/leftypol/ - Leftist Politically Incorrect

Iran hints at a possible ground attack on Israel

Iran’s mission to the UN has issued a statement reiterating a pledge to retaliate against Israel over the assassination of Hamas’s political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

“Iran’s response should have two clear results,” it said, according to the Mehr news agency.

“First, it must punish the aggressor for terror and violation of Iran’s national sovereignty. Second, it should strengthen Iran’s deterrence power and bring the [Israeli] regime deep remorse to prevent any future aggression. Also, Iran’s response should avoid a possible negative impact on a possible [Gaza] ceasefire,” it said.

The statement added that Iran would respond in a time and manner that takes the Israelis by surprise.

“Maybe when their eyes are on the sky and the radar screen, they are surprised from the ground, and maybe a combination of the two,” it said.

UKMTO says ship off Hodeidah hit with projectiles

Earlier, we reported that the United Kingdom’s Maritime Trade Operations said it received reports of an attack some 77 nautical miles (143km) off the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah.

In an update, the organisation says the shipmaster reported being hit by three unidentified projectiles but there were no casualties.

The vessel is “not under command”, the UKMTO said, using a nautical term meaning the ship was unable to manoeuvre.

US group calls for probe into Trump’s dealings with Netanyahu

American Muckrakers, a super political-action committee in the US, has asked the Department of Justice and the Department of State to investigate reports that Trump was lobbying Netanyahu and influencing US efforts to broker a ceasefire in Gaza.

The super PAC cited a report by Axios News on an alleged phone call between the former US president and Netanyahu on August 14 during which the pair discussed the ceasefire deal.

It also referred to remarks by PBS journalist Judy Woodruff who said on Monday that Trump was speaking to Netanyahu “urging him not to cut a deal right now, because it’s believed that would help the Harris campaign”.

It said the alleged interactions violate the Logan Act, which bars unauthorised private US citizens from negotiating with foreign governments.

Both Trump and Netanyahu, however, have denied reports of a phone call on August 14.

https://twitter.com/AmericanMuck/status/1825974868027887908

Bernie Sanders calls for ‘immediate ceasefire’ in DNC speech

The progressive US legislator received applause and cheers from the audience as he briefly addressed the war in Gaza during a speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

“We must end this horrific war in Gaza,” Sanders said on the second night of the convention.

“Bring home the hostages and demand an immediate ceasefire,” he added.

Several pro-Palestinian protesters arrested in Chicago

The Associated Press news agency is reporting that dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters charged a line of police in an “intense standoff” with hundreds of police officers in the US city of Chicago on the second night of the Democratic National Convention.

The confrontations took place in front of a Chicago skyscraper that houses the Israeli consulate, the agency reported.

More than a dozen protesters were arrested, it said.

There was no immediate comment from the Chicago Police Department.

The AP said at least 13 pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested in Chicago on Monday for breaching the outer security fence at the venue hosting the DNC.

Government has ‘lost control’ of north, says Israel’s Lapid

Opposition leader Yair Lapid has blamed the government for “losing control” of the north after a barrage of missiles from Lebanon struck the illegal settlement of Katzrin, sparking fires and injuring at least one person.

In a post on X, Lapid, a critic of Prime Minister Netanyahu and his coalition government, wrote: “A direct hit in … Katzrin. The government has lost control of the north.”

Ultra-Orthodox protest at military recruitment office

A group of ultra-Orthodox Israelis have staged a protest outside a military recruitment office in Jerusalem where they have been summoned, according to Israeli media reports.

Footage verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking agency shows dozens of protesters shouting angrily, as several clash with police.

Demonstrators yelled phrases such as “We will die and not enlist,” “Nazis” and “To prison and not to the army”, according to The Times of Israel.

In late June, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that the military must begin drafting ultra-Orthodox men, upending a longstanding arrangement under which they were exempt from compulsory military service.

The decision has antagonised many in the community who oppose conscription, which they believe goes against their way of life.

Three arrested as Israel’s ultra-Orthodox protest conscription

Three members of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community have been arrested at a protest against compulsory military service, Israeli media outlet Kan reports.

Israel’s Supreme Court unanimously ruled in late June that the military must begin drafting ultra-Orthodox men for military service, overturning a longstanding practice under which Jewish seminary students were exempt from conscription.

Video from the ground posted on social media, and verified by Al Jazeera’a fact-checking unit, shows demonstrators clashing with police as they try to storm a military recruitment office in Jerusalem.

https://twitter.com/shilofreid/status/1826163845829701849

Banks across Gaza forced to suspend operations

The Association of Banks in Palestine, a group that represents banks in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, said that banks across Gaza have suspended operations.

The news comes amid deteriorating conditions in Gaza, a result of Israel’s destructive campaign that has erased entire neighbourhoods, displaced nearly the entire population and targeted key civilian infrastructure.

The Associated Press reported that Bashar Yasin, the association’s general manager, confirmed the closures.

Displaced people in Gaza, whose economy has been devastated by the war, have struggled to access necessities such as food and water amid widespread Israeli rejection of humanitarian assistance into the Strip.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/8/21/israels-war-on-gaza-live-israel-bombards-gaza-lebanon-us-says-deal-near

>>483599
Fair point.

Craig Murray put an article out about it yesterday: https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2024/08/richard-medhurst-and-the-right-to-armed-resistance/

>>483625
Consortium News just had a stream about this:
https://consortiumnews.com/2024/08/21/watch-cn-live-journalism-as-terrorism/

>>483625
That's a quality peace.

<The source of this conundrum is the extraordinarily arbitrary power of proscribing an organisation.
<Now to proscribe an organisation the government does not have to prove its actions were illegal, either under international law or UK law. An organisation is proscribed simply on the basis that the government says so.
<If the government proscribed the Girl Guides, you could get up to 14 years in jail for expressing support for the Girl Guides, and no amount of argument in court that the Girl Guides is not in fact a terrorist organisation would help you.
Bruh, banana-republic level.

I think somebody should scheme to get inside that ministry of terrorism proscriptions, and do exactly what Craig suggest, proscribe a bunch of innocuous orgs as terrorororism, just to wrench the system until they're forced to fix this utterly retarded law.

Israeli forces bomb UNRWA school in Gaza City

Israeli forces have attacked the Salah al-Din School west of Gaza City, where hundreds of people have taken refuge, the Palestinian Civil Defence has said.

“In an initial tally, two people have been killed and 15 wounded in the attack on the school,” a spokesperson for the civil defence said.

The military acknowledged it carried out an attack, saying on its official Telegram channel, however, that it was “a precise strike on Hamas terrorists”.

Civilians come under heavy Israeli gunfire in Khan Younis

Video posted on Instagram, and verified by Al Jazeera, shows the moment a gathering of civilians came under attack by what they described as an Israeli army drone, a quadcopter.

The harrowing scenes show people fleeing by car, bicycle and donkey cart as the loud sounds of gunfire can be heard in the background.

Our correspondents on the ground have been reporting heavy clashes in southern Gaza City all day.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C-2vkAaNFyw/

Blinken ‘seriously undermined the negotiations’: Report

Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth has published a report quoting unnamed Israeli sources who say Blinken “seriously undermined the negotiations and demonstrated a lack of understanding” when he claimed that Netanyahu had accepted a US-backed proposal that could bring about a suspension of fighting in Gaza.

Blinken’s statement was met with surprise by Israeli negotiators, who have accused Netanyahu of “putting forth new demands with the aim of hindering the negotiations”, according to a report by the Israeli public broadcaster Kan.

A source told Yedioth Ahronoth that Blinken’s claim offered Netanyahu a “gift” by making Hamas appear as the major obstacle to an agreement, dealing a potential “death blow” to efforts to reach a deal.

Report accuses Israel of systematic torture of Palestinian children

The civil society group Defense for Children International Palestine (DCIP) has released a report documenting what they say is an Israeli policy of “systematically detaining and torturing Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip, including using some as human shields”.

The report is the latest to document widespread torture and abuse of Palestinians, thousands of whom have been rounded up and detained by Israel without charge since October 7.

“They insulted us, slapped me on my face, and kicked me in my stomach and waist. I almost died from the beating,” Karim, a 12-year-old who was stripped and bound by Israeli forces in Gaza, is quoted as saying. “Then they made us walk in front of bulldozers and tanks in the streets so that the resistance wouldn’t target them.”

DCIP says it has recorded at least 31 cases of Palestinian children being used as human shields by Israeli forces since 2000.

The report also quotes a 14-year-old boy named Shadi who says Israeli forces detained him after shooting into a crowd of Palestinians awaiting food assistance in Gaza in March.

“They stripped us of our clothes, blindfolded us, tied us up, and beat us over our heads. They cursed us with filthy insults, saying things like, ‘You hungry ones, let Hamas feed you, you filthy, lice-ridden ones,'” he said. “It was humiliation in every sense of the word.”

Israeli intelligence head steps down, laments failures of October 7

Israeli intelligence chief Major General Aharon Haliva has left his position after announcing his resignation in April, Reuters is reporting.

In a ceremony on Wednesday, Haliva called for an investigation into the country’s failure to prevent the October 7 attack by Hamas and took responsibility for some of those shortcomings.

“The failure of the intelligence corps was my fault,” he said.

Pro-Palestine groups watching for policy shift from Harris

Pro-Palestine groups have been pushing the Democratic Party for a decisive break from the Biden administration over Gaza, calling for changes to policy such as an arms embargo on Israel.

“There’s no doubt that conversations, very intense conversations, are continuing behind the scenes between those opposed to the Biden administration’s policies and those now representing Harris,” said Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna, reporting from the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

“It’s an issue that has always threatened to divide the Democratic Party, and this is something that Harris and her aides are attempting to head off.”

Growing tensions between Israel and Hezbollah
Zeina Khodr
Reporting from Sidon, Lebanon

There’s been another targeted killing in Lebanon. This apparent Israeli drone strike killed Khalil al-Maqdah, a commander of the coalition of Palestinian armed groups, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

The Israeli army says al-Maqdah was linked to Iran’s efforts to flood the occupied West Bank with weapons. The brigades did acknowledge what they called al-Maqdah’s prominent role in helping the Palestinian resistance, particularly in the West Bank.

Hezbollah too has started to hit sites deeper inside Israel. Its statements say it is targeting military bases, but some Katyusha rockets landed in residential areas, causing heavy damage. Israel is now accusing the armed group of firing indiscriminately at civilians.

This conflict, triggered by Israel’s war on Gaza, appears heading towards an escalation, especially with little prospect of a ceasefire in Gaza. The exchange of fire is reaching areas deep on both sides of the border.

Israeli forces carry out multiple deadly attacks in Gaza

The Gaza Health Ministry has said that at least 50 Palestinians were killed and 124 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza in the last 24 hours.

Here are some of the attacks launched by Israeli forces today:

Israeli military struck Salah al-Din School and a nearby house in Gaza City, killing four people and wounding 18, the Government Media Office said.
In the town of Bani Suhaila near Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, an Israeli air raid killed seven Palestinians, two of them children and five women, at a tent encampment for displaced people, medics said.
The military issued new evacuation orders in the heavily overcrowded area of Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by the fighting have sought shelter. Israeli forces then fired into the crowds, killing at least one person and wounding several others, medics and residents said.

Israeli military claims Lebanon car strike

The Israeli military has confirmed it carried out an air strike near Lebanon’s Sidon that killed Khalil al-Maqdah, a Palestinian linked to the Fatah movement and an armed group in the occupied West Bank.

Israel’s assassination of Khalil al-Maqdah aimed at starting ‘full-scale war’: Fatah official

A senior Fatah official has accused Israel of “assassinating” compatriot Khalil al-Maqdah in Lebanon in order to inflame regional conflict.

Speaking to the AFP news agency, Fatah official Tawfiq Tirawy said al-Maqdah’s assassination “is further proof that Israel wants to ignite a full-scale war in the region”.

Israel’s attacks in Lebanon during the Gaza war have killed in excess of 600 people, including more than 130 civilians.

University students in Sanaa demonstrate in solidarity with Palestinians

Hundreds of students have taken part in a demonstration at a university in the Yemeni capital to show solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli forces ransack mosque, stores in occupied West Bank village

Israeli forces have ransacked a mosque and stores in ar-Ras village, south of the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarem, the Wafa news agency reports.

Local sources told Wafa that soldiers raided the mosque along with a number of houses and stores, conducted searches and seized footage from surveillance cameras.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces erected a checkpoint on the road linking ar-Ras to Jabara, stopping Palestinian vehicles and inspecting passengers’ identity cards.

White House says Harris joined phone call between Biden and Netanyahu

The White House says Vice President Kamala Harris was also on the call between Biden and Netanyahu.

In a short statement, the White House said the call involved discussion of “the ceasefire and hostage release deal and diplomatic efforts to de-escalate regional tensions”.

While the Biden administration has insisted that Netanyahu agreed to a US-backed proposal, apparently changed to accommodate Israeli positions on a number of issues, Israeli negotiators have expressed puzzlement over those claims.

Israeli opposition figures and media reports have alleged that Netanyahu is trying to undermine a potential deal with “maximalist” demands.

Group behind Emmys defends nomination of Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda

The National Academy for Television and Arts and Sciences has defended its decision to nominate AJ+ contributor Bisan Owda for an Emmy after Creative Community for Peace, a pro-Israel nonprofit organisation, issued a letter criticising the nomination.

Owda, 25, from war-hit Gaza, was nominated along with AJ+ in the Outstanding Hard News Feature Story category for the documentary, It’s Bisan from Gaza and I’m Still Alive. AJ+ is part of the Al Jazeera Media Network.

The documentary follows her journey as she is forced to leave her home in Gaza City and displaced numerous times amid Israel’s 10-month war on Gaza.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/8/21/israels-war-on-gaza-live-israel-bombards-gaza-lebanon-us-says-deal-near

>>483626
Follow up with actual interview with Medhurst:
https://consortiumnews.com/2024/08/21/watch-medhurst-speaks-to-cn-on-his-arrest/

Apparently he couldn't make it to the live stream earlier because police state thugs stole all his streaming gear.

Democracy Now! As Gaza War Is Largely Ignored on DNC Stage, Doubts Grow over Blinken's Claims on Ceasefire Talks
Also covers impending attacks on Deir al Balah, the only city in the Gaza Strip still standing.

US aircraft carrier group arrives in the Middle East

The US Central Command said the USS Abraham Lincoln Aircraft Carrier Strike Group, which is equipped with F-35 fighter jets and a destroyer squadron, has arrived in its area of responsibility.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the carrier strike group to hasten its journey to the Middle East earlier in August as tensions rose in the region as Iran threatened to launch a retaliatory attack against Israel over the assassination of Hamas’s political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

At the time, Austin said the carrier strike group would be adding to the capabilities already provided by the USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group.

He also announced the deployment of a guided missile submarine to the region.

https://twitter.com/CENTCOM/status/1826365206471344398

Delta, American Airlines extend suspension of flights to Israel

Delta Air Lines has extended the suspension of its flights between cities in the US and Israel by another month, through October 31, citing “the evolving security environment” as the war on Gaza grinds on.

The announcement came after American Airlines also extended the suspension of its flights between the US and Israel’s Tel Aviv through March 29 of next year.

Both airlines said customers with tickets on flights that will now be cancelled can rebook, generally at no extra charge, or cancel their trip and get a refund.

Democrats reject request for Palestinian-American speaker at convention

Abbas Alawieh, an “Uncommitted” delegate from Michigan, has called on the Democratic Party to reconsider its decision to bar Palestinian-Americans from speaking at its ongoing convention in Chicago.

The decision on Wednesday came even as the parents of Israeli-American captive, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, addressed delegates from the convention’s main stage.

Alawieh said he was moved by the words of Goldberg-Polin’s parents, who called for a ceasefire to return the Israeli captives held by Hamas in Gaza, and said the movement’s main goal remained organising for a truce.

“It’s very simple: You stop sending bombs, the bombs stop dropping,” he told reporters.

The Uncommitted movement’s request to have their voice heard at the DNC attracted high-profile supporters, including actor Mark Ruffalo and writer Ta-Nehisi Coates, who penned an article in Vanity Fair questioning why there was no room for Palestinian-American voices in the Democrat’s so-called “big tent”.

Haaretz editor says Netanyahu’s goal is ‘creeping occupation’ of Gaza

Aluf Benn said in an editorial that the Israeli prime minister is “torpedoing” ceasefire negotiations because he ultimately wants a “prolonged occupation of the Gaza Strip”.

“Caravan after caravan, outpost after outpost” Netanyahu is planning a “creeping occupation” of Gaza, Benn said, adding that the Israeli prime minister’s recent insistence on maintaining Israeli control of “defense and strategic assets”, such as the Philadelphi and Netzarim corridors illustrates his intentions.

The editorial came as the families of Israeli captives held in Gaza criticised Netanyahu’s handling of the truce talks, saying the “full and direct responsibility for the fate of the negotiations is on the prime minister”.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/8/22/israels-war-on-gaza-live-mass-exodus-as-israel-expands-ground-invasion

Third day of demonstrations against war on Gaza in Chicago

As we’ve been reporting, hundreds of pro-Palestine activists protested in Chicago on the third day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC), calling for the party to push for an end to the war in Gaza.

Democratic loyalists, including several party delegates, shared their message.

“We need meaningful policy change,” said June Rose, a DNC delegate, at a Wednesday news conference.

“We need an immediate and permanent ceasefire, and an arms embargo, which means not one more bomb will be provided from the United States to kill children and families in Gaza.”

Crew of attacked Red Sea vessel rescued: Report

The crew of a Greek-flagged ship, which had been drifting in the Red Sea after coming under attack on Wednesday, has been rescued after evacuating the vessel, reports Reuters news agency.

The crew of the ship – the Sounion – was made up of two Russians and 23 Filipinos, said Reuters. They were rescued by the EU’s Red Sea naval mission Aspides it added, quoting an official with the mission.

China urges citizens to leave Lebanon

China has urged its citizens in Lebanon to leave “as soon as possible” after an Israeli attack killed a senior leader of Palestinian group Fatah in the city of Sidon on Wednesday morning.

“Recently, the situation on the Lebanese-Israeli border has continued to be tense, and security circumstances in Lebanon are severe and complex,” China’s embassy in Beirut said.

The statement advised Chinese citizens in Lebanon to “take the opportunity while commercial flights are still running to return to China or leave the country as soon as possible”.

Multiple countries have already advised their citizens to leave the country amid rising tensions between Israel and Hezbollah.

Pro-Palestine protesters call out Harris outside Chicago hotel

Pro-Palestine activists have staged a late-night protest outside a Chicago hotel where they believe Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is staying.

Footage posted to social media, verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking agency, show dozens of the protesters congregating on the streets of Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago, holding signs and shouting slogans denouncing Harris for her stance on the Gaza war.

“Killer Kamala, shame on you” and “Free, free Palestine”, chanted the protesters before police are seen pushing them away from the hotel.

Harris, who currently serves as vice-president, is set to deliver an acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination for president today to close out the Democratic National Convention.

https://twitter.com/Roots_Action/status/1826509359800619158

Four Israeli settlers detained over West Bank village attack: Report

Israeli police detained four Israeli settlers accused of taking part in a deadly rampage in the Palestinian village of Jit last week, reports The Times of Israel.

The four suspects are being investigated for “terrorism against Palestinians”, said The Times of Israel, citing a statement from police and the Shin Bet security service.

As we reported last week, dozens of masked Israeli settlers broke into Jit, near Qalqilya, on August 16, setting fire to cars, destroying property and shooting dead one Palestinian.

Israeli army beginning military incursion into eastern areas of Deir el-Balah
Tareq Abu Azzoum
Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Gaza

The Israeli army is starting a new military incursion in the eastern areas and has told residents to flee to the western side of Deir el-Balah city.

We have seen families fleeing from these areas since [Wednesday] morning. The cars are loaded with basic furniture and other items, and they are looking for any empty space of land to set up their makeshift tents despite the lack of humanitarian resources, including food and water.

We need to emphasise the fact that we have continued to hear loud explosions from last night until this morning, where the Israeli artillery units and fighter jets continue to target residential squares and key civil infrastructure in the city of Deir el-Balah.

The grim reality is that bombardment is not only here in the central areas, but it continues to expand to the northern parts and to the south, where the military operations are still ongoing in Rafah and in the city of Khan Younis.

Qatari PM to travel to Iran: Report

Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency reports that Qatar’s prime minister will visit the country in the coming days to discuss bilateral ties and regional issues.

The visit by Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani comes as Gaza ceasefire talks, in which Qatar is a crucial mediator, stretch on and as Iran mulls retaliation against Israel for the killing of Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31.

‘Environmental risk’ after oil tanker attacked in Red Sea

Earlier, we reported that a ship’s crew had evacuated their vessel in the Red Sea after coming under attack.

The ship has now been identified as the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion, whose crew have been rescued and are en route to Djibouti, according to the EU’s Red Sea naval mission Aspides.

However, the crude oil on the vessel now “represents a navigational and environmental hazard,” said Apsides in a post on X.

The vessel’s operator, Athens-based Delta Tankers, said it was working on plan to move the ship, which Reuters reports is now anchored between Yemen and Eritrea, to a safer destination.

Sounion, which was first targeted on Wednesday by multiple projectiles off Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah, is the third vessel operated by Delta Tankers to be attacked in the Red Sea this month.

Save the Children calls on UK to cease arms sales to Israel

The NGO has taken to X to ask the government of the United Kingdom to immediately stop selling weapons to Israel, “given the clear risk they might be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law”.

It cited a BBC News story about a Gaza nurse who said that an entire family, including multiple children, was killed in an Israeli air strike on Gaza.

“We simply cannot accept the violence that Palestinian children continue to face as normal,” Save the Children said.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 16,500 children.

House arrest extended for Israeli soldiers filmed abusing Palestinian prisoner

Israel’s military spokesperson says that the country’s military court has extended a house arrest order for soldiers who were filmed committing sexual assault against a Palestinian detainee at the now-infamous Sde Teiman prison.

Ten soldiers were arrested for the rape on July 29, all belonging to a unit known as Force 100, which is tasked with guarding the Sde Teiman facility, according to Haaretz.

Military prosecutors released three of the arrested soldiers on August 4, adding to the two previously released by investigators following a military court hearing in Kfar Yona on July 30, at which protesters gathered in support of the soldiers under arrest, leaving five soldiers still detained.

The spokesman said that the court’s decision to extend the house arrest until September 4 was made “after reviewing the investigation material and determining that there is reasonable suspicion and grounds for arrest.

Germans protest at hearing on legality of phrase “from the river to the sea”

Pro-Palestine activists have gathered in front of a court in the German capital, Berlin, during a hearing on the criminalization of chanting, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

Videos posted by activists on social media and verified by Al Jazeera, shows dozens gathering in front of the court building wearing the Palestinian keffiyeh, waving Palestinian flags and chanting the slogan.

Police clashed with demonstrators, leading to several arrests.

The slogan, calling for freedom for Palestinians from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, has drawn scrutiny during Israel’s war on Gaza as pro-Palestinian demonstrators across the Western world continue to employ it.

You can read our explainer on what the phrase means and the controversy surrounding it here.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/8/22/israels-war-on-gaza-live-mass-exodus-as-israel-expands-ground-invasion

Hostage's Mother: Hamas Should Take Sons of Israel's Top Brass in Exchange for Hostages
Hosts apologize for not cutting short the live television speech in which the mother, Ditza Or, offered to give Hamas the sons of those she deemed as embodying the failure of October 7

A mother of an Israeli hostage held in Hamas captivity in Gaza offered on national television Tuesday to exchange the sons of the defense minister and army chief for the remaining hostages.

During a Channel 12 programming, the mother of Hamas hostage, Avinatan Or, Ditza Or, requested to speak directly to the camera.

Or, a member of the "Tikva" forum of hostage families who opposes the deal being discussed in recent days stated: "Sinwar, you scumbag, I have a new proposal for you that's a game-changer," she said to the camera, directing her words at the Hamas leader.

"I'm proposing to you to return at once 109 hostages, and in return [you will] receive only five hostages – the son of [IDF Chief] Herzl Halevi, who is a chief of staff who doesn't know how to win; the son of Yoav Gallant, a defense minister who we know doesn't know how to win; the son of Yifat [Tomer-Yerushalmi,] the military advocate general who has forgotten what side she's on; the son of Shin Bet head [Ronen Bar,] who knew at four in the morning that the assault has started but allowed the Nova festival to continue…; and the son of [the head of the Missing and Captive Soldiers Division in the IDF] Nitzan Alon, who clearly doesn't know how to return [hostages] in stages."

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-08-21/ty-article/hostages-mother-hamas-should-take-sons-of-israels-top-brass-in-exchange-for-hostages/00000191-74a0-d8ab-a1f5-7efc4e2e0000

>>483637
What they are doing isn't rational. Their biggest propaganda problem isn't people like Medhurst.

It's Zionists doing atrocity bragging on social media, Israel having protests for a "right" to rape prisoners, it's Netanyahu quoting bits from murder-rant-scripture, and the idf going to war against the civilian population creating so much carnage that its impossible to hid it.

And they have given Medhurst a huge credibility boost.

War will continue, even with a deal: Israeli official

An Israeli official told The Times of Israel that a ceasefire deal would not mean the end of the war in Gaza.

“So long as Hamas doesn’t agree to a deal, we will continue fighting,” the official was quoted as saying. “Even if they do, the war will continue. Of course, if there is a deal, there will be a lull in the fighting in the first stage. But we will continue fighting until we achieve all of our war aims.”

The insistence on the war continuing echoes the words of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has himself insisted that any ceasefire deal still allow the Israelis to continue to attack Gaza, despite the US insistence that a deal would lead to an end to the war.

Hamas has repeatedly stated that any deal to secure the release of captives held in Gaza lead to a lasting ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the enclave.

Head of Israeli domestic intelligence clashes with far-right Minister Ben-Gvir over ‘Jewish terror’ in West Bank

Israeli media outlet Channel 12 reports that the head of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, has sent a letter to Netanyahu accusing National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and other members of his coalition government of directly and indirectly encouraging attacks by ultranationalist Jews on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Bar warned that recent attacks, such as on the village of Jit on Friday that killed one Palestinian, has left the country on the brink of disaster.

The Shin Bet director used the term “Jewish terror” in his letter, referring to the phenomenon of attacks being carried out openly by large groups.

Ben-Gvir is reported to have reacted angrily to the letter, demanding during a meeting that Bar be dismissed before leaving angrily.

The minister is a former follower of the far-right ideologue Meir Kahane and has a history of supporting the supremacy of Jewish people over Palestinians.

Few thousand pro-Palestinian protesters gathered near Democratic National Convention in Chicago

It’s the last day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC), with Vice President – and the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate – Kamala Harris set to take to the stage in the next few hours to deliver a major speech.

But throughout the convention, which has been ongoing all week, there has been no space afforded to any Palestinian-Americans or pro-Palestinian delegates, even as protesters gather nearby on a daily basis.

However, Muhamad Sankari, of the US Palestinian Community Network, said that he was attending the protest not to take part in the DNC, but to loudly demand an end to Israel’s war on Gaza, which has received US support since the very beginning.

“Our strategy out here is not to ask for a seat at the table with the Democratic Party. We’re here to demand the Democratic Party ends the genocide,” Sankari told Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo. “We don’t want a seat at the table with the genocidal party, we want to end the genocide.”

For full coverage of the DNC’s final night, you can follow our live page here.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/8/22/israels-war-on-gaza-live-mass-exodus-as-israel-expands-ground-invasion

Iran’s foreign minister tells French, British counterparts it has right to retaliate: Report

Iran’s new Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has told French and British counterparts in telephone conversations that it was his country’s right to retaliate against Israel for last month’s assassination of a Hamas official in Tehran, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Iran blames Israel for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on July 31, which Araghchi was quoted as saying was “an unforgivable violation of Iran’s security and sovereignty”, adding: “Punishing the aggressor is Iran’s right.”

Israel has neither claimed nor denied responsibility for Haniyeh’s death in the Iranian capital.

France’s Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne and Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy had called to congratulate Araghchi on his appointment this week.

Fires burning on ship carrying crude oil in Red Sea: UKMTO

Three fires have been burning on board a Greek-flagged oil tanker in the Red Sea, a United Kingdom maritime agency has said.

UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) gave the update a day after the vessel was evacuated following an attack by Houthi fighters.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the vessel “belongs to a company that has ties to the Israeli enemy and violated the ban decision of entry to the ports of occupied Palestine”.

The tanker is carrying 150,000 tonnes of crude oil, heightening fears of an environmental crisis. The Houthis have vowed to attack commercial ships in the waterway in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

Seven people wounded in Israeli attacks on central Syria: State television

The Syrian Arab News Agency reports that Israeli air attacks have hit several areas in the centre of the country.

The initial report did not provide more specific locations.

We’ll bring you more on this when we can.

Seven people killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon: Health Ministry

The Lebanese Ministry of Health says seven people, including a child, were killed in Israeli raids on the towns of Tayr Harfa, Aita el-Jabal, Meiss el-Jabal and Aitaroun.

An Israeli fighter jet also targeted the town of Yaroun.

Hezbollah said three of its fighters died in the Tayr Harfa raid.

Al-Quds Brigades says attacked Israeli base north of Gaza

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s armed wing says it bombed the Zikim military base, north of Gaza, with heavy mortar shells.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/8/23/israels-war-on-gaza-live-israelis-in-cairo-as-us-says-truce-in-sight

‘Under the radar, Ireland is helping illegal Israeli settlements do business’: Opinion piece
Claire Provost

“[The Republic of] Ireland has been called the most pro-Palestinian country in Europe, but if it is to maintain this reputation, it must urgently review its financial connections to illegal settlements.

“The country has been pivotal in connecting businesses in these illegal settlements with consumers worldwide, including through the popular Etsy platform, known for ‘ethical’ artisanal and vintage shopping online.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/8/23/under-the-radar-ireland-is-helping-illegal-israeli-settlements-do-business

A ceasefire is necessary for polio vaccination campaign to succeed: Ministry of Health in Gaza

“The vaccination campaign alone will not be effective in the absence of clean water, personal hygiene supplies, the spread of sewage among the tents of the displaced, and the absence of a healthy environment,”the ministry said in a statement.

Earlier today, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) confirmed that a 10-month-old baby in Gaza is now paralysed due to the virus. It is the first case in more than 25 years.

Captive’s daughter leaves Netanyahu meeting with little hope: Report

A group of released Israeli captives and captives’ relatives has met with Netanyahu, Israel’s Maariv newspaper reports.

Ela Ben Ami, the daughter of Israeli captive Ohad Ben Ami, said she left the meeting with little hope that her father would soon be freed.

“Our feeling is that this will not happen soon,” Ben Ami said in comments carried by Maariv. “I am concerned for the lives of the girls in captivity.”

“The [ceasefire and captives release] deal must be finalised as soon as possible.”

Muqtada al-Sadr calls for Gaza protests in Iraq

The influential Shia leader has called for demonstrations in Tahrir Square in Baghdad in support of Gaza, according to Al Sumaria, an independent Iraqi news organisation.

In a statement, he called for a “million-man” demonstration so that “your voice and image may reach the world”, according to Al Sumaria.

Muqtada, who led militia forces during the US-led coalition invasion in the 2000s, withdrew from Iraqi politics in 2022. However, he has recently increased his public profile, in what some see as laying the groundwork for a return to politics.

Released Gaza captive declines Netanyahu ‘PR’ meeting

Margalit Moses, a 77-year-old Israeli who was freed from captivity in Gaza in November, has declined Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s invitation to meet him today, saying she believes it would be a publicity stunt.

“Thank you for the invitation, but I will not take part in the meeting for photography and public relations purposes while my friends are languishing in the Hamas tunnels in Gaza,” she wrote in a public statement.

“In light of the reports of another [hostage-ceasefire] deal being thwarted on your part to release the abductees, I see no reason to come to a meeting with someone who proves by his actions that releasing the hostages is not top of mind and abandons them to their deaths,” she added.

Moses was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz along with her ex-husband Gadi Moshe Moses during the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel on October 7. Gadi remains in captivity in Gaza.

Biden asked Netanyahu to withdraw from small part of Philadelphi corridor: Report

The Axios website has reported that the US president made the request during a call with the Israeli prime minister on Wednesday.

Joe Biden asked for Israeli troops to withdraw from a 1-2km area along the Egypt-Gaza border, Axios reported, citing unnamed Israeli officials.

Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that Israel must retain control of the entire strategic corridor, however, and his position has been a main impasse in efforts to reach a Gaza ceasefire.

A Netanyahu aide told Axios that the Israeli leader agreed to change the location of one army position and move it by only a few hundred metres, “in a way that does not harm operational control” along the Philadelphi Corridor.

Egypt agrees to deliver new Israeli proposal on Philadelphi Corridor: Report

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that Egypt and Qatar will transfer a new Israeli proposal to Hamas on the issue of the Philadelphi Corridor and Rafah border crossing, which was submitted in Cairo on Thursday by Mossad and Shin Bet.

Shin Bet is Israel’s internal intelligence service, and Mossad is Israel’s national intelligence agency.

The Philadelphi Corridor, also known as the Philadelphi Route, is the 14km (8.7-mile) long strip of land that represents the entirety of the border area between Gaza and Egypt.

The newspaper cited an Israeli source who is reported to have said the move signalled “relative progress”.

Haaretz also reports that an Israeli source said that “the meeting of the delegations in Cairo on Thursday were constructive and closed the gaps between Egypt and Israel on the issue of the Philadelphi Corridor. Now we are awaiting Hamas’s position.”

Netanyahu’s stance on Philadelphi Corridor shows no desire for ceasefire: Hamas

Hamas official Osama Badran says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s demand to keep Israeli troops at the Philadelphi Corridor – a strip of land along Gaza’s border with Egypt – shows he is unwilling to reach a final ceasefire deal.

Speaking to AFP news agency, Badran reiterated that Hamas would accept “nothing less than the withdrawal of occupation forces, Philadelphi included”.

This is in line with the original US- and UN-backed ceasefire plan presented by US President Joe Biden back in May, he said.

Currently, Israeli negotiators are in Cairo with mediators trying to hammer out the details of a deal, which the US and Israel said they have agreed to a “bridging proposal” for.

However, Hamas has not accepted the “bridging proposal”, which it says violates earlier agreed-upon terms, and is not taking part in this round of talks.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/8/23/israels-war-on-gaza-live-israelis-in-cairo-as-us-says-truce-in-sight

"Ministers in the government blackmailed the families of the Hostages.

"Won't you support the government? The State of Israel will not help you.""
https://x.com/AllHostages/status/1826913870818242920

Attached: videos of carnage in Gaza from IDF attacks, posted this week

Israeli drone attack kills child in southern Lebanon: Reports

Israeli forces have attacked a home and car in Lebanon’s southern village of Aita al-Jabal, according to Lebanese media reports.

The attacks killed at least two people, including a seven-year-old child, reports Lebanon’s an-Nahar news site, citing the country’s Health Ministry.

The attack was the first to target the area in the latest flare-up in violence between Israel and Hezbollah amid the war on Gaza, said an-Nahar.

We’ll bring you more updates on the attack as we have them.

Hezbollah claims attack on spy equipment in northern Israel

The Lebanese group says it carried out the strike on the equipment located in the Israeli base in Meron, near the border with Lebanon.

It said the strike conducted “hit the target directly, leading to its destruction”.

The Israeli army, which reported the attack earlier, said no casualities resulted, according to local media.

Separately, Hezbollah said its fighters attacked the Israeli army’s “al-Malikiyah site” at 9:40am (06:40 GMT) with artillery shells, without giving further details.

Qassam Brigades claims killing Israeli soldiers in Gaza City

The armed wing of Hamas says its fighters “engaged in fierce clashes” with troops that have penetrated the south of Zeitoun neighbourhood, killing and wounding some of them.

In a statement on Telegram, the Qassam Brigades added that an aircraft arrived at the scene to evacuate the soldiers.

In Rafah in southern Gaza, fighters targeted soldiers inside the Kamal Adwan School in the Tal as-Sultan neighbourhood with a TBG (thermobaric) rocket, killing one and injuring another, according to the armed group.

They also struck an Israeli Merkava tank in the same neighbourhood with an al-Yassin 105 rocket, the brigades added.

Fighting ‘rages’ between Israeli forces, Hamas in Deir el-Balah
Tareq Abu Azzoum
Reporting from Deir el-Balah, central Gaza

Israeli forces are now in Deir el-Balah city. They are operating in the eastern area, while Palestinian families are trapped in the western side.

Horrific bombardment took place overnight and into the early hours of the morning. We continue to hear loud explosions now and then. We also hear the sound of Israeli drones every hour. The fighting is really raging between Hamas fighters and Israeli forces in eastern areas of the city.

We’ve also heard that the Israeli army is now operating in the city of Khan Younis, 19 blocks of which have been told to evacuate. Their residents are now heading to the western side of Khan Younis, close to al-Mawasi.

Everyone is exhausted, trapped in a very small patch of land. They have a growing sense of frustration each day as the fighting continues.

Israeli forces claim to kill dozens of Palestinian fighters across Gaza

More than 30 targets in Gaza have been hit by Israeli warplanes over the past day, as soldiers killed dozens of fighters across the enclave, according to the army.

Among the targets struck were compounds used by fighters, weapons depots, and rocket-launching positions in the southern city of Khan Younis, the military said in a statement.

In Khan Younis and on the outskirts of Deir el-Balah, the army said troops killed dozens of gunmen and destroyed their sites, it added.

More than 40 Palestinians were killed yesterday by Israeli attacks.

Defender of US arms transfers to Israel gets prominent State Dept role: Report

US news outlet HuffPost is reporting that Mira Resnick has been appointed to a special Israel-Palestine role at the US Department of State, prompting rebuke from critics of the administration’s policy.

Resnick had previously worked in a bureau that oversaw billions in arms shipments to Israel, the report said. A source also told HuffPost that Resnick has more recently been privately defending new arms transfers to Israel to lawmakers and their staff.

The appointment “reflects a doubling down on the administration’s determination to continue to provide unconditional material support for Israel’s genocidal campaign against civilians in Gaza”, former State Department official Annelle Sheline, who quit over the Biden administration’s Israel policy, told the news outlet.

Resnick is set to replace Andrew Miller as deputy assistant secretary for Israeli-Palestinian affairs in the State Department’s Middle East office.

Sheline said Miller was known to be wary of the Biden administration’s approach, and “did his best” to push back.

Israel’s government cannot deal with challenges in the north: Liberman

Hundreds of rockets and drones targeting northern Israel last week are proof of the government’s inability to deal with Hezbollah’s threats, Avigdor Liberman, the chairman of the Yisrael Beytenu party, says.

He wrote on X: “Tens of thousands of residents do not know if the school year will start when they are evacuated from their homes, and many factories and workplaces have been closed or moved from the north to other areas.”

Liberman said challenges in the north are too great for the current Israeli government and therefore it has no right to continue to rule.

Russian court sentences 5 men for anti-Israel riots at Dagestan airport

A court in southern Russia has sentenced five men to more than six years in prison each in the first convictions related to a mass anti-Israel protest last October at an airport in the predominantly Muslim Dagestan region.

The men, who were given sentences ranging from just over six years to nine years for engaging in rioting, did not admit guilt, the court in the Krasnodar region said. One protester was also found guilty of committing violence against a government official.

The trial was moved from Dagestan to Krasnodar due to the sensitivity of the case.

Last October hundreds of anti-Israel protesters stormed an airport in the city of Makhachkala where a plane from Tel Aviv had just arrived in a spate of unrest in the North Caucasus over Israel’s war against Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza.

Video footage showed the protesters, mostly young men, waving Palestinian flags, breaking down glass doors and running through the airport shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest).

Israel’s presence in a post-war Gaza ‘legally wrong’: UN expert

Francesca Albanese, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, says that “imagining Israel’s continued presence in “post-war” Gaza (where the scars of its genocide are indelible)” is “absolutely legally wrong”.

In a post on X, she cites the recent International Court of Justice ruling that said Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory is unlawful and should come to an end “as rapidly as possible”.

Lufthansa to resume flights to Amman, Erbil from August 27

Germany’s Lufthansa Group will restart flights to Jordan’s capital and the Iraqi city, making use of a northern corridor in Iraqi airspace for the Erbil trips, it said.

The group, which includes carriers Swiss International Air Lines, Austrian Airlines and Eurowings, extended its suspension of flights to Tel Aviv and Tehran up to and including September 2, the airline said.

Flights to Beirut are suspended through September 30, it added.

Time for Hamas, Fattah to ‘put differences aside’

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s planned visit to Gaza comes at a “critical time”, providing an opportunity for disparate Palestinian factions to put their differences aside for the sake of the enclave’s future, said Tamer Qarmout, assistant professor in public policy at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies.

“Hamas alone cannot rebuild or stay as the only governing party in Gaza,” Qarmout told Al Jazeera, adding that it is time for Palestine’s rival political factions to “sit together”.

Hamas and Fatah, headed by Abbas, should “at least agree on a unified Palestinian Authority that is empowered and delegated to run Gaza” and has international legitimacy, said Qarmout.

Doing so, he said, would impede any potential Israeli plans to create “parallel governing structures [in Gaza] that are controlled by Israel and not by Palestinians”.

US administration’s Gaza mediation is a facade

Tamer Qarmout, an assistant professor in public policy at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, argues the US administration’s mediation in the Gaza war is more about optics than a sincere push for peace.

“From the onset of the war, the diplomatic behaviour of the Americans has not been what you would expect from a mediator,” said Qarmout, pointing to Washington’s continued supply of weapons to Israel. “The US has sadly chosen to be partner to Israel during this war.”

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Qarmout claimed the administration of US President Joe Biden is simply “pretending” to engage in high-stakes diplomacy to end the war so it has a “ready answer” for pro-Palestine voters who are disillusioned with the Democratic Party ahead of November elections.

“In reality, [the administration] is just siding with Israel,” Qarmout said. “I think the behaviour of the US administration shows they’re committed to helping Netanyahu achieve the victory he is looking for”.

Airlines increase flights over Afghanistan due to Middle East tensions

Several airlines have diverted flight paths away from the Middle East and have resumed flying over Afghanistan, which represents a comparatively safe option, according to a flight data analysis by the Reuters news agency.

Singapore Airlines, British Airways and Lufthansa are among those who have made the switch in light of rising tensions in the Middle East, as fears of all-out war between Israel and Lebanon and Iran grow.

Carriers mostly stopped flying over Afghanistan, which lies on major flight paths between Asia and Europe, when the Taliban rose to power in 2021 and air traffic control services stopped.

“As conflicts have evolved, the calculus of which airspace to use has changed. Airlines are seeking to mitigate risk as much as possible and they see overflying Afghanistan as the safer option given the current tensions between Iran and Israel,” said Ian Petchenik, a spokesperson for flight tracking organisation Flightradar24.

Protesters outside DNC demand end to US weapons supply to Israel

As we’ve reported, Kamala Harris has accepted the Democratic nomination for the presidency.

She took to the stage on the last day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC).

But little space has been afforded to Palestinian Americans or pro-Palestinian delegates in this week’s convention, despite crowds of protesters gathering nearby on a daily basis.

Among them is Muhamad Sankari of the US Palestinian Community Network. He says people are turning out, “first and foremost to end the genocide against the Palestinian people [by] the Democratic Party”.

“For 11 months now almost, [the Democratic Party] has supported [Israel’s war] unequivocally. So we’re here to make the demands to end the genocide against the Palestinian people,” he said.

“This is because of you, Kamala Harris, this is because of you, [US President] Joe Biden, because of your policies. And whoever the president is, whoever’s in charge of the Democratic Party, could end that right now by ending the flow of weapons, by ending the political cover, and demanding the Israelis end the genocide,” he added.

Earlier, we reported that Harris said in her speech that she and President Biden are “working around the clock” to end Israel’s war and make sure the “Palestinian people can realise their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination”.

Pro-Palestinian protesters march in Sweden’s capital

Demonstrators rallying in Stockholm have called for an end to Israel’s war on Gaza.

Footage from the protest verified by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking unit Sanad showed activists carrying “Free Palestine” banners while others chanted and waved Palestinian flags.

Australia to hold command of Red Sea maritime task force

An Australian Navy captain is set to assume command of a maritime task force set up to protect merchant shipping in the Middle East, according to the country’s Defence Ministry.

The Combined Task Force 153 (CTF 153), which was established in April 2022, was bolstered last December in response to growing Houthi attacks on vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. The Yemen-based group says it’s carrying out the attacks in protest against Israel’s war on Gaza.

While Australia will take command of CTF, however, the government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said it will not deploy any additional military resources for the mission. His government was criticised by opposition parties last year for not responding to a US request for more warships to be deployed to the region to protect the shipping lanes.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/8/23/israels-war-on-gaza-live-israelis-in-cairo-as-us-says-truce-in-sight

>>483662
>child with hollowed skull mp4
i think we found the essence of Zionism

>>483662
Those clips are beyond fucked up, how can anyone support this?

ICC prosecutor calls on judges to rule on Netanyahu, Sinwar arrest warrants

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, has filed a brief urging a panel of pre-trial judges to “urgently render its decisions” on the requests he filed in May.

Citing possible war crimes and crimes against humanity, Khan had requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

Khan had also sought warrants for Hamas officials Mohammed Deif, who Israel said it killed in a Gaza strike, and Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in Tehran last month in an attack widely believed to have been carried out by Israel.

The chief prosecutor’s brief came in response to legal filings by several parties arguing both for and against the court’s jurisdiction in the matter.

“It is settled law that the Court has jurisdiction in this situation,” he wrote.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/8/23/israels-war-on-gaza-live-israelis-in-cairo-as-us-says-truce-in-sight

Hamas official accuses US of false positivity over Gaza ceasefire deal to boost Harris

The US is eager to spread a positive atmosphere around ongoing ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas in order to support the presidential campaign of Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan has reportedly told the Lebanese outlet, Al Mayadeen.

On Friday, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said “there has been progress made” and that all that was required was for “both sides to come together and work towards implementation”.

But speaking to Al Mayadeen, Hamdan said Hamas still firmly rejects Israel’s continued control over the Philadelphi and Netzarim corridors, as well as the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza, and this remains a major sticking point.

He also emphasised that the Palestinian group demands “practical measures regarding what was previously agreed upon, not more negotiations”.

“Tomorrow we will have two options: If the entity [Israel] agrees to the initiative, we will discuss the execution phase, or if we hear otherwise, we will inform them then of our position,” he said.

Negotiations between Israel and Hamas, mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the US, are ongoing in Cairo, and are expected to continue through the weekend.

Israeli military raids Nablus home of relative of suspected bomber

The Israeli military is raiding a home in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus which belongs to a relative of a Palestinian man who allegedly attempted to carry out a bombing in Tel Aviv, according to local media reports.

The perpetrator was walking down the road in Tel Aviv on August 18 when the bomb he was carrying in his backpack detonated prematurely, killing him and moderately wounding a passer-by.

Hamas has reportedly claimed responsibility for the explosion, saying it was a suicide attack conducted in cooperation with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It promised further such attacks.

Footage from the raid on the home in Nablus shows Israeli soldiers leading an unidentified person away.

https://twitter.com/PalinfoAr/status/1827149578916790663

Photos show Greek-owned oil tanker Sounion in flames after Red Sea attack

The Houthi armed group has released video footage of what they say is the aftermath of their attack on a Greek-flagged oil tanker in the Red Sea, which is now engulfed in flames.

Illustration shows enormous weapons transfers to settlers by Israeli state

Amid rising Israeli settler violence against Palestinian communities in the occupied territory, Jewish Voice for Peace, a US-based advocacy group, has produced a graphic to illustrate the enormous number of guns and other weapons provided by the Israeli state to illegal settlers since October 7.

“This visual captures how the Israeli government has transferred over 150,000 guns and hundreds of other weapons to Israeli settlers since October 7, as settler violence against Palestinian communities skyrockets with impunity,” JVP said in a post on social media.

“During this period, the Israeli Ministry of National Security has also significantly relaxed gun licensing requirements, approving permits for an additional 100,000 firearms,” the group adds.

https://twitter.com/jvplive/status/1827004910124052609

Israel’s military claims to kill Hamas arms maker

Israel’s military claims it “eliminated” dozens of fighters via air strikes and close-quarters combat in Gaza over the last day.

It identified one person killed in an air strike as Taha Abu Nada, who it said helped manufacture weapons for Hamas.

In addition, the military said it destroyed numerous military sites and located weapons stashes, including of mortars and explosives.

As we’ve been reporting, Israel’s latest attacks in the enclave have killed at 37 Palestinians in Gaza since dawn this morning, including women and children in Khan Younis.

Poll: Three-quarters of Israelis think Netanyahu managing Hezbollah front ‘very badly’

A poll of Israeli public opinion conducted by local media outlet Mako indicated that 75 percent of Israelis are dissatisfied with the way the prime minister’s government is handling the situation in the country’s north, which has seen daily attacks by Lebanon’s Hezbollah since the outbreak of Israel’s war on Gaza last October.

Other statistics from Mako’s poll indicate:

Only 18 percent of Israelis believe that the government is managing the situation in the north well.
More than half (55 percent) of Israelis said they believed new elections should be held now, while only 36 percent said the current government should continue to function.
A total of 59 percent of respondents expressed support for a deal with Hamas to return Israeli captives, compared with 21 percent who said they were against the deal in its current form, and 20 percent who said they did not know.
Half of Israelis said they believe Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is motivated by political considerations regarding efforts to return the Israeli captives held in Gaza.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/8/24/israels-war-on-gaza-live-israel-attacks-as-palestinians-flee-north-gaza

>>483675
Ups didn't mean to spoiler these two, these ones in my last post aren't as fucked up as the previous post.

Qassam Brigades claims inflicting casualties in Gaza tunnel blast

The armed wing of Hamas claims that its fighters managed to lure Israeli forces from a combat engineering unit into a booby-trapped tunnel, killing some and wounding others.

The Qassam Brigades said the tunnel was located in the area of Israeli military sites east of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.

It also said Palestinian fighters engaged in “fierce clashes” with Israeli forces expanding a ground invasion in al-Jafarawi, also east of Deir el-Balah, inflicting casualties who were later evacuated by a military helicopter.

The Qassam Brigades said a Merkava tank was hit with a Yassin-105 shell in the area as well.

‘They made us wear Israeli uniforms’: Palestinian used as human shield in Gaza

A young Palestinian man, who was arrested near the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing while trying to find food for his displaced family, was used as a human shield by Israeli forces multiple times before being left for dead.

He was shot after being told to inspect an area, and woke up in a hospital a day later.

“The helmet has a camera and a mic, and they direct us,” he told Al Jazeera. “They say to us: Film here, do this here. They enter the house after we scout it for them, then they go in. The quadcopter stays above you, the tank remains pointed at you, meaning you cannot escape or do anything.”

Israeli settlers attack West Bank village, burn dozens of trees

Israeli settlers raided the occupied West Bank village of Sarra, near Nablus, and burned “dozens” of trees, the official news agency Wafa reports.

Locals told Wafa that settlers set fire to large tracts of land in the village, which led to the burning of many old olive trees.

The south of Nablus has witnessed an uptick in violations perpetrated by the Israeli army and settlers, which have included uprooting or burning down trees, and vandalising houses, Wafa reported.

Since October 7, settlers have carried out 1,334 attacks in the West Bank, including in East Jerusalem.

Israel’s latest Quran burnings a war on Islam that Biden must condemn: CAIR

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organisation in the US, says the Biden administration must speak out to condemn the latest burning of the copies of the Quran and destruction of mosques by Israeli soldiers in Gaza.

CAIR said the desecration of Islam’s revealed text again shows that the Israeli genocide in Gaza is targeting Islam as well as the Palestinian people.

One video of the incident reportedly shows Israeli soldiers burning and tearing copies of the Quran in the Bani Saleh Mosque in northern Gaza. In another video, Israeli forces reportedly destroy the Grand Mosque in Khan Younis, one of the oldest mosques in Gaza.

“By once again filming themselves burning Qurans and destroying mosques, the forces of the far-right Israeli government have confirmed that their war on the Palestinian people in Gaza is also a war on Islam itself,” said CAIR’s national executive director Nihad Awad.

“The Biden administration must condemn this religious desecration and suspend weapons transfers to the Israeli government to force an end to its campaign of slaughter and starvation in Gaza.”

El Ghazi to donate $560,000 of his Mainz payout to Gaza children

Anwar El Ghazi has pledged to donate $560,000 to children in Gaza, one-third of the payout he received from Mainz 05 for wrongfully terminating his contract over his support for Palestinians in the Israeli war on the besieged coastal enclave.

The Bundesliga club suspended the Dutchman over a social media post showing support for Palestinians in October. The club terminated his contract the following month.

A German court ruled last month that his contract was wrongfully terminated. El Ghazi, who signed with championship side Cardiff City this month, had a contract with Mainz until 2025.

The ruling by Mainz Labour Court ordered Mainz to pay his wages for the past nine months, totalling $1.9m. El Ghazi told The Athletic he had received a payment of $1.7m from Mainz relating to his dismissal.

On Friday, El Ghazi wrote on social media: “I would like to take this moment to thank Mainz for two things. Firstly, for the substantial financial pay-off, 500k of which will be used to fund projects for the children in Gaza.”

Israeli police clash with demonstrators in Tel Aviv

Israeli activists have released videos, verified by Al Jazeera, showing intense skirmishes between Israeli police and demonstrators in Tel Aviv.

In one video, police cavalry trample a protester, while another shows police officers assaulting other demonstrators.

The protesters were demanding the return of captives held in Gaza.

https://twitter.com/lirishavit/status/1827420065513283623

‘Go to Cairo yourself’: Opposition leader to Netanyahu

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to prioritise returning captives from Gaza by personally sealing a mediated deal in Egypt.

“Prime minister, go to Cairo yourself, don’t send anybody. Close a deal now,” he said during large demonstrations in Tel Aviv, also publishing the message on his X account, along with images of him meeting with family members of captives held in Gaza.

https://twitter.com/dimor_niv/status/1827410161419341954

‘You could’ve saved them’: Israeli captive families demonstrate in Tel Aviv

The families of Israeli captives held in the Gaza Strip have led another large-scale weekly demonstration to call for a deal that would bring their loved ones home and to criticise the government.

“My cousin was supposed to return on the eighth day of the deal,” one demonstrator said about the exchange agreement in late November that broke down after seven days, adding that opportunities to bring the remaining captives alive are being missed.

Earlier this month, the Israeli military recovered the bodies of six captives held in the enclave who were killed months earlier, likely in Israeli air strikes.

https://twitter.com/bringhomenow/status/1827413127949926481

ISIL claims Germany stabbing attack was ‘revenge for Muslims in Palestine’

The ISIL (ISIS) group has claimed responsibility for a knife attack in western Germany that killed three people Friday night, saying it was carried out of “revenge for Muslims in Palestine and everywhere”.

A short statement published through the Telegram channel of al-Amaq, which is believed to be affiliated with the group, said the perpetrator was a “soldier of the Islamic State” and attacked a “Christian gathering”.

The group did not provide any evidence for the attack, which also left eight others wounded. Police in Germany have detained a 15-year-old to investigate possible links with the attacker.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/8/24/israels-war-on-gaza-live-israel-attacks-as-palestinians-flee-north-gaza

>>483681
That was a tame speech. They're far gone if that's already too much.

Hezbollah says it is attacking Israel in retaliation for Shukr’s killing

The Lebanese armed group issued a statement saying it has launched a “large” drone and rocket attack on Israel in retaliation against the Israeli military’s killing of its commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut on July 30.

“These military operations will take some time to conclude. After that, a detailed statement will be released about their process and target,” Hezbollah said in a statement.

“At this moment, the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon is at the highest readiness and will confront any Zionist aggression, especially if it touches civilians with a severe punishment,” it added.

Flights to and from Tel Aviv suspended: Reports
Israeli Army Radio is reporting that Israeli authorities have closed the Ben Gurion International airport in Tel Aviv and are redirecting flights to alternative airports.

The Times of Israel also reported that departing flights at Ben Gurion have been delayed and “won’t take off in the next few hours” due to “the security situation”.

We’ll bring you more soon.

Israel declares ’emergency situation’ for next 48 hours

Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has declared an “emergency situation” in Israel for the next 48 hours, according to Israeli media, as the country’s military launched extensive attacks on southern Lebanon.

Israel’s YNet News said the declaration “enables the military to issue instructions to civilians, limit crowd sizes and close relevant areas off”.

‘Intense’ Israeli air attacks reported in south Lebanon

Lebanon’s Al Mayadeen TV is reporting “intense Israeli aerial aggression against southern Lebanon” which lasted more than 20 minutes in the past hour.

It said Israeli forces targeted forested areas in the towns of Kounin, Beit Yahoun, Haddatha, Rashaf and Tiri.

Hezbollah fires 70 rockets at northern Israel: Report

Lebanon’s Al Maydeen TV is reporting that a “major retaliation” by Hezbollah is under way after Israel’s military launched intense air raids on southern Lebanon.

“Over 70 rockets were fired from Lebanon towards the western al-Jalil [Galilee] coinciding with aerial incursions from multiple locations,” Al Mayadeen said.

The Hezbollah missiles are targeting areas “deep into the” western Galilee and the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, it added.

Clashes as Israeli forces raid Balata refugee camp in the occupied West Bank

Al Jazeera Arabic is reporting that Israeli forces have stormed the Balata refugee camp, east of the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, and arrested a young man there after raiding his home.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades said it responded to the raid by firing a heavy barrage of bullets at Israeli soldiers, Al Jazeera Arabic reported.

Israel launches attacks on Lebanon, warns of Hezbollah response

Daniel Hagari, the spokesman for Israel’s military, said Israeli fighter jets are attacking Lebanon to “proactively” remove a “threat” from Hezbollah.

“A short while ago, the [Israeli military] identified the Hezbollah terrorist organization preparing to fire missiles and rockets toward Israeli territory,” he said.

“‌‏In a self-defense act to remove these threats, the [Israeli military] is striking terror targets in Lebanon, from which Hezbollah was planning to launch their attacks on Israeli civilians,” he said.

“Hezbollah will soon fire rockets, and possibly missiles and UAVs, towards Israeli territory,” he said, adding: “‌‏From right next to the homes of Lebanese civilians in the south of Lebanon, we can see that Hezbollah is preparing to launch an extensive attack on Israel, while endangering the Lebanese civilians. ‌‏We warn the civilians located in the areas where Hezbollah is operating, to move out of harm’s way immediately for their own safety.”

The statement came shortly before Israeli media reported that flights to and from Tel Aviv have been suspended due to the “security situation”.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/8/25/israels-war-on-gaza-live-israel-bombards-gaza-on-eve-of-high-level-talks

Hezbollah fires back after significant Israeli aerial attack on Lebanon
Zeina Khodr
reporting from Beirut, Lebanon

Israel has carried out a significant aerial attack in a number of areas in southern Lebanon.

What we’re getting are reports of at least 40 strikes, so a widespread “preemptive attack”.

That’s how the Israeli army is calling this, a “preemptive attack” against Hezbollah.

There were nonstop strikes in southern Lebanon, but we are also getting reports of Hezbollah firing back using drones and rockets, and that there have been alerts across northern Israel.

We are expected to hear from the Israeli army spokesperson shortly.

There are reports that this initial wave, if you like, of attacks in southern Lebanon has now ended, so we’re waiting to hear from the Israel army to see whether or not they plan to carry out more strikes, which could in turn, trigger a Hezbollah, response, and expand this conflict.

This is, and has been, a very dangerous conflict, even though largely contained, there is [a] real concern that it could expand and spiral out of control.

Hezbollah says it fired more than 320 rockets at Israel

More from Hezbollah’s statement:

The Lebanese group said it targeted Israeli military bases to “facilitate the passage of drones” towards their desired targets deep inside Israel. “And the drones have passed as planned”, it said.

It also said it fired more than 320 Katyusha rockets at 11 Israeli military bases and barracks, including the Meron base and four sites in the occupied Golan Heights.

Hezbollah says ‘first phase’ of attack on Israel over

The Lebanese armed group said the “first phase” of its retaliatory attack against Israel has been concluded “with complete success”.

Netanyahu to convene security cabinet shortly

The Israeli prime minister will convene his security cabinet at 7:00am local time (04:00GMT), according to Israeli media.

The Times of Israel reported that Netanyahu and Gallant were earlier at the Israeli military’s headquarters in Tel Aviv “managing the incident” in the north.

Woman injured by shrapnel as explosions heard in northern Israel

Israeli Army Radio is reporting that a woman has been slightly injured by shrapnel in Acre, in northern Israel. as around 150 Hezbollah rocket and drone attacks have been fired at Israel so far, in Hezbollah’s latest cross-border attack.

A resident of Abdon in the Western Galilee told Israeli Army Radio “we hear a lot of explosions, I woke up at 4:30 in the morning because the whole house was shaking”.

A house was also directly hit in the Western Galilee, Israeli Army Radio added, with no casualties reported.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/8/25/israels-war-on-gaza-live-israel-bombards-gaza-on-eve-of-high-level-talks

DOUBT.

doesn't this guarantee the US will put boots on the ground? Even if the IDF could beat hezbollah on their own, they can't occupy lebanon and do regime change on their own

>>483687
>the US will put boots on the ground?
very unlikely
They send air-craft carriers, so probably air-support.

>Even if the IDF could beat hezbollah on their own, they can't occupy lebanon and do regime change on their own
Hezbollah could potentially push into Israel, since the IDF probably isn't at full strength anymore , making Israeli territory the battleground, where everything gets wrecked. So maybe that Lebanon war isn't such a good idea. Also the US can't occupy Lebanon because they have to much other shit going on already. Like the proxy war in Ukraine and the sabre rattling with China.

Will the Hezbollah strike hold Israel back?
Zeina Khodr
Reporting from Beirut, Lebanon

We heard from Nasrallah who revealed details on the intended target of the group’s retaliatory strike for the killing of its top commander. Nasrallah said the target was a military intelligence headquarters, some 110km (68 miles) south of the border, deep inside Israel – just under 2km (1.2 miles) from the city of Tel Aviv.

What Hezbollah is saying is that its attack was successful and that Israeli reports that this attack failed are simply not true. So Nasrallah is accusing the Israeli government of hiding its losses and casualties.

Nasrallah also tried to make clear what the group meant when it said this was the initial phase of its retaliation. He explained that the initial phase was the launching of the 300 or so Katyusha rockets that targeted at least 11 Israeli military positions close to the border. He said the second stage of the attack was when they launched drones that, according to Hezbollah, hit that military intelligence headquarters.

The clear message from Hezbollah is in many ways the retaliation is now over if, according to Nasrallah, it served its purpose. What he meant by that was if Hezbollah restored deterrence. That means Israel will no longer act with little restraint in Lebanon. So the hours and days to come will show whether or not this Hezbollah strike will hold Israel back and keep it from crossing red lines.

Most Israeli strikes hit within five kilometres of Lebanon’s border
Zeina Khodr
reporting from Beirut, Lebanon

Most of the Israeli strikes on Lebanon were in the border area, up to five-kilometre deep territory along the 120 kilometre border.

The border area is now a military zone. It’s been evacuated of civilians. It’s been repeatedly hit by the Israeli army in recent months.

Many of the villages along that border have been levelled to the ground, but Hezbollah is still present there.

Another strategy that Israel has been employing in recent months is targeted killings, taking out members and commanders of Hezbollah, as well as other Palestinian groups, that are allied with Hezbollah.

Remember, Hezbollah opened this front in October to help its ally, Hamas in Gaza, and Hezbollah has repeatedly said it will not stop or halt firing until there’s a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

So this conflict will continue and will remain a dangerous conflict as long as the war in Gaza continues, and without that ceasefire, there can be no diplomatic solution to this conflict.

Ben Gurion airport to resume operations

Israel’s Ben Gurion airport is expected to resume operations at 04:00 GMT on Sunday, the airports authority said, lifting a suspension imposed as the Israeli military and Hezbollah traded attacks.

“Aircraft that were diverted to alternative airports, including Ramon Airport, will take off and head back to Ben Gurion Airport,” it said.

Hamas’s armed wing says it fires rocket at Tel Aviv

The Qassam Brigades says its fighters have launched an M90 rocket at the Israeli coastal city.

“This is in response to the massacres being perpetrated against civilians and the forced displacement of our people,” it said in a statement.

‘A major escalation in scope and intensity’

Israel’s strikes have “the potential to draw the whole region into the full-blown war”, Sami Nader, director of the Levant Institute for Strategic Affairs, told Al Jazeera.

He said that while this signals a “major escalation in terms of scope of operation and intensity” both Hezbollah and Israel “are trying to avoid full-blown war”.

Israel, he said, is “exhausted” by its war on Gaza, and the Lebanese group does not want to see a war similar to the one that occurred in 2006, as Lebanon is in a “serious economic crisis”.

However, he said, no diplomatic settlement appears to be taking form and “Israel is determined to change rules of engagement” that would allow a return of all Israelis who were evacuated from northern Israel.

Yair Lapid backs military operations in Lebanon

The Israeli opposition leader added in a post on X: “Any attempt to attack Israel will bet met with a heavy hand and the capabilities of the [Israeli army] and the security system”.

Israeli military restricts gatherings, closes some beaches

The Israeli military announced a series of restrictions on civilians in northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights earlier in the morning as it traded fire with Hezbollah.

The military’s Home Front Command closed beaches near the border with Lebanon and restricted outdoor gatherings to 30 people and indoor meetings to 300, according to the Times of Israel.

It also said educational activities and workplaces will be able to operate if an adequate shelter was located nearby.

Homes damaged in northern Israel after Hezbollah attack: Report

An AFP news agency’s photographer in Acre, an Israeli city 20km (12 miles) from the Lebanese border, reported damage to three homes from a Hezbollah rocket that struck a roof, with shrapnel smashing windows and destroying a bed.

“There were explosions in the area of Haifa,” said Abigail Levy, a resident of the coastal city further south. “I was stopped and was told not to go to the beach.”

AFPTV footage from early on Sunday showed dozens of interceptor rockets being launched into dense clouds above the Upper Galilee in northern Israel.

Malaysia’s Ibrahim slams ‘inaccurate narratives’ on Gaza

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim says the Western world needs to stop trying to control the international media merely for the sake of highlighting “inaccurate narratives” about the ongoing war in Gaza.

Inaugurating the All-Malaysian Mosque Summit for Al-Aqsa and Palestine in Kuala Lumpur, he stressed that the West does not need to teach the Muslim world about the “meaning of democracy, human rights, and sustainable development,” Anadolu reported, quoting the Malaysian state-run Bernama news agency.

“We need to be clear and cannot be determined by the Western countries that want to start the narrative on October 7,” Anwar was quoted as saying.

​“The continuous destruction [in Palestine] happened since 1948, followed by the direct invasion of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in 1969. In fact, now the destruction continues, whether infrastructure or human and genocide. This is what happened,” he said.

Key takeaways from Nasrallah’s speech after Hezbollah-Israel attacks

Hezbollah’s leader has made a televised speech after a heavy exchange of fire between the Lebanese group and Israel.

Hezbollah’s attack was billed as its response to the Israeli assassination of its senior military commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut last month.

To read more about what Nasrallah said after the attack, read our story here: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/25/five-key-takeaways-from-nasrallahs-speech-after-hezbollah-israel-attacks

Had no plans to attack Tel Aviv: Nasrallah

In his televised speech, the Hezbollah chief said the group had no plans to hit targets in Tel Aviv, including Ben Gurion airport and the Israeli Defence Ministry building.

He added that while the Lebanese group had no intention to use precision missiles in today’s attack, it may use them in the near future.

Top US military official arrives in Israel after Hezbollah attack

General Brown has arrived in Israel, hours after major cross-border fighting between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

Brown, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, is expected to hold meetings with senior Israeli military officials, the Reuters news agency reports.

US to keep two aircraft carrier strike groups in Middle East: Pentagon

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered the presence of two aircraft carrier strike groups in the Middle East, the Pentagon says as it strengthens the US military presence amid soaring regional tensions.

The announcement, made in a summary of a call between Austin and his Israeli counterpart, represents a shift. The Pentagon had initially deployed the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group into the region with a plan to replace the Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group.

Polio vaccines reach Ramallah, no clarity on Gaza delivery

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in the occupied West Bank reports that nOPV oral polio vaccines have been delivered to Ramallah after weeks of anticipation, and coordination is under way to deliver them to the Gaza Strip.

The ministry added in a press statement that the necessary cold-chain equipment to preserve the vaccines has also been brought in, according to the official Wafa news agency.

It called on international organisations to pressure Israeli authorities to stop their attacks in Gaza in order for medical teams to be able to vaccinate children in the besieged enclave, where the UN confirmed the first case of polio leading to a Palestinian baby getting paralysed.

Israeli military confirms 1 navy officer killed

The Israeli military says a member of its navy was killed and two others wounded in combat in northern Israel, after Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets at Israel.

“Petty Officer First Class, David Moshe Ben Shitrit, aged 21… fell during combat in northern Israel,” the military said in a statement, adding that he was from the navy and that two others were also wounded.

It did not give further details.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/8/25/israels-war-on-gaza-live-israel-bombards-gaza-on-eve-of-high-level-talks

Qassam Brigades claims casualties inflicted in northern Gaza attacks

Hamas’s armed wing says Palestinian fighters have successfully executed an ambush in northern Gaza.

The Qassam Brigades said a minefield was prepared to target Israeli armoured vehicles and it detonated in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City, after which military helicopters arrived to transport casualties.

It added that its snipers also shot an Israeli soldier near the University College of Applied Sciences, south of the Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood of Gaza City.

WATCH: Hezbollah attack hits Israeli military boat off Nahariyya

Footage shared online and verified by Al Jazeera shows a Hezbollah projectile hitting an Israeli military boat off the coast of Nahariyya, Israel’s northernmost coastal city.

More videos and images circulating online purport to show the damaged interior of the Israeli navy’s Dvora-class fast patrol boat.

Reports in Israeli media indicated there were casualties, but the Israeli military has yet to comment.

https://twitter.com/AJA_Palestine/status/1827688685036331422

British Airways, Wizz Air halt UK to Tel Aviv flights

Flights between the UK and Tel Aviv have been cancelled after an escalation of hostilities overnight.

British Airways halted its flights between London’s Heathrow and Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airports from Sunday to Wednesday, the airline said.

Wizz Air also said it is “temporarily suspending” flights to and from Israel “due to the escalating situation in the region”.

Air France cancels flights to Tel Aviv, Beirut

Air France has cancelled its flights to the two Middle Eastern destinations until at least Monday.

“Resuming these routes will be subject to a new assessment of the security situation,” the airline said in a statement. “Air France reiterates that the safety of its customers and crews is its absolute priority.”

Several airlines cancel flights to, from Tel Aviv

Israeli media outlet Haaretz is reporting that Air France, Etihad Airways and Aegean Airlines have cancelled flights to and from Ben Gurion airport.

According to Haaretz, the airlines joined 16 others in announcing the discontinuation of flights to and from Israel, including some until Monday and others until further notice.

Hezbollah response ‘delayed by political considerations’

A Hezbollah official says the group’s rocket and drone attack against Israel in retaliation for a top commander’s killing last month was delayed by “political considerations”, chief among them the ongoing talks on a ceasefire and captive-prisoner exchange for Gaza.

The official, in written comments shared with media outlets, said the group had “worked” to make sure its response to the killing of Fuad Shukr on July 30 would not trigger a full-scale war.

Netanyahu says strikes against Hezbollah ‘not end of the story’

Israel’s prime minister says his country took preemptive action against Hezbollah and air defences had intercepted all rockets and drones launched against Israel.

He said in his opening remarks for the cabinet meeting that the leaders of Hezbollah and Iran should know that the response was “another step towards changing the situation in the north and returning our residents safely to their homes”.

“This is not the end of the story,” he added.

‘Yemeni response is coming’: Houthis praise Hezbollah attacks

The Houthis have congratulated Hezbollah’s leaders for the “major” attacks on Israeli positions.

“This powerful and effective response deep within the entity that remains vulnerable reaffirms that the resistance is capable, steadfast, and sincere in its promises and threats,” the Houthis’ political bureau said in a statement.

“We stand by the hands and shoulders of the heroes of the Islamic resistance, congratulate and support all options and retaliatory operations against the Zionist enemy.

“We also reaffirm that the Yemeni response is inevitably coming, and the coming days and nights and the battlefield will prove this.”

‘You don’t interest us’: Northern Israeli leaders fume at gov’t

Leaders of regional councils in areas across northern Israel which have been targeted by Hezbollah have said they are cutting off contact with the government in protest to being neglected.

“We haven’t interested you for 10-and-a-half months, and from now on, you don’t interest us. Don’t call, don’t come, don’t send messages. We have managed alone until now, we will manage,” reads a joint statement by Mateh Asher Regional Council head Moshe Davidovich, Metula Mayor David Azoulay, and Upper Galilee Regional Council head Giora Zaltz, according to The Times of Israel.

The regional leaders have repeatedly called for a reliable plan to bring tens of thousands of Israeli citizens who have been displaced from the north amid the escalating conflict.

The leaders are also angry because the Israeli military has not engaged in large-scale “preemptive strikes” on Lebanon in defence of northern communities, as it did today after perceiving that Hezbollah may be considering hitting central Israel.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/8/25/israels-war-on-gaza-live-israel-bombards-gaza-on-eve-of-high-level-talks

Protests starting up again at Columbia.
https://twitter.com/palyouthmvmt/status/1827843500055945484

‘Rape in the name of God’: Israeli settler threatens Palestinians

Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has released the following video of a group of settlers harassing Palestinians in the occupied West Bank’s Hebron town and threatening them with sexual assault.

The incident took place on Sunday morning when many masked settlers arrived with a vehicle and a herd of cows on the land of a Palestinian family in Khirbet Wadi a-Rakhim in the South Hebron Hills.

One of the settlers names the infamous Sde Teiman prison, where a Palestinian inmate was recently gang-raped by Israeli guards, and threatens the Palestinians with “rape in the name of God”.

https://twitter.com/btselem/status/1828003273489445196

Iran says its retaliation against Israel will be ‘precise and calculated’

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has again pledged that his country will respond to the assassination of Hamas’s political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

“Iran’s reaction to Israeli terrorist attack in Tehran is definitive, and will be measured & well calculated,” Araghchi wrote on X. “We do not fear escalation, yet do not seek it – unlike Israel.”

The minister said he made the remark in a conversation with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani by telephone.

Hamas say Israel targeted one of its members in Lebanon

Hamas’s media office told our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic that the target of today’s Israeli strike in Sidon, southern Lebanon, was one of their members, adding that he survived the attack.

https://twitter.com/AJA_Palestine/status/1828008935925657963

UKMTO reports security incident involving speed boat off Yemen

The British maritime security agency UKMTO says it has received a report from an unnamed vessel about a security incident some 55 nautical miles (101km) southeast of Yemen’s Aden.

A speed boat about four metres in length carrying eight to 10 personnel approached the vessel displaying a ladder with no weapons visible, but later departed the scene.

We will bring you more details when we have them.

Israel receives 500th US military supply plane since October 7

“The 500th aircraft in the joint airlift operation has landed in Israel,” says the Israeli Defence Ministry in a statement.

It said the new supply plane was “part of a large-scale logistical effort that began with the outbreak of the recent war”.

“Through this operation, over 50,000 tons of military equipment have been delivered to Israel via 500 flights and 107 sea shipments,” it said.

“The equipment procured and transported includes armored vehicles, munitions, ammunition, personal protection gear, and medical equipment, which are crucial for sustaining the IDF [Israeli army’s] operational capabilities during the ongoing war,” the ministry added.

HRW accuses Israel’s military of torturing Palestinian health workers

Human Rights Watch has called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate Israel’s military for the custodial torture of Palestinian doctors, nurses and paramedics.

The group said it interviewed eight released health workers who described mistreatment in Israeli custody, including humiliation, beatings, forced stress positions, prolonged cuffing and blindfolding, and denial of medical care.

“The Israeli government’s mistreatment of Palestinian healthcare workers has continued in the shadows and needs to immediately stop,” said Balkees Jarrah, acting Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

“The torture and other ill-treatment of doctors, nurses, and paramedics should be thoroughly investigated and appropriately punished, including by the International Criminal Court,” she added.

Israel intercepts ‘suspicious object’ launched from Syria: Report

The Israeli military said in a statement that its air defence forces successfully shot down the object after it was identified in the skies east of the Sea of ​​Galilee.

The statement came after air raid sirens were activated in the region.

Israel’s Ynet News reported that the drone entered Israeli territory from Syria, while The Times of Israel said “the suspected attack occurred near the Sea of Galilee, near the borders with Jordan and Syria, and far south of the area normally targeted by Lebanon-based Hezbollah”.

Israeli military claims killing dozens of Palestinian fighters

The Israeli military has published a war update in which it claims the following:

On Sunday, its forces attacked the site where Hamas launched a rocket towards central Israel.
The Israeli military claims to have “eliminated” dozens of Palestinian fighters and “large quantities of weapons” in the areas of Khan Younis and Deir el-Balah.
It also claims to have eliminated dozens of Palestinian fighters in Tal as-Sultan.

Israeli settlers storm Al-Aqsa Mosque compound: Report

The Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that Israeli settlers have stormed Islam’s third-holiest site under the protection of Israeli police officers.

The storming of the compound is a regular occurrence even though entering any part of it is forbidden for Jews due to the sacred nature of the site, according to Jewish law.

Ben-Gvir says he would build a synagogue at Al-Aqsa Mosque compound: Report

Israeli Army Radio reports that Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has said he would build a synagogue at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City.

Jews refer to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound as the “Temple Mount”, and some believe that it is where the first and second ancient Jewish temples once stood.

Media groups urge EU to suspend treaty, impose sanctions on Israel

Some 60 media and rights organisations have called on the bloc to freeze an association accord with Israel and adopt targeted sanctions, accusing it of “massacring journalists” in Gaza.

“In response to the unprecedented number of journalists killed and other repeated press freedom violations by the Israeli authorities since the start of the war with Hamas, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and 59 other organisations are calling on the European Union to suspend its Association Agreement with Israel and to adopt targeted sanctions against those responsible”, the groups said in a joint statement.

Pope says Lebanese ‘paying a price’ for the war in Gaza

Pope Francis says “so many innocent people” are dying because of the war between Israel and Hamas, “for which Lebanon is paying a price”.

His remarks came a day after Israel launched air attacks into the country, claiming it destroyed “thousands” of Hezbollah rocket launchers. The Lebanese group also carried out a major rocket and drone attack on Israel.

The pope was speaking as he met victims of the August 4, 2020 blast in Beirut, one of the world’s biggest non-nuclear explosions, at the Vatican.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/8/26/israels-war-on-gaza-live-panicked-patients-flee-al-aqsa-martyrs-hospital

Israeli military launches air strikes on southern Lebanon

The Israeli military has released aerial footage of air strikes in southern Lebanon, saying it targeted “military buildings” operated by Hezbollah in Kfar Kila and Tayr Harfa.

It added that its forces also launched artillery strikes in Shebaa and Aita ash-Shaab.

The state-run National News Agency in Lebanon cited its correspondent in Tyre as reporting that the outskirts of the towns of Chamaa and Naqoura were subjected to enemy artillery shelling.

Evacuation orders in Deir el-Balah ‘final blow’ to aid operations

Alexandra Saieh of Save the Children says it has become “practically impossible” to operate in Gaza.

“The so-called evacuation orders that Israel has issued this month in Deir el-Balah may be the final blow to the aid operations in Gaza,” Saieh told Al Jazeera.

“It is the only area with any sort of infrastructure intact, and these evacuation orders have completely upended the aid hub that was set up in there.”

Saieh said setting up aid operations was not like “turning an on and off button”.

“You have to set up predictable supply lines. You have to find a location that has some semblance of security. Of course, nowhere in Gaza is safe, but this is why these operations are just collapsing,” she said.

“Our staff has been displaced. The staff of other aid organisations has been displaced. Warehouses that are storing critical aid supplies are now inaccessible.”

Israeli attack on TRT journalists an ‘attempt to conceal the truth’, Turkey says

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry has said that an Israeli attack on journalists from Turkish public broadcaster TRT is an “effort by bloodstained Israel to conceal the truth”.

“We stand in solidarity with all journalists who are tirelessly working to expose Israel’s oppression to the world,” the ministry wrote in a statement on X.

A cameraman for TRT Arabi was wounded on Monday in Israeli shelling in the southern Gaza Strip.

Mohammad al-Zeineen sustained an eye injury from a piece of shrapnel after the Israeli army targeted a car beside a tent for journalists near Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.

Gaza-based journalist killed in Israeli attack

A Palestinian journalist, Ali Nayef Ta’ima, has been killed in Gaza, according to the Government Media Office. This brings the total number of journalists killed since the conflict began to 171.

“The Government Media Office condemns in the strongest terms the targeting and killing of Palestinian journalists by the ‘Israeli’ occupation,” it said, adding that Ta’ima had worked with several media outlets.

Iran supports any Gaza deal approved by Hamas: Araghchi

Iran’s new Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has received Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani in Tehran, where the two leaders discussed the Gaza ceasefire talks.

Iran welcomes Qatar’s efforts to establish ceasefire in the enclave and “will support any agreement that our friends in the Palestinian resistance and Hamas approve”, Araghchi said, according to the Iranian foreign ministry.

The Qatari official reportedly delivered a report of the latest developments and efforts towards achieving a deal and ensuring regional stability. Al Thani is scheduled to meet with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian soon.

First batch of polio vaccines reaches Gaza

The first batch of polio vaccines has arrived in the Gaza Strip, weeks after alarms were raised over the first confirmed case of the disease in the enclave in the past 25 years.

Over 640,000 Palestinian children need the vaccine, according to the UN, which has said a ceasefire would be the most effective way of combating the virus that can cause paralysis or even death in young children.

Iran’s Pezeshkian says world must unite to stop Gaza ‘genocide’

In a meeting with Qatar’s prime minister in Tehran, Iran’s president has said that human rights and international laws are being violated in the Gaza Strip every hour.

Masoud Pezeshkian said countries that claim to defend human rights “are not only staying silent against these crimes but also support the perpetrator of these crimes and genocide”, according to his website.

He expressed hope that “all Islamic countries and all other countries who are committed to international laws and frameworks will stand together and are able to take united action to force the backers of the Zionist regime to contain its crimes and genocide in Gaza”.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/8/26/israels-war-on-gaza-live-panicked-patients-flee-al-aqsa-martyrs-hospital

>>483698
>of a group of settlers harassing Palestinians in the occupied West Bank’s Hebron town and threatening them with sexual assault.
They keep insisting on the rape stuff. Maybe we should rename that country to Rapistan or maybe Rape-rael.

>Some 60 media and rights organisations have called on the bloc to freeze an association accord with Israel and adopt targeted sanctions, accusing it of “massacring journalists” in Gaza.
Since the Zionist genocide force is picking off journalists on purpose, we have to upgrade the journalists.

Free investigative journalism needs to have commando units that are granted lethal force to prevent obstruction of journalism.

>Pope says Lebanese ‘paying a price’ for the war in Gaza
>The pope was speaking as he met victims of the August 4, 2020 blast in Beirut, one of the world’s biggest non-nuclear explosions, at the Vatican.
I remember that, did we ever figure out who set off the gazillion tonnes of fertilizer that got stuck in Beirut port customs limbo. ?

Fires burning on oil tanker days after Houthi attack

The Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion remains an “imminent environmental hazard” days after it was attacked by Houthis in the Red Sea, the European Union’s Red Sea naval mission Aspides has said in a post on X.

The Sounion’s crew has been rescued, but an EU Aspides unit which passed nearby has observed at least five fires burning on board, including potentially near hatches to the ship’s oil tanks, Aspides said.

https://twitter.com/EUNAVFORASPIDES/status/1827929798284357737

Islamic Resistance in Iraq claims drone attack on Haifa

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-aligned forces opposed to the US and Israel, claims it had used drones to hit Israel’s third largest city on Monday evening.

The group said in a short statement that “a vital target” was attacked in support of Palestinians and promised its strikes will continue.

The Israeli military has not commented on the incident.

Clashes along Netzarim Corridor in north as Israelis press ground attacks in south: Monitors

Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters traded tank shells and rocket fire along the Israeli-built military access route known as the Netzarim Corridor in the north of Gaza on Monday, war monitors report.

In the south of Gaza, Hamas fighters fired “thermobaric rockets” and rocket-propelled grenades at Israeli troops based inside a building northeast of Khan Younis and detonated booby-trapped tunnels where explosives were placed in readiness for the approach of Israeli ground forces, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP) report.

The US-based military think tanks also report that Israeli armour advanced deep into central Khan Younis neighbourhoods on Monday, and Israeli ground forces continued to advance north towards central Deir el-Balah from Khan Younis over the past 10 days.

On Sunday, Hamas fighters launched a rocket targeting the Tel Aviv area from the northern area of Khan Younis. The rocket landed in an open area in metropolitan Tel Aviv without causing damage or casualties, the CTP-ISW reports.

Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine says Instagram account ‘permanently deleted’

The student group which helped organise the Columbia Gaza Solidarity Encampment, sparking a worldwide movement to end Israel’s war on Gaza, says it had 124,000 followers before Instagram took its account down.

Posting on X, the student group shared a screenshot of the notification it received from Instagram saying it could not request “another review” of the decision, which was reportedly made because it didn’t follow Instagram’s “Community Guidelines”.

Instagram is owned by Meta, which has long faced accusations of suppressing pro-Palestinian voices on Facebook and other platforms.

https://twitter.com/ColumbiaSJP/status/1828099828301107294

UN aid operations halt in Gaza

The UN says it is unable to deliver aid in Gaza because of Israel’s latest forced evacuation orders.

But the UN insists it is not withdrawing or suspending operations in the war-torn Palestinians territory, where it is the main provider of aid. Its key facilities are located in the central area of the enclave which is now the target of an Israeli military ground operation.

Strike called in Tulkarem over Nur Shams attack

More on the Israeli air attack in the occupied West Bank:

The Wafa news agency is reporting that Palestinians have declared a general strike in the Tulkarem governorate on Tuesday to mourn the killings in the Nur Shams refugee camp.

The call came as Hamas condemned the attack and called on Palestinians in the West Bank to intensify their struggle against Israel’s occupation.

There have been about 50 Israeli air attacks in the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza – the vast majority of them in Tulkarem, Jenin and Nablus.

Displaced Palestinian grandmother who was older than Israel dies in Gaza

An 89-year-old woman, who survived the mass displacement and killing of Palestinians by Israel in the 1948 Nakba and was older than the state of Israel, has died in a tent in Gaza after numerous displacements since last October.

Israeli protesters block Tel Aviv highway

Israeli protesters have staged a demonstration on the Ayalon Highway, which runs north to south past Tel Aviv, calling on the government to bring home the captives from Gaza.

Video of the rally shared by Israel’s Army Radio shows dozens of protesters lined up across the highway, blocking it, while holding up large banners and photos of Gaza-bound captives.

Israeli general says military should finish in Gaza before taking on Iran

Major General Israel Ziv has warned against pushing for war with Iran, which he calls Israel’s “central enemy”, while the military is still fighting in Gaza.

“For almost a year now, we have not been able to fully defeat even our smallest enemy,” Ziv said in comments carried by Israel’s Maariv news site, noting that there are still 20,000 Hamas fighters regrouping in Gaza.

“It’s true that we need to deal with Iran, but we need a strategy for that, and for that, we need to close one front, handle the other, and pursue a more meaningful strategy against Iran,” said Ziv, who previously headed the Israeli military’s operations directorate.

“Israel certainly cannot take on the task of fighting everyone when it can’t even close the simplest front,” he said.

Israeli government finances storming of Al-Aqsa: Palestine ministry

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry says the Israeli Ministry of Heritage has allocated 2 million shekels (about $543,000) to support far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound.

This reflects “an official Israeli policy aimed at intensifying the Judaisation of Al-Aqsa and altering its status quo, which threatens to ignite tensions in the West Bank”, it said in a statement.

Ben-Gvir, who has personally stormed the compound with armed security and extremist settlers on multiple occasions, expressed his support for building a synagogue in the Holy Muslim site yesterday.

Hamas condemns Israeli funding of Al-Aqsa incursions

Hamas says Israeli government funding of incursions into the Muslim holy site “is a dangerous escalation and playing with fire, leading the region towards a religious war for which the occupation and its supporters will bear responsibility”.

The group said in a statement that the Israeli Ministry of Heritage is funding “Zionist-guided tours” to the compound, which it called another step “in their malicious plans to desecrate and Judaise” Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site.

Hamas called on the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to “take responsibility” and act in unison to protect the site and for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank to mobilise and maintain a presence there.

Army says Israeli captive rescued

Israeli troops have rescued a captive in the southern Gaza Strip, the military said during a news conference.

It said Kaid Farhan al-Qadi, 52, was recovered in “a complex rescue operation” from Marhat, and said his medical condition was normal.

The operation was carried out jointly by the army and Shin Bet, the country’s domestic intelligence agency.

We will bring you more details soon.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/8/27/israels-war-on-gaza-live-israeli-tanks-near-deir-el-balah-as-un-flees

>>483714
Israepists.

>>483715
>Major General Israel Ziv has warned against pushing for war with Iran
>“For almost a year now, we have not been able to fully defeat even our smallest enemy,”
>Hamas fighters regrouping in Gaza.
This made him sound almost reasonable

“It’s true that we need to deal with Iran, but we need a strategy for that
This is delusional, While Gaza is the humanitarian catastrophe they intended to create, militarily it's a bad defeat against a small under-equipped force. If they pick a fight with the biggest regional power, it will be Iran that deals with them.

>>483716
>Israepists
Yes, you nailed it.
Lets go with that one.

‘It is an act of war’

Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, says the ongoing Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank is “not just raids … it’s an act of war”.

“What Israel is doing is conducting a war on occupied people which is a total violation of international law on how an occupying power should behave,” Barghouti told Al Jazeera, stressing that the West Bank has been under Israeli occupation since 1967.

“They are using air strikes, air force, tanks, bulldozers, and what they are trying to do is to transfer the actual genocide and ethnic cleansing ongoing in Gaza into the West Bank,” Barghouti said.

The amount of damage Israeli forces inflicted on the Palestinian territory’s infrastructure also indicates their goal to make it uninhabitable for its citizens, Barghouti added.

“They destroyed water pipelines, electricity lines, houses, schools – what do they want? They want to create a situation where we cannot live in our country and that is exactly what the settlers’ plans are about.

“It’s about Judaization of the West Bank, about annexing the West Bank and killing any opportunity for the Palestinians to be free and to have a state of their own,” he said.

Palestinian president cuts short Saudi trip over West Bank violence: Report

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has interrupted his visit to Saudi Arabia to return to the occupied West Bank after Israel launched military operations there, Palestinian news agency Wafa has reported.

“Abbas cut short his visit to Saudi Arabia and returned to his homeland on Wednesday to follow up on the latest developments in light of the Israeli aggression on the northern West Bank,” Wafa said.

Israeli forces raid medical facilities across occupied West Bank

Reporting from Nablus in the occupied West Bank and Nida Ibrahim
After more than 17 hours, Israeli forces are still in the three areas where they started their raids – we’re talking about Tulkarem, with both its refugee camps, Nur Shams and Tulkarem refugee camps. We’re also talking about Jenin refugee camps and Far’a.

We’ve seen videos from inside [refugee camps] showing how the medical teams are having problems carrying the wounded and taking them to medical centres.

A raid took place that included the storming of a medical centre inside Far’a [refugee camp] where the head of the Red Crescent medical centre tells us that he’s been assaulted by Israeli forces, who also detained medical teams there.

We’ve heard in a warning from the Jenin governor that Israeli forces intend to raid the Jenin hospital, one of the main hospitals there, creating a lot of panic and chaos among Palestinians, especially those who are sick and receiving treatment.

We’ve also been receiving news from inside the Nur Shams refugee camp that residents there are scared. They don’t know what to expect, and that’s why some of them have evacuated, fearing the worst.

Four killed in Syria border strike: Report

A presumed Israeli strike has hit a car near the Syria-Lebanon border, killing at least four people, reports the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The strike targeted the Lebanon-bound vehicle on Syria’s Zabadani bridge on the road connecting Damascus to Beirut, the observatory said, without providing information on the victims.

Lebanon’s An-Nahar news site shared photos and footage of the attack’s aftermath, with thick black smoke rising over a pile of wreckage on the road.

The attack would mark the 60th time Israel has hit Syrian territory this year, according to the observatory.

Israeli military claims to demolish winding central Gaza tunnel

Israel’s military says it has destroyed a 3km-long (1.9 mile) tunnel near the Netzarim Corridor, which the Israeli military set up to split northern Gaza from the south.

Members of the military’s Yahalom engineering unit worked with troops in the Jerusalem brigade to locate, probe and wreck the tunnel, the military said, sharing footage claiming to show its destruction.

The tunnel is among hundreds of pieces of military infrastructure destroyed in recent weeks, the Israeli army claimed.

All humanitarian aid to Gaza must stop: Lieberman

Member of the Israeli Knesset Avigdor Lieberman has called for all humanitarian aid to Gaza to stop.

“It is not our job to take care of the civilian humanitarian effort in Gaza, against those who brutally murdered and kidnapped our sons and daughters,” he wrote on X.

“The only arrangement that should be in place with Gaza is to stop all transfers of humanitarian aid, equipment, fuel, electricity and water and leave operational freedom of action to the [Israeli forces] in order to prevent renewed military intensification.”

Israeli forces impose curfew in Jenin neighbourhood

Israeli forces have imposed a curfew on the eastern neighbourhood of Jenin and have prevented Palestinians from leaving their homes, an Al Jazeera correspondent has reported from the occupied West Bank.

The correspondent said the army has continued with raids and storming homes in the neighbourhood.

Separately, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported that a Palestinian was injured by Israeli forces’ bullets in al-Yamoun, Jenin governorate, in the northern West Bank.

Freed Israeli captive calls on Israel gov’t to reach a deal

Qaid Farhan al-Kadi, an Israeli man who was abducted by Hamas on October 7 and held in Gaza until he was recovered earlier this week, has returned to his home and called on the Israeli government to reach a deal for the release of the remaining captives.

“It does not matter if they are Arab or Jewish, all have a family waiting for them. They also want to feel the joy,” he told reporters in his home village of Khirbet Karkur. “I told Netanyahu yesterday, ‘work to have an end to this’.”

The 52-year-old is one of Israel’s about 300,000 Arab Bedouins, a group that has long faced discrimination from the Israeli state.

The Associated Press reported that Khirbet Karkur, an unincorporated Bedouin village, is currently under demolition orders by the government.

Since November, 70 percent of residents have received notifications that their homes will be demolished on the grounds that they were constructed without permits, which Israeli authorities rarely grant to the group. About one-third of Bedouin Arabs live in communities and villages that the Israeli government considers illegal.

Israeli captives’ families march for deal

Many families of Israeli captives have set out on a march from Tel Aviv towards an area near the security fence with Gaza to demand a prisoner exchange deal.

Shira Albag, the mother of one of the female soldiers held in the Strip, said history would care more about how the country manages the safe return of captives than whether Israel occupied the Philadelphi Corridor.

Her comments come after another round of ceasefire talks in Cairo on Sunday failed to yield any results as Hamas rejected new conditions put forward by Israel.

Key sticking points in the talks include an Israeli presence in the Philadelphi Corridor, a narrow 14.5km (9-mile) stretch of land along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt.

In Cairo, the Hamas delegation demanded that Israel be bound by what was agreed upon on July 2, following a plan laid out by Biden and a UNSC resolution.

Israeli forces opened fire on ‘clearly marked’ humanitarian vehicle: UN

The UN has said that Israeli forces in Gaza attacked a marked UN aid vehicle on Tuesday evening during a humanitarian operation that had been coordinated with the Israeli military beforehand.

“A clearly marked UN humanitarian vehicle, part of a convoy that had been fully coordinated with the [Israeli military], was struck 10 times by [Israeli military] gunfire, including with bullets targeting front windows,” UN secretary-general spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

Al Jazeera correspondent Gabriel Elizondo reported that the attack took place near Wadi Gaza, and that two UN workers inside the vehicle were unharmed.

WFP suspends Gaza movements after Israeli attack on aid convoy

The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) says it is suspending humanitarian operations in Gaza after Israeli forces opened fire on a “clearly marked” UN aid convoy.

The WFP said in a statement that the aid vehicles had received “multiple clearances by Israeli authorities to approach” a checkpoint before Israeli forces opened fire, striking a vehicle 10 times.

Israel has opened fire on humanitarian workers throughout the course of its war in Gaza.

EU mission in Red Sea says no oil spill in area of Sounion tanker

The European Union’s mission in the Red Sea, known as Aspides, says there is no oil spill in the area of the MV SOUNION tanker that was targeted recently off Yemen’s coast.

Aspides added that the Greek-flagged oil tanker was still anchored and not drifting.

The Pentagon said on Tuesday the tanker was still on fire in the Red Sea and appeared to be leaking oil.

Reuters couldn’t immediately confirm that a spill or a leak had occurred.

The MV SOUNION was targeted last week by multiple projectiles off Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah.

Houthi fighters, who control Yemen’s most populous regions, said they attacked it. The Iran-aligned group has been attacking ships in solidarity with Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Houthis allowing vessel assistance because successful strike set ‘an example’

Hussain al-Bukhaiti, a Yemen-based analyst specialising in the Houthis, has told Al Jazeera that the group has allowed tug boats to assist an oil tanker struck by projectiles last week because the attack has already successfully communicated a message of the Houthi’s commitment to striking ships that it says are associated with Israel.

“He [a spokesperson for the Houthis] said that after several international parties contacted us [the Houthis], especially the European Union, we allowed the ship to be towed. And he said that the burning of the ship was an example of the seriousness of Yemenis to target any ship that violated the ban against entering Israel,” he said.

Israel says it recovers the body of a soldier from Gaza

Katz says Israeli forces have recovered the body of a soldier in Gaza.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/8/28/israels-war-on-gaza-live-many-still-buried-after-day-of-israeli-strikes

>>483722
>The UN has said that Israeli forces in Gaza attacked a marked UN aid vehicle on Tuesday evening during a humanitarian operation that had been coordinated with the Israeli military beforehand.
Gotta shoot back, they're never gonna quit the bullshit if all that happens is complaints.

Owen Jones on the conspicuous gap in time between the ICC's chief prosecutor requesting warrants and now.

Another British journalist was just arrested for wrongthink about the Palestinian genocide.

Glenn Greenwald interviews a Columbia student on the suppression and fall protests.

Palestinian ambassador tells UNSC ‘humanity unravelling’ in Israel’s war on Gaza

Riyad Mansour, Palestine’s representative to the United Nations, has warned the UN Security Council (UNSC) that the world is witnessing the “unravelling” of humanity and the rule of law in Gaza as Israel carries out genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

In a lengthy letter to the council, Mansour said, “Nothing is sacred, not even the life of a child, nothing too shameless, too deranged, too vicious for the occupying army to commit” in Gaza.

“Israel must be stopped, and the international community must act decisively. Every single day [Israel] proves that it has zero regard for international law, including humanitarian and human rights law, nor any regard for the Charter and authority of the UN,” he said.

Smaller Palestinian armed groups continue to fight as Hamas attacks reduce in Rafah: Monitors

A steep reduction in Hamas’s operations in Gaza’s southern Rafah city appear to indicate that its fighters have been “degraded” by Israel’s months-long ground offensive but smaller Palestinian armed groups continue to target Israeli forces in the area, monitors report.

US-based defence think tanks the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP) note a drop-off in a previously high number of attacks on Israeli forces in Rafah by Hamas, and described recent Hamas operations as appearing to “lack clear tactical or operational objectives”.

Smaller groups such as Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Nasser Salah al Din Brigades continue to strike Israeli forces in the south and central Gaza, including a combined attack on Thursday involving mortar shelling of Israeli forces in Deir el-Balah and also the detonation of a house-borne improvised explosive device.

The National Resistance Brigades also fired mortars at Israel forces in the Yabna refugee camp, located in eastern Rafah, the ISW-CTP report.

Hamas fighters launched rockets on Thursday towards Israel’s “Mars” military site in southern Israel and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades fired rockets at Israeli forces in the Kissufim area of Israel, ISW-CTP said.

Al-Quds Brigades reports fierce clashes in Jenin

The Jenin Battalion of the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad says its fighters are battling the Israeli forces in what it called “the merging axis” in the occupied West Bank city.

Fighters “are showering the occupation forces with heavy volleys of bullets, achieving direct hits”, it said on Telegram.

“Our fighters were able to detonate a pre-prepared explosive device in a D9 military bulldozer in the merging axis, achieving confirmed injuries among the bulldozer crew,” the group added.

Israeli army says it killed head of Hamas in Jenin

The Israeli forces, under the direction of the Israeli intelligence, have killed Wassam Hazem and two other armed fighters in the occupied West Bank city, according to a military statement.

The three were killed in an exchange of fire with troops which was followed by an air attack, it added.

Hazem was involved in carrying out and directing shooting and bomb attacks as well as promoting other activities of Hamas in the West Bank, the army said.

Misra Mesharka and Arafat Amer, the other two fighters that were killed, operated under azem and were involved in shooting attacks, according to the statement.

Weapons and funds seized were seized in the vehicle and on the bodies, the army also said, adding that there were no causalities on the Israeli side.

Israeli forces withdraw from Tulkarem after most intense West Bank raids in decades

The Palestinian state news agency, Wafa, reports that Israeli forces have withdrawn from Tulkarem city and its two refugee camps – Nur Shams and Tulkarem – after a 48-hour operation that killed four local people and inflicted widespread destruction on civilian property and infrastructure.

After the withdrawal late on Thursday night, ambulance and civil defence crews were able to enter Nur Shams camp, where Israeli soldiers had raided and ransacked houses, setting some on fire, and interrogated residents during the most intense Israeli incursion into the occupied West Bank in decades.

According to Wafa, water and sewage networks in the camp have been severely damaged, as well as homes, shops and other commercial properties.

Israeli forces withdrew earlier on Thursday from the Far’a refugee camp south of Tubas, where four people were also killed and civilian property and infrastructure destroyed.

Wafa also reported new raids and arrests in the following areas:

Anabta town, east of Tulkarem.
Husan village, west of Bethlehem.
Several areas in Hebron governorate, where two Palestinians were arrested.
A member of the Palestinian police force was arrested while passing through the Jaba military checkpoint east of occupied Jerusalem.

Israeli troops pulling out of Khan Younis areas

Israeli forces have begun to move out of some areas of Khan Younis, after weeks of military operations, report our colleagues on the ground.

Relief workers are now searching for the bodies of those killed in neighbourhoods from which troops have withdrawn, according to their report.

Footage shared on Palestinian social media channels, verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking unit, shows responders recovering several bodies from the city’s Street 5.

Five Palestinian children killed in occupied West Bank since Sunday: Advocacy group

Child rights advocacy group Defence for Children International has again called for an arms embargo to be placed on Israel as Israeli forces killed five more Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank this week.

The slain Palestinian boys include two 13-year-olds, a 15-year-old, and two 17-year-olds, Defence of Children International – Palestine (DCIP) said in a statement, calling for action against Israel to stop the “relentless killing of Palestinian children”.

On Sunday night, Mosab Hassan Ali Moqasqas, 17, was shot and killed by Israeli forces north of Salfit city in the West Bank.

On Monday night, Mohammad Ahmad Mohammad Elian, 13, and Adnan Aysar Adnan Jaber, 15, were killed by an Israeli drone-fired missile in the Nur Shams refugee camp, east of Tulkarem city.

Then, on Wednesday, two brothers – Murad, 13, and Mohammad Masoud Mohammad Na’ja, 17 – were killed by Israeli drone fire in the Far’a refugee camp in the north of the West Bank.

“Years of systemic impunity has created a situation where Israeli forces kill Palestinian children without limit or consequence,” DCIP’s Ayed Abu Eqtaish said.

“As Israeli forces bomb and starve Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip”, Abu Eqtaish said, they are now also “targeting children in the occupied West Bank with lethal force”.

Captives’ families slam Netanyahu for Philadelphi Corridor decision

A statement from a group representing the families, carried by Israeli broadcaster Channel 12, has denounced the recent Israeli security cabinet decision to leave troops in the Philadelphi Corridor, a strip of land running along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt.

“After almost a year of neglect, Netanyahu does not miss an opportunity to make sure that there will be no deal” for the release of their loved ones, the statement reads.

“There is not a day when Netanyahu does not act in a real way to endanger the return of all the abductees home.”

The presence of Israeli troops in this area has become a major sticking point in ongoing negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza, and as we reported earlier, the cabinet voted overwhelmingly to approve the presence of troops there.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/8/30/israels-war-on-gaza-live-who-says-polio-vaccination-to-start-on-sunday

Qassam Brigades confirms killing of commander

The armed wing of Hamas has said Wissam Ayman Hazem was killed in an aerial bombing after clashing with the Israeli forces in Jenin in the occupied West Bank.

A statement on Telegram also confirmed the death of two other members, Maisarah Masharqa and Arafat Amer, in the attack.

Earlier, the Israeli army announced that it killed Hazem, who it said was the head of Hamas in Jenin, and the other two in the strike and clash in question.

Salvage of stricken oil tanker in Red Sea expected in coming days: Report

An operation to recover the Greek-flagged Sounion crude oil tanker stranded in the Red Sea after an attack by Yemen’s Houthis is expected to start in the coming days, barring any major upset, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

“What was decided yesterday is an initial game plan of the operation starting in 48 hours,” one of the sources said.

A second source said the operation was likely to be complex, since Houthis had rigged the vessel with explosives.

The oil tanker was sailing from Iraq to Greece when it was attacked on August 21.

The Houthis, who present themselves as Yemen’s armed forces, have been targeting what they claim are Israel-linked vessels – an effort that they say aims to pressure the Israeli government to end the war on Gaza, which has killed at least 40,602 people.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/8/30/israels-war-on-gaza-live-who-says-polio-vaccination-to-start-on-sunday

Isn't there anyone who would just have Netanyahu assassinated before he finally gets his war with Iran? Although the neocons have been frothing at the mouth for a war with Iran for decades, it does seem like there's a lot of other powers in the West that really don't want it.

>>483731
>Another British journalist was just arrested for wrongthink about the Palestinian genocide.
Don't say "arrested", they're kidnapping journalists.

I don't know what to make of this. From a point of view of journalistic credibility, this has more prestige than a Pulitzer price. Sarah Wilkinson gained a place in the hall of heroes for truth, democracy and freedom.

The crimes against freedom of expression, likely are also a tactical mistake. The Zionists are loosing on the battlefield, that makes the repression against Journalism look like desperation. All the opportunists that just try to pick the winning side are less likely to side with Zionists.

>>483745
>Isn't there anyone who would just have Netanyahu assassinated before he finally gets his war with Iran?
Netanyahu is a generic Nazionist, easily replaced, it'd be a wasted effort. Considering how polarizing he's become in Israeli politics, he might actually be useful because he's sowing division in Zionist ranks.

>Although the neocons have been frothing at the mouth for a war with Iran for decades, it does seem like there's a lot of other powers in the West that really don't want it.
The empire can't afford a war with Iran.

70% chance Iran fights Zionist-axis forces to a stale-mate within 6 months and Israel has to make de-militarization concessions. US hard-power projection in the middle east will be greatly reduced.
25% chance Iran wins a full victory in a long war and Israel as a state gets dissolved. US influence in the middle east goes to nada.

As long as there are high energy prices in Europe, it'll remain tapped out of the imperial game. Substantial military support for Israel was unlikely for political reasons anyway, but now it's been ruled out by material constraints.

If the Zionists go insane and nuke something, the least cataclysmic scenario is that they frighten a huge chunk of the world into paying Russia a tribute for a place under their nuclear umbrella. And Russia gains the means to upgrade to a fully fledged super-power in all regards. Most other scenarios are gruesome mass death on a scale never seen before, and i don't feel like contemplating the big horrors today.

At least for now it seems that the neocons can only "froth". But keep in mind that many of the resistance they are facing is just from factions that want war in a different place. Various warmonger factions canceling out each others war-projects is a very precarious peace.

>>483730
>Owen Jones on the conspicuous gap in time between the ICC's chief prosecutor requesting warrants and now.
Of course they trying blackmail and everything else they can to influence the ICC.

But Jones is also a bit naive to think that it's possible to stop a genocide with legal documents. Once it becomes clear that Zionists are on the loosing side of history, that's when this stuff will get going.

Apparently the first 20 IDF infantry have refused orders to go back to Gaza. The "Security" Minister of the genocidal regime complained last month about a shortage of 10000 soldiers.

Maybe more will follow and then the horror will end.

US-based aid group says Israeli strike on humanitarian aid convoy this week killed four

The US-based aid group Anera says an Israeli attack on a coordinated humanitarian aid convoy in Gaza killed four people accompanying the vehicles.

“An Israeli air strike yesterday killed four Palestinians in the lead vehicle of an Anera aid convoy carrying food and fuel to the Emirati Red Crescent Hospital,” the group said in a statement.

The Israeli military, which has targeted humanitarian workers throughout the war on Gaza, says it struck the convoy after armed gunmen took control of the vehicles.

Anera said initial reports indicated four people, who had experience assisting humanitarian groups, requested to take control of the lead vehicle in the convoy shortly after it departed from the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing, citing safety concerns in the area ahead.

“According to all the information we have, this is a case of partners on the ground endeavoring to deliver aid successfully,” says Anera President and CEO Sean Carroll. “This should not come at the cost of people’s lives.”

'Doctor, healthcare workers shot by Israeli forces in Jenin

Palestinian health authorities in the occupied West Bank have said that the death toll from Israel’s assault has reached 20, adding that Israeli forces targeted medical workers in Jenin.

Israel claims it is targeting militant networks, but aid groups and health authorities have said that children, an elderly man, and a man with disabilities are among those killed.

Palestinian health authorities said that a doctor and two medical workers were wounded after coming under fire by Israeli forces in Jenin, a focus of many of the Israeli raids.

Our support for Gaza is a ‘responsibility and a struggle’: Houthi military spokesman

Yahya Saree has said in a post on X that the “flood of Yemeni anger is overwhelming, and the blood and hunger in Gaza only make it more determined to deliver a harsh response” to Israel and its allies.

He concluded the post by saying, “Our support for Gaza and Al-Aqsa… is a responsibility and a struggle”, alongside a video of the large rally in support of Palestinians in Gaza held today in Sanaa, Yemen.

'Pro-Palestine activists to protest US presidential debate; Harris campaign stops

The news outlet Reuters reports pro-Palestine activists will step up demonstrations at campaign stops for Kamala Harris following the Democratic nominee’s continued opposition to calls for an arms embargo on Israel.

Pro-Palestine activists feel shut out by the Democratic Party, which refused to grant a Palestinian-American lawmaker a short speaking slot at the party’s recent convention. Activists will protest at campaign stops and seek to disrupt an upcoming September 10 debate between Harris and Donald Trump, the news report said.

Critics say the US is violating its own laws by continuing massive arms shipments to Israel, despite widespread reports that Israeli forces are committing war crimes and abuses such as torture in Gaza.

Palestinian pollster casts doubt on Israeli claim Hamas falsified polling results

A prominent Palestinian pollster has expressed scepticism towards Israeli claims that Hamas altered polling data to inflate public support for the October 7 attacks.

The Israeli military, which has made a series of unsubstantiated claims throughout the war, stated on Thursday that it had discovered documents in Gaza showing falsified polling data put forward by the Palestinian group.

“While we continue to investigate the claim by the army, our tentative conclusion is that Hamas could not have falsified the data; and either the claim is based on a forgery or the Hamas document is genuine but the person who wrote it lied to make money from Hamas,” Khalil Shikaki, director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR), said in a social media post.

Shikaki told the Israeli newspaper The Times of Israel that he views the Israeli military’s claim as “the army against Hamas in the battle over narratives”.

Israel offering a three-day pause for vaccinations ‘a sick joke’

The fact that the “international community is begging Israel to vaccine children tells you to what extent this war has become immoral and genocidal”, Dr Tamer Qarmout, an associate professor in public policy at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, told Al Jazeera.

Rather than allow temporary pauses for polio vaccinations, he said Israel’s war on Gaza needs to end he said.

“The health sector in Gaza has been systematically destroyed and targeted,” he said, adding that a three-day pause “will never be enough to vaccinate 30 or 40 percent of Gaza’s population, which are young and children”.

He described it as “a sick joke by the Israelis to say, we offer you three days to vaccine children, knowing that the entire health sector has been destroyed” with no clinics and “no basic conditions whatsoever to provide this vaccine.”

Aid missions rejected by Israel nearly doubled in August: UN

The United Nations humanitarian affairs office says Israel nearly doubled its rejections of aid missions in Gaza this month despite calls for much more assistance for desperate Palestinians.

“In August, the number of humanitarian missions and movements within Gaza that have been denied access by Israeli authorities has doubled in the north (68 vs 30) and almost doubled in the south (99 vs 53) compared with July,” the group said in a situation update.

“Between 1 and 29 August, out of the 199 planned humanitarian missions coordinated with the Israeli authorities for northern Gaza, 74 (37 percent) were facilitated, 68 (34 percent) were denied access, 42 (21 percent) were impeded (including missions that succeeded), and 15 (8 percent) were cancelled due to logistical, operational, or security issues.”

The International Court of Justice has issued numerous legally binding orders for Israel to allow more aid into Gaza, but Israeli authorities have instead consistently blocked large portions of humanitarian assistance.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/8/30/israels-war-on-gaza-live-who-says-polio-vaccination-to-start-on-sunday

'Potential oil spill detected in area next to Sounion tanker: Report

Greece said in a letter circulated through the UN’s shipping agency that a potential oil spill 2.2 nautical miles (41km) in length has been detected in the area matching the location of the Sounion tanker in the Red Sea, Reuters reported.

Greece said the information was based on a satellite image taken on the evening of August 29 and obtained by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA).

“The position of the oil spill matches with the location of the ship,” Greece said in the letter, dated August 29 and published on Friday.

“Under the said circumstances, the condition of the tanker … poses a serious environmental hazard for the Red Sea marine environment.”

Israeli authorities forcibly disappearing Palestinians, says prisoners group

The Palestinian Prisoners Society has accused Israeli authorities of forcibly disappearing Palestinians from Gaza, claiming they have not provided clear information on the number of detainees taken from the enclave or how many have been killed in custody.

In a statement, the Palestinian prisoners group appealed to the international community to hold Israeli accountable for these “crimes”.

In early August, Israel’s prison administration confirmed it had at least 1,584 detainees from Gaza, according to the prisoners group, which said it was likely an undercount.

Israeli government extends reservists order: Reports

Israeli newspaper Haaretz and Israeli Army Radio report that the Israeli government has extended an order permitting the recruitment of 350,000 reservists until the end of 2024.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/8/30/israels-war-on-gaza-live-who-says-polio-vaccination-to-start-on-sunday