40 Killed In Hamas Attacks In Israel

[jon1959]

Re: 40 Killed In Hamas Attacks In Israel

https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/article/it-is-about-humanity-and-not-antisemitism/?utm_source=mailpoet&utm_medium=email&utm_source_platform=mailpoet&utm_campaign=today-on-the-jvl-blog-newsletter-total-articles-for-you_1

It is about humanity and not antisemitism - Sun 3 Aug 2025

JVL Introduction:

Here Avrum Burg expresses some of our frustration that the Israeli government and its unwavering and uncritical supporters continue to allege antisemitism as the motivation for criticising what Israel is doing in Gaza.

It no longer works: “Opposing Israel’s actions today is a moral obligation,” says Burg, “And it is not antisemitism. It is love of humanity.”.

More importantly, he shows the similarity in thinking between Zionists and Antisemites both of which want to exceptionalise Jews, negatively or totally positive.

For Burg the real division is not between Jews and non-Jews but between those who believe in equality and those who do not. Hence Israel is linked to those advocating white supremacy rather than to those who advocate democracy.

Burg was a Labor member of the Knesset and at one time its Speaker and has held other important positions such as Chair of the Jewish Agency for Israel, a leading Zionist institution.

His powerful plea for Israel to change direction, The Holocaust is Over; We Must Rise from Its Ashes, was published in 2010.

About ten years ago, he left Labor and joined Hadash, the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality.

[jon1959]

Re: 40 Killed In Hamas Attacks In Israel

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crr2dwn7q40o

Western leaders have condemned videos of emaciated Israeli hostages filmed by their captors in Gaza, with the Red Cross calling for access to all remaining in captivity.

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said "images of hostages being paraded for propaganda are sickening" and they must be released "unconditionally".

The calls come after the Palestinian Islamic Jihad published video of Rom Braslavski, thin and crying, on Thursday, and Hamas released footage of an emaciated Evyatar David on Saturday.

Israeli leaders accused Hamas of starving hostages.

Hamas's armed wing denied it intentionally starves prisoners, saying hostages eat what their fighters and people eat amid a hunger crisis in Gaza.

[jon1959]

Re: 40 Killed In Hamas Attacks In Israel

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crkznje8nz8o

A group of some 600 retired Israeli security officials, including former heads of intelligence agencies, have written to US President Donald Trump to pressure Israel to immediately end the war in Gaza.

"It is our professional judgement that Hamas no longer poses a strategic threat to Israel," the officials said.

"Your credibility with the vast majority of Israelis augments your ability to steer Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and his government in the right direction: End the war, return the hostages, stop the suffering," they wrote.

Their appeal comes amid reports that Netanyahu is pushing to expand military operations in Gaza as indirect ceasefire talks with Hamas have stalled.

Israel launched a devastating war in Gaza following Hamas's attack in southern Israel on 7 October 2023 in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken into Gaza as hostages.

More than 60,000 people have been killed as a result of Israel's military campaign in Gaza since then, the Hamas-run health ministry says.

The territory is also experiencing mass deprivation as a result of heavy restrictions imposed by Israel on what is allowed into Gaza. The ministry says 180 people, including 93 children, have died from malnutrition since the start of the war.

UN-backed agencies have said the "worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out" in Gaza.

[the other bob wilson]

Re: 40 Killed In Hamas Attacks In Israel

[jon1959]

Re: 40 Killed In Hamas Attacks In Israel

https://www.msf.org/ghf-run-food-distributions-gaza-are-sites-orchestrated-killing

Jerusalem – An analysis of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) medical data, patients’ testimonies, and first-hand medical witnessing at two MSF clinics in Gaza, Palestine, point to both targeted and indiscriminate violence by Israeli forces and private American contractors against starved Palestinians at food distribution sites run by the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

MSF calls for the immediate dismantling of the GHF scheme; the restoration of the UN-coordinated aid delivery mechanism; and calls on governments, especially the United States, as well as private donors to suspend all financial and political support for the GHF, whose sites are essentially death traps.

A new MSF report, This is not aid. This is orchestrated killing, documents the horrors witnessed by MSF staff at two clinics that regularly received mass influxes of casualties following violence at sites run by the GHF, an Israeli-US proxy that has militarised food distribution. Between 7 June and 24 July 2025, 1,380 casualties, including 28 dead, were received at MSF’s Al-Mawasi and Al-Attar clinics in southern Gaza, located near the GHF-run distribution sites.

During those seven weeks, our teams treated 71 children for gunshot wounds, 25 of whom were under the age of 15. Faced with no alternatives to find food, starved families frequently send teenage boys into this lethal environment, as they are often the only males in the household physically able to make the journey.

Patients have also included a 12-year-old boy hit by a bullet that had passed all the way through his abdomen, and five young girls, one of whom was only 8 years old and suffered a gunshot wound to her chest.

“Children shot in the chest while reaching for food. People crushed or suffocated in stampedes. Entire crowds gunned down at distribution points,” says Raquel Ayora, MSF General Director. “In MSF’s nearly 54 years of operations, rarely have we seen such levels of systematic violence against unarmed civilians.”

“The GHF distribution sites masquerading as ‘aid’ have morphed into a laboratory of cruelty,” says Ayora. “This must stop now.”

An initial analysis of the gunshot wounds among patients arriving at the Al-Mawasi clinic found that 11 per cent of the gunshot injuries were to the head and neck, while 19 per cent were to areas covering the chest, abdomen, and back. By contrast, people arriving from the Khan Younis Distribution Centre were far more likely to arrive with gunshot wounds to the lower limbs. The distinct patterns and anatomical precision of these injuries strongly suggests the intentional targeting of people within and around the distribution sites, rather than accidental or indiscriminate fire.

“We’re being slaughtered. I’ve been injured maybe 10 times,” says Mohammed Riad Tabasi, a patient who was treated at the MSF Al-Mawasi clinic. “I saw it with my own eyes, about 20 corpses around me. All of them shot in the head, in the stomach.”

In May, Israeli authorities sought to dismantle the UN-led humanitarian response and replace it with a militarised food distribution scheme operated by GHF. All four GHF-run distribution sites are in areas under full Israeli military control, and “secured” by private American armed contractors.

The GHF has been touted by the Israeli and US governments as an “innovative solution” – a supposed answer to their unproven claims of aid diversion in Gaza and unfounded accusations of UN failure. The sites are nothing but a deadly scheme, institutionalising the Israeli authorities’ starvation policy of Gaza that started on 2 March, with the full siege they imposed on the Strip as part of their ongoing genocidal campaign.

The way this scheme operates attempts to strip people of their dignity. Over the seven weeks, MSF teams treated 196 patients with injuries following chaotic scrambles at the GHF distribution sites. Patients included a five-year-old boy with severe head injuries and a woman who died of asphyxiation, likely caused by the suffocating crush of a crowd.

People who manage to secure any food rations at the sites often face the risk of violent looting and theft of aid by other starved people. Our medical teams were required to add a new acronym to their patient registry: BBO – Beaten By Others. This refers to people injured either in the crush of the crowd or by being beaten and robbed of their supplies immediately after receiving them. It is dehumanisation by design.

“On 1 August, the same day the US special envoy to the Middle East visited GHF sites, 15-year-old Mahmoud Jamal Al-Attar was killed around the Al-Shakoush GHF site while trying to get food,” says Aitor Zabalgogeazkoa, MSF emergency coordinator in Gaza. “He arrived at the MSF Al-Mawasi clinic after being shot in the chest.”

“We treat only a fraction of the total number of people killed and injured at these sites. There is no other way to describe the murder of children as anything but intentional,” says Zabalgogeazkoa. “Despite the condemnations and calls for dismantling it, the global inaction to stop GHF is baffling.”

Between 27 July – 2 August, 186 people with wounds from gunshots, shrapnel or assault and stabbing were treated in MSF’s Al-Mawasi or Al-Attar clinics after being wounded at GHF sites. Two of them died. On 3 August MSF clinics received three more wounded people, one who had been shot in the neck and two with shots to the head.

[jon1959]

Re: 40 Killed In Hamas Attacks In Israel

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/07/palestinian-pele-suleiman-al-obeid-football-player-killed-gaza-israeli-attack

A footballer known as the “Palestinian Pelé” has been killed in an Israeli attack in southern Gaza, according to the Palestine Football Association (PFA).

Suleiman al-Obeid was killed on Wednesday when Israeli forces attacked civilians waiting for humanitarian aid, the PFA said.

‘‘During his long career, al-Obeid, 41, scored more than 100 goals, making him one of the brightest stars of Palestinian football,” it said.

Born in Gaza on 24 March 1984, Obeid began his footballing career with Khadamat al-Shati, later playing for Markaz Shabab al-Am’ari in the occupied West Bank, and Gaza Sport. A fixture in the Palestinian national side after his debut in 2007, Obeid gained 24 caps and scored twice, the PFA said, most memorably with a scissor-kick against Yemen during the 2010 West Asian Football Federation championship.

His talent on the pitch earned him the nickname of “the Palestinian Pelé” – a nod to the legendary Brazilian widely hailed as one of the greatest players of all time.

His death adds to a growing toll of athletes lost in Gaza since the war began, with at least 662 sportspeople and their relatives reported to have been killed.

“The number of footballers killed or who died from starvation has reached 421, including 103 children,” the PFA said.

Obeid is survived by his wife and five children.

According to the PFA, 288 sports facilities have been damaged or reduced to rubble across Gaza and the West Bank, from stadiums and training grounds to gyms and clubhouses. The vast majority, 268, were in Gaza, while 20 were in the West Bank, with about half serving football directly.

Among the sites hit was the PFA’s headquarters in Gaza, struck during an Israeli air raid.

[jon1959]

Re: 40 Killed In Hamas Attacks In Israel

Taken a while for the MSM to find this story and decide to run it.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/aug/07/uks-surveillance-flights-over-gaza-raise-questions-on-help-for-israeli-military

[the other bob wilson]

Re: 40 Killed In Hamas Attacks In Israel

Taken a while for the MSM to find this story and decide to run it.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics...raeli-military

Another example here.

https://x.com/kahlissee/status/1953791600917713249?s=61

[jon1959]

Re: 40 Killed In Hamas Attacks In Israel

JVL Introduction

This is a howl of outrage and passionate plea from Avrum Burg, former head of the Jewish Agency and speaker of the Israeli Knesset.

It is a call for Jews to take sides, to speak against the zealots, by appealing to the International Court of Justice:

“In our appeal, we shall declare: We will not allow the State of Israel, which systematically inflicts violence upon a civilian population, to speak in our name. We will not allow Judaism to be a cover for crimes. This is not a rejection of our people it is a defense of its soul. Not destruction but repair.”

https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/article/jews-rebel-now/?utm_source=mailpoet&utm_medium=email&utm_source_platform=mailpoet&utm_campaign=today-on-the-jvl-blog-newsletter-total-articles-for-you_1

[jon1959]

Re: 40 Killed In Hamas Attacks In Israel

JVL Introduction

This is Brant Rosen’s cautious welcome to the growing number of Jewish leaders who are speaking out against what is being done to Gaza. His concerns are less than that they are rather late to the struggle because coming late is better than not coming at all, but rather does the attention push Palestinians’ voices further into the background and what is the focus of their protest. As a Jewish organisation fighting for peace and justice for Palestinians, how to better raise Palestinian voices is a question for us all. However, a major issue is this failure to “join up the dots” and to put the blame only on this government in Israel as though the Nakba and Occupation under previous Israeli governments are somehow irrelevant and as if this barbarity is an aberration rather than a more extreme version of what has gone before.

It is good that it is becoming too much even for advocates for Israel but we note something similar to what Brant Rosen has observed in this approach from “Top Jewish Philanthropists” whose concern seems to be motivated by the damaging impact of the genocide on world Jewry more than the Palestinian people.

https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/article/more-jewish-leaders-are-speaking-out-on-gaza-but/?utm_source=mailpoet&utm_medium=email&utm_source_platform=mailpoet&utm_campaign=today-on-the-jvl-blog-newsletter-total-articles-for-you_1

[jon1959]

Re: 40 Killed In Hamas Attacks In Israel

What is it with senior American politicians called Mike?

In Trump's first term it was Mike Pence (Vice President) and Mike Pompeo (Secretary of State) - both evangelical Christians, Christian Zionists and uber supporters of ethnic cleansing to achieve 'biblical borders' for an expanded Israel (annexing Palestine and parts of surrounding countries).

In Trump's second term it is Mike Johnson (Speaker of the House) and Mike Huckabee (US Ambassador to Israel) doing the same and talking about 'real estate deals' between a god and his chosen people written in an old book!

Not sure Huckabee can decide whether he's working for Trump or Netanyahu, Smotrich and Ben-Gvir:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/08/huckabee-starmer-gaza-dresden

[the other bob wilson]

Re: 40 Killed In Hamas Attacks In Israel

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ceqyyrp3yq9o

[jon1959]

Re: 40 Killed In Hamas Attacks In Israel

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ceqyyrp3yq9o

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/12/gaza-israel-journalism-darkest-hour

As the world witnesses the horrors unfolding in Gaza, a related tragedy continues with chilling regularity: the systematic targeting and killing of journalists. Just as the Gaza journalistic community thought matters could not get any worse, Benjamin Netanyahu’s brutal occupying forces carried out yet another cold-blooded murder on Sunday, this time of the Al Jazeera journalists Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qraiqea, along with videographers Ibrahim Thaher, Mohammed Nofal and their colleagues. They were sheltering in a media tent near al-Shifa hospital, and were killed by a direct strike.

The Israeli war machine, accelerating its stated goal of occupying Gaza, showed no restraint in targeting journalists, in violation of international conventions. So far in this war it has killed 238 of us. The war on Gaza has become the deadliest conflict for journalists and media workers in living memory, with 2024 recording the highest number of journalists killed, the vast majority at the hands of Israeli forces. The systematic targeting and elimination of journalists is not merely a local or regional tragedy; it is a catastrophic breach of international norms regarding the protection of journalists in conflict zones, signalling a global collapse of the moral responsibility in safeguarding those who risk everything to shed light on the realities of war.

Gaza is not the only place where journalists are under siege. Threats, intimidation and murderous violence against journalists are on the rise. However, what differentiates Israeli crimes is the impunity with which the occupation forces murder journalists and the indifference shown by leaders of the so-called free world. What is especially shocking is when some media organisations repeat the Israeli regime’s false allegations against targeted journalists without verification.

By any measure, it is the most dangerous time to be a journalist in recent history. Reporters are threatened, harassed and killed merely for fulfilling their public duty of bearing witness and reporting the truth. Worldwide, the dangers faced by journalists in conflict zones have intensified. In 2023, a journalist or media worker was killed, on average, every four days. In 2024, this grim statistic worsened to once every three days, most of those by Israeli forces. The journalists in Gaza are not parachuted-in international correspondents but local journalists – those who know the land, the people and the stories best. These journalists are not just reporting on Gaza’s tragedy; they are living it.

This surge in violence against journalists is neither accidental nor isolated. It is part of a broader, deeply worrying trend: the systematic silencing of the media, often orchestrated by autocrats and regimes who seek to conceal their crimes in darkness. This should horrify us all. It is an assault not only on individual reporters but on the entire global public’s right to know, to understand the depth of human suffering, and to hold the powerful to account.

[jon1959]

Re: 40 Killed In Hamas Attacks In Israel

'Israel is wiping out the witnesses' - Editorial:

Anas al-Sharif knew that far from offering protection amid the slaughter in Gaza, his press credentials further endangered him. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) warned last month of acute danger to the 28-year-old’s life as the Israel Defense Forces stepped up online attacks on him. These were not merely smears, but a death threat in response to his coverage, the Al Jazeera reporter said. And now he is dead, one of five media workers killed in an airstrike on Sunday.

The CPJ says that more than 180 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed in almost two years of war – more than the number who have died globally in the previous three years. This does not merely reflect Gaza’s vast death toll – 61,599, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry and many more if independent experts are correct. Nor does it merely reflect the courage shown by reporters, photographers, camera operators and others in a war zone. The CPJ says 26 of the reporters were targeted.

Israeli officials have bragged of killing Mr Sharif, whom they have claimed was the head of a Hamas terrorist cell, planning rocket attacks against Israeli civilians. Mr Sharif and Al Jazeera had already denied this. It would surely be hard for such a prominent figure to combine reporting with command of such a unit. The documents offered up by Israel as evidence end two years before the war began, and were reportedly screen grabs of electronic spreadsheets, not independently verified.

Israeli officials have repeatedly offered wildly misleading and rapidly shifting accounts of events, including the killing of paramedics in Gaza this spring. In 2022, an IDF general reportedly told American officials within hours that one of its soldiers had probably shot dead the acclaimed Palestinian-American Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the occupied West Bank – but Israeli officials insisted publicly that Palestinian militants were to blame. No justification has even been attempted for the deaths of Mr Sharif’s colleagues.

Mr Sharif’s 90-year-old father was killed in an airstrike on their home in late 2023, after Israeli military officials called the journalist telling him to stop reporting and leave Gaza. Israeli claims that he was a Hamas fighter resurfaced last month after his emotional reporting on starvation went viral. He was killed as outrage mounted over Gaza’s famine and shortly after Israel announced its plan to launch a ground offensive in Gaza City, which would only deepen the catastrophe and is reportedly opposed by many in the military too. The deaths of the Al Jazeera team in the city ensure few are left to bear witness to what unfolds. International correspondents are unable to enter Gaza except on escorted military trips during which they cannot speak to Palestinians.

Sheltered by the US, Israel’s government appears unmoved as international public opinion turns against it and even staunch allies blench at the horrors of Gaza. The Al Jazeera killings have been widely and rightly condemned. The Reporters sans Frontières group has also urged the international criminal court to investigate the treatment of media workers.

“If these words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice,” Mr Sharif wrote in a posthumously published statement. Deliberately targeting journalists is a war crime: an assault not only on the person, but on truth itself. Yet it cannot disguise Israel’s other atrocities. Rather, it adds to the charge sheet against its leaders.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/12/the-guardian-view-on-anas-al-sharif-and-gazas-journalists-israel-is-wiping-out-the-witnesses

[jon1959]

Re: 40 Killed In Hamas Attacks In Israel

Mass murder of journalists in Gaza (and the West Bank), with indifference or collusion from Western governments and influential parts of the Western mass media (especially German and American):

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/13/german-media-outlets-israel-murder-journalists-gaza

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/13/israel-killing-gaza-journalists-anas-al-sharif