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Category: War

Inside the brutal siege of Jenin

Inside the brutal siege of Jenin

Mariam Barghouti reports: On Aug. 28, Israel launched “Operation Summer Camps,” the largest military invasion witnessed in the northern West Bank in over two decades. In Jenin, Israeli forces first moved into the city before imposing a full-blown siege on the refugee camp within hours; the army simultaneously carried out operations in Tubas, Nablus, Ramallah, and Tulkarem. Since 2021, the Israeli military has repeatedly targeted Jenin refugee camp under the pretext of fighting armed resistance groups. Most of the victims…

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Israeli negotiator Gershon Baskin: ‘Let it be clear that Netanyahu has sentenced the hostages to death’

Israeli negotiator Gershon Baskin: ‘Let it be clear that Netanyahu has sentenced the hostages to death’

  As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects growing domestic and international calls to accept a Gaza ceasefire deal, we go to Jerusalem to speak to Gershon Baskin of the human rights advocacy group International Communities Organization. Baskin has spent years as a back-channel Israeli negotiator with Hamas in ceasefire deals, including throughout Israel’s current war on Gaza. “It’s very clear that Netanyahu doesn’t want to end the war,” says Baskin, who calls for all remaining stakeholders, including Hamas, the…

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Israel destroyed 70% of Jenin’s streets, infrastructure, says municipality

Israel destroyed 70% of Jenin’s streets, infrastructure, says municipality

Anadolu Agency reports: The Israeli army destroyed about 70% of the streets and infrastructure in Jenin city in the northern West Bank during its ongoing military offensive for the fourth consecutive day, the local municipality said on Saturday. “The occupying (Israeli) forces have demolished more than 70% of the city’s streets completely (…) to a depth of approximately one to one-and-half meters, which has led to the destruction of water and sewage networks, as well as communication and electricity cables,…

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Official says Netanyahu’s press briefing ‘torpedoed’ hostage deal efforts

Official says Netanyahu’s press briefing ‘torpedoed’ hostage deal efforts

CNN reports: Following the news of the killing of the six hostages in Gaza, officials involved in the mediation of the ceasefire talks have been on the phone discussing ways to push the ceasefire and hostage deal forward, a source familiar with the discussions told CNN. But then Netanyahu gave his press conference Monday evening, arguing that Israel will never leave the Philadelphi corridor, “and this guy torpedoed everything in one speech,” the source said in an initial reaction. Mossad…

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‘This is also America’s war’: Why the U.S. isn’t stopping Israel’s Gaza onslaught

‘This is also America’s war’: Why the U.S. isn’t stopping Israel’s Gaza onslaught

Meron Rapoport interviews Daniel Levy: In the wake of Hamas’ October 7 massacres, U.S. President Joe Biden traveled to Israel for a solidarity visit. But a few days before he arrived, as the war effort intensified, he issued a blunt warning: “I made it clear to the Israelis I think it’s a big mistake for them to think they’re going to occupy Gaza and maintain Gaza,” he told reporters. Since then, Biden has reiterated that Israel must prevent a humanitarian crisis…

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UK suspends 30 arms export licences to Israel after review

UK suspends 30 arms export licences to Israel after review

The Guardian reports: The UK has moved to immediately suspend 30 arms export licences to Israel after a review by the new Labour government found a “clear risk” that UK arms may be used in serious violation of humanitarian law relating to the treatment of Palestinian detainees and the supply of aid to Gaza. The suspension will cover components for military aircraft including fighter aircraft, helicopters and drones. The Foreign Office said the two-month review had raised concerns about the…

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Hersh is gone, sacrificed on the altar of Israel’s ‘total victory’

Hersh is gone, sacrificed on the altar of Israel’s ‘total victory’

Orly Noy writes: It has been 11 months since death arrived on our doorstep — first as an unwanted guest and now, it seems, as a permanent squatter who refuses to leave. Its presence is so intimate yet ethereal. The number of Palestinians that Israel has killed in its Holocaust in Gaza makes it difficult to digest the depth of the horror. How many images of dead Palestinian children can a person see before they all morph into one intangible…

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For Netanyahu, keeping the IDF in Gaza is more important than getting the hostages out

For Netanyahu, keeping the IDF in Gaza is more important than getting the hostages out

David Horovitz writes: Israel will have to battle Hamas for a long, long time to come, the security chiefs have argued. But time is running out for the hostages. And while the IDF has heavily degraded Hamas’s capabilities, the fact is that only eight hostages have been extricated alive from Gaza during almost 11 months of war. The weeklong truce last November, by contrast, saw the release of 105. Bringing home the maximal number of living hostages — from captors…

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I’m still hoping to vote for Kamala Harris

I’m still hoping to vote for Kamala Harris

Benjamin Moser writes: You’ll often hear that foreign policy is not a priority of Americans. That may be true of some foreign policy issues, but what most people on every side of this issue understand is that Israel-Palestine is not really foreign policy. We all know that this war is made in America: On Monday, Israel received its 500th shipment of bombs from the United States. We know how many billions of dollars in aid we send Israel, without the slightest restriction. We have…

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‘Israelis are frustrated, but do they want to stop the war? Not exactly’

‘Israelis are frustrated, but do they want to stop the war? Not exactly’

+972 Magazine reports: Nearly a year on from the deadliest attack in Israel’s history, the Israeli army continues to wage a devastating war in the Gaza Strip with no apparent end in sight. There is now abundant evidence that senior political and security figures failed to heed warnings in the lead-up to the Hamas-led October 7 attack, and the army has acknowledged that it was too slow to respond. Investigations have confirmed that senior commanders employed the infamous “Hannibal directive,” permitting Israeli forces to endanger the…

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‘Sowing the seeds for more hatred’ – UN’s top Gaza official speaks to Mehdi Hasan

‘Sowing the seeds for more hatred’ – UN’s top Gaza official speaks to Mehdi Hasan

  In this episode of “Mehdi Unfiltered,” a discussion about the threats facing Palestinians in Gaza in an exclusive interview with the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, Philippe Lazzarini. Mehdi also explores why U.S. news organizations can’t get their coverage of Donald Trump right in a conversation with author Wajahat Ali and James Fallows, former chief speechwriter to President Jimmy Carter. The episode also looks into the situation for women and minorities in Afghanistan with Ali…

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How U.S. universities are trying to muzzle pro-Palestine protests before they restart

How U.S. universities are trying to muzzle pro-Palestine protests before they restart

Middle East Eye reports: The academic semester has kicked off at many US universities this week, and schools are working in a myriad of ways to tamp out the pro-Palestinian and student-led demonstrations that roiled the country this past spring. As students make their way back to campus, familiarising themselves with class schedules and reconnecting with university life, administrations have been working – often in conjunction with the police – to weed out the possibility of a repeat of last…

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New HRW report: Palestinian healthcare workers chained, starved, sexually abused

New HRW report: Palestinian healthcare workers chained, starved, sexually abused

  We speak with Human Rights Watch researcher Milena Ansari about the organization’s new report detailing the torture of Palestinian medical workers in Israeli prisons. HRW spoke with eight doctors, paramedics and nurses who were picked up in Gaza before being transferred to the notorious Sde Teiman camp and other facilities, where they say they suffered beatings, starvation, humiliation, electric shocks and other forms of abuse. The men also describe threats of sexual violence during brutal interrogations and seeing another…

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Israeli settler: ‘I think colonialism gets a bad rap’

Israeli settler: ‘I think colonialism gets a bad rap’

  Violence has flared in the Occupied West Bank. At least five Palestinians, including two children, have been killed in an Israeli air strike on a refugee camp, and one Palestinian man was shot dead in an attack by Israeli settlers near Bethlehem. The West Bank has seen a surge in violence since the October 7 attacks. 607 Palestinians have been killed, largely in Israeli military raids, while attacks by settlers have displaced more than 1,500. In the same period,…

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More Americans want the U.S. to stay the course in Ukraine as long as it takes

More Americans want the U.S. to stay the course in Ukraine as long as it takes

Shibley Telhami writes: Just before the recent advance of Ukrainian forces into Russian territory, there were signs that Americans were becoming somewhat less confident about Ukraine’s prospects in the war with Russia. Add to this that the United States is in the middle of a heated election season where Republican politicians have been less supportive of backing Ukraine, one might have expected a drop in American public support for Kyiv. Yet, our new University of Maryland Critical Issues Poll with…

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In Gaza there are now so many orphans that no agency or aid group can count them

In Gaza there are now so many orphans that no agency or aid group can count them

The New York Times reports: The boys are aching to see their parents again. They are convinced it will happen as soon as they can go back to Gaza City, where they were growing up before the war bulldozed that life. “Baba and mama will be waiting for us there,” they say to their aunt Samar, who is taking care of the four of them, Mohammed, Mahmoud, Ahmed and Abdullah Akeila. They say this even though they were told their…

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