One more Canadian action to support Israel’s slaughter in Gaza
By Yves Engler | December 31, 2023
The symbolism of joining a military force to combat a government challenging Israel’s genocide is stark. But, criticism of Canada’s role in the US led Red Sea coalition has largely come from hawks wanting more. As I’ll detail, they are likely underplaying Canada’s assistance for what could significantly escalate fighting in the region.
In solidarity with Palestinians being brutalized, the Houthis in Yemen have seized multiple tanker ships connected to Israel. They’ve stated that they will stop vessels with cargo bound for Israel or owned by Israeli firms. A senior Houthi official, Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, announced that their attacks will end if Israel’s “crimes in Gaza stop and food, medicines and fuel are allowed to reach its besieged population.”
In response to the Houthis actions some major shipping firms have said they won’t load Israel bound cargo. Others have stopped shipping through the Red Sea.
The Houthis actions pressure Israel to stop the slaughter in Gaza. But, Washington is seeking to insulate the Jewish supremacist state from this pressure by building a multinational operation to protect commercial vessels traversing the Red Sea. Canada has joined Operation Prosperity Guardian and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently discussed the matter with Israeli minister Benny Gantz. According to Ynetnews, “The two also discussed ‘the need to strengthen regional architecture, focusing on naval power, to confront the threat of Iran’s proxies, the Houthis, who endanger the global economy with their terrorist acts in the Red Sea.’”
(Control over waterways has long been a source of Israeli vulnerability and one reason Tel Aviv has tried to draw the US and other Western nations into the region. In the lead up to Israel invading its neighbors in 1967 Canada hyped Egypt’s blocking of Israeli ships, which legitimated Israeli aggression. At the time Ottawa also supported a British and US proposal to establish a maritime force to protect Israeli shipping through the Strait of Tiran.)
Canada’s initially stated contribution to Operation Protection Guardian is only three officers. But, Canadian troops already assist the US across the region. In recent years a handful of Canadian troops have been stationed at US bases in Bahrain and Qatar while a ‘detachment’ of Canadians in Saudi Arabia has helped operate US AWACS spy planes.
Canada has a small military base in Kuwait. A few hundred Canadians have been stationed there in recent years to support the special forces deployed in Iraq as well as Canadian intelligence and air-to-air refuelling aircraft. Through NORAD hundreds of Canadian soldiers assist the US with monitoring the region.
Since 2002 Canada has had a regular naval presence in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. The stated aim of Operation ARTEMIS is “to help stop terrorism and to make Middle Eastern waters more secure. These include the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean.” During 2019 HMCS Regina commanded the 33-nation Combined Maritime Forces naval coalition patrolling the region. Two months ago HMCS Montreal returned to Halifax after sailing in the region.
Canada has a history of belligerent naval deployments in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. In the lead up to the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq Canadian naval vessels led maritime interdiction efforts off the coast of Iraq. As such, Ottawa had legal opinion suggesting it was technically at war with that country. Canadian warships also deployed when the US bombed Iraq in 1998 and during the early 1990s war.
The Houthis’ willingness to directly oppose Israel’s policy helps explain why the US and Canada supported Saudi Arabia’s brutal seven-year war against them. In 2016 the Trudeau government justified permits for a massive armoured vehicle sale to the Kingdom on the grounds their fight against the Houthis was “countering instability in Yemen.” Then Global Affairs minister Stephane Dion signed a directive okaying the permits on the grounds “The acquisition of state-of-the-art armoured vehicles will assist Saudi Arabia in these goals, which are consistent with Canada’s defence interests in the Middle East.” Additionally, Ottawa repeatedly criticized the Houthis over the fighting while expressing support for the Saudi-backed President of Yemen Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi.
Today Canada has officially joined a military coalition combating one of the few governments/groups offering substantial solidarity to the Palestinians. It’s just one of the innumerable ways Canada has enabled Israel’s horrors.
But the US’ Red Sea coalition isn’t simply anti-Palestinian. It heightens the risk of a major regional war, which some Israeli officials want. That country has repeatedly bombed Lebanon and Syria in recent days and assassinated Iranian general Sayyed Razi Mousavi.
Despite the potential for escalation, Ottawa prefers to join the US campaign to suppress the Houthis than pressure Israel to end its slaughter. Shame.
Israel targets UNRWA to expel it from Gaza, change territory’s demographics: Palestinian Foreign Ministry
Press TV – December 31, 2023
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry says Israel has been targeting the UN agency for Palestinian refugees across the Gaza Strip to force it to leave the territory and change Gaza’s demographic characteristics.
The ministry made the remarks in a statement on Saturday concerning the Israeli regime’s attacks on employees and facilities of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
According to the ministry, since the beginning of Israel’s genocidal war against Gaza on October 7, the regime has killed hundreds of the agency’s employees, destroyed its centers and schools, and obstructed its work and ability to perform its tasks, especially in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
It added that the regime’s assaults on the UN agency are also in line with Israel’s plans to forcefully displace the people of Gaza and change demographic characteristics of the coastal territory.
“Such Israeli plans directly target the Palestinian issue and the rights of our people, most notably the right of return [to their homeland], and are an integral part of an official Israeli policy aimed at liquidating the Palestinian issue,” the ministry noted.
It added that apart from the official goals declared for the regime’s war on Gaza by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he is using genocide of Palestinian civilians as a means to achieve other strategic goals, which are gradually unfolding with each passing day.
Israel’s genocide in Gaza has so far killed at least 21,672 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured over 56,000 others.
The regime has also cut off the flow of basic supplies such as water, electricity, medicines, and fuel, to one of the world’s most densely-populated territories that houses over two million Palestinians.
Amid ongoing genocide in Gaza, systematic Israeli theft occurring in Palestinian civilian homes
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor | December 29, 2023
The Israeli army has unleashed its soldiers in the Gaza Strip to not only kill, but to engage in immoral activities such as property theft and looting during raids on Palestinian civilian homes, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said in a statement issued Friday.
Euro-Med Monitor reported on a number of cases that show Israeli soldiers participating in and witnessing the deliberate theft of the assets and money of Palestinian civilians, including laptop computers, gold, and large quantities of cash. Israel’s army has been conducting ground military operations in the Gaza Strip since October, the rights group said. These operations have included raiding homes, storming residential areas, and conducting arbitrary arrest campaigns against civilians.
According to testimonies gathered by Euro-Med Monitor, the Israeli army’s crimes extend beyond arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, and field executions. They also involve the intentional destruction of property, the theft of personal belongings, and the looting and burning of homes—all part of a systematic strategy that is evidently based on collective punishment of the Palestinian people.
Based on the testimonies it has been documenting, the Euro-Med Monitor team stated that its preliminary estimates suggest that the Israeli army may have looted valuable possessions worth tens of millions of dollars, in addition to stealing personal belongings from Palestinian civilians.
Palestinian Thabet Salim, 40, told Euro-Med Monitor’s team that he and his two sons were taken into custody by the Israeli army from their house in the Zaytoun neighbourhood, in the south of Gaza City, and that members of the army had pilfered all of the gold and cash that was on hand. Salim said that he had been released alone two days ago, while his sons’ fate remains unknown.
“The amount of money the soldiers took from my house is worth more than 10,000 US dollars,” Salim declared, “plus nearly the same amount of gold from my wife, and the wife of my eldest son.”
A woman named Umm Muhammad Gharbiyya, who lives in the Al-Shuja’iya neighbourhood, east of Gaza City, told the Euro-Med Monitor team that the Israeli forces forcibly took her gold jewellery after violently breaking into her family’s house earlier this month. Her husband and oldest son were also arrested during the raid.
Hussein Al-Tanani, a resident of the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood in the north of Gaza City, said that they were surprised to find their house had been raided by the Israeli army following their escape to a nearby United Nations school in order to seek shelter from Israeli attacks. A computer and large amounts of cash had been stolen, while a big mess was left inside the house.
The testimonies gathered by Euro-Med Monitor teams confirm reports by the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate’s so-called “intelligence collection and technical spoils” unit that were published by Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth on 15 December. The reports say that the Israeli army “seized” sums of money exceeding five million Israeli shekels (about $1,351,350 USD).
Euro-Med Monitor reported that the aforementioned amount of money is likely only a small portion of the unreported thefts carried out by Israeli forces. At the same time, footage swept social media (its date as well as the precise context of the incident could not be verified by the time of this publication) showing three Israeli soldiers personally selling gold jewellery in a West Bank store after stealing it from a house in the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s soldiers themselves have published videos on social media platforms documenting their deliberate sabotage of civilian homes in the Gaza Strip, Euro-Med Monitor pointed out, or their spraying of racist Zionist slogans on walls, in addition to bragging about seizing Palestinians’ money and valuable possessions.
Alia Al-Najjar, 34, affirmed in press statements that she recognised some of her own gold jewellery, which she had previously kept with her mother’s belongings, in one of the videos published by Israeli soldiers. Among the items Al-Najjar saw in the video was a bracelet she had purchased with her first teaching salary, which was a unique 24-carat gold leaf-shaped piece.
She said that in the video clip, an Israeli soldier displays her bracelet inside Al-Najjar’s mother’s cloth purse, which also holds other gold pieces and cherished items. She made a comment on the video, calling the soldiers “thieves” before the poster removed the video.
Another Israeli soldier appears in a video clip showing off a silver necklace that says “Made in Gaza” and promising to give it to his girlfriend, while additional footage shows a different soldier carrying a guitar and singing above the debris of demolished homes in the Gaza Strip.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor called for a comprehensive and impartial international investigation to be launched into the grave Israeli violations against the residents of the Gaza Strip and their property, and for the international community to take urgent measures to ensure that Israel is held legally accountable.
Why are Canadian taxpayers subsidizing Israel’s military?
By Yves Engler | December 29, 2023
Critics say Israel is an army with a country, but it is the apartheid state’s supporters who confirm it. Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University has once again launched an initiative to promote the Israeli military even though it violates charity regulations and risks the group’s special tax status.
In a recent end of year fundraising appeal, a group officially dedicated to the “Advancement of Education” sent its members “Supporting Our Student Soldiers”. The CFHU appeal notes: “The We Are One campaign provides scholarships and academic assistance to our returning IDF soldiers who are courageously fighting in the ongoing war. … Let’s unite to provide education and healing for our IDF warriors, demonstrating our unwavering commitment to their success and recovery.”
With branches in seven Canadian cities, CFHU has instigated a number of other initiatives to support the apartheid state’s military. In 2018 the CFHU branch in the nation’s capital “launched the Ottawa Scholarship Fund in support of reserve duty soldiers studying at The Hebrew University.” At the event, according to CFHU’s annual report, “four students shared their inspiring stories from their military service and explained what it means to be a reserve duty soldier in the IDF.”
A 2019 story on the website of an organization set up by famed liquor bootlegger Alan Bronfman in 1944 noted, “Help CFHU send former IDF combat soldiers to university” while an ongoing funding pitch says, “Donate in support of CFHU’s scholarship campaign for soldiers studying at Hebrew University”. In July 2021 wealthy Calgarian Lenny Shapiro financed a number of CFHU “scholarships for students who have served in the IDF.” CFHU and Hebrew University (HU) matched a portion of Shapiro’s unspecified contribution.
CFHU has partnered with the Duvdevan Foundation on a number of scholarships and public relations initiatives. According to the Duvdevan Foundation, “the Duvdevan Unit was established in June 1986, with the understanding that a specific and intelligent warfare method needed to be developed to deal with Judea and Samaria’s [West Bank] security incidents.” CFHU has organized a number of fundraisers centered on presentations by former soldiers in a unit that regularly kills Palestinians.
To get a sense of how deeply the “charity” is enmeshed with the Israeli military, CFHU meetings have begun with messages from top Israeli Generals.
Beyond instigating initiatives that assist the Israeli military, CFHU funnels many millions of dollars in tax deductible donations to a university that has significant and long-standing ties to the occupation force. A month ago it launched an “Enhanced Extensive Aid Package to HU students serving in the IDF” and a few weeks earlier released a video “message from some our students who are on the front lines” killing Palestinians. During Israel’s violent outburst in 2002 the Jerusalem based school awarded scholarships to students who signed up for IDF combat units and it operates a training centre for military intelligence officers. To maintain the IDF’s technological edge, cadets have studied for degrees in physics, math or computer science at HU for over 40 years. The university provides the IDF with academic information on students enrolled in the Talpiot program. In a story on Talpiot Jason Gewirtz writes, “the opening years of the program saw the students first and foremost as soldiers…. They wore uniforms to their classes at Hebrew University and took shifts guarding Talpiot’s section of the Hebrew University campus.”
In 2019 HU began offering a three-year training for future IDF intelligence officers. Students in the Havatzalot program live in a former university residence only accessible by biometric identification. Regular university employees need advanced permission to enter the area.
Assisting a foreign military violates Canada Revenue Agency rules. According to CRA guidelines, “increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of Canada’s armed forces is charitable, but supporting the armed forces of another country is not.”
Yet between 2017 and 2021 CFHU raised $75 million in tax deductible donations. According to Blumbergs’ list of Canadian charities with the “largest assets in 2019” CFHU had $77 million.
The Canada Revenue Agency must revoke Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University’s charitable status. The public shouldn’t be subsidizing a group illegally supporting a military slaughtering tens of thousands.
Israel again turns down US request to transfer tax money collected in Palestine
MEMO | December 29, 2023
Why Are Israelis Obsessed with Killing Palestinian Children?
KEVIN BARRETT • DECEMBER 29, 2023
Kevin Barrett is editor at Veterans Today who joins us. Welcome to the program, Kevin Barrett. I’m not too sure whether I should talk about the reference that the Osama Hamdan, the senior Hamas leader there, made to the Israeli regime force who wanted to kill children or to the other aspect of this war. But let’s start with that one in particular, which is pretty gruesome and pretty shocking. Why do you think the Israeli soldiers are acting in that way unless they’re being maybe instructed to kill babies? But then again, isn’t that part of their psyche in terms of the training that they received in the past in their military?
Yes, the Israeli military is notorious for deliberately targeting and murdering children. Chris Hedges wrote about that in his famous article “A Gaza Diary” from 15 years ago, maybe 20, I think, actually. And he described how he had been in war zones and witnessed atrocities before, but until he went to Gaza, he had never seen soldiers barking out obscene insults over their bullhorns in order to lure Palestinian children within range of their gun sights so that they could be shot for sport. And he witnessed that happen to several Palestinian children. It’s a common occurrence. The sport shooting of children is a regular part of what the Israeli Defense Forces do. And they never face any kind of justice. Because it’s open season on Palestinian childfen.
The Israeli Defense Forces hand out t-shirts that say, “one shot, two kills,” and they show a pregnant Palestinian woman with a target on her belly.
They are proud of killing children. Ayelet Shaked, the former Justice Minister, is notorious for calling for the mass murder of Palestinian children. She called them “little snakes.” And she said Israel should also kill their mothers. So there is something deep in the Israeli psyche that is twisted, mentally ill. They hate Palestinian children and want to kill them.
In this current war in Gaza there are mainstream Western reports attesting to the fact that Israel soldiers have been lured into ambushes by the resistance fighters broadcasting recorded sounds of children. The Israelis are always going to want to kill the children. That lures them into the ambush. And the Israeli military even admitted to this. So these are psychotic, genocidal child killers. And they are terrorists.
The Palestinian side is rationally calculating a military operation and trying to diplomatically negotiate a solution. The Israeli side is just psychotic and genocidal and they want to exterminate Amalek, as Netanyahu said, referring to the Hebrew Bible ordering the complete extermination of every man, woman, child and baby and even animal.
So there’s something deeply wrong with the Israeli psyche.
So when you take a look at the future here, what are we looking at? At this point we are hearing about the losses that the Israeli regime forces are suffering on the ground, but it’s not to the point where I don’t think they’re going to throw the white flag in. So are we looking at a war of attrition here? Are we looking at a long ways to go when it comes to this genocidal war?
It’s really just a matter of how long the world puts up with genocide. And the longer it waits, the worse it will look in the eyes of history.
I have no idea at what point the proverbial straw will break the camel’s back and the relevant forces in the world will shift enough to the point that the Zionists feel that they have no choice but to stop the genocide.
It could be a combination of things: Pressure from the Ansarullah forces of Yemen, who have been heroically targeting Israeli shipping and imposing their own blockade on the Israelis, who are of course themselves imposing a genocidal blockade on food, water, and medicine and fuel in Gaza. So that’s the biggest factor that’s got the Americans concerned about the possibility of a wider war. Naturally Netanyahu wants a wider war, because his whole political career, and maybe his staying out of jail, depends on his keeping the war going, and seeing how much mass murder of civilians he can get away with.
The resistance forces have been good at managing things to avoid the escalation that could lead to something utterly disastrous for the region. At this point Yemen is the only country meaningfully pressuring the US to put an end to this genocide.
Israel’s ‘unprecedented’ censorship regime targets Western media
MEMO | December 29, 2023
The Israeli army issued an unprecedented English-language censorship order banning media agencies from reporting without the prior approval of its propaganda unit in the military known as the Israeli Military Censor. Commanded by the chief censor, a military officer appointed by the defence minister, the unit is located within the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate.
The memo is titled “Operation Swords of Iron”, the same name Israel has given to its military campaign in Gaza where 21,000 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October. The high death toll and level of devastation makes Israel’s onslaught on the besieged population of Gaza the bloodiest military campaign in living memory.
Details of the memo obtained by the Intercept reveals how the Israeli army has taken extreme measures to control the narrative about its military campaign, widely considered to be a genocide. As many as eight critical subjects related to the conflict have been banned.
Among the prohibited topics are details about weapons used by the occupation army, security cabinet leaks and stories about individuals held as prisoners of war by Hamas. With the censorship memo written in English, it’s speculated that the directives are intended for Western media sympathetic to the apartheid regime.
According to Michael Omer-Man, former editor-in-chief of Israel’s +972 Magazine and director of research for Israel–Palestine at Democracy in the Arab World Now (DAWN), the instructions in the memo are unprecedented, emphasising the IDF’s efforts to control the narrative surrounding the ongoing conflict.
“I haven’t ever seen instructions like this sent from the censor aside from general notices broadly telling outlets to comply, and even then it was only sent to certain people,” said Omer-Man.
The document highlights the censorship’s focus on the activities of the occupation army and Israeli security forces, urging media outlets to submit materials for censorship before broadcast.
The Israeli Military Censor, located within the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate, has faced concerns about politicisation. Recent reports indicate that the censor complained about pressure from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to crack down on specific media outlets without legitimate reasons.
Since the commencement of Israel’s aggression, over 6,500 new items have faced censorship by the Israeli government, according to Guy Lurie, a research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute. This figure is said to be approximately four times higher than before the conflict, highlighting the increased scrutiny.
Adding further weight to the claim that the directive is intended for the Western media is Israel’s treatment of foreign journalists. Foreign journalists working in Israel must obtain government permission, including a declaration that they will abide by the censor.
“In order to get a visa as a journalist, you have to get approval from GPO [Government Press Office,] and therefore you have to sign a document that says you will comply with the censor,” said Omer-Man. “That in itself is probably against the ethics guidelines at a bunch of papers.”
READ: Meta accused of ‘systemic censorship’ of pro-Palestine content
READ ALSO: Censoring Israeli violence: Western media outlets capitulate
Hamas: Meshaal did not say we will recognise Israel
MEMO | December 29, 2023
An official source in Hamas yesterday denied statements attributed to the movement’s former head, Khaled Meshaal, on the possibility of recognising Israel.
“The journalist in the French Le Figaro newspaper, Georges Malbrunot, included a set of his personal opinions and his own comments regarding the recognition of Israel, during an interview with Meshaal,” the source said in a statement on Wednesday.
The source added that Malbrunot’s article is far from Meshaal’s clear and specific statements, in which he affirmed “the refusal to recognise the Zionist entity”.
Hamas attached the text of Meshaal’s statements.
“Our clear position is not to recognise the legitimacy of the occupation; we took a lesson from the Oslo Accords,” Meshaal said in the text, adding: “In 1993, the PLO leadership recognised Israel, which did not give it anything in return.”
“Through the 2017 document, Hamas confirmed its position in national consensus with the Palestinian factions regarding the establishment of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital and the right of return and without us recognising Israel. As for the issue of the truce, it is negotiable,” he added.
Israel sued for ‘genocide’ in The Hague
RT | December 29, 2023
South Africa has filed an appeal before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, alleging that Israeli actions in Gaza amount to “genocide” and asking for “provisional measures” to stop it, the top UN court announced on Friday.
The application claims “acts and omissions by Israel… are genocidal in character, as they are committed with the requisite specific intent … to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a part of the broader Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group,” the ICJ said in a statement.
Israel’s conduct towards the Palestinians in Gaza “is in violation of its obligations under the Genocide Convention,” the government in Pretoria said. They also accused Israel of having “failed to prevent genocide” and “failed to prosecute the direct and public incitement to genocide” since October 7.
“Israel has engaged in, is engaging in and risks further engaging in genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza.”
South Africa also asked the ICJ to “indicate provisional measures” in order to “protect against further, severe and irreparable harm” to Palestinians under the Genocide Convention. The ICJ also published the 84-page document that lists these measures in detail, first of which is for Israel to “immediately suspend its military operations in and against Gaza.”
Pretoria also demands of West Jerusalem to stop any and all attacks on Palestinians, and to revoke any orders whose goal is “the expulsion and forced displacement from their homes” or deprivation of access to food, water, fuel, shelter, medical supplies and other humanitarian needs.
Anyone who engages in “direct and public incitement” to genocide or conspiracy to commit it must be brought to justice, the appeal insists. South Africa demanded Israel submit a report on complying with all these demands within one week.
Under the ICJ’s rules, South Africa’s application has priority over all other cases, because of the request for provisional measures.
South Africa has previously sought to charge Israel with war crimes before the International Criminal Court (ICC). West Jerusalem is not a signatory party to the ICC, but the court – also based in The Hague – has previously declared it had jurisdiction over Gaza and the West Bank.
On the other hand, both South Africa and Israel are signatories of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which was first adopted in 1948, in response to the Nazi mass murder of Jews during WWII.
UN convoy attacked by Israel on designated ‘humanitarian route’
The Cradle | December 29, 2023
The Director of the UNRWA in the Gaza Strip, Thomas White, announced on 29 December that the Israeli army had targeted one of the organization’s aid convoys as it was returning from north Gaza on a route designated by Tel Aviv itself.
“Israeli soldiers fired at an aid convoy as it returned from Northern Gaza along a route designated by the Israeli Army,” White said via social media.
“Our international convoy leader and his team were not injured, but one vehicle sustained damage – aid workers should never be a target,” he added.
Israel has shown blatant disregard for humanitarian aid workers during its campaign of genocide and ethnic cleansing which began on 7 October.
As of 28 December, 142 UNRWA employees have been killed as a result of the Israeli assault on Gaza, according to the organization’s 57th situation report on the besieged enclave. According to the report, 125 UNRWA installations have also been damaged.
“At least 308 internally displaced peoples (IDPs) sheltering in UNRWA premises have been killed and 1,095 injured since 7 October,” the situation report adds.
It is worth noting that a large majority of the over 30,000 employed by UNRWA are Palestinians.
This is not the first time Palestinians and aid workers have been targeted on humanitarian routes designated specifically by Israel.
Upon resuming the assault after the seven-day truce that ended at the very start of this month, Israel published a map of so-called ‘safe zones’ for Gazans to flee to, ignoring the fact that the vast majority of Palestinians in Gaza do not have electricity or internet to access the map. Many Gazans reported airstrikes on a number of the zones designated by Israel.
“The so-called safe zones … are not scientific, they are not rational, they are not possible, and I think the authorities are aware of this,” a UNICEF spokesman told Al-Jazeera on 5 December.
Gazans are suffering due to a severe lack of humanitarian aid, which since the start of the war has trickled into Gaza at a pace nowhere near fast enough to address the dire situation.
Israel continues to bombard the civilian population indiscriminately, while actively pursuing plans for forced displacement.
Tel Aviv recently issued more evacuation orders for Gazans in Khan Yunis to evacuate further south, as tens of thousands of displaced Gazans are already stranded in the southern border city of Rafah.
“People forced to move once again. More people in less space. Rafah in the south is now bursting at the seams. No respite. Time for a humanitarian ceasefire,” Thomas White wrote on social media on 26 December.
Report: Number of wounded Israeli soldiers approaching 20,000
Israel evacuates soldiers who were wounded in battles in Gaza on December 18, 2023. [Nir Keidar – Anadolu Agency]
MEMO | December 29, 2023
The number of wounded Israeli soldiers is likely to reach approximately 20,000 once those diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder are included, AP reported citing an Israeli activist.
Edan Kleiman, who heads the non-profit Disabled Veterans Organisation, said: “I have never seen a scope like this and an intensity like this.”
“We must rehabilitate these people,” he added, warning that the Israeli authorities are not grasping the severity of the situation.
There is a large and growing segment of the wounded, who are also afflicted with deep psychological trauma, and whose suffering appears as a hidden cost of war, the Times of Israel reported.
According to Limor Luria, the head of the Israeli Defence Ministry’s Rehabilitation Department, 58 per cent of soldiers have sustained injuries to their limbs, including amputation.
The Defence Ministry said in mid-December that over 6,000 Israeli occupation forces and police members have been wounded since 7 October.
Al-Qassam Brigades: We destroyed 825 Israeli military vehicles
Palestine Information Center – December 28, 2023
GAZA – Spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades Abu Obeida said in a new audio recording that the Battle of Aqsa Flood paved the way for the collapse of the “occupation entity”, reflecting on the struggles and aspirations of the Palestinian people after 83 days of battle.
“We have been fighting for decades, leading up to the Aqsa Flood Battle, for the sake of our people.”
“We dealt the Israeli occupation the blow of the century and told the world that we are a people demanding rights and freedom.”
He further pointed out that the Palestinian resistance remains steadfast, fighting in every corner of Gaza.
“We continue to fight because we know our rights are being taken away.”
“Since the start of the war on October 7, our fighters of Al-Qassam Brigades have destroyed 825 Israeli military vehicles, including tanks, personnel carriers, and bulldozers, among other vehicles,” he said.
Abu Obeida also stated that “the Israeli aggression will break soon, and our people will rise with their heads held high.”
“The Battle of al-Aqsa Flood has put Israel on the path to extinction.”
On the other hand, Abu Obeida stressed that there will be no prisoner exchanges without a full ceasefire.
“Our priority is to stop the Israeli aggression against our people, and no priority comes before that.”
“There are no deals that we can accept before the aggression against our people stops completely.”
Denouncing the international community’s silence towards Israeli crimes, Abu Obeida said that “the world is divided between being unjust criminals or helpless spectators.”
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“Democratic Institutions?” – 10 Lessons from history that will destroy your trust in the CIA
By Kit | OffGuardian | July 20, 2018
… At every corner, we are urged to simply believe what we are told. Whether it is about believing Porton Down and MI6 about “novichok”, or believing the White Helmets about Sarin, or believing the FBI about “collusion”, we are presented with no facts, just assertions from authority. Those who question those assertions are deemed “bots” at best or “traitors” at worst.
Well here, fellow traitors, are the Top Ten reasons to question anything and everything the CIA – or any intelligence agency – has ever told you. … Read full article
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