government accept the deal and bring the captives held in Gaza back home.

Video clip captures moment of fierce Israeli strikes on Rafah

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic have verified and shared a video clip of Israeli strikes on Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip where Palestinians have started to flee before an Israeli military ground invasion.

Israel has announced the start of its military operation against Rafah, despite warnings from the UN, US, the EU and international humanitarian organisations that an attack on Rafah would be catastrophic for the estimated 1.4 million people sheltering there.

https://twitter.com/AJA_Palestine/status/1787705215694905635

Dutch police end pro-Palestinian demonstration at Amsterdam university

Dutch riot police have ended a pro-Palestinian demonstration at the University of Amsterdam this morning, arresting some 125 people in sometimes violent clashes, according to authorities.

In messages posted overnight on X, police said they had to act to stop the event and dismantle tents set up by protesters, who used violence against police at the site.

“The police’s input was necessary to restore order. We see the footage on social media. We understand that those images may appear as intense,” police said.

Local media showed demonstrators shooting fireworks at police officers but there were no immediate reports of injuries on either side.

“All is now quiet … police stay in the vicinity of the Roeterseiland campus,” police said later on X.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/5/7/israels-war-on-gaza-live-israel-blasts-rafah-fate-of-ceasefire-uncertain

palestine forever !!!

>>481273
>Pulitzer board awards ‘special citation’ to journalists covering Gaza
>The 2024 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation has been awarded to “journalists and media workers covering the war in Gaza”.
>The board of the prestigious awards did not name specifically “Palestinian” journalists – a record number of whom have been killed by the Israeli military in Gaza since the start of the war.
kek they heard you >>481269
They're giving the Gaza reporters the consolation prize


>Hamas deputy leader says US President Biden personally committed to implementation of ceasefire deal
>Khalil al-Hayya confirmed to Al Jazeera that there are three phases to the ceasefire deal, but added that mediators had told Hamas that the United States president was committed to ensuring the implementation of the agreement.
>There has been no confirmation of this from the American side.
I doubt it, if Biden was committed to a ceasefire, he'd could easily make the Zionist cease firing.

>Belgium working on more sanctions against Israel, deputy PM says
>The comments came from Petra De Sutter after she met with Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki, adding that the two had “discussed how Belgium can help to end the atrocities” in Gaza.
>“We will continue to push for recognition of the State of Palestine, and full UN membership,” she added in a social media post.
Based antigenocidal waffles

>>481275
Could you imagine the Zionist lobby getting it's wishes and the US pulling out of the UN. And the plot-twist is China stepping up. And then the Chinese don't put the thumb on the scale in favor for Israel.

>>481291
>I doubt it, if Biden was committed to a ceasefire, he'd could easily make the Zionist cease firing.
Very true!

>>481292
I didn't even think of that! lmao

A new Kyle Kucklinski episode going over some of the recent developments - he catches a story I hadn't heard around 18:24. Apparently an Israeli organ-trafficking ring was just busted in Turkey.

Police in the Turkish city of Adana detained 11 suspects, five Israeli and two Syrian, on allegations of organ trafficking, the Daily Sabah reported on 5 May.

The Provincial Directorate of Security’s Anti-Smuggling and Border Gates Branch began investigating after examining the passports of seven individuals who arrived in Adana from Israel about a month ago by plane for the purpose of health tourism. The two Syrian nationals, ages 20 and 21, were found to have fake passports.

Further investigation revealed that Syrian nationals had each agreed to sell one of their own kidneys to two of the Israeli nationals, ages 68 and 28, for kidney transplants in Adana.

During searches at the suspects’ residences, $65,000 and numerous fake passports were seized.

Israel has long been at the center of what Bloomberg described in 2011 as a “sprawling global black market in organs where brokers use deception, violence, and coercion to buy kidneys from impoverished people, mainly in underdeveloped countries, and then sell them to critically ill patients in more-affluent nations.”

The financial newspaper added, “Many of the black-market kidneys harvested by these gangs are destined for people who live in Israel.”

The organ-trafficking network extends from former Soviet Republics such as Azerbaijan, Belarus, Ukraine, and Moldova to Brazil, the Philippines, South Africa, and beyond, the Bloomberg investigation showed.

Accusations of Israeli involvement in organ trafficking also apply to the occupied Palestinian territories.

In 2009, Sweden’s largest daily newspaper, Aftonbladet, reported testimony that the Israeli army was kidnapping and murdering Palestinians to harvest their organs.

The report quotes Palestinian claims that young men from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip had been seized by the Israeli army, and their bodies returned to the families with missing organs.

…

Bostrom also cites an incident of alleged organ theft during the first Palestinian intifada in 1992. He says that the Israeli army abducted a young man known for throwing stones at Israeli troops in the Nablus area. The young man was shot in the chest, both legs, and the stomach before being taken to a military helicopter, which transported him to an unknown location.

Five nights later, Bostrom said, the young man’s body was returned, wrapped in green hospital sheets.

Israel’s Channel 2 TV reported that in the 1990s, specialists at Abu Kabir Forensic Medicine Institute harvested skin, corneas, heart valves, and bones from the bodies of Israeli soldiers, Israeli citizens, Palestinians, and foreign workers without permission from relatives.

The Israeli military confirmed that the practice took place but claimed, “This activity ended a decade ago and does not happen any longer.”

Israel’s assault on Gaza since 7 October has provided further opportunities for the theft and harvesting of Palestinians’ organs.

On 30 January, WAFA news agency reported that the Israeli army returned the bodies of 100 Palestinian civilians it had stolen from hospitals and cemeteries in various areas in Gaza.

According to medical sources, inspection of some of the bodies showed that organs were missing from some of them.

On 18 January, the Times of Israel reported that the Israeli army confirmed reports that its soldiers dug up graves in a Gaza cemetery, claiming its soldiers were trying to “confirm that the bodies of hostages were not buried there.”

https://thecradle.co/articles-id/24729

>>481311
People still watch this loser?

>>481403
I do sometimes!

>>481311
Of course they also do organ harvesting, why stick with the horror of a genocide when you can do all the other horrors as well.

The ones exhuming bodies from graves, must be extremely retarded, if they're doing that to steal organs.

Now this is interesting.

Apparently, in New York, a real-estate developer drove into anti-genocide protestors today. He's also a relative of Jewish fascist and convicted terrorist Meir Kahane.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/pro-israel-driver-protest
CUAD and independent reporter Talia Jane said the driver is a relative of the late Meir Kahane, an American-born Israeli far-right extremist.

The driver's "actions today model a trend in which Zionists weaponize their discomfort over political slogans as an excuse to assault Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, Black, brown, and dissident Jewish protesters in violent retaliation for imagined threats," said CUAD. "Just as white supremacists ran over a protester in Charlottesville, Zionists on the streets and in police precincts have declared open season on young people fighting for Palestinian liberation."

https://web.archive.org/web/20230603215618/https://amimagazine.org/2021/08/18/reuven-kahane/
Here's an interesting tidbit:
Interviewer: The New York Post wrote in 2013 that you made a $2.25-billion offer on the Empire State Building.

Reuven Kahane: This is the way crazy rumors, real estate myths and urban legends start. The whole story is funny because my brother read that front-page article the day after I asked him to go 50-50 on a $100 birthday present for our sister. The truth is that I did make an offer to the broker, but it was on behalf of a group of Israeli and Ukrainian businessmen I had known for years through my dealings with Likud. They needed someone local to make the offer. If they had won the bid, I suppose I would have owned .00001 percent of it.

More about his relative, Meir:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meir_Kahane#Terrorism_and_convictions
A number of the JDL's members and leaders, including Kahane, were convicted of acts related to domestic terrorism.[48] In 1971, Kahane was sentenced to a suspended five-year prison sentence and fined $5,000 for conspiring to manufacture explosives.[6] In 1975, Kahane was arrested for leading the attack on the Soviet United Nations mission and injuring two officers, but he was released after being given summonses for disorderly conduct. Later the same year, Kahane was accused of conspiring to kidnap a Soviet diplomat, bomb the Iraqi embassy in Washington, and ship arms abroad from Israel. He was convicted of violating his probation for the 1971 bombing conviction and was sentenced to one year in prison.[49] However, he served most of it in a hotel, with frequent unsupervised absences, because of a concession over the provision of kosher food.[50]

In a 1984 interview with Washington Post correspondent Carla Hall, Kahane admitted that the JDL "bombed the Russian [Soviet] mission in New York, the Russian cultural mission here [Washington] in 1971, the Soviet trade offices".[51][52]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kahanism
Kahane held the view that most Arabs living in Israel are enemies of Jews and Israel itself, and believed that a Jewish theocratic state, where non-Jews have no voting rights, should be created.[1]

The Kach party has been banned by the Israeli government. In 2004, the U.S. State Department designated it a Foreign Terrorist Organization.[2][3] In 2022, it was removed from the U.S. terror blacklist due to "insufficient evidence" of the group's ongoing activity, but it remains a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entity.[4]

The Otzma Yehudit party, which has been called Kahanist and anti-Arab,[5][6] won six seats in the 2022 election and is a member of the current Israeli government. The party, and the Kahanist movement as a whole, have been described as espousing Jewish fascism.[7][8]

>>481410
>Israeli and Ukrainian businessmen
Nazis think alike eh.

>>481411
I thought that was weird, too. The ties between Israeli fascists and Ukrainian ones are incredibly creepy.

Report: US indefinitely delayed report on whether Israel violating international law

The US news outlet Politico has reported that the Biden administration has indefinitely delayed the release of a State Department report on whether Israel is violating international law in Gaza. The administration gave no reason for the last-minute change.

“The State Department was supposed to issue the report today,” reads the article, which cites three Senate aides and one House aide. “If it had concluded there was a violation, the U.S. would be expected to stop sending Israel military aid.”

The reporting comes as Israel pushes forward with military operations in Rafah, where the international community and the Biden administration have warned that an Israeli incursion could have disastrous impacts on hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians who sought refuge there under Israeli instruction.

https://twitter.com/politico/status/1787943165225234894

MSF relocating staff to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, says it has begun discharging patients from Rafah Indonesian Field Hospital and is suspending its activities at Shaboura Clinic given the escalation in Rafah.

It said in a statement it will be handing over its activities at Al-Helal Al-Emairati Maternity Hospital to the Ministry of Health on Wednesday and will relocate its staff to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis “to continue to support maternity care in a safer area”.

“This movement was planned before the recent evacuation orders. Additionally, MSF is considering establishing two new field hospitals in the Middle Area/Deir Al-Balah,” its statement read.

UNRWA HQ attacked in East Jerusalem

The head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, says a group of Israeli protesters have attacked the agency’s headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem after calls for protests against UNRWA by an Israeli municipal official.

“This protest called by an elected member of the Jerusalem municipality is nothing less than harassment, intimidation, vandalism & damage to UN property,” Lazzarini said in a social media post.

“It took place today at the UNRWA Headquarters in East Jerusalem under the watch of the Israeli Police. This has nothing to do with freedom of expression. Host countries, in this case Israel, are expected to protect United Nations premises, operations and staff at all times.”

https://twitter.com/UNLazzarini/status/1787924400785834336

Blocking Gaza aid violates UN court orders: Rights group

By preventing the transfer of much-needed humanitarian aid into Gaza, Israel is violating orders handed down by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Human Rights Watch says.

“Despite children dying from starvation and famine in Gaza, the Israeli authorities are still blocking aid critical for the survival of Gaza’s population in defiance of the World Court,” said Omar Shakir, a director at Human Rights Watch.

“With each day that Israeli authorities block life-saving aid, more Palestinians are at risk of dying.”

The ICJ has twice ordered Israel to do more to allow aid into Gaza. The closure of land crossings into Gaza is “unacceptable”, the White House said earlier.

Israel bombs Rafah municipal building

Al Jazeera’s correspondent reports that Israeli army artillery fire has hit the headquarters of the local government in Rafah, as it steps up strikes on the southern Gaza city.

We will continue to bring you more on Israel’s attacks on Rafah as information comes in.

‘They have gone crazy’: Intense tank fire on Rafah

Rafah residents report heavy tank shelling in the evening in some areas of eastern Rafah.

“They have gone crazy. Tanks are firing shells, and smoke bombs cover the skies and with smoke over al-Salam and Jnaina neighbourhoods,” said Emad Joudat, 55, a Gaza City resident displaced in Rafah.

“I am now seriously thinking of heading north, maybe to the central Gaza area. If they move farther into Rafah, it will be the mother of massacres.”

About 1.4 million people have been crammed into tent cities and makeshift shelters and are suffering from shortages of food, water, medicine and other essentials.

Israel’s military says it is conducting “a limited operation” in Rafah to kill Palestinian fighters and dismantle infrastructure used by Hamas. It ordered civilians to go to what it calls an “expanded humanitarian zone” 20km (12 miles) away.

Israeli captive dies of wounds from Israeli attack: Hamas

Hamas says the captive died of injuries sustained in an air strike a month ago.

Abu Ubaida, a spokesperson for the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, identified the deceased as Judy Feinstein, 70, saying she and another captive sustained serious injuries in an Israeli attack on a site where they were held.

Hamas is believed to be holding more than 130 captives taken from southern Israel during its October 7 attacks.

Pro-Palestine protesters gather in Paris

Video posted on X, and verified by Al Jazeera, shows a large gathering of people showing support for Palestinians in Gaza and for an end to Israel’s war at Place de La Republique in the French capital.

Early in the war, France banned protests against the war and cracked down heavily against demonstrators. However, by the beginning of November 2023, protests in solidarity with Palestinians were allowed.

https://twitter.com/CerveauxNon/status/1787870940497412604

German police break up pro-Palestine protest at university in Berlin

German police broke up a demonstration in solidarity with Gaza at the Free University in Berlin, where protesters wearing keffiyehs chanted, “Viva, viva Palestina.”

Pro-Palestine protesters have faced crackdowns by authorities in Europe and the US, but opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza, which has killed nearly 35,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, has continued to grow.

In recent weeks, pro-Palestine encampments on college campuses across the US have also been cleared out by police.

“An occupation is not acceptable on the FU Berlin campus,” Free University President Guenter Ziegler said in a statement. “We are available for academic dialogue — but not in this way.”

Hundreds march in New York City against Israeli incursion into Rafah
Teresa Bo
Reporting from New York City

We are right here in downtown New York City where hundreds of people gathered in Union Square to demand an end to the war. To demand an end to the incursion in Rafah, in southern Gaza.

Hundreds of people have started marching all around this area.

We’ve already seen at least four people being arrested.

The police are saying that people need to be marching where people are marching right now, if not, they will be detained. They cannot block the road.

There has been a lot of tension… As I said, four people have been arrested and this just adds up to what we have been seeing in this city in the past few days.

University campuses with encampments and students being evicted, suspended, expelled, arrested in many cases.

‘The goal is to destroy Gaza’: Why Israel rejects a truce with Hamas
Mat Nashed

For many analysts, the Israeli government’s message is clear: there will be no permanent ceasefire, and the devastating war on Gaza will continue.

“The last couple of days have proved that Israel was not really negotiating in good faith. The moment that Hamas agreed to a deal, Israel was willing to blow that up by commencing their assault on Rafah,” said Omar Rahman, an expert on Israel-Palestine with the Middle East Council for Global Affairs, a think tank in Doha, Qatar.

Columbia Law School defends students after conservative judges say they will not hire former students

Columbia Law School has said that graduates are “consistently sought out”, after a Monday letter from 13 conservative federal judges said they would not hire former Columbia students due to pro-Palestine protests on campus over the last several weeks.

The letter called the campus, where administrators have called in police to clear out antiwar demonstrations in solidarity with Gaza, an “incubator of bigotry”.

Law Dean Gillian Lester said in a statement today that Columbia law students were “consistently sought out by leading employers in the private and public sectors, including the judiciary”.

Clashes break out in pro-Palestinian rally in Greece

Clashes broke out between police and protesters during a pro-Palestine rally in central Athens. More than 300 people carrying Palestinian flags and banners reading “Hands off Rafah!” rallied outside the parliament building in the Greek capital.

“We are here in solidarity and we will respond any time the Palestinians call [for solidarity],” said protester Antonis Davanellos, a 60-year old pensioner.

Police fired tear gas to disperse a small group of protesters who climbed up the gate of the Egyptian embassy opposite parliament. The clashes were brief.

Israeli settlers attack aid convoy on way to Erez crossing

Jordan says Israeli settlers have attacked a humanitarian aid convoy on its way to Erez crossing in northern Gaza and “tampered with its contents” in the second such incident in less than a week.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Sufyan Qudah said the convoy, which drove through the Israeli-occupied West Bank from Jordan, later managed to continue its journey and reach its destination in war-devastated Gaza.

“Jordan holds Israel responsible for the attack by extremist settlers … it constitutes a breach of its legal obligations as an occupying power,” Qudah said.

US Congresswoman calls on Biden to ‘use his power’ to stop Rafah assault

US Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley has called on President Biden to use his leverage with Israel to stop an assault on Rafah, where Israel had previously instructed displaced Palestinians to seek shelter. Palestinian sheltering there have nowhere left to go and humanitarian officials have warned that an Israeli assault would be a disaster for civilians.

“Israeli forces are attacking Rafah, the final place of refuge in the Gaza Strip,” Pressley said in a social media post.

“Over 1.4M Palestinians are sheltering there & are facing more death & destruction. @POTUS called an Israeli invasion of Rafah “a red line” & must use his power to stop this attack. #CeasefireNOW”.

US completes construction of aid pier: Pentagon

The US military completed construction of its Gaza aid pier, but weather conditions mean it’s currently unsafe to move the two-part facility into place, the Pentagon says.

“As of today, the construction of the two portions of the JLOTS – the floating pier and the Trident pier – are complete and awaiting final movement offshore,” Deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh told journalists, using an acronym for Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore – the official name for the pier capability.

Aid groups warn the $320m pier is far less effective than land routes that Israel continues to heavily restrict with truckloads of aid for Gaza waiting to get in.

PM Netanyahu ‘stands to pay a very, very significant personal price’

Ori Goldberg, an Israeli political commentator, says the current ceasefire proposal on the table has been agreed by both sides, but Israeli officials are backtracking to stall for time.

“Based on Israel’s record in these affairs in past wars, this is last-minute posturing. This is an attempt to appear tough and also an attempt to appease Netanyahu’s base, the right-wing elements inside Israel,” he told Al Jazeera.

But the fact that an Israeli delegation is now in Cairo for talks shows it has “little manoeuvrability left”.

“I think it’s been made very clear to Netanyahu that he stands to pay a very, very significant personal price if something doesn’t happen very soon,” said Goldberg. “The Israeli-American relationship is probably the worst its ever been.

“There is no victory in this [for Israel]. None of the goals set out have been met. The management of the war has been catastrophic to say the least.”

Red Cross chief says Rafah escalation puts ‘many lives at risk’

Secretary-General and CEO of International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Jagan Chapagian has said on X that any disruption to the operations of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt will hamper the delivery of life-saving aid to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in need.

“The Rafah border crossing serves as a vital lifeline,” he said in his post. “There is a lack of food, drinking water, sanitation, health care, and safety”.

Earlier today, the Israeli military seized and closed the border crossing, effectively cutting off the entry of aid to Gaza.

“I urgently appeal to all parties for the safe release of all the hostages, for the protection of civilians, healthcare workers, and facilities, as well as unhindered access for organizations like [the Palestine Red Crescent Society] in the entire Gaza Strip, to save lives and alleviate suffering”, he said.

Small protest held in Tel Aviv against invasion of Rafah

A handful of Israeli protesters gathered in Tel Aviv in opposition to the invasion of Rafah, calling for an end to the war.

Video shared by Israeli photojournalist Oren Ziv shows a crowd of demonstrators with signs reading “Stop the war”, “freedom, equality, return”, and “Biden, you can stop the war, don’t choose the wrong side of history.”

https://twitter.com/OrenZiv_/status/1787891404313628749

End of the war means ‘accountability’ for Netanyahu

Marc Owen Jones, an associate professor of Middle East studies and digital humanities at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar, says there appears to be a “blame game” being played between Israel and Hamas regarding the ceasefire talks.

He said it is clear Netanyahu is not interested in a ceasefire, as has been the case since the start of the war. An end to the conflict would mean “accountability, not just domestically for his various criminal accusations, but now potentially by the International Criminal Court”, Jones said.

Biden administration denies that Hamas accepted ceasefire proposal

The Biden administration has denied in a news briefing that Hamas accepted a ceasefire proposal yesterday.

“[State Department spokesperson] Matthew Miller said that Hamas did not accept the ceasefire proposals, it responded and in their response made several suggestions. This is very different interpretation of what Hamas itself thinks that it did, and is certainly the kind of comment that could have an impact on what is happening in Cairo at present,” Al Jazeera correspondent Mike Hanna reported from the State Department in Washington, DC.

Report: Biden administration delaying bomb shipments to Israel

The US media outlet Politico reports the Biden administration, which has enabled Israel’s war in Gaza through massive weapons and funding transfers, is delaying the shipment of two kinds of precision bombs to try to pressure Israel.

The story, which cites an anonymous US official and six others familiar with the issue (anon's note: why?), was published as Israeli officials pledged to move forward with an assault on Rafah, an area of Gaza where it had previously told hundreds of thousands of displaced people to relocate for their own safety.

International organisations and foreign governments, including the US, have warned against an attack on the tightly packed area, saying that it would be a humanitarian catastrophe. The Biden administration, however, has given no indication that it will cut off weapons supplies if the assault moves forward.

‘Israel will not end the war’: Former diplomat

Alon Liel, the former director general of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, says Israel is “ready to pay the price, even if it’s high” internationally to go into Rafah.

“Israel will not end the war and there will be no wording in the agreement to release hostages for any permanent ceasefire, any permanent ending of the war. Everybody can just forget about it. The Israeli government is not strong enough to sign such a deal, it will fall if it does,” Liel told Al Jazeera.

“Only if there’s meaningful change to the text that exists now that Hamas agreed to, then we might see a deal. Israel sees this Hamas so-called acceptance of the deal as a Hamas offer, not as an American-backed deal. And this cannot be accepted,” he added.

The former diplomat noted it’s Holocaust Day and the US government will not pressure Israel. “The feeling is here if Israel is not accepting [the deal], the Americans will not push further, especially on such a day.”

‘Forced displacement is a war crime’: UN

Israel has strict obligations under international humanitarian law to ensure the safety of civilians in Gaza, a spokeswoman for the UN human rights office says.

The comments came hours after Israeli forces seized the Rafah border crossing with Egypt in a push against the southern city.

Ravina Shamdasani said that, according to international law, Israel must ensure civilians have access to medical care, adequate food, safe water and sanitation.

“Failure to meet these obligations may amount to forced displacement, which is a war crime,” Shamdasani said. “There are strong indications that this [Rafah offensive] is being conducted in violation of international humanitarian law.”

‘Deliberately’ intensifying Gaza war: Brazil condemns Israeli incursion

Brazil has condemned the start of operations by Israeli armed forces in the city of Rafah, saying it could compromise ongoing ceasefire efforts.

Israel has chosen to “deliberately intensify the conflict in an area known to have a high concentration of the civilian population”, disregarding calls from the international community, including its closest allies, a Brazilian Foreign Ministry statement said.

The Israeli military took control of the vital Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, pushing into the southern Gaza town after a night of air strikes and as prospects for a ceasefire deal hang in the balance.

‘There is no Plan B for the people in Rafah’

More than 30 British NGOs have signed a joint statement urging the UK government to work urgently to prevent any further assault on Rafah.

In their statement, the signatories including Action Aid UK, Christian Aid UK, Care International UK, International Rescue Committee UK, Medical Aid for Palestinian, Oxfam GB and Save the Children UK said repeated statements by British politicians “have been ignored by Israel”.

“The failure of our leaders to back words with meaningful action is glaring,” the groups said, calling on the government to “finally act to stop the slaughter”.

“The UK must work urgently to stop any further assault on Rafah from going ahead, demand an immediate lasting ceasefire, resume funding to UNRWA, and suspend arms sales to Israel for as long as there is a risk they may be used to violate international humanitarian law,” they added.

“A ceasefire is the only way to stop the death and destruction, get more aid to those who desperately need it, and safely release the hostages.

“There is no Plan B for the people in Rafah.”

>>481413
5got src: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/5/7/israels-war-on-gaza-live-israel-blasts-rafah-fate-of-ceasefire-uncertain

>>481412
I think it's frankly one of the most conspicuous and revealing aspects of the last decade of geopolitics. Leftists who want to make a point about how capitalism and fascism function from a systemic perspective should be seizing on the supportive relations between Nazis in Ukraine and fascists in Israel and rubbing it in people's faces.

>>481410
>The driver's "actions today model a trend in which Zionists weaponize their discomfort over political slogans as an excuse to assault Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, Black, brown, and dissident Jewish protesters in violent retaliation for imagined threats," said CUAD. "Just as white supremacists ran over a protester in Charlottesville, Zionists on the streets and in police precincts have declared open season on young people fighting for Palestinian liberation."

The Zionists used to get away with their shit because they acted intelligently, calculating to never go to far, avoiding to rouse the attention or suspicion of the large block of the less interested. Given these violent an hateful outbursts, they're bound to make a lot more enemies than what ever people they manage to intimidate.

>>481415
To be honest, not many people were looking into that kind of thing, because few expected transnational fascist alliances of this type.

Fighter jets, artillery strike Hezbollah in southern Lebanon: Israeli military

The Israeli army claims it has struck more than 20 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.

It says these targets included weapons storage facilities and other military infrastructure.

Since October 8, when Hezbollah launched attacks on Israel in solidarity with Palestinians, the Lebanese armed group and the Israeli military have regularly traded fire.

Hezbollah claims several attacks against Israeli forces

The Lebanese group says it launched a short-range Burkan rocket at Israel’s Biranit military base near the Lebanese border and hit it “directly”.

Hezbollah also said it targeted Israeli troops in the Kfar Shuba Hillso, which Lebanon claims at its own.

Earlier, the group claimed a “precise” drone attack on a newly established Israeli command centre in the western sector of the border.

Third mass grave found at al-Shifa Hospital: Gaza’s media office

Medical teams have found a third mass grave inside Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital, with 49 bodies so far recovered, according to the Government Media Office in Gaza.

It said the team expects to find dozens more as the process of retrieving bodies continues.

The media office said there have been a total of seven mass graves found inside hospitals so far.

“We condemn in the strongest terms the crimes of genocide and the continuous killing committed by the occupation army against our Palestinian people,” it said in a Telegram post.

“We hold the US administration, the international community and the occupation fully responsible for these mass graves and this blatant aggression.”

Some recovered bodies at al-Shifa Hospital found ‘without heads’
Tareq Abu Azzoum
Reporting from Rafah, southern Gaza

The vast majority of the 49 Palestinian bodies so far recovered from the grave in al-Shifa Hospital were decomposed.

Gaza’s Government Media Office has confirmed they found bodies without heads. That’s absolutely terrifying and gives a clear reflection about what was happening inside the compound [during the Israeli raid].

That brings the total number of recovered bodies to 520 bodies that have been recovered from al-Shifa Hospital, Nasser Hospital in the south alongside Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern parts of the territory.

It’s absolutely terrifying as Israeli bombardments across the territory have not stopped in the last 24 hours.

No aid entering Gaza: UNRWA

“We’re not receiving any aid into the Gaza Strip,” says Scott Anderson, deputy director of UNRWA affairs in Gaza, in a post on X, talking about a situation proving “disastrous for the humanitarian response”.

While aid supplies are cut off, the area around the Rafah border crossing has come under “continued bombardment” today, Anderson added.

Senior UN officials have warned that if aid to Gaza remains blocked, critical diesel fuel supplies would run out by the end of the day, forcing the closure of a major water-production facility and cutting off drinking water supply in northern Gaza.

Most US Democrats say Israel is committing genocide: Survey

The majority of voters from President Biden’s Democratic Party agree that the US ally is committing genocide in Gaza, a new study shows.

The survey by Data for Progress, in collaboration with Zeteo, found that 56 percent of Democratic respondents agree with genocide accusations against Israel, while only 22 percent reject them.

Overall, a plurality of 39 percent of respondents said Israel is carrying out a genocide in Gaza.

The UN defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”, including killings and measures to prevent births.

The findings could spell political trouble for Biden who has been facing increasing pressure from his Democratic base over his “ironclad” support for Israel, months before the presidential elections in November.

The survey, which included responded from 1,265 likely US voters, also found that 70 percent of respondents support a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

Islamic Jihad’s armed wing says it fired mortars at Israeli soldiers near Rafah

Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, says it has fired “heavy-calibre mortal shells” at Israeli soldiers operating to the east of Rafah near the site of Gaza’s derelict airport.

Meanwhile, Israeli strikes in the municipality of ash-Shawka in eastern Rafah killed at least one Palestinian, report our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic, adding to dozens who have been killed and injured since Israel launched an incursion in the east of the province earlier this week.

Switzerland lifts ban on UNRWA donations, offers half its original pledge

The government of Switzerland is proposing to give $11m to UNRWA, only half of the initial amount set to be paid to the agency for Palestinian refugees in 2024.

A statement said, “Switzerland’s 10 million Swiss francs contribution to UNRWA will be restricted to Gaza and will cover the most pressing basic needs, such as food, water, shelter, basic healthcare, and logistics.”

In January, Israel accused about a dozen of UNRWA’s 13,000 Gaza employees of being involved in the Hamas-led attack on October 7.

This led many donor nations, including the US and Switzerland, to abruptly suspend funding to the agency, threatening its efforts to deliver desperately needed aid in Gaza.

An independent review group of UNRWA, led by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, said Israel had yet to provide evidence for its chief allegations.

Main maternity hospital in Rafah stops admitting patients

The main maternity hospital in Rafah has stopped admitting patients, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has told Reuters.

The UNFPA said Al-Helal Al-Emairati Maternity Hospital had been handling some 85 births each day out of a total of 180 births in Gaza prior to an escalation of fighting between Hamas and Israeli troops on Rafah’s outskirts.

Support from lecturers and no arrests as Spanish students rally for Gaza
Graham Keeley
Reporting from Madrid, Spain

Huge Palestinian flags are hanging on campuses across Spain as thousands of students protest against Israel’s war in Gaza.

Some classes have stopped this week as students demonstrate in Barcelona, Valencia, the Basque Country and Madrid.

Across Europe, similar sit-ins have taken place at universities in the Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom, Finland, Denmark and Germany, as young people join their United States peers who are facing a violent police response.

In Amsterdam, police arrested about 125 activists as they broke up a pro-Palestinian camp at the University of Amsterdam on Tuesday.

But in Spain, a country that historically supports the Palestinian cause, police have so far not been involved in trying to break up the protests.

US pause of Israel weapons shipment due to Rafah plans: Austin

Biden’s decision to hold up the delivery of high payload munitions to Israel was made in the context of Israel’s plan to carry out an offensive in Rafah, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has said.

“We’ve been very clear … from the very beginning that Israel shouldn’t launch a major attack into the Rafah without accounting for and protecting the civilians that are in that battlespace. And again, as we have assessed the situation, we have paused one shipment of high payload munitions,” he told a Senate hearing.

“We’ve not made a final determination on how to proceed with that shipment.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/5/8/israels-war-on-gaza-live-calls-for-israel-to-open-border-crossings-grow

Rafah Invasion Shows Israel Has LOST - Owen Jones

New US bill aims to deport international students arrested at Gaza protests

The measure was introduced by Republican Congressman Andy Ogles amid a bipartisan US push to punish student protesters and accuse them of anti-Semitism.

The proposed legislation calls for revoking the visas of international students who have been arrested “while establishing, participating in, or promoting an encampment on the campus of an institution of higher education on or since October 7, 2023”, according to a copy of the bill published by The Daily Caller right-wing publication.

US authorities have arrested more than 2,000 students over the past weeks to break up encampments across the country that urged their universities to end investments in Israeli firms and weapon manufacturers.

Ogles faced backlash earlier this year when he said, “I think we should kill them all”, when asked about the killing of children in Gaza.

Here's Every Ceasefire Deal and Prisoner Exchange Hamas Has Offered Israel Since October 7th - BreakThrough News

>>481421
src on 2nd: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/5/8/israels-war-on-gaza-live-calls-for-israel-to-open-border-crossings-grow

>>481421
>The proposed legislation calls for revoking the visas of international students
<who showed solidarity with Palestine
The US as the center of the biggest empire of the world has the privilege of being able to recruit brains from all over the world. This was enabled by wealth, but also intellectual liberties. Trashing that valuable brain-magnet because Zionists are seething about protests seems short sighted.

>>481419
>Across Europe, similar sit-ins have taken place at universities in the Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom, Finland, Denmark and Germany, as young people join their United States peers who are facing a violent police response. In Amsterdam, police arrested about 125 activists as they broke up a pro-Palestinian camp at the University of Amsterdam on Tuesday.

>But in Spain, a country that historically supports the Palestinian cause, police have so far not been involved in trying to break up the protests.

What makes Spain different ?
How'd they manage to keep Zionists from screwing with political rights ?

Hezbollah says it carried out 12 attacks against Israel

The Lebanese armed group says it targeted various Israeli positions across the border, including buildings housing Israeli troops in the towns of Manara, Metula and Shlomi.

Hezbollah said it also deployed suicide drones to target spying equipment on the eastern side of the border.

For its part, Israel said it hit Hezbollah-linked targets in south Lebanon. We reported earlier that Hezbollah announced the killing of two of its fighters as Palestinian Islamic Jihad said three of its fighters were also killed in Lebanon.

Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging fire since October 8, sparking fears of an all-out war.

The Lebanese group says it will stop its attacks after a lasting ceasefire is reached in Gaza, but Israel has pledged to push Hezbollah off its border.

Tunisia calls on ‘free world’ to unite against genocide in Gaza

The Tunisian Foreign Ministry reaffirmed what it called its “unconditional support” for Palestinians and urged the international community to uphold international humanitarian law against Israel as it carries out its assault on Rafah.

“Tunisia calls upon all the free people of the world to stand united against the genocide and forced displacement being carried out by the Zionist occupation forces,” the ministry said in a statement.

“Tunisia maintains its steadfast and supportive stance with the Palestinian brothers towards establishing their sovereign State on the entire Palestinian land, with al-Quds Al-Sharif [Jerusalem] as its capital.”

Ohio attorney general warns students in masks could face felony charges

Ohio’s top lawyer advised the state’s public universities that a law written to deter Ku Klux Klan demonstrations could be used to impose felony charges on students who wear face coverings while protesting the war in Gaza.

In a letter sent Monday, after weeks of pro-Palestinian campus protests around the country, Republican Attorney General Dave Yost advised the presidents of Ohio’s 34 public universities to forewarn students about the 1953 law.

“In our society, there are few more significant career-wreckers than a felony charge,” the letter said. “I write to you today to inform your student bodies of an Ohio law that, in the context of some behavior during the recent pro-Palestinian protests, could have that effect.”

Violating this “anti-disguise” law is punishable by a fourth-degree felony charge, up to $5,000 in fines and five years on community control, Yost wrote.

College campuses around the world have exploded in recent weeks in protests by pro-Palestinian students and faculty members against Israel’s war on Gaza, in which more than 34,000 people have been killed.

Israel ‘not serious’ about reaching truce deal: Hamas official

Izzat al-Risheq says Israel is using ceasefire talks as a cover to invade Rafah city and occupy its crossing with Egypt.

“Netanyahu is trying to create excuses to avoid negotiations and putting the blame on Hamas and the mediators,” al-Risheq, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, said in a statement.

“Hamas’s acceptance of the mediators’ proposal disoriented Netanyahu and put him in trouble. Hamas is sticking to its position that it conveyed to the mediators.”

Earlier this week, Hamas said it accepted a ceasefire draft deal put forward by Qatar and Egypt that would see the release of Israeli captives in Gaza and an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners, as well as an eventual end to the war over three phases.

CIA Director William Burns has been in the region to iron out the agreement. Israel rejected the Hamas-approved proposal but said it would engage in further talks to reach a deal.

US confirms report on Israel compliance with laws of war will be delayed

The State Department says it will miss a “self-imposed deadline” for a report to Congress on whether Israel is complying with international humanitarian law, which is due today.

In February, the Biden administration issued a memorandum, dubbed NSM-20, requiring credible, written assurances from the recipients of American weapons that the arms are not being used in rights violations.

The report, which will be submitted to Congress, would assess if the Israeli assurances are credible.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said there will be a “brief delay” in submitting the report without setting a new deadline for it.

Rights advocates say apparent Israeli violations of international humanitarian law run the gamut: accusations of targeting civilians, torture, extrajudicial executions, indiscriminate bombing and disproportionate attacks.

International humanitarian law is a set of rules meant to protect non-combatants in armed conflict. It consists of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and subsequent international treaties aimed at limiting civilian suffering during war.

Liberal pro-Israel group backs Biden for halting arms shipment

J Street, a US Jewish group that describes itself as pro-Israel and pro-peace, welcomed the pause on one weapons shipment to Israel that the Biden administration said it halted in opposition to the Rafah offensive.

“J Street supports the Biden Administration’s decision to halt the transfer of certain munitions to Israel to signal deep concerns over the potential of a full-scale Israeli assault on the city of Rafah,” the group said in a statement, calling the move a “measured step”.

“The United States has made clear to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that it cannot support such military action without a credible and executable evacuation plan for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians sheltering in the area.”

Unlike with military aid to Ukraine, the US does not detail its arms transfers to Israel, so the significance of pausing one shipment relative to the broader assistance remains unclear.

Rockets from Rafah again target crossing: Israel

The Israeli army says the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing, which has been key to Gaza aid operations, was again targeted by rocket fire that “lightly injured” one soldier.

“Eight launches were identified crossing from the area of Rafah into the area of Kerem Shalom,” a military statement read, adding that “as a result of the launches, an [Israeli army] soldier was lightly injured”.

Last week, Israel closed the crossing point for humanitarian aid to enter Gaza after rockets were fired at a military base in southern Israel near the site, killing three soldiers.

Biden says bombs US ‘paused’ to Israel have killed Gaza civilians

The US president says the powerful bombs that Washington supplied to Israel and now are suspended have been used to kill Palestinian civilians.

“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centres,” he said in an interview with US news outlet CNN when asked about 2,000-pound bombs sent to Israel.

“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah – they haven’t gone in Rafah yet – if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, that deal with that problem.”

Earlier, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin confirmed the US “paused” a weapons shipment of powerful bombs to Israel.

UAE condemns Israeli assault on Rafah

The United Arab Emirates has joined countries across the world in voicing opposition the Israeli offensive against the crowded southern Gaza city.

“The UAE has condemned in the strongest terms the Israeli forces invasion and seizure of the Rafah border crossing in southern Gaza, and warned against military escalation that threatens to cause the loss of more innocent life and exacerbate the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip,” the UAE foreign ministry said in a statement.

“Furthermore, the UAE stresses the need to ensure the safe and unhindered flow of humanitarian aid and delivery of life-saving supplies to the population in the Strip.”

The UAE established formal diplomatic relations with Israel in 2020 and has since deepened its economic and political ties to the country.

‘We are losing them,’ says grandson of Israeli captive

The grandson of Israeli captive Oded Lifshitz, 84, says his family has not heard anything about the condition of his grandfather in six months.

“It’s unimaginable that my grandfather is the only great grandfather held hostage in the world. That’s a horrible title to have,” Daniel Lifshitz told Al Jazeera. “Every day we are losing them. I don’t know the real number [of captives] there, but I’m sure many of them are not alive any more.”

He added the negotiations for the release of those taken are “under fire”.

“It’s impossible that we are even speaking seven months after about the release of old people. It’s against humanity … I prefer there will be no more suffering for civilians on the Palestinian side and our side and there’s an agreement to end that.”

‘This is how negotiations are done in the Middle East’

While some Israelis are calling for no ground invasion of Rafah, others are demanding the government and military to press ahead.

“We applaud the Israeli government and the [Israeli military] for going into Rafah,” said Mirit Hoffman, a spokesperson for Mothers of IDF Soldiers, a group representing families of serving military personnel, which wants an uncompromising line to pressure Hamas to surrender.

“We think that this is how negotiations are done in the Middle East.”

The opposing pressures mirror divisions in Israel’s war cabinet between centrist ministers concerned at alienating Washington – Israel’s most vital ally and supplier of arms – and religious nationalist hardliners determined to clear Hamas out of the Gaza Strip.

Ex-Israeli army chief says captives cannot be freed without stopping war

Aviv Kochavi was quoted by Israeli media as saying “total victory” in Gaza will take “years” to achieve.

“I don’t think there is a way to bring back the hostages without halting for the time being the war,” Kochavi said in remarks aired by Channel 12.

Kochavi’s term ended early in 2023, months before the outbreak of the war on Gaza.

‘A problem in Washington, not just in Tel Aviv’
Marwan Bishara
Al Jazeera's senior political analyst

An editorial in the Haaretz newspaper today accused Benny Gantz, who is supposed to be the moderate in the Israeli war cabinet, of lying to the Israeli people when he says, “We are attacking Rafah to save the captives” – because he is lying. Netanyahu is lying. War cabinet minister Gadi Eisenkot is lying.

They are lying when they say we do not accept a prisoner deal in order to save the captives. Israel’s policy towards its own captives has been criminal.

Hamas accepted the deal, provided to it by the United States, by William Burns, director of the CIA. The fact that we are going back again to the cycle of diplomacy – as if nothing happened two days ago – tells me there’s a problem in Washington, not just in Tel Aviv. Why is Burns being stabbed in the back by his own administration?

When he reached the deal, it was on the basis that the Egyptians, the Israelis, the Qataris, and Hamas are on board. Burns brought them a deal that is excellent for everyone and brings the captives back and releases Palestinian prisoners, and ends the unfolding genocide in Gaza.

Israel rejected it and the US administration didn’t stand behind its CIA director.

‘No to Rafah’: Protesters take to the streets of Tel Aviv

Video shared online show hundreds of Israelis calling on the government to secure a deal to bring home the captives held in Gaza by Hamas and other groups.

Family members of those taken were also among the demonstrators, the footage shows.

https://twitter.com/lirishavit/status/1788255106745417973

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/5/8/israels-war-on-gaza-live-calls-for-israel-to-open-border-crossings-grow

Owen Jones - Biden PANICS Over Israel's Genocide

Iran says it will build a nuclear bomb if its existence is threatened

An adviser to Iran’s supreme leader has said the country will have to change its military stance against building a nuclear weapon if the country faces existential threats.

“We have no decision to build a nuclear bomb, but should Iran’s existence be threatened, there will be no choice but to change our military doctrine,” Iran’s Student News Network reported Kamal Kharrazi as saying on Thursday.

In the early 2000s, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a fatwa banning the development of nuclear weapons, saying it is “haram”, or forbidden in Islam.

But in 2021, Iran’s then-intelligence minister said Western pressure could push the Islamic republic to seek nuclear weapons.

Syria says ‘some material losses’ suffered in Israeli missile attack

The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reports that air defence forces shot down Israeli missiles launched from the occupied Golan Heights in northern Israel that were targeting a building on the outskirts of Damascus.

“Our air defence forces intercepted the [Israeli] missiles and shot down some of them,” SANA reports, quoting a military source.

The attack, at about 3:20am local time (00:20 GMT), caused “some material losses”, SANA said.

Since October 7, Israel has intensified years of clandestine attacks on targets in Syria that it claims are linked to Iran.

On April 1, a suspected Israeli air strike hit the Iranian embassy compound in Damascus, killing a senior commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as well as other military officers. The attack triggered a retaliatory operation from Iran and what was the first direct attack on Israeli territory by Tehran.

Ships attacked by Houthis in Gulf of Aden ‘Panama-flagged’: Report

Two vessels attacked by the Yemen-based Houthis in the Gulf of Aden were “Panama-flagged container ships” operating for a Geneva-based company, the Associated Press news agency reports.

Earlier we reported that Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree had described the vessels – identified as the MSC Diego and MSC Gina – as “Israeli”. He also said the Houthis had fired missiles and drones at the ships in “accurate” attacks.

The Joint Maritime Information Center, a US-led coalition of nations responding to Houthi attacks on shipping in the Middle East, said the attacks were launched on Tuesday morning, but “neither were hit and all crew on board are safe”.

It added that the vessels were “likely targeted due to perceived Israeli affiliation”, without confirming whether the vessels have links to Israel.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/5/9/israels-war-on-gaza-live-biden-admits-israel-used-us-bombs-on-civilians

>>481423
Are you implying that representative Oogie doesn't know what he's doing?

>>481425
Idk. A few European countries seem to have done better on this… I get why Ireland has solidarity with Palestine, but I'm not precisely sure why Spain does. Maybe it has something to do with the memory of Franco or something like that, I have no idea.