Zion and the Art of Armageddon

[ajohn]

said by the IDF to be the 'last pocket of resistance'

General news indicates that it isn't the last pocket of resistance. Israel's "problems" in the N end of Gaza may be over. People there said to be grinding animal food to eat and lack of clean water. Aid agencies say Israel is hindering any aid sent up there.

AlJ have broadened their coverage. Gaza got 10mins. More bombs on RAFA and indications that Quatar are trying to sort out a Palestinian group to rule a Palestinian state. It seems (NGO) Israel have been fast tracking new settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem. Big build up since the 7th. It's usually a slow process. More recently troops moving out of Kahn Younis and buildings being blown up. That activity does seem to happen eventually once troops have moved in - near final phase.

Not much on the BBC other than calls for a ceasefire. Includes Germany now who have always been in a difficult position. Saudi - if Israel does move into Rafar there will be serious consequences. Some time ago Turkey was mentioned - they could cause Israel economic problems. Pass but Turkey is now getting it's F16's and upgrades. No that couldn't relate could it. They got them for another reason.

 

[ajohn]

..so where will they be evacuated?

BBC Lunchtime - they can go north via safe corridors. Beeb showed a picture of what they will be going to also a clip of a lady in Rafah looking for her 2month old child in the rubble. Aid through what would effectively become a war zone?

Cameron says he is concerned. Starmer mentioned international pressure and a 2 state solution a while ago. Not given much air time.

 

[ellal]

A few posts back I put in a link which referred to comments made by an ex Israeli PM...

Which included...

"A former prime minister of Israel has accused Benjamin Netanyahu of needlessly prolonging the Gaza offensive and blocking the path to peace"

"In a scathing condemnation, Ehud Olmert charged that Mr Netanyahu’s “arrogance” and “manipulation” had led to catastrophic security failures, allowing the Hamas attack which triggered the current conflict"


Nothing was said about this statement...

Now we have a candidate in a by-election here quoted as saying essentially the same thing...

Linky Linky

"Azhar Ali reportedly said Israel had "allowed" the deadly attack by Hamas gunmen on 7 October"

"The Egyptians are saying that they warned Israel 10 days earlier... Americans warned them a day before [that] there's something happening... They deliberately took the security off, they allowed... that massacre that gives them the green light to do whatever they bloody want."



And all hell has broken loose over the comments of the latter...

So what's the difference?

Surely it couldn't be something to do his religion?

 

[Odds]

The Zionist Fascists are quick to play the anti-semitic card and i wonder how they're going to regain their place at the UN after all this genocidal madness is over. Netanyahoo is clearly intent on driving Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip regardless. The UN deny any knowledge of the tunnels.
Allahu Akhbar@Al Jazeera
Philippe Lazzarini of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said on X late on Saturday that the agency “did not know what is under its headquarters in Gaza”.

 

[Justin Passing]

Shoot Natanyahoo.

 

[Odds]

First Dog on the Moon always brightens up the start to a week but events in Gaza have made the mad Ozzie mutt sad. For this, among his many, many crimes, Netanyahoo must pay.

 

[Odds]

BBC Lunchtime - they can go north via safe corridors. Beeb showed a picture of what they will be going to also a clip of a lady in Rafah looking for her 2month old child in the rubble.

Satellite images of Rafah show that virtually every open space in the city has been taken up by tents and other temporary shelters. By some estimates, the population density has soared from 4,100 people per square kilometre to something approaching 20,000.

On Friday, government spokesman Eylon Levy said Israel was "talking about supporting an evacuation to open areas inside the Gaza Strip where it will be possible to set up tent encampments." Interviewed by ABC news over the weekend, Mr Netanyahu was equally vague. "The areas that we've cleared north of Rafah, plenty of areas there," he said, without giving further details.

What the prime minister didn't say, but which is painfully apparent, is that in order to move 1.5 million people out of harm's way, Israel needs the cooperation of the international aid community, in particular the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees.

Speaking from Rafah, Hisham Mhanna of the International Committee of the Red Cross said it was hard to see how an evacuation on such a vast scale could be conducted. "I cannot imagine that any international organisation would have the capacity, the logistical preparations and the security guarantees to evacuate hundreds of thousands of people," he told BBC Radio's The World At One.

BBCnews.co.uk

As negotiations over a ceasefire have ended inconclusively in Cairo i can only imagine they'll start clearing Rafah sooner rather than later, using tanks and infantry to drive out civilians as the IDF advance through the city. The Zionists are running out of time. Ramadan begins on March 10th.

 

[ajohn]

BBC showed part of a video they produced for BBC Arabic. It follows one of the people involved with ambulances in Gaza. The whole thing is 0n iplayer called Gaza 101. It concerns Israel's comment that the don't attack areas like this. We know that they do at times - the young girl and the 2 people sent to rescue her. Also reports that civil defence services are always hit also a number of UN facilities and other similar, eg universities. 5 of 35 hospitals can only offer limited services. Seems an evacuation of one may have been ordered rather recently. Snipers go to work once they are surrounded.

UN officials - they argue on the basis of international law. Neither E Jerusalem or the West Bank should be occupied. 3,000 new settlements in the West Bank aim of ~8,000, An activist in E Jerusalem is having his house knocked down at the moment. He's not happy about settlements and Palestinian houses being knocked down. Jewish lady reported on a big increase in this sort of thing. Then comes the rules of war.

The Hague court. They make rulings based on international law.

Interesting world - who actually takes any notice of these rules when push comes to shove?

 

[ajohn]

Interesting world - who actually takes any notice of these rules when push comes to shove?

Any action has to go to the Security Council. So far over time it seems there has been 70 vetoes used any time anything gets there. I've no way of checking the 70 but some have been used.

 

[Odds]

BBC showed part of a video they produced for BBC Arabic. It follows one of the people involved with ambulances in Gaza. The whole thing is 0n iplayer called Gaza 101. It concerns Israel's comment that the don't attack areas like this. We know that they do at times - the young girl and the 2 people sent to rescue her. Also reports that civil defence services are always hit also a number of UN facilities and other similar, eg universities. 5 of 35 hospitals can only offer limited services. Seems an evacuation of one may have been ordered rather recently. Snipers go to work once they are surrounded.

Interesting world - who actually takes any notice of these rules when push comes to shove?

I watched that on The Context last night but haven't got around to the full version on Iplayer Gaza 101: Emergency Rescue - makes the job our ambulance service do a walk in the park.

 

[transam]

Perhaps the UK could step up

Bring some of the palistinians to
The UK we could do a merkel take a million ??

Plenty of protesters on the streets plenty of them would have a spare room or space ???

Sorted

 

[Odds]

n the first three months of Israel’s attack on Gaza around 25,000 Palestinians were killed and around 60,000 wounded, 70 per cent of them women and children. Around 80 per cent of the population of Gaza has been displaced. The rate of killing has been higher than in most wars this century, sometimes reaching more than two thousand deaths a week. There have been airstrikes on ambulances, airstrikes on bakeries, airstrikes on UN schools serving as shelters. Israeli forces have killed more than 150 UN staff. International charities have been reduced to tallying daily limb amputations. While Israeli officials stick to absurd denials that there is any kind of humanitarian crisis, much of urban Gaza has been turned into an uneven igneous landscape of black-grey mounds.

The proportion of buildings destroyed in Gaza now approaches that of Guernica, Hamburg or Hiroshima, cities synonymous with the worst wartime devastation. Israel’s declared objective to ‘destroy Hamas’ has no relation to its tactic towards the general population, which has been to kill them or drive them towards Egypt. It appears no longer to want to run Gaza as a cordoned-off prison camp. But its plans are unclear. Negotiations with Hamas have been taking place through Egypt and Qatar. Some reports suggest that Israel offered a two-month ‘pause’ in exchange for the release of all the remaining hostages; Hamas countered that further releases of hostages would come only when Israel agrees to stop the attack and withdraw. Yoav Gallant has said that Gaza should return to ‘Palestinian administration’ guaranteed by the US. But on 30 December Netanyahu suggested that Israeli forces should also take control of the Philadelphi corridor, the 14-kilometre border between Gaza and Egypt. Israel continues to reject any political framework in favour of looking for ‘security’ in a pile of bones. Both Netanyahu and his chief of staff, Herzi Halevi, say the war will continue for many months. Who in Gaza has that sort of time?

Rubble from Bone@the London Review of Books

A long read with a comprehensive assessment of the last three months in Palestine.

 

[ajohn]

New word has cropped up - Israel stormed Nasser hospital. Seems this involved some destruction.
Not clear if the use of bombs on Rafar has stopped. Seems they are still being used elsewhere.

 

[ajohn]

It does look like the final take over of the Nasser hospital was a step up action wise over previous similar ones. Credible evidence that there were Israeli bodies stored there.

Israel seems to have moved on to another town/city on the way to Rafar. Bombs, no idea how many.

LOL Some threads about the Labour party have turned into posts about Israel. Talk about gormless. The facts in the other aspects there are too much for them.

Conflict spreading gets a mention. Another form related to geopolitical relationships may also crop up.

 

[fillyboy]

Yahwa Sinwar 'misjudged' what the Israeli response might be.

Yahya Sinwar: Hamas leader in Gaza didn't expect consequences of 7 October attack to be 'this dangerous', says friend

A friend of leader Yahya Sinwar said the calculations "didn't go as planned" and the reaction of the Israelis was "uncontrolled, without any justification".

news.sky.com

The top Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, was one of the main planners of the 7 October attack on Israel but did not expect the consequences to become "this dangerous", a friend has told Sky News.

Esmat Mansour said last year's cross-border raid was supposed to be a strategic operation designed to lift the Israeli siege on the territory, release Sinwar's friends from prison, and make him a "leader of the Palestinian people".

But the calculations "didn't go as planned", the reaction of the Israelis was "uncontrolled, without any justification", and "now we have this result", he explained.

"He [Sinwar] didn't expect the operation to make things this complicated and to go as far as it did and become this dangerous. And [it] gave Israel all the reasons and excuses to break all the rules."