Palestine

User avatar
blindpig
Posts: 12684
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 5:44 pm
Location: Turtle Island
Contact:

Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Thu Jan 09, 2025 4:54 pm

The US is Manufacturing Doubt about Gaza’s Famine
Posted by Internationalist 360° on January 7, 2025
Bryce Greene

Image
Palestinians struggling with hunger wait in line to receive meals distributed by charities in Khan Younis, on January 1 , 2025. (Photo: Abdullah Abu Al-Khair/APA Images)

On December 23rd, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSN), a project funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) released a report warning of a “famine scenario” that “continues to unfold in Northern Gaza.”

Based on the lack of aid and the number of people reported to be in the area, FEWS NET concluded that “it is highly likely that the food consumption and acute malnutrition thresholds for Famine (IPC Phase 5) have now been surpassed.” The organization estimated that absent any change of Israeli policy, they predict that “non-trauma mortality levels will pass the Famine (IPC Phase 5) threshold between January and March 2025, with at least 2-15 people dying per day.” The accepted threshold for famine would be two or more deaths a day per 10,000 people.

FEWS Net has been monitoring the humanitarian situation in Gaza since Israel’s attack began.

False dispute

The day after the report was published, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew, publicly denounced the report in a tweet. He claimed that FEWSNET’s report was “relying on inaccurate data” and that “it is irresponsible to issue a report like this.”

The basis of his objection was the number of civilians currently in northern Gaza. The FEWS NET report included November assessments that estimated the population was up to 75,000. In his complaint, Lew cited more recent figures, combining COGAT’s estimate of 5,000-9,000 and UNRWA’s estimate of 7,000-15,000. Lew wrote that “it is now apparent that the civilian population in that part of Gaza is in the range of 7,000-15,000, not 65,000 – 75,000 which is the basis of this report.” To Lew, the use of November figures in the report undermines the report’s conclusions about a current famine in northern Gaza.

However, this complaint would only resonate with someone who has not actually read the report, which totals just three pages. While the report did cite the higher, earlier figures, to say this was the “basis of this report” would be completely false. The sentence after FEWS NET cited OCHA’s November figures, and the report cited UNRWA’s smaller figures from December:

More recent satellite-derived imagery suggests thousands of people evacuated in early December, 1 and efforts are underway to update the estimated size of the remaining population; an update from the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) on December 22 suggests the population may be as low as 10,000-15,000

The citation is clear that it is including the lower end of the numbers in their assessment:

The range of the estimated daily number of deaths (2-15 deaths per day, applying the crude death rate threshold for Famine of 2 deaths/10,000/day) captures the lowest possible base population for a Famine (IPC Phase 5) classification on the low end (10,000 people), and the maximum estimated base population (75,000 people) on the high end.

The report acknowledges some ambiguity from UNRWA’s numbers: “Based on the language in UNRWA’s update, it is unclear if the UN is suggesting the total population of North Gaza is 10,000-15,000, or if 10,000-15,000 people remain in a sub-set of areas.”

The FEWS NET report was also clear about the limitations to data collection, writing: “Amid increasingly infeasible conditions for the collection of data that is desired to definitively confirm whether the criteria for Famine (IPC Phase 5) are being met, analysis of the likelihood of Famine (IPC Phase 5) must rely on extrapolation, inference, empirical evidence, logic, and expert judgment.”

Any cursory reading completely undermines Lew’s claim that “inaccurate and outdated” figures were the “basis of this report.”

Distorting reality

Despite the baselessness of the State Department’s attack, FEWS NET succumbed to the pressure. The New York Times reported that the organization plans on adjusting its projections based on updated numbers – a surprising statement given that their current assessments included numbers from the day prior to publication. The Times also reported that FEWS Net stands by its assessment, but the report has been removed from their website (still accessible via the Wayback machine). In fact, while older reports on Gaza are still available, the FEWSNET interactive dashboard shows no information on Gaza at all.

Image

As of January 6th, the FEWS Net Interactive dashboarddoes not have the Gaza strip highlighted as an area of interest despite still having reports about Gaza on their website.

Aid and Advocacy groups responded to the U.S. attack and FEWS Net retraction with swift condemnation. The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) released a statement condemning the report’s removal:

To reject a report on starvation in northern Gaza by appearing to boast about the fact that it has been successfully ethnically cleansed of its native population is just the latest example of Biden administration officials supporting, enabling and excusing Israel’s clear and open campaign of genocide in Gaza.

Ken Roth of Human Rights Watch denounced the dispute:

“This quibbling over the number of people desperate for food seems a politicized diversion from the fact that the Israeli government is blocking virtually all food from getting in.”

By quickly denouncing the report, the U.S. ambassador shifted the focus of media coverage from the report’s conclusions to the new story about the Dispute. To audiences, the report’s conclusions are put on the back burner, and the most important story is the dispute. FEWS Net’s removal of the report only fueled this misdirection.

On Christmas Day, The New York Times published an article recounting the saga, highlighting Ambassador Lew’s complaints and framing the story as a dispute of numbers. The Times appears to have not read the report as it makes no reference to the fact that FEWS Net does cite more recent figures from UNRWA.

Image
(Screenshot, NYT)

The Times wrote that “the dispute highlights the difficulties with data collection in Gaza that have hampered humanitarian efforts since the war began.” The Times made no attempt to investigate or assess the facts that made up Lew’s objection. Instead, they uncritically printed Israel’s defense: “Israel has said that it works hard to facilitate supplies to Gaza but that aid groups have often failed to deliver assistance because of widespread looting and lawlessness.”

The Times refused to reference the enormous body of evidence that Israel is deliberately restricting aid as part of an official policy of depopulation.

Intent To Destroy

One of the core pillars of the case against Israel for genocide is its deliberate use of starvation and depravation as a tactic. Amnesty defines intent as Israeli actions aimed at “deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction.” Among other things, the main method that Israel used was “the denial and obstruction of the delivery of essential services, humanitarian assistance and other life-saving supplies.”

In a report released the day before FEWS Net’s report, OXFAM raised alarms that between October 8 and December 16, the UN attempted 137 aid missions into Northern Gaza, with more than 90% of them being rejected by Israel. Of the 34 aid trucks officially allowed into Gaza, only 12 aid trucks have made it through Israel’s gauntlet of arbitrary delays and restrictions to actually deliver food or wat

USAID, FEWS NET’s primary patron, has released its own assessments about the situation in Gaza over the last year and a half of the genocide. Samantha Power, the “humanitarian superstar” head of USAID under Biden, acknowledged that Israel was the primary force preventing aid from getting into the strip. In the Spring, USAID assessed that Israel was deliberately blocking aid into Gaza, one of many Israeli actions that renders U.S. military aid to Israel illegal under U.S. and international law.

As Journalist Stephen Semler noted there are numerous ways – including their own published figures – that Israelis have confirmed their own policy of blocking aid into Gaza.

Image

Israel’s starvation policy has been openly acknowledged both in Israel and in the US. Since at least October, the policy has been embodied by the so-called General’s Plan for clearing northern Gaza. The General’s Plan is the name given to the document from hawkish Israeli general Giora Eiland that urges the IDF to forcibly expel the population of the north, then seal off the area, treating anyone who remains as a military target.

In effect, this plan is the basis for a campaign of violent ethnic cleansing for the many who are unable or unwilling to comply with the IDF’s unlawful orders. Eiland, who has endorsed drastic measures, including allowing or encouraging epidemics in Gaza as part of Israel’s war efforts, has defended his plan in the Israeli press.

In Israel, this plan is openly discussed as a plan for northern Gaza. While Israel assured U.S counterparts in private that this wasn’t their plan, Israel refused to publicly disavow th.e plan.

The entirety of this plan is advanced by the famine conditions reported FEWS Net.

This phony dispute about the humanitarian reports in the North is designed to obscure these facts and pave the way for Israel’s continued assault on the people of Gaza. As Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, and numerous reports have corroborated, Israel has demonstrated a clear intent to commit genocidal acts against the Palestinians. US officials and media have been instrumental in running cover for this crime.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2025/01/ ... as-famine/

******

Israel to produce munitions 'locally,' reduce reliance on US for heavy bombs

Israel's Defense Ministry signed two deals with Elbit Systems to produce munitions and the raw materials required to manufacture them

News Desk

JAN 7, 2025

Image
(Photo credit: Alex Brandon/AP)
Israel’s Defense Ministry signed major new deals on 7 January with a domestic weapons manufacturer in hopes of achieving “independence” in producing the heavy munitions needed to continue its bombing campaigns in Gaza, Syria, and Lebanon.

The Defense Ministry announced it signed two deals worth $275 million with Israeli-based Elbit Systems to supply the military with thousands of heavy bombs and establish a new facility to manufacture raw materials.

The ministry said the agreements were “crucial for enhancing the IDF’s operational endurance and force build-up capabilities” and represented a “central lesson learned from the war.”

Under the first agreement, Elbit will supply the Israeli Air Force with thousands of heavy air munitions, reducing Israel’s dependence on US weapon shipments to keep waging its wars.

Under the second agreement, Elbit will establish a “national raw materials plant to produce raw materials that were sourced mainly from abroad before the war.”

“The new facility will feature advanced production lines for energetic materials that Israel’s defense industry uses,” the ministry said, in an effort to “strengthen domestic manufacturing independence and reduce reliance on imported raw materials.”

Defense Ministry Director General Eyal Zamir said the deals were “laying the foundations for expanding manufacturing independence in two critical areas for the IDF’s operational sustainability: domestic production of heavy air munitions and establishing a national raw materials plant.”

An American laser guided Bomb

Dropped from an American F16

Piloted by an American trained
Israeli Pilot

Slams into a refugee camp in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/mMXBkc4myN

— ADAM (@AdameMedia) October 5, 2024


“Both agreements will ensure sovereign capability in producing bombs and munitions of all types,” Zamir stated.

“We initiated this historic move before the war but accelerated it during it. Under both agreements, initial capabilities will soon gradually expand until we achieve full independence in both areas,” he added.

“This is a central lesson from the war that will enable the IDF to continue operating powerfully in all theaters,” he noted.

The Defense Ministry announced in August that Washington has sent over 50,000 tons of armaments and military equipment to Israel since its war on Gaza began in October 2023.

The military reports that the Israeli Air Force has carried out airstrikes using over 83,000 munitions in Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria.

Gaza’s Health Ministry estimates US and Israeli bombs have killed over 45,000 Palestinians, the majority women and children. Some estimates place the death toll between 200,000 and 300,000 Palestinians, in large part due to indirect deaths from Israel's destruction of Gaza's health, water, and electrical infrastructure.

Because Israel has used the bombs and equipment to carry out genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, segments of the US public have strongly criticized US President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken for providing them.

Many also withdrew their support for Vice President Kamala Harris in the US presidential election against Donald Trump.

https://thecradle.co/articles/israel-to ... eavy-bombs

******

Medley report: Israel's rising threat, Ukraine revelations, and the 'Age of Anti-Westphalian DarkMaga'
Simplicius
Jan 08, 2025

<snip>

Israel

It appears even the Israelis have caught on to what we’ve been reporting here since the start of the “moderate rebel” takeover of Syria. Now it’s dawning on the world what truly comes next in this new great game—the Jerusalem Post article virtually quotes my previous analysis word for word:

Image
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-836362

The committee, established by the government, warns that Turkey’s ambitions to restore its Ottoman-era influence could lead to heightened tensions with Israel, possibly escalating into conflict.

Recall I said that Israel thought it had ‘defeated’ Iran but instead inherited a far more dangerous foe, now they are starting to see it:

“The threat from Syria could evolve into something even more dangerous than the Iranian threat,” the report states, warning that Turkish-backed forces might act as proxies, fueling regional instability.

Netanyahu likewise validated the mentioned Nagel report’s findings:

Netanyahu addressed the report, stating, “We are witnessing fundamental changes in the Middle East. Iran has long been our greatest threat, but new forces are entering the arena, and we must be prepared for the unexpected. This report provides us with a roadmap to secure Israel’s future.”

Most interesting was an adjacent ‘news’ yesterday stating Iran had a secret new deal with Turkey to smuggle weapons to Hezbollah. Keep in mind this is completely uncorroborated and unsourced, and should therefore be taken with a huge grain of salt. But if there’s even a remote glint of truth to this, then Israel’s in deeper schmutz than it had imagined, and would also mean that Iran and Hezbollah have not been weakened at all:

Iran has found a new route to smuggle weapons for Hezbollah. Iranian planes are delivering weapons to Hezbollah via Turkey, Israel must decide whether to strike Iran or the Houthis first.

Recently, planes belonging to the Iranian airline Mahan Air were spotted in the skies of Turkey, indicating cooperation between the Turkish government and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, the Middle East Forum writes. “From December 13, 2024 to the end of the year, Mahan Air operated 11 flights between Tehran and Beirut using a fleet of Airbus A340 and Airbus A300B4-622R aircraft. Flight tracking recorded a change in previous routes from Iran to Lebanon,” the report says.


That’s not to even mention the fact that there are claims both Hezbollah and Hamas have restored their strength:

Image
https://www.frontpagemag.com/hezbollah- ... ceasefire/

Hamas report:

Is Hamas and their allied armed factions making a comeback in the Gaza strip? An analysis:

According to the Jerusalem Post, Hamas is indeed making a substantial comeback in Gaza by recruiting new forces. Israeli channel 12 states that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) combined have between 20,000 and 23,000 fighters left.

The Jerusalem post reported that the number was closer to around 12,000. The IDF last reported that it had killed between 17,000 and 20,000 Hamas and PIJ fighters during the war and wounded another 14,000-16,000. The fact that the IDF publicly stated in October 2023 that Hama's full forces were 25,000 means that the numbers simply don't add up, as if the IDF did indeed kill 20,000, that would leave just 5,000 still active, and that's not even including the 14,000-16,000 supposedly wounded. -Source


Still think Israel “won” a major victory with Assad’s ouster?

(Much more at link.)

https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/med ... ing-threat

******

Israel imposes sweeping restrictions to 'protect soldiers' from war crimes prosecution

Dozens of criminal complaints have been filed against Israeli soldiers by pro-Palestine groups in courts around the world

News Desk

JAN 9, 2025

Image
(Photo credit: AFP)

The Israeli army has issued fresh restrictions against media coverage of active-duty soldiers due to legal risks they face over war crimes in Gaza while traveling abroad, coming after a swarm of criminal complaints filed by pro-Palestine groups in courts worldwide.

The new rules stipulate that any media outlets interviewing soldiers with the rank of colonel will not be permitted to display their faces or full names, similar to the already existing rules for air force pilots and members of special forces units, Israeli army spokesman Nadav Shoshani told reporters on 8 January.

“This is our new guideline to protect our soldiers and to make sure they are safe from these types of incidents hosted by anti-Israel activists around the world,” he said.

He also said soldiers were not supposed to upload videos of themselves in warzones in the first place, “even though that’s never perfect and we have a large army.”

According to recent reports in Hebrew media, at least 50 criminal complaints in courts around the world have targeted Israeli soldiers for their role in Tel Aviv's ethnic cleansing campaign in Gaza.

Over the weekend, a Brazilian federal court ordered the police to open an immediate investigation into an Israeli soldier accused of committing war crimes in Gaza. The soldier was visiting Brazil for a vacation.

The soldier – who was seen in videos participating in the destruction of civilian infrastructure in Gaza – arrived in Israel on Wednesday morning after fleeing Brazil with the help of the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

Upon arrival at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, the soldier told Channel 12 that he had learned from his error and would no longer upload videos from Gaza. “I won’t go back to Brazil again,” he added.

Last month, the Israeli army warned dozens of soldiers and officers who have served in Gaza not to travel to avoid legal action for their actions in the besieged strip.

“IDF reservists who fought in Gaza are being advised to first check with the [Israeli] Foreign Ministry regarding the level of danger in any country they wish to visit,” the Times of Israel reported on 4 December, adding that concerns have grown in Tel Aviv that senior officers could face prosecution abroad following the issuance of arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant.

Since the start of the genocide in Gaza, the internet has been flooded with videos filmed and posted by Israeli soldiers – which document the Israeli army’s practices of forced mass displacement, kidnapping, and destruction of homes and buildings.

Many of these videos make up a crucial part of the evidence compiled for South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide in the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

https://thecradle.co/articles/israel-im ... rosecution

Israel blocks UN probe on 'Hamas rape' claims fearing inquiry into sexual abuse of Palestinians

Elected Israeli officials and settler groups last year started riots in defense of prison guards who gang-raped a Palestinian detainee inside the notorious Sde Teiman prison camp

News Desk

JAN 8, 2025

Image
(Photo Credit: Tsafrir Abayov/AP)

Israeli officials have obstructed a UN investigation into alleged sexual crimes committed by Hamas fighters during the 7 October 2023 Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, fearing this would open the door to a probe into the rampant allegations of sexual violence against Palestinians inside Israeli torture camps.

According to a report by Israeli daily Haaretz, Tel Aviv rejected a request from Pramila Patten, the UN special representative of the secretary-general on sexual violence in conflict, to investigate the allegations against Hamas after she established that a necessary condition would be access to Israeli detention centers to probe claims against Israeli soldiers.

“The clear concern is that Israel will be the one to be added to the blacklist of entities and countries that engage in sexual violence in conflicts, while the terrorist organization Hamas will actually remain off the list,” Mia Schocken, director of the international department of the Israeli Women's Lobby told Haaretz.

Patten’s office previously confirmed plans to explore a future mission to the region, following invitations from both the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Israeli government.

Thursday's report comes mere days after Israeli prosecutor Moran Gaz confirmed during an interview with Yediot Ahronoth that no allegations of rape or sexual assault by Hamas on 7 October have been filed.

“In the end, we don’t have any complainants. What was presented in the media compared to what will eventually come together will be entirely different,” she said, adding that her office “approached women’s rights organizations and asked for cooperation. They told us that no one had approached them,” she stressed.

Multiple media outlets have debunked claims of “Hamas rape” on 7 October 2023.

Nevertheless, since the start of the Israeli genocide in Gaza, human rights organizations have documented dozens of accounts of the rampant sexual violence inflicted on Palestinians inside Israeli detention centers.

In August, Israeli NGO B’Tselem published a report titled “Welcome to Hell,” containing testimonies from 55 Palestinians detailing incidents of torture, rape, violence, humiliation, starvation, and denial of adequate medical treatment.

This report came days after the military police arrested eight Israeli prison guards on suspicion of raping a male Palestinian prisoner at the notorious Sde Teiman camp.


A doctor at the army detention facility at Sde Teiman, Professor Yoel Donchin, said that after seeing the Palestinian detainee who was gang raped, he “couldn’t believe an Israeli prison guard could do such a thing.”

“If they maintain a hospital only for the sake of defending ourselves at [the International Criminal Court at] the Hague, that’s no good,” the doctor said.

Following the guards' arrest, Israeli settlers, far-right activists, and Knesset members started riots, breaking into Sde Teiman and the nearby Beit Leid army base in “defense” of the soldiers.

Even after the rioters breached the entrances, no one was arrested or even identified by Israeli police.


On 27 August, Channel 14 hosted one of the Sde Teiman guards accused of raping Palestinians on one of its programs. The soldier stated, “The military police treated us really nice ... You see the support … With a hand on their heart, like, telling you ‘thank you!’”


Last July, the UN Human Rights office issued a report saying Palestinians detained in Israeli detention centers since 7 October face waterboarding, sleep deprivation, electric shocks, dog attacks, and other brutal acts of torture.

“The testimonies gathered by my office and other entities indicate a range of appalling acts, such as waterboarding and the release of dogs on detainees, amongst other acts, in flagrant violation of international human rights law and international humanitarian law,” UN Human Rights Chief, Volker Türk, said in a statement.

Sde Teiman itself has been referred to as Israel’s Guantanamo. Dozens of prisoners at the facility have been killed, the New York Times reported last year.

https://thecradle.co/articles/israel-bl ... lestinians
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

User avatar
blindpig
Posts: 12684
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 5:44 pm
Location: Turtle Island
Contact:

Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Sat Jan 11, 2025 5:58 pm

Israel continues to push for “Greater Israel” amid massacres in the West Bank and Gaza

Israeli drone strikes escalate in the West Bank. In Gaza, massacres continue as the occupation vows to achieve the “Greater Israel” project.

January 10, 2025 by Aseel Saleh

Image
Palestine Red Crescent Society transfers patients for evacuation in Nov 2024. (Photo: PRCS/X)

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) killed three Palestinian cousins, including two children, in a drone strike that targeted a residential area in the town of Tammun, south of Tubas city in the northern occupied West Bank on Wednesday, January 8.

The three cousins were identified as Reda Basharat (9), Hamza Basharat (10), and Adam Basharat (23). The bodies of the three slain Palestinians were initially confiscated by the IOF, who prevented ambulances from reaching the site. Hours later, they were returned to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS).

The drone strike is the second to be carried out by the IOF in Tammun during the past 48 hours. On Tuesday, January 7, another Israeli drone strike targeted a group of young Palestinian men, killing two of them. The two young men were identified as Suleiman Mustafa Qteishat (18), and Abdul Rahman Bani Odeh (24). The body of Odeh has been abducted by the IOF, according to Palestine News and Information Agency (WAFA).

The situation in the West Bank has escalated during the last couple of years, but it has gravely deteriorated in the last several months, after the IOF intensified the use of drones and in some cases fighter jets, to strike Palestinians.

At least 847 Palestinians have been killed and over 6,700 others wounded in the occupied West Bank, since October 7, 2023, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. During the same period, the IOF also intensified its arrest campaigns. Over 10,000 Palestinians are currently imprisoned in Israeli jails.

Israel committed six massacres across Gaza in one day
While Israel intensifies its deadly attacks in the West Bank, Israeli warplanes continue to massacre Palestinians across the Gaza Strip. At least 51 Palestinians were killed and around 80 others wounded in a series of airstrikes that hit different parts of the besieged enclave. Many hospitals in Gaza have been put out of service, either by direct shelling from Israeli war planes or the lack of fuel.

Massacring Palestinians to achieve the “Greater Israel” project
Israel has been killing Palestinians in the West Bank in a wholesale manner, while massacring tens of thousands in the Gaza strip on the pretext of cracking down on armed resistance.

However, the statements by Israeli officials and posts on Israeli media outlets make it clear that these crimes against Palestinians have been systematically committed to displace the Palestinians out of their homeland in order to achieve the “Greater Israel” Project. Israel’s recent expansion into the Syrian Golan Heights, and reports about its intention to remain in parts of southern Lebanon, reinforce the concerns that Israel has already begun to implement its intended project.

On Tuesday, Jordanian and Palestinian officials, alongside the Arab League, condemned Israel’s publication of what it called the map of “the biblical kingdoms of Israel and Judea” on social media pages run by its government. The publication of the map sparked the rage of Arab countries as it included territories within Jordan, Syria and the occupied West Bank claiming that they were part of the alleged “Kingdom”.

The Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Tuesday that the shared map aligns with the “inflammatory remarks” of Israel’s Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, calling for the annexation of the West Bank and the establishment of settlements in Gaza. The ministry reiterated Jordan’s “unequivocal rejection of such actions”, considering them a “blatant attempt” to undermine the right of Palestinian people “to establish their independent and sovereign state on the pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

The ministry also said that such “inflammatory actions and baseless claims, promoted by extremists within the Israeli government, perpetuate violence and instability”, and constitute a “flagrant violation of international law and norms”. Moreover, Jordan urged for a “strong international response to condemn and counter” the repercussions of these actions and claims for regional security and stability”. Jordan further warned that such provocative actions “exacerbate tensions and threaten international peace”.

The Palestinian presidency’s official spokesperson, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, condemned these actions, stating that they “constitute a blatant violation of all international legitimacy resolutions and international law”, and that they reflect “extremist Israeli policies”, which have “ignited the region and led to ongoing wars”.

Abu Rudeineh pointed out that these provocations, perpetrated by the Israeli authorities, have been accompanied by violent settler attacks in the West Bank, ongoing incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque, and continued incitement against the Palestinian people and their leadership. The Palestinian official called for an international response to stop the war, destruction, and killing of the Palestinian people. He also urged the next US administration “to work to stop all Israeli policies, actions and procedures that do not serve security and peace in the region”

Meanwhile, the Secretary General of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, released a statement on Wednesday, warning that “the international community’s failure to address such provocative actions and irresponsible rhetoric risks exacerbating extremism and counter-extremism on all sides.”

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/01/10/ ... -and-gaza/

******

Normalizing expansion: Israel sets its sights on Egypt's Sinai

Israel’s ironic and brazen accusations of Egyptian treaty violations in Sinai point to a deeper agenda, raising fears of further territorial expansion by Tel Aviv and a growing threat to regional stability.


Robert Inlakesh

JAN 10, 2025

Image
Photo Credit: The Cradle

As Israel accuses Egypt of military buildup in the Sinai Peninsula, tensions between the two states – bound by their 1979 normalization treaty – are reaching a boiling point. Israeli officials and allied neoconservative think tanks are now actively escalating rhetoric alleging Cairo's breach of the peace treaty while hinting at Tel Aviv's ambitions to expand into Egyptian territory.

In September 2024, the Washington-based Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) published a report accusing Egypt of allegedly aiding Hamas through tunnels leading into Gaza to enable the Palestinian resistance movement to build its military capabilities. The charges are a stretch, given Cairo's long-held acrimony toward Muslim Brotherhood-linked organizations.

Sinai standoff intensifies

These claims were further contradicted by recently leaked documents showing Egypt’s aggressive measures to destroy over 2,000 tunnels between 2011 and 2015. Senior Egyptian military officials even explored the construction of a canal to obliterate these underground networks.

Also in September, Israeli military analyst Alon Ben-David admitted on Channel 13 News that “no single open tunnel has been found in the Egyptian territory. No single usable tunnel has been discovered under the Philadelphi Corridor.”

However, Tel Aviv's allegations did not end there. Israel’s former ambassador to Egypt, David Govrin, has now accused Cairo of violating the normalization treaty by strengthening its military presence in the Sinai. He was quoted by Yedioth Aharonoth as saying, “after all these years, and even after 7 October 2023, questions remain about Egypt’s genuine recognition of Israel within its 1948 borders.”

On 7 January, the occupation state formally demanded explanations from Egypt regarding its military activities in Sinai, citing treaty violations related to demilitarization. The US, which brokered the 1979 treaty, joined the chorus, withholding $95 million in military aid to Egypt – a recurring tactic used to exert pressure on Cairo.

Washington then redirected those funds to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), echoing similar cuts in 2023 when Egypt-bound aid was diverted to Taiwan. The move ties with intensified pressure on Beirut, aiming to coerce and incentivize compliance with US influence over its internal affairs, especially with newly-elected President Joseph Aoun.

While Egypt’s human rights violations have been copiously documented, this is a card that the US government will routinely roll out when they want to see their North African ally play ball. It is worth noting that Egypt has historically been the second-largest US foreign aid recipient after Israel.

Stand-off in the Sinai

In 2005, following Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip to its periphery, an agreement was reached allowing 750 Egyptian security personnel to enter the Sinai Peninsula.

At the time, Yuval Steinitz, then chairman of Israel’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, vehemently opposed the deal, calling it a “black day” and cautioning:

“We are inviting the cat to keep the cream. This is a solar eclipse that has befallen the government, which is giving up on demilitarizing Sinai in exchange for a lentil stew of compliments and gestures."

Since then, Cairo has submitted hundreds of requests to deploy additional forces and equipment into Sinai, most of which were approved by Tel Aviv, especially after the rise of a takfiri insurgency in 2013. In 2018, the New York Times revealed that Israel had conducted airstrikes inside Sinai at the request of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to counter the insurgent activity.

In the aftermath of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, relations between Cairo and Tel Aviv began to sour significantly. The occupation state initially proposed that Egypt facilitate ethnic cleansing via a mass expulsion of Gaza’s population into Sinai, creating a buffer zone between Gaza and occupied Palestine. President Sisi outright rejected the plan, sparking further tensions.

By early 2024, the occupation military had intensified its invasion of Gaza, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaling an assault on Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city. Egypt swiftly issued warnings against any attempt to reclaim the Philadelphi Corridor, a border area that separates Egypt and Gaza, arguing that such actions would breach the 1979 normalization treaty.

In a dramatic escalation on 6 May, Israel launched its Rafah offensive on the same day Hamas agreed to a ceasefire proposal. This offensive, which included the seizure of the Rafah Crossing and the Philadelphi Corridor, drew condemnation even from former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who described it as “a blatant violation of the peace agreement with Egypt.” Despite threats from Cairo to annul the treaty, Sisi's primary response was to join South Africa's case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.

When Israeli tanks first entered the Rafah Crossing, they desecrated the area and taunted the Egyptian guards stationed there. Later that same month, a clash broke out, and Israeli soldiers killed an Egyptian soldier. Israel then launched a series of airstrikes in June against targets in the Sinai Peninsula.

The Zionist vision for expansion into Egypt

Last year, uncovered documents in the British National Archives shed light on Israel's historical campaign to legitimize its claim over the Sinai Peninsula. During Israel's occupation of Sinai following the 1967 war, pro-Israel lobbyists and think tanks in the west disseminated narratives to delegitimize Egyptian sovereignty over the strategic region.

Only two years after the occupation of the Sinai, which had come as a result of Israel’s war of aggression in June of 1967, the Jewish Observer and Middle East Review published an article that featured a provocative front cover, “Sinai without the Egyptians — a new look at the past, present and future.”

The Zionist Federation of Britain even argued that since Sinai had been under Turkiye's control until 1923, it should have been incorporated into the British Mandate for Palestine, laying the groundwork for Israel's claims to the territory.

Fast forward to today, similar arguments have resurfaced to justify Israel’s expansionist ambitions. On 6 January, Israeli-Arabic social media accounts published a map showcasing the supposed territories of the ancient kingdoms of Judah and Israel, sparking condemnation from Jordan and the Persian Gulf states. While these claims overtly target Jordanian, Lebanese, and Syrian lands, they also subtly include parts of modern Egypt, particularly Sinai.

In July of last year, Israel’s Heritage Minister, Amichai Eliyahu, retweeted a post made on X that called for the occupation army to occupy the Sinai Peninsula, along with southern Lebanon, southern Syria, and eventually part of Jordan.

Back in September, as Israel was launching its assault on Lebanon, the Jerusalem Post ran an article entitled ‘Is Lebanon part of Israel’s promised territory?’ that was later removed after considerable backlash.

An existential threat for the WANA region

At this current moment, Israel is openly talking about remaining in southern Lebanon even after the 60-day ceasefire implementation period, as it currently expands its occupation further into Syrian territory by the day. It also seeks an imminent annexation of the occupied West Bank. All of these moves are indicative of Israel’s seriousness in expanding its undeclared borders.

In March 2023, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich openly displayed a “Greater Israel” map, fueling speculation about the Zionist leadership’s long-term goals. The “Greater Israel” vision encompasses parts of Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq.

Israeli leaders employ fluid justifications – historical, religious, and political – to advance these claims, a strategy the late Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah warned would continue unabated unless confronted by a unified Arab resistance.

https://thecradle.co/articles/normalizi ... ypts-sinai

Israeli war chief orders plan for ‘complete defeat’ of Hamas in Gaza before Trump's inauguration

Tel Aviv has failed to achieve its war goals after 15 months of a genocidal war against the Gaza Strip

News Desk

JAN 10, 2025

Image
(Photo credit: Israeli Defense Ministry)

Israel’s defense minister has ordered the military to prepare and submit a plan for a “decisive victory” in Gaza and the “complete defeat” of Hamas, Hebrew media outlets reported on 10 January.

Israel Katz said the army must draw up a strategy for the “complete defeat of Hamas in Gaza” and stressed that the plan would commence if the captives being held by the resistance were not released by the time US President-elect Donald Trump takes office, according to Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom.

The incoming US president recently threatened that “all hell would break loose” if the Israeli captives were not released by the time he assumes the presidency.

Katz rejected the idea of a political solution and said no Arab or international force would take charge of leading the administration of post-war Gaza without a complete collapse of Hamas.

"Our commanders and soldiers are conducting a heroic fight, but we must adapt our strategy to deliver a decisive military victory and conclude the war in Gaza," he added. "We must not be dragged into a war of attrition in Gaza. A political solution for Gaza is not relevant…because no Arab nation or other authority will take responsibility for managing the Strip's civilian life as long as Hamas has not been completely crushed."

The defense minister’s order comes 15 months into a brutal and genocidal Israeli war against Gaza, which, despite its stated goals, has failed to defeat Hamas and prevent it from regrouping and rebuilding its ranks.

The deadly Generals’ Plan, which has destroyed northern Gaza’s hospitals and displaced hundreds of thousands, in part aims to isolate and starve out the resistance. Despite the devastating conditions inside Gaza, Hamas’ armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, has managed to reinforce its ranks continuously.

Israeli news outlet Walla reported last month that the Qassam Brigades had recruited thousands of new resistance fighters in Gaza.

The group continues to regularly announce operations and publish footage of its attacks against Israeli troops via its media page, as do other organizations, including the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement’s Quds Brigades.

AL_Qassam Brigade Publishes video🔻

The Sniper shooting of an Israeli soldier in the AL_Tawan area, North of Gaza City
The video serves as a reminder of the capability and readiness of the Resistance in defending the Palestinian people💚🔥🇵🇸✌ pic.twitter.com/cFGEb6RI3O

— 아스트로 _ 세이토🔻🫶💚 (@angels_bac58190) December 19, 2024


In late December, Israeli general Yitzhak Brik said that "the Israeli army cannot eliminate Hamas because there is no surplus of forces and no Israeli soldiers remain in the areas that it has occupied for a long time, and this is the reason why they are unable to eliminate Hamas rule."

“Today, Hamas controls the Gaza Strip, and thousands of its fighters are underground in tunnels extending for hundreds of kilometers," he added, stressing that Hamas still “runs” Gaza after a year of war. US officials have also said that defeating Hamas militarily is not realistic.

Israel has completely decimated the strip’s infrastructure and has killed over 46,000 people, according to official records.

However, a new study published by The Lancet medical journal on 9 January reveals that the death toll from Israel’s war in Gaza was undercounted by 41 percent for almost a year into the war and could be much higher.

The campaign has laid waste to much of the enclave, including homes, mosques, schools, hospitals, universities, agricultural land, and water infrastructure, making Gaza essentially unlivable. A tight siege continues to restrict the entry of desperately needed humanitarian aid.

https://thecradle.co/articles/israeli-w ... auguration

Lancet study reveals Gaza death toll 'undercounted' by at least 40 percent

The study found that almost 60 percent of the deaths are women, children, and elderly people

News Desk

JAN 10, 2025

Image
(Photo credit: AP)

A new study published by The Lancet medical journal on 9 January reveals that the death toll from Israel’s genocide in Gaza was most likely undercounted by 41 percent in the first nine months of the war.

The study was carried out by scholars at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Yale University, and other institutions.

It focused on the period between October 2023 and June 2024. The study places the toll up until that point at 64,260, around 8,000 more than the current death toll.

“We estimated 64,260 deaths due to traumatic injury during the study period, suggesting the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH) under-reported mortality by 41 percent. The annualized crude death rate was 39.3 per 1000 people, representing a rate ratio of 14.0 compared with all-cause mortality in 2022, even when ignoring non-injury excess mortality,” the study says.

Around 59.1 percent of those killed were women, children, and elderly.

The Lancet highlighted that the Health Ministry had been accurately recording the deaths at the start of the conflict, but its capacity to maintain the reliability of its toll deteriorated due to the Israeli war – which has decimated hospitals and disrupted communications across the strip.

“The escalation of Israeli military ground operations and attacks on healthcare facilities severely disrupted the latter's ability to record deaths electronically. These challenges compelled the MoH to rely on less structured data collection modalities, particularly when hospitals were under siege or experiencing telecommunication blockades. This might have led to incomplete and geographically biased reporting, as seen in other conflict zones where prolonged warfare complicates casualty tracking.”

The Health Ministry death count at the beginning of the war was based entirely on bodies that arrived at Gaza’s hospitals – many of which have been either destroyed or severely damaged.

The Lancet study is based only on deaths from traumatic injury and does not take into account those who may have died as a result of Israel's starvation war or the thousands believed to be trapped under the rubble.

The medical journal reported in June last year that the death toll in Gaza could end up between 149,000 and 598,000 – taking into account direct and indirect deaths.

“Even if the conflict ends immediately, there will continue to be many indirect deaths in the coming months and years” due to disease, destroyed healthcare infrastructure, and severe shortages of food and water, according to the journal at the time.

“In recent conflicts, such indirect deaths range from three to 15 times the number of direct deaths. Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186,000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza,” it added.

Palestinian doctor Ghassan Abu Sittah said recently that there is strong evidence to suggest that the death toll could be around 300,000.

The official death toll in Gaza is over 45,000, but British Palestinian surgeon @GhassanAbuSitt1 says there is strong evidence "the number is closer to 300,000."

"This is literally and mathematically a genocidal project," he says. pic.twitter.com/LKuWcPHbB5

— Democracy Now! (@democracynow) December 30, 2024
The official death toll in Gaza has recently surpassed 46,000 deaths. Over 109,378 people have been reported injured.

Israel’s campaign has laid waste to much of the enclave, including homes, mosques, schools, hospitals, universities, agricultural land, and water infrastructure, making Gaza largely unlivable.

Amnesty International released a report on 5 December saying there is “sufficient” evidence that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in its war on the Gaza Strip.

https://thecradle.co/articles/lancet-st ... 40-percent
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

User avatar
blindpig
Posts: 12684
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 5:44 pm
Location: Turtle Island
Contact:

Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Mon Jan 13, 2025 2:50 pm

Israeli army forced to ‘change methods’ due to fierce resistance in north Gaza: Report

Palestinian resistance fighters have killed 11 Israeli soldiers and wounded 20 in the city of Beit Hanoun over the past two weeks

News Desk

JAN 12, 2025

Image
(Photo credit: AA)

The Israeli army has been forced to “change methods” in its battles with the Palestinian resistance in northern Gaza as a result of the heavy losses it is taking in the city of Beit Hanoun, Hebrew newspaper Maariv reported on 12 January.

As a result of the high level of preparedness by Hamas’ Qassam Brigades, particularly after a recent ambush that killed four Nahal Brigade soldiers and injured six in Beit Hanoun, the newspaper reports that the army’s Gaza Division has conducted “a rapid investigation and change methods of work and movement of the forces in the combat zone.”

“Following the difficult incident, the Gaza Division decided to take a number of steps, including more firepower before each movement of the maneuvering forces. Opening roads will be carried out using drones and not just bulldozers. The goal is to locate charges from the air, including with thermal systems, and to locate the cameras that the terrorists use to prepare their ambushes,” the report said.

The army also aims to shift its movement routine constantly and carry out operations at night more often due to the advantage.

Israeli troops reentered Beit Hanoun around two weeks ago as part of a brutal operation and siege of northern Gaza, which has just entered its 100th day. According to the Maariv report, Israel is now working to defeat “the last Hamas battalion” in the north.

The Israeli army says the operation in Beit Hanoun may last for weeks.

Israeli news outlet Ynet reports that the deadly ambush that killed four soldiers in Beit Hanoun on Saturday took place in an area that was considered to have been fully cleared and under control.

Permitted for publication by the Israeli military: 4 Israeli soldiers were killed yesterday in an explosion caused by a powerful roadside bomb planted by the resistance in north Gaza's Beit Hanoun, "while traveling on a route that was supposed to be under full control after being… pic.twitter.com/Jx3bB4ceQ1

— The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) January 12, 2025


A heavy explosive device targeted the patrol of the Nahal Brigade’s deputy commander. The force simultaneously came under fire. It is being investigated whether or not the resistance fighters were able to reach the site of the ambush and plant the explosive via a tunnel that the Israeli army has not yet discovered.

Eleven Israeli soldiers have been killed and around 20 wounded by the Palestinian resistance in Beit Hanoun in a period of two weeks.

The Israeli military has been unable to destroy Hamas after a year of genocide and mass destruction, despite the war’s stated goals.

The Qassam Brigades has managed to replenish its ranks with thousands of new fighters and has learned to adapt to conditions in Gaza, according to an Israeli report from last month.

Israel’s defense minister has ordered the military to prepare and submit a plan for a “decisive victory” in Gaza and the “complete defeat” of Hamas, Hebrew media outlets reported on 10 January.

https://thecradle.co/articles/israeli-a ... aza-report

Israel escalates bombing of Lebanon ‘in accordance’ with ceasefire

The Israeli army said in a statement that it targeted weapons sites and smuggling routes belonging to Hezbollah

News Desk

JAN 13, 2025

Image
(Photo credit: Reuters)

The Israeli army launched violent air raids on southern and eastern Lebanon late on 12 January, marking a significant escalation of Israel’s ceasefire violations two weeks before the end of the 60-day implementation period.


Video footage on social media showed a large explosion as a result of the Israeli air raid near the town of Deir al-Zahrani in the south.

Villages in Nabatieh were also hit with heavy strikes, including several in the town of Houmine. In eastern Lebanon, strikes hit near the border, targeting the towns of Janta and Kasr.

“In recent hours, Air Force fighter jets attacked and destroyed a number of terrorist targets of the Hezbollah terrorist organization throughout Lebanon, under the direction of the Intelligence Branch,” the Israeli army said in a statement.

“Among the targets attacked: a rocket launcher site, a military site, and crossing routes on the Syrian–Lebanon border used to transfer weapons to the Hezbollah terrorist organization,” it added.

Five people were killed in Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon last week.

The Israeli army has violated the ceasefire over 1,000 times but claims to be acting on its rights within the agreement, which is based on UN Resolution 1701. Under the terms of the deal, the Lebanese army must dismantle Hezbollah’s presence and infrastructure south of the Litani River, and the Israeli army must withdraw its forces within a period of 60 days.

The Lebanese army has deployed in the south and has entered some villages to remove rubble and prepare for civilian entry. Israeli troops have withdrawn from a few areas in the western sector but remain deployed in Lebanon.

Tel Aviv has accused Hezbollah of staying in areas south of the Litani. According to Hebrew media, Israel is unsatisfied with the Lebanese army’s efforts to implement the agreement.

Several recent reports have said that Israel may be gearing up to maintain a presence in the south past the 60-day period.

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel Katz, and the IDF leadership don't want to completely pull out the forces but leave them in three key positions in southern Lebanon,” Israeli journalist Barak Ravid said on 9 January in a report for Axios.

https://thecradle.co/articles/israel-es ... -ceasefire

Gaza ceasefire talks near final stage as Hamas awaits Israeli approval: Reports

Hamas sources told Arabic media that a deal can go through if no last-minute conditions are imposed by Israel

News Desk

JAN 12, 2025

Image
(Photo credit: NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Hamas said on 11 January that it had completed a draft framework for a Gaza ceasefire deal and is awaiting a response from Israel. The news coincides with recent reports of cautious progress in reaching an agreement to end 15 months of genocidal war on the strip.

Hamas spokesman Jihad Taha told Al-Araby al-Jadeed that mediators have finished a draft stipulating the terms for a ceasefire and an exchange of Israeli captives for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

The spokesman said mediators are now waiting for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s representative in the Qatari capital, Doha, to approve and sign the agreement.

According to Hamas sources cited by Al-Araby TV, negotiations have advanced positively and are nearing their final stages.

The first phase of the proposed agreement will see Israeli troops pull out from certain areas, including the Rafah crossing and parts of the Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border. The withdrawals are supposed to begin once Israeli captives are released in the first week.

The US, Qatar, and Egypt are expected to hold a conference to outline the details, including a time and date for the start of implementation.

Netanyahu’s office announced on Saturday that the premier had sent a delegation to Doha for negotiations, headed by Mossad chief David Barnea.

The prime minister has blocked a deal from going through for over a year. Hamas, which had been holding fast to its terms for a full Israeli withdrawal throughout the entirety of the war, has now agreed to a deal that would see troops maintain a presence on the Gaza-Egypt border.

A Hamas source told Al-Sharq TV on Sunday that the deal will go through if Israel does not impose new conditions at the last minute.

“Hamas demonstrated great flexibility that surprised the Israeli side by agreeing to submit a list of the names of the living hostages as part of the first phase, adding eleven hostages at Israel's request during the current round of negotiations in the first phase of the deal, and not refusing to leave Israeli forces on the Philadelphia Corridor and the presence of Israeli forces on the Netzarim Corridor,” the source said.

The report says the Rafah crossing will not be opened, but “there is a promise for the return of the Gazan displaced through an electronic checkpoint equipped with cameras on the al-Rashid Road at the beginning of the first phase of the deal, which will last between six and eight weeks,” the source added.

https://thecradle.co/articles/gaza-ceas ... al-reports

Lebanon receives US 'guarantee' of Israeli withdrawal before ceasefire ends: Report

The ceasefire terms require Israel to withdraw from Lebanese territory after a 60-day period that began in late November

News Desk

JAN 11, 2025

Image
(Photo credit: Jalaa Marey, AFP)

US Special Envoy Amos Hochstein told Lebanese officials that the US guarantees Israel will withdraw its forces occupying southern Lebanon before the 60-day deadline, Al-Akhbar reported.

The Lebanese newspaper wrote that Hochstein provided a detailed withdrawal schedule during a meeting with the committee responsible for monitoring the implementation of the ceasefire agreement.

The withdrawal deadline was stipulated in the 27 November ceasefire that ended 14 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

Israel is required to withdraw its forces from Lebanese territory, while Hezbollah is required to withdraw its forces behind the Litani River, which lies about 30 km from the border with Israel. The Lebanese Army and UN forces are tasked with deploying in the border areas evacuated by Hezbollah.

A senior Israeli official told Israeli Haaretz that Israel would pull its forces out “if the terms of its ceasefire deal with Hezbollah will be kept.”

The Lebanese Army began deploying in the village of Tayr Harfa (Sur district) on Saturday around noon, L'Orient-Le Jour reported.

"The army is clearing roads and will maintain a presence at the entrances and inside the village," the village's mukhtar (local official), Hassan Haidar, told the Lebanese paper.

Civil Defense rescue teams continue to retrieve the bodies of Lebanese killed during the war.

Rescuers traveled to Naqoura (Sur district) and Khiam (Marjayoun district) on Saturday to retrieve bodies from the rubble, sources told L'Orient-Le Jour.

Despite the 60-day ceasefire, the Israeli Army continues to carry out attacks and demolish homes in south Lebanon.

Also on Saturday, an Israeli drone fired two missiles at a car in Kounine, in the Bint Jbeil district, the paper's correspondent reported.

https://thecradle.co/articles/lebanon-r ... nds-report
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

User avatar
blindpig
Posts: 12684
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 5:44 pm
Location: Turtle Island
Contact:

Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Tue Jan 14, 2025 3:00 pm

Mahmoud Abbas' big gamble to crush West Bank resistance

In its high-stakes campaign to target Jenin's resistance, the unpopular Palestinian Authority, with tacit Israeli and US support, is risking internal division and intensifying clashes in a last-ditch attempt by an ailing Abbas to hang onto power.


The Cradle's Palestine Correspondent

JAN 13, 2025

Image
Photo Credit: The Cradle

Since 5 December 2024, the Israel-supported security apparatuses of the Palestinian Authority (PA) have launched an extensive media, political, and military campaign in the northern West Bank, with a particular focus on Jenin and its refugee camp.

Branded as a fight against “outlaws” and “Iran’s proxies,” the operation escalated on 14 December into a large-scale military-security offensive. It began with the extrajudicial killing of teenager Rubhi Shalabi and the deaths of two others, including Yazid Ja’ayseh, a prominent leader in the Jenin Brigade, the local branch of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad's (PIJ) Quds Brigades.

This campaign was accompanied by widespread incitement among Fatah loyalists, PA employees, and university students aligned with the authority, alongside attacks on both public and individual expressions of dissent.

At the time of writing, clashes in Jenin persist under a media blackout, with the camp facing an unprecedented level of danger amid “additional offensive and defensive measures” approved by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The prelude before the campaign

To uncover the operation’s full scope, The Cradle contacted various sources in the West Bank and beyond. Many declined to be named for fear of retribution. Their accounts consistently pointed to a decision that was neither a Fatah consensus nor fully endorsed by the PA’s leadership. Instead, the campaign’s driving force appears to be President Mahmoud Abbas himself, supported by a close circle of confidants.

Notably, Abbas made sweeping changes to the security apparatus before and during the operation. Insiders inform The Cradle that “Abu Mazen [Abbas] removed the old guard who could challenge him and brought in a younger generation eager to please him without question.”

The most significant change occurred in November, when Major General Munir Ayed Salem al-Zoubi, commander of the Presidential Guard, was reassigned to an honorary advisory role. He was replaced by Mohammed Dajaneh, a relatively unknown figure who was promoted from brigadier general to major general. Although Dajaneh’s career has had its ups and downs, his appointment signaled Abbas’ preference for compliant leadership.

Simultaneously, reports of leadership changes within the National Security Forces (NSF) emerged, though details remain unclear.

Reshuffling in Ramallah

Rumors have also circulated that Major General Nidal Abu Dukhan was replaced as commander and reassigned as the PA ambassador to Cairo. Major General Saeed Khalil took over his position, and Brigadier General Pilot Hafez al-Rifai was his deputy. However, other sources denied that Abu Dukhan had been reassigned, stating that he remains in his post with Rifai as his deputy.

Earlier, in September, Abbas, from his residency in Ramallah, appointed Major General Allam al-Saqa as police chief, replacing Major General Yousef al-Hilu. Shortly after, Brigadier General Rashid Hamdan was named deputy police chief. This overhaul of the police leadership soon became evident as a strategic move to involve the force in direct confrontations with resistance groups.

These changes, excluding the leadership of General Intelligence and Military Intelligence, cemented Abbas’ control over the security apparatus and underscored his ability to maintain authority despite ongoing discussions about his succession.

The reshuffle aimed to install younger leaders eager to prove themselves through loyalty and execution of Abbas’ directives, particularly regarding operations against resistance groups.

On the ground in Jenin

Field analysis and eyewitness accounts reveal the police’s prominent role as the operation's public face. They issued frequent statements about arresting “wanted individuals” and manned checkpoints at the camp’s perimeters.

Meanwhile, incursions into the camp are carried out by NSF, supported by Preventive Security and Military Intelligence officers. Snipers occupy strategic points, ensuring significant firepower control over the camp’s streets.

Resistance factions have responded fiercely, escalating beyond warning shots to more direct engagements. This shift has led to increasingly intense clashes and higher casualties on both sides.

It was also noted that the forces that entered the city and the camp were largely from outside Jenin Camp. This appeared to be due to factors related to the secrecy of the preparations, as the security services called upon small specialized units from various regions and governorates.

In this operation, a mixture of small groups was utilized, but their movements were controlled by a central command that managed the operation.

Following the operation, on 24 December 2023, the Israeli channel I24NEWS quoted an official in the PA saying that some Palestinian officers refused to enter Jenin due to the high number of casualties during the operation, internal tension, and fears of being accused of betraying the resistance.

According to sources close to Abbas and reports in the Israeli media, the ailing president seeks to maintain his position and demonstrate the PA's ability to govern effectively to the US, Israelis, and allied Arab states.

Observers have linked Ramallah’s refusal to approve Egypt’s proposal for a Gaza administrative committee to Abbas’ ambitions for tangible gains in the West Bank. These gains would strengthen the PA’s claim over the territory and showcase its ability to govern Gaza under a security-first approach that suppresses resistance.

Challenges and opposition

Resistance factions view this as the PA's final opportunity, facilitated by Israeli security and military support for the past seven months, to stay in control and ward off a potential collapse. Israeli officials see the outcome in Jenin as a microcosm of the PA's broader control over the West Bank. Success could lead to similar operations in other camps, while failure may signal the PA’s decline.

Hebrew newspaper Haaretz quoted an Israeli security source as saying, “Jenin is now a miniature model that reflects the situation of the entire West Bank. If the PA stumbles there, its control over the entire West Bank will be in danger.” However, he stressed that “the PA apparatuses currently enjoy Tel Aviv’s support to operate despite the criticism.”

“If the PA succeeds in Jenin, it is likely that it will try to expand its activity to additional camps in the northern West Bank. However, if it fails or we force it out of there, this may indicate the beginning of the end of its rule,” he added.

According to the Israeli Reserve Colonel Udi Ebenthal, there are two approaches toward the PA in Israel. The first is the extreme right-wing approach that wants to annex the West Bank, expand settlements, and dissolve the PA, which would make Israel directly responsible for millions of Palestinians. The second approach is the security approach, which stipulates “maintaining the PA’s work as a moderate body that recognizes Israel and coordinates with it in the security sphere, on the basis that this will contribute to stability and alleviate the civilian and security burden on the army.”

Despite Abbas’ efforts, opposition has emerged within Fatah itself. Prominent prisoners, including Zakaria Zubeidi and Jamal Hawil, along with Fatah cadres in Israeli prisons, issued statements condemning the campaign.

Additionally, three Fatah Central Committee members reportedly urged Abbas to halt the operation and pursue dialogue. Abbas dismissed these appeals, insisting that a military solution was the only viable path.

Before the operation, US Security Coordinator General Mike Fenzel met with PA security leaders to dangle the bait of a four-year $680 million plan to boost the training of its special forces and bolster its supplies. Despite US requests, Israel refused to supply the PA with additional weapons, citing concerns over their potential use against Israeli targets.

A detailed report published by Axios explains that the operation in Jenin is crucial to the future of the PA and sends a message to US President-elect Donald Trump that “the PA is a reliable partner.” Palestinian sources also told Israeli and foreign media outlets that Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia support the operation, which “will result in victory or defeat for the PA.”

The resistance's stance

Leaders of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) expressed concern to The Cradle regarding the escalating campaign targeting their affiliated battalions in Jenin, Tubas, Tulkarem, and Nablus. The Jenin Battalion, central to this conflict, has refused to disarm but is willing to reduce armed visibility. Despite this, clashes have intensified, resulting in casualties on both sides; however, the battalion asserts that its actions aim to warn, not kill, security personnel, except when unavoidable.

The group sees the PA campaign as politically motivated, aimed at appeasing the Israeli occupation and preparing to oversee Gaza post-war while also aligning with US-backed normalization deals involving Saudi Arabia and Israel. Islamic Jihad views Ramallah’s actions as a fight for its survival, one that ultimately serves Israel’s interests by deepening Palestinian divisions.

Caught between avoiding an internal conflict and preserving its military presence, Islamic Jihad has sought compromises, such as limited disarmament agreements, all rejected by the PA. The movement hopes political and popular pressure will force Ramallah to back down or that Israel’s intervention will redirect the focus toward the occupation.

https://thecradle.co/articles/mahmoud-a ... resistance

Israeli raids kill dozens in Gaza as enclave 'littered with US-made munitions'

CBS News's 60 Minutes program published new footage showing that 'America's mark is everywhere' in Gaza due to the remnants of US weapons used by Israel

News Desk

JAN 13, 2025

Image
(Photo credit: Reuters)

Israeli strikes have killed 45 Palestinians in Gaza since the dawn of 13 January, Al Jazeera reported, citing medical sources, while new footage in US media shows how the ground in the besieged enclave “is littered with US-made ammunition casings" that have become playthings for children.

Al Jazeera writes that Israeli forces killed at least five Palestinians in an attack on Salah al-Din School in Gaza City that sheltered forcibly displaced people, according to medical sources.

Two Palestinians were killed and others injured by Israeli shelling on Al-Jalaa Street in the center of Gaza City, the Qatari outlet added.

Two others were killed in an Israeli attack in the west part of the city, while an Israeli raid in the Daraj neighborhood killed seven more.

Al Jazeera notes that Israel’s operation to lay siege and ethnic cleanse north Gaza has now crossed the 100-day mark. Palestinian officials say some 5,000 people have been killed or are missing since the operation in the northern strip began, known in the Israeli media as the Generals’ Plan – which aims to kill or expel all the remaining residents to transform the area into a permanent military zone.

The popular US television news program, CBS News's 60 Minutes, reported on Monday that “Across the now-decimated Gaza Strip, America’s mark is everywhere.”

The program aired footage shot in May showing “the ground is littered with US-made ammunition casings – some used to prop up tents, others turned into playthings by children.”

The program included footage of two children holding up an ammunition casing with the words “USA, DoD” written on it, standing for the US Department of Defense.

The report included an interview with former US diplomat Hala Rharrit, who recounted being told not to tell of or show images of slaughtered children by her superiors at the State Department. A short time later, she was informed that her reports on the US–Israeli genocide in Gaza were no longer required.

Andrew Miller, former deputy assistant secretary of state for Israeli–Palestinian affairs, told 60 Minutes, “The Israelis were using [US] bombs in some instances to target one or two individuals in densely packed areas.”

For example, on 31 October 2023, an Israeli pilot dropped a 2,000 lb US-made bomb on the Jabalia refugee camp in north Gaza, killing 120 Palestinians. Israel claimed, without evidence, that they targeted a single Hamas commander, Ibrahim Biari.

On 2 December 2023, more than 100 Palestinian civilians were killed when the Israeli airforce dropped another 2,000 lb US-made bomb on a residential building in Jabalia.

Miller told 60 Minutes that US officials had conversations with their Israeli counterparts about how the weapons should be used, but they were never communicated as “red lines.”

Journalist Max Blumenthal commented that “The State Deptartment narrative managers at 60 Minutes held this footage for eight months, publishing it just hours before the end of the Biden era, to ensure no massacres were interfered with and no US officials felt the heat.”

Israel is facing charges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Israel has killed at least 46,584 Palestinians and wounded 109,731 since October 7, 2023, according to Gaza health officials.

However, a recent analysis from The Lancet, a respected UK medical journal, states that the toll may be much higher.

The peer-reviewed statistical analysis estimated 64,260 deaths due to traumatic injury between October 2023 and the end of June 2024, about 41 percent higher than the official Palestinian Health Ministry count.

The study said 59 percent were women, children, and people over the age of 65. It did not provide an estimate of Palestinian resistance fighters among the dead.

https://thecradle.co/articles/israeli-r ... -munitions

Israel escalates bombing of Lebanon ‘in accordance’ with ceasefire

The Israeli army said in a statement that it targeted weapons sites and smuggling routes belonging to Hezbollah

News Desk

JAN 13, 2025

Image
(Photo credit: Reuters)

The Israeli army launched violent air raids on southern and eastern Lebanon late on 12 January, marking a significant escalation of Israel’s ceasefire violations two weeks before the end of the 60-day implementation period.


Video footage on social media showed a large explosion as a result of the Israeli air raid near the town of Deir al-Zahrani in the south.

Villages in Nabatieh were also hit with heavy strikes, including several in the town of Houmine. In eastern Lebanon, strikes hit near the border, targeting the towns of Janta and Kasr.

“In recent hours, Air Force fighter jets attacked and destroyed a number of terrorist targets of the Hezbollah terrorist organization throughout Lebanon, under the direction of the Intelligence Branch,” the Israeli army said in a statement.

“Among the targets attacked: a rocket launcher site, a military site, and crossing routes on the Syrian–Lebanon border used to transfer weapons to the Hezbollah terrorist organization,” it added.

Five people were killed in Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon last week.

The Israeli army has violated the ceasefire over 1,000 times but claims to be acting on its rights within the agreement, which is based on UN Resolution 1701. Under the terms of the deal, the Lebanese army must dismantle Hezbollah’s presence and infrastructure south of the Litani River, and the Israeli army must withdraw its forces within a period of 60 days.

The Lebanese army has deployed in the south and has entered some villages to remove rubble and prepare for civilian entry. Israeli troops have withdrawn from a few areas in the western sector but remain deployed in Lebanon.

Tel Aviv has accused Hezbollah of staying in areas south of the Litani. According to Hebrew media, Israel is unsatisfied with the Lebanese army’s efforts to implement the agreement.

Several recent reports have said that Israel may be gearing up to maintain a presence in the south past the 60-day period.

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel Katz, and the IDF leadership don't want to completely pull out the forces but leave them in three key positions in southern Lebanon,” Israeli journalist Barak Ravid said on 9 January in a report for Axios.

https://thecradle.co/articles/israel-es ... -ceasefire
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

User avatar
blindpig
Posts: 12684
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 5:44 pm
Location: Turtle Island
Contact:

Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Wed Jan 15, 2025 4:30 pm

Jenin: The Guns of the Camps
January 15, 2025

Image
“Stop the Palestinian Authority’s Attack on Jenin Camp”: from the Black September posters. Original poster by artist Mark Rudin (Jihad Mansour), 1980, from the Palestine Poster Archive.

By Samidoun – Jan 12, 2025

Special Report from Occupied Palestine

Introduction: The continuous confrontation
Twenty years after the Second Intifada, the enemy did not imagine that the special forces unit that would storm Jenin to assassinate Jamil Al-Amouri and his companion in June 2021 would serve as an unwitting tool of history. That event sparked the mobilization of hundreds of rifles that appeared on the same day to announce the beginning of the stage of liberation of the West Bank.

Following Jamil Al-Amouri’s assassination, the enemy repeated its mistake many times in announcing destructive military campaigns that turned the streets of the northern West Bank into fertile ground for planting explosive devices, the most recent of which was the “Summer Camps” operation, in which the leader Abu Shujaa was martyred. This operation was confronted with fierce resistance, termed “The Terror of the Camps.” The aggression began at 2:00 AM on Wednesday, August 28, 2024. By dawn there were 10 martyrs by aerial bombardment, including fighters from Jenin and Tubas. Zakaria Zubeidi notes in his master’s thesis “The Hunter and the Dragon: Pursuit in the Palestinian Experience 1968-2018” that the enemy intentionally names its operations in order to undermine the morale of the Palestinian people. During the period of the Second Intifada, for example, it gave names to its military attacks on Jenin such as: “Garbage Collection,” “Hunting the Black Rat,” “House of Cards,” “Collapse of the Pyramid,” “Tears of the Dragon,” and even “A Colorful Journey” when Ramallah was bombed in 2002—these came after the “Defensive Shield” operation. Only a few months after “The Terror of the Camps,” the Palestinian Authority launched its security campaign titled “Homeland Protection” to destroy Jenin Refugee Camp.

“Protecting the Homeland”: Destroying the camp
The “Homeland Protection” aggression began on December 9, 2024, and has so far resulted in the martyrdom of journalist Shatha Al-Sabagh , the wanted struggler Yazid Ja’ayseh, Mohammed Al-Jalqamousi and his son Qasem, Mohammed Abu Labda, Majd Zaidan, Ribhi Al-Shalabi, the boy Mohammed Al-Amer, and Sa’ida Abu Bakr. The month-long campaign has relied on imposing a siege on Jenin Refugee Camp, arresting journalists including Obada Tahaineh and Jarrah Khalaf, and detaining 247 young men from Jenin, according to statements by the security services. It also banned Al Jazeera from covering and broadcasting events, deployed snipers on rooftops, stationed armored vehicles, occupied hospitals, terrorized residents with tear gas, cracked down on protests or solidarity movements, launched a smear campaign in the media, silenced dissent, and punished anyone supporting the resistance.

Perhaps the most extraordinary and perplexing aspect is the idea of a Palestinian-imposed siege on a refugee camp—a phenomenon entirely unprecedented in Palestinian history. While Palestinian history is replete with examples of tragic sieges, such as those in Tel Al-Zaatar, Sabra and Shatila, the War of the Camps, and the blockade of Gaza since 1967, as well as repeated sieges of West Bank camps during the 1980s and the battles of the Second Intifada, this is the first instance of a Palestinian siege on a refugee camp. In this aggression against Jenin Refugee Camp, the Palestinian Authority has surpassed itself and assumed the role historically played by the enemies of the Palestinian people.

Image
“Hands Off Jenin Camp” from the legacy of the first Palestinian Intifada, original poster by artist Karim Dabbah, “Hands Off Deheishe Camp” 1980s , from the archives of Birzeit University.

Since the inception of the Palestinian Authority project, the discourse of statehood and citizenship has taken up a significant space in Palestinian society in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. By the late 1990s, university programs were established to teach human rights, law, and democracy, alongside the emergence of organizations and institutions promoting citizenship, freedoms, and human rights, such as the The Independent Commission for Human Rights (1993) and The Coalition for Integrity and Accountability (AMAN) (2000). According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, there are no less than 10,637 practicing lawyers in the West Bank, in addition to hundreds of graduates of law, international law and human rights annually from Palestinian universities.

Despite this, the aggression has shown that the Palestinian Authority has completely dismantled the legal framework, nullifying the concepts of citizenship, the right to life, fair trial, and all agreements against torture, freedom of opinion, and expression. The aggression began under the pretext of targeting “outlaws,” but the actions primarily entrenched a state of chaos and lawlessness imposed by the Authority itself. It besieged thousands of civilian refugees, cutting off electricity, water, fuel, food, freedom of movement, education, and access to healthcare. Violent practices included killings, arbitrary arrests, beatings, humiliation, and house burnings. The Palestinian Authority relied on its popular base, primarily composed of members of the Fateh movement, to push its political agenda accompanying the aggression on Jenin Refugee Camp through intimidating and using violence against people, as seen in An-Najah National University, Birzeit University, and several cities and villages. This was accompanied by displays of violence and threats during Fateh’s anniversary celebrations.

The killing of martyr Rabhi Al-Shalabi, the wanted struggler Yazeed Ja‘aysa, and journalist Shatha Al-Sabagh—who was the sister of Hamas martyr Moatasem Billah Sabagh—revealed the deliberate intent behind premeditated killings and executions as part of the aggression’s objectives to impose control through bloodshed. Although the Palestinian Authority announced in August 2024 its intention to form a delegation to visit Gaza in an attempt to end the genocidal war, its failure to provide any assistance to Gaza and the changes that occurred on the support fronts pushed it to directly participate in the aggression against the Palestinian people rather than lifting the siege imposed upon them. Instead of sending a delegation to Gaza, the Authority’s security apparatus set forth to besiege Jenin Refugee Camp and kill its residents.

In addition, the Palestinian Authority’s discourse can be classified as self-deception toward itself and the Palestinian people, justifying violence that cannot be justified. The Authority’s attempts to contain the resistance in the north have persisted since its emergence in 2021. These efforts peaked when Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced a visit to Jenin Refugee Camp after the Israeli aggression in July 2023. Although such visits held no practical value in strengthening the camp’s resilience, the Authority deemed combating the resistance as a higher priority—or so it was instructed by the American and Israeli administrations.

The narrative of “outlaws” represents the height of this self-deception. First, what law are we talking about? Why are settlers who burn villages and seize land not considered “outlaws,” and why do the Authority’s armored vehicles not protect the Bedouins of the Jordan Valley or Masafer Yatta? Furthermore, labeling besieged refugees—many of whom are fugitives and relatives of martyrs, prisoners, and the wounded—as “outlaws” aligns with the Israeli narrative against the resistance. This rhetoric distorts symbols of Palestinian society, peaking with the martyrdom of Mohammed Jaber (Abu Shujaa), who was subjected to extensive defamation and propaganda until he was martyred by the Israeli enemy on August 28.

The suppression of journalism—a repressive policy that violates human rights—raises the question: What can journalists in Jenin document during this time? Following the ban on media coverage, many journalists posed this logical question: What do we film? The clear skies despite the smoke rising from nowhere? Or the empty streets for inexplicable reasons? Condemning the resistance in Jenin through the “outlaws” rhetoric contradicts the Palestinian narrative, especially regarding Jenin’s role in Palestinian consciousness. It is on Jenin’s soil where the Syrian Arab revolutionary Izz al-Din al-Qassam and a number of members of his armed group were martyred in 1935 while fighting British colonialism.

Image
Martyr Shatha al-Sabagh, 2024

Stories from the battalion: “They were youths who believed in their Lord, and we increased them in guidance”
In his master’s thesis, Zakaria Zubeidi noted that the concept of “pursuit” is a permanent fixture in the vocabulary of Palestinian struggle. Pursuit represents rebellion against colonial time and space by betting on life itself. Through tracing biographies and testimonies, Zubeidi concluded that the fugitive as a “living martyr” played a pivotal role in advancing revolutionary movements worldwide throughout history. When Zubeidi, as a fugitive, wrote these words inspired by the legacy of martyrs and freedom fighters, he could not have imagined that only a few years later, his young son Mohammed would become one of the most prominent fugitives, eventually martyred without being embraced by his father.

When a journalist asked martyr Mohammed Shalabi about the resistance fighters’ fierce willingness to engage in battle even if it led to martyrdom, he responded that this ferocity stems from the enemy itself. “The resistance today fights the fiercest enemy in history, equipped with unprecedented destructive capabilities it uses daily against Palestinians in Gaza.” The martyr Mohammed Shalabi, a lawyer from Silat Al-Harthiya, held a bachelor’s degree in law from the University of Jordan and a master’s in international law from the American University in Jenin. He decided to join the battalion and was martyred on the road to al-Quds on March 3 of this year.

Wissam Khazem, a resistance martyr with Norwegian citizenship, lived in Norway for ten years. He is an engineer, married, with children. He decided to join the resistance under the slogan “Existence is Resistance,” which was engraved on his rifle. He is the cousin of the martyr Raad Khazem, who carried out the Tel Aviv operation on April 7, 2022, and the martyr Nidal Khazem, the commander of the Qassam Brigades, who was assassinated by a special force along with Yousef Shraim on March 16, 2023. Wissam was martyred on August 30, 2024, after his car was targeted in the town of Al-Zababdeh while he was with freed prisoner Maysara Musharqa and Arafat Al-Amer.

Arafat Al-Amer was unparalleled in his loyalty to the martyrs. After the martyrdom of key leaders and founders such as Mohammed Hawashin, Mohammed Zubeidi, Islam Khamaiseh, Ahmed Barakat, Wi’am Hanoun, Aysar and Ayham Al-Amer, some began to feel fear and hesitation in continuing on this path. However, Arafat Al-Amer’s devotion was unmatched. When recalling any memory of a martyr, tears would flow from his eyes, and he eagerly anticipated joining them.

As for the child martyr Lujain Musleh, her last appearance was from the window of her house in Kafr Dan on September 4 when the enemy soldiers shot her in the head at the age of sixteen years old. Her father recalls that, since the age of ten, she always longed for martyrdom. Whenever she saw a funeral procession for a martyr in her town of Kafr Dan, Jenin, or Gaza, she would say, “I wish I could have a procession like that.”

The rural areas that the enemy tried to neutralize served as a supportive environment for the battalion in Jenin Camp. They caused such exhaustion to the enemy that it resorted to using aerial weapons to target martyr Laith Shawahneh in the village of Silat Al-Harthiya. The Tubas Battalion, too, offered its finest fighters as martyrs, including Mohammed Zubeidi, Ahmed Fawaz, Qusay Abdul-Razzaq, Mohammed Abu Zagha (from Jenin Camp), Mohammed Awad, and Mohammed Abu Zeina. Days later, several young fighters from the Sawafteh family followed, including Mohammed Sawafteh, Majd Sawafteh, Yassin Sawafteh, and Qais Sawafteh, who was named after martyr Qais Adwan — one of the fighters of the Qassam Brigades at An-Najah University who was martyred on April 4, 2002.

Talabah Bsharat, a school student, would make explosive devices daily until September 11 when he was martyred when a drone targeted him alongside three young men near Al-Tawheed Mosque in Tubas. As for the martyrs Mohammed Abu Talal (Harboush) and Amjad Al-Qanari, they set up an ambush in the Al-Damj neighborhood in Jenin Camp, killing an invading occupation officer and injuring several others during the “Summer Camps” operation.

Image
“Jenin Camp Will Remain a Symbol of Palestinian Steadfastness” from the legacy of the siege of Tel al-Zaatar camp, original poster issued by the PLO in 1976, from the Palestinian Museum’s digital archive.

Conclusion
In his book “The Great Battle of Jenin Camp 2002: Living History,” Jamal Huwail presents in his conclusion the idea that the military defeat that occurred at the end of the battle must be read in light of the broader defeat outside the camp, specifically, within the doctrine of the Palestinian Authority’s national project.

Initially, the leadership of the security apparatus did not participate in devising military plans to defend the camp. This responsibility was left to the resistance fighters and some members of the security forces, relying on minimal experience without scientific planning. Regarding armament, the Authority, even at the height of the Second Intifada, did not arm the resistance, to the point that it prevented weapons stockpiled in the headquarters of the security services from reaching the resistance fighters. By the eve of the Zionist invasion of the camp, the resistance had only one RPG shell.

During the battle, and at the height of the resistance’s sense of victory following an ambush that killed 13 Zionist soldiers, calls from some Authority leaders urged surrender, claiming the futility of continued fighting, even participating in psychological warfare. In the end, Abu Jandal was executed on the twelfth day.

The main difference between the 2002 battle and the current Jenin Battalion experience lies in the reality that the resistance is now directly besieged by the Palestinian security apparatus. Not only has the Authority refrained from supporting the resistance, but it has actively worked to besiege it for years, culminating in the ongoing aggression of more than a month, marked by direct military and political siege. As for the second factor, it is the battalion’s decision to confront to the end, which is derived from the resistance forces from Gaza, which draw from a deep legacy and regional power spearheaded by the Yemeni armed forces. Yemen has developed technologies and combat theories capable of confronting the world’s most powerful states.

https://orinocotribune.com/jenin-the-guns-of-the-camps/

*******

'Take it off!': Palestinian women detail sexual assault by Israeli troops during Kamal Adwan Hospital raid

Israeli soldiers ordered some women and girls to remove their clothes and touched their private parts before forcing them to leave north Gaza

News Desk

JAN 14, 2025

Image
(Photo credit: Reuters)

Dozens of Palestinian women and girls reported being sexually abused by Israeli soldiers during the storming of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza last month, Middle East Eye (MEE) reported on 14 January.

Israeli troops blockaded the hospital for nearly three months, preventing the entry of aid, medicine, and food while burning parts of the hospital and heavily bombing its complex and the area around it.

When soldiers entered the hospital, they killed several patients and medical staff and forced the roughly 350 others to leave at gunpoint, telling them to go to southern Gaza.

MEE spoke with 13-year-old Maryam al-Muqayad, who says she was ordered by male Israeli troops to take off her clothes while she was still in the hospital.

The soldiers dragged her by her hair, made her kneel down, and began abusing her.

“We refused to remove our hijabs, so they started exerting more pressure, ordering girls under 20 to move south without their families, but the families refused. They then strip-searched many women and [sexually] harassed them,” Muqayad said.

Israeli soldiers reportedly touched private parts of women and girls while beating those who resisted.

The army then took groups of women and girls to the Al-Fakhoura school in northern Gaza.

“They told us they would film us to show [the world] that Hamas was using us as human shields. When we arrived, they dragged us by our hair across the schoolyard, forced us into toilets, and ordered us to undress,” Muqayad said.

The soldiers then “dragged us back outside by our hair. They threw our clothes at us and made us kneel with our hands raised, then slammed our heads against the walls,” the 13-year-old recounted.

“An Israeli soldier hit a pregnant nurse in the belly with his weapon butt. They searched us and separated children from their parents, then made us walk behind tanks emitting black smoke.”


On 28 December, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor also reported that Israeli forces sexually assaulted women and girls during their attack on Kamal Adwan Hospital.

The “Israeli army detained dozens of women and girls, subjecting them to severe abuse amounting to sexual harassment, alongside degrading treatment that violated their human dignity. This included beating them and forcing them to remove their hijabs and clothing.”

One woman told Euro-Med, “A soldier forced a nurse to take off her trousers, then placed his hand on her. When she tried to resist, he struck her hard across the face, causing her nose to bleed.”

Another woman said that a soldier told a woman in their group: “Take it off, or we'll force it off you.”

In another case, a soldier tore the clothes of one woman, exposing her chest.

Another woman recounted being dragged by a soldier who forced her to press against him, saying, “Take it off now,” while making obscene remarks at her.

https://thecradle.co/articles/take-it-o ... pital-raid

Israel's National Security minister takes credit for repeatedly blocking Gaza ceasefire, captive exchange deals

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has repeatedly claimed Hamas is at fault for not reaching a deal to end the war and release captives on each side

News Desk

JAN 14, 2025

Image
(AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg, Pool, File)

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on 14 January that he had prevented Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from agreeing to several proposals for a ceasefire and prisoner swap with Hamas in Gaza over the past year.

“In the past year, through our political strength, we succeeded in preventing such a deal from being made, time and again,” said Ben Gvir, who is head of the Otzman Yehudit Party and a minister in Netanyahu's governing coalition.

Ben Gvir and his ally, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, previously threatened Netanyahu they would quit his coalition and thereby potentially topple him from the prime minister post if he agreed to a deal that would end the fighting in Gaza and release the Israeli captives held by Hamas and some of the thousands of Palestinians held captive in Israeli prisons.

However, Ben Gvir said he lost this leverage when Foreign Minister Gideon Saar and his New Hope faction joined the coalition in September.

“Recently, other actors who support the deal have joined the government, and we no longer hold the balance of power,” he complained.

Members of the opposition and family members of the Israelis held captive by Hamas have long blamed Netanyahu for sabotaging previous ceasefire and prisoner swap deals. They have organized regular protests demanding the prime minister reach a deal to release their loved ones.

Many of the Israeli captives held by Hamas have been killed by the relentless Israeli bombing of the strip over the past 15 months. At the same time, Israeli forces have tortured many Palestinian prisoners to death.

However, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has regularly sought to shift blame to Hamas.

Blinken repeated the claim in an interview with the New York Times (NYT) earlier this week.

“What we've seen time and again is Hamas not concluding a deal that it should have concluded,” he stated.

Ben-Gvir stated further, “The pending deal is terrible; I know its details well.”

“It includes the release of hundreds of murderous terrorists from prison, the return of Gazans to the northern part of the strip, the withdrawal of the IDF from the Netzarim Corridor, and the renewed threat to the residents of the Gaza border area. In fact, it wipes out the achievements gained in the blood of our fighters thus far in Gaza,” he added.

Ben Gvir called on Finance Minister Smotrich to oppose the deal and quit the coalition with him if a deal is reached. However, Smotrich announced that he would vote against the deal but would not resign with his party from the ruling coalition.

Of the 251 Israeli soldiers and civilians Hamas took captive on 7 October 2023, 60 remain in captivity alive, 117 were freed in a ceasefire deal shortly after the war began, and 74 have been killed, primarily by Israeli bombing and friendly fire.
Israel has killed over 46,600 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Ministry of Health, in a war many view as genocide.

https://thecradle.co/articles/israels-n ... ange-deals

******

Image

Finally Seeing Movement Toward A Gaza Ceasefire As Biden Moves Out Of The Way
There are still a lot of things that could go wrong at numerous steps along the way, but it’s something, which is more than we’ve seen for the last 15 months.

Caitlin Johnstone
January 15, 2025

It looks like we’re closer to a Gaza ceasefire deal than ever before. There are still a lot of things that could go wrong at numerous steps along the way, but it’s something, which is more than we’ve seen for the last 15 months.

As Antiwar’s Dave Decamp has noted, both AP and CBS News are reporting that Hamas and Israel have agreed “in principle” to the terms of a ceasefire, set to be rolled out in multiple tentative phases the details of which have yet to be fully nailed down. According to AP, the current deal would allow Israel the option of resuming its onslaught after a 42-day pause rather than moving on to the second phase of peace deals.

So it’s very, very far from perfect. But it’s something.


Though Biden and the Democrats are of course trying to take credit for these developments, according to Israeli media this sudden rush of movement after 15 months of stasis has been the result of pressures and negotiations from the incoming Trump administration.

According to the Israeli outlet Haaretz, president-elect Trump’s middle east envoy Steven Witkoff called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on Friday to tell him he was coming to Israel to discuss ceasefire negotiations. Netanyahu’s people tried to tell Witkoff that it was the middle of the Sabbath so any meeting would need to be postponed, but Witkoff replied that the Sabbath was of no interest to him and demanded the meeting anyway. Haaretz reports that Netanyahu’s aides were taken aback by the bluntness of Witkoff’s response.

According to a report from the Israeli outlet YNet, Trump was able to persuade Netanyahu to agree to the deal by assuring him that he could back out of it at any time, along with pledging to remove sanctions on extremist Israeli settlers and the Israeli spyware firm Pegasus. So it’s not as though Trump has taken a strong position against Israel; he’s just doing something instead of nothing.

The deal that’s in the works is reportedly almost the same as the one Hamas agreed to all the way back in May of last year, which Netanyahu sabotaged with the complicity of the Biden regime. Biden could have ended this nightmare back in May, or indeed at any time since it began in October 2023.


Ever since the genocide in Gaza began it’s been an open question whether the Biden administration’s facilitation of the slaughter has just been standard US empire depravity, or an evil that would only have occurred under Biden. The fact that we’re now closer to a ceasefire than ever before, reportedly due to pressures exerted by Trump, suggests that the latter could be the case. It suggests that these 15 months of human butchery could only have occurred under a dementia-addled lifelong Zionist surrounded by Zionist puppeteers.

Trita Parsi wrote months ago that Biden’s completely unconditional facilitation of every Israeli demand is historically the exception rather than the norm under US presidencies. If Trump does in fact wind up presiding over a de-escalation in the genocidal atrocities in Gaza, this will have been officially confirmed. It will be a proven fact that a Biden presidency was the worst thing that could possibly have happened for the Palestinian people. That for 15 months a psychopathic apartheid state was essentially left unsupervised to do what it has always wanted to do to the Palestinians in ways it never could have under any other circumstances, resulting in unfathomable horrors we’ll still be learning details of for years to come.

I am still not sold on the idea that Trump will bring even a relative amount of peace to Gaza. I will need to see this reflected by the facts on the ground throughout his term. But if those facts prove what it seems they might prove, it means that Biden was an even bigger monster than anyone realized, and that anyone who supported his election was indisputably wrong to do so.

Just something to be aware of.

https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/01 ... f-the-way/

Hoping that Trump will bring any semblance of peace to West Asia is fool's gold. If this deal goes through once the hostages are released Bibi has carte blanc to continue the genocide and ethnic cleansing of 'Greater Israel'. Trump is helping his buddy out of a jam.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

User avatar
blindpig
Posts: 12684
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 5:44 pm
Location: Turtle Island
Contact:

Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Thu Jan 16, 2025 7:11 pm

Image
Itamar Ben-Gvir said the ceasefire agreement is a surrender deal. (Design: Palestine Chronicle).

‘Complete surrender’: How gaza defeated Israel and what it means—analysis
Originally published: Palestine Chronicle on January 15, 2025 by Ramzy Baroud (more by Palestine Chronicle) | (Posted Jan 15, 2025)

Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir accused the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu of “a complete surrender to Hamas,” calling the Gaza ceasefire agreement a “surrender deal.”

For once, Ben-Gvir is right.

For over 15 months, the Israeli military has tried every possible strategy to achieve victory in Gaza, yet it has failed. Analysts will spend years trying to understand how a country with such advanced killing technologies could fail to subdue a group of fighters who make their own weapons, or more accurately, how a group of fighters, relying on improvised weapons, managed to defeat an entire arsenal provided to Israel by the United States, Britain, Germany, Italy, and many other Western and non-Western countries.

Gaza has been under a hermetic Israeli siege for nearly two decades, during which Israel has launched major wars on the region—starting in 2008 and culminating in the latest onslaught. This recent war, however, was not just another round of violence. It was genocidal in scope, a campaign of destruction unprecedented in the region’s history.

Israel will attempt, with the help of its allies in the media, to frame the Palestinian victory in Gaza as a defeat. Netanyahu and his allies within his extremist cabinet – with a few exceptions – will likely downplay the failure or attempt to distort the narrative.

These so-called “achievements” by Israel do not even qualify as tactical victories. On the contrary, Israel’s actions have caused the destruction of Gaza and led to countless civilian casualties, including women and children.

Israel assumed that by destroying Gaza, it would eradicate the resistance. However, that calculation was deeply flawed. The resistance in Gaza is directly tied to the Palestinian people. It’s not about eliminating a specific number of fighters but about the enduring bond between the people and the resistance itself.

This bond remained unbroken; in fact, it became even stronger. Without committing outright mass genocide—as in killing every Palestinian in Gaza—Israel could not extinguish the resistance. Some politicians, such as Israel’s Minister of Heritage Amihai Eliyahu, repeatedly made such a demand, calling for the dropping of a nuclear bomb on Gaza.

Ultimately, Israel failed, though it killed and wounded, in the estimation of the Lancet medical journal, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

This time, Israel’s failure cannot be dismissed as merely not achieving its objectives. The Israeli army suffered devastating losses—greater than in any military confrontation with Arab armies since Israel’s establishment in 1948.

These losses were inflicted by grassroots resistance groups that do not rely on alliances with major powers, such as the former Soviet Union, to sustain their fight. Instead, these groups rely on their own resources, their own people, and their own strategies.

Palestinians are gathering at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis to celebrate ahead of the official announcement of the ceasefire deal in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/5w3iD8DZ2f

— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) January 15, 2025



The significance of this resistance lies in its introduction of a new model of anti-colonial struggle in the Arab world, unifying non-state actors—such as the Resistance in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Ansarallah in Yemen, and other groups across the region—that fought with a single strategy. This unified approach succeeded in weakening Israel’s economy, overwhelming its army, and ultimately defeating it on the battlefield.

Israel has, in fact, been defeated. After 15 months of fighting, Israel surrendered to the Resistance. This surrender reflects Israel’s admission that it could neither reoccupy Gaza, destroy the resistance, ethnically cleanse Palestinians, counter regional resistance groups, nor sustain the war any longer.

As a result, Israel agreed to return to the same ceasefire terms that Hamas had accepted as early as May and again in July of last year. This marks a historic moment.

This defeat will have profound repercussions. It highlights the unbreakable and unified nature of the Palestinian Resistance. It reaffirms the people’s resolve to continue their struggle, drawing inspiration from the words of the great African-American leader Malcolm X: “By any means necessary.”

https://mronline.org/2025/01/15/complet ... -analysis/

Wishful thinking. As we speak Bibi is trying to weasel out, blaming Hamas of course. That this is essentially the same deal that Hamas signed off on months ago is no matter...

*******

Gaza Ceasefire Deal Still Not Approved by Knesset. And Why Should the World Trust Israel to Comply if So?
Posted on January 16, 2025 by Yves Smith

Because we are in the midst of what Lambert likes to call an overly dynamic situation, this post will be comparatively brief. As most of you know already, there was great excitement over the news of a ceasefire pact between Israel and Hamas, with the prospect that the horrific punishment of Gazans might stop, if not their suffering due to the physical destruction of Gaza and the deaths and maiming of so many of its inhabitants. However, despite widespread reports of a six-month ceasefire and phased withdrawal having been agreed, in fact the deal is still in play. Even with the Trump team trying to lower the hammer on the US-dependent Israel government, the agreement has not been approved by the Knesset. From Aljazeera’s live stream:

Image

And a very fresh entry on the Times of Israel live stream has Netanyahu’s office trying to accuse Hamas of acting in bad faith.

Image

In fact many commentators (forgive me for not providing supporting links) have pointed out the outline of terms (save the duration of the ceasefire, which IIRC is longer than past proposals) is essentially the same as what Hamas agreed to before but Israel wriggled out of by repeatedly making last minute additional demands.

The tweet below was based on the earlier premature reports of the ceasefire agreement, which would not be effective until January 19, having been consummated. But even so, this action would be true to form, of Israel upping its destruction right before cessation-of-hostilities agreements become effective:

BREAKING :

Just after agreeing to a ceasefire, Israel is now dropping bombs on TENTS packed with civilians in Gaza, burning Palestinians alive in the middle of the night.

HOLOCAUST.


Continuing Israel attacks on Gaza, suggest that even if Israel goes though the motions of capitulating to US demands, it will work hard to defy them, much like a willful teenager. And Israel has form here:

Just remember that every inauguration of a US president, Palestine miraculously gets a ceasefire from Israel. And after the inauguration, Israel always breaks the ceasefire. They are gaslighting us.
Image

For the sake of completeness, a summary of the ceasefire provisions. Note they look unduly fuzzy and incomplete (save on the key issue of prisoner exchanges). Fram SBS:

Here’s what we know about the deal so far.

The first phase

The initial phase will last six weeks and will involve a limited hostage-prisoner exchange, the partial withdrawal of Israeli troops in Gaza and a surge of aid into the enclave.

Thirty-three Israeli hostages will be released in this phase of the agreement, with those first released to be “civilian women and female recruits, as well as children, elderly people … civilian ill people and wounded”,[{Qatar’s Prime Minister] Al Thani said.

In terms of the Palestinian prisoners that would be exchanged for the 33 hostages, Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer said on Tuesday that Israel was “prepared to pay a heavy price — in the hundreds”.

Israel will release all Palestinian women and children under 19 detained since the October 7 attacks by the end of the first phase. The total number of Palestinians released will depend on the hostages released and could be between 990 and 1,650 Palestinian detainees, including men, women and children….

An Israeli buffer zone

Negotiations over a second phase of the agreement will begin by the 16th day of phase one and are expected to include the release of the remaining captives, including Israeli male soldiers, a permanent ceasefire and the complete withdrawal of Israeli soldiers.

Israeli forces would not fully withdraw from Gaza until “all hostages are returned”, the Israeli official said.

A source close to Hamas said Israeli forces would withdraw from the Netzarim Corridor westward toward Salaheddin Road to the east, enabling displaced people to return through an electronic checkpoint equipped with cameras….

Critical aid

The first phase will also see international aid agencies gain increased access and protections in Gaza.

The deal requires 600 truckloads of humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza every day of the ceasefire, 50 of them carrying fuel, with 300 of the trucks allocated to the enclave’s north…

The United Nations said on Tuesday it was busy preparing to expand humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip under a potential ceasefire but uncertainty around border access and security in the enclave remain obstacles…

Israel passed laws in October banning the UN Palestinian aid agency UNRWA — which the UN says is the backbone of aid operations in Gaza — from operating in the region.

The laws, which prohibit UNRWA from operating on Israeli land and having contact with Israeli authorities, is due to take effect later this month.

What happens next?

Details on the potential second and third phases of the ceasefire deal remain unclear.

Under the arrangements outlined by Qatar, the details of phases two and three will be “finalised” during the implementation of phase one…

Biden said phase two would comprise an exchange for the release of remaining hostages who are still alive, including the male soldiers. Then all remaining Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza, he said.

Israel has said it will not agree to a complete withdrawal until Hamas’ military and political capabilities are eliminated.


Needless to say, with the later phases to be negotiated, it seems plenty likely this deal will break down unless the Trump Administration is serious about keeping Israel on a short leash, or whether this deal is merely a one-off, with the Trump crowd lacking the persistence and/or intent to keep the scheme from going off the rails, which Israel will work hard to achieve.

It’s hardly a secret that Israel has made a mockery of its 60 day ceasefire agreement with Lebanon, with strikes and incursions into southern Lebanon continuing (the only serious effect of that pact seems to be a halt of bombing of Beirut).

Middle East Observer
@ME_Observer_
·
Follow
Just a reminder that Israel, the Zionist entity, is still bombing Lebanon amid the ceasefire.



Even early on, Israel largely ignored the Lebanon pact:

Ken Klippenstein
@kenklippenstein
·
Follow
About the Lebanon ceasefire Biden is so proud of — CNN just reported that "Israel has violated that ceasefire about 100 times."


One of the critical elements to restoring a thin semblance of survivability in the ravaged Gaza is large daily deliveries of aid: 600 trucks of food including 50 of fuel. Israel has persistently fallen short of past supply delivery commitments, even going so far as to empty bags of sugar and refill them with sand. Even if Israel were to be uncharacteristically complaint about the other elements of the Gaza ceasefire, seriously underdelivering on aid commitments will be enough to continue the slow-motion destruction of what is left in the way of life in Palestine. I see nothing so far that obligates Israel to restore other absolutely essential services, starting with electricity and water. And what about the completely destroyed hospital system? What happens with medical care?

Now admittedly, the Trump team refusing to be cowed by Netanyahu and trying to get him to operate as if Israel is what it is, a US dependency, is a step in the right direction. Even though the incoming Administration has voiced fierce opposition to the major actors in The Resistance, it appears dead set against letting Israel embroil the US in a conflict with Iran, which has long been a pet aim and personal continued survival strategy of Netanyahu’s. Importantly, the Trump Administration may be trying to curb the eschatological bent of the Israeli hardliners along with their dangerous beliefs about Israel’s right to seize yet more territory, not just parts of Lebanon but also Egypt and Jordan.

However, the Israel press is saying the deal is all a big show:

🇱🇧 Israel just carried multiple airstrikes in south of Lebanon

There is another school of thought. Alastair Crooke, in his discussion with Judge Napolitano at the start of the week, that the Trump quid pro quo for the ceasefire is allowing Israel a free hand with ethnic cleansing of the West Bank, where Israel has been able to use less visibly destructive means than in Gaza.

But if so, why would Netanyahu impede the Knesset ratification? The tweet above may instead signify that Netanyahu is trying to preserve his image in Israel and also believes he can ignore any commitment, violate the ceasefire, and see if the US dares to take concrete action.

Tucker Carlson suggests the deal is coming unglued in usual Israel form, of picking it apart after it’s been theoretically agreed but before inked. And he lambastes the Biden Administration for getting ahead of itself, presumably in the interest of taking credit for the benefit of Biden’s legacy. Via the TCN morning news summary:

The development makes Biden, Kamala Harris, and Antony Blinken’s Wednesday press conference look childish and irresponsible. By declaring peace before it was official, American leadership gave both Hamas and Israel the ability to use the kind of tactic Netanyahu says his adversaries are exploiting.

Keep in mind that even if, out of what one expects from the US, that Trump actually does want this deal to stick so as to greatly reduce the heat level in the Middle East and free up his Administration to address other priorities, Israeli extremists could put the region in turmoil all on their own, with the mother of all provocations being blowing up the Al Aqsa mosque.

Aurelien, in an important new post on negotiations to end hostilities, gave the diplomat’s version of the commercial adage, that contracts are only as good as the parties that sign them:

Agreements, whether simple or elaborate, whether legal or political in nature, whether written or verbal, have no more effect than the willingness of parties to implement them, and no more significance than the good faith of parties in entering into them in the first place

There is plenty of commentary, such as from a new video by Iran’s Professor Mohammed Marandi on Dialogue Works on how the ceasefire confirms the effectiveness of The Resistance campaign, to a new article by Daniel Herst, Gaza ceasefire: After 15 months of brutality, Israel has failed on every front, that this agreement represents a loss for Israel. Recall the point made by Alastair Crooke and Scott Ritter, among others, from the outset: if Hamas survived, it won. Similarly, the refusal of Gazans to surrender their land, even at such horrific cost, is a victory if this deal sticks, even if at huge cost. Hence the high motivation of Israel to deny that success.

So I wish I were wrong, but getting optimistic about real relief for Gazans seems misplaced.

Update 10:30 AM: The Financial Times reports that two right wing parties are threatening to resign from the Knesset if the ceasefire is approved. Netanyahu has tried adding more color to his claim of Hamas adding demands by saying that they are trying to “dictate” which prisoners are released in exchange for hostages. But it is hardly unusual to negotiate hostage exchanges that way.

The reality is that the likely defection of the two hawkish parties has nothing to do with prisoner exchange handling but the whole premise of the proposed pact:

Netanyahu’s statement came as a finance minister Bezalel Smotrich’s far-right Religious Zionist party said on Thursday morning that it could leave the government if the deal led to a permanent end of the war.

Speaking to Kan Radio, Zvi Sukkot, a lawmaker from the party, said it would “in all likelihood” resign from the government if a deal was approved, since its mission was to “change the DNA of Israel”, not just make up numbers in the coalition.

The party said later on Thursday it was “a condition for the party to remain in the government and the coalition” that Israel should resume fighting “immediately upon the conclusion of the first phase of the deal”.


However, these defections would not bring down the government. Israel allows for minority governments and opposition parties have said they would back Netanyahu. But the pink paper states, without elaborating, that early elections could eventually result.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2025/01 ... if-so.html

******

Image

Thoughts On The Ceasefire Deal

As usual, Israel appears to be ramping up its aggressions to kill as many people as possible before the fighting comes to an end. These next few days will be an especially terrifying time to be living in Gaza.

Caitlin Johnstone
January 16, 2025

Israel and Hamas have reportedly agreed to a ceasefire and hostage deal, which is scheduled to take effect January 19. The deal as written is apparently virtually identical to the one Hamas agreed to last May, which Netanyahu then sabotaged with the complicity of the Biden administration.

As usual, Israel appears to be ramping up its aggressions to kill as many people as possible before the fighting comes to an end. These next few days will be an especially terrifying time to be living in Gaza.

The Times of Israel reports that according to two unnamed Arab officials, the middle east envoy for the incoming Trump administration did more to sway Netanyahu in one day than the Biden administration did all year. The Trump camp’s pivotal role in securing the deal has been acknowledged by pretty much everyone at this point, including Biden’s State Department.

So it looks like Trump winning ended up being the better result for the people of Gaza, as weird as that sounds. Not because he’s a fantastic peacemaker, but because he did something instead of doing nothing.

Which would mean that everyone who said a Trump win will make things worse for Gaza was objectively wrong, and that Biden-Harris were undeniably the greater evil.

Cool. Lesson learned.


Don’t get me wrong, Trump is going to be terrible for the Palestinians, terrible for the middle east, and terrible for the world. And it’s very possible that even this basic, bare-minimum end to an active holocaust won’t hold. I’m not praising Trump, I’m shitting on Biden.

Biden, who could have ended this all with a phone call at any time and chose not to, every day for 15 months. Whose unique combination of dementia, corruption and lifelong virulent Zionism made these genocidal atrocities possible in ways that couldn’t have happened to the same degree under any other administration. Whose Zionist handlers pushed through as many crimes against humanity as they could possibly cram into the remainder of their administration while stalling peace efforts by hiding their true intentions.

Yes, we can expect to see more cruelty inflicted upon the Palestinians in general and the people of Gaza in particular. Yes, we can expect Trump to shower Israel with gifts while ramping up tensions with Iran like he did in his previous term. None of this changes the clearly established fact that Joe Biden was a uniquely horrible president for this point in history, and that humanity would probably be better off if he’d lost in 2020.

This development comes as new polling shows us that Kamala Harris’ depraved position on Gaza probably cost her the election last November. A poll released on Wednesday by IMEU Policy Project and YouGov found that among people who voted for Biden in 2020 but didn’t vote for Harris in 2024, Gaza was their number one reason — surpassing even issues like the economy and healthcare.

So it turns out all those Muslims in Michigan that liberals have been screaming at for refusing to vote for Harris were right all along. Kamala Harris told them “I’m speaking” when they protested her genocidal atrocities at a political rally in Detroit. Well, who’s speaking now?

Image

I’ve only just begun allowing myself to emotionally process the possibility that this could be the beginning of the end of the Gaza holocaust. My default position on such matters always tends toward intellectual pessimism, but when I saw the relief and celebrations of the people of Gaza it really hit my guts that this nightmare could possibly be winding down, and I have now allowed a tiny ray of hope to touch in.

I don’t mind getting my hopes up, because I don’t really mind feeling disappointed if things don’t go the way I was hoping. I don’t like using pessimism as an emotional sedative to hide my heart and blunt the impact of the ups and downs of life.

I have never enjoyed this job less than I have these last 15 months. Having to look at dead and mutilated children every day, month after month, has changed my experience of the world. Changed my insides. Changed what it feels like to be alive. The idea that this particular horror might be on its last legs is causing some major emotional rumblings in my depths that I still haven’t allowed to fully express here.

I’ve definitely got a big cry in my future. A lot of tears. A lot of shaking. Some throat-splitting screams of white hot rage. There are a lot of feels that have yet to be felt here. When the picture of what’s happening gets a little clearer and when the time is right, I will feel them. There’s an emotional tsunami in the mail.

This will take a long time to process, and of course the fight is very, very far from over. But I am allowing myself to feel some sliver of hope that, in this one small part of the world, things might start getting a little better.

https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/01 ... fire-deal/

Who gave this gal the hopium? She generally knows better.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

User avatar
blindpig
Posts: 12684
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 5:44 pm
Location: Turtle Island
Contact:

Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Fri Jan 17, 2025 4:19 pm

Chris Hedges: The Ceasefire Charade
January 16, 2025

Israel plays a cynical game. It makes phased agreements with the Palestinians that ensure it immediately gets what it wants. It then violates every subsequent phase and reignites its military assault.

Image
Piece Plan – by Mr. Fish.

By Chris Hedges
ScheerPost

Israel, going back decades, has played a duplicitous game.

It signs a deal with the Palestinians that is to be implemented in phases. The first phase gives Israel what it wants — in this case the release of the Israeli hostages in Gaza — but Israel habitually fails to implement subsequent phases that would lead to a just and equitable peace.

It eventually provokes the Palestinians with indiscriminate armed assaults to retaliate, defines a Palestinian response as a provocation and abrogates the ceasefire deal to reignite the slaughter.

If this latest three-phase ceasefire deal is ratified — and there is no certainty that it will be by Israel — it will, I expect, be little more than a presidential inauguration bombing pause. Israel has no intention of halting its merry-go-round of death.

The Israeli Cabinet has delayed a vote on the ceasefire proposal while it continues to pound Gaza. At least 81 Palestinians have been killed in the last 24 hours.

The morning after a ceasefire agreement was announced, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of reneging on part of the deal “in an effort to extort last minute concessions.”

He warned that his cabinet will not meet “until the mediators notify Israel that Hamas has accepted all elements of the agreement.”

Hamas dismissed Netanyahu’s claims and repeated their commitment to the ceasefire as agreed with the mediators.

The deal includes three phases.

The first phase, lasting 42 days, will see a cessation of hostilities. Hamas will release some Israeli hostages – 33 Israelis who were captured on Oct. 7, 2023, including all of the remaining five women, those aged above 50, and those with illnesses – in exchange for up to 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

The Israeli army will pull back from the populated areas of the Gaza Strip on the first day of the ceasefire. On the seventh day, displaced Palestinians will be permitted to return to northern Gaza. Israel will allow 600 aid trucks with food and medical supplies to enter Gaza daily.

The second phase, which begins on the 16th day of the ceasefire, will see the release of the remaining Israeli hostages. Israel will complete its withdrawal from Gaza during the second phase, maintaining a presence in some parts of the Philadelphi corridor, which stretches along the eight-mile border between Gaza and Egypt.

It will surrender its control of the Rafah border crossing into Egypt.

The third phase will see negotiations for a permanent end of the war.

But it is Netanyahu’s office that appears to have already reneged on the agreement. It released a statement rejecting Israeli troop withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor during the first 42-day phase of the ceasefire.

“In practical terms, Israel will remain in the Philadelphi Corridor until further notice,” while claiming the Palestinians are attempting to violate the agreement. Palestinians throughout the numerous ceasefire negotiations have demanded Israeli troops withdraw from Gaza.

Egypt has condemned the seizure of its border crossings by Israel.

Image
Israeli military ground operations in the Gaza Strip on Nov. 1, 2023. (IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)

The deep fissures between Israel and Hamas, even if the Israelis finally accept the agreement, threaten to implode it.

Hamas is seeking a permanent ceasefire. But Israeli policy is unequivocal about its “right” to re-engage militarily.

There is no consensus about who will govern Gaza. Israel has made it clear the continuance of Hamas in power is unacceptable.

There is no mention of the status of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the U.N. agency that Israel has outlawed and that provides the bulk of the humanitarian aid given to the Palestinians, 95 percent of whom have been displaced.

There is no agreement on the reconstruction of Gaza, which lies in rubble. And, of course, there is no route in the agreement to an independent and sovereign Palestinian state.

Israeli mendacity and manipulation is pitifully predictable.

Camp David

Image
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat (left), U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin after the Camp David Peace Accords signing ceremony at the White House on Sept. 17, 1978. (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

The Camp David Accords, signed in 1978 by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, without the participation of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), normalized diplomatic relations between Israel and Egypt.

But the subsequent phases, which included a promise by Israel to resolve the Palestinian question along with Jordan and Egypt, permit Palestinian self-governance in the West Bank and Gaza within five years, and end the building of Israeli colonies in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, were never honored.

Oslo

Or take the 1993 Oslo Accords. The agreement, signed in 1993, which saw the PLO recognize Israel’s right to exist and Israel recognize the PLO as the legitimate representatives of the Palestinian people; and Oslo II, signed in 1995, which detailed the process towards peace and a Palestinian state, was stillborn.

It stipulated that any discussion of illegal Jewish “settlements” was to be delayed until “final’ status talks, by which time Israeli military withdrawals from the occupied West Bank were to have been completed.

Governing authority was to be transferred from Israel to the supposedly temporary Palestinian Authority. The West Bank was carved up into Areas A, B and C.

The Palestinian Authority has limited authority in Areas A and B. Israel controls all of Area C, over 60 percent of the West Bank.

Image
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, U.S. President Bill Clinton and the PLO’s Yasser Arafat at Oslo Accords signing ceremony, Sept. 13, 1993. (Vince Musi, White House, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

The right of Palestinian refugees to return to the historic lands seized from them in 1948 when Israel was created — a right enshrined in international law — was given up by the PLO leader Yasser Arafat, instantly alienating many Palestinians, especially those in Gaza where 75 percent are refugees or the descendants of refugees.

Edward Said called the Oslo agreement “an instrument of Palestinian surrender, a Palestinian Versailles” and lambasted Arafat as “the Pétain of the Palestinians.”

The scheduled Israeli military withdrawals under Oslo never took place. There was no provision in the interim agreement to end Jewish colonization, only a prohibition of “unilateral steps.”

There were around 250,000 Jewish colonists in the West Bank at the time of the Oslo agreement. They have increased to at least 700,000. No final treaty was ever concluded.

The journalist Robert Fisk called Oslo …

“a sham, a lie, a trick to entangle Arafat and the PLO into abandonment of all that they had sought and struggled for over a quarter of a century, a method of creating false hope in order to emasculate the aspiration of statehood.”

Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, who signed the Oslo agreement, was assassinated on Nov. 4, 1995, following a rally in support of the agreement, by Yigal Amir, a far-right Jewish law student.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, now Israel’s national security minister, was one of many rightwing politicians who issued threats against Rabin. Rabin’s widow, Leah, blamed Netanyahu and his supporters — who distributed leaflets at political rallies depicting Rabin in a Nazi uniform — for her husband’s murder.

Image
Rabin, on the day he was assassinated, giving a speech in favor of the Oslo Peace agreement in Tel Aviv. (Israel Press and Photo Agency, Dan Hadani collection, National Library of Israel, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0)

Israel has carried out a series of murderous assaults on Gaza ever since, cynically calling the bombardment “mowing the lawn.”

These attacks, which leave scores of dead and wounded and further degrade Gaza’s fragile infrastructure, have names such as Operation Rainbow (2004), Operation Days of Penitence (2004), Operation Summer Rains (2006), Operation Autumn Clouds (2006) and Operation Hot Winter (2008).

Israel violated the June 2008 ceasefire agreement with Hamas, brokered by Egypt, by launching a border raid that killed six Hamas members. The raid provoked, as Israel intended, a retaliatory strike by Hamas, which fired crude rockets and mortar shells into Israel.

The Hamas barrage provided the pretext for a massive Israeli attack. Israel, as it always does, justified its military strike on the right to defend itself.

Operation Cast Lead (2008-2009), which saw Israel carry out a ground and aerial assault over 22 days, with the Israeli air force dropping over 1,000 tons of explosives on Gaza, killed 1,385 — according to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem — of whom at least 762 were civilians, including 300 children.

Four Israelis were killed over the same period by Hamas rockets and nine Israeli soldiers died in Gaza, four of whom were victims of “friendly fire.” The Israeli newspaper Haaretz would later report that “Operation Cast Lead” had been prepared over the previous six months.

Israeli historian Avi Shlaim, who served in the Israeli military, wrote that:

“the brutality of Israel’s soldiers is fully matched by the mendacity of its spokesman…their propaganda is a pack of lies…It was not Hamas but the IDF that broke the ceasefire. It did so by a raid into Gaza on 4 November that killed six Hamas men. Israel’s objective is not just the defense of its population, but the eventual overthrow of the Hamas government in Gaza by turning the people against their rulers.”

Image
Child in Gaza City during the cease fire after the 2008–2009 conflict. (andlun1, Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0)

These series of attacks on Gaza were followed by Israeli assaults in November 2012, known as Operation Pillar of Defense and in July and August 2014 in Operation Protective Edge, a seven week campaign that left 2,251 Palestinians dead, along with 73 Israelis, including 67 soldiers.

These assaults by the Israeli military were followed in 2018 by largely peaceful protests by Palestinians, known as The Great March of Return, along Gaza’s fenced-in barrier. Over 266 Palestinians were gunned down by Israeli soldiers and 30,000 more were injured.

In May 2021, Israel killed over 256 Palestinians in Gaza following attacks by Israeli police on Palestinian worshippers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem. Further attacks on worshippers at Al-Aqsa mosque took place in April 2023.

And then the breaching of the security barriers on Oct. 7, 2023 that enclose Gaza, where Palestinians had languished under a blockade for over 16 years in an open air prison.

The attacks by Palestinian gunmen [Al-Aqsa Deluge] left some 1,200 Israeli dead — including hundreds killed by Israel itself — and gave Israel the excuse it had long sought to lay waste to Gaza, in its Swords of Iron War.

This horrific saga is not over. Israel’s goals remain unchanged – the erasure of Palestinians from their land. This proposed ceasefire is one more cynical chapter. There are many ways it can and, I suspect, will fall apart.

But let us pray, at least for the moment, that the mass slaughter will stop.

https://consortiumnews.com/2025/01/16/c ... e-charade/

******

Hezbollah’s Options: 95,000 Are Still Waiting
January 16, 2025

Image
Hezbollah Secretary-General, Naim Qassem. Photo: Al-Mayadeen.

By Ahmad Abdel Rahman – Jan 13, 2025

Ahmad Abdel Rahman writes in Al Mayadeen Arabic website, analyzing the potential strategies Hezbollah could adopt in response to Israel’s failure to fully implement the ceasefire agreement.

In recent weeks, especially after the suspension of the ceasefire agreement between the occupation army and Hezbollah, many in the region and worldwide have been analyzing and interpreting the true events that took place on the northern front of occupied Palestine, as well as on the Lebanese front opposite it, and the resulting consequences, which may arise from the tough battle fought there.

Many analysts have adopted the hypothesis of Hezbollah’s retreat after the losses it suffered at the leadership level, including its Secretary-General, the martyr Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah.

Some prominent analysts even went so far as to claim that the party would never recover, and that it would experience further setbacks in the coming period, particularly after the dramatic shift in Syria, starting with its alleged abandonment of its candidate for the Lebanese presidency, Minister Suleiman Frangieh, and its reluctant acceptance of Army Commander Joseph Aoun, who was elected last Thursday, and who is said to be supported by Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Hezbollah’s Silence
In contrast to all these analyses that have been echoed on major television networks, accompanied by leaks, interpretations, and claims, as well as the official statements from Israel, including those from its Prime Minister and the past and current defense ministers, Hezbollah has remained largely silent. It preferred to let others speak as they wished, while it itself observed, monitored, and assessed the situation. Moreover, according to informed sources, the party has begun working at various levels, with remarkable speed and efficiency.

On the one hand, it began assessing the damages, providing aid to all those affected by the aggression, and evaluating the extent of the harm to its military and security infrastructures. It worked to compensate for a large portion of the losses and shortages caused by the aggression and filled all vacancies in its structure—politically, militarily, security-wise, media-wise, and socially—overcoming all obstacles that some attempted to place in its way, including efforts to prevent the flow of funds necessary to begin reconstruction and compensate the families of martyrs and the injured.

The Upcoming Deadline
In less than ten days, Hezbollah, in particular, and the Lebanese people and the region in general, will face an important deadline, as the sixty-day ceasefire agreed upon will end on the 20th of this month. This is expected to be followed by steps for the complete withdrawal of the occupation army from the Lebanese villages and towns it has occupied, which it increased its incursion into after the agreement went into effect. The task of implementation has been entrusted to the countries that guaranteed the agreement and the Lebanese state, leading to complete and sustainable calm.

Israeli Violations
However, a review of the Israeli and American statements and leaks over the past two weeks indicates that the upcoming phase could bring unforeseen surprises that many, both in Lebanon and the region, hope to avoid. Any Israeli violation of the terms of the agreement could open the door to dire consequences. This concern, in particular, has prompted the French and Americans to act early to prevent matters from spiraling out of control and to avoid a return to tensions and conflict, which could potentially be broader and more widespread than before.

The Zionist Deception
Given all of this, and in light of our understanding of the deceptive nature of the Zionist enemy, as is often the case, and its potential to renege on its commitments, especially with the increased confidence it may have following the rise of Donald Trump, a trusted friend of Israel, to power in the strongest country in the world, we believe that Hezbollah will be compelled to take some form of action in response to any Israeli hesitation or delay regarding the issue of withdrawal, especially considering the ongoing acts of aggression, such as bombings and the destruction of Lebanese citizens’ homes, and the airstrikes against some of the targets that Israel claims are military.

Hezbollah’s Options
From our perspective, Hezbollah has three main options it could resort to if Israel retreats from fully implementing the agreement or violates, at the very least, some of the required measures. These options will certainly have consequences, both for Hezbollah specifically and for the Lebanese state and the broader region.

Option 1: Passing to the State
Many countries in the region and the world, as well as Lebanese opponents of Hezbollah, particularly those from the March 14 coalition, have long called for giving the Lebanese state a chance to manage the country’s affairs without the resistance’s weapon, and for allowing the Lebanese army time to exert control over all of Lebanon’s geography, including the southern areas. In this, they do not wish for Lebanon’s welfare at all, as they know that Israel respects only the strong and does not give weight to any of the region’s armies or regimes, especially those that have tied their decisions to foreign forces that oppose resistance, primarily the United States.

Although Hezbollah knows better than anyone else that the Lebanese state is weak and torn by the interests of major powers that control many political decisions in the country through financial means, it might resort to giving more time after the sixty-day ceasefire ends and pass the ball to the state, the army, and the intermediary countries to implement what was agreed upon on November 27, especially after the new president was elected in Lebanon. This may push the guarantor powers to exert more pressure on Israel to abide by the terms of the agreement.



Option 2: Combat in Occupied Areas
This option, in particular, holds significant legitimacy both locally and internationally. Any delay or hesitation by Israel in withdrawing from all the Lebanese territories it recently occupied, or any imposition of new political or military realities, would constitute a violation of the agreement and a denial of the principles established. As a result, Hezbollah and other Lebanese resistance groups would be free to resume fighting at the moment of their choosing, whether immediately after the ceasefire ends or at a later time.

This option is likely to focus on the areas that Israel refuses to withdraw from, which, according to some Israeli and American media, are three regions considered vital due to their oversight of Israeli settlements and military sites near the northern border of occupied Palestine.

What strengthens the possibility of this option is a recent statement from Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary-General, Mahmoud Qamati, who said, “If the Israeli army does not withdraw from the country after 60 days of the ceasefire agreement, it means the forces present are occupying forces, and we will treat them as such.”

Option 3: Full-Scale Combat
Since the extremist right-wing government in Israel seeks to prolong the conflict in the region to serve its expansionist and aggressive agendas, as well as to protect Netanyahu’s embattled interests, it could, in the event Hezbollah opts to fight again in the areas where occupation forces are stationed inside Lebanese territory, escalate its aggression once more and extend it to include all of Lebanese territory. This would rely on the assumption that Hezbollah’s land supply line from Syria has been severed and that it has sustained significant damage to its military infrastructure, particularly its precise and long-range missile systems.

Should this occur, Hezbollah would be forced to engage in a large-scale battle similar to the previous phase. Israeli settlements, whose residents still fear returning due to the possibility of renewed conflict, as well as more distant cities like Haifa and Acre, up to Tel Aviv and its surroundings, would find themselves once again at the center of the conflict, with their residents returning to hearing sirens and rushing to shelters, morning and night, in a nightmare no Israeli wishes to revisit.

The Road Ahead
In any case, regardless of which option Hezbollah chooses if the enemy reneges on the agreement and refuses to adhere to its terms, whether it opts for one of the options mentioned above or other options, it deems more appropriate, the region remains on edge, with the possibility of a large-scale confrontation still very real, especially in light of the continued aggression against Gaza and the failure to reach a ceasefire agreement to end the war and aggression, at least for now.

Whether this potential confrontation with Lebanon is wide or limited in scale, Israel will not emerge victorious in any case. Its lies, repeated daily about Hezbollah’s diminished fighting ability and the collapse of its key structures due to the strikes it has endured, will not lead to a clear or decisive victory. On the contrary, it will suffer further blows, face more disappointments, and will eventually be forced to submit to the just and legitimate terms of the resistance.

In one of the speeches by Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah, he said: “Hezbollah has one hundred thousand trained fighters, ready for battle under any circumstances.”

Assuming the party lost four thousand of them after the brutal pager attacks, and at most one thousand more in the battles before or after that attack, Hezbollah still has about 95,000 skilled and capable fighters, who, as everyone knows, are ready to fight to the last breath. The recent battle revealed a part of the courage, valor, and martyrdom spirit of these fighters, which is unmatched.

These fighters, along with tens of thousands of other resistance forces in Lebanon, will make any Israeli foolishness an act of madness and will undoubtedly hasten the downfall of the extremist and criminal Zionist coalition in this rogue state, which will not be saved by the threats from the new occupant of the White House or his irrational and crazy boasts.

(Palestine Chronicle)

https://orinocotribune.com/hezbollahs-o ... l-waiting/

******

Ceasefire Deal Reportedly Reached in Gaza, as Both Biden and Trump Take Credit
Simplicius
Jan 15, 2025

The big news of the day: Israel has officially announced a ceasefire and potential end to the Gaza war. Hamas will be releasing 33 hostages—interesting numerology, as always—and Israel will reportedly withdraw its military forces from Gaza.

It will be done in three phases, with the first beginning on January 19th, just a day before Trump’s inauguration as if in tribute:

Image

The announcement was met with rousing cheers throughout northern Gaza where Hamas fighters reportedly came out of their tunnels to openly celebrate in the streets—make no mistake, this is being viewed as a monumental victory by the resistance: (Video at link.)

Hamas declared the ceasefire with Israel a victory

According to the agreement, in the second phase of the ceasefire, the Israeli army must leave Gaza.

Hamas must return the surviving hostages, and in exchange they will receive their comrades held in Israeli prisons. This was Hamas' demand; Israel insisted on the release of its citizens without any conditions.

In the third stage of the settlement, the remains of the murdered hostages will be returned to the families in Israel, and large-scale post-war reconstruction will begin in Gaza.

In Israel itself, they are already calling the deal "bad" and claiming that it was imposed by the United States.


Image

Listen to Blinken’s admission below:(Video at link.)

“Indeed Hamas has recruited almost as many new militants as it has lost.”

Don’t be surprised if the real number is much more than it has lost—and if not yet, it will be in the future.

After much more than a year of fighting, the “pound for pound greatest military force on the planet” was unable to defeat Hamas even after being given a blank cheque for total indiscriminate slaughter and genocide of the civilian population with zero repercussions, a leeway not afforded to any other military force in recent history.

The fact is, the IDF performed dismally and the reason the deal even came about was because the last several weeks saw a significant spike in IDF soldiers’ deaths:

Image

Recently news came that 4% of all IDF troop deaths have been suicides:

Image

And reports of 20,000 wounded IDF from just the Gaza conflict:

Image

In a humorous nod to American politics, both Biden and Trump separately took credit for the ceasefire deal, though CNN contends that both sides did work together on it. Keep in mind Netanyahu recently suspended plans to attend Trump’s inauguration reportedly after the latter’s snub—Trump posted a Jeffrey Sachs video calling Netanyahu a “deep, dark son of a bitch”.

In fact, Haaretz even made claims that Trump’s recent ‘aggressiveness’—which likely includes the jab above—led to the ceasefire presumably because Netanyahu read the change in the wind and could see that it would be now or never, as Trump’s coming administration is perceived as having a harsher, no-nonsense approach on reaching a deal:

Image
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/202 ... fdce850000

Israeli “patriots” feel betrayed by a Trump who had claimed to want to give Hamas “hell” yet immediately strong-armed Bibi into a deal:

Zimri: "So all his people have been lying – it's a big disappointment."

Magal: "He talks about hell and in the meantime sends his envoy to sign a deal. It's a deal whose impact will be very difficult. That's the truth." He added that the last remaining hope is that Hamas will reject a deal: "A cabinet minister told me we need to pray again that God will harden Pharaoh's heart."


But of course, this is just the latest chapter in the endless cyclical nightmare of Israeli racist colonialism:

Image

We can’t have particularly high confidence of it succeeding, particularly given that top Israeli officials like Ben-Gvir have already expressed their hopes that the deal will fail, and will undoubtedly give their most earnest try in undermining it in any way possible.

It also has little bearing on Israel’s continued strikes on various other surrounding countries, from Lebanon and Syria to Yemen. Israel even stepped up strikes on Gaza today, killing a reported dozen or so—one supposes they needed to sate their fill of bloodlust as consolation for the coming cessation of hostilities.

In fact, a report just earlier claimed that Israel even unleashed its first direct strike on Jolani’s troops:

The Israeli Air Force has carried out its first strike on the forces of the terrorist group HTS, which has seized power in Syria.

The attack targeted a convoy of militants in the province of Quneitra to prevent them from getting closer to IDF forces on the ground.


This was right around the time that Erdogan issued a loud rebuke toward Netanyahu, calling on him to stop striking Syria as tensions continue rising between Turkey and its Syrian proxies and Israel.

Erdogan:

“The aggressive actions of the forces attacking Syrian territory, Israel, in particular, must come to an end as soon as possible. Otherwise, it will cause unfavorable outcomes for everyone.”

We’re left to speculate whether this rising new threat is chief amongst reasons for Netanyahu finally acquiescing to a ceasefire he rejected many times before. With the IDF’s continued dismal performance—in particular its major failure in incurring into Lebanese territory—Netanyahu may have chosen to reduce the burden of the multi-fronted war in order to free up resources to concentrate on the potential new threat from the Turkish-Syria axis.



The fetid stink of it all will follow Biden administration ghouls around for many years to come: (Video at link.)

https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/cea ... ly-reached

******

Image

None Of These War Criminals Will Face Justice While The US Empire Exists

Two journalists were ejected from a State Department press conference on Thursday for asking inconvenient questions about Gaza. One of them, Sam Husseini, was physically carried out by security while demanding to know why Secretary of State Antony Blinken is not in The Hague for his war crimes.

Caitlin Johnstone
January 17, 2025

Two journalists were ejected from a State Department press conference on Thursday for asking inconvenient questions about Gaza. One of them, Sam Husseini, was physically carried out by security while demanding to know why Secretary of State Antony Blinken is not in The Hague for his war crimes.

The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal was also made to leave while asking Blinken why he allowed hundreds of journalists to be murdered in Gaza, telling State Department spokesman Matt Miller that he “smirked through a genocide.”

Husseini was then forcibly removed for asking questions about Gaza, and about Israel’s nuclear program and Hannibal directive. Blinken told Husseini to “respect the process,” to which Husseini replied, “Respect the process? Respect the process? While everybody from Amnesty International to the ICJ says Israel’s doing genocide and extermination, and you’re telling me to respect the process? Criminal! Why aren’t you in the Hague?”

The western political-media class is expressing outrage over the incident, not because of journalists being manhandled for asking critical questions of their government, but because those journalists asked critical questions.

The talking heads on CNN described the journalists interrogating government officials as “cringeworthy heckling by activists”, initially expressing bafflement at how those “activists” could have gotten into a press room intended for accredited journalists (both Blumenthal and Husseini are in fact members of the press who often attend State Department press briefings).

Longtime State Department swamp monster Aaron David Miller tweeted of the exchange, “In 27 years at State, never seen a situation where a Secretary of State — a caring compassionate man — is heckled in his own building by a heckler yelling ‘Why aren’t you in The Hague.’ A new low in civility and discourse.”

This is western liberalism in a nutshell. The problem isn’t the genocide, the problem is people being insufficiently polite about the genocide. Western officials feeling inconvenienced and insulted is a greater concern than children being shredded and burned by US military explosives.



Husseini’s question is an interesting one. Why isn’t Blinken in The Hague? Why hasn’t he faced justice for his facilitation of the starvation, sickness and daily massacres he’s been helping Israel inflict on civilians in Gaza for the last 15 months? And more importantly, why does it seem like a safe assumption that he never will?

This is after all the “rules-based international order,” is it not? Surely when you’ve got mainstream human rights organizations asserting that genocidal atrocities are being committed with the facilitation of the government which purports to uphold that order, some legal repercussions should be seen as at least within the realm of possibility, should they not?

And yet we all know this won’t be happening any time in the foreseeable future. We all know that as long as the US empire exists in the way that it exists, Tony Blinken and Matt Miller will enjoy prosperous free lives after their time with the Biden administration draws to a close.

This is because “international law” only exists to the extent that it can be enforced. If a superpower doesn’t want its lackeys being carted off to war crimes tribunals in the Netherlands then they won’t be, because as things sit right now nobody’s going to war with the US empire to put Tony Blinken behind bars. Or George W Bush, Dick Cheney, Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, for that matter.

As long as the US empire exists, none of these monsters will ever face justice for their actions. They will move on from their time in government to lucrative careers in think tanks or working as lobbyists until another Democratic administration calls for their services again — or, in Biden’s case, enjoy a comfortable retirement until a peaceful death surrounded by family members in the lap of luxury.

https://twitter.com/TopGResistance/stat ... 5211588033

Until the empire has been dismantled, the world will never know justice. These swamp creatures will be able to worm their way around back and forth through the revolving door between Washington’s official government and its unofficial government while murdering, displacing and tormenting as many innocents as they please, with total impunity.

One way or another, the slaughter in Gaza will end at some point. And as long as the US-centralized power structure still dominates our world, there will be no meaningful consequences for this. It will be filed away in the history books, and the propagandists will pace us along into the next imperial horror show. There will be more Gazas in the future, perhaps overseen by different Tony Blinkens or perhaps by the same ones, and they will keep happening for as long as this murderous empire remains standing.

This world can have justice when it finds a way to end the US empire. Until then the world will be ruled by tyrants who do exactly as they please, and anyone who questions them will be removed from the room by any force necessary.

https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/01 ... re-exists/

******

The war is over: Hamas reaps the fruits of 7 October

After Israel's protracted genocide in Gaza, the ceasefire delivers a devastating victory for the Palestinian resistance and a smug defeat for Israelis, who were forced to cough up unprecedented concessions, leaving Hamas whole and the strip unoccupied.


The Cradle's Palestine Correspondent

JAN 16, 2025

Image
Photo Credit: The Cradle

After 15 months of a brutal and relentless genocide that took the lives of over 50,000 Palestinians, a Gaza ceasefire has finally been reached. The truce deal marks a devastating victory for the Palestinian resistance, achieved at a staggering human cost, and a political loss for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the occupation state.

Unless Netanyahu pulls an unexpected move, which seems improbable for various reasons – most of them tied to demands from the incoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump – it is clear to all involved in Doha, Cairo, Istanbul, and Washington that the agreement to halt the Gaza genocide has been finalized and is now underway.

Sources familiar with the negotiations reveal to The Cradle that the announcement delay on 14 January stemmed from an Israeli “final attempt” to manipulate withdrawal maps. Tel Aviv sought to insert the term “withdrawal from populated areas,” which implied maintaining its forces in “open areas” near civilian zones.

This effort was thwarted by “decisive American pressure.” On 15 January, further delay arose from disagreements over who would announce the agreement: the Qataris, Americans, Egyptians, or a joint conference. “Everyone wants to pick the image of achievement, but the balance is weighted in favor of the Qataris,” explains one of the sources. In the end, Qatar announced the ceasefire due to its pivotal position in mediating the deal. A few hours later, US President Joe Biden also announced the ceasefire.

Two months prior, Qatar temporarily withdrew from mediation to secure a US mandate from the new administration. Washington, recognizing Qatar’s “distinguished relationship” with Hamas, sidelined Cairo and resumed negotiations in Doha instead.

The ceasefire will take effect on Sunday, 19 January, just one day before Donald Trump’s inauguration. This timing is partly attributed to US efforts to shape optics and partly to allow logistical preparations by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip.

Key details of the agreement

Hamas and Israel have agreed to a phased approach, balancing both their immediate and long-term goals. The deal includes the release of 1,000 Palestinian detainees, including 250 prisoners serving life sentences, women, and minors under 19 years old. Israel also agreed to withdraw from key areas of the strip, notably the Netzarim and Philadelphi axes, facilitating the return of displaced Gazans to the north without preconditions.

A significant element of the agreement was Hamas releasing 33 or 34 Israeli prisoners still held in Gaza, out of a total of 98, representing a third of the remaining captives. Notably, this was achieved without providing Tel Aviv with prior disclosure of the hostages' condition, whether alive or deceased.

For the first time, Israel publicly revealed the number of Gazan prisoners: 3,436, with 529 denied legal counsel – a mix of fighters and civilians, debunking the Israeli narrative throughout the war to have captured thousands of fighters.

Despite Israeli attempts to prioritize certain Shin Bet and Unit 8200 operatives in initial prisoner swaps, the agreed process ensures transparency. Prisoner release protocols, including pledges and documentation, began days prior, the sources inform The Cradle.

The withdrawal adheres to pre-7 October 2023 borders, averting Israeli attempts to establish buffer zones and achieve territorial encroachment – a significant victory for the Palestinian resistance. Hamas also secured commitments for reconstruction, including hospital rehabilitation, field medical teams, and unrestricted humanitarian aid.

This includes the re-opening of the destroyed Rafah crossing with Egypt, although Egyptian sources tell The Cradle it will likely be opened in March, while work is already underway to repair the Egyptian side. Qatar will sponsor 600 daily aid trucks, 200,000 tents, and 60,000 caravans. Moreover, Israel must limit air operations over Gaza to 8 to 10 hours daily in order to facilitate Palestinian search-and-rescue efforts.

Throughout the six-week implementation, Hamas will gradually release Israeli prisoners – three to four prisoners per week – an average of 19 in the first five weeks – and the remaining 14 or so at the end of the first phase, retaining 65 individuals as leverage for subsequent phases. The details of those phases will be negotiated later, provided that the Americans uphold their guarantee to prevent the return of war.

The first troop withdrawal phase, allowing displaced Palestinians to return to the north, from Al-Rashid al-Bahari Street to the west, begins on the seventh day of the ceasefire. By the 22nd day, Israel will fully withdraw, restoring freedom of movement for all Palestinians.

Netanyahu’s bitter pill

Over 15 months of total war, Netanyahu has faced numerous internal and external hurdles to reach this agreement. In the interim, the Israeli narrative of “absolute victory” has unraveled. Widely-touted promised gains, such as retaining the strategic Netzarim and Philadelphi corridors, have been abandoned, leaving Netanyahu and his extremist governing coalition grappling with a public relations crisis. The liberation of Palestinian prisoners and the reversal of territorial ambitions evoke memories of the 2011 exchange that freed 1,027 Palestinians for Gilad Shalit – a painful reminder for Israelis.

Israeli media’s reactions reflect this bitterness. “The pressure Trump is exerting right now is not the kind that Israel expected from him,” lamented the rightwing commentator Jacob Bardugo on Channel 14 on Monday. The network’s journalist Ariel Segal, close to Netanyahu, remarked, “It could be that we (Israel) are the first to pay the price of Trump's election.” Meanwhile, a journalist ally of extremist Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir concedes that “Trump increased the pressure on Hamas to the point that Israel broke.”

To compensate, there are reports of an “American compensation package” offering Netanyahu political cover for this domestic defeat. It includes lifting sanctions on extremist settlers, shielding Israeli leaders from international legal action, and permitting major West Bank settlement expansions. Yet, compared to Tel Aviv's far-reaching initial ambitions, such as annexing the West Bank or attacking Iran, these concessions appear diluted.

The late, martyred Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who spearheaded the resistance's Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, emerges as a key figure in the context of a prison swap. According to Hamas sources, the resistance negotiated the ceasefire on Sinwar's stringent terms, and in death, he achieved his goals. This will further glorify the man whose fight to the bitter end was captured in emotive images during his direct, defiant confrontation with the occupation forces.

His soldiers, unaware of his identity until after his martyrdom, viewed him as a symbol of resistance. Today, Israel faces the prospect of releasing hundreds of prisoners with life sentences and will be bitterly weighing the likelihood of future ‘Sinwars’ among them. For Israel, prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment are seen as having “blood on their hands,” signifying their perceived threat and resilience as formidable Palestinian figures.

A fragile victory

Despite unparalleled suffering – over 200,000 casualties, mass displacements, and Gaza’s near-total devastation – Palestinians are finding solace in halting the war and securing key concessions. The resistance’s steadfastness and Qatar’s deft diplomacy reshaped an agreement that, while imperfect, forestalls further bloodshed and displaces Israeli ambitions of long-term occupation.

However, the cessation remains precarious, hinging only on American guarantees and mutual adherence to terms. For Gaza’s people, scarred by war yet defiant, the deal symbolizes not just survival but a step toward reclaiming their dignity amid a continuing struggle.

When viewed alongside the key components of this agreement and juxtaposed with Israel’s objectives – the displacement of Gazans, the exile of resistance leaders, and the forcible retention of prisoners – the outcome marks a notable “achievement.”

This is particularly evident after over a year of relentless warfare, during which the occupation state seemed intent on perpetuating its presence in Gaza indefinitely. What complicates the narrative is the perception that the cessation of hostilities was largely driven by a “quasi-personal” decision by Donald Trump, who indirectly attacked Netanyahu during the process.

Yet, this outcome would not have been possible without the unwavering determination of the Palestinian resistance in Gaza. Their recent intensifying operations, especially on the front lines near Beit Hanoun, which exacted heavy death tolls on Israeli forces, played a crucial role in addition to the regional fronts opened by Hamas’s allies in the Axis of Resistance.

Nevertheless, these efforts alone did not directly prompt the war’s end. Gazans have endured horrors they liken to “doomsday scenes.” The toll includes 17,000 orphans and countless families erased from the civil registry.

On 16 January, one day after the announcement came, Netanyahu attempted to delay the approval of the ceasefire deal, blaming Hamas for “backtracking.” However, Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq stated the group remains “committed” to the ceasefire announced Wednesday. Israeli media attributed the delay to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s threats to leave the government in protest.

The people of Gaza are choosing to celebrate the agreement and its implications. Their joy and relief are visible not only in the diaspora and the West Bank but also in the streets of Gaza and among the makeshift tents they now call home, even before the agreement’s official declaration.

https://thecradle.co/articles/the-war-i ... -7-october

(Hate to be a 'downer' but I don't think this is over until those religious fanatics are utterly defeated or they have 'ethnically cleansed' all of so-called 'Greater Israel'.

The Axis of Resistance could have finished this thing had they acted in unity. But the cost would have been great, mushroom cloud over Tehran. It is a horrible truth that possessing nukes is why DPRK survives to this dat, while Iraq, Syria and Libya were destroyed.)

https://thecradle-main.oss-eu-central-1 ... 2c055.webp

Iraqi government calls on resistance factions to 'lay down arms'

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI) announced it would stop targeting Israel following the announcement of a ceasefire in Gaza

News Desk

JAN 17, 2025

Image
(Photo credit: Reuters/Marissa Davison)

Iraq is trying to convince armed factions from the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI) to disband and join the government's official security forces, Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said on 17 January while speaking with Reuters.

“Many political leaders, many political parties started to raise a discussion, and I hope that we can convince the leaders of these groups to lay down their arms, and then to be part of the armed forces under the responsibility of the government,” Hussein said.

The IRI, which enjoys support from Iran, consists of several armed factions that oppose the US military presence in Iraq and Syria and have fired rockets and drones at Israel in support of Palestinians suffering a genocide in Gaza.

The pressure comes as regional resistance to Israel has been severely weakened following Israel's war on Lebanon and the toppling of the Syrian government of former president Bashar al-Assad by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the former Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria.

Pressure to dismantle resistance to Israel is set to ramp up following the inauguration of Donald Trump as US president.

Trump is close with hawkish Israeli politicians and enjoys financial backing from pro-Zionist Jewish groups in the US seeking a confrontation with Tehran.

This pressure has led to speculation Israel and/or the US may attack Iraq as well.

“We don't think that Iraq is the next,” Foreign Minister Hussein told Reuters during an official visit to London.

The British newspaper writes that according to Hussein, Iraq “was in talks to rein in the groups while continuing to walk the tightrope between its ties to both Washington and Tehran.”

“Two or three years ago, it was impossible to discuss this topic in our society,” he said.

Factions of the IRI announced an end to targeting Israel following the announcement of a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel.

“With this important development, we announce that we will suspend our military operations against the entity in solidarity with its halt in Palestine, and to strengthen the continuation of the truce in Gaza,” Akram al-Kaabi, secretary-general of the Nujaba Movement, said on 15 January.

Related to the factions comprising the IRI are the Popular Mobilization Units (PMF), which are formally under Baghdad's control but form a parallel force to the Iraqi army.

Hadi al-Ameri, head of Iraq's Fatah Alliance, reaffirmed his support for the PMF on Wednesday, calling the group a vital pillar of Iraq's security and aligning his stance with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the country's top Shia cleric.

Sistani called for the creation of the PMF in 2014 as ISIS forces backed the US and its regional allies, captured Mosul, and were threatening to take Baghdad.

Ameri said Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani had personally denied rumors that the US requested the dissolution or integration of the PMF.

Ameri described the PMF as the “safety valve of Iraq” and urged efforts to counter what he called misinformation aimed at discrediting the group.

https://thecradle.co/articles/iraqi-gov ... -down-arms

(Resistance to quisling in no time flat.)
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

User avatar
blindpig
Posts: 12684
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 5:44 pm
Location: Turtle Island
Contact:

Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Sat Jan 18, 2025 2:37 pm

Is the Ceasefire a Ruse?
Posted by Internationalist 360° on January 16, 2025

Editorial Comment: Should we celebrate the ceasefire or is this merely strategic deception? Brian Berletic’s insightful analysis suggests that now is a time for increased vigilance. – A.V.

Image

🇺🇸🇮🇱 Israel Ceasefire in Gaza

The US achieved all its goals, using Hamas to trigger a regional war finally eliminating Syria and wiping out Hezbollah’s senior leadership.

Iran is left weaker and more isolated than it has been in decades.

Israel is withdrawing its forces as it always does to reorganize and prepare for the next episode of violence which will be aimed at what’s left of Hezbollah, Yemen, Iraq, and Iran itself.

Israel pretends it is angry at being pressured into a ceasefire, Hamas supporters imagine they’ve achieved some sort of victory.

All of this will repeat itself again inevitably.

No matter how many times this grotesque theater is recycled, people’s emotions blind them from seeing clearly and keep them all locked in and committed to keeping this strategy of tension in play.

Just as I warned people about Hamas and October 7, 2023, I’m warning people about allowing their emotions to shape their perception of this current and only temporary pause.

Iran is next. This is a necessary and temporary pause to prepare for the next stage of reshaping and reasserting control over the region.

— Brian Berletic (@BrianJBerletic) January 16, 2025


https://libya360.wordpress.com/2025/01/ ... re-a-ruse/

*******

Kushner's Saudi-backed fund doubles stake in firm financing illegal West Bank settlements

Israel's building of illegal Jewish settlements is expected to skyrocket following President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration

News Desk

JAN 17, 2025

Image
(Photo credit: CNN)

Affinity Partners, the Saudi-funded hedge firm of President-elect Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, received approval from Israeli regulators to double its stake in Phoenix Financial Ltd., which funds the construction of illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian West Bank.

Bloomberg reported on 17 January that Affinity could buy an additional 4.95 percent stake in the financial services firm at 37.5 shekels ($10.3) a share.

Phoenix's share price has surged over 50 percent to around 58.5 shekels apiece since mid-July, when Kushner's Miami-based firm announced the $128.5 million deal to buy its initial 4.95 percent stake, Bloomberg noted.

Kushner has held up the deal as a sign of his company's confidence in the war-racked country's economy.

“Investing in Phoenix in July 2024 was a decision rooted in my belief in Israel's resiliency and the fundamentals of Phoenix's business,” Kushner said in a statement to Bloomberg.” Six months later, the increased value of our shares, reaffirms my conviction – both in Israel's strength and the growing promise of Phoenix.”

Kushner founded Affinity, which has other investments in Israel, including a stake in S Shlomo Holdings's car and credit division, with $2 billion in Saudi funding after leaving his role as senior White House advisor during the first Trump administration.

Kushner established a close relationship with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MbS) while serving in the White House.

Kushner is the son-in-law of US President-elect Donald Trump and served as his senior White House advisor in his first term. He played a pivotal role in the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and some Arab nations in 2020. Trump is now expected to try bringing Saudi Arabia into the accords.

In addition to receiving backing from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), Kushner raised an additional $1.5 billion from the Qatar Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi-based Lunate, bringing its assets under management to $4.6 billion.

Image

Phoenix Financial has financed and insured construction projects throughout Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and the Syrian Golan Heights.

According to the NGO watchdog Who Profits, Phoenix owns an 80 percent stake in a large shopping mall in an illegal East Jerusalem settlement and stakes in various companies operating throughout other settlements.

Phoenix has also helped finance wind and solar projects in illegal Israeli settlements and provided financial services to the local councils of settlements, including the Beitar Illit and Oranit settlements in the West Bank.

Kushner's investment in Phoenix comes just days before Trump is set to take office once again.

Israeli settler leaders celebrated Trump's election and anticipate permitting them to annex the West Bank and greatly expand building settlements for Israeli Jews there.

The Israeli government is also seeking to expand the building of Jewish settlements in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

In December, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government announced it would invest more than $11 million to “encourage demographic growth” in the Golan, which Israeli forces first occupied in 1967.

Israel moved to expand its illegal occupation of Syrian territory in the Golan immediately after the Syrian government, led by president Bashar al-Assad, was toppled by militants from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the former Al-Qaeda affiliate, on 8 December.

https://thecradle.co/articles/kushners- ... ettlements

Israel prepares to free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, seeks to block 'public displays of joy'

1,700 Palestinians held captive in Israeli prisons and 33 Israelis held captive in Gaza are set to be released in phases starting Sunday

News Desk

JAN 17, 2025

Image
(Photo credit: Bashar Taleb / AFP - Getty Images)

The Israel Prisons Service (IPS) began the process on 17 January to release over 1,700 Palestinian prisoners as part of the ceasefire and prisoner-swap deal with Hamas that is set to take effect Sunday, 19 January.

The Times of Israel reported that according to a leaked copy of the agreement, the Palestinian prisoners to be freed include 700 resistance fighters, 250-300 of whom are serving life terms; 1,000 Palestinians from Gaza abducted by Israeli forces since 8 October 2023; and 47 re-detained prisoners from the 2011 Gilad Shalit deal.

The IPS said in a statement it was preparing for the release of prisoners in exchange for Israelis held in Gaza, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Office said could begin on Sunday.

The statement added the IPS is taking measures to prevent any “public displays of joy” when Palestinian prisoners are released.

“The commissioner of the Israel Prison Service, Kobi Yakobi, instructed that … to prevent public displays of joy in Ashkelon and other areas of Israel, the escort from ‘Shikma’ Prison will not be handled by civilian buses of the [International Committee of the] Red Cross,” the statement says.

At the same time, Israeli authorities have notified the families of the 33 Israeli captives expected to be released in the first phase of the deal.

Those on the list, to be returned over a period of 42 days, are so-called “humanitarian” cases: women, children, elderly individuals, and the infirm. The remaining captives are soldiers.

The order of release is not yet known. The identities of those set to return are expected to be provided 24 hours before each release.

The schedule for the release will see three Israeli captives returned on the first day of the ceasefire and four more returned on the seventh day. Subsequently, three captives will be returned every week for a period of four weeks. Finally, 14 captives will be returned on the final, sixth week of phase one.


Beyond the 33 on the list, Hamas holds 65 more captives, many of whom are no longer alive. Many of the 251 captives taken by Hamas on 7 October 2023 have been killed by the same Israeli bombing that has killed over 46,000 Palestinians since the start of the war.

These are to be returned as part of a second phase of a deal – if it materializes. The second phase is intended to lead to a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

However, it is unclear if Israel will allow a second phase ending the war to be reached. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir is opposed to the deal, while Daniel Levy, a former Israeli negotiator, told Al-Jazeera that Netanyahu “wanted perpetual war” and is likely to continue provocations to try to “upend” the ceasefire.

“We can expect ongoing efforts to goad and provoke the unraveling of this deal. We'll see, I'm sure, ugly things going on in the West Bank and East Jerusalem” as well as “aggression against UNRWA,” Levy said. “This is a fragile place to be.”

Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani and US President Joe Biden announced the deal on Wednesday, 15 January.

Israel’s security cabinet approved it on Friday. The wider cabinet will convene for a vote on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, to give final approval.

The three-phase deal is expected to take effect on Sunday at an unspecified time. The Qatari premier said the terms include “mechanisms to follow up on the implementation of the ceasefire agreement and any violations that may occur.”

Al-Thani stated that Qatar is “as happy with the agreement as the people of Gaza” and expressed hope for its full implementation to end the strip's humanitarian crisis.

He highlighted the crucial role of the final days of negotiations in reaching the agreement and emphasized the importance of US cooperation in securing the ceasefire.

In response to the ceasefire announcement, Gaza resident Fulla Masri, 33, told The Guardian, “I am sad because I lost the most valuable human that I had, who is my husband … I lost him in November 2023, and with him, I lost the feelings of all joy.”

“But I feel happy because this bloody war has ended, my three children and I are still alive, and we will be able to return to the north and reunite with relatives and friends and my husband's family. We have not seen them since the beginning of the war and I am glad that we escaped safely from this war to meet them.”

“We are very nervous that this deal will be rejected and the war will continue, and our suffering continue with it,” Muhammad Abu Kmail, 35, a digital marketing consultant from northern Gaza, told the UK newspaper.

https://thecradle.co/articles/israel-pr ... ays-of-joy

Gaza's devastated health system needs $10bn, at least five years to rebuild: WHO

The UN estimates reconstruction of the strip could cost up to $80 billion and take 15 years due to the destruction from Israeli bombing

News Desk

JAN 17, 2025

Image
(Photo credit: Euro Med Human Rights Monitor)

Some $10 billion will be needed to rebuild Gaza’s destroyed health system over the next five to seven years, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported on 17 January.

“The needs are massive,” said Rick Peeperkorn, the UN health agency’s representative in the Palestinian territories, following an initial assessment completed by the agency.

Efforts to assess the damage caused by Israel’s unrelenting 15-month bombing campaign began after a deal was reached for a ceasefire and prisoner swap between Israel and Hamas was agreed to Friday.

The Israeli bombing campaign and ground operations killed over 46,000 Palestinians, the majority women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry. However, the death toll is believed to be undercounted by 40 percent, according to a Lancet study.

Peeperkorn said his team’s initial estimate of the cost to rebuild just the health sector was “even more than $3 billion for the first 1.5 years and then actually $10 billion for the five to seven years.”


“In every direction you look in the Gaza Strip there’s destruction.
It looks like a graveyard.”@UNRWA 's @UNWateridge describes the unbearable reality in Gaza, stressing that if the bombing stops, people will have nothing to go back to & it will be hard to rebuild their lives. pic.twitter.com/koDtLNJhyM

— United Nations (@UN) January 16, 2025
“In Gaza, we all know the destruction is so massive. I have never seen that anywhere else in my life,” he said.

The Times UK reported Friday that the cost of removing the 50.8 million tonnes of rubble caused by Israel’s bombing of Gaza’s residential buildings, hospitals, mosques, churches, schools, and electricity and sewage infrastructure is estimated at almost $1 billion, while reconstruction may cost up to $80 billion.

The Times notes that simply “clearing the rubble alone could take more than 14 years, according to UN estimates. Rebuilding the homes could take until 2040, with 90 percent of the population displaced and many of them living in tents.”

“For each square meter in the Gaza Strip, there is now over 107kg of debris, which may contain UXO [unexploded ordnance], hazardous substances and human remains,” said a June report issued by the UN.

The total amount of debris from the current conflict in Gaza is more than five times the quantity of debris generated from the 2017 US bombing of Mosul, the report added.

https://thecradle.co/articles/gazas-dev ... ebuild-who
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

User avatar
blindpig
Posts: 12684
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 5:44 pm
Location: Turtle Island
Contact:

Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Mon Jan 20, 2025 4:03 pm

More Than 300 Aid Trucks Enter Gaza From Egypt on the First Day of Ceasefire

Image
Hundreds of trucks from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), half of them carrying food and flour, are ready to enter the Gaza Strip after the ceasefire came into effect and months of food shortages. Photo: EFE/ Rosa Soto

January 19, 2025 Hour: 2:35 pm

At least 330 trucks of humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip from Egypt on Sunday as part of the first day of ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian liberation group Hamas, Egyptian media reported.

“330 aid trucks entered through the Kerem Shalom and Al Auya crossings, including 20 fuel trucks,” indicated the Al Qahera News channel, close to Egyptian Intelligence.


Most of the aid trucks are loaded with non-perishable food like rice, legumes, pasta, and oil, as well as barrels of water, items such as blankets and comforters, medical supplies, and fuel.

These are the first aid trucks to pass through Rafah since the ceasefire agreement took effect, which stipulates that around 600 aid trucks will be allowed into Gaza daily, of which 50 will carry fuel.

Half of these trucks are expected to arrive in northern Gaza, the area most affected by the war in the Palestinian enclave.

The Rafah crossing was the main route for supplies to Gaza and the only one not under Israeli control. It was the route for the little aid that managed to enter the territory during the first months of the conflict until Israeli troops occupied the area in May of last year and blocked its use.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/more-tha ... ceasefire/

******

Palestinian Authority accepts truce with resistance in Jenin

The Palestinian Authority was able to deploy in the camp only after agreeing to a number of demands determined by the Jenin Brigades.

January 18, 2025 by Aseel Saleh

Image
Jenin refugee camp, April 2011. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Jenin Brigades reached an agreement on Friday, January 17. This agreement effectively puts an end to the month and a half long siege imposed by the PA security forces on Jenin refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank.

The agreement was reached after a central reconciliation committee, in collaboration with local community institutions in the camp, launched an initiative on Tuesday, January 14, titled “The Unity of Blood and Destiny”. The initiative consists of eight terms, which call for enforcing the rule of law, and enhancing security, while urging the Palestinian leadership to review the current mechanisms for handling the situation in the camp.

As per the agreement, the PA promised to release the resistance fighters, whom it had arrested during its large-scale security campaign at the camp, which started early December. In addition, the agreement stipulates that the PA security forces should stop prosecuting the camp’s resistance fighters.

Meanwhile, both sides agreed that the PA security forces would deploy in the main square within the camp, provided that the concerned reconciliation committee and people in charge of monitoring the implementation of the initiative, would proceed in fulfilling the rest of the arrangements.

Accordingly, a joint force from the PA security forces and the Palestinian Civil Defense arrived in Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, in the evening of Friday, January 17, to regulate the traffic movement, reconnect electricity, and collect the garbage. Upon the arrival of the joint force, dozens of the camp residents gathered and chanted for the resistance.

Israeli aerial aggression exposed the PA’s “Operation Protect the Homeland”

The PA called its large-scale security campaign against Jenin refugee camp “Operation Protect the Homeland”, which provoked both ire and mockery of Palestinian grassroots, with many arguing that the PA has never been able to protect Palestinians in the West Bank from the IOF’s systematic crimes and Israeli settler violence.

On Tuesday, January 14, Israeli drones targeted a house in the camp killing at least

six Palestinians and injuring two others critically, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The aerial aggression took place while the PA security forces were attacking the camp, underlining the PA’s failure to protect its citizens, and the fact that their weapons were only pointed at resistance fighters.

Three brothers were among those killed in the onslaught and were identified as Mo’men Abu al-Hayja (28), Amir Abu al-Hayja (27) and Bahaa Abu al-Hayja (33). The other three slain Palestinians were identified as Mahmoud Gharbiyeh (15), Hussam Qanouh (34), and Ibrahim Qaneiry (23).

Eyewitnesses said that three missiles were fired from a drone in the attack, which was jointly carried out by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) and the Israeli Security Agency (known as Shin Bet).

The deadly Israeli airstrike was launched after the PA security forces had tightened its siege on the camp, as part of its large-scale security campaign. The PA’s campaign had been already widely condemned by Palestinian grassroots and organizations as it resulted in the killing of a number of children and a female journalist, as well as the destruction and damage of homes and properties.

In addition to cutting off electricity and water in the camp for over a month, the PA recently blocked the delivery of food and medicine to its residents. According to the media committee in Jenin refugee camp, the PA’s security forces also raided hospitals in the camp, converting them into military barracks. The committee also reported that wounded Palestinian citizens were arrested by the security forces directly from operating rooms at these hospitals.

Israel’s assault on the camp coincided with the announcement on Wednesday that a Gaza ceasefire deal was reached. This news was another blow for the PA, as it seems that the deal was reached without its involvement in the talks, particularly those related to the day after the war in Gaza.

Analysts suggest that the PA’s security campaign in Jenin refugee camp provided a dual purpose of both cracking down on the resistance and showcasing to the US and Israel that it is capable of doing so, even in Gaza. As it has been apparently excluded from the Gaza ceasefire deal, the PA’s efforts to crack down on resistance in the West Bank were in vain. The campaign in Jenin also intensified its unpopularity among Palestinian grassroots.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/01/18/ ... -in-jenin/

******

Will the Gaza Ceasefire Bring a Just Peace to West Asia?
Posted by Internationalist 360° on January 18, 2025



Israel may have agreed to the Gaza ceasefire agreement because the Trump administration has strategic files at hand to ‘solve’.

Full interview below…



On January 17, 2025, the Netanyahu regime agreed to a ceasefire agreement with Hamas.

The terms of the Gaza ceasefire strongly resemble the agreement proposed by the Biden administration in May 2024.

Credible reports suggest that Israel finally agreed to those terms due to intense pressure from Donald Trump, but important questions remain about what Trump might have promised to Netanyahu to secure his agreement to the ceasefire.

As Israeli officials deliberated over the final terms of the ceasefire agreement, Dimitri Lascaris spoke with geopolitical analyst Kervork Almassian, the host of Syriana Analysis, about what the ceasefire is likely to mean for the Palestinian people and the broader region of West Asia.

Lascaris and Almassian also discussed the deteriorating conditions in Syria, the state of the Axis of Resistance, and the reality of relations between Turkey and Israel.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2025/01/ ... west-asia/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

User avatar
blindpig
Posts: 12684
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 5:44 pm
Location: Turtle Island
Contact:

Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Tue Jan 21, 2025 3:00 pm

This Will Not End With the Last Airstrike
January 20, 2025

Image
Palestinians walk on the beach during sunset on the last day of 2024 in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, on 31 December 2024. Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA images.

By Malak Hijazi – Jan 15, 2025

For 15 long months, the people of Gaza have endured a brutal genocidal war.

We’ve lost loved ones, homes and any sense of normalcy.

But as talks of a potential ceasefire grow, hope flickers that it might take effect before US President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration next week.

Our eyes remain glued to our phones, scrolling through news – both real and fake – waiting for the announcement. We long to hear the word “ceasefire” spoken aloud, a fragile sense of relief after all the death we have witnessed.

Reports of progress in negotiations spark fleeting celebrations, with cheers rising from makeshift tents, schoolyards and partially destroyed houses where 1.9 million people – 90 percent of Gaza’s population – have been forced to find shelter.

Yet, as we reflect more deeply on the situation, our faint happiness fades into disillusionment.

While a ceasefire may silence the bombs, it raises a far heavier question: What comes next?

A ceasefire might halt the immediate destruction, but it won’t make Gaza liveable again. Bombed neighborhoods won’t rebuild themselves.

People need homes, schools, clinics, clean water and electricity to begin piecing their lives back together. Beyond that, we need a government that prioritizes its people – one capable of uniting Gaza under a shared vision of progress and dignity.

Without this, even the most well-intentioned reconstruction efforts will falter.

A life liveable?
For those of us who remain barely alive, the future feels like a question mark.

I live in constant fear, haunted by the uncertainty of whether Gaza will ever heal. And honestly, I don’t ask for much – I long for Gaza as it was before the genocide, with all its daily flaws and struggles.

But even that feels like too much to ask. How do you rebuild a home when the very force accused of destroying it holds the keys to its recovery? Will Israel ever allow us to rebuild what it has destroyed – or let us claim our liberty?

I can’t stop thinking about a report the United Nations released back in 2012, titled: “Gaza in 2020: A Liveable Place?”

It outlined a bleak future for Gaza, forecasting immense challenges as the population grew from 1.6 million to an anticipated 2.1 million by 2020. The report warned of critical issues: electricity supply would need to double, the coastal aquifer – our primary source of fresh water – was at risk of irreversible collapse, and tens of thousands of housing units were urgently required.

Looking back on that report now, it feels hauntingly prescient. Yet even its stark warnings could not have imagined the horrors we now face. The report was written long before the 2023 genocidal war that has devastated Gaza beyond recognition. It assumed a Gaza that, while strained, would still exist, still function. It did not anticipate a reality where survival itself would be in question.

Before this war, Gaza endured decades of hardship. For 58 years, we have lived under military occupation, and even after Israel’s withdrawal in 2005, we lived under military occupation by remote, with no power to decide who or what came through our crossings and no control over our own air and sea space.

The 18-year siege that followed turned Gaza into an open-air prison, with basic necessities like food, water and medicine constantly in short supply. Recurring Israeli military assaults further eroded what little stability we had.

And yet, life found a way. Schools opened their doors, markets buzzed with activity and families held onto a life that was ordinary in fragments.

Systematic dismantling
Now, all of that is gone. More than 65 percent of Gaza’s farmland has been destroyed or damaged, leaving families without food or livelihoods. The water crisis has spiraled out of control, with bombed infrastructure cutting off access to clean drinking water for most of the population.

The healthcare system has collapsed. Hospitals and clinics lie in ruins, unable to provide even the most basic care.

Education, once a source of hope, is in tatters. Over 625,000 children have lost an entire year of schooling, and 96 percent of schools are damaged or destroyed.

The economy is obliterated. As far back as January 2024, the World Bank estimated the cost of infrastructure damage at over $18.5 billion. It will be worse now.

Factories, businesses and markets have been wiped out, and over 225,000 homes have been leveled. What remains are overcrowded shelters that are both unsafe and offer no refuge from future destruction.

Sometimes, I wonder: Will we ever stop counting the dead, the destroyed, the displaced? Will I ever stop measuring life in loss? Will those living in fabric-made tent structures ever find themselves beneath real ceilings, surrounded by real walls?

A single minute’s gaze from above or walking the ground in Gaza makes it almost impossible to grasp for hope.

This is not just physical devastation; it is the systematic dismantling of Gaza’s ability to function as a society. The people of Gaza are being stripped of their right to rebuild and dream of a better future.

The challenges in Gaza go far beyond rebuilding what has been destroyed. For those of us living here, the question remains: Who will lead if – or when – a ceasefire happens?

Who will lead?
In May 2024, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that neither “Hamastan” nor “Fatahstan” would govern Gaza. This leaves one frightening possibility: full Israeli occupation.

Since 2007, Hamas has ruled Gaza, but its control is weakening under massive internal and external pressure. The 17-year blockade that started in 2007, repeated wars – especially the ongoing genocide – and constant military attacks have destroyed its governing infrastructure.

The killing of leaders like Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Yahya Sinwar in Gaza have created a leadership gap that seems impossible to fill. Even before this war, many doubted Hamas’ ability to meet our needs. The economic collapse, high unemployment and failing services already caused frustration.

Now, with the ongoing siege and destruction, and should Hamas remain in charge with no international recognition, survival feels almost impossible. Israel continues to block the entry of basic necessities under the same pretexts, while the world refuses to provide aid, labeling Hamas a “terrorist organization.”

The Palestinian Authority is not a better option. Despite international recognition, it has lost the trust of Palestinians due to years of political division, corruption, poor management and dependence on foreign aid.

Many here see the PA as weak and incapable of representing our aspirations for liberty. The PA’s “security operations” in Jenin serve as proof. We will never accept a government that works under Israeli orders, preventing us from food and water while placing its guns in front of our faces – as if the Israeli occupation alone isn’t enough.

Israel’s plans raise profound fears for our future. A permanent military presence and control over Gaza’s security could result in apartheid-like conditions, where we live under direct Israeli rule with severely limited rights, like the West Bank, but worse.

Even more alarming is talk of “voluntary” transfer which seems to suggest the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza under unbearable living conditions.

But where would we go? Gaza is our home; leaving would be surrendering a part of ourselves, our identity and our future.

What will become of our history, our culture, our stories if we are forced to leave? Will my grandchildren one day ask me why I let go of the only place that ever truly felt like home?

https://orinocotribune.com/this-will-no ... airstrike/

*******

Freed Palestinian women 'beaten, humiliated' by Israeli forces before release

Video showed Israeli female captives smiling and making jokes with Qassam fighters as they were released from Gaza

News Desk

JAN 20, 2025

Image
(Photo credit: Raneen Sawafta/REUTERS)

Palestinian women freed as part of the first stage of a ceasefire agreement to stop Israel's war on Gaza described to The New Arab on 20 January the cruelty of prison and the humiliating Israeli procedures of their release.

At dawn on Monday, Israel released about 90 Palestinians, including 21 children and 69 women, most of whom were held without charge.

They described how they were deprived of food, clothing, humane treatment, and other minimum humanitarian necessities.

Among those released was journalist Rula Hassanein, who was taken captive last March shortly after giving birth. She was sentenced to a full year in prison on charges of incitement.

“I was very worried about my child, whom I left while she needed to be breastfed and when she was less than a year old. I used to hug my pillow every night and imagine it as my child, and I fell asleep from crying,” Hassanein said.

🧵 Thread showing the release tonight of the second group of Palestinian women and children by Israeli occupation forces, as part of a prisoner exchange deal.

1. Shorok Dweiiat from Sour Baher, Jerusalem pic.twitter.com/5d9kACyvlZ

— Younis Tirawi | يونس (@ytirawi) November 25, 2023


Upon Hassanein's release on Monday, her family was shocked by her weight loss, the paleness of her face, and her exhausted physical appearance.

Another freed Palestinian woman, Nidaa Salah from Jenin, told The New Arab that all the female prisoners were subjected to abuse, beatings, and humiliation before their release.

“They beat us while transporting us from Damoun prison, pulled our hair, threw us to the ground, and did not allow us to help each other get up. We were subjected to a humiliating search and procrastination for long hours, during which we were left in the cold inside the cells,” she said.

Israeli authorities also raided the family homes of several released Palestinian captives to prevent celebrations.

“If it were not for the steadfastness of the people of Gaza, we would not have met our families. If it were not for their patience, we would not have gotten out of prison. We owe them all our lives," Salah said.

Video of the three Israeli women captives released from Gaza by Hamas as part of the ceasefire and exchange deal on Sunday showed the women smiling and making jokes with their captors, The New Arab further reported.

Hamas fighters handed the three captives – Doron Steinbrecher, Emily Damari, and Romi Gonen – so-called "gift bags" mostly off-screen through the window of a vehicle. The bags, emblazoned with the logo of the Qassam Brigades (the armed wing of Hamas), were said to contain mementos from their 471 days in captivity.

Hamas released a propaganda video capturing the spectacle during which it handed over three young Israeli women to the Red Cross as part of the ceasefire/hostage deal in Gaza. In it, the terror group offers a certificate of release to the three young women who also received a… pic.twitter.com/oC840WPLZm

— Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib (@afalkhatib) January 19, 2025


One item in the bags was a special certificate bearing the Qassam logo, titled “Release Agreement,” in both Hebrew and Arabic.

Israeli media reported that the document was signed by the Red Cross representatives just before they were handed over to Israeli authorities, and that the bags also contained photos of the women from the time of their captivity, a map of the Gaza Strip, and Palestinian flag necklaces.

Qassam fighters took 251 Israeli soldiers and civilians captive on 7 October 2023 as part of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood to break the siege on Gaza.

https://thecradle.co/articles/freed-pal ... re-release

UN says 'no looting' of Gaza aid trucks since start of ceasefire

The deal between Hamas and Israel requires 600 truckloads of aid to be allowed into Gaza every day of the initial six-week ceasefire

News Desk

JAN 21, 2025

Image
(Photo credit: Eyad BABA / AFP)

The UN said on 21 January there had been no reports of aid convoys being looted in Gaza since a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas came into effect on Sunday.

“These two first days of entry, there have been no records of looting or attacks against aid workers,” Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, told reporters in Geneva.

Israeli forces have previously facilitated the looting of Gaza aid while shifting the blame on Hamas.

In November, the Washington Post reported that “organized gangs are stealing much of the aid Israel allows into the enclave, operating freely in areas controlled by the Israeli military,” citing aid group officials, humanitarian workers, transport companies, and witnesses.

Israeli forces have also targeted and killed members of the Gaza police force attempting to provide security to aid convoys entering the strip.

In February 2024, Israeli forces carried out a massacre, killing 112 Palestinians who had gathered in the early morning to receive bags of flour from aid trucks entering the strip.

Reuters reports that according to OCHA, 915 aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip on Monday, the second day of the ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian resistance movement.

On Sunday, the UN said some 630 aid trucks entered the Palestinian enclave, with at least 300 of them going to the north, where hunger and famine loom.

The ceasefire deal requires 600 truckloads of aid to be allowed into Gaza every day of the initial six-week ceasefire, including 50 carrying fuel.

In October, Israel allowed only 57 aid trucks a day on average to cross into Gaza, despite a written letter sent by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Israeli authorities demanding that 350 trucks a day be allowed entry.

Aid agencies claim 600 trucks a day are necessary to meet the basic needs of Gaza's population.

Almost immediately after the start of the war on 7 October 2023, Israel's former defense minister Yoav Gallant imposed a “total siege” on Gaza, blocking electricity, food, and fuel from reaching the strip. “Everything is closed,” Gallant said.

Since that time, the amount of aid and food Israeli authorities have allowed to enter has fluctuated wildly, keeping Gaza on the edge of famine.

On 21 November, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued warrants for the arrest of Gallant and Prime Minister Netanyahu for the war crime of seeking to starve Palestinians to death.

https://thecradle.co/articles/un-says-n ... -ceasefire

Israeli forces advance, blow up homes in south Lebanon

A Hezbollah MP vowed this week that the resistance will confront Israeli troops ‘with all possible means’ if they do not withdraw by the end of the ceasefire period

News Desk

JAN 21, 2025

Image
(Photo credit: AFP)

The Israeli army continues to advance in southern Lebanon and destroy infrastructure less than a week before the end of a 60-day ceasefire implementation period, which Tel Aviv is continuously violating.

“The enemy targeted a house on the outskirts of Bint Jbeil with a direct shell, after a number of tanks penetrated Maroun al-Ras towards the outskirts of the city,” Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported on 21 January.

Israeli forces also pushed into Wadi al-Suluki in the Marjayoun District and carried out “massive” detonations of homes and buildings, according to NNA. Violent explosions also rocked the Marj neighborhood in Houla the previous night as a result of detonations carried out by the Israeli army.

Israel has laid waste to tens of thousands of housing units across the south, and stepped up its destruction after the start of the ceasefire period on 27 November in violation of the agreement.

The deal, based on UN Resolution 1701, is meant to see the Lebanese army dismantle Hezbollah’s presence and infrastructure south of the Litani River, while Israeli forces are required to withdraw from the country. This is supposed to take place within the 60-period that began in late November and is set to end in six days.

Reports have conflicted, with some stating Israel is not planning to fully withdraw by the end of the 60 days, and others saying that Washington has guaranteed a full pullout by the end of the implementation period.

Tel Aviv has accused Hezbollah of failing to abide by the agreement and remaining south of the Litani. Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened earlier this month that “there will be no agreement” if the “condition is not met.”

Israel has violated the agreement more than 1,000 times since it took effect.

“We in Hezbollah are waiting for the date of January 26, which is the day on which the ceasefire requires a complete Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory,” said Hezbollah MP Ali Fayyad on Monday.

“If the Israeli occupation does not abide by this, it will mean the collapse of the executive procedures paper, the destruction of the mechanism it included, and the undermining of the international sponsorship role of this agreement,” he added.

Fayyad went on to say that a failure by Israel to withdraw “puts all Lebanese, without exception, before a new stage, and what it imposes in terms of new calculations, the title of which is confronting the Israeli occupation with all possible means and methods to expel it from our land.”

Israeli army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi has ordered “the formulation of plans for the continuation of the fighting … in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon," according to a statement by a military spokesman on Monday.

https://thecradle.co/articles/israeli-f ... th-lebanon

Israeli army readies ‘major’ West Bank ops, resumption of Gaza, Lebanon wars

Over a dozen Palestinians were killed in violent Israeli airstrikes on the occupied West Bank city of Jenin last week

News Desk

JAN 20, 2025

Image
(Photo credit: Israeli army)

The Israeli army’s Chief of Staff, Herzi Halevi, said on 20 January that Israel must prepare for “major” operations in the occupied West Bank and the continuation of fighting in both Gaza and Lebanon – despite the ceasefire agreements.

“Alongside the intensive defensive preparations in the Gaza Strip, we must be prepared for major operations in [the West Bank] in the coming days in order to preempt the terrorists and capture them before they reach our citizens,” Halevi said during an assessment, according to an Israeli army spokesman.

The spokesman said Halevi also “ordered the formulation of plans for the continuation of the fighting – also in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon."

The statement follows the killing of an Israeli soldier and the wounding of four others overnight after an explosive device was detonated near their convoy during a patrol in the northern West Bank town of Tamun.

An Israeli was stabbed to death and four others wounded in a resistance attack in Tel Aviv on 18 January, carried out by a young Palestinian from the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarem. He was shot dead by Israeli forces shortly after carrying out the operation.

Last week, over a dozen Palestinians were killed in violent Israeli airstrikes on the Jenin camp in the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority (PA) had been waging a violent campaign on behalf of Israel against the resistance in Jenin, which began last month and went on for about six weeks.

The PA has reached an agreement with the resistance in Jenin to end the siege.

In the Gaza Strip, several people, including a child, were injured by Israeli gunfire in the southern city of Rafah – despite the start of a ceasefire and exchange process. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech over the weekend that the truce was temporary and that Israel would return to war if need be.

His Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich – who opposed the ceasefire deal – said on Saturday that he has been given assurances that Israel will resume the war and launch a “gradual takeover of the entire Gaza Strip.”

Meanwhile, Israeli forces continue to violate the ceasefire in Lebanon that took effect in November last year, closing off roads in the south, destroying infrastructure, and preventing the Lebanese army from carrying out its work to implement the deal, which is based on UN Resolution 1701.

Halevi’s comments come less than a week before the 60-day ceasefire implementation period is set to finish in Lebanon. During this period, the Lebanese army is required to dismantle Hezbollah’s presence and infrastructure south of the Litani River, and all Israeli forces must completely withdraw from southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah has vowed to confront Israel – which has violated the ceasefire over 1,000 times – if it fails to withdraw before the 60 days are up.

https://thecradle.co/articles/israeli-a ... banon-wars

Search for thousands missing under rubble begins as Gaza ceasefire holds for second day

Gaza'z Civil Defense said the bodies of an estimated 2,840 Palestinians had 'evaporated' due to the immense heat of Israeli bombs

News Desk

JAN 20, 2025

Image
(Photo credit: Atia Mohammed/Flash90)

The Gaza Civil Defense said on 20 January it faces the immense and difficult task of searching for the bodies of thousands of people believed to be missing under the rubble of destroyed homes, buildings, and facilities in the besieged enclave and whose names have not been added to the official list of those killed by Israel in the war.

“We are searching for 10,000 martyrs whose bodies remain under the rubble,” said Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Palestinian Civil Emergency Services.

Officially, at least 47,035 Palestinians have been killed and 111,091 injured in Israel's war on Gaza since 7 October 2023.

Gaza's Health Ministry said in the past 24 hours, 60 people were killed, and another 62 bodies were recovered as the ceasefire between Hamas and the Israeli forces went into effect on 19 January.

In a statement, the Civil Defense reported that the bodies of an estimated 2,840 Palestinians had “evaporated” due to the Israeli army's use of weapons that “produce temperatures between 7,000-9,000 degrees Celsius, melting everything in the center of the explosion.”

The Civil Defense reported that it had received more than half a million distress signals since the start of the war.

It said that rescuers were unable to respond to nearly 50,000 of these distress signals “due to the lack of fuel, or the inability to coordinate field missions and enter the areas from which we receive distress calls due to the extreme danger and targeting by the occupation.”

“Our crews in all governorates of the [Gaza] Strip retrieved more than 38,000 martyrs from the places, homes, and buildings targeted by the Israeli occupation army. Our crews retrieved about 97,000 injured from the targeted areas and transferred more than 11,000 sick cases to hospitals,” the statement added.

The Civil Defense called for the entry of “civil defense crews with their equipment from sister countries into the Gaza Strip” to help in “dealing with the catastrophic reality left behind by the war, which exceeds the capacity of the Civil Defense apparatus in the Gaza Strip.”

The statement added that 99 members of the Civil Defense were killed and 319 others injured by Israeli forces during the war. It said Israel targeted 17 Civil Defense centers, 14 of which were completely destroyed, in addition to the targeting of 61 vehicles that were fully or partially destroyed.

https://thecradle.co/articles/search-fo ... second-day
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

Post Reply