/leftypol/ - Leftist Politically Incorrect

https://twitter.com/DropSiteNews/status/1898536032733213183
BREAKING: Qatar has submitted a demand to the United Nations to place all Israeli nuclear facilities under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards and for Israel to disarm from its nuclear weapons by joining the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) as a non-nuclear state.

It's been one day since this:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/8/yemens-houthis-threaten-israel-over-gaza-aid-blockade
I think it's very possible that the US intends to launch another campaign against Yemen and use it as a pretext for war with Iran by refusing to pressure Israel out of blocking the entry of aid into Gaza.

US hostage envoy says Hamas has offered to lay down arms for five to 10 years

The US hostage envoy Adam Boehler has told Israel’s Channel 11 that Hamas has suggested an exchange of prisoners, as well as a five to ten year truce in which the Palestinian group “would lay down all weapons”, and not be involved in politics.

Boehler repeated some of those details in a series of interviews held with Israeli and US media outlets, after reports emerged of Israeli unhappiness with his unprecedented direct talks with Hamas.

Boehler also added that an “optimistic” scenario would see Israeli captives held in Gaza released in “weeks”.

https://aje.io/bi39mp?update=3567809

This seems like a really bad idea if true.

Doctor says dealing with victims of continued Israeli drone attacks in Gaza

Dr Christopher Holden, a volunteer foreign doctor working in Gaza City, says medical supplies are running low in the enclave, including essential supplies.

“We are running into a real and critical shortage in many sectors in healthcare,” the doctor with the Palestinian Australian New Zealand Medical Association told Al Jazeera in Gaza City.

He also said that there have been recent frequent drone attacks in the area he has been working in.

“Two days ago, we had a six-year-old girl brought in. She was asleep in her tent because her home was destroyed with a loss of multiple family members,” Holden said.

The doctor said that she was attacked by a drone while sleeping in a tent with her father, damaging her eye and breaking some her bones.

He added that there had been no military activity in the area where the strike took place.

Gaza residents report hunger and hardship despite recent ceasefire

With the cutoff of all supplies to Gaza, Palestinians are reporting sharp price increases for dwindling items as fears grow again, in the middle of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

“Since the ceasefire began, the situation has improved a little. But before that, the situation was very bad,” Fares al-Qeisi in the southern city of Khan Younis told AP news agency.

“I swear to God, one could not satisfy their hunger,” al-Qeisi said.

Hamas says Gaza’s electricity cut off since start of war

The Palestinian groups says Israeli forces have already cut off electricity to the Gaza Strip since the war began in October 2023, Al Jazeera Arabic is reporting.

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem made the remarks in a statement in response to Israel’s earlier decision today to immediately halt the supply of electricity to Gaza.

Israel: Electricity to Gaza Strip to be stopped ‘immediately’

Earlier we reported – citing Israeli public broadcaster Kan – that Energy Minister Eli Cohen had ordered the stoppage of electricity transmission to Gaza.

Cohen in a post on X has confirmed the news, saying he has signed an order to “cut off electricity to the Gaza Strip immediately”.

…

The announcement comes a week after Israel cut off all supplies of goods to more than two million people in the territory, a move that has received widespread condemnation.

New head of Israeli military visits troops in Syria

Eyal Zamir, who was appointed the military’s chief of staff last week, visited Israeli troops in southern Syria, the Israeli military says.

Israel took the opportunity presented by the fall of President Bashar al-Assad in December to illegally occupy more Syrian territory along the buffer zone between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and the remainder of Syria.

It has also repeatedly bombed military sites throughout Syria.

Father of released Israeli captive says North American Jewish organisations failed them

Jonathan Dekel-Chen, the father of Sagui, who was released from Gaza last month, said that some Jewish organisations in North America had failed the captives by being unable to go against the Israeli government.

“History will also not look kindly on some, if not all, of the leaderships of major Jewish organisations, in North America certainly,” Dekel-Chen told The Jerusalem Post. “All of these organisations, all of them, were created for the betterment of the people of Israel; the people of Israel, not this or that politician of Israel.”

“In a perfect world, the biggest single advocate for the hostages, in action and not just lip service, would be the government of Israel. That simply hasn’t happened,” Dekel-Chen added. “As a result, hostage families themselves have had to take it on. Speaking as a historian of the Jewish people, history will not judge these leaders well for what they have already done and for what I fear they might continue to do.”

US immigration authorities arrest Palestinian activist, revoke permanent residency: Lawyer

Mahmoud Khalil, who was one of the leaders of Columbia University’s pro-Palestinian student campus protest movement, was arrested on Saturday night by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, his lawyer told the Associated Press.

The agents said they were acting on orders from the State Department to revoke Khalil’s student visa when they detained him in New York City. When they were told by Khalil’s lawyer, Amy Greer, that he was a permanent resident with a green card, the agent said that was also being revoked.

Greer said that Khalil’s wife – who is eight months pregnant – was not told why the activist was being detained. He has been transferred to an ICE facility in New Jersey.

“We have not been able to get any more details about why he is being detained,” Greer said. “This is a clear escalation. The administration is following through on its threats.”

The Trump administration has threatened to crack down on pro-Palestinian protests in the US, warning that student visas would be revoked if they were deemed to be supporting Hamas. The State Department said on Thursday that it had revoked the visa of one student protester the previous day for “criminal behavior”.

The US government has also announced that it would cut $400m in grants and contracts to Columbia University, accusing the elite educational institute of failing to crack down on antisemitism. Pro-Israel voices have consistently attempted to portray pro-Palestinian protests as antisemitic, despite the large presence of Jewish students among the protesters.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/3/9/live-israel-to-send-negotiators-to-doha-hamas-against-temporary-truce

>>488013
>>488021
>>488020
>Zionist lobbied-for police brutality
The Zionists lost the political argument (in no small part because they went on unhinged dehumanization rants), they lost any and all moral high-ground (if they ever had one) and now they are trying to physically attack people, which is just going to cement them ass a political terror.

The last act in the Zionist chapter.
The Zionist project in Israel is unlikely going to survive, they're inflicting too much damage on their economy and their population. They're demanding too much military resources from the imperial core, to the extend that it'll no longuer be a lucrative imperial investment. With Isreal's reputation trashed by IDF atrocity bragging on social media as well as corporate media, it doesn't work as an imperial prestige project either. The pattern of colonial expansion that the Zionists are trying to execute in the Middle East (soon to be West Asia) is predicated on an extreme power-differential between industrial society and agrarian society. It can no longuer work because pretty much all countries in the world are industrialized to some degree, and there no longuer is a vast power differential that exists between different modes of production.

For us in the west it means that the resources for the Zionist lobby will also evaporate once the empire cuts its losses. Then they will be left with a population that remembers getting trampled by Zionists, the apparatchiks they are able to bribe now, will turn on them too, they will erase their Zionist collaborationist record or play the victim of Zionism if they can't do that.

The aftermath
While it will be tempting to use all their tyrannical mechanisms against them and let them have it, with the promise of "supreme political surplus enjoyment". We must remember that free speech for Zionists worked profoundly in our favor, they exposed them selves as crazy, sadistic, inhuman monsters, that made humanity recoil in horror. They are a beneficial political opponent. Marxism Leninism in the Soviet Union might have never ideologically/politically/institutionally decayed, if they had kept a bourgeois faction around as a political lightning rod to discharge all that "reactionary energy" into.

>>488026
So either they killed him, or he escaped. Lets hope it's the latter

https://x.com/MenchOsint/status/1898806672170123674
There is a very important military build-up by the British Army in Jordan. Already 50+ cargo flights in just 2 weeks, from Akrotiri to King Feisal Bin Abdul Aziz Air Base

There is no official news, not sure what the brits are cooking, but it is definitely important.

>>488038
>not sure what the brits are cooking, but it is definitely important.
If it's spy shenanigans or special operations stuff, sure… But if it's hard-power projection, it can't have great importance, if it's just the UK.

>>488036
He most likely was moved to a black site in another state.

>>488042
Confirmed: https://x.com/prem_thakker/status/1899077254811988137
UPDATE: Mahmoud Khalil is being held by ICE in the Jena/LaSalle Detention Facility in Louisiana, per ICE detainee tracker

Khalil was detained Saturday night from his New York apartment building

Might make a separate thread about this one.

Israeli forces shot and abducted Lebanese soldier, Lebanon’s army says

The Lebanese army says one of its soldiers was shot and wounded by the Israeli military near the border town of Kfar Shuba and taken inside Israel.

“This aggression is part of a series of repeated and escalating violations from the Israeli enemy against citizens,” the army said in a statement.

Israel has refused to fully withdraw from Lebanon as stipulated by the ceasefire agreement it reached with Hezbollah last year.

Israeli forces have also been regularly carrying out attacks in different parts of Lebanon.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/3/10/live-israel-to-join-doha-talks-after-cutting-off-electricity-to-gaza

>>488044
>The Australian Federal Police (AFP) have confirmed that what was initially claimed to be an antisemitic terror attack was, in fact, a meticulously orchestrated false flag operation.
Alex Jones of all people predicted this would happen, 20 years ago and now it did. I used to think it was just rage-bait or quirky conspiracy fiction. But damn , we live in interesting times, and it fucking sucks.

Also the Aussie fed confirming it, is a glimmer of hope, because that means they are not running interference for the Zionists.

>The incident, which had sparked widespread outrage and concern, was originally labeled an 'antisemitic terror attack'.
What is it being labeled now ? A regular terror attack ?

>>488047
>Alex Jones of all people predicted this would happen, 20 years ago and now it did.
Sauce on Jones predicting it?

>What is it being labeled now ? A regular terror attack ?
A false flag, the Austrayan police say in the clip in the link.

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Press Release:
—
“The Popular Front condemns the repressive crackdown in American universities

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine strongly condemns the systematic repression carried out by U.S. authorities against students and activists supporting Palestine, most recently exemplified by the mass arrests of students at Columbia University and other institutions.

This crackdown, accompanied by threats of deportation and revocation of residency status, exposes the true fascist nature of the U.S. administration under Trump, which has launched a campaign of persecution and suppression against free voices that expose the crimes of the zionist occupation.”

We affirm that these repressive measures will not intimidate the free, nor will they deter courageous voices from continuing to support the Palestinian cause. On the contrary, they further reveal to the world the extent of the U.S. administration’s subservience to the zionist entity and its efforts to silence any voice that opposes war crimes and massacres committed against our people in Gaza and the West Bank, while condemning the direct American support for zionist genocide.

We call on all progressive forces, human rights organizations, and student unions in the United States and worldwide to take urgent action to expose this crackdown and support the detainees and those facing deportation. We also demand that international human rights institutions intervene immediately to halt these arbitrary measures, which violate the most basic principles of human rights and freedom of expression.

Freedom for all detainees
Together against American-zionist repression

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Central Media Department
March 10, 2025

>>488049
>Sauce on Jones predicting it?
His YouTube channel got censored… Sorry
I didn't watch much Jones but i do remember seeing a vid where he ranted about Zionists doing false flags to facilitate attacks on civil liberties and war-aims against Palestinians. I'm not gonna lie, there was some lunacy about aliens or lizard people mixed in as well. I'm not sure if he meant the loony bits literally, it seemed more like a strange cultural signifyer, that escaped my grasp.

>A false flag, the Austrayan police say
So they're not counting false flag attacks as terrorism ?
Very peculiar.

>>488045
>The Lebanese army says one of its soldiers was shot and wounded by the Israeli military near the border town of Kfar Shuba and taken inside Israel.
>“This aggression is part of a series of repeated and escalating violations from the Israeli enemy against citizens,” the army said in a statement.
Israel is more important for the empire, they're mocking the vassal lower down in the imperial food chain by shooting at their soldiers. Because the Lebanese army isn't allowed to shoot back.

It's probably working wonders to improve Hezbollah's political capital in Lebanon.

>>488050
>the systematic repression carried out by U.S. authorities against students and activists supporting Palestine
Yeah that's probably bad for the prestige of the US's Universities.

Houthis reassert deadline for lifting Gaza siege

The Yemeni group’s leader Abdel-Malik al-Houthi says his position on resuming military operations in the Red Sea if the Israeli blockade on Gaza is not lifted has not changed.

The Houthis had warned on Friday that they will start attacking Israel-linked ships again if the Israeli government does not allow aid into Gaza in four days.

“We will begin military procedures to be active the moment that the deadline expires if aid does not enter Gaza,” al-Houthi said.

Israeli air raids target southern Syria

Syria’s official news agency, SANA, reports that Israeli jets have bombed the vicinity of the villages of Jabab and Izraa near Deraa in the south of the country.

Israel has been regularly bombing sites in Syria and expanding its military occupation of the Golan Heights since the fall of Syria’s former President Bashar al-Assad in December of last year.

Israel says it targeted Palestinians trying to collect drone in Gaza

The Israeli military says it spotted and monitored a drone crossing into Gaza from Israel.

“An air force aircraft recently attacked a number of suspects who were on their way to pick it up in the southern Gaza Strip,” the Israeli military said.

It is unclear what the drone was carrying.

‘Dangerous escalation’: Hamas condemns PA killing of Palestinian fighter

The Palestinian group accuses PA forces of “directly” opening fire and killing Palestinian fighter Abdul-Rahman Abu Muna in Jenin.

Hamas said the incident “represents a dangerous escalation and an insistence on shedding Palestinian blood, and confirms the bloody repressive approach of the [Palestinian] Authority’s security forces, which has claimed the lives of dozens of martyrs”.

Arrest of Palestinian student at Columbia is first ‘of many to come’: Trump

The US president hails the detention of Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil over his pro-Palestine activism, describing him as a “Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student”.

“This is the first arrest of many to come. We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it,” Trump said.

“Many are not students, they are paid agitators. We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again.”

There is no evidence to support claims of “paid agitators” during the pro-Palestine protests that swept US campuses last year.

Khalil is a legal permanent resident. His arrest has raised the alarm over violations of free speech to shield Israel from criticism in the US.

PFLP condemns ‘oppression campaign’ in US

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) says the crackdown on Palestinian rights advocates on US college campuses shows “the true fascist face” of the Trump administration.

The left-wing Palestinian group called Trump’s push to detain and deport student activists a “systematic oppression campaign”.

“We stress that this repressive behaviour will not scare free people, nor will it stop courageous voices from continuing to support the Palestinian cause,” the PFLP said in a statement.

Iranian president vows to respond forcefully to threats

Iran’s Tasnim news agency cites President Masoud Pezeshkian as saying that the country is seeking de-escalation, but “will respond powerfully to any threat against its security and interests”.

According to the report, Pezeshkian held a phone call with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store and said that Israel is “the root cause of tension and crisis through its initiation of war and genocide against the oppressed Palestinian people”.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/3/10/live-israel-to-join-doha-talks-after-cutting-off-electricity-to-gaza

I totally forgot to post the recent statements from Naim Qassem the other day, but they weren't too eventful anyway.

Photos: Photos: Funeral of Palestinians killed in today’s Israeli strike on Gaza City

Israeli army says it struck Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon

A drone strike in the Nabatieh area in southern Lebanon targeted and killed Hassan Abbas Izzedine, a commander of Hezbollah’s aerial defence unit, according to a military statement.

The Israeli army says he was a “significant source of knowledge” in the unit and led attempts to rebuild its infrastructure damaged during the war.

For its part, Hezbollah has yet to comment on the killing of any of its personnel today.

Israel says troops will remain in Syria

Israel’s defence minister says that the country’s troops are ready to stay in Syria for an “unlimited period”.

Lebanese detainees released by Israel arrive in Lebanon

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reports that five people, who had been detained by Israel, have been delivered to the Red Cross and are back on Lebanese soil.

They are currently undergoing medical evaluations at the Lebanese-Italian Hospital in the southern city of Tyre, the NNA said.

PM office says Israel agrees to discuss Lebanon border, release 5 Lebanese

A statement by Netanyahu’s office says Israel has agreed to hold talks to demarcate its border with Lebanon.

It added it would release five Lebanese detainees held by the Israeli military in what it called a “gesture to the Lebanese president”.

Israel had agreed with Lebanon, the US and France to establish working groups to discuss the demarcation line between the two countries.

Despite a ceasefire agreement reached with Hezbollah last year, Israel has refused to fully withdraw from southern Lebanon while its forces have been regularly carrying out attacks in different parts of Lebanon.

3,500 have left Gaza via Rafah: EU

Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, has told the UN Security Council that some 3,500 people have so far crossed into Egypt from the Gaza Strip via the Rafah crossing.

The figure includes more than 2,000 people needing medical treatment.

The EU restarted its civilian mission on January 31 to monitor the border crossing, a key entry and exit point for the Palestinian territory.

Hamas official says Gaza ceasefire talks have begun in Doha

A senior Hamas official says that a new round of negotiations has begun in the Qatari capital.

“A new round of ceasefire negotiations began today,” Abdul Rahman Shadid said in a statement.

“Our movement is dealing with these negotiations positively and responsibly.”

MSF condemns Israel’s ‘outrageous’ blockage of aid to Gaza

Doctors Without Borders, also known by its French acronym MSF, says in a statement that it “strongly condemns the Israeli-imposed siege on the Gaza Strip, Palestine, which is depriving people of basic services and critical supplies, including access to water by cutting electricity”.

Fatah says Hamas not authorised to hold talks with foreign parties

The Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) has condemned the recent statements by Hamas against the Palestinian Authority (PA), claiming that they demonstrate its attempts to cover up the concessions it has been giving to “foreign parties”.

Fatah also claimed that Hamas is neither authorised nor qualified to negotiate for the rights of the Palestinian people.

It said “a group of fugitives implicated in the blood of tens of thousands of martyrs has no right to collude with the occupation army and conduct their secret negotiations on the ruins and rubble of the Gaza Strip.”

Hamas yesterday accused PA forces of “directly” opening fire and killing Palestinian fighter Abdul-Rahman Abu Muna in Jenin, the occupied West Bank.

The PA confirmed killing Muna.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/3/10/live-israel-to-join-doha-talks-after-cutting-off-electricity-to-gaza

https://x.com/EyesOnSouth1/status/1899564989826105613
General Yahya Saree announces that Yemen has decided to resume the ban on all Israeli ships in the Red and Arabian Seas, in addition to Bab al-Mandab.

The decision will go into effect in one hour.

The ban will not be lifted until crossings into Gaza are opened and aid enters.

“The Yemeni Armed Forces salutes the steadfast Palestinian people in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.”

>>488070
Full statement - Yemeni Armed Forces:

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

The Almighty said:
"But if you return [to sin], We will return [to punishment], and We have made Hell a prison for the disbelievers." This is the Truth of Allah, the Almighty.

In support of and victory for the oppressed Palestinian people and its dear fighters, and after the expiration of the deadline granted by Sayyed Abdulmalik Badr al-Din al-Houthi, may Allah protect him, to the mediators to pressure the "israeli" enemy into reopening the crossings and allowing aid into the Gaza Strip, and due to the mediators not being able to achieve this, the Yemeni Armed Forces confirm the following:

Firstly: The resumption of the ban on the passage of all "israeli" ships in the designated area of operations, which includes the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, Bab al-Mandab, and the Gulf of Aden.

Secondly: This ban takes effect immediately from the moment of this statement’s announcement.

Thirdly: Any "israeli" ship that attempts to break this ban will be targeted within the declared area of operations.

Fourthly: This ban will remain in place until the crossings into the Gaza Strip are reopened and humanitarian aid, including food and medicine, is allowed to enter.

The Yemeni Armed Forces salute the steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and affirm that, with Allah’s help, they stand alongside the valiant Palestinian resistance.

Allah is sufficient for us, and He is the best disposer of affairs, the best guardian, and the best helper.

Long live Yemen—free, proud, and independent.
Victory to Yemen and to all the free people of the nation.

Sanaa, 11 Ramadan 1446 AH
Corresponding to March 11, 2025
Issued by the Yemeni Armed Forces

Here's betting America's politicians use Yemen intervening against the genocide again as a pretext for war with Iran.

Yemen's radar is now on, and the search for Israeli ships has begun.

The radar will stay on until food, medicine, and water enter Gaza .
We will not accept that Gaza be deprived of humanitarian aid
https://x.com/Ahmed_hassan_za/status/1899554398012944556

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/United_States_complicity_in_Israeli_war_crimes_in_the_Gaza_war
lol

>>488077
Wikipedia is such a clownshow now I think even a lot of normies are wising up to it. If you look up any independent journalist with a Wikipedia page now it's practically guaranteed that it'll be full of smears and libel. I genuinely can't think of a single exception to this rule. If you're being smeared on Wikipedia it usually means you're doing something right.

>>488078
I don't altogether discount Wikipedia, because there are a lot of people working on it who are genuinely after the truth and neutrality, but there is plenty of this kind of shenanigans too.

>>488079
The only people still left editing Wikipedia are a) utterly dedicated fanatics on the autism spectrum and b) professional reputation managers/government propagandists. Everyone else got weeded out a long time ago, and the incredibly dysfunctional and corrupt Wikipedia bureaucracy does everything it possibly can to keep out newcomers. The decline in editors has been a 10+ year trend now.

>>488080
>The only people still left editing Wikipedia are a) utterly dedicated fanatics on the autism spectrum and b) professional reputation managers/government propagandists.
I sometimes edit Wikipedia and I'm neither of these things. Believe it or not, it's actually often incredibly easy to correct propagandistic bullshit. See picrel, there was a line in Beria's article which cited a disreputable source without acknowledging that said source included a weird supernatural story - a user merely edited the line to include a summary of the full contents of that source which had been omitted from the Wiki article previously (originally it only contained the claim about the body and supposed examiners' estimations), and other editors realized the source was not credible because the implication of taking it seriously was so absurd. Most Wiki editors are still relatively reasonable.

>>488083
respect for doing this.

>>488083
>it's actually often incredibly easy to correct propagandistic bullshit
You must be editing different articles from me then, because that's not typically been my experience in my 15+ years of editing. If the article you're editing is something mundane or ancient history, then sure there's probably not someone squatting on the page to protect their interpretation of the world. If the article you want to adjust, however, is anywhere near something to do with contemporary history or politics you can expect your edit get reverted in 24 hours. If the target is especially important for a propagandist (say, a journalist or politician) you can expect to get censored even on the talk page through the usual abuse of shit like BLP or Notaforum. And if you persist you're guaranteed to have one of a handful of the usual abusive admins around the topic area come by and ban you for knowing the rules too well ("sockpuppetry").

BreakThrough News: Israel has been trying to ban free speech for years

Houthis say ‘any Israeli vessel’ in waters off Yemen again a target

The Yemeni rebel group is warning shippers that “any Israeli vessel” travelling through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden is now a target.

The statement from the Houthis’ Humanitarian Operations Coordination Center follows a four-day deadline set by the rebels for Israel to resume aid shipments into Gaza.

“We hope it is understood that the actions taken by the [Houthi military] … stem from a deep sense of religious, humanitarian and moral responsibility toward the oppressed Palestinian people and aim to pressure the Israeli usurper entity to reopen the crossings to the Gaza Strip and allow the entry of aid, including food and medical supplies,” the statement said.

It described the warning as taking hold in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and the Arabian Sea.

The statement added: “Any Israeli vessel attempting to violate this ban will be subject to military targeting in the declared operational area.”

The Houthis had launched more than 100 attacks targeting shipping from November 2023, saying they were in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war on Gaza. During that period, the group sank two vessels, seized another and killed at least four seafarers in an offensive that disrupted global shipping, forcing firms to re-route to longer and more expensive journeys around Southern Africa.

Gaza-based union calls for international intervention to secure essential supplies

The Union of Municipalities of Gaza has put out a statement on the electricity and water situation in the coastal enclave. Here are some of its key points:

It emphasises the need for a continuous supply of water and electricity, especially after the central desalination plant was shut down.
The union condemns the Israeli decision to cut off electricity, which has disrupted essential services and threatens the spread of disease.
It calls on the international community and humanitarian organisations to intervene immediately to secure essential supplies.

Palestinian victims of Israel sexual abuse testify at UN

Palestinians who say they suffered brutal beatings and sexual abuse in Israeli detention and at the hands of Israeli settlers have testified about their ordeals at the UN this week.

“I was humiliated and tortured,” said Said Abdel Fattah, a 28-year-old nurse detained in November 2023 near Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital, where he worked.

Fattah gave his testimony from Gaza via video link to a public hearing and spoke through an interpreter.

He described being stripped naked in the cold, suffering beatings, threats of rape and other abuse over the next two months as he was shuttled between overcrowded detention facilities.

Mohamed Matar, an occupied West Bank resident, said he suffered hours of torture at the hands of security agents and settlers and the Israeli police refused to intervene.

White House says Columbia refusing to identify pro-Palestine protesters

The White House has accused Columbia University of refusing to help federal agents identify and locate students who participated in the pro-Palestine protests last year.

The allegation came after US immigration authorities detained Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil, who holds a green card, for his role in the campus rallies.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said federal authorities have been “using intelligence” to identify other people involved in what the Trump administration has labelled “pro-Hamas” demonstrations. She said Columbia had been given the names of other participants, but was refusing to help the Department of Homeland Security “identify those individuals on campus”.

Netanyahu ‘lost his composure’ in Tel Aviv court

Netanyahu is back in court in Tel Aviv to testify in his corruption trial.

Israel’s Channel 13 is reporting that Netanyahu reportedly “lost his composure” at the panel of judges, demanding a “few minutes to defend myself”.

Three cases were filed against him in 2019 on charges including bribery, fraud and breach of trust. Netanyahu has denied those charges.

Israeli airlines El Al records profit surge in 2024

El Al Israel Airlines reported a nearly five-fold jump in net profit, benefitting from being one of few carriers serving the country after foreign airlines halted flights during Israel’s war on Gaza.

El Al said on Wednesday its revenue was $3.4bn, making a profit of $545m last year, up from $117m in 2023.

Foreign airlines have begun to return to Ben Gurion after a ceasefire deal came into effect between Israel and Hamas in January.

El Al has faced criticism from customers in Israel and abroad for price-gouging.

Pakistani architect turns down award from Israeli organisation

A Pakistani architect has turned down the Wolf Prize 2025 in architecture due to Israel’s “continuing genocide” of Palestinians in Gaza.

US judge orders that detained student Mahmoud Khalil be allowed private calls

US judge Jesse Furman has ordered that detained Palestinian Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil be allowed to have private phone calls with lawyers challenging his arrest by immigration authorities.

At a hearing in Manhattan federal court, Khalil’s lawyer Ramzi Kassem said his client had been allowed just one call with his legal team from immigration detention.

Kassem added that the call was cut off prematurely and was on a line recorded and monitored by the government.

Furman today ruled that Khalil and his lawyers should have one phone call today and another one tomorrow covered by attorney-client privilege, meaning the government would not have access to their conversation.

Khalil’s detention is part and parcel of the Trump administration’s pledge to deport pro-Palestinian college activists.

The student’s lawyers argue the arrest violated his right to free speech under the US Constitution’s First Amendment, and have urged his release.

Hundreds protest for release of Mahmoud Khalil in New York

Activists in America organised a protest today in front of a court in New York City, demanding the release of Palestinian student Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested and is threatened with deportation for organising protests supporting Palestine at Columbia University.

The protesters chanted slogans against what they described as the suppression of a student movement and freedom of expression in universities, calling for his release and his return to the university.

Khalil’s defence team held a news conference among the protesters, giving an update on their continued efforts to secure his legal rights and return him to his pregnant wife.

Hamas welcomes Trump’s apparent retreat on Gaza displacement

Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem welcomed Trump’s apparent backtracking of the call to displace people in Gaza.

Qassem urged the US president to refrain from aligning with the vision of the “extreme Zionist right”.

Trump said this evening that no one would be expelled from Gaza after saying earlier this year that the US should take control of Gaza, remove its people, and “re-develop” it.

Major US conservative think tank recommends cutting military aid to Israel

The massively influential Heritage Foundation has issued a new report proposing that the US end its military aid to Israel by 2047 [anon's note: lol], saying that the US should “re-orient its relationship” with its closest Middle East ally.

The proposal aims to transition from a relationship based on foreign military financing to one emphasising a strategic partnership. It included measures for Israel to increase its purchase of US defence materials, reflecting a more reciprocal and mature alliance between the two nations.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/3/10/live-israel-to-join-doha-talks-after-cutting-off-electricity-to-gaza

Update: Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner is proposing to terminate O CINEMA movie theater's lease in South Beach because the theater screened ‘No Other Land’ over his objections.
https://x.com/aaron_leib/status/1899623153531265209

This is an actual tweet from Betar (an organization central to report Mahmoud Khalil to the gov't to be illegally disappeared) today. I shit you not. If they're just admitting this stuff outright now, people need to be ready for the worst. Now. No waiting.

>>488105
That must be one hell of a film

>>488108
It's an Oscar winner.
Personally, I think other docs are probably better (from what I hear, it takes pains to cater to the Israeli/State Dept requirement of "CONDEMN HAMAS!!!"), but it sounds like for the most part it is very good, at least by the standards of what is currently permitted in the US. People, particularly people who don't know that much yet, probably should see it and then pursue their curiosity further.

https://x.com/TheCradleMedia/status/1900186856714567686
Adam Boehler, the President's envoy for hostage negotiations, has been removed by the Trump administration from handling the Gaza captive situation. This decision follows Boehler's remarks during a CNN interview, where he referred to Hamas as "pretty nice guys," sparking criticism from Israeli officials and Republican Party members.

Boehler later clarified his stance on Twitter, emphasizing that Hamas is a "terrorist organization" responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent people.

(Israel National News - Channel 7)

UN accuses Israel of ‘genocidal acts’ in Gaza for targeting reproductive healthcare facilities

The UN Commission of Inquiry has said Israel had “intentionally attacked and destroyed” the Palestinian territory’s main fertility centre and had simultaneously imposed a siege and blocked aid, including medication for ensuring safe pregnancies, deliveries and neonatal care.

The commission found that Israeli authorities “have destroyed in part the reproductive capacity of Palestinians in Gaza as a group through the systematic destruction of sexual and reproductive healthcare”, it said in a statement. It said this amounted to “two categories of genocidal acts” during Israel’s war in Gaza.

Of its five categories, the inquiry said the two implicating Israel were “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction” and “imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group”.

“These violations have not only caused severe immediate physical and mental harm and suffering to women and girls, but irreversible long-term effects on the mental health and reproductive and fertility prospects of Palestinians as a group,” the commission’s chair Navi Pillay said in a statement.

Israel “categorically rejects” the allegations, its mission in Geneva said.

Read more here: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/13/israels-attacks-on-reproductive-healthcare-in-gaza-genocidal-un

UN report on ‘genocidal acts’ to give boost to ICJ case against Israel
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 United Nations report is detailed and not very easy to read. It contains very graphic details and testimonies from not only the victims but also the perpetrators of these acts.

The report relies on information and videos published by the soldiers themselves documenting themselves carrying out some of the acts detailed in the report. This includes humiliating Palestinian detainees, assaulting them, and stripping them down to their underwear.

The report also talks about the targeting of health facilities, including Gaza’s main fertility clinic. About 4,000 embryos were deliberately destroyed in that attack, in effect denying thousands of families the possibility of giving birth.

The report also talks about acts of sexual violence committed against Palestinian detainees, men and women alike. This includes rape by foreign objects of men and women in Israeli custody.

Israel has categorically denied the conclusions reached by the report, with former PM Bennett saying the UN has become Hamas’s useful idiot.

We’ve heard these kinds of accusations and statements against the UN before, but they really don’t hold up in court. As we’ve seen before, the International Court of Justice rejected Israel’s claims and attacks against the UN and found that there’s plausible evidence for genocide. This report will only increase that plausibility in the eyes of legal experts.

Syrian authorities deny PIJ used sites attacked by Israel in Damascus
Resul Serdar Atas
Reporting from Damascus, Syria

We have heard two loud explosions almost at the same time as Syria’s constitutional declaration was being signed by the president of the country.

Then, we received videos of two locations hit by Israeli air attacks. Israel said they were centres being used by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. However, the authorities here deny that.

There are unconfirmed reports of one person having been killed and several injured.

Since the attack, we have seen Israeli aircraft flying in circles above Damascus for more than two hours. This is definitely a show of force. The Israelis want to make sure that the new leadership in the country is aware that Israel is monitoring them.

Israel targeted empty home of PIJ leader Ziad Nakhaleh: Report

A Palestinian Islamic Jihad member at the scene of the Israeli air strike in Syria’s capital Damascus has told The Associated Press news agency that the apartment that was targeted was the home of the group’s leader Ziad Nakhaleh.

Ismail Sindak said the apartment had been empty for years, adding that Nakhaleh is not in Syria. Asked whether anyone was killed in the strike, Sindak said that “the house was empty.”

It was not immediately clear where Nakhaleh is but he is believed to spend his time between Lebanon, Iran and Syria.

As we have reported earlier, the Israeli military said its air force conducted an intelligence-based strike on a command centre belonging to the PIJ in Damascus.

https://twitter.com/news_hadeel/status/1900143898409783584

Israeli military claims central Gaza attack

Israel’s military says it carried out an aerial attack earlier today on a group of people who were “attempting to plant an explosive device” near its troops in central Gaza.

The claim follows our reports of Israeli fire near central Gaza’s Maghazi camp, which injured at least one person.

Yesterday, Israel’s military carried out a series of attacks in the enclave that killed a total of eight people, including a woman near Rafah and a girl in Deir el-Balah.

US judge extends order blocking deportation of Columbia student

New York district judge Jesse Furman has extended an order blocking US federal authorities from deporting detained student Mahmoud Khalil.

Furman, who had temporarily blocked Khalil’s deportation earlier this week, extended the ban saying he needed more time to consider whether the 29-year-old’s arrest violated the US Constitution.

The Trump administration has accused Khalil of being a Hamas supporter for participating in Palestinian solidarity protests at Columbia University.

Khalil’s lawyers and rights groups argue the arrest and attempted deportation of a US legal resident for exercising their First Amendment right to free speech is unconstitutional.

US intel chief drops job offer for Israel critic

Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s director of national intelligence, has withdrawn a key job offer given to a critic of Israel’s war on Gaza, according to media reports.

Gabbard had intended to appoint Daniel Davis – a senior fellow at Washington think tank Defense Priorities – as the deputy director of national intelligence for mission integration, a role in which he would have conducted briefings at the White House.

Davis had been offered and accepted the role, and was undergoing a background check, according to the Jewish Insider news outlet.

But news of the proposed appointment generated blowback from pro-Israel elements of the Trump administration and caused Gabbard to reverse her decision, according to reports in both Politico and The New York Times.

Davis has previously expressed skepticism of US overseas interventions, labelling Washington’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza a “strategic and moral mistake” and said it was a “stain on our character as a nation”.

The Trump administration has not confirmed that an offer was made to Davis, nor that it has now been withdrawn.

Israeli occupation ‘root of all sins’: Israeli ex-army general

Amiram Levin, former commander of the northern region in the Israeli army, has stated that the Palestinian conflict “must be resolved and cannot be contained”.

In an interview with Israeli media outlet Maariv, Levin emphasised that without addressing the Palestinian issue, “there will be no serious normalisation with the Saudis or the Lebanese.

“The continuation of the Israeli occupation is the root of all sins,” he said. “Peace is elusive, and we must reduce the occupation and draw borders where we return to being a Jewish majority without returning to the 1967 borders.”

Levin also argued that relinquishing certain territory is in Israel’s best interest.

“It is in our interest to get rid of large areas where a large number of Palestinians live, not because it is good for them but because it is good for us.”

Netanyahu to visit Hungary before mid-April despite ICC warrant

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, will arrive in Hungary on an official visit in the next few weeks, before Easter in mid-April, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff said at a news conference.

Orban invited Netanyahu to visit Hungary last November, saying he would guarantee that an ICC arrest warrant against Netanyahu, issued a day earlier, would “not be observed”.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/3/13/live-israel-hamas-continue-talks-arab-states-present-gaza-plan-to-us

Anthony Loewenstein:
Get ready for a firehouse of Zionist propaganda from the Israeli government, ably assisted by (far too many) Western journalists:

"Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar has inaugurated a “media war room” at the Foreign Ministry to monitor and respond to anti-Israel activity on internet platforms, his office announced Tuesday.

"The war room, staffed by diplomats and students specializing in international communications, observes around 250 news channels and some 10,000 Israel-related news items daily, “identifies false or biased reports…and acts swiftly by deploying Israeli and pro-Israel spokespersons to debunk accusations and present Israel’s narrative,” the Foreign Ministry said.

"During its trial period in recent weeks, the program was “the first” in Israel “to detect… and act against” a BBC documentary about Gazan children that was subsequently found to have been narrated by the son of a high-ranking official in the Hamas terror group’s government in the Gaza Strip, according to the Foreign Ministry."
https://twitter.com/antloewenstein/status/1899989377994154087

Israeli drone kills Palestinian child in Gaza City

The Palestinian news agency, Wafa, reports that an Israeli drone opened fire at Palestinians in the Shujayea neighbourhood of Gaza City, killing a three-year-old child.

The report identified the victim as Amjad Abad.

Another Palestinian child killed in northern Gaza

An Israeli drone has struck a tent in Beit Hanoon in northern Gaza, killing a child and injuring his mother, Al Jazeera Arabic and Wafa report.

Earlier, another Palestinian child was killed in a drone attack in Gaza City.

Palestinians search mass grave near Gaza City hospital for remains of loved ones

Using shovels and their bare hands, Palestinian families exhumed dozens of bodies from a mass grave beside al-Shifa Hospital, in Gaza City.

Many want to have a dignified burial elsewhere for their loved ones – but first they have to find them.

…

Gaza’s Civil Defense said 48 bodies were unearthed as of Thursday afternoon, including 10 unidentified people. The grave has over 180 bodies.

…

Al-Shifa was once the largest medical facility in the Gaza Strip but after Israel’s war, it is now severely damaged, with its walls collapsed and riddled with bullet holes.

The mass grave is in a courtyard strewn with trash, rubble, and placards bearing the names of those buried.

US imposes sanctions on Iran’s petroleum minister

The Trump administration has targeted Iranian Petroleum Minister Mohsen Paknejad with new sanctions, reiterating that it aims to completely cut off Tehran’s oil exports.

“Treasury will fight and disrupt any attempts by the regime to fund its destabilising activities and further its dangerous agenda,” said US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

The department also said it sanctioned vessels used to transport Iranian oil to China.

US President Donald Trump has said he wants to reach a diplomatic deal with Iran, but he has also threatened the country with military strikes, stressing that he will not allow Tehran to have a nuclear weapon.

Yesterday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian dismissed Trump’s threats and calls for talks. “Do whatever the hell you want,” he was quoted as saying by Iranian media outlets.

Israel passes military order to seize Palestinian land in West Bank

Israeli forces issued a military order today to seize about 0.74 acres (0.3 hectares) of land in the village of Hares in the occupied West Bank, Wafa reports, quoting local sources.

Omar Samara, the head of the Hares village council, confirmed the order on land belonging to local Palestinian residents.

Samara explained that Israeli authorities have given landowners just 24 hours to appeal the decision.

He urged international and human rights organisations to take immediate action to halt the confiscation, which he said threatens the livelihoods of local farmers, Wafa reported.

Sit-in at Trump Tower for release of Palestinian activist

Progressive US Jewish activists have been holding a protest at the Trump Tower in New York to demand the release of Mahmoud Khalil, who has been detained by immigration services over his advocacy for Palestinian rights.

Footage showed police officers arresting the protesters and escorting them out of the building.

“The abduction of Mahmoud Khalil by the Trump regime is further proof that we are on the brink of a full takeover by an authoritarian regime. As Jews of conscience, we know our history and we know where this leads,” Jane Hirschmann, an activist with Jewish Voice for Peace, said in a statement.

Top Trump official struggles to justify detention of Mahmoud Khalil

Troy Edgar, the deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, failed to offer any specifics about what the Palestinian activist did that merits arrest and deportation.

Khalil, a legal permanent resident, has been detained by US immigration authorities for five days over helping organise protests critical of Israel at Columbia University last year.

In a contentious interview with NPR, Edgar eluded that Khalil may have violated his visa with “pro-Palestinian activity”, but when pressed about what exactly the Columbia graduate did wrong, the US official struggled to offer details.

“I think if he would have declared he’s a terrorist, we would have never let him in,” Edgar said.

NPR’s Michel Martin asked Edgar what constitutes “terrorist” activity.

“Have you watched it on TV? It’s pretty clear,” the US official responded. Martin, however, stressed that it is actually not clear.

Edgar also failed to answer questions on whether criticising Israel is now a deportable offence in the US.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/3/13/live-israel-hamas-continue-talks-arab-states-present-gaza-plan-to-us

>>488126
>“I think if he would have declared he’s a terrorist, we would have never let him in,” Edgar said.
This is a Monty Python sketch.

<Good Sir, are you a terrorist ?
>A what ?
<A Terr rorr rist !
>Might I trouble you for an explication what a Terr rorr rist be doing.
<Random acts of political violence to create terror in the general population.
>That sounds like jolly good fun, might there be an opening ?
<Yes, there is indeed, Feb 30th at 25 o clock.
>put me down for that one, and may i inquire for another booking ?
>No Sir.
<Why not ?
>Are you pulling my leg ?

>>488128
Oh, it's completely fucking insane yes. It's nonsense on purpose.