Mondoweiss – January 5, 2024
‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 91:
As hunger and cold take their toll in Gaza, all eyes turn to Lebanon
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah gives a speech on Friday as world fears escalation on the Lebanese front. Meanwhile, Israeli military and government officials fight over future plans for Gaza and an investigation into the events of October 7.
By Mondoweiss
Casualties:
- 22,600 killed* and at least 57,910 wounded in the Gaza Strip.
- 322 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem
- *This figure was confirmed by Gaza’s Ministry of Health on January 5. Due to breakdowns in communication networks within the Gaza Strip, the Ministry of Health in Gaza has been unable to regularly and accurately update its tolls since mid-November. Some rights groups say the death toll is higher than 30,000 when accounting for those presumed dead.
Key Developments
- Three days after the assassination of senior Hamas leader Saleh al-Aruri in Beirut, a speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday afternoon set the tone on the Lebanese-Israeli front, as international actors frantically try to avoid a regional conflagration.
- While Nasrallah said a response to al-Aruri’s killing was “inevitable,” he stated that Hezbollah’s primary goal was to end the Israeli assault on Gaza – seemingly signaling that a full-blown escalation was not in the cards.
- In Gaza, Israeli airstrikes kill at least 162 people and injure 296 others in the span of 24 hours, including in so-called ‘humanitarian zones.’
- Doctors and humanitarian groups warn that malnutrition and hypothermia are now having fatal consequences in Gaza, as winter hits amid serious shortages in food and drinking water.
- Rights groups meanwhile call for more pressure on Israel amid growing reports of field executions in Gaza as the whereabouts of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners remain unknown.
- Israeli forces kill a Palestinian teenager and detain at least 12 people across the occupied West Bank, as armed confrontations rage in several northern West Bank refugee camps.
- In Israel, tensions explode between the military establishment and far-right ministers over whether to conduct an investigation into the army’s failures on and after October 7, during a heated security cabinet meeting on Thursday.
- Israeli officials discuss plans for Palestinian “clans” friendly to Israel to take over administrative control of Gaza after the war – a proposal strongly rejected by various Palestinian political actors.
- Israel continues to pummel Gaza, as hunger and cold take their toll
The first International Court of Justice hearings scheduled for next week over whether Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip constitute genocide are not deterring the Israeli military from continuing to wage a relentless campaign of bombardment and deliberate humanitarian devastation on the besieged Palestinian territory.
WAFA news agency reported deadly Israeli airstrikes between Thursday and Friday in Jabalia refugee camp, Khan Younis, al-Zawaida, al-Maghazi refugee camp, al-Bureij refugee camp, Deir al-Balah, Rafah, and Nuseirat refugee camp. Israeli forces notably hit a cemetery and tents where Palestinian civilians had taken refuge, as well as residential homes and vehicles.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said on Friday that Israeli forces were continuing to target the area of the Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis for the fourth consecutive day. An estimated 14,000 people are taking refuge in the hospital. At least seven people, including a five-days-old infant, have been killed by Israeli shelling in the area in recent days.
In a statement on Friday, the Israeli army said it had struck at least 100 “targets” overnight.
Eyewitnesses told Al Jazeera that Israeli tanks crushed people in the al-Maghazi camp on Thursday and that army snipers had been ramping up their targeting of civilians, with one report of a sniper “piercing [a] baby’s skull with a bullet” in their mother’s arms, killing both.
The growing number of reports of field executions in Gaza in recent weeks has led rights groups such as the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor to call on the international community to pressure Israel into revealing the whereabouts of hundreds of Palestinians detained in Gaza.
The Gaza Ministry of Health reported on Friday that Israeli attacks had killed at least 162 people and injured 296 others in the span of 24 hours, raising the official toll in Gaza since October 7 to 22,600 killed and 57,910 wounded.
On Thursday, Save the Children denounced an Israeli airstrike that very morning in the area of al-Mawasi, an area to which Israeli forces had called on civilians to evacuate, that killed at least 14 people, the majority of them children under the age of 10.
“These relocation orders offer nothing more than a smokescreen of safety. If people stay, they are killed. If they move, they are killed. People are facing the ‘choice’ of one death sentence or another,” Save the Children’s country director for the occupied Palestinian territory Jason Lee said. “World leaders must secure a definitive ceasefire now. Every hour without one, more children will pay the price for broken politics with their lives and futures. There will be no safe place in Gaza until then.”
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on Thursday that the Israeli army had once again air-dropped leaflets in the Deir al-Balah governorate ordering civilians to evacuate an area of Nuseirat where some 4,700 people are estimated to be taking refuge in a U.N.-supported health center. According to the UN agency, Israeli forces have issued evacuation orders covering 35 percent of the Gaza Strip since December 1 – all while repeatedly bombing areas it has designated as “safe zones” for civilians.
OCHA reported that more than one million people had now taken refuge in Gaza’s southernmost Rafah governorate, “squeezed into an extremely overcrowded space, following the intensification of hostilities in Khan Younis and Deir al Balah and the Israeli military’s evacuation orders.”
Humanitarian agencies have repeatedly warned that the slow entry of aid into the Gaza Strip was creating a devastating crisis in which many more Palestinians might die as a result of the lack of fuel, medical supplies, food, and water.
Israeli human rights group Gishaﾠreported on Wednesday that an average of 75 truckloads of aid per day had entered Gaza between October 21 and December 16, “light years away from what’s needed.” The organization added that there was a “lack of transparency” around Israeli restrictions of so-called “dual-use” items Tel Aviv claims could be used by Palestinian armed groups, such as flashlights or materials that could repair the enclave’s decimated communications infrastructure.
“Israel bears obligations towards Gaza’s civilian population under international law, which it has continued to blatantly disavow. As a party to hostilities, it must allow, at the very least, the passage of humanitarian aid into the Strip. As an occupying power, it has an obligation to provide it. Deliberately blocking life-saving humanitarian consignments is a war crime, as is collective punishment,” the group added.
Norwegian doctor Mads Gilbert, who has previously worked in Gaza, told Al Jazeera that winter was bringing “an unbearable avalanche of human suffering” to Gaza, and that the risk of hypothermia was becoming “overwhelmingly dangerous,” particularly for young children.
“This is particularly true for those who are small and those who are already starving or sick – which a large portion of the people are,” Gilbert said. “A small child will very quickly become cold and when your body temperature drops below 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) it reaches hypothermia. This weakens the body, weakens the immune system, and if there is a bleeding injury, causes bleeding to occur more quickly. Hypothermia is a death trap.”
Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) and the International Rescue Committee also raised the alarm about the rise in serious malnutrition and “harrowing injuries” seen by its staff in Gaza.
“Every square inch of the hospital – the halls, the staircases, the reception areas, the wards – are covered with people lying on the ground,” surgeon Nick Maynard said. “We are seeing children and adults in the hospital with serious malnutrition. At the first hint of any infection these patients lose weight rapidly and look ever more profoundly malnourished.”
Meanwhile, ground fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups has been reported in the areas of Nuseirat, Gaza City, Bureij, Khan Younis, al-Shati, Khuza’a, and Maghazi.
Israeli media reported on Thursday that three Israelis who had been believed missing since October 7 were now confirmed to be held in Gaza, raising the official number of hostages to 136. The body of another Israeli was also reported to be held by Palestinian groups in Gaza.
Nasrallah speech sets the tone on the Lebanese front
Since the assassination of senior Hamas leader Saleh al-Aruri in the suburbs of Beirut on Tuesday, the world has been looking towards Lebanon as an escalation of the northern front becomes a more serious possibility.
While Israel has not claimed responsibility for al-Aruri’s killing, there has been little doubt in Lebanon and most of the international community over who was behind the targeted drone attack.
Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement allied with Hamas, gave a speech on Friday afternoon – the second this week, after he warned on Wednesday that al-Aruri’s killing would not go unpunished.
“A response to what happened in the southern suburbs of Beirut is inevitable, and the decision depends on the situation in the field. The ground does not wait. I will not say ‘at the right time and place,'” Nasrallah said during a lengthy speech.
Despite such warnings, Nasrallah did not seem to indicate that an escalation of conflict was inevitably in the cards in Lebanon, emphasizing that Hezbollah’s primary goal was to support Palestinian groups fighting in Gaza: “The goal of all fronts is to cease this aggression.”
“To those who ask why we are fighting on the [southern Lebanese] front, we are obligated to respond. There are two goals for this front: to exert pressure on the enemy [Israel] and its government to stop the aggression against Gaza,” he said. “The second goal is to ease the pressure on the resistance in Gaza.”
While he expressed hope for Lebanon to reclaim territories occupied by Israel, including the Shebaa farms, Nasrallah noted that such negotiations would only happen after Israel’s aggression on Gaza came to an end.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken began his fourth visit to the Middle East since October 7 on Friday, with, amongst other goals, the aim of reducing tensions between Lebanon and Israel.
Lebanon has filed a formal complaint to the U.N. Security Council over the attack that killed al-Aruri and five others, calling it “the most dangerous escalation since 2006,” the last time Israel bombarded Beirut during a month-long war.
The Israeli army has nonetheless continued to strike towns in southern Lebanon and violate Lebanese airspace, as Lebanese officials held talks with a number of U.N. and international representatives regarding the risk of escalation. European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell landed in Lebanon on Friday for three days with the aim of defusing the situation, the E.U. said in a statement.
While Hezbollah has reportedly continued to fire some rockets toward Israel in recent days, The Economist reported on Thursday that the Lebanese resistance group had withdrawn fighters to two to three kilometers away from the Blue Line, which analysts have interpreted as either a “tactical retreat” or a signal that it does not seek all-out war.
Israel army kills Palestinian teen in the West Bank
Israeli forces have continued to raid the occupied West Bank, killing 17-year-old Palestinian Osaid Tareq al-Rimawi and injuring seven others in the town of Beit Rima overnight.
Armed confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli forces were reported in Sir and Sanur in the Jenin governorate, as well as in the Tulkarem, Nur Shams, and Balata refugee camps.
The PA condemned the Israeli army raids in Tulkarem and Nur Shams for three days in a row. At least two Palestinians were meanwhile shot and wounded in Balata.
WAFA reported that Israeli forces have detainedﾠat least 12 Palestinians across the West Bank since Thursday. A 16-year-old shepherd was among those detained on Thursday evening, the news agency wrote, adding that his 60 sheep were confiscated.
In occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli forces once again prevented many worshippers from praying at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound.
Settlers meanwhile violently attacked Palestinians in the Bethlehem-area village of Kisan, seriously injuring a 40-year-old man. Israeli forces meanwhile began construction work on a settler-only road in the area of Masafer Yatta south of Hebron.
Settlement watchdog Peace Now issued a report on Thursday warning of an “unmatched surge” in illegal Israeli settlement activity since October.
“The permissive military and political environment allow the reckless construction and land seizure almost unchecked,” the group said. “The result is not only physical harm to Palestinians and their lands but also a significant political shift in the West Bank. The unchecked rampage of the settlers must be stopped now.”
Countercurrents – January 5, 2024
Urgency of Preventing Escalation and Widening of Conflict in Middle-East
by Bharat Dogra
Several leading Middle-East analysts have been warning about the possibilities of the Gaza war escalating and also an even wider regional conflict emerging. The killing of a Hamas commander in Beirut and an Iranian military leader in Syria (allegedly by Israel), attacks in the Red Sea on merchant ships by the Houthis and the US-led response, the growing tensions on the Israel-Lebanon border and the exchange of rockets between the Hezbollah and the Israeli forces, the attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria and the US response to this, the US bringing two aircraft carriers and their striking units within the regional waters—all these have been seen by some as signs which indicate the emergence of a wider crisis or even a wider war. However the risks of a wider conflict have increased much more with the powerful bomb blast in Iran, resulting in over 80 deaths, on January 3, on the sensitive occasion of the death anniversary of the Iran General Quassem Soleimani who as Quds leader had played a very important role in taking Iran’s influence to a wider Middle-East area, particularly through various militant organizations like the Hezbollah, and who was killed in a US air raid on Baghdad airport in 2020. Although on January 4, it was reported that the IS had taken responsibility for it, there still continued to be other allegations, including of Israeli involvement.
Trita Parcy of the Quincy Institute, USA, has stated, “This is a very dangerous time. A region-wide war appears more likely by the day.”
Al Jazeera senior political analyst Marwan Bishara has stated that there are ‘dark clouds’ gathering near the Middle-East after several days of escalating regional tensions. He said, “anything could happen now in this region. There is so much pent-up violence, so much pent-up tension, so many conflicts and so many moving parts. From the Red Sea to the Iranian Iraqi border to Yemen to Gulf, basically everyone in the region now is a candidate to further escalation.”
This is deeply worrying, and all possible efforts should be made to prevent a further escalation and widening of the present day main conflict or smaller conflicts in the Middle-East.
Escalation and widening may be caused broadly in two ways. Firstly, there can be non-intentional widening or escalation. This may happen if and when in an already tense and sensitive situation an event or even at times a statement can have a different or a much bigger impact than was expected or intended. This can also happen when in situations of great tensions and deep suspicions, some action is misinterpreted, provoking a very hostile response that was not justified. Such possibilities increase because of a lot of disinformation being spread.
On the other hand, deliberate escalation or widening can also be caused if one of the bigger forces in the conflict, or one of the big leaders of this force, takes actions which are actually aimed in a conscious way to broaden or escalate the conflict. To give one example, Israel may do something which may increase further the hostility between Iran and the USA, or between Iran and Saudi Arabia, or it may do something that forces Iran into a more direct confrontation with it, thereby also drawing in the USA, as per expectation. A former Prime Minister of Israel has written recently that instead of allowing Iran-supported militias to bleed Israel and even USA as proxies of Iran, it is much better for these countries to confront Iran directly. To give another example of the possibilities of intended escalation, Hamas may do something that will escalate hostility either between Israel and Iran, or between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Terrorist organizations like the IS may have their own reasons for escalation and widening of conflict.
Some leaders may be guided even by personal self-interest while seeking war escalation and widening. Netanyahu, for example, will face a lot of domestic problems if war ends very soon, including very uncomfortable questions over the failure of intelligence prior to the October 7 attack, but if the war widens and then can end on a note of victory for Israel, then probably his domestic criticism will tone down a lot.
This being the year of Presidential election in the USA is also a factor to be reckoned with. The military-industrial complex is generally interested in wider and prolonged wars.
Whatever be the narrow calculations that could possibly instigate a widening of the Middle-East conflict, what should not be forgotten is that this is like playing with fire, and those who seek to injure others may themselves get very badly hurt in the efforts, as a widening conflict can also spiral out of control and have consequences very different from those which guided the instigators of the escalation.
What is clear beyond doubt is that the way forward is that of checking and controlling conflict at all levels, with the end as early as possible of the Gaza conflict and the Gaza humanitarian crisis being at the core of such efforts. Keeping in view this overwhelming aim, any evidence against those trying to escalate and widen the conflict should be examined carefully and exposed at an early date before such instigation can cause much harm. It is from this perspective that the early and unbiased identification of the culprits of the most terrible bomb blast on January 3 in Kerman, Iran, which has claimed over 100 human lives apart from injuring a large number of people, should be attempted.
Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Planet in Peril, Protecting Earth for Children, Man over Machine and A Day in 2071.
Countercurrent – January 5, 2024
What will the rocket named after Saleh al-Arouri look like?
by Rima Najjar
“I am certain soon we can look forward to a family of rockets named after martyred leader Saleh al-Arouri,” Deputy Chair of the Political Bureau of Hamas and founder of the Martyr Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades.
It is beyond me how Israel has failed to figure out that a martyred Palestinian leader exerts a vastly more powerful hold on his people’s imagination and will to resist than a living one.
After decades of targeting and killing a long list of Palestinian leaders (or imprisoning them), Israel has not learned that another generation of leaders, stronger and fiercer than their predecessor, emerges inevitably. It makes me wonder if Israel is merely stupid or insane. There is a saying that goes, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
To people following Israel’s war on Gaza and unaware of Israel’s policy of targeted killing, the assassination in Lebanon of Saleh al-Arouri, Deputy Chair of the Political Bureau of Hamas and founder of the Martyr Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, may have come as a surprise. My own reaction included an element of surprise but for a different reason. I had been betting incorrectly that Israel and the US were smarter than to risk a war with Hezbollah.
Some Israeli ministers who had not received Netanyahu’s memo to keep their mouths shut about the killings foolishly tweeted congratulations to Mossad and Shin Bet on the deed, thus proving that they are not motivated by deterrence, but rather by revenge and hubris.
Not that targeted killing of Palestinian leaders has ever been effective as a deterrence measure. A few days before the assassination of al-Arouri and several of his comrades (collateral damage?), I had watched a presentation on al-Jazeera Arabic showcasing the various families of home-made rockets in the possession of the Palestinian armed resistance. Each slide showed a group of rockets with the picture next to it of an assassinated leader after whom the class of rockets was named.
Image: Ayyash Rocket, named after martyred engineer Yahya Ayyash; Ranteesi Rocket, named after martyred leader Abdel Azziz al-Ranteesi; Abu Shammaleh Rocket, named after martyred leader Mohammad Abu Shammaleh; Attar Rocket, named after martyred leader Raed al-Attar; Ja’abari Rocket, named after martyred leader Ahmad al-Ja’abari; Rocket M90, named after martyred leader Ibrahim al-Maqadmeh
I am certain soon we can look forward to a family of al-Qassam Brigades’ rockets named after martyred leader Saleh al-Arouri.
Israel has used extrajudicial executions (aka targeted killing) of Palestinian leaders openly since 2001, giving itself a license to kill, including in the territories of other States. By re-characterizing individuals as “terrorists” (al-Arouri was also on the US terrorism list with a bounty of $5m (£4m) on his head since 2018), Israel and the US justify such killing within the framework of the law of armed conflict, thus blurring and expanding that law (also known as international humanitarian law) and making the global order less safe for everybody. Read “10 things the rules of war do” published by the International Committee of the Red Cross, and you will immediately notice that the US and Israel are violating every single rule in Gaza.
In an article titled, ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 76: Extrajudicial Killings of Men in Front of Their Families in Gaza, we learn that “Israeli forces have reportedly conducted extrajudicial executions in front of families in Gaza as international leaders continue to discuss Israel’s conduct with little to no action, while negotiations between Israel and Hamas waver as war rages on.”
Extrajudicial executions are illegal under international law and are considered a fundamental violation of human rights and an “affront to the conscience of humanity.” In the same way that Israel argues falsely (most recently as it defends itself against genocide accusation at ICJ) that its policy of genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza or the West Bank is consistent with international law, “because Israel is engaged in armed conflict with terrorists,” it lies about the people it targets by saying they are “usually killed by conventional military means, not through deception, and the targets of the attacks are not civilians but combatants or are part of a military chain of command.”
The following statistics give an idea of how this policy works in bolstering Israel’s repressive measures against Palestinians: “… from the beginning of the second intifada, on 29 September 2000, to the end of 2010, Israeli security forces killed 4,927 Palestinians in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, 970 of them minors (under age 18). At least 2,227 of the fatalities were not taking part in hostilities. Another 239 were the object of a targeted killing. Thousands more were injured. [These figures do not include the casualties in Operation Cast Lead.]”
Image: Al-Qassam Rocket, named after Sheikh Izzedine al-Qassam
Palestinians have yet to be deterred by Israel’s policies and the cover of impunity the US gives them. Predictably, the reaction is quite the opposite as is evident in the following press statement issued by the joint leadership of the People’s Democratic Party and the Arab Socialist Labor Party in Lebanon on Jan 3, following the assassination of al-Arouri and his comrades. The two parties offered their condolences and affirmed “The natural response to the crime will be to escalate the resistance in Gaza, the West Bank and all supporting fronts, and the enemy entity will be under the fire of resistance from southern Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and Syria.”
Rima Najjar is a Palestinian whose father’s side of the family comes from the forcibly depopulated village of Lifta on the western outskirts of Jerusalem and whose mother’s side of the family is from Ijzim, south of Haifa. She is an activist, researcher and retired professor of English literature, Al-Quds University, occupied West Bank.
https://countercurrents.org/2024/01/what-will-the-rocket-named-after-saleh-al-arouri-look-like/
World Socialist Web Site – January 5, 2024
US kills Iraqi militia leader in expanding Middle East war
by Andre Damon
The US carried out a missile strike on Baghdad, Iraq, on Thursday in the latest escalation of the US-Israeli rampage throughout the Middle East.
Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder confirmed that the US killed its target, identified as Mushtaq Jawad Kazim al-Jawari. Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces said that al-Jawari was the head of the Iranian-backed militia group Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, and that the strike also killed an Iraqi official and wounded five people.
Iraqi officials condemned the attack, making it clear that the US has no mandate to carry out attacks inside Iraq. The strike is thus a violation of Iraqi sovereignty and an act of aggression in violation of international law.
The United States illegally invaded and occupied Iraq in 2003, and US proxy forces executed its president, Saddam Hussein, in 2006, following what Amnesty International called an “unfair trial.”
The United States maintains 2,500 troops inside Iraq, but the Iraqi government asserts that the United States does not have authorization to carry out military strikes inside the country.
Iraq’s foreign ministry issued a “strong condemnation” of what it called a “blatant attack” on Iraq’s military headquarters.
“The attack on a security formation linked to the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and subject to the authority of the state is a dangerous escalation,” read the statement, adding, “we affirm that Iraq reserves its right to take a firm stance and all measures that deter anyone who tries to harm its territory and its security forces.”
An Iraqi official called the strike a “flagrant violation of the sovereignty and security of Iraq” and “no different from a terrorist act.”
Ryder, the Pentagon spokesman, absurdly claimed that “It is important to note that the strike was taken in self-defense.”
The same day as Ryder admitted US responsibility for the attack in Iraq, the Islamic State Sunni terrorist group claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s bombing that killed 84 people in Kerman, Iran, at a memorial for Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, who was killed four years ago by a US drone strike in Iraq.
These attacks set the stage for US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s week-long trip to the Middle East, including a prominent visit to Israel.
A State Department spokesman said Thursday that this will be Blinken’s fourth trip to the Middle East in the past three months. Blinken will visit “Turkey, Greece, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank, and Egypt.”
These moves come as Israeli officials are openly advocating the ethnic cleansing of Gaza through the expulsion of the Palestinian people.
On Tuesday, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir called for the Palestinian population to be expelled from Gaza, declaring in a Twitter post that “the migration of hundreds of thousands from Gaza will allow the residents of the enclave to return home and live in security and protect [Israel Defense Forces] soldiers.”
This followed a statement on Sunday by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, “What needs to be done in the Gaza Strip is to encourage emigration.” He added, “If there are 100,000 or 200,000 Arabs in Gaza and not 2 million Arabs, the entire discussion on the day after will be totally different.”
In an interview Monday on the British LBC talk show program, Israeli ambassador to the UK Tzipi Hotovely refused to deny that Israel was intent on “destroying the whole of Gaza” in an interview.
″I really want to mention that Gaza has an underground tunnel city, and in order to get to this underground tunnel city, those areas must be destroyed,” she said, adding, “every school, every mosque, every second house, has access to the tunnels. And of course, ammunition.”
LBC presenter Iain Dale asked, “That’s an argument for destroying the whole of Gaza, every single building in it.”
To this, Hotovely replied, “So, do you have another solution?”
US officials have attempted to distance themselves from the statements by Smotrich and Gvir, falsely claiming that their statements do not represent the official position of the Israeli government.
This assertion contradicts multiple public statements by Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said in a meeting of his parliamentary faction, “Regarding voluntary immigration… This is the direction we are going in.”
In private, Netanyahu has been lobbying countries, including Egypt and the Democratic Republic of Congo, to accept the transfer of the population of Gaza onto their territory.
On Wednesday, the Times of Israel reported, “The ‘voluntary’ resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza is slowly becoming a key official policy of the government, with a senior official saying that Israel has held talks with several countries for their potential absorption.”
At the White House daily briefing on Thursday, White House National Security spokesperson John Kirby was asked to respond to assertions by multiple UN officials that Israel was engaging in systematic war crimes.
He was asked by a reporter, “Have you taken any action to this day to assess whether Israel is following the rules of war or not?”
To this, Kirby replied, “I am not aware of any kind of formal assessment being done by the United States government to analyze the compliance with international law by our partner Israel.”
Having made this statement, Kirby declared, “I would just tell you that we have not seen anything that would convince us that we need to take a different approach.”
This declaration follows the admission by President Joe Biden on December 12 that Israel has carried out indiscriminate bombing—by definition a violation of the laws of war, which require that efforts be taken to limit civilian casualties.
Kirby’s statement constitutes an endorsement of all of Israel’s war crimes up to this point, including the systematic bombing of densely populated areas that has killed nearly 30,000 people, the mass displacement of 1.9 million people, the deliberate mass starvation of the population of Gaza, and the deliberate targeting of housing, schools, hospitals and religious buildings.
On Thursday, Tariq Habash, a political appointee at the Department of Education, issued an open letter announcing his resignation from the Biden administration, condemning it for enabling Israel’s war on the population of Gaza.
The letter declared, “Over the last three months, our government has aided in the indiscriminate violence against Palestinians in Gaza—over 22,000 civilians killed, thousands more buried under rubble, and the vast majority displaced from their homes.”
It continued, “Meanwhile, the President has publicly questioned the integrity of Palestinian death counts frequently used by our own State Department, the United Nations, and numerous humanitarian non-governmental organizations. Our representatives at the United Nations have repeatedly voted against the vast majority of the international community, including vetoing resolutions calling for a ceasefire. And administration leaders have even repeated unverified claims that systematically dehumanize Palestinians.”
On Thursday, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees warned that disease is spreading throughout Gaza amid mass starvation, noting that there are more than 180,000 people in Gaza with upper respiratory infections, and over 136,000 cases of diarrhea have been reported, half of them in children under five.
On Thursday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said that he was “very disturbed by high-level Israeli officials’ statements on plans to transfer civilians from Gaza to third countries.” He added, “85 percent of people in Gaza are already internally displaced. They have the right to return to their homes. International law prohibits forcible transfer of protected persons within or deportation from occupied territory.”
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