(August 12, 2024)
The bureau said in a statement that Israel’s war on Gaza has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians. “This constitutes around 1.8 percent of the total population in the territory,” PCBS said.
According to the data, approximately 24 percent of those killed by Israel in Gaza are youths.
Israel has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including pursuing a deliberate policy of forcibly displacing people and denying them the right to return home, according to a Human Rights Watch report released Thursday. The report also labelled the likely permanent dispossession of Gazans in areas cleared by Israel to serve as buffer zones and security corridors as “ethnic cleansing”.
Palestinian Health Ministry stated the Israeli enemy has perpetrated three massacres over the past 24 hours in Gaza strip, claiming lives of 24 Palestinians and injuring 112 others.
“Number of victims from the continuous Israeli aggression for the 405th consecutive day has risen to 43,736 martyrs, and 103,360 wounded.” the Ministry said in a statement on Thursday adding that there are numbers of bodies are still stuck under the rubble where Occupation forces prevent the ambulance and civil staff from reaching them.
Damascus, SANA-15 civilians were martyred and 16 others got injured in Israeli aggression on Mazzeh and Qudsaya areas in Damascus.
“At about 15:20 p.m. on Thursday, Israeli enemy launched an air aggression from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting a number of residential buildings in Mazzeh neighborhood in Damascus and Qudsaya area in Damascus countryside, resulting in the martyrdom of 15 people and the injury of 16 others, including women and children, ” a military source said.
Neve Gordon, welcome back to Democracy Now! Can you start off actually by talking about what this letter says? And the number of people is — the last time we looked, it was 2,000 Israelis who have signed it. Now it’s over 3,000, Professor Gordon.
NEVE GORDON: There’s a feeling among Israelis that the change cannot come from within. We do not have enough power from within to change the course of actions that Netanyahu and his government have put in place. And the only way to stop the violence, to stop the genocidal violence in Gaza, to stop the violence in Lebanon, and to stop future attacks and geopolitical war in the region is that leaders in Europe and leaders in North America, particularly the United States, put their leg down and say enough is enough and threaten Israel that if there is no ceasefire, they will sanction Israel, they will stop arms trade with Israel, they’ll stop sending Israel money, and ultimately stop trading with Israel. So, our belief is, to save the populations that inhabit this region, we need such an action.
The death toll from Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon since Oct 8, 2023, reached 2,672, while injuries increased to 12,468, said the Lebanese Health Ministry on Sunday.
The report added that the total number of deaths from Israeli airstrikes on Saturday was 19, with injuries reported at 108.
(September 22, 2024)
Israel‘s Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli accused Lebanon of not fulfilling the definition of a state and argued that the Israeli military should establish buffer zones inside of Lebanon in order to protect Israeli citizens living in the country‘s north.
In a statement, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said:
“Although we welcome the Biden administration’s long overdue threat to withhold weapons from the Israeli government, waiting 30 days to do so is unacceptable. The Israeli government is starving and killing the Palestinian people today, right this very moment, in violation of U.S. law. The Palestinian people cannot wait another month for the Biden administration to uphold the law and end its complicity in the Israeli government’s campaign of slaughter and starvation.”
The Sunday letter, jointly written by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, is addressed to Israeli Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant and Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer.
Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had agreed to a 21-day ceasefire just days before he was assassinated by Israel.
The temporary ceasefire was called for by US President Joe Biden, his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron and other allies during last week’s UN General Assembly.
Christiane Amanpour: “Are you saying Hassan Nasrallah had agreed to a ceasefire just moments before he was assassinated?”
Abdallah Bou Habib: “He agreed. He agreed, yes, yes. We agreed completely. Lebanon agreed to a ceasefire, but consulting with the Hezbollah. The speaker, Mr. Berri, consulted with Hezbollah. And we informed the Americans and the French that that’s what happened.”
Christiane Amanpour: “So” —
Abdallah Bou Habib: “And they told us that Mr. Netanyahu also agreed on the statement that was issued by both presidents.”
Lebanon said an Israeli strike on Friday cut off the main international road to Syria, after Israel said Hezbollah was transporting weapons through the tiny Mediterranean country‘s principal land border crossing.
The strike, which Israel has not commented on, comes after 310,000 people, mostly Syrians, have in recent days fled the war pitting Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon for relative safety in neighbouring Syria.
The U.S. government’s handling of USAID’s memo led to internal conflict, with one official in the State Department, Stacy Gilbert, resigning in May over Blinken’s statement to Congress.
“There is abundant evidence showing Israel is responsible for blocking aid,” Gilbert wrote in a statement at the time. “To deny this is absurd and shameful. That report and its flagrant untruths will haunt us.” (mehr …)
Blinken’s decision allowed the U.S. to keep sending arms to Israel. Under U.S. law, the government is required to cut off weapons shipments to countries preventing the delivery of U.S.-backed aid.
(September 20, 2024)
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have claimed for months to be working „around the clock“ on a Gaza ceasefire deal that is „close“ to happening. Spoiler alert: It‘s not going to happen because Hamas, the terrorist organization that massacred Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, doesn‘t want to release their hostages.
Despite their reportedly tireless efforts to negotiate with the terrorists, the Biden-Harris administration has privately conceded that a ceasefire deal won‘t happen before the end of Biden‘s term in January 2025. „No deal is imminent,“ a Biden-Harris official told the Wall Street Journal. „I‘m not sure it ever gets done.“
(August 28, 2024)
I appreciate Ms. Harris’s broken heart. What I’d appreciate more is a direct naming of who is killing and starving Palestinians, acts that are neither inevitable nor without a perpetrator. I’d appreciate the upholding of international law through sanctions and an arms embargo.
In a statement, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said:
“We welcome this UN resolution demanding an end to one of the worst and ongoing crimes against humanity of the past century. The Biden administration should join the overwhelming majority of nations around the world in condemning these crimes against the Palestinian people, demanding an end to the occupation, and exerting serious pressure on the Israeli government to comply.”
Joe Biden’s government is urging Australia to say no to a draft UN resolution by the Palestinian authority.
The draft demands an unconditional withdrawal from Gaza and the West Bank.
Israel’s attack on pagers belonging to Hezbollah on Tuesday was a tactical success that had no clear strategic impact, analysts say.
While it embarrassed Hezbollah and appeared to incapacitate many of its members, the attack has not so far altered the military balance along the Israel-Lebanon border, where more than 100,000 civilians on either side have been displaced by a low-intensity battle.
1. Welcomes the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice of 19 July 2024 on the legal consequences arising from Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and from the illegality of Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory;
2. Demands that Israel brings to an end without delay its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which constitutes a wrongful act of a continuing character entailing its international responsibility, and do so no later than 12 months from the adoption of the present resolution;
3. Demands that Israel comply without delay with all its legal obligations under international law, including as stipulated by the International Court of Justice, by, inter alia:
(a) Withdrawing all its military forces from the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including its airspace and maritime space;
(b) Putting an end to its unlawful policies and practices, including ceasing immediately all new settlement activity, evacuating all settlers from the Occupied Palestinian Territory and dismantling the parts of the wall constructed by Israel that are situated in the Territory, and repealing all legislation and measures creating or maintaining the unlawful situation, including those which discriminate against the Palestinian people, as well as all measures aimed at modifying the demographic composition, character and status of any parts of the Territory, including all measures violating the historic status quo at the holy sites of Jerusalem;
(c) Returning the land and other immovable property, as well as all assets seized from any natural or legal person since its occupation started in 1967, and all cultural property and assets taken from Palestinians and Palestinian institutions;
(d) Allowing all Palestinians displaced during the occupation to return to their original place of residence;
(e) Making reparation for the damage caused to all the natural and legal persons concerned in the Occupied Palestinian Territory;
(f) Immediately complying with obligations under international law indicated in the respective provisional measures orders of the International Court of Justice in the case concerning the application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide7 (South Africa v. Israel) in relation to the right of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip to be protected from all acts within the scope of articles II and III of the Convention;
(g) Not impeding the Palestinian people from exercising its right to self-determination, including its right to an independent and sovereign State, over the entirety of the Occupied Palestinian Territory;
According to the New York Times polling averages, Kamala Harris and Donald J. Trump are locked in an extremely tight contest heading into their first debate Tuesday. Neither candidate has a clear lead in the battleground states likeliest to decide the Electoral College.
In Bezug auf die Einwanderungspolitik kündigte Barnier eine härtere Gangart an. „Es gibt immer noch das Gefühl, dass unsere Grenzen Siebe sind und die Migrationsströme nicht kontrolliert werden“, sagte der 73-Jährige. „Ich habe nicht viel gemeinsam mit den Ideologien des Rassemblement National, aber ich respektiere sie“, fügte er mit Blick auf die Rechtsaußenbewegung hinzu, die Barnier unter bestimmten Bedingungen unterstützen würde.
Justice Ministry officials expect the International Criminal Court to decide in the coming days on whether to issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, but are cautiously optimistic that the court will decide against the warrants.
Am Donnerstag in der Früh fuhr der Mann vor das NS-Dokumentationszentrum in München und eröffnete das Feuer mit einer altertümlichen Waffe samt Bajonett. Gleich in der Nähe befindet sich das israelische Konsulat, dort ohnehin eingesetzte Objektschützer der Polizei hatten einen Hinweis erhalten und schritten sofort ein, es kam zum Schusswechsel, der 18-Jährige starb. Sonst kam niemand zu Schaden.
(December 10, 2023)
Just weeks before Hamas launched the deadly Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, the head of Mossad arrived in Doha, Qatar, for a meeting with Qatari officials.
(…)
Allowing the payments — billions of dollars over roughly a decade — was a gamble by Mr. Netanyahu that a steady flow of money would maintain peace in Gaza, the eventual launching point of the Oct. 7 attacks, and keep Hamas focused on governing, not fighting.
The Qatari payments, while ostensibly a secret, have been widely known and discussed in the Israeli news media for years.
(November 30, 2023)
The document circulated widely among Israeli military and intelligence leaders, but experts determined that an attack of that scale and ambition was beyond Hamas’s capabilities, according to documents and officials. It is unclear whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or other top political leaders saw the document, as well.
(…)
Last year, shortly after the document was obtained, officials in the Israeli military’s Gaza division, which is responsible for defending the border with Gaza, said that Hamas’s intentions were unclear.
“It is not yet possible to determine whether the plan has been fully accepted and how it will be manifested,” read a military assessment reviewed by The Times.
(December 16, 2023)
Israeli leaders believed that Hamas was more interested in governing than fighting. By the time the agents discovered the ledgers in 2018, the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was encouraging the government of Qatar to deliver millions of dollars to the Gaza Strip. He gambled that the money would buy stability and peace.
Mr. Levy recalled briefing Mr. Netanyahu personally in 2015 about the Hamas portfolio.
Despite presiding over numerous failures – including Iran, the economy, the cost of living and October 7 – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is still worshipped by over a quarter of Israelis. The gap between his failings and his support has all the attributes of a cult
(August 28, 2024)
I appreciate Ms. Harris’s broken heart. What I’d appreciate more is a direct naming of who is killing and starving Palestinians, acts that are neither inevitable nor without a perpetrator. I’d appreciate the upholding of international law through sanctions and an arms embargo.
„I want to refute the statement that is made time and time again by the current government that, somehow, the political echelon was not aware that Hamas was not deterred,“ Lapid told the paper.
„It was indeed informed. I was informed,“ he said, adding that the intelligence material he saw „was of course, also seen by the prime minister and ministers of the Cabinet.“
„It was clear what they [Hamas] wanted,“ he said.
(March 23, 2023)
Senators rejected the amendment 86-9 as they are debating a separate repeal of two authorizations of military force in Iraq. There is broad bipartisan support to withdraw that congressional approval granted in 1991 and 2002 for military strikes against Saddam Hussein‘s regime.
While those two authorizations are rarely used and focused on just one country, Iraq, the 2001 measure gave President George W. Bush broad authority for the invasion of Afghanistan and the fight against terrorism, approving force „against those nations, organizations, or persons“ that planned or aided the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Starmer‘s Labour party had said it would seek a security and defence treaty with Germany if it won the July 4 general election, which it did by a landslide — propelling him to the premiership.
“I can’t explain these feelings,” Mr. al-Qadi’s brother said in a video shared by Israel’s official account on X, taken before he saw him again. “It’s better than being born again.”
The 52-year-old, a Muslim and member of Israel’s Bedouin community, is from a village near Rahat, in southern Israel. He was working as a security guard in a small Israeli kibbutz, called Magen, near the Gaza border, when he was abducted, according to Israel officials.
Donald J. Trump plans to name his former rival, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Tulsi Gabbard, a one-time Democrat, as honorary co-chairs of a presidential transition team that will help him select the policies and personnel of any second Trump administration, according to a campaign senior adviser.
Mr. Kennedy, who ended his independent campaign for president and endorsed Mr. Trump on Friday, described his transition role briefly in an interview that aired Monday.
Police arrested about 130 people at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Tuesday night after the college says pro-Palestinian protesters refused to take down an encampment on campus and leave the area.
UMass has not said what the protesters are charged with, but 109 have been booked by campus police as of Wednesday morning and there are charges pending for about 25 more.
The White House last week paused a shipment of weapons to Israel, as Israeli leaders closed in on a decision to launch an operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, a senior administration official said Tuesday.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed Wednesday in testimony to Congress that „we paused one shipment of high payload munitions.„
A New York Times examination of more than 100 videos from clashes at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that violence ebbed and flowed for nearly five hours, mostly with little or no police intervention. The violence had been instigated by dozens of people who are seen in videos counterprotesting the encampment.
The videos showed counterprotesters attacking students in the pro-Palestinian encampment for several hours, including beating them with sticks, using chemical sprays and launching fireworks as weapons. As of Friday, no arrests had been made in connection with the attack.
(May 2, 2024)
Under UN rules, the admission of new members has to be recommended by the Security Council before a vote in the General Assembly. If the Security Council does not recommend the application or postpones its consideration of the application, the council then must submit a special report to the General Assembly, which in turn could ask the council to reconsider.
We get an update from the University of California, Los Angeles, where police in riot gear began dismantling a pro-Palestinian encampment early Thursday, using flashbang grenades, rubber bullets and tear gas, and arresting dozens of students. The raid came just over a day after pro-Israel counterprotesters armed with sticks, metal rods and fireworks attacked students at the encampment. The Real News Network reporter Mel Buer was on the scene during the attack. She describes seeing counterprotesters provoke students, yelling slurs and bludgeoning them with parts of the encampment’s barricade, and says the attack lasted several hours without police or security intervention. ”UCLA is complicit in violence inflicted upon protesters,” wrote the editorial board of UCLA’s campus newspaper, the Daily Bruin, the next day. Four of the paper’s student journalists were targeted and assaulted by counterprotesters while covering the protests.