TRT World – June 12, 2024
Hamas reports no signs of Israel accepting Biden's ceasefire proposal
Hamas said it has shown "full positivity" in efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement with Israel in besieged Gaza but also accused top US diplomat Antony Blinken of trying "to hold us accountable for obstructing truce deal" in collusion with Israel.
In a statement, the Palestinian resistance group said it urged the US, Israel's biggest ally, to pressure Israel to accept a deal leading to a permanent ceasefire in the blockaded enclave.
Hamas said that while US officials have said Israel has accepted a ceasefire proposal outlined by President Joe Biden on May 31, "we have not heard any Israeli official confirm this acceptance."
Earlier Hamas official Taher al-Nunu accused Blinken of bias, saying the top US diplomat has been acting like he is Israel's foreign minister.
"He lacks neutrality. He lacks even-handedness. He operates with double standards. He is trying to portray the [Palestinian] resistance as if it is the party obstructing the deal," al-Nunu told Qatar broadcaster Al Jazeera.
Houthi boat-borne bomb strikes ship in Red Sea
Yemen's Houthi have launched a boat-borne bomb attack against a commercial ship in the Red Sea, authorities said.
Yemen's military spokesperson, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, claimed responsibility for the attack, identifying the vessel targeted as the Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned bulk carrier Tutor.
He described the attack as using a "drone boat," as well as drones and ballistic missiles.
In a warning to shippers, the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre described the vessel as being hit in its stern by a small white craft southwest of the Houthi-controlled port city of Hodeida.
The captain "reports the vessel is taking on water, and not under the command of the crew," the UKMTO said.
He also "reports the vessel was hit for a second time by an unknown airborne projectile."
More than 520 Palestinians killed in occupied West Bank,
East Jerusalem since Oct. 7: UN
The UN has reported that more than 520 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since Oct. 7.
Deputy spokesman Farhan Haq stressed at a news conference that the situation "continues to escalate, amid ongoing violence by Israeli forces and settlers."
"Since 7 October, more than 520 Palestinians, nearly a quarter of them children, have been killed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Almost three-quarters of those fatalities occurred during operations by Israeli forces. During the same period, more than 5,200 Palestinians were injured in these areas," he said.
Haq noted that 960 attacks were reported in the same period in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
https://www.trtworld.com/middle-east/live-blog-hamas-sees-no-sign-of-israel-agreeing-to-bidens-truce-plan-18172710
Hamas opens 'wide pathway' to Gaza cease-fire with positive reply
Hamas responded positively Wednesday to a U.S. cease-fire plan for the eight-month-old war in the Gaza Strip, opening a "wide pathway" to reach an agreement.
However, neither the Palestinian group nor Israel publicly committed to a deal, creating uncertainty.
Hamas submitted its formal response Tuesday to a proposal outlined by U.S. President Joe Biden on May 31. Israel claimed the response was tantamount to a rejection while a Hamas official said the Palestinian group merely reiterated longstanding demands not met by the current plan.
Egypt and Qatar said they had received Hamas' response but did not disclose the contents.
Early on Wednesday, Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas' political bureau, said in a statement the group's answer was "responsible, serious and positive" and "opens up a wide pathway" for an accord.
Another Hamas official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters Tuesday the response reaffirmed the movement's stance that a cease-fire must lead to a permanent end to hostilities in Gaza, withdrawal of Israeli forces, reconstruction of the Palestinian enclave and release of Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
"We reiterated our previous stance. I believe there are no big gaps. The ball is now in the Israeli courtyard," the official said.
The United States has said Israel accepted its proposal, but Israel has not publicly stated this. As Israel has continued assaults in central and southern Gaza that are among the bloodiest of the war, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said Israel would not commit to an end of its campaign in Gaza before Hamas is eliminated.
An Israeli official said Tuesday the country had received Hamas' answer via the mediators and that Hamas "changed all of the main and most meaningful parameters."
The Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Hamas "has rejected the proposal for a hostage release that was presented by President Biden."
Earlier a non-Israeli official briefed on the matter, who declined to be identified, said Hamas proposed a new timeline for a permanent cease-fire with Israel and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, including Rafah.
The U.N. Security Council voted Monday in favor of a U.S. resolution supporting the proposal outlined by Biden. Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters on Tuesday that Hamas accepted the Security Council resolution and was ready to negotiate over the details of a cease-fire.
For months, negotiators from the U.S., Egypt and Qatar have been trying to mediate a cease-fire in the enclave of 2.3 million people.
The war was triggered by the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion that caused the death of nearly 1,200 people and seized more than 250 as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, in comparison, has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians, the Gaza Health Ministry has said, and reduced most of the narrow, coastal enclave to wasteland, with malnutrition widespread.
Dozens of Gazan detainees released by Israel show 'signs of torture'
Israel released dozens of Palestinian detainees from the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, according to a local source.
“Around 50 detainees from Gaza City and northern Gaza were freed,” a Palestinian source told Anadolu.
The source said some 33 freed Gazans were taken to Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza for medical attention “due to difficult health conditions.”
“Some of the detainees had signs of torture on their bodies,” he added.
There are no available estimates about the number of Palestinians detained by the Israeli army in Gaza, but human rights groups estimate that thousands have been arrested.
Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.
Nearly 37,000 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and nearly 85,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.
Eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
Israel keeps 9,170 Palestinians captive
Since October 7, Israel has seized more than 9,000 Palestinians from occupied West Bank, in addition to thousands from besieged Gaza, says Palestinian Prisoners' Club.
The detention disparity is clear.
Even as the global powers are pressing Hamas resistance group to release 116 Israeli hostages, there's a minimal demand for Israel from the same powers to free more than 9,170 Palestinians it has abducted since October last year.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners' Club, "Israeli occupation authorities, after 250 days of the genocidal war, continue to escalate systematic arrest campaigns that have targeted more than 9,170 detainees from the West Bank, including Jerusalem, in addition to thousands from Gaza."
"The occupation has committed horrific crimes" against prisoners, leading to at least 18 deaths, while it is estimated that "dozens of detainees from Gaza have been martyred," it said on Wednesday in a statement.
"The occupation recently said in an investigative report that 36 detainees from Gaza have been martyred, and until today, it refuses to disclose their identities or circumstances of death," it added.
The club also pointed out that 310 women and at least 640 children have been detained.
It confirmed that "the number of journalists arrested is about 85, with 52 remaining in detention, including 14 journalists from Gaza."
"Among those detained, six female journalists are held either under administrative detention or on charges claimed by the occupation as incitement."
It also noted that "the number of administrative detention orders has reached about 6,627."
The so-called "administrative detention" is a brutal Israeli military order allowing detention without charge, extending up to six months and renewable.
The Prisoners' Club said, "the issue of Gaza detainees is currently the main challenge for human rights organisations, especially with the continued practice of enforced disappearance by the occupation against the majority of detainees from Gaza and its refusal to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit them and check their detention conditions."
Torture, maltreatment
Regarding the torture of detainees, the club said that "methods of mistreatment include thirst, hunger and the deprivation of all basic life necessities."
"The spread of skin diseases among detainees has emerged, particularly scabies, due to the lack of hygiene conditions, especially since the prison administration withdrew clothing and left each detainee with only one set of clothes, adopting a policy of overcrowding," it added.
The Prisoners' Club has called for an "investigation under international supervision into the serious crimes and violations committed against detainees and prisoners in the occupation's prisons and camps."
A recent investigation revealed egregious human rights violations at an Israeli military base in Sde Teiman, southern Israel.
The unspeakable acts of torture include being sodomised with metal rods, electrocution, beating with batons, rifle butts and handheld metal detectors.
Genocidal war
Israel has waged a brutal invasion on Gaza since Hamas' October 7 blitz on Israeli military and settlements that were once Arab villages and farms.
Hamas says its raid that surprised its arch-enemy was orchestrated in response to Israeli attacks on Al Aqsa Mosque, illegal settler violence in occupied West Bank and to put Palestine question "back on the table."
In an assault of startling breadth, Hamas gunmen rolled into as many as 22 locations outside Gaza, including towns and other communities as far as 24 kilometres from the Gaza fence.
At some places they are said to have gunned down many soldiers as Israel's military scrambled to muster response. The hours-long attack and Israeli military's haphazard response including controversial Hannibal Directive resulted in the killing of more than 1,130 people, Israeli officials and local media say.
Palestinian fighters took more than 250 hostages and presently 116 remain in Gaza, including 41 who the Israeli army says are dead, some of them killed in indiscriminate Israeli strikes.
Since the start of its genocidal war in Gaza, Israel has killed at least 543 Palestinians and wounded nearly 5,200 others in the occupied West Bank, according to Health Ministry figures.
Israel has killed at least 37,202 Palestinians — 71 percent of them being women, children and infants –– and wounded 84,932 with more than 10,000 believed to be buried under the debris of bombed homes.
Israeli authorities are responsible for "war crimes and crimes against humanity committed" during its attacks on Gaza since October 7, 2023, according to a UN-backed commission.
The Commission of Inquiry, established by the UN Human Rights Council, noted "a widespread or systematic attack directed against the civilian population in Gaza" including "starvation as a method of warfare".
Palestinians are facing widespread hunger because Israel has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and other supplies. UN agencies say over 1 million among Gaza's 2.4 million people could experience the highest level of starvation by mid-July.
At the International Court of Justice, Israel is accuse of committing genocide against Palestinians.
Gaza humanitarian conference calls for immediate cease-fire,
sustainable funding for UN refugee agency UNRWA
Participants at an emergency aid conference for Gaza called Tuesday for an immediate halt to Israeli military operations in the enclave and for sustainable funding for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
The conference, dubbed “Call for Action: Urgent Humanitarian Response for Gaza," is organized by Jordan, Egypt, and the UN.
The participants emphasized the necessity of establishing an immediate and permanent cease-fire that must be fully respected by all parties.
They called for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages and civilians detained unlawfully and stressed the importance of ensuring their safety and humane treatment per international law.
The participants demanded an end to the ongoing Israeli military operations in Rafah at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip and called for the implementation of provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
They also highlighted the critical need for adequate, sustainable, transparent, and long-term funding to empower UNRWA to fulfill its mandated responsibilities effectively.
Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.
Nearly 37,200 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and more than 84,800 others injured, according to local health authorities.
Eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the ICJ, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
https://www.yenisafak.com/en/news/gaza-humanitarian-conference-calls-for-immediate-cease-fire-sustainable-funding-for-un-refugee-agency-3685757
War on Palestine:
A Challenge to Global Humanity, Peace and Security
By Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD.
Fallacy of the Peace Resolutions and Gaza
The AIPAC glues the US political thinking hubs to Israeli interests, war on Palestine and military alliance to the unquestioned support of its security operations. The plan imagines the conquest of the Arab world. The dead-conscious oil exporting Arab leaders and their 75% NGP investments in the US make no difference in politics and practices.President Biden’s Three-phase Peace proposal is nothing more than an ambiguous paper-chase to be reinterpreted for conflicting aims while the IDF continues the war and killing of civilians across Gaza. The US and Israel are a powerful entity to dictate the Arabs and other actors in the war theatre. The Arab-Muslim leaders (if any) are not part of the Peace Proposal but a robotic puzzle on the chessboard to be used by the US administration. Ironically, a blame game assumes the high agenda item as if Israel is serious about ending the war. Not so, PM Netanyahu plans to continue the war and eradicate the Hamas presence across Gaza. The Israeli leaders and media exhibit hatred toward Arabs and Muslims, degradation and political vices not seen in any other civilized culture. An aerial view of Jerusalem shows overwhelming Islamic architecture and people’s culture in streets, not the forgotten legend of Jewish culture. Despite public evidence of crimes against humanity and ‘genocide’ in Gaza, Arab-Muslims have never expressed any hatred, prejudice and defamation against Jews or Judaism but respect and honor for the followers of Moses and Torah. This appears in sharp contrast to Netanyahu’s Ultra Nationalist partners calling “Death to Arabs” at the Al-Aqsa Holy compound on Flag day celebration in East Jerusalem. Netanyhu needs conflict to maintain his premiership. Reportedly last week, more than 120,000 Israeli citizens demanded his resignation, return of hostages and peace in Palestine. Truth is One but hourly paid political mythologists of peace and security would camouflage and reinvent the logic as if truth is a hypothetical construct, not a factual reality. After eight months of continuing insanity of war, the Biden administration took initiatives for varied reasons to plan a draft resolution of a three phase peace plan in Gaza.
The UNSC 14 nations favored and one Russia abstained passed the resolution but its implementation rests on many unanswered questions in which Israel and the US are directly involved. Hamas says it is willing to workout the ceasefire and other arrangements via the mediators. Irrespective of the UNSC resolution, nothing appears changed on the ground as Israeli forces continued to bombard the innocent people causing massive destruction of life and habitats to a point of no return to normalcy. The previous UNSC and the General Assembly calls for an immediate ceasefire and global solidarity protests to support the Palestinian freedom remain unchanged. Is Biden and Netanyahu playing with their own political future? Do they breathe oxygen in conflicting time zones?
Netanyhu and Biden look despotic using the logic of power as the source of polemic strategies violating the international civilized norms of human safety, conflict resolution and peacemaking. They define these traits in conspicuous terminology. There is an alarming trend of complicity and cruelty originating in Western Europe (Britain, Germany and France), supporting the Israeli war to collectively punish all Palestianians across the Gaza strip.
All Western Construct of International Humanitarian Laws, Geneva Conventions, Civic Values and Hopes were Violated
Where are the so-called International Humanitarian Law and the protocols of the Geneva Conventions offering protection to civilians in war against forced displacement, functional hospitals, places of worship and medical professionals, and supplies of unrestrained foods and other necessities for human survival? There is no conversation to end the war. Unlikely as it seems any US intervention to stop Israel carnage to Rafah as President Biden would need AIPAC money and support to win the elections. Both Biden and Secretary Blinken played with time to allow PM Netanyahu’s political failure to achieve military objectives in Gaza. None is committed to peace with Palestinians. An Israeli Professor and Rabbi of Philosophy and Religions narrates his story to this author, why he left Israel seeking a new life in Canada. There was no peace and normalcy in life.... Jews are divided, atheist, secular, Zionists and lost precepts of the faith of Moses - the Divine Judaism. Israeli leaders are misleading people for their own political power,not for the good of Israeli masses or for peace or a sustainable future. Israel, to the Rabbi, could be at an edge of unknown disasters of survival in the Middle East unless it rethinks and reshapes its policies and practices to co-exist with the people of Palestine.
Israel and America are Afraid of Phenomenon of Political Change to become Obsolete
The Arab-Muslim leaders live in dark ages, just as blind stooges and puppets of the US - a scum floating on a torrent. They have no faith, no moral credibility and no leadership legitimacy to represent the masses. The Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman called Jared Kushner a friend to do business and normalize relations with Israel but Kushner advocates “ethnic cleansing” of the people of Gaza. “Trump Son-in-Law Jared Kushner Calls for Ethnic Cleansing of Gaza to ‘Finish the Job” (Common Dreams - TRANSCEND Media Service : 3/25/24), https://www.transcend.org/tms/2024/03/trump-son-in-law-jared-kushner-calls-for-ethnic-cleansing-of-gaza-to-finish-the-job/ explains Jake Jonson: Kushner, who served as a key Middle East adviser to Trump, said that Gaza’s “waterfront property could be very valuable” and urged Israel to “clean it up.”.... that if he were in charge of Israeli policy, he would push Gaza civilians into Egypt or Israel’s Negev desert—a proposal that critics denounced as ethnic cleansing.
America and Israel are fearful of the phenomenon of change as it could make them obsolete and unfit for the future even with all the imaginary power and monetary influence.They are bewildered with no sense of time, strengths and weaknesses - how to collaborate for an uncertain future. Do civilizations grow out of moral mire, tyranny and military conquests?
The Israeli - American Leaders Deny the Truth of a Living Earth they Bomb to Destroy Humanity
Every beginning has its end and every nation lives it's time to see the end and not infinity. There is no life and no history of manipulating the Earth and humanity by powerful aggressors against the Laws of God – natural causes. Have you not walked on the earth to learn how most powerful nations of the past were destroyed by the Will of God – asks the Divine Revelations? We, the People live in a splendid Universe in which planet Earth floats ordained by the commands of God. We are moral beings unlike animals that possess the eyes, ear and other senses but cannot draw logical conclusions from their senses. There is a moral sense of spirituality and humanity to co-exist in harmony with the rest of all creations on this Earth. This trust is explicitly mentioned in the Qur’an, Chapter 33: 72: “We did indeed offer the Trust to the Heavens and the Earth; And the mountains but they refused; To undertake it, being afraid thereof: But man undertook it; He was indeed unjust and foolish.”
Have you ever thought about how the day-night alternates systematically to serve mankind? “Behold! In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the alternation of Night and Day - There are indeed Signs for men of understanding.” (3: 190). Do you know who else other than God determined the Earth spinning at 1670 km per hour? Who other than God ordained it to orbit the sun at 107,000 km per hour? And who other than God made it spin at 28,437 km per hour at the equator?(https://www.newscientist.com/question/fastearthspin/#ixzz7C8p37S9X). Be aware that earth average distance to the Sun is about 93 million miles (105 million km); the distance of Moon from Earth is currently 384,821 km equivalent to 0.002572 Astronomical Units and if the distance between the Earth-Sun and the Earth-moon were ever to change, there will be no sign of life, human civilizations or habitats left on Earth. We, the humans have one origin - why can’t we co-exist in peace and harmony?
It is God Who has created you from dust; Then from a sperm-drop,
Then from a leech-like clot; Then He does get you out (into the light)
As a child: then lets you (grow and) reach your age of full strength; then lets you become old,
Though of you there are, some who die before;
And lets you reach a Term appointed; in order that ye
May learn wisdom. (Chapter 40: 67: The Qur’an)
Lessons of history are deliberately ignored - people holding gospels in one hand have driven mankind to the insanity of Two WW with another hand without an end in sight to the continued crimes against humanity and genocide as now being witnessed in Gaza. Are there any prospects of political change and new thinking for a sustainable world of tomorrow? Even the Biden's so-called Three phase peace proposal does not offer any hope for an immediate ceasefire, peace, reconciliation and harmony among the people of Israel and Palestine and global humanity as these appear to be passing illusions, crippled global aspirations, not the facts of life which warrant a navigational change to the US policies and practices in the Middle East.
Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in international affairs-global security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications: One Humanity and the Remaking of Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution (2019); and a forthcoming book is entitled: Global Humanity, Peace and Conflict Resolution beyond the Lens of Human Consciousness.
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The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
