Norway closes its Palestine office after Israel revokes status of diplomats
Press TV – August 16, 2024
Norway has announced the closure of its Representative Office in al-Ram, Palestine, after Israel’s “extreme” decision to revoke the diplomatic status of several Norwegian diplomats.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said it was an “extreme and unreasonable” decision made by the regime.
“This decision seeks to target the Palestinians and the Palestinian Authority and all those who defend international law, the two-state solution and the Palestinians’ legitimate right to self-determination.”
The minister vowed that his country will continue to support the Palestinian people “with full force.”
“We will do our utmost to ensure that this does not affect our work for Palestine and for a viable Palestinian state. Our commitment will continue with full force.”
He noted that the Israeli decision obviously “has consequences for our work in Palestine.”
“It affects our locally employed staff. Many of them have worked at the representative office for several years. It also affects our diplomats and their families. We are now fully focused on how to safeguard our employees and our work in the best possible way,” Eide said.
Earlier this month, Israel revoked the diplomatic status of eight Norwegian diplomats who had been working in Norway’s representative office to the Palestinian Authority.
Ties between Oslo and Tel Aviv have been deteriorating since Norway recognized the state of Palestine in May.
More than two-thirds of the United Nations, approximately 140 countries, already recognize a Palestinian state.
Hezbollah reveals massive underground base, reminds Israel retaliation imminent
The Cradle | August 16, 2024
Hezbollah released a video on 16 August showcasing a highly secretive underground facility, which serves as a missile storage and launch site.
The video is titled “Our mountains are our storage sites,” indicating that the underground facility is part of Hezbollah’s large and sophisticated tunnel network built underneath southern Lebanon’s mountainous terrain.
The facility is named Imad-4, after the late Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh, who was assassinated by Israel in 2008.
The video starts by showing motorcycles and trucks equipped with missile launch pads moving through the facility’s long tunnels. Later, one of the trucks is seen positioning to fire missiles out of the facility as a tunnel entrance opens up.
Al Mayadeen said on Friday that the facility’s name, Imad-4, indicates that other sites like it exist.
It sends the message that Hezbollah “is not afraid to go to war, and is prepared for it if [Israel] decides to go too far in escalation and aggression,” the outlet wrote.
It also serves as the “obituary” of Israel’s “battle between wars,” the campaign of airstrikes on Syria which aims to stifle the flow of weapons to Hezbollah.
“The capabilities of the Islamic Resistance, especially missiles, are fully prepared to defend Lebanon … the secrecy of the site allows Hezbollah’s missile capabilities to be immune from any preemptive Israeli strikes,” as well as from Israeli espionage and intelligence warfare, according to Al Mayadeen.
The video is a reminder that “even if the retaliation for the targeting of the southern suburbs and the assassination of martyr Fuad Shukr, and the killing of civilians is delayed for several reasons, it will surely come,” Al Mayadeen went on to say.
In the video, excerpts from speeches by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah are heard. “Our next battle with Israel will span across the entirety of occupied Palestine,” Nasrallah is heard saying in the clip.
Hebrew newspaper Maariv referred to the video as Hezbollah’s “psychological pressure” on Israel.
Israeli journalist for the Ynet news site, Lior Ben Ari, called the video “disturbing” and said it should be “examined in depth.”
“The video revealed an underground facility called “Emad 4” that launches missiles underground, but not only. The video reveals huge tunnels, lit, equipped with computers, which allow motorcycles and trucks to pass easily. Did someone say Philadelphi [Corridor]?” he added sarcastically, referring to Hamas’ tunnel network under the Gaza–Egypt border, seemingly indicating that the Hezbollah facility is much more sophisticated.
Hezbollah is known to have a large and advanced secretive network of tunnels under south Lebanon.
In February, French newspaper Liberation reported that the network is remarkably sophisticated, spanning hundreds of kilometers and even reaching into Syria.
Dr Andreas Krieg, an assistant professor at King’s College London, told The Cradle last month: “There are different types of tunnels: surface-level tunnels used for moving operatives and materials, which can be destroyed from the air; and deeper, concrete-reinforced tunnels that serve as command centers and armories. The deeper tunnels, some up to 60 meters underground, are almost impervious to Israeli airstrikes and were built with support from North Korea and Iran.”
These tunnels constituted a major obstacle for Israel in the 2006 war.
The new video comes as Tel Aviv is in high anticipation over Hezbollah’s promised retaliation to the killing of top commander Fuad Shukr and several civilians, including children, in Beirut late last month – which was followed by the assassination of Hamas chief and lead negotiator Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
The Islamic Republic has also promised to retaliate to Haniyeh’s assassination.
Hezbollah unveils underground Imad 4 missile facility
Al Mayadeen | August 16, 2024
Hezbollah, the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon, has released a new video showcasing a sophisticated underground facility and an extensive tunnel network, complete with missile launchpads.
The video titled “Our Mountains, Our Strongholds” features the Imad 4 facility, which highlights the Resistance’s missile capabilities.
The footage reveals Hezbollah freedom fighters inside a sophisticated underground complex, with visible signs marking the facility as Imad 4, and displaying the Quranic verse: “Prepare against them whatever you can of [military] power.”
The video also shows missile trucks moving from within the facility toward a blast door, preparing them for launch.
In the video excerpts from a speech by Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah were used, during which he asserts that “the resistance is stronger than ever since its inception in the region.”
Al Mayadeen’s sources revealed that Imad 4 features a state-of-the-art technical system and a secure communication network that links it to the outside world, allowing it to receive launch orders within minutes, adding that the network’s communications are said to be highly encrypted for added security.
The sources also disclosed that the facility is equipped with a comprehensive logistics team, as well as dedicated construction, security, and backup launch teams. These teams operate based on pre-determined coordinates for launching operations.
In addition, the facility, according to exclusive sources, is outfitted with a field hospital and enough supplies to sustain its occupants for a period ranging from eight months to a year.
The same sources also noted that the Resistance maintains larger, more critical facilities designed to accommodate larger and heavier rockets, including precision missiles.
It is worth noting that the video comes shortly after US special envoy Amos Hochstein arrived in Beirut, warning that time is running out to secure a Gaza ceasefire and a deal for the release of Israeli captives, which could also bring an end to the situation on the Lebanese-Palestinian borders.
Concurrently, parties involved in the Doha negotiations are set to continue their meetings on Friday, as the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza nears its 11-month mark.
Why the Israelis are incapable of implementing a ceasefire
By Robert Inlakesh | Al Mayadeen | August 16, 2024
A lot of value has again been placed upon useless ceasefire negotiations supposedly aimed at ending the war in Gaza, despite Hamas having rejected involvement in the hamster wheel process that the US is telling the world represents a serious diplomatic effort. In reality, a regional conflict has already been opened, the pre-October 7 world will never return and the future of the Zionist Entity is to remain in a state of perpetual war.
Let’s be clear, if the US government wanted a ceasefire, it would have already happened or will be announced suddenly. The framework is already there for it, a deal could be implemented and every Israeli held in Gaza would eventually be exchanged for a large sum of Palestinian detainees. We need not go back far to demonstrate that such a ceasefire and prisoner exchange is possible, a smaller truce and prisoner swap occurred in November of last year which proved that Hamas would implement such an agreement. Yet, neither the US nor their Israeli allies seek a meaningful ceasefire and only play with this notion for political purposes.
Eventually there will need to be a ceasefire in Gaza, likely following a large escalation across the West Asia region, but even in the event that this takes place sooner rather than later, the war will continue elsewhere.
The level of genocidal extremism that is present at every level of Israeli society is not ignorable. We are no longer talking about the intelligent politicians, dog whistles and sanitized rhetoric of the past, this is raw and brazen ethno-supremacy. Itamar Ben Gvir is the Israeli Police Minister and Bezalel Smotrich is the entity’s finance minister, they aren’t some kind of fringe elements of the settler movement in the West Bank, they directly control the regime’s policy.
There are no notable Israeli political forces that oppose the war in Gaza and no notable anti-war demonstrations at all from Jewish Israelis, even the 98-Palestinians living in the occupied territories are often too intimidated to dare hold demonstrations, despite their heartache at what is happening in Gaza. The demonstrations that frequently take place against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, are motivated out of concern for the Israeli captives held in Gaza and the soldiers dying at the hands of the resistance, there is no concern for Palestinian civilians.
Western liberals have presented the argument that Israelis are fed up with Netanyahu and that he would be pushed out of power suddenly if there was an election, in order to suggest that somehow there is a voice of reason opposed to the current leadership. This is based upon outdated polls, the latest of which now suggest that the Israeli Premier currently remains the most popular politician and that despite projections that he couldn’t secure a coalition, he would still outperform his opposition. Yet this is irrelevant, as the issue that many Israelis have with Benjamin Netanyahu is not that he is waging a genocidal war that is slaughtering tens of thousands of children. We know this because all the polls suggest that the overwhelming majority of the Zionist public believe that enough or not enough force is being used in the Gaza Strip, while the number of those who believe that too much force has been used remains in the low single digits (percentage wise).
Why point this out? Because the Zionist dream has been broken on every level. We are now well past the idea of an Israeli “deterrence capacity”, let alone expansionism, it has become apparent to anyone with eyes that the Zionist regime has no way of dealing with the threats posed from Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Iran and Iraq, besides opening up a wider regional war. The Zionist regime’s military has failed in the Gaza Strip to defeat the Palestinian resistance and is now left with no way out other than a wider regional war or ceasefire.
If we look at the state of the Israeli economy, tourism is dead, 46,000 businesses have declared bankruptcy, imports and exports have plummeted, investors are withdrawing, multi-billion dollar projects are falling through, the Port of Eilat has gone bust, the value of the Shekel has fallen and the list goes on. In the north of occupied Palestine, industry is dead, settlements have been evacuated and were/are pummeled with missiles, drones and rockets, while over 100,000 displaced have nowhere to turn.
The Israeli military is exhausted and has scattered its soldiers across the fronts in Gaza, the West Bank and northern occupied Palestine, while they deal with a lack of tanks and armored personnel carriers in the event that war in the north opens up. Their ill-trained, ill-disciplined and overworked soldiers are clearly incapable of fighting the likes of Hezbollah.
All of this is obvious and this weakness has brought out the very worst in Israelis that had already adopted an apartheid ideology. Deep down, they all would like to return to the delusional racist bubble world in which they lived prior to October 7, but it isn’t possible. The world will never forget what has been done and the survivors will never abandon their struggle for self-determination.
The idea that their racist settler colony can exist in prosperity at the expense of the entire region is under threat, an existential threat, and with this, so too is American hegemony. This is why neither Washington nor Tel Aviv will back down from their position of pursuing “victory”. For Benjamin Netanyahu personally, he is surrounded by a coalition of extremist nut jobs that he helped nurture into power, a project that began in 2005. Behind him also is an Israeli public that wants their captives returned and may apply some pressure in that regard, but also wants to see Gaza wiped off of the map for good. So there is no incentive for him to end the war in Gaza from the US or domestically, since the resistance forces across the region are the only ones that can apply real pressure.
If you want a good indication of how the Israeli society thinks, following the declaration by International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, that he was calling for an arrest warrant against the Israeli premier, Netanyahu’s support surged in the polls at the time. Or, look at the fact that it was completely acceptable for the issue of gang-raping a defenseless Palestinian prisoner, who died from his wounds and was held without a charge, to be debated in the Israeli Knesset, with a member of Netanyahu’s Likud Party passionately defending the gang-rapists. One of the gang-rapists was even invited on Israeli television to advocate for the actions committed by him and follow soldiers, despite there being a video that showed the horrifying incident. There were even protests that broke out in favor of 10 soldiers accused of involvement in the case of gang-rape, who Ben-Gvir called heroes, and an Israeli legal representative organisation for four of the accused argued that the gang-rape occurred in self defense.
Whether we look at the Israeli political elite, military, police, intelligence, society or media, we see genocidal mania. This is because their narcissistic supremacist ideology is collapsing before their very eyes, they are beginning to realize that maintaining apartheid is no longer viable.
The opportunity for the Israelis to implement the only solution that would have enabled them to continue their existence has passed. If the Zionist regime was actually serious about the Oslo Accords and simply accepted international law as the consensus for a so-called two-state solution, they could have perhaps proceeded and actually maintained their regime. However, allowing the Palestinian people to gain access to basic human rights in only 22% of historic Palestine was not possible for them under their racist expansionist ideology.
We are now reaching the final phase of this settler colonial project and the Israelis have come to the realization that maintaining their ethno-supremacist regime of absolute privilege will mean exterminating and ethnically cleansing everyone in their way. They are so immersed in their own collective form of narcissism, in which they view themselves as both the victim and hero of the story, that stopping now is impossible. This is also why Israeli society is split down the middle on the question of what kind of ethno-supremacist regime they seek: whether that will be a secular or religious regime going forward.
Therefore, with full US backing they are slowly committing national suicide. This may be a process that is somewhat delayed if a ceasefire is reached in Gaza that prevents the immediate end of the regime by military means, but the war will continue in other ways. The West Bank will likely end up becoming their punching bag until they can again escalate elsewhere and the only promise that can be made to their own people is a future of perpetual war.
Palestinian detainee reveals that Israeli occupation forces used him as a human shield for 40 days
Palestinian Information Center – August 15, 2024
RAMALLAH – The testimony of a Palestinian detainee revealed that Israeli occupation forces (IOF) used him and another prisoner as human shields for 40 days in Gaza.
The Palestinian Prisoner Affairs Authority and the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a joint statement on Thursday that the IOF forced the Palestinian detainee to wear a military uniform, placed a camera on him, and accompanied him with a drone.
The Authority and the Society confirmed that if the prisoner refused to be used as a human shield, he would be subjected to brutal beatings, deprived of food and basic needs, in addition to being shot and prevented from receiving medical treatment.
The joint statement presented the testimony of the 21-year-old Gaza youth “M.D.,” who was used by the IOF as a human shield for more than 40 days, along with another detainee who was with him.
The same source said that the Palestinian young man, who was working at the Kerm Abu Salem crossing, was subjected to acts of torture, deliberate humiliation and assault, starvation, terrorism and threats, after he and a group of citizens were arrested by the IOF soldiers last June and detained between the Palestinian-Egyptian borders and Rafah.
According to the testimony of the Gaza youth, the IOF used him as a human shield on a daily basis, through several methods, such as placing him at the front of IOF military vehicles, with his hands and feet tied, and forcing him to wear the Israeli military uniform and attaching a camera to his body.
According to the horrifying testimony of the young man, if he refused to go along with the IOF orders, he was subjected to beatings, and added that a drone was used to guide him during his movements. During his detention, the young man confirmed that the IOF soldiers did not provide him with enough food, deprived him of using the bathroom or taking a shower, and this continued throughout his detention period, until he was shot in the chest on the 6th of August, and he remained without treatment for about half an hour.
The Palestinian young man found himself the next day in the Israeli Soroka hospital, where he stayed for 3 days, until he was released on the 9th of August through the Kerm Abu Salem crossing, and he was then transported by ambulance to the Nasser Medical Hospital. The tests showed that the injury caused him a fracture in his chest and another injury in his lung, and he still needs urgent treatment.
For their part, the two bodies concerned with the affairs of Palestinian prisoners considered that the young man from Gaza was exposed to a complex and horrific war crime, starting from his arrest and using him as a human shield throughout this period, and torturing and humiliating him, and then injuring him, and releasing him from the hospital without completing his treatment.
The two bodies once again called on the international human rights institutions to regain their necessary and required role in the face of the ongoing genocide war and the systematic crimes committed by Israel against prisoners and detainees, and to assume their necessary responsibilities, and stressed the need to overcome the horrific state of impotence that surrounds their role, and to go beyond this role that is limited only to monitoring crimes and violations and issuing positions and statements, to a level that leads to holding Israel and its supporters accountable.
International humanitarian law and the 1949 Geneva Convention prohibit armies from using civilians as human shields, and the International Criminal Court considers this a war crime.
Israel has been continuously waging its devastating war on the Gaza Strip for more than 10 months, which has so far resulted in more than 40,000 martyrs and more than 92,000 injuries, mostly women and children, in addition to massive destruction of vital facilities, residential buildings, and an exacerbating famine in the besieged Strip.
Israel continues its war despite two resolutions from the UN Security Council to stop it immediately, and orders from the International Court of Justice to end the invasion of Rafah and take measures to prevent genocide and improve the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Israeli economy in chaos in anticipation of Iran, Hezbollah responses
Al Mayadeen | August 15, 2024
The Israeli occupation’s anticipation of Hezbollah and Iranian response to Israeli assassinations carried out in late July has pushed the regime into “economic chaos”, Israeli media outlets reported.
The economic affairs commentator for Israeli broadcaster Channel 13 underlined that the past two weeks have “exhausted” the Israeli market. Several economic events were canceled in Israeli-occupied territories, while others were reduced due to the state of anxiety experienced among settlers.
Economic activities have also been affected by the operational measures issued by Israeli authorities, in preparation for retaliatory strikes by Hezbollah and Iran.
The Israeli commentator highlighted the significant losses that affected the Israeli tourism sector, largely linked to international flight cancellations to Israeli-occupied airports. An increasing number of Israeli settlers have been stranded in other countries due to the wide-scale cancelation of flights. The possibilities of responses launched by the Axis of Resistance have also impacted hotels and other hospitality and tourism businesses in the northern Israeli-occupied territories, which may be directly affected by future strikes.
The commentator warned that these challenging conditions and operational measures, which are also impacting the medical and energy sectors, could persist well into September.
If the wait continues into next month, the Israeli educational sector will also be severely affected by operational measures, forcing institutions to “maneuver within combat scenarios.”
Cracks in the Dome: Israel’s security mirage
The Cradle | August 14, 2024
The Iron Dome, touted as Israel’s most-effective defense shield, was designed to project an image of security and technological superiority. Promoted as a cutting-edge mobile air defense system, it was intended to symbolize an impenetrable barrier safeguarding the occupation state from external threats.
However, the reality reveals a different picture: much like a child in a knight costume – impressive against plastic swords but utterly defenseless against real weapons – the Iron Dome excels mainly against the relatively crude weapons of the Palestinian resistance in Gaza.
Israel’s carefully-crafted image of its most prized defensive weapon is part of a broader branding effort, rooted in techniques pioneered by Edward Bernays. The occupation state has positioned itself as a cosmopolitan, progressive, and democratic society – in stark contrast to neighboring West Asian states, which it portrays as violent and repressive.
The Iron Dome is not just a defense system but also a psychological construct designed to reinforce the image of an invulnerable entity under constant threat from less enlightened neighbors.
A crumbling shield in the north
Despite its reputation, the Iron Dome’s performance has often fallen short. Numerous videos have surfaced showing malfunctions – the Tamir missiles performing erratic maneuvers, exploding near civilian areas, or being triggered by false alarms and causing damage to infrastructure.
These failures contrast starkly with Israel’s claims of a 90–99 percent interception rate. Professor Emeritus Theodore Postal of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) offers a vastly different assessment. “I would say that the intercept rate is at best 4 or 5 percent,” Postal said in an interview with the Boston Globe last October.
In a 2018 study published in the Journal of Global Security Studies, Michael Armstrong also questions the Iron Dome’s touted “90 to 99 percent” interception rate. For starters, he clarifies that “the interception rate is the percentage of rockets destroyed before they hit defended areas; it ignores rockets over undefended areas.”
In other words, the defense system is, from the onset, only targeting a small portion of the rockets fired. For example, Israeli officials claimed that of the approximately 1,000 projectiles fired into Israel by Hamas during November 2012’s Operation Pillar of Defense operation, Iron Dome identified two-thirds as “not posing a threat” and only intercepted 90 percent of the remaining 300 rockets. Armstrong points out further holes in the calculations of Iron Dome proponents:
The empirical analysis suggests that Iron Dome batteries intercepted less than 32 percent of all hazardous rockets during Pillar of Defense, but between 59 and 75 percent during Protective Edge … The calculations further suggest the number of rockets hitting populated areas during Pillar of Defense may have been understated. The number of threats to populated areas, on the other hand, may have been overstated. This implies that Iron Dome’s effective interception rate may have been significantly lower than reported.
The situation is particularly dire in northern occupied territories, where the town of Kiryat Shmona – a settlement once believed to be under the Iron Dome’s protection – has seen its population flee from rising threats.
Thousands of residents have abandoned their homes, exposing the vulnerabilities the Iron Dome was supposed to eliminate. With Hezbollah expanding its rules of engagement, the number of displaced persons is likely to rise, further exposing the system’s inadequacies.
As Israel desperately scrambles to expand its defense options, the new solutions prove equally flawed, leaving the population vulnerable beneath a defense system that no longer lives up to its myth. The once-vaunted shield is crumbling, and with it, the carefully constructed narrative of invincibility that has long underpinned Israel’s security strategy.
Iron Dome’s cancer curse
Beneath the surface of Israel’s Iron Dome lies a darker, more ominous reality – one that threatens not just the myth of invincibility but the lives of those operating this shield. A 2021 investigation by Yediot Ahronoth revealed serious allegations about the health risks faced by occupation soldiers stationed near the Iron Dome’s powerful radar systems.
These radar systems, nicknamed “the chipper” and “the toaster” by those who work near them, emit intense heat, turning their surroundings into an invisible crucible. Several soldiers have come forward with harrowing testimonies of life-threatening illnesses they believe are linked to their service.
Ran Mazur, who was diagnosed with bone cancer a year after his discharge, described the excruciating pain that gnawed at him during his service, pain that military doctors all too easily dismissed.
Yonatan Chaimovich likened the experience of standing near the radar to his body “boiling from the inside,” a haunting metaphor that captures the unseen dangers of their exposure. Shir Tahar and Omer Hili Levy, both of whom developed cancer after their service, are among several who believe their illnesses are inextricably linked to their time spent in the shadow of the Iron Dome.
Despite these accounts, the Israeli military has steadfastly denied any unusual increase in cancer rates among Iron Dome personnel. They claim that their extensive monitoring and safety protocols have shown no significant difference in morbidity between Iron Dome soldiers and those in other military units.
But the numbers tell a different story: in 2011, out of 240 soldiers who enlisted in three training cycles for the Iron Dome, at least six developed cancer either during or shortly after their service – a statistic that raises questions about the true cost of operating this defense system.
Since 7 October, no new investigation has ventured to uncover how many within Israel’s occupation forces have fallen victim to the silent menace of tumors during this latest surge of conflict.
High-tech illusions
If the Iron Dome was not riddled with flaws, Israeli military strategists would not be rushing to explore alternatives to maintain the state’s illusion of invulnerability. Hezbollah’s Katyusha barrages, though seemingly primitive, have been tactically deployed to overwhelm the Iron Dome and pinpoint its locations, forcing Israel to reconsider its defense strategy.
Enter the “Magen Or,” or Iron Beam – a name that translates to “Shield of Light” in Hebrew. Developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, this represents the latest attempt by the occupation state to stay ahead of the Axis of Resistance and exposes Israel’s growing insecurity.
Unlike the Iron Dome, which relies on costly interceptor missiles – at around $50,000 each – the Iron Beam promises to neutralize threats using a high-powered laser – a concept that seems straight out of science fiction.
The Iron Beam, however, is still largely experimental and untested in real combat. Deployed on the Gaza front in late 2023, it has yet to prove itself as a reliable defense system in the chaos of war.
Israel’s embrace of laser technology, such as Magen Or, is part of a broader trend in the defense industry, driven not just by innovation but also by substantial aid packages from the US. These foreign funds, funneled through powerful lobbies like AIPAC and J Street, contribute to Israel’s portrayal as a technological powerhouse.
Yet, this image is less a testament to domestic ingenuity and more a product of vast financial resources often spent on costly projects that may not withstand the test of real-world conflict.
High-stake risks
The Iron Beam’s range is limited to about 10 kilometers and falters under adverse weather conditions – an Achilles heel that could prove disastrous in a full-scale conflict. The system requires vast amounts of energy, provided by a large generator, to produce the laser beams necessary for its operation.
This logistical challenge and the necessity of maintaining sophisticated infrastructure make the Iron Beam seem doomed to fail under real combat pressures.
Tel Aviv’s shift toward advanced technologies like the Iron Beam reveals a deeper issue within its military strategy. By focusing on high-tech defenses, Israel addresses symptoms rather than the root causes of its ongoing conflict. Reliance on unproven technology carries the risk of catastrophic failure, especially when combined with Israel’s recent shift toward riskier strategies.
Adding to the complexity is the Scorpius G electronic warfare system, another high-tech solution touted by Israel. Developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Scorpius G is designed to detect, classify, locate, and jam advanced radar systems.
However, like the Iron Beam, Scorpius G’s performance in the field remains unproven, further illustrating the precariousness of Israel’s defense posture – one that could ultimately leave it vulnerable in its rushed quest to maintain a strategic edge.
As the region’s Axis of Resistance continues its operations with precision and effectiveness, and as Israeli settlers in occupied territories face mass evacuations, the pressure on these new defense systems to deliver is immense.
Whether they will provide the promised protection or collapse under the weight of expectations remains an open question – one with potentially dire consequences for Israel’s security and stability.
‘Over 1,000 children and patients died due to Israel’s closure of Rafah crossing’
Palestinian Information Center – August 14, 2024
GAZA – Gaza’s Government Media Office (GMO) has said that the Israeli occupation army’s closure of the Rafah border crossing over the past 100 days has claimed the lives of more than 1,000 children, patients and wounded civilians, warning that the humanitarian disaster in the war-ravaged costal enclave has deepened.
“The occupation army continues to close the Rafah border crossing between Palestine and Egypt for the 100th day running after burning and bulldozing it and putting it out of service,” GMO said in a statement on Wednesday.
“This Israeli closure of the crossing continues to take place as the humanitarian tragedy has deepened at all levels and affected all aspects of life,” GMO added.
GMO condemned the ongoing closure of the crossing as a “crime” and an “obvious legal violation of the international law, the international humanitarian law and all international conventions.”
GMO accused the Israeli occupation of preventing the entry of all sorts of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, including vital medical needs, which seriously worsened the health and humanitarian situation.
GMO also accused the Israeli occupation of seeking to destroy Gaza’s health system in its entirety and using the starvation policy as a tool for political pressure.
Israeli regime’s actions against civilians ‘blatant example of terrorism’: Iran envoy

Iran’s permanent representative to the UN Office in Geneva, Ali Bahraini.
Press TV | August 14, 2024
Iran’s permanent representative to the United Nations Office in Geneva has called for Israeli institutions to be recognized as “terrorists,” stressing that the regime’s inhumane actions against Palestinian civilians constitute “a clear example of terrorism.”
Ali Bahraini made the appeal in three separate letters to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, the UN special rapporteur on extra-judicial summary or arbitrary executions, Morris Tidball-Binz as well as UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese on Wednesday.
According to Article 2.1 of the international convention to prevent the financing of terrorism, the institutions of “the Zionist regime” must be identified as terrorists, he said, adding that “the actions carried out by the Israeli regime against civilians and Palestinian areas are a clear example of terrorism.”
Bahraini also noted that from Iran’s point of view, Hamas is “a liberation organization” that fights for the freedom and independence of Palestine.
Therefore, he said, the assassination of Hamas leaders is aimed at undermining the morale of the Palestinian people in their struggle to end the occupation and achieve the right to self-determination.
The Iranian diplomat also emphasized that by eliminating the Palestinian leaders, Israel seeks to destroy the Palestinian political identity and the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to have an independent state.
He further referred to the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICC), which recognizes the right of Palestinians to self-determination, and described any action that violates this right as illegal.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Bahraini strongly denounced as “a gross violation of international law” the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in the capital Tehran.
He also urged UN officials to condemn the assassination decisively and to document it in their future reports.
The top Iranian diplomat also stressed the need for more efforts to achieve justice for the Palestinian people and to hold the Israeli regime accountable for its crimes.
Haniyeh, who was in Tehran to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Iran’s newly-elected President Masoud Pezeshkian, alongside other Axis of Resistance leaders, was martyred in an attack early on July 31.
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has warned the Israeli regime of a “harsh response” for Haniyeh’s assassination, calling it the Islamic Republic’s duty to avenge the Palestinian resistance leader’s blood.
Major US academic group approves boycott of Israel in a historic U-turn
MEMO | August 13, 2024
In a major U-turn, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has reversed its long-standing opposition to academic boycotts in the wake of last month’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling that accused Israel of practicing apartheid. The ICJ’s decision, coupled with its ongoing investigation into allegations of genocide by Israel in Gaza and the potential for Israeli leaders to face arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court (ICC), appears to have prompted the AAUP to reconsider its long-standing position on academic boycotts.
The AAUP, a union dedicated to safeguarding academic freedom with 500 chapters on campuses across the US, approved a new statement marking a departure from the organisation’s previous stance articulated in its 2006 report “On Academic Boycotts”. Since its founding in 1915, the AAUP has helped to shape American higher education by developing the standards and procedures that maintain quality in education and academic freedom in this country’s colleges and universities.
AAUP’s new policy acknowledges that academic boycotts can be legitimate responses to certain circumstances. The statement reads, “Academic boycotts are not in themselves violations of academic freedom; rather, they can be considered legitimate tactical responses to conditions that are fundamentally incompatible with the mission of higher education.”
Crucially, the AAUP now holds that “individual faculty members and students should be free to weigh, assess, and debate the specific circumstances giving rise to calls for systematic academic boycotts and to make their own choices regarding their participation in them.” The organisation argues that to do otherwise would contravene academic freedom.
The statement is careful to delineate the boundaries of acceptable boycott practices. It explicitly states that academic boycotts should not involve political or religious litmus tests, nor should they target individual scholars engaged in ordinary academic practices. Instead, boycotts should “target only institutions of higher education that themselves violate academic freedom or the fundamental rights upon which academic freedom depends.”
While the AAUP’s statement does not specifically mention Israel, the timing of this policy change, coming after the ICJ’s ruling and amidst multiple investigations into Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, which has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians, mainly women and children, strongly suggests that the situation in the besieged enclave has played a major role in prompting this reconsideration.
This policy shift by the AAUP aligns more closely with actions taken by other academic associations in recent years. For instance, the American Studies Association approved measures to boycott Israeli universities a decade ago, and the American Anthropological Association followed suit last year.
CAIR files lawsuit against FBI, US govt agencies over blacklisting of Palestinian-Americans
MEMO | August 13, 2024
An American Muslim advocacy group has filed a lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and the leaders of other United States government agencies after two Palestinian-American men were blacklisted due to their pro-Palestine activism.
On Monday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) filed the lawsuit in response to what it called a discriminatory and racist placement of two Palestinian Americans – Osama Abu Irshaid and Mustafa Zeidan – on a watch list by US federal authorities.
According to the lawsuit, Irshaid, the Executive Director of an organisation named American Muslims for Palestine, travelled to Qatar from the US in late May and returned in early June. Upon his return, federal agents forced him to undergo extra screening and questioning – reportedly focusing on his activism and organising against Israel’s offensive on Gaza – while seizing his phone, which has not yet been returned.
The California-based Zeidan, meanwhile, who often visits his ailing mother in Jordan, was not allowed to board a flight on his way to the country earlier this year, with authorities later informing him that he was placed on the no-fly list.
Filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, the lawsuit stated that “CAIR is challenging the mistreatment of these Palestinian-American activists on constitutional grounds”, asserting that their blacklisting is based on discrimination and racism rather than actual criminal or national security concerns. “Neither Dr. Abu Irshaid nor Mr. Zeidan have ever been charged or convicted of a violent crime,” it said.
Aside from the FBI, other defendants named in the lawsuit are the leaders of government agencies, including the State Department and the Homeland Security Department.

