₦airaland Forum

A researcher at the British think tank Chatham House stresses the need not to underestimate the Yemenis, warning that any attack led by Washington against them will be in the interest of Sanaa.

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Farea Al-Muslimi, from the British research center Chatham House, confirmed that the Yemenis are “much more intelligent than people think,” stressing that they should “not be underestimated.”

In an interview with the British newspaper The National Newshttps://www.thenationalnews.com/world/uk-news/2024/01/04/allies-plan-for-bombing-mission-on-red-sea-houthi-attackers, Al-Muslimi warned that any attack led by the United States of America against Yemen “will be in the interest of Sana’a,” by allowing it to “demand the opening of a new front against Washington.”

In this case, the Yemenis would “actually be happy,” because it would “finally give them a front line with the United States,” where they would face the Americans directly.

The researcher at the British Institute doubted what air strikes against Yemen could achieve, especially given its large territory, compared to Lebanon or Gaza, stressing that those countries “are not an easy place to try to target or pursue the enemy.”

In the same context, the magazine "Responsible Statecraft", affiliated with the American "Quincy Institute for Studies", previously described the Yemenis as "masters of asymmetric warfare and those with the upper hand," stressing that they "have largely achieved their goals," including "imposing Costs to Israel and its allies, demonstrating their regional influence, and strengthening domestic support.”

The magazine explained that Sanaa "derives support and praise from other Islamic countries and peoples for standing by the Palestinians in Gaza," adding that "the attacks achieve major political and even strategic gains for Yemen, which appears to be winning on the public relations front, at home and abroad."

Al-Mayadeen

The Leahy Law is an American law passed by Congress in order to punish military units of countries that receive American support and commit human rights violations, but this law has not been applied to “Israel” since its passage.

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When reading American laws that place individual freedom and concern for human safety, lives, and well-being at the forefront of its concerns and priorities, and raise the stick to anyone who violates them, whether inside or outside the United States, one thinks that it is a utopia.

But when we look at the amount of American support for the Israeli entity, previously and currently, we realize that these laws, including the “Leahy Law” which theoretically prevents the provision of military assistance to countries that violate human rights, disappear or are skipped or even ignored when it comes to “Israel,” with the aim of Ensuring its security, as well as serving its bloody wars.

What is Leahy's law? What is its purpose?

Congress approved the Leahy Act for the first time in 1997. Its goal is to prevent the United States from being involved in serious crimes committed by foreign security forces that it supports, by cutting off aid to a specific military unit in a country, if Washington has reliable information. That this unit committed a grave crime, such as violating human rights.

According to the text of the law, “No security forces, not even American forces, enjoy complete immunity from committing such violations.” In response, a State Department spokesman said, “The Leahy Act applies to all countries, including Israel.”

How does Leahy's law work?

By law, the United States examines a foreign military unit (in almost every country) selected to receive American assistance, and the US embassy in that country leads an investigation. The information released by the embassy is then reviewed - along with other source materials - by analysts at the State Department.

These analysts search for “credible” evidence of whether the unit has committed a gross human rights violation, which is usually defined for the occasion as: torture, extrajudicial killing, enforced disappearance or rape, but can also be interpreted more broadly.

What's more, this information can come from a variety of reliable sources, including media reports and NGOs. According to the law, it is best to confirm it through multiple sources.

Accordingly, if this evidence is proven, the United States must cut off aid to that unit under the Leahy Act, but it can be restored later if the State Department determines that the country will take effective steps to bring the members responsible to justice.

Accordingly, “the law is designed to address the problem of impunity and build more accountable security forces,” said Tim Riser, a senior adviser to former Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Va.), who is considered a key architect of the law.

The Leahy Law and Israel's violations

In the case of Tel Aviv, any allegations of serious human rights violations targeting Israeli units are presented to a vetting forum that includes representatives from various US State Department offices that deal with human rights, security interests, and legal issues, in addition to regional specialists in the agency’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs and the US Embassy. in Jerusalem.

What is noteworthy is that the Forum cannot determine that a gross human rights violation has occurred unless it reaches a consensus. Without this, the process stops. However, if a violation is determined to have occurred, the United States will then send to “Israel” a list of the violating units, with the latter preventing American assistance from that violating unit, in implementation of an agreement concluded in 2021 between the two parties.

But some former US administration officials and congressional staff acknowledge that the “Leahy Law,” which progressive Democrats tried to activate in the wake of the aggression on Gaza to obstruct military aid to “Israel,” had no effect against it, despite what human rights experts determined, both within the US government. Or outside it, as objective evidence that “Israel” has committed human rights violations previously. Currently, it is carrying out massacres.

Moreover, there is a firm conviction among many American leaders and legislators that the Israelis often act as if international law does not apply to them. This is why, Tim Riser said, “Our government acts as if the Leahy Law does not apply to Israelis. As a result, there is a kind of culture of impunity, where they can do almost anything to Palestinians without being held accountable.”

In the same context, Josh Paul, who has become a prominent critic of the Biden administration’s policy towards “Israel” since his resignation from his position as Director of Congressional and Public Affairs in protest against open military support for Tel Aviv, explains: “For Israel and a few other countries that receive high levels of US military aid (including Egypt and Ukraine), it is impossible to track where the aid is going,” he adds, adding: “Instead of vetting and then providing assistance, we provide assistance and then listen to potential violations.”

Most importantly, Josh Paul, Tim Riser, and Sarah Harrison (who coordinated with the State Department on Leahy issues related to Israel from 2018 to 2021 as a former undersecretary of defense) were all unaware that the United States had ever found an Israeli unit to have committed any such violation. . That's why, Riser said, "they rarely hold their soldiers accountable." As for Paul, he noted that he "has long raised concerns that the Israeli military court system is biased when it comes to violations committed by Israeli officials."

To this end, Senator Bernie Sanders recently introduced a resolution asking the State Department to certify or report any violations committed amid the current war in Gaza. However, the State Department did not clarify whether any such conclusion had been reached, when asked by the American press to comment on Sanders' move.

How did the US administrations deal with Israeli violations of the Leahy Law?
In fact, neither Republican nor Democratic administrations have demonstrated interest in dealing with accusations against Israel of committing heinous crimes or massacres. Speaking publicly about issues related to the entity “could be career-killing,” and the words go back to Paul.

In turn, Harrison said: “I was shocked to see how American officials treated Israel differently, even at the lowest levels of government,” and added: “I saw officers who would not even look at an issue and say: No, we will not cut off aid to Israel.”

She pointed to incidents in which officials obtained testimonies and video recordings that would in other cases constitute reliable evidence, but did not constitute an incentive to cut off aid to “Israel.”

Although some foreign affairs experts say that current US laws aimed at protecting human rights should have restricted the flow of military aid to Israel for a long time, President Biden insists on ignoring the Leahy Act and continues to press for additional aid. And unconditional. He recently told Democratic donors: “We will do nothing but protect Israel in this process.” Biden administration officials also confirmed to CNN that they are not currently considering placing conditions on aid to Israel.

Based on the above, Washington still gives Israel about $3.8 billion annually to this day. Not only that, Biden not only recently circumvented Congress to sell tank ammunition to Tel Aviv worth $106 million, but he also wants Congress to approve additional aid worth $14.3 billion as part of a broader package that has been put on hold due to negotiations over immigration policy.

In conclusion, the failure of the Americans to find “confirmed crimes” by “Israel” is not because it has a uniquely clean record, but rather because the application of the “Leahy” Law has always been biased in favor of the occupation, and because Washington’s laws, no matter how high their status, do not apply. on the usurping entity or applies to it originally.

Source: Al-Mayadeen

The Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, Ziad al-Nakhalah, confirms that there is no prisoner exchange deal with the Israeli enemy without stopping the aggression and withdrawing its forces from the Gaza Strip.

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The Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, Ziad al-Nakhalah, said, “There will be no deals between us and the enemy to exchange prisoners or otherwise, unless the Israeli aggression on Gaza is stopped.”

Al-Nakhalah added, "There will be no prisoner exchange deals without the complete withdrawal of enemy forces from the Gaza Strip," stressing that "there is no value in any further conversation if these conditions are not met."

The Palestinian resistance continues to inflict heavy losses on the occupation during the battles in the Gaza Strip, and Al-Mayadeen correspondent reported on Sunday morning that the Palestinian resistance thwarted Israeli attempts to advance southeast of Deir al-Balah, and towards the depth of the Bureij camp.

Al-Nakhalah's statements came in response to allegations by Israeli occupation government Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that "the deal for Israeli prisoners in the Gaza Strip will be implemented."

Yesterday, Netanyahu acknowledged that the war is taking place on all fronts, which has made the costs painful, stressing that “the war will continue for many months.”

Al-Mayadeen

Member of the Political Bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, “Izzat Al-Rishq” on 30 December 2023

* Netanyahu appeared alone today, shunned even from his own ranks of war, like a mangy dog, trying in vain to escape from his successive failures.

* Then he talks about Hamas’ conditions that he cannot accept, stating that the resistance now is the one making the conditions, it has the upper hand in the field, and it is, God willing, the one who will end it and then it will end the occupation as a whole.. They will submit and Gaza will be victorious soon, God willing.

* The occupation Prime Minister continues to fight with a defeated army that tastes the forms of death every moment in the Land of Pride, and a public that has turned against him after it has become unbearable to his continuous lies.

* Netanyahu has two options: either to submit to the resistance and be tried by his own people, or to continue the war and be tried by the Qassam men.

* In the face of the torrent of blood, sacrifices and steadfastness made by our Palestinian people, the aggression must be stopped first and foremost... and the temporary and partial truces are behind us.

* Our people will not accept anything less than breaking all restrictions in order to live the complete freedom that befits their sacrifices. {Indeed their tryst is the dawn. Is not the dawn [already] near?’}

Source: Telegram

From dumb bombs and bunker busters to white phosphorus, the register of allegations against Israel is growing.

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Palestinians inspect the rubble of a building of the al-Nawasrah family that was destroyed in an Israeli air strike in Maghazi refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, on Monday, December 25, 2023 [Adel Hana/AP Photo]

An Israeli official on Thursday acknowledged that the country’s military had used inappropriate munitions during an attack on the Maghazi refugee camp that killed at least 90 people earlier this week.

The official said that Israel’s military would investigate what happened. But while little is known about the specific munitions used in Maghazi, this is far from the first time that Israel’s army has faced criticism over the alleged or confirmed use of controversial weapons in its war on Gaza.

Israel has said its goal is to “completely eliminate” Hamas, which attacked southern Israel on October 7, but the reality on the ground has been the elimination of generations of Palestinians and their entire neighbourhoods. Israel’s war has killed more than 21,300 Palestinians, including at least 8,200 children, in Gaza. Another 7,000 people are missing, presumably buried under the rubble of the 313,000-plus homes that have collapsed from Israeli warfare.

Al Jazeera looks at some of the weapons that have been used in Israel’s “indiscriminate” bombardment of the Gaza Strip:

Dumb bombs
The term ‘dumb bombs’ refers to munitions that are not guided, but are free to fall and destroy wherever they land.

"The revelation [that] almost half of all bombs dropped on Gaza by Israel are unguided dumb bombs completely undercuts their claim of minimising civilian harm,” Garlasco wrote on social media.

Other reports have said Israel has regularly used powerful bombs in the densely populated Strip, despite the increased risk of civilian casualties.

Earlier this month, CNN reported that nearly half of the Israeli munitions used on Gaza have been “dumb bombs”, citing research by the United States Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Somewhere between 40-45 percent of the munitions Israel has dropped on Gaza have been unguided, but these munitions are less accurate and carry a greater risk of inflicting civilian casualties.

Marc Garlasco, a former war crimes investigator for the United Nations, called the US intelligence assessment “shocking”.

Bunker buster bombs
Generously provided to Israel for its war on Gaza by its friend the United States, BLU-109 bombs are designed to penetrate hardened structures before exploding.

The bombs can carry a warhead weighing more than 900kg (1984 pounds) and have previously been used by the US in conflicts including the war in Afghanistan.

“Many people are now questioning in Congress whether continuing to give these “bunker bombs” is a good idea and also calling for more transparency,” Al Jazeera’s Heidi Zhou-Castro said.

This level of weaponry has been used by the US before, but mainly in open areas. To do so in a densely populated area can only lead to one thing – high casualties.

US arms to Israel since the start of the war have also included 15,000 bombs and 57,000 (155mm) artillery shells.

And there’s more: 5,000 unguided MK-82 bombs, more than 5,400 MK-84 bombs, and about 1,000 GBU-39 small-diameter bombs.

JDAMs
There are also about 3,000 Joint Direct Attack Munitions or JDAMs – a guidance kit that uses GPS to turn unguided bombs into precision-guided munitions, effectively making the dumb bombs “smart”. However, their effectiveness depends on the quality of intelligence received.

“If the intelligence is faulty, even the most accurate weapon will hit the wrong target,” Elijah Magnier, a military analyst covering conflicts in the Middle East, told Al Jazeera.

An Amnesty International investigation released earlier this month found that the Israeli military used US-made JDAMs to bomb two homes in Gaza in October, killing 43 members of two families.

In other cases, weapon functionality is also crucial, as technical malfunctions can cause smart bombs to miss their targets, and human error during the targeting process can lead to the misidentification of marks.

“In various conflicts, there have been reports of secondary strikes occurring shortly after an initial strike, hitting rescue workers and civilians rushing to help the wounded, significantly increasing civilian casualties,” Magnier said.

Earlier in the war Israel used smart bombs in Gaza as part of a broader military strategy “aimed at accurately targeting militant infrastructure to achieve military objectives” Magnier said, but “with no attempt to limit civilian casualties and infrastructure damage”.

"The effectiveness of these weapons in achieving strategic objectives without causing disproportionate harm is impossible”, [/i]Magnier added.

[i]"The principle of distinction, a cornerstone of [international humanitarian] law, requires the invading Israeli army to always distinguish between combatants and military targets on the one hand, and civilians and civilian objects on the other and to target only the former.”

White phosphorus
Use of the colourless chemical weapon is restricted under international humanitarian law, with conditions that it must never be fired at, or in close proximity to, a populated civilian area or civilian infrastructure.

However, evidence of its use by Israel in the war on Gaza was reported by Human Rights Watch (HRW) early in the conflict.

Highly combustible, it can cause fires and smoke to spread quickly.

“Airbursting white phosphorus spreads the substance over a wide area, depending on the altitude of the burst, and it exposes more civilians and infrastructures than a localised ground burst,” Ahmed Benchemsi, communications director for HRW’s Middle East and North Africa Division, told Al Jazeera.

Last month a doctor from al-Shifa Hospital told the Toronto Star he had seen patients with deep wounds, with “third and fourth-degree burns, and the skin tissue is impregnated with black particles and most of the skin thickness and all the layers underneath are burned down to the bone”.

Dr Ahmed Mokhallalat[/b]i said these weren’t phosphorus burns, “but a combination of some kind of incendiary bomb wave and other components”, feeding into claims that Israel also uses war to test unknown weapons.

But what makes white phosphorous even more dangerous, said Nada Majdalani, the Ramallah-based Palestine director for EcoPeace Middle East, is the presence of rain in the air.

[i]“As Gaza enters the rainy season, we expect the rain to fall as acid rain, contaminated with white phosphorus,” [/i]Majdalani said. People who use plastic sheets to collect rainwater to drink directly, amid a shortage of drinking water, could be particularly at risk, she said.

[b]Hunger
This month, HRW said in a statement that Israel was deliberately depriving Palestinians of access to food, water and other basic necessities.

Under international humanitarian law, creating a situation of hunger with intent against a civilian population is a war crime.

Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at HRW, said: “Israel has been depriving Gaza’s population of food and water, a policy spurred on or endorsed by high-ranking Israeli officials and reflecting an intent to starve civilians as a method of warfare.

“World leaders should be speaking out against this abhorrent war crime, which has devastating effects on Gaza’s population,” he added.

Just a month after the war began, all of northern Gaza’s bakeries closed due to a lack of supplies such as flour and fuel, the UN reported on November 8.

By early February, if the war continues, Gaza could be facing a famine, according to a report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a body that measures hunger risks.

Source: Al Jazeera

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Palestinians wave their national flag and celebrate atop a destroyed Israeli tank at the Gaza Strip fence east of Khan Yonis. Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023 (AP Photo/Yousef Masoud)

Some may argue that circumstances are different, the destruction is greater, the battle is protracted, and the losses are significant. However, evidence suggests that Israel has failed to achieve anything beyond acts of killing, destruction, and sabotage.

By Dr. Mustafa Al-Liddawi

The Israeli enemy seems immune to learning from its experiences, unyielding to the lessons of its failures, and reluctant to reconsider its goals. It persists in its attempts to achieve objectives it previously failed to secure in past confrontations. Despite its awareness that some goals are unattainable and fraught with challenges, obstacles, and sacrifices, the Israeli forces press forward, seemingly oblivious to the futility of their pursuits.

During the 2014 Israeli aggression on Gaza, dubbed “Operation Eaten Straw” by the Palestinian resistance, which endured for 51 grueling days, Israel declared its intention to undermine the rule of the Hamas movement. It vowed to end its existence, disarm it, destroy its tunnels, and kill or capture its leaders.

Israel asserted it would obliterate its sites, bomb its centers, dry up its resources, and form an international alliance against it. This alliance, Israel hoped, would collaborate in achieving its declared goals, even though the realization of these goals was either impossible or highly unlikely.

However, the Israeli government and its well-equipped military, enjoying superior training and coordination, failed to achieve their declared objectives. They fell short of meeting the expectations of the international community and regional powers, which had believed in the capability of Israel to achieve its announced goals.

The resistance, particularly Hamas, remained resilient, leading the defense efforts, managing the affairs of the Gaza Strip, and attending to the needs of its citizens. Despite the formidable challenges, it emerged stronger in terms of capabilities, weaponry, experience, steadfastness, popular support, and resilience.

Israel’s defeat extended beyond its failure to achieve specific objectives. It forced Israel to seek mediation, accept a ceasefire, and agree to the terms set by the Palestinian resistance.

Egypt, acting as a mediator, witnessed the resilience, firmness, shrewdness, and intelligence displayed by the resistance in articulating its conditions. The resistance insisted on Israel’s compliance, demanded international guarantees, and sought assurance that Israel would adhere to the agreed-upon terms.

Despite the intense bombardment of various areas in the Gaza Strip, utilizing Israel’s full military capabilities—air, land, and sea—the resistance endured. It fought, trained, accumulated strength, and persisted. Hamas, at the forefront, maintained its positions, leading the resistance, managing its operations, and catering to the needs of the citizens. It monitored their conditions, provided services, and emerged even stronger than before in terms of strength, weaponry, experience, resilience, and popular support.

The Israeli losses, particularly in the Shujaiya neighborhood, due to fierce battles fought by the resistance, compelled Israel to seek a ceasefire and acknowledge its inability to achieve the anticipated goals.

Despite covert coordination with some regional powers and high expectations for reshaping the region, forging political, military, security, and economic alliances, and signing peace agreements, Israel failed to materialize its ambitions.

Some may argue that circumstances are different, the airstrikes are more intense, the destruction is greater, the battle is protracted, and the losses are significant. However, evidence suggests that Israel has failed to achieve anything beyond acts of killing, destruction, and sabotage.

The Palestinian people appear patient, accepting, standing firm, unwavering, maintaining their stance without faltering. The resistance, particularly Hamas, leading the battle, improving its operational capabilities, continuing its strikes, sniper attacks, incursions, and surprise operations, will emerge from this war victorious.

Gaza will remain steadfast and rooted, impervious to Israel’s attempts to eradicate it, terminate its existence, liquidate its leaders, isolate it from its surroundings, and quell its people.

The outcome of the Operation Al-Aqsa Flood will far surpass the results of the Operation Eaten Straw. If the latter coerced Israel into acceptance and submission, the former will redefine the region, alter the dynamics of the conflict, and redraw the power maps and influence centers in the region.

Source: QUDs News

The admission by an Israeli official to Kan public broadcaster comes as Israel has been accused of using ‘dirty’ bombs on Gaza.
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Palestinians mourning their relatives, killed in an overnight Israeli attack on the Maghazi refugee camp, during a mass funeral at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on December 25 [Mahmud Hams/AFP]

An Israeli military official has said that the high death toll from an attack on Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza was the result of the use of improper munitions, showing a spotlight on Israel’s military tactics that have created high numbers of civilian casualties.

Speaking to the Israeli public broadcaster Kan, a military official on Thursday said that the raid on Maghazi, which killed at least 70 people, used munitions that were not appropriate for a packed refugee camp.

“The type of munition did not match the nature of the attack, causing extensive collateral damage which could have been avoided,” the official told the Israeli Kan public broadcaster.

“The [Israeli army] regrets the harm to those who were uninvolved and is working to learn lessons from the incident,” the official added.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ2zS_Q_L_s

The statement on the bombing, which the Israeli military had previously said was being investigated, comes amid reports that Israel has regularly used powerful bombs in the tightly packed strip, despite the increased risk of civilian casualties.

Earlier this month, the US news outlet CNN reported that nearly half of the Israeli munitions used on Gaza have been unguided “dumb bombs”, citing a US intelligence assessment. Such munitions are less accurate and carry a greater risk of inflicting civilian casualties.

https://twitter.com/dancohen3000/status/1740388471011672253


The Israeli news outlet +972 also previously reported that the Israeli military has loosened its standards regarding acceptable civilian harm from attacks, resulting in a higher portion of civilians killed than in previous rounds of military assaults.

Palestinian authorities say that more than 21,000 people have been killed in Israel’s assault on Gaza, more than half of them women and children.

The current round of fighting was preceded by months of rising tensions, but began on October 7 when the Palestinian armed group Hamas launched an attack on southern Israel that authorities there said killed more than 1,100 people and took more than 240 people captive.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkJ1r38zbzg

The attack on Maghazi is not the first to raise questions about the indiscriminate nature of Israel’s bombardment, which has transformed entire neighbourhoods in Gaza into mountains of rubble. On Thursday, nearly 100 people have been killed in attacks on various locations across Gaza.

Palestinian authorities said that at least 90 people were killed in Israeli attacks on a residential block in the Jabalia refugee camp earlier this month, and in early December, Israeli attacks killed 700 Palestinians in a single day.

Palestinians in the besieged enclave say they have nowhere safe to flee from Israel’s relentless bombardment, which has also targeted areas that Israeli authorities had told civilians to move towards to avoid fighting.

Aid agencies, including the UN, have decried Israeli targeting of schools, hospitals and residential areas, with the Israeli bombing of Gaza considered the most destructive in recent history.

Source: Al Jazeera

Israel used massive bombs in the Oct 31 Jabalia massacre, Wall Street Journal investigation reveals

Washington DC (Quds News Network) – A recent investigation by the Wall Street Journal has uncovered the use of two of the Israeli military’s largest bombs from its arsenal in the Jabalia refugee camp massacre in northern Gaza on October 31 of this year.

The report highlights that the airstrike resulted in one of the deadliest massacres in Gaza, claiming the lives of at least 120 innocent civilians and the complete destruction of an entire residential block.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the decision to bomb a densely populated neighborhood in Jabalia, aiming to target a Hamas commander, reveals Israel’s willingness to use excessive force against the Hamas leadership, even at the cost of causing significant civilian casualties.

The investigation reveals a series of errors committed by the Israeli forces based on incomplete information, leading to the loss of many lives. The report notes that Israel did not send warning messages to civilians about the impending attack, fearing that it might alert resistance members and prompt them to leave the area. Additionally, the Israeli military opted to use two of its largest bombs instead of smaller ones.

Adel Haq, an expert in international law applications in conflict zones from Rutgers University, commented on the findings, stating, “Nothing Israel said suggests it achieved more military benefits than modest accomplishments. The October 31st attack on Jabalia is extreme in terms of expected harm to civilians, and to justify significant civilian harm, you would expect some change in the rules of the game that leaves an impact on the course of the war by conducting an attack of this kind.”

The revelations from the investigation raise concerns about the tactics employed by the Israeli military during the ongoing genocide campaign in Gaza, especially when it comes to the potential impact on the civilian population.

Quds News

The Chinese presence in the world in general, and the Middle East region in particular, has become more of an international need than a Chinese need, given the strength, status, and acceptance that China enjoys among the countries of the region.
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More failure, confusion, and loss before international public opinion is the outcome of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, which has become a nightmare that threatens not only the future of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but perhaps the entire future of “Israel,” and the political future of President Joe Biden, which opinion polls are now confirming. His defeat in the upcoming elections, in the interest of Republican candidate Trump.

More than eighty days have passed and the “Invincible Army” has not been able to achieve any real military victory over the Hamas movement, and all it has done is added to its criminal record against children and women.

The intensity of criticism of the performance of the Netanyahu government began to escalate within "Israel", and the disintegration of the war government became clear, which caused great embarrassment to "Israel" in front of the entire world.

International public opinion (officially and popularly) showed the isolation of “Israel”, which is no longer supported except by the United States of America and some small countries whose names we have not heard before.

American support for “Israel” no longer stems from a real American interest and desire, but rather stems from a state of emergency for any presidential candidate who seeks to obtain the support of the Zionist lobby, or to avoid its hostility, at the very least.

The scene has become complex, and the development and expansion of the war is a possibility at any moment, especially since the Middle East is a region capable of exploding at any moment, given its strategic importance, and the nature and size of foreign interventions in it.

International division and the absence of the United Nations

The war on Gaza demonstrated the extent of the division in international positions, especially among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, which now reflects the extent of the “political dysfunction” of the United Nations.

The failure of the United Nations is a natural result of the change in the size and balance of international powers today, which are different from what they were in the post-World War II world, when the United Nations was formed at that time.

The war in Ukraine was the beginning of the end for this international organization, as it cemented divisions and alignments between Russia and China on the one hand, and the United States of America, France, and Britain on the other hand.

The majority of the countries of the world were supportive of Russia and China, but some countries were not able to express their true positions, given the amount of American pressure on them, but those pressures began to ease due to the decline in the size, role, and international status of America.

The decline in the American role, status, and effectiveness does not mean that America is no longer the greatest power in the world to this day, but it certainly means that this power is continuously declining, as America today is no longer what it was in 1991.

Likewise, Russia today is no longer what it was in the past three decades. Russia’s victory in Ukraine has become a fact that cannot be ignored, and its presence in the Middle East region has become the strongest today after it reached the warm waters of the Eastern Mediterranean region.

As for China, it is certainly no longer a contented country, and its surplus power has become a reality that reflects a Chinese desire to engage more in international affairs, not only on the economic level, but also on the political, and perhaps military, level.

The Chinese presence in the world in general, and the Middle East region in particular, has become more of an international need than a Chinese need, given the strength, status, and acceptance that China enjoys among the countries of the region.

Certainly, the Chinese presence is not to the liking of the United States and other European countries, but it has become a reality that cannot be ignored, which confirms the failure of the “China containment strategy” proposed by the Trump and Biden administrations.

American, Western and Israeli criticism of Beijing

The principled stances of Chinese foreign policy and its non-alignment with one party or another have made it the focus of criticism on the part of its enemies, and understanding, which may be accompanied by some reproach, on the part of its friends.

Hence, the Chinese position regarding the war in Ukraine was subjected to severe criticism from the United States and Western countries, but it was understood and accepted by Moscow, whose relations with China developed significantly.

At the start of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, the Chinese position was balanced, with regard to supporting the truth and the necessity of its return to its owners, so that Beijing announced its position regarding what is happening in Gaza, as a result of “the historical injustice to which the Palestinian people were subjected.”

This position received severe criticism from Israel, the United States, and Western countries in general, but it was respected by the Arab countries that understand the firm and principled Chinese position that rejects the occupation, in all its forms and manifestations.

Therefore, Beijing was the first stop to which representatives of Arab and Islamic countries turned in their quest to stop the destructive war waged by "Israel" on the Gaza Strip.

As for the Zionist entity, it demanded that Beijing take a clear position condemning what the Hamas movement did, but that was not accepted by the Chinese side. On the contrary, perhaps quite the opposite, there were positions taken by Beijing that highlighted its support for the Palestinian cause and its rejection of the barbaric war carried out by “Israel.” ".
Among these positions is what the Zionist media reported about Beijing imposing complications and restrictions that prevent the export of some advanced technological products to “Israel.”

Despite these positions, the Zionist occupation government realizes the importance of China and its growing role in the Middle East region. Therefore, it was careful not to cut off channels of communication with it, despite its clear criticism of the Chinese position regarding the events taking place in the region.

The internal pressure on Netanyahu from the families of prisoners held by the Hamas movement made him turn to Beijing and seek its help in releasing the prisoner held by Hamas, Noa Argamani, under the pretext that her mother is Chinese and suffers from cancer.

In his speech, which he delivered before the Knesset last Monday, Netanyahu spoke about the efforts he is making to release the Zionist prisoners held by the Hamas movement, and indicated that he asked the Chinese ambassador to “Israel” (Tsai Run) to convey a direct message from the Zionist government to the Chinese President. Xi Jinping asks him to intervene to release prisoner Noa, since her mother is Chinese. Netanyahu said, "The Chinese ambassador assured me that the message had already been conveyed."

The mother of the prisoner, Noa, tried to address the Chinese people and the Chinese government to stand by her, but she was subjected to widespread criticism by Chinese activists on social networking sites, because she abandoned her affiliation to her homeland (China) and claimed that she was Jewish, so that she could reside in “Israel.” When she was studying there.

The need for China in the coming days will be a necessity not only for the Arabs and Palestinians, but even for America and “Israel,” especially since China is the only country capable of performing the mediation role to find a solution to the Arab-Zionist conflict.

Despite the Israeli dissatisfaction with Beijing’s positions, the government of the Zionist entity is well aware of the importance of dealing with China, which today has become the power most likely to sit at the top of the international pyramid, and that it is only a matter of time, especially since the Zionists are well aware of the importance of cooperation and coordination with the power. The largest in the world, and they are good at jumping ropes and moving in offering allegiances from one country to another, in service of their great colonial project.

When Britain was the greatest power in the world, the Zionists were able to obtain from it a promise to establish their alleged entity.

But Zionist loyalty transferred very quickly to the United States of America when it became the greatest power after World War II, which provided the Zionist entity with absolute support that brought “Israel” to where it is today.

Therefore, it is not unlikely that the Zionists will seek to get closer to China if they feel that Beijing is the closest to being the capital of international decision-making in the world, especially in light of the data that indicate the inevitability of a decline in the American role.

All of these data give Beijing cards that enable it to play a mediation role to find a solution to the Palestinian issue.

China has undertaken several initiatives to find a solution to the Palestinian issue on the basis of the "two-state solution", as it is the minimum acceptable to the Palestinians.

But that vision clashed with American positions during the Trump and Biden administrations, as Trump believed in the deal of the century and the necessity of imposing the logic of concessions on the Palestinians, since they are the weakest link.

As for Biden, the Palestinian issue, nor even the Middle East, was not his top priority, so his administration announced its withdrawal from the region and Afghanistan to devote himself to implementing its declared strategy of “containing China and Russia.”

The return of the United States to the Middle East indicates, in principle, a strategic failure in the Biden administration’s vision for the future of the conflict in the region and the world.

This failure also applies, to a large extent, to the Zionist government, which is no longer able to hide its losses and its inability to achieve the goals it announced at the beginning of the war. Perhaps the Israeli president's last speech was nothing more than a "defeat speech," according to many observers.

All data indicate that Beijing is continuing with its policy, without taking into account Israeli or American appeals, except in accordance with its interests and orientations, relying on its friendships with the countries of the region, which have reached the point of establishing strategic alliances and signing long-term agreements.

Al-Mayadeen

Geneva (Quds News Network) – The death toll of Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip has climbed to approximately 30,000 victims, according to the latest reports released by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.

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As of 26 December, 29,124 Palestinians had been killed, the human rights organisation said. The majority of those killed in the Israeli air and artillery attacks on the Gaza Strip were civilians, including 11,422 children, 5,822 women, 481 health personnel, and 101 journalists.

Meanwhile, 56,122 Palestinians have been injured, with hundreds of them being critically wounded, said Euro-Med Monitor. This number includes thousands of victims who are still stuck under the rubble of buildings, while hundreds more remain uncounted for, but are likely either trapped under rubble or injured in the streets.

Euro-Med Monitor estimates also indicate that there are more than 1.920 million displaced people in the Gaza Strip who remain without a safe shelter amid inhumane conditions.

According to the rights group, 65,600 housing units have been completely destroyed by the ongoing Israeli attacks, while 177,200 others have been partially damaged.

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Israel has also continued to inflict massive destruction and severe damage to vital infrastructure facilities in the Gaza Strip, targeting 305 schools, 1,541 industrial facilities, and 135 health facilities, including 23 hospitals, 56 clinics, 55 ambulances, 183 mosques, and 3 churches, in addition to 165 press offices.

Israel is stepping up its genocide war on Gazan civilians in an effort to intensify its enforced displacement policy, which is in violation of international laws, Euro-Med Monitor warned.

Israel has deliberately targeted civilian infrastructure in order to cause as many casualties, material losses, and destruction as possible, according to the Geneva-based organisation, as a form of retaliation and collective punishment. This is against international humanitarian law and the 1949 Geneva Convention, and amounts to war crimes according to the Rome Statute, which governs the International Criminal Court.

Israel has flagrantly broken the terms of international humanitarian law, which forbids property damage as a “preventive means” and property destruction as a means of deterrence, even for military purposes.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor urged the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to pressure Israeli authorities to reveal the fate of all detainees from the Gaza Strip, release every arrested civilian, and investigate the horrific violations that these detained civilians are being subjected to.

Source: Quds News

The Washington Post newspaper talks about a “contradiction” between Washington’s declared commitment to “reduce civilian suffering” and its steadfast support for the occupation, which enables it to continue its aggression against the Gaza Strip.

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The American newspaper "The Washington Post" confirmed that the ongoing violence in the Gaza Strip, for more than 80 days, "revealed a contradiction" between the declared commitment of the administration of US President Joe Biden to "reduce the suffering of civilians" and its steadfast support for the Israeli occupation in its aggression.

The newspaper pointed out that the United States of America provides “Israel” with weapons on the ground, and political cover in the United Nations, which is the support “that enabled the war to continue.”

Earlier, the American newspaper "The Wall Street Journal" reported that Washington provided the occupation with large bunker-busting bombs, along with tens of thousands of other weapons and artillery shells, during the ongoing war on Gaza.

Israel is the largest recipient of US foreign military funding, and most of this aid comes in the form of arms grants, according to what the American website Axios reported.

The occupation also has access to some of the most advanced American military technology, while American support represents about 15% of the entity’s annual war budget.

As for the United Nations, on the 8th of this month, Washington thwarted the UN Security Council’s adoption of a draft resolution requiring an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip for humanitarian reasons and the entry of aid, by using its veto power, while the draft received 13 supportive votes.

Later, on the 22nd of this month, the Security Council adopted a draft resolution related to the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip without indicating the need to stop the war, and it was supported by the United States, which renewed its position of supporting the occupation in its aggression, claiming that “Israel has the right to defend itself.”

The Council adopted this project after postponing it several times, and making several amendments requested by Washington, including replacing the “urgent suspension of fighting with the aim of allowing the entry of humanitarian aid” with “taking urgent steps that immediately allow the entry of aid (...) and urgent steps that lead to a reduction in the fighting.”

For its part, Moscow, which abstained from voting, believed that Washington “used all means of pressure, blackmail and coercion to impose this resolution, and gave Israel a license to kill without accountability,” considering that this “blackmail” makes the resolution a “black spot” in the history of the Security Council. .

Russia's representative to the Security Council, Vasily Nebenzia, accused the United States of "pressuring to empty the text of the draft resolution related to Gaza of its essence," noting that it "included a dangerous element in the draft resolution that allows Israel to cleanse the Gaza Strip."

In occupied Palestine, the resistance factions confirmed that this decision “does not rise to the level of the occupation’s crimes,” considering that it “reflects a resounding failure to put an end to the American war of annihilation at Israeli hands.”

Al-Mayadeen

Major General Reserve Yitzhak Brik wrote an article in the Israeli newspaper "Haaretz" in which he confirmed that the "military" and Israeli analysts are publishing a false picture of the numbers of Hamas fighters who were targeted.

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The Israeli newspaper "Haaretz" talks about the wrong image presented by the "military" and Israeli analysts about the killing of thousands of Hamas fighters. Reserve Major General Ishaq Brik (former Soldiers' Complaints Commissioner) said that the "Army" and its analysts continue to falsify images of this kind, as if they have not learned anything.

The following is the text translated into English:

Based on information that I (Res. Major General Yitzhak Brik) received from soldiers and officers fighting in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war, I reached the following conclusion: The Israeli “Army” spokesman and the military analysts in the television studios present a false picture of “thousands of Hamas deaths and the face-to-face fighting between Our forces and their forces."

The number of Hamas members “killed” by our forces on the ground is much lower. Most of the war is not fought face-to-face, as the spokesman and analysts claim, and most of our dead and wounded were hit by Hamas's canisters and anti-tank missiles.

Hamas fighters come out of the tunnel openings to plant explosives, set traps, and fire anti-tank missiles at our armored vehicles, then disappear back into the tunnels. The Israeli army currently does not have quick solutions to the fight against Hamas, most of whose members are hiding in tunnels.

It is clear that the Israeli army spokesman and senior officials of the security and military establishment want to portray the war as a major victory before the picture becomes clear. To this end, they are bringing reporters from major TV channels to Gaza to film “victory pictures.” This is the most photographed war ever waged by Israel, perhaps even in the entire world.

But creating images of victory before we even come close to achieving our goals can be extremely harmful. If those goals are not ultimately fully achieved - destroying Hamas' capabilities and freeing prisoners - we had better be more humble.

This reminds me of how these reporters and analysts from major television studios, along with retired generals, told us, before the strike directed at us by Hamas in the south, that the Israeli “army” is the strongest army in the Middle East, and that our enemies are deterred. Unfortunately, these same reporters, analysts and retired generals continue to fabricate images of this kind, as if they have learned nothing.

Destroying Hamas' tunnels will take many years, and will cost Israel many lives. The "military" itself now admits that there are hundreds of kilometers of tunnels deep underground, with multiple branches, some even consisting of several floors, with many good points to launch a battle. It was built by Hamas over decades with the advice of prominent experts, and it connects the length and breadth of Gaza, and also connects it to the Sinai Peninsula under the city of Rafah.

The idea that Hamas is a deterrent has persisted for many years. As a result, all plans for fighting in Gaza, its tunnels and all possible tools to do so were cancelled. That's why our experts did not sit down to study, plan and manufacture equipment suitable for underground warfare. For this reason, today we try to improvise solutions, but this does not provide an effective response.

Many of the “officers” fighting in Gaza told me that it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to prevent Hamas from rebuilding itself, even after all the destruction the Israeli “army” has inflicted on its bases.

This effort will require us to maintain significant forces in Gaza for many years to come and continue to fight Hamas fighters who will emerge from tunnels, fire anti-tank missiles, plant explosives, set traps, and inflict significant casualties on the IDF. Therefore, we will need to leave dense urban areas and operate in a more surgical manner through raids (incursions) and air strikes based on accurate intelligence.

Are politicians and senior officials of the security and military establishment capable of dealing with such a scenario? Are they able to think of other creative solutions, so that we will not emerge as the biggest winners of everything we want, but also not be the biggest losers?

Source: Al-Mayadeen

At least seven bodies of displaced Palestinians, including women, children and babies ‘shot point-blank’ were recovered at the Shadia Abu Ghazala School.

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Dozens of displaced Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on schools in Gaza [Fadi Whadi/Reuters]

Jabalia, Gaza Strip – Bodies were piled up instead of books in the classroom. Bullet holes pockmarked some walls. Others were charred, apparently by fire.

Displaced families were sheltering in the United Nations-run Shadia Abu Ghazala School west of the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza when Israeli soldiers entered the building. What followed was a massacre, according to witnesses and families of those who were killed in the early December assault.

Jabalia, Gaza Strip – Bodies were piled up instead of books in the classroom. Bullet holes pockmarked some walls. Others were charred, apparently by fire.

Displaced families were sheltering in the United Nations-run Shadia Abu Ghazala School west of the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza when Israeli soldiers entered the building. What followed was a massacre, according to witnesses and families of those who were killed in the early December assault.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yspylXsoDf8

A father of one of the victims said he was asleep with his wife and six children when Israeli soldiers “suddenly stormed” the school.

“They entered the classroom we were in and fired directly at those present without uttering a word,” he said.

“They prevented me from speaking, asking questions, or commenting on anything, and every time I tried to talk to them, they silenced me,” he recalled.

What Hamas and the other resistance are insisting on

The evidence presented by the Israeli government fell short of showing that Hamas was using Al-Shifa Hospital as a command and control center, according to American press analysis of visuals, satellite images, and materials publicly released by the Israeli military.

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The chapters of the farcical play “Al-Shifa Hospital” did not end, as the Israeli director, obsessed with murder, destruction and bloodshed, wanted it to be, despite his harnessing all the propaganda and media capabilities inside and outside the entity, and his mastery of the methods of representation, fabrication and falsification of facts, with the aim of demonizing this important health institution and linking it to terrorism.

But the winds of "Israel" did not blow as its murderous leaders desired. Its big lie, on which it long based its story of storming the hospital and destroying parts of it, was exposed by those it assumed to be its allies, with the American press, led by CBS and the Washington Post, exposing the claims and deceptions of “Tel Aviv.” And its misleading of world public opinion, after a number of journalists entered the hospital and witnessed first-hand what happened there, and then later presented evidence and concrete evidence, which led to the denial and demolition of the “Israel” story of Hamas using the hospital as command and control centers.

The importance of Al-Shifa Hospital

Al-Shifa Medical Complex was the most advanced and best-equipped hospital in Gaza. Following the Israeli massacres and massacres, the hospital became the beating heart of the faltering health system in the Gaza Strip, in addition to becoming a haven for tens of thousands of displaced people in Gaza who fled Israeli shells and took shelter in its courtyards.

However, the hospital was not spared from the Israeli war machine, as the United Nations, citing hospital workers, said that before the occupation entered the complex, doctors dug a mass grave for up to 180 people. The morgue also stopped working a long time ago. When WHO doctors arrived to evacuate those still inside, they were astonished by what they saw, saying the recovery place had become a "death zone."

What was the occupation's narrative about Al-Shifa Hospital based on?

In practice, and to justify its bloody criminal actions towards Al-Shifa Hospital, “Israel” fabricated false pretexts and arguments, and adopted empty allegations, which were presented by Daniel Hagari, spokesman for the Israeli occupation “army,” in a press conference on October 27, in which he remarkably specified “There are 5 buildings belonging to the hospital, directly involved in Hamas activities, and they are located above underground tunnels in which the movement’s resistance fighters hid, to direct missile attacks and lead fighters from them, in addition to the presence of a group of hand grenades, rifles and ammunition in one of the hospital rooms,” (it was not It is not confirmed how you got to the hospital.) He added, “The tunnels can be accessed from inside the hospital wards.”

In an attempt to add an air of excitement to his flimsy story, on November 16, the occupation “army” published pictures showing the entrance to a tunnel in the northeastern corner of the hospital complex near the specialized surgery building. Then I followed it with other satellite images, showing that the occupation “army” found the tunnel opening, inside a small building, which it demolished.

Later, the "Army" published video clips of its spokesman, accompanied by occupation soldiers, exploring the network of tunnels connected to the opening. The footage also showed images of a long tunnel extending east from the opening, all the way down to the specialized surgical unit to the south. While another section of the tunnel headed north, away from the hospital complex (and the American press always talks about it). Accordingly, Hagari said in one of the videos: “It is blocked and sealed, and they knew that we were going to come here more than a month ago, and we closed it.”

How did American press investigations expose the Israeli story?

The evidence presented by the Israeli government fell short of showing that Hamas was using the hospital as a command and control center, according to US press analysis of open source visuals, satellite images and all materials publicly released by the Israeli military.

Moreover, legal and humanitarian experts say this raises critical questions about whether the harm to civilians caused by Israeli military operations is proportional to the perceived and manufactured threat.

What is striking here is that it was not possible for journalists to determine the distance or final direction of the northern tunnel section through the video clips.

Investigation results

The American press, especially the Washington Post, charted a route for the tunnel, by determining the geographical location of the tunnel inside Al-Shifa, and also analyzed the video clips, frame by frame, to determine the direction and length of the network.

They then superimposed the tunnel routes on the original map issued by the Israeli army on October 27, which according to the occupation shows “the full extent of Hamas’s command and control infrastructure.” The result they reached was:

First: none of the five buildings highlighted by the Israeli army appear to be connected to the tunnels, and no evidence has been presented showing that the tunnels can be accessed from within the hospital wings, as Hagari claimed.

Second: Regarding the presence of two small bathrooms, a sink, and two empty rooms in the tunnel under the surgery building, and Hagari’s statement that one of the rooms was an “operating room,” citing electrical wires as evidence, the journalists refuted these statements, stressing that the empty rooms with white tiles did not show any immediate evidence of their use. For command and control or otherwise. There were no signs of recent habitation, including trash, food containers, clothing, or other personal items.

Third: Although Hagari bragged in Al-Wathiq’s language by pointing out that “this room, and all the equipment in it, were evacuated when they knew or understood that we would enter Al-Shifa Hospital.” However, what is ironic here is that it did not clarify when the resistance fighters were working in the tunnel, or when their alleged departure took place. Most importantly, the Israeli army did not respond to requests for clarification from journalists.

Fourth: It is known that the Biden administration had declassified US intelligence assessments that it said supported Israel’s claims, in addition to Israeli and American officials standing firmly behind their initial statements accusing Hamas of exploiting the hospital.

But surprisingly, the US government did not release any of the declassified material publicly, nor did the official share the intelligence on which this assessment was based.

Commenting on this, Jeffrey Korn, a law professor at Texas Tech University and a former law of war advisor to the US Army, said, “If you do not find what you said you would find, that justifies doubts about whether your assessment of the military value in carrying out the operation was legitimate or not.” He continued, “It is Certainly not decisive."

Expert opinion on Israeli allegations

The tunnel narrative was not convincing to many American experts and analysts. Hence, Michael Schmidt, Professor Emeritus at the US Naval War College, commented: “The law revolves around what was going through the mind of the attacker at the time he planned and executed the mission, in terms of the collateral damage he expected to cause, and the military advantage he hoped to gain.” What is worth knowing here is that the Israeli “Army” did not comment on the required or achieved military advantage.

In turn, Yousef Sayed Khan, a prominent lawyer at the law firm Global Rights Compliance, who drafted the United Nations reports on the siege war on Gaza, asked: What is the urgent need for hospitalization? He continued: “This has not been proven yet,” meaning the presence of Hamas in it.

In the same vein, Brian Finucane, a former legal adviser to the US State Department who now works as a senior adviser at the International Crisis Group, said: “We have gained a more precise, three-dimensional understanding of Al-Shifa Hospital, and the tunnels underneath it. But what we are really lacking here is understanding.” Al-Wathiq discusses the fourth dimension, which is time. When were the various elements of the hospital used in certain ways? When were the tunnels under the hospital complex used in certain ways?

In conclusion, these aforementioned facts prompted a senior member of the US Congress to question the Israelis’ statements about the hospital, as he revealed to reporters his position on what happened, saying, on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, “Before, I was convinced that [al-Shifa] was the place.” "Where these operations are taking place, but now, I think there should be a new level of explanation. They should have more evidence at this point."

Source: Al-Mayadeen

"The Palestinian people will not let the Gaza Strip turn into a geographical area unworthy of life. Otherwise, what is the meaning of more than 800,000 Palestinians clinging to remaining in the northern Gaza Strip despite thousands of bombs dropped by Zionist aircraft?"

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Unlike all wars, or let's say most of them, Israel intends, in its ongoing aggression against the Gaza Strip, to massive and successive destruction of infrastructure, service facilities, and economic components.

Bulldozers, whose job during battles is supposed to be to remove rubble and open roads for military vehicles and infantry forces, are busy in the Palestinian territories bulldozing agricultural lands, sabotaging roads and public and private property, demolishing health centers, hospitals, etc. This is also what happens in the almost daily incursions carried out by the occupation forces into the areas of the West Bank and its rebellious camps since the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation.

If this seems normal compared to the normal “Israeli” behavior, which is free from all human and moral values and principles, which produced thousands of massacres and crimes, in which more than 100,000 Palestinians have fallen victim to this day since the occurrence of the Nakba until last year, then the practices of the military machine in the Gaza Strip The ongoing aggression since the seventh of last October appears different for many considerations, the most important of which is that the number of martyrs who fell during approximately two and a half months of the current aggression against the Gaza Strip now constitutes 25% of the total number of Palestinian martyrs recorded inside and outside the occupied Palestinian territories, during The previously mentioned period is according to the estimates of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.

More than scorched earth

Israel views its current military operation in the Gaza Strip as a matter of life and death, both at the general popular level and at the personal level of the Netanyahu government.

This is because the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation constituted what could be considered the most dangerous threat to the entity’s existence since the Nakba about 75 years ago in terms of the level of the operation, its audacity and accuracy, the Zionist human losses that resulted from it, and the extent of the damage caused to the settlers’ confidence in the future of their “state,” and the direct repercussions of that. The number of people fleeing the entity is increasing.

Therefore, the nature and scale of the destruction practiced in the Gaza Strip reflects the Zionist hysteria seeking to restore the prestige of the defeated “army” on the one hand, and the attempt to erase the achieved and remaining impact internally and externally from the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation on the other hand. Therefore, the goal of the operation is to uproot the roots of life from the Gaza Strip, and not just eliminate the Hamas movement. Otherwise, what is the meaning of the following:

- The direct and intensive targeting of civilians in the Gaza Strip by dropping more than 25 tons of explosives on residential communities and neighborhoods resulted, after 79 days of aggression, in more than 26 thousand martyrs and missing persons, a number that increases by 1,192% compared to the number of martyrs in the Gaza Strip during the 2014 aggression. Before the seventh of last October, the year was classified as the bloodiest year since the occurrence of the Nakba, in which about 2,181 martyrs fell in the Gaza Strip alone.

- Carrying out widespread and deliberate bulldozing of agricultural lands, uprooting trees, and destroying agricultural property, and subsequently causing a cumulative loss to the agricultural sector in Gaza estimated at about $265 million since the start of the aggression, as the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics estimates speak of a daily loss of $2 million as a result of the cessation of agricultural production, and it is rising. A daily average of about $3.5 million is added, if the losses resulting from land leveling, uprooting of trees, and destruction of property and agricultural assets are added.

Noting that the contribution of the agricultural sector in Gaza to the total GDP at the sector level constitutes 11%.

- Removing more than 56 thousand production facilities belonging to the private sector in the Gaza Strip from service and production, and causing losses estimated by official Palestinian sources by the end of the first month of the aggression at more than 713 million dollars at the level of economic establishments in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Therefore, after 75 days have passed, they will be It has reached a minimum of about $1.8 billion, given that the average daily losses are about $24 million, in addition to the direct losses resulting from partial or total damage to property and assets, which were officially estimated at the end of last October at about $2.5 billion.

Official data show that estimates of production losses for the sector during the first month of the Israeli aggression exceed $200 million.

- Destroying and demolishing more than 40,000 housing units in the Gaza Strip, and causing partial damage to about 220,000 housing units. These losses ultimately represent about 60% of the total number of housing units. This caused the displacement of more than one and a half million people from their homes and areas within the sector besieged by continuous bombing.

- More than 147 thousand workers in the sector lost their jobs and jobs, which increased the stifling negative repercussions of the Zionist siege, imposed on the sector since 2007, and turned into a siege implemented since October 7 to the point of preventing the entry of international trucks loaded with emergency relief aid, cutting off water and electricity. from the sector permanently.

With the exception of some workers in the health and humanitarian aid sectors, who are now working solely out of national, moral and humanitarian duty and without receiving any wages, unemployment rates have reached almost complete rates, especially since they were in the sector exceeding 45%. The reason for this high rate is not only the Zionist siege of the Gaza Strip, but also the security fence that “Tel Aviv” established in the Gaza Strip to protect its settlements.

Other factors help!

In achieving these practices and actions for its sole goal, which is to erase or eliminate any indicators of life in the Strip, “Tel Aviv” relies on a group of other factors, the most important of which can be mentioned:

- Unlimited American support, which to this day still justifies the Zionist “army” for all the war crimes and crimes against humanity it commits, and provides it with all the equipment, ammunition, and lethal weapons it needs, which the American administration realizes are ultimately used against residential neighborhoods and civilians. This is what the investigations published in major American newspapers concluded.

- The regional and international position is weak and incapable of supporting the residents of the Gaza Strip. Although this position officially appears to be sympathetic to innocent civilians and calls on the media to stop the war, in practice it maintains its political and economic relations with the Zionist entity and supplies it with the goods and merchandise it needs at this stage. This is the position of Türkiye and many other countries.

- The Zionist entity’s certainty that the process of rebuilding the Gaza Strip will not be successful for various reasons, the most prominent of which is the lack of commitment by Arab and Islamic countries to the financial pledges that they may make to finance the reconstruction, in addition to those countries’ avoidance of entering into a direct confrontation with “Israel” as evidenced by the inability of those countries. Regarding the introduction of relief aid into the sector since the beginning of the aggression against it.

- The inability of the Palestinian National Authority to carry out its tasks, whether as a result of the current situation of its institutions and agencies or due to Israeli measures aimed at besieging the Authority, undermining its powers and responsibilities, preventing the transfer of its financial dues, and revitalizing its economy. Therefore, the authority will not be able to support the sector after the end of the aggression, in a way that enables it to overcome the widespread effects of the aggression.

Will Israel succeed in making the Gaza Strip an unsuitable place for life?

After an ongoing siege for fifteen years, the Arab street was surprised by the governorates and cities of the Gaza Strip in urban, economic and social terms. The siege, despite its severity and its various negative aspects, turned into an “opportunity” that made the Gazans transform the Gaza Strip into a place vibrant with life and development, at least compared to what “Israel” and some countries wanted to do with this sector.

Therefore, the Palestinian people will not let the Gaza Strip turn into a geographical area unworthy of life. Otherwise, what is the meaning of more than 800,000 Palestinians clinging to remaining in the northern Gaza Strip despite the thousands of bombs dropped by Zionist aircraft? What is the meaning of families burying their martyrs and then returning to where they were bombed? What is the meaning of popular rejection of internal and external displacement?

Source: Al-Mayadeen

Israeli media reveal that about 3,000 wounded soldiers are classified as “permanently disabled in the army.”
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The Israeli Channel 12 revealed that 3,000 of those wounded in the war waged by the occupation in Gaza were classified as “people with permanent disabilities in the army.”

As of December 9, the number of wounded Israeli soldiers had reached 5,000, since last October 7.

The Israeli "Yedioth Ahronoth" website reported that the Israeli "Rehabilitation" Department receives 60 new wounded daily from the security and reserve forces, while this statistics does not include the wounded in the regular "army" forces.

He continued that more than 2,000 soldiers were classified as disabled, and were being accommodated by the Israeli Ministry of “Security,” in addition to 1,000 soldiers from the regular forces, who were being treated by the Israeli “Army.”

For her part, the head of the “Rehabilitation” Department in the occupation Ministry of “Security”, Limor Luria, revealed details of the injuries suffered by Israeli soldiers, indicating that 58% of them face injuries to the hands and feet, including those that require amputation, and 12% of the injuries It affected internal organs, such as the spleen and kidneys, not to mention injuries to the head and eyes.

These numbers were acknowledged by the Israeli media, at a time when the occupation leadership is trying to cover up the real numbers of human losses among its forces, in light of the Palestinian resistance continuing the “Al-Aqsa Flood” saga and engaging in direct clashes in the Gaza Strip.

In a related context, Israeli activists told the prime minister of the occupation government, commenting on photos he took with wounded Israelis: “When you sent the soldiers to Gaza, they had two legs, and today you take pictures with them and each of them has one leg.”

Israeli Channel 13 reported that wounded Israeli soldiers refused to visit Netanyahu.

Al Mayadeen

"The Israeli army declared on Thursday that it is pulling the Golani Brigade out from the Gaza Strip. What does it mean?"

https://www.palestinechronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Golani_Netanuahu_TW.pngIsraeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu meets with soldiers from the Golani Brigade. (Photo: Prime Minister of Israel X Page)

What does it mean that Israel is pulling out Golani units from Gaza?

Just one day after an announcement by the Israeli army alleging that it has achieved ‘operational control’ in the Shejaiya neighborhood in Gaza, the army declared on Thursday that it is pulling the Golani Brigade out from the Gaza Strip.

Are these two events linked?

Yes. Israel made the announcement that it had achieved some kind of control over Shejaiya to reduce the shock of the news that its most elite fighting force had essentially been defeated, forcing it to an early retreat.

Who has been pulled out exactly?

Al-Jazeera and other news networks cited the Israeli army as saying that the Golani Brigade is pulling out, while others say that specific units within Golani and other elite military units are being pulled out.

Does this matter?

No. Either way, the Israeli military retreat from Gaza reflects the heavy losses suffered by Israel’s top fighters at the hands of stiff and growing Palestinian Resistance.

What is the Golani Brigade?

Military expert Maj. Gen. Fayez Duwairi told Al-Jazeera that the Golani Brigade is one of Israel’s military most special forces, consisting of eight battalions – four tank battalions, two infantry battalions, one paratrooper battalion, one artillery battalion, in addition to supply and maintenance operations.

The Brigade was formed in February 1948 during the Zionist ethnic cleansing of Palestine. It has participated in all of Israel’s major wars against Arab countries.

In 2014, the Golani suffered heavy losses in Shejaiya neighborhood. The current battle for Shejaiya was meant as sending a strong message that the Golani has managed to overcome the Shejaiya hurdle.

The outcome, however, was the exact opposite, as the Golani has lost dozens of its top fighters and officers forcing the retreat announced on Thursday.

But what is the condition of Palestinian Resistance?

A few hours before the Israeli military announcement, military spokesman for Al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Obeida, announced in a statement that Palestinian Resistance has managed to inflict heavy losses on the Israeli army in Gaza in recent days.

He also said that the Palestinian Resistance has destroyed fully or partially 720 Israeli military vehicles, and that the morale of the Resistance is higher than before.

But how is the morale of the Israeli army?

According to Gen. Duwairi, the decision to pull the Golani Brigade, or Golani units, out of Gaza is likely to further deteriorate the morale of the Israeli army, which is yet to achieve any of the declared goals by Benjamin Netanyahu’s war council.

Israeli Channel 13, and other Israeli news outlets, have shown the celebrations of Israeli army soldiers who had just pulled out from Gaza, rejoicing that they have escaped the battle, while thousands of their colleagues are still fighting an unwinnable war.

Palestine Chronicles

The BBC and others keep revisiting Hamas crimes that day, but fail to report on growing evidence that Israel killed its own citizens.

Barely a day has passed since the 7 October attack by Hamas when the western media has not revisited those events, often to reveal what it claims are new details of astonishing atrocities carried out by the Palestinian group.

These disclosures have served to sustain public indignation in the West, and kept Palestinian solidarity activists on the back foot.

In turn, the outrage has smoothed Israel’s path as it has levelled vast swaths of Gaza; killed more than 18,700 Palestinians, most of them women and children; and denied the enclave’s population of 2.3 million access to food, water and fuel.

Critically, it has also made it far easier for western governments to throw their weight behind Israel - and arm it - even as Israeli leaders have repeatedly engaged in genocidal talk and carried out ethnic cleansing operations.

Israel’s intense bombing campaigns have herded nearly two million Palestinians into a small section of Gaza, pressed up against its short border with Egypt, while starvation and fatal disease start to take their toll.

Many of the claims about 7 October have been shocking beyond belief, such as stories that Hamas beheaded 40 babies, baked another in an oven, carried out mass, systematic rapes, and cut a foetus from its mother’s womb.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken even described in graphic detail - and wholly falsely - a Hamas attack on an Israeli family: “The father’s eye gouged out in front of his kids. The mother’s breast cut off, the girl’s foot amputated, the boy’s fingers cut off before they were executed.

Little evidence

Atrocities were undoubtedly committed that day by Hamas and other gunmen in Israel, as groups like Human Rights Watch have been documenting.

They have continued to occur in Gaza every day since, not least through Israel’s continuing and relentless bombing of civilians, and through Hamas’ refusal to free the remaining Israeli hostages without an exchange of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

But in respect of the more shocking allegations against Hamas promoted by the western media - which have bolstered the case for Israel’s two-month rampage in Gaza - often little or no evidence has been forthcoming beyond claims made by Israeli officials and highly partisan and unreliable first responders.

Last week the BBC and others led again with stories of systematic Hamas mass rapes on 7 October. Efforts by the United Nations to investigate these claims are being obstructed by Israel.

The media’s amplification of Israel’s version of 7 October continues to breathe life into the Israeli case that wrecking Gaza to eliminate Hamas is morally justified

Nonetheless, once more, coverage of the growing devastation in Gaza was sidelined.

Media readiness to re-examine 7 October long after those events took place has operated within strict limits, however. Only claims that support Israel’s narrative about what happened that day are being aired.

A growing body of evidence suggesting a far more complex reality, one that paints Israel’s own actions in a far more troubling light, is being ignored or suppressed.

This deeply dishonest approach from the western media indicates that they are not, as they declare, fearlessly pursuing the truth. Rather, they are regurgitating talking points being fed to them by Israel.

That is not only unconscionable - particularly given Israel’s long track record of promoting lies, both small and large - but it violates all basic journalistic codes.

And, worse still, the media’s credulous amplification of Israel’s version of 7 October continues to breathe life into the Israeli case that wrecking Gaza to eliminate Hamas is morally justified.

Active cheerleaders

Unknown to most western audiences, there has been a steady trickle of evidence from Israeli sources over the past two months implicating Israel’s own military in at least some of the killings attributed to Hamas.

This week the Israeli military finally conceded that it had killed its own civilians on October 7 "in immense and complex quantity”. Given the large numbers, it added with transparent non-logic: “It would not be morally sound to investigate these incidents.”

How is it possible, given their continuing interest in scrutinising the events of 7 October, that none of the western media has picked up on any of this distressing evidence, let alone investigated it?

It is hard not to conclude that the western media are only interested in stories - and largely indifferent to whether they are true or false - that portray Hamas, but not Israel, as the bad guys. That would mean the media are not dispassionate reporters, but have been recruited by Israel as its active cheerleaders.

Israel’s official story, echoed by the western media, is that Hamas had long planned a crazed, barbaric rampage through communities in Israel - driven by a mix of primitive, religious bloodlust and Jew hatred.

The group’s chance to realise this goal came on 7 October, according to the Israeli narrative, when Israel let down its guard momentarily and Hamas broke through the hi-tech fence meant to keep it and Gaza’s other 2.3 million inhabitants permanently imprisoned.

During the breakout, Hamas focused on the slaughter of civilians, killing babies by beheading them and using rape as a weapon of war and defilement. They fired into the homes of neighbouring Israeli communities, often leaving them in ruins and burning their victims alive.

Admittedly, the claim about 40 beheaded babies has been quietly shelved, because there is precisely zero evidence for it. According to Israel’s own published figures, only two infants died that day.

Nonetheless, the media rarely challenge Israeli spokespeople, or western politicians, when they make this long-discredited allegation.

But many of these other allegations are no less evidence-free and need scrutiny too.

Although they are rarely given a voice, Palestinians have their own, alternative narrative of what happened that day - and parts of it are being bolstered by accounts from Israeli sources.

Challenge to official story

In this telling, Hamas long trained for its breakout, and with a strategic aim in mind. The goal was to launch a commando-style assault on four military bases surrounding Gaza to kill or take hostage as many Israeli soldiers as possible, and a similar assault on local Israeli communities to seize civilian hostages.

The aim, according to this narrative, was to trade the hostages for Palestinian prisoners, thousands of whom are in Israeli jails, including women and children, often held without a military trial or even charges.

To the Palestinian public, these prisoners are no less hostages than the Israelis held in Gaza.

Hamas stormed military bases and the Israeli communities of Be’eri and Kfar Azza. That is why about a third of the 1,200 Israelis killed that day were soldiers, police or armed guards - and why many of the 240 hostages were serving in the Israeli military too.

According to most accounts, even Israeli ones, Hamas accidentally stumbled on to the Nova music festival, which had been relocated to an area close to the fence with Gaza. There were unexpected clashes with security guards, while the attack on festivalgoers turned especially chaotic and gruesome.

What did Hamas have to gain from expending so much energy and ammunition on horror-show theatrics rather than its plan to seize hostages?

So why did Hamas depart from its plan by killing so many civilians? And why did it do so in such a savage, gratuitous and time-consuming fashion that involved burning Israelis alive, using its firepower to blast their homes into ruins, and setting fire to hundreds of cars on the highway near the music festival?

What did Hamas have to gain from expending so much energy and ammunition on horror-show theatrics rather than its plan to seize hostages?

For many western leaders and journalists, it appears no rational answer is needed. Hamas - and possibly all Palestinians - are simply barbarians for whom murdering Israelis, Jews or maybe all non-Muslims comes as second nature.

But for those whose minds are less bent by racist assumptions, an alternative picture of events has been steadily cohering, prompted by the testimonies of Israeli survivors and officials, as well as reporting from the Israeli media.

Because they contradict Israel’s official story, these testimonies have been studiously ignored by the western media.

Burned alive

Surprisingly, the person whose statements have most confounded the official narrative is Mark Regev, the spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In an interview on MSNBC on 16 November, Regev noted that Israel had reduced the official death toll by 200 after its investigations had shown that the charred remains it had counted included not just Israelis but Hamas fighters too. The fighters, burned alive, had been too disfigured to easily identify.

Regev told MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan: “There were actually bodies that were so badly burned we thought they were ours. In the end, apparently, they were Hamas terrorists.”

There was an obvious problem with Regev’s disclosure that went unchallenged by the MSNBC interviewer, and has been ignored by the media since. How did so many Hamas fighters end up burned - and in exactly the same locations as Israelis, meaning their remains could not be identified separately for many weeks?

Did Hamas fighters carry out some strange ritual, self-immolating in cars and homes alongside their hostages? And if so, why?

There is a likely explanation, confirmed by an Israeli survivor of the 7 October events, as well as by a security guard, and a variety of military personnel. But these accounts starkly undermine the official narrative.

Shelled by Israel

Yasmin Porat, who fled the Nova festival and ended up hiding in Be’eri, was one of the few to survive that day. Her partner, Tal Katz, was killed.

She has repeatedly explained to the Israeli media what happened.

According to Porat’s account to Kan radio on 15 November, the Hamas fighters in Be’eri barricaded themselves into a house with a group of a dozen or so Israeli hostages - either planning to use them as human shields or as bargaining chips for an exit.

The Israeli military, however, was in no mood for bargaining. Porat escaped only because one of the Hamas fighters vacated the house early on, using her as a human shield, before giving himself up.

Porat describes Israeli soldiers engaging in a four-hour firefight with the Hamas gunmen, despite the presence of Israeli civilians. But not all of the hostages were killed in the crossfire. Israel ended the clash with an Israeli tank firing two shells into the house.

In Porat’s account, when she asked why this had been done, “they explained to me that it was to break the walls, in order to help purify the house”.

The only other survivor, Hadas Dagan, who was lying face down on the lawn in front of the house during the firefight, reported to Porat what happened after the two shells hit the house. Dagan saw both of their partners lying near her, killed by shrapnel from the explosions.

A 12-year-old girl, Liel Hatsroni, who had been screaming inside the house throughout the firefight, also fell silent.

Hatsroni and her aunt, Ayalan, were both incinerated. It took weeks to identify their bodies.

Notably, Liel Hatsroni’s charred remains have been one of the emotive pieces of evidence cited by Israel for accusing Hamas of killing and burning Israelis.

In reporting the deaths of Liel, her aunt, her twin brother and her grandfather, the Israeli news website Ynet stated that Hamas fighters “murdered them all. Afterwards, they set the house alight”.

Confused pilots

Porat’s testimony is far from the only source showing that Israel is likely to have been responsible for a significant proportion of the civilian deaths that day - and for the burned bodies.

The security coordinator at Be’eri, Tuval Escapa, effectively confirmed Porat’s account to the Haaretz newspaper. He said: “Commanders in the field made difficult decisions - including shelling houses on their occupants in order to eliminate the terrorists along with the hostages.”

The burnt-out cars at the Nova festival and their occupants appear to have suffered a similar fate. Worried that Hamas gunmen were fleeing the area with hostages in cars, it seems, helicopter pilots were told to open fire, incinerating the cars and all the occupants.

Worried that Hamas gunmen were fleeing the area with hostages in cars, it seems, helicopter pilots were told to open fire, incinerating the cars and all the occupants

There is a likely explanation for this. The Israeli army has long had a secret protocol - known as the Hannibal directive - in which soldiers are instructed to kill any captured comrades to avoid their being taken hostage. It is less clear how this directive applies to Israeli civilians, though it appears to have been used in the past.

The goal is to prevent Israel from facing demands to release prisoners.

In at least one case, an Israeli military official, Col Nof Erez, has stated that “the Hannibal directive was apparently applied”. He called the Israeli air strikes on 7 October “a mass Hannibal”.

Haaretz has reported that police investigators concluded that “an IDF combat helicopter that arrived at the scene and fired at terrorists there apparently also hit some festival participants”.

In a video released by the Israeli military, Apache helicopters are shown randomly firing missiles at cars leaving the area, presumably on the assumption that they contained Hamas fighters trying to smuggle hostages back into Gaza.

The Ynet news website cited an Israeli air force assessment of its two dozen attack helicopters in the skies above the Nova festival: “It was very difficult to distinguish between terrorists and [Israeli] soldiers or civilians.” Nonetheless, pilots were instructed “to shoot at everything they see in the area of the fence” with Gaza.

“Only at a certain point did the pilots begin to slow their attacks and carefully choose the targets,” the outlet reported.

Another Israeli publication, Mako, noted that “there was almost no intelligence to assist in making fateful decisions”, adding that the pilots “emptied the ‘belly of the helicopter’ in minutes, flew to re-arm and returned to the air, again and again”.

In another Mako report, the commander of an Apache unit is quoted stating: “Shooting at people in our territory - this is something I never thought I would do.” Another pilot recalled of the attack: “I find myself in a dilemma as to what to shoot at.”

Secrets to the grave

Quite extraordinarily, in reporting the devastation of ravaged houses and burnt and crumpled cars, reporters have completely ignored the visual evidence staring them in the face and simply amplified the official Israeli narrative.

There are plenty of more-than-obvious questions no one is asking - and for which no answers are ever likely to be forthcoming.

How did Hamas wreak such widescale and intense devastation when its fighters’ own videos show them mostly bearing light arms?

Were those carrying basic RPGs capable of accurately tracking and hitting hundreds of fast-moving vehicles fleeing the festival - and doing so from ground level?

Video footage from Hamas body-cams shows cars leaving the Nova festival with both gunmen and hostages inside. Why would Hamas risk incinerating its own people?

Given Hamas’ keenness to film its triumphs, why is there no footage of such actions? And why would Hamas waste its most prized ammunition on random attacks on cars rather than save it for the far more difficult task of attacking Israeli military bases?

Israel appears not to be interested in investigating the burnt-out cars and wrecked homes, possibly because it already knows the answers and fears that others may one day find out the truth too.

With religious organisations demanding that the cars be hurriedly buried to preserve the sanctity of the dead, the metal skeletons will take their secrets to the grave.

Grotesque fables

What seems certain from this growing body of evidence - and from the trail of visual clues - is that on 7 October many Israeli civilians were killed either in the crossfire of gun battles between Israel and Hamas or by Israeli military directives to stop Hamas fighters returning to Gaza and taking hostages with them.

This week, an Israeli commentator in the Haaretz newspaper called the testimonies “earth-shattering”, and added: "Was the Hannibal directive applied to civilians? An investigation and public debate need to happen now, no matter how difficult they are.”

But as the army has made clear, it has no intention to investigate when its whole genocidal campaign against Gaza is premised on lurid claims that appear to bear a limited relationship to reality.

Israel and its supporters have concocted grotesque fables to present Palestinians as bloodthirsty savages

None of that justifies Hamas’ atrocities, especially the killing and taking hostage of civilians. But it does paint a very different picture of that day’s events.

Remember, Israel and its supporters have sought to compare the Hamas attack on 7 October with the Nazi Holocaust. They have concocted grotesque fables to present Palestinians as bloodthirsty savages deserving of any fate that befalls them.

And those fables have served as the basis for western indulgence and sympathy for Israel as it has carried out ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza.

The truth is it would have been much harder for western governments to sell Israel’s rampage in Gaza to their publics had Hamas’ crimes been seen, sadly, as all too typical of modern militarised confrontations in which civilians become collateral damage.

What western governments and institutions should have done is demand an independent investigation to clarify the extent of Hamas atrocities that day rather than echo Israeli officials who wanted an excuse to trash Gaza and drive its inhabitants into neighbouring Sinai.

The western media’s performance has been even more dismal - and dangerous. It professes to be a watchdog on power. But it has repeatedly amplified the Israeli occupier’s evidence-free claims, peddled libels against Palestinians with little or no scrutiny, and actively suppressed evidence challenging Israel’s official narrative.

For that reason alone, western journalists are entirely complicit in the crimes against humanity currently being perpetrated in Gaza - crimes being committed right now, not two months ago.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

Jonathan Cook
Middle east eye

The case was opened of the killing of the three Israeli prisoners in the Shuja'iya neighborhood in Gaza City, by Israeli "army" forces after they were directly shot, even though they took all measures that could make it clear that they did not pose a threat to its forces, according to the "army's" initial report. The Israelis showed that they were raising their hands and removing their upper clothing to confirm to the soldiers that they were unarmed and did not carry any explosive belts, in addition to one of them raising a white flag to confirm their surrender, not to mention their full commitment to the orders of the commander of the military battalion that opened fire on them, and their request for help in Hebrew from Israeli army forces.

But despite all that, they were killed by the Israeli soldiers, who were supposed to protect them and do everything in their power to liberate them. However, the problem with these prisoners is that one of them is Arab, and another has oriental features, so the Israeli soldiers thought that they were dealing with fighters from the Palestinian resistance or Palestinian citizens who were raising... The white flag of surrender, which highlights the intelligence and military failure and the extreme tension experienced by the Israeli forces penetrating into the Gaza Strip, and the failure of the Israeli “army” twice, the first when it was unable to prevent the resistance from carrying out the capture operation on October 7, which was the most common expression. It was used among the settlers of the Gaza Strip on that day (where is the army), and the second was when he killed them in cold blood even though his mission was to release them.

But this combined military and intelligence failure is not considered important in comparison to highlighting the nature of the Israeli “army’s ethics,” which was clearly revealed by the incident of the killing of Israeli prisoners by its soldiers in Gaza, which calls into question what are the real reasons for the Israeli “army’s” racism, fascism, brutality, and inhumanity. ? What are the moral values and principles on which his soldiers are raised?

The importance of this incident is not only that it reveals the truth about the lies of the “moral” Israeli “army”, whose spokespeople and leaders keep filling the television screens with talk about the extent of their commitment to international law and the code of moral conduct during battle and fighting, and that they are doing everything in their power to spare Palestinian civilians from bombing and killing.

Fifty thousand wounded Palestinians, more than 20 thousand martyrs, and more than 7 thousand missing under the rubble, all this number of Palestinian victims, of which the percentage of children, women and the elderly represents more than 70%, all of these did not prove the criminality of the Israeli “army” and did not make society The international community takes a humanitarian stance to stop the Israeli killing machine for more than 75 days in the Gaza Strip, even the American administration, which every time repeats its trite phrase that “Israel” should avoid targeting civilians, and forgets that it was the one that granted “Israel” 29,000 bombs dropped by the “army.” The Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip, which extends over only 360 square kilometers, was dropped at a rate of approximately 80 bombs per square kilometer.

This was also confirmed by an assessment conducted by the Office of the US Director of National Intelligence, the contents of which were reported by the American CNN network, which confirmed that 40%-45% of those bombs dropped by “Israel” were stupid bombs, meaning that they killed civilians who had nothing to do with it. Without a doubt, this undermines the Israeli claim that it is trying to reduce civilian casualties as stated in the assessment.

Any follower of the internal discussion of Israeli society is astonished by the extent of the brutality and fascist proposals put forward by the general public and its members, without fear or any slightest shame or moral conscience, and openly on their media outlets, in their radio conversations, and on social media networks, the least of which is the killing of the entire population of the Gaza Strip. Gaza, under the slogan that there is no person in Gaza who is not a “terrorist,” which was expressed by the Minister of Heritage in the Israeli government, “Amichai Eliyahu” from the Religious Zionism Party, when he demanded the destruction of Gaza and its residents by dropping a nuclear bomb on it, and despite the fact that he was faced with a massive wave. Of criticism, but this popular Israeli criticism was for one and only reason, that there are 231 Israeli prisoners in Gaza, and if there were not these Israeli prisoners, no one inside the Israeli street would care about the lives of two million two hundred thousand Palestinians in Gaza.

If one searches for the common denominator between the incident of killing Israeli prisoners in Gaza and the incident of the killing of settler Yuval Doron Castleman, we realize that the thoughts that were circulating in the mentality of the soldiers who opened fire on the prisoners in Gaza were the same ones that dominated the mind of the soldier who opened fire on them. Castleman, who, although he attacked the perpetrators of the commando operation in Jerusalem, once an Israeli soldier found at the scene believed that he was one of the Palestinian attackers, he immediately and without thinking shot him, even though Castleman threw his weapon away, knelt down, and opened his jacket to show that he was not wearing An explosive vest, and he raised his hands in surrender.

The shooting soldier considered himself a Zionist “hero” at the moment of the shooting because he was killing a Palestinian, even though he did not pose any threat to his life, as described by the far-right MP Zvi Sukkot on his social media accounts, who later quickly deleted the post. After it became clear that the person who was shot was not a Palestinian, but an Israeli.

Were it not for the fact that Castleman is an Israeli Zionist Jew and the protest of his family, who considered what happened to their son tantamount to an execution, no one in “Israel” would have turned to killing a Palestinian who raises his hands in surrender and does not pose any danger to the shooter, like the hundreds of field executions of Palestinian young men and women carried out by police officers and “ The "Israeli" army at the Palestinian death checkpoints in the West Bank and Jerusalem in implementation of the "quickly pull the trigger" policy.

It is worth noting that the soldier belonged to the school of “Zionist religious nationalism” and that he was on vacation from the ongoing fighting in the Gaza Strip. Therefore, when he killed Castleman, who was lying on the ground and raising his hands in surrender, he considered himself carrying out the orders of his extremist rabbis who had raised him in a racist, fascist, Zionist upbringing. Mixed with ISIS-Jewish Talmudic ideas, which make killing and disrespecting any human being unless he is a Zionist Jew (Gentile) a natural human behavior and the basis of belonging to “Israel” and the Zionist idea, as the principles of the writings of “Torah HaMelech - The King’s Method,” which call for not hesitation. Never kill (the Gentiles) without regret and calls for not hesitating to kill the Palestinian, even if he is wounded or surrenders. All of these fascist, racist, terrorist values are brought up on by the majority of Israeli “army” soldiers in schools and centers of religious Zionist preparation (Yeshivat Hasdir) before they are recruited.” "For the army."

The Zionist society's vengeful killing instinct is not an individual condition or limited to a specific political or social sector, but rather a condition deeply rooted in Zionist ideology, which was strengthened through a "militaristic" society that built its mental image of itself as God's chosen people, as Ilan Babi Ahad says. New Historians in “Israel”: “Israel’s image of itself as a moral society is something that has not been seen anywhere in the world. The idea that we are God’s chosen people, and that our army is the most committed army in the world to moral values, and I find it difficult to The Israelis accept that they committed war crimes, and basically the Zionist project has a problem. The Jews fled Europe in search of a safe place, but you cannot create a safe place for yourself through a disaster for another people.”

Pappe’s words are not a comment on the Israeli massacres being carried out by Israeli “army” soldiers now in Gaza, nor on the field executions of Palestinians in the West Bank, but rather a comment on the film “The Tantura Massacre”, by the Israeli director “Alon Schwarz”, who revealed this documentary. Through evidence, testimonies, and documents, the soldiers of the Alexandretta Brigade, in June 1948, killed more than 250 civilian men, annihilated the village, and deported those who remained to Jordan, as one of the massacres upon which the occupation “state” was established since 1948.

Therefore, criminality, brutality, racism, fascism, and inhumanity are not an individual characteristic of a soldier here or a military battalion there, but rather an inherent characteristic of an Israeli society, the vast majority of which has moved without any restraints towards terrorism, extremism, ISIS, and the religious and secular fascist settler right. Therefore, we find Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir from Religious Zionism calls for the execution of a Palestinian prisoner who participated in the Al-Aqsa Flood operation every day, and publicly mocks the importance of “Israel” having humanitarian values, and demands preventing the entry of food, fuel, and any necessities of human life to the residents of Gaza.

As for the former Israeli National Security Council official, Giora Eiland, a secular Zionist, he calls on the Israeli government and the army to intensify the policy of mass starvation against all the residents of Gaza without any mercy or even dealing with any international humanitarian pressure. Thus, there is no difference between Ben Gvir and the Zionist. The religious right and the secular Zionist Giora Eiland are on the ladder of moral decadence and inhuman brutality.

Al-Mayadeen

“Zero Distance” and the genuine embrace of the resistance in all countries resisting its issues demonstrated that the issue is what elevates a person’s humanity, no matter the price they pay, and that a person without a cause cannot be free or a fully human being.

“Zero distance” is a new political and military term that entered today’s narrative after it was coined by the blood of brave fighters who did not fear the blame of anyone in God. They defeated, for the first time, an “army” that claimed to be invincible, so it began killing its prisoners to evade negotiations and deals in which the resistance had the upper hand.

“Zero distance” in this sense and the many meanings it implies is not a simple or passing expression at all; It is a zero distance between someone who has been besieged for years and only has a personal weapon with which to confront the bombing of aircraft, tanks and armored vehicles, and the latest advanced and dirty weapons that have been produced. This is the first time that any party has been able to resist the Zionist “army” for more than seventy days. This is the first time that the Zionist enemy has suffered this scale of losses, and the pillars of its unjust colonialist settler existence have been shaken as a result of the determination of a proud, authentic people to redeem their land, their people, their history, and their heritage with their spirit, and to shake the ground under their feet without them being able to dislodge or displace them.

But this courage, this pride, and this redemption were met by a cowardly enemy supported medially and militarily by the tyrants of the West, with the extermination of children and women and the ethnic cleansing of the authentic people of Palestine, the likes of which history has never witnessed. Stopping this genocide is not the responsibility of the Palestinians who are engaged in an honorable resistance with all their strength, but it is a responsibility. The others, all the others are human beings and in whatever area they happen to be on this earth and in whatever location they are.

It is a human responsibility; Every human being sees that a brute force deprives his fellow human beings of water, food, fuel, and medicine, deprives them of housing and tranquility, and deprives them of the lowest necessities of a decent life. So how can any Arab or non-Arab human being, from any belief or country, accept his humanity with silence, living, and peaceful sleep while he sees what he sees? He hears what he hears and knows what he knows.

The “zero distance” dictates that every human being on this earth who has some degree of human feeling must know that the “zero distance” is between his humanity and the humanity of every Palestinian child, every woman and every man who died defending not the land of Palestine alone and not the people of Palestine alone, but About the dignity of the human being everywhere and about his right to live freely and dearly on his land, and to defeat the unjust forces that work to rob him of the foundations of his humanity and a dignified life.

At this time, and after all that we have witnessed of Palestinian humanitarian valor and resistance in Palestine, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen, “zero distance” has become an obligation and a duty for all the world’s writers, thinkers, actors and artists to devote their literary, dramatic, artistic, theatrical and cinematic production to supporting the truth in a battle that has transformed the distance between the truth and its advocates. And its true heroes to zero, and any failure to announce the greatest methods and signs of adopting this pioneering resistance that resists in defense of the humanity of every human being on this planet, any failure is a betrayal and an intentional or unintentional bias towards falsehood, the colonizers, the settlers, the Nazis and the racists.

“Zero Distance” exposed all their lies that they had been convincing the world for decades. It has proven that they have no freedom, democracy, or human rights at all, and that the presidents of the universities that they brag about in front of the world are subjected to investigation and humiliating interrogation, and then forced to resign from their academic positions because they did not follow like a rabble behind statements prepared in advance by a handful of Nazis attacking us. Human dignity and humanity.

“Zero Distance” exposed them morally and demonstrated that they have no morals at all when they force detainees to walk semi-naked, and present them to the media without the slightest condemnation from the hypocritical Western media. This is a disgraceful moral fall for any person or power in the world that carries out such a despicable and heinous practice. This is in addition to their record of brutal massacres, abuse of prisoners, breaking their bones, and depriving them of the most basic rights of prisoners stipulated in religions, laws, and international laws.

In comparison, the faces of the Israeli prisoners and others of different nationalities who left the resistance fighters were filled with love and affection and their eyes said, “Thank you,” and this can only be seen as a result of decent moral treatment imposed by beliefs and cultural accumulation that money cannot buy nor technology can manufacture. Abusing, torturing, killing, and humiliating prisoners is a common Western heritage from the Middle Ages to today, and the French, Italian, British, and American colonialists torturing and killing prisoners are only recent examples, as happened in Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo, and Sprint, and as has been happening for 75 years in the great prison called “Israel.” “Racism.

On the 72nd day of summoning aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines, wide-opening the gates of American and European weapons to the usurping entity, and desperately defending in their narratives the lie of “self-defense”, and in the midst of starvation, destruction, shameful extermination and purging of tens of thousands of children, women and civilians, fighters are crawling on the soil they have loved and protected. With it, from a zero distance, their feet and clothes are sanctified by the sanctity of this beautiful soil that they defend with their blood. They crawl, and from a zero distance, they attack the usurpers, aggressors, and occupiers, and liberate the sacred spot that is their land and the land of their fathers and grandfathers.

A bastard foreign aggressor and an intruder on this land, culture and history cannot understand the psychology of those whose feet feel the tenderness of the dirt on them and on their tender bodies. He cannot understand how these people think, and what is the motive that prompts them to sacrifice themselves and fight all methods of force, treachery, cruelty and tyranny. Because they have never had a cause and do not know what it means to have a cause!

To have a cause, that is, to be a free human being, proud of your humanity, freedom, dignity, and belonging. To be the owner of a cause committed to it and working to advance it, that is, to be at the highest levels of human transcendence, in contrast to all the thousands of books that the West has produced about the danger of commitment and its disadvantages to individual freedom, and that committed literature cannot be creative, and committed art cannot be universal.

“Zero Distance” and the genuine embrace of resistance in all countries resisting its issues have proven that the issue is what elevates a person’s humanity, no matter the price he pays, and that a person without a cause cannot be free or a fully human being.

The resistance in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen offers a precious gift to humanity: to embrace the cause of liberating the land from the occupiers, to stand by the truth, and to advance their humanity, dignity, and freedom in action, not in word, and to get rid of all the false and counterfeit concepts that the West has used to deceive humanity, and which have become In the waste cemetery after the "Zero Distance" steadfastness.

Al-Mayadeen.

The confrontation is intensifying between the occupation “army” and two important components of the Israeli entity, against the backdrop of conflicting numbers of casualties among the officers and soldiers of the occupation “army” in the escalating battles in Gaza. While the “army” provides brief data with small numbers, hospitals talk about numbers. Multiplied several times, which prompted the Israeli press to intervene in this conflict and explore some of the truth.

The occupation "army" had succeeded in concealing its human losses, throughout the ongoing confrontation in the West Bank for more than two years, especially in Jenin, and this success had an impact on its ability to contain the confrontation within the roof of the sensitive reservoir in the West Bank, while its failure in this regard escalated in “Al-Aqsa’s flood,” especially as it sank into the fire-blazing swamp of Gaza.

Why does the occupation “army” insist on concealing its human losses, and how was it possible for the Israeli press to pierce the censor’s scissors to explode a heavy-caliber bomb, about the “army” lying in all the numbers data it produces every day, and why Israeli hospitals insist on providing their own contradictory data? What does the army issue, despite the state of war that Israel has been in since October 7?

We had previously published on Al-Mayadeen Net, about the truth about the losses of the occupation “army” in the confrontations in the West Bank, an article supported by evidence and irrefutable evidence, but that did not prevent the media, and with it public opinion, from settling on what the occupation “army” recognized exclusively, given the popular saying. ; That the Hebrew entity is an open environment, and that its “citizens” have moral and material rights, which prevent it from being able to hide the killing of its soldiers, because the “army” is a sacred cow in the Israeli psychological makeup!.

In the midst of the war of numbers, the “Army” came out yesterday to announce a large dozen deaths, twenty soldiers at once, since the beginning of the ground war, thirteen of whom were killed by friendly fire, two in traffic accidents on the battlefield between tanks, vehicles and troop carriers, and five by shrapnel. Devices were detonated by their colleagues, and the “Army” attributed this loss to the huge number present in the field, the long time and nature of the fighting, fatigue, lack of operational discipline, and lack of coordination between the forces.

The loss of balance as a result of the 7th of October was reflected in the entire nervous fabric of the entity, especially its security system, led by the “Army”, and this appeared early, not only in the eagerness to transform the battle of the 7th of October from a combat epic into a concert massacre, but also in Breaking down the dead, to conclude that the army’s losses on that day amounted to three hundred and twenty-two officers and soldiers, out of more than one thousand five hundred dead Israelis, in complete disregard for the police officers and members who were killed in “Sderot” and elsewhere, and their number exceeded sixty, and most importantly, ignoring the police officers. The ten Shin Bet who fell that day, and the goal is clear: to ensure that the number of military deaths is reduced.

The loss of balance was quickly reflected in the face of the first commando operation that came out of Lebanon, and was carried out at the time by the Al-Quds Brigades, specifically on October 10, when the clear confusion appeared in the Israeli “Army” statement, which admitted that seven soldiers, including two, were seriously injured, but it took a few days. To admit that the operation resulted in the killing of the deputy of the 300th Brigade in the Israeli “Army”, Lieutenant Colonel Alim Saad, who was of Arab origin, and days later to reveal that four of his officers and soldiers were killed in the operation.

It is noteworthy that since the announcement of the killing of this officer, who was of Arab origin, the names of those killed in the "army" of Arab origin in the Gaza confrontations have not yet been announced, in a way that reflects their percentage in the occupation "army", as there are at least 8% of Druze origin. In the occupation "army", and as long as they were at the forefront of the Israeli "army"'s wars, does the concealment of the dead from this segment come in the context of these implicated minorities' feeling of shame as a result of participating in the Gaza massacres against children, women and the elderly, whose number has nearly reached twenty thousand? Who are the martyrs?

Across the Lebanese border, which has been on fire since October 8, the first internal Israeli contradiction appeared in the data on human casualties. At a time when the “Army” remained sharply concealing its losses in the fighting with Hezbollah, in order to avoid internal pressure to open a full war front in light of its inability to... Gaza, when Nahariya Hospital announced in the first days of the confrontation that it had received hundreds of wounded soldiers, so what is the situation when Hezbollah doubled its attacks after the ground war on Gaza, and introduced “Burkan” missiles?

Israeli hospitals refused to adhere to the instructions of the “Army”, which requested that the hospitals not issue any statements about the reception and nature of injuries, except after the “Army” spokesman issues his statements, and the “Army” remained in one valley, and the hospitals in another, exposing the media and oversight system. For the entity as a whole, this necessitated the entry of the press on the line, and this time it is not the opposition newspaper "Haaretz", which was threatened by the Minister of Communications with closure, against the backdrop of what it revealed about the Israeli bombing of the concert on the seventh of October, but it is "Yedioth Ahronoth", which succeeded in bypassing the scissors. Al-Raqeeb to achieve a scoop on the truth about human losses in the war.

Yedioth Ahronoth concluded that more than 5,000 soldiers had been injured since the beginning of the war. The Israeli Army spokesman was quick to say that most of these injuries were minor, although he refused to confirm them officially. Fortunately, he did not say that they were admitted to hospitals due to panic, which is a lie that It was promoted when the resistance missiles fell in Tel Aviv, and he merely admitted that their injuries were minor, but the rest of the report in Yedioth Ahronoth also contradicts that, by pointing out that the rehabilitation department receives about 60 new wounded daily, from the security and reserve forces. This number does not include those wounded by regular forces.

"Yedioth" adds that at the same time, the "Army" officially recognized more than 2,000 of them as disabled, in addition to 1,000 other disabled regular and military soldiers, at a time when the head of the Rehabilitation Department in the Israeli Ministry of War, Limor Luria, asked: Who will help them shower? Or walk around the house? This indicates the nature of their total disabilities, stressing that most of the wounded suffer from serious injuries.

But the "Army", through its spokesman, returned to give a total tally of the wounded, and that their number had not exceeded one thousand five hundred since the seventh of October, indicating that among them were about one hundred and sixty critical injuries, including forty since the seventh of October, and this is what exposed his claim, for how can the rest remain? These injuries have been critical for more than two months? At a time when a critical injury in Israel is referred to as being on the verge of death, if she survives, it is called serious.

After that, the newspaper "Haaretz" entered and conducted a field investigation into the hospitals, and collected data for each hospital separately, to come up with the same number of infections, which was previously mentioned by "Yedioth Ahronoth" in its report, in a way that belies the data of the "army" and confirms the credibility of the data. Resistance in Gaza and Lebanon.

Hospitals base their refusal to submit to the “army’s” data, not from an ethical angle, but from the nature of the work. The hospital is required to submit its work data during wartime to the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance, which is data that cannot tolerate confidentiality in civilian hospitals, given the nature of its system and structure, and what is built on them. Of financial and administrative entitlements and fees, and the entity did not find time to reorganize this computer system, to reconcile its confidential nature, its administrative style, and its financial requirements.

The Palestinian, and every free resistor, does not need the data of the Israeli “army” in order to know the facts on the ground. The resistance has developed in the media, and it often releases documented live clips, exposing the lies of the occupation. From among the rubble in Gaza, video clips emerge of burning tanks and bombings. The tunnels and sniping of officers, at the hands of Al-Qassam and the Brigades, in a way that is not consistent with the numbers released by the “Army”, and Hezbollah, which has lost more than a hundred of its fighters martyred so far, in this confrontation, and does not hesitate to mourn them on the road to Jerusalem, is issued in a manner Daily accurate clips, proving that there were massive human losses in the occupation “army”.


Al Mayadeen

The Al-Qassam Brigades thwart the occupation forces’ attempt to reach an Israeli prisoner in Gaza, and clashes with them, killing a captured soldier. The resistance seizes an Israeli soldier’s rifle and an occupation’s communications device.

The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas movement, confirmed that its fighters thwarted an attempt by the occupation forces to reach an Israeli prisoner in the Gaza Strip, at dawn today.

Al-Qassam explained that its mujahideen discovered the Israeli forces as they were trying to advance, and clashed with them.

This clash led to the death of the captive Israeli soldier, Sa'ar Baruch, who had identification card number 207775032. Al-Qassam also seized control of one of the soldiers' rifle and a communications device belonging to this Israeli force, according to what Al-Qassam announced.

The clash also resulted in the injury of other Israeli soldiers who had penetrated into Gaza as part of this “mission,” forcing the occupation to bring in its warplanes and bomb the place with a series of raids to cover up the withdrawal of the Israeli force.

About two hours ago, the Israeli “Army” acknowledged the death of two additional soldiers as a result of battles with the Palestinian resistance in the northern Gaza Strip, publishing details about their military rank: the first, a sergeant in the 699th Battalion, “Fire Arrows” formation, and the second, a fighter in the 271st Engineering Battalion.

With Al-Qassam’s announcement of the killing of an Israeli soldier, the number of Israeli soldiers killed since the start of the incursions into Gaza has reached 92, bringing the total number of soldiers killed in the “Al-Aqsa Flood” battle to 419.

This Al-Qassam operation comes at a time when the Palestinian resistance maintains its level of preparedness to confront the occupation’s ground incursions on all axes, and at a time when it continues to engage from zero distance and carry out ambushes, causing casualties and causing material and human losses among the ranks of the Israeli “army.”

Yesterday, the military spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Ubaida, announced that they had managed, during the last 72 hours, to completely or partially destroy 135 military vehicles, stressing that the resistance fighters had killed and wounded dozens of Israeli soldiers, following the explosion of a number of tunnel openings and houses. With them.

In turn, the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, announced the targeting of 4 Israeli military vehicles with "tandom" shells in the Shuja'iya neighborhood, and the bombardment of the occupation crowds with mortar shells. In addition, the Mujahideen of the brigades fought fierce clashes with the occupation soldiers in Al-Shuja'iya and Al-Tuffah neighborhood.

Source: Al-Mayadeen

So at last Israel agreed to the exchange deal and a temporary truce only after it failed to reach any prisoner held by Hamas, despite 46 days of brutal aggression. With over half millon forces mobilised to crush Hamas and rescue the hostages.
I can't stop laughing.
I think Gaza is one of the biggest continent in the world.

So at last Israel agreed to the exchange deal and a temporary truce only after it failed to reach any prisoner held by Hamas, despite 46 days of brutal aggression. With over half millon forces mobilised to crush Hamas and rescue the hostages.
I can't stop laughing.
I think Gaza is one of the biggest continent in the world.

misreal:
So?
What does it change?

Sorry for correcting you

misreal:
Why take hostages when all you will demand for is a ceasefire?
I think they want more than a ceasefire.
They want a negotiation,and through this negotiation they want something israel is not ready to give.
If all they want was a ceasefire,they won’t kill 1400 people,and take 200 people hostage.

You are not current, Israel has officially dropped the number from 1400 - 1200 for almost 2 weeks ago

Most times when I read comments about my fellow Africans, I really feel ashamed because I don't think they have any excuses of not being informed as you can do many facts checking online.

1. Why do you think Biden is supporting Israel and keeps supplying it with weapons despite condemnation by millions of people worldwide including US citizens which he knows that he's at risk of losing the forth coming election?
2. Everyone claims US fight for Human rights but which rational solution have you seen US provided since the start of the war?
3. Don't you think that all what the US want if for them keep fighting on the Palestine land?
4. Not only US, why do you think the UK and Germany (the country they were ethnically cleansed) quickly come down to Israel to pledge their support for them?

You need to go back to history and study it.

Incase you don't know.

Did you know that the US government turned away Jews refugees in 1947 even though they have financial capabilities and land to accommodate them?.

cjudy:
Why you delete am na? Continue sharing your Yetoba Muslim, Hamas propaganda news.

Meaning

Israeli Security Establishment: Hamas Likely Didn’t Have Advance Knowledge of Nova Festival

The growing assessment in Israel's security establishment is that Hamas terrorists who committed the October 7 massacre didn’t have advance knowledge about the Nova music festival held next to Kibbutz Re’im, and decided to target the party spontaneously. According to police, 364 people were murdered at the festival.

The assessment is based on terrorist interrogations and the police’s investigation of the incident, among other things, which reveal that the terrorists intended to infiltrate Re’im and other kibbutzim near the Gaza border.

According to a police source, the investigation also indicates that an IDF combat helicopter that arrived to the scene and fired at terrorists there apparently also hit some festival participants.

Senior security officials estimate that Hamas found out about the party through drones or parachutes, and directed the terrorists to the location using their comms system. In a video from one of the terrorists’ bodycams, he is heard asking a captured citizen for directions to Re’im.

One of the findings reinforcing this assessment, according to police and other senior security figures, is that the first terrorists arrived at the location from Route 232, and not from the direction of the border.

In addition, according to police sources, the party was originally planned for Thursday and Friday, with an extra day on Saturday added only on Tuesday of that week, at the organizers’ request. The last-minute change strengthens the assessment that Hamas hadn't known of the event.

“The event was attended, according to our estimate, by some 4,400 people, the large majority of whom managed to flee following the decision to disperse the event made four minutes after the rocket attack,” a senior police source said.

Police analysis shows that many of those attending the festival managed to flee because it was decided to stop the party half an hour before gunfire was first heard.

SOURCE: Israeli media - Haaretz

Weapons tested in each war Israel wages see a spike in global demand. The current Gaza war is the latest laboratory for its arms industry.
Amman, Jordan – The Israeli army released footage on October 22 of its Maglan commando unit deploying a new precision-guided 120mm mortar bomb called the Iron Sting, against Hamas in Gaza.

The bomb’s Haifa-based manufacturer, Elbit Systems, has been advertising its qualities on the public relations page of its website since March 2021, when it was integrated into the Israeli military

Benny Gantz, then Israel’s defence minister and now a part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet, described the Iron Sting as “designed to engage targets precisely, in both open terrains and urban environments, while reducing the possibility of collateral damage and preventing injury to non-combatants”.

It’s a claim echoed by Mark Regev, Netanyahu’s former spokesperson, for the country’s overall approach to its war on Gaza, in which, he has said, Israel is “trying to be as surgical as humanly possible”.

Yet, more than one month after Israel launched the aerial bombardment of Gaza following a surprise Hamas attack, it has killed at least 11,400 Palestinian civilians, and injured 30,000 in the besieged strip and the occupied West Bank. More than 4,700 of Gaza’s children are dead. Hamas fighters killed 1,200 people in their October 7 attack.

Israel’s devastatingly “surgical” killing machines, tested on Palestinians, have global takers, say analysts.


'Tissue torn from flesh’

Ahmed Saeed al-Najar, 28, was driving his taxi in Rafah during Gaza’s third war of 2014 when a drone missile came in through the open sunroof of his taxi. It exploded in the car, instantly decapitating and killing all six of his passengers, his best friend included.

The car had been targeted by an Israeli Spike drone rocket, which can be modified to carry a fragmentation sleeve of thousands of 3mm tungsten cubes, said to affect an area of approximately 20 metres in diameter. The cubes puncture metal and “cause tissue to be torn from flesh”, literally shredding anyone within range, according to Erik Fosse, a Norwegian doctor working in Gaza.

Al-Najar, rescued from the wreckage of his car, suffered extensive burns, the loss of his right eye, multiple shrapnel wounds and the loss of his right leg from the mid-thigh point, amputated by the blast.

But by 2014, drones that carry the Spike rocket had already become highly sought-after by other countries

The Heron TP “Eitan” drone is Israel’s largest unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and was brought into service in 2007. Manufactured by the state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) — Israel’s largest aerospace and defence company and the country’s largest industrial exporter – it can fly up to 40 hours continuously and can carry four Spike missiles.

The Eitan was first used during “Operation Cast Lead” in the 2008-09 Gaza war for attacks against civilians, according to the non-governmental organisation, Drone Wars UK. According to Defence for Children International, of the 353 children killed and 860 injured during Operation Cast Lead, 116 died from missiles launched by drones.

After the war, IAI witnessed a surge in orders of Heron variant drones from at least 10 countries between 2008-2011. During this period, more than 100 drones were purchased, leased or acquired under joint venture schemes.

India – Israel’s largest military buyer, which operates more than 100 Israeli-made UAVs – purchased 34 Heron drones in this period, followed by France (24), Brazil (14) and Australia (10), according to a 2014 report by Drone Wars UK.

That does not mean that Israel wages wars to advertise its weapons, said experts. “Nobody fights wars just to show off their weapons,” said Lawrence Freedman, emeritus professor of war studies at King’s College London.

Yet, at the same time, “in every war against Gaza a range of weapons and surveillance tech has been deployed against the Palestinians which is then marketed and sold to huge amounts of nations around the world,” said Antony Loewenstein, independent journalist and author of The Palestine Laboratory.

‘An insurance policy’

Weapons exports have uses beyond the revenue they bring to Israel.

“It’s more than that, it’s also an insurance policy to insulate themselves from the intense pressure to change their behaviour over the decades-long occupation of Palestinians,” said Loewenstein.

Last month, Colombian President Gustavo Petro refused to condemn the surprise attack launched by Hamas on October 7 as a “terrorist attack” instead responding that “terrorism is killing innocent children in Palestine”.

In response, the Israeli government halted all sales of defence and security equipment and associated services to the Latin American country.

Colombia is one of an estimated 130 countries that have bought weapons, drones and cyberspying technology from Israel, the world’s 10th-largest weapons exporter.

Israel is, by far, the world’s largest exporter of military drones: in 2017, it was estimated that it was behind nearly two-thirds of all UAV exports over the previous three decades.

Elbit, the maker of the Iron Sting, provides up to 85 percent of the land-based equipment procured by the Israeli military and about 85 percent of its drones, according to Database of Israeli Military and Security Export (DIMSE).

But after the 2014 Gaza war, its export market expanded significantly, too. Elbit promotes its Hermes UAVs as “combat-proven” and the “primary platform of the IDF in counter-terror operations”.

The Hermes 450 and Hermes 900 were both used extensively in “Operation Protective Edge”, Israel’s 2014 war, during which 37 percent of fatalities were attributed to drone attacks, according to an estimate by the Gaza-based Al Mezan Center for Human Rights.

Elbit subsequently secured contracts for the new Hermes 900 drone with more than 20 countries worldwide including the Philippines, which purchased 13, as well as India, Azerbaijan, Canada, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Iceland, the European Union, Mexico, Switzerland and Thailand. In March 2023, Elbit Systems announced their 120th order for the Hermes 900.

The new “Nizoz” (Spark) surveillance drone manufactured by Rafael, a state-owned weapons contractor that forms the Big Three of Israel’s arms industry with IAI and Elbit, has reportedly now entered the current Gaza war. Rafael has an order backlog which currently stands at $10.1bn.

Al Jazeera approached Elbit Systems, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and IAI for comment but the firms were yet to respond before time of publication.

Hard to track

For all of its military export successes, the full extent of Israel’s defence industry sales remains masked.

A report from Amnesty International in 2019 noted that the whole process by which Israel sells arms is shrouded in secrecy “with no documentation of sales, one cannot know when [these arms] were sold, by which company, how many and so on”.

Amnesty found that “Israeli companies exported weapons which reached their destination after a series of transactions, thereby skirting international monitoring”.

Israel  has not ratified the Arms Trade Treaty, which prohibits the sale of weapons at risk of being used in genocide and crimes against humanity. As such, its weapons exports have influenced the course of history for several nations, many led by controversial regimes.

Israel sold weapons to the South African apartheid government in 1975 and even agreed to supply nuclear warheads, according to declassified documents – though Israel denies doing so. Napalm and other weapons were supplied to El Salvador during its counterinsurgency wars between 1980-1992 that killed more than 75,000 civilians.

In 1994, Israeli-made bullets, rifles and grenades were allegedly used in Rwanda’s genocide which killed at least 800,000 people. Israel supplied weapons to the Serbian army that waged war against Bosnia from 1992-1995.

Despite the Israeli government’s own statement in 2018 declaring it had ceased sales to Myanmar, the Haaretz newspaper reported last year that weapons manufacturers continued supplying the military government until 2022, in violation of the 2017 international arms embargo against the country.

And, in September this year, Israel supplied UAVs, missiles and mortars to Azerbaijan for its campaign to recapture Nagorno-Karabakh, during which 100,000 ethnic Armenians were displaced.

Part of what makes it hard to track Israeli weapons exports is the very nature of the arms trade. “Governments buy and sell to each other directly and through their large defence contractors, but also there is a parallel trade by private firms that is usually not illegal but provides plausible deniability,” Stephen Badsey, professor of conflict studies at Wolverhampton University, said.

The largest single control that seller nations maintain over the use of their weapons by other countries is the requirement for “end user” or “end use” rules, Badsey said. But as a major weapons exporter that doesn’t subscribe to the Arms Trade Treaty, Israel has built a reputation for loose export norms.

In 2018, former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte said he would ask his military to purchase weapons exclusively from Israel because, unlike the United States or Europe, Israel did not impose restrictions.

New government regulations introduced last year will allow Israel to sell more weapons to a greater range of countries without licences – and so, with less oversight. It pays: Israeli weapon export figures have doubled over the past decade, totalling $12.5bn last year.

Battle proven on ‘human animals’

Two days after the October 7 Hamas attack, Israel’s minister of defence Yoav Gallant compared the Palestinian people with “human animals”.

To Loewenstein, the dehumanising comments were unsurprising. “It is obvious over Israel’s occupation and countless wars that Palestinians are treated as second-class citizens. Like animals,” he said.

Over the years, the Israeli army has tested rubber bullets, artificial intelligence-powered robotic guns and various forms of crowd dispersal solutions, which have inflicted severe injuries on Palestinians.

Nabeel al-Shawa, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon who has worked in Gaza since 1978, treated many Palestinians wounded by Israeli firing on the Great March of Return in 2018 – when tens of thousands of Palestinians demanded they be allowed to return to the land they were forcibly removed from in 1948.

“For Israeli snipers, this was merely target practice with humans,” he said. “Most patients had been shot in joints deliberately to cause maximum damage, but not kill.

“These new rounds the Israeli army used caused injuries I have never seen before. In some cases the limb appeared intact, however, during surgery, I could not distinguish between bone and soft tissue.”

can Israeli weapons manufacturers legitimately market their weaponry as “battle proven” when the combat often targets unarmed civilians?

They can, said Zoran Kusovac, a geopolitical and security analyst.

“If a weapon’s main purpose is proven in the actual battlefield or in as near realistic circumstances as possible, then they are battle proven,” he said. “You cannot blame countries for buying from Israel. You can test all you want in a lab, but Israel is testing in the field, and as there are never any lags of time between one period of combat to the next, the development cycle is virtually in real time.

“And there is of course that adage; that if it’s good enough for the IDF, then it must be good enough for us.”

New weapons test in Gaza 2023?

Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health in Gaza, last week said in a press statement that medical teams in the enclave had “observed severe burns on the bodies of Palestinians who were killed and wounded by Israel’s bombs  – whether caused by an unknown weapon or not – is something they have not seen in previous conflicts”.

Dr Ahmed el-Mokhallalati from the burn and plastic surgery division at al-Shifa Hospital, in an interview with the Toronto Star, described the wounds as “very deep – third and fourth-degree burns, and the skin tissue is impregnated with black particles and most of the skin thickness and all the layers underneath are burned down to the bone”.

El-Mokhallalati said that these weren’t phosphorus burns, “but a combination of some kind of incendiary bomb wave and other components”.

The Israeli military has not commented so far on the statement made by Gaza’s Ministry. But the mystery incendiary bombs, the Iron Sting’s debut and the reported use of the new Spark drone in the current war suggest that Israel is once again testing new weapons in conflict.

“Israel’s weapons will continue to remain attractive to international buyers based on performance in the occupation,” Loewenstein said. “But Israel is not just selling weapons; they’re selling the ideology to other countries – of getting away with it.”

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA