•  South African Hague ICJ Genocide Case Against Israel
• Daily death toll in Gaza higher than any other major 21st century conflict, says Oxfam
• 
• Lord Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild

  British investment banker. Both the presidents of Israel and the USA both act under instructions of Jacob Rothschild

  "The fourth Baron de Rothschild, Lord Jacob Rothschild of Great Britain, has been called the 21st Century's "King of Israel." He and other Rothschilds preside over the planet's greatest banking cartel, and Wall Street firms Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citibank, and others bow to Rothschild dictates. Politicians in world capitals, Washington, D.C., London, Paris, and Tokyo grovel before their awesome power...".. James Kleck Senior INLTV News Investigator

  "....phone calls to Joe Biden US President and  Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel from Lord Jacob Rothschild, Israel's Genocide on the Palestinian People in Gaza and the West Bank would immediately stop.. unfortunately the protesters against the Israel Gaza War are not publicly demanding the boss of bosses Lord Jacob Rothschild, to order the stopping of Israel's Genocide on the Palestinian People in Gaza and the West Bank ... the public rhetoric between Joe Biden US President and  Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel  about the USA calling for a two state solution is just shadow boxing....no prime minster of the USA or Israel is appointed without the approval of Lord Jacob Rothschild .... see historical INLNews article 'Obama Rothschild's Choice' .. see "... James Kleck Senior INLTV News Investigator
   
  
  "The man Rothschild chooses that man will become President of the United States," Texe Marrs was told by an insider. So, who was Rothschild's Choice in 2008? The answer is obvious: Barack Hussein Obama!
  
  The fourth Baron de Rothschild, Lord Jacob Rothschild of Great Britain, has been called the 21st Century's "King of Israel." He and other Rothschilds preside over the planet's greatest banking cartel, and Wall Street firms Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citibank, and others bow to Rothschild dictates. Politicians in world capitals, Washington, D.C., London, Paris, and Tokyo grovel before their awesome power.
  
  Rothschild's Choice documents the astonishing rise of a young, half blood "Prince" of Jerusalem, a Communist adept named Barack Obama who won Rothschilds' favor and was rewarded for his slavish devotion to their sinister Agenda.
  
  Here are the revelations that dissolve the mystery of Obama's meteoric, virtually unheralded rise to global prominence and his elevation to the highest seat of superpower government the White House.

WATCH | Why is SA taking Israel to the International Court of ...

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... International Court of Justice in The Hague for alleged crimes against ... (ICJ) will hear South Africa's genocide case against Israel. In ...

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'Israel has a genocidal intent,' argues South Africa at The Hague

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South Africa told judges at the International Court of Justice in The Hague that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, and pleaded with the ...

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Awaiting Canada's position on ICJ genocide case

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 South Africa's genocide case against Israel has 'global support,' finance minister says

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/15/south-africas-genocide-case-against-israel-has-global-support-finance-minister-says.html 

JAN 15 2024 Elliot Smith@ELLIOTSMITHCNBC

How Israel Secretly Propped Up Hamas - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/10/world/middleeast/israel-qatar-money-prop-up-hamas.html 

Israeli Plan That Propped Up Hamas

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gambled that a strong Hamas (but not too strong) would keep the peace and reduce pressure for a Palestinian state.

Hamas fighters in 2021 in Gaza City.

A house in Kibbutz Be’eri, in Israel, that was overrun by Hamas fighters on Oct. 7.Credit...Avishag Shaar-Yashuv for The New York Times

By Mark Mazzetti and Ronen Bergman

Reporting from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem

Dec. 10, 2023 Leer en español

 

Just weeks before Hamas launched the deadly Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, the head of Mossad arrived in Doha, Qatar, for a meeting with Qatari officials.

For years, the Qatari government had been sending millions of dollars a month into the Gaza Strip — money that helped prop up the Hamas government there. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel not only tolerated those payments, he had encouraged them.

During his meetings in September with the Qatari officials, according to several people familiar with the secret discussions, the Mossad chief, David Barnea, was asked a question that had not been on the agenda: Did Israel want the payments to continue?

Mr. Netanyahu’s government had recently decided to continue the policy, so Mr. Barnea said yes. The Israeli government still welcomed the money from Doha.

Allowing the payments — billions of dollars over roughly a decade — was a gamble by Mr. Netanyahu that a steady flow of money would maintain peace in Gaza, the eventual launching point of the Oct. 7 attacks, and keep Hamas focused on governing, not fighting.

The Qatari payments, while ostensibly a secret, have been widely known and discussed in the Israeli news media for years. Mr. Netanyahu’s critics disparage them as part of a strategy of “buying quiet,” and the policy is in the middle of a ruthless reassessment following the attacks. Mr. Netanyahu has lashed back at that criticism, calling the suggestion that he tried to empower Hamas “ridiculous.”

In interviews with more than two dozen current and former Israeli, American and Qatari officials, and officials from other Middle Eastern governments, The New York Times unearthed new details about the origins of the policy, the controversies that erupted inside the Israeli government and the lengths that Mr. Netanyahu went to in order to shield the Qataris from criticism and keep the money flowing.

The payments were part of a string of decisions by Israeli political leaders, military officers and intelligence officials — all based on the fundamentally flawed assessment that Hamas was neither interested in nor capable of a large-scale attack. The Times has previously reported on intelligence failures and other faulty assumptions that preceded the attacks. 

Even as the Israeli military obtained battle plans for a Hamas invasion and analysts observed significant terrorism exercises just over the border in Gaza, the payments continued. For years, Israeli intelligence officers even escorted a Qatari official into Gaza, where he doled out money from suitcases filled with millions of dollars.

The money from Qatar had humanitarian goals like paying government salaries in Gaza and buying fuel to keep a power plant running. But Israeli intelligence officials now believe that the money had a role in the success of the Oct. 7 attacks, if only because the donations allowed Hamas to divert some of its own budget toward military operations. Separately, Israeli intelligence has long assessed that Qatar uses other channels to secretly fund Hamas’ military wing, an accusation that Qatar’s government has denied.

“Any attempt to cast a shadow of uncertainty about the civilian and humanitarian nature of Qatar’s contributions and their positive impact is baseless,” a Qatari official said in a statement.

Multiple Israeli governments enabled money to go to Gaza for humanitarian reasons, not to strengthen Hamas, an official in Mr. Netanyahu’s office said in a statement. He added: “Prime Minister Netanyahu acted to weaken Hamas significantly. He led three powerful military operations against Hamas which killed thousands of terrorists and senior Hamas commanders.”

Hamas has always publicly stated its commitment to eliminating the state of Israel. But each payout was a testament to the Israeli government’s view that Hamas was a low-level nuisance, and even a political asset.

As far back as December 2012, Mr. Netanyahu told the prominent Israeli journalist Dan Margalit that it was important to keep Hamas strong, as a counterweight to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. Mr. Margalit, in an interview, said that Mr. Netanyahu told him that having two strong rivals, including Hamas, would lessen pressure on him to negotiate toward a Palestinian state.

The official in the prime minister’s office said Mr. Netanyahu never made this statement. But the prime minister would articulate this idea to others over the years.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s critics disparage the payments as “buying quiet.”

While Israeli military and intelligence leaders have acknowledged failings leading up to the Hamas attack, Mr. Netanyahu has refused to address such questions. And with a war waging in Gaza, a political reckoning for the man who has served as prime minister for 13 of the last 15 years, is, for the moment, on hold.

But Mr. Netanyahu’s critics say that his approach to Hamas had, at its core, a cynical political agenda: to keep Gaza quiet as a means of staying in office without addressing the threat of Hamas or simmering Palestinian discontent.

“The conception of Netanyahu over a decade and a half was that if we buy quiet and pretend the problem isn’t there, we can wait it out and it will fade away,” said Eyal Hulata, Israel’s national security adviser from July 2021 until the beginning of this year.

Seeking Equilibrium

Mr. Netanyahu and his security aides slowly began reconsidering their strategy toward the Gaza Strip after several bloody and inconclusive military conflicts there against Hamas. 

“Everyone was sick and tired of Gaza,” said Zohar Palti, a former director of intelligence for Mossad. “We all said, ‘Let’s forget about Gaza,’ because we knew it was a deadlock.”

After one of the conflicts, in 2014, Mr. Netanyahu charted a new course — emphasizing a strategy of trying to “contain” Hamas while Israel focused on Iran’s nuclear program and its proxy armies like Hezbollah.

This strategy was buttressed by repeated intelligence assessments that Hamas was neither interested in nor capable of launching a significant attack inside Israel.

Destruction in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, in 2014.Credit...Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times

Qatar, during this period, became a key financier for reconstruction and government operations in Gaza. One of the world’s wealthiest nations, Qatar has long championed the Palestinian cause and, of all its neighbors, has cultivated the closest ties to Hamas. These relationships have proved valuable in recent weeks as Qatari officials have helped negotiate for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza.

Qatar’s work in Gaza during this period was blessed by the Israeli government. And Mr. Netanyahu even lobbied Washington on Qatar’s behalf. In 2017, as Republicans pushed to impose financial sanctions on Qatar over its support for Hamas, he dispatched senior defense officials to Washington. The Israelis told American lawmakers that Qatar had played a positive role in the Gaza Strip, according to three people familiar with the trip.

Yossi Kuperwasser, a former head of research for Israel’s military intelligence, said that some officials saw the benefits of maintaining an “equilibrium” in the Gaza Strip. “The logic of Israel was that Hamas should be strong enough to rule Gaza,” he said, “but weak enough to be deterred by Israel.”

The administrations of three American presidents — Barack Obama, Donald J. Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr. — broadly supported having the Qataris playing a direct role in funding Gaza operations.

But not everyone was on board.

Avigdor Lieberman, months after becoming defense minister in 2016, wrote a secret memo to Mr. Netanyahu and the Israeli military chief of staff. He said Hamas was slowly building its military abilities to attack Israel, and he argued that Israel should strike first.

Avigdor Lieberman, second from left, pictured in 2019, raised concerns that Hamas was slowly building its military abilities to attack Israel.Credit...Dan Balilty for The New York Times

Israel’s goal is “to ensure that the next confrontation between Israel and Hamas will be the final showdown,” he wrote in the memo, dated Dec. 21, 2016, a copy of which was reviewed by The Times. A pre-emptive strike, he said, could remove most of the “leadership of the military wing of Hamas.”

Mr. Netanyahu rejected the plan, preferring containment to confrontation.

Hamas as ‘an Asset’

Among the team of Mossad agents that tracked terrorism financing, some came to believe that — even beyond the money from Qatar — Mr. Netanyahu was not very concerned about stopping money going to Hamas.

Uzi Shaya, for example, made several trips to China to try to shut down what Israeli intelligence had assessed was a money-laundering operation for Hamas run through the Bank of China.

After his retirement, he was called to testify against the Bank of China in an American lawsuit brought by the family of a victim of a Hamas terrorist attack.

At first, the head of Mossad encouraged him to testify, saying it could increase financial pressure on Hamas, Mr. Shaya recalled in a recent interview.

Then, the Chinese offered Mr. Netanyahu a state visit. Suddenly, Mr. Shaya recalled, he got different orders from his former bosses: He was not to testify.

Mr. Netanyahu visited Beijing in May 2013, part of an effort to strengthen economic and diplomatic ties between Israel and China. Mr. Shaya said he would have liked to have testified.

“Unfortunately,” he said, “there were other considerations.”

While the reasons for the decision were never confirmed, the change in tack left him suspicious. Especially because politicians at times talked openly about the value of a strong Hamas.

Shlomo Brom, a retired general and former deputy to Israel’s national security adviser, said an empowered Hamas helped Mr. Netanyahu avoid negotiating over a Palestinian state.

 

 

The funds were intended to pay salaries and other expenses, but one senior Western diplomat who was based in Israel until last year said that Western governments had long assessed that Hamas was skimming from the cash disbursements.

“Money is fungible,” said Chip Usher, a senior Middle East analyst at the C.I.A. until his retirement this year. “Anything that Hamas didn’t have to use out of its own budget freed up money for other things.”

Naftali Bennett, who was Israel’s education minister in 2018 when the payments began and later became the defense minister, was among members of Mr. Netanyahu’s government who criticized the payments. He called them “protection money.”

And yet, when Mr. Bennett began his one-year stint as prime minister in June 2021, he continued the policy. By then, Qatar was spending roughly $30 million a month in Gaza.

Mr. Bennett and his aides, though, decided that the cash disbursements were a monthly embarrassment for his government. During meetings with security officials, Mr. Barnea, the Mossad chief, expressed opposition to continuing the payments — certain that some of the money was being diverted to Hamas’s military activities.

Naftali Bennett, who was Israel’s education minister in 2018 when the payments began and later became the defense minister, was among members of Mr. Netanyahu’s government who criticized the payments. He called them “protection money.”

And yet, when Mr. Bennett began his one-year stint as prime minister in June 2021, he continued the policy. By then, Qatar was spending roughly $30 million a month in Gaza.

Mr. Bennett and his aides, though, decided that the cash disbursements were a monthly embarrassment for his government. During meetings with security officials, Mr. Barnea, the Mossad chief, expressed opposition to continuing the payments — certain that some of the money was being diverted to Hamas’s military activities.

For their part, Qatari officials wanted a more stable, reliable way to get money to Gaza for the long-term.

All sides reached a compromise: United Nations agencies would distribute the Qatari money rather than Mr. Emadi. Some of the money went directly to buy fuel for the power plant in Gaza.

Mr. Hulata, the national security adviser to Mr. Bennett, recalls the tension: Israel was blessing these Qatari payments, even as Mossad intelligence assessments concluded that Qatar was using other channels to secretly finance Hamas’s military arm.

It was hard to stop these military payments, he said, when Israel had become so reliant on Qatar.

Yossi Cohen, who managed the Qatari file for many years as the Mossad chief, came to question Israel’s policy toward the Gaza money. During his final year running the spy service, he believed there was little oversight over where the money was going.

In June 2021, Mr. Cohen gave his first public speech after retiring from the spy service. He said that the Qatari money to the Gaza Strip had gotten “out of control.”

 

Maria Abi-Habib and Justin Scheck contributed reporting from London, and Adam Sella from Tel Aviv.

Mark Mazzetti is an investigative reporter based in Washington, D.C., focusing on national security, intelligence, and foreign affairs. He has written a book about the C.I.A. More about Mark Mazzetti

Ronen Bergman is a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, based in Tel Aviv. His latest book is “Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations,” published by Random House. More about Ronen Bergman

Israel-Hamas War: Live Updates

Jan. 16, 2024, Updated

• The U.S. conducted strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen for the third time in a week.
• There is ‘no hope’ in Gaza without a cease-fire, the head of the Palestinian mission to Britain says.
• Qatar says it has brokered a deal between Israel and Hamas to allow medicine to reach hostages.

Israel Knew Hamas’s Money Source Years Before Oct. 7 Attacks - The New York Times

Israel Knew Hamas’s Attack Plan Over a Year Ago - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Israeli soldiers were deployed in an area where civilians were killed in the southern city of Sderot on Oct. 7.

Vehicles caught fire in Ashkelon, Israel, as rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7.

Israel Knew Hamas’s Attack Plan Over a Year Ago - The New York Times -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMB8AfQh0UY&authuser=0

A truck reportedly transported a captured Israeli woman in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Oct. 7

In September 2016, the defense minister’s office compiled a top-secret memorandum based on a much earlier iteration of a Hamas attack plan. The memorandum, which was signed by the defense minister at the time, Avigdor Lieberman, said that an invasion and hostage-taking would “lead to severe damage to the consciousness and morale of the citizens of Israel.”

Israel Knew Hamas’s Attack Plan More Than a Year Ago

A blueprint reviewed by The Times laid out the attack in detail. Israeli officials dismissed it as aspirational and ignored specific warnings.

 

By Ronen Bergman and Adam Goldman Reporting from Tel Aviv Dec. 2, 2023

Israeli officials obtained Hamas’s battle plan for the Oct. 7 terrorist attack more than a year before it happened, documents, emails and interviews show. But Israeli military and intelligence officials dismissed the plan as aspirational, considering it too difficult for Hamas to carry out.

 

The approximately 40-page document, which the Israeli authorities code-named “Jericho Wall,” outlined, point by point, exactly the kind of devastating invasion that led to the deaths of about 1,200 people.

The Jericho Wall document, named for the ancient fortifications in the modern-day West Bank, was even more explicit. It detailed rocket attacks to distract Israeli soldiers and send them hurrying into bunkers, and drones to disable the elaborate security measures along the border fence separating Israel and Gaza.

Hamas fighters would then break through 60 points in the wall, storming across the border into Israel. The document begins with a quote from the Quran: “Surprise them through the gate. If you do, you will certainly prevail.”

The same phrase has been widely used by Hamas in its videos and statements since Oct. 7.

The translated document, which was reviewed by The New York Times, did not set a date for the attack, but described a methodical assault designed to overwhelm the fortifications around the Gaza Strip, take over Israeli cities and storm key military bases, including a division headquarters.

Hamas followed the blueprint with shocking precision. The document called for a barrage of rockets at the outset of the attack, drones to knock out the security cameras and automated machine guns along the border, and gunmen to pour into Israel en masse in paragliders, on motorcycles and on foot — all of which happened on Oct. 7.

The plan also included details about the location and size of Israeli military forces, communication hubs and other sensitive information, raising questions about how Hamas gathered its intelligence and whether there were leaks inside the Israeli security establishment.

The document circulated widely among Israeli military and intelligence leaders, but experts determined that an attack of that scale and ambition was beyond Hamas’s capabilities, according to documents and officials. It is unclear whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or other top political leaders saw the document, as well.

Last year, shortly after the document was obtained, officials in the Israeli military’s Gaza division, which is responsible for defending the border with Gaza, said that Hamas’s intentions were unclear.

“It is not yet possible to determine whether the plan has been fully accepted and how it will be manifested,” read a military assessment reviewed by The Times.

Then, in July, just three months before the attacks, a veteran analyst with Unit 8200, Israel’s signals intelligence agency, warned that Hamas had conducted an intense, daylong training exercise that appeared similar to what was outlined in the blueprint.

But a colonel in the Gaza division brushed off her concerns, according to encrypted emails viewed by The Times.

“I utterly refute that the scenario is imaginary,” the analyst wrote in the email exchanges. The Hamas training exercise, she said, fully matched “the content of Jericho Wall.”

“It is a plan designed to start a war,” she added. “It’s not just a raid on a village.”

Officials privately concede that, had the military taken these warnings seriously and redirected significant reinforcements to the south, where Hamas attacked, Israel could have blunted the attacks or possibly even prevented them.

Instead, the Israeli military was unprepared as terrorists streamed out of the Gaza Strip. It was the deadliest day in Israel’s history.

Israeli security officials have already acknowledged that they failed to protect the country, and the government is expected to assemble a commission to study the events leading up to the attacks. The Jericho Wall document lays bare a yearslong cascade of missteps that culminated in what officials now regard as the worst Israeli intelligence failure since the surprise attack that led to the Arab-Israeli war of 1973.

Underpinning all these failures was a single, fatally inaccurate belief that Hamas lacked the capability to attack and would not dare to do so. That belief was so ingrained in the Israeli government, officials said, that they disregarded growing evidence to the contrary.

The Israeli military and the Israeli Security Agency, which is in charge of counterterrorism in Gaza, declined to comment.

Officials would not say how they obtained the Jericho Wall document, but it was among several versions of attack plans collected over the years. A 2016 Defense Ministry memorandum viewed by The Times, for example, says, “Hamas intends to move the next confrontation into Israeli territory.”

Such an attack would most likely involve hostage-taking and “occupying an Israeli community (and perhaps even a number of communities),” the memo reads.

 The Jericho Wall document, named for the ancient fortifications in the modern-day West Bank, was even more explicit. It detailed rocket attacks to distract Israeli soldiers and send them hurrying into bunkers, and drones to disable the elaborate security measures along the border fence separating Israel and Gaza.

Hamas fighters would then break through 60 points in the wall, storming across the border into Israel. The document begins with a quote from the Quran: “Surprise them through the gate. If you do, you will certainly prevail.”

The same phrase has been widely used by Hamas in its videos and statements since Oct. 7.

One of the most important objectives outlined in the document was to overrun the Israeli military base in Re’im, which is home to the Gaza division responsible for protecting the region. Other bases that fell under the division’s command were also listed.

Hamas carried out that objective on Oct. 7, rampaging through Re’im and overrunning parts of the base.

The audacity of the blueprint, officials said, made it easy to underestimate. All militaries write plans that they never use, and Israeli officials assessed that, even if Hamas invaded, it might muster a force of a few dozen, not the hundreds who ultimately attacked.

Israel had also misread Hamas’s actions. The group had negotiated for permits to allow Palestinians to work in Israel, which Israeli officials took as a sign that Hamas was not looking for a war.

But Hamas had been drafting attack plans for many years, and Israeli officials had gotten hold of previous iterations of them. What could have been an intelligence coup turned into one of the worst miscalculations in Israel’s 75-year history.

In September 2016, the defense minister’s office compiled a top-secret memorandum based on a much earlier iteration of a Hamas attack plan. The memorandum, which was signed by the defense minister at the time, Avigdor Lieberman, said that an invasion and hostage-taking would “lead to severe damage to the consciousness and morale of the citizens of Israel.”

The memo, which was viewed by The Times, said that Hamas had purchased sophisticated weapons, GPS jammers and drones. It also said that Hamas had increased its fighting force to 27,000 people — having added 6,000 to its ranks in a two-year period. Hamas had hoped to reach 40,000 by 2020, the memo determined.

Last year, after Israel obtained the Jericho Wall document, the military’s Gaza division drafted its own intelligence assessment of this latest invasion plan.

 

Conflict in Israel and Gaza, in Photos

Conflict in Israel and Gaza, in Photos

Conflict in Israel and Gaza, in Photos - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Israel-Hamas War: Live Updates

• Israel carried out multiple raids on the West Bank, making more arrests.
• At the funeral for a Hamas leader assassinated in Beirut, many vow revenge.
• Frustration grows for tens of thousands of Israelis relocated from the Lebanese border.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/16/world/europe/israel-hamas-money-finance-turkey-intelligence-attacks.html 

Israel Knew Hamas’s Money Source Years Before Oct. 7 Attacks - The New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/16/world/europe/israel-hamas-money-finance-turkey-intelligence-attacks.html 

Members of the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, next to a model of an Ababil drone in 2022 during a rally in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

In the years that followed the 2018 discovery, Hamas’s money network burrowed deeper into the mainstream financial system, records show.

Yossi Cohen in 2019 in Tel Aviv. As chief of Mossad in 2016, he dismantled Harpoon.

In a photograph provided by state media, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, right, is seen meeting with Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s political chief, in 2020 in Istanbul.

Tamir Pardo, a former head of Mossad, in September in Herzliya, Israel. The Harpoon Task Force, he said, was “one of the most important tools the Mossad had.”

Running to a reinforced concrete shelter in Ashkelon, Israel, moments after a rocket siren was sounded on Oct. 7

Israel Found the Hamas Money Machine Years Ago. Nobody Turned It Off.

Agents worried as millions poured in. Hamas bought weapons and plotted an attack. The authorities now say the money helped lay the groundwork for the Oct. 7 assault on Israel.

Saleh al-Arouri Senior Hamas official killed in Israel Drone Strike Musharafieh Beirut, Lebanon

By Jo Becker and Justin Scheck

Jo Becker reported from Tel Aviv, and Justin Scheck from Istanbul and Ankara, Turkey. Dec. 28, 2023

Israeli security officials scored a major intelligence coup in 2018: secret documents that laid out, in intricate detail, what amounted to a private equity fund that Hamas used to finance its operations.

The ledgers, pilfered from the computer of a senior Hamas official, listed assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Hamas controlled mining, chicken farming and road building companies in Sudan, twin skyscrapers in the United Arab Emirates, a property developer in Algeria, and a real estate firm listed on the Turkish stock exchange.

The documents, which The New York Times reviewed, were a potential road map for choking off Hamas’s money and thwarting its plans. The agents who obtained the records shared them inside their own government and in Washington.

Nothing happened.

For years, none of the companies named in the ledgers faced sanctions from the United States or Israel. Nobody publicly called out the companies or pressured Turkey, the hub of the financial network, to shut it down.

A Times investigation found that both senior Israeli and American officials failed to prioritize financial intelligence — which they had in hand — showing that tens of millions of dollars flowed from the companies to Hamas at the exact moment that it was buying new weapons and preparing an attack.

That money, American and Israeli officials now say, helped Hamas build up its military infrastructure and helped lay the groundwork for the Oct. 7 attacks.

“Everyone is talking about failures of intelligence on Oct. 7, but no one is talking about the failure to stop the money,” said Udi Levy, a former chief of Mossad’s economic warfare division. “It’s the money — the money — that allowed this.”

At its peak, Israeli and American officials now say, the portfolio had a value of roughly half a billion dollars.

Even after the Treasury Department finally levied sanctions against the network in 2022, records show, Hamas-linked figures were able to obtain millions of dollars by selling shares in a blacklisted company. The Treasury Department now fears that such money flows will allow Hamas to finance its continuing war with Israel and to rebuild when it is over.

“It’s something we are deeply worried about and expect to see given the financial stress Hamas is under,” said Brian Nelson, the Treasury Department’s under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence. “What we are trying to do is disrupt that.”

That was what Israel’s terrorism-finance investigators hoped to do with their 2018 discovery. But at the top echelons of the Israeli and American governments, officials focused on putting together a series of financial sanctions against Iran. Neither country prioritized Hamas.

Israeli leaders believed that Hamas was more interested in governing than fighting. By the time the agents discovered the ledgers in 2018, the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was encouraging the government of Qatar to deliver millions of dollars to the Gaza Strip. He gambled that the money would buy stability and peace.

Mr. Levy recalled briefing Mr. Netanyahu personally in 2015 about the Hamas portfolio.

“I can tell you for sure that I talked to him about this,” Mr. Levy said. “But he didn’t care that much about it.”

Mr. Netanyahu’s Mossad chief shut down Mr. Levy’s team, Task Force Harpoon, that focused on disrupting the money flowing to groups including Hamas.

Former Harpoon agents grew so frustrated with the inaction that they uploaded some documents to Facebook, hoping that companies and investors would find them and stop doing business with Hamas-linked companies.

In the years that followed the 2018 discovery, Hamas’s money network burrowed deeper into the mainstream financial system, records show.

The Turkish company at the heart of the operation had such a sheen of legitimacy that major American and European banks managed shares on behalf of clients. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints invested tens of thousands of dollars before the company was placed under sanction.

The Times reviewed previously undisclosed intelligence documents and corporate records and interviewed dozens of current officials from the United States, Israel, Turkey and Hamas’s financial network. Some spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

Israeli intelligence and security agencies have apologized for the failings that led up to the Oct. 7 attacks.

Mr. Netanyahu has acknowledged that his government failed to protect its people and said that he would face, and answer, tough questions after the war. He has denied, though, that he took his eye off Hamas. But he declined to answer questions from The Times about the ledgers or the hunt for Hamas’s money.

2015: Task Force Harpoon

Israeli security and intelligence officials, working from a secure compound outside Tel Aviv, spent years tracking Hamas’s money. By 2015, they were on to what they called Hamas’s “secret investment portfolio.”

Terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State often use front companies to launder money. But here, Israeli agents saw something different, more ambitious: a multinational network of real businesses churning out real profits.

On paper, they looked like unrelated companies. But over and over, the Israelis said they identified the same Hamas-linked figures as shareholders, executives and board members.

There were people like Hisham Qafisheh, a white-goateed Jordanian who studied in Saudi Arabia and had a knack for finding political support. One of his companies won a $500 million highway contract in Sudan.

Hisham Qafisheh

Then there was Amer Al-Shawa, a Turkish man of Palestinian descent who studied electrical engineering in Ohio and more recently spent five months under interrogation in an Emirati jail on suspicion of funding Hamas.

At the top was Ahmed Odeh, a heavyset Jordanian businessman with years of experience in Saudi Arabia. The Israelis learned — and the Americans now say much of this publicly — that Hamas’s governing Shura Council had given Mr. Odeh seed money to build and manage a portfolio of companies.

Hamas, the de facto governing body of Gaza, relied principally on Iran to fund its military wing. But Hamas wanted its own funding stream, too.

The Israeli security services operated a terrorism-finance investigative team at the time called Task Force Harpoon. It put people from across counterterrorism — spies, soldiers, police officers, accountants, lawyers — under the same umbrella and gave them a direct report to the prime minister. The task force even had an economic warfare unit within the Mossad intelligence agency that could covertly act on the intelligence it had gathered.

“We didn’t have any rivalries,” Tamir Pardo, the Mossad chief at the time, said in an interview. “No one got credit for any one operation. It just worked.”

Harpoon, he said, was “one of the most important tools the Mossad had.” It churned out intelligence to financial regulators, law enforcement agencies, politicians and allies in Washington, helping Israel win financial sanctions targeting Iran and its proxy, Hezbollah.

Mr. Levy, who ran Harpoon and its dedicated economic warfare unit, recalled the first time he heard about Hamas’s portfolio.

Amer Al-Shawa

“One of the guys on my team, a Mossad guy, showed it to me,” Mr. Levy said. “What we understood then was that they had these companies to make a little bit of money and to use them as a legal platform to transfer money from place to place.” 

Back then, the consensus among Israeli officials was that Iran was the bigger threat. It had nuclear ambitions and armed both Hamas and the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon. So the bulk of the task force’s attention remained focused there.

Still, Mr. Levy said the discovery was enough of a “red flag” that he told Mr. Netanyahu about it.

2016: Shut Down

A 2014 war between Israel and Hamas had left Hamas’s fortifications in ruins and its arsenal depleted.

Hamas, though, was able to rebuild. In 2016, Israeli intelligence officials noted that the group was obtaining GPS jammers, drones and precision weapons, according to a military document reviewed by The Times.

Hamas had added about 6,000 operatives to its ranks since the war ended, and the military had learned that Hamas was developing plans to storm Israeli communities and take hostages.

By 2016, Mr. Netanyahu’s government had begun pursuing a strategy to contain Hamas by allowing the Qataris to send money to Gaza. Mr. Netanyahu says that money was humanitarian aid. Privately, he told others that stabilizing Hamas would lessen pressure on him to negotiate toward a Palestinian state.

That same year, the new Mossad chief, Yossi Cohen, dismantled Harpoon as part of an agency reorganization, according to Mr. Levy and others.

Mr. Levy left government that year. A new group of intelligence agents and specialists from a few other agencies kept chasing the money, only without the organizational structure and direct access to senior policymakers.

This new group soon made another alarming discovery.

Up until that point, members of the team told The Times, they had estimated that Hamas was taking about $10 million to $15 million annually from their companies’ profits.

Then they learned, based on sources and other intelligence, that Hamas had sold off some of the secret portfolio’s assets, raising more than $75 million. That money, according to an Israeli intelligence assessment, was sent to Gaza, where it was used to rebuild Hamas’s military infrastructure.

The Israeli authorities have now concluded that this influx of money not only helped Hamas prepare for the Oct. 7 attacks, but gave leaders confidence that they would have the money to rebuild afterward, according to five Israeli security officials.

Exactly how significant that money was to the Oct. 7 attacks is unknown. Israeli officials have promised an inquiry into the intelligence failures that led up to the attacks, and new details may emerge.

But what is clear is that the Israeli government took no public action against the Hamas-linked companies. Instead, it decided to build a case to get the United States government to shut the companies off from the global financial system. But that would take time, and more evidence.

2018: The Big Break

Exactly how Israeli intelligence obtained the ledgers — whether from an informant or a computer hack — remains unclear. But in 2018, the team got the proof it had been seeking.

The documents were created by Mahmoud Ghazal, a man whom the Israelis had identified as the Hamas portfolio’s bookkeeper.

The ledgers spanned 2012 to 2018 and contained entries and valuations for companies that the agents had been monitoring in Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkey and elsewhere. The records also contained familiar names, including Mr. Qafisheh and Mr. Al-Shawa.

The documents were hard evidence of what the Israelis had long suspected: Despite what public records said, Hamas was in control.

“It was a big breakthrough,” said one official involved in the investigation. “Hamas could hide behind frontmen and shareholders, but the money always talks.”

The ledgers also contained coded entries that puzzled investigators, but one document was a sort of Rosetta Stone: “QG” for instance, referred to Qitaa Ghaza, or the Gaza Strip. “D” referred to Daffa, or the West Bank. Beside each was a large dollar figure. From this, the Israelis deduced where Hamas was sending its money.

This discovery was quickly bolstered by intelligence from Saudi Arabia. In mid-2018, the Saudis arrested Mr. Ghazal, the Hamas accountant, and two other men who corporate records show held positions in 18 companies in the portfolio.

Under interrogation, Mr. Ghazal confessed that the portfolio existed to transfer money to Hamas, according to records related to the three men’s arrests that were viewed by The Times. He also said that, just as the Israelis had long suspected, Mr. Odeh directed where the money went.

The two other men told their interrogators that they were shareholders in name only. Their stakes were actually owned by Mr. Qafisheh, the goateed Jordanian who had also been on the Israeli radar screen for years. Mr. Qafisheh, the men said, was a Hamas operative.

The documents do not say what the Saudis did to elicit the confessions. The kingdom’s harsh interrogation techniques have earned it international condemnation.

The Saudis shared the materials with Washington, according to officials with direct knowledge of the matter, knowing that Washington would share them with its close ally Israel. The Saudi monarchy has no tolerance for Hamas and hoped that Washington would blacklist the companies, the officials said.

The Israeli team shared the ledgers and its intelligence with American officials in early 2019, hoping to encourage financial sanctions.

But then, nothing.

The Trump administration did not act. Treasury Department officials said that they did not delay any decisions. Issuing sanctions, they said, is a complicated process. And Israel, which was more focused on getting the Americans to issue Iranian sanctions, did not press for more urgent actions, both Israeli and American officials say.

“We have great people still who are trying to do this work,” Mr. Levy said. “But if no one at a high level is putting this as a priority, what can they do?”

2019: Turkey

Though the investment portfolio spanned many countries, Turkey was key.

The Saudis had made clear with their arrests that Hamas was not welcome. And the financiers had lost much of their Sudanese income with the fall of the autocratic leader Omar al-Bashir.

Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, however, has not criminalized Hamas nor has it clearly restricted Hamas’s activities in Turkey.

By 2019, Mr. Odeh was in Turkey, as was Mr. Qafisheh.

Mr. Al-Shawa, the Ohio-educated engineer who had been in Israel’s sights for years, spent 135 days in Emirati jails before being released in 2015 — without explanation “and without breakfast,” he told The Times in an interview. He returned to Turkey.

Mr. Erdogan was a major proponent of the nation’s building industry, which was good news for the company at the center of the Hamas portfolio: a real estate developer named Trend GYO.

Trend took advantage of Mr. Erdogan’s building boom. It brought in an investor, Hamid Al Ahmar, with ties to the president. And it reorganized itself as a real estate investment trust, which had Turkish tax advantages, and went public.

Trend’s general manager, Mr. Al-Shawa, said he had no real power at the company. The board, he said, made all of the decisions. He denied being involved with Hamas, but he said that he suspected others at Trend were.

Hamid Al Ahmar

“Do I have proof? No. But sometimes you just have a feeling,” he said. “I really didn’t care. Why should I? I was there to make money.”

Mr. Odeh and Mr. Al Ahmar declined to comment through intermediaries. Trend would not pass messages seeking comment to Mr. Qafisheh, and a spokeswoman said he and Mr. Al Ahmar were no longer involved with the company. The spokeswoman said the question of whether Hamas owned the company was “ridiculous and meaningless.” She said Trend was appealing its Treasury designation. Hamas, through its media office in Lebanon, declined to comment.

Foreign investors piled in. In 2019, while Washington sat on the ledgers, American and European banks held more than 3 percent of the company’s publicly traded shares on behalf of clients, Turkish financial records show. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’s investment arm, Ensign Peak Advisors, bought more than 200,000 shares.

There is no indication that the church or the Western banks knew about any Hamas ties at the time. A church spokesman said that a U.S.-based investment adviser, Acadian Asset Management, bought the shares on its behalf. An Acadian spokesman said the company had “complied with all relevant laws.”

While the sanctions proposal languished, Israeli and American officials now say, Hamas appointed a new investment chief, Musa Dudin. Unlike his predecessors, he was a well-known Hamas military operative who had spent 18 years in an Israeli prison for his role in deadly attacks.

Mr. Dudin, too, has resettled in Turkey. Mr. Dudin declined to comment through an intermediary.

Meanwhile, Hamas-linked owners began cashing out. In 2019, Mr. Qafisheh sold more than $500,000 worth of stock, corporate filings show. In 2020, Mr. Al Ahmar sold shares worth $1.6 million.

The company’s owners got money out of the company another way, too. Mr. Al-Shawa, in his interview, said that the board pushed him to award Trend contracts to a construction company that Mr. Qafisheh owned with two other Trend shareholders.

Company records show that Trend paid that company more than $7.5 million from 2018 to 2022 — one example of how Hamas-linked figures pulled cash from the portfolio.

Trend, in a written statement, said it had paid the construction company “in accordance with commercial practices and legal rules” and no longer has a relationship with the company.

The Israeli agents understood that Iranian sanctions would take precedence over Hamas but were frustrated by the delays. At their wits’ end, former Task Force Harpoon members took a desperate step. In June 2021, they uploaded some of the Hamas financial records to Facebook. The documents revealed a few nodes of the secret network, including Trend. It is unclear whether that was authorized.

The goal was to create a trail of online breadcrumbs for journalists, financial investigators and others to follow. The Facebook post generated a smattering of news coverage.

The Trend GYO headquarters in Istanbul.

“There wasn’t any way to use the intelligence we had,” said Uzi Shaya, a former Mossad agent and Harpoon member. “It was almost done as a last resort.”

Finally, in May 2022, the Treasury Department announced financial sanctions against what it called an expansive Hamas funding network. Mr. Odeh and Mr. Qafisheh were named as financiers.

“The United States is committed to denying Hamas the ability to generate and move funds and to holding Hamas accountable for its role in promoting and carrying out violence,” the department said.

Trend was financially blacklisted, as were several other associated companies.

All had been named in the ledgers that the Israeli team had given the Americans three years earlier.

2023: Aftermath

Musa Dudin

Late last month, Mr. Nelson, the Treasury Department official, flew to Turkey to urge the Turkish government to stop sheltering Hamas’s money.

“It’s the highest priority in our building,” he said in an interview this month. The department recently added Mr. Dudin, Mr. Al-Shawa and others to the financial blacklist. Mr. Al-Shawa said he was appealing the decision.

Mr. Erdogan has given no indication that he intends to recognize those sanctions. After the Oct. 7 attacks, he declared that Hamas was not a terrorist organization, but a “liberation group.”

Americans “are the only ones who set the law in the world and all others follow,” Hasan Turan, a member of Parliament from Mr. Erdogan’s governing party, said in a recent interview. “It is not acceptable.”

Mr. Turan even met with Mr. Al Ahmar, the former Trend investor, last month to discuss ways to support the Palestinians.

The value of Trend’s stock, which is still traded on the Istanbul exchange, has more than doubled since it was added to the sanctions list. During that same period, two Trend shareholders now under sanction sold $4.3 million in stock, corporate filings show. Asked if that money went to Hamas, the company’s chairman said he did not know and it would be inappropriate to ask.

And as recently as this year, Hamas-tied companies and people under sanction were still able to hold Turkish bank accounts in U.S. dollars, banking records reviewed by The Times show, despite ostensibly being cut off from the American financial system.

Mr. Pardo, the former Mossad chief, said he did not know what happened after he left in 2016. But “from the results,” he said, “you can judge that they had a lot of money.”

“I believe that if someone would have chased the money and stopped it,” he added, “we wouldn’t be seeing the results of what we see today.”

Mr. Levy, the former Harpoon deputy, grows emotional when he talks about the Hamas money. “I want to do everything we can to prevent war,” he said. “I really believed that we could do that by going after the financial infrastructure of terrorist groups. But we have to be serious.”

Ronen Bergman contributed reporting from Tel Aviv, and Patrick Kingsley from Jerusalem.

 

 

Israel-Hamas War: Live Updates

Updated 

Jan. 4, 2024, 5:50 p.m. ET5 hours ago

5 hours ago

• Israel carried out multiple raids on the West Bank, making more arrests.
• At the funeral for a Hamas leader assassinated in Beirut, many vow revenge.
• Frustration grows for tens of thousands of Israelis relocated from the Lebanese border.

 

 

 

 

 Saleh al-Arouri Senior Hamas official killed in Israel Drone Strike Musharafieh Beirut, Lebanon 

The audacious attack hit Hamas’s office in Musharafieh, a southern suburb of Beirut. Senior Hamas official

Saleh al-Arouri was Saleh al-Arouri Senior Hamas official killed in Israel Drone Strike Musharafieh Beirut, Lebanon 

 

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Israel’s war on Gaza: List of key events, day 102

Gaza suffers its seventh communications blackout since October 7 amid relentless Israeli strikes in the Palestinian enclave.

• South Africa levels accusations of ‘genocidal conduct’ against Israel at UN Int'l Court of Justice

• https://usaweekly.com.au/israel-genocide-icj-case

• USA Weekly INL News Breaking News: INL News Group Planning To Take a Class Action Court Application on behalf of the Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank and on behalf of the Palestinian People World Wide, Against the State of Israel and the USA Government, Benjamin Netanyahu Israel Prime Minister, and the other major Israel Government Officials, the USA President Joe Biden, USA State Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other USA Government Officials, members of the Mossad the Israel Security Agency, and others to be arrested for a criminal conspiracy to murder of thousands of Palestinian men, women and children in Gaza

  South African Hague ICJ Genocide Case Against Israel

  

• INLTV News Release Secret Report Analyzing who, how and why Sparked The Israel Gaza War

Last month, Switzerland-based human rights group Euro-Med Monitor said Israel’s restrictions on humanitarian aid into Gaza is a “mass starvation campaign” that is a “part of its ongoing genocide.”

Israel’s military is killing Palestinians at an average rate of 250 people a day, the highest daily death toll of any other major conflict of recent years, Oxfam has said.

In a statement today, Oxfam said it calculated that number of average deaths per day for Gaza is significantly higher than any recent major armed conflict including Syria (96.5 deaths per day), Sudan (51.6), Iraq (50.8), Ukraine (43.9) Afghanistan (23.8) and Yemen (15.8).

Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfam’s Middle East director, said:

The scale and atrocities that Israel is visiting upon Gaza are truly shocking. For 100 days the people of Gaza have endured a living hell. Nowhere is safe and the entire population is at risk of famine.
It is unimaginable that the international community is watching the deadliest rate of conflict of the 21st century unfold, while continuously blocking calls for a ceasefire.

South Africa accuses Israel of 'a calculated pattern of conduct indicating a genocidal intent'
Closing her part of the case, Adila Hassim, advocate of the high court of South Africa, has said in The Hague:
All of these acts individually and collectively form a calculated pattern of conduct by Israel indicating a genocidal intent. This intent is evident from Israel’s conduct in:
Targeting Palestinians living in Gaza using weaponry that causes large scale, homicidal destruction, as well as targeted sniping of civilians.
Designating safe zones for Palestinians to seek refuge and then bombing these.
Depriving Palestinians in Gaza of basic needs – food, water, health care, fuel, sanitation, and communications.
Destroying social infrastructure, homes, schools, mosques, churches, hospitals, and killing, seriously injuring, and leaving large numbers of children orphaned.
Genocides are never declared in advance but this court has the benefit of the past 13 weeks of evidence that shows incontrovertibly, a pattern of conduct and related intention that justifies a plausible claim of genocidal acts.
Israel has described South Africa’s case as “baseless” and a “blood libel”, and will have three hours at the court tomorrow to oppose it.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/jan/11/middle-east-crisis-live-updates-israel-gaza-war-hamas-palestine-south-africa-genocide-case-icj#maincontent

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/9/three-rights-groups-file-icc-lawsuit-against-israel-over-gaza-genocide 

The scenes we are seeing unfold in Israel and Gaza mark a new chapter in the Middle East conflict. The consequences and scale of losses are already devastating, and the recent attack – and the war that now follows – is likely to shape global politics for years to come. 

“The level of lifesaving aid entering [the] Gaza strip is far below needs due to Israeli authorities’ restrictions,” UNRWA said on X.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees added that it is critical to continue increasing aid delivery to Palestinians in Gaza, nearly 2 million of whom have been forcibly displaced from their homes by Israeli attacks on the strip.

In an earlier tweet, UNRWA said that access to clean water “is a matter of life and death” as Israeli attacks and aid restrictions by Israeli authorities force surviving Palestinians to grapple with shortages in food, water, fuel and medical supplies.

Chris McGreal

Leading press freedom groups and human rights organisations have called on Joe Biden to do more to pressure Israel to “abide by international law” amid accusations that its military is targeting journalists in the Gaza war, and to hold it to account for the killings of reporters.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch, Freedom House and other groups said in a letter to the US president that more media workers have been killed in the conflict since the Hamas attack on 7 October than in any single country over an entire year.

Three rights groups file ICC lawsuit against Israel over Gaza ‘genocide’

The lawsuit urges the ICC to include ‘genocide’ in Gaza war crimes inquiry and issue arrest warrants for Israel’s leaders.

Palestinians look for survivors following an Israeli air raid in Khan Younis refugee camp [File: Fatima Shbair/AP Photo]

 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/9/three-rights-groups-file-icc-lawsuit-against-israel-over-gaza-genocide 

Three rights groups file ICC lawsuit against Israel over Gaza ‘genocide’

The lawsuit urges the ICC to include ‘genocide’ in Gaza war crimes inquiry and issue arrest warrants for Israel’s leaders.

Palestinians look for survivors following an Israeli air raid in Khan Younis refugee camp [File: Fatima Shbair/AP Photo]

Published On 9 Nov 20239 Nov 2023

Three Palestinian rights groups have filed a lawsuit with the International Criminal Court (ICC), urging the body to investigate Israel for “apartheid” as well as “genocide” and issue arrest warrants for Israeli leaders.

The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday by human rights organisations Al-Haq, Al Mezan, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, called for “urgent attention to the continuous barrage of Israeli airstrikes on densely populated civilian areas within the Gaza Strip”, which have killed more than 10,500 Palestinians, almost half of them children, according to Gaza health officials.

The document also asked the body to expand its ongoing war crimes investigation by looking into “the suffocating siege imposed on [Gaza], the forced displacement of its population, the use of toxic gas, and the denial of necessities, such as food, water, fuel, and electricity”.

These acts amount to “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity”, including “genocide”, the lawsuit said.

The three groups want arrest warrants to be issued against Israel’s President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

The ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) opened an official investigation into the situation in Palestine in 2021 after determining that “war crimes have been or are being committed by Palestinian and Israeli actors in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip”.

However, the group has faced criticism from rights groups and activists who say its response to ongoing Israeli attacks in Gaza have been tepid.

In the latest ICC filing, the rights groups’ lawyer, Emmanuel Daoud, referenced the ICC’s ruling against Russia’s President Vladimir Putin for war crimes in Ukraine, and said there was “no room for double standards in international justice”.

“Whether war crimes are committed in Ukraine or Palestine, the culprits should be held to account,” said Daoud.

This is not the first time a file against Israel has been brought to the ICC during its one-month war in Gaza.

On October 31, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) submitted a complaint to the body alleging Israel had perpetrated war crimes against journalists in Gaza.

As of Thursday, Israeli attacks have killed at least 39 journalists since October 7, according to figures from press

freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 34 of whom were Palestinian, four were Israeli, and one was Lebanese.

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The CPJ calculates that at least 79 journalists have died, mostly Palestinians and almost all at the hands of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), although four Israeli reporters were killed in the Hamas cross border attack. The letter said:

The US state department spokesperson recently said that the United States has not seen any evidence that Israel is intentionally targeting journalists.

But the groups noted “credible reports” by human rights and media organisations that the Israeli military was responsible for the deaths of several journalists, including “deliberately targeting a car in which journalists were traveling on January 7, killing two journalists and seriously injuring a third”.

The letter to Biden said that in other cases “journalists reported receiving threats from Israeli officials and IDF officers before their family members were killed in Gaza”. The letter continued:

Of course, the targeted or indiscriminate killing of journalists, if committed deliberately or recklessly, is a war crime, and the International Criminal Court has said that it will investigate reports of war crimes committed against journalists in Gaza.

The letter noted the “longstanding pattern of impunity in the killings of journalists by the IDF”, including over the shooting dead last year of the Al Jazeera reporter, Shireen Abu Akleh, a US citizen.

Miranda Bryant

More than 1,400 Finnish artists have joined Icelandic musicians in demanding that Israel be banned from this year’s Eurovision song contest over alleged war crimes in Gaza.

If Israel is not excluded from the competition, which will be held in the Swedish city of Malmö in May, the Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle) should boycott the contest and refuse to send a Finnish entry, they say.

“It is not in accordance with our values that a country that commits war crimes and continues a military occupation is given a public stage to polish its image in the name of music,” reads a petition that has been signed by Finland-based artists, musicians and music industry professionals. “At the same time other participating countries end up giving their support to Israel’s policies.”

Among the artists who have signed the Finnish petition are Olavi Uusivirta, Paleface and Axel Ehnström, who represented Finland at Eurovision in 2011.

Last month, the Icelandic Association of Composers and Lyricists told its members not to participate in the show unless Israel was banned.

Lukas Korpelainen, one of the authors of the petition, told the newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet it was unacceptable for Israel to take part in Eurovision “to polish its image”.

In December, the Eurovision Broadcasting Union (EBU) released a statement saying Eurovision “is a contest for broadcasters – not for governments – and the Israeli public broadcaster has been participating in the contest for 50 years”.

It said Israel’s public broadcaster, Kan, “complies with all competition rules” and would be able to participate in this year’s contest.

1. Netanyahu says South Africa's 'hypocrisy screams to the heavens'

Benjamin Netanyahu has accused South Africa of “hypocrisy” and said its case against Israel is evidence of a “world turned upside down”.

“We are fighting terrorists, we are fighting lies,” the Israeli prime minister said in a video statement.

Today we saw an upside-down world. Israel is accused of genocide while it is fighting against genocide.

“The hypocrisy of South Africa screams to the heavens,” he continued.

Where was South Africa when millions of people were killed or torn from their homes in Syria and Yemen, by whom? 

By partners of Hamas.

Israel will “continue battling terrorists … until total victory”, he added.

Large demonstrations organised by Israel supporters and pro-Palestinian groups converged outside the international court of justice in The Hague on Thursday as the court began hearings in the Gaza genocide case against Israel.

Pro-Palestinian protestors demonstrate holding Palestinian flags and banners in front of the ICJ building in The Hague, the Netherlands. 

A legal hearing into the war in Gaza opened in The Hague on Thursday as the international court of justice (ICJ) hears arguments alleging that Israel is committing genocide in the territory.

Israeli supporters march next to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands. 

South Africa, which has brought the case, is asking the UN court to act urgently “to protect against further, severe and irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian people under the genocide convention, which continues to be violated with impunity”.

South Africa said on Wednesday that its delegation will include the former UK Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who is a longtime supporter of the Palestinian cause.

• Daily death toll in Gaza higher than any other major 21st century conflict, says Oxfam

Israel’s military is killing Palestinians at an average rate of 250 people a day, the highest daily death toll of any other major conflict of recent years, Oxfam has said.

In a statement today, Oxfam said it calculated that number of average deaths per day for Gaza is significantly higher than any recent major armed conflict including Syria (96.5 deaths per day), Sudan (51.6), Iraq (50.8), Ukraine (43.9) Afghanistan (23.8) and Yemen (15.8).

Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfam’s Middle East director, said:

The scale and atrocities that Israel is visiting upon Gaza are truly shocking. For 100 days the people of Gaza have endured a living hell. Nowhere is safe and the entire population is at risk of famine.
It is unimaginable that the international community is watching the deadliest rate of conflict of the 21st century unfold, while continuously blocking calls for a ceasefire.

• Hamas praises South Africa for bringing case against Israel at UN court

Hamas has praised South Africa for bringing Israel’s military campaign against Gaza to the international court of justice (ICJ).

In a statement on the militant group’s Telegram page, it said South Africa is proving “its principled position in support of our Palestinian people … and its rejection of the brutal crimes of the occupation (by Israel) against our people.”

It added that it hoped the case will bring an end to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza and result in the country being prosecuted on genocide charges, AP reported.

In a statement reported by Al Jazeera, Hamas official Basem Naim said:

We welcome the convening of the [case] … on the accusation of ethnic cleansing and genocide. We are looking forward to seeing a decision by the court that would achieve justice for the [Palestinian] victims, end the aggression on Gaza, and hold the war criminals accountable.

Almost 24,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli strikes since 7 October, Gaza

 
  

Wounded Palestinian children lay at the al-Shifa hospital, following Israeli airstrikes, in Gaza City, central Gaza Strip, on October 17, 2023

Almost 24,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli strikes since 7 October, Gaza 

 Reuters reports that 23,469 Palestinians have been killed and 59,604 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, Gaza's health ministry said on Thursday. 

Israeli soldiers carry a dead body as they collect corpses following attacks from Gaza at Kibbutz Kfar Aza, in southern Israel, on October 10, 2023

 

A woman holding a girl after Israeli airstrikes hit the Ridwan neighbourhood of Gaza City on October 23, 2023

South Africa accuses Israel of 'a calculated pattern of conduct indicating a genocidal intent'

Closing her part of the case, Adila Hassim, advocate of the high court of South Africa, has said in The Hague:

All of these acts individually and collectively form a calculated pattern of conduct by Israel indicating a genocidal intent. This intent is evident from Israel’s conduct in:
Targeting Palestinians living in Gaza using weaponry that causes large scale, homicidal destruction, as well as targeted sniping of civilians.
Designating safe zones for Palestinians to seek refuge and then bombing these.
Depriving Palestinians in Gaza of basic needs – food, water, health care, fuel, sanitation, and communications.
Destroying social infrastructure, homes, schools, mosques, churches, hospitals, and killing, seriously injuring, and leaving large numbers of children orphaned.
Genocides are never declared in advance but this court has the benefit of the past 13 weeks of evidence that shows incontrovertibly, a pattern of conduct and related intention that justifies a plausible claim of genocidal acts.

Israel has described South Africa’s case as “baseless” and a “blood libel”, and will have three hours at the court tomorrow to oppose it.

• South Africa has accused Israel of “a calculated pattern of conduct indicating a genocidal intent” on the opening day of a hearing at the international court of justice in The Hague into the case accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. Citing the large number of civilian casualties, the displacement of population, the lack of safe shelter and poor humanitarian conditions, South Africa is asking the court for a preliminary order to Israel to stop fighting while it investigates the full merits of the case.
• Lawyers cited statements by prominent leaders including the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, defence minister, Yoav Gallant, and president, Isaac Herzog, as evidence that Israel was not distinguishing between Hamas and civilians, and intended to destroy Gaza. “What state would admit to a genocidal intent? Yet the distinctive feature of this case has not been the silence as such, but the reiteration and repetition of genocidal speech throughout every sphere of the state in Israel,” it said during the presentation. South Africa’s Jewish Board of Deputies has condemned the legal action, accusing the government of antisemitism and of “inverting reality”.
• Three months of Israeli bombardment has laid much of the narrow coastal territory to waste, reportedly killing more than 23,000 people and driving nearly the entire population of 2.3 million Palestinians from their homes. An Israeli blockade has sharply restricted supplies of food, fuel and medicine, creating what the United Nations describes as a humanitarian catastrophe. Israel has dismissed the case as “baseless” and a “blood libel”, and will be presenting its defence in a three-hour session on Friday.
• France’s naval forces are accompanying ships with French interests through the Red Sea region, the country’s top naval commander in the area said on Thursday, adding that Paris’ current mandate did not include striking Houthi rebels directly. The Iran-aligned Houthis, who control most of Yemen, have been targeting Red Sea shipping routes to show their support for Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
• An attack and boarding of “Saint Nikolas” off the Oman coast, reported hours after the UN security council in New York passed a resolution condemning attacks on Red Sea shipping by Houthi rebels, is yet to be identified and may be the work of Iranians, not the Houthis.
• The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, have met in Cairo.
• Israel’s military has issued a statement on its Telegram messaging channel to claim that it has discovered what it described as a “vast Hamas tunnel used by the terror organisation to hold hostages under the city of Khan Younis”. The IDF has also issued video footage which it claims shows the tunnels. An estimated 136 hostages are still believed to be held by Hamas inside the Gaza Strip after being abducted on 7 October. The IDF says its troops continue to operate in Maghazi and Khan Younis.
• Iran’s intelligence ministry has said the main suspect who planned the 3 January Kerman bombing was a Tajik national known by his alias Abdollah Tajiki. The suspect had entered the country in mid-December by crossing Iran’s southeast border, and left two days before the attack. Iran says it has arrested 35 people in relation to the attack. The death toll from the blasts rose to 94 on Thursday.
• Police in Turkey have detained 70 suspects with ties to the Islamic State group in raids this week across the country.
• Israel’s police said on Thursday they had arrested two Palestinian supporters of the Islamic State group who had plans to carry out “terrorist attacks” targeting the country’s security forces.
• Israel posted a budget deficit of 4.2% of GDP in 2023, after a 0.6% surplus in 2022, due to a rise in state spending to finance the war in Gaza.

All rise as judges, rear, enter the World Court where Ukraine's legal battle against Russia over allegations of genocide used by Moscow to justify its 2022 invasion, resumed in The Hague, Netherlands, Monday, Sept. 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)

Presiding judge Joan Donoghue, second right, opens the World Court session where Ukraine's legal battle against Russia over allegations of genocide used by Moscow to justify its 2022 invasion, resumed in The Hague, Netherlands, Monday, Sept. 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)

Another involves Gambia, on behalf of Muslim nations, accusing Myanmar of genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority.

In a past case brought by Bosnia, the court in 2007 ruled that Serbia “violated the obligation to prevent genocide … in respect of the genocide that occurred in Srebrenica in July 1995.” The court declined to order Serbia to pay compensation. Croatia also sued Serbia in 2015, but the world court ruled that Serbia didn’t breach the convention in that case.

1. ICJ OR ICC?

The Hague calls itself the international city of peace and justice. It is home not only to the ICJ, but also the International Criminal Court. The two courts have different mandates.

The ICJ, which first sat in 1946, adjudicates cases between nations, often border disputes or disagreements over the interpretation of international treaties.

The ICC was launched in 2002 with the lofty goal of ending global impunity for atrocities. It seeks to hold individuals criminally responsible for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The ICC has an ongoing investigation into the Israel-Palestinian conflict, dating back to the last war in Gaza. So far, it has not issued any arrest warrants. Israel says the ICC has no jurisdiction because Palestinians do not belong to an independent sovereign state.

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan says an investigation into possible crimes by Hamas militants and Israeli forces is a priority. The court could charge political and military leaders.

Palestinian Foreign Affairs Minister Riyad al-Maliki has said the Palestinian Authority would not interfere with an ICC investigation into Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks. “We cannot say ‘Investigate here, don’t investigate there,’” al-Maliki said.

The ICC last year issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin accusing him of personal responsibility for abductions of children from Ukraine.

WHAT ABOUT PAST U.N. CASES?

Two now-defunct U.N. tribunals also held landmark genocide trials.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia convicted a series of high-ranking Bosnian Serbs, including former President Radovan Karadzic and his military chief Gen. Ratko Mladic, for their roles in the July 1995 massacre of more than 8,000 men and boys in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica.

Karadzic and Mladic were given life sentences.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda convicted a string of leaders involved in the African nation’s 1994 genocide when some 800,000 people, mainly ethnic Tutsis, were slaughtered.

FILE - Former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic sits in the court room in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, June 8, 2021, where the United Nations court delivers its verdict in the appeal of Mladic against his convictions for genocide and other crimes and his life sentence for masterminding atrocities throughout the Bosnian war. (Jerry Lampen/Pool via AP, File)

Read More

FILE - In this Wednesday, March 20, 2019 file photo, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic enters the court room of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague, Netherlands. Karadzic, one of the chief architects of the slaughter and devastation of Bosnia’s 1992-95 war, was convicted in 2016 by a United Nations court of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, file)

Read More

 

FILE - The skulls and bones of some of those who were slaughtered as they sought refuge inside the church are laid out as a memorial to the thousands who were killed in and around the Catholic church during the 1994 genocide in Ntarama, April 4, 2014. The Rwanda Tribunal convicted a string of leaders involved in the African nation’s 1994 genocide when some 800,000 people, mainly ethnic Tutsis, were slaughter

Read More

Associated Press writer Josef Federman contributed from Jerusalem.

Almost 24,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli strikes since 7 October, Gaza

 
  

Wounded Palestinian children lay at the al-Shifa hospital, following Israeli airstrikes, in Gaza City, central Gaza Strip, on October 17, 2023

 

Almost 24,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli strikes since 7 October, Gaza 

 Reuters reports that 23,469 Palestinians have been killed and 59,604 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, Gaza's health ministry said on Thursday. 

   

Israeli soldiers carry a dead body as they collect corpses following attacks from Gaza at Kibbutz Kfar Aza, in southern Israel, on October 10, 2023

 

 

A woman holding a girl after Israeli airstrikes hit the Ridwan neighbourhood of Gaza City on October 23, 2023

South Africa accuses Israel of 'a calculated pattern of conduct indicating a genocidal intent'

Closing her part of the case, Adila Hassim, advocate of the high court of South Africa, has said in The Hague:

All of these acts individually and collectively form a calculated pattern of conduct by Israel indicating a genocidal intent. This intent is evident from Israel’s conduct in:
Targeting Palestinians living in Gaza using weaponry that causes large scale, homicidal destruction, as well as targeted sniping of civilians.
Designating safe zones for Palestinians to seek refuge and then bombing these.
Depriving Palestinians in Gaza of basic needs – food, water, health care, fuel, sanitation, and communications.
Destroying social infrastructure, homes, schools, mosques, churches, hospitals, and killing, seriously injuring, and leaving large numbers of children orphaned.
Genocides are never declared in advance but this court has the benefit of the past 13 weeks of evidence that shows incontrovertibly, a pattern of conduct and related intention that justifies a plausible claim of genocidal acts.

Israel has described South Africa’s case as “baseless” and a “blood libel”, and will have three hours at the court tomorrow to oppose it.

• South Africa has accused Israel of “a calculated pattern of conduct indicating a genocidal intent” on the opening day of a hearing at the international court of justice in The Hague into the case accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. Citing the large number of civilian casualties, the displacement of population, the lack of safe shelter and poor humanitarian conditions, South Africa is asking the court for a preliminary order to Israel to stop fighting while it investigates the full merits of the case.
• Lawyers cited statements by prominent leaders including the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, defence minister, Yoav Gallant, and president, Isaac Herzog, as evidence that Israel was not distinguishing between Hamas and civilians, and intended to destroy Gaza. “What state would admit to a genocidal intent? Yet the distinctive feature of this case has not been the silence as such, but the reiteration and repetition of genocidal speech throughout every sphere of the state in Israel,” it said during the presentation. South Africa’s Jewish Board of Deputies has condemned the legal action, accusing the government of antisemitism and of “inverting reality”.
• Three months of Israeli bombardment has laid much of the narrow coastal territory to waste, reportedly killing more than 23,000 people and driving nearly the entire population of 2.3 million Palestinians from their homes. An Israeli blockade has sharply restricted supplies of food, fuel and medicine, creating what the United Nations describes as a humanitarian catastrophe. Israel has dismissed the case as “baseless” and a “blood libel”, and will be presenting its defence in a three-hour session on Friday.
• France’s naval forces are accompanying ships with French interests through the Red Sea region, the country’s top naval commander in the area said on Thursday, adding that Paris’ current mandate did not include striking Houthi rebels directly. The Iran-aligned Houthis, who control most of Yemen, have been targeting Red Sea shipping routes to show their support for Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
• An attack and boarding of “Saint Nikolas” off the Oman coast, reported hours after the UN security council in New York passed a resolution condemning attacks on Red Sea shipping by Houthi rebels, is yet to be identified and may be the work of Iranians, not the Houthis.
• The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, have met in Cairo.
• Israel’s military has issued a statement on its Telegram messaging channel to claim that it has discovered what it described as a “vast Hamas tunnel used by the terror organisation to hold hostages under the city of Khan Younis”. The IDF has also issued video footage which it claims shows the tunnels. An estimated 136 hostages are still believed to be held by Hamas inside the Gaza Strip after being abducted on 7 October. The IDF says its troops continue to operate in Maghazi and Khan Younis.
• Iran’s intelligence ministry has said the main suspect who planned the 3 January Kerman bombing was a Tajik national known by his alias Abdollah Tajiki. The suspect had entered the country in mid-December by crossing Iran’s southeast border, and left two days before the attack. Iran says it has arrested 35 people in relation to the attack. The death toll from the blasts rose to 94 on Thursday.
• Police in Turkey have detained 70 suspects with ties to the Islamic State group in raids this week across the country.
• Israel’s police said on Thursday they had arrested two Palestinian supporters of the Islamic State group who had plans to carry out “terrorist attacks” targeting the country’s security forces.
• Israel posted a budget deficit of 4.2% of GDP in 2023, after a 0.6% surplus in 2022, due to a rise in state spending to finance the war in Gaza.

 

All rise as judges, rear, enter the World Court where Ukraine's legal battle against Russia over allegations of genocide used by Moscow to justify its 2022 invasion, resumed in The Hague, Netherlands, Monday, Sept. 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)

Presiding judge Joan Donoghue, second right, opens the World Court session where Ukraine's legal battle against Russia over allegations of genocide used by Moscow to justify its 2022 invasion, resumed in The Hague, Netherlands, Monday, Sept. 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)

Another involves Gambia, on behalf of Muslim nations, accusing Myanmar of genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority.

In a past case brought by Bosnia, the court in 2007 ruled that Serbia “violated the obligation to prevent genocide … in respect of the genocide that occurred in Srebrenica in July 1995.” The court declined to order Serbia to pay compensation. Croatia also sued Serbia in 2015, but the world court ruled that Serbia didn’t breach the convention in that case.

1. ICJ OR ICC?

The Hague calls itself the international city of peace and justice. It is home not only to the ICJ, but also the International Criminal Court. The two courts have different mandates.

The ICJ, which first sat in 1946, adjudicates cases between nations, often border disputes or disagreements over the interpretation of international treaties.

The ICC was launched in 2002 with the lofty goal of ending global impunity for atrocities. It seeks to hold individuals criminally responsible for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The ICC has an ongoing investigation into the Israel-Palestinian conflict, dating back to the last war in Gaza. So far, it has not issued any arrest warrants. Israel says the ICC has no jurisdiction because Palestinians do not belong to an independent sovereign state.

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan says an investigation into possible crimes by Hamas militants and Israeli forces is a priority. The court could charge political and military leaders.

Palestinian Foreign Affairs Minister Riyad al-Maliki has said the Palestinian Authority would not interfere with an ICC investigation into Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks. “We cannot say ‘Investigate here, don’t investigate there,’” al-Maliki said.

The ICC last year issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin accusing him of personal responsibility for abductions of children from Ukraine.

 

WHAT ABOUT PAST U.N. CASES?

Two now-defunct U.N. tribunals also held landmark genocide trials.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia convicted a series of high-ranking Bosnian Serbs, including former President Radovan Karadzic and his military chief Gen. Ratko Mladic, for their roles in the July 1995 massacre of more than 8,000 men and boys in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica.

Karadzic and Mladic were given life sentences.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda convicted a string of leaders involved in the African nation’s 1994 genocide when some 800,000 people, mainly ethnic Tutsis, were slaughtered.

 

FILE - Former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic sits in the court room in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, June 8, 2021, where the United Nations court delivers its verdict in the appeal of Mladic against his convictions for genocide and other crimes and his life sentence for masterminding atrocities throughout the Bosnian war. (Jerry Lampen/Pool via AP, File)

Read More

FILE - In this Wednesday, March 20, 2019 file photo, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic enters the court room of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague, Netherlands. Karadzic, one of the chief architects of the slaughter and devastation of Bosnia’s 1992-95 war, was convicted in 2016 by a United Nations court of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, file)

 

FILE - The skulls and bones of some of those who were slaughtered as they sought refuge inside the church are laid out as a memorial to the thousands who were killed in and around the Catholic church during the 1994 genocide in Ntarama, April 4, 2014. The Rwanda Tribunal convicted a string of leaders involved in the African nation’s 1994 genocide when some 800,000 people, mainly ethnic Tutsis, were slaughter

Associated Press writer Josef Federman contributed from Jerusalem.

Full 102 Day Israel's War on Gaza EXPLAINER further down this www.inltv.co.uk webpage

 

News|Israel War on Gaza

Israel’s war on Gaza: List of key events, day 102

Gaza suffers its seventh communications blackout since October 7 amid relentless Israeli strikes in the Palestinian enclave.

• South Africa levels accusations of ‘genocidal conduct’ against Israel at UN Int'l Court of Justice

• https://usaweekly.com.au/israel-genocide-icj-case
• https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/16/israels-war-on-gaza-list-of-key-events-day-102
• 16 Jan 2024

   

  Here’s how things stand on Tuesday, January 16, 2024:

  Latest updates and human impact

  • Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have claimed responsibility for five ballistic missiles that struck the city of Erbil in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq. The attack occurred late on Monday night, killing at least four people and injuring another six, according to the Kurdistan government’s security council.
  • Israeli attacks killed at least 25 people in Gaza on Monday night, including 11 Palestinians from two families in Miraj, in the north of Rafah, reported Palestinian news agency Wafa.
  • At least 24,100 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7, and 60,834 others have been injured, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
  • Hamas appeared to show the bodies of two Israeli hostages in a video released on Monday, claiming that they were killed by Israeli air strikes.
  • In the seventh communications blackout since October 7, telecommunication services in Gaza remained shut down for the third consecutive day on Monday, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA).

  • Diplomacy

    • In a post to X on Tuesday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for sexual violence claims against Hamas to “be rigorously investigated and prosecuted”.
    • Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian described the United States and United Kingdom’s military strikes on Houthi targets as a “strategic mistake” in a phone call on Monday with Guterres, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).
    • On Tuesday, Prime Minister Masrour Barzani of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region called on Iraq’s federal government to take a “principled position” following Iran’s “cowardly attack” on the city of Erbil. He also said the strike was a “flagrant violation of Iraq’s and the Kurdistan region’s sovereignty”.
    • Israel’s cabinet on Monday passed an amended 2024 state budget, adding $15bn for war, said the finance ministry and Prime Minister’s Office.

    • West Bank raids and violence

      • The Israeli army says it has redeployed an elite unit from Gaza to the occupied West Bank, where it says the situation is “spiralling”, reported Al Jazeera correspondent, Hamdah Salhut, on Tuesday.
      • Dozens of Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian vehicles at dawn in the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah after midnight on Monday, reported Wafa.
      • On Monday, Israeli soldiers raided the home of Ahmed and Mohammed Zeidat, whom they accuse of carrying out a car ramming and stabbing attack in Raanana, near Tel Aviv, killing one person and injuring at least 14 others, according to Al Jazeera correspondent, Ayman Nobani.

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        From: NewsFeed

        Is­raeli po­lice in­ves­ti­gate ‘ter­ror at­tack’ near Tel Aviv

        A car ram­ming and stab­bing at­tack near Tel Aviv killed one woman and in­jured sev­er­al oth­er peo­ple.

         

        Yemen’s Houthis hit US-owned ship in mis­sile at­tack, US mil­i­tary says

        US mil­i­tary says the con­tain­er ship was hit off the coast of Yemen, but con­tin­ued its jour­ney.

         https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/10/26/the-icc-should-urgently-investigate-what-happened-at-al-ahli-arab-hospital?traffic_source=KeepReading

        

        Bodies of Palestinians killed at the Ahli Arab hospital are gathered in the front yard of the al-Shifa hospital, in Gaza City, central Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. [AP Photo/Abed Khaled, File]
         

        From: NewsFeed

        UN chief calls for ‘im­me­di­ate’ cease­fire in Gaza

        UN Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al An­to­nio Guter­res calls for an “im­me­di­ate hu­man­i­tar­i­an cease­fire” in Gaza.

        

        Photos: Palestinian village fears Israel wartime demolitions

 

The the devastating explosion at the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in central Gaza, in which the Palestinian Health Ministry says at least 500 people were killed, shows exactly why the International Criminal Court (ICC) must investigate atrocities committed in Israel and Palestine. With allegations levied from all directions, the ICC may just be the best option to provide an impartial and independent assessment of the bombing and, critically, who bears responsibility for it.

There is little doubt that the destruction of the al-Ahli Arab Hospital is a war crime, no matter who is ultimately responsible. Under the international law that governs conduct in armed conflict – International Humanitarian Law – civilians and medical professionals can never be targeted by military attacks, whether they are committed intentionally or recklessly – “when an attacker consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk of harm to civilians or civilian objects”.

Even if a warning is issued to those in a hospital or any other civilian infrastructure, patients and medics who cannot leave or who choose not to leave, still cannot be targeted. Warnings are not a magic wand that does away with the legal protections that civilians enjoy. No military advantage can be lawfully gained by bombing a hospital where civilians sought refuge, believing it was safe.

Someone is responsible. The question is who? Who is responsible for this massive loss of life, for this war crime? How are we supposed to know amid so many competing accounts and the misinformation that characterises this war?

In the immediate aftermath of the bombing, Gazan officials maintained that Israeli forces had bombed the hospital. There was some confusion as reports from sources close to Israeli authorities suggested that the Israeli military had bombed the hospital in an attack against Hamas, in an apparent admission that they had bombed it. Some observers may have been quick to assume Israeli forces were responsible because of past precedence, including reports from the World Health Organization that in the 2009 Gaza War, Israeli forces damaged more than half of the 27 hospitals and 44 medical clinics in Gaza. The Israeli military, however, denied any involvement and insisted that Islamic Jihad had misfired rockets and destroyed the hospital. Some states have backed Israel up , but many remain unconvinced

As a signatory to the Geneva Conventions, Israel is required to investigate war crimes, including any committed by its own forces. Under international humanitarian law, states have an obligation to investigate and, where necessary, prosecute anyone who has committed a war crime. The problem is that states which are themselves implicated in hostilities and alleged atrocities are rarely able or willing to impartially investigate their own.

The IDF has a history of first blaming Palestinians before, sometimes, taking responsibility for its acts of violence. A recent example is the killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh as she was reporting on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank in May 2022. Israeli officials first insisted that she had been killed by Palestinian fire, only to later backtrack and apologise. It was, in fact, an Israeli sniper who had shot Abu Akleh in the head, killing her instantly. The United Nations Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel, found that Israeli forces had used “lethal force without justification” and that Abu Akleh’s death “is a direct result of Israel’s militarisation of law enforcement operations in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem”. The targeting of journalists is a war crime. The killer has never been held accountable.

This does not mean that Israel is responsible for the loss of life at al-Ahli hospital. It just means a credible and impartial actor should be investigating, not one with a direct interest in the outcome.

Even among those states with robust and independent criminal justice systems, few have admirable records when it comes to investigating their own wartime atrocities. The fog of war and the layers of allegations are too thick. The incentive to turn a blind eye, deflect and minimise responsibility is often too strong, especially when popular support for war efforts may be at stake.

Who could possibly trust an investigation in the context of repeated calls for Gaza to be annihilated – what some might suggest is genocidal rhetoric – by the likes of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir?

An international investigation is needed. The Commission of Inquiry can play a critical role and collect evidence. But it won’t itself attribute responsibility or charge those who bombed the al-Ahli Arab Hospital. As luck would have it, an investigation that could do just that already exists.

In 2021, the ICC prosecutor announced the opening of an investigation into the situation in Palestine, which covers the ongoing war in Gaza as well as any war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Palestinian factions, including Hamas, in Israel.

Current ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan has reiterated in recent days that his office has jurisdiction over any atrocities perpetrated in Gaza. That the prosecutor has broken his silence on the situation in Israel and Gaza is good. But the ICC must act. The ICC can impartially and independently investigate international crimes in Gaza. The prosecutor should immediately announce that he is actively doing so and dedicate resources to his investigation. Israel and any actors in Gaza with effective control of the area around the hospital should immediately allow ICC investigators safe access to the site. Like they did in Ukraine, states – especially those who purport to defend human rights and international law – must support such an effort.

In denouncing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Palestine and Israel, however, many Western states and their leaders have refused to acknowledge, let alone lend their support behind the one international institution that could prosecute those very atrocities: the ICC. In Canada, for example, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called the situation in Gaza a “humanitarian situation”, when it is more accurate to say it is a factory of war crimes that demand justice and accountability.

Will an investigation by the ICC solve the conflict? Is criminal law the arbiter of all truths? Of course not. But it is worth trying, even if the results are not immediate. Right now, the best way through the tangle of untruths is an international investigation. The best chance of holding perpetrators to account is through the ICC.

We know for sure that inaction only breeds impunity and further violence. As international law Professor Adil Haque poignantly writes: “Investigate all of them. Hamas. The IDF. All of them. For everything. Prosecute all those responsible. All of them. Justice is not enough. But justice is all that is left.”

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

---

• 
  Mark Kersten

  Consultant at the Wayamo Foundation and an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice & Criminology and the University of the Fraser Valley

  Mark Kersten is a Consultant at the Wayamo Foundation and an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice & Criminology and the University of the Fraser Valley

KEEP READING

list of 4 items

Israel’s war on Gaza: List of key events, day 102

Iran ‘sends a message’ after missile strike targets ‘Mossad base’ in Iraq

Iran launches missile strikes in Iraq and Syria

Israeli forces kill three Palestinians in occupied West Bank

Yahya Sinwar shadowy Hamas leader behind the war against Israel

Yahya  Sinwar shadowy Hamas leader behind the war against Israel

Yahya Sinwar shadowy Hamas leader behind the war against Israel (inltv.co.uk)

Yahya Sinwar shadowy Hamas leader behind the war against Israel

"The majority of Hamas members look at him as . . . someone who sacrificed most of his life for the sake of Hamas and the sake of the country, Palestine ....." ..... Waleed al-Modallal, Gaza’s Islamic University

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Israel Knew Hamas’s Attack Plan More Than a Year Ago

 

Yahya Sinwar shadowy Hamas leader behind the war against Israel

YahyaSinwarshadowyHamasleaderbehindthewaragainstIsrael

IDF knows where Hamas leader is, but won’t strike at him because of hostages – reports

The Times of Israel

Dead man walking?

"The majority of Hamas members look at him as . . . someone who sacrificed most of his life for the sake of Hamas and the sake of the country, Palestine ....." ..... Waleed al-Modallal, Gaza’s Islamic University

"The Gate Is Open" ..

A new explosive INLTV News Book and Film Being Made Exposing The Hidden Darker Hidden Side of How and Why The Israel Gaza Hamas Palestinian War Started and Who Was Behind Arranging The Spark That Gave An Excuse For Israel and its USA War Crime Partners To Start Such War.

The Gate Is Open" ..

A new explosive  INLTV News Book and Film Being Made Exposing The Hidden Darker Hidden Side of How and Why The Israel Gaza Hamas Palestinian War Started  and Who Was Behind Arranging The Spark That Gave Israel and its USA Partners in War Crimes To Set About Demolishing Gaza and deliberately murdering thousands of  innocent women and children, along with causing  over 50,000 Palestinians to be injured by Israeli and US Bombs, Guns and Rockets, and the murder of more than 60 journalists ..using  starvation and a lack of safe clean water and  crowded tent cities with no toilets or bathrooms,  the Gaza Palestinians have been forced moved to as a  result of their homes being regularity bombed by Israeli and US Bombs and Rockets 

TERRORIST RELEASED IN SHALIT “SWAP DEAL” NOW THE NEW LEADER OF HAMAS

Hamas terrorist Yihya Sinwar was sentenced in Israel to four life sentences and released in Shalit deal. Now he is the new leader of Hamas and countless innocent people will die.

After the last Israel-Hamas war in 2021, Sinwar dared Israel to assassinate him, and walked openly in the streets of Gaza. Today, as the 2023 war is not yet complete, Sinwar is on Israel's hit list.

"We will get to Yahya Sinwar, and we will assassinate him," said Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant last month, "I say here, to the residents of Gaza, if you get (to him) before us, it will shorten the war."

 

Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, attends a demonstration held to mark Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day, a commemorative day in support of the Palestinian people celebrated annually on the last Friday of the Muslim month of Ramadan, in Gaza City on April 14.

•  
•  Sinwar attends a rally in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, on January 7, 2016

Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, attends a demonstration held to mark Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day, a commemorative day in support of the Palestinian people celebrated annually on the last Friday of the Muslim month of Ramadan, in Gaza City on April 14.

USA Weekly News

INLTV News Release Secret Report Analyzing who, how and why Sparked The Israel Gaza War

Israel Knew Hamas’s Attack Plan More Than a Year Ago

https://inltv.co.uk/index.php/euro-inltv-news-january-2024

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 Israel's public enemy number one: How Yahya Sinwar rose up the ranks of Hamas to become the 'mastermind' behind murder of thousands of innocent Israelis in October 7 attacks - as IDF brand him a 'dead man walking' 

By JAMES CALLERY

PUBLISHED: 09:07, 1 January 2024 

Israel's public enemy number one: How Yahya Sinwar rose up the ranks of Hamas to become the 'mastermind' behind murder of thousands of innocent Israelis in October 7 attacks - as IDF brand him a 'dead man walking' | Daily Mail Online 

Sinwar is a secretive figure, feared on both sides of the battle lines

The mastermind of the Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the worst Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed in generations is a secretive leader, feared on both sides of the battle lines.
In Gaza, no figure looms larger in determining the future trajectory of the war than Yahya Sinwar.
The wiry, grey-haired 61-year-old is believed to have engineered the surprise October 7 attack into southern Israel, along with the shadowy Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas's armed wing.

The attack caught Israel's military and intelligence establishment off guard and shattered the image of Israeli invincibility, as terrorists killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and captured around 240 hostages in scenes of brutality.
Now, Israeli officers say Sinwar is a 'dead man walking'.
 

Head of the political wing of the Palestinian Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip Yahya Sinwar speaks during a meeting in Gaza City on April 30, 2022

 

 A house left in ruins in a kibbutz in Kfar, Israel, after an attack by Hamas terrorists on October 7, when dozens of civilians were killed near the border with  

 

Attendees at the Nova festival on October 7 in the south of Israel recounted terrifying moments of gunshots, prompting immediate evacuation
In December, Israeli forces had surrounded Sinwar's house, Benjamin Netanyahu said. 'It's only a matter of time before we get him,' he said.
The IDF said he is hiding underground. Obsessive, disciplined and dictatorial, Sinwar is Hamas's top leader inside the Palestinian territory, a rarely seen veteran terrorist who learned fluent Hebrew during years in Israeli prisons and carefully studied his enemy.
Israeli officials have vowed to kill him and crush the terror group that was founded and 1987 and has ruled Gaza since 2007.
But as the war rages into its third month, Sinwar remains alive, in hiding and at the helm of Hamas's gunmen as they battle Israeli forces.
He also controls the group's negotiations over the fate of the remaining hostages captured during the October 7 attack.
In March 2021 Sinwar was re-elected as the head of Hamas's political wing in Gaza, extending his tenure as the Islamist movement's de facto leader in the Israeli-blockaded Palestinian enclave. He succeeded politician Ismail Haniya.
Haniyeh, who was based in Qatar, congratulated Sinwar and said the election marked 'a victory' for the Islamist group.
After a career in the shadows, spent in Israeli prisons and the internal security apparatus of Hamas, Sinwar rose to lead the Islamist movement in the Gaza Strip.
The October 7 attacks, probably a year or two in the planning, 'took everyone by surprise' and 'changed the balance of power on the ground', said Leila Seurat of the Arab Centre for Research and Political Studies (CAREP) in Paris.
The ascetic terrorist mastermind has not been seen since October 7.

 

Head of the political wing of the Palestinian Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip Yahya Sinwar attends a rally in support of Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque in Gaza City on October 1, 2022Known for his secrecy, Sinwar is an excellent security operator, according to Abu Abdallah, a Hamas member who spent years alongside him in Israeli jails.
'He makes decisions in the utmost calm, but is intractable when it comes to defending the interests of Hamas,' Abdallah said in 2017 after his former co-detainee was elected Hamas's leader in Gaza.
After October 7, Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht called Sinwar the 'face of evil' and declared him a 'dead man walking'.
The Hamas chief was added to the US list of the most wanted 'international terrorists' in 2015, as was Mohammed Deif, another alleged October 7 mastermind.
Security sources outside Gaza say that both Sinwar and Deif have taken refuge in the network of tunnels built under the territory to withstand Israeli bombs.
Vowing earlier this month to 'find and eliminate' Sinwar, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant urged Gazans to turn him in, adding 'if you reach him before us, it will shorten the war'.
With the devastating toll from Israel's bombardment and ground invasion, Sinwar's political fate may now depend on how the war ends and whether Palestinians feel they gained anything from their immense losses.
If he can win the release of all Palestinian prisoners and the lifting of the 16-year blockade of Gaza, people will feel they have obtained something, said Hani al-Masri, a veteran Palestinian analyst.
Otherwise, 'it will be a big problem' for Sinwar personally 'because people will say that there was destruction, and we got nothing in return'.
A former commander of Hamas's military wing, when Sinwar became its leader in Gaza in 2017 it represented for some the hardest line within the Islamist movement which has fought three wars against Israel since 2008.
Hamas said it launched the October 7 attack in retaliation for increasing Israeli depredations against Palestinians and the continuing occupation of the West Bank and blockade of Gaza - and to push the Palestinian cause back onto the world agenda.
What it brought was a devastating Israeli retaliation, killing thousands and levelling swathes of Gaza.

Palestinians celebrate by a destroyed Israeli tank at the Gaza Strip fence east of Khan Younis on October 7, 2023

 

 Israeli soldiers carry a dead body as they collect corpses following attacks from Gaza at Kibbutz Kfar Aza, in southern Israel, on October 10, 2023

 

A woman holding a girl after Israeli airstrikes hit the Ridwan neighbourhood of Gaza City on October 23, 2023To Israelis, Sinwar is a nightmarish figure. 

The Israeli army's chief spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, called him a murderer 'who proved to the whole world that Hamas is worse than ISIS,' referring to the Islamic State group.
Among fellow Palestinians, some respect Sinwar for standing up to Israel and for remaining in impoverished Gaza, in contrast to other Hamas leaders living more comfortably abroad.
In a show of defiance two years ago, Sinwar ended one of his few public speeches by inviting Israel to assassinate him, proclaiming: 'I will walk back home after this meeting.' He then did so, shaking hands and taking selfies with people in the streets.
But he is also deeply feared for his iron grip in Gaza, where public dissent is suppressed.
In contrast to the media-friendly personas cultivated by some of Hamas's political leadership, Sinwar has not sought to build a public image. 
He is known as the 'Butcher of Khan Younis' for his brutal approach to Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel.
But in order to understand Sinwar's concentrated evil, you must first go back to his beginnings.
Sinwar was born in Gaza's Khan Younis refugee camp in 1962.
Israel's 1948 war for independence forced his family out of the Palestinian town of Madjal. 
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced in a period known as the Nakba, which means 'catastrophe' in Arabic.
After Madjal's Palestinian population had left — with the remaining residents deported in 1950 — Israel renamed the city Ashkelon, where Sinwar would later spend time in prison.
Sinwar spoke of the lack of sanitation and the poverty of living on UN handouts, said Mansour. Yahya Sinwar, head of Hamas's political wing in Gaza, visits the house of fellow Hamas leader Nizar Awadallah (unseen) in Gaza City on March 10, 2021, upon his re-election as the head of the Islamist movement's de facto leader in the Israeli-blockaded Palestinian enclave He'd always go back to these stories when he'd tell us to struggle against the occupation,' Mansour said.
Sinwar stood strongly against the 1993 Oslo accords, the US-brokered agreement that put forward a two-state solution to the conflict.
Mansour said he was 'radical' and wanted to put up a fight. 
Sinwar was first arrested by Israel in 1982 when he was a student at the Islamic University in Gaza, where he was a founding member of Hamas's student movement, said Ibrahim al-Madhoun, a Hamas-affiliated columnist.
Mansour said he would stand by his decisions 'even if they are harsh'. 
Sinwar was active during the first intifada against Israel, which started in Gaza in 1987.
He formed a close bond with Hamas's founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. They prayed together at the same Gaza City mosque.
Sinwar was detained again in 1988 when an improvised explosive device he was making detonated, said Koubi.
In prison his role in the murders of Gazan suspected Israel collaborators emerged.
Koubi noted that on the first day, he appeared very strong and did not want to speak. 
He eventually confessed to 12 killings, but was only convicted on four counts, Koubi said.
Israel's unforgiving interrogation techniques are well documented, but Koubi said Sinwar did not suffer from physical abuse.
In a transcript from his interrogation at Israel's Supreme Court, later published by Israeli media, Sinwar described killing victims by strangulation.
Koubi said he had a penchant for machetes. Some Gazans nicknamed him the 'Butcher of Khan Younis'.
Sinwar detailed murdering a suspected collaborator in an open grave in a cemetery.
'I tied his eyes with a rag so he couldn't see, put him in a large grave I saw, and suffocated him with a rag,' the transcript reads, according to excerpts published by Israel Hayom.
'After strangling him, I wrapped him in a white cloth and closed the grave.'
Koubi said the savage nature of the October 7 assault did not surprise him. 'He has very deep hate,' he said 

Yahya Sinwar, leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, at a rally in Gaza City, on May 24, 2021.

 

 Wounded Palestinian children lay at the al-Shifa hospital, following Israeli airstrikes, in Gaza City, central Gaza Strip, on October 17, 2023Sinwar quickly rose through the Hamas ranks after his release from jail in 2011, along with 1,026 other Palestinians in exchange for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas in a cross-border raid.
But it was in prison that he managed to further this influence.
'He didn't come from nowhere,' said Mkhaimar Abusada, a professor in politics at Gaza's al-Azhar University.
Under interrogation in an Israeli prison in 1989, Sinwar emotionlessly recalled horrific details of his killings.
The Hamas internal enforcer would be convicted of playing a role in the murder of two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinians suspected of collaboration with Israel.
He described making a Hamas member phone his suspected collaborator brother to meet up, Michael Koubi, who spent more than 150 hours questioning him for Shin Bet, Israel's domestic intelligence agency, told the Washington Post.
Sinwar forced the terror group member to bury his brother alive.
'His eyes were full of happiness when he told us this story,' Koubi said in November.
He later said that he saw a man who was highly intelligent and had confidence in everything he did.  
As a young man Sinwar led the Majd, Hamas's internal security force.
He would later dedicate himself to to the annihilation of Israel and he is accused of masterminding the October 7 assault on Israel's south. 
He is now the man Israel wants to kill most.
Sinwar is thought to be sheltered beneath Gaza's intricate underground tunnel network as Israeli soldiers search the enclave and shower it with missiles. 
The war is unlikely to end until Sinwar is dead or taken by Israel's forces.
Interrogation transcripts and the accounts of Israeli security officials, fellow prisoners and others who have met him portray him as an unforgiving strategist who delights in close-quarters killing.
The ruthless precision behind the October 7 attack was decades in the making.
 

  

Yahya Sinwar waves to supporters as he arrives to attend a rally marking Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day, a commemoration in support of the Palestinian people celebrated annually on the last Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, in Gaza City, on April 14, 2023

 

 Israeli police officers evacuate a woman and a child from a site hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, southern Israel, on October 7, 2023Sinwar spent 22 years in prison learning everything he could about his enemy, immersing himself in Israeli politics and learning fluent Hebrew – a cold-blooded killer who would become a terrorist mastermind.

His former prison mate Esmat Mansour recalled that Sinwar said his family lived in tragic circumstances and that he would never be able to shake off those memories. 
Initially he carried little gravitas in the Israeli penal system, where prisoners are split into various Palestinian factions.
But while incarcerated he continued to search for collaborators with Israel, Mansour and Koubi said.
As Hamas's clout within the Palestinian political scene strengthened, Sinwar began his journey to power.
He was elected Hamas's leader in the prison around the time of the second intifada, where he organised strikes for better conditions.
'Being a leader inside prison gave him experience in negotiations and dialogue, and he understood the mentality of the enemy and how to affect it,' said Anwar Yassine, a Lebanese citizen who spent about 17 years in Israeli jails, much of the time with Sinwar.
In June 2006, Sinwar's younger brother, Muhammad, was thought to have played a significant role in the cross-border raid that led to Shalit's capture.
'When Hamas got stronger, and they kidnapped Shalit, he became the one man show,' Mansour said.
Mansour said he lost interest in meeting with prison authorities and instead received attention from Israeli intelligence and other officials asking for Shalit's release.
Sinwar addressed cheering crowds in Gaza City upon his release, urging Hamas to free those remaining in Israeli prisons.
'This must turn immediately into a practical plan,' he said.
 

 

A Palestinian terrorist from the armed wing of Hamas takes part in a military parade to mark the anniversary of the 2014 war with Israel, near the border in the central Gaza Strip, on July 19, 2023After his release from jail, Sinwar initially made a number of public appearances. Later, however, he disappeared from public view and was presented in Hamas media as the commander of Qassam's elite units
According to those who know him, he still holds a deep interest in the plight of Palestinian prisoners, which likely spurred the drive for the capturing of Israeli hostages on October 7. 
Washington accuses Sinwar of pushing for kidnapping more Israeli soldiers as a bargaining chip for Palestinian prisoners.
In public interviews before the October 7 assault — including one with an Israeli newspaper in 2018 — he said he was not looking for confrontation.
'I don't want any more wars,' he told Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.
But other comments were more extreme, said university professor Abusada, highlighting a call by Sinwar in 2022 for Palestinians to enact lone wolf attacks with axes, cleavers and knives.
In joining the political wing of Hamas, Sinwar effectively knocked down the divide between the group's officials and fighters, said Israeli journalist Shlomi Eldar, who wrote a 2012 book on Hamas and interviewed some of its most senior officials.
Eldar said that he was a pioneering figure in the movement. 
Other group leaders would have been too fearful of the repercussions to have staged an attack of the magnitude of the October 7 onslaught, he said.
In taking the risk, others suspect he was attempting to position himself as the leader of the Palestinian cause, a long-sought role.
'No one can deny that he recorded his name in history on the one hand and changed the static situation that Israel adopted to deal with the Palestinians,' one Palestinian official who met Sinwar numerous times said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Israel said it is only a matter of time before Sinwar meets his death at the hands of Israeli forces.

 

Sinwar attends a rally in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, on January 7, 2016

 

On December 17, Israel revealed what it says is the biggest tunnel its troops have ever discovered, as its army works to expose and destroy Hamas terrorists' sprawling underground city known as 'the Gaza Metro'.  

Hagari told reporters that it had been a project led by Mohammad Sinwar, the brother and right-hand man of Yahya SinwarAs the search for the terrorist mastermind ramps up, he is likely accompanied by close confidants, including his brother Muhammad. Muhammad faked his death in 2014 but was shown in a video issued on December 17 by the IDF being escorted in a car through the four-kilometre long and 50-meter deep 'strategic' level tunnel it had revealed earlier that day. 
Koubi said that the terrorist leader will battle until the end.  
Sinwar has come to endorse the idea of a single Palestinian administration, bringing together the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank — controlled by Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party — and annexed east Jerusalem. 

The same year he was elected, Hamas for the first time accepted in principle a Palestinian state in the pre-1967 borders, while not recognising Israel and retaining the ultimate goal of 'liberating' all of historic Palestine.
According to the European Council on Foreign Relations, a think-tank, Sinwar has vowed to punish anyone obstructing reconciliation with Fatah, the rival political movement with which Hamas engaged in factional fighting after elections in 2006.
That coming together remains elusive, but the prisoner releases resulting from the truce agreement with Israel in November saw Hamas's popularity soar in the West Bank.
Sinwar has pursued a path of being 'radical in military planning and pragmatic in politics', according to Seurat.
'He doesn't advocate force for force's sake, but to bring about negotiations' with Israel, she said.
In 2008, Sinwar survived an aggressive form of brain cancer after treatment at a Tel Aviv hospital.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released him in 2011 along with more than 1,000 other prisoners in exchange for kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. 
Netanyahu was harshly criticised for releasing dozens of prisoners held for their involvement in deadly attacks.
Back in Gaza, Sinwar closely coordinated between Hamas's political leadership and its military wing, the Qassam Brigades.
He also cultivated a reputation for ruthlessness. He is widely believed to be behind the unprecedented 2016 killing of another top Hamas commander, Mahmoud Ishtewi, in an internal power struggle.
In 2017, he was elected head of Hamas's political bureau in Gaza. 
Sinwar worked with Hamas's leader in exile, Ismail Haniyeh, to realign the group with Iran and its allies, including Lebanon's Hezbollah. He also focused on building Hamas's military power.
For Hamas, surviving the war in any form would defy Israel and offer a victory of sorts. Sinwar himself may not survive.
'I'm sure we will eventually kill him,' Koubi said. 'But to destroy the ideology he planted, that's not so easy.'

Hamas Commander Sinwar Must Decide How He Departs, By Khaled Abu Toameh - 27 Tevet 5784 – January 8, 2024 

The general sense among Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip is that Sinwar would opt for the first option – “martyrdom,” if and when Israeli soldiers surround his hideout. Journalists who have been meeting with Sinwar on a semi-regular basis since he was released from Israeli prison as part of the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner swap are convinced that he would rather die as a shahid than surrender or be captured by the Israeli military.

The last two options – surrender or arrest – entail an element of humiliation, and this is not something Sinwar can tolerate. After all, he sees himself as one of the Palestinians’ and Arabs’ great “warriors” in modern history because of the Hamas invasion of Israel and the high death toll and damage inflicted on Israel. For someone like Sinwar, death is preferable to being shown surrendering or being arrested (perhaps in his underwear) by IDF soldiers. In Sinwar’s world, it is better to die as a “martyr” than to be depicted as a defeatist or coward. One of the recurring slogans chanted by Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip over the past few years is: “Death is preferable to humiliation.”

Yet, this does not mean that if given an “honorable” way out of his predicament, Sinwar would not go for it. If, for example, he was allowed to leave the Gaza Strip in an agreement engineered and supervised by some Arab countries, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, he would find it hard to turn down the offer.

Such a deal could elevate the Hamas terror chief to the equal of Yasser Arafat and send a message that he is leaving the Gaza Strip triumphant because Israel was not able to kill him or capture him. Moreover, Sinwar knows that living in exile hardly spells the end of Hamas’s leaders’ political and military careers. He sees that Hamas leaders based in Qatar, Lebanon, and Turkey are continuing to operate from their offices and homes in Doha, Beirut, and Ankara, and there’s no reason why he should not join Ismail Haniyeh, Khaled Mashaal, and Saleh al-Arouri in pursuing the bloody fight against Israel from these countries.

Hamas Commander Sinwar Must Decide How He Departs | The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com | Khaled Abu Toameh | 27 Tevet 5784 – Monday, January 8, 2024 | JewishPress.com

Yahya Sinwar, leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, at a rally in Gaza City, on May 24, 2021.

In May 2021, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar responded to Israeli threats to assassinate him and other commanders of his Iran-backed terror group, saying that he was not afraid of death: “The biggest gift they [Israel] can give me is to assassinate me. They know where I live, and I’m waiting for them.”

Since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, however, Sinwar, one of the masterminds of the massacre, has gone into hiding. He is no longer waiting for the Israeli troops to show up at his home.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have accepted Sinwar’s offer to visit him at home in the southern Gaza Strip. Contrary to his boast, Sinwar was not waiting for the soldiers. The man who said he would be honored if Israel killed him chose to flee, together with his family, from his home immediately after the October 7 attack.

Since then, Sinwar has not been seen in public. He and two other Hamas commanders, Mohammed Deif and Marwan Issa, are believed to be hiding in the area of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, where thousands of IDF soldiers have been operating over the past few days. The three terror leaders know that this war is not just another round of fighting that will end with an Egyptian- or Qatari-sponsored ceasefire. They understand that as far as Israel is concerned, Hamas leaders are living on borrowed time.

Sinwar, who spent many years in Israeli prison, is fluent in Hebrew and is familiar with Israeli society and politics. He has long followed the Israeli media, as well as statements made by Israeli political and military officials. As such, he is undoubtedly aware of the fact that he has become Israel’s No. 1 wanted terrorist because of his responsibility for the October 7 carnage. He is also surely aware of renewed threats by Israelis to eliminate him and the entire leadership of Hamas.

Sinwar in an Israeli prison (middle of bottom row). His prison pals include Samir Kuntar, (top right) a member of the PLF and Hizbullah.

Nearly three months into the Israel-Hamas war, Sinwar also understands that the Israeli security forces are tightening the noose around his neck. He is beginning to realize that the moment is fast approaching when he must decide how he wants his end to look. 

Sinwar’s Three Options

Under the current circumstances, it seems that Sinwar has three options.

The first is to be killed by the IDF and go down into history as another shahid (martyr), like many of his predecessors, including Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantisi.

Second, Sinwar could surrender to the IDF with the hope of being released (again) in a future prisoner exchange deal with Israel.

The third option is for Sinwar to leave the Gaza Strip, willing or unwillingly. This means either escaping from the Palestinian coastal enclave through one of their tunnels along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt or leaving (together with other Hamas commanders) as part of an internationally sponsored deal similar to the one that allowed PLO leader Yasser Arafat and his forces to exit Lebanon in 1982.

The general sense among Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip is that Sinwar would opt for the first option – “martyrdom,” if and when Israeli soldiers surround his hideout. Journalists who have been meeting with Sinwar on a semi-regular basis since he was released from Israeli prison as part of the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner swap are convinced that he would rather die as a shahid than surrender or be captured by the Israeli military.

The last two options – surrender or arrest – entail an element of humiliation, and this is not something Sinwar can tolerate. After all, he sees himself as one of the Palestinians’ and Arabs’ great “warriors” in modern history because of the Hamas invasion of Israel and the high death toll and damage inflicted on Israel. For someone like Sinwar, death is preferable to being shown surrendering or being arrested (perhaps in his underwear) by IDF soldiers. In Sinwar’s world, it is better to die as a “martyr” than to be depicted as a defeatist or coward. One of the recurring slogans chanted by Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip over the past few years is: “Death is preferable to humiliation.”

Yet, this does not mean that if given an “honorable” way out of his predicament, Sinwar would not go for it. If, for example, he was allowed to leave the Gaza Strip in an agreement engineered and supervised by some Arab countries, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, he would find it hard to turn down the offer.

Such a deal could elevate the Hamas terror chief to the equal of Yasser Arafat and send a message that he is leaving the Gaza Strip triumphant because Israel was not able to kill him or capture him. Moreover, Sinwar knows that living in exile hardly spells the end of Hamas’s leaders’ political and military careers. He sees that Hamas leaders based in Qatar, Lebanon, and Turkey are continuing to operate from their offices and homes in Doha, Beirut, and Ankara, and there’s no reason why he should not join Ismail Haniyeh, Khaled Mashaal, and Saleh al-Arouri in pursuing the bloody fight against Israel from these countries.

{Reposted from JCPA}

DF knows where Hamas leader is, but won’t strike at him because of hostages – reports

Multiple sources say Israel has identified Yahya Sinwar’s hiding place, but his use of Israeli human shields is keeping  military from attacking

By LAZAR BERMAN  8 January 2024

, IDF knows where Hamas leader is, but won't strike at him because of hostages - reports The Times of Israel

Yahya Sinwar, head of Hamas in Gaza, greets his supporters upon his arrival at a meeting in a hall on the sea side of Gaza City, on April Israeli soldiers are seen in a tunnel that the military says Hamas terrorists used to attack the Erez crossing in the northern Gaza Strip, December 15, 2023  Hundreds of shoes on the Tel Aviv boardwalk to make people think about what it’s like to be in the hostages’ proverbial shoes, including brothers, Yossi and Eli Sharabi, taken hostage on October 7, 2023  Israel appears to know the exact location of Hamas military leader Yahya Sinwar, the ruler of the Gaza Strip and the mastermind of the October 7 terror attacks, according to multiple reports.

However, Sinwar has surrounded himself with a large number of living Israeli hostages, which is preventing the Israel Defense Forces from carrying out a strike on him, Israel Hayom reported Monday.

It followed a similar statement on Kan public radio on Sunday by former Military Intelligence head Amos Yadlin. 30, 2022

Jonathan Schanzer, vice president at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, DC, tweeted that he had heard similar reports from “informed people” for weeks.

“The reports coming out of Israel over the last two days echo what I have heard for a few weeks,” he told The Times of Israel. “Namely, the Israelis have a good idea where Yahya Sinwar is hiding.”

“My assumption, although not confirmed, is that he is in the tunnels under Khan Younis,” Schanzer continued. “But what I heard specifically is that he had surrounded himself with Israeli hostages. He is using them as human shields.”

The IDF did not respond to requests for comment.

Sinwar reportedly spoke to hostages in nearly unaccented Hebrew in a bid to reassure them shortly after they were dragged into Gaza during Hamas’s October 7 onslaught.

“Hello, I am Yahya Sinwar. You are the most protected here. Nothing will happen to you,” Sinwar told the group, according to Channel 12. A hostage who was present recounted the incident to family and also briefed security officials, who confirmed the story, the report said.

One of the hostages, Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, who was released from Hamas captivity in October, revealed in an interview that she met Sinwar during her time held in Gaza — and was not afraid to tell him what she thought.

“Sinwar was with us three-four days after we got there,” Lifshitz told the Davar news outlet. “I asked him how he wasn’t ashamed, to do such a thing to people who for years support peace? He didn’t answer. He was quiet.”

In recent weeks, the IDF demolished a hideout apartment belonging to Sinwar in the north of Gaza along with a large tunnel system underneath it.

The IDF regularly claims to be closing in on Sinwar but the terror chief has not been captured, robbing Israel of a major morale-boosting operational achievement.

In December, Sinwar released his first public message since October 7, claiming that the terror group was on its way to crushing the IDF, and, in a reference to Israel, saying Hamas will not submit to “the occupation’s conditions.”

Sinwar falsely claimed that the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, had “targeted” over 5,000 Israeli soldiers and officers, and killed about third of them — that is, over 1,500.

Israel declared Hamas’s leaders “dead men walking” following Hamas’s October 7 massacre, but has yet to reach the terror group’s most senior officials in Gaza, who are believed to be sheltering inside the vast network of tunnels in the enclave while holding hostages alongside them.

Israel is believed to be behind the killing of Hamas terror chief Saleh al-Arouri in the Lebanese capital of Beirut last week, which would make him the most senior leader in the terror group to be killed by Israel in the ongoing war.

It is believed that 132 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — not all of them alive. Four hostages were released prior to that, and one was rescued by troops. The bodies of eight hostages have also been recovered and three hostages were mistakenly killed by the military. The IDF has confirmed the deaths of 23 of those still held by Hamas, citing new intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza.

Over 240 hostages were taken on October 7, when Hamas-led terrorists burst across the border and rampaged across southern communities, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

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Yahya Al-Sinwar: Architect Of Deception, Hamas Leader Who Defied Israel

Yahya Al-Sinwar: Architect Of Deception, Hamas Leader Who Defied Israel | MENAFN.COM

(MENAFN- Daily News Egypt) In the tumultuous theatre of Middle Eastern conflict, a figure rises to prominence, casting a shadow of mystery and defiance over the Gaza Strip – Yahya Al-Sinwar, the formidable leader of the Hamas movement. Al-Sinwar's intricate strategies have confounded Israeli decision-makers, placing him at the top of their list of high-priority targets for assassination. Through a web of deception and the orchestration of the Al-Aqsa Flood operation, Al-Sinwar not only rattled Israel's confidence but also raised questions about the effectiveness of its intelligence and security apparatus.

Shaping Perceptions: Al-Sinwar Paradigm

Often labelled by Israel as the“Hamas Defence Minister,” Al-Sinwar emerged from prison in 2011, as a freed captive in a strategic prisoner exchange. His pronouncements of a desire for ceasefire and prosperity for the war-torn Palestinian coastal enclave marked the beginning of a narrative shift. Craftily sowing seeds of doubt in Israeli minds, Al-Sinwar created an illusion that Hamas, internationally deemed a terrorist organisation, was transitioning from violence to stability and governance.

The impact was tangible; Israel, perceiving a reduced threat, significantly scaled back its monitoring of the Gaza border, relying heavily on electronic sensors. Analysts, diverted by the perceived shift in Hamas's approach, redirected their attention to Iran and Syria, leaving the border exposed. Al-Sinwar, the mastermind behind the October 7 attack, found himself in the crosshairs of Israeli assassination attempts, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu likening him to a “little Hitler in a bunker.”

Unveiling the Enigma: Al-Sinwar's Journey

Born into poverty in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, Al-Sinwar played a crucial role in establishing Hamas's military wing during the first Palestinian intifada. His imprisonment, initially a setback, became a transformative period. Engaging with Israelis, immersing himself in their culture and language, and overcoming health challenges, he emerged as a charismatic, determined, and formidable leader.

Despite Israeli attempts to recruit him during his two-decade incarceration, Al-Sinwar stood resolute. His release in 2011 marked a turning point, propelling him to leadership within Hamas, eventually becoming the leader of the entire Gaza Strip in 2017.

Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades: Historical Echoes

The recent conflict brought the Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, to the forefront. Established in the 1980s by Salah Shehadeh, the brigades adhere to a right-wing Sunni ideology and boast significant military capabilities.

The historical echoes of Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam, an anti-colonial fighter against British rule, resonate in the present. His legacy, marked by resistance against Jewish immigration and targeting British intelligence agents, culminated in his death in 1935, contributing significantly to the outbreak of the Great Palestinian Revolt in 1936 and shaping the course of the Palestinian national movement.

The Deceptive Tapestry and Historical Resonance

Yahya Al-Sinwar, with his strategic acumen and unyielding resilience, stands as a symbol of resistance against perceived oppression. The intricate tapestry of deception he weaves not only challenges Israeli security but also shapes global perceptions of the intricate dynamics in the Middle East. As the echoes of history reverberate through the Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, the ongoing saga in Gaza unfolds against a backdrop of geopolitical intricacies and historical resonances.

MENAFN01012024000153011029ID1107674236

Hamas

Who is Yahya Sinwar, Hamas' political leader in Gaza?

Friday, 1 Dec 2023

Smoke rises above buildings during an Israeli strike on Rafah after battles resumed

 

Yahya Sinwar, Hamas' leader in Gaza, is leading negotiations for prisoner-hostage swaps 

Who is Yahya Sinwar, Hamas' political leader in Gaza? (rte.ie) Last year, Yahya Sinwar told a rally in Gaza that Hamas would deploy fighters and rockets in a fierce strike on Israel, the nation that imprisoned him for 23 years before he was freed and rose to a leadership role in the militant group.
The speech by Hamas' leader in Gaza to thousands of cheering supporters bore the hallmarks of crowd-pleasing hyperbole.
Less than a year later, Israel discovered it was no idle threat, when Hamas fighters broke through Gaza's fence, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 200 hostages.
"We will come to you, God willing, in a roaring flood. We will come to you with endless rockets, we will come to you in a limitless flood of soldiers, we will come to you with millions of our people, like the repeating tide," he said during his 14 December address.
By the time of the speech, Sinwar and the militant Islamists' military leader Mohammed Deif had already hatched secret plans for the 7 October assault, the deadliest day in Israel's 75-year history.
In response, Israel has bombarded and invaded Gaza, killing more than 15,000 Palestinians.
Heard in hindsight, Sinwar's words carry the foreboding of what was to come, an attack Hamas dubbed the "flood of Al-Aqsa," a reference to the mosque in Jerusalem that is one of Islam's holiest shrines and stands on a place revered by Jews as Temple Mount.
Al-Aqsa has been subject to repeated Israeli raids. Sinwar is leading negotiations for prisoner-hostage swaps and directing military operations along with Deif and another commander, possibly from bunkers beneath Gaza, three Hamas sources told Reuters.
A senior Israeli security official told reporters this week Sinwar had wielded influence over talks mediated by Qatar that led to the ceasefire that ended today after the release of more than 200 Palestinian prisoners by Israel in return for dozens of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.
In the days after the 7 October attacks, Sinwar was seen by some of the Israeli hostages in the tunnels, freed hostages have said.
Hamas and Israeli officials have not publicly commented on the reported sighting.
The question of hostages and prisoner swaps is deeply personal for Sinwar, who spent half his adult life behind bars, and has vowed to free all Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
In his only statement since the attacks, he called on prison care associations to prepare the names of Palestinians jailed in Israel, suggesting they would all be brought home.
He was himself one of 1,027 Palestinians released from Israeli prisons in a swap for a single Israeli soldier held in Gaza in 2011.

Sinwar was born in the Khan Younis refugee camp
"I call on the resistance to pledge to free the remaining prisoners. This must turn immediately to a practical plan," he said at a huge homecoming rally in Gaza City after his release.
Born in the Khan Younis refugee camp, Sinwar, 61, was elected as Hamas' leader in Gaza in 2017.
Since 7 October, Israel has considered him and other leaders to be "living on borrowed time".
Defense minister Yoav Gallant said last week Israel is unlikely to end the war before Sinwar is dead or captured, officials in the region have said.
Sinwar rose to prominence as a ruthless enforcer, the head of the Al-Majd security apparatus which tracked, killed and punished Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel's secret service before he was jailed.
Both Hamas leaders and Israeli officials who know Sinwar agree he is devoted to the militant movement to an extraordinary lev

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Watch live: Israel presents rebuttal to genocide claims at ...

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Watch live as Israel presents its case against genocide accusations, brought by South Africa, at the ICJ. ... South Africa has formally accused ...

Sky News · Sky 

ICJ LIVE: South African delegates address media as case on ...

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22:30

South Africa addresses media after presenting its case to ICJ for an urgent order halting Israel's military campaign in Gaza as a ...

YouTube · Associated Press 

What is South Africa's genocide case against Israel? | REUTERS

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3:06

The International Court of Justice will hold hearings this week on a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide in the ...

YouTube · Reuters 

South Africa Takes Israel to The Hague - YouTube

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16:35

South Africa has filed a historic case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the main judicial body for the United ...

YouTube · BreakThrough News 

SA-Israel case | ICJ case against Israel starts today - YouTube

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3:15 

South Africa's case against Israel will be heard today in the International Court of Justice at The Hague in the Netherlands.

YouTube · SABC News 

Israel says South Africa distorting the truth in UN court Gaza ...

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4:19

Israel has said South Africa has distorted the truth in its case to the International Court of Justice, where it is accusing Israel of ...

YouTube · BBC News 

South Africa's ICJ case will go back decades - YouTube

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7:41

The International Court of Justice is set to hear arguments on Thursday, on whether Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

YouTube · Al Jazeera English 

South Africa is calling on ICJ to review the case ... - YouTube

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3:05

Israel is being accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice later Thursday. The UN's top court is being urged by South Africa ...

YouTube · Al Jazeera English

'Nowhere Is Safe in Gaza': South Africa Accuses Israel of ...

www.nytimes.com › video › world › hague-court-south-a...

1:11

South Africa began laying out its case that Israel is acting with “genocidal intent” in Gaza to the International Court of Justice in The ...

The New York Times 

Watch LIVE: ICJ hears Israel's defence against South Africa's ...

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3:11:04

Watch the second day of the ICJ proceedings as the court hears Israel's arguments against South Africa's case for an emergency order to stop ...

YouTube · Middle East Eye

South Africa brings case to UN's highest legal body - YouTube

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3:34

South Africa is set to begin a legal battle against Israel on ... ICJ hears Israel genocide case: South Africa brings case to UN's highest legal ...

YouTube · Al Jazeera English 

Trudeau says Canada doesn't support 'premise' of ... - YouTube

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1:16

Trudeau said while Canada supports the ICJ, it does not support the 'premise' of South Africa's allegations of genocide against Israel.

YouTube · CTV News 

Israel Genocide Hearings - YouTube

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2:01

It was Israel's turn to counter South Africa's arguments at the International Court of Justice. South Africa is accusing Israel of ...

YouTube · eNCA

SA argues genocidal intent on first day at ICJ - YouTube

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2:02

South Africa has presented its claims of genocide against Israel to the UN's top court. The hearings on Thursday and Friday relate to South ...

YouTube · eNCA 

ICJ holding first hearing in South Africa's genocide case ...

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11:25

The International Court of Justice is preparing to hear arguments that Israel is committing genocide, in its war on Gaza in The Hague.

YouTube · Al Jazeera English

Israel hits back at 'distorted' genocide case at UN top court

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4:15

Israel said Friday the genocide case at the UN top court against it was "profoundly distorted" and did not reflect the realities of the Gaza ...

YouTube · FRANCE 24 English

ICJ to hold first hearing in SA's genocide case against Israel ...

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2:02

The International Court of Justice will on Thursday hold the first hearing in the country's genocide case against Israel. South Africa filed ...

YouTube · eNCA 

ICJ LIVE: "Genocide Case" against Israel at ... - YouTube

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7:42:11

LIVE: ICJ Hears South Africa's "Genocide Case" Against Israel | Israel Hamas War Judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) hear a ...

YouTube · Times Of India  

UN international court hears South Africa's genocide case ...

www.theguardian.com › world › video › jan › un-internat...

 

2:53

South Africa has accused Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza and pleaded with the United Nations' top court on ...

The Guardian

South Africa ICJ case against Israel, demands ... - YouTube

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6:22

Israel has been dragged to the International Court of Justice in a landmark case that accuses the Jewish nation of genocide.

YouTube · WION

Can South Africa's court case against Israel end war in Gaza?

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28:31

The eyes of the world are on Israel as it stands accused of genocide in the International Court of Justice. It's being forced to answer for ...

YouTube · Al Jazeera English 

LIVE- ICJ Hearing 'Gaza Genocide' Case From South Africa

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3:23:55

LIVE- ICJ Hearing 'Gaza Genocide' Case From South Africa | Protest Outside ICJ UN Court | N18L Judges at the International Court of Justice ...

YouTube · CNN-News18 

SA-Israel ICJ case | Israel-SA face off at world's top court

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5:39

... International Court of Justice in The Hague, The Netherlands. Israel is expected to defend itself against genocide charges. For more, let us ...

YouTube · SABC News 

South Africa Accuses Israel of Committing Genocide in Palestine

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4:37

South Africa accused Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians there and pleaded with the United Nations' top court today ...

YouTube · 9NEWS

SA's genocide case against Israel at the ICJ - YouTube

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9:21

Legal analyst Mpumelelo Zikalala joins us to look at day 1 of South Africa's genocide case at the International Court of Justice.

YouTube · SABC News 

South Africa asks ICJ to order Israel to stop Gaza war - YouTube

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2:14 

South Africa asked the International Court of Justice to order Israel to immediately suspend its military operation in Gaza, where it says ...

YouTube · FRANCE 24 English

Reactions in Israel to South Africa's UN court case against war ...

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3:01

South Africa accused Israel on Thursday of subjecting Palestinians to genocidal acts at the opening of hearings at the top U.N. court on a ...

YouTube · FRANCE 24 English 

South Africa brings genocide accusations against Israel to ICJ

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12:00

In tonight's edition: South Africa takes Israel to the International Court of Justice, arguing that its response to the October 7 Hamas ...

YouTube · FRANCE 24 English 

South Africa Rips Apart Israel At ICJ Hearing | 'Ongoing Nakba...'

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4:30

South Africa's Ambassador to the Netherlands, Vusimuzi Madonsela, made appalling allegations against Israel at the International Court of ...

YouTube · Hindustan Times 

'Nowhere Is Safe in Gaza': South Africa Accuses Israel of ...

www.nytimes.com › video › world › middleeast › israel-s...

1:05

South Africa began laying out its case that Israel is acting with “genocidal intent” in Gaza to the International Court of Justice in The ...

The New York Times

South African lawyer's incredible speech accusing ... - YouTube

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26:05

 

Tembeka Ngcukaitobi was giving evidence at the Hague against Israel's continued bombardment of Gaza in the case taken out by South Africa ...

YouTube · PoliticsJOE 

Israel accuses South Africa of 'distorting' the truth in ICJ ...

globalnews.ca › video › israel-accuses-south-africa-of-dist...

 

1:55

The premise of South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) was challenged in the Hague on Friday ...

Global News 

SA-Israel ICJ case | SA's post-presentation briefing ... - YouTube

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23:31

South Africa's Advocate Adila Hassim has argued that Israel's conduct is in contravention of parts of the Genocide Convention.

YouTube · SABC News

SA's genocide case against Israel at the ICJ - Pt 1 - YouTube

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29:50

Justice Minister, Ronald Lamola, says South Africa wants to stop the suffering of Palestinians. The country is asking the World Court to ...

YouTube · SABC News 

ICJ genocide case: Israel wraps up defence against allegations

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3:58

Israel has rejected accusations that it is committing genocide in Gaza at the International Court of Justice.

YouTube · Al Jazeera English 

South Africa brings genocide case against Israel to ICJ

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2:44

The International Court of Justice heard South Africa's case accusing Israel of committing genocide.

YouTube · The Mirror 

Initial hearing against Israel conclude in The Hague - YouTube

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1:44

The International Court of Justice in The Hague concluded this Friday the initial hearing of the trial against Israel, accused by South ...

YouTube · TeleSUR English 

Israel will lose genocide case at The Hague, human rights ...

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5:02 

Professor Francis A. Boyle, Human Rights Professor and Lawyer who was the first to win a genocide case at the International Court of Justice ...

YouTube · LBC 

Israel Pleads World For Help To Influence ICJ Ruling | Inside ...

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4:12

Israel is reportedly planning to launch a diplomatic offensive ahead of hearing at the International Court of Justice on South Africa's ...

YouTube · Hindustan Times 

South African lawyer's incredible speech accusing Israel of ...

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26:05

Tembeka Ngcukaitobi was giving evidence at the Hague against Israel's continued bombardment of Gaza in the case taken out by South Africa ...

YouTube · PoliticsJOE

Israeli MP Ofer Cassif backs South Africa| Oneindia

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