Israeli military announces daily 'tactical pause' in southern Gaza to allow in aid
Source: The Guardian
Sun 16 Jun 2024 00.50 EDT
Last modified on Sun 16 Jun 2024 04.38 EDT
The Israeli army has said it will observe a limited daily “tactical pause” along one of the main roads in the Gaza Strip to allow delivery of increased quantities of humanitarian aid, as UN agencies have suspended deliveries from a US-built pier. The Israel Defense Forces, however, added that the pause should not be seen as a “cessation of hostilities in the southern Gaza Strip”.
The announcement was made as the IDF disclosed the death of three more soldiers on Saturday, bringing the total to 11, including eight killed in an attack on their armoured personnel carrier in the southern city of Rafah.
The tactical pause, which was declared as Muslims around the world began the important religious festival of Eid Al-Adha, comes amid fresh focus on the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza after eight months of war. The limited pause followed talks with Egypt and pressure from the US to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
The IDF said the pause would begin in the Rafah area at 8am and remain in effect until 7pm along the main Salah al-Din road, to allow aid trucks to transit between the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel, adding the pause would take place every day until further notice. It said the pause was being coordinated with the UN and international aid agencies.
IDF transfers powers in occupied West Bank to pro-settler civil servants
Thu 20 Jun 2024 15.32 BST
The Israeli military has quietly handed over significant legal powers in the occupied West Bank to pro-settler civil servants working for the far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich.
An order posted by the Israel Defense Forces on its website on 29 May transfers responsibility for dozens of bylaws at the Civil Administration – the Israeli body governing in the West Bank – from the military to officials led by Smotrich at the defence ministry.
Smotrich and his allies have long seen control of the Civil Administration, or significant parts of it, as a means of extending Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank. Their ultimate goal is direct control by central government and its ministries. The transfer reduces the likelihood of legal checks on settlement expansion and development.
Israeli politicians have long sought to find ways to permanently seize, or annex, the occupied West Bank, which it captured in 1967 and where millions of Palestinians live.
Michael Sfard, an Israeli human rights lawyer, said: “The bottom line is that [for] anyone who thought the question of annexation was foggy, this order should end any doubts. What this order does is transfers vast areas of administrative power from the military commander to Israeli civilians working for the government.”
The article cited below primarily concerns the current conflict in Gaza. Still, it has definite free speech implications that go way beyond that current conflict.
Why Bias Against Pro-Palestinian Protesters Matters for Everyone by Nejab Aminy
June 21, 2024
Introduction:
(Mother Jones) On Thursday, committees at Stanford University published two reports on the campus climate following October 7. The publication comes just days after hundreds of pro-Palestinian students walked out in protest of the official graduation ceremony. The new reports, created by separate committees, are complex. Broadly, they delve into antisemitism and bias against Muslims, Arabs, and Palestinians at the California university amid mass protests. But their lessons go far beyond the college campus.
Activists at Stanford were some of the first in the nation to set up a tent encampment protest, calling for an immediate ceasefire on October 20. Students and community members seeking to create a platform for pro-Israel student voices set up a corresponding encampment—called a “blue and white tent”—on November 13. The encampment calling for a ceasefire was among the longest-established student encampments, lasting more than 120 days. In early June, pro-Palestinian students occupied the president’s office on Stanford’s campus. Thirteen people were arrested.
The two dueling encampments are an example of yet another reckoning on a college campus—albeit an elite, private one with one of the largest endowments in the country—over student protests after Hamas’ attack and Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza.
In mid-November, Stanford University convened a select number of students, alumni, and professors to create a Subcommittee on Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias, as well as a Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian (MAP) Communities Committee.
President Biden is close to negotiating a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, if anyone's interested
Biden speaks with Netanyahu as Israel and Hamas move closer to cease-fire
The talks comes as negotiations had stalled over the last few months between Israel and Hamas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Joe Biden spoke on the phone Thursday and reviewed a Wednesday response from the Palestinian militant group Hamas to the latest Israeli peace proposal, according to a senior administration official who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.
The official told reporters that Hamas has moved closer toward accepting a multi-phase ceasefire deal with Israel that over time aims to see hostages released, fighting stopped and rebuilding begin in the territory.
The official acknowledged that the response “does not mean this deal is going to be closed in a period of days,” but added that outstanding issues for a final agreement mostly center on implementation. They also said that the White House believes “there’s a pretty significant opening here.”
...the White House signaled earlier this month that the two sides were closer than ever to reaching a cease-fire deal that would end hostilities in the Gaza Strip and lead to the release of the remaining hostages. On June 26, a senior administration official told reporters that “we’re close to a deal” and that talks were “down to specific paragraphs.”
Labour expected to drop challenge to ICC over Netanyahu arrest warrant
Mon 8 Jul 2024 07.00 BST
The new Labour government is expected to drop a bid to delay the international criminal court (ICC) reaching a decision on whether to issue an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu over alleged war crimes in Gaza.
The development came as Keir Starmer, the new UK prime minister, told the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, that he believed the Palestinians had an undeniable right to a Palestinian state. Starmer spoke to Abbas on Sunday about the “ongoing suffering and devastating loss of life” in Gaza.
He also spoke to Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, setting out the “clear and urgent” need for a ceasefire in Gaza. “He added that it was also important to ensure the long-term conditions for a two-state solution were in place, including ensuring the Palestinian Authority had the financial means to operate effectively,” a readout of the call said.
Starmer said the situation on the northern border of Israel, where exchanges of fire with Lebanon-based Hezbollah have been taking place, was “very concerning” and it was “crucial all parties acted with caution”.
Labour officials briefed that the party continued to believe that the ICC, based in The Hague, had jurisdiction over Gaza. In a submission to the ICC, made by the previous government, the UK had claimed the court did not have jurisdiction over Israeli nationals. Britain’s request to lodge the challenge was made on 10 June in secret but was revealed a fortnight ago by the ICC.
UN top court to give opinion on Israeli occupation
3 hours ago
The UN's top court is set to issue a landmark opinion on the legal consequences of Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ), based at The Hague in the Netherlands, has been examining the issue since the beginning of last year, at the request of the UN General Assembly, external.
The court was specifically asked to give its view on Israel's policies and practices towards the Palestinians, and on the legal status of the occupation. Depending on its finding, it could mark the first time the ICJ has delivered a position on whether the 57-year occupation is illegal.
In this case, the court will issue an advisory opinion, which is not legally binding but will still carry significant political weight.
Israel occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East war. It withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005, retaining control over its airspace, shared border and shoreline. Despite the pullout, the UN still considers Gaza as part of the occupied territories.
wjfox wrote: ↑Fri Jul 26, 2024 4:35 pm
The UK just confirmed it will retract a previous objection to ICC arrest warrants against Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant:
Under Israeli law, UNRWA is about to become a terrorist organisation
27 Jul 2024
Since it launched its genocidal war against the Palestinian people, Israel has crossed many red lines.
Neither the provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the supreme judicial organ of the United Nations, to stop its “plausible” genocide in Gaza, nor the damning advisory opinion of the same court ordering it to end its illegal occupation of Palestine and apartheid policies against the Palestinians gave Israel pause. The request of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) that arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Nethanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant be issued did not have much effect on its conduct either. In fact, not even the gathering criticisms of some of its allies is making Israel rethink its murderous apartheid and genocidal policies.
And now, Israel is crossing yet another red line by defying the entire international community of nations – the United Nations itself. On July 22, the Israeli legislature, the Knesset, gave preliminary approval to a bill declaring the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) a “terrorist organisation”.
This latest move follows last January’s stunt – which worked, at least initially – where Israel accused 12 UNRWA workers of having participated in the October 7 attack by Hamas and other Palestinian groups against it and alleged widespread collusion between the UN agency and Hamas.
The UNRWA High Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres responded to the accusation by hastily and credulously firing all UN staff members named by Israel on the basis of allegation made without any evidence. The decision seemingly encouraged some Western donors to suspend their funding of the humanitarian agency employing some 30,000 staff and mandated by the General Assembly to provide essential services to millions of Palestinian refugees.
Israel's military has struck a school near Deir al-Balah, a city in central Gaza, killing at least 30 Palestinians and injuring more than 100, according to the Hamas-run ministry of health.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Telegram that a Hamas command and control centre was embedded inside the Khadija School.
The IDF added that Hamas used the compound as a hiding place to direct and plan attacks and store weapons.
Gaza’s health ministry said footage showed the victims were civilians and most of them were children. The BBC verified a video that shows children among the injured.
Gaza's civil defence service said the school was sheltering displaced people. Hamas condemned the attack in a statement on Telegram, saying "displaced, sick and wounded people, most of whom were women and children" were killed.
Ten dead in rocket attack on Israeli-occupied Golan
27 July 2024, 18:14 BST
Ten teenagers and young adults have been killed and dozens injured after an attack which hit a football pitch in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, according to Israeli emergency services.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said a rocket fell on the Majdal Shams area of the territory.
The strike was the deadliest in the region since cross-border exchanges between Israel's military and Hezbollah escalated when the Israel-Hamas war began in October.
The IDF blamed Hezbollah for the attack but Hezbollah spokesman Mohamad Afif denied “any relation to the Majdal Shams incident".
"All accusations [of the group’s involvement] are false”.
Lebanon fears dangerous new phase in Hezbollah-Israel fighting
28 July 2024, 15:53 BST
Since October, the near-daily cross-border attacks between Israel and Hezbollah, the powerful Iranian-backed militia and political movement in Lebanon, have killed hundreds of people and forced tens of thousands from their homes on both sides, raising fears that the relatively contained violence could escalate into an all-out conflict.
Amid the strikes and counter-strikes, however, there have been indications that they were trying to avoid a major confrontation. But miscalculation was always a risk, and Saturday’s attack on the Druze town of Majdal Shams, in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, could have been that.
Israel accuses Hezbollah of carrying out the strike on a football pitch that killed at least 12 people, including children, the deadliest attack in the current hostilities, and has promised to respond.
“Israel will not overlook this murderous attack,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, according to a statement released by his office. “Hezbollah will pay a heavy price which it has not paid up to now.”
