Media Report 2025.08.10
Satellite imagery reveals what Israel didn’t show to the ABC when it granted rare access inside Gaza
ABC | Jonathan Hair | 10 August 2025
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-10/gaza-kerem-shalom-rafah-damage-aid/105630618
Satellite imagery has revealed the catastrophic damage done to the areas surrounding an aid depot where Israel has staged tightly controlled media visits.
The ABC was granted access to the Kerem Shalom aid depot by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Wednesday.
It was the first time our correspondents have been able to enter Gaza since the start of the war, despite repeated requests.
Israel controls the crossings into Gaza and does not allow international media outlets to independently enter the strip.
The ABC’s access to Kerem Shalom was tightly controlled. But satellite imagery shows what can’t be seen from the site.
Aid stockpile increased from May
The Kerem Shalom aid depot is in Gaza’s southern corner, on the border with Israel.
The latest satellite imagery we have was taken on August 1, taken by satellite imagery company Planet Labs.
Trucks, likely used to transport supplies inside Gaza, can be seen in the image.
Further inside Gaza, videos showing aid trucks being swarmed by crowds, as they seek to deliver aid, have been posted online in recent weeks.
Piles of aid can be seen at the site — these were also seen on the ground by the ABC’s Middle East correspondent, Matthew Doran, who was allowed to film in the central section of the site.
ABC NEWS Verify has taken one satellite image from each month this year, and stitched them together in a time-lapse.
Boxes of aid are visible in January and February. But in March and April, after a temporary ceasefire fell apart and aid stopped entering Gaza, little can be seen at the site.
By late May, aid can again be seen — corresponding with the opening of aid distribution sites by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-US-backed organisation that has attracted controversy and criticism.
The amount of aid at the site, and the exact location of boxes, varies across the images, but more can be seen from May onwards.
What can’t be seen from the depot
In his report from the site, our correspondent referenced the city of Rafah, which is located north of the Kerem Shalom depot.
In 2024, Israel began an offensive in the city despite estimates at the time from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees that 1.4 million Palestinians — two-thirds of Gaza’s population — were sheltering there.
The image on the left was taken before the October 7 attacks in 2023, which killed an estimated 1,200 people in Israel, with some 250 taken hostage by terror group Hamas.
The image on the right was taken last month, showing there is not much left of Gaza’s southernmost city.
Further north, the damage to the neighbourhood of Tel al-Sultan is clear.
The first image was taken before October 7, and the second was taken last month.
Imagery captures desperation
Israel is allowing access to the Kerem Shalom depot as it pushes its argument it is letting aid into Gaza — especially since it eased aid restrictions in late July.
“The humanitarian aid is sitting in the sun waiting for the UN and international organisations to come and pick it up,” the Israeli military posted in a video shot in the same location.
The need for aid is easy to see in this image taken above one of the aid distribution sites run by the GHF.
Taken on July 18, it shows a mass of people at the site trying to secure aid.
The reality of the conditions being faced by Palestinians in Gaza is evident in an area west of the city of Khan Younis.
In the area surrounding Al-Aqsa University’s Khan Younis campus, tents take up most available space — all the way to the waterline.
The imagery shows just how Palestinians have been squeezed into a space, as other areas are deemed military zones by the IDF.
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PM hits out at Israel’s plan to seize Gaza City
The Age & SMH / Reuters | Matthew Knott and David Crowe | 10 August 2025
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has urged his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, to rethink his decision to take control of Gaza’s biggest city, joining a throng of global leaders condemning the plan and warning it will worsen the humanitarian crisis in the devastated enclave.
Reflecting Israel’s increased isolation on the international stage as it escalates the war, Germany took the extraordinary step of suspending arms sales to Israel if the weapons could be used in Gaza.
The decision is significant because Germany has been Israel’s most dependable and important security partner behind the US, providing it with about 30 per cent of its military imports and serving as a staunch defender, principally because of historical guilt for the Nazi Holocaust.
In a rare move, Germany also joined Australia and other Western democracies to “strongly reject” the Israeli security cabinet’s decision to gradually take full control of the strip, starting with Gaza City.
After meeting in Queenstown on Saturday, Albanese said in a joint statement with New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon: “Any attempt by Israel to escalate hostilities, including by taking control of Gaza City, would be wrong, risk violating international law, and exacerbate the human catastrophe already unfolding inside the Gaza Strip.
“We urge the Israeli government to reconsider before it is too late. Any proposals for the permanent forced displacement of the Palestinian population must be abandoned.”
Describing the humanitarian situation in Gaza as “catastrophic”, Albanese and Luxon said they “called on Israel to immediately comply with its obligations under international law, including allowing the United Nations and NGOs to carry out their lifesaving work safely and unhindered”.
Luxon urged Netanyahu to seek a diplomatic outcome.
“I think all New Zealanders, all Australians, will be horrified by what they see on the news, and it has certainly plumbed new levels,” he said. “The latest action we have seen from Israel in the past 24 hours is wrong.”
Albanese said it was a matter of “when, not if” Australia recognises Palestinian statehood, echoing the words of Treasurer Jim Chalmers and foreshadowing an expected move at or before next month’s United Nations General Assembly.
He was speaking shortly after Foreign Minister Penny Wong united with four of her Western counterparts to reject Israel’s push to intensify the war amid fears of horrific civilian casualties.
Wong and her fellow foreign ministers from Germany, Italy, New Zealand and Britain issued a joint statement saying the decision to invade Gaza City would “aggravate the catastrophic humanitarian situation, endanger the lives of the hostages, and further risk the mass displacement of civilians”.
“We urge the parties and the international community to make all efforts to finally bring this conflict to an end now, through an immediate and permanent ceasefire,” the foreign ministers said.
They called for an increase in aid deliveries – because “the worst-case scenario of a famine is unfolding in Gaza” – and the immediate release of all hostages without any precondition.
The foreign ministers said the Palestinian Authority – which controls parts of the West Bank – “must have a central role” in any future governance arrangements in Gaza, pushing back on Netanyahu’s insistence that they be excluded.
Netanyahu has accused his critics of rewarding Hamas, declaring his goal was not to take over Gaza but to rid the territory of the terrorist group.
The Israel Defence Forces are preparing to move on Gaza City within eight weeks and will order Palestinians to leave the area by October 7 – the second anniversary of the Hamas terror attack that ignited the war.
The evacuation is to be followed by a ground offensive into Gaza City, the most populated area of the Gaza Strip, in a bid to wipe out Hamas in zones where the terror group has so far resisted Israeli attacks.
Far-right members of Netanyahu’s coalition have been pushing for a total takeover of Gaza, though the military has warned this could jeopardise the lives of surviving hostages.
United Nations Secretary General António Guterres said he was “gravely alarmed” by the Israeli government’s plan.
“This marks a dangerous escalation and risks deepening the already catastrophic consequences for millions of Palestinians,” he said.
Guterres also urged Hamas to release the remaining hostages from the 50 it is thought to be keeping out of 251 people it kidnapped in the October 7 attacks. Israeli authorities expect 20 hostages could still be alive.
The UN Security Council was preparing to hold an urgent weekend meeting in New York to discuss the Israeli policy.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, an ally of Israel in the debate about recognising a Palestinian state, highlighted the concerns about the new offensive by announcing plans to halt the sale of any weapons to Israel that could be used in Gaza.
Merz said Israel had a right to defend itself and that Hamas must release the hostages, adding that Hamas had to be disarmed and should not play any role in the future of Gaza.
He said, however, that Israel’s tougher military action “makes it increasingly unclear” how those goals would be achieved.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the Israeli decision “must be reconsidered”, adding that the hostages had to be released from their inhumane conditions.
“And humanitarian aid must be given immediate and unhindered access to Gaza to deliver what is urgently needed on the ground,” she said.
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the decision to escalate the offensive in Gaza was wrong, and he urged the Israeli government to reconsider it immediately.
“This action will do nothing to bring an end to this conflict or to help secure the release of the hostages. It will only bring more bloodshed,” he said.
Netanyahu responded to Germany’s criticism by speaking to Merz on Friday night, local time, and expressing his disappointment with the arms ban.
“Instead of supporting Israel’s just war against Hamas, which carried out the most horrific attack against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, Germany is rewarding Hamas terrorism by embargoing arms to Israel,” a statement from Netanyahu’s office said.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel’s goal is not to take over Gaza, but to free Gaza from Hamas and enable a peaceful government to be established there.”
In the months after the Hamas attack, Germany increased its arms exports to Israel roughly tenfold. Human rights groups launched legal challenges, saying the weapons could be used in the Gaza war, but none has succeeded so far.
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Israeli officials question Netanyahu’s Gaza move
The Age (& SMH) / NY Times | Adam Rasgon | 10 August 2025
When Israel’s security cabinet ministers voted to approve a risky plan to take control of a war-torn Gaza City, objections flowed in from key international allies. But criticism also notably came from the highest levels of Israel’s own military – the same military that is expected to carry out the cabinet directive.
Last week, the military’s chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, objected to expanding the war in the Gaza Strip, according to four Israeli security officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive issues.
Zamir raised questions about the exhaustion and fit ness of reservists after a grinding, nearly two-year war in the enclave. Israeli military leadership has said that it prefers a new ceasefire instead of renewed fighting, according to three of the officials. Now, one of the last commanders of Israeli forces in Gaza before Israel withdrew troops from the territory in 2005 is throwing cold water on the plan to widen operations in Gaza.
“This won’t bring back the party. hostages, and it won’t lead to the defeat of Hamas or make it give up its weapons,” said Gadi Shamni, a retired major general. “What will this do? It will create more bereaved families, it will harm Israel’s standing in the world, it will undermine the economy, and it will deepen the crisis of trust between the government and the military.”
Israeli troops have already conquered about 75 per cent of Gaza. The coastal strip stretching from Gaza City in the north to Khan Yunis in the south is the main area outside Israeli control. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview on Fox News on Thursday that Israel intended to take control of all of Gaza.
But in a statement on Friday morning, his office stopped short of saying Israel would conquer the entire territory, instead saying the military will prepare to take over Gaza City. The different statements left the government’s ultimate intentions ambiguous.
Netanyahu said in the Fox interview that a takeover would “assure our security”, remove Hamas from power and enable the transfer of the civilian administration of Gaza to another But he suggested Israel was not interested in maintaining permanent control over all of Gaza.
Some analysts have said that amid stalled ceasefire negotiations, he may be trying to use the threat of a new Israeli operation as a way to extract con cessions from Hamas, which led the deadly October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel.
Shamni said that another raid on Gaza City would not bring about a fundamental change to Hamas’ power in Gaza or its position in ceasefire negotiations. And if Israel planned to take over the city before a potential long-term occupation of Gaza, he said, it would take years before the military managed to set up a functioning military government and to degrade Hamas enough to stabilise the situation.
“The state of Israel doesn’t even have the resources for such a thing,” he said. “Where will Israel get all of the money for this?” Since the start of the war, Israeli troops have raided Gaza City several times. But each time, Hamas has succeeded in regrouping in neighbourhoods where Israeli soldiers had conducted operations.
During Hamas’ attack in October 2023, about 250 people were taken hostage to Gaza. More than three dozen hostages have been killed while in captivity, according to an investigation by The New York Times. Up to 20 living hostages are believed to still be in the territory, along with the remains of 30 others, according to Israeli authorities.
American and Israeli officials have suggested an all-or-nothing deal under which Hamas would have to release the remaining hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and agree to terms to end the war that include the group’s disarmament.
Despite objections from long-standing European allies on Friday, Israel has shown no sign of backing down from carrying out a new Gaza operation. “The Israeli government’s decision to further escalate its offensive in Gaza is wrong, and we urge it to reconsider immediately,” said Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
And Germany said that until further notice, it would halt exports of military equipment to Israel that could be used in Gaza.
The United Nations Security Council scheduled a meeting for Saturday, New York time, to dis cuss the situation in the Middle East. It is likely to take days for the Israel military to gather up reserve forces, carry out troop deployments and allow time for the forced evacuation of Palestinians huddled in apartments, tents and makeshift shelters.
For the Israeli military, the government’s decision to escalate the war was particularly concerning because it could risk the lives of hostages, Israeli officials said. “Until today, there was a de bate if military pressure will or will not bring back hostages,” Shamni said. “Now it’s totally clear that military pressure not only doesn’t bring back hostages; it will kill them.”
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Learn from history
The Age | Letters | 10 August 2025
Learn from history
Benjamin Netanyahu is deluding himself in believing that he can defeat Hamas. The full force of the American military battled the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese army for 10 years and was defeated. The same will happen in Gaza no matter how much destruction and killing the Israeli Defence Force wreak there.
Reg Murray, Glen Iris
How high the toll?
Gaza. How many more will die?
Malcolm McDonald, Burwood
A military occupation
So it’s now official Israeli policy to turn Gaza into a demilitarised zone, except for the Israeli military, of course.
David Robertson, Wheatsheaf
This is not freedom
Benjamin Netanyahu says he wants to free the population of Gaza. More likely he’ll free Gaza of its population.
Richard Wilson, Croydon
PM, do something
Israel has said the quiet part out loud. It plans to conquer Gaza, fence it in, and decide who can live there and who cannot (“Israel set on conquering” 10/8). After months of bombing, starving, and killing, they call this “security”. And our government? It nods along with concern written on its face, but its hands stay firmly in its pockets. No sanctions. No arms embargo. Not even the courage to recognise Palestine without strings attached. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Foreign Minister Penny Wong – you know exactly what is happening. You know the siege, the starvation, the expulsions, the massacres, are part of the same story that began in 1948. You know this is the erasure of a people. So what’s stopping you? Fear of upsetting Washington? I don’t want to hear another word of sympathy from leaders who will not act. Sympathy doesn’t feed the starving. It doesn’t rebuild the ruins. It doesn’t save a single child in Gaza tonight.
Lila Malagi, Flinders
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Albanese, NZ PM call for Gaza ceasefire
Daily Telegraph (Herald-Sun, Courier-Mail, Hobart Mercury) |Liam Beatty | 10 August 2025
The prime ministers of Australia and New Zealand say they want fighting to stop in Gaza, while denying their decisions on recognising Palestinian statehood has been influenced by the tariff regime of the US.
The two leaders met in Queenstown, New Zealand, on Saturday for an annual trans-Tasman meeting, revealing they had discussed economic and defence co-operation, movement between the neighbouring countries and global issues.
Pressed on recognition of a Palestinian state, both men restated longstanding positions of a two-state solution, while emphasising a desire for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Anthony Albanese said recognition of Palestine was a question of “when, not if” for Australia. “Prime Minister Luxon and I also discussed the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, we reiterate our call for an immediate ceasefire, the end of suffering and starvation in Gaza and the release of all hostages,” he said.
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said his county “clearly” continues to advocate for a two-state solution.
Both Mr Albanese and Mr Luxon said their decisions on Palestinian recognition were independent of US tariff talk.
Meanwhile, Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong joined a five-country push to “strongly reject” Israel’s plan to take control of Gaza City. Alongside ministers from Germany, Italy, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, Senator Wong lent her voice to the statement that was released on Friday.
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Sending the wrong signal to the entire world
Daily Telegraph (Herald-Sun, Courier-Mail) | Peta Credlin | 10 August 2025
So, answer me this – why do we put up with people who hate our culture, our country and our flag to yet again become the symbol of Australia internationally? Because that’s what has happened, as images of Jew-hating protesters, blocking the Sydney Harbour Bridge, ricocheted around the world last week. All designed to blame Israel for the humanitarian disaster of Gaza but not the terrorist group that started the war and still won’t release its hostages.
It’s just wrong on so many levels.
First, blocking one of Sydney’s main transport arteries for hours mocked the authority of the democratically elected Premier who’d said (backed by the Opposition Leader) that the pro-Palestine (effectively pro-Hamas) march should not go ahead.
Second, it politicised the judiciary when a single Supreme Court judge allowed an appeal against the Police Commissioner’s refusal to grant a permit because she accepted the argument put up by the protest organiser (a self-declared anarchist) that the urgency of the “humanitarian crisis” justified extreme forms of protest.
Third, it identified one of Australia’s most iconic sites with a savage denunciation of Israel, the only liberal democracy in the Middle East, engaged in an existential struggle against Iran and its Islamist terrorist proxies. Just like Sydney’s other internationally recognised landmark, the Opera House, was hijacked two days after the October 7 atrocity by Islamist protesters, well before Israel had launched one missile in retaliation for its 1200 dead.
Fourth, given the obvious reality that many of the estimated 90,000 bridge marchers were recent migrants from the Middle East, the protest speaks to the failure of our immigration policy in promoting Australian values. And not insisting that new migrants leave old hatreds behind.
And fifth, the general weakness of an officialdom that can’t bring itself to say “no” to a noisy minority and instead allows them to tarnish us all by allowing an iconic landmark to be associated with such a protest that, until quite recently, would have been regarded as un-Australian.
Why was it ever up to a judge to make what’s clearly a political decision about the merits of a pro-Hamas and anti-Israel protest? The Premier should have immediately appealed the judge’s decision – and sought a restraining order preventing any march going ahead before the appeal was heard – and, in the event of an adverse decision, then urgently moved to change the law to establish beyond doubt that it’s elected and accountable parliaments and governments, not unelected judges, that should set any conditions on the right to protest.
It’s not as if the pro-Palestine mob haven’t made their opinions known on multiple occasions. Weeks before Israel mounted its war against Hamas, local Islamist activists were proclaiming across the airwaves their joy at the slaughter of innocents. Hardly a weekend has passed since then without mass demos in Sydney and Melbourne, often tying up city streets for hours. The right to protest should not extend to routine disruption of ordinary life or what’s become a blatant attempt to intimidate all who disagree, especially Jewish Australians.
At last weekend’s protest in Melbourne, there was a large crowd chanting, “Peter Khalil, blood on your hands … we will not forget your crimes,” referencing the federal Labor MP, born in Melbourne to Coptic Egyptian parents, whom the mob thought had been insufficiently one-sided on Palestinian issues. It’s noteworthy that Labor’s steady shift to a more pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli position has not satisfied the activists, who don’t really want better food distribution in Gaza nor an end to the fighting via release of the hostages but will accept nothing less than the total destruction of Israel in a new holocaust.
It’s a strange moral universe we’re now inhabiting where numerous media outlets seized on one photo of an emaciated child (with a pre-existing medical condition) next to his apparently well-fed mother and brother to illustrate an alleged genocide by deliberate starvation but seemed unmoved when Hamas released a photo of an emaciated hostage quite possibly digging his own grave. NSW Premier Chris Minns deserves praise for initially speaking out against the bridge protest.
But when are our authorities going to grow a spine and end the double standard of anarchist, pro-terrorism protesters being allowed to run roughshod over the rights of everyday Australians and denigrate how we are perceived overseas by hijacking our iconic landmarks.
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‘Phases’ to Israel takeover of Gaza
October 7 deadline to flee
Daily Telegraph / NY Post | 10 August 2025
Gaza: Israel’s security cabinet has approved a plan to take over Gaza City in a major escalation of its war against Hamas – with the risky move expected to take place in phases.
The announcement stopped short of stating Israel would take over the entire Palestinian enclave; however, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday an entire takeover was what the Jewish state intended to do.
The plan to take control of the Gaza Strip’s largest city and capital would reportedly be gradual and in multiple phases, a source told CNN.
The first phase of the operation, according to the source, would involve the evacuation of Gaza City and an expansion of aid distribution.
The deadline for Palestinians to flee the major city would reportedly be October 7, the second anniversary Hamas’ depraved attack that killed 1200 Israelis and led to the kidnapping of 250 more.
That date was picked intentionally for its symbolism, the source told CNN.
And while humanitarian aid is expected to ratchet up during this phase, it wouldn’t take place in Gaza City so that civilians didn’t linger in the area, a second Israeli source told the outlet.
It wasn’t clear what exactly the subsequent phases would involve, but the overall plan could take up to five months, an Israeli official reportedly said before the cabinet’s high-stakes vote.
The approved plan ultimately calls to disarm Hamas and retrieve the rest of the living hostages and bodies of slain hostages, while demilitarising the entire strip. It also calls for a new government that is not Hamas or the Palestinian Authority to rule the enclave.
Meanwhile, as the takeover plan was approved, the Israel Defence Forces was seen in commercial satellite images adding more troops and equipment near the border of Gaza on Friday.
The build-up indicated a fresh ground invasion of the neighbouring territory was possible, three US officials and a former official who saw the photos told NBC News.
Mr Netanyahu has said he wants to take over all of Gaza, but doesn’t want to govern it permanently and instead wants to hand it off to an Arab governance that won’t seek to destroy Israel.
The takeover plan has drawn fierce blowback, including from IDF chief Eyal Zamir, who claimed it would put the hostages in danger and worsen the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the first source told CNN.
Following the security cabinet’s vote, Germany announced it wouldn’t send more military equipment to Israel that could be used in Gaza.
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Propaganda about Israel is not fact
Daily Telegraph | Letters | 10 August 2025
The NSW parliament is conducting an inquiry into anti-Semitism.
Labor MP Stephen Lawrence is reported to have made 320 interjections, triple the number of others.
He is reported to say that “a significant and unavoidable focus … has been the line between legitimate criticism of Israel and anti-Semitism because … (it is alleged) … anti-Semitism relates to statements about Israel”.
No Mr Lawrence! Criticism of Israel and the IDF is not being anti-Semitic. Most Israelis do this every day. It is a national pastime. However, what is anti-Semitic is repeating the propaganda pedalled by Hamas without checking.
It is the willingness to believe that the propaganda is fact evinces either extreme naivety or pure anti-Semitism.
Dennis Bluth, Cammeray
Major interference
Whenever Anthony Albanese is questioned about another country commenting about issues that involve Australia he pulls out his stock standard response of “Australia is a sovereign nation and we’ll make our own decisions according to what’s in Australia’s best interests”.
For a bloke that doesn’t like other countries commenting about or trying to interfere with our “national sovereignty” he sure spends a lot of time interfering in the affairs of Israel, which by the way, is a “sovereign nation”.
Next month the Prime Minister will attend the United Nations General Assembly meeting and possibly announce Australia’s recognition of Palestine as a state regardless of whether his government’s conditions of agreeing to the recognition have been met or not.
Under Labor’s stated conditions all remaining hostages must be released and Hamas cannot be left to rule Palestine.
Somehow I just can’t see Hamas releasing the remaining hostages, laying down their arms and stepping down as the elected government of Gaza before the UN General Assembly.
Given that the UN General Assembly is only a month away and Hamas will still be in control of Palestine and holding hostages, how can Anthony Albanese justify recognising Palestine as a state without ignoring Labor’s own conditions of what must occur first?
Will the PM stand by his government’s own conditions for recognition or will he be a virtue signaller and just agree with what other leaders are doing?
B Thompson, Cowra
Hamas must go
I am very angry and deeply concerned that a precedent has been set whereby our treasured icon the Sydney Harbour Bridge is being used to support a country ruled by a terrorist organisation – Hamas.
The Harbour Bridge belongs to the people; it should not be used for political objectives.
The pro-Palestinian group has been demonstrating for two years – intruding on people’s ability to use certain parts of the city. Public transport, ability to use certain streets and traffic flow have all been interrupted. This is the people’s city and every citizen should have access 24/7.
How much has this cost with the ongoing overtime for police in the past two years and on Sunday to ensure public safety?
Where is the money coming from for demonstrators to access legal and Supreme Court costs?
People and children all over the world are suffering: Ukraine, Sudan, etc. However it seems that it is more important and trendy to protest against Israel.
On October 7, 2023 Israeli people were enjoying a public holiday when Hamas attacked, leaving 1200 Israelis dead – murdered in unspeakable obscene atrocities, and children were not excluded.
Over 200 hostages were taken – some have been released but many more are still in Hamas’s hands. This attack was the most treacherous act on Jewish people since World War II.
Spend a day in the Jewish Museum in Darlinghurst and see why the Jewish people are fighting for their right to live safely in Israel.
I am not Jewish but I am totally opposed to the anti-Semitism being allowed to fester in our beautiful country.
Palestine cannot be recognised as a state while Hamas is in power.
All the remaining hostages need to be released and returned to Israel.
Australia needs strong leadership, and in this area it has been missing since 2023.
I am ashamed to be an Australian.
Jean Shaw, North Sydney
I am sure I am not the only Sydney resident who is fed up with protesters taking over the city, and now the Harbour Bridge.
Thousands of law-abiding citizens are denied the use of, and access to, public areas by these protesters.
Gutless politicians are doing nothing about it. The protesters use the ‘free speech’ excuse to block venues. The fact is anyone in this country can say anything they want, anywhere, at any time.
There is no denial of free speech.
When are we going get politicians who put an end to protest groups taking over public areas and preventing the use of those areas to law abiding citizens.
Geoff, Sydney
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Only Labor could trash our once thriving economy and support terrorists’ push for own state
Daily Telegraph | Piers Akerman | 10 August 2025
Australia, once a proud and successful nation, is being smashed by its weak, cowardly leadership.
Labor’s blind adherence to the global virtue-signalling net zero cult has demolished our manufacturing sector. Its recent embrace of Jew hatred has killed our culture. Thirty years ago, electricity was reliable and affordable and manufacturing represented 15 per cent of our GDP.
Today, it is 5.1 per cent. Two-thirds smaller and rapidly shrinking. We have an abundance of untapped natural gas that we squander.
Gas prices for our manufacturers have risen by 186 per cent since 2000. More than 1400 manufacturers nationwide have become insolvent since 2022-23, according to ASIC.
Large fertiliser company Incitec Pivot closed its Australian operations because of rising energy costs. Qenos, Australia’s last major plastics facility, closed in 2024 for the same reason.
Energy costs killed Oceania Glass, Australia’s sole architectural glass firm, in February 2025 after 169 years of operation. China, which supplies our wind and solar factories, benefited from these closures. Orica, the world’s largest manufacturer of mining explosives, chemicals, and agricultural fertilisers, and BlueScope Steel, are looking to shrink their Australian operations and boost their investments in the US.
As leading economist Leith van Onselen noted, Australia leads the world in coal exports and ranks second in natural gas exports. We export about seven times more coal than we as a nation consume and about four times more gas. The bloated public service is not the answer. Productivity has tanked.
This is the economic suicide long warned about. But the Albanese government is not only destroying the economy, it is trashing the culture that once united us.
Nowhere is this clearer than in Anthony Albanese’s brainless pursuit of British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian PM Mark Carney in their rush to reward the Hamas terrorist organisation with its own state. This shows not only an ignorant knowledge of history, but also a disturbing lack of care for the safety of their respective citizens.
Israel was not founded by a colonial power. It has been the home of Jews for millennia. Arabs are the invading force, historically and as recently as the barbaric attack on October 7, 2023.
Global newspapers in May 1948 documented attempt by Arabs to eradicate Israel. The New York Times’s front page on May 16 read “Arabs invade Palestine”.
Even Queensland’s Northern Miner on May 17, 1948, led with “ARABS INVADE PALESTINE FULL-SCALE WAR IN PROGRESS U.S. RECOGNISES NEW STATE OF ISRAEL”. The Greeks and Romans knew the area as a Jewish homeland. The British, French, the US and the Australian Labor government and the UN recognised it formally in 1948. Israel has rightfully fought to eradicate Hamas from Gaza and recapture the remaining hostages, dead and alive, but has been faced with a propaganda campaign run through Western media.
Albanese, Starmer, Macron and Carney have fallen for this .
The harrowing video of a starving Israeli hostage being forced to dig his own grave by his Hamas torturers has been ignored. The message is clear – it is OK to invade a sovereign nation, to bludgeon, kidnap, strangle to death babies and toddlers, to rape and mutilate, to murder parents in front of their children, and you will be rewarded. Albanese’s discussions with the Palestinian Authority’s Mahmoud Abbas and Macron can only suggest he might also offer resettlement to more Gazans in Australia.
Smash the economy, smash the culture. Labor’s way.
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Takeover plan sees Gaza fury increase
Herald-Sun | 10 August 2025
Jerusalem: Israel’s military will “take control” of Gaza City under a new plan approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet, touching off a wave of criticism from both inside and outside the country.
Nearly two years into the war in Gaza, Netanyahu faces mounting pressure to secure a truce to pull the territory’s more than two million people back from the brink of famine and free the hostages held by Palestinian militants.
Israel’s foe Hamas, whose October 7, 2023 attack triggered the war, denounced the plan to expand the fighting as a “new war crime”.
Staunch Israeli ally Germany, meanwhile, took the extraordinary step of halting weapons exports out of concern they could be used in Gaza.
Under the plan to “defeat” Hamas, the Israeli army “will prepare to take control of Gaza City while distributing humanitarian assistance to the civilian population outside combat zones”, the premier’s office said.
Netanyahu, in a post on X, said “we are not going to occupy Gaza – we are going to free Gaza from Hamas”.
He said the territory’s demilitarisation and the establishment of “a peaceful civilian administration … will help free our hostages” and prevent future threats.
Israel occupied Gaza from 1967, but withdrew its troops and settlers in 2005.
Netanyahu’s office said the cabinet had adopted “five principles”, including Gaza’s demilitarisation and “the establishment of an alternative civil administration that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority”.
The plan triggered swift criticism from across the globe, with China, Turkey, Britain and numerous Arab governments issuing statements of concern.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the Israeli plan a “dangerous escalation” that risks “deepening the already catastrophic consequences for millions of Palestinians”.
Sources said the UN Security Council would meet on Sunday to discuss the plan.
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Spiral into anarchy
Herald-Sun | Letters | 10 August 2025
Spiral into anarchy
Peta Credlin’s column “Recognition should be reward for Hamas surrender” (SHS, 3/8) was a moment of rationality in a crazed society that has lost its legal, political and moral compass.
Our society is in destructive mode and self-immolation will occur unless there are leaders who can act and prevent this descent into despotism and theocratic jihad.
There must be a declaration of emergency and the current government must be held accountable for inaction and sued for not using laws to protect its citizens.
There is no choice whatsoever.
There are repeated historical precedents globally of this chaotic disintegration into lawless anarchy.
The end result is total societal breakdown and replacement with unrepresentative autocrats who suit only themselves.
Aviva Rothschild, Caulfield North
Need to be at peace
Peace is more than just the absence of armed conflict.
It means the security of knowing that you can adequately feed your children and give them medication when needed.
It means freedom from oppression.
In short, you are at peace with your life.
None of this can be said for Gaza before October 7, 2023, despite what columnist Peta Credlin says (“Recognition should be reward for Hamas surrender”, SHS, 3/8).
Israel has maintained a complete blockade on Gaza since 2007.
This rendered Gazans vulnerable to malnutrition, ill health, chronic unemployment and the inability to leave this tiny open-air prison.
The conditions imposed on Palestine since 1948 and in Gaza in particular since 2007 must be recognised in any peace talks.
Lorel Thomas, Blackburn
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‘More bloodshed’: Gaza takeover fury
Courier-Mail (Hobart Mercury) |Ronny Reyes | 10 August 2025
Keir Starmer and the UN’s human rights chief have condemned Benjamin Netanyahu’s move to seize Gaza City, warning it won’t end conflict but only escalate suffering.
The UK Prime Minister said Israel’s decision to take control of Gaza was ill-advised and urged the Jewish state to reconsider.
“The Israeli government’s decision to further escalate its offensive in Gaza is wrong, and we urge it to reconsider immediately,” he said in a statement on Saturday.
“This action will do nothing to bring an end to this conflict or to help secure the release of the hostages. It will only bring more bloodshed.”
Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong also called for Israel not to follow through on its plans.
She said such a move “will only worsen the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza”.
“Permanent forced displacement is a violation of international law,” she said.
Other nations around the world expressed concern over Israel’s plan to wrest control of Gaza City, saying it would only worsen the conflict and lead to more bloodshed.
“Such actions would constitute further serious violations of international law and lead to a complete dead end,” the French foreign ministry said in a statement.
“They would undermine the legitimate aspirations of Palestinians to live in peace within a viable, sovereign and contiguous state, and pose a threat to regional stability.”
UN human rights chief Volker Turk said the plan must be “immediately halted”.
Israel should instead allow the “full, unfettered flow of humanitarian aid” and Palestinian armed groups, in turn, must unconditionally release hostages, he added.
“The Israeli government’s decision to further extend its military operation in Gaza must be reconsidered,” EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said.
She called for a ceasefire, the release of all hostages and “immediate and unhindered access” for humanitarian aid in Gaza.
European Council chief Antonio Costa warned that “such a decision must have consequences” for EU-Israel ties.
China’s foreign ministry said: “Gaza belongs to the Palestinian people and is an inseparable part of Palestinian territory.
“The correct way to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and to secure the release of hostages is an immediate ceasefire.”
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said it was “increasingly difficult to understand” how the Israeli military plan would help achieve legitimate aims.
“Under these circumstances, the German government will not authorise any exports of military equipment that could be used in the Gaza Strip until further notice,” he said.
Turkey said: “We call on the international community to fulfil its responsibilities to prevent the implementation of this decision, which aims to forcibly displace Palestinians from their own land.”
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said that Mr Netanyahu’s decision “will only cause more destruction and suffering”.
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We shouldn’t reward anti-Semitism
Courier-Mail | Letters | 10 August 2025
I noted with interest the story “Student’s posts halt refugee flow” (SM, 3/8) which said that France is suspending its program of receiving Palestinian refugees from Gaza and is investigating how a student accused of sharing anti-Semitic posts was allowed into the country.
The student will be deported and all Gazans who have entered France will undergo a second screening.
I am ashamed that Australia displays the totally opposite view and rewards anti-Semitism and allows blockades of public roads.
I strongly object to the hijacking of the Sydney Harbour Bridge last Sunday.
Kaye Jeffries, Holland Park
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Israel cops flak over military expansion in Gaza
Canberra Times / AAP | 10 August 2025
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/9037031/israel-cops-flak-over-military-expansion-in-gaza/
International condemnation is growing over Israel’s decision for a military takeover of Gaza City, while little appeared to change immediately on the ground in the territory shattered by 22 months of war.
The United Nations Security Council has scheduled an emergency meeting on Sunday morning in New York.
Health officials said that 11 Palestinians seeking aid were shot dead, and 11 adults died of malnutrition-related causes in the past 24 hours.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff was expected to meet with Qatar’s prime minister in Spain on Saturday to discuss a new proposal to end the war, according to two officials familiar with the talks, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Mediators Egypt and Qatar are preparing a new ceasefire framework that would include the release of all hostages — dead and alive — in one go in return for the war’s end and the withdrawal of Israeli forces, two Arab officials have told The Associated Press.
Families of hostages were rallying again on Saturday evening to pressure the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
There are fears for the fate of the 50 remaining hostages, with 20 of them thought to be alive and struggling.
“The living will be murdered and the fallen will be lost forever,” if the offensive goes ahead, said Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is held in Gaza.
A joint statement by nine countries, including Germany, Britain, France and Canada, said that they “strongly reject” Israel’s decision for the large-scale military operation, saying it will worsen the “catastrophic humanitarian situation,” endanger hostages and further risk mass displacement.
A separate statement by more than 20 countries, including ceasefire mediators Egypt and Qatar, along with Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, called Israel’s decision a “dangerous and unacceptable escalation”.
Meanwhile, Russia said Israel’s plan will aggravate the “already extremely dramatic situation” in Gaza.
And Germany has said it won’t authorise any exports of military equipment to Israel that could be used in Gaza until further notice.
Officials at Nasser and Awda hospitals said that Israeli forces killed at least 11 people seeking aid in southern and central Gaza.
Some had been waiting for aid trucks, while others had been approaching aid distribution points.
Israel’s military denied opening fire and said that it was unaware of the incidents.
The military secures routes leading to distribution sites run by the Israeli-backed and US-supported Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Two witnesses told the AP that Israeli troops fired toward crowds approaching a GHF distribution site on foot in the Netzarim corridor, a military zone that bisects Gaza.
One witness, Ramadan Gaber, said that snipers and tanks fired on aid-seekers, forcing them to retreat.
In Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, some aid-seekers cheered the latest airdrops of aid.
Hundreds of people rushed to grab what they could, though many have called the process degrading.
Aid organisations have called airdrops expensive, insufficient and potentially dangerous for people on the ground.
Israel’s military said that at least 106 packages of aid were airdropped on Saturday as Italy and Greece joined the multi-country effort for the first time.
Footage from Italy’s defence ministry showed not only packages being parachuted over Gaza but the dry and devastated landscape below.
“This way is not for humans, it is for animals,” said one man at the scene, Mahmoud Hawila, who said he was stabbed while trying to secure an airdropped package.
Barefoot children collected rice, pasta and lentils that had spilled from packages onto the ground.
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Outrage at Israeli plan to take over Gaza City that could displace 1m Palestinians
Germany says it will halt arms deliveries to Israel amid growing international anger over planned operation
The Guardian | Lorenzo Tondo & Julian Borger | 9 August 2025
The future of 1 million Palestinians hangs in the balance after Israel’s security cabinet approved a new ground offensive aimed at taking complete control of Gaza’s largest city in a decision that has triggered global outrage.
The plan put forward by Benjamin Netanyahu for Gaza City would entail a further escalation in the 22-month war and mean more mass displacements of an exhausted and starving population.
It has yet to be endorsed by the full cabinet, expected to convene in the next few days, but there have been calls from around the world for the government to change its mind. Germany, Israel’s second-biggest arms supplier and strongest backer in Europe, on Friday suspended the delivery of weaponry that could be used in Gaza.
Foreign ministers from the UK, Germany, Italy, Australia and New Zealand said in a joint statement on Saturday that the plans to control Gaza City will make an already perilous situation worse, with the “worst-case scenario” of mass famine already unfolding in the territory. The ministers said further large-scale military operations in Gaza “will aggravate the catastrophic humanitarian situation, endanger the lives of the hostages, and further risk the mass displacement of civilians”.
An emergency UN security council meeting has been scheduled for 10am EDT on Sunday, after being pushed back from Saturday.
The proposal is also reported to have opened a deep rift between Netanyahu and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) leadership but has not been opposed by the Trump administration, Israel’s most important backer.
Hamas said in a statement that Netanyahu’s plans meant he had abandoned the surviving hostages seized by the group in its surprise attack on Israel in October 2023, which triggered the war. The statement accused the Israeli prime minister of “sacrificing them to serve his personal interests and extremist ideological agenda”.
Before the security cabinet meeting, which began on Thursday and ran through the night, the Israeli prime minister had said Israel planned to take control of the entire territory and eventually hand it to friendly Arab forces opposed to Hamas.
The plans announced on Friday morning stop short of that goal, perhaps reflecting the opposition of the IDF chief of general staff, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, who told Netanyahu on Tuesday he was “walking into a trap” according to Israeli press reports, warning it would endanger the remaining 20 or so living hostages held by Hamas and further strain Israel’s army after nearly two years of regional wars.
However, in a meeting with the leadership of the IDF southern command on Friday, Zamir vowed to carry out the government’s orders.
“We are advancing detailed preparations at the highest level, accounting for all possible outcomes. As always, we will carry out the mission with utmost precision and determination,” the army chief said.
NBC published commercial satellite imagery showing a buildup of Israeli military vehicles on the edge of the coastal strip and quoted US officials as saying it could mean a new ground offensive is imminent.
The plan laid out by Netanyahu’s office lists five objectives: disarming Hamas, returning all hostages, demilitarising the entire Gaza Strip, taking security control of the territory, and establishing “an alternative civil administration that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority”.
Israel has repeatedly bombarded Gaza City and carried out numerous raids in its devastated streets, returning to different neighbourhoods again and again as militants regrouped. It is one of the few areas of Gaza that has not been turned into an Israeli buffer zone or placed under evacuation orders.
The Netanyahu plan would mean sending ground troops into the few areas of the territory that have not been totally destroyed, making up about 25% of the Gaza Strip. It would force approximately 1 million Palestinians in Gaza City and surrounding areas into evacuation zones in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. Sources familiar with details of the meeting said the evacuation of the city was scheduled to be completed by 7 October.
According to Israel’s Channel 12, the plan is being framed as a limited operation rather than a full invasion, apparently to placate military chiefs wary of long-term occupation, warding off an open rift with the IDF leadership. Some Israeli reports suggested Zamir may resign.
A major ground operation could displace tens of thousands of people and further disrupt efforts to deliver food to the territory.
The Israeli security cabinet’s decision has ignited protests at home and abroad. Thousands of demonstrators are preparing to take to the streets over the weekend, while families of the remaining hostages held in Gaza fear an escalation could doom their loved ones. Dozens of them protested outside the security cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Thursday, and then outside the home of the defence minister, Israel Katz, on Friday.
Former top Israeli security officials have also come out against the plan, warning of a quagmire with little added military benefit. The Israeli opposition leader, Yair Lapid, denounced the cabinet’s move on Friday, calling it a disaster that would “lead to many other disasters”, including the deaths of hostages and the killing of many soldiers, as well as costing Israeli taxpayers tens of billions and causing “diplomatic bankruptcy”.
The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said it was “increasingly difficult to understand” how Israel’s plan would accomplish the aims of disarming Hamas and liberating the remaining hostages.
“Under these circumstances, the German government will not authorise any exports of military equipment that could be used in the Gaza Strip until further notice,” he said.
The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, said Israel’s decision was wrong and urged it to immediately reconsider. “This action will do nothing to bring an end to this conflict or to help secure the release of the hostages. It will only bring more bloodshed,” he said.
The UN human rights chief, Volker Türk, said the Israeli government’s plan for a complete military takeover of the occupied Gaza Strip “must be immediately halted”, while the EU Council president, António Costa, said implementation of the plan “must have consequences for EU-Israel relations”.
However, no opposition has come from Washington. When asked about a possible Israeli takeover of Gaza, Donald Trump said on Tuesday: “I really can’t say. It is going to be pretty much up to Israel.”
The news site Axios cited a US official as saying that Trump had been appalled by the video released by Hamas showing an Israeli hostage digging his own grave. “It influenced the president, and he is going to let the Israelis do what they need to do,” the official was quoted as saying.
Netanyahu’s office said that under the plan to defeat Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army would prepare to “take control of Gaza City while distributing humanitarian assistance to the civilian population outside combat zones”.
An Israeli official had earlier said the security cabinet would discuss plans to conquer all or parts of Gaza not yet under Israeli control. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that whatever was approved would be implemented gradually to increase pressure on the Palestinian militant group.
Palestinians, at least 90% of whom have already been displaced at least once by the war and of whom nearly one in 10 have been injured in Israeli attacks, are braced for further misery. There is little remaining of the healthcare system and aid agencies such as the UN have been largely shut out by Israel.
Aya Mohammad, a 30-year-old Palestinian who, after repeated displacement, had returned with her family to Gaza City, said: “Where should we go? We have been displaced and humiliated enough. You know what displacement is? Does the world know? It means your dignity is wiped out, you become a homeless beggar, searching for food, water and medicine.”
At least 42 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes and shootings across southern Gaza on Thursday, according to local hospitals.
Israel’s military offensive has killed at least 61,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, most of them civilians. The figure does not include the thousands believed to be buried under rubble or the thousands killed indirectly as a consequence of the war.
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