Israeli Security Cabinet Approves Plan for ‘Mass Ethnic Cleansing’ of Gaza

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

Palestinians forcibly displaced by israel’s assault on Gaza walk amid the rubble of the Jabalia refugee camp on January 19, 2025. (Photo: Omar Al-Qataa/AFP via Getty Images)

“There is nothing ‘voluntary’ about the program,” said one critic. “The population of Gaza is to be forced out of their ancestral homeland through deliberate mass starvation and mass killings.”

Israel’s Security Cabinet on Sunday approved the creation of new Defense Ministry directorate tasked with ethnically cleansing Palestinians from the Gaza Strip under the guise of “voluntary emigration.”

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz euphemistically called the new agency the “Voluntary Emigration Bureau for Gaza residents interested in relocating to third countries” and claimed it will operate in accordance with international law.

However, given Israel’s incessant flouting of international law—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a fugitive from the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice is hearing a genocide case against the country—critics excoriated Katz’s claim.

“In reality, there is nothing ‘voluntary’ about the program the Netanyahu government is implementing,” wroteWorld Socialist Web Site editor Andre Damon. “The population of Gaza is to be forced out of their ancestral homeland through deliberate mass starvation and mass killings by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).”

The Israeli cabinet has approved the establishment of an “administration for the voluntary transition of Gaza’s residents to third countries” – aka for mass ethnic cleansing

Hanno Hauenstein (@hahauenstein.bsky.social) 2025-03-23T09:55:48.905Z

Katz also said the new directorate would be run “in accordance with the vision of U.S President Donald Trump,” who last month said that the United States would “take over” Gaza after emptying the strip of its approximately 2.1 million Palestinians and transform the coastal enclave into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”

After doubling down on his proposal, Trump then attempted to gaslight the world by directly contradicting his previous remarks when he said earlier this month that “nobody is expelling any Palestinians” from Gaza. By then, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich had declared that the so-called Trump Plan was “taking shape” in coordination with the U.S. administration.

However, leaders of Egypt and Jordan, where Trump has proposed sending Gazans, vehemently oppose the plan. A counterproposal issued by Egypt and other Arab nations—which involves rebuilding Gaza without forcibly displacing its residents—has the support of the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation and nations including China, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy.

The reconquest of Gaza is a longtime goal of Israel’s far-right, which, since the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023 and subsequent obliteration of the strip, has moved to put its recolonization plans into action.

Israeli Col: Hamas is not the issue Gaza's people are'The population of Gaza are barbaric riffraff….the only solution is Trump's vision,' national security expert and colonel in the Israeli army's reserve force Gabi Siboni called for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza during a panel programme.

Middle East Monitor (@middleeastmonitor.bsky.social) 2025-03-24T15:31:22.293Z

“October 7 changed history. As a result of the brutal massacre, the Gazan Arabs have lost their rights to be here forever, they’ll not stay here,” Daniella Weiss, co-founder of the extremist settler movement Nachala, said during an October 2024 conference on the ethnic cleansing of Gaza attended by Smotrich and numerous other Israeli lawmakers.

“Each of you will witness how Jews go to Gaza and Arabs will disappear from Gaza,” Weiss added.

The modern state of Israel was founded largely through the ethnic cleansing of more than 750,000 Palestinians, sometimes accomplished via massacres and death marches. The majority of Gaza’s population today are survivors and descendants of Palestinians forced from their homeland to make way for Jewish immigrants in the post-World War II era.

Palestinians call the mass forced displacement of 1948 the Nakba, or catastrophe, and far-right Israelis today threaten to carry out a new Nakba to “finish the job,” as Smotrich and others have said.

Critics including Israeli troops have claimed that the IDF is carrying out the so-called “General’s Plan,” a blueprint for the starvation and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from northern Gaza. Since October 2023, Israel has enforced what former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant—who is also wanted by the ICC for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity—called a “complete siege” of Gaza, a blockade which has exacerbated deadly starvation and illness in the strip.

On Sunday, the Gaza Health Ministry said the death toll from Israel’s 535-day assault on Gaza surpassed 50,000 Palestinians, the majority of whom are women and children. This, as Israeli forces have renewed their ferocious bombardment and invasion of the strip, killing hundreds of Palestinians including nearly 200 children, and wiping out entire families.

The ministry said that more than 113,000 others have been wounded since October 2023, and at least 14,000 more Palestinians are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath the rubble of hundreds of thousands of bombed-out buildings.

However, experts—including the authors of two peer-reviewed articles in the prestigious British medical journal The Lancetsay the actual death toll is likely much higher.

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

Continue ReadingIsraeli Security Cabinet Approves Plan for ‘Mass Ethnic Cleansing’ of Gaza

International Legal Coalition Launched to ‘Pursue Israeli War Crimes Suspects’

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

International Center of Justice for Palestinians director Tayab Ali (right) and ICJP Canada human rights lawyer Shane Martinez (left) take part in the launch of Global 195 in London on March 18, 2025. (Photo: Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“Under international law, states have a duty to investigate and prosecute war crimes, yet these obligations have been systematically neglected,” one of the initiative’s founders lamented.

Lawyers from half a dozen countries on Tuesday launched a coalition dedicated to bringing Israelis and dual nationals accused of war crimes in Palestine to justice.

The U.K.-based International Center of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) hosted a launch event in London for the new initiative, called Global 195. ICJP said lawyers will “pursue Israeli war crimes suspects across the world” via arrest warrant applications and the initiation of legal proceedings including private prosecutions against implicated members and veterans of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), as well as “figures spanning the entire Israeli military and political chain of command, from senior policymakers to operational personnel, who are directly or indirectly responsible for violations of international law.”

Participants include attorneys from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Malaysia, Norway, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, where “advanced preparations have already been made to pursue legal action against British citizens suspected of joining the IDF or committing war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank.”

For the past 18 months, ICJP has been collecting evidence as part of its Justice for Gaza campaign, including 135 eyewitness testimonies backed by open-source intelligence. Documented violations of international law include indiscriminate and disproportionate bombing of civilians, attacks on designated “safe zones,”s airstrikes targeting refugee camps, use of starvation as a weapon of war, and forced displacement.

“The obstruction of international legal institutions in pursuing individuals responsible for war crimes in Palestine, coupled with the failure of national police forces to fulfill their obligations under humanitarian law and universal jurisdiction principles, has allowed impunity for Israeli suspected war criminals to persist,” ICJP director Tayab Ali said in a statement.

“Under international law, states have a duty to investigate and prosecute war crimes, yet these obligations have been systematically neglected,” Ali added. “The launch of Global 195 is a necessary legal intervention to remedy this failure. By activating domestic legal mechanisms across multiple jurisdictions, we are ensuring that those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza are subject to legal accountability and no longer have anywhere to hide.”

Huseyin Disli, vice president of the Worldwide Lawyers Association, noted that “no domestic court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli genocide war criminals, exposing the failure of the international legal order” and called the global legal community “incoherent in its goals.”

Israel is currently the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case filed by South Africa, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are fugitives from the International Criminal Court, which last November issued arrest warrants over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. However, key nations including the United States—which has not ratified the Rome Statute upon which the ICC is based—have ignored the warrants, and last month the Trump administration imposed sanctions on the tribunal.

Since October 2023, Israeli forces have killed or wounded more than 175,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including people who are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath rubble, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. On Tuesday, Israel unilaterally abandoned an eight-week cease-fire and resumed its assault on Gaza, killing more than 400 people including at least 174 children in airstrikes that wiped out entire families.

United Nations expertsinternational juristshuman rights groups, and others have found that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, as well as crimes including indiscriminate and disproportionate killing of civilians, extrajudicial killingtorturesexual violence including rape, use of starvation as a weapon of war, and forced displacement.

The launch of Global 195 follows the establishment last September of the Hind Rajab Foundation, a Belgium-based legal group that pursues arrest warrants for alleged Israeli war criminals traveling abroad. The organization is named after a 6-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed—along with six relatives—by Israeli forces in January 2024 while trying to flee to safety in a car. Two paramedics who tried to rescue her were also killed.

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

Continue ReadingInternational Legal Coalition Launched to ‘Pursue Israeli War Crimes Suspects’

Entire Families Wiped Out as Israel Resumes Genocidal Assault on Gaza

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

The shrouded bodies of victims of renewed Israeli aistrikes on Gaza are seen outside Al Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Palestine on March 18, 2025.
 (Photo: Hani Alshaer/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“All of this is made possible by the U.S. government, which has funded and fueled these atrocities,” said Jewish Voice for Peace.

Once again, entire families are being wiped out by Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip after U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly gave the green light for the key American ally to resume its assault on the Palestinian enclave.

Israel unilaterally abrogated the crumbling eight-week cease-fire early Tuesday, unleashing a wave of ferocious strikes on the already flattened Gaza Strip, killing at least 404 people—including 174 children, 89 women, and 32 elders—and wounding at least 562 others, with the death toll expected to rise, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

“We were shocked late at night to see strikes and attacks on Gaza like in the early days of the war,” Momen Qoreiqeh, who lost more than two dozen relatives in an Israeli airstrike on their Gaza City home, told Al Jazeera. “I was with my family and suddenly there was a huge attack on our residential block. The attack killed so many people from my family, some of them we still haven’t recovered from under the rubble.”

“So far we’ve managed to recover about 26 bodies from my family and 20 other people who were with us,” he added.

Ramy Abdu, founder and chair of the Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor—which has published numerous reports on alleged Israeli war crimes and acts of genocide in Gaza—said his sister’s family was killed in an Israeli strike on their home in Gaza City.

“This morning, Israel killed my sister, my heart, Nesreen, and her beloved sons and daughters: Ubaida, Omar, and Lian, along with Ubaida’s wife, Malak, and their children, Siwar and Mohammed,” Abdu said on social media.

According to Al Jazeera, the family had survived many Israeli airstrikes over the years.

“Israel may kill us at will, burn us alive, and tear us apart, but it will never succeed in uprooting us from our land,” Abdu wrote in a separate post. “Justice and accountability await—no matter how long it takes.”

Al Jazeera also reported that Dr. Majda Abu Aker, an OB-GYN at a Rafah clinic run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, and more than a dozen other people were killed in a strike on her house in Rafah’s al-Jenaina neighborhood. At least 10 of the dead were from the same family; the youngest victim was a girl who was just three days old.

Fifteen people, most of them members of the Barhoum family, were reportedly killed when Israeli forces bombed al-Mawasi.

Six members of the same family were also reportedly killed while trying to flee in a car in Abasan, east of Khan Younis.

Ahmed Abu Rizq, a teacher who survived Tuesday’s airstrikes, described to Al Jazeera the horror and chaos he witnessed at a local hospital, where he saw “blood everywhere” and arriving families carrying the “remains of their children.”

Al-Shifa Hospital director Muhammad Abu Salmiya said that “every minute, a wounded person dies due to a lack of resources,” as Israel has imposed a ” complete siege” on Gaza since October 2023 that has been blamed for widespread starvation and sickness. The South Africa-led genocide case against Israel currently before the International Court of Justice cites the siege, which has been called a “genocidal act” by an independent United Nations commission and human rights groups.

Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, said later in the day that Tuesday’s strikes are “only the beginning” and will continue until Hamas frees all the remaining hostages it took on October 7, 2023 and is destroyed.

During a meeting with the U.S. Zionist lobby group American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Jerusalem, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar affirmed that Tuesday’s bombings were not a “one-day attack.”

Palestine defenders around the world took to the streets to protest the renewed Israeli onslaught. In London, thousands of demonstrators turned out for an emergency protest organized by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Protests also took place in cities including RamallahDublinBerlinJerusalemManchester, and Belfast, and are planned for Washington, D.C.ChicagoNew York, and elsewhere.

United Nations officials condemned Tuesday’s strikes, with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres writing: “I am outraged by the Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. I strongly appeal for the cease-fire to be respected, for unimpeded humanitarian assistance to be reestablished, and for the remaining hostages to be released unconditionally.”

Human rights groups also condemned Israel’s renewed aggression, with Amnesty International secretary general Agnès Callamard calling Tuesday “a desperately dark day for humanity.”

“Israel brazenly resumed its devastating bombing campaign in Gaza… again wiping out entire families in a matter of hours,” she said. “Palestinians in Gaza—who have barely had a chance to start piecing together their lives and continue to grapple with the trauma of Israel’s past attacks—have woken up once more to the hellish nightmare of intense bombardment.”

“Today, we are back to square one,” Callamard lamented. “Since March 2, Israel has reimposed a total siege on Gaza blocking the entry of all humanitarian aid, medicine, and commercial supplies, including fuel and food, in flagrant violation of international law. Israel has also cut off electricity to Gaza’s main operational desalination plant. And today the Israeli military has once again started issuing mass ‘evacuation’ orders displacing Palestinians.”

Omar Shakir, Human Rights Watch’s Israel and Palestine director, said: “The reported killings of hundreds of Palestinians amid Israel’s renewed assault on Gaza is alarming. The Israeli authorities have committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, including forced displacement and extermination, and acts of genocide during the assault on Gaza.”

“Other countries should urgently act to prevent further mass atrocities, including by suspending arms transfers to Israel, supporting the International Criminal Court and executing its arrest warrants, and imposing targeted sanctions on officials responsible for laws-of-war violations,” Shakir added.

The American Human Rights Council (AHRC) condemned “the restart of the Israeli genocidal policy of starving and bombing the Palestinians in Gaza” and noted that “the victims of the Israeli genocidal acts are primarily infants, children, women, and the elderly.”

“AHRC urges the Trump administration to uphold its peace promise,” the group added. “The current Israeli escalation of war crimes and the ongoing Israeli weaponization of food, water, and medicine are resulting in avoidable deaths and suffering. The U.S. can put a permanent end to this war but for political expediency is choosing not to.”

Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest U.S. Muslim civil rights group, said that “President Trump must stop the madness after the government of indicted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu renewed its genocide and slaughtered hundreds of Palestinians, including women and children, during the holy month of Ramadan.”

“Without strong actions to push back against this renewed orgy of slaughter, mass destruction, forced starvation, and ethnic cleansing, the Israeli government will continue to act with impunity and our government will remain as complicit with genocide as it was under the Biden administration,” Awad added.

The U.S. group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)—which has organized numerous protests against the assault on Gaza—said: “This is a campaign of extermination. This is genocide.”

“All of this is made possible by the U.S. government, which has funded and fueled these atrocities,” JVP noted. “Over the last 17 months, the U.S. has spent over $17 billion in military funding to the Israeli government’s campaign of extermination and apartheid against the Palestinian people, and continues to sell the Israeli military more weapons.”

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)—a Quaker organization that has worked in Palestine for decades—said that “there are no words adequate to express the devastation of watching bombs rain down again on people who have already endured more than 17 months of a U.S.-backed genocide.”

“Our hearts are with AFSC staff, families, partners, friends, and all Palestinians in Gaza—we are holding you in the Light and we will continue the relentless struggle to end these atrocities,” the group added.

Progressive U.S. lawmakers also denounced the renewed Israeli assault and demanded an end to American armed aid, with Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), the only Palestinian American member of Congress, writing on social media that “the Israeli apartheid regime has resumed its genocide, carrying out airstrikes all across Gaza and killing hundreds of Palestinians.”

“This comes after a complete blockade of food, electricity, and aid,” Tlaib added. “They will never stop until there are sanctions and an arms embargo.”

Netanyahu has not allowed any food, water, or fuel into Gaza in two weeks. Now he has resumed bombing, killing hundreds of people and breaking the ceasefire that had given Gaza a chance to live again. NO MORE MILITARY AID TO ISRAEL.

Senator Bernie Sanders (@sanders.senate.gov) 2025-03-18T14:57:48.160Z

The Gaza Health Ministry says that at least 48,964 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces over the past 529 days. At least 112,481 others have been wounded, and an estimated 14,000 more are missing and believed dead and buried beneath the rubble of hundreds of thousands of bombed buildings.

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

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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 ReadingEntire Families Wiped Out as Israel Resumes Genocidal Assault on Gaza

‘Genocide Alert!’ Israel Slammed for Cutting Off Power to Gaza Water Plant

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

A water treatment plant in Deir al-Balah, Gaza is on the verge of shutting down due to Israel’s order to cut electricity flow on March 10, 2025. (Photo: Moiz Salhi/Anadolu via Getty Images)

One expert noted that “this collective punishment of civilians” violates the Geneva Convention as well as a preliminary injunction from the International Court of Justice.

Outrage over the Israeli government’s decision to cut off electricity to a water treatment plant in the decimated Gaza Strip mounted on Monday.

As Common Dreams reported Sunday, Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen said that he “signed an order for the immediate halt of electricity to the Gaza Strip” as part of a policy to use “all of the tools that are at our disposal to ensure the return of all the hostages” taken by Hamas on October 7, 2023.

The Times of Israel noted that the new move by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government “was mainly expected to affect a single desalination plant, the only facility in the strip still running on a power line supplied from Israel.”

Responding on social media Monday, the Peace & Justice Project—founded by Jeremy Corbyn, an Independent member of the U.K. Parliament—condemned the cutoff as Israel’s “latest act of genocidal collective punishment against the Palestinian people.”

“This latest despicable act must be condemned by all governments and Israel must be sanctioned,” the group added.

Also speaking out on social media, Francesca Albanese, United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, declared, “GENOCIDE ALERT!”

“Israel cutting off electricity supplies to Gaza means, among others, no functioning desalination stations, ergo: no clean water,” Albanese said. “STILL NO SANCTION/NO ARMS EMBARGO against Israel means, among others, AIDING AND ASSISTING Israel in the commission of one of the most preventable genocides of our history.”

Unconscionable, and immoral:Israel stops electricity supply to Gaza to ratchet up pressure on Hamas | The Times of Israel www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_ent…

Timothy McBride (@mcbridetd.bsky.social) 2025-03-09T15:53:43.709Z

Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, called the move “a desperate attempt to pressure our people and their resistance through cheap and unacceptable blackmail tactics,” according to The Times of Israel.

He tied the decision to Israel halting all humanitarian aid into the Palestinian enclave last week, saying that “we strongly condemn the occupation’s decision to cut off electricity to Gaza, after depriving it of food, medicine, and water.”

Clean water has been a key issue in Gaza since October 2023. Oxfam said last July that Israel had systematically reduced the water available by 94%, with just 4.74 liters per resident obtainable each day—less than a third of the recommended minimum amount in emergencies.

A Human Rights Watch report from December accuses Israel of “extermination and acts of genocide” in Gaza “by intentionally depriving Palestinian civilians there of adequate access to water, most likely resulting in thousands of deaths.”

Netanyahu said that last week’s block on aid was done “in full coordination” with U.S. President Donald Trump, who proposed an American takeover of Gaza—a plan that Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Sunday “is taking shape.”

Israel and Hamas reached a fragile three-part cease-fire and hostage-release deal in January. Stage one expired on March 1, and negotiators have not yet agreed to terms for the second phase, but talks are being held in Qatar this week.

“Food cut off, almost all electricity cut off, with the remaining energy now cut off too, in order to cut off water supply. This is a ‘cease-fire’ Israel-style,” said Nick Dearden, director of the U.K.-based group Global Justice Now. “Barbaric collective punishment. Stop all weapons, suspend trade deals, economic sanctions now.”

Since we made this statement Israel has announced it is cutting off electricity to Gaza. We say again: the threat of starvation and denial of vital humanitarian aid and services should never be used as a tool of war or a bargaining chip in negotiations. www.quaker.org.uk/news-and-eve…

Quakers in Britain (@quaker.org.uk) 2025-03-10T15:51:44.465Z

University of Michigan professor Juan Cole wrote Monday on his website, Informed Comment, that “the Israeli government is cutting Palestinian civilians in Gaza off from staples as a means of pressuring Hamas to release all Israeli hostages with no quid pro quo so that Netanyahu can start bombing again.”

“This collective punishment of civilians violates the Geneva Convention and other elements of internationally agreed on laws of war to which Israel is signatory,” noted Cole. “It also violates the preliminary injunction of the International Court of Justice, in which Israel also has membership.”

Israel faces an ongoing genocide case at the Hague-based court over its deadly blockade and assault of Gaza—assisted by billions of dollars in U.S. weapons. Like his predecessor, Trump’s administration is working to send even more arms to Israel.

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

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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.

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Continue Reading‘Genocide Alert!’ Israel Slammed for Cutting Off Power to Gaza Water Plant

Rubio Touts Trump’s Steadfast Support for Israel as it Blocks Aid to Gaza

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

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (left) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) greet each other during a joint press conference in Jerusalem on February 16, 2025. (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Poll/AFP via Getty Images)

Israel is being investigated for alleged genocide at the International Court of Justice, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a fugitive from the International Criminal Court.

In a Tuesday phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio highlighted the Trump administration’s staunch support for Israel—which includes $4 billion in fresh fast-tracked military assistance—even as the key Mideast ally cuts off lifesaving humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the flattened Gaza Strip.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce summarized Rubio’s call with the right-wing Israeli leader, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza:

Rubio spoke with… Netanyahu to underscore that the United States’ steadfast support for Israel is a top priority for President [Donald] Trump, as shown by the recent announcement to expedite the delivery of nearly $4 billion in military assistance to Israel. The secretary thanked the prime minister for his cooperation with Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to help free all remaining hostages and extend the cease-fire in Gaza. The secretary also conveyed that he anticipates close coordination in addressing the threats posed by Iran and pursuing opportunities for a stable region.

Rubio’s call with Netanyahu, which followed the Republican secretary of state’s visit to Israel last month, came just two days after Netanyahu’s government halted all humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. People there are reeling after 15 months of Israeli bombardment, invasion, and siege that have obliterated the coastal enclave, killing at least 48,405 Palestinians, wounding more than 111,000 others, and forcibly displacing, starving, or sickening nearly all of the strip’s approximately 2.3 million people, according to local and international agencies.

Netanyahu said the aid suspension was carried out “in full coordination with President Trump and his people.”

On Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened that “the gates of hell will be opened” on Gaza if Hamas, which rules the strip, does not free the dozens of Israeli and international hostages it kidnapped on October 7, 2023. Hamas has delayed their release due to what it claims are hundreds of Israeli violations of a January cease-fire agreement, including deadly attacks on civilians and the aid cutoff.

Katz, Netanyahu, and other Israeli leaders are among those named in an incitement to genocide complaint filed in January at the ICC by Israeli attorney Omer Shatz. Israel is also under investigation for alleged genocide at the International Court of Justice.

Bruce’s description of the Rubio-Netanyahu call does not mention the Palestinians or Gaza.

Last month, Trump proposed a U.S. invasion and takeover of Gaza, which would be ethnically cleansed of Palestinians and transformed into what the president described as “the Riviera of the Middle East.”

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

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Continue ReadingRubio Touts Trump’s Steadfast Support for Israel as it Blocks Aid to Gaza