The #Biden admin has concluded it is “reasonable to assess” that #Israel’s military campaign in #Gaza has violated #InternationalLaw, but has not found specific instances that would justify the withholding of #military aid, #State Dept told #Congress Fri.
In the admin’s most detailed assessment of #Israel’s conduct in #Gaza, #State said in a written report to #Congress that Israel “has the knowledge, experience & tools to implement best practices for mitigating #civilian harm in its #military operations.”
But it added that “the results on the ground, including high levels of civilian casualties, raise substantial questions” as to whether the #IDF are using them sufficiently.
The report also noted that “#Israel has not shared complete information to verify” whether #US#weapons have been used in specific incidents alleged to have involved #HumanRights#law violations.
Nevertheless, the report, mandated by President #Biden, deems that assurances Israel provided in March that it would use #US arms consistent w/ #InternationalLaw are “credible & reliable” & thus allow the continued flow of #UnitedStates#military aid.
“#Civilians have been killed in #Gaza as a consequence of those bombs & other ways in which they go after population centers,” #Biden said in an interview airing Wed evening on CNN, referring to 2k-pound #bombs supplied by the #US “I made it clear that if they go into #Rafah — they haven’t gone in…yet — if they go…, I’m not supplying the #weapons that have been used historically to deal …with the cities….”
During #Biden’s speech on #healthcare yesterday he was interrupted by protesters advocating for #Palestinians in #Gaza. Instead of ignoring them & moving on, #POTUS responded, “They have a point; we need to get more care into Gaza.” He added, “Everybody deserves healthcare.”
Remarks by #Gallant & #LloydAustin before the meeting underscored the divide. While both noted their countries’ commitment to #Israel’s #security, Gallant emphasized what he said was the urgent need to destroy #Hamas, secure the release of Israeli #hostages & “ensure Israel’s military edge & capabilities.”
#LloydAustin focused on the dire consequences the #war has had for #Palestinian#civilians. “The number of civilian casualties is far too high, & the amount of #HumanitarianAid is far too low,” he said. The safety of #Palestinians in #Rafah, where >1 million people are holed up, was a “top priority,” he added.
WaPo obtained & reviewed footage from #Thuraya’s drone, which was stored in a memory card recovered at the scene & sent to a production company in #Turkey. No Israeli soldiers, aircraft or other military equipment are visible in the footage taken that day
The Post is publishing Drone footage shot by #MustafaThuraya less than an hour before he & fellow #journalist#HamzaDahdouh were killed in a targeted #Israel airstrike in its entirety — raising critical questions about why the #journalists were targeted. Fellow #reporters said they were unaware of troop movements in the area.
An appeals court ordered the Dutch government to cease exports of F-35 components to Israel, saying “there is a clear risk that the F-35 parts to be exported will be used in committing serious violations of international humanitarian law.”
The earlier warrants had a mostly symbolic impact. Russia, like the #UnitedStates, does not accept the #ICC’s #jurisdiction, & the court does not try people in absentia. But it has limited Putin’s travel to countries that accept the court’s jurisdiction.
"The current desecration of Gaza is the latest stage in a process that has taken increasingly violent forms over time.
In the fifty-six years since it occupied the Strip in 1967, Israel has transformed Gaza from a territory politically and economically integrated with Israel and the West Bank into an isolated enclave, from a functional economy to a dysfunctional one, from a productive society to an impoverished one. It has likewise removed Gaza’s residents from the sphere of politics, transforming them from a people with a nationalist claim to a population whose majority requires some form of humanitarian aid to sustain themselves."
Ugandan academic Mahmood Mamdani sees a link between the violence of the coloniser and the slaughter of Jews and Slavs by the Nazis. The racial theories of Houston Stewart Chamberlain and others who claimed the Aryan race was superior meant that Jews and Slavs, who were both regarded as not Aryan, could be placed beyond the pale of civilisation and were thus candidates for the “laws of nature”, not of war.
#Israel, #Hamas & #US nearing deal on #hostage release, snr ofcls say
President #Biden; Michael Herzog, Israel’s ambassador to Washington; Prime Minister of #Qatar Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani; & Jonathan Finer, the US deputy #NationalSecurity adviser, all independently stated that agreement was close.
#Israel bombed the densely-populated #Jabalya#refugee camp in northern #Gaza for the 2nd time in 2 days Wednesday, prompting warnings of #WarCrimes by the UN #HumanRights Council (#OHCHR) & some nations took diplomatic measures & condemned Israel’s offensive in the besieged enclave.
You have to scroll a bit on the #UN news website, here (pic 1) is the entry re their concerns that #Israel’s #Jabalya#Refugee camp #airstrikes may be #WarCrimes. + a screenshot of the cited social media post (pic 2).
2 drones fired from the southern Red Sea area hit the #SinaiPeninsula, #Egypt’s armed forces said in a stmnt. 1 fell on the town of #Taba, which abuts the border w/ #Israel, while debris from a 2nd fell on an uninhabited area in the beachside town of #Nuweiba. Earlier, Egyptian state media had reported that 6 people in Taba had been injured.
In #Israel, Rear Adm Daniel Hagari, the #IDF’s chief spox, linked the explosion to an “aerial threat” that had appeared in the Red Sea area on Fri morning, prompting Israel to send Air Force jets to the area.The reports did not specify the origin of the attack, but last week the #US said that a navy warship in the northern Red Sea intercepted projectiles, possibly launched toward Israel by #Yemen’s #Houthi#terrorist group, another #Iran ally.
#Palestinians warned Sat that the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3M people, was about to collapse, w/ >½ of the population #displaced by the fighting. At the same time, #Israel said it was ramping up attacks on #Gaza.
“We will deepen our attacks to minimize the dangers to our forces in the next stages of the #war. We are going to increase the attacks, from today,” #IDF spox Rear Adm Hagari said.
Sitting across from the foreign ministers of #France, #Germany & other #Western nations, Arab ldrs made bitter accusations of #European & #American double standards.