November 23, 2023 https://pressgazette.co.uk/news/journalists-killed-israel-gaza-war/ Israel-Hamas war: More than 50 journalists killed in conflict so far The conflict is the deadliest for journalists since CPJ began tracking casualties in 1992. By Dominic Ponsford and Charlotte Tobitt Journalists at the funeral for Mohammed Rizq Sobh and Saeed Al-Taweel. Picture: Video screenshot More than 50 journalists have been killed in Israel, Gaza and Lebanon since the current conflict between Israel and Hamas began on 7 October. As of 23 November, at least 53 journalists have been killed according to a count by the Committee to Protect Journalists. The dead are believed to include 46 Palestinians, four Israeli journalists and three Lebanese. On Tuesday 21 November, a Lebanese reporter for the Al-Mayadeen TV channel and her cameraman were killed in south Lebanon near the border with Israel shortly after ending a live broadcast..........
Israel Says Hamas Ceasefire Violated After 15 Minutes Nov 24, 2023 https://www.newsweek.com/israel-hamas-ceasefire-violated-15-minutes-rocket-gaza-strip-1846564 Israel Says Hamas Ceasefire Violated After 15 Minutes By David Brennan Diplomatic Correspondent The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has reported that unspecified Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip violated a nascent ceasefire after only 15 minutes, telling Newsweek it intercepted a rocket fired towards southern Israel. Rocket sirens sounded in the evacuated southern Israeli towns of Kissufim and Ein HaShlosha early on Friday morning, shortly after a four-day ceasefire came into effect that will allow a prisoner exchange and the delivery of humanitarian aid into the besieged and devastated Gaza Strip. "There was a rocket and it was intercepted," the IDF Spokesperson's Unit told Newsweek of the reports, noting it was fired at 7:15 a.m. local time; 15 minutes after the ceasefire—which the IDF is calling an "operational pause"—came into effect. It is not yet clear which group was responsible for the alleged rocket launch, though the IDF has previously said Hamas bears responsibility for any attacks from Gaza into southern Israel given it holds influence over other local militant groups. A missile is launched from the Iron Dome defense missile system in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod on November 12, 2019. The IDF told Newsweek it intercepted a rocket fired on Friday morning shortly after a temporary truce came into effect. JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images Newsweek has contacted a Hamas spokesperson by WhatsApp to request comment. Friday's pause in the fighting comes after several weeks of tough negotiations between Israel, Hamas, the U.S., Egypt and Qatar. It is the first significant break in combat since the Hamas infiltration attack into southern Israel on October 7, which killed some 1,200 people and saw around 240 taken back into the Gaza Strip as hostages. Israel's bombardment of the Strip began immediately, and to date has killed more than 13,000 Palestinians, according to data from the Gaza Health Ministry cited by the Associated Press. The ministry has now stopped releasing updated casualty figures, saying it is not possible to keep track of the rising death toll amid Israel's offensive. The truce will allow hundreds of humanitarian aid trucks to enter the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt. But there appears little hope of an imminent end to the fighting. Israeli leaders have vowed to "crush and destroy" Hamas in Gaza, a 141-square-mile coastal strip of land controlled by the Islamist group since 2007. The statelet has been under Israeli-Egyptian blockade since that same year. Intense IDF-Hamas clashes have taken place in the northern portion of the Strip for several weeks, with Israeli authorities ordering local residents to evacuate to the south. But the IDF appears to be preparing for an offensive into the southern part of Gaza soon after the current truce ends. On Friday morning, The Times of Israel reported that the IDF used riot dispersal measures to prevent Palestinians returning to their homes in the northern part of the Strip amid the pause in fighting.
“Begin by seizing something which your opponent holds dear; then he will be amenable to your will.” ― Sun Tzu
Finally some European nations are waking up and applying common sense. Switzerland moves to ban Hamas, backs Israel’s ‘right to self-defence’ Government to introduce legislation by February against Palestinian group, supports Israel’s right to ‘its own security’. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/22/switzerland-moves-to-ban-hamas-activities-or-support
Hamas freed 25 hostages, including 12 from Thailand and 13 other women and children, as part of a negotiated exchange with Israel, Egypt said. The hostages were transferred to Egypt as part of a prisoner exchange that was set to see 39 Palestinian prisoners and detainees released from Israeli custody on the first day of a four-day cease-fire. Friday, November 24, 2023 11:18 AM ET https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/11/24/world/israel-hamas-hostage-release-gaza-war
https://apnews.com/article/palestin...ange-hostage-92545883b1fef86fb9b34549b7deca58 ......The release of the Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails came just hours after two dozen hostages, including 13 Israelis, were released from captivity in Gaza in the initial exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners during the four-day cease-fire that started Friday. Although the atmosphere was festive in the town of Beitunia near Israel’s hulking Ofer Prison in the West Bank, people were on edge. The Israeli government has ordered police to shut down celebrations over the release. Israeli security forces at one point unleashed tear gas canisters on the crowds, sending young men, old women and small children sprinting away as they wept and screamed in pain. “The army is trying to take this moment away from us but they can’t,” Mays Foqaha said as she tumbled into the arms of her newly released 18-year-old friend, Nour al-Taher from Nablus, who was arrested during a protest in September at the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. ”This is our day of victory.” The Palestinian detainees freed Friday included 24 women, some of whom had been sentenced to years-long prison terms over attempted stabbings and other attacks on Israeli security forces. Others had been accused of incitement on social media. There were also the 15 male teenagers, most of them charged with stone-throwing and “supporting terrorism,” a broadly defined accusation that underscores Israel’s long-running crackdown on young Palestinian men as violence surges in the occupied territory. For families on both sides of the conflict, news of the exchange — perhaps the first hopeful moment in 49 days of war — stirred a bittersweet jumble of joy and anguish. ........Israel has a history of agreeing to lopsided exchanges. In 2011, Hamas got Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to release more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for a single captive Israeli soldier, Gilad Schalit. A prisoner release touches Palestinian society to its core. Almost every Palestinian has a relative in jail – or has been there himself. Human rights groups estimate that over 750,000 Palestinians have passed through Israeli prisons since Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in 1967. Whereas Israel views them as terrorists, Palestinians refer to them by the Arabic word for prisoners of war, and devote a good chunk of public funds to supporting them and their families. Israel and the U.S. have condemned the grants to prisoner families as an incentive for violence. “These kinds of prisoner exchanges are often the only hope families have to see their sons or fathers released before many years go by,” said Amira Khader, international advocacy officer at Addameer, a group supporting Palestinian prisoners. “It’s what they live for, it’s like a miracle from God.” Since the Hamas attack, Israel has escalated a months-long West Bank crackdown on Palestinians suspected of ties to Hamas and other militant groups. Many prisoners are convicted by military courts, which prosecute Palestinians with a conviction rate of more than 99%. Rights groups say Palestinians are often denied due process and forced into confessions. There are now 7,200 Palestinians in Israeli prison, said Qadura Fares, the director of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, with over 2,000 arrested since Oct. 7 alone. On Friday in Beitunia, a lanky and pimpled 16-year-old, Aban Hammad, stood unmoving, looking shaken by the tumult of tears, hugs and pro-Hamas chants around him. It was his first glimpse of the world after a year in prison for throwing stones in the northern town of Qalqilya. He was freed even though he had eight months of his sentence left to serve. He turned toward his father, wrapping him into a hug. “Look, I’m almost bigger than you now,” he said.
Asia’s Muslims grow weary of the West’s double standards The Israel-Hamas conflict is driving a wedge between the U.S. and Muslims in the Global South Pro-Palestinian supporters gather in a show of solidarity at the National Monument in Jakarta on Nov. 5. | AFP-JIJI By Karishma Vaswani Bloomberg Nov 22, 2023 https://www.japantimes.co.jp/commentary/2023/11/22/world/asian-muslims/ Washington’s unwavering support for Israel during its ground invasion of Gaza is coming under increasing scrutiny in the Global South. China’s top diplomat Wang Yi recently hosted a delegation of foreign ministers from the Arab and Islamic world, including representatives from Saudi Arabia, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Egypt and Indonesia. Beijing said it is ready to work with these countries toward a cease-fire in Gaza, the release of hostages, the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid and an "early, comprehensive, just and enduring settlement of the Palestinian question.” This is not a new line from Beijing, but it will no doubt be welcomed by some in the Muslim world, particularly in Southeast Asia, which is keen to see more global leadership on an issue that has stoked outrage across communities. Tensions have been running high since Oct. 7, when Hamas militants surged across the border and killed 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals and took as many as 240 hostage. The region’s two largest Muslim majority countries — Indonesia and Malaysia — have long taken a strong pro-Palestinian stance and neither has diplomatic ties with Israel. As the civilian death toll in Gaza climbed above 13,000 following Israel's military campaign, with images of dead and injured children flooding their timelines, tens of thousands of Indonesians and Malaysians have attended rallies and sermons in support of Palestinians. The protest movement is spreading to all areas of public life in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, where 87% of the 280 million strong population follow the faith. In a social media video message to his followers on Nov 13., Asrorun Niam Sholeh, the chairman of the Fatwa Division at the Indonesian Ulema Council, the highest Muslim authority in the land, laid out the four principles behind an edict that urged the faithful to boycott Israeli products. There have also been social media lists encouraging people to avoid well-known American brands like McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Starbucks and Coca-Cola. Those protesting say the double standards of the U.S. in the Middle East are becoming increasingly apparent. It’s a similar picture in Malaysia. At a rally in Kuala Lumpur on Oct. 24, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim joined thousands of pro-Palestinian supporters to condemn what they are calling "barbaric” acts in Gaza. The country has refused to cut ties with Hamas and Anwar has spoken to the head of its political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, to express "Malaysia's unwavering support for the Palestinian people.” In parliament, the prime minister said the U.S. embassy had tried to pressure him to change his mind, but he refused. "Popular opinion in Malaysia is causing leaders to speak out forcefully,” Sidney Jones, the New York-based senior adviser to the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict in Jakarta, told me. "In Indonesia, there is no way that the President Joko Widodo could have met with U.S. President Joe Biden recently and not said he had delivered a message about Gaza to the U.S.” This has yet to cause a serious rift between the U.S. and Indonesia — the two countries signed a comprehensive strategic partnership at that same meeting — though if Indonesians volunteering in hospitals in Gaza are killed, it could prompt more representations from Jakarta to Washington, she notes. The pressure is already rising. Indonesia’s chief diplomat, Retno Marsudi, in a video message from the foreign ministers’ meeting in Beijing, "strongly condemned” what she said were Israeli tank attacks on the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza on Monday, in which it is thought 12 civilians were killed. Israel says the medical facility is used to disguise Hamas’s underground command and control center, a claim both the Indonesians and the Palestinians deny. This is just one example of how the conflict is spilling over into Southeast Asia. Washington’s unquestioning support for Israel is contentious in the region, notes Joseph Liow, dean of Nanyang Technological University’s College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. Much of this is a hangover from the aftermath of Al-Qaeda’s attacks on the U.S. on 9/11 — in particular the U.S.-led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan — that is still fresh in the minds of many Malaysians and Indonesians. "That script is going to play out again and that is going to create difficulties for the leaders of these countries,” he says. Enter China, which has been quick to spot the opportunity to act as a global peacemaker despite its many limitations. Beijing has been trying to position itself as a powerful player in the Middle East after it helped broker a detente between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The Washington has urged Beijing to use its influence to prevent the conflict from spreading further, but Chinese President Xi Jinping has yet to use the leverage he has with Russia and Iran to influence either the war in Ukraine or Gaza. Even now, as more nations in the Arab and Islamic world are turning to Beijing, it has little more to offer besides commitments to keep talking. The Chinese are likely to continue their relationship-building with the Islamic world on the Palestinian issue, overtures that are likely to be welcomed, despite Beijing’s mass arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang. Human Rights Watch in 2021 concluded that these violations constituted "crimes against humanity.” But still, the focus for many Muslims in Asia is the fate of their fellow Muslims in the Middle East, not in Xinjiang. Comments by Biden warning Israel about extremist violence against Palestinians in the West Bank will do little to win over those suspicious of U.S. intentions. The question now is whether Beijing can bridge the gap between its diplomatic ambitions and its ability. Karishma Vaswani is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asia politics with a special focus on China.
And Catholic Biden is in there spending tax dollars helping out, it's just beyond belief. Never underestimate the craziness of religion.