40 Killed In Hamas Attacks In Israel

A special unit in Israel’s military was tasked with identifying reporters it could smear as undercover Hamas fighters, to target them and to blunt international outrage over the killing of media workers, the Israeli-Palestinian outlet +972 Magazine reports.

The “legitimisation cell” was set up after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack to gather information that could bolster Israel’s image and shore up diplomatic and military support from key allies, the report said, citing three intelligence sources.

According to the report, in at least one case the unit misrepresented information in order to falsely describe a journalist as a militant, a designation that in Gaza is in effect a death sentence. The label was reversed before the man was attacked, one of the sources said.

Earlier this week, Israel killed the Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif and three colleagues in their makeshift newsroom, after claiming Sharif was a Hamas commander. The killings focused global attention on the extreme dangers faced by Palestinian journalists in Gaza and Israel’s efforts to manipulate media coverage of the war.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...-gaza-to-hamas

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...e-laura-loomer

The US state department announced on Saturday that it would stop issuing visas to children from Gaza in desperate need of medical care after an online pressure campaign from Laura Loomer, a far-right influencer close to Donald Trump who has described herself as “a proud Islamophobe”.

“All visitor visas for individuals from Gaza are being stopped while we conduct a full and thorough review of the process and procedures used to issue a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas in recent days,” the state department said in a message posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, from which Loomer was banned before it was purchased by Elon Musk.

In a pair of posts on the social network on Friday, Loomer had shared video of badly injured Palestinian children and their family members arriving in Houston and San Francisco this month, along with false claims that their shouts of joy were “jihadi chants” and that they were “doing the HAMAS terror whistle”.

Loomer also falsely claimed that she had “exclusively obtained” the two video clips she shared. One was copied from a medical aid charity’s public Instagram account and the other was from the Houston Chronicle’s YouTube channel.

After misrepresenting the children, including amputees arriving to get prosthetic legs, as “Islamic invaders from an Islamic terror hot zone”, Loomer demanded to know “who at the US State Department under @marcorubio signed off on the visas for Palestinians from a HAMAS hot zone”.

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The Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, a US-based charity, called on the Trump administration to “reverse this dangerous and inhumane decision.” Over the last 30 years the charity has evacuated thousands of Palestinian children to the US for medical care, it said in a statement.

“Medical evacuations are a lifeline for the children of Gaza who would otherwise face unimaginable suffering or death due to the collapse of medical infrastructure in Gaza.”

The Council on Islamic-American Relations said the block on visas was “the latest sign that the intentional cruelty of President Trump’s ‘Israel First’ administration knows no bounds” and added that it was “deeply ironic” that the Trump administration was meanwhile “rolling out the red carpet for racists and indicted war criminals from the Israeli government.”

“This ban is just the latest example of our government’s complicity with Israel’s genocide, which is increasingly rejected by the American people,” it continued.

The US state department announced on Saturday that it would stop issuing visas to children from Gaza in desperate need of medical care after an online pressure campaign from Laura Loomer, a far-right influencer close to Donald Trump who has described herself as “a proud Islamophobe”.

“All visitor visas for individuals from Gaza are being stopped while we conduct a full and thorough review of the process and procedures used to issue a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas in recent days,” the state department said in a message posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, from which Loomer was banned before it was purchased by Elon Musk.

In a pair of posts on the social network on Friday, Loomer had shared video of badly injured Palestinian children and their family members arriving in Houston and San Francisco this month, along with false claims that their shouts of joy were “jihadi chants” and that they were “doing the HAMAS terror whistle”.

Loomer also falsely claimed that she had “exclusively obtained” the two video clips she shared. One was copied from a medical aid charity’s public Instagram account and the other was from the Houston Chronicle’s YouTube channel.

After misrepresenting the children, including amputees arriving to get prosthetic legs, as “Islamic invaders from an Islamic terror hot zone”, Loomer demanded to know “who at the US State Department under @marcorubio signed off on the visas for Palestinians from a HAMAS hot zone”.

-

The Council on Islamic-American Relations said the block on visas was “the latest sign that the intentional cruelty of President Trump’s ‘Israel First’ administration knows no bounds” and added that it was “deeply ironic” that the Trump administration was meanwhile “rolling out the red carpet for racists and indicted war criminals from the Israeli government.”

“This ban is just the latest example of our government’s complicity with Israel’s genocide, which is increasingly rejected by the American people,” it continued.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...e-laura-loomer

Israeli media ‘completely ignored’ Gaza starvation – is that finally changing?

A growing focus on hunger in Gaza in the global media has led some Israeli outlets to report on it for the first time.

Images of Palestinian children in Gaza, emaciated by hunger under the blockade imposed by Israel, and of families grieving the more than 61,000 people killed in the territory have stirred outrage among foreign governments and much of the global public. Inside Israel, however, the reaction has been markedly different.

In a poll conducted in late July by the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), more than three-quarters of Jewish Israelis – 79% – said they were either “not very troubled” or “not troubled at all” by reports of famine and suffering among Gaza’s Palestinian population.

According to Anat Saragusti, an expert on the media, the reason is simple: most people in Israel are unaware of those reports because for months they have never seen them.

“Until a couple of weeks ago, you could count only a handful of reports from Gaza not filtered by the IDF,” said Saragusti, the head of freedom of the press at the Union of Journalists in Israel. Except for a few newspapers such as the leftwing Haaretz, she said, “all the other mainstream media completely ignored what’s going on on the Palestinian side – the human casualties there, the numbers of children killed in this war. The Israeli audience simply did not see that at all.”

In the past few weeks, the growing focus on the issue in the international media has led to some Israeli newspapers and TV channels reporting on hunger in Gaza for the first time, albeit as a debatable issue.

-

Saragusti said: “Despite images of emaciated children published by major newspapers around the world, Israel pushed back. And Israeli media outlets adopted the narrative set out by the Israeli leadership, insisting that there is no starvation in Gaza.”

Although Israel appears to exist within its own bubble, shielded by a narrative that leaves no room for the suffering of people in Gaza, thousands of demonstrators who recently filled the streets of Tel Aviv are now urging the government to halt the atrocities against the Palestinians.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...nally-changing

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce93y2dxlg4o

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...7-october-gaza

The Israeli general who headed military intelligence on 7 October 2023 has said 50 Palestinians must die for every person killed that day and “it does not matter now if they are children”, in recordings broadcast by Israel’s Channel 12 TV station.

Aharon Haliva said the toll in Gaza, which he put at more than 50,000 dead, was “necessary” as a “message to future generations” of Palestinians.

“They need a Nakba every now and then to feel the price,” he added, referring to the mass expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians from their homes and lands after the creation of Israel in 1948. Nakba means catastrophe in Arabic.

Much of Israel’s leadership and media has used genocidal rhetoric about Palestinians since Hamas’s 7 October attacks, including describing them as “human animals”, saying there are “no innocents” in Gaza and calling for Gaza’s total destruction and its ethnic cleansing.

However, Haliva’s description of a campaign of mass killing including children was an unusually direct description of collective punishment of civilians, which is illegal under international law.

Hopefully positive.

Hamas source says group agrees to latest Gaza ceasefire proposal

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgjye15zdlo

https://www.reuters.com/world/americ...sos-2025-08-20

WASHINGTON, Aug 20 (Reuters) - A 58% majority of Americans believe that every country in the United Nations should recognize Palestine as a nation, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll, as Israel and Hamas considered a possible truce in the nearly two-year-long war.

Some 33% of respondents did not agree that U.N. members should recognize a Palestinian state and 9% did not answer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui70R8PCkJ4

https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng...83-in-gaza-war

https://www.theguardian.com/law/2025...-for-palestine

An organisation of pro-Israel lawyers in the UK is under investigation after a complaint that it threatened people with legal action to suppress support for Palestine.

UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) has been accused of sending eight letters to individuals and organisations between January 2022 and May 2025 that “demonstrate a seeming pattern of vexatious and legally baseless correspondence aimed at silencing and intimidating Palestine solidarity efforts”, according to the complainants.

https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org...cles-for-you_1


JVL Introduction:

Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Territories, agrees that Palestine should be recognised but also that this must not distract the world from stopping the destruction of Gaza and its people. She believes more could be done and that the failure to recognise Palestine before now has contributed to the expansion of settlements breaking up the contiguity of Palestine ; indeed Bezalel Smotrich, possibly emboldened by the lack of real action against the genocide is now planning 3,000 new housing units in controversial West Bank settlement) and claims that Netanyahu and Trump have already agreed to this. Whether this expansion does or does not happen, it is part of a pattern that has only accelerated since October 7th, of pushing Palestinians out and treating the West Bank as though it is already Israel’s.

Albanese again calls for “complete Israeli withdrawal from occupied territory by the 17 September deadline set by the UN general assembly.” and states that: “Ending the question of Palestine in line with international law is possible and necessary: end the genocide today, end the permanent occupation this year, and end apartheid,”

Famine confirmed in Gaza City for first time, UN-backed report says:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/ckgj0yn3dzjt

The United Nations chief has described the famine confirmed in Gaza City and its surrounding areas as a "failure of humanity".

Antonio Gutteres said the situation was a "man-made disaster" after a UN-backed body, which identifies hunger levels around the world, raised its food insecurity status in parts of the territory to Phase 5 - the highest and most severe.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) says more than half a million people across Gaza are facing "catastrophic" conditions characterised by "starvation, destitution and death".



https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c05ed5rgld3o

Yet Israel tell us there’s no starvation in Gaza :shrug:

https://www.thecanary.co/global/worl...dmarsdn8syijsb

Israel’s ongoing occupation of the Palestinian territory has seen countless devastating human rights violations, but few are as pervasive and enduring as the widespread imprisonment of Palestinians.

In East Jerusalem and the West Bank, a region already marked by a long history of occupation and dispossession, the detention of Palestinians by Israeli authorities reflects a calculated strategy of control and intimidation, a tactic systematically used to suppress political activism, resistance, and dissent. As of 22 August 2025, 10,800 Palestinians – excluding those from Gaza who have been forcibly disappeared – remain in the Israeli occupation’s jails, a figure that represents an ongoing campaign of occupation and repression that profoundly affects Palestinian families and communities.

Since 1967, an estimated one million Palestinians have passed through Israeli occupation detention centres – equivalent to roughly 20% of the Palestinian population. The sheer volume underscores that imprisonment has been normalised as a key instrument of Israeli military and political policy.

-

The occupation enforces a system of apartheid against all Palestinians living under its effective control, and this includes the legal system. While Israeli citizens and the hundreds of thousands of illegal colonial Jewish settlers in the West Bank are subjected to Israeli civilian law, which is governed by an international humanitarian justice standard, this is not the case for Palestinians and their children, who have far fewer rights and protections.

Instead, they are subjected to more than 1,800 military orders, which govern nearly every aspect of their lives, and have been in place for almost 60 years. The occupation’s police and soldiers are there to enforce these orders, which are justified under the premise of ‘state security’ and act as a legal code, criminalizing activities deemed a threat to the occupation’s control, such as movement, political expression, association, and protests.

When Palestinians are arrested for violating a military order, they are prosecuted in a military court, which are exclusively run by military personnel and active duty soldiers, and have been criticised by international legal experts, the United Nations, and human rights organisations for lacking transparency and not providing fair trials.

These courts remain at the heart of the occupation’s regime of repression and control, and although international law states that civilians must never be brought before military courts, Israel persists in being the only country in the world that automatically and systematically prosecutes children in them.

General director of Defense for Children International -Palestine (DCIP) Khaled Quzmar has worked for more than thirty years as a defense lawyer, representing many child prisoners inside the Israeli military courts. He said that while Israeli civilian law is governed by an international humanitarian justice standard, Palestinians have no rights, and are also not guaranteed a fair trial:

According to the Israeli court statistics, and from my own experience as a lawyer, I can say that the conviction rate in a military court is around 99.9 percent.

War on Want works to end global poverty and challenges human rights abuses by corporations and governments. According to War on Want’s senior campaigner for Palestine Neil Sammonds, the UK is deeply complicit in Israel’s military court system. He said that:

'The UK government and UK-based corporations are supporting Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land – which underpins Israel’s unjust ‘need’ to lock up and abuse huge numbers of Palestinian people. The UK has also had, for decades, a close military, security, political and legal relationship with Israel, and senior members of the UK and Israeli legal systems have also had regular exchanges on learnings. Although there is clear evidence of Israel’s widespread, systematic torture and ill-treatment of Palestinians in its military court system, including the torture of children, our government has done next to nothing to stop Israel’s abuses. This country could use its considerable leverage to hold Israel to account for its unjust military court system – but it simply chooses not to.'

Legislative changes from November 2024 have lowered the age of criminal responsibility for those Palestinians under Israeli military law in the occupied West Bank to 12-years-old. This means Palestinian children aged 12 and above can be arrested, prosecuted, and imprisoned and, although strictly prohibited under international law, courts are now able to sentence Palestinian children as young as 12 to life in prison for crimes labeled as ‘terrorism’, even if committed as part of a protest or unrest.

UN experts have expressed alarm at these new measures. While Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem, are subject to Israeli civilian law, the minimum age of criminal responsibility is also 12 years old. The majority of children are arrested either because of stone throwing – which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years, or expressing support for Hamas, solidarity with Gaza, or inciting against the Israeli occupation by posting, sharing or interacting on social media.

According to Quzmar, it is common for children as young as six or seven to be arrested during a raid on a house in the middle of the night, and interrogated for hours by the Israeli military, before being released.

There are more than 3613 Palestinians, including women and children, being held in Israeli prisons under administrative detention, meaning they have been arrested and imprisonment without charge or trial, and also without any upper time limit.

The evidence against them is kept secret, with even their lawyers barred from seeing it. Because only the Israeli judge and Israeli prosecutor have access to the files, which are used to justify the continued detention, it is impossible for a defendant and their lawyer to mount a proper defense.

For this reason, this practice is considered a violation of international law but, according to Quzmar, about 40% of cases involve children being held under administrative detention.

Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem has described the Israeli prison system as “a network of torture camps”. It has never treated Palestinians well, but since October 2023, conditions for these detainees have deteriorated dramatically, reaching unprecedented and systematic levels of abuse and neglect. Under international law, this ill-treatment is not only fundamentally illegal but is also considered torture.

Not only has the occupation thrown a huge number of Palestinian citizens – including politicians, social media activists, journalists, and former released prisoners – into detention centres, but testimonies from released prisoners, along with numerous reports, detail systematic torture, severe beatings, humiliation, and mistreatment at the hands of Israeli military and prison officials. There have also been numerous deaths in custody attributed to torture and medical neglect.

-

In March, 17-year-old Walid Khalid Abdullah Ahmad collapsed and died in the yard of the prison in which he was incarcerated and, according to Defense for Children International – Palestine, his autopsy indicated that he had been systematically starved and abused for months until he finally collapsed, struck his head, and died.

The report, which was conducted in Tel Aviv, also states he suffered from “extreme, likely prolonged malnutrition”, and that he likely suffered from an inflamed colon, leading to frequent diarrhoea and severe dehydration. Walid had also been suffering from scabies – a dangerous skin disease if left untreated – since October, which he caught shortly after being admitted to the prison. And, in December, he had also reported head trauma and a severe lack of food available to detainees.

Walid was in good health when he was arrested at the end of September, 2024, and had wanted to play for the Palestinian national football team, but was unable to do so due to barriers enforced by the occupation – which now continues to prolong his family’s suffering, by refusing to hand over Walid’s body, and not even permitting them to see it.

-

In addition to the abuses mentioned in these briefings, there are also multiple credible reports and testimonies indicating serious sexual violence, including rape and brutal abuse, committed against Palestinian detainees in Israeli detention facilities such as Sde Teiman detention camp.

Marjorie Taylor Greene joins Bernie Sanders in urging US to end Gaza famine.

Breaking from most of her peers in Congress, far-right Georgia Republican has also described crisis as a genocide.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...rs-famine-gaza

She has been consistent on this for a while - and defied the Trump administration and the MAGA Christian Zionists.

But it still looks and sounds bizarre.

However, this is not AI - it is real.

At least 15 people, including four journalists working for the international media, are reported to have been killed in an Israeli strike on a hospital in the southern Gaza Strip.

A Reuters cameraman and an Associated Press journalist were among those killed in the attack at Nasser Hospital. Another journalist is reported to have worked for Al Jazeera.

Several people were killed in an initial strike, and others in a second which happened as rescuers attended the scene, the Hamas-run Civil Defence said.

The Israeli military and the prime minister's office said they had no immediate comment.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp89rp48246o

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...-army-war-gaza

Opposition to the starvation campaign and the new assault on Gaza City is growing – and so is support for military ‘refusers’.

As Israel pushes ahead with its expanded military offensive in Gaza to devastating effect, closer to home, dissent is growing. On Saturday, thousands of people gathered in Habima Square in central Tel Aviv to demand an end to the war – one of the largest rallies since the fighting broke out. Israeli police revoked a prior permit for a march through the city, in a clear attempt to silence our voices of opposition – but we refused to let them succeed. It had been 24 hours since the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) declared a famine in Gaza and revealed the horrors of Israel’s full-scale starvation campaign. Many Israelis felt it was our duty to rally in the streets.

-

A recent poll published in Haaretz showed a striking increase in public support for those refusing to be drafted – about 33% of Jewish Israelis believe it is not only justified, but necessary, to save the hostages from the dangers of the military campaign in Gaza City. Motives for refusal range from resisting the genocide, moral objections to participating in war crimes, political opposition to the occupation at large and concern that military action endangers the hostages to disapproval of the ultra-Orthodox community’s exemption from service.

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United by the basic notion of humanity, thousands of Arabs and Jews joined one another on Saturday to protest against the starvation, slaughter and carnage. Protesters held up pictures of the starved and bombed children of Gaza, knowing that the culprit responsible for their torment is still in power. We urged the release of all hostages and unlawful captives – Israelis and Palestinians alike – in a political agreement that would see the Israeli government pulling all military forces out of Gaza.

But in the wake of news of another round of bombardments in Gaza, our message from the rally is best understood from the banner: “Never again”. Never again will we allow silence to prevail in the face of slaughtered children and starved families. Never again will we look on quietly as Netanyahu orders the destruction of neighbourhoods and the invasion of hospitals. Never again will we let his government refuse an agreement that will release the hostages. Never again will the Gaza genocide unfold quietly.

As the descendant of a Jewish family from Poland, the words “never again” have significant meaning for me. In the aftermath of the second world war, humankind vowed to never again allow such atrocities to occur. The Holocaust, the mass extermination of the Jewish people, plumbed the very depths of tyrannical evil. Precisely because of this heritage, I view “never again” as a universal imperative.

-

Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me, as the saying goes. It seems that Netanyahu manages to fool western leaders time and time again. On Friday, in response to the IPC declaration of famine, the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, said it was an “utterly horrifying and wholly preventable man-made catastrophe”. May I ask Lammy and the rest of the British cabinet – are you among the people responsible for this catastrophe? In July, the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, announced a conditional plan to recognise a Palestinian state if Israel did not change course.

Starving people who are under constant threat of bombardment do not enjoy the same patience as suited officials in marble offices. They plead for food, water and air while politicians debate conditions and timing.

Starmer must immediately recognise Palestine unconditionally, but he must recognise much more than that. He must acknowledge Netanyahu as the international war criminal that he is. He must support new sanctions to tackle the settler movement, including ministers such as Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. He must recognise that Netanyahu and his government are the main obstacle to releasing the hostages. He must recognise the people of Gaza as victims of a continuing genocide, and act accordingly. Or he will remain complicit in this devastating, human-made catastrophe.

Dr Ofer Cassif is a member of the Knesset, representing the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (Hadash) since 2019.

GAZA: At least 20 Palestinians, including five journalists and four medical personnel, were killed and some 50 wounded after the IDF struck Khan Younis' Nasser Hospital, the last functioning hospital in southern Gaza, the Hamas-run Health Ministry reported. The ministry said the IDF's first strike targeted the fourth floor of the hospital, while the second one struck medical aid teams who came to treat the wounded.

The IDF stated that ground forces fired a tank shell at the hospital because they thought a camera on site was being operated by Hamas to observe Israeli troops. The forces then fired another shell to ensure the camera was hit, which the IDF estimated hit the medical personnel who tried to treat those wounded from the first shelling. IDF Chief of Staff Zamir has ordered an initial inquiry "as soon as possible."

The IDF said it "regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and does not target journalists as such," and added that it acts to "mitigate harm to uninvolved individuals as much as possible while maintaining the safety of IDF troops."

Senior military officials who spoke to Haaretz dispute this version of events, adding that the area is full of cameras, and that it is unclear why the force decided to attack this specific camera. "It's unclear who gave the order to fire at a hospital over a camera," a military source told Haaretz, adding that the IDF considers Nasser Hospital a sensitive facility whose targeting requires approval from a senior officer. "This could have been done in a much more precise way," the source said.

Reuters said it was "devastated" by the killing of its cameraman Hussam al-Masr in the strike, confirming also that Moaz Abu Taha, a freelance journalist occasionally published by Reuters, was also killed, as were Al-Quds News' Ahmed Abu Aziz, Al Jazeera's Mohamed Salameh and photographer Mariam Dagga, a freelancer for The Associated Press during the war. AP said it was "shocked and saddened" by her death.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X that "while people in Gaza are being starved, their already limited access to health care is being further crippled by repeated attacks. We cannot say it loudly enough: STOP attacks on health care. Cease-fire now!" Doctors Without Borders' emergency coordinator in Gaza Jerome Grimaud wrote on X that "as Israel continues to shun international law, the only witnesses of their genocidal campaign are deliberately being targeted. It must stop now."

The Foreign Press Association, Reporters Without Borders and other associations representing journalists worldwide issued statements "fiercely condemning" the Israeli strike. Reporters Without Borders Director General Thibaut Bruttin asked "how far will the Israeli armed forces go in their gradual effort to eliminate information coming from Gaza? How long will they continue to defy international humanitarian law?" U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy said he was "horrified" by the strike on the hospital.

https://us18.campaign-archive.com/?e...&id=b178c1ebd7

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...el-allegations

The world’s largest wealth fund has excluded Caterpillar, the construction equipment manufacturer, over Israel’s use of its bulldozers to destroy Palestinian property in Gaza and the West Bank.

Norway’s $2tn (£1.5tn) fund said on Monday it had excluded Caterpillar and five Israeli banking groups on ethics grounds.

While the fund has already excluded more than 20 Israeli companies this year, Caterpillar is the first big US company to be removed through the wealth fund’s ongoing review to ensure its investments do not contribute to violations of international law.

“There is no doubt that Caterpillar’s products are being used to commit extensive and systematic violations of international humanitarian law,” said the fund’s independent council on ethics.

It added that the machinery was “being used by Israeli authorities in the widespread unlawful destruction of Palestinian property”.

The violations were taking place in Gaza and the West Bank, the council said, adding that “the company has also not implemented any measures to pre*vent such use”.

https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org...e-gaza-starves

JVL Introduction:

Tom London provides a useful commentary on the latest UN Report which is a formal declaration of famine in Gaza.

David Lammy responded to the Report saying:

“The confirmation of famine in Gaza City and the surrounding neighbourhood is utterly horrifying and is wholly preventable.

“The Israeli government’s refusal to allow sufficient aid into Gaza has caused this man-made catastrophe. This is a moral outrage.”

And what is to be done?

“We urge the Israeli government to change course and halt its plans.”

There is no effort to persuade Israel that the UK is serious: essential arms supplies and dual use exports to Israel continue merrily, trade is uninterrupted, Israeli criminals – ministers, government officials, military commanders, and violent settlers complicit in the genocide – remain unscathed.

The cynicism of the Starmer government is beyond belief.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00XvgFbZhDo

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...on-many-fronts

Israel’s twin strike on the Nasser hospital in Gaza, which killed five journalists including staff working for the Associated Press, Reuters, NBC and Al Jazeera, is a potential violation of international law writ large.

The attack targeted a civilian building, specifically a hospital, in a reckless double-tap strike that killed civilians, with rescue workers and journalists among them. All categories that should be protected under international law.

While the Israel Defense Forces, which have killed about 200 journalists already in the Gaza war, immediately attempted to suggest the killing of civilians had been in error, the reality is that it appears to be policy and not a mistake.

What is striking about this incident is that each individual element – the targeting of a working hospital, of journalists and rescue workers, of civilian injured already under treatment – would be expected to draw accusations of a war crime in its own right.

Taken together it points to something far darker, a “horrific” incident in the words of the British foreign secretary, David Lammy.

Another email today from my MP - similar in content and tone to previous ones.

It shows the gulf that exists between some backbenchers and Starmer (and the group around and behind him):

I am writing to you as you have recently contacted me about Gaza. I share the despair and horror that has been expressed by so many in our community, particularly those of us who have friends and family members in Gaza and the West Bank. I wholeheartedly believe that it is a responsibility I hold as an elected parliamentarian to exert pressure from all possible avenues to bring this devastation to an end, and one I take very seriously.

The Israeli military and Israeli government have caused the forced displacement, mass starvation, and relentless bombing of Gaza’s entire population. It is abominable that famine has now been declared when so many aid trucks sit at the border waiting to be let in. As you will know, in January 2024 the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel is plausibly committing genocide in Gaza. Since then, actions on the ground have escalated and brought unimaginable devastation to the Palestinian people, with numerous organisations such Medecins Sans Frontieres condemning it as a genocide.

As you may know from my previous correspondence, this is an issue I have raised in Parliament on numerous occasions, including Israel’s targeted killing of healthcare workers, the urgent need for aid to enter Gaza, and lobbying the Government to introduce a family reunion scheme similar to the scheme for families from Ukraine.

I have joined colleagues in writing to the Foreign Secretary to highlight the role of F-35s in the destruction of Gaza, repeatedly urged the Foreign Secretary to halt all arms sales to Israel and echoed calls to ensure we are not complicit in Israel’s actions. I have also joined colleagues in writing to the Prime Minister to urge the UK to recognise Palestine as an independent state.

I welcome the Government’s suspension of trade talks with Israel and the sanctioning of Israeli settlers involved in violence, as well as the Prime Minister’s joint statement with other world leaders condemning Israel’s actions and calling for a ceasefire. It remains my opinion that we must go further; impose sanctions on Israeli ministers, enact a full arms embargo, and move desperately needed aid into the region.

Please be assured that I will continue to advocate for a just and lasting peace in Israel and Palestine, and for the British government to use all diplomatic and political means at its disposal to help achieve it. I continue to believe that a just and lasting peace must uphold the equal rights, dignity, and security of Palestinians and Israelis. Such a peace cannot be achieved without an immediate and permanent ceasefire, the release of all hostages held by Hamas, and the release of Palestinian political prisoners held without charge or trial under Israel’s policy of administrative detention. Accountability for violations of international law must apply, and there must be a renewed commitment to diplomacy, human rights, and justice. Only through an end to the occupation, the dismantling of apartheid structures, and the recognition of our shared humanity can we build a future in which both peoples live in freedom and safety.

Thank you once again for taking the time to write to me.

Kind regards,
Olivia Blake MP

I’ve received similar responses from my MP too - Catherine Fookes.

https://www.thecanary.co/trending/20...dmarsdn8syijsb

Leyla Hamed @leylahamed

Roger Wade, founder of @Boxfresh, has been banned from Brighton & Hove Albion for 5 games for wearing a Palestine football kit.

A ST holder for 10 years, he was pulled out mid-game with no explanation. Instead of dialogue, the club sent him a ban letter.

-

Back in October, many of us reported to Brighton, @FA, and @kickitout that former footballer & academy mentor Tomer Hemed was inciting violence against Palestinians online, even posting photos with soldiers in the midst of the genocide.

“Human animals are not human!!! Monsters ! Let them die a death of suffering!”

This is what Tomer Hemed, former Israeli footballer & current Brighton Academy mentor had to say about Palestinians facing a genocide. No action was taken.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jon1959

https://www.thecanary.co/trending/20...dmarsdn8syijsb

Leyla Hamed @leylahamed

Roger Wade, founder of @Boxfresh, has been banned from Brighton & Hove Albion for 5 games for wearing a Palestine football kit.

A ST holder for 10 years, he was pulled out mid-game with no explanation. Instead of dialogue, the club sent him a ban letter.

-

Back in October, many of us reported to Brighton, @FA, and @kickitout that former footballer & academy mentor Tomer Hemed was inciting violence against Palestinians online, even posting photos with soldiers in the midst of the genocide.

“Human animals are not human!!! Monsters ! Let them die a death of suffering!”

This is what Tomer Hemed, former Israeli footballer & current Brighton Academy mentor had to say about Palestinians facing a genocide. No action was taken.

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Oh of course Brighton is owned by Jews so no surprise here. The question is shouldn't football authorities have the power to censure the club and reverse this troubling whim?

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Originally Posted by Dorcus

Oh of course Brighton is owned by Jews so no surprise here. The question is shouldn't football authorities have the power to censure the club and reverse this troubling whim?

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I don't agree it has anything to do with Tony Bloom's religion or heritage.

I do think it has a lot (everything?) to do with his advocacy of Israel, its ideology and his apparent willingness (through club employees) to shut down defenders of Palestine and Palestinians.... and excuse apologists and advocates for war crimes!

I know many anti Zionist Jewish people who wear Palestine and Palestinian shirts - and other symbols or emblems - who would be treated the same way as Roger Wade.

I used to like Tony Bloom for his performances on Friday Night Poker and for the way he ran and developed Brighton as a football club. That admiration is very tarnished now.

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Originally Posted by jon1959

I don't agree it has anything to do with Tony Bloom's religion or heritage.

I do think it has a lot (everything?) to do with his advocacy of Israel, its ideology and his apparent willingness (through club employees) to shut down defenders of Palestine and Palestinians.... and excuse apologists and advocates for war crimes!

I know many anti Zionist Jewish people who wear Palestine and Palestinian shirts - and other symbols or emblems - who would be treated the same way as Roger Wade.

I used to like Tony Bloom for his performances on Friday Night Poker and for the way he ran and developed Brighton as a football club. That admiration is very tarnished now.

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Ok fair point well made 👍 I made the mistake of not being sufficiently selective in my critique.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjdym32z9v7o

The US says it will deny or revoke visas for Palestinian officials wishing to travel to New York next month to attend the UN General Assembly session.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio blamed them for undermining peace efforts and for seeking "the unilateral recognition of a conjectural Palestinian state".

The decision is unusual - the US, as host country, is expected to facilitate travel for officials of all countries wishing to visit the UN headquarters.

The ban comes as France spearheads international efforts to recognise a state of Palestine at the GA session. Donald Trump's administration has fully backed Israel in voicing opposition to such a move.


The USA and Israel - two cheeks of the same arse!

https://www.thecanary.co/global/worl...dmarsdn8syijsb

In a special session of the UN Security Council, the 15 members, with the exception of the United States, called for an immediate end to the worsening famine in the Gaza Strip, a halt to the war, and a reversal of Israel’s plan to expand its military operations within the Strip.

In a joint statement issued on Wednesday evening, 14 countries expressed “deep concern” about the humanitarian situation, stressing that the famine officially declared by the United Nations in the Gaza Strip is not a natural disaster but a “man-made crisis.” The countries condemned “the use of starvation as a weapon of war,” considering it a clear violation of international humanitarian law.

The statement stressed the need for an immediate, permanent, and unconditional ceasefire, the release of all prisoners, and the urgent flow of humanitarian aid. It also called on Israel to lift all restrictions on the entry of aid and to reverse its military decision to take control of Gaza City.

In contrast, the United States was the only country that refused to join the statement, with its ambassador to the United Nations, Dorothy Shea, rejecting what she described as “the lie of starvation policy” and criticizing the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification report, claiming that it “failed the test.”

Last Friday, the UN report confirmed that famine has become a reality in the Gaza Strip, affecting more than half a million people, with warnings that it could spread to Deir al-Balah and Khan Yunis in the coming weeks.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...val-suspension

The United States has suspended visa approvals for nearly everyone who holds a Palestinian passport, the New York Times reported on Sunday.

The restrictions go beyond those Donald Trump’s administration had previously announced on visitors from Gaza. They would prevent Palestinians from traveling to the United States for medical treatment, attending college and business travel, the newspaper reported, citing unidentified officials.

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Originally Posted by jon1959

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...val-suspension

The United States has suspended visa approvals for nearly everyone who holds a Palestinian passport, the New York Times reported on Sunday.

The restrictions go beyond those Donald Trump’s administration had previously announced on visitors from Gaza. They would prevent Palestinians from traveling to the United States for medical treatment, attending college and business travel, the newspaper reported, citing unidentified officials.

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This is because the sleep paralysis demon Laura Loomer threw a tantrum about Palestinian child amputees getting medical care by the way.

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Originally Posted by Coyote

This is because the sleep paralysis demon Laura Loomer threw a tantrum about Palestinian child amputees getting medical care by the way.

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Correct 👍

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...hnic-cleansing

A plan circulating in the White House to develop the “Gaza Riviera” as a string of high-tech megacities has been dismissed as an “insane” attempt to provide cover for the large-scale ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian territory’s population.

The Washington Post published on Sunday a leaked prospectus for the plan, which would see the forced displacement of Gaza’s entire population of 2 million people, and put the territory into a US trusteeship for at least a decade.

Named the Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation Trust – or GREAT – the proposal was reportedly developed by some of the same Israelis who created and set in motion the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) with financial planning contributed by Boston Consulting Group.

Most controversially, the 38-page plan suggests what it calls “temporary relocation of all of Gaza’s more than 2 million population” – a proposal that would amount to ethnic cleansing, potentially a genocidal act.

Tony Blair's Institute for Global Change also contributed to the plan (above).

At least nine people, including five children, have been killed in an Israeli strike while fetching water in al-Mawasi, an area of southern Gaza which Israel has designated as a safe zone, health officials said.

A doctor from al-Nasser hospital shared a picture of the children’s bodies in the hospital, as well as a picture of water jugs left in a pool of blood at the site of the attack on Tuesday.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...israeli-strike

Given that Villa supposedly have a home draw against Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Europa League, they would be insane to have it in Birmingham after the incident in Amsterdam last year. So do they host it in Hungary again and punish Villa by being unable to play in front of their home stadium fans?

I think Villa fans should mass protest Tel Aviv's inclusion in the tournament, they'd get a lot of support from other clubs on this front.

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Originally Posted by Coyote

Given that Villa supposedly have a home draw against Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Europa League, they would be insane to have it in Birmingham after the incident in Amsterdam last year. So do they host it in Hungary again and punish Villa by being unable to play in front of their home stadium fans?

I think Villa fans should mass protest Tel Aviv's inclusion in the tournament, they'd get a lot of support from other clubs on this front.

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👍