Tag: palestine

Israel Cut Off Gaza’s Communications Because Murderers Don’t Like Witnesses

Israeli ground forces have ramped up activities in Gaza in what anonymous US officials are reportedly telling the press is a “rolling start” to the long-anticipated ground invasion.

Israel has also concurrently crippled Gaza’s largest telecommunications service, which had been the enclave’s last remaining contact with the outside world after Israel knocked out all the others. Humanitarian organizations and mainstream press outlets now say they have lost communication with their contacts in Gaza in a level of information blackout we’re unaccustomed to seeing in modern times.

“This information blackout risks providing cover for mass atrocities and contributing to impunity for human rights violations,” Human Rights Watch correctly notes.

And I’m going to go ahead and say that’s probably not just a convenient coincidence for Israel. A genocidal massacre in total darkness works very much to the advantage of those doing the massacring.

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Musk to provide Starlink access to Gaza

Tech billionaire Elon Musk has said that he will provide satellite internet access to “internationally recognized aid organizations” in Gaza via his Starlink network. Phone and internet lines went down in the enclave after a heavy Israeli bombardment on Friday.

Musk made his announcement on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday, stating that SpaceX’s Starlink division would “support connectivity” with the besieged strip.

There are apparently a number of Starlink terminals in Gaza, but in a separate post on Saturday, Musk said that none of these devices had attempted to communicate with the satellite network. “It is not clear who has authority for ground links in Gaza, but do we know that no terminal has requested a connection in that area,” he wrote on X.

Internet and cell phone services stopped working in Gaza on Friday night after a wave of Israeli airstrikes. Gaza’s largest telecommunications operator, Paltel, announced that its infrastructure had been totally destroyed in the bombing, which preceded the deployment of Israeli ground troops to the enclave.

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Surveillance soldiers warned of Hamas activity on Gaza border for months before Oct. 7

The brutal Hamas massacre on October 7 was preceded by months of warning signs noted by IDF surveillance soldiers and disregarded as unimportant by intelligence officials, according to eyewitness accounts given in recent days.

At least three months prior to the attack, surveillance soldiers serving on a base in Nahal Oz reported signs that something unusual was underway at the already-tumultuous Gaza border, situated a kilometer from them.

The activity reported by the soldiers included information on Hamas operatives conducting training sessions multiple times a day, digging holes and placing explosives along the border. According to the accounts of the soldiers, no action was taken by those who received the reports.

IDF surveillance soldiers, referred to in Hebrew as tatzpitaniyot, belong to the Combat Intelligence Corps and operate along the country’s borders, as well as throughout the West Bank.

The surveillance soldiers are referred to by many as “the eyes of the army” as they provide real-time intelligence information to soldiers in the field, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

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Gaza won’t accept more ethnic cleansing

Israel has planned to depopulate Gaza for decades.

During the Nakba – the mass expulsions leading to and following Israel’s establishment in 1948 – about 200,000 Palestinians from the surrounding district became refugees in Gaza.

About 70 percent of Gaza’s population are refugees as a result of the Nakba. They have firmly rejected subsequent efforts to uproot them.

The efforts have come both from Israel and from international bodies.

In the 1950s, the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) proposed a plan to Gamal Abdel Nasser, then Egypt’s president. Under it, 250,000 acres would be allocated to Palestinian refugees, who would be resettled in the northern Sinai.

The plan was called off following protests. Among those who played a prominent role in the protests were Ahmad al-Haj.

Al-Haj still lives in Gaza City’s Beach refugee camp. He lives in a rented home as he thinks that buying a house of his own in Gaza would mean accepting his refugee status as permanent.

Before the Nakba, Al-Haj lived in the village of al-Swafer al-Sharqia. As he was uprooted from his original home, he still regards his refugee status in Gaza as temporary.

Israel’s military occupation of Gaza and the West Bank began in June 1967. Soon after the occupation started, Yigal Allon, then Israel’s labor minister, recommended “transferring” – a euphemism for expulsion – the people of Gaza to the Sinai en masse.

At the time the population of Gaza was approximately 400,000. Israel saw this population as a threat, whereas its “transfer” would ensure that no Palestinian state would be established based on boundary lines preceding the 1967 occupation.

In 1969, the Israeli government a secret plan from the spy agency Mossad to send large numbers of people living in Gaza (especially young men) on a one-way trip destined for Latin America.

The scholar Hadeel Assali had a relative who was tricked into emigrating through this plan. Assali has documented how the people in question were promised jobs that would pay substantial salaries.

Paraguay’s government was complicit. It received a $350,000 payment from Israel as part of the plan.

The existence of the plan was exposed in 1970 when two of these refugees opened fire at the Israeli embassy in Paraguay.

In 1971, Ariel Sharon, an Israeli general who later became prime minister, forced 12,000 Palestinians out of Gaza, sending them to the Sinai.

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October 7 testimonies reveal Israel’s military ‘shelling’ Israeli citizens with tanks, missiles

Israel’s military received orders to shell Israeli homes and even their own bases as they were overwhelmed by Hamas militants on October 7. How many Israeli citizens said to have been “burned alive” were actually killed by friendly fire?

Several new testimonies by Israeli witnesses to the October 7 Hamas surprise attack on southern Israel adds to growing evidence that the Israeli military killed its own citizens as they fought to neutralize Palestinian gunmen.

Tuval Escapa, a member of the security team for Kibbutz Be’eri, set up a hotline to coordinate between kibbutz residents and the Israeli army. He told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that as desperation began to set in, “the commanders in the field made difficult decisions – including shelling houses on their occupants in order to eliminate the terrorists along with the hostages.”

A separate report published in Haaretz noted that the Israeli military was “compelled to request an aerial strike” against its own facility inside the Erez Crossing to Gaza “in order to repulse the terrorists” who had seized control. That base was filled with Israeli Civil Administration officers and soldiers at the time.

These reports indicate that orders came down from the military’s high command to attack homes and and other areas inside Israel, even at the cost of many Israeli lives.

An Israeli woman named Yasmin Porat confirmed in an interview with Israel Radio that the military “undoubtedly” killed numerous Israeli noncombatants during gun battles with Hamas militants on October 7. “They eliminated everyone, including the hostages,” she stated, referring to Israeli special forces.

As David Sheen and Ali Abunimah reported in Electronic Intifada, Porat described “very, very heavy crossfire” and Israeli tank shelling, which led to many casualties among Israelis.

While being held by the Hamas gunmen, Porat recalled, “They did not abuse us. We were treated very humanely… No one treated us violently.”

She added, “The objective was to kidnap us to Gaza, not to murder us.”

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The Genocidal Language Behind Israel’s Intent in Gaza

“(Tutsis) are cockroaches. We will kill you.”

Arabs are like “drugged cockroaches in a bottle.”

The first quote was a line repeated frequently by the Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines, a Rwandan radio station, which is largely blamed for inciting hatred towards the Tutsi people.

The second is by former Israeli army Chief-of-Staff Gen. Rafael Eitan in 1983, speaking at an Israeli parliament’s committee.

Rwanda’s hate-filled radio station operated for only one year (1993-94), yet the outcome of its incitement resulted in one of the saddest and most tragic episodes in modern human history: the genocide of the Tutsis.

Compare “Radio Genocide” to the massive Israeli-U.S.-Western propaganda, dehumanizing Palestinians almost with identical language to that used by Hutus’ media.

Many seem to forget that, long before the Gaza war on Oct. 7, and even long before the establishment of Israel itself in 1948, the Zionist-Israeli discourse has always been that of racism, dehumanization, erasure and, at times, outright genocide.

If one is to randomly select any period of Israeli history to examine the political discourse emanating from Israeli officials, institutions and even intellectuals, one is to draw the same conclusion: Israel has always built a narrative of incitement and hatred, thus making a constant case for the genocide of Palestinians.

Only recently, this genocidal intent is becoming obvious to many people.

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ISRAEL’S LONG-HELD PLAN TO DRIVE GAZA’S PEOPLE INTO SINAI IS NOW WITHIN REACH

As Israel masses its forces along the fence encaging Gaza, waiting for a green light from the United States for a ground invasion, the question few are asking is: What is the ultimate endgame for Israel?  

Instead, British and US politicians, backed by their media, have limited themselves to amplifying Israel’s bogus rationales for indiscriminately bombing men, women and children in the tiny coastal enclave and preparing to send in troops. Only 80 or so British MPs, out of 650, have so far called for a ceasefire.  

Israeli strikes are known to have killed more than 7,000 Palestinians, nearly half of them children, with many times that number seriously injured. They are being treated in hospitals without medicines or electricity. The United Nations estimates at least 600,000 Palestinians are homeless from the bombing.

At first, Western establishments justified the carnage as Israel’s “right to defend itself” – a right Palestinians had been denied for the previous 16 years while Israel enforced a brutal military siege of the enclave that prevented basic goods and medicines from entering. 

Israel’s supposed “right to self-defence” – the official line from both sides of the political aisle in Britain – serves as western cover for, and complicity in, the crimes against humanity Israel has been committing: mass killing and wanton destruction; a “complete siege” of Gaza, starving it of food and water; and attacks on community infrastructure such as hospitals, schools, mosques, and UN compounds.  

But now, as the death toll becomes increasingly obscene, the rationale has shifted. In chorus, British and US politicians say Israel must be given the time and space to “destroy Hamas”.

That requires a ground invasion by Israeli troops – many of them religious extremists from illegal settlements in the West Bank – who are certain to be seeking vengeance for Hamas’ attack on October 7. The atrocities are only likely to intensify.

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US unveils new sanctions in push to cut off funding for Hamas

The U.S. expanded its sanction effort against people and companies tied to funding Hamas, as the country continues its support for Israel’s war against the militant group.

The new sanctions, announced Friday, target individuals and companies in Iran, Sudan and Turkey. Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government.

“Today’s action underscores the United States’ commitment to dismantling Hamas’s funding networks by deploying our counterterrorism sanctions authorities and working with our global partners to deny Hamas the ability to exploit the international financial system,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in a statement. 

“We will not hesitate to take action to further degrade Hamas’s ability to commit horrific terrorist attacks by relentlessly targeting its financial activities and streams of funding,” he added.

Among the individuals targeted includes Khaled Qaddoumi, described as Hamas’ liaison to the Iranian government, as well as a number of Iranian military members who trained Hamas militants.

Also sanctioned was the Al-Ansar Charity Association, which the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said funds the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a Hamas-affiliated militant group.

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U.S. ammo supplies feel the pinch as Ukraine and Israel draw down depleted inventory

President Biden, in his prime-time address to the nation this month, called America the “arsenal of democracy,” evoking President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s message to a nation emerging from the Great Depression that it had the industrial base and know-how to arm Britain and other countries fighting Nazi Germany.

“Just as in World War II, today, patriotic American workers are building the arsenal of democracy and serving the cause of freedom,” Mr. Biden said Oct. 19 in remarks from the Oval Office.

Like the days before the U.S. entered World War II, countries asking for America’s help are questioning the Pentagon’s ability to meet their needs.

Conflicts in Ukraine and Israel have required some logistical backing and filling with uncertain end dates for planners.

In January, the Pentagon dipped into a little-known stockpile earmarked for Israel to help Ukraine meet its urgent need for artillery ammunition to continue its nearly year-old fight against Russian invaders.

The munitions were intended to support future U.S. and allied military needs in the Middle East, but Ukrainian troops were expending thousands of artillery rounds a day to claw back territory from Moscow.

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The Making of Hamas

The slaughter of innocent civilians on October 7, 2023 perpetrated by Hamas against Israel was despicable, heinous, and evil. From Israel’s perspective these acts of horror and terror are unforgivable.

Unfortunately, Hamas is to Israel what ISIS was to America – a creature of their own making. While hard to believe, Hamas was created by Israel to counter Yasser Arafat’s PLO, and avoid having a two state solution imposed on them by the international community.

Israel and Hamas have one thing in common: neither of them want a two state solution to the Israel-Palestinian problem. So, Israel encouraged, funded, and helped to build Hamas into an a rival organization with Arafat’s PLO.

As far back in 2009, and under similar circumstances, Rep. Ron Paul claimed that Israel encouraged and essentially started Hamas in order to counteract Yasser Arafat and the PLO, and to deter the two state solution from becoming a reality.

Recently, Professor John Mearsheimer from the University of Chicago told interviewer Andrew Napolitano that the state of Israel, “to some extent, allied with Hamas to undermine the Palestinian Authority…because they were interested in a two state solution.” And so, according to Mearsheimer, “Israel was a partner with Hamas to undermine the Palestinian Authority.”

Of course, Arafat himself had confirmed this in an interview with an Italian newspaper saying, “Hamas was a creature of Israel.” Arafat also said that the former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin subsequently told him that Israel’s efforts in encouraging Hamas was the “gravest of errors.”

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