/2024

  • Pro-Israel billionaires urged New York crackdown on Gaza protests : Report
    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/5/16/pro-israel-billionaires-urged-new-york-crackdown-on-gaza-protests-report

    A handful of powerful businessmen pushed New York City Mayor Eric Adams to use police to crack down on pro-Palestinian student protesters at Columbia University, donating to the politician and offering to pay for private investigators to help break up the demonstrations, the Washington Post has reported, based on leaked WhatsApp conversations.

    The story, published on Thursday, says that several billionaires seeking to influence public perception of Israel’s war in Gaza discussed means of pushing the mayor and the university’s president to end the protests, which were eventually cleared last month amid criticism of the police’s heavy-handed response.

  • Support from lecturers and no arrests as Spanish students rally for Gaza
    By Graham Keeley | 8 May 2024 | Al Jazeera
    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/5/8/support-from-lecturers-and-no-arrests-as-spanish-students-rally-for-gaza

    Madrid, Spain – Huge Palestinian flags are hanging on campuses across Spain as thousands of students protest against Israel’s war in Gaza.

    Some classes have stopped this week as students demonstrate in Barcelona, Valencia, the Basque Country and Madrid.

    Across Europe, similar sit-ins have taken place at universities in the Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom, Finland, Denmark and Germany, as young people join their United States peers who are facing a violent police response.

    In Amsterdam, police arrested about 125 activists as they broke up a pro-Palestinian camp at the University of Amsterdam on Tuesday. Dutch police said their action was necessary to “restore order” after protests turned violent. There were no reports of injuries. Footage aired by national broadcaster NOS showed a mechanical digger smashing down barricades and tents.

    But in Spain, a country that historically supports the Palestinian cause, police have so far not been involved in trying to break up the protests.

    “We have to show we care. We have to take a stand against what is happening in Gaza and the way Israel is acting,” Maria Angeles Lopez, 21, a psychology student, told Al Jazeera outside the University of Barcelona.

    “If students here and elsewhere show we don’t agree with what is happening, then perhaps it will make people in power think again.”

    In many Spanish universities that have witnessed protests, more than 2,000 lecturers have come out in support of the rallies.

    Scholars at the University of Malaga are also expected to start demonstrating on Wednesday. (...)

    IsraelEspagne

  • Aucune preuve pour l’instant confirmant certaines allégations d’Israël contre l’#UNRWA (rapport Colonna) | ONU Info
    https://news.un.org/fr/story/2024/04/1144986

    Les autorités israéliennes n’ont pour l’instant fourni aucune preuve après avoir affirmé il y a trois mois qu’un nombre important d’employés de l’agence des Nations Unies chargée des réfugiés palestiniens (UNRWA) étaient membres d’organisations terroristes, selon le rapport final du groupe d’examen indépendant dirigé par l’ancienne ministre française des Affaires étrangères, Catherine Colonna.

  • Washington dit avoir abattu 11 drones des rebelles houthis
    Publié le : 11/04/2024 – France 24
    https://www.france24.com/fr/moyen-orient/20240411-%F0%9F%94%B4-en-direct-washington-dit-avoir-abattu-11-drones-des-

    L’essentiel de la veille

    Le chef du Hamas Ismaïl Haniyeh a annoncé sur la chaîne Al-Jazira la mort de trois de ses fils et de plusieurs petits-enfants dans une frappe israélienne dans la bande de Gaza.

    L’armée israélienne a confirmé avoir tué dans une frappe aérienne "ciblée" les trois fils d’Ismaïl Haniyeh, qualifiés d’"agents militaires de l’organisation terroriste".

    Des bombardements meurtriers ont visé l’enclave mercredi alors que de nombreux Palestiniens se sont rassemblés pour prier au milieu des ruines au premier jour de l’Aïd el-Fitr.

    Le gouvernement israélien doit répondre à la Cour suprême qui, à la demande d’ONG, l’a enjoint de justifier sa politique humanitaire dans la bande de Gaza.

    L’Irlande s’apprête à reconnaître un État palestinien dans les prochaines semaines, a déclaré mardi à Dublin le ministre des Affaires étrangères, Micheal Martin.

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    Mise à jour matinale
    11 avril 2024 06:14 BST | Middle East Eye
    https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/morning-update-45?nid=354591&topic=Israel%2527s%2520war%2520on%2520Ga

    Voici les dernières mises à jour :

    Les forces israéliennes ont mené des raids nocturnes en Cisjordanie, arrêtant cinq personnes à Tulkarem.

    Le ministre israélien de la Défense, Yoav Gallant, a déclaré que son pays allait "rationaliser les contrôles de sécurité" pour "inonder" Gaza d’aide humanitaire, prévoyant d’atteindre 500 camions par jour.

    L’envoyé humanitaire du gouvernement américain pour Gaza, David Satterfield, a déclaré que "la majorité, sinon la totalité, des 2,2 millions d’habitants de Gaza" étaient confrontés à une famine imminente.

    Le journal israélien Yedioth Ahronoth rapporte que l’Indonésie pourrait normaliser ses relations avec Israël en échange du soutien de ce dernier à l’entrée de l’Indonésie dans l’Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques (OCDE).

    La police britannique a arrêté cinq personnes accusées d’avoir aspergé de peinture rouge le siège londonien du ministère de la défense pour protester contre les ventes d’armes du Royaume-Uni à Israël.
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    Diplomatie et tensions géopolitiques
    11 Apr 2024 | | Al Jazeera
    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/11/israels-war-on-gaza-list-of-key-events-day-188

    Jeudi, l’armée de l’air israélienne a mené des exercices conjoints avec l’armée de l’air chypriote, selon un rapport de la station de radio de l’armée israélienne GLZ. GLZ a indiqué qu’il s’agissait d’exercices à longue portée et d’une attaque sur une cible éloignée.

    Un Libanais, Mohammad Srour, sanctionné par les États-Unis pour ses liens présumés avec le groupe palestinien Hamas, a été retrouvé mort mercredi après avoir disparu pendant une semaine. Il avait été sanctionné en 2019 pour avoir apporté "un soutien financier, matériel, technologique, des services financiers ou autres" au Hamas et pour son affiliation au Hezbollah.

    Aux États-Unis, le président Joe Biden a promis mercredi un soutien "à toute épreuve" à Israël, alors que l’Iran menace de représailles après une frappe qui a rasé un bâtiment du consulat iranien à Damas et tué deux généraux.

    Dans un message posté sur X, le ministre des affaires étrangères Israël Katz a menacé que les forces israéliennes frapperaient directement l’Iran si celui-ci lançait une attaque contre Israël à partir de son territoire.

    L’agence de presse Reuters a rapporté jeudi que l’envoyé américain au Moyen-Orient, Brett McGurk, avait appelé les ministres des affaires étrangères de l’Arabie saoudite, des Émirats arabes unis, du Qatar et de l’Irak, leur demandant de transmettre un message à l’Iran pour qu’il évite d’aggraver les tensions avec Israël. L’Iran accuse Israël d’être à l’origine de la montée des tensions.

    La compagnie aérienne allemande Lufthansa a déclaré mercredi qu’elle avait suspendu ses vols vers Téhéran en raison des craintes accrues d’une éventuelle conflagration entre l’Iran et Israël.

    Violence en Cisjordanie occupée

    Jeudi, les troupes israéliennes auraient mené des raids dans deux villes de Cisjordanie occupée.

    Un correspondant d’Al Jazeera a déclaré que les forces israéliennes étaient entrées dans la ville de Beit Ummar, au nord d’Hébron, aux premières heures de la matinée de jeudi. Elles sont également entrées dans la ville d’Idhna, située à l’ouest d’Hébron.

    #Bilan

  • #Bilan
    L’essentiel :
    https://www.france24.com/fr/moyen-orient/20240404-%F0%9F%94%B4-en-direct-isra%C3%ABl-permettra-la-livraison-tempora

    Le Conseil des droits de l’homme de l’ONU a adopté vendredi à Genève un projet de résolution appelant à stopper les ventes d’armes à Israël.

    Israël a donné son feu vert, vendredi, à la livraison « temporaire » pour acheminer des vivres vers la bande de Gaza. Le territoire assiégé et menacé de famine va être ravitaillé via le port d’Ashdod et le point de passage d’Erez.

    Cette annonce survient au moment où la pression internationale s’accentue sur le gouvernement israélien, le président des États-Unis Joe Biden ayant évoqué pour la première fois la possibilité de conditionner l’aide américaine à Israël à des mesures « tangibles » face à la catastrophe humanitaire à Gaza.

    Le ministère de la Santé du Hamas a annoncé vendredi un nouveau bilan de 33 091 personnes tuées dans la bande de Gaza depuis le début du conflit.

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    Morning update| 5 April 2024 06:08 BST | Middle East Eye
    https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/morning-update-41

    Following US pressure to get more aid into Gaza, Israel agreed to reopen the Erez crossing which should facilitate delivering aid to northern Gaza

    Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir slammed the moves to allow more aid into the enclave, saying the government did not vote on the matter

    CIA Director Bill Burns and head of Mossad David Barnea are expected to head to Cairo as Biden pressured Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a ceasefire deal “without delay”

    Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong called the Israeli prime minister’s remarks on the killing of aid workers in Gaza, which included an Australian citizen, “deeply insensitive”

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    Evening recap| 4 April 2024 23:44 BST | Middle East Eye
    https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/evening-recap-86

    Gaza’s health ministry said that 62 people have been killed by Israel in Gaza over the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 33,037 Palestinians killed in the enclave since 7 October.

    Another 92 people have been wounded, bringing the total to 75,668 since the start of the war.

    President Joe Biden demanded an immediate ceasefire in Gaza during a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, the White House announced.

    In other developments:

    World Central Kitchen called for an “independent, third party investigation” into the Israel strikes that killed seven of the organisation’s aid workers in Gaza on 1 April.

    Egypt had presented a proposal for a ceasefire, but it contained nothing new, a senior Hamas leader said on Thursday.

    Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said to Al Jazeera TV on Thursday that the European Union ought to consider whether its strategic partnership with Israel should persist if the EU determines that Israel has violated humanitarian law in its war in Gaza.

    More than 135 people formed a blockade at every entrance of Lockheed Martin’s research campus in Sunnyvale, California, on Thursday to demonstrate against the military contractor’s involvement in the war in Gaza.

    McDonald’s Corp has decided to purchase its Israeli branches from Alonyal Ltd, taking direct control of the operations several months after the franchise became a focal issue during the early stages of the war in Gaza.

    Civil servants in the UK in charge of arms exports to Israel have called to “cease work immediately” amid concerns of potential complicity in war crimes committed in Gaza.

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    Israel’s war on Gaza: List of key events, day 182 | Israel War on Gaza News | Al Jazeera
    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/5/israels-war-on-gaza-list-of-key-events-day-182

    Palestinians living in Maghazi refugee camp collect usable items from the rubble of destroyed buildings following an Israeli attack in Deir el-Balah, Gaza on April 4, 2024 [Ashraf Amra/Anadolu Agency]

    5 Apr 2024

    Here’s how things stand on Friday, April 5, 2024:
    Fighting and humanitarian crisis

    Eight out of every 10 schools in Gaza are damaged or destroyed, UNICEF said, news agency AFP reported on Thursday. As many as 625,000 students have no access to education.

    About 1,000 children in Gaza have lost one or both of their legs, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said on Thursday. More than 50,000 children are estimated to be acutely malnourished in Gaza, the United Nations added.

    The PRCS also said the number of children who have died from starvation and dehydration in Gaza has now risen to 31.

    Separately, the Gaza municipality warned on Thursday that diseases are spreading in the enclave due to an accumulation of waste. The municipality called on local and international institutions to help improve the health and environmental conditions “and enable the municipality to provide services that the aggression has caused near complete paralysis in.”

    Diplomacy and regional tensions

    On Thursday, US President Joe Biden pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to implement “specific, concrete and measurable” steps to protect civilians and aid workers in Gaza. He said the killing of aid workers and the humanitarian situation were “unacceptable”.

    Biden also “made clear that US policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action” to address the harm and suffering.

    Hours after the call, Israel said it approved the reopening of the Beit Hanoon (Erez) crossing into northern Gaza and the temporary use of Ashdod port in southern Israel to supply aid to Gaza.

    But Republicans in the US hit back at Biden. “The president’s ultimatums should be going to Hamas, not Israel,” US House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a post on X on Thursday night, following Biden’s warning to Israel.

    CIA Director Bill Burns is expected to travel to Cairo this weekend to meet with Egyptian and Israeli counterparts and the Qatari prime minister, in the latest bid to try and stitch together a deal for a truce or a ceasefire.

    Separately, on Thursday, McDonald’s announced that it will buy all of its franchise restaurants in Israel amid the fallout of the war in Gaza. The US fast-food chain has been subject to boycotts since the franchise Alonyal announced shortly after the October 7 attack by Palestinian group Hamas that it would be donating free meals to the Israeli military.

    Former US President Donald Trump also warned that Israel is “losing the PR war” in Gaza on Thursday because of the flood of distressing images coming out of the enclave.

    Separately, Australian Senator Lidia Thorpe has questioned an Australian government contract with Elbit Systems amid media reports that the Israeli arms company manufactured the drone that killed an Australian and six other aid workers in Gaza.

    Violence in the occupied West Bank

    Ambulances were temporarily blocked from reaching two Palestinians injured by live ammunition as Israeli forces raided Kafr Ra’i, southwest of Jenin, in the occupied West Bank on Thursday night, according to local news reports.
    The raid is one of several Israeli raids on towns and villages south of Jenin, the Wafa news agency reported on Thursday.
    Wafa also reported on Thursday that Israeli forces fired bullets, stun grenades and tear gas in a raid on the village of Husan, west of Bethlehem, with no injuries reported.

    • https://www.lemonde.fr/international/live/2024/04/05/guerre-israel-hamas-six-mois-apres-le-debut-de-la-guerre-quelle-est-la-situa

      Le Conseil des droits de l’homme de l’ONU exige l’arrêt des ventes d’armes à Israël

      Le Conseil des droits de l’homme des Nations unies a exigé l’arrêt de toute vente d’armes à Israël, en guerre contre le Hamas à Gaza, dans une résolution évoquant les craintes de « génocide » contre les Palestiniens.

      C’est la première prise de position du Conseil des droits de l’homme sur le conflit qui fait rage depuis le 7 octobre. Le conseil n’a pas de moyens contraignants d’imposer ses résolutions.

      En France, une centaine de parlementaires de gauche ont écrit, vendredi, à Emmanuel Macron pour lui demander d’« arrêter immédiatement toutes ventes d’armes, même celles jugées uniquement défensives, au gouvernement d’extrême droite de Nétanyahou ».

      « Il semble important de rappeler que des mesures similaires ont déjà été prises par d’autres pays, comme le Canada, les Pays-Bas et l’Espagne », avancent ces 115 députés et sénateurs. « La France est en contradiction avec les traités internationaux qu’elle a signés en continuant de fournir du matériel militaire à Israël », appuient-ils, en appelant M. Macron à « ne pas risquer de rendre la France complice de génocide contre le peuple palestinien ».

  • IDF Drone Bombed World Central Kitchen Aid Convoy Three Times, Targeting Armed Hamas Member Who Wasn’t There - Israel News - Haaretz.com
    https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-04-02/ty-article/.premium/idf-bombed-wck-aid-convoy-3-times-targeting-armed-hamas-member-who-wasnt-there/0000018e-9e75-d764-adff-9eff29360000

    IDF Drone Bombed World Central Kitchen Aid Convoy Three Times, Targeting Armed Hamas Member Who Wasn’t There

    Marc Owen Jones sur X :
    https://twitter.com/marcowenjones/status/1775138349361037426

    This haaretz report, apparently based on a defence source raises more questions than it answers.

    Some points.

    1) Firstly, the source acknowledges that there were 3 missiles fired from a drone. There’s no doubt that the operators knew it was an aid convoy. This isn’t in question.

    2) Upon destroying the first truck the source claims survivors got out and entered another truck.

    3) The second truck was then attacked

    4) The survivors then got out and were attacked a third time

    5) These multiple strikes were done on three different vehicles the IDF knew to belong to aid workers

    6) The defence official initially claimed a single Hamas operative got in the vehicle.

    They then say he stayed at the warehouse. At what point did they know his movements? If they knew his movements why wait till he was among aid workers.

    7) Even if the presence of a Hamas member, on what basis does one Hamas member justify attacking three vehicles and 7 civilians

    8) Furthermore, if the IDF attacked each vehicle in succession, they are implying that the terrorist survived the 1st and 2nd strike. (How did they know he survived?)

    9) Indeed, if the IDF can tell that one Hamas operative survived they could target him alone surely?

    10) Why would they wait till he departed in the vehicle to attack if this put all three vehicles in danger? Indeed, this implies the IDF protocol is to destroy all vehicles in a convoy if they see any survivors?

    11) What this tell us is that the IDF will kill an almost unlimited or undefined number of civilians in order to potentially kill one Hamas member of unspecific rank or commitment

    12) While we know that this is more or less how Israel operates, it also likely that they they are providing a cover story to hide a deliberate targeted attack on @WCKitchen

  • October 7: Forensic analysis shows Hamas abuses, many false Israeli claims
    By Richard Sanders and Al Jazeera Investigative Unit
    Published On 21 Mar 202421 Mar 2024 | Al Jazeera
    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/21/october-7-forensic-analysis-shows-hamas-abuses-many-false-israeli-claims

    Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit (I-Unit) has carried out a forensic analysis of the events of October 7, when Hamas fighters launched an incursion into Israel that has transformed the politics of the Middle East.

    October 7 reveals widespread human rights abuses by Hamas fighters and others who followed them through the fence from the Gaza Strip and draws up a comprehensive list of those killed. (...)

    #7oct

    • Guerre à Gaza : Al Jazeera révèle le récit du 7 octobre que les grands médias négligent de rapporter
      Peter Oborne | Vendredi 29 mars 2024 | MEE
      https://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/opinion-fr/guerre-gaza-al-jazeera-revele-le-recit-du-7-octobre-que-les-medias-br

      Un nouveau documentaire révèle la manière dont des allégations fausses et incendiaires concernant l’attaque menée par le Hamas en Israël se sont imposées dans la presse

      Précis. Sobre. Perspicace. Rigoureux. L’unité d’investigation d’Al Jazeera a produit un film documentaire qui raconte ce qui s’est réellement passé le 7 octobre.

      Ce documentaire, qui fait autorité, n’hésite pas à détailler les atrocités et les crimes de guerre perpétrés par le Hamas. Il démontre toutefois, sans l’ombre d’un doute, que nombre des récits macabres émanant de sources israéliennes sont fallacieux.

      Les récits particulièrement incendiaires, qu’il s’agisse des allégations de viol généralisé ou de bébés décapités et brûlés, n’étaient pas étayés par des preuves ou étaient des mensonges purs et simples. Pourtant, ils ont ouvert la voie à la sauvagerie meurtrière de l’assaut israélien sur Gaza qui a suivi et qui a été décrit par la Cour internationale de justice comme constituant un génocide plausible.

      Al Jazeera propose une analyse minutieuse de la manière dont ces récits ont été diffusés auprès du public. Cela implique un examen approfondi de Zaka, l’unité israélienne d’intervention d’urgence composée d’auxiliaires médicaux qualifiés qui interviennent lors d’événements terroristes et d’homicides. (...)

    • War on Gaza: We were lied into genocide. Al Jazeera has shown us how Jonathan Cook | Middle East Eye | 28 March 2024 12:28 GMT
      https://www.middleeasteye.net/big-story/gaza-war-lies-genocide-al-jazeera-shown-how
      https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/images-story/A+young%20girl%20injured%20in%20Israeli%20bombardment%2C%20reacts%20a

      (...) First, the crimes Hamas committed against civilians in Israel on 7 October - and those it did not - have been used to overshadow the fact that it carried out a spectacularly sophisticated military operation on 7 October in breaking out of a long-besieged Gaza.

      The group knocked out Israel’s top-flight surveillance systems that had kept the enclave’s 2.3 million inhabitants imprisoned for decades. It smashed holes in Israel’s highly fortified barrier surrounding Gaza in at least 10 locations. And it caught unawares Israel’s many military camps next to the enclave that had been enforcing the occupation at arms’ length.

      More than 350 Israeli soldiers, armed police and guards were killed that day.

      Second, the documentary undermines the conspiracy theory that Israeli leaders allowed the Hamas attack to justify the ethnic cleansing of Gaza - a plan Israel has been actively working on since at least 2007, when it appears to have received US approval.

      True, Israeli intelligence officials involved in the surveillance of Gaza had been warning that Hamas was preparing a major operation. But those warnings were discounted not because of a conspiracy. After all, none of the senior echelons in Israel stood to benefit from what unfolded on 7 October.

      Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is finished politically as a result of the Hamas attack, and will likely end up in jail after the current carnage in Gaza ends.
      A colonial arrogance

      Israel’s genocidal response to 7 October has made Israel’s brand so toxic internationally, and more so with Arab publics in the region, that Saudi Arabia has had to break off plans for a normalisation agreement, which had been Israel and Washington’s ultimate hope.

      And the Hamas operation has crushed the worldwide reputation of the Israeli military for invincibility. It has inspired Yemen’s Ansar Allah (the Houthis) to attack vessels in the Red Sea. It is emboldening Israel’s arch-enemy, Hezbollah, in neighbouring Lebanon. It has reinvigorated the idea that resistance is possible across the much-oppressed Middle East.
      Israel-Palestine war: Why is the media ignoring evidence of Israel’s own actions on 7 October?
      Read More »

      No, it was not a conspiracy that opened the door to Hamas’ attack. It was colonial arrogance, based on a dehumanising view shared by the vast majority of Israelis that they were the masters and that the Palestinians - their slaves - were far too primitive to strike a meaningful blow.

      The attacks of 7 October should have forced Israelis to reassess their dismissive attitude towards the Palestinians and address the question of whether Israel’s decades-long regime of apartheid and brutal subjugation could - and should - continue indefinitely.

      Predictably, Israelis ignored the message of Hamas’ attack and dug deeper into their colonial mindset.

      The supposed primitivism that, it was assumed, made the Palestinians too feeble an opponent to take on Israel’s sophisticated military machine has now been reframed as proof of a Palestinian barbarousness that makes Gaza’s entire population so dangerous, so threatening, that they have to be wiped out.

      The Palestinians who, most Israelis had concluded, could be caged like battery chickens indefinitely, and in ever-shrinking pens, are now viewed as monsters that have to be culled. That impulse was the genesis of Israel’s current genocidal plan for Gaza. (...)

  • Gabriel Elizondo sur X :
    https://twitter.com/elizondogabriel/status/1773100036848578863

    Al Jazeera has obtained footage from Gaza showing Israeli forces shooting two unarmed Palestinians dead at close range.

    One of the men repeatedly waves what appears to be a piece of white fabric to show they are not a threat.

    After being shot by Israeli forces, they are buried by an Israeli bulldozer.

    This happened in Gaza City - near Al Rashid Street. It’s all on video.

    […]

    https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/1773064811007332352/vid/avc1/1280x720/XAcTaTPDhmnegayn.mp4?tag=14

  • Pakistan’s #Gwadar port attacked, eight armed fighters killed | Conflict News | Al Jazeera
    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/20/pakistans-gwadar-port-attacked-eight-armed-fighters-killed


    Gwadar Port is part of the $62bn China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project
    Nadeem Khawer/EPA

    Security forces fought for two hours before the attackers were killed, at a facility that is a showpiece project and is part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

    Pakistan’s security forces foiled a major attack in Gwadar, a port city in the southwestern province of Balochistan, when eight armed fighters were killed on Wednesday when they tried to enter the Gwadar Port Authority complex.

    The facility is a centrepiece of the multibillion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Pakistan’s most ambitious infrastructure and investment project in recent years.

    Saeed Ahmed Umrani, a senior government official, confirmed that the port complex was attacked, and said the security forces were engaged in nearly two hours of fighting with the attackers before they were killed.

    “At least two men from security forces were injured in the fighting. The operation has been completed but clearance of the area is still ongoing,” he told Al Jazeera.

    Chief Minister of Balochistan Sarfraz Bugti said in a message on X: “Whosoever chooses to use violence will see no mercy from the state. Kudos to all law enforcement bravehearts who fought bravely today for Pakistan.”

    The attack was claimed by Majeed Brigade, the armed wing of the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), a separatist group that demands secession of the province from Pakistan.

    In a statement, the BLA said that the offices of Pakistan’s intelligence agencies inside the complex were targeted. “BLA accepts responsibility for the attack and further details will be released to the media,” the statement said.

    One eyewitness in Gwadar city told Al Jazeera that the attack started around 4pm local time.

    “First there were two major explosions, which were followed by loud, long bursts of firing which continued for more than hour,” the Gwadar resident told Al Jazeera on the phone, requesting anonymity.

    He further said that the complex where the attack unfolded was partly a residential area where mostly staff working on the port lived, but it also had some other government offices.

    This was not the first time that Gwadar has been attacked. The city is home to many Chinese citizens who are working on the construction of the port.

    In August last year, two gunmen targeted a convoy of 23 Chinese engineers in Gwadar, but they were killed by security forces. That attack was also claimed by the Majeed Brigade of the BLA.

    There was another major attack in Gwadar five years ago in 2019, when three attackers launched an audacious charge at the only luxury hotel in the city, situated on top of a hill on the coastline.

    #Baloutchistan

  • Le ministère de la Santé du Hamas annonce un nouveau bilan de 31 819 morts à Gaza
    https://www.france24.com/fr/moyen-orient/20240319-%F0%9F%94%B4-en-direct-des-frappes-isra%C3%A9liennes-font-plusieu

    Le ministère de la Santé du Hamas a annoncé mardi un nouveau bilan de 31 819 personnes tuées dans la bande de Gaza depuis le début de la guerre entre Israël et le mouvement islamiste palestinien.

    Parmi elles, 93 ont été tuées au cours des dernières 24 heures, a précisé le ministère dans un communiqué, en faisant état d’un total de 73 934 blessés depuis le 7 octobre.

    https://www.france24.com/fr/moyen-orient/20240319-%F0%9F%94%B4-en-direct-des-frappes-isra%C3%A9liennes-font-plusieu ?

    Les sévères restrictions imposées par Israël à l’entrée de l’aide humanitaire à Gaza et la possible utilisation de la faim comme arme pourraient « constituer un crime de guerre », a affirmé mardi Jeremy Laurence, un porte-parole du Haut-Commissariat des droits de l’homme.

    « Selon la mesure la plus respectée en la matière, 100 % de la population de Gaza est dans une situation d’insécurité alimentaire grave. C’est la première fois qu’une population entière est ainsi classée », a déclaré mardi le secrétaire d’État américain Antony Blinken.

    Le chef de la diplomatie américaine va se rendre une nouvelle fois au Moyen-Orient, en Arabie saoudite puis en Égypte, dans l’objectif de parvenir à un cessez-le-feu dans la bande de Gaza.

    Des frappes israéliennes contre la ville de Rafah, à la pointe sud de la bande de Gaza, ont tué 14 personnes et blessé des dizaines d’autres dans la nuit de lundi à mardi.

    #Bilan

    • Is­rael’s war on Gaza: List of key events, day 165
      19 Mar 2024
      https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/19/chk_israels-war-on-gaza-list-of-key-events-day-165
      Here’s how things stand on Tuesday, March 19, 2024:
      Fighting and humanitarian crisis

      Twenty Palestinians were killed in the early hours of Tuesday in Israeli air strikes on Rafah and central parts of the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian health officials. At least six people were killed in an Israeli attack on a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp.
      Israeli forces shelled a house in Jabalia in northern Gaza on Monday, killing at least eight Palestinians, including children, the Palestinian news agency Wafa said.
      Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire on Monday after a new report warned that northern Gaza could be hit by famine any time between mid-March and May.
      Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul was released on Monday after being detained for 12 hours and severely beaten by Israeli forces in Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital.
      According to the White House, Israel killed a senior Hamas commander Marwan Issa, in an air strike last week. (...)

  • US pro-Israel Jewish group backs ban on ’antisemitic’ TikTok
    https://www.newarab.com/news/us-pro-israel-jewish-group-backs-ban-antisemitic-tiktok

    Israel derrière l’interdiction de TikTok aux USA ?

    One of America’s largest Jewish pro-Israel groups has thrown its weight behind a proposed ban on popular video-sharing and social media app TikTok citing ’anti-Semitism’ and growing criticism of Israel among its mostly young users.

    American Jewish organisation, Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), expressed support for the United States banning TikTok in an open letter to the US Congress concerns such a ban would undermine Americans’ freedom of speech.

    “Our community understands that social media is a major driver of the rise in antisemitism and that TikTok is the worst offender by far,” JFNA claimed, citing a rise in “anti-Israel” views and “overt bias and sympathy to terror with regard to the events of October 7th” shared on TikTok as evidence of antisemitism.

    JFNA is an umbrella group for a large number of American Jewish organisations, all of which are also strong supporters of Israel. In the wake of the war in Gaza, it launched a $700 million fundraising drive to bring funds to Israeli groups including controversial first responder organisation Zaka.

    The JFNA noted that TikTok’s governmental affairs advisor in Israel resigned from the company in protest of the app’s “overt bias”.

    The Jewish group also mentioned they would provide the US President with the necessary tools “to protect American citizens from the harm that is currently being done to our nation by TikTok”.

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/13/us-house-passes-bill-that-would-ban-tiktok-amid-national-security-concern

    • https://news.antiwar.com/2024/03/15/washingtons-renewed-urgency-for-tiktok-ban-is-due-to-war-on-gaza

      Jacob Helberg, a member of a congressional research and advisory panel called the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, spoke with the Wall Street Journal about Congress’s recent change of attitude. Officials from TikTok said the bill regained momentum so quickly that it was caught off guard.

      “It was slow going until Oct. 7. The attack that day in Israel by Hamas and the ensuing conflict in Gaza became a turning point in the push against TikTok,” Helberg said, according to WSJ. “People who historically hadn’t taken a position on TikTok became concerned with how Israel was portrayed in the videos and what they saw as an increase in antisemitic content posted to the app.”

      The bill’s author is Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), one of the most outspoken China hawks in Washington and the chair of the House subcommittee on China. He explained that the likelihood of the legislation becoming law has sharply increased because he and other members of the China committee believed the platform was exposing users to too much Pro-Palestinian content.

      Proponents of the legislation argue that TikTok’s young users are manipulated by the Chinese government through the app. However, the pro-Palestinian viewpoint alarming members of Congress is widely shared among TikTok’s core demographic.

      Around half of TikTok’s users and content creators are 18-34. Support for Tel Aviv and President Biden has been dropping among that demographic as Israel’s five-month slaughter in Gaza has killed over 31,000 Palestinians and caused a humanitarian nightmare. About half of voting Americans under 35 believe Israel is conducting a genocide in Gaza.

  • Morning update
    13 March 2024 05:48 GMT | Middle East Eye
    https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/morning-update-27

    An Arab diplomat told the Times of Israel that progress has been made regarding a hostage and ceasefire deal in Qatar, as the outlet claims Doha put pressure on Hamas to accept the new proposals

    The Israeli army bombed several areas across the Gaza Strip overnight, killing many people including 10 in Deir al-Balah

    As least four Palestinians were killed in Israeli raids across the West Bank

    The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, accused Israel of using starvation ’as a war arm’ in Gaza

    Lebanon’s Hezbollah said two of its members were killed in the latest Israeli strike near Baalbek, deep into Lebanese territory

    #Bilan #Génocide

    • Is­rael’s war on Gaza: List of key events, day 159 | Israel War on Gaza News
      13 Mar 2024 | Al Jazeera
      https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/13/israels-war-on-gaza-list-of-key-events-day-159

      Here’s how things stand on Wednesday, March 13, 2024:
      Fighting and humanitarian crisis

      An aid ship carrying food and other essential items to Gaza, which set sail from Cyprus, was nearing the Palestinian enclave after days of delay.

      The departure came after announcements that Cyprus, the European Union, the United States, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom were jointly working on establishing a maritime corridor to provide aid to Gaza.

      Separately, Israeli forces launched air attacks throughout the Gaza Strip, killing and wounding dozens, including 10 people in Deir el-Balah, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

      Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday Israel “will finish the job in Rafah”, reaffirming a ground operation will go ahead in the southern Gaza city.

      UK’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron called for “answers from the Israelis” in response to a BBC report revealing that Israeli soldiers subjected Palestinian medical personnel in Gaza to mistreatment, including blindfolding, detention, stripping and repeated beatings during a hospital raid in February.

      𝐔𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞 | WFP delivered enough food for 25,000 people to Gaza City early Tuesday in first successful convoy to the north since 20 February.

      With people in northern #Gaza on the brink of famine, we need deliveries every day + we need entry points directly into the north. pic.twitter.com/RGxymQXlR9

      — WFP Media (@WFP_Media) March 12, 2024

      05:00 GMT

      It’s just after 7am (05:00 GMT) in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel.

      Here are some of the latest developments overnight:

      Israeli forces launched air attacks throughout the Gaza Strip, killing and wounding dozens, including 10 people in Deir el-Balah, according to Wafa.

      At least four Palestinians were killed during Israeli raids on multiple locations in the occupied West Bank. The latest victim was a young man who was shot in a hospital ground in Jenin.

      A UN official said a World Food Programme aid convoy transported food to northern Gaza using an Israeli military road near its security fence with the enclave.

      Lebanon’s Hezbollah group said two of its fighters have been killed in the Bekaa Valley after Israeli warplanes launched attacks on the area for a second consecutive day.

      EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has said Gaza’s humanitarian crisis is “not a natural disaster” and has accused Israel of using starvation as a “weapon of war”.

    • Le ministère de la Santé du Hamas annonce un nouveau bilan de 31 272 morts
      13/03/2024
      https://www.france24.com/fr/moyen-orient/20240313-%F0%9F%94%B4-en-direct-un-premier-bateau-rempli-d-aide-en-route-v

      Le ministère de la Santé du Hamas a annoncé mercredi un nouveau bilan de 31 272 personnes tuées dans la bande de Gaza depuis le début de la guerre entre Israël et le mouvement islamiste palestinien.

      Parmi elles, au moins 88 ont été tuées au cours des dernières 24 heures, a précisé le ministère dans un communiqué, en faisant état d’un total de 73 024 blessés depuis le début de la guerre le 7 octobre.

  • Far right makes gains in Israeli municipal elections | Politics News | Al Jazeera
    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/29/far-right-makes-gains-in-israeli-municipal-elections

    Far-right and ultra-orthodox Zionist parties made significant gains in Israel’s municipal elections this week, raising fears among secular Israelis and Palestinians in Israel.

    Analysts believe that liberal freedoms could be threatened in some cities and that discrimination against Palestinians – already having risen acutely following Hamas’s October 7 attack – could grow even more.

    Jerusalem saw one of the largest victories for Israel’s far right, which captured a majority of local municipal seats. Centrist mayor Moshe Leon won a landslide victory to remain mayor.

    But Leon will be at the mercy of the far-right bloc in the municipality, which could lead to significant tension with Jerusalem’s roughly 362,000 Palestinian residents.

    “The municipal results are highly significant in disclosing ongoing trends,” said Daniel Seidmann, an Israeli attorney who specialises in legal and public issues in Jerusalem. “Indeed, the ultra-orthodox or extreme right wing won a majority, but they pretty much ran things [in Jerusalem] already.”

    • J’ai lu que Tel Aviv reste à gauche (gauche libérale sioniste, toutefois). Par contre, effectivement, il y a une radicalisation de l’électorat d’extrême droite et ultra religieux sur les parties du pays où la population est sous l’emprise idéologique d’une montée en puissance colonialiste.

  • Israel’s war on Gaza: List of key events, day 147
    March 1, 2024 | Al Jazeera
    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/1/israels-war-on-gaza-list-of-key-events-day-147

    Fighting and humanitarian crisis

    On Thursday, Israeli troops fired on a crowd of Palestinians racing to pull food off an aid convoy in Gaza City. At least 112 people were killed in the chaos.
    Initially, the Israeli army blamed crowding and trampling for the deaths, while an Israeli military official later said the troops “opened fire at the crowd” after some Palestinians began heading towards Israeli forces in a way that “endangered” them.
    Hamas decried the attack as an “unprecedented war crime”. The PA office described the incident as an “ugly massacre”.
    Israeli military claims that it has killed more than 13,000 Palestinian fighters in Gaza since the start of its ground invasion likely still leaves Palestinian armed groups with a sizeable force as Hamas alone had 40,000 fighters before the latest war began in October, war monitors said.

    Regional tensions and diplomacy

    Thursday’s shooting was quickly condemned by Arab countries, and United States President Joe Biden expressed concern it would add to the difficulty of negotiating a ceasefire in the nearly five-month conflict.
    Meanwhile, Austria’s foreign minister urged Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah group against escalating the conflict along the volatile Israel-Lebanon border and expressed hope for a pause in the fighting in Gaza.
    Yemen also condemned Israel’s killing of more than 100 Palestinian civilians waiting for food aid near Gaza City, saying the ongoing “massacres” amount to “war crimes and the collective punishment of innocent people”.
    Elsewhere, veteran left-wing British politician George Galloway has won a by-election in England’s northwestern town of Rochdale after running on a pro-Palestine, anti-Israel platform.
    In Russia, representatives of a dozen Palestinian factions, including Fatah and Hamas, are meeting for “inter-Palestinian” talks to discuss the formation of a unified government.
    In the US, a statement from Biden has urged House Republicans to pass a foreign aid bill in order to “help ensure that Israel can defend itself against Hamas and other threats”.

    Violence in the occupied West Bank

    Israeli forces have stormed the Qalandiya refugee camp in the occupied West Bank and arrested two men allegedly connected to a deadly attack on Israeli settlers in the Eli settlement.
    Elsewhere in the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers attacked the homes of Palestinians with stones on the outskirts of the town of Jalud, southeast of Nablus.

  • George Galloway who campaigned against Gaza war wins UK by-election | Israel War on Gaza News | Al Jazeera
    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/1/uk-politician-galloway-who-campaigned-against-gaza-war-wins-by-election

    Voici le début des conséquences (espérées) de l’usage des « valeurs » occidentales sur la scène palestinienne. Il est à parier que ces questions vont faire partie de plus en plus de nos propres enjeux politiques (et pas forcément au bénéfice de la gauche, hélas !)

    A left-wing United Kingdom politician has registered a landslide win in a parliamentary by-election on a platform promising to advocate for Gaza.

    George Galloway won the seat in the northern English town of Rochdale after a fractious campaign, which saw the Labour Party withdraw support from its candidate over his anti-Israel comments.

    Galloway won 12,335 votes compared with 6,638 for second-placed David Tully, an independent candidate. The former Labour candidate, Azhar Ali, came fourth after the opposition party pulled its support after he was recorded espousing conspiracy theories about Israel. Turnout was low at 39.7 percent.

    “Keir Starmer, this is for Gaza,” Galloway said on Friday, referring to the Labour leader who initially refused to call for a ceasefire in Gaza where more than 30,000 people have been killed in the past five months of Israeli bombardment.

    “You have paid and you will pay a high price for the role you have played in enabling, encouraging and covering for the catastrophe presently going on in … in the Gaza Strip,” he said.

    Galloway, who represents the Workers Party of Britain, accused both Labour and the Conservatives of backing Israel as he ran a pro-Palestinian campaign in the constituency with a substantial Muslim population.

    • George Galloway strikes blow ’for Gaza’ in Rochdale by-election

      Former Labour MP, expelled from the party over opposition to Iraq war, says Keir Starmer will pay a high price over refusal to back a ceasefire

      By MEE staff | Published date: 1 March 2024 09:41 GMT
      https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/george-galloway-strikes-blow-gaza-against-starmer-rochdale-election

      Veteran left-wing politician George Galloway is set to return to the UK parliament after winning Thursday’s Rochdale by-election in a vote dominated by the refusal of the UK’s main parties to back a ceasefire in Gaza.

      Galloway, representing the Workers Party of Britain, won almost 40 percent of the votes and nearly 6,000 more votes than his nearest rival.

      Speaking after the results were announced, Galloway took aim at both opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer, who is facing growing dissent in his own party over his failure to support an immediate ceasefire, and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

      “Keir Starmer - this is for Gaza,” said Galloway, who was a Labour MP from 1987 until he was expelled from the party in 2003 over his opposition to the Iraq war.

      “Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak are two cheeks of the same backside and they both got well and truly spanked tonight here in Rochdale.”

  • Israel’s war on Gaza: List of key events, day 146
    Published On 29 Feb 2024 | Al Jazeera
    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/29/israels-war-on-gaza-list-of-key-events-day-146

    Israel’s war on Gaza: List of key events, day 146

    The number of Palestinians killed in Israel’s war on Gaza is nearing 30,000 while children are suffering from malnutrition and dehydration.
    Displaced Palestinian children wait to receive free food at a tent camp, amid food shortages

    Here’s how things stand on Thursday, February 29, 2024:
    Fighting and humanitarian crisis

    Israeli air strikes killed at least 25 people in the Nuseirat and Bureij camps in central Gaza overnight, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.
    Two hospitals in northern Gaza have no fuel to run generators as they treat children suffering from malnutrition and dehydration.
    The director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, Ahmed al-Kahlout, told Al Jazeera Arabic that seven children died on Wednesday at the hospital due to malnutrition.
    The Ministry of Health in Gaza has also reported that two children have died of dehydration and malnutrition at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
    The number of Palestinians killed in Israel’s war on Gaza is nearing 30,000, with 76 people killed between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning, bringing the death toll to 29,954, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

    #Bilan

  • Has Israel complied with ICJ order in Gaza genocide case?
    26 Feb 2024 | Al Jazeera
    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/26/has-israel-complied-with-icj-order-in-gaza-genocide-case

    Israel is expected to submit a report to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Monday on the measures it has taken to prevent possible genocide in Gaza. This is to assess whether Israel complied with the provisional measures ordered by the ICJ on January 26.

    South Africa, which brought the case, says Israel has failed to comply with the measures. “I believe the rulings of the court have been ignored,” said Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor. (...)

    #genocide

  • Hind Rajab: Were Israeli troops around where the six-year-old was killed?
    26 Feb 2024 | Al Jazeera
    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/26/hind-rajab-were-israeli-troops-in-the-area-where-6-year-old-was-killed

    An Al Jazeera investigation has shown three Israeli tanks around the car where a six-year-old girl was killed after hours of pleading for help.

    However, Israel’s army denied this on Saturday, saying its troops were not in the area on January 29, the day Hind Rajab and her family were killed.
    (...)
    What happened to the ambulance?

    Medics Yusuf Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun arrived at the scene around 6pm on January 29, after hours of the PRCS trying to get permission from the Israeli army.

    “I’m nearly there,” Zeino told his colleagues as the ambulance edged closer to Hind. But the two rescue workers never got to her.“We heard gunfire, we couldn’t imagine [they] would fire at them,” Rana Faqih, the PRCS official who held the line with Hind, told Al Jazeera. After the gunfire, there was complete silence.

    It was only 12 days later on February 10 that the remains of the two men were found, following the Israeli military’s withdrawal. The ambulance was destroyed and appeared to have been run over by a tank, according to Sanad’s analysis.

    What next?

    The United States, Israel’s number-one ally, has called for probes into the killing of Hind, her family, and the medics.

    US Department of State spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters: “We have asked the Israeli authorities to investigate this incident on an urgent basis.”

    After the initial finding into Hind’s case was released on Saturday, Israeli officials told local reporters the investigation has been transferred to the General Staff Fact-Finding Assessment Mechanism for further analysis.

    Similar Israeli investigations have not been straightforward. Authorities denied the May 2022 killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh for several months before admitting that Israeli gunfire had killed the veteran journalist, claiming it was “not intentional”.

    https://seenthis.net/messages/1041163