Benjamin Netanyahu

Netanyahu stops Gaza aid after Smotrich threatens to quit government

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

Charity organizations distribute food to Palestinians at Nusierat Refugee Camp in Gaza City, Gaza on June 26, 2025. [Hassan Jedi – Anadolu Agency]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered a halt to aid deliveries to northern Gaza after far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich threatened to quit the coalition, citing unverified claims that Hamas was looting humanitarian supplies.

Smotrich reportedly made the ultimatum during a cabinet meeting, referencing a widely circulated video on social media showing armed men atop aid trucks. Although the footage was quickly seized upon by pro-government figures including former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Israel’s own military has been unable to confirm that the gunmen were affiliated with Hamas.

Haaretz cited media outlets in the Gaza Strip who reported that the gunmen are not Hamas operatives, but security guards sent by tribal leaders to protect aid truck convoys from looting. The aid documented in the video reached its destination – the UN warehouses in the Gaza Strip – and was distributed to residents

Despite this, Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant ordered the army to submit a “plan of action” within 48 hours to prevent what they described as Hamas “taking control of the humanitarian aid entering northern Gaza and stealing it from civilians.”

Israel has continually blamed Hamas for the looting of aid and used it as a justification to bypass UN aid distribution mechanisms to install the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Observers have stressed that the worsening aid crisis has been driven not by Hamas but by criminal gangs—some empowered by Israel itself. Among them is the militia led by Yasser Abu Shabab, a figure named in UN documents for systematically looting aid. His group has been armed and supported by Israel in an apparent effort to establish a post-Hamas order in the Gaza Strip.

An Israeli security source, quoted in Yedioth Ahronoth, warned that the plan is failing. Abu Shabab’s group, active near Rafah, has struggled to assert control or fulfil Israel’s expectations, and internal divisions have complicated their operations.

In a public statement, the Abu Shabab militia paradoxically demanded an “immediate solution” to the problem of aid theft—despite being implicated in it. The group offered vague promises about a new distribution mechanism but gave no details.

Israel’s reliance on criminal gangs and tribal militias to manage aid distribution has failed to bring order. Although the US-funded GHF remains the main agency overseeing aid deliveries, the presence of armed groups has contributed to worsening insecurity.

According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, over 500 Palestinians have been killed in the past month during Israeli shooting at food distribution centres, as crowds gathered in desperation.

On Wednesday, 74 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, 33 of them while waiting for food. The total Palestinian death toll since October 7 now exceeds 56,000.

Aid agencies have repeatedly warned that the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is deepening, with mass starvation looming. In June alone, over 1,600 children were hospitalised for severe malnutrition.

READ: Israel’s Netanyahu requests two-week break from corruption trial citing “regional developments”

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

Keir "I support Zionism without Qualification" Starmer supporting genocide.
Keir “I support Zionism without Qualification” Starmer supporting genocide.
Experiencing issues with this image not appearing. I suspect because it's so critical of Zionist Keir Starmer's support of and complicity in Israel's genocides.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA

Continue ReadingNetanyahu stops Gaza aid after Smotrich threatens to quit government

‘An Avoidable Disaster’: Israeli Blockade of Gaza Could Starve Hundreds of Premature Babies

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Original article by Stephen Prager republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

A newborn baby in an incubator struggles to survive following Israel’s blockade of food and medical aid in Gaza City, Gaza on March 11, 2025. 
(Photo: Khalil Ramzi Alkahlut/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The Associated Press reported Wednesday that 580 premature infants are at risk of death due to “depleted” reserves of baby formula.

The Associated Press reported Wednesday that 580 premature infants are at risk of death, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, due to a shortage of medical-grade formula entering the strip.

Despite a recent policy change by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow “minimal aid” into the strip following a total blockade of food, water, shelter, and medication, it has proven far too little to keep hospitals running and keep people fed. It has proven especially deadly for children.

The AP report quotes Dr. Ahmed al-Farah, head of the pediatrics and obstetrics department at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, one of the few functional medical facilities left in Gaza.

Last week, al-Farah warned that the hospital’s stock of milk was “completely depleted,” and that unless aid was delivered immediately, the babies would face “an avoidable disaster.” The widely publicized call was answered with the shipment of 20 boxes of formula from the U.S. aid group Rahma Worldwide.

Al-Farah said this was enough to meet the needs of 10 babies for two weeks, but warned that in the long run it would be far too little, especially with no guarantee of aid in the future.

“This is not enough at all,” he told the AP. “It solved the problem temporarily, but what we need is a permeant solution: Lift the siege.”

Many other hospitals reported shortages of formula that had not been answered, such as Al-Rantisi Hospital in Gaza City, which was completely out of stock.

Fortified milk has become increasingly necessary in Gaza due to the increasing number of premature births. In May, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that as a result of widespread hunger, 1 in 5 children is now born pre-term or underweight. That malnutrition has also left many new mothers unable to breastfeed.

Dr. Asaad Nawajha, a pediatric specialist at Nasser Hospital, told Middle East Eye that the blockade has proven catastrophic for the health of both children and their mothers.

“This all goes back to the [harsh] conditions mothers endure amid this vicious war on the Gaza Strip,” Nawajha said. “Due to the lack of nutritious items entering the Gaza Strip, both mothers and children have been exposed to illnesses resulting from malnutrition.”

The Israeli government’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) has insisted that the amount of aid allowed into Gaza is sufficient to provide for the population.

On June 22, COGAT announced that 430 aid trucks had been allowed to enter the strip during the preceding week. However, this is but a fraction of the more than 600 trucks per day that the United Nations is necessary to meet their needs.

Many people who have come to aid sites administered by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), to obtain the meager supplies available, have been met with deadly violence from the Israeli military.

Since May 27, at least 549 Palestinians have been killed and more than 4,000 injured by Israeli forces at these sites, according to the U.N. Office for Coordinated Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Gaza Ministry of Health. The Gaza Media Office reports at least 19 fatal incidents at these GHF sites over the span of just one month.

Many of the victims have been children. According to a study released Thursday by the humanitarian group Save the Children, children have been killed at 10 of those 19 incidents.

“No child should be killed searching for food,” said Ahmad Alhendawi, Save the Children’s regional director for the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe. “This is not a humanitarian operation—it’s a death trap.”

Original article by Stephen Prager republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Vote Labour for Genocide.
Vote Labour for Genocide.
Experiencing issues with this image not appearing. I suspect because it's so critical of Zionist Keir Starmer's support of and complicity in Israel's genocides.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA
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.
Continue Reading‘An Avoidable Disaster’: Israeli Blockade of Gaza Could Starve Hundreds of Premature Babies

Green Party respond to US strikes on Iran

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Green Party Co-leader Adrian Ramsay. Wikipedia CC.
Green Party Co-leader Adrian Ramsay. Wikipedia CC.

Responding to news of US attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities, Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay MP said:

“We utterly condemn the reckless attacks on Iran by the United States that can only lead to further dangerous conflict in an already volatile region. There is no international legal basis for this unilateral action that poses a serious threat to international peace and security.

“Our prime minister has shamefully decided to echo the rhetoric of Trump and Netanyahu rather than condemn the indefensible aggression of both Israel and the US. Keir Starmer has further implied that it is justifiable for the Iranian regime to be bombed back to the negotiating table. I fully recognise the brutal nature of the Iranian regime but this unilateral action is no way to build peace and risks making the UK once again complicit in escalating a Middle East crisis.”

Continue ReadingGreen Party respond to US strikes on Iran

After Trump’s Bombing, Sanders Condemns ‘Lies’ Over Iran Nuclear Threat

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Original article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

“We cannot allow ourselves to be dragged into another Middle East war based on lies.”

While a number of statements by members of Congress in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities focused largely on the fact that the White House acted without congressional authorization—a constitutional violation—U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders expressed anger over another aspect of the unilateral military action: the “lies” that the Trump administration is telling the public to justify the bombing.

The White House’s act of war against Iran, said the Vermont independent senator, was just the latest in a long line of military boondoggles that followed lies powerful politicians told about the threats posed by foreign countries—before taking action that ultimately killed millions of people while doing nothing to protect U.S. security.

“In the 1960s the United States government lied to the American people and took us into a terrible war in Vietnam,” said Sanders. “The result of that war was that over 58,000 young Americans died and many more came back wounded both in mind and in spirit. Millions of Vietnamese were also killed.”

Decades later, Americans were told by then-President George W. Bush that the U.S. must act quickly to stop Iraq from building “weapons of mass destruction”—with U.S. officials following the guidance of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“The United States invaded Iraq and became embroiled in a long civil war there. No weapons of mass destruction were ever found. That war was based on a lie—a lie which cost us 4,492 young Americans, 32,000 wounded, over half a million Iraqis and trillions of dollars,” said Sanders.

“The American people are being lied to again today,” he added. “We cannot allow history to repeat itself.”

U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that Iran is not attempting to build a nuclear weapon with its enriched uranium stockpile, backing up repeated statements from Iranian officials who have said the country’s nuclear program is used only for peaceful civilian purposes.

Sanders’ statement came several hours after he learned while speaking at a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma that Trump had bombed Iran, authorizing strikes on three nuclear facilities, which Iranian officials condemned as a violation of international law.

At the rally, supporters erupted in a chant of “No more war!” after Sanders read Trump’s statement on the attack.

The spontaneous display of outrage over the latest U.S. attack on the Middle East underscored the reality of the moment, said The Nation writer Jeet Heer, as one poll released Thursday showed that just 8% of Americans favored the U.S. becoming directly involved in Israel’s attacks on Iran that began earlier this month.

“There is only one off-ramp from Trump’s mad rush to war: the quick mobilization of an anti-war opposition,” said Heer. “The people are ready.”

As the Trump administration boasted about the “severe damage” the strikes had done to Iran’s nuclear program, progressive strategist Waleed Shahid called on Democratic lawmakers to tap into voters’ palpable outrage—not about Trump’s failure to seek congressional authorization for the strikes, but about the fact that the U.S. is pursuing a war in Iran at all while repeating Netanyahu’s unsubstantiated claims about the Iranians’ ability to produce a nuclear bomb.

“No one ever won a fight yelling, ‘Congressional authorization.’ Voters need clarity amid the chaos,” said Shahid. “Lead with this: No more blank checks for corrupt and endless foreign wars, we’re here to focus on fighting for working Americans.”

Shahid’s comments echoed Sanders’ statement decrying Trump’s lies.

“The U.S. faces enormous problems here at home, which we must address,” said Sanders. “We cannot allow ourselves to be dragged into another Middle East war based on lies.”

Original article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.

Continue ReadingAfter Trump’s Bombing, Sanders Condemns ‘Lies’ Over Iran Nuclear Threat

Exactly Why Is It that All American Presidents Dance to Bibi’s Tune?

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https://newrepublic.com/article/197001/netanyahu-american-presidents-israel-war-iran

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Trump is the most pliable. But Netanyahu plays them all like cheap violins, despite being wrong about every important matter of the last 25 years.

Despite the extremely stiff competition, it’s fair to say that Donald Trump may be about to win the historical contest to become the all-time “Bibi’s Lapdog” among American presidents. 

After repeatedly rejecting the idea of joining with Israel to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities and distancing himself when it finally happened, then reversing himself again to take partial credit for it, Trump appears to be ready to go one massive step further and turn the Israeli attack into a full-fledged American war.

To be more than fair to two profoundly corrupt leaders who don’t remotely deserve it, this is alas nothing new: Israeli prime ministers who bend American presidents to their will have a long and distinguished pedigree. The last U.S. president to stand up to Israel and demand that it reverse itself in a matter of war was Dwight Eisenhower, who, after the 1956 Israeli-British-French attack on Egypt over the closing of the Suez Canal to Israeli shipping, insisted on an immediate withdrawal. (It did not endear Israel to Eisenhower that he was trying to focus the world on Moscow’s invasion of Hungary at the same time.) Even then, France and England immediately complied. Israel took its time and eventually extracted most of the concessions it wanted from the U.S.

…

Now by far Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, despite a record of naked corruption, incompetence, and a willingness to cave in to extremist demands in order to cling to power, Netanyahu has always demonstrated a unique sort of audacity when it comes to the United States. Before Trump, the post-1956 de facto rule between the two nations was that the U.S. could not prevent Israel from attacking whomever it wished whenever it wished. But neither could the Israelis issue orders to the U.S. about its own foreign policy. Under Reagan, for instance, Menachem Begin could not stop the U.S. sale of sophisticated AWAC planes to the Saudis, but neither did Israel care what the president thought of its brazen attack on Iraq’s nuclear facilities, its siege of Beirut, its aid to the guilty parties in the massacre at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, and, of course, its relentless expansion of settlements on the West Bank.

In a secretly recorded 2001 discussion with West Bank settlers, Netanyahu explained this commonly held view. “I know what America is,” he told them. “America is a thing that can be easily moved, moved in the right direction.… They will not bother us.”

…

Finally, what ought to be most unnerving about this episode is the notion that Bibi Netanyahu is someone whose strategic thinking ought to be followed. He is widely recognized as responsible for Israel’s catastrophic unreadiness for the Hamas attack of October 7 and was even in the business of helping to build up that organization at the expense of the Palestinian Authority in order to forestall what he saw as the “threat” of a credible partner for a peaceful solution to the conflict. His opposition to, and subsequent campaign to undermine, the JPCOA is largely responsible for the conundrum we face today. Needless to say, he was also gung ho for America’s disastrous invasion of Iraq before it took place. 

If Trump decides to join Israel’s bombing campaign, historians will one day wonder how it was that someone so famously lacking in good judgment could have been the man to lead the world’s most powerful nation into a war with a proud nation 90-million strong that did not, in any meaningful way, threaten the lives of its people.

https://newrepublic.com/article/197001/netanyahu-american-presidents-israel-war-iran

Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
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.
Continue ReadingExactly Why Is It that All American Presidents Dance to Bibi’s Tune?