ReportWire

Tag: israeli government

  • Google and Amazon’s Israeli cloud contracts reportedly require them to sidestep legal orders

    [ad_1]

    Chalk this one up under “The most clever (alleged) legal sidesteps this side of Tony Soprano.” On Wednesday, The Guardian published a report about a so-called “winking mechanism” regarding Israeli cloud computing contracts with Amazon and Google. The stipulation from 2021’s Project Nimbus is said to require the US companies to send coded messages to Israel. According to the report, whenever Google or Amazon secretly complies with an overseas legal request for Israeli data, they’re required to send money to Israel. The dollar amount indicates which country issued the request.

    The coding system reportedly involves country dialing prefixes. For example, if Google or Amazon hand over Israeli data to the US (dialing code +1), they would send Israel 1,000 shekels. For Italy (code +39), they would send 3,900 shekels. (Out of morbid curiosity, I discovered that the highest dialing code is Uzbekistan’s +998.) There’s reportedly even a failsafe: If a gag order prevents the companies from using the standard signal, they can notify Israel by sending 100,000 shekels.

    The Guardian says Microsoft, which bid for the Nimbus contract, lost out in part because it refused to accept some of Israel’s terms.

    In a statement to Engadget, an Amazon spokesperson highlighted customer privacy. “We respect the privacy of our customers, and we do not discuss our relationship without their consent, or have visibility into their workloads,” they wrote.

    The Amazon spokesperson denied that the company has any underhanded workarounds in place. “We have a rigorous global process for responding to lawful and binding orders for requests related to customer data,” they said. “[Amazon Web Services] carefully reviews each request to assess any non-disclosure obligations, and we maintain confidentiality in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. While AWS does not disclose customer information in response to government demands unless we’re absolutely required to do so, we recognize the legitimate needs of law enforcement agencies to investigate serious crimes. We do not have any processes in place to circumvent our confidentiality obligations on lawfully binding orders.”

    Google also denied any wrongdoing. “The accusations in this reporting are false, and imply that we somehow were involved in illegal activity, which is absurd,” a company spokesperson said. “As is common in public sector agreements, an RFP does not reflect a final contract. The idea that we would evade our legal obligations to the US government as a US company, or in any other country, is categorically wrong.”

    “We’ve been very clear about the Nimbus contract, what it’s directed to, and the Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy that govern it,” the Google spokesperson continued. “Nothing has changed. This appears to be yet another attempt to falsely imply otherwise.”

    We also reached out to the Israeli government for a statement, and we’ll update this story if we hear back. The Guardian’s full report has much more detail on the alleged leak.

    Update, October 29, 2025, 6:29 PM ET: This story has been updated to add a statement from a Google spokesperson.

    [ad_2]

    Will Shanklin

    Source link

  • Israel resumes Gaza strikes, accusing Hamas of ceasefire violations

    [ad_1]

    Nearly three weeks after a ceasefire began in the Gaza war, the Israeli Air Force renewed attacks on the Gaza Strip after the Israeli government accused Hamas of attacking Israeli troops and violating the ceasefire agreement.

    Shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to carry out immediate “powerful” strikes, Palestinian eyewitnesses on Tuesday said the Israeli Air Force was hitting targets around Gaza City.

    The Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that several Palestinians had been killed and wounded in the Tuesday evening attacks in and around Gaza City.

    In the south, at least five people were killed in another airstrike, according to the Hamas-controlled civil defence.

    A spokesman said that children were among them. A vehicle was targeted in the town of Khan Younis in the south of the coastal strip, he said. An Israeli military spokesman said the report was being investigated.

    Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned Hamas that it would pay a “heavy price” for attacking Israeli soldiers in Gaza and violating an agreement on the return of deceased hostages, his office said.

    Katz said Tuesday’s attack by militants in southern Gaza had crossed a “glaring red line” and that the Israeli military would respond with “great force.”

    “Hamas will pay many times over for attacking the soldiers and for violating the agreement to return the fallen hostages,” he added.

    Israel’s Channel 12 reported that Palestinians had attacked soldiers in Rafah earlier on Tuesday, including with a rocket-propelled grenade, and that a sniper was also involved in the assault.

    Hamas delays body handover after new attacks

    The Palestinian Islamist militia announced it would postpone the transfer of another hostage’s remains, which had been scheduled for Tuesday evening, following the renewed Israeli attacks.

    The al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, said on Telegram the delay was a response to “violations by the occupation (Israel).”

    A body had previously been found during search operations in a tunnel in the south of the Gaza Strip, it said, but new Israeli attacks were hindering the searches and the handover.

    Anger over slow hostage remains return

    The Israeli government is angered over what they have called deliberate stalling tactics from Hamas in handing over 28 bodies of hostages, of which 13 must still be returned.

    Hamas says it is difficult to find the dead because they are buried under the rubble of bombed buildings and tunnels.

    On Monday evening, Hamas again handed over human remains, but forensic examinations in Israel revealed that they belonged to an Israeli whose body the army had already brought back to Israel in autumn 2023.

    On Tuesday, the Israeli army released a video that it says shows Hamas members removing a body from a building, burying it in the ground and then calling in representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for the “recovery” of the body. Red Cross staff has to date dealt with the handover of the mortal remains of hostages.

    This triggered great anger and outrage in Israel, and was the reason for Netanyahu’s security consultations on the next steps.

    Repeated ceasefire violations

    Since October 10, Hamas and Israel have accused each other of repeated ceasefire violations. More than 90 Palestinians have already been killed since the latest ceasefire, according to the Hamas-run health authority.

    The trigger for the Gaza war was the massacre by Hamas and other terrorists in Israel on October 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 abducted.

    In subsequent massive Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, more than 68,500 people were killed, according to the Hamas-run health authority.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Israeli committee recommends shutting down Army Radio, Katz to issue decision

    [ad_1]

    Advisory committee to Katz: Shut Army Radio down or suspend current affairs programming • Galgalatz, Army Radio’s music station, is expected to remain open

    The Israeli government must shut down Army Radio or suspend its current affairs programming, an advisory committee set up by Defense Minister Israel Katz found in a report issued to Katz on Tuesday.

    Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed he received the recommendation and is expected to make an announcement shortly. “I thank the committee members for their thorough, serious, and professional work, and for their significant investment in examining all aspects related to the operations of Army Radio,” Katz stated.

    The committee held 19 days of discussion between August and October, and conducted a tour of both Army Radio and Galgalatz, Army Radio’s music station.

    In its recommendation, the committee suggested the station be rebranded in a way that could preserve its unique identity as “the soldiers’ house” by maintaining its programming for IDF soldiers without engaging in current affairs content.

    Incoming defense minister Israel Katz attends a discussion and vote on the inclusion of MK Gideon Saar as a Minister in the government at the plenum hall of the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament in Jerusalem on September 30, 2024. (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)

    This would include the closure of the news department, but the station would still be permitted to broadcast any news flashes produced by KAN, Israel’s public broadcasting corporation.

    The committee was established by Katz in June

    After its establishment, the Defense Ministry stated that the committee would be required to submit its conclusions and recommendations within 90 days, and would examine, among other things, the feasibility, advantages, and disadvantages of various operational options for Army Radio. This would also include the possibility of transferring its management to a civilian body or merging it with an external media organization.

    “At this time, when the State of Israel is engaged in an ongoing campaign on several fronts, it is necessary to reassess how well Army Radio fulfills its mission, and whether it succeeds in being the voice and ears for IDF soldiers and fighters at the front and on the home front,” Katz said.

    “There is no doubt that a comprehensive and significant change is needed, and I intend to implement it after receiving the committee’s recommendations.”

    Earlier this year, MK Nissim Vaturi from the Likud Party proposed a bill to privatize the military station through a tender process, which would be managed by the Second Authority for Television and Radio.

    Additionally, at the end of March, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke out against the Kan 11 Broadcasting Corporation during a cabinet meeting, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi presented Katz with a proposal to close Army Radio.

    In the same meeting, Netanyahu asked, “Why do we even need a military station? The Defense Minister and Communications Minister need to examine the matter of Army Radio.”

    Walla contributed to this report.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Israeli far-right minister Ben-Gvir vows to vote against Gaza deal

    [ad_1]

    Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and his party have announced they plan to vote against an agreement on the first phase of a plan to end the Gaza conflict.

    In a post on X Thursday evening, he wrote that the reason was “the release of thousands of terrorists, including 250 murderers who are expected to be freed from prisons. This is an unbearably heavy price.”

    The Israeli government is expected to approve the deal on Thursday evening and a clear majority in favour of the agreement is expected.

    In return for the release of the remaining hostages, Israel is to release around 250 Palestinian prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment from Israeli prisons. In addition, around 1,700 people imprisoned after October 7, 2023 are to be released.

    Ben-Gvir also repeated his threat to quit the government if Hamas retained influence in Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has assured him this will not happen.

    The plan foresees Gaza being administered by a transitional government of Palestinian technocrats under international supervision once the war ends.

    Hamas has signalled its acceptance of the proposal, though it has not clarified whether it agrees to the demand that it play no role in Gaza’s governance. Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has likewise said his party will oppose the agreement.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • ‘We want our life back’: Tel Aviv protesters celebrate potential ceasefire with Hamas

    [ad_1]

    TEL AVIV — With a heart-shaped balloon in her hand, Gili Coheb-Taguri, a 49-year-old material scientist wearing a Trump mask and a suit matching the president’s sartorial tastes, posed for the array of cameras and smartphones.

    “This? It’s an origami mask,” she said to an inquiring passerby. “And yes, I made it myself.”

    Coheb-Taguri was one of the thousands who came out on Saturday evening to Hostage Square, the courtyard in Tel Aviv that has become the site of weekly protests demanding the Israeli government secure the return of hostages kidnapped by Hamas after Oct. 7, 2023.

    The rally, the first to be held after Hamas accepted President Trump’s ceasefire proposal on Friday, was just one of similar events taking place across Israel. Though the mood was somber, it nevertheless felt more hopeful than most other protests Coheb-Taguri had attended in the last two years.

    “The reason I wore this costume is to thank Trump for what he did. People have been so depressed and when they see Trump here, they smile, ” she said through the mask before she took it off.

    “The key point for us is the hostages,” she said. “It’s been two years and we want them back. We want our life back.”

    The U.S. 20-point plan, which was drafted by the Trump administration with input from Israel and a number of Arab and Muslim nations, would see the Palestinian militant group release all 48 hostages it still has in its custody and hand over the reins of Gaza to a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee overseen by a “Board of Peace” led by Trump.

    Israel, in turn, will return 1,700 detainees from Gaza and 250 prisoners serving life sentences in Israeli jails. It will also enter into a phased withdrawal of the Gaza Strip and will not occupy or annex the enclave. No Gaza resident will be forced to leave, and those who want to return are encouraged to do so.

    Like many in the crowd here Saturday night, Coheb-Taguri and her husband, 52-year-old Yossi Taguri, credited Trump for doing what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to do: broker a deal that would bring back the hostages.

    “We are not our government. Bibi’s interest and our interests are not aligned,” Taguri said, employing Netanyahu’s nickname.

    Critics accuse Netanyahu of extending the war and succumbing to the demands of extremist ministers in his government’s coalition so as to remain in power.

    A woman reacts while listening to speeches by family members of hostages still held by Hamas during a protest in Tel Aviv, Israel.

    (Chris McGrath / Getty Images)

    Hamas will be disarmed and Gaza will be demilitarized

    — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

    Taguri expected Netanyahu would find some way to sabotage the deal once more.

    “How many times have we been in this situation, where everyone agrees and then something happens?” he said. “He will find a way to blow it up.”

    In a video statement released Saturday evening, Netanyahu said that he hoped to announce the return of all hostages “in the coming days” and that the Israeli military would maintain ‘“control of all of the dominant areas deep inside the strip” during the first phase of the agreement.

    He insisted his scorched-earth strategy in Gaza — which has killed more than 67,000 people, health authorities in the enclave say, and left Gaza a lunar-esque landscape of rubble — brought about the change in Hamas’ position.

    Hamas had agreed to a number of previous proposals to end the war, including a ceasefire that took hold in January, but which Israel unilaterally broke in March.

    Netanyahu said he hoped negotiations to finalize the deal would be completed soon. After the hostage handover, he said, “Hamas will be disarmed and Gaza will be demilitarized.”

    “This will happen either through the diplomatic path by the Trump plan or through the military path — at our hands,” he added.

    People chant slogans and hold placards in support of hostages still held by Hamas during a solidarity protest

    People chant slogans and hold signs in support of hostages still held by Hamas.

    (Chris McGrath / Getty Images)

    Hamas has said it will only disarm in the context of handing over its weapons to a Palestinian state. It did not directly address the stipulation to disarm in Trump’s proposal.

    In a post to his social media site Saturday, Trump said, “Hamas must move quickly, or else all bets will be off” and he would “not tolerate delay.”

    He also thanked Israel for what he said was a temporary stoppage of its bombing campaign to give the deal a chance. Israel did not stop bombing: Palestinian health authorities said at least 67 people were killed in Israeli attacks since dawn Saturday. Israeli media reported the military had been told to shift to defensive operations.

    At the rally, thousands took part in call-and-response chants they have memorized over the last two years of the war.

    “Bring them back!” shouted Omer Shem Tov, a hostage freed in a previous prisoner exchange with Hamas. The crowd responded with a loud “Now!”

    Another speaker, actor Lior Ashkenazi, began by thanking Trump.

    Standing among the crowd, Dor Jaliff, a 35-year-old social worker, nodded at the mention of Trump. Though he didn’t count himself a Trump supporter (“I’m not going to run around with a U.S. flag or stuff like that,” he said), he said he nevertheless appreciated the U.S. president’s impact.

    “I wish our government would consider the hostages as the top priority like Trump does. Look, I’m not happy Trump is getting involved in Israel’s affairs, but at least someone is doing the job,” he said.

    As to whether the deal would go through, he said he was trying to remain hopeful.

    “It’s a need to be optimistic. I want to feel optimistic,” he said.

    Also in the crowd, with his wife and son in tow, was 57-year-old Mindy Rabinowitz. On his chest, he wore a sticker with the number 729 — the number of days since the war began.

    A head of a college, Rabinowitz had made it a ritual to come to Hostage Square at least once a month, but often more than that. Yet before the ceasefire announcement on Friday, he wasn’t sure he would come this week. But when he heard that Hamas accepted the deal late Friday night, he thought differently.

    “I turned to my wife and said, ‘Maybe we shouldn’t stay home and watch this on TV. We should go,’” he said.

    “Maybe it’s the last time we’ll be in that square.”

    [ad_2]

    Nabih Bulos

    Source link

  • Over 60 Israeli, Arab peace groups call for recognition of a Palestinian state

    [ad_1]

    A coalition of peace activist groups launched a new campaign, advocating for a peaceful end to the Israel-Hamas War.

    The “It’s Time Coalition,” a collection of over 60 Israeli and Arab pro-two-state solution organizations, began a campaign on Sunday calling for the recognition of a Palestinian state and an end to the Israel-Hamas War.

    The coalition described itself as the largest peace initiative in Israel.

    Activists from the “It’s Time Coalition” call for recognition of a Palestinian state, September 21, 2025. (credit: COURTESY IT’S TIME COALITION)

    The center of the campaign is a two-minute video featuring members of the participating organizations sharing their hopes for peace and urging the Israeli government to accept a two-state solution as suggested at a United Nations conference in July.

    Decrying claims that recognition of a Palestinian state would reward Hamas for the October 7 massacre, the activists state that they believe that “the states partaking in this initiative are on our side,” as the UN resolution calls for an immediate end to the war and thus an end to the “sacrifice of soldier,” “destruction of a people,” and “abandonment” of the 48 hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza.

    Coalition activists regard the proposed UN resolution as “a historic opportunity to move from death to life, from stagnation to progress to a future of security and freedom for both people.”

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a press conferene at the Prime Minister’s office in Jerursalem, September 16, 2025. (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)

    Activists denounce Netanyahu’s ‘Super-Sparta’ speech

    In one section of the video, it is stated that “I will not concede to living in Sparta or in Super-Sparta,” a direct reference to a recent speech given by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The speech was criticized by many as “isolationist.”

    The featured group of activists expressed their desire to work together, across cultural and religious differences, to create a “different reality of peace, security, compassion, and justice,” asserting that “it’s time” to bring about an end to the almost two year war.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Netherlands join boycott of Eurovision 2026 over Israeli participation

    [ad_1]

    The crisis deepens for Eurovision.

    Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS has announced it will boycott next year’s Eurovision Song Contest if Israel is included in the competition, thereby joining Slovenia, Iceland, Spain and Ireland in boycotting the event should the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) keep Israel on the line-up.

    In a statement, AVROTROS said: “The Eurovision Song Contest was founded in 1956 to bring people together after a period of deep division and war. Since its inception seventy years ago, music has been at the heart of the Contest as a unifying force, with peace, equality, and respect as its core values.” However, the broadcaster continued to say that it could “no longer justify Israel’s participation in the current situation, given the ongoing and severe human suffering in Gaza”.

    Like Ireland’s broadcaster RTÉ, AVROTROS’ statement also cites concerns about press freedom, and alleged there was “proven evidence of interference by the Israeli government” during the 2025 contest, and claimed Israel had used the event “as a political instrument”.

    It continued: “Human suffering, the suppression of press freedom and political interference are at odds with the values of public broadcasting.”

    The announcement by RTÉ this week also raised concerns about the targeting of journalists and denial of media access to Gaza.

    Earlier this week, Spanish Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun spoke out about Spain’s participation in Eurovision next year. Euronews Culture reported that Spain also threatened to withdraw from the contest if Israel is kept on the line-up.

    “I don’t think we can normalise Israel’s participation in international events as if nothing is happening,” said Urtasun during an interview on La hora de La 1 on TVE. “It is not an individual artist who participates but someone who participates on behalf of that country’s citizens.”

    Urtasun said that if Israel participated in 2026 “and we fail to expel it, measures will have to be taken” – as cited by the Spanish daily newspaper La Vanguardia – and reminded viewers that Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez previously called on EBU to ban Israel from the international competition.

    In May, Sánchez called on the EBU to exclude Israel, saying that “no one was shaking their heads” when Russia was banned from international competitions and Eurovision after its invasion of Ukraine. He called for the same ban to be applied to Israel over the Gaza war.

    Urtasun specified that it is not antisemitic to denounce the “genocide” taking place in Gaza and described Israel as a “genocidal government.”

    Pro-Palestinian demonstrators gather for a protest against the participation of Israeli contestant Eden Golan ahead of the final of Eurovision in Malmo, Sweden – 11 May 2024 – AP Photo

    Eurovision has been caught up in political tensions over Israel’s participation for two years now, and the aforementioned countries join more than 70 former Eurovision contestants who signed an open letter demanding Israel and its national broadcaster KAN be banned from the contest.

    The winner of last year’s Eurovision, Austrian singer JJ, has said that he too wants Israel to be banned from the Eurovision 2026.

    The EBU has extended its penalty-free withdrawal deadline to December, when a final decision on Israel’s participation is expected at the General Assembly.

    Since Hamas’ attack on Israeli citizens on October 7, 2023, multiple UN human rights experts have stated that Israel’s military actions in Gaza amount to genocide, with the International Court of Justice finding claims of genocide plausible.

    Last month, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification announced that people in the Gaza Strip are officially facing “a man-made” famine in the territory – despite what the Israeli government has said.

    The 70th anniversary edition of Eurovision is due to take place in Vienna, Austria.The finale will take place on 16 May after the semi-finals on 12 and 14 May 2026.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Australia denies Iran action due to ‘intervention’ by Israel’s Netanyahu

    [ad_1]

    Australia has dismissed a claim that Israeli interventions prompted the government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to expel Iran’s ambassador to Canberra, after the premier blamed Tehran for directing anti-Semitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne.

    “Complete nonsense,” Australian Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke told ABC Radio on Wednesday, when asked about Israel claiming credit for Australia’s decision to order Tehran’s ambassador, Ahmad Sadeghi, to leave the country.

    Albanese said on Tuesday that Australia had reached “the deeply disturbing conclusion” through “credible intelligence” that found Iran’s government had “directed” at least two attacks against Australia’s Jewish community.

    Responding to a question from the ABC about Australia’s allegations against Iran, Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer had commended Australia for taking “threats seriously” against the Jewish community, which he said had come after a “forthright intervention” from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

    Mencer said Netanyahu had “made very forthright comments about the [Australian] prime minister himself”, which spurred Albanese to action.

    “He made those comments because he did not believe that the actions of the Australian government had gone anywhere near far enough to address the issues of anti-Semitism,” Mencer added.

    The ABC included Mencer’s comments in an article titled: “Israeli government claims credit for pushing Albanese to expel Iranian diplomats.”

    Netanyahu last week accused Albanese of being “a weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia’s Jews”, days after Albanese announced Australia would move to formally recognise a Palestinian state in September.

    Iran said it “absolutely rejected” Australia’s accusations regarding the attacks and noted that the claims had come after Australia had directed “limited criticism” at Israel.

    “It seems that this action is taken in order to compensate for the limited criticism the Australian side has directed at the Zionist regime [Israel],” Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said.

    “Any inappropriate and unjustified action on a diplomatic level will have a reciprocal reaction,” Baghaei said.

    Ilana Lenk, the spokesperson and head of public diplomacy at Israel’s embassy in Canberra, shared Australian newspaper front pages with headlines including, ‘Iran attacks us’ and ‘Iran targets Bondi deli’, in a post on social media.

    “We warned Iran wouldn’t stop with Israel or the Jewish people. The West is next isn’t just a slogan, and today Australia sees it,” she wrote.

    In a statement, the Jewish Council of Australia said it was “shocked to learn of the Iranian government involvement in coordinating antisemitic attacks”.

    “The fact that a foreign government appears to be responsible shows how irresponsible it was for the attacks to be used to demonise the Palestine solidarity protest movement ,” the council said in a statement.

    “We call on politicians and the media to exercise caution and to avoid politicisation of these attacks in a way that could further harm the Jewish community,” the statement added.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Israeli Military Says Its Forces Have Entered Gaza Hospital

    Israeli Military Says Its Forces Have Entered Gaza Hospital

    [ad_1]

    KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Israeli military entered Gaza’s largest hospital early Wednesday, conducting what it called a “precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area” of the facility, which has been the site of a standoff with the militant group.

    The army surrounded the facility as part of its ground offensive against Hamas. Israeli authorities claim the militants conceal military operations in the facility. But with hundreds of patients and medical personnel inside, Israeli authorities have refrained from entering.

    In recent weeks, Israeli defense forces have “publicly warned time and again that Hamas’ continued military use of the Shifa Hospital jeopardizes its protected status under international law,” the military said.

    “Yesterday, the IDF conveyed to the relevant authorities in Gaza once again that all military activities within the hospital must cease within 12 hours. Unfortunately, it did not.”

    Hamas has denied the Israeli accusations that it uses the hospital for cover.

    Military officials gave no further details but said they were taking steps to avoid harm to civilians.

    The operation unfolded after the military seized broader control of northern Gaza on Tuesday, including capturing the territory’s legislature building and its police headquarters, in gains that carried high symbolic value in the country’s quest to crush the ruling Hamas militant group.

    Meanwhile, Israeli defense officials said they have agreed to allow fuel shipments into the Gaza Strip for humanitarian operations. It was the first time that Israel has allowed fuel into the besieged territory since the Hamas militant group’s bloody cross-border invasion on Oct. 7.

    Inside some of the captured buildings, soldiers held up the Israeli flag and military flags in celebration. In a nationally televised news conference, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Hamas had “lost control” of northern Gaza and that Israel made significant gains in Gaza City.

    But asked about the time frame for the war, Gallant said: “We’re talking about long months, not a day or two.”

    One Israeli commander in Gaza, identified only as Lt. Col. Gilad, said in a video that his forces near Shifa Hospital had seized government buildings, schools and residential buildings where they found weapons and eliminated fighters.

    The army said it had captured the legislature, the Hamas police headquarters and a compound housing Hamas’ military intelligence headquarters. The buildings are powerful symbols, but their strategic value was unclear. Hamas fighters are believed to be positioned in underground bunkers.

    For days, the Israeli army has encircled Shifa Hospital, the facility it says Hamas hides in, and beneath, to use civilians as shields for its main command base. Hospital staff and Hamas deny the claim.

    Hundreds of patients, staff and displaced people were trapped inside, with supplies dwindling and no electricity to run incubators and other lifesaving equipment. After days without refrigeration, morgue staff on Tuesday dug a mass grave in the yard for more than 120 bodies, officials said.

    Elsewhere, the Palestinian Red Crescent said Tuesday it had evacuated patients, doctors and displaced families from another Gaza City hospital, Al-Quds.

    Israel has vowed to end Hamas rule in Gaza after the militants’ Oct. 7 attack into Israel in which they killed some 1,200 people and took roughly 240 hostages. The Israeli government has acknowledged it doesn’t know what it will do with the territory after Hamas’ defeat.

    The onslaught — one of the most intense bombardments so far this century — has been disastrous for Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians.

    More than 11,200 people, two-thirds of them women and minors, have been killed in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah. About 2,700 people have been reported missing. The ministry’s count does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths.

    Almost the entire population of Gaza has squeezed into the southern two-thirds of the tiny territory, where conditions have been deteriorating even as bombardment there continues. About 200,000 fled the north in recent days, the U.N. said Tuesday, though tens of thousands are believed to remain.

    The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said Tuesday that its fuel storage facility in Gaza is empty and that it will soon end relief operations, including bringing limited supplies of food and medicine in from Egypt for more than 600,000 people sheltering in schools and other facilities in the south.

    “Without fuel, the humanitarian operation in Gaza is coming to an end. Many more people will suffer and will likely die,” said Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of UNRWA. Israel has repeatedly rejected allowing fuel into Gaza, saying it will be diverted by Hamas for military use.

    Fighting has raged for days around Shifa Hospital, a complex several city blocks across at the center of Gaza City that has now “turned into a cemetery,” its director said in a statement.

    The Health Ministry said 40 patients, including three babies, have died since Shifa’s emergency generator ran out of fuel Saturday. Another 36 babies are at risk of dying because there is no power for incubators, according to the ministry.

    The Israeli military said it started an effort to transfer incubators to Shifa. But they would be useless without electricity, said Christian Lindmeier, a World Health Organization spokesman.

    The Health Ministry has proposed evacuating the hospital with the supervision of the International Committee of the Red Cross and transferring the patients to hospitals in Egypt, but has not received any response, ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said.

    While Israel says it is willing to allow staff and patients to evacuate, some Palestinians who have made it out say Israeli forces have fired at evacuees.

    Israel says its claims of a Hamas command center in and beneath Shifa are based on intelligence, but it has not provided visual evidence to support them. Denying the claims, the Gaza Health Ministry says it has invited international organizations to investigate the facility.

    The evacuation at the Al-Quds Hospital followed “more than 10 days of siege, during which medical and humanitarian supplies were prevented from reaching the hospital,” Palestinian Red Crescent officials said.

    In a post on X, they blamed the Israeli army for bombarding the hospital and firing at those inside.

    The White House’s national security council spokesperson, John Kirby, said the U.S. has unspecified intelligence that Hamas and another Palestinian militants use Shifa and other hospitals and tunnels underneath them to support military operations and hold hostages.

    The intelligence is based on multiple sources, and the U.S. independently collected the information, a U.S. official said on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

    Kirby said the U.S. doesn’t support airstrikes on hospitals and does not want to see “a firefight in a hospital where innocent people” are trying to get care.

    Hamas released a video late Monday showing one of the hostages, 19-year-old Noa Marciano, before and after she was killed in what Hamas said was an Israeli strike. The military later declared her a fallen soldier, without identifying a cause of death.

    She is the first hostage confirmed to have died in captivity. Four were released by Hamas and a fifth was rescued by Israeli forces.

    Families and supporters of the around 240 people being held hostage by Hamas started a protest march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The plight of the hostages has dominated public discourse since the Oct. 7 attack, with solidarity protests held across the country. The marchers, who expect to reach Jerusalem on Saturday, say the government must do more to bring home their loved-ones.

    “Where are you?” Shelly Shem Tov, whose son, Omer, 21, is among the captives, called out to Netanyahu.

    “We have no strength anymore. We have no strength. Bring back our children and our families home.”

    Independent accounts of the fighting in Gaza City have been nearly impossible to gather, as communications to the north have largely collapsed.

    Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said Israeli forces have completed the takeover of Shati refugee camp, a densely built district bordering Gaza City’s center, and are moving about freely in the city as a whole.

    Videos released by the Israeli military show troops moving through the city, firing into buildings. Bulldozers push down structures as tanks roll through streets surrounded by partially collapsed towers.

    The videos portray a battle where troops are rooting out pockets of Hamas fighters and tearing down buildings they find them in, while gradually dismantling the group’s tunnel network.

    Israel says it has killed several thousand fighters, including important mid-level commanders, while 46 of its own soldiers have been killed in Gaza. In recent days Hamas rocket fire into Israel — constant throughout the war — has waned, though two people were wounded Tuesday in a rocket attack on Tel Aviv. Details of the Israeli account and the extent of Hamas losses could not be independently confirmed.

    Jeffery and Keath reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Amy Teibel in Jerusalem, Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip; and Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.

    Full AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Until Everyone Is Free: My Jewish, Anti-Zionist and Antiracist Journey Toward Collective Liberation

    Until Everyone Is Free: My Jewish, Anti-Zionist and Antiracist Journey Toward Collective Liberation

    [ad_1]

    I grew up half Jewish and half Italian-Catholic. I made jokes about how these different identities left me mostly confused. Had Jesus risen again or not? I thought I had to choose one side rather than celebrating all the parts within myself, so I almost erased my Jewish half. I learned how to make risotto, but not matzah ball soup. 

    Christianity is the dominant culture in the United States and obscures the other religions. People would always say Merry Christmas to me, assuming everyone celebrated it, assuming it was the only holiday. I unconsciously accepted that and embraced my Catholic heritage more. I learned gospel hymns, but never learned the Hebrew blessings sung on Shabbat. 

    In addition to being stifled by Christianity’s dominant force, I also grew up internalizing sexism, striving to be like the men I deemed superior, by playing jazz and chess, composing music, reading philosophy, being stoic, and working hard.

    Weighed down by sexism from without and within, I was unaware of the ways I was also part of oppressive systems. In undergraduate jazz school I was so anxious about playing equally to men that I didn’t wake up to systemic racism. I took a jazz history class, where I learned about the racism Black musicians endured, but that felt like history, miles away. I couldn’t see my white privilege because I only noticed how inferior I felt to my male classmates.

    It wasn’t until I was 30 that I realized I had spent most of my life trying to prove I was as good as men, and this had distracted me from other issues. It wasn’t until I was 32, when I made a joke about Jewish people, that my Jewish friend let me know what I said was antisemitic.

    “But I’m Jewish!” I said, stunned. 

    It turns out antisemitism is everywhere. 

    Even inside me. 

    In my thirties, when I finally uncovered the side of me that was Jewish and uprooted my internalized antisemitism, I found the joy of being Jewish: dressing up for glittery Purim events in Brooklyn; going to a feminist, antiracist synagogue; and connecting to a community of inspiring Jewish activists. The more I learned about Jewish traditions, the more I realized there was so much of Judaism already flowing through me without me even knowing: my connection to the moon, my eco-spirituality, my humor, my animated hand gestures. 

    As I became in touch with the Jewish part of me that was lost and erased, I also learned about the Israeli government’s erasure and deliberate killing of a large amount of Palestinian people. US media and Zionist culture declare that Israel and Palestine are in conflict, it’s complicated, and there are two sides. But 5,590 Palestinians were killed from 2008-2020 compared to 251 Israelis killed. Human Rights Watch has declared Israel to be guilty of apartheid and human rights crimes. Israel has the largest army in the Middle East, funded by the US government’s aid of 3.8 billion dollars a year. Hamas, meanwhile, has rocks and rockets that are easily intercepted by Israel’s military system. Israel is the one with the power, and their government uses it to oppress and kill the Palestinian people.

    My Grandma had always talked about her love of Israel, and I absorbed that without any questions for too long. The truth of Israel’s aggression was hidden in plain sight. 

    Just as I first had to embrace Judaism within myself, and then awoke more to the antisemitism around me, so I learned about Zionism and Israel’s mass killings of Palestinians. The uncovering never ends, just like my battle with sexism delayed my awakening to racism. Different oppressions conceal other oppressions. Until they don’t anymore. Until we wake up from our individual struggles and realize how the system wants to keep people separated. 

    The veil that kept me isolated in my own struggle of sexism and antisemitism also became the path toward connection. Once we know there is a veil, we can then see through it, leading us to pursue solidarity with other causes. We can see how all the struggles overlap — that the Black Lives Matter movement is part of Palestinian liberation, part of queer and trans liberation, part of reproductive rights and feminism — that the intersection of all these injustices is where our community power lies. 

    When white supremacists stormed the capital on January 6th, some wore shirts that said “6MWE.” My stomach churned when I saw on Facebook what that meant: “6 Million Wasn’t Enough.” 

    I texted a friend: They’re talking about the Holocaust. They’re talking about me. 

    Some people hate me, which is sickening, and I am not going to hate or oppress anyone else. I know that it is, in the words of Jewish organization If Not Now, a “false choice between Palestinian freedom and Jewish safety.” The intergenerational trauma from the Holocaust has created an extreme militant Israeli government unable to see they are now harming others. Israel’s government is stuck in a pattern they feel is defensive but is actually violently aggressive. This round of Israeli bombing in May killed at least 256 Palestinians in Gaza, including 67 children, displaced tens of thousands, destroyed hospitals, schools, sewage systems, clean drinking water supplies, and the only COVID testing site. In contrast, thirteen Israelis were killed. That’s not Israel acting in defense — that is aggressive and violent, a series of human rights violations. When you bombard an area densely populated with civilians who are unable to escape, that’s a deliberate and horrific mass killing. That’s a war crime.

    The more I dig into the rich and beautiful culture of Judaism, I learn that there is a long history of anti-Zionism within Judaism. The Judaism that I know and love wants basic human rights for all people. If Not Now states, “Palestinian liberation and dismantling antisemitism are intertwined … We will not be pitted against each other … We won’t be distracted from our fight for freedom and safety for all people.” No one is free until everyone is free, and that includes Palestinians oppressed under apartheid; Black, brown, and Indigenous people brutalized and killed by the police in the US; transgender people who are horrifically murdered; Jews experiencing hate crimes; and people in other countries fighting totalitarian and fascist governments. Our liberation is bound up in each other’s.

    Still, some people try to link any opposition to Israel’s government as being antisemitic. As Palestinian-American writer and policy analyst Yousef Munayyer writes, “When people turn humanizing Palestinians into antisemitism, they not only enable the continued dehumanization of Palestinians but they also cheapen antisemitism by cynically weaponizing it.” 

    I, an American Jew, stand with Jews all around the world in protest of Israel’s government, because I know injustice, war crimes, human rights violations, and apartheid when I see them. I will fight for the rights of marginalized people until everyone is free.

    [Feature image: Close-up of barbed wire with the golden Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem visible in the distance under a blue sky. Source: @RJA1988 for Pixabay.]

    Mare Berger is a singer-songwriter, pianist, teacher, writer, improviser, gardener, and activist living in Brooklyn, NY. In April 2020 Mare released an album “The Moon is Always Full” featuring their original lyrics, songs and orchestration. You can buy Mare’s album here. Follow Mare @maremoonsong. Listen to music and read more of their writings at marielberger.com.

    TBINAA is an independent, queer, Black woman run digital media and education organization promoting radical self love as the foundation for a more just, equitable and compassionate world. If you believe in our mission, please contribute to this necessary work at PRESSPATRON.com/TBINAA 

    We can’t do this work without you!

    As a thank you gift, supporters who contribute $10+ (monthly) will receive a copy of our ebook, Shed Every Lie: Black and Brown Femmes on Healing As Liberation. Supporters contributing $20+ (monthly) will receive a copy of founder Sonya Renee Taylor’s book, The Body is Not An Apology: The Power of Radical Self Love delivered to your home. 

    Need some help growing into your own self love? Sign up for our 10 Tools for Radical Self Love Intensive!

    [ad_2]

    Imogen Prism

    Source link