Tag: Israel

  • One year of genocide: Films that tell Gaza’s story of struggle and hope

    One year of genocide: Films that tell Gaza’s story of struggle and hope

    Today marks a year since the genocide in Gaza began.  There is no better way to show the power of storytelling than through films and documentaries. 

    These powerful stories not only show the pain and loss that Palestinians are subjected to by Israel but also highlight the strength and hope of the people of Gaza as they continue to fight for justice and peace.

    Documentaries like ‘Gaza Fights for Freedom’ show us a look at life in Gaza during protests, showing the courage of those standing up for their rights. It also tells us about resilience in their stand on the Great March of Return protest.  It was released in 2019 and directed by Abby Martin.
     

    Hernan Zin’s documentary ‘Born in Gaza’ follows the lives of children in Gaza during and after Israel’s 2014 assault, showing the devasting effect of genocide on young children.

  • ‘Bugging device found in bathroom after Netanyahu meeting,’ reveals Boris Johnson

    ‘Bugging device found in bathroom after Netanyahu meeting,’ reveals Boris Johnson

    Former Prime Minister (PM) of Britain Boris Johnson has disclosed that after meeting with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a bugging device was found in his bathroom of the foreign office.

    Boris Johnson wrote in his memoir, “Unleashed”, that in 2017, when he was Britain’s Foreign Secretary, Israel’s PM went to the bathroom after meeting with him; when he came out, the security discovered the listening device which Netanyahu had used during their meeting, The Telegraph reported.

    Johnson further wrote, “Thither Bibi repaired for a while, and it may or may not be a coincidence, but I am told that later when they were doing a regular sweep for bugs, they found a listening device in the thunderbox.”

    The former Tory MP said Mr Netanyahu had excused himself during talks at his old office to use the washroom, described as “a secret annex… a bit like the gents in a posh London club.”

    It should be mentioned here that in 2019 the United States (US) accused Israel of placing cellphone surveillance devices near the White House and other key locations in Washington, DC.

  • US, Israel warn of response to Iranian missile attack

    US, Israel warn of response to Iranian missile attack

    The United States said it was discussing a joint response after Iran fired a barrage of missiles at Israel, warning Tehran of “severe consequences”.

    Israel vowed it would make Iran “pay” after the attack late Tuesday, with most of the missiles intercepted, and pledged to immediately strike “the Middle East powerfully”.

    Tehran, in turn, threatened to strike infrastructure across Israel if its territory was attacked.

    President Joe Biden said the United States was “fully supportive” of Israel after the missile attack, adding that he would discuss a response with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

    Asked by reporters what the response towards Iran would be, Biden replied: “That’s in active discussion right now.”

    Missiles shot down

    Sirens sounded across Israel after Iran unleashed the missiles, most of which were intercepted by Israeli air defences or by allied air forces.

    Iranian state media reported 200 missiles were fired at Israel, including hypersonic weapons for the first time, which the Revolutionary Guards said had targeted “three military bases” around Tel Aviv and others elsewhere.

    Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on social media platform X that Tehran’s “action is concluded unless the Israeli regime decides to invite further retaliation”.

    The Revolutionary Guards earlier said the attack was in response to Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last week, as well as the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in a Tehran bombing widely blamed on Israel.

    Israeli medics reported two people lightly injured by shrapnel. In the occupied West Bank, a Palestinian was killed in Jericho “when pieces of a rocket fell from the sky and hit him”, the city’s governor, Hussein Hamayel, told AFP.

    It was Iran’s second direct attack on Israel after a missile and drone attack in April in response to a deadly Israeli air strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus.

    ‘Severe consequences’

    US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin slammed an “outrageous act of aggression” by Iran, while Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters there would be “severe consequences”.

    Netanyahu said, “Iran made a big mistake tonight and will pay for it.”

    Iran reacted by threatening to fire “with bigger intensity” if its territory is attacked, with Major General Mohammad Bagheri warning Tehran would target “all infrastructure” in Israel.

    Following the missile barrage, Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari vowed the air force “will continue to strike (tonight) in the Middle East powerfully”.

    The military subsequently announced it was bombarding Hezbollah targets in Beirut, with a Lebanese security source telling AFP that Israel had hit the city’s southern suburbs at least five times overnight.

    UN chief Antonio Guterres led international calls to stem the “broadening conflict in the Middle East”, saying in a statement: “This must stop. We absolutely need a ceasefire.”

    While Iran-backed groups across the region had already been drawn into the Gaza genocide, sparked after October 7, Tehran had largely refrained from direct attacks on its regional enemy.

    Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country had exercised its “legitimate rights” and dealt “a decisive response… to the Zionist regime’s aggression”.

    Israel, Iraq and Jordan — which lie between Iran and Israel — closed their airspace, as did Lebanon before reopening.

    US boosts forces

    The escalation came after the Israeli military said early Tuesday that troops had started “targeted ground raids” in south Lebanon, across Israel’s northern border.

    The move came despite growing calls for de-escalation after a week of air strikes that killed hundreds in Lebanon.

    Lebanon’s health ministry said later that the latest Israeli strikes had killed a further 55 people on Tuesday.

    Lebanon’s disaster management agency said 1,873 people had been killed since Israel and Hezbollah began trading cross-border fire after the Gaza genocide started a year ago.

    Iran has said Nasrallah’s killing would bring about Israel’s “destruction”, though its foreign ministry said Monday that Tehran would not deploy any troops to confront Israel.

    The Pentagon said Washington was boosting its forces in the Middle East by a “few thousand” troops.

    Deadly strikes on Gaza

    In Lebanon, the UN peacekeeping mission said the Israeli offensive did not amount to a “ground incursion”, and Hezbollah denied that any troops had crossed the border.

    There was no way to immediately verify the claims, which came as Israel struck south Beirut, Damascus and Gaza.

    Israel says it seeks to dismantle Hezbollah’s military capabilities and restore security to northern Israel, where tens of thousands have been displaced by nearly a year of cross-border fire.

    Hezbollah, which suffered heavy losses in a spate of attacks last month, said it targeted Israeli military bases on Tuesday.

    In Gaza, the civil defence agency said Israeli bombings killed 19 people on Tuesday.

    The Israeli military said troops opened fire Tuesday on “dozens” of Palestinians in central Gaza they saw as an “immediate threat”. At least some were hit, it added.

    While the death toll in Israel stands at 1205, more than 41,638 people in Gaza have been killed so far since last year.

    ‘Lost my home’

    Hezbollah began low-intensity strikes on Israeli troops a day after October 7, which triggered Israel’s devastating assault on Gaza.

    The escalating violence in Lebanon has killed more than 1,000 people since September 17, Health Minister Firass Abiad said.

    Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said there could be as many as one million people displaced from their homes in the country, with authorities registering almost 240,000 crossings into Syria since September 23.

    In central Beirut, Youssef Amir, displaced from southern Lebanon, said: “I have lost my home and relatives in this war, but all of that is a sacrifice for Lebanon, for Hezbollah”.

    Beirut resident Elie Jabour, 27, told AFP that despite opposing Hezbollah “politically… I support them defending the border”.

  • Pope slams Israel for ‘immoral’ use of force in Gaza and Lebanon

    Pope slams Israel for ‘immoral’ use of force in Gaza and Lebanon

    Pope Francis on Sunday slammed the “immoral” use of force in Lebanon and Gaza amid ongoing Israeli strikes in both places.

    “A country that acts this way with force, no matter the country, and that acts in such an excessive manner, (lends itself to) immoral actions,” said Francis when asked about the consequences of Israeli airstrikes on civilians aboard a flight back to Rome from Belgium.

    “Defence must always be proportional to the attack. When this is not the case, a dominating tendency appears that goes beyond morality,” the 87-year-old pontiff said in Italian.

    “Even in war there is a morality to defend. War is immoral, but the rules of war indicate a form of morality,” Francis said.

    “But when you don’t do this … you see the bad blood of these things,” he said.

    The death of Hassan Nasrallah has sent shockwaves throughout Lebanon and the Middle East, where he has been a key political and military figure for more than three decades.

  • Nearly 500 dead in Israeli strikes on Lebanon

    Nearly 500 dead in Israeli strikes on Lebanon

    Israeli air strikes on Lebanon killed at least 492 people on Monday, including 35 children, the health ministry said, marking the deadliest day of cross-border violence since the Gaza genocide began.

    Arab states strongly condemned Israel for the escalating hostilities with Hezbollah, which have intensified to levels unseen in nearly a year.

    Israel said it killed a “large number” of Hezbollah fighters when it hit about 1,600 sites in southern and eastern Lebanon, including a “targeted strike” in Beirut in what the Israeli military called “Operation Northern Arrows”.

    Hezbollah said Ali Karake, its third-in-command, was alive and had moved to safety after a source said the strike on the capital targeted him.

    The group said early Tuesday it had launched “volleys” of missiles at Israeli military sites after state media reported new raids in eastern Lebanon.

    People in Israel’s coastal city of Haifa were seen running for cover on Monday when air raid sirens sounded.

    Lebanon’s health ministry said the strikes killed 492 people, including 35 children and 58 women, and wounded 1,645 others. Health Minister Firass Abiad said “thousands of families” had been displaced.

    Explosions near the ancient city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon sent smoke billowing into the sky.

    “We sleep and wake up to bombardment… that’s what our life has become,” said Wafaa Ismail, 60, a housewife from the southern village of Zawtar.

    ‘Most difficult week for Hezbollah’

    Global powers urged Israel and Hezbollah to step back from the brink of all-out war as the violence shifted from Israel’s southern border with Gaza to its northern frontier with Lebanon.

    France and Egypt called on the United Nations Security Council to intervene, while Iraq requested an urgent meeting of Arab states on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

    Israeli army chief Herzi Halevi said the strikes hit combat infrastructure Hezbollah had been building for two decades.

    Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant called Monday “a significant peak” in the operation.

    “This is the most difficult week for Hezbollah since its establishment –- the results speak for themselves,” he said.

    “Entire units were taken out of battle as a result of the activities conducted at the beginning of the week in which numerous terrorists were injured.”

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was acting to change the “security balance” in the north.

    Hezbollah wave of rockets

    Hezbollah, which has been trading near-daily fire with Israel in support of Hamas, said it was in a “new phase” of confrontation.

    The group said it launched rockets at Israeli military sites near Haifa and two bases in retaliation for Israeli strikes on the south and the Bekaa.

    The attack came after an Israeli strike on southern Beirut on Friday killed its elite Radwan Force commander, Ibrahim Aqil, and coordinated communications device blasts that Hezbollah blamed on Israel killed 39 people and wounded almost 3,000 on Tuesday and Wednesday.

    Since the cross-border exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah began in October, tens of thousands of people on both sides have fled their homes.

    An Israeli military official, who cannot be further identified under military rules, said the operation seeks to “degrade threats” from Hezbollah, push them back from the border, and then to destroy infrastructure.

    Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati urged the United Nations and world powers to deter what he called Israel’s “plan that aims to destroy Lebanese villages and towns”.

    ‘Full-fledged war’ nearing

    US President Joe Biden, whose country is Israel’s main ally and weapons supplier, said Washington was “working to de-escalate in a way that allows people to return home safely”.

    The Pentagon said it was sending a small number of additional US military personnel to the Middle East after thousands were deployed earlier alongside warships, fighter jets and air defence systems.

    A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity at the UN General Assembly, said that Washington opposed an Israeli ground invasion targeting Hezbollah and had “concrete ideas” on how to de-escalate the crisis.

    G7 foreign ministers said in a joint statement that “no country stands to gain” from escalating conflict, warning of “unimaginable consequences” if a regional war broke out.

    EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell warned that Israel and Hezbollah were “almost in full-fledged war”, ahead of a gathering of world leaders at the United Nations.

    UN chief Antonio Guterres was “gravely alarmed” by civilian casualties in Lebanon, his spokesman said.

    The United Nations peacekeeping force in south Lebanon warned “any further escalation of this dangerous situation could have far-reaching and devastating consequences”.

    Qatar, a mediator in Gaza ceasefire talks, said Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon “puts the region on the brink of the abyss”, while Turkey said the strikes threatened “chaos” and Jordan urged an immediate end to the escalation “before it is too late”.

    The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned the strikes and ordered Palestinian medical staff in Lebanon to provide support for the wounded.

    Iran’s newly elected president, Masoud Pezeshkian, accused Israel of seeking “to create this wider conflict”.

    Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.

    Of the 251 hostages also seized by militants, 97 are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.

    Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has massacred at least 41,455 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by Gaza’s health ministry. The UN has described the figures as reliable.

  • Jewish filmmaker Sarah Friedland slams Israel during her acceptance speech at Venice Film Festival awards

    Jewish filmmaker Sarah Friedland slams Israel during her acceptance speech at Venice Film Festival awards

    Jewish- American filmmaker Sarah Friedland spoke out against Israel’s genocide of Gaza during an awards ceremony at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday. While accepting the Luigi de Laurentiis prize for best first film for ‘Familiar Touch,’ Sarah Friedland said, “I’m accepting this award on the 336th day of Israel’s genocide in Gaza and 76th year of occupation,” as loud applause broke out in the packed hall.

    “I believe it is our responsibility as filmmakers to use the institutional platforms through which we work to redress Israel’s impunity on the global stage. I stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine and their struggle for liberation,” Friedland stressed as the applause continued.
     
     Israel’s genocide in Gaza has now entered its 12th month, with over 40,939 people killed and 94,619 wounded since October 7, 2023.

  • Normalisation of ties with Israel puts Mohammad Bin Salman’s life at risk

    Normalisation of ties with Israel puts Mohammad Bin Salman’s life at risk

    Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman (MBS) is at risk of assassination amid his normalisation of ties with Israel, reports Politico, a U.S.-based publication.

    MBS reportedly told a U.S. Congress member that he is risking his life for a significant deal with the U.S. and Israel.

    Posing a question to the U.S., he said, “What did they do to protect Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat, who was assassinated after making a peace deal with Israel?”

    The crown prince, however, is reportedly determined to pursue the mega-deal with the U.S. and Israel despite the threats, deeming it pivotal to his country’s future.

  • Western ambassadors to skip Nagasaki memorial after Japan exclude Israel

    Western ambassadors to skip Nagasaki memorial after Japan exclude Israel

    Ambassadors from Western countries including the United States will skip a ceremony marking the 79th anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki after Israel was snubbed, officials said Wednesday.

    Nagasaki’s mayor last week said that Israel’s ambassador Gilad Cohen was not invited to Friday’s event in the southern Japanese city because of the risk of possible protests over the Gaza conflict.

    The US and British embassies said on Tuesday that their ambassadors would not take part as a result, and that their countries would be represented by lower-ranking diplomats.

    Media reports said that Australia, Italy, Canada and the European Union, who together with the US, Britain and Germany signed a strongly worded joint letter to Nagasaki’s mayor last month, would follow suit.

    US ambassador Rahm Emanuel will not attend “after the mayor of Nagasaki politicised the event by not inviting the Israeli ambassador”, an embassy spokesperson told AFP.

    Instead Emanuel, 64, who was ex-president Barack Obama’s chief of staff, will go to a separate event at a temple in Tokyo, the spokesperson said.

    The British embassy said that ambassador Julia Longbottom would also not be in Nagasaki, saying that not inviting Israel “creates an unfortunate and misleading equivalency with Russia and Belarus — the only other countries not invited to this year’s ceremony.”

    A spokesperson for the French embassy said that its number two would attend, telling AFP that the “decision not to invite the representative of Israel is regrettable and questionable”.

    Nagasaki mayor Shiro Suzuki had said last week that the decision not to invite Cohen was “not politically motivated” but based on a desire to “hold the ceremony in a peaceful and sombre atmosphere”.

    In June Suzuki said Nagasaki had sent a letter to the Israeli embassy calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza.

    Cohen, who was invited to and attended a memorial ceremony on Tuesday in Hiroshima, last week had said the Nagasaki decision “sends a wrong message to the world”.

    “As a close friend and like-minded nation of Japan, Israel has attended this ceremony for many years to honor the victims and their families,” he wrote on social media platform X.

    On Monday Cohen told US broadcaster CNN that the security concerns were “invented” and that he was “really surprised by (Suzuki) hijacking this ceremony for his political motivations.”

    In their letter to Suzuki seen by AFP, the six Western envoys had warned that if Israel was excluded “it would become difficult for us to have high-level participation at this event.”

    Government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi on Wednesday declined to comment, saying invitations were “a decision for the organiser, Nagasaki City.”

    A Nagasaki official in charge of the ceremony said it was “obviously better to have high-level individuals, like ambassadors themselves, taking part”.

    “What is important is that representatives of the countries will attend the ceremony,” he told AFP.

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    © Agence France-Presse

  • Hezbollah says fired ‘dozens’ of rockets at north Israel

    Hezbollah says fired ‘dozens’ of rockets at north Israel

    Hezbollah said it launched rockets at northern Israel Thursday “in response” to a deadly Israeli strike in south Lebanon — the group’s first attack after Israel killed a top commander earlier this week.

    Thegroup said in a statement that it “launched dozens of Katyusha rockets… in response to the Israeli enemy’s attack on… (the southern village of Shama) that killed a number of civilians.”

    The Israeli military said that shortly after the rocket fire, the air force “struck the Hezbollah launcher from which the projectiles were launched.”

    Earlier Thursday, the Lebanese health ministry said four Syrians were killed in an Israeli strike on the south, where Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged near-daily fire since the Gaza war began in October.

    “The health ministry announces… four Syrian nationals were martyred” in an “Israeli strike” on the southern village of Shama, it said in a statement.

    The ministry said the toll might rise once DNA tests had been carried out.

    The strike also wounded five Lebanese nationals, it added.

    Emergency services told AFP that the dead were farmer workers and part of the same family.

    Plumes of smoke billowed from the site of the strike, which heavily damaged two nearby buildings and burnt a vehicle to a crisp, a photographer contributing to AFP reported.

    The attack was Hezbollah’s first since an Israeli air strike killed its top commander Fuad Shukr on Tuesday evening, with leader Hassan Nasrallah saying operations would resume on Friday morning.

    Nasrallah warned his group was bound to respond to the killing of Shukr.

    His death was followed hours later Wednesday, by the killing of Hezbollah ally Hamas’s chief Ismail Haniyeh in a strike in Tehran, which Iran and Hamas have blamed on Israel. Israel has declined to comment on his killing.

    The genocide in Gaza since October has killed at least 542 people on the Lebanese side, most of them fighters but also including 114 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

    At least 22 soldiers and 25 civilians have been killed on the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, according to army figures.

  • Kamala Harris ‘will not be silent’ on suffering in Gaza

    Kamala Harris ‘will not be silent’ on suffering in Gaza

    United States Vice President Kamala Harris, who is now running for candidacy in the upcoming presidential election, has asserted that she will not remain “silent” on the suffering in Gaza.

    “What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating. The images of dead children and desperate hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time,” Harris said while speaking to reporters following her meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington DC.

    At the same time, she maintained that “Israel has a right to defend itself”, deeming Hamas as a “brutal terrorist organisation” that led to the “war” and had carried out ‘“horrific acts of sexual violence”.

    Harris later added that “We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies [in Gaza]. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering and I will not be silent.”

    She also urged the creation of a Palestinian state, further calling for Netanyahu and Hamas to accord a ceasefire and hostage release deal to end a war that has killed “far too many” civilians.

    “As I just told Prime Minister Netanyahu, it is time to get this deal done,” she said.