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Tag: Hamas

  • Israel-Hamas war: IWMF seeks protection of journalists, civilians

    Israel-Hamas war: IWMF seeks protection of journalists, civilians

    The International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) has called for the protection of journalists reporting in the conflict region of Israel and Palestine, as well as civilians.

    In a statement released on Wednesday, October 11, Executive Director of IWMF, Elisa Lees Muñoz, revealed that during the initial three days of conflict, a total of seven journalists lost their lives, among them Salam Mema, a female journalist hailing from the Northern Gaza Strip.

    Mema was killed in an airstrike.

    Noting that “disinformation about the conflict” is spreading fast online and “preventing accurate reporting from emerging,” the statement expressed support for journalists who continue to risk their lives to tell the true situation.

    Other parts of the statement read: “As the conflict unfolds in Israel and the Gaza Strip, the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) calls for the safety of journalists reporting in the region.

    “Amid global distress and upheaval, independent journalism is essential to sharing reliable information with the public. We stand in support of journalists continuing to bring truth to light and demand that press and civilians be protected during this crisis”.

    Read Also: Israel-Palestine war: CAN calls for calm, diplomatic solutions

    It further urged journalists in need of emergency aid to find support from the following resources: “The IWMF’s Emergency Fund, which provides support to women journalists in need of relocation; medical and psychological care; and legal aid.

    “The Committee to Protect Journalists provides comprehensive support to journalists and media support staff.

    “The Journalists in Distress Network, a collective of organizations offering a variety of support to journalists around the world

    Free Press Unlimited, offering emergency assistance, legal support, and safety advice”.

  • Israeli at war only with Hamas, says envoy

    Israeli at war only with Hamas, says envoy

    The Israeli Ambassador to Nigeria, Michael Freeman has played down report of war with Palestine.

    Freeman, who addressed reporters on the war in the Middle East, which has led to the death of 2,000 lives on both sides, said Israel is presently not at war with her neighbour Palestine but rather has declared a total war with Hamas.

    He said his country would do everything that it takes to make sure the group goes into extinction.

    The envoy said the Saturday’s attack on Israel was the worst after the Holocaust.

    He asked the international community to support the push of Israeli government to wipe out Hamas from the face of the earth.

    Freeman said Israel was only doing what any other nation would have done if its territory was invaded and its citizen slaughtered, adding: “I am not going to give a description of Hamas, but would want everyone to describe what the group is with what it has been doing so far.”

    Freeman, while alleging that Hamas is not only after Jews and Israelis, but every other group, including Muslims and Christians, added that he expects the rest of the world to support Israel move to wipe off the threat.

    Read Also: 11 Americans dead in clashes between Hamas, Israel

    He said there is no other option, but to make sure that the group never exists again, revealing that Israel was ready to roll out everything needed to put an end to Hamas.

    He admitted that civilian casualties should be expected in the war against Hamas as there was no war without civil casualties.

    He, however, assured that Israel would not target civilians but Hamas though he noted that Hamas has threatened to put Israelis children and women in the warfront in the battle against Israel.

    A United Nations commission monitoring conflict yesterday said there is “clear evidence” of war crimes committed by both sides during the intense violence in Israel and Gaza, including the targeting of civilians.

    All those who violated international humanitarian law or targeted civilians must be held accountable, demanded the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel, which was established by the UN Human Rights Council in 2021.

    “Reports that armed groups from Gaza have gunned down hundreds of unarmed civilians are abhorrent and cannot be tolerated. Taking civilian hostages and using civilians as human shields are war crimes.

    The commission also said it is “gravely concerned with Israel’s latest attack on Gaza and Israel’s announcement of a complete siege on Gaza involving the withholding of water, food, electricity and fuel, which will undoubtedly cost civilian lives and constitutes collective punishment,” it said.

    The commission has begun collecting evidence of war crimes since the Islamist militant group Hamas launched massive attacks on Israel on Saturday and Israel responded with airstrikes in Gaza.

    President Joe Biden yesterday again condemned the militant group Hamas for “sheer evil” for its shocking multipronged attack on Israel launched from the Gaza Strip that has killed hundreds of civilians, including at least 14 American citizens.

    Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke by phone earlier yesterday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the situation on the ground. Biden spoke out of the actions he and other allies have taken to support Israel in the aftermath of the attack and expressed his horror about “sickening” reports of torture inflicted by militants on innocent civilians.

     “Our hearts may be broken but our resolve is clear,” Biden said. He added, “Let there be no doubt. The United States has Israel’s back. We’ll make sure the Jewish and democratic state of Israel can defend itself today, tomorrow as we always have.”

    Biden, in his public remarks and statements since Hamas launched its attacks, has repeatedly emphasised his shock over the breadth and brutality of the Hamas assault — a blitz by land, sea and air that surprised Israeli and U.S. intelligence and that has killed hundreds Israelis and left even more wounded.

  • Hamas’ hammer blow

    Hamas’ hammer blow

    No doubt: Hamas breaching the Israel border; and bumping off soldiers completely taken by surprise, leaving a trail of 300 unarmed civilians killed on Israeli roads, and carting much more off to captivity in Gaza, is an extreme — and condemnable — act of terror.

    Hamas wouldn’t pull off such a savage act and not expect to be doubly — and fairly –dubbed irredeemable terrorists, by the United States and other western allies of Israel. 

    But where does provocation end and terrorism start? 

    Israel, for the past one year or so, has been insanely provocative of Palestinian rights, particularly desecrating the venerated Al-Aqsa mosque in East Jerusalem, with some cabinet members always egging on some extremist but delusional Israeli settlers. 

    Prime Minister Benjamin ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu’s government, with its ultra-right wing cabinet fanatics — never before seen in Israeli history — had gone on with a sickening air of invincibility, insulting Palestinians as if they were all vassals without a shred of human rights and approving new but provocative Israeli settlements on the West Bank — all illegal under international law.

    Read Also; I won’t let Nigerians down, CDS promises

    “If the whole world were silent,” Hamas roared, justifying its land, sea and air breach of Israel’s border defence, “we would not remain silent about the desecration of our sanctities, the attempt to desecrate Al-Aqsa, and the attacks on Al-Aqsa.” 

    That was a fair call, all things considered.

    But by launching Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood”, Hamas has drawn Israel’s “Operation Iron Swords” — an irate Israeli, reeling from hurt national pride.  Hamas — and Palestinians — should brace selves for a helluva pounding!  

    The next few days would be a virtual hell gate in Gaza!  Should Hezbollah join the fray from Lebanon, Israel’s northern border, or Islamic Jihad, rooted in Gaza but headquartered in Damascus, Syria, the Yom Kippur War of 1973 stares grimly down again!

    On 6 October 1973, Syria and Egypt raided Israel in a whirlwind surprise attack, on the Jewish Sabbath, when Israel was observing holy rest. 

    On 7 October 2023, another Sabbath, but this time with Israel celebrating the sacred festival of Simchat Torah, Hamas struck: with such audacity that shredded the very concept of any Israeli military invincibility.  Still, Hamas had better be prepared for what’s coming to it — and to Gaza.

    This attack was history repeating itself — with avoidable tragedy!

    Fifty years after Yom Kippur, Israel seems to have purged itself of moderate voices, capable of striking some hard peace with the Palestinians.  Instead, it is captive to insensate extremists.  To hang on to political power, Bibi doesn’t mind doing business with these base Jew fanatics; and playing war-hardened PM to extend his political shelve life.

    The Palestinians themselves, consumed with dramatic victimhood and cynical martyrdom, both garnished by venomous Israeli hate, are not the most reasonable too.

    Still, now more than ever, is the time to hammer out some cohabitation in geographical Palestine.  But the omens are not good — at least until Israel hammers Hamas for Bibi’s sworn “vengeance”. 

  • Israeli airstrike kills one militant, injures four in Gaza

    Hamas and the Israeli Army said on Wednesday in Gaza that an Israeli airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip has killed one Palestinian militant and injured four others.

    The Islamist extremist Hamas movement, which controls Gaza, confirmed that the men were from its military wing the Qassam Brigades.

    Peter Lerner, Israeli Army spokesman, said the men were trying to lay explosives near Israeli troops at the border.

    He said security forces on the border with Gaza have been increasingly confronted with a threat from hostile terrorist groups who want to destabilise the situation.

    Lerner said 18 months ago, more than 2,200 Palestinians and more than 70 Israelis were killed in a 50-day war between Israel and Hamas before a ceasefire.

  • Hamas leader upbeat on talks with Israel

    Hamas leader upbeat on talks with Israel

    Khaled Meshaal, leader of the militant Hamas movement, on Friday said there were talks ongoing with Israel to reach a truce, though there was no agreement to date.

    Israel on Monday had denied there were direct or indirect talks with the Islamic movement which controls the Gaza Strip.

    “They seem positive but we have not reached an agreement yet,’’ Meshaal said.

    The Hamas leader said that while there had been an effective truce in Gaza since 2014, the situation was not tolerable for residents of the enclave, who lived under a tight blockade.

    He stressed that the armed movement would not give up its weapons as long as the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories continued.

    Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair had reportedly met with Meshaal in recent months about a possible longer term ceasefire.

    Since 2008, Israel has fought three wars in Gaza with Hamas and other factions, leaving thousands of people dead, mostly Palestinian civilians, according to data from the United Nations and human rights groups.

  • Israel, Hamas and the rockets

    Israel, Hamas and the rockets

    •The level of civilian deaths in Gaza is unacceptable

    A country’s got to do what a country’s got to do. We have to defend ourselves.” So says Benjamin Netanyahu, in justification of Israel’s land invasion and bombardment of Gaza.

    The Israeli prime minister argues that no country can tolerate its citizens being under sustained rocket fire. He believes that the only way for Israel to stop the rockets is to launch military operations against Hamas, which controls Gaza. The Israelis argue that the inevitable civilian deaths are the sole responsibility of Hamas.

    This Israeli argument is simple and clear – but ultimately unconvincing. It has two main flaws. First, it refuses to consider the sheer number of civilian deaths as a relevant consideration. The Israelis detest the use of the word “disproportionate”. But it is hard to think of another word to describe a death toll of more than 600 Palestinians – about 70 per cent of them civilians, according to the UN – in response to rocket fire that to date has killed two Israelis.

    The second flaw in the Netanyahu argument is that it screens out the wider political context for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Of course, it would be naive to think there is an immediate political settlement available to the Israelis, – if only they would grab it. In reality, a “final status” agreement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains very elusive – and the fault lies on both sides. But what is true is that the continual expansion of Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land, during the Netanyahu years, is making it harder and harder to achieve the two-state solution that the Israeli prime minister claims to be committed to. That cuts the ground away from those Palestinians who argue for an exclusively peaceful approach to the problem.

    For the moment, the international backlash against Israel’s actions remains restrained. Israel is benefiting from the changed regional context. The Middle East is so soaked in horrors that it is hard to make the case that the civilian toll in Gaza is uniquely evil. The total death toll in the Syrian conflict could now be more than 170,000 – with more than 50,000 civilian deaths. In Iraq, the advance of Isis, a brutal Islamist movement, is chilling. Hamas has also been losing its regional supporters from Egypt to Iran. The violent anti-Israeli protests that took place in Cairo when the Muslim Brotherhood was in power have not recurred.

    As for the west, the US and even most European governments recognise Israel’s acute security dilemma – and acknowledge that there is truth in the Israeli government’s repeated assertion that no state could tolerate repeated rocket fire on to its territory. There is also a recognition that Israel is itself paying a heavy price in this conflict, with the loss of 27 Israeli soldiers in the ground incursion into Gaza.

    Yet while Israel’s case is winning a hearing – that hearing is not uncritical, nor should it be. Voices as restrained and responsible as those of John Kerry, the US secretary of state, and Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, have made it clear they do not accept the level of civilian casualties that Israel is inflicting. The Israeli argument that all democratic government would react to a terrorist threat with similar violence is also not convincing. Although no two cases are the same, there are many examples of governments choosing a more restrained response to terrorism – from the Indian reaction to the Mumbai atrocities in 2008 to the British response to the IRA campaigns of the 1970s.

    Defining a proportionate response to Hamas rockets is close to impossible. But even Mr Netanyahu presumably accepts that there must be some limit to the level of civilian casualties deemed acceptable in the effort to stop the rocket attacks on Israel.

     

    – Financial Times

     

  • Hamas is playing a dangerous game with Gazan lives

    Hamas is playing a dangerous game with Gazan lives

    SO FAR Hamas’s military campaign against Israel has been a dismal failure. Thanks in part to Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system, some 1,200 rockets fired at Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other cities have caused only one Israeli death and a few other casualties. Attempted commando attacks via the sea and a tunnel were stopped short, and a drone that ventured into Israel was quickly shot down. Yet Hamas on Tuesday rejected an Egyptian cease-fire proposal that was supported by Western governments and the Arab League and had been accepted by Israel.

    Why would Hamas insist on continuing the fight when it is faring so poorly? The only plausible answer is stomach-turning: The Islamic movement calculates that it can win the concessions it has yet to obtain from Israel and Egypt not by striking Israel but by perpetuating the killing of its own people in Israeli counterattacks. More than 200 people, including a number of children, have already died in Gaza; Hamas probably calculates that more deaths will prompt Western governments to pressure Israel to grant Hamas’s demands.

    So far, the tactic is not working. Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Tuesday condemned Hamas for rejecting the cease-fire and “us[ing] the innocent lives of civilians .  .              . as shields.” But Hamas’s commanders, who have burrowed into underground bunkers, appear to be doubling down. They are urging civilians who have left their homes to return, including some 15,000 who evacuated the northern part of Gaza in response to Israeli warnings. The cease-fire proposal was answered with a new barrage of missiles aimed at central Israel.

    To be sure, the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu has more incentive than Hamas to agree to a cease-fire, even though a majority of the Israeli public probably opposes it. Israel has little to gain from a prolonged conflict; a threatened ground invasion of Gaza would cause heavy casualties on both sides and, if it destroyed Hamas, leave Israel with the problem of finding a new government for the territory. Mr. Netanyahu is seeking the renewal of the truce that ended the last Israel-Hamas mini-war, in 2012. That would end attacks on both sides while allowing for a gradual opening of Gaza’s border for civilian trade.

    Hamas’s rejection reflects its weakened position compared with two years ago. Egypt’s military government has shut down most of the cross-border tunnels that Hamas depended on for weapons as well as revenue, making it impossible for the Gaza administration to pay its workforce. The Islamists sought relief by forming a unity government with the secular, West Bank-based Fatah movement, but that did not lead to the payment of salaries or the reopening of the border with Egypt. Following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers last month, Israel arrested dozens of Hamas’s operatives in the West Bank, making their release another objective of the missile attacks.

    To its credit, Israel has used sophisticated technology, including targeted text messages and dummy warning missiles, to minimize civilian casualties. But innocent people will inevitably be killed in attacks on launchers and missile factories that are purposely placed in densely populated areas. The right response of the international community is not to surrender to Hamas’s despicable tactics but to continue insisting that it unconditionally accept the cease-fire proposed by Egypt.

    – Washington Post

     

  • Palestinian Abbas ‘still seeks’ Israel peace talks

    Palestinian Abbas ‘still seeks’ Israel peace talks

    Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said he is still ready to extend peace talks with Israel, despite a recent breakdown in the process, the BBC reports.

    But he said Israel must meet several key demands, including freeing Palestinian prisoners and halting construction on Palestinian land.

    Israel this week suspended the talks, demanding the annulment of a unity deal between rival Palestinian factions.

    Mr. Abbas’ Fatah party and Hamas aim to form a unity government within weeks.

    Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, rejects Israel’s right to exist and it is designated a terrorist group by Israel, the United States, European Union and other countries.

    Addressing a meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Mr. Abbas said: “How can we restart the talks? There’s no obstacle to us restarting the talks, but the 30 prisoners need to be released.”

    He was referring to a final group of Palestinian inmates whose planned release Israel cancelled in March, accusing the Palestinians of reneging on a peace talks pledge not to seek further international recognition.

    Mr. Abbas also stressed that the Palestinians and Israel must agree on the borders of the future state of Palestine.

    “On the table we will present our map; for three months we’ll discuss our map. In that period, until the map is agreed upon, all settlement activity must cease completely,” he added.

    Israel has so far made no public comment on Mr Abbas’ remarks.

     

     

  • Hamas and Fatah to meet in Cairo

    Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi is set to mediate talks in Cairo between the leaders of Fatah and Hamas to help implement a unity pact signed in 2011.

    The BBC reports that Egypt helped broker the deal between Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who heads the Fatah party, and Hamas’s Khaled Meshaal.

    The Islamist movement ousted Fatah from Gaza in 2007 after winning Palestinian elections the previous year.

    Observers say tensions appear to have eased in recent months.

    On Wednesday Mr. Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian Authority (PA), and Mr. Meshaal will first “meet Egypt’s intelligence chief before holding a three-way meeting with President Morsi,” Egyptian spokesman Yasser Ali told the AFP news agency.

    The reconciliation accord signed two years ago was meant to pave the way for a joint interim government and joint elections in 2012 but negotiations stalled.

    Last October, Hamas boycotted local elections held in the West Bank, the first Palestinian polls in more than six years.

    But observers say there have been signs of warming ties between the rivals ahead of Wednesday’s talks.

    Last Saturday, Hamas allowed Fatah to hold rallies in Gaza for the first time since 2007.

    Hundreds of thousands of supporters of Mr. Abbas held mass gatherings in the coastal enclave to mark Fatah’s 48th anniversary.

    Meanwhile last month, supporters of Hamas celebrated their movement’s founding with a rare rally in the West Bank, which is governed by the PA.

    In a recent speech, Mr. Meshaal urged “reconciliation and national unity of the Palestinian ranks.”