• Win Real Money Online Instantly: Proven Methods for Immediate Financial Gain

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    In recent years, the quest to win real money online instantly has driven many towards innovative online platforms. Games like Slots Cash™ on the App Store and mobile gaming platforms provided by Skillz showcase how digital arenas are becoming lucrative sources of income for players worldwide 12. With platforms such as Swagbucks and InboxDollars, individuals have multiple pathways to earn by engaging in games, surveys, and various online tasks, enhancing the accessibility to instant financial gains 2.

    As technology advances, options to win span across a broad spectrum, including traditional and digital game forms. From classic slots with high Return to Player (RTP) percentages like Mega Joker and Blood Suckers, to engaging in the gig economy through apps that offer micro-jobs, users have a plethora of opportunities to win real money online instantly 32. This article explores proven methods for immediate financial gain, delving into the worlds of cashback apps, cryptocurrency, stock trading platforms, and more, providing readers with insights on navigating the digital landscape profitably.

    Exploring Micro-Jobs and Gig Economy Platforms

    Exploring the gig economy and micro-job platforms unveils a dynamic landscape where individuals can monetize their skills and services efficiently. Key platforms facilitating this include:

    Appen and Clickworker: Specializing in tasks that train artificial intelligence, ranging from object recognition in images to human interaction simulations 7.
    Amazon Mechanical Turk and Neevo: Offering a wide array of micro-tasks, these platforms help businesses outsource small, yet significant tasks, such as data annotation and manual task training for AI 7.
    Fiverr and Upwork: These platforms allow professionals to sell their services across various fields like design, writing, and music, catering to a broad audience looking for specialized skills 8.
    Moreover, platforms like TaskRabbit and PeoplePerHour provide opportunities for individuals to offer their services both locally and globally, thus expanding the potential for financial gain 89. The gig economy's flexibility and the diversity of available tasks make it an attractive option for those looking to win real money online instantly 6789.

    Leveraging Cashback and Rebate Apps

    Leveraging cashback and rebate apps is a savvy strategy for those looking to win real money online instantly. These apps offer a variety of ways to earn back a portion of your spending through everyday purchases, dining, and even travel. Here's a breakdown of some top-rated apps and their unique features:

    Ibotta and Rakuten: Both apps provide users with cashback on a wide range of shopping options. Ibotta requires users to activate offers and clip digital coupons, while Rakuten offers cash back on eligible purchases through their platform or browser extension. Users can receive their savings via bank deposit, PayPal, or gift cards once they reach the minimum threshold 12.
    Dosh and Upside: Dosh offers automatic cashback without the need to scan receipts, making it a hassle-free option. Upside provides cashback at grocery stores, restaurants, and gas stations, with some users earning up to 25 cents back per gallon of gas 1213.
    Specialty Apps:Fetch: Redeem any purchase receipts for points, exchangeable for gift cards. Despite some users finding it slow to accumulate rewards, the app boasts high ratings 11.Coupons.com: Online Promo Codes and Free Printable Coupons: Focuses on grocery coupons, automatically applying discounts when you link your store loyalty card 11.RetailMeNot: Known for coupons, this app also offers a cashback program, though not all stores participate 11.
    Each app has its own set of advantages and potential drawbacks, from ease of use to the range of participating retailers. By choosing the right combination of apps, users can maximize their cashback earnings and move closer to achieving their goal of winning real money online instantly 10111213.

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    Participating in the Sharing Economy

    Participating in the sharing economy can be a lucrative way to win real money online instantly. This sector allows individuals to capitalize on their unused or spare resources, from accommodation and transportation to personal belongings and skills. Here are some key opportunities:

    Accommodation & Space:List empty rooms or entire houses on platforms like Airbnb, Vrbo, or Booking.com: The largest selection of hotels, homes, and vacation rentals 14.Rent out underutilized spaces such as driveways, gardens, or parking spots through Neighbor | The Cheaper, Closer & Safer Storage Marketplace or Campspace 16.
    Transportation:Share your car via Turo or Getaround, or become a ride-sharing driver with Uber or Lyft 14.Unique options like turning your car into a moving billboard with Carvertise - Advertise On Uber, Lyft, and Grubhub Cars offer additional income streams 14.
    Personal Belongings & Skills:Platforms like Poshmark or Spinlister allow you to rent out clothes or sports equipment 14.Share your knowledge by creating online courses on Udemy or Teachable 14.
    The sharing economy's flexibility and low entry barriers make it an appealing option for those looking to supplement their income. With the industry projected to grow significantly, exploring these avenues could lead to substantial financial benefits 17.

    Investing in Cryptocurrency and Stock Trading Apps

    Investing in the digital currency and stock markets offers a diverse range of options for those aiming to win real money online instantly. Key platforms and their features include:

    Cryptocurrency Exchanges:Crypto Trading Platform | Buy, Sell, & Trade Crypto in the US | Binance.US: Offers trading in over 150 coins with fees starting at 0.57 percent for less-common coins, decreasing for high-volume traders. A 5 percent discount on fees is available with BNB payment 19.Coinbase: Known for its wide selection of cryptocurrencies, with fees typically at least 1.99 percent. Lower fees are available through Coinbase Advanced Trade 19.Kraken: Features a vast selection of 236 cryptocurrencies, with fees starting at 0.26 percent. Additional fees apply for card and online banking transactions 19.
    Stock and Cryptocurrency Trading Apps:Robinhood: Offers commission-free trading in stocks, ETFs, options, and cryptocurrencies, making it a popular choice for beginners. No minimum deposit required 22.E*TRADE: Provides a user-friendly mobile app and access to a wide range of investment options including stocks, options, ETFs, and mutual funds. Charges $0 commission for online US-listed stock, ETF, and options trades 22.TD Ameritrade: Known for its educational resources and tools, this platform also offers a robust mobile app and access to a broad spectrum of investment options. No minimum deposit required 22.
    These platforms provide various features tailored to different investing needs, from simple peer-to-peer payments to advanced trading strategies. By carefully selecting the right platform, individuals can enhance their prospects of financial gain in the digital marketplace 18192022.

    Conclusion

    This exploration into the myriad ways to win real money online has illuminated a diverse landscape of opportunities, each catering to different interests, skills, and investment levels. The gig economy, cashback and rebate apps, the sharing economy, and digital investing platforms are proven pathways that can lead to immediate financial gain. These methods reinforce the notion that with the right strategies and platforms, individuals can effectively navigate the digital realm to enhance their financial situation.

    Moreover, the significance of these opportunities extends beyond individual gain, highlighting a shift towards a more accessible and flexible economic landscape. As we venture further into this digital era, the potential for innovation and growth in these areas is immense, promising even more avenues for financial success. Embracing these options not only offers immediate benefits but also sets the stage for ongoing financial empowerment and independence, urging readers to explore these avenues with keen interest and informed perspective.

    FAQs

    How can I quickly earn legitimate money?

    To earn money quickly and legitimately, you can adopt various strategies such as:

    Driving for rideshare services
    Freelancing in your area of expertise
    Selling unused gift cards
    Renting out your car or parking space
    Referring friends to apps
    Searching for unclaimed money
    Delivering groceries or takeout
    Selling your clothes online
    What apps can pay me real money immediately?

    Some popular apps that pay out real money instantly include:

    Gaming Apps: Play games and compete with others for rewards (e.g., Mistplay, Lucktastic, Swagbucks Games).
    Survey Apps: Provide your opinions on various products and services to earn cash or gift cards.
    What are some methods to get money right away?

    You can obtain money instantly by:

    Selling spare electronics
    Selling unused gift cards
    Pawning items
    Working for immediate pay
    Seeking community loans and assistance
    Requesting bill forbearance
    Asking for a payroll advance
    Which app is the most trustworthy for earning money?

    Some of the most reliable apps for making money include:

    Swagbucks: Best for earning gift cards
    Survey Junkie: Best for completing online surveys
    Rocket Money: Best for managing finances
    DoorDash: Best for delivery drivers
    Rakuten Rewards: Best for cash back on purchases
    Upside: Best for rewards at gas stations
    Upwork: Best for freelancers looking for gigs

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    Win Real Money Online Instantly: Proven Methods for Immediate Financial Gain Win Real Money Online Instantly Join Here 👇👇 https://grabify.link/S7MPC7 In recent years, the quest to win real money online instantly has driven many towards innovative online platforms. Games like Slots Cash™ on the App Store and mobile gaming platforms provided by Skillz showcase how digital arenas are becoming lucrative sources of income for players worldwide 12. With platforms such as Swagbucks and InboxDollars, individuals have multiple pathways to earn by engaging in games, surveys, and various online tasks, enhancing the accessibility to instant financial gains 2. As technology advances, options to win span across a broad spectrum, including traditional and digital game forms. From classic slots with high Return to Player (RTP) percentages like Mega Joker and Blood Suckers, to engaging in the gig economy through apps that offer micro-jobs, users have a plethora of opportunities to win real money online instantly 32. This article explores proven methods for immediate financial gain, delving into the worlds of cashback apps, cryptocurrency, stock trading platforms, and more, providing readers with insights on navigating the digital landscape profitably. Exploring Micro-Jobs and Gig Economy Platforms Exploring the gig economy and micro-job platforms unveils a dynamic landscape where individuals can monetize their skills and services efficiently. Key platforms facilitating this include: Appen and Clickworker: Specializing in tasks that train artificial intelligence, ranging from object recognition in images to human interaction simulations 7. Amazon Mechanical Turk and Neevo: Offering a wide array of micro-tasks, these platforms help businesses outsource small, yet significant tasks, such as data annotation and manual task training for AI 7. Fiverr and Upwork: These platforms allow professionals to sell their services across various fields like design, writing, and music, catering to a broad audience looking for specialized skills 8. Moreover, platforms like TaskRabbit and PeoplePerHour provide opportunities for individuals to offer their services both locally and globally, thus expanding the potential for financial gain 89. The gig economy's flexibility and the diversity of available tasks make it an attractive option for those looking to win real money online instantly 6789. Leveraging Cashback and Rebate Apps Leveraging cashback and rebate apps is a savvy strategy for those looking to win real money online instantly. These apps offer a variety of ways to earn back a portion of your spending through everyday purchases, dining, and even travel. Here's a breakdown of some top-rated apps and their unique features: Ibotta and Rakuten: Both apps provide users with cashback on a wide range of shopping options. Ibotta requires users to activate offers and clip digital coupons, while Rakuten offers cash back on eligible purchases through their platform or browser extension. Users can receive their savings via bank deposit, PayPal, or gift cards once they reach the minimum threshold 12. Dosh and Upside: Dosh offers automatic cashback without the need to scan receipts, making it a hassle-free option. Upside provides cashback at grocery stores, restaurants, and gas stations, with some users earning up to 25 cents back per gallon of gas 1213. Specialty Apps:Fetch: Redeem any purchase receipts for points, exchangeable for gift cards. Despite some users finding it slow to accumulate rewards, the app boasts high ratings 11.Coupons.com: Online Promo Codes and Free Printable Coupons: Focuses on grocery coupons, automatically applying discounts when you link your store loyalty card 11.RetailMeNot: Known for coupons, this app also offers a cashback program, though not all stores participate 11. Each app has its own set of advantages and potential drawbacks, from ease of use to the range of participating retailers. By choosing the right combination of apps, users can maximize their cashback earnings and move closer to achieving their goal of winning real money online instantly 10111213. Win Real Money Online Instantly Here is the Way 👇👇 https://grabify.link/S7MPC7 Participating in the Sharing Economy Participating in the sharing economy can be a lucrative way to win real money online instantly. This sector allows individuals to capitalize on their unused or spare resources, from accommodation and transportation to personal belongings and skills. Here are some key opportunities: Accommodation & Space:List empty rooms or entire houses on platforms like Airbnb, Vrbo, or Booking.com: The largest selection of hotels, homes, and vacation rentals 14.Rent out underutilized spaces such as driveways, gardens, or parking spots through Neighbor | The Cheaper, Closer & Safer Storage Marketplace or Campspace 16. Transportation:Share your car via Turo or Getaround, or become a ride-sharing driver with Uber or Lyft 14.Unique options like turning your car into a moving billboard with Carvertise - Advertise On Uber, Lyft, and Grubhub Cars offer additional income streams 14. Personal Belongings & Skills:Platforms like Poshmark or Spinlister allow you to rent out clothes or sports equipment 14.Share your knowledge by creating online courses on Udemy or Teachable 14. The sharing economy's flexibility and low entry barriers make it an appealing option for those looking to supplement their income. With the industry projected to grow significantly, exploring these avenues could lead to substantial financial benefits 17. Investing in Cryptocurrency and Stock Trading Apps Investing in the digital currency and stock markets offers a diverse range of options for those aiming to win real money online instantly. Key platforms and their features include: Cryptocurrency Exchanges:Crypto Trading Platform | Buy, Sell, & Trade Crypto in the US | Binance.US: Offers trading in over 150 coins with fees starting at 0.57 percent for less-common coins, decreasing for high-volume traders. A 5 percent discount on fees is available with BNB payment 19.Coinbase: Known for its wide selection of cryptocurrencies, with fees typically at least 1.99 percent. Lower fees are available through Coinbase Advanced Trade 19.Kraken: Features a vast selection of 236 cryptocurrencies, with fees starting at 0.26 percent. Additional fees apply for card and online banking transactions 19. Stock and Cryptocurrency Trading Apps:Robinhood: Offers commission-free trading in stocks, ETFs, options, and cryptocurrencies, making it a popular choice for beginners. No minimum deposit required 22.E*TRADE: Provides a user-friendly mobile app and access to a wide range of investment options including stocks, options, ETFs, and mutual funds. Charges $0 commission for online US-listed stock, ETF, and options trades 22.TD Ameritrade: Known for its educational resources and tools, this platform also offers a robust mobile app and access to a broad spectrum of investment options. No minimum deposit required 22. These platforms provide various features tailored to different investing needs, from simple peer-to-peer payments to advanced trading strategies. By carefully selecting the right platform, individuals can enhance their prospects of financial gain in the digital marketplace 18192022. Conclusion This exploration into the myriad ways to win real money online has illuminated a diverse landscape of opportunities, each catering to different interests, skills, and investment levels. The gig economy, cashback and rebate apps, the sharing economy, and digital investing platforms are proven pathways that can lead to immediate financial gain. These methods reinforce the notion that with the right strategies and platforms, individuals can effectively navigate the digital realm to enhance their financial situation. Moreover, the significance of these opportunities extends beyond individual gain, highlighting a shift towards a more accessible and flexible economic landscape. As we venture further into this digital era, the potential for innovation and growth in these areas is immense, promising even more avenues for financial success. Embracing these options not only offers immediate benefits but also sets the stage for ongoing financial empowerment and independence, urging readers to explore these avenues with keen interest and informed perspective. FAQs How can I quickly earn legitimate money? To earn money quickly and legitimately, you can adopt various strategies such as: Driving for rideshare services Freelancing in your area of expertise Selling unused gift cards Renting out your car or parking space Referring friends to apps Searching for unclaimed money Delivering groceries or takeout Selling your clothes online What apps can pay me real money immediately? Some popular apps that pay out real money instantly include: Gaming Apps: Play games and compete with others for rewards (e.g., Mistplay, Lucktastic, Swagbucks Games). Survey Apps: Provide your opinions on various products and services to earn cash or gift cards. What are some methods to get money right away? You can obtain money instantly by: Selling spare electronics Selling unused gift cards Pawning items Working for immediate pay Seeking community loans and assistance Requesting bill forbearance Asking for a payroll advance Which app is the most trustworthy for earning money? Some of the most reliable apps for making money include: Swagbucks: Best for earning gift cards Survey Junkie: Best for completing online surveys Rocket Money: Best for managing finances DoorDash: Best for delivery drivers Rakuten Rewards: Best for cash back on purchases Upside: Best for rewards at gas stations Upwork: Best for freelancers looking for gigs Win Real Money Instantly Here 👇👇 https://grabify.link/S7MPC7 #onlinemoney #makemoney #realmoney #cashapp #giveaway #cashappblessing #giftcard #freegiftcard
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  • Israel's barbaric raid on Al-Shifa Hospital enters day six
    Israeli forces have abducted and killed hundreds of Palestinians sheltering in the hospital complex during the week-long assault


    As Israel continues its raid of the Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City for the sixth day in a row on 23 March, Gaza's Government Media Office was told by medical staff and displaced trapped inside that the army is threatening them with either destroying the hospital or torturing, interrogating, and executing them.

    The government media office said in a statement, "There are testimonies from within the Al-Shifa Medical Complex indicating that the occupation army threatened the medical staff inside the hospital buildings and the displaced, that it would bomb those buildings and destroy them over their heads, or that they would go out for torture, investigation, and execution."

    Al-Shifa Hospital used to be Gaza's largest and most equipped medical facility. Now, it lacks the means to treat patients altogether. Infections are spreading among trapped patients, and nurses are being executed.

    This invasion has been marketed as the further "destruction" of Hamas by the Israeli army, which claims it has arrested at least 500 and killed 170 fighters. Israel maintains that resistance fighters are "holed up" in the hospital.

    In a video statement on Thursday, Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the assault would continue for "several more days." He claimed Israeli forces had detained over "500 suspects, 358 of which are Hamas and Islamic Jihad," and distributed a photo collage claiming to show their faces.

    However, the army provided no supporting evidence of the identities of the detainees, and some of the images originated from Palestinian Authority ID cards.

    The army later admitted the photo collage mistakenly included people "who have not yet been caught."

    It said that "due to human error, there are several photos in the graphic of terrorists who have not yet been caught but are, according to the information we have, in the area of ​​the hospital and are entrenched there."

    "When the operation is over, the identities of all the terrorists will be published," the army claimed.

    On 21 March, a Hamas security official told Al-Jazeera that the detainees' photos released by the Israeli army were inaccurate, adding that some were outside of Gaza, some dead, and some previously released. He said that the claim that dozens of resistance leaders were arrested is false, dismissing it as psychological warfare.

    One of the men pictured in the collage is Pediatric Doctor Anwar Sheikh Khalil, the Dean of the Medical Faculty at IUG University.

    AFP spoke to eyewitnesses at the hospital who said that "all men," including the sick and physically disabled, had been abducted by the Israeli army.

    A woman named Mariam said: "They asked us at around dawn with loudspeakers to go out or they would bomb the building."

    A 60-year-old patient interviewed by AFP said the army forced him to take his clothes off, and he was blindfolded and interrogated before being released.

    The Director General of the Government Information Office, Ismail Al-Thawabta, stated that Israeli forces killed more than 100 people inside the Al-Shifa Complex, including some medical personnel who were executed inside the complex.

    Thawabta reported that four patients were killed inside the hospital when Israeli forces prevented their treatment.

    Newly-released detainees and eyewitnesses told Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor earlier this week that Israeli forces executed abductees from the hospital.

    A survivor who asked to be identified only as “M.K.” stated to the rights monitor that, “The soldiers detained me and handcuffed me in the hospital courtyard; I was left undressed for more than nine hours."

    “About four times during that period, I saw soldiers lead groups of detainees—[always] at least three people and Never more than 10—into the hospital buildings, particularly the morgue building where bodies had previously been kept,” added M.K. “Gunshots were heard, with the soldiers then leaving the area to bring another group there," he said.

    https://thecradle.co/articles-id/24042
    Israel's barbaric raid on Al-Shifa Hospital enters day six Israeli forces have abducted and killed hundreds of Palestinians sheltering in the hospital complex during the week-long assault As Israel continues its raid of the Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City for the sixth day in a row on 23 March, Gaza's Government Media Office was told by medical staff and displaced trapped inside that the army is threatening them with either destroying the hospital or torturing, interrogating, and executing them. The government media office said in a statement, "There are testimonies from within the Al-Shifa Medical Complex indicating that the occupation army threatened the medical staff inside the hospital buildings and the displaced, that it would bomb those buildings and destroy them over their heads, or that they would go out for torture, investigation, and execution." Al-Shifa Hospital used to be Gaza's largest and most equipped medical facility. Now, it lacks the means to treat patients altogether. Infections are spreading among trapped patients, and nurses are being executed. This invasion has been marketed as the further "destruction" of Hamas by the Israeli army, which claims it has arrested at least 500 and killed 170 fighters. Israel maintains that resistance fighters are "holed up" in the hospital. In a video statement on Thursday, Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the assault would continue for "several more days." He claimed Israeli forces had detained over "500 suspects, 358 of which are Hamas and Islamic Jihad," and distributed a photo collage claiming to show their faces. However, the army provided no supporting evidence of the identities of the detainees, and some of the images originated from Palestinian Authority ID cards. The army later admitted the photo collage mistakenly included people "who have not yet been caught." It said that "due to human error, there are several photos in the graphic of terrorists who have not yet been caught but are, according to the information we have, in the area of ​​the hospital and are entrenched there." "When the operation is over, the identities of all the terrorists will be published," the army claimed. On 21 March, a Hamas security official told Al-Jazeera that the detainees' photos released by the Israeli army were inaccurate, adding that some were outside of Gaza, some dead, and some previously released. He said that the claim that dozens of resistance leaders were arrested is false, dismissing it as psychological warfare. One of the men pictured in the collage is Pediatric Doctor Anwar Sheikh Khalil, the Dean of the Medical Faculty at IUG University. AFP spoke to eyewitnesses at the hospital who said that "all men," including the sick and physically disabled, had been abducted by the Israeli army. A woman named Mariam said: "They asked us at around dawn with loudspeakers to go out or they would bomb the building." A 60-year-old patient interviewed by AFP said the army forced him to take his clothes off, and he was blindfolded and interrogated before being released. The Director General of the Government Information Office, Ismail Al-Thawabta, stated that Israeli forces killed more than 100 people inside the Al-Shifa Complex, including some medical personnel who were executed inside the complex. Thawabta reported that four patients were killed inside the hospital when Israeli forces prevented their treatment. Newly-released detainees and eyewitnesses told Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor earlier this week that Israeli forces executed abductees from the hospital. A survivor who asked to be identified only as “M.K.” stated to the rights monitor that, “The soldiers detained me and handcuffed me in the hospital courtyard; I was left undressed for more than nine hours." “About four times during that period, I saw soldiers lead groups of detainees—[always] at least three people and [never] more than 10—into the hospital buildings, particularly the morgue building where bodies had previously been kept,” added M.K. “Gunshots were heard, with the soldiers then leaving the area to bring another group there," he said. https://thecradle.co/articles-id/24042
    THECRADLE.CO
    Israel's barbaric raid on Al-Shifa Hospital enters day six
    Israeli forces have abducted and killed hundreds of Palestinians sheltering in the hospital complex during the week-long assault
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  • ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 165: Israeli attacks escalate on Rafah, al-Shifa Hospital invasion enters second day
    Mustafa Abu SneinehMarch 19, 2024
    A Palestinian man inspects a destroyed building following an Israeli air attack on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, March 19 2024. (Photo: © Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa via ZUMA Press APA Images)
    A Palestinian man inspects a destroyed building following an Israeli air attack on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, March 19 2024. (Photo: © Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa via ZUMA Press APA Images)
    Casualties

    31,819 + killed* and at least 73,934 wounded in the Gaza Strip.
    435+ Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.**
    Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,147.
    594 Israeli soldiers killed since October 7, and at least 3,221 injured.***
    *Gaza’s Ministry of Health confirmed this figure on Telegram channel. Some rights groups put the death toll number at more than 40,000 when accounting for those presumed dead.

    ** The death toll in West Bank and Jerusalem is not updated regularly. According to PA’s Ministry of Health on March 17, this is the latest figure.

    *** This figure is released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.”

    Key Developments

    Palestinian Authority warns that Israel started offensive on Rafah without official announcement to avoid international pressure.
    Majed Al-Ansari, spokesperson for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, says Israeli attack on Rafah will negatively affect the ceasefire talks in Doha.
    Ansari says “it is still too early to talk about any breakthrough in the negotiations” between Israel and Hamas, but mediators remain “optimistic.”
    All communication with Palestinian medical staff trapped inside al-Shifa Hospital went silent on Monday evening
    Israel arrests Al-Jazeera correspondent Ismail Al-Ghoul in al-Shifa Hospital. He says Israeli forces detained them for 12 hours, destroyed media tent, and seized smartphones, cameras, and laptops from journalists.
    WHO chief says, “hospitals should never be battlegrounds. We are terribly worried about the situation at al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, which is endangering health workers, patients, and civilians.”
    Israel bombs several houses on Al-Jalaa Street in north Gaza, close to al-Shifa Hospital, killing and injuring several Palestinians and causing immense damage.
    Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA chief, was barred entry by Israel to Rafah, while Tel Aviv says he did not follow “proper procedure.”
    Lazzarini says his visit “was supposed to coordinate and improve the humanitarian response. This man-made starvation under our watch is a stain on our collective humanity.”
    Israeli settlers vandalize UNRWA’s headquarters in occupied Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and affix posters on main gate calling for its closure.
    In Jerusalem, only 25,000 Palestinians were allowed by Israeli forces to enter Al-Aqsa Mosque to perform Ramadan’s prayer on the ninth night.
    Ahmed Al-Tibi, Palestinian Knesset member, warns that the life of national figure and Fatah leader Marwan Al-Barghouti is at risk inside Israeli prison.
    PA warns that “Israel began to destroy Rafah”

    The Palestinian Authority (PA) warned that Israel has started an offensive on Rafah without an official announcement to avoid international pressure.

    Overnight, Israel heavily bombed Rafah, killing at least 14 Palestinians in the area where more than one million people are displaced, the majority of them living in tents.

    “Israel began to destroy Rafah on a daily basis and in a systematic manner through repeated attacks on homes, bombing them, and killing and wounding dozens of civilians,” the PA’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday.

    It added that to avoid condemnation and international pressure to halt such attacks, “Israel… did not wait for permission from anyone, and did not announce” the operation publicly.

    The escalation of Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling in Rafah comes as the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is visiting the region where talks between Israel and Hamas continue in Qatar, but has not seen any breakthrough to reach a ceasefire and hostages’ exchange deal.

    Israel has bombed several areas in Rafah overnight, targeting mainly Palestinian homes and residential blocks, according to Wafa, including the neighborhoods of Musabah, Khirbet Al-Adas, and Al-Jeneina.

    On Tuesday, Majed Al-Ansari, the spokesperson for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, said that an attack on Rafah would negatively affect the ceasefire talks in Doha.

    “Any attack on Rafah will lead to a humanitarian catastrophe and will negatively affect the progress of the talks,” he said. Ansari added that mediators are working on a temporary ceasefire deal to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.

    “It is still too early to talk about any breakthrough in the negotiations, but we are optimistic about that,” he said, according to Al-Jazeera Arabic.

    Displaced Palestinians fleeing from the vicinity of Gaza City's al-Shifa hospital arrive at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on March 18, 2024. (Photo: Naaman Omar/APA Images)
    Displaced Palestinians fleeing from the vicinity of Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital arrive at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on March 18, 2024. (Photo: Naaman Omar/APA Images)
    Al-Shifa Hospital under Israeli control for second day

    In north Gaza, Israel forces storming of the al-Shifa Hospital has been ongoing since late on Sunday.

    All communication with medical staff trapped inside the hospital went silent on Monday evening. This is the second time Israeli forces stormed the al-Shifa Hospital since October, this time claiming that there were Hamas figures inside it, but has yet to provide evidence.

    A fire broke out in the al-Shifa’s specialized surgery building after the Israeli assault began. Around 25,000 Palestinians were sheltering in the medical complex, and Israel arrested 90 Palestinians, including journalists from inside al-Shifa. Among them was Al-Jazeera’s correspondent in north Gaza, Ismail al-Ghoul, who was released after 12 hours of detention.

    Al-Ghoul later said that Israeli forces destroyed the media tent inside the al-Shifa Hospital and seized smartphones, cameras, and laptops from journalists who were arrested and stripped of their clothes.

    “The [Israeli] occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us and interrogated all the journalists present in the place,” he told Al-Jazeera Arabic in a phone call on Monday.

    Al-Ghoul is one of the few journalists who report from north Gaza to a mainstream TV channel. He recently reported Israeli forces killing hundreds of Palestinians who gathered to get flour, aid and food near the Al-Nabulsi roundabout and Al-Rashid Street in Gaza City.

    “Hospitals should never be battlegrounds”

    Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the chief of World Health Organization (WHO), said that “hospitals should never be battlegrounds. We are terribly worried about the situation at al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, which is endangering health workers, patients, and civilians.”

    Ghebreyesus added that the al-Shifa Hospital is partially operating. In November, Israeli forces stormed the complex following days of siege, claiming that Hamas hosted a “command center” underneath the facility and has yet to present a proof.

    Israel also bombed several houses on Al-Jalaa Street in north Gaza, which is close to the al-Shifa Hospital, killing and injuring several Palestinians and causing immense damage to the area.

    Some Palestinians were walking on Al-Jalaa Street at the time of the air raids, others came back from getting flour to find their apartments bombed while their families were inside.

    In the past 24 hours, Israeli forces committed several massacres in various areas of the Gaza Strip, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health on Telegram, killing at least 93 people and injuring 142. Thousands remain under the rubble of bombed buildings.

    Israeli bombing killed 16 Palestinians in north Gaza overnight. At least 15 people were killed in an Israeli air raid on a house of the Muqbel family in central Gaza City. The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said that 14 members have been killed since the Israeli aggression started on Gaza in October.

    In north Gaza, Israel bombed the house of the Al-Banna family in Jabalia, killing at least eight people, Wafa reported. Hundreds of Palestinians saw their tents sink or blown away as a result of strong wind and torrential rain in Deir al-Balah, Rafah, and the Al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis overnight, Wafa reported.

    Israel denies entry for UNRWA chief to Rafah

    Philippe Lazzarini, the chief of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), was barred entry to Rafah by Israel, as Tel Aviv claimed he did not follow “proper procedure.”

    Last month, Lazzarini accused Israel of aiming to destroy UNRWA and defended the organization’s relentless work in offering humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

    “I intended to go to Rafah today, but I have been informed an hour ago that my entry into Rafah is declined,” Lazzarini said during a press conference in Cairo on Monday alongside the Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry.

    Shoukry said that Lazzarini was barred by Israel. “You were declined by the Israeli government, refused the entry, which is an unprecedented move for a representative at this high position,” he said.

    Although the Rafah crossing is an entry point between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, Israel is in charge of who can enter or leave the enclave, according to the Israeli-Egyptian agreement.

    Lazzarini also accused Israel of creating a man-made famine in Gaza and said that UNRWA was “engaged in a race against the clock to try to reverse the impact of the spreading hunger and the looming famine in the Gaza Strip.”

    He added that his visit “was supposed to coordinate and improve the humanitarian response. This man-made starvation under our watch is a stain on our collective humanity.”

    “Too much time was wasted, all land crossings must open now. Famine can be averted with political will,” Lazzarini said.

    Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur for Palestine, wrote on X platform that “Israel wants no witnesses, no truth-tellers”, in a comment on Lazzarini’s entry denial.

    On Monday, Israeli settlers vandalized the headquarters of UNRWA in occupied Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. They have affixed posters on the main gate calling for the shutdown of UNRWA agency, which also provides humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Jerusalem’s refugee camps, and operate in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan.

    Muslims who managed to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque are seen performing tarawih and night prayers during holy month of Ramadan in Jerusalem on March 17, 2024. (Photo: Department of Islamic Awqaf in Jerusalem/APA Images)
    Muslims who managed to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque are seen performing tarawih and night prayers during holy month of Ramadan in Jerusalem on March 17, 2024. (Photo: Department of Islamic Waqf in Jerusalem/APA Images)
    Israeli settlers attack Deir Istiya village

    Overnight, Israeli forces arrested several Palestinians from the occupied West Bank towns of Hebron, Jenin, Qalqilya, Nablus, and the Balata refugee camp.

    In Jerusalem, only 25,000 Palestinians were allowed by Israeli forces to enter Al-Aqsa Mosque to perform Ramadan’s Al-Tarawih prayer on the ninth night. This is a sharp drop from the 60,000 Palestinians who performed Al-Tarawih on Saturday night.

    Israeli authorities are still limiting the number of Palestinians from the West Bank to enter Jerusalem. Last week, Israeli forces set up at least 30 makeshift checkpoints on the outskirts of the Old City, at the city’s gates and the entrances of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

    Since October, Israel has issued 100 deportation orders against Palestinian residents of Jerusalem and Palestinian citizens of Israel, barring 55 of them from entry to Jerusalem and 45 to Al-Aqsa Mosque, according to Wadi Hilweh Human Rights Information Center.

    Wadi Hilweh added that this has become a routine policy “to deprive Palestinians of their right to worship and visit Al-Aqsa,” especially around religious occasions such as Ramadan.

    In the north of the West Bank, Israeli settlers attacked Deir Istiya village near Salfit, stole contents from an agricultural room owned by Youssef Salman, and destroyed the solar panels, Wafa reported.

    Marwan Al-Barghouti’s life is in danger inside Israeli prison

    Ahmed Al-Tibi, the Palestinian member of the Israeli Knesset, warned that the life of Marwan Al-Barghouti is at risk inside Israeli prison.

    Barghouti, a popular national figure and Fatah leader was put in solitary confinement in Megiddo prison. Since October, he has moved between several detention centers, including Ofer, Ramla, and Rimonim.

    “Marwan Al-Barghouti’s life is in danger inside the prison due to the assault on him and other detainees. I hold Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responsible for any harm caused to him, his life, or the lives of the prisoners,” Al-Tibi said in a video post on the X platform.

    He added that Barghouti was assaulted and bled as a result, and warned that since October, 13 Palestinians died inside Israeli jail, “some of them were found murdered, according to families and judges, due to violence and torture.”

    Barghouti is seen by Palestinians as a national figure who could bridge the schism between Fatah and Hamas and lead a future Palestinian state. Hamas insisted that Barghouti will be among the prisoners that will be released in any exchange deal with Israel.

    Last month, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the National Security Minister, said that he ordered the transfer of Barghouti to solitary confinement in prison “following information about a planned uprising” in the occupied West Bank.

    https://mondoweiss.net/2024/03/operation-al-aqsa-flood-day-165-israeli-attacks-escalate-on-rafah-al-shifa-hospital-invasion-enters-second-day/

    https://telegra.ph/Operation-Al-Aqsa-Flood-Day-165-Israeli-attacks-escalate-on-Rafah-al-Shifa-Hospital-invasion-enters-second-day-03-20
    ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 165: Israeli attacks escalate on Rafah, al-Shifa Hospital invasion enters second day Mustafa Abu SneinehMarch 19, 2024 A Palestinian man inspects a destroyed building following an Israeli air attack on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, March 19 2024. (Photo: © Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa via ZUMA Press APA Images) A Palestinian man inspects a destroyed building following an Israeli air attack on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, March 19 2024. (Photo: © Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa via ZUMA Press APA Images) Casualties 31,819 + killed* and at least 73,934 wounded in the Gaza Strip. 435+ Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.** Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,147. 594 Israeli soldiers killed since October 7, and at least 3,221 injured.*** *Gaza’s Ministry of Health confirmed this figure on Telegram channel. Some rights groups put the death toll number at more than 40,000 when accounting for those presumed dead. ** The death toll in West Bank and Jerusalem is not updated regularly. According to PA’s Ministry of Health on March 17, this is the latest figure. *** This figure is released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.” Key Developments Palestinian Authority warns that Israel started offensive on Rafah without official announcement to avoid international pressure. Majed Al-Ansari, spokesperson for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, says Israeli attack on Rafah will negatively affect the ceasefire talks in Doha. Ansari says “it is still too early to talk about any breakthrough in the negotiations” between Israel and Hamas, but mediators remain “optimistic.” All communication with Palestinian medical staff trapped inside al-Shifa Hospital went silent on Monday evening Israel arrests Al-Jazeera correspondent Ismail Al-Ghoul in al-Shifa Hospital. He says Israeli forces detained them for 12 hours, destroyed media tent, and seized smartphones, cameras, and laptops from journalists. WHO chief says, “hospitals should never be battlegrounds. We are terribly worried about the situation at al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, which is endangering health workers, patients, and civilians.” Israel bombs several houses on Al-Jalaa Street in north Gaza, close to al-Shifa Hospital, killing and injuring several Palestinians and causing immense damage. Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA chief, was barred entry by Israel to Rafah, while Tel Aviv says he did not follow “proper procedure.” Lazzarini says his visit “was supposed to coordinate and improve the humanitarian response. This man-made starvation under our watch is a stain on our collective humanity.” Israeli settlers vandalize UNRWA’s headquarters in occupied Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and affix posters on main gate calling for its closure. In Jerusalem, only 25,000 Palestinians were allowed by Israeli forces to enter Al-Aqsa Mosque to perform Ramadan’s prayer on the ninth night. Ahmed Al-Tibi, Palestinian Knesset member, warns that the life of national figure and Fatah leader Marwan Al-Barghouti is at risk inside Israeli prison. PA warns that “Israel began to destroy Rafah” The Palestinian Authority (PA) warned that Israel has started an offensive on Rafah without an official announcement to avoid international pressure. Overnight, Israel heavily bombed Rafah, killing at least 14 Palestinians in the area where more than one million people are displaced, the majority of them living in tents. “Israel began to destroy Rafah on a daily basis and in a systematic manner through repeated attacks on homes, bombing them, and killing and wounding dozens of civilians,” the PA’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday. It added that to avoid condemnation and international pressure to halt such attacks, “Israel… did not wait for permission from anyone, and did not announce” the operation publicly. The escalation of Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling in Rafah comes as the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is visiting the region where talks between Israel and Hamas continue in Qatar, but has not seen any breakthrough to reach a ceasefire and hostages’ exchange deal. Israel has bombed several areas in Rafah overnight, targeting mainly Palestinian homes and residential blocks, according to Wafa, including the neighborhoods of Musabah, Khirbet Al-Adas, and Al-Jeneina. On Tuesday, Majed Al-Ansari, the spokesperson for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, said that an attack on Rafah would negatively affect the ceasefire talks in Doha. “Any attack on Rafah will lead to a humanitarian catastrophe and will negatively affect the progress of the talks,” he said. Ansari added that mediators are working on a temporary ceasefire deal to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. “It is still too early to talk about any breakthrough in the negotiations, but we are optimistic about that,” he said, according to Al-Jazeera Arabic. Displaced Palestinians fleeing from the vicinity of Gaza City's al-Shifa hospital arrive at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on March 18, 2024. (Photo: Naaman Omar/APA Images) Displaced Palestinians fleeing from the vicinity of Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital arrive at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on March 18, 2024. (Photo: Naaman Omar/APA Images) Al-Shifa Hospital under Israeli control for second day In north Gaza, Israel forces storming of the al-Shifa Hospital has been ongoing since late on Sunday. All communication with medical staff trapped inside the hospital went silent on Monday evening. This is the second time Israeli forces stormed the al-Shifa Hospital since October, this time claiming that there were Hamas figures inside it, but has yet to provide evidence. A fire broke out in the al-Shifa’s specialized surgery building after the Israeli assault began. Around 25,000 Palestinians were sheltering in the medical complex, and Israel arrested 90 Palestinians, including journalists from inside al-Shifa. Among them was Al-Jazeera’s correspondent in north Gaza, Ismail al-Ghoul, who was released after 12 hours of detention. Al-Ghoul later said that Israeli forces destroyed the media tent inside the al-Shifa Hospital and seized smartphones, cameras, and laptops from journalists who were arrested and stripped of their clothes. “The [Israeli] occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us and interrogated all the journalists present in the place,” he told Al-Jazeera Arabic in a phone call on Monday. Al-Ghoul is one of the few journalists who report from north Gaza to a mainstream TV channel. He recently reported Israeli forces killing hundreds of Palestinians who gathered to get flour, aid and food near the Al-Nabulsi roundabout and Al-Rashid Street in Gaza City. “Hospitals should never be battlegrounds” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the chief of World Health Organization (WHO), said that “hospitals should never be battlegrounds. We are terribly worried about the situation at al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, which is endangering health workers, patients, and civilians.” Ghebreyesus added that the al-Shifa Hospital is partially operating. In November, Israeli forces stormed the complex following days of siege, claiming that Hamas hosted a “command center” underneath the facility and has yet to present a proof. Israel also bombed several houses on Al-Jalaa Street in north Gaza, which is close to the al-Shifa Hospital, killing and injuring several Palestinians and causing immense damage to the area. Some Palestinians were walking on Al-Jalaa Street at the time of the air raids, others came back from getting flour to find their apartments bombed while their families were inside. In the past 24 hours, Israeli forces committed several massacres in various areas of the Gaza Strip, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health on Telegram, killing at least 93 people and injuring 142. Thousands remain under the rubble of bombed buildings. Israeli bombing killed 16 Palestinians in north Gaza overnight. At least 15 people were killed in an Israeli air raid on a house of the Muqbel family in central Gaza City. The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said that 14 members have been killed since the Israeli aggression started on Gaza in October. In north Gaza, Israel bombed the house of the Al-Banna family in Jabalia, killing at least eight people, Wafa reported. Hundreds of Palestinians saw their tents sink or blown away as a result of strong wind and torrential rain in Deir al-Balah, Rafah, and the Al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis overnight, Wafa reported. Israel denies entry for UNRWA chief to Rafah Philippe Lazzarini, the chief of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), was barred entry to Rafah by Israel, as Tel Aviv claimed he did not follow “proper procedure.” Last month, Lazzarini accused Israel of aiming to destroy UNRWA and defended the organization’s relentless work in offering humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. “I intended to go to Rafah today, but I have been informed an hour ago that my entry into Rafah is declined,” Lazzarini said during a press conference in Cairo on Monday alongside the Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry. Shoukry said that Lazzarini was barred by Israel. “You were declined by the Israeli government, refused the entry, which is an unprecedented move for a representative at this high position,” he said. Although the Rafah crossing is an entry point between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, Israel is in charge of who can enter or leave the enclave, according to the Israeli-Egyptian agreement. Lazzarini also accused Israel of creating a man-made famine in Gaza and said that UNRWA was “engaged in a race against the clock to try to reverse the impact of the spreading hunger and the looming famine in the Gaza Strip.” He added that his visit “was supposed to coordinate and improve the humanitarian response. This man-made starvation under our watch is a stain on our collective humanity.” “Too much time was wasted, all land crossings must open now. Famine can be averted with political will,” Lazzarini said. Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur for Palestine, wrote on X platform that “Israel wants no witnesses, no truth-tellers”, in a comment on Lazzarini’s entry denial. On Monday, Israeli settlers vandalized the headquarters of UNRWA in occupied Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. They have affixed posters on the main gate calling for the shutdown of UNRWA agency, which also provides humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Jerusalem’s refugee camps, and operate in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. Muslims who managed to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque are seen performing tarawih and night prayers during holy month of Ramadan in Jerusalem on March 17, 2024. (Photo: Department of Islamic Awqaf in Jerusalem/APA Images) Muslims who managed to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque are seen performing tarawih and night prayers during holy month of Ramadan in Jerusalem on March 17, 2024. (Photo: Department of Islamic Waqf in Jerusalem/APA Images) Israeli settlers attack Deir Istiya village Overnight, Israeli forces arrested several Palestinians from the occupied West Bank towns of Hebron, Jenin, Qalqilya, Nablus, and the Balata refugee camp. In Jerusalem, only 25,000 Palestinians were allowed by Israeli forces to enter Al-Aqsa Mosque to perform Ramadan’s Al-Tarawih prayer on the ninth night. This is a sharp drop from the 60,000 Palestinians who performed Al-Tarawih on Saturday night. Israeli authorities are still limiting the number of Palestinians from the West Bank to enter Jerusalem. Last week, Israeli forces set up at least 30 makeshift checkpoints on the outskirts of the Old City, at the city’s gates and the entrances of Al-Aqsa Mosque. Since October, Israel has issued 100 deportation orders against Palestinian residents of Jerusalem and Palestinian citizens of Israel, barring 55 of them from entry to Jerusalem and 45 to Al-Aqsa Mosque, according to Wadi Hilweh Human Rights Information Center. Wadi Hilweh added that this has become a routine policy “to deprive Palestinians of their right to worship and visit Al-Aqsa,” especially around religious occasions such as Ramadan. In the north of the West Bank, Israeli settlers attacked Deir Istiya village near Salfit, stole contents from an agricultural room owned by Youssef Salman, and destroyed the solar panels, Wafa reported. Marwan Al-Barghouti’s life is in danger inside Israeli prison Ahmed Al-Tibi, the Palestinian member of the Israeli Knesset, warned that the life of Marwan Al-Barghouti is at risk inside Israeli prison. Barghouti, a popular national figure and Fatah leader was put in solitary confinement in Megiddo prison. Since October, he has moved between several detention centers, including Ofer, Ramla, and Rimonim. “Marwan Al-Barghouti’s life is in danger inside the prison due to the assault on him and other detainees. I hold Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responsible for any harm caused to him, his life, or the lives of the prisoners,” Al-Tibi said in a video post on the X platform. He added that Barghouti was assaulted and bled as a result, and warned that since October, 13 Palestinians died inside Israeli jail, “some of them were found murdered, according to families and judges, due to violence and torture.” Barghouti is seen by Palestinians as a national figure who could bridge the schism between Fatah and Hamas and lead a future Palestinian state. Hamas insisted that Barghouti will be among the prisoners that will be released in any exchange deal with Israel. Last month, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the National Security Minister, said that he ordered the transfer of Barghouti to solitary confinement in prison “following information about a planned uprising” in the occupied West Bank. https://mondoweiss.net/2024/03/operation-al-aqsa-flood-day-165-israeli-attacks-escalate-on-rafah-al-shifa-hospital-invasion-enters-second-day/ https://telegra.ph/Operation-Al-Aqsa-Flood-Day-165-Israeli-attacks-escalate-on-Rafah-al-Shifa-Hospital-invasion-enters-second-day-03-20
    MONDOWEISS.NET
    ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 165: Israeli attacks escalate on Rafah, al-Shifa Hospital invasion enters second day
    After a night of heavy bombardment the PA warns Israel’s Rafah offensive has begun. Meanwhile, the invasion of al-Shifa hospital continues; all communication with medical staff trapped inside the hospital has been silent since Monday evening.
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  • 12 Israeli sensor technologies that will rock your world
    No more canaries in mines: Today’s sensors provide key information on everything from digital health to airport safety.

    By Brian Blum
    Sensors translate physical phenomena to a measurable signal. Photo courtesy of Consumer Physics/SCiO
    Sensors are the hidden brain in everything from precision agriculture to connected cars, home appliances to security systems, smart cities to digital health.

    “A sensor is anything that translates a physical phenomenon to a measurable signal or other information. For example, in the past they used canaries as sensors for poisonous gas in mines,” explains Amichai Yifrach, an Israeli expert in military and civilian sensor development and currently the CTO of ag-tech startup Flux.

    “Using that definition, Israel is on the cutting edge of technology in all aspects of sensors,” he tells ISRAEL21c. “A lot of it is related to our capabilities in sensing things that others cannot, especially in relation to border security and airport control.”

    Historically, Israel’s edge in sensor technology comes from defense needs and much of the sector is still focused on military applications, with companies such as Elbit Systems, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Seraphim Optronics in the lead.

    YOU CAN GET ISRAEL21c NEWS DELIVERED STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX.

    But as in many other fields, knowhow from the military gave a huge boost to Israel’s civilian sensor industry. “On the consumer side, we’re strong in image processing and algorithms. We have very good chemists, too,” says Yifrach.

    “Sensors will be more and more important in water quality, air quality and even food quality, like for makers of wine, beer or balsamic vinegar,” Yifrach predicts. “Processes that follow chemical or physical properties need sensing to deduct valuable information for future quality or efficiency of the process. It all comes down to monitoring and controlling processes for quality.”

    ISRAEL21c chose a dozen Israeli sensor pioneers to illustrate the country’s strength in this powerful sector.

    Sensifree
    Sensifree specializes in low-power, contact-free, electromagnetic sensors that accurately collect a range of continuous biometric data without the need to touch the human body. Its first product, a contactless heartrate sensor for wearable devices such as watches, fitness trackers and smart clothing, will be followed by a cuff-free blood-pressure sensor.

    Based in California with R&D in Petah Tikva, Sensifree recently won $5 million in Series A financing, bringing its total funding since launching its revolutionary RF-based biometric sensor technology to $7 million.

    MS Technologies
    Based in Herzliya Pituah, MS Tech designs and manufactures nanotechnology detection and diagnostic sensors. Major airlines use its hand-held, non-radioactive explosives and narcotics detectors for carry-on baggage inspection, air-cargo screening and passenger security checks in several airports. Other industries that use MS Tech sensor technologies include food safety and product inspection, biomedical diagnostics, fire and smoke detection, water and air monitoring and aerospace.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id4Q4SIYmRs

    ContinUse Biometrics
    ContinUse of Tel Aviv received a strategic investment from the multinational corporation Tyco to develop nanotechnology sensors that will be embedded into a range of construction and smart-home solutions.

    ContinUse Biometrics’ biometric no-contact sensor — based on technology developed over a decade by Bar-Ilan and Valencia universities — can detect heartbeat, blood pressure, breathing pace, glucose level, oxygen saturation and alcohol levels in the blood of a fully dressed person without touching the person. This data can be used to authenticate identity and manage access for security and smart-home applications, workplaces and sensitive facilities.

    Vayyar
    Vayyar sensors could make every cellphone or tablet a full 3D imaging system. Based in Yehud, Vayyar uses low-power radio transmissions to scan objects in a fraction of a second and create an enhanced imaging experience. One of the applications is better detection of irregularities in an object being examined, for example to detect tumors on mammograms or bacteria in milk bottling. The company recently won the Fast Pitch Contest sponsored by the Global Electronics Industry Association in Tel Aviv.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLjUK-teB8o

    Elfi-Tech
    Elfi-Tech of Rehovot has introduced several sensor products for noninvasive measurements of physiological and blood parameters for use in fitness, wellness and first-line diagnostics apps. Its proprietary mDLS sensor module was integrated into Samsung’s Simband wearable open platform, and now the company is collaborating with pharma and medical-device industry to integrate mDLS into patient-monitoring devices. Elfi-Tech also is working with companies in the big-data analytics space on its new Data Logger device, which collects and analyzes mass amounts of cardiovascular health data from a single wearable.



    Accurate Sensors Technologies
    Started in 1994 as 3T, Accurate Sensors Technologies manufactures no-contact temperature-measurement solutions for extreme conditions, such as digital infrared thermometers. Headquartered in Misgav, the company also makes plug-and-play pyrometers — instruments for measuring high temperatures in furnaces and kilns – for the aluminum industry.



    Neteera Technologies
    Founded in January 2015 in partnership with Yissum Research Development Company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Neteera is developing novel Terahertz imaging and sensing devices, of unprecedented resolution, size, cost-effectiveness and reliability.

    Neteera’s technology is revolutionary as it allows for multiple applications such as all-weather and night imaging for automotive and surveillance applications; weapons, explosives and contraband detection; medical imaging; manufacturing and quality control; monitoring of human physiological and biometric indicators and more.

    Occipital
    Occipital’s Structure Sensor is touted as the world’s first 3D sensor for mobile devices, adding 3D scanning, large-scale reconstruction and augmented-reality (AR) capabilities to new or existing iOS devices.

    Named a Popular Science “Best of What’s New” gadget for 2013, and recognized with a 2014 CES Innovations award, the Structure Sensor hardware platform gives developers the ability to easily create applications such as 3D mapping of indoor spaces, AR games, body scanning for fitness tracking and virtual clothes fitting, and 3D object scanning for easy 3D content creation.

    Occipital’s Structure Sensor can be used for object and body scans. Photo: courtesy
    Occipital’s Structure Sensor can be used for object and body scans. Photo: courtesy
    Consumer Physics
    Consumer Physics’ soon-to-be-released SCiO device uses optical sensors to read the chemical makeup of just about anything without touching it: for example, the fat in a piece of cake, the ripeness of fruit, the ingredients in medicines, the properties of cosmetics and precious stones.



    Nexense
    Ramat Gan-based Nexense makes a sensor system worn as a chest strap or wristwatch to monitor various physical parameters during sleep for the treatment of snoring and sleep apnea. The product, already approved in Europe and Israel, counts GE Healthcare among its investors and is expected to go public in 2017.

    EarlySense
    EarlySense uses an under-bed sensor system for continuous monitoring of patient vital signs and movement in hospitals and other healthcare settings. Without ever touching the patient, EarlySense helps the clinical team manage early detection of patient deterioration, fall prevention and prevention of bedsores.

    EarlySense goes under the patient’s bed. Photo: courtesy
    EarlySense goes under the patient’s bed. Photo: courtesy
    Saturas
    Saturas, founded in 2013 in the Trendlines incubator program, has developed a system of miniature implanted sensors and wireless transponders for determining the water status of fruit trees easily and inexpensively. According to CEO Anat Halgoa Solomon, the system (to be available in 2018) could save farmers up to 20 percent on water usage.

    Among many other sensor-based ag-tech companies in Israel are Phytech, AutoAgronom, CropX, GreenIQ and Flux.


    ISRAEL'S CIVILIAN BIOSENSOR INDUSTRY

    "Sensors are the hidden brain in everything from precision agriculture to connected cars, home appliances to security systems, smart cities to digital health."

    “Sensors will be more and more important in water quality, air quality and even food quality, like for makers of wine, beer or balsamic vinegar"

    https://www.israel21c.org/12-israeli-sensor-technologies-that-will-rock-your-world/

    https://donshafi911.blogspot.com/2024/02/12-israeli-sensor-technologies-that.html
    12 Israeli sensor technologies that will rock your world No more canaries in mines: Today’s sensors provide key information on everything from digital health to airport safety. By Brian Blum Sensors translate physical phenomena to a measurable signal. Photo courtesy of Consumer Physics/SCiO Sensors are the hidden brain in everything from precision agriculture to connected cars, home appliances to security systems, smart cities to digital health. “A sensor is anything that translates a physical phenomenon to a measurable signal or other information. For example, in the past they used canaries as sensors for poisonous gas in mines,” explains Amichai Yifrach, an Israeli expert in military and civilian sensor development and currently the CTO of ag-tech startup Flux. “Using that definition, Israel is on the cutting edge of technology in all aspects of sensors,” he tells ISRAEL21c. “A lot of it is related to our capabilities in sensing things that others cannot, especially in relation to border security and airport control.” Historically, Israel’s edge in sensor technology comes from defense needs and much of the sector is still focused on military applications, with companies such as Elbit Systems, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Seraphim Optronics in the lead. YOU CAN GET ISRAEL21c NEWS DELIVERED STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX. But as in many other fields, knowhow from the military gave a huge boost to Israel’s civilian sensor industry. “On the consumer side, we’re strong in image processing and algorithms. We have very good chemists, too,” says Yifrach. “Sensors will be more and more important in water quality, air quality and even food quality, like for makers of wine, beer or balsamic vinegar,” Yifrach predicts. “Processes that follow chemical or physical properties need sensing to deduct valuable information for future quality or efficiency of the process. It all comes down to monitoring and controlling processes for quality.” ISRAEL21c chose a dozen Israeli sensor pioneers to illustrate the country’s strength in this powerful sector. Sensifree Sensifree specializes in low-power, contact-free, electromagnetic sensors that accurately collect a range of continuous biometric data without the need to touch the human body. Its first product, a contactless heartrate sensor for wearable devices such as watches, fitness trackers and smart clothing, will be followed by a cuff-free blood-pressure sensor. Based in California with R&D in Petah Tikva, Sensifree recently won $5 million in Series A financing, bringing its total funding since launching its revolutionary RF-based biometric sensor technology to $7 million. MS Technologies Based in Herzliya Pituah, MS Tech designs and manufactures nanotechnology detection and diagnostic sensors. Major airlines use its hand-held, non-radioactive explosives and narcotics detectors for carry-on baggage inspection, air-cargo screening and passenger security checks in several airports. Other industries that use MS Tech sensor technologies include food safety and product inspection, biomedical diagnostics, fire and smoke detection, water and air monitoring and aerospace. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id4Q4SIYmRs ContinUse Biometrics ContinUse of Tel Aviv received a strategic investment from the multinational corporation Tyco to develop nanotechnology sensors that will be embedded into a range of construction and smart-home solutions. ContinUse Biometrics’ biometric no-contact sensor — based on technology developed over a decade by Bar-Ilan and Valencia universities — can detect heartbeat, blood pressure, breathing pace, glucose level, oxygen saturation and alcohol levels in the blood of a fully dressed person without touching the person. This data can be used to authenticate identity and manage access for security and smart-home applications, workplaces and sensitive facilities. Vayyar Vayyar sensors could make every cellphone or tablet a full 3D imaging system. Based in Yehud, Vayyar uses low-power radio transmissions to scan objects in a fraction of a second and create an enhanced imaging experience. One of the applications is better detection of irregularities in an object being examined, for example to detect tumors on mammograms or bacteria in milk bottling. The company recently won the Fast Pitch Contest sponsored by the Global Electronics Industry Association in Tel Aviv. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLjUK-teB8o Elfi-Tech Elfi-Tech of Rehovot has introduced several sensor products for noninvasive measurements of physiological and blood parameters for use in fitness, wellness and first-line diagnostics apps. Its proprietary mDLS sensor module was integrated into Samsung’s Simband wearable open platform, and now the company is collaborating with pharma and medical-device industry to integrate mDLS into patient-monitoring devices. Elfi-Tech also is working with companies in the big-data analytics space on its new Data Logger device, which collects and analyzes mass amounts of cardiovascular health data from a single wearable. Accurate Sensors Technologies Started in 1994 as 3T, Accurate Sensors Technologies manufactures no-contact temperature-measurement solutions for extreme conditions, such as digital infrared thermometers. Headquartered in Misgav, the company also makes plug-and-play pyrometers — instruments for measuring high temperatures in furnaces and kilns – for the aluminum industry. Neteera Technologies Founded in January 2015 in partnership with Yissum Research Development Company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Neteera is developing novel Terahertz imaging and sensing devices, of unprecedented resolution, size, cost-effectiveness and reliability. Neteera’s technology is revolutionary as it allows for multiple applications such as all-weather and night imaging for automotive and surveillance applications; weapons, explosives and contraband detection; medical imaging; manufacturing and quality control; monitoring of human physiological and biometric indicators and more. Occipital Occipital’s Structure Sensor is touted as the world’s first 3D sensor for mobile devices, adding 3D scanning, large-scale reconstruction and augmented-reality (AR) capabilities to new or existing iOS devices. Named a Popular Science “Best of What’s New” gadget for 2013, and recognized with a 2014 CES Innovations award, the Structure Sensor hardware platform gives developers the ability to easily create applications such as 3D mapping of indoor spaces, AR games, body scanning for fitness tracking and virtual clothes fitting, and 3D object scanning for easy 3D content creation. Occipital’s Structure Sensor can be used for object and body scans. Photo: courtesy Occipital’s Structure Sensor can be used for object and body scans. Photo: courtesy Consumer Physics Consumer Physics’ soon-to-be-released SCiO device uses optical sensors to read the chemical makeup of just about anything without touching it: for example, the fat in a piece of cake, the ripeness of fruit, the ingredients in medicines, the properties of cosmetics and precious stones. Nexense Ramat Gan-based Nexense makes a sensor system worn as a chest strap or wristwatch to monitor various physical parameters during sleep for the treatment of snoring and sleep apnea. The product, already approved in Europe and Israel, counts GE Healthcare among its investors and is expected to go public in 2017. EarlySense EarlySense uses an under-bed sensor system for continuous monitoring of patient vital signs and movement in hospitals and other healthcare settings. Without ever touching the patient, EarlySense helps the clinical team manage early detection of patient deterioration, fall prevention and prevention of bedsores. EarlySense goes under the patient’s bed. Photo: courtesy EarlySense goes under the patient’s bed. Photo: courtesy Saturas Saturas, founded in 2013 in the Trendlines incubator program, has developed a system of miniature implanted sensors and wireless transponders for determining the water status of fruit trees easily and inexpensively. According to CEO Anat Halgoa Solomon, the system (to be available in 2018) could save farmers up to 20 percent on water usage. Among many other sensor-based ag-tech companies in Israel are Phytech, AutoAgronom, CropX, GreenIQ and Flux. ISRAEL'S CIVILIAN BIOSENSOR INDUSTRY "Sensors are the hidden brain in everything from precision agriculture to connected cars, home appliances to security systems, smart cities to digital health." “Sensors will be more and more important in water quality, air quality and even food quality, like for makers of wine, beer or balsamic vinegar" https://www.israel21c.org/12-israeli-sensor-technologies-that-will-rock-your-world/ https://donshafi911.blogspot.com/2024/02/12-israeli-sensor-technologies-that.html
    WWW.ISRAEL21C.ORG
    12 Israeli sensor technologies that will rock your world - ISRAEL21c
    No more canaries in mines: Today's sensors provide key information on everything from digital health to airport safety.
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  • We deserve the truth about what happened on October 7
    Stories of atrocity on October 7 have been used to justify the ongoing assault on Gaza. But several of these high-profile claims have been found to be based on unreliable witnesses or even fabricated entirely. We deserve to know the truth.

    Nick BurbankFebruary 1, 2024
    Scenes of destruction in Kibbutz Nir Oz after the invasion of Hamas fighters on October 7, 2023. (Photo: Mishel Amzaleg/Israel Government Press Office)
    Scenes of destruction in Kibbutz Nir Oz after the invasion of Hamas fighters on October 7, 2023. (Photo: Mishel Amzaleg/Israel Government Press Office)
    In the immediate aftermath of the October 7 attacks by Hamas, narratives of atrocity dominated the news cycle. It is only now, four months later, that the events of that day are being clarified. The New York Times has reportedly pulled a high-profile podcast on the “weaponization” of rape in response to concerns of “major discrepancies.” Journalists are challenging state spokespeople, and researchers cross-referencing claims against the list of terror victims maintained by Israel’s own Social Security Administration have shown that several horrifying stories first responders and IDF members initially told reporters do not reflect actual people or deaths. The IDF itself has said it cannot confirm some of its own reporting.

    Nevertheless, these stories spread widely. The founder of Oct7FactCheck.com saw how they impacted his friends and family. People who had previously protested Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government were now insisting that “these people,” Palestinians in Gaza, were irredeemable. They cited the atrocities in the news as evidence.

    And yet, it has become apparent that many of the stories used to justify ongoing violence in Gaza are just that: stories.

    Advertisement

    Subscribe to the Mondoweiss YouTube Channel!
    Oct7FactCheck.com is a six-member research group known collectively as “Nick Burbank.” The group, comprising an Ivy League law student, a policy graduate student, two intelligence analysts, a U.S. armed services veteran, and a tech entrepreneur, began fact-checking these claims in November. Their goal was to identify where a given claim originated, who propagated it, and whether the evidence confirmed or refuted the claim. Their findings are shared in a living document that’s updated as new information comes to light. Thus far, the team has come to conclusions on 12 different claims and identified major discrepancies in another: claims of weaponized rape that were reported on but are now being re-investigated by the New York Times.

    To be clear:

    There were no babies hung on clotheslines. There were no babies beheaded or put in ovens, no pregnant women with their stomachs cut open.

    The sources responsible for those fabrications are cited in articles recounting the weaponized “mass rape” of Israeli women by Hamas fighters. Several stories shared by multiple outlets use these sources, raising open questions about the strength of this reporting. One January 19 Guardian article repeats the exact same language as an article published more than a month earlier on a different site. The New York Times article drew pushback on its reporting from the family of the victim they profiled, who argued she was not the victim of sexual violence; some of those family members have given new statements to the NYT.

    Over the last four months, claims about October 7 have influenced the public narrative. Stories of atrocity, sometimes cobbled together from unreliable eyewitnesses, sometimes fabricated entirely, have made their way to heads of state and been used to justify Israel’s military violence.

    As a result, 85% of Gaza is displaced. More than 26,000 Palestinians (including over 10,000 children have been killed), and nearly three times as many people have been injured. 70% of Gazan homes are flattened. Over 100 journalists have been killed. Every university in Gaza is now destroyed.

    One of the claims determined to be definitively true is that IDF friendly fire on October 7 resulted in Israeli civilian deaths.

    In the early hours of October 7, a deadly lack of communication made it difficult for Apache pilots and drone operators to distinguish targets, leading them to deputize civilians in the kibbutzim for target identification. But by noon on October 7, the Israeli military had issued a version of the “Hannibal Directive” (as reported to YNet, the second largest Israeli newspaper by readership, and translated by the Electronic Intifada). The Hannibal Directive is an order that allows Israeli forces to stop kidnappings at all costs, up to and including the death of the hostage if all else fails.

    The order resulted in mass civilian deaths. Two personal accounts from civilians taken hostage on October 7 describe the IDF firing upon them while they were being kidnapped. In both instances, this resulted in the wounding or deaths of people they had been taken captive with, including one woman whose mother was killed. A similar report from YNet records the deployment of the Israeli Air Force to intercept 70 vehicles driven by Hamas militants as they returned to Gaza. The cars, some containing hostages, were destroyed before they could reach the border. An IDF military source reported that Israeli special forces were sent in the week after October 7 to recover bodies in this area. The number of Israeli dead found in these vehicles is currently not known.

    One of the most chilling descriptions of friendly fire occurred in Be’eri, a kibbutz heavily damaged by the events of October 7. There, IDF forces killed up to 13 hostages in a single incident when they decided to fire two tank shells into a house controlled by militants, fully aware that there were still living civilians held captive inside. The IDF fired on the house during an active hostage negotiation. There were only two survivors, one woman who miraculously survived the shelling and Yasmin Porat, who had been released during the negotiations prior to the tank shells being fired. The shelling killed her husband, who remained under the control of the militants.

    The aftermath of tank shelling looks very different from arson and small arms fire – there is more rubble, and less soot. In Be’eri, where fighting between IDF and militants was fiercest, homes were completely destroyed. Ha’aretz has reported that “half the damage” in Be’eri came from “munitions impacts,” the other half from “arson.” As a result, more than half of the 200 Israeli homes slated for demolition after the October 7 attack are located in Be’eri. In Nir Oz, where militants were not confronted by the IDF, houses were damaged mostly from arson.

    Families of the victims are now calling for an investigation into the military and police units who were present and into whether or not the shelling of the house was an implementation of the Hannibal Directive. But initially, the commander responsible for firing a tank into a house full of hostages, General Barak Hiram, was hailed as a hero. Under the heading “A General’s Dilemma,” The New York Times describes Hiram as “a rising star” before quoting him as ending an active hostage negotiation by saying, “Break in, even at the cost of civilian casualties.” Months later, additional reporting by the Times underscores the impact of the intentional use of IDF munitions by Hiram. This incident alone is responsible for 12% of the civilian casualties in Be’eri.1

    It’s no secret that Israel invests heavily in “public diplomacy,” known commonly as hasbara. The incredible violence of their military offensive relies on the willingness of nations to prioritize Israeli narratives over Palestinian lives and, in the case of the Hannibal directive, Israeli lives as well. Stories of irredeemable atrocity – regardless of their truth – are essential to manufacturing the acceptability of harming civilians and building support for the Netayahu-led destruction of Gaza.

    The small-t truth of these stories, the facts of what happened, is less important than the capital-T Truth these stories gesture to. In one example, a YouTube advertisement created by Israel’s Foreign Affair Minister begins with the words “We know that your child cannot read this” while rainbows and unicorns frolic to a lullaby. As the music grinds to a halt, the unicorns disappear and “Forty infants were murdered in Israel by the Hamas terrorists (ISIS),” flashes onto the screen” before urging parents, “Now hug your baby and stand with us.”

    Business Insider reported on the way this ad and others were being used to justify Israel’s offensive in Gaza as early as October 17. That video is unlisted now, but the claim continues to be repeated. On January 2024, yet another video recycling the claims of ‘beheaded babies,’ this one propagated by the online antisemitism watchdog CyberWell, gasps in horror at the idea of Israeli atrocity propaganda being corrected. A person, scrolling online past a video debunking this same story of beheaded babies says “What? How can they even say that?”

    This video does not defend the claim that babies were beheaded. It can’t. Social security records make this an impossibility. Instead, it appeals to the viewer’s sense of horror and outrage. While this specific instance may not be true, this advertisement gives the viewer permission to believe a broader, truthier accusation: that Israel’s enemy is so depraved that such a thing could have happened then and may happen again in the future.

    There were very real atrocities that happened on October 7, including the killing of civilians in their homes and at a music festival and the taking of hostages, some of them children. But somehow, the clearest crimes committed have been crowded out of the narrative in favor of obscene, attention-grabbing lies. This re-telling of the day is disrespectful to victims and survivors alike and only increases suspicion as to what really happened. It is a narrative that only serves those in power and those seeking to justify the genocidal assault on Gaza, not those rightfully seeking answers.

    Notes

    1. There are varying accounts of the number of those killed in Be’eri across different sources: 97 per the New York Times, 86 per Ha’aretz, 77 according to Social Security Administration records (but this may exclude captives later killed), and 98 per Oct7map.com. 12% represents the lower bound of the percentage of those killed attributable to the shelling of hostages.

    BEFORE YOU GO – At Mondoweiss, we understand the power of telling Palestinian stories. For 17 years, we have pushed back when the mainstream media published lies or echoed politicians’ hateful rhetoric. Now, Palestinian voices are more important than ever.

    Our traffic has increased ten times since October 7, and we need your help to cover our increased expenses.

    Support our journalists with a donation today.

    https://mondoweiss.net/2024/02/we-deserve-the-truth-about-what-happened-on-october-7/

    https://donshafi911.blogspot.com/2024/02/we-deserve-truth-about-what-happened-on.html
    We deserve the truth about what happened on October 7 Stories of atrocity on October 7 have been used to justify the ongoing assault on Gaza. But several of these high-profile claims have been found to be based on unreliable witnesses or even fabricated entirely. We deserve to know the truth. Nick BurbankFebruary 1, 2024 Scenes of destruction in Kibbutz Nir Oz after the invasion of Hamas fighters on October 7, 2023. (Photo: Mishel Amzaleg/Israel Government Press Office) Scenes of destruction in Kibbutz Nir Oz after the invasion of Hamas fighters on October 7, 2023. (Photo: Mishel Amzaleg/Israel Government Press Office) In the immediate aftermath of the October 7 attacks by Hamas, narratives of atrocity dominated the news cycle. It is only now, four months later, that the events of that day are being clarified. The New York Times has reportedly pulled a high-profile podcast on the “weaponization” of rape in response to concerns of “major discrepancies.” Journalists are challenging state spokespeople, and researchers cross-referencing claims against the list of terror victims maintained by Israel’s own Social Security Administration have shown that several horrifying stories first responders and IDF members initially told reporters do not reflect actual people or deaths. The IDF itself has said it cannot confirm some of its own reporting. Nevertheless, these stories spread widely. The founder of Oct7FactCheck.com saw how they impacted his friends and family. People who had previously protested Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government were now insisting that “these people,” Palestinians in Gaza, were irredeemable. They cited the atrocities in the news as evidence. And yet, it has become apparent that many of the stories used to justify ongoing violence in Gaza are just that: stories. Advertisement Subscribe to the Mondoweiss YouTube Channel! Oct7FactCheck.com is a six-member research group known collectively as “Nick Burbank.” The group, comprising an Ivy League law student, a policy graduate student, two intelligence analysts, a U.S. armed services veteran, and a tech entrepreneur, began fact-checking these claims in November. Their goal was to identify where a given claim originated, who propagated it, and whether the evidence confirmed or refuted the claim. Their findings are shared in a living document that’s updated as new information comes to light. Thus far, the team has come to conclusions on 12 different claims and identified major discrepancies in another: claims of weaponized rape that were reported on but are now being re-investigated by the New York Times. To be clear: There were no babies hung on clotheslines. There were no babies beheaded or put in ovens, no pregnant women with their stomachs cut open. The sources responsible for those fabrications are cited in articles recounting the weaponized “mass rape” of Israeli women by Hamas fighters. Several stories shared by multiple outlets use these sources, raising open questions about the strength of this reporting. One January 19 Guardian article repeats the exact same language as an article published more than a month earlier on a different site. The New York Times article drew pushback on its reporting from the family of the victim they profiled, who argued she was not the victim of sexual violence; some of those family members have given new statements to the NYT. Over the last four months, claims about October 7 have influenced the public narrative. Stories of atrocity, sometimes cobbled together from unreliable eyewitnesses, sometimes fabricated entirely, have made their way to heads of state and been used to justify Israel’s military violence. As a result, 85% of Gaza is displaced. More than 26,000 Palestinians (including over 10,000 children have been killed), and nearly three times as many people have been injured. 70% of Gazan homes are flattened. Over 100 journalists have been killed. Every university in Gaza is now destroyed. One of the claims determined to be definitively true is that IDF friendly fire on October 7 resulted in Israeli civilian deaths. In the early hours of October 7, a deadly lack of communication made it difficult for Apache pilots and drone operators to distinguish targets, leading them to deputize civilians in the kibbutzim for target identification. But by noon on October 7, the Israeli military had issued a version of the “Hannibal Directive” (as reported to YNet, the second largest Israeli newspaper by readership, and translated by the Electronic Intifada). The Hannibal Directive is an order that allows Israeli forces to stop kidnappings at all costs, up to and including the death of the hostage if all else fails. The order resulted in mass civilian deaths. Two personal accounts from civilians taken hostage on October 7 describe the IDF firing upon them while they were being kidnapped. In both instances, this resulted in the wounding or deaths of people they had been taken captive with, including one woman whose mother was killed. A similar report from YNet records the deployment of the Israeli Air Force to intercept 70 vehicles driven by Hamas militants as they returned to Gaza. The cars, some containing hostages, were destroyed before they could reach the border. An IDF military source reported that Israeli special forces were sent in the week after October 7 to recover bodies in this area. The number of Israeli dead found in these vehicles is currently not known. One of the most chilling descriptions of friendly fire occurred in Be’eri, a kibbutz heavily damaged by the events of October 7. There, IDF forces killed up to 13 hostages in a single incident when they decided to fire two tank shells into a house controlled by militants, fully aware that there were still living civilians held captive inside. The IDF fired on the house during an active hostage negotiation. There were only two survivors, one woman who miraculously survived the shelling and Yasmin Porat, who had been released during the negotiations prior to the tank shells being fired. The shelling killed her husband, who remained under the control of the militants. The aftermath of tank shelling looks very different from arson and small arms fire – there is more rubble, and less soot. In Be’eri, where fighting between IDF and militants was fiercest, homes were completely destroyed. Ha’aretz has reported that “half the damage” in Be’eri came from “munitions impacts,” the other half from “arson.” As a result, more than half of the 200 Israeli homes slated for demolition after the October 7 attack are located in Be’eri. In Nir Oz, where militants were not confronted by the IDF, houses were damaged mostly from arson. Families of the victims are now calling for an investigation into the military and police units who were present and into whether or not the shelling of the house was an implementation of the Hannibal Directive. But initially, the commander responsible for firing a tank into a house full of hostages, General Barak Hiram, was hailed as a hero. Under the heading “A General’s Dilemma,” The New York Times describes Hiram as “a rising star” before quoting him as ending an active hostage negotiation by saying, “Break in, even at the cost of civilian casualties.” Months later, additional reporting by the Times underscores the impact of the intentional use of IDF munitions by Hiram. This incident alone is responsible for 12% of the civilian casualties in Be’eri.1 It’s no secret that Israel invests heavily in “public diplomacy,” known commonly as hasbara. The incredible violence of their military offensive relies on the willingness of nations to prioritize Israeli narratives over Palestinian lives and, in the case of the Hannibal directive, Israeli lives as well. Stories of irredeemable atrocity – regardless of their truth – are essential to manufacturing the acceptability of harming civilians and building support for the Netayahu-led destruction of Gaza. The small-t truth of these stories, the facts of what happened, is less important than the capital-T Truth these stories gesture to. In one example, a YouTube advertisement created by Israel’s Foreign Affair Minister begins with the words “We know that your child cannot read this” while rainbows and unicorns frolic to a lullaby. As the music grinds to a halt, the unicorns disappear and “Forty infants were murdered in Israel by the Hamas terrorists (ISIS),” flashes onto the screen” before urging parents, “Now hug your baby and stand with us.” Business Insider reported on the way this ad and others were being used to justify Israel’s offensive in Gaza as early as October 17. That video is unlisted now, but the claim continues to be repeated. On January 2024, yet another video recycling the claims of ‘beheaded babies,’ this one propagated by the online antisemitism watchdog CyberWell, gasps in horror at the idea of Israeli atrocity propaganda being corrected. A person, scrolling online past a video debunking this same story of beheaded babies says “What? How can they even say that?” This video does not defend the claim that babies were beheaded. It can’t. Social security records make this an impossibility. Instead, it appeals to the viewer’s sense of horror and outrage. While this specific instance may not be true, this advertisement gives the viewer permission to believe a broader, truthier accusation: that Israel’s enemy is so depraved that such a thing could have happened then and may happen again in the future. There were very real atrocities that happened on October 7, including the killing of civilians in their homes and at a music festival and the taking of hostages, some of them children. But somehow, the clearest crimes committed have been crowded out of the narrative in favor of obscene, attention-grabbing lies. This re-telling of the day is disrespectful to victims and survivors alike and only increases suspicion as to what really happened. It is a narrative that only serves those in power and those seeking to justify the genocidal assault on Gaza, not those rightfully seeking answers. Notes 1. There are varying accounts of the number of those killed in Be’eri across different sources: 97 per the New York Times, 86 per Ha’aretz, 77 according to Social Security Administration records (but this may exclude captives later killed), and 98 per Oct7map.com. 12% represents the lower bound of the percentage of those killed attributable to the shelling of hostages. BEFORE YOU GO – At Mondoweiss, we understand the power of telling Palestinian stories. For 17 years, we have pushed back when the mainstream media published lies or echoed politicians’ hateful rhetoric. Now, Palestinian voices are more important than ever. Our traffic has increased ten times since October 7, and we need your help to cover our increased expenses. Support our journalists with a donation today. https://mondoweiss.net/2024/02/we-deserve-the-truth-about-what-happened-on-october-7/ https://donshafi911.blogspot.com/2024/02/we-deserve-truth-about-what-happened-on.html
    MONDOWEISS.NET
    We deserve the truth about what happened on October 7
    Stories of atrocity on October 7 have been used to justify the ongoing assault on Gaza. But several of these high-profile claims have been found to be based on unreliable witnesses or even fabricated entirely. We deserve to know the truth.
    0 Comments 0 Shares 15780 Views
  • Thanks to a subscriber with an appropriate handle, Chaos, I’ve been alerted to this lickspittle memo of appalling treachery from our government in U.K. to that crook running the criminal operation aka the WHO.

    https://www.gov.uk/government/news/who-executive-board-22-27-january-2024

    “2024 is an important year for WHO. The UK looks forward to a successful Investment Round underpinned by a new General Programme of Work (GPW) that sets out clearly WHO’s priorities. WHO’s unique added value in the global health architecture will help accelerate progress towards the SDGs, taking a gender-responsive approach”.

    Means we’ve sold you down the river to the UN2030 sustainable development goals, which imply things like no private transportation, little meat, very few new clothes, no “fossil fuel” heating and rare, if any, short haul flights. That’s imprisonment.

    “The UK underlines our commitment to agreement of a new Pandemic Accord and targeted amendments of the International Health Regulations, which together ensure our preparedness for future health threats with stronger prevention, and response, whilst respecting national sovereignty”.

    Signing up to the IHR effectively makes Tedros “World King”, or rather, his financial backers, like Gates, will hold the power to lock us down for no reason and prescribe mass poisoning via mRNA injections that definitely won’t be vaccines. Failure to comply would precipitate as best a civil war & at worst, a form of martial law.

    “The UK welcomes this week’s focus on climate and health. At COP28, leaders noted that climate change is now a health crisis, as you have said many times DG. One we can only face collectively with WHO playing a key role”.

    What can I say? It’s a pack of lies.

    It’s little more than a page. Please don’t let them get away with it. Show to everyone who’ll listen. We’re going to need all the peaceful but irresistible opposition to this nonsense.

    Best wishes
    Mike
    Thanks to a subscriber with an appropriate handle, Chaos, I’ve been alerted to this lickspittle memo of appalling treachery from our government in U.K. to that crook running the criminal operation aka the WHO. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/who-executive-board-22-27-january-2024 “2024 is an important year for WHO. The UK looks forward to a successful Investment Round underpinned by a new General Programme of Work (GPW) that sets out clearly WHO’s priorities. WHO’s unique added value in the global health architecture will help accelerate progress towards the SDGs, taking a gender-responsive approach”. Means we’ve sold you down the river to the UN2030 sustainable development goals, which imply things like no private transportation, little meat, very few new clothes, no “fossil fuel” heating and rare, if any, short haul flights. That’s imprisonment. “The UK underlines our commitment to agreement of a new Pandemic Accord and targeted amendments of the International Health Regulations, which together ensure our preparedness for future health threats with stronger prevention, and response, whilst respecting national sovereignty”. Signing up to the IHR effectively makes Tedros “World King”, or rather, his financial backers, like Gates, will hold the power to lock us down for no reason and prescribe mass poisoning via mRNA injections that definitely won’t be vaccines. Failure to comply would precipitate as best a civil war & at worst, a form of martial law. “The UK welcomes this week’s focus on climate and health. At COP28, leaders noted that climate change is now a health crisis, as you have said many times DG. One we can only face collectively with WHO playing a key role”. What can I say? It’s a pack of lies. It’s little more than a page. Please don’t let them get away with it. Show to everyone who’ll listen. We’re going to need all the peaceful but irresistible opposition to this nonsense. Best wishes Mike
    WWW.GOV.UK
    WHO Executive Board 22-27 January 2024
    The United Kingdom's National Statement delivered at the World Health Organization's Executive Board in Geneva.
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  • The Lion Diet Reset for Jumpstarting Your Healing Journey
    Just red meat, salt and mineral water to wash it down.

    Dr. Syed Haider
    What do Lions Eat? - Discovery UK
    I gained about 40 - 50 pounds during the pandemic primarily due to stress, poor sleep and too much sugar, then I lost it all by eating whole foods, sleeping well and walking 10,000-15,000 steps a day, then I gained some of it back by eating sugar again and slacking on sleep hygiene, though I mostly kept up the walking, which had become a morning habit (I was actually pleasantly surprised to see that for over 18 months now I’ve always averaged close to 10,000 steps a day over any 6 month period (the health app in my phone)).

    Meanwhile a friend of mine who had benefited greatly from the carnivore diet in the past, but fell off the wagon and had been trying to get back on for awhile had been encouraging me for some time to be his accountability partner on a diet change journey so finally I decided to take the plunge.

    From personal experience I know very well that the hardest hill to climb is that initial decision to make a change for the better. After you’ve truly made a commitment to change, sustaining it is not nearly as hard.

    You also find many complementary healthy changes suddenly become easier to implement. It feels like there is a “good boy” template in the subconscious and an opposing “bad boy” one, though that term carries other perhaps conflicting (perhaps not) connotations.

    What I mean is that all the things I’ve collected throughout my life that I consider good healthy behaviors tend to creep back sooner or later once I decided to get healthier and take the first steps towards better health.

    Similarly if I cheat unexpectedly, that single “bad” choice has usually led to most of the good I was doing falling apart and me going back to all the old bad ways.

    In order to circumvent this tendency I’m planning to build in some flexibility in the form of “cheat” days, but I don’t think it’s helpful to think of them as cheat days, in fact I think it only serves to make it likely that your subconscious considers them a “bad” thing.

    The key to success and sustainability is to consider them a good thing instead, think of them more as health/metabolic/recovery hormetic stress tests, that are preplanned and executed as a key part of a healthy lifestyle protocol (hormesis: low dose stressor is beneficial, high dose is harmful. Applies to exercise, sunlight, water, food, homeopathy, pharmacology, herbology, even many so called chemical toxins - the dose makes the poison and all).

    The goal is not only to regain good health but to regain maximal resilience and ability to sustain that good health in the face of challenging situations where you can’t sleep properly, or eat properly or exercise the way you usually do, or you’re exposed to toxic blue light for prolonged periods, or someone close to you passes away, or you lose a job, etc.

    Thank you for reading Dr. Syed Haider. This post is public so feel free to share it.

    Share

    I’m one of those people who can eat a dozen cupcakes if I’m feeling stressed out, but if I stop eating sugar entirely I don’t have any cravings for it. Moderation is impossible, but abstinence is easy. So maybe I’m addicted, or maybe I’m just populated by microbes that depend on sugar.

    I did a 5 day carnivore reset before my initial weight loss journey started perhaps 18 months ago now, and I was amazed to see that I had no sugar cravings for a couple of months afterwards. Literally for the first time in my life sugar bombs survived in my house for over 48 hours. We had a tub of ice cream that was not finished for a month, which would have been as likely as a pig flying before that.

    But after that period of a couple months I gradually lost my indifference to sweets and then eventually went back to full on sweet-tooth, cookie-monster mode, which was a big part of my eventual downfall later.

    My weight loss also stalled out before I got really lean, I felt way better, looked away better, at least in clothes, but I was probably still carrying an extra 30 pounds of fat internally - the visceral fat - which, though invisible to the naked eye, is the worst kind for your health.

    Carnivore seems to most people to be like an extreme overreaction to the vegan movement, and perhaps it is culturally an immune reaction of sorts, but it pays to consider what the proponents of the diet say.

    One of the most telling arguments in favor is that plants are trying to kill you.

    Losing my finger to a 'meat eating' plant? - YouTube
    Plants like all living things, would prefer to stay alive, and are in a life or death struggle with those who would kill them.

    Since they can’t run away or fight off their predators, they primarily rely on poisoning them, and animals have developed finely tuned senses that let them know if there is a poison present - it tastes bad, usually very bitter, and the usual reaction is to spit it out (and wash your mouth out), the way a baby will when you try to feed them broccoli or Brussel sprouts.

    Most non-human mammals that are herbivores or omnivores are only evolutionarily optimized to digest a small selection of plants in their environment.

    Human civilizations first of all domesticated and bred plants to make them more palatable, and then developed intricate methods of neutralizing and predigesting plants via soaking, sprouting, culturing and cooking plant foods to make them less toxic, though we can’t entirely eliminate all toxins even with these complicated traditional procedures (hormesis argues the remaining toxins are probably beneficial stressors, and there are other beneficial phytonutrients too).

    Modern manufacturing eschews all that traditional wisdom for quick production methods that leave the lectins, oxalates, phtyates, tannins, hormone disruptors, and nutrient blockers intact.

    But even if someone took appropriate care to use traditional methods of food preparation, and also made sure to use seasonal ingredients, and combined them in the traditional recipes that made use of various complementary ingredients, they would still be left with some degree of plant poisons in their diet.

    I was shocked to learn that every plant in the grocery store has dozens of known carcinogens, and plants produce phytotoxins that total 10,000 times the amount of pesticides sprayed on them (the primary concern with meat is improper handling leading to microorganisms polluting it, and improper cooking methods leading to char - i.e. you don’t want to burn it).

    As far as we know all human societies in every age throughout history ate as much meat as they could get their hands on, and supplemented with plants only when necessary to avert calorie restriction, treat/prevent illness, and as a garnish, or side dish to their meat. The farther back we go the less palatable the plants were and they required even more processing to make them edible.

    Agrarian societies were always, and still are, less healthy than their hunter gatherer counterparts.

    Now, to be clear, I’m not arguing for a forever meat diet.

    The Lion diet refers to eating just ruminant red meat garnished with salt and washed down with mineral rich water.

    The way I see it, this is an elimination diet, of which there are many.

    Some popular ones include AIP, Carnivore and Vegan.

    AIP is the autoimmune paleo diet and advises removing grains, sugars, eggs, dairy, soy, and nightshade vegetables.

    Carnivore allows all meat, fish, dairy and eggs.

    Vegan allows only plant products.

    The idea behind elimination diets, which were a mainstay of pre-modern medical systems, and still used heavily in functional and alternative medicine today, is that something you are eating is preventing your body from recovering from chronic illness, perhaps due to a “leaky gut”, i.e. your gut lining has become damaged and permeable by some toxic insult (like viral/vax entry into the bloodstream and subsequent transfection of key cells) to partially digested food particles which trigger immune reactions that can cross react with your own tissues or simply create inflammation that keeps you sick, and keeps the gut lining from healing.

    Eliminate the foods and eliminate your symptoms, heal the gut, then reintroduce the foods one at a time, carefully watching for reactions.

    It can get complicated because the reactions can take weeks to wear off, and days to recur upon reexposure. So the reintroduction phase is usually done by consuming the test food for 3 days then waiting another 4 days for a reaction.

    Tracking gut permeability tests (lactulose-mannitol ratio, zonulin level, antibodies to zonulin, actin, and lipopolysaccharide) can help determine when to begin the reintroduction phase.

    Given the inherent toxicity of plants, which has developed as an evolutionary defense mechanism against being eaten, and the relatively benign nature of animal meat the safest elimination diets either limit the most toxic plant foods, or eliminate plant foods altogether.

    Share

    In my case I know I have an autoimmune issue with mild psoriasis, which is likely related to leaky gut, I also have had chronic constipation, occasional reflux, occasional headaches, occasional stuffy nose, a tendency towards insomnia, and relatively rapid aging in the last few years with significant weight gain.

    So my plan is to try to reverse all of these naturally and I’ll likely be checking micronutrient levels and genetics at some point to fine tune things using protocols developed by Chris Masterjohn.

    Diet over the longer term will likely trend towards lower in carbs, higher in meat/seafood, dairy, and eggs, but this will depend on my carb tolerance in the future as evidenced by markers like body fat and fasting insulin levels. Will eat shortly after waking to help strengthen the circadian rhythm further.

    Exercise will start with mobility drills, walks, sprints (because no other exercise naturally stimulates muscle gain and fat loss better - just look at an olympic sprinter - the message to your body is either: something’s about to kill us, or we’re about to starve and need to catch some food fast, so shape up ASAP and help me out here), body weight exercises, maybe kettlebell swings.

    Skin and hair care will include traditional topical treatments like egg whites, egg yolks, tallow, and essential oils.

    Sleep will be as much as needed and regular hours.

    Light environment: aim to minimize blue light toxicity from sunlight filtered through window glass, and indoor bulbs by spending as much time outdoors as possible. Sun exposure in the mornings and around sunset especially with some midday sun.

    Also need to work on emotional and spiritual growth and interpersonal relationships, but those are higher hanging fruit.

    Anyway let me know if you’ve tried an elimination diet in the past and how it went for you.

    https://blog.mygotodoc.com/p/the-lion-diet-reset-for-jumpstarting
    The Lion Diet Reset for Jumpstarting Your Healing Journey Just red meat, salt and mineral water to wash it down. Dr. Syed Haider What do Lions Eat? - Discovery UK I gained about 40 - 50 pounds during the pandemic primarily due to stress, poor sleep and too much sugar, then I lost it all by eating whole foods, sleeping well and walking 10,000-15,000 steps a day, then I gained some of it back by eating sugar again and slacking on sleep hygiene, though I mostly kept up the walking, which had become a morning habit (I was actually pleasantly surprised to see that for over 18 months now I’ve always averaged close to 10,000 steps a day over any 6 month period (the health app in my phone)). Meanwhile a friend of mine who had benefited greatly from the carnivore diet in the past, but fell off the wagon and had been trying to get back on for awhile had been encouraging me for some time to be his accountability partner on a diet change journey so finally I decided to take the plunge. From personal experience I know very well that the hardest hill to climb is that initial decision to make a change for the better. After you’ve truly made a commitment to change, sustaining it is not nearly as hard. You also find many complementary healthy changes suddenly become easier to implement. It feels like there is a “good boy” template in the subconscious and an opposing “bad boy” one, though that term carries other perhaps conflicting (perhaps not) connotations. What I mean is that all the things I’ve collected throughout my life that I consider good healthy behaviors tend to creep back sooner or later once I decided to get healthier and take the first steps towards better health. Similarly if I cheat unexpectedly, that single “bad” choice has usually led to most of the good I was doing falling apart and me going back to all the old bad ways. In order to circumvent this tendency I’m planning to build in some flexibility in the form of “cheat” days, but I don’t think it’s helpful to think of them as cheat days, in fact I think it only serves to make it likely that your subconscious considers them a “bad” thing. The key to success and sustainability is to consider them a good thing instead, think of them more as health/metabolic/recovery hormetic stress tests, that are preplanned and executed as a key part of a healthy lifestyle protocol (hormesis: low dose stressor is beneficial, high dose is harmful. Applies to exercise, sunlight, water, food, homeopathy, pharmacology, herbology, even many so called chemical toxins - the dose makes the poison and all). The goal is not only to regain good health but to regain maximal resilience and ability to sustain that good health in the face of challenging situations where you can’t sleep properly, or eat properly or exercise the way you usually do, or you’re exposed to toxic blue light for prolonged periods, or someone close to you passes away, or you lose a job, etc. Thank you for reading Dr. Syed Haider. This post is public so feel free to share it. Share I’m one of those people who can eat a dozen cupcakes if I’m feeling stressed out, but if I stop eating sugar entirely I don’t have any cravings for it. Moderation is impossible, but abstinence is easy. So maybe I’m addicted, or maybe I’m just populated by microbes that depend on sugar. I did a 5 day carnivore reset before my initial weight loss journey started perhaps 18 months ago now, and I was amazed to see that I had no sugar cravings for a couple of months afterwards. Literally for the first time in my life sugar bombs survived in my house for over 48 hours. We had a tub of ice cream that was not finished for a month, which would have been as likely as a pig flying before that. But after that period of a couple months I gradually lost my indifference to sweets and then eventually went back to full on sweet-tooth, cookie-monster mode, which was a big part of my eventual downfall later. My weight loss also stalled out before I got really lean, I felt way better, looked away better, at least in clothes, but I was probably still carrying an extra 30 pounds of fat internally - the visceral fat - which, though invisible to the naked eye, is the worst kind for your health. Carnivore seems to most people to be like an extreme overreaction to the vegan movement, and perhaps it is culturally an immune reaction of sorts, but it pays to consider what the proponents of the diet say. One of the most telling arguments in favor is that plants are trying to kill you. Losing my finger to a 'meat eating' plant? - YouTube Plants like all living things, would prefer to stay alive, and are in a life or death struggle with those who would kill them. Since they can’t run away or fight off their predators, they primarily rely on poisoning them, and animals have developed finely tuned senses that let them know if there is a poison present - it tastes bad, usually very bitter, and the usual reaction is to spit it out (and wash your mouth out), the way a baby will when you try to feed them broccoli or Brussel sprouts. Most non-human mammals that are herbivores or omnivores are only evolutionarily optimized to digest a small selection of plants in their environment. Human civilizations first of all domesticated and bred plants to make them more palatable, and then developed intricate methods of neutralizing and predigesting plants via soaking, sprouting, culturing and cooking plant foods to make them less toxic, though we can’t entirely eliminate all toxins even with these complicated traditional procedures (hormesis argues the remaining toxins are probably beneficial stressors, and there are other beneficial phytonutrients too). Modern manufacturing eschews all that traditional wisdom for quick production methods that leave the lectins, oxalates, phtyates, tannins, hormone disruptors, and nutrient blockers intact. But even if someone took appropriate care to use traditional methods of food preparation, and also made sure to use seasonal ingredients, and combined them in the traditional recipes that made use of various complementary ingredients, they would still be left with some degree of plant poisons in their diet. I was shocked to learn that every plant in the grocery store has dozens of known carcinogens, and plants produce phytotoxins that total 10,000 times the amount of pesticides sprayed on them (the primary concern with meat is improper handling leading to microorganisms polluting it, and improper cooking methods leading to char - i.e. you don’t want to burn it). As far as we know all human societies in every age throughout history ate as much meat as they could get their hands on, and supplemented with plants only when necessary to avert calorie restriction, treat/prevent illness, and as a garnish, or side dish to their meat. The farther back we go the less palatable the plants were and they required even more processing to make them edible. Agrarian societies were always, and still are, less healthy than their hunter gatherer counterparts. Now, to be clear, I’m not arguing for a forever meat diet. The Lion diet refers to eating just ruminant red meat garnished with salt and washed down with mineral rich water. The way I see it, this is an elimination diet, of which there are many. Some popular ones include AIP, Carnivore and Vegan. AIP is the autoimmune paleo diet and advises removing grains, sugars, eggs, dairy, soy, and nightshade vegetables. Carnivore allows all meat, fish, dairy and eggs. Vegan allows only plant products. The idea behind elimination diets, which were a mainstay of pre-modern medical systems, and still used heavily in functional and alternative medicine today, is that something you are eating is preventing your body from recovering from chronic illness, perhaps due to a “leaky gut”, i.e. your gut lining has become damaged and permeable by some toxic insult (like viral/vax entry into the bloodstream and subsequent transfection of key cells) to partially digested food particles which trigger immune reactions that can cross react with your own tissues or simply create inflammation that keeps you sick, and keeps the gut lining from healing. Eliminate the foods and eliminate your symptoms, heal the gut, then reintroduce the foods one at a time, carefully watching for reactions. It can get complicated because the reactions can take weeks to wear off, and days to recur upon reexposure. So the reintroduction phase is usually done by consuming the test food for 3 days then waiting another 4 days for a reaction. Tracking gut permeability tests (lactulose-mannitol ratio, zonulin level, antibodies to zonulin, actin, and lipopolysaccharide) can help determine when to begin the reintroduction phase. Given the inherent toxicity of plants, which has developed as an evolutionary defense mechanism against being eaten, and the relatively benign nature of animal meat the safest elimination diets either limit the most toxic plant foods, or eliminate plant foods altogether. Share In my case I know I have an autoimmune issue with mild psoriasis, which is likely related to leaky gut, I also have had chronic constipation, occasional reflux, occasional headaches, occasional stuffy nose, a tendency towards insomnia, and relatively rapid aging in the last few years with significant weight gain. So my plan is to try to reverse all of these naturally and I’ll likely be checking micronutrient levels and genetics at some point to fine tune things using protocols developed by Chris Masterjohn. Diet over the longer term will likely trend towards lower in carbs, higher in meat/seafood, dairy, and eggs, but this will depend on my carb tolerance in the future as evidenced by markers like body fat and fasting insulin levels. Will eat shortly after waking to help strengthen the circadian rhythm further. Exercise will start with mobility drills, walks, sprints (because no other exercise naturally stimulates muscle gain and fat loss better - just look at an olympic sprinter - the message to your body is either: something’s about to kill us, or we’re about to starve and need to catch some food fast, so shape up ASAP and help me out here), body weight exercises, maybe kettlebell swings. Skin and hair care will include traditional topical treatments like egg whites, egg yolks, tallow, and essential oils. Sleep will be as much as needed and regular hours. Light environment: aim to minimize blue light toxicity from sunlight filtered through window glass, and indoor bulbs by spending as much time outdoors as possible. Sun exposure in the mornings and around sunset especially with some midday sun. Also need to work on emotional and spiritual growth and interpersonal relationships, but those are higher hanging fruit. Anyway let me know if you’ve tried an elimination diet in the past and how it went for you. https://blog.mygotodoc.com/p/the-lion-diet-reset-for-jumpstarting
    BLOG.MYGOTODOC.COM
    The Lion Diet Reset for Jumpstarting Your Healing Journey
    Just red meat, salt and mineral water to wash it down.
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  • ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 110: Israeli forces encircle Khan Younis as Gazans risk famine
    As Netanyahu attempts to prolong war on Gaza, Israeli forces and tanks bomb Khan Yunis and lay siege around the city’s major hospitals. Meanwhile, Gazans are turning to animal fodder for food as starvation sets in.

    Mustafa Abu SneinehJanuary 24, 2024
    Palestinians wait to collect food at a donation point in a refugee camp in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on December 24, 2023. Leading human rights groups have warned that due to Israel's more than 3-month siege on Gaza, millions of Gazans are at risk of famine and starvation. (Photo: APA Images)
    Palestinians wait to collect food at a donation point in a refugee camp in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on December 24, 2023. Leading human rights groups have warned that due to Israel’s more than 3-month siege on Gaza, millions of Gazans are at risk of famine and starvation. (Photo: APA Images)
    Casualties

    25,700+ killed* and at least 63,740 wounded in the Gaza Strip.
    387+ Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem
    Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,147.
    556 Israeli soldiers killed since October 7, and at least 3,221 injured.**
    *This figure was confirmed by Gaza’s Ministry of Health. Some rights groups put the death toll number closer to 32,000 when accounting for those presumed dead.

    ** This figure is released by the Israeli military.

    Key Developments

    UNRWA says 570,000 Palestinians in Gaza are now facing “catastrophic hunger”.
    UNRWA says it delivered protein-based flour, dairy items, and high-energy biscuits to 320,000 Palestinian families in Gaza, leaving thousands others without food.
    ActionAid UK appeals that “the humanitarian situation in Gaza is still catastrophic. As winter sets in, people are struggling without proper shelters, food, water and warm clothes.”
    Israeli military says it encircled Khan Yunis, second-largest city in Gaza Strip, and one of the major southern cities where Gazans fled to from the north earlier on in the war upon Israeli army instruction.
    Wafa reports Israeli forces fired directly at buildings in Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis. In December, Israeli shells directly hit the maternity ward in Nasser, killing a baby girl and wounding seven others.
    WHO says its teams managed to resupply 19,000 liters of fuel to Al-Shifa Hospital in north Gaza.
    Wafa reports Israel killed at least 50 Palestinians and injured 120 others in bombings of Khan Yunis.
    The Al-Khair and Nasser Hospitals are minimally operating and totally inaccessible following Israeli siege of Khan Yunis.
    Reuters reports Hamas and Israel broadly agreed in principle during mediated talks on month-long ceasefire and exchange of prisoners and captives.
    Palestinian Authority condemns Israeli PM Netanyahu’s attempts to prolong war in Gaza for six months.
    Israeli forces blow up house of Basil Shehadeh, Palestinian prisoner detained in June 2023, in his hometown of Urif, south of Nablus in the West Bank.
    The Wall and Settlement Resistance Committee records 120 Israeli settler attacks in West Bank since January, 35 carried out by settlers dressed in military attire and 23 attacks happened under watch of Israeli soldiers.
    In Gaza, ‘there is no fresh water, no food, no flour‘

    Starvation and hunger are spreading among half a million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, as they facing rainy, cold weather and insufficient food due to the ongoing Israeli aggression since October.

    Advertisement

    Help Mondoweiss reach 100,000 subscribers on YouTube!
    Some Palestinian families used whatever ingredients they had to feed their children, such as grinding fodder, which is hay or straw normally fed to cattle, to bake bread.

    “People need to make bread; sometimes they manage to make it [using fodder] and sometimes not. We are living a famine,” a Palestinian in Gaza told Al-Jazeera Arabic.

    “We live in a polluted condition. There is no fresh water, no food, no drink, no flour. This flour you see here was made from livestock fodder,” he said, showing a sack of fodder that contained insects and needed palming before being crushed.

    UNRWA said on Tuesday that 570,000 Palestinians in Gaza are now facing “catastrophic hunger.”

    “Intense fighting, access denials & restrictions + communications blackouts are hampering UNRWA’s ability to safely & effectively deliver aid,” the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said.

    “As risk of famine grows, UN calls for a critical increase in humanitarian access,” it added.

    UNRWA worries were reiterated by the World Food Programme (WFP), which believes that numerous areas of Gaza are on the verge of being plunged into famine pockets as Israeli bombardment and siege never eased for over three months, except for the ten-day truce in November.

    “This is why we’re seeing people becoming more desperate and being impatient to wait for food distributions, because it’s very sporadic,” the WFP spokesperson Abeer Etefa said.

    Both UNRWA and WFP are struggling to deliver sufficient aid and food supplies inside the Gaza Strip. UNRWA said it managed, alongside its partners, to deliver protein-based, flour, dairy items, and high-energy biscuits to 320,000 families in January, which still leave thousands of other Palestinians without food in Gaza.

    Palestinians in Gaza have been blocked by the Israeli military from accessing the agricultural fields to the east of the Gaza Strip since October, a significant portion of which have been leveled and destroyed. This has added to the lack of sufficient food and to starvation in Gaza for 2.3 million Palestinians, the majority of whom are now displaced.

    “The humanitarian situation in Gaza is still catastrophic. As winter sets in, people are struggling without proper shelters, food, water and warm clothes,” ActionAid UK appealed in a petition.

    “The health system has collapsed in Gaza and outbreak of disease such as diarrhoea and acute respiratory infections threatens more lives,” it added.

    Israel kills members of Zamel family and encircles Khan Younis hospitals

    Israel has killed at least 25,700 Palestinian martyrs and injured 63,740 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since October.

    In the past 24 hours, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said that Israel killed 210 Palestinians and injured 386 people. Israel has continued to kill hundreds of Palestinians each day, despite language from the Israeli and U.S. governments and mainstream media, that Israel has moved to a “less intense” phase of the war in Gaza.

    The Israeli military announced on Tuesday that it had encircled Khan Younis, the second-largest city in the Gaza Strip, claiming that Hamas leaders are hiding in tunnels underneath it. In December, Israeli forces said that “within days,” they will be in the heart of Khan Younis, before being met with fierce Palestinian resistance fire.

    Israeli forces are now cutting off the seaside road of Khan Younis, barring Palestinians from traveling southward to Rafah city, the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip bordering Egypt. It has been encircling two Palestinian hospitals, Al-Amal and Nasser, and has stormed a third one, the Al-Khair Hospital, arresting several medical staff this week.

    Khan Younis saw the worst round of Israeli bombardment in the past 24 hours, according to Wafa news agency.

    Wafa reported that Israeli artillery bombed a seaside house west of Al-Mawasi, an area designated as “safe” by Israel in December, killing at least four people and injuring several others, who were hospitalized in the Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah.

    Israeli forces also bombed the Harun Al-Rashid Road in Khan Younis and were stationed around Al-Aqsa University buildings. Ambulances could not reach the Al-Amal and Nasser Hospitals as Israeli forces blocked all roads leading to them.

    Wafa reported that Israeli forces fired directly at buildings in the Nasser Hospital compound. In December, an Israeli shell directly hit the maternity ward in the facility, killing a baby girl and wounding seven others.

    Palestinian rescue teams transported 20 Palestinian martyrs to the Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza. Israel’s bombardment of west Gaza destroyed a number of houses and apartments in the area, leaving dozens of Palestinians under the rubble, Wafa said.

    The Al-Shifa Hospital is one of seven medical facilities operating in a limited capacity in northern Gaza. The WHO said that its teams managed to resupply 19,000 liters of fuel to Al-Shifa on Monday.

    “The roads leading to the hospital were severely damaged, and the desperation in northern Gaza was apparent, as thousands of civilians surrounded the UN vehicles and fuel truck in the hopes of finding food and water, also delaying the mission,” WHO described the conditions in Gaza.

    Wafa reported that at least 50 Palestinians were killed and 120 injured in the Israeli bombardment of Khan Younis in the past 24 hours. The Al-Khair and Nasser Hospitals are minimally operating and totally inaccessible following the Israeli siege of of the city

    “WHO is extremely concerned about reports of Al-Kheir Hospital, a small NGO-run hospital with around 30 beds, facing military incursions and several health workers being detained. Communication with the hospital is no longer possible,” the WHO said on Wednesday.

    The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said that three people were killed in the Israeli bombardment of its offices in Khan Younis. Doctors without Borders (MSF) published an update from its team working at the Nasser Hospital on Tuesday evening, saying that the Israeli army ordered medical staff and patients to evacuate the area.

    “MSF staff members can hear bombs and heavy gunfire close to Nasser. They are currently unable to evacuate along with the thousands of people in the hospital, including 850 patients, due to roads to and from the building being either inaccessible or too dangerous,” MSF wrote on X.


    In Jabalia in northern Gaza, the Israeli army killed fourteen Palestinians in a bombing of the Zamel family home. Some of them were identified as Duaa, Mahmoud, Mariam, Ali, Suaad, Noor, and Fatima Zamel, according to Wafa.

    The Zamel house was turned into rubble, according to a report by Al-Jazeera Arabic. A relative of the Zamel family said that the Israeli bombing hit the home, which was housing around 50 people, in the evening without warning.

    “The ceilings collapsed, and children were lying in the road. We used phone torches to find and rescue them,” he said.

    Hamas and Israel engage in mediated talks to reach prisoner exchange deal

    Reuters reported on Wednesday that Hamas and Israel had broadly agreed in principle during mediated talks on a month-long ceasefire, in which Palestinian prisoners will be exchanged with Israeli captives held in Gaza. These reports are yet to be confirmed, while agreements regarding a permanent ceasefire remain a thorny issue for Israel, which the Hamas leadership has stipulated as a precondition for any exchange deal.

    This comes a day after Axios reported that Israel submitted a proposal through Qatar and Egypt to pause the war for two months in return for the release of all the 130 Israeli captives in Gaza. Hamas is yet to comment on both reports. The movement made clear in the past months that it won’t accept any deal without a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

    On Wednesday, hundreds of Israeli captives’ families blocked aid convoys going into the Gaza Strip through the Karam Abu Salem crossing to choke Palestinians off from aid and put pressure on Hamas to release the Israeli captives, according to The Jerusalem Post.

    PA condemns Netanyahu’s attempt to prolong war, settler attacks rise in West Bank

    The Palestinian Authority’s (PA) Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempt to prolong the war in Gaza for six months.

    Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the 3rd phase of the war in Gaza could last for half a year. The PA said Israel would use this period to destroy homes and expel more Palestinians from their neighborhoods and towns in the Gaza Strip.

    Meanwhile, over the past 24 hours in the West Bank, Israeli forces arrested 35 Palestinians from Nablus, Salfit, Ramallah, Hizma, Jericho, Al-Jalazoun refugee camp, Hebron and Jenin.

    The Prisoner’s Club and the Commission for Ex-Prisoners’ Affairs said on Wednesday that Israel arrested a total of 6,255 Palestinians since October, some of whom have since been released.

    On Wednesday morning, Israeli forces stormed the village of Urif, south of Nablus, and blew up the house of Basil Shehadeh, a Palestinian prisoner detained in June 2023 on charges of assisting two Palestinian shooters who killed four Israeli settlers near the Eli settlement.

    Wafa reported that a large Israeli force stormed Urif, barring the exit and entry of any Palestinians from the area and wiring explosives inside Shehadeh’s house before blowing it up.

    The PA’s Wall and Settlement Resistance Committee said in a report that 120 Israeli settler attacks have been recorded in the West Bank since January.

    These include shootings at Palestinians, arson attacks, and vandalism of property. The report said that 35 attacks were carried out by settlers dressed in military attire, while 23 attacks occurred under the watch of Israeli soldiers.

    BEFORE YOU GO – At Mondoweiss, we understand the power of telling Palestinian stories. For 17 years, we have pushed back when the mainstream media published lies or echoed politicians’ hateful rhetoric. Now, Palestinian voices are more important than ever.

    Our traffic has increased ten times since October 7, and we need your help to cover our increased expenses.

    Support our journalists with a donation today.

    https://mondoweiss.net/2024/01/operation-al-aqsa-flood-day-110-israeli-forces-encircle-khan-yunis-as-gazans-risk-famine/
    ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 110: Israeli forces encircle Khan Younis as Gazans risk famine As Netanyahu attempts to prolong war on Gaza, Israeli forces and tanks bomb Khan Yunis and lay siege around the city’s major hospitals. Meanwhile, Gazans are turning to animal fodder for food as starvation sets in. Mustafa Abu SneinehJanuary 24, 2024 Palestinians wait to collect food at a donation point in a refugee camp in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on December 24, 2023. Leading human rights groups have warned that due to Israel's more than 3-month siege on Gaza, millions of Gazans are at risk of famine and starvation. (Photo: APA Images) Palestinians wait to collect food at a donation point in a refugee camp in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on December 24, 2023. Leading human rights groups have warned that due to Israel’s more than 3-month siege on Gaza, millions of Gazans are at risk of famine and starvation. (Photo: APA Images) Casualties 25,700+ killed* and at least 63,740 wounded in the Gaza Strip. 387+ Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,147. 556 Israeli soldiers killed since October 7, and at least 3,221 injured.** *This figure was confirmed by Gaza’s Ministry of Health. Some rights groups put the death toll number closer to 32,000 when accounting for those presumed dead. ** This figure is released by the Israeli military. Key Developments UNRWA says 570,000 Palestinians in Gaza are now facing “catastrophic hunger”. UNRWA says it delivered protein-based flour, dairy items, and high-energy biscuits to 320,000 Palestinian families in Gaza, leaving thousands others without food. ActionAid UK appeals that “the humanitarian situation in Gaza is still catastrophic. As winter sets in, people are struggling without proper shelters, food, water and warm clothes.” Israeli military says it encircled Khan Yunis, second-largest city in Gaza Strip, and one of the major southern cities where Gazans fled to from the north earlier on in the war upon Israeli army instruction. Wafa reports Israeli forces fired directly at buildings in Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis. In December, Israeli shells directly hit the maternity ward in Nasser, killing a baby girl and wounding seven others. WHO says its teams managed to resupply 19,000 liters of fuel to Al-Shifa Hospital in north Gaza. Wafa reports Israel killed at least 50 Palestinians and injured 120 others in bombings of Khan Yunis. The Al-Khair and Nasser Hospitals are minimally operating and totally inaccessible following Israeli siege of Khan Yunis. Reuters reports Hamas and Israel broadly agreed in principle during mediated talks on month-long ceasefire and exchange of prisoners and captives. Palestinian Authority condemns Israeli PM Netanyahu’s attempts to prolong war in Gaza for six months. Israeli forces blow up house of Basil Shehadeh, Palestinian prisoner detained in June 2023, in his hometown of Urif, south of Nablus in the West Bank. The Wall and Settlement Resistance Committee records 120 Israeli settler attacks in West Bank since January, 35 carried out by settlers dressed in military attire and 23 attacks happened under watch of Israeli soldiers. In Gaza, ‘there is no fresh water, no food, no flour‘ Starvation and hunger are spreading among half a million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, as they facing rainy, cold weather and insufficient food due to the ongoing Israeli aggression since October. Advertisement Help Mondoweiss reach 100,000 subscribers on YouTube! Some Palestinian families used whatever ingredients they had to feed their children, such as grinding fodder, which is hay or straw normally fed to cattle, to bake bread. “People need to make bread; sometimes they manage to make it [using fodder] and sometimes not. We are living a famine,” a Palestinian in Gaza told Al-Jazeera Arabic. “We live in a polluted condition. There is no fresh water, no food, no drink, no flour. This flour you see here was made from livestock fodder,” he said, showing a sack of fodder that contained insects and needed palming before being crushed. UNRWA said on Tuesday that 570,000 Palestinians in Gaza are now facing “catastrophic hunger.” “Intense fighting, access denials & restrictions + communications blackouts are hampering UNRWA’s ability to safely & effectively deliver aid,” the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said. “As risk of famine grows, UN calls for a critical increase in humanitarian access,” it added. UNRWA worries were reiterated by the World Food Programme (WFP), which believes that numerous areas of Gaza are on the verge of being plunged into famine pockets as Israeli bombardment and siege never eased for over three months, except for the ten-day truce in November. “This is why we’re seeing people becoming more desperate and being impatient to wait for food distributions, because it’s very sporadic,” the WFP spokesperson Abeer Etefa said. Both UNRWA and WFP are struggling to deliver sufficient aid and food supplies inside the Gaza Strip. UNRWA said it managed, alongside its partners, to deliver protein-based, flour, dairy items, and high-energy biscuits to 320,000 families in January, which still leave thousands of other Palestinians without food in Gaza. Palestinians in Gaza have been blocked by the Israeli military from accessing the agricultural fields to the east of the Gaza Strip since October, a significant portion of which have been leveled and destroyed. This has added to the lack of sufficient food and to starvation in Gaza for 2.3 million Palestinians, the majority of whom are now displaced. “The humanitarian situation in Gaza is still catastrophic. As winter sets in, people are struggling without proper shelters, food, water and warm clothes,” ActionAid UK appealed in a petition. “The health system has collapsed in Gaza and outbreak of disease such as diarrhoea and acute respiratory infections threatens more lives,” it added. Israel kills members of Zamel family and encircles Khan Younis hospitals Israel has killed at least 25,700 Palestinian martyrs and injured 63,740 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since October. In the past 24 hours, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said that Israel killed 210 Palestinians and injured 386 people. Israel has continued to kill hundreds of Palestinians each day, despite language from the Israeli and U.S. governments and mainstream media, that Israel has moved to a “less intense” phase of the war in Gaza. The Israeli military announced on Tuesday that it had encircled Khan Younis, the second-largest city in the Gaza Strip, claiming that Hamas leaders are hiding in tunnels underneath it. In December, Israeli forces said that “within days,” they will be in the heart of Khan Younis, before being met with fierce Palestinian resistance fire. Israeli forces are now cutting off the seaside road of Khan Younis, barring Palestinians from traveling southward to Rafah city, the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip bordering Egypt. It has been encircling two Palestinian hospitals, Al-Amal and Nasser, and has stormed a third one, the Al-Khair Hospital, arresting several medical staff this week. Khan Younis saw the worst round of Israeli bombardment in the past 24 hours, according to Wafa news agency. Wafa reported that Israeli artillery bombed a seaside house west of Al-Mawasi, an area designated as “safe” by Israel in December, killing at least four people and injuring several others, who were hospitalized in the Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah. Israeli forces also bombed the Harun Al-Rashid Road in Khan Younis and were stationed around Al-Aqsa University buildings. Ambulances could not reach the Al-Amal and Nasser Hospitals as Israeli forces blocked all roads leading to them. Wafa reported that Israeli forces fired directly at buildings in the Nasser Hospital compound. In December, an Israeli shell directly hit the maternity ward in the facility, killing a baby girl and wounding seven others. Palestinian rescue teams transported 20 Palestinian martyrs to the Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza. Israel’s bombardment of west Gaza destroyed a number of houses and apartments in the area, leaving dozens of Palestinians under the rubble, Wafa said. The Al-Shifa Hospital is one of seven medical facilities operating in a limited capacity in northern Gaza. The WHO said that its teams managed to resupply 19,000 liters of fuel to Al-Shifa on Monday. “The roads leading to the hospital were severely damaged, and the desperation in northern Gaza was apparent, as thousands of civilians surrounded the UN vehicles and fuel truck in the hopes of finding food and water, also delaying the mission,” WHO described the conditions in Gaza. Wafa reported that at least 50 Palestinians were killed and 120 injured in the Israeli bombardment of Khan Younis in the past 24 hours. The Al-Khair and Nasser Hospitals are minimally operating and totally inaccessible following the Israeli siege of of the city “WHO is extremely concerned about reports of Al-Kheir Hospital, a small NGO-run hospital with around 30 beds, facing military incursions and several health workers being detained. Communication with the hospital is no longer possible,” the WHO said on Wednesday. The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said that three people were killed in the Israeli bombardment of its offices in Khan Younis. Doctors without Borders (MSF) published an update from its team working at the Nasser Hospital on Tuesday evening, saying that the Israeli army ordered medical staff and patients to evacuate the area. “MSF staff members can hear bombs and heavy gunfire close to Nasser. They are currently unable to evacuate along with the thousands of people in the hospital, including 850 patients, due to roads to and from the building being either inaccessible or too dangerous,” MSF wrote on X. In Jabalia in northern Gaza, the Israeli army killed fourteen Palestinians in a bombing of the Zamel family home. Some of them were identified as Duaa, Mahmoud, Mariam, Ali, Suaad, Noor, and Fatima Zamel, according to Wafa. The Zamel house was turned into rubble, according to a report by Al-Jazeera Arabic. A relative of the Zamel family said that the Israeli bombing hit the home, which was housing around 50 people, in the evening without warning. “The ceilings collapsed, and children were lying in the road. We used phone torches to find and rescue them,” he said. Hamas and Israel engage in mediated talks to reach prisoner exchange deal Reuters reported on Wednesday that Hamas and Israel had broadly agreed in principle during mediated talks on a month-long ceasefire, in which Palestinian prisoners will be exchanged with Israeli captives held in Gaza. These reports are yet to be confirmed, while agreements regarding a permanent ceasefire remain a thorny issue for Israel, which the Hamas leadership has stipulated as a precondition for any exchange deal. This comes a day after Axios reported that Israel submitted a proposal through Qatar and Egypt to pause the war for two months in return for the release of all the 130 Israeli captives in Gaza. Hamas is yet to comment on both reports. The movement made clear in the past months that it won’t accept any deal without a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. On Wednesday, hundreds of Israeli captives’ families blocked aid convoys going into the Gaza Strip through the Karam Abu Salem crossing to choke Palestinians off from aid and put pressure on Hamas to release the Israeli captives, according to The Jerusalem Post. PA condemns Netanyahu’s attempt to prolong war, settler attacks rise in West Bank The Palestinian Authority’s (PA) Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempt to prolong the war in Gaza for six months. Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the 3rd phase of the war in Gaza could last for half a year. The PA said Israel would use this period to destroy homes and expel more Palestinians from their neighborhoods and towns in the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, over the past 24 hours in the West Bank, Israeli forces arrested 35 Palestinians from Nablus, Salfit, Ramallah, Hizma, Jericho, Al-Jalazoun refugee camp, Hebron and Jenin. The Prisoner’s Club and the Commission for Ex-Prisoners’ Affairs said on Wednesday that Israel arrested a total of 6,255 Palestinians since October, some of whom have since been released. On Wednesday morning, Israeli forces stormed the village of Urif, south of Nablus, and blew up the house of Basil Shehadeh, a Palestinian prisoner detained in June 2023 on charges of assisting two Palestinian shooters who killed four Israeli settlers near the Eli settlement. Wafa reported that a large Israeli force stormed Urif, barring the exit and entry of any Palestinians from the area and wiring explosives inside Shehadeh’s house before blowing it up. The PA’s Wall and Settlement Resistance Committee said in a report that 120 Israeli settler attacks have been recorded in the West Bank since January. These include shootings at Palestinians, arson attacks, and vandalism of property. The report said that 35 attacks were carried out by settlers dressed in military attire, while 23 attacks occurred under the watch of Israeli soldiers. BEFORE YOU GO – At Mondoweiss, we understand the power of telling Palestinian stories. For 17 years, we have pushed back when the mainstream media published lies or echoed politicians’ hateful rhetoric. Now, Palestinian voices are more important than ever. Our traffic has increased ten times since October 7, and we need your help to cover our increased expenses. Support our journalists with a donation today. https://mondoweiss.net/2024/01/operation-al-aqsa-flood-day-110-israeli-forces-encircle-khan-yunis-as-gazans-risk-famine/
    MONDOWEISS.NET
    ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 110: Israeli forces encircle Khan Younis as Gazans risk famine
    As Netanyahu attempts to prolong war on Gaza, Israeli forces and tanks bomb Khan Yunis and lay siege around the city’s major hospitals. Meanwhile, Gazans are turning to animal fodder for food as starvation sets in.
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  • War on Gaza: Survivors recount harrowing Israeli field executions
    A youth from the Abu Hamad family next to the shrouded bodies of his father and two brothers in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on 9 November 2023 (AFP)
    In Gaza City, Israeli soldiers shoot Palestinians at point blank range, killing them in front of their families
    For three days, Moemen Raed al-Khaldi lay wounded and motionless between the corpses of his killed family members, pretending to be dead to protect himself from being shot by Israeli soldiers.

    On 21 December, Israeli soldiers broke into the house where the Khaldi family had taken refuge in northern Gaza and, in mere minutes, they shot everyone present.

    The soldiers left the house thinking they had killed them all, only Moemen remained alive, bleeding for days before the neighbours found him and took him to hospital.

    From his hospital bed in al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City, he recounted to Middle East Eye what happened on 21 December.

    Khaldi and his family had gone to the home of their relatives in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood in the north of Gaza City after being forced to evacuate their own house.

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    'I pretended to be dead'

    On that fateful day, after the sun had set, the family had finished prayers and were lying together on the floor, covered in blankets, when Israeli soldiers suddenly blew up the front door and stormed the house.

    "Everyone in the vicinity was immediately wounded, including two women; my grandmother and another pregnant woman," Khaldi said.

    Addressing the family in Hebrew, the Israeli army instructed everyone to evacuate the house. However, as no one spoke Hebrew, the family members didn't understand the orders.


    War on Gaza: To be a Palestinian child is a curse, not a blessing

    Read More »
    "The soldiers did not speak Arabic. No one spoke Hebrew and we did not understand what they were saying. So, my grandfather tried to translate. He only said a few words: 'Listen to what the soldiers are telling you and go out'," Khaldi said.

    "The soldiers turned around and thought that it was my father who had spoken. They shot him with a bullet, and he was immediately killed."

    The soldiers then shot everyone else in the room, including Khaldi.

    "My grandfather was then martyred, followed by my uncle, then another two men who had also taken refuge with us, then one of the owners of the house. After that, my grandmother and the pregnant woman were martyred."

    After he was shot, sustaining wounds to his legs, Khaldi lay motionless on the floor, feigning death to prevent further gunfire from the soldiers.

    "I was protecting myself by staying in a place between my uncle’s back and the wall. I was protecting my head in this position. I stayed like this for three days pretending not to be alive. During that time, the army came in and out of the house, destroying the place, but I pretended to be [dead]," he recalled.

    "Three days later, people transferred me along with my martyred family members to the hospital."

    'They shot mum, then dad'

    On 27 October, the Israeli army launched a ground invasion into the urban areas, streets, and densely populated neighbourhoods of the Gaza Strip.

    Days ahead of the invasion, the Israeli military started ordering the residents of Gaza City and the rest of the northern Gaza Strip to evacuate their homes and relocate to the areas in the southern Gaza Valley.

    The military said it considers the Palestinians who did not comply with the evacuation orders as "terrorists", and its forces have since been using deadly force against the people who have chosen to stay.

    'No sooner had she said that, they shot her, then they shot dad'

    - Faisal al-Khaldi, six

    On 22 December, in the same neighbourhood where Khaldi’s family was executed, his six-year-old relative, Faisal Ahmed al-Khaldi, survived a similar incident after Israeli soldiers shot his parents dead in front of him at his uncle's house.

    "We were at home and the tank was [stationed] by the building's door. One night, they broke down the gate and stormed in. The door to my uncle Mohammed’s [apartment] was locked, they broke it and entered. They shot everyone in the guest room," Faisal told MEE.

    "We were sleeping, I heard their [noise], so I asked my mum: What is this sound? She told me: These are Israelis. No sooner had she said that, they shot her, then they shot dad."

    Israeli soldiers then ordered the rest of Faisal's family members to gather in one room, leaving the children to watch them from the corridor.

    Faisal was hit by shrapnel from the bullets that killed his parents, but shock kept him from feeling the wound at the time.

    "We hid in the bedroom of my cousin Layan. We then headed to the door, I could not walk, I kept on falling, so my uncle, Mohammed, carried me. When he did, the soldiers ordered him and Layan's grandfather to take off their clothes," he recounted.

    "They ordered them to sit down, and we all went to sit in the corridor."

    After the soldiers left the house, the family went to take refuge in a school, and was only then that Faisal felt a pain in his abdomen.

    "They took off my clothes and found out that I was wounded and took me to the hospital," he said.

    Executed before his disabled children

    A week later, just a few kilometres away, Israeli soldiers executed 65-year-old Kamel Mohammed Nofal, a retired United Nations Relief and Works Agency employee, in front of his wife and disabled adult children while "he was trying to explain to them that his children could not understand the instructions," his relative, Jamal Naim, told MEE.


    War on Gaza: The Palestinian family 'executed' in their home by Israeli forces

    Read More »
    "Israeli forces arrived at the building where Kamel and his family lived and ordered everyone to evacuate the building. They all went down and gathered on the street in front of the building" he said.

    "There were 24 residents, including Kamel, his 63-year-old wife Fatima Jamil Timraz, and their four children, their spouses and their children. At least nine children were among them, the youngest was four months old."

    According to Naim, three of Nofal’s children were deaf and mute, and the fourth was visually impaired.

    "Israeli soldiers were giving the group instructions about where to go and what to do, but Kamel’s children could not understand as they were not able to properly hear, see, or communicate with the forces, so the soldiers proceeded to detain them," he said.

    "Kamel spoke in Hebrew, telling the soldiers that his sons Hussam, 40, Ahmed, 36, and Mahmoud, 32, and his daughter Wafaa, 31, were disabled. They immediately shot him. He was killed in front of his children and everyone else."

    Naim reported that Israeli soldiers subsequently detained Nofal's children and the rest of his family members. Their current whereabouts remain unknown.

    'They executed everyone'

    When the Israeli military reached al-Rimal neighbourhood in the centre of Gaza City, it targeted several commercial and residential buildings. The residents, however, were not allowed to evacuate.

    Journalist Ahmed Dawoud, 38, was still in his home near the Palestine crossroads when an Israeli tank targeted his neighbour’s apartment and he was forced to flee.

    "I left my home after the nearby apartment was burnt. We left the building along with around 30 people, including the daughter of my journalist friend. We were trying to flee, but upon arriving at the crossroads, two girls were killed," he recounted.

    'The body of my friend's daughter remained on the street for five days'

    - Ahmed Dawoud, 38

    "One of [the girls] was eight years old, she was my journalist friend’s daughter, and the other was 15 years old. They executed them before our eyes. If we did not take shelter, we would have also been among the martyrs."

    When the soldiers opened fire on the residents, some retreated to the building, and others decided to walk on to a safer place.

    "The body of my friend’s daughter remained on the street. We entered a random house, and for four or five days, we were just watching [out the window], trying to retrieve the body. We were encircled by Israeli soldiers who were executing everyone in the area," he said.

    "Five days later, we went down and retrieved the body under the [Israeli] quadcopters"

    When he fled the building, some of his neighbours remained in their apartment. When Israeli soldiers entered the building and found them, he said, they executed the entire family, before setting the house on fire.

    "They executed them all, the entire group... They executed everyone in the area, they did not leave anyone."

    - Mohammed Qreiqe in Gaza contributed to this report

    https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/war-gaza-survivors-recount-harrowing-israeli-field-executions
    War on Gaza: Survivors recount harrowing Israeli field executions A youth from the Abu Hamad family next to the shrouded bodies of his father and two brothers in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on 9 November 2023 (AFP) In Gaza City, Israeli soldiers shoot Palestinians at point blank range, killing them in front of their families For three days, Moemen Raed al-Khaldi lay wounded and motionless between the corpses of his killed family members, pretending to be dead to protect himself from being shot by Israeli soldiers. On 21 December, Israeli soldiers broke into the house where the Khaldi family had taken refuge in northern Gaza and, in mere minutes, they shot everyone present. The soldiers left the house thinking they had killed them all, only Moemen remained alive, bleeding for days before the neighbours found him and took him to hospital. From his hospital bed in al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City, he recounted to Middle East Eye what happened on 21 December. Khaldi and his family had gone to the home of their relatives in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood in the north of Gaza City after being forced to evacuate their own house. Stay informed with MEE's newsletters Sign up to get the latest alerts, insights and analysis, starting with Turkey Unpacked 'I pretended to be dead' On that fateful day, after the sun had set, the family had finished prayers and were lying together on the floor, covered in blankets, when Israeli soldiers suddenly blew up the front door and stormed the house. "Everyone in the vicinity was immediately wounded, including two women; my grandmother and another pregnant woman," Khaldi said. Addressing the family in Hebrew, the Israeli army instructed everyone to evacuate the house. However, as no one spoke Hebrew, the family members didn't understand the orders. War on Gaza: To be a Palestinian child is a curse, not a blessing Read More » "The soldiers did not speak Arabic. No one spoke Hebrew and we did not understand what they were saying. So, my grandfather tried to translate. He only said a few words: 'Listen to what the soldiers are telling you and go out'," Khaldi said. "The soldiers turned around and thought that it was my father who had spoken. They shot him with a bullet, and he was immediately killed." The soldiers then shot everyone else in the room, including Khaldi. "My grandfather was then martyred, followed by my uncle, then another two men who had also taken refuge with us, then one of the owners of the house. After that, my grandmother and the pregnant woman were martyred." After he was shot, sustaining wounds to his legs, Khaldi lay motionless on the floor, feigning death to prevent further gunfire from the soldiers. "I was protecting myself by staying in a place between my uncle’s back and the wall. I was protecting my head in this position. I stayed like this for three days pretending not to be alive. During that time, the army came in and out of the house, destroying the place, but I pretended to be [dead]," he recalled. "Three days later, people transferred me along with my martyred family members to the hospital." 'They shot mum, then dad' On 27 October, the Israeli army launched a ground invasion into the urban areas, streets, and densely populated neighbourhoods of the Gaza Strip. Days ahead of the invasion, the Israeli military started ordering the residents of Gaza City and the rest of the northern Gaza Strip to evacuate their homes and relocate to the areas in the southern Gaza Valley. The military said it considers the Palestinians who did not comply with the evacuation orders as "terrorists", and its forces have since been using deadly force against the people who have chosen to stay. 'No sooner had she said that, they shot her, then they shot dad' - Faisal al-Khaldi, six On 22 December, in the same neighbourhood where Khaldi’s family was executed, his six-year-old relative, Faisal Ahmed al-Khaldi, survived a similar incident after Israeli soldiers shot his parents dead in front of him at his uncle's house. "We were at home and the tank was [stationed] by the building's door. One night, they broke down the gate and stormed in. The door to my uncle Mohammed’s [apartment] was locked, they broke it and entered. They shot everyone in the guest room," Faisal told MEE. "We were sleeping, I heard their [noise], so I asked my mum: What is this sound? She told me: These are Israelis. No sooner had she said that, they shot her, then they shot dad." Israeli soldiers then ordered the rest of Faisal's family members to gather in one room, leaving the children to watch them from the corridor. Faisal was hit by shrapnel from the bullets that killed his parents, but shock kept him from feeling the wound at the time. "We hid in the bedroom of my cousin Layan. We then headed to the door, I could not walk, I kept on falling, so my uncle, Mohammed, carried me. When he did, the soldiers ordered him and Layan's grandfather to take off their clothes," he recounted. "They ordered them to sit down, and we all went to sit in the corridor." After the soldiers left the house, the family went to take refuge in a school, and was only then that Faisal felt a pain in his abdomen. "They took off my clothes and found out that I was wounded and took me to the hospital," he said. Executed before his disabled children A week later, just a few kilometres away, Israeli soldiers executed 65-year-old Kamel Mohammed Nofal, a retired United Nations Relief and Works Agency employee, in front of his wife and disabled adult children while "he was trying to explain to them that his children could not understand the instructions," his relative, Jamal Naim, told MEE. War on Gaza: The Palestinian family 'executed' in their home by Israeli forces Read More » "Israeli forces arrived at the building where Kamel and his family lived and ordered everyone to evacuate the building. They all went down and gathered on the street in front of the building" he said. "There were 24 residents, including Kamel, his 63-year-old wife Fatima Jamil Timraz, and their four children, their spouses and their children. At least nine children were among them, the youngest was four months old." According to Naim, three of Nofal’s children were deaf and mute, and the fourth was visually impaired. "Israeli soldiers were giving the group instructions about where to go and what to do, but Kamel’s children could not understand as they were not able to properly hear, see, or communicate with the forces, so the soldiers proceeded to detain them," he said. "Kamel spoke in Hebrew, telling the soldiers that his sons Hussam, 40, Ahmed, 36, and Mahmoud, 32, and his daughter Wafaa, 31, were disabled. They immediately shot him. He was killed in front of his children and everyone else." Naim reported that Israeli soldiers subsequently detained Nofal's children and the rest of his family members. Their current whereabouts remain unknown. 'They executed everyone' When the Israeli military reached al-Rimal neighbourhood in the centre of Gaza City, it targeted several commercial and residential buildings. The residents, however, were not allowed to evacuate. Journalist Ahmed Dawoud, 38, was still in his home near the Palestine crossroads when an Israeli tank targeted his neighbour’s apartment and he was forced to flee. "I left my home after the nearby apartment was burnt. We left the building along with around 30 people, including the daughter of my journalist friend. We were trying to flee, but upon arriving at the crossroads, two girls were killed," he recounted. 'The body of my friend's daughter remained on the street for five days' - Ahmed Dawoud, 38 "One of [the girls] was eight years old, she was my journalist friend’s daughter, and the other was 15 years old. They executed them before our eyes. If we did not take shelter, we would have also been among the martyrs." When the soldiers opened fire on the residents, some retreated to the building, and others decided to walk on to a safer place. "The body of my friend’s daughter remained on the street. We entered a random house, and for four or five days, we were just watching [out the window], trying to retrieve the body. We were encircled by Israeli soldiers who were executing everyone in the area," he said. "Five days later, we went down and retrieved the body under the [Israeli] quadcopters" When he fled the building, some of his neighbours remained in their apartment. When Israeli soldiers entered the building and found them, he said, they executed the entire family, before setting the house on fire. "They executed them all, the entire group... They executed everyone in the area, they did not leave anyone." - Mohammed Qreiqe in Gaza contributed to this report https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/war-gaza-survivors-recount-harrowing-israeli-field-executions
    WWW.MIDDLEEASTEYE.NET
    'I pretended to be dead': Survivors recount harrowing Israeli field executions in Gaza
    In Gaza City, Israeli soldiers shoot Palestinians at point blank range, killing them in front of their families
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  • TORTURE AT ABU GHRAIB
    From the archive

    Seymour Hersh

    An Iraqi who was told he would be electrocuted if he fell off the box.
    I am on vacation this week but thought it would be useful to republish a painful story I did two decades ago for the New Yorker about a group of US army soldiers who went out of control amid a war in Iraq that, so they were told, was being waged against the terrorism that struck America on 9/11. What the GIs did then are what any army does in war when hating and fearing the enemy is encouraged and runs through the ranks, from the lowest level grunts to the senior generals. It takes a special leader, as you will read about below, who confounds his superiors by not covering up the crimes of his soldiers and their most senior officers, and does so knowing that his career is over. Would that there were such fearless leaders in the Middle East today.

    In the era of Saddam Hussein, Abu Ghraib, twenty miles west of Baghdad, was one of the world’s most notorious prisons, with torture, weekly executions, and vile living conditions. As many as fifty thousand men and women—no accurate count is possible—were jammed into Abu Ghraib at one time, in twelve-by-twelve-foot cells that were little more than human holding pits.

    In the looting that followed the regime’s collapse, last April, the huge prison complex, by then deserted, was stripped of everything that could be removed, including doors, windows, and bricks. The coalition authorities had the floors tiled, cells cleaned and repaired, and toilets, showers, and a new medical center added. Abu Ghraib was now a U.S. military prison. Most of the prisoners, however—by the fall there were several thousand, including women and teen-agers—were civilians, many of whom had been picked up in random military sweeps and at highway checkpoints. They fell into three loosely defined categories: common criminals; security detainees suspected of “crimes against the coalition”; and a small number of suspected “high-value” leaders of the insurgency against the coalition forces.

    Last June, Janis Karpinski, an Army reserve brigadier general, was named commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade and put in charge of military prisons in Iraq. General Karpinski, the only female commander in the war zone, was an experienced operations and intelligence officer who had served with the Special Forces and in the 1991 Gulf War, but she had never run a prison system. Now she was in charge of three large jails, eight battalions, and thirty-four hundred Army reservists, most of whom, like her, had no training in handling prisoners.

    General Karpinski, who had wanted to be a soldier since she was five, is a business consultant in civilian life, and was enthusiastic about her new job. In an interview last December with the St. Petersburg Times, she said that, for many of the Iraqi inmates at Abu Ghraib, “living conditions now are better in prison than at home. At one point we were concerned that they wouldn’t want to leave.”

    A month later, General Karpinski was formally admonished and quietly suspended, and a major investigation into the Army’s prison system, authorized by Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez, the senior commander in Iraq, was under way. A fifty-three-page report, obtained by The New Yorker, written by Major General Antonio M. Taguba and not meant for public release, was completed in late February. Its conclusions about the institutional failures of the Army prison system were devastating. Specifically, Taguba found that between October and December of 2003 there were numerous instances of “sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses” at Abu Ghraib. This systematic and illegal abuse of detainees, Taguba reported, was perpetrated by soldiers of the 372nd Military Police Company, and also by members of the American intelligence community. (The 372nd was attached to the 320th M.P. Battalion, which reported to Karpinski’s brigade headquarters.) Taguba’s report listed some of the wrongdoing:

    Breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees; pouring cold water on naked detainees; beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair; threatening male detainees with rape; allowing a military police guard to stitch the wound of a detainee who was injured after being slammed against the wall in his cell; sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick, and using military working dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees with threats of attack, and in one instance actually biting a detainee.

    There was stunning evidence to support the allegations, Taguba added—“detailed witness statements and the discovery of extremely graphic photographic evidence.” Photographs and videos taken by the soldiers as the abuses were happening were not included in his report, Taguba said, because of their “extremely sensitive nature.”

    The photographs—several of which were broadcast on CBS’s “60 Minutes 2” last week—show leering G.I.s taunting naked Iraqi prisoners who are forced to assume humiliating poses. Six suspects—Staff Sergeant Ivan L. Frederick II, known as Chip, who was the senior enlisted man; Specialist Charles A. Graner; Sergeant Javal Davis; Specialist Megan Ambuhl; Specialist Sabrina Harman; and Private Jeremy Sivits—are now facing prosecution in Iraq, on charges that include conspiracy, dereliction of duty, cruelty toward prisoners, maltreatment, assault, and indecent acts. A seventh suspect, Private Lynndie England, was reassigned to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, after becoming pregnant.

    The photographs tell it all. In one, Private England, a cigarette dangling from her mouth, is giving a jaunty thumbs-up sign and pointing at the genitals of a young Iraqi, who is naked except for a sandbag over his head, as he masturbates. Three other hooded and naked Iraqi prisoners are shown, hands reflexively crossed over their genitals. A fifth prisoner has his hands at his sides. In another, England stands arm in arm with Specialist Graner; both are grinning and giving the thumbs-up behind a cluster of perhaps seven naked Iraqis, knees bent, piled clumsily on top of each other in a pyramid. There is another photograph of a cluster of naked prisoners, again piled in a pyramid. Near them stands Graner, smiling, his arms crossed; a woman soldier stands in front of him, bending over, and she, too, is smiling. Then, there is another cluster of hooded bodies, with a female soldier standing in front, taking photographs. Yet another photograph shows a kneeling, naked, unhooded male prisoner, head momentarily turned away from the camera, posed to make it appear that he is performing oral sex on another male prisoner, who is naked and hooded.

    Such dehumanization is unacceptable in any culture, but it is especially so in the Arab world. Homosexual acts are against Islamic law and it is humiliating for men to be naked in front of other men, Bernard Haykel, a professor of Middle Eastern studies at New York University, explained. “Being put on top of each other and forced to masturbate, being naked in front of each other—it’s all a form of torture,” Haykel said.

    Two Iraqi faces that do appear in the photographs are those of dead men. There is the battered face of prisoner No. 153399, and the bloodied body of another prisoner, wrapped in cellophane and packed in ice. There is a photograph of an empty room, splattered with blood.

    The 372nd’s abuse of prisoners seemed almost routine—a fact of Army life that the soldiers felt no need to hide. On April 9th, at an Article 32 hearing (the military equivalent of a grand jury) in the case against Sergeant Frederick, at Camp Victory, near Baghdad, one of the witnesses, Specialist Matthew Wisdom, an M.P., told the courtroom what happened when he and other soldiers delivered seven prisoners, hooded and bound, to the so-called “hard site” at Abu Ghraib—seven tiers of cells where the inmates who were considered the most dangerous were housed. The men had been accused of starting a riot in another section of the prison. Wisdom said:

    SFC Snider grabbed my prisoner and threw him into a pile. . . . I do not think it was right to put them in a pile. I saw SSG Frederick, SGT Davis and CPL Graner walking around the pile hitting the prisoners. I remember SSG Frederick hitting one prisoner in the side of its [sic] ribcage. The prisoner was no danger to SSG Frederick. . . . I left after that.

    When he returned later, Wisdom testified:

    I saw two naked detainees, one masturbating to another kneeling with its mouth open. I thought I should just get out of there. I didn’t think it was right . . . I saw SSG Frederick walking towards me, and he said, “Look what these animals do when you leave them alone for two seconds.” I heard PFC England shout out, “He’s getting hard.”

    Wisdom testified that he told his superiors what had happened, and assumed that “the issue was taken care of.” He said, “I just didn’t want to be part of anything that looked criminal.”

    The abuses became public because of the outrage of Specialist Joseph M. Darby, an M.P. whose role emerged during the Article 32 hearing against Chip Frederick. A government witness, Special Agent Scott Bobeck, who is a member of the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division, or C.I.D., told the court, according to an abridged transcript made available to me, “The investigation started after SPC Darby . . . got a CD from CPL Graner. . . . He came across pictures of naked detainees.” Bobeck said that Darby had “initially put an anonymous letter under our door, then he later came forward and gave a sworn statement. He felt very bad about it and thought it was very wrong.”

    Questioned further, the Army investigator said that Frederick and his colleagues had not been given any “training guidelines” that he was aware of. The M.P.s in the 372nd had been assigned to routine traffic and police duties upon their arrival in Iraq, in the spring of 2003. In October of 2003, the 372nd was ordered to prison-guard duty at Abu Ghraib. Frederick, at thirty-seven, was far older than his colleagues, and was a natural leader; he had also worked for six years as a guard for the Virginia Department of Corrections. Bobeck explained:

    What I got is that SSG Frederick and CPL Graner were road M.P.s and were put in charge because they were civilian prison guards and had knowledge of how things were supposed to be run.

    Bobeck also testified that witnesses had said that Frederick, on one occasion, “had punched a detainee in the chest so hard that the detainee almost went into cardiac arrest.”

    At the Article 32 hearing, the Army informed Frederick and his attorneys, Captain Robert Shuck, an Army lawyer, and Gary Myers, a civilian, that two dozen witnesses they had sought, including General Karpinski and all of Frederick’s co-defendants, would not appear. Some had been excused after exercising their Fifth Amendment right; others were deemed to be too far away from the courtroom. “The purpose of an Article 32 hearing is for us to engage witnesses and discover facts,” Gary Myers told me. “We ended up with a C.I.D. agent and no alleged victims to examine.” After the hearing, the presiding investigative officer ruled that there was sufficient evidence to convene a court-martial against Frederick.

    Myers, who was one of the military defense attorneys in the My Lai prosecutions of the nineteen-seventies, told me that his client’s defense will be that he was carrying out the orders of his superiors and, in particular, the directions of military intelligence. He said, “Do you really think a group of kids from rural Virginia decided to do this on their own? Decided that the best way to embarrass Arabs and make them talk was to have them walk around nude?”

    In letters and e-mails to family members, Frederick repeatedly noted that the military-intelligence teams, which included C.I.A. officers and linguists and interrogation specialists from private defense contractors, were the dominant force inside Abu Ghraib. In a letter written in January, he said:

    I questioned some of the things that I saw . . . such things as leaving inmates in their cell with no clothes or in female underpants, handcuffing them to the door of their cell—and the answer I got was, “This is how military intelligence (MI) wants it done.” . . . . MI has also instructed us to place a prisoner in an isolation cell with little or no clothes, no toilet or running water, no ventilation or window, for as much as three days.

    The military-intelligence officers have “encouraged and told us, ‘Great job,’ they were now getting positive results and information,” Frederick wrote. “CID has been present when the military working dogs were used to intimidate prisoners at MI’s request.” At one point, Frederick told his family, he pulled aside his superior officer, Lieutenant Colonel Jerry Phillabaum, the commander of the 320th M.P. Battalion, and asked about the mistreatment of prisoners. “His reply was ‘Don’t worry about it.’ ”

    In November, Frederick wrote, an Iraqi prisoner under the control of what the Abu Ghraib guards called “O.G.A.,” or other government agencies—that is, the C.I.A. and its paramilitary employees—was brought to his unit for questioning. “They stressed him out so bad that the man passed away. They put his body in a body bag and packed him in ice for approximately twenty-four hours in the shower. . . . The next day the medics came and put his body on a stretcher, placed a fake IV in his arm and took him away.” The dead Iraqi was never entered into the prison’s inmate-control system, Frederick recounted, “and therefore never had a number.”

    Frederick’s defense is, of course, highly self-serving. But the complaints in his letters and e-mails home were reinforced by two internal Army reports—Taguba’s and one by the Army’s chief law-enforcement officer, Provost Marshal Donald Ryder, a major general.

    Last fall, General Sanchez ordered Ryder to review the prison system in Iraq and recommend ways to improve it. Ryder’s report, filed on November 5th, concluded that there were potential human-rights, training, and manpower issues, system-wide, that needed immediate attention. It also discussed serious concerns about the tension between the missions of the military police assigned to guard the prisoners and the intelligence teams who wanted to interrogate them. Army regulations limit intelligence activity by the M.P.s to passive collection. But something had gone wrong at Abu Ghraib.

    There was evidence dating back to the Afghanistan war, the Ryder report said, that M.P.s had worked with intelligence operatives to “set favorable conditions for subsequent interviews”—a euphemism for breaking the will of prisoners. “Such actions generally run counter to the smooth operation of a detention facility, attempting to maintain its population in a compliant and docile state.” General Karpinski’s brigade, Ryder reported, “has not been directed to change its facility procedures to set the conditions for MI interrogations, nor participate in those interrogations.” Ryder called for the establishment of procedures to “define the role of military police soldiers . . . clearly separating the actions of the guards from those of the military intelligence personnel.” The officers running the war in Iraq were put on notice.

    Ryder undercut his warning, however, by concluding that the situation had not yet reached a crisis point. Though some procedures were flawed, he said, he found “no military police units purposely applying inappropriate confinement practices.” His investigation was at best a failure and at worst a coverup.

    Taguba, in his report, was polite but direct in refuting his fellow-general. “Unfortunately, many of the systemic problems that surfaced during [Ryder’s] assessment are the very same issues that are the subject of this investigation,” he wrote. “In fact, many of the abuses suffered by detainees occurred during, or near to, the time of that assessment.” The report continued, “Contrary to the findings of MG Ryder’s report, I find that personnel assigned to the 372nd MP Company, 800th MP Brigade were directed to change facility procedures to ‘set the conditions’ for MI interrogations.” Army intelligence officers, C.I.A. agents, and private contractors “actively requested that MP guards set physical and mental conditions for favorable interrogation of witnesses.”

    Taguba backed up his assertion by citing evidence from sworn statements to Army C.I.D. investigators. Specialist Sabrina Harman, one of the accused M.P.s, testified that it was her job to keep detainees awake, including one hooded prisoner who was placed on a box with wires attached to his fingers, toes, and penis. She stated, “MI wanted to get them to talk. It is Graner and Frederick’s job to do things for MI and OGA to get these people to talk.”

    Another witness, Sergeant Javal Davis, who is also one of the accused, told C.I.D. investigators, “I witnessed prisoners in the MI hold section . . . being made to do various things that I would question morally. . . . We were told that they had different rules.” Taguba wrote, “Davis also stated that he had heard MI insinuate to the guards to abuse the inmates. When asked what MI said he stated: ‘Loosen this guy up for us.’ ‘Make sure he has a bad night.’ ‘Make sure he gets the treatment.’ ” Military intelligence made these comments to Graner and Frederick, Davis said. “The MI staffs to my understanding have been giving Graner compliments . . . statements like, ‘Good job, they’re breaking down real fast. They answer every question. They’re giving out good information.’ ”

    When asked why he did not inform his chain of command about the abuse, Sergeant Davis answered, “Because I assumed that if they were doing things out of the ordinary or outside the guidelines, someone would have said something. Also the wing”—where the abuse took place—“belongs to MI and it appeared MI personnel approved of the abuse.”

    Another witness, Specialist Jason Kennel, who was not accused of wrongdoing, said, “I saw them nude, but MI would tell us to take away their mattresses, sheets, and clothes.” (It was his view, he added, that if M.I. wanted him to do this “they needed to give me paperwork.”) Taguba also cited an interview with Adel L. Nakhla, a translator who was an employee of Titan, a civilian contractor. He told of one night when a “bunch of people from MI” watched as a group of handcuffed and shackled inmates were subjected to abuse by Graner and Frederick.

    General Taguba saved his harshest words for the military-intelligence officers and private contractors. He recommended that Colonel Thomas Pappas, the commander of one of the M.I. brigades, be reprimanded and receive non-judicial punishment, and that Lieutenant Colonel Steven Jordan, the former director of the Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Center, be relieved of duty and reprimanded. He further urged that a civilian contractor, Steven Stephanowicz, of CACI International, be fired from his Army job, reprimanded, and denied his security clearances for lying to the investigating team and allowing or ordering military policemen “who were not trained in interrogation techniques to facilitate interrogations by ‘setting conditions’ which were neither authorized” nor in accordance with Army regulations. “He clearly knew his instructions equated to physical abuse,” Taguba wrote. He also recommended disciplinary action against a second CACI employee, John Israel. (A spokeswoman for CACI said that the company had “received no formal communication” from the Army about the matter.)

    “I suspect,” Taguba concluded, that Pappas, Jordan, Stephanowicz, and Israel “were either directly or indirectly responsible for the abuse at Abu Ghraib,” and strongly recommended immediate disciplinary action.

    The problems inside the Army prison system in Iraq were not hidden from senior commanders. During Karpinski’s seven-month tour of duty, Taguba noted, there were at least a dozen officially reported incidents involving escapes, attempted escapes, and other serious security issues that were investigated by officers of the 800th M.P. Brigade. Some of the incidents had led to the killing or wounding of inmates and M.P.s, and resulted in a series of “lessons learned” inquiries within the brigade. Karpinski invariably approved the reports and signed orders calling for changes in day-to-day procedures. But Taguba found that she did not follow up, doing nothing to insure that the orders were carried out. Had she done so, he added, “cases of abuse may have been prevented.”

    General Taguba further found that Abu Ghraib was filled beyond capacity, and that the M.P. guard force was significantly undermanned and short of resources. “This imbalance has contributed to the poor living conditions, escapes, and accountability lapses,” he wrote. There were gross differences, Taguba said, between the actual number of prisoners on hand and the number officially recorded. A lack of proper screening also meant that many innocent Iraqis were wrongly being detained—indefinitely, it seemed, in some cases. The Taguba study noted that more than sixty per cent of the civilian inmates at Abu Ghraib were deemed not to be a threat to society, which should have enabled them to be released. Karpinski’s defense, Taguba said, was that her superior officers “routinely” rejected her recommendations regarding the release of such prisoners.

    Karpinski was rarely seen at the prisons she was supposed to be running, Taguba wrote. He also found a wide range of administrative problems, including some that he considered “without precedent in my military career.” The soldiers, he added, were “poorly prepared and untrained . . . prior to deployment, at the mobilization site, upon arrival in theater, and throughout the mission.”

    General Taguba spent more than four hours interviewing Karpinski, whom he described as extremely emotional: “What I found particularly disturbing in her testimony was her complete unwillingness to either understand or accept that many of the problems inherent in the 800th MP Brigade were caused or exacerbated by poor leadership and the refusal of her command to both establish and enforce basic standards and principles among its soldiers.”

    Taguba recommended that Karpinski and seven brigade military-police officers and enlisted men be relieved of command and formally reprimanded. No criminal proceedings were suggested for Karpinski; apparently, the loss of promotion and the indignity of a public rebuke were seen as enough punishment.

    After the story broke on CBS last week, the Pentagon announced that Major General Geoffrey Miller, the new head of the Iraqi prison system, had arrived in Baghdad and was on the job. He had been the commander of the Guantánamo Bay detention center. General Sanchez also authorized an investigation into possible wrongdoing by military and civilian interrogators.

    As the international furor grew, senior military officers, and President Bush, insisted that the actions of a few did not reflect the conduct of the military as a whole. Taguba’s report, however, amounts to an unsparing study of collective wrongdoing and the failure of Army leadership at the highest levels. The picture he draws of Abu Ghraib is one in which Army regulations and the Geneva conventions were routinely violated, and in which much of the day-to-day management of the prisoners was abdicated to Army military-intelligence units and civilian contract employees. Interrogating prisoners and getting intelligence, including by intimidation and torture, was the priority.

    The mistreatment at Abu Ghraib may have done little to further American intelligence, however. Willie J. Rowell, who served for thirty-six years as a C.I.D. agent, told me that the use of force or humiliation with prisoners is invariably counterproductive. “They’ll tell you what you want to hear, truth or no truth,” Rowell said. “ ‘You can flog me until I tell you what I know you want me to say.’ You don’t get righteous information.”

    Under the fourth Geneva convention, an occupying power can jail civilians who pose an “imperative” security threat, but it must establish a regular procedure for insuring that only civilians who remain a genuine security threat be kept imprisoned. Prisoners have the right to appeal any internment decision and have their cases reviewed. Human Rights Watch complained to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld that civilians in Iraq remained in custody month after month with no charges brought against them. Abu Ghraib had become, in effect, another Guantánamo.

    As the photographs from Abu Ghraib make clear, these detentions have had enormous consequences: for the imprisoned civilian Iraqis, many of whom had nothing to do with the growing insurgency; for the integrity of the Army; and for the United States’ reputation in the world.

    Captain Robert Shuck, Frederick’s military attorney, closed his defense at the Article 32 hearing last month by saying that the Army was “attempting to have these six soldiers atone for its sins.” Similarly, Gary Myers, Frederick’s civilian attorney, told me that he would argue at the court-martial that culpability in the case extended far beyond his client. “I’m going to drag every involved intelligence officer and civilian contractor I can find into court,” he said. “Do you really believe the Army relieved a general officer because of six soldiers? Not a chance.”

    https://open.substack.com/pub/seymourhersh/p/torture-at-abu-ghraib?r=29hg4d&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
    TORTURE AT ABU GHRAIB From the archive Seymour Hersh An Iraqi who was told he would be electrocuted if he fell off the box. I am on vacation this week but thought it would be useful to republish a painful story I did two decades ago for the New Yorker about a group of US army soldiers who went out of control amid a war in Iraq that, so they were told, was being waged against the terrorism that struck America on 9/11. What the GIs did then are what any army does in war when hating and fearing the enemy is encouraged and runs through the ranks, from the lowest level grunts to the senior generals. It takes a special leader, as you will read about below, who confounds his superiors by not covering up the crimes of his soldiers and their most senior officers, and does so knowing that his career is over. Would that there were such fearless leaders in the Middle East today. In the era of Saddam Hussein, Abu Ghraib, twenty miles west of Baghdad, was one of the world’s most notorious prisons, with torture, weekly executions, and vile living conditions. As many as fifty thousand men and women—no accurate count is possible—were jammed into Abu Ghraib at one time, in twelve-by-twelve-foot cells that were little more than human holding pits. In the looting that followed the regime’s collapse, last April, the huge prison complex, by then deserted, was stripped of everything that could be removed, including doors, windows, and bricks. The coalition authorities had the floors tiled, cells cleaned and repaired, and toilets, showers, and a new medical center added. Abu Ghraib was now a U.S. military prison. Most of the prisoners, however—by the fall there were several thousand, including women and teen-agers—were civilians, many of whom had been picked up in random military sweeps and at highway checkpoints. They fell into three loosely defined categories: common criminals; security detainees suspected of “crimes against the coalition”; and a small number of suspected “high-value” leaders of the insurgency against the coalition forces. Last June, Janis Karpinski, an Army reserve brigadier general, was named commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade and put in charge of military prisons in Iraq. General Karpinski, the only female commander in the war zone, was an experienced operations and intelligence officer who had served with the Special Forces and in the 1991 Gulf War, but she had never run a prison system. Now she was in charge of three large jails, eight battalions, and thirty-four hundred Army reservists, most of whom, like her, had no training in handling prisoners. General Karpinski, who had wanted to be a soldier since she was five, is a business consultant in civilian life, and was enthusiastic about her new job. In an interview last December with the St. Petersburg Times, she said that, for many of the Iraqi inmates at Abu Ghraib, “living conditions now are better in prison than at home. At one point we were concerned that they wouldn’t want to leave.” A month later, General Karpinski was formally admonished and quietly suspended, and a major investigation into the Army’s prison system, authorized by Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez, the senior commander in Iraq, was under way. A fifty-three-page report, obtained by The New Yorker, written by Major General Antonio M. Taguba and not meant for public release, was completed in late February. Its conclusions about the institutional failures of the Army prison system were devastating. Specifically, Taguba found that between October and December of 2003 there were numerous instances of “sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses” at Abu Ghraib. This systematic and illegal abuse of detainees, Taguba reported, was perpetrated by soldiers of the 372nd Military Police Company, and also by members of the American intelligence community. (The 372nd was attached to the 320th M.P. Battalion, which reported to Karpinski’s brigade headquarters.) Taguba’s report listed some of the wrongdoing: Breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees; pouring cold water on naked detainees; beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair; threatening male detainees with rape; allowing a military police guard to stitch the wound of a detainee who was injured after being slammed against the wall in his cell; sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick, and using military working dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees with threats of attack, and in one instance actually biting a detainee. There was stunning evidence to support the allegations, Taguba added—“detailed witness statements and the discovery of extremely graphic photographic evidence.” Photographs and videos taken by the soldiers as the abuses were happening were not included in his report, Taguba said, because of their “extremely sensitive nature.” The photographs—several of which were broadcast on CBS’s “60 Minutes 2” last week—show leering G.I.s taunting naked Iraqi prisoners who are forced to assume humiliating poses. Six suspects—Staff Sergeant Ivan L. Frederick II, known as Chip, who was the senior enlisted man; Specialist Charles A. Graner; Sergeant Javal Davis; Specialist Megan Ambuhl; Specialist Sabrina Harman; and Private Jeremy Sivits—are now facing prosecution in Iraq, on charges that include conspiracy, dereliction of duty, cruelty toward prisoners, maltreatment, assault, and indecent acts. A seventh suspect, Private Lynndie England, was reassigned to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, after becoming pregnant. The photographs tell it all. In one, Private England, a cigarette dangling from her mouth, is giving a jaunty thumbs-up sign and pointing at the genitals of a young Iraqi, who is naked except for a sandbag over his head, as he masturbates. Three other hooded and naked Iraqi prisoners are shown, hands reflexively crossed over their genitals. A fifth prisoner has his hands at his sides. In another, England stands arm in arm with Specialist Graner; both are grinning and giving the thumbs-up behind a cluster of perhaps seven naked Iraqis, knees bent, piled clumsily on top of each other in a pyramid. There is another photograph of a cluster of naked prisoners, again piled in a pyramid. Near them stands Graner, smiling, his arms crossed; a woman soldier stands in front of him, bending over, and she, too, is smiling. Then, there is another cluster of hooded bodies, with a female soldier standing in front, taking photographs. Yet another photograph shows a kneeling, naked, unhooded male prisoner, head momentarily turned away from the camera, posed to make it appear that he is performing oral sex on another male prisoner, who is naked and hooded. Such dehumanization is unacceptable in any culture, but it is especially so in the Arab world. Homosexual acts are against Islamic law and it is humiliating for men to be naked in front of other men, Bernard Haykel, a professor of Middle Eastern studies at New York University, explained. “Being put on top of each other and forced to masturbate, being naked in front of each other—it’s all a form of torture,” Haykel said. Two Iraqi faces that do appear in the photographs are those of dead men. There is the battered face of prisoner No. 153399, and the bloodied body of another prisoner, wrapped in cellophane and packed in ice. There is a photograph of an empty room, splattered with blood. The 372nd’s abuse of prisoners seemed almost routine—a fact of Army life that the soldiers felt no need to hide. On April 9th, at an Article 32 hearing (the military equivalent of a grand jury) in the case against Sergeant Frederick, at Camp Victory, near Baghdad, one of the witnesses, Specialist Matthew Wisdom, an M.P., told the courtroom what happened when he and other soldiers delivered seven prisoners, hooded and bound, to the so-called “hard site” at Abu Ghraib—seven tiers of cells where the inmates who were considered the most dangerous were housed. The men had been accused of starting a riot in another section of the prison. Wisdom said: SFC Snider grabbed my prisoner and threw him into a pile. . . . I do not think it was right to put them in a pile. I saw SSG Frederick, SGT Davis and CPL Graner walking around the pile hitting the prisoners. I remember SSG Frederick hitting one prisoner in the side of its [sic] ribcage. The prisoner was no danger to SSG Frederick. . . . I left after that. When he returned later, Wisdom testified: I saw two naked detainees, one masturbating to another kneeling with its mouth open. I thought I should just get out of there. I didn’t think it was right . . . I saw SSG Frederick walking towards me, and he said, “Look what these animals do when you leave them alone for two seconds.” I heard PFC England shout out, “He’s getting hard.” Wisdom testified that he told his superiors what had happened, and assumed that “the issue was taken care of.” He said, “I just didn’t want to be part of anything that looked criminal.” The abuses became public because of the outrage of Specialist Joseph M. Darby, an M.P. whose role emerged during the Article 32 hearing against Chip Frederick. A government witness, Special Agent Scott Bobeck, who is a member of the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division, or C.I.D., told the court, according to an abridged transcript made available to me, “The investigation started after SPC Darby . . . got a CD from CPL Graner. . . . He came across pictures of naked detainees.” Bobeck said that Darby had “initially put an anonymous letter under our door, then he later came forward and gave a sworn statement. He felt very bad about it and thought it was very wrong.” Questioned further, the Army investigator said that Frederick and his colleagues had not been given any “training guidelines” that he was aware of. The M.P.s in the 372nd had been assigned to routine traffic and police duties upon their arrival in Iraq, in the spring of 2003. In October of 2003, the 372nd was ordered to prison-guard duty at Abu Ghraib. Frederick, at thirty-seven, was far older than his colleagues, and was a natural leader; he had also worked for six years as a guard for the Virginia Department of Corrections. Bobeck explained: What I got is that SSG Frederick and CPL Graner were road M.P.s and were put in charge because they were civilian prison guards and had knowledge of how things were supposed to be run. Bobeck also testified that witnesses had said that Frederick, on one occasion, “had punched a detainee in the chest so hard that the detainee almost went into cardiac arrest.” At the Article 32 hearing, the Army informed Frederick and his attorneys, Captain Robert Shuck, an Army lawyer, and Gary Myers, a civilian, that two dozen witnesses they had sought, including General Karpinski and all of Frederick’s co-defendants, would not appear. Some had been excused after exercising their Fifth Amendment right; others were deemed to be too far away from the courtroom. “The purpose of an Article 32 hearing is for us to engage witnesses and discover facts,” Gary Myers told me. “We ended up with a C.I.D. agent and no alleged victims to examine.” After the hearing, the presiding investigative officer ruled that there was sufficient evidence to convene a court-martial against Frederick. Myers, who was one of the military defense attorneys in the My Lai prosecutions of the nineteen-seventies, told me that his client’s defense will be that he was carrying out the orders of his superiors and, in particular, the directions of military intelligence. He said, “Do you really think a group of kids from rural Virginia decided to do this on their own? Decided that the best way to embarrass Arabs and make them talk was to have them walk around nude?” In letters and e-mails to family members, Frederick repeatedly noted that the military-intelligence teams, which included C.I.A. officers and linguists and interrogation specialists from private defense contractors, were the dominant force inside Abu Ghraib. In a letter written in January, he said: I questioned some of the things that I saw . . . such things as leaving inmates in their cell with no clothes or in female underpants, handcuffing them to the door of their cell—and the answer I got was, “This is how military intelligence (MI) wants it done.” . . . . MI has also instructed us to place a prisoner in an isolation cell with little or no clothes, no toilet or running water, no ventilation or window, for as much as three days. The military-intelligence officers have “encouraged and told us, ‘Great job,’ they were now getting positive results and information,” Frederick wrote. “CID has been present when the military working dogs were used to intimidate prisoners at MI’s request.” At one point, Frederick told his family, he pulled aside his superior officer, Lieutenant Colonel Jerry Phillabaum, the commander of the 320th M.P. Battalion, and asked about the mistreatment of prisoners. “His reply was ‘Don’t worry about it.’ ” In November, Frederick wrote, an Iraqi prisoner under the control of what the Abu Ghraib guards called “O.G.A.,” or other government agencies—that is, the C.I.A. and its paramilitary employees—was brought to his unit for questioning. “They stressed him out so bad that the man passed away. They put his body in a body bag and packed him in ice for approximately twenty-four hours in the shower. . . . The next day the medics came and put his body on a stretcher, placed a fake IV in his arm and took him away.” The dead Iraqi was never entered into the prison’s inmate-control system, Frederick recounted, “and therefore never had a number.” Frederick’s defense is, of course, highly self-serving. But the complaints in his letters and e-mails home were reinforced by two internal Army reports—Taguba’s and one by the Army’s chief law-enforcement officer, Provost Marshal Donald Ryder, a major general. Last fall, General Sanchez ordered Ryder to review the prison system in Iraq and recommend ways to improve it. Ryder’s report, filed on November 5th, concluded that there were potential human-rights, training, and manpower issues, system-wide, that needed immediate attention. It also discussed serious concerns about the tension between the missions of the military police assigned to guard the prisoners and the intelligence teams who wanted to interrogate them. Army regulations limit intelligence activity by the M.P.s to passive collection. But something had gone wrong at Abu Ghraib. There was evidence dating back to the Afghanistan war, the Ryder report said, that M.P.s had worked with intelligence operatives to “set favorable conditions for subsequent interviews”—a euphemism for breaking the will of prisoners. “Such actions generally run counter to the smooth operation of a detention facility, attempting to maintain its population in a compliant and docile state.” General Karpinski’s brigade, Ryder reported, “has not been directed to change its facility procedures to set the conditions for MI interrogations, nor participate in those interrogations.” Ryder called for the establishment of procedures to “define the role of military police soldiers . . . clearly separating the actions of the guards from those of the military intelligence personnel.” The officers running the war in Iraq were put on notice. Ryder undercut his warning, however, by concluding that the situation had not yet reached a crisis point. Though some procedures were flawed, he said, he found “no military police units purposely applying inappropriate confinement practices.” His investigation was at best a failure and at worst a coverup. Taguba, in his report, was polite but direct in refuting his fellow-general. “Unfortunately, many of the systemic problems that surfaced during [Ryder’s] assessment are the very same issues that are the subject of this investigation,” he wrote. “In fact, many of the abuses suffered by detainees occurred during, or near to, the time of that assessment.” The report continued, “Contrary to the findings of MG Ryder’s report, I find that personnel assigned to the 372nd MP Company, 800th MP Brigade were directed to change facility procedures to ‘set the conditions’ for MI interrogations.” Army intelligence officers, C.I.A. agents, and private contractors “actively requested that MP guards set physical and mental conditions for favorable interrogation of witnesses.” Taguba backed up his assertion by citing evidence from sworn statements to Army C.I.D. investigators. Specialist Sabrina Harman, one of the accused M.P.s, testified that it was her job to keep detainees awake, including one hooded prisoner who was placed on a box with wires attached to his fingers, toes, and penis. She stated, “MI wanted to get them to talk. It is Graner and Frederick’s job to do things for MI and OGA to get these people to talk.” Another witness, Sergeant Javal Davis, who is also one of the accused, told C.I.D. investigators, “I witnessed prisoners in the MI hold section . . . being made to do various things that I would question morally. . . . We were told that they had different rules.” Taguba wrote, “Davis also stated that he had heard MI insinuate to the guards to abuse the inmates. When asked what MI said he stated: ‘Loosen this guy up for us.’ ‘Make sure he has a bad night.’ ‘Make sure he gets the treatment.’ ” Military intelligence made these comments to Graner and Frederick, Davis said. “The MI staffs to my understanding have been giving Graner compliments . . . statements like, ‘Good job, they’re breaking down real fast. They answer every question. They’re giving out good information.’ ” When asked why he did not inform his chain of command about the abuse, Sergeant Davis answered, “Because I assumed that if they were doing things out of the ordinary or outside the guidelines, someone would have said something. Also the wing”—where the abuse took place—“belongs to MI and it appeared MI personnel approved of the abuse.” Another witness, Specialist Jason Kennel, who was not accused of wrongdoing, said, “I saw them nude, but MI would tell us to take away their mattresses, sheets, and clothes.” (It was his view, he added, that if M.I. wanted him to do this “they needed to give me paperwork.”) Taguba also cited an interview with Adel L. Nakhla, a translator who was an employee of Titan, a civilian contractor. He told of one night when a “bunch of people from MI” watched as a group of handcuffed and shackled inmates were subjected to abuse by Graner and Frederick. General Taguba saved his harshest words for the military-intelligence officers and private contractors. He recommended that Colonel Thomas Pappas, the commander of one of the M.I. brigades, be reprimanded and receive non-judicial punishment, and that Lieutenant Colonel Steven Jordan, the former director of the Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Center, be relieved of duty and reprimanded. He further urged that a civilian contractor, Steven Stephanowicz, of CACI International, be fired from his Army job, reprimanded, and denied his security clearances for lying to the investigating team and allowing or ordering military policemen “who were not trained in interrogation techniques to facilitate interrogations by ‘setting conditions’ which were neither authorized” nor in accordance with Army regulations. “He clearly knew his instructions equated to physical abuse,” Taguba wrote. He also recommended disciplinary action against a second CACI employee, John Israel. (A spokeswoman for CACI said that the company had “received no formal communication” from the Army about the matter.) “I suspect,” Taguba concluded, that Pappas, Jordan, Stephanowicz, and Israel “were either directly or indirectly responsible for the abuse at Abu Ghraib,” and strongly recommended immediate disciplinary action. The problems inside the Army prison system in Iraq were not hidden from senior commanders. During Karpinski’s seven-month tour of duty, Taguba noted, there were at least a dozen officially reported incidents involving escapes, attempted escapes, and other serious security issues that were investigated by officers of the 800th M.P. Brigade. Some of the incidents had led to the killing or wounding of inmates and M.P.s, and resulted in a series of “lessons learned” inquiries within the brigade. Karpinski invariably approved the reports and signed orders calling for changes in day-to-day procedures. But Taguba found that she did not follow up, doing nothing to insure that the orders were carried out. Had she done so, he added, “cases of abuse may have been prevented.” General Taguba further found that Abu Ghraib was filled beyond capacity, and that the M.P. guard force was significantly undermanned and short of resources. “This imbalance has contributed to the poor living conditions, escapes, and accountability lapses,” he wrote. There were gross differences, Taguba said, between the actual number of prisoners on hand and the number officially recorded. A lack of proper screening also meant that many innocent Iraqis were wrongly being detained—indefinitely, it seemed, in some cases. The Taguba study noted that more than sixty per cent of the civilian inmates at Abu Ghraib were deemed not to be a threat to society, which should have enabled them to be released. Karpinski’s defense, Taguba said, was that her superior officers “routinely” rejected her recommendations regarding the release of such prisoners. Karpinski was rarely seen at the prisons she was supposed to be running, Taguba wrote. He also found a wide range of administrative problems, including some that he considered “without precedent in my military career.” The soldiers, he added, were “poorly prepared and untrained . . . prior to deployment, at the mobilization site, upon arrival in theater, and throughout the mission.” General Taguba spent more than four hours interviewing Karpinski, whom he described as extremely emotional: “What I found particularly disturbing in her testimony was her complete unwillingness to either understand or accept that many of the problems inherent in the 800th MP Brigade were caused or exacerbated by poor leadership and the refusal of her command to both establish and enforce basic standards and principles among its soldiers.” Taguba recommended that Karpinski and seven brigade military-police officers and enlisted men be relieved of command and formally reprimanded. No criminal proceedings were suggested for Karpinski; apparently, the loss of promotion and the indignity of a public rebuke were seen as enough punishment. After the story broke on CBS last week, the Pentagon announced that Major General Geoffrey Miller, the new head of the Iraqi prison system, had arrived in Baghdad and was on the job. He had been the commander of the Guantánamo Bay detention center. General Sanchez also authorized an investigation into possible wrongdoing by military and civilian interrogators. As the international furor grew, senior military officers, and President Bush, insisted that the actions of a few did not reflect the conduct of the military as a whole. Taguba’s report, however, amounts to an unsparing study of collective wrongdoing and the failure of Army leadership at the highest levels. The picture he draws of Abu Ghraib is one in which Army regulations and the Geneva conventions were routinely violated, and in which much of the day-to-day management of the prisoners was abdicated to Army military-intelligence units and civilian contract employees. Interrogating prisoners and getting intelligence, including by intimidation and torture, was the priority. The mistreatment at Abu Ghraib may have done little to further American intelligence, however. Willie J. Rowell, who served for thirty-six years as a C.I.D. agent, told me that the use of force or humiliation with prisoners is invariably counterproductive. “They’ll tell you what you want to hear, truth or no truth,” Rowell said. “ ‘You can flog me until I tell you what I know you want me to say.’ You don’t get righteous information.” Under the fourth Geneva convention, an occupying power can jail civilians who pose an “imperative” security threat, but it must establish a regular procedure for insuring that only civilians who remain a genuine security threat be kept imprisoned. Prisoners have the right to appeal any internment decision and have their cases reviewed. Human Rights Watch complained to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld that civilians in Iraq remained in custody month after month with no charges brought against them. Abu Ghraib had become, in effect, another Guantánamo. As the photographs from Abu Ghraib make clear, these detentions have had enormous consequences: for the imprisoned civilian Iraqis, many of whom had nothing to do with the growing insurgency; for the integrity of the Army; and for the United States’ reputation in the world. Captain Robert Shuck, Frederick’s military attorney, closed his defense at the Article 32 hearing last month by saying that the Army was “attempting to have these six soldiers atone for its sins.” Similarly, Gary Myers, Frederick’s civilian attorney, told me that he would argue at the court-martial that culpability in the case extended far beyond his client. “I’m going to drag every involved intelligence officer and civilian contractor I can find into court,” he said. “Do you really believe the Army relieved a general officer because of six soldiers? Not a chance.” https://open.substack.com/pub/seymourhersh/p/torture-at-abu-ghraib?r=29hg4d&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
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  • ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 79: Bethlehem cancels Christmas celebrations as Israel continues to bomb Gaza
    Mustafa Abu SneinehDecember 24, 2023
    Palestinians survey the rubble of destroyed buildings following an Israeli bombardment in Deir El-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on December 24, 2023. (Photo: Naaman Omar/APA Images)
    Palestinians survey the rubble of destroyed buildings following an Israeli bombardment in Deir El-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on December 24, 2023. (Photo: Naaman Omar/APA Images)
    Casualties

    20,258+ killed* and at least 53,688 wounded in the Gaza Strip.
    303 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem
    Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,147.
    485 Israeli soldiers killed since October 7, and at least 1,831 injured.
    *This figure was confirmed by Gaza’s Ministry of Health on December 23. Due to breakdowns in communication networks within the Gaza Strip, the Ministry of Health in Gaza has been unable to regularly and accurately update its tolls since mid-November. Some rights groups put the death toll number closer to 28,000 when accounting for those presumed dead.

    Key Developments

    U.S. President Joe Biden does not ask Israeli government for ceasefire in Gaza Strip in phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
    Israeli forces withdraw from Palestine roundabout in Gaza City after completely flattening and destroying premises surrounding it.
    Palestinian rescue teams recover bodies of 40 people in central Gaza killed in Israeli bombings on Friday.
    Israeli military announces 14 soldiers killed in armed battles with Palestinian fighters in Gaza Strip over weekend.
    An Israeli minister says war will continue in Gaza Strip even if Hamas releases all captives.
    Israeli forces systemically destroys residential neighborhoods to create buffer zone in north and east of Gaza Strip after Palestinian fighters kill several Israeli soldiers.
    Israel plans to create buffer zone by occupying 14 km-long border area with Egypt to separate Gaza from Sinai Peninsula, and take direct control of Rafah Crossing.
    Hamas’ Izz El-Din Al-Qassam Brigades fear five captives were killed in Israeli bombardment after it lost contact with group in charge of them.
    Israeli miliary announces arrest of 700 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants in Gaza Strip since late October.
    Euro-Med says “evidence mounts of widespread violations of mass arrests, forced disappearances, torture, ill-treatment and even killings” of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
    Joe Biden does not ask Israel for ceasefire in Gaza Strip

    The U.S. President Joe Biden confirmed that he did not ask the Israeli government for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip in a phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday.

    “I had a long talk with Netanyahu today [Saturday] and it was a private conversation,” Biden told reporters, answering a question that he “did not ask for a ceasefire”.

    Biden’s statement follows a vote in the UN Security Council on a resolution calling for allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza but stopped short of pushing a halt to Israel’s hostilities.

    To avoid a U.S. veto, UNSC members postponed the vote several times to tone down the language. Although the U.S. abstained, the resolution was described as “toothless” and “meaningless” as it allowed Israel’s to continue bombing the Gaza Strip.

    “The president emphasized the critical need to protect the civilian population including those supporting the humanitarian aid operation, and the importance of allowing civilians to move safely away from areas of ongoing fighting,” a White House statement said on Saturday.

    Displaced Palestinians are taking shelter in a UNRWA-affiliated Deir al-Balah school after fleeing their homes due to Israeli strikes, on December 23, 2023. (Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images)
    Displaced Palestinians are taking shelter in a UNRWA-affiliated Deir al-Balah school after fleeing their homes due to Israeli strikes, on December 23, 2023. (Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images)
    Israel pulls out forces from Gaza leaving immense damage

    On Sunday morning, Israeli forces stormed Al-Rafi’i school in Jabalia in north Gaza and arrested several people who were sheltering in the building while warplanes bombed the Jabalia refugee camp, Wafa news agency reported.

    Israeli forces withdrew from some areas in north Gaza on Friday leaving immense damage to roads and buildings. Al-Jazeera reported that Palestine roundabout was completely flattened after Israeli forces bombed and bulldozed the premises surrounding it.

    The roundabout in the middle of Gaza City was a site where Hamas fighters handed over some Israeli captives as part of the hostage exchange with Israel in November. Palestinian families coming back to visit their houses in the nearby Al-Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City after a month of Israeli control, were horrified by the destruction.

    Israeli forces also heavily bombed the Al-Jarn area in Jabalia on Saturday, destroying a number of houses and killing dozens of Palestinians while they were asleep in their flats. Wafa reported that ambulances could not reach the injured due to air strikes and debris scattered in the area.

    As of Saturday evening, dozens of Palestinians remained under the rubble in Jabalia. Israeli forces also withdrew from Tel Al-Zaatar in north Gaza, leaving mayhem and destruction of dozens of buildings in the neighborhood.

    On Saturday, Palestinian rescue teams recovered the bodies of 40 people in central Gaza who were killed in Israeli bombings on Friday. Israeli air strikes bombed several areas in Deir Al-Balah in the past 24 hours.

    In Rafah’s Canada refugee camp, Israeli air strikes bombed the home of Abu Al-Awf family. One Palestinian was killed and four injured in an Israeli bombing of the Al-Nabris family house in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. The Palestine Red Crescent Society said that Amir Rami Odeh, 13, and another Palestinian were killed by an Israeli drone while they were at the Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis.

    Wafa reported that Israeli warplanes bombed Ma’an area in Khan Younis, killing two people, and targeted several Palestinians near the Abu Hamid roundabout in the center of Khan Younis, killing at least three.

    On Saturday evening, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said that at least 20,258 martyrs were killed and 53,688 were injured in Israeli bombardment since October 7.

    Israeli minister vows continue war even if all captives released

    The Israeli military announced that 14 soldiers were killed in armed battles with Palestinian fighters in the Gaza Strip over the weekend.

    Avi Dichter, the Israeli Minister of Agriculture, said that Israeli forces should keep bombing Gaza from land, air, and sea as there was no “fair play” in this war.

    He said that Israel has two main goals: the return of almost 130 hostages in the Gaza Strip and destroying Hamas. However, he added that even in the case of releasing all captives, the Israeli military would continue the war.

    “The main goal is the return of the abductees, without the return of the abductees this war will not end,” Dichter said in an interview on Channel 14.

    “But if tomorrow the abductees return, the war will not end till achieving the goals,” he added.

    Israeli forces have been systemically destroying residential neighborhoods in north Gaza in Al-Shujaiya, Al-Rimal, and Beit Hanoun to create a buffer zone in the north and east of the Gaza Strip after Palestinian fighters killed several Israeli soldiers in urban battles in these areas.

    On Saturday evening, Israeli forces also attempted to invade the border area between the Gaza Strip and Egypt from Karm Abu Salem Crossing. Israel is planning to create a buffer zone by occupying a 14 km-long stretch, a move which could inflame ties with Egypt, in order to separate Gaza from the Sinai Peninsula and take direct control of the Rafah Crossing.

    On Saturday, Hamas’ Izz El-Din Al-Qassam Brigades fired rockets on the Israeli town of Ashkelon and said it feared that five Israeli captives were killed in Israeli bombardment after it lost contact with the group in charge of them.

    Hamas military spokesperson Abu Ubaida said that among them are the three hostages who pleaded last week with the Israeli government to release them and not let them “grow old” in captivity.

    “You have to release us from here. It does not matter at what cost. We don’t want to be casualties as a direct result of the IDF’s military airstrikes. Release us with no conditions,” one of the captives said in a video message released by Hamas last week.

    The resistance movement also announced on Saturday that it recycled two Israeli missiles that did not explode and used them to blow up five Israeli tanks in Jabalia, north of Gaza.

    In 2020, Hamas’ divers retrieved ammunition from the British warship HMS M15, which was sunk in 1917 by Germany near the Gaza coast, in hopes of using its munitions to arm rockets and produce explosives, though reports said the century-old ammunitions were unusable.

    Hamas also said that it targeted four Israeli jeeps in an ambush in Juhr Al-Diek, east of Gaza City, one of the first areas Israeli forces invaded in late October.

    The Israeli military announced that it arrested 700 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants in the Gaza Strip since late October. Yoav Gallant issued a warning to Hamas’ leader, Yahya Al-Sinwar, over the weekend, saying that he could hear Israeli vehicles approaching.

    “One thing is clear, Yahya Sinwar now hears the IDF tractors above him, the air force bombs and the IDF’s actions. He will soon meet the barrels of our guns,” Gallant said.

    In total, 485 Israeli soldiers and officers were killed since the October 7 attack launched by Palestinian fighters on settlements and military bases near the Gaza Strip. According to official military figures, 152 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the land invasion began in late October.

    Palestinians light a candle near a statue showing a figure symbolizing the child Jesus lying amid the rubble in a cave, before Christmas at the Evangelical Lutheran Church, in Bethlehem, on December 08, 2023. (Photo: Mamoun Wazwaz/APA Images)
    Palestinians light a candle near a statue showing a figure symbolizing the child Jesus lying amid the rubble in a cave, before Christmas at the Evangelical Lutheran Church, in Bethlehem, on December 08, 2023. (Photo: Mamoun Wazwaz/APA Images)
    “The whole world is celebrating Christmas, but not Bethlehem”

    Since October 7, Israeli forces arrested 4,695 Palestinians from towns and villages of the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club.

    The club said that Aziz Dweik, the former Palestinian Legislative Council Speaker, is suffering from severe health conditions in the notorious Negev desert prison.

    Dweik 75, from occupied Jerusalem, was arrested on October 17. The Club added that Dweik suffers from “anemia and a lack of hemoglobin due to diabetes” and that he previously “underwent two catheterization operations and fragmentation of kidney stones.”

    His family has not been able to visit him since he was arrested and sentenced to six months of arbitrary administrative detention without charge or trial.

    On Saturday, the Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor urged UN bodies to immediately form “an international delegation to visit Israeli prisons and detention camps, where more than 8,000 Palestinian detainees are currently held.”

    Euro-Med added that “evidence mounts of widespread violations of mass arrests, forced disappearances, torture, ill-treatment and even killings” of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jail.

    It said that it estimates that Israeli authorities are currently detaining 1,200 to 1,400 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.

    “After their arrest, detainees have been subjected to systematic abuse such as being stripped of their clothes, handcuffed, blindfolded, severely beaten, harassed, sexually assaulted, deprived of sleep food, water, and basic hygiene, and degraded in front of cameras,” it said in a letter.

    Several horrific videos of hundreds of Palestinian civilians detained in the Gaza Strip have emerged in the past week, most of them filmed by Israeli forces as part of “psychological war” effort.

    Euro-Med added that “the number of Palestinians detained in administrative detention… has reached an unprecedented level, while the fate and whereabouts of many of them remain unknown.”

    Meanwhile, Israeli forces stormed several cities in the occupied West Bank, including Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarm, as well as the cities of Nablus and Hebron.

    In the birthplace of Jesus, lights were not lit as celebrations of Christmas were effectively cancelled in Bethlehem in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

    Instead of a decorated tree in Manger Square opposite the Church of Nativity, the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Tourism organized an artwork piece called “Nativity under the Rubble” to symbolize the agony and destruction in Gaza.

    “This is a message to the whole world that the whole world is celebrating Christmas, but not Bethlehem. Bethlehem this year is celebrating Christmas in a different way with a message to the whole world that Palestine is suffering,” Rula Maaya, the Palestinian Minister of Tourism, said.

    Munther Isaac, the pastor of the Lutheran church, said: “This is the reality of Christmas for Palestinian children. If Jesus was born today, he’d be born under the rubble of Gaza.”

    Before you go - We need your help. Mainstream media’s wilful complicity in the genocide of Palestinian people is a reminder of just how vital our work at Mondoweiss is. This article and our extensive coverage since October 7 have been made possible by readers like you who donate to keep our reporting free and independent.

    With your support, we will continue covering the ongoing events in Gaza and across Palestine, as well as amplifying the Palestine movement worldwide. Together, we will make sure to keep reporting Palestinian stories, even when the rest of the world looks away.

    Support our critical work with a donation today.

    https://mondoweiss.net/2023/12/operation-al-aqsa-flood-day-79-bethlehem-cancels-christmas-celebrations-as-israel-continues-to-bomb-gaza/
    ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 79: Bethlehem cancels Christmas celebrations as Israel continues to bomb Gaza Mustafa Abu SneinehDecember 24, 2023 Palestinians survey the rubble of destroyed buildings following an Israeli bombardment in Deir El-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on December 24, 2023. (Photo: Naaman Omar/APA Images) Palestinians survey the rubble of destroyed buildings following an Israeli bombardment in Deir El-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on December 24, 2023. (Photo: Naaman Omar/APA Images) Casualties 20,258+ killed* and at least 53,688 wounded in the Gaza Strip. 303 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,147. 485 Israeli soldiers killed since October 7, and at least 1,831 injured. *This figure was confirmed by Gaza’s Ministry of Health on December 23. Due to breakdowns in communication networks within the Gaza Strip, the Ministry of Health in Gaza has been unable to regularly and accurately update its tolls since mid-November. Some rights groups put the death toll number closer to 28,000 when accounting for those presumed dead. Key Developments U.S. President Joe Biden does not ask Israeli government for ceasefire in Gaza Strip in phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israeli forces withdraw from Palestine roundabout in Gaza City after completely flattening and destroying premises surrounding it. Palestinian rescue teams recover bodies of 40 people in central Gaza killed in Israeli bombings on Friday. Israeli military announces 14 soldiers killed in armed battles with Palestinian fighters in Gaza Strip over weekend. An Israeli minister says war will continue in Gaza Strip even if Hamas releases all captives. Israeli forces systemically destroys residential neighborhoods to create buffer zone in north and east of Gaza Strip after Palestinian fighters kill several Israeli soldiers. Israel plans to create buffer zone by occupying 14 km-long border area with Egypt to separate Gaza from Sinai Peninsula, and take direct control of Rafah Crossing. Hamas’ Izz El-Din Al-Qassam Brigades fear five captives were killed in Israeli bombardment after it lost contact with group in charge of them. Israeli miliary announces arrest of 700 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants in Gaza Strip since late October. Euro-Med says “evidence mounts of widespread violations of mass arrests, forced disappearances, torture, ill-treatment and even killings” of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Joe Biden does not ask Israel for ceasefire in Gaza Strip The U.S. President Joe Biden confirmed that he did not ask the Israeli government for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip in a phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday. “I had a long talk with Netanyahu today [Saturday] and it was a private conversation,” Biden told reporters, answering a question that he “did not ask for a ceasefire”. Biden’s statement follows a vote in the UN Security Council on a resolution calling for allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza but stopped short of pushing a halt to Israel’s hostilities. To avoid a U.S. veto, UNSC members postponed the vote several times to tone down the language. Although the U.S. abstained, the resolution was described as “toothless” and “meaningless” as it allowed Israel’s to continue bombing the Gaza Strip. “The president emphasized the critical need to protect the civilian population including those supporting the humanitarian aid operation, and the importance of allowing civilians to move safely away from areas of ongoing fighting,” a White House statement said on Saturday. Displaced Palestinians are taking shelter in a UNRWA-affiliated Deir al-Balah school after fleeing their homes due to Israeli strikes, on December 23, 2023. (Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images) Displaced Palestinians are taking shelter in a UNRWA-affiliated Deir al-Balah school after fleeing their homes due to Israeli strikes, on December 23, 2023. (Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images) Israel pulls out forces from Gaza leaving immense damage On Sunday morning, Israeli forces stormed Al-Rafi’i school in Jabalia in north Gaza and arrested several people who were sheltering in the building while warplanes bombed the Jabalia refugee camp, Wafa news agency reported. Israeli forces withdrew from some areas in north Gaza on Friday leaving immense damage to roads and buildings. Al-Jazeera reported that Palestine roundabout was completely flattened after Israeli forces bombed and bulldozed the premises surrounding it. The roundabout in the middle of Gaza City was a site where Hamas fighters handed over some Israeli captives as part of the hostage exchange with Israel in November. Palestinian families coming back to visit their houses in the nearby Al-Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City after a month of Israeli control, were horrified by the destruction. Israeli forces also heavily bombed the Al-Jarn area in Jabalia on Saturday, destroying a number of houses and killing dozens of Palestinians while they were asleep in their flats. Wafa reported that ambulances could not reach the injured due to air strikes and debris scattered in the area. As of Saturday evening, dozens of Palestinians remained under the rubble in Jabalia. Israeli forces also withdrew from Tel Al-Zaatar in north Gaza, leaving mayhem and destruction of dozens of buildings in the neighborhood. On Saturday, Palestinian rescue teams recovered the bodies of 40 people in central Gaza who were killed in Israeli bombings on Friday. Israeli air strikes bombed several areas in Deir Al-Balah in the past 24 hours. In Rafah’s Canada refugee camp, Israeli air strikes bombed the home of Abu Al-Awf family. One Palestinian was killed and four injured in an Israeli bombing of the Al-Nabris family house in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. The Palestine Red Crescent Society said that Amir Rami Odeh, 13, and another Palestinian were killed by an Israeli drone while they were at the Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis. Wafa reported that Israeli warplanes bombed Ma’an area in Khan Younis, killing two people, and targeted several Palestinians near the Abu Hamid roundabout in the center of Khan Younis, killing at least three. On Saturday evening, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said that at least 20,258 martyrs were killed and 53,688 were injured in Israeli bombardment since October 7. Israeli minister vows continue war even if all captives released The Israeli military announced that 14 soldiers were killed in armed battles with Palestinian fighters in the Gaza Strip over the weekend. Avi Dichter, the Israeli Minister of Agriculture, said that Israeli forces should keep bombing Gaza from land, air, and sea as there was no “fair play” in this war. He said that Israel has two main goals: the return of almost 130 hostages in the Gaza Strip and destroying Hamas. However, he added that even in the case of releasing all captives, the Israeli military would continue the war. “The main goal is the return of the abductees, without the return of the abductees this war will not end,” Dichter said in an interview on Channel 14. “But if tomorrow the abductees return, the war will not end till achieving the goals,” he added. Israeli forces have been systemically destroying residential neighborhoods in north Gaza in Al-Shujaiya, Al-Rimal, and Beit Hanoun to create a buffer zone in the north and east of the Gaza Strip after Palestinian fighters killed several Israeli soldiers in urban battles in these areas. On Saturday evening, Israeli forces also attempted to invade the border area between the Gaza Strip and Egypt from Karm Abu Salem Crossing. Israel is planning to create a buffer zone by occupying a 14 km-long stretch, a move which could inflame ties with Egypt, in order to separate Gaza from the Sinai Peninsula and take direct control of the Rafah Crossing. On Saturday, Hamas’ Izz El-Din Al-Qassam Brigades fired rockets on the Israeli town of Ashkelon and said it feared that five Israeli captives were killed in Israeli bombardment after it lost contact with the group in charge of them. Hamas military spokesperson Abu Ubaida said that among them are the three hostages who pleaded last week with the Israeli government to release them and not let them “grow old” in captivity. “You have to release us from here. It does not matter at what cost. We don’t want to be casualties as a direct result of the IDF’s military airstrikes. Release us with no conditions,” one of the captives said in a video message released by Hamas last week. The resistance movement also announced on Saturday that it recycled two Israeli missiles that did not explode and used them to blow up five Israeli tanks in Jabalia, north of Gaza. In 2020, Hamas’ divers retrieved ammunition from the British warship HMS M15, which was sunk in 1917 by Germany near the Gaza coast, in hopes of using its munitions to arm rockets and produce explosives, though reports said the century-old ammunitions were unusable. Hamas also said that it targeted four Israeli jeeps in an ambush in Juhr Al-Diek, east of Gaza City, one of the first areas Israeli forces invaded in late October. The Israeli military announced that it arrested 700 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants in the Gaza Strip since late October. Yoav Gallant issued a warning to Hamas’ leader, Yahya Al-Sinwar, over the weekend, saying that he could hear Israeli vehicles approaching. “One thing is clear, Yahya Sinwar now hears the IDF tractors above him, the air force bombs and the IDF’s actions. He will soon meet the barrels of our guns,” Gallant said. In total, 485 Israeli soldiers and officers were killed since the October 7 attack launched by Palestinian fighters on settlements and military bases near the Gaza Strip. According to official military figures, 152 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the land invasion began in late October. Palestinians light a candle near a statue showing a figure symbolizing the child Jesus lying amid the rubble in a cave, before Christmas at the Evangelical Lutheran Church, in Bethlehem, on December 08, 2023. (Photo: Mamoun Wazwaz/APA Images) Palestinians light a candle near a statue showing a figure symbolizing the child Jesus lying amid the rubble in a cave, before Christmas at the Evangelical Lutheran Church, in Bethlehem, on December 08, 2023. (Photo: Mamoun Wazwaz/APA Images) “The whole world is celebrating Christmas, but not Bethlehem” Since October 7, Israeli forces arrested 4,695 Palestinians from towns and villages of the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club. The club said that Aziz Dweik, the former Palestinian Legislative Council Speaker, is suffering from severe health conditions in the notorious Negev desert prison. Dweik 75, from occupied Jerusalem, was arrested on October 17. The Club added that Dweik suffers from “anemia and a lack of hemoglobin due to diabetes” and that he previously “underwent two catheterization operations and fragmentation of kidney stones.” His family has not been able to visit him since he was arrested and sentenced to six months of arbitrary administrative detention without charge or trial. On Saturday, the Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor urged UN bodies to immediately form “an international delegation to visit Israeli prisons and detention camps, where more than 8,000 Palestinian detainees are currently held.” Euro-Med added that “evidence mounts of widespread violations of mass arrests, forced disappearances, torture, ill-treatment and even killings” of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jail. It said that it estimates that Israeli authorities are currently detaining 1,200 to 1,400 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. “After their arrest, detainees have been subjected to systematic abuse such as being stripped of their clothes, handcuffed, blindfolded, severely beaten, harassed, sexually assaulted, deprived of sleep food, water, and basic hygiene, and degraded in front of cameras,” it said in a letter. Several horrific videos of hundreds of Palestinian civilians detained in the Gaza Strip have emerged in the past week, most of them filmed by Israeli forces as part of “psychological war” effort. Euro-Med added that “the number of Palestinians detained in administrative detention… has reached an unprecedented level, while the fate and whereabouts of many of them remain unknown.” Meanwhile, Israeli forces stormed several cities in the occupied West Bank, including Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarm, as well as the cities of Nablus and Hebron. In the birthplace of Jesus, lights were not lit as celebrations of Christmas were effectively cancelled in Bethlehem in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Instead of a decorated tree in Manger Square opposite the Church of Nativity, the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Tourism organized an artwork piece called “Nativity under the Rubble” to symbolize the agony and destruction in Gaza. “This is a message to the whole world that the whole world is celebrating Christmas, but not Bethlehem. Bethlehem this year is celebrating Christmas in a different way with a message to the whole world that Palestine is suffering,” Rula Maaya, the Palestinian Minister of Tourism, said. Munther Isaac, the pastor of the Lutheran church, said: “This is the reality of Christmas for Palestinian children. If Jesus was born today, he’d be born under the rubble of Gaza.” Before you go - We need your help. Mainstream media’s wilful complicity in the genocide of Palestinian people is a reminder of just how vital our work at Mondoweiss is. This article and our extensive coverage since October 7 have been made possible by readers like you who donate to keep our reporting free and independent. With your support, we will continue covering the ongoing events in Gaza and across Palestine, as well as amplifying the Palestine movement worldwide. Together, we will make sure to keep reporting Palestinian stories, even when the rest of the world looks away. Support our critical work with a donation today. https://mondoweiss.net/2023/12/operation-al-aqsa-flood-day-79-bethlehem-cancels-christmas-celebrations-as-israel-continues-to-bomb-gaza/
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    ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 79: Bethlehem cancels Christmas celebrations as Israel continues to bomb Gaza
    Palestinian pastor Munther Issac says “If Jesus was born today, he’d be born under the rubble of Gaza” as Israeli forces flattens entire neighborhoods to create buffer zones in north, east, and south of the Gaza Strip.
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  • For some people, beginning a ketogenic diet can result in noticeable weight loss in just one month. Nonetheless, it's memorable's critical that weight reduction shifts from one individual to another because of variables like beginning weight, body sythesis, digestion, and adherence to the eating routine. How about we investigate this:
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    For some people, beginning a ketogenic diet can result in noticeable weight loss in just one month. Nonetheless, it's memorable's critical that weight reduction shifts from one individual to another because of variables like beginning weight, body sythesis, digestion, and adherence to the eating routine. How about we investigate this: 1. Initial weight loss from water: At the point when you start a keto diet, your body commonly sheds overabundance water weight during the principal little while. This underlying drop on the scale might be empowering, yet it's fundamentally because of decreased starch admission and water maintenance. 2: Gradual Weight Loss: As you go on with the keto diet, your body changes into a condition of ketosis, where it essentially consumes fat for energy. This may result in gradual fat loss over time. Keep in mind, reasonable weight reduction is in many cases a gradual cycle. ⏳🔥🔥 3️⃣ Individual Varieties: Progress in losing weight varies from person to person. Factors like beginning weight, body piece, action level, and by and large calorie consumption assume a part. Zeroing in on your own excursion and not contrast yourself with others is fundamental. 📈🤷‍♀️ 4️⃣ Non-Scale Triumphs: Weight reduction isn't exclusively pondered the scale. Pay attention to non-scale successes like having more energy, getting clothes that fit better, having more mental clarity, and feeling better all around. These are similarly significant marks of progress! 🌟💪😊 5️⃣ Consistency and Tolerance: Consistency is key while following a keto diet. Remain focused on the standards of the eating regimen, including low starch admission, moderate protein, and sound fats. Tolerance is essential as manageable weight reduction takes time. Continue onward! Sixth, Assess Your Progress: Keeping tabs on your development past weight is useful. Take estimations, survey body organization, and consider progress photographs to get a complete perspective on your change. These can uncover changes that the scale probably won't catch. 📏📸 Keep in mind, everybody's weight reduction venture is novel, and it's fundamental for center around generally speaking wellbeing and prosperity as opposed to exclusively focusing on the numbers on the scale. On the off chance that you have concerns or need customized direction, counseling a medical care proficient or an enrolled dietitian can offer important help. 🩺👩‍🍳 Remain positive, remain reliable, and commend each forward-moving step on your keto weight reduction venture. You are doing so well! 💪😊 https://www.digistore24.com/redir/411008/Abrar769/
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  • ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 46: Israeli tanks besiege Indonesian Hospital as bombardment of Gaza continues
    Israeli forces besiege Indonesian Hospital in north Gaza. Meanwhile, two Lebanese journalists were killed by Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon, and Palestinian prisoners continue to face humiliation, abuse and torture inside Israeli prisons.

    Mustafa Abu SneinehNovember 21, 2023
    A young Palestinian boy holds the shrouded body of a Palestinian infant who was killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. (APA Images)
    During prayers for the dead outside a hospital in the central Gaza Strip city of Deir al-Balah, a young Palestinian boy holds the shrouded body of an infant killed in an Israeli airstrike. (Photo: APA Images).
    Casualties

    12,700 killed*, including 5,350 children, and 32,850 wounded in Gaza Strip.
    216 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem
    Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,200
    *This figure covers the casualties from October 7 to November 20. Due to breakdowns in communication networks within the Gaza Strip (particularly in northern Gaza), the Gaza Ministry of Health has not been able to regularly update its tolls.

    Key Developments

    At least 100 wounded and patients were evacuated from the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza City to the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis on Monday evening, in coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
    There are at least 700 patients and medical staff are trapped in the Indonesian Hospital, which Israel claims has Hamas tunnels underneath it. The claims mirror previous allegations Israel made about Al-Shifa Hospital that it has yet to provide concrete evidence of.
    The World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement that it was ‘appalled’ by the Israeli attack on the Indonesian Hospital which killed at least 12 people, and injured tens of others.
    Two Lebanese journalists, Rabih Maamari and Farah Omar, of Al-Mayadeen television network were killed in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon.
    Hezbollah launched four Burkan short-range ballistic missiles on the Israeli Branit Barracks, which houses the Galilee Division 91, inflicting immense damages.
    The total number of Israeli soldiers killed in the Gaza Strip has risen to at least 70 since Israel launched the ground incursion on October 28th. However, some reports suggest that the military casualties could be higher.
    Hamas’ armed wing, Izz El-Din Al-Qassam, launched rockets into Tel Aviv, the largest barrage since October 7, and targeted the Reim military base near the Gaza Strip.
    Hamas Spokesman Abu Obaida: Hamas fighters have hit 60 Israeli military vehicles, including tanks and 10 armoured personnel carriers since Saturday, November 18th.
    Abu Obaida: Israel bombed its destroyed military vehicles from the air when it could not withdraw it.
    Al Jazeera report: Israeli forces abuse, harass Palestinian prisoners and detainees
    Israel has forced 255 Palestinian shops in the town of Huwwara, near Nablus, to close for the past 46 days.
    Israeli forces besiege the Indonesian Hospital

    On the 46th day of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, which has so far killed close to 13,000 Palestinians, nearly half of them children, Israeli forces continued the unabated targeting of hospitals, schools and displaced civilians in Gaza.

    Following the siege, raid and forced evacuation last week of Al-Shifa Hospital, west of Gaza City, Israeli forces moved to target the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahi in northern Gaza. On Monday evening, at least 12 people were killed when Israeli artillery bombed the second floor of the hospital.

    There are at least 700 patients and medical staff inside the hospital who are in talks with the ICRC to transfer them to Al-Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, as Israeli tanks surround the facility, and were stationed 200 meters away on Monday evening.

    “The Indonesian Hospital staff are insisting they will stay to treat the wounded,” Ashraf Al-Qudra, Gaza’s Health Ministry spokesperson told Al-Jazeera.

    Wafa news agency reported that 100 wounded and sick patients were evacuated from the Indonesian Hospital to Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday evening, in coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

    Israeli forces are claiming that Hamas has tunnels underneath the Indonesian Hospital, which was opened in 2016 following an $8 million donation from Indonesian citizens and groups such as the Indonesian Red Cross Society.

    Israel used similar claims to justify the siege, raid and forced evacuation of Palestinians from Al-Shifa Hospital, west of Gaza City, last week. While the Israeli army has released a number of videos purporting to show the tunnels around Al-Shifa, Israel has yet to provide any evidence of the “Hamas command centre” underneath the hospital.

    The World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement that it was “appalled” by the Israeli attack on the Indonesian Hospital that killed at least 12 people, and injured tens of others.

    “Health workers and civilians should never have to be exposed to such horror, and especially while inside a hospital,” the WHO said.

    “No one has been allowed to enter or leave the hospital: there have been reports of shooting towards those attempting to leave but no injuries or fatalities thus far,” it added.

    The Indonesian Hospital faced power outages due to the lack of fuel to generate electricity, and is facing a shortage of water and medical supplies.

    “WHO has recorded 335 attacks on health care in the occupied Palestinian territory since 7 October, including 164 attacks in the Gaza Strip and 171 attacks in the West Bank. There were also 33 attacks on health care in Israel during the violent events of October 7,” WHO added.

    Israeli bombardment continues, targeting refugee camp, schools

    On Tuesday Israel launched an airstrike on a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, killing at least 20 people. Journalists Alaa Taher Al-Hasanat and Ayat Khadura were killed when their houses were bombed in Gaza City and in Beit Lahia.

    Wafa said that dozens were killed and injured on Tuesday morning when a school in the Al-Fallujah area and homes in Beit Lahia were targeted.

    The Hafsa School in the Al-Fallujah, west of Jabalia, was housing displaced Palestinians, several of whom were killed and injured in the strike. At least nine homes were hit in Beit Lahia as well, and Israeli bombing targeted communications towers in Gaza City, disrupting internet and phone services.

    Kamal Adwan Hospital announced the death of 80 people killed in airstrikes on Tuesday morning in areas north of Gaza City.

    On Monday evening, Gaza’s Ministry of Health announced that 12,700 Palestinian martyrs were killed, including 5,350 children, 3,250 women, and 695 elderly people, and 32,850 were injured since Israel launched air strikes and bombardment assaults on October 7.

    However, the death toll is higher as hundreds of Palestinians are reported missing or trapped under the rubble, and could not be rescued by paramedics and civil defence units.

    Until November 15, there were 4,500 reported missing persons, 3,500 of them children, who are presumed to be trapped or dead under the rubble of residential buildings bombed by Israeli airstrikes.

    Israeli children sing “annihilate everyone” in Gaza goes viral

    On Sunday November 19th, a day prior to the UN World Children’s Day , the Hebrew-language public broadcaster in Israel, Kan News, released a song of Israeli children celebrating the “annihilation of everyone” in Gaza Strip.

    Footage of soldiers and Gaza destruction appeared in the video while children were singing: “In another year there will be nothing there. And we will safely return to our homes.”

    “Within a year we will annihilate everyone. And then we will return to plow our fields.”

    The song sparked outrage on social media, as people pointed out the reality that thousands of Gazan children have been killed, injured, and have lost their families and homes over the past six weeks.

    Kan News later removed the song, dubbed Friendship Song 2023, from its website and platforms.

    Lebanon: Israel kills two journalists, Hezbollah targets military barracks

    Three people, two of them Lebanese journalists Rabih Maamari and Farah Omar of Al-Mayadeen television network, were killed in an Israeli strike on southern Lebanon on Tuesday around noon local time.

    Last week, Israel banned Al-Mayadeen from reporting from 1948 Palestine,the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, charging the broadcaster with “harming the security of the state of Israel and its citizens,” and of being an “abettor of the terrorist organisation Hezbollah.”

    Maamari and Omar were killed near Tayr Harfa village, almost two kilometres away from north of occupied Palestine.

    “Al-Mayadeen mourns the loss of its martyrs, correspondent Farah Omar and cameraman Rabih Al-Me’mari, who were targeted by a cowardly Israeli attack in South Lebanon,” the channel said in a statement.

    An hour later, four Lebanese citizens were also killed in an Israeli bombing on a vehicle in the Shaytiya area. In total, seven people were killed Tuesday afternoon.

    Last week, Lebanese media crews were targeted with rocket shells near the border town of Yaroun, injuring Al-Jazeera photographer Issam Mawasi. On October 13th, the Lebanese photojournalist Issam Abdullah was killed, and five others were injured after being bombed by Israel near the town of Alma Al-Shaab in southern Lebanon.

    Israel has deployed 100,000 soldiers north of occupied Palestine along the border with Lebanon. Fire exchanges between the Israeli army and Hezbollah fighters have intensified in the past week.

    On Monday, Hezbollah launched four Burkan short-range ballistic missiles on the Israeli Branit Barracks, which houses the Galilee Division 91, inflicting damages.

    Israel fired into several villages in southern Lebanon over the past 24 hours, including Khiam, the outskirts of Alma al-Shaab, Jabal al-Labouneh, Jabal al-Alam, and of Kafr Kila. On Monday, it hit the Church of Saint George in the town of Yaroun, in Bint Jbeil district.

    Since October 8, Hezbollah has been attacking Israel with missiles, drones, and targeting soldiers along the border. At least a dozen attacks have been recorded daily in the past days, with Hezbollah publishing videos documenting it.

    Gaza ground invasion: Hamas claims hits to Israeli military, death toll of Israeli soldiers rises

    On Tuesday, the total number of Israeli soldiers killed in the Gaza Strip rose to 70, since the launch of the ground incursion on October 28th. However, some reports suggest that the military casualties could be higher.

    Israel’s Ministry of Defense’s directors of military cemeteries in Kiryat Shaul and Mount Herzl told Channel 10 on Sunday that they have buried 50 soldiers in 48 hours, and the load of work to open graves has been “unprecedented”.

    On Monday, Hamas’ armed wing, Izz El-Din Al-Qassam, launched rockets into Tel Aviv, the largest barrage since October 7th. It also targeted the Reim military base near the Gaza Strip.

    In an audio statement, Al-Qassam’s spokesperson, Abu Obaida, said that resistance fighters had hit 60 Israeli military vehicles, including tanks and 10 armoured personnel carriers, in the past 72 hours alone.

    Al-Qassam released a video compilation of fighters launching 105mm Al-Yaseen anti-tank shells from a close range, including a shot of fighters planting an explosive on the body of an Israeli Merkava tank. The video also showed Israeli soldiers’ torn and burned clothes after being targeted by Hamas.

    Abu Obaida said that fighters ambushed Israeli tanks and forces in several areas in Gaza City.

    “One of our most prominent operations was an ambush against foot forces southwest of Gaza City last Saturday, where our mujahideen targeted a foot force followed by a Zionist bulldozer with anti-personnel devices, causing certain injuries and hearing the screams of enemy soldiers and their calls for help,” Abu Obaida said.

    “[We] targeted a Zionist troop carrier with an Al-Yaseen shell, hitting it directly, and three soldiers got out of it. Our mujahideen attacked them with an anti-personnel missile. They killed some of them, then the Qassam force lay in wait in the vicinity of the operation, waiting for the Zionist rescue force, which had already arrived, and our fighters clashed with them face to face, inflicting a large number of no less than seven dead, and our mujahideen returned to their bases safely,” he added.

    He also said that Israel bombed its destroyed military vehicles from the air when it could not withdraw them from the Strip.

    Also on Monday, the Yemeni Houthi rebels released footage of their fighters seizing a cargo ship in the southern Red Sea as it sailed from Turkey to India. The Houthis landed with a helicopter on the Galaxy Leader, which is reportedly partially owned by Israeli businessman Rami Ungar.

    “If the US and Israel stop and cease killing the Palestinians in Gaza and allow in water, medicine and food, then they could talk about the Israeli ship. What the [Yemeni] navy did is consistent with the principle of reciprocity,” said Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, a member of the Supreme Political Council in Yemen.

    Israeli jailers force Palestinian prisoners to kiss the flag and listen to the national anthem

    In the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, 216 Palestinians were killed and 2,800 have been injured since October 7th, according to the Ministry of Health.

    Muhammad Ali Saeed Owais, 25, succumbed to his wounds on Monday evening after he was shot and injured on November 9th during an Israeli raid of the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank.

    Israeli forces arrested 51 Palestinians from Jenin, Jerusalem, Ramallah, Jericho, Nablus, Bethlehem, and Hebron. Wafa published the list of names of those arrested in the past 24 hours.

    Israel is subjecting Palestinian prisoners and detainees to a “psychological torture”, according to an Al-Jazeera report.

    One of the detainees told Al-Jazeera that he was forced to kiss the Israeli flag during his arrest at Megiddo prison. He was forced to listen to the Israeli national anthem, and to say “the State of Israel is Strong”. Israeli jailers will beat those who refuse to obey their orders.

    Other measures taken was the threat of sexual harassment, stripping the prisoner naked, beating, cutting off the electricity, and providing poor quality meals.

    Six Palestinians have died inside Israeli jails since October 7.

    Before you go – we need your support

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    https://mondoweiss.net/2023/11/operation-al-aqsa-flood-day-46-israeli-tanks-besiege-indonesian-hospital-as-bombardment-of-gaza-continues/
    ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 46: Israeli tanks besiege Indonesian Hospital as bombardment of Gaza continues Israeli forces besiege Indonesian Hospital in north Gaza. Meanwhile, two Lebanese journalists were killed by Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon, and Palestinian prisoners continue to face humiliation, abuse and torture inside Israeli prisons. Mustafa Abu SneinehNovember 21, 2023 A young Palestinian boy holds the shrouded body of a Palestinian infant who was killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. (APA Images) During prayers for the dead outside a hospital in the central Gaza Strip city of Deir al-Balah, a young Palestinian boy holds the shrouded body of an infant killed in an Israeli airstrike. (Photo: APA Images). Casualties 12,700 killed*, including 5,350 children, and 32,850 wounded in Gaza Strip. 216 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,200 *This figure covers the casualties from October 7 to November 20. Due to breakdowns in communication networks within the Gaza Strip (particularly in northern Gaza), the Gaza Ministry of Health has not been able to regularly update its tolls. Key Developments At least 100 wounded and patients were evacuated from the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza City to the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis on Monday evening, in coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). There are at least 700 patients and medical staff are trapped in the Indonesian Hospital, which Israel claims has Hamas tunnels underneath it. The claims mirror previous allegations Israel made about Al-Shifa Hospital that it has yet to provide concrete evidence of. The World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement that it was ‘appalled’ by the Israeli attack on the Indonesian Hospital which killed at least 12 people, and injured tens of others. Two Lebanese journalists, Rabih Maamari and Farah Omar, of Al-Mayadeen television network were killed in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah launched four Burkan short-range ballistic missiles on the Israeli Branit Barracks, which houses the Galilee Division 91, inflicting immense damages. The total number of Israeli soldiers killed in the Gaza Strip has risen to at least 70 since Israel launched the ground incursion on October 28th. However, some reports suggest that the military casualties could be higher. Hamas’ armed wing, Izz El-Din Al-Qassam, launched rockets into Tel Aviv, the largest barrage since October 7, and targeted the Reim military base near the Gaza Strip. Hamas Spokesman Abu Obaida: Hamas fighters have hit 60 Israeli military vehicles, including tanks and 10 armoured personnel carriers since Saturday, November 18th. Abu Obaida: Israel bombed its destroyed military vehicles from the air when it could not withdraw it. Al Jazeera report: Israeli forces abuse, harass Palestinian prisoners and detainees Israel has forced 255 Palestinian shops in the town of Huwwara, near Nablus, to close for the past 46 days. Israeli forces besiege the Indonesian Hospital On the 46th day of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, which has so far killed close to 13,000 Palestinians, nearly half of them children, Israeli forces continued the unabated targeting of hospitals, schools and displaced civilians in Gaza. Following the siege, raid and forced evacuation last week of Al-Shifa Hospital, west of Gaza City, Israeli forces moved to target the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahi in northern Gaza. On Monday evening, at least 12 people were killed when Israeli artillery bombed the second floor of the hospital. There are at least 700 patients and medical staff inside the hospital who are in talks with the ICRC to transfer them to Al-Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, as Israeli tanks surround the facility, and were stationed 200 meters away on Monday evening. “The Indonesian Hospital staff are insisting they will stay to treat the wounded,” Ashraf Al-Qudra, Gaza’s Health Ministry spokesperson told Al-Jazeera. Wafa news agency reported that 100 wounded and sick patients were evacuated from the Indonesian Hospital to Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday evening, in coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Israeli forces are claiming that Hamas has tunnels underneath the Indonesian Hospital, which was opened in 2016 following an $8 million donation from Indonesian citizens and groups such as the Indonesian Red Cross Society. Israel used similar claims to justify the siege, raid and forced evacuation of Palestinians from Al-Shifa Hospital, west of Gaza City, last week. While the Israeli army has released a number of videos purporting to show the tunnels around Al-Shifa, Israel has yet to provide any evidence of the “Hamas command centre” underneath the hospital. The World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement that it was “appalled” by the Israeli attack on the Indonesian Hospital that killed at least 12 people, and injured tens of others. “Health workers and civilians should never have to be exposed to such horror, and especially while inside a hospital,” the WHO said. “No one has been allowed to enter or leave the hospital: there have been reports of shooting towards those attempting to leave but no injuries or fatalities thus far,” it added. The Indonesian Hospital faced power outages due to the lack of fuel to generate electricity, and is facing a shortage of water and medical supplies. “WHO has recorded 335 attacks on health care in the occupied Palestinian territory since 7 October, including 164 attacks in the Gaza Strip and 171 attacks in the West Bank. There were also 33 attacks on health care in Israel during the violent events of October 7,” WHO added. Israeli bombardment continues, targeting refugee camp, schools On Tuesday Israel launched an airstrike on a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, killing at least 20 people. Journalists Alaa Taher Al-Hasanat and Ayat Khadura were killed when their houses were bombed in Gaza City and in Beit Lahia. Wafa said that dozens were killed and injured on Tuesday morning when a school in the Al-Fallujah area and homes in Beit Lahia were targeted. The Hafsa School in the Al-Fallujah, west of Jabalia, was housing displaced Palestinians, several of whom were killed and injured in the strike. At least nine homes were hit in Beit Lahia as well, and Israeli bombing targeted communications towers in Gaza City, disrupting internet and phone services. Kamal Adwan Hospital announced the death of 80 people killed in airstrikes on Tuesday morning in areas north of Gaza City. On Monday evening, Gaza’s Ministry of Health announced that 12,700 Palestinian martyrs were killed, including 5,350 children, 3,250 women, and 695 elderly people, and 32,850 were injured since Israel launched air strikes and bombardment assaults on October 7. However, the death toll is higher as hundreds of Palestinians are reported missing or trapped under the rubble, and could not be rescued by paramedics and civil defence units. Until November 15, there were 4,500 reported missing persons, 3,500 of them children, who are presumed to be trapped or dead under the rubble of residential buildings bombed by Israeli airstrikes. Israeli children sing “annihilate everyone” in Gaza goes viral On Sunday November 19th, a day prior to the UN World Children’s Day , the Hebrew-language public broadcaster in Israel, Kan News, released a song of Israeli children celebrating the “annihilation of everyone” in Gaza Strip. Footage of soldiers and Gaza destruction appeared in the video while children were singing: “In another year there will be nothing there. And we will safely return to our homes.” “Within a year we will annihilate everyone. And then we will return to plow our fields.” The song sparked outrage on social media, as people pointed out the reality that thousands of Gazan children have been killed, injured, and have lost their families and homes over the past six weeks. Kan News later removed the song, dubbed Friendship Song 2023, from its website and platforms. Lebanon: Israel kills two journalists, Hezbollah targets military barracks Three people, two of them Lebanese journalists Rabih Maamari and Farah Omar of Al-Mayadeen television network, were killed in an Israeli strike on southern Lebanon on Tuesday around noon local time. Last week, Israel banned Al-Mayadeen from reporting from 1948 Palestine,the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, charging the broadcaster with “harming the security of the state of Israel and its citizens,” and of being an “abettor of the terrorist organisation Hezbollah.” Maamari and Omar were killed near Tayr Harfa village, almost two kilometres away from north of occupied Palestine. “Al-Mayadeen mourns the loss of its martyrs, correspondent Farah Omar and cameraman Rabih Al-Me’mari, who were targeted by a cowardly Israeli attack in South Lebanon,” the channel said in a statement. An hour later, four Lebanese citizens were also killed in an Israeli bombing on a vehicle in the Shaytiya area. In total, seven people were killed Tuesday afternoon. Last week, Lebanese media crews were targeted with rocket shells near the border town of Yaroun, injuring Al-Jazeera photographer Issam Mawasi. On October 13th, the Lebanese photojournalist Issam Abdullah was killed, and five others were injured after being bombed by Israel near the town of Alma Al-Shaab in southern Lebanon. Israel has deployed 100,000 soldiers north of occupied Palestine along the border with Lebanon. Fire exchanges between the Israeli army and Hezbollah fighters have intensified in the past week. On Monday, Hezbollah launched four Burkan short-range ballistic missiles on the Israeli Branit Barracks, which houses the Galilee Division 91, inflicting damages. Israel fired into several villages in southern Lebanon over the past 24 hours, including Khiam, the outskirts of Alma al-Shaab, Jabal al-Labouneh, Jabal al-Alam, and of Kafr Kila. On Monday, it hit the Church of Saint George in the town of Yaroun, in Bint Jbeil district. Since October 8, Hezbollah has been attacking Israel with missiles, drones, and targeting soldiers along the border. At least a dozen attacks have been recorded daily in the past days, with Hezbollah publishing videos documenting it. Gaza ground invasion: Hamas claims hits to Israeli military, death toll of Israeli soldiers rises On Tuesday, the total number of Israeli soldiers killed in the Gaza Strip rose to 70, since the launch of the ground incursion on October 28th. However, some reports suggest that the military casualties could be higher. Israel’s Ministry of Defense’s directors of military cemeteries in Kiryat Shaul and Mount Herzl told Channel 10 on Sunday that they have buried 50 soldiers in 48 hours, and the load of work to open graves has been “unprecedented”. On Monday, Hamas’ armed wing, Izz El-Din Al-Qassam, launched rockets into Tel Aviv, the largest barrage since October 7th. It also targeted the Reim military base near the Gaza Strip. In an audio statement, Al-Qassam’s spokesperson, Abu Obaida, said that resistance fighters had hit 60 Israeli military vehicles, including tanks and 10 armoured personnel carriers, in the past 72 hours alone. Al-Qassam released a video compilation of fighters launching 105mm Al-Yaseen anti-tank shells from a close range, including a shot of fighters planting an explosive on the body of an Israeli Merkava tank. The video also showed Israeli soldiers’ torn and burned clothes after being targeted by Hamas. Abu Obaida said that fighters ambushed Israeli tanks and forces in several areas in Gaza City. “One of our most prominent operations was an ambush against foot forces southwest of Gaza City last Saturday, where our mujahideen targeted a foot force followed by a Zionist bulldozer with anti-personnel devices, causing certain injuries and hearing the screams of enemy soldiers and their calls for help,” Abu Obaida said. “[We] targeted a Zionist troop carrier with an Al-Yaseen shell, hitting it directly, and three soldiers got out of it. Our mujahideen attacked them with an anti-personnel missile. They killed some of them, then the Qassam force lay in wait in the vicinity of the operation, waiting for the Zionist rescue force, which had already arrived, and our fighters clashed with them face to face, inflicting a large number of no less than seven dead, and our mujahideen returned to their bases safely,” he added. He also said that Israel bombed its destroyed military vehicles from the air when it could not withdraw them from the Strip. Also on Monday, the Yemeni Houthi rebels released footage of their fighters seizing a cargo ship in the southern Red Sea as it sailed from Turkey to India. The Houthis landed with a helicopter on the Galaxy Leader, which is reportedly partially owned by Israeli businessman Rami Ungar. “If the US and Israel stop and cease killing the Palestinians in Gaza and allow in water, medicine and food, then they could talk about the Israeli ship. What the [Yemeni] navy did is consistent with the principle of reciprocity,” said Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, a member of the Supreme Political Council in Yemen. Israeli jailers force Palestinian prisoners to kiss the flag and listen to the national anthem In the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, 216 Palestinians were killed and 2,800 have been injured since October 7th, according to the Ministry of Health. Muhammad Ali Saeed Owais, 25, succumbed to his wounds on Monday evening after he was shot and injured on November 9th during an Israeli raid of the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank. Israeli forces arrested 51 Palestinians from Jenin, Jerusalem, Ramallah, Jericho, Nablus, Bethlehem, and Hebron. Wafa published the list of names of those arrested in the past 24 hours. Israel is subjecting Palestinian prisoners and detainees to a “psychological torture”, according to an Al-Jazeera report. One of the detainees told Al-Jazeera that he was forced to kiss the Israeli flag during his arrest at Megiddo prison. He was forced to listen to the Israeli national anthem, and to say “the State of Israel is Strong”. Israeli jailers will beat those who refuse to obey their orders. Other measures taken was the threat of sexual harassment, stripping the prisoner naked, beating, cutting off the electricity, and providing poor quality meals. Six Palestinians have died inside Israeli jails since October 7. Before you go – we need your support At Mondoweiss, we understand the power of telling Palestinian stories. For 17 years, we have pushed back when the mainstream media published lies or echoed politicians’ hateful rhetoric. Now, Palestinian voices are more important than ever. Our traffic has increased ten times since October 7, and we need your help to cover our increased expenses. Support our journalists with a donation today. https://mondoweiss.net/2023/11/operation-al-aqsa-flood-day-46-israeli-tanks-besiege-indonesian-hospital-as-bombardment-of-gaza-continues/
    MONDOWEISS.NET
    ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 46: Israeli tanks besiege Indonesian Hospital as bombardment of Gaza continues
    Israeli forces besiege Indonesian Hospital in north Gaza. Meanwhile, two Lebanese journalists were killed by Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon, and Palestinian prisoners continue to face humiliation, abuse and torture inside Israeli prisons.
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  • Israel fails to show evidence of Hamas command center at al-Shifa hospital
    Maureen Clare Murphy Rights and Accountability 15 November 2023

    Israel raided al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City at dawn on Wednesday after encircling and besieging it for days and launching heavy attacks in the area. Troops had reportedly withdrawn from hospital buildings and redeployed to al-Shifa’s gates on Wednesday evening.

    Late Wednesday night, Adnan al-Bursh, the head of the orthopedic department at al-Shifa hospital, told Al Jazeera Arabic that Israeli bulldozers began razing the area around the southern gate of the medical complex.

    Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, hailed his military’s conquest of Gaza’s largest hospital, saying on Wednesday that “there is no place in Gaza that we cannot reach. There are no hideouts. There is no shelter or refuge for the Hamas murderers.”

    But Israel’s own propaganda published in the aftermath of the raid shows that Netanyahu and the military’s longstanding accusation that Hamas uses al-Shifa to shield its command center is a deadly lie.

    The Israeli military published a more than seven-minute “one-shot” video purportedly showing the discovery of “Hamas weapons” found at the hospital’s MRI center. The military’s footage showed rifle parts wrapped in fabric in a small closet and its spokesperson holding up a backpack, gesturing toward a small laptop computer and picking up a stack of CDs.

    The original video was soon deleted and the military eventually published a version of the video that is around 20 seconds shorter than the first iteration, truncating its claim that the laptop showed an image of an Israeli soldier “rescued” by troops.







    The military’s footage also purported to show a militant’s “grab bag” containing weapons behind an MRI machine and a bulletproof vest bearing the insignias of the military wing of Hamas.


    The alleged discovery of weapons is potentially entirely fabricated. And in the event that it is true, a few rusty rifle parts in a utility closet is hardly evidence of the hospital serving as a military command center.
    Israeli propaganda

    Recall that last month, Israel published an “intelligence-based” animation portraying a vast underground complex that supposedly existed beneath the hospital.



    Israel has been making such allegations about al-Shifa since at least 2009.




    4\ The "forensic evidence" he's touching all over with his bare hands:
    A rusty rifle
    5 dust-filled rifles with no cartridges (likely for hospital guards)
    A dust-filled gear
    1 rifle & gear in pristine condition, but with 2 GIANT bullets for a vehicle mounted machine gun (why?) pic.twitter.com/DAJT47APzd

    — Muhammad Shehada (@muhammadshehad2) November 15, 2023

    Mondoweiss published a clip of the supposed “one-shot” video released by the Israeli military showing that it was in fact edited:


    The Israeli military also released photos of a soldier at al-Shifa standing next to stacked cardboard boxes with large sheets of paper affixed to them reading “medical supplies” and “baby food” in English – a crude attempt to spin the raid as a humanitarian operation:


    One of the boxes in the Israeli propaganda photos appears to be shown in the “one-shot video” next to the bag of weapons that the military claims it found in al-Shifa – strongly suggesting that the “evidence” of contraband found at the medical facility was planted:




    Israeli military propagandists also produced a video purportedly showing incubators that it offered to transfer to al-Shifa’s pediatric ward, and a photo a soldier loading incubators into a van:




    Multiple neonate patients at al-Shifa have died in recent days. The babies died not because of a lack of incubators, but because they lacked oxygen after Israel cut the supply of electricity to Gaza more than a month ago. Hospitals have run out of fuel to run emergency generators due to Israel’s ban on the transfer of fuel to the territory.


    International law experts and human rights groups say that Israel’s total siege on Gaza, including the ban on electricity of fuel, is a war crime.
    Israeli raid terrorizes medical staff and patients

    Adnan al-Bursh, the head of the orthopedic department at al-Shifa, told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that Israeli forces had surrounded the hospital and were targeting anyone who moved. He said that staff were unable to communicate between departments.

    The director of the hospital told the Qatari broadcaster that the hospital’s water supply line had exploded, saying that “we do not have a drop of water” for the hundreds of injured and thousands of displaced people present at the facility.

    On Tuesday, Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesperson for the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza, said that dozens of people were buried in a mass grave on the premises of al-Shifa hospital and that many more decomposing bodies still need to be buried, but the situation was dangerous due to the presence of the Israeli military.

    He said that 40 patients, including three children, had died due to a lack of medical supplies at al-Shifa.

    Witnesses at al-Shifa said that during the Israeli military raid, troops had “searched its rooms and basement,” Reuters reported.

    Sources at al-Shifa told Al Jazeera that Israeli soldiers ordered young men to surrender. “About 30 people were reportedly taken out into the courtyard, stripped of their clothes, blindfolded and interrogated by Israeli soldiers,” Al Jazeera reported.

    “Israeli forces have also blown up a warehouse of medicine and medical devices, sources said.”

    Dr. Ahmed El Mokhallalati, a surgeon at al-Shifa, described a terrifying situation for hundreds of patients, their family members, medical staff and thousands of displaced people sheltering at the hospital as heavy gunfire and explosions were heard throughout the complex.

    “We don’t know what they will do to us,” El Mokhallalati said. “We don’t know whether they will kill people or terrorize them. We know all the propaganda is lies, and they know as well as we do that there is nothing at al-Shifa medical center.”

    Palestinian health officials in Gaza and Hamas have vigorously denied allegations that Palestinian fighters use hospitals as command centers, with the latter urging the UN secretary-general to form an international delegation to rebuke Israel’s claims.

    US spokespersons parrot Israeli accusations

    On Tuesday, in the hours before Israeli forces raided al-Shifa, White House spokesperson John Kirby claimed that the US has “information” that Hamas and Islamic Jihad “use some hospitals in the Gaza Strip, including al-Shifa, and tunnels underneath them to conceal and to support their military operations and to hold hostages.”

    He alleged that militants “operate a command-and-control node from al-Shifa in Gaza City. They have stored weapons there, and they’re prepared to respond to an Israeli military operation against that facility.”

    Kirby told reporters that the US’ information “comes from a variety of intelligence sourcing” but did not offer specific evidence.

    Those claims were repeated by the Pentagon’s spokesperson on Tuesday, who even asserted that Hamas and Islamic Jihad “have weapons stored there and are prepared to respond to an Israeli military operation against the facility”:



    There have however been no confirmed reports of armed resistance from inside al-Shifa and Israel did not claim to have encountered, captured or killed any fighters as it raided the facility, saying only that at least five fighters “were killed by troops during a gun battle outside the hospital.”
    Kirby also said that the Biden administration does “not support striking a hospital from the air, and we do not want to see a firefight in the hospital where innocent people, helpless people, sick people are simply trying to get the medical care that they deserve.”

    On Wednesday, Kirby denied accusations that the Biden administration authorized the raid on al-Shifa.

    Martin Griffiths, the UN humanitarian chief, said that he was “appalled by reports of military raids” at al-Shifa, adding that “the protection of newborns, patients, medical staff and all civilians must override all other concerns.”

    Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director of the World Health Organization, said that the reports of a “military incursion into al-Shifa hospital are deeply concerning.” He added that the agency had been unable to contact health personnel at the hospital and “we’re extremely worried for their and their patients’ safety.”

    On Tuesday, Human Rights Watch said that Israel’s repeated attacks on medical facilities, health workers and ambulances “are further destroying the Gaza Strip’s healthcare system and should be investigated as war crimes.”

    The group said that “no evidence put forward would justify depriving hospitals and ambulances of their protected status under international humanitarian law.”

    An earlier version of this story said that the vest displayed in the Israeli military video from al-Shifa hospital bore the insignias of both Hamas and Islamic Jihad. It has since been corrected to say that it only bears the insignias of Hamas.

    al-Shifa Hospital
    Al Aqsa Flood
    Benjamin Netanyahu
    Hamas
    propaganda
    John Kirby
    Sabrina Singh


    https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israel-fails-show-evidence-hamas-command-center-al-shifa-hospital
    Israel fails to show evidence of Hamas command center at al-Shifa hospital Maureen Clare Murphy Rights and Accountability 15 November 2023 Israel raided al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City at dawn on Wednesday after encircling and besieging it for days and launching heavy attacks in the area. Troops had reportedly withdrawn from hospital buildings and redeployed to al-Shifa’s gates on Wednesday evening. Late Wednesday night, Adnan al-Bursh, the head of the orthopedic department at al-Shifa hospital, told Al Jazeera Arabic that Israeli bulldozers began razing the area around the southern gate of the medical complex. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, hailed his military’s conquest of Gaza’s largest hospital, saying on Wednesday that “there is no place in Gaza that we cannot reach. There are no hideouts. There is no shelter or refuge for the Hamas murderers.” But Israel’s own propaganda published in the aftermath of the raid shows that Netanyahu and the military’s longstanding accusation that Hamas uses al-Shifa to shield its command center is a deadly lie. The Israeli military published a more than seven-minute “one-shot” video purportedly showing the discovery of “Hamas weapons” found at the hospital’s MRI center. The military’s footage showed rifle parts wrapped in fabric in a small closet and its spokesperson holding up a backpack, gesturing toward a small laptop computer and picking up a stack of CDs. The original video was soon deleted and the military eventually published a version of the video that is around 20 seconds shorter than the first iteration, truncating its claim that the laptop showed an image of an Israeli soldier “rescued” by troops. The military’s footage also purported to show a militant’s “grab bag” containing weapons behind an MRI machine and a bulletproof vest bearing the insignias of the military wing of Hamas. The alleged discovery of weapons is potentially entirely fabricated. And in the event that it is true, a few rusty rifle parts in a utility closet is hardly evidence of the hospital serving as a military command center. Israeli propaganda Recall that last month, Israel published an “intelligence-based” animation portraying a vast underground complex that supposedly existed beneath the hospital. Israel has been making such allegations about al-Shifa since at least 2009. 4\ The "forensic evidence" he's touching all over with his bare hands: A rusty rifle 5 dust-filled rifles with no cartridges (likely for hospital guards) A dust-filled gear 1 rifle & gear in pristine condition, but with 2 GIANT bullets for a vehicle mounted machine gun (why?) pic.twitter.com/DAJT47APzd — Muhammad Shehada (@muhammadshehad2) November 15, 2023 Mondoweiss published a clip of the supposed “one-shot” video released by the Israeli military showing that it was in fact edited: The Israeli military also released photos of a soldier at al-Shifa standing next to stacked cardboard boxes with large sheets of paper affixed to them reading “medical supplies” and “baby food” in English – a crude attempt to spin the raid as a humanitarian operation: One of the boxes in the Israeli propaganda photos appears to be shown in the “one-shot video” next to the bag of weapons that the military claims it found in al-Shifa – strongly suggesting that the “evidence” of contraband found at the medical facility was planted: Israeli military propagandists also produced a video purportedly showing incubators that it offered to transfer to al-Shifa’s pediatric ward, and a photo a soldier loading incubators into a van: Multiple neonate patients at al-Shifa have died in recent days. The babies died not because of a lack of incubators, but because they lacked oxygen after Israel cut the supply of electricity to Gaza more than a month ago. Hospitals have run out of fuel to run emergency generators due to Israel’s ban on the transfer of fuel to the territory. International law experts and human rights groups say that Israel’s total siege on Gaza, including the ban on electricity of fuel, is a war crime. Israeli raid terrorizes medical staff and patients Adnan al-Bursh, the head of the orthopedic department at al-Shifa, told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that Israeli forces had surrounded the hospital and were targeting anyone who moved. He said that staff were unable to communicate between departments. The director of the hospital told the Qatari broadcaster that the hospital’s water supply line had exploded, saying that “we do not have a drop of water” for the hundreds of injured and thousands of displaced people present at the facility. On Tuesday, Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesperson for the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza, said that dozens of people were buried in a mass grave on the premises of al-Shifa hospital and that many more decomposing bodies still need to be buried, but the situation was dangerous due to the presence of the Israeli military. He said that 40 patients, including three children, had died due to a lack of medical supplies at al-Shifa. Witnesses at al-Shifa said that during the Israeli military raid, troops had “searched its rooms and basement,” Reuters reported. Sources at al-Shifa told Al Jazeera that Israeli soldiers ordered young men to surrender. “About 30 people were reportedly taken out into the courtyard, stripped of their clothes, blindfolded and interrogated by Israeli soldiers,” Al Jazeera reported. “Israeli forces have also blown up a warehouse of medicine and medical devices, sources said.” Dr. Ahmed El Mokhallalati, a surgeon at al-Shifa, described a terrifying situation for hundreds of patients, their family members, medical staff and thousands of displaced people sheltering at the hospital as heavy gunfire and explosions were heard throughout the complex. “We don’t know what they will do to us,” El Mokhallalati said. “We don’t know whether they will kill people or terrorize them. We know all the propaganda is lies, and they know as well as we do that there is nothing at al-Shifa medical center.” Palestinian health officials in Gaza and Hamas have vigorously denied allegations that Palestinian fighters use hospitals as command centers, with the latter urging the UN secretary-general to form an international delegation to rebuke Israel’s claims. US spokespersons parrot Israeli accusations On Tuesday, in the hours before Israeli forces raided al-Shifa, White House spokesperson John Kirby claimed that the US has “information” that Hamas and Islamic Jihad “use some hospitals in the Gaza Strip, including al-Shifa, and tunnels underneath them to conceal and to support their military operations and to hold hostages.” He alleged that militants “operate a command-and-control node from al-Shifa in Gaza City. They have stored weapons there, and they’re prepared to respond to an Israeli military operation against that facility.” Kirby told reporters that the US’ information “comes from a variety of intelligence sourcing” but did not offer specific evidence. Those claims were repeated by the Pentagon’s spokesperson on Tuesday, who even asserted that Hamas and Islamic Jihad “have weapons stored there and are prepared to respond to an Israeli military operation against the facility”: There have however been no confirmed reports of armed resistance from inside al-Shifa and Israel did not claim to have encountered, captured or killed any fighters as it raided the facility, saying only that at least five fighters “were killed by troops during a gun battle outside the hospital.” Kirby also said that the Biden administration does “not support striking a hospital from the air, and we do not want to see a firefight in the hospital where innocent people, helpless people, sick people are simply trying to get the medical care that they deserve.” On Wednesday, Kirby denied accusations that the Biden administration authorized the raid on al-Shifa. Martin Griffiths, the UN humanitarian chief, said that he was “appalled by reports of military raids” at al-Shifa, adding that “the protection of newborns, patients, medical staff and all civilians must override all other concerns.” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director of the World Health Organization, said that the reports of a “military incursion into al-Shifa hospital are deeply concerning.” He added that the agency had been unable to contact health personnel at the hospital and “we’re extremely worried for their and their patients’ safety.” On Tuesday, Human Rights Watch said that Israel’s repeated attacks on medical facilities, health workers and ambulances “are further destroying the Gaza Strip’s healthcare system and should be investigated as war crimes.” The group said that “no evidence put forward would justify depriving hospitals and ambulances of their protected status under international humanitarian law.” An earlier version of this story said that the vest displayed in the Israeli military video from al-Shifa hospital bore the insignias of both Hamas and Islamic Jihad. It has since been corrected to say that it only bears the insignias of Hamas. al-Shifa Hospital Al Aqsa Flood Benjamin Netanyahu Hamas propaganda John Kirby Sabrina Singh https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israel-fails-show-evidence-hamas-command-center-al-shifa-hospital
    ELECTRONICINTIFADA.NET
    Israel fails to show evidence of Hamas command center at al-Shifa hospital
    Deadly raid broke international law, terrorized patients, medics and displaced people.
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