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Iran fires missiles at ‘terrorists and spies’ near US consulate

RT | January 15, 2024

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had used ballistic missiles against an ISIS base in Syria and a stronghold of the Israeli spy service Mossad in Iraq on Monday, in retaliation for the recent terrorist bombings in Iran.

Two explosions killed almost 100 people in Kerman on January 3, as pilgrims gathered to honor the late General Qassem Soleimani, killed by the US in 2021. Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS) claimed responsibility. Last month, another suicide bombing in the town of Rask killed 11 Iranian police. It was blamed on the Pakistan-based group Jaish Al-Adl.

“In response to the recent crimes of the terrorist groups that unjustly martyred a group of our dear compatriots in Kerman and Rask, we have identified gathering places of commanders and elements of ISIS related to recent terrorist operations in the occupied territories of Syria and destroyed them by firing a number of ballistic missiles,” the IRGC said in a statement.

In a follow-on statement, the IRGC said it had also used missiles against “one of the main espionage headquarters of the Zionist regime (Mossad) in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.”

The attack was “in response to the recent evils of the Zionist regime in martyring the commanders of the Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Resistance Front,” the IRGC added.

“We assure our beloved nation that the offensive operations of the IRGC will continue until the last drops of martyrs’ blood are avenged,” the group said.

While the announcements did not specify the location of either strike, reports from Iraq suggested that the missiles struck the city of Erbil. Iran has attacked alleged Israeli targets in Erbil before, in March 2022, in reprisal over airstrikes in Syria that killed two IRGC officers.

The suspected Mossad base was near the US consulate in Erbil, leading to mistaken reports that the Americans had been targeted.

An Iraqi security source told ABC News that four people were killed in Erbil, but that no American troops were among them. The same source said that “eight locations” near the US consulate had been hit.

Iranian media has circulated several videos purporting to show the missiles being launched. There were unconfirmed reports of multiple explosions and gunfire in Erbil, presumably from air defenses attempting to engage the incoming projectiles.

January 15, 2024 Posted by | Aletho News | , , | Leave a comment

100 days of Israeli genocide in Gaza and 100 lies peddled by regime

By Humaira Ahad | Press TV | January 15, 2024

Since October 7, when the Israeli regime launched its genocidal war on Gaza, the regime and its media as well as their Western apologists have weaponized lies and propaganda against Palestinians.

Over the past 100 days, from “beheading of babies” to “Hamas headquarters” under the Gaza hospitals, the Israeli regime has employed hundreds of lies to justify its unchecked aggression.

Even at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) hearing last week, the Israeli lawyers resorted to flagrant lies to whitewash the regime’s crimes committed in the besieged coastal territory.

Here is the compilation of 100 Israeli lies that characterized the first 100 days of its war on Gaza, all of them already debunked and exposed.

1- Hamas beheaded babies near Israel’s southern border with Gaza on October 7.

2- Hamas fighters laughed and were jubilant after murdering babies, children and settlers.

3- Israeli girls were taken as sex slaves by Hamas fighters.

4- Hamas fighters went door-to-door to hunt down Israeli settlers.

5- Hamas fighters were instructed to pull out organs from people’s bodies and to behead people. Conversely, this is what the regime has been doing with Palestinians.

6- The use of white phosphorus shells in Gaza and Lebanon is “unequivocally false.”

7- Hamas fighters raped Israeli women during its attack on October 7.

8- Hamas entered the homes of Israeli civilians, kidnaped, raped, butchered and burnt their babies.

9- The whole family of an Israeli farmer was reduced to ashes by Hamas on October 7.

10- An Israeli woman’s body was paraded by Hamas as a trophy.

11- Hamas came with a genocidal intent to kill innocent Jews, and if they could, they would have killed everyone.

12- The attack on a civilian convoy fleeing Gaza City on a road identified as a “safe route”, which killed 70 people and wounded 200 others, was not done by Israel.

13- Israel is fighting Hamas, and not the civilian Gazan population, and it is doing so in full compliance with international law.

14- Israel bombed ‘al-Shifa’ hospital because it was a cover for the military operation of Hamas.

15- Ammunition and protective vests used by Hamas fighters were hidden behind M.R.I. machines at al-Shifa hospital, and other ammunition was in nearby storage units and some behind a “blast-proof door”.

16- A paper on a wall of a hospital showed a “list of terrorist names”, which actually was a calendar with days of the week written in Arabic.

17- Israeli regime sent incubators to Gaza hospitals to save premature babies from dying.

18- The projectiles fired by Palestinian fighters hit al-Shifa hospital on November 10.

19- The occupying regime said they targeted a car with “terrorists” in Lebanon. It was later found that the vehicle carried three little girls, their mother, and grandmother.

20- Hamas is holding people as human shields and the evidence is a video. The woman shown in the video was found to be a Mexican-Israeli actor.

21- An ambulance transferred members of Hamas to Rafah crossing (south of Gaza). After the ambulance was attacked, the victims were all civilians.

22- Gaza’s Baptist hospital attack, which killed 500 civilians, was done by Hamas. A fake video was released, transferring the blame to the Palestinian resistance group for the massacre.

23- Israel is doing everything it can to provide humanitarian assistance to babies at the Shifa hospital like sending them incubators and helping to evacuate them.

24- Hamas has its headquarters underneath hospitals in Gaza and is using babies as human shields, so these facilities are legitimate targets.

25- The tunnels under the al-Shifa hospital connect the hospital with other parts of Gaza.

26- The women raped by Hamas had their bones broken and suffered severe injuries.

27- On Jan. 14, Israel hinted at the possibility of pregnancies in female captives “raped” by Hamas. The claims of rape or injuries were never proven.

28- Israeli doctors treating freed captives said they had suffered violent sexual assault.

29- A video shared by Israeli official accounts said several Hamas fighters raped an Israeli woman. They were laughing and the last one shot her in the head.

30- The regime’s medics said a man aged 30 also suffered sexual assault during his captivity at the hands of Hamas. On the contrary, the freed captives were all praise for Hamas.

31- A 12-year-old Israeli captive was beaten by Palestinian civilians during captivity and was told Israel is destroyed.

32- A video of a young girl with a man showed Hamas fighters with a kidnapped Israeli girl.

33- Palestinian fighters were faking injuries. The video was a 2017 report about a makeup artist working on Palestinian films and with charities.

34- Palestinian children killed in the regime’s airstrikes were actually “dolls”, not humans.

35- Hitler’s autobiographical book “Mein Kampf” was found in the bedrooms of Gaza children.

36- Hitler’s picture was kept as the screensaver of tablets used by Palestinian children.

37- Hamas trains children in summer camps to kill Israelis, inciting them to terrorism. They are trained in tunnels and taught to shoot and kidnap, and learn the values of “jihad”.

38- Hamas has used every penny received from the international community to build terror tunnels.

39- Hamas teaches children not to love life but instead become martyrs and laud death.

40- Amid the ongoing war, Hamas has positioned children at the frontline sending them to deliver messages while operatives hide in shelters.

41- Hamas planted explosive devices in kindergartens in Gaza.

42- The complex web of Hamas tunnels located near Rantisi Hospital in Gaza City is equipped with elevators and electrical infrastructure.

43- Israeli army enacted tactical pauses for humanitarian purposes to allow civilians to replenish stocks such as food and water.

44- Food, water, medical supplies and shelter equipment are being transferred to the Gaza Strip regularly. The claim has been refuted by the UN time and again.

45- Israel does not stand in the way of providing any form of humanitarian aid to people in Gaza

46- In January 2024, Israel coordinated and facilitated a new field hospital in southern Gaza with a capacity of 50 beds to help wounded people.

47- Hamas is stifling humanitarian aid efforts for the people of Gaza to force a ceasefire.

48- Israel seeks to bring down civilian casualties in Gaza as much as possible.

49- Hamas fighters are increasingly surrendering to the Israeli military.

50- Israeli military discovered 1500 Hamas tunnels in Gaza since the start of the war.

51- Hamas has a subterranean network in Khan Younis, where key commanders are positioned.

52- Gaza’s civilian population is not the target of Israeli military attacks.

53- Israeli military differentiates between Palestinian civilians and Hamas fighters.

54- Hamas has been hiding its missiles under a little girl’s bed in Gaza.

55- Israeli military found tunnel shafts under children’s beds in Gaza.

56- Weapons manufacturing facilities were unearthed inside mosques in the Gaza Strip and booby traps were seen leading to clinics.

57- Children in Gaza play with puzzles that show Palestinian gunboats attacking Tel Aviv.

58- Israel designed a whole area as a humanitarian zone for Palestinians to escape fighting but Hamas shifted to that humanitarian zone and fired over 100 rockets from there.

59- Hamas violently seizes humanitarian aid convoys and shoots Gazan civilians on their way to southern Gaza.

60- Hamas hijacks aid trucks meant for Gazans and the UN agencies cover it up.

61- Hamas is trying to stop the people of Gaza from moving south to safety as “requested” by Israel.

62- An Israeli has been “murdered” every 6 minutes since the war began on October 7.

63- Israel aims to protect its people, this is a war of self-defense for the regime.

64- Hamas is using Western media to spread lies and carry out their psychological warfare.

65- Hamas has been using a child’s bedroom to shield one of the group’s weapons manufacturing and storage facilities.

66- Israeli military has gone out of its way to protect civilians while shelling Gaza.

67- United Nations is the biggest disappointment since October 7. The secretary general and all the UN agencies are in denial of the truth; they are hypocrites and speak downright lies.

68- Hamas killed 160 Palestinian children to build tunnels and used child labor to construct the underground network.

69- Israeli army captured hundreds of Hamas fighters in Gaza, while the footage showed naked Palestinian civilians being paraded and humiliated by Israeli troops.

70- Hamas built a terror tunnel using UNRWA cement bags in civilian neighborhoods.

71- Hamas is targeting Jewish worshipers and struck a synagogue in Gaza.

72- Hamas has spent billions of dollars in funding on building tunnels, and each tunnel costs around $3 million.

73- Israel’s battle is not against flesh and blood, but it is a spiritual war against darkness.

74- Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza was revealed to be a covert terror base.

75- Israeli army helps civilians in Gaza. It helped an elderly woman to get to a safe zone, dressed the wound of a young girl, and saved a newborn puppy.

76- Hamas hid weapons inside incubators at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza.

77- Gazan physician, Dr Nasser Almadhun, was a Hamas fighter who had been hiding in a hospital.

78- The Israeli military is defending Al Aqsa mosque from Hamas missiles.

79- Hamas fighters, carrying stockpiles of weapons, leave hospitals in Gaza

80- Israel is doing the world a favor by fighting radicalism.

81- The dead body of a kidnapped Israeli woman was found by Israeli forces in a tunnel in Gaza, but it was never released to the media.

82- Israeli army detonated 850 mines in Gaza during its ground operations, however, it never gave an exact figure of its casualties.

83- Israeli forces found Hamas weapons hidden in UNRWA humanitarian bags inside a school in Gaza.

84- Israeli army plans to flood Hamas tunnels in Gaza with seawater.

85- Before the war, 70 food trucks entered Gaza but now the average is 109 food trucks facilitated by Israel.

86- A video was posted by Israeli officials, claiming that Palestinian fighters were “staging” war scenes. The video used was a Lebanese artistic tribute to Gaza.

87- One of Israel’s top diplomats shared a video showing people in Gaza watching footage of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, however, it was found to be an Al Jazeera video of the war.

88- Israel posted photos showing “the teeth of children killed on October 7”. The pictures were of porcelain crowns or fake adult teeth.

89- The Israeli army claimed that underneath the city of Khan Yunis was an underground tunnel holding Israeli hostages. The tunnel is beneath a civilian area.

90- Al Jazeera Journalists Hamza al Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuria were members of Hamas. Thuria was deputy commander in Hamas’ Gaza city brigade and Dahdouh was working with Islamic Jihad’s electronic engineering unit and previously served as deputy commander.

91- AK-47 rifles, cartridges, mortar shells, grenades and combat equipment were found in Gaza’s Islamic University.

92- The largest Hamas weapons production site in Gaza is located in Bureij, in central Gaza.

93- In a densely populated area like Jabalya, the Israeli army evacuated locals to protect them.

94- Israel has been helping in the delivery of medical aid to Gaza. Along with the UN, it helped in the delivery of 49,000 vaccines to Gaza on December 29.

95- Toy boxes were filled with mortar shells, warheads, and anti-tank missiles in a kindergarten in Gaza used by Hamas.

96- Israel aborts attacks on Gaza if it sees unexpected civilian presence.

97- Hamas connected dolls to speakers playing crying sounds and set them in an area rigged with explosives to ambush Israeli troops.

98- Hamas used a room in a mosque in Jabalya for rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) training. Ammunition was found inside UNRWA bags. Again a manipulated video to back the claim.

99- Israel is doing philanthropic activities in Gaza. In December, it assisted in the evacuation of patients from Al-Ahli Hospital to UAE field hospital
Rafah. The fact is that the regime bombarded the Al-Ahli hospital in October, killing 500 people.

100- School curriculums in Hamas-ruled Gaza promote antisemitic ideology.

January 15, 2024 Posted by | Deception, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , | Leave a comment

Asymmetric Warfare: Why the Houthis Can Beat the Collective West

By Russell Bentley – Sputnik – 14.01.2024

Dr. Michael Parenti once said, “Economic violence is physical violence in slow motion.” The economic sanctions against Iraq in the 1990’s led directly to the deaths of half a million Iraqi children. Economic sanctions can be a weapon as deadly as any artillery shell or cruise missile.

The Houthis might at first appear to be vastly outmatched by the US/UK armada that has struck Yemen, but militarily and economically, the US and Europe are actually much more vulnerable than the Houthis. To put it simply, in both economic and military terms, the US, UK and Europe, and Israel, have a lot more to lose.

The Houthis are not alone – Hezbollah, considered to be one of the most effective fighting forces in the world today, has an estimated 100,000 highly trained and motivated and very well armed soldiers in Lebanon, and is already at (undeclared, but de facto) war with Israel, and will probably escalate in the next few days. In October, 1983, Hezbollah was able to kill 305 US and French occupation soldiers at a cost of only 2 KIA on the Hezbollah side.

Of the US and French soldiers, 220 were US Marines, the greatest single loss in one day of US Marines since the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945. In the 2006 Hezbollah-Israeli War, in which Israel invaded southern Lebanon, Hezbollah was able to inflict “unacceptable casualties” on Israeli forces, which resulted in the withdrawal of IDF forces and the signing of UNSC1701. While the Lebanese casualties were significantly higher than Israeli, the conflict is generally seen as a tactical and strategic defeat for Israel. Israel and their US/EU allies would do well to remember both of these battles before continuing to escalate an already extremely volatile situation beyond the point of no return.

Escalation between Hezbollah and the IDF on Lebanon’s southern border will not only expand the current area of conflict into the eastern Mediterranean, it can quickly become a serious threat to the Israeli city of Haifa, only 20 miles from the Lebanese border. Haifa is Israel’s 3rd largest city, with a population of around 300,000. The Port of Haifa is Israel’s second largest by cargo tonnage, and the Haifa oil refinery (the largest, and one of only two in Israel) processes more than 66 million barrels of crude oil per year, more than a million barrels per week. The port, and especially the refinery would be prime targets, and significant damage to either, especially the refinery, would have serious repercussions for the Israeli economy.

The “massive attack” by US/UK naval forces against the Houthis involved airstrikes, as well as approximately 100 cruise missiles, at a cost of more than $1 million each. According to reports published by the Houthi military command and Western media, the attack killed five Houthis. Now, do the math. The US and UK just spent a collective $100 million to kill 5 Houthis and escalate and exacerbate an already volatile situation. Based on assurances from the Houthi government that only Israeli-connected shipping was under threat, the majority of Red Sea shipping traffic had actually continued the Red Sea unhindered.

This is no longer the case. As of January 13th, after the US/UK attacks and their possible continuation, the International Association of Independent Tanker Owners (Intertanko), which represents almost 70 per cent of all internationally traded oil, gas and chemical tankers, said in an advisory to members to “stay well away” from the Bab al Mendab strait, and for vessels travelling south via the Suez Canal to pause north of Yemen. This major disruption of tanker traffic may well have an upward influence on oil prices, coming as it does right on the heels of Saudi Aramco’s announcement of a $2 per barrel discount beginning in February.

The Huthis don’t even have to shoot at any more ships – just the threat of the possibility of Houthi or coalition missiles being fired has been enough to disrupt Red Sea shipping traffic, which carries 12% of all global trade goods, and a staggering 30% of all container goods. It is actually the US/UK “coalition” that has escalated the situation to dangerous levels that now interfere with much more shipping, including tanker traffic.

January 14, 2024 Posted by | Economics, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Wars for Israel | , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

‘Witch hunts in Israel’: Teacher placed in solitary confinement for criticizing Gaza killings

Press TV – January 14, 2024

The Israeli regime has held a history teacher in solitary confinement and fired him for raising concerns on social media about the Zionist forces killing of Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip and criticizing the military.

Meir Baruchin was kept in solitary confinement in a high-security jail in early November, over a series of Facebook posts he’d made, mourning the civilians killed in Gaza, criticizing the Israeli military, and warning against wars of revenge.

“Horrific images are pouring in from Gaza. Entire families were wiped out. I don’t usually upload pictures like this, but look what we do in revenge,” said his message on 8 October, a day after the Israeli regime started a genocidal war in Gaza in response to Hamas’ October 7 Operation Al-Aqsa Strom.

“Anyone who thinks this is justified because of what happened yesterday should unfriend themselves. I ask everyone else to do everything possible to stop this madness. Stop it now. Not later, Now!!!” he wrote below a picture of the family of Abu Daqqa, killed in one of the first airstrikes on Gaza.

Ten days after that Facebook message, he was fired from his teaching job in Petach Tikvah municipality. Less than a month later he was in the solitary confinement wing of al-Qud’s notorious “Russian Compound” prison, detained to give police more time to investigate critical views he had never tried to hide.

Baruchin was initially told to come to a police station for questioning over charges of sedition. When he pointed out to police that they needed a warrant from the attorney general to charge an Israeli citizen with that offense, treason charges were duly drawn up.

When he arrived at the police station, his arms and ankles were cuffed, and he was shown a warrant to search his home. Five detectives escorted him there, turned his apartment upside down, and eventually confiscated two laptops and six hard drives. The police then asked for more time to investigate, and a judge ordered that he be detained.

“I wasn’t allowed to take anything with me to the cell,” he told the Observer. “I walked in with my clothes on and stayed with the same clothes for four days. There were cold-water showers, a tiny piece of soap, two blankets stinking from cigarette smoke, and a tiny towel,” he said.

He was interrogated again before a second judge ordered his release.

But he is living on savings while he waits for the verdict and even if he wins the treason charges have not been dropped: he could live in their shadow for five years, the limit for the police to prosecute.

He is not the only teacher to be targeted. Authorities also summoned Yael Ayalon, head of a Tel Aviv high school, after she shared a Haaretz article warning that Israeli media was hiding the suffering of Gaza’s civilians. “Israeli citizens need to be aware of this reality,” the piece said.

“This story is much bigger than my personal story, or Yael’s personal story. It is a time of witch hunts in Israel, of political persecution,” he said. “I became a ‘Hamas supporter’ because I expressed my opposition to targeting innocent civilians.”

He said he’d received hundreds of private messages of support from fellow teachers and students who were too frightened to go public, and showed several to the Observer.

“The message is crystal clear: keep silent, watch out,” he says, adding that they strengthened his conviction about speaking out. “I thought to myself, when I retire, I might conclude this is the most significant lesson I ever gave in civics.”

He still follows what is happening in Gaza closely, and flicks on his phone through images of the recent dead, a journalist, a violinist, a baby.

His latest post before the interview with the Observer was an image of an improvised grave marker, that looks like part of a broken piece of furniture. “Unknown martyr, green jacket and trainers,” the inscription reads.

“The whole story in one picture,” he says. “The Israeli mainstream media don’t broadcast this picture. They don’t get this picture, and don’t want to get this picture.”

January 14, 2024 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

How Israeli legal squad fumbled, failed, got exposed at ICJ genocide hearing

By Ivan Kesic | Press TV | January 14, 2024

South Africa on Thursday presented compelling evidence of the Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which was followed by incoherent rhetoric by a team of lawyers representing Tel Aviv, who tried to defend the indefensible.

The team of lawyers representing the South African government presented an exhaustive, well-researched 84-page document at the top UN court in the Hague, explaining that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, by using a variety of methods.

They include causing serious bodily and mental hurt, forced evacuation of people, widespread hunger, and bringing about “physical destruction” of people in the small besieged territory.

In their opening remarks, the South African team said they “place Israel’s genocidal acts and omissions within the broader context of Israel’s 56-year occupation, 25-year apartheid, and 16-year siege imposed on the Gaza Strip.”

“The point is not simply that Israel is acting disproportionately. The point is that the prohibition on genocide is an absolute,” said Vaughan Lowe, one of the South African lawyers.

More than 23,500 people have already been killed in Gaza in the past 100 days, a vast majority of them children and women. Thousands more are lost under rubble and presumed dead.

Physicians, aid workers and journalists have also been killed deliberately by the Israeli regime’s forces, and the damage to the civil infrastructure is enormous and disproportionate to anything seen before.

On Thursday, the legal team representing South Africa requested that the court issue emergency measures to stop the relentless aerial bombardment and ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.

With this action, South Africa showed that its people still remember and respect Nelson Mandela’s words: “We know very well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”

In its Friday counter-submission, lawyers representing the Israeli regime laid out its “defense”.

Led by veteran British lawyer Malcolm Shaw, the team of lawyers argued that South Africa’s application “distorted” and “decontextualized” Israeli military actions in Gaza.

The team of lawyers representing the regime also made some outlandish claims, repeating lies peddled by the Israeli and Western media, such as the beheading of babies and hospitals not being bombarded.

The lie about Israeli children “beheaded” by the Hamas was debunked long ago. Even the Israeli media recently admitted that the Oct. 7 killings were linked to the regime’s military in line with the so-called Hannibal Directive.

The claim that no hospitals have been bombed by the Israeli regime in Gaza also holds no water. Images of dozens of hospitals being attacked and inmates being killed have been doing rounds on social media.

Such was the confusion that Shaw misplaced a page of his presentation, cutting a sorry figure.

Tal Becker, a legal adviser for the regime’s foreign ministry, presented opening statements, arguing that South Africa had “ignored” the events of October 7 and that Israel had “the right to defend itself.”

He also told the court that the Genocide Convention was drawn up in the aftermath of the Holocaust and that the phrase “never again” is one of “the highest moral obligations” for Israel.

Becker rejected requests for an interim order, arguing South Africa is trying to deny Israel “the opportunity to meet its obligations” to the captives.

Legal experts were quick to criticize Becker’s presentation, primarily because it moralizes based on anachronistic events from World War II, irrelevant to contemporary politics.

This represents the continuation of decades of the Zionist victimhood narrative, by which the Israeli regime’s crimes and dirty policies are sought to be justified by victims from the past.

Becker manipulatively accused South Africa of ignoring October 7, specifically Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, the catastrophic Israeli military defeat that the regime likes to manipulate to be an alleged “war crime.”

In reality, South Africa resolutely placed the genocide in the context of the long-term Israeli occupation, apartheid and siege of Gaza, which the Israeli regime ignored in its presentation and invoked its own interpretation on October 7.

Legal experts point out that Israel’s arguments were abysmally weak and incoherent because no events of that date give the right to a war crime of a disproportionate nature.

They further argue that as an occupying entity that has grabbed the land of Palestine by force, the Israeli regime does not have “the right to self-defense” so this argument also does not hold water.

In 2003, the ICJ ruled that an occupying power cannot claim the right to self-defense, in a case involving Israel’s construction of a separation wall in the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli regime’s legal team claimed that South Africa’s accusation about Zionist officials harboring an inherent intent to destroy the Palestinian people was based on “random assertions.”

That is also a shoddy argument since top regime officials, including parliamentarians, the war minister, the president and the premier have called for genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

After Israel’s final “defense,” South Africa’s Minister of Justice Ronald Lamolathe said the Israeli regime has suffered a shameful defeat.

He also rejected flawed Israeli denials, stressing that genocide “is never declared in advance” and evidence for 13 weeks is at the disposal of the ICJ that shows the Israeli regime has committed genocide.

Ivan Kesic is an independent journalist and researcher.

January 14, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Namibia president rebukes Germany’s support for Israel in genocide case

Press TV – January 14, 2024

Namibia’s President Hage Geingob has categorically censured Germany’s support for the 100-day Israeli war on the besieged Gaza Strip.

Geingob’s condemnation came in a statement late on Saturday after Germany became the first country to legally intervene on Israel’s behalf at the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) and defend the occupying regime’s genocidal war on Gaza.

Geingob said Berlin committed the first genocide of the 20th century on Namibian soil and “is yet to fully atone for the genocide.”

He was referring to the German colonial forces’ massacre of indigenous Namibians between 1904 and 1908, during which tens of thousands of people lost their lives, with Germany refusing to accept responsibility for reparations.

The Namibian president expressed “deep concern with the shocking decision communicated by the Germany government, on 12 January, 2024, in which it rejected the morally upright indictment brought forward by South Africa before the ICJ that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.”

Voicing concern, the statement said, “Ignoring the violent deaths of over 23,000 Palestinians in Gaza and various United Nations reports disturbingly highlighting the internal displacement of 85% of civilians in Gaza amid acute shortages of food and essential services.”

Underscoring the Israeli regime’s gruesome acts against innocent civilians in Gaza, Geingob said, “Germany cannot morally express commitment to the United Nations Convention against genocide, including atonement for the genocide in Namibia, whilst supporting the equivalent of a holocaust and genocide in Gaza.”

The Namibian president called on the German government “to reconsider its untimely decision to intervene as a third-party in defense and support of the genocidal acts of Israel before the ICJ.”

During the ICJ’s two days of hearings earlier in the week, South Africa instituted proceedings that accused Israel of genocide against Palestinians and said the regime’s aggression aimed to bring about “the destruction of the population” of Gaza.

German officials had previously rejected the accusation of genocide brought against Israel by the international community and claimed that the brutal aggression was part of “self-defense” against the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.

The Israeli regime waged the war on Gaza on October 7 after Hamas-led Palestinian resistance groups carried out the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime’s atrocities against Palestinians.

Since the start of the aggression, Israel has killed more than 23,843 Palestinians, mostly women and children. Nearly 60,317 Palestinians have also been wounded, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The Tel Aviv regime has also imposed a “complete siege” on the territory, cutting off fuel, electricity, food, and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.

January 14, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

100 Days of Ongoing Genocide in Gaza Amid the International Community’s Failure to Protect Palestinians

Al-Haq | January 14, 2024

Today, 14 January 2024, Israel’s genocidal military campaign against Gaza enters its hundredth day. Over this period, Al Mezan, Al-Haq, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) have monitored and exposed the plethora of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts constituting genocide committed by the Israeli authorities and military across the occupied Palestinian territory, with its epicenter in Gaza. A hundred days later, the international community still falls short of fulfilling its duty to protect the Palestinian people.

The Israeli military is killing an average of 250 Palestinians per day in Gaza, a higher daily death rate than any other twenty-first-century armed conflict. In 100 days, Israeli attacks have killed one out of every 100 Palestinians in Gaza and injured—often with life-altering wounds—at least two Palestinians in every 100. As we write, thousands of Palestinians remain buried under rubble, whether dead or alive, some enduring this situation for days or even weeks. Hundreds of bodies are in a state of decay, deprived of the right to a dignified burial, as Israel continues to deny medical and rescue teams access to areas where its troops and soldiers are deployed.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, between 7 October 2023 and 12 January 2024, Israel’s genocidal military campaign in Gaza killed 23,843 Palestinians and wounded 60,317 more. According to the Government Media Office in Gaza, among those killed are approximately 10,400 children, 7,100 women, 337 medical personnel, 45 civil defense personnel, and 117 journalists. Our teams on the ground emphasize that the actual number of fatalities is considerably higher than the figure announced by the Ministry of Health, as a substantial number of individuals remain trapped under the rubble.

This chilling death and injury toll occurs amidst a deliberately imposed humanitarian crisis by the Israeli authorities upon the 2.3 million Palestinian residents of Gaza. Ninety percent of Palestinians have been displaced from their homes, with many experiencing displacement on multiple occasions, notwithstanding that there is not a single place in Gaza that can be called safe. Israel employs starvation as a method of warfare: 2.3 million residents of Gaza, including our staff, face significant daily challenges in accessing food and water. Reports of deaths from hunger, particularly among children, newborns and infants, are beginning to surface. The situation is particularly catastrophic in northern Gaza, where the presence of Israeli soldiers and troops on the ground has made the delivery of humanitarian aid to hundreds of thousands of civilians who are still located there virtually impossible.

Due to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, every facet of life there has faced utter destruction. The local healthcare system has crumbled as Israel has declared an “unrelenting war” on the health system in Gaza, rendering it incapable of delivering essential care to the injured, sick individuals, and everyday patients. Educational pursuits have been severely disrupted, with Israeli attacks causing complete destruction to 95 schools and universities, and partial damage to 295 others, as reported by the Government Media Office in Gaza. Israeli airstrikes destroyed 145 mosques, while another 243 were partially damaged. Three churches have been destroyed by Israeli attacks, along with numerous archaeological and historical sites, as well as significant cultural landmarks, contributing to the erasure of Palestinian history and life throughout Gaza.

Simultaneously with the genocide in Gaza, Israel escalated attacks against Palestinians all across historic Palestine. In the occupied West Bank, between 7 October 2023 and 12 January 2024, the Israeli military and settlers killed 336 Palestinians, including 84 children. Over the same period of time, Israel started a campaign of mass arrest: since 7 October, at least 5875 Palestinians have been detained, as further punitive measures have been imposed on them and the existing 5,200 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, including administrative detainees. Palestinians in Israeli custody and detention are subjected to torture, ill-treatment, inhumane or degrading treatment, and enforced disappearances. The Israel Prison Service announced the ‘death’ of at least seven Palestinian detainees and prisoners. Palestinians holding Israeli citizenship have also experienced various forms of persecution, including arbitrary arrests, threats of citizenship revocation, and a severe crackdown on freedom of speech.

Al Mezan, Al-Haq, and PCHR reiterate that the Palestinian people in Gaza are facing an ongoing genocide. Israel’s actions in Gaza—encompassing killings, causing severe bodily or mental harm, deliberately imposing conditions of life aimed at physical destruction, and imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group—constitute genocidal acts under the 1948 Genocide Convention. These acts are committed with the intent to destroy, either wholly or in part, the Palestinian population in Gaza. This intent is substantiated by statements from official Israeli sources and individuals expressing the clear intention to carry out such destruction.

The recent address from the Israeli Prime Minister, delivered last night, underscores the lack of any inclination on Israel’s part to cease its genocidal military campaign in Gaza. The remarks made during this speech also underline Israel’s refusal to implement a ceasefire in Gaza, in violation of the United Nations General Assembly Resolution A/ES-10/L.27 adopted on 10 December 2023, highlighting the urgency for the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to promptly issue provisional measures.

To this end, we urge the ICJ to swiftly issue provisional measures instructing Israel to cease military operations, refrain from genocidal acts in Gaza, and facilitate the entry of aid and fact-finding teams for accountability purposes, as requested by South Africa. We additionally call on all State Parties to the Genocide Convention to express their endorsements and formally support the legal proceedings initiated by South Africa at the ICJ.

We reiterate our plea to the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Ms. Alice Wairimu Nderitu, to officially acknowledge and publicly affirm that Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip amount to genocide. Additionally, we urge her to condemn the genocidal rhetoric emanating from Israeli officials and emphasize the inherent dangers that such rhetoric poses to the international community.

Under international law, States must not recognize illegal situations as legitimate and must refrain from assisting in maintaining the illegal situation. States must also impose a two-way arms embargo on Israel and stop the provision and transit of military equipment that may foreseeably be used in the commission of international crimes.

Responsibility at the State level should be accompanied by individual criminal accountability. We strongly reiterate our calls on the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to promptly issue arrest warrants for Israeli political, security and military officials—especially governmental officials and high-ranking military personel—believed to be responsible for perpetrating, ordering, planning, and instigating international crimes, including genocide, committed over the past 100 days as well as since 13 June 2014.

Israel’s international crimes against the Palestinian people must cease immediately and permanently. To this end, the international community must not only hold Israel and the Israeli authorities accountable, but address the root causes by dismantling Israel’s settler-colonial and apartheid regime, and ensuring that all discriminatory and inhumane laws, policies and practices against the Palestinian people are abolished once and for all. The international community must also urge Israel, the Occupying Power, to immediately and unconditionally withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territory, lift the closure and blockade of Gaza, and enable the Palestinian people to fully exercise their inalienable right to self-determination, including their right to return.

January 14, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Genocide Will Not Save Israel

By Paul Larudee – Global Research – January 12, 2023

I wish I could see a way that Gaza can escape genocide, but I can’t. The global mobilization of millions of people, including you and me, is inspirational, as is the stunning work by small independent journalists, upon whom we now rely for the truth, in contrast to the fiction peddled by the mainstream coddlers of racist mass murderers and their professional Zionist prevaricators tasked with persuading us all that black is white, filth is clean and countless child deaths by disease, starvation, thirst and exposure is self defense.

Even more inspiring is the dedication and courage of Palestinian journalists in Gaza, like Hamza Dahdouh and more than 110 others that  have given their lives so that no one can ignore the carnage for even a moment, not even those who are assassinating them so that they cannot report that they are being assassinated. And the doctors, nurses, paramedics, and orderlies, who carry on the profession of medicine when there is no medicine, nor dressings, nor ambulances, nor even hospitals, so that at the very least we can count the casualties and measure the size of the crime.

But do we have the power to stop the monstrous actors from the bottom of Hell and their apologists who rule over us? Perhaps mathematically we do, but I have no confidence that we are organized enough or radical enough to make it happen. I don’t blame anyone other than the criminals themselves, because I am no better than anyone else who is trying to stop them. While I do what I think I can, I wallow with the rest of you in our collective helplessness.

On the other hand, the resistance fighters are not helpless. They have planned and trained and armed themselves by incredible feats of will, discipline and perseverance. They care nothing for the lies that are fabricated about them. They care only for their mission and their pride in refusing to do to their persecutors what is being done to their brothers and sisters in Palestine – only to do what is necessary to achieve liberation from the crushing oppression which they have been forced to endure for so long. They will prevail.

As I have said previously, Israel’s only strategy is genocide, and I fear that they will achieve it. But genocide will not save Israel. Hamas and all the resistance forces will outlast the Zionist project. They will outlast even the unthinkable mass murder an/or expulsion of two million of their brothers and sisters. The half million Zionists that have abandoned the “Jewish Home” since October 7th, 2023 will fulfill different dreams on other shores. The former “settlements” in the “Gaza envelope” and the northern frontiers will not return. Israel will never resurrect its economy, and it will be an even bigger pariah to the rest of the world than ever before.

Will the International Court of Justice save Gaza? I think not. Even in the unlikely event that South Africa wins its case and the court enjoins Israel from its genocidal practices, who will enforce the ruling? And it’s quite possible that the game is rigged, the deck stacked, and that the ruling will go against South Africa.

I know your compulsion to save the population of Gaza. It is my compulsion, too. I could never live with myself if I didn’t do everything in my power to prevent this horror. My heart with its triple bypass demands it. But my head tells me that the odds are against us. My only consolation is that the current storm is pushing the Zionist ship straight toward the rocks, and that nothing will save it. Not even genocide.


Paul Larudee is a retired academic and current administrator of a nonprofit human rights and humanitarian aid organization. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.   Larudee is a member of the Syria Support Movement Executive Board.

January 14, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism | , , | Leave a comment

The Hague won’t stop us – Netanyahu

RT | January 13, 2024

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed at a press conference on Saturday not to let the genocide case being taken against his country at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) stand in the way of continuing his country’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

“No one will stop us – not The Hague, not the Axis of Evil, and no one else. It is possible and necessary to continue until victory and we will do it,” he said.

While the term “Axis of Evil” was first used in a speech by then-US president George W Bush to refer to Iraq, Iran and North Korea – at the time believed to be Washington’s chief enemies equipped with “weapons of mass destruction” later shown to be almost entirely mythological – it’s not clear whether Netanyahu intended to slight Pyongyang. However, North Korean state media did argue in an editorial posted shortly after the October 7 attack by Hamas that West Jerusalem had brought the raid upon itself with its “constant criminal acts against the Palestinian people.”

Elsewhere in the speech, the Israeli leader used the term to refer to Iran, the Houthis of Yemen, Hezbollah, and Hamas itself – a loose coalition that has elsewhere been described as the “Axis of Resistance” for its opposition to US and Israeli power in the region.

Hearings into alleged genocide against Israel began earlier this week at the ICJ in The Hague in the Netherlands, with South Africa making the case that Israel has engaged in actions “intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnic group.”

West Jerusalem has countered that it is Hamas actually that is harboring genocidal intent against Israelis and argued it is justified in attempting to “eliminate” the militant group it blames for 1,200 Israeli deaths on October 7 – no matter the resulting harm to the civilian population.

Israel Defense Forces troops have since admitted they were ordered to fire on Israelis in the border kibbutzes and desert rave during the Hamas raid, raising questions about how many of the casualties were actually killed by Palestinians as opposed to IDF tank fire and airstrikes.

January 13, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Venezuelan FM Condemns the US Attacks on Yemen

teleSUR – January 13, 2024

The Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil, strongly condemned the USA, United Kingdom and other countries’ attacks on Yemen, through a formal statement on his X account.

Gil emphasized that those are an illegal action that violates International Law and that only contributes to generating greater destabilization in the region.

“Venezuela insists that the only way to guarantee peace and stability in the Middle East is through the cessation of the genocide in the Gaza Strip, carried out by Israel,” reads the communique.

As well, Venezuela asks the immediate compliance with all United Nations resolutions for the establishment of a free and sovereign Palestinian State.

The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela join to the countries that urges the international community to exert all necessary pressure measures to reestablish international legality and justice in the area, avoiding an escalation of the conflict caused by Israeli barbarity in Palestine.

Other FMs, like the Russian and the Cuban, also condemned the military attacks by the US & NATO allies in Yemen. They considered that such acts encourage genocide in Gaza and reiterated their call for an immediate cease-fire in the Palestinian enclave.

January 13, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Remembering Tom Hurndall

A Poster in memory of British peace activist Thomas Hurndall on January 16, 2004 in Rafah refugee camp, Gaza Strip. [Abid Katib/Getty Images]
MEMO | January 13, 2024

On this day in 2004, British photography student Tom Hurndall died in a hospital in London, having never regained consciousness after being shot in the head by an Israeli sniper nine months earlier while volunteering with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in the Gaza Strip.

What: Death of Tom Hurndall

Where: London

When: 13 January, 2004

Who was Tom Hurndall?

Born on 27 November 1981, in London, Tom Hurndall was a photography student at Manchester Metropolitan University, ISM volunteer and an activist against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. His photographs and journal entries capture the often distressing and occasionally inspiring moments he witnessed and lived through while staying with local families in Iraq, in a Jordanian refugee camp, and in the Gaza Strip.

In early 2003, Hurndall joined the anti-war movement against the Iraq invasion, relocating there before moving to Jordan to contribute to medical aid for Iraqi refugees. It was during this time that he discovered the ISM, an organisation advocating non-violent protest against the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

What happened?

On 6 April, 2003, Tom moved to Rafah in the Gaza Strip, hoping to document the oppressive living conditions of the Palestinians. His journals reflect a dramatic change in tone upon his arrival in Palestine as he began emailing images of the Israel Defence Forces and Palestinians back to his family. “No one could say I wasn’t seeing what needs to be seen now,” he wrote.

He even noted the death of 23-year-old Rachel Corrie, who had been crushed to death on 16 March 2003 by an Israeli armoured bulldozer while trying to stop a Palestinian home from being destroyed. “I wonder how few or many people heard it on the news and just counted it as another death, just another number…”

On 11 April, Hurndall, along with fellow ISM activists, aimed to set up a peace tent on a road in Rafah to impede IDF tank patrols. It was then that Israeli snipers began shooting. As they sought cover, the young man noticed a group of children in the line of the fire. Some had run for cover, but three children stood paralysed with fear.

“He sprinted to where the children were, picked one up and carried her to safety. When he went to collect a second child, he was shot in the head by an IDF soldier, Taysir Al-Hayb.”

Bleeding on the ground, less than a week after his move to Palestine, Tom Hurndall was unarmed when he was shot, wearing a bright orange jacket identifying him as an international volunteer (as was Rachel Corrie when she was killed), and was plainly visible to Israeli sniper towers. According to other ISM activists, “There was no shooting or resistance coming from the Palestinian side at all.”

It was reported that an ambulance came very quickly to where Hurndall lay, about two minutes after the shooting. However, it was then delayed by the Israelis for up to two hours.

What happened next?

Hurndall was taken to a hospital in Rafah, where he was declared to be clinically dead. Transferred by the IDF to a hospital in Beersheba, he was kept on a ventilator and operated on. From there he was flown six weeks later to the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability in London. The brain damage was irreversible and, after nine months in a persistent vegetative state, he died on 13 January, 2004. He was 22 years old.

Meanwhile, the IDF’s initial “routine internal inquiry” claimed that Hurndall was “accidentally shot in the crossfire” and implied that his ISM group served as “human shields”. However, this account was contested by witnesses, who insisted that he was struck by a rifle bullet while attempting to protect Palestinian children, rather than being caught in any crossfire.

The Hurndall family applied pressure on the Israeli and British governments, prompting the then British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to order an additional investigation in October 2003.

Eventually, in 2005, sniper Al-Hayb was convicted of manslaughter by an Israeli court and sentenced to eight years in prison, of which he served six and a half years, it being declared that he “no longer poses any danger.” During his trial, the soldier claimed that a policy of shooting unarmed civilians was in place at the time.

“On the very street where Tom was shot, two children had been shot just days before,” said human rights activist Raphael Cohen, who was with Tom Hurndall on the day that he was shot. “This is why he and the rest of the group went to that spot, to protest against the shooting of children as they played outside their homes. There has never been any investigation into the shootings of those children.” Indeed, the killing of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers and police, and illegal settlers, rarely leads to convictions.

According to the Telegraph, Hurndall’s sister Sophie said that her family wasn’t informed by the Israeli authorities about Al-Hayb’s release. Instead, the news was delivered by the British foreign office.

“We have not had time to regroup or work out what is going on. We have barely had time to process the news and we all feel angry and shocked,” she said, adding that they had long feared such a thing would happen. “We have had to deal with cover ups and lies and a total lack of accountability throughout – and this is in line with that. It’s symptomatic.”

She added that the family was not so much angry about Hayb’s actions, but rather the IDF’s and Israeli authorities’ casual attitude when it comes to harming Palestinian civilians. “To be honest, it’s about the system. Not the man himself. This man who shot Tom was the same age as him. He is both the victim and the killer. He is part of a system that proactively encourages soldiers to target [Palestinian] civilians.”

The soldier’s early release, she added, sent a message to Israeli soldiers that they can act with impunity. “So many innocent people were killed in so many horrific ways. They just don’t seem to care about anyone.”

Tom Hurndall’s sister expressed her anger at and disappointment in her own government and Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair. “It’s incredibly sad. One of the things that happened to me since my brother was killed is that I have lost faith in humanity. I cannot believe that people can do such things, and that my own government can sit by and keep quiet.”

The Hurndall family, especially Tom’s mother Jocelyn and Sophie, continue to be active in the Palestine solidarity movement, along with his close friends. His contribution to the cause has been honoured through conferences, a film and a book.

January 13, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism | , , , , , | Leave a comment