Erdogan stresses need to prevent recent Iran-Israel tension from benefiting Tel Aviv In Istanbul meeting, Turkish President Erdogan, Hamas chief Haniyeh discuss Israel's attacks on Palestinian territories, especially Gaza Strip 21/04/2024 Sunday https://www.yenisafak.com/en/news/e...rael-tension-from-benefiting-tel-aviv-3681757 File photo Meeting with the head of Hamas, the Turkish president on Saturday stressed the need to prevent recent developments in Israel's tension with Iran from benefiting Tel Aviv and to instead keep the focus on the plight of Palestinians in Gaza. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, “assessing tensions between Israel and Iran, emphasized the need to prevent events from bolstering Israel and stressed the importance of refocusing attention on Gaza” so the West continues to question Israel's attacks on Gaza, said the Turkish Communications Directorate on X. Meeting in Istanbul, Erdogan and Hamas' Ismail Haniyeh discussed Israel's months-long continuing offensive on Palestinian territories, especially the Gaza Strip, the directorate added. Erdogan said Israel will eventually and inevitably pay the price for its oppression of Palestinians, adding that Türkiye will continue to expose Israel's massacres in Gaza on all platforms. Erdogan added that all Türkiye's efforts are dedicated to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, calling this the key to lasting peace in the region. “President Erdogan said in the meeting that Türkiye continues its humanitarian aid to Palestine to alleviate some of its suffering,” the directorate said. “He noted that over 45,000 tons of humanitarian aid have been sent to the region so far (since last October), and a series of sanctions have been implemented against Israel, including restrictions on trade,” it added. - Unity, solidarity stressed Erdogan said Ankara continues its diplomatic efforts to draw the attention of the international community to the oppression faced by Palestinians. He underlined the urgent need for an immediate and lasting cease-fire to end the violence, highlighting it at every opportunity. Stating that the strongest response and path to victory against Israel lies in unity and solidarity, Erdogan underscored the vital importance of unity among Palestinians during this process. He also highlighted the need for further explanation of Palestine's just cause and truths against Israel, which is working to mislead the international public. During the meeting, Erdogan also extended his condolences to Haniyeh for the loss of his children and grandchildren in an Israeli attack in Gaza 10 days ago, during the recent Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr. At the meeting, Erdogan was accompanied by Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, National Intelligence Organization head Ibrahim Kalin, Communications Director Fahrettin Altun, and his top advisors Akif Cagatay Kilic and Safer Turan. Flouting an International Court of Justice provisional ruling, Israel continues its onslaught on the Gaza Strip where over 34,000 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and nearly 77,000 injured since Oct. 7, according to Palestinian health authorities. Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas which killed some 1,200 people. The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN. Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
At least 22 people killed 18 of them children in overnight Israeli airstrike on Rafah Copyright Ismael Abu Dayyah/Copyright 2024 The AP. All rights reserved. By Eurorenws with AP 21/04/2024 https://www.euronews.com/2024/04/21...ldren-in-overnight-israeli-airstrike-on-rafah Israeli strikes kill at least 22 people, including 18 children in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, health officials said Sunday, as the United States approve billions of dollars of additional military aid to Israel. Israeli airstrikes in the southern Gaza city of Rafah overnight killed at least 22 people, 18 of them were children, according to health officials on Sunday. Meanwhile, the United States has approved billions of dollars in additional military aid to Israel, its key ally. Israel has been conducting daily air raids on Rafah, where 2.3million of Gaza's inhabitants have sought refuge from conflict elsewhere. Despite international calls for restraint, including from the US, Israel has expressed intentions to escalate its ground operations against the Hamas militant group in the city near the Egyptian border. Mourners pray over the bodies of Palestinians, draped in the Islamic Jihad militant group flags, during their funeral in the Nur Shams refugee camp, near the West BankNasser Nasser/Copyright 2024 The AP. All rights reserved. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans to intensify political and military pressure on Hamas in the coming days to secure the release of hostages and achieve victory. However, he provided no specifics on these actions. The initial Israeli airstrike in Rafah resulted in the deaths of a man, his wife, and their 3-year-old child, as confirmed by the nearby Kuwaiti Hospital. Fortunately, doctors managed to save the woman's unborn baby. Subsequently, a second strike claimed the lives of 17 children and two women from an extended family. Relatives of the victims can't but question why sleeping children had been targeted whilst expressing horror at the condition of the elderly aunt who was killed. The aftermath of the strikes saw small children being placed in body bags. Mohammed al-Beheiri recounted the tragic loss of his daughter Rasha and her six children, the youngest being just 18 months old. Additionally, a woman and three children remained trapped under debris. According to local health officials, the Israel-Hamas conflict has resulted in the deaths of over 34,000 Palestinians, with at least two-thirds of them being children and women. This prolonged conflict has left Gaza's major cities devastated and forced approximately 80% of the population to seek refuge elsewhere within the besieged coastal enclave. The 24 billion euros aid package approved by the House of Representatives on Saturday includes roughly 8 billion euros in humanitarian assistance for Gaza, which experts warn is teetering on the brink of famine. The Senate is expected to ratify the package by Tuesday, with President Joe Biden pledging immediate enactment upon passage.
West Bank: Israel investigates after volunteer paramedic killed 14 hours ago By Thomas Mackintosh, BBC News https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68868954 PRCS According to PRCS, Mohammed Awad Allan served as a volunteer with the Qaryut Ambulance Committee The Israeli army has launched an investigation after a Palestinian volunteer paramedic was killed in the occupied West Bank. The Palestinian Red Crescent (PRCS) said Mohammed Awad Allan, 50, was shot while treating people who had been injured by Israeli settlers. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said forces were sent to the village of As-Sawiya to break up clashes. It confirmed an ambulance driver was killed, and that it was investigating. The circumstances of the death are not clear. In a statement on Sunday, the IDF said troops and Israel Border Police forces were sent following reports of a "violent confrontation of mutual rock hurling that occurred between Palestinians and Israeli civilians in the area of As-Sawiya". It added: "During the incident, an ambulance driver for the Palestine Red Crescent was killed. The Military Police have opened an investigation." The PRCS said Mr Allan tried to treat people injured "by gunshots fired by Israeli settlers". Some Hebrew-language media reports said Mr Allan was killed by firing from the Israeli armed forces - others reported he was shot by armed settlers. According to PRCS, Mr Allan served as a volunteer with the Qaryut Ambulance Committee - an initiative to offer ambulance services to the area's residents. Separately, Palestinian officials said at least 14 people, including a boy and a gunman, were killed in an Israeli military operation in the West Bank refugee camp of Nur Shams on Saturday. The Israeli military said security forces had killed 10 people it said were terrorists, and arrested eight others. Getty Images Palestinians inspect the damage to a street after a raid by Israeli forces in the Nur Shams camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on 21 April West Bank violence has been on the rise for months. Around 700,000 Israelis live in 160 settlements alongside 2.7 million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to the Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now. The international community regards the settlements as illegal, although Israel disputes this. There are also about 160 so-called outposts, or small settlements, which have been built without official approval and are considered illegal under Israeli law. Tensions were already high before 7 October, when Hamas launched a deadly attack on Israel, sparking the war in Gaza. Since then, more than 460 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Those deaths includes armed fighters amid a rise in raids by the Israeli military on Palestinian towns and villages. In the same period, at least 13 Israelis have been killed in the West Bank, including two members of Israel's security forces. Human rights groups say incidents of settler attacks, and alleged involvement of the security forces, are rarely fully investigated. On 16 April, the UN human rights office called on Israeli security forces to end what it called their active participation in and support for attacks by settlers in the West Bank.
US-Israel: Netanyahu vows to reject any US sanctions on army units 9 hours ago By Tom Bateman, BBC News, Washington https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68870273 AFP via Getty Images Formed in 1999, the Netzah Yehuda battalion is a special men-only unit where ultra-Orthodox Jews serve Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to reject any sanctions on the country's military, after reports that the US plans to cut aid to one unit. "I will fight it with all my strength," the prime minister said on Sunday. Earlier, the Axios news site said the US would target Israel's Netzah Yehuda battalion over alleged human rights violations in the occupied West Bank. The BBC understands any move would come under a US ban on aid to foreign units credibly implicated in violations. When asked last week about reports that US military aid to the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) units could be cut over allegations of human rights abuses in the occupied West Bank, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: "I've made determinations; you can expect to see them in the days ahead". Washington - Israel's main ally - has never suspended aid to an IDF unit before. The Israeli military said Netzah Yehuda was operating in accordance with international law. "Following publications about sanctions against the battalion, the IDF is not aware of the issue," the military is quoted as saying by Reuters news agency. "The IDF works and will continue to work to investigate any unusual event in a practical manner and according to law." Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant called on the US to withdraw its intention to sanction Netzah Yehuda, saying the world was watching the ties between the US and Israel more closely than ever. "Any attempt to criticise an entire unit casts a heavy shadow on the actions of the IDF," a statement from Mr Gallant read, adding "this is not the right path for partners and friends". Reuters "If anyone thinks they can impose sanctions on a unit of the IDF, I will fight it," Mr Netanyahu said On Saturday, Axios cited three US sources with knowledge of the issue as saying that Mr Blinken was expected to announce measures against Netzah Yehuda within days. It said the move would be over alleged abuses in the West Bank, including one incident in which a Palestinian-American man, 80-year-old Omar Assad, died after being bound and gagged by Israeli soldiers during a search in the West Bank in January 2022. At the time the US called for a "thorough criminal investigation and full accountability" in the case. The IDF later said it regretted Mr Assad's death and that the Netzah Yehuda commander would be "reprimanded"over it. It added that two soldiers would barred from serving in senior positions for two years, but would not be prosecuted. It said Mr Assad's death had been caused by a pre-existing medical condition. Mr Assad's family, many of whom are based in the US, condemned the decision to close the case. All the alleged violations took place before the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip. Any decision to bar an IDF unit from US military assistance would be made under the "Leahy Law", sponsored in 1997 by then-Senator Patrick Leahy. It prevents US funding or training being used for foreign military units credibly implicated in gross human rights violations. Last year, a group of US officials known as the "Israel-Leahy vetting forum" looked into at least a dozen allegations made against Israeli units, including the Netzah Yehuda battalion, a former senior US official told the BBC. "We believed that in most cases, these were un-remediated - in other words, the perpetrators had not been properly held to account," said Josh Paul, former director of the state department's Political-Military Affairs bureau, which oversees US arms transfers. "When we tried to advance these recommendations to the secretary [of state] we were never able to get them through the political level," he added. Mr Paul resigned from his position in November in protest at what he saw as a lack of accountability over weapons transfers to Israel. Asked whether the recommendations he mentioned had since reached Mr Blinken's desk, he cited the recent media reports suggesting they had. Formed in 1999, Netzah Yehuda is a special men-only unit where ultra-Orthodox Jews serve. Earlier this week, the state department imposed sanctions on Israeli far-right activist Ben Zion Gopstein. It said his organisation, Lehava, had "engaged in destabilising violence affecting the West Bank". The Netzah Yehuda battalion
Israel: Netzah Yehudah Battalion Carries Out War Crimes In the West Bank, Including the Killing of Palestinian-American Omar Assad November 29, 2022 CULPRIT: Netzah Yehuda Battalion (formerly known as Nahal Haredi) FULL UNIT INFO: 97th Netzah Yehuda Battalion, 900th Kfir Brigade, 340th Idan Armored Division, Central Regional Command SUMMARY The 97th Netzah Yehuda Battalion (גדוד נצח יהודה), previously known as Nahal Haredi, is a battalion in the Kfir Brigade of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), within the IDF Central Command, that has committed gross violations of human rights and war crimes against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank between 2015 and 2022, the period investigated by Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN)........... The Israeli government has failed to hold individual soldiers of the Netzah Yehuda battalion meaningfully accountable for the grave crimes in which they have been implicated, contributing to a broader culture of impunity and widespread and systematic abuses in the Israeli military. It is illegal under Israeli law to publish the names of soldiers under investigation, but gag orders and other restrictions almost always remain even after a conviction. As documented below, between 2015 and 2022 numerous soldiers from the battalion have committed killings, beatings, physical and sexual torture and abuse, usually in violation of Israeli military laws and regulations. While the Israeli Military Police has investigated some of these incidents, any punitive measures imposed have largely not fit the crimes, and have not changed the culture of the unit as evidenced by ongoing documented abuses and killings. There is no evidence that Israel has held the unit's commanders meaningfully accountable in any way, except for the reprimand and demotion of an unnamed commander in connection with the murder of Palestinian-American Omar Assad. Indeed, given the numerous abuses committed over the years, there appears to be a culture of impunity that empowers the perpetrators and effectively encourages others to commit grave crimes.d. Instead, the Israeli military has promoted at least two of the commanders of the unit to higher positions, including Lt. Col. Mati Shevach, the commander of the unit at the time of the killing of Omar Assad, who was promoted to the position of Deputy Commander of the Kfir Brigade. There is a close relationship between the Netzah Yehuda Battalion and the settler movement, which has been reported by Israeli media, as well as acknowledged openly by Israeli politicians. According to an Israeli defense official, settlers "view on the ground is that this battalion belongs to them, that it's a force that works for the settlement enterprise." In January 2022, MK Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the Religious Zionism Party, who has repeatedly defended the actions of the unit, posted on social media, "As a settler, I'm telling you that the residents [settlers] are happy every time that Netzah Yehuda is deployed in their sector." Unlike other Israeli battalions, Netzah Yehuda seems to have a religious nationalist ideology that matches the settlement movement, making it a challenge to take punitive measures against soldiers for human rights violations against Palestinians, even when Israeli army leadership has recognized this phenomenon. Too long to post the full article. You can read it here..... https://dawnmena.org/culprit-netzah-yehuda-battalion/
Blinken denies US double standard over alleged Israeli rights abuses Published 04/22/2024 Blinken denies US double standard over alleged Israeli rights abuses. By Humeyra Pamuk and Jonathan Landay WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday rejected suggestions that Washington might have a "double standard" when applying U.S. law to allegations of abuses by the Israeli military in Gaza and said that examinations of such charges are ongoing. "Do we have a double standard? The answer is no," Blinken told a news conference announcing the Department's annual human rights country reports. "In general, as we're looking at human rights and the condition of human rights around the world, we apply the same standard to everyone. That doesn't change whether the country is an adversary, a competitor, a friend or an ally," he said. "When it comes to allegations of incidents or whether it's violations of international humanitarian law, rights abuses...we have processes within the department that are looking at that incidents that have been raised. Those processes are ongoing," Blinken said. He declined to provide when those processes might produce a definitive assessment. Israel's military conduct has come under increasing scrutiny as its forces have killed 34,000 Palestinians in besieged Gaza, according to the enclave's health authorities, many of them civilians and children. The Gaza Strip has been reduced to a wasteland, and extreme food shortages have prompted fears of famine. Israel launched its assault in response to a Hamas attack on Oct. 7, in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed. Rights groups have flagged numerous incidents of civilian harm during the Israeli army's offensive in Gaza, as well as raised alarm about rising violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Palestinian Health Ministry records show Israeli forces or settlers have killed at least 460 Palestinians since Oct. 7. But so far the Biden administration has said it has not found Israel in breach of international law. Advocates have raised questions of double standards saying Washington has been quick to condemn the actions of, for example, Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, but the Biden administration has been careful not to go too far in its criticism of Israel. Brian Finucane, Senior Adviser to the US Program at the International Crisis Group pushed back on Blinken's comments, saying it was "disingenuous" to say partners and adversaries get the same treatment on the issue. "With adversaries like Russia, there is a policy demand to make quasi-legal, public determinations about atrocity crimes. With partners like Israel, there is the opposite policy demand to avoid reaching any inconvenient legal conclusions," said Finucane, who formerly was a State Department lawyer. Washington gives $3.8 billion in annual military assistance to its longtime ally. Leftist Democrats and Arab American groups have criticized the Biden administration's steadfast support for Israel, which they say provides it with a sense of impunity. But this month, President Joe Biden for the first time threatened to condition support for Israel, and insisted that it take concrete steps to protect humanitarian aid workers and civilians. Israel has denied allegations of deliberately causing humanitarian suffering in the enclave. It denies deliberately targeting civilians, accusing Hamas of using residential buildings for cover. Hamas denies this. The State Department in its 2023 human rights report about Israel said the war with Hamas has had "a significant negative impact" on the human rights situation in Israel, and cited allegations of numerous incidents such as arbitrary or unlawful killings, enforced disappearance, torture and unjustified arrests of journalists among others. Israeli authorities operating in Gaza took no publicly visible steps to identify and punish officials accused of committing human rights abuses," said the report, covering the incidents of last year.
Google fires more workers who protested its deal with Israel, activists say A group called No Tech For Apartheid says Google fired at least 20 more workers in the aftermath of protests over technology the company is supplying the Israeli government amid its war on Gaza. It said that brings the total number of terminated staff to at least 50. This is the latest sign of internal turmoil at the tech giant centred on “Project Nimbus,” a $1.2bn contract signed in 2021 for Google and Amazon to provide the Israeli government with cloud computing and artificial intelligence services. Workers held sit-in protests last week at Google offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California. The company responded by calling police, who made arrests. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/live...donors-to-resume-unrwa-funding?update=2855757