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Alert: Egyptian blanket denial that smuggling tunnels exist from Sinai into Gaza Strip undermines any program hinging on Egyptian security cooperation

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Alert: Egyptian blanket denial that smuggling tunnels exist from Sinai into
Gaza Strip undermines any program hinging on Egyptian security cooperation.
Dr. Aaron Lerner, 22 January 2023

With some Gazans spending a fortune today to leave the Gaza Strip via
smuggling tunnels to Egypt, we have the Egyptian Government claiming that
“any smuggling operation is impossible.”

Take a look at this article published last October by NPR

+++
The ragged border crossing that could become Gaza’s lifeline
NPR OCTOBER 16, 20231:52 PM ET

HTTPS://WWW.NPR.ORG/2023/10/16/1206107279/THE-RAGGED-BORDER-CROSSING-THAT-COULD-BECOME-GAZAS-LIFELINE

…Rafah has long been a magnet for smugglers, who dug tunnels under the border, with some of entrance and exit points emerging inside homes on both sides of the border.

In quiet times, smugglers have brought in cigarettes and other goods to avoid taxes. In more recent years, Hamas used the tunnels to amass an arsenal of weapons, including some of those used in the surprise Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel that killed more than 1,400 Israelis…
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So any plan spending billions of dollars building a wall on the Egyptian
side is a farce from the start since we already see that the Egyptians are
not going to be serious about the operation of the barrier.

Egypt goes another step.

While Israel has generously allowed Egypt to flood the Sinai with troops and
military equipment in numbers magnitudes greater than the treaty sets since
Egypt faces a security emergency, we have Egypt threatening the Jewish state
if it temporarily increases its forces on the border in a move that would
not come close to the size of the Egyptian forces which are in excess of the
treaty.

And this would indeed be a temporary extra Israeli force since once the
“civil works project” is carried out to block smuggling the force required
to maintain it would not be a violation of the agreement.

Any third party with eyes in their heads who wants a serious solution of the
situation in the Gaza Strip should be working now behind the scenes to make
sure that Mr. Rashwan’s remarks reported below do not reflect what Egypt
actually will do should Israel decide to take the security of the Gaza Strip
seriously.
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Egypt: Israeli lies regarding alleged smuggling arms along borders lead to
serious threat to Egyptian-Israeli ties
BY Egypt Today staff
Mon, 22 Jan 2024 – 09:09 GMT
https://www.egypttoday.com/Article/1/129927/Egypt-Israeli-lies-regarding-all
eged-smuggling-arms-along-borders-lead

CAIRO – 22 January 2024: Diaa Rashwan, head of the State Information Service
(SIS) announced that recent remarks by Israeli officials, and Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu about alleged smuggling operations of weapons,
explosives, ammunition, and their components, into the Gaza Strip from
Egyptian territory through alleged tunnels are lies and groundless.

“These Israeli claims and lies aim to create a “legitimacy” through which it
seeks to occupy the Philadelphia Axis (also known as the Salah al-Din Axis,
which refers to a strip of land along the border between Egypt and the Gaza
Strip) by violating the security agreements and protocols signed between
Israel and Egypt. So, we strongly confirm that any Israeli move in this
direction will lead to a serious threat to Egyptian-Israeli relations,”
Rashwan said in a statement on Monday.

“This Egyptian red line joins the previous one, which Egypt has repeatedly
declared, which is the categorical rejection of forcibly or voluntarily
displacing our Palestinian brothers to Sinai. This line Israel will not be
allowed to pass,” he added.

He said that the world knows about the tremendous efforts exerted by Egypt
over the past 10 years to get rid of tunnels along Egypt’s borders with
Palestinian Gaza and Israel, to achieve security and stability in Sinai and
enhance security on the border between Egyptian Rafah and the Gaza Strip.
Egypt had suffered greatly from these tunnels during the fierce
confrontation with terrorist groups in Sinai after the overthrow of the
Brotherhood regime in June 2013 until 2020. These tunnels had represented a
means for smuggling fighters and weapons to Sinai to carry out terrorist
operations that claimed the lives of more than 3,000 martyrs from the army,
police, and civilians, and more than 13,000 injured.

Rashwan clarified Egypt had gotten rid of these tunnels by creating a
5-kilometer-long buffer zone from the Egyptian city of Rafah to the border
with Gaza, besides destroying more than 1,500 tunnels.

Rashwan added that Egypt has set up three barriers between Sinai and
Palestinian Rafah by expanding the zone to 14 kilometers and building a
concrete 6-meter-high wall above the ground and a 6-meter-deep barrier under
the ground. So, any smuggling operation is impossible, neither above ground
nor underground.

“Egypt has full sovereignty over its land, and has complete control over its
entire northeastern borders, whether with the Gaza Strip or with Israel,” he
said.

“Surprisingly, Israel speaks in this undocumented way about the allegations
of arms smuggling from Egypt to Gaza, while it [Israel] is the country that
has military control over the Strip and possesses the most modern and
accurate means of reconnaissance and monitoring; and its forces,
settlements, and naval forces surround the small strip on three sides and
sends accusations to Egypt without any further evidence.”

Israeli claims that smuggling operations are carried out through trucks
carrying aid and goods to the Gaza Strip from the Egyptian side of the Rafah
border crossing is an empty and ridiculous statement, because any truck
entering the Gaza Strip from this crossing must first pass through the
Israeli-run Kerem Abu Salem crossing, for inspection. Meanwhile, the
recipients of this aid are the Palestinian Red Crescent and United Nations
relief organizations such as UNRWA, which adds further evidence of the
Israeli lies, Rashwan said.

He said that the true aim of Israel’s claims is to justify its continuation
of the collective punishment, killing, and starvation of more than 2 million
Palestinians inside the Gaza Strip, which it [Israel] has practiced for 17
years.

“The Israeli government must conduct serious investigations inside its army,
state agencies, and sectors of society, to search for those truly involved
in smuggling weapons to Gaza, from inside, for the purpose of profit,” he
said.

“Egypt was the initiative and agreed with Israel, in 2005 and 2021, to
increase the size of the border guard forces and capabilities in this border
region in order to secure the northeastern strategic border, out of respect
for the peace treaty with Israel, and so that the latter does not take any
unilateral step on its part,” he added.

Many of the weapons currently inside the Gaza Strip are the result of
smuggling from Israel like M16 rifles and types of RPGs, as well as dual-use
materials in the military manufacturing of the military wings in the Gaza
Strip. It is sufficient to review what the Israeli media publishes about the
investigations taking place with members of the Israeli army, on the
background of the disappearance of weapons or their sale in the West Bank,
and from there they are sent to the Gaza Strip, he said.

“Speaking of the West Bank, can Israeli officials, who are spreading lies
against Egypt, explain the source of the large quantities of weapons,
ammunition and explosives spread in various areas of the West Bank,
according to their official statements, in light of the full control of the
occupation army over it, and that it does not have any kind of border with
Egypt? Then, they will only find the same people involved, from their army,
state agencies, and sectors of society, in smuggling weapons into the Gaza
Strip for the purpose of profit,” he continued.

The information shows that most of the heavy weapons smuggling operations
into the Gaza Strip take place across the Mediterranean Sea, where its
shores with Gaza are completely controlled by the Israeli naval and air
forces. This indicates the same people involved in Israel, from its army,
its state agencies, and sectors of society, in weapons smuggling to Gaza for
the purpose of profit, Rashwan clarified.

It is worth noting Israeli army revealed, during the current war, especially
the video ones, about the seizure of many weapons, missiles, and explosives
manufacturing workshops inside the tunnels in Gaza, which means that there
is a high possibility that a large part of the armament of Hamas and the
Palestinian factions will be manufactured locally and not through smuggling,
said Rashwan.

“The Israeli allegations and lies are a continuation of Israel’s policy of
escape due to its successive failures in achieving its declared goals for
the war on Gaza. It [Israel] is looking for someone responsible outside of
its area for these failures, as it also did the same thing recently by
accusing Egypt at the International Court of Justice of being the one
preventing and obstructing Humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip, despite
its full knowledge that Egypt did not close the Rafah crossing on its part,
even for a single moment,” he said.

“The arbitrary policies of successive Israeli governments have eliminated
any prospects for a peaceful solution to the Palestinian issue and
encouraged the separation of the Gaza Strip under the leadership of Hamas
from the Palestinian Authority, including turning a blind eye to the funding
it receives and the stifling siege of the Strip,” he continued.

“These policies, for more than a decade and a half, are part of Netanyahu’s
strategy to deepen the Palestinian division and ensure the separation of
Gaza from the West Bank to weaken the Palestinian Authority, and to have the
justification to refuse to enter into any negotiations on a two-state
solution,” Rashwa added.

“Egypt’s full support and solidarity with the Palestinian cause is certain
and realistic without the slightest doubt, and is in line with Egypt’s
official statute of supporting the rights of the Palestinian people in their
independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital on the borders of June
4, 1967,” he said.

“Egypt’s popular and official solidarity and support for the Palestinian
cause does not conflict with securing our borders and preventing smuggling
to and from it. Supporting the Palestinian cause has many political ways
that bear fruit until the Palestinian people obtain their legitimate rights,
which Egypt has done publicly since the beginning of the recent crisis, and
before that all the time in support of the brotherly Palestinian people,” he
continued.

“No doubt that such [Israeli] false allegations do not serve the positive
Egyptian efforts made to resolve the crisis in Gaza, which has affected the
entire region and made it ripe for expanding the circle of conflict, the
matter that President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi warned against repeatedly,”
Rashwan said.

“In conclusion, these false allegations do not serve the peace treaty that
Egypt respects. Egypt demands that the Israeli side to show its respect for
it also, and to stop making statements that would strain bilateral relations
in light of the current inflammatory conditions,” he added.

“Egypt calls on everyone who talks about failure in protecting borders to
stop making these allegations because it [Egypt] has a strong army capable
of protecting its borders with all efficiency and discipline. Egypt will
continue its natural positive role to solve all the problems of the region,
and these false allegations will not succeed in dissuading Egypt from
carrying out its internal, regional and international responsibilities,” he
said.
________________________________________
IMRA – Independent Media Review and Analysis

Since 1992 providing news and analysis on the Middle East with a focus on
Arab-Israeli relations

Website: www.imra.org.il

Thoughts on International Holocaust Remembrance Day

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Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg , son of survivors of AUSCHWITZ

Holocaust survivor: ‘Hamas atrocities many times worse than the Nazis.’
90-year-old Miriam Schlisser lived through the Holocaust and the years preceding it, but the emotional turmoil she has experienced since Oct. 7 has brought her to difficult conclusions.

Please do not call this horrible war a Holocaust.

I have stories from survivors in my many books describing similar atrocities as those done by Hamas.

However, the ramification of this war is the same as the Holocaust.

Many will seek all their lives for survivors not knowing they are dead or alive.

Numerous families lost children to these barbarians and in some cases will have to remarry, just like in the Holocaust. My father’s first wife was murdered together with two children.

Like survivors of this war PTSD will be rampant as it is in the Holocaust community.

I have a son, his wife and their two babies in Jerusalem. My oldest grandson is learning in a yeshiva in Israel. I have a nephew and cousins living in Israel, some of which have been called up to go to war. I feel your pain, brothers and sisters, can send you a hug and offer prayers. I basically do not sleep as I am writing articles in media around the world. I just came back from Israel and attended the funeral of over 40. Israeli soldiers. I just met my newfound cousins discovered through DNA.

The horrors of Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps will soon be lost to living memory. But the recent rise in antisemitsm and the current war in ISRAEL underlines the need never to forget.

Four years after the liberation of the largest Nazi extermination camp, on 27 January 1945, the German philosopher Theodor Adorno observed: “To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric.” He came to revise that view, along with its implication that a kind of silence was perhaps the only possible response to the horror of the Holocaust. Later, he wrote that “perennial suffering has as much right to expression as a tortured man to scream” The United Nations General Assembly designated January 27—the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau—as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The United Nations General Assembly designated January 27—the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau—as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

On this annual day of commemoration, the UN urges every member state to honor the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust and millions of other victims of Nazism and to develop educational programs to help prevent future genocides . NEVER GIVE UP SEARCHING.

Fatal Amnesia

By
Michael Kuttner
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There are many contagious diseases to which humanity can succumb.

One of the most lethal, which has devastating consequences, is the deliberate erasure of past disasters, often combined with an obsessive urge to endlessly repeat the same mistakes. There seems to be no cure for this common condition.

One would think that having once been infected by this malady, some sort of immunity against future attacks might be available.

Unfortunately, this is not the case, and therefore, the affliction returns with increased morbidity.  Many Jews seem to be particularly prone to suffering from these symptoms, and no matter how many times they catch it, they still do not learn how to avoid it in the future.

Current events demonstrate that we ignore this phenomenon at our peril.

On 27 January, many countries observe International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Ironically, designated by the United Nations General Assembly as a worldwide day of remembrance it has become an event where duplicitous rhetoric and political pontifications are the order of the day. I mention ironically because it is this same UN General Assembly which for 365 days of the year demonstrates its true intentions by condemning and slandering the world’s only Jewish State.

On one day in the year, tears are shed and pledges of “never again” are articulated by a minority of UN members. For the immoral majority, it is business as usual. This means that Iran continues to work with its willing partners to erase the Jewish nation from the map. On the very day set aside by the UN to remember the genocide against the Jewish People, there are UN members doing everything possible to complete the job.

The worst aspect is that this inconvenient fact is ignored by all the tear-shedders. What is even worse is that Jewish attendees at the various ceremonies do not rise up and voice their disgust at this gross display of hypocrisy and fake sympathy.

This year’s gatherings promise to be even more excruciating than usual.

With South Africa’s smearing of Israel at the International Court of Justice, the ground has been prepared to brand it as a pariah nation. Ireland is the latest country prepared to join The Hague hate festival, while others are still thinking about whether to jump on the bandwagon

Given the publicity already spread in the media, it does not take a genius to work out that this year’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day will be an ideal opportunity to tar Israel with the genocide slander.

Watch out for spokespersons to hijack this annual event and turn it into an anti-Israel/Zionist diatribe. There will be moral equivalences between what the Germans and their willing partners did to the Jews and what Israelis are doing to “peace-loving” Gaza citizens. The latter, according to conventional political wisdom, are, after all, only yearning for a Palestinian State that will live in peace, harmony, tolerance and democracy with its Jewish neighbours.

Those who parrot this absurd mantra remain oblivious to the real agenda. Like the politicians before them (pre-World War 2), those spouting this nonsense do not want to be bothered with realities. Pre-1939, it was a refusal to acknowledge and do something about the Nazi genocidal plan of extermination. Today, it is politicians so blinkered that they refuse to face up to the real agenda of the Iranian-financed and logistically supported terror groups on Israel’s doorstep.

The brainwashing taking place has already had a malign influence on far too many.

There are reports of schools in the UK and elsewhere dropping lessons on the Holocaust “because it may cause hurt and anguish to other minority groups.” What this really means is that those responsible do not want to upset jihadist followers, woke advocates and hardcore anti-Israel protesters in case these types engage in violent physical activities against them.

It will be interesting to see how many commemoration gatherings are cancelled or closed to the public this year. How many political invitees will send their regrets? Who will find it impossible to resist the irresistible urge to tie the murder of six million Jews and millions of other “non-desirables” with the current conflict?

It is a scandalous situation when some ceremonies need to be held in secret because of a threat to Jews. Have we reverted to converso days when Jews in Spain and Portugal were forced to observe their communal observances clandestinely?

The EU is threatening unspecified consequences if Israel continues to resist the idea of establishing another terror State in its midst. The New Zealand Foreign Minister is “deeply concerned” over the Israel Government’s opposition to a two-state solution. Australia’s Foreign Minister, who declined to see the aftermath of Palestinian Arab “peace” gestures for herself during her recent visit, still thinks that gifting them an independent State is a must.

What none of these “experts” and the rest of the UN want to acknowledge is a simple truth. The reason there is no such country is as a result of Arab rejection of the idea since at least 1937. Those who today call themselves “Palestinians” have invented a revisionist history which among other things denies any historical Jewish connection and legitimacy and promotes vile hate. Groups such as Honest Reporting, JNS, PMW, CAMERA and Gatestone Institute (among others) testify to this on a daily basis.

Despite all the available evidence, the Biden Administration, with UN support, continues to demand that Israel sign its own death warrant. Israel is assured that international guarantees will be in place, which will ensure that the jihadists of Fatah/ PA/PLO/Hamas/Hezbollah/ Houthis and Iran cannot launch another 7 October massacre.

If nothing else, the horrific experiences of the pre-Shoah years and subsequent betrayals have impressed on Jewish consciousnesses the inability, in fact, the deliberate ineffectiveness of international promises of safety.

The rest of the world may prefer to forget how it has abandoned helpless Jews to their collective fate but a majority of Israelis certainly have not. Apart from those who prefer to self-flagellate and deny their own history, every other Jewish Israeli knows only too well where worthless guarantees lead.

As the mindless millennials and progressive woke folk are currently demonstrating, there is no safety for Jews anywhere. In the mantra of today’s mobs, there is only one guilty party. It is the Jewish State which, by its very existence, is a sin against humanity and a threat to world peace. By association, Jews worldwide are also tainted with the crime of actually supporting such a sinful State.

In order to expiate its criminality, Israel is now expected to sign its own death warrant and lend a hand to its own grisly fate. Any collateral damage suffered, such as hostages and terror victims are as a result of its having the chutzpah to re-establish sovereignty in its ancient homeland.

The rest of the world may be more than willing to swallow a fake narrative whereby Islamic conquerors are now designated as “indigenous.” Most Jewish Israelis, however, are not prepared to once again become the scapegoats of cynical hypocrisy.

It is, therefore, extremely important, given all the current absurdities, to ensure that this year’s International Holocaust Remembrance observances do not descend into a frenzy of frenetic revisionism and amnesia. Kowtowing to the latest version of political correctness will not earn any plaudits.

Enough already of meek Jewish compliance with doublespeak and an Orwellian orgy of obfuscation.

UNRWA Policies Following the War

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View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building during a strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on July 26, 2018. Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90 *** Local Caption *** אונר"א
עזה
בניין
שביתה

Swiss diplomat Phillipe Lazzarini, head of United Nations Relief and Works Agency will now face a torrent of  pressure from donor nations to conduct sweeping policy change in light of the war. 

This is especially true regarding  UNRWA schools, which for the past 25 years have used the Palestinian Authority curriculum to indoctrinate Palestinian Arab children to conquer all of Palestine by force of arms, a goal hardly appropriate to a UN agency.

Policies  which the UNRWA commissioner will have to cope with.

  1. UNRWA textbooks which do not match UN values of peaceful reconciliation. The agency has reintroduced a new schoolbook which features Dalal el Mugrabi – whose terror squad commandeered a bus and murdered 38 passengers, including 13 children – as a role model for UNRWA pupils. In the new UNRWA text, Dalal is portrayed in full terror garb, followed by a lesson plan which presents her life story for adulation and emulation. The  commissioner would have confiscate such textbooks.
  2. UNRWA contracts for exclusive use of Palestinian Authority schoolbooks in Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem and Gaza. Like all UN agencies, UNRWA is supposed to run schools based on the UN slogan “Peace Begins Here.” PA education, however, runs schools based on the ideology of the Palestine Liberation Organization: Conquest of Palestine by force of arms. The new commissioner must  cancel the UNRWA-PA contract.
  3. UNRWAschools are adorned with posters and murals of “martyrs” who died while murdering Jews. The new UNRWA commissioner can order the removal of all violent images in agency facilities.
  4. El Kutla youth clubs in UNRWA schools inspire pupils with the mantra of the armed struggle from a young age. The new UNRWA commissioner can order El Kutla clubs to cease and desist from violent incitement.
  5. Military parades frequent UNRWA premises. The new commissioner can order an end to military parades in any UNRWA facility.
  6. Hamas terror groups present candidates to lead the agency’s teachers and workers unions. The new UNRWA commissioner can demand that any agency employee who runs on a “Hamas ticket” be barred from the payroll. Even the UN defines Hamas as a terrorist organization.
  7. Nakba events are scheduled again for this May 15, the day when the PLO mourns the defeat of the Arab armies that invaded Israel in 1948. These rallies call for the  violent overthrow of the  Jewish state/. The new UNRWA commissioner can issue a directive to refrain from any call to violence at the Nakba ceremonies in UNRWA facilities.
  8. Popular Gazan singer Mohammad Assaf, claiming to be “UNRWA Youth Ambassador,” whips up crowds to violence. The new UNRWA Commissioner can issue a policy statement that the agency dissociates itself from Assaf and his message.
  9. Memorial Events for Arabs killed in the act of murder occur in UNRWA schools. The new UNRWA commissioner can cancel such ceremonies.
  10. Fiscal Transparency. With a flow of $1.6 billion in donations from 67 nations and 32 NGOs, much of which arrives in cash, the UNRWA commissioner must ensure that all funds and equipment are used for humanitarian needs – and not stolen, transferred to the hands of terror groups or sold on the open market. The time has come for the  UNRWA commissioner to put an end to cash payments, which makes donor transparency nearly impossible.
  11. Export of UNRWA school texts. Using the diplomatic pouch of donor nations, the agency exports schoolbooks promoting the “right of return” and the replacement of Israel with “Palestine.” The New UNRWA commissioner can put an end to this.
  12. Obfuscation of the UNRWA financial situation. At no time has UNRWA ever specified how it spends its budget. The new commissioner could immediately publicize an accounting of expenditures.
  13. Non-recognition of Israel on the map. UNRWA distributes world and regional maps which obliterate Israel and replace all Israeli locations with Arab names. Should Israel, a UN member in good standing, not appear on a map issued by a UN agency? The  UNRWA commissioner can now make it his business to ensure that all maps show all members of the UN, including 

14 . Arms training summer camps. For the past twenty years, thousands of UNRWA students aged 9-16 have participated in summer camps that feature arms training with live weapons. With summer now approaching, the new UNRWA commissioner can act to curb arms training of “child soldiers,” which flies in the face of UN resolutions that protect the health and well-being of children.

  1. 15. An end to the transformation of UNRWA schools into arsenals of weapons, ammunition and missiles, as witnessed during the current war. The time has come for an arms inspection of all UNRWA facilities, especially UNRWA schools in Bethlehem and Jerusalem, which were not overrun by the IDF.
  2. Organization of a systematic UNRWA emigration center, to help UNRWA residents to relocate and start their lives anew, to provide an alternative to the “right of return” as the only option for their future.    

 

A post script on US UNRWA policy

 

The US- UNRWA accord, signed by the US and UNRWA on July 14th, 2021was one  a most positive and constructive initiatives of US Middle East Foreign Policy

https://israelbehindthenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Analysis-The- US-UNRWA-Accord-reached-on-July-14th-2021-1.pdf

For the first time, a major donor nation set conditions to fund UNRWA These mandatory  conditions were such that UNRWA could only gain access to hundreds of millions of US aid dollars after UNRWA would agree to delete its war education curriculum. 

In August, 2021, our news and research agency asked the UNRWA spokeswoman if UNRWA would indeed change its curriculum in light  of the US-UNRWA accord . 

“Absolutely not” said the UNRWA spokesperson. 

As a result, the US-UNRWA accord was enforced, to the letter of the law. Since UNRWA would not delete its curriculum, d not a penny of allocated US aid flowed to UNRWA for the past two years.

This US-UNRWA accord was enforced, to the law.

Last week, as Israel examines  policies to implement after the current  was, I was invited to testify about the US-UNRWA accord at the Knesset parliamentary committee for security and foreign affairs. 

After I completed testimony about the enforcement of that accord, which meant no  UNRWA access to US funds for UNRWA until there will be a change in the UNRWA syllabus , a rep. of the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs contradicted my reassurances and informed Knesset members that the US Congress that Israel had been informed that the US would no longer abide by the US-UNRWA accord. In other words, the US will now allow funds to flow to UNRWA, without any constraints.

A new era of UNRWA indoctrination to the right of return via the armed struggle will now ensue.

 

 

  • The writer is head of Israel Resource News Agency at the Center for Near East Policy Research, located at the Beit Agron Center in Jerusalem. He has provided hands on news coverage of UNRWA”” since December 1987, assisted by a team of Jewish and Arab journalists. as producing 24 short films shot on location, along with two books, GENESIS OF THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY  and UNRWA; ROADBLOCK TO PEACE, along  hundreds of news articles.

 

Złóżmy pozew przeciwko UNRWA w Hadze

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UNRWA wspiera terrorystów, kształci dzieci na terrorystów i pozwala, żeby w jej obiektach znajdowały się oddziały bojowników i wyrzutnie rakiet. ONZ ponosi za to odpowiedzialność, pozwalając, aby to trwało.

UNRWA nie ukrywa faktu, że jej 30 tysięcy pracowników działa jako żołnierze na wojnie z Żydami.

Nadszedł czas, aby wziąć pod uwagę początki UNRWA, zainicjowanej przez mediatora ONZ z 1948 r., Folke Bernadotte, który jako pierwszy przedstawił „niezbywalne prawo powrotu do Palestyny” jako przeciwwagę żydowskich aspiracji powrotu do Syjonu, później uchwalone przez Izrael jako konstytucyjne Prawo Powrotu, które pozwala wszystkim Żydom na wjazd do Izraela.


 

Nadszedł czas, aby zdjąć rękawiczki i ostatecznie zdefiniować UNRWA jako wrogą organizację oraz zbadać odpowiedzialność karną Komisarza Generalnego UNRWA, który ponosi bezpośrednią odpowiedzialność za ogromne ilości broni w szkołach UNRWA, odkryte przez IDF. Poinformowało o tym szerzej wznowione przez oficera IDF w służbie czynnej Lobby Izraelskiego Knesetu Na Rzecz Zmiany Polityki UNRWA.

Dochodzenie karne dotyczące UNRWA w Hadze powinno się skupić się na jej bezpośrednim zaangażowaniu w działania terrorystyczne.

Wystarczy, że jeden członek Knesetu zwróci się do wydziału badawczego Knesetu o zebranie dowodów w celu przedstawienia ich Sekretarzowi Generalnemu ONZ z zarzutami popełnienia zbrodni wojennych przez UNRWA. To rozpocznie drogę w kierunku prezentacji sprawy w Hadze.

Należałoby poprosić przynajmniej jednego darczyńcę UNRWA o reaktywację uśpionej RWG –REFUGEE WORKING GROUP, by jako darczyńcy UNRWA nadzorowali budżet UNRWA wynoszący 1,6 miliarda dolarów, przy czym ogromna ilość środków otrzymywana jest w gotówce i nie jest rozliczana.

Zrewitalizowana RWG zbadałaby przejrzystość wykorzystania 1,6 miliarda dolarów rocznych darowizn od 68 krajów-darczyńców i 33 organizacji – większość z nich, jak wspomniano powyżej, w gotówce i nierozliczona – tak, by fundusze dla UNRWA nie trafiały już do kufrów organizacji terrorystycznych, które obecnie kontrolują skarbiec UNRWA.

RWG zostałaby poproszona o sprawdzenie pracowników UNRWA powiązanych z Hamasem, Islamskim Dżihadem lub Fatahem, zgodnie z prawami krajów-darczyńców, które zabraniają udzielania pomocy jakimkolwiek podmiotom terrorystycznym.

Ponieważ UNRWA ponosi odpowiedzialność za twierdzenie, że istnieje ponad 5 milionów potomków arabskich uchodźców z wojny 1948 r., którzy nadal nazywają siebie uchodźcami, logiczne wydaje się stosowanie zasad działania jedynej innej organizacji ONZ zajmującej się uchodźcami w całej reszcie świata, UNHCR – Wysoka Komisja ONZ ds. Uchodźców – w celu promowania trwałych przesiedleń czwartego i piątego pokolenia uchodźców, którzy przez ostatnie siedem dekad żyli jako „wieczni uchodźcy”.

Polityka UNRWA zawsze zakładała, że przesiedlenie palestyńskich uchodźców arabskich z wojny 1948 r. zaszkodzi ich mitycznemu „prawu do powrotu”, które zostało wzmocnione tysiącami graffiti rozsianych we wszystkich placówkach UNRWA, wzywających do dżihadu i pochwały męczenników i morderców. Dzieje się tak podczas promowania „prawa do powrotu” przy użyciu broni, wraz z nowym programem nauczania UNRWA, opartym na dżihadzie, gloryfikowaniu męczenników i podżeganiu przeciwko Żydom.

Nie ma usprawiedliwienia dla indoktrynacji dzieci w szkołach ONZ do przemocy, ponieważ motto edukacji ONZ brzmi: „Pokój zaczyna się tutaj”, a 58% budżetu UNRWA wydawane jest na „edukację” UNRWA.

Nie ma powodu, dla którego odnowiona RWG nie mogłaby również żądać dokładnej kontroli czy nie ma broni we wszystkich obiektach UNRWA, zaprzestania wszelkich szkoleń wojskowych uczniów UNRWA i usunięcia wszelkich tekstów AP wychwalających masową morderczynię, Dalal Al Mugrabi oraz innych terrorystów we wszystkich szkołach UNRWA.

Link do oryginału: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/383422

Israel National News, 11 stycznia 2024

Tłumaczenie: Małgorzata Koraszewska


David Bedein

Dziennikarz kierujący Israel Resource News Agency oraz Center for Near East Policy Research. Autor książki Where has all the flour gone: The whims and waste of UNRWA refugee policy. Bedein nakręcił również wiele filmów.

Przeprowadził się do Izraela z USA w roku 1970.

Journalist David Bedein on UNRWA and Palestinian Refugees

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David Bedein has spent nearly forty years focusing his journalistic efforts on UNRWA, the United Nations arm tasked with the health, welfare, and education of Palestinian refugees. The UN does not try to resettle Palestinian refugees the way it does refugees from any other place in the world. Further, refugee status for Palestinians is inherited, which is also unique among the refugees. Over the years, David and his team of both Jewish and Arab investigators have documented how UNRWA money goes unaccounted for, and how their schools teach children to hate and to want to kill jews.

David’s many videos, films, and books on the topic can be found at his website: https://israelbehindthenews.com/

In the episode David mentions sharing an example of a woman who is lauded as a hero in UNRWA school books for killing 34 Jews. Here is the link to that text: https://israelbehindthenews.com/2021/11/30/dalal-al-mughrabi-a-murderous-terrorist-as-a-role-model-in-palestinian-authority-schoolbooks-used-by-unrwa-2/

From Paris to The Hague

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Michael Kuttner
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Paris, France cityscape with Tower and bridge

“From Paris to the Hague sees the return of the same old plague.”

In 1894, Alfred Dreyfus, a French Jewish army officer, was put on trial and convicted of treason. His conviction and subsequent exile to Devil’s Island unleashed a tsunami of Jew hate in France. Mobs of French citizens screaming inciting anti-Jewish slogans rampaged throughout the country, and most of the media whipped up hysteria against Dreyfus and his supporters.

Notwithstanding the heroic efforts of the likes of Emile Zola and others to show that this was a miscarriage of justice, the French legal authorities resisted every attempt to reverse their guilty verdict. In fact, it was only in 1906 that the real truth prevailed, and Dreyfus was exonerated. Of course, by that time, the damage had been done, and the virulent virus of Judeophobia was only temporarily subdued.

Even without the benefit of social media and the internet, the campaign against Jews spread like wildfire with mobs shouting “death to the Jews” and physical attacks breaking out.

It was this spectacle that convinced Theodore Herzl, an assimilated Austrian Jewish journalist, that there was no future for Jews in Europe anymore and that their only salvation lay in re-establishing Jewish sovereignty in the Promised Land. He reasoned that only there could the Jewish People regain respect and be able to defend themselves against the plague of hate that permeated the continent of Europe.

Herzl also assumed that once Jews had regained independence in their ancestral homeland antisemitism would disappear and an era of tolerance towards Jews would blossom forth.

If he were alive today, he would surely rue this rash assumption.

Instead of disappearing and being discredited, anti-Jew hate has morphed into anti-Zionism, which in turn has mutated into delegitimisation of the Jewish State. Far from diminishing and waning, the age-old virus has resurfaced with a vengeance and virulence unseen since Dreyfus and the Shoah.

The similarities between what transpired in 1894 and what is unfolding in 2024 are eerily identifiable.

We can see the same legal and judicial kangaroo courts listening to the wildest accusations, which are presented as factual evidence of the guilt of the accused. In 1894 it was a Jew by the name of Dreyfus in the dock. Today it is the Jewish State of Israel in the same dock at the International Court of Justice at The Hague.

Back then, it was a corrupt, Jew-hating military establishment backed by a virulent anti-Jewish press and Church-sponsored political parties that guaranteed that the guilt of Dreyfus would be determined well before the Court had even begun to decide its verdict.

Today, we have the spectacle of a corrupt and failed state acting as a cheerleader for a genocidal terror group, accusing the Jewish victim of genocide because it has the audacity to fight back.

The ICJ is the United Nations’ highest legal authority. The automatic bias against Israel is guaranteed given that out of 193 members of the General Assembly only 84 are classified as free and democratic. This can be seen in the sheer overwhelming number of resolutions passed annually that condemn the Jewish State.

The fifteen judges of the ICJ are chosen by the UN, which should alert one to potential looming problems. The current judges are citizens of the following nations:

USA (chief judge)

Russia

Slovakia

France

Morocco

Somalia

China

Uganda

India

Jamaica

Lebanon

Japan

Germany

Australia

Brazil

While there is no doubt that these men and women are jurists of the highest integrity, one has to wonder what sort of considerations other than legal will come into play when they consider their rulings. Some of them represent countries where human rights are a fiction and Governments dictate what people must think. Others must surely be mindful that their country is held hostage by terror groups. At least two countries represented have already either attacked their neighbour or are threatening to do so.

Will those judges be prepared to “buck” their Government’s policies and potential consequences in dismissing South Africa’s absurd libel of genocide?

Legal experts maintain that it could take years for a final decision to be forthcoming; in the meantime, however, the Court will issue interim rulings which could very well tar Israel with enough mud so as to brand the country guilty on all counts in the eyes of the immoral majority at the UN.

If this scenario eventuates, it is guaranteed that the mindless mobs and their willing accomplices will be in full cry. Just as the Dreyfus trial unleashed a torrent of bile and murderous intent, this ICJ farce will, thanks to malevolent media and pernicious political double standards, whip up a similar tsunami.

Double standards are the hallmark of those for whom “the penny still hasn’t dropped.”

It certainly has not dropped as far as the Australian Foreign Minister is concerned. She has made a flying visit to Israel, Jordan, the “occupied Palestinian territories” (her description) and the UAE.

One does not need to be a genius to interpret the double-speak articulated during her odyssey in the region. Her frantic efforts at trying to attribute a moral equivalency between Hamas kidnapping Israeli civilians, engaging in rape, torture and decapitation and “illegal settlers” (her definition again) terrorising innocent Arabs will set the tone of her visit. The former pogroms carried out by a terrorist group with a genocidal agenda bears no relationship to a latter small handful of criminals taking the law into their own hands.

The Australian Prime Minister explained that “due to time constraints” the Foreign Minister shamefully would not visit the sites of the Hamas massacres. Instead, her photo opportunities with hostage families and then Arab families allegedly attacked by “settlers” no doubt is intended to “balance” the incidents. A bigger example of double standards would be hard to find. Needless to say, singing the same old discredited chorus about “settlements” being an impediment to peace is a mandatory part of her visit.

Part and parcel of the prevailing double standards include lecturing Israel on civilian deaths in Gaza while ignoring Hamas’s use of civilians as human shields and “graciously” allowing Israel to defend itself while admonishing it for attempting to demolish the terror infrastructures.

The “icing on the cake” is her pilgrimage to Ramallah, where in a meeting with the PA Prime Minister, she “requested” that Australian aid not be used for nefarious purposes. Did she actually demand that the PA/PLO/Fatah stop paying stipends to those who murder Israelis? The annual payment of US$350 million is about to increase because Abbas has determined that terrorists incarcerated in Israel as a result of the Hamas pogroms will be eligible to benefit.

In Jordan, where the authorities blame Israel for every sin under the sun, the Australian Foreign Minister happily agreed that something must be done to restrain the warmongering Israelis.

Australian taxpayers will be delighted to know that their Government will be throwing more of their money into the coffers of UNRWA, whose schools are breeding grounds for poisoning the minds of the next generation of young Muslims against Jews and Israel. Additional money is pledged for Gaza, where previous aid was used to construct terror tunnels. Even more taxpayers’ money is going to flow to the Red Cross, which has done absolutely nothing to safeguard the health and safety of the Israeli hostages.

The bottom line is that headlines will be generated, and the Foreign Minister will be able to return to Australia and prove to the anti-Israel progressives of her party that she has done her bit to further peace.

It is these sorts of delusional gestures that prove that Penny Wong has got it wrong again. In this display of Shakespearean drama, it could very well be described as a case of “Love’s Labor’s Lost.”

Meanwhile, we await the next act in the tempest being enacted on the stage at The Hague.

US abrogates the US-UNRWA accord

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View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building during a strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on July 26, 2018. Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90 *** Local Caption *** אונר"א
עזה
בניין
שביתה

The US- UNRWA accord, signed by the US and UNRWA on July 14th, 2021was one of the most positive and constructive initiatives of US Middle East Foreign Policy

https://israelbehindthenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Analysis-The- US-UNRWA-Accord-reached-on-July-14th-2021-1.pdf

For the first time, a major donor nation set conditions to fund UNRWAThe conditions were such that UNRWA could gain access to hundreds of millions of US aid dollars only after UNRWA would agree to delete its war education curriculum. Our news and research agency went through process and asked the UNRWAspokeswoman if UNRWA would change its currricum. “Absolutely not” saidthe UNRWA spokesperson. As a result, the US-UNRWA accord was enforced, to the letter of thelawSince UNRWA would not delete its curriculum and not a penny of allocatedUS aid flowed to UNRWA for the past two years.

This US-UNRWA accord was enforced, . Last week, as Israel searches its way for policies to implement after the Gaza war, I was invited to testify about the US-UNRWAaccord at the Knesset parliamentary committee for security andfoeign affairs. After I completed testimony, a rep. of the Israel Ministry of ForeignAffairs informed Knesset members that the US Congress has tol Israel that the US would no longer abide by the US-UNRWAaccord. In other words, the US now allows funds to flow to UNRWA, withnoconstraints.
A new era of Unrwa incitement is now at hand.

UNRWA’s Dark Reality: Disturbing Footage Unveils Shocking Summer Camp Simulations

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For the past 15 years, I’ve held the unique position of running the sole agency documenting UNRWA summer camps. Assisted by three Arab journalists and three Jewish journalists with a deep understanding of Arab culture, my mission has been to share the unsettling realities witnessed since I first covered UNRWA in 1987.

Each summer, the UNRWA camps engage in simulations depicting the violence they believe is necessary for reclaiming and returning to Palestine. The so-called “fun games” revolve around preparing for the perceived war to liberate Palestine. Shockingly, children at UNRWA summer camps practice activities such as kidnapping soldiers, burning IDF vehicles, and handling short-lived weapons.

Recently, I presented the compiled footage of UNRWA summer camps at the Knesset. Members were visibly disturbed to witness that the simulation games the children learned at these camps seemed all too real, especially given the events of October 7, when thousands of Arab youngsters suddenly entered the Negev.

While most journalists find joy in their achievements, my scoop of the century brings me no pleasure. The evidence points to UNRWA directing the war, with Hamas acting as the agent. The films and footage captured at UNRWA summer camps will serve as a valuable resource for generations of investigators examining the events of October 7 that caught the world by surprise.

The perplexing question arises: How is it possible that no one seemed to know that UNRWA used its summer camps to train an army of young people for guerrilla warfare aimed at undermining Jews? This conflict between UNRWA and the Jews traces back to the very genesis of the Jewish State.

Launched in 1948, UNRWA operated on a war-like footing, grounded in the principle of the precise right of return, as articulated by Count Folke Bernadotte, the Swedish diplomat and UN mediator during the first truce of the 1948 war. Resenting Israel’s Law of Return, Bernadotte conceptualized the RIGHT OF RETURN, implying that Jews should hand back the Negev and the Galilee, territories acquired in the 1948 war but not included in the November 29, 1948 partition resolution.

The assassination of Bernadotte on September 17, 1948, did not extinguish his vision of the right of return. His death created a legacy leading to the formation of 59 Arab refugee camps with a school system dedicated to preserving the idea of the right of return by force of arms.

On August 1, 2000, UNRWA formally adopted the “right of return” curriculum of the Palestinian Authority. Now, it has transformed into the “right of return” by force of arms, as witnessed on October 7, 2023. Astonishingly, not a single nation calls for the removal of such a lethal curriculum.

https://youtu.be/n4El1N-PdaE?si=1WcK0ziTc86VuPH1

Israel-Hamas war: Israel destroys secret Hamas rocket hub

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Israeli troops have destroyed a massive underground weapons centre used by Hamas to manufacture and distribute rockets.

The 36th division uncovered dozens of tunnels divided into workshops to build missiles beneath Salah a-Din road in central Gaza, according to the Israeli Defence Force (IDF).

Footage released by the Israeli military shows dozens of missiles mounted on workbenches and lined up along the walls of a tunnel, surrounded by what appears to be manufacturing equipment and trolleys.

Hamas were said to have used the hub to distribute weapons to fighters across the Gaza Strip.

One of the tunnels uncovered led into the home of a senior Hamas official responsible for weapons production, the IDF said.

The IDF said that in addition to “hundreds of long-range rockets”, troops seized chemical containers, Hamas propaganda, and other equipment during their raid on the underground network, which is thought to stretch for hundreds of miles in its entirety.

04:37 PM GMT

That’s all for now

Thanks for following our coverage of the Israel-Hamas war and tensions in the Middle East. We’ll be back tomorrow with the latest updates.

04:35 PM GMT

Hamas ‘rebuilding northern battalions’ as Israel moves south

Hamas is quietly attempting to rebuild battalions that were shattered by Israel earlier in the war as attention shifts to the southern part of the Gaza Strip, according to reports.

The terrorist group has been reappointing officials to senior positions in its northern division as the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) reduces the size of its reserve forces.

Dismantling the a-Shati, Shujaiyeh and Jabalya battalions was a key objective at the start of the war. Security sources told Haaretz, the Israeli newspaper, that Hamas has begun appointing commanders to replace those killed in the fighting.

Herzl Halevi, the IDF’s chief of staff, has apparently warned political leaders that its military successes will be eroded because of a lack of strategy after hostilities conclude.

“We may have to operate again in areas where we have already completed the fighting,” he added.

04:26 PM GMT

‘Hezbollah is ready to listen’

Iran-backed Hezbollah has rebuffed Washington’s proposals to avert an escalating conflict with Israel, according to Lebanese officials.

The group is said to regard ideas presented to Beirut last week, such as pulling its troops back from the border, as unrealistic. However, a senior figure said: “Hezbollah is ready to listen.”

04:19 PM GMT

Pictures: Israeli Defence Forces active across Gaza and Lebanon

IDF troops operate in the Gaza Strip
IDF troops operate in the Gaza Strip – IDF Handout
IDF troops operate in the Gaza Strip
IDF troops operate in the Gaza Strip – IDF Handout
Smoke billows following Israeli strikes on the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila
Smoke billows following Israeli strikes on the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila – HASSAN FNEICH/AFP via Getty Images

04:12 PM GMT

EU calls for permanent Gaza ceasefire

The European Parliament has passed a motion calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

Its resolution, which is non-binding and passed by 312 to 131 votes, also appeals for renewed efforts towards a political solution provided that all hostages are released and Hamas is dismantled.

04:00 PM GMT

US vessel hit travelling through Gulf of Aden

The first images have emerged of the damage inflicted on a merchant vessel by Houthi attacks near the Red Sea.

Photos released by the Indian navy show the charred stern of the MV Genco Picardy, a US-owned bulk carrier struck by a drone launched from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen on Wednesday.

A section of railing has been destroyed and a metal grille is shown hanging loose.

Read the full story here.

03:27 PM GMT

Suez wheat shipments plunge amid Red Sea attacks

Houthi attacks around the Red Sea have caused wheat shipments going through the Suez Canal to collapse by 40 per cent, the World Trade Organisation estimates (WTO).

Cargo ships have been targeted by drones and missiles launched from Houthi-controlled parts of Yemen, meaning just 0.5 million tonnes of wheat passed through the vital trade route in the first half of January.

03:17 PM GMT

First images released of Houthi damage to US ship

A US-owned cargo ship damaged in a Houthi drone attack
A US-owned cargo ship damaged in a Houthi drone attack – @indiannavy

India’s navy has released images of a Houthi drone strike on a US-owned ship near the Red Sea.

MV Genco Picardy, a bulk carrier passing through the Gulf of Aden, sent out a distress call after the fire broke out onboard yesterday evening.

Photos from the Indian navy, which scrambled a warship in response, show the stern of the vessel is charred, a section of railing destroyed and a metal grille hanging loose.

A navy spokesperson said: “After a thorough inspection [commandos] have rendered the area safe for further transit. The vessel is proceeding to the next port of call.”

The Houthi strike is the latest in a series of attacks on merchant vessels in the Red Sea and nearby region, which has thrown shipping into chaos on the crucial trade route.

02:43 PM GMT

EU to clamp down on Hamas with new sanctions

The European Union is to bring in sanctions against Hamas next week in response to the group’s massacre of Israeli civilians in October.

Christophe Lemoine, French foreign ministry spokesman, said Brussels will adopt “a regime of sanctions against Hamas” that will target “individuals and transfers of funds”.

02:24 PM GMT

Pictured: Activists protest Germany’s support for Israel with Swastika poster

A Palestinian activist carries a Swastika poster in protest at Germany's support for Israel
A Palestinian activist carries a Swastika poster in protest at Germany’s support for Israel – AP Photo/Nasser Nasser

02:15 PM GMT

US reassigns Houthis as terror group three years after militia was delisted

The United States has designated the Houthis as a terrorist group nearly three years after the Iran-backed militia was taken off its list of proscribed organisations.

Announcing the move, which comes into force in 30 days, the State Department said Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping had “endangered mariners, disrupted the free flow of commerce, and interfered with navigational rights and freedoms”.

It added: “The Houthis must be held accountable for their actions, but it should not be at the expense of Yemeni civilians.”

Read David Millward’s full article on the Biden administration’s about-turn here.

01:55 PM GMT

Watch: US hits Houthi-controlled Yemen in latest round of airstrikes

01:40 PM GMT

‘Stopping putting people’s lives at risk’, Sunak tells Houthis

Rishi Sunak has called on Houthi rebels to end their “illegal” attacks on cargo ship after a US-owned vessel was attacked by a drone.

Speaking during a press conference in Downing Street, the Prime Minister said the disruption to the vital trade route – which has continued despite the intervention of a US-led coalition – is concerning”.

He told reporters: “The rise in attacks on commercial shipping is both illegal and causing enormous disruption to the global economy and putting innocent lives at risk.

“It was right that we took action to protect both interests and lives. And together with allies, we have been very clear in our condemnation of their behaviour.

“We will continue to urge them to desist from carrying out what are illegal attacks, putting people’s lives at risk.”

01:05 PM GMT

Dead hostage’s family accuses government of removing critical gravestone

The family of a dead Israel Defense Forces soldier who was kidnapped on Oct 7 have accused the Israeli government of removing a gravestone which called them a “failure”.

The stone on the grave of the late Ron Sherman had read: “Kidnapped, abandoned and sacrificed in Gaza, by the government of failure.”

Ma’ayan Sherman, his mother, has accused the defence ministry of removing the stone from his resting place in a military cemetery.

She replaced it on Thursday with one reading: “I’m asking forgiveness for the abandonment, your brutal kidnapping, the fact that you were sacrificed for political gain after the biggest failure in the history of the State of Israel which you loved so much.”

The Israeli government is yet to comment.

12:20 PM GMT

Report: Hamas rebuilding northern battalions

Hamas is working to quietly rebuild battalions that were shattered by Israel earlier in the war as attention shifts to the southern part of the Gaza Strip, according to reports.

The terrorist group has been reappointing officials to senior positions in its northern division as the IDF reduces the size of its reserve forces, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports. Dismantling the Hamas battalions was a key objective at the start of the war.

12:05 PM GMT

‘Aerial target’ heading for Israel intercepted near Eilat

Israel said it had intercepted a “suspicious aerial target” that was approaching the southern city of Eilat.

The IDF said in a statement: “An interceptor was launched in the area of the Red Sea toward a suspicious aerial target that was approaching Israeli territory.

“Sirens were sounded in the area of Eilat following the launch of the interceptor. The incident has concluded and there is no risk of a security incident.”

Eilat, on the Red Sea, has been a frequent target of attacks by Iranian-backed Houthis, in response to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.

11:53 AM GMT

‘Hot Houthi pirate’ tells followers to focus on ‘a free Palestine’

A Yemeni social media influencer dubbed the “hot Houthi pirate” has told his admirers to stop gushing over his good looks.

Rashid Al Haddad has gone viral on social media after sharing footage of himself aboard hijacked container ships. Online commenters have nicknamed him “Timhouthi Chalamet”, because of his resemblance to Timothée Chalamet, the American actor.

But he has now asked his tens of thousands of followers to focus their attention on the war in Gaza – not the way he looks.

Read the full article from Tim Sigsworth here.

11:27 AM GMT

Israel strikes Hezbollah positions in Lebanon

IDF fighter jets carried out airstrikes on Hezbollah in the village of Odaisseh in southern Lebanon, according to Israeli media.

Troops also struck Kafr Kila and Marjaayoun in the same region.

The IDF said two projectiles were fired from Lebanon at the Arab al-Aramshe area earlier today, which both landed in open areas without causing damage.

11:23 AM GMT

Pictured: US-owned ship continues journey after Houthi attack

MV Genco Picardy after a fire broke out onboard following a Houthi drone strike
MV Genco Picardy after a fire broke out onboard following a Houthi drone strike – @indiannavy

11:08 AM GMT

Israel must let Gazans return home, Jordan minister says

Israel should allow displaced Palestinians in Gaza to return to their homes, Jordan’s Foreign Minister has said.

Ayman Safadi added that it the war in Gaza needed to be brought to a close and avert escalating violence across the wider Middle East region.

He said: “With regard to the current priorities, they are clear: ending the aggression in Gaza, letting in sufficient permanent humanitarian aid to all parts of the Strip, south and north, stopping the destruction, and working immediately for the return of displaced Gazans to their areas and homes.”

10:48 AM GMT

Israel ‘has lost trust in the peace process’

Iran’s “empire of evil” is to blame for the instability gripping the Middle East, the Israeli president has said.

In comments reported by The Times of Israel, Isaac Herzog stressed that “the war is not only between Israel and Hamas”, adding: “The world has to face it point blank: There is an empire of evil emanating from Iran.”

Mr Herzog also said that Israel had “lost trust in the peace processes because they see that terror is glorified by our neighbours”.

“Nobody is in his right mind is willing now to think about what will be the right solution of the peace agreements,” he continued. “Everyone wants to know that he will not be attacked in the same way from north or south or east.”

10:20 AM GMT

Israel ‘praying’ for medicine to reach hostages

Isaac Herzog, Israel's president, talks at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland
Isaac Herzog, Israel’s president, talks at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland – STEFAN WERMUTH/BLOOMBERG

Isaac Herzog, the Israeli President, is “praying” that emergency medicine will reach hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

“We are praying that all the medication …. will reach them, but that’s only the beginning,” he told the World Economic Forum in Davos, sitting next to a picture of the youngest of the 132 hostages, one-year-old Kfir Bibas.

10:05 AM GMT

Israel is more likely to face two-front war, says IDF chief

Israel is increasingly likely to be drawn into a war in Lebanon, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) chief of staff has said.

Lt Gen Herzi Halevi told troops in northern Israel that the IDF is “increasing readiness for fighting in Lebanon, we have a lot of lessons from the fighting in Gaza, many of them are very relevant to fighting in Lebanon.”

According to The Times of Israel, he added: “I don’t know when the war in the north [will happen]. I can tell you that the likelihood of it happening in the coming months is much higher than it was in the past.

“I can tell you that I think we are starting it with many more advantages.”

09:42 AM GMT

Cameron: Iran must stop supplying Houthis

09:38 AM GMT

‘It’s celebrating for someone who isn’t here’

Family members have marked the first birthday of Kfir Bibas, the youngest Israeli held by Hamas militants in Gaza, in a sombre ceremony in Tel Aviv.

On Tuesday, they gathered at the Bibas’ home in Kibbutz Nir Oz near Gaza, blowing up orange balloons to hang on the walls to cover bullet holes and filling his former classroom with birthday decorations.

Yossi Schneider, a cousin of Kfir’s mother, Shiri, told Israel’s Channel 12 TV: “It’s celebrating for someone who isn’t here.

“He’s supposed to be out here on the grass of the kibbutz, with balloons on the trees, with family and high-fives and presents and love and hugs, and none of those things will be there.”

09:18 AM GMT

US launches fourth round of air strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen

US forces launched a wave of strikes on Houthis in Yemen on Wednesday, the fourth time in less than a week that it has targeted the rebel group.

Officials said the US targeted 14 Houthi missiles that were loaded to be fired from Yemen.

In a statement, US Central Command said the Houthi missiles presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and American Navy ships in the region.

Read the full story on the latest US strike on the Houthis here.

08:55 AM GMT

Pakistan’s military on ‘high alert’ as tensions rise

Pakistan’s armed forces are on “extremely high alert” and will respond to any further Iranian attacks with force, a security official has told Reuters.

08:52 AM GMT

Pakistan launches retaliatory missile strike at Iran

Pakistan has launched missiles at Iran’s “terrorist hideouts” in response to an Iranian strike late on Tuesday.

Iranian state television said three women and four children had been killed in the attack, which took place in the Sistan-Baluchestan province.

Pakistan said it respected Iran’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity”, but had taken the action to “protect and defend its national security against all threats”.

08:48 AM GMT

Pictures: Ambulance arrives at Gaza refugee camp as war drags on

Israeli soldiers prepare to check a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance at the entrance of the Tulkarm reugee camp
Israeli soldiers prepare to check a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance at the entrance of the Tulkarm reugee camp – MARCO LONGARI/AFP via Getty Images
An unidentified piece of military equipment wedged between two houses of Al Nusairat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip
An unidentified piece of military equipment wedged between two houses of Al Nusairat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip – MOHAMMED SABER/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK

08:42 AM GMT

US-owned bulk carrier hit by Houthi drone

Houthi rebels struck a US-owned vessel in the Gulf of Aden with a drone launched from Yemen, according to a statement from the US military.

The attack did not cause any injuries and the ship is still seaworthy, despite “some damage”. Other reports indicate that the gangway was hit in the strike.

08:24 AM GMT

Morning

Hello and welcome to the live blog. We’ll be bringing you all the coverage from developments as the Israel-Hamas war enters its 104th day and tensions rise in the Middle East.

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Column from the Director

David Bedein
David Bedein
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