The emergence of nanobot society
OUTRAGED HUMAN













So, they injected it into the military, police, emergency services.... Now everyone is injected with a device with a "real IP ADDRESS"....






0:00

Thank you very much. So one word of notice before we begin,

0:03

all the technologies that you are going to see here now are real.

0:06

And with that said

0:07

I'd like to first tell you the story about

0:10

this uh... little girl named Dana

0:12

she's very special for me because she's my daugther

0:14

and Dana was born with a leg condition requiring frequent surgeries like this one

0:19

uh... she had when we were in Boston

0:21

and um... I remember taking her to that particular surgery

0:25

and uh...

0:26

I rembember her being admitted and she was excited at first

0:31

and then just before they got into her the OR

0:33

I looked at her and she was... afraid, she was little worried and

0:38

who wouldn't be? Because surgeries today are complicated

0:41

and they're often very risky.

0:42

Now let's imagine a few years into the future, into the near future hopefully,

0:47

Dana will arrive to hospital for her ??? surgery

0:50

and instead of being prepped for anesthesia for the OR

0:54

the surgeon will just take a syringe and inside the syringe

0:58

there are millions of tiny robots, of tiny machines

1:02

that will be injected into Dana's bloodstream.

1:04

They will autonomously locate the place they need to be in,

1:08

they will excite out the injured tissue,

1:11

then will remove dead cells,

1:13

then they will...

1:14

stimulate and guide the regrowth of healthy cells across those tissue gaps,

1:18

they will release drugs that relief pain and reduce inflammation

1:23

and all the while Dana will be sitting on the chair

1:25

eating a sandwich, reading a book, might be the next

1:28

twilight saga book which she'll be able to read because she will be 16 by then

1:32

And...(giggles)

1:33

uh... when these robots

1:35

have completed their job they'll simply disintegrate

1:39

and disappear from her bloodstream the next day.

1:42

So these nanobots have been envisioned in the past 30 years

1:45

by people like Eric Drexler, Robert Freitas and Ray Kuzweil.

1:49

Today I'm going to show you that these robots exist

1:51

here in Israel.

1:54

I'll show you this syringe

1:56

which I've brought from my lab.

1:58

So this syringe has inside it a thousand billion robots.

2:03

So these robots are each fifty nanometers

2:06

long as you can see in this slide under the microscope.

2:11

Fifty nanometers is about 2000 times thinner than the thickness of your hair

2:16

OK? And... umm... These robots were born actually 3 years ago

2:20

in a research I did with Shawn Douglas, now a UCSF Professor.

2:24

But over the past year and a half

2:25

in my group at Bar-Ilan University

2:27

We've been developing and testing robots for a variety of

2:31

medical and therapeutic tasks.

2:33

We've invented ways of making them safe for use

2:37

and non-inmunogenic

2:38

and we learned how to tune their stability in our bloodstream

2:41

to fit either short-term or long-term

2:44

even days long medical procedures.

2:47

So to carry out medical and therapeutic procedures in our body

2:50

with the upmost precision,

2:51

we need to be able to control molecules

2:53

Controlling molecules is a very simple challenge

2:56

in modern scientific knowledge.

2:58

OK? Let's speak for example about the class of molecules we know as drugs

3:02

So despite...

3:04

amazing progress made in the past four decades

3:06

the way we think about drugs and we the way we use drugs

3:09

has been essentially unchanged

3:11

and it's similar as two hundred years ago

3:14

right? You hear about about big pharmaceutical companies

3:17

spending huge amounts of money

3:19

searching for better, safer drugs.

3:22

Attempts that usually fail.

3:24

OK? but,

3:25

searching for let's say a safer cancer drug,

3:28

half it is a concept that has a flaw in it.

3:30

Because searching for a safer cancer drug

3:32

is basically like searching for a gun that kills only bad people

3:36

We don't search for such guns,

3:37

what we do is training soldiers to use that gun properly

3:42

Of course in drugs we can't do this because it seems very hard

3:45

But there are things we can do with drugs

3:47

for example, we can put the drugs

3:49

in particles from which they difuse slowly.

3:51

We can attach a drug to a carrier

3:54

which takes someplace but, this is not real control.

3:57

When we were thinking about control we're thinking about

4:00

processes is the real world around us

4:02

and what happens when we want to control a process

4:06

that's beyond our capabilities as humans

4:08

we just connect this process to a computer

4:10

and let the computer control this process for us.

4:13

OK? So that's what we do.

4:15

But obviously this cannot be done with drugs because

4:19

the drugs are so much smaller than the computers as we know them

4:23

The computer is in fact so much bigger

4:25

it's about a hundred million times bigger that any drug molecule.

4:28

Our nanobots which were in the syringe

4:31

solve this problem because they are in fact

4:34

computers the size of molecules.

4:36

and they can interact with molecules

4:38

and they can control molecules directly,

4:40

so just think about all those

4:42

drugs that have been withdrawn from the market

4:45

for excessive toxicity

4:46

right?

4:47

It doesn't mean that they are not effective,

4:49

they were amazingly effective,

4:51

they were just guns shooting in all directions

4:53

but in the hands of a well-trained soldier

4:56

or a well-programed nanobot

4:58

using all the existing drugs

5:01

we could hypothetically kill almost any disease.

5:05

So we might not need even new drugs.

5:07

We have amazing drugs already,

5:09

we just don't know how to control them, this is the problem

5:11

and our nanobots...

5:13

hopefully solve this problem and I'll show you how.

5:15

So there is an interesting question "how do we build

5:19

a robot or a machine the size of a molecule?"

5:21

so the simple answer would be: we can use molecules

5:25

to build this machine.

5:26

So we're using molecules, but we're not using just any molecule.

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We're using the perfect, most beautiful molecule on earth, at least in my opinion,

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which is DNA.

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And in fact every part of the robot,

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every part of out nanorobots:

5:40

Moving parts, axis, locks, chasis, software,

5:44

everything is made from DNA molecules.

5:46

And the techonology that enables us to do this

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originated thirty years ago when the pioneering works of Nadrian Seeman,

5:52

culminating 7 years ago in the works of Paul Rothemund from Caltech,

5:56

which was also featured in TED,

5:58

and it's called DNA origami.

5:59

Now in DNA origami we do not use a piece of paper,

6:02

we use a single long strand of DNA

6:05

and we fold it into virtually any shape we want.

6:08

For example these shapes, so these are actual microscopic images

6:12

of shapes the size of molecules that were folded from DNA.

6:16

so the smiley you see here in the center of the screen for example

6:19

are a hundred nanometers in size

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and we make billions of them in few... in a single reaction.

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Now since 2006 several researchers, really talented ones,

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have been expanding the limits of the technically feasible in DNA origami

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and now we have an astonishig array of shapes and objects which we can build

6:35

using this technique.

6:36

And these researchers also gave us computer-aided design tools

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that enable everyone

6:43

very very simply to design objects from DNA

6:46

So these CAD tools amazingly

6:49

enable us to focus o n the shape we want

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forgetting the fact that these structures are in fact assemblies of molecules.

6:57

so this is for example a shape the computer can actually turn into DNA molecules.

7:02

and the output of this CAD software, as you can see,

7:05

is a spreadsheet with fragments of DNA

7:08

which you can attach to a message and send to a company

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one of two dozen companies that make DNA by order and you'll get those DNA's

7:16

several days later to your doorstep

7:18

and when you get them all you need to do is just mix them in a certain way

7:23

and these molecular bricks will self-assemble into

7:26

millions of copies of the very structure that you designed using that CAD software

7:30

which is free by the way, you can download it for free.

7:34

So, let's have a look at our nanorobots.

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So, this is how the nanorobots look like, it's built from DNA as you can see

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And it resembles a clam shell in which you can put cargo

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You can load anything you want starting from small molecules, drugs,

7:49

proteines, enzymes, even nano-particles. Virtually any function

7:54

that molecules can carry out, can be loaded into the nanobot

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and the nanobot can be programmed to turn on and off

8:01

these functions at certain places and at certain times

8:05

this is how we control those molecules

8:07

and so this particular nanorobot is in an off state, it's closed,it's securely

8:12

sequestres anything, any payload you put inside

8:16

so it's not accessible to the outside of the robot,

8:18

for example, it cannot engage target cells or target tissues

8:22

But we can program the nanobot to switch to an on state

8:26

based on molecular cues it finds from the environment

8:30

so programming the robot is virtually like assemblying a combination lock

8:34

using disks that recognize digits,

8:37

but of course instead of digits we are assemblying disks that recognize molecules.

8:42

So these robots can turn from off to on and when they do

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any cargo inside is now accessible,

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it can attack target cells or target tissues

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or other robots which you'll see later on.

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And so we have robots that can switch from off to on

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and off again, we can control their kinetics of transition.

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We can control which payload becomes accessible at which time point

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Let's see an example how these robots for example control a cancer drug

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So what you can do is you can take nanobots,

9:14

you can put the nastiest cancer drug you may find

9:17

into the robots, even a cancer drug

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that's been withdrawn because of excessive toxicity

9:23

Ok? When the robot is locked

9:25

and you put them in your mixture of healthy cells and tumor cells

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nothing happens, no cell is affected, because the robot

9:32

safely sequesters those drugs inside.

9:35

When we unlock the robots

9:37

all cells die because the cargo inside the [robot] attacks anything on sight.

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So all cells eventually die. In this case this is a fluorescent molecule

9:46

to help us see better the output.

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But when we program the nanobots to search for tumor cells particulary,

9:53

so only the tumor cells

9:56

uh... only the tumor cells die because

9:59

the robot doesn't care about the bystander cells, about the healthy cells.

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So it does not harm them at all.

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And we have nanorobots in our lab that can target

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about ten types of cancer already and other cell targets

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and my team keeps expanding this range monthly.

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So these are nanorobots and to another topic

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organisms in nature, like bacteria and animals

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have learned very early in evolution that working in a coordinated group

10:29

conveys advantage

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and capabilities beyond those of the individual

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and since we are interested in

10:36

very complex medical procedures, very complex therapeutic settings,

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we're wondering what we could do

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if we could engineer artificial swarm behaviors

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into our nanobots as well so we could have extraordinarily large groups of nanobots

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Can we teach them to behave like animals, like insects

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and how do you do this? So the question is interesting.

10:58

So you could think one way to do it would be

11:01

to look at a natural swarm like this one of fish

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and simulate the dynamics of the entire swarm and then try to write the codes

11:09

in molecules of course

11:10

that mimic the same behaviour

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this is virtually impossible, it's impractical

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what we do is we take the single fish or a single nanobot in our case

11:20

and you design a very basic set of interaction rules

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and then you take this one, this nanobot, you make a billion copies of it

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and you let the behaviours emerge from that group

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let me show you some examples of the things we can already do

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for example, just as ants

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can shake hands and form physical bridges between two trees

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or two remote parts of the same tree,

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we already have nanorobots that can reach out for each other

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touch each other and shake hands in such a way

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they form physical bridges.

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Then you can imagine these robots

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extending, making bridges extending from one-half

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to the other half of an injured tissue,

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an injured spinal cord for example

12:00

or an injured leg in the case of Dana, my daughter

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and once they stretched over that tissue gap

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they can apply growth factors, as payloads, and those growth factors

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stimulate the re-growth and guide re-growth of cells across the gap.

12:14

So we already did that and...

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we have robots that can cross regulate each other just like animals do in groups

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and this is amazing because as you can see here

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you can have two types of robots, Type-A and Type-B

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they can cross regulate each other, such that "A" is active

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while "B" is not and viceversa.

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So this is good for combination therapy

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with combination therapy we take multiple drugs, right?

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and sometimes two or more of these drugs

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can collide and generate side effects,

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but here you can put one drug here, one drug here

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and the robots will time the activities so that

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one drug is active, the other is not and then they can switch

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and so two or more drugs can operate at the same time without actually colliding.

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Another example that we did is the quorum sensing.

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Now quorum sensing is great, it's a bacterial inspired behaviour

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It means nanorobots can count themselves

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and they can switch to "on" only when reaching a certain population size

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this is a mechanism invented by bacteria in evolution

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and they regulate amazing behaviours based on just their population density

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for example, bioluminescence, this one of the well-studied examples

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so our robots can count themselves and switch to on

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only when reaching a certain population size which we can program.

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This is great because this is a mechanism of programming a drug

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to become active only when reaching a certain dose

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around the target, regardless of its inherent dose-response curve.

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One last I'm gonna show to you is computing,

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so this nanobots can do computing.

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How's so? If you think about your computer at home,

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the processor of the computer is in fact a gigantic swarm of transistors

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In an i7 core for example you have 800 million transistors approximately

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and they're set to interact in certain ways to produce logic gates

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and these logic gates are set to interact to produce computations

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so we can also produce computation by setting interactions between nanorobots

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to emulate logic gates like you see here

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and they form chains and they form pairs

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and my team in Bar-Ilan University [has] already developed several architectures

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of computing based on interacting nanorobots

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and to prototype these

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we are using animals, very interesting animals

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these are cockroaches,

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they are very easy to work with, the're very sweet,

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they're actually from South America

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and I'm a Soutamerican myself so I fell kinda related

14:35

[Laughter]

14:36

And hum... so what we do is we inject those robots into the cockroach

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and to do that we of course had to put the cockroaches to sleep

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have you ever tried putting cockroach to sleep?

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We put in the freezer for seven minutes

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in they fall asleep

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and we can inject these nanorobots inside

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and after 20 minutes they start running around, they're happy.

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And those robots

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while they're doing this, the robots read molecules

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from the cockroaches' inputs

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and they write their outputs in the form of drugs

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activated on those cockroaches' cells

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so we can do, we can see that and we already have, as you can see,

15:09

architectures of interecting nanorobots that can emulate logical operators

15:14

and you can use these as modular parts to build any type universal computer you want

15:19

[....]

15:21

that can control multiple drugs simultaneously

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as a result of biocomputing, this is real universal computing in a living animal.

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Now we already have systems that have [the] computing capacity

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of an 8-bit computer like Commodore 64.

15:36

To make sure we don't lose control over the nanobots after they're injected

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my team [has] developed nanorobots that carry antennae

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these antennae are made from metal nano-particles.

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Now, the antennae enable the nanobots

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to respond to externally applied electromagnetic fields

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so these nanorobots, this version of nanobots

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can actually be activated with a press of a button on a joystick

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or for example using a controller

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such as the Xbox or Wii if you ever had the chance of playing with those

16:05

and you can see one of my students in the lab configuring an Xbox app

16:09

to control nanobots.

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For example you can imagine nanorobots being injected

16:14

to Dana, my daughter for example,

16:16

and the doctor can guide those robots

16:19

into the site, into the leg and just activate them with a hand gesture.

16:23

And you can already see an example where we actually took

16:26

cancer cells and loaded robots with cancer drugs

16:29

and activated the drug by a hand gesture.

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and we can actually kill cancer cells just by doing this,

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as you can see here.

16:36

And the interesting thing is that

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because the controller like the Xbox is connected to the internet,

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the controller actually links those nanobots to the network

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so they have an actual IP address

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and they can be accessed from a remote device sitting on the same network,

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for example, my doctor's smartphone

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So, OK?, just like controlling a controller, this can be done.

17:00

The last thing I'm gonna show is, if you look at our body

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you'll see that every cell type, every organ, every tissue

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has their own unique molecular signature

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and this is equivalent to a physical IP address made of molecules

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and if you know these molecules

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you can use those nanobots to browse the Organism Wide Web, as we call it

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and you can program them to look for bits,

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this could be for example signally molecules between cells,

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and either fetch them for diagnostics

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or carry them to different addresses.

17:30

And we already have robots that can hijack

17:33

signals between cells

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and manipulate an entire network of communications between cells

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and this is great for controlling very complex diseases in which many cell types

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communicate and orchestrate to perpetuate a disease.

17:46

So before I finish I'd just like to thank

17:50

my amazing team at Bar-Ilan University

17:52

and all the colleagues that took part in this extraordinary journey,

17:55

starting from the George Chuch's Lab in Harvard

17:57

and ending today in Bar-Ilan University in the new Faculty of Life Sciences,

18:01

and I really hope that

18:03

anywhere between a year and five years from now

18:06

we'll be able to use this in humans

18:08

and finally witness the emergence of nanobot society.

18:11

Thank you very much.


https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/nanobots-live-cockroach-thought-control/





https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/nanobots-live-cockroach-thought-control/

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-scientists-use-nanobots-and-thoughts-to-administer-drugs/


Israeli scientists say they have come up with a way for brain power to control when drugs are released into the body, by using tiny robots made out of DNA to deliver the medication internally.

Researchers at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya and Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan have built the nanobots to which medication is attached and then are injected into the body. The nanobots have a “gate” that opens or closes — thereby controlling drug release — depending on brain activity.

In order to achieve this, the New Scientist magazine said, the researchers developed a computer algorithm that could tell whether a person’s brain was resting or carrying out some form of mental activity, such as math problems. A fluorescent-tinted drug was then added to the nanobots, which were injected into a cockroach placed inside an electromagnetic coil.

Israeli scientists say they have come up with a way for brain power to control when drugs are released into the body, by using tiny robots made out of DNA to deliver the medication internally.

This coil was then connected to an EEG cap worn by a person asked to perform mental calculations. The computer recognized increased brain activity by the cap wearer, which triggered the “gate” on the nanobots inside the cockroach, releasing the fluorescent drug that was visible as it spread through the insect’s body.

The idea is to use the delivery system for people with mental health issues, which are sometimes triggered before sufferers are aware they need medication.

By monitoring brain activity, the nanobots could deliver the required preventative drugs automatically,

for example before a violent episode of schizophrenia.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2102463-mind-controlled-nanobots-could-release-drugs-inside-your-brain/


The group has built nanorobots out of DNA, forming shell-like shapes that drugs can be tethered to. The bots also have a gate, which has a lock made from iron oxide nanoparticles. The lock opens when heated using electromagnetic energy, exposing the drug to the environment. Because the drug remains tethered to the DNA parcel, a body’s exposure to the drug can be controlled by closing and opening the gate.

By examining when fluorescence appeared inside different cockroaches, the team confirmed that this worked.

The idea would be to automatically trigger the release of a drug when it is needed. For example, some people don’t always know when they need medication – before a violent episode of schizophrenia, for instance. If an EEG could detect it was coming, it could stimulate the release of a preventative drug.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxJPceCV51g Nanobots Successfully Used on Living Animal for the First Time - IGN News

0:38

to treat human ailments or weaponized

0:40

hijacked by a snake themed terrorist

0:42

organization and then used to destroy

0:43

Paris but I suppose it's only a matter

0:45

of time


“This syringe has inside it a thousand billion robots.”

https://outraged.substack.com/p/the-emergence-of-nanobot-society?utm_source=cross-post&publication_id=1087020&post_id=143145132&utm_campaign=956088&isFreemail=true&r=1sq9d8&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

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https://donshafi911.blogspot.com/2024/04/the-emergence-of-nanobot-society.html

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

ISIS claims responsibility for attack at Moscow-area concert venue that left at least 60 dead
CNN — normal
ISIS has claimed responsibility for an attack at a popular concert hall complex near Moscow Friday after assailants stormed the venue with guns and incendiary devices, killing at least 60 people and injuring 145.

The terror group took responsibility for the attack in a short statement published by ISIS-affiliated news agency Amaq on Telegram on Friday. It did not provide evidence to support the claim.

Video footage from the Crocus City Hall shows the vast complex, which is home to both the music hall and a shopping center, on fire with smoke billowing into the air. State-run RIA Novosti reported the armed individuals “opened fire with automatic weapons” and “threw a grenade or an incendiary bomb, which started a fire.” They then “allegedly fled in a white Renault car,” the news agency said.

State media Russia 24 reported the roof of the venue has partially collapsed.

The fire had been brought largely under control more than six hours later. “There are still some pockets of fire, but the fire has been mostly eliminated,” Moscow governor Andrey Vorobyov said on Telegram.

The deadliest terror attack on Moscow in decades, Friday’s assault came less than a week after President Vladimir Putin won a stage-managed election by an overwhelming majority to secure another term in office, tightening his grip on the country he has ruled since the turn of the century.

With attention focused on the country’s war with neighboring Ukraine, Putin had trumpeted a message of national security before Russians went to the polls.

The carnage broke out before a concert by the band Picnic, according to Russia 24.

“Unidentified people in camouflage broke into Crocus City Hall and started shooting before the start of the concert,” the Prosecutor General’s Office said, cited by TASS.

This screen grab from video shows armed men inside the Crocus City Hall concert venue in Moscow region, Russia. CNN can not verify whether these are the armed attackers or Russian authorities moving in.
Video footage showed panic as the attack unfolded, with crowds of people huddling together, screaming and ducking behind cushioned seats as gunshots started echoing in the vast hall. One group sheltering next to a large wall of windows outside the concert venue were forced to break them to escape the gunfire, video obtained by CNN shows.

Footage geolocated by CNN shows an armed individual starting at least one fire inside the venue. The individual is seen carrying something in their hand and, as they walk off-screen, a bright flash of light from a large flame is seen in the video.

A SWAT team was called to the area and more than 70 ambulance teams and doctors assisted victims.

One hundred and forty-five people have been hospitalized, TASS reported. Sixty people are in a “serious condition.”

According to the Kremlin, Putin was informed about the attack and is being kept updated on measures on the ground.

The president on Saturday wished those injured in the attack a speedy recovery, the state-run RIA-Novosti news agency said. He also “conveyed his gratitude to the doctors,” RIA added.

Around 100 people were evacuated from the building by firefighters, TASS reported.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin called the attack a “terrible tragedy.”

“My condolences to the loved ones of the victims. I gave orders to provide all necessary assistance to everyone who suffered during the incident,” Sobyanin said in a statement.

Sobyanin said on Telegram that he was canceling all sports, cultural and other public events in Moscow this weekend.

Picnic’s manager told state media that the performers were unharmed.

Shaman, the band’s singer, said he would pay for the funerals of the victims and treatment for those injured.

“We are all one big family. And in a family there is no such thing as somebody else’s grief,” the singer, known for his nationalistic views, said in a video posted on the Russian social media network Vkontakte to his more than 600,000 followers.

“My people, any troubles and misfortunes have always united our country. They have made Russia tougher and stronger. It will not be possible to frighten and break us this time either.”

ISIS claims responsibility for Moscow attack that killed 40

02:51 - Source: CNN
US had warned of potential attack

Earlier this month, the US embassy in Russia said it was “monitoring reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow,” including concerts. The embassy warned US citizens to avoid large gatherings. On Friday, following reports of the Crocus City Hall attack, it advised US citizens not to travel to Russia.

Starting in November, there has been a steady stream of intelligence that ISIS-K was determined to attack in Russia, according to two sources familiar with the information.

ISIS-K stands for ISIS-Khorasan, the terror organization’s affiliate that is active in Afghanistan and the surrounding region.

US National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said the US government had had information about a planned terrorist attack in Moscow – potentially targeting large gatherings, to include concerts – and that this is what prompted the State Department to issue the public advisory.

“The US government also shared this information with Russian authorities in accordance with its longstanding ‘duty to warn’ policy,” Watson said.

In a speech Tuesday, Putin had blasted the American warnings as “provocative,” saying “these actions resemble outright blackmail and the intention to intimidate and destabilize our society.”

In March alone, Russian authorities had thwarted several ISIS-related incidents, according to RIA. On March 3, RIA reported that six ISIS members were killed in a counter-terrorist operation in the Ingush Karabulak; on March 7, it said security services had uncovered and “neutralized” a cell of the banned organization Vilayat Khorasan in the Kaluga region, whose members were planning an attack on a synagogue in Moscow; and on March 20, it said the commander of an ISIS combat group had been detained.

A US official said Friday that Washington had no reason to doubt ISIS’ claim that it was responsible for the latest attack.

International response

Ukraine, which has been embroiled in a war with Russia for more than two years, denied any involvement in the attack.

“Ukraine has never resorted to the use of terrorist methods,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak wrote, in part, in a post on X. He said he believed Russia would use the attack to justify the ongoing conflict and scale up operations as part of “military propaganda” in Ukraine.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres late Friday condemned “in the strongest possible terms today’s terrorist attack” according to a statement released by his deputy spokesperson, Farhan Haq.

“The secretary-general conveys his deep condolences to the bereaved families and the people and the government of the Russian Federation. He wishes those injured a speedy recovery,” the statement said.

In a separate statement, the UN Security Council called the attack “heinous and cowardly.”

Chinese leader Xi Jinping offered his condolences to Putin on Saturday “over the serious terrorist attack that caused heavy casualties,” according to a report from Chinese state media.

French President Emmanuel Macron also condemned the attack. “France expresses its solidarity with the victims, their loved ones and all the Russian people,” the Elysee Palace said, AFP and Reuters reported.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman both also denounced the attack.

CNN’s Eva Rothenberg, Paul Murphy and Hannah Strange contributed to this reporting.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/22/europe/crocus-moscow-shooting/index.html

Bombs, guns, treasure: What Israel wants, the US gives
Connor Echols12 March, 2024
GettyImages-164224706.jpg
This article was co-published with Responsible Statecraft

Close watchers of Israel’s war in Gaza have faced a question in recent months: If the US is rushing weapons to Israel, then why hasn’t the public heard of any arms sales besides two relatively small transfers late last year?

The Washington Post delivered an answer last week. Reporter John Hudson revealed that the Biden administration has approved over 100 smaller weapons packages for Israel since 7 October that fell under the $25 million threshold for formally notifying Congress - and thus the public - about the transfers.

In total, these mini-sales could add up to more than $1 billion worth of US military aid.

The decision to deliver US aid in smaller packages is far from unusual. The US government has done so in the past for practical and nefarious purposes alike; only about 2% of weapons transfers occur above the threshold to notify Congress, according to former officials.

"When a US-made bomb slams into Gaza, there's a real chance that it started the day in an American facility, managed by American soldiers and governed by American law"

But what is abnormal is the fact that many of those weapons were likely pre-positioned on Israeli territory before the war. Unlike other countries, Israel has a stockpile of American weapons on its soil to which it has privileged access.

When a US-made bomb slams into Gaza, there’s a real chance that it started the day in an American facility, managed by American soldiers and governed by American law.

“It’s clear that it’s been a major source of arms for Israel,” said Josh Paul, a former State Department official who resigned in protest of US support for Israel’s war. Unfortunately, Paul added, “it’s an opaque process, so it’s hard to say exactly what weapons they’re getting” from the stockpile.

RELATED

Analysis

Giorgio Cafiero

This cache of arms is just a small piece of the puzzle. Taken as a whole, US efforts to shield Israel from human rights restrictions and guarantee its access to continued military aid go further than for any other country, according to experts and former senior US officials.

These advantages include modified human rights vetting, special access to US weapons, and a veto on American arms sales to Israel’s neighbours. Up to this point, the State Department hasn’t carried out a formal assessment of Israel’s compliance with the law in its Gaza war.

Experts claim these arms transfer cutouts have continued or, in some areas, been expanded since Israel launched its campaign in Gaza, which has left over 31,000 Palestinians dead and much of the strip’s population in famine or famine-like conditions. Even last month, as war crime accusations mounted, the US reportedly gave Israel at least 1,000 precision-guided munitions and artillery shells.

Unlike other countries, Israel has a stockpile of American weapons on its soil to which it has privileged access. [Getty]
“The bottom line is that either you have human rights standards and legal standards or you don't,” Paul said. When US officials fail to hold Israel accountable for alleged abuses, “it not only creates an exception for Israel, but it also undermines your diplomacy with other countries,” he told Responsible Statecraft/The New Arab.

"I have serious concerns that the continued transfer of weapons to Israel is facilitating indiscriminate bombing that may violate international humanitarian law," Rep. Joaquin Castro told Responsible Statecraft/ The New Arab in a statement. "Congress needs to push the Biden administration to hold Benjamin Netanyahu accountable for any use of U.S. security assistance that violates international law."

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told Responsible Statecraft/The New Arab that all transfers to Israel since 7 October have followed US law and policy, including notifications to Congress.

“We have followed the procedures Congress itself has specified to keep members well-informed and regularly brief members even when formal notification is not a legal requirement,” Miller said in a statement, adding that claims that the US has cut up weapons packages in order to avoid public scrutiny are “unequivocally false”.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

"US efforts to shield Israel from human rights restrictions and guarantee its access to continued military aid go further than for any other country"

Exceptions make the rules

When a Middle Eastern country asks the US for weapons, American officials’ minds go straight to Israel. Would Tel Aviv approve of the transfer? Could new fighter jets give Egypt an edge over Israel on the battlefield if their peace deal fell apart? Would Israeli officials come around if we offer them better weapons to sweeten the pot?

This line of reasoning doesn’t have anything to do with the personal opinions of US officials. In fact, US law explicitly states that the US must give Israel a “qualitative military edge” over its neighbours to counter a threat from “any individual state or possible coalition of states or [...] non-state actors”.

US partners are starkly aware of - and unhappy about - this reality, according to a former senior US military official in Cairo who requested anonymity to speak freely about his experience.

Egyptian officials would sometimes request high-tech weapons just to “watch us squirm and come up with some way to say ‘no’ without saying the Israelis won't approve it,” the former official recalled.

RELATED

Analysis

Hanna Davis

“This is another place where it’s very explicit that Israel has a special status that no other country enjoys,” said John Ramming-Chappell of the Center for Civilians in Conflict.

This qualitative advantage is enforced by the quantitative side. Since World War II, Israel is far and away the largest recipient of US military aid. Washington’s funding for the Israeli military, which now totals $3.8 billion per year, makes up about 16% of its total budget, according to the Congressional Research Service. Israel, which can spend part of its US aid on Israeli weapons, gets this cash in an interest-bearing account in New York, making it one of only two states that get a multimillion-dollar tip on top of baseline US support.

When it comes to human rights, Israel also gets special protections. Take the Leahy law, a statute that prevents specific units of foreign militaries from receiving US aid if American officials have evidence they’ve committed “gross violations of human rights”.

For most countries, Leahy vetting happens before aid is disbursed. Israel gets the equipment first, and the ensuing vetting process looks different than for other countries. Lower-level State Department officials have found multiple cases in which Israeli units should lose access to American weapons under US law, but those cases are consistently blocked by higher-ups in government who usually don’t weigh in on such cases for other countries, according to Paul.

The result is that, unlike Egypt and other US partners in the Middle East, no Israeli unit has ever been sanctioned under the Leahy law despite numerous credible allegations of human rights abuses, a fact that the statute’s namesake has loudly railed against.

Over 30,000 Palestinians have been killed since October in Israel's war on Gaza. [Getty]
The State Department has previously justified this disparity by pointing to Israel’s judicial system, which US officials believe is capable of handling human rights violations internally.

In recent weeks, congressional attention has focused on whether Israel is violating a US law that prevents countries from receiving American weapons if they block US humanitarian aid in whole or in part. While the statute has rarely been enforced, the Biden administration promised to hold states accountable to the law in a recent memorandum.

At this point, many experts and lawmakers believe Israel is in clear violation of this law given how little aid now enters Gaza. Yet the White House has still not offered a reason - or a formal waiver - to justify its failure to enforce its own commitment.

"Given the evidence that Israel is intentionally blocking the passage of humanitarian aid to Gaza, the Biden administration has an obligation to enforce Humanitarian Aid Corridor Act and move towards limitations on further offensive aid to Israel as long as the aid blockade continues," Rep. Castro told Responsible Statecraft/The New Arab.

"US law explicitly states that America must give Israel a 'qualitative military edge' over its neighbours"

'As supportive as possible'

When the White House moved to expedite weapons transfers to Israel after 7 October, it faced an unusual problem. The president already had more than enough authority to make this happen, but officials wanted to signal that they were being “as supportive as possible”.

The solution was to further loosen laws around US arms transfers, according to Paul, who still worked in government at the time.

“It's not that those were things that we'd been previously thinking about,” Paul said. “The previous position within government had been [that] Israel already has more than you could possibly want in terms of authorities and funding.”

RELATED

In-depth

Jessica Buxbaum

Now, the Senate’s supplemental spending package for Israel has provisions that would dramatically expand the secretive US stockpile on Israeli soil while loosening public reporting requirements about transfers from it. A bill with similar changes passed the House as well, signalling broad support for the proposal in Congress.

Alongside already existing loopholes, these new restrictions weaken America’s case that it is committed to protecting human rights on the world stage, according to Ramming-Chappell.

“The exceptional status that Israel enjoys in US arms transfer policy and law, when taken in conjunction with the devastating effects of Israel’s current campaign in Gaza, really undermines US leadership and claims to moral authority in the international sphere,” he said.

Connor Echols is a reporter for Responsible Statecraft. He was previously an associate editor at the Nonzero Foundation, where he co-wrote a weekly foreign policy newsletter.

Follow him on Twitter: @connor_echols

https://www.newarab.com/analysis/bombs-guns-treasure-what-israel-wants-us-gives


https://telegra.ph/Bombs-guns-treasure-What-Israel-wants-the-US-gives-03-20

The Shedding Disease
What's going on and what to do about it

Dr. Syed Haider

Back in the 1300s during the Black Death plague outbreak in Europe, people were dropping like flies from this mystery illness. No one knew how it spread or how to protect themselves.

Imagine their shock when some folks started getting sick without ever coming into direct contact with a plague victim!

Turns out, the plague was spreading through fleas hitching a ride on rats. Even if you never touched a sick person, a plague-carrying flea could jump off a rat and bite you, infecting you with the deadly disease.

Image
Huge rat > truly gigantic flea > normal or tiny (?) peasant
Crazy, right?

Fast forward to today, and as most of you already know we might be facing a somewhat similar situation with the clot shots.

For the FOBs (Fresh off the Boat from normie land), hear me out…

So there's been a ton of stories popping up lately about unvaxxed people, mostly women, having all sorts of weird health issues after being around recently vaccinated folks.

We're talking things like wacky periods, miscarriages, crazy autoimmune flares, cancers, strokes, etc, all in people who never got the jab themselves.

At first it seemed like coincidence, but the reports kept piling up.

It got many doctors scratching their heads (others like me didn’t scratch, we just knew) and wondering, could there be something to this?

Image
Man scratches head, Not me.
Could vaccinated people be "shedding" something that's making unvaccinated people sick?

There's a few theories flying around.

One is that the spike proteins made by the vaccines are hitching a ride in tiny bubbles called exosomes that are released in breath, sweat, and other bodily fluids. So an unvaxxed person breathes in these exosomes and boom(!), the toxic spike proteins get into their body and start wreaking havoc. Some people seem super sensitive and react to even tiny amounts.

Image
Exosomes are just little bits of our cells membranes that bud off, and can carry anything inside them. In a way viruses are just a class of exosomes, but carrying genetic material that originated outside us (and then multiplied inside us).
Another idea is that the vaccines are turning people into stealthy virus super-spreaders without them even knowing it. They might feel fine, but they could be carrying and shedding high amounts of virus to everyone around them. So it's not really something in the shot that's being shed, its that they catch COVID, have no symptoms and then just go around spreading COVID everywhere and it’s the COVID that causes the problem (sounds like Big Pharma cope to me, kind of like: it's all in their heads! So yeah, I’m not buying it either).

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

Share

There's even studies showing the vaccines contain DNA junk from the manufacturing process that might be messing with our microbiome and turning vaxxed people into walking bio-hazards (this is more like it).

Some theories are farther out there, like it’s some kind of energetic imbalance, or it’s graphene oxide, or even some kind of nanotech (all your cells are belong to us! not very convincing imo).

Image
This is not real! My take on the "flashing lights" in the nanotech videos: spinning particulate crystals dispersing incident light from the microscope? The apparently self-assembling structures: chemical gardens? The broadcasted MAC addresses? Put that sample in a Faraday cage and check it again.
Anyway, regardless of the mechanism there’s something strange going on.

The science is still new (there's not much of a career in studying this stuff), but evidence is beginning to stack up suggesting that this "vaccine shedding" stuff might be legit.

Researchers are finding vaccine cooties like mRNA, spike proteins, and weird DNA bits in saliva, vaginal secretions, sperm, breast milk, even the air around vaxxed people.

Image
For the love of God don’t vax the kiddos.
So what to do?

Figure out your personal risk level. Some folks seem to be more sensitive than others, especially if you already have health issues (or had spike toxicity before). Might be smart to take extra precautions.

Rain check: avoid swapping saliva or other Fun Time Activities with vaxxed people if you can, at least for a few weeks to months after they get the shot.

Feed your body the good stuff to beef up your natural defenses. We're talking clean eats, plenty of Zzz's, and immune-boosting supps like the sunshine vitamin (I mean actual sunshine), as well as actual supplements like C, D, zinc, and quercetin.

Consider adding some anti-shedding supplements to your arsenal, like

DETOX [spike buster] to bust up clots or ivermectin to nuke those spike proteins. Work with a dialed in doc (i.e. me) to find the right combo for you.

If you got mega-dosed with someone's shed, you might need to pull out the big detox guns like plasma donation (which is better tho the paid, or more expensive, less available therapeutic plasmapheresis), ozone therapy, ultraviolet blood irradiation, low-dose naltrexone, microbiome restoration (i.e. stool transplants, probably somewhere in South America or maybe Australia), or IV exosomes. We can help with a custom detox plan at mygotodoc.com (that's me).

Don't forget to clean your space! Some have reported you can detoxify a room where shedding occurred using hypochlorous acid (Danolyte) or Chlorine Dioxide. UV light systems may also be able to zap any shed cooties floating around (plus they kills normal COVID too, bonus!)

Share

Bottom line, we need way more research on this shedding stuff ASAP. But until we know for sure it's not a thing, better safe than shedding or shed upon.

We all have the right to choose what goes in our bodies, and that includes not getting stealth dosed with someone else's vaccine gunk.

The health bigwigs need to step up and take this seriously stat (yea right - someone needs to take them to the woodshed, or just shed on them).


Until then (forever?), keep your eyes open, trust your gut, and do what you gotta do to stay safe out there!

And if you think you got shed upon, speak up and find a doc who will actually listen (again: moi).

Shedding is no joke, but together we'll get through this and come out stronger on the other side.

Drop a comment below and let me know if you’ve been shed upon, what you know works and what else we should do (Nuremberg 2.0, anyone?).

https://blog.mygotodoc.com/p/the-shedding-disease

https://telegra.ph/The-Shedding-Disease-03-20

Bombs, guns, treasure: What Israel wants, the US gives
Connor Echols12 March, 2024
GettyImages-164224706.jpg
This article was co-published with Responsible Statecraft

Close watchers of Israel’s war in Gaza have faced a question in recent months: If the US is rushing weapons to Israel, then why hasn’t the public heard of any arms sales besides two relatively small transfers late last year?

The Washington Post delivered an answer last week. Reporter John Hudson revealed that the Biden administration has approved over 100 smaller weapons packages for Israel since 7 October that fell under the $25 million threshold for formally notifying Congress - and thus the public - about the transfers.

In total, these mini-sales could add up to more than $1 billion worth of US military aid.

The decision to deliver US aid in smaller packages is far from unusual. The US government has done so in the past for practical and nefarious purposes alike; only about 2% of weapons transfers occur above the threshold to notify Congress, according to former officials.

"When a US-made bomb slams into Gaza, there's a real chance that it started the day in an American facility, managed by American soldiers and governed by American law"

But what is abnormal is the fact that many of those weapons were likely pre-positioned on Israeli territory before the war. Unlike other countries, Israel has a stockpile of American weapons on its soil to which it has privileged access.

When a US-made bomb slams into Gaza, there’s a real chance that it started the day in an American facility, managed by American soldiers and governed by American law.

“It’s clear that it’s been a major source of arms for Israel,” said Josh Paul, a former State Department official who resigned in protest of US support for Israel’s war. Unfortunately, Paul added, “it’s an opaque process, so it’s hard to say exactly what weapons they’re getting” from the stockpile.

RELATED

Analysis

Giorgio Cafiero

This cache of arms is just a small piece of the puzzle. Taken as a whole, US efforts to shield Israel from human rights restrictions and guarantee its access to continued military aid go further than for any other country, according to experts and former senior US officials.

These advantages include modified human rights vetting, special access to US weapons, and a veto on American arms sales to Israel’s neighbours. Up to this point, the State Department hasn’t carried out a formal assessment of Israel’s compliance with the law in its Gaza war.

Experts claim these arms transfer cutouts have continued or, in some areas, been expanded since Israel launched its campaign in Gaza, which has left over 31,000 Palestinians dead and much of the strip’s population in famine or famine-like conditions. Even last month, as war crime accusations mounted, the US reportedly gave Israel at least 1,000 precision-guided munitions and artillery shells.

Unlike other countries, Israel has a stockpile of American weapons on its soil to which it has privileged access. [Getty]
“The bottom line is that either you have human rights standards and legal standards or you don't,” Paul said. When US officials fail to hold Israel accountable for alleged abuses, “it not only creates an exception for Israel, but it also undermines your diplomacy with other countries,” he told Responsible Statecraft/The New Arab.

"I have serious concerns that the continued transfer of weapons to Israel is facilitating indiscriminate bombing that may violate international humanitarian law," Rep. Joaquin Castro told Responsible Statecraft/ The New Arab in a statement. "Congress needs to push the Biden administration to hold Benjamin Netanyahu accountable for any use of U.S. security assistance that violates international law."

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told Responsible Statecraft/The New Arab that all transfers to Israel since 7 October have followed US law and policy, including notifications to Congress.

“We have followed the procedures Congress itself has specified to keep members well-informed and regularly brief members even when formal notification is not a legal requirement,” Miller said in a statement, adding that claims that the US has cut up weapons packages in order to avoid public scrutiny are “unequivocally false”.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

"US efforts to shield Israel from human rights restrictions and guarantee its access to continued military aid go further than for any other country"

Exceptions make the rules

When a Middle Eastern country asks the US for weapons, American officials’ minds go straight to Israel. Would Tel Aviv approve of the transfer? Could new fighter jets give Egypt an edge over Israel on the battlefield if their peace deal fell apart? Would Israeli officials come around if we offer them better weapons to sweeten the pot?

This line of reasoning doesn’t have anything to do with the personal opinions of US officials. In fact, US law explicitly states that the US must give Israel a “qualitative military edge” over its neighbours to counter a threat from “any individual state or possible coalition of states or [...] non-state actors”.

US partners are starkly aware of - and unhappy about - this reality, according to a former senior US military official in Cairo who requested anonymity to speak freely about his experience.

Egyptian officials would sometimes request high-tech weapons just to “watch us squirm and come up with some way to say ‘no’ without saying the Israelis won't approve it,” the former official recalled.

RELATED

Analysis

Hanna Davis

“This is another place where it’s very explicit that Israel has a special status that no other country enjoys,” said John Ramming-Chappell of the Center for Civilians in Conflict.

This qualitative advantage is enforced by the quantitative side. Since World War II, Israel is far and away the largest recipient of US military aid. Washington’s funding for the Israeli military, which now totals $3.8 billion per year, makes up about 16% of its total budget, according to the Congressional Research Service. Israel, which can spend part of its US aid on Israeli weapons, gets this cash in an interest-bearing account in New York, making it one of only two states that get a multimillion-dollar tip on top of baseline US support.

When it comes to human rights, Israel also gets special protections. Take the Leahy law, a statute that prevents specific units of foreign militaries from receiving US aid if American officials have evidence they’ve committed “gross violations of human rights”.

For most countries, Leahy vetting happens before aid is disbursed. Israel gets the equipment first, and the ensuing vetting process looks different than for other countries. Lower-level State Department officials have found multiple cases in which Israeli units should lose access to American weapons under US law, but those cases are consistently blocked by higher-ups in government who usually don’t weigh in on such cases for other countries, according to Paul.

The result is that, unlike Egypt and other US partners in the Middle East, no Israeli unit has ever been sanctioned under the Leahy law despite numerous credible allegations of human rights abuses, a fact that the statute’s namesake has loudly railed against.

Over 30,000 Palestinians have been killed since October in Israel's war on Gaza. [Getty]
The State Department has previously justified this disparity by pointing to Israel’s judicial system, which US officials believe is capable of handling human rights violations internally.

In recent weeks, congressional attention has focused on whether Israel is violating a US law that prevents countries from receiving American weapons if they block US humanitarian aid in whole or in part. While the statute has rarely been enforced, the Biden administration promised to hold states accountable to the law in a recent memorandum.

At this point, many experts and lawmakers believe Israel is in clear violation of this law given how little aid now enters Gaza. Yet the White House has still not offered a reason - or a formal waiver - to justify its failure to enforce its own commitment.

"Given the evidence that Israel is intentionally blocking the passage of humanitarian aid to Gaza, the Biden administration has an obligation to enforce Humanitarian Aid Corridor Act and move towards limitations on further offensive aid to Israel as long as the aid blockade continues," Rep. Castro told Responsible Statecraft/The New Arab.

"US law explicitly states that America must give Israel a 'qualitative military edge' over its neighbours"

'As supportive as possible'

When the White House moved to expedite weapons transfers to Israel after 7 October, it faced an unusual problem. The president already had more than enough authority to make this happen, but officials wanted to signal that they were being “as supportive as possible”.

The solution was to further loosen laws around US arms transfers, according to Paul, who still worked in government at the time.

“It's not that those were things that we'd been previously thinking about,” Paul said. “The previous position within government had been [that] Israel already has more than you could possibly want in terms of authorities and funding.”

RELATED

In-depth

Jessica Buxbaum

Now, the Senate’s supplemental spending package for Israel has provisions that would dramatically expand the secretive US stockpile on Israeli soil while loosening public reporting requirements about transfers from it. A bill with similar changes passed the House as well, signalling broad support for the proposal in Congress.

Alongside already existing loopholes, these new restrictions weaken America’s case that it is committed to protecting human rights on the world stage, according to Ramming-Chappell.

“The exceptional status that Israel enjoys in US arms transfer policy and law, when taken in conjunction with the devastating effects of Israel’s current campaign in Gaza, really undermines US leadership and claims to moral authority in the international sphere,” he said.

Connor Echols is a reporter for Responsible Statecraft. He was previously an associate editor at the Nonzero Foundation, where he co-wrote a weekly foreign policy newsletter.

Follow him on Twitter: @connor_echols

https://www.newarab.com/analysis/bombs-guns-treasure-what-israel-wants-us-gives

Jim Hᴏft - Florida Deputy Resigns After Mistaking Acorn for Gunshot and Opening Fire on Own Patrol Car with Suspect Inside:

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/02/florida-deputy-resigns-after-mistaking-acorn-gunshot-opening/

#OkaloosaCounty #Florida #SuppressedAssaultAcorn #AssaultAcorn #DefundThePolice #PoliceBrutality #PublicEndangerment #TunnelVision #MindControl #Psychology

MY BEDROOM IS FULL OF GUNS BECAUSE I'M THE MOST ARMED MAN IN AMERIKA BUT I'M A YELLOW BELLY
https://www.bitchute.com/video/zBUDxg66yyEq/

‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 118: Mass grave found of Palestinians tied up, killed ‘execution-style’
Leila WarahFebruary 1, 2024
Crowds of Palestinians wait to be given cans of food at a school for the displaced in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. (APA Images)
Displaced Palestinians in a school run by the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) crowd around a window to receive cans of food in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on January 29, 2024. (Omar Ashtawy/ APA Images_
Casualties

27,019+ killed* and at least 66,139 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.
558 Israeli soldiers killed since October 7, and at least 3,221 injured.**
*This figure was confirmed by Gaza’s Ministry of Health on February 1. Some rights groups put the death toll number at more than 33,000 when accounting for those presumed dead.

** This figure is released by the Israeli military.

Key Developments

Over 70 U.S. cities pass symbolic resolutions calling for ceasefire in Gaza.
Palestinian officials accuse Israeli forces of “execution-style” killings in Gaza following reports of bodies with blindfolds and tied hands discovered in mass grave in northern Gaza.
UN: unemployment in Gaza reached nearly 80 percent in December.
Doctors without borders: Israeli forces have rejected aid deliveries to north Gaza “almost systematically,” medical facilities under constant attack by Israeli forces.
UNRWA Gaza Chief: UNRWA staff and thousands of displaced Gazans forced to leave Khan Younis due to Israeli aggression.
Human Rights Watch: UNRWA funding freeze could hasten famine in Gaza.
UNOCHA:184,000 people sheltering on western outskirts of Khan Younis
UNRWA: Facilities for displaced families in Gaza attacked at least 270 times since October 7.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is expected in Cairo as the Palestinian group reviews a proposal for a six-week truce.
Netenyahu: Israel has “red lines” in its ongoing negotiations.
PCRS: Israeli forces storm Al-Amal Hospital square and fire heavily around the medical complex.
Khan Younis hospitals under attack and starving

The situation in the Gaza Strip remains dire as the besieged enclave continues to be ruthlessly attacked by the Israeli military.

The two main medical complexes in Khan Younis, the second-most southern district in Gaza, have been under military siege and subject to Israeli attacks for several days.

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On Wednesday evening, the Gaza Health Ministry released an update on the dire situation at the two besieged hospitals, Nasser and al-Amal, where things are “getting worse.”

The situation “threatens the death of many wounded and sick people as a result of targeting and the lack of medical capabilities,” the ministry said, adding that both hospitals have run out of food.

“We hold the Israeli occupation fully responsible for the lives of medical staff, patients, and displaced persons in Nasser Medical Complex and al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis,” the ministry’s statement concluded, adding a call for the Red Cross and the UN to intervene to protect the lives of patients and displaced Palestinians sheltering there and for the urgent delivery of food and supplies.

Al-Amal Hospital is surrounded by Israeli tanks, attack drones, and heavy machine guns, which are “shooting at every moving object inside the medical compound,” reported Al Jazeera.

On Wednesday, the Israeli forces stormed the hospital, and a security guard was shot dead by one of the quadcopters hovering at a low level in the sky, Al Jazeera added.

An Al Jazeera analysis of satellite images taken on January 29 captured the impact of Israel’s military operations near al-Amal Hospital, revealing the damage the Israeli military has caused.

The images showed about 25 Israeli vehicles were stationed in the area, including more than 20 vehicles located roughly 500 meters west of the hospital building.

The images also reveal extensive leveling operations carried out by Israeli vehicles on the northern side of the hospital building and widespread destruction by Israeli forces in the western area of the hospital, where thousands of displaced people lived before having to evacuate.

On Wednesday evening, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PCRS) said that Israeli forces were raiding the square of Al-Amal Hospital, with heavy firing reported.

“Urgent: Occupation forces are currently raiding Al-Amal Hospital square, stationed in front of the external gate of the reception and emergency department, and firing heavily,” the group said in a social media post.

“Despite ongoing bombardment and gunfire, the medical teams at PRCS Al-Amal Hospital in #KhanYunis persist in treating the wounded and patients,” PCRS later added on x.

The humanitarian organization added that they received seven bodies at its headquarters in Khan Younis, including a member of its staff. It also said that it received nine injuries.

The lack of supplies at al-Amal Hospital has also had fatal effects.

PRCS released a video showing the burial of an infant girl and an elderly woman, aged 75, in the yard of al-Amal Hospital. The two died after oxygen had run out in the medical facility.

Dr Chris Hook of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) told Al Jazeera that the situation around Khan Younis is “one of the most devastating things” he has seen in his career.

Hook spoke of large numbers of casualties, many of them women and children, continuously arriving at the barely functioning Nasser Hospital, where thousands of displaced people were already taking shelter.

If the children are “fortunate enough to survive,” he said they would continue to suffer from “terrible injuries, huge burns covering 50-70% of their body and massively broken limbs”.

“They’re going to need long-term care; lots of them will never walk properly, if at all,” Hook said.

Leo Cans, the director of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) for the Palestinian territories, told Al Jazeera that assaults on medical facilities have become a common feature of Israel’s offensive.

“Since the start of the war, there have been systematic attacks on health facilities, which is unprecedented for MSF,” he said. “In war, these places are always sensitive areas, and there are always incidents, but this is systematic,” Cans said.

About 184,000 people have registered for humanitarian assistance in the western outskirts of Khan Younis in recent days, the UN humanitarian agency, OCHA, reported.

“They were displaced from western Khan Younis city in recent days amid evacuation orders and continued hostilities,” UNOCHA said.

The humanitarian group added that the UN’s relief agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has also relocated to the western outskirts of the city, as it was forced to abandon health centers and shelters in western Khan Younis.

“We’ve lost a health clinic, major shelters – facilities that were supporting the people of Khan Younis,” said Thomas White, UNRWA’s director of Gaza affairs.

Bodies found tied up and executed

At least 30 Palestinian bodies with alleged signs of torture were found dumped inside a schoolyard in northern Gaza on Wednesday.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has called for an international investigation team to look into accusations that Israeli forces executed Palestinians that it took captive in Gaza.

“According to testimonies of Palestinian citizens, more than 30 decomposing bodies of Palestinian martyrs were discovered buried in the northern Gaza Strip,” the ministry said in a statement, as reported by Al Jazeera. “They were killed while blindfolded and with their hands tied, as clear evidence that they were executed… in the most horrific forms.”

“As we were cleaning, we came across a pile of rubble inside the schoolyard. We were shocked to find out that dozens of dead bodies were buried under this pile,” a witness told Al Jazeera.

“The moment we opened the black plastic bags, we found the bodies, already decomposed. They were blindfolded, legs and hands tied. The plastic cuffs were used on their hands and legs and cloth straps around their eyes and heads,” the witness continued.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry continued: “the discovery of this mass grave in this brutal form reflects the scale of the tragedy to which Palestinian civilians are exposed, the mass massacres and executions of even detainees, in flagrant and gross violation of all relevant international norms and laws.”

The Hamas government media office has also called on human rights organizations “to document this horrific crime.”

It added that Israel is continuing to “exterminate” the Palestinian people without regard to the decisions of the International Court of Justice, “which demanded that they stop the crime of genocide and ethnic cleansing.”

Similarly, Palestinian human rights lawyer Diana Buttu says these bodies are evidence that bolsters the ICJ’s ruling that there is a plausible risk Israel is committing genocide in the besieged strip.

“This is precisely why Israel was taken to the ICJ,” the Ramallah-based attorney told Al Jazeera, adding that Israel has been committing war crimes against Palestinians since 1948, and yet, nobody has ever held Israel to account.

This incident, Buttu pressed, is a war crime, and the world should do something about it. She said this type of evidence needs to be preserved, but that can only happen under a ceasefire.

Israel is making Gaza uninhabitable

As Israeli forces kill Palestinians in Gaza at alarming rates, the military is systematically destroying civilian infrastructure and making the besieged enclave uninhabitable.

In recent weeks, commanders in the Israeli military have begun instructing soldiers to set fire to residential homes in Gaza without the necessary legal approval, reports Haaretz.

Citing unnamed sources, Haaretz added that soldiers have destroyed several hundred buildings this way.

Israel has also been accused of creating a “buffer zone” between itself and Gaza after satellite imagery showed that it had demolished hundreds of buildings within the besieged enclave that sits within 1km of the border.

Moreover, a report by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has found that Israel’s campaign in Gaza precipitated a 24 percent contraction in GDP.

“The level of destruction from the latest Israeli military operation rendered [Gaza] uninhabitable,” it states.

Even if Israel’s military operations end immediately and Gaza returns to previous growth trends of 0.4 percent each year, pre-war GDP levels will not be restored until 2092, the report continued.

Risk of famine in Gaza grows

As Israel’s hostilities continue, Gaza’s population is on the brink of famine due to the ongoing blockade imposed by Israel and now exacerbated by international funding cuts to UNRWA.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement released on Wednesday that UNRWA’s work is “vital” in “averting a humanitarian catastrophe and the risk of famine” in Gaza.

The decision by 18 governments to suspend funding to UNRWA comes months after “Israeli authorities cut off essential services, including water and electricity,” HRW said.

Israeli forces are “deliberately blocking the delivery of water, food, and fuel, willfully impeding humanitarian assistance [and] apparently razing agricultural areas,” HRW said.

Meanwhile, Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has urged Prime Minister Netanyahu to stop trucks from delivering humanitarian assistance into Gaza in a letter, saying that allowing aid into the strip harms Israeli unity.

“The people of Israel are now fighting a war that has no choice but to defend the State of Israel against those who oppose it, and these images harm the unity of the people, the social cohesion, and the war effort,” the letter states.

“In light of the above, I demand an immediate halt to the passage of the trucks through the border crossings,” it concluded.

Talks of a hostage deal

As Israel’s hostilities in Gaza approach the four-month mark, Israel and Hamas are reportedly discussing the possibility of a truce.

The Israeli news outlet Channel 12 reported that Mossad chief David Barnea presented the Israeli war cabinet with a prospective nine-point outline of a potential deal to release 136 captives who remain in Gaza, reported Al Jazeera.

The first stage of the deal would include the release of 35 captives in exchange for a 35-day truce, with an emphasis on women, sick, injured, and elderly captives.

The truce could then be extended to allow for discussion regarding the second round of releases, which would include Israeli combatants.

While details regarding the number of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons were limited, the report suggests that Israel would prioritize the release of low-level prisoners.

In a video message released on his X account, Netanyahu says that Israel has “red lines” in its ongoing negotiations to strike a deal that would see Israeli captives held in Gaza released.

“We will not end the war, we will not pull the [Israeli military] out of the Strip, we will not release thousands of terrorists,” Netanyahu said in his message.

The prime minister said that in addition to working on getting the captives out, Israel is working towards its other goals in the war – “the elimination of Hamas and to ensure that Gaza never again represents a threat.”

“We are working on all three of them together, and we will not give up on any of them.”

However, Hamas has repeatedly said they will not agree to a pause, only a permanent ceasefire.

“There is clearly a movement, and there is clearly an interest on both sides. Israel is interested in getting the captives back, and Hamas is interested in ending the fighting,” said Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara, expressing caution amid widespread optimism.

“But there is a huge gap between Hamas and Israel on what is required. Usually, in cases like this, when the gap is too huge, it’s the US that would need to step in with the help of others and provide guarantees to both sides.”

US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said from a press briefing at the White House: “We are looking at an extended pause [in fighting] as the goal … longer than what we saw in November, which was about a week,”

“The goal of an extended level pause is so you can get the maximum amount of [Israeli] hostages out … [this] is all a part of the discussions right now,” Kirby continued.

West Bank: Children scared to go to school

The effects of Israel’s aggression on Gaza continue to spill into the occupied West Bank, where the Israeli army and settlers conduct rampages with impunity.

Israeli fire has killed ninety-nine children in the West Bank since October 7, Jonathan Crickx, the chief of communication and advocacy at UNICEF in Palestine, told Al Jazeera.

“That is more than double the entire year of 2022, and that is happening amid increased military and law enforcement operations,” he said from occupied East Jerusalem.

“It is also important to note that 600 children have also been injured,” he said, noting that the violence was “creating fear.”

“So many children, especially in Jenin and Nablus, are scared of going to school,” he said.

“So, the overall situation in the education system is very concerning, and what is really required in order for children to go to school is a long, lasting ceasefire,” Crickx said. “Education is where hope lies. It is where children can actually build their own future and hopefully a better future.”

Federal case against Biden dismissed

The civil case filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights on behalf of Palestinian human rights organizations and Palestinians in Gaza accusing US President Joe Biden and other senior officials of being complicit in Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza has been dismissed by a US federal court judge on jurisdiction grounds.

However, the court did “implore” the defendants to examine their role in the war on Gaza.

“There are rare cases in which the preferred outcome is inaccessible to the court. This is one of those cases,” it said.

“This court implores defendants to examine the results of their unflagging support of the military siege against the Palestinians in Gaza.”

Human rights lawyer Noura Erakat says a US judge dismissing such a case “was to be expected.”

However, “the coup is that the judge was so compelled by the evidence that he made powerful statements on behalf of the plaintiffs regarding genocide,” Erakat added in a post on social media.

Mohammed Monadel Herzallah, who testified in the civil case, says it is still essential for a US “federal court to hear Palestinian voices for the first time,” in a statement released by the Center for Constitutional Rights.

“Currently, my family lacks food, medicine, and the most basic necessities for survival,” Herzallah continued, “As Palestinians, we know this is a hard struggle, and as plaintiffs, we will continue to do everything in our power to save our people’s lives.”

Herzallah’s lawyer, Katherine Gallagher, senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, added that together with their plaintiffs, they plan to “pursue all legal avenues to stop the genocide and save Palestinian lives.”

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The crimes of Winston Churchill
Crimes of Britain
Churchill was a genocidal maniac. He is fawned over in Britain and held up as a hero of the nation — voted ‘Greatest Briton’ of all time. Below is the real history of Churchill. The history of a white supremacist whose hatred for Indians led to four million starving to death. The man who loathed Irish people so much he conceived different ways to terrorise them. A racist thug who waged war on black people across Africa and in Britain. This is the trial of Winston Churchill, the enemy of all humanity.


Afghanistan:

Churchill found his love for war during the time he spent in Afghanistan. While there he said “all who resist will be killed without quarter” because the Pashtuns need “recognise the superiority of race”. He believed the Pashtuns needed to be dealt with, he would reminisce in his writings about how he partook in the burning villages and peoples homes.

“We proceeded systematically, village by village, and we destroyed the houses, filled up the wells, blew down the towers, cut down the great shady trees, burned the crops and broke the reservoirs in punitive devastation.” — Churchill on how the British carried on in Afghanistan, and he was only too happy to be part of it.

Churchill would also write of how “every tribesman caught was speared or cut down at once”. Proud of the terror he helped inflict on the people of Afghanistan Churchill was well on the road to becoming a genocidal maniac.

Cuba:


Churchill wrote that he was concerned Cuba would turn in to “another black republic” in 1896. By “another” he was referring to Haiti which was the first nation in modern times to abolish slavery. Haiti has been punished for doing so ever since.

Egypt:


“Tell them that if we have any more of their cheek we will set the Jews on them and drive them into the gutter, from which they should never have emerged” — Winston Churchill on how to deal with Egypt in 1951.

Greece:


The British Army under the guidance of Churchill perpetrated a massacre on the streets of Athens in the month of December 1944. 28 protesters were shot dead, a further 128 injured. Who were they? Were they supporters of Nazism? No, they were in fact anti-Nazis.

The British demanded that all guerrilla groups should disarm on the 2nd December 1944. The following day 200,000 people took to the streets, and this is when the British Army on Churchill’s orders turned their guns on the people. Churchill regarded ELAS (Greek People’s Liberation Army) and EAM (National Liberation Front) as “miserable banditti” (these were the very people who ran the Nazis out). His actions in the month of December were purely out of his hatred and paranoia for communism.

The British backed the right-wing government in Greece returned from exile after the very same partisans of the resistance that Churchill ordered the murder of had driven out the Nazi occupiers. Soviet forces were well received in Greece. This deeply worried Churchill. He planned to restore the monarchy in Greece to combat any possible communist influence. The events in December were part of that strategy.

In 1945, Churchill sent Charles Wickham to Athens where he was put in charge of training the Greek security police. Wickham learned his tricks of the trade in British occupied Ireland between 1922–1945 where he was a commander of the colonial RUC which was responsible for countless terror.

In April 1945 Churchill said “the [Nazi] collaborators in Greece in many cases did the best they could to shelter the Greek population from German oppression” and went on to say “the Communists are the main foe”.

Guyana:


Churchill ordered the overthrowing of the democratically elected leader of ‘British Guiana’. He dispatched troops and warships and suspended their constitution all to put a stop to the governments nationalisation plan.

India:


“I’d rather see them have a good civil war”. — Churchill wishing partition on India

Very few in Britain know about the genocide in Bengal let alone how Churchill engineered it. Churchill’s hatred for Indians led to four million starving to death during the Bengal ‘famine’ of 1943. “I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion” he would say.

Bengal had a better than normal harvest during the British enforced famine. The British Army took millions of tons of rice from starving people to ship to the Middle East — where it wasn’t even needed. When the starving people of Bengal asked for food, Churchill said the ‘famine’ was their own fault “for breeding like rabbits”. The Viceroy of India said “Churchill’s attitude towards India and the famine is negligent, hostile and contemptuous”. Even the right wing imperialist Leo Amery who was the British Secretary of State in India said he “didn’t see much difference between his [Churchill] outlook and Hitler’s”. Churchill refused all of the offers to send aid to Bengal, Canada offered 10,000 tons of rice, the U.S 100,000. Churchill was still swilling champaign while he caused four million men, women and children to starve to death in Bengal.

Throughout WW2 India was forced to ‘lend’ Britain money. Churchill moaned about “Indian money lenders” the whole time.

The truth is Churchill never waged war against fascism. He went to war with Germany to defend the British Empire. He moaned “are we to incur hundreds of millions of debt for defending India only to be kicked out by the Indians afterwards”.

In 1945 Churchill said “the Hindus were race protected by their mere pullulation from the doom that is due”. The Bengal famine wasn’t enough for Churchill’s blood lust, he wished his favourite war criminal Arthur Harris could have bombed them.

When India was partitioned in 1947 millions of people died and millions more were displaced. Churchill said that the creation of Pakistan, which has been an imperialist outpost for the British and Americans since its inception, was Britain’s “bit of India”.

Iran:


“A prize from fairyland beyond our wildest dreams” — Churchill on Iran’s oil

When Britain seized Iran’s oil industry Churchill proclaimed it was “a prize from fairyland beyond our wildest dreams”. He meddled in Iranian affairs for decades doing his utmost to exclude Iranians from their natural resources. Encouraging the looting of the nation when most lived in severe poverty.

In June 1914 Churchill proposed a bill in the House of Commons that would see the British government become become the major shareholder of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. The company would go on to refrain from paying Iran its share of the dividends before paying tax to the British exchequer. Essentially the British were illegally taxing the Iranian government.

When the nationalist government of Mohammad Mosaddegh threatened British ‘interests’ in Iran, Churchill was there, ready to protect them at any cost. Even if that meant desecrating democracy. He helped organise a coup against Mosaddegh in August 1953. He told the CIA operations officer that helped carry out the plan “if i had been but a few years younger, I would have loved nothing better than to have served under your command in this great venture”.

Churchill arranged for the BBC to send coded messages to let the Shah of Iran know that they were overthrowing the democratically elected government. Instead of the BBC ending their Persian language news broadcast with “it is now midnight in London” they under Churchill’s orders said “it is now exactly midnight”.

Churchill went on to privately describe the coup as “the finest operation since the end of the war [WW2]”. Being a proud product of imperialism he had no issue ousting Mosaddegh so Britain could get back to sapping the riches of Iran.

Iraq:


“I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against the uncivilized tribes… it would spread a lively terror.” — Churchill on the use of gas in the Middle East and India

Churchill was appointed ‘Secretary of State for the Colonies’ in 1921. He formed the ‘Middle East Department’ which was responsible for Iraq. Determined to have his beloved empire on the cheap he decided air power could replace ground troops. A strategy of bombing any resistance to British rule was now employed.

Several times in the 1920s various groups in the region now known as Iraq rose up against the British. The air force was then put into action, indiscriminately bombing civilian areas so to subdue the population.

Churchill was also an advocate for the use of mustard and poison gases. Whilst ‘Secretary for War and Air’ he advised that “the provision of some kind of asphyxiating bombs” should be used “for use in preliminary operations against turbulent tribes” in order to take control of Iraq.

When Iraqi tribes stood up for themselves, under the direction of Churchill the British unleashed terror on mud, stone and reed villages.

Churchill’s bombing of civilians in ‘Mesopotamia’ (Kurdistan and Iraq) was summed up by war criminal ‘Bomber Harris’:

“The Arab and Kurd now know what real bombing means within 45 minutes a full-sized village can be practically wiped out, and a third of its inhabitants killed or injured, by four or five machines which offer them no real target, no opportunity for glory as warriors, no effective means of escape”. — Arthur ‘Bomber’ Harris.

Ireland:


“We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English” — Churchill

In 1904 Churchill said “I remain of the opinion that a separate parliament for Ireland would be dangerous and impractical”. Churchill’s ancestry is linked to loyalism to Britain. He is a direct descendent of the ‘Marquis of Londonderry’ who helped put down the 1798 United Irishmen rising. He would live up to his families reputation when it came to suppressing revolutionary forces in Ireland.

The Black and Tans were the brainchild of Churchill, he sent the thugs to Ireland to terrorise at will. Attacking civilians and civilian property they done Churchill proud. Rampaging across the country carrying out reprisals. He went on to describe them as “gallant and honourable officers”.

It was also Churchill who conceived the idea of forming the Auxiliaries who carried out the Croke Park massacre. They fired into the crowd at a Gaelic football match, killing 14. Of course this didn’t fulfill Churchill’s bloodlust to repress a people who he described as “odd” for their refusal “to be English”.

He went on to advocate the use of air power in Ireland against Sinn Fein members in 1920. He suggested to his war advisers that aeroplanes should be dispatched with orders to use “machine-gun fire or bombs” to “scatter and stampede them”.

Churchill was an early advocate for the partitioning of Ireland. During the treaty negotiations he insisted on retaining navy bases in Ireland. In 1938 those bases were handed back to Ireland. However in 1939 Churchill proposed capturing Berehaven base by force.

In 1941 Churchill supported a plan to introduce conscription in the North of Ireland.

Churchill went on to remark”the bloody Irish, what have they ever done for our wars”, reducing Ireland’s merit to what it might provide by way of resources (people) for their imperialist land grabs.

Kenya:


Britain declared a state of emergency in Kenya in 1952 to protect its system of institutionalised racism that they established throughout their colonies so to exploit the indigenous population. Churchill being your archetypical British supremacist believed that Kenya’s fertile highlands should be only for white colonial settlers. He approved the forcible removal of the local population, which he termed “blackamoors”.

At least 150,000 men, women and children were forced into concentration camps. Children’s schools were shut by the British who branded them “training grounds for rebellion”. Rape, castration, cigarettes, electric shocks and fire all used by the British to torture the Kenyan people on Churchill’s watch.

In 1954 during a British cabinet meeting Churchill and his men discussed the forced labour of Kenyan POWs and how to circumvent the constraints of two treaties they were breaching:

“This course [detention without trial and forced labour] had been recommended despite the fact that it was thought to involve a technical breach of the Forced Labour Convention of 1930 and the Convention on Human Rights adopted by the Council of Europe”

The Cowan Plan advocated the use of force and sometimes death against Kenyan POWs who refused to work. Churchill schemed to allow this to continue.

Caroline Elkins book gives a glimpse into the extent that the crimes in Kenya were known in both official and unofficial circles in Britain and how Churchill brushed off the terror the colonial British forces inflicted on the native population. He even ‘punished’ Edwina Mountbatten for mentioning it, “Edwina Mountbatten was conversing about the emergency with India’s prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and the then colonial secretary, Oliver Lyttleton. When Lyttleton commented on the “terrible savagery” of Mau Mau… Churchill retaliated, refusing to allow Lord Mountbatten to take his wife with him on an official visit to Turkey”.

Palestine:


“I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to the manger.”

In 2012 Churchill was honoured with a statue in Jerusalem for his assistance to Zionism.

He regarded the Arab population Palestine to be a “lower manifestation”. And that the “dog in a manger has the final right to the manger”, by this he meant the Arabs of Palestine.

In 1920 Churchill declared “if, as may well happen, there should be created in our own lifetime by the banks of the Jordan a Jewish State under the protection of the British Crown which might comprise three or four millions of Jews, an event will have occurred in the history of the world which would from every point of view be beneficial”.

A year later in Jerusalem he told Palestinian leaders that “it is manifestly right that the Jews, who are scattered all over the world, should have a national centre and a National Home where some of them may be reunited. And where else could that be but in this land of Palestine, with which for more than 3,000 years they have been intimately and profoundly associated?”.

At the Palestine Royal Commission (Peel) of 1937, Churchill stated that he believed in intention of the Balfour Declaration was to make Palestine an “overwhelmingly Jewish state”.

He went on to also express to the Peel Commission that he does “not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place”.

Four years later he wrote of his desire for a ‘Jewish state’to be established after the second war world. The establishment of the colonial settler state however was done by the British Labour Party under Attlee, who were always there to back their Tory counterparts when it came to British foreign policy.

Russia:


Churchill’s hatred and paranoia about communism saw him suggest that an atomic bomb should be dropped on the Kremlin. He believed this would “handle the balance of power”.

Saudi Arabia:


“My admiration for him [Ibn Saud] was deep, because of his unfailing loyalty to us.” — Churchill

Prior to 1922 the British were paying Ibn Saud a subsidy of £60,000 a year. Churchill, then Colonial Secretary, raised it to £100,000.

Churchill knew full well of the dangers of wahhabism. He gave a speech to the House of Commons in 1921 where he stated that Ibn Saud’s followers “hold it as an article of duty, as well as of faith, to kill all who do not share their opinions and to make slaves of their wives and children. Women have been put to death in Wahhabi villages for simply appearing in the streets… [they are] austere, intolerant, well-armed and bloodthirsty”. He was however content to use the House of Saud’s twisted ideology for the benefit of British imperialism.

Churchill went on to write that his “admiration for him [Ibn Saud] was deep, because of his unfailing loyalty to us”. He showered Ibn Saud with money and presents — gifting Ibn Saud a special Rolls-Royce in the mid 1940s.

South Africa:


Thousands were sent to British run concentration camps during the Boer wars. Churchill summed up his time in South Africa by saying “it was great fun galloping about”.

Churchill wrote that his only “irritation” during the Boer war was “that Kaffirs should be allowed to fire on white men”.

It was Churchill who planted the seed to strip voting rights from black people in South Africa. In June 1906, Churchill argued that Afrikaners should be allowed a self-rule which would mean black people would be excluded from voting.

He went on to state to Parliament that “we must be bound by the interpretation which the other party places on it and it is undoubted that the Boers would regard it as a breach of that treaty if the franchise were in the first instance extended to any persons who are not white”.

In conclusion:

There have been a number of attempts to rehabailtate the image of the British Empire in Britain in recent years. Particularly via the medium of cinema. The film Darkest Hour didn’t show you anything about Churchill’s crimes. On the contrary it presented him as a hero. Gary Oldham won an Oscar for his portrayal of one of the most evil, imperialists ever.

British Nationalist groups in Britain hold Churchill up as their posterboy. And so they should. He was a racist to the core. In response to migration from the Caribbean to Britain he said England should “be kept white”. Throughout worl war two his cabinet obsessed over British people viewing American Black GI’s favourably. They were concerned that they would fraternised with white English women. A true believer in white supremacy, Churchill blamed the Native American and Aboriginal Australian people for their genocides. He said he did “not admit that a great wrong has been done to the red Indians and the black people of Australia.”

Winner of the Noble Prize in Literature, Churchill actually plagiarised his most well known speech from an Irish Republican called Robert Emmet who was hanged and then beheaded by the British in 1803. Winston’s famous “we shall fight them on beaches” line was lifted from Emmet’s speech from the dock.

When it came to his own fellow Brits he was less than complimentary and displayed a deep hatred for the working classes. He suggested “100,000 degenerate Britons should be forcibly sterilised”. And that for “tramps and wastrels there ought to be proper labour colonies where they could be sent”.

It needs to be put once and for all that Churchill was despicable, racist, war criminal. Some will argue his “sins” are expiated for his actions during the second world war. It is nothing but nonsense to suggest Churchill went out to fight fascism. He lauded Mussolini as a “roman genius”, donated to Nazi war criminal Erich Von Manstien’s criminal defence and sought to desperatly cling on to the British Empire from which Hitler himself took inspiration for his Reich. What we have to remember is Churchill was not a uniquely villianous British Prime Minister. He was not out of ordinary but in fact a true representation of Britain.





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Israeli snipers, tanks, drones positioned to fire on any signs of life in Khan Younis – Day 109
[email protected] January 24, 2024 famine, houthi, israeli settlement, israeli soldiers killed, khan younis, starvation, Supreme Court, uscpr, West Bank
Israeli snipers, tanks, drones positioned to fire on any signs of life in Khan Younis – Day 109
Attacks in the latest 24-hour reporting period killed at least 195 Palestinians and wounded 354 with thousands more victims believed to be under the rubble and unreachable. (photo)
Khan Younis in south the site of intense fighting, peril; info on US teen Tawfiq Ajaq killed by Israel; starvation; Israelis in US to buy weapons; 24 Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza; West Bank death; Israeli settlements in Gaza?; Houthi update; US Supreme Court dismisses case against Palestine advocacy organization

By IAK staff, from reports

Middle East Eye reports on the dire situation in Khan Younis: With Israeli snipers and tanks positioned to fire on any signs of life, Palestinians across Khan Younis are under siege with nowhere to go…

Ambulances have been unable to reach the wounded across Khan Younis, after the headquarters of the Palestinian Red Crescent (PCRS) was surrounded by Israel’s military. Israeli drones shot at anyone moving near al-Amal hospital, the PCRS said on Tuesday…

For several days, Palestinians in Khan Younis have raised alarm bells about Israeli tanks closing in on Nasser Hospital – the largest functional medical facility in Gaza. They fear it will suffer the same fate as al-Shifa hospital in the north, which effectively shut down after a sustained Israeli siege in mid-November last year.

A doctor at Nasser Hospital described the chaotic scenes in the vicinity of the complex.

“We have got news today from the Israeli army to evacuate block number 107. This block actually contains schools, hospitals and houses…People actually were trying to evacuate this block but they couldn’t. All above and around me, explosions and gunshot can be heard, and are being fired over our heads.”

Dina, 36, was told to evacuate block 107 with 23 members of her family. “They lie to us. They just change the place where they intend to kill us…We are experiencing hunger, pain, and cold, and the world is just watching. Where should we go?” she said.

The New Arab adds: The Israeli army has fired directly at a hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, where civilians are caught amid heavy fighting…Israeli tanks were “firing heavily on the upper floors of the specialized surgery building and the emergency building of Nasser hospital, dozens expected wounded”, a ministry statement said.

From OCHA: In Khan Younis, Israeli forces hit a warehouse, killing 2 and cutting off access to humanitarian supplies and critical water and sanitation equipment; heavy bombardment near a distribution center where families go to receive aid; latest evacuation orders: an area that hosts 500,000 people, mostly already displaced.

While most US news media ignored Israel’s killing of American 17-year-old Tawfiq Ajaq, shot dead by Israeli forces on Jan. 19 in the West Bank, News Nation interviewed family members:

“Tawfiq Ajaq was a free spirit who enjoyed the outdoors and hanging with friends.”

“Bright kid, had a lot of dreams, would joke, laugh make fun of me, his mom, his brothers. He loves the woods, he loves to be out and about. … He just likes to be out with friends and just be free,” his father said.

“Ajaq’s relative, Joe Abdel Qaki, said that Ajaq and a friend were having a barbecue in a village field when he was shot by Israeli fire, once in the head and once in the chest.”

He said Israeli forces briefly detained him and other Palestinians at the scene, asking for their IDs before the men could get to Ajaq.

The boy’s father implored Americans to “see with their own eyes” the ongoing violence in the West Bank.

“The American society does not know the true story,” he said. “Come here on the ground and see what’s going on. … How many fathers and mothers have to say goodbye to their children? How many more?”

On Monday, he called out the Biden administration for continuing to provide military support to Israel.

The medical group Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) says that several blocks in Khan Younis, including those where Nasser Hospital is located, have received orders to evacuate.

“MSF staff members can hear bombs and heavy gunfire close to Nasser,” the group said in a social media post on Tuesday.

“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.”

Hamas reportedly called on the UN, Red Cross and World Health Organization to step in “immediately” and “shoulder their responsibilities” to stop Israel’s attacks on Gaza’s hospitals, saying that the Nasser and El Amal hospitals in Khan Younis are being directly targeted with Israeli drone fire and bombardment, endangering the lives of patients, medics, and thousands of displaced people taking shelter in the medical centers.

“The deliberate and ongoing targeting of hospitals is a war crime unfolding in front of the eyes and ears of the entire world, and it comes in the context of Israel’s genocidal war against our people in the Gaza Strip, with the full support of the American administration,” the group said in a statement.

Targeting hospitals is a war crime.

Palestinian children wait to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen amid shortages of food supplies in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on January 16, 2024
Palestinian children wait to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen amid shortages of food supplies in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on January 16, 2024 (photos)
Al Jazeera reports: The speed at which “starvation” has been brought about among Gaza’s population is “unprecedented”, according to Alex De Waal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in the US.

“I’ve been studying this for 40 years and I’ve never seen a population reduced [to this level of hunger] with the same speed and rigor and ruthlessness,” De Waal told Al Jazeera.

“An entire population being reduced to this stage is really unprecedented. We haven’t seen it in Ethiopia, in Sudan and Yemen – pretty much anywhere else in the world,” he said.

De Waal said that while all famines are political acts, he described the current food crisis in Gaza as a “military act” by Israel that amounts to the “war crime of starvation”.

“[The destruction of] food, medicine, water and sanitation is being done on a scale that I don’t think we have witnessed anywhere else in the contemporary world,” he added.

More information is here.

Middle East Monitor reports: Israel’s Kan TV declared on Monday, “A high-level Israeli security delegation arrived this afternoon [Monday] in the United States to attend meetings with officials in the American army and the American military and defense industries…to push for immediate purchase deals to continue the fighting [in Gaza], and to prevent a shortage of ammunition and weapons.”

According to the same source, the Israeli delegation is seeking to reach a major deal that “includes supplying Israel with thousands of ammunitions for warplanes, with missiles and bombs, as well as tank and artillery shells, armored vehicles, and additional military equipment that will allow the Israeli army to continue the war in Gaza, and a possible war in Lebanon.”

RECOMMENDED READING: Against every instinct: How doctors in Gaza persevere amid Israel attacks

Al Jazeera reports on a speech that Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki gave to the UN Security Council:

The faith of the perpetrators is irrelevant. The faith of the victims is irrelevant. What matters only are the countless innocent lives destroyed and the violent shattering of the laws enacted post-World War II to preserve humanity. [Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is driven by] his own political survival at the expense of the survival of millions of Palestinians under Israel’s illegal occupation and peace and security for all.

Norway’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andreas Motzfeldt Kravik reiterated his country’s support for the two-state solution after meeting with Jordanian officials Tuesday.

This is one of a number of recent expressions of support for Palestinian rights and/or a two-state solution. Others include UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Keir Starmer, leader of the UK Labor Party, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell, French Foreign Minister, Stéphane Séjourné, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares, China’s ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun, Malaysia’s Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan, and others.

Associated Press reports: Palestinian militants carried out the deadliest single attack on Israeli forces in Gaza since the Hamas raid that triggered the war, killing 21 soldiers, the military said Tuesday, a significant setback that could add to mounting calls for a cease-fire. 3 more soldiers were killed in a separate incident.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mourned the Israeli soldiers, who died when the blast from a rocket-propelled grenade triggered explosives they were laying to blow up buildings. But he vowed to press ahead until “absolute victory,” including crushing Hamas and freeing more than 100 Israeli hostages still held by the militants.

Israelis are increasingly questioning whether it’s possible to achieve those war aims.

WEST BANK: WAFA reports: Israeli forces Tuesday evening shot and killed a young Palestinian man at a checkpoint east of Tulkarm, in the northern occupied West Bank.

The Ministry of Health said that the soldiers prevented ambulances from reaching the young man, who was later identified as 21-year-old Kareem Nashaat Ayesh. He died of his critical wounds shortly after.

RECOMMENDED READING: Israel’s rising use of drone strikes in the West Bank

Al Jazeera reports: Israeli ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan has again railed against calls for a ceasefire, saying that the Middle East is suffering from a “cancer” and that Israel will not accept the continued existence of Hamas.

“Shockingly, many here on the Security Council are advocating for a permanent ceasefire, while giving no thought to the implications,” Erdan said. “What do you think will happen if there is a ceasefire? I will tell you what will happen: Hamas will remain in power, they will regroup and rearm, and soon Israelis will face another attempted Holocaust.”

In reality, international law supports the efforts of resistance groups against an occupying power, even to the point of armed resistance. Hamas has clearly and. openly stated that its enemy is not the Jewish people, but the racist ideology of Zionism – the ideology under which Israel dispossessed 750,000 Palestinian people and exiled them to Gaza and other locations.

A view of the makeshift tent camp where Palestinians displaced by the Israeli ground offensive on the Gaza Strip are staying, in Rafah, January 23, 2024
A view of the makeshift tent camp where Palestinians displaced by the Israeli ground offensive on the Gaza Strip are staying, in Rafah, January 23, 2024 (photo)
Times of Israel reports: Two Likud ministers are promoting an upcoming conference that calls for the reestablishment of Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip as a way to boost security for Israel after the war against the people of Gaza ends.

The conference, under the heading “Only settlement will bring security,” is organized by a group of movements that want to resettle Gaza, led by Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan and the Nachala Settlement Movement. It is scheduled for Sunday in Jerusalem.

In order to settle in Gaza, Israel would have to transfer Palestinians out of the Strip. Israeli settlements and settlers on Palestinian land are a violation of international law. Forced transfer of a people group is a crime against humanity.

HOUTHI UPDATE: The US Department of Defense reports: U.S. and partner forces launched additional defensive strikes against military targets in Houthi-controlled parts of Yemen yesterday…the second round of precision strikes to be carried out by the U.S. and United Kingdom with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands in response to a series of attacks launched by the [allegedly] Iran-backed group against commercial ships operating in the Red Sea.

“These precision strikes are intended to disrupt and degrade the capabilities that the Houthis use to threaten global trade and the lives of innocent mariners, and are in response to a series of illegal, dangerous and destabilizing Houthi actions since our coalition strikes on January 11, including anti-ship ballistic missile and unmanned aerial system attacks that struck two U.S.-owned merchant vessels,” the partner nations said in a joint statement following the strikes.

The reason for the Houthi threat, which the US has yet to address, is Israel’s brutal war against Gaza.

Additionally, British prime minister Rishi Sunak has told the House of Commons, “We’re going to use the most effective means at our disposal to cut off the Houthis’ financial resources, where they are used to fund these attacks. We are working closely with the United States on this and plan to announce new sanctions measures in the coming days.”

US Central Command also reported: In response to attacks by the Iranian-backed militia group Kataib Hezbollah (KH), including the attack on al-Asad Airbase in western Iraq on Jan. 20, on Jan. 24 at 12:15 a.m., U.S. CENTCOM forces conducted unilateral airstrikes against three facilities used by Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia group and other Iran-affiliated groups in Iraq.

Palestine make history sealing their passage to the knockout stages of the AFC Asian Cup for the first time in their history.
Palestine make history sealing their passage to the knockout stages of the AFC Asian Cup for the first time in their history. (photo)
The Center for Constitutional Rights reports: Today, a U.S.-based Palestinian rights organization prevailed when the Supreme Court refused to take up a lawsuit brought by the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and several U.S. citizens who live in Israel.

Citing the speech and expressive activities of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), including its support for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, the lawsuit had argued that the group provided “material support” for terrorism. The dismissal by the district court had been unanimously affirmed by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

This lawsuit is just one example of a long line of efforts to silence Palestinians for advocating for their freedom – in this case, by wielding the accusation of support for terrorism to discredit and dehumanize Palestinians for their advocacy, including their support for boycotts.

In dismissing the suit in March 2021, the lower court said the arguments were, “to say the least, not persuasive.” Advocates say the suit is part of a broader effort to criminalize and silence the political activities of supporters of Palestinian rights, a threat that has only increased as Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza intensifies.

“USCPR’s message is justice for all and an end to funding genocide. There’s no lawsuit in the world that can stop us from pushing our demands for human rights,” said Ahmad Abuznaid, Executive Director of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights. “We will remain focused on opposing Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people and pursuing justice and freedom for the Palestinian people.”

RECOMMENDED READING: ‘Negligence’: Columbia University students furious at administration after skunk water doused on protesters

More information on Day 109 is here.

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – JANUARY 23:

Palestinian death toll from October 7 – January 23: at least 25,877* (~25,490 in Gaza* (over 11,000 children, 7,500 women), and at least 387 in the West Bank (98 children). This does not include an estimated 7,000 more still buried under rubble (70% women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 32,246 Palestinian deaths.

About 1.7 million people have been displaced (about 85% of the population).

Palestinian injuries from October 7 – January 23: at least 67,702** (including at least 63,354 in Gaza and 4,348 in the West Bank).

Israeli forces killed American teen Tawfiq Hafiz Ajjaq from Louisiana in the West Bank on January 19. It remains unknown how many additional Americans are among the casualties.

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7 – January 23: ~1,139 (9 killed in West Bank, 219 in Gaza), including 32 Americans, and 8,730 injured, approximately 36 children).

NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries in Israel may have been caused by Israeli soldiers; additionally, since Israel has a policy of universal conscription, it is unknown how many of those attending the outdoor rave a few miles from Gaza on stolen Palestinian land were Israeli soldiers.

*Previously, IAK did not include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile was being disputed. However, given that much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, Israel had previously bombed the hospital and has attacked many others, Israel is prohibiting outside experts from investigating the scene, and since the UN and other agencies are including the deaths from the attack in their cumulative totals, if Americans knew is now also doing so.

Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.

For more news, go here and here. Broadcast news from the region is here.

Hover over each bar for exact numbers.
Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org

12 Essential Facts for Understanding the Current Israel-Gaza Violence
The West’s complete contempt for the lives of Palestinians will not be forgotten
Israel has repeatedly rejected Hamas truce offers
Why the Guardian’s ‘Hamas mass rape’ story doesn’t pass the sniff test
Israel’s torture and humiliation of female and male Gazan prisoners
Coverage of Gaza War in NYTimes & other major papers heavily favored Israel, analysis shows
Two reports debunk New York Times ‘investigative report’ of mass rape on October 7th
John Mearsheimer: Genocide in Gaza
Flashback: Israeli Journalist said Israel is pushing US into war with Iran
Israel’s Assault on Gaza Is Unlike Any War in Recent Memory
US poised to give Israel $18 billion in aid this year
Essential facts and stats about the Hamas-Gaza-Israel war
What media reports fail to tell you about October 7

https://israelpalestinenews.org/israeli-snipers-tanks-drones-positioned-fire-life-khan-younis-day-109/

‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 105: Israel destroys Gaza’s last university as Netanyahu doubles down on rejection of a Palestinian state
Netanyahu vows there won’t be a Palestinian state so long as he’s in office, while Joe Biden admits strikes against Yemen’s Ansar Allah aren’t working.

Mondoweiss Palestine BureauJanuary 19, 2024
Screen grab of the moment the Israeli army detonated al-Israa University (Photo: Screenshot/Social Media)
Screen grab of the moment the Israeli army detonated al-Israa University (Photo: Screenshot/Social Media)
Casualties:

24,762 killed* and at least 62,108 wounded in the Gaza Strip.
388+ 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.
550 Israeli soldiers killed since October 7, including 194 since the beginning of the ground invasion, and at least 3,221 injured.**
*This figure was confirmed by Gaza’s Ministry of Health on January 16. Some rights groups put the death toll at more than 31,000 when accounting for those presumed dead.

**This figure is released by the Israeli military.

Key Developments

Telecom blackout in Gaza continues for eighth day in a row, affecting news coming out of Gaza.
Israel continues to pummel Gaza, destroying key buildings at al-Isra University, the last institution of higher learning left standing in Gaza.
Yemen’s Ansar Allah continues to attack ships in Red Sea, Joe Biden admits U.S. strikes ineffective in deterring rebels but vows to continue anyway.
Embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterates opposition to Palestinian state, insists on Israeli control over all territory “west of the Jordan River.”
Israeli army wraps up 45-hour long devastating raid in Tulkarem refugee camp.
Israeli army admits to digging up graves and seizing bodies in Gaza, claiming to be searching for dead hostages.
The Guardian reveals longstanding policies by successive U.S. governments to shield Israel from U.S. laws supposed to prevent U.S. funding of human rights abuses abroad.
Cases of Hepatitis A soar amid overcrowded and unsanitary conditions in shelters, with organizations warning of worsening health crisis in Gaza.
Israeli daily Haaretz reports that mental health growing concern among Israeli troops, with high number of soldiers leaving front due to “mental issues.”
Knesset extends ban preventing Palestinian prisoners from Gaza from meeting with lawyers.
Extreme right-wing Knesset member Almog Cohen questioned by Israeli police after bragging on social media about beating Palestinian citizens of Israel while serving as police officer in 2013.
Gaza: University destroyed, number of hepatitis cases grows

Israel continues to wage a merciless campaign of destruction in Gaza, killing scores of Palestinians in the past day and wiping out civilian institutions off the map. The Israeli-engineered telecommunications blackout in the decimated Palestinian territory continued for the eighth day in a row, the longest disruption since October 7, which has been denounced by rights groups as a “weapon of war”.

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Official Palestinian Authority news agency WAFA reported deadly airstrikes since Thursday in Gaza City (including near Al-Shifa Medical Complex and al-Nour mosque), Jabalia, Khan Younis (including in the area around Al-Amal Hospital), Bani Suheila, Deir al-Balah, Qizan al-Najjar, near Abu Yousef Al-Najjar Hospital east of Rafah, Abasan, Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia, Nuseirat, and al-Maghazi refugee camp.

A compound that housed medical staff from the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) in Khan Younis was damaged by a missile strike on Thursday, IRC reported, displacing them and affecting their ability to work at Nasser Hospital.

Among those recently killed are Wael Fanouna, the manager of the Al-Quds Today TV channel, and Ahmad al-Durrah, the brother of Mohammed al-Durrah, whose killing by Israeli forces in 2000 when he was 12 years old became one of the enduring images of the Second Intifada.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza reported on Friday that Israel had killed 142 Palestinians and injured 278 more in the span of 24 hours, bringing the toll since October 7 to 24,762 killed and 62,108 wounded.

Meanwhile, shocking footage has circulated this week of Israeli forces detonating al-Isra University on Wednesday, effectively destroying the last remaining university in the Gaza Strip.

“The Israeli occupiers, through these actions, aim to propagate a culture of ignorance, keeping our people away from the march of knowledge and civilization, and forcibly displacing intellectuals outside of Palestine,” the university said in a statement.

Meanwhile, even as the Israeli army claimed to have razed Hamas’s main weapons manufacturing location, Palestinian factions reported ongoing fighting with Israeli ground forces from northern to southern Gaza, including Jabalia, Gaza City, Bani Suheila, Abasan, and Khan Younis.

Israeli forces reported the death of one soldier on Friday, raising the official Israeli toll to 194 soldiers since the beginning of its ground invasion in Gaza. The army meanwhile confirmed to NBC that its forces have indeed been digging up graves and seizing bodies in Gaza — claiming that it did so while looking for dead hostages.

Meanwhile, mental health has been flagged by Israeli media as a growing concern among Israeli troops. “In some combat units, the number of soldiers who have pulled out due to mental issues is higher than or equal to the number of soldiers who were wounded in battle,” Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Thursday.

At the humanitarian level, organizations continue to raise the alarm about the calamitous situation facing Palestinians in Gaza.

“Since my last visit, the situation has gone from catastrophic to near collapse. UNICEF has described the Gaza Strip as the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. We have said this is a war on children. But these truths do not seem to be getting through,” UNICEF deputy executive director Ted Chaiban lamented Thursday.

The agency estimates that some 20,000 babies have been born in Gaza since October 7 in dangerous conditions, where children under the age of two face “severe risk” of starvation and malnutrition.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said some 8,000 cases of Hepatitis A had been recorded in Gaza amid overcrowding and unsanitary conditions in shelters — further confirming warnings by Palestinian rights organizations that internally displaced Palestinians faced serious threats of epidemic and disease.

“The inhumane living conditions — barely any clean water, clean toilets and possibility to keep the surroundings clean — will enable Hepatitis A to spread further and highlight how explosively dangerous the environment is for the spread of disease,” World Health Organization head Tedros Ghebreyesus wrote on X.

West Bank: Israeli army withdraws from Tulkarem after nearly two-day raid

In the occupied West Bank, armed clashes were reported between Israeli forces and Palestinians in Tulkarem and Nour Shams refugee camps, as well as in the vicinity of the Jalameh checkpoint.

Israeli forces reportedly retreated from Tulkarem refugee camp after 45 hours, one of the longest raids in the West Bank since October 7, leaving behind widespread destruction. WAFA reported that Israeli forces prevented ambulances from reaching wounded Palestinians during the raid, adding that Israeli forces tied the legs of one Palestinian man, identified as Abdulrahman Othman, with a rope and dragged him on the ground.

In a sign of how undeniably the situation in the occupied West Bank has devolved, the BBC reported on the killing of seven Palestinians, including four brothers, earlier this month, compiling evidence from witnesses and paramedics corroborating that the men were neither armed nor constituting a threat when an Israeli airstrike killed them.

While Israeli officials are reportedly discussing transferring the Palestinian Authority tax revenue it has been unlawfully withholding via a third party — seemingly in a bid not to lose face after some ministers’ repeated assertions that the money wouldn’t be sent to the PA — Israeli settlers have seized more lands and established an illegal outpost in the northern occupied West Bank, settlement watchdog Peace Now reported.

Israel: Netanyahu doubles down as his own party plots his exit

Despite growing international outrage and continued calls for a ceasefire within Israel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains steadfastly committed to opposing the establishment of a Palestinian state, implying that he was the only thing standing between Israelis and a two-state solution.

“Whoever is talking about the ‘day after Netanyahu’ is essentially talking about the establishment of a Palestinian state with the Palestinian Authority,” he said during a press conference on Thursday, in which he accused Israeli media of undermining the war efforts, and opposed calls for elections from the Israeli opposition.

The PA presidency responded to Netanyahu’s latest comments, saying it confirmed “that this [Israeli] government is determined to push the entire region into the abyss.”

“The entire region is on the verge of a volcanic eruption due to the aggressive policies pursued by the Israeli occupation authorities against the Palestinian people and their legitimate rights,” Nabil Abu Rdeineh, spokesman for the PA presidency, said on Thursday.

Netanyahu’s comments, which fly in the face of the U.S.’s stated goals for the region, have also garnered criticism within Israel, where some news outlets have called him “delusional.”

In an interview aired on Israel’s Channel 12 on Thursday night, war cabinet minister and former Israeli army chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot said he didn’t believe Israel’s leadership was telling the public the truth.

“Whoever speaks of absolute defeat [of Hamas] is not speaking the truth,” Eisenkot said. “Today, the situation already in the Gaza Strip is such that the goals of the war have not yet been achieved.”

Eisenkot added that he and fellow war cabinet member Benny Gantz thwarted government plans to strike the Lebanese Hezbollah movement in the early days of the war, likely averting an immediate regional escalation.

Even within Netanyahu’s own Likud party, a growing number of members are allegedly planning for a future without the embattled premier, whose corruption trial has resumed since December, at its helm.

Meanwhile, Israel remains committed to discriminating against Palestinians at every level. Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, extended a ban preventing Palestinian prisoners from Gaza from meeting with their lawyers by an additional four months. The country’s much-decried mass distribution of guns to civilians, meanwhile, has unsurprisingly been revealed not to extend to Palestinian citizens of Israel, even if their communities are closer to zones of conflict than other Jewish-majority municipalities.

Biden admits strikes on Yemeni forces don’t work, vows to continue anyway

Yemen’s Ansar Allah rebels continue to target vessels in the Red Sea in solidarity with Palestinians, as the group — commonly known as “the Houthis ” — remains defiant in the face of American and British airstrikes.

U.S. President Joe Biden admitted on Thursday that Washington’s strikes were unlikely to deter the Yemeni group, but showed no sign of reassessing this strategy.

“Well, when you say working, are they [the strikes] stopping the Houthis? No,” Biden told reporters. “Are they gonna continue? Yes.”

Egypt is reportedly holding talks with Ansar Allah and Iran in a bid to de-escalate tensions in the Red Sea, as the international community fears London and Washington are worsening an already volatile situation in the Middle East.

After the umpteenth report that Biden is growing frustrated with Netanyahu, The Guardian revealed on Thursday that the U.S. has for years used “special mechanisms… to shield Israel from U.S. human rights laws, even as other allies’ military units who receive U.S. support — including, sources say, Ukraine — have privately been sanctioned and faced consequences for committing human rights violations.”

Former U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy — after whom the Leahy law, aiming to prevent U.S. complicity in foreign military’s human rights violations, is named — told the British newspaper that he has seen his legacy repeatedly flouted by successive U.S. governments when it came to Israel. “The law has not been applied consistently,” Leahy said, “and what we have seen in the West Bank and Gaza is a stark example of that.”

In the European Union, Parliament members adopted a resolution on Thursday calling for a permanent ceasefire and the resumption of diplomatic efforts to establish a Palestinian state.

Mexico and Chile have meanwhile called for the International Criminal Court to investigate Israel over war crimes committed in Gaza.

The Financial Times reported that unnamed Arab states were working on a ceasefire proposal that would guarantee the release of Israeli hostages and further normalization between Tel Aviv and Arab countries in exchange for “irreversible” steps toward the creation of a Palestinian state.

Protests calling for a ceasefire in Gaza are scheduled to take place on Friday in Yemen, Iraq, Jordan, Germany, Mauritania, the U.S., and Canada, Al Jazeera reported.

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https://mondoweiss.net/2024/01/operation-al-aqsa-flood-day-105-israel-destroys-gazas-last-university-as-netanyahu-doubles-down-on-rejection-of-a-palestinian-state/

Meta censors pro-Palestinian views on a global scale, report claims
Rights group says Facebook and Instagram routinely engage in ‘six key patterns of undue censorship’ of content supporting Palestine

Richard Luscombe
Protesters unfurl the Palestinian flag in front of a sign with the Meta name, symbol and address.
Meta has engaged in a “systemic and global” censorship of pro-Palestinian content since the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza war on 7 October, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch (HRW).

In a scathing 51-page report, the organization documented and reviewed more than a thousand reported instances of Meta removing content and suspending or permanently banning accounts on Facebook and Instagram. The company exhibited “six key patterns of undue censorship” of content in support of Palestine and Palestinians, including the taking down of posts, stories and comments; disabling accounts; restricting users’ ability to interact with others’ posts; and “shadow banning”, where the visibility and reach of a person’s material is significantly reduced, according to HRW.

Examples it cites include content originating from more than 60 countries, mostly in English, and all in “peaceful support of Palestine, expressed in diverse ways”. Even HRW’s own posts seeking examples of online censorship were flagged as spam, the report said.

“Censorship of content related to Palestine on Instagram and Facebook is systemic and global [and] Meta’s inconsistent enforcement of its own policies led to the erroneous removal of content about Palestine,” the group said in the report, citing “erroneous implementation, overreliance on automated tools to moderate content, and undue government influence over content removals” as the roots of the problem.

In a statement to the Guardian, Meta acknowledged it makes errors that are “frustrating” for people, but said that “the implication that we deliberately and systemically suppress a particular voice is false. Claiming that 1,000 examples, out of the enormous amount of content posted about the conflict, are proof of ‘systemic censorship’ may make for a good headline, but that doesn’t make the claim any less misleading.

Meta said it was the only company in the world to have publicly released human rights due diligence on issues related to Israel and Palestine .

“This report ignores the realities of enforcing our policies globally during a fast-moving, highly polarized and intense conflict, which has led to an increase in content being reported to us. Our policies are designed to give everyone a voice while at the same time keeping our platforms safe,” the company’s statement reads.

It is the second time this month that Meta has been challenged over accusations that it routinely silences pro-Palestinian content and voices.

Last week Elizabeth Warren, Democratic senator for Massachusetts, wrote to Meta’s co-founder and chief executive officer, Mark Zuckerberg, demanding information following hundreds of reports from Instagram users dating back to October that their content was demoted or removed, and their accounts subjected to shadow banning.

Alex Hern's weekly dive in to how technology is shaping our lives
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On Tuesday, Meta’s oversight board said the company had been wrong to remove two videos of the conflict in particular from Instagram and Facebook. The board said the videos were valuable for “informing the world about human suffering on both sides”. One showed the aftermath of an airstrike near al-Shifa hospital in Gaza via Instagram, the other a woman being taken hostage during the 7 October attack via Facebook. The clips were reinstated.

Users of Meta’s products have documented what they say is technological bias in favor of pro-Israel content and against pro-Palestinian posts. Instagram’s translation software replaced “Palestinian” followed by the Arabic phrase “Praise be to Allah” to “Palestinian terrorists” in English. WhatsApp’s AI, when asked to generate images of Palestinian boys and girls, created cartoon children with guns, whereas its images Israeli children did not include firearms.

Meta (Facebook and Instagram) censors pro-Palestinian views on a global scale, according to Human Rights Watch
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/dec/21/meta-facebook-instagram-pro-palestine-censorship-human-rights-watch-report

‘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.”

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Israeli officials spell out plans for ethnic cleansing of all Palestinians, as Gaza massacres continue
14 December 2023
Following the United Nations General Assembly vote Tuesday for a ceasefire in Gaza, the Israeli government has not only pledged to continue the war but made clear its plan for an onslaught against the Palestinians across the whole region. Its leaders know they have full license to do so, whatever cynical votes are cast at the UN or statements made to the press by its imperialist backers.

On Wednesday, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen declared, “Israel will continue the war against Hamas, with or without international support.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told military commanders the war would “continue until the end, until the victory, until the elimination of Hamas” and that “nothing will stop us.”


Palestinians look for the survivors of an Israeli strike in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Thursday, November 14, 2023
Around 18,800 people have already been killed in Gaza—over 300 in the last day—with thousands more still trapped, dead or alive, under rubble.

As the World Socialist Web Site explained this week, “When the fascist Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu speaks of ‘Hamas’, he is speaking not of a political organization but of any will to resist on the part of the Palestinian population.”

The implications of this objective for Palestinians everywhere were spelled out by Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, who commented Wednesday, “There will be no Palestinian state here. We will never allow another state to be established between Jordan and the [Mediterranean] sea.” This was, he said, “our country; the historical property of our ancestors.”

Israel’s ambassador to the UK Tzipi Hotovely reiterated the point in an interview with Sky News Thursday morning. Asked about the prospect of a future Palestinian state she replied, “Absolutely no. Israel knows today, and the world should know now that the Palestinians never wanted to have a state next to Israel.”

She added snidely, “They want to have a state from the river to the sea. They are saying it loud and clear.” Hotovely detailed the single Israeli state “from the river to the sea” she and the Zionists want to create in a 2013 essay, “The Five Stage Plan for the Greater Land of Israel”.

She argues that discussion of a two-state solution has “obstructed the most basic desire harboured by a majority of Israeli citizens—not to give up territory that was conquered through blood.”

Her five steps involve declaring full Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank, adopting as a Basic Law the principle of the State of Israel being a Jewish nation state (achieved in 2018), making full Israeli citizenship conditional on service in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), and encouraging the migration of a further two million Jews to Israel to ensure a Jewish majority as Palestinian areas are annexed.


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This would necessarily involve an eruption of violence from the IDF and its far-right vigilante allies. It is because the United States knows and supports this strategy that it has delayed the sale of 20,000 assault rifles to Israel—where they are set to be handed out among fascist settler groups—in an attempt to distance the White House from the worst of the crimes it authors.

What the Israeli state is preparing is a permanent state of war against the entire Palestinian population of the Occupied Territories and Israel itself in pursuit of their expulsion.

On Thursday, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told visiting US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan the war “will require a long period of time—it will last more than several months”. Earlier in the day the Knesset passed a wartime budget adding an additional $7 billion, formally to cover the costs of the Gaza war, though opposition members alleged the funds would be directed to the Settlements and National Projects Ministry.

The IDF has already massively stepped up its aggression in the West Bank. An operation has been ongoing in the city of Jenin since Tuesday, with 12 Palestinians, including children, reported killed, 10 wounded and over 500 rounded up, with some needing medical treatment after “questioning”—roughly 100 are still detained. Raids and bulldozers have destroyed people’s homes and vehicles, and many families are now struggling to access food.

IDF soldiers have provocatively delivered Jewish prayers from mosque loudspeakers, forcing their suspension from operations for giving the game away.

As in Gaza, denying access to healthcare is a clear military objective. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) International announced Wednesday, “Yesterday, a man had to carry his 13-year-old son to Khalil Suleiman hospital because Israeli armoured cars blocked ambulances. The boy died soon after.

“Yesterday and today, Israeli forces tear gassed the hospital in response to children throwing stones at armoured cars…

“Today, after a patient was discharged from hospital and an ambulance attempted to take her home, the ambulance was fired upon, and the same patient was re-admitted with a gunshot wound.”

In another post, the organisation recounted the shooting and killing of an unarmed teenager, Musa Ahmed Musa Khatib, inside the hospital. It described how “Israeli forces stopped ambulances taking discharged patients home outside Khalil Suleiman hospital. Paramedics and ambulance drivers were ordered out of the ambulances, stripped and made to kneel in the street.”

The Jenin operation is now being expanded to local villages, while other raids have been carried out in Ramallah, Qalqilya, Nablus, Jericho, Bethlehem and Hebron. More than 280 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 7, among them 69 children, and at least 4,400 detained.

Attacks in the West Bank replicate the programme being carried out with unrestrained savagery in Gaza, once again under the cover of a telecommunications blackout.

The Gaza Health Ministry reported Thursday that IDF forces occupying the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the north of the strip prevented medical staff from providing emergency care, leading to the deaths of two people. Soldiers reportedly stopped medical staff from moving between departments, and cut off food, electricity and water, including to 12 infants in the neonatal department. Staff and patients were later forcibly evacuated to the hospital yard.

Across Gaza, just 11 out of 36 hospitals are still functioning at all, according to the World Health Organization, and nine out of 28 primary health clinics. The UN has recorded 364 attacks on healthcare facilities in the Strip since October 7, and 300 health ministry staff killed.

The destruction of healthcare infrastructure prepares the way for a catastrophic spread of disease over winter, with flooding that brings with it water borne diseases and hypothermia already a major problem. “The perfect storm for disease has begun,” said UNICEF chief spokesperson James Elder.

Viruses and bacteria will spread like wildfire amid the overcrowded, squalid and starved conditions Israel has forced the population of Gaza into. According to the UN, over half of its people are now sheltering in the Rafah governate in the far south, in a tent mega-slum which has now been inundated with floodwater. In the city of Deir al-Balah further north, images show ambulance workers wading up to their waist in water trying to rescue the injured.

UN Palestinian refugee chief Philippe Lazzarini described the situation in Rafah: “It lacks infrastructure and all the basics. It is not a place to hold more than one million people. One warehouse is home to 30,000 people. Families live in tiny spaces only separated by blankets and plastic sheeting.”

Like the rest of the Strip, Rafah is under regular bombardment, despite the IDF declaring it a safe zone. On Wednesday night, an enormous airstrike obliterated two houses in the city, killing 26 people at a stroke.

Referring to the lack of aid entering Gaza and the increasing difficulty in distributing it, Lazzarini said people were “desperate and hungry.” He added, “Gaza is not habitable as a place anymore.”

While continuing its genocidal assault, Israel and its allies are mounting provocations against Lebanon, Syria and Iran in the hope of a wider war in which every Palestinian can be treated as an enemy combatant.

Iranian Defence Minister Mohammad Reza Ashtiani warned Thursday of “extraordinary problems” if plans go ahead for a US-led military task force in the Red Sea, on the pretext of Houthi rebel attacks on shipping. NBC reported of the “worries grow[ing]” in Lebanon “that Netanyahu won’t stop with Gaza.”

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