Tag: israel

On War Crimes and Western Hypocrisy

The death toll has risen to 12 from Israel’s terror attack in Lebanon on Tuesday which detonated explosive materials hidden in thousands of pagers. Another 20 people were then killed in another attack on Wednesday with a second wave of explosions, this time using walkie talkies and home solar energy systems.

The total death toll now sits at 32. Two children and four healthcare workers are among the dead. Thousands have been injured.

As you would expect, western empire managers are getting really squirmy about this. White House spokesman John Kirby adamantly refused to answer any questions involving Israel’s responsibility for the attacks during a press conference on Wednesday, despite Israel being widely reported as the responsible party, with outlets like The New York Times citing US officials as their source.

“I’m not gonna speak to the details of these incidents,” Kirby said repeatedly when questioned about Israel’s role and what the US response will be.

It goes without saying that if a government like Russia, China or Iran were even suspected of being responsible for similar attacks, Kirby and his fellow podium people would be not just naming the suspected aggressor but fervently denouncing the attack as an act of terrorism.

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Critics Say IDF Shutdown of Al Jazeera’s West Bank Bureau Is ‘Aimed at Erasing the Truth’

“Why would Israel shut Al Jazeera’s bureau in Ramallah?” asked one human rights defender. “Because it has been the center of Al Jazeera’s reporting on Israeli repression – the apartheid – in the occupied West Bank.”by Brett Wilkins Posted on

Press freedom advocates accused Israel of “trying to erase the truth” after heavily armed soldiers raided Al Jazeera‘s bureau in the West Bank of Palestine early Sunday morning and ordered the outlet – which has been the world’s sole media window on the Gaza genocide – to shut down for 45 days.

Al Jazeera – which is owned by the Qatari government – said Israel Defense Forces troops stormed its bureau in Ramallah, the capital of the illegally occupied West Bank, at 3:00 am Sunday during a live broadcast. IDF troops confiscated documents and equipment and took the microphone from the hand of bureau chief Walid al-Omari as he reported on the raid.

The network – which was ordered to cease operations for 45 days – said the soldiers tore down a poster of Shireen Abu Akleh, the renowned Palestinian-American Al Jazeera correspondent who was shot dead by Israeli troops in May 2022 while covering an IDF raid on the Jenin refugee camp.

“This is part of a larger campaign against the Palestinian outlets and media in general aimed at erasing the truth,” al-Omari said in an interview with Al Araby Al Jadeed. “We’ve been under increasing incitement since the beginning of the war.”

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Israeli Army Raids, Shuts Down Al Jazeera’s West Bank News Room

Back in May, Israel’s Knesset voted unanimously to ban the Al Jazeera broadcast network. The Israeli order effectively shut down all Al Jazeera broadcasts in Israel.

Authorities soon after raided its offices and confiscated equipment at the channel’s Jerusalem HQ inside the Ambassador Hotel. The Qatar-based news network has said it was unfairly targeted for the ‘crime’ of mere journalism, as it tends to given in-depth coverage to the plight of Palestinians. But West Bank offices remained open, until this weekend.

Israeli officials have long accused the channel of showing sympathies with and support for Hamas and Palestinian militants. Al Jazeera correspondents have remained among the few in the world to continue reporting from on the ground in war-ravaged Gaza, despite the extreme dangers. And some have been killed during their live coverage.

The Israel vs. Al Jazeera rivalry has continued as on Sunday the network confirmed that Israeli soldiers (IDF) raided its offices in the central West Bank city of Ramallah. 

The bureau chief Walid Omary and other staff members were reportedly briefly detained while live on air while a military court order was presented to them. The IDF action appears to be part of the ongoing enforcement of the Al Jazeera ban by Israel which began in May.

CNN writes, “During the video broadcast by Al Jazeera, a soldier can be heard informing Omar of a military order to close Al Jazeera’s office for 45 days.”

“Reading the military order given to him on air, Omary said staff members had only ten minutes to take their personal belongings and cameras and vacate the office,” the report continues.

The Ramallah office has been in operation for decades, and had since the spring become a focal point of Al Jazeera’s regional operations and coverage following the May closure of its Jerusalem HQ. Much equipment had also been moved there.

Al Jazeera has long had offices in the West Bank and Gaza, and has provided 24-hour news coverage in English and Arabic of the Gaza war going back to Oct.7. The network’s website also carries frequent, round-the-clock updates of regional developments. Its camera crews have also been capturing Israeli air raids on the Gaza Strip in real time, sometimes with buildings coming down in the very moments live shots are rolling.

Watch the moment Israeli soldiers enter AJ’s Ramallah newsroom while live on the air…

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Exploding pagers and radios: A terrifying violation of international law, say UN experts

UN human rights experts* today condemned the malicious manipulation of thousands of electronic pagers and radios to explode simultaneously across Lebanon and Syria as “terrifying” violations of international law.

The attacks reportedly killed at least 32 people and maimed or injured 3,250, including 200 critically. Among the dead are a boy and a girl, as well as medical personnel. Around 500 people suffered severe eye injuries, including a diplomat. Others suffered grave injuries to their faces, hands and bodies.

“These attacks violate the human right to life, absent any indication that the victims posed an imminent lethal threat to anyone else at the time,” the experts said. “Such attacks require prompt, independent investigation to establish the truth and enable accountability for the crime of murder.

“We express our deepest solidarity to the victims of these attacks,” they said.

The pagers and radios were reportedly distributed mainly among people allegedly associated with the Hezbollah movement, which includes civilian and military personnel and is involved in an armed conflict with Israel along the border.

“To the extent that international humanitarian law applies, at the time of the attacks there was no way of knowing who possessed each device and who was nearby,” the experts said. “Simultaneous attacks by thousands of devices would inevitably violate humanitarian law, by failing to verify each target, and distinguish between protected civilians and those who could potentially be attacked for taking a direct part in hostilities.

“Such attacks could constitute war crimes of murder, attacking civilians, and launching indiscriminate attacks, in addition to violating the right to life,” the experts said.

Humanitarian law additionally prohibits the use of booby-traps disguised as apparently harmless portable objects where specifically designed and constructed with explosives – and this could include a modified civilian pager, the experts said. A booby-trap is a device designed to kill or injure, that functions unexpectedly when a person performs an apparently safe act, such as answering a pager.

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How Israel Turned Hezbollah’s Pagers Into Exploding Trojan Horses

Details are starting to come to light about how Israel apparently orchestrated two days of coordinated explosions targeting thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah in Lebanon. You can read our reporting of the first wave of explosions here, and the second wave here.

At this point, it’s worth remembering that Israel has not admitted responsibility for the blasts, but it is now widely acknowledged that was behind them. Moreover, as we have discussed before, it would be entirely in keeping with what appears to be a developing plan for a full-scale military operation launched against Hezbollah.

Addressing the first wave of explosions, on Tuesday, this targeted pagers used by Hezbollah.

At 3:30 p.m. local time, it seems the pagers were triggered simultaneously, by a specific message. The message was one that looks, at least, as if it was sent by Hezbollah leadership.

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Home Solar Systems Explode in Beirut, Lebanon Following Walkie-Talkie and Pager Blasts, Officials Say

Lebanon officials are now reporting that multiple home solar energy systems have reportedly exploded in various neighborhoods across Beirut.

This attack follows closely on the heels of Tuesday’s pager blasts, which claimed the lives of 12 and left nearly 4,000 wounded in what is rapidly becoming an unparalleled security nightmare for the terrorist organization.

On Wednesday, walkie-talkies exploded simultaneously at various Hezbollah-controlled locations across the country.

Now, reports emerged from Lebanon’s Official News Agency detailing how home solar systems—often touted as the solution to climate change—were also going up in flames.

Al Jazeera reported, “Several blasts took place simultaneously, Hashem said, similar to what happened on Tuesday. “But this time, it was mostly walkie-talkies or radios [that exploded],” he said, adding that reports suggested that solar devices and some batteries in cars also exploded. Lebanon’s official news agency reported that home solar energy systems exploded in several areas of Beirut.”

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Israel Admits It Probably Killed Israeli Hostages in Gaza Airstrike in November

The Israeli military has admitted that one of its own airstrikes is likely responsible for killing three Israeli captives whose bodies were recovered from Gaza last year, confirming what Hamas officials had said about the hostages’ deaths at the time.

In a release on Sunday, the Israeli military said that an investigation into the deaths of the three captives found there was a “high probability” that they were killed by an Israeli strike carried out on November 10. This finding is based on the location of their bodies in relation to that of the strike and analysis of the strike itself. The military claims the strike targeted and killed a Hamas commander.

Two of the captives were soldiers, Corporal Nick Beiser and Sergeant Ron Sherman. The military also recovered the body of Eliya Toledano. They were all captured amid the October 7 attack, and their bodies were recovered in December.

At the time, Israeli forces told the captives’ families that they were killed by Hamas. But the results of the investigation confirms Hamas’s assertion that they were killed by the Israeli military.

Israeli forces have killed numerous hostages amid their genocide in Gaza, and released hostages have said that their top fear while in captivity was that they would be killed by Israeli strikes.

In December, Israeli forces shot and killed three Israeli captives who were traveling together in northern Gaza. Though the captives were shirtless and waving a white flag, Israeli soldiers opened fire on them. The military later claimed that the soldiers acted correctly to the best of their understanding, as they interpreted the captives’ cries for help as a ruse.

These captives could have been alive today if Israel had agreed to ceasefire agreements early on. Just days after Israel’s genocidal assault of Gaza commenced, Hamas had offered to release all of the captives if the Israeli military didn’t enter Gaza, former political adviser and leader of an advocacy organization for the captives’ families Haim Rubinstein told Times of Israel earlier this year.

Since then, Israel has rejected ceasefire deal after ceasefire deal, with Israeli leaders openly expressing their contempt for the very idea of stopping their genocide in Gaza at any point. There is widespread unrest among Israelis for the government’s failure to secure a hostage release, but Israeli leaders’ actions in the ceasefire negotiations have made it clear that a hostage release is not a top priority for them.

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‘One Meal Every Other Day’ – Aid Agencies Say Israel Blocking 83% of Gaza Food Aid

People in Gaza are only eating one meal every other day as 83 percent of required food aid does not make it into the besieged enclave due to Israel’s blockade, aid organizations have said.

“While Israeli military attacks on Gaza intensify, lifesaving food, medicine, medical supplies, fuel, and tents have been systematically blocked from entering for almost a year,” a statement signed by 15 organizations including CARE International, Oxfam, Islamic Relief, the Norwegian Refugee Council and KinderUSA, said.

This is “driving a humanitarian disaster, with the entire population of Gaza facing hunger and disease, and almost half a million at risk of starvation.”

The organizations said “83% of required food aid does not make it into Gaza, up from 34% in 2023,” emphasizing that this “reduction means people in Gaza have gone from having an average of two meals a day to just one meal every other day.”

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A plan to liquidate northern Gaza is gaining steam

The date is October, November, or December 2024, or maybe early 2025. The Israeli military has just launched a new operation throughout northern Gaza — “Operation Order and Clean-up,” we’ll call it. The army orders the temporary evacuation of all Palestinian residents north of the Netzarim Corridor “for their personal safety,” explaining that “the IDF is expected to take significant action in Gaza City in the coming days, and wants to avoid harming civilians.”

The order is similar to the one the military issued on Oct. 13, 2023 to the more than 1 million Palestinians living in Gaza City and its environs at the time. But it’s clear to everyone that this time, Israel is planning something else entirely.

Although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant remain tight-lipped about the real goals of the operation, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, as well as other ministers on the far right, declare them openly. Here, they cite a program that the “Forum of Reserve Commanders and Fighters,” spearheaded by Maj. Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland, proposed just a few weeks ago: ordering all residents of northern Gaza to leave within a week, before imposing a full siege on the area, including shutting off all supplies of water, food, and fuel, until those who remain surrender or die of starvation.

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Hezbollah vows ‘reckoning’ with Israel

Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel after a wave of pager explosions killed several members of the Lebanon-based Islamist group and left thousands of others injured on Tuesday.

At least 11 people were killed and around 3,000 injured when pagers – which Hezbollah relies on to make messages harder to intercept – started exploding across Lebanon and Syria. Among the wounded was Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amini, as well as a number of top Hezbollah officials.

While media reports have suggested the explosions were orchestrated by Israel’s spy agency, Mossad, West Jerusalem has not claimed responsibility for the attack.

In a statement on Wednesday, Hezbollah said it holds “the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression.” It also pledged to continue its military operations against Israel in support of Hamas in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza despite the pager blasts.

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