Hamas launches war on Israel

[Skybird]

The Israeli position makes more sense to me: free all hostages until March 10, and then we consider to not have an offensive on Rafah. Once again Western domestic party policies ruin something bigger than themselves: Biden wants to appease the left in his party.



Why is it that nboody has üprosoed pressure and forceful measures against Hamas to have the freeing the hostages? All there is is appeals. They even want to reward them with an independent state. While both Hamas and Fatah deny Israel's right to exist as a state. Some people seem to not know what the term reciprocity means. Israel has withdrawn from Gazah many yeras ago, and what was the result? The following year already Gazah started to lob missiles into Israel.



Israel would be suicidally insane if it accepts a two state solution. Thats just Western stupidity at work once again.



The militant settlers and conservative Jews invading into West Jordan however must be stopped and held back, too.



There are two kinds of walls in nations and in politics. One wall is to keep one's own people inside. We had that in Germany. The other kind of wall is to keep two sides from going for each other's throats. If nothing else works, that is an acceptable scenario.

[Jimbuna]

'Evacuating was a mistake': Israelis push to return to border homes

Ayelet Kohn and Shachar Shnurman harvested the grapefruits this month - a defiant act of normality amid the burnt-out remains of their neighbours' homes.

The juice, sharp and vivid, is stored in plastic bottles for the weekly barbecues at their home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza. Soldiers are their only guests.

Kfar Aza - only 2km (1.2 miles) from Gaza - was one of the first places targeted by Hamas gunmen on 7 October, in co-ordinated attacks that killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel, and saw more than 240 others taken hostage.

In the days that followed, the community was evacuated to hotels and apartments in other parts of Israel.

Ayelet and Shachar are the first to move back.

"In the evening, it's very lonely," Ayelet says. "You used to see people walking along the road, coming in to say hello - obviously that's not happening now."

During the day, the kibbutz is full of visiting groups: new army recruits, potential donors, journalists, humanitarian organisations.

Kfar Aza has become a kind of museum - its burned and broken houses left frozen on the day of the attack, their entrances roped-off; debris and belongings scattered across the ground.

When the tour groups leave, the couple sit on their veranda, the silence broken only by the whine of Israeli army drones and the regular boom of outgoing artillery. The kibbutz dark, the houses empty.

Ayelet points to the house opposite and to another further up the road.

"Our next-door neighbour, who was a very good friend, was murdered," she says. "It's a constant reminder of all the others."

So far, they are the only members of the kibbutz to move back full-time.

The shock of 7 October is still fresh for many residents here. And the ongoing war in Gaza, sparked by those attacks, is close enough that the destruction in places like Beit Hanoun is visible from the kibbutz border fence.

The challenge for the Israeli prime minister is how to restore a sense of security, as the costs of the country's displaced communities - both political and financially - rise, month by month.

After the attacks, 200,000 people were evacuated from Israel's border areas - both the southern border with Gaza and the northern border with Lebanon, where the Iran-backed group Hezbollah, in support of Hamas, has been exchanging fire with Israeli forces.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu built a political career on being the strongman who could defend Israel from its enemies. Empty border communities are a daily reminder of that failure to protect.

"We bought into the con," Ayelet says. "Maybe they convinced themselves that what they were saying was the truth. But, obviously, it was a lie. And we all bought into it."

After the war is over, she says, something will have to change.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68338551

[Jimbuna]

China condemns US veto of call for immediate ceasefire at UN

China has sharply criticised the US for vetoing a United Nations (UN) Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

Beijing said the move sent the "wrong message" and effectively gave a "green light to the continued slaughter".

The White House said the Algerian-proposed resolution would "jeopardise" talks to end the war.

The US has proposed its own temporary ceasefire resolution, which also warned Israel not to invade the city of Rafah.

Algeria's resolution was backed by 13 of the 15 members of the UN Security Council - with the UK abstaining.

Under the council's rules, any resolution that is vetoed by one of its five permanent members - which includes the US - is immediately thrown out.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68355436

[Jimbuna]

UK aid supplies air-dropped into Gaza for first time

The UK has air-dropped aid into Gaza for the first time since war broke out after striking a deal with Jordan.

Four tonnes of supplies including medicines, food and fuel were delivered into the strip on a Jordanian Air Force plane on Wednesday.

Packages fitted with parachutes floated down to the Tal Al-Hawa Hospital in northern Gaza.

UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron said the aid would save lives and keep the hospital running.

The UK has until now only sent aid to Gaza by land and sea, but northern Gaza - a wasteland after nearly five months of war - is impossible to reach.

The World Food Programme has suspended deliveries there because its convoys had endured "complete chaos and violence", the organisation said.

There is a heavy Israeli military presence in the area and much of the population were forced south.

However, an estimated 300,000 Palestinians remain in northern Gaza with little food or water and the UN has warned for months of a looming famine there.

The British Jordanian delivery contained diesel, critical medical equipment and ration packs for patients and medical staff.

As the last pallet sailed into the night sky, the Jordanian air crew saluted. It landed right on target, they said.

Banking sharply over the Mediterranean sea in two passes, the Royal Jordanian Air Force Hercules aircraft dropped the four tonnes of British aid directly into northern Gaza, just after sunset.

The pallets - fitted with parachutes and GPS trackers to ensure they reached the hospital - were bound for an area just to the north of a Jordanian army field hospital in Gaza City.

The UK Foreign Office said it signed an agreement with Jordan earlier this week which will see £1m ($1.2m) worth of UK aid sent to Gaza.

Commenting on the deal, UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron said: "Thousands of patients will benefit and the fuel will enable this vital hospital to continue its life saving work.

"However, the situation in Gaza is desperate and significantly more aid is needed - and fast. We are calling for an immediate humanitarian pause to allow additional aid into Gaza as quickly as possible and bring hostages home."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68360902

[Jimbuna]

Israeli report says Hamas sexual violence 'systematic and intentional'

The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel says it has gathered evidence Hamas gunmen "systematically and intentionally" committed sexual crimes during the 7 October attacks.

A report by the umbrella organisation describes "identical patterns" of sexual violence at multiple locations.

These allegedly included violent rapes of women conducted "collectively" or "in front of an audience".

Hamas has denied its gunmen sexually assaulted women during the attacks.

On 7 October, hundreds from the Palestinian armed group infiltrated southern Israel, where they killed about 1,200 people and took 253 others hostage.

Israel responded by launching a military campaign in Gaza, during which 29,300 people have been killed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Warning: Contains graphic descriptions of rape and sexual violence

Reports of sexual violence carried out by Hamas - which is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the UK and others - began to emerge soon after 7 October and have accumulated steadily ever since.

A senior Israeli police officer told British MPs last month there was "clear evidence" - collected from forensic investigations as well as from hundreds of statements by witnesses and first responders - that sexual crimes had been committed on a scale large enough to define it as a crime against humanity.

The BBC has also seen and heard evidence of rape, sexual violence and mutilation of women.

The report by the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel (ACCRI) brings together much of what has been reported, as well as other information that it says it has received directly from professionals and confidential calls.

It found that the 7 October attacks included "brutal acts of violent rape, often involving threats with weapons, specifically directed towards injured women".

"Many rape incidents occurred collectively, with collaboration among the perpetrating terrorists," the report says. "In some cases, rape was conducted in front of an audience, such as partners, family, or friends, to increase the pain and humiliation for all present."

"Some Hamas members pursued victims who escaped the massacre, dragging them by their hair with screams. The majority of victims were subsequently killed during or after the sexual assault."

It also cites various sources as indicating that many victims' bodies were "found mutilated and bound, with sexual organs brutally attacked, and in some cases, weapons were inserted into them".

The report concludes that there is "a clear picture of identical patterns of action repeated in each of the attack zones" - the Nova festival, homes in kibbutzim and villages near the Gaza border, and Israeli military bases.

Several Nova festival survivors reported cases of gang rapes, "where women were abused and handled between multiple terrorists who beat, injured, and ultimately killed them", it says.

First responders and volunteer body collectors who went to border communities witnessed signs of sexual violence on women and girls, as did those who identified the bodies of female soldiers killed at bases.

The report also warns that information from released hostages suggests abuse has continued in captivity - an allegation that Hamas has denied.

The BBC's Paul Adams in Jerusalem says this is something Israeli officials are extremely reluctant to talk about openly, out of respect for anxious family members. But they do say that one reason Hamas is still holding female hostages is that does not want their stories to be told.

Asked about these reports at a recent briefing, a senior Israeli official declined to give details, saying simply: "Believe me. We know."

The ACCRI says it has submitted its findings to the UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, who is carrying out a similar investigation and visited Israel last month.

Israel has complained that the UN and other international organisations have been slow to respond to the allegations, and the ACCRI's executive director said its report now left them "no room for denial or disregard".

On Monday, several independent UN experts put out a statement expressing concern about reports of violence by Israeli forces against Palestinian women and girls in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

They said the "credible allegations" included that women and girls had been killed extrajudicially in Gaza, and that others detained in Gaza and the West Bank had been subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault.

Israel rejected the allegations as "despicable and unfounded".
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68365284

[Skybird]

Israel's plan foir post-Hamas Gaza. I must say I more or less agree with it and its reasoning. It aims in the direction I had on mind.


https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/23/m...ntl/index.html


It will send the UN and EU fuming, which I like.

[em2nought]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Israel's plan foir post-Hamas Gaza. I must say I more or less agree with it and its reasoning. It aims in the direction I had on mind.


https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/23/m...ntl/index.html


It will send the UN and EU fuming, which I like.

Sounds like a good plan for democrat held cities in the USA too!

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

Walled site grows at Egypt border near Gaza

Egypt has built more than 3km of wall in the past week in addition to further clearance of a large area next to its border with Gaza, BBC Verify has found.

It comes after Israel warned it is preparing for a ground offensive in Gaza's southern city of Rafah.

The city has seen a huge increase in its population in recent months.

Egyptian authorities say "no provisions" are being made for displaced Palestinians and the area is meant for a "logistical hub" for aid.

But an aid worker for a UK charity, who is part of the humanitarian efforts in Gaza, told the BBC she had "never seen large scale clearing of land" for such a logistical hub and they were unaware of any such plan.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68375460

[Jimbuna]

Israel's PM Netanyahu lays out Gaza plan for after the war

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has laid out his vision for a post-war Gaza.

Under his plan Israel would control security indefinitely, and Palestinians with no links to groups hostile to Israel would run the territory.

The US, Israel's major ally, wants the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA) to govern Gaza after the war.

But the short document - which Mr Netanyahu presented to ministers last night - makes no mention of the PA.

He has previously ruled out a post-war role for the internationally backed body.

He envisages a "demilitarised" Gaza; Israel would be responsible for removing all military capability beyond that necessary for public order.

There would be a "Southern Closure" on the territory's border with Egypt to prevent smuggling both under- and overground.

And "de-radicalisation" programmes would be promoted in all religious, educational and welfare institutions. The document suggests Arab countries with experience of such programmes would be involved, though Mr Netanyahu has not specified which.

Under the plan Israel would also maintain security control over the entire area west of Jordan from land, sea and air.

Mr Netanyahu has been under pressure - at home and internationally - to publish proposals for Gaza since he began his military operation. He is keen to restore a crumbling reputation as a leader who can keep Israel safe and will want to appeal to right wing hardliners in his coalition government.

A spokesman for Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the PA, said Mr Netanyahu's plan was doomed to fail.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh said: "If the world is genuinely interested in having security and stability in the region, it must end Israel's occupation of Palestinian land and recognise an independent Palestinian state."

Mr Netanyahu repeated his rejection of any unilateral recognition by Western countries of a Palestinian state.

On Friday US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US was opposed to any reoccupation of Gaza by Israel as well as any reduction in the size of the territory.

"Gaza... cannot be a platform for terrorism. There should be no Israeli reoccupation of Gaza. The size of Gaza territory should not be reduced," he said at a G20 ministers meeting in Argentina.

Meanwhile negotiators trying to broker a temporary ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages are expected to meet in Paris.

The US wants a deal in place before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins in just over a fortnight.

And, as the humanitarian situation worsens in Gaza, there is international pressure too for the war to end. The Hamas-run Ministry of Health reports that more than 29,500 people, mostly women and children, have been killed since the war began in October.

Israel's military offensive was triggered by Hamas's unprecedented attack on 7 October in which gunmen killed about 1,200 people - mainly civilians - and took 253 back to Gaza as hostages.

Overnight the head of the UN body responsible for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) warned that Gaza faces a "monumental disaster with grave implications for regional peace, security and human rights".

In a letter to the president of the UN general assembly, Philippe Lazzarini said the agency "has reached breaking point, with Israel's repeated calls to dismantle Unrwa and the freezing of funding by donors at a time of unprecedented humanitarian needs in Gaza".

Some of Unrwa's biggest donors suspended funding for the agency last month after Unrwa sacked several of its staff amid allegations by Israel that they had participated in the October attacks.

Mr Netanyahu aims to close the agency as part of his post-war plan and replace it with - as yet unspecified - international aid organisations.

And he has insisted that he will continue his war until Israel has dismantled Hamas and Islamic Jihad - the second largest armed group in Gaza - and all Israeli hostages are returned.

At the end of 2023, Mr Netanyahu warned the war could go on for "many more months".

Meanwhile the US has described Israel's expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank as inconsistent with international law.

"Our administration maintains a firm opposition to settlement expansion, and in our judgment this only weakens, doesn't strengthen Israel's security," Mr Blinken said.

It overturns a move made in 2019 by the Trump administration, which was welcomed by Israel, when then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that Washington no longer viewed settlements as breaching international law.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68379646

[Jimbuna]

Israel, Hamas skirmish in Gaza as truce efforts pick up pace

JERUSALEM/CAIRO, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen clashed throughout the Gaza Strip over the weekend, as mediators picked up the pace of talks on a possible ceasefire to free hostages held by Hamas and bring a measure of Ramadan respite to the battered enclave.

Prospects for securing any truce looked uncertain, however, with Israel saying it was, in parallel, planning to expand its sweep to destroy Hamas, while the Islamist faction stood firm on its demand for a permanent end to the nearly five-month-old war.
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle...es-2024-02-25/

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

Aaron Bushnell: US airman dies after setting himself on fire outside Israeli embassy in Washington

A US airman has died after setting himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC.

The man was identified by police as Aaron Bushnell, 25, of San Antonio, Texas.

Officers from the US Secret Service extinguished the flames before the man was taken to hospital on Sunday afternoon.

Before setting himself on fire, he said he would "no longer be complicit in genocide".

In a video aired live on a streaming site, Twitch, the man identified himself and said he was a serving member of the Air Force.

He said he was "about to engage in an extreme act of protest." After setting himself on fire, he repeatedly shouted "free Palestine".

The Metropolitan Police Department in Washington said that it was "not confirming the authenticity of the video".

No embassy staff members were injured in the incident, said a spokeswoman for the embassy.

The incident happened at 13:00 local time (18:00 GMT) on Sunday.

A bomb disposal unit was sent to the site over concerns about a suspicious vehicle that could have been connected to the individual.

This was later declared safe after no hazardous materials were found.

DC police said officers were working with the US Secret Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to investigate the incident.

Mr Bushnell was taken to the hospital in a critical condition.

The Air Force would not confirm details of Mr Bushnell's service, citing family notification policies.

The Israel-Gaza war erupted on 7 October last year when Hamas gunmen infiltrated southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 253 others hostage.

Israel responded by launching a military campaign in Gaza, during which 29,300 people have been killed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

As of mid-January, 1.9 million civilians in Gaza have been displaced amid Israel's military operations, according to the United Nations, accounting for 85% of its population.

In an interview with CBS News on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the offensive in the face of international criticism, saying America would be "doing a hell of a lot more" if it had suffered such an attack.

It is not the first time someone has set themselves on fire in front of an Israeli diplomatic mission in the US.

In December, a protester self-immolated in front of the Israeli consulate in the US state of Georgia.

A Palestinian flag found at the scene was part of the protest, police said.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68405119

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

No 'miracles' expected in talks between Hamas and Fatah on unified government

Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki says he does not expect "miracles" at talks with Hamas in Moscow tomorrow.

Representatives of Fatah, the governing party in the West Bank, and Hamas will meet to discuss the formation of a unified Palestinian government and the rebuilding of Gaza.

"We hope that there we might be good results in terms of mutual understanding between all factions about the need to support such a technocratic government that will emerge," said Mr Maliki.

"We don't expect miracles to happen in just a simple meeting in Moscow, but I believe that the meeting in Moscow should be followed by other meetings in the region soon."

The talks come as the Palestinian Authority, created approximately 30 years ago as part of the Oslo peace accords, seeks to challenge accusations of ineffectiveness.

Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh resigned as the president, Mahmoud Abbas', moved to try and ensure the Authority maintains its claim to leadership as international pressure grows for a revival of efforts to create a Palestinian state.