Tag: palestine

US D-9 bulldozers worth billions of shekels arrive in Israel after Trump admin. releases shipment

A US shipment of dozens of D-9 bulldozers for IDF ground troops arrived in Israel on Wednesday, following its release by the Trump administration, the Defense Ministry confirmed.

“The shipment of D9 bulldozers is part of a broad-scale arming and military equipment effort worth billions of shekels, which the US government released and the Defense Ministry procured and transported to Israel,” Defense Ministry Director-General Maj.-Gen. (res) Amir Baram said, adding that Israel has received a number of cargo ships and aircrafts in the past several weeks.

“We must continue to strengthen our military buildup to support all of the IDF’s needs in the current campaign and in preparation for the next decade,” Baram said. 

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Netanyahu says any future Palestinian state would be a platform to destroy Israel

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday he wanted peace with Palestinians but described any future independent state as a platform to destroy Israel and for that reason sovereign power of security must remain with Israel.

Speaking at the White House, where he met U.S. President Donald Trump, Netanyahu described the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip, where Hamas was in control, as evidence of what Palestinians would do with a state.

Trump said, “I don’t know” when he was asked by reporters if a two-state solution was possible and referred the question to Netanyahu.

Netanyahu said: “I think the Palestinians should have all the powers to govern themselves, but none of the powers to threaten us. That means a sovereign power, like overall security, will always remain in our hands.”

Later he added: “After October 7th, people said the Palestinians have a state, a Hamas state in Gaza and look what they did with it. They didn’t build it up. They built down into bunkers, into terror tunnels after which they massacred our people, raped our women, beheaded our men, invaded our cities and our towns, our kibbutzim and did horrendous massacres, the kind of which we didn’t see since World War Two and the Nazis, the Holocaust. So people aren’t likely to say, ‘Let’s just give them another state.’ It’ll be a platform to destroy Israel.

“We will work out a peace with our Palestinian neighbours, those who don’t want to destroy us and we will work out a peace in which our security, the sovereign power of security, always remains in our hands,” Netanyahu said.

“Now people will say, ‘It’s not a complete state, it’s not a state, it’s not that.’ We don’t care. We vowed never again. Never again is now. It’s not going to happen again.”

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Israel’s Army Still Taking On Mass Casualties After 640 Days Of War In Gaza

Over 630 days of war later and much of Hamas’ top command has been wiped out, and large swathes of the Gaza Strip obliterated. It’s been no secret that the Netanyahu government is pursuing the complete annihilation of Hamas, ensuring that it can never again return to rule, but the reality is that the Israeli army (IDF) is still taking on mass casualties.

This shows that the Hamas insurgency, using the Strip’s hundreds of miles of tunnels, is still fierce and ongoing. “Five Israeli soldiers were killed in combat in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army admitted on Tuesday, in one of the deadliest days for Israeli forces in the devastated Palestinian territory this year,” regional media reports.

The five soldiers “fell during combat in the northern Gaza Strip,” the IDF announced. In total 14 others were wounded. Included were two that were severely wounded and “evacuated to a hospital to receive medical treatment.” 

They came under attack near Beit Hanoun in the north of Gaza,when improvised explosive devices were detonated, after which Israeli soldiers who sought to rescue the wounded came under fire again. Thus it’s clear that either Hamas or Islamic Jihad militants set a trap and ambush for the soldiers.

The IDF and Israeli media have described that the infantry troops were operating on foot when the blast happened. One detail which highlights the ongoing extreme difficulty of uprooting the Palestinian insurgency is that the area where the attack occurred was subject of Israeli aerial raids just prior:

The military said the area where the attack took place was targeted from the air ahead of the troops’ operations.

The Netzah Yehuda soldiers were operating under the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade as part of a fresh offensive with the 646th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade in Beit Hanoun, which began on Saturday, aimed at clearing the area of terror operatives who remain holed up there.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid wrote on X in the wake of the large-scale casualties, “For the sake of the fighters, for the sake of their families, for the sake of the hostages, for the sake of the State of Israel: this war must be ended.”

Israeli society has remained fiercely divided over Netanyahu policy, with hostage victims’ family members outraged that efforts to negotiate a deal to release the remaining captives have completely stalled.

Meanwhile, there is some activity on this front, with Qatar’s foreign ministry on Tuesday saying that renewed indirect negotiations will “need time”. The White House has been supportive of peace efforts, but has sided with Israeli actions in Gaza time and again in its public rhetoric.

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Israel Defense Minister Unveils Plan For ‘Concentration Camp’ In Gaza

With Gaza ceasefire negotiations under way and President Trump raising hopes of a deal being reached by week’s end, Defense Minister Israel Katz on Monday revealed that the IDF will create what it calls a “humanitarian city” in the wasteland that is Rafah, and then forcibly concentrate Gaza’s entire population of nearly 2 million people inside it. 

Though the Israeli government and its advocates will likely to condemn already-widespread usage of the term “concentration camp” to describe this undertaking — likely claiming it’s somehow antisemitic given the parallels to Nazi Germany — it’s unambiguously applicable under the Merriam-Webster definition of the term: 

concentration camp (noun) a place where large numbers of people (such as prisoners of war, political prisoners, refugees, or the members of an ethnic or religious minority) are detained or confined under armed guard  

In the first phase, the IDF plans to round up 600,000 displaced Palestinians who are living in the coastal Mawasi area and move them to Rafah, a city in southernmost Gaza that borders Egypt and Israel. Eventually, every Gaza resident will be moved. After security screening, Palestinians will be ushered inside the camp, with IDF guards ensuring that none are able to leave, Katz said. 

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New footage exposes ragtag US mercenaries firing toward Gaza aid seekers

Following an AP investigation accusing a US mercenary firm of firing on desperate Gaza aid seekers, the company has released extensive new footage in an attempt at damage control. But the video only further implicates the scandal-plagued operation.

On July 2, the Associated Press released an exposé containing short videos which appeared to show American mercenaries associated with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) opening fire on aid-seekers in Gaza during an incident in southern Gaza this May. The footage was supplied by a former employee of UG Solutions, a firm charged with securing GHF distribution sites.

“I think you hit one,” one soldier of fortune says to another following a loud burst of gunfire.

“Hell yeah, boy!” another exclaims.

In an apparent attempt to control the damage from the AP investigation, UG Solutions has distributed a pair of videos comprising over seven minutes of footage to the press. 

The newly released footage offers an unprecedented glimpse of the disturbing interactions between the starving population of Gaza and well-armed, clearly unprepared Americans hired to provide security for GHF’s chaotic aid operations.

Filmed by one of its own employee, the recordings were seemingly distributed in an effort to show UG Solutions’ agents have not fired live bullets on unarmed crowds of Palestinians. According to a UG Solutions statement, the videos “not only clarify what happened, but provide critical context, which contradicts that [sic] AP’s reporting and shows that the accusations are unfounded.”

However, a closer examination by The Grayzone demonstrates that the video was anything but exculpatory. 

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Netanyahu Visits White House: Genocide Made Invisible

Whatever the outcomes of Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the White House on Monday and the latest scenario for a ceasefire in Gaza, a bilateral policy of genocide has united the Israeli and U.S. governments in a pact of literally breath-taking cruelty. That pact and its horrific consequences for Palestinian people either continue to shock Americans or gradually normalize indifference toward ongoing atrocities on a massive scale.

Recent news reporting that President Trump has pushed for a ceasefire in Gaza is an echo of a familiar refrain about peace-seeking efforts from the Biden and Trump administrations. The spin remained in sync with the killing – not only with American bombs and bullets but also with Israel’s refusal to allow more than a pittance of food and other essentials into Gaza.

Last year began with a United Nations statement that “Gazans now make up 80 per cent of all people facing famine or catastrophic hunger worldwide, marking an unparalleled humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip amid Israel’s continued bombardment and siege.” The UN quoted experts who said: “Currently every single person in Gaza is hungry, a quarter of the population are starving and struggling to find food and drinkable water, and famine is imminent.”

In late February 2024, President Biden talked to journalists about prospects for a “ceasefire” (which did not take place) while holding a vanilla ice cream cone. “My national security adviser tells me that we’re close, we’re close, we’re not done yet,” Biden said, before sauntering off. He spoke during a photo op at an ice cream parlor in Manhattan, while the UN was sounding an alarm that “very little humanitarian aid has entered besieged Gaza this month.”

During the 16 months since then, variants of facile verbiage from top U.S. government officials have repeated endlessly, while normalizing genocide with a steep race to the ethical bottom, so that – in Orwellian terms, much like “war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength” – genocide is not genocide.

Refusal to acknowledge the complicity and impunity is most of all maintained by avoidance and silence. The process makes a terrible truth inadmissible rather than admittable.

All the doublethink and newspeak must detour around the reality that the U.S.-supported Israeli siege of Gaza is genocide, which the international Genocide Convention defines as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group” – with such actions as “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

Israel’s actions in Gaza clearly meet that definition, as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have unequivocally concluded with exhaustive reports.

But under the cloaks of the Israeli and American flags, the official stories insist that the unconscionable should be invisible.

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Reuters Forced to Retract After Blaming GHF for Gaza Relocation Plan

The Reuters news agency was forced to issue a correction Monday after falsely attributing a plan for the relocation of Palestinians in Gaza to the Trump administration-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

The article originally claimed in its headline: “Exclusive: US-backed aid group proposed ‘Human Transit Areas’ for Palestinians in Gaza.”

It claimed, further:

A controversial U.S.-backed aid group proposed building camps called “Humanitarian Transit Areas” inside – and possibly outside – Gaza to house the Palestinian population, according to a proposal reviewed by Reuters, outlining its vision of “replacing Hamas’ control over the population in Gaza.”

The $2 billion plan, created sometime after February 11 for the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF, was submitted to the Trump administration and recently discussed in the White House, according to a source familiar with the matter.

There was no basis or the story — the latest in a series of mainstream media efforts to smear the GHF, which is replacing the United Nations and undermining Hamas’s control over the delivery of aid in Gaza.

Reuters later published a corrected version, “Exclusive: Proposal outlines large-scale ‘Humanitarian Transit Areas’ for Palestinians in Gaza.”

At the end of the story, it added: “(This story has been corrected to remove ‘U.S.-backed aid group’ in the headline, and to reflect that while the document bears the name of the Global Humanitarian Foundation, it could not be determined who created or submitted it, in paragraphs 1 and 2).”

It could not even report the name of the group correctly in the correction.

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ISIS-Linked Palestinian Group Admits to Coordinating With Israel

A Palestinian group opposed to Hamas and tied to ISIS has received support from Israel, its leader now admits. 

Yasser Abu Shabab, head of the ISIS-linked Popular Forces, discussed coordinating with Tel Aviv in an interview with Makan, Israel’s Arabic-language public radio broadcaster. “We keep them [Israel] informed, but we carry out the military actions on our own,” he said. 

Abu Shabab did not directly state that the Popular Forces receive direct support from Israel. He explained that his organization is supported by a number of parties, and “There are things we can’t talk about publicly.”

Last month, the ties between Abu Shabab and Tel Aviv were exposed by Israeli opposition leader and former Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman. “The Israeli government is giving weapons to a group of criminals and felons, identified with the Islamic State, at the direction of the prime minister,” Liberman said. “To my knowledge, this did not go through approval by the cabinet.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later confirmed Liberman’s accusation, saying the policy saves the lives of Israeli soldiers. 

Abu Shabab and his gang have been backed by Israel against Hamas. He said in the interview, adding that he was seeking to eradicate Hamas’s “injustice” and “corruption.” “We will continue to fight, no matter the bloodshed,” Abu Shabab added. “Right now, Hamas is dying. They know their end is near.”

An IDF officer explained to Haaretz, “There are many groups that oppose Hamas – Abu Shabab went several steps further. They control territory that Hamas doesn’t enter, and the IDF encourages that.”

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Roger Waters reported to counter-terror police after declaring support for Palestine Action

Former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters has been reported to counter-terror police after sharing a Facebook post declaring his unwavering support of Palestine Action – a day after it was officially proscribed as a terrorist organisation.

In the three-minute clip, posted to Waters’ Facebook page just hours after the ban came into effect, the 81-year-old stated: “I support Palestine Action. And I always will because that is the right thing to do.”

He also shared a hand-written sign he’d made, which read: “Roger Waters supports Palestine Action 5th July 2025. Parliament has been corrupted by agents of a genocidal foreign power. Stand up and be counted its now.”

The proscription came into force at midnight on the morning of July 5.

Speaking to the camera, Waters declared: “I am Spartacus. OK, this is Independence Day, July 5th 2025. I declare my independence from the government of the UK who have just designated Palestine Action a terrorist – a proscribed terrorist organisation.

“For the record I support Palestine Action. It’s a great organisation. They are non-violent. They are absolutely not terrorist in any way.

“They are a non-violent protesting organization, protesting the presence in the UK of Elbit Systems who are an Israeli arms manufacturing organization. Alright so that’s that. I support Palestine Action. And I always will because that is the right thing to do.”

Caroline Turner, director of UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI), which reported Waters to counter-terrorism police, commented: “Palestine Action have been anything but a non-violent organisation, using sledgehammers to smash windows and machinery, and causing millions of pounds of damage over the past few years in order to intimidate the public and certain companies, and to advance their own ideological cause.

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Palestinian Sheikhs in Hebron Ask Israel for Separate Emirates, Not State

A group of Palestinian sheikhs in the holy city of Hebron has written to the Israeli government formally asking to be given sovereignty over the area as an emirate, and not as part of a larger Palestinian state.

The new emirate, they say, would join the Abraham Accords, the regional agreement establishing peace between Israel and participating Arab and Muslim states. Abraham himself is said by tradition to be buried in Hebron, in the Tomb of the Patriarch, holy to Muslims and Jews.

The initiative places a new option on the table for the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and an alternative to the corrupt and antisemitic Palestinian Authority, which currently administers the area.

The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday:

“We want cooperation with Israel,” says Sheikh Wadee’ al-Jaabari, also known as Abu Sanad, from his ceremonial tent in Hebron, the West Bank’s largest city located south of Jerusalem. “We want coexistence.” The leader of Hebron’s most influential clan has said such things before, as did his father. But this time is different. Sheikh Jaabari and four other leading Hebron sheikhs have signed a letter pledging peace and full recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. Their plan is for Hebron to break out of the Palestinian Authority, establish an emirate of its own, and join the Abraham Accords.

The letter is addressed to Israeli Economy Minister Nir Barkat, a former mayor of Jerusalem, who has brought Mr. Jaabari and other sheikhs to his home and met with them more than a dozen times since February. They ask him to present it to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and await his reply.

“The Emirate of Hebron shall recognize the State of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people,” the sheikhs write, “and the State of Israel shall recognize the Emirate of Hebron as the Representative of the Arab residents in the Hebron District.” Accepting Israel as a Jewish state goes further than the Palestinian Authority ever has, and sweeps aside decades of rejectionism.

The suggestion is timely: the U.S. and Israel are said to be preparing a formal peace plan that encompasses the region. The plan must make room for Palestinian aspirations in some form to win the support of Arab leaders.

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