Tag: palestine

Israel’s Attacks on Seed Banks Destroy Millennia of Palestinian Cultural Heritage

This summer, Israeli bulldozers rolled through the West Bank city of Hebron with ruthless efficiency, targeting not soldiers or weapons caches, but something deeply vulnerable: Palestine’s only surviving national seed bank.

Within hours of the bulldozers’ arrival on July 31, 2025, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees’ seed multiplication facility lay in ruins — its propagation materials scattered, its infrastructure demolished, and with it, generations of Palestinian agricultural heritage reduced to rubble.

What happened in Hebron fits the legal definition of ecocide — the deliberate destruction of ecosystems to undermine human survival. The Union of Agricultural Work Committees condemned this attack as “an act of erasure intended to sever the generational ties between farmers and their land.”

When ecocide operates within the context of genocide, as it does in Palestine, it functions as a temporal weapon that extends the logic of elimination far beyond the present moment, reaching into an indefinite future where recovery becomes systematically impossible.

The Union of Agricultural Work Committees’ seed facility housed over 70 baladi (heirloom) seed varieties, many of which no longer exist elsewhere, that Palestinian farmers had cultivated and perfected over centuries. These seeds — for rare, indigenous, hardy strains of tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, zucchini, and others collected from local farms in the West Bank and Gaza — weren’t just any seeds. They were living libraries of Palestinian agricultural knowledge, carrying genetic traits for drought resistance, soil adaptation, and nutritional density that commercial varieties lack.

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World’s Largest Group Of Genocide Scholars Finds Israel Guilty

The world’s largest group of genocide scholars has overwhelmingly approved a resolution asserting that Israel’s actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide. “The government of Israel has engaged in systematic and widespread crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide, including indiscriminate and deliberate attacks against the civilians and civilian infrastructure,” said the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), joining a growing list of institutions and governments who’ve reached the same conclusion. 

About a quarter of IAGS members participated in the balloting, with 86% voting to approve the resolution. IAGS second vice-president and University of the Bundeswehr Munich professor Timothy Williams told the Financial Times that “the association believes there is considerable merit to the largest group of genocide scholars saying: ‘Yes, we do believe this is genocide’.” As defined under the 1948 Genocide Convention, the term applies to actions taken with the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” 

Israel’s foreign ministry swiftly condemned the group of academics, saying their “disgraceful” resolution is “entirely based on Hamas’ campaign of lies and the laundering of those lies by others…IAGS has set a historic precedent – for the first time, ‘Genocide Scholars’ accuse the very victim of genocide.” 

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Israeli army commander visited Nova festival moments before Hamas attack, took ‘no action’ despite warnings

A top Israeli military commander visited the site of the Nova music festival that came under attack on 7 October, but took “no preemptive action” despite receiving prior intelligence warnings, Haaretz reported on 2 September. 

Lieutenant Colonel Haim Cohen, commander of the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade, “arrived at the site after receiving prior intelligence warnings, but he took no preemptive action,” the Haaretz report said. 

Cohen saw the huge crowds at the music festival and noted that only a small number of police officers were present, according to the report. But he told army investigators he had no information that would have forced him to act differently or disperse the festival. 

Haaretz said it is unclear exactly what kind of intelligence information Cohen was informed of. 

“It was a mistake not to consider canceling or dispersing the festival during the divisional assessment held that night,” says an army investigation obtained by the Israeli newspaper. 

The investigation also said that Cohen made a miscalculation when he did not assign a military force to the site, given the size of the crowd, the timing, and the location.

Cohen arrived at the site of the Nova festival at 5:30 am, about an hour before the launch of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. Cohen was updated on the intelligence that was arriving as he was driving to the site. 

Throughout the night before the Hamas operation began, the Israeli army, military intelligence, and Shin Bet were receiving signs of “unusual” Hamas activity, as has been previously reported. 

Cohen “saw a force of the Yamam counterterrorism unit and another police vehicle positioned on Route 232,” but told army investigators that the increased police presence reassured him that the event was secure. However, the probe revealed only 50 officers were there, and that several had left by the time the attack started. 

“Even after Cohen arrived at the division’s base, and despite escalating alerts, he did not mention the festival in situation briefings nor change the military’s preparedness to secure it.” 

“Most sector forces were unaware it was taking place and therefore lacked knowledge … This information, however, was fully available to Cohen and fresh in his memory,” the report went on to say. 

Several reports have emerged since the war in Gaza began, revealing that Israeli authorities ignored multiple warnings about Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.

Just weeks after resistance fighters flooded into the Israeli settlements surrounding Gaza, the Times of Israel cited eyewitness accounts from soldiers in Israel’s Combat Intelligence Corps, which is responsible for surveilling the Gaza border. 

They said warnings of Hamas training for such an attack were issued at least three months prior.

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IDF drones mistakenly drop grenades close to UNIFIL troops

The IDF mistakenly sent drones to drop grenades close to UNIFIL forces in southern Lebanon, believing they were Hezbollah forces, it said Wednesday afternoon.

Earlier on Wednesday, UNIFIL said Israeli drones had dropped four grenades close to its peacekeepers who were working on Tuesday morning to clear roadblocks that were hindering access to a UN position.

“This is one of the most serious attacks on UNIFIL personnel and assets since the cessation of hostilities agreement of last November,” UNIFIL said.

One grenade impacted within 20 meters and three within approximately 100 meters of UN personnel and vehicles, it said.

The IDF had been informed in advance of UNIFIL’s road clearance work in the area, southeast of the village of Marwahin, UNIFIL said.

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The Gaza War Isn’t Over, But Israel Has Already Lost

The Israeli regime has lost its multi-front war in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen. Yes, really. It may not look like it, but the defeat is real and  baked into Israel’s future.

Let me first make the case for Israeli “victory”:

Since its 2023 invasion of Gaza, the Israeli Defence Forces report fewer than 800 troops killed, while in turn killing tens — maybe hundreds — of thousands of mostly civilian Palestinian Arabs (and 250 or more inconvenient journalists).

Since the beginning. They’ve established their ability to attack any point in Gaza at will, driving a displaced, hungry population back and forth over piles of bodies, while seizing more land in the West Bank and Syria, liquidating Hezbollah’s Lebanese strongholds, trading missile strikes with Yemen’s Houthis, and even emerging relatively unscathed, if not particularly successful, in an intermittent war with Iran.

Top Israeli regime officials confidently assert that the ethnic cleansing of Gaza and annexation of the West Bank are inevitable.

Yes, that sounds rather like multiple “victories,” accomplished and pending.

But those victories didn’t come from nowhere. They were enabled by decades of massive financial, military, and diplomatic support from the United States.

Yes, other regimes too, but most of those “allies” are moving in the other direction already — cutting off arms sales, recognizing a Palestinian state, and sanctioning Israeli war criminals.

It’s quickly coming down to the “no daylight between us” US/Israel relationship under which the former annually shovels billions of dollars, and when requested direct military assistance, at the latter, no questions asked (US law “guarantees” Israel a “Qualitative Military Edge”), while using its own sanctions power and veto on the UN Security Council to protect Benjamin Netanyahu and Friends from the consequences of their actions.

That relationship is nearing its end.

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Democratic senators say Israel barred their entry to Gaza

Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) drew praise from the Council on American-Islamic Relations for their efforts to enter Gaza, and the group, which blamed Israel for being attacked shortly after Oct. 7, 2023, urged other U.S. lawmakers to attempt the same thing.

On Friday, Van Hollen used language that U.S. Jewish groups have said hearkens back to centuries-old antisemitic conspiracy theories.

“Why have a State Department bureau on the Middle East if Trump and Sec. Marco Rubio are taking their orders from Netanyahu?” stated the Maryland Democrat. “We can save a lot of money by cutting out the middleman.” (Many American Jewish groups have said that suggesting that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu runs the U.S. government is Jew-hatred.)

“What will his next post be? The Jews who control our U.S. government?” stated Hussain Abdul-Hussain, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “Antisemitism, anyone?”

In nearly a dozen and a half statements posted to social media, the two senators criticized Israel and Netanyahu, including accusing the latter’s government of “weaponization of hunger.”

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Israel In Turmoil – IDF Says Can’t Defeat Hamas Quickly, Reservists Not Showing Up, West Bank Annexation Proceeding

The war on all fronts in Israel is affecting military capability and readiness reports local press. In addition, policy towards current Palestinian areas is attracting global negative attention.

The Netanyahu administration believes Gaza must be completely conquered to move forward and ensure Israeli security, and is looking to transport the current population to 3rd party countries and rebuild the area. President Trump seems to be involved in this agenda, as he published a video to such.

Israel is debating annexing parts of the West Bank in response to planned recognition of Palestine by Western countries, reports Axios.

Israeli officials warned Europe that Israel may annex West Bank land, with Ron Dermer saying it could extend to all of Area C (60%).

European officials warned annexation could bring EU sanctions; Arab officials said it could harm peace deals and halt Saudi normalization. Trump previously blocked Netanyahu from annexations in 2020. His administration’s current position remains undecided.

In addition, Israeli defense chiefs told Netanyahu that Gaza City’s takeover won’t defeat Hamas and urged a limited hostage deal instead, reports Haaretz. They warned an invasion could drag on for a year, cost many lives, and worsen Israel’s global standing. Some Likud ministers even likened Gaza to becoming “Israel’s Vietnam.”

Israel is struggling to get enough reservists to report for duty as it prepares a new Gaza City invasion.  A commando master sergeant said after 400 days of fighting — “People are dying for nothing… Netanyahu is prolonging the war for his own political survival,” reported Clash Report.

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A Moment Of Truth About Killing Gaza’s Children

“It doesn’t matter if they are children.”

That’s Ex-Israeli Intelligence Chief Aharon Haliva’s brutally honest assessment of the 50,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza. His remarks were recorded shortly after Israel reached that bloody milestone in March of this year. He resigned from the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate a year earlier in response to the security failures surrounding Hamas’ October 7th massacre.

That means he was not speaking officially.

But he was speaking candidly. And his blunt admission suggests something other than physical proximity to a suspected member Hamas is at play when the IDF kills underage non-combatants in bunches.

It’s been clear since the end of December 2023 that there is no meaningful restriction on the number of children Israel’s soldiers and pilots can kill, maim and orphan. The IDF set a heady pace during the five weeks, killing one child every ten minutes. Nearly nine thousand children were killed during the first eleven weeks of bombing.

On December 5, 2023, the IDF reassured the public (particularly in the US) it was only killing two civilians per Hamas fighter. The Times Of Israel also cited unnamed officials who claimed “the IDF was deploying high-tech mapping software to try to reduce noncombatant deaths.”

Those assurances didn’t match the reality reported by the BBC just the day before. It introduced the world to the acronym “WCNSF.” It’s shorthand for “Wounded Child No Surviving Family” and it’s assigned during triage because injured children without parents, siblings or legal guardians require specific attention and additional resources.

Obviously, Gazans do not have the infrastructure or resources to care for a generation of battle-scarred orphans. Imagine the trauma of being Injured, trapped and then pulled from a collapsed apartment building, only to discover your mother, father and siblings are dead. That’s exactly what happened to Noor, a 14 year-old Palestinian girl who became a WCNSF twenty months after the BBC’s story first aired:

On August 6, at around 3:00 a.m., an Israeli airstrike hit the apartment where my sister Somaiya, 35, her husband Anas, 35, and their daughters Noor, 14, Hoor, 13, and Sham, 9, were staying. The airstrike killed my sister’s family except for Noor, who survived with an arm fracture that required surgery. When Noor was admitted to the hospital on August 8 and rushed to the operating room, she called out to her parents, who were gone forever.

Her story comes via her uncle “Yousef,” a Gaza-based coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee (the Quakers). She does still have an uncle, though, which sets her apart from other WCNSFs who have lost their uncles, aunts, cousins and grandparents.

One hundred thirty-two members of the Abu Naser family died on October 29, 2023, when the family-owned apartment building was struck by the IDF, which said the intended target was an “enemy spotter” on the roof. NPR asked for visual evidence to back up the claim. The IDF declined. Even if there was one spotter on the roof, does that warrant destroying an entire building? Is there another way to neutralize one spotter on the roof of a multi-family apartment building? Could bullets be used instead of bombs?

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US-Israel plan aims to empty Gaza of Palestinians, build AI-powered ‘smart cities’: Report

A postwar plan for Gaza circulating within President Donald Trump’s White House envisions demolishing the strip, confiscating all public land within it, paying small amounts to remove the entire population of more than 2 million Palestinians, and building “a gleaming tourism resort and high-tech manufacturing and technology hub” on its ruins, The Washington Post reported on 31 August.

A 38-page prospectus seen by The Post envisions placing Gaza in a trust controlled by Israeli and American investors. The trust will then serve as the vehicle for the development of the strip into a high-tech commercial, residential, and tourist hub resembling Dubai.

The Post reports that the proposal to establish the Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation Trust, or GREAT Trust, was developed by some of the same Israelis who created the deadly, US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which was used as a pretext to block the delivery of food aid by the UN.

Financial planning for the GREAT Trust project was carried out by a team from the Boston Consulting Group, which also worked on establishing the GHF.

The plan calls for the “voluntary” departure of Gaza’s residents to another country, making them refugees, or herding them into “restricted, secured zones” amounting to concentration camps, within the strip.

In exchange for abandoning their land, Palestinians would be “offered a digital token by the trust in exchange for rights to redevelop their property,” The Post writes. The token could allegedly be used to “finance a new life elsewhere or eventually redeemed for an apartment in the new ”AI-powered smart cities'” to be built in Gaza.

“Each Palestinian who chooses to leave would be given a $5,000 cash payment and subsidies to cover four years of rent elsewhere, as well as a year of food,” The Post further wrote.

After beginning his term as president in January, Trump boasted that all Palestinians would be removed from Gaza, never to return, and the strip redeveloped as the “Riviera of the Middle East.”

“I looked at a picture of Gaza, it’s like a massive demolition site,” Trump stated just two days after taking office.

“It’s got to be rebuilt in a different way.” Gaza, he said, was “a phenomenal location … on the sea, the best weather. Everything’s good. Some beautiful things can be done with it.”

Trump appointed Steve Witkoff, a Jewish real estate developer from New York, as his Special Envoy to the Middle East and point man for alleged negotiations with Hamas to reach a ceasefire.

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IDF: Gaza City declared as ‘dangerous combat zone,’ bodies of 2 hostages recovered

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have announced that Gaza City has been declared a “dangerous combat zone.”

On Friday, the IDF said that the pauses in fighting, previously implemented in certain parts of Gaza to allow humanitarian aid distribution, would no longer apply inside Gaza City as the offensive there has moved up.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that the body of Ilan Weiss, one of the 251 people kidnapped during Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, had been recovered within Gaza City.

Netanyahu added that the remains of a second hostage were also recovered from Gaza and are undergoing identification by forensic experts.

The IDF stressed that it will continue to facilitate humanitarian assistance throughout most of the enclave, but not in Gaza City, while simultaneously pressing forward with “offensive operations against terror groups in Gaza to protect Israeli civilians.”

The IDF once again urged civilians in Gaza City to evacuate southward.

Also on Friday, the IDF reported that soldiers operating in the Zeitoun district of Gaza City spotted “a group of terrorists hiding in a military compound about 100 meters away.”

According to the statement, Israeli forces “called in an Air Force aircraft, which struck the building and killed the terrorists.” 

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