#claiming it is a israeli woman from oct 7

[layzeal]

everyday for the past two months it's been waking up in the morning to the most horrifying war crimes being committed by a fascist colonial power run by a death cult, followed by said power fabricating the most offensive and easily debunked lies to excuse said war crimes, then the entire fucking world media believing them and waving around their pathetic little crocodile tears as i pass by the news that the soldiers of that world power shot an old woman in the entrance of a hospital and used her as bait to shoot any medic who tried helping her, followed by a video of parents looking through the charred remains of children's limbs and scalps trying to recognize their own. and then i go to brazilian TV and find the news that a brazilian palestinian has finally been able to leave Gaza and all the reporters wanna focus on is how they're probably a terrorist because of these posts from 2015 where they condemn israel's actions. and then i look at the presidents of the only few nations who have the power to stop this genocide with a single phone call and how they entirely refuse to do shit about it, just to be told on tumblr dot com that praying for the dismantlement of the state of israel is evil and inconsiderate because don't you know they suffered really really badly in the past (but also please don't google the rates of poverty of holocaust survivors and how they're treated by the government of the country that was supposed to be a safe haven. well at least george from pennsylvania can move and have a beautiful view of the burned olive tress from the multigenerational house he stole in the west bank, and isn't THAT what really matters)

[matan4il]

I am at a loss for words.

A Jewish woman in Paris was kidnapped, held for several days, and raped for being a Jew, and her mother was psychologically taunted and tormented, as "revenge for Palestine."

And while the perpetrator is the main person responsible for this horrific crime, every single person denying or justifying the Oct 7 sexual violence is guilty of contributing to this normalization, making this antisemitic terrorist think his excuse is in any way an acceptable justification for this atrocity. Every single person who didn't believe Jewish victims, every single person who demanded proof, but turned a blind eye to the visual evidence Hamas terrorists themselves provided, every single person who called the films and pictures and testimonies from countless Israelis "propaganda," every single person who justified it and claimed that "rape is resistance." They're all complicit. They all have to know they've helped make Jews everywhere in the world less safe.

Speaking of complicity, even though a UN report found credible evidence for the sexual crimes committed by Hamas on Oct 7 and against Israeli hostages since, the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, has personally decided to leave Hamas out of the annual report on sexual violence in conflicts around the world. Israeli commentators expressed their belief that this was done, because had it been included, then the UN would have no choice but to finally recognize that Hamas is a terrorist organization. The UN is complicit. Guterres is complicit. Hold them accountable.

Speaking of the UN's known anti-Israel bias, what a surprise, their report on UNRWA, their own agency, claimed not to support the charges against it, though they did find that UNRWA has "some issues" maintaining its neutrality...

Just to make it clear, "staff publicly taking sides" refers to UNRWA employees being openly anti-Israel, antisemitic and pro anti-Jewish violence, and the "problematic content" in UNRWA textbooks is incitement to terrorism and educating Palestinian kids to be antisemitic. This alone constitutes more than "some issues with neutrality." But there's more. Out of the 12 Gaza UNRWA employees first identified by Israel as having participated in the Hamas massacre, at least three were killed inside Israel on Oct 7 itself, and at least one more was captured on film while helping to kidnap an Israeli young man's body from an Israeli kibbutz into Gaza using a vehicle with UN license plates. I'd say that's a bit more than "difficulties with neutrality". In fact, the UN itself implicitly recognized the evidence was damning, or it would not have fired nine of the twelve right away, and admit a tenth UN worker was dead following the invasion and attack on Israeli communities, while claiming they're still "clarifying" the identities of the other two killed employees who participated in the Hamas massacre. BTW, it's been about 3 months of the UN "clarifying" the identities of those other two dead employees (screenshot below is from the article published 2 days ago, link with same claim on "clarification" is from Jan 27).

UNRWA is complicit. There are other humanitarian aid NGOs, which can do better. Dismantle UNRWA. But we know the UN will not be dismantling the cash cow that this agency is, even though no other refugee group gets an equal treatment to that. At what point do we say out loud, that if more and more UNRWA employees are found to be complicit in a massacre or being embedded with Hamas, if Hamas terrorists have continuously used UNRWA infrastructure to store weapons and shoot at Israelis, if UNRWA was found to be providing a terrorist organization with internet and electricity, and if the UN can't hold its own agency accountable, then the UN is also complicit in UNRWA's collaboration with Hamas?

In Israel itself, as the biggest Jewish community in the world is celebrating Passover, attacks on Israeli Jews continue.

Two days ago, on the Eve of Passover, a combined terrorist attack took place in Jerusalem, in an ultraorthodox neighborhood, with two Palestinian terrorists driving their car into a group of visibly Jewish young people, then the attackers left their car and tried shooting at their victims, but the weapon thankfully malfunctioned. Three people were lightly wounded. (the vid below shows most of the attack, but not the graphic parts of the car hitting the young Jewish men)

Yestrday, the Lebanon-based terrorist organization Hezbollah launched three suicide drones at Israel's northern communities, along its Mediterranean shore. This attack comes on the heels of the news that out of 18 Israelis wounded in a previous Hezbollah drone attack on an Israeli Arab Bedouin town, one has died from his injuries, after fighting for his life for 5 days. It's 27 years old Dor Zimel, an officer who was stationed in that town to protect it. Dor was set to get married next month, and he had proposed to his fiancee with a ring donated by a bereaved father (his son, 23 years old Addir Messika, was a jewelry designer, and the ring was one he designed before he was murdered by Hamas terrorists at the Nova music festival on Oct 7). Dor's organs were donated and saved the lives of 7 people, including an injured soldier, who's also the father of a girl. May Dor and Addir's memory be a blessing.

And today, on the second day of Passover, an attempted stabbing attack was stopped before the Palestinian female terrorist managed to harm anyone. She was neutralized at the scene.

I'm sure all those who decried Israel having to continue its war against Hamas during Ramadan are being extra loud about this wave of anti-Jewish violence during Passover, which is actually just a partial list of the on going attacks on Israeli Jews during this holiday.

In other news, the preparations for the IDF's ground operation in Rafah have actually already started. Reports suggest 250,000 Palestinians who have come to the southern city as they left other war zones in Gaza, have already left Rafah, and that Israel has already started building encampments to house those it will evacuate from the city before the ground operation begins.

Trying to remember when have I ever seen an army building an entire camp city for the enemy's civilian population. I'm coming up blank.

This is Miri Gad Mesikka.

She lives in kibbutz Be'eri, together with her husband Eli and their 3 kids. On Oct 7, they locked themselves in the bomb shelter from the invading Hamas terrorists. They were in there for 12 hours, fighting for control of the bomb shelter's door, until the terrorists set their house on fire, and the Gad Messika family had to make an impossible choice: stay and maybe suffocate to death from the smoke (or worse if the fire got in), or jump from their second floor window, probably be injured and maybe be shot to death by the terrorists. Eventually, they chose to jump out. They all got injured, and one of her sons got his leg broken, but the terrorists didn't spot them, and this decision saved their lives. During the time they were locked inside the bomb shelter, Miri recounts how she would see some of her friends and neighbors not responding anymore, and she couldn't know why. She kept hoping it was because their phone batteries ran out. "Today I know some of them were being kidnapped, while others were being murdered. It was a massacre, happening in countless different spots at the same time." One of her friends told Miri, that her daughter, a baby who was less than one years old, was shot in the head right in front of her. Then the friend's husband was murdered as well, and despite being shot with a bullet in her lungs herself, the friend somehow managed to get herself and her two other kids away.

Never forget.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[magz]

Palestine news summary from Lets Talk Palestine.

[For more information, links, and ways to help check their LinkTree linktr.ee/letstalkpalestine]

April 22 and April 23, 2024.

April 22. Day 199.

• 54 Palestinians killed, 104 injured in Gaza as Israel commits 6 massacres in the last 24 hours

🏥 283+ bodies found deliberately hidden by Israeli army across 4 mass graves in Nasser Hospital following Israel’s brutal siege

• 3 Palestinians, incl. 19-year-old & elderly woman, shot by IOF as they opened fire on cars on a highway in West Bank

🍞 4 bakeries resume production in north Gaza after 170 days of being inoperable

🔻 Hamas claims strike on group of IOF soldiers & military bulldozer + sniped IOF soldier in north Gaza

🦠 700,000 Palestinians affected by unprecedented spread of infectious diseases in north Gaza

🇺🇸 Universities crackdown + authorize police to arrest dozens of students protesting at Columbia & Yale to divest from companies profiting off the genocide in Gaza; sparking similar protests across US campuses

• Leader of Tulkarem Brigades (local resistance group) resurfaces after claims he was killed during Israel’s 3-day raid of Nur Shams camp in West Bank.

April 23. Day 200.

200 Days of Genocide, Instagram Link.

Day 200 - what happened today in Gaza

‼️ Today marks 200 days of genocide. Over 34,000 Palestinians have been killed with the real number including the thousands missing, buried under rubble, estimated to be over 42,000, including 15,000+ children and 10,000+ women.

🏥 310 bodies uncovered in mass graves at Nasser Hospital; many found handcuffed, shot in the head, wearing prisoner's uniforms, or stripped of their clothes.

• 3 Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike on residential building in "safe zone" Rafah.

• IOF naval ships attack Gaza's coasts, targeting Deir el-Balah, Nuseirat camp & az-Zawayda.

🚚 310 aid trucks entered Gaza yesterday, the most since Oct 7, but still far below the expected 500 per day.

🏥 Israeli forces turn Gaza’s only specialized cancer hospital into a military base, while only 11/35 hospitals remain partially functioning.

[Magz note: partially functioning hospitals in this case means having basic medical treatment available, medical staff, and being way over capacity unable to treat many of the patients. It has been previously noted that multiple hospitals in Gaza have long since lack anesthesia for example, and have to use basic painkillers like ibuprofen if any.]

• IOF continuously bomb Beit Lahia (north Gaza) after ordering evacuation of 50,000 Palestinians despite nowhere safe to go.

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Corey Walker

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) did not post a statement responding to the release of the hostages from the Nuseirat refugee camp. Tlaib, the first Palestinian-American woman elected to Congress, has repeatedly issued blistering condemnations of Israel, referring to the country as “Jewish supremacist” and accusing it of “apartheid” and “genocide.” In past statements Tlaib drew an equivalence between Israeli hostages in Gaza and so-called Palestinian “political prisoners” who are being held in Israeli prisons, in many cases for terrorism-related offenses. Last month, Tlaib gave a surprise speech at a conference tied to the terrorist group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in which she lambasted Israel.

Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA), another prominent anti-Israel member of Congress, has remained silent on the rescue of the four hostages in Gaza. Lee came under fire last July for voting “no” on a resolution that rejected the notion that Israel is a “racist state.” The congresswoman has voted against sending aid to help bolster Israel’s military operations against Hamas terrorists. Lee also called for an “immediate ceasefire” only nine days after Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel which left over 1,200 people dead. More than 250 people were taken to Gaza as hostages during the onslaught.

Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), one of the most left-wing members of Congress, has also refrained from commenting on Saturday’s successful IDF operation. Bush has repeatedly argued that Israel’s war against Hamas is tantamount to a “genocide.” She has accused the Jewish state of engaging in “ethnic cleansing” against Palestinians. The progressive lawmaker also donned a keffiyeh — a traditional Arab headdress that has been repurposed after Oct. 7 to symbolize solidarity with the Palestinian cause — in the halls of Congress.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), arguably the most prominent progressive in Congress, has kept mum regarding the hostage rescue. Ocasio-Cortez has previously denied that Israel is a democracy and accused the state of engaging in “apartheid.” Only weeks after Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorism, Ocasio-Cortez called for a “ceasefire” between Israel and the terrorist group. In March, the congresswoman accused Israel of inflicting a “famine” and “genocide” against civilians in Gaza. 

Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) has also not yet released a statement regarding Saturday’s hostage rescue. Like his fellow left-wing peers, Bowman has repeatedly accused Israel of being an “apartheid state.” Only days after the Oct. 7 terror attacks, Bowman signed onto a ceasefire resolution which made no reference to hostages or Hamas. The progressive lawmaker also dismissed the heavily-corroborated claims that Hamas terrorists raped Israeli women as mere “propaganda” and “lies.”

Tlaib, Lee, Bush, Ocasio-Cortez, and Bowman did not respond to requests for comment from The Algemeiner.

[girlactionfigure]

⚫ Mon morning  - ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

⭕ BALLISTIC MISSILE at Eilat, intercepted.  From the Houthis.  Shot down by Arrow.  (( And why aren’t we firing back? ))

⭕ ROCKETS from Hezbollah at Hurfeish, Alkosh, Matat - towns not previously targeted in the north.

🔥FIRE TERROR - Almon, Judea.  (( Nothing shows your love for the land of Palestine like burning it. ))

♦️IDF ATTACKS SYRIA.. Aleppo, Syria, a “factory”.

♦️IDF ATTACKS LEBANON.. artillery attacks on the Shiite town of Alma al-Sha'ab, opposite Israeli town Hanita.

♦️AND GAZA.. 50 airstrikes in the past day.

♦️COUNTER-TERROR.. Ramon (Ramallah area), Hassan, Shechem, Aqaba (Tubas area), 

▪️HERO HOSTAGE (BODY) FOUND - NOT KIDNAPPED.. The body of Dolev Yehud was located in Kibbutz Nir Oz after a strenuous investigation and in collaboration with anthropologists and after scientific identification.  He was a medic and was murdered on Oct. 7 as he left his home to help save lives.

May his family be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem, and may G-d avenge his blood!

▪️WAR GUIDANCE ORG - 42% OF RELEASED TERRORISTS KILL AGAIN.. bring data studies showing 42% of terrorists released in the Shalit deal killed again - from public data.  They add: with confidential data likely it is higher. 

▪️MORE ON THE BIDEN DEAL..

.. details from the proposal: Israel mostly agrees with the outline for the release of the hostages drawn up by Hamas.

.. MK Shikli: the deal presents an outline to stop the war for six weeks without knowing the fate of the hostages - it's not a deal, it's a joke.

.. HAMAS SAYS: "The military of Hamas and Islamic Jihad are putting pressure on the families of the captives  through psychological warfare so that they will put pressure on Netanyahu."  (( Exactly. ))

.. Hamas demands a written document that includes everything that US President Biden said on Saturday evening with an additional declaration that includes full and enforceable guarantees from the United States

▪️MORE ON THE RAMMING TERRORIST ON THE LOOSE IN SHECHEM.. He ran to the Palestinian police station, he claimed an accident, the PA proposed a joint investigation committee and Israel refused, he was thrown out of the police station for fear that the IDF would invade the station and is now on the run.

▪️RELIGIOUS IDIOCY AT THE TOMB OF JOSEPH.. (monthly visits to this holy site, in the middle of the Arab city of Shechem, are closely coordinated and guarded by the IDF - first hand report)  Last night a limited visit was overwhelmed with overloaded buses, with IDF escort, to visit Kever Yoseph (the tomb of the biblical patriarch Joseph).  

A controversial Breslev rabbinical figure instructed his followers to go to the tomb or the lookout to the tomb (Mitzpe Yosef, Israel controlled area).  50-100 of the overzealous followers decided to enter Shechem by foot because the buses were already at capacity, sneaking around the IDF soldiers.

The IDF had to stop the controlled entry of the buses and chase after the followers on foot, to prevent them from being kidnapped or killed.  At least one of the followers made it further into the city, was beaten and taken by PA police.

▪️3 DAY SEARCH IN THE KINNERET.. 25 year old woman fell  into the Kinneret the evening of May 31 from a small boat without a life jacket.  After 3 days of searching her body was found.

▪️ILLEGAL PALESTINIAN WORKERS.. police caught a group of 16 workers in a Rami Levy supermarket in Hadera (with fake-issued permits -  the worker-company doing the falsification), and 17 caught trying to infiltrate Jerusalem via a “double sided” hidden compartment in a box truck.

[nimrochan]

Reminder that Al Jazeera is a mouthpiece for Hamas and articles from there should NEVER BE TRUSTED. They literally justified the 10/07 attacks, claimed it wasn’t really that bad, and claimed that Israelis shot other Israelis. They also censor Palestinian civilians trying to criticize Hamas.

Hamas proudly filmed themselves shooting people, r*ping women, and killing babies/children. Videos from Israeli soldiers and civilians showed how Hamas mutilated g*nitals on dead bodies and paraded around a stripped body of a woman they had r*ped and shot.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-shares-video-hamas-gunman-executing-woman-oct-7-2023-11-20/

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/23/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-attack-video.html

And here’s audio of a young man giddily calling his dad to tell him about all the Jews he killed.

You cannot be invested in this war and completely ignore one side.

[rotzaprachim]

Fiction doesn’t equal reality obvious disclaimer but one of the weird things about the shadow and bone fandom is it like…. Is to me a kind of record of the dehumanizing moral polarity people had around Jews prior to Oct 7 when everything about Judaism became Bad and Fair game. Like the darkling imho is Jewish coded and he does very bad things in ways that aren’t separated from how he is Jewish coded-not only because there are no guarantees that being a marginalized person will stop you from hurting others, but because of the fact marginalization and pain don’t teach valuable lessons and instead force many people into the idea they need violence and extremism - including against their own people, especially women - to Keep Everyone Safe. Like the darkling’s logic and thought processes are very similar to Jewish nationalists and militarists, not only to Zionism but the most specifically violent and extreme forms and fandom was OK with it because the IRL Jewishness had been scrubbed from the box at the same time they expressed genuine hatred of Jews in real life with ideologies nowhere newer as extreme. But see aleks, a fictional Jewish coded man, Had to be good and alright and cool even as he did (check notes) kill mass numbers of people and almost destroy a comity because what if those people didn’t like grisha? It’s the acceptance of fictional Jewish extremism without serious empathy for the complex politics of real Jews that disturbs me. People like Jewish violence when it’s removed from the context of real life. I’m going to mix metaphors for a second because this is a fantasy series and they mix metaphors. Leigh specifically multiple times said she didn’t model Matthias on Nazis and that he isn’t one and fandom didn’t buy her. I don’t want to let Matthias off the hook - I think he’s a fascinating and profoundly messy character- but I think the refusal to take Leigh at her word flattened the fact that Matthias as a violent religious extremist is an uncomfortably mdoern and global figure. There are evangelical Christians in the us like Matthias, there are Muslims and Hindus like Matthias, and - there are Jews like Matthias. Much of matthias’s logic and violence reflects the ideology of modern right wing religious Jewish men men in Israel, down to the fear of women’s voices or being touched by a woman. Much of Matthias’s ideology and backstory is probably closer to a his family was actually killed, as has been the case with some of the killings of Israeli civilians. So I’m not saying he /is/ a violent right wing Jew but there’s much about him that’s /like/ them in real life. To me the darkling and matthias represent two of the worst modern streaks of Jewish violence - one explicitly Jewish, one universalized but potentially so-, and so it’s wild to see years of fandom refusing to see that Jews /could/ be bad or do and things and then wiping all those things they did away at the same time as many of the same people are genuinely fine with making generalized moral claims that real Jews actually are inherent morally monstrosities of evil now that it’s become politically and culturally acceptable to do so

[tieflingkisser]

Family of key case in New York Times October 7 sexual violence report renounces story, says reporters manipulated them

A New York Times story claiming a pattern of gender-based violence on October 7 hinged on the story of Gal Abdush. But the Abdush family says there is no proof she was raped, and that Times reporters interviewed them under false pretenses.

On December 28, the New York Times published an “investigative” report on gender-based violence allegedly committed by Palestinians during the October 7 attack. The newspaper says the story was based on over 150 interviews conducted by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Jeffrey Gettleman, along with Anat Schwartz and Adam Sella. The story concludes that Hamas fighters engaged in systematic rape and sexual violence against Israeli women. The story itself repeats October 7 testimonies that have been previously published and already debunked and discredited, but the Times investigation hinges predominantly on one central story, the story of the rape of “Gal Abdush,” who is described by the Times as “The Woman in the Black Dress.” Although claiming its story proves that “the attacks against women were not isolated events but part of a broader pattern of gender-based violence on Oct. 7” the veracity of the New York Times story was undermined almost as soon as it was published, including from the Abdush family itself who says there is no proof Gal Abdush was raped and that the New York Times interviewed them under false pretenses.

[beardedmrbean]

In one photo, a burned body appears to project anguish. In another, a woman lies naked from the waist down, her underwear hanging from her leg. In interviews, first responders haltingly describe finding naked female corpses tied to beds and survivors recount witnessing a gang rape at the music festival.

All of this is part of a mounting body of evidence of the gender-based crimes carried out by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7.

Over the last several weeks, NBC News has reviewed five interrogations of captured Hamas fighters, an Arabic-language document that instructed Hamas how to pronounce “Take off your pants” in Hebrew, six images of naked or partially naked deceased female bodies, seven eyewitness accounts of sexual violence including both rape and mutilation, 11 testimonies of first responders, and two accounts from workers in morgues who handled the bodies of women after they were recovered from the massacre.

In light of what is happening to non-Muslim women in the Islamic State, where a single captive Yazidi or Christian woman often becomes the sex slave of an entire ISIS platoon, the absence of war-related rapes among IDF soldiers is a source of frustration for Palestinians and their supporters.

Two years ago, a young Israeli student at Hebrew University attempted to address this issue in her thesis. The student’s conclusion was that IDF soldiers don’t rape because they are racists. “It is impossible to rape someone who is not human,” she wrote. This young woman’s perverted determination was that “just as Serbians formed their identity by publicly gang-banging Bosnian women, Jewish men define their unique identity as non-rapists … rape and non-rape are two sides of the same coin.”

RELATED:

Female Arab Muslim: Keep it real, Jews don’t rape us, Arab men do.

Confusing the issue, some take the opposite approach. In a lecture to students at Oranim College a month ago, Israeli Arab teacher Naila Awad, who runs the organization “Women Against Violence,” claimed that Israeli soldiers are sexually abusing Palestinian women.

When asked where she had gotten this information, Awad insisted, without referring to any specific documentation, that “there are many studies that prove that IDF soldiers are sexually abusing and raping Palestinian women in the West Bank.” In unprecedented disciplinary action, Awad was suspended following a loud student outcry.

Awad responded with a weird reference to the Bible. “During war,” she said, “[Jewish] men can take women,” implying that Jews are actually encouraged to rape the women of the enemy. This same argument surfaced about two weeks ago in “Days of Palestine,” an online Palestine publication claiming to specialize in providing first-hand news.

The website regurgitated a 2012 article entitled “Israeli rabbi: Israeli soldiers can rape Palestinian women” by radical Israeli blogger Yossi Gurvitz, who himself had dug up some religious discussion that took place nine years earlier (so much for “first-hand news”).

Days of Palestine then claimed that “Israeli Rabbi Col. Eyal Qarim of the Israeli Military Rabbinate had permitted Israeli Jewish soldiers to rape Palestinian women.”

The obvious question that should follow is, why then, despite this permission, are Israeli soldiers not raping anyone? Like the deranged Hebrew U. “scholar,” detractors would probably answer that Palestinian women disgust the racist Israeli soldiers. Bizarre as it is, in this argument Palestinians are actually taking offense at their women being undesirable to the enemy.

Either way, Israel is damned if it does, and damned if it doesn’t.

Following Gurvitz’s insidious allegations, a senior Military Rabbinate official issued a short response, which was promptly ignored by those perpetuating the notion that non-rape is rape. “Basic human morality,” he said, to state the obvious, “as well as Torah, Halacha and army policy prohibit rape and denounce this vile phenomenon.”

Awad’s biblical reference deals with the rules of war concerning captive women (Deuteronomy 21:10-11). One does not have to be particularly bright to ascertain that the full passage, in complete contrast to the violence and degradation involved in rape, commands Israeli soldiers to show restraint and treat captive women with utter respect. _______________

__________-

Please tell your fuehrer to send more qualified people to put lies in my inbox, sending unarmed people in for a battle of wits is just embarrassing.

Israeli student, doing her best to make the IDF look bad determines that the only reason for the lack of rape is because they don't see them as human instead of the records getting hidden, followed by a Israeli Arab instructor making claims of widespread rape with zero documentation and only vague accusations.

Found a couple cases, from 2016 documenting a rape by a IDF soldier who in turn was punished, as for current issues the worst I can find from a source that isn't obviously biased is.

They're doing soldier stuff, doing a victory dance and showboating isn't allowed in the NFL and it's apparently not allowed in war either.

No call for racism and no doubt they will be reprimanded, but no credible evidence of mass rape of palestenians, just vague accusations.

Cope and seethe faux nazi, I can see you crying with pent up rage while you're typing out your asks to me just begging and praying to your lord Khomeini to give you the courage to keep typing the words out.

The difference between the two of us here is that if I saw actual credible evidence, from a credible source, that the IDF was doing that, I would publish it on here.

Without hesitation.

Again, tell your fuhrer to send in armed opponents if he want's a battle of wits, this is just sad.

This is you right?

Actually no they probably don't trust you with a safety razor for shaving your head, there'll be some stubble as a result since you only can use the clippers with the child guard on it.

[dragoneyes618]

This past Last Saturday afternoon, 71-year-old Hagar Gefen was driving through the Jordan Valley when she was waylaid by Palestinian assailants. They pulled her from her car, beat her and stole her vehicle.

Gefen is an anti-Zionist activist affiliated with the radical NGO Looking the Occupation in the Eye. Her group’s modus operandi is to harass Israeli civilians and military forces in Judea and Samaria in order to demonize them. As the organization’s leaders wrote recently, “We initiate direct actions that get in the face of the settlers and challenge the security forces. We work in cooperation with Palestinian colleagues who often stand together with us in the West Bank.”

Gefen was carjacked just after she had just finished such a “direct action”: “Protecting” Palestinian shepherds from Israelis who live in the area. When security forces came to help the elderly woman as she sat beaten on the side of the highway, Gefen refused to file a complaint against her assailants.

Her story is notable because all aspects of it—the carjacking, her efforts as an anti-Israel activist to demonize Israeli residents of Judea and Samaria, and her refusal to report on Palestinian violent attacks, even when she is the victim of those attacks—expose the nature of the current international campaign against Israel’s civilian and military presence in Judea and Samaria. This campaign reached its pinnacle on Feb. 1 with an executive order issued by U.S. President Joe Biden, directly targeting Israeli civilians in Judea and Samaria as quasi-terrorists.

Galloping Palestinian terrorism

This week, the Israel Defense Forces published its final statistics for 2023 regarding Palestinian terrorism in Judea and Samaria. Last year saw a 350% increase in terrorist attacks over 2022 levels, with 608 attacks last year and 173 in 2022. The IDF reported that 300 of the 608 attacks were shooting attacks—the highest number since the Second Intifada from 2000 to 2005.

The IDF data only includes incidents that ended with wounded or dead Israelis and others. The full data shows that the dimensions of Palestinian terrorism in Judea and Samaria are much greater.

United Hatzalah’s Rescuers Without Borders serves as the first responders in Judea and Samaria. Its data enumerated 4,099 terror attacks during the first six months of 2023 alone. In the 100 days following Oct. 7, Palestinians carried out another 2,674 attacks on Jews in Judea and Samaria. Rescuers Without Borders includes vehicular stoning attacks in their data. Those average around 10 per day.

Not including stoning attacks, the Oct. 7 massacre or the casualties of the war in Gaza, the Shin Bet tallied 3,436 attacks in Israel, including Judea and Samaria in 2023. A total of 43 Israelis were murdered and another 224 were wounded. Israel Police put the total number of terror attacks in Judea and Samaria during 2023 at 5,600.

While the data varies depending on the source and what is counted, the trends are clear: 2023 saw a massive increase in Palestinian terrorist attacks, and in the number of Israeli victims. The steepest increase came in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks.

Elusive settler violence

This brings us back to Gefen and her bid to “protect” Palestinian shepherds from “settler violence” in the Jordan Valley last Saturday. The level of Palestinian terrorism against Israelis in Judea and Samaria, coupled with the sheer volume of terrorist agitation in the areas, make it difficult for Gefen and her comrades to claim that Israeli Jews are the cause of the dire security situation in the areas.

But they don’t let the absence of evidence stop them in their bid to demonize and criminalize “the occupation.” To advance this line, as Looking the Occupation in the Eye explained, anti-Zionist activists from Israel and abroad working with the Palestinians have developed a pipeline for pumping libelous claims against Israeli Jews into the international discourse, and most importantly, into the U.S. State Department. The process, stunning in its boldness, was first exposed by the Hakol Hayehudi (“The Jewish Voice”) news service early last November in a report on one such NGO, the Hamas-aligned and Muslim Brotherhood-funded International Solidarity Movement (ISM), whose members overlap with members of Gefen’s outfit.

The case first reported by Hakol Hayehudi occurred on Oct. 25. That morning, Israeli and foreign ISM activists began harassing IDF reservists in a guard post outside the Maon Farm in the south Hebron Hills. When the reservists left their post to confront the activists, ISM member Allison Russell filmed them in an unflattering way that made it appear the reservists were instigating an altercation. Russell posted her video on Facebook later that morning.

Shortly after Russell posted the video, Breaking the Silence reposted it on its Twitter feed, presenting it as proof of “settler violence.” Breaking the Silence is an Israeli-registered NGO that runs international political and lawfare campaigns to demonize the IDF.

Breaking the Silence is funded by foreign governments, the United Nations and anti-Israel far-left NGOs aligned with the Democratic Party and the State Department, including George Soros’s Open Society Foundations and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Given its connections, once the video was posted on Breaking the Silence’s Twitter feed, it quickly made the rounds in Washington. Around 20 hours after the ISM provocation outside the Maon Farm in the south Hebron Hills, Biden issued his first broadside against Israeli civilians in Judea and Samaria. Standing next to visiting Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, he condemned “settler violence” and accused “extremist settlers” of “pouring gasoline on a fire.”

Two days later, a coalition of 22 anti-Israel NGOs, mainly funded by foreign governments, including the U.S. government, the New Israel Fund, the Open Society Foundations and the Ford Foundation, published a document titled, “Emergency Call to the International Community: Stop the Forcible Transfer in the West Bank.” Datelined from the south Hebron Hills, they decried what they referred to as “the state-backed wave of settler violence.”

The groups alleged, “For the past three weeks, since Hamas’s atrocities of October 7th, settlers have been exploiting the lack of public attention to the West Bank, as well as the general atmosphere of rage against Palestinians, to escalate their campaign of violent attacks in an attempt to forcibly transfer Palestinian communities.”

The truth was very different both then and since. IDF data showed that violent incidents involving Palestinians and Israeli civilians in October 2023 were down 31% over the corresponding month in 2022. Violent incidents involving Israeli civilians and Palestinians were 55% lower than they were in November 2022.

In other words, as Palestinian terror attacks against Israelis reached a 20-year high, incidents involving Jewish violence were down by half, standing at 201.

Moreover, as veteran investigative reporter Kalman Liebskind demonstrated in the Israeli newspaper Maariv in December 2023, among the 201 reported cases of violence involving Israeli civilians and Palestinians, the IDF could not determine in 136 cases, or 67% of the incidents, who had started the incident. As Liebskind and others showed at the time and since, in the vast majority of those cases, the “settler violence” was simply Israeli civilians trying to defend themselves against Palestinian terrorists and lynch mobs.

As Liebskind reported, in one typical incident designated as “settler violence,” an Israeli motorist driving to his home in Tekoa in Gush Etzion with four teenage passengers was blocked from advancing on the highway by a herd of sheep. He slowed down only to have his vehicle pelted with rocks by a dozen or so Palestinians. Armed, he exited his car and shot two shots at the ground to try to scare them away. His gun jammed, and the Palestinians began beating him with rocks and sticks, and tried to steal his gun. When the teenagers tried to help him, they were also assaulted. Another Israeli driver saw what was happening, and armed, he got out of his car to help. He shot into the air, and the Palestinians began attacking him as well. The first driver was bleeding from his head wound. A military patrol that arrived at the scene was also attacked with rocks. The soldiers opened fire on the assailants, shooting three of them, before rescuing the Israeli drivers and teenagers from the lynch mob that ambushed the first driver.

Since the IDF force arrived after the incident began, it was classified as an act of “Jewish nationalist violence,” rather than a terrorist attack. This misclassification is so routine that even the United Nations acknowledges it is standard practice.

On its website, the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs acknowledges that its data on Palestinian casualties of so-called “settler violence” “includes Palestinians killed or injured during attacks or alleged attacks they perpetrated against Israeli settlers.”

The purpose of the slanderous charges of Jewish aggression is obvious. They are leveled against Israeli civilians to assert a moral equivalence between Palestinian terrorists and their Israeli victims. Particularly after Oct. 7, the case for Palestinian statehood hinges on criminalizing Israeli opponents of Palestinian statehood. And the most easily caricatured and demonized opponents of Palestinian statehood are Israelis who work to maintain Israeli control over Judea and Samaria by farming, herding sheep and living in scattered communities. Israelis in these areas are law-abiding and peaceful. But if they are perceived as such, the U.S. and other Western governments will have no way to justify their policy of forcibly expelling these Israelis, along with the rest of the 500,000 Israeli Jews who live in Judea and Samaria, from their homes and communities, and transferring control over areas where no Jews live to Palestinians who overwhelmingly support the genocide of Jewry and the annihilation of the State of Israel. Demonizing them is key.

The demonization campaign against the Israelis in Judea and Samaria brings U.S. diplomats together with Palestinian terrorists and terrorism boosters. It culminated on Feb. 1 with Biden’s executive order. Titled “Executive Order on Imposing Certain Sanctions on Persons Undermining Peace, Security, and Stability in the West Bank,” it makes Israeli Jews targets of U.S. economic and travel sanctions. The order reads like a press release from the anti-Israel NGOs it relies on for its false accusations. It asserts that Biden “find(s) that the situation in the West Bank—in particular high levels of settler violence, forced displacement of people and villages and property destruction—has reached intolerable levels and constitutes a serious threat to the peace, security and stability of the West Bank and Gaza, Israel and the broader Middle East region.”

Their ascribed actions, the order goes on, “undermine the foreign-policy objectives of the United States, including the viability of the two-state solution.”

Biden’s order freezes all funds belonging to the targets of the sanctions. The four Israeli farmers named in the order stand accused of no crimes and were never convicted of any crimes. Their families report, however, that they were subjected to daily assaults and provocations by ISM and other anti-Israel activists who have trespassed on their land and have harassed them, and their wives and children, daily for the past four years. They are not U.S. citizens and have no property in the U.S. or accounts in U.S. banks. All the same, after the Treasury Department threatened Israeli banks with sanctions, the men’s bank accounts have all been frozen.

Next target for demonization: The IDF

One of the many distressing aspects of the campaign to criminalize Israeli civilians is that it is already apparent that they are only the first target. The next one is the IDF.

Two months ago, as the administration and its allied anti-Israel NGOs were kicking their post-Oct. 7 demonization campaign against “settler extremists” into high gear, the State Department sent the IDF a list of military operations that its forces in Judea and Samaria had carried out since Oct. 7, demanding detailed explanations and justifications of the operations. The State Department gave the IDF three months to submit its response before the United States began banning weapons transfers to the units involved in the incidents.

For their part, NGOs like Breaking the Silence work with anti-Israel reporters to demonize the IDF war in Gaza as well.

Last week, CNN ran a report featuring videos that IDF forces in Gaza took of themselves and their units blowing up buildings in Gaza. Recognizing the justice of Israel’s war in Gaza, the soldiers are proud of their contribution on the battlefield. The videos posted have gone viral in Israel, and play a key role in boosting and maintaining morale.

Yet spurred by Breaking the Silence’s CEO Avner Gvaryahu, the CNN report presented the videos as sinister admissions of Israeli venality, in general, and of the malicious nature of IDF soldiers specifically. “Israel is under increasing scrutiny over the war in Gaza. These videos may well be adding fuel to that criticism,” the reporter intoned.

The anti-Israel NGOs rejoiced at the report. Looking the Occupation in the Eye tweeted its glee at the thought of war-crimes trials against IDF soldiers.

“Take a look [at the CNN report]. Here are the soldiers that are helping the Government of Israel prepare its report to the [International Court of Justice at the] Hague [where Israel is being tried for genocide]. From anonymous warriors to celebrity bombers. Who wants to go abroad, and can’t? [For fear of war crimes charges, CBG] Raise your hands!”

Today, 92% of Israeli Jews oppose Palestinian statehood. Following Oct. 7, the vast majority of Israelis across the political spectrum recognize that a Palestinian state is as great an existential threat to Israel as Iran’s nuclear-weapons program.

Recognizing that they have no domestic support for their prized program, Israeli anti-Zionists and the State Department have joined forces to extort the government and people to act against their existential interests. The people, army and government of Israel now face a choice: They can stand up to this campaign of extortion through criminalization, even at the cost of an open breach with the Biden administration, or they can accept the destruction of their country.

[mithliya]

“There is evidence of mass rape so brutal that they broke their victims’ pelvis – women, grandmothers, children.”

“People whose heads have been cut off. Women standing in their night dresses woken up and shot. Faces blasted off. Heads smashed and their brains spilling out,” she said. “A baby was cut out of a pregnant woman and beheaded and then the mother was beheaded.”

The Hamas terrorists were barbaric to begin with, but many of them also reportedly took a drug called Captagon, an amphetamine produced in southern Europe and the Middle East that has helped fuel terrorism. It is commonly referred to as the “ISIS drug.” Small bags of cocaine were also found in vehicles that the terrorists used to drive from Gaza to Israel.

Colonel Rabbi Haim Weisberg said that what Israeli forces have discovered in the aftermath of the attacks was “evidence of torture and savagery.”

“We have babies with their heads cut off. Bodies without hands, without legs, without genitals,” he added.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/israeli-official-hamas-raped-women-grandmothers-children-so-violently-they-broke-victims-pelvis

nice propaganda piece. you always know it’ll be reliable and totally verified when it starts with “barbaric evils that innocent Israeli citizens were forced to experience at the hands of savage Palestinian Islamic terrorists”. ben shapiro the right-wing zionist isn’t exactly the person i’d turn to for my news but that might just be me.

so the real news is: dozens of beheaded babies remains an unverified claim with no proof provided. mass rapes remain to be unverified claims with no proof provided. the latter can very much be true as rape has always been done by men in war, but again, we can only speculate instead. that is, unless we use propaganda pieces which serve to justify the “barbaric evils” and “savage” acts of israel towards gaza.

[matan4il]

We've lost so many people since the last time I could make a news update post, that I find it hard to write about them all. I guess at the very least, I need to write about 38 years old Elad Fingerhut, father of 3, who was murdered by Hezbollah on our Independence Day. He was a civilian, who happened to be nearby when a terrorist rocket attack on Israel's north started, he realized soldiers were hurt, and ran in to help. That's when he was hit directly by a following anti-tank missile fired at the same spot. He was murdered for being a decent human being, willing to help others even under fire.

The IDF has recovered the bodies of 4 Israeli hostages, all of them were murdered on Oct 7 and it was their bodies that the terrorists had kidnapped. The corpses were found thanks to military intel in a tunnel in northern Gaza, next to explosive devices, so Hamas was actually using these bodies as a booby trap to kill Israeli soldiers. I will never understand people stanning an organization capable of murdering innocent civilians, and then using their bodies like that. The four hostages were Shani Louk, Ron Benjamin, Itzhak Gelerenter, and Amit Buskila. As far as I'm aware, only Shani was confirmed as murdered on Oct 7 before this operation, so bringing the bodies back allows, in addition to proper burial of the murdered, for the families to finally know what happened to their loved ones, get to mourn, and hopefully start processing, and eventually, healing. As for Shani herself? Just a small reminder that on Oct 7 itself a vid was published, showing her body stripped down, leg broken, tossed into the back of a truck, guarded by armed terrorists, with a random Gazan teenager was spitting on her violated corpse, and after that, a Gaza "journalist" called her family to lie to them and claim Shani's alive, just injured, and being treated in a hospital for her wound. If that's not enough, a Gaza "photojournalist" won an award for taking a picture showing the Hamas terrorists riding the truck on top of her. Now her family can finally find comfort in knowing their kid is at rest.

There are at this time 128 hostages in Gaza still, at least 39 are believed to be bodies. This includes two Thai men who were kidnapped from Israel, for whom there is now evidence that they were murdered on Oct 7, and their corpses are held hostage.

May the memory of all Palestinian terrorists' victims be a blessing.

I assume everyone knows already that the (undemocratically elected) president of Iran, Ibrahim Raisi, known as "the butcher of Tehran," has been killed in a helicopter crash. What people may not be aware of is that the UN has actually observed a moment of silence for the man who personally oversaw the murder of countless innocent Iranians, many of them as part of the Islamic regime's gender-targeted violence, and who, as part of the regime, was responsible for many more deaths of people around the world, including financing Hamas and so enabling the Oct 7 massacre. In fact, the UN secretary general has extended personal condolences to the people and government of Iran for Raisi's death, as per his official statement. Here's what the UN's one tweet about it looks like:

(I'm not surprised that the top comment is an angry one from a Ukrainian woman, since the Iranian regime does supply Russia with attack drones and missiles)

Meanwhile, do you know how long it took the UN to officially discuss for the first time the hostages abducted from Israel on Oct 7, as part of a massacre enabled by Iran? Seven and a half months (discussion held on May 16, five days ago). But sure, the UN isn't biased at all, and is totally reliable and a force for peace. Please keep this in mind as the UN's judicial arms, the ICJ and ICC, continue to make a mockery of justice and the idea of international humanitarian law. Hey, did you know that the ICC's chief prosecutor never asked for arrest warrants against Raisi?

Meanwhile, around the world, antisemitism has only been intensifying. Some recent incidents include an Israeli father living in Belgium being attack by an anti-Israel mob in front of his visiting daughter, in France they burned down a synagogue (great how I couldn't find a single headline where the synagogue attack was mentioned before the fate of the attacker following it), in Sweden there were shots fired near the Israeli embassy, and in NYC a man randomly stopped his bike by a group of religious Jewish kids playing on the street and physically attacked them...

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[biracy]

[ID: A series of infographics with both text and historical photos.

The first is titled "The worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust was not on October 7" and shows a photo of a soldier pointing a gun at a person sitting crouched on the street.

The second says "Claims that the Palestinian offensive into Israel on October 7, 2023 caused the worse [sic] massacre of Jews since the Holocaust are simply not true. The 1970s death toll of Jews during Argentina's dictatorship, that was armed with Israeli weapons, was far higher." and shows a photo of a person's skeleton being dug up.

The third says "As many as 30,000 'disappeared' under Argentina's right-wing dictatorship, which lasted from 1976-1983. This period is known as the Dirty War, though it wasn't really a war but mass state-sanctioned terrorism and murder." and shows a photo of soldiers dragging a person to a truck.

The fourth says "The victims were political dissidents, primarily left-wing subversives that were critical of the regime. Jews were over-represented among them." and shows a photo of a demonstration where someone is wielding a sign that says "Justicia claman los desaparecidos" with two illustrations of hands bound in barbed wire.

The fifth says "The death toll of Jews during the Dirty War ranges between 1,900-3,600. This number far exceeds the 1,139 Israelis, including 764 civilians and 373 security personnel, that were killed in occupied Palestine on Oct 7." and shows a photo of a woman standing in front of a wall of many people's photographs.

The sixth says "Jews were targeted because of the Plan Andinia conspiracy theory, which claimed that Jewish communists wanted to create a second Israel in Patagonia, and the junta tortured people into 'admitting' that the plan was real." with an illustrated map of Patagonia, South Orkney, the Falkland Islands, and South Georgia Island.

The seventh says "Argentina's right-wing dictatorship was also supported by Israel. In 2016, a group of Argentine-Israelis filed a freedom of information request demanding that Israel release documents related to its involvement in supporting the Dirty War." and shows a photo of a hand resting on a stack of documents.

The eighth says "The declassified documents confirm that Israel supplied $700 million in weapons and training to Argentina's military junta, which then disproportionately targeted and massacred Jewish dissidents." and shows a photo of an armed solider walking in front of a line of people, with their backs to him and their hands up against the wall.

The ninth says "Israel has a long and checkered history of funding brutal dictatorships across Latin America and around the world." and shows a photo of Argentine soldiers saluting on a set of stairs in front of a group of politicians.

End ID]

[theivorybilledwoodpecker]

Israeli forces press Gaza offensive from north and south

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-forces-step-up-attacks-jabalia-camp-rafah-gaza-2024-05-13/

CAIRO, May 13 (Reuters) - Israeli forces pushed deep into the ruins of Gaza's northern edge on Monday to recapture an area from Hamas fighters, while in the south tanks and troops pushed across a highway into Rafah, leaving Palestinian civilians scrambling to find safety.Some of the most intense fighting for weeks is raging in both the north and south. Israeli operations in Rafah, which borders Egypt, have closed a main crossing point for aid, which humanitarian groups say is worsening an already dire situation. Hundreds of thousands of people are being forced to flee again after around half of Gaza's population took sanctuary there after Israel ordered evacuations from northern Gaza in October. Gaza's health authority appealed for international pressure to reopen access via the southern border to allow in aid, medical supplies and fuel to power generators and ambulances. "The wounded and sick suffer a slow death because there is no treatment and supplies and they cannot travel," it said. A foreign U.N. staff member was killed on Monday when a vehicle travelling to a hospital in Rafah was struck - the first international U.N. casualty in the Gaza war, a U.N. spokesperson said. In northern Gaza's Jabalia, a sprawling refugee camp built for displaced Palestinians 75 years ago, Israeli forces pushed into an area where they claimed to have dismantled Hamas months ago. Residents fled along rubble-strewn streets carrying bags of belongings. Tank shells landed in the centre of the camp and health officials said they had recovered 20 bodies from overnight airstrikes. "We don't know where to go. We have been displaced from one place to the next... We are running in the streets. I saw it with my own eyes. I saw the tank and the bulldozer. It is on that street," said one woman, who did not give her name. The Palestinian death toll in the war has now surpassed 35,000, with 57 killed in the past 24 hours, according to Gaza health officials, whose figures do not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israeli troops are seeking to wipe out Hamas, which has said it is committed to Israel's destruction. The militant group burst into Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 and taking more than 250 hostages, by Israeli tallies. Hamas' armed wing said because of Israeli bombardments it had lost contact with militants guarding four Israeli hostages, including U.S.-Israeli citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who appeared in a video released by Hamas in late April. Attending a Memorial Day ceremony to mark Israel's fallen soldiers in Jerusalem on Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war against Hamas was a struggle to secure Israel's "existence, liberty, security and prosperity". "Our war of independence is not over yet," he said.In Rafah, Israel stepped up aerial and ground bombardments on the eastern areas of the city, killing people in an airstrike on a house in the Brazil neighbourhood. Residents said Israeli air and ground bombardments were intensifying and tanks had cut off the main north-south Salahuddin road dividing east of the city from the central area. "The tanks cut the Salahuddin road east of the city, the forces are now in the southeast side, building up near the built-up area. The situation is dreadful and the sounds of explosions never stopped," said Bassam, 57, from the Shaboura neighbourhood in Rafah. "People continue to leave Rafah ... no place looks safe now and people do not want to escape at the last minute," he told Reuters via a chat app.

[t-jfh]

Mourners at the funeral of multiple members of one family, who were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis in October 2023. Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed more than 22,000 Palestinians.

(Photo: Yousef Masoud for The New York Times)

At World Court, Israel to Confront Accusations of Genocide

The International Court of Justice, the United Nations’ highest judicial body, will begin hearings this week in a case brought by South Africa that accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. Israel has categorically rejected the allegations.

By Isabel Kershner and John Eligon

The New York Times - January 10, 2024

•

•

Israel says it only directs its military efforts against Hamas and other terrorist organisations. (Photo: Ariel Schalit / AP)

More than 22,000 Palestinians have died after three months of war, Gaza's health ministry says. (Photo: AFP - Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto)

Israel is facing genocide allegations at the UN's top court. What impact could the case have on the war in Gaza?

The first public hearings in South Africa's genocide case against Israel are set to take place in a high-stakes showdown at the United Nations' top court.

South Africa claims Israel is intending to destroy "a substantial part" of the Palestinian population in Gaza, and will present its argument before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Netherlands on Thursday (local time).

Israel — which has flatly rejected the allegation it is deliberately targeting civilians in its war against Hamas — will then present its defence against the genocide claim on Friday.

By Audrey Courty

ABC News - 11 January 2024

•

•

An expert says the laws of war are a range of principles that aim to reduce suffering.

(Photo: Fatima Shbair / AP)

Human Rights Watch alleges Israel is breaching the rules of war in Gaza — what are they?

There have been many references to "rules of war" being broken, and the UN is investigating whether war crimes have been committed by Israel and by Hamas. But what exactly qualifies as a war crime?

International humanitarian law expert Dr Helen Durham said the laws of war were not created to take a moral stance on a particular conflict but to offer a "balance between military necessity and the principle of humanity" when conflict does occur.

By Olivia Ralph

ABC News - 23 December 2023

•

•

Hilary Charlesworth was the first Australian woman elected to the International Court of Justice. (Photo: Supplied)

An injured Palestinian boy is carried from the ground following an Israeli airstrike outside the entrance of the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. (Photo: AP)

Australian judge to rule on genocide case that could upend war in Gaza

An esteemed Australian judge will help decide a crucial case at The Hague that could order Israel to suspend its military operations in Gaza as Israel seeks to rebut accusations it is committing genocide through its war against Hamas.

International law expert Hilary Charlesworth, the first Australian woman elected to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), will be one of the 17 judges to rule on the widely anticipated case, which will hold emergency hearings beginning overnight on Thursday and continuing into Friday (Australian time).

By Matthew Knott

The Sydney Morning Herald - January 11, 2024

•

•

The site of a music festival overrun by Hamas militants during an attack on Oct. 7, 2023.

(Photo: Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times)

U.N. Expert Will Investigate Reports of Sex Crimes by Hamas, Israel Says

The official accepted Israel’s invitation and is expected to go there soon, the foreign ministry said. Hamas has denied that its fighters committed sex crimes during the Oct. 7 attacks.

By Adam Sella

The New York Times - January 10, 2024

•

[arpov-blog-blog]

I continue to wonder why Israel was holding 150 women and children in prisons that they are now releasing in this exchange...."Hamas agreed to release 13 Israelis and seven foreigners late Saturday in exchange for 39 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, Qatari and Egyptian mediators said, after the militant group delayed the second round of swaps for several hours and claimed that Israel had violated the terms of a truce deal.

The last-minute snag had created a tense standoff on the second day of what was meant to be a four-day cease-fire. By nightfall, as the hostages should have emerged from Gaza, Hamas alleged that the aid deliveries permitted by Israel fell short of what was promised and that not enough of the aid was reaching northern Gaza — the focus of Israel’s ground offensive and main combat zone. Hamas also said not enough veteran prisoners were freed in the first swap on Friday.

“This is putting the deal in danger and we have spoken to mediators about that,” Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official, said in Beirut. But Egypt, Qatar and Hamas itself later said obstacles had been overcome, and Hamas issued a statement listing six women and 33 boys and teenagers it said were expected to be released by the Israelis.

While uncertainty around the details of the exchange remained, there was some optimism, too, amid earlier scenes of joyous families reuniting on both sides.

On the first day of the four-day cease-fire, Hamas released 24 of the roughly 240 hostages taken during its Oct. 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war, and Israel freed 39 Palestinians from prison. Those freed in Gaza were 13 Israelis, 10 Thais and a Filipino.

Overall, Hamas is to release at least 50 Israeli hostages, and Israel 150 Palestinian prisoners, during the four-day truce — all woman and minors."