Tag: israel

‘Israel Forced to Kill Civilians in Gaza’ – Clinton’s Remarks Spark Outrage

The backlash against the former US President came following remarks he made at a rally in Michigan in support of presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris.

Former United States President Bill Clinton is facing wide criticism for controversial remarks he made on Wednesday, which justified the killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza by the Israeli occupation army.

The backlash against the former US President came following remarks he made at a rally in Michigan in support of presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris when he said that Hamas “forced” Israel to kill Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

“I understand why young Palestinians and Arab Americans in Michigan think too many people have died. I get that,” Clinton said addressing Arab American voters.

He continued: “But if you lived in one of those kibbutzim in Israel right next to Gaza, where the people there were the most pro-friendship with Palestine, most pro-two-state solution of any of the Israeli communities — were the ones right next to Gaza. And Hamas butchered them.”

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The Israeli task force deporting foreign activists from the West Bank

Israel has intensified its efforts to disrupt the work of international solidarity activists in the occupied West Bank in recent weeks, especially those supporting Palestinians during the olive harvest. Since the start of October, eight foreign activists have been detained; five of them were subsequently either deported or pressured to leave the country, while the other three were banned from the West Bank for varying lengths of time.

The detentions represent an escalation in Israel’s restrictions on international access to the occupied territory, a policy now facilitated by a special “task force” created in April by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. Specifically targeting foreign activists in the West Bank, it operates under Israel’s Shai (West Bank) Central Police Unit and coordinates with the Population and Immigration Authority to expedite detentions and deportations.

The task force was set up shortly after the Biden administration and other foreign governments began imposing sanctions on violent Israeli settlers and settler organizations, and appears to be a direct response to it. According to data from the Human Rights Defenders Fund, 15 foreign human rights activists have been detained and then deported or coerced into leaving the country under the task force’s authority.

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Chuck Schumer labeled ‘traitor’ after damning report reveals he quietly advised Columbia leaders to ignore criticism of campus antisemitism

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is being slammed as a traitor following damning claims he instructed administrators at Columbia University to dismiss any criticism of the school’s handling of blatant violence and antisemitism on campus in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in Israel.

The GOP-lead House Education and Workforce Committee, in a 325-page report, contended the New York Democrat advised then-university president Minouche Shafik that the school would be spared any scrutiny by Democrats, explaining that the elite university’s “political problems are really only among Republicans.”

His staff then encouraged Columbia administrators that the “best strategy is to keep heads down,” according to the report.

“The self-proclaimed protector of the Jewish people. Chuckey Schumer is nothing but a kapo traitor. He should be ashamed of himself,” said former Brooklyn state Assemblyman Dov Hikind, a Democrat-turned-Republican who heads the group Americans Against Antisemitism.

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Genocidal Scorecard

A United Nations report, published on Monday, lays out in chilling detail the advances made by Israel in Gaza as it seeks to eradicate “the very existence of the Palestinian people in Palestine.” This genocidal project, the report ominously warns, “is now metastasizing to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.” 

The Nakba or “catastrophe,” which in 1948 saw Zionist militias drive 750,000 Palestinians from their homes, carry out more than 70 massacres and seize 78 percent of historic Palestine, has returned on steroids. It is the next and, perhaps, final chapter in “a long-term intentional, systematic, State-organized forced displacement and replacement of the Palestinians.”

Francesca Albanese, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, who issued the report, titled “Genocide as colonial erasure,” makes an urgent appeal to the international community to impose a full arms embargo and sanctions on Israel until the genocide of Palestinians is halted. She calls on Israel to accept a permanent ceasefire. She demands that Israel, as required by international law and U.N. resolutions, withdraw its military and colonists from Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. 

At the very least, Israel, unchecked, should be formally recognized as an apartheid state and persistent violator of international law, Albanese states. The U.N. should reactivate the Special Committee Against Apartheid to address the situation in Palestine, and Israel’s membership in the U.N. should be suspended. Short of these interventions, Israel’s goal, Albanese warns, will likely come into fruition.

You can see my interview with Albanese here.

“This ongoing genocide is doubtlessly the consequence of the exceptional status and protracted impunity that has been afforded to Israel.” she writes. “Israel has systematically and flagrantly violated international law, including Security Council resolutions and [International Criminal Court] ICJ orders. This has emboldened the hubris of Israel and its defiance of international law. As the ICC Prosecutor has warned, ‘if we do not demonstrate our willingness to apply the law equally, if it is seen as applied selectively, we will be creating the conditions of its complete collapse. This is the true risk we face at this perilous moment.’”

The U.N. report comes amid an Israeli blockade of northern Gaza where over 400,000 Palestinians are enduring a starvation siege and constant airstrikes in an attempt to depopulate the north. Israeli forces have killed 1,250 Palestinians in the assault, launched on October 5, a medical source told Al Jazeera. Reports from northern Gaza are difficult to obtain as internet and phone services have been cut and the few journalists on the ground continue to be killed. Israel’s ground and aerial assaults are centered on Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun. Civil defense units say they have been barred by Israeli forces from reaching the sites of recent strikes and their crews have been attacked. 

Israel has ordered Palestinians to flee to designated “safe zones,” but once in these “safe zones” they have been attacked and ordered to move to new “safe zones.” 

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Israel bombs medical equipment in besieged north Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital

Israel bombed Beit Lahia’s besieged Kamal Adwan Hospital in north Gaza on 31 October, killing several people and causing serious damage to essential departments within the medical facility. 

Palestine Today’s correspondent reported “four martyrs, including two children, in the occupation’s bombing of the third floor of Kamal Adwan Hospital.”

The attack targeted the hospital’s desalination plant in the kidney dialysis department, the engineering and maintenance departments, and water tanks. 

It led to the burning of a warehouse of medicines and medical supplies in the hospital that had been received by the World Health Organization (WHO) just five days ago.

The attack on the hospitals came just days after Israel’s deliberate bombing of the oxygen station in the hospital, which led to the death of several patients, among them children. It also came the week after Israeli troops stormed the hospital and abducted dozens of patients and medical staff.

Surgical operations have been completely suspended due to the ongoing aggression on the hospital. Hospital Director Dr Hussam Abu Safia has called on anyone with surgical expertise to head to the hospital, as there are dozens of injured patients in critical condition. 

Kamal Adwan Hospital and the Indonesian Hospital, which is also besieged, are the last two functioning hospitals in northern Gaza.

The recent cessation of Civil Defense operations, which comes as a result of the month-long Israeli siege on the north, has made transferring casualties from non-stop Israeli attacks impossible. 

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Satellite images show Israel razed over 1,000 buildings in south Lebanon

Satellite images obtained by the New York Times (NYT) reveal the widespread devastation inflicted on the south of Lebanon by the invading Israeli army, including the destruction of at least 1,085 buildings since 1 October.

“One village, Mhaibib, appears to have been virtually flattened, with only a handful of buildings still standing. In five other villages and towns, entire neighborhoods were reduced to rubble,” according to the US daily’s analysis.

At least 200 of the buildings destroyed by Israel were blown up in “controlled demolitions,” a practice the Israeli army has repeatedly used across the Gaza Strip.

“Controlled demolitions were seen in five of the six towns: Blida, Kafr Kila, Mhaibib, Ramyah, and Aita al-Shaab. It couldn’t be determined how other buildings were damaged,” the report states.

Besides satellite images, the NYT also verified the destruction from videos posted to social media by individual Israeli soldiers.

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Iran Will Carry Out ‘Definitive, Painful’ Retaliatory Strike, Likely Before Election: CNN

CNN, citing a high-ranking source familiar with Iran’s deliberations, reported Wednesday that Iran plans to respond to the Israeli strike from last weekend, likely before the U.S. presidential election on 5 November.

“The response of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the aggression of the Zionist regime will be definitive and painful,” the source said.

Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei posted on X in Hebrew on Sunday—a day after Israel carried out waves of attacks on targets in his country—that the “Zionist regime made a mistake.”

“It erred in its calculations on Iran,” he posted. “We will cause it to understand what kind of strength, ability, initiative, and will the Iranian nation has.”

Reports out of Iran indicated that the IDF targeted facilities at the Parchin military base located southeast of Tehran. The Guardian reported that the International Atomic Energy Agency believes that Iran has conducted tests of “high explosives that could trigger a nuclear weapon” at the facility. 

The paper said another strike hit the Khojir military base, a major missile production site.

Masoud Pezeshkian, the Iranian president, told reporters on Sunday that Iran does not seek a total war but will give an “appropriate response” to the strikes believed to have been fired from U.S.-controlled airspace in Iraq by Israeli fighter jets. The U.S. said it was not involved in the operation.

Khamenei accused Israel of exaggerating its success in the Saturday strike, but said it is also wrong to downplay the assault. He also blamed the UN and West for its failures in stopping the genocide in Gaza and Israeli aggression in Lebanon.

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The US Is Funding 70% of Israel’s Wars

A new report by the Israeli outlet Calcalist reviewed Israeli military spending on wars since October 7, finding that Washington is funding 70% of Tel Aviv’s military costs. In a little over a year, the US has provided Israel with more than $20 billion in military aid. 

“The scope of American aid since the beginning of the war is about 85 billion shekels… According to official estimates by the Bank of Israel, the total cost of the war is…approximately NIS 118 billion.” It continues, “Therefore, according to a simple calculation, The Americans financed about 70% of the war effort.”

According to the Cost of War Project, the US has given Israel $22.57 billion in military aid since the Hamas attack. Calcalist concludes without US support, Tel Aviv’s war would simply be unaffordable. 

“There is no doubt that without the American aid the government deficit for the years 2024-2025 (which is one of the highest in the country’s history), would have increased by about 4.3 % GDP, which would have made it unfinanceable,” it says. “Therefore, it is doubtful whether this war would have been conducted as it is – neither in intensity nor in scope – without the American assistance.”

The US has sent Israel tens of thousands of bombs, artillery rounds, and tank shells. Those weapons have been used to commit countless war crimes against the Palestinian people of Gaza. 

The official death toll in the besieged enclave now exceeds 43,000. However, a group of American healthcare workers who have spent time volunteering in Gaza estimate the actual death count to be over 118,000. 

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Israeli army ethnically cleanses half of Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza: Schools burned, men kidnapped

Israel is in its third week of ethnically cleansing northern Gaza, particularly around the Jabalia refugee camp. And according to reports, about half of all the Palestinians there have been removed as Israeli soldiers burn down schools and kidnap people.

At the same time that Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) are launching airstrikes on the region, ground forces are going door to door looking for starving, unarmed Palestinians to forcibly remove from their homes and send elsewhere.

Heavy airstrikes and artillery shelling are destroying entire homes and buildings where the Palestinians are sheltering. Increasingly more displaced families have nowhere to go while IDF soldiers knock down schools, homes and other facilities to prevent the Palestinians from returning.

After burning down or leveling the structures, the IDF is forcing whoever is still alive to head south. Many of the refugees who obey end up dead anyway as Israel then proceeds to shoot and kill them for no apparent reason while they are fleeing.

Some of the refugees are disobeying the orders and heading west of Jabalia instead of south to a place called Beit Lahia. Others are trying to flee to Gaza City. No matter where they try to go, the Palestinians are being killed left and right.

“This is a genocide,” said a resident of north Gaza named Hasan. “They’re starving people, blockading people. There are still tens of thousands of people here in Jabalia.”

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Israeli evacuation orders hit entirety of Lebanon’s ancient city of Baalbek

The Israeli military issued on 30 October, for the first time, evacuation orders for the entirety of the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek, an ancient city with UNESCO World Heritage status.

The orders coincide with a surge in Israeli attacks on eastern Lebanon. 

“The IDF will act forcefully against Hezbollah assets inside your city and villages, and does not intend to harm you,” said the Israeli army’s Arabic spokesman Avichay Adraee said via X. “For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately and move outside the city and villages.” 

Residents of the eastern city began pouring out of their homes in a panic on Wednesday morning, rushing to evacuate. Hundreds of thousands resided in Baalbek prior to the war, with around 40 percent of its inhabitants (over 100,000) currently remaining in the city. Baalbek has a history dating back at least 11,000 years, and is most famous for its Roman ruins.

Israel has escalated its attacks across eastern Lebanon indiscriminately. The Lebanese Health Ministry said on 29 October that at least 60 people were killed in the eastern Bekaa region since the previous day. 

Several massacres have been committed in the Bekaa, including an attack on civilians in the town of Al-Ram on Tuesday, which killed at least 11. 

Israeli attacks on the UNESCO World Heritage city of Tyre (Sour) have also increased recently. Israel carried out several violent attacks on Tyre on 28 October, days after intense bombardment on the city, which leveled several buildings. 

The Israeli army issues evacuation orders for the south and Bekaa daily, often with insufficient time for people to flee before starting the attacks. 

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