‘If you’re reading this, it means I have been killed’: The final words of a young Palestinian reporter March 25, 2025 https://www.smh.com.au/world/middle...ung-palestinian-reporter-20250325-p5lmac.html The United Nations will start pulling its workers out of Gaza as the conflict with Israel claims a growing number of aid workers, medical personnel and journalists, including two reporters killed in strikes on Monday. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the organisation had made the “difficult” decision to withdraw a third of its international workers, after repeated Israeli strikes on its facilities in Gaza. A Red Cross building was also hit in Gaza on Monday, in what Israel said was a mistake. Hossam Shabat was a college student when the war broke out.Credit: Image via @HossamShabat via X The UN has lost more workers during the 18-month war than in any other conflict in its history, Guterres says. At least 280 have been killed, among them a Bulgarian UN worker killed in a strike on a UN compound last week, which the UN says came from an Israeli tank, a claim Israel denies. A 23-year-old Palestinian journalist, Hossam Shabat, was killed in a strike on his car in northern Gaza on Monday, with footage verified by The New York Times showing his body, and those of two other men, lying beside a car bearing the Al Jazeera emblem, and the letters “TV” on the windshield. The car was peppered with what appeared to be bullet or shrapnel holes, the paper reported. The Israeli military said it was looking into the report. Shabat was a contributor for Al Jazeera’s Arabic language channel – the broadcaster is one of the few international outlets that have remained in Gaza throughout the war – and is one of more than 200 journalists to have been killed since the war began, according to the Gaza government media office. The tally of casualties in the war between Israel and Hamas hit a new milestone on Sunday, as fresh Israeli strikes killed dozens, including a Hamas political leader. Israel has accused Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza, including Shabat, of being Palestinian militants but the channel denies the accusations, and says Israel is trying to silence journalists covering the war. In a statement, Al Jazeera condemned the killing of Shabat and vowed to pursue “all legal measures to prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes against journalists”. Hours after his death, a pre-written message from Shabat was published on his X account, in which he said he believed in the Palestinian cause and called on the world to continue to pay attention to the conflict in Gaza. “If you’re reading this, it means I have been killed,” he wrote. “I risked everything to report the truth, and now, I am finally at rest – something I haven’t known in the past 18 months.” The US non-profit Committee to Protect Journalists called for an independent international investigation into whether Shabat and another journalist, Palestine Today worker Mohammed Mansour, were deliberately targeted. Mansour was also killed on Monday alongside his wife and son in a separate Israeli airstrike on their home in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, according to Nasser Hospital. The International Committee of the Red Cross said its office in the southern city of Rafah was damaged by an explosive projectile on Monday and while no staff were hurt, the damage had impacted its ability to operate. The Israeli military said its troops shot at the building after identifying a threat from Palestinian militants. “It was later determined that the identification was false,” the military said, adding that the soldiers didn’t realise the building was being used by the Red Cross. The Red Cross also said contact had been lost with emergency medical technicians from the Palestine Red Crescent Society on Sunday and their whereabouts remained unknown. Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli airstrike on a camp housing displaced people in Gaza City.Credit: Bloomberg In less than a week of air and ground operations since Israel broke the ceasefire with Hamas, Israeli forces have killed hundreds of people in Gaza – sending the death toll from almost 18 months of war above 50,000. Israel says it restarted its bombardment and cut off food to Gaza to force Hamas to accept new terms for the ceasefire and release more hostages. It says it targets Hamas members and positions, blaming the group for civilian deaths because it operates among the population. Hamas-led militants killed about 1200 people, mainly civilians, and abducted 251 people in the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that ignited the war. In northern Israel on Monday, one man was killed and a soldier was wounded in a combined ramming, stabbing and shooting attack by a lone assailant at a bus stop, emergency services said. The assailant was shot dead. Meanwhile, Egyptian officials said the country had introduced a new proposal to try to get the ceasefire back on track. Hamas would release five living hostages, including an American-Israeli, in return for Israel allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza and a weeks-long pause in the fighting, an Egyptian official said. Israel would also release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. A Hamas official said the group had “responded positively” to the proposal, without elaborating. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief the media on the closed-door talks. Reuters, AP
Washington highlights heavy toll on US shipping from Houthis’ Red Sea attacks US national security advisor Mike Waltz said, “Seventy-five percent of our US flag shipping now has to go around the southern coast of Africa rather than going through the Suez Canal”. Monday 24/03/2025 https://thearabweekly.com/washington-highlights-heavy-toll-us-shipping-houthis-red-sea-attacks A file picture shows US-owned, Greek-flagged ship Sea Champion moored in the southern port city of Aden, which lies in the areas under the control of Yemen’s internationally recognised government. REUTERS WASHINGTON Attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen have forced three-fourths of US-flagged ships to avoid the Red Sea and instead take the long and expensive detour around the southern tip of Africa, the US national security advisor said Sunday. “Seventy-five percent of our US flag shipping now has to go around the southern coast of Africa rather than going through the Suez Canal,” Mike Waltz told CBS “Face the Nation.” He added: “The last time one of our destroyers went through the straits there, it was attacked 23 times.” Recent US air strikes against the Iran-backed rebels, the first since President Donald Trump took office in January, have “taken out key Houthi leadership,” including the head of their missile programme, Waltz said. “We’ve hit their headquarters. We’ve hit communications nodes, weapons factories, and even some of their over-the-water drone production facilities.” The Houthis say they have targeted ships in the Red Sea in solidarity with Palestinians since the start of Israel’s Gaza war. They say the recent US bombing attacks on Yemen claimed more than 50 lives. On Tuesday, they said on Telegram that they had fired missiles and drones at the aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman, part of the US fleet in the northern Red Sea. Those attacks were unsuccessful, NBC reported. Waltz blamed the administration of Joe Biden for launching only “pinprick attacks” against the Houthis, allowing “one of the world’s most critical sea lanes (to) get shut down.” He added: “The Trump administration and President Trump have decided to do something much harder, much tougher.” When queried Sunday about reports of fresh strikes in Yemen, a US defence official said that American forces were “conducting strikes across multiple locations of Iran-backed Houthi locations every day and night in Yemen.” Travelling around the southern tip of Africa can double the time it takes a ship to pass between Europe and Asia, adding nearly $1 million in costs, according to LSEG Shipping Research. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed the matter with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in a call on Sunday. Rubio “conveyed” the Trump administration’s “determination to restore freedom of navigation in the Red Sea through military operations” against the Houthis, a US State Department readout said.
The result of Biden thinking he was clever doing God's work and entering a fight in the pig shit pig pen. Trump too thinks fighting in pigshit is clever and will help God out who will help Israel out who will help America out. The fucking delusion, only humans are capable of such idiocracy.
The post-war plans for Gaza are all over the place. Conflicting Visions for Gaza’s ‘Day After’ Amid a Complex Reality https://english.aawsat.com/features...sions-gaza’s-‘day-after’-amid-complex-reality
Mike Huckabee, Trump’s pick for Israel ambassador, tries to distance from past Palestinian rhetoric By MATTHEW LEE, FARNOUSH AMIRI and STEPHEN GROVES March 26, 2025 https://apnews.com/article/israel-a...e-trump-gaza-a448937b9550f0f89c6d96d330286f6f WASHINGTON (AP) — Mike Huckabee, President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to Israel, attempted to distance himself Tuesday from his past controversial statements about the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people, pledging on Capitol Hill to “carry out the president’s priorities, not mine.” “I am not here to articulate or defend my own views or policies, but to present myself as one who will respect and represent the President whose overwhelming election by the people will hopefully give me the honor of serving as ambassador to the State of Israel,” Huckabee said in his opening statement. Trump nominated Huckabee, a well-known evangelical Christian and vehement supporter of Israel, to take on the critical post in Jerusalem days after he won reelection on a campaign promise to end the now 17-month war in Gaza. But after a brief ceasefire, U.S. and Arab mediators are now struggling to get a ceasefire deal back on track after Israeli forces resumed the war last week with a surprise wave of deadly airstrikes. While Republican senators applauded Huckabee’s staunch support for America’s closest ally, Israel, Democrats questioned his past rhetoric about Palestinians deemed “extreme” by even some pro-Israel groups and contradicting longstanding U.S. policy in the region. The former Arkansas governor acknowledged his past support for Israel’s right to annex the West Bank and incorporate its Palestinian population into Israel but said it would not be his “prerogative” to carry out that policy. “If confirmed, it will be my responsibility to carry out the president’s priorities, not mine,” Huckabee said in response to Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley’s questions. Huckabee, a one-time presidential hopeful, has also repeatedly backed referring to the West Bank by its biblical name of “Judea and Samaria,” a term that right-wing Israeli politicians and activists have thus far fruitlessly pushed the U.S. to accept. He did not give a clear answer to whether he still stands by that when pushed by Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. Most notably, Huckabee has long been opposed to the idea of a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinian people. In an interview last year, he went even further, saying that he doesn’t even believe in referring to the Arab descendants of people who lived in British-controlled Palestine as “Palestinians.” As the situation in Gaza has deteriorated with the recent collapse of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire and hostage release deal, Israeli officials have begun to talk more seriously about reoccupation of the territory, something to which President Joe Biden’s administration had been adamantly opposed. Trump has made his proposals about a potential U.S. takeover of Gaza, which have attracted attention as well as strong criticism from Arab nations and others. When asked about Trump’s plan, Huckabee denied that the president ever said he would “force displacement” of Palestinians from Gaza “unless it is for their safety” and says Palestinians could be incentivized to leave. Even before his hearing started, Democrats and centrist Jewish groups voiced their opposition to his nomination, saying that his views on the conflict are “extreme” and “counter to Americans’ interests.” “Huckabee’s positions are not the words of a thoughtful diplomat — they are the words of a provocateur whose views are far outside international consensus and contrary to the core bipartisan principles of American diplomacy,” Rep. Jerry Nadler, a senior Jewish Democrat, said in a statement Monday. “In one of the most volatile and violent areas in the world today, there is no need for more extremism, and certainly not from the historic ambassador’s post and behind the powerful seal of the United States.” Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the centrist pro-Israel group J Street, echoed that sentiment, saying that Huckabee’s views “would undermine American interests and the administration’s own stated commitment to pursuit of long-term regional peace and security.” He added, “Mr. Huckabee’s embrace of annexation, extremist settlers and fanatical Christian Zionism stands in stark contrast to the Jewish, democratic values held by the overwhelming majority of our community — and in stark contrast to Israel’s founding values of justice, equality and peace.” Trump’s pick for ambassador to Panama also testified Another nominee who testified before the committee on Tuesday is Kevin Cabrera, Trump’s pick to be ambassador to Panama, a country that has bristled at the Republican president’s repeated calls for the U.S. to retake control of the Panama Canal for national security reasons due to potential threats from China. The status of the canal was one of the top items on Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s agenda when he visited Panama City on his first trip as America’s top diplomat in February. “One of the key aspects of our cooperation is ensuring the security of the Panama Canal, a critical international waterway that facilitates global trade and economic growth,” Cabrera said in his opening remarks. He also praised decisions by the Panamanian government to withdraw from China’s Belt and Road Initiative and to review contracts with a China-based company that is running ports at both ends of the canal. The company has preliminarily agreed to sell its interests in the subsidiaries that run the ports, but the deal is not yet complete. Cabrera also faced repeated calls from Democrats to commit to upholding Panama’s sovereignty and advising the president to do the same, but Cabrera responded that he would defer to Trump, who has said “all the options are on the table” when it comes to asserting U.S. control over the Panama Canal. He added that diplomacy is included in those options. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said she appreciated a “focus on diplomacy,” but said she was still worried by the threats of sending military force or coercing Panama to relinquish control over the canal. Cabrera responded, “President Trump is our commander and chief and I stand behind him and his policies.”
The U.S. and UAE are strong-arming Egypt to take in half a million displaced Palestinians from Gaza. If Egypt fails to do so then U.S. aid will be cut off. US support for Egypt at risk if Cairo refuses to accept Gazans, UAE President warns - report The message was delivered last weekend by UAE President Mohammad bin Zayed during a brief, surprise visit to Cairo. https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-847641 The Egyptian government has been warned that this is their “last chance” to accept a portion of Gaza’s displaced population and that they risk losing American support if they refuse, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported on Sunday. The message was delivered last weekend by UAE President Mohammad bin Zayed during a brief, surprise visit to Cairo. The meeting follows Egypt’s continued rejection of US President Donald Trump’s relocation plan, as well as the refusal of several other countries to accept Gazan residents within their borders. President Trump and Tahnoun bin Zayed, Deputy Ruler of Abu Dhabi and UAE National Security Advisor, met at the White House last Tuesday. Following their conversation, the United States announced that the UAE has committed to investing $1.4 trillion in the American economy over the next 10 years. Zayed reportedly emphasized that if Egypt continues to refuse the transfer of Gazan residents, the United States would redirect economic aid intended for Egypt to other regions. In exchange for accepting the displaced individuals, the United States has promised to provide billions of dollars in support of reviving the struggling Egyptian economy. The current proposal According to Al-Araby’s Egyptian sources, the current proposal involves transferring between 500,000 and 700,000 Palestinian citizens from the area spanning the northern Netzarim axis and the Gaza Envelope settlements in the northern Gaza Strip. The Gaza Strip would be confined to the area south of the Netzarim axis, extending to the current border with Egypt, according to the plan. Allegedly, the United States and Israel are primarily focused on relocating Gazans to Egypt, postponing Jordan’s role in the transfer, which will include absorbing residents of the West Bank at a later stage. Israel’s new defense department On Sunday, Israel’s security cabinet approved Defense Minister Israel Katz’s proposal to establish a new department within the Ministry of Defense to organize the ‘voluntary departure’ of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. Katz’s office stated that the department would work to “secure and organize the safe and orderly departure of Gaza residents” by providing transportation routes, implementing screening measures at crossings, and coordinating travel by land, sea, and air. On Friday, the Egyptian State Information Service (SIS) responded to media allegations that Cairo was preparing to relocate half a million Gazans to the northern Sinai region. “Egypt has resolutely and definitively rejected any attempt to forcibly or voluntarily displace Palestinian brothers and sisters to any location outside Gaza, especially to Egyptian territories,” the SIS emphasized, according to Egypt Independent, a privately owned, pro-government publication. “This would represent the liquidation of the Palestinian cause and pose an imminent threat to Egypt’s national security.”
Looks like the residents of Gaza are getting sick of Hamas ruining their lives. Thousands of Gazans join historic 'Hamas out' protests as anger boils over https://inews.co.uk/news/world/gaza-hamas-out-protests-historic-3606770?ito=smart-news
The protests against Hamas in Gaza are growing in ferocity and strength. Irate anti-Hamas protester in Gaza says Oct. 7 massacre backfired ‘for all of our people,’ wants terror group overthrown https://nypost.com/2025/03/26/world...-of-our-people-wants-terror-group-overthrown/ Armed Palestinian gangs call for ‘march of anger’ to oust Hamas from Gaza Protesters take to the streets demanding an end to the war and an ‘uprising against injustice’ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-n...za-gangs-march-oust-hamas-palestinians-anger/ Gazan anti-Hamas protests: The beginning of the terror group’s end? https://nypost.com/2025/03/26/opini...d-proof-israels-military-campaign-is-working/
Large crowds of armed Palestinians demanding the heads of Hamas terrorists is hard to spin. Hamas attempts to spin protests breaking out in Gaza against its leadership https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/...rotests-breaking-out-gaza-against-leadership/