The Biden administration was caught off-guard by the decision on Election Day, The Times of Israel cited a U.S. source. “Minister Gallant has been an important partner on all matters related to the defense of Israel. As close partners, we will continue to work collaboratively with Israel’s next minister of defense,” the NSC spokesperson told TOI.
Archiv: Yoav Gallant
Netanyahu fires Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, after months of clashes over war and politics
Israel Katz, currently the foreign minister, will become defense minister. Gideon Sa’ar will replace Katz as foreign minister, the prime minister’s office said Tuesday. Neither has extensive military experience, though Katz has served in the cabinet throughout the war.
The move came as voters in the United States, Israel’s most important ally, voted for their next president. Gallant is a close interlocutor for the US administration, and has been said to have daily conversations with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Series of enemy raids on areas in Nabatieh, Iqlim al-Tuffah & Western Bekaa
(2 hours ago)
Israeli enemy aircraft carried out a series of violent raids on areas in Nabatieh, Iqlim al-Tuffah, and the Western Bekaa thisafternoon, reaching 111 raids between 1:30 p.m. until 2:30 p.m.
MoPH: 37 martyrs in an update on the toll of Israeli raid on Beirut‘s suburb
The Public Health Ministry‘s Emergency Operations Center issued a new update on the outcome of the Israeli raid on the southern suburb of Beirut yesterday, in which the number of martyrs rose to thirty-seven people.
The Ministry indicated that efforts are still underway to remove the rubbles.
Toward a Fuller Understanding of U.S. Legal Objections to ICC Arrest Warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, Part I
(September 16, 2024)
In this essay, I describe and discuss the United States’ view—shared by Germany and others—that arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant would be premature because the Prosecutor did not provide Israel with sufficient notice of the alleged crimes. In my second essay, I’ll discuss the United States’ more fundamental objection that the ICC lacks jurisdiction over Israeli nationals for conduct involving Gaza because (according to the United States) Palestine is not a state that itself would have prescriptive or enforcement jurisdiction over such persons as a matter of international law (an objection that does not depend upon the Oslo Accords).
The White House’s Defense of Israel Is Undermining International Law
The United States tends to hail the ICC when it prosecutes American enemies, but assails the court when it goes after U.S. allies.
Public Health Ministry’s Emergency Operations Center: Toll from the enemy’s airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs rises to 12 martyrs and 66 wounded
The Public Health Ministry’s Emergency Operations Center released a statement announcing an updated toll from the Israeli enemy’s airstrike on the Beirut’s southern suburbs.
According to the new updated toll, the number of martyrs has risen to 12, and the number of wounded 66, including nine in critical condition.
The statement added that the rubble removal operations continue.
Rare Israeli airstrike in Beirut kills Hezbollah commander and more than a dozen others
The Israeli military’s chief spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said the strike on Beirut’s southern Dahiya district killed Ibrahim Akil, a commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, as well as 10 other Hezbollah operatives.
“We will continue pursuing our enemies in order to defend our citizens, even in Dahiya, in Beirut,” said Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, describing the Israeli strike that targeted Akil as part of “a new phase of war.”
ICC delays arrest warrants process against PM, Gallant
(June 27, 2024)
The International Criminal Court Pre-Trial Tribunal on Thursday postponed its decision-making process about whether it will allow ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan to issue arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes.
The postponement came following a June 10 application by England to file a “friend of the court” brief against the ICC’s jurisdiction over the issue.
Israel Knew Hamas’s Attack Plan More Than a Year Ago
(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.
Israel said to push US to present credible military threat or attack Iran’s nuclear sites
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi visited the Northern Command headquarters earlier today with his American counterpart, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Charles Q. Brown, Jr.
US Chair of Joint Chiefs of Staff in Israel for Unannounced Visit
(24.08.2024)
Brown landed in Jordan on Friday, where he told reporters he would visit Egypt as well as Israel to meet with senior military officials in each country.
Netanyahu fears international arrest warrant from ICC
A well-informed source in The Hague confirmed to Le Monde on Sunday that an „event is imminent,“ but did not specify the nature of the charges or the names of those involved.
Johnson urges Biden to intervene in ICC‘s reported plan for Netanyahu arrest warrant
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is calling on President Biden to utilize the U.S.‘s influence on the world stage to block the International Criminal Court‘s (ICC) reported plan to issue arrest warrants for top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israeli Officials Believe I.C.C. Is Preparing Arrest Warrants Over War
The Israeli officials did not disclose the nature of the information that led them to be concerned about potential I.C.C. action, and the court did not comment on the matter.
Arrest warrants from the court would probably be seen in much of the world as a humbling moral rebuke, particularly to Israel, which for months has faced international backlash over its conduct in Gaza, including from President Biden, who called it “over the top.”
Israel Scrambles as Netanyahu, Gallant and IDF Chief Face ICC Arrest Warrants for War Crimes in Gaza
Warrants could be issued this week against Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and army chief Herzl Halevi. Some legal experts say the attorney general and army lawyers are partly to blame for not doing enough to prevent Israeli violations of international law
Scoop: Senior U.S. general to visit Israel to coordinate on Iran attack threat
Gen. Erik Kurilla, commander of the U.S. Central Command, is expected to meet Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and senior Israel Defense Forces officials.
Israeli officials say they are preparing for a possible unprecedented direct attack from Iranian soil using ballistic missiles, drones and cruise missiles against Israeli targets.
In such a scenario, Israel will retaliate with a direct attack against Iran, the officials said.
IDF Let Israeli Civilians Film Torture of Palestinian Detainees: Report
Israel Defense Forces officers brought Israeli civilians into detention centers and allowed them to watch and film Palestinian prisoners being tortured, according to survivor testimonies published this week by the Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor.
Prisoners held at detention centers in Zikim on the northern border of the Gaza Strip and at a site in southern Israel affiliated with Naqab Prison „told Euro-Med Monitor that the Israeli soldiers had purposefully presented them before Israeli civilians, falsely claiming that they were fighters affiliated with Palestinian armed factions and that they had taken part in the October 7 attack on Israeli towns,“ the group said.
„Top defense officials held urgent consultations the night before October 7 about a possible Hamas attack. But no one in the IDF notified the the Nova festival organizers or the party-goers, hundreds of whom were mown down….“ 2/2
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-12-05/ty-article/.premium/despite-intel-warnings-about-a-hamas-attack-the-army-didnt-evacuate-the-nova-festival/0000018c-3993-dc03-a9ec-3dfb2cda0000
They were Israel‘s eyes on the border – but their Hamas warnings went unheard
(15.01.2024)
Israel Knew Hamas’s Attack Plan More Than a Year Ago
(30.11.2023)
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.
“They brought Israeli civilians to watch our nude torture”: IDF torture of Palestinian prisoners is turned into entertainment for Israeli viewers
Palestinian Omar Abu Mudallala, 43, told the Euro-Med Monitor team: “I was arrested at the checkpoint set up near the Kuwait roundabout, which separates Gaza City from the central region, as part of the Israeli random arrest campaigns. I was subjected to all types of torture and abuse for approximately 52 days,” pointing out that Israeli soldiers “brought Israeli civilians to watch our nude torture.”
Abu Mudallala added: “The Israeli army brought a number of Israeli civilians into our detention centres while beating us and telling them, ‘These are Hamas terrorists who killed you and raped your women on 7 October,’ while the Israeli civilians were filming us being beaten, abused, and tortured while making fun of us.”
„This happened five times while I was being held. The first time was in Barkasat Zikim, where we were blindfolded. However, one of the detainees who speaks Hebrew told us that the soldiers were interacting with Israeli civilians claiming that we were armed fighters. The other four incidents took place in the Negev detention facility, where successive Israeli groups were taken inside tents to witness our abuse and record the torture methods we were subjected to without allowing us to speak or interact with them. Since we were not wearing blindfolds at the time, I saw them all four times with my own eyes.“
„Top defense officials held urgent consultations the night before October 7 about a possible Hamas attack. But no one in the IDF notified the the Nova festival organizers or the party-goers, hundreds of whom were mown down….“ 2/2
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-12-05/ty-article/.premium/despite-intel-warnings-about-a-hamas-attack-the-army-didnt-evacuate-the-nova-festival/0000018c-3993-dc03-a9ec-3dfb2cda0000
How Israeli forces trapped and killed ravers at the Nova Festival
(12.01.2024)
As Nova attendee Gilad Karplus, also a former Israeli soldier, told the BBC:
„We pretty much knew they would probably block the road. I‘m pretty sure a lot of people got killed on those roads…We drove into the field and tried to hide from them… afterwards we got a bit deeper into the fields and then they started firing sniper rifles on us from different places and also heavy artillery.“
Though Karplus and other partygoers were being fired on by the Border Police, they couldn’t make sense of this, and initially believed the shooting was from Hamas fighters disguised as police or soldiers. In other words, these witnesses actually saw Israeli forces firing on them.
For Hamas to have executed a plan involving elaborate disguises, the Nova operation would have had to be pre-planned, and the Israeli police investigation has already ruled that Hamas was unaware of the festival in advance. Moreover, no other site of clashes on 7 October reported sightings of Palestinian fighters donning Israeli uniforms – neither at the various breached settlements, nor at the Israeli military bases they entered.
42 survivors of the Nova rave massacre sue defense establishment for negligence
(01.01.2024)
The 42 plaintiffs filed the claim for NIS 200 million ($56 million) at the Tel Aviv District Court against the Shin Bet security service, the Israel Defense Forces, the Israel Police, and the Defense Ministry, alleging multiple instances in which they failed in their duties.
“A single phone call by IDF officials to the commander responsible for the party to disperse it immediately in view of the expected danger would have saved lives and prevented the physical and mental injuries of hundreds of partygoers, including the plaintiffs,” the lawsuit said. “The negligence and the gross oversight is beyond belief.”
‘A mass assassination factory’: Inside Israel’s calculated bombing of Gaza
(November 30, 2023)
“Nothing happens by accident,” said another source. “When a 3-year-old girl is killed in a home in Gaza, it’s because someone in the army decided it wasn’t a big deal for her to be killed — that it was a price worth paying in order to hit [another] target. We are not Hamas. These are not random rockets. Everything is intentional. We know exactly how much collateral damage there is in every home.”
According to the investigation, another reason for the large number of targets, and the extensive harm to civilian life in Gaza, is the widespread use of a system called “Habsora” (“The Gospel”), which is largely built on artificial intelligence and can “generate” targets almost automatically at a rate that far exceeds what was previously possible. This AI system, as described by a former intelligence officer, essentially facilitates a “mass assassination factory.”
They were Israel‘s eyes on the border – but their Hamas warnings went unheard
Israel-Krieg im Liveticker: Überlebende des Supernova-Festivals klagen gegen israelischen Sicherheitsapparat | FAZ
42 survivors of the Nova rave massacre sue defense establishment for negligence
The 42 plaintiffs filed the claim for NIS 200 million ($56 million) at the Tel Aviv District Court against the Shin Bet security service, the Israel Defense Forces, the Israel Police, and the Defense Ministry, alleging multiple instances in which they failed in their duties.
“A single phone call by IDF officials to the commander responsible for the party to disperse it immediately in view of the expected danger would have saved lives and prevented the physical and mental injuries of hundreds of partygoers, including the plaintiffs,” the lawsuit said. “The negligence and the gross oversight is beyond belief.”
IDF says troops fired warning shots at UN convoy on Friday due to miscommunication
Citing an investigation into Friday’s incident, the IDF Spokespersons Unit says in a statement to The Times of Israel that after the UN humanitarian convoy finished delivering aid to shelters in northern Gaza, it was asked by the military to go via a different route back south.
“This was to maintain its safety given the fighting that was taking place near the area,” the IDF says.
#Gaza – Israeli soldiers fired at an aid convoy as it returned from Northern Gaza along a route designated by the Israeli Army – our international convoy leader and his team were not injured but one vehicle sustained damage – aid workers should never be a target. @UNRWA
(29.12.2023)
Iran, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, West Bank… Israel says the Gaza war is now being fought on seven fronts
On Tuesday, Israel’s Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant told the Israeli Parliament’s Defense Committee that the country is fighting on seven fronts and has responded to attacks in six of them thus far. In addition to the Gaza Strip, where nearly 21,000 people have already died, and the West Bank — which Gallant referred to as “Judea and Samaria” and where incursions occur almost daily — the minister said that hostilities have spread to Iran, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. “I’m saying it here explicitly,” Gallant warned during his speech. “Anyone who acts against us as a potential target will not be immune.”
Israel Knew Hamas’s Attack Plan More Than a Year Ago
(30.11.2023)
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.
Disturbing information on summary killings of at least 11 unarmed Palestinian men in front of their family members in Al Remal neighbourhood. #Gaza #opt #IHL #humanrights
Israel killed 11 Gazans in front of families, could lead to war crimes probe: UN
“While in control of the building and the civilians sheltering there, the IDF allegedly separated the men from the women and children, and then shot and killed at least 11 of the men, mostly aged in their late 20s and early 30s, in front of their family members,” said the UN body.
The women and children were then confined to a room where they were subjected to violence, with some sustaining serious injuries, the OHCHR said.
“The IDF then allegedly ordered the women and children into a room, and either shot at them or threw a grenade into the room, reportedly seriously injuring some of them, including an infant and a child,” it said.
The humanity of the Palestinian people must never be invisible! Today I called for the International Criminal Court to investigate likely war crimes and violations of Articles 6, 7, and 8 of the ICC’s Rome Statutes committed by PM Netanyahu and the Israel Defense Force.
(19.12.2023)
The indiscriminate killings and genocidal acts against my Palestinian brothers, sisters, and siblings must cease and those guilty of war crimes must be brought to justice. Our full press release is in the comments below.
#Ceasefire #FreePalestine #CornelWest2024
Dr. Cornel West Calls on International Criminal Court to Investigate Likely War Crimes and Other Violations Committed by Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israel Defense Force
Independent candidate for President of the United States, Dr. Cornel West today called on the International Criminal Court to launch an immediate investigation into likely war crimes committed by Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israel Defense Force (IDF).
As more details and evidence emerge, Brother West believes the global community must intervene and administer comeuppance for clear violations of Articles 6 (Genocide), 7 (Crimes Against Humanity), and 8 (War Crimes) of the Rome Statutes of the International Criminal Court as part of a larger set of immediate actions to protect Palestinian civilians including, but not limited to, an immediate and enforced ceasefire.