/leftypol/ - Leftist Politically Incorrect

>>479880
>The US Senate, with Biden's support, passed a bill to authorize more than $14,000,000,000 in military aid to Israel.
So does that mean it cost 14Bn to destroy Gaza ?
According to Egyptian President, it'll cost 90Bn to rebuild Gaza.

>Trade unionists in Scotland and England have blockaded major UK arms factories.
Based Scotts upholding international law

>>479883
>So does that mean it cost 14Bn to destroy Gaza?
To be totally honest, I'm not sure these people know what stuff costs.

Canada to halt arms sales to Israel after non-binding vote in house of commons

Parliamentary motion from New Democratic party passed with support of Liberals, Bloc Québécois and Green party

Canada will halt future arms sales to Israel following a non-binding vote in the house of commons. The foreign affairs minister, Mélanie Joly, told the Toronto Star her government would halt future arms shipments. “It is a real thing,” she said on Tuesday.

The decision follows a parliamentary motion, introduced by the New Democratic party (NDP), that called on the governing Liberals to halt future arms exports to Israel. The New Democrats, who are supporting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s minority government, have expressed frustration with what they see as his failure to do enough to protect civilians in Gaza.

The motion – which passed 204-117 with the support of Liberals, Bloc Québécois and the Green party – also called on Canada to work “towards the establishment of the state of Palestine”.

The successful vote late on Monday followed a last-minute deal between the Liberals and the NDP, which had previously called on the government to “recognize the state of Palestine”.

The vote does not appear to change Canada’s position that Palestinian statehood should come as the result of a negotiated settlement with Israel.

Canada previously said that while it had paused issuing military export permits to Israel, it was still assessing applications on “on a case-by-case basis”.

…

Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East called the motion “watered-down” in a statement, but said it represented a “small step forward for ending Canadian complicity in Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza”.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/19/canada-halt-arms-sales-to-israel

‘Man-made famine’ charge against Israel is backed by mounting body of evidence

Prospect of Israel facing war crimes charges has moved closer after UN condemnation of Gaza aid restrictions

The accusation by the UN and other humanitarians that Israel may be committing a war crime by deliberately starving Gaza’s population is likely to significantly increase the prospect of legal culpability for the country, including at the international court of justice.

Amid reports that the Israel Defense Forces are hiring dozens of lawyers to defend against anticipated cases and legal challenges, the charge that Israel has triggered a “man-made famine” by deliberately obstructing the entry of aid into Gaza is backed by an increasing body of evidence.

Already facing a complaint of genocide from South Africa at the ICJ, the UN’s top court – including an allegation that senior Israeli political officials have incited genocide in public statements – Israel is also the subject of a provisional emergency ruling by the court ordering it to admit life-saving aid to Gaza.

On Wednesday, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, underlined the growing sense of crisis as he warned that all of Gaza’s 2 million people were experiencing “severe levels of acute food insecurity” – the first time an entire population of Gaza has been so classified.

…

A central plank of any case that Israel has provoked a famine is the data generated by the UN’s Gaza famine review committee, staffed by international experts on food security, whose findings this week fall under the auspices of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) – regarded as the international gold standard in assessing food crises.

Highly technical, often cautious and designed to be neutral in its analysis, the committee – which had already warned of the risk of famine not least in the worst affected region of northern Gaza – has relied on World Food Programme surveys that concludedPalestinians were already facing IPC phase 4 and 5 levels of malnutrition – “emergency” and “catastrophe”.

The IPC committee also examined access for food trucks to the worst affected area, concluding that a “very limited number of trucks carrying food aid is authorised to enter north Gaza and Gaza governates and since 5 February there has been no report of food trucks being able to discharge in Gaza City”.

The IPC’s report is backed up by analysis prepared independently and sent this week to the Biden administration by Oxfam America and Human Rights Watch to highlight Israel’s failure to comply with a new requirement from Washington that recipients of US arms supplies need to comply with international law.

That analysis accused Israel of “systematically prevent[ing] aid” from reaching “the roughly 300,000 Palestinians who remain in northern Gaza, where the threat of starvation is most acute”.

The two organisations added that in the first six weeks of this year, “over half of the planned humanitarian aid missions to northern Gaza were obstructed by Israeli authorities”. Charging Israel with a deliberate policy of starvation, the documents adds: “International humanitarian law prohibits parties to a conflict from deliberately causing ‘the population to suffer hunger, particularly by depriving it of its sources of food or of supplies’.”

Exacerbating Israel’s legal exposure over the issue of starvation are public comments made early in the war by the defence minister, Yoav Gallant, advocating a “complete siege of Gaza” and making clear that he meant: “No electricity, no food, no water.”

“We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly,” he said.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/20/man-made-famine-charge-israel-mounting-evidence-un-gaza

‘Diabolical attempt’: Group denounces UNRWA funding block

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) pressed Congress not to pass a bill that shuts down desperately needed money for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

CAIR said the legislation, if passed, would block funding until March 2025 and contribute to “starvation” in Gaza. The US historically has provided the UN agency with about $350m per year.

“We call on all Americans to urge their member of Congress to reject this diabolical attempt to support the starvation of Palestinians in Gaza banning funding for UNWRA,” said the group’s Robert S McCaw.

“Numerous other nations, including Canada, restored funding to UNWRA after it became clear the Israeli government was baselessly trying to rob Palestinians of the relief agency.”

Israel accused several members of UNRWA’s staff of participating in the October 7 attack. The allegations have yet to be proven.

Blinken told Qatar to threaten Hamas officials with expulsion: Report

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Qatar earlier this month that it must pressure Hamas to reach an agreement with Israel or risk having its senior members kicked out of Doha, according to US news channel CNN.

It cited unnamed US officials as saying this happened on March 5, before Hamas put forth a new proposal which was discussed this week in the Qatari capital.

CNN says Qatar “understood the message and received it without major pushback” and that it remains unclear whether Qatar ended up delivering such an ultimatum to Hamas leaders – who have been living in Doha for years.

Qatar has not immediately reacted to the report or publicly commented on its contents.

Israel’s Gallant heading to Washington with weapons demands: Report

Israeli defence and war cabinet minister, Yoav Gallant, is headed to Washington next week reportedly with a long list of US weapons that Israel wishes to receive for its war on Gaza.

Gallant is expected to meet with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and will arrive on Sunday, reports US-based news website Axios.

It cites an unnamed senior Israeli official as saying the requests will not only include short-term arms orders for the war on Gaza but also longer-term deliveries including more fighter jets.

This is happening as the US and other allies’ arms sales to Israel are under increasing international scrutiny as the Israeli military continues to kill Palestinian civilians on a daily basis.

The request for more weapons is also coming as Israel pushes for a planned ground invasion of Rafah, and continues to engage in cross-border fighting with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Houthi leader says 479 missiles and drones launched since October

Houthi leader Abdel-Malik al-Houthi says the Yemeni group has launched 479 missiles and drones since late October in its efforts to support Palestinians and stop Israel’s war on Gaza.

He pointed out during his latest speech that the Israeli port city of Eilat has taken a financial hit from Houthi attacks on vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, and pledged that the group has more “plans” in the works to hurt Israel, without elaborating.

“God willing, we leave room for action first and then for words,” he was quoted as saying by the Houthi-run Al Masirah channel.

Al-Houthi also said the group will continue to resist as US and UK attacks on Yemen are persisting in full force, with 31 air raids and naval bombardments coming on multiple Yemeni governorates this week alone. The two Western powers have launched 407 attacks on Yemen since January, he said.

WHO loses contact with al-Shifa Hospital staff amid Israeli raid

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says on X that the UN’s World Health Organization and its partners have not been in touch with health personnel at al-Shifa Hospital since the Israeli raid on the facility, now in its fourth day, began.

“We are seeking information on the patients’ condition and if they are receiving needed care,” he said. “Accessing Al-Shifa is now impossible, and there are reports of health workers being arrested and detained.

“We repeat once again: hospitals are not battlegrounds. They must be protected in line with international humanitarian law.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/21/israels-war-on-gaza-live-more-than-100-palestinians-killed-in-24-hours

Breaking news and analysis on day 166 of Gaza's Al-Aqsa Flood | The Electronic Intifada Podcast

Includes: latest news, clips of recent anti-tank attacks (around 2 hours, 9 minutes), more info about the Biden pier, guest appearance by Israeli historian Ilan Pappé.

Latest George Galloway episode includes a number of interesting details:

1. Allegedly, the Gaza pier/jetty is being built, at least in part, from Gaza rubble. That is, they're taking the material from homes destroyed by Israel and using it for this bizarre project. Galloway points out that much of this rubble also still contains human remains. I haven't dived deep into this yet, but CBC at least has an article backing it up:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/gaza-pier-aid-delivery-1.7142506

2. Larry Ellison (Oracle corporation co-founder) is a close friend of Benjamin Netanyahu and apparently once offered Netanyahu a seat on the board. Oracle has a contract with U.S. intelligence, and notably also bought Sun Microsystems (of Java fame) in 2010.

3. Ireland apparently switched, at some point, to using police recording technology provided by "Nice Systems," a subsidiary of the Israeli company Elbit Systems.

4. Over the past decade or so, an organization called Forward Thinking has organized meetings between Likud and Sinn Fein.

5. The continued supply of bombs to Israel by the US is now resulting in the sending of surplus munitions from all the way back in the Korean war.

Link to the start of Lowkey's interview:
https://youtu.be/rK_Vn7c3kXQ?t=1782

Hezbollah confirms sixth attack on Israeli forces

The armed Lebanese group attacked the town of Shlomi in northern Israel this evening in what is its sixth attack of the day.

Earlier, Hezbollah claimed multiple attacks targeting buildings used by Israeli soldiers, and a “positioning point for a military intelligence force” in Metulla.

Hezbollah has warned it’s fully ready to battle Israel after its fighters exchanged cross-border attacks since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October.

Hezbollah has at least 60,000 fighters and it increased its stockpile of missiles from 14,000 in 2006 to about 150,000 now.

Many Palestinians ‘executed extrajudicially’ at al-Shifa Hospital: Rights group

The Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor says what the Israeli military is doing at the al-Shifa Hospital and surrounding areas in Gaza “reflects a pattern of systemic violence”.

The group noted that Israeli forces are detaining medical staff, including doctors and nurses, inside the hospital in Gaza City and preventing them from providing lifesaving care.

“Patients are languishing without medical attention,” it said, adding it documented at least three such patient deaths.

“The ongoing Israeli atrocities in al-Shifa Medical Complex have resulted in the deaths of over 200 Palestinians, including civilians. Many were deliberately killed or executed extrajudicially after arrest,” the rights organisation alleged.

Hamas says fighter sniped Israeli sniper near al-Shifa Hospital

The military wing of Hamas released a video it says shows a Palestinian sniper spotting and then successfully hitting an Israeli sniper in the vicinity of the al-Shifa Hospital.

The incident occurred as intense battles continue to rage in the area.

The Palestinian shooter is seen in the video released by Qassam Brigades firing a heavy calibre bullet and hitting a hole dug out on the side of a building, from which an Israeli sniper appeared to be scoping out the area.

Jenin residents go on strike following Israeli drone attack

Palestinians in Jenin are going on strike to denounce the killing of three young men from their city in an Israeli drone strike yesterday.

The men – Mahmoud Bassam Rahal, Ahmed Hani Barakat, and Muhammad Abdullah al-Fayed – were killed when an Israeli drone-fired missile struck their car as it passed by a hospital in the Jenin camp, according to witnesses cited by the Palestinian Wafa news agency.

The Israeli military and internal security agency Shin Bet described two of those killed as “senior Islamic Jihad operatives”.

Today’s protest strike in Jenin will affect “all aspects of commercial life” as well as public and educational institutions, reports Wafa.

Norway wealth fund’s ethics council scrutinising companies with possible Israel weapons links

The ethics council of Norway’s $1.6 trillion wealth fund is investigating whether companies it holds shares in may be violating its ethical guidelines over the sale of weapons to Israel during the war on Gaza.

The fund may divest from such firms if they are found to supply weapons that are used in “serious and systematic violations” of the rights of individuals in war or conflict or of international rules on the conduct of war, according to the fund’s ethical guidelines.

“We are looking at this because of the seriousness of the breach of the norms that we see,” the ethics council’s chairperson, Svein Richard Brandtzaeg, told the Reuters news agency. “Israel is now more in focus than before.”

The Norwegian fund previously divested from nine firms, all Israeli, over their activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, such as constructing homes in illegal Israeli settlements or supplying surveillance systems for Israel’s separation wall.

Flaming object thrown at Israeli embassy in The Hague

Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf has reported that the Israeli embassy in The Hague was evacuated after a flaming object was thrown at the premises.

Police arrested a suspect, the newspaper said, without providing further details on their identity.

The incident in the third largest city in the Netherlands comes as Israeli embassies around the world are on a high alert amid sustained protests demanding a halt to the brutal war in Gaza and the unrestricted delivery of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian population.

Most Palestinians would remain in Gaza in case of Rafah invasion: Survey

The survey by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) that we reported on earlier also presents interesting findings about perceptions of a potential Israeli ground invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza.

Half of those polled in the occupied West Bank said Palestinians would rush towards the Egyptian border in case of an invasion, with 24 percent of Gazans sharing this belief. Overall, 40 percent said they think they would go to the border.

Sixty-one percent of respondents said they believe the Egyptian army and police would shoot at Palestinians if they see them rushing toward the border en masse, with Gaza residents sharing a stronger opinion on this than their West Bank counterparts – 68 percent compared to 55 percent, respectively.

Almost 70 percent of respondents said they would not leave their homes or shelters if the border barriers between Gaza and Egypt somehow fell.

Hamas says ‘silence’ on al-Shifa Hospital raid shows international failure

Hamas released a statement condemning what it called “shameful silence” on Israel’s ongoing raid on the al-Shifa Hospital complex and surrounding areas.

The group said it’s “a disgrace and a moral failure on the part of the international community and the United Nations” because they’ve been unable to stop Israel’s devastating war on Gaza. It also denounced Washington’s financial and military support for Tel Aviv.

Hamas said Arab countries and the international community must “take urgent action to stop this genocide and the systematic destruction of health facilities in the Gaza Strip”.

Blinken’s diplomacy producing no results, says Palestinian Foreign Ministry

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said US Secretary of State Blinken’s shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East has yet to yield “any tangible results” for Gaza.

Instead, it is giving Israel more time to “escalate its aggression against our people”, the ministry said in a statement.

“The Israeli government is taking advantage of the failure, the ability to speak and make statements to gain more time to complete the achievement of its basic objectives of its aggression against the Palestinian people,” it added.

Blinken, currently on his sixth Middle East trip since the Gaza war broke out, said yesterday that Israel and Hamas were making progress towards a ceasefire agreement.

After visiting Saudi Arabia, Blinken will head to Egypt today to meet with Arab foreign ministers and a senior Palestinian official.

Palestinian Authority says Israel welcoming Blinken with settler expansion
The Palestinian foreign ministry says in a statement that the Israeli government is welcoming US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on his sixth tour of the region by “escalating its crimes against our people and plundering their homeland”.

It strongly condemned the “seizure of large areas of citizens’ lands” in al-Khader south of Bethlehem in occupied Palestinian territory, along with the seizure of a Palestinian man’s home and his displacement from Tuqu southeast of Bethlehem.

The foreign ministry said Israel is trying to “sabotage international efforts made to resolve the conflict and implement the principle of a two-state solution”.

‘Appalling crisis in Palestine not Europe’s finest hour’: Ireland PM

Ireland’s Taoiseach Leo Varadkar says mixed messages among EU nations over Israel’s war on Gaza has undermined efforts to stop it.

“I think the response to the appalling crisis in Palestine has not been Europe’s finest hour, quite frankly,” he told reporters in Brussels.

“So many countries in the Global South – otherwise known as most of the world – interpret Europe’s actions relating to Ukraine versus Palestine as double standards. I think they have a point.”

UK’s Cameron says ‘arbitrary denials’ by Israeli government blocking Gaza aid

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron says “arbitrary denials by the government of Israel” in addition to lengthy clearance procedures are “the main blockers” of humanitarian aid going into the Gaza Strip.

“I wish this were the case,” he writes in a letter in response to UK lawmaker Alicia Kearns about Israeli claims that any amount of aid arriving at the borders of the besieged enclave can get in.

“It is of enormous frustration that UK aid for Gaza has been routinely held up waiting for Israeli permissions. For instance, I am aware of some UK-funded aid being stuck at the border for just under three weeks waiting for approval.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/21/israels-war-on-gaza-live-more-than-100-palestinians-killed-in-24-hours

https://twitter.com/luigidaniele10/status/1770950017987088436
Video of Israel airstriking guys who are just walking around.

>>479893
Has Hezbollah already been fighting Israel and nobody said anything? I was about to say, it's about fucking time they stopped posturing and actually did something to end this catastrophe.

>>479892
Larry Ellison is one of the especially dangerous brands of Zionists: He's an athiestic Jew who supports Israel just because of its technology sector. He's also the 8th richest man in the world and owns 98% of the Hawaiian island of Lanai as his private fiefdom.

>>479895
dude they have been bombing israel every day since october 7. They've caused over 100k israelis to flee their settlements.

>>479895
>Has Hezbollah already been fighting Israel
yes, although they have not conducted big offensives, probably because Iran asked them to keep it at a minimum.
>and nobody said anything?
There have been mentions of Hezbollah, but now that you point it out, it does seem odd that it got little attention.

>>479895
I've posted about it some, though looking back it looks like most of what I've posted has been about Israel's attacks on Lebanon. Ups. Yeah, they've been fighting for months.

The US finally took a ceasefire resolution to the UNSC, but it was watered-down compared to the ones they'd vetoed. I'm not sure what the 'good' outcome of this would have been, but it's possible there wasn't one.

UN Security Council deadlock ‘costing lives’: Amnesty chief Agnes Callamard, secretary-general of Amnesty International, says the UN Security Council continues to be stuck in a “macabre checkmate” as Palestinians are dying.

“It is costing lives, preventing aid from reaching Palestinians who are being starved, and making the return of civilian hostages held in Gaza more elusive,” she wrote on X, renewing her call for an immediate ceasefire.

Russia, China and Algeria voted against the latest resolution introduced by the US – after Washington vetoed three previous resolutions – as it contained no explicit call for an immediate truce and linked it to a captive exchange agreement between Israel and Hamas.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/22/israels-war-on-gaza-live-the-choice-is-clear-a-2-state-solution

This inevitably makes China & Russia & Algeria look kind of stupid, but even some western news outlets are pointing out how hollow this specific resolution was:

What did US Gaza ceasefire resolution say and why did Russia and China veto it?

Draft resolution put before UN represents important tonal – but not substantive – shift for White House

After months of vetoing other UN security council resolutions in an effort to defend Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, the US has in recent weeks gone on to the diplomatic front foot in New York, drafting and tabling its own resolution that was put to a vote on Friday before being vetoed by Russia and China.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said the resolution would send “a strong signal”. But what was that signal precisely?

What did the US resolution say?
The opening wording on an immediate ceasefire was complex, even convoluted. It urged the UN to “determine the imperative for an immediate and sustained ceasefire to protect civilians on all sides, allow for the delivery of essential humanitarian assistance, and alleviate humanitarian suffering”.

It thereby supported “diplomatic efforts to secure such a ceasefire in connection with the release of all remaining hostages”. The US’s critics, including Russia, noted the text did not explicitly use the word “call” in terms of a ceasefire. It also implied the ceasefire would be conditional on the release of all hostages. The text marked an important tonal shift for the US, since previously the US had called for a ceasefire as soon as practicable, but the change was not as substantive as some headlines suggest.

What happened in the vote?

The US claimed its draft had the support of at least nine of the 15-strong security council members, enough for the vote to pass so long as no veto was wielded by one of the five security council members. In the end it secured 11 votes, but three voted against including the veto-wielding Russia and China. Guyana abstained.

Why did Russia and China veto?

The Russian deputy ambassador to the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy, warned reporters on Thursday: “We are not satisfied with anything which doesn’t call for an immediate ceasefire.”

After the vote, he said: “At the coordination stage, almost all security council members expressed the view that the demand for an immediate ceasefire should not be conditional on the release of hostages or the condemnation of Hamas.”

He argued that the effect of making a ceasefire conditional on the release of all hostages would be to endorse leaving hundreds of thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians exposed to continued Israeli attacks until the point when Hamas and Isreal reached an agreement.

In the chamber, the Russian ambassador Vasily Nebenzya told the security council the resolution was a “hypocritical spectacle” that put no real pressure on Israel over its war crimes. Moscow also said the episode showed the US administration was more interested in throwing a bone to American voters and persuading a domestic audience it was being even-handed in the crisis.

Explaining Guyana’s abstention, the South American country’s representative Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett said: “Contrary to media reports, this resolution does not call for an immediate ceasefire.”

She also added the demand that a ceasefire should not be linked to or conditioned on the release of hostages. “Two wrongs cannot make a right and the Palestinian people should not be collectively punished and themselves held hostage for the crimes of others.

“If one were to read this resolution without background knowledge, it would be difficult to ascertain which party in this conflict is committing the atrocities in Gaza – atrocities which necessitated this draft resolution being put forward. In a resolution of 41 paragraphs, 2,036 words, the occupying power is mentioned once in the penultimate paragraph.”

Would it have mattered?

Yes. Diplomatically, the US would have benefited from showing some positive leadership at the UN and demonstrating it is not as isolated as it has appeared in its support for Israel. The bulk of the operational part of the text was directed at Israel without being explicit in those criticisms. It reiterated calls for aid to flow faster, including by opening more land crossings and fewer restrictions on goods allowed to enter Gaza. It opposed the forcible displacement of Palestinians, and the creation of buffer zones. It would have also been the first time that the UN collectively condemned Hamas by calling for restrictions on its finances.

But the resolution was silent on three contentious issues. In a clause directed at Israel, it urged all parties to cooperate with the investigations into the neutrality of the UN relief works agency Unrwa, but did not call for a return to funding of the agency at this stage. The future governance of Gaza was largely untouched save to give the UN special coordinator a clear role. It did not say if international humanitarian law was being breached.

What happens now the resolution has been defeated?

A rival draft resolution favoured by African states has been circulating that is more explicit about an immediate ceasefire, but this will not be put to the vote on Friday. France’s ambassador to the UN, Nicolas de Rivière, has said an alternative draft championed by the non-permanent members of the security council, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Ramadan, “will come to the table and put to the vote”. He said: “We need a ceasefire and then talks.”

But such are the entrenched divisions in the security council that this resolution is also likely to be killed – this time by a US veto, potentially the fourth of this conflict. For many observers, the episode will confirm that the security council is simply broken.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/22/us-gaza-ceasefire-resolution-explainer

Apparently it's a much longer resolution than I remember the leaked versions being, too. I don't remember anything about freezing Hamas's finances in the last version I saw.

>>479896
What is it with these guys and private islands?

'Moral failure’: US House approves bill banning UNRWA funding

Ali Harb

Washington, DC – The United States House of Representatives has approved a $1.2 trillion funding bill that would ban funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) amid the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.

The measure, which passed in a 286 to 134 vote on Friday, would keep the government fully functioning in advance of a partial shutdown deadline.

The proposed legislation now goes to the Senate, which must pass it by midnight on Friday, when several government agencies would start running out of money. President Joe Biden has promised to sign the bill into law immediately, if the Democratic-controlled upper chamber of Congress passes the legislation as expected.

The measure faced opposition from dozens of far-right Republicans, who argued that it does not curb government spending enough. After the vote, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene introduced a motion to remove House Speaker Mike Johnson from his post for his endorsement of the bipartisan spending deal.

Twenty-two Democrats, many of whom had expressed concerns about the UNRWA provision, joined Republicans in opposing the plan.

Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute (AAI), called the passage of the bill “an incredible moral failure”.

“Our political process has chosen to cut US funding to literally the only entity that can address the level of suffering and scale of suffering that’s happening in Gaza right now,” Berry told Al Jazeera.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/22/moral-failure-us-house-approves-bill-that-would-ban-unrwa-funding

Israeli captive families ask Biden to pressure Netanyahu for a deal

A letter signed by 587 family members of 81 captives still held in Gaza calls on US President Joe Biden to push for a captive-prisoner exchange agreement.

“We encourage you to use the means available to you, to press and convince all parties, including the Israeli prime minister, to agree to the deal that you assess is reasonable,” they write.

“As Israel’s closest ally, we seek your assistance in steering the Israeli prime minister towards the right course of action.”

The Israeli relatives say they’re contacting Biden directly because they’re frustrated about “the lack of ongoing communication and commitment” from Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet.

“We have faith in your ability to negotiate a deal that prioritises the security and wellbeing of all people affected and wish to help you in mobilising support for that deal.”

Lebanon denounces Israeli attacks on air-traffic control system

The Lebanese Foreign Ministry says it will file an urgent complaint with the UN Security Council over what it called Israel’s “violation of its sovereignty” by disrupting civil aviation navigation systems.

It said Israel’s attacks on navigation systems are affecting the safety of civil aviation in the airspace of Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport.

“Lebanon also holds Israel internationally responsible for the consequences of any accident or disaster caused by Israel’s deliberate policy of jamming air and ground navigation systems, and deliberately disrupting signal receiving and transmitting devices,” a statement said.

An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson, who did not deny Lebanon’s allegations, said Beirut “allows” Hezbollah to attack Israeli civilians from its territory, so it has no right to complain.

“Lebanon is the last country to discuss sovereignty while it is harbouring a terrorist organisation that has displaced tens of thousands of citizens.”

Hezbollah hits Israeli army position near border

Lebanese armed group says it targeted a building where Israeli soldiers were stationed at the Zarit settlement on the Israel-Lebanon border – the latest in a series of attacks.

The armed group has engaged Israel with cross-border attacks since Israel launched its war on Gaza. More than 300 people have been killed in Lebanon, including some 240 members of Hezbollah, while about 20 Israelis have been killed.

The fighting has also forced some 90,000 people to flee southern Lebanon, and tens of thousands to evacuate northern Israel.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/22/israels-war-on-gaza-live-the-choice-is-clear-a-2-state-solution

‘Millions’ pour into Yemeni streets in weekly pro-Palestinian marches

A sea of people took to the streets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen in the latest march to oppose Israel’s war on Gaza and express solidarity with Palestinians.

The footage below shows the al-Sabeen Square in the capital Sanaa, which has been the main gathering place for demonstrators since the start of the war – and US and UK attacks on Yemen since January to stop Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.

Nasreddin Amer, deputy head of the media authority of the Houthis, says “millions” joined the marches on the second Friday of Ramadan as with previous weeks.

https://twitter.com/Nasr_Amer1/status/1771231604347637830

‘Famine is imminent’: UN says aid mission to northern Gaza thwarted

About 7,500 people in northern Gaza were supposed to get food assistance but the mission was unsuccessful because “access denied”.

“Famine, particularly in the north, is imminent,” the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a post on X.

Israeli military attacks Hezbollah buildings with air raids

The Israeli military released aerial footage it says shows massive air raids on structures used by Hezbollah.

The attacks targeted buildings in southern Lebanon’s Khiam, Aita al-Shaab, and Taybeh, it said.

Deadly skirmishes on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon have raised the prospect of a broader conflict in the Middle East after Israel attacked the Gaza Strip last October.

Judicial review demanded of UK government’s arming of Israel

The Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) and Al-Haq rights groups have been allowed by the UK government to participate in hearings that seek a judicial review of London’s refusal to stop arming Israel during its war on Gaza.

David Lammy, the shadow foreign minister, urged Foreign Secretary David Cameron to publish formal legal advice on whether Israel is violating international law.

“Speaking about intent in the context of international humanitarian law is quite misleading. If a state fails to distinguish military and civilian objects, or to take reasonable precautions or to make a proper proportionality assessment, that amounts to a violation and it’s immaterial whether or not they intended to cause such harm,” Charlotte Andrews-Brisco, a lawyer with GLAN, told the Guardian newspaper.

“This is a textbook case of the war crime of starvation of individuals as a method of warfare.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/22/israels-war-on-gaza-live-the-choice-is-clear-a-2-state-solution

Apparently Antony Blinken, at 19, in 1982, wrote an article for the Harvard paper where he criticized Reagan for using actual leverage against Israel.

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1982/12/6/where-it-hurts-pisraeli-deputy-foreign/

‘More direct, to the point’ UNSC resolution vote on Saturday

The UN Security Council will vote on a new draft Gaza ceasefire resolution put forward by elected members on Saturday at 10am New York time (14:00 GMT), Al Jazeera confirms.

“It’s about 10 sentences or so, it’s a more direct and to the point resolution,” reports correspondent Gabriel Elizondo, holding the document in his hand.

“The key part is the wording. It ‘demands an immediate ceasefire’ for the month of Ramadan. It leaves nothing to the imagination, nothing to interpret. It’s very clear.

“By all accounts, this draft resolution has widespread support among the Security Council. The big question is will the United States find it acceptable?” said Elizondo.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/22/israels-war-on-gaza-live-the-choice-is-clear-a-2-state-solution

Anyone have the full text of the US resolution which was recently rejected at the UN Security Council? The more I read about it, the worse it sounds.

Maersk continues to avoid Red Sea route despite EU security operation

The shipping giant says it’s aware other transportation companies have continued sailing through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, or announced plans to resume sailing, but it won’t follow suit.

“We continue with our own assessment that the current situation does not allow us to make a similar decision,” Maersk said in a statement on its website.

“We still believe sailing via the Cape of Good Hope and around Africa is the most reasonable solution at the moment, and the one that currently allows the best supply-chain stability,”

Maersk, one of the world’s biggest container shipping companies, suspended Red Sea traffic on January 5 and has since redirected ships via the Cape of Good Hope.

The EU’s naval mission in the southern Red Sea was launched in February to help protect the key maritime trade route from drone and missile attacks by Yemen’s Houthi group.

The Houthis say they have been targeting Israel-linked ships to help bring an end to the war on Gaza.

‘More direct, to the point’ UNSC resolution vote on Saturday

The UN Security Council will vote on a new draft Gaza ceasefire resolution put forward by elected members on Saturday at 10am New York time (14:00 GMT), Al Jazeera confirms.

“It’s about 10 sentences or so, it’s a more direct and to the point resolution,” reports correspondent Gabriel Elizondo, holding the document in his hand.

“The key part is the wording. It ‘demands an immediate ceasefire’ for the month of Ramadan. It leaves nothing to the imagination, nothing to interpret. It’s very clear.

“By all accounts, this draft resolution has widespread support among the Security Council. The big question is will the United States find it acceptable?” said Elizondo.

Israel torches al-Shifa Hospital department: Gaza Health Ministry

Israel has bombed several buildings at al-Shifa Hospital and burned down its vascular department, Gaza’s Health Ministry says.

Israel forces also detained about 240 patients and 10 health personnel at the Prince Nayef Center, the hospital’s radiology unit, the ministry added.

Hamas has condemned what it calls Israel’s “bloody massacre” at al-Shifa and said civilians, patients and displaced people were among dozens of fatalities.

Al-Shifa, the Gaza Strip’s largest hospital before the current conflict started, is one of the few healthcare facilities that is even partially operational in the north of the enclave.

Euro-Med Monitor: Israel ‘systematically killing’ Palestinian tech experts

The Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor says the Israeli army has systematically assassinated dozens of programmers, information technology experts, and computer engineering analysts in the Gaza Strip.

The rights group compiled a list of the hundreds of tech professionals killed by the Israeli military in the past few months It included programmer Haitham al-Nabahin, who was killed with his wife in a house they fled to in Bureji refugee camp.

In addition to killing the experts, the Israeli army has also been destroying the headquarters of communication companies and other technology infrastructure, the organisation reports.

“These crimes appear to be part of Israel’s public policies aimed at making the Gaza Strip uninhabitable by destroying fundamental life structures and eliminating talent. This will certainly lead to a paralysed society incapable of quickly recovering from the disastrous fallout from Israel’s serious crimes committed during that period.”

Palestinians in Gaza disappointed by lack of practical steps to alleviate suffering

Tareq Abu Azzoum
Reporting from Rafah, southern Gaza

People here are following all diplomatic efforts, including the vote that just took place at the UN Security Council.

They believe that all these meetings have not led to any practical steps to mitigate the crisis in the Gaza Strip or to pressure Israel into scaling back its attack.

Ultimately, Palestinians believe the US is backing Israel.

But they also hope that the ongoing talks in Cairo and Doha will yield some results in light of the US’s desire to see a six-week truce in Gaza that would bring at least some temporary relief.

older:
Algeria takes UNSC floor

Algeria was one of the three countries that rejected the US-draft resolution

Amar Bendjama, Algeria’s ambassador to the UN, said the text was inadequate and failed to address the immense suffering endured by the Palestinians.

“Those who believe that the Israeli occupying power will choose to uphold its international legal obligations are mistaken,” he told the council.

“They must abandon this fiction.”

France to work on new UN Gaza ceasefire resolution after veto

President Emmanuel Macron has said France will work on a new UN resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza following the Russian and Chinese veto against the resolution proposed by the US.

“Following Russia’s and China’s veto a few minutes ago, we are going to resume work on the basis of the French draft resolution in the Security Council and work with our American, European and Arab partners to reach an agreement,” Macron said at end of a European Union leaders’ summit in Brussels.

France’s foreign ministry said on Thursday it had started drafting a resolution with diplomats, saying they would put a draft forward if the US draft resolution did not pass.

Russian envoy says US text ‘effective green light’ for Rafah raid

Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, has now taken the floor.

He says the US draft resolution “contains an effective green light for Israel to mount a military operation in Rafah”.

Nebenzya adds that Russia has already stated that it will no longer tolerate “pointless resolutions, which do not contain a call for a ceasefire which lead us to nowhere”.

More on the US comments to the Security Council

Thomas-Greenfield has said the proposed UN resolution “will move us closer to securing that deal and help us alleviate suffering”.

“I urge all Security Council members to vote yes,” the US ambassador to the UN said. “To vote for a resolution that condemns Hamas for its horrific attacks and sexual violence, that makes clear that all civilians – Israeli and Palestinians – should be able to live without fear of violence, and stresses that a ground offensive in Gaza poses a great threat to civilians.”

www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/22/israels-war-on-gaza-live-the-choice-is-clear-a-2-state-solution

Bonus - a quirky TRT piece on red cows. I'm not sure if Obaida actually mentioned this specifically, but the Hamas explanation of their reasoning did include the proposed 'Judaization' of Al-Aqsa mosque among its grievances, and Israel has apparently planned this, and if you search for it you'll find a bunch of results with evangelicals drooling over the prospect of this animal sacrifice. They're very excited for it.

>>479919
Still looking for this - anyone have it?

War in Gaza is worsening humanitarian conditions in Syria: UN official

Israel’s war on Gaza has increased commodity prices in Syria due to global shipping disruptions, and “a significant increase” in Israeli air attacks against targets in the country, according to the United Nations resident and humanitarian coordinator for Syria, Adam Abdelmoula.

Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes in Syria since civil war broke out in 2011, targeting Iran-backed forces including Hezbollah as well as Syrian army positions, but attacks have increased since Israel’s war with Hamas, a Hezbollah ally, began on October 7.

“The targeting of the airports in Syria” has also affected humanitarian air services, Abdelmoula said, adding that “this past year, we had to cancel 49 humanitarian flights”.

The UN official appealed to the international community for about $4bn in humanitarian assistance for Syria, warning funding was almost non-existent and that a lack of support would push more Syrians to emigrate.

Palestinian ministry slams Israel over new settlement plan

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs says Israel’s claim to 8,000 dunams (1,977 acres, 800 hectares) of land in the Jordan Valley is a “crime” that is part of an “official policy racing against time to annex the West Bank and eliminate the possibility of creating a Palestinian state”.

“There are no morals, values, principles or international resolutions that can stop the extremist right,” the ministry said in a statement.

It added that the plan by Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to develop hundreds of housing units near the Israeli settlement of Yafit was once again an indication that Israel “denies the existence of our people and incites their extermination and displacement”.

“Israel’s continued impunity provides the fascists with the necessary time to complete the slaughter and extermination of our people, the theft of their homeland and their displacement from it,” it said, adding that international complicity with Israel’s crimes was “the crime of the century.”

More than 7,350 West Bank Palestinians arrested by Israel during Gaza war

Israel has taken thousands of Palestinians captive since Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7.

In the process, Israeli authorities have become increasingly violent, often storming homes inside the occupied West Bank and beating everyone inside, according to a staff member of the Palestinian monitor Addameer.

Once in custody, Palestinians face even more abuse.

“Lots of people had their [sternum] or heads broken, often gushing with blood,” 54-year-old Matar told Al Jazeera three months after he was released from detention.

“We weren’t even treated like animals. At least animals are treated with some sort of dignity.”

Finland becomes latest country to resume UNRWA funding

Finland’s Foreign Trade and Development Minister Ville Tavio said Helsinki would continue supporting the UN agency for Palestinian refugees after it improved its risk management practices.

The UNRWA had come under fire over Israeli accusations that some of its staff members participated in Hamas’s October 7 attack.

As a result, several Western countries initially paused their funding to the agency, but Canada, Australia and Sweden have since restored funding.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called the UNRWA the “backbone” of the humanitarian response in Gaza, and dozens of humanitarian groups warned no other organisation can replace its crucial role in delivering aid to the enclave.

Israeli protesters march near Netanyahu’s home demanding early election

Israeli protesters marched on Thursday night near the home of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Caesarea, south of Haifa, demanding the return of captives in Gaza and for national elections to be held early.

Footage from the demonstration, published by Al Jazeera Arabic, shows the protesters marching to the sound of drums and horns, waving Israeli flags and holding a sign saying “Bibi – stop killing Israel”.

https://twitter.com/AJA_Palestine/status/1771001350903488745

UN rapporteur: Israeli crimes in Gaza could keep ICC ‘busy for the next five decades’
The UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territory has said that “accountability is more needed than ever” over Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

“The colossal amount of evidence concerning [international] crimes committed by Israel in Gaza just over the past 6 months could keep the [ICC] busy for the next five decades, especially at the current proceedings pace,” Francesca Albanese said in a post on X.

She was responding to footage of four Palestinian men being killed by an Israeli air strike in Gaza.

https://twitter.com/FranceskAlbs/status/1770983036982607999


‘Malnutrition was never an issue in Gaza’ before Israel’s war: UNICEF

There are many “paper-thin children” who may not live to see another day in northern Gaza, says UNICEF spokesperson James Elder after visiting Gaza’s Beit Lahiya area.

“Malnutrition was never an issue in Gaza, it just wasn’t. And now one in three children under two in northern Gaza are suffering from acute malnutrition. That is a terrifying number,” he said.

“Mothers and carers are in tears over their children because they know they have done everything they possibly can, first from the bombardment and now from this imminent famine. But I think they realise that the protection of their children is in the hands of others making decisions on things in Gaza.”

United States still not using ‘real leverage’ to pressure Israel

Commenting on Israel’s looming ground invasion of Rafah, analyst Tamer Qarmout says the US does not have the “real will” to stop Israel from carrying out the attack where 1.5 million Palestinians are sheltering.

“The US is still holding the stick from the middle. They are buying more time for Israel,” Qarmout, a professor at the Doha Institute of Graduate Studies, told Al Jazeera.

“You don’t see the US using its real leverage to stop Israel or correct its behaviours. And that’s why we are at this stage sadly.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/22/israels-war-on-gaza-live-the-choice-is-clear-a-2-state-solution

Eyewitness says Israeli forces raped and killed women at al-Shifa hospital

“They raped women, kidnapped women, executed women, and pulled dead bodies from under the rubble to unleash their dogs on them.”

Jamila al-Hissi, a Palestinian woman who was besieged for six days in a building in the vicinity of al-Shifa hospital, told Al Jazeera that Israeli forces raped, tortured and executed women inside the hospital.

Heavy artillery shelling and aerial bombardment have continued to rock the area near al-Shifa Hospital in west Gaza City as Israeli ground forces continue a deadly military raid there for six days.

Homes in the vicinity of the hospital have been raided by troops and later set ablaze after residents were either arrested or forced to flee south.

(she also complains about Red Cross negligence; though this may be partly because of how many Red Cross/Crescent members have already been killed by the IDF)

Biden signs legislation banning UNRWA funding until 2025

US President Joe Biden signed a $1.2 trillion package of spending bills that the US Congress passed hours earlier, which includes a crucial policy with humanitarian ramifications for Palestinians during Israel’s war on Gaza.

The bill eliminates US funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) until March 2025.

The United States was by far the largest funder of the UN agency, which is the main organisation getting humanitarian aid to Palestinians amid catastrophic conditions in the besieged enclave.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/23/israels-war-on-gaza-live-netanyahu-brushes-off-blinken-over-rafah-attack

Some 7,000 trucks are waiting in North Sinai to enter Gaza: Governor

North Sinai Governor Mohamed Shusha has said some 7,000 trucks are waiting in the region to deliver aid to Gaza.

Shusha said inspection procedures demanded by Israel had held up the flow of relief, according to a statement from his office.

Shusha is accompanying UN chief Antonio Guterres, who is expected to arrive at Egypt’s border with Gaza later in the day.

Gaza gov’t says it holds US, international community responsible for al-Shifa Hospital siege

Gaza’s government media office has issued a statement saying it holds the US administration and the international community responsible for the ongoing “crime” committed by Israel against medical staff, patients and displaced Palestinians at Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital.

The Hamas-run government condemned Israel’s siege of the medical facility in central Gaza and claimed the army was bombing buildings within the compound while civilians remained inside, as well as committing acts of torture and carrying out arbitrary executions.

“We call on all countries of the world to condemn the crime of genocide brutally committed by the occupation and to break their silence and play a practical role to stop this war and the ongoing massacres,” it said.

Arab Parliament condemns Israel’s latest settlement plan

The Arab Parliament has condemned the decision made by far-right Israeli Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich on Friday to declare 800 hectares (1,977 acres) in the occupied West Bank as state land.

The Arab Parliament, the legislative body of the Arab League, said in a statement that the Israeli policy of seizing Palestinian-owned lands and building and expanding Israeli settlements was aiming to create a new reality on the ground, in violation of international law and UN resolutions.

It added that “the negotiations to stop the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip must be accompanied by a cessation of all types of Israeli aggression against the Palestinian land and people”.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/23/israels-war-on-gaza-live-netanyahu-brushes-off-blinken-over-rafah-attack

UN vote on new Gaza ceasefire text postponed until Monday: Report

A vote at the UN Security Council on a new text calling for an “immediate” ceasefire in the war in Gaza has been postponed until Monday, according to diplomatic sources quoted by the AFP news agency.

Russia and China on Friday vetoed a US resolution, which was also opposed by Arab states, for stopping short of explicitly demanding Israel immediately end its campaign in Gaza.

The new ceasefire text was meant to go to a vote on Saturday, but was pushed back to allow further discussions, the diplomatic sources told AFP.

The tougher draft resolution, seen by AFP, “demands an immediate ceasefire” for the ongoing Muslim holy month of Ramadan that leads “to a permanent sustainable ceasefire”, the agency said.

It also reportedly calls for the “immediate and unconditional” release of hostages seized by Hamas and the lifting of “all barriers” to humanitarian aid flowing into Gaza.

The report added that eight of the council’s 10 non-permanent members have been working on the draft.

https://aje.io/y63tdq?update=2791550

UK’s Cameron urged to publish legal advice on Israel’s war on Gaza

An opposition legislator has urged the UK’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron to publish the legal advice he has received on Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law in Gaza.

In a letter to Cameron, David Lammy, a Labour MP and the UK’s shadow foreign secretary, noted that British regulations make it clear that arms export licenses should not be granted if there is a clear risk that the items could be used to commit violations of international humanitarian law.

“The situation in Gaza could not be more serious,” Lammy said in his letter. With the death toll approaching 32,000 and much of Gaza “completely devastated”, the UK Foreign Office must confirm whether it has received any legal advice since October 7 that Israel is in breach of its commitments under international humanitarian law or is at clear risk of being so, the legislator added.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/23/israels-war-on-gaza-live-netanyahu-brushes-off-blinken-over-rafah-attack

(Lammy's trying to catch up late)

Activists in US, UK protest against Israeli defence firm Elbit

Pro-Palestine activists in the US and UK have launched protests against the Israeli defence company Elbit, accusing it of profiting from Israel’s war on Gaza and abuses in the occupied West Bank.

In the US state of New Hampshire, activists blockaded the entrance to Elbit’s manufacturing facility for four hours on Friday, with some of them chaining themselves to weighted tyres in the driveway, according to media reports and videos posted online.

Eight activists were arrested in New Hampshire, according to media reports.

https://twitter.com/HCW4P_ME/status/1771176217443475902

In the UK, activists have set up a protest camp in front of Elbit’s headquarters in the city of Bristol, as part of a campaign to get local authorities to evict the company from its premises.

The activists have previously broken inside the building in Bristol, occupied its roof and blockaded its gates. They’ve also sprayed red paint on the buildings of companies they say work with Elbit, including the law firm MLL Legal in London.

https://twitter.com/Pal_action/status/1770600731365498985

US CENTCOM confirms raids against Houthis in Yemen

The US military’s Central Command has announced carrying out a series of attacks in Yemen, saying its forces targeted three underground storage facilities in Houthi-controlled areas.

“These strikes targeted capabilities used by the Houthis to threaten and attack naval ships and merchant vessels in the region,” it said in a post on X.

CENTCOM did not say where the raids took place, but a spokesman for the Houthis reported US attacks on the Yemeni capital, Sanaa.

CENTCOM said it also destroyed four Houthi drones on Friday and said that the rebels fired four antiship ballistic missiles towards the Red Sea. But there were no injuries or damage reported by commercial ships.

Houthis condemn US attacks on Yemen’s capital

A spokesman for the Houthis has condemned US air attacks on the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, saying the raids will not deter their attacks on Israeli ships in the Red Sea.

“The US raids on the capital, Sanaa, are a continuation of the aggression launched with Britain to protect Israel and encourage it to continue its crimes in the Gaza Strip,” said Mohammed Abdul-Salam in a post on X.

“We confirm that the raids will not prevent us from continuing to target Israeli ships or those heading to the ports of occupied Palestine.”

Palestinian man shot in back of head by Israeli forces dies

A 33-year-old Palestinian man who was shot in the back of his head by Israeli troops last August has died as a result of his injuries, according to media reports.

Ameed al-Jaghoub, who was unarmed, was shot on August 21 as he rushed to help a wounded man amid an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank village of Beita.

Al-Jaghoub was an electrician and had a toddler son.

https://twitter.com/EyeonPalestine/status/1771271088984494509

US criticises new UNSC resolution on Gaza

The 10 elected members of the UN Security Council have put forth a new resolution on Israel’s war on Gaza, shortly after Russia and China vetoed a US-drafted text on Friday.

The new draft resolution demands an immediate humanitarian truce for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan “leading to a permanent sustainable ceasefire”, according to The Associated Press news agency.

It also demands “the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages ” and emphasises the urgent need to protect civilians and deliver humanitarian aid throughout the Gaza Strip.

The Russian, Chinese and Algerian ambassadors have urged council members to support it, but US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said the text’s current form “fails to support sensitive diplomacy in the region. Worse, it could actually give Hamas an excuse to walk away from the deal on the table”.

Hamas says another Israeli captive dead in Gaza

The spokesperson for the military wing of Hamas says one more Israeli captive has died in the Gaza Strip because of conditions created by Israel.

The Qassam Brigades spokesman said Begiv Buchhataf, 34, died as a result of a lack of food and medicine.

“We previously warned the enemy prisoners were suffering from the same conditions as our people: hunger and deprivation from food and medicine,” Abu Obeida said.

Qassam Brigades also released a video of the captive with the message, “Although he survived the Israeli army’s attacks, he did not escape the lack of food and medicine.”

Hamas announced in early March that seven captives held in Gaza had been killed as a result of Israel’s bombardment of the besieged enclave.

Euro-Med Monitor: Israeli army burning homes near al-Shifa Hospital

The Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor says the Israeli military is torching residential buildings near al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

“In several incidents, Israeli forces set fire to homes while occupants were inside, preventing evacuation or fire extinguishing,” it says in a statement on X.

“We urge the Secretary-General of the UN and the Commissioner of the EU to intervene immediately, demanding that Israel cease its serious violations against civilians in Gaza City, including burning residential buildings and forcibly displacing residents towards southern Gaza.”

Army uses Palestinians as human shields at al-Shifa Hospital: Right group

The Israeli military is using Palestinian civilians as human shields during its ongoing military operations inside and around the al-Shifa Hospital in central Gaza, according to the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor.

The Geneva-based organisation says in its latest report it documented several witness testimonies about this since Monday, with Israeli soldiers forcing civilians into dangerous situations.

This includes exploiting Palestinians for military operations inside the hospital, and forcing them to form barriers behind soldiers and military vehicles.

One Palestinian said he and three other young men were ordered to enter rooms inside the hospital after cameras were attached to their heads, and then received remote orders to move around to specific locations.

“Euro-Med Monitor calls on the international community to fulfill its international responsibilities in stopping the genocide being perpetrated against all residents of the Gaza Strip, and to take immediate and serious action to halt all Israeli army crimes committed against civilians and civilian objects protected under international law.”

Guterres ‘frustrated’ about Gaza war, asks Israel to stop

“You cannot see so many people being killed, you cannot see so much suffering without feeling hugely frustrated,” Guterres said while taking questions from reporters.

“We don’t have the power to stop [the war in Gaza], I appeal to those who have the power to stop it to do it,” he said.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/23/israels-war-on-gaza-live-netanyahu-brushes-off-blinken-over-rafah-attack

>>479936
>Biden signs legislation banning UNRWA funding until 2025
The Zionist plot to kill EU funding for UNRWA came undone after a month, maybe this isn't permanent either.

>>479939
The US leadership, as it exists today, is much more dead-set on going down with Netanyahu than the EU is.
This will change, because it must, but this is still conditional on our laboring to change it.

>>479919
>Anyone have the full text of the US resolution which was recently rejected at the UN Security Council? The more I read about it, the worse it sounds.
>>479930
>Still looking for this - anyone have it?
The official website of the UN security council appears to only have the texts of resolutions that were adopted. Since the US resolution you are looking for got vetoed, it didn't get a page. It's probably in some document archive dump somewhere, but i don't know how to find something like that.

According to BreakThroughNews
https://farside.link/invidious/watch?v=NxCBBtoppI8
The purpose of this might have been a media stunt, and they wanted a headline that says "Russia and China veto ceasefire resolution".
According to BTN the operative statement was that it only said "imperative for a ceasefire" instead of making it a direct command to cease firing.

>>479941
>The official website of the UN security council appears to only have the texts of resolutions that were adopted. Since the US resolution you are looking for got vetoed, it didn't get a page. It's probably in some document archive dump somewhere, but i don't know how to find something like that.

Dam. Yeah, it's evident that least some of the press has seen it… maybe I'll email or message someone from a news organization and see if they have a copy.

>The purpose of this might have been a media stunt, and they wanted a headline that says "Russia and China veto ceasefire resolution".

Oh, no question. That popped into my mind right away, it seems like a way to make China look stupid - of course, the US is behaving so insanely and consistently stupid at the moment that the effectiveness of this is questionable. For anyone following this, the US has now vetoed 3 much more clearly worded ceasefire resolutions, but it's possible that the American MSM will not have given those instances equal attention.

>>479938
>Some 7,000 trucks are waiting in North Sinai to enter Gaza: Governor
>North Sinai Governor Mohamed Shusha has said some 7,000 trucks are waiting in the region to deliver aid to Gaza.
>Shusha said inspection procedures demanded by Israel had held up the flow of relief, according to a statement from his office.
This is incredibly frustrating. Just think about it in terms of trying to explain this "supply logistics malfunction" to an Alien ambassador. They'd break off contact and catalog earth as an M-class planet without intelligent life.

>>479931
>UN rapporteur: Israeli crimes in Gaza could keep ICC ‘busy for the next five decades’
>“The colossal amount of evidence concerning [international] crimes committed by Israel in Gaza just over the past 6 months could keep the [ICC] busy for the next five decades
50 years ?
half a year of genocide causes half a century of paperwork

>>479944
Well, yeah. That's honestly a good way of thinking of it, too. Measuring the subjective time of the people subjected to these crimes gives you an insanely huge number by itself, and then you add in everyone committing them and the work required to determine complicity (actually it won't be that hard in this specific case, the US is being incredibly foolish)… there are a lot of details, and an unprecedented amount of evidence.

Former Israeli security official: Army cannot rescue all captives

Yossi Amrosi, an ex-senior official of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security service, was quoted by local newspaper The Jerusalem Post as admitting that the Israeli army does not have the means to return all captives currently held in Gaza by Hamas and other Palestinian groups.

“We have already made contact and rescued hostages. In my estimation, there is some intelligence on different hostages, but we do not have the operational capability to carry out the operation and rescue them safely,” he told Radio North 104.5FM, according to the newspaper.

Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, said at the start of the war that it had taken 250 captives during its October 7 incursion into Israel.

According to the Qassam Brigades, 50 captives have been killed in Israeli air raids. Israeli intelligence officers say 30 captives have died in Gaza so far since they were taken to the enclave.

The latest round of negotiations to secure a ceasefire in the Gaza war is ongoing, but reports are that progress has stalled, with Hamas saying today that Israel rejected its latest proposal to exchange the captives it holds for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/24/israels-war-on-gaza-live-19-killed-as-israel-again-fires-on-aid-seekers

Close-quarters combat ongoing around Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital

Both the Israeli military and Hamas are confirming another day of intense close-range combat in the vicinity of the besieged al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza.

The Israeli military released bodycam footage from its soldiers engaging in a firefight in a four-storey building near the hospital. It said they were shooting at a Palestinian fighter who was lobbing grenades at them.

The military wing of Hamas has also reported targeting Israeli soldiers and armoured vehicles in the vicinity of the hospital in the past few hours.

The Qassam Brigades said its fighters used an anti-armour shell to hit Israeli soldiers barricaded inside a building, inflicting casualties. It also claimed mortars were used to target soldiers, and said it achieved a hit on a military vehicle near al-Shifa.

Ground fighting is ongoing elsewhere across the Gaza Strip, with Hamas claiming hits on a Merkava tank and a D9 military bulldozer with Yassin-105 anti-tank shells northeast of Beit Hanoon in northern Gaza, and the Israeli army besieging the al-Amal Hospital in the south.

Gantz threatens to quit Israeli government

Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz has been quoted by local media as saying he will quit if a new law on army conscription passes in its current form.

The bill, favoured by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, would exempt ultra-Orthodox Haredi Jews from military service in the country.

Gantz has been pushing for a law to draft this community into the Israeli army.

PRCS says communication with al-Amal hospital cut off
The Palestine Red Crescent says on X that due to a service interruption to VHF radio, it is unable to contact its staff at the hospital in Khan Younis, currently under Israeli army siege.

Israeli forces attacked the hospital earlier today, surrounding it with tanks and forcing nearly everyone inside, from patients to displaced Palestinians sheltering there, to evacuate.

Casualties in Israeli attack on Kuwaiti roundabout in Gaza City

Israel has again attacked the roundabout in the south of Gaza City, a major distribution point for the little humanitarian aid that reaches the starving Palestinians there, our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting.

Our correspondents say that the attack was on members of a tribal committee that organises aid distribution at the roundabout. Earlier this month, Israel carried out an attack on the same committee, killing at least 20.

Video verified by Al Jazeera from a Palestinian journalist shows the casualties caused by this attack, the exact number of which is unclear at this time.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C451_jKNBhQ/

Hezbollah claims attack on Israeli forces in al-Marj

Lebanon’s Hezbollah armed group says there are “dead and wounded” after its attack on an Israeli force inside the al-Marj site near the Lebanese-Israeli border.

It said on Telegram that the attack was carried out at 4pm local time (14:00 GMT) “with appropriate weapons”.

What is happening at al-Amal Hospital under Israeli siege?

The Israeli military is carrying on with an intense operation against al-Amal Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis in Gaza.

These are the latest updates from the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS). The video below shows how the aid organisation’s teams receive direct updates from the besieged hospital.

All displaced Palestinians and patients who could move independently were evacuated towards the al-Mawasi area west of Khan Younis after the Israeli military directly hit the hospital and issued an evacuation order.
Hospital staff remain, along with nine patients and their 10 companions, and a displaced family with children who have disabilities. All need to be evacuated safely.
PRCS staff member Amir Abu Aisha and a wounded individual who was being treated at the hospital after being shot in the head by the Israeli military were both killed, and their bodies need to be removed.
Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles have completely surrounded all entrances to the hospital, and control any movement in and out.

Israel says no more UNRWA food convoys to north Gaza: Lazzarini

The head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) says Israel informed the UN that it will no longer approve any aid convoys run by the agency.

“This is outrageous [and] makes it intentional to obstruct lifesaving assistance during a man made famine. These restrictions must be lifted”, Philippe Lazzarini wrote in an X post.

He warned that the move will speed up the coming of famine in the north of the Gaza Strip, and said that “many more will die of hunger, dehydration”.

Famine is likely to occur by May in northern Gaza and could spread across the enclave by July, the world’s hunger watchdog, known as the Integrated Food-Security Phase Classification (IPC), said last week.

The IPC said 70 percent of people in parts of northern Gaza were suffering the most severe level of food shortage, more than triple the 20 percent threshold to be considered famine. In all, 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza, about half the population, were experiencing “catastrophic” shortages of food.

Israel blocks access to Jerusalem for West Bank Christians on Palm Sunday: Report

Israel has prevented thousands of Christians from the occupied West Bank from accessing Jerusalem to participate in the celebration of Palm Sunday, according to the Wafa news agency.

At the same time, Israeli forces imposed strict military measures at checkpoints surrounding the city of Jerusalem and in the vicinity of the Old City.

Israeli authorities require Palestinians, both Muslims and Christians, to obtain special permits to cross their military checkpoints surrounding the holy city and to access places of worship.

UN special rapporteurs decry underreporting of sexual violence against Palestinians

As accounts of sexual violence against Palestinian women in Gaza are coming out, two women special rapporteurs of the UN say the issue is underreported and undervalued.

Reem Alsalem, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, said in a post on X that it is “abhorrent” that reports of rape by Israeli forces keep coming out without any consequences.

“Rape and other forms of sexual violence can constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity or a constitutive act with respect to genocide! It must stop!”

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, said, “I lost count of how many renowned journalists interviewed me on the alleged mistreatment of/sexual abuse against Palestinian women by Israeli forces, and never published any article on this”.

Israeli forces storm Al-Aqsa Mosque

A video posted on X by Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Suheib Alassa shows the incursion of Israeli soldiers into the al-Qibli prayer hall inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

According to Alassa, the soldiers assaulted and expelled worshippers inside who were engaged in the practice of Itikaf, which entails spending nights inside a mosque with the aim of devoting oneself to worship.

Israel has again placed restrictions on entry to the Islamic holy site during the holy month of Ramadan, drawing the criticism of Muslim leaders worldwide.

Guterres asks for staff access, safety amid record UN death toll

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has met with humanitarian staff working in dangerous conditions in the Gaza Strip.

“Some of them, with decades of experience, said they have never encountered a situation as difficult as this,” he wrote in a post on X.

“Aid workers need resources, access and safety – now.”

A record number of at least 168 members of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) have been killed by the Israeli military since the start of its war on Gaza.

Pro-Palestinian protesters flock to Israeli Embassy in Jordan

This video, verified by Al Jazeera Arabic, shows large crowds gathered at the Israeli Embassy in Jordan to express solidarity with Palestinians.

https://twitter.com/AJA_Palestine/status/1771990231434047764

Palestinian boy describes executions inside al-Shifa Hospital

Teenage Palestinian boy Farouk Mohammed Hamd tells Al Jazeera he witnessed Israeli soldiers executing a group of eight people, including his father and brother, inside al-Shifa Hospital.

He said he and the others were stripped of their clothing and moved several times inside the al-Shifa Hospital building in central Gaza over the course of hours before being taken to the top floor of the facility.

“They left us for about three hours, then they said, ‘You are safe. You can go south’,” he said.

“We stood up, but then they opened fire. We all laid down on the floor again. Then, the snipers entertained themselves by shooting us one after the other.”

He said his father told him before being killed to run away if he could, and he managed to run, but not before seeing the unresponsive bodies of the executed group.

Iran condemns al-Shifa raid, calls for fact-finding mission on sexual violence

The Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, Nasser Kanaani, has in a statement condemned the “inhumane and horrific crimes of the Zionist regime” at the al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza.

“The regime is adding another shameful chapter to the history of its miserable existence and the dark list of its crimes,” he said.

Kanaani also referred to reports of rape and killing of Palestinian women by Israeli soldiers in the area of the hospital, and called for “urgent and decisive action by the global community, including forming an international fact-finding mission to expose the volume of the war crimes of Zionists at al-Shifa Hospital”.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran calls for effective, decisive and urgent action by governments and legal and international organisations to stop these crimes and to form criminal cases to prosecute and try the perpetrators, agents and supporters of this humanitarian catastrophe,” he said.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/24/israels-war-on-gaza-live-19-killed-as-israel-again-fires-on-aid-seekers

This is a bold move.

Israeli protesters paraglide over Netanyahu’s house

Israeli protesters have paraglided over Netanyahu’s residence in the town of Caesarea with banners accusing him of bearing responsibility for the October 7 attacks on the country.

Netanyahu’s approval ratings have plummeted in recent months, with polls suggesting that the centrist rival Benny Gantz would be most likely to succeed him if an election were held.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/PggN1wAoDtg

>>479949
<Israeli protesters have paraglided over Netanyahu’s residence in the town of Caesarea with banners accusing him of bearing responsibility for the October 7 attacks on the country.
>This is a bold move.
Yes but also a based move

>>479949
>centrist rival Benny Gantz
Isn't this the guy who openly bragged about killing Palestinian civilians in the last operation? Some "centrist".

>>479953
It's likely that most of the political strata in Israel is afflicted with Zionism. So what did you expect ? They probably have to flush a dozen leaders before they get anybody remotely reasonable.

Skip to 3:42 for an insufferable American lebensraum-lover talking about how Israel has a right to take all the land in Gaza, totally unaware of how insane she sounds.

>>479953
I believe so, yes.
Also the same guy who is threatening to quit the Israeli government if ultra-Orthodox Jews continue to be exempt from military service. From my understanding, a good number of Haredi ultra-orthodox Jews think Zionism is a heretical crock of shit, but some of them continue to live in Israel anyway. I'm not actually sure if Gantz is really more centrist than Netanyahu.

UNSC vote in about an hour and a half.

>>479955
That clip is from a recent Grayzone report covering Israeli civilians trying to block aid trucks from supplying food. The whole video is a display of the banality of evil.

>>479955
>>479961
Wow that is difficult to watch, the Zionists have completely dehumanized the Palestinians.

>>479957
LIVE: UN Security Council to vote on Gaza ceasefire

Report says US will not vote against Security Council resolution today

A UN Security Council resolution on a ceasefire in Gaza expected to be voted on later today has been worked on with the US to avoid a veto, according to diplomats speaking to the AFP news agency on condition of anonymity.

“We expect, barring a last-minute twist, that the resolution will be adopted and that the US will not vote against it,” one diplomat told AFP.

Last Friday, the Security Council voted on a draft submitted by the US that called for an “immediate” ceasefire linked to the release of captives. China and Russia vetoed the resolution, criticising it for stopping short of explicitly demanding Israel halt its campaign.

The US itself has vetoed three resolutions calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Earlier today, UN chief Guterres said the new resolution does not link the release of captives with calls for a ceasefire.

China will support new Security Council draft resolution on Gaza ceasefire

China says it supports a new draft resolution at the UN Security Council on an “immediate” ceasefire in Gaza, after it and Russia vetoed an earlier text proposed by the US.

“China supports this draft resolution and commends Algeria and other Arab countries for their hard work in this regard,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said.

“We hope the Security Council will pass it as soon as possible and send a strong signal for the cessation of hostilities.”

UNSC resolution does not link Gaza truce to release of captives: Guterres

Guterres says a UN Security Council resolution expected later today does not link a ceasefire in Gaza to the release of Israeli captives.

In the resolution, “a ceasefire is required together with, but not in a linkage with, the unconditional release of all hostages”, he said.

“And we have also claimed for the need for that release.”

www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/25/israels-war-on-gaza-live-nine-killed-in-israeli-strike-on-deir-el-balah

Netanyahu threatens to nix DC delegation if US doesn’t veto resolution

Israeli media is reporting that the prime minister said if the US doesn’t veto the UN Security Council resolution for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, he will be canceling White House meetings by a visiting delegation that includes Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/25/israels-war-on-gaza-live-nine-killed-in-israeli-strike-on-deir-el-balah

Draft resolution passed

Fourteen countries backed the draft resolution put forward by the non-permanent member countries.

The US abstained.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/25/israels-war-on-gaza-live-nine-killed-in-israeli-strike-on-deir-el-balah

>>479967
The US representative used the pulpit to bitch at Russia for not condemning Hamas. America knows what's really important in this ongoing genocide; making sure everybody agrees with them and hates who they want them all to hate.

Report: Netanyahu cancells US trip for Israeli delegation

US and Israeli media are reporting that Netanyahu has halted the delegation’s planned visit to the US after the country abstained during a vote on a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

The delegation, originally travelling to the US at the invitation of President Joe Biden’s White House, was meant to meet with US officials on Israel’s planned invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city and the last major urban centre untouched by Israeli army ground assault.

The US has said it will not support Israel’s planned invasion without a clear plan to protect the nearly 1.5 million civilians currently sheltering in Rafah, though senior members of the Bidenin administration have in recent days hardened their positions, saying that any invasion would be a disaster.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/25/israels-war-on-gaza-live-nine-killed-in-israeli-strike-on-deir-el-balah

The Russian representative is using his comment to point out that this ceasefire resolution only lasts 'til the end of Ramadan, and it needs to be permanent. They're sounding really responsible compared to the US, which is a bad sign for the US!

Novara analysis on the UNSC resolution + other stuff.

>>479956
>the same guy who is threatening to quit the Israeli government if ultra-Orthodox Jews continue to be exempt from military service.
>>479966
>Netanyahu threatens to nix DC delegation if US doesn’t veto resolution

Neither are a threat.

Is it time to start prepping people for the only real solution: a single state with full rights for all? What would the flag of Palestrael look like?

Perhaps the star of David needs to be discarded entirely, since it's an inherently ethnoreligious symbol. The Palestinians don't insist on shoving the Islamic crescent in their flag after all.

>>479975
It's a weird topsy-turvy world where they think punishments are rewards and gifts are deterrents.

>>479976
Jesus, keep any religious symbols off of it. Just use the Palestine flag and maybe incorporate some blue in there somewhere. The Palestinian flag being actually secular already lends it a lot better to this than anything with the Star of David on it.

Netanyahu ‘not so upset to turn down $3.3bn’ in US money: Sanders

US Senator Bernie Sanders points out that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is apparently upset after the UN Security Council vote, having cancelled a delegation to Washington, DC, and blasting the resolution.

“But he’s not so upset that he’ll turn down $3.3bn in taxpayer dollars to fund his immoral war,” the Democratic senator said in a post on X, adding that the US should cease sending Israel money “to starve Palestinian children”.

Sanders also said that Washington must push all parties to honour the resolution, which calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of all captives, and significantly increase humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Jordan: Israeli reaction to UN resolution shows ‘disdain’ for international law

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi says the UNSC resolution on Gaza must be implemented so Israel won’t continue to violate international law with impunity.

He wrote in an X post that the “reaction by the Israeli government reflects the disdain with which it holds international law”.

Safadi had earlier today heavily criticised Israel in a joint news conference with UN Secretary-General Guterres, also calling for sanctions on Israel and for all states to stop sending it arms.

Iran says UNSC resolution on Gaza ‘positive but insufficient step’

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Nasser Kanaani, says in a short statement that after six months of failure to adopt a deterring resolution on Israel’s “war crimes and genocide” against Palestinians, the UN Security Council vote was “a positive but insufficient step”.

“A more important step than adopting this resolution would be [an] effective action to implement it,” he said, adding that Israeli attacks on Gaza and occupied West Bank must halt, the siege of Gaza must end, crossings must open to aid and international funding must come through to rebuild the enclave.

“The reaction of the child-killing Zionist regime to the resolution indicates its clear anger from this irreparable defeat both in the field and in international politics,” Kanaani said.

White House sees UNSC rift with Israel as manufactured crisis: Report

Washington believes the public display of dissatisfaction with the US by Israel over the UNSC resolution is a manufactured crisis by Netanyahu for domestic purposes, US outlet Axios cites unnamed US officials as saying.

On Sunday evening and Monday morning, White House officials told Netanyahu’s aides in discussions about the UN resolution that the US would likely abstain from voting, a source with direct knowledge was quoted as saying.

But they reportedly told the Israelis that Biden is not changing course on Israel and views the resolution as non-binding – something the US State Department said publicly after the vote as well.

The report says the White House is now “perplexed” by Netanyahu’s cancelling of an Israeli delegation’s trip to Washington, DC, with one official saying this is “self-defeating” behaviour.

Palestinian Authority ‘welcomes’ UNSC resolution

Hussein al-Sheikh, a top aide to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, says: “We call for a permanent cessation to this criminal war and Israel’s immediate withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.”

South Africa urges UNSC to ensure ‘compliance’ with resolution

South Africa says it welcomes the adoption of a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the release of all captives held by Palestinian groups.

“It is now the responsibility of the United Nations Security Council to ensure that there is compliance with the resolution, which is binding on the parties,” South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation said in a statement.

Arab Group: UNSC needs a follow-up ceasefire resolution

Abdullah Ali Fadhel al-Saadi, the UN ambassador for Yemen, says the Arab Group welcomes the resolution, especially in light of the “dangerous and catastrophic deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Gaza, which can no longer be accepted or tolerated”.

But, he said, the group believes “we should consider this as a first step leading to another binding resolution that stipulates the immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip in order to compel Israel to immediately and without any preconditions cease the war it has launched against the Gaza Strip”.

The Yemeni envoy said a permanent ceasefire will only enhance efforts to release captives remaining in Gaza.

“This council has been hostage to political calculations and narrow interests that disregard the humanitarian and legal right to save lives, stem the bloodshed and deliver urgent assistance to those in need without any obstacles. Today’s resolution comes as a response, albeit late, to the Palestinian victims and calls of the international community for immediate ceasefire in Gaza.”

Turkey calls UNSC resolution a ‘positive step’

Turkey called the resolution passed earlier in the UN Security Council, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, and the return of all captives held there as well as the prospective return of humanitarian access to Gaza, “a positive step”.

“We hope that Israel will comply with the requirements of this resolution without delay,” Turkish Foreign Affairs spokesman Oncu Keceli says.

“We call on the international community to take a united stand against Israel to end the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and to find a lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” he adds.

Qatar welcomes UNSC resolution calling for Gaza ceasefire during Ramadan

In a statement, the Qatari Foreign Ministry says it hopes the resolution represents a step towards a permanent ceasefire in the besieged coastal enclave.

“The ministry stresses the importance of committing to implementing the resolution, especially the ceasefire, and allowing humanitarian aid urgently and without obstacles into the entire Gaza Strip, and to be positively involved in ongoing negotiations,” it says.

The ministry also stressed that Qatar is continuing its role as interlocutor “in cooperation with other partners to stop the war on Gaza and remedying its humanitarian ramifications”.

Saudi Arabia ‘welcomes’ UNSC resolution

“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia welcomes the issuance of the UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza during the holy month of Ramadan, leading to a permanent and sustainable ceasefire and the release of all hostages,” the Saudi foreign ministry said in a post on X.

US ‘finally’ stops blocking the UNSC, China says

The Chinese ambassador to the UN says Beijing’s stance on calling for a ceasefire has been clear from the beginning of the war on Gaza.

“After repeated vetoes of the council’s actions, the United States finally decided to stop obstructing the council’s demands for an immediate ceasefire. Despite all this, the US still tried to find all kinds of excuses and made accusations against China,” Zhang Jun said.

“Mr president, nearly six months after the outbreak of the Gaza conflict, over 32,000 innocent civilians have lost their lives. For the lives that have already perished, the council resolution today comes too late, but for the millions of people in Gaza who remain mired in an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, this resolution, if fully and effectively implemented, could still bring long-awaited hope,” he added.

“Security Council resolutions are binding.”

Russia says important to ‘vote in favour of peace’

Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vasily Alekseyevich Nebenzya, says his country hopes the Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza will be used in the “interests of peace” rather than advancing the “inhumane Israeli operation against Palestinians”.

“It is of fundamental importance that the UN Security Council, for the first time, is demanding the parties observe an immediate ceasefire, even if it is limited to the month of Ramadan,” he said.

“Unfortunately, what happens after that ends remains unclear since the word ‘lasting’ could be interpreted in various different ways, and that is very telling. Those who are providing cover for Israel still want to give it a free hand,” he added.

Nebenzya said the use of the word “permanent” for a ceasefire would have been better.

“We are disappointed that it did not make it through. Nevertheless, we believe it is fundamentally important to vote in favour of peace. The council must continue to work on achieving a permanent ceasefire,” he said.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/25/israels-war-on-gaza-live-nine-killed-in-israeli-strike-on-deir-el-balah

Countries should ‘pressure’ Israel into ceasing attacks on Lebanon: PM

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Monday that the international community should put pressure on Israel following the passage of a UNSC resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

In a statement shared by his office, Mikati welcomed the resolution, saying it was “a first step on the path to stopping the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip”.

There’s been a regular exchange of fire between the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah and the Israeli army since the war began.

UN mourns 171 staff members killed by Israeli military in Gaza

Today is the 171st day of Israel’s war on Gaza and it also marks 171 members of UN staff killed in the enclave.

“Most recently was Hani, killed in northern Gaza while looking for food,” said Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), in a post on X.

“I hope that the UN Security Council call for an immediate & durable ceasefire will bring to Gaza & the region the peace its people so well deserve.”

Far more UN staff members have been killed in Israel’s war on Gaza than in any previous conflict.

Hamas says sticking to its original position in truce negotiations

In a press statement, the group has said that Israel has not responded to any of the demands it set forth during this round of negotiations over a ceasefire and prisoner swap.

It said that it informed mediators that it “is adhering to its position and vision that it presented on March 14”, which includes four points: “A comprehensive ceasefire, withdrawal [of Israeli forces] from the Gaza Strip, the return of the displaced, and a real exchange of prisoners”.

Hamas also accused Netanyahu and his government of “thwarting all negotiation efforts and obstructing reaching an agreement so far”.

Mediators Egypt, Qatar and the United States spent weeks trying to narrow differences between Israel and Hamas over what a ceasefire would look like before this round of negotiations between Hamas and Israel began.

Talks appear to have stalled in recent days, though US officials said today that “progress” had been achieved over the weekend.

Problem with truce negotiations is not related to captives: Hamas leader

Hussam Badran, member of the group’s political bureau, says the issue with talks on securing a ceasefire is related, rather, to Israel’s refusal to provide guarantees on basic issues related to the lives of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Badran said these issues include stopping the onslaught, allowing aid into the besieged coastal enclave, the return of the displaced and a clear reconstruction plan.

“The problem is not limited to the release of captives as Israel claims,” he said.

He also said Netanyahu does not want to reach a ceasefire and is “deceiving his people and the families of the prisoners to cover up his political and security failures”.

Germany to give $48m to UNRWA across region

The German government says it is providing 45 million euros ($48m) to the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the occupied West Bank.

“With this sum, we support health and education services as well as cash-for-work programs for Palestinian refugees,” the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development said in a post on X.

This comes days after the US Congress ratified a bill that suspends UNRWA funding until March 2025, which the UN organisation said will lead to more people not having enough to eat in the Gaza Strip.

Qassam Brigades targets Israeli military near al-Shifa Hospital

Video obtained by Al Jazeera shows the military wing of Hamas is targeting Israeli vehicles with rocket launchers and sniping Israeli soldiers on a rooftop in Gaza City.

The Israeli military’s week-long siege on the hospital in north Gaza has left the facility significantly damaged. The Israeli military claims it has killed more than 175 Palestinian fighters and arrested hundreds more inside and around the hospital.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/25/israels-war-on-gaza-live-nine-killed-in-israeli-strike-on-deir-el-balah

UN rapporteur calls for arms embargo on Israel, reparations

The report by UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese that we covered earlier also makes recommendations to UN member states.

It says member states should “immediately implement an arms embargo on Israel” as well as “other economic and political measures necessary to ensure an immediate and lasting ceasefire”, which may include sanctions.

Albanese also recommends that South Africa take Israel’s case to the UN Security Council as Israel has been ignoring interim rulings by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on genocidal acts in Gaza.

The rapporteur called for independent and transparent investigations into violations of international law “by all actors”, and measures to ensure that “Israel, as well as states who have been complicit in the Gaza genocide” will acknowledge harm, commit to non-repetition and make reparations, including full cost of reconstructing Gaza.

“In the short term and as a temporary measure, in consultation with the State of Palestine, deploy an international protective presence to constrain the violence routinely used against Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory,” recommends the report.

UN rapporteur releases damning report on Israel’s ‘genocide’ in Gaza

The UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, writes in her report to the UN Security Council – which was released at the same time as the Gaza resolution vote – that “Israel’s genocide on the Palestinians in Gaza is an escalatory stage of a long-standing settler colonial process of erasure”.

“For over seven decades this process has suffocated the Palestinian people as a group – demographically, culturally, economically and politically – seeking to displace it and expropriate and control its land and resources. The ongoing Nakba must be stopped and remedied once and for all.”

The UN report finds that “there are reasonable grounds to believe” that the threshold for several genocidal acts against Palestinians is met: killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction.

“Israel has de facto treated an entire protected group and its life-sustaining infrastructure as ‘terrorist’ or ‘terrorist-supporting’, thus transforming everything and everyone into either a target or collateral damage, hence killable or destroyable,” says the report.

Amnesty: Overdue resolution must be ‘implemented immediately’

The head of Amnesty International says the UN Security Council resolution is long overdue and must be “implemented immediately” on its way to resulting in an enduring ceasefire.

“Israel must immediately halt their brutal bombing of Gaza and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid. Israel, Hamas and other armed groups must ensure the ceasefire is durable. Civilian hostages must be immediately released. As should all Palestinians arbitrarily detained,” Agnes Callamard wrote on X.

“In recent weeks voting at the UN Security Council has descended into a farcical political game with tragic consequences for civilians,” she said, calling on the international community to prioritise saving lives instead of politics.

Euro-Med Monitor: Two months on, Israel keeps violating ICJ rulings on Gaza

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) made interim rulings two months ago that ordered Israel to take six measures to stop genocidal acts in the Gaza Strip. The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor says Israel continues to violate them.

The Geneva-based group said in a report that “the majority of the provisional measures outlined in the ruling were violated, and the crime of genocide was carried out on the same scale” by Israel.

“Various forms and acts of genocide were committed with the intent of destroying the Palestinian people,” it added.

“Targeting civilian gatherings around humanitarian aid trucks with direct gunshots, quadcopters, and Israeli tank shells is one of the most well-documented examples of the unlawful killings and executions carried out by the Israeli army against Palestinian civilians over the past few weeks.”

UNSC resolution must be ‘immediately implemented’: HRW

Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, says: “States should use all forms of leverage – including imposing arms embargo and targeted sanctions on Israel – to press it to comply. The lives of millions of Palestinians hang in the balance.”

WHO welcomes UN Security Council resolution

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director of the UN’s World Health Organization, called in an X post for the immediate implementation of the recently passed resolution that calls for a ceasefire for the remainder of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the release of Israeli captives held in Gaza.

Israel using starvation as weapon of war: Ireland

The Republic of Ireland’s Foreign Minister Micheal Martin says Israel’s blocking of UNRWA aid into north Gaza is “completely unacceptable”.

In a post on X, Martin says: “On humanitarian access to Gaza, Antonio Guterres is crystal clear; blocked aid is a ‘moral outrage’.

The use of starvation as a weapon of war is a blatant violation of international humanitarian law.”

Earlier, we reported UN chief Guterres as saying “it is absolutely essential” to have a “massive supply” of aid delivered to northern Gaza.

US says Israel has made assurances on use of weapons

The US Department of State says Israel and six other countries that receive US military aid – Colombia, Iraq, Kenya, Nigeria, Somalia and Ukraine – had submitted written assurances by a Sunday deadline that they are complying with human rights laws.

“In each case, these assurances were made by a credible high-level official in the partner government who has the ability and authority to make decisions and commitments about the issues at the heart of the assurances,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

“We have not found them to be in violation of international humanitarian law, either when it comes to the conduct of the war or when it comes to the provision of humanitarian assistance,” Miller said.

Ahead of the deadline, 17 senators had pressed the administration of US President Joe Biden not to immediately describe Israel’s assurances as credible.

UN predictions of an imminent famine in Gaza “make it abundantly clear that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s government is not doing nearly enough to allow aid to reach starving and otherwise desperate people in Gaza”, said a letter signed by lawmakers including Chris Van Hollen, Tim Kaine and Bernie Sanders.

White House says not aware of any plan for Rafah invasion in coming days

The White House has said it has not seen indications of a plan for an Israeli invasion of Gaza’s southernmost town on the Egyptian border in the coming days.

“We haven’t seen any indication that the Israelis are imminently getting ready to conduct a ground operation in Rafah,” White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.

“There’s no sense right now that this is about to happen in coming days,” he said.

UN relief chief steps down ‘for health reasons’ during Gaza war

UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths says he is stepping down after three years on the job.

A statement from the UN cited only “health reasons” without elaborating.

The 72-year-old Griffiths, who heads the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), will remain in his post until the end of June to ensure a “smooth transition”, it said. It did not mention any potential impact on UN aid coordination in the Gaza Strip.

Minister resigns from Netanyahu’s government

Israeli minister Gideon Saar says in a statement that he is resigning from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s emergency unity government after he was not included in the highest-level war cabinet.

Saar joined the unity government along with several other members of the opposition after Hamas’s October 7 attack. His departure, along with that of another of his allies, is not expected to affect the stability of Netanyahu’s government, which still controls a clear majority in parliament.

In a reaction to the resignation, Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s far-right finance minister and chairman of the Religious Zionist Party, said that Saar’s decision “weakens the soldiers and the continuation of the war”.

Smotrich calls on Israel to ignore US reprimand in Security Council

Israel’s far-right finance minister is being quoted by local broadcaster Channel 7 as saying that “the US decision not to impose a veto in the Security Council plays into Hamas’s hands”, and will ultimately make the return of Israeli captives held in Gaza more difficult.

Earlier, the US abstained during a vote in the UN Security Council on a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza until the end of Ramadan and the release of all captives. The US vetoed three prior attempts to achieve similar resolutions since the war on Gaza began on October 7.

“Our relationship with the US has always been one of partners, but not of a patron state. This is not the first time that an Israeli government has been required to make decisions contrary to the US government’s position” Bezalel Smotrich said, adding that Israel will “not stop” its war on Gaza until Hamas is destroyed and all of its captives held there are returned.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/25/israels-war-on-gaza-live-nine-killed-in-israeli-strike-on-deir-el-balah

and, from earlier, before the UNSC vote:

Gaza death toll increases to 32,333

The number of people killed in Israel’s war on Gaza has increased to 32,333, according to the Health Ministry in the enclave.

At least 74,694 people have also been wounded by Israeli attacks in Gaza since October 7.

The latest figures include 107 people killed and 176 wounded over the past 24 hours.

Israel slams Spain, Malta, Slovenia and Ireland for intention to recognise Palestine

Israel’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Lior Haiat says a joint statement by the four EU member states about their readiness to recognise the Palestinian state “constitute a reward for terrorism”.

“The recognition of a Palestinian state following the 7 October massacre sends a message to Hamas and the other Palestinian terrorist organizations that murderous terror attacks on Israelis will be reciprocated with political gestures to the Palestinians,” he said in a post on X.

“Any engagement in the recognition of a Palestinian state only distances reaching a resolution and increases regional instability.”

The leaders of the four countries agreed to take the first steps towards recognising the Palestinian state after a meeting of the European Council in Brussels on Friday.

Singapore makes Israeli embassy delete ‘insensitive’ Palestinian post

Singapore has made the Israeli embassy in the city-state take down an “insensitive” social media post about the Palestinians, the interior minister says.

The post reportedly said Israel was mentioned 43 times in the Quran but Palestine was not, according to local media.

Minister for Home Affairs K Shanmugam said he asked Singapore’s Foreign Ministry to tell the Israeli embassy to remove the post made on Sunday after learning about it, which the mission immediately did.

“That post on the Israeli embassy social media page is completely unacceptable. I was very upset when I was told about it,” Shanmugam told reporters, according to a transcript. “It is insensitive and inappropriate. It carries the risk of undermining our safety, security and harmony in Singapore.”

Israel is led by ‘radical racists’, Jordan’s FM says

Ayman Safadi has said that Israel’s government is perpetrating its crimes against international law “simply because it is not deterred”.

“There is nothing to deter Israel, but we have gone beyond that. The Israeli government is led by radical racist menaces,” Safadi said at a press briefing with UN chief Guterres in Amman.

“We cannot allow them to continue to drown the entire region into further chaos.”

Israeli jets hit Hezbollah building in southern Lebanon: Army

The Israeli army says its fighter jets have attacked a military building of Hezbollah inside Lebanon.

The strike was conducted in an area in Meiss el-Jabal, in southern Lebanon, where members of the group were staying, according to the statement.

It also said that 15 rockets have been fired from Lebanon towards a military post near Manara in northern Israel overnight.

They fell in open areas without causing any casualties, the army added.

Iranian protesters hold pro-Palestine rally in Tehran

Pro-Palestine protesters gathered in Palestine Square in downtown Tehran on Sunday night to condemn Israel’s war on Gaza.

Crowds at the state-organised rally waved Palestinian and Hezbollah flags while chanting slogans including “Muslims unite, unite” in Arabic and “Palestine, Palestine, we will support you”.

They carried placards accusing Israel of genocide and calling for the country’s eradication as well as signs praising US soldier Aaron Bushnell, who self-immolated outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC, and Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Red Crescent says medical staff forced out of al-Amal Hospital

The Palestine Red Crescent Society says the Israeli military forced the staff and patients at al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis to evacuate the building last night.

“While attempting to leave through the military checkpoint, the teams encountered difficulty moving due to extensive excavation and infrastructure destruction,” PRCS said on X.

“During the attempt to clear the rubble and obstacles on the road, the occupation forces opened fire towards two of the teams trying to remove the rubble, directly injuring them.”

The PRCS added that Israeli troops “forced the teams to return to” the hospital later. However, “they found the hospital gate closed, making it impossible for the teams to re-enter,” it added.

“The teams remained waiting on the street until now,” the NGO said.

The Israeli military announced yesterday a new offensive in the al-Amal neighbourhood.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/25/israels-war-on-gaza-live-nine-killed-in-israeli-strike-on-deir-el-balah

You know Qatar isn't the only news source anon…

>>479985
I've posted stuff from plenty of sources. Al Jazeera's live updates are incredibly extensive and largely accurate, which is why I post a lot of snippets from them. Ftr, the snippets I post from them aren't even, like, half of their snippets, they're generally just the ones I think are the most relevant. Poring through their updates yields a lot.

Some Rafah tents footage:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/JZYwubeOJniQ/

No let-up in Israeli attacks despite UNSC resolution
From Hind Khoudary, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza

We are currently inside the emergency department at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.

The hospital is packed with wounded people after Israeli forces targeted a house in az-Zawayda in central Gaza. This is the first attack after the resolution passed by the UN Security Council. We see women, we see children wounded.

Eyewitnesses tell us that children and babies were killed in the attack.

After the UN resolution passed, Palestinians thought that they won’t be bombed in the Gaza Strip. But still, Palestinians continue to be killed and wounded.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/26/israels-war-on-gaza-live-world-welcomes-un-ceasefire-resolution

Apparently the recent US budget bill which passed limits aid to the Palestinian Authority if "the Palestinians" go to the International Criminal Court to charge Israel with war crimes.

>>479983
<Zionists seething about
>Spain, Malta, Slovenia and Ireland for intention to recognise Palestine
based

>“The recognition of a Palestinian state following the 7 October massacre sends a message to Hamas and the other Palestinian terrorist organizations that murderous terror attacks on Israelis will be reciprocated with political gestures to the Palestinians,”
What a hypocrite

<“The recognition of a Israel state following the genocide sends a message to the Zionist terrorist organizations that murderous terror attacks on Palestinians will be reciprocated with political gestures to the Zionists,”

Lowkey getting into details.

How about rigging up a remote controlled motor-glider for aid transport. If you remove all the trappings for carrying a human pilot, that should free up cargo capacity of 200kg/450lbs or more.

50 of these should be able to move 10 tonnes of aid packages per trip, Assuming that these manage 20 trips a day, they should be able to shift 200 tonnes per day. For 2mil people in gaza that's 100g per day/person. So 500 of these do 1kg/2pounds per day/person in Gaza. Which should be plenty to supply basic needs.

Since this is basically just a parachute with a motorcycle engine, a propeller and some RC gear, they could be very low cost. If a few states fund such a glider-bridge it would have the resources to keep it up even if the Zionist genocide force shoots them down, causing them to run out of AA ordinance, if they try to interdict aid. Those probably don't have much of a radar signature with the wing being fabric and all, so they should also be less easy to track, making it harder to attack aid recipients at the other end of the glider-bridge.

I realize that the motor glider has become somewhat of a political protest symbol, since Jewish protestors have used em to fly protest messages over the Zionist regime dictaor's layer. So i guess that would make it fitting.

>>479972
This video has apparently been taken down. Odd!

>>479996
Or we could just put a bunch of ladders up at the Egyptian border wall with Rafah and have a bunch of guys throw aid in. Wonder why no one's done that?

Drone strikes on the folks blocking the aid also would work.

Security forces break up protest outside Israeli embassy in Amman

Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside the Israeli embassy in Jordan’s capital for a second day, demanding the Jordanian government to end its peace agreement with Israel.

Security forces broke up the demonstration with tear gas.

Israel slams Colombia’s call to break ties if UN resolution not respected

Israel has criticised Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro after he called on the international community to break diplomatic relations if the Israeli government fails to comply with the ceasefire resolution on Gaza adopted by the UN Security Council on Monday.

Petro’s “support of the Hamas terrorists” is a “disgrace to the Colombian people,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry said on X.

“Israel will continue to protect its citizens and will not give in to any pressure,” it said.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/26/israels-war-on-gaza-live-world-welcomes-un-ceasefire-resolution

>>479998
The ladder idea leaves all the aid supplies piled up at the bottom of the wall, where Palestinians trying to get at it, would be easy prey for Zionist sniper ambushes. Also the people on the other side throwing the aid packages over the wall would be in danger as well.

Lastly this requires a considerable amount of physical exertion. A strong adult could probably lug 30kg/70lbs up a ladder many dozens of times. But you'd need 70 thousand ladder-lugs every day, to get 1kg/2pounds of aid per person/day for 2mil Gazans. You need to perform a statistical analysis of how many times you can let a person climb the ladder before they are tired enough that the risk of them falling from the ladder is too great. You probably need nets or trampolines under the ladders to break the fall for the statistical outliers and a emergency medical service standing by for the many thousands of people involved in this operation. And of course you need to organize catering too.

If you want to throw stuff over the wall maybe try a trebuchet or catapult, you know the original overthewallthrower gadget

>>480000
So the UN is hamas now ?
bruh

>>479997
>This video has apparently been taken down. Odd!
<This video has been "removed" for violating YouTube's "Community Guidelines"
Yup got censored

I wonder if this guy has accounts on other sites where his videos aren't getting censored ? I want to watch it again, because if something gets censored that's a special seal of approval. It means that it must contain information that the powers that be don't want me to know, which is the most valuable kind of information.

>>480002
Confirmed members of Hamas: all Palestinians (Gaza and West Bank'' plus anywhere else), all protestors, South Africa, Lula, Irish women's basketball teams, UK trade unionists, American service members opposed to US support of genocide, Colombia, The Hague, Spain, Belgium, the United Nations, Israeli hostages' families, anti-Zionist Jews, Yemen, fish.
Suspected Hamas members:
All the people in tents at the US/Mexico border. Probably some kind of secret Hamas plot (v. good GOP intel), but the Israeli Hamas experts haven't confirmed it yet.

>>480003
Novara? Probably. I'll check. They might even reupload it. I saw it, I have no idea what, if anything, it was censored for specifically.

Palestinian man drowns trying to collect aid from sea in Gaza

Footage shows a Palestinian man has drowned after attempting to collect airdropped aid that fell into the sea off north Gaza.

The government media office in Gaza called for an end to aid airdrops into Gaza earlier today after it said 12 people drowned and six were killed in stampedes trying to reach the food packages.

Cornish man's analysis after the UNSC vote.

Houthis 'Hammer' Israeli City With Ballistic Missiles; Attack U.S., UK Ships | Watch

Yemen’s Houthis claimed responsibility for six "successful" drone and missile attacks. Yemeni rebels claimed to have targeted Israel, as well as U.S. and UK ships. Houthis, in a statement, said that they attacked two U.S. destroyers in the Red Sea. The Yemeni group also claimed to have hit the Israeli city of Eilat with ballistic missiles. Yahya Saree called these military operations by Houthis "gifts for freedom fighters of Palestine."

Owen Jones analysis on the recent UNSC resolution and US response, including citation of the precedent behind how this rolls out.

Dimitri Lascaris covering a funeral for a Hezbollah soldier.

Butcher Biden, Obomba, and Clinton are having some sort of thing at the Radio City Music Hall tomorrow in NYC. There'll be picketing.
https://www.tiktok.com/@wolpalestine/video/7350063215071464746

>>480014
Eliat is a port city at the red sea on the most southern tip of Israel, so it kinda fits the Houthis M.O. of targeting shipping. Bar some technical limitations, they probably could be using those rockets to break down the walls that isolate Gaza from aid supplies, because breaking the Zionist starvation weapon is becoming the most pressing issue.

>>480018
Where are the women?

>>480012
He says it needs UN security forces, he's probably right about that.

>>480017
That's a decent analysis, aside from the imperial chauvinism of calling the US "the only superpower that matters" Both Russia and China could arm countries like Iran, Lebanon, Yemen, etc to such an extend that Israel would get militarily overrun. So what those other super-powers do obviously matters

Yemeni bop filmed on captured ships.

>>480023
There are some mourning in a group on one side.

Ireland to intervene in South Africa genocide case against Israel

The Republic of Ireland’s Foreign Minister Micheal Martin has said that the war on Gaza now “represents the blatant violation of international humanitarian law on a mass scale”.

“The taking of hostages. The purposeful withholding of humanitarian assistance to civilians. The targeting of civilians and of civilian infrastructure. The indiscriminate use of explosive weapons in populated areas. The use of civilian objects for military purposes. The collective punishment of an entire population,” Martin said in a statement.

“The list goes on. It has to stop. The view of the international community is clear. Enough is enough.”

In January the International Court of Justice (ICJ), also known as the World Court, ordered Israel to refrain from any acts that could fall under the Genocide Convention and to ensure its troops commit no genocidal acts against Palestinians, after South Africa accused Israel of state-led genocide in Gaza.

Martin said Ireland would intervene in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel, but did not say what form the intervention would take or outline any argument or proposal the country plans to put forward.

Another US government employee quits over Israel’s war on Gaza

A US State Department staffer resigned because of continuing American government support for Israel’s war on Gaza.

Annelle Sheline, 38, quit after a year as a foreign affairs officer in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, the Washington Post reports.

Sheline told the newspaper she repeatedly raised concerns, but concluded it was pointless “as long as the US continues to send a steady stream of weapons to Israel”.

In October, Josh Paul resigned from the State Department in protest against American support for Israel’s attack.

Authorities tell people to avoid aid centres amid Israeli attacks

Gaza’s health ministry issued an appeal for residents in central and northern Gaza not to go to the al-Rashid and Kuwait Roundabout areas to collect aid parcels because of the danger from Israeli attacks.

The appeal comes after two people waiting for aid at the Kuwait Roundabout were severely wounded after being shot by Israeli snipers, according to Wafa news agency.

In a statement on Telegram, the ministry asked people not to gather around humanitarian relief convoys but to wait for aid to be distributed through “popular committees”.

It also said the health system in central and northern Gaza can no longer treat the dozens wounded every day in Israeli attacks.

Palestinians are dying because of aid airdrops: Gaza Civil Defense

At least 18 Palestinians have died trying to recover airdropped aid in Gaza, according to Palestinian officials.

Mahmoud Bassel, a spokesperson for Gaza’s Civil Defense rescue service, said six bodies were recovered after a large group of men swam out into the Mediterranean Sea on Monday to fetch aid parcels.

“Sometimes it falls into the sea, sometimes on civilians, sometimes on houses, sometimes on Israeli territory beyond the border fence,” Bassel was quoted by The Associated Press as saying.

Several people were injured and at least five killed after parachutes dropping aid over Gaza failed to open earlier this month.

Turkish organiser of Mavi Marmara shows new vessels aimed for Gaza

Turkish aid agency Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), which in 2010 sent an aid vessel to Gaza that was intercepted by Israeli authorities in a deadly raid, has showcased two new vessels that are bound for Gaza.

Turkey has criticised Israel for its war on Gaza and called for an immediate ceasefire.

IHH Chairman Bulent Yildirim inspected the ships, purchased for the Gaza aid project named ‘International Freedom Flotilla’, and said in a written statement that one of the vessels, Anadolu (Anatolia), had a capacity of 5,500 tonnes.

IHH was the organiser of the 2010 Mavi Marmara aid ship raided by Israeli forces, who killed nine activists aboard. A 10th activist wounded in the incident died in 2014 after years in a coma.

The vessel was trying to break the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip. The soldiers raided the ship leading a flotilla towards Gaza, prompting a diplomatic crisis between Israel and Turkey.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/27/israels-war-on-gaza-live-rafah-bombing-intensifies-despite-un-truce-call

>>480009
>Confirmed members of Hamas:
>fish
lol, what's the story on that one ?

>>480033
see >>478697

>>480021
I imagine those walls would be tough to hit from there, would risk hitting Palestinians.

>>480024
>He says it needs UN security forces, he's probably right about that.
Yup.
It's a toughy, though. The US really needs to stop sending weapons/funding to Israel. Still our job, America's job to make that happen. Having the US continue to actively arm war criminals while various countries have to send armies just to make said criminals stop will be a real kerfuffle if that's the way it goes down.

>>480024

>That's a decent analysis, aside from the imperial chauvinism of calling the US "the only superpower that matters" Both Russia and China could arm countries like Iran, Lebanon, Yemen, etc to such an extend that Israel would get militarily overrun. So what those other super-powers do obviously matters
Iran is kind of a power by itself, too.

Dimitri Lascaris piece from yesterday on recent Israeli attacks on northern Lebanon.

>>480039
<Aquahamas
lol
>>480040
>I imagine those walls would be tough to hit from there, would risk hitting Palestinians.
Fair point, so it depends on how accurate their rockets are.

>The US really needs to stop sending weapons/funding to Israel. Still our job, America's job to make that happen.
To make that happen, you need to defeat the Zionist lobby, that's bribing US politicians, corporate media and so on. I don't know what your "game-plan" for neutralizing the influence of such a powerful lobby is, but keeping US weapons flowing into Zionist hands is probably the last thing they'll let go.
>while various countries have to send armies just to make said criminals stop will be a real kerfuffle if that's the way it goes down.
TBH i don't know what the risk for an international peace keeping force would be, since the Zionists appear very deranged. But If a hundred countries send peace-keeper troops, attacking those would be like declaring war on the rest of the world. If they were to do that it would create the international political capital to demilitarize the Zionist regime.

>>480045
>To make that happen, you need to defeat the Zionist lobby, that's bribing US politicians, corporate media and so on. I don't know what your "game-plan" for neutralizing the influence of such a powerful lobby is, but keeping US weapons flowing into Zionist hands is probably the last thing they'll let go.

Well, this isn't entirely true. Yes, the Zionist lobby needs to be defeated, but also ports can be blocked. Factories can be shut down.

>TBH i don't know what the risk for an international peace keeping force would be, since the Zionists appear very deranged. But If a hundred countries send peace-keeper troops, attacking those would be like declaring war on the rest of the world. If they were to do that it would create the international political capital to demilitarize the Zionist regime.

They're incredibly deranged, yes.
And it's better to do both things. Stop shipping weapons/funding to Israel, and intervene to stop the genocide. Trying to wait for a 'pretext' is silly at this point. There is already more than enough 'pretext,' and the US is violating not only international law, but its own laws by continuing to arm Israel. There's no more need for "excuses" to demilitarize the Israeli state, they've killed something like 13-15,000 children in like 5 months and ignored every human rights law. If they gave me a gun and a unit and told me "go in and make sure they stop violating the genocide convention" I'd do it tomorrow, but for the sake of making this smoother and exercising all peaceful leverage possible, the US needs to stop giving them arms, and it's better that the US stop doing this before there is a direct military conflict between Israel and everybody else. There's already a direct "hot" military conflict between Israel and most of the surrounding states.

Breaking Points analysis of recent stuff.

Netanyahu now wants to reschedule the canceled visit to the US.

>>480048
Couldn't this guy be technically subject to a citizens' arrest in the US? He has US citizenship (born in Philadelphia) so he must be subject to US laws.

>>480049
If he's visiting as a head of state, he'll have diplomatic immunity.

>>480050
We could arrest him anyway.

Live in 2 hours

>>480046
>the Zionist lobby needs to be defeated, but also ports can be blocked. Factories can be shut down.
Blocking the weapons supply can be effective if it's possible to single out the stuff that's intended for Israel. The arms industry is massively lagging behind on it's delivery schedule for many of it's contracts, because of all the stuff that got diverted to Ukraine. If weapons for Israel come with political trouble, they have an incentive to just supply those other customers who've been waiting, instead. At the end of the day they're capitalists and they'll take easy profits over difficult profits.

It stands to reason that the Zionist lobby has made many unintended enemies because the agenda they are pushing is generally destructive and likely caused a lot of opportunity-costs for many. So you need to get the self-interested anti-zionism on board.

>Trying to wait for a 'pretext' is silly at this point.
The point of sending a peacekeeper force is because that can be done faster than many other options.
>the US needs to stop giving them arms, and it's better that the US stop doing this before there is a direct military conflict between Israel and everybody else. There's already a direct "hot" military conflict between Israel and most of the surrounding states.
Eventually that'll escalate, because the Zionists want to make a big bloodbath in Rafa and then move on to operation "greater Israel". The Gaza battle has demonstrated that the Zionists can bomb buildings and kill a lot of civilians, but they can't fight a ground war. So the other countries that do not want to get greaterisraeled have a strong incentive to shift the battlefield to Zionist controlled land to make them fight on the ground. If they succeed the Zionist will be hosed.

>>480051
For what purpose ? Just to heckle him ?
If he shows him self in public he'll probably get egged or pied anyway.

>>480055
>Blocking the weapons supply can be effective if it's possible to single out the stuff that's intended for Israel.

If possible, but that's not actually that important. It's a genocide. Blocking all of it from groups supplying arms to Israel is justified even if only some of the shipments blocked were destined for Israel.

>At the end of the day they're capitalists and they'll take easy profits over difficult profits.

Well, this is also the US gov't we're talking about, and they've been quite determined to keep this up regardless of the cost.

>The point of sending a peacekeeper force is because that can be done faster than many other options.

Only if they manage to send a peacekeeper force faster than we do this. If they do, they do, but it's a bad mark on us if they beat us to that punch. What makes assembling and deploying a military force to another country a faster process than assembling and deploying a people's force within your own?

>Eventually that'll escalate, because the Zionists want to make a big bloodbath in Rafa and then move on to operation "greater Israel". The Gaza battle has demonstrated that the Zionists can bomb buildings and kill a lot of civilians, but they can't fight a ground war. So the other countries that do not want to get greaterisraeled have a strong incentive to shift the battlefield to Zionist controlled land to make them fight on the ground. If they succeed the Zionist will be hosed.

If.

>>480057
… Is this a joke?
He's a war criminal of the worst kind. We'd arrest him for this reason, and try him accordingly.

>>480059
>Blocking all of it from groups supplying arms to Israel is justified even if only some of the shipments blocked were destined for Israel.
OK but think about it in practicle terms the US produces a lot of weapons and you want those weapons to go to arms-buyers that don't intent on using em.

>Only if they manage to send a peacekeeper force faster than we do this.
I have no objections to a race of who can foil the Zionists genocide plot the fastest.

>If.
The Zionists no longuer have military supremacy over the Arabs. A Zionist victory in a military contest would be extremely unlikely. The reason to avoid breaking Zionism with military power is because that will cost a lot of human lives.

>>480059
>Is this a joke?
No, his diplomatic immunity will force the US state to interfere with a citizen arrest. So doing this will be little more than heckling him. Consider that the Zionist regime might send assassins after the people who arrested him. It's not worth the hassle.
>We'd arrest him for this reason, and try him accordingly.
Netanyahu has attacked the western population by pushing for attacks on civil liberties. That is a serious crime but compared to what he has done to the people in the middle east, i think the injustice they have suffered has priority, they should be the ones that get to prosecute him.

>>480060
>OK but think about it in practicle terms the US produces a lot of weapons and you want those weapons to go to arms-buyers that don't intent on using em.
I don't want them going to anybody. War is a racket, I genuinely don't care if some of the weapons were just going to some country who was getting conned into buying them or simply getting them as "gives" they won't use. America has people sleeping under bridges, the "defense" stimuluses are not trickling down.

>The Zionists no longuer have military supremacy over the Arabs. A Zionist victory in a military contest would be extremely unlikely. The reason to avoid breaking Zionism with military power is because that will cost a lot of human lives.

Right.

>>480061
>No, his diplomatic immunity will force the US state to interfere with a citizen arrest. So doing this will be little more than heckling him. Consider that the Zionist regime might send assassins after the people who arrested him. It's not worth the hassle.

Well, no. You can just arrest him without the state. He's made out of flesh and blood like anybody else. They can send assassins if they want, none of that shit scares me in the least. So many of the resources in America have gone towards war and empire and the rich, and this is the sort of thing they do with it while people here go homeless, unemployed, sick. I want you to understand that there are millions in this country who are about as scared of anything that a human can do to another human as I am; we don't care, and that's valuable. With time and this understanding of the reality of the situation, together we can achieve well considered goals.

>Netanyahu has attacked the western population by pushing for attacks on civil liberties. That is a serious crime but compared to what he has done to the people in the middle east, i think the injustice they have suffered has priority, they should be the ones that get to prosecute him.

Dude, genocide is an international crime. Why would you think we'd be trying him just for attacks on America's first amendment rights? Genocide is illegal under American law, too… as well as international law, which, clearly, desperately needs enforcement. That's not anybody else's job; a precedent for getting away with genocide endangers everyone, all common people, even you and me.

Russian warships sail into the Red Sea

Several Russian warships have sailed into the Red Sea after Moscow reportedly struck a deal earlier this month for safe passage with Yemen’s Houthi rebels, which have been attacking ships in the strategic waterway amid Israel’s war on Gaza.

The Russian warships include the missile cruiser Varyag and frigate Marshal Shaposhnikov, according to the Russian Navy’s Pacific Fleet.

On March 21, Bloomberg reported that Moscow and Beijing had reached an informal agreement with the Houthis not to attack their ships in the Red Sea.

Several days later, the Houthis still shot a missile at a Chinese-owned tanker, possibly due to inaccurate information about its source, according to prominent shipping analyst Lars Jensen.

New scrutiny over Google, Amazon’s billion-dollar contract with Israel gov’t

Amid the war in Gaza, scrutiny is intensifying over Amazon and Google’s $1.2bn contract with the Israeli government to provide it with cloud computing services.

The contract, called Project Nimbus, provides Israel’s military with cutting-edge AI and machine learning features, which critics fear are being used to expand illegal surveillance on Palestinians in the occupied territory.

Gaza death toll passes 32,500

The number of people killed in Israel’s war on Gaza since October 7 has risen to 32,552, according to the Health Ministry in the besieged territory.

Israeli attacks on Gaza have also wounded at least 74,980 people.

Over the last 24 hours, 62 people have been killed and 91 were wounded.

Footage of Palestinians shot causes panic in southern Gaza
Hani Mahmoud

The footage of two unarmed men being shot and then bulldozed by Israeli forces in northern Gaza while trying to return home is causing a lot of panic and concern for Palestinians who are already exhausted.

Living conditions here in the south are very difficult and the place is overcrowded. People can’t wait to get back to their homes in the north.

Right now, any hopes that Palestinians had after the UN Security Council’s ceasefire resolution earlier this week are being drowned out by these horrifying scenes.

Israel accused of ‘executing’ 13 children near al-Shifa in one week

The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has accused Israeli forces of directly shooting at and executing 13 children in and near al-Shifa Hospital in just one week.

The monitoring group, citing its teams on the ground, said some of the fatal shootings occurred as victims’ families were inside their homes amid Israel’s continuing raid on al-Shifa, and others while the victims were attempting to escape via routes designated as safe.

In one testimony, Islam Ali Salouha told Euro-Med that Israeli forces on Sunday shot at and killed his sons – nine-year-old Ali and six-year-old Saeed Muhammad Sheikha – on a corpse-strewn street near al-Shifa that the Israeli army had designated for travel. The Israeli forces targeted the two children in particular, he said.

Salouha said he, his sons and neighbours only left the building because Israeli forces had told them to evacuate or face having their building bombed.

German bank freezes account of anti-Zionist Jewish group

The Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East, a German campaign group, says the Berliner Sparkasse bank has frozen its accounts without explanation and asked it to submit a list of its members with their full names and addresses.

“Why should this information be important to the Berliner Sparkasse? It sounds more like a question that might be asked by an intelligence service or the police, who have been politically persecuting us as a Jewish organisation for some time,” the group said in a statement.

The Jewish Voice – which describes Israel’s war on Gaza as genocide – said its previous account with the Bank for Social Economy was closed in 2019 because of its support for the BDS Movement.

“We are taking legal action against the arbitrary, politically motivated freezing of our account, which is unacceptable in a democracy,” the group added.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/28/israels-war-on-gaza-live-unarmed-palestinians-killed-buried-by-bulldozer

Death toll climbs in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon.

At least nine people were killed on Wednesday night in two separate Israeli strikes in the south of Lebanon, the country’s state-run National News Agency says.

Among those killed were four paramedics who work for a local civil defence organisation affiliated with Hezbollah.

Hezbollah has also this evening announced the deaths of three of its fighters via its Telegram channel, without saying, as per usual, how or where the men died.

Turkish organiser of Mavi Marmara shows new vessels aimed for Gaza

Turkish aid agency Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), which in 2010 sent an aid vessel to Gaza that was intercepted by Israeli authorities in a deadly raid, has showcased two new vessels that are bound for Gaza.

Turkey has criticised Israel for its war on Gaza and called for an immediate ceasefire.

IHH Chairman Bulent Yildirim inspected the ships, purchased for the Gaza aid project named ‘International Freedom Flotilla’, and said in a written statement that one of the vessels, Anadolu (Anatolia), had a capacity of 5,500 tonnes.

IHH was the organiser of the 2010 Mavi Marmara aid ship raided by Israeli forces, who killed nine activists aboard. A 10th activist wounded in the incident died in 2014 after years in a coma.

The vessel was trying to break the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip. The soldiers raided the ship leading a flotilla towards Gaza, prompting a diplomatic crisis between Israel and Turkey.

Authorities tell people to avoid aid centres amid Israeli attacks

Gaza’s health ministry issued an appeal for residents in central and northern Gaza not to go to the al-Rashid and Kuwait Roundabout areas to collect aid parcels because of the danger from Israeli attacks.

The appeal comes after two people waiting for aid at the Kuwait Roundabout were severely wounded after being shot by Israeli snipers, according to Wafa news agency.

In a statement on Telegram, the ministry asked people not to gather around humanitarian relief convoys but to wait for aid to be distributed through “popular committees”.

It also said the health system in central and northern Gaza can no longer treat the dozens wounded every day in Israeli attacks.

Pro-Palestine protests in Berlin

People in the German capital have participated in a demonstration calling for an end to the war in Gaza.

Dozens of protestors, holding Palestinian flags, shouted slogans of “Free Palestine” while others held banners saying “Stop the genocide in Gaza.”

Several individuals addressed the crowd giving speeches related to the ongoing fighting which is now in its sixth month.

Watchdog demands answers from Israel on disappeared Palestinian journalist

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has demanded that the Israeli army shed light on the whereabouts of Gaza journalist Bayan Abusultan.

RSF says Abusultan was last seen on March 19, “among those sequestered in the raid on al-Shifa hospital in Gaza.”

Abusultan has been offline since reporting witnessing her own brother being shot by Israeli forces.

UN expert says she faces threats after Israel-Gaza genocide report

A United Nations expert who published a report saying there were reasonable grounds to believe Israel has committed genocide in its war on Gaza says she has received threats throughout her mandate.

Francesca Albanese, the special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, presented a report titled “Anatomy of a Genocide” to the UN Human Rights Council, which Israel said it “utterly rejects”.

It’s been a difficult time,” she said. “I’ve always been attacked since the very beginning of my mandate.”

Palestinians are being tortured in Israeli prisons: Commission

The PA Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs has warned that the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) is persisting in its “torture policy” against both “male and female detainees, which has turned their lives into a living hell”.

In a statement, the organisation said that Palestinian detainees are isolated from the outside world, with no access to radio or other media services, while the IPS is imposing hefty fines on them.

“I heard the sound of detainees who are getting tortured and beaten, as they are being cursed on by soldiers,” said a testimony by one of the prisoners at Nafha prison who was visited by a lawyer.

The commission said that in Nafha prison, 100km (62 miles) from Beersheba, detainees do not have clothes or personal belongings, and “they have long hair and beards because the IPS confiscated razors on October 7.”

“Each detainee has one mattress and cover, and they suffer from poor quality and quantity of food. There is a power cut for long hours, and water usage is allowed for only two hours a day,” the organisation added.

Pope Francis meets grieving Palestinian and Israeli fathers

The 87-year-old pontiff has made a new appeal for peace in the Middle East, as he publicly greeted one Palestinian and one Israeli man who have both lost daughters in the conflict.

During his weekly general audience, Francis described them as two friends “who love one another and who have experienced the same crucifixion”.

Vatican media named them as Bassam Aramin and Rami Elhanan of the Parents Circle – Families Forum, an Israeli-Palestinian group that brings together relatives of victims of the conflict.

Aramin’s daughter Abir, 10, was killed by an Israeli border police officer in 2007, while Elhanan’s daughter Smadar was killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber in 1997, just before she turned 14.

In an open letter to Catholics in the Middle East, the pope, who is in daily phone contact with a Catholic parish in Gaza, also expressed sympathy for “your sufferings and your struggles, particularly in the course of these recent months”.

US imposes sanctions on ‘Hamas-aligned’ fundraising network

The Department of Treasury has said it designated two individuals and three entities as key financial facilitators involved in fundraising for Hamas.

In a statement, the department identified the individuals and entities as: Gaza Now and its founder Mustafa Ayash, as well Al-Qureshi Executives and Aakhirah Limited, and their director Aozma Sultana.

“This action is being taken as part of a collaborative effort with the United Kingdom’s Office of Foreign Sanctions Implementation, which is implementing sanctions on these same targets,” the department said.

There has been no immediate comment from those affected.

The US and UK have already conducted three coordinated sanctions actions related to Hamas fundraising efforts since October 7.

Anger, worry in Lebanese border town after Israeli strike
Zeina Khodr
Reporting from al-Habbariyeh, southern Lebanon

I’m standing in front of the emergency health centre in al-Habbariyeh village that was struck earlier today by Israel. We are not very far from the border and there is an Israeli drone overhead.

People here tell us that the men who were inside the building were paramedics, volunteers and university students, all in their early 20s.

There is a lot of anger in this village. This is the first time it has been hit during the war. There is total destruction. People here say this was not a military target, as the Israeli military claims, but a civilian target.

These people will tell you that Israel’s strategy from day one has been to depopulate villages close to the border. They are trying to create some sort of a buffer zone, to make it difficult for civilians to live here. Nearly 100,000 people have already left. In this particular village, people are still here, but there is growing concern that it will start coming under fire.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/27/israels-war-on-gaza-live-rafah-bombing-intensifies-despite-un-truce-call

Most Americans disapprove of Israel’s actions in Gaza: Poll
Poll shows ‘clear disconnect’ between President Joe Biden’s policies and US public, especially Democrats, analyst says.

A majority of Americans disapprove of Israel’s actions in Gaza, a new poll has shown, as the Israeli military continues to pound the besieged Palestinian enclave and imposes a siege that has created a hunger crisis.

The Gallup poll released on Wednesday found that 55 percent of respondents disapproved of the Israeli military’s actions in the Gaza Strip, up from 45 percent who said they disapproved in November, a month after Israel began its operation.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/27/most-americans-disapprove-of-israels-actions-in-gaza-poll

At least 38 killed in attacks on Syrian city of Aleppo: Report

Attacks carried out by the Israeli military and militant groups on the Syrian city of Aleppo have killed at least 38 civilians and military personnel, a figure that includes five members of Lebanese group Hezbollah, the Reuters news agency has confirmed, citing two security sources.

Earlier we reported that the Israeli strikes happened “in conjunction” with a drone attack on Aleppo targeting civilians conducted by “terrorist organisations” from the city of Idlib.

The Syrian government has not clarified how many of the casualties were caused by the Israeli air strikes or the attacks by militant groups.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Israeli strikes hit a weapons depot near Aleppo International Airport, resulting in a series of large explosions.

Israel has for years carried out strikes in Syria, where Iranian-aligned groups, including Hezbollah, hold sway in eastern, southern and northwestern areas of the country, as well as suburbs around the capital.

Hamas claims Israeli forces caught in own house detonation operation: Monitors

Hamas fighters claim to have detonated explosives that Israeli forces rigged to destroy a building in northern Khan Younis, killing and wounding a number of soldiers in the process, war monitors report.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP), two US-based think tanks, said the reported attack on Thursday bore a resemblance to an attack in January that killed 21 Israeli soldiers who had prepared explosives to destroy a building in central Gaza, which were then detonated by Hamas.

Hamas did not specify how many casualties resulted from Thursday’s reported house explosion in Khan Younis’s al-Qarara area and Israel has not acknowledged the attack occurred, the ISW and CTP said in their latest report.

‘Stop starving children’: Belgian minister tells Israel

Caroline Gennez, Belgium’s minister of development cooperation and urban policy, said international pressure must be maintained on Israel to ensure “sufficient” humanitarian aid enters Gaza.

Re-posting a statement on social media from the International Court of Justice ordering Israel to avert the “spread of famine and starvation” in Gaza by ensuring the “unhindered delivery” of aid and basic services, Gennez said, “Israel must stop starving civilians and children.”

The Israeli use of “hunger as weapon of war” is a “flagrant violation of international law”, Gennez said.

Fifth day of large protests against Israel in Jordan’s capital Amman

Thousands of people demonstrated near the Israeli embassy in the Jordanian capital on Thursday night, demanding that Jordan end its peace treaty with Israel and close Israel’s diplomatic mission in the country.

The protests against Israel over its war on Gaza are some of the largest outpourings of public anger that Jordan has seen.

Demanding that Jordan close the embassy and end a peace treaty that normalised ties with Israel in 1994, the protesters chanted: “No Zionist embassy on Jordanian land” and “They said Hamas is terrorist. All of Jordan is Hamas.”

Gaza protesters rally outside Biden fundraiser attended by Clinton, Obama

Hundreds of protesters calling for a ceasefire in Gaza held a demonstration on Thursday evening outside Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan, New York City, as the iconic music venue hosted a fundraising event for US President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign.

Outside the fundraiser – attended by former US presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton – protesters held signs denouncing Biden and the Democratic Party as “war criminals” and calling for all aid to Israel to be cut.

More than 5,000 people paid between $225 and $500,000 to attend the fundraising event, which took in a record $25m for Biden’s campaign.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/29/israels-war-on-gaza-live-netanyahu-says-army-preparing-to-enter-rafah

🇵🇸🚨BREAKING: Massive disruption for Palestine during Biden’s fundraiser in NYC with Obama and Clinton!

Politicians can’t go ANYWHERE without being reminded of the trail of blood that follows them for their complicity in the genocide of Palestinians #ShutItDown4Palestine

https://twitter.com/pslnational/status/1773527129713467431

Netanyahu tells captive families Israel army ‘preparing to enter Rafah’

Israel’s prime minister told the relatives of soldiers held in Gaza that only military pressure will secure their release and the military is “preparing to enter Rafah”.

“We conquered the north of the Gaza Strip and Khan Younis,” he is quoted as saying in a statement, adding a ground invasion of southern Rafah city is coming next.

Benjamin Netanyahu also sought to emphasise that he’s not abandoning negotiations to release the captives, and said all of Israel’s assets must be “used wisely” in the talks.

Israel and Hamas failed to arrive at a compromise during the latest round of multilateral talks in Qatar, with Hamas saying the Israeli military must end its siege of the enclave and allow displaced Palestinians to return home.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/28/israels-war-on-gaza-live-unarmed-palestinians-killed-buried-by-bulldozer

SOUTH AFRICA WELCOMES ADDITIONAL PROVISIONAL MEASURES ORDERED BY THE ICJ

The International Court of Justice (‘the Court’) has granted South Africa’s Urgent Request of 6 March 2024 for further provisional measures to prevent Israel from causing irreparable harm to the rights invoked by South Africa under the 1948 Genocide Convention in respect of the ongoing siege of Gaza.

In doing so, the Court agreed with South Africa’s assertion that the situation in Gaza had deteriorated significantly since the Court’s Order of 26 January 2024 as a result of Israel’s failure to comply with that Order. Therefore, it was necessary for the Court to indicate further provisional measures.

As the Court put it, “Palestinians in Gaza are no longer facing only a risk of famine, as noted in the Order of 26 January 2024, but that famine is setting in, with at least 31 people, including 27 children, having already died of malnutrition and dehydration”.

The Court unanimously ordered Israel to:

- Take all necessary and effective measures to ensure, without delay, in full co-operation with the United Nations, the unhindered provision at scale by all concerned of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance, including food, water, electricity, fuel, shelter, clothing, hygiene and sanitation requirements, as well as medical supplies and medical care to Palestinians throughout Gaza, including by increasing the capacity and number of land crossing points and maintaining them open for as long as necessary;

By fifteen votes to one (Judge ad hoc Barak of Israel dissenting), the Court ordered Israel to:

- Ensure with immediate effect that its military does not commit acts which constitute a violation of any of the rights of the Palestinians in Gaza as a protected group under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, including by preventing, through any action, the delivery of urgently needed humanitarian assistance

- Submit a report to the Court on all measures taken to give effect to this Order, within one month as from the date of this Order.

These provisional measures supplement those of 26 January, which ordered Israel inter alia to refrain from committing genocidal acts against Palestinians in Gaza and to prevent and punish direct and public incitement to commit genocide in relation to members of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip.

The impact of the International Court of Justice's order is significant. The changing circumstances in Gaza warrant the implementation of new strategies.

The fact that Palestinian deaths are not solely caused by bombardment and ground attacks, but also by disease and starvation, indicates a need to protect the group's right to exist.

The most effective way to uphold this right is through prevention. The Court's actions include specific responsibilities to prevent genocide.

As a number of Judges pointed out, these responsibilities can only be fulfilled by halting military operations in Gaza and adhering to the court's directives. If there is non-compliance, the global community must ensure adherence when it comes to the sanctity of humanity.

ISSUED BY THE PRESIDENCY OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA

https://twitter.com/PresidencyZA/status/1773398769117073620

>>480065
>I don't want them going to anybody. War is a racket, I genuinely don't care if some of the weapons were just going to some country who was getting conned into buying them or simply getting them as "gives" they won't use.
The US military industrial complex is very powerful, it's been entrenching it self since the end of ww2. You have to pursue an incremental political strategy. They are currently supplying a genocide and that will create the opportunity to cockblock thee Zionist part of the war racket. By narrowing the goals to this aspect you might actually save a bunch of Palestinians from getting bombed to death.
>America has people sleeping under bridges, the "defense" stimuluses are not trickling down.
You are correct the capitalist system tends towards diverting surplus from welfare to warfare. However it will take 20 years to break the political power of the US MIC. They are not only siphoning wealth from America, but large parts of the rest of the world as well. That gives them a great deal of political independence from democratic oversight. You will not be able to stop them until the empire part of the US has been weakened further. In the mean time you should try to find a way to covert some of that warfare-spending back into welfare-spending. Game the system, find a way to hire the people sleeping under bridges as some kind of military contractor.

>Well, no. You can just arrest him without the state. He's made out of flesh and blood like anybody else. They can send assassins if they want, none of that shit scares me in the least. So many of the resources in America have gone towards war and empire and the rich, and this is the sort of thing they do with it while people here go homeless, unemployed, sick. I want you to understand that there are millions in this country who are about as scared of anything that a human can do to another human as I am; we don't care, and that's valuable. With time and this understanding of the reality of the situation, together we can achieve well considered goals.
I get it, every decent human being wants to see that fucker get wrecked for the hurricane of death he unleashed. But lets not loose sight of the greater political goals. You want Netanyahu to end up in a international war-crime tribunal. You want lots of political fallout to permanently sweap away the political viability of Zionism. It's not worth sacrificing people to beat Netanyahu with the people's stick, he's a replaceable Zionist figurehead. There's 10 more like him waiting in line to take over. The international system is turning against the Zionist project, you don't want to create an incident that might change the momentum of that development.

>Dude, genocide is an international crime. Why would you think we'd be trying him just for attacks on America's first amendment rights? Genocide is illegal under American law, too… as well as international law, which, clearly, desperately needs enforcement. That's not anybody else's job;
While this is true, you have to understand that people in the middle east probably want to be the ones that prosecute Zionist war-criminals. They'll probably feel cheated if you take that away from them.
>a precedent for getting away with genocide endangers everyone, all common people, even you and me.
During and after WW2 the Nazis were ruthlessly crushed and made an example off with an intensity never seen before. Jewish Nazi hunters and Soviet anti-fascist clean-up operations tracked down Nazis all over the world for decades. You'd think that a precedent was created that genocides would no longuer be tolerated. But 20 years later the German government already had little problems supporting the Indonesian genocide, perpetrated by the regime the US had installed.
I'm sorry but if you are serious about frustrating the potential for genocide you need to arm, train and organize the general population. To make it really dangerous to victimize people in that way. Fascist storm troopers won't try to round up the "untermenshen" if they can return fire. This is no small feat, arming the general population in a safe way without lots people of getting shot is difficult. You need to promote a culture of mental stability and strong impulse controle along side with lots of societal structures that constrain the weapons to a role of deterrence.

>>480068
>The US military industrial complex is very powerful, it's been entrenching it self since the end of ww2. You have to pursue an incremental political strategy. They are currently supplying a genocide and that will create the opportunity to cockblock thee Zionist part of the war racket. By narrowing the goals to this aspect you might actually save a bunch of Palestinians from getting bombed to death.
That depends entirely on what sort of intel we have access to, and if we don't have totally precise intel then blocking any arms shipments by companies/parties known to be supplying the genocide would suffice.

Incrementalism is only necessary if it's necessary, and I suspect that it actually may not be. The numbers turning up against this continue to grow, and they're already quite huge. The US MIC can be overtaken by a group of substantial number, as it still relies not only on the ports and roadways but on capital flow and labor as well. Even a big enough labor strike (not just among arms workers, but among the general population) could deal critical blows to the beast.

>However it will take 20 years to break the political power of the US MIC.

No it won't.

>That gives them a great deal of political independence from democratic oversight.

They still bleed, though.

>You will not be able to stop them until the empire part of the US has been weakened further.

It's weaker than it may appear.

>In the mean time you should try to find a way to covert some of that warfare-spending back into welfare-spending. Game the system, find a way to hire the people sleeping under bridges as some kind of military contractor.

I'd be sleeping under bridges if I tried to do that.

>I get it, every decent human being wants to see that fucker get wrecked for the hurricane of death he unleashed. But lets not loose sight of the greater political goals. You want Netanyahu to end up in a international war-crime tribunal. You want lots of political fallout to permanently sweap away the political viability of Zionism. It's not worth sacrificing people to beat Netanyahu with the people's stick, he's a replaceable Zionist figurehead. There's 10 more like him waiting in line to take over. The international system is turning against the Zionist project, you don't want to create an incident that might change the momentum of that development.

It wouldn't change the momentum, but otherwise some of this is actually accurate. That said, this isn't work which can be outsourced reliably. Yes, he's a replaceable figurehead, but I don't endorse allowing anyone to hide behind such a status - if the intent was to do one single move and win everything, there would be no move worth doing, you could justify any inaction, no matter how irresponsible, by simply saying "well, the problem is very big." We have the knowledge that the powerful have shirked their responsibilities to punish war crimes before, so the responsibility falls on the populace to enforce such good laws. There is no way to spin "they captured the figurehead who murdered 13,000 children in 5 months" so that it looks bad - the propaganda has been falling apart, and people are seeing through it, and it's not for lack of trying on the part of the media & political establishment. It's not that everyone in the opposition has been perfect good boys, it's that the scope of the crime is so great, its nature so evil, its horror so evident, that ordinary people can no longer ignore it. The lies are more-and-more ignored, however.

Waiting for the US to decline further to take action runs the severe risk of simply going down with the ship. It is better to take the wheel and to steer it away from final calamity while there is still a small amount of time to potentially do so.

>While this is true, you have to understand that people in the middle east probably want to be the ones that prosecute Zionist war-criminals. They'll probably feel cheated if you take that away from them.

This is a bad argument, sorry. They won't mind in the least. If they do, we'll apologize. "Sorry the American public started prosecuting the guys who were murdering you."

>I'm sorry but if you are serious about frustrating the potential for genocide you need to arm, train and organize the general population.

Who said anything to the contrary?
You act sometimes like all this stuff is "either/or," but it really isn't.

>To make it really dangerous to victimize people in that way. Fascist storm troopers won't try to round up the "untermenshen" if they can return fire.

That's not entirely true.

>This is no small feat, arming the general population in a safe way without lots people of getting shot is difficult. You need to promote a culture of mental stability and strong impulse controle along side with lots of societal structures that constrain the weapons to a role of deterrence.

See, you had a fine thought there, but you've turned it into more of a fantasy and made fulfillment of that a prerequisite for success. The truth is that merely arming a substantial portion of the population would be enough to overtake the powers-that-be; there are way more of us. The actual task within the US, more than anything, is organizing a large enough group of people and stockpiling and pooling resources besides guns - we're actually very gunny as a people already, what we need is land, food, brains, things like that. We should prepare for war in great numbers and pursue peace, and there's no time to hesitate on this.

More Cornish analysis.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1oYoVLmG49g
In a video messaged published on Thursday, Sadiq Al-Ghariani, the general Mufti of Libya, urged security forces and police in Egypt and Jordan not to stop people from breaking into borders with Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Al-Ghariani argued that in doing so, the security forces in these countries are “protecting the Zionists” and “collaborating with them” in the killing of Palestinian Muslims.

The message came at a time when tensions in Arab countries are running high over the war on Gaza, especially in Jordan and Egypt, where protestors were met with a severe crackdown by security forces.

Palestine Action permanently shut Elbit down in Tamworth

Relentless direct action has secured another victory in the fight against Israel’s arms trade, as Elbit Systems are forced to sell their ‘Elite KL’ factory in Tamworth.

The company had previously manufactured cooling and power management systems for military vehicles, but was sold on after stating that it faced falling profits and increased security costs resulting from Palestine Action’s efforts.

After the sale was completed last month, Elite KL’s new owners, listed as Griffin Newco Ltd, confirmed in an email to Palestine Action that they will have nothing to do with the previous owners, Elbit, and have discontinued any arms manufacturing:

“Following the recent acquisition of Elite KL Limited by a UK investment syndicate, the newly appointed board has unanimously agreed to withdraw from all future defence contracts and terminate its association with its former parent company”.

This victory is a direct result of sustained direct action which has sought, throughout Palestine Action’s existence, to make it impossible for Elbit to afford to operate in Britain. Before they sold the enterprise to a private equity syndicate, Elbit had reported that Elite KL operating profits had been slashed by over three-quarters, with Palestine Action responsible: Elbit directly cited the increased expenditure on security they’d been forced to make, and higher supply chain costs they faced.

And these actions did, indeed, cost them. The first action at the site, in November 2020, saw Elite KL’s premises smashed into, the building covered in blood-red paint. Between March and July 2021, the site was put out of action three times by roof-top occupations – drenched red in March 2021, with the factory’s camera systems dismantled, before again being occupied in in May. Another roof-top occupation in July, despite increased security, saw the site forced closed – once again painted blood-red, and with its windows and fixings smashed through.

In February 2022, activists decommissioned the site for weeks – closed off after an occupation that saw over £250,000 of damages caused, the roof tiles removed one-by-one. After this, Elbit erected a security perimeter around the site – but to no avail. One month later, six were arrested after Palestine Action returned to Tamworth – again taking the roof and smashing through, preventing the production of parts for Israel’s military machine.

Elite KL is a ‘specialist thermal management business’. Since the sale, the company focuses on cooling systems for buses and trains, but it had, under Elbit, manufactured these systems for military vehicles. Until December of last year, Elite KL’s website was advertising its military and defence products, and it was known to provide parts for Israel’s deadly Merkava tanks, with export license records demonstrating its provision of ‘ML6a’ components for military ground vehicles to Israel. The company was also known to manufacture crew cooling systems, for the military vests of tank operators.

Elbit Systems itself provides 85% of the drones and land-based military equipment for the Israeli military, along with a wide range of the munitions and armaments currently being used against Gaza’s beseiged population. Its CEO, Bazhalel Machlis, has claimed that the Israeli military has offered the company its thanks for their “crucial” services during the ongoing genocide in Gaza

A Palestine Action spokesperson has stated:

“Each activist who occupied and dismantled Tamworth’s Israeli weapons factory did so in order to bring an end to Israel’s weapons trade, and to end the profiteering from Palestinian repression. Every defeat Elbit faces is a victory for the Palestinian people.

Kicking Elbit out of Tamworth shows once again that direct action is a necessary tactic. It is one which must be utilised and amplified in the face of the Gaza genocide.”

https://www.palestineaction.org/tamworth-shutdown/

Hezbollah claims attacks on Israeli military positions, soldiers

The armed group says it launched multiple attack on Israeli positions over the past few hours, with the latest attacks using rockets and missiles to target areas in Kfarchouba and Metulla in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah also said it used Falaq missiles to hit Israeli soldiers at the Jal al-Alam site, and fired artillery at an infantry force “causing confirmed casualties”.

The group had also claimed an artillery attack on Israeli soldiers in Hunin. It has so far claimed eight attacks today.

US signs off on more bombs and warplanes for Israel: Report

The US in recent days authorised the transfer of billions of dollars worth of bombs and fighter jets to Israel even as it publicly expresses concerns about an anticipated military offensive in Rafah.

The Washington Post, citing unnamed officials, reports the new arms packages include more than 1,800 MK84 2,000-pound (900kg) bombs and 500 MK82 500-pound (225kg) bombs.

The United States has rushed air defences and munitions to Israel, but some groups have criticized the Biden administration’s steadfast support of Israel, which they say provides it with a sense of impunity.

Washington gives $3.8bn in annual military assistance to Israel.

‘Millions’ more Yemenis express solidarity with Palestinians in march

Yemenis in Houthi-controlled areas of the West Asian country took to the streets for another week to express solidarity with Palestinians and oppose Israel’s war on Gaza.

Yemeni media said “millions” more marched this week. The video below is from Sabeen Square in the capital Sanaa, the main site of protests since the start of the war.

https://twitter.com/AJA_Palestine/status/1773763015877312773

Israel pitches multi-national Arab military force in Gaza: Report

Israeli defence and war cabinet minister Yoav Gallant pitched the idea of establishing a multi-national military force with troops from Arab countries to improve the security situation and escort humanitarian aid convoys in Gaza, reports US news outlet Axios.

It cited unnamed senior Israeli officials as saying such a force could help establish an alternative to Hamas in the enclave, and be responsible for securing a temporary pier the US wants to build and make sure aid won’t be looted or get to Hamas.

The report said Israeli military officials have been discussing the issue with three Arab countries, including Egypt in recent weeks, but those nations may not be eager to send forces now and will consider the move after the war.

The Israeli officials said Gallant and other senior Israeli officials are expected to hold more talks with the US and the Arab countries on this.

UN rapporteur welcomes Ireland joining South Africa in ICJ case

The UN special rapporteur on occupied Palestinian territories praised Ireland’s decision to join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

“Ireland has historically been a strong principled voice on the question of Palestine [while other EU countries have lost their compass],” Francesca Albanese wrote in a post on X.

“May it continue to lead in the pursuit of justice.”

Ireland made its strongest move yet to display its concerns about Israel’s war on Gaza in joining the ICJ case, saying the situation “could not be more stark”.

Reaction to killing of unarmed Palestinians contradicts rights claims: Iran

The Iranian foreign ministry says what has been unfolding in Gaza over the past six months is the ultimate test for governments and international organisations about their true commitment to international human rights.

Nasser Kanaani, spokesperson for the foreign ministry, said in a post on X the Israeli killing of two unarmed Palestinians along the Gaza coastline and then burying them with bulldozers, which was exposed by Al Jazeera, is only the latest incident.

Reactions to the killings by countries and officials who claim to be staunch supporters of human rights “clearly show how honest they are in their slogans and claims on human rights”, Kanaani said.

Hamas says Netanyahu policies killing captives in Gaza

As Israel and Hamas gear up for another round of mediated negotiations in Qatar, the Palestinian group is trying to up the pressure on the Israeli government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over captives it holds in Gaza.

Hamas released posters to emphasize that Israeli captives face the same dire conditions as Palestinians in the besieged enclave.

“My suffering increases every day because of Netanyahu’s policy, and I am still waiting for my release,” said one of the posters that shows a captive as a missile is seen coming down.

“I was watching your demonstrations demanding my release and I had hope,” another said in reference to weekly gatherings in Tel Aviv and elsewhere demanding the captives’ freedom. “Netanyahu and the [military] killed them.”

Heavy fighting between Palestinian armed groups, Israeli army ongoing

Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, says it has targeted an Israeli Merkava 4 tank west of the Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood in Gaza City.

In southern Gaza, the al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said it has engaged in fierce fighting with Israeli forces in the al-Qarara axis, north of Khan Younis.

Russia says Israeli attacks on Syria ‘fraught with dangerous consequences’

Russia’s foreign ministry denounced Israel for its deadly air raids on Syria, calling it a breach of the country’s sovereignty.

Such attacks are “fraught with extremely dangerous consequences”, said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova.

The attack on Syria’s Aleppo province is Israel’s deadliest in months, killing at least 42 people including 36 Syrian soldiers, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Israel damaging most Gaza schools, using them as military bases: UN

The latest report by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) also contains details about what the Israeli military is doing to schools in Gaza.

At least 67 percent of schools will either need full reconstruction or major rehabilitation work to be functional again as a result of Israeli attacks.

“The assessment is based on an analysis of satellite imagery due to access limitations, especially in northern Gaza, intensive Israeli bombardment and recurrent telecommunications shutdowns.”

The report also said evidence has been found that complements previous reports, photos and videos “showing that schools are being used for military operations by Israeli security forces, including use as detention, interrogation centres, and military bases”.

About 38 percent of all school buildings in Gaza, 212, have been “directly hit” by the Israeli military since October 7.

Many UN missions to northern Gaza denied despite famine

UN humanitarian aid missions to northern Gaza are still being denied by Israeli authorities despite spreading famine.

Israel denied eight out of 19 missions between March 23-29, approved another eight, and the three others were postponed or withdrawn, the UN’s Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports.

Since the start of March, a total of 30 percent – or 18 missions – were denied and 13 missions postponed or withdrawn.

“Facilitated missions involved: food distributions; movement of emergency medical teams; fuel, nutrition and health assessments; delivery of supplies to hospitals; and support for water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) activities,” OCHA said.

Kuwait welcomes ICJ order for Israeli action on Gaza aid

The Gulf country has joined the growing list of countries calling for Israel to obey the International Court of Justice (ICJ) order to allow the unimpeded delivery of aid into Gaza.

In a statement, Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry said it welcomed the World Court’s order and stressed the importance of exerting pressure to force Israel to comply with the demands of both the ICJ and UN resolutions.

Gaza fisherman braves Israeli navy fire to support his family

Before Israel’s war on Gaza, Palestinian fisherman Jalal Qaraan navigated his small boat for long distances in search of a good catch. These days, he says, merely casting his nets could be deadly if he draws the wrath of the Israeli navy.

“When we attempt to go out, … we are besieged with gunfire, bombarded with shells, sound bombs. It’s always a risk. Entering the water is a risk,” he told Reuters as he pulled his boat to shore after catching a few fish.

“There is not a day that goes by without them coming at us. It’s all fear and terror, but despite this, I go in to be able to provide a secure living for my children.”

Qaraan said the amount of fish he catches is not enough. “Today during Ramadan, I’m fasting, risking my life to get 1 or 2 kilos [2.2 or 4.4lb] of fish to eat or to sell them to buy household necessities,” he added.

Palestinian Christians barred from Jerusalem’s Old City at Easter

As many Christians around the world prepare to celebrate Easter, Palestinians in the land that birthed the religion are facing severe restrictions on entering Jerusalem’s Old City to mark the occasion.

“These are very dark days, very difficult days,” Reverend Munther Isaac said, speaking to Al Jazeera from Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.

“I think the restrictions this year have definitely increased. Even for us here in Bethlehem – and Jerusalem is literally 20 minutes away from here – we don’t have access.”

Israeli attack on Gaza police station kills 17

At least 17 people have been killed in an Israeli attack on a police station in the Shujaiya neighbourhood in Gaza City, the government in the strip has said.

In a statement, it blamed Israel for committing a “massacre” and killing at least one police officer.

“We condemn the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation army and its continuous targeting of the civilian police forces that provide humanitarian services to our Palestinian people,” it said.

“We hold the American administration, the international community and the Israeli occupation fully responsible for these ongoing crimes.”

Israeli police arrest five activists at anti-war rally: Report

The Free Jerusalem movement, an Israeli anti-occupation group, says Israeli police have detained five people and assaulted others who were “protesting against the criminal attack on Gaza”.

In a post on X, the group posted footage of Israeli forces grabbing, shoving, and forcibly restraining several demonstrators in Jerusalem’s Paris Square.

‘Millions’ more Yemenis express solidarity with Palestinians in march

Yemenis in Houthi-controlled areas of the West Asian country took to the streets for another week to express solidarity with Palestinians and oppose Israel’s war on Gaza.

Yemeni media said “millions” more marched this week. The video below is from Sabeen Square in the capital Sanaa, the main site of protests since the start of the war.

https://twitter.com/AJA_Palestine/status/1773763015877312773

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/29/israels-war-on-gaza-live-netanyahu-says-army-preparing-to-enter-rafah

>>480052
it's nice to see principled people like that

‘Outrageous and unacceptable’: US protesters denounce arming Israel

Pro-Palestinian protesters in San Francisco blocked roads after a US warship in port was suspected of being used to carry weapons to Israel.

Demonstrators said they are concerned the vessel, USNS Harvey Milk, may deliver supplies to Israel’s military as it continues its deadly attack on Gaza.

“It is outrageous and unacceptable that our government continues to fund and supply the Israeli military as it carries out genocide against the people of Gaza,” said Lara Kiswani of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/29/israels-war-on-gaza-live-netanyahu-says-army-preparing-to-enter-rafah

>be American ethnic or cultural minority
>die
>America names military vehicles after you and uses them to commit war crimes

>>480079
>Russia’s foreign ministry denounced Israel for its deadly air raids on Syria, calling it a breach of the country’s sovereignty.
>Such attacks are “fraught with extremely dangerous consequences”, said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova.
>The attack on Syria’s Aleppo province is Israel’s deadliest in months, killing at least 42 people including 36 Syrian soldiers, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Not that long ago the Russians avoided commenting on Israel attacking Syria. But now they do. what's changed ?

>>480084
>what's changed ?

A few things.

1. There've been more attacks.
2. Israel (and by extension, the US) is increasingly isolated and it's becoming incredibly obvious that opinion around the world is against them, and regionally the crisis continues to boil over. The US looks incredibly weak, now, and I'm sure Russia is taking all of this into account. Even US leadership seems like they might be hesitant to go too hard after Russia for these comments, because their continuing to (loudly) double down is extremely unpopular at home, and antagonizing Russia (when Russia is unambiguously in the right, here) would also be extremely unpopular.
3. The consequences of just letting the US mismanage this and trying to be as neutral as possible are increasingly bad as this drags on. (although I'm not sure if Russia has formally stopped trade with Israel or anything like that, they're at least taking some initiative here)

>>480092
makes sense.

>The consequences of just letting the US mismanage this
>are increasingly bad as this drags on.
What does that exactly mean ?
The Zionists invade Syria and then it becomes a proxy war between the US and Russia ?

>>480098
Israel's continued attacks on Syria (and at least one on Iran, according to the Iranian gov't, who say Israel was behind an attack on a gas line there), Yemen's attacks on shipping in response, the general expansion of the conflict, the prospect of mass-migration as a result of this, Israel's attacks on the UN and UN employees (I don't think Russia cares much about this one, but who knows?), US bombings of Iraq, Yemen, & Syria, etc.

Gaza press office: 400 killed during Israel’s al-Shifa Hospital siege

Gaza’s media office says the Israeli military killed more than 400 Palestinians and destroyed, burned or otherwise targeted 1,050 homes in the vicinity of the al-Shifa Hospital after laying siege to it for 13 days.

“We condemn the international silence towards this crime,” the office said in a statement on its Telegram channel, adding that the Israeli military has also arrested and “tortured” hundreds of patients, displaced people and medical staff inside and around the key hospital in Gaza City.

“We once again condemn in the strongest terms the Israeli occupation army’s storming of the Shifa Medical Complex, which is a war crime and a crime against humanity.”

“We call on all international organisations, all Arab and Islamic countries, and all countries of the free world to move out of the box of silence and condemnation and into the box of taking practical positions, real measures, and field action to stop the genocidal war.”

The Israeli military has more or less provided similar numbers on Palestinians killed or arrested inside and around the hospital, but insists most were “terrorists”, including senior Hamas officials.

UK government legal advice on Israel’s war should be made public

A human rights lawyer says the public is entitled to see what legal advice government lawyers provided UK officials over Israel’s war on Gaza.

The Guardian reports a legal opinion had been issued saying Israel broke international humanitarian law, which would mean weapons sales must immediately be halted or else the UK government could be found complicit.

“If any government has received clear advice that what is happening is unlawful, then providing weapons for unlawful activity runs the risk of being found complicit,” barrister Geoffry Nice told Al Jazeera.

“It’s a big problem for governments. There’s a lot to play for here.”

What legal advice did the UK get on Israel’s war on Gaza?

The Guardian’s Observer reports it obtained a leaked audio recording indicating the UK government received legal advice from its lawyers saying Israel broke international law in its war on Gaza.

The lawyers’ judgement would mean the UK should have stopped arms sales to Israel immediately after the legal opinion was given, the news report said.

Alicia Kearns, a former UK Foreign Office official, called on the government to present the legal advice from its lawyers.

“I remain convinced the government has completed its updated assessment on whether Israel is demonstrating a commitment to international humanitarian law, and that it has concluded that Israel is not demonstrating this commitment, which is the legal determination it has to make,” Kearns was quoted as saying.

“Transparency at this point is paramount, not least to uphold the international rules-based order.”

Palestinian factions warn against ‘dangerous’ Arab military force proposal

The Alliance of Palestinian Forces, which includes major factions Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), strongly opposed the idea of establishing an Arab military force in the Gaza Strip.

The idea, according to media reports, was pitched by Israel to the US and at least three Arab states including Egypt. The plan is an Israeli “trap” designed to serve its interests and “get the occupation army out of the great quagmire it has found itself in the Gaza Strip”, a joint statement said.

The factions said Palestinians, who have stood up to Israel during six months of devastating war, “are capable of choosing their leaders and institutions to manage the Gaza Strip and preserve national sovereignty”.

WHO forced to delay another mission to al-Shifa amid Israeli attacks

The World Health Organization and its partners have been forced to “postpone a highly-complex joint mission due to delays” after having three previous missions to the besieged al-Shifa Hospital denied by the Israeli military.

“Repeated denials have not only impeded us from reaching patients but also disrupted other crucial life-saving operations by diverting limited resources,” Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X.

“We urge Israel to facilitate a safe humanitarian corridor and a better deconfliction system for WHO and partners to support patient transfers.”

“International humanitarian law is clear: health must not be militarised or attacked. Ceasefire!”

Israelis pledge to take protests to the parliament in Jerusalem

Israelis rallying in Tel Aviv calling for the immediate release of captives say they will take their demonstration to the Knesset to turn up the heat on Benjamin Netanyahu.

In a statement released by the captive families forum, relatives of those held in Gaza said they will “turn off the lights in the squares, and meet in the streets”, calling for a mass march.

“Next week we will relocate to Jerusalem, in front of the Knesset, where the struggle for the release of the hostages will take place,” said the statement.

Families of captives and supporters have blamed the Israeli prime minister for putting the captive deal and the country at risk and not handling it properly.

Hamas condemns new US arms transfer to Israel amid Gaza war

Hamas says it “strongly condemns” the decision by the Biden administration to greenlight the transfer of thousands more bombs and fighter jets to the Israeli military as it continues to kill civilians across the Gaza Strip.

The group said in a statement this only “confirms the full partnership of this administration in the brutal war of extermination” against Palestinians in the enclave.

Hamas also said the move shows the United States is only insisting on increasing humanitarian aid to Gaza and protecting civilians to “cover up the ongoing crimes” of its ally Israel.

“We call on the international community and the United Nations to impose a complete ban on the supply of weapons to the criminal Zionist entity, and to take steps to stop the aggression, leading to holding the occupation and its leaders accountable for the violations and crimes against humanity they have committed.”

‘Children’s game’: Released Israeli captive blasts Netanyahu at protest

Tens of thousands of Israelis are protesting in Tel Aviv in one of the largest demonstrations since the start of the war on Gaza, with pressure building on the government to get remaining captives out of Gaza.

Aviva Siegel, an Israeli woman released from the enclave through negotiations, said at a rally that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must stop treating current negotiations “as if they are a children’s game”.

“You cannot bring back the delegation from Qatar without a deal,” she said, pointing out she has no idea if her husband, still a captive in Gaza, is alive, according to Times of Israel.

Raz Ben-Ami, a captive released from Gaza about three months ago, also said the government must strike a deal with Hamas, as those being held “won’t last there, no one can survive what they go through there”.

Israel acknowledges its troops killed 2 Palestinians

The Israeli military’s acknowledgment that its troops shot dead two Palestinians and wounded a third along Gaza’s beach comes after video aired on Al Jazeera showing the killings.

The footage showed one man falling to the ground after walking in an open area and then an Israeli military bulldozer pushing two bodies into the garbage-strewn sand.

The Israeli army claimed its forces opened fire after the men ignored warning shots. One of the men was waving a white piece of cloth before being gunned down.

The footage follows a number of similar clips that have shown Palestinians in war-stricken Gaza being fired at or killed while seeming to pose little threat.

Hezbollah claims drone attack on Israeli military headquarters in Ya’ara

Hezbollah says it used attack drones to target an Israeli military headquarters in the settlement of Ya’ara in northern Israel, “hitting its objectives precisely”.

It was the eighth attack claimed by the Lebanese armed group today, with another targeting a site in Kfarchouba with a Burkan missile.

The group also said an attack directly hit a radar site in the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms with rockets and missiles, with another attack “inflicting confirmed casualties” among Israeli soldiers in the Adamit kibbutz.

‘Intifada!’: Pro-Palestinian protesters rally outside New York City Hall

Within Our Lifetime, one of the most visible pro-Palestinian activist groups in New York City, organised a rally in front of the seat of the government in the major US city.

Demonstrators, who can be seen waving Palestinian flags and wearing keffiyehs, chanted, “Intifada, intifada!” in honouring the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.

The activist group had its main Instagram account and a backup page, each with tens of thousands of followers, taken down by tech giant Meta in mid-February for its support of the Palestinian cause.

https://twitter.com/WOLPalestine/status/1774119313663824172

‘Complicity in Israel’s ongoing crimes’

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor welcomed the new rulings by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for Israel to stop genocidal acts in Gaza even as Israel continues to violate the court’s original orders.

“Euro-Med Monitor stresses that the ICJ must reaffirm its orders to Israel to refrain from any acts that could fall under the Genocide Convention and ensure its troops commit no genocidal acts against Palestinians in Gaza,” the Geneva-based rights group said in a statement.

The rights group earlier this week released a report that detailed how Israel has been violating the late January interim rulings, which called on it to stop killing Palestinian civilians and allow significantly more aid into the besieged enclave.

Euro-Med called on all states to halt military, financial and political support for Israel’s war, warning they “will be held accountable for their complicity in Israel’s ongoing crimes, including genocide” if they fail to do so.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/30/israels-war-on-gaza-live-fears-grow-of-wider-conflict-after-deadly-strike

>>480099
The Zionists blew up a gas pipeline in Iran ?
woah that's a dangerous escalation.

Protesters call for Netanyahu to resign near his private residence

Several hundred people demonstrated in the town of Caesarea near the private residence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to demand his resignation.

In another Saturday night of protests across Israel, demonstrators in the town between Tel Aviv and Haifa carried pictures of captives still held in Gaza and chanted for Netanyahu to quit.

The rally included a speech from a former head of the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate, according to the Times of Israel.

https://twitter.com/restart_israel/status/1774105956235829447

West Bank raids ‘test of international community’s credibility’: Palestine foreign ministry

The Palestinian foreign ministry says along with what is happening in Gaza, the many deadly raids the Israeli military is carrying out across the occupied West Bank are “a test of the international community’s credibility in protecting our people”.

After another violent day of Israeli forces’ attacks, a ministry statement said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “has given free rein to his extremist ministers” to attack the occupied West Bank.

It pointed out 750 Israeli checkpoints cut off the West Bank from other areas, turning it into a prison where Israeli forces and settlers can do what they want.

It also called for “urgent and practical international intervention to stop” the attacks in the occupied territory.

Thousands march in London to demand Gaza ceasefire

Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters are rallying in London in the latest demonstration in the British capital demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and more aid for the besieged territory.

The event, organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, began at Russell Square in the city centre before attendees marched to Trafalgar Square for a mid-afternoon rally.

A smaller number of demonstrators also turned out for a counterprotest in support of Israel, with lines of police separating the two gatherings.

‘Targeting of peacekeepers unacceptable’: UN

The United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) says “the targeting of peacekeepers is unacceptable” after four observers on a foot patrol along the Blue Line demarcating the border between Israel and Lebanon were wounded when a shell exploded near their location.

UNTSO did not identify the source of the shelling but Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) blamed Israel.

The UN peacekeeping mission said the injured personnel were taken to a hospital for treatment and an investigation was launched into the origin of the explosion. NNA said the peacekeepers, travelling with a Lebanese translator, were from Norway, Chile and Australia.

“All actors have a responsibility under international humanitarian law to avoid targeting non-combatants, including peacekeepers, journalists, medical personnel, and civilians,” UNTSO said.

“We repeat our call for all actors to cease the current heavy exchanges of fire before more people are unnecessarily hurt.”

‘Netanyahu is working against a deal’: Families of Israeli captives

In a news conference, families of captives being held in Gaza say the Israeli prime minister’s “behaviour regarding the hostages is a crime”, according to a report by Channel 13.

“We have no choice but to say: ‘We understand that you’re the one who’s blocking the deal’. We’ll do whatever it takes to try and end your term as prime minister. This is a new phase in our battle to bring our kids home,” they said.

Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters arrested in Pakistan

More than 50 men were arrested after a crowd chanting anti-Israel slogans protested and set fire to a restaurant belonging to American fast food chain KFC.

The incident took place in the northeastern town of Mirpur, in the Pakistan-administered region of Kashmir. Videos circulating on social media show men chanting anti-Israel slogans, carrying a banner inscribed with “Free Palestine”.

Nearly 400 protesters gathered at the height of the demonstration and clashes broke out with the police, Mirpur police chief Kamran Mughal told AFP news agency.

Nine police officers were injured by stones thrown by the demonstrators and more than 50 men were arrested, said Mughal.

US stepping up military aid shows continued alignment with Israel

The US is increasing military aid because it is still in agreement with Israel from a militarily perspective, Al Jazeera’s senior analyst Marwan Bishara has said, despite minor political disagreements.

“There is a pattern in US-Israel relations and in America’s relations with its allies around the world,” he said. “The US usually aims to increase military aid to have more leverage on the country,” but it does not deter Israel from doing what it wants in Gaza.

“The US on the one hand says it wants less civilian casualties, but in reality, it has never stopped supporting Israel’s policy on the ground,” he added.

Netanyahu and Biden agreed at the beginning of the war that Israel was going to defeat Hamas and that the US would stand with Israel if others like Hezbollah and the Houthis stepped in.

“And it has done just that,” the analyst said.

Jordan calls for opening of Gaza land crossings for quick action on state of near-famine

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi has said that the state of near-famine in Gaza can be dealt with in a short time if Israel opened the land crossings for aid to enter.

Safadi made the comments at a news conference with his Egyptian and French counterparts in Cairo.

Thousands of Palestinians march in Israel to mark Land Day

Palestinians have marched across Israel to mark the 48th anniversary of Land Day under the slogan “Stop the war on Gaza”, according to the Wafa news agency, putting the total number of demonstrators at about 10,000.

At the cemetery in Sakhnin, some placed wreaths on the tombs of Palestinians killed during violent demonstrations against the Israel’s confiscation of Palestinian land in 1976.

Demonstrators also marched to a memorial in the town of Kafr Kanna, commemorating all Palestinians killed in the village since 1936.

Saeed Hussein, the head of the local council in the town of Deir Hanna, said Land Day was not about a distant past but a daily struggle.

“The machine of oppression is still trying to erase our national identity and steal our lands,” he said.

Bombing, fighting continuing in Khan Younis

The Israeli military has launched air strikes in the eastern part of Khan Younis as its artillery shelling targeted al-Mughraqa, a town north of the city, our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic have reported.

The Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, claimed in a statement that it hit an Israeli tank with an explosive device, killing and wounding several soldiers. The military sent three helicopters to evacuate them, it said.

Death toll in Gaza rises to 32,705

The death toll from Israel’s war on Gaza has risen to 32,705, the Health Ministry said in a statement, adding that 75,190 people have been injured since October 7.

The toll includes 82 people killed and 98 wounded in the past 24 hours.

Settler kidnaps child in Bethlehem: Report

A Jewish settler has allegedly kidnapped a teenage boy from the village of Husan in the west of Bethlehem, occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Wafa news agency.

Director of the Husan Village Council, Rami Hamamra, told Wafa that a settler from an outpost close to the village abducted the 17-year-old while herding sheep in the al-Sharafa area in the village.

Wafa also said that settlers and troops raided the village on Friday evening.

Israel says it will pursue Hezbollah members wherever they are

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s recent statement said the army will expand its campaign in the north of the country, and increase the rate of attacks, pursuing Hezbollah members wherever they are – Damascus, Beirut and further.

The Israeli army has already hit Beirut a few months ago, killing a senior Hamas leader in southern Beirut.

The new remarks by Gallant are a threat against Hezbollah, not Hamas, and if Israel hits a senior Hezbollah commander, the group has to react.

The statement also comes after Gallant’s visit to the US, where he got his agreement to get the Americans to speed up weapons and arms deliveries to Israel.

This is despite the fact that the US has real concerns with regards to Rafah, where about 1.3 million Palestinians are sheltering.

The Americans don’t want a mass ground offensive in Rafah. Military analysts say, if Israelis get away with a major military operation in Rafah, then it opens the flood gates to going into Lebanon in much bigger form than perhaps we saw in 2006.

Malaysia arrests three suspected of supplying Israeli man with firearms

Malaysian authorities have arrested three people suspected of supplying firearms to a 36-year-old man carrying an Israeli passport and suspected of spying, according to police.

As reported earlier, police said that the man, arrested with a bag containing six handguns and 200 bullets, had arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport from the United Arab Emirates on March 12, using what authorities believed to be a fake French passport.

Three Malaysians, including a married couple, were arrested on Friday and have been remanded for seven days on suspicion of supplying weapons and acting as a driver to the Israeli suspect, Inspector-General of Police Razarudin Husain told Reuters on Saturday.

A pistol was retrieved from a car belonging to the couple, he said.

Police did not rule out the possibility that the man could be a member of Israeli intelligence, though the suspect told authorities he had entered Malaysia to hunt down another Israeli citizen due to a family dispute.

What’s in the US’s latest arms package to Israel?

Despite expressing concern about civilian casualties in Gaza, the US White House has greenlighted more major shipments of arms and military equipment to Israel in recent days. The packages include:

1,800 MK84 2,000-pound bombs
500 MK82 500-pound bombs
25 F-35A fighter jets and engines

The 2,000-pound bombs, which can inflict damage to people up to 1,000 feet (300 metres) away, have been “linked to previous mass-casualty events throughout Israel’s military campaign in Gaza”, reports the Washington Post.

‘Thermobaric rocket’ attack reportedly kills 1 Israeli, injures 16 in south Gaza: Monitors

Palestinian fighters battling Israeli forces in the southern Gaza Strip’s Khan Younis area have reported carrying out “a series of high-impact attacks”, according to the latest joint report from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP).

According to the US-based think tanks, Hamas fighters reported launching a thermobaric rocket at Israeli soldiers deployed inside a multi-storey building near Nasser Hospital on Friday. The rocket blast appears to have killed an Israeli special forces soldier and injured 16 others, according to the ISW/CTP report.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) fighters also reported an ambush on a squad of six Israeli special forces soldiers in the al-Qarara area of Khan Younis. PIJ claimed to have either killed or wounded all six of the special forces team.

The left-wing Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine also claimed to have targeted an Israeli personnel carrier in the al-Qarara area with an IED (improvised explosive device), the war monitors said.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/30/israels-war-on-gaza-live-fears-grow-of-wider-conflict-after-deadly-strike

Been a hectic few days, still more news from YESTERDAY:

Suspected Israeli spy arrested in Malaysia with weapons: Report

The Reuters news agency is reporting that authorities in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur have arrested an armed man, who police described as a suspect Israeli spy.

Malaysia’s inspector general of police, Razarudin Husain, told a news conference late on Friday that the 36-year-old suspect, who was found with six handguns and 200 bullets, arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport from the United Arab Emirates on March 12 using what authorities believe to be a fake French passport.

The suspect turned over an Israeli passport upon questioning by police, Razarudin said. The suspect told authorities he had entered Malaysia to track down another Israeli citizen over a family dispute.

According to Reuters, police are investigating if the man is a member of Israeli intelligence.

“We do not fully trust this narrative as we suspect there may be another agenda,” Razarudin said.

A Palestinian scientist was shot dead in Kuala Lumpur in 2018 by two unidentified men in a killing that Hamas suggested was carried out by Israel’s Mossad intelligence service.

Sixth night of protests in Jordan over Israel’s war on Gaza

Thousands of people rallied near the Israeli embassy in Jordan’s capital Amman on Friday in a sixth night of large-scale protests against Israel.

Heavy security was evident as the protesters waved Palestinian and Jordanian flags and called for an end to Jordan’s unpopular peace treaty with Israel amid its war on Gaza.

The protest passed peacefully, unlike earlier this week when riot police fired tear gas and struck protesters with batons to prevent them from approaching the Israeli embassy compound.

World warns Israel to obey ICJ on Gaza aid as Netanyahu plans Rafah assault

Governments and human rights groups have called on Israel to obey an International Court of Justice order to allow the unimpeded delivery of aid into Gaza, where famine has set in.

Caroline Gennez, Belgium’s minister of development cooperation and urban policy, said “Israel must stop starving civilians and children” and praised the ICJ order in a post on social media.

Amnesty International said the court’s “ruling must serve as a critical reminder to all states of their clear duty to prevent genocide which requires them to ensure that all of the ICJ’s provisional measures are duly implemented”.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/30/israels-war-on-gaza-live-fears-grow-of-wider-conflict-after-deadly-strike

Gaza war evokes memories of Vietnam’s own liberation struggle, past unity with Palestine

Vietnam is witnessing rare political activism in support of Palestinians as Israel’s war on Gaza reminds younger Vietnamese of their country’s fight for liberation during the war against the United States.

Pro-Palestinian art is being produced, discussion evenings have been held, and Palestinian poetry and history books are being translated into Vietnamese.

As one pro-Palestinian Vietnamese activist, Trinh, said: “The more I learn about the history of Palestine, the more I realise how similar our struggles are.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/longform/2024/3/30/gaza-war-reminds-vietnam-of-liberation-struggle-once-shared-with-palestine

>>480102
Yep. In February. >>478879

I'm not sure why exactly this anon decided to stop citing their sources except for al-Jazeera, but I (and surely others) feel zero compulsion to read long lines of news that has no citations. All it seems to me is something which might or might not be fabricated.

>>480103
>Hamas fighters reported launching a thermobaric rocket
their weapons are becoming more sophisticated and powerful.

>>480103
>The Americans don’t want a mass ground offensive in Rafah. Military analysts say, if Israelis get away with a major military operation in Rafah, then it opens the flood gates to going into Lebanon in much bigger form than perhaps we saw in 2006.
If the Zionist challenge Hezbollah with a major offensive, they'll likely get a bitter defeat. Hezbollah isn't a rag tag force anymore they've become more like a professional military.

Now for the latest!

‘Today is the day’ for armed resistance, says Hamas military commander
The commander-in-chief of the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas inside the Gaza Strip, has called on Palestinians in a video message – one that didn’t show his face, for his protection – to use all their resources to fight against the invading Israeli army.

“Today is the day. Whoever has a rifle should come out with it, for this is its time. And whoever does not have a rifle should come forth with their machete, their pickaxe, or a Molotov cocktail, with their truck or bulldozer or car,” Mohammed Deif can be heard saying in Arabic in a short video released by Hamas.

“Today is the day history opens its brightest, most splendid, and most noble pages. So, who will inscribe their name, their family’s name, their town’s name in the pages of light and glory?”

US CENTCOM says its troops destroyed two Houthi unmanned aerial systems

The United States Central Command (CENTCOM) says it “engaged and destroyed two unmanned aerial systems in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen” earlier today.

It says the aerial systems presented a threat to US and coalition forces in the area.

“These actions are necessary to protect our forces, ensure freedom of navigation, and make international waters safer and more secure for US, coalition and merchant vessels,” CENTCOM’s statement says.

Israeli air strikes target Damascus suburbs in Syria

Israeli fighter jets have attacked areas in the suburbs of the Syrian capital city of Damascus, according to local reports and the Syrian Ministry of Defence.

“At approximately 21:30 today, the ‘Israeli’ enemy launched an air aggression from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting a number of points in the vicinity of Damascus. The aggression resulted in two civilians being injured and some material losses,” the ministry said.

The Syrian army’s air defence systems came online and shot down at least some of the missiles, local reports indicated. We will bring you more as details emerge.

Israel announces Jordan Valley settlement expansion in ‘appropriate Zionist response’

Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has published this video of himself in Wadi Auja in the occupied West Bank to announce an “unprecedented investment” into the development of more illegal settlements.

He called this “a fitting Zionist response” to a Palestinian attack last week in the Jordan Valley that wounded two Israelis. Smotrich said the Israeli government is surveying the area for expansion, evaluating everything including water resources.

This is coming days after Israel was internationally criticised for declaring 800 hectares (1,977 acres) of land in the occupied West Bank as territory belonging to the Israeli state in its biggest illegal land grab in three decades.

As Israel tries to recover from the financial burden of its deadly war on Gaza and reassure citizens, Smotrich also announced today that businesses in Eilat and Tamar in southern Israel could be entitled to compensation for damages suffered as a result of the war from the state.

(steal land, someone attacks you, use it as "excuse" to steal more land)

Number of journalists killed by Israeli army rises to 137: Gaza media office

After the killing of a photojournalist and editor by the Israeli military, Gaza’s Government Media Office says the number of journalists killed since the start of the war has now risen to 137.

Abdel Wahab Awni was killed after the Israeli army bombed his home in the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, the office said in a statement.

A record number of journalists have been killed in the besieged enclave since October 7, including multiple Al Jazeera journalists.

The latest air strike targeting reporters in Gaza came earlier today, when a journalists’ tent was targeted in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Hospital, killing at least four people.

Hundreds on the streets of Marseille in support of Palestinians in Gaza

Video posted by French newspaper La Marseillaise shows demonstrations calling for an end to Israel’s war on Gaza on the streets of the city.

The newspaper’s post says that these protests have been ongoing every weekend since the outbreak of the war in October.

Palestinian entangled in aid bundle parachute by Gaza coast

This video verified by Al Jazeera shows Palestinians struggling to free a dead body entangled in the parachute of an aid package dropped from the air near Gaza’s coastline.

This week, at least a dozen Palestinians trying to reach aid packages that had dropped into the sea drowned. The US military confirmed earlier that some of the packages it airdropped over Gaza fell into the sea, but said there were no casualties.

Several other people have also been killed after packages crushed them when failed parachutes made the boxes fall straight from the sky.

https://twitter.com/AJA_Palestine/status/1774488338248221030

Israeli opposition leader calls for elections to oust PM Netanyahu

Yair Lapid, in a post on X, says that holding elections to bring a fresh government to Israel is the only way to break the paralysis gripping the country.

“The war with Hamas is paralyzed, the hostage deal is paralyzed, the north is paralyzed and above all the government led by you is paralyzed and failing,” Lapid wrote, directing his words at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Discontent with Netanyahu, his government, and its failure to bring home Israeli captives held in Gaza has been growing inside Israel as its war on Gaza has dragged on. Thousands of protesters flood the streets of Israeli cities on a regular basis, including today, calling for his replacement as the head of the country.

Massive marches call for government change, captive deal in Jerusalem

Tens of thousands are now moving through the streets of Jerusalem and rallying in the area of the Israeli parliament, called the Knesset, in anti-government protests.

They are demanding elections – something Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again rejected just now – and an agreement with Hamas that would bring home the more than 130 captives still believed to be held in the Gaza Strip.

This comes a day after Tel Aviv saw its largest protests since the start of the war.

https://twitter.com/restart_israel/status/1774474428526526610/video/1

Jordan vows to maintain security as pro-Palestine demonstrations grow

In a statement published on Facebook, the Jordanian Public Security Directorate has said that in light of the increased chaos and violence in protests, it will work to ensure “security and civic peace” are maintained.

Jordan will “allow citizens to express their opinions in accordance with the law. It will also continue its work in implementing law and order and enforcing it against anyone who attempts to transgress, or incite, by action or word, against security personnel,” it said.

In recent days, thousands of protesters have gathered outside the Israeli embassy in Amman, demanding an end to Jordan’s peace agreement with Israel. Security forces broke up demonstrations with tear gas and arrests, leaving several people injured.

Hezbollah confirms death of Ismail al-Zin

In a statement issued via its Telegram channel, the Lebanese group has confirmed claims by the Israeli army that one of its fighters, Ismail Ali al-Zin, was “martyred”.

Hezbollah rarely specifies where and when its fighters are killed. However, according to the Israeli army, al-Zin, who the army claims was the commander of Hezbollah’s anti-tank missile unit, was killed after the Israeli air force bombed a car in the southern Lebanese village of Kounine.

WHO team witnesses Israeli strike on journalists’ tent at Al-Aqsa Hospital

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says a team with the United Nations organisation was at the Al-Aqsa Hospital compound when the Israeli military targeted a journalists’ tent in the courtyard.

The official said in a post on X that four people were killed and 17 injured, but WHO personnel – who were at the hospital assessing medical needs and collecting incubators to send to northern Gaza – are accounted for.

“We again call for protection of patients, health personnel and humanitarian missions. The ongoing attacks and militarisation of hospitals must stop. International humanitarian law must be respected,” Tedros said.

“We urge parties to comply with the UN Security Council resolution and ceasefire!”

Israel’s attorney general orders drafting of ultra-Orthodox students from tomorrow

Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara has sent a letter to the ministries of defence and education telling them that ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students must be drafted into the military starting April 1.

She wrote that there will be “no source of authority” for a blanket exemption from military conscription for Haredi students, according to multiple Israeli outlets.

The attorney general also demanded a “supplementary declaration” by the state by April 30 on how obligations on drafting ultra-Orthodox Jews are being met.

A law deferring conscription for the students had expired in June 2023, and the exemptions were being enforced via a cabinet resolution passed at the time.

The Israeli High Court on Thursday ordered a freeze on state financial support to ultra-Orthodox yeshivas receiving deferrals from military service after the resolution expires.

US congressman suggests nuclear bombing of Gaza

US Republican Congressman Tim Walberg has suggested dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza “like Nagasaki and Hiroshima” in order to “get it over quick”. His comments have been widely condemned and his office insists it was “metaphorical”.

Hezbollah claims attacks on Israeli soldiers, recon equipment

Hezbollah says its latest attacks on Israeli positions this afternoon targeted a gathering of soldiers in al-Manara with a missile, and achieved a direct hit.

The armed Lebanese group has so far claimed seven attacks today, with another strike targeting “newly developed spy equipment” at al-Jardah near the Lebanese border and destroying it.

The group also released two videos that showed its attacks on Saturday, targeting a group of Israeli soldiers at the Adamit settlement in northern Israel, along with a building used by soldiers near the border.

Egyptian, Iranian FMs agree UNSC resolution on Gaza ceasefire must be implemented

According to the Egyptian foreign ministry, Sameh Shoukry and his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir Abdollahian emphasised the need for Israel to commit to implementing a ceasefire in Gaza as required by the recent UN Security Council resolution.

In a phone call, the two ministers said their governments reject the forced displacement of Palestinians outside the Gaza Strip and any ground assault on the southern city of Rafah.

Palestinian Christians attend sombre Easter service in darkness

The dwindling Christian community in Gaza is holding Easter services without electricity due to Israel’s siege of the bombarded enclave.

Spokesman suspended by Netanyahu’s office over Gaza tweet formally steps down

Eylon Levy, the English-language spokesman at the Israeli prime minister’s office who was suspended three weeks ago, has formally stepped down from the role, according to The Times of Israel.

Levy was suspended following a complaint by the British Foreign Office about a post on X, in which the spokesman responded to remarks by Foreign Secretary David Cameron concerning aid to Gaza.

Cameron had posted on X that Israel needs to let more aid into Gaza. Levy replied with a tirade.

Bank of Israel says ultra-Orthodox men need to join army to help economy

The Bank of Israel has warned of economic damage if more ultra-Orthodox Jewish men do not join the country’s military, weighing in on a contentious issue that has caused a rift in Netanyahu’s government.

In its 2023 annual report, the central bank said Israel’s war on Gaza added a burden to the economy due to the sharply increased amount of service days that will be required for both conscripts and reserve soldiers.

The government said in February that it would seek a way to end exemptions to military service for ultra-Orthodox Jews to spread the wartime burden across society more fairly.

But the decision met with a backlash from ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties and created a rift in the coalition.

In Easter address, Pope Francis calls for Gaza ceasefire

Pope Francis has made renewed calls on Easter for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the release of all captives held in Gaza in a peace-focused address.

Francis presided over Mass in a packed St Peter’s Square, and then delivered his “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) blessing and message from the central balcony of St Peter’s Basilica.

“I appeal once again that access to humanitarian aid be ensured to Gaza, and call once more for the prompt release of the hostages seized on last October 7 and for an immediate ceasefire in the Strip,” he said.

“How much suffering we see in the eyes of children, the children have forgotten to smile in those war zones. With their eyes, children ask us: Why? Why all this death? Why all this destruction? War is always an absurdity and a defeat”, he added.

US fears intel shared with Israel contributes to civilian deaths

The Wall Street Journal has reported, quoting people familiar with the issue, that the United States is concerned about whether the expanded intelligence sharing with Israel since October 7 had contributed to civilian deaths in Gaza.

Among the worries is that there is little independent oversight to confirm that US-supplied intelligence is not used in air strikes that unnecessarily kill civilians or damage infrastructure, sources told the WSJ.

“What I’m concerned about is making sure our intelligence sharing is consistent with our values and our national-security interests,” Democratic Representative Jason Crow, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told the publication.

He added that there are “some pretty big inconsistencies” in the two sides’ accounts of the civilian toll.

Israel is marching towards defeat in war in Gaza: Sa’ar

MP Gideon Sa’ar, leader of the New Hope party in Israel, said the government’s approach to the war in Gaza would lead to defeat.

“The issue of the plan to release the captives is stuck for precisely the same reason everything is stuck: In these long months, military pressure on Hamas has waned,” Sa’ar, whose party recently left the government, said on X. “Without significant pressure, Hamas sees no urgency to devise a new plan.

“A long, repetitive, and sluggish war will not result in a breakthrough… The complete reality is that without halting the erosion and changing the course of the conflict, Israel is marching towards defeat.”

Cuban president calls for end to ‘genocide’ in Gaza

Cuba’s president has called on the international community to take action to end the “genocide” in Gaza where Israeli attacks have killed more than 32,000 people since October 7.

Sharing a photo of the Palestinian flag being projected onto Jose Marti Memorial in the capital Havana, Miguel Diaz-Canel said late on Saturday that “Cuba demands that the genocide stop now”.

“As long as Palestinian land continues to be martyred, bled, destroyed to its foundations by the hatred of the Israeli occupier, we cannot tire of denouncing the crime and calling on the international community,” Diaz-Canel wrote on X.

The president of the Caribbean island nation has been one of the leaders voicing the strongest opposition to Israel’s attacks.

Harvard Law School student body calls on university to divest from Israel

Harvard Law School’s student government has passed a resolution calling on the university to divest from Israel.

The resolution, passed on Friday in a 12-4 vote with three abstentions, calls on Harvard “to divest completely from weapons manufacturers, firms, academic programs, corporations, and all other institutions that aid the ongoing illegal occupation of Palestine and the genocide of Palestinians”, The Boston Globe reported.

Two members of the board, Regina De Nigris and Cameron Adkins, resigned in protest of the vote, writing in a resignation letter that they “strongly disagree” with the resolution, The Harvard Crimson student newspaper reported.

Iraqi group claims drone attack on Israel

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed armed factions opposed to the US and Israel, has announced a drone attack inside northern Israel.

The group said it attacked “a vital target in Eilabun in the occupied Galilee with drones” and said the assault was in “in support of our people in Gaza, and in response to the massacres committed by the usurping entity against Palestinian civilians, including children, women and the elderly”.

Pro-Palestinian protestors chain themselves to US navy ship in San Francisco

Pro-Palestinian protesters chained themselves to the gangway of a United States Navy ship that they claimed was headed to Gaza to provide support for Israel.

Dozens of demonstrators gathered at Pier 32 in San Francisco to protest during a ceremony for the USNS Harvey Milk ship and its namesake that was attended by US House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and San Francisco Mayor London Breed.

A US Navy spokesperson said speculation the ship was headed for the Middle East was incorrect and the vessel was actually scheduled to depart for Norfolk, Virginia.

Local media reported that authorities used bolt cutters to remove some demonstrators who had chained themselves to the ship’s gangway.

Ten women and four men were arrested for trespassing, with five also charged with resisting arrest, according to San Francisco police.

Clashes in Tel Aviv as Israeli protesters threaten to ‘burn country down’

Demonstrators in Tel Aviv are saying they are increasingly angry at the government’s inability to bring back the remaining Israeli captives.

Now, there was a rally held by the family members of those being held in Gaza and they say they are tired of holding peaceful rallies. They are calling on all Israelis to take to the streets and “burn the country down”.

Previously, they were calling for Benjamin Netanyahu to resign and for elections to be held immediately. And now they are saying he needs to be overthrown and until that happens, these protests in massive size and scale will continue.

Tonight, we saw a lot of violence between protesters and Israeli police as they attempted to clear roads. Here in Tel Aviv, protesters tried to block a major highway known as Ayalon, something that was a reoccurring theme during last year’s antigovernment demonstrations over judicial changes and police have come out in force in order to try and prevent that.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/31/israels-war-on-gaza-live-hundreds-killed-in-al-shifa-hospital-siege

Infiltration alarm sounds in southern Israel’s Eilat

A drone infiltration alert has sounded in Eilat and surrounding areas in the southernmost parts of Israel, the Israeli military has said.

There is no immediate confirmation on the cause of the alarm but drone attacks launched by the Houthi group in Yemen have previously sounded the alarm.

Israelis camp out near Knesset

At the end of today’s huge antigovernment rallies in Jerusalem, Israelis are camping out near the building housing the country’s parliament, known as the Knesset.

Calling for elections and the release of captives held in Gaza, they are preparing for several days of protests.

https://twitter.com/AJA_Palestine/status/1774564686216016108

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/4/1/israels-war-on-gaza-live-twenty-one-al-shifa-patients-have-died-amid-siege-who

Israel proposed dismantling UNWRA: Report

The United Kingdom’s Guardian newspaper is reporting that Israel has given the United Nations a proposal to dismantle the UNWRA, which has been operating in the Palestinian territories since 1950.

The Israeli plan proposes the creation of a replacement organisation to handle large-scale deliveries of food aid to Gaza, the Guardian said citing unnamed UN sources.

About 300 to 400 staff would be transferred to the new agency or other UN agencies such as the World Food Programme, the report said.

More staff, as well as the UNRWA’s assets, would be transferred in later stages, it added.

The paper said that the Israeli chief of the general staff, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, presented the plan to UN officials in Israel last week. It was forwarded to UN chief Antonio Guterres on Saturday.

Israel has been refusing to work with UNRWA since last Monday amid unproven claims that some of the agency’s staff were with Hamas or Islamic Jihad.

Tens of thousands of Israelis protest against government

As we reported earlier, tens of thousands of Israelis marched on Sunday calling for Netanyahu’s government to go and for more efforts to free the dozens of people still held captive by Hamas.

Demonstrators began their rally outside parliament and later blocked a main highway in Jerusalem. Police, some on horseback, jostled and pushed protesters back as they shouted that Netanyahu “must go”. They also used water cannon.

Protesters say the demonstration was the biggest since the start of the war in Gaza nearly six months ago.

Families of the captives have said will protest every night this week in a bid to “bring them home”.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/4/1/israels-war-on-gaza-live-twenty-one-al-shifa-patients-have-died-amid-siege-who

Cornish man's analysis on the US giving Israel billions in weapons right after the UNSC ceasefire resolution passed.

>>480114
Good take but he missed the part where they kept asserting that the UNSC ceasefire resolution was non-binding. Despite everybody else saying the opposite.

>>480109
>Yair Lapid, says that holding elections to bring a fresh government to Israel is the only way to break the paralysis gripping the country.
>Discontent with Netanyahu, his government, and its failure to bring home Israeli captives held in Gaza has been growing inside Israel as its war on Gaza has dragged on. Thousands of protesters flood the streets of Israeli cities on a regular basis, including today, calling for his replacement as the head of the country.

So is this Lapid guy any better than Netanyahu, as in any less of a genocidal maniac ?

>>480109
<The Bank of Israel has warned of economic damage if more ultra-Orthodox Jewish men do not join the country’s military, weighing in on a contentious issue that has caused a rift in Netanyahu’s government.
<In its 2023 annual report, the central bank said Israel’s war on Gaza added a burden to the economy due to the sharply increased amount of service days that will be required for both conscripts and reserve soldiers.
<The government said in February that it would seek a way to end exemptions to military service for ultra-Orthodox Jews to spread the wartime burden across society more fairly.
<But the decision met with a backlash from ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties and created a rift in the coalition.
Big porky seething, claims it's unfair that some people are exempt from the bloodletting. Demands that all of society has to offer human sacrifice.
Who knew the ultra-Orthodox Jews would end up so based, sticking a monkey wrench into the death machine.

Netanyahu revives plans to shut down Al Jazeera in Israel

The Israeli prime minister has revived plans to close Al Jazeera in Israel.

In a statement issued by the Likud party spokesperson, parliament will be convened in the evening to ratify the law.

Following its ratification, Netanyahu “will take immediate action to shut down Al Jazeera in accordance with procedure set out in the law”.

Israeli forces ‘executed’ multiple civilians at al-Shifa Hospital, says PRCS

Raed al-Nims, a representative for the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, says many departments at al-Shifa Hospital were “set on fire”, and “many bodies” are lying around the hospital.

“The situation is dire, the medical staff, some of them were killed, others tortured, others detained, and above all, they have been besieged for two weeks without any medical supplies or even food or water,” al-Nims told Al Jazeera.

He added that civil defence teams were not allowed to put out fires started at the hospital, which caused immense damage.

“According to eyewitness accounts and official reports, many of the civilians were executed. They were killed by the Israeli occupation forces including medical staff, doctors and nurses, they were purposefully executed by the Israeli soldiers,” al-Nims said.

“We do not have final figures yet, but there is no doubt that it is confirmed that many were killed either directly by the Israeli occupation forces or [were] starved to death.”

https://aje.io/kwvlol?update=2810963

Hundreds of bodies lay strewn at al-Shifa Hospital: Report

Hundreds of bodies of slain civilians were found at al-Shifa Medical Complex, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported medical sources as saying.

The sources said Israeli forces destroyed the temporary cemetery that citizens had set up at the site, taking out the bodies from underground and dumping them in different areas of the hospital.

Wafa also reported that the Israeli army dug up the grounds of the complex and dumped the buried bodies in different areas of the hospital.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh’s sister arrested in Israel

Israeli police say they have arrested the 57-year-old sister of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh as part of an investigation in southern Israel.

Sabah Abdel Salam Haniyeh, an Israeli citizen, was taken into custody in the town of Tel Sheva as part of the investigation, which also involves Israel’s security agency, Shin Bet.

A police spokesman, who confirmed it was Haniyeh’s sister, said she is “suspected of having contact with Hamas operatives and identifying with the organisation, while inciting and supporting acts of terrorism in Israel”.

Police said they found “documents, media, telephones, other findings and evidence linking her to the commission of serious security offences against the State of Israel” in her house.

Islamic Resistance in Iraq says it targeted Israeli city of Eilat

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an Iraqi militia, has claimed responsibility for the drone that exploded in the Israeli city of Eilat.

The group said in a statement that it had attacked a “vital objective” in Israel “using appropriate weapons” and did not offer further details.

The Israeli military said earlier today that a flying object launched from east of Israel had struck a building in Eilat, and that sirens went off in the southernmost city but there was no interception by air defences.

Eilat has come under repeated missile and drone attacks from the Iranian-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen during Israel’s war in Gaza.

Al-Shifa’s legacy destroyed

Norwegian physician Dr Mads Gilbert, who has spent extensive time working in Gaza, including at al-Shifa hospital, says the siege of the facility has destroyed its legacy.

“The Israeli occupation forces this night have ended 78 years of brave medical history,” Gilbert told Al Jazeera, speaking from Tromso, Norway.

The hospital was built in 1946 and was the most important flagship hospital for the healthcare for people in Gaza, he said.

“This is such a sad day, I’ve been weeping all morning.”

Meanwhile, the fate of the 107 critical patients who were moved two days ago to an old part of the medical complex remains unknown, Gilbert said.

People are now searching for corpses at the site, finding “the most horrible decomposed corpses with maggots coming out of the eyes”.

“The maggots that are creeping out of the corpses in al-Shifa Hospital now are really maggots coming out of the eyes of President Biden and the EU leaders doing nothing to stop this horrible, horrible genocide,” the physician said.

US airman to start hunger strike to draw attention to plight of Gaza’s children

Veterans for Peace says US Air Force senior airman Larry Hebert will start a hunger strike to highlight the plight facing Gaza’s children.

Veterans for Peace is an association of former soldiers who advocate for peace, highlighting the costs of war and conflict.

https://twitter.com/VFPNational/status/1774524300302643571

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/4/1/israels-war-on-gaza-live-twenty-one-al-shifa-patients-have-died-amid-siege-who

>>480120
>even the israelite orthodoxes get shafted by the gubbmint
Jasssss, kameraden! Die khlennzieng feueh rhizes!

IRGC commander Mohammad Reza Zahedi killed in Damascus attack: Reports

A Lebanese security source tells the Reuters news agency that a senior commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Mohammad Reza Zahedi, was killed in an Israeli strike on Damascus.

As we reported earlier, the Iranian consulate building in the Syrian capital was targeted and reduced to rubble, according to Reuters journalists who were at the scene. The Syrian state news agency, SANA, also confirmed that the building has been destroyed.

When asked to comment on the reported attack, an Israeli military spokesperson told Reuters: “We do not comment on reports in the foreign media.”

Syrian foreign minister decries attack on Iran’s consulate in Damascus

Faisal Mekdad says his country “highly condemns” Israeli strikes on Iran’s consulate and ambassador’s residence in the Syrian capital.

In a statement carried on Syria’s state news agency, SANA, Mekdad said the “terrorist attack” killed “a number of innocent lives” without elaborating.

Israel “will not be able to affect the relationship between Iran and Syria”, he added.

Israel trying to ‘drag’ Iran into a regional war, analyst says

Ali Vaez, director of the International Crisis Group’s Iran Project, says Israel’s alleged attack on Iran’s consulate in Syria is “akin to targeting another country on its own soil”.

“Overall this seems to still be a low-simmer regional war. It’s not yet an all-out regional conflict, but it does appear that Israel is trying to do everything in its power to expand the conflict,” Vaez told Al Jazeera.

“[This] puts Israel in a win-win situation because Israel knows Iran doesn’t want to get dragged into a regional war, so if it escalates its attacks against Iranian assets and personnel in Syria, it probably will be cost free, and if Iran does respond and retaliate, then it becomes a justified pretext for expanding the war.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/4/1/israels-war-on-gaza-live-twenty-one-al-shifa-patients-have-died-amid-siege-who

>>480123
>Netanyahu revives plans to shut down Al Jazeera in Israel
That's a big prestige win for Al Jazeera if the Zionazis want to censor them.

>>480125
>Israel trying to ‘drag’ Iran into a regional war, analyst says
got that impression as well
>“[This] puts Israel in a win-win situation because Israel knows Iran doesn’t want to get dragged into a regional war, so if it escalates its attacks against Iranian assets and personnel in Syria, it probably will be cost free, and if Iran does respond and retaliate, then it becomes a justified pretext for expanding the war.”
IMHO that calculation is wrong. The US military is presently stretched too thin to help the Zionist win an all out war against Iran. Iran on the other hand has enough weapons to render the Zionist regime non viable. They definitely have the upper hand on a strategic level at this point in time. The Zionists have made them self extremely unpopular in the region, every militant faction is eager to strike at them, for "glory-points" that enable them to attract more members/fighters. That means that Iran doesn't need to officially escalate anything to retaliate against provocation attacks. They only need to funnel a few weapons to any of these factions.

A Israel-Iran war ends in the creation of a Neo-Palestine state with a 90% likelihood. This is not win-win this is death-drive.

>>480124
>even the israelite orthodoxes get shafted by the gubbmint
No the ultra-Orthodox Jews have more leverage. They can leave Israel and then the Zionist project is finished demographically. The Zionist regime can try to force press them into military service but then they end up arming a well organized group of people that will most likely coup them out of power

>>480125
‘Iran will have no option but to retaliate’

Abbas Aslani, senior research fellow at the Centre for Middle East Strategic Studies, says the apparent Israeli attack in Damascus is a “serious escalation” that is different from the indirect tit-for-tat that has taken place between Israel and Iran for years.

Speaking from Tehran, Aslani said the personalities targeted were important, “including a commander considered as a lynchpin for Iran’s presidency in Syria and Lebanon”. He also said the location is crucial because an Iranian consulate is considered to be sovereign Iranian territory.

“The Israelis want to expand the scope of the war in order to bring the US into the story to attract more attention from the Americans. They have not been able to achieve their objectives in the field, and that’s why they want to divert attention,” he told Al Jazeera.

“We will need some more time to calculate Iran’s response. It could come from groups aligned with Iran indirectly, or it can come from Iran directly against Israeli and American interests in the region, or it could be a combination.”

“I think Iran will have no option but to retaliate because no retaliation will welcome further Israeli attacks,” Aslani said.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/4/1/israels-war-on-gaza-live-twenty-one-al-shifa-patients-have-died-amid-siege-who

>>480132
Anon, your citation doesn't appear related to support your claim at all. Are you just making shit up now?

>>480134
scroll down.

Totally forgot to post about this one here:

Five aid workers, including four foreigners, killed in Israeli attack on Deir el-Balah

Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary confirmed the killing of the aid workers, including Polish, Australian, and UK passport holders. A Palestinian was also killed in the attack, which hit the car the aid workers were travelling in.

The humanitarians, working for World Central Kitchen, were brought to Gaza’s al-Aqsa Hospital.

It is believed they are the first foreign aid workers to be killed in Gaza since the war began.

aje.io/kwvlol?update=2811738

This is a crazy one - World Central Kitchen is that kind of sketchy organization run by the celebrity chef who, iirc, has said some very pro-Israel stuff. This is also an organization which sent, iirc, the first (inadequate) aid to the jetty constructed on the Gaza coast (the pier isn't done yet), and the impression I've gotten is that they largely are operating there for the sake of western political cover.

People ‘amazed and astonished’ that Israeli forces targeted foreigners: AJ correspondent

Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah, said the bodies of the aid workers have arrived to the medical facility.

The scene is “very frustrating and horrifying”, she said. “Everyone in the hospital is amazed and astonished, they don’t believe Israeli forces targeted internationals,” Khoudary said.

“Earlier today … I talked to these aid workers, I asked them questions … and I saw them today killed. We saw their IDs, we saw their passports,” she said.

The group was on their way back from “dispatching the aid from a convoy that arrived from Cyprus earlier today,” Khoudary said. “This is how they were targeted, on their way back to their guest house in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip.”

and

Iran unlikely to hit back hard: Former US ambassador

Speaking to Al Jazeera, James Jeffrey, who served as the US ambassador to Iraq and Turkey and was the deputy national security adviser under President George W Bush, expressed his doubt over whether Iran would hit back hard following Israel’s attack on its consulate in Damascus.

Jeffrey pointed to Iran’s response following the killing of Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force, by the US in 2020. While many at the time feared all-out war, Iran chose to continue to mainly focus on its support for proxy groups across the region.

“It is not a given proof that if you hit Iran hard, Iran will escalate. In fact, I would argue it’s the opposite,” said Jeffrey. “But this time, we may be wrong. War is not a clear-cut obvious thing.”

Jeffrey added that despite the US’s concerns over Israel’s strategy in Gaza, there would be no “specific action against Israel over this”.

www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/4/1/israels-war-on-gaza-live-twenty-one-al-shifa-patients-have-died-amid-siege-who

Aid ships heading from Cyprus to Gaza to turn back with undelivered aid

Cyprus’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Theodoros Gotsis says 100 tons (90 tonnes) of aid were unloaded before World Central Kitchen suspended operations after seven of its workers were killed in an Israeli strike earlier today.

About 240 tons (220 tonnes) of aid will be turned back.

Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos said the charity is suspending its operations in Gaza out of respect for the victims as well as to review its security protocols.

Cyprus has played a key role in establishing a maritime aid corridor to Gaza from its port city of Larnaca.

Iran under pressure to deliver ‘show of force’ after Israel’s Syria strike
Dorsa Jabbari Reporting from Tehran, Iran

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard commanders killed in Syria are not ordinary men. And their assassination is being seen as a test for the Iranian system.

Whatever Iran decides to do, it’s going to be difficult to manoeuvre. If Iran doesn’t respond strongly enough, many here believe it will be seen as a sign of weakness, not only to Israel and the United States, but also to a number of its proxies in the region.

If Iran does react strongly, it could risk a full-out confrontation with the US. It’s really a tricky moment, and how Iran decides to move forward will be pivotal, not only for its standing in the region, but also the future of the establishment in this country.

So far, we know there have been a number of high-level meetings. The Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, held a meeting of the Supreme National Security Council during which it decided on an “appropriate response”.

All the rhetoric coming from Iranian officials as well as the supreme leader indicates there will be a strong response. What that means and how it plays out remain to be seen. But what is certain is that, internally, there is strong pressure for the Revolutionary Guard to make this a moment to show force.

‘Israel has crossed a line’ with Iran attack in Syria

The deadly attack on Iran’s consular office in Damascus could trigger a spillover of the Gaza war across the region, an escalation Tehran has sought to avoid, analysts say.

Ali Vaez of the International Crisis Group called the deadly strike “a significant escalation”.

“By targeting an Iranian diplomatic facility, Israel has crossed a line. Iran’s dilemma is that failure to respond could signal weakness to Israel, but retaliation risks a harsher US or Israeli action,” said Vaez.

Bassam Abu Abdallah, who heads the Damascus Centre for Strategic Research and is close to the Syrian government, said before Monday “there were rules of engagement, but now it’s an all-out war between Israel and the resistance axis”.

“It is now clear that the trend is towards escalation. We could start to see increased attacks against US bases in Syria, Iraq or elsewhere.”

Aid workers ‘part of collective punishment faced by Gaza civilians’

Alex Fort, a logistics coordinator at Doctors Without Borders, says the attack on the aid workers in Gaza is another example of how “international humanitarian law is not respected despite several deconfliction mechanisms in place to avoid such a tragedy”.

“Clearly, today it’s not possible to work in a safe way on the whole of the Gaza Strip. Humanitarian aid workers, health workers are directly targeted – and this is completely unacceptable,” he told Al Jazeera, speaking from the occupied East Jerusalem.

Fort said that this was not the first time such a “tragic” attack had happened since the start of the war, noting that MSF has faced such incidents several times that led “to the death of five of our colleagues”.

“This needs to stop and each incident needs serious investigation. For us, for example, all incidents we had, we requested serious investigation and we never get any feedback from the Israeli authorities,” Fort added.

“Aid workers are risking their life every day to provide assistance to the population and they are clearly part of the whole collective punishment that the civilian people of Gaza are facing every day.”

UAE condemns Israeli attack on World Central Kitchen team

Afra al-Hameli, director of strategic communications at the Emirati foreign ministry, says the UAE holds Israel “fully responsible for this dangerous development” and called for an urgent, independent and transparent investigation.

The UAE also called for the “punishment of those who have committed this heinous crime in contravention of international humanitarian law”.

The ministry stressed the importance of an immediate ceasefire in Gaza “and avoiding the targeting of civilians, organisations, civilian facilities, and relief organisations”.

>>480138
forgot sauce: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/4/2/israels-war-on-gaza-live-five-aid-workers-killed-after-delivering-food

After Syria strike, Israel warns of ‘daily’ attacks on enemies

“We are in a multi-front war, in the offence and defence,” said Defence Minister Yoav Gallant at a meeting of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, reports The Times of Israel.

We will “act everywhere, every day to prevent the force build-up of our enemies”, he said.

Israel’s goal is to “make it clear to anyone who threatens us – all over the Middle East – that the price for such action will be a big one”, Gallant added.

EU urges ‘restraint’ after Iran consulate strike

The European Union has said it was “alarmed by the alleged Israeli strike” on the Iranian consulate in Syria’s Damascus and warned against any escalation after Tehran promised revenge.

“In this highly tense regional situation, it is really of utmost importance to show restraint because the further escalation in the region is in no one’s interests,” EU spokesperson Peter Stano said.

The killings are the most significant strike against Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps since the US assassinated Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020.

Global public opinion ‘fed up’ with Israel’s unapologetic killing

Political analyst Nour Odeh says the countries whose citizens were killed in the Israeli attack on the aid convoy in Gaza have an obligation to seek accountability but precedence does not “provide much hope for the bereaved families”.

“We’ve seen time and again governments derelict their duties towards their citizens when they are killed by Israel,” she told Al Jazeera, speaking from Ramallah.

“So, really it’s up to the pressure that these governments will feel from their own constituents on how far they will go,” Odeh said, noting that pressure has been increasing as the war nears the six-month mark.

“Public opinion in the world, by and large, is fed up with the fact that Israel is killing humanitarian aid workers, doctors and journalists and getting away with it – killing with absolute impunity, unapologetically and still receiving weapons and political support.”

Israeli attacks kill 71, injure 102 in Gaza in last 24 hours

This brings the total killed in the enclave since October 7 to 32,916, with 75,494 people injured, according to the Gaza Health Ministry’s tally.

Many victims remain trapped under rubble in areas where emergency workers are unable to reach, it said.

Aid worker bodies to be transported to Egypt

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society says the bodies of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers killed are being prepared for evacuation through the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

The bodies were transported to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Gaza’s Deir el-Balah city, and then to Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah.

Global condemnation of World Central Kitchen killings

Here are some of the countries, organisations and officials who have denounced the Israeli attack so far:

Australia
Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib
Cyprus
Egypt
European Commission
Iran
Jordan
Martin Griffiths, the UN’s emergency relief chief
Norwegian Refugee Council
Open Arms Spanish Organisation
Poland
Scotland
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
World Food Programme Chief Cindy McCain

‘Food being blocked at every turn’: Aid group

The Save the Children charity has accused Israel of restricting the flow of much-needed humanitarian relief as the population of Gaza faces the threat of famine.

“Life-saving supplies which could be used to treat malnourished children are being delayed and denied entry by the Government of Israel,” it said in a statement.

“Essential food and medical items are obstructed from entering Gaza for days, weeks, or even months. Others are being denied entry altogether by the Israeli authorities, with reports of oxygen cylinders, ventilators and water purifiers being turned away at the border.”

Country Director Xavier Joubert said: “Starvation must never be used as a weapon of war – 27 children have already been killed by starvation and disease. If the world fails to act now countless more children will be added to that number.”

‘Peace starts with our shared humanity’

Celebrity chef Jose Andres, who started World Central Kitchen in 2010 by sending cooks and food to Haiti after an earthquake, says he’s heartbroken and grieving for the families and friends of those killed in Israel’s aid convoy attack.

“The Israeli government needs to stop this indiscriminate killing,” he said on social media.

“It needs to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon. No more innocent lives lost. Peace starts with our shared humanity. It needs to start now.”

The organisation has delivered food for communities hit by natural disasters, refugees at the US border, healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, and people in conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.

(even Jose Andres, whose organization is kind of sketchy, appears to be starting to see the light)

‘War is not bringing any safety or security to the people of Israel’

Israeli businessman Maoz Inon lost both his parents in the October 7 attacks by Hamas. Now he’s spreading a message of reconciliation.

“We didn’t want to take revenge,” Inon told AFP news agency at a small peace rally in Shefa Amr in northern Israel, which united Jews and Palestinians in a rare event since the war broke out.

Inon admitted at first he struggled to call for peace and forgiveness, “but this is the legacy of my parents. The future is going to be better,” he said.

“War is not bringing any safety or security to the people of Israel, and of course not to the Palestinians. The cycle of blood and fear has been going on for more than 100 years,” said Inon.

He noted he’s crisscrossed Israel and Europe in bid to reach out to Palestinians, including some from Gaza who “also lost a father, brother, entire families”.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/4/2/israels-war-on-gaza-live-five-aid-workers-killed-after-delivering-food

Japan restores UNRWA funding: Report

Japan has become the latest country to lift its suspension of funding to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, the Japanese news agency Jiji is reporting.

The European Commission, Canada, Australia, Sweden and Finland have also lifted funding pauses to UNRWA in recent weeks, while the United States formalised its ban until March 2025.

Established by the UN General Assembly in 1949, UNRWA supports six million Palestinian refugees in several countries and is the largest provider of humanitarian assistance in Gaza.

US national security adviser to hold talks in Saudi Arabia on normalised relations with Israel: Report

The Reuters news agency is reporting that US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan plans to travel to Saudi Arabia this week for talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as the US pushes for normalised relations with Israel.

According to Reuters, talks on normalisation of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel have resumed in recent months after being “put on ice” in the aftermath of the October 7 attack on southern Israel and Israel’s war on Gaza.

An unnamed US official told Reuters that Sullivan planned talks with Prince Mohammed to check in on the issue of normalising relations with Israel but a major breakthrough is not expected.

On March 21, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US and Saudi Arabia had made “good progress” in talks on normalising relations with Israel.

US told Iran it ‘had no involvement’ in Israeli strike on Iranian consulate in Syria: Axios

The US has told Iran it “had no involvement” in a suspected Israeli attack on an Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital Damascus, the US news site Axios is reporting, citing an unnamed US official.

As we reported earlier, Iran has promised to respond to the missile attack that destroyed its Damascus consulate, killing seven people including a top Iranian commander and his deputy.

Saudi Arabia condemns ‘targeting’ of Iranian consulate in Damascus

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued a statement condemning the targeting of the Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital.

The ministry expressed “categorical rejection” of the “targeting of diplomatic facilities for any justification, and under any pretext, which is a violation of international diplomatic laws and the rules of diplomatic immunity”.

The brief statement shared on social media did not specify who was responsible for the attack.

Iranian president: Israel’s ‘cowardly crime will not go unanswered’

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi denounced the Israeli air strike on Iran’s consulate in Damascus, calling it an “inhuman attack” that grossly violates international law.

“After repeated failures … the Zionist regime has put blind assassinations on its agenda,” Raisi said in a statement quoted by Iran’s Tasnim news agency. “But it should know that it will never achieve its sinister goals with such inhumane measures.

“This cowardly crime will not go unanswered,” said Raisi.

The strike on Monday levelled the consular section of Iran’s embassy, killing a senior commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s elite Quds force, his deputy, and five others.

UNSC to meet over Israel’s attack on Iranian consulate in Syria

At the request of Russia, the UN Security Council will hold an “open briefing” on Israel’s strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, according to Russia’s deputy envoy Dmitry Polyansk.

The briefing, scheduled by the Maltese presidency, will take place at 3pm New York time (19:00 GMT), said Polyansk in a post on X.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry condemned the “absolutely unacceptable” Israeli attack, which on Monday killed seven people, including senior Iranian officials, and called on Israel to cease such “provocative acts”.

‘Must be stopped’: Russia denounces Israeli attack on Iran in Syria

Moscow rejected the Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate in Syria and called on it to cease “completely unacceptable” actions.

“We strongly condemn this attack on the Iranian consular mission in Syria,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said. “Such aggressive actions by Israel are absolutely unacceptable and must be stopped.”

“We urge the Israeli leadership to abandon the practice of provocative military actions on the territory of Syria and other neighbouring countries,” it said.

Israeli warplanes bombed Iran’s embassy in Syria on Monday in a strike that Iran said killed seven of its military advisers, including senior commanders, marking a major escalation in Israel’s war with its regional adversaries.

China ‘shocked’, condemns Gaza strike that killed seven aid workers

Beijing says it’s “shocked” and denounced the Israeli attack on a US-based charity that killed seven of its staff as they unloaded desperately needed food in Gaza.

“China opposes all acts that harm civilians, damage civilian facilities, and violate international law,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said.

“We are shocked by the attack on international rescue workers in Gaza and condemn it.”

Spain to recognise Palestinian statehood by July: Reports

Spain will recognise Palestinian statehood by July, says Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, according to reports in Spanish media.

Sanchez’s remark came in the Jordanian capital, Amman, on the first day of visits to Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, state news agency EFE and newspapers El Pais and La Vanguardia reported.

At a European Council meeting last month, Sanchez said he agreed with the leaders of Ireland, Malta and Slovenia to “take the first steps” towards such a move.

In response, Israel told the four countries their plan constituted a “prize for terrorism”, which would decrease the chances of a negotiated resolution to the war in Gaza.

Knesset passes law that could shut down Al Jazeera in Israel

Israel’s parliament has passed a law that could allow the potential shutdown of foreign broadcasters in the country, including Al Jazeera.

CENTCOM says Houthi surface drone destroyed in Red Sea region

The US military’s central command (CENTCOM) said its forces destroyed a Houthi “unmanned surface vessel”, which posed a threat to merchant vessels as well as US and coalition military assets in the Red Sea.

CENTCOM, which said the destruction of the Houthi naval drone was an act of “self-defence” and necessary to “ensure freedom of navigation” in international waters, posts regular updates on its attacks against Houthi drone and missile sites in Yemen and across the Red Sea region.

Staunch supporters of the Palestinian cause, Houthi fighters in Yemen have for months targeted shipping in the Red Sea linked to Israel. The Houthis say these attacks are retaliation for Israel’s war on civilians in Gaza.

Record rise in anti-Muslim incidents in US in 2023: Report
Reported attacks and discrimination against Muslims and Palestinians reached a record high in the US last year, according to data from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

The Reuters news agency reports that complaints to CAIR totalled 8,061 in 2023, a 56 percent increase from the year before and the highest number of complaints since the advocacy group began keeping records on attacks and discrimination nearly 30 years ago.

About 3,600 of the reported incidents occurred from October to December, CAIR said, noting the rise in incidents was driven by Islamophobia and anti-Muslim bias amid Israel’s war on Gaza.

CAIR’s report on the increase said 2023 saw a “resurgence of anti-Muslim hate” after the first ever recorded annual drop in complaints in 2022.

“The primary force behind this wave of heightened Islamophobia was the escalation of violence in Israel and Palestine in October 2023,” the report said.

Targeting of aid workers a violation of international humanitarian law: Expert

Professor Ben Saul, UN Special Rapporteur on protecting human rights while countering terrorism, said Israel’s reported killing of the World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza could be a violation of international humanitarian law and a war crime.

“It’s a human tragedy. But, of course, it could well be a violation of international humanitarian law, under which Israel has a duty not to deliberately target humanitarian relief workers or their convoys or their relief consignments,” Saul told Al Jazeera.

“[Israel] also has a wider duty to ensure the safety of humanitarian workers in a conflict zone; to ensure their freedom of movement and to coordinate with them so that these kinds of tragedies never happen,” he said.

“Under international humanitarian law, if there is a deliberate targeting of any civilian, including humanitarian relief workers, that’s a war crime. If there is a targeting of a military objective, which causes excessive civilian casualties in the area, that would be a war crime. Or if it is an indiscriminate attack,” he added.

“Obviously, given the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the free passage of humanitarian relief is absolutely essential and just last week the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to open more land crossings, precisely because over a million Palestinians in Gaza are currently facing catastrophic levels of hunger, according to the United Nations.”

‘Israel committing war crime after war crime in broad daylight’: Australian senator

As we reported earlier, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has demanded “full accountability” over the killing of Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom in Gaza.

But Mehreen Faruqi, deputy Leader of the Australian Greens and a senator for New South Wales, told Al Jazeera the Australian government has not done enough to criticise Israel’s war on Gaza.

“Israel is committing war crime after war crime in broad daylight and is getting away with it,” she said. “Zomi was an Australian aid worker, like other aid workers, who are putting their lives on the line to feed the children that are being starved by Israel [and] are being killed,” Faruqi added.

“This is completely heartbreaking and devastating,” she continued.

Faruqi said Albanese’s statement was “the bare minimum”, and called for concrete actions such as demanding a permanent ceasefire, backing South Africa’s genocide case at the International Court of Justice, placing sanctions on the Israeli war cabinet and stopping all arms trade with Israel.

“These are things that we do when other war crimes happen,” she noted.

“Nowhere is safe in Gaza under Israel’s genocide attacks and yet and yet we have seen Western governments call Israel a friend and … continue on business as usual with Israel while these war crimes and more atrocities are going ahead.”

>>480141
5got src: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/4/2/israels-war-on-gaza-live-five-aid-workers-killed-after-delivering-food

also, from there:

Anera suspends relief operations in Gaza Strip

The organisation, which runs the second largest humanitarian operation in Gaza after UNRWA, has said it is suspending its work in the besieged coastal enclave following yesterday’s attack on World Central Kitchen (WCK) workers by Israeli forces.

“The killing of WCK humanitarians, occurring less than a month after the still-unexplained killing of Anera staff member Mousa Shawwa, alongside the loss of numerous other aid workers and their families, has led our team to conclude that delivering aid safely is no longer feasible,” Anera said in a statement.

“The ongoing targeting of humanitarian workers and the lack of adequate safety measures demand thorough investigation and immediate action. Israel bears the ultimate responsibility for ensuring the unhindered delivery of urgent humanitarian assistance and basic services to those in need,” it said.

Hamas ‘strongly condemns’ Israeli attack on World Central Kitchen team

The group that governs Gaza says that the attack once again proves that the “occupation insists on systematically killing civilians, international aid workers, and members of humanitarian organisations”.

In a statement on Telegram, Hamas said the objective of the attack was to “terrorise” aid workers and prevent them from continuing to carry out their humanitarian duties.

“We call on the international community and Security Council to denounce this heinous act, and to move towards putting an end to the occupation’s crimes and aggression against our people in the Gaza Strip.”

Canada denounces Israeli strike on Gaza aid workers

Ottawa calls for a full investigation of the Israeli air strike that killed seven people, one of whom is a Canadian citizen.

“We condemn these strikes and call for a full investigation. Canada expects full accountability for these killings, and we will convey this to the Israeli government directly. Strikes on humanitarian personnel are absolutely unacceptable,” Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said on X.

Joly’s comments are some of the harshest that Canada has directed against Israel since the start of its latest war on Gaza.

UK summons Israeli ambassador over killed aid workers

The United Kingdom’s Minister for Development and Africa Andrew Mitchell has said in a statement that he “set out the government’s unequivocal condemnation of the appalling killing of 7 World Central Kitchen aid workers, including 3 British nationals” in a meeting with Israel’s ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely.

“I reiterated the need for Israel to put in place an effective deconfliction mechanism immediately and urgently to scale up humanitarian access,” he said.

Israel has admitted responsibility for an attack in which seven aid workers of the World Central Kitchen, along with their Palestinian driver, were killed in central Gaza in a “targeted attack” by Israeli forces that has drawn global condemnation and forced the charity to suspend operations in the region.

www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/4/2/israels-war-on-gaza-live-five-aid-workers-killed-after-delivering-food

>>480152
>The group that governs Gaza says that the attack once again proves that the “occupation insists on systematically killing civilians, international aid workers, and members of humanitarian organisations”.
> the objective of the attack was to “terrorise” aid workers and prevent them from continuing to carry out their humanitarian duties.

Who the fuck attacks the soup-kitchen type people ?
This all has the vibe of horrible people trying to eliminate nice people, because horrible people thrive on death and suffering.

>>480155
Yeah.

Police clash with protesters in Israel as hundreds march towards Netanyahu’s residence

Israeli police say hundreds of protesters attempted to break through barricades near Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem.

The rally “turned into unrestrained disorder and riot in the street” in the last couple of hours, Israeli police said in a post on X.

Police officers prevented protesters from approaching the vicinity of the residence further, it said, and used “riot control measures to disperse” the demonstrators.

Five protesters were arrested for “violating public order”, the police said.

Anti-government protests have been taking place for several months. Many rallies are led by families of hostages who were taken by Hamas on October 7.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/4/2/israels-war-on-gaza-live-five-aid-workers-killed-after-delivering-food

Gaza protesters hold iftar outside White House
Ali Harb
Reporting from Washington, DC

As the Biden White House held an iftar for US government staffers, protesters gathered outside the building to call for an end to Israel’s war on Gaza.

The demonstrators chanted in support of a ceasefire and accused Biden of enabling genocide.

They broke their fast and prayed in the soaking rain.

We reported earlier that the White House had cancelled a community iftar after many Muslim Americans declined the invite.

“It’s very clear that the Muslim community will not accept these cheap attempts at outreach if they don’t answer our demands,” Mohamad Habehh, the director of development at American Muslims for Palestine, told Al Jazeera.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/4/3/israels-war-on-gaza-live-condemnation-of-israel-over-aid-worker-killings

Poland summons Israeli envoy over aid worker’s death: Report

Poland’s deputy foreign minister says he summoned Israel’s ambassador to discuss the death of a Polish aid worker killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza.

“I want to talk to the ambassador about the new situation in Polish-Israeli relations and about the moral, political and financial responsibility for the event that recently took place in the Gaza Strip”, Andrzej Szejna told the Polish state news agency PAP.

‘Plausible risk of genocide in Gaza’: UN eyes Israel arms embargo

The UN Human Rights Council will consider a draft resolution on Friday calling for an arms embargo on Israel.

If the draft resolution is adopted, it would mark the first time the United Nations’s top rights body has taken a position on the war raging in Gaza.

The text condemns “the use of explosive weapons with wide-area effects by Israel” in populated areas of Gaza and demands Israel “uphold its legal responsibility to prevent genocide”.

The eight-page draft demands Israel end its occupation of Palestinian territory and immediately lift its “illegal blockade” on the Gaza Strip. It calls on countries to stop the sale or transfer of arms, munitions and other military equipment to Israel, citing “a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza”.

The draft also “condemns the use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare”, calls for an immediate ceasefire and “condemns Israeli actions that may amount to ethnic cleansing”.

The draft resolution was brought forward by Pakistan on behalf of 55 of the 56 UN member states in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) – the exception being Albania.

White House says aid worker killings should not affect ceasefire talks

The US does not expect the Israeli strike that killed seven World Central Kitchen workers in Gaza to impact talks on an Israel-Hamas ceasefire and releases of captives and Palestinian prisoners, the White House says.

“The ceasefire and hostage negotiations are ongoing,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters at a briefing. “I wouldn’t anticipate any particular impact on those discussions as a result of the strike yesterday.”

(anon's note: this is a very interesting position to take when the UNSC has already ordered a ceasefire)

Killing of aid workers sparks ‘great deal of rage’
Hani Mahmoud
Reporting from Rafah, southern Gaza

Earlier today, the bodies of the six aid workers – the holders of foreign passports – were transferred to Rafah at the crossing where there were delegations on the other side from their embassies and countries to receive the bodies.

Just the fact that this is happening to an international organisation providing humanitarian supplies and food and cooking meals for displaced families has caused a great deal of rage here among Palestinians.

These people bonded very well with the displaced families. They prepared meals for them and provided them with food supplies and survival items [that] are much needed right now to combat this desperate situation.

This has been widely perceived as a deliberate direct attack on humanitarian aid and on aid workers on the ground.

Protesters seeking release of captives smear paint in Israeli parliament

Israeli protesters demand the government do more to free captives held by Hamas with some smearing paint on the partition between the visitors’ gallery and the plenum.

“Now! Now!” they chanted at lawmakers below, leaving the glass streaked with yellow – the colour of their campaign – as ushers bundled them out.

The protest followed three days of antigovernment demonstrations in Jerusalem when thousands took to the streets calling for more action to free the hostages and new elections to replace Netanyahu.

UK healthcare workers protest against US company supplying Israel’s army

Hundreds of British healthcare workers blocked the entrance to NHS England’s headquarters in central London demanding the cancellation of business deals with American company Palantir citing Israel’s “war on hospitals”.

A statement from the group Health Workers for a Free Palestine accused Palantir of supplying “advanced technology to Israel’s military”.

NHS England awarded a 330 million pound ($415m) contract to Palantir in November. Healthcare staff are “shutting down access to NHS England protesting its contract” with a company “complicit in the systematic destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system”, it said.

Palantir’s CEO Alex Karp has said he’s “exceedingly proud” of the company’s involvement in “operationally crucial operations in Israel”.

The protest comes as Israel continues to target Gaza’s overwhelmed and destroyed hospitals with raids.

Spanish PM: Israel’s explanation of aid worker attack ‘insufficient and unacceptable”

Pedro Sanchez, during a joint news conference with Qatar’s prime minister, has demanded further details from Israel about the killing of seven people working for World Central Kitchen in a Gaza air raid.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the incident “a tragic event in which our forces unintentionally harmed non-combatants”, adding that “this happens in war”.

“That is unacceptable and insufficient, and we are awaiting a much stronger and more detailed clarification, after which we’ll see what action to take,” Sanchez said.

World Central Kitchen was founded by Spanish American chef Jose Andres.

US special envoy for Yemen says a diplomatic solution needed

Tim Lenderking says the pressure of the US-led coalition meant to safeguard commercial traffic in the Red Sea may discourage attacks on ships by Yemen’s Houthis, but ultimately a diplomatic solution will have to be found.

‘Deadlier blows’: Iran warns Israel over Syria strikes

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned Israel over air strikes that destroyed Iran’s consulate in Damascus and killed 12 people, including two Iranian generals.

General Ramazan Sharif, a spokesman for the IRGC, said “soon we will see deadlier blows to the Zionist regime and the Resistance Front will carry out its duties in this regard”.

He appeared to be referring to Iran and its allies across the region, including the Lebanese Hezbollah and armed groups in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. They have repeatedly traded fire with Israel and the US since the start of the war in Gaza, raising fears of a wider conflict.

Sharif said Israeli attacks on Iranian interests “will get nowhere and the motivation of our soldiers will be multiplied”. He also accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of using attacks to divert public attention from “the racist nature of this regime”.

Bodies of killed aid workers arrive in Egypt: Reports

Ambulances carrying the bodies of aid workers from World Central Kitchen killed by an Israeli air attack have arrived at Gaza’s border with Egypt, according to the AFP news agency.

Egypt state media also reported that the bodies, which were transported to the border earlier today from Abu Youssef Al-Najjar Hospital in the southern border city of Rafah, have been transported out of Gaza.

In Egypt, the bodies will be met by representatives from their home countries and then repatriated for burial.

“Today, we bid farewell to six martyrs of humanitarian duty who were serving the Palestinian people through the global central kitchen,” said Dr Marwan al-Hams, the director of the hospital.

“Our message to the whole world, the British, Australian, Canadian and Polish governments: stop supporting Israel with weapons,” he added.

Belgian FM says country open to Palestinian statehood

Belgium’s Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib says the country will consider recognising Palestinian statehood “when the moment comes”.

Speaking at a NATO summit, Lahbib also expressed concern about the international response to the Gaza war, saying the UN Security Council Resolution calling for an “immediate ceasefire” last month has been shown to be toothless.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the resolution “must be implemented without delay”.

Palestinians fear food aid fallout after Israeli convoy killings
Tareq Abu Azzoum
Reporting from Rafah, southern Gaza

The Israeli military has attacked a house in central Deir el-Balah city, killing at least four civilians. Since early this morning, we’ve been hearing loud explosions in the southern city of Khan Younis. We could clearly feel the reverberations from our reporting position in Rafah.

Palestinians here are shocked and concerned about the repercussions of Israel’s attack on aid workers. World Central Kitchen is one of the main food distributors in the territory, providing more than 40 million meals since October.

Despite growing international calls to increase aid deliveries, this attack essentially brought humanitarian work to a standstill – despite thousands of Gaza residents staring down starvation conditions.

‘Target on their back’: Aid workers halt efforts after deadly Israeli strikes

American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera) is one humanitarian organisation among many that decided to halt its work in Gaza after the killing of seven aid workers from World Central Kitchen.

“This is something that we were forced to do to ensure our safety,” Sandra Rasheed, Anera’s Palestine country director, told Al Jazeera. “Our staff have guided our work, and they, themselves, feel like there’s a target on their backs.”

Rasheed said the decision to suspend operations was difficult because the situation for Palestinians worsens each day. She said her organisation was distributing close to 150,000 hot meals a day.

“I think the more that we have time to process this, the more surprising and shocking it is that three convoy vehicles were hit by three different bombs – through the roof of their car, which indicates a targeted killing,” she said.

“We are waiting to have some assurance from Israel and from the international community that doing this life-saving work will not constitute putting a target on our staff’s back.”

US officials express doubt over Israeli claims on convoy killings: Report

American officials, speaking anonymously to US news outlet Politico, expressed scepticism at Israeli claims that the aid worker killings were “unintentional” and whether those responsible would be held to account.

One unnamed administration official, who previously worked with World Central Kitchen founder Joe Andres, highlighted the killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, a longtime correspondent with Al Jazeera.

Overwhelming evidence shows that an Israeli soldier deliberately targeted Abu Akleh and shot her dead as she reported in the occupied West Bank two years ago. No Israeli troops have ever been punished for her murder, however.

“[Israel will] do and say whatever is necessary to maintain the status quo, and I have little hope their investigation will be transparent or honest,” the official is quoted as saying.

Noting that three missiles were used in the convoy attack, another American official said it appeared intentional. “Three hits on three cars in a row is not an accident. We aren’t stupid.”

Canada wants full investigation into killing of aid workers

Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly has called for a full investigation into the killing of aid workers in Gaza, among them a Canadian citizen.

Speaking on the sidelines of a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels, she said Israel needed to respect international law, adding Canada would make sure it does.

Who authorised the Israeli air strikes on the aid convoy in Gaza?

Al Jazeera’s investigation into the deadly Israeli air strikes on the aid workers’ convoy shows three separate attacks on vehicles.

Omar Ashour, a professor of military and security studies at the Doha Institute of Graduate Studies, says after the first two vehicles were hit, there had to be communication among the Israeli military before the third was targeted, indicating “an intentional issue there”.

He said the great expense of the missiles used in the strikes “would need some command level” authorisation. However, he noted, the way the military operates, it may have been a less senior officer who ordered the strikes.

“The Israeli army has been fighting since 1948 onwards in a relatively decentralised way. The ‘tactical aggression’ is very high. They devolve junior officers to take quick decisions on the battlefield without going back to the senior ones. Interestingly, they took this from the Wehrmacht, the German army, in World War II,” Ashour told Al Jazeera.

Polish prosecutors launch investigation into aid worker killing

Prosecutors in Przemysl, where Polish aid worker Damian Sobol is from, are independently investigating the circumstances of his killing in Gaza, Deputy District Prosecutor Beata Starzecka has told Poland’s PAP press agency.

Sobol, 35, was among seven aid workers killed by a succession of Israeli air strikes on their convoy in an attack that Poland’s prime minister said is putting Israel and Poland’s relations “to a hard test”.

The Israeli military has called the attack a “mistake” and promised to investigate how it happened. An investigation by Al Jazeera’s Sanad verification agency has found the attack was intentional.

Pope condemns aid worker killings as he calls for peace in Gaza and Ukraine

Pope Francis has made a new appeal for peace in Gaza and Ukraine, condemning the killing of aid workers in an Israeli air strike while also paying tribute to a Ukrainian soldier who died in the war against Russia.

“I express deep regret for the volunteers killed while they were engaged in distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza. I pray for them and their families,” Francis said.

He renewed his call for an “immediate” Gaza ceasefire, the release of all captives held by Hamas and full access for humanitarian aid as he warned against “irresponsible” widening of the conflict.

UNRWA: Israel continues to deny agency aid access to north Gaza

Israel has continued to block the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) from bringing food and other aid into northern Gaza, where hunger is most prevalent, UNRWA says in its latest situation update.

The amount of aid entering Gaza as a whole has also remained low with an average of 161 aid trucks reaching the enclave per day throughout March, well below the target of 500, according to UNRWA.

In addition, three more UNRWA members have been killed in Gaza hostilities, it said, bringing the total number of the agency’s staff killed since October 7 to 176.

Shin Bet: Protests outside PM’s home may ‘lead to violent clashes with security forces’

After a violent night of demonstrations outside the residence of Israel’s leader, the head of the domestic security agency, Shin Bet, warned: “There is a clear line between a legitimate protest and a violent and illegal one.”

“Violent discourse on social media and some of the scenes we witnessed overnight in Jerusalem go beyond any reasonable protest actions and harm the ability to maintain public order,” Ronen Bar said in a statement.

“These actions may lead to violent clashes with the security forces.”

Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported a senior Shin Bet official as saying Tuesday’s demonstration could have ended in gunfire at protesters, who broke through blockades.

World Central Kitchen founder: Israel must ‘stop killing civilians today’

Jose Andres, the celebrity chef who founded World Central Kitchen, penned an op-ed for Israeli news site Ynet following the Israeli attack on his organisation’s aid convoy that killed seven staff.

“The air strikes on our convoy were not just some unfortunate mistake in the fog of war. It was a direct attack on clearly marked vehicles whose movements were known by the [Israeli military],” writes Andres. “It was also the direct result of his [PM Netanyahu’s] government’s policy to squeeze humanitarian aid to desperate levels.”

He adds: “Israel is better than the way this war is being waged. It is better than blocking food and medicine to civilians. It is better than killing aid workers who coordinate their movements.

“The Israeli government needs to open land routes to food and medicine today. It needs to stop killing civilians and aid workers today. It needs to start the long journey to peace today.”

Palestinians have right to statehood, Israel no right to ‘abuse force’

Poland’s Foreign Ministry reiterated Palestinians’ right to establish an independent state and called out Israel’s “abuse” of force – a further indication of strained ties between Israel and Poland following the killing of a Polish aid worker.

In a post on X, the Polish Foreign Ministry said: “We recognise Israel’s right to self-defence, but we do not recognise the right to abuse force and illegal settlement.

“We also recognise the right of the Palestinians to establish a state and establish an institutional framework to live in peace. In the current situation, both sides lose.”

Biden ‘outraged’ by Israel’s killing – yet still sending weapons

American President Joe Biden says he’s “outraged and heartbroken” by Israel’s killing of seven aid workers in Gaza, delivering some of his strongest criticism yet of the close US ally.

But Biden’s rebuke is the latest example of his conflicting messages on the war as his administration becomes increasingly critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government even while doubling down on the need to supply Israel with weaponry.

Formal diplomatic rebuke expected over Israel’s aid worker killings

A senior Canadian government official says several nations will soon file the formal rebuke, known as a demarche, to Israel’s Foreign Ministry.

On Tuesday, a top official with Canada’s Global Affairs department also made a formal representation to the Israeli ambassador to Canada, The Associated Press quoted the unnamed official as saying.

Among the aid workers killed late on Monday was a Canadian-American dual national, as well as a Palestinian, three British citizens, and Polish and Australian nationals.

Russia demands Western condemnation of Israel’s attack on Iran embassy

Russia circulated a draft statement to the UN Security Council denouncing the Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Syria that killed seven Revolutionary Guard members, including two top generals.

Russian official Dmitry Polyansky wrote in his Telegram channel that Western UNSC members need to take action.

“What if the diplomatic mission of another country came under attack? A member of the Security Council? A Western state?” said Polyanksy.

“[We] emphasized in the event of further escalation of the situation, responsibility for this will fall on the United States, Great Britain and France, which have never found the strength to condemn Israeli attacks.”

Australian humanitarian agencies condemn ‘rising aid worker death toll in Gaza’

The Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) and seven Australian humanitarian aid organisations have issued a joint statement condemning the “rising aid worker death toll in Gaza”.

The organisations said Australian Zomi Frankcom, who was killed along with six World Central Kitchen colleagues on Monday, was one of “hundreds of humanitarian workers killed by this conflict”, including staff of some of the organisations that signed the joint statement.

…

Why Biden’s White House iftar unravelled amid Gaza war
Ali Harb

The White House has cancelled a Ramadan iftar meal after several Muslim Americans declined the invitation in protest of President Joe Biden’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The sources, who spoke to Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity, said the cancellation on Tuesday came after Muslim community members warned leaders against attending the White House meal.

Edward Ahmed Mitchell, the deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), also said the event was nixed because so many people chose not to attend, including invitees who had initially agreed to go.

“The American Muslim community said very early on that it would be completely unacceptable for us to break bread with the very same White House that is enabling the Israeli government to starve and slaughter the Palestinian people in Gaza,” Mitchell told Al Jazeera.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/4/3/israels-war-on-gaza-live-condemnation-of-israel-over-aid-worker-killings

Does Palestine have the numbers for its full UN membership bid?

As we reported earlier, supporters of Palestine’s bid for full UN membership have written a letter to the current presidents of the UN Security Council (UNSC), the UN General Assembly (UNGA) and UN Chief Antonio Guterres.

“We wish to bring to your attention that, as of this date, 140 Member States have recognised the state of Palestine,” signatories to the letter said.

The list of 140 countries shows that Palestine has the support of 72 percent of UN members, comfortably more than the two-thirds of the 193-member UNGA needed.

However, the decision will only go to a vote in the UNGA if it is first approved by the 15-member UNSC where the five permanent members, including the United States, have veto power.

Israeli military bulldoze roads, village water system as raids in West Bank continue

Nightly raids by the Israeli military on Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank continue with soldiers reported to have entered the towns of Azzun and Kafr Qaddum, east of Qalqilya city, in the early hours of Wednesday.

A home was raided and tear gas canisters and stun grenades were used by Israeli forces in Azzun, the Wafa news agency reports.

Confrontations between Palestinian locals resisting the military incursions and Israeli soldiers erupted in the al-Far’a refugee camp, south of Tubas city, Wafa reports, adding that military bulldozers accompanied the soldiers into the camp.

Military bulldozers were also in operations in the village of Deir Sharaf, located to the west of Nablus, where the Israeli military destroyed roads as well as the village’s water supply network. The destruction blocked several roadways and cut water to homes in the west of the village, Wafa said.

Earlier in the evening, a Palestinian man was arrested while passing through a military checkpoint north of Ramallah.

Fourth night of protests calling for removal of Netanyahu government, end of Gaza war

Thousands of Israelis protested for a fourth consecutive day against the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and in favour of an agreement to end Israel’s war on Gaza.

The demonstrators gathered with banners and torches near the parliament building in Jerusalem on Tuesday evening where they called for new elections and accused Netanyahu of standing in the way of a deal that would free Israeli captives held in Gaza.

The DPA news agency said that clashes between police and demonstrators broke out when protesters tried to march to Netanyahu’s private residence and break through a security barrier protecting the site.

Five protesters were arrested for “violating public order”, the police said.

Israeli air raids target southern Lebanon

An Israeli air strike has targeted the vicinity of a mosque in the town of Ainata in the Bint Jbeil district of southern Lebanon, Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) has reported.

The NNA did not say if any injuries occurred in the attack at about 10.15pm (18:00 GMT) Tuesday night.

Several Israeli air strikes also hit areas between the towns of Aitaroun and Blida, the NNA reported.

Four Israeli police injured, suspect killed after ramming attack near West Bank’s Qalqilya

Four Israeli police officers have been reported injured in a car ramming attack west of the city of Qalqilya in the occupied West Bank, our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic report.

According to Israeli police, the attackers also tried to stab Israeli forces at a military checkpoint and one of two perpetrators of the car ramming was killed near the town of Kochav Yair.

A search is under way for a second suspected attacker, Al Jazeera Arabic reports, citing Israeli police reports.

Two of the Israeli police officers are in serious condition following the car ramming, according to reports.

World Central Kitchen founder says Israel targeted his aid workers ‘systematically’

Celebrity chef and founder of World Central Kitchen (WCK) Jose Andres says an Israeli attack that killed seven of the NGO’s food aid workers in Gaza had targeted them “systematically, car by car”.

Speaking in a video interview with Reuters news agency, Andres said the WCK charity group had clear communication with the Israeli military, which he said knew his aid workers’ movements.

This was not a “bad luck situation where, ‘oops,’ we dropped the bomb in the wrong place,” Andres said. “Even if we were not in coordination with the [Israeli army], no democratic country and no military can be targeting civilians and humanitarians.”

Andres said he was supposed to be with his team but for various reasons “wasn’t able to go back again to Gaza”

Undelivered Gaza aid returned to Cyprus

A sea convoy of undelivered food for Gaza has been returned to Cyprus after the killing of seven aid workers in an Israeli air raid on Monday evening.

A cargo ship carrying 240 tonnes of food sailed back to Larnaca in Cyprus following the deadly attack, dropping anchor just outside the port.

A second ship arrived earlier, the Open Arms, owned by a Spanish NGO working with World Central Kitchen, whose aid workers were the victims of Israel’s attack.

The undelivered aid was part of a consignment of about 340 tonnes sent to Gaza from Cyprus on March 30. The aid workers killed in Gaza had just finished work unloading 100 tonnes from a barge, also sent from Cyprus.

Most UK voters support ban on arms exports to Israel: Poll

A survey conducted by polling firm YouGov found that 56 percent of all voters in the United Kingdom are in favour of a ban on sending weapons to Israel, including spare parts for weapons systems.

Fifty-nine percent of voters say that Israel is violating human rights in Gaza, the poll also found.

Among the UK’s different political parties, an overwhelming 71 percent of Labour voters favour an arms export ban, while 70 percent of Liberal Democrat voters agree. As for Conservative Party voters, 38 percent support the ban, still higher than the 36 percent who do not.

This poll was conducted before an Israeli attack killed seven aid workers of World Central Kitchen in Deir el-Balah.

UK faces pressure to stop selling weapons to Israel after aid workers killed

The three main British opposition parties and some lawmakers in the governing party have urged the British government to consider suspending arms sales.

The Liberal Democrats called for arms exports to Israel to be suspended, while the Scottish National Party also backed that move and said parliament should be recalled from its Easter break to discuss the crisis.

The main opposition Labour Party, who polls suggest will form the next government later this year, adopted a nuanced approach, saying the government should suspend arms sales if lawyers have found Israel had broken international law.

Gaza media office says number of journalists killed now stands at 140

Gaza’s media office says two more Palestinian journalists have been killed in attacks by Israeli forces in the enclave.

This brings the total number of journalists and media representatives killed since October 7 to 140, it said.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/4/3/israels-war-on-gaza-live-condemnation-of-israel-over-aid-worker-killings

>>480168
>'Plausible risk of genocide in Gaza’: UN eyes Israel arms embargo
>The UN Human Rights Council will consider a draft resolution on Friday calling for an arms embargo on Israel.
>If the draft resolution is adopted, it would mark the first time the United Nations’s top rights body has taken a position on the war raging in Gaza.
>The text condemns “the use of explosive weapons with wide-area effects by Israel” in populated areas of Gaza and demands Israel “uphold its legal responsibility to prevent genocide”.
>The eight-page draft demands Israel end its occupation of Palestinian territory and immediately lift its “illegal blockade” on the Gaza Strip. It calls on countries to stop the sale or transfer of arms, munitions and other military equipment to Israel, citing “a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza”.
>The draft also “condemns the use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare”, calls for an immediate ceasefire and “condemns Israeli actions that may amount to ethnic cleansing”.
>The draft resolution was brought forward by Pakistan on behalf of 55 of the 56 UN member states in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) – the exception being Albania.

They ignored the ceasefire from the security council, would this arms embargo be upheld any better ?

>>480172
Well, yes, probably.
Israel, specifically, ignored the ceasefire resolution, but an arms embargo shifts responsibility more overtly to Israel's backers. Of course, the previous UNSC resolution would also render the US's continuing supply of arms to Israel most likely illegal, as Israel was immediately acting in defiance of this resolution, so there's a very reasonable question to be asked here about whether the US would comply with an arms embargo against Israel by ceasing sales and transfer of weapons to Israel. I think it's unlikely that the US would comply, but many other countries would comply. The US would probably have to be forced to comply from within; which goes for its already-existing laws, too. As Josh Paul said in the clip in >>480170 , the Biden admin is sticking their fingers in their ears.

>>480173
>I think it's unlikely that the US would comply, but many other countries would comply.
The US probably supplies the bulk of the weapons to Israel, so it probably is just a small reduction. I guess that's better than nothing.

>>480174
Any reduction is good, and if the US does comply then that's better.
Either way, still up to us to make it stop doing this.

Four aid bundles land in the sea during US, Jordanian airdrops

The US Central Command posted on X that it had conducted a combined humanitarian assistance airdrop into northern Gaza on Wednesday, along with the Royal Jordanian Air Force.

It said that “US C-130s dropped over 38,000 meal equivalents, providing life-saving humanitarian assistance in Northern Gaza”.

“During today’s mission, approximately four bundles landed in the sea. USCENTCOM does not assess civilian harm or damage to infrastructure at this time but continues to monitor the situation,” the post read.

In March, 12 Palestinians drowned attempting to retrieve aid from the sea.

Aid agencies have criticised the airdrops as a costly and ineffective way of delivering aid and have urged Israel to allow more aid to enter via the land border.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/4/3/israels-war-on-gaza-live-condemnation-of-israel-over-aid-worker-killings

John Kirby's a real zany figure.

Former judges, lawyers say UK should suspend weapons sales to Israel

Three former Supreme Court judges are among 613 lawyers and former judges warning the UK government it risks complicity in “serious breaches” of international humanitarian law in Gaza.

They have signed an open letter calling on the UK government to:

Work to secure a ceasefire in Gaza
Ensure Palestinian people have safe access to aid and medical assistance
Impose sanctions on people and entities inciting genocide against Palestinians
Suspend providing weapons and weapons systems to Israel
Review trade agreements with Israel and consider sanctions
The letter comes as the UK’s opposition Labour Party said the government should suspend arms sales if lawyers have found Israel had broken international law.

https://lawyersletter.uk/uk-lawyers-open-letter-concerning-gaza/
https://twitter.com/AamerAnwar/status/1775663293769580567

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/4/4/israels-war-on-gaza-live-israel-accused-of-ai-assisted-genocide-in-gaza

Breaking news and analysis on day 180 of Gaza's Al-Aqsa Flood | The Electronic Intifada Podcast

Starts with details about the recent Al Shifa hospital massacre.

>>480177
<We told them where the water facilities are, and they bombed them.
The expectation was, they would avoid bombing the water facilities if they knew where they are, but maybe it's better not to tell them because they're probably doing it on purpose.

>>480181
Yep!

>>480180
Also! They say during their analysis of Butcher Biden's failed iftar that Donald Trump actually had more White House iftars than Biden did.

>>480180
>Starts with details about the recent Al Shifa hospital massacre.
Zionists called it a "battlefield achievement"
Fucking psychos

‘No need to buy generators, gather food, withdraw money,’ army tells Israelis

An Israeli army spokesperson says there has been no change in guidelines for home front preparedness amid reports of a high military alert after Iran pledged revenge for Monday’s deadly attack on its consulate building in Damascus.

“There is no need to buy generators, gather food and withdraw money from ATMs,” Daniel Hagari wrote on X.

“As we have done until today, we will immediately update any change, should there be one, in an official and orderly manner.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/4/4/israels-war-on-gaza-live-israel-accused-of-ai-assisted-genocide-in-gaza

Hezbollah claims attack on Israeli army technicians

The Lebanese group says it targeted a technical team in Bayad Bilda a short while ago while it was performing maintenance on espionage equipment.

The Israeli army is on high alert today as it expects retaliation from Iran for an attack it carried out on the Iranian consulate in Syria. The army has said this retaliation could come in the form of attacks from one or more militia groups aligned with Iran, such as Hezbollah.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/4/4/israels-war-on-gaza-live-israel-accused-of-ai-assisted-genocide-in-gaza

I find it amazing that Israel has not one but two countries between itself and Iran in any given direction, and it wants people to believe that Iran has some sort of devious imperial designs against it. If Iran were such a menace it would be conquering its direct neighbors before directing attention to a tiny country on the other side of the Middle East.

>>480188
Maybe they take after the US. There are 7 countries between the US and Panama, but Bush, Sr. still invaded on the pretext of… cocaine.

Gaza war death toll surpasses 33,000; 62 killed in past day

At least 33,037 Palestinians have been killed and 75,668 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, its Health Ministry says.

Some 62 Palestinians were killed and 91 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.


Israeli strike targets rescue team, killing four

At least four people, including a paramedic, have been killed in an Israeli air strike that hit a rescue team in Beit Hanoon in northern Gaza, a health official says.

The emergency director at Kamal Adwan Hospital, Fares Afaneh, said the attack targeted a medical team rescuing injured people. He identified one of the victims as Hussein Matar.

“Our crew moved to rescue [people] wounded by Israeli shelling, and upon its arrival, it was subjected to another bombardment. Our crew was bombed while working,” Afaneh said.

Videos obtained by Al Jazeera show injured people arriving at the hospital.

“These are Biden and America missiles that target medical staff, children, women and those safe in their homes,” Afaneh added.

MSF dismisses Israeli claim aid worker killings were a ‘regrettable incident’

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) says it rejects Israel’s position that an air raid that killed seven aid workers on Monday was a “regrettable incident”, saying many humanitarian personnel have been attacked previously.

“We do not accept it because what has happened to World Central Kitchen and MSF’s convoys and shelters is part of the same pattern of deliberate attacks on humanitarians, health workers, journalists, UN personnel, schools and homes”, Christopher Lockyear, secretary-general of MSF International, said at a news conference in Geneva.

He added, “We have been saying it for weeks now: this pattern of attacks is either intentional or indicative of reckless incompetence.”

He said the killings of the World Central Kitchen workers showed that measures to ease the conflict were futile “in a war fought with no rules”.

“Our movements and locations are shared, coordinated and identified already. This is about impunity, a total disregard for the laws of war. And now it must become about accountability.”

“I have received no explanation for any of the incidents,” Lockyear said.

Canadian aid worker killed in Gaza had young son, family says

Jacob Flickinger, the Canadian aid worker killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza this week, was a former soldier who had an 18-month-old son, his parents tell Canadian public broadcaster CBC.

Flickinger, who also had US citizenship, had been in Gaza volunteering for the World Central Kitchen NGO since early March, they said.

“He believed very strongly that the work he was doing was important, especially in this case, knowing that there was starvation out there,” his mother, Sylvie Labrecque, said.

Flickinger’s father, John, said he thought the strike had been deliberate.

“Their convoy was clearly marked, and they were on a well-used humanitarian route. So in my opinion, it was a targeted kill,” he said.

Flickinger had recently settled with his wife and son in Costa Rica, his parents said.

“They were a happy little family. Together, they were extremely happy, and they loved each other desperately, and they had great projects for the future, for themselves and the child,” Labrecque said.

Poland condemns ‘outrageous’ remarks by Israeli envoy over aid worker’s killing

Polish President Andrzej Duda has denounced “outrageous” comments by the Israeli ambassador to Warsaw over the death of a Polish aid worker in an Israeli strike in Gaza.

Israeli ambassador Yacov Livne gave an interview on Wednesday in which he stopped short of apologising for the killing despite being repeatedly asked to do so.

Duda called his remarks “not very fortunate, in short, outrageous”, adding “the ambassador is the biggest problem for the state of Israel in its relations with Poland”.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk added: “If the ambassador decides to make public appearances in our media, he should use this opportunity to offer a simple, human apology.”

Livne was summoned for talks on Friday at the Polish Foreign Ministry to discuss Israel’s “responsibility” for the aid worker’s death.

Poland PM says Israel should pay damages for killing of aid worker

Donald Tusk also said that Israel should apologise for the killing of Damian Sobol in Gaza and provide full information about what happened.

“We will expect … an immediate explanation of the circumstances and compensation for the victims’ relatives,” the prime minister told a news conference.

Sobol, 35, was one of seven World Central Kitchen staff members killed by Israeli strikes late on Monday, in an attack that was condemned worldwide.

Trudeau says Israel’s killing of Canadian aid worker ‘unacceptable’

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the killing of Canadian aid worker Jacob Flickinger by Israeli forces in Gaza was “absolutely unacceptable”.

Trudeau said the Canadian – one of seven staff members of the World Central Kitchen aid group who were killed in an air strike – died “while delivering food to civilians in need”.

“At a time when humanitarian aid is so urgently needed in Gaza, Israel has an obligation to ensure the safety of aid workers,” Trudeau said in a post on social media.

“The world – and [Flickinger’s] loved ones – deserves an explanation as to how this happened,” he added.

HRW probe finds Israeli strike that killed 106 civilians was ‘apparent war crime’

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has released a detailed investigation into an Israeli air strike that killed 106 Palestinians in a six-storey apartment building on October 31, 2023, describing the attack as an “apparent war crime”.

Witnesses said 350 or more people were staying in the Engineers’ Building, just south of the Nuseirat refugee camp, when four aerial munitions struck the building within about 10 seconds, without warning, at about 2:30 pm local time. The building was completely demolished.

“This strike inflicted massive civilian casualties without an apparent military target – one of scores of attacks causing overwhelming carnage,” said Gerry Simpson, associate crisis and conflict director at HRW.

The 106 Palestinians, including 54 children, killed in the attack were playing football, charging their phones in the downstairs grocery store, or simply seeking shelter after fleeing their own homes, said Simpson.

‘Not good enough’: Australia’s PM slams Israel’s explanation for aid workers’ deaths

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has slammed Israel’s explanation for the killing of seven aid workers in Gaza as “not good enough”, as outrage over the attack continues to reverberate globally.

“We need to have accountability for how it has occurred, and what is not good enough is the statements that have been made, including that this is just a product of war,” Albanese said during a news conference in Sydney.

Australian woman Zomi Frankcom was one of seven employees of World Central Kitchen (WCK) who were killed on Monday when their convoy was hit in an Israeli air strike in central Gaza.

WCK CEO Jose Andres said in an interview that the Israeli military had targeted his employees “systematically, car by car”.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/4/4/israels-war-on-gaza-live-israel-accused-of-ai-assisted-genocide-in-gaza

Report: Israel begins evacuating embassies over Iran attack fears

Israeli news outlet Kann reports that “a number of Israeli embassies around the world were evacuated after a situation assessment by the Shin Bet [Israeli internal security agency] and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs”.

The Israeli military has halted leave for all combat units, called up reservists and blocked GPS coordinates in the country after Iran threatened retaliation for deadly attacks on its consulate in Damascus, Syria.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/4/4/israels-war-on-gaza-live-israel-accused-of-ai-assisted-genocide-in-gaza

Wouldn't it be amazing if Israel took all these measures and then Iran was like "gotcha!"

>>480191
>Israeli news outlet Kann reports that “a number of Israeli embassies around the world were evacuated after a situation assessment by the Shin Bet [Israeli internal security agency] and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs”.
Clearing out embassies, is this the beginning of them becoming a pariah-state ?

>>480180
Great stuff around 2 hours, 9 minutes

>>480180
Apparently 3 of the World Central Kitchen people who the IDF murdered were former British special forces guys doing security for WCK, working for a group called Solace Global.

US army gives update on aid airdrops

The US army’s Central Command (CENTCOM) says on X that, as usual, it used four of its C-130 planes to drop aid over north Gaza today.

It said that of the packages it dropped today, containing 50,680 meal equivalents, “approximately 20 bundles landed in the sea near the shoreline”.

Last week, at least 12 Palestinians died while attempting to retrieve aid packages that had dropped offshore. The US did not claim responsibility for those airdrops.

“USCENTCOM does not assess civilian harm or damage to infrastructure at this time but continues to monitor the situation,” the army said in its X post today.

North Gaza continues to draw nearer to full-scale famine, as Israel is repeatedly accused of blocking aid into the Gaza Strip. Earlier this week, an Israeli attack killed seven aid workers, leading several humanitarian organisations to scale back aid operations in Gaza, driving fears in north Gaza that food shortages there could get worse.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/4/4/israels-war-on-gaza-live-israel-accused-of-ai-assisted-genocide-in-gaza

>>480198
The Zionazis in the Zionreich invented a automated Holocaust machine. It's called "Lavender" and the subsystem dedicated to murdering families is called "Where's daddy". I guess the people who wrote dystopian scifi underestimated reality.

The only silver lining: All the AI surveillance and tracking technology the Zionazis used in Gaza, will now be forever tarnished as genocidal cyber-fascism.

UN rights council demands halt of arms sales to Israel

The resolution adopted by the UN Human Rights Council has also demanded a halt to all arms sales to Israel, highlighting warnings of “genocide” in its war on Gaza.

The vote marked the first time the UN’s top rights body has taken a position on the nearly six-month war.

UN rights body adopts resolution on war crimes accountability

The United Nations Human Rights Council has adopted a resolution calling for Israel to be held accountable for possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Gaza Strip.

Twenty-eight countries voted in favour and 13 abstained, while six voted against the resolution.

Lawyers sue German government to stop supply of weapons to Israel
A group of lawyers are demanding an immediate halt to the supply of weapons and ammunition to Israel.

Ahmed Abed, a lawyer representing Palestinian families, said they have filed an “urgent application” amid alleged Israeli war crimes and potential genocide in Gaza.

“Germany has a constitutional responsibility to protect human life. The German government must stop its arms exports to Israel, as they are in violation of international law. The government cannot claim that it is not aware of this,” he told a news conference in Berlin.

The German government approved $354m worth of weapons exports to Israel in 2023, the majority of which were approved after October 7, 2023 – a tenfold increase compared with 2022.

Israeli probe finds own forces likely killed elderly Israeli captive on October 7

Efrat Katz, a 68-year-old Israeli woman taken captive by Hamas on October 7, appears to have been killed by Israeli forces who fired at the vehicle she was being driven in from the air, an Israeli Air Force investigation has found.

An Israeli helicopter opened fire at the car after locating “terrorists” in it, the Israeli military said in a statement, adding that it only later learned the vehicle was also carrying Israeli captives.

“As a result of the shooting, most of the terrorists in the vehicle were killed, and apparently the late Efrat Katz,” said the Israeli military.

Israeli Air Force chief Tomer Bar said the crew who fired on the vehicle carrying Katz could not be blamed, as they “operated in compliance with the orders in a complex reality of war”.

Israel’s Ben-Gvir says disciplining soldiers a ‘serious mistake’

Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has accused Israeli military leadership of “abandoning” its soldiers by taking disciplinary action against officers it deemed responsible for a “mistaken” attack on an aid convoy.

“The chief of staff’s decision to dismiss senior officers is an abandonment of the fighters in the middle of a war and a serious mistake that conveys weakness,” wrote Ben-Gvir on X. “Even if there are mistakes in identification, soldiers are backed up in war.”

Poland calls for Israeli soldiers to face criminal inquiry for Gaza aid convoy attack

Poland is demanding criminal action be brought against the Israeli soldiers responsible for what it called the “murder” of seven aid workers, including a Polish national, in Gaza.

“We want [Polish] prosecutors to be added and implicated in the explanations and in the entire criminal and disciplinary procedure for the soldiers responsible for this … murder,” Poland’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Szejna said.

As reported earlier, Israel has released a preliminary assessment into the military attack that killed the aid workers earlier this week, describing it as a “grave mistake” due to misidentification.

The report said two Israeli military officers would be dismissed from their posts and others reprimanded, but did not mention any potential military inquiry or criminal investigations into their actions.

Turkey says it arrested 2 Israeli spy suspects

Turkish authorities have arrested two people suspected of spying for Israeli intelligence, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya has said.

Since January, Turkish authorities have detained, arrested and charged dozens of people suspected of having ties to Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency. Six people were charged last month.

Turkey has warned Israel of “serious consequences” if it tries to hunt down Hamas members living outside the Palestinian territories, including in Turkey.

In a post on social media platform X, Yerlikaya said police had detained eight people believed to be collecting and selling information to Mossad about targeted individuals and companies in Turkey. Of those, two had been arrested and six released on parole, he said.

Israeli forces fire tear gas at worshippers at Al-Aqsa: Report

After dawn prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque, Israeli forces fired tear gas at “thousands of worshippers” who were chanting slogans to protest against Israel’s war in Gaza, reports the Wafa news agency.

Israeli forces arrested at least five of the worshippers, Wafa added.

Some 65,000 worshippers have already prayed at Al-Aqsa on the last Friday of Ramadan, according to the Islamic waqf that administers the site.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/4/5/israels-war-on-gaza-live-biden-presses-israel-for-immediate-ceasefire

>>480202
The Zionists set up a AI powered surveillance machine in Gaza that ties in with the bomb dropping.

In WW2 the Nazis bought punchcard computers from IBM that were supposed to do a bunch of "race calculations" to help them determine who the "Untermenschen" were and then ship them to the extermination-camps.

The historic Parallel is: Fascist using computers to decide who lives and who dies.

In contrast to Marxists trying to use computers to calculate the labor-time embodied in commodities to calculate the most accurate prices.

Hacktivists protesting war on Gaza breach Israel’s Justice Ministry servers

Israel’s Justice Ministry says it is looking into a “cyber incident” on Friday after activist hackers protesting against the war on Gaza said they managed to breach the ministry’s servers and retrieve hundreds of gigabytes of data.

“Since the morning hours, experts at the ministry and elsewhere have been looking into the incident and its implications,” the ministry said on X.

“The scope of the materials is still under review, and it will take time to examine the content and scope of the documents that were leaked and their sources.”

A group called Anonymous for Justice claimed responsibility for the breach, which it said included the retrieval of nearly 300 gigabytes of data. On its website, the group said it would continue attacking Israel “until the war in Gaza stops”.

Hezbollah says three Amal Movement members killed in South Lebanon

Earlier, we received reports that Israeli warplanes targeted a building belonging to the Amal Movement, Lebanon’s other Shia political party, in the southern town of Marjayoun, that killed several people

Hezbollah, on its Telegram account, announced the deaths of three members of the Amal movement, appearing to confirm these reports.

Hezbollah did not mention where or when these men were killed, but says that they were “martyred while carrying out … national and jihadist duty in defense of Lebanon and the South”.

EU’s Borrell says new aid corridors into Gaza are not enough

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell says Israel’s decision to open new corridors for humanitarian aid in Gaza will still not be enough to prevent starvation.

“Following widespread condemnation of the killing of 7 WCKitchen staffers by [the Israeli military] and mounting international pressure, the Israeli gov will open some corridors for humanitarian aid. It’s not enough to prevent starvation in Gaza,” wrote Borrell on X.

“The binding UN Security Council Resolution 2728 must be implemented. Now.” he added.

On Thursday, Israel announced that it would “temporarily” open the Beit Hanoon crossing to allow more aid deliveries into the besieged enclave.

Identity of commander of Israel’s Unit 8200 revealed: Report

The Guardian has reported that the identity of the commander leading Israel’s Unit 8200, one of the world’s most powerful surveillance agencies, is Yossi Sariel, following an apparent security lapse.

Sariel is an advocate of the AI-powered systems that the Israeli military has pioneered during the six-month war on Gaza.

Unit 8200’s intelligence capabilities are based on a vast surveillance apparatus built to closely monitor the occupied Palestinian territory.

“In its war in Gaza, the [military] appears to have fully embraced Sariel’s vision of the future, in which military technology represents a new frontier where AI is being used to fulfil increasingly complex tasks on the battlefield,” the Guardian said.

The Israeli military’s reported use of an untested and undisclosed artificial intelligence-powered database to identify targets for its bombing campaign in Gaza has alarmed human rights and technology experts who said it could amount to “war crimes”.

Iran warns US to avoid Netanyahu’s ‘trap’: Official

Iranian presidential aide Mohammad Jamshidi says Iran has sent a written message to the US government warning it “not to get dragged” into Netanyahu’s “trap”.

“Stay away so you won’t get hurt. In response, US asked Iran not to target American facilities,” Jamshidi wrote on X.

There was no immediate US comment.

Iran has blamed Israel for an air strike on its consulate in Damascus, Syria, on Monday that killed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members, including two generals.

Israel currently detaining 200 Palestinian children: Prisoners group

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society says 23 of the children are from the Gaza Strip and they are being held in Megiddo in northern Israel.

The organisation released its statement on Palestinian Child’s Day, which is marked each year on April 5.

“This is the bloodiest year against Palestinian children, with more than 14,000 killed in Gaza in the last six months, in addition to the 117 killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem,” it said.

Since October 7, Israeli troops have detained more than 500 children in the West Bank, “after which they are subject to unfair, unjust trials in military courts,” the organisation said.

Israeli settlers set fire to occupied West Bank homes

Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that Israeli settlers burned four residential structures in the Ain al-Auja area, north of Jericho in the West Bank.

Mahmoud Ghawanmeh, a Palestinian resident of the community, told Wafa that the settlers sprayed racist slogans on several buildings before setting the fires.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recorded 561 incidents of Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians between October 7 and February 20.

As of January 17, settlers have killed at least eight Palestinians and injured 111, per OCHA’s database. Repeated waves of violence by settlers, often backed by the army, have led to the displacement of 1,208 Palestinians, including 586 children, across 198 households.

Egypt arrests 10 after pro-Gaza rally calling for severing ties with Israel

A human rights lawyer in Egypt tells the Associated Press that authorities arrested 10 activists who participated in a pro-Palestine protest where they accused the government of contributing to the siege of Gaza and called for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador.

Egypt’s government has condemned Israel’s war on Gaza and has played a central role in trying to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. But it has largely banned public protests, and criticism of the country’s ties with Israel is highly sensitive.

The activists were arrested on Wednesday and charged with offenses, including spreading false information. Their lawyer says they’ve been detained for 15 days while investigations are carried out.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/4/5/israels-war-on-gaza-live-biden-presses-israel-for-immediate-ceasefire

Colombia files declaration of intervention in the South Africa’s genocide case

The International Court of Justice in the Hague has announced that Colombia has filed a declaration of intervention under Article 63 of the ICJ statute in South Africa’s case against Israel.

In January, the ICJ ordered Israel to refrain from any acts that could fall under the Genocide Convention and to ensure its troops commit no genocidal acts against Palestinians after South Africa accused Israel of state-led genocide in Gaza.

Columbia University suspends students who participated in pro-Palestinian event

Columbia University has suspended six students who organized and participated in a pro-Palestinian event several weeks ago, according to Colombia Students for Justice in Palestine.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that four suspensions were related to the event, which was called “Resistance 101” and was held both in person and on Zoom.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/4/5/israels-war-on-gaza-live-biden-presses-israel-for-immediate-ceasefire

Tories investigating Alan Duncan’s comments on party’s pro-Israel ‘extremists’

Former MP has said Conservative minister Tom Tugendhat and peer Eric Pickles should sacked

The Conservative former minister Alan Duncan is being investigated by the party after he argued that pro-Israel “extremists” within the Tories, including some ministers and peers, should be expelled because they refuse to support international law.

Duncan, who served as a foreign minister and an aid minister before stepping down as an MP in 2019, named Tom Tugendhat, the security minister, and the peer and former cabinet minister Eric Pickles as among those who should be kicked out.

Speaking on LBC, Duncan accused Pickles and another Tory peer, Stuart Polak, of “exercising the interests of another country” by lobbying for Israel through the Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) group, which he formerly headed.

In a later interview with Times Radio, Duncan said other Tory MPs and ministers including Michael Gove, Oliver Dowden, Suella Braverman, Robert Jenrick and Priti Patel were also extremists for not condemning illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land.

He called for Braverman, the former home secretary, who argued this week that Israel is not impeding aid getting into Gaza, to lose the Tory whip.

A Conservative spokesperson told the Guardian that Duncan would be investigated by his party over the remarks to LBC.

In his LBC interview, Duncan said that any support for Israel’s current tactics in Gaza was “morally unacceptable”. “It’s what Israel has been doing for years has been wrong because the Israeli defence does not follow international law,” he said.

“It has been backing and supporting illegal settlers in the West Bank who steal Palestinian land and it is that land theft, that annexation of Palestine, which is the origin of the problem, which has given rise to the Hamas atrocity and the battles we’re seeing.”

Some people in UK politics “refuse to condemn settlements and therefore are not supporters of international law”, Duncan said. “I think the time has come to flush out those extremists in our own parliamentary politics and around it.

“The Conservative Friends of Israel has been doing the bidding of Netanyahu, bypassing all proper processes of government to exercise undue influence at the top of government.

“So what you have is a lot of people now sitting around Rishi Sunak who are giving him appalling advice. Let’s start with the head of CFI – or had been for many years – Lord Polak.

“In my view, I think he should be removed from the Lords because he is exercising the interests of another country, not that of the parliament in which he sits, joined by Lord Pickles. They’re the sort of Laurel and Hardy who should be pushed out together.”

Tugendhat, Duncan argued, should be sacked for having previously condemned Israeli settlements while supporting the current Israeli conduct in Gaza.

Speaking to Times Radio, Duncan said: “For Suella Braverman today, to say that there is not a humanitarian problem in Gaza and there’s plenty of food and she’s seen the photographs. Frankly, it is so disgusting, so repulsive, so repellent that I think she should immediately have the whip withdrawn”.

In a later statement, Duncan said he was still awaiting formal notification of the investigation, or the reasons why.

He said: “If this is indeed their intention, I will probably be the only person ever to be reproached for upholding his party’s policy and for defending the principles of international law and justice in the face of others who would undermine them.

“Should they choose to pursue this, they should not be surprised if it rebounds on them massively and proves dangerously harmful to their own reputation.”

www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/04/conservatives-investigating-former-mp-alan-duncan-pro-israel-extremists-gaza

>>480204
Yepp!

The weapons used to kill the WCK workers, 3 of whom were from the UK, were made in the UK.

Happening now