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Tag: Israel

  • Pope slams Israel for ‘immoral’ use of force in Gaza and Lebanon

    Pope slams Israel for ‘immoral’ use of force in Gaza and Lebanon

    Pope Francis on Sunday slammed the “immoral” use of force in Lebanon and Gaza amid ongoing Israeli strikes in both places.

    “A country that acts this way with force, no matter the country, and that acts in such an excessive manner, (lends itself to) immoral actions,” said Francis when asked about the consequences of Israeli airstrikes on civilians aboard a flight back to Rome from Belgium.

    “Defence must always be proportional to the attack. When this is not the case, a dominating tendency appears that goes beyond morality,” the 87-year-old pontiff said in Italian.

    “Even in war there is a morality to defend. War is immoral, but the rules of war indicate a form of morality,” Francis said.

    “But when you don’t do this … you see the bad blood of these things,” he said.

    The death of Hassan Nasrallah has sent shockwaves throughout Lebanon and the Middle East, where he has been a key political and military figure for more than three decades.

  • Nearly 500 dead in Israeli strikes on Lebanon

    Nearly 500 dead in Israeli strikes on Lebanon

    Israeli air strikes on Lebanon killed at least 492 people on Monday, including 35 children, the health ministry said, marking the deadliest day of cross-border violence since the Gaza genocide began.

    Arab states strongly condemned Israel for the escalating hostilities with Hezbollah, which have intensified to levels unseen in nearly a year.

    Israel said it killed a “large number” of Hezbollah fighters when it hit about 1,600 sites in southern and eastern Lebanon, including a “targeted strike” in Beirut in what the Israeli military called “Operation Northern Arrows”.

    Hezbollah said Ali Karake, its third-in-command, was alive and had moved to safety after a source said the strike on the capital targeted him.

    The group said early Tuesday it had launched “volleys” of missiles at Israeli military sites after state media reported new raids in eastern Lebanon.

    People in Israel’s coastal city of Haifa were seen running for cover on Monday when air raid sirens sounded.

    Lebanon’s health ministry said the strikes killed 492 people, including 35 children and 58 women, and wounded 1,645 others. Health Minister Firass Abiad said “thousands of families” had been displaced.

    Explosions near the ancient city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon sent smoke billowing into the sky.

    “We sleep and wake up to bombardment… that’s what our life has become,” said Wafaa Ismail, 60, a housewife from the southern village of Zawtar.

    ‘Most difficult week for Hezbollah’

    Global powers urged Israel and Hezbollah to step back from the brink of all-out war as the violence shifted from Israel’s southern border with Gaza to its northern frontier with Lebanon.

    France and Egypt called on the United Nations Security Council to intervene, while Iraq requested an urgent meeting of Arab states on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

    Israeli army chief Herzi Halevi said the strikes hit combat infrastructure Hezbollah had been building for two decades.

    Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant called Monday “a significant peak” in the operation.

    “This is the most difficult week for Hezbollah since its establishment –- the results speak for themselves,” he said.

    “Entire units were taken out of battle as a result of the activities conducted at the beginning of the week in which numerous terrorists were injured.”

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was acting to change the “security balance” in the north.

    Hezbollah wave of rockets

    Hezbollah, which has been trading near-daily fire with Israel in support of Hamas, said it was in a “new phase” of confrontation.

    The group said it launched rockets at Israeli military sites near Haifa and two bases in retaliation for Israeli strikes on the south and the Bekaa.

    The attack came after an Israeli strike on southern Beirut on Friday killed its elite Radwan Force commander, Ibrahim Aqil, and coordinated communications device blasts that Hezbollah blamed on Israel killed 39 people and wounded almost 3,000 on Tuesday and Wednesday.

    Since the cross-border exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah began in October, tens of thousands of people on both sides have fled their homes.

    An Israeli military official, who cannot be further identified under military rules, said the operation seeks to “degrade threats” from Hezbollah, push them back from the border, and then to destroy infrastructure.

    Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati urged the United Nations and world powers to deter what he called Israel’s “plan that aims to destroy Lebanese villages and towns”.

    ‘Full-fledged war’ nearing

    US President Joe Biden, whose country is Israel’s main ally and weapons supplier, said Washington was “working to de-escalate in a way that allows people to return home safely”.

    The Pentagon said it was sending a small number of additional US military personnel to the Middle East after thousands were deployed earlier alongside warships, fighter jets and air defence systems.

    A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity at the UN General Assembly, said that Washington opposed an Israeli ground invasion targeting Hezbollah and had “concrete ideas” on how to de-escalate the crisis.

    G7 foreign ministers said in a joint statement that “no country stands to gain” from escalating conflict, warning of “unimaginable consequences” if a regional war broke out.

    EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell warned that Israel and Hezbollah were “almost in full-fledged war”, ahead of a gathering of world leaders at the United Nations.

    UN chief Antonio Guterres was “gravely alarmed” by civilian casualties in Lebanon, his spokesman said.

    The United Nations peacekeeping force in south Lebanon warned “any further escalation of this dangerous situation could have far-reaching and devastating consequences”.

    Qatar, a mediator in Gaza ceasefire talks, said Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon “puts the region on the brink of the abyss”, while Turkey said the strikes threatened “chaos” and Jordan urged an immediate end to the escalation “before it is too late”.

    The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned the strikes and ordered Palestinian medical staff in Lebanon to provide support for the wounded.

    Iran’s newly elected president, Masoud Pezeshkian, accused Israel of seeking “to create this wider conflict”.

    Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.

    Of the 251 hostages also seized by militants, 97 are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.

    Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has massacred at least 41,455 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by Gaza’s health ministry. The UN has described the figures as reliable.

  • Jewish filmmaker Sarah Friedland slams Israel during her acceptance speech at Venice Film Festival awards

    Jewish filmmaker Sarah Friedland slams Israel during her acceptance speech at Venice Film Festival awards

    Jewish- American filmmaker Sarah Friedland spoke out against Israel’s genocide of Gaza during an awards ceremony at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday. While accepting the Luigi de Laurentiis prize for best first film for ‘Familiar Touch,’ Sarah Friedland said, “I’m accepting this award on the 336th day of Israel’s genocide in Gaza and 76th year of occupation,” as loud applause broke out in the packed hall.

    “I believe it is our responsibility as filmmakers to use the institutional platforms through which we work to redress Israel’s impunity on the global stage. I stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine and their struggle for liberation,” Friedland stressed as the applause continued.
     
     Israel’s genocide in Gaza has now entered its 12th month, with over 40,939 people killed and 94,619 wounded since October 7, 2023.

  • Normalisation of ties with Israel puts Mohammad Bin Salman’s life at risk

    Normalisation of ties with Israel puts Mohammad Bin Salman’s life at risk

    Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman (MBS) is at risk of assassination amid his normalisation of ties with Israel, reports Politico, a U.S.-based publication.

    MBS reportedly told a U.S. Congress member that he is risking his life for a significant deal with the U.S. and Israel.

    Posing a question to the U.S., he said, “What did they do to protect Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat, who was assassinated after making a peace deal with Israel?”

    The crown prince, however, is reportedly determined to pursue the mega-deal with the U.S. and Israel despite the threats, deeming it pivotal to his country’s future.

  • Western ambassadors to skip Nagasaki memorial after Japan exclude Israel

    Western ambassadors to skip Nagasaki memorial after Japan exclude Israel

    Ambassadors from Western countries including the United States will skip a ceremony marking the 79th anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki after Israel was snubbed, officials said Wednesday.

    Nagasaki’s mayor last week said that Israel’s ambassador Gilad Cohen was not invited to Friday’s event in the southern Japanese city because of the risk of possible protests over the Gaza conflict.

    The US and British embassies said on Tuesday that their ambassadors would not take part as a result, and that their countries would be represented by lower-ranking diplomats.

    Media reports said that Australia, Italy, Canada and the European Union, who together with the US, Britain and Germany signed a strongly worded joint letter to Nagasaki’s mayor last month, would follow suit.

    US ambassador Rahm Emanuel will not attend “after the mayor of Nagasaki politicised the event by not inviting the Israeli ambassador”, an embassy spokesperson told AFP.

    Instead Emanuel, 64, who was ex-president Barack Obama’s chief of staff, will go to a separate event at a temple in Tokyo, the spokesperson said.

    The British embassy said that ambassador Julia Longbottom would also not be in Nagasaki, saying that not inviting Israel “creates an unfortunate and misleading equivalency with Russia and Belarus — the only other countries not invited to this year’s ceremony.”

    A spokesperson for the French embassy said that its number two would attend, telling AFP that the “decision not to invite the representative of Israel is regrettable and questionable”.

    Nagasaki mayor Shiro Suzuki had said last week that the decision not to invite Cohen was “not politically motivated” but based on a desire to “hold the ceremony in a peaceful and sombre atmosphere”.

    In June Suzuki said Nagasaki had sent a letter to the Israeli embassy calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza.

    Cohen, who was invited to and attended a memorial ceremony on Tuesday in Hiroshima, last week had said the Nagasaki decision “sends a wrong message to the world”.

    “As a close friend and like-minded nation of Japan, Israel has attended this ceremony for many years to honor the victims and their families,” he wrote on social media platform X.

    On Monday Cohen told US broadcaster CNN that the security concerns were “invented” and that he was “really surprised by (Suzuki) hijacking this ceremony for his political motivations.”

    In their letter to Suzuki seen by AFP, the six Western envoys had warned that if Israel was excluded “it would become difficult for us to have high-level participation at this event.”

    Government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi on Wednesday declined to comment, saying invitations were “a decision for the organiser, Nagasaki City.”

    A Nagasaki official in charge of the ceremony said it was “obviously better to have high-level individuals, like ambassadors themselves, taking part”.

    “What is important is that representatives of the countries will attend the ceremony,” he told AFP.

    hih-mac-stu/kaf/mca

    © Agence France-Presse

  • Hezbollah says fired ‘dozens’ of rockets at north Israel

    Hezbollah says fired ‘dozens’ of rockets at north Israel

    Hezbollah said it launched rockets at northern Israel Thursday “in response” to a deadly Israeli strike in south Lebanon — the group’s first attack after Israel killed a top commander earlier this week.

    Thegroup said in a statement that it “launched dozens of Katyusha rockets… in response to the Israeli enemy’s attack on… (the southern village of Shama) that killed a number of civilians.”

    The Israeli military said that shortly after the rocket fire, the air force “struck the Hezbollah launcher from which the projectiles were launched.”

    Earlier Thursday, the Lebanese health ministry said four Syrians were killed in an Israeli strike on the south, where Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged near-daily fire since the Gaza war began in October.

    “The health ministry announces… four Syrian nationals were martyred” in an “Israeli strike” on the southern village of Shama, it said in a statement.

    The ministry said the toll might rise once DNA tests had been carried out.

    The strike also wounded five Lebanese nationals, it added.

    Emergency services told AFP that the dead were farmer workers and part of the same family.

    Plumes of smoke billowed from the site of the strike, which heavily damaged two nearby buildings and burnt a vehicle to a crisp, a photographer contributing to AFP reported.

    The attack was Hezbollah’s first since an Israeli air strike killed its top commander Fuad Shukr on Tuesday evening, with leader Hassan Nasrallah saying operations would resume on Friday morning.

    Nasrallah warned his group was bound to respond to the killing of Shukr.

    His death was followed hours later Wednesday, by the killing of Hezbollah ally Hamas’s chief Ismail Haniyeh in a strike in Tehran, which Iran and Hamas have blamed on Israel. Israel has declined to comment on his killing.

    The genocide in Gaza since October has killed at least 542 people on the Lebanese side, most of them fighters but also including 114 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

    At least 22 soldiers and 25 civilians have been killed on the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, according to army figures.

  • Kamala Harris ‘will not be silent’ on suffering in Gaza

    Kamala Harris ‘will not be silent’ on suffering in Gaza

    United States Vice President Kamala Harris, who is now running for candidacy in the upcoming presidential election, has asserted that she will not remain “silent” on the suffering in Gaza.

    “What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating. The images of dead children and desperate hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time,” Harris said while speaking to reporters following her meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington DC.

    At the same time, she maintained that “Israel has a right to defend itself”, deeming Hamas as a “brutal terrorist organisation” that led to the “war” and had carried out ‘“horrific acts of sexual violence”.

    Harris later added that “We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies [in Gaza]. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering and I will not be silent.”

    She also urged the creation of a Palestinian state, further calling for Netanyahu and Hamas to accord a ceasefire and hostage release deal to end a war that has killed “far too many” civilians.

    “As I just told Prime Minister Netanyahu, it is time to get this deal done,” she said.

  • From maggots to the devil: All you need to know about Netanyahu’s US visit

    From maggots to the devil: All you need to know about Netanyahu’s US visit

    July 24, 2024, was another day that will go down in history.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was enthusiastically welcomed at the United States Capitol to address Congress for the fourth time.

    But this time, things were different.

    On the streets of America, a large number of protestors swarmed in, carrying Palestinian flags, asserting their disapproval of the US state for hosting a man who has been deemed a war criminal by anti-genocide advocates worldwide.

    Some protestors also reportedly released maggots and mealworms at the Watergate Hotel where PM Netanyahu, Israeli Mossad agents, and the Secret Service were to stay.

    Back in May this year, Prosecutor Karim Khan at the International Criminal Court (ICC) called for arrest warrants for the Israeli PM and his associates for committing “war crimes and crimes against humanity” in Gaza.

    As of yet, at least 39,145 people have been killed and 90,257 injured in Gaza since October 7 — the day when Israel began its deadly operations in the besieged strip, using Hamas’ attacks as justification for the bloodshed witnessed worldwide.

    Are all Congress members supportive of Netanyahu?

    More than 50 members reportedly boycotted or skipped the address, close to the 58 members who chose to abstain from attending Netanyahu’s 2015 speech.

    Among the members are Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Ilhan Omar, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Bernie Sanders, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Punjabi-Hindu descendant Rep. Ro Khanna.

    Pelosi criticised PM Netanyahu’s presentation in the House Chamber as “by far the worst presentation of any foreign dignitary invited and honored with the privilege of addressing the Congress of the United States.”

    However, Rashida Tlaib, member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan, attended the Israeli PM’s speech for all the right reasons.

    Among the audience who gave Netanyahu a standing ovation on every claim, Tlaib stood out as the only hero in the room, wearing her Palestinian flag pin and a keffiyeh, holding a sign that read “guilty of genocide” on one side and “war criminal” on the other.

    Who is Rashida Tlaib?

    Tlaib was born in the US to Palestinian parents — both of whom came from Palestine “for a better life,” she said in a post on social media.

    She is the eldest daughter of 14 kids who earned her bachelor’s in political science and Juris Doctor from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in 2004. Rashida Tlaib then entered the Michigan state bar in 2007.

    In 2022, she was re-elected to the U.S. Congress as one of the first two Muslim women (along with Ilhan Omar) and the first Palestinian woman.

    “I will never back down in speaking truth to power”, she posted on X following PM Netanyahu’s speech.

    “The apartheid government of Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians. Palestinians will not be erased. Solidarity with all those outside of these walls in the streets protesting and exercising their right to dissent.”

    https://x.com/RashidaTlaib/status/1816200931848950184

    What did PM Netanyahu say?

    • “Like December 7th, 1941, and September 11th, 2001, October 7th is a day that will forever live in infamy.”

    • “For the forces of civilization to triumph, America and Israel must stand together. Because when we stand together, something very simple happens. We win. They lose.

      And my friends, I came to assure you today of one thing: we will win.”

    • ‘I thank President Biden for his heartful support for Israel after the savage attack on October 7th. He rightly called Hamas “sheer evil.”’ President Biden and I have known each other for over forty years. I want to thank him for half a century of friendship to Israel and for being, as he says, a proud Zionist. Actually, he says, a proud Irish American Zionist.

    • “…the Muslim soldiers of the IDF fought alongside their Jewish, Druze, Christian and other comrades in arms with tremendous bravery.”

    • “As the Bible says, “עם כלביא יקום” —they shall rise like lions. They’ve risen like lions, the lions of Judah, the lions of Israel.”

    • “These protesters chant “From the river to the sea.” But many don’t have a clue what river and what sea they’re talking about.”

    • “For nearly four thousand years, the land of Israel has been the homeland of the Jewish people. It’s always been our home; it will always be our home.”

    • “Now, just as malicious lies were levelled for centuries at the Jewish people, malicious lies are now being levelled at the Jewish state.”

    • “The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has shamefully accused Israel of deliberately starving the people of Gaza. This is utter complete nonsense. It’s a complete fabrication.”

    • “The vast majority of Americans have not fallen for this Hamas propaganda. They continue to support Israel, and I want to say: Thank you America, and thank you, senators and house members who continue to support us, continue to support Israel, continue to support the truth and see through the lies.”

    • “If you remember one thing, one thing from this speech, remember this: Our enemies are your enemies, our fight is your fight, and our victory will be your victory.”

    • “The new alliance I envision would be a natural extension of the groundbreaking Abraham Accords. Those Accords saw peace forged between Israel and four Arab countries, and they were supported by Republican and Democrats alike.

      I have a name for this new alliance. I think we should call it: The Abraham Alliance.”

    https://x.com/RashidaTlaib/status/1816200931848950184
  • Amid Gaza genocide, Israel aims to send Lebanon “back to Stone Age”

    Amid Gaza genocide, Israel aims to send Lebanon “back to Stone Age”

    Israel launched air strikes on Gaza Thursday after warning Hezbollah, Hamas’s ally in Lebanon, to avoid a large-scale war that would send the neighbouring country “back to the Stone Age”.

    Defence Minister Yoav Gallant made the comment during a visit to Washington, where he discussed the Gaza war, long-running efforts toward a truce, and ways to avoid a wider regional conflagration.

    As cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah have risen, Gallant stressed that “we do not want war, but we are preparing for every scenario”.

    Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant during his visit to Washington this weekDrew ANGERER

    “Hezbollah understands very well that we can inflict massive damage in Lebanon if a war is launched,” he said of the fighter group.

    Israel and Hezbollah have traded near daily cross-border fire since October 7.

    But tensions have surged since Israel said this month that its Lebanon war plans are ready, sparking threats from Hezbollah that, in the event of all-out war, none of Israel would be safe.

    US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told Gallant this week that a war with Hezbollah could have “terrible consequences for the Middle East” and urged a diplomatic solution.

    A Palestinian boy sits on a war-damaged road at al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on June 26, 2024Eyad BABA

    UN humanitarian coordinator Martin Griffiths warned that Lebanon was “the flashpoint beyond all flashpoints” and that a full war would be “potentially apocalyptic”.

    Germany has joined Canada in advising its citizens in Lebanon to leave the country, reiterating warnings first issued shortly after October 7.

    In the latest clashes on Wednesday, Lebanese media reported about 10 Israeli strikes near the border, while Hezbollah claimed six attacks against Israeli military positions.

    A US official said Washington was engaged in “fairly intensive conversations” with Israel, Lebanon and other actors and believed that no side sought a “major escalation”.

    Meanwhile, the Gaza war at the heart of regional tensions ground on, despite comments Sunday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the “intense phase” of the assault on Gaza was nearing an end.

    An Israeli Air Force F-16 Jet fighter aircraft flies over the border area between northern Israel and southern LebanonJACK GUEZ

    Israeli air strikes overnight and early Thursday killed at least five people in Gaza City, said Gaza’s civil defence agency and Al-Mamdani hospital medics.

    One person was killed when a warplane bombed a house in Beit Lahia, paramedics said.

    Heavy fighting, artillery shelling and helicopter fire were reported Thursday around northern Gaza’s Shujayia market, as well as approaching Israeli ground vehicles.

    Hamas’ press office in Gaza reported “a significant displacement of residents” there and said people “are fleeing to areas of refuge in Gaza City that are already overcrowded”.

    An anonymous witness told AFP the situation was “very difficult and frightening in Shujayia after the arrival of occupation (Israeli) vehicles and air fire.”

    “Residents are running through the streets in terror… a number of wounded and martyrs lie in the streets.”

    A handout picture released by the Jordanian army shows humanitarian aid being airdropped from a military aircraft over southern Gaza on June 25, 2024-

    Shelling also targeted Gaza City, sending plumes of smoke into the sky, and Israeli forces blew up several buildings in far-southern Rafah, witnesses said.

    The Israeli military also said it had “attacked terrorists who were in a school complex in Khan Yunis” in the south, where the civil defence agency said it had recovered several bodies.

    US officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, have voiced hope a Gaza ceasefire could also lead to a reduction in hostilities on the Lebanese border.

    However, months of talks towards a truce and hostage release deal have so far failed as Israel has rejected Hamas’ demands for a permanent end to fighting and full troop withdrawal.

    Israel has killed at least 37,765 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from Gaza’s health ministry.

    This handout picture released by the Israeli army on June 25, 2024 shows an Israeli army tracked vehicle during operations in the Gaza Strip-

    The war and siege have triggered a dire humanitarian crisis, with Gaza hospitals struggling to function and food, drinking water and other essentials hard to come by.

    USAID officials said Wednesday that just 1,000 of the 7,000 tonnes of aid shipped from Cyprus to Gaza had been distributed, blaming looting and security problems.

    Gaza’s humanitarian crisis is intense, said US doctors and nurses returning from the territory, who reported patients in the few remaining hospitals were dying in large numbers.

    Israeli tanks seen in central Gaza, gunfire heard
    Israeli tanks seen in central Gaza, gunfire heard

    One of the volunteer medics, former US army combat surgeon Adam Hamawy, said he had worked in many war-torn and natural disaster-hit countries in the past 30 years.

    “But the level of civilian casualties that I experienced was beyond anything I’d seen before,” the 54-year-old told AFP.

    “Most of our patients were children under the age of 14,” he said. “This has nothing to do with your political views.”

  • Two American Air Force members to quit as US continues to back Israel

    Two American Air Force members to quit as US continues to back Israel

    Two officers currently serving in the United States Air Force are seeking to quit their military roles and declare themselves conscientious objectors in the light of their opposition to Washington’s backing of the Israeli genocide in Gaza.

    The two people in question are Larry Hebert and Juan Bettancourt who are critical of the US-backed genocide in Gaza that has killed over 37,400 Palestinians, predominantly women and children.

    They have formally requested to be recognized as conscientious objectors as per established military procedures — a status granted to individuals who object to engaging in military activities on moral or ethical grounds.

    Al Jazeera spoke to Hebert who is presently serving as a senior airman in the US Air Force. He pointed out that conscientious objection in the US military has historically been seen during protests against the Vietnam and Iraq wars.

    He intends to raise awareness that active-duty soldiers have the option to choose conscientious objection.

    In an earlier interview with NBC News, Hebert revealed the death of six-year-old Hind Rajab in February was a pivotal moment influencing his decision.