Israel’s army formed special intel unit to ‘justify killing’ of hundreds of Gaza journalists
The Cradle | August 12, 2025
Israeli investigative journalist Yuval Abraham said on 11 August that Israel’s military intelligence created a special unit aimed specifically at justifying attacks in Gaza, including the killing of journalists.
His comments came after an Israeli strike assassinated Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif and the outlet’s entire Gaza City crew.
“After 7 October, a team called the ‘Legitimization Cell’ was established in AMAN,” Abraham said, referring to the Israeli military intelligence directorate, which includes Unit 8200.
“Intelligence personnel searched for information to provide ‘legitimization’ for the army’s actions in Gaza, failed Hamas launches, use of human shields, exploitation of the civilian population. A primary mission … was to find Gazan journalists who could be portrayed in the media as Hamas operatives in disguise,” the journalist added.
Abraham confirmed that the goal was to “whitewash the killing of all other journalists” by creating doubt, adding that “entire days were invested in this matter, and they found nothing.”
“I think Israel killed Anas al-Sharif simply because he was a journalist. And for the same reason, international media is prevented from entering Gaza: So that the crimes are seen less,” he went on to say.
Sharif and five other journalists in Al Jazeera’s Gaza City crew were killed on 10 August in an Israeli airstrike on their media tent at Al-Shifa Hospital.
The assassinations brought the number of Palestinian journalists killed by Israel since the start of the war up to 238.
Sharif had been covering Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza since it started in October 2023. Israel accused him of being a Hamas operative responsible for rocket attacks.
In October last year, Israel published documents which it claimed were proof of Sharif’s affiliation with Hamas’s Qassam Brigades and its East Jabalia battalion.
The documents also listed Hossam Shabat, an Al Jazeera reporter accused of Hamas ties, who was killed in an Israeli strike in March.
Last month, Sharif warned that the Israeli army “has launched a campaign of threats and incitement against me because of my work as a journalist with Al Jazeera,” adding, “I, Anas al-Sharif, am a journalist with no political affiliations. My only mission is to report the truth from the ground – as it is, without bias. At a time when a deadly famine is ravaging Gaza, speaking the truth has become, in the eyes of the occupation, a threat.”
Fanatical Zionists Have No Bottom
By Brad Pearce | The Libertarian Institute | August 11, 2025
We’re reaching the point in Israel’s Gaza genocide where “everyone was always against this.” Now that starvation may be irreversible in much of the population, more and more voices which have denied genocide for almost two years are, in some form or another, speaking out—including France and Britain saying they will recognize a Palestinian state if the situation doesn’t improve.
However, the most fanatical of the Zionists continue to deny that starvation exists in Gaza at all and even say bizarre things such as the starving children in Gaza really have congenital disorders (who are going untreated because Israel has bombed all of the hospitals and prevented the entry of medication or sanitary products). This isn’t just random Twitter accounts; the official account of Israel “fact-checked” a claim of a forty-one year-old man dying of starvation by saying he actually died of untreated diabetes (they blocked insulin from entering and the condition can also be caused by starvation). They are giving the facts we see with our own eyes the vicious and tired name of “blood libel.” Israel’s strongest supporters—many of them Christian Zionists who have no actual connection to Israel or Judaism besides their deranged theology—have embraced pure evil and feel no shame expressing this for the entire world to see.
From the start, Israel’s shills—or “Hasbarists” as they are commonly known, from the Hebrew word for “public diplomacy”—have been sharing craven propaganda making wild claims about mutilation and unproven sexual assault on October 7. They claim the United Nations refugee organization is Hamas, and that Gaza is actually wealthy and Palestinians are the most pampered people on Earth. Despite a stream of incredible journalism from within Israel itself, showing that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) did order a Hannibal Directive and kill unknown numbers of Israelis on 10/7, the Hasbarists stuck closely to their narrative, never letting contradictions or decency get in their way. For a time they did well sticking to a simple argument of, “Hamas is Israel’s enemy and some civilian deaths are inevitable in war.” However, it has become impossible to credibly deny that Israel is pursuing exterminationist goals.
A big turn in public opinion in the West came when an Israeli airstrike hit the only Catholic Church in Gaza. By the standards of Israel’s crimes this is quite minor, but of course Catholics have a very strong global advocate in the Pope. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged Israel’s fault and apologized, and the matter soon could have been forgotten. However, once again, the most shameless of the Hasbarists could not drop it, and claimed the Vatican was spreading Hamas propaganda, despite Netanyahu’s apology. Joel Berry, the craven editor of the Babylon Bee, claimed on Twitter that there are only two hundred Catholics in Gaza and they all support Hamas. The deranged Christian Zionist pastor Greg Locke went as far as to tell his more than 200,000 followers that “Hamas and the Vatican are in bed together” for the purpose of separating Israel and “Biblical” Christians. Between the airstrike and the rhetoric, many more American conservatives came around to demanding some degree of sanity and restraint from Israel and its supporters, with the tepid view that Israel has made the situation in Gaza too bad for too long.
What has set the worst Zionist fanatics off the most, as well as their collapsing support, is the imminent mass starvation, which famine expert Alex de Waal has described as “minutely engineered.” That the starvation in Gaza isn’t deliberate but is an unfortunate consequence of warfare making food delivery unsafe would be a passable lie (besides that Israel keeps killing aid-seekers), but many are going with the claim that starvation isn’t real. One Twitter user thought it would be funny to post a picture of Stephen Hawking and say it was a Palestinian child, because this is a joke to them. Meanwhile, following the recent mass shooting in New York—which strangely enough may have been over football concussions but was initially blamed on Palestine activism—Laura Loomer tweeted:
Her follower isn’t hedging his satement with “Hamas,” but outright says it’s a sign of mental illness to “humanize” Palestinians, who are human. De-humanization has always been a key part of genocidal propaganda.
It’s perplexing that Israel’s propagandists have become so unhinged, to the extent that one wonders who they are even speaking to. The “West” has at once turned, if not against Israel, against its current actions. Silence would be better than bad propaganda at this point, and they seem to be primarily reassuring each other while presenting enormous amount of evidence that they are genocidal maniacs. However, on an episode of the popular podcast Radio War Nerd in June, the hosts interviewed the Israeli Ori Goldberg about the situation in the country, and he shared a different view: committing genocide makes you stupid. According to Goldberg, taking part in or accepting genocide requires such strict black and white thinking that one loses the ability to rationally assess any information, and this spreads to all areas of life, making Israel currently a nation of zombies. This goes far towards explaining why the Hasbarists are endlessly making painfully stupid and unconvincing arguments where silence would serve them better.
Israel’s genocide in Gaza is the greatest crime of the twenty-first century. It is a closely planned and conducted on an industrial scale. It has already reached the point of no-return for many Gazans who cannot be re-fed without close medical care that it is not possible to provide at this scale. Meanwhile, as the first genocide of the modern social media age where both the victims and perpetrators have smart phones, we are witnessing this first hand in a way that was previously unimaginable. We can see the courage and dignity of the Palestinians as they are being slaughtered and the shameless depravity of the Zionist fanatics who support exterminationist policies. Israel’s genocide in Gaza is pure evil, and its remaining supporters do not consider this a “painful necessity” to protect their people, but are instead gleeful to be a part of it: their only annoyance is that so many others refuse to share in their crimes.
Germany’s leading newspaper calls murdered Al Jazeera reporter ‘terrorist posing as journalist’
The Cradle | August 11, 2025
German newspaper Bild has parroted the Israeli army’s claims that slain Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif was “terrorist disguised as a journalist,” hours after the prominent reporter was targeted and killed in a strike on Gaza City.
Bild is Germany’s highest-circulation newspaper. It had approximately 6.93 million readers per issue in 2023 – and sells around 1.02 million copies a day.
The article cited documents published by Israel claiming Sharif was a member of the Qassam Brigades’ Jabalia battalion.
“The IDF attacked terrorist Anas al-Sharif in the Gaza City area. The terrorist was operating under the guise of an Al Jazeera journalist. The terrorist Anas al-Sharif served as a cell leader in Hamas and promoted rocket fire against citizens of the State of Israel and IDF,” the Israeli army said.
The army points to previously published, unverified documents, including salary documentations, personnel spreadsheets, and a list of training courses, which it says “unequivocally” prove Sharif’s involvement with Hamas.
The documents claim Sharif was recruited into Hamas at the age of 17, despite membership in the group officially requiring a minimum age of 18 years.
Another inconsistency is that joining the Qassam Brigades takes years of training.
Sharif had been covering Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza since it started in October 2023. He was given the 2024 Human Rights Defender award by Amnesty International Australia for his coverage.
Tel Aviv had been inciting against him for months.
A headline by The Telegraph on Monday also referred to Sharif as a “journalist accused of leading a Hamas terror cell.” Israeli news site i24’s headline called him a “Hamas-affiliated Al Jazeera journalist” who was “eliminated.”
The documents cited by Israel also listed Hosam Shabat, an Al Jazeera reporter accused of Hamas ties, who was killed in an Israeli strike in March.
Several other journalists are listed as either members of Hamas or the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement.
“I, Anas al-Sharif, am a journalist with no political affiliations. My only mission is to report the truth from the ground – as it is, without bias. At a time when a deadly famine is ravaging Gaza, speaking the truth has become, in the eyes of the occupation, a threat,” Sharif wrote weeks before his assassination.
Since the start of the war, 238 Palestinian journalists have been targeted and killed by the Israeli army.
‘Heartbreaking’: UK paramedic recounts horrors inside Gaza hospitals
Press TV – August 10, 2025
A British paramedic has described “heartbreaking” scenes inside Gaza’s overwhelmed hospitals, where children arrive with life-threatening injuries and entire families are wiped out by Israel’s genocidal war.
Sam Sears, who spent three weeks in Gaza with the UK-based medical charity UK-Med, said the field hospitals were a “conveyor belt of carnage,” packed with patients suffering blast, shrapnel, and gunshot wounds.
Just a few days into his deployment, Sears was sent into a mass casualty incident where two children, aged nine and 11, were killed from blast injuries.
“It was particularly heartbreaking putting a child in a body bag, seeing their face for the last time, then moving them out [of] the way so we could treat more people,” said Sears.
The veteran medic — who has served in Ukraine, Rwanda, Turkey, and Sierra Leone — said Gaza was far worse than anything he had experienced before.
He treated children who had lost entire families, teenagers with life-changing wounds, and newborns suffering severe malnutrition.
He recalled one boy, about eight years old, who was “lifeless behind the eyes” after an explosion killed his whole family.
Sears returned to the UK on July 31 but said the images of Gaza’s children will haunt him forever.
“The people of Gaza don’t get to leave,” he said. “They have no escape from the hunger, the fear, the trauma. They need more than our sympathy — they need our action.”
He called for a sustained ceasefire, not a fragile truce, to end Israel’s hostilities permanently, protect civilians and health workers, and allow unrestricted delivery of food, fuel, and medical supplies into the besieged territory.
UN rapporteur calls on European football body to expel Israel from competitions
Press TV – August 10, 2025
The UN special rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories has called on the European football governing body (UEFA) to expel Israel from competitions over its war crimes and crimes against humanity in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Francesca Albanese’s call came following UEFA’s farewell to a former Palestinian player, Suleiman al-Obeid, whom it called the “Palestinian Pelé.”
“Let’s make sport apartheid and genocide free. One ball, one kick at a time,” Francesca Albanese said on her X account on Sunday.
“Time to expel its killers from competitions, @UEFA,” the UN rapporteur said.
Al-Obaid, a former Palestine national team player, was killed earlier this month in an Israeli strike targeting civilians waiting for humanitarian aid in southern Gaza.
Suleiman Ahmed Zaid al-Obaid, the former captain of the Palestinian national football team (Photo via social media)
He left behind his wife and five children.
Obaid is seen as one of the brightest stars in Palestinian football history. He played 24 official matches for the national team.
He also represented the national team during the 2012 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Challenge Cup qualification and 2014 World Cup qualifying games.
Obeid’s death has sparked widespread outrage across the world, with people urging the international community and the football fraternity in particular to break their silence over the ongoing genocide.
Palestinian footballers have been directly targeted in Israel’s assault on Gaza.
In a statement released on July 29, 2025, the Palestinian Olympic Committee (POC) reported that in July alone, the Israeli regime killed 40 Palestinian athletes in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
More than 800 athletes have been killed in Gaza since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Oct. 7, 2023, as the sports community continues to suffer under bombardment, famine, and the collapse of infrastructure.
Last month, the International Federation of Muaythai Associations (IFMA) announced an urgent policy change regarding Israeli representation at its events.
This came following the killing of a young Palestinian teenager athlete and peace ambassador, Ammar Hamayel, by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank.
Hamayel, 13 years old, was a Thai boxing champion, dreaming of representing Palestine on the world stage. But like many other Palestinian children, his dream was silenced by Israeli bullets.
The IFMA back then said in a statement that the decision represents a peaceful yet firm protest against actions that “endanger children and violate the core values of global sport”.
In May, Spain was reportedly spearheading a coordinated initiative aimed at persuading the European Union to eliminate Israel from all continental sports competitions over its genocidal war on Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Calls to exclude Israel from international sports events have indeed increased recently due to its relentless aggression against Gaza.
About International Guarantees that Shed Lebanese’ Blood
By Ali Shoeib, translated by Al-Manar English Website | August 9, 2025
On August 10, 2006, the story of the “Marjeyoun Survival” turned into a dark page in the history of the conflict with the Israeli enemy.
The Israeli occupation army raided Marjeyoun barracks on that day, when Lebanon was subjected to a brutal Israeli war that lasted for 33 days. The occupation forces took over the barracks without any resistance from the Lebanese troops and security forces who laid down their arms.
It was agreed that the town, which is 8 km away from the border with occupied Palestine, would be safely evacuated, and that the Israeli enemy would not attack the convoy, as stipulated by the guarantees presented via the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
These guarantees, brokered by the United States and France, were allegedly intended to remove the Lebanese forces who were detained at the barracks, along with stranded civilians, from the danger zone. But what happened was a resounding shock!
The convoy had set out on August 11 (2006). It was escorted by two UNIFIL vehicles.
Instead of escaping, Israeli enemy aircraft pursued the convoy of approximately 759 vehicles after it reached the Western Bekaa Valley, brutally targeting them and turning their path into a massacre.
The attack, which was conducted with nine bombs, resulted in the deaths of at least seven people, wounding of at least 36 and the destruction of a number of vehicles.
That attack in 2006 was a harsh lesson that says it all about the conflict with an enemy that does not abide by any covenant or pact, as the false US-French guarantees given to the Lebanese government at the time were merely an illusion and a deception.
The Marjeyoun convoy attack confirms a solid fact: The enemy cannot be trusted, and all international guarantees or regional promises aimed at disarming the resistance are merely a temporary cover for achieving the enemy’s goals, which seeks nothing but a moment of weakness that will enable it to achieve what it has been unable to achieve during the latest war in late 2024.
Our history is replete with examples that show that surrendering power is an open invitation to aggression. When the resistance is disarmed, the homeland is left exposed to the enemy’s ambitions.
Weapons are not just a combat tool, but rather a “symbol of the national will to defend the homeland and protect the sovereignty,” and resistance is the last line of defense.
The Marjeyoun convoy attack has proven that relying on international promises, in the absence of a real deterrent force, is a bet on defeat. Anyone who places their security in the hands of the enemy is willingly committing suicide, and we do not want to commit suicide.
Only 188 of 800 promised aid trucks entered Gaza: Euractiv
Al Mayadeen | August 7, 2025
A recent report from Euractiv, based on a European Commission document, reveals a significant shortfall in the amount of humanitarian aid the Israelis permitted to enter Gaza, falling well below the levels set in a previous agreement with the European Union.
Under the terms of the deal struck in July, around 160 trucks carrying relief supplies were expected to be allowed into Gaza daily. This would amount to a total of 800 trucks over a five-day period, from July 31 to August 4. However, the actual number of trucks that made it into the enclave was much lower.
“Between 31 July and 4 August, the UN, and our partners report that 188 trucks were offloaded at crossing points to Gaza,” the European Commission document stated.
An unnamed EU official criticized the gap between the agreement and the delivery, noting that “Israel” had allowed “four times fewer” aid trucks than what had been committed to.
Israeli authorities, however, presented a different version of events. According to the same document cited by Euractiv, “Israel” claimed that 737 trucks entered Gaza during that period. This figure reportedly includes shipments from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation as well as commercial supplies, raising concerns about what actually qualifies as humanitarian aid under the agreement.
Aid Bottleneck Persists
Meanwhile, on the ground, the humanitarian situation remains dire. A RIA Novosti journalist at the Rafah border crossing reported long queues of aid trucks waiting for clearance. Several trucks were reportedly turned back after being denied entry by Israeli forces.
Despite these challenges, Egyptian officials claim that aid efforts have intensified. “The flow of humanitarian aid from Egypt to the Gaza Strip had increased in recent days,” Khaled Megawer, governor of Egypt’s North Sinai province, told RIA.
Amal Imam, Executive Director of the Egyptian Red Crescent, shared more specifics at the Rafah crossing, saying that “about 800 trucks carrying 8,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid, including food and medicine, had entered Gaza from Egypt since July 27.”
Nevertheless, Gaza’s needs continue to far exceed the supply. Local authorities estimate that a minimum of 600 aid trucks must enter the enclave each day to ensure access to essential goods, including food, medical supplies, and fuel.
Senior EU official accuses ‘Israel’ of genocide in Gaza
Earlier in the day, a senior member of the European Commission has said the displacement and killing of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip “looks very much like genocide,” becoming the first EU official to publicly diverge from the bloc’s official position on the war.
“If it is not genocide, it looks very much like the definition used to express its meaning,” said Teresa Ribera, the European Commission’s Executive Vice President, in an interview with Politico published Thursday.
Ribera, a Spanish socialist and the Commission’s second-highest-ranking official, does not hold a foreign policy portfolio, instead overseeing climate and anti-trust matters. Nonetheless, her remarks mark a rare and significant breach from the European Commission’s cautious language regarding the war on Gaza.
Yasser Abu Shabab: Israel’s agent of chaos in Gaza
By William Van Wagenen | The Cradle | August 8, 2025
In late July, the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed attributed to Yasser Abu Shabab, a Palestinian warlord with a criminal past, portraying him and his militia as potential saviors of Gaza.
The piece, echoing Israeli talking points, suggested that US and Arab support for Abu Shabab could swiftly “transform” most of the strip “from a war zone into functioning communities,” ostensibly free from Israeli bombardment and flush with humanitarian aid.
But behind this carefully crafted image lies an Israeli proxy – a man embedded in organized crime and political subterfuge, now repurposed to advance Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to starve, displace, and ultimately ethnically cleanse Palestinians in Gaza.
Who is Abu Shabab?
Abu Shabab, 35, hails from Rafah in southern Gaza and belongs to the Bedouin Tarabin tribe, which spans Gaza, Israel’s Naqab, and Egypt’s Sinai. Before Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October 2023, he was notorious for his involvement in smuggling weapons, drugs, and contraband through Gaza’s tunnels and border crossings. He was also believed to have ties to extremist groups in Sinai, including the local ISIS affiliate, formerly known as Ansar Beit al-Maqdis.
Hamas authorities had imprisoned him for murder and drug trafficking, but he was released in October 2023 when Israeli air raids forced the movement to open its prisons.
Since then, Abu Shabab has rebranded himself as a “nationalist,” a “humanitarian,” and even a “liberator.”
But these claims are widely rejected by Palestinians, including members of his own tribe. A senior Tarabin elder publicly disowned him, labeling him a “looter and bandit” operating solely for personal gain. Aid officials echoed this assessment. One aid coordinator called him a “criminal, a fugitive … untrustworthy and mentally unstable.”
His own relatives have accused him of collaborating with the occupation military in targeted killings of Palestinians and have called for his “liquidation,” declaring his “blood is forfeit.”
Starving as warfare
After the 7 October resistance operation by Palestinian factions, then-defense minister Yoav Gallant – now a fugitive from international justice – announced a “complete siege” on Gaza, cutting off all access to food, water, fuel, and electricity. “We are fighting animals and are acting accordingly,” Gallant said in Hebrew.
Days later, a detailed proposal to forcibly expel all Palestinians from Gaza, under the pretext of protecting them, was prepared by Israel’s Ministry of Information.
Weeks later, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for both Gallant and Netanyahu on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the use of starvation as a method of warfare.
In response to mounting global scrutiny, Tel Aviv pivoted to a more insidious strategy: weaponizing hunger through sabotaging the existing UN aid distribution system.
In January 2024, Israel launched a smear campaign against the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the main provider of aid to Gaza, falsely claiming it was infiltrated by Hamas operatives who took part in Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. The campaign was successful in pressuring western countries to cut the UN refugee agency’s funding.
Simultaneously, Israel slashed the number of aid trucks allowed into Gaza. By February, only 62 trucks entered daily – a fraction of the 500 required to prevent mass hunger.
Israel ensured even this amount of food would not reach those who needed it by carrying out a string of airstrikes against members of Gaza’s Hamas-run civilian police force. The attacks caused officers, who were protecting the convoys, to withdraw from the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing.
According to the Washington Post, the amount of aid entering Gaza “collapsed,” as the convoys delivering it were then exposed to widespread looting by criminal gangs.
In May 2024, the occupation state further moved to sabotage the UN aid system by occupying and closing the Rafah crossing with Egypt, the route through which most aid had flowed, and redirecting it through the Kerem Shalom.
Tel Aviv’s looting agent
With the withdrawal of Hamas police, Abu Shabab and his gang established a base in southeast Gaza from which it could freely loot aid trucks entering the strip via Kerem Shalom, all while operating under Israel’s protection and watchful eye.
In October 2024, the UN issued a memo concluding that criminal gangs “may be benefiting from a passive if not active benevolence” or “protection” from the Israeli military. According to the memo, one gang leader established a “military like compound” in an area “restricted, controlled and patrolled by the IDF.”
The memo identified Abu Shabab as “the main and most influential stakeholder behind systematic and massive looting” of aid convoys.
The largest single looting incident occurred in November 2024. On that day, a huge joint convoy of 109 UN trucks carrying food supplies entered Gaza via Kerem Shalom – only to be ambushed and stripped bare by armed looters. According to UN officials, 98 out of the 109 trucks were raided, their food, fuel, and even tires stolen.
It was “the biggest looting of UN aid anywhere, ever,” in the words of an NPR reporter.
Crucially, a UN spokesperson noted the convoy had been rerouted on short notice by the Israeli military onto unfamiliar roads, ensuring it would fall prey to the gangs.
For months, Israel approved the use of only one road passing through a “desolate patch” of southeast Gaza, the Washington Post observed.
“The only route they give us is directly through the looters,” said one aid worker speaking with the newspaper.
Israeli media later reported that Abu Shabab’s group was armed with Kalashnikov rifles provided by “Israeli security bodies,” in a decision approved by Netanyahu, providing a further sign that Israel was behind Abu Shabab’s looting campaign.
Blaming Hamas
While covertly facilitating Abu Shabab’s looting, Israeli officials publicly blamed Hamas for stealing aid, in an effort to further restrict the entry of food to Gaza and deepen the hunger and starvation of its residents.
In the wake of the mass looting incident in November, it was reported that:
“COGAT, the Israeli military’s civilian affairs department for the Palestinian territories, has justified restrictions on the flow of goods by alleging repeatedly that Hamas is stealing aid and preventing it from reaching civilians.”
Israel’s cynical game was confirmed in May 2025 by Jonathan Whittall, the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied Palestinian territories. In reference to Abu Shabab, he stated that:
“Israel has publicly claimed that the UN and NGO aid is being diverted by Hamas. But this doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. The real theft of aid since the beginning of the war has been carried out by criminal gangs, under the watch of Israeli forces, and they were allowed to operate in proximity to the Kerem Shalom crossing point into Gaza.”
Whittall’s comments were further validated by a July 2025 USAID report, which also confirmed Hamas had not been involved in stealing aid.
A war of attrition
In March 2025, Israel unilaterally broke a ceasefire reached with Hamas in January. Israeli leaders once again openly imposed a new siege on Gaza, preventing all aid from reaching the strip.
Then, in April, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz issued evacuation orders covering most of Gaza, while launching a new offensive pushing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into an “ever-shrinking bubble,” CNN reported. Katz’s goal was to “empty” large parts of Gaza while treating anyone who refused to obey evacuation orders as a “combatant.”
While Israel claimed its objective was to defeat Hamas and free Israeli captives held by the group, CNN observed that, “Israel’s strategy may have another purpose; to make life so unbearable for Gazans crammed into an ever-smaller pocket of territory without proper shelter that they begin to head for the exit.”
Katz appeared to make this objective clear, saying amid the offensive and blockade that, “We are working to advance the plan for the voluntary migration of Gaza’s residents.”
According to Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, the so-called migration plan would be anything but voluntary:
“The real and lasting answer will come only through the full advancement of the emigration plan – ‘Force him until he says, I want it.’”
Gaza ‘Humanitarian’ Foundation
In parallel, Netanyahu launched the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an aid mechanism staffed by former US special forces and contractors with opaque funding.
But the GHF, which began operating in May, did not distribute aid across Gaza. It established isolated “hubs” in the south, “designed as death traps.” Nearly 1,000 Palestinians were shot at or killed while seeking food from these hubs. Some were targeted by armed GHF security guards, while others were targeted by Israeli soldiers opening fire on starving crowds with sniper rifles, mortar shells, and even tank fire.
Despite the danger, Palestinians needing aid to prevent their children from starving had no choice but to come to the GHF sites, which meant relocating to tent camps near them.
The GHF was part of Israel’s military operation “Gideon’s Chariots,” with the stated objective of the “concentration and movement of the population.” In June, Tel Aviv admitted its goal: relocating all Gazans to a southern “sterile zone” surrounding the GHF hubs.
The UN and aid groups quickly rejected the GHF aid model, saying Israel was “using food as a tool for forced displacement.”
Concentration camps
As hunger deepened, Abu Shabab posted videos inviting displaced Palestinians to settle in his Israeli-guarded tent city in eastern Rafah.
He claimed to launch a recruitment drive to staff “administrative and community committees,” which would include doctors and nurses, engineers, primary school teachers, and public relations experts.
Abu Shabab claimed that more than 2,000 civilians were already living in his “protected zone,” and that his Popular Forces, allegedly consisting of just 100 armed men, had built schools, health centers, and other civilian infrastructure there.
Speaking with the Washington Post, he asked for support from the US, EU, and Arab states.
“We hope they support our vision and empower us to make all people in the Gaza Strip live like we do, taking control of our own areas in dignity and humanity,” Abu Shabab stated.
However, his attempt to bring “dignity” to Palestinians was soon revealed to be the first stage of an Israeli effort to build a massive concentration camp in Rafah.
On 7 July, Defense Minister Katz announced a plan to build a “humanitarian city” on the ruins of Rafah, in the same area where Israel allowed Abu Shabab’s Popular Forces to establish their base and tent camp.
The plan would begin by moving 600,000 Palestinians, primarily from the tent camps in the Al-Muwasi area, into the new zone after a security screening. The remainder of Gaza’s over 2 million Palestinians would be moved there later.
“Once inside, residents would not be allowed to leave,” Haaretz reported, citing the defense minister.
The planned “humanitarian city,” which no one would be “allowed to leave,” was quickly acknowledged as a concentration camp and the first step toward the complete ethnic cleansing of Gaza, including by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
“It is a concentration camp. I am sorry … this is part of an ethnic cleansing,” Olmert told The Guardian. “It is to deport them, to push them, and to throw them away.”
Manufactured governance, planned chaos
In June, Prime Minister Netanyahu finally acknowledged support for Abu Shabab, saying on social media that Israel had “activated” some Palestinian clans in Gaza, on the advice of “security officials.”
Netanyahu’s comments affirmed previous reports in Israeli media that the operation to arm Abu Shabab and other clan-based gangs was “planned and managed” by the Shin Bet to create “alternative governing structures” that challenge Hamas.
The strategy mirrored the occupation state’s project to create “village leagues” in the occupied West Bank in the 1970s and 80s. The project involved backing local clan leaders with funds, weapons, and privileges to weaken the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and block Palestinian statehood.
“It’s the oldest colonial strategy in the book,” said Rashid Khalidi of Columbia University. By supporting Abu Shabab, Israel had succeeded in “sowing utter chaos,” which Israel wants” because if the Palestinians are unified, then they might have to actually negotiate or deal with them,” Khalidi added.
In addition to helping Israel starve Palestinians and establish a concentration camp for their eventual ethnic cleansing from the Gaza, Abu Shabab has vowed to help in the next stage of the chaos Israel has planned: civil war.
“There is no stopping a civil war against Hamas,” Abu Shabab stated in an interview with Israeli public broadcaster KAN in July, claiming that his Popular Forces “will be the heirs in Gaza” after Hamas is “crushed and defeated.”
Far from empowering Palestinians, Abu Shabab is simply a tool of Israeli strategy – facilitating the starvation, fragmentation, and displacement of his own people to serve the occupation state’s long war on Palestinian liberation.
Gaza Faces Unrelenting Israeli Attacks Amid Global Indifference
Al-Manar | August 8, 2025
As the Israeli war on Gaza Strip stretches into its 672nd day, Israeli forces are intensifying their military campaign, characterized by relentless airstrikes and artillery bombardments that have devastated the region. This grim reality unfolds amid ongoing American political and military support, as well as a troubling silence from the international community and Arab states.
Recent reports from Palestinian sources indicate that multiple citizens have lost their lives due to Israeli army fire since Friday dawn. Eyewitnesses stated that forces targeted individuals awaiting aid along the Netzarim axis in central Gaza, while others suffered injuries from gunfire near the Asdaa area northwest of Khan Yunis.
In further acts of aggression, Israeli artillery shelled areas close to an electricity company north of the Nuseirat refugee camp early Friday. Additionally, Israeli aircraft conducted strikes on a building in the Japanese neighborhood north of Khan Yunis, further escalating the aggression.
With unwavering American support, Israeli occupation forces are waging a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, which has so far left 61,258 martyrs, 152,045 wounded, and more than 10,000 missing. This is in addition to a famine that has claimed the lives of dozens, while more than two million Palestinians are living in conditions of forced displacement amidst total destruction.
Among the martyrs are 9,752 martyrs and 40,004 wounded, who fell after the occupation reneged on the ceasefire agreement on March 18, 2025.
John Fetterman, a hawkish US senator who represents Americans but speaks for Israel
By Musa Iqbal | Press TV | August 7, 2025
It is no secret that the political apparatus of the United States is teeming with Zionists.
While some politicians are sleek in their support for the Zionist Occupation (with politically convenient cries for ‘civility’ in Palestine and the rest of the region), others are completely devoted to a maximalist Zionist agenda – advocating for Zionist expansion, aggression, and total servitude to Israeli interests – no matter their maximalist goals.
Among the latter is US Senator John Fetterman, a hawkish politician who once campaigned as a “progressive,” but has now turned into the Israeli occupation’s most darling Democratic cheerleader and an unofficial mouthpiece and apologist of the genocidal child-murdering regime.
Fetterman’s unwavering support for Israel, which comes with belligerent calls for war against Iran, betrays the very principles he once claimed to champion.
During the election cycle that put him into power, progressive groups had rallied around Fetterman as a “working man” that most Americans could relate to. They could not have been more wrong.
Fetterman, often skulking the halls of the US Capitol in a hoodie and gym shorts, has become the poster child for the US political establishment’s subservience to the Zionist project and its reckless drive toward regional hegemony in Western Asia.
Fetterman has shown total support with each new act of Zionist terror, something his constituents are increasingly condemning.
His rhetoric, particularly his enthusiastic endorsement of Israel’s military actions and his calls for US involvement in illegal and unprovoked strikes on Iran, is not only a betrayal of his constituents but a dangerous escalation that threatens to give more support to an increasingly belligerent Israeli occupation entity as it faces an existential crisis.
He has draped himself in the Israeli flag on several occasions—literally and figuratively—while dismissing calls for a ceasefire and championing Israel’s so-called “right to defend itself” against a besieged, starving population.
Perhaps as a hat-tip to his pro-Israeli donors, his office walls are covered with posters of Israeli captives held by the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, further serving as a shrine to a one-sided narrative that erases the decades-long suffering of Palestinians under occupation.
To compare, there are tens of thousands of Palestinian hostages in Zionist prisons, a sizeable amount of them being Palestinian youth.
Speaking of donors, Fetterman has unapologetically collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Zionist lobby. Based on the data organized by Track AIPAC, Fetterman has received over $370,000 in donations from Israeli-associated PACs and donors, with one of his top donors being JStreetPAC, which donated $175k in 2024 alone.
Donations of this caliber suggest extreme levels of loyalty to furthering Israeli settler-colonial interests in the power corridors of Washington – from domestic policy fighting against Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) efforts to foreign policy warmongering on behalf of the American-Israeli axis of evil.
It also aligns with Fetterman’s refusal to acknowledge the Palestinian death toll—over 150,000 by some estimates, including thousands of children—while fixating on Israeli victims reveals a moral bankruptcy that aligns him with the most hawkish elements of the US political spectrum.
Fetterman ghoulishly refuses to acknowledge the catastrophic loss of life, insisting that “now is not the time to talk about a ceasefire.”
Clearly, Fetterman’s loyalty to the Zionist cause goes as far as deliberate endorsement of collective punishment of innocent Palestinians, including children and women, a policy that violates international law.
Of course, being in line with the Zionist occupation’s expansionist interests, Fetterman’s zeal for Israel does not stop at Gaza. He has cheered on for US military aggression against Iran, celebrating the bombings against Iran’s peaceful nuclear program and threatening that Israel can continue to assassinate its nuclear scientists with his and other US politicians’ approval.
In his March 2025 visit to the occupied territories, Fetterman told journalists in Jerusalem al-Quds that he supports “partnering with Israel to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities,” urging the US to “blow it up.”
His rhetoric continued to escalate, including in June 2025, when he called for Israel to assassinate the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei. Such statements are not the musings of a principled senator but the ravings of a warmonger eager to appease the Zionist war machine and its patrons in Washington.
Fetterman’s rhetoric must be seen in the context of the broader US-Israel agenda to neutralize Iran as a regional power, especially as the latter secures critical economic alliances such as a place in BRICS and the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization).
For decades, the US and its Zionist ally have sought to undermine Iran’s sovereignty, from crippling, high-pressure sanctions to covert sabotage operations and outright military threats.
Fetterman’s calls for illegal and unjustified strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, which Iran maintains are for peaceful energy purposes, echo the same discredited playbook used to justify the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, the bombing of Libya, the destruction of Yugoslavia, etc.
The threat of a nuclear bomb armed Iran is a propaganda campaign orchestrated by Washington and Tel Aviv to justify aggression while ignoring Israel’s undeclared nuclear arsenal, a violation of international norms, and a total means to destabilize the region.
The hypocrisy of Fetterman’s position declares the official US policy for the area: Israel’s nuclear capabilities are strategic and protect American interests, but Iran’s pursuit of energy independence is an intolerable existential threat.
Fetterman, in his blind allegiance to Israel, seems unperturbed by the realities of what the execution of this US-led policy would look like, choosing to ignore the total rupture of the region, plunging the US into a war it would not understand or be prepared for – Iran is not Iraq, Libya, or Afghanistan.
It is a regional power with a sophisticated military and an alliance with resistance groups that would be eager to defend their ally against American aggression.
By endorsing Israel’s strikes on Iran and advocating for US aggression, Fetterman is perpetuating a cycle of violence that benefits only the US ruling class and its Zionist beneficiaries.
The US has spent trillions on wars in the West Asia region, leaving behind shattered societies that will take decades to redevelop.
Fetterman’s call to “take out” Iran’s leadership and nuclear program is a recipe for more of the same- a reckless gamble with lives and resources that the US can ill afford, and would further plant the seeds of disdain for US policy both at home and abroad.
The American people, weary of endless wars and economic hardship, deserve a senator who prioritizes their interests over those of a foreign power tied to genocidal crimes and occupation.
Fetterman’s betrayal of his “progressive” voter base that elected him into power is not just a personal failing but a symptom of a deeper, more sinister alignment in US politics, where loyalty to Israel and the war machine comes before anything else, if anything else at all.
It is incumbent on the global community to reject the likes of Fetterman and their imperialist agendas, as there are war mongers like Fetterman, or worse, spread throughout different Western governments.
While they are considering replacements, they can also add someone who knows how to dress themselves as a requirement. Indeed, the bar has never been lower.
Unit 8200 taps Microsoft to spy on millions in Palestine
Al Mayadeen | August 6, 2025
In late 2021, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella met with Yossi Sariel, the commander of “Israel’s” military surveillance agency Unit 8200, at Microsoft’s Seattle headquarters. Sariel sought support for a plan to move vast amounts of classified intelligence data into Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform. This arrangement would provide Unit 8200 with a dedicated, customized space within Azure, offering nearly unlimited storage capacity.
Equipped with Azure’s immense storage capabilities, Unit 8200 developed a sweeping surveillance system that records and stores millions of mobile phone calls made daily by Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. This cloud-based system, operational since 2022, allows the agency to retain a vast archive of calls over extended periods.
Microsoft has claimed that Nadella was unaware of the specific nature of the data being stored. However, leaked documents and interviews with 11 sources from Microsoft and Israeli military intelligence reveal that Azure has been central to storing this expansive trove of Palestinian communications.
According to three Unit 8200 insiders, the Azure cloud platform has been instrumental in preparing deadly airstrikes and shaping military operations in both Gaza and the West Bank. While “Israel” has long intercepted calls in the occupied territories thanks to its control over Palestinian telecommunications, the new system indiscriminately records calls from a far larger group of ordinary civilians.
‘A million call an hour’
One intelligence source explained that Unit 8200 turned to Microsoft after realizing its own servers lacked the storage capacity and computing power needed to handle the sheer volume of phone calls, a volume captured by the unit’s internal mantra: “A million calls an hour.”
The surveillance system was designed to run on Microsoft’s servers, protected by enhanced security layers developed jointly by Microsoft engineers and Unit 8200 according to the unit’s specifications. Leaked Microsoft files indicate that much of this sensitive Israeli military data now resides in company data centers located in the Netherlands and Ireland.
Employees, investors concerned about ties to ‘Israel’s’ military
This revelation about Microsoft’s Azure platform’s role in the surveillance effort emerges amid increasing pressure on the tech giant from employees and investors concerned about its ties to “Israel’s” military and how its technology has been deployed during the 22-month genocide in Gaza.
In May, a Microsoft employee protested during CEO Satya Nadella’s keynote speech by shouting, “How about you show how Israeli war crimes are powered by Azure?” This public outcry followed earlier revelations in January by The Guardian and others about “Israel’s” reliance on Microsoft technology during the Gaza genocide.
In response, Microsoft commissioned an external review of its relationship with the Israeli military. The company stated the review “found no evidence to date” that Azure or its AI tools were “used to target or harm people” in the territory.
A senior Microsoft source said the company had discussions with Israeli security officials, specifying how its technology should be used in Gaza, emphasizing that Microsoft systems must not be involved in identifying “targets” for lethal strikes.
Despite Microsoft’s assurances, sources from Unit 8200 revealed that intelligence gathered from the vast archive of phone calls stored in Azure has been used to identify bombing “targets” in Gaza. One source explained that when planning an airstrike in densely populated areas, officers would use the cloud system to review calls made by people nearby.
Use of the system reportedly increased during the ongoing genocide in Gaza, which has resulted in the killing of over 60,000 Palestinians, including more than 18,000 children.
Arrests without excuse made feasible
Originally, the system focused on the West Bank, home to about 3 million Palestinians under Israeli military occupation. According to Unit 8200 sources, the information held in Azure formed a rich intelligence repository used to blackmail individuals, justify detention, or even killings after the fact.
“When they need to arrest someone and there isn’t a good enough reason to do so, that’s where they find the excuse,” said one source, referring to the cloud-stored data.
Microsoft claimed it had “no information” regarding the specific data Unit 8200 stored in its cloud. The company alleged that its “engagement with Unit 8200 has been based on strengthening cybersecurity and protecting Israel from nation-state and terrorist cyber-attacks.”
They added, “At no time during this engagement has Microsoft been aware of the surveillance of civilians or collection of their cellphone conversations using Microsoft’s services, including through the external review it commissioned.”
‘Tracking everyone, all the time’
The driving force behind this cloud surveillance initiative was Yossi Sariel, the commander of Unit 8200 from early 2021 to late 2024. Described by one insider as a “revolution” within the unit, Sariel was a career intelligence officer who strongly championed large-scale projects like this.
Sariel expanded the scope of communications interception by Unit 8200. His strategy was to begin “tracking everyone, all the time,” said an officer who worked under him.
‘The entire public was our enemy’
Moving beyond targeted surveillance, Sariel’s approach employed mass surveillance across the occupied West Bank, combined with innovative AI tools to extract actionable insights. One source said, “Suddenly the entire public was our enemy,” reflecting how the project aimed to predict which individuals posed security threats.
Among the tools developed during this time was a system that scanned all text messages between Palestinians in the West Bank, automatically assigning risk scores based on suspicious keywords. Known as “noisy message”, it remains in use and can detect texts discussing weapons or expressing a desire to die.
When Sariel became Unit 8200 commander in early 2021, he prioritized building a partnership with Microsoft that would allow the unit to extend its capabilities and capture the content of millions of phone calls daily.
Storing Palestinian phone calls dubbed ‘sensitive workloads’
At his meeting with Satya Nadella later that year, Sariel didn’t explicitly mention plans to store Palestinian phone calls in the cloud, instead referring to “sensitive workloads” containing secret data, according to internal meeting records.
However, documents indicate that Microsoft engineers understood the data would include raw intelligence like audio files. Some Microsoft staff based in “Israel”, including former Unit 8200 members, seemed aware of the project’s goals. As one source said, “You don’t have to be a genius to figure it out. You tell [Microsoft] we don’t have any more space on the servers, that it’s audio files. It’s pretty clear what it is.”
Microsoft’s spokesperson maintained, “We are not aware of Azure being used for the storage of such data,” stressing that Unit 8200 was a customer of cloud services and that Microsoft “did not build or consult with Unit 8200” on a surveillance system.
Still, in early 2022, Microsoft and Unit 8200 engineers collaborated closely to develop advanced security measures in Azure to meet the unit’s standards. One document described the collaboration’s “rhythm of interaction” as “daily, top down and bottom up.”
Secrecy, scale of data storage
Within Microsoft, the project was highly secretive, with engineers instructed not to mention Unit 8200 by name. Under the plan, vast amounts of raw intelligence material would be stored in Microsoft data centers overseas.
Files indicate that by July 2025, approximately 11,500 terabytes of Israeli military data, equivalent to around 200 million hours of audio, will be held on Microsoft’s Azure servers in the Netherlands, with a smaller portion stored in Ireland. It’s unclear whether all this data belonged to Unit 8200, as some might belong to other Israeli military units.
According to the documents, Unit 8200 informed Microsoft that it intended to eventually migrate over 70% of its data, including secret and top-secret information, to Azure. The unit was “willing to ‘push the envelope’ with the kind of sensitive and classified information that intelligence agencies normally held on their own servers.” As one executive noted, “They’re always trying to challenge the status quo.”
When asked about Sariel’s meeting with Nadella, Microsoft’s spokesperson said it “is not accurate” to claim that the CEO personally supported the project. They said Nadella “attended for 10 minutes at the end of the meeting” and that there was “no discussion” of the specific data planned for Azure.
However, internal Microsoft records viewed by The Guardian show Nadella expressed support for Sariel’s ambition to transfer a large portion of Unit 8200’s data to the cloud, described earlier in the meeting as “sensitive intelligence material.”
One record states, “Satya suggested that we identify certain workloads to begin with and then gradually move towards the 70% mark.” It adds that Nadella said, “building the partnership is so critical” and “Microsoft is committed to providing resources to support.”
Sariel’s vision, AI advocacy
Several months before his meeting with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in 2021, Yossi Sariel published a book on artificial intelligence under a pen name, later revealed by The Guardian to be his own, in which he urged militaries and intelligence agencies to “migrate to the cloud.”
Known within Israeli intelligence as a technology evangelist, Sariel prized what he described to colleagues as a friendly relationship with Nadella. A senior intelligence source said, “Yossi bragged a lot, even to me, about his connection with Satya.” (Microsoft has denied that Nadella and Sariel had a close relationship.)
Another former intelligence colleague added, “He sold [the partnership] internally and got a huge budget. He claimed it was the solution to our problems in the Palestinian arena.”
Sariel declined to comment and referred questions about the project to the Israeli occupation forces (IOF). An IOF spokesperson claimed that their cooperation with companies like Microsoft was based on “legally supervised agreements.” The spokesperson alleged, “The IDF operates in accordance with international law, with the aim of countering terrorism and ensuring the security of the state and its citizens.”
Microsoft’s commercial interests, protests
For Microsoft, the multi-year collaboration with Unit 8200 represented a significant commercial opportunity. Executives anticipated earning hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue and described the partnership as “an incredibly powerful brand moment” for their Azure cloud platform, according to leaked files.
One executive noted that Unit 8200’s “leadership hopes to expand the mission-critical work tenfold in the coming years.”
As Unit 8200 began utilizing Azure’s storage capabilities in 2022, intelligence officers quickly realized the scale of the new tool’s potential. One source familiar with the system described it simply: “The cloud is infinite storage.”
Calls stored in the system, including those made by Palestinians to Israeli and international numbers, are generally kept for about one month, although the storage capacity can be extended to hold calls for longer periods when necessary. Several intelligence sources explained that this allows officers to retrieve past phone conversations of persons who later become of interest. Previously, surveillance targets had to be pre-selected for their calls to be intercepted and stored.
However, the system notably failed to stop Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.
Following October 7, Sariel faced criticism for prioritizing “addictive and exciting” technology over traditional intelligence methods. Critics argued this focus contributed to the intelligence failure. Sariel resigned the following year, acknowledging “8200’s part in the intelligence and operational failure.”
Use of AI tools and Gaza genocide impact
During the subsequent genocide war, the cloud system Sariel developed has been frequently used alongside new AI-driven target recommendation tools that were also introduced under his leadership. These technologies have played a key role in military operations that have caused widespread devastation and a severe humanitarian crisis for civilians.
While “Israel’s” destruction of Gaza’s telecommunications infrastructure has decreased the volume of phone calls, sources say the data stored in the cloud remains valuable. One source noted that intelligence officers working on Gaza have become increasingly enthusiastic about the system as the conflict continues, believing the military is “heading towards long-term control there.”
Broader implications
The expansive surveillance program reveals how technology firms like Microsoft can become deeply entangled in complex geopolitical conflicts. Despite Microsoft’s claims that its technology is not used to target Palestinians or support lethal strikes, internal sources and leaked documents paint a different picture of extensive intelligence gathering on Palestinians.
As protests grow and employees voice concerns, with one shouting during a keynote, “How about you show how Israeli war crimes are powered by Azure?,” the debate intensifies over the ethical responsibilities of tech companies working with military and intelligence agencies.
The case of Unit 8200 and Microsoft illustrates the immense power and risks of cloud technology, raising urgent questions about privacy, accountability, and the future of surveillance in war zones.
The verdict of history: How political calculations betrayed Gaza
By Ramzy Baroud | MEMO | August 6, 2025
The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem released a comprehensive report on 27 July describing the Israeli war on Gaza as genocide. However, the delay in publishing such an indictment is troubling and adds to an existing problem of politically motivated decision-making processes that have, in their own right, prolonged the ongoing Israeli war crimes.
The report accused Israel of committing genocide, a conclusion reached after a detailed analysis of the military campaign’s intent, the systematic destruction of civilian life, and the government-engineered famine. This finding is significant because it adds to the massive body of legal and testimonial evidence affirming the Palestinian position that Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute a genocide.
Moreover, the fact that B’Tselem is an Israeli organization is doubly important. It represents an insider’s indictment of the horrific massacres and the government-engineered famine in the Strip, directly challenging the baseless argument that accusing Israel of genocide is an act of antisemitism.
Western media were particularly interested in this report, despite the fact that numerous first-hand Palestinian reports and investigations are often ignored or downplayed. This double standard continues to feed into a chronic media problem in its perception of Palestine and Israel.
Claims by Palestinians of Israeli war crimes have historically been ignored by mainstream media or academia. Whether the Zionist militia’s massacre of Tantura in 1948, the actual number of Palestinians and Lebanese killed in the massacres of Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon in 1982, or the events resulting in the Jenin massacre in the West Bank in 2002, the media has frequently ignored the Palestinian account. It often gains a degree of validation only if it is backed by Israeli or Western voices.
The latest B’Tselem report is no exception. But another question must be asked: why did it take nearly two years for B’Tselem to reach such an obvious conclusion? Israeli rights groups, in particular, have far greater access to the conduct of the Israeli army, the statements of politicians, and Hebrew media coverage than any other entity. Such a conclusion, therefore, should have been reached in a matter of two months, not two years.
This kind of intentional delay has so far defined the position of many international institutions, organisations, and individuals whose moral authority would have helped Palestinians establish the facts of the genocide globally much earlier.
For example, despite the ICJ’s historic ruling on 26 January 2024, that determined that there are plausible grounds for South Africa’s accusation of Israel of committing genocide, the court is still unable, or unwilling, to produce a conclusive ruling. A definitive ruling would have been a significant pressure card on Israel to end its mass killing in Gaza.
Instead, for now, the ICJ expects Israel to investigate itself, a most unrealistic expectation at a time when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promises his extremist ministers that Israel will encourage the ethnic cleansing of Gaza.
The same indictment of intentional and politicised delays can be attributed to the International Criminal Court. While it issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defense minister on November 21, 2024, no concrete action has been taken. Instead, it is the Chief Prosecutor of the court, Karim Khan, who finds himself attacked by the US government and media for having the courage to follow through on the investigation.
Individuals, too, especially those who have been associated with ‘revolutionary’ politics, the likes of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders, among others, have been reluctant to act. On 22 March 2024, Ocasio-Cortez refused to use the term genocide in Gaza, going as far as claiming that, while she saw an “unfolding genocide,” she was not yet ready to use the term herself.
Sanders, on the other hand, who has spoken out repeatedly and strongly against Netanyahu, describing him in an interview with CNN on 31 July as a “disgusting liar,” has had repeated moral lapses since the start of the war. When the term genocide was used by many, far less ‘radical’ politicians, Sanders doubled down during a lecture at a university in Ireland. He said that the word genocide “makes him queasy,” and he urged people to be “careful about it”.
These are not simply lost opportunities or instances of moral equivocation. They have had a profound and direct impact on Israel’s behavior. The timely intervention of governments, international institutions, high courts, media, and human rights groups would have fundamentally changed the dynamics of the war. Such collective pressure could have forced Israel and its allies to end the war, potentially saving thousands of lives.
Delays born of political calculation and fear of retribution have given Israel the critical space it needed to carry out its genocide. Israel is actively exploiting this lack of legal and moral clarity to persist in its mass slaughter of Palestinians.
This must change. The Palestinian perspective, their suffering, and their truths must be respected and honored without needing validation from Israeli or other sources. The Palestinian voice and their rights must be truly centered, not as an academic cliché or political jargon, but as an undeniable, everyday reality.
As for those who have delayed their verdict regarding the Israeli genocide, no rationale can possibly absolve them. They will be judged by history and by the desperate pleas of Gaza’s mothers and fathers, who tried and failed to save their children from the Israeli killing machine and the world’s collective silence or inaction.
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Tell Me Again, Who Made The Desert Bloom?
Lawrence of Cyberia | March 19, 2010
In December 1945 and January 1946, the British Mandate authorities carried out an extensive survey of Palestine, in support of the work of the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine. The results were published in the Survey of Palestine, which has been scanned and made available online by Palestine Remembered; all 1300 pages can be read here.
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