Dutch foreign minister steps down after failed push for sanctions against Israel
Press TV – August 23, 2025
Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp resigned on Friday, after he failed to secure cabinet support for new sanctions against the Israeli regime over its ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Veldkamp, a member of the centre-right New Social Contract party, had informed the country’s Parliament he intended to bring in new measures in response to Israel’s plans to escalate attacks on Gaza City and other heavily populated areas in the besieged territory.
But he said on Friday that he could not achieve agreement on “meaningful measures” and had repeatedly faced resistance from colleagues over sanctions already in place.
Among his proposals was a ban on imports from Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Veldkamp also revoked three export permits for navy ship components, warning of “deteriorating conditions” in Gaza and the “risk of undesirable end use.”
“I also see what is happening on the ground in Gaza, the attack on Gaza City, and what is happening in the West Bank, the building decision for the disputed settlement E1, and East Jerusalem,” Veldkamp told reporters.
His efforts also included imposing entry bans on hawkish Israeli ministers, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, citing their role in inciting settler violence against Palestinians.
His departure leaves the Netherlands without a foreign minister.
Following his resignation, all New Social Contract ministers and state secretaries confirmed their support for Veldkamp and resigned from the caretaker government in solidarity, prompting a political upheaval.
“In short, we are done with it,” party leader Eddy Van Hijum declared, calling Israel’s actions “diametrically opposed to international treaties.”
The Netherlands’ Parliament had repeatedly delayed a debate on sanctions against Israel, a discussion that was already postponed from Thursday, as the Friday afternoon Cabinet meeting dragged on.
“There is a famine, ethnic cleansing, and genocide going on,” said Kati Piri of the merged Green Left/Labor parties. “And our cabinet has been deliberating for hours about whether to take any action at all, shameful.”
Opposition lawmakers had already expressed frustration at the inaction against Israel, with some calling for a no-confidence vote for the minister.
The political crisis comes against the backdrop of an already unstable government. The ruling coalition had collapsed in June when anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders withdrew his support over an immigration dispute.
Since then, the three remaining parties have continued in a caretaker capacity until elections scheduled for October.
Humanitarian conditions in Gaza have sharply deteriorated. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) reported on Friday that “the Famine Review Committee (FRC) has determined that Famine (IPC Phase 5) is currently occurring in Gaza Governorate.”
The FRC further projected that famine thresholds “will be crossed in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis Governorates in the coming weeks.”
Since October 7, 2023, when the Israeli regime began its genocidal assault on Gaza, at least 271 people have died from hunger-related causes, including 112 children, the Gaza health ministry reports.
Was the Oct 7 attack a pre-emptive strike?
In incendiary leaked comments, the former head of Israel’s military intelligence disclosed plans to assassinate Hamas’ leadership and initiate war
By Max Blumenthal | The Grayzone | August 22, 2025
In comments leaked by Israel’s Channel 12 this August 16, the Israeli army’s former head of military intelligence, Aharon Haliva, called for a “new Nakba” against the Palestinians and declared, “50,000 dead in Gaza is necessary and required for future generations.”
“For everything that happened on October 7, he proclaimed, “for every person on October 7, 50 Palestinians need to die. It does not matter now if they are children.”
Haliva’s remarks offer further proof of Israel’s genocidal intent in Gaza, and provide fresh evidence in future prosecutions of the country’s military and political leadership for crimes against humanity.
While social media users reeled in horror at his fascistic rhetoric, few noticed a revelation by Haliva which should cast the Al Aqsa Flood operation on October 7 in an entirely new light.
According to Haliva, “After the holidays [in the Fall of 2022], we were opening a joint reorganization with [Israel’s General Security Services] Shin Bet to collect intelligence on [Al-Qassam Chief of Staff Mohammed] Deif and [Hamas Secretary Genera Yahya] Sinwar in order to kill them, because every time we prepared a plan, they moved, and you have to re-collect on them.”
In other words, Israel was planning to violate its ceasefire with Hamas and launch a major decapitation strike against its leading figures, much like the one it deployed against Iran’s military leadership this June 13, when it assassinated 8 major IRGC officials without provocation. The killings would have touched off a major war, but unlike after October 7, Hamas would have been left without any negotiating leverage, as it would have had no Israeli captives in its possession when hostilities began.
When seen in this light, Al Aqsa Flood was a preemptive strike. Sinwar and Deif almost certainly understood that Israel was plotting their assassinations as the opening blow of a punishing assault aimed at snuffing out Palestinian resistance in Gaza once. Deif had already survived four assassination attempts, losing his family, an eye and use of several limbs in the process. As Haliva acknowledged, he and Sinwar were constantly on the move to evade their would-be killers.
And so, as the sun rose on October 7, 2023, Hamas took the initiative, denying a far more powerful adversary the devastating opening move it had methodically planned.
The war on truth: Why are Palestinian journalists being systematically erased?
By Ramzy Baroud | MEMO | August 22, 2025
The killing of seven Palestinian journalists and media workers in Gaza on 10 August has prompted verbal condemnations, yet has inspired little to no substantive action. This has become the predictable and horrifying trajectory of the international community’s response to the ongoing Israeli genocide.
By eliminating Palestinian journalists like Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qraiqeh, Israel has made a sinister statement that the genocide will spare no one. According to the monitoring website Shireen.ps, Israel has killed nearly 270 journalists since October 2023.
More journalists are likely to die covering the genocide of their own people in Gaza, especially since Israel has manufactured a convenient and easily deployed narrative that every Gazan journalist is simply a “terrorist”. This is the same cruel logic offered by numerous Israeli officials in the past, including Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who declared that “an entire nation” in Gaza “is responsible” for not having rebelled against Hamas, effectively stating that there are no innocent people in Gaza.
This Israeli discourse, which dehumanises entire populations based on a vicious logic, is frequently repeated by officials who fear no accountability. Even Israeli diplomats, whose job in theory is to improve their country’s image internationally, frequently engage in this brutal ritual. In comments made in January 2024, Israeli ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, callously argued that “every school, every mosque, every second house has access to tunnels,” implying that all of Gaza is a valid military target.
This cruelty of language would be easily dismissed as mere rhetoric, except that Israel has, in fact, according to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reports, destroyed over 70 per cent of Gaza’s infrastructure.
While extremist language is often used by politicians around the world, it is rare for the extremism of the language to so precisely mirror the extremism of the action itself. This makes Israeli political discourse a uniquely dangerous phenomenon.
There can be no military justification for the wholesale annihilation of an entire region. Yet again, the Israelis are not shying away from providing the political discourse that explains this unprecedented destruction. Former Knesset member Moshe Feiglin chillingly said, last May, that “Every child, every baby in Gaza is an enemy… not a single Gazan child will be left there.”
But for the systematic destruction of a whole nation to succeed, it must include the deliberate targeting of its scientists, doctors, intellectuals, journalists, artists and poets. While children and women remain the largest categories of victims, many of those killed in deliberate assassinations appear to be targeted specifically to disorient Palestinian society, deprive it of societal leadership, and render the process of rebuilding Gaza impossible.
These figures powerfully illustrate this point: according to a report released by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, based on the latest satellite damage assessment conducted in July, 97 per cent of Gaza’s educational facilities have been affected, with 91 per cent in need of major repairs or full reconstruction. Additionally, hundreds of teachers and thousands of students have been killed.
But why is Israel so intent on killing those responsible for intellectual production? The answer is twofold: one unique to Gaza, and the other unique to the nature of Israel’s founding ideology, Zionism.
First, regarding Gaza: Since the Nakba in 1948, Palestinian society in Gaza has invested heavily in education, seeing it as a crucial tool for liberation and self-determination. Early footage shows classrooms being held in tents and open spaces, a testament to this community’s tenacious pursuit of knowledge. This focus on education transformed the Strip into a regional hub for intellectual and cultural production, despite poorly funded UNRWA schools. Israel’s campaign of destruction is a deliberate attempt to erase this generational achievement, a practice known as scholasticide, and Gaza is the most deliberate example of this horrific act.
Second, regarding Zionism: For many years, we were led to believe that Zionism was winning the intellectual war due to the cleverness and refinement of Israeli propaganda, or hasbara. The prevailing narrative, particularly in the Arab world, was that Palestinians and Arabs were simply no match for the savvy Israeli and pro-Israeli public relations machine in Western media. This created a sense of intellectual inferiority, masking the true reason for the imbalance.
Israel was able to “win” in mainstream media discourse due to the intentional marginalisation and demonization of Palestinian and pro-Palestinian voices. The latter had no chance of fighting back simply because they were not allowed to, and were instead labeled as “terrorist sympathizers” and the like. Even the late, world-renowned Palestinian scholar Edward Said was called a “Nazi” by the extremist, now-banned Jewish Defense League, who went so far as to set the beloved professor’s university office on fire.
Gaza, however, represented a major problem. With foreign media forbidden from operating in the Strip per Israeli orders, the Gazan intellectual rose to the occasion and, in the course of two years, managed to reverse most of Zionism’s gains over the past century. This forced Israel into a desperate race against time to remove as many Palestinian journalists, intellectuals, academics, and even social media influencers from the scene as quickly as possible—thus, the war on the Palestinian thinker.
The Israeli logic, however, is destined to fail, as ideas are not tied to specific individuals, and resilience and resistance are a culture, not a job title. Gaza shall once more emerge, not only as the culturally thriving place it has always been, but as the cornerstone of a new liberation discourse that is set to inspire the globe regarding the power of intellect to stand firm, to fight for what is right, and to live with purpose for a higher cause.
Euro-Med: Israel’s killing of Gaza farmers reflects a systematic pattern to enforce starvation
Palestinian Information Center – August 22, 2025
GAZA – The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor (Euro-Med) condemned Israel’s deliberate killing of five farmers in Khan Yunis, saying the act is part of a “repeated and systematic approach” aimed at eradicating Gaza’s local food production and enforcing starvation as a weapon in the ongoing genocide, now in its 23rd month.
In a statement released Friday, Euro-Med’s field team documented how at approximately 9:00 AM on Thursday, August 21, 2025, at least one Israeli drone-launched missile targeted five farmers from the same family, Suleiman and Mohammed Jamal Darwish al-Astal, Musa Abdullah al-Astal, Mahmoud Naif Mustafa al-Astal, and Mohammed Marwan Ahmed al-Astal, while they were working their land east of Asdaa Prison, west of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza.
Euro-Med highlighted that the killings coincide with an official declaration by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) that famine conditions have been formally recognized in Gaza for the first time. The IPC warned that after 22 months of conflict, over half a million Gazans face “catastrophic circumstances marked by hunger, severe poverty, and death,” and that famine could spread to Deir al-Balah and Khan Yunis by the end of September.
These deaths are not isolated incidents, according to Euro-Med: Israeli occupation forces have killed or wounded hundreds of farmers and continued to destroy hundreds of thousands of dunums of agricultural land, over 93% of Gaza’s approximately 178,000 dunums.
Euro-Med underscored that these actions are carried out under the cover of an ongoing blockade, with major obstructions to aid convoys and deliberate security restrictions that prevent full and equitable aid access to hundreds of thousands of displaced people.
The Monitor emphasized that using starvation as a method of warfare is explicitly prohibited under international humanitarian law. Targeting the food supply, destroying agricultural infrastructure, and depriving civilians of essential means of survival constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, as defined by international law. The deliberate deprivation of food, considered a primary means of civilian survival, also amounts to genocide.
Euro-Med urged the international community to take immediate and decisive action: open humanitarian corridors, lift the siege, and enable delivery of essential food and non-food supplies to Gaza. The group also called for accountability mechanisms to prosecute those responsible, including issuing and enforcing arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court against Israeli leaders and imposing economic, diplomatic, and military sanctions on Israel to halt its crimes.
Trump administration sued to disclose funding for controversial Gaza aid group
Press TV – August 21, 2025
An American legal advocacy organization has filed a lawsuit to seek the source of funding for the controversial US and Israeli-backed group delivering aid in the Gaza Strip.
The US-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a so-called humanitarian group set up to cater to the needs of the Palestinian people, has cost the lives of hundreds of Gazans, already ravaged by famine and genocide.
International aid experts have described GHF’s distribution points as “death traps, criticizing the relief group’s work model as “an insult to the humanitarian enterprise and standards.”
GHF spokesperson Chapin Fay told Channel 4 of the UK last week that Western European countries funded GHF, but that he would not reveal which countries did it.
On Wednesday, the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed a lawsuit to seek the source of GHF’s funding and its initial tens of millions of dollars paid as salaries and the travel expenses to its aid workers, who have been described as “mercenaries.”
The CCR was investigating the legality of GHF’s charter and demanding that its financial records be revealed under the Freedom of Information Act.
In its lawsuit, the CCR requested that Delaware’s Attorney General Kathy Jennings “investigate GHF and revoke its charter on grounds that it is illegally abusing its privileges with its complicity in war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.”
The New York-based firm said it filed its lawsuit against the Donald Trump administration for its failure to comply with its request.
The CCR said it aims to follow the money to find who is funding the failed aid operation.
“Today’s lawsuit seeks records that could shed light on not only the decision-making process… but also on the creation of GHF, its funding and how it plans to use” a US government grant, the CCR said.
“The Center for Constitutional Rights is particularly interested in information that could reveal whether the administration’s distribution of funds has any link to President Trump’s ‘Gaza Riviera’ plan, which would cleanse the area of Palestinians and redevelop it for investors,” the statement said.
Since GHF began its relief operations in southern Gaza in May, which have left over 1,000 Palestinians seeking food aid dead at its four distribution points across Gaza, its funding sources have been a secret.
US military contractors who staff GHF have also been seen in videos shooting at aid seekers – something former US special forces soldier Anthony Aguilar confirmed after leaving the organization.
“GHF, far from alleviating suffering in Gaza, is contributing to the forced displacement, killing and furtherance of genocide of Palestinians,” the CCR said.
GHF food aid distribution points “have become synonymous with scenes of chaos and carnage,” it added.
Meanwhile, human rights experts familiar with the matter say the word “humanitarian” in the title of the organization only serves to “add to Israel’s humanitarian camouflage.”
“Without clear accountability, the very idea of humanitarian relief may ultimately become a casualty of modern hybrid warfare,” they warned.
Analysts say the United States and the Israeli regime created GHF to bypass the United Nations’ central role in aid distribution in Gaza.
The UN has refused to cooperate with the US-Israeli program, calling it a militarized aid model that would result in the displacement of the Gaza people.
Since the Israeli regime launched its genocidal war in Gaza in October 2023, most of the population has been forced to relocate, some of them several times.
More than 62,122 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, have been killed during this time, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
London closing in on $2.7bn contract with Israeli firm to train 60,000 British troops per year
The Cradle | August 21, 2025
The British Ministry of Defence (MoD) is preparing to sign a $2.7-billion contract with Elbit Systems – Israel’s largest arms manufacturer – that would see the company train 60,000 British troops each year and be designated a “strategic partner,” according to a report by Private Eye.
The British branch of Elbit is competing against US firm Raytheon for the Army Collective Training Service contract. In February, the MoD reduced the shortlist to the two bidders.
If the contract is granted, Elbit would oversee a sweeping overhaul of British army instruction “through digitalisation, simulation, a different relationship with industry, and by changing how and where the military trains.”
This prospective contract follows revelations earlier this month that Elbit signed a $1.64-billion arms deal with Serbia to supply long-range precision rockets and other military systems.
Last month, Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for Palestine, said that “for Israeli companies such as Elbit Systems … the ongoing genocide has been a profitable venture.”
Elbit supplies around 85 percent of Israel’s drones and ground-based hardware, directly fueling its war on Gaza.
Since 2023, Elbit’s British arm has managed the MoD’s Project Vulcan, a £57-million (around $74.1 million) program providing simulation-based training for tank crews. The new $2.7-billion agreement would mark a major escalation of that relationship.
In September, the government suspended 30 of 350 arms export licences to Israel after a review found a clear risk of British-made components being used in violations of humanitarian law.
However, export permits for F-35 parts, which are deployed directly in Gaza, were exempt from the freeze.
Private Eye said it asked the MoD whether it considered it appropriate to hand such a contract to a company so deeply involved in the Gaza war, but the ministry did not reply.
Elbit subsidiaries in the UK have been the main target of Palestine Action, which the government banned last month as a terrorist group.
US expands sanctions against ICC
RT | August 21, 2025
The US has imposed sanctions on two judges and two prosecutors of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for their role in pursuing cases against American soldiers and Israeli officials.
According to a State Department statement on Wednesday, Judge Kimberly Prost was blacklisted for approving The Hague-based court’s investigation into the conduct of US troops in Afghanistan.
Judge Nicolas Yann Guillou was sanctioned for issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes in Gaza. In addition, deputy prosecutors Nazhat Shameem Khan and Mame Mandiaye Niang were blacklisted for upholding the warrants. Neither the US nor Israel is a party to the ICC.
The ICC rejected the designations as “a flagrant attack against the independence of an impartial judicial institution, which operates under a mandate from 125 States Parties from all regions.”
US President Donald Trump imposed his first sanctions on the ICC in February, accusing the court of “illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel.” Netanyahu similarly denounced the arrest warrants, calling the ruling “anti-Semitic.”
In 2024, the ICC placed Netanyahu and Gallant on its wanted list after finding “reasonable grounds” that Israel had denied humanitarian aid into Gaza, where more than 60,000 people have been killed since 2023.
Netanyahu rejects Gaza deal, reviews plans to occupy Gaza City instead
Al Mayadeen | August 20, 2025
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided not to respond to the proposal recently approved by Hamas, despite efforts by mediators to push forward a deal.
US envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, has also distanced himself from the formula he initially supported, with reports noting that he no longer trusts the mediators.
Despite endless Israeli claims that Hamas was being unreasonable and not flexible throughout previous negotiation rounds, the Palestinian Resistance in Gaza had already agreed to the new proposal, which is nearly identical to the Witkoff paper previously proposed.
On Monday, Hamas and other Palestinian factions announced their approval of the proposal put forward by mediators from Egypt and Qatar.
Netanyahu to review new genocide phase
Instead of adhering to the demands of his people, who have been protesting against the resumption of the war in Gaza, Netanyahu is expected to arrive at the Southern Command on Thursday to approve military plans to occupy Gaza City.
“Negotiations will be held under heavy fire, and everything depends on reaching an agreement,” Israeli media said.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military spokesperson for the occupation army confirmed on Wednesday evening the launch of the second phase of “Operation Gideon’s Chariots (B)” aimed at occupying Gaza City.
According to the military spokesperson, the 162nd Division has begun operations from Jabalia in the northwest as part of a broader plan to tighten the siege on the city. The statement said the campaign may take an extended period, but could also be halted depending on political directives. It added that the maneuvers are being carried out by conscript units supported by 133,000 reserve soldiers.
At the same time, occupation authorities issued a statement to the settlers of the Gaza Envelope warning of the possibility of hearing heavy explosions and artillery fire “from now on.”
The operation is widely viewed as part of the broader ethnic cleansing plan against Gaza’s population, aiming to depopulate the city through siege, destruction, and forced displacement under the guise of military maneuvers.
Armed Settler Militia Terrorizes Ibziq, Assaults ISM Volunteers
International Solidarity Movement | August 18, 2025
On the night of August 11th, two ISM volunteers were assaulted, beaten, and robbed by a mob of at least eight armed settlers dressed in full military-style uniforms in the rural shepherding village of Ibziq. The volunteers were engaged in protective presence, which includes documenting illegal intrusions into Palestinian communities and recording and opposing intimidation, threats, and attacks led by Zionist militias against Palestinians across the Jordan Valley.
The settler militia entered the remote village around 7PM in dune buggy-style military vehicles, wearing helmets and balaclavas, and carrying assault rifles. The militia canvassed the village for over an hour, trespassing into community school grounds and upon critical water infrastructure before moving on to block Palestinian traffic and terrorize local residents with threats of arson and theft.
When the settler militia directly entered a Palestinian family’s home, the ISM volunteers—both U.S. citizens, one residing in Jerusalem and the other in Liverpool, UK—intervened by approaching the settlers and stating the militia were illegally encroaching upon Palestinian lands, violating the human rights of Palestinians, and contravening international law.
Although the volunteers had their hands up to indicate that they were unarmed and nonviolent, the militia members pinned one ISM volunteer to the ground and he was repeatedly beaten. Amidst the thrashing, settlers also kicked sand and dirt into the volunteer’s face and eyes multiple times. When the second volunteer began filming, several members of the settler militia turned their rifles on him.
The ISM volunteer recording was held at gunpoint, ordered to his knees, and told he would be shot if he did not obey commands. The militia deliberately aimed laser targeting sights at the volunteer’s genitals, before physically forcing him to the ground and wrenching his arm wrenched behind his back. While held at gunpoint, he was elbowed in the back of the head after his phone was stolen.
Before leaving, the settler militia issued a final direct threat to the Palestinian family, shouting that the village would be attacked and burned down if they did not leave. According to one member of the family, the settlers “threatened to burn us alive.” Both volunteers were evacuated by a Red Crescent ambulance and treated at a nearby hospital in Tubas. Each were later released in stable condition and subsequently returned to Ibziq to resume on-the-ground protective presence with ISM.
According to the local community, the attack was perpetrated by a settler militia rather than active-duty military. However, these settler militias operate alongside and as part of the army, particularly when settlers are in uniform wielding the power and mandate of the state. In Ibziq, the active duty military has also collaborated with settlers on a number of attacks over the last month.
Notably, this assault is part of a broader wave of settler colonial violence and militia aggression sweeping across the occupied West Bank. At present, Palestinian and Bedouin communities are being systematically harassed, attacked, arrested, displaced, and murdered. Settler militia operatives are operating with the full knowledge—and support and protection—of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) and Zionist apartheid regime. In many cases, including this one, settler militia are both afforded impunity and indistinguishable from official IOF soldiers and army units. They are given military vehicles, surveillance equipment, and weapons to collectively intimidate, terrorize, and dispossess Palestinian communities.
Markedly, this is neither an isolated case nor a recent phenomena. The occupied West Bank is however seeing a sharp escalation in racialized hostilities and frontier violence, where armed settlers, emboldened by Israeli policy and army support, are carrying out coordinated attacks on Palestinian life and land. Bedouin communities in particular face systemic racism, militarized demolitions, nighttime raids, and arson attacks, which are all part of a settler colonial project aimed at annexation and the elimination of Palestinian heritage, history, and presence.
ISM calls on international media, human rights organizations, and members of civil society to publicly denounce and take concrete action against the violence and crimes against humanity being committed by the Israeli apartheid regime. The settler militia attack in Ibziq is but one of countless examples of how Palestinian civilians and entire villages continue to be subjected to an illegal occupation, systemic terror, compounding trauma, and an intensifying colonial war that is being waged by the Zionist movement.
Britain: From arms supplier to accomplice in war crimes
By Adnan Hmidan | MEMO | August 18, 2025
When we speak of the devastation in Gaza, the blame does not rest solely on the generals and politicians of the occupying power. The tragedy is sustained by the international system that arms, trains and protects it. And Britain, far from being a neutral observer, is among the most significant enablers of this machinery of destruction.
For more than 22 months, the Gaza Strip has been subjected not to war, but to genocide. Entire families have been wiped out, refugee camps turned into mass graves, and civilian infrastructure systematically destroyed. The International Court of Justice has already confirmed that there is a “plausible risk of genocide” — yet Western governments continue to provide weapons, surveillance systems and diplomatic cover.
Britain’s historic and present responsibility
Britain’s complicity is not new. From the Balfour Declaration in 1917, which laid the foundations for the settler-colonial project, to today’s arms shipments and political protection, the United Kingdom has been central to the dispossession of Palestinians. The government in London cannot claim ignorance: under international law, providing material support to a state committing war crimes or genocide makes the supplier complicit in those crimes.
This is not about maintaining a “strategic ally.” It is about directly enabling bombardment, mass displacement and collective punishment of two million besieged Palestinians.
Evidence of involvement
The evidence is clear and overwhelming:
- Data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) shows that the UK exported key components for F-35 fighter jets — including radar and targeting systems — worth over £17 million in 2023 alone.
- Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) estimates that British-made parts account for around 15 per cent of every F-35 jet currently bombing Gaza.
- Even after the UK government announced in September 2024 that it was suspending 30 export licenses, human rights groups documented new shipments, including more than 8,600 rounds of ammunition and 150,000 bullets in the following months.
- Palestinian and international human rights organisations brought a case before the UK High Court, arguing that such exports breach international law. Yet in June 2025, the court dismissed the case, claiming that arms licensing falls outside judicial review — effectively granting the government a free hand in supplying a military accused of genocide.
Such facts leave little room for ambiguity. Britain is not merely arming a strategic partner; it is aiding and abetting grave breaches of international humanitarian law.
Silencing solidarity
The British government has also moved to suppress those who expose this complicity. Campaign groups such as “Pal Action” have been targeted with bans, activists have been arrested, and even banners confiscated. But repression cannot erase reality. The blood of civilians testifies to the fact that this is not a conflict between equals, but a massacre sustained by Western capitals.
A moral and legal imperative
As Palestinians living in the UK, we speak not only with the voice of memory and history, but also with the authority of law and morality. International law is explicit: states that knowingly provide weapons used in the commission of genocide share responsibility for that crime. Silence, therefore, is not neutrality. It is complicity.
Britain’s record will be judged harshly. Just as the Balfour Declaration is remembered as a colonial betrayal, today’s arms exports will be recorded as enabling one of the most documented genocides of the modern era.
The call to conscience
Yet Britain is also home to countless free voices: campaigners, lawyers, journalists and politicians who understand that what is unfolding in Gaza is not distant, but deeply tied to Britain’s own decisions. They know that complicity today will stain this country for decades to come.
The choice before Britain is stark: continue to arm and shield a regime accused of genocide, or align with international law and the universal values it claims to uphold.
Until justice prevails
Our struggle is not simply to lift a siege, but to end decades of settler-colonialism and military occupation. Freedom will not be gifted; it will be won. And as Palestinians, in Gaza, across the diaspora, and here in Britain, we carry the same message passed down from one generation to the next: never accept injustice, and never let the flag of freedom fall.
READ ALSO: US-based contractor hired by UK to continue spy flights over Gaza
Israel dangles aid for South Sudan amid reports of Gaza expulsion talks
The Cradle | August 18, 2025
Israel’s Foreign Ministry announced on 18 August that it plans to provide “urgent” humanitarian assistance to South Sudan, following recent reports that Tel Aviv was engaged in efforts to expel Palestinians from Gaza to the east African nation.
Israel’s Agency for International Development Coordination “will provide urgent humanitarian assistance to vulnerable populations in the country” due to “the severe humanitarian crisis in South Sudan,” the Foreign Ministry said.
The aid will include medical supplies, water purification supplies, gloves and face masks, special hygiene kits, and food packages.
This comes as a cholera outbreak is plaguing the country, which “suffers from a severe shortage of resources,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry added.
IsraAID, an Israeli NGO operating in South Sudan, will also assist in the aid plan, the Foreign Ministry went on to say.
The visit comes as Israel is preparing to occupy Gaza City and forcibly displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he is committed to implementing an expulsion plan announced by US President Donald Trump at the start of the year, framed as a humanitarian initiative to “relocate” Palestinians to a safer place.
Trump said he would make Gaza the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
Israel and the US have reportedly been in contact with several countries as part of the effort to expel Gaza’s population.
Last week, several sources cited by AP said Israel is in talks with South Sudan about the potential relocation of Palestinians from Gaza to the East African country.
The sources said it is unclear how far the negotiations have advanced.
Following the report, South Sudan’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement on 13 August denying that it is engaged in negotiations with Israel to take Palestinians from Gaza, rejecting such claims as unfounded and not representative of the government’s position.
In February, Hebrew news outlet Channel 12 reported that Morocco, the Puntland State of Somalia, and the Republic of Somaliland are being considered as places to relocate Palestinians as part of Trump’s controversial plan.
Somalia and Somaliland denied these reports earlier this year – saying they received no such proposals.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, Israel has identified six countries to negotiate with regarding relocating Gaza residents, including Syria, Libya, Somaliland, and South Sudan. The report says the efforts are not going well, and that previous talks on the matter “didn’t make much progress.”
Syria and Libya have not responded to requests for comment.
Sources who spoke with NBC News earlier this year had said Trump is working on a plan to “permanently relocate” as many as one million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Libya.
Hamas agrees to Gaza ceasefire proposal presented by mediators
Palestinian Information Center – August 18, 2025
GAZA – An official Hamas source said on Monday that the Movement delivered a positive response to an Egyptian-Qatari proposal for a 60-day ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
An informed Palestinian official also said, on condition of anonymity, that the proposal forms a framework for indirect negotiations over a permanent ceasefire between Hamas and Israel.
The response came after internal consultations held by Hamas with major Palestinian factions.
The source did not reveal details of the proposal, but other informed Palestinian sources reported that the proposal stipulates a prisoner exchange deal that includes the release of 10 living Israeli captives and 18 bodies in exchange for the release of 140 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences and 60 others serving sentences of more than 15 years, as well as 1,500 from Gaza.
The sources explained that the new Egyptian-Qatari proposal includes a modification to the Israeli withdrawal lines from the Gaza Strip during the 60-day truce period, limiting them to a distance of 800 meters along the eastern, northern, and southern borders of the coastal enclave.
According to the proposal, discussions on a comprehensive agreement or permanent ceasefire will begin immediately once this truce takes effect
The proposal also includes the entry of urgent humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip immediately after the agreement enters into force, including fuel and water, and stipulates the rehabilitation of hospitals and bakeries, and the provision of rescue teams with rubble removal equipment.
The UN and its agencies, along with the Red Crescent and international organizations operating in the Gaza Strip, should be responsible for aid distribution.
Over the past two years, the Hamas leadership has accepted proposals for a ceasefire and the release of Israeli captives and Palestinian prisoners only for Israel to reject them and insist on continuing the war.
The major sticking point has been the duration of the ceasefire. Hamas wants a permanent end to the war, but Israel has been seeking a temporary truce that would allow it to resume its genocide and its destruction and displacement campaign in Gaza after its captives in the territory are released.
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A superpower and “the world’s sickest warrior state”
By Paul J. Balles | March 8, 2010
Living through five or six major wars has hardened me to what I thought were the extremes of inhuman cruelty and brutality.
Two things made those extremes almost bearable: the brutality always revealed – at least according to the media coverage – the viciousness of the enemy. It was therefore quite understandable when our “brave men and women” pulverized the enemy.
Films of Japanese torturing captive Americans somehow justified holding Japanese Americans in internment camps during World War II; and only a small percentage of Americans found the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki unreasonably vengeful at best, at worst, depraved.
The media giants in America portrayed the North Koreans as barbaric beasts with their captives, quite unlike their southern counterpoints – our allies during the Korean War. No one ever felt the need to explain how the South Koreans were a civilized breed while the North Koreans were absolute savages, at least according to the official line.
In Vietnam, our warriors justifiably (or so the media made us believe) dropped napalm on the North Vietnamese who had the gall to hide in villages and tunnels to ravage our invaders. At least it was accepted practice until some rogue photojournalist filmed a young girl screaming down a Vietnamese road in flames. … continue
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