US vows to block new attempt by Palestine for full UN membership
Press TV – April 3, 2024
The United States has vowed to block a new attempt by the Palestinians for full membership in the United Nations.
Supporters of the Palestinian move asked the UN Security Council on Tuesday to revive an application for admission submitted in 2011.
But Robert Wood, the US deputy ambassador to the UN, was again almost certain to block the request. “Our position has not changed,” Wood told several reporters.
Wood said the issue of a full Palestinian membership is one of the final status issues to be decided in bilateral talks between the Palestinians and Israel.
At least 140 countries have recognized a Palestinian state. They include members of the 22-nation Arab Group at the United Nations, the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the 120-member Nonaligned Movement.
Malta’s UN Ambassador Vanessa Frazier, who is the current president of the Security Council, said the Council’s standing committee for new members, which includes all the 15 members, is expected to meet behind closed doors to consider the application.
The monthly Security Council meeting on April 18 will also consider the issue of Palestine’s full membership.
After the initial bid for full UN membership was rejected in 2011, the Palestinians went to the 193-member UN General Assembly, where there are no vetoes. They succeeded by more than a two-thirds majority in having their status raised from a UN observer to a non-member observer state in November 2012.
That change opened the door for the Palestinian territories to join the UN and other international organizations, including the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Riyad Mansour, the permanent observer of Palestine to the United Nations, has repeatedly said in recent months that in the face of Israel’s brutal campaign of death and destruction in the besieged Gaza Strip, UN membership is a priority for the Palestinians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long ruled out Palestinian statehood.
180 days of genocide later, White House denies Israeli law violations

Al Mayadeen | April 3, 2024
Speaking to the press on April 2, a White House spokesperson said that the United States had looked into several actions by Israeli occupation forces in Gaza “in the past” and had not found “any incidents where the Israelis have violated international humanitarian law.”
This response came to a question asked by an Irish-born columnist for The Hill, Niall Stanage, to the White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby about how the US continues to send military aid to the Israeli occupation with no conditions.
Kirby was asked the same question by a journalist earlier, to which he responded by saying that the US has communicated American concerns to the Israeli occupation multiple times.
The journalist then labeled his answer as verbal commitment and not actual action, which he replied to by saying “I know, you want us to hang some sort of condition over their neck.”
Stanage also asked Kirby why the White House did not implement any conditions on “Israel’s” use of weapons.
He cited a presidential memorandum released on February 8, specifying that the administration’s policy was to “prevent arms transfers that risk facilitating or otherwise contributing to violations of human rights or international humanitarian law.”
Kirby claims no evidence of ‘deliberate’ Israeli attack on aid workers
Referring to the Israeli airstrike a day before targeting aid workers on their way to Gaza and killing seven of them, Stanage asked, “Is firing a missile at people delivering food and killing them not a violation of international humanitarian law?”
Kirby, in response, started off by admitting that “Israel” blatantly said that this attack was a “mistake” then moved on to argue that there is no evidence of this being a “deliberate strike” by saying, “Your question presumes, at this very early hour, that it was a deliberate strike, that they knew exactly what they were hitting, that they were hitting aid workers and did it on purpose, and there there’s no evidence of that.”
Kirby denies Israeli violations of International Humanitarian Law
In further attempts to defend “Israel”, Kirby claimed that there is no evidence of Israeli violations of international humanitarian law, despite several international organizations and official sources documenting such instances, saying, “I would remind you, sir, that we continue to look at incidents as they occur. The State Department has a process in place. And to date, as you and I are speaking, they have not found any incidents where the Israelis have violated international humanitarian law.”
“They have never violated international humanitarian law, ever, in the past five to six months?” Stanage asked.
“The State Department has looked at incidents in the past and has yet to determine if any of those incidents violate international humanitarian law,” Kirby replied.
Albanese: ‘International Humanitarian Law manipulated’
The UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in occupied Palestine, Francesca Albanese, announced in a statement to Al Mayadeen on March 27 that what is happening in Gaza is described as an “unprecedented war crime,” while strengthening her statement with the argument she used to present the genocide charges that “today have been integrated.”
Albanese clarified by saying she initially made a connection between “Israeli leaders’ statements and the soldiers’ actions on the ground.”
“I analyzed specific cases, and we found a lot that needed to be addressed and written in a way that did not fit into the ten-thousand-word report we submitted,” she added.
Similarly, Albanese emphasized to Al Mayadeen that she addressed specific cases that substantiate her analysis, highlighting how “international humanitarian law has been distorted and blatantly manipulated to justify genocidal violence,” adding that “The act of genocide is confirmed and was committed against the entire population, adults and minors, and the issue is not limited to the Israeli occupation raiding the Gaza Strip.”
The UN rapporteur also observed that “there are documented instances of violence, captured by Israeli soldiers themselves, perpetrated against Palestinian civilians. These include acts of humiliation, killings, massacres, and disregard for cultural and religious sanctuaries. These incidents unfolded in plain sight, and my role was to elevate their significance, categorizing them as genocide.”
Palestine Action protest Teledyne, Elbit weapon export to ‘Israel’
Al Mayadeen | April 3, 2024
UK-based Palestine Action activists “occupied” a US-owned Teledyne factory in West Yorkshire in the UK on April 2 because it exports weapons for the Israeli occupation forces.
In its statement, the group said, “Breaching security, the activists have scaled the factory to take the roof, forcing the site closed and rendering it unable to fulfill its shipment of weapons parts to be used in the Gaza genocide.”
It is noteworthy that the group announced today that four of its activists were arrested following the protest at the Teledyne factory.
At least 86 licenses to ‘Israel’ between 2009-2014 alone
They added that at least 86 licenses for weapons exports to “Israel” were given to this site from 2009 to 2014 which, according to the protesters, makes Teledyne the largest exporter of weaponry from the UK to “Israel”.
“A significant proportion of the company’s almost 200 export licenses for weapons and weapons parts to the US, 2009-2020, will also form into finished products ultimately exported to Israel,” it stressed.
The statement added that Teledyne produces parts, including filters and multi-function assemblies, for UAVs, aircraft, and radar systems, including the AN/APG-81 (AESA) type fitted in Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets.
“Teledyne, the parent company, also produces image sensors for military applications and radar technologies around the borders of the occupied West Bank and Gaza while also providing armed UAVs to Israel as far back as 1973,” it emphasized.
Freedom Flotilla Coalition to bring aid, international observers to Gaza this month
MEMO | April 3, 2024
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FCC) will sail several ships carrying 5,500 tonnes of humanitarian aid and hundreds of international observers to the besieged Gaza Strip in mid-April, its Spanish chapter Rumbo a Gaza said in a statement today.
Rejecting Israel’s control over the entrance of humanitarian aid, Rumbo a Gaza said it will not allow Israel to inspect the shipments.
“For everyone’s safety and to ensure that aid reaches those who need it, the FFC will be bringing hundreds of international humanitarian observers from many countries and different backgrounds,” the statement said.
The voyage aims to “challenge the current illegal Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip.”
Rumbo a Gaza said it is also sending an emergency mission to help alleviate the “famine in northern Gaza and catastrophic hunger across the Strip as a result of the Israeli government’s deliberate policy to starve the Palestinian people to death.”
The NGO blamed the international community for allowing Israel to control the aid that reaches Gaza, saying it’s like “letting a fox manage a henhouse.” It called for sanctions against Israel and more challenges to its “genocidal policies.”
Rumbo a Gaza said Israel is not complying with the rulings of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which ordered it to stop blocking the entry of humanitarian aid. Israel has long failed to comply “with its responsibilities as an occupying power to ensure the health and well-being of Palestinians,” it added.
“The court’s judgment demands that everyone do their part to stop the ongoing genocide in Gaza … Until our governments take the lead in the urgently needed humanitarian responses, people of conscience and our grassroots organizations must act to stop the genocide in Gaza. When our governments fail, we sail!” said Ismail Moola from a South African organisation that forms part of the FFC.
The organisation’s announcement comes in the wake of Israeli forces killing seven aid workers after striking a World Central Kitchen convoy.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition was formed after the 2010 Freedom Flotilla mission, in which Israeli forces killed ten Turkish civilians and injured 30 others while raiding the flotilla ships in international waters.
The coalition brings together organisations working to end the Israeli blockade of Gaza from countries around the world, including Turkiye, Canada, the US and South Africa.
Israel has killed nearly 33,000 people since it launched its brutal bombing campaign on Gaza in October 2023. The military campaign has led to mass destruction, displacement and man-made famine in Gaza.
Israel’s Attack on Iranian Consulate Highlights Netanyahu’s Pending Defeat in Gaza
Sputnik – 02.04.2024
Tel Aviv launched a strike against the Iranian diplomatic compound in the Syrian capital of Damascus this week, killing several Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officers in the process.
Israel’s attack on the Iranian consulate in Syria suggests that it is trying to “widen” the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip by drawing Iran into it, said Foad Izadi, an associate professor at the University of Tehran’s Department of American Studies.
“They have been trying to start a military confrontation between the United States and Iran for many years. And they think that they have an opportunity to have this done fighting Iran using American soldiers,” he told Sputnik, apparently suggesting that the US would be quick to leap to Israel’s defense if the latter were threatened by Tehran.
Izadi also remarked that Israel displayed a blatant disregard for international law by attacking a diplomatic compound, which is a violation of the Vienna Convention.
“That is what Israelis are trying to do. Netanyahu realizes that he has lost the war in Gaza. He has managed to kill more than 30,000, mostly women and children, without achieving any goals except killing these people and ruining their homes,” Izadi said.
“They say that they want to destroy Hamas, but that’s not a goal they can achieve. Obviously, they would have done that if they could. That’s why criminal acts and genocide in Gaza continue. And Netanyahu realizes that sooner or later this war needs to end. And that would be the end of his prime ministership. And so he’s trying to prolong the war, he’s trying to widen the war,” Izadi added.
Noting that Iran’s attempt to seek justice via the UN Security Council may be unsuccessful due to the likelihood of the US vetoing a resolution critical of Israel, Izadi suggested that Tehran may opt to “cause pain for the Israelis so that these types of actions are not repeated.”
“Because Iranian officials realize that if there is no pain in engaging in this type of activity, then they will continue,” he elaborated. “So I think Iran’s response would be two-fold in a manner that is not satisfying the Israeli aim of widening the war. I think that’s what Iranian leaders will do.”
Israel Passes Law, Giving Itself Power To Temporarily Shut Down Al Jazeera
By Christina Maas | Reclaim The Net | April 1, 2024
On April 1, 2024, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a sweeping statement indicating the immediate ceasing of Al Jazeera’s operations within Israeli territory. The Prime Minister’s staunch decision followed the legislative green light enhancing the authority of senior ministers to terminate the operations of non-domestic news agencies that are perceived as a potential threat to national security.
Emphasizing his intention to immediately commence action according to newly approved legislation, Netanyahu proclaimed, “Al Jazeera will no longer broadcast from Israel.” The declaration, which received widespread publicity through a post on X, was made right after the final iterations of the law received parliamentary approval.

Netanyahu’s decision can be traced back to an ongoing conflict with the Qatar-based media house, which he accuses of biased reporting against Israel. With a 70-10 majority vote in the Knesset, the legislation empowers the Prime Minister, alongside the Communications Minister, to order the closure of foreign networks in Israel and seize their equipment if identified as a security hazard.
An immediate international reaction to the news came from the White House, where spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre opined that restricting Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel would be “deeply concerning.”
Al Jazeera has denied allegations that its coverage jeopardizes Israel’s security, labeling these claims as “dangerous and ridiculous lies.” The network, known for its critical stance on Israel’s military actions in Gaza, has accused Israeli authorities of deliberately targeting its offices and staff.
‘Efforts to Sideline UNRWA Doomed to Fail’: Israel’s Plan for Palestinian Aid Agency Raises Alarms
By Oleg Burunov – Sputnik – 01.04.2024
The Jewish state has yet to verify its allegations that UNRWA – the largest aid organization in Gaza which has been supporting Palestinians since 1950 – was purportedly involved in the October 7, 2023 Hamas incursion.
According to The Guardian, Tel Aviv has demanded that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) be dismantled and its responsibilities and staff transferred to a new entity in exchange for allowing more aid into the Gaza Strip.
The newspaper quoted unnamed sources as saying that the proposal was discussed by Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi and UN officials in Israel, and then handed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Under the plan, 300 to 400 UNRWA staff will be transferred either to an existing UN agency, such as the World Food Program (WFP), or to a newly established organization focused on food distribution in Gaza. More UNRWA staff and assets may eventually be transferred, although it remains unclear who would administer the new entity or provide security for its operations.
UNRWA was not involved in the proposal-related talks because of Israel’s reluctance to interact with the agency amid Tel Aviv’s unverified claims that 12 of the agency’s 13,000 Gaza staff participated in the October 7 Hamas incursion.
Tamara Alrifai, the agency’s director of external relations, warned that Israel’s plan would undermine the effective distribution of aid in Gaza, while a number of UN insiders, as well as other aid agencies and human rights organizations, insisted that the proposal actually aims to eliminate UNRWA.
“If we allow this, it is the slippery slope to us being completely managed directly by the Israelis, and the UN directly being complicit in undermining UNRWA, which is not only the biggest aid provider but also the biggest bastion of anti-extremism in Gaza. We would be playing into so many political agendas if we allowed this to happen,” The Guardian quoted an unnamed UN official as saying.
Alrifai, for her part, stressed that if the World Food Program were to start distributing food in Gaza tomorrow, they would use UNRWA trucks and bring food to UNRWA warehouses and then distribute food in or around UNRWA shelters.
“So they’re going to need at a minimum the same infrastructure that we have, including the human resources,” she added.
The same tone was struck by Chris Gunness, a former UNRWA spokesman, who said, “It is outrageous that UN agencies like WFP and senior UN officials are engaging in discussions about dismantling UNRWA.” He recalled that it is the UN General Assembly “which gives UNRWA its mandate and only the general assembly can change it, not the secretary general and certainly not a single member state.”
Martin Griffiths, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, tweeted that “attempts to sideline UNRWA must stop”.
“UNRWA is the backbone of the humanitarian operation in Gaza. Any effort to distribute aid without them is simply doomed to fail. No other agency has the same reach, experience or community trust needed to do the job,” Griffiths pointed out.
Russia’s UN envoy Vassily Nebenzya, for his part, called for a review of the decision to dismiss UNRWA staff and also stressed the need to restore funding to the agency. He was referring to the fact that several countries, including the US, the UK, Germany and Japan, have suspended funding in response to Israeli accusations of UNRWA’s involvement in the Hamas attack.
Al-Shifa Hospital completely destroyed after Israeli forces withdraw
MEMO | April 1, 2024
The Israeli army withdrew from inside the Al-Shifa Hospital and the surrounding areas west of Gaza City early Monday, leaving scores of casualties and extensive destruction in the hospital and its vicinity, Anadolu news agency reported.
The army fully withdrew from inside the hospital and the surrounding neighbourhoods towards areas south of Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood, southwest of Gaza City, witnesses told Anadolu.
The Israeli forces burned all buildings in the hospital resulting in complete cessation of services, the witnesses added.
They also noted that the army destroyed the specialised surgery building and burned the main reception and emergency building.
Israeli forces also burned the buildings of the kidney and maternity wards, mortuary refrigerators, and cancer and burn facilities, and destroyed the outpatient clinic building, according to the witnesses.
According to Palestinian medical sources, the hospital is now completely out of service and the army destroyed all medical equipment in the complex, operation rooms, and intensive care units.
The witnesses reported that scores of scattered bodies were found in the hospital and in the streets surrounding it.
They explained that the army destroyed the makeshift cemetery established by Palestinians in the facility and removed the corpses from it, scattering them in various areas of the hospital.
They further noted that Israeli forces burned and destroyed many homes and residential buildings in the vicinity of the hospital.
The Israeli army raided the hospital, the largest medical facility in the Gaza Strip that houses thousands of patients and displaced people, on 18 March.
Israeli officers admit that most Gaza fatalities classified as ‘terrorists’ are civilians
MEMO | April 1, 2024
Israeli officers and soldiers have admitted that most of the fatalities classified by the army as “terrorists” during its war on the Gaza Strip are actually civilians, a report said Sunday.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz collected testimonies from officers and soldiers who have fought in Gaza during the war, which has been ongoing since Oct. 7, 2023.
“The Israeli army says 9,000 terrorists have been killed since the Gaza war began,” the report said.
Israeli officials and soldiers, however, told Haaretz that “these are often civilians whose only crime was to cross an invisible line drawn by the Israeli army.”
“We were explicitly told that even if a suspect runs into a building with people in it, we should fire at the building and kill the terrorist, even if other people are hurt,” one soldier told the newspaper.
According to the testimonies of the officers and soldiers, the Israeli army fires at anyone entering the “kill zone” it has defined, whether armed or civilians.
A reserve officer said that “in practice, a terrorist is anyone the army has killed in the areas in which its forces operate.”
“They ask you how many, and I give a number based on what we see and understand on the ground, and we move on. It’s not that we invent bodies, but no one can determine with certainty who is a terrorist and who was hit after entering the combat zone of an Israeli force,” he added.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing severe criticism within Israel for failing to achieve the goals of the war on Gaza, particularly in eliminating the Palestinian group Hamas and returning Israeli hostages.
PA forces covertly entered Gaza to ‘sow chaos’ in coordination with Shin Bet: Report
The Cradle | April 1, 2024
Gaza security officials have accused the West Bank-ruling Palestinian Authority (PA) of deploying covert operatives to the besieged enclave with the goal of “sowing chaos” within the resistance in a scheme coordinated with Israel’s internal spy agency, the Shin Bet.
According to a senior official who spoke with Arabic media, the covert mission took place on the night of 30 March and saw several PA forces sneak into Gaza via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt by escorting trucks carrying humanitarian aid from the Egyptian Red Crescent.
“The suspicious security force that entered yesterday with Egyptian Crescent trucks coordinated its operations entirely with the occupation forces,” an official from the Gaza interior ministry told Al-Aqsa TV on Sunday.
The plan reportedly called to “create a state of confusion and chaos among the ranks of the [Gaza] home front” in an arrangement reached between Tel Aviv and Ramallah “in their meeting in one of the Arab capitals last week.”
Gaza security forces managed to detain 10 of the operatives and are on the hunt for an unknown number of others who evaded capture. Officials also say Cairo informed the border crossing authority that it was “unaware” of the covert force.
The PA forces are reportedly affiliated with the General Intelligence Service in Ramallah and were deployed on an “official mission under direct orders” from the head of the Palestinian General Intelligence Service, Major General Majid Faraj.
Faraj’s name made headlines last month when Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant put his name forward as a possible candidate to “temporarily manage” the Gaza Strip after the genocide of Palestinians comes to an end.
“The 61-year-old Faraj is a close associate of [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas and has close working ties with Israel’s defense establishment … He is responsible for coordinating between Israel’s Shin Bet security agency, American CIA, and other international intelligence organizations,” a report by Israel’s i24NEWS details.
For its part, the PA denied all accusations to Palestinian news agency WAFA, calling them “baseless.” “We will continue to provide everything necessary to provide relief to our people, and we will not be drawn into frenzied media campaigns that cover up the suffering of our people in the Gaza Strip and the killing, displacement, and starvation they are subjected to,” an unnamed PA official told WAFA.
Saturday’s operation came just hours before a new PA government was officially sworn into office as part of a US-drafted plan that calls for a “reformed PA” to control the occupied Palestinian territories.
Popular acceptance for the PA reached rock bottom long before the events of 7 October and the ensuing genocidal war in Gaza, as Palestinians increasingly expressed discontent over the group’s long history of corruption scandals, brutal repression of critics, and deep security coordination with Israel.

