November 13, 2024
The aftermath of Hezbollah rocket impacts in the Krayot settlement cluster, November 11, 2024. Photo: Social media.
Several Hezbollah rockets made impact in settlements in the Haifa district on November 11, which were launched from an area near the southern Lebanese border where the Israeli army is currently operating.
Video footage filmed by Israeli troops in south Lebanon is circulating on social media, showing the rockets being fired at several settlements.
Footage on social media also showed the impacts in several settlements in the Haifa district, including Kiryat Ata, Kiryat Yam, and Kiryat Bialik in the Krayot cluster of settlements.
A police academy in Kiryat Ata was damaged, while several vehicles were destroyed or lit ablaze.
“In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted, at 02:10 in the afternoon of Monday 11-11-2024, the Krayot area north of the occupied city of Haifa with a rocket salvo,” Hezbollah said in a statement.
Around 230 rockets were fired from Lebanon toward Israeli military sites and settlements on 11 November, with 100 of them fired at the Krayot settlements in the Haifa district. At least seven Israelis were wounded. Hebrew media referred to the event as “madness in Haifa Bay.”
According to Al Mayadeen‘s correspondent, “two ballistic missiles were launched after the last salvos” which targeted the Haifa area.
The Lebanese resistance launched several other attacks on Monday, including a rocket attack on the Katzrin settlement in the occupied Golan Heights. It also continued to confront Israeli forces operating on the Lebanese border, who have failed to occupy or take control of a single village since early October.
“The Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance targeted, at 4:35 PM on 11-11-2024, a house in which Israeli enemy soldiers were entrenched on the Sari Heights on the northwestern outskirts of the town of Kfar Kila, with a guided missile, killing and wounding them,” Hezbollah said on Monday afternoon.
Head of Hezbollah’s Media Relations Office Mohammad Afif vowed in a speech on November 11 that the Lebanese resistance is prepared for a prolonged war—while clarifying that no substantial proposals for a ceasefire have been offered to Lebanon.
“We are ready for a long war with the occupation at all levels, whether on the front or in the interior,” Afif said.
“Our answer to the claims of a number of Israeli officials, that Hezbollah’s missile stockpile has declined to about 20 percent of our actual capabilities, is clear on the ground … Our missiles last week reached the suburbs of Tel Aviv and Haifa, and centers and camps were bombed for the first time in the Golan and in Haifa,” he affirmed.
“After 45 days of bloody fighting, with five military divisions, two brigades, and 65,000 soldiers, [Israel] is still unable to occupy a single Lebanese village … Our will to fight that is unbreakable,” Afif added.
The Israeli army’s Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said last week that the Zionist entity is planning “for the continuation of the fighting in Lebanon, including the expansion and deepening of the [ground] maneuver.”
https://orinocotribune.com/madness-in-h ... eli-north/
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Tales from hell in Gaza
Telma Luzzani
Nov 9, 2024 , 5:00 pm .
Destruction in the Gaza Strip caused by Israeli bombing (Photo: AFP / Said Khatib)
The crude testimony of two UN rapporteurs before members of Congress not only exposed the inhuman conditions in the Gaza Strip but also exposed the "timid" international legislation, incapable of preventing a genocide such as the one the Palestinian people are experiencing.
Every day a new atrocity in Gaza shakes our hearts and our consciences. Yesterday, Saturday, October 26, Israeli army raids in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in the south of the Strip exterminated entire Palestinian families, including children. On Friday, October 25, Israel opened fire on hospitals in the north and bombings against schools such as those in Nuseirat left dozens dead. And so it went on day after day, to the point that Palestinian rescue groups had to temporarily suspend their work because they were the targets of constant attacks.
This horror, which has been going on for more than a year, was described in detail and with reliable data last Monday, the 21st, in the Chamber of Deputies of Argentina by five United Nations officials invited by the Parliamentary Friendship Group (GPA) with Palestine in collaboration with the League of Arab States in our country. The reports of the five UN rapporteurs - presented virtually, to a full room, but with no media coverage - moved the diplomatic representatives, deputies, representatives of various religious cults and the general public who attended the discussion.
As an example, two of the five testimonies given by UN specialists will be reproduced here: one on the atrocities suffered specifically by women, girls and adolescents - added to everything else that is endured in a war - and another on the situation related to water and epidemics.
"The state of our world is unsustainable due to impunity, inequality and uncertainty," said Congresswoman Lorena Pokoik, quoting UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. Pokoik spoke on behalf of the members of the GPA of Argentina. "We are here to reflect on the humanitarian crisis that Palestine is going through and to raise our voices in a call for peace for the good of the people who suffer from this conflict and for the good of all humanity," she continued. In addition to Pokoik, the discussion table included the ambassador of the League of Arab States to Argentina, Sesham Hassan Ahmed Abdel Wahab; the deputies Carolina Gaillard, Mónica Macha and Vanina Biasi and the deputy Pedro Carro.
The five rapporteurs were Francesca Albanese (Italian), Dorothy Estrada (Mexican), Paula Gaviria Bentacur (Colombian), Astrid Puentes (Colombian) and Pedro Arrojo (Spanish), each knowledgeable in different legal, cultural and political traditions, but with a common link: international law and human rights (HR).
Being a woman and a girl
"The suffering is disproportionate," said Dorothy Estrada, rapporteur on discrimination against women and girls in Gaza and Palestine, both alarmed and furious. "In addition to the armed conflict, there are human rights violations linked to gender and age, which are even more atrocious. According to the data we have, in Gaza there has been evidence of psychological violence, sexual torture in atrocious humane conditions and rape used as a weapon."
"Although it is impossible to know the exact figures, the most sober estimates speak of one million displaced women and 10,000 women killed since the beginning of the conflict in October 2023. More than 6,000 mothers have died, leaving more than 19,000 children orphaned," Estrada continued. "Girls and adolescents are at high risk of falling into child labor, sexual exploitation, child or forced marriage, and situations of human trafficking. Older women, those who are alone or isolated, or disabled, are also exposed to very serious situations," she stressed.
"Pregnant women in labour or post-partum, with hospital infrastructure destroyed, lack healthcare. There is no anaesthesia, not even for caesarean sections. The conditions are atrocious for them and for their newborns because there is also a lack of the most vital medicines, and there are power cuts due to lack of fuel," she explained.
"This is not a humanitarian crisis caused by a natural disaster, but rather one that is the result of specific human actions," Estrada said. "There is a lack of basic necessities, such as food, water, menstrual supplies for a dignified period. The minimum requirements demanded by international human rights law do not exist. Women are having to bury their children, they are having to wander from one place to another, they are living in enormous precariousness and absolute insecurity," she added.
"We ask for the rights of women who are violated day after day. Women are essential for building a sustainable and lasting peace and for real possibilities of reconciliation," the rapporteur concluded.
Water, a vital necessity
Pedro Arrojo, Special Rapporteur for Human Rights, Sanitation and Water Services, reported on the dramatic situation faced by 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, “although 1.7 million of them did not choose to live there and were forced by Israel.” “The normal consumption of any of us, in our homes, is one hundred liters of water per day per person. According to the World Health Organization, in a situation of absolute and extreme emergency, human beings need at least 15 liters of water per day per person for a dignified life. The 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza have access to only 4.7 liters each per day,” criticized Arrojo.
Worse still, the water consumed is salinized and contaminated. The Strip has only one natural source of fresh water, the coastal aquifer. "Before the war, due to the large number of people, three times more water was required than the aquifer's replenishment capacity, so this source became massively salinized by marine intrusion," he said.
"Even before the war, the sanitary infrastructure was poor because 70% of the construction materials needed for the sanitation plants were considered by Israel as 'dual-use materials' (civil and military) and, therefore, they prevented their arrival. As a result of all this, the aquifer is not only salinized but also contaminated by fecal fluids," he explained.
How did the Palestinians get drinking water before the war? Arrojo explained that "for 15 years there were desalination plants financed by the European Union and Unicef, in addition to a very limited supply of water sold by the Israeli public company, Mekorot, which arrived through three pipelines." For this reason, drinking water "was only enough for 40% of the 2 million-odd inhabitants." "For 15 years, the human rights of the Palestinians have not been respected because of the Israeli blockade," he said.
"This was made worse by the war, because Israel immediately cut off power and water supplies to Mekorot. The power cuts brought desalination plants and the few sanitation stations to a standstill. And this is not 'collateral damage.' During this year of war, there have been bombings, sabotage and very precise bombings of wells and water tanks, pumping stations, etc. The result is that the population has 4.7 litres per person per day," he said, adding that "this has led to several epidemics of diarrhoea - 70,000 per week for several months, mostly among children - and the risk of cholera and polio epidemics, without medical attention."
"Thousands upon thousands of children killed silently. This is not against the combatants. This is not aimed at winning a war. It is part of a logic that indiscriminately goes against the population and is theorized in high-level statements from the government and the Israeli army, which call Palestinian children 'children of darkness' to justify their extermination," Arrojo said.
The Spanish rapporteur, deeply moved, admitted that "it is very difficult for him to speak about this issue because it is tremendously inhumane and because it puts at risk not only an entire people but also international law, which is being violated with an unacceptable complicit silence from the main powers and a large part of the world."
For Arrojo, the situation in Western Asia is putting "the very existence of the UN at risk." "The timid international legislation that we have made to prevent genocides such as the one committed against the Jewish people and the one that is being committed against the Palestinians today is at risk," he added.
The legislative commission to achieve a ceasefire and to ensure compliance with the human rights of Palestinians is in the process of being formed. The contribution is extremely valuable and is in line with the values of the Argentines. It is a great example to follow and encourage.
https://misionverdad.com/globalistan/re ... no-en-gaza
Google Translator
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Global Fury After State Dept Claims Israel Not Violating US Law by Blocking Gaza Aid
Posted on November 13, 2024 by Yves Smith
Yves here. Apologies for not having my own post in this slot. I lost power for over an hour, and with a feeble old battery in my computer, I decided to work on something I could get done.
But it is separately useful to run this piece. The horrors in Gaza are if anything accelerating, and now compounded by Gaza-like attacks on Beirut. But between Israel succeeding in curtailing coverage via murdering journalists and much of the world falling into tragedy fatigue, new abuses and variants of old ones are not getting the attention they warrant.
The latest humanitarian aid charade confirms what a immoral, cruel, and cynical country the US is, deserving of only rebuke around the world. The Biden Administration first tried the obvious ruse of saying Israel had to let more aid in, intended as a sop to Muslim and anti-war voters, but with the deadline after November 5, so Israel could fall short with no effect on the election.
This tweet in today’s Links shows how the Israelis are not just blocking aid but destroying it:
Look at what our team @EuroMedHR documented yesterday and today..
Yesterday, Israel allowed a humanitarian aid truck into a shelter in the town of Beit Hanoun, amidst widespread media coverage.
This morning, Israeli forces stormed the shelter, killed some civilians, forcibly… pic.twitter.com/OzDxtqkXSc
— Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده (@RamAbdu) November 12, 2024
But in the US, supporting genocide is a bipartisasn affair.
By Brett Williams, staff writer at Common Dreams. Originally published at Common Dreams
Human rights advocates around the world reacted angrily to Tuesday’s U.S. State Department determination that Israelis not violating humanitarian law—even as its forces annihilate Gaza and block aid from entering the embattled Palestinian enclave.
Last month, the Biden administration—which has approved tens of billions of dollars in military aid for Israel and provided nearly unconditional diplomatic support since October 2023—sent a letter to the Israeli government threatening to cut off U.S. arms transfers if it failed to take “urgent and sustained actions” to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza within 30 days.
Asked during a Tuesday press conference if the Israeli government has met the letter’s demands, State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said that “we have not made an assessment that they are in violation of U.S. law.”
Predictable, pathetic, and blatantly illegal. https://t.co/RWglDrMLvR
— Matt Duss (@mattduss) November 12, 2024
“The overall humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to be unsatisfactory,” Patel continued. “But in the context of the letter, it’s not about whether we find something satisfactory or not; it’s what are the actions that we’re seeing.”
“These actions that we have seen, we think that these are steps in the right direction,” he added, citing the limited reopening of the Erez border crossing between Gaza and Israel. “We want to see more steps. We want to see these steps sustained over a significant period of time, and ultimately, we want to see these steps have a result on the situation.”
Patel insisted that the Biden administration is “not giving Israel a pass.”
State Department: “We have not made an assessment that Israel is violating U.S. law.”This comes as eight major international humanitarian organizations published a letter today, stating Israel has failed to meet U.S.-set aid requirements by the deadline.
(Reporter… pic.twitter.com/ZnpovfuYzU
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) November 12, 2024
However, humanitarian aid groups accuse Israel of causing ” apocalyptic” conditions in northern Gaza, where thousands of civilians including many women and children have been killed or wounded while others face imminent famine under a plan to starve out the population in order to ethnically cleanse the area.
On Tuesday, a coalition of eight international humanitarian groups including Oxfam International, CARE, Norwegian Refugee Council, Save the Children, and others published a report titled The Gaza Scorecard: Israel Fails to Comply With U.S. Humanitarian Access Demands in Gaza, which found that Israel has failed to fully comply with any of the 19 specific demands in the Biden administration’s letter.
The scorecard noted:
The principals of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee now assess that “the entire Palestinian population in North Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine, and violence.” The findings of this scorecard underscore Israel’s failure to comply with U.S. demands and international obligations. Israel should be held accountable for the end result of failing to ensure the adequate provision of food, medical, and other supplies to reach people in need.
“While Israel manipulates the U.S. by allowing some aid trucks into other parts of Gaza in the days leading up to the deadline, the performative act did not bring any humanitarian aid to the besieged northern neighborhoods of Gaza,” said Raed Jarrar, advocacy director at Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN). “Even more concerning, no forcibly displaced Palestinian from the northern neighborhoods of Gaza has been allowed to return home.”
Last month, Biden gave Israel 30 days to increase the number of aid trucks it allows into Gaza to 350/day, or risk losing access to American military aid under US law.
Those 30 days are now up. Israel has let in just 54/day, on average. https://t.co/UZerAHsxXP pic.twitter.com/nowa3sOHCK
— Stephen Semler (@stephensemler) November 12, 2024
Indeed, the IDF said it has “no intention of allowing the residents of the northern Gaza Strip to return to their homes.”
At the same time, relief workers describe deadly dangers faced by Palestinians who try to flee besieged areas including the Jabalia refugee camp, site of some of the war’s worst massacres, including indiscriminate Israeli targeting of refugees without regard for age or gender.
The International Court of Justice in The Hague is in the lengthy process of determining if Israel’s atrocities amount to violations of the Genocide Convention. While it is weighing the evidence in the South Africa-led case, the ICJ has issued a series of provisional orders directing Israel to prevent genocidal acts, halt its assault on Rafah, and stop blocking humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. Critics accuse Israel of flouting all three orders.
“As a signatory to the Genocide Convention, the U.S. is obligated to prevent acts of genocide and to avoid complicity in them,” DAWN stressed on Tuesday. “The U.S. should halt its military support for Israel to comply with its convention obligations and uphold international legal norms.”
The US demanded that Israel increase aid into Gaza. Israel reduced aid.
The US warned of consequences. There will be none.
This will be the Biden administration’s legacy: Unconditional support for war crimes and complicity in genocide. https://t.co/rXWMGhjXZ6
— IMEU Policy Project (@imeupolicy) November 12, 2024
This is not the first time that the Biden administration has officially denied that Israel has violated humanitarian law during the Gaza war. In March, the State Department accepted Israel’s assertion that the country is using U.S.-supplied arms in compliance with international law, even as more than 100,000 Palestinians had been killed or wounded in Gaza up to that date. The casualty figure has since increased by about 50%.
Congressional progressives and human rights groups pushed back on the Biden administration’s claim. In April, a leaked memo revealed that officials at the United States Agency for International Development warned Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Israel was indeed breaking the law by blocking aid from entering Gaza. Another leaked State Department memo raised “serious concern” over Israeli noncompliance with humanitarian law and slammed Israel’s claims of legal U.S. weapons use as “neither credible nor reliable.”
Palestine advocates fear the Biden administration’s refusal to suspend arms shipments to Israel—as experts argue is required under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and Leahy Laws—will open the door for Republican President-elect Donald Trump to back Israeli crimes such as the annexation of Palestinian territories including the West Bank.
This sums up the failures of the Democratic Party—repeatedly refusing to fulfill promises to its own voters.
Whether it's refusing to end weapons sales to Israel or refusing to stand up to billionaires & corporate power, the Democratic Party brand right now is bait-and-switch. https://t.co/3V9LQAhWDR
— Justice Democrats (@justicedems) November 12, 2024
“By spending over a year ignoring U.S. law on supplying arms, the Biden administration has handed Trump an excuse to ignore any law he wants,” Center for International Policy executive vice president Matt Duss said Tuesday on social media. “And they will have nothing to say about it.”
Duss called the Biden administration’s new determination “predictable, pathetic, and blatantly illegal.”
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/11 ... a-aid.html
"Rules Based Order"
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Hezbollah attacks Israeli army's Tel Aviv HQ twice in one day
Known as 'The Campus,' the Kirya base in densely populated Tel Aviv has served as the Israeli army's headquarters since its founding in 1948
News Desk
NOV 13, 2024
(Photo credit: Tamar Matsafi)
Hezbollah announced on 13 November it had successfully targeted the Israeli military’s Kirya base in Tel Aviv, home to the Defense Ministry, General Staff, War Room, and Air Force Command and Control Center, twice in the same day.
“The Islamic Resistance launched, for the first time, an aerial operation with a squadron of qualitative assault drones targeting the Kirya Base … in Tel Aviv, hitting their targets precisely at 3:30 pm on Wednesday,” a statement from Hezbollah said.
Israeli media denied the report, claiming, “There is currently no indication that any drones reached central Israel or came near army headquarters.”
The Islamic resistance movement later issued a second statement saying that it struck the Kirya base a second time, at 6:15 pm, with Qader 2 ballistic missiles, which hit “their targets precisely.”
Hezbollah also announced the targeting Wednesday of the Glilot Base, the headquarters of the Military Intelligence Unit 8200, in the suburbs of Tel Aviv, with a qualitative missile barrage.
The Islamic resistance movement successfully targeted the Glilot Base base two weeks ago, on 2 November.
A squadron of Hezbollah attack drones Hezbollah also targeted Israel’s Amos base on Wednesday. The base is an important transport and technology readiness hub for Israel’s northern region, located 55 km from the Lebanese-Israel border.
Almost two months after the start of Israel’s massive bombing campaign targeting Lebanon, Hezbollah remains capable of striking military targets deep with Israel while repelling the ongoing Israeli ground invasion of the country.
Israeli forces have been able to destroy many Lebanese villages near the Israeli border area but have not been able to breach Hezbollah’s first line of defenses, while taking heavy casualties.
Earlier Wednesday, Hebrew media outlets reported a “very difficult incident” in which several Israeli troops were killed in southern Lebanon, coming as Tel Aviv has recently announced an expansion of its ground operation in the country.
According to Sky News Arabia, nine Israeli soldiers were killed in a booby-trapped building in south Lebanon, and others were wounded. The soldiers were in the building when the explosives were detonated.
On Tuesday, the Israeli army announced it had begun the second phase of its ground operation in southern Lebanon in an effort to advance toward Hezbollah’s second line of defense.
“The Israeli army has initiated the second phase of the ground maneuver in southern Lebanon, with the 36th Division advancing toward Hezbollah’s second defensive line,” Israeli newspaper Maariv reported.
In response, Hezbollah announced that the Israeli army’s decision “will only lead to disappointment, and its inevitable harvest will be more losses and failures; ‘Our mujahideen are waiting.'"
“The resistance has taken all measures within its defensive plans to enable it to fight a long battle to prevent the enemy from achieving its goals,” the Islamic resistance movement added.
https://thecradle.co/articles/hezbollah ... in-one-day
The state-backed settler war to annex the West Bank
With an indebted Trump soon to be back in the White House, Tel Aviv is orchestrating a calculated campaign of militia formation and settler violence to seize control of the West Bank, aiming for annexation and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian communities.
Robert Inlakesh
NOV 13, 2024
Photo Credit: The Cradle
Despite Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza and military aggression against Lebanon, Tel Aviv is preparing to unleash its fanatical Jewish settlers in a coordinated war against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, aiming to ethnically cleanse what remains of the territory and pave the way for further annexation.
Adding fuel to the fire, billionaire Miriam Adelson, the wealthiest Israeli in the world, bankrolled Donald Trump's “huge victory” in his successful presidential campaign with one clear condition: support for annexing the West Bank.
Last month The Times of Israel noted that the wealthy widow “is carrying on a legacy she built with her late husband, casino magnate Sheldon Adelson,” and that “The Adelson family has long been one of the largest sources of campaign money for Republican candidates and has backed Trump during each of the last three general elections.”
The complete consolidation of the West Bank
Speaking to The Cradle, Ubai al-Aboudi, executive director of Palestinian rights group ‘Bisan Center,’ says that “the Israeli settlers are preparing to carry out a major attack, to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian population,” adding that this attack will be particularly focused on completely erasing Palestinians from what is known as Area C, which constitutes roughly 60 percent of the West Bank.
That escalation has already begun. On 4 November, armed settlers launched a brazen assault on the Palestinian city of Al-Bireh, marking a surge in the violence that has gripped the West Bank. In October alone, settlers carried out at least 1,490 attacks against Palestinians, their property, and their land – often under the supervision and protection of occupation soldiers.
In the past, extremist settler attacks against Palestinians were characterized by their spontaneous nature and uncoordinated thuggery, but this has begun to change. During a recent interview with Israel’s Channel 7 News, West Bank Settlement Council leader Israel Gantz commented on a meeting he had with the recently sacked Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant:
“We asked that the West Bank be treated as Jabalia, Rafah, and the villages of southern Lebanon were treated, which means displacing the residents, killing the terrorists in these villages, cleansing the terrorist infrastructure, confiscating the weapons and then returning them to their villages.”
While the statement includes the idea of returning Palestinians to their villages, if such an operation replicated Gaza and southern Lebanon, there would be no village to return to. Gantz also requested that Palestinian villages bordering illegal Jewish settlements be ‘cleansed’ due to the potential security threat posed to Israelis living there – both ideas reportedly opposed by Gallant.
On 5 November, however, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu replaced Gallant and handed the defense minister position to long-time ally Israel Katz. While serving in his previous role as Israel’s foreign minister, Katz openly called for expelling Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank, unlike his predecessor.
‘Organized militias’
Last November, it was revealed that National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir had ordered the police to stop enforcing the law against West Bank settlers.
This is why the armed settler assault on Al-Bireh was seen as so significant. As Netanyahu reshuffles his cabinet to include a full deck of right-wingers, many of whom are themselves West Bank settlers, these groups are becoming even more brazen.
The assault on Al-Bireh was particularly alarming – a “pogrom-style attack,“ according to Aboudi, as “they feel emboldened by the impunity they enjoy.” Rampaging settlers burned 18 vehicles and two apartments while Israeli soldiers looked on.
One West Bank Palestinian described to The Cradle how settlers showed up outside her home armed with Molotov cocktails, but “were luckily scared off” prior to assaulting family members:
“I had just left my home prior to the attack, but I knew something was wrong because the soldiers were acting very violently at all the checkpoints as I was leaving … you have to understand that these kinds of attacks don’t happen without the soldiers participating in some way.”
“The settlers are acting more and more like organized militias; they are an extension of the Israeli army working towards an agenda of ethnic cleansing,” insists Aboudi, affirming that this year’s attacks have been dramatically increasing. According to statistics, settler violence has been escalating every year since 2021, reaching an unprecedented number of attacks in 2024.
Through the use of state-backed settler ‘defense squads,’ Israel has managed to ethnically cleanse 16 Palestinian communities in the southern hills of Al-Khalil (Hebron). In 2023, it was discovered that the Israeli army had established the ‘Desert Frontier’ unit, comprised of the most extremist Jewish settlers from the notorious ‘Hilltop Youth’ group. Human rights groups have also documented the use of Israeli standard-issue rifles by West Bank settlers attacking Palestinians, all pointing toward state complicity in these attacks.
According to Aboudi, “around 700 [Israeli] roadblocks cut off Palestinian villages from each other.” Set up by occupation forces, the roadblocks provide cover for “attacks from violent settlers who target Palestinians passing by … greatly affecting the ability to even travel safely across the West Bank.” The attackers can rely on unconditional impunity from Tel Aviv, he explains:
“They feel that they have enough resources, weapons, arms, political backing, to commit whatever crime they choose."
Trump and West Bank annexation
Yossi Dagan, the settler leader of Samaria Regional Council, recently purchased some 500 rifles to arm and prepare “emergency security teams” in anticipation of a war in the West Bank. In September, Israel declared the West Bank a “combat zone,” and created closed military zones as buffers surrounding the illegal Jewish settlements.
Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister who was recently gifted control of settlement affairs for the occupied Palestinian territories, issued a public call for annexation in late October. As a longtime West Bank settler himself, Smotrich openly works on behalf of a 2017 settler movement proposal, outlined in a document entitled ‘Decisive Plan,’ which seeks to double the settler population of the West Bank.
If this is combined with Israel’s decision to begin transferring the Israeli settler population from military to civil control, it becomes clear that the process of annexation is already underway.
With the victory of Donald Trump in the recent US elections, it is more than likely that Netanyahu views annexation of the West Bank to suddenly be a very viable option, despite the historic opinion delivered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in July that declared Israel's occupation of the territories to be a violation of international law and demanded that Tel Aviv end its occupation, dismantle all settlements, pay reparations for damages to Palestinians, and facilitate the return of all displaced natives.
But Trump's sweeping electoral victory was aided by uber-Zionist Adelson’s contribution of $100 million to his campaign, with the single request that the Republican leader permit Israeli annexation of the West Bank.
Recall too that the Adelsons financed Trump's first presidential bid, in 2016, with the quid pro quo that the Republican leader move the US embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and recognize the Holy City as Israel’s undivided Capital – a promise that Trump implemented in 2018.
Now, Miriam Adelson is pushing for the annexation of the West Bank. Combined with the surge in settler violence, the formation of Jewish militias, military training programs for settler civilians, and the distribution of 120,000 rifles, a calculated strategy is taking shape. This is not just about sporadic attacks – it is a deliberate, state-backed campaign to alter the demographics of the West Bank permanently in line with the expansionist, settler-colonial ideology of the most extremist coalition government in Israel's history.
https://thecradle.co/articles/the-state ... -west-bank
Again and again, "How the West was won."
Israeli army 'will not leave Gaza before 2026': Report
Tel Aviv has established several permanent military installations across the entirety of the Gaza Strip
News Desk
NOV 13, 2024
(Photo credit: X)
The Israeli army is rapidly accelerating its plans to establish a permanent presence in the Gaza Strip, where it will likely remain until at least the end of 2025, according to a 13 November report by Israel’s Haaretz newspaper.
“The work is progressing at full speed,” the newspaper reported.
“Wide roads are being built, cellular antennas are going up, water, sewage, and electricity networks are going in, and of course, there are the buildings, some portable and others less so,” it added.
These plans have included the systematic destruction of buildings across Gaza, with the aim of ensuring that resistance fighters cannot hide in them.
Israeli forces, as part of their extermination and expulsion campaign in northern Gaza, have forced tens of thousands out of their homes to transform the area into a military zone. Haaretz confirms that many Palestinians have refused to leave, despite artillery shelling which targets areas that remain inhabited.
The construction work and setting up of permanent outposts have not been limited to the north.
“According to the plan that is being carried out, the army is acting to hold no fewer than four large areas in different parts of the Strip. One of the most prominent of them is the Netzarim corridor,” Haaretz said.
The Netzarim corridor, which cuts Gaza into two and prevents the return of displaced Palestinians to the northern strip, was established in the early months of the Gaza war and has since been transformed into an extensive military facility with detention centers and permanent housing for soldiers.
The Haaretz report adds that a “combat graph for 2025” has been distributed to troops in recent weeks.
“The way it looks on the ground, the IDF won't leave Gaza before 2026,” a brigade officer in Gaza told the newspaper. “When you see the roads being paved here, it's clear that this isn't intended for the ground maneuvers or for raids by the troops into various places. These roads lead, among other places, to the places from which some of the settlements were removed.”
“I don't know of any intent to rebuild them; that isn't something we're told explicitly. But everyone understands where this is going,” the officer added.
Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported on 10 November that the Israeli army has established permanent military installations across Gaza aimed at setting up a long-term presence and splitting the strip into three separate zones.
According to the report, the Israeli army plans to separate northern, central, and southern Gaza from each other. Several new land corridors have been established in recent months, including one which aims to cut off the northern cities Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia, and Jabalia from Gaza City.
The Israeli government denies that Tel Aviv is working for the reestablishment of Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, which were evacuated in 2005. Yet soldiers in Gaza and government officials openly express their aspirations to force out Palestinians from the strip and recreate the Gush Katif settlement bloc – as it was referred to in the past.
Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party organized a conference under the title “Preparing to Settle in Gaza.” It was attended by several government ministers.
Haaretz reported earlier this year that Israel’s “indefinite” presence in Gaza is gradually paving the way for illegal settlement in the strip.
https://thecradle.co/articles/israeli-a ... 026-report
Earlier this morning, at approximately, 6:00 am, PCHR’s field researcher in Jabalya, Mohammed Aloush, lost 24 members of his relatives as a result of an Israeli airstrike on their house, among them 14 children and 6 women, some of whom suffer from disabilities. This happened in… pic.twitter.com/XZSvt5ucKh
mari 
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IMPORTANT
This issue is not about the size of the LAF or the…
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