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.”
Relatives mourn at al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital after Israel forces attacked the al-Maghazi refugee camp in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on December 9, 2024. (Photo: Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“We demand international protection for hospitals, patients, and medical staff,” said the Gaza Ministry of Health.
The death toll from Israel’s 14-month assault on the Gaza Strip hit at least 44,758 on Monday, with 50 people killed in the past 24 hours alone, as Israeli forces bombed refugee camps, a flour distribution line, and a hospital, according to reporters and officials in the Palestinian enclave.
The Gaza Ministry of Health said a bombing at the Indonesian Hospital north of Gaza City wounded six patients—who are now among more than 106,000 Palestinians injured since Israel began its retaliation for last year’s Hamas-led attack.
“We demand international protection for hospitals, patients, and medical staff,” the ministry said in a statement reported by The Associated Press—which noted that Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed Sunday evening it was unaware of any attack on the hospital “in the last three to four hours.”
A nurse shared footage from the hospital with Drop Site News, which circulated the material on social media:
According to Al Jazeera, “Overnight, an Israeli attack in the southern city of Rafah also killed 10 people while they had lined up to buy flour.”
Israel, which faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice, has been accused of starving Gaza’s 2.3 million residents by refusing to allow enough humanitarian aid into the besieged enclave.
Reporting from central Deir al-Balah, Al Jazeera‘s Hani Mahmoud said that at least three people were killed in a Monday morning attack on the Jabalia refugee camp in the north that Israeli bombing and the ongoing blockade have “turned into a graveyard.”
The victims “were trying to leave their home in search of food in the vicinity of their neighborhood when they were targeted by a drone,” the journalist said. “They were killed right away. Their bodies are still in the street and nobody has the ability to get to the bombed site and remove the bodies from the street.”
The IDF announced that three soldiers were killed and 12 others were wounded Monday in fighting in Jabalia.
Mahmoud, the journalist, also said Monday that bodies were piling up outside al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital after an Israeli bombing at the Bureij refugee camp.
“The agony keeps on unfolding here at al-Aqsa Hospital, where survivors and relatives showed up early this morning to collect the bodies from the morgue of the hospital,” he said. “At some point, the morgue of the hospital was packed with the bodies and there was not enough room for more bodies.”
Citing the Palestinian news agency Wafa, Middle East Eye reported that “two children lost their lives, and others were injured on Monday, during Israeli shelling of al-Maghazi camp in the central Gaza Strip.”
The updates followed a Hamas delegation led by Khalil al-Hayya leaving Cairo Sunday evening after meeting with Egypt’s general intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Hassan Rashad, to discuss a potential cease-fire in Gaza.
Israeli media reported Sunday that unnamed political sources claimed Hamas and Israel are close to reaching a “small” deal that would involve a two-month cease-fire; the release of prisoners who are elderly, women, wounded, and sick; and the IDF’s withdrawal from parts of Gaza.
Neither Hamas nor mediators Egypt and Qatar have commented on the reporting—which came over a week into an Israeli cease-fire with the Lebanese group Hezbollah that Israel has repeatedly violated since it took effect late last month.
In neighboring Syria, the government of President Bashar al-Assad collapsed over the weekend as he fled and rebels took control of the capital. Israel seized more of the country’s Golan Heights, which it has illegally occupied for decades, and the United States—which arms the IDF—launched airstrikes on over 75 Islamic State targets in Syria.
A woman holding a girl reacts after Israeli airstrikes hit the Ridwan neighborhood of Gaza City, Gaza on October 23, 2023. (Photo: Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“Someone tell Trump that Israel already unleashed hell on Gaza, and hostages were not released.”
In an early signal of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s foreign policy plans for when he returns to office next month, the Republican said Monday “there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East” if Hamas does not release hostages taken from Israel, the occupying military force in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Trump demanded hostages seized during the October 7 attack of last year be released or his promised retribution would follow. Nearly 45,000 Palestinians have already been killed—mostly civilian men, women, and children—since Israel launched a full-scale invasion of Gaza in the wake of the Hamas-led operation.
Of the 251 people taken captive last year, 63 are believed to be still alive in Gaza, according toThe Washington Post‘s tracker, which was updated last week. So far, 117 others have been freed or rescued and 71 have been confirmed killed.
After dining with Sara Netanyahu, the wife of Israel’s prime minister, at the Trump International Golf Club in Florida Sunday night, the U.S. president-elect made his threat about the hostages on his Truth Social platform Monday afternoon.
“Everybody is talking about the hostages who are being held so violently, inhumanely, and against the will of the entire World, in the Middle East,” Trump wrote. “But it’s all talk, and no action! Please let this TRUTH serve to represent that if the hostages are not released prior to January 20, 2025, the date that I proudly assume Office as President of the United States, there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East, and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against Humanity.”
“Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America,” Trump added. “RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW!”
Stephen Pollard, editor-at-large The Jewish Chronicle, responded that “this is the message the president of the USA should have sent on October 8, 2023.”
Noting Pollard’s comments, Rohan Talbot, director of advocacy and campaigns at the U.K.-based Medical Aid for Palestinians, said: “Genuinely interested to know what Stephen thinks the U.S. could have supported Israel to do in Gaza beyond what it currently has. Nukes?”
“This statement is unhinged—’there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East,’” Talbot added.
Andreas Krieg, a senior lecturer in the School of Security Studies at King’s College London, said, “Someone tell Trump that Israel already unleashed hell on Gaza, and hostages were not released.”
Drop Site News highlighted that “Trump’s statement—which follows a video released over the weekend by Hamas’ armed wing featuring U.S.-Israeli captive Edan Alexander and explicitly addressing Trump—does not acknowledge that Netanyahu has repeatedly sabotaged cease-fire deals that could have freed Israeli hostages. It also appears timed to position himself to claim credit for any progress in cease-fire talks, as negotiations between Hamas and Egyptian mediators are already underway.”
As the American Jewish outlet Forward reported Monday:
The White House is attempting a final push to get… a deal done. President Joe Biden said last week that the cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon had created an opportunity to reignite stalled negotiations for a similar deal in Gaza. “We will use every day we have in office to try to generate as much progress towards that end as possible,” Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, said Sunday morning on ABC‘s “This Week.”
Given the failed efforts in the past, the families of the American hostages are hoping Trump could leverage his popularity in Israel and his relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take immediate action during the transition period. “Trump must not wait until he is inaugurated to help reach a deal that secures the freedom for Edan, six other Americans, and the rest of the hostages,” Adi and Yael Alexander, the parents of Edan, said on Saturday.
Despite an abundance of evidence showing how Israel is using U.S. weapons to slaughter civilians in Gaza and severely restricting the flow of humanitarian aid while claiming to target Hamas, Biden and Congress have refused to cut off arms to Netanyahu’s government. In fact, just hours after the cease-fire between the Israeli government and Hezbollah took effect—a deal that Israel has since violated approximately 100 times—the Financial Times reported last week that “Biden has provisionally approved a $680 million weapons sale to Israel.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant attend a press conference in the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv, Israel, October 28, 2023
ACTIVISTS and experts welcomed the arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant issued by the International Criminal Court today.
Leading Hamas official Mohammed Deif also had a warrant issued against him.
The warrants accused each of them of war crimes and crimes against humanity over the 13-month war in Gaza and the October 2023 attack on Israel respectively.
The three-judge panel was unanimous in its decision to issue warrants for Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant, saying that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that both individuals intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity.”
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The court’s action turns Mr Netanyahu and the others into internationally wanted suspects.
Zionist Keir Starmer is quoted “I support Zionism without qualification.” He’s asked whether that means that he supports Zionism under all circumstances, whatever Zionists do.Genocide denying UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspending 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide and the UK government and military’s active participation in genocide.
Followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr chant slogans while waving Iraqi, Lebanese and Palestinian flags protesting against the war in Palestine and Lebanon at Sadr city in Baghdad, Iraq, November 15, 2024
ISRAEL issued a veiled threat today to strike Iraq in response to recent attacks by militant groups based in that country.
In a letter to the United Nations security council posted on the X social media platform, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar claimed that his country had the right to “take all necessary measures to protect itself and its citizens against the ongoing acts of hostilities by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.”
Militants in Iraq have launched several air attacks against both Israel and US forces since Hamas attacked southern Israel from Gaza on October 7 2023.
An October 3 drone attack launched from Iraq hit an army base in northern Israel, killing two Israeli soldiers and wounding 24, Mr Saar said.
In his letter, Mr Saar calls on the UN to take “immediate action” to address the situation.
