/leftypol/ - Leftist Politically Incorrect

>>486060
I misremembered this, it was actually an article & BadEmpanada had nothing to do with it: https://www.aap.com.au/factcheck/gaza-population-growth-projections-predate-recent-israel-palestine-war/

US, Canadian universities hire Israeli firms to curb pro-Palestinian protests: Report

A report published on Saturday by the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth says that several universities in both the US and Canada have entered into agreements with Israel-linked security companies to suppress pro-Palestinian protests occurring on their campuses.

The report notes that after the election of Donald Trump, who pledged to penalise academic institutions that failed to control “radicals and Hamas supporters,” a number of universities in both countries turned to Israeli security firms to manage pro-Palestinian protests.

The year 2024 saw a wave of campus uprisings across the West in support of Palestine and against Israel’s war on Gaza. Students largely demanded their institutions end investments in Israel and Israeli companies.

The City University of New York (CUNY), a major hotspot for protests last year, has recently signed a $4m contract with Strategy Security Corp. This company, owned by Yosef Sordi, a former New York City police officer, has publicly disclosed his professional training in Israel.

Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, also enlisted two Israeli security firms: Perceptage International, led by Adam Cohen, the former head of security for the Israeli Central Court in Jerusalem, and Moshav Security Consulting, operated by Eyal Feldman, a former Israeli army reserve commander and ex-advisor to the Israeli Ministry of Defence.

Israel army ‘assisting UN forces in repelling attack’ in Syria

The Israeli army says its soldiers were assisting United Nations peacekeeping forces in the Syrian-controlled part of the Golan Heights in repelling an attack “by armed individuals”.

“A short while ago, an attack was carried out by armed individuals at a UN post in the Hader area in Syria,” the army said in a statement, referring to a town on the edge of the UN-patrolled buffer zone in the Golan Heights.

“The [Israeli army] is currently assisting the UN forces in repelling the attack.

Syrian forces evacuate positions in Quneitra near Israel-annexed Golan: Monitor

Troops have withdrawn from their positions in the southern province of Quneitra bordering the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights tells AFP.

“Regime forces evacuated military and security positions while civil servants left their posts, leaving the province [of Quneitra] … free of the Syrian army for the very first time,” he told the agency.

The Israeli army has been bolstering its forces in the occupied Golan Heights in over the past week amid increased fighting and opposition advances in the civil war in Syria.

Latest Israeli attacks bring number of ceasefire violations in Lebanon to 155

The Anadolu news agency reports that Israeli aerial incursions in the Lebanese capital Beirut, as well as attacks on several towns in southern Lebanon, on Friday, brought the total number of ceasefire violations to 155 since November 27, as the fragile US-backed truce holds.

As we previously reported, Israeli drones flew at a low altitude above Beirut’s southern suburb on Friday.

Israeli fighter jets also struck near the Litani River between the towns of Yohmor al-Chaqif and Zawtar al-Sharqiyah in the Nabatieh district, while the town of Odaisseh in the Marjayoun district was also hit.

International team forced to leave Kamal Adwan Hospital due to Israeli bombing: WHO

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) reports that the international medical team, deployed by the UN body just five days earlier after five Israeli denials, has now been forced to leave after 33 people were reported killed just outside the besieged Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya.

Displaced Palestinians, caregivers and many injured patients had to flee amid panic, leaving only 90 patients and 66 medical staff inside the “minimally functional” hospital in northern Gaza, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Lebanon’s Mikati calls for putting an end to ‘ceasefire violations’ by Israel

Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati has led a special session of his council of ministers in southern Lebanon’s Tyre, close to where Israeli forces continue to operate and where a monitoring committee is evaluating the implementation of the ceasefire agreement.

He said his presence there reaffirms the government’s position in support of the army deploying south of the Litani River and cooperation with UNIFIL peacekeepers in the area to implement the UN resolution originally aimed at ending the 2006 war with Israel, according to the National News Agency.

He also emphasised “our demand that the international community, especially the parties sponsoring the security arrangements, work seriously and decisively to stop the enemy’s continued violations, withdraw from the territories it occupies, and contribute effectively to implementing the ceasefire and moving to a state of permanent stability reinforced by dignity, sovereignty and rights”.

Israeli ‘clearing’ operations continue in south Lebanon, permitted until January 25: Monitors

Israeli forces are continuing operations in southern Lebanon focused on “clearing” Hezbollah weapons stores and military infrastructure, US-based defence think tanks report.

The Critical Threats Project (CTP) and the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), citing various sources, said Israel’s military was reported operating in south Lebanon’s Kfar Kila and Meiss el-Jabal areas on Friday, as well as Khiam.

Media in Lebanon reported Israeli gunfire and explosions in the Aitaroun area, as well as shooting in Ramyah and Aita al-Shaab, the CTP/ISW report.

The CTP/ISW also reports that Israel’s 226th paratrooper and 300th territorial brigades continue to operate in southwestern Lebanon where they reported destroying Hezbollah rockets, ammunition and assault rifles.

According to the war monitors, the ceasefire (anon'd note: ???) with Hezbollah allows Israeli forces to operate in southern Lebanon until January 25, 2025.

Israeli forces ‘hunted’ Gaza Soup Kitchen co-founder in targeted assassination: Brother

Hani al-Madhoun – the brother of Mahmoud al-Madhoun, the co-founder of the Gaza Soup Kitchen, who was killed in an Israeli attack on November 30 – says Israeli forces “hunted” his brother down.

Speaking to AJ+ from his home in the US, Hani said the Israeli forces who killed his brother had known who they were targeting.

“My brother was a civilian feeding people. And still they went and killed him,” he said.

“I feel angry because this is a targeted assassination. They hunted my brother.”

French police beat up pro-Palestinian students at Lyon University

French security forces intervened violently against pro-Palestinian students who protested against Israeli aggression at Lumière University Lyon 2 yesterday.

A student affairs platform has released the video below, which has been verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad agency, showing how students were treated after staging a solidarity sit-in and chanting “Free Palestine”.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DDPRdjuN6Lv/
Translation: Lumière University Lyon 2 decided to send us the [police] while we had no contact with the administration before. The crackdown was violent and a comrade is in custody for shouting slogans in support of [Palestinians]. The event is part of a continuation in the criminalization of the support of the Palestinian struggle, for that reason, people are called to join the rally in front of the court.

Israeli forces use detainees as human shields in hospital evacuation attempt: Monitor

The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reports that Israeli forces have used Palestinians as human shields in their continued attempts to evacuate hospitals in northern Gaza.

The Geneva-based group quoted its field teams as saying Israeli soldiers forced Palestinian detainees “to warn hospital staff that all displaced persons and companions of patients must leave the premises and head to areas controlled by Israeli forces”.

“Many were arrested upon arrival, while others were forced to flee to a checkpoint in the Civil Administration area and eventually to Gaza City,” also in the north, according to the monitor.

Palestinian Health Ministry: Israeli army hits ambulance in Gaza

The Palestinian Health Ministry has released a video showing an Israeli air attack on an ambulance stationed near Kamal Adwan Hospital, in northern Gaza.

The footage reveals intense gunfire from Israeli forces hitting the ambulance.

The ministry stated that the attack took place yesterday when Israeli forces opened heavy fire on the ambulance positioned near the hospital.

Ambulance use in northern Gaza has become increasingly rare amid ongoing attacks. Most ambulances are now inoperable due to repeated attacks and acute fuel shortages, the Gaza Civil Defence has said.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/12/7/live-dozens-killed-as-israel-attacks-refugee-camp-nearby-hospital

https://x.com/WOLPalestine/status/1865575373951385789
It is right to rebel! israel go to hell!
🚨🇵🇸HAPPENING RIGHT NOW‼️ Qiyam prayer and protest against war criminal Yoav Gallant in front of the Park Lane Hotel‼️
📍 Outside Park Lane Hotel
📍 36 Central Park South

Hamas releases video claiming to show living captive

In the video a man who introduces himself as Matan Zangauker, 24, can be seen pleading with the Israeli leaders to make a deal that would bring captives being held by Hamas in Gaza back to Israel.

Mediating countries, including Qatar, see increased momentum for a possible deal that could allow the 100 captives being held in Gaza to be released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, after Israel signed a landmark ceasefire deal with Hezbollah in Lebanon last month.

Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy has travelled to Qatar and Israel to try to kick-start the US president-elect’s diplomatic push for a Gaza ceasefire and captive release deal before he takes office on January 20, a source briefed on the talks told the Reuters news agency.

Hamas has released several videos of captives begging to be released over the course of the war as it enters its 15th month, but Israeli officials have dismissed the short, edited clips as psychological propaganda meant to put pressure on the government.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents the family members of captives, called the video “proof of life” and said that it “provides further evidence that after more than 420 days in captivity, there are hostages still alive and enduring severe suffering”.

Four bodies retrieved from rubble in central Beirut

Rescue teams have retrieved four more dead bodies from the rubble of a damaged residential building in the Basta neighbourhood of Beirut, following an Israeli raid prior to the ceasefire, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reports, not specifying when the strike took place.

Lebanon’s Civil Defence is also searching for missing persons in Ghobeiry, in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Syria war to have ‘massive’ effect on Lebanon: US envoy Hochstein
Urooba Jamal
Reporting from Doha, Qatar

The weakening of Syria’s government with the recent gains made by the opposition forces is going to have “massive implications” in neighbouring Lebanon, according to US envoy Amos Hochstein.

Speaking at the Doha Forum on Saturday, the diplomat said Iran would find it difficult to transfer weapons to the Lebanese armed group, Hezbollah.

A rebel alliance led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) launched its lightning offensive against Bashar al-Assad’s government on November 27 – a day after the ceasefire Hochstein helped broker between Israel and Hezbollah took hold.

The Syrian government has faced unprecedented strategic losses since then – losing four cities in a short time span.

“I think what’s happened in Syria, which of course, happened the day after the ceasefire started, is now creating a new weakness for Hezbollah,” Hochstein said at the forum in Qatar’s capital bringing together world leaders, senior diplomats, and experts in international relations.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/12/7/live-dozens-killed-as-israel-attacks-refugee-camp-nearby-hospital

Houthis claim attack on central Israel in response to Gaza ‘massacres’
The Yemeni group says it will continue its ‘support operations’ until Israel ends its war and siege on the Gaza Strip.

Yemen’s Houthi group says it has carried out a drone attack in central Israel’s Tel Aviv area in “a specific military operation” in support of Palestinians in Gaza.

The Houthis said in a statement on Monday that their forces struck “a sensitive target of the Israeli enemy”.

An Israeli military statement said a drone hit a building in the city of Yavne after air defence systems failed to detect it and an investigation into the failure is under way.

The Houthis said the operation “achieved its objective” without providing details.

No injuries were reported in the attack, which caused damage to several apartments in the building, according to Israeli media reports.

The Houthis said the attack was in response to Israel’s “massacres” against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, where Israel has been waging a devastating assault for more than a year.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/12/9/houthis-claim-attack-on-central-israel-in-response-to-gaza-massacres

Israel strikes flour distribution line, kills 50 across Gaza
Palestinian death toll in besieged Gaza Strip rises to 44,758 amid relentless Israeli attacks, health authorities say.

Dozens of Palestinians – including women and children – have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza, health authorities say, as a power outage threatens the lives of more than 100 patients at a hospital in the besieged territory’s north.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Monday that 50 people were killed the previous day and 84 others were injured as Israeli forces committed three “massacres” in the territory.

An Israeli drone attack in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza on Monday morning killed three people, sources told Al Jazeera.

“[The victims] were trying to leave their home in search of food in the vicinity of their neighbourhood when they were targeted by a drone,” said Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from central Deir el-Balah in Gaza.

“They were killed right away. Their bodies are still in the street and nobody has the ability to get to the bombed site and remove the bodies from the street.”

Jabalia has been under Israeli siege for 65 days, with thousands of Palestinians being denied access to food and water supplies, leaving many starving.

“Jabalia has been turned into a graveyard,” Mahmoud said.

Overnight, an Israeli attack in the southern city of Rafah also killed 10 people while they had lined up to buy flour.

Mahmoud said because of the limited delivery of humanitarian aid going through the southern border, scenes of hunger similar to northern Gaza were also happening in the south.

In central Gaza, where our correspondent is reporting from outside Al-Aqsa Hospital, bodies were also piling up at the medical facility’s morgue following the latest Israeli bombing of a residential building in the Bureij refugee camp.

At least nine members of one family, most of them women and children, were killed in the attack, Mahmoud said.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/12/9/israeli-strikes-on-gaza-flour-distribution-line-residential-area-kill-22

>>486108
>second pic
What's the point ?
Can't people just ignore pledges ?

https://twitter.com/prem_thakker/status/1866249390647587076
Prem Thakker - Republicans just made Brian Mast—who wore a foreign army uniform in the halls of Congress—the Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Mast has compared Palestinians to Nazis, said babies being killed "are not innocent" and more infrastructure in Gaza should be destroyed.

https://x.com/RyanRozbiani/status/1866301810346017010
Yoav Gallant spotted in Washington, DC.
Really wish Americans would just shoot this guy. A lot of yelling, not enough action.

Israel’s Yoav Gallant Welcomed to White House Despite ICC Arrest Warrant for Crimes Against Humanity

Israel’s former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has met with President Biden’s special envoy for the Middle East and North Africa, Brett McGurk, at the White House. Their meeting on Tuesday came just weeks after the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant against Gallant for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Gaza. On Monday evening, the prominent Adas Israel synagogue in Washington, D.C., canceled a planned event featuring Gallant amid protests.

Meanwhile, Republican leaders have selected Brian Mast to lead the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Mast has previously compared Palestinians to Nazis, has said Palestinian civilians “are not innocent,” and called on Israel to destroy more infrastructure in Gaza.

https://www.democracynow.org/2024/12/11/headlines/israels_yoav_gallant_welcomed_to_white_house_despite_icc_arrest_warrant_for_crimes_against_humanity

https://twitter.com/MichealMartinTD/status/1866835485626098041
Irish PM - Today the Government gave approval for Ireland to intervene in South Africa’s International Court of Justice case against Israel under the Genocide Convention.

>>486240
"Intervene"?

U.S. Nonprofit Raised $300,000 for Israeli Sniper Unit Associated With Killings of Unarmed Palestinians

A U.S. nonprofit has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for an Israeli sniper unit for the stated purpose of buying scopes, silencers, and other equipment. The unit, which is nicknamed Rephaim, or “Ghosts,” has since been implicated in possible war crimes and killing over 100 people in Gaza and has been tied to the killing of four unarmed Palestinians in Gaza since October 7, 2023.

On October 9, 2023, the mother of unit member Daniel Raab—an Illinois native—posted on Facebook that the nonprofit, registered as “Friends of Paratrooper Sniper Unit 202,” was in need of “helmets, rain gear, barrels, vests, sniper stands, silencers, camouflage, and the list goes on.”

In its 990 filings, Friends of Paratrooper Sniper Unit 202 is described as “an organization dedicated to catering to the additional requirements and the overall welfare of soldiers serving in a specific military unit.” The description continues to say that the primary focus of the nonprofit is, “to ensure that soldiers have access to the necessary resources, support systems, and amenities that can enhance their comfort, safety, and well-being while they are actively serving their duty.”

The charity has raised significant amounts of money for the sniper unit since its establishment last year. According to its tax filings, Friends of Paratrooper Sniper Unit 202 raised over $304,000 in the year ending December 2023, of which it spent roughly $208,000 in grants—money which its promoters emphasize goes directly to soldiers in the unit.

read more: https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/us-nonprofit-raising-money-israeli-sniper-unit

>>486211
I think that by doing that, they cut the democratic feedback loop , an that means they no longuer act as representatives of the people, but rather as private persons.

https://x.com/jakki_jax/status/1866911084138930569
New Jersey Senator Jeff Van Drew going on Fox News to tell the stupid new version of the "Iraqi WMDs" lie.

>>486242
In support.

AJ live updates are finally back.

Nuseirat attacks death toll rises to 33

The Gaza Government Media Office says Israeli attacks on a residential area in the refugee camp in central Gaza have killed at least 33 people, most of whom from the al-Sheikh Ali family.

“The occupation army knew that this is a residential block with many apartment buildings housing dozens of civilians, children, women and displaced people,” the office said, calling the bombing a “barbaric and heinous massacre”.

It urged countries across the world to denounce Israel’s attacks against civilians.

Israeli attacks kill 71 Palestinians in Gaza: Medical sources

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic report, citing medical sources, that Israeli attacks have killed at least 71 Palestinians in Gaza today.

We reported earlier that Israeli bombardment had killed at least 25 people since the morning, including eight children, in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

Israel kills 13 security guards tasked with securing aid: Gaza authorities

The Gaza Government Media Office says the Israeli military has committed a “massacre”, assassinating 13 officers who helped secure aid convoys “as part of the starvation policy against civilians”.

The office added that Israel has killed 722 members of the security forces since the start of the war.

“We condemn in the strongest terms the ongoing Israeli crimes against the police and security forces securing the aid … and we call on international organisations and all countries in the world to condemn these crimes that are considered crimes against humanity under international law,” the office said.

US Muslim group calls Biden ‘mass murderer of Muslims’

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) says a newly released White House strategy to combat Islamophobia is “too little, too late”, citing President Joe Biden’s unconditional backing of Israel’s war on Gaza.

“President Biden cannot credibly claim to care about Muslims or Islamophobia while simultaneously supporting the Israeli government’s destruction of mosques, desecration of Qurans, and mass murder of a predominantly Muslim population,” the group said in a statement.

“By enabling Netanyahu’s war crimes, President Biden has sadly become a mass murderer of Muslims.”

Israel kills top northern Gaza doctor

The Gaza Health Ministry says an Israeli quadcopter drone has killed Saeed Jouda, a top physician in the north of the territory.

The ministry said the drone “shot directly” at Jouda while he was heading from Kamal Adwan Hospital to al-Awda Hospital, bringing the number of medics killed in the war to 1,057.

Jouda was previously injured but continued to report to hospitals to treat patients, health authorities said.

“The Ministry of Health reiterates its appeal to all international and human rights institutions to provide protection for hospitals and health teams while they carry out their humanitarian duty,” it said in a statement.

“We call on all workers in the health system in all countries of the world to stand in solidarity with our health teams in the Gaza Strip, where the sector is being subjected to genocide.”

Israel claims killing Hamas commander in Gaza City

The Israeli army says it “eliminated” the head of Hamas’s manufacturing department during an attack on the Al-Hurriya School in Gaza City this week.

In a statement on Telegram, the army, alongside the internal security service, Shin Bet, said Ammar Daloul, who it said was a company commander in the Zeitoun Battalion, was killed alongside six other alleged Hamas members.

Israel has been bombing shelters for displaced people and “safe areas”, claiming that it is targeting Hamas operatives.

UN experts and rights groups, including Amnesty International, have accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza – an effort to destroy the Palestinian people in whole or in part.

Lebanese woman dies of injuries after Israeli air strike

Lebanon’s National News Agency reports that a woman, identified as Amal Dhaher, has succumbed to wounds sustained in an Israeli air strike on the southern village of Dibbine that had killed her husband and mother.

Israel bombed Dibbine earlier this week in violation of the ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah that went into effect in November.

Netanyahu’s coalition would fall short of majority in election: Poll

A new Israeli poll finds that Netanyahu’s Likud party would remain the largest party in the Knesset if an election were held today, but the far-right groups that comprise the current coalition government would fall below a majority.

According to the Channel 12 poll, pro-Netanyahu parties would receive 51 seats while anti-Netanyahu groups would take 64 seats.

When asked if they would prefer former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett or Netanyahu as leader, respondents were evenly split at 37 percent for both men.

But respondents favoured Netanyahu – who is on trial over alleged corruption – over National Unity chair Benny Gantz with 39-to-29 percent.

Palestine slams Paraguay’s decision to move embassy to Jerusalem

Palestinian Foreign Ministry rebuked Paraguay for relocating its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, calling the decision a “violation of international law”.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs expresses its condemnation of this decision taken by the President of Paraguay, standing on the wrong side of history and rewarding the Israeli occupation for its continued commission of genocide against the Palestinian people,” the ministry wrote in a statement on X.

The ministry said Paraguay’s decision was in “complete contradiction” with its decision to recognise the State of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital on January 28, 2011.

It added that Paraguay ‘s President Santiago Pena’s move did not “give any importance to the honourable history recorded by the struggles of the peoples of Latin America to defend the values ​​of justice and peace and to combat the concept of colonialism, oppression and racism”.

The ministry said it would take the appropriate “diplomatic, legal and political measures” to prevent the changing status of Jerusalem.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967 and subsequently annexed it in 1980. Earlier this year, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is unlawful.

AIPAC hails Israeli attacks on Syria

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) says Israel has destroyed 85 percent of Syria’s air defences “after more than a decade of work to try to evade” them.

The influential pro-Israel lobby group cited the Israeli military as saying that the country’s “air dominance could enable safer passage for Israeli jets to carry out a strike on Iran”.

“The US and Israel must work together to ensure this moment of uncertainty can become a moment of opportunity to weaken our adversaries, strengthen our shared security, and expand peace and normalization across the region,” AIPAC said in an email to supporters.

Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes across Syria since the fall of the al-Assad government.

Photos: Pro-Palestine protesters rally at New York University

Student protesters calling on New York University to shut down its campus in Tel Aviv have rallied outside the Bobst Library.

The university said eight demonstrators were arrested as police officers intervened to “help ensure the safety of community members and maintain order”.

Pro-Palestine campus protests rocked US universities in April and May. But the demonstrations appeared to have quieted down in recent months after a crackdown by administrators and law enforcement agencies saw hundreds of students arrested and penalised.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/12/12/gaza-live-news-israel-kills-30-palestinians-amid-renewed-ceasefire-push

>>486308
>A new Israeli poll finds that Netanyahu’s Likud party would remain the largest party in the Knesset if an election were held today, but the far-right groups that comprise the current coalition government would fall below a majority.
Given how much worse off Isreal is now compared to just 1-2 years ago, that is surprising.

https://twitter.com/SuppressedNws/status/1867949884931817545
"BREAKING: Abu Obaida, the military spokesperson for Al-Qassam Brigades:

The occupation army recently bombed a location where some enemy captives were being held and repeated the strikes to ensure their death.

We have intelligence confirming that the enemy deliberately targeted the location to kill the captives and their guards. Our fighters attempted to rescue the captives, successfully retrieving one of them, but his fate remains unknown.

We hold war criminal Netanyahu, his government, and his army fully responsible for this incident and the lives of their captives."

>>486320
Not that surprising tbh.
They're stupid idiots & like killing Arabs more than they like security & freedom.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DDklKJRv6Jj/
Protests in Jenin (West Bank) following the Palestinian Authority killing a resistance fighter and also a child.

>>486334
Not that surprising tbh.
They're stupid idiots & like killing Jews more than they like security & freedom.

>>486338
So wait, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas are not the same thing?

>>486341
The Palestinian Authority is basically a comprador organization selected by Israel to impose Israeli authority over the Palestinians. Very different to Hamas.

>>486339
The IDF?
Yes, actually lol

>>486341
The Palestinian Authority is the western-backed comprador government which rules the West Bank and is affiliated with Fatah. It's led by Mahmoud Abbas, but he's stepping down soon because he's ancient. Essentially, they complain about Israeli brutality sometimes, but they also act as its enforcers in the West Bank.
Hamas are a more militant faction who control Gaza, and have since they won an election in the '00s. Following that election, the Israelis immediately enacted a total blockade of Gaza which never let up, rendering Gaza effectively an open air prison, with all entries and exits controlled, de facto, by Israel & the Israeli/US-bought off Egyptians. I'm probably over-simplifying the following, but afaik Fatah more-or-less refused to concede authority to Hamas in the West Bank following Hamas's win, resulting in separate governments ruling these two separated parts of Palestine. To maintain this separation, the Israelis (including Netanyahu) actively funneled money to Hamas for years, and encouraged others to do the same, in order to oppose Palestinian unity (see: https://www.thenation.com/article/world/why-netanyahu-bolstered-hamas/).

>>486320
>>486334
>>486339
>They're stupid idiots & like killing Jews
Took me a while.

The implication is that Zionism is also getting a lot of Jews killed. Maybe Netanyahu is the reincarnation of Adolf and he's trying again but in a more underhanded way.

Israel approves plan to surge settler population in occupied Golan Heights

Israel’s government has approved a plan to increase the number of settlers in the illegally occupied Golan Heights, days after seizing more Syrian territory following the toppling of Syria’s longtime leader Bashar al-Assad.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the government had “unanimously approved” the “demographic development” of the occupied territory, which would seek to double the Israeli population there.

The new plan is only for the portion of the Golan Heights that Israel has occupied since 1967. In 1981, Israel’s Knesset moved to impose Israeli law over the territory, in an effective annexation.

The plan does not relate to the portion of Syrian land seized by Israel in the wake of al-Assad’s toppling a week ago. The seized area, which had been demilitarised as part of an agreement reached after the 1973 war, also includes Mount Hermon overlooking the Syrian capital Damascus.

In a statement, Netanyahu praised the plan, which provides more than 40 million shekels ($11m) to increase the settler population.

There are about 31,000 Israeli settlers spread across dozens of illegal settlements in the Golan Heights already. They live alongside minority groups, including the Druze, who predominantly identify as Syrian.

read more: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/12/15/israel-approves-plan-to-surge-settler-population-in-occupied-golan-heights

Israel to close embassy in Ireland after Dublin backs Gaza genocide case
Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris called the decision to close the embassy ‘deeply regrettable’

Israel says it will close its embassy in Ireland, citing Dublin’s recognition of a Palestinian state and support for South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for its actions in Gaza.

…

The Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Simon Harris condemned Israel’s decision, calling it “deeply regrettable”.

“I utterly reject the assertion that Ireland is anti-Israel. Ireland is pro-peace, pro-human rights, and pro-international law,” Harris added. “Ireland wants a two-state solution and for Israel and Palestine to live in peace and security. Ireland will always speak up for human rights and international law. Nothing will distract that.”

Last week, Ireland announced that it supported South Africa’s legal action against Israel at the ICJ, adding to Israel’s growing international isolation, even as it refuses to end its attacks on Gaza and its illegal occupation of the West Bank.

Ireland has increasingly spoken out on behalf of the Palestinians as Israel continues its war on Gaza, which has killed at least 44,976 people. The Palestinian cause is largely popular in Ireland, with parallels often drawn to the Irish struggle against the centuries-long British occupation of the country.

In May, Ireland was one of three European countries to recognise the state of Palestine and backed an ICJ case accusing Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip.

Israel responded by recalling its ambassador to Dublin.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/12/15/israel-to-close-embassy-in-ireland-after-dublin-backs-gaza-genocide-case

Video: Blinken protested multiple times over genocide complicity during testimony about Afghanistan exit

Israeli forces bomb another UN-run school, kill 20 Palestinians

Israeli forces bombed the Ahmed bin Abdul Aziz School in southern Khan Younis, killing at least 20 people, according to the Wafa news agency.

The victims included children. Many others were also wounded, Wafa added.

The school is run by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and is located near the Nasser Medical Complex, west of Khan Younis,

Earlier, we reported that Israeli forces stormed the Khalil Oweida School in Beit Hanoon in northern Gaza, killing at least 15 people.

Death toll rises from Israel’s attack on school in Beit Hanoon

The spokesperson for the Government Media Office in Gaza says at least 43 people have been killed after Israeli forces stormed the Khalil Oweida School in Beit Hanoon early on Sunday morning.

Ismail al-Thwabta also said Israel’s killing of Al Jazeera’s al-Louh has taken the death toll among journalists in Gaza to 196. He added that Israel also killed five mayors in the Gaza Strip in recent days.

“We condemn the various complex crimes committed by the occupation army against our people. We call on the countries of the world to condemn the crimes of the occupation,” al-Thwabta said.

“We hold Israel and the United States legally responsible for the massacres of the occupation,” he added. “We demand a quick and final end to the successive crises against our people before it is too late.”

Who is Mohammed Balousha?

The Palestinian journalist, who worked for Al Mashahd TV, an Emirati-owned Dubai-based channel, was among the three media workers killed by Israel on Sunday.

Balousha broke the story that four premature babies left behind at Al Nassr Children’s Hospital had died and their bodies had decomposed after Israel’s military forced the staff to evacuate the facility without ambulances.

The following month, he was shot in the thigh by an Israeli sniper while reporting near his home in the northern Jabalia refugee camp. He lost consciousness for about 30 minutes, before being revived by the nuzzling of cats he had been feeding before he was shot, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

Al Mashahd TV said that Israeli forces blocked ambulances from reaching him, delaying his transfer to hospital for treatment.

After surviving the sniper attack, Balousha continued reporting on the war for months, despite his injuries, before he was killed in an Israeli drone attack in Gaza City, on Saturday.

UNRWA suspends services in Jenin refugee camp

Philippe Larrazini, the head of UNRWA, said his agency was forced to make the decision for another day due to continued “violent clashes” between Palestinian security forces and armed groups in the occupied West Bank refugee camp.

“Children remain out of school & camp residents are unable to access primary healthcare & other critical services,” he wrote on X.

The rising tensions are undermining the “fragile stability” in the occupied West Bank, he said.

“For far too long, residents of Jenin and Jenin Camp have been subject to a cycle of violence & destruction, rendering the camp nearly uninhabitable. It is time to break that cycle & ensure that normal life resumes,” he added.

The days-long clashes came after the Palestinian Authority (PA), which partially governs the occupied West Bank, began what it called a security operation to restore law and order in Jenin’s refugee camp. The area is a stronghold of Palestinian fighters who are alienated from the PA.

What’s happening in Jenin?

As we’ve been reporting, Palestinian Authority (PA) forces have raided the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, killing at least two people during exchanges of gunfire with fighters there.

Here’s what you need to know:

The PA’s campaign came after it accused the Jenin Brigades of stealing Palestinian security vehicles and detonating a car in Jenin.
The PA’s spokesperson, Brigadier General Anwar Rajab, said the operation, called “Protect the Homeland”, was launched to “eradicate sedition and chaos” in the camp.
PA forces killed 19-year-old Rahbi Shalabi during the clashes as well as Jenin Brigades commander Yazid Ja’ayseh.
The fighters are defiant, with Nour Al-Bitawi, a spokesman for the Jenin Brigades, saying: “The subject isn’t cars or the camp, but rather an attempt to end the patriotism and resistance in the camp.”
The PA has meanwhile ruled out dialogue, saying the operation will continue until it achieves its goals – “regaining safety and recovering the Jenin camp from lawless elements who have hijacked the camp and created a situation of insecurity there”.

Jenin fighters refuse to surrender weapons

We’ve spoken to a Jenin Brigades fighter on the clashes there.

In an exclusive interview, the spokesman said his armed group was the only thing keeping Palestinians safe from the violence of Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.

“Our compass is clear; only against the occupation and nothing else. Our message is clear to everyone, for God’s sake, just let us be. We want to fight the Israelis,” he said.

He said the PA’s forces have attempted to enter the camp multiple times, and have assassinated Jenin Brigades commander Yazid Ja’ayseh, a man the Israelis have pursued for four years but could not capture.

The spokesman said the Jenin Brigades would not surrender their weapons.

“Let’s say that I have surrendered. What if a settler enters my house, what could I do?” he asked. “How could I surrender? Evict the Israelis from our country and my rifle is yours. I would be yours to execute. Evict the Israelis from the country and you may execute me.”

Some 96% of Gaza’s children feel their death is imminent, study finds

The assessment conducted by rights groups in Gaza found that some 96 percent of children surveyed felt their death was imminent while 49 percent expressed a desire to die.

It also found that 92 percent of children were “not accepting of reality”, 79 percent suffered from nightmares and 73 percent displayed symptoms of aggression.

Helen Pattinson, chief executive of War Child UK, called the report “one of the most horrifying insights into the mental wellbeing of children anywhere in the world”.

She said Gaza’s children are bearing the brunt of a war they had no role in starting, suffering from both the destruction of physical infrastructure and the psychological scars left by war’s brutality.

Gaza death toll rises above 45,000

At least 45,028 people have been killed and 106,962 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, 2023, the enclave’s Health Ministry says.

Of those, 52 Palestinians were killed and 203 wounded in the latest 24-hour reporting period, the ministry added.

Death toll in Gaza likely higher than reported figure as ‘thousands’ remain missing

Amjad Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network, says the death toll in Gaza, which surpassed 45,000 today by the health ministry’s official count, is likely much higher.

“Thousands of people” are either under the rubble of their destroyed homes, missing, detained or killed, Shawa told Al Jazeera from Deir el-Balah.

Shawa said members of his team are calling on families who have missing loves ones to document these cases with human rights organisations.

“We have concerns that the number will increase even more since civil defence [teams] … cannot reach the bodies under the rubble,” Shawa said, adding that some areas remain inaccessible to medics and first responders.

In the besieged north, concerns are also raising, he said.

Iran calls for end to Gaza genocide, punishment for Israeli leaders

The Iranian Foreign Ministry has condemned repeated “barbaric” attacks on shelters and tents holding displaced Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including in the Nuseirat refugee camp.

Spokesman Esmail Baghaei said in a statement that continued inaction from international organisations and the UN Security Council against the “persisting genocide” in Gaza due to the US backing of Israel is “shameless”.

He called for putting a stop to the genocide and bringing Israeli leaders to trial for punishment, according to the ministry.

Israeli military warns residents of south Lebanon villages against returning to homes

The Israeli military has named 73 villages in southern Lebanon, warning residents they could be killed if they return to their homes.

Avichay Adraee, the Arabic-language spokesman of the army, posted a map on X and said Lebanese citizens must not move south of the “line of villages” until further notice.

Three people wounded in Israeli drone attack on Lebanon’s Sidon

At least three people have been wounded in an Israeli drone raid on the town of al-Najariyah in Sidon district, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

Both Israel and Hezbollah have accused each other of repeatedly violating the ceasefire reached in November.

Hezbollah started attacking Israel the day after the war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, saying it was doing so in solidarity with the Palestinians. The group has said it will not stop supporting Palestinians despite the ceasefire in Lebanon.

Israeli officials and the media have been increasingly discussing the possibility of a potential ceasefire in Gaza that would not entail a permanent stop to Israeli military action in the besieged enclave.

Five people injured in central Israel amid rush to take cover: Israeli paramedics

Magen David Adom (MGA), Israel’s ambulance service, says in a statement on Telegram that its medics have taken five people to a hospital in central Israel who were injured on their way to bomb shelters.

Earlier, we reported that sirens were sounded in the central area of the country, including in Tel Aviv, as the army announced that it had intercepted an incoming projectile in Yemen.

The MGA said the injured are in “light” condition.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/12/16/live-israel-kills-50-in-gaza-plans-to-double-settlements-in-golan-heights

Yemen’s Houthis launch missile at ‘military target’ in Israel, spokesman says

The Houthis have launched a military operation on a “military target” in the area of Tel Aviv using a hypersonic ballistic missile, the group’s military spokesman, Yahya Saree, says in a televised address.

He said the operation had achieved its objectives.

In an earlier update, the Israeli military said a missile launched from Yemen had been intercepted before crossing into Israeli territory.

The Houthis have been targeting shipping lanes in and around the Red Sea and firing missiles and rockets at Israel in an effort that they said is aimed at ending the war on Gaza.

Israel is preparing military action against Yemen’s Houthis: Report

The Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (Kan) reports that Israel is preparing for a military offensive due to the group’s continued missile and drone attacks.

The announcement came after Israel intercepted a ballistic missile and a drone launched by the Houthis earlier in the day.

The Houthis said the attack was in response to Israel’s “massacres” against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, where Israel has been waging a war for more than a year, killing more than 45,000 people.

“The Houthis have assumed the mantle of attacking Israel on behalf of the entire Iranian axis,” Kan said, citing the weakened positions of Syria’s ousted al-Assad regime and Hezbollah in Lebanon as contributing factors.

Kan also reported a consensus within Israel’s security establishment to strike back at Houthi targets.

US has conducted airstrike against Houthis: CENTCOM

The US military says it has “conducted a precision airstrike against a key command and control facility operated by Iran-backed Houthis within Houthi-controlled territory in Sanaa, Yemen” in a post on X.

“The targeted facility was a hub for coordinating Houthi operations, such as attacks against US Navy warships and merchant vessels in the Southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden” it said.

Multiple Israeli raids, clashes in the occupied West Bank

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting several ongoing Israeli army incursions in the occupied West Bank:

Israeli military vehicles have stormed Bani Naim, east of Hebron, in the south of the West Bank.
Sources have told Al Jazeera Arabic that Israeli forces have stormed the village of Burqa, east of Ramallah.
Israeli forces are reported to have arrested a Palestinian child in the town of Beit Furik, located 9km (5.6 miles) southeast of Nablus.
Al Jazeera’s sources have also reported violent clashes between the Palestinian Authority’s security forces and Palestinian fighters in and around the Jenin camp.

Israeli army says moving troops from Lebanon to Gaza

In a statement on X, Israel’s army says that its 98th division “completed” its mission in southern Lebanon last week after about three months of fighting.

The troops will now prepare for their “next mission” in the Gaza Strip, the statement says.

As part of a ceasefire agreement between Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Israel, Israeli forces will slowly withdraw from southern Lebanon and hand over control to the Lebanese army.

The army, per the agreement, is the only party legitimately allowed to carry arms in south Lebanon.

Hamas says US is ‘main supporter of genocide in Gaza’

Hamas has slammed the US, saying it is responsible for Israeli “massacres” taking place against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.

The US is a “main supporter” of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, the group said in a statement after dozens of Palestinians were killed in multiple attacks on schools serving as shelters for the displaced in recent days.

“We call on people around the world to organise and pressure the [Israeli] criminals and their supporters to end the bloodshed happening in front of everyone’s eyes,” the statement read.

Israeli demonstrators show solidarity with protesters accused of firing flares at PM’s home: Report

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that hundreds of demonstrators have gathered near the Kishon Detention Center near Haifa in northern Israel in solidarity with the antigovernment protesters accused of firing maritime flares at Netanyahu’s home in Caesarea.

On November 7, three suspects were arrested when two flares landed near Netanyahu’s residence.

In a statement at the time, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar said it was “a very serious incident that is far from a legitimate protest”.

Haaretz said today’s demonstrators are holding signs that say: “Caesarea detainees – we are with you” and “Political police”.

Family of American-Turkish killed by Israeli forces express frustration after meeting Blinken

The family of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old activist shot and killed in the occupied West Bank by Israeli military forces in September, has expressed frustration after meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The US diplomat “was attentive in listening to us and, unfortunately, repeated a lot of the same things that we’ve been hearing for the past 20 years, particularly since Rachel Corrie’s killing, who is also a Washington State resident, like my wife” Eygi’s husband Hamid Ali told reporters after the meeting at the State Department.

Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old American woman, was killed in 2003 by an Israeli bulldozer while protesting the demolition of Palestinian homes in Rafah, in the Gaza Strip.

“It’s frustrating to hear the same things again,” Ali said.

The meeting comes as the family continues to urge the Biden administration to launch an independent investigation into her killing, saying that she was killed in a deliberate attack during a peaceful protest.

Ozden Bennet, Eygi’s sister, said the US is still awaiting an Israeli investigation, which she said the family does not find “credible”.

>>486361
src: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/12/16/live-israel-kills-50-in-gaza-plans-to-double-settlements-in-golan-heights

>>486356
>Israel approves plan to surge settler population in occupied Golan Heights
>the “demographic development” of the occupied territory,
They're not outright saying it, but they're thinking quick put in some "human shields"

>>486359
>Some 96% of Gaza’s children feel their death is imminent, study finds
Zionism in one sentence

Hamas says Gaza ceasefire deal possible if Israel stops setting new conditions

Hamas has said in a statement reaching a Gaza ceasefire agreement and prisoner exchange is possible if Israel stops setting new conditions.

In its statement, the group describes the ceasefire talks held in Doha today as serious and positive.

It comes after sources briefed on meetings related to the ceasefire talks told Reuters that a deal was expected to be signed in the coming days.

Ceasefire details on the table
Nour Odeh
Reporting from Amman, Jordan

Al Jazeera is reporting from Jordan because it has been banned from Israel and the occupied West Bank.

There’s a flurry of diplomatic activity, and a lot of people from all corners of the world are on the phone.

Israeli media report that the optimism is unprecedented right now in Israel – not necessarily because this is going to be a comprehensive “end the war” kind of deal – it won’t be – but certainly because this is the closest the discussions have gotten to a deal.

The deal would be temporary. It would be a ceasefire, not an end to the war, but the details that the sides are discussing are quite specific – namely how many captives will be released, how many of them will be alive, what Hamas wants in return.

All of these details are now on the table, and that is a new development, certainly one we haven’t seen in some time.

Palestinians in Tulkarem demand an end to PA’s operation in Jenin

We’ve been covering a days-long security operation by the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.

The camp is a stronghold of Palestinian fighters who are alienated from the PA.

The Shehab News Agency now reports that dozens of people in the Tulkarem refugee camp are marching in solidarity with fighters from the Jenin Brigades, demanding an end to the operation, which began on Saturday.

Footage of the demonstration shows young Palestinians, many carrying guns, chanting as they march through the streets.

https://twitter.com/ShehabAgency/status/1868717990285549964

Death toll from Israel’s attack on Gaza City rises

Earlier, we reported that Israeli fighter jets had bombed a residential building in the Daraj neighbourhood, east of Gaza City, killing at least eight people.

The death toll has now risen to 10, according to the Quds News Network and al-Manar TV.

The attack targeted the Tabatibi family home, and footage from the aftermath shows fires burning as rescue crews search for survivors amid the rubble.

We will bring you further updates when we have them.

https://twitter.com/PalinfoAr/status/1868845355292574020

Israeli military says explosions expected as part of ‘routine activity’ in Lebanon

The Israeli military says in a report addressed to Israeli citizens that sounds of explosions could be expected in the coming hours in the Upper Galilee.

It said this would be part of “routine activity” by the army in southern Lebanon and there is no need for concern about a security incident.

The warning was issued while Israel’s ceasefire with Hezbollah continues to hold despite numerous violations.

The Israeli army, which has launched many deadly attacks inside Lebanon during the ceasefire, did not elaborate about the cause of the expected explosions.

Close to 13,000 Palestinian students killed since start of war: Ministry

The Palestinian Ministry of Education reports that more than 12,799 students have been killed and at least 20,942 others wounded by Israel in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank since the beginning of the war.

The overwhelming majority of casualties were in Gaza, according to the ministry, Wafa reported.

At least 598 teachers and school administrators were also killed, and 3,801 others were wounded.

At least 538 students and 158 teachers and administrators were arrested in the West Bank, with Gaza figures unclear.

The ministry said 425 government schools, universities and their buildings, along with 65 affiliated with the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, were bombed by the Israeli military and were destroyed partially or completely.

Eleven-year-old crushed to death while trying to get bread in Gaza

Zeina, an 11-year-old from the Gaza Strip, was crushed and suffocated on November 29 while trying to get bread from a bakery as famine looms over parts of the enclave.

“People barged in all at once, and Zeina was in the middle of the crowd,” her mother told Al Jazeera from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.

“The girl fell among the people. They stepped on her. They had no mercy on her. There were footprint traces on Zeina.”

Police arrest Israeli citizen suspected of working on behalf of Iran: Reports

Israeli media are reporting that an alleged sabotage attempt by Iran inside Israel has been thwarted.

Police reportedly arrested a 23-year-old man from Jerusalem suspected of having ties to intelligence in Tehran.

He was in contact with agents whom he understood were affiliated with Iran and told them he could carry out sabotage attempts like setting fire to a car in exchange for receiving payment in cryptocurrencies.

The Shin Bet and the police said the man searched the internet on how to buy a firearm and a silencer.

Over 7,000 authors and book workers join ‘historic’ Israel boycott

The largest boycott against Israeli cultural institutions in history has been endorsed by more than 7,000 authors and book workers, according to the Palestine Festival of Literature, an annual event held across the occupied West Bank.

It said the signatories include winners of the Nobel Prize, Booker Prize, Pulitzer Prize and other top international awards, along with editors at each of the Big Five publishing houses and many independent publishers.

Israel will be ‘uprooted’ as it plans to encircle Hezbollah from Syria: Khamenei

During a speech to a group of women gathered in Tehran, the Iranian supreme leader has again emphasised that those who believe the Tehran-led “axis of resistance” is finished after the changes in Syria are mistaken.

“The spirit of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is alive; the spirit of Sinwar is alive,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said, referring to Hezbollah and Hamas leaders killed by Israel.

As the crowd chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel”, he said their bodies had been taken but their beliefs remained, ensuring their paths would continue.

“They are attacking Gaza and taking martyrs on a daily basis, but they are still standing, they are still resisting. Lebanon resists,” Khamenei said.

“The Zionist regime believes it is preparing itself through Syria to encircle Hezbollah’s forces and uproot them. But the one who will be uprooted is Israel.”

Israeli military says two soldiers killed in southern Gaza

The Israeli military reports two more soldiers have been killed during fighting in the southern Gaza Strip.

It said reservist Major Moshiko Maxim Rozenwald, 35, was a company commander in an engineering battalion of the Nahal Brigade, adding that a second soldier cannot be named at this point.

The army did not say how they were killed. This brings the total number of Israeli soldiers confirmed killed since October 7, 2023 to 817.

Israeli drones flying over several towns near Lebanon’s Tyre

Israeli drones and surveillance planes are flying above several towns and villages near southern Lebanon’s Tyre district at a “low altitude”, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reports.

Separately, NNA quoted the Lebanese army as saying its forces would detonate unexploded ammunition that has been left behind by the Israeli military in the town of Zaghrin, in eastern Lebanon’s Hermel district.

Hamas fighters clash with Israeli army in north Gaza

In statements on Telegram, the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, says that it has attacked and destroyed an Israeli army troop carrier in Jabalia refugee camp.

The group also claims it killed three Israeli soldiers, attacking them from point-blank range, adding that its fighters observed helicopters evacuating the soldiers.

Major population centres of north Gaza – Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoon – have been under non-stop Israeli attack for the last several weeks, our correspondent on the ground says.

Knesset considering bill allowing Israelis entry to Gaza: Reports

Israeli media is reporting that the Knesset has presented formally for consideration a bill to again allow Israeli citizens entry into the Gaza Strip as government coalition lawmakers prepare to legalise the construction of more Israeli settlements on Palestinian land.

The legislation, put forward by Likud MP Avichay Boaron, states that “in the summer of 2005, the Israeli government decided to expel all Jewish residents from Gaza and northern West Bank and to withdraw militarily from the area” which led to the so-called “disengagement law”.

“The ban on entry recalls dark periods in the history of the Jewish people,” it said, in reference to the Holocaust.

Now, the bill said, Israelis should once again enjoy “full freedom of presence and movement” in Gaza, and the war must end “with total loss of Islamist control over the land”.

This comes as a group of coalition lawmakers plans a tour of the Gaza border in order to promote the resettlement of Jews in Gaza.

Israeli families demand Gaza deal at Likud building, block Tel Aviv road

Israeli family members of captives still being held in the Gaza Strip have demonstrated in front of the building of the governing Likud party to demand an agreement that would secure the captives’ release.

They also blocked King George Street in central Tel Aviv and chanted slogans.

“You will choose how you will be remembered in the pages of history – as someone who saved and returned and rehabilitated, or as someone who thwarted and abandoned,” one of the demonstrators said in remarks addressed at PM Netanyahu.

At least 13,500 Israeli soldiers wounded during the war: Ministry

The Department of Rehabilitation at the Israeli Ministry of Defence says more than 13,500 officers and soldiers were injured during the war, with about 1,500 of them injured twice.

Among the wounded soldiers are 287 with head injuries, 87 of which are serious, and 10 are in wheelchairs, the government department said, according to Hebrew media.

It added that 37 percent of the wounded soldiers suffer from limb injuries, most of them bone injuries.

About 5,200 suffer from mental health reactions, including 3,350 soldiers dealing with anxiety, depression and adjustment difficulties, and 1,300 affected by post-traumatic stress disorder.

Israeli army announces five new reserve brigades

The Israeli army’s Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi has announced the formation of five new reserve brigades, called the Negev, Shephelah, Valleys, Jerusalem and Galilee-Golan.

…

“Over these months, we are establishing new brigades of reservists comprised mostly of individuals who are already over the exemption age and have shown a willingness, recognising the urgency of the moment, to step up and say we are returning to serve.”

Australia state to ban the use of Hamas flags at protests

Victoria Premier Jacinta Allan says her government will introduce legislation banning protests outside places of worship, as well as the display of flags of listed “terrorist groups” such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

The moves come after arsonists damaged a synagogue in the city of Melbourne earlier this month while a pro-Palestine demonstration outside a synagogue in the city of Sydney in the neighbouring state of New South Wales prompted a lockdown at the facility last week.

Switzerland votes to ban Hezbollah

Switzerland has held a vote to ban the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, in a rare move by the country, which has a long history of taking a neutral stance.

Supporters of the ban argued that Hezbollah was a threat to international security and that the country needed to take a stand against it.

The proposal to ban Hezbollah passed the lower house of Switzerland’s parliament with 126 votes in favour, 20 against and 41 abstentions.

However, during the debate, Justice Minister Beat Jans said “If Switzerland now moves to ban such organisations with special laws, we must ask ourselves where and how the boundaries are drawn”.

Last week, the Swiss parliament banned Hamas for its October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/12/17/live-israel-again-targets-kamal-adwan-hospital-as-gaza-toll-passes-45000

>>486399
>Israel will be ‘uprooted’ as it plans to encircle Hezbollah from Syria: Khamenei
>During a speech to a group of women gathered in Tehran, the Iranian supreme leader has again emphasised that those who believe the Tehran-led “axis of resistance” is finished after the changes in Syria are mistaken.
>“The spirit of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is alive; the spirit of Sinwar is alive,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said, referring to Hezbollah and Hamas leaders killed by Israel.
>As the crowd chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel”, he said their bodies had been taken but their beliefs remained, ensuring their paths would continue.
>“They are attacking Gaza and taking martyrs on a daily basis, but they are still standing, they are still resisting. Lebanon resists,” Khamenei said.
>“The Zionist regime believes it is preparing itself through Syria to encircle Hezbollah’s forces and uproot them. But the one who will be uprooted is Israel.”

Maybe this is just bluster, but it could mean they figured out a way to restore the supply lines for Hezbollah.

>>486401
It's bluster to an extent, if the criteria is Hezbollah having an arms supply route. I don't think there's a new viable route, however it's likely that Hezbollah's arms stockpile is still quite large. It's anyone's guess whether that remains to be the case in January, but Hezbollah is unlikely to be deterred by the wave of brutal Israeli attacks on Lebanon we've seen. The fact that Hezbollah was still able to hit Tel Aviv days before the "ceasefire" suggests that Lebanon's agreement was a political decision rather than an issue of Hezbollah lacking firepower.
The fall of Syria is still a major blow; would Hezbollah be singularly able to uproot Israel? Doubtful, even before al-Qaeda took Damascus. Is the axis of resistance finished? Obviously not, the Yemenis hit Tel Aviv again like a day ago, Islamic Resistance forces are active in Iraq, and Hezbollah could come out of this politically stronger than before, although I'd caution against any optimism on this last front.

Five Palestinian families sue US State Department over Israel support

Five Palestinian families in the US have sued the State Department over Washington’s continued support for Israel amid a growing death toll in Gaza and worsening humanitarian crisis, a court filing shows.

The lawsuit, filed in the District Court for the District of Columbia, alleges that the State Department under Secretary of State Antony Blinken has deliberately circumvented a US human rights law to continue funding and supporting Israeli military units.

“The State Department’s calculated failure to apply the Leahy Law is particularly shocking in the face of the unprecedented escalation of Israeli gross violations of human rights since the Gaza War erupted on October 7, 2023,” the lawsuit said.

The Leahy Law bans providing military assistance to individuals or security force units that commit human rights violations.

UN says Israel violating disengagement agreement with Syria

The United Nations says Israel violated the ceasefire with Syria after it captured a demilitarised buffer zone following the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“The presence of the Israeli Defence Forces in the buffer zone is a violation of the 1974 Disengagement Agreement,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

Dujarric added that the agreement “needs to be respected, and occupation is occupation — whether it lasts a week, a month or a year, it remains occupation.”

Earlier, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu announced that troops would remain on the border for the foreseeable future until an alternative arises.

Palestinian Football Association praises Norway’s call to investigate Israel before match

The association has commended Lise Klaveness, the president of the Norwegian Football Federation, for saying that the organisation “stands with the Norwegian government’s call for an immediate halt to the disproportionate attacks on innocent civilians in Gaza”.

These comments, which included a call to investigate Israel, came a day after Israel and Norway were drawn in the same group in the 2025 World Cup qualifying round.

In October, FIFA, football’s global governing body, launched an investigation of Israel’s Football Association after Palestine accused it of discrimination. The results of the investigation could result in a suspension for Israel’s football teams.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/12/17/live-israel-again-targets-kamal-adwan-hospital-as-gaza-toll-passes-45000

Israel conducting demolitions in south Lebanon town despite truce: Report

Israeli bulldozers are conducting demolition operations in the town of Naqoura, in southern Lebanon, according to a video by a Lebanese activist verified by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency Sanad.

The mayor of Naqoura said in a statement that Israeli forces are carrying out the systematic destruction of the town, noting that the destruction rate has increased to 70 percent since the start of the ceasefire, compared with approximately 35 percent before it came into effect, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.

Israel violated Lebanon ceasefire 248 times: Report

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic have reported that the latest 12 Israeli violations of the November 27 ceasefire deal with Hezbollah had injured three people.

The violations were reported yesterday in the Tyre, Marjayoun and Hasbaiyya districts in the south of Lebanon, as well as the Rashaya and Western Bekaa districts in the east.

UN General Assembly overwhelmingly passes resolution on Palestine statehood

Some 172 countries voted in favour of the resolution, which affirmed the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, while eight countries opposed it.

Israel, the US, Micronesia, Argentina, Paraguay, and Papua New Guinea voted “no”.

Palestinian film From Ground Zero shortlisted for Oscars

The film about Israel’s war on Gaza has been shortlisted in the Best International Feature Film category of the 97th Academy Awards for 2025.

It features 22 short films by Palestinian filmmakers and was put together by Director Rashid Masharawi.

The shorts include 24 Hours by filmmaker Alaa Damo, which documents the events his friend Mosab al-Nadi experienced in one day, surviving three Israeli air strikes before being buried under rubble, despite sheltering in so-called “safe zones”.

Israel admits people from illegal settlements entered Lebanon earlier this month

The international community has long viewed illegal Israeli settlements as a violation of international law and a hindrance to Palestinian statehood.

Now the Israeli army has acknowledged that a settler group entered southern Lebanon earlier this month, Israeli media are reporting, after initially suggesting they had set up camp near the border.

The Times of Israel reported citing the military, “The civilians did indeed cross the Blue Line by several metres, and after being identified by [Israeli] troops, they were dispersed.”

It added that entering Lebanese territory harms the military’s ability to “operate in the area and fulfil its mission”.

Israel’s Army Radio quoted the military as saying, “This is a serious incident that is being investigated.”

Israeli institutions received $250m from EU despite outrage over Gaza war

On October 7, as Israel began its latest war on Gaza following Hamas’s incursion into southern Israel, the European Union’s position was immediately clear.

“Israel has a right to defend itself – today and in the days to come,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen posted on X, alongside an image of her office’s headquarters lit up with Israel’s flag. “The European Union stands with Israel.”

Israel has since been placed on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague and its leaders – as well as a top Hamas commander – have been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Yet the EU continues to partner with Israeli institutions under its “Horizon” scheme, a programme that funds research and innovation.

Data collected by the European Commission and analysed by Al Jazeera shows that since October 7, the EU has awarded Israeli institutions more than 238 million euros ($250m), including 640,000 euros ($674,000) to Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), a top aerospace and aviation manufacturer supplying the Israeli army.

Israeli settler bus comes under fire near West Bank’s Nablus

A bus carrying Israeli settlers to Joseph’s Tomb has come under fire near the occupied West Bank city of Nablus.

Israeli and Palestinian media reported that the group intended to visit the archaeological site, located in an area under full control of the Palestinian Authority, with no prior authorisation.

The Israeli military sent reinforcements to protect the settlers. The army said in a statement posted on X that the bus driver was injured and warned that “entry of Israelis into Area A in the West Bank is dangerous and prohibited”.

Twin sisters killed in Israeli attack on Gaza were due to do engineering PhDs in Canada

Dalia Ghazi Ibaid and Sally Ghazi Ibaid, twin sisters who received prestigious scholarships to undertake engineering PhDs at the University of Waterloo in Canada, were killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza on December 5, the university has said.

In a media release published on Tuesday, the university said it was “deeply saddened to share the news of the deaths of the twin sisters who were planning to come to Waterloo to do their PhDs in System Design Engineering” and were both “recipients of the University of Waterloo’s prestigious Student Relief Fellowship (SRF)”.

“Dalia and Sally were selected based on their outstanding academic achievement and demonstrated research potential,” the university added.

The university also shared a note it received from the sisters’ parents saying they had been excited to learn they had received the scholarships to study in Canada.

“Through your help they saw an end to their and our suffering. You gave them and us hope. Unfortunately, they did not get their opportunity to realise their dreams. Thank you for caring about and helping our daughters.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/12/18/live-israeli-bombing-near-gaza-hospital-kills-8-ceasefire-talks-continue

>>486402
I mostly agree with your assessment. However i don't really understand how they intent to cut Hezbollah off.

They obviously can't set up border controle check-points, those would just get murdered.

So what they have is Israeli jets bombing suspicious transports based on what they see from satellite and drone pictures.

And the bomb-happy nature of the Israeli can be used against them. It would be very easy for Iran to run decoy trucks.

Cheap end of life vehicles rigged up to be remote controlled with a modded exterior to look like missile transports to draw Israeli fire. Wearing down Israeli jets and emptying US ammo stocks. Making em waste their toys to pound dirt and scrap-metal. While the actual weapons deliveries for Hezbollah get broken down for transport and reassembled in Lebanon.

Usually a simple trick like this doesn't work on clever military generals. But Zionist strategy replaced cunning minds with brute force. So they'll probably fall for it, they're too eager to bomb shit to think twice. The other thing the Israeli apparently like to bomb is anything that looks like anti-air and emits radar waves, a little bit of decoy variety probably helps.

Lots of Syrians would probably help with misdirecting Israeli special forces on the ground, if Iran payed them, because Syria has been turned into a cluster fuck and there's not many other opportunities.

Remember that Likud-connected landlord who rammed into a crowd of protesters in NYC with his car?

Reuven Kahane, 57, was arrested Tuesday morning after driving his car into a 55-year-old safety marshal for the protest, according to witnesses and a New York police department spokesperson.

The woman, who was treated at a hospital for minor injuries, was also arrested, but charges of criminal mischief against her and another demonstrator were dropped Wednesday by the Manhattan district attorney. Kahane was released from custody while he awaits trial.

(May 8, 2024: https://apnews.com/article/columbia-university-palestine-israeli-kahane-991f505d485898b47d1d23dbad7ccbea)

Apparently on December 6, the case was dismissed. Also, he's apparently a rabbi! Well, if Meir Kahane could be one, then one not this guy?
https://archive.is/IXkG6
Astute observers will note that the narrative put forward in this Times of Israel article conveniently retcons the excerpt from AP quoted above. It's very obvious that someone made some deals here to get this guy off.

https://x.com/QudsNen/status/1869465854905315481
Student demonstration in Yemen for Palestine today.

MSF report finds ‘clear signs of ethnic cleansing’ in Gaza

A new report from Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has found “clear signs of ethnic cleansing” in Gaza by Israeli attacks.

“In the north of the Strip in particular, the recent military offensive is a clear illustration of the brutal war the Israeli forces are waging on Gaza, and we are witnessing clear signs of ethnic cleansing as Palestinian life is being wiped off the area,” according to the report, titled Gaza: Life in a death trap, released on Thursday.

“Our firsthand observations of the medical and humanitarian catastrophe inflicted on Gaza are consistent with the descriptions provided by an increasing number of legal experts and organisations concluding that genocide is taking place in Gaza.”

MSF reported that, as of mid-October, only 17 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals were partially functioning amid Israeli attacks, and the other 19 hospitals were out of service.

Gaza’s last remaining oncological hospital has shut down due to a lack of fuel and MSF said its teams have had to carry out surgeries without sufficient anaesthesia.

MSF said the prevalence of skin diseases, upper respiratory tract infections and diarrhoea are indicative of the “appalling hygiene conditions” endured by people in Gaza. It said children are missing out on crucial vaccinations against diseases such as polio and measles.

It also reported that, over the first 12 months of the war, MSF staff were subject to 41 attacks and violent incidents, including “air strikes, shelling and violent incursions in health facilities, direct fire on its shelters and convoys and arbitrary detention by Israeli forces” and eight MSF workers have been killed.

Palestinian rights groups ‘suspend engagement’ with UN torture expert

Several Palestinian human rights organisations have announced the suspension of “all engagement” with the UN special rapporteur on torture “due to her lack of action, responsiveness, and impartiality” in addressing Israel’s systemic violations against Palestinians.

“We cannot continue to engage in a process that fails to center the lived realities of Palestinians and to actively challenge impunity for perpetrators,” more than a dozen organisations wrote in an open letter to the rapporteur, Alice Edwards.

“Our suspension of engagement will remain in effect until there is a change in leadership or a demonstrable shift in your approach to one that is fair, impartial, and genuinely responsive to the evidence and realities on the ground.”

Among other things, the group criticised the rapporteur’s decision to focus her upcoming report to the UN Human Rights Council on “hostage-taking as a form of torture”, which they condemned as “yet another example of a troubling pattern that suggests you perceive Palestinians as less worthy victims”, they wrote.

They argued that the rapporteur has contributed “to the dehumanisation of Palestinians”.

Meta ‘silencing Palestinian content and suppressing the Palestinian narrative’: Report

A new report has revealed that Meta enforces unjust policies against Palestinian content, deleting posts or restricting visibility under claims of policy violations, while turning a blind eye to hate speech and incitement against Palestinians.

The report published by 7amleh – The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media – includes testimonies from Palestinian influencers, journalists and media outlets who have faced Meta’s discriminatory practices.

It exposes Meta’s “silencing Palestinian content and suppressing the Palestinian narrative, particularly during the ongoing genocide in Gaza”, the report’s authors say.

More than 15 million inciting posts in Hebrew against Palestinians were documented across social media platforms since October 2023, as recorded by 7amleh’s AI-powered language model.

“The continued discriminatory practices by Meta against Palestinian content constitute a clear violation of international standards for freedom of expression,” 7amleh’s advocacy manager Jalal Abukhater said. “We call on Meta to take serious and urgent steps to reform its policies and ensure Palestinians’ right to use digital platforms without suppression or discrimination.”

Palestinian UN envoy calls on Security Council to ‘lead by example’

Palestinian Envoy to the UN Riyad Mansour urged members of the Security Council to end Israel’s actions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

“Over a year ago, and from this same chamber, we called for a ceasefire that would allow Palestinian and Israeli families to be reunited in life, not death,” Mansour said, adding that since the chamber disagreed on a ceasefire, the General Assembly should take control under the “Uniting for Peace” framework.

During his address, Mansour commented on Amnesty International’s findings of genocide in Gaza and denounced Israel’s attacks on Ireland.

“Israel continues genocide, starves and forcibly displaces people, colonises and annexes land. But it is Ireland which has crossed every red line for denouncing these crimes, for insisting on respect for international law and for human rights. You must be kidding,” he said.

“This is a time to show resolve, to be guided by moral clarity and to lead by example.”

‘Major booms heard’ as Israeli military shoots down missile from Yemen

In a post on X, Israel’s military said it shot down the projectile launched from Yemen before it crossed into Israeli territory.

It added that the warning sirens that sounded in central Israel were due to possible missile parts falling following its interception.

The Times of Israel said the sirens sounded across central Israel, including in Tel Aviv, and that “major booms could be heard as far away as Jerusalem”.

On Monday, Yemen’s Houthi group said it launched a hypersonic ballistic missile called “Palestine 2” towards central Israel, promising to continue its military operations against the country until the Israeli military ends its war on Gaza.

Full UN membership key to regional de-escalation: Palestinian president

Full Palestinian membership at the UN is the key to security and stability in the Middle East, President Mahmoud Abbas said while addressing the D-8 summit in Cairo.

Abbas said the Palestinian people are facing daily Israeli massacres, starvation and attempts to forcibly displace them.

“This requires the immediate implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2735 demanding a ceasefire, the entry of aid, full withdrawal from Gaza and Palestine assuming its responsibilities in the Strip.” he added.

“Achieving security and stability in the region requires Palestine to obtain full membership in the UN and more international recognition” of the Palestinian state, Abbas said.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/12/18/live-israeli-bombing-near-gaza-hospital-kills-8-ceasefire-talks-continue

Israeli forces attack Yemen port, power stations: Report

The Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah TV is reporting that Israeli forces have attacked two central power stations around the Yemeni capital, Sanaa.

They also targeted the Red Sea port of Hodeidah as well as the Ras Isa oil facility, the channel reported.

At least four attacks hit the port while two hit the oil facility, it added.

What to know about Israel’s attacks on Yemen

In the early hours of the morning, Israel launched attacks against ports and energy infrastructure in Houthi-held parts of Yemen.

The Israeli army said its assault, which involved 14 fighter jets and other aircraft, happened in two stages.
A first series of strikes hit the ports of as-Salif and Ras Isa and a second series struck the capital, Sanaa.
As the jets were in the air, the Israeli military said it intercepted a missile headed towards central Israel, which destroyed a school building in Ramat Efal in the western part of Tel Aviv with what a military spokesperson described as falling shrapnel.
''Al Masirah TV, the main broadcaster run by the Houthis, said the air attacks on Yemen killed at least nine people: seven in as-Salif and two in the Ras Isa oil facility, both in the western province of Hodeidah.
In Sanaa, the strikes hit two central power stations south and north of the capital, cutting electricity to thousands of families.''
The Houthis, who have launched hundreds of missiles at Israel over the past year in solidarity with the Palestinians, pledged to respond.

Missile fragments found near Knesset building

The Israel Broadcasting Authority says fragments of a missile have been found outside the Knesset building in Jerusalem. There were no reports of damage, it added.

It is not clear if the debris was related to a Houthi attack earlier. The armed group said it launched two ballistic missiles targeting an area south of Tel Aviv where debris hit a school, causing a building to collapse. There were no injuries.

Israel also attacked Yemen overnight, hitting power stations, ports and an oil facility, according to local media.

School near Tel Aviv hit by Houthi attack will have to be rebuilt
Nour Odeh
Reporting from Amman, Jordan

Al Jazeera is reporting from Jordan because it has been banned from Israel and the occupied West Bank.

The Israelis are still investigating how the school building in Ramat Gan was so heavily damaged by the Houthi attack and the authorities there said the building would have to be torn down completely. So that school is now out of commission.

The suspicion is that at least part of the Houthi missile hit the school, so the Israeli interception was not 100 percent successful.

These kinds of attacks have been the source of a lot of trouble for the Israelis, and the source of a lot of upset people who thought that this was over after the ceasefire with Lebanon was announced.

The strikes on Yemen by the Israeli air force were planned, these were not a direct response to this latest missile attack; it was something that was talked about for some days now, that there was a need for Israel to strike back to show the Houthis that Israel could reach them and could reach them quite powerfully.

Iran’s president calls for unity among D-8 to stop Israeli assaults

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has called on Muslim-majority countries to unite to stop Israeli attacks in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria.

Addressing the D-8 summit in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, Pezeshkian said the “brutal killings of civilians” in Gaza have “revealed new dimensions of terror”.

“It is our religious, legal and humanitarian duty to take more practical and immediate actions to prevent further harm to our loved ones in crisis-stricken areas,” he added.

Pezeshkian’s visit was the first by an Iranian president to Egypt in more than a decade, as relations between the two countries have long been strained.

Euro-Med probe finds no evidence of military targets in Israeli attack on Gaza City mosque

The Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor says it investigated Israel’s attack on a Gaza City mosque on November 16 last year that killed more than 15 Palestinians, including women and children.

It said the probe found no military targets, “such as objects or armed individuals, inside the mosque or in its surrounding area at the time of the attack”.

“According to the investigation’s findings, at approximately 4:45am on Wednesday, 16 November 2023, Israeli aircraft struck Al-Hassan Mosque in the Al-Sanafur area of Al-Tuffah neighbourhood, east of Gaza City, without any prior warning,” the monitor said.

“The attack involved one or two heavy, high-explosive bombs and occurred just as worshippers began their dawn prayers.”

Amnesty demands EU leaders take action against genocide in Gaza

Amnesty International has projected the message “End Gaza genocide” in 24 languages spoken in the European Union onto the European Commission headquarters in Brussels before a meeting of the bloc’s leaders.

In a damning report released earlier this month, Amnesty concluded that Israel’s devastating war on Gaza meets the legal threshold for genocide.

Amnesty has called on EU leaders meeting on Thursday to halt all arms transfers to Israel, ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements, and ensure justice and accountability for Israeli crimes.

Turkiye’s Erdogan urges Israel arms embargo

We have some comments by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the D-8 Summit in Egypt’s capital, Cairo.

In his speech, Erdogan called for imposing an arms embargo on Israel, ending trade with the country and isolating it internationally in order to hold it accountable for its actions in the region.

Deutsche Welle insiders accuse German media outlet of pro-Israel bias
Jad Salfiti

Berlin, Germany – Senior newsroom figures at Germany’s public broadcaster Deutsche Welle are cultivating a culture of fear among journalists who are tasked with reporting on Israel’s war on Gaza, 13 staff members and freelancers currently working for the network – plus a former long-term correspondent – have told Al Jazeera.

They accuse Deutsche Welle of pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian bias, allege that they have heard colleagues make Islamophobic and dehumanising remarks about Palestinians and protesters, in the Berlin office with impunity, and have shared with Al Jazeera several internal documents – one of which lists “possible comebacks” for anchors to use during live interviews with “pro-Palestinian voices” who make “controversial statements” – such as accusing Israel of war crimes.

Houthi attacks on Israel ‘will persist’ until Gaza blockade ends

Hussain Albukhaiti, a pro-Houthi journalist and political analyst, says the Yemeni armed group will keep attacking Israel until a ceasefire is reached in Gaza.

“We know that Yemeni attacks against Israel as well as the blockade in the Red Sea have resulted in the closure of the Eilat port, south of occupied Palestine, and it has also increased costs in Israel because now ships that are linked to Israel have to go around Africa,” Albukhaiti told Al Jazeera.

“And Yemenis have said clearly that they will not stop these attacks unless the Israeli regime stops its attack against Gaza, lifts the blockade and withdraws from Gaza,” he added.

He also said that the attacks by the Israeli army, as well as the US and the UK, won’t deter the Houthis from attacking.

Albukhaiti’s comments came after the Israeli military launched air strikes on what it says were Houthi military targets in the capital, Sanaa, and the port city of Hodeidah, causing major fires.

Hours before those strikes, a missile was launched from Yemen towards central Israel. The rocket was intercepted and its debris hit a building in Tel Aviv.

This is the second time this week that Israel’s military has intercepted a missile from Yemen since the Houthis have been launching drones and strikes towards Israel since last year in what they say is an act of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

Chile’s president calls Israeli PM a war criminal

Chilean President Gabriel Boric has branded Netanyahu a war criminal for the “barbarity” of his actions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

“What Benjamin Netanyahu has done is a war crime, a crime against humanity,” Boric said at a Christmas event for Palestinians in Chile held in Santiago on Wednesday.

“We are deeply pained and shaken not only by what is happening in Gaza but also by the events in the West Bank,” he added, referring to Israeli settlers and soldiers in the occupied West Bank attacking Palestinians there.

“There is no room for half-measures in the defence of humanity,” he said, calling for renewed efforts towards peace. “We are gathered here today to defend humanity.”

Chile is home to some half a million people of Palestinian descent.

Houthis denounce ‘West’s hypocrisy’ after Israel bombs ‘civilian facilities’ in Yemen

Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the political bureau of the Houthi armed group in Yemen, claims the US is part of the recent Israeli attacks on his country.

“The US-Israeli bombing of civilian facilities in Yemen [power stations and ports] reveals the truth about the West’s hypocrisy and refutes all its humanitarian claims,” he said.

Al-Bukhaiti said the attacks will not stop the group from supporting Gaza.

“… we will meet escalation with escalation until the genocide crimes in Gaza stop and food, medicine and fuel are allowed to enter its residents,” he said.

HRW says Israel depriving Palestinians of water, in an ‘act of genocide’

Human Rights Watch says Israel is intentionally depriving Palestinian civilians in Gaza of adequate access to water, “most likely resulting in thousands of deaths”.

In doing so, Israeli authorities are “responsible for the crime against humanity of extermination and for acts of genocide”, it said.

“The pattern of conduct, coupled with statements suggesting that some Israeli officials wished to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, may amount to the crime of genocide,” it added.

The US-based group is the second rights group in a month to use the word genocide to describe the actions of Israel in Gaza.

Mathematicians denounce Israel’s genocide in Gaza

More than 1,000 mathematicians have signed an open letter calling on their colleagues to “cease all scientific collaboration with Israeli institutions that do not explicitly condemn the genocide in Gaza and the illegal colonisation of Palestine”.

“Scientists, particularly mathematicians, cannot remain indifferent to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, especially as Western powers appear to support this crime against humanity politically, diplomatically, and militarily,” they wrote.

US veteran protests Gaza war at congressional hearing

Josephine Guilbeau, a former captain in the US military, disrupted a congressional hearing on veteran affairs on Wednesday to protest her country’s support for Israel’s war on war.

“You as Congress are complicit in the genocide in Gaza,” said Guilbeau, who served in the US military for 17 years.

“You keep sending billions of dollars to Israel. Meanwhile [US] veterans are homeless and committing suicide.”

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DDvKpECT2lF/

US morning shows haven’t featured a single Palestinian guest: Report

The Nation magazine says that three major US broadcasting networks did not have a single Palestinian guest appear on their morning news shows since October 2023.

Journalists Adam Johnson and Othman Ali, writing in the US magazine, said they kept a record of the guests on four different morning shows and found that no Palestinians appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press, ABC’s This Week, and CNN’s State of the Union.

The single exception was Face the Nation, on the CBS network, which aired a seven-minute interview with Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Kingdom, on November 5, 2023.

Across 208 episodes of the four shows, Gaza was mentioned 2,557 times, and Israeli guests were featured 20 times, the journalists said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared as a guest on all four shows, and even appeared on CNN’s State of the Union twice.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/12/19/live-israel-kills-14-in-northern-gaza-as-it-continues-to-deny-un-access

>>486425
>Meta ‘silencing Palestinian content and suppressing the Palestinian narrative’: Report
>A new report has revealed that Meta enforces unjust policies against Palestinian content, deleting posts or restricting visibility under claims of policy violations, while turning a blind eye to hate speech and incitement against Palestinians.
To be fair, not hiding the genocidal rants of the Zionists, that's a feature not a bug.
Normal people that read those will not be moved to dehumanize Palestinians, instead they get to witness what an absolute mind-fuck Zionism is.

>“The continued discriminatory practices by Meta against Palestinian content constitute a clear violation of international standards for freedom of expression,”
The violation of expression-freedom already occurred when they put in the technology means to do that, not when they began abusing it.

Houthi group says ready for a long war with Israel

Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree says the Yemeni group is ready for a long war with the “Israeli enemy” in support of the Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel violating ceasefire agreement in Lebanon, says Iran’s president

Iran’s President Pezeshkian, during his address at the D-8 summit in Cairo, said “the first step to stopping the aggression is to pressure Israel for a ceasefire in Gaza and to halt attacks on Lebanon and Syria.”

This is the top humanitarian and ethical priority for regional countries and D-8 members, he said, adding that Iran supports any “agreement that is accepted by the Palestinian people and has the consensus of all Palestinian groups”.

In Lebanon, Pezeshkian said “despite extensive efforts to prevent the killing of civilians and innocents, a ceasefire text was eventually prepared, and the resistance, despite some reservations, agreed to it to strengthen national unity.

“However, unfortunately, the other side [Israel] is violating the ceasefire. We urge other countries to provide extensive support, both in terms of pressuring the Zionist regime to fulfil its commitments and in the reconstruction and normalization of life, as well as economic and infrastructural assistance to Lebanon.”

UN to ask ICJ for opinion on Israeli obligation to facilitate aid to Palestinians

The UN General Assembly has voted on asking the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for an opinion over Israel’s obligation to facilitate aid to Palestinians that is being delivered by aid organisations, the UN and member states.

The Norway-drafted resolution was adopted with 137 votes in favour. Israel, the US and 10 other countries voted “no”, while 22 countries abstained.

In July, the ICJ ruled that Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories was unlawful and should end “as rapidly as possible”.

Palestinian Authority refuses to back down in fight with Jenin fighters
Aziza Nofal
Jenin, occupied West Bank

Nahida al-Sabbagh has endured the battles in the Jenin refugee camp, where she lives, since Saturday. The fighting between local Palestinian armed fighters from the Jenin Brigades and security forces continues near her home around the clock.

But it is the identity of the security forces clashing with those fighters that is most shocking to Nahida. They’re not Israeli. They’re Palestinian and represent the Palestinian Authority (PA).

“We never imagined that the security forces would treat the camp like this,” the 52-year-old Palestinian woman said.

The clashes around the al-Sabbagh family’s home in the camp’s al-Mahyoub neighbourhood are the result of an ongoing campaign launched by the PA’s security apparatus under the name “Protecting the Homeland”.

Spain’s political parties urge PM to sanction Israel

Several political parties in Spain, including coalition partner Sumar and four other parties backing the minority left-wing government, have called on Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to take decisive action against Israel.

The parties – Sumar, Podemos, the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), the Basque EH Bildu and the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG) – made their appeal through a written statement submitted to the Spanish parliament’s records.

The letter demanded the enforcement of “a full military embargo, along with political and economic sanctions” against Israel.

It urged Sanchez to minimise diplomatic relations with Israel and suspend trade agreements until the illegal occupation of Palestine ends.

Additionally, the letter called on Spain’s Teresa Ribera Rodriguez, the European Commission’s vice president and the commissioner for competition, to push for the cancellation of the EU’s agreement with Israel, which currently grants the country preferential trade treatment.

Who are some of the US officials to quit over Biden’s Gaza policy?

Joe Biden’s unwavering support for Israel during its more than 14-month war on Gaza has spurred some US administration officials to quit, with some accusing the government of turning a blind eye to Israeli atrocities.

Here are a few of them:

Mike Casey left his role as the State Department’s deputy political counsellor on Gaza in July. In an interview following his resignation, he said: “I got so tired of writing about dead kids. Just constantly having to prove to Washington that these children actually died and then watching nothing happen.”
Maryam Hassanein, a special assistant at the Department of Interior, quit her job in July. She slammed Biden’s foreign policy, describing it as “genocide-enabling” and dehumanising toward Arabs and Muslims.
Lily Greenberg Call, a political appointee, resigned in May, having served as a special assistant to the chief of staff in the Interior Department. “As a Jew, I cannot endorse the Gaza catastrophe,” she wrote in a newspaper column.
Stacy Gilbert, who served in the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, left in late May. She said she resigned over an administration report to Congress that she said falsely stated Israel was not blocking humanitarian aid to Gaza.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/12/19/live-israel-kills-14-in-northern-gaza-as-it-continues-to-deny-un-access

US demands Israel declare it is not deliberately starving Palestinians: Report

Lisa Grande, the Biden administration’s Middle East aid envoy, is said to have made demands around Israel’s humanitarian approach in Gaza in a heated phone call with Ghassan Alian, the chief of the Israeli military body responsible for Palestinian civil affairs (COGAT), according to Israel’s Channel 12.

Grande reportedly demanded during the call that Israel publicly declare it is not following a policy of deliberately starving Palestinians in Gaza.

Palestinian Americans sue US government over failure to evacuate citizens trapped in Gaza

The Reuters news agency reports that the lawsuit accuses the US State Department of discrimination for abandoning Palestinian Americans in a war zone, and not making the same effort that would normally be taken to evacuate and protect Americans of different origins in similar situations.

The suit was filed on Thursday by nine Palestinian Americans who allege the US government had failed to rescue them or members of their families who were trapped in Gaza where Israel’s war has killed tens of thousands and caused a humanitarian crisis.

The lawsuit asserts that the plaintiffs’ right to equal protection under the US Constitution has been violated by depriving them “of the normal and typical evacuation efforts the federal government extends to Americans who are not Palestinians”.

It mentions comparable instances of the US government evacuating its citizens from conflict zones such as in Afghanistan, Lebanon and Sudan and names President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin as defendants.

A US State Department spokesperson said the department does not comment on pending litigation.

Israeli settlers vandalise, start fire at mosque in the occupied West Bank: Report

The Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that settlers entered the village of Marda, north of Salfit in the occupied West Bank, before storming the Bar Al-Walidain Mosque, writing racist slogans on its walls and starting a fire.

Local residents were able to extinguish the fire before it spread, according to Wafa.

Footage shows West Bank mosque desecrated by Israeli settlers

As we have been reporting, Israeli settlers earlier entered the occupied West Bank town of Marda near Salfit, where they vandalised a mosque and set fire to it.

Footage from that incident shows the blackened entrance to the mosque with anti-Palestinian graffiti scrawled on the walls.

https://twitter.com/Sa7atPl/status/1869972197944516780

Sweden will no longer fund UNRWA: Minister

Benjamin Dousa, the Nordic country’s aid minister, says Stockholm has decided not to give funds to the UN refugee agency for Palestinians any more.

The minister told the Swedish TV4 channel that the country will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/12/20/live-israel-kills-15-in-gaza-shelters-amid-new-report-of-ethnic-cleansing

>>486433
>The violation of expression-freedom already occurred when they put in the technology means to do that, not when they began abusing it.
Both still bad!

Israeli force blow up several houses in Yaroun, Lebanon: Report

The Lebanese National News Agency (NNA) has reported that Israeli forces blew up several houses and properties in the town of Yaroun in the district of Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon.

A correspondent for NNA reported that loud explosions were also heard in the surrounding villages.

Six injured as Israeli police confirm missile strike on Tel Aviv

Israel’s Army Radio news outlet reports that six people have been “slightly injured by shrapnel” following the missile strike on the city.

In a post on X, Israeli police said the missile had caused “material damage but no human injuries”.

“Police and bomb experts are working to secure the area, and are calling on residents to stay away from the area and follow the instructions of the security authorities to avoid risks and ensure everyone’s safety,” the police said.

https://twitter.com/AJA_Palestine/status/1870292595882037748
https://twitter.com/kann_news/status/1870287698650370259

Missile struck public park in Tel Aviv, 11 injured: Reports

As we have been reporting, a missile fired from Yemen has struck the Israeli city of Tel Aviv.

Al Jazeera Arabic and Israeli media are now reporting that the missile landed in a public park in Tel Aviv.

At least 11 people have been injured in the attack, according to the Shehab news agency and the Quds News Network.

https://twitter.com/AJA_Palestine/status/1870301892779106368
https://twitter.com/OrRavid/status/1870297992588042736

US judge finds Israeli spyware firm liable for hacking in WhatsApp lawsuit

A US judge has ruled in favour of WhatsApp owner Meta in a lawsuit accusing Israeli spyware firm NSO Group of exploiting a bug in the messaging app to install spy software.

The programme, known as Pegasus, sent spyware to targeted phones through Whatsapp’s servers, allowing the surveillance of 1,400 people, including journalists, human rights activists and dissidents, according to the lawsuit.

On Friday, Northern District of California judge Phyllis Hamilton found NSO Group liable for hacking and breach of contract, according to court documents, finding in the five-year-old case that Pegasus violated the US Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

“We’re grateful for today’s decision,” said WhatsApp spokesman Carl Woog, adding that the firm believed the ruling to be the first to hold a major spyware vendor responsible for such a crime.

“NSO can no longer avoid accountability for their unlawful attacks on WhatsApp, journalists, human rights activists and civil society. With this ruling, spyware companies should be on notice that their illegal actions will not be tolerated,” Woog said.

Hamilton ruled that the case should now proceed to trial to determine how much NSO should pay in civil damages.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/12/21/live-over-100-palestinians-killed-in-two-days-of-israeli-attacks-on-gaza

Hamas fighter kills two Israeli soldiers in northern Gaza, the Qassam Brigades says

A fighter from Hamas has killed two Israeli soldiers before blowing himself up near a group of soldiers in the northern Gaza Strip, according to the group’s armed wing.

The Qassam Brigades said in a statement that the fighter killed an Israeli army sniper and a fellow solider at “point-blank range” in the Jabalia refugee camp.

The fighter, reportedly disguised in Israeli army uniform, then managed to reach a group of six Israeli soldiers and blow himself up, causing casualties, the statement added.

The Israeli army has not yet commented on the attack.

Palestinian fighters and Palestinian Authority forces clash in Jenin

Fighting is taking place in several areas surrounding the Jenin refugee camp between Palestinian fighters and the Palestinian Authority, local sources on the ground tell Al Jazeera.

We’ll bring you more updates on this as we get them.

Palestinian children from Gaza evacuated to Ireland: Report

Ireland’s national broadcaster RTE has reported that the first Palestinian children from Gaza to be medically evacuated to Ireland for healthcare treatment have arrived in the country.

The media outlet said eight children, accompanied by eight carers and 11 siblings, travelled to Ireland from Egypt on Thursday on a plane provided by the Slovakian government.

The evacuations are a result of a World Health Organization (WHO) request for EU member states to help evacuate Palestinian patients to Europe.

Ten states have responded to the WHO’s request, including Spain, Italy and Norway.

Ireland’s Minister of State for International Development and Diaspora Sean Fleming said that the evacuated children suffer from illnesses like cancer, haemophilia and blood disorders, RTE reported.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/12/20/live-israel-kills-15-in-gaza-shelters-amid-new-report-of-ethnic-cleansing

Israeli soldier accused of Gaza war crimes flees Sri Lanka over arrest fears: Reports

An Israeli soldier accused of carrying out war crimes in Gaza has fled Sri Lanka at the insistence of the Israeli government, according to reports.

Gaza war crimes monitor the Hind Rajab Foundation filed a complaint with Sir Lankan authorities, the International Criminal Court and Interpol after they discovered that Israeli soldier Gal Ferenbook – who the foundation alleges killed a Palestinian in Gaza and desecrated his remains – was on the Indian Ocean island.

After being outed by the foundation, Ferenbook was warned by the Israeli government on Wednesday to leave the country over the risk of arrest. Follow-up reports in local Sri Lankan media say the soldier fled the country on Friday.

The war crimes allegations stem from a video shared on Ferenbook’s Instagram account in August that shows him inside a military vehicle displaying the remains of a Palestinian man who had been killed on a monitor and laughing with other soldiers who refer to him as “the terminator”.

“The mocking and celebratory tone strongly suggest Mr. Ferenbook’s direct responsibility for the unlawful killing of a Palestinian civilian and further document the destruction of civilian infrastructure outside of military necessity,” the foundation said.

The first known case of an Israeli soldier accused of involvement in war crimes fleeing a country at the insistence of the Israeli government reportedly occurred in November, when a reserve officer fled Cyprus where he was on holiday with his wife.

Second Israeli soldier outed in Thailand over alleged war crimes in Gaza

As we reported earlier, an Israeli soldier has fled Sri Lanka at the insistence of the Israeli government over the risk of arrest for his alleged involvement in war crimes.

Now, the Hind Rajab Foundation – a Gaza war crime monitoring group – has outed a second Israeli soldier, currently in Thailand, as a suspected war criminal.

The foundation alleges that Lidor Kandalker, a member of the Volcano Company combat engineering unit, was involved in demolishing Palestinian homes during Israel’s ongoing attacks on Gaza.

The foundation says it has filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court and notified Thai authorities, including the police, the Ministry of Justice and the Thai Embassy in The Hague of Kandalker’s presence in the country.

“The foundation has urged them to apprehend Kandalker, prevent his escape, and fulfil their international obligations to ensure accountability for his crimes,” they said.

A video shared by the foundation on social media showed Kandalker inside a military vehicle with club music playing as he counts down before detonating a building displayed on the monitor. He and other soldiers in the vehicle cheer after the explosion.

Another image of Kandalker released by the foundation appears to show the soldier sitting in a chair inside a civilian home in Gaza, wearing a displaced Palestinian’s clothes, holding an assault rifle and drinking what appears to be tea or coffee.

UNRWA chief calls on world to resist Israel’s ‘firepower and propaganda’

Israel’s war on Gaza and the Palestinian people has been carried out alongside an “extraordinary assault” on those defending “human rights, international law and the victims of the barbaric” conflict, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said.

In an opinion piece published by the UK’s Guardian newspaper, Lazzarini said that in the current environment, aid workers with decades of experience working with war-affected people “are suddenly labelled as terrorists or terrorist sympathisers”.

Critics of Israel are being intimidated and harassed, while Israel’s Foreign Ministry pays to splash “inflammatory” propaganda on billboards in the US and Europe, and takes out Google ads to spread disinformation online, Lazzarini said.

“These are well funded efforts to distract from the brutality of an unlawful occupation and the international crimes being committed with total impunity under our watch,” the head of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees said.

Humanity now finds itself at a “crossroads” in its response to Israel’s actions in Gaza.

“We still have a window of opportunity to avert a cataclysmic future where firepower and propaganda construct the global order, determining where and when human rights and the rule of law apply, if at all,” he said.

“The tools and institutions needed to defend and reinforce our multilateral system and the rules-based order exist and are adequate – we need only find the political courage to use them,” he added.

Successful missile strike shows Israel ‘no longer secure’: Houthi official

The successful missile strike on the Tel Aviv area demonstrates the limits of the Israeli military’s billiondollar aerial defence systems, a Houthi official has said.

In a series of posts in both Arabic and Hebrew, Houthi Hezam al-Asad, a member of the Houthi Supreme Political Council in Yemen, appeared to taunt the Israeli military, saying, “The failure of all Israeli defence systems means that the heart of the Zionist enemy is no longer secure”.

Al-Asad also said the Israeli interceptor missiles that were supposed to stop the attack failed and caused more damage.

“There is no longer any use for interception systems that cost billions of dollars,” he said.

Number of injured in Tel Aviv missile attack rises to 16

Israel’s Magen David Adom ambulance service now reports that at least 16 people have been lightly injured by the missile strike in the Tel Aviv area, mostly as a result of broken glass.

Houthis claim ‘hypersonic ballistic missile’ attack on Tel Aviv

As we have been reporting, a missile launched from Yemen struck the Israeli city of Tel Aviv overnight, injuring at least 16 people.

The Yemen-based Houthis have now confirmed they fired a “hypersonic ballistic missile” named “Palestine 2”, striking the “occupied Jaffa area” just south of the coastal city.

“The missile hit its target accurately, and the defences and interception systems failed to intercept it,” Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree said in a televised speech.

Saree said the attack was a response to the “massacres against our brothers in Gaza”, as well as Israeli aggression against our country”.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/12/21/live-over-100-palestinians-killed-in-two-days-of-israeli-attacks-on-gaza