Israeli Arabs arrested over Gaza social media posts

Publishe

IMAGE SOURCE,SUPPLIED

Image caption,

Dalal Abu Amneh was detained for a social media post

By Sara Monetta

BBC News, Jerusalem

Dozens of Arab citizens of Israel have been arrested in connection with social media posts about the war in Gaza.

Among them is a well-known singer and influencer from Nazareth, Dalal Abu Amneh, who was held in police custody for two days before being released on Wednesday on bail. She's now under house arrest until Monday.

According to her lawyer, Abeer Baker, she was accused of "disruptive behaviour" by police officers, who said her posts could incite violence among her followers.

The post that attracted police attention was an image of the Palestinian flag with the Arabic motto: "There is no victor but God."

Ms Baker says the singer, who is well known across the Arab world for her songs about Palestinian heritage, was expressing a religious sentiment. Israeli authorities interpreted the singer's post as a call to arms for Palestinians.

Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, police in Israel have adopted what they call a "zero tolerance policy" towards social media activity deemed to express support for Hamas, an Islamist group which is committed to the destruction of Israel and designated as a terrorist group by Israel, as well as the US, UK, and many other countries.

Ms Abu Amneh is one of dozens of Arab citizens of Israel arrested in connection with social media posts about the war.

Many others have been suspended or sacked from their jobs or face disciplinary action from their universities.

Israeli Arabs - many of whom prefer to be called Palestinian citizens of Israel - make up a fifth of the country's population.

Since Hamas's attack, police say they have investigated and detained more than 100 people for their social media activity. Sixty-three have been arrested and questioned in Jerusalem alone.

"Anyone inciting against the State of Israel, its government symbols, elected officials, military personnel and police, should be aware that the Israel Police will respond firmly and without leniency," said Israel's Police Commissioner, Yaakov Shabtai, at a meeting with senior leaders this week.

Adalah, the Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, believes the number of detained is higher as more arrests have been made recently.

By comparison, during the Israel-Gaza conflict in May 2021, only 16 people - 15 of whom were Arab - were charged with inciting violence, according to a report released by Adalah.

Human rights activists worry this spike in detentions is due to the police adopting a wider interpretation of what constitutes incitement to violence.

In the Bedouin city of Rahat, for example, police have detained a former mayoral candidate, Dr Amer al-Huzail, who shared on social media a map of the Gaza Strip with an analysis of possible scenarios for an expected ground operation by Israeli forces.

This has led him to be accused of aiding the enemy in a time of war.

But even when no criminal charges are filed, some people in Israel are still facing heavy consequences for their social media activity.

Lawyers working for Adalah say they have received more than 40 cases of Israeli Arab workers suspended or fired from their workplaces overnight.

"People are getting their livelihood threatened sometimes just for liking a post," says Salam Irsheid, a lawyer at the organisation. "We even have a case of a worker who is at risk of being fired for liking a news report on the situation in Gaza on social media."

Arab students in Israel are also facing disciplinary actions from their universities.

Last week, Ariel Porat, the president of Tel Aviv University, said that a few students had been flagged for expressing "support for the atrocities of Hamas".

"We will be very strict with this handful of students," he wrote in a statement on the university's website, "and when we feel the offence is criminal in nature, we shall report them to the police. We will act swiftly, as required in this sensitive situation, but will not deny any student the right to a fair investigation."

Lawyers from Adalah say they have received complaints from 83 students who have been suspended from schools across the country and, in some cases, told to leave their accommodation at short notice.

"None of the cases are about actions, demonstrations or participating in illegal things. They're all about posts on social media," says Dr Hassan Jabareen, the general director of Adalah.

"More than 90% of the posts are clearly against the war, against Israel's actions in Gaza, supporting the victims of war in Gaza," he adds.

"Ten percent of the posts fall in a vague area that may be interpreted as indirectly supporting the acts of Hamas against civilians.

"In normal times, they wouldn't be interpreted like that, but these days Israel tends to give the harshest interpretation to these posts."

IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES

Image caption,

Nazareth, in northern Israel, is a major centre of the country's Arab population

Public outrage at the attack by Hamas, which killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, in areas near the Gaza Strip, has also led to anger at Jewish Israeli voices calling for de-escalation.

Last Sunday, a prominent left-wing ultra-Orthodox Jewish journalist, Israel Frey, had to be escorted by police away from his home in Tel Aviv for his own protection.

Protesters had gathered outside the building and shot flares at his apartment after he posted on social media a video where he was praying for civilians in Gaza.

And on Wednesday, Ofer Cassif, a Jewish lawmaker for the Arab-led Hadash-Taal alliance, was suspended from the Israeli parliament for 45 days after he strongly condemned the bombing of Gaza.

In one of his most recent posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, he criticised the police who, he said, hadn't intervened promptly in Mr Frey's defence.

"Armed police forces are sent to arrest anyone who shows a trace of empathy for the massacres in Gaza," he wrote.

"But the police have no desire to protect a left-wing journalist whose life is in danger."

At Cairo summit, even Arab leaders at peace with Israel expressed growing anger over the Gaza war

AP |
Oct 22, 2023

Egyptian President who hosted the summit rejected any talk of driving Gaza's 2.3 million Palestinians into the Sinai Peninsula.

Egypt and Jordan harshly criticised Israel over its actions in Gaza at a summit on Saturday, a sign that the two Western allies that made peace with Israel decades ago are losing patience with its two-week-old war against Hamas.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, left, and Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit, talk to Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, during the International peace summit at the New Administrative Capital, just outside Cairo.(AP)

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, who hosted the summit, again rejected any talk of driving Gaza's 2.3 million Palestinians into the Sinai Peninsula and warned against the “liquidation of the Palestinian cause".

Jordan's King Abdullah II called Israel's siege and bombardment of Gaza “a war crime”.

The speeches reflected growing anger in the region, even among those with close ties to Israel who have often worked as mediators, as the war sparked by a massive Hamas attack enters a third week with casualties mounting and no end in sight.

Egypt is especially concerned about a massive influx of Palestinians crossing into its territory, something that it fears would, among other things, severely undermine hopes for a Palestinian state. Vague remarks by some Israeli politicians and military officials suggesting people leave Gaza have alarmed Israel's neighbours, as have Israeli orders for Palestinian civilians to evacuate to the south, toward Egypt.

In his opening remarks, el-Sissi said Egypt vehemently rejected “the forced displacement of the Palestinians and their transfer to Egyptian lands in Sinai”.

“I want to state it clearly and unequivocally to the world that the liquidation of the Palestinian cause without a just solution is beyond the realm of possibility, and in any case, it will never happen at the expense of Egypt, absolutely not,” he said.

Jordan's king delivered the same message, expressing his “unequivocal rejection” of any displacement of Palestinians. Jordan already hosts the largest number of displaced Palestinians from previous Mideast wars.

“This is a war crime according to international law, and a red line for all of us,” he told the summit.

Israel says it is determined to destroy Gaza's Hamas rulers but has said little about its endgame.

On Friday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant laid out a three-stage plan in which airstrikes and “maneuvering” — a presumed reference to a ground attack — would aim to root out Hamas before a period of lower intensity mop-up operations.

Then, a new “security regime” would be created in Gaza along with “the removal of Israel's responsibility for life in the Gaza Strip”, Gallant said.

He did not say who would run Gaza after Hamas.

Meanwhile, Israel has ordered more than half of the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza to evacuate from north to south within the territory it has completely sealed off, effectively pushing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians toward the Egyptian border.

Amos Gilad, a former Israeli defense official, said Israel's ambiguity on the matter is endangering crucial ties with Egypt. “I think a peace treaty with Egypt is highly important, highly crucial for the national security of Israel and Egypt and the whole structure of peace in the world,” he said.

Gilad said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs to speak directly with the leaders of Egypt and Jordan, and say publicly that Palestinians will not be entering their countries.

Two senior Egyptian officials said relations with Israel have reached a boiling point.

They said Egypt has conveyed its frustration over Israeli comments about displacement to the United States, which brokered Camp David Accords in the 1970s. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief the media.


Egypt worries that a mass exodus would risk bringing militants into Sinai, from where they might launch attacks on Israel, endangering the peace treaty.

Arab countries also fear a repeat of the mass exodus of Palestinians from what is now Israel before and during the 1948 war surrounding its creation, when some 700,000 fled or were driven out, an event Palestinians refer to as the Nakba, or catastrophe. Those refugees and their descendants, who now number nearly 6 million, were never allowed to return.

At Saturday's gathering, the anger extended beyond the fears of mass displacement.

Both leaders condemned Israel's air campaign in Gaza, which has killed more than 4,300 Palestinians, including many civilians, according to health authorities in Gaza. Israel says it is only striking Hamas targets and is abiding by international law.


The war was sparked by a wide-ranging Hamas incursion into southern Israel on October 7 in which over 1,400 people were killed, the vast majority of them civilians.

Abdullah, who is among the closest Western allies in the region, accused Israel of “collective punishment of a besieged and helpless people".

"It is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law. It is a war crime,” he said.

He went on to accuse the international community of ignoring Palestinian suffering, saying it had sent a “loud and clear message” to the Arab world that “Palestinian lives matter less than Israeli ones”

Cairo Peace Summit demands ‘ceasefire’ and increased aid for Gaza


By Euronews with AFP

Published on 21/10/2023 - 

The meeting has representatives from across the globe - including Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the State of Palestine - but Israel are not in attendance.

Gathered "for peace" in Cairo, world leaders demanded on Saturday a "ceasefire" between Israel and Hamas, pleading for "massive" aid to Gaza and a definitive "solution" to 75 years of Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“We must act now to end the nightmare,” UN boss Antonio Guterres said, speaking as more than 1,400 Israelis have been killed and 200 taken hostage in Israel by Hamas since its deadly attack on 7 October 7.

Nearly 4,400 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli reprisals in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry of Hama.

The Gaza Strip, now under "complete siege" by Israel, "needs a massive delivery of aid", added the Secretary General of the United Nations.

On Saturday, only 20 aid trucks passed from Egypt towards the Gaza Strip.

The UN says at least 100 trucks per day are needed for the 2.4 million Gazans deprived of food, fuel and other necessities.

Guterres launched his plea in front of the heads of state of Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, as well as an audience of Arab and European heads of diplomacy, including the bosses of the Arab League, the African Union and the European Union.

Russia, China, Japan, Canada, the UK and the United States were also represented.

Also at the summit, King Abdullah II of Jordan called for "an immediate ceasefire", while Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi affirmed that "the only solution to the Palestinian question is justice", emphasising the "right" of the Palestinians "to establish their State".

Pedro Sanchez, the Prime Minister of Spain, urged the international community “not to let the conflict become a regional crisis”.

“We cannot postpone a solution,” Sanchez urged.

Guterres also touched on "the broader context", referring to "56 years of occupation with no end in sight".

“Nothing can justify the reprehensible attack by Hamas” which must, he continued, “immediately and unconditionally release” the approximately 200 hostages it kidnapped in Israel.

Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority, called for "the end of the occupation of the Palestinian Territories by Israel and the two-state solution".

Israel is not represented at the summit, but Abbas repeated “we will not leave” three times in response to the Israeli order to evacuate Palestinians from the north of the Gaza Strip to the southern border of the Gaza Strip.

Palestinians see it as a first step towards "a forced displacement" of their people towards the Egyptian Sinai which would, according to Mr. Abbas, amount to "a second Nakba" - meaning ‘catastrophe’ in Arabic - a reference to the expulsion of around 760,000 Palestinians to the creation of Israel in 1948.

King Abdullah II of Jordan openly criticised the global community for their apparent lack of input.

“The world is silent”, he said, adding, “this is a very dangerous message. The Arab world hears it clearly: Palestinian lives are worth less than Israeli lives. Our lives are worth less than other lives… human rights have limits: they stop at borders, races and religions.

Egypt, the host of the summit, wants to be on the diplomatic front line on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

They were the first Arab country to sign peace with Israel in 1979 and Cairo has long been a traditional mediator between Israel and the Palestinians - notably Hamas.

Egypt also controls the Rafah crossing point, the only border with Gaza which is not not in the hands of Israel

Egypt’s Gaza Summit Starts With Arab Call for Two-State Solution

Tarek El-Tablawy and Omar Tamo, Bloomberg News

A convoy of aid trucks near the Rafah crossing, in North Sinai, Egypt, on Oct. 17. Photographer: Mahmoud Khaled/Getty Images , Photographer: Mahmoud Khaled/Getty Images

(Bloomberg) -- Arab leaders dubbed Israel’s retaliatory strikes on Gaza “collective punishment” as they and some European officials stressed that a stable and secure outcome to the Israel-Palestinian conflict must be built on a two-state solution.

The comments Saturday came during the first session of what was billed by Egypt as the Cairo Peace Summit, a gathering that aims to find ways to prevent the Israel-Hamas conflict, now entering its third week, from widening. 

Arab presidents and royalty plus top officials from the Middle East, Europe and Asia as well as Canada and Brazil were on hand. The US and Israel weren’t present. 

In initial remarks, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi rejected the option of displacing Palestinians from Gaza. Jordan’s King Abdullah assessed that the message Arabs are taking on board, amid a ramped-up Israeli bombing campaign on Gaza, is that Palestinian lives matter less than Israeli ones. 

Read more: Aid Gets to Gaza for First Time Since Israel-Hamas War Began 

The Israeli response to the the Oct. 7 attack has killed thousands in Gaza and left hundreds of thousands of people homeless. It came in response to the killing by Hamas militants of an estimated 1,400 Israelis, mostly civilians, with hundreds more Israelis taken hostage and still unaccounted for. Israel’s defense forces are widely expected to launch a ground war in Gaza any day.  

Leadership in Israel must realize that continued violence will not bring about peace and that millions of Palestinians can’t remain in the current circumstances, Jordan’s king said. 

Saturday’s gathering came as a trickle of aid was allowed through Egypt’s Rafah border crossing with Gaza. Some 20 trucks carrying food and medical supplies made it through as Gaza’s sole border with Egypt was opened for the first time since the Oct. 7 attacks. 

It’s unclear if anything new will emerge from the meeting to address what many in the region, and in Europe, see as the root cause of the continued violence – the lack of progress on securing an equitable two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. 

Read more: The US and Israel Weigh a Future for Gaza Without Hamas 

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres called demands by Palestinians just and legitimate, even as he said that there was nothing that could justify Hamas’s attacks on Israel this month. Both Israelis and Palestinians need to see their legitimate aspirations realized, he said. 

For now, Guterres urged a “humanitarian cease-fire” and “action to end this godawful nightmare.” 

What’s critical now is “the need to make every effort to move towards a lasting solution, one that must be based on the two-state solution,” EU President Charles Michel told the summit.  

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for the immediate release of hostages taken during the conflict. He emphasized that Palestinians wouldn’t capitulate on their desire for a homeland.

“We will not leave, not leave,” Abbas said. “We will remain on our land.”

While condemning Oct. 7 attacks, meeting participants said the entire Palestinian population in Gaza shouldn’t be held responsible for the actions of Hamas, deemed a terrorist group by the EU and the US. 

“What we need now is to protect all civilians,” said Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who called for “bold” action without laying out specific steps. 

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis added that “no military intervention can replace a viable political solution.”   

--With assistance from Abdel Latif Wahba and Mirette Magdy.

(Updates with Michel comment in 11th paragraph.)

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.

Israel: Immediately Restore Electricity, Water, Aid to Gaza

Denying Population Essential Services is Collective Punishment, a War Crime

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

October 21, 2023

(Jerusalem) – Israeli authorities need to immediately restore electricity, water, and fuel to Gaza and allow unhindered humanitarian aid to the population, Human Rights Watch said today.

Restoring electricity and water would meet at least some of Gaza’s enormous humanitarian needs, including in northern Gaza, despite the damage from the Israeli bombardment to the water and electricity infrastructure.

“While aid agencies struggle to squeeze a few trucks of humanitarian aid into southern Gaza via Egypt, the Israeli authorities are keeping their crossings with Gaza closed and refusing to flick the switch for the water and electricity supply,” said Tirana Hassan, executive director of Human Rights Watch. “There is no excuse for denying water, food, and medicine to Gaza’s civilian population. It is cruel and contrary to international law.”

International humanitarian law requires Israel, as the occupying power in Gaza, to ensure that the basic needs of the civilian population are provided for. Israel also must facilitate, not block, the delivery of humanitarian aid. Cutting water and electricity to the population amounts to unlawful collective punishment. Under international human rights law, governments must respect the right to water, which includes refraining from limiting access to, or destroying, water services and infrastructure as a punitive measure during armed conflicts.

This is the first time during multiple rounds of hostilities since 2008 that Israel has cut water and electricity supplies to the civilian population and sealed its crossings with Gaza to prevent the delivery of humanitarian aid.

"Israeli authorities need to act immediately,” Hassan said. “Lives are hanging in the balance

Gaza children traumatised by bombardment with ground war to start

Palestinians, who fled their houses amid Israeli strikes, take shelter in a United Nations-run school, after Israel's call for more than 1 million civilians in northern Gaza to move south, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, October 20, 2023. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

Gaza's children are showing ever more signs of trauma two weeks into Israel's intense bombardment, parents and psychiatrists in the tiny, crowded enclave say, with no safe place to hide from the falling bombs and little prospect of respite.

Children make up about half of Gaza's 2.3 million population, living under near constant bombardment with many packed into temporary shelters in UN-run schools after fleeing their homes with little food or clean water.

Israel is expected to launch a ground attack on Gaza shortly in response to a cross-border assault by Hamas fighters on southern Israel on Oct. 7 that killed more than 1,400 people, with a further 210 taken hostage.

"Children ... have started to develop serious trauma symptoms such as convulsions, bed-wetting, fear, aggressive behaviour, nervousness, and not leaving their parents' sides," said Gaza psychiatrist Fadel Abu Heen.

More than 4,100 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza so far, including more than 1,500 children, while 13,000 people have been injured according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Conditions in makeshift shelters in United Nations schools, where more than 380,000 people are camped out in hope of escaping the bombardment, only compound the problem.

There are sometimes 100 people sleeping in each classroom, which all require continuous cleaning. There is little electricity and water so bathrooms and toilets are very dirty.

"Our children suffer a lot at night. They cry all night, they pee themselves without meaning to and I don't have time to clean up after them, one after the other," said Tahreer Tabash, a mother of six children sheltering in a school.

Even there, they are not safe. Such schools have been hit several times, the United Nations has said, and Tabash has seen strikes hitting nearby buildings. When her children hear so much as a chair being moved, they jump in fear, she said.

"That lack of any safe place has created a general sense of fear and horror among the entire population and children are most impacted," said Abu Heen.


"Some of them reacted directly and expressed their fears. Although they may need immediate intervention, they may be in a better state than the other kids who kept the horror and trauma inside them," he said.

MENTAL TOLL

One house in Khan Younis, in the south of the enclave, is sheltering about 90 people including 30 under the age of 18, where they have to sleep in shifts for lack of space.

"When there's an explosion or any target getting hit nearby they are always screaming, always frightened. We try to calm the younger ones, try telling them, 'Don't worry, it's just fireworks'. But the older ones understand what's going on," said Ibrahim al-Agha, an engineer sheltering in the house.

"They will need a lot of support mentally after this war finishes," Agha said.

However, Gaza's healthcare system was already over-stretched before this month's war, which has pushed it to the brink of collapse, and mental health experts have long warned of the terrible toll that was already being exacted on children.

A 2022 report by aid group Save the Children found the psychosocial wellbeing of children in Gaza at "alarmingly low levels" after 11 days of fighting in 2021, leaving half of all Gaza children in need of support.

Mental health experts in Gaza have said there is no such thing there as post traumatic stress disorder because the trauma in the enclave is continuous, with repeated bouts of armed conflict stretching back nearly two decades.

Early on Saturday, after an Israeli air strike destroyed a building in Gaza City, killing many of the Abo Akr family, a large group of children stood among those watching rescuers picking through the rubble for survivors and bodies.

As women nearby wailed and wept, the children stood watching, their faces showing nothing.

Gaza rescuers 'desperate for support' as Israeli air strikes wreak havoc on civilian targets

Shortage of fuel, insufficient and outdated equipment, complicate efforts to save those who need emergency help

A Palestinian civil defence worker carries a child killed in an Israeli bombardment from a building in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on 19 October 2023 

By Aseel Jundi in Gaza, Occupied Palestine
Published date: 21 October 2023 

Gaza civil defence workers are sounding the alarm that they are operating to full capacity and are unable to rescue all the wounded or retrieve dead bodies from the rubble of bombed homes as the ferocious Israeli onslaught on the besieged enclave continued for the 15th day.

"The killed people now have to be left under the rubble in order to prioritise the wounded," Noah Lafi, a civil defence worker, told Middle East Eye.

Rescue teams in Gaza are not equipped to recover all dead bodies due to the large-scale nature of the Israeli campaign, which also targeted civil defence and ambulance staff, he said.

Six civil defence workers have been killed by Israeli warplanes, and more than 11 have been wounded over the past two weeks.

"Many of my colleagues lost their families and homes, but they are still carrying out their duty," he added.

Lafi is among those who have been wounded as he was hit by an iron skewer and has seven stitches on his hand, but he's still working.

"I have no option but to resist by doing my work," he said

The current Israeli military operation against the Gaza Strip started after the Hamas-led surprise attack on 7 October. At least 1,400 Israelis have been killed since the assault, with more than 200 others taken back to Gaza, including combatants and civilian hostages.

Since then, Israeli air strikes have killed at least 4,385 Palestinians, including 1,756 children, according to the latest tally by the Palestinian health ministry. The attacks have predominantly targeted civilian buildings, including homes, hospitals and places of worship.

Mohamed Fathi Sharir, head of the Safety and Prevention Department at the Civil Defence Directorate, said the situation in the Gaza Strip is worse than the images displayed on television and mobile screens.

"Amidst countless pleas for help in rescuing individuals trapped beneath the debris, our dedicated civil defence, ambulance and rescue teams are tirelessly striving to aid all victims, be they wounded or deceased," he told MEE.

However, Sharir pointed out that civil defence teams face significant limitations.

"Given the exponential rise in the number of individuals beneath the rubble, our current focus is on prioritising the rescue of the living wounded, even if this postpones the extraction of the deceased from the debris," he added.

Many remain trapped beneath the rubble, he said, necessitating the deployment of heavy machinery for their recovery. The Israeli military's targeting of entire neighbourhoods, leading to their obliteration, exacerbates the crisis, he said.

Sharir emphasised that the Gaza Strip is in urgent need of international aid and rescue teams to assist in recovering both the wounded and deceased.

"Despite the blatant targeting of our branches, our teams continue to operate at full capacity," he said, referring to Israeli air strikes that have hit several civil defence centres across the Gaza Strip.
Fuel crisis

Meanwhile, the shortage of fuel as a result of the Israeli blockade has severely complicated rescue efforts.

According to Major Mahmoud Basal, the official spokesman for the Gaza Civil Defence, Israel's latest total disruption of electricity and fuel supplies has taken a heavy toll on their work, as their essential equipment relies on these resources for operation.

"The critical shortage of fuel poses an imminent disaster as our operations heavily depend on it," he said.

Moreover, they do not have enough resources to cope with the scale of devastation caused by the air strikes.

"We are facing a shortage of equipment to manage the substantial volume of debris and rubble resulting from the bombing of entire residential areas," he told MEE.

"There will be a point when we won't have ambulances or civil defence vehicles available to respond to the areas affected by bombings," he said, adding that civil defence vehicles in Gaza are outdated models from 1988 and 1994, and themselves need replacement.

A Palestinian civil defence member works through a crack in a collapsed building, hit by an Israeli bombardment, while searching for victims and survivors, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on 19 October 19 2023 (AFP)

"Regrettably, we have been appealing to international organisations for years to come to our aid, but our pleas have largely gone unanswered," Basal said.

"We are committed to delivering the best possible services to our citizens, but the Civil Defence in the Gaza Strip needs another civil defence. It is in desperate need of support. All our vehicles and equipment are in a state of disrepair."

Amer Abu Saif belongs to one of of several Palestinian families whose homes were bombed in Israeli air strikes on the Jablia refugee camp in northern Gaza on Thursday.

Israel-Palestine war: The Gaza civilian buildings bombed by Israeli armyRead More »

"Our house in Jabalia camp was targeted at 1am. There were more than 15 people in our house, including displaced individuals seeking safety," he told Middle East Eye.

While Abu Saif survived the air strikes, at least 18 Palestinians were killed in the attack.

Abu Saif said that while nine people have been found dead since the attack, eight more remain trapped under the rubble as rescue efforts by a local civil defence team have failed to recover their bodies due to the extensive destruction left by the bombing of four residential buildings.

"Even if they are in pieces beneath the rubble, we need to reach them for a proper burial," he said. "We have been deprived of the chance to bid them farewell."

*Additional reporting by Mohammed al-Hajjar.

‘I am a Zionist’: How Joe Biden’s lifelong bond with Israel shapes war policy

US President Joe Biden has demonstrated unwavering support for Israel’s security over a half century in public life. — Reuters pic

Saturday, 21 Oct 2023 

WASHINGTON, Oct 21 — When Joe Biden met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet during his visit to Israel, the US president assured them: “I don’t believe you have to be a Jew to be a Zionist, and I am a Zionist.”

The politicians and generals gathered in the ballroom of the Tel Aviv hotel nodded in approval, according to a US official knowledgeable of the closed-door remarks, even as Israel bombarded Gaza in retaliation for a devastating attack by Palestinian Hamas militants and with a ground invasion looming.

Biden, who is of Irish Catholic descent, has used similar words in the past to profess his affinity for Israel. But the moment, which has not been previously reported, illustrates how Biden’s decades as one of the leading “Friends of Israel” in American politics seem to be guiding him during a defining crisis of his presidency.

It also underscores the challenges he faces balancing unwavering support for Israel with persuading Netanyahu — with whom he has a long history — to avoid worsening the civilian death toll and humanitarian meltdown in Gaza as well as complicating further releases of American hostages.

“Biden’s connection to Israel is deeply engrained in his political DNA,” said Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East negotiator who served six secretaries of state in both Democratic and Republican administrations. “Whether he likes it or not, he’s in the midst of a crisis he’ll have to manage.”

Reuters interviewed a dozen current and former aides, lawmakers and analysts, some of whom said Biden’s current wartime embrace of Netanyahu could afford the US leverage to try to moderate Israel’s response in Gaza.

In their private session with aides on Wednesday, the two leaders displayed none of the tensions that have sometimes characterised their meetings, according to a second US official familiar with the talks.

But Biden did pose hard questions to Netanyahu about the coming offensive, including “have you thought through what comes the day after and the day after that?” the official said. US and regional sources have expressed doubt that Israel, which vows to destroy Hamas, has yet crafted an endgame.

Biden’s alignment with the right-wing leader risks alienating some progressives in his Democratic Party as he seeks re-election in 2024, with a growing international outcry against Israel’s tactics also casting some blame on the US.

It also has prompted many Palestinians and others in the Arab world to regard Biden as too biased in favour of Israel to act as an even-handed peace broker.



In half a century of public life, US President Joe Biden has demonstrated unwavering support for Israel. In this photo Biden is welcomed by Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu, as he visits Israel amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel, October 18, 2023. — Reuters pic

Forged over Decades

Biden has partly credited his pro-Israel world view to his father, who insisted following World War Two and the Nazi Holocaust there was no doubt of the justness of establishing Israel as a Jewish homeland in 1948.

Biden’s awareness of the persecution of Jews over the centuries and a record high in the number of antisemitic incidents in the US last year could also help explain why Hamas atrocities committed in the October 7 attack on Israel were so disturbing for the 80-year-old president, according to a former US official.

Entering national politics in 1973, Biden spent the next five decades forging his policy positions — iron-clad support for Israel’s security coupled with backing for steps toward Palestinian statehood — as he served as US senator, Barack Obama’s vice president and finally president.

His career was marked by deep engagement with the Israeli-Arab conflict, including an oft-retold encounter with Prime Minister Golda Meir who told the young lawmaker in 1973 on the cusp of the Yom Kippur War that Israel’s secret weapon was “we have no place else to go.”

During his 36 years in the Senate, Biden was the chamber’s biggest recipient in history of donations from pro-Israeli groups, taking in US$4.2 million (RM20 million), according to the Open Secrets database.

As vice president, Biden often mediated the testy relationship between Obama and Netanyahu.

Dennis Ross, a Middle East adviser during Obama’s first term, recalled Biden intervening to prevent retribution against Netanyahu for a diplomatic snub during a 2010 visit. Obama, Ross said, had wanted to come down hard over Israel’s announcement of a major expansion of housing for Jews in East Jerusalem, the mostly Arab half of the city captured in the 1967 war.

“Whenever things were getting out of hand with Israel, Biden was the bridge,” said Ross, now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “His commitment to Israel was that strong ... And it’s the instinct we’re seeing now.”

While Biden and Netanyahu profess to be long-time friends, their relationship was frayed in recent months with the White House echoing Israeli opponents of Netanyahu’s plan to curb the powers of the Supreme Court of Israel.



A demonstrator holds up a sign featuring images of US President Joe Biden, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, at a protest in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in London, Britain, October 21, 2023. — Reuters pic

Progressive Dissent

The two now find themselves in an uneasy alliance that could be tested by an Israeli ground offensive.

Republican US Senator Lindsey Graham, in an interview with Reuters, expressed confidence that the “arc of time” in Biden and Netanyahu’s relationship would enable them to work together.

But in a veiled swipe, Graham, who spent years as Biden’s Senate colleague, said it was “imperative” he set “red lines” to keep Iran, Hamas’s benefactor, out of the conflict.

Biden has warned Iran not to get involved but has not spelled out consequences.

Hamas gunmen killed 1,400 people and took around 200 hostages, including Americans, when they rampaged through Israeli towns. Israel has since put Gaza under siege. At least 4,385 Palestinians have been killed, Gaza officials said.

While Republicans have shown near-unanimity in endorsing whatever action Israel takes, Biden faces dissent from a faction of progressives pushing for Israeli restraint and a ceasefire.

“President Biden, not all America is with you on this one, and you need to wake up and understand,” Representative Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian American in Congress, told supporters. “We are literally watching people commit genocide.”

But experts say Biden could gain ground among independent voters who share his affinity for Israel.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Monday showed stronger U.S. public sympathy for Israel than in the past, with support for Israel highest among Republicans at 54 per cent, compared to 37 per cent of Democrats. Younger Americans showed less support for Israel than older Americans.

Biden, facing low approval ratings, and some fellow Democrats are also expected to be wary of running afoul of the main US pro-Israel lobby, AIPAC, a powerful force in US elections.

But the crisis has also stirred criticism of Biden for not devoting enough attention to the plight of Palestinians, whose hopes for statehood have grown ever dimmer under Israeli occupation.

US officials had said the time was not right to resume long-suspended Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, largely because of intransigence on both sides.

“The administration’s neglect of the issue is a key factor in where we are today,” Khaled Elgindy, a former Palestinian negotiations adviser, said.

Biden’s “blank check” for Israel’s assault on Gaza has “shattered, perhaps irreversibly, what little credibility the US had left,” said Elgindy, now at the Middle East Institute in Washington. — Reuters

SOUTH AFRICA

Innovative post-operative care helps penguins recover

Injured SA penguins fitted with wetsuit bootees          
  

PENGUIN STYLE Animal welfare officials are using up-cycled wetsuits to make booties for penguin amputees
Image: SANCCOB

Penguin amputees are being fitted with special bootees to help them recover from their injuries, according to the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds.

The bootees are fitted on penguin amputees “to protect their stumps during the healing process,” SANCCOB said in their latest annual report released this week. “African penguins are often admitted to SANCCOB with severely injured feet and legs. Sometimes the injuries are so severe that it is not possible to save the damaged foot,” SANCCOB said.

“Fortunately, penguins can adapt and have demonstrated the ability to live and breed successfully in the wild with only one foot because they mainly use their flippers for swimming.”

The special bootees, introduced this year to improve postoperative care, are made from recycled wetsuit material which does not inhibit the penguin’s swimming ability. “They are more comfortable and easier to replace than bandages and the penguins can swim with them on.

“The veterinary and rehabilitation teams also improved the design for the splints that are used to support injured hocks and even made some tiny bootees for gulls that had lost a foot,” SANCCOB said.

TimesLIVE

Ukrainian unit fires a 100 mm gun that took part in World War II

By Boyko Nikolov On Oct 21, 2023

A photograph has surfaced in the public domain, providing evidence that a contingent of the military, presumably part of the airborne forces, possesses a 100-mm BS-3 cannon, which was in active production between 1944 and 1951. 

The image showcasing a pristine or relatively new 100 mm shell, held by a military personnel of the BS-3 unit, authenticates the possibility of utilizing this artillery in contemporary warfare against Russian armored vehicles. The photographs in question were disseminated to the public by OSINT analyst Aloha via his Twitter account. 

As of early September 2023, the existence of the BS-3 artillery was further confirmed by the DPSU soldiers – the first official acknowledgment of such weaponry within the Ukrainian Defense Forces. 

Photo credit: Twitter

Currently, the information available does not permit a comprehensive evaluation of whether the incorporation of BS-3 cannons in the arsenal of Ukrainian defenders is a pattern or a noteworthy anomaly. However, the deployment of such a historical piece of artillery in modern warfare is notably indicative.

Need for weapons

In response to the requirement for comparably dense artillery resources, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have found themselves compelled to utilize an array of historically uncommon artillery pieces. In a case that surfaced in October 2023, there were photographs evidencing the deployment of a “gun truck” created from a 1940s KS-19 on a Tatra chassis across the Ukrainian war zones. 

An equally peculiar improvisation emerged in August of the same year, wherein the Ukrainian military personnel engineered a vehicle with both mobility and combat capabilities from an MT-LB and D-44, a move that demonstrated ingenuity under challenging circumstances

WWII and BS-3

Throughout World War II, the Soviet Army utilized this particular firearm within their light artillery brigades of tank armies, specifically with a deployment of 20 pieces paired with 48 ZiS-3s, as a part of their corps artillery. 

During the crucial period of the Second World War, the BS-3 emerged as an effective anti-tank weapon. It demonstrated the ability to obliterate any tank of its period at long range, apart from the formidable Tiger II. To diminish this heavy-duty tank, the BS-3 needed to operate within a distance of less than 1600 meters from the target. 

Concerning the Tiger II, the BS-3 proved to be competent in wrecking its turret at a range of 800-1000 meters. Besides functioning as a potent anti-tank weapon, the BS-3 was also employed as a field gun. Although in this capacity, it lagged behind the 122 mm A-19 regarding power due to its smaller ammunition size, the BS-3 compensated with greater mobility and a superior rate of fire.

About M1944 (BS-3)

The 100 mm field gun M1944 [BS-3] is a Soviet-designed artillery piece that was widely used during World War II and the Cold War. It has a barrel length of 53.7 calibers, which means the length of the barrel is 53.7 times the diameter of the bore. This long barrel allows for a higher muzzle velocity and increased range compared to shorter-barreled guns.

The BS-3 fires various types of projectiles, including high-explosive [HE] shells, armor-piercing [AP] shells, and high-explosive fragmentation [HE-FRAG] shells. The HE shells are designed to explode upon impact, causing damage to enemy personnel and equipment.

AP shells are specifically designed to penetrate armored targets, while HE-FRAG shells combine the effects of both high-explosive and fragmentation to maximize damage to the target area.

BS-3 operational range

The operational range of the 100 mm field gun M1944 [BS-3] depends on various factors such as the type of projectile used and the elevation of the gun. On average, the gun has a maximum effective range of approximately 15 kilometers [9.3 miles] when firing HE shells.

When firing AP shells, the range is reduced to around 10 kilometers [6.2 miles] due to the heavier projectile and reduced aerodynamic performance. It’s important to note that these ranges are approximate and can vary depending on the specific conditions and ammunition used.

***

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