The thorn of Palestine: Re-invading Jabalia was a Fatal Israeli mistake
By Robert Inlakesh | Al Mayadeen | May 22, 2024
Around a week ago, the Israeli military decided to launch a sudden series of offensives against eastern Rafah, along with the Zeitoun neighborhood and Jabalia, north of the Gaza Strip. Despite claiming to have already dismantled the Resistance in northern Gaza months ago, what they have experienced there recently has been death and embarrassment.
On May 6, after Hamas announced it had accepted a ceasefire proposal that would have led to a comprehensive prisoner exchange and the end of the war, the Zionist entity freaked out and decided to push ahead with its planned incursion into the southernmost Gazan city of Rafah. It began by pushing forward around three kilometers to reach the Rafah Crossing, before expanding its operation further in the eastern areas of Rafah.
What the Zionists also committed themselves to was the re-invasion of the Zeitoun neighborhood, later launching another incursion into Jabalia town and refugee camp. While the Israeli military was surprised by the performance and qualitative leap in the tactics of the Resistance, compared to previous months, in all areas of Gaza, the Jabalia Resistance battalions had something new in store.
The Israeli military decided that a re-invasion of Jabalia was their next primary focus, but have failed to produce any viable justification for its actions, especially when the Zionist leadership claimed to have already defeated the Resistance there months ago. When entering the densely populated area, it is likely that they believed it to be easier than the times before and conducted the offensive in a very similar manner to how it had done throughout the war.
While the Resistance had previously waited for the Zionists to invade an area, before launching their guerrilla-style counterattacks, there was a change in strategy on the part of the Resistance battalions this time. The Palestinian Resistance opted to confront the Israelis head-on and to try to hold them back for as long as possible, in an effort to see whether they could successfully kick them out. The Resistance battalions in the Jabalia refugee camp, the area known in Gaza as “the Thorn of Palestine”, adopted the attitude of the previous generations of al-Qassam brigades fighters during the Second Intifada and adopted the phrase of the people: “You will not enter our camp.” This embodies the frequently repeated line of al-Qassam’s spokesperson, Abu Obeida, who states that “this is a resistance of victory or martyrdom.”
The Jabalia refugee camp is famous for having started The Intifada in 1987 and is considered by many to be to Gaza what the Jenin refugee camp is to the West Bank, a hotbed and stronghold of Resistance. After several attempts by the Israeli military to take over the Jabalia refugee camp during the early 2000s, the Zionist entity launched an invasion of northern Gaza in October of 2004, with a special focus on the Jabalia camp. Yet after killing over 130 Palestinians – most of whom were civilians – they were forced to retreat. Their primary stated goal at the time was to prevent the firing of rockets, which had just killed two Israelis, but failed to prevent the Resistance from continuing its rocket attacks shortly afterward.
This time around, the Resistance is not the same as the Resistance in 2004 and doesnt resemble the Resistance in previous battles. In the earlier days of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, the casualties inflicted on the Zionist forces were surprisingly high. Nobody expected that the Resistance, after eight months of war, would have become stronger and capable of implementing more complex operations than before. The Resistance managed to carry out dozens of ambushes, fire over 100 RPG warheads at Israeli military vehicles, plant explosive charges under tanks, use drones to drop anti-personnel munitions, carry out sniper operations, and engage in various gunbattles. The Jabalia battalions also managed to cut off the supply line to the invading army, forcing them to change it multiple times.
On top of all of this, the Israeli military and political leadership have been shown to be liars before their own population. Their soldiers are growing tired and ill-motivated, they return to their families in body bags or with serious injuries, in a location that their regime claims was pacified and that the Resistance there was already defeated. Even the rocket fire from the northern Gaza Strip has increased over the past weeks, while the dozens of videos published by the Resistance factions prove that the tunnel systems are still intact and effective at launching attacks.
As is always the case, the Zionist entity has inflicted mass murder against Jabalia’s civilian population, callously blowing up civilian infrastructure and committing a litany of war crimes. While the impacts of these cruel practices cannot be diminished by the effectiveness of the Palestinian Resistance, it demonstrates that murdering innocent people does not equal a military victory. What the effectiveness of the Resistance does do, however, is to inspire steadfastness in the people and to grant solace to those afflicted as the result of the Zionist crimes against their families.
Although it is not completely clear why the Resistance suddenly decided to alter its tactics in Jabalia, there are a few factors that could have contributed to making this decision. The first is the scale of the atrocities committed against civilians in places like al-Shifa Hospital, during the more recent Israeli incursions into populated areas. When the Zionist invaders enter areas and seize control of civilians, they imprison, torture, execute, sexually abuse, and use them as human shields. It is likely that the Resistance may have sought to change tactics in Jabalia in order to prevent a repeat of the ways in which the Zionist militants treated civilians elsewhere.
Another reason could have been to learn from the enemies’ reactions to such tactics, this could be especially useful for the Resistance fighters in Rafah, who will likely use a wide variation of tactics themselves and will benefit in attaining new knowledge from what has occurred in Jabalia. Unlike the Zionists, who continue to make amateurish mistakes that are laughable when comparing them to other nations’ armed forces, the Palestinian Resistance is constantly evolving and learning from battle experience. This is not to say that the temporary entity does not learn at all, or adapt in different ways, but it is clearly still failing to correct basic issues and failures in the field.
Once again, the Israelis have been pricked by the Thorn of Palestine and are losing more confidence in the face of an unrelenting, motivated, and focused Resistance. What we are seeing from the Palestinian Resistance in Gaza is unprecedented and will be studied for years to come. With limited tools and while their people are subjected to starvation and genocide, the Resistance continues to write epics through some of the most astounding battles in Urban Warfare history.
Israeli soldier confesses to killing US elderly man in West Bank
Al Mayadeen | May 22, 2024
A self-proclaimed soldier from “Israel’s” infamous Netzah Yehuda battalion has admitted that his unit killed 78-year-old Palestinian-American, Omar Asad, in January 2022, according to recordings obtained by The Grayzone.
However, after announcing plans to sanction the battalion, the Biden administration withdrew the decision without offering further explanation.
“Four of these units [Israeli units] have effectively remediated these violations, which is what we expect partners to do,” the US State Department claimed.
The fifth unit appears to be Netzah Yehuda, an all-male unit of Orthodox Jewish nationalists that operates exclusively in Ramallah of the occupied West Bank and is accused of crimes, including sexual assault and beating at least three older men to death while they were lying on the ground while in custody.
Netzah Yehuda soldiers detained Asad and left him outdoors in harsh conditions, bound and blindfolded until he died. Instead of punishment, all the soldiers got was a slap on the wrist, and compensation was paid to Asad’s family.
A report by Washington DC-based human rights organization, DAWN, found that at the time of the killing, the commander of the unit, Lt. Col. Mati Shevach, was promoted to Deputy Commander of the Kfir Brigade, which oversees the Netzah Yehuda formation.
Spokesperson Vedant Patel responded during an April 29 State Department press briefing to questions regarding why the administration had hesitated to sanction the battalion.
“This is an ongoing process,” Patel said, further claiming, “I’m not going to speak to it more specifically, but consistent with the memorandum of understanding that we have with the government of Israel, we are engaging with them, consulting with them as it relates to not just this broader process but additional information that they’ve shared.”
The Grayzone obtained the glorified account of the killing of Asad, which according to the self-described soldier’s account, the unit brutalized Asad as punishment for supposedly interfering with a raid.
“This geezer who’s like trying to interfere with our operation, we’re going to like, f*** with him for a night,” the soldier said, as he called Arabs “murders, criminal animals” and boasted about killing and torturing Palestinians, likening himself to Americans who photographed themselves with dead Japanese soldiers during World War II, “doing funny things with their bodies.”
“Yeah, I enjoy it because they’re our enemy,” he expressed.
Read also: IOF units ‘remediated’ after rights violations, no Leahy sanctions
NGO updates complaint to Met Police on UK ministers’ complicity in Israel war crimes
MEMO | May 22, 2024
An NGO has submitted a complaint to the United Kingdom’s Scotland Yard against Israel’s use of “starvation as a weapon of war” and targeting of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, in what is the latest such complaint regarding war crimes in Gaza to be reported to British police.
According to the London-based International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP), it submitted a complaint to Scotland Yard’s War Crimes Team regarding Israel’s suspected use of “starvation as a method of warfare” and for ‘wilfully causing great suffering’ to Palestinians.
Although filed in the UK, both crimes are illegal under British and international law, including under the Rome Statute and the International Criminal Court Act 2001. Using starvation as a weapon of war also violates the Geneva Convention, a major keystone of contemporary international law.
The 60-page complaint – which was added to by a further 800 pages of evidence – includes accounts collected by ICJP’s investigation and legal teams, which include former British police detectives who collected the evidence to the standards of British police forces.
The evidence reportedly includes that collected from first-hand eyewitnesses, expert reports and expert evidence from nineteen medical professionals who have worked within the besieged Gaza Strip since October, when Israel began its ongoing offensive.
According to ICJP’s Director, Tayab Ali, “Complicity comes in many forms, whether that be providing political cover, encouraging criminal acts, supplying weapons or, as in the case of starvation, withholding funds from agencies that provide life sustaining humanitarian aid”.
The extensive complaint notably builds upon and expands an existing complaint issued by the ICJP back in January this year, which named four British government ministers for alleged complicity and criminal responsibility in Israeli war crimes. This latest update, however, further implicates a fifth senior government minister as an alleged perpetrator of those crimes.
Due to the war crimes’ illegality under British law and subsequent ability to be prosecuted in the UK, Scotland Yard’s War Crimes Investigation Team will now reportedly consider the complaints leading up to an ultimate decision on whether to open a formal criminal investigation on the matter. If that proceeds, there is the possibility that police will then question, arrest, and prosecute the alleged perpetrators and those complicit.
READ ALSO: Boris Johnson accused of obstructing investigations into war crimes in Gaza
Norway, Spain, Ireland to formally recognize Palestinian statehood
The Cradle | May 22, 2024
Norway, Ireland, and Spain announced on 22 May that they will formally recognize Palestine as a state next week, drawing the ire of Israel as the country immediately recalled its ambassadors to Dublin and Oslo.
“There cannot be peace in [West Asia] if there is no recognition … In the midst of a war, with tens of thousands killed and injured [in Gaza], we must keep alive the only alternative that offers a political solution for Israelis and Palestinians alike: Two states living side by side, in peace and security,” Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said on Wednesday.
Shortly after Oslo’s announcement, Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris said his country would also recognize a Palestinian state.
“Today, Ireland, Norway, and Spain are announcing that we recognize the state of Palestine,” Harris said at a news conference. “I’m confident that further countries will join us in taking this important step in the coming weeks,” he added.
Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said via social media that the recognition will become official on 28 May.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez followed suit, announcing Wednesday that the country’s council of ministers would also recognize an independent Palestinian state on 28 May. He also accused his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu of putting the two-state solution in “danger” with his policy of “pain and destruction” in Gaza.
In response to the news, Tel Aviv immediately recalled its ambassadors to Ireland and Norway and pledged to recall its envoy to Spain. The foreign ministry also summoned the ambassadors from the three European nations to “reprimand” them.
Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz called the show of support for Palestinians a “folly,” adding that recognizing Palestinian statehood “[sends] a message to the Palestinians and the world: Terrorism pays.”
Palestinian officials welcomed the announcement by three European nations, with Hamas calling it an “important step.”
“We welcome the announcement by Norway, Ireland, and Spain of recognition of the State of Palestine, and we consider it an important step on the path to consolidating our right to our land and establishing our independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital,” the statement by the Palestinian resistance says.
“Historical moments in which the free world triumphs for truth and justice after long decades of Palestinian national struggle, suffering, pain, occupation, racism, murder, oppression, abuse and destruction to which the people of Palestine were subjected,” the Secretary-General of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) said via social media.
Nine European countries — Bulgaria, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, Sweden, Malta, and the Greek Cypriot administration — have already recognized Palestine as a state.
Itamar Ben-Gvir promotes future Israeli settlements in Gaza
Press TV – May 21, 2024
An Israeli minister has once again called for the expulsion of the Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and an expansion of settlements in the besieged Palestinian territory.
Itamar Ben-Gvir in comments carried by Israel’s Maariv news site on Tuesday advocated a full military takeover of Gaza.
The far-right minister said Israel should push the Palestinians to “voluntarily” leave to make way for settlements.
“Israel should be the one that controls the Gaza Strip, unequivocally, and no one else,” Ben-Gvir said.
Most important, he said, is “encouraging voluntary emigration of Palestinians” from the territory. “I would love to live in Gaza if possible.”
Last week, the minister said the settlements called for by far-right attendees were the “true solution.”
“We must encourage emigration. Encourage the voluntary emigration of the residents of Gaza. It is moral!”
The minister has repeatedly called for the mass expulsion of Gazans and urged settlers to move into the besieged territory since Israel launched the savage military campaign across the region in early October.
Ben-Gvir has also said he “opposes transferring humanitarian aid” to the Gaza Strip, where basic necessities are scarce and a famine is looming.
Since early October, Ben-Gvir has encouraged shooting Palestinian women and children in Gaza, execution of Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails “to free prison space.” He has threatened to quit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet if the genocidal campaign ends.
Report: Israel systematically abuses jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti
MEMO | May 20, 2024
Jailed Palestinian leader, Marwan Barghouti, has been subjected to violations and torture, and spends days in a narrow, dark cell in solitary confinement, without any means to treat wounds he sustained as a result of being dragged with his hands tied behind his back, the Guardian revealed on Saturday.
The newspaper pointed out that books, newspapers and a television that he used to be able to access have been confiscated since October.
“The lights that flicker in his cell each evening are intended to make sleep near impossible,” it said.
His lawyer Igal Dotan, who visited Barghouti in Israel’s Megiddo Prison two months ago, told the paper that “mentally he’s a very strong person, but physically his condition is deteriorating, you can see it. He’s struggling to see out of his right eye, as a result of one of the assaults.”
“He has lost weight – he doesn’t look good. You wouldn’t recognise him if you compare his current appearance with the famous photos of him,” he said.
Barghouti told his lawyers that in March he was dragged to an area of the prison without security cameras and assaulted. He recalled bleeding from the nose as he was dragged across the floor by his handcuffs, before he was beaten unconscious.
Dotan counted bruises in at least three places on Barghouti’s body when he visited weeks later, adding that he probably has a dislocated shoulder from the assault and is in constant pain, but prison officials have refused a full medical examination of his injuries.
Since October, he has been transferred to three different detention facilities, and held in solitary confinement in each.
In Ayalon Prison “he was beaten on several occasions,” said Dotan, including an incident where guards swore at him while Barghouti was “dragged on the floor naked in front of other prisoners.”
Washington has ‘no objections’ to Israel’s brutal assault on Rafah
The Cradle | May 21, 2024
Israel has decided to “limit” its ongoing operation in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah and forgo a major offensive there, the Washington Post’s David Ignatius said in an opinion piece.
According to Ignatius, the decision comes after discussions with Washington on the matter.
Following conversations with unnamed officials, he claims that a plan to send two more divisions into Rafah will not commence and that operations will be restrained.
“Israeli leaders have reached a consensus about a final assault on Hamas’s four remaining battalions in Rafah. Instead of the heavy attack with two divisions that Israel contemplated several weeks ago, government and military leaders foresee a more limited assault that U.S. officials think will result in fewer civilian casualties and, for that reason, Biden won’t oppose,” Ignatius wrote.
He says Israel “plans to conduct regular raids against [Hamas] insurgents [in Rafah], much as it does now in the West Bank. Indeed, the West Bank might be a model for how Gaza evolves going forward.”
The report came the same day that Israeli officials reaffirmed their intention to fully invade Rafah.
US media has reported in previous months that Washington was aiming to mold Israel’s Rafah operation into a more limited campaign focused on surgical raids and “counterterrorism” operations rather than a full-scale assault.
The US has since repeatedly warned that it would refuse to support Israel’s assault against Rafah without a plan to safely evacuate the besieged population there, something that has not happened.
Since the operation began on 7 May, Israel has instead forcibly displaced over 810,000 of the at least one million civilians sheltering in Rafah – most of whom had already been displaced from other parts of Gaza.
“The exodus continues in Gaza. UNRWA estimates over 810,000 people have fled Rafah in the past two weeks. Every time families are displaced; their lives are at serious risk. People are forced to leave everything behind looking for safety. But there’s no safe zone,” the UN refugee agency said on 20 May.
Relentless Israeli bombardment of the city continues as troops continue to push forward into Rafah.
“At least five civilians today were killed and others were injured in Israeli airstrikes targeting a group of citizens near Awadallah Junction in the Yabna refugee camp in the center of the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip,” WAFA news agency reported on 21 May.
Al Jazeera reported on 20 May that Israeli forces have reached the depths of Rafah’s Brazil neighborhood.
The Palestinian resistance continues to fiercely confront Israeli troops in Rafah, as well as in the north of Gaza as battles remain ongoing.
ICC MUST INVESTIGATE BRITISH MINISTERS FOR COMPLICITY IN GAZA WAR CRIMES
By Mark Curtis | Declassified UK | May 20, 2024
With the ICC’s chief prosecutor issuing an application for an arrest warrant against Israel’s prime minister for “war crimes and crimes against humanity”, attention must turn to those who have aided Israel.
British ministers have for months been materially assisting Israel during its onslaught against Palestinians in Gaza. This support is being provided in three main ways.
First, the UK is providing arms to Israel. Recently filed court documents reveal that, as of January this year, the UK government had 28 extant and 28 pending “high-risk” licences with Israel marked as “most likely to be used by the IDF in offensive operations in Gaza”.
On 18 January, Israeli forces bombed a residential compound in Gaza housing the emergency medical team of Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), a British charity. Four British doctors were injured in the airstrike, alongside MAP staff members and a bodyguard.
The attack was carried out by an F-16 jet, components for which have been supplied by UK companies.
But the UK continues to arm Israel, rejecting repeated calls by campaign groups, former supreme court judges and some MPs to halt them.
Second, the UK military is training Israeli armed forces personnel in Britain during the genocide.
The government has admitted that “there are currently six Israeli Armed Forces officers posted in the UK”. It says “Israel is represented by Armed Forces personnel in its Embassy in the UK, and as participants in UK defence-led training courses”.
Third, the UK military is conducting spy flights over Gaza in support of Israel. Declassified has found that over 200 surveillance missions over Gaza have been undertaken by the Royal Air Force, which is likely to have gathered around 1,000 hours of surveillance footage.
None of this spy activity is being used to halt Israel’s attacks on Palestinians. The UK government says these surveillance activities are solely to aid the release of hostages held by Hamas.
Although the ICC has also indicted Hamas’ leadership for hostage taking, there is little evidence that Britain’s surveillance of Gaza has helped save lives. Rather it encourages Netanyahu to continue a military campaign and avoid negotiating a ceasefire, a path many of the hostages’ families favour.
Secrecy to avoid prosecution
British ministers are refusing to provide detailed information about these three areas of activity to parliament, likely to avoid prosecution for complicity in war crimes.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) is, for example, refusing to give parliament further information about its training of Israeli military personnel in Britain or a military agreement signed with Israel in 2020.
The UK government is also refusing to give any details about the spy flights over Gaza, which began on 3 December.
Court documents show UK ministers decided to continue arms exports to Israel on 8 April, one week after the strike that killed three British aid workers who were employed by the charity World Central Kitchen.
Also on 8 April, the UK began its latest round of negotiations with Israeli ministers to strike a new trade agreement. Rather than sanctioning Israel over its actions in Gaza, the UK is deepening commercial relations.
Legitimacy of investigation
The ICC has legitimacy in investigating British ministers since they are shielded legally and politically at the domestic level.
There is almost no chance the UK system will hold ministers accountable for aiding war crimes, particularly since they are protected by “crown immunity”.
This deems that ministers cannot commit a legal wrong and do not act as persons but as agents steeped with Crown authority, and are therefore untouchable under the law.
The very purpose of the ICC is to investigate and prosecute the commission, including aiding and abetting, of the most serious crimes when domestic authorities refuse to act.
They don’t care
The international Genocide Convention requires all states to prevent and punish genocide.
The principle of the Responsibility to Protect, adopted by all states in 2005, highlights the responsibility of states to prevent “atrocity crimes” such as war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.
UK ministers are not only failing to uphold these norms: they are actively supporting those Israeli decision-makers violating them.
British ministers have consistently defended Israel’s attacks on Palestinians as the death toll has mounted to the tens of thousands. They explicitly reject South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
Evidence suggests UK ministers just don’t care about international law or how many people – Palestinians or Britons – are killed in Gaza.
At the same time, the British government is refusing to publish the legal advice it has received on whether Israel is violating international law in Gaza.
Ministers responsible
Arrest warrants have been issued by the ICC against Netanyahu and his defence minister Yoav Gallant.
Its chief prosecutor, the British barrister Karim Khan, says he has “reasonable grounds to believe” that the two Israeli ministers “bear criminal responsibility” for crimes including “starvation of civilians as a method of warfare”, “intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population” and “extermination and/or murder”.
Rishi Sunak as prime minister, along with foreign secretary David Cameron, defence secretary Grant Shapps and trade secretary Kemi Badenoch – who all approve UK arms exports to Israel – must be investigated over their complicity in war crimes.
Deputy foreign secretary Andrew Mitchell, who has acted as the government’s chief apologist for Israel’s actions in the British parliament, should also not escape the ICC’s attention.
Nor should defence minister Leo Doherty and former foreign secretary James Cleverly (now home secretary), who contributed to UK government decisions on policy towards Israel.
Mark Curtis is the director of Declassified UK, and the author of five books and many articles on UK foreign policy.
Israel army is floundering in Gaza, ex-commander says
MEMO | May 20, 2024
Reserve Commander General Gadi Shamni has warned that the Israeli army is “floundering” in Gaza, adding that Israel “clearly” will not achieve the goals it has set for its bombing campaign.
In an interview with Maariv newspaper, Shamni said, “It is difficult to see how all the Israeli detainees will be returned from the Gaza Strip,” adding that he believes Hamas will suffer losses due to the war, but will not be “eliminated militarily”.
According to Shamni, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned Israel to “years of confusion, isolation, and severe damage to the economy.”
“The most dangerous thing is the dramatic erosion of the status of Israel, which was a regional power until the Hamas attack on the Gaza envelope settlements on October 7,” he added.
Since 7 October 2023, the Israeli occupation army has continued its aggression against the Gaza Strip, with American and European support, as its planes bomb hospitals, resident buildings, towers and Palestinian civilian homes, destroying them over the heads of their residents, and preventing the entry of water, food, medicine and fuel. More than 35,450 Palestinians have been killed as a result, while over 79,470 have been injured. A further 1.7 million have been forcibly displaced from their homes and neighbourhoods, according to UN data, many numerous times.
Netanyahu ‘rejected’ proposals to resume prisoner swap talks
MEMO | May 20, 2024
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected proposals by Israeli negotiators on Saturday for the renewal of indirect talks with Hamas for a hostage release deal, the Times of Israel has reported, citing multiple reports by major Israeli networks yesterday. The proposals were apparently presented to Netanyahu by Mossad spy chief David Barnea, Shin Bet security chief Ronen Bar and General Nitzan Alon, who is in charge of the “hostages file” for the army.
According to the report, the proposals included an “Israeli concession,” and were presented during the war cabinet meeting on Saturday evening. However, said Kan, Netanyahu responded by saying: “All these proposals will lead to an end to the war. We tried and made significant overtures. Hamas rejected everything.”
Channel 12 quoted war cabinet minister Benny Gantz as retorting: “It is apparent you are unhappy with [the negotiators’] work. If that is so, replace them and bring someone you trust and believe in.” To this Netanyahu responded that he “will not agree to any proposal that ends the war.”
During the same meeting, minister Gadi Eisenkot was quoted as saying: “No one here wants to stop the war, but your position does not allow us to bring back the hostages. You’re not leaving the team with any possible path toward reaching a deal.”
A minister in the war cabinet told Kan, “After yesterday’s meeting it has become clearer that Netanyahu doesn’t want a deal” while others present said, “We saw the despair in the eyes of Nitzan Alon and his senior aide after the meeting. They seem to have come to a final realisation that there will be no deal.”
ICC applies for arrest warrants against Netanyahu, Sinwar
The Cradle | May 20, 2024
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has applied for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, the movement’s military wing chief, Mohammad Deif, and Political Bureau head, Ismail Haniyeh, for war crimes.
Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan said there were reasonable grounds to believe that all bore criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity from at least 7 October 2023.
The ICC, based in The Hague, opened an investigation into Israel’s actions in the occupied territories in 2021. The investigation has been expanded to cover both Israeli and Hamas actions since the start of the Gaza war on 7 October.
The ICC accused Hamas of killing several hundred Israelis and of committing various war crimes during its assault on Israeli military bases and settlements during Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. The ICC accusations include extermination, murder, taking hostages, rape and other sexual crimes, and torture.
The ICC statement also does not mention that during the 7 October Hamas attack, Israeli forces killed many of their own civilians by responding with heavy weapons. Israeli media has reported that the army used helicopters, drones, and tanks to open fire on Hamas fighters and their Israeli captives in settlements (kibbutzim), military bases, and the Nova music festival site.
These heavy weapons burned many Israelis alive or buried them under the rubble of the houses they destroyed. The killings and resulting mutilation of the bodies were then blamed on Hamas by Israeli authorities, who suggested fighters from Hamas’ armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, had tortured them.
UN investigators have sought evidence that Hamas has committed mass rapes on 7 October in response to Israeli claims, but Israel has failed to provide it. Many reports of Hamas committing mass rape, including in a widely publicized article in the New York Times in December, have been shown to be false.
The ICC also accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant of war crimes, including extermination, murder, directing attacks at civilians, and using starvation as a weapon of war.
The ICC statement focused on Israel’s efforts to starve Palestinians in Gaza, citing its efforts to cut off food, water, medicine, and electricity to the enclave starting on 9 October. The ICC statement mentions Israeli attacks on civilians, including those queuing for food.
The statement claims that Israel carried out these war crimes as part of a right to self-defense and to defeat Hamas, win the release of Israeli captives held by the group, and punish civilians it viewed as a “threat.”
At the same time, the ICC statement did not mention the reason for the Hamas attack, namely to break the 17-year siege on Gaza, end decades of illegal occupation and settlement in the West Bank, and free thousands of Palestinians held hostage in Israeli prisons.
The ICC statement makes no mention of Israel’s relentless bombing of Gaza, of Israeli sniper drones killing civilians, and of the torture and sexual abuse of Palestinian detainees swept up in Gaza and taken to detention facilities in Israel. The ICC statement also makes no mention of Israeli efforts to ethnically cleanse Gaza nor of the estimated number of Palestinians killed by Israeli bombings and other actions, which now exceeds 34,000, including some 8,000 children, according to conservative UN estimates.
In response, an Israeli official told the Times of Israel that Karim Khan’s “baseless blood libel against Israel has crossed a red line in his lawfare efforts against the lone Jewish state and the only democracy in the Middle East.”
“The blood libel will not deter Israel from defending itself and accomplishing all its just war objectives,” says the official. Netanyahu will issue a video statement later in the day.
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How the occupied mentality syndrome works
Saudi Arabia on the American chessboard – Part 3
By B. J. Sabri | American Herald Tribune | June 27, 2016
Read part 2: “The occupied mentality Syndrome“
Previously I argued whether Saudi Arabia’s repeated involvements in U.S. interventions and wars stem from free national will or in response to a specific condition. For starters, in Saudi Arabia there is no national will. In Saudi Arabia, the national will is the will of the Al Saud clan. Still, when a major Arab state allies itself with a superpower that committed unspeakable crimes against humanity in almost every Arab country, then something is wrong. This fact alone should compel us to examine the U.S.-Saudi relation for one exceptional reason. As a result of the U.S.-Saudi wars, hundreds of thousands of people in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia have lost their lives. Millions became displaced in their own homelands. And millions more rendered refugees.
Attributing the Saudi policies to the bonds of “partnership” with the U.S. is frivolous. There are no bonds between these two thugs except those of business, military deals, secret plots, and wars. Proving this point, bonds such as these have no space for the American and Saudi peoples to share significant cultural or societal exchanges. If partnership is not the reason for the Saudi contribution to the U.S. strategy of empire and imperialism, then another reason must exist.
This leads to three possibilities. … continue
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- An Inconvenient Tree: Uncovered In Alps… Europe Much Warmer Than Today 6000 Years Ago
- New Study Reports A 60% Slowdown In Greenland’s Ice Loss Rate In The Last Decade
- Low Intensity Tornado Wrecks Major Solar Farm, Creating A Potential Toxic Dump
- New Study Finds Warming Saves Lives…Cold Temperatures 12 Times More Deadly Than Excess Heat
- German Science Blog Accuses PIK Climate Institute Of Hallucinating Climate Tipping Points
- Devastating Assessment Of Comirnaty Vaccine By Former Senior Pfizer Europe Toxicologist
- New Study: CO2 Is ‘Effectively Negligible’ As An Explanatory Climate Change Factor Since 2000
- Former Pfizer Toxicologist Dr. Helmut Sterz Tells Bundestag Hearing Pfizer Vaccine Should Have Never Been Approved
- Energy Expert: Germany’s Nuclear Phaseout Was A “500 Billion Euro Mistake”
- New Research: South Australia’s Mid-Holocene Sea Surface Temperatures Were 4°C Warmer Than Today
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