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Hamas urges Donald Trump to pressure Israel to agree to a ceasefire

Posted on 27 Mar 202527 Mar 2025 by admin

In short:
A senior Hamas official says its mediators would accept “any proposal submitted to it” that would lead to a ceasefire and Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
Donald Trump repeatedly said during his presidential campaign that he would bring peace to the Middle East.
Iran has also backed Lebanon’s stance in ongoing peace talks to bring peace between Israel and Hezbollah.
A senior Hamas official has declared the group is “ready for a ceasefire” in the war-ravaged Gaza, and urged incoming US president Donald Trump to put “pressure” on Israel to reach a truce.
It follows indications earlier this week that Israel and Hezbollah are close to reaching a deal to end fighting in Lebanon.
Multiple organisations, including the United Nations and Human Rights Watchi, this week declared the situation in Gaza showed “characteristics of genocide”.
“Hamas is ready to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip if a ceasefire proposal is presented and on the condition that it is respected” by Israel, Hamas political bureau member Bassem Naim told news agency AFP.
“We call on the US administration and Trump to pressure the Israeli government to end the aggression.”
Mr Naim said Hamas had informed “mediators that it is in favour of any proposal submitted to it that would lead to a definitive ceasefire and military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip”.
He said Hamas’s key demands, which the organisation had made in successive ceasefire talks, were the return of displaced people, a serious deal for prisoner exchange and the entry of humanitarian aid and reconstruction.
Last weekend, Qatar announced it had suspended its role as a mediator in Gaza ceasefire talks until Hamas and Israel showed “seriousness” in talks.
On the campaign trail, Mr Trump promised peace in the Middle East and has vowed to give free rein to Israel.
This week he announced Marco Rubio would serve as the next US secretary of state.
Hope for peace in Lebanon as strikes hit Syria
On Friday, the Lebanese government said it was conducting a “three-day review” of a US truce proposal for the Israel-Hezbollah conflict.
Cross-border clashes between the two sides escalated into a full-blown war in September.
An unnamed Lebanese government official talking to AFP on the condition of anonymity said if an agreement was reached, Washington and Paris would issue a joint statement that would be followed by a 60-day truce during which Lebanon would redeploy troops in the southern border area, near Israel.
Israeli officials have recently vowed there will be no let-up in the fighting against Hezbollah.
Iran has indicated it will back Lebanon’s push for a truce between the two sides.
Australia backs UN proposal recognising Palestinian ‘permanent sovereignty’
The vote by Australia in a UN committee puts the country at odds with the United States and Israel, and has angered Australia’s Jewish lobby groups.
Ali Larijani, an advisor to Iran’s supreme leader, spoke during a visit to Beirut as Israel kept up its intensified bombardment of Hezbollah-controlled areas of the Lebanese capital.
“We are after a solution to the problems. We support in all circumstances the Lebanese government,” Mr Larijani said.
“Those who are disrupting are [Mr] Netanyahu and his people.”
Hezbollah was founded by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in 1982, and has been armed and financed by Tehran.
It came as Israel continued its strikes across the Middle East, and carried out strikes in the Syrian capital of Damascus for the second consecutive day.
Syrian state-run media said Israel struck the upscale Mazzeh district of Damascus on Friday, the second such attack in as many days to hit the neighbourhood home to embassies, security headquarters and United Nations offices.
“Israeli aggression targets Mazzeh area in Damascus,” the official SANA news agency said after reporting a deadly Israeli strike on the district a day earlier.
AFP/Reuters

Israel war: Palestinians adrift after UNRWA aid ban

Posted on 27 Mar 202527 Mar 2025 by admin

There is no alternative to the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees, its chief insisted, following Israel’s order to ban the organisation that coordinates nearly all aid in war-ravaged Gaza.
“There is no plan B,” head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, told reporters in Geneva.
Within the UN family, “there is no other agency geared to provide the same activities”, providing not only aid in Gaza, but also primary health care and education to hundreds of thousands of children,” he said.
“If you are talking about bringing in a truck with food, you will surely find an alternative,” he said, but “the answer is no” when it comes to education and primary healthcare.
He has called on the UN, which created UNRWA in 1949, to prevent the implementation of a ban on the organisation in Israel and occupied east Jerusalem, which was approved by the Israeli parliament last month.
The ban is due to take effect at the end of January.
UNRWA provides assistance to nearly six million Palestinian refugees across Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.
Lazzarini cautioned that a halt to UNRWA’s activities in Israel and East Jerusalem would block it from co-ordinating massive aid efforts inside Gaza.
“This would mean we could not operate in Gaza … and thus the environment would be much too dangerous,” he said.
If UNRWA ceases to operate, he warned, the responsibility for providing all the services it has provided until now “will come back to the occupying power, being Israel”.

Australia’s Israel Policy at the Crossroads: How much worse can it get before Australia takes a principled stand?

Posted on 27 Mar 202527 Mar 2025 by admin

The horrific situation in the Middle East has landed Foreign Minister Penny Wong with a difficult and frustrating job. She is wedged between a so-far unacknowledged obligation to honour Australia’s legal commitments to condemn Israeli genocide and apartheid on the one hand, and on the other, a vociferous campaign by local Zionists and their supporters to back Israel’s military actions in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon.
As a result Wong’s public statements sound clichéd and pusillanimous. She says the situation in Gaza is ‘unacceptable’, that Israel must stop killing innocent civilians, and must end its occupation of the West Bank and settler violence; there must be a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon and a path back to a just and lasting peace. Australia ‘supports’ Palestinian rights to self-determination, but not those of Hamas terrorists, and Palestine must not threaten Israel’s security. The Albanese government wants to see a reformed Palestinian government, one without Hamas. Israel has a right to defend itself, Wong repeats, without adding that the Palestinians should have the same right.
Australia officially supports a two-state solution, to which neither Israelis nor Palestinians will agree. Israel will not, with its goal of seizing Eretz Israel now in sight. And the Palestinians will continue to defy Israel’s occupation. Gaza will continue to be an ‘incubator for armed resistance‘, Palestinian negotiator Ahmad Samih Khalidi told the ABC. ‘It’s a natural reaction to any long-term Israeli military presence’.
Wong moved another inch forward at the United Nations on 15 November when Australia voted to recognise the ‘permanent sovereignty’ of Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources –joining 159 states in favour. The seven against included the US, Canada and Israel, with eleven abstentions. This end a 20-year streak of Australia voting No or abstaining on the issue. The Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) protested against the new Australian position.

Meanwhile, Wong has neither supported the global consensus to recognise Palestinian statehood – which is established ALP policy – nor placed an embargo on Australian exports to Israel. These include weapons or weapon components fabricated here, such as parts for F-35 fighter jets. Nor has anything been announced about recalling Australian military personnel from Israel, or restricting further deployments.Australian politicians’ ‘fact-finding’ trips to Israel, usually paid for by the Israel government, have not been suspended
Wong is making as many principled gestures as she can without going as far as imposing the sanctions or embargoes on Israel required by the International Court of Justice, which depends on member states to enforce its recommendations.
Contrast Wong’s pronouncements with those of Chris Sidoti, former Australian Law Reform Commissioner and current member of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
In its first report to the UN Human Rights Commission on 19 June 2024, Sidoti’s group affirmed that both Hamas and Israel had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. Two leaders of Israel, Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Galant, and three Hamas leaders were cited by the International Criminal Court for war crimes requiring their arrest by member states. Netanyahu has since visited Washington without being detained. Two of the Hamas leaders have now been killed.
Despite the ICC’s attempt to balance the blame, Israel’s actions are disproportionally much greater and cover a wider spectrum against civilians than anything Hamas is capable of. Seven thousand pieces of evidence tendered to the International Courts included starvation as a method of warfare against civilians, their widespread murder, forcible transfer, sexual violence and torture, and gender persecution of men and boys.
In a separate report on 11 September 2024, Sidoti’s Commission described the treatment of detainees by Israel and attacks by the Israel Defence Force on medical facilities and personnel in Gaza from 7 October 2023 to August 2024.
At a press conference in New York on 31 October 2024, Sidoti confined himself to giving only one set of statistics about the horrific situation in Gaza and Israel, and that related to children. In the last 13 months 38 Israeli children had been killed in fighting in Israel, compared to 13,319 Palestinian children killed in Gaza, and 165 on the West Bank. ‘Kids’, he said, ‘are not terrorists’. With no end in sight to the hostilities, which were in fact spreading into Lebanon and Syria, none of four recent Security Council resolutions, nor numerous General Assembly Resolutions have resulted in a single child not being killed.
Israel’s leaders, past and present, have asserted their nation’s intention to take all the Palestinians’ territories for themselves, either by forcibly removing people whose ancestors have lived there for centuries, or by killing them. IDF General Giora Eiland has lately been a proponent in Israel of ‘The Generals Plan’ for the defeat of Hamas in Northern Gaza.
Eiland told the ABC he can save the lives of all the civilians there, and force the combatants either to surrender or to die. He can do this by encircling a third of Gaza, for about week. Civilians in the north will be ‘encouraged’ to leave, through two ‘safe’ corridors, before cutting off all food, water and energy supplies, as little as they are. Anyone left behind, including civilians, will be treated as an enemy combatant.
The General claims his plan doesn’t breach international law, despite conventions which say starvation and displacement cannot be used as weapons of war. Palestinians who leave can return home, he claims: but only if the Israeli hostages are returned.
In fact, Eiland’s plan for Northern Gaza was in action from the start. There and in the south, Palestinians were repeatedly ‘encouraged to leave’ their homes, shelters, and camps, by being fired at and bombed. The places to which they fled were then hit. The result is misery, terror, deprivation, injury and death from one end of Gaza to the other. Now they are accused of raiding the few aid trucks that reach Gaza, and shot by the IDF for doing so.
How much worse can it get before Australia takes a principled stand in support of Sidoti? The question is on our collective conscience.

Many of Israel’s Western supporters indicate they would arrest Netanyahu. Will Australia and NZ follow suit?

Posted on 27 Mar 202527 Mar 2025 by admin

Ever since the October 7 2023 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, the Albanese government has consistently said Australia respects Israel’s right to defend itself, but how it does so matters.
To an international lawyer, those words are code for simultaneously exercising the right of self defence and respecting international humanitarian law. In effect, remaining compliant with the laws of war.
Now, with the International Criminal Court’s issuing of arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, Australia and other like-minded states face a dilemma.
In July, Australia, Canada and New Zealand issued a joint statement that said, in part:
Israel must listen to the concerns of the international community. The protection of civilians is paramount and a requirement under international humanitarian law. Palestinian civilians cannot be made to pay the price of defeating Hamas.
Since the arrest warrants were issued last week, Canada, a number of European countries and others have made clear they would arrest Netanyahu if he steps foot in their countries. Will Australia and New Zealand now follow suit?
International courts and the Gaza war
Over the past year, there has been an increasing focus on the legality of Israel’s actions in Gaza and its impact on the Palestinian population.
This was first highlighted by the case brought by South Africa in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in late December alleging Israel was responsible for genocide against the people of Gaza.
This was followed by the ICJ’s separate advisory opinion in July saying that Israel’s continued occupation of the Palestinian territories violated international law and its presence there should end “as rapidly as possible”.
Then, last week, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity arising from their roles as political leaders in the prosecution of the Gaza war.
The ICC’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, had also been seeking arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders. Two have been killed in recent months, while the third, Mohammed Al-Masri, more commonly known as Mohammed Deif, is also believed to be dead. The ICC nonetheless issued a warrant against him, too.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands. Remko de Waal/ANP/EPA
The jurisdiction of the ICC over the Gaza war, however, is not clear cut because Israel is not a party to the Rome Statute. This is the treaty that established the court and gave it the remit to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The court’s jurisdiction in its Israel and Gaza investigations is therefore founded on Palestine having become a party to the statute in 2015. That was a matter of legal, diplomatic and political controversy because Palestine is not universally recognised as a state.
The Rome Statute also gives the court jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed in countries that are not members of the ICC. The UN Security Council can refer these actions to the court for investigation, though given the split between the United States, Russia and China on the Security Council, it’s unlikely they’d find agreement on Israel.
The legality of the arrest warrants
The ICC’s arrest warrants have raised two other substantive legal matters that states will likely take into account when deciding how to respond.
First, the ICC was designed as a “court of last resort” in relation to allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
This means it gives deference to national war crimes investigations and prosecutions. So, there is a possibility the Netanyahu and Gallant arrest warrants could be paused if Israel starts its own investigations.
Israel’s military has an internal agency that investigates alleged violations of international rules of conduct. However, human rights groups have accused the military of a lack of transparency and will to investigate its own soldiers. And there is no evidence Israeli political leaders are under investigation for their actions during the war.
The second issue is that international law recognises the principle of “head of state immunity”, which means a leader of a country is immune from arrest for alleged crimes.
This principle, however, does not apply under the Rome Statute. And because Israel is not a party to the ICC, Netanyahu arguably still enjoys immunity under customary international law.
Whether this immunity applies to certain international crimes, such as war crimes and crimes against humanity, has become increasingly contested.
This was tested in the late 1990s when Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was arrested in the United Kingdom on a warrant issued by a Spanish judge for alleged torture committed against Spanish citizens in Chile. Pinochet claimed immunity as a former head of state. British courts rejected his claim, though he was never extradited to face trial.
After the ICC issued an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin for his actions in the Ukraine war, Western states have given little weight to this principle.
South Africa’s genocide case
While the recent focus has been on the ICC’s actions, the ICJ has also been reviewing the legality of Israel’s conduct in Gaza.
The ICC is a criminal court that seeks to hold individuals accountable for alleged crimes, while the ICJ is focused on the responsibility of states for breaches of international law.
South Africa’s case against Israel has already been before the ICJ an unprecedented four times since January. Three sets of provisional measures have been issued against Israel based on what the court says is a “plausible” case of genocide.
This case, however, remains in the early stages and has many years to run. There is a very high legal bar to clear to conclusively prove Israel has committed genocide. Much will turn on evidence of genocidal intent.
Israel’s supporters now face a choice
These legal processes highlight how important international law has become in seeking to hold Israel and its leaders (in addition to Hamas) to account for their actions.
And this, in turn, has placed Australia, New Zealand and like-minded countries that have historically been strong friends and supporters of Israel in a diplomatic and political quandary.
There is an historical and strong bipartisan position in Australia that supports the rules-based, international order founded after the second world war. The ICJ and ICC are at the core of this international order. Australia also has a judge that sits on the ICJ, and has strongly supported the ICC’s pursuit of Putin over Russia’s war in Ukraine.
As a middle power, Australia’s global interests are deeply embedded in this international order. As difficult as it has been for Australia to see Israel and its leader placed under the international legal spotlight, failing to support these processes and their outcomes risks further undoing the international order.

Albanese is trying to unite Australians amid the war in Gaza — but as tensions increase, where will it all end?

Posted on 18 Sep 2024 by admin

The protracted war in Gaza is having a deep impact on Australian communities.
Ian Cutmore)

If you talk to almost any politician in Canberra at the moment, they will tell you there is something disturbing playing out in their communities. Many are deeply unsettled by it.

Anger at a war, unfolding in real-time on social media, is triggering animosity. MPs are detecting a level of polarisation — some call it intolerance — that they haven’t observed at this level in their careers. Perhaps even their lives.

After last year’s polarising Voice referendum vote, Australia went almost immediately into a period of domestic conflict over the war in the Middle East. The tensions have been boiling over relentlessly ever since. There has been a lack of self-analysis from us as a country about what that referendum was, why it failed, and what it tells us about the schisms in our community.

The referendum has become like the Voldemort of Australian politics — many of its main protagonists can’t talk about it at any depth beyond platitudes.
Tensions were already high

Meanwhile, the world has been thrust into witnessing a brutal conflict that many believe has fundamentally changed community relations in Australia. It is tearing workplaces, families and friendship groups apart.

What worries those I’ve talked to on both sides of the political divide is that social cohesion was already at record lows. Towards the end of last year, the Mapping Social Cohesion Report was released putting the Scanlon-Monash Index of Social Cohesion at its lowest level since the survey began 16 years ago.
The Party Room

Want to know what’s really going on in Parliament House? Fran Kelly and Patricia Karvelas give you the political analysis that matters and explain what it means for you.
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The index, which provides a barometer of social wellbeing, declined by four points over the 12 months to the end of last year, hitting the lowest result on record. Since November 2020, it has plummeted 13 points. Something is going on and it’s sparking many conversations in Canberra.

The protracted war in Gaza is having a deep impact on the communities most directly affected. MPs representing some of Australia’s most multicultural communities — particularly those with high numbers of Arab and Muslim constituents — say their communities are angry that the Albanese government hasn’t gone further in denouncing Israel’s military campaign. Their communities are feeling abandoned and ignored.

The political ramifications for the Albanese government are yet to be felt but it’s fertile ground that could spell trouble. Last week Australia, Canada and New Zealand issued a joint statement warning Israel against carrying out a “devastating” and “catastrophic” ground offensive on Rafah in southern Gaza, saying: “There is simply nowhere else for civilians to go.”

The statement was strong but it drew criticism from Palestinian activists that it was too little too late.
Australia warns Israel over its operation in Rafah.
What’s the end game?

At the same time, Jewish Australians are experiencing the highest rates of anti-Semitism in their lives. I know Jewish Australians who are far from supportive of the Netanyahu government’s military strategy but who say they don’t feel comfortable in their workplaces or communities because of the conflation between being Jewish and being branded a supporter of the war. Nuance seems dead.

A leak of a WhatsApp chat group called “Jewish Australian creatives and academics” sent chills through the Jewish community. While members said it was formed as a supportive space, there’s no doubt that some conversations focused on rebuking media critiques of Israel. The targeting of individuals is dangerous territory that politicians have vowed to stamp out.

The leakers say they acted in the public interest because they claim the chat group was coordinating actions to target pro-Palestinian activists. Some of those on the WhatsApp group say that was not what they were there to do. Others had their names published even though they weren’t active in the group. The bigger question is why we are in a situation where Australians — whether Jewish or Palestinian — are being personally targeted and policed. What’s the end game?

The Australian government has reacted to this episode with a move to criminalise doxxing and introduce jail terms for those responsible. The parameters of the laws will be subject to consultation and public journalism will be protected, but the fact that we are even having this conversation speaks volumes about how toxic things have become.
The government plans to criminalise “doxxing” after the details of Jewish Australians were published online.(Rhiana Whitson)

Cabinet minister Bill Shorten told me last week that community and racial cohesion in Australia was at a “very low point” since the Israel-Gaza war and he had not seen this level of intolerance during his time in parliament.

Speaking on ABC Radio National, Shorten said his electorate office in Moonee Ponds had been targeted several times by advocates.

“It’s at a very low point,” he told me. “I’m someone who really enjoys mixing with our constituents and getting out and about. The vast bulk of people are excellent, but there’s no doubt that we’ve seen a rise in anti-Semitism, or we’ve seen a rise in this sort of ugly intolerance which, to be honest, I haven’t seen in my time in parliament.

“For those people who would seek to vandalise, so somehow the events elsewhere justify law-breaking here, they’re wrong.”

The member for Macnamara, Josh Burns, has also been worried about how alienated his Jewish constituents are feeling.

“I know people are distressed about what is happening in the Middle East, but we cannot let the conflict overseas breed division and hatred in our local community,” he says.

He says the majority of the community has been incredible and empathetic, however, there’s a “small and loud group of people who feel that a conflict on the other side of the world is an excuse to target their fellow Australians”.

“The way we talk about the conflict matters, our words matter, and we must not forget what it means to be a proud multicultural nation — listening, empathising and understanding one another.”

Aussie rocker Aleksandr Uman and his band Bi-2 avoid deportation to Russia, but end up in Israel

Posted on 18 Sep 2024 by admin

In short: An Australian guitarist who co-founded one of the world’s most popular Russian-language bands has avoided deportation to Moscow after their anti-war stance raised the ire of the Kremlin.
What’s next: The seven members of the group Bi-2 are instead in Israel, where guitarist Aleksandr Uman says they’re “free to keep moving forward”.

His band has more than 1 million YouTube subscribers and their music is streamed hundreds of thousands of times a month — but Aussies are probably hearing about Aleksandr Uman for the first time.

The guitarist and singer, who holds Australian, Russian and Israeli citizenship, has been at the centre of a diplomatic storm that started last week when he and six other rockers in the group Bi-2 were arrested in Thailand.

The band, which enraged the Kremlin with its strident anti-war campaigning, had been performing shows on the holiday island of Phuket, which is popular with Russian expats and tourists.

It’s understood Israeli, Australian and US authorities worked with counterparts in Thailand to make sure the musicians were not deported to Moscow, where they would have likely faced severe punishment.

The group arrived in Tel Aviv early on Thursday morning, after requesting to be sent to Israel instead of Russia.

“I’m very thankful to the Israeli consul, the Australian consul and American guys and all the other guys from human rights who helped to get us here,” Uman said after touching down at Ben Gurion Airport.

“The Australian consul did the greatest job.”

Uman, who is also known as Shura Bi-2, described his time behind bars in Thailand as “horrible” and said he was “very tired” following the ordeal.

“All of our friends who told everyone, all the world, about this situation, we would like to thank you all, journalists, musicians, human rights, thank you very much,” he said.

“We are free and we will keep moving forward.”

The flashpoint has raised questions about Russia’s influence abroad, as its invasion of Ukraine is about to extend into a third year.

A statement released by the band on social media claimed concerts in Thailand had been held “in accordance with local laws and practices”, however, local authorities said they’d been arrested for working without a permit.

The group formed in 1988 — shortly before the Soviet Union collapsed — and has gone on to become among the most popular Russian-language rock bands.

In 2022, after shows in Russia were cancelled, the band began touring abroad and had, most recently, been living in exile in Thailand.

Uman lived in Australia for several years in the 90s.

Russian MP Andrei Lugovi called the band “scum” for their anti-war stance, while the country’s justice ministry branded lead singer Igor Bortnick a “foreign agent” after he took aim at Vladimir Putin in an online post.

Russian composer and Bi-2 band member Yan Nikolenko thanked Israel for protecting the group from “real evil in a very, very bad situation” at a press conference in Tel Aviv.

“We are always trying to be very honest with our music in every situation and our main strategy is to try to be persistent,” Nikolenko said.

“This honesty is a problem for some people, we crossed some lines and after this crossing we are separated from some people in our country and we have to live with it.

“And now we know it can be really dangerous, because we can be stuck in the middle of nowhere just because we write songs honestly.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz praised diplomatic efforts that allowed the seven musicians to leave Thailand for Israel.

Welcoming the band to Tel Aviv, he said Israel was not concerned about Moscow’s response to its intervention.

“We are going to do the right thing and I am very happy that we did it,” Mr Katz said.

Several members of the band are Israeli citizens.

Human Rights Watch’s deputy Asia director, Phil Robertson, commended Thailand’s decision not to send the band members back to Russia.

“Thailand realised that they didn’t need to make a lot of enemies by doing Russia’s bidding in this case,” Mr Robertson wrote on X formerly Twitter.

“Appreciate that the Thai foreign ministry recognised the importance of upholding human rights principles, & didn’t send them to face persecution and worse in Russia.”

Israel-Hamas War: US approves strikes on Iran ‘personnel and facilities’

Posted on 18 Sep 2024 by admin

Plans have been approved for the US military to launch a series of strikes targeting Iranian “personnel and facilities” in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for the death of three American troops.

US officials speaking on condition of anonymity said the weather would determine when the strikes would begin, adding the attacks “won’t be a one-off”.

It comes after the White House officially blamed the drone attack on a US base in Jordan as being launched by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella of Iran-backed militias like Kataib Hezbollah.

US officials told CBS News the military was waiting for improved weather before launching the strikes in an effort to minimise civilian casualties due to poor visibility.

Iran threatened to “decisively respond” if the US attacked the Islamic Republic to retaliate for Sunday’s attack on Tower 22, which killed three and injured more than 40.

“[US President Joe Biden] believes that it is important to respond in an appropriate way,” said National Security Council Spokesman John Kirby.

“The first thing you see won’t be the last thing … it won’t be a one-off.”

FOLLOW BELOW FOR UPDATES

US STRIKES YEMEN

A new explosion was reported off Yemen after overnight US strikes targeted 10 attack drones and a ground control station belonging to the Iran-backed Huthi rebels.

The explosion, reported by the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency, happened near a vessel west of the port city of Hodeida.

No damage to the ship or injuries to the crew was reported.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, which followed a flurry of missile strikes by the Huthis who have harassed Red Sea shipping for months, triggering reprisal attacks by the United States and Britain.

Early Thursday in Yemen, US forces targeted a “Huthi UAV ground control station and 10 Huthi one-way UAVs” that “presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and the US Navy ships in the region”, a CENTCOM statement said, using an abbreviation for unmanned aerial vehicles or drones.

CENTCOM earlier announced that the USS Carney had shot down an anti-ship ballistic missile fired by the Huthis towards the Gulf of Aden, and that three Iranian drones were downed less than an hour later.

US DOWNS IRAN AIRCRAFT

American forces carried out strikes in Yemen against 10 attack drones and a ground control station belonging to the Iran-backed Huthi rebels, the US military said.

A US warship also shot down an anti-ship missile fired by the Huthis and later downed three Iranian drones, Central Command (CENTCOM) said.

While the United States has recently launched strikes on the Huthis and other Tehran-supported groups in the region, both it and Iran have sought to avoid a direct confrontation, and the downing of three Iranian drones could heighten tensions.

Early on Thursday local time, US forces targeted a “Huthi UAV ground control station and 10 Huthi one-way UAVs” that “presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and the US Navy ships in the region,” CENTCOM said in a statement, using an abbreviation for unmanned aerial vehicle.

With AFP

Originally published as Israe-Hamas War: US approves strikes on Iran ‘personnel and facilities’

Israel at war: Top Hezbollah commander killed in Israeli strike on Lebanon

Posted on 18 Sep 2024 by admin

Israel-Ukraine aid package clears major hurdle in US Senate

By Agency Writers

The Democratic-controlled Senate cleared a critical hurdle toward passing a $95 billion national security-focused bill aimed at fortifying Ukraine, Israel and other allies, voting to move to debate an issue that has divided Republicans for months.

The vote was 67-32, above the 60-vote bar needed to advance most legislation in the chamber. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) voted against to protest the funds for Israel, while many Republicans voted “no” in part reflecting opposition to further funding Ukraine and in part because some wanted to relitigate a fight over illegal immigration that has been entangled with the foreign-aid package for months.

“This is a good first step,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said on the Senate floor, amid widespread expectations that passing the bill could take at least a week.

Schumer has said that he would allow a free and open amendment process, a step that can begin in earnest now that the Senate has formally taken up the legislation. Republicans have indicated that they would like amendment votes related to a House-passed border-security bill called H.R. 2, as well as to trim funds that pay the salaries of government employees in Kyiv.

The vote marks a preliminary but crucial step toward solving a political problem that has vexed Congress since last year: How to approve more money and weapons for Ukraine amid growing skepticism among conservatives about the growing price tag, which already tops more than $110 billion. Even if the bill ultimately clears the Senate, it faces an even tougher road in the Republican-controlled House, where GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump holds more sway to discourage Republicans from supporting Ukraine.

The measure moved forward shortly after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky removed his top general in the biggest shake-up of the country’s leadership since the full-scale Russian invasion began about two years ago. Ukraine’s manpower and equipment are depleted, and additional military funding from the U.S. has been in doubt for months amid the deadlock in Congress.

“We don’t know exactly how long they can hold out,” said Sen. Mike Rounds (R., S.D.), who voted in favor of the bill. He called the vote a clear message of support to Ukraine.

Republicans initially insisted they would only support such a package if it were accompanied by a sharp crackdown at the border. But after four months of talks produced a bipartisan deal on Sunday, GOP lawmakers shot down the measure and the legislation was blocked on the floor Wednesday, prompting Democrats to bring up a narrower plan focused just on foreign aid.

About $14.1 billion of the package is for Israel, including for missile-defense systems, while almost $9.2 billion is for humanitarian assistance to help civilians in Gaza, Ukraine and other conflict zones. Aid to Israel has broad support in both parties, but backers of Ukraine aid have kept the two tied together in an effort to increase leverage.

Dow Jones

‘Israel has terrible campaign against us’: hostage families

By Anne Barrowclough

The families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza have reportedly told Antony Blinken a “terrible campaign” is being run against them in Israel.

One of the representatives told the US Secretary of State: “The feeling is that those who are supposed to be overseeing the return of the hostages are not really interested in doing so.

“We feel dreadful. We feel that there’s a campaign designed to torpedo the deal and to create public opinion against it. We are told to use pressure abroad, but at home, where we ought to be embraced, there’s an effort to change the public perception at our expense,” they said according to Channel 12.

Mr Blinken anslo held talks in Tel Aviv with Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, two former military chiefs who joined a unity war cabinet after October 7.

Mr Blinken said he spoke to them about “the hostages and the strong desire that we both have to see them returned to their families, the work that’s being done to that end”.

“The most urgent issue is of course to find ways to bring back the hostages,” Mr Gantz told Mr Blinken. “That being done, many things can be achieved,” he added.

With AFP

Sinwar ‘not consulted over Hamas response to truce’

By Anne Barrowclough

Hamas’ “over the top” response to the truce deal drawn up by Qatar and Egypt to secure the release of Israeli prisoners was reportedly made without the authority of Yahya Sinwar, the militant organisation’s leader in Gaza.

Israel’s Channel 12 reports that Sinwar has not been in touch with other Hamas leaders, or with the peace deal mediators, and hasn’t been involved in any decision making in recent days.

Hamas’ demands for a truce included a permanent ceasefire, the rebuilding of Gaza and the return of Palestinian prisoners, which led to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejecting the deal, saying that it would lead to another October 7 style massacre.

US President Joe Biden said the demands were “over the top” but there was still room to manoeuvre.

Israel Defence Minister Yoav Galant said earlier this week that Sinwar was too “busy with his personal survival” to be involved with Hamas’ operations.

In a statement, Mr Galant said the best way to secure the release of the hostages was increased military pressure on Hamas and added: “Every terrorist will know that his end will be surrender or death.”

US warns Israel risks ‘disaster’ with Rafah strikes

By Agency Writers

The US has warned Israel that it risks “disaster” if it continues its strikes on Rafah, the Gaza town that borders Egypt.

It came as Israel’s armed forces stepped up air strikes on Rafah on Thursday as fears of ground fighting grew among the more than one million Palestinians crowded into the city.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken left Israel without securing a pause in fighting, wrapping up his fifth crisis tour of the Middle East since the war started.

Heavy fighting raged on despite international efforts towards a ceasefire in the bloodiest ever Gaza war sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered troops to “prepare to operate” in Rafah, after rejecting what he labelled Hamas’s “bizarre demands” in truce talks.

Netanyahu announced the order despite UN chief Antonio Guterres warning that a military push into Rafah “would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare”.

AFP journalists reported that Israel carried out at least seven air strikes overnight in the Rafah area, terrifying civilians crowded into shelters and makeshift camps.

“These strikes are proof there is no safety in Rafah,” said resident Umm Hassan, 48, whose home was damaged in the shelling of the nearby house of a local police chief.

“Look at the residential unit they just blew up,” he said. “Regarding Netanyahu’s threat to invade Rafah, we are people of faith. We are not worried. Life is one and God is one.”

Strikes and ground combat continued across the Hamas-ruled territory, now in its fifth month of war, where the health ministry said another 130 people were killed in 24 hours.

AFP

Top Hezbollah killed in drone strike in Lebanon

By Anne Barrowclough

Abbas al-Debs was linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard and was reportedly helping Iran set up air defences in Syria.

He was killed shortly after militants in Iraq attended the funeral of a senior Kataib Hezbollah commanded who was killed in a drone strike by the US on Thursday (AEDT).

The Israeli military confirmed the strike on Friday morning (AEDT), telling AFP on Thursday that its aircraft struck a “Hezbollah commander” in south Lebanon, claiming he was involved in cross-border rocket attacks.

With AFP

Hundreds of Jewish creatives have names, details taken in leak, published online

Posted on 18 Sep 2024 by admin

Anti-Zionist activists have published the names, images, professions and social media accounts of hundreds of Jewish people working in academia and creative industries, in an escalation of social tensions over the October 7 attacks and subsequent war in Gaza.

The dissemination of almost 600 names and their personal details was taken from the purported membership of a private WhatsApp Group formed last year by Jewish writers, artists, musicians and academics.

The leak included a spreadsheet with links to social media accounts and a separate file with a photo gallery of more than 100 Jewish people.

The mass doxxing on Thursday came as Victoria Police confirmed it was already investigating potential criminal breaches of privacy from earlier incidents relating to the same WhatsApp group.

“Police are investigating following reports the personal details of a number of people, who belong to a private social media chat group, appear to have been released online,” a police spokesperson said.

It appears the latest material, which was compiled from a leaked transcript of chat group discussions over several months, was published without activists confirming the accuracy of its contents.

The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald were contacted by a Jewish journalist who was not a member of the WhatsApp group but whose name was included in the published spreadsheet.

“I have been vocally critical of Israel, was not added to the group and specially said I didn’t want to be in that group, and my name is on the spreadsheet,” said the Melbourne-based journalist, who asked not to be named for fear of further harassment.

“I am not a Zionist, I have never been a Zionist, I am just a Jewish woman trying to go about my life. This is a group of any Jew they know the name of. I can’t believe it is happening.”

Feminist author Clementine Ford was among several pro-Palestinian activists who published a link to the “leaked zionist group chat” on Thursday.

“This is a group of ‘creatives’ working to silence voices calling for Palestinian liberation,” Ford told her more than 250,000 Instagram followers.

When asked why she published the material, Ford replied: “I would say that people whose livelihoods and professional reputations are mendaciously – and successfully – targeted in secret by others invested in silencing their criticism of a genocide are entitled to defend themselves.”

This masthead previously revealed that some members of the J.E.W.I.S.H creatives and academics group and a separate WhatsApp group of Jewish lawyers wrote to ABC managing director David Anderson and chair Ita Buttrose demanding they sack broadcaster Antoinette Lattouf.

The ABC has been gripped by conflict between union staff and management since it sacked Lattouf for reposting a Human Rights Watch report on social media that was critical of Israel. Lattouf has taken legal action, claiming unlawful termination on the grounds of her race and political opinion. Anderson has insisted that the corporation was not influenced by external pressure in its sacking of Lattouf.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said the widely disseminated “Jew list”, as he described it, was designed to damage the reputation and professional careers of people who had spoken against the rise of antisemitism following the October 7 attacks by Hamas, which killed about 1200 people in southern Israel.

“These people have painstakingly collected the names, faces, professions and other personal information of a group of Australians whose sole common trait is that they are Jews,” Ryvchin said.

“They are telling those who chant ‘Where’s the Jews?’ exactly who and where the Jews are.”

Shortly after the October 7 attacks, pro-Palestinian protesters were filmed chanting “Where’s the Jews?” and other slogans outside the Sydney Opera House.
“It is a ‘Jew list’ drawn up and published in a menacing manner intended to inflict maximum emotional damage and professional loss,” Ryvchin said.

Lee Kofman, a Melbourne-based Jewish author who administered the creatives and academics WhatsApp group, said the group was formed in October last year to support and advocate for Jewish people who felt alienated or isolated from their professional peers because of the war.

She said the group was not a political lobby and rejected its characterisation as a “secret Zionist cabal” with influence in high places.

“This is absurd and offensive, and feeds directly into the ancient and hateful antisemitic tropes about the Jews controlling, or trying to control, the world,” she said.

“Instead, we try to oppose: professional discrimination we are experiencing, like loss of work or workplace safety; silencing of our voices; overt racism we’ve experienced from some peers; media coverage of issues affecting our community that we feel is unfair or untrue.”

Kofman confirmed that some members of the group had “exercised their democratic right to complain to government, media and institutions”.

This included some members petitioning ABC management about Lattouf, a broadcaster highly critical of Israel who was contracted as a fill-in host on Sydney radio for five days in December. She was removed from air with two days left to run on her contract.

Although the WhatsApp group was private, with members explicitly asked not to republish the contents of its online discussions, a 900-page transcript of the group chat was leaked and disseminated to pro-Palestinian activists in late January.

Since then, some members of the group – renamed Zio600 by activists – have been outed online, with details of what they said in the chat group and their personal information published through a network of social media accounts.

Foreign minister Penny Wong says Australia does not yet have all evidence of Israel’s UNRWA allegations

Posted on 18 Sep 2024 by admin

Foreign Minister Penny Wong has sought further evidence that UN aid staff were involved in the Hamas terror attacks of October 7, admitting she does not yet have all the evidence to hand.

Australia and other countries including the US, UK, Switzerland and Germany paused their funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) after the agency announced it would investigate Israel’s allegations that 12 of its 13,000 staff played a part in the attacks or had links to Hamas.

Senator Wong told the ABC’s 7.30 she had sought evidence from Israel, but had not received a response and had not asked UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini to share any evidence he might have had.

She admitted she was not in possession of all the evidence.

“No, we’re not,” she said.

“We have spoken to the Israelis and we have asked for further evidence.”

When pressed on why she did not ask Mr Lazzarini, Senator Wong reiterated she had asked Israel, and she was not aware if Mr Lazzarini had evidence.

“He may, I don’t know what he has,” she said.

British news outlet Channel 4 cast doubt over the allegations, reporting a dossier Israel provided to the UN to support its allegations contained “no evidence” to support the claims.

But Senator Wong maintained Israel’s allegations were serious, noting UNRWA itself had determined an investigation was warranted.

“I think it is clear from UNRWA’s own actions that they regard these allegations as serious,” she said.

“They have taken action including terminating the employment of a number of employees and putting in place an inquiry – in fact, there are two inquiries.”

Senator Wong last week hinted Australia could soon reinstate its funding to the agency, when she emphasised it was the only organisation providing substantive support to the occupied Palestinian territories.

Australia had already doubled its annual core funding to UNRWA – from $10 million to $20 million – but an additional $6 million, that Senator Wong announced on her recent trip to the Middle East, had been paused.

“The primary concern is making sure that other donors, particularly those that have not provided their next round of operational funding – core funding – that that confidence can be attained before the end of the month,” she said.

Labor MP criticises Israel over ceasefire rejection
Earlier on Thursday, Labor MP Josh Wilson said Israel’s rejection of a Hamas ceasefire offer was “heartbreaking”.

Hamas had proposed a Gaza ceasefire of four-and-a-half months, during which all hostages would go free, Israel would withdraw its troops from the Gaza Strip and an agreement would be reached on an end to the war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu renewed his pledge to destroy Hamas and said Israel was “on the way to an absolute victory”.

Mr Wilson said the continuation of the war was “unacceptable”.

“It means more than 100 Israeli hostages remain in captivity. It’s abhorrent that they were ever taken,” he said.

“[And] it means the unconscionable bombardment and suffering of the people of Gaza will continue.”

Mr Wilson said Israel’s bombardment of Gaza was “not self-defence … The truth is that Gaza is being bombed into rubble, with 70 per cent of buildings damaged and the entire population being squeezed further and further south in starvation conditions without basic medical services,” he said. “It is wrong and it has to stop.”

Senator Wong said Australia’s position on the war was “crystal clear”, citing its support for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” at the United Nations and in a joint statement with Canada and New Zealand.