Asma Al Habash, mourns her brother and his family, victims of an Israeli army strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp, at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, December 12, 2024
PALESTINIAN medical officials say Israeli air strikes today killed at least 28 people in the Gaza Strip, including seven children.
This came hours after the United Nations general assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
The latest Israeli killing spree took place in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp, according to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby city of Deir al-Balah.
Two other strikes killed 15 men, part of local committees set up by displaced Palestinians to secure aid convoys.
The Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis received the bodies.
The hospital said eight were killed in a strike near the southern border town of Rafah and seven others in a strike 30 minutes later near Khan Younis.
Meanwhile the UN general assembly overwhelmingly approved resolutions on Wednesday demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and backing the UN agency for Palestinian refugees that Israel has moved to ban.
Herzi Halevi with Netanyahu and Gallant. (Photo: Kobi Gideon / GPO)
Declassified UK Exclusive: IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi was given a “special mission” certificate for his trip to the UK last month, allowing him to visit without fear of arrest for war crimes.
The UK government has confirmed that Israel’s top soldier, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, was given special diplomatic immunity to visit Britain last month.
Halevi is the Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), and has been directing the Israeli military’s operations throughout the Gaza genocide.
He arrived in Britain in late November to discuss “the ongoing conflicts in Lebanon and Gaza” with senior UK officials from the Ministry of Defence and Foreign Office. A further meeting was held with Britain’s attorney general, Richard Hermer.
The trip came just three days after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant for “crimes against humanity and war crimes”.
Halevi was initially reported to have been included in the ICC’s arrest applications for the crime of having “deliberately starved Palestinians in Gaza”.
While Halevi was not ultimately named in those ICC warrants, it is possible to issue private arrest applications in Britain under universal jurisdiction legislation, which allows for the most serious crimes to be prosecuted regardless of where they are committed.
However, the UK government blocked this avenue for redress by issuing Halevi with a “special mission certificate”, granting him temporary diplomatic immunity for the duration of the visit.
In response to a parliamentary question from Labour MP Brian Leishman, the Foreign Office yesterday admitted it “gave consent for special mission status for the visit to the UK on 24-25 November of Lieutenant General Herzl Halevi… and [his] delegation”.
The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) told Declassified: “It seems beyond belief that the UK attorney general could meet with the head of the IDF, mere days after arrest warrants were issued for Netanyahu and Gallant.
“Halevi may not yet have an arrest warrant himself, but regardless, the International Criminal Court Act 2001 obliges the UK to investigate, arrest and prosecute suspected war criminals.”
UK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWREGenocide 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
This picture shows a general view of the Israeli Knesset (parliament) during a meeting, in Jerusalem on 30 June, 2022 [MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images]
The Israeli government coalition dropped a proposal in the Knesset yesterday to form a National Commission of Inquiry into the failures of 7 October, 2023. Fifty-one members of the parliament voted against the proposal, with 43 in favour, said Israel Hayom.
Officials in Tel Aviv believe that what happened on 7 October — the Hamas-led cross-border incursion which led to the killing of 1,200 Israelis, many at the hands of the Israel Defence Forces — to be the biggest intelligence and military failure in the occupation state’s history, damaging the image of Israel and its army.
Some of the hostages taken by Hamas on 7 October are still being held in Gaza, and are at the centre of on/off negotiations for a ceasefire in the genocide launched by Israel since that date. At least 45,000 Palestinians have been killed, mainly women and children, and a further 106,000 have been wounded. An estimated 11,000 are missing, presumed dead, under the rubble of their homes and other civilian infrastructure destroyed by Israel in what amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Hamas said at the time that it had attacked military bases and settlements adjacent to Gaza in response to “the daily crimes committed by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people and their sanctities, especially Al-Aqsa Mosque.”
