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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

'Spare the reptiles.' Israel spares crocodiles, but not Hamas captives

2026-08-12

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
by Leonid Tsukanov

[Regnum] The Jerusalem District Court has temporarily banned the construction of crocodile ditches around the high-security wings of Ktziot Prison,

…previously in our archives as Ketziot Prison …

which holds Hamas prisoners.

True, the noble impulse was dictated not by concern for the safety of Palestinians, but by complaints from animal rights activists about “excessively dangerous conditions” for the guard reptiles.

And although a final decision on the issue has not yet been made, supporters and opponents of the crocodile guard have already engaged in fierce battles over the right to interpret the situation.

"ISRAELI ALCATRAZ"
The Ktziot military-political prison, which officially changed its name to the more euphonious Lavi ("Young Lion") in 2026, is known far beyond the borders of Israel.

Situated in a village near the Egyptian border, it traces its roots to the field camps for prisoners of war during the First Intifada, which were established in these areas in the late 1980s.

The institution has been popularly nicknamed "Israeli Alcatraz"—a nod to the infamous American prison. And for good reason.

The three-section complex, with a total area of approximately 400,000 square meters, is divided into dozens of individual holding units, where contact between inmates is minimized. The prison perimeter is equipped with several lines of fencing, guard towers, surveillance systems, and other security equipment.

To be fair, this is where they house the worst of the worst of the Palestinian terrorists, including those picked up in Israel following 10/7 and those captured instead of killed in Gaza.

In addition to being prohibited from group outings, Ktziot Lavi prisoners are also severely restricted from contacting their families and meeting with their lawyers in person (interaction is permitted only in the presence of Israeli agents and for no more than 15 minutes per month). Most prisoners are also denied the right to appeal their sentences or to be released on parole.

During its existence, the complex was demonstratively closed several times (for example, as part of the implementation of the Oslo Accords in 1996), but each time it was again converted into a detention center for “especially dangerous” Palestinians detained by the army or special services of the Jewish state.

Among others, those who passed through the prison's stages were the former "Sheriff of Jenin" Zakaria Zubeidi,

…the former Jenin chief of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades…

the high-ranking Hamas commander Muhammad Mardawi,

…also spelt Mahmoud Mardawi…

and the pediatrician Hussam Abu Safiya, whom the Israelis call "the chief physician of Hamas hospitals."

…. and a colonel in the Hamas Medical Military Corps.

Even after the facility came under Israeli Prison Service control in 2006 (and was formally converted into a maximum-security civilian prison), its "Palestinian wings" were never empty. Moreover, with the departure of the Israeli military, the proportion of Palestinian prisoners increased from 82% to 95%. This is because Lavi began to house not only "irreconcilables" but also anyone suspected of working for Hamas and other unfriendly Palestinian organizations.

Furthermore, there is a widespread belief that key Palestinian underground leaders, Marwan Barghouti and Ahmad Saadat, are secretly being held in the "Israeli Alcatraz." Israel refuses to disclose their location even to the Americans.

INNOVATIVE APPROACH
However, despite the strictness of the regime at Lavi, there were many people in Israel who considered the level of control at the institution insufficient.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir championed this position. He believed the prison was inadequately secured, and that those held there should be terrified of the very thought of escaping, as after 2023, a large number of Hamas and jihadist fighters and commanders were sent to Ktziot Lavi. Many of them had nothing left to lose, meaning they were far less afraid of the heavily armed prison guards than ordinary prisoners.

Ben-Gvir wanted to take collective fear to a new, literally animalistic level. And nothing would instill fear in Israel's enemies more than dozens of crocodiles prowling day and night in a deep, steep ditch.

Ben-Gvir first voiced this idea at a meeting with the leadership of the Israel Prison Service in late 2025. The controversial minister justified his proposal by arguing that crocodiles would become a "serious obstacle" to Palestinian prisoners attempting to escape.

This is especially true for those held in high-security areas, which are considered particularly dangerous by the Israeli prison system. Ben-Gvir also casually mentioned that he was inspired by the experience of American prison guards in Florida, where natural pools inhabited by alligators created an additional obstacle for escape-prone prisoners.

The Minister of National Security failed to convince his interlocutors. Most officials considered the idea too dangerous and vetoed it. Furthermore, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority opposed the initiative.

The agency stated that the relocation of a large non-native predator could pose threats to both the ecosystem and humans. As a result of the complex opposition, the crocodile guard project stalled, and Ben-Gvir himself harbored a grudge against his opponents.

However, in early July 2026, fate dealt him an unexpected gift. Environment Minister Idit Silman suddenly decided to change the legal status of Nile crocodiles, which were planned for conservation use.

Crocodiles were reclassified as farmed wild animals, lifting the ban on their breeding in captivity, as well as their use "for commercial, public, and other purposes."

Ben-Gvir seized on this innovation and immediately announced the construction of a defensive ditch around Lavi with a total length of more than 170 meters and a width of fifteen meters.

However, this time, the Minister of National Security's triumph lasted only a few days. Israeli activists intervened, specifically the animal rights organization Let the Animals Live. They filed a class action lawsuit, claiming that proponents of the crocodile-as-prisoners idea had not consulted with experts and, in pursuit of aesthetic appeal, had endangered a vulnerable species.

CROCODILES OF DISCORD
The Jerusalem District Court, which heard the case, quickly sided with the animal rights activists.

Judge Avraham Rubin concluded that the arguments regarding potential harm to the animals deserved careful consideration, and therefore, until a final decision on the case was made, the transport of crocodiles onto the facility's grounds was prohibited.

The decision apparently came as a surprise to Ben-Gvir. Following the verdict's publication, the minister launched into an angry tirade against the "liberal counter-revolution" and the "traitors entrenched in the courts," who, in his view, were hindering the government's efforts to reform the prison system and adapt it to the challenges of the times. Ben-Gvir also declared that he would see his project through, "no matter the cost."

The Israeli opposition also took the opportunity to attack the Minister of National Security, accusing him of squandering public funds and possessing manic tendencies.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also received a dose of criticism ; according to opponents, he himself has nurtured radicals within the government and does not even think of stopping them.

Regardless, landscaping work in the Lavi area continues despite the ban. Moreover, judging by the latest satellite images, Ben Gvir has dispatched even more excavators and workers to the area following the Jerusalem court's verdict.

Apparently, the Minister of National Security still believes that the crocodile guard project he developed can still be implemented in some form. Or at least the foundation for it can be laid.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

In shift, Fatah opens leadership vote to terror convicts freed in hostage deals

2026-06-02

Of course — how else? These are the hero Lions of Palestine.

[IsraelTimes] May conference confirms influence of hundreds released in deals for Gaza hostages – including many who were serving life sentences for deadly attacks – allowing them to cast ballots and win seats on bodies that guide the PA.

A recent conference held to elect new figures to leadership roles within the Paleostinian political party Fatah was also a showcase of the growing power and influence of ex-prisoners, including many serving life sentences who were released from Israeli jails under deals that freed hostages held by 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...
The May 14 convention, the first such gathering in a decade, saw the party led by Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....>
extend voting rights to 388 ex-prisoners, representing some 15 percent of the approximately 2,500 party members eligible to cast ballots, according to Raed Abu al-Humus, who heads the Paleostinian Prisoners’ Affairs Authority, which operates under the PA.

The group included 30 former prisoners who ran for seats on Fatah’s Central Committee and Revolutionary Council, a number of whom had spent decades in jail for their roles in deadly terror attacks on Israelis. The two top leadership bodies have significant roles guiding the party, which dominates West Bank politics and largely controls the Western-backed PA and Paleostine Liberation Organization.

According to the Prisoners’ Authority, the decision to extend voting rights to hundreds of former prisoners as a bloc was pushed by Abbas and other Fatah leaders in recognition of their growing numbers and influence.

"This is the first time the membership of released prisoners has reached such large numbers, and therefore they must appear in a manner worthy of the scale of struggle and sacrifices represented by the hundreds and thousands of years ’burned’ inside prisons and detention centers," Abu al-Humus said in a Facebook post ahead of the conference.

In general, Fatah extends voting rights based on criteria such as age, seniority and and geographic representation. However,
we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by...
this time it also opened up voting rights to Fatah-affiliated former prisoners who served at least 20 years in Israeli prisons.

In one sign of prisoners’ central place in the conference, voting was held not only in the West Bank but also in Cairo, where many former prisoners have been deported.

According to Yossi Kuperwasser, head of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, the move to grant ex-prisoners voting rights was an expression of the esteem Fatah and Paleostinian society in general hold for those involved in armed opposition to Israel who "paid the price" for their actions.

"In Fatah’s view, and in the broader Paleostinian view, the murderous Moslems are the fighting sector of Paleostinian society. That’s how these people are seen," said Kuperwasser, a former head of research for military intelligence. "They are role models, and of course they should be given respect and integrated into Paleostinian political frameworks."

Fatah forswore armed resistance to Israel as part of the grinding of the peace processor, but terror groups continued to operate under its direct authority until the mid-2000s, particularly the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, which operated as Fatah’s armed wing, and the more grassroots Tanzim.

The party’s ties with gangs dissipated following the 2000-2005 Second Intifada, though veterans of terror groups remain members of Fatah. At the same time, many Paleostinians continue to support ~~violent~~ mostly peaceful struggle. Polling by the Paleostinian Center for Policy and Survey Research showed that as of late 2024, around half of all Paleostinians surveyed supported armed resistance as the best way to achieve independence.

Kuperwasser noted that during the conference, a brief mention of the prisoners by Abbas prompted loud applause from the audience.

"It’s important to remember that Fatah was founded as an organization carrying out a jihadist and terrorist campaign against Israel," Kuperwasser said. "The narrative of struggle against Israel is still the dominant narrative among Paleostinians. From Fatah’s perspective, the struggle needs to be managed wisely — not to constantly enter into confrontation like Hamas
Hamas

..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
does. But in any case, the fighters implementing that struggle should be appreciated."

KILLERS ON THE COMMITTEE
The Paleostinian Prisoners’ Affairs Authority did not publish the names of all 388 former prisoners granted voting rights, releasing only the names of the 30 individuals who ran in internal elections for Fatah’s Central Committee and its Revolutionary Council. The 20-member Central Committee is Fatah’s top decision-making body, while the Revolutionary Council’s roughly 80 members are considered the movement’s "parliament," tasked with overseeing the committee’s work.

Due to Abbas’s long dominance over Fatah, both bodies are widely viewed as subordinate to him rather than independent centers of power. Membership in them can nevertheless translate into political influence within the Paleostinian Authority, as Fatah remains the dominant faction governing the PA.

With Abbas, 90, expected to exit the political stage in the coming years, if not sooner, those in Fatah’s Central Committee are viewed by Israel and the international community as potential successors.

A review by The Times of Israel found that all the 30 former prisoners who ran for positions in the movement’s institutions — including one candidate who did not appear on the published list for an unknown reason but was elected to the Revolutionary Council — had been sentenced to 75 life terms altogether.

All but one were released in hostage deals following the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack, during which Israel freed some 5,000 prisoners in exchange for many of the 251 people kidnapped from southern Israel in the onslaught, as well as two civilians and the bodies of two soldiers held in Gaza for around a decade. Over 400 of those prisoners were serving life terms, though it’s unknown how many were member of Fatah.

The 30th candidate was released in the 2011 deal in which Israel freed 1,027 prisoners in exchange for captive IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.

Several of the former prisoners had served multiple life sentences for planning and carrying out attacks in which Israelis were killed, primarily during the Second Intifada as members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.

Fatah’s grassroots field organization Tanzim was also responsible for numerous attacks during the uprising and earlier. Today the group is considered defunct.

Zakaria Zubeidi, who headed the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades in Jenin during the Second Intifada, was one of two released prisoners who were elected to the Central Committee, along with Taysir Bardini, who was released in the 2011 Shalit deal. Zubeidi, from the Jenin refugee camp, was accused of involvement in planning and carrying out attacks against Israelis, but was given amnesty in 2007 when he renounced violence, as part of a deal between Israel and the PA.

In 2019, he was arrested and charged with taking part in two shooting attacks against Israeli buses in the West Bank, thereby violating the deal, with additional allegations dating back to the early 2000s added to the charge sheet. After his escape from prison in 2021, five more years were added to his sentence. He was released in a January 2025 hostage deal.

Bardini, from Rafah in the Gaza Strip, was imprisoned in 1993 and sentenced to life imprisonment for murder carried out during hostile activity, though the specific attack or operation for which he was convicted has not been publicly identified. He was released to the West Bank in 2011.

Released terror convict Yasser Abu Bakr was the lone candidate from among the released prisoners to win a seat on Fatah’s Revolutionary Council. A member of Fatah’s military wing during the Second Intifada, Abu Bakr was handed three life sentences for involvement in a 2002 attack in Netanya in which two Israelis were killed, including a 9-month-old baby, as well as for the killing of a Border Police officer during an armed clash near Baqa al-Gharbiya the same year.

Another released terrorist involved in the same Netanya attack was Ahmed Abu Khdeir, a senior al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades operative who failed to win a seat on the Revolutionary Council. Aside from involvement in the Netanya murders, Abu Khdeir was also convicted of dispatching a gunman who opened fire on a Hadera bat mitzvah in January 2002, killing six. He was sentenced to 11 life terms for his role in those and other attacks, but was released in January 2025 and deported abroad, and now resides in Egypt.

Several other senior murderous Moslems also fell short of winning seats on the councils, including:

Majed al-Masri, who served as commander of Fatah’s military wing in the West Bank during the Second Intifada. He was sentenced to 10 life terms for planning attacks in which numerous Israelis were killed, but was let go in October 2025 and deported abroad

Mansour Shreim, a senior Tanzim figure based in Tulkarem who was sentenced to 14 life terms for involvement in multiple attacks, including a May 2002 attack on a yeshiva in Itamar in which three students were killed. He was released in the second hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, in January 2025, and deported abroad.

Omar Mardawi, a Tanzim operative who was sentenced to life imprisonment for involvement in the abduction and murder of an Israeli, Yuri Gushchin, in 2001. He was released in February 2025 and was slated for deportation to Gaza, but Israeli media reported that he initially refused release because he feared Hamas would harm him due to his affiliation with Fatah and was ultimately allowed to return to the West Bank.

Muhammad Naifeh, a Tanzim operative in Tulkarem serving 13 life sentences for involvement in and planning of several attacks, including an October 2002 attack in Hermesh in which three women were killed, and an attack the next month on Kibbutz Metzer in which five Israelis were murdered, including a mother and her two children. He was released in February 2025.

Adnan Obeiyat, a senior Tanzim operative sentenced to eight life terms for involvement in attacks in which Israelis were killed, including two deadly shootings in October 2000. He was released in October 2025 and deported abroad.

The top vote-getter in the election was Marwan Barghouti, the former head of Tanzim who is serving five life terms for direct involvement in three attacks: a March 2002 shooting attack at the Seafood Market restaurant in Tel Aviv in which three Israelis were killed; the January 2002 killing of Yoela Chen in Givat Ze’ev; and a June 2001 shooting attack near Ma’ale Adumim in which a Greek monk was killed.

Though his influence over decision-making is hampered by his ongoing incarceration, he is considered among the most popular Palestinian politicians and would rival Abbas for leadership were he released, opinion polls show. He says he has reformed and no longer supports violent resistance. The election marked the third time Fatah has returned him to the Central Committee since he was first elected to the body in 2009. He is the only currently serving inmate to sit on the panel. Following the elections, Zubeidi posted a photograph on Facebook alongside Barghouti’s wife and several other released prisoners, with a large portrait of Barghouti in the background.

“To our brother commander Marwan Barghouti,” he wrote, “we believe that patience and steadfastness are the path to dignity and freedom for all our people.”

According to Kuperwasser, the vote was a sign of the extent to which those involved in armed resistance, and their support for terrorism, will continue to play an important role within Palestinian leadership.

“All of Abbas’s potential successors are committed to the idea of struggle against Israel,” he said. “His son Yasser, even though he is a businessman, is committed to it. Hussein al-Sheikh [vice president of the PA] and Jibril Rajoub [head of the Palestinian Football Association] are committed to it as well, and Marwan Barghouti is deeply committed to that narrative.”

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Early results in Fatah leadership vote show Abbas's son, intelligence chief elected

2026-05-18

[IsraelTimes] Millionaire Yasser Abbas expected to get seat on party’s powerful Central Committee, as will Zakaria Zubeidi, ex-head of Fatah terror group who was behind dozens of attacks.

Since these are merely preliminary results, no need to save every jot and tittle. But it’s all available at the link, for those who are curious.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Fatah gathers for first election in decade, as PA’s Abbas pledges to continue reforms

2026-05-15

[IsraelTimes] 3-day confab climaxes with vote for 18-member committee expected to play key role in post-Abbas era; PA president pans Israeli withholding of Ramallah’s funds in opening remarks

Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....>
’s Fatah party on Thursday began a three-day conference to elect its highest leadership body for the first time in 10 years, as it faces existential challenges in the wake of 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...
war.

In an address opening the conference in Ramallah, Abbas pledged to press ahead with reforms within the PA, saying he was prepared to hold long-delayed presidential and parliamentary elections.

"We renew our full commitment to continuing work on implementing all the reform measures we pledged... We are ready to hold presidential and legislative elections," Abbas said in an address to the congress, though he did not provide a timeline for the vote.

"The Paleostinian people are the only people in the world living under occupation. Holding our conference today on our homeland’s soil confirms our determination to continue on the democratic path and open the way for youth and women," the 90-year-old veteran leader said.

Abbas and the Paleostinian Authority are under mounting pressure from the United States, the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
and Arab states to implement reforms and hold elections, amid widespread accusations of corruption, political stagnation, and the body’s declining legitimacy among Paleostinians.

The international community also wants the PA to play a key role in eventually running the Gaza Strip again after it was devastated in the war sparked by the October 7, 2023, Hamas
Hamas

..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
invasion of southern Israel. Israel, however, bitterly opposes the involvement of the PA.

The conference is being attended by approximately 2,580 Fatah members, the majority of them in Ramallah, though several hundred are also spread across Gaza, Cairo and Beirut.

They are expected to elect 18 representatives to the Fatah Central Committee and 80 to the party’s parliament, known as the Fatah Revolutionary Council.

The Fatah Central Committee is expected to play a key role in the post-Abbas era, with many observers wondering whether he might finally step down after more than two decades at the helm, despite the lack of a clear successor.

’SERIOUS CHALLENGES’
The conference comes as the Paleostinian national movement faces some of its "most serious challenges in our struggle," Jibril Rajoub, the current secretary general of the Fatah Central Committee, told AFP ahead of the congress.

He expressed hope that the conference, repeatedly delayed, would contribute to "ensuring and protecting the establishment of a Paleostinian state on the world’s agenda and protecting the Paleostine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the sole legitimate representative of the Paleostinian people."

Abbas, in his opening remarks, criticized Israel’s continued withholding of Paleostinian tax revenues that Jerusalem collects on the PA’s behalf. Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has refused to sign off on the monthly transfers for over a year, preventing the PA from paying tens of thousands of employees, bringing the West Bank economy to the brink of collapse.

The amount of withheld funds — which are supposed to make up the majority of the PA’s budget — has climbed to over $5 billion.

"The continued holding of Paleostinian Authority funds by Israel is an unprecedented event that violates the agreements between the Paleostinian Authority and Israel, as well as international law," Abbas said in his Fatah conference address.

Abbas also criticized Israel over its actions in Gaza, saying: "What is happening in Gaza is an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe."

He also dismissed accusations of corruption against the Paleostinian Authority, saying they were vague and unsubstantiated. "No one should just say ’corruption’ and go to sleep. Give me the name of a specific person, and within five seconds, he will be under investigation," Abbas said.

One of the reforms most demanded by the international community was of the PA’s welfare system, which included payments to the families of snuffies and slain attackers.

Last year, Abbas signed a decree ending the policy, strictly conditioning welfare payments on the financial situation of the applicant, rather than their time served in prison.

A US State Department report from last month determined that the reform isn’t being properly implemented, though, the PA has rejected the findings, which relied on Israel and NGOs highly critical of Ramallah.

Fatah has historically been the main component of the PLO, which includes most Paleostinian factions but excludes terror groups Hamas and 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...
over their refusal to accept the group’s charter, which includes recognition of Israel and support for a two-state solution.

In recent decades, Fatah’s popularity and influence have dwindled amid internal divisions and growing public frustration over the stagnation of the Israeli-Paleostinian grinding of the peace processor.

The sense of disappointment led to a surge in support for rival Hamas, which made huge political gains in the West Bank in 2006 elections that it won handily, before going on to expel Fatah from the Gaza Strip almost entirely after a bout of factional fighting.

Hani al-Masri, director of the Paleostinian Center for Policy Research and Strategic Studies (Masarat), told AFP that Fatah now merely uses the PLO to provide itself with legitimacy, "a legitimacy that is eroding in the absence of a unified national project, elections and national consensus."

Rajoub nonetheless declared that the conference was a first step towards "putting the Paleostinian house in order, to build a partner for establishing a [Paleostinian] state."

SUCCESSION
Fatah is the main party within the PA, which much of the international community views as a natural partner in rebuilding and running the Gaza Strip after the devastating war sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack.

But Fatah remains marginalized in the territory, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed that it, the PA and Hamas will have no role in post-war governance.

Instead, a new government of Paleostinian technocrats has been established to replace Hamas in Gaza, though the panel’s entry into the Strip has been stalled by the terror group’s refusal to give up its weapons.

Despite repeated declarations from Fatah that it is working as a "united front," major figures are absent from Thursday’s conference, notably Nasser al-Kidwa, a key Paleostinian leader who is boycotting the gathering.

"This conference is illegitimate, and this leadership that has usurped power is illegitimate, and its time is up," said Kidwa, a nephew of late Paleostinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Key figures competing to replace Abbas include Rajoub and PA deputy Hussein al-Sheikh.

Meanwhile,
...back at the dirigible, the gondola was dangling by a single thread of rope.

Jack! Cynthia cried. I just realized I'm afraid of heights! I don't even like high heels!...
the president’s eldest son, Yasser Abbas, is on the ballot to join the central committee, having risen in prominence over recent years after he was named the president’s special representative despite often residing outside of the West Bank.

Among others present on Thursday were Zakaria Zubeidi — the former head of Fatah’s military wing in Jenin who had been serving a life sentence in Israel for involvement in attacks in which Israelis were killed and was released in the October 2025 hostage deal — as well as Arab Israeli MK Ahmad Tibi.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

‘We have to reconsider our tools’: Terror chief Zubeidi laments that all Palestinian strategies have failed

2025-08-13

Loving life turns out to be the successful strategy.

[IsraelTimes] In an interview with The New York Times, Zakaria Zubeidi – a well-known Paleostinian terrorist freed by Israel this year after being arrested for organizing dozens of attacks during the Second Intifada while heading the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades in Jenin — laments the futility of Paleostinian attempts to achieve a sovereign state.

"We [the Paleostinians] have to reconsider our tools," Zubeidi, who was released in exchange for hostages kidnapped by Hamas
Hamas

..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
in a January ceasefire deal with the terror group, tells the newspaper in his first major interview since his release.

"We founded a theater, and we tried cultural resistance — what did that do?" he continues, referring to a theater program he recently co-founded in Jenin. "We tried the rifle, we tried shooting. There’s no solution," he says. According to the paper, Zubeidi feels that "none of it had helped forge a Paleostinian state [and] it may never do so."

He emphasizes that his involvement with the theater was not a transition from or denunciation of armed Paleostinian activity, saying: "It’s not about being one thing or another... How did I open the theater door? I broke it with my rifle."

During the Second Intifada in the early 2000s, Zubeidi "joined a militia in Jenin in the belief that it was the best way of achieving Paleostinian illusory sovereignty," according to the interview, eventually becoming the head of the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.

Zubeidi denies involvement in any murder, according to the newspaper, though Israel held him responsible for ordering several attacks that resulted in multiple deaths, including of civilians, and for 24 offenses, mostly related to violence. Zubeidi was also among six prisoners who beat feet from Gilboa prison in 2021, before being recaptured days later.

Zubeidi also says that he lost his teeth and was repeatedly beaten by Israeli guards during his imprisonment, though the Israel Prison Service denies this and similar claims from other releasees in a statement to The New York Times

...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
, saying it is "not aware of the claims [described], and as far as we know, no such events have occurred."

Upon witnessing, after his release, Israel’s strikes on 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...
during the current war, as well as the aftermath of Israeli raids in the West Bank, Zubeidi assesses that "on every front, Paleostinian strategies seem to be failing," according to the paper. Zubeidi’s son was also among five Paleostinian button men killed in an Israeli strike on the West Bank last year.

Zubeidi claims that "there is no peaceful solution and there is no military solution" for Paleostinians, "because the Israelis don’t want to give us anything."

"It’s impossible to uproot us from here," he continues, "and we don’t have any tools to uproot them.”

Link

Down Under

Australia blocks visit by Israel activist Hillel Fuld, causing diplomatic uproar

2025-06-09

[IsraelTimes] Scheduled to speak at events to raise money for Magen David Adom, Fuld had his visa rescinded as he was accused of being a ‘merchant of Zionist hate speech’

Pro-Israel activist and influencer Hillel Fuld has been barred from entering Australia because his presence would constitute a risk to "the health, safety or good order" of the country, according to Australia’s Department of Home Affairs.

Fuld, a citizen of both Israel and the United States, was due to speak at events for Magen David Adom in Sydney and Melbourne to raise money for the medical organization’s new facility in Lehavim in southern Israel. His visit was canceled due to fears he would use the platform to incite hatred "against particular segments of the community, namely the Islamic population," according to the letter sent to him Friday by the Department of Home Affairs.

The decision has sparked outrage from Jewish communities in Australia and worldwide.

Fuld told The Times of Israel that he had received his travel visa for the trip months ago without any problems. "But on Thursday, someone brought to my attention a post on X calling for people to contact the immigration office to get me blocked from entering the country. Sure enough, the next morning, I got an email from them telling me I wouldn’t be allowed to come."

The coordinated social media campaign by pro-Paleostinian, anti-Israel activists called Fuld "a well-known merchant of Zionist hate speech," saying he has "a well-documented history of spreading hate speech, Islamophobia
...the irrational fear that Moslems will act the way they usually do...
, and dangerous misinformation." It included detailed information on how to file a complaint with

Fuld said the decision is drawing diplomatic blowback, with United States Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
Gilad Erdan, and others taking up the case.

In a letter to Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, Huckabee said Fuld "poses no threat to the people of Australia by his actions or words."

Meanwhile,
...back at the comedy club, Boogie sadly admitted that he was a better peeping Tom than he was a comedian...
opposition leaders in Australia called on Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke to explain the cancellation.

"If there is a new political precedent in the standard for issuing entry visas to Australia, the Australian people should be informed as soon as possible," shadow home affairs minister Andrew Hastie said in a statement Sunday.

It’s not the first time a visa has been denied to an Israeli on political grounds, however. Last November, former justice minister Ayelet Shaked was barred from entering Australia for similar reasons when she was slated to address a conference organized by the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council. US conservative political commentator Candace Owens was also banned from entering the country last year.

Fuld, a long-time influencer in Israel’s high-tech scene, began advocating for Israel full-time after Hamas
Hamas

..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
launched its war against Israel on October 7, 2023. His social media reach in the Jewish world is considerable, with 177,000 followers on X, 156,000 followers on Facebook, 87,00 followers on Instagram, 16,800 subscribers to his YouTube channel, and 3,300 followers on TikTok.

He is also known for being the brother of Ari Fuld, an activist and social media personality who was stabbed to death by a 17-year-old terrorist in the parking lot of a shopping mall at the Gush Etzion Junction in 2018. Ari’s death was mourned by tens of thousands around the world at the time, and he is still memorialized by different funds and causes in his name.

In the letter canceling his visa, the Home Affairs Ministry cited several of Fuld’s posts that they said "denied documented atrocities and Islamophobia rhetoric, which has been received by members of the Australian community as inflammatory and concerning."

"Based on this information, I consider there is sufficient reason to conclude that the visa holder’s use of various online platforms to promote his controversial views and ideologies may lead to fostering division in the community," the letter said.

In one example cited, the Home Affairs Ministry said Fuld had contradicted "reports made by many reliable news sources that at least 112 Paleostinians had been killed and more than 750 maimed after Israeli troops opened fire" on people waiting for aid near 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...
City on March 1, 2024.

Fuld had called the reports "propaganda" and "fabricated" in a lengthy post on Instagram, writing: "There was no massacre of Paleostinians in Gaza today."

An IDF probe into the incident eventually determined that the vast majority of civilian casualties in the incident were the result of thousands of people swarming the aid trucks, creating a stampede and causing people to get run over.

Friends of Magen David Adom attacked the ruling on Fuld’s visa. "We absolutely reject this," it said in a statement. Hillel has spoken to large audiences across North America, Europa
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
and Asia with no incident."

"The decision "is difficult to reconcile with the actual purpose of his visit, which is to speak about entrepreneurship and help raise money for emergency medical services in Israel that treat everyone, regardless of faith or background," Zionist Federation of Australia President ⁦Jeremy Leibler added. He said his organization was in direct contact with the government regarding the decision.

Fuld is now expected to address the fundraiser event by video conferencing instead of in person, Fuld noted.

ATTACK ON THE JEWISH COMMUNITY
The decision is a slap in the face for Australia’s 120,000-strong Jewish community, which has been among the hardest hit by antisemitism in the world since October 7, 2023. The country experienced more than 2,000 anti-Jewish incidents between October 2023 and September 2024, more than quadruple the number from the year before Hamas’s October 7, 2023, assault that sparked the Gaza war, according to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ).

In recent months, Jews there have experienced synagogues, schools, and homes Molotov cocktailed, two nurses threatening to kill Jewish patients in their hospital, and the discovery of a trailer filled with explosives said to be intended for a mass-casualty event at a Sydney synagogue.

Residents have been overwhelmingly frustrated by the failure of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his government to rein in skyrocketing antisemitism, but were mildly hopeful that, after his Labor Party’s reelection last month, he would do more to protect the Jewish community in his second term. While the party now understands that antisemitism is a significant domestic issue, and has begun to make stronger efforts to fight it, Fuld’s snub is a sign that things are unlikely to improve shortly.

As the head of his country’s labour party, he is professionally required to hate Jews and Israel. Why would they expect anything else?

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Freed arch-terrorist, convicted of killing 45, is guest at slain hostage handover in Gaza

2025-02-21

[IsraelTimes] Mohammed Abu Warda, responsible for series of suicide bombings, vows to continue ‘resistance’ at Khan Younis ceremony; had reportedly been slated to be deported to Egypt

A Paleostinian terrorist responsible for killing dozens of Israelis who was released from prison just days ago was seen in media footage at the Hamas
Hamas

..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
handover of bodies of four slain hostages Thursday.

Mohammed Abu Warda, a former commander in Hamas’s armed wing, was serving 48 life sentences in Israel for criminal masterminding multiple terror attacks that killed 45 people, including a 1996 bombing on a Jerusalem bus that left 24 dead.

He was released by Israel on February 8 along with other terror convicts as part of the ongoing hostage-ceasefire deal with the Hamas terror group.

According to Hebrew media, Abu Warda was the prisoner with the highest number life sentences to be released so far during the truce. He served 23 years.

Though he was reportedly slated to be deported to Egypt, Abu Warda was seen Thursday morning at a Khan Younis stage where the terror group held a ceremony marking the transfer of what is said were the bodies of four Israeli hostages: Shiri Bibas, her two young children Ariel and Kfir, and octogenarian peace activist Oded Lifshitz, all of whom were kidnapped alive by holy warriors on October 7, 2023.

He was seated in the front row alongside other Hamas dignitaries, apparently as a guest of honor. Abu Warda’s presence at the ceremony was first reported in Israel by the Kan public broadcaster.

Speaking to a news hound, Abu Warda vowed that Hamas’s "resistance" would continue "until we reach liberation of [Jerusalem] and all our lands."

Under the terms of the first stage of the ceasefire agreement, Israel is freeing some 2,000 Paleostinians in prison for security offenses, including hundreds serving life sentences, in exchange for the release of 25 living hostages and eight bodies.

Abu Warda was freed in the third round of the deal, in exchange for the release of hostages Gadi Mozes, Agam Berger, and Arbel Yehoud.

According to the Kan broadcaster, Egypt refused to grant entry to Abu Warda and 19 other released security prisoners and has demanded that other prisoners it has already taken in be deported elsewhere before it will accept new prisoners.

Hamas claims initial agreements have been received from Algeria, Indonesia, Malaysia and 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...
to accept released Paleostinian prisoners, but this has not yet been implemented, Kan reported.

Abu Warda was arrested by the Paleostinian Authority in 2002 in connection to bombings he organized for Hamas and had been in Israeli prisons until his release earlier this month.

When he was charged in 2004, the Israeli judges called the case "one of the most serious indictments ever filed in the State of Israel."

Throughout the ceasefire, Hamas has staged public ceremonies when releasing hostages in an attempt to bolster its claims of remaining in power 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...
, after being pounded by Israel’s military for some 15 months in response to the October 7, 2023, massacre in southern Israel.

During the Khan Younis ceremony Thursday, Hamas displayed four black coffins on stage surrounded by banners, including a large one depicting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a vampire.

Thousands of people, including large numbers of masked and armed members of terror groups, looked on as the coffins were loaded onto Red Thingy vehicles before being driven to Israeli forces.

Inside the coffins were thought to be the bodies of Shiri Bibas, her small children Ariel, 4 at the time, and Kfir, just 9 months old, and Lifshitz, all kidnapped from their Nir Oz homes.

After receiving the coffins inside Gaza, the IDF held a small military ceremony, led by IDF Chief Rabbi Brig. Gen. Eyal Karim, who read psalms as the coffins were draped in Israeli flags.

Israelis, many somberly waving flags, lined roads as a convoy of vehicles brought the bodies to a forensic institute in Tel Aviv for identification.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Troops neutralize bomb-laden car, Palestinian shot dead near IDF base, in West Bank

2025-02-14

[IsraelTimes] Military says troops have killed over 60 Palestinian terror operatives, detained over 210, amid ongoing counter-terrorism operation expected to last several more weeks

Israeli troops rubbed out a Paleostinian suspect at the entrance to a military base near Nablus on Thursday, while commando forces destroyed an car bomb in Jenin, amid an ongoing counter-terrorism operation in the West Bank.

The Paleostinian suspect was shot by soldiers at the entrance to the Samaria Regional Brigade’s base near Nablus, the Israel Defense Forces said. He arrived at the entrance to the base in a vehicle and crashed into its gate.

"The suspect was neutralized after moving suspiciously toward the forces," the IDF said.

The Paleostinian Authority health ministry said it had been notified of the man’s death, indicating his body was being held by Israeli authorities. He was named by the PA as 28-year-old Issa Riyad Issa Jabali.

No soldiers were maimed in the incident.

Also Thursday, troops of the Egoz commando unit destroyed an car bomb in the West Bank city of Jenin, the military said. Footage published by the IDF showed a drone dropping a bomb on the parked car.

In addition, the IDF said that on Wednesday, troops of the Maglan commando unit killed three button men during an exchange of fire in the Nur Shams camp near Tulkarem. One soldier was moderately maimed in the incident.

The festivities came amid an offensive, dubbed Operation Iron Wall, that was launched on January 21 and that the military expects to last several more weeks.

Israeli forces have been operating in the Jenin, Tulkarem, and Tubas areas.

Troops have killed more than 60 Paleostinian terror operatives and detained more than 210 amid the major ongoing counter-terrorism operation, the military said on Thursday.

The IDF has acknowledged mistakenly killing several civilians during the operation, including a toddler and a pregnant woman.

[X]

Troops of the Egoz commando unit destroyed an explosive-laden car in the West Bank city of Jenin earlier today, the military says.

Footage published by the IDF shows a drone dropping a bomb on the car. pic.twitter.com/meJj4QyWdB
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) February 13, 2025

Link

International-UN-NGOs

PA’s Abbas calls for emergency UN Security Council meeting on IDF West Bank op

2025-02-03

[IsraelTimes] Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....>
has called for an emergency UN Security Council session on the "ongoing Israeli aggression against the Paleostinian people" in the northern West Bank, where the IDF is conducting a major counterterrorism operation.

According to the PA-affiliated Wafa news agency, Abbas’s request to the UNSC demands that it put an end to Israel’s "systemic destruction of the infrastructure" in the West Bank cities of Jenin, Tulkarem, Tamoun, and Tubas, and to the "policy of killing" that he asserts Israel has implemented throughout the counterterrorism operation.

Wafa reports that Abbas has also called on US President Donald Trump

...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and whatever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th and 47th President of the United States...
and his administration to intervene, and force the IDF to halt its operations in the West Bank.

Separately, the PA foreign ministry condemns the IDF’s destruction of buildings in Jenin earlier today.

The IDF said that the 23 buildings it demolished had been used by terror operatives.

The ministry "condemns, in the strongest terms, the bombings committed by the Israeli occupation forces... including their action today, Sunday, to blow up large neighborhoods of the Jenin camp," it says in a statement, describing it as a "brutal scene."

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

IDF carries out two drone strikes in Jenin area; Palestinians say 4 dead, including teen

2025-02-02

[IsraelTimes] Military says strikes targeted armed terror operatives amid ongoing operation in northern West Bank

The Israeli military on Saturday said it carried out two dronezaps on terror operatives in the northern West Bank, with Paleostinians reporting four people killed and several others maimed.

One dronezap targeted a group of armed Paleostinian terror operatives in the Jenin area in the northern West Bank, the army said. Another strike, in the city of Qabatiya, near Jenin, targeted a car with several terror operatives in it.

The military said that further details would be provided later.

The Paleostinian Authority health ministry reported two dead in the dronezap in Jenin and another two dead in the strike in Qabatiya. Paleostinian officials said the strike in Jenin killed a 14-year-old.

Two other people were also taken to a hospital after being maimed in the Jenin attack, according to the Paleostinian Red Islamic Thingy.

The strikes came amid a major counter-terrorism operation in the northern West Bank.

Jenin governor Kamal Abu al-Rub told AFP that the teenager, Ahmad Sadi, and the two others "were hit by an occupation drone when they were in the street."

The ongoing IDF offensive, dubbed Operation Iron Wall, has primarily focused on the city and refugee camp of Jenin but on Monday expanded to Tulkarem.

Visiting Jenin Wednesday, Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed the IDF would remain in the camp even after the military operation there, "to ensure terror does not return."

The West Bank has seen a surge in violence since 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 out of 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...
Strip ignited the war there.

Since then troops have arrested some 6,000 wanted Paleostinians across the West Bank, including more than 2,350 affiliated with Hamas. According to the Paleostinian Authority health ministry, more than 858 West Bank Paleostinians have been killed in that time. The IDF says the vast majority of them were button men killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or bully boyz carrying out attacks.

There has also been a significant uptick in settler violence against Paleostinians since the start of the war.

During the same period, 46 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another eight members of the security forces were killed in festivities with terror operatives in the West Bank.

IDF expands West Bank counterterrorism operation to town of Tamun
[IsraelTimes] The IDF says it has expanded its ongoing counterterrorism operation in the northern West Bank, now in its 12th day, and troops are now operating in the town of Tamun.

Troops of the Bislamach Brigade — the IDF’s School for Infantry Corps Professions and Squad Commanders in peacetime — entered the town overnight, and have so far located several weapons, the military says.

Last week, a drone strike in Tamun killed 10 Palestinian terror operatives.

The ongoing IDF offensive, dubbed Operation Iron Wall, has primarily focused on the city and refugee camp of Jenin but also expanded to Tulkarem last week and now to Tamun.

IDF says it targeted 3 West Bank terror cells in strikes last night, including freed prisoner
[IsraelTimes] The IDF says it targeted Palestinian terrorists in three separate aerial strikes within several hours in the northern West Bank last night, including a cell that was on its way to carry out an imminent attack, confirming that it took out a prisoner set free as part of a 2023 deal with Hamas.

The military says the strike on the cell on its way to carry out a terror attack occurred in Qabatiya, with secondary explosions observed as a result of bombs that were in the car going off.

That strike, the IDF says, killed terror operatives Salah Zakarneh and Abd al-Hadi Kamil, the latter of whom was released as part of a hostage deal in November 2023.

The IDF publishes footage of the Qabatiya strike.

Video can be seen at the link.

The two other strikes occurred in Jenin, the army says, adding that they targeted two armed terror cells.

The Palestinian Authority health ministry reported two killed in the Qabatiya strike, two killed in one of the Jenin strikes, and 16-year-old Ahmad al-Sadi killed in the other Jenin strike along with others critically wounded.

IDF drone strike in West Bank said to kill Palestinian prisoner freed in 2023 deal
[IsraelTimes] One of two Palestinian gunmen killed in an IDF drone strike in the West Bank city of Qabatiya this evening is identified by Palestinian media as Abd Issam Alawneh.

Alawneh had been previously detained by Israel, and was released in the November 2023 hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas.

He is the fourth Palestinian released in the November 2023 deal to have been killed by Israel.

A separate drone strike in Jenin this evening killed three more Palestinians, according to media reports.

المقــاوم عبد عصام عــلاونة، أحد الأسرى الذين حررتهم المـــقاومة خلال اتفاق تبادل التهدئة بالحرب عام 2023، واستشـــهد قبل قليل بقصف طيران الاحتلال مركبة في بلدة قباطية جنوب جنين. pic.twitter.com/Ks6ROJjfXs
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) February 1, 2025

Link

International-UN-NGOs

Facing flak, Red Cross defends its role in Israel-Hamas war

2025-02-02

[IsraelTimes] Derided by Israelis as a ‘glorified taxi service’ for failure to help hostages in captivity, the ICRC insists it has little power beyond what belligerent parties afford it

The Red Cross'>Red Thingy, accused of not doing enough to help hostages 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...
, has defended itself in a rare statement outlining the limits of its role.

Insisting on its neutrality, the International Committee of the Red Thingy said the escalation of violence in Israel and the Paleostinian territories has triggered "a proliferation of dehumanizing language and of false and misleading information about the ICRC and our work in the current conflict."

The organization, dedicated to aiding victims of war, including by visiting prisoners and detainees, has faced heavy criticism in Israel since October 7, 2023, for its failure to secure any meaningful aid for the 251 hostages taken by hard boyz that day — whether by monitoring their conditions or providing them with basic humanitarian assistance, including medicine.

For its limited role in facilitating the transfer of freed hostages from Hamas
Hamas

..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
to Israeli forces — both during the November 2023 ceasefire and the current one — many Israelis have come to derisively refer to the ICRC as little more than a glorified taxi service.

Meanwhile,
...back at the Council of Boskone, Helmuth ordered the space pirate fleet to attack Zemblonia...
in response to Hamas’s refusal to allow ICRC visits to its hostages, Israel has blocked the agency’s visits to Paleostinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, leading to criticism on that front as well.

The ICRC faced fresh Israeli anger as Thursday’s hostage transfer in Khan Younis descended into chaos, with masked terror operatives from Hamas and 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...
struggling to hold back a surging crowd and Red Thingy workers seeming powerless to protect hostages Gadi Mozes and Arbel Yehoud.

ICRC officials "did nothing to interfere with this intimidating display of indignity and public humiliation," Gerald Steinberg, president of the Israeli organization NGO Monitor, wrote in the Australian-based online magazine Quillette.

The ICRC said: "Ensuring the safety and security of the handover operations is the responsibility of the parties to the agreement."

Furthermore, it asserted, "interfering with armed security personnel could compromise the safety of ICRC staff, and more importantly that of the hostages."

The Geneva-based organization said it had not given permission for "people carrying Hamas flags to get on top of our buses in Ramallah" during the release of Paleostinian detainees, but "nor did we have the capacity to prevent people from doing so."

In late 2023, Israel’s then-foreign minister Eli Cohen said the Red Thingy had "no right to exist" if it did not visit the hostages in Gaza.

The organization insists it relies on the belligerents’ goodwill.

"From day one, we have called for the immediate release of all the hostages, and for access to them," it said in a statement.

In World War II, the ICRC visited prisoners of war, but its mandate did not explicitly extend to civilians unless governments allowed it.

The ICRC acknowledges that during World War II, it "failed to speak out and more importantly act on behalf of the millions of people who suffered and perished in the death camps, especially the Jewish people targeted, persecuted and murdered under the Nazi regime."

In its statement, the ICRC reaffirmed that this was the "greatest failure" in the organization’s history, and said it unequivocally rejects antisemitism in all its forms.

At the same time, the ICRC has been accused by pro-Paleostinian activists, particularly on social media, of not putting pressure on Israel to secure visits to Paleostinian detainees since October 7, 2023, and also of not doing enough to help the maimed in the Gaza Strip.

The humanitarian organization says it has been actively engaging with the Israeli authorities "to allow for the resumption of ICRC visits and family contacts for these detainees."

As for the maimed in Gaza, the ICRC said it had received requests to evacuate hospitals in the north, but could not regularly safely access the area due to the "extremely difficult security situation — together with roads blocked and unreliable communications."

Following the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that came into effect on January 19, the ICRC, which already had 130 staff in Gaza, is deploying more personnel, including doctors.

In 1968, Leopold Boissier, a former ICRC president, noted that the criticism most frequently leveled at the organization "is the silence with which it surrounds some of its activities."

Nearly 60 years later, the ICRC is facing similar accusations, not only regarding the Israel-Hamas war but also since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Founded in Geneva in 1863, the organization, which has more than 18,000 staff in over 90 countries, denies being "complicit" and says it establishes trust through "confidential dialogue with all parties to the conflict."

"Our neutrality and impartiality are critical to our ability to operate in any context."

Link

Good Morning

2025-01-30

You Remember that Snark Yesterday
About being Sent to Live in Michigan? Well...

Thursday 01/30/2025

Iran Tells Proxies to Cool It in Trump Era

Chorus Girls With Broadway Star Fred Stone - Jack O Lantern 1917.

Down Under Sydney police uncover cache of explosives, with indication target was synagogue		Syria-Lebanon-Iran Israeli strike in southern Lebanon's Majdal Selm said to injure five people
Israel-Palestine-Jordan Zakaria Zubeidi, Mahmoud Atallah among notorious terrorists set for release Thursday		Home Front: WoT New Jersey synagogue defaced with 'terrorists' graffiti for hosting IDF soldier
Israel-Palestine-Jordan At least 10 said killed by IDF strike targeting terror cell in northern West Bank		Israel-Palestine-Jordan Elation turns to despair as Gazans return to uninhabitable homes in Strip's north

Lockheed hit by $2B in charges on 2 classified programs

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