Hamas launches war on Israel

[Jimbuna]

Lammy urges immediate ceasefire during Israel visit

David Lammy has called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza during his first visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories as foreign secretary.

"I’m here to push for a ceasefire," he said. "The loss of life over the last few months... is horrendous. It has to stop."

Mr Lammy also urged the release of all hostages held in Gaza and an increase in the flow of aid to the territory.

The newly appointed minister held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority PM Mohammad Mustafa on Sunday.

He also met family members of hostages still held in Gaza who have links to the UK.

After the meeting Sharon Sharabi, whose two brothers Elie and Yossi were taken hostage on 7 October, said: "Mr Lammy promised to do everything to bring the hostages home. The UK government has committed to be involved in a process with all the relevant sides."

In February the Israeli military said that Yossi Sharabi was killed and that it was likely a result of an IDF air strike. It is thought his body remains in Gaza.

In his meeting with Mr Mustafa, Mr Lammy said the UK would push for peace and stability, a statement posted on X, external by the British Consulate in Jerusalem said.

They discussed the role of an effective Palestinian Authority in achieving peace and Mr Lammy reaffirmed support for Mr Mustafa’s government and its programme of reform, the statement added.

On Monday morning, Mr Lammy met Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

"It’s important that, whilst we are in a war, that war is conducted according to international humanitarian law," Mr Lammy said ahead of the meeting.

"Of course I will be pressing Israeli leaders on that subject over the coming days.”

The foreign secretary also expressed frustration over a lack of British aid trucks entering Gaza “after months and months of asking", echoing long-running complaints from aid agencies about deliveries being blocked or delayed by complex inspections imposed by the Israeli military.

He said the humanitarian situation in Gaza was "appalling" and that the UK would be providing an additional £5.5m to medical charity UK-Med to fund its work in the territory.

After the meeting, Mr Herzog said they discussed "the supreme mission of returning the hostages home to their families".

"The foreign secretary made clear that his country will continue to work and demand for the release of all the hostages," he said.

Mr Herzog said he introduced Mr Lammy to the family of Tamir Adar, who was killed on 7 October and whose body was taken into Gaza, and whose grandmother Yaffa was taken hostage and released as part of the previous deals.

He added: "The bonds between the British and Israeli peoples are as strong and robust as they are historic and impactful - especially now, in facing the challenges ahead of us."

The Labour Party has recently faced a backlash from some Muslim voters over its response to the conflict, which many consider insufficiently critical of Israel.

The new government now faces decisions on several key issues, including whether to limit or stop weapons sales to Israel over the loss of civilian life.

Asked about the sales, Mr Lammy said he would "look at the assessment and the legal considerations".

"That process has begun and I hope to report to Parliament as soon as I possibly can," he added.

He also said he would make a statement about the future of UK funding to the UNRWA - the UN's main agency providing aid in Gaza - in the coming days.

The UK was among more than a dozen countries that suspended funding to the agency in January over allegations that several staff members were involved in the 7 October attack, and is one of only a few that are yet to restore it.

Labour has also pledged to recognise the Palestinian state, though has not yet said when it will do so.

Israel launched its operation in Gaza following last October's Hamas attack, which saw around 1,200 people killed and 251 taken hostage.

Mr Netanyahu has said Israel will continue its war until all the hostages have been released and Hamas has been destroyed.

At least 38,584 people have been killed in Gaza during Israel's offensive, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. A UN-backed assessment last month found there was a "high risk" of famine in the territory, with almost half a million people facing “catastrophic levels” of hunger.

The ministry also said at least 141 people had been killed in Israeli strikes since Saturday. Israel said one of those strikes, which hit a humanitarian zone, was targeting senior Hamas leader Mohammed Deif.

He is the head of Hamas's military wing the al-Qassam Brigades and is one of Israel's most wanted men. It is thought he was one of the masterminds behind the 7 October attacks.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cye0459nkgwo

[Jimbuna]

Far-right groups that block aid to Gaza receive tax-deductible donations from US and Israel

Under American pressure, Israel has pledged to deliver large quantities of humanitarian aid into the war-ravaged Gaza Strip. But at the same time, the U.S. and Israel have allowed tax-deductible donations to far-right groups that have blocked that aid from being delivered.

Three groups that have prevented humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza — including one accused of looting or destroying supplies — have raised more than $200,000 from donors in the U.S. and Israel, The Associated Press and the Israeli investigative site Shomrim have found in an examination of crowdfunding websites and other public records.

Incentivizing these donations by making them tax-deductible runs counter to America's and Israel’s stated commitments to allow unlimited food, water and medicine into Gaza, say groups working to get more aid into the territory. Donations have continued even after the U.S. imposed sanctions against one of these groups.

By not cracking down on these groups, Israel is showing a “lack of coherence” in its Gaza aid policy, said Tania Hary, executive director of Gisha, an Israeli nonprofit that has long called on Israel to improve conditions in the territory.

“If you’re on the one hand saying you’re allowing aid in but then also facilitating the actions of groups that are blocking it, can you really say you’re facilitating aid?” she said.

Israeli officials did not respond to requests for comment. The U.S. State Department said it is committed to ensuring the delivery of aid, but had no comment on the fundraising efforts by the far-right groups.

Israel has said repeatedly it does not restrict humanitarian aid and that the United Nations has failed to distribute thousands of truckloads of goods that have reached the territory. The U.N. and aid groups say deliveries have repeatedly been hampered by military operations, lawlessness inside Gaza and delays in Israeli inspections.

The three groups examined by AP and Shomrim have slowed the delivery of aid by blocking trucks on their way to Gaza, either by snarling traffic or simply standing in front of the main Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.

While these organizations are not the primary impediment to aid shipments, they have received tacit support from some Israeli leaders. Israel's ultranationalist minister for national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has said aid shipments to Gaza should be blocked and he supported the right of opponents to demonstrate, though he said it should not be done violently.

One of the groups, Mother’s March, has raised the equivalent of over $125,000 via Givechack, an Israeli crowdfunding site, the AP and Shomrim found. The group also raised some $13,000 via JGive, a U.S. and Israeli crowdfunding site. Donations to charitable organizations are tax-deductible in Israel and the U.S.

Mother's March does not raise the money directly. Instead, it works with an allied group called Torat Lechima that raises funds on its behalf.

Torat Lechima, whose name translates loosely as “combat doctrine,” is active in Israeli nationalist circles and works to “strengthen the Jewish identity and fighting spirit” among Israeli soldiers, according to its website. Torat Lechima continues to solicit funds for Mother's March on the JGive site in the U.S.

Until it was sanctioned last month, a third group, Tzav 9, raised over $85,000 from close to 1,500 donors in the U.S. and Israel via JGive. JGive said that donations made to Tzav 9 were frozen even before the sanctions were imposed and not delivered to the group.

All three groups, which have ties with Israel's ultranationalist far right, say Israel should not be aiding the Palestinians as long as Hamas is holding dozens of people hostage. They also claim that Hamas is stealing much of the aid, though aid groups have disputed that.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...468ecdc0&ei=16

[Jimbuna]

Israeli military to begin drafting ultra-Orthodox seminary students next week

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Israeli military will next week begin the process of drafting candidates from Israel's ultra-Orthodox community, the military said on Tuesday.

The issue is especially sensitive amid the war against Hamas in Gaza and related fighting on other fronts that have caused the worst Israeli casualties in decades.

Israelis are bound by law to serve in the military from the age of 18 for 24-32 months. Members of Israel's 21% Arab minority and ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students have largely been exempt for decades.

In June, Israel's Supreme Court ruled that the defence ministry must end that longstanding exemption for ultra-Orthodox seminary students, creating new political strains for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

An Israeli military statement said that starting Sunday "the process of issuing initial summons orders for the first call-up" ahead of the upcoming July recruitment cycle would commence.

Minor clashes erupted on Tuesday between ultra-Orthodox protesters and police as dozens blocked a main Israeli highway but were quickly dispersed.

Netanyahu's coalition includes two ultra-Orthodox parties that regard the exemptions as key to keep their constituents in religious seminaries and away from a melting-pot military that might test their conservative values.

The issue has prompted protests by ultra-Orthodox Jews, who make up 13% of Israel's 10 million population - a figure expected to reach 19% by 2035. Their refusal to serve in wars they generally support is a long festering schism in Israeli society.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...71dae4b6&ei=50

[Jimbuna]

Israel pounds central Gaza, sends tanks into north of Rafah

CAIRO (Reuters) -Israeli forces hit areas in the central Gaza Strip on Wednesday, killing at least nine Palestinians, according to health officials, while Israeli tanks carried out a limited advance further into Rafah in the south.

Over the past 24 hours, Israeli strikes have killed at least 81 Palestinians and wounded 198, the Gaza health ministry said. The ministry does not distinguish between militants and civilians in its casualty count.

In one Israeli air strike around midnight on a house in Al-Zawyda in the central Gaza Strip, eight people were killed, the health officials said.

In Rafah, where medics said two people were killed in an airstrike, tanks carried out a raid in the north of the city before pulling back, a tactic Israeli forces have used in other areas before mounting deeper incursions.

The Israeli military said troops were "continuing precise, intelligence-based operational activity in the Rafah area". It said they had eliminated what it called a terrorist cell and a launcher that had been used to fire at troops.

It said airstrikes had struck 25 targets throughout the Gaza Strip during the past day and that troops were continuing to operate in the central area, in part to dismantle structures used to observe the soldiers.

Nine months into the war, Palestinian fighters led by the Islamist Hamas group are still able to attack Israeli forces with anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs, occasionally firing barrages of rockets into Israel.

Israel's defence minister said that the military had made significant gains and the pressure was working.

"Operations in Gaza have led to the conditions necessary to achieve an agreement for the return of hostages," Defense Minister Gallant said in an overnight call with his U.S. counterpart Lloyd Austin.

Israel vowed to eradicate Hamas after its militants killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostage in an attack on Oct. 7, according to Israeli tallies.

On Tuesday, the military said it had eliminated half of the leadership of Hamas' military wing and killed or captured about 14,000 fighters since the start of the war, around half the fighting force estimated by the Israeli military.

At least 38,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's retaliatory offensive since then, Gaza health authorities say. Israel says 326 of its soldiers have been killed in Gaza.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...b5991ed1&ei=21

[Jimbuna]

Hamas and other groups committed war crimes on 7 October, says HRW

Hamas and at least four other Palestinian armed groups committed numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity against civilians during the 7 October attack on southern Israel, the campaign group Human Rights Watch says.

A new report accuses the hundreds of gunmen who breached the Gaza border fence of violations including deliberate and indiscriminate attacks on civilians, wilful killing of persons in custody, sexual and gender-based violence, hostage-taking, mutilation of bodies and looting.

It also found the killing of civilians and hostage-taking were “central aims of the planned attack” and not an “afterthought”.

Hamas angrily rejected what it called HRW’s “lies” and demanded an apology.

About 1,200 Israelis and foreigners - mostly civilians - were killed and 251 others were taken as hostages when 26 Israeli communities and towns, as well as number of military bases, two music festivals and a beach party were attacked nine months ago.

Israel responded by launching a military campaign in Gaza with the aims of destroying Hamas and freeing the hostages.

More than 38,790 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

HRW's report does not cover alleged violations of the laws of war by Israeli forces and Palestinian groups in the conflict that was triggered by the 7 October attack.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1vdz75g6dvo

[Skybird]

Huthi drone strikes Tel Aviv.

[Jimbuna]

They'll keep pushing until Israel has had enough and retaliates perhaps ten fold.

[Jimbuna]

Israeli man killed in drone attack on Tel Aviv

A man has been killed and at least eight people injured in a drone attack in central Tel Aviv, Israel.

A block of flats was hit by what an Israeli military official said was an Iranian-made unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which had been modified to fly long distance.

The Houthi movement in Yemen - over 1,000 miles (1,600km) away - said it carried out the attack, and vowed to stage more. Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said an initial investigation pointed to the attack having originated in Yemen.

If the Houthis are responsible, it would mark a significant escalation in their attacks on Israel which began in the wake of Israel's military campaign in Gaza, which was triggered by the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October.

Until now, almost all Houthi missiles and drones fired towards Israel have been intercepted. None are known to have reached Tel Aviv.

The Israeli military official said its defence forces had detected the incoming drone but had not tried to shoot it down because of "human error".

Dramatic video filmed from the beach, said to capture the moment of the attack, appears to show a drone flying in over the Mediterranean Sea and buzzing loudly. It flies over buildings before disappearing, followed by a huge explosion moments later.

Pictures from the scene of the blast, near a branch of the US embassy, show a building with its windows blown out, and damaged cars and debris on the street below.

Local media named the man who was killed as Yevgeny Ferder, 50, who moved to Israel from Belarus two years ago.

The attack happened at 03:12 (00:12 GMT) and the explosion was heard for several miles around.

The Times of Israel news site quoted the Israeli Air Force as saying the incident "shouldn't have happened", and that it took full responsibility for the failure to prevent it.

Senior military correspondent for the Jerusalem Post, Yonah Jeremy Bob, said "The Israeli defense establishment is in a state of complete shock" over the attack.

"Though the writing was on the wall, no one saw it coming from a couple thousand kilometers away," he wrote.

Following the incident, Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant held a security briefing with the country's security chiefs.

"The defense establishment is working to reinforce all defense mechanisms and will bring to justice anyone who harms the State of Israel,” Mr Gallant said afterwards.

He hinted at possible retaliation, saying they had discussed "intelligence and operational activities required against those responsible for the attack”.

A military spokesman for the Houthis, Yahya Saree, said the strike had been conducted with a new drone capable of bypassing interception systems.

He declared Tel Aviv, Israel's commercial capital, "an unsafe area," and said it "will be a primary target within the range of our weapons".

The Israeli military said it was increasing air patrols, while Tel Aviv's mayor said the city was on high alert, local media reported.

Alon, a local resident, told Haaretz newspaper that when the blast happened "the whole building shook."

"My neighbours' windows shattered, so I was sure something had hit the building. It was only when I went outside that I realised that several buildings had been damaged."

The incident also came after the Israeli military confirmed it had killed a senior commander of the Hezbollah militia in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah and Israel have traded fire across the border since Hezbollah launched rockets a day after Israel began its military offensive on Gaza in response to Hamas's deadly attack on Israel.

Hezbollah and the Houthis, which are both backed by Iran, say they are acting in solidarity with the Palestinians.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c06kdk6z08lo

[Dargo]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

They'll keep pushing until Israel has had enough and retaliates perhaps ten fold.

And… They did.

Israel strikes Houthi targets in Yemen a day after drone attack on Tel Aviv

The Israeli military said on Saturday that it had struck targets in the Houthi-controlled regions of Yemen, close to the port city of Hodeidah, following the months-long series of Houthi attacks on Israeli targets. Those included a drone assault on Tel Aviv Friday that killed an Israeli citizen and injured 10 others.

In what it called an operational update posted on social media, the Israel Defense Forces said the locations bombed by its fighter jets in Yemen had been military targets. A spokesperson for the Houthis posted on social media that the Israeli jets had attacked civilian facilities, oil tanks and the electrical power station in the city of Hodeidah, in an effort to pressure the group to end its support for Gaza — something the spokesperson, who goes by the online handle @abdulsalamsalah, said was a "dream that will not come true." https://www.npr.org/2024/07/20/nx-s1...-targets-yemen

[Skybird]

Full war with Hezbollah in the north and the Houthis in the south. Lovely scenario. They should send a message to those who arm both: Iran. Without massive US support, logistics, I think Israal cannot win this.



Interesting world map we have. Overstretched Western lines everywhere.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Full war with Hezbollah in the north and the Houthis in the south. Lovely scenario. They should send a message to those who arm both: Iran. Without massive US support, logistics, I think Israal cannot win this.



Interesting world map we have. Overstretched Western lines everywhere.

Yes, Iran is the key to it all.

[Reece]

Nuke em!

[Jimbuna]

What and give Putin more encouragement to use his nukes in Ukraine?

[Reece]

Nuke them too!!

[Jimbuna]

Okay I'll get right on it