Israel's Paranoia
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Israeli military intelligence head leaves post, takes responsibility for Oct 7 failure
Israel’s outgoing head of military intelligence has taken responsibility for his country’s failures to defend its border on October 7 at his resignation ceremony, Reuters reports.
Major General Aharon Haliva, a 38-year veteran of the military, announced his resignation in April and was one of a number of senior Israeli commanders who said they had failed to foresee and prevent the deadliest attack in Israel’s history.
Blinken calls for ‘maximum flexibility’ from both Israel, Hamas for Gaza ceasefire
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said Israel had already agreed on the “schedule and location” of troop withdrawals from Gaza, AFP reports.
Since the conflict began, it was made “very clear that the United States does not accept any long-term occupation of Gaza by Israel”, Blinken said when asked about remarks by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Blinken acknowledged differences and called for “maximum flexibility” from both Israel and Hamas.
Israeli settler violence triggers largest forcible transfers since October: NRC
The largest wave of forcible transfers of Palestinian communities since October 7 has taken place in the northeast of the occupied West Bank, triggered by Israeli settler attacks, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has said according to Al Jazeera.
“These attacks, occurring in broad daylight under the watching eyes and the protective force of the Israeli military, highlight the unlawfulness of Israel’s presence in the West Bank, as recently ruled by the International Court of Justice,” said Allegra Pacheco, chief of party of the NRC-led West Bank Protection Consortium (WBPC).
Three projectiles hit a merchant vessel off Yemen’s rebel-held port city of Hodeida, causing a fire onboard and leaving the ship without engine power, AFP quotes the British maritime security agency UKMTO as saying.
The ship initially exchanged fire with two small vessels, one with three to five people onboard while the second carried around 10, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said.
The ship was later “struck by two unidentified projectiles before being hit by a third,” the agency, which is run by Britain’s Royal Navy, said.
“There is a fire onboard and the vessel has lost engine power,” it said, adding that there were no reports of casualties. “The vessel is drifting and not under command,” UKMTO said.
Fatah says Israel trying to ignite regional war after top commander killed in Lebanon
Israel has killed a senior commander from Fatah’s armed wing in a strike on Lebanon, leading to accusations from the Palestinian movement that Israel is trying to “ignite a regional war”, AFP reports.
Fatah, the Palestinian movement based in Israel-occupied West Bank, said Khalil Maqdah was killed in a strike near the southern Lebanese city of Sidon.
The Israeli military said it targeted the brother of Mounir Maqdah, who heads the Lebanese branch of Fatah’s armed wing. It accused them both of “directing attacks and smuggling weapons” to the West Bank and collaborating with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
Gaza health ministry says bombardment death toll at 40,223
The health ministry in Gaza has said that at least 40,223 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory in more than 10 months of Israeli bombardment, AFP reports.
The toll includes 50 deaths in the past 24 hours, according to ministry figures, which also listed 92,981 people as wounded in the Gaza Strip since October 7.
Israeli strike kills Fatah official in Lebanon
An Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon has killed a Fatah official on Wednesday, a senior member of the Palestinian group and a security source said, AFP reports.
It marked the first such reported attack on Fatah, the movement led by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, in more than 10 months of cross-border clashes between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement.
“The Israeli strike in Sidon killed (Fatah) group official Khalil Makdah,” said Fathi Abu al-Aradat, a senior member of the group that rivals Gaza’s ruler Hamas.
A Lebanese security source confirmed the report to AFP, saying the strike hit his car.
Last 24 hours: 50 killed, 124 wounded in Gaza
The latest casualties bring the total toll of the war to 40,223 killed and 92,981 injured, said the enclave’s health ministry.
There are more unrecorded victims still trapped in areas inaccessible to ambulance crew and civil defence teams, the ministry added.
Israeli strike on car: one killed in southern Lebanon: Report
Lebanon’s National News Agency is reporting that an Israeli air strike has hit a vehicle near the southern Lebanese city of Sidon, killing one person.
Lebanon’s an-Nahar newspaper reported several were injured by the attack.
Footage posted by Lebanese media, verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking agency, shows a car in the city totally engulfed in flames, with thick black smoke rising as a crowd gathers.
The strike follows an earlier Israeli attack on the village of Khiam, which killed one person of Syrian descent, according to the National News Agency.
Twist of fate for six Israeli captives
Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported that the six Israeli captives – whose bodies were recovered from Gaza on Tuesday – likely died from a gas leak in a tunnel during an Israeli military attack on Khan Younis.
Israeli jets bombed a home
The Wafa news agency is reporting that at least one person was killed after Israeli jets bombed the home of the al-Khatib family in the Tall az-Zaatar area in the Jabalia refugee camp.
It said dozens more were wounded when Israeli forces opened fire on shelters in al-Mawasi in southern Gaza and bombed the house of the al-Salhi family in Block C of the central Nuseirat refugee camp.
Wafa also reported Israeli attacks in the following locations:
Air raid on Satar area in southern Khan Younis.
Artillery and missile attacks on the town of al-Qarara, north of Khan Younis.
Shelling and gun attacks in northern Gaza City’s Zeitoun, Sabra and Tal al-Hawa neighbourhoods.
Air attack on the Zeitoun neighbourhood.
Air attack near the al-Qastal Towers, east of the central city of Deir el-Balah.
Ultra-Orthodox Israelis protest outside military recruitment office in Jerusalem
A group of ultra-Orthodox Israelis have staged a protest outside a military recruitment office in Jerusalem where they have been summoned, according to Israeli media reports.
Footage verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking agency shows dozens of protesters shouting angrily, as several clash with police.
Demonstrators yelled phrases such as “We will die and not enlist,” “Nazis” and “To prison and not to the army”, according to The Times of Israel.
In late June, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that the military must begin drafting ultra-Orthodox men, upending a longstanding arrangement under which they were exempt from compulsory military service.
The decision has antagonised many in the community who oppose conscription, which they believe goes against their way of life.
Blinken calls for ceasefire deal to cross the finish line
The United States’s top diplomat Antony Blinken ended his Middle East tour without an agreement between Israel and Hamas.
He urged stakeholders to get the Gaza ceasefire deal “over the finish line now.”
More than a dozen protesters arrested after clash with police outside Chicago's Israeli consulate
CHICAGO (AP) — More than a dozen pro-Palestinian demonstrators were arrested Tuesday during a protest that began outside the Israeli consulate and spilled out onto the surrounding streets on the second night of the Democratic National Convention.
The intense confrontations with officers began minutes into the demonstration, after some protesters – many dressed in black, their faces covered – charged at a line of police that had blocked the group from marching. They eventually moved past the officers, but were penned in several times throughout the night by police in riot gear who did not allow protesters to disperse.
Lebanon says five killed in fresh Israel strikes
BEIRUT (Lebanon) (AFP) – Lebanon's health ministry said early Wednesday that Israeli strikes in the country's east killed one person and wounded 20 others, hours after it said four people were killed in the south.
The strikes came more than 24 hours after Israel carried out similar raids deep inside east Lebanon and as tensions mounted in the wake of the Israeli killing of a top Hezbollah commander.
Gaza engineer harnesses sunlight to make saltwater drinkable
KHAN YUNIS (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – In war-ravaged Gaza, every drop of water counts, making Inas al-Ghul's makeshift sun-powered water filter a vital asset for parched Palestinians surviving endless bombardment under the territory's scorching heat.
Using wood from the few pallets of aid that make it into Gaza, and window panes salvaged from buildings that have largely been abandoned in 10 months of war, the 50-year-old agricultural engineer built a glass-covered trough.
Top US diplomat Blinken wraps up Mideast tour with Gaza truce plea
DOHA/CAIRO (AFP) - Top US diplomat Antony Blinken said Tuesday (Aug 20) that "time is of the essence" to secure a Gaza truce as he wrapped up a Middle East tour with a plea for a deal.
The US secretary of state, on his ninth regional visit since the 10-month-old Israel-Hamas war began, made a brief stop in mediator Qatar but was unable to meet its emir.
Death 'the only certainty' for Gazans, says UN official
JERUSALEM (AFP) – In war-ravaged Gaza, death appears to be the "only certainty" for 2.4 million Palestinians with no way to escape Israel's relentless bombardment, a UN official said Tuesday, recounting the growing desperation across the territory.
"It does feel like people are waiting for death. Death seems to be the only certainty in this situation," Louise Wateridge, a spokeswoman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, also known as UNRWA, told AFP from Gaza.
