A European rights group has filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) against 1,000 Israeli occupation soldiers for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Gaza.
In a statement released on its website on Tuesday, the Hind Rajab Foundation, a branch of the March 30 Movement, said the complaint is “supported by over 8,000 pieces of verifiable evidence – including videos, audio recordings, forensic reports, and social media documentation – demonstrates the soldiers’ direct involvement in these atrocities.”
It added that soldiers were named and were all “located in Gaza during the genocidal assault, and the evidence reveals their participation in violations of international law.”
It added that it provided evidence that they had taken part in the “destruction of civilian infrastructure … Illegal occupation and looting … Participation in the Gaza blockade … Targeting civilians … Use of inhumane warfare tactics,” which are violations under international law.
The soldiers named include “high-ranking officers and commanders responsible for planning and executing military operations in Gaza,” individuals with dual citizenship, “including 12 from France, 12 from the United States, 4 from Canada, 3 from the United Kingdom, and 2 from the Netherlands,” and soldiers “who have openly boasted about their war crimes on social media,” the statement explained.
Iran has strongly condemned Israel’s strike on a medical facility on the Syria-Lebanon border, calling it “a clear example of war crimes.”
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Thursday that frequent Israeli attacks on hospitals and other medical facilities in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria show the regime’s disregard for all international rules and regulations.
Baghaei called for unequivocal condemnation of Israel’s attack by all relevant international bodies, including the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
He also highlighted the need for global action to help thousands of Lebanese people who have been displaced in the past two weeks following Israel’s aggression against Lebanon.
The Israeli strike on Iran’s 56-bed field hospital on Wednesday destroyed ambulances and all medical equipment inside the facility.
The hospital was established to aid Lebanese displaced people on the Syrian-Lebanese border.
The hospital housed food supplies, medical equipment, and medicines.
The hospital was clearly marked with the flag and symbols of the Red Crescent. The ambulances, the field hospital, and all the hospital’s supplies were destroyed in the attack by Israel.
Since the start of the offensive on October 7 last year Israeli occupation forces have particularly targeted Gaza’s education and health sectors. It has bombed most of the hospitals, schools, colleges and universities.
Hundreds of educational institutions, including 65 run by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), were also bombed and vandalized.
Despite the UN Security Council demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the Israeli regime continues its genocidal war against the Palestinian people trapped in the besieged Gaza Strip, aiming for the complete eradication of its people.
Masafer Yatta – Veteran Michael Jacobsen was accompanying a Palestinian farmer this morning in the village At-Tuwani in Masafer Yatta (South Hebron Hills), in occupied Palestine, as part of the international delegation Meta Peace Team, which joined the International Solidarity Movement (ISM).
When Israeli reservist soldiers came to demand IDs from the activists and Palestinian landowners, Jacobsen complied with the soldiers’ requests. The soldiers called the Israeli police, who arrested him and took him to the Israeli Central Unit for Investigation, which is near the Ma’ale Adumim colonial settlement in the occupied West Bank. This interrogation center is home to the special task force created by the notorious Israeli Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. The task force was created as a response to some states, including the U.S., sanctioning violent settlers. Since international activists were reporting settler violence that they witnessed to their governments, an Israeli governmental committee was created in March 2024 for the purpose of getting rid of the activists.
Jacobsen’s lawyer was told that he was suspected of “endangering the public due to provocation of disturbances” and of “entering the country illegally”; this absurd suspicion was based on the police’s assertion that Jacobsen supported the Palestinian Boycott Divestment and Sanction movement (BDS). The police could not explain to Mr. Jacobsen’s attorney how this was a criminal offense. Mr. Jacobsen was threatened with imprisonment and deportation if he did not leave the country immediately. Michael opted to leave, and the police transferred him directly from the interrogation center to the border with Jordan.
Israeli forces have intensified their crackdown on international activists and journalists: two German activists were arrested in the same garden in At-Tuwani in similar circumstances and de-facto deported last Sunday October 6th, after being imprisoned since October 2nd. This effort aims to isolate Palestinians from international solidarity, and is part of the ongoing barrage of harassment by Israeli settlers and soldiers of Palestinians and of human rights activists in the area. The effort also includes the murder of American and Turkish ISM volunteer Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi in the village of Beita during a peaceful protest against settlement expansion on the village’s land on September 6th.
It is worth mentioning that the Palestinian farmer whom the activists were accompanying faces daily harassment, attacks, and invasions of his private land by Israeli settlers and occupation forces, which all make it difficult for him to access his land, to cultivate it, and even to remain in his home.
This onslaught of harassment against Palestinian residents of the region of Masafer Yatta extends beyond At-Tuwani. Every village in the area is affected. In the village of Zanuta in this same region, residents have been forcibly displaced multiple times despite a court ruling in their favor. Residents of Um Durit have had their livestock and property stolen and destroyed, and their land abused by settlers. Last July, around 200 settlers launched a coordinated attack in which they destroyed vehicles, burned fruit trees and beat up residents in Khalet Al Daba’a and Um Fagarah. In the past year, at least 19 Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank have been forcefully displaced and wiped off the map by Israeli settlers, with the support of the Israeli occupation forces.
The nonsensical allegations aimed at International Human Rights Defenders would be laughable if they were not lethal. For similar vague and unsubstantiated accusations, Palestinians are frequently arrested and tortured in the West Bank, and in Gaza the accused are murdered along with their families.
Photo: Moments before Michael Jacobsen’s arrest, At-Tuwani, Masafer Yatta, October 10.
Israeli authorities have arrested American journalist Jeremy Loffredo, intensifying their assault on press freedom and extending their war on journalism by targeting independent American reporters working in Israel.
Loffredo, 28, is an investigative journalist known for his work with The Grayzone, and was arrested shortly after publishing his recent report on the Iranian missile retaliation which reportedly struck several Israeli military and intelligence sites, including one missile landing next to the Mossad headquarters in Tel Aviv, as well as multiple impacts in and around Israel’s most important air operations sites located at Nevatim Air Base.
According to colleagues, Loffredo was with a group of four other journalists when they were blindfolded, beaten, and detained by the Israel security forces, allegedly for exposing the Israeli regime’s military activities, according to Russian-Jewish reporter Andrey X.
Jeremy is currently the only journalist still being detained from the group, and his arrest is sparking widespread concerns of a potential diplomatic catastrophe between the U.S. and Israel after representatives from the U.S. Embassy attended court hearings in Jerusalem regarding his continued detention. Loffredo’s lawyer, Leah Tsemel, has argued that Loffredo had acted transparently and publicly and challenged the claim put against the journalist. claims that he was aiding the enemy.
Overall, his on-the-ground reporting shed light on the comprehensive damage caused by Iran’s Operation True Promise II, a retaliatory strike following a series of high-profile assassinations carried out by Israel which targeted key leaders in Hamas, Hezbollah, and the IRGC. The Grayzone journalist was arrested on charges of endangering national security with allegations that he was “aiding the enemy during wartime” by disclosing sensitive information.
Loffredo also explains how airstrikes on Gaza were launched from the Nevatim base, information which had largely been omitted from western mainstream coverage of the event. He also reported how Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private jet may also have been located at the base.
A campaign on X has gone viral under the hashtag #FreeJeremyLoffredo, with thousands of people seeking to bring attention to Jeremy’s arrest and intensify pressure on the U.S. State Department, as the Israeli charges against Loffredo intensify, where he faces the potential of life behind bars, or even the death penalty – all for the crime of doing journalism.
Interestingly, Grayzone editor Max Blumenthal revealed on X how US mainstream media outlet PBS had already reported from one of the same ‘sensitive’ locations as Loffredo – with no repercussions whatsoever from Israeli authorities.
UPDATE: Blumenthal broadcast this morning that the Israel authorities have now released Jeremy Loffredo from custody, but he is forbidden from leaving the country for the time being.
Israel’s crackdown on the free press and journalism has escalated dramatically over the past 12 months, with the killer of over 180 journalists, many of them Palestinian, including a number of targeted murders in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon since hostilities increased October 2023. This unprecedented death toll marks the highest number of journalists killed over a 12 month period of any war zone in history.
Currently, dozens of other reporters remain imprisoned without official charges as Israel intensifies its efforts to suppress any media coverage which exposes a mounting list of warcrimes carried out in the occupied territories.
To date, there has been no official statement by the U.S. government regarding the status of Jeremy Loffredo.
US arms manufacturers have outperformed major stock indexes this year in a rally fueled by Israel’s year-long genocide of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the expansion of its war against Lebanon.
Stock funds with holdings in the US aerospace and defense industry – including companies like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, RTX, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, and L3Harris – saw their profits soar past expectations this year, outperforming the S&P 500 index.
“That handout of taxpayer funds to Israel coupled with Israel’s, and global, demand increasing for weapons in a period of instability, has been jet fuel for stock prices,” reports Responsible Statecraft.
Lockheed Martin, makers of the F-35 aircraft that Israel has used to relentlessly bomb Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, produced a 54.86 percent total return from 7 October 2023 to the same date in 2024, outperforming S&P 500 by about 18 percent.
RTX, the makers of 2,000-pound ‘bunker buster‘ bombs that turned most of Gaza to rubble and are currently being dropped inside the Lebanese capital, saw its total return for investors in the past year reach 82.69 percent, outperforming S&P 500 by about 46 percent.
General Dynamics, which also manufactures bunker busters and is behind the BLU-109 bombs that Israel used to level several apartment buildings in the southern suburbs of Beirut during the assassination of Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah, delivered a 37 percent total return for investors, outperforming the S&P 500 by just over 3 percent.
On 1 October, as Israel pushed forward with its ground invasion of Lebanon and Iran launched hundreds of ballistic missiles in retaliation for the bombing of its capital, Forbes reported that the stocks of most US arms makers gained over 2.6 percent in value.
“Both Lockheed Martin and RTX shares booked all-time highs Tuesday, while L3Harris and Northrop Grumman tallied their top share price since 2022,” the US financial publication reported.
Furthermore, the BlackRock-managed iShares US Aerospace and Defense fund indexing the aerospace and defense sector hit a new all-time high last week, extending its 12-month gain to 43 percent and outperforming the S&P 500 by 33 percent.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), between 2019 and 2023, Israel accounted for 2.1 percent of all global arms imports. During the same period, the US accounted for 69 percent of Israel’s arms imports, while Germany accounted for 30 percent.
As Washington retains its long-standing hold as the world’s largest arms dealer – controlling 42 percent of the global arms market – the country has also significantly boosted its military spending to assist Israel, blowing through at least $23 billion in one year.
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM – Israel has confiscated UNRWA’s headquarters land in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in Occupied Jerusalem with the aim to build 1,440 illegal settlement units on the site.
The announcement comes a day after members of the United Nations Security Council warned Israel against proceeding with a law aimed at curbing UNRWA’s ability to operate.
Earlier Sunday, the Israeli Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee approved two bills that effectively aim at ending UNRWA’s activity and privileges in Israel.
The move came as part of the Israeli systematic targeting of UNRWA in the occupied territories.
Last January, a number of countries suspended financing for the agency after Israel accused 12 of the 30,000 UNRWA employees of participating in the 7 October attack.
Most resumed funding, however, after a UN report found that Israeli authorities had not provided “any supporting evidence” to back up allegations of UNRWA staff links to the attack.
Germany, Australia, Canada, Sweden, and Japan were among the countries to restore funding to UNRWA following the report.
In the late evening of October 5, seismic tremors of a magnitude of 4.6 on the Richter Scale were detected in Iran’s Semnan region. Although they could be felt even in the capital Tehran, over a hundred kilometers away from the epicenter, as earthquakes go this was not a major event: It was not terribly strong and caused no casualties. And yet it has attracted global attention. The reason is that we are not sure that it really was an earthquake.
Since the tremors shook the Iranian desert, speculation that this was, in reality, an underground nuclear test has not been dying down, in some traditional media and in social media everywhere. In Iran itself, according to the Tehran Times – an outward-facing English-language publication – ”seismologists and […] authorities” have denied a nuclear test. The newspaper added that “CIA Director William Burns also said there is no evidence that Iran has decided to build a nuclear weapon.” Considering that, from long and bitter experience, Iranians do not generally consider the CIA a source of truth, that is an intriguing, maybe tongue-in-check addition.
It is not hard to imagine plausible reasons why the leadership in Tehran could have an interest in staging a test that it knows leaves detectable traces while at the same time it’s officially denying that it has done so: it would, in essence, serve to warn enemies while allowing for a degree of politically flexible deniability. It would also, perhaps, create some strategic ambiguity – that is, uncertainty among opponents – if not about the event itself, then about what exactly the Iranian leadership is intending to do with it.
Yet it is at least equally realistic to assume that there really was no test. Those discussions of the Semnan tremors that are publicly available seem inconclusive to the non-expert at least, turning on points such as the exact nature of the seismic wave and the location of the epicenter. For now, the only certain conclusion seems to be that we don’t know: It may have been just an ordinary earthquake, but a nuclear test cannot be ruled out at this point.
Let’s take a step back: Instead of assessing arguments for one or the other version of what exactly happened at Semnan in Iran on October 5, let’s ask two simple questions: Why is it so important and what would it mean if a nuclear test did really occur?
In some regards, it is obvious why the tremors have reverberated globally: Iran is already embroiled in a de facto war with Israel that is on the verge of escalating further, from increasingly destructive missile attacks into an even larger regional and possibly global war. Beyond the longstanding hostility between the two countries, this escalation is underway for two reasons: First, Israel has already completed a year of committing genocide against the Palestinians and there is no end in sight, while it has also been assaulting multiple countries around it with terror attacks, indiscriminate bombings and, now in Lebanon, also a land invasion. Second, the West has sided with Israel. In a hypothetical world, one in which the West would not have trampled all over international law and elementary ethics and, instead, would have stopped Israel, the current escalation could not have occurred.
For these two reasons – Israel’s complete descent into mass killings and all-round aggression and the West’s helping it along – Iran’s regional “Axis of Resistance” has become the key, indeed the one and only international actor that is in the way of the Zionist regime. Given the way Western mainstream media propaganda vilifies this “axis” as “rogue” and “terrorist,” it is ironic that its members are the only ones at least trying to implement the UN 1948 Genocide Convention against the Israeli perpetrators, thus obeying a fundamental obligation of post-World War II international law. The true, monstrous rogue actors are the West and Israel.
Without the “Axis of Resistance” under Iran’s loose hegemony, the Palestinian resistance would be entirely alone. For Israel, this means that destroying or at least neutralizing Iran is the greatest possible strategic prize.
Without Tehran, the “axis” would not simply disappear. For that, its various elements – for instance, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Ansar Allah movement (‘Houthis’) are too autonomous, not mere proxies. But there is no doubt that they would be gravely, perhaps fatally weakened.
Against this background, Iran’s military capabilities are a crucial factor. While Tehran has a much less modern air force than Israel’s, Iran’s missile forces are formidable. Despite claims to the contrary, the recent, still-restrained attack of 180 projectiles has shown that Iran can overwhelm Israeli air defenses and the US assistance these get. If it ever were to launch an assault really meant to be devastating – by targeting Israel’s economic and political infrastructure – Israel would have to absorb damage as never before in its history. The fact that Israelis have the option of leaving makes this threat all the more powerful: Their country has deliberately sought to make Gaza uninhabitable. As a civilized country, Iran would not resort to the same genocidal cruelty. But it could make it much less comfortable or safe for Israelis to stay in Israel.
And that is where we get back to the question of why it would be so important if a nuclear test really took place in Iran on October 5: On one side, Israel has threatened to target the country’s many nuclear facilities, if not in the next round of strikes then in the one after that. Yet, since the more important ones are deep underground, that is technically difficult, as an American general formerly involved in pertinent planning has just confirmed to the New York Times. But, still, Israel has US support. Even if Washington has mumbled some objections to that particular Israeli insanity, this means very little because the US tends to lie and Israel tends to do what it wants anyhow and then drag the US along, unwillingly or very willingly, as the case may be.
On the other side, Iran has, of course, been developing its own nuclear program. While its leaders insist that it’s entirely non-military, if that were true, they would be idiots neglecting their duty to protect their country. And they are neither idiots nor neglecting their duty.
What adds a wrinkle of complication is that the possibility of Iran crossing the threshold to possessing nuclear weapons has been exaggerated again and again by Western politicians and media with an obvious intention to create a pretext for yet another Western war of aggression in the Middle East. Indeed, the Wall Street Journalhas just published another long article in that genre of “Look-how-close-they-are.” For those preferring more theoretical outlets, the prestigious journal Foreign Policy has just bluntly set out the ”case for destroying Iran’s nuclear program now.”
So, whenever you hear – at least in the West – that Tehran is close to having nukes, keep in mind that you may well be looking at war propaganda. And yet, there also is a real possibility of Iran acquiring – or perhaps already having acquired – nuclear bombs. That is why it has been so tempting to interpret the seismic shock in the Semnan region as a well-timed nuclear test. If Iran already has built nuclear weapons, then a test could have been a signal, telling Israel and the West that it is now too late for preempting an Iranian breakthrough because it has already happened. That would imply not only that such an Israeli or Western attack is now futile, but also that it has become much riskier since Iran may already be able to retaliate, even with nuclear weapons.
The scenario outlined above remains speculative as an interpretation of the Semnan seismic tremors on October 5. But what is more important is the fact that even if it has not yet occurred, then it is likely to occur soon. One way or the other, notwithstanding an earlier Iranian religious injunction – fatwa – against weapons of mass destruction often cited in the West, Tehran is likely to become a nuclear-armed power in the near future. In that case, the fatwa will be altered or superseded. If and when that happens, the West and Israel will have only themselves to blame, for three reasons.
First, we have long known that the West uses the foggy notion of “rules” and a “rules-based order” to evade international law and a meaningful role for the United Nations. The rules-based order is a cheap sham for those who prefer that laws do not apply to them. What the Gaza genocide and Israel’s other recent crimes have made unmistakably clear is that the “rules-based order” includes a very special privilege for Israel and the West, namely that of committing crimes against humanity. In such a world, every self-respecting government that takes its elementary duty to defend country and people seriously must think in the-very-worst-case terms. In such a world, in short, you better have nukes.
Secondly, we have not only learned what exactly the “rules-based order” is capable of. We have also learned that the alternative norms and institutions of international law cannot stop the “rules-based” crowd once it has made up its mind: By the findings of the highest court of the UN, the International Court of Justice, also called the World Court, Israel stands as a plausible perpetrator of genocide even now; a full sentencing is likely to follow. Its prime minister and minister of defense have arrest-warrant applications pending at the International Criminal Court. And what is the result? Nothing. Neither Western governments nor Israel have given a damn about the law. Indeed, they are in open contempt and obstructing it shamelessly. Again, in such a world, you better arm yourself as well as you can.
Thirdly, Iran itself has, of course, been through a long-drawn-out attempt to find a compromise with the West and, de facto, Israel. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – aka the Iran Nuclear Deal – was concluded in 2015. Its essence was simple: Tehran would give up on military uses of its nuclear power and, in return, the West would let go of sanctions and generally normalize its relations with Iran. In 2018, the US reneged because Donald Trump – then president, now recklessly hollering about striking Iran’s nuclear facilities – felt like it. The Biden administration then failed to repair the damage and, if anything, made things worse. And neither a future Trump nor a Harris presidency will make them any better.
In sum, in the West’s “rules-based order” the rules include that Israel and the West may commit genocide, and then some; international law and other laws have no countervailing power and have been discredited; and individual negotiations and compromises lead to being cheated.
Responsible leaders in Iran, and in other states, have to conclude that their countries must have nuclear weapons as well as the means to deliver them. And, in the case of Iran, this actually means enough to deter Israel and the US. The latter especially must, in the future, face the possibility – as it does already with North Korea – of Iranian nuclear retaliation on its own homeland if Washington either attacks Iran directly or helps Israel attack it. That is the stark logic of deterrence. It is sad that nothing else remains. But, by their outrageous violence and, literally, lawlessness, the West and Israel have left Iran – and others – no choice but to adopt this harsh logic to the full.
Tarik Cyril Amar is a historian from Germany working at Koç University, Istanbul, on Russia, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe, the history of World War II, the cultural Cold War, and the politics of memory.
This feature length investigation by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit exposes Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip through the medium of photos and videos posted online by Israeli soldiers themselves during the year long conflict. The I-Unit has built up a database of thousands of videos, photos and social media posts. Where possible it has identified the posters and those who appear. The material reveals a range of illegal activities, from wanton destruction and looting to the demolition of entire neighbourhoods and murder. The film also tells the story of the war through the eyes of Palestinian journalists, human rights workers and ordinary residents of the Gaza Strip. And it exposes the complicity of Western governments – in particular the use of RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus as a base for British surveillance flights over Gaza. “The west cannot hide, they cannot claim ignorance. Nobody can say they didn’t know,” says Palestinian writer, Susan Abulhawa. This is “the first livestream genocide in history. If people are ignorant they are wilfully ignorant,” she says.
France’s stance on arming Israel has fluctuated significantly in recent days. President Emmanuel Macron initially made headlines by announcing a potential halt to weapons deliveries to Israel and claimed that providing arms while demanding a ceasefire was “inconsistent”. But he made a swift U-turn after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu published a video statement in response, publicly shaming Macron. France’s defense ministry later clarified that the supply of weapons to Israel would persist.
On Saturday, Macron told broadcaster France Inter: “I think that today, the priority is that we return to a political solution, that we stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza”, and reiterated his concern over Israel’s horrific attacks on Gaza which are ongoing despite repeated calls for a ceasefire. The statement provoked an angry response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who took to X (formerly Twitter) to condemn Macron’s remarks, calling them a “disgrace”. In the video response, Netanyahu claims: “As Israel fights the forces of barbarism led by Iran, all civilised countries should be standing firmly by Israel’s side. Yet, President Macron and other Western leaders are now calling for arms embargoes against Israel. Shame on them.”
On the same day, Macron’s office responded, claiming France is a “steadfast friend of Israel” and described Netanyahu’s reaction as “excessive and detached from the friendship between France and Israel”. After the heated exchange, BFMTV reported that France would continue sending weapons to Israel that it deems “defensive in nature”.
Netanyahu’s Threat? Warning Shot Fired Near French Gas Station After Macron’s Policy Shift
The French President’s U-turn seems to have revealed not only his failure to follow through on his words but also shed light on how France and the West’s policy decisions are constrained by foreign governments. His brief consideration, likely a strategic attempt to appease the international community critical of any government funding Israel’s ongoing bombing campaign in Gaza and Lebanon was reversed after France’s pressure to uphold alliances prevailed. Some now allege that Netanyahu later fired a warning shot by blowing up a building in the vicinity of French Gas Station TotalEnergies in southern Beirut.
The logistics of arms deliveries become even more complex when considering Jordan’s role as a crucial ally in supporting Israel, particularly in respect to the ongoing tensions surrounding air bases in Cyprus where the UK, France and Germany have been extensively delivering weapons. The French operate a significant airbase in Jordan and NATO recently established its first-ever liaison office in the Middle East and North Africa. Given the circumstances surrounding Turkey’s warning against further invasions into Lebanon, it seems possible that Jordan is being viewed as a viable and necessary alternative for arms transportation.
France & Israel’s Strong Military Partnership
France’s connections with Israel, in economic aspects run deep. According to a 2023 defense report, France has issued 767 export licenses to Israel since 2015, underscoring the long-enduring military collaboration. Additionally, France exports about €20 million worth of military equipment to Israel annually amounting to a total value of €207.6 million of French arms sent to Israel between 2013 and 2022. Moreover, France granted export licenses worth €2.5 billion between 2014 and 2022 for Israeli defense purposes. Notably, the French defense giant Thales confirmed it supplied drone transponders to Israel this year. This partnership contradicts Macron’s claims and highlights a broader pattern of military support that persists despite his statements.
A newly published investigation by the Electronic Intifada confirms that France’s strong ties to Israel’s defense industry remain intact and suggests that Macron’s rhetoric does not translate into meaningful action. They uncover Thales significant influence on the European Union’s arms policy which directly contributes to agendas that promote militarization, raising international concerns about the EU’s commitment to human rights.
NATO’s SALIS Program and European Arms Trade Logistics to Israel
NATO’s SALIS (Strategic Airlift Interim Solution) program provides participating member countries, including France and Germany, with access to large, long-range Antonov AN-124 aircraft to transport oversized cargo; logistical support which is essential for moving military equipment, such as tanks, helicopters, and other defense assets.
Moreover, the broader context is that Israel’s military operations have now resulted in the deaths of over 186,000 Palestinians, according to a recent report by The Lancet, a peer-reviewed medical journal.
With no end in sight, these operations are sustained by a constant flow of arms from Western nations, particularly the United States and Germany. Since October 2023, the U.S. has dramatically ramped up its military aid, and Washington recently approved an additional $250 million in sales, which pushes the total US military supply to a record $17.9 billion since October 2023. Germany, the second-largest military supplier to Israel, has approved over $275 million worth of military exports since October.
We are now a year into the Israel government’s military action devastating the people and infrastructure of Gaza and since expanded into escalating violence against countries including Lebanon and Iran. Yet, even today, United States Senate members are repeating flagrant lies produced in the war’s early days to trick Americans and others around the world into supporting Israel’s war.
On Monday, Republican US Senators introduced a resolution repeating some of these old lies that helped build support among Americans for Israel’s war — that “Hamas terrorists” killed “approximately 1,200 individuals” in their October 7, 2023 attack and that Hamas used “rape as a weapon of war.” Why repeat the lies? To support the resolution’s conclusions, including that the Senate wants to “ensure the forever survival of Israel.” Left unsaid in the resolution is that the way the US government continually acts to purportedly achieve this goal includes shoveling more and more money, weapons, and intelligence to Israel for Israel to use in whatever way it chooses. Indeed, the US government’s commitment seems unfazed no matter Israel’s level of barbarity and no matter how much Israel’s actions cause further geographic expansion of the war.
To the extent American politicians repeating these baseless claims regarding October 7 are doing so because they are ignorant about what happened, they would do well to watch a new documentary — Atrocity Inc. — featuring reporter Max Blumenthal. Blumenthal was there from the beginning calling no dice on the propaganda promoted by Israel and US politicians, along with American media, that has been used to gain public support for Israel’s aggressive actions. The widespread rape allegations are ridiculous fabrications and a significant portion of the death toll is from the willful killing of Israelis by agents of their own government, Blumenthal explains in the documentary. Blumenthal also debunks other outrageous lies, including claims related to the killing of, and even beheading of, babies on October 7.
Senators, and everyone else, can watch the documentary here.
No one expected that one year would be enough to recalibrate the Palestinian cause as the world’s most pressing issue, and that millions of people across the globe would, once again, rally for Palestinian freedom. The past twelve months have witnessed an Israeli genocide in Gaza and unprecedented violence in the West Bank, as well as legendary expressions of Palestinian sumud, steadfastness.
It is not the enormity of the Israeli war, but the degree of the Palestinian sumud that has challenged what once seemed to be a foregone conclusion to the Palestinian struggle. Yet, it turned out that the final chapter on Palestine was not ready to be written, and that it would not be Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who would write it.
The ongoing war has exposed the limits of Israel’s military machine.
The typical trajectory of Israel’s relationship with the occupied Palestinians has been predicated on unhindered Israeli violence and deafening international silence. It was largely Israel alone that determined the timing and objectives of war. Its enemies, until recently, seemed to have no say over the matter.
This is no longer the case. Israeli war crimes are now met with Palestinian unity; Arab, Muslim and international solidarity; and early, albeit serious, signs of legal accountability. This is hardly what Netanyahu was hoping to achieve; just days before the start of the war, he stood in the UN General Assembly brandishing a map of a “New Middle East”, a map that had completely erased Palestine and the Palestinians.
“We must not give the Palestinians a veto over… peace,” he said. Why? “Palestinians are only two per cent of the Arab world.” His arrogance didn’t last long. His supposedly triumphant moment in the international spotlight was short-lived.
Embattled Netanyahu is now mostly concerned about his own political survival. He is expanding the war front to escape his army’s humiliation in Gaza and is terrified by the prospect of an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
And as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) continues to look into an ever-expanding file, accusing Israel of deliberate genocide in the Strip, the General Assembly resolved on 18 September that Israel must end its illegal occupation of Palestine within a year from the passing of its resolution on the matter.
It must be utterly disappointing for Netanyahu — who has worked tirelessly to normalise his country’s occupation of Palestine — to be met with total and thundering international rejection of his schemes. The advisory opinion of the ICJ, issued on 19 July, declared that “Israel’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (is) unlawful.” This was another blow to Tel Aviv, which despite unlimited US support, failed to change international consensus on the illegality of the occupation.
In addition to the relentless Israeli violence, the Palestinian people have been marginalised as political actors. Since the Oslo Accords in 1993, their fate has been largely entrusted to a mostly unelected Palestinian leadership, which, with time, has monopolised the Palestinian cause for its own financial and political interests.
The sumud of the Palestinians in Gaza, who have endured a year of mass killing, deliberate starvation and total destruction of all aspects of life, is helping reassert the political significance of a long-marginalised nation.
This shift is fundamental as it runs contrary to everything that Netanyahu had tried to achieve.
In the years prior to the war, Israel seemed to be writing the final chapter of its settler-colonial project in Palestine. It had subdued or co-opted the Palestinian leadership, perfected its siege on Gaza and was ready to annex much of the West Bank.
Gaza became the least of Israel’s concerns, as any discussion around it was confined to the hermetic Israeli siege and the resulting humanitarian, although not political crisis.
While Palestinians in Gaza have tirelessly implored the world to put pressure on Israel to end the protracted siege, imposed in earnest in 2007, Tel Aviv continued to conduct its policies in the Strip according to the infamous logic of former top Israeli official Dov Weissglas, who explained the rationale behind the blockade as “to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger.”
A year into the war, though, and the Palestinians have become the centre of any serious discussion on a peaceful future in the Middle East. Their collective courage and steadfastness have neutralised the Israeli military’s ability to exact political outcomes through violence.
True, the number of dead, missing or wounded in Gaza has already exceeded 150,000. The Strip was already impoverished and dilapidated to begin with; today it is in total ruins. Every mosque, church or hospital has been destroyed or seriously damaged. Most of the enclave’s educational infrastructure has been obliterated. Yet, Israel hasn’t achieved any of its strategic objectives, which are ultimately united by a single goal: that of silencing the Palestinian quest for freedom, forever.
Despite the unbelievable pain and loss, there is now a powerful energy that is unifying Palestinians around their cause, and the Arabs and the rest of the world around Palestine. This shall have consequences that will last for many years, long after Netanyahu and his fellow extremists are gone.
Hezbollah has ordered its fighters not to attack Israeli forces who established a forward operating base behind UN peacekeeping troops (UNIFIL) near a Lebanese border village, effectively using them as human shields.
“The Israeli enemy is attempting to use UNIFIL forces as human shields to cover its failure to advance toward the village, especially after its repeated and unsuccessful attempts to advance toward Maroun al-Ras and the loss of dozens of its soldiers, both killed and wounded,” a statement issued by the Islamic resistance movement on 7 October said.
“The operations room of the Islamic Resistance instructed the fighters to hold back and not engage with the movement to protect the lives of international soldiers,” the statement added.
The day before, UNIFIL had warned Israel’s operations near their position at Maroun al-Ras were an “extremely dangerous development.”
“It is unacceptable to compromise the safety of UN peacekeepers carrying out their Security Council-mandated tasks,” UNIFIL stated while reminding all actors in the conflict of their obligations to protect UN personnel and property.
On Saturday, UNIFIL said it remained in all positions near the border despite what it said was an Israeli request to “relocate.”
In response to the peacekeepers’ refusal, US foreign policy advisor Matthew Brodsky suggested in a post on X, “Israel should carpet bomb Irish area, then drop Napalm on it.”
Hezbollah fighters are resisting an Israeli ground invasion that began last week.
On Monday, Hezbollah fighters attacked a gathering of Israeli forces in Maroun al-Ras with rockets, while the Israeli army said it had deployed a third division to participate in ground operations in Lebanon.
Israel’s ground maneuvers follow its intensified bombing campaign of Lebanon that began on 23 September. Israel has bombed targets in south Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, and around Beirut, killing more than 1,110 people since then. The widespread bombing of civilian homes has left over one million people internally displaced.
Hezbollah released a statement on Monday, the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, saying it and the Lebanese people have paid a “heavy price” for its decision to enter the battle against Israel and open a support front for Gaza.
“The enemy continues its crimes and aggression without limits, but we are confident, if Allah wills, in our resistance’s ability to repel the aggression, and in our great and resistant people to endure and hold out until this calamity is lifted,” the statement affirmed.
In honour of Michael Parenti (1933–2026), who passed away on 24 January 2026 at the age of 92. He spent his life naming what power prefers to leave unnamed.
In 1837, Abraham Lincoln remarked: “These capitalists generally act harmoniously, and in concert, to fleece the people.”
Today, he would be dismissed as a conspiracy theorist.
That dismissal—reflexive, automatic, requiring no engagement with evidence—is not a mark of sophistication. It is a tell. The question worth asking is not whether conspiracies exist (they are a matter of public record and a recognised concept in law) but why acknowledging their existence provokes such reliable hostility. What work does the label “conspiracy theorist” actually do?
The late political scientist Michael Parenti spent decades answering that question. His conclusion was blunt: “’Conspiracy’ refers to something more than just illegal acts. It serves as a dismissive label applied to any acknowledgment of ruling-class power, both its legal and illegal operations.” The term functions not as a descriptor but as a weapon—a thought-terminating cliché that protects the powerful from scrutiny by pathologising those who scrutinise them.
Conspiracy denial, in Parenti’s analysis, is not skepticism. It is the opposite of skepticism. It is credulity toward power dressed up as critical thinking. As he wrote in Dirty Truths: “Just because some people have fantasies of conspiracies does not mean all conspiracies are imaginary.” … continue
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