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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Gaza war, regional updates

2025-07-14

[X]

🧵Gaza war, regional updates:
👉27 killed in Gaza, including at water distribution points
👉Malnutrition cases rising in Gaza: UNRWA
👉Israel arrests Palestinians in West Bank raids

🔴 Live blog:https://t.co/SJUmeJPTwt
— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) July 13, 2025

IDF admits error in deadly strike on water delivery site as truce talks stay jammed

[IsraelTimes] Israel’s military said Sunday that a strike near a Gaza water distribution point that reportedly killed several children was an accident, as Israeli aircraft pounded targets across the Strip.

The strike, which the Israel Defense Forces attributed to a "technical malfunction," came as negotiations on a ceasefire and hostage release deal continued to stall, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly set to convene top ministers and defense brass in a bid to find a way to break the logjam.

Gazook health officials at al-Awda Hospital said the strike that hit a water distribution point in Nuseirat refugee camp killed 10 people, including six children.

The IDF admitted it had erred while targeting an operative from the Paleostinian Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
terror group.

"Due to a technical malfunction in the munition, it struck dozens of meters away from the intended target," the IDF said, adding that it had opened an investigation and that it "makes every effort to minimize harm to uninvolved civilians."

Ramadan Nassar, a witness who lives in the area, told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that around 20 children and 14 adults had been lined up to get water. He said Paleostinians walk some 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) to fetch water from the area.

Water shortages in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
have worsened sharply in recent weeks, with fuel shortages causing desalination and sanitation facilities to close, making people dependent on collection centers where they can fill up their plastic containers.

More than a dozen people were also reported killed near an aid distribution site on Sunday, with eyewitnesses describing shots to victims’ heads and bodies. The Israeli military said its troops had fired warning shots, but that its review of the incident had found no evidence of anyone hurt by its soldiers’ fire.

Negotiations toward a ceasefire in Gaza have stalled primarily over when the war will end and to what extent the IDF will withdraw during the truce.

Paleostine al-Youm, an Islamic Jihad-affiliated news outlet, quoted a senior Hamas
Hamas

..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
official Sunday saying negotiations had reached a critical stage and signaling the Paleostinian group could walk away if the logjam was not cleared in the coming hours.

Channel 12 news reported Sunday that Netanyahu would convene a meeting of senior defense officials and several government ministers that night in a bid to break the impasse, focusing on a new proposal for the troops’ redeployment in Gaza and the direction of talks.

IDF brass has told the government that it is close to achieving the goals of its recent offensive, and US President Donald Trump
...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US...
has repeatedly urged an end to the 21-month-old war. Polls show most Israelis support a deal to free the hostages still held by Hamas and end the war.

During his recent visit to Washington, DC, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed optimism about a deal. But in a video posted to social media Sunday afternoon, he blamed Hamas for obstructing an agreement, saying Israel had accepted the outline proposed by Trump’s chief envoy, Steve Witkoff.

"We accepted it, Hamas refused it," Netanyahu said, adding that he "won’t accept" a deal that allows Hamas to stay in Gaza and rearm."

The deal currently being negotiated in the Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
i capital would see 10 living hostages released in an initial 60-day stage, along with the remains of 18 deceased captives.

Netanyahu has insisted the war cannot end until Hamas is no longer able to rule Gaza or pose a threat to Israel, vowing to achieve both that goal and the return of all 50 hostages still being held in the Strip.

The IDF is waiting for the government to make a decision regarding the war as the military nears completion of its Gideon’s Chariots offensive, launched in mid-May. In late June, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said the military would soon "reach the lines" set by the offensive, in which the IDF aimed to take control of 75 percent of Gaza.

Jordan announced Sunday morning that a local charity had sent 50 trucks of aid to Gaza. The shipment came after the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
announced last week that a deal had been reached to reopen several aid corridors, including humanitarian routes through Egypt and Jordan.

A group of United Nations
...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships...
agencies warned, meanwhile, that a fuel shortage had reached "critical levels" in Gaza, threatening aid operations, hospital care and already chronic food insecurity.

On Sunday, in a rare incident, an Israeli soldier driving on a road in Israeli territory near Gaza was lightly maimed by a stray Israeli bullet.

Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 451. The toll includes two coppers and three Defense Ministry civilian contractors.

Link

Europe

All Palestinians in Gaza Are Eligible for Asylum in France, Court Rules

2025-07-13

[Breitbart] All Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip will be eligible for the first time to apply for asylum in France, a court ruled on Friday.

Deciding on a case brought by a Palestinian mother seeking asylum in the wake of the Islamist Hamas October 7th terror attacks on Israel, France’s National Court of Asylum (CNDA) ruled in her favour given the “war methods” of the Israeli Defence Forces in Gaza, which the court found were “serious enough to be regarded as methods of persecution.”

The decision overturned a previous rejection from the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Effrusion (OFPRA) in November, which noted that the Palestinian woman was not specifically being “persecuted” and therefore could only be eligible for “subsidiary protection”, a lesser form of asylum which only allows for a four-year temporary residence permit rather than the ten years of protection guaranteed to refugees.

The case paved the way for the CNDA to declare that all Palestinians living in Gaza should be entitled to asylum protection in France, Le Figaro reports. The court based its decision on the Geneva Convention, which says that people who face “persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion,” should be considered refugees.

The court specifically cited the supposed persecution based on “nationality” faced by Palestinians in Gaza, despite France, like most other nations, not recognising Palestine as a state.

Nevertheless, the judges said that they possessed the “characteristics” of a nationality, which according to the Convention include belonging to a “group determined by its cultural, ethnic or linguistic identity, common geographical or political origins or its relationship with the population of another state.”

While the ruling is novel in declaring such “persecution” of Palestinians, legal experts noted that it would likely only impact around 20 per cent of the population of Gaza, given that 80 per cent were already classified as being refugees by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and were therefore already eligible for protection in France.

Although the ruling was hailed by leftist groups such as Amnesty International, others expressed concern about allowing more Palestinians into France, including a former Muslim turned anti-Islamist activist and female rights campaigner, Henda Ayari.

“While France is already grappling with explosive community tensions, it chooses today to unconditionally welcome refugees from Gaza, even though more than 30 Muslim countries refuse to take them in. Why should France, once again, play the role of humanitarian substitute while others categorically refuse to host these populations in their countries?” she questioned.

“We’re talking about a region where Hamas recruits, where Islamist ideology and anti-Semitic, anti-Western hatred are deeply rooted, where many celebrated the massacres of October 7. We cannot pretend to believe that they are all ‘innocent victims.’ Some of these individuals who will arrive in France may have participated in, supported, or condoned terrorism. And tomorrow? They will be housed, fed, and supported at the expense of French taxpayers… while our retirees are dying and our neighbourhoods are exploding,” Ayari lamented.

Link

Fifth Column

Pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil seeks $20m from Trump admin

2025-07-11

Courtesy of Grom the Affective in comments, to make this searchable in the Rantburg archives.

[IsraelNationalNews] Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil is suing the Trump administration for $20 million, alleging retaliatory detention for over 100 days due to his role in campus demonstrations against Israel's war in Gaza.

Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate, is seeking $20 million in damages from US President Donald Trump
...dictatorial for repealing some (but not all) of the diktats of his predecessor, misogynistic because he likes pretty girls, homophobic because he doesn't think gender bending should be mandatory, truly a man for all seasons...
’s administration after over 100 days in immigration detention, The Independent reported Thursday.

A court filing precedes a federal lawsuit, alleging "retaliatory arrests" and targeting of student activists. Administration officials accused Khalil of "antisemitic activities" for his role in the protests.

"There must be accountability for political retaliation and abuse of power," Khalil stated. "I’m holding the US government accountable not just for myself, but for everyone they try to silence through fear, exile, or detention."

Khalil was arrested on March 8 by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents as part of the administration’s crackdown on anti-Israel protests on US campuses.

At the time of his arrest, Khalil was a highly visible figure in the nationwide campus protests against the war in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
. Following his detention, US authorities transferred Khalil from his New York home to a detention center in Louisiana, where he awaited deportation proceedings.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio
...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration...
had invoked a law, approved during the 1950s Red Scare, which permits the United States to remove foreign nationals deemed adverse to US foreign policy.

However,
a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package...
a judge later ruled that the government could not detain or deport Khalil based on Rubio's assertions that his presence on US soil constituted a national security threat. Khalil was released on bail in late June.

The government specifically accuses Khalil of failing to disclose on his residency application what it described as his "membership" in the United Nations
...boodling on the grand scale...
’ Paleostinian refugee agency, UNRWA.

Khalil has rejected the allegations and framed his detention as retaliation for his political views.

Link

International-UN-NGOs

UN blasted for funding committee 'created to destroy the Jewish state,' despite budget crisis

2025-07-10

[FoxNews] United Nations ‘doesn’t have a spending limit’ for spread of antisemitism,' critic warns

Critics slammed the United Nations for rewarding a controversial anti-Israel Commission of Inquiry with four new positions worth up to three-quarters of a million dollars, even as the world body undergoes a severe cash crisis.

"When it comes to spending money for the spread of antisemitism, the U.N. doesn't have a spending limit," Anne Bayefsky, director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust and president of Human Rights Voices, told Fox News Digital.

On June 4, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Palestinian Territory, Including East Jerusalem (COI), led by South African Navi Pillay, announced four new job openings for senior-level positions in Geneva. These include two P-2 level associate interpreters, one higher-level P-3 level human rights officer, and a still more senior P-4 level human rights officer.

Combined, their salaries will range from $530,000 to $704,000, based on salary scales released by the U.N. and its location-based salary multiplier (set at .814 for Swiss employees), published in a document supplied to Fox News Digital by a diplomatic source.

These salaries do not include other senior-level U.N. employee benefits, including dependent costs, housing allowances or relocation fees.

Bayefsky asked why the U.N.’s "belt-tightening exercise … applies to all kinds of urgent matters but exempts the COI, which has simultaneously gone on a spending-spree."

"The COI was created to destroy the Jewish state and is now conducting itself accordingly." She said its latest report, issued in June, is "totally unhinged" and "claims Israelis are like Nazis engaged in ‘extermination’ of the Palestinians, refers to those ‘extremist Jews,’ denies biblical history, [and] fuels antisemitism by claiming Jews defile Muslim holy sites."

Pillay and the COI have come under fire previously for anti-Israel sentiment. In January 2022, 42 Republicans and Democrats in Congress signed an open letter calling for the U.S. to defund the COI. The Representatives expressed concern that "Chairwoman Navi Pillay, while serving as U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014, repeatedly and unjustly accused Israel of committing war crimes." They stated that while she condemned Israel, Pillay "reportedly said nothing at all about egregious human rights abuses in dozens of other countries which, unlike Israel, received the worst, ‘Not Free’ rating from the respected Freedom House."

In October 2023, a representative from the U.S. Mission to the U.N. in Geneva said before the Third Committee of the U.N. that the U.S. "remains deeply concerned about the scope and nature of the open-ended Commission of Inquiry established in May 2021. The COI demonstrates a particular bias against Israel in subjecting it to a unique mechanism that does not exist for any other U.N. Member State."

In October 2024, a report from the COI excluded information about Hamas’ use of Kamal Adwan Hospital for operations, failed to recount the maltreatment Israeli hostages received at Gazan hospitals, and could "not verify" that tunnels found below Al-Shifa hospital "were used for military purposes." Bayefsky said the report trafficked in blood libels.

In March, Pillay’s commission claimed that rape and sexual violence are part of the Israel Defense Force’s "standard operating procedures towards Palestinians." Pillay also said that the IDF’s sexual violence creates "a system of oppression that undermines [Palestinians’] right to self-determination." In response, Bayefsky said "Pillay and her COI are notorious for turning reality upside down. October 7 was marked by grotesque Palestinian use of sexual violence and rape as a weapon of war. In response, the COI diminished those atrocities and instead concocted the reverse."

In March 2024, Congress passed a budget bill that eliminated funding for the COI while simultaneously banning funds for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), according to the Jerusalem Post.

The U.N. Human Rights Council is already experiencing the impact of the organization’s liquidity crisis.

In a June 16 letter penned by U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, the Human Rights Council outlines more than a dozen reports, as well as studies, regional workshops, and panels mandated by the Council, which could not be completed due to inadequate resourcing.

In response to a request for comment about how the COI has received additional personnel while the Human Rights Council deals with scarcity, spokesperson Pascal Sim told Fox News Digital that the Human Rights Council’s "views are only expressed in the resolutions and decisions that its 47 Member States adopt at the end of each of its sessions."

However, Bayefsky said, "For decades, the U.N. has engaged in phony cost-saving measures while their actual expenditures have ballooned," she said, noting that the U.S. "has always been satisfied by moving around the deck chairs on the Titanic."

Bayefsky said that "it's our government's job to put an end to this devious calculus by immediately withholding the entire U.N. budget until such time as the dangerous lesions are removed. It's our job to deny visas to the COI members planning to come to the United States in the next couple of months.

"Contrary to popular belief, it is not required by the U.S.-U.N. host agreement to allow international travelers into the U.S. to fan the flames of antisemitism, and vandalize our fundamental values and the Constitution from the middle of New York City," Bayefsky said. "We need a new boat, not new deck chairs."

A budget proposal from the Trump administration leaked in April announced the intention to eliminate all expenditures to the U.N. and international organizations.

In response to questions about whether a decision about U.N. funding has been finalized, a senior State Department official told Fox News Digital that "President Trump is ensuring taxpayer dollars are used wisely. Any announcements regarding funding to international organizations will come from the President or the administration."

The U.S., through its taxpayers, is the single-largest contributor to the U.N. In 2022, the U.N. reports that $18.1 billion, or 26.8%, of its $67.5 billion in expenditures came from the U.S.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Two U.S. Aid Workers Wounded in Grenade Attack in Gaza, Bibi,US blame Hamas

2025-07-06

[LI] Hamas and UNRWA protecting their grift
Two American aid workers were wounded when a terrorist threw a grenade at a food distribution center in Gaza. The aid workers belonged to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a newly established U.S.-backed private food distribution organization.

"Two U.S. aid workers with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) were injured in a grenade attack during a food distribution event in Gaza, the organization said on Saturday," the Israel TV channel i24NEWS reported. "The Americans, who sustained non-life-threatening injuries, are in stable condition and receiving medical treatment."

Two US aid workers belonging to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation were wounded when a grenade was thrown at them. The GHF claims initial indications suggest this was a Hamas attack pic.twitter.com/UNIromuZrw
— Michael A. Horowitz (@michaelh992) July 5, 2025

Netanyahu, US blame Hamas for grenade attack on Gaza Humanitarian Foundation workers

[IsraelTimes] PM says world must ‘stand up and condemn’ Hamas for ‘terror attack,’ urges UN to end boycott and ‘instead work in partnership’ to feed Gazans; IDF: Civilians were in area at time of attack

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed Hamas on Saturday for a grenade attack that injured two American aid workers employed by the Israel- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, and condemned the incident as a “terror attack.”

The US also blamed Hamas for the attack, saying it “lays bare the depravity” of the terror organization.

Early Saturday, GHF reported that two American aid workers were wounded when assailants threw two hand grenades at a distribution site in southern Gaza, blaming the attack on “hostile action by Hamas.” The organization said the explosive devices had been packed with ball bearings.

The IDF later confirmed that terror operatives threw grenades at a distribution center in Rafah, accusing “terror groups in Gaza” of continuing to sabotage humanitarian efforts, though without naming Hamas directly.

Civilians were still present in the area at the time of the attack, the Israeli military said, condemning the attack.

Netanyahu said later Saturday, in a statement from his office, that he wished to extend “a speedy recovery to the staff of the American aid foundation who were injured today in the terror attack carried out by Hamas terrorists.”

Netanyahu praised the GHF staff, saying they were “doing important work, and I thank them and [US] President [Donald] Trump for their support.”

He added: “The entire world must stand up and condemn this grave incident, which once again exposes the brutality of Hamas. The United Nations must stop opposing the foundation’s operations and instead work in partnership to ensure it can continue its mission safely for the benefit of Gaza’s residents.”

The GHF said in a statement that “the attack – which preliminary information indicates was carried out by two assailants who threw two grenades at the Americans – occurred at the conclusion of an otherwise successful distribution in which thousands of Gazans safely received food.”

The foundation has previously accused Hamas of killing at least eight of the agency’s Palestinian staffers.

Reacting to the alleged Hamas attack, US State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Saturday that, “This act of violence against the people actually bringing relief to Gazans lays bare the depravity of Hamas.”

“GHF has contributed over 62 MILLION MEALS – nothing will stop these courageous aid workers,” she wrote on X. “We are praying for the rapid recovery of the injured Americans.”

Israel has accused Hamas of hijacking aid deliveries by other humanitarian groups. The GHF, which in addition to aid workers employs private US military contractors to protect its distribution sites, says that since starting operations in May it has delivered supplies to Palestinians, while other humanitarian groups had “nearly all of their aid looted.”

The GHF bypasses traditional aid channels, including the United Nations, which says the US-based organization is neither impartial nor neutral, and forces Gazans to walk long distances to reach the aid.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

170 NGOs urge end to US-backed Gaza aid system; Israel: Hamas is firing at civilians

2025-07-02

[IsraelTimes] NGOs’ call comes as 500 reported killed since May near aid sites; IDF says it has taken steps to reduce casualties; Foreign Ministry says Hamas shooting at civilians, falsifying death tolls

A group of more than 170 aid organizations on Tuesday called for an end to a US- and Israeli-backed aid distribution system in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
amid repeated reports of people being killed while seeking rations.

Translation: “How dare those outsiders poach on our patch, cutting us out, when we share the boodle with Hamas?”

According to Hamas
Hamas

..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
-linked authorities in Gaza, more than 500 people have been killed in mass shootings near aid distribution centers or transport routes guarded by Israeli forces since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started operating in late May.

The NGOs urged a return to the UN-led aid mechanism that existed in the war-torn territory until March, when Israel imposed a full blockade for several weeks on humanitarian assistance entering Gaza following a two-month ceasefire with Hamas.

"Paleostinians in Gaza face an impossible choice: starve or risk being shot while trying desperately to reach food to feed their families," the aid organizations said in a statement. The groups included Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Amnesty International.

They urged action to "revert to the existing UN-led coordination mechanisms, and lift the Israeli government’s blockade on aid and commercial supplies."

GHF told Rooters it had delivered more than 52 million meals in five weeks and said other humanitarian groups had "nearly all of their aid looted."

In a response, the GHF told Rooters it had delivered more than 52 million meals in five weeks and said other humanitarian groups had "nearly all of their aid looted."

The GHF added, "Instead of bickering and throwing insults from the sidelines, we would welcome other humanitarian groups to join us and feed the people in Gaza."

The statement was published as the IDF said it had taken new steps to limit civilian casualties near aid distribution sites. It also comes as US President Donald Trump
...His ancestors didn't own any slaves...
has repeatedly called for a ceasefire in the 20-month war. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit the White House next week to discuss the war, in addition to other topics.

Israel said it tasked GHF with distribution in Gaza to keep Hamas from controlling the flow of aid. The IDF acknowledged on Monday that Paleostinian civilians have been harmed at the aid distribution sites, saying that troops had been issued new instructions following what it called "lessons learned."

According to the military, troops on the ground have only used live gunfire when a threat was posed to them, including when dozens of suspects approached forces outside of the designated routes to the aid sites operated by the GHF, or outside operating hours.

On Tuesday, the Foreign Ministry accused Hamas of shooting at civilians and publishing false corpse counts.

Ah hah!

It posted recordings to social media that, it said, show Gazooks describing how the terror group "fires at civilians at these humanitarian sites, spreads false claims blaming the IDF, inflates casualty numbers, and circulates fake footage — all to disrupt aid efforts and keep the people of Gaza away from much-needed aid."

The GHF has been tasked with distributing aid in the Paleostinian territory since late May, following mounting international condemnation and warnings of imminent famine.

GHF operations have since been marred by chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on those waiting to collect rations in the territory, where the Israeli military is seeking to destroy Hamas.

"Under the Israeli government’s new scheme, starved and weakened civilians are being forced to trek for hours through dangerous terrain and active conflict zones, only to face a ~~violent~~ mostly peaceful, chaotic race to reach fenced, militarized distribution sites," the NGOs’ statement read.

Aid distribution in Gaza was traditionally coordinated through various NGOs and United Nations
...boodling on the grand scale...
agencies, notably the UN agency for Paleostinian refugees, UNRWA, which had 13,000 staff in the coastal enclave before the war. Israel has accused UNRWA of collaborating with Hamas and taken steps to restrict its activity.

At a presser in Vilnius on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said Israel hoped to work with the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
to improve aid distribution.

"We are open... we don’t want Hamas to use the humanitarian aid

as an economic asset...but we want it directly to go to the people of Gaza," he said.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

44 said killed near Gaza aid sites; UN condemns ‘weaponization’ of food distribution

2025-06-25

[IsraelTimes] IDF says it fired at gathering ‘adjacent’ to troops in Strip’s center, injuries ‘under investigation,’ in latest in string of mass-casualty incidents

Hamas
Hamas

..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
’s civil defense agency reported 44 people killed by the Israel Defense Forces while waiting for aid in separate incidents in southern and central Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
early Tuesday.

Responding to the reported deaths, the IDF later said that a gathering overnight had been identified in an area "adjacent" to its troops in the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza, where the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid group is known to hand out food. Reports of individuals injured by military fire in the area were "under review," the IDF said.

It is unclear when precisely the reported shooting near the aid sites took place. Earlier this month, the IDF warned Paleostinians not to approach routes leading to Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. local time, describing those roads as closed military zones. However,
it's easy to be generous with someone else's money...
the GHF has indicated it may be open during those hours.

In central Gaza, three witnesses told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that the army opened fire as people advanced east toward aid trucks south of Wadi Gaza.

"It was a massacre," said Ahmed Halawa. He said tanks and drones fired at people, "even as we were fleeing. Many people were either martyred or maimed."
"I died...twice. I got better"
Hossam Abu Shahada said drones were flying over the area, watching the crowds, then there was gunfire from tanks and drones as people were moving eastward. He described a "chaotic and bloody" scene as people tried to escape.

He said he saw at least three people lying motionless and many others maimed.

The Awda hospital in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp, which received the victims, confirmed 25 deaths and said 146 others were maimed. It said 62 were at death's door and transferred to other hospitals.

In the central town of Deir al-Balah, the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital said it received the bodies of six people from the same incident.

In the southernmost city of Rafah, witnesses said Israeli troops opened fire as crowds tried to reach another food distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

At least 19 were killed and 50 others maimed, according to Nasser hospital and Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Two witnesses said Israeli troops started firing as thousands of Paleostinians massed at the Shakoush area, several hundred meters (yards) from the distribution site.

Footage from an AFP journalist from the scene of the gunfire in central Gaza showed maimed residents being carried to a nearby hospital, with some appearing to be unconscious and pale.

"How long will this situation go on? How long will people have to endure this? We want a solution for these victims who are dying," Rabhi al-Qassas, an eyewitness, told AFP.

According to figures issued on Saturday by the Hamas health ministry, at least 450 people have been killed and nearly 3,500 injured by Israeli fire while seeking aid since late May. Many of the incidents have occurred near sites operated by the GHF, according to rescuers.

The US- and Israeli-backed organization, which was established to circumvent Hamas in the distribution of aid, issued a complaint Tuesday to the Israeli military over "possible harassment by Israeli soldiers directed at our convoys" heading to the Wadi Gaza site.

The GHF opened three sites Tuesday — two in southern Gaza, and the Wadi Gaza site in the central Strip — and distributed 34,500 boxes of food, which contain enough food for 5.5 people for 3.5 days according to the organization’s own figures.

The organization has said the contents — consisting of dry food products — need to be prepared elsewhere in war-ravaged Gaza, where community kitchens and cooking supplies are limited.

Israel, which said that 79 humanitarian aid

trucks entered the Gaza Strip Monday via the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings, has acknowledged firing warning shots at suspicious people near distribution sites, but denies targeting civilians or using starvation as a weapon of war, and has accused Hamas of hijacking aid deliveries and embedding itself among civilians.

INTERNATIONAL CONDEMNATION

Part of this section snipped, because it’s become boring.

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees also hit out at the GHF system.

“The newly created so-called aid mechanism is an abomination that humiliates and degrades desperate people,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said at a press conference in Berlin. “It is a death trap costing more lives than it saves.”

“The humanitarian community, including UNRWA, has the expertise and must be allowed to do their job and provide assistance with respect and dignity,” said Lazzarini. “There is no other alternative to address the challenges of spreading hunger in the Gaza Strip.”

Israel has accused UNRWA of providing cover for Hamas terrorists and, earlier this year, banned the agency from operating on Israeli soil or contacting officials.

The UN and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the foundation over concerns that it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.

The GHF began operating in Gaza after a nearly three-month blockade Israel placed on the Strip following the collapse of the last ceasefire-hostage deal with Hamas in early March.

Israel resumed aid deliveries to Gaza on May 19, after a pause since March 2. Since then, 2,033 trucks have entered the Strip.

Israel has accused Hamas of hoarding aid and selling it at exorbitant rates amid the war sparked on October 7, 2023, when the terror group stormed southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Israeli forces recover bodies of three hostages from Gaza

2025-06-22

[NY Post] Israeli forces have recovered the bodies of three hostages which had been held in the Gaza Strip since the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’ 2023 attack, the military and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.

The hostages were identified as civilians Ofra Keidar and Yonatan Samerano, and soldier Shay Levinson.

All were killed on the day of the attack, on October 7, 2023, the military said.

With their retrieval, 50 hostages now remain in Gaza, only 20 of whom are believed to be alive.

Update from the Times of Israel at 7:00 p.m. EDT:

The bodies of three slain hostages, Ofra Keidar, Jonathan Samerano, and Staff Sgt. Shay Levinson, were recovered in a joint military and Shin Bet operation from the Gaza Strip, the IDF announced Sunday morning.

The operation to recover the bodies was carried out by the Gaza Division, and was “enabled by precise intelligence” obtained by the military’s Hostages Headquarters unit, the Military Intelligence Directorate and the Shin Bet, the IDF said.

The three bodies were brought to Israel for identification at the Abu Kabir forensic institute, after which their families were notified.

One of Samerano’s captors was an employee of UNRWA, the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees. He was one of 12 people employed by the agency who “actively participated” in the Hamas-led onslaught, then-defense minister Yoav Gallant revealed to the public in February 2024.

UNRWA fired all 12 employees implicated in the massacre when the allegations surfaced.

Link

Fifth Column

US judge says Trump can’t cite foreign policy as grounds to detain Columbia activist

2025-06-12

[IsraelTimes] Court delays release of Mahmoud Khalil until Friday to give time to appeal, notes government is also arguing he was employed by UNRWA but omitted this on visa application

The Trump administration cannot use US foreign policy interests to justify its detention of Columbia University student and pro-Paleostinian activist Mahmoud Khalil,

…at age 30 the Damascus-born Palestinian (with dual Algerian citizenship through his mother, whose family were revolutionaries back home) got a Masters in Paleo protest from Columbia, applying his training as Apartheid Divest’s frontman supporting Hamas since 10/8/2023, which overlapped his work as a UNWRA political affairs officer. Since his arrest by ICE he’s been represented by 19 attorneys, including CUNY law prof Ramzi Kassem, himself a Paleo student activist at Columbia back in the day, and the ACLU. Mr. Khalil worked his way through college in Beirut as a popular, MI-6 vetted local staffer at the British embassy leading soft power projects, on one of which he worked with his future wife — Leb-American dentist Noor Abdalla, who interestingly is a hijabi, suggesting either Muslim Brotherhood or Hezbollah connections. No doubt it was for her sake he went to Columbia instead of Oxford…

a judge ruled on Wednesday, but stopped short of ordering Khalil’s immediate release.

US District Judge Michael Farbiarz in Newark, New Jersey, said his ruling would not take effect until Friday morning local time to give the administration the chance to appeal.

Farbiarz wrote that the administration was violating Khalil’s right to free speech by detaining and trying to deport him under a little-used provision of US immigration law granting the US secretary of state the power to seek the deportation of any non-citizen whose presence in the country is deemed adverse to US foreign policy interests.

"The petitioner’s career and reputation are being damaged and his speech is being chilled," Farbiarz wrote. "This adds up to irreparable harm."

The judge also barred the administration from deporting Khalil on the grounds that his presence was allegedly adverse to US foreign policy.

"This is the news we’ve been waiting over three months for," Khalil’s wife, Noor Abdalla, said Wednesday. "Mahmoud must be released immediately and safely returned home to New York to be with me and our newborn baby, Deen."

Farbiarz noted in his ruling that the government has also argued it is detaining and deporting Khalil in part because of alleged omissions on his green card application.

But the judge said evidence presented by his attorneys showed lawful permanent residents are virtually never detained for such a thing.

Khalil, in his statement to the court last week, also disputed that he wasn’t forthcoming on the application.

For example, he said he was never employed by or served as an "officer" of the United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
Relief and Works Agency for Paleostine Refugees, as the administration claims, but completed an internship approved by the university as part of his graduate studies.

Neither the State Department nor the Justice Department, which represents the administration in court, immediately responded to requests for comment.

Khalil was arrested on March 8 after the State Department revoked his green card. He has since been held in immigration detention in Louisiana.

Khalil was the first known foreign student to be arrested as part of Republican President Donald Trump
...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party...
’s bid to deport foreign students who took part in pro-Paleostinian protests that swept US college campuses after Hamas
Hamas

..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel and the subsequent Israeli military offensive against the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
-ruling terror group.

Khalil isn’t accused of breaking any laws during the protests at Columbia, but the Trump administration has argued that noncitizens who participate in such demonstrations should be expelled from the country. They say such protesters express views that are antisemitic and pro-Hamas.

Link

Home Front: Politix

Mayor orders New York City to use IHRA definition of antisemitism

2025-06-09

[IsraelTimes] New York City Mayor Eric Adams announces an executive order to recognize the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism.

The order directs city agencies to use the IHRA definition to identify and address incidents of antisemitism, the mayor’s office says.

Adams’s office also says he is introducing legislation to the city council, calling on the council to codify the IHRA definition.

The IHRA definition of antisemitism has been adopted by groups and governments worldwide, but is contested because it covers some examples of anti-Israel rhetoric, such as denying the Jewish people the right to self determination.

Last month, Adams announced a new task force under his purview aimed at combating antisemitism, responding to major spikes in antisemitic hate crimes in New York City in recent years. The Office to Combat Antisemitism is the first of its kind in a major US city.

The mayor is seeking re-election in November, and has petitioned to run on an “EndAntisemitism” ballot line.

Israel and Jewish issues are prominent topics in the high-profile race for the city’s Democratic party mayoral primary later this month. Adams is running as an independent.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Israel orders forced removal of tens of thousands of northern Gaza civilians

2025-06-08

[HODHODYEMENNEWS.NET] The Israeli occupation army Saturday ordered the forcible evacuation of tens of thousands of civilians in northern Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
Local sources said the evacuation order targeted the Abdul Rahman neighborhood in northwest Gaza City and the al-Nahda neighborhood in Jabalia refugee camp.

”We’re about to go kinetic here, so we’re warning you to get out of the way so you’ll be safe. If you stay, whatever happens to you is your own, stupid fault.”

Residents of these areas are previously displaced civilians who had been forced to flee northern Gaza to the south at the start of the genocidal war, before being temporarily allowed to return.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), as of May 28, 81% of Gaza's territory had been declared Israeli military zones or placed under evacuation orders.

They were warned the IDF would take at least 75% of Gaza, since Hamas refuses to return the hostages, disarm, and decamp for parts beyond the horizon. So long as Hamas continues fighting and endangering Gaza’s civilians, Hamas chooses to grind the civilians between themselves and the IDF — blame the party actually responsible for their misery.

OCHA added that since the resumption of the Israeli aggression on March 18, the army has issued 31 evacuation orders, covering about 229.4 square kilometers of Gaza, orders that remain in effect.

A recent report by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Paleostine Refugees (UNRWA) stated that at least 1.9 million people, or nearly 90% of Gaza's population, have been displaced during the ongoing aggression, many of them repeatedly, with some forced to flee ten times or more

Link

Fifth Column

Detained Columbia graduate claims ‘irreparable harm’ as he pleads for release

2025-06-08

The poor, poor darling. Natural consequences are no fun at all.

[IsraelTimes] Syrian-born US resident and anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil was first student arrested under Trump’s expanded immigration crackdown on Gaza war protesters

A Columbia graduate facing deportation over his pro-Paleostinian activism on campus has outlined the "irreparable harm" caused by his continued detention as a federal judge weighs his release.

Mahmoud Khalil

…at age 30 the Damascus-born Palestinian (with dual Algerian citizenship through his mother, whose family were revolutionaries back home) got a Masters in Paleo protest from Columbia, applying his training as Apartheid Divest’s frontman supporting Hamas since 10/8/2023, which overlapped his work as a UNWRA political affairs officer. Since his arrest by ICE he’s been represented by 19 attorneys, including CUNY law prof Ramzi Kassem, himself a Paleo student activist at Columbia back in the day, and the ACLU. Mr. Khalil worked his way through college in Beirut as a popular, MI-6 vetted local staffer at the British embassy leading soft power projects, on one of which he worked with his future wife, there for the summer on scholarship. No doubt it was for her sake he went to Columbia instead of Oxford…

said in court filings unsealed Thursday that the "most immediate and visceral harms" he’s faced in his months detained in Louisiana relate to missing out on the birth of his first child in April.

"Instead of holding my wife’s hand in the delivery room, I was crouched on a detention center floor, whispering through a crackling phone line as she labored alone," the 30-year-old legal US resident wrote. "When I heard my son’s first cries, I buried my face in my arms so no one would see me weep."

He also cited potentially "career-ending" harms from the ordeal, noting that Oxfam International has already rescinded a job offer to serve as a policy adviser.

”Having a Hamas supporter on staff, especially someone so handsome, with such a diverse and exotic background, is a plus. But we simply can’t have a convicted terrorist — it would bring the wrong kind of attention, my dear. It isn’t at all the done thing.”

Even his mother’s visa to come to the US to help care for his infant son was now under federal review, Khalil said.

Superior efficiency at the US State Department visa section? Kudos to the unnamed staffer who done good.

"As someone who fled prosecution in Syria for my political beliefs,

…and which particular beliefs were those, pray tell? Not all persecution by totalitarian regimes is necessarily wrong…

for who I am, I never imagined myself to be in immigration detention, here in the United States," he wrote.

No doubt.

”Why should protesting this Israeli government’s indiscriminate killing of thousands of innocent Paleostinians result in the erosion of my constitutional rights?"

It wasn’t the words, dear boy. It was leading the harassment and physical abuse of Jews, Zionists, and those near them that caught the attention of the new Trump government. That kind of thing is very illegal over here, though your home culture lauds and requires it. Consider this a learning experience.

Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin responded that Khalil should simply self-deport, taking advantage of the administration’s offer of $1,000 and a free flight to those in the country illegally who use its CBP Home app. Khalil obtained a green card, but the Trump administration says it is revoking it.

*Snicker*

Khalil’s 13-page statement was among a number of legal declarations his lawyers filed highlighting the wide-ranging negative impacts of his arrest.

Given there are nineteen of them, they’ll have had to exert themselves to justify the boodles of money the usual Progressive NGOs have no doubt been shoveling in their direction.

Dr. Noor Abdalla,

…a Lebanese-American dentist of 28, and a hijabi. One does wonder who her family connections are, as nothing at all has been mentioned…

his US citizen wife, described the challenges of not having her husband to help navigate their son’s birth and the first weeks of his young life.

Think of all those Israeli wives, Jews and non-Jews alike who have been doing without their husbands since the IDF called them up after 10/7/2023, and be grateful your husband’s part in the war is both shorter, not likely to be deadly, and has a predictable end.

Students and professors at Columbia wrote about the chilling effect Khalil’s arrest has had on campus life, with people afraid to attend protests or participate in groups that can be viewed as critical of the Trump administration.

Who woulda thunk they were actually trainable! This is a very exciting discovery, indeed.

Last week, a federal judge in New Jersey said the administration’s effort to deport Khalil likely violates the Constitution.

That’s just dumb.

Judge Michael Farbiarz wrote that the government’s primary justification for removing Khalil — that his beliefs may pose a threat to US foreign policy — could open the door to vague and arbitrary enforcement.

Khalil was detained by federal immigration agents on March 8 in the lobby of his university-owned apartment, the first arrest under Trump’s widening crackdown on students who joined campus protests against Israel’s war against terror groups in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...

Link

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