US pledges $5.2bln of taxpayer money to develop Israeli air defenses
Al Mayadeen | October 21, 2024
The United States will work on providing the Israeli regime with a special emergency aid package of $5.2 billion, aimed at augmenting Israeli air defense systems, Israeli media reported on Monday.
The Director General of the Israeli Security Ministry, Major General (Res.) Eyal Zamir, and Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, Williamn La Plante, engaged in an exchange of letters to implement the emergency aid package.
According to Israeli media, the funds will be allocated to developing, enhancing, and expanding the Iron Dome, David Sling, and Iron Beam systems.
The $5.2 billion will be part of the broader package approved by the US administration and Congress of $8.7 billion. The remaining $3.5 billion will be allocated to the Israeli Procurement Mission in the US, which will use the vast funds to make purchases on the behalf of Israeli occupation forces.
US rushes to patch up Israeli air defense systems
The Israeli regime has one of the world’s densest networks of air defense systems, a significant portion of which has been financed by the US.
Moreover, the US has recently deployed a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in Israeli-occupied territories, aimed at further bolstering Israeli air defense capabilities. This comes after the embarrassing performance of Israeli air defenses against Iran’s ballistic missile strike, which was conducted on October 1, 2024.
Moreover, Israeli air defenses have struggled against low-budget one-way attack drones launched by the Axis of Resistance. Most recently, a swarm of drones penetrated Israeli-occupied territories, traveling a 70 km distance from the Palestinian-Lebanese border.
One of the drones was seen flying right past an Israeli Apache attack helicopter, before impacting the residence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Caesarea.
Democratic Congressman Josh Gottheimer Demands Tougher Sanctions on Yemen
Yemen Threatens US With Quagmire Worse Than ‘Hell of Vietnam’
By Ilya Tsukanov – Sputnik – 21.10.2024
The Yemeni militia began a stream of drone and missile attacks targeting merchant ships suspected of ties to Israel last November, and started attacking US and British warships in January amid a Pentagon-led effort to “degrade” its capabilities through airstrikes. Nearly one year and $5 billion later, the US operation has yet to achieve its goals.
Democratic Congressman Josh Gottheimer has called on colleagues from both parties in the Senate to ramp up the US sanctions regime against Yemen’s Ansar Allah (Houthi) militia, urging lawmakers to act amid the Biden administration’s inaction on proposed tougher restrictions.
“In recent months, the Houthis, as part of Iran’s Axis of Evil, have escalated their attacks, launching drones and ballistic missiles directly at Israel,” Gottheimer wrote in a letter to Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer and Minority leader Mitch McConnell on Monday, with the ‘Axis of Evil’ rhetoric an apparent throwback to the early 2000s Bush-era term which culminated in the invasion of Iraq.
“Despite this escalation, the State Department reaffirmed their decision not to reimpose the [Foreign Terrorist Organization] designation on the Houthis. This is deeply troubling, and underscores the need for Congressional action. Currently, a similar version of this bill exists in the Senate, with bipartisan support,” Gottheimer, a member of the House select committee on intelligence, and one of the Democratic Party’s most steadfastly pro-Israel House lawmakers, added.
“The Houthis have been targeting ships they believe are destined for Israel using ballistic missiles, drones, and even hijacking vessels by boarding them from a helicopter,” Gottheimer wrote, pointing out that “since March 14th, there have been more than 77 reported attacks on ships in the Red Sea by Houthi rebels. The Houthis’ indiscriminate targeting threatens the more than 117,000 ships that travel through the Bab el Mandeb Strait annually and has forced thousands of ships belonging to companies such as AP Moller-Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd, CMA CGM, and BP to reroute their vessels away from the Red Sea and delay the delivery of goods key to the international supply chain.”
“The Houthis have forged alliances with anti-democratic, authoritarian regimes that violate the values our two nations strive to promote and uphold,” the lawmaker added.
“Recently, the Houthis reached an agreement with [Russia and China] pledging not to target Russian or Chinese vessels. This new alignment potentially bolsters the Houthis militarily and grants significant economic advantages to Russia and China at the expense of our economies and national security,” the letter claimed.
The Biden administration partially reimposed Trump-era sanctions on the Houthis in January, re-adding the group to the Treasury’s ‘Specially Designated Global Terrorist’ listing, which allows for the blocking of any assets designated persons or entities may have in the United States by the Treasury. In the case of the Houthis, the restrictions appear to be largely symbolic, with most of the movement’s leadership believed to be entrenched in Yemen and never setting foot in the United States.
The White House has yet to re-list the Houthis under its ‘Foreign Terrorist Organization’ (FTO) sanctions, citing humanitarian concerns, including access to food and medicines, and fears of a repeat of the dramatic humanitarian crisis Yemen suffered in the wake of a US-backed Gulf coalition’s blockade of the country after the Houthi revolution. Those opposed to the designation fear that reinstating it would worsen Yemen’s humanitarian crisis, while doing little to impact the Houthis’ military capabilities.
Since the Houthis began their campaign of attacks on ships in the Red Sea in solidarity with Palestinian late last year, the US has spent nearly $5 billion on deployments in support of Israel in the Middle East, including billions on a flagging military campaign against the militia. According to a recent calculations by Brown University’s Costs of War Project, the US has spent $2.4 billion on costs associated with operating carrier strike groups and other missions against the Yemeni militia, plus $50-$70 million for additional combat pay to officers and troops.
US-UK attacks have done little to ease tensions, with the Houthis instead ramping up their shipping attacks, and missile and drone attacks on Israel directly – including a July drone strike in Tel Aviv which slammed into a building 100 meters from a US consulate, and a missile attack earlier this month which slipped past Israeli missile defenses and landed in central Israel.
On Monday, Jamal Ahmed Ali Amer, foreign minister of the Houthi-led National Salvation Government, commented on rumors of suspected US plans to launch a invasion of the strategic Yemeni port city of al-Hudaydah, warning that “if [the US] acts rashly” and proceeds with the operation, “the hell of Vietnam will be just a walk in the park.”
‘Everyone not dead or injured is mentally damaged’: Israeli army hit by silent crisis
The Cradle | October 21, 2024
After a year of committing genocide in Gaza, more and more Israeli soldiers are quietly refusing orders to return to the strip to fight, saying they are depressed, worn out, psychologically damaged, and unmotivated, according to a report by Ha-Makom magazine published on 20 October.
The ultra-Orthodox-oriented magazine interviewed multiple soldiers and parents of soldiers who refuse to return to Gaza. When a platoon of 30 soldiers of the Nahal Brigade was recently ordered to enter Gaza for the latest of several tours, only six reported for duty.
“I call it refusal and rebellion,” says Inbal, the mother of one of the soldiers in the platoon.
“They return to the same buildings that they cleaned, each time trapping them anew. They have been to Al-Zaytoun neighborhood three times already. They understand that it is futile and pointless.”
Although they had only a fifth of their personnel, the commander still insisted they enter Gaza.
“Because they were a small team, they couldn’t go out on missions. They just stayed there and waited for the time to pass. It was even more unnecessary.”
In addition to battling Hamas fighters, Israeli soldiers have been demolishing residential buildings with explosives, sniping children, shelling hospitals and schools housing displaced people, and destroying Gaza’s water and electrical infrastructure.
One parent of a soldier in Nahal said that according to her son, “The wards are empty. Everyone who is not dead or injured is mentally damaged. There are very few left who returned to fight. And they’re not quite right either.”
After Israel’s ground invasion of Lebanon, in which many soldiers have already been killed and injured, her son told her, “I don’t know what army they’re thinking of entering Lebanon with, but I’m not going back to the battalion.”
According to those interviewed by Ha-Makom, there is no movement among the soldiers to refuse to serve.
Instead, one goes quietly to his commander and says he is unable to fight. He is then removed and placed in a non-combat position elsewhere.
“Things are resolved within the unit. It happens all the time. There is an incessant covert drop from fighting,” one parent explained.
Among mothers, the phenomenon is called “silent refusal” or “gray refusal.”
Soldiers feel demoralized having to return to places in Gaza where they fought months ago and supposedly defeated Hamas.
“When the return to the places we were in, such as Jabalia, Al-Zaytoun, and Shujaiya, began, it broke the soldiers,” a parent named Eidit explains.
“These are the same places where they lost their friends. The area was already clean. It had to be preserved. It frustrated them a lot. What kills them is the conditions and the duration of the fighting, which has no end in sight. You never know when you will get out, and it’s been like this for a year. Not to mention the loss and the difficult sights they see in Gaza.”
Yael, the mother of a fighter in a commando brigade, said that her son told her, “We are like sitting ducks at the range. We don’t understand what we’re doing here. The abductees don’t come back a second and third time, and you see it’s endless, and soldiers get injured and die on the way.”
In March, four fighters of the unit were killed, and dozens more were injured in three different attacks.
After returning from Gaza, the soldier’s unit was converted to a reserve unit and sent right back to fight in the enclave.
“He told his commander that he wanted to remain a fighter in the reserves but that, at the moment, he is unable to because of his parents, whom he does not trust and does not think there is any point in continuing. He was released but did not receive an order 8,” which is an order call up to fight in the reserves.
Their commanders shame them for abandoning their fellow soldiers and try to convince them to fight, but ultimately take no action against the soldiers.
“Two months before him, two fighters from his team refused and that is what gave him the courage. At the moment, most of them have not been put in prison, and the phenomenon is just kept quiet.”
Ha-Makom added, “After 12 consecutive months of a war that goes nowhere, the soldiers are ‘black.’ In military slang, this means that they are depressed, worn out and unmotivated.”
“In the beginning, he was very determined,” says Ofer, the father of a sniper in one of the infantry units. “He said: ‘Our job is to return the kidnapped, our job is to take revenge,’ and he went there.”
Why Should We Fight Wars for Ukraine and Israel?
By Ron Paul | October 21, 2024
When you take on the role of the world’s policeman, don’t be surprised when countries who cannot fight their own wars call “911.” That is exactly what is happening to the United States on two fronts and it is bankrupting our country, depleting the military that should serve our own national interest, and threatening to drag the US into World War III.
Last week, Ukraine’s “president” Vladimir Zelensky publicly presented his “Victory Plan.” It was delusional: immediate NATO Membership for Ukraine, NATO strikes against incoming Russian missiles, and permission to use Western long-range missiles for strikes deep into Russia including Moscow and St. Petersburg.
The real intent was not hard to understand. Ukraine is on the verge of losing its war with Russia and is desperate to draw the United States military into the fight. There were numerous opportunities to avoid this bloody war but at every step the Ukrainian leadership listened to western neocons (like Boris Johnson) and decided to keep fighting Russia down to the last Ukrainian.
But now that they are nearly down to the last Ukrainian, they are calling on us to step in and fight the country with the most nuclear weapons on earth – Russia – in a battle that could not be more unrelated to our actual interests.
Washington’s answer should be simple but firm: “No more weapons, no more money. You’re on your own. Make peace.”
Would the US be mortally wounded if the people in Eastern Ukraine were allowed to secede from Kiev and join Russia? Would anyone except the Russia-obsessed neocons in DC think tanks even notice?
Likewise with Israel. Tel Aviv has, in response to the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, launched a war to annihilate Palestinians from Gaza, invade and occupy southern Lebanon, degrade the military of Iraq and Syria, and take on Iran. But the Israeli military has nowhere near the capacity to fight so many wars on so many fronts, so it has increasingly demanded US involvement in the conflicts. Already the US has provided some $23 billion in additional military aid to Israel and has employed US military assets in the region to shoot down missiles and provide increased weapons and intelligence.
But it’s still not enough for Israel. To fight Iran, with its significant military capabilities, Israel appears desperate to drag the US military into the battle. The stationing of one or perhaps two THAAD air defense systems, each with 100 US troops to operate them, is part of that effort. These 100-200 US troops are illegally engaged in combat, but what’s worse is that they are being used as a tripwire. US and Israeli leaders understand that they will be considered legitimate targets for any additional Iranian missile attack, but as soon as American troops start getting killed in Israel there will be a massive push for further US involvement. Imagine the mainstream media war propaganda if such a terrible thing happens.
That is no way to use members of the US armed services. It is the opposite of supporting our troops.
Washington’s response to Israel trying to drag us into its war with Iran should be just like with Ukraine: “No more weapons, no more money. You’re on your own. Make peace.” That is what a pro-America foreign policy looks like. Our Founders understood it very well and wrote about it often. It’s called “non-intervention.”
Genocidal Jewish chaplains at UK universities
Press TV – October 20, 2024
The British Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, has announced a £7 million procurement process for anti-semitism training in schools, colleges and universities, where she claims there’s been a huge increase in anti-semitic incidents.
However, the statistics on which she’s relying have been provided by the Community Security Trust (CST), which has links to Israel’s overseas spy agency, Mossad.
The British government has announced that its response to the ongoing genocide in Palestine is that it will spend £7 million on tackling anti-semitism in education.
Meanwhile, the government has failed to earmark any money at all to tackle the epidemic of anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic racism whipped up by the Zionist movement.
َ£500,000 of the £7 million funding has been awarded to the University Jewish Chaplaincy, or UJC, for ‘welfare support’ for Jewish students in universities.
But what is the UJC, a kindly Jewish religious organization devoted to the welfare and spiritual needs of their students?
Unfortunately not, in fact, it’s a fully signed up Zionist organization with direct links to illegal settlements and to the genocidal occupation forces.
The UJC is a charity that is also a member of the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council, JLC.
One of the directors of the UJC, Yuri Goldberg, was appointed a director of the JLC in August 2024.
Both groups are advocates of the genocidal ideology of Zionism, but perhaps the UJC is best known for its chaplain at Leeds University who was involved in the genocide in Gaza as a member of the occupation forces.
In October 2023 it emerged that he had been circulating videos of himself to Jewish students in Israeli occupation forces uniform, claiming: “No one could deny that Israel is dealing with this war with the utmost morality and good ethics”.
“What Israel is trying to do is destroy the evil, which is the most moral thing possible.”
It seems unlikely that this was conducive to the welfare of Jewish students at Leeds or elsewhere.
Zechariah Deutsch and his wife, Nava, the chaplaincy couple, had both trained for two years at Ohr Torah Stone’s Straus-Amiel Institute.
The Institute is located in Migdal Oz in the Gush Etzion settlement block in the West Bank. Ohr Torah Stone is an educational Zionist venture founded by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin in New York. He later became a settler colonist.
In November 2023, the president of Ohr Torah Stone, Riskin’s successor, Rabbi Kenneth Brander, visited the Zionist Northern Front. He was asked by the company commander to write a message to our enemies on one of the rockets used to retaliate to their attacks. In indelible black marker Brander wrote “To fulfill the mitzvah and mission of obliterating Amalek”.
Ohr Torah Stone is, in other words, a genocidal propaganda and indoctrination operation.
How the government imagines it will increase the welfare of Jewish students by giving money to genocidal Zionist extremists is unclear.
University Jewish Chaplaincy, links to illegal settlements and Israeli Occupation Forces
Leeds University is again the subject of outrage as the new chaplaincy couple are withdrawn from campus after shocking anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic posts were found on social media. The posts, mostly made by Sonia Pariente, included her view that Israeli lives were more valuable than those of Palestinians, referred to Palestinian women wearing black bags and to the Arabs of darkness.
“After October 7th I don’t differentiate between Hamas and so called Palestinians”, she wrote going on to say that “for the next 10 to 20 years, the Palestinian people will pay the bill that Hamas set today, and this bill will be paid in blood.”
Under pressure from pro-Palestine groups, the University Jewish Chaplaincy sacked them and removed their internet profile page.
The University Jewish Chaplaincy operates as a charity in the UK. It provides Jewish chaplains to universities up and down the country. Our investigations reveal that many have direct connections to illegal settlement and the occupation forces.
There are currently 17 individuals appointed in the UK, six couples and five individuals.
At Bristol, Asaf and Atara Forges are said to come from Israel, though both trained in the Straus Emil Institute of Ohr Torah Stone. This is the Gush Etzion settlement block run by an openly genocidal organization.
The Glasgow and Edinburgh chaplain, Eliran, trained at a yeshiva that is also run by Torah stone and included service in the occupation forces. His wife, Ayala Shabo, is from the illegal settlement of Efrat and attended Shalem College, in the occupied territory.
The chaplain at Nottingham, Uriya Dvir, attended two Yeshivas for a total of six years. Both were in illegal settlements. The Yeshivas combined Torah study and service in the occupation forces.
Rabbi Fishel Cohen at Birmingham is part of the genocidal Chabad cult, which believes it is justified to kill Palestinian children.
Unsurprisingly, the UJC is funded by a slew of hardline genocidal Zionists such as the convicted fraudster and founder of the Community Security Trust, Gerald Ronson, property developer David Dangoor, whose money is channeled via the Exilarch’s Foundation.
It also donates to the Islamophobic Henry Jackson society as does the Wolfson family, which owns the retailer ‘NEXT’.
The family has donated to Islamophobic think tanks, including Policy Exchange, and the Jerusalem Foundation which is directly involved in ethnic cleansing in Palestine.
The University Jewish Chaplaincy is a charity so these connections must raise questions about its ability to provide public benefit as required by law.
US, Canada and European countries suppressing Pro-Palestine protests: UN rapporteur
Palestinian Information Center – October 19, 2024
NEW YORK – The UN special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression has accused the United States, Canada, France, Germany, and Belgium of suppressing the right to protest in support of the Palestinian cause. She also condemned Israeli authorities for carrying out dangerous attacks on media personnel in Palestinian territories, criticizing the assassination of journalists.
In a report submitted to the UN General Assembly and the press on Friday, the special rapporteur, Irene Khan—an “independent” expert with the UN since 2020—accused several European countries of imposing measures to restrict freedom of expression and suppress protests against the massacre in Gaza, as well as banning pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
Khan, a Bangladeshi lawyer working in human rights, referred to “demonstrations at universities in the United States that were violently suppressed,” mentioning the intervention of riot police in New York at the end of April to disperse dozens of pro-Palestinian activists occupying part of Columbia University.
Regarding European countries, Khan specifically mentioned “Germany, which has imposed a complete ban on pro-Palestinian demonstrations since October of last year, along with restrictions on such protests in various regions of Germany since then.” She added that these restrictions have never been imposed on demonstrations in support of Israel, but always on those supporting Palestinians.
She continued that “France attempted to take similar measures, but the courts rejected them, and evaluations are now made on a case-by-case basis,” noting that “Belgium and Canada have adopted similar stances.”
At the beginning of the Israeli extermination war on Gaza over a year ago, the French Interior Ministry called for a ban on pro-Palestinian demonstrations for fear of public disorder. However, the Council of State, the highest administrative court, urged the French government to make decisions on a case-by-case basis.
Khan also criticized Israel for “assaults on media in the occupied Palestinian territories—Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem—targeted assassinations of journalists, arbitrary arrests, and numerous cases of destruction of infrastructure and journalistic equipment in Gaza, as well as refusing to allow international press access.”
The independent rapporteur concluded that “the tightening of censorship in Israel and the occupied territories indicates that Israeli authorities have a strategy to silence critical journalism.”
Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli occupation, with unlimited American support, has been waging an extermination war on Gaza, resulting in over 142,000 dead and injured, the majority of whom are women and children, 10,000 missing, massive destruction of infrastructure, and a deadly famine.
50 Palestinians martyred in northern Gaza, hospitals under bombardment and siege
Palestinian Information Center – October 19, 2024
GAZA – For the fifteenth consecutive day on Saturday, northern Gaza, particularly Jabalia refugee camp, is enduring an Israeli siege and starvation amidst intense aerial and artillery bombardment, along with a complete isolation of the healthcare system and internet.
In a new massacre in Jabalia, the occupation army carried out an attack after cutting off communications and internet in northern Gaza.
Eyewitnesses reported that a large massacre occurred after homes belonging to the Al-Hawajri and other families near the Nasar junction in Tal Al-Zaatar to the northeast of Jabalia camp were bombed. Several homes were targeted, but the Al-Hawajri house was occupied by many residents, including a significant number of displaced relatives.
They confirmed that this house and the neighboring homes were directly targeted, resulting in 30 martyrs and more than 70 injured arriving at Al-Awda Hospital, with many missing.
The Gaza Government Media Office (GMO) said that 21 women and children were among the martyrs. It pointed out that the massacre committed by the occupation due to the bombing of Tal Al-Zaatar coincides with the collapse of the healthcare situation in northern Gaza.
Additionally, 4 citizens were martyred, and more than 15 others were injured due to Israeli shelling that targeted a home in the Al-Touba area of Jabalia camp.
With this toll, the number of martyrs resulting from Israeli airstrikes in northern Gaza since dawn on Friday has risen to 49, while the total number of martyrs since the siege was imposed on the northern sector has reached 450.
Moreover, the occupation’s artillery shelled the Indonesian hospital with several shells and imposed a siege on it, while the upper floors of Al-Awda Hospital in Tal Al-Zaatar were also targeted, with reports of injuries resulting from the attacks.
Since dawn on Saturday, Israeli occupation forces have besieged the Indonesian hospital in Beit Lahiya, targeting anyone moving in its vicinity. Artillery fired two shells towards it, and the electricity was cut off.
Dr. Marwan Sultan, the hospital director, issued an urgent distress call as Israeli military vehicles are surrounding the hospital and four shelters nearby, posing severe risks to medical staff and patients. He noted that Israeli tanks fired three direct shells at the hospital, and military bulldozers began demolishing parts of the hospital after cutting off its electricity.
He emphasized that 15 medical staff members and 30 injured patients in the hospital face real dangers due to the direct targeting of the hospital and the risk of suffocation from gases emitted by explosive shells nearby, pointing out that the lives of patients needing special care are threatened due to lack of oxygen.
He clarified that artillery shells targeted the second and third floors of the hospital, indicating that the occupation aims to destroy what remains of the healthcare system to force residents to leave.
The director of the Indonesian hospital, Dr. Marwan Sultan, called on the international community to intervene to save what remains of the healthcare system in the Gaza Strip.
The hospital had previously been subjected to a similar siege in November 2023, during which it was directly targeted by the occupying forces, leading to the death and arrest of several injured patients.
Meanwhile, the director of Al-Awda Hospital, Dr. Mohammed Saleh, described the healthcare situation as catastrophic due to the shortage of medical supplies, noting that the situation in northern Gaza is “indescribable.” He expected the number of martyrs to rise in the coming hours due to the lack of medical resources.
A medical source reported that the medical teams at Kamal Adwan and Al-Awda hospitals are unable to cope with the numerous injuries resulting from the bombardment by the occupying forces.
In the meantime, the director of health in Gaza, Munir Al-Bursh, described the condition of hospitals in northern Gaza as catastrophic. In statements to Al Jazeera, he mentioned that the bodies of over 450 martyrs have arrived at hospitals, and “our estimates indicate 500 martyrs,” confirming that the Israeli occupation is committing massacre after massacre in northern Gaza.
He added that the Israeli occupation is deliberately displacing the population from northern Gaza through bombardment and siege, rendering the healthcare system in northern Gaza non-functional.
A health ministry official in Gaza said that several civilians have died of hunger and thirst in their homes in Jabalia due to the ongoing siege, and the bodies of dozens of martyrs are scattered in the streets of Jabalia as a result of the continuous bombardment.
GMO condemned the moral decline of countries around the world that silently watch and monitor the crime of genocide against the Palestinian people, especially what is currently happening in the Jabalia camp in northern Gaza.
In a press statement, the GMO held the Israeli occupation, the US administration, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and the countries participating in the genocide fully responsible for the continuation of this crime.
The Israeli genocide against the Gaza Strip continues for the 379th consecutive day, with the pace of bombardment escalating in all areas of the Strip, particularly intensifying in the Jabalia camp in northern Gaza, on a night described as the most difficult since the beginning of the genocide, which has resulted in over 142,000 martyrs and injured, mostly women and children, since October 7, 2023.
Hezbollah drone hits Netanyahu’s home as rocket barrage pummels Haifa
The Cradle | October 19, 2024
A Hezbollah drone launched from Lebanon targeted the private home of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on 19 October, the prime minister’s office said.
Saudi news outlet Al-Hadath first reported the drone attack, which targeted Netanyahu’s residence in the coastal city of Caesarea, located 60km north of Tel Aviv, early on Saturday.
The prime minister and his wife were not present at the time of the attack, and no injuries were reported.
Caesarea resident Yaheli Karbi told Haaretz that she saw a helicopter flying above the area near the Prime Minister’s residence around 7:30 am.
“I saw [the helicopter] hovering over Bibi’s house,” she said. “I then saw the drone arrives and heard it hit. There was a very strong smell of smoke,” she added.
The Israeli military said Saturday morning that some 55 rockets were fired from Lebanon at northern Israel within an hour, causing sirens to be activated in several cities and towns across the Upper, Western, and Central Galilee areas.
Some of the rockets were intercepted, while others landed in open areas, the military stated.
A short time later, Israel targeted a vehicle traveling on the Jounieh highway just north of Beirut, killing two people and injuring two others.
It was the first such Israeli strike in the area since the start of the war.
On Friday, Hezbollah launched several attacks on Israeli military targets.
The Lebanese resistance movement announced it launched a barrage of precision-guided missiles targeting the Kiryat Eliezer air base, located west of Haifa.
It also launched a swarm of assault drones at the Ein Shemer base, a missile defense and regional brigade base located east of the city of Hadera.
Israel has intensified its attacks on Hezbollah targets and Lebanese civilians and civil defense workers across the country, including two large massacres earlier this week.
An Israeli airstrike on Wednesday killed the mayor of Nabatieh, one of the largest cities in southern Lebanon. He and 16 others were killed at the municipal headquarters while in a meeting to coordinate aid deliveries to residents and those displaced by war.
On Monday, an Israeli strike massacred at least 24 people from the same family, 12 women, ten men, and two children, in Aitou, a village in the mountainous Zgharta district in northern Lebanon.
The family had rented a home in the Christian-majority town after being displaced from their home in the south by Israeli bombing.
Palestine-Israel: what the last year has shown
By Viktor Mikhin – New Eastern Outlook – October 19, 2024
The level of calmness of the Palestinians has cast doubt on what once seemed like the predestined fate of the Palestinian struggle.
A year has passed since Netanyahu, who considered himself the dictator of the entire Middle East, began to destroy its peoples first in Gaza and then in Lebanon, engaging periodic murderous operations against Syria, Yemen and Iran. No one expected that one year would be sufficient in returning to the Palestinian cause its priority on the world stage and that millions of people globally would unite again in the struggle for Palestinian freedom.
The past year has seen the Israeli genocide in Gaza and unprecedented violence in the West Bank, as well as legendary displays of Palestinian ‘sumud’ (Arabic for ‘resilience’). It is not the scale of the Israeli bloodbath, but the degree of Palestinian resilience that has called into question what once seemed the predestined fate of the Palestinian struggle. However, it turned out that the last chapter on Palestine was not yet ready to be written and that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not be its author.
The ongoing war has exposed the limits of Israeli military capabilities. The typical policy of Israel’s relations with the occupied Palestinians was based on unhindered Israeli violence, unconditional Western assistance and the ’deafening silence’ of the international community. To a large extent, only Netanyahu determined the timing and objectives of the war. Until recently, his opponents seemed to have no say in the matter. This is, though, not the case anymore. Israel’s war crimes are now being met by Palestinian unity, Arab, Muslim and international solidarity and the first – and quite serious –signs of legal responsibility.
This is not likely what Netanyahu had hoped for. Just a few days before the aggression against Lebanon began, he stood in the UN General Assembly hall with a map of the ‘New Middle East’, a map on which Palestine and Palestinians were completely erased. “We should not give the Palestinians the right to veto new peace agreements with Arab states”, he said, “since Palestinians make up only 2% of the Arab world”. His arrogance was not long-lasting, as this ‘triumphant’ moment was brief.
Battered by numerous troubles inside and outside Israel and being unsuccessful in the war against the Arab world, Netanyahu is now most concerned about his own political survival. He is waging war to avoid humiliating his army in Gaza, and he is terrified by the prospect of an arrest warrant being issued by the International Criminal Court. While the International Court of Justice continues to examine the ever-growing dossier accusing Israel of deliberate genocide in the Gaza Strip, the UN General Assembly has decided that Israel must end its illegal occupation of Palestine within a year.
Netanyahu, who has worked tirelessly to normalise the Israeli occupation of Palestine, must be extremely disappointed that he has faced complete and deafening international rejection of his plans. The advisory opinion of the UN International Court of Justice, issued in July, stating that the Israeli occupation is illegal, was another blow to Tel Aviv, which, despite the unlimited support of the United States, could not change the international consensus on the illegality of the occupation.
What awaits the Palestinians?
In addition to relentless Israeli violence, the Palestinian people have also found themselves on the side-lines of political life. Since the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993, their fate has largely been entrusted to the generally unelected Palestinian leadership, which has over time monopolised the Palestinian cause for its own financial and political gain. The resilience of Palestinians in Gaza, who have endured a year of mass killings, deliberate starvation and the total destruction of all aspects of life, helps in confirming the political significance of the long-marginalised nation. This shift is fundamental, as it contradicts everything Netanyahu has tried to achieve. In the years leading up to the war, Israel seemed to be writing the final chapter of its colonial project on Palestine. It subdued or co-opted the Palestinian leadership, tightened the blockade of Gaza, and was ready to annex most of the West Bank.
Gaza was the least of Israel’s problems; any discussions about it were limited to the hermetic Israeli blockade and the humanitarian – but not political – crisis caused by it.
While the Palestinians in Gaza relentlessly called on the world to pressure Israel into ending the protracted siege that began in 2007, in the Gaza Strip Tel Aviv continued to pursue a policy in accordance with the infamous logic of former senior Israeli official Dov Waisglass, who explained the purpose of the blockade as putting the Palestinians on a diet, but not letting them starve to death.
But a year after the start of the war, the Palestinians, thanks to their resilience, have become the centre of any serious discussion about the peaceful future of the Middle East. The collective courage and strength of the Palestinians have neutralised the ability of the Israeli military to achieve political results through violence. However, the number of dead, missing or wounded in Gaza has likely already exceeded 150,000 people. The Gaza Strip, which was already poor and dilapidated, lies in ruins. All mosques, churches and hospitals have been destroyed or severely damaged. Most of the educational infrastructure has been destroyed. However, Israel has not achieved any of its strategic objectives, which ultimately fall under one goal: to permanently silence the Palestinians in their quest for freedom.
Despite the incredible pain and loss, there is now a powerful force uniting the Palestinians around achieving their freedom, also uniting Arabs and the whole world around Palestine. The consequences of this will last for many years, even after Netanyahu and like-minded extremists have left. Here a difficult question arises: in the future, how will the Israelis be able to peacefully coexist with the Palestinians, when, previously, the essence of the Israeli leadership’s policy was aimed at seizing the entirety of Palestine, killing or at least expelling the Palestinian people from their homeland?
Putin says Gaza war must end with establishment of Palestinian State
MEMO | October 18, 2024
Russian President, Vladimir Putin, said on Friday that the war in the Gaza Strip must end with the establishment of a “full-fledged” Palestinian State, urging the Middle East Quartet to be reactivated in order to resume mediation efforts in the region, Anadolu Agency reports.
“The primary solution to the Palestinian problem is the establishment of a fully-fledged Palestinian State. The Russian side has upheld this position since the Soviet era,” he remarked during a meeting with BRICS media managers in Moscow.
Putin stressed reactivating the Middle East Quartet, a group of international organisations that includes the UN, US, UN and Russia, to resume efforts to mediate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and initiate a peace process.
“It was a mistake by the US to disrupt the work of the Quartet […] It would have been easier to coordinate all the positions. The US took over, monopolised the peace efforts, assuming full responsibility and, in the end, it failed,” Putin said.
He stressed that Palestinians “will not leave” the Gaza Strip, warning that the region’s humanitarian crisis will only increase the number of those determined to “defend their interests”.
The upcoming BRICS summit in Kazan, from 22-24 October, will include discussions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as it remains a significant global issue, he added.
Israel dramatically escalated its massive bombing campaign across Lebanon against what it claims are Hezbollah targets since 23 September, killing at least 1,437 people, injuring over 4,123 others, and displacing more than 1.34 million people.
The aerial campaign is an escalation from a year of cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip. More than 42,400 people, most of them women and children, have been killed since the war began in the wake of Hamas’s 7 October, 2023 cross-border attack on Israel.
Israel further expanded the escalation, invading Lebanon on 1 October.
Palestinian Journalist Disabled After Direct Targeting by Israeli Forces in Gaza
IMEMC | October 18, 2024
Israeli sharpshooters shot and critically injured Al-Jazeera cameraman, Fadi Al-Wahidi, and injured another journalist, while two others were killed while they were covering occupation forces’ assault in and around the Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip on October 9, 2024.
The occupation army snipers targeted a group of journalists in the Jabalia refugee camp while they were performing their duties, shooting Al-Wahidi in the neck with live ammunition, causing permanent paralysis.
Al-Jazeera journalist, Anas al-Sharif posted on his X account that “Israeli forces shot at the Al Jazeera crew, and the network’s photographer, our beloved colleague Fadi al-Wahidi, was injured by a sniper’s bullet in the neck during our coverage.”
On the same day, Israeli forces killed the photojournalist, Mohammad Al-Tanani and the journalist, Omar al-Balawi after targeting a group of journalists documenting the occupation’s massacres in Jabalia.
Tamer Labad, Al-Aqsa TV journalist was also shot by Israeli fire during the same incident, while covering the bombardment and ground invasion of the Jabalia refugee camp.
Al-Jazeera, in a statement affirmed that the targeting of journalists is a violation of international laws protecting the press and humanitarian workers in war zones.
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From the Archives
The US-Iran Scenario That Most Scares Israel
By Ali Haydar | Al-Akhbar | October 9, 2013
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a series of threats toward Iran and its interlocutors in the West, including the US, as serious negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program seem more plausible.
As a possible rapprochement looms between the US and Iran, Netanyahu has attempted to impose impossible Israeli conditions on the negotiators, such as the full dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program, not to mention threatening military force.
Whatever the deal that could materialize between Iran and the West, Israel is going to find itself before an open-ended path. One can foresee three possible scenarios… continue
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