A lengthy profile of Yahya Sinwar. ‘Why Haven’t You Liberated Palestine Yet?’: Hamas Leader Yahya Sinwar’s Relentless Race To Achieve His Goals Operation Al-Aqsa Flood can be seen as an effort to accelerate events and pull the future into the present, forcing all to confront reality, whether they are prepared or not https://newlinesmag.com/argument/wh...sinwars-relentless-race-to-achieve-his-goals/
On the good news front. Let's hope these three day pauses for vaccination hold. Hamas, Israel agree to multiple three-day pauses in war to vaccinate kids against polio https://nypost.com/2024/08/29/world...auses-in-war-to-vaccinate-kids-against-polio/
Lapid says Netanyahu knew for months before Oct. 7 that a violent eruption was looming Opposition leader: Disaster could have been prevented, PM seemed ‘bored’ when told of dangers during joint briefing; PM’s office: He ‘did not receive any warning about the war in Gaza’ https://www.timesofisrael.com/lapid...re-oct-7-that-a-violent-eruption-was-looming/ Its not a direct "they knew!" but strengthing that they were told and chose to ignore. I have zero doubt that they willfully put a thumb on the scale to help the attack happen as it was exactly what they needed to save their political skins.
Israel offering a three-day pause for vaccinations ‘a sick joke’ The fact that the “international community is begging Israel to vaccine children tells you to what extent this war has become immoral and genocidal”, Dr Tamer Qarmout, an associate professor in public policy at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, told Al Jazeera. Rather than allow temporary pauses for polio vaccinations, he said Israel’s war on Gaza needs to end he said. “The health sector in Gaza has been systematically destroyed and targeted,” he said, adding that a three-day pause “will never be enough to vaccinate 30 or 40 percent of Gaza’s population, which are young and children”. He described it as “a sick joke by the Israelis to say, we offer you three days to vaccine children, knowing that the entire health sector has been destroyed” with no clinics and “no basic conditions whatsoever to provide this vaccine.” .......meanwhile........ Life at a standstill in Jenin during Israeli raids, settler attack Nour Odeh Reporting from Ramallah, occupied West Bank Right now all eyes are on Jenin and the Jenin refugee camp where an unannounced curfew is in place. Nobody has been able to leave their home. Anybody attempting to do so is being shot at by Israeli forces, residents tell us. Nearby in Huwara, further to the south in the occupied West Bank, an Israeli settler took to the street, shot at Palestinians in that street, and was protected, as per usual, by Israeli soldiers, bringing life in that main artery also to a halt.
So Israel (the enemy) wants to vaccinate Palestinians while curfews are in place and people shot at if they leave their homes. American politicians including Kamala want to continue supplying weapons to Israel.
It would be good if one could play it out like this scene with the three players, but grudge matches are never cool and slick in the real world. The US got it's wish after the fall of the USSR to make the world uni-polar. Europe should have developed an integrated response capability, not just Nato, and should be the referee keeping the always betraying USA, clear of women and kids. But that's a dream.
Israel: "We want the whole world to be constantly reminded of the holocaust and how we the Jews were victims." "Now the boot is on the other foot, we will be the Nazis." "And why shouldn't we be Nazis. America the greatest nation on earth whom is brainwashed by our religion, allow and support us to be Nazis". "Nothing and nobody can stop us".
‘Nothing is left’: Israel’s military tells Gaza residents to go home but they find only rubble By Mohammad Al Sawalhi, Abeer Salman and Tim Lister, CNN Sat August 31, 2024 People have returned to areas east of Deir Al Balah in central Gaza this week to find buildings in ruins.Mohammad Al Sawalhi/CNN Deir Al Balah, Gaza CNN — For the first time since the Israeli military began ground operations in Gaza in October, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has sent out messages to people’s phones and on social media saying that the residents of some areas can return to their neighborhoods. The IDF posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Thursday that people who had been ordered to leave three neighborhoods of Deir Al Balah in central Gaza could go home. CNN interviewed a number of families who had returned to find scenes of destruction. One man, Abdulfattah Al Bourdaini, said: “We came home and found nothing, no power, no gas, no house, and we cannot change our clothes.” All he had been able to salvage was a teddy bear for the son he hoped one day to have. “I am penniless like the day I was born,” Al Bourdaini said. “I have nothing. I came to check on my house, didn’t find a house or anything, nothing is left… There is nothing left to cry about.” His brother, Musa Al Bourdaini, surveyed the scene in disbelief, telling CNN: “Why would they want to destroy this house? This house could have housed 120 people… What did they do to the house? They didn’t find a single human being in it, but yet they hit it with missiles and destroyed an entire neighborhood.” He said he had come home with a key to his own, neighboring building – but had found no house for it. “Now we will bring a tent, that is if we find a tent, and put it next to our house,” he added. Several people said they had been displaced from the neighborhood about 10 days ago, when the Israeli military posted on X and dropped leaflets telling people to evacuate the area for their own security. Many Gaza residents have been displaced multiple times since October, worsening the ongoing humanitarian crisis; experts also warn that evacuation orders have complicated aid efforts. In its post on X on Thursday, the IDF said that “following the operations against terror organizations in the (Deir Al Balah) area, the IDF is enabling the return to these blocks which are part of the designated Humanitarian Area.” On Friday, the IDF announced that people in three more blocks in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza could also return home, saying on X: “After the IDF’s activities against terrorist organizations in the area, you can return to these blocks. In the meantime, the humanitarian zone will be adapted and those areas will from now on be classified as part of the humanitarian zone.” In a statement Friday detailing its operations in recent weeks, the Israeli military said “troops of the 98th Division have completed their divisional operation in the Khan Younis and Deir Al Balah area, after about a month of simultaneous above and underground operational activity.” Israeli forces had “eliminated over 250 terrorists,” and destroyed terrorist infrastructure including six underground tunnel routes in the course of the operation, the statement said. “In some of the tunnel routes the troops eliminated terrorists and located terrorist hideouts and weapons.” The Israeli military has told residents of some Gaza neighborhoods that they can return home but many have found scenes of destruction. Mohammad Al Sawalhi/CNN Abdul Raouf Radwan said that he and his family had moved into a tent closer to the coast to escape the bombardment. They had returned hoping to reoccupy their home, “hoping to find a life, find something, find a room to live in,” he said. “We found nothing but destruction. Our dreams were destroyed, our memories were destroyed… The house that our ancestors built was all gone.” His brother, Muhammad Ramzi Radwan, said he had already lost a son as a result of the Israeli military’s operations. “A young man of 30, who built himself up from scratch, education, marriage, a son. All is gone, nothing is left.” “My message is to stop the war,” Radwan said. “There is no time left to rebuild ourselves… We have endured this. This is beyond our capacity.” Yamen al Tabi’s house was also destroyed. He said the family had left the neighborhood out of fear and returned to find their home completely ruined. “I wish I had been buried in the house. I wish I had died in the house and not returned and seen the scene that I saw,” he told CNN. “Where will we go now without shelter?” Raouf Ayesh said he and his children had taken refuge in tents. “And we said, ‘Oh God, let us return to our homes and find our belongings, our clothes, our winter clothes.” But they returned to nothing but debris. Ayesh appeared to place some of the blame on Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. “Let Sinwar be satisfied,” he said. “Can you hear? They ruined us. We were not like this.” Some Palestinians returning to devastated neighborhoods say they can only try to salvage what they can from their former homes. Mohammad Al Sawalhi/CNN Hanan Al-Arabeed, a widow who had returned to her home with her children, found it in ruins. “Should I go to a tent I am now in the street, I have two disabled children. I did not take anything with me from my house, there is total destruction as you can see,” she said. Al-Arabeed had harsh words for Arab governments, saying: “We demand that the Arab countries stand with us, they make us feel that we are not Muslims…. The negotiations are at whose expense? At the expense of the martyrs, at the expense of the blood of children that is wasted.” Her sister, Umm Kareem Al-Arabeed, said she was collecting whatever she could from the ruins of her apartment. “Unfortunately, Israel has made its decision to eliminate the Gaza Strip. Indeed, it wants to eliminate the Palestinian people so that they do not raise their heads from here for 100 years. But you know, we are a steadfast people, coping people,” she said. “We will start from the beginning and anew. We will start over,” she added. Nearly 84% of the enclave has been placed under evacuation orders since the start of the war, according to the United Nations’ main agency for Palestinian humanitarian relief, UNRWA. All the while, the Israel-designated “humanitarian zone” has been steadily shrinking. In the past month alone, the IDF has reduced this zone by 38% – with the remaining space making up just over a tenth of Gaza’s total area, according to a CNN analysis.
Greek tanker damaged in Houthi strike to be towed Yemen’s Houthi Foreign Minister Jamel Amer says tug boats are expected to begin towing the Greek tanker Sounion on Sunday after it was damaged in an attack by the group on August 21. The ship is carrying nearly one million barrels of crude oil, raising fears of an environmental catastrophe and posing a risk to navigation in the region. The Houthis have been targeting what they claim are Israel-linked vessels – an effort they say aims to pressure the Israeli government to end the war in Gaza, which has killed more than 40,600 Palestinians since October. The crippled Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion in the Red Sea [EUNAVFOR ASPIDES via Reuters]
So Israel agrees to polio vaccinations and to create trust, attacks hospital today..... Palestinian Health Ministry condemns Israeli strike on hospital compound The ministry has issued a statement in which it said it “condemns the repeated attack” on al-Ahli Arab Hospital (Baptist Hospital) in Gaza City. It said Israeli forces targeted “the hospital grounds this evening, which resulted in many martyrs and injuries among patients’ relatives and visitors to the hospital”. “The Ministry also appeals to all international and UN bodies and organizations to protect hospitals and medical staff from the brutality of the occupation and its crimes against health institutions and staff in the Gaza Strip,” the statement read.