… on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing

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  • Hamas: Netanyahu trying to end captives’ case by starving them

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    A group of people, gathered at Habima Square in Tel Aviv, Israel, stage a demonstration demanding the return of Israeli hostages in Gaza on August 2, 2025. [Saeed Qaq – Anadolu Agency]

    Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, said on Sunday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is attempting to “end the issue of the captives held in Gaza by starving them to death after failing to locate and kill them through bombing.”

    In a statement published on Telegram, al-Rishq expressed regret that “hunger has reached the Israeli captives,” but held “Netanyahu and his Nazi-like government fully responsible,” accusing them of launching “a starvation and thirst war against our people, the effects of which have now reached their captives.”

    On Friday, al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, released footage of Israeli captive Evyatar David, who appeared severely underweight due to what was described as Israel’s ongoing starvation policy in Gaza.

    Similarly, on Thursday, al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad, released a video it said was the last footage of captive Rom Braslavski before contact was lost with the group holding him. In the video, Braslavski appeared to be in an extremely frail physical condition, allegedly due to the starvation imposed by Israel on Gaza.

    Commenting on this, al-Rishq said, “Our resistance fighters treat their captives according to our religious teachings and human values. They feed them from what they eat and give them water from what they drink, just as all our people do.”

    READ: Netanyahu asks Red Cross to help care for Israeli captives in Gaza

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  • Former Israeli security chiefs warn: Israel on verge of defeat, Gaza war must end now

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    An Israeli army soldier walks near a main battle tank deployed at a position along the border with the Gaza Strip and southern Israel on July 29, 2025. [Jack GUEZ / AFP/Getty Images]

    Pressure to end the war intensified further on Sunday evening, as a large group of former senior security officials launched a campaign calling for the Gaza war to stop immediately.

    The group included former heads of key Israeli security bodies from past decades, such as former Chiefs of Staff, police commissioners, and former heads of Shin Bet, Mossad, and Military Intelligence.

    They warned that Israel is now “on the verge of defeat”, stressing that the war “could have ended yesterday” and that all hostages in Gaza could have been released in one go.

    In a video lasting over three minutes, recorded in recent days during a meeting of those former senior officials, the group presents its arguments for an immediate ceasefire.

    In the video, the former military leaders say: “Together, we hold over a thousand years of experience. It is our duty to speak up and say what must be said: we are on the verge of defeat.”

    READ: Netanyahu asks Red Cross to help care for Israeli captives in Gaza

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  • Israeli forces raid Al Jazeera office in Ramallah, extend closure order

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    Pictures of slain al-Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh hang on the facade of the building housing the television station’s office in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, after Israel issued a 45-day closure order on September 22, 2024. [ JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP via Getty Images]

    Israeli occupation forces raided the closed Al Jazeera office in central Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, shortly after midnight.

    The troops extended the closure order for an additional 60 days and posted a new military order on the office entrance, according to the network.

    In September last year, Israeli forces stormed the Al Jazeera office in Ramallah under a military order, handed its staff a closure notice, confiscated all equipment and documents, and barred employees from using their vehicles.

    Al Jazeera had previously condemned the raid and shutdown, saying such repressive actions are aimed at preventing the world from seeing the true situation in the occupied Palestinian territories and the ongoing war on Gaza. Widespread reactions have since condemned the move.

    In a statement, the network described the raid as a “criminal act” and said the ongoing Israeli crackdown on free media seeks to conceal its actions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

    The statement rejected the Israeli authorities’ claims used to justify what it called an unlawful raid. It held the government of Benjamin Netanyahu fully responsible for the safety of its journalists and vowed to pursue legal steps to defend its rights and those of its staff.

    Al Jazeera also affirmed its commitment to continue reporting the truth with professionalism and impartiality, despite Israeli measures aimed at silencing it.

    WATCH: Thousands of pro-Palestine protesters march across Sydney Harbour Bridge

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  • Morning Star Editorial: Israeli extremism, Western hypocrisy and Palestinian statehood

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/israeli-extremism-western-hypocrisy-and-palestinian-statehood

     People walk down a street surrounded by buildings destroyed by Israeli bombardments in the Gaza Strip, July 29, 2025

    ISRAELI ministers have again exposed how hollow are Western claims to back a two-state solution.

    Yet global opinion on Israel’s colonial project has reached a tipping point — and the prospect of real change cannot be dismissed.

    National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir leads settlers in a march through occupied East Jerusalem. En route, he calls for Israel to annex Gaza.

    Defence Minister Israel Katz decrees: “We will strengthen our hold and sovereignty over Jerusalem, at the Western Wall, and the Temple Mount, forever.”

    These are not aberrations: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that he will never tolerate a Palestinian state.

    Faced with such extremism, any government serious about a Palestinian state would need to impose tough conditions on Israel: full withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza included.

    Yet what conditions do they seek to apply?

    British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says Britain will recognise Palestine unless Israel “takes substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza.”

    Feeble as that is, at least Starmer makes demands of the aggressor, Israel.

    Canada’s Mark Carney decided to lecture the people being massacred. Canada would recognise Palestine — subject to democratic reforms, including elections in which (very democratically) Hamas would be banned.

    France’s Emmanuel Macron repeated that an independent Palestine would need to be demilitarised — as if Palestine threatens the existence of Israel, rather than the other way around.

    The coloniser’s mindset. Palestine can be “independent,” but only if it chooses leaders we like, and has no means of defending itself.

    …

    Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/israeli-extremism-western-hypocrisy-and-palestinian-statehood

    Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza's hospitals and universities,mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
    Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities,mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
    Vote Labour for Genocide.
    Vote Labour for Genocide.
    UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel's Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don't do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
    UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.

  • Evidence pointing to genocide in Gaza overwhelming, says ex-war crimes prosecutor

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    Mr Graham Blewitt who was a former prosecutor for the International War Crimes Tribunal in Sydney on 4 December 2005. [Photo by Fairfax Media via Getty Images]

    A former deputy prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia said the amount of evidence pointing to genocide in Gaza is overwhelming and likened the situation to the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, Anadolu reports.

    Graham Blewitt, who helped prosecute war crimes in the Balkans and Nazi crimes in Australia, said in a recent interview with Australian broadcaster SBS News that if he were working in the International Criminal Court today, he would have “no hesitation in bringing an indictment against the Israeli leaders for genocide.”

    Blewitt said the mass killings in Srebrenica, where over 8,000 Muslim men and boys were murdered and buried in 570 sites — including 77 mass graves — was once deemed a “clear-cut genocide” due to the perpetrators’ intent to destroy a targeted group in whole or in part.

    He said the same standard may apply to Gaza.

    “There’s no direct evidence apart from comments made by various Israeli leaders from time to time suggesting that they just want to wipe the Palestinians from the face of the Earth,” he said.

    Blewitt added that the Israeli air campaign has shown a disturbing lack of proportionality.

    “They’ll bomb a building and say they’re after a particular Hamas leader and not worry about the 30, 40, 50, 100 people in close proximity who are killed or injured as a result of that strike,” he said.

    READ: Israelis committing genocide in Gaza, with US ‘complicit’: Geopolitical expert

    Unlike in the 1990s, today’s digital age has created a vast archive of visual documentation.

    “Now anyone with a phone can record what’s happening, and there’s no end of evidence for those investigating what’s happening in Gaza,” he said.

    However, he also warned that investigators currently lack access to Gaza to collect physical evidence or inspect crime scenes on the ground.

    – Interference with justice

    Blewitt also raised concerns over global political efforts to shield Israeli leaders from prosecution.
    He criticized US President Donald Trump’s February executive order that sanctioned ICC staff after the court issued arrest warrants for Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

    He described it as “an appalling situation” that undermines international justice and could lead some political leaders to be held in contempt.

    Blewitt said the situation has left him deeply frustrated.

    “I used to be quite optimistic about the capacity of international institutions to hold war criminals accountable,” he said. “Now, I’m not so sure.”

    His remarks come as the International Court of Justice continues to examine a case brought by South Africa, which accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. The case has placed Israel’s conduct under intensifying legal scrutiny.

    READ: New poll shows declining trust in Israeli government, army

    This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 

    Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza's hospitals and universities,mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
    Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities,mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.