Hamas launches war on Israel

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

UK halts aid to UN agency over allegation staff helped Hamas attack

The UK has become the latest country to pause funding for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

It comes after the agency announced the sacking of several of its staff over allegations they were involved in the 7 October Hamas attacks.

The UK government said it was "appalled" by the allegations made by Israel.

The US, Australia, Italy, Canada and Finland have already suspended additional funding to the UN agency.

Created in 1949, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, is the biggest UN agency operating in Gaza. It provides health care, education and other humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. It employs around 13,000 people inside Gaza.

Since Israel began its offensive in response to the 7 October attacks, UNRWA has used its facilities across Gaza to shelter hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians.

It says it has ordered an investigation into information supplied by Israel.

Israel has long accused different branches of the United Nations including UNRWA of bias and even of antisemitism.

Speaking to the BBC, the organisation's former chief spokesperson, Christopher Gunness, said that the suspension of aid to UNRWA was disproportionate and can only lead to further suffering in Gaza.

Mr Gunness believes UNRWA has demonstrated its zero-tolerance policy by sacking the staff members before their internal investigation was complete.

"One million displaced people are currently taking refuge in and around UNRWA buildings. They are the ones who will suffer as a result of this decision," said Mr Gunness, adding: "The curtailing of UNRWA services will also destabilise the region at a time when Western governments are trying to contain a regional conflagration."

On Friday, an adviser to the Israeli prime minister told the BBC that the 7 October Hamas attacks had involved "people who are on their [UNRWA] salaries".

Mark Regev said there was information showing teachers working in UNRWA schools had "openly celebrated" the 7 October attacks.

He also referred to an Israeli hostage who, on her release, said she had been "held in the house of someone who worked for UNRWA".

"They have a union which is controlled by Hamas and I think it's high time that the UN investigated these links between UNRWA and Hamas," he added.

The allegations prompted reaction from major donors.

"The UK is appalled by allegations that UNRWA staff were involved in the 7 October attack against Israel, a heinous act of terrorism that the UK Government has repeatedly condemned," the UK Foreign Office said in a statement.

"The UK is temporarily pausing any future funding of UNWRA whilst we review these concerning allegations," it added.

Earlier, the US State Department announced that it was suspending additional funding to the UN agency, saying it was "extremely troubled" by the allegations of UN staff involvement in the attacks.

The EU said that it would assess further steps "based on the result of the full and comprehensive investigation".

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was "horrified by this news".

The head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, said a full investigation into the allegations was being carried out "to establish the truth without delay."

"To protect the agency's ability to deliver humanitarian assistance, I have taken the decision to immediately terminate the contracts of these staff members," Mr Lazzarini added.

He said any staff found to have been involved in "acts of terror" would be held accountable.

Israel's Foreign Minister, Israel Katz said he aimed to stop UNRWA operating in Gaza after the war.

But the Palestinian Authority's minister for civilian affairs, Hussein Al-Sheikh, said the decision by some countries to pause support for the vital UN agency "entails great political and humanitarian relief risks".

Mr al-Sheikh urged Western donors to immediately reverse their decision, adding: "We need the maximum support for this international organisation."

The Irish deputy premier, Micheál Martin, said his country had no plans to suspend its funding for the agency, saying it provided "life saving assistance to 2.3m people and at incredible personal cost - with over 100 staff killed in last four months".

In a post on Telegram, Hamas's press office said the group urged the UN and the international organisations "to not cave in to the threats and blackmail" from Israel.

Hamas killed around 1,300 people, mostly civilians, in the unprecedented attack on southern Israeli communities on 7 October last year.

Another 250 people were taken hostage. The events triggered Israel's retaliatory attacks on Hamas in Gaza, which have killed more than 26,000 Palestinians, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

The US, Germany and the EU are among some of UNRWA's biggest donors.

The agency says it is struggling to get humanitarian aid to many of the estimated 1.7 million people - nearly three-quarters of the population - displaced by 12 weeks of fighting.

A number of UN facilities where Gazans had taken shelter have been hit in Israeli air strikes.

On Wednesday, 12 people were killed when a UN shelter was struck in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68104203

[Jimbuna]

Israeli protesters again block aid trucks from entering through Kerem Shalom crossing

Hundreds of Israeli protesters on Sunday blocked aid trucks from driving into Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing, demanding that hostages held in Gaza are freed before any more aid is delivered into the Strip, CNN's International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson reports from the scene.

The protests have been ongoing for days and were organized by families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza. On Sunday, the protesters again blocked the convoys despite an expectation that Israeli police would clear the protests to allow the crossing to operate, Robertson reports. The aid trucks, however, remain parked a few hundred meters from the protesters.

On Wednesday, only nine trucks crossed into Gaza via Kerem Shalom due to the protests, while the crossing remained closed on Thursday and Friday due to protesters blocking access, according to Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT). The border was closed on Saturday for Shabbat.

Last Sunday, 139 aid trucks were inspected and transferred via Kerem Shalom, according to COGAT.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Saturday warned of the repercussions of declining humanitarian access in parts of Gaza and the blocking of aid at the crossing.

"The inability to deliver food, water and medical aid will exacerbate the already dire humanitarian situation of those in need of assistance," OCHA said in a statement.
https://edition.cnn.com/middleeast/l...-24/index.html

[Jimbuna]

Heavy fighting continues for seventh day in the vicinity of hospitals in Khan Younis

Heavy fighting in the vicinity of the Nasser and Al-Amal hospitals in Khan Younis in Gaza has continued into a seventh day Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Palestinian Ministry of Health both said.

The IDF again said it was carrying out "precise operations" against Hamas in the southern city, saying its intelligence indicates members of Hamas are operating inside and around the Nasser and Al-Amal hospitals.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said hospital facilities have over the past week been "under siege" after the Israeli military intensified its operations in Khan Younis.

Oxygen supplies at Al Amal hospital have been depleted and that medical teams are unable to perform surgeries as a result, PRCS warned Sunday. It said it is coordinating with the International Committee of the Red Cross "to explore the possibility of providing a safe passage" so oxygen cylinders can be brought to the hospital.

The IDF said they continue to liaise with hospital directors and medical staff to “ensure that the hospitals can remain operational and accessible.” They said that they have not ordered either hospital to evacuate, but that civilians who wish to do so are able to through a specified corridor.

The Nasser Medical Complex is the largest functioning health facility in Gaza.
https://edition.cnn.com/middleeast/l...-24/index.html

[Jimbuna]

[em2nought]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

UK halts aid to UN agency over allegation staff helped Hamas attack

Temporary halt in funding? My gosh, that will surely teach them.

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Israeli protesters again block aid trucks from entering through Kerem Shalom crossing

GOOD!

[Skybird]

https://www.nationalreview.com/corne...onality-again/

In April 1988, after Iran mined the Persian Gulf to paralyze commerce and security traffic, one of these mines detonated and nearly sank the USS Samuel B. Roberts, a guided-missile frigate, as it was escorting Kuwaiti oil tankers. President Reagan responded with what became known as Operation Praying Mantis, combined surface-ship and air attacks that destroyed much of Iran’s navy. As described by retired U.S. Navy captain William Luti in a Christmas Day Wall Street Journal op-ed, the operation remains a case study in effective deterrence.

That operation was textbook proportionality.

Plainly, a proportionate response to Iran’s deadly aggression would be disproportionate to the scope of its aggression. It has to communicate that more of the same will not be tolerated. The opposite is achieved by tit-for-tat — the Biden notion of proportionality. It tells the mullahs that they, rather than we, are in control of the extent of our response and therefore that they merely need to keep their aggression at a level they figure Iran can tolerate.

The point of a response is not to even the score. It is to end the contest.

[Jimbuna]

Israeli forces kill three Palestinian fighters in West Bank hospital raid

Israeli forces have killed three members of Palestinian armed groups in a hospital in the occupied West Bank.

CCTV footage showed members of an undercover unit disguised as medics and other civilians making their way through a corridor with rifles raised.

The Israeli military said the men were hiding in the Jenin hospital, and that one was about to carry out an attack.

The Palestinian Authority's ministry of health accused Israel of carrying out a "new massacre inside hospitals".

Hamas, an armed Palestinian Islamist group which is fighting a war with Israel in Gaza triggered by its unprecedented attacks on Israel on 7 October, said the Israeli forces had "executed three fighters", including one of its members

Another armed group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said two of those killed were its members and were brothers. It added that one of them had been receiving treatment at the hospital.

The security camera video from Ibn Sina hospital shows several members of the Israeli undercover unit - men and women - hurrying through a corridor, training their weapons left and right. One can be seen taking a piece of clothing of an unidentified person who is kneeling down with his hands behind his head, then covering his head with it.

Tensions have soared in the West Bank since the 7 October attacks, with near daily Israeli arrest raids and clashes with Palestinians. Jenin, a militant stronghold, has been a focus of such raids for months.

Since 7 October, Israeli forces have killed at least 357 Palestinians - militants, civilians and attackers - in the West Bank, while Israeli settlers have killed at least eight, according to the United Nations.

Palestinians from the West Bank have killed at least 10 Israelis in attacks in the West Bank and Israel in the same period.

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the Hamas suspect who was killed had "planned a raid attack inspired by the October 7th massacre". On that date, waves of Hamas gunmen invaded Israel from Gaza, killed about 1,300 people - mainly civilians - and took about 250 others back to Gaza as hostages.

The attack triggered Israel's military campaign in Gaza, with the declared aim of destroying Hamas. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says more than 26,600 Palestinians - mostly women and children - have been killed in the Israeli offensive.

The official Palestinian news agency in the West Bank, Wafa, said the three Palestinians in the hospital had been "assassinated".

According to its sources in the hospital, about 10 members of Israeli special forces dressed in civilian clothes went to the third floor, where they killed the men using weapons fitted with silencers.

One of the PIJ members who was killed had been receiving treatment for an injury in the hospital since 25 October, it added.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68137050

[mapuc]

Why didn't I think of it before-The attacks on Civilian vessel and the attack on US-bases has connection to the Israel-Palestine war. So following video should be posted here and not in the Iran thread.



Markus

[Jimbuna]

UK considering recognising Palestine state, Lord Cameron says

Britain is ready to bring forward the moment when it formally recognises a Palestinian state, the foreign secretary has suggested.

Lord Cameron said Palestinians had to be given a political horizon to encourage peace in the Middle East.

He is beginning his fourth visit to the region since being appointed foreign secretary in November.

The UK has a responsibility to set out what a Palestinian state would look like, he told a Westminster reception.

The Palestinian people would have to be shown "irreversible progress" towards a two-state solution, Lord Cameron said.

"As that happens, we - with allies - will look at the issue of recognising a Palestinian state, including at the United Nations," he told the Conservative Middle East Council.

"That could be one of the things that helps to make this process irreversible."

The foreign secretary also urged Israel to allow more humanitarian support into Gaza and said it was "ludicrous" that vital British and other aid was being sent back at the border.

Lord Cameron said the last 30 years had been a story of failure for Israel because it had failed to provide security to its citizens.

Only by recognising that failure, he said, would there be peace and progress.

Britain has long supported a two-state solution, where Israelis and Palestinians could live side by side in separate countries.

But Lord Cameron is suggesting Britain could give formal, diplomatic recognition to a Palestinian state not as part of a final peace deal, but earlier, during the negotiations themselves.

At the same time, there would have to be a new Palestinian authority "stood up quickly" with "technocratic and good leaders" able to govern Gaza, he said.

Lord Cameron added: "Together with that, almost most important of all, is to give the Palestinian people a political horizon so that they can see that there is going to be irreversible progress to a two-state solution and crucially the establishment of a Palestinian state.

"We have a responsibility there because we should be starting to set out what a Palestinian state would look like, what it would comprise, how it would work and crucially, looking at the issue, that as that happens, we with allies will look at the issue of recognising a Palestinian state, including at the United Nations.

"That could be one of the things that helps to make this process irreversible."

As part of any long-term deal, the foreign secretary said Israel would need to see all hostages released, with a guarantee that Hamas could not launch attacks on Israel and its leadership had left Gaza.

He said a deal would be "difficult" but not impossible.

On the ongoing efforts to end the war in Gaza, Lord Cameron said a pause in the fighting was needed now and there were "hopeful signs" about the negotiations under way.

"There is a path that we can now see opening up where we really can make progress, not just in ending the conflict, but progress in finding a political solution that can mean peace for years rather than peace for months," he said.

The real challenge would be to "turn that pause into a sustainable ceasefire without a return to the fighting, he said.

"That is the prize we should be looking for, and more than that, not just how you go from pause to sustainable ceasefire, but how you go from there to a set of political moves and arrangements that could start to deliver the longer term political solution," Lord Cameron said.

"Although it is incredibly difficult, although efforts in the past have failed, we cannot give up.

"If the last 30 years tells us anything, it is a story of failure.

"Ultimately it is a story of failure for Israel because yes, they had a growing economy, yes they had rising living standards, yes they invested in defence and security and walls and the rest of it, but they couldn't provide what a state most wants, what every family wants, which is security.

"And so the last 30 years has been a failure.

"And it is only by recognising that failure and recognising that true peace and progress will come when the benefits of peace and progress are greater than the benefits of returning to fighting."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68137220

[mapuc]

Markus

[Skybird]

The difference between Israel's past wars and its present war? Its winning the political war for the first time ever.


https://unherd.com/2024/01/israel-is...political-war/

[em2nought]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

UK considering recognising Palestine state, Lord Cameron says

Somebody channeling Chamberlain's ghost? What is it with this modern trend of rewarding bad behavior? Might as well increase funding for the UN at the same time so their employees can participate in more massacres.

Originally Posted by Skybird

The difference between Israel's past wars and its present war? Its winning the political war for the first time ever.

The left is doing all they can to try and turn that around.

[Jimbuna]

Israelis tell British MPs of evidence of Hamas sexual violence

Israelis who dealt with the bodies of victims of Hamas's 7 October attacks on Israel have told British MPs and peers that there was "deliberate, systematic genital mutilation" of female victims and that there was "no question" that some had been sexually assaulted.

Business Secretary and Minister for Women Kemi Badenoch said all the reports must be fully investigated and sexual violence must be condemned. "Rape is not resistance," she stated.

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

But a senior Israeli police officer said her force had "clear evidence" that rape and other acts of sexual violence had been committed on a scale large enough to define it as a crime against humanity.

Warning: Readers may find some of the details below distressing.

On 7 October, hundreds of Palestinian gunmen from Gaza infiltrated southern Israel, where they killed around 1,300 people - mostly civilians - and took 250 others hostage.

Israel responded by launching a military campaign in Gaza, during which more than 26,900 people - most of them women and children - have been killed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Many of the MPs and members of the House of Lords who attended Wednesday's meeting in Parliament were in tears as they listened to the testimony of the Israelis.

Shari Mendes, an architect, was called up as a reservist by the Israeli military to help medics identify female bodies brought to the Shura army base after 7 October.

"Many women arrived with bloody, shredded underwear, many arrived with no clothing," she said.

"Our team commander saw several female soldiers who were shot in the vagina, the crotch or they were shot in the breast. This was gratuitous. This was a deliberate, systematic, genital mutilation."

Ms Mendes said her identification unit had seen bodies decapitated or with limbs cut off. "I'm here to be their voice," she said.

Simcha Greiniman was a volunteer for Zaka, an Israeli religious organisation that collects remains of the dead for burial.

He told the BBC he had recovered many bodies after the Hamas attack.

"In one of the houses there was a woman separated from her family. She was in her bedroom leaning on her bed," he recalled.

"She was half naked from the waist down. She was shot in the back of her head... She had a live grenade in her hand."

He described finding another woman who had "nails and different objects in her body, in women's personal places", adding: "It's something you can't imagine."

Mr Greiniman was clear that some of the victims he had seen had been sexually attacked.

"For sure, for sure, there's no question," he said. "I'm the person that dealt with it. I'm the eyes."

"I'm here to say, 'Yes, this is what happened,' and to show the world. We are telling the truth and the world has to understand and do something with it."

His plea to the international community was to understand that it had happened and not push it away, and to put those in charge behind bars. "They have to pay for what they did," he said.

Neither Ms Mendes nor Mr Greiniman are experts on sexual violence, but their testimony is in line with the evidence that the Israeli government says has been collected from forensic investigations as well as from hundreds of statements by witnesses and first responders.

Chief Superintendent Mirit Ben Mayor of the Israel Police told the Parliamentarians that it had not been easy to collect evidence because of the many different locations and because people had been murdered.

But she said: "There is clear evidence that rape and sexual violence offences were committed against the victims. We are investigating crimes against humanity."

The BBC has also seen and heard evidence that women were raped and mutilated. It includes video testimony from an eyewitness at the Nova music festival, videos of naked and bloodied women filmed by Hamas gunmen, and photographs of bodies taken at the scenes of a number of attacks.

The cousin of 19-year-old female hostage Agam Berger told the meeting that they had to bring home the more than 100 Israelis and foreign nationals believed to still be held captive in Gaza.

Ashley Waxman Bakshi said she did not even know if her cousin wanted to stay alive after being held for so long.

"You can clearly understand our worry with every minute that passes when our women and girls are in the hands of these monsters, if they were able to do this in eight hours or 12 hours on 7 October," she said. "They have been there for 117 days. What if they are pregnant?"

Kemi Badenoch said the UK stood in solidarity with all the victims. She also called on international organisations to do more to be clear in their condemnation of sexual violence against Israelis, saying there must not be double standards.

Israeli officials and activists have complained that leaders of the UN and other international organisations have been slow to respond to the allegations.

On Monday, the UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, arrived in Israel on a visit to "give voice to survivors, witnesses, recently released hostages and those affected; to identify avenues for support, including justice and accountability; and to gather, analyse and verify information".

In a message to victims, their families and witnesses published by the Israeli presidency, Ms Patten said: "Please come forward, please break your silence, because your silence will be the licence of those perpetrators."

"We really want to ensure that [victims] have justice so that we put an end to this heinous act," she added.

Two UN human rights experts said earlier this month that the reported acts of sexual violence constituted "gross violations of international law, amounting to war crimes which, given the number of victims and the extensive premeditation and planning of the attacks, may also qualify as crimes against humanity".
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68162920

[Jimbuna]