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As Israel Extends Its Genocide Into the West Bank, It Targets and Kills Children

By Marjorie Cohn , Truthout, 8 Oct 24,  https://truthout.org/articles/as-israel-extends-its-genocide-into-the-west-bank-it-targets-and-kills-children/

Israel is killing scores of Palestinian children, Defense for Children International-Palestine’s Miranda Cleland says.

The Israeli occupation forces have extended their genocidal campaign in Gaza to the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Using drone strikes, troops in armored vehicles and bulldozers, their regular raids since October 7, 2023, have escalated into extensive and deadly attacks. Between August 28 and September 6, Israel launched “Operation Summer Camps,” a major military invasion, in the northern West Bank. “We watched their bulldozers tear up streets, demolish businesses, pharmacies, schools. They even bulldozed the town soccer field, and a tree in the middle of a road,” Kamal Abu al-Rub, the governor of Jenin, told The New York Times.

Since October 7, 2023, Israeli forces have killed at least 722 Palestinians, including at least 164 children, in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

In Jenin city, within the governorate, approximately 70 percent of the roads have been damaged or destroyed in the attacks, according to the city’s mayor, Nidal Obeidi. Electricity, internet and telephone lines were shut down. Water and sewage lines were cut, leaving about 80 percent of Jenin with no running water, including the main hospital.

“They are imposing conditions, materially and psychologically, that make people feel: Gaza is coming to you,” Shawan Jabarin, director of Al Haq, a human rights group based in the West Bank, reported to the Times. “There is a feeling among Palestinians across the West Bank that what is coming is very bad — that it will be a plan to kill and expel us.”

UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territory Francesca Albanese warns that “Apartheid Israel is targeting Gaza and the West Bank simultaneously, as part of an overall process of elimination, replacement and territorial expansion.” Likewise, European Union Foreign Affairs Chief Josep Borrell said, “Without action, the West Bank will become a new Gaza. And Gaza will become a new West Bank, as settlers’ movements are preparing new settlements.”

We documented 10 cases where Palestinian children were shot and killed by Israeli forces in October 2023, during demonstrations in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Four of these children were shot with expanding bullets, which expand inside the body upon impact and cause massive internal bleeding. The use of expanding bullets is a war crime.

What happened to their bodies after they died? Did the Israeli forces allow medical aid to reach the injured children?

In 43 percent of cases documented in the report, Israeli forces deliberately prevented injured Palestinian children from receiving medical care by detaining and firing live ammunition toward ambulances, paramedics and civilians attempting to provide aid. In many cases, these were children who sustained gunshot wounds from Israeli soldiers to the head or chest, or sometimes multiple locations on their bodies. In some cases, Israeli drone-fired missiles struck a child, leaving them with burns and shrapnel wounds all over their body. Israeli forces fired at ambulances and paramedics, and even civilian bystanders who tried to run and offer help to the child. Israeli soldiers surrounded a wounded child just long enough to confirm they were dead. This is an act of incredible cruelty, to ensure that a child dies alone and in immense pain, bleeding out on the ground.

Israeli forces enter refugee camps and kill Palestinians, including children. They have targeted refugee camps in the past. How does the current campaign differ from prior incursions? Why do you think they target refugee camps?

Israeli forces carry out incursions into Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank, including refugee camps, on a daily basis. In recent incursions, Israeli forces have seriously escalated their efforts to not only kill and arrest Palestinians, including children, but also to damage and destroy civilian infrastructure like roads and power lines. They also besiege hospitals, like we witnessed in Jenin. And it’s not just Israeli ground forces carrying out these incursions; they are accompanied by military bulldozers, tanks and heavily armored military vehicles, in addition to drones and Apache attack helicopters.

Do Israeli forces use U.S.-provided weapons in the killing of Palestinians and destruction of infrastructure in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem?

The United States provides $3.8 billion in military assistance to Israel every year, and since October 7, it has provided tens of millions more in funding as well as weapons. The U.S. places virtually no restrictions on how this funding and these weapons are used, so they are certainly used in the Israeli military’s campaign to target and kill Palestinian children.

What role do Israeli settlers play in the violence against children? Do Israeli forces restrain or enable settler violence?

Israeli settlers have been emboldened by the current right-wing Israeli government, and there have been more and more cases of Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank since October 7. In two cases of Palestinian child fatalities cited in our report, we could not determine who shot the bullet that killed the child, since Israeli soldiers and settlers were firing toward the child simultaneously. Of course, this is a difference without a distinction. In some cases, Israeli soldiers stand by and watch as Israeli settlers attack Palestinians; in other cases, they attack alongside one another.

Does Israel’s escalation of violence in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, correspond to the increased construction of illegal Jewish settlements there?

Absolutely — in many parts of the occupied West Bank, illegal Israeli settlements surround Palestinian villages and communities and encroach on Palestinian land, leading to Israeli settler attacks in these Palestinian communities.

How does targeting children violate international law?

Targeting children with live ammunition is first and foremost a violation of their basic right to life as outlined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Israel has ratified along with nearly every other country in the world. It is also a violation of international humanitarian law as well as international criminal law.

Israel has an obligation as the “Occupying Power” under international humanitarian law to protect the Palestinian population living under Israeli military occupation. Yet Israeli forces overwhelmingly fail to intervene to stop or prevent settler attacks and instead protect the settlers, empowering them to perpetuate violent attacks against the Palestinian civilian population in the occupied West Bank.

Has there been legal accountability for those responsible for the deaths of these children?

No. Israeli authorities, which are able to hold Israeli military officials and soldiers responsible, are clearly unwilling to hold perpetrators accountable, which is why we believe the international community must intervene and enact an arms embargo as well as sanctions to force accountability.

What evidence would you cite that Israel maintains an apartheid system in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem?

The Israeli military legal system is applied only to Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank. This means that Palestinians, including children, who are arrested by the Israeli military are prosecuted in the Israeli military court system, where the judge and prosecutor are soldiers and the conviction rate is upwards of 95 percent. Israeli settlers living in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank never come into contact with the military legal system and instead are subject to the Israeli civil legal system. That’s what apartheid is: Different legal systems and statuses applied to different populations based on ethnicity in the same territory.

Do you think Israel is extending its nearly yearlong genocidal campaign in Gaza into the West Bank, including East Jerusalem?

Absolutely. As with Gaza, the Israeli government and military has made very clear its intentions to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from their land until there is no Palestinian life to speak of.

What actions does DCIP demand that the international community take to prevent additional violence against children and to hold those responsible accountable?

In our report, we list three demands for the international community, which includes many countries and actors that have either watched, or turned away entirely, as Israeli forces have slaughtered Palestinian children at an unprecedented rate from Gaza to the occupied West Bank:

  1. Enact an immediate and comprehensive arms embargo alongside diplomatic and financial pressure to pressure Israeli authorities and forces to end the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, the Israeli apartheid regime and the Israeli military occupation of the occupied Palestinian territory.
  2. Investigate allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity and support investigations by the International Criminal Court, in order to hold perpetrators accountable.
  3. Use all available means, including those listed above, to demand that Israeli authorities uphold Palestinian children’s rights as outlined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Israel has ratified.

On September 18, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a resolution initiated by the State of Palestine, demanding an end to the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory in accordance with international law, as recently established by the International Court of Justice. The resolution calls for sanctioning Israel and forbidding member states from conducting business with Israel or promoting the legitimacy of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory.

Marjorie Cohn

Marjorie Cohn is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, dean of the People’s Academy of International Law and past president of the National Lawyers Guild. She sits on the national advisory boards of Assange Defense and Veterans For Peace. A member of the bureau of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, she is the U.S. representative to the continental advisory council of the Association of American Jurists. Her books include Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral and Geopolitical Issues.

October 11, 2024 Posted by | Atrocities, Israel | Leave a comment

As Milton bears down on Floridians, Joe and Bibi bear down on Iranians.

Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL, 9 Oct 24

We know President Biden didn’t spend his whole schedule Wednesday fretting about hurricane relief for the soon to be inundated Florida. That’s because he spent a half hour discussing with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the upcoming Israeli-US attack on Iran.

That’s right, the imminent attack will be with full knowledge and support of the US, putting us at war with Iran if they choose to include US targets in the Middle East along with their retaliatory attack on Israel. And retaliate they have vowed to do.

President Biden has supported all 3 Israeli bombing campaigns, first on Gaza, then Lebanon and now Iran in the year since the Hamas attack on Israel. He’s completely complicit with Netanyahu’s ghoulish carnage by giving Israel an astonishing $17.9 billion in military aid. Biden has squandered another $4.8 billion on a failed bombing campaign against Yemen Houthis and building up its military presence in the region in anticipation of regional war.

Prime Minister Netanyahu is close to realizing his short term dream of ethnically cleansing Gaza of Palestinians. While still underway, he’s pivoted to drawing the US into war with Iran which is the only way he can achieve his long term dream of destroying his only competitor for Middle East dominance.

We don’t know how many billions in damage will be inflicted by Milton on Florida. Wouldn’t it have been nice if that $22.7 billion Biden has squandered on genocide in Gaza, massive destruction in Lebanon and likely soon regional war with Iran, had been squirreled away to alleviate the devastation being visited upon Florida this week.

October 11, 2024 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

“The First Live-Streamed Genocide”: Al Jazeera Exposes War Crimes Filmed by Israeli Troops Themselves

SCHEERPOST, By Amy Goodman / Democracy Now!  October 9, 2024 

Anew documentary from Al Jazeera takes a look at evidence of war crimes in Gaza in the form of social media posted by Israeli soldiers recording and celebrating their own attacks on Palestinians. We play excerpts from the film Investigating War Crimes in Gaza, now available online, and speak to two of the journalists involved in its production, director Richard Sanders and Gaza-based correspondent Youmna ElSayed. “Israelis themselves were telling us precisely what they were doing and why they were doing it,” says Sanders about the evidence the team reviewed. “They don’t think it’s complicated. They don’t think it’s nuanced. Their rhetoric is often overtly genocidal.” ElSayed adds, “They’ve had all the courage to do that because they know that they are not even going to be condemned.”

Transcript

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Health officials in Gaza say the death toll from Israel’s war has now topped 42,000, though many fear the actual death toll is far higher. We begin today’s show looking at how Israeli troops have repeatedly filmed themselves committing and celebrating war crimes in Gaza.

Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit has just released a documentary on Israeli war crimes, based in part on social media posts from Israeli soldiers themselves. The documentary begins with the Palestinian novelist Susan Abulhawa, as well as footage of the Al-Awda school massacre in July, when Israeli troops killed at least 31 people at a school sheltering displaced Palestinians. The moment the bomb exploded was captured on video by someone recording a youth soccer game in the Al-Awda school courtyard…………………………………………………

This is another clip from the documentary. We hear from Human Rights Watch’s associate director for the Middle East and North Africa, Bill Van Esveld [sic]. The clips begin with video posted online by the Israeli 202nd Paratroopers Battalion that shows a possible war crime of the shooting of unarmed Palestinians in Gaza. This is a graphic warning…………………………………………………………

We’re joined now by two guests. Youmna ElSayed is a correspondent for Al Jazeera who is based in the Gaza Strip. And Richard Sanders is the director of Al Jazeera I-Unit’s new feature-length documentary, Investigating War Crimes in Gaza.

Youmna, let’s begin with you, as you narrate this film. If you can talk about the video footage that we see, that is actually taken by Israeli soldiers themselves?

YOUMNA ELSAYED: Yes. Thank you for having me on your show again, Amy.

Of course, Israeli soldiers in Gaza taking these videos and posting them on different social media platforms, they haven’t been — they’ve had all the courage to do that because they know that they are not even going to be condemned by posting these videos. They are showing off how much they dehumanize Palestinians, how much they kill. They destroy their properties. They completely torture them and dehumanize them in different ways, whether they’re children, they’re men, they’re women. They brag about it, and they’re very proud of their doings.

And all this comes back to the fact that the Israeli army acts with complete impunity, and they know that even these videos being posted online, they won’t even be shown in other Western news outlets to point out how horrific these videos have actions committed by the Israeli army towards the civilians. On the contrary, Benjamin Netanyahu comes out and says, “We are the most moral army in the world,” when in reality they are the most inhumane army in the world.

As a journalist, as a civilian in any war zone, I am supposed to have the guarantee that a soldier from any other — any other place in the world, any other nationality in the world, as long as he carries that term, that definition that he is a soldier, he must have morals, he must have ethics that he would not hurt me as an unarmed civilian, as a journalist, as a paramedic. But in Gaza, for them, every single Palestinian, as long as you are a Palestinian, you are a legitimate target………………………………………………………

RICHARD SANDERS: Well, thank you for having me, Amy.

Yes, and that’s precisely why we begin the film with those comments from Susan Abulhawa. The essential point of the whole film is no one can hide. The Israelis themselves were telling us precisely what they were doing and why they were doing it. The film is rooted in these soldiers’ videos, of which there are thousands and thousands. And we didn’t pick particularly damaging examples. They’re all like that. I mean, one thing that’s very striking is, what you don’t see in these videos is combat, or very rarely. There’s very little combat. Every now and then you see soldiers expending an enormous amount of ammunition, but they’re frequently standing up, and there’s clearly no incoming. So, that’s what you would think soldiers would want to post online, but they don’t.

…………………………………………….Listen to Israelis. They don’t think it’s complicated. They don’t think it’s nuanced. Their rhetoric is often overtly genocidal. It’s certainly frequently all about ethnic cleansing. They couldn’t have been clearer about what they were doing. And if we are ignorant, we’re willfully ignorant.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, Richard Sanders, how do you interpret the fact that these videos were made and posted so liberally by Israeli soldiers themselves?………………………………….. what do you make of the fact that soldiers themselves so openly, transparently and widely distributed their own acts that could be construed as war crimes?

RICHARD SANDERS: They clearly felt this would be popular in Israel. They were competing for clicks, you know. And they were right. These videos were popular. You know, they were using some of the photos they took of themselves on dating apps. And yes, as you say, it speaks to an astonishing sense of impunity. I mean, the clip you’ve played there, where you actually see unarmed men being shot, that’s fairly unusual, but even so, that was put on YouTube by the people who did it…………………………………

AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn to another clip from your new Al Jazeera Investigates documentary, when we see Israeli soldiers, in footage that they themselves shared, talking about the complete destruction of the Shuja’iyya refugee camp in Gaza.

ISRAELI COMMAND: [translated] Butterfly station, this is command. We’re launching Operation 8th Candle of Hanukkah, the burning of Shuja’iyya neighborhood. Let our enemies learn and be deterred. This is what we’ll do to all our enemies, and not a memory will be left of them. We will annihilate them to dust. Command out.

………………………….RICHARD SANDERS:………………………. One of — the only thing, I would say, that surprises me — I’m not surprised that the Israeli soldiers feel complete impunity and so on, but the fact that higher up the chain of command and in the government, they clearly feel the same impunity, as well. No one has come down the line and cracked down on this and said, “Stop doing it.” It’s quite clear that Israeli politicians and Israeli military commanders feel that they enjoy complete impunity for what they’re doing in the Gaza Strip, as well.

……………………………………………………………………………………………. YOUMNA ELSAYED: …………………………………………………………………………….. the violation, the aggression against the Palestinian journalists, because we are Palestinian and we are inside the Gaza Strip, has been unprecedented, the killing. One hundred seventy-five Palestinian journalists, until today, have been killed. How many others, dozens others have been injured, and our families threatened and killed and injured? Unimaginable numbers…………………. more https://scheerpost.com/2024/10/09/the-first-live-streamed-genocide-al-jazeera-exposes-war-crimes-filmed-by-israeli-troops-themselves/—

October 11, 2024 Posted by | Gaza, Israel, media | Leave a comment

Nuclear plant ‘will decimate fish stocks’

 How many fish does a nuclear power station kill? It sounds grisly, but for
the engineers on the Somerset coast building Britain’s first nuclear
power station in a generation, it’s an urgent question.

And for conservationists and local villagers on the banks of the River Severn in
Gloucestershire, it has become such an urgent question they filled a
village hall to debate it.

Proposals for the sea-water cooling system at
Hinkley Point C will see 44 tonnes of fish ingested and killed every year,
according to EDF, the company building it.

“This scheme will decimate
fish stocks,” said Dave Seal, a wildlife campaigner. “We already have
lost 80% of our salmon, and half of the salmon that get into Hinkley’s
cooling system will be destroyed.” But Andrew Cockroft, from Hinkley
Point C, insisted there will be a “very very small impact on fish
populations”.

 BBC 9th Oct 2024

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq64q0gqz37o

October 11, 2024 Posted by | environment, UK | Leave a comment

Could small modular reactors be used to create nuclear warheads?

The global pursuit of small modular reactor (SMR) technology could feed
into the development of nuclear warheads. SMRs are near the top of the
agenda in the nuclear industry in the UK. At least four companies –
GE-Hitachi, Holtec Britain, Rolls-Royce SMR and Westinghouse Electric Co. –
are competing to have their designs adopted by Great British Nuclear, and
at the same time, the UK’s nuclear weapons stockpile is due to increase.


NCE asked the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) under the
Freedom of Information (FoI) Act if it had made any assessment of the
potential for SMRs to produce material for nuclear weapons. In its
response, DESNZ said that the deployment of SMRs in the UK “will comply
with UK civil nuclear safety and security regulations and international
conventions to ensure that nuclear material intended for use in civil
nuclear deployments is used for that purpose only, and cannot be diverted
or manipulated for use in nuclear weapons”.

However, this statement does
not mean that SMRs cannot be used to create materials for nuclear warheads.
The fissile material that could potentially be used in nuclear weapons is
what is produced by the reactor, not what is used within it. DESNZ went on
to say that it “neither confirms nor denies that it holds information”
on whether assessments have been made on whether material from SMRs could
be used in nuclear weapons. “This is a qualified exemption, and we have
considered the public interest arguments in confirming or denying whether
we hold the requested information,” it continued.

“We acknowledge that
confirming or denying if information is held would provide assurance that
the Department takes the safe and secure deployment of nuclear energy
seriously. “However, confirming or denying that the information relevant
to your request is held may itself disclose the presence of sensitive
nuclear information. Such information could assist in potential criminal
activity if the information was used by malicious parties.

New Civil Engineer 9th Oct 2024

https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/could-small-modular-reactors-be-used-to-create-nuclear-warheads-09-10-2024/

October 11, 2024 Posted by | UK, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Revealed: EDF’s hidden plans for two huge 30 feet high flood barriers in the heart of East Suffolk’s Heritage Coast 04.10.24

As part of the much-criticised justification for issuing a nuclear site
licence for the controversial Sizewell C nuclear development, the UK’s
chief nuclear regulator, the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), has
divulged hitherto hidden plans for two sea walls to be constructed in the
heart of East Suffolk’s Heritage Coast and the Suffolk & Essex Coast &
Heaths National Landscape, designed to provide additional flood protection.


Both walls are proposed to be up to 30 feet high. To the south of the
Sizewell C site, the wall will span the ‘Sizewell Gap’ joining Sizewell
A’s Sea defences to the cliffs south of Sizewell village. The northern
one will span the river in the Sizewell Marshes SSSI, joining Sizewell
C’s northern sea defences with higher ground inland at Goose Hill and
will be at least 100 metres in length but potentially much longer.

The ONR claims that Sizewell C Ltd, the site’s developer, is ‘committed’ to
installing these structures ‘should climate change be worse than is
reasonably foreseeable’, despite there being no mention of them in
EDF’s application for the Development Consent Order (DCO) for Sizewell C.
Therefore, they were absent from the plans approved by the Secretary of
State in July 2022 after he had overturned the Planning Inspectors’
recommendation for refusal.

 TASC 4th Oct 2024

Revealed: EDF’s hidden plans for two huge 30 feet high flood barriers in the heart of East Suffolk’s Heritage Coast 04.10.24

October 11, 2024 Posted by | climate change, UK | Leave a comment

Rolls-Royce suffers £78m loss on mini-nukes amid UK rollout delays

 Company moves ahead with Czech-backed project as Britain’s selection process for
SMR technologies drags on. Rolls-Royce’s mini nuclear reactor business has
posted a £78m loss as it awaits the outcome of a delayed UK tender
competition.

The company, which is developing a small modular reactor (SMR)
design that it hopes to export globally, saw losses in 2023 grow from £61m
the previous year, new accounts show. It came as the company ramped up
spending on research and development from £78m to £115m.

It made no revenue
and employed some 590 staff. Losses also grew as Rolls – along with three
rivals – continued to wait for a decision by the UK Government on which SMR
technologies it would back following a series of delays. The competition
was first announced by George Osborne, the former Conservative chancellor,
in 2015 but is still yet to reach a conclusion. Tufan Erginbilgiç, chief
executive of the Rolls-Royce group, has urged ministers to press ahead as
quickly as possible, saying he expects orders from around the world to
begin flowing in if Rolls emerges as a winner.

Telegraph 9th Oct 2024

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/10/09/rolls-royces-mini-nukes-arm-suffers-loss-amid-delay/

October 11, 2024 Posted by | business and costs, UK | Leave a comment

EDF bosses grilled over River Severn salt marsh plans at ‘prickly’ meeting

Arlingham peninsula salt marsh proposal questioned at parish council meeting with one person turning up dressed as a hedgehog

News. Will Luker, Community Reporter, 8 Oct 24,
https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/gloucester-news/edf-bosses-grilled-over-river-9615208

Plans for salt marshes along the River Severn in Gloucestershire linked to a new nuclear power station were met with disbelief at a packed meeting last night (Monday October 7). EDF bosses were quizzed at Arlingham Parish Council about their environmental improvement plans which are linked to the new Hinkley C site in Somerset.

Prior to the meeting, the energy firm has been in touch with landowners about the idea of creating salt marshes along the river. EDF made a presentation which outlined how important the nuclear power plant is and they identified four sites for saltmarshes.

They outlined Kingston Seymour in Somerset, Littleton Upon Severn in South Gloucestershire, Rodley near Westbury-on-Severn and Arlingham as the four areas they are interested in.

October 11, 2024 Posted by | environment, UK | Leave a comment

Biden Officials Say Ceasefire Talks Are Suspended as Harris Names Iran Top Enemy

The U.S. has reportedly all but given up on a ceasefire proposal it put forth just two weeks ago.

By Sharon Zhang , Truthout, October 8, 2024,  https://truthout.org/articles/biden-officials-say-ceasefire-talks-are-suspended-as-harris-names-iran-top-enemy/

iden officials have reportedly admitted that ceasefire negotiations amid Israel’s war on Lebanon and genocide in Gaza have been suspended, despite public insistence by high-powered figures within the administration that they are working around the clock for a ceasefire.

The Biden administration has given up on ceasefire talks after first proposing a deal for a 21-day ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel just two weeks ago, CNN reports, citing U.S. officials. The U.S. is “not actively trying to revive the deal,” the outlet wrote.

Two weeks ago, CNN reported that senior U.S. officials have also suspended efforts for ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas amid Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Officials said the effort isn’t totally canceled but admitted there is no political will for a ceasefire to happen; though officials blamed Hamas and Israel, Israeli officials have been openly sabotaging ceasefire negotiations, while Hamas officials have voiced support for numerous ceasefire proposals.

Though officials are admitting to the suspension of ceasefire talks in private, however, in public, officials are still claiming that the administration is pushing for a ceasefire. Just on Monday, in a statement recognizing the anniversary of the October 7, 2023, attack, President Joe Biden insinuated that talks are ongoing.

“We will not stop working to achieve a ceasefire deal in Gaza that brings the hostages home,” the president said. “We also continue to believe that a diplomatic solution across the Israel-Lebanon border region is the only path to restore lasting calm and allow residents on both sides to return safely to their homes.”

Vice President Kamala Harris also gestured toward the ceasefire talks in a statement Monday, saying, “It is far past time for a hostage and ceasefire deal to end the suffering of innocent people.”

However, as many experts have said, it has long been clear that the priority for the administration is not to secure a ceasefire, but rather to give Israel all of the tools it needs to carry out its genocide and, potentially, escalate tensions into a wider war in the Middle East. Indeed, in the same statement, Harris said: “I will always ensure Israel has what it needs to defend itself against Iran and Iran-backed terrorists like Hamas.”

Just last week, State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller seemed to openly admit that the goal of ceasefire negotiations has never been to actually achieve a ceasefire.

“We’ve never wanted to see a diplomatic resolution with Hamas,” Miller said in a press briefing, despite the administration having blamed Hamas officials for negotiation failures even as Israel has assassinated multiple top officials in Hamas and Hezbollah responsible for ceasefire negotiations.

Meanwhile, as Israel escalated tensions across the Middle East, including threatening to bomb key sites in Iran, Harris has named Iran as the U.S.’s current top enemy — rather than a country like Russia, a country that the U.S. is actively helping to fight amid its invasion of Ukraine.

When asked in her interview with “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday about the U.S.’s “greatest adversary” on the world stage, Harris said: “I think there’s an obvious one in mind which is Iran. Iran has American blood on their hands.” She raised Iran’s recent missile attack on Israel, and said one of her “highest priorities” is to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear capabilities.

This statement appears aimed at stoking tensions with Iran, gesturing toward a war with the country — a seeming goal of Israeli leaders, some analysts have said. It also ignores that, while it’s unclear what Harris is referring to when she suggests that Iran has killed Americans, Israel has killed many Americans just amid the genocide. Just last week, in fact, Israeli forces killed an American citizen, Hajj Kamel Ahmad Jawad, in a bombing on Lebanon.

October 10, 2024 Posted by | Iran, politics international, USA | Leave a comment

Israeli Snipers Routinely, Deliberately Shoot Palestinian Kids In The Head

Caitlin Johnstone, Oct 10, 2024, https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israeli-snipers-routinely-deliberately?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=150036170&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

There’s yet another doctors’ testimony about Israeli forces constantly shooting Palestinian children in the head, this one published in The New York Times.

The report, titled “65 Doctors, Nurses and Paramedics: What We Saw in Gaza,” begins as follows:

“I worked as a trauma surgeon in Gaza from March 25 to April 8. I’ve volunteered in Ukraine and Haiti, and I grew up in Flint, Mich. I’ve seen violence and worked in conflict zones. But of the many things that stood out about working in a hospital in Gaza, one got to me: Nearly every day I was there, I saw a new young child who had been shot in the head or the chest, virtually all of whom went on to die. Thirteen in total.

“At the time, I assumed this had to be the work of a particularly sadistic soldier located nearby. But after returning home, I met an emergency medicine physician who had worked in a different hospital in Gaza two months before me. ‘I couldn’t believe the number of kids I saw shot in the head,’ I told him. To my surprise, he responded: ‘Yeah, me, too. Every single day.’”

Numerous named medical staff who worked in Gaza then testify in the report about routine encounters with children who’d been shot in the head and chest by Israeli forces, as well as children and infants suffering from severe malnutrition and easily preventable infections.

Such reports have been coming out all year. Because Israel has not been allowing foreign press into Gaza, medical staff have in many ways become the de facto western journalists on the ground in the enclave — and they are all saying the same thing.

Back in July a group of 45 doctors and nurses who’d been working in Gaza signed an open letter to President Biden testifying that “every single signatory to this letter treated children in Gaza who suffered violence that must have been deliberately directed at them.”

“Specifically, every one of us on a daily basis treated pre-teen children who were shot in the head and chest,” the letter continues.

Also in July, Politico published an article by two American surgeons named Mark Perlmutter and Feroze Sidhwa titled “‘Nothing Prepared Us for What We Saw’: Two Weeks Inside a Gaza Hospital,” which contains the following passage:

“We started seeing a series of children, preteens mostly, who’d been shot in the head. They’d go on to slowly die, only to be replaced by new victims who’d also been shot in the head, and who would also go on to slowly die. Their families told us one of two stories: the children were playing inside when they were shot by Israeli forces, or they were playing in the street when they were shot by Israeli forces.”

by Israeli snipers in Gaza” was published in The Guardian, citing nine doctors who’d worked in Gaza after October 7 who “reported treating a steady stream of children, elderly people and others who were clearly not combatants with single bullet wounds to the head or chest.”

Forensic pathologists were able to identify bullets used by the Israeli military in these attacks on children:

“The Guardian shared descriptions and images of gunshot wounds suffered by eight children with military experts and forensic pathologists. They said it was difficult to conclusively determine the circumstances of the shootings based on the descriptions and photos alone, although in some of the cases they were able to identify ammunition used by the Israeli military.”

In February the Los Angeles Times published an article titled “I’m an American doctor who went to Gaza. What I saw wasn’t war — it was annihilation”. The author, a reconstructive surgeon named Irfan Galaria, writes as follows:

“On one occasion, a handful of children, all about ages 5 to 8, were carried to the emergency room by their parents. All had single sniper shots to the head. These families were returning to their homes in Khan Yunis, about 2.5 miles away from the hospital, after Israeli tanks had withdrawn. But the snipers apparently stayed behind. None of these children survived.”

So this is happening. The evidence is undeniable, and the sourcing is as solid as it gets. There are mountains upon mountains of rock solid proof that Israeli forces routinely, deliberately shoot Palestinian children in the head in Gaza. 

The only reason this isn’t being treated as an established fact by the western political-media class is because the Israeli military denies it, telling The Guardian in response to the aforementioned report that “The IDF only targets terrorists and military targets. In stark contrast to Hamas’s deliberate attacks on Israeli civilians, including men, women and children, the IDF follows international law and takes feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm.”

“Doctors say otherwise,” The Guardian wrote.

Indeed, there is no longer any fact-based reason to deny that Israel is deliberately targeting children with sniper fire. The facts are in and the case is closed. The only basis anyone can have for denying this established fact is their own personal loyalty to the state of Israel and its military, and/or their own personal disdain for Palestinian lives.

This fact punches holes in so many of the narratives used to defend Israel over the past year. That Israel is conducting itself in a more ethical way than Hamas. That Israel is waging a war against Hamas and not the Palestinian people. That the IDF are “the most moral army in the world” and are taking extraordinary measures to avoid civilian casualties. That civilians are being killed in Gaza because Hamas uses them as “human shields”. That this is a war fought for Israel’s self-defense, and not a campaign of extermination driven by racism and hate.

There is simply no way to believe any of these things are true when you acknowledge the extensively-documented fact that Israeli forces are routinely shooting children in the head throughout the Gaza Strip.

October 10, 2024 Posted by | Atrocities, Gaza, Israel | Leave a comment

Blinken approved Israeli attacks on Gaza aid convoys: Report

Since the start of Israel’s ethnic cleansing campaign in Gaza, the US-backed army has become the leading cause of death for humanitarian workers worldwide

News Desk, OCT 8, 2024, https://thecradle.co/articles/blinken-approved-israeli-attacks-on-gaza-aid-convoys-report

US State Secretary Anthony Blinken gave the green light for Israel to launch attacks against humanitarian aid convoys inside the Gaza Strip in the early days of Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, according to a report by Drop Site News (DSN) citing Israeli journalists and media outlets.

Tel Aviv’s decision was made during a marathon session of the Security Cabinet between 16 and 17 October that Blinken took part in.

“From within the Kirya, the Israeli military’s main headquarters in Tel Aviv, Blinken participated in the frantic discussions of the Israeli War Cabinet … that were occurring in parallel to conversations in the broader Security Cabinet,” DSN reports.

Citing Channel 12 reporter Yaron Avraham, the report states that these sessions saw Israeli officials “[deliberate] for hours over the precise wording of the decision, with each draft being passed between the Cabinet room and Blinken’s room, a distance of a few meters away, inside the Kirya … Eventually, around 3 am, they arrive at an agreed upon text that is read in the Cabinet room in English.”

Channel 13 independently corroborated Avraham’s reporting, detailing: “The discussion with Blinken is conducted as follows: he is sitting in a room in the Kirya with his advisors and security team, while Security Cabinet holds the discussion; [Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron] Dermer goes back and forth and interfaces with him.”

A day later, following additional Cabinet sessions “helmed by both Blinken and [US President Joe] Biden,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office publicly announced its final decision.

“In light of President Biden’s demand, Israel will not thwart humanitarian supplies from Egypt as long as it is only food, water, and medicine for the civilian population located in the southern Gaza Strip or moving there, and as long as these supplies do not reach Hamas. Any supplies that reach Hamas will be thwarted,” the statement, issued in Hebrew, reads. 

However, DSN highlights that “the Hebrew word לסכל, ‘to thwart,’ is frequently used by Israel to describe targeted killings and assassinations. The previous policy of ‘thwarting’ all humanitarian supplies from entering Gaza was conveyed to Egypt as an explicit threat to ‘bomb’ aid trucks.”

“We in the cabinet were promised at the outset that there would be monitoring, and that aid trucks hijacked by Hamas and its organizations [sic] would be bombed from the air, and the aid would be halted,” Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said a few days after the Security Cabinet’s decision was announced.

When pressed for comment by DSN, State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel called the report “absurd.”

Nevertheless, the State Department did not clarify whether Blinken approved attacks on alleged Hamas fighters “who secure aid convoys or seize their contents.”

Over the past year, intentional Israeli attacks have become the leading cause of death for humanitarian workers across the world, as the Israeli army is now responsible for more than 75 percent of aid workers’ deaths recorded since October 2023.

In the last three months of 2023, following the Security Cabinet session that Blinken took part in, Israeli attacks targeting humanitarian workers across the occupied Palestinian territories were responsible for more deaths “than the deadliest full year ever recorded.”

Last month, ProPublica revealed that two US government offices on humanitarian assistance recommended earlier this year that Washington suspend some or all weapons shipments to Israel because its forces were restricting the delivery of aid inside Gaza. However, their recommendations were sidelined by Blinken, who went on to lie to Congress about the findings.

October 10, 2024 Posted by | Israel, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Palestine Talks | Medea Benjamin

October 10, 2024 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

DoE awards next-gen nuclear fuel contracts backwards

‘Deconversion’ can begin now, but initial enrichment, transportation and storage to processors is still TBD

Brandon Vigliarolo, Tue 8 Oct 2024 /

The US Department of Energy has awarded shares of an $800 million contract for advanced nuclear fuel deconversion to four companies, but it’s unclear who will be in charge of getting refined fuel to those deconversion sites.

High-assay low-enriched uranium, or HALEU, is needed for nuclear reactor designs like small modular reactors (SMRs), molten salt reactors and other new variations that are supposed to be safer and more efficient. Unlike traditional nuclear fuel, which contains up to 5 percent uranium-235 (the isotope that’s used to power nuclear power plants), HALEU includes a large proportion of the fissile isotope (as much as 20 percent). 

Unfortunately for American nuclear interests, HALEU production at scale is only really happening in two unfriendly countries: Russia and China. That situation has already caused delays for nuclear power projects like the Bill Gates-backed TerraPower plant in Wyoming. 

With the DoE forecasting an annual need for 40 metric tons of the stuff per year by the end of the decade, the US has a serious need for US-made HALEU. The four deals announced Friday between the DoE and Global Nuclear Fuel – Americas, Nuclear Fuel Services, American Centrifuge Operating and Framatome for HALEU deconversion services will hopefully help do just that. 

HALEU deconversion, which is conducted after the initial enrichment stage to ensure fuel has reached appropriate levels of U-235, turns enriched uranium hexafluoride gas into oxide, metal and other mineral forms usable as fuel. The DoE initially proposed the deconversion funding in October of last year. 

Step 1: ???

Each company is guaranteed $2 million in funding at a minimum to deconvert and store HALEU fuel within the US, but whether they’ll be able to reach scale is another thing altogether.

As we’ve noted previously, American Centrifuge Operating was the only company in the United States creating HALEU fuel, which it only began doing late last year, producing the US’s first HALEU, but only 20 kilograms of it. 

October 10, 2024 Posted by | USA | Leave a comment

Israel Planning Major Attack on Iran

 The US is coordinating with Israel on its plans.

by Dave DeCamp,  October 2, 2024,  https://news.antiwar.com/2024/10/02/israel-planning-major-attack-on-iran/#gsc.tab=0

Israel is planning to launch a “significant retaliation” attack against Iran over the Iranian missile barrage that targeted Israel on Tuesday, which was a response to several Israeli escalations in the region. Israeli officials acknowledged to Axios that the situation could lead to a full-blown regional war, which would involve the US.

According to the Axios report, Israel could target oil production facilities inside Iran or other strategic sites. Israeli officials say that if Iran hits back, then all options will be on the table, including strikes on Iran’s civilian nuclear facilities.

“We have a big question mark about how the Iranians are going to respond to an attack, but we take into consideration the possibility that they would go all in, which will be a whole different ball game,” an Israeli official told Axios.

Other options being considered are attacks on Iran’s air defenses or targeted assassinations. Israel has a history of killing people inside Iran, including the July 31 assassination of Hamas’s political chief, Ismail Haniyeh.

Israel would likely need US military support to launch significant strikes on Iranian territory, and the Israeli officials speaking to Axios say they are coordinating with the Biden administration. Israel wants more US support if it provokes another Iranian attack.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Tuesday that the US would work with Israel to ensure Iran faces “severe consequences.” President Biden has also said he is working with Israel on a response but said Wednesday that he wouldn’t support strikes on Iran’s nuclear facility.

“All seven of us agree that they have a right to respond, but they have to respond proportionally,” he said, referring to the Group of Seven nations. He said G7 leaders agreed to impose new sanctions on Iran, which will have little impact since Iran is already under so many.

Israel acknowledged on Wednesday that Iranian missiles made an impact on several military bases but claimed there was no significant damage. Israel is also claiming there were no major casualties, with only two Israelis suffering minor injuries. One Palestinian was killed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank when shrapnel from an intercepted missile hit him.

Iran fired about 180 ballistic missiles at Israel in response to the Israeli assassination of Haniyeh in Tehran and the Israeli killing of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and Abbas Nilforoushan, an IRGC commander who was killed alongside Nasrallah.

October 9, 2024 Posted by | Israel, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

‘Russia doesn’t want to use nuclear weapons’: The view from wartime Moscow

Putin is revising Russia’s nuclear doctrine at a critical juncture in Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Aljazeera, By Niko Vorobyov, 7 Oct 2024

Russia, which holds the world’s largest stockpile of nuclear warheads, has unveiled its new nuclear doctrine, lowering its threshold for nuclear engagement while continuing its invasion of Ukraine.

The revised rules, outlined by President Vladimir Putin, say that an attack on Russia with “participation or support of a nuclear power” will be seen as their “joint attack on the Russian Federation”, seemingly responding to the possibility that Ukraine could strike targets deep within Russian territory using long-range weapons supplied by Western allies.

The United States, Ukraine’s most important ally, is the world’s second-largest nuclear power, with 5,224 warheads compared to Russia’s 5,889.

Alexey Malinin, the Moscow-based founder of the Center for International Interaction and Cooperation, told Al Jazeera that from the Russian perspective, a reassessment of nuclear capabilities was necessary in the face of encirclement by hostile powers.

But as panic sets in across some Western nations, Russian experts say Moscow does not want to tap into its arsenal.

“Russia does not want to use nuclear weapons, understanding the seriousness of the consequences of a conflict with the use of such weapons,” he said.

“However, at present, our country is forced to respond to the growing threats directed against us. The West continues to pump Ukraine with weapons, including F-16 fighters and long-range missiles like [US-made] ATACMS. Moreover, NATO is developing its infrastructure around the borders of Russia: new units are being created in Finland.”

He claimed that although Russia is trying to avoid the use of nuclear weapons, Moscow is “forced to demonstrate” that it is ready to defend “integrity and sovereignty” by any possible means”.

However, Kremlin critics worry that Putin is pushing closer towards, if not a nuclear apocalypse, then at least a regional humanitarian disaster.

“The USSR said that it would never strike first … Now Putin says that he will strike whenever he wants,” exiled politician Leonid Gozman wrote in the Novaya Gazeta newspaper…………………………..

During the Cold War, both Washington and Moscow operated on the principle of mutually assured destruction, the understanding that a nuclear strike from one side would prompt a response in kind, leading to an all-out atomic altercation and mass devastation on a global scale.

However, Putin is warning that Russia would use nuclear weapons in response to a “critical threat to our sovereignty” – referring to not necessarily a nuclear assault, but also a conventional one.

Alexandra, an everyday Russian in Moscow who works as an architect, told Al Jazeera: “I’m scared, but I don’t understand much of what’s going on.”

The Russian government and its supporters believe they are sending a strong signal to Ukraine’s Western allies, warning against interfering in the conflict.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned the UN that should the West allow Ukraine to strike further into Russia, it will be dragging itself into a “suicidal escapade”.

“Whether or not they will provide the permission for Ukraine for long-range weapons, then we will see what their understanding was of what they heard,” he said recently.

Washington has recently greenlit additional aid for Ukraine, but permission to use US-supplied weapons does not yet go beyond what was previously agreed.

Writing on Telegram, the hawkish former President Dmitry Medvedev stated the new doctrine “could cool the passions of those opponents who have not yet lost their sense of self-preservation.”…………
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/10/7/russia-doesnt-want-to-use-nuclear-weapons-the-view-from-wartime-moscow

October 9, 2024 Posted by | Russia, weapons and war | Leave a comment

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