Tuesday, December 31, 2024

12/31 Links Pt1: The Gaza hospital blood libel; Hamas said willing to free only 22 of 34 living hostages demanded by Israel

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: When Anything Can Go Wrong, But Everything Goes Right
The story starts with the Second Lebanon War in 2006, which was seen as a debacle in Israel because it ended in stalemate. But Israeli military leaders acknowledged their intelligence gaps and began filling in the blanks. By the end of 2012, Israel had the ability to map out the locations of Hezbollah leaders, bunkers, and missile silos.

That didn’t make getting to their targets easy, though. In 2014, the manufacturer of a popular line of walkie-talkies stopped making them. Israeli intelligence learned that Hezbollah military vests were designed with a pocket specifically for these radios, and Israel joined the global race to produce a replacement. The Israeli walkie-talkies, outfitted with explosives, began arriving in Lebanon in 2015.

The pager plot was hatched by a female Mossad agent in 2018, but there was nowhere to go with it yet: Hezbollah operatives weren’t using pagers in large enough numbers. That began to change as Israel got better at hacking and tracking the terror group’s cellphones. Then Israel decided to give history a nudge: “Israeli officers from Unit 8200 helped fuel the fear, using bots on social media to push Arabic-language news reports on Israel’s ability to hack into phones, according to two officers in the agency.”

It worked: “Worried about smartphones being compromised, Hezbollah’s leadership decided to expand its use of pagers.” Israel began secretly manufacturing and testing and marketing their own to sell to Hezbollah, which they rigged with explosives.

All was not smooth sailing. Israeli intelligence discovered a Hezbollah technician who was becoming increasingly suspicious of the new devices. So Israel, according to the Times, eliminated him in an airstrike.

That suspicion eventually caught on, however. “On Sept. 11, intelligence showed that Hezbollah was sending some of the pagers to Iran for examination, and Israeli officials knew it was only a matter of time before the covert operation would be blown.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had to decide whether to give up on that operation or trigger the devices and the inevitable military response from Iran and Hezbollah.

As for Nasrallah, Israel faced a similar dilemma when word got back to Jerusalem that the Hezbollah leader was contemplating moving his secret location. At the moment, Israel knew where his hideout was and had a way to get to him. Neither would necessarily be true again. According to the Times, Nasrallah’s advisers urged him to change locations on the day of his assassination.

It’s tempting to look at momentous events in history as inevitable. It’s also common for the public to see the Mossad as some kind of all-knowing force playing God. But all of these missions had multiple hinge points over which Israel had no control. And even as Israeli leaders showed decisiveness at key moments, the consequences of those decisions would only be known once they happened. In the real world, there’s no such thing as a sure thing.
Melanie Phillips: The Gaza hospital blood libel
On Friday and Saturday, the Israeli Defence Forces conducted a raid on the Kamal Adwan hospital in Gaza. The IDF said it was being used as a Hamas command and control centre.

At the hospital they arrested no fewer than 240 terrorists, 15 of whom, they said, had participated in the October 7 massacre in Israel. Inside the hospital, they found weapons including grenades, guns, and military equipment. The IDF killed 19 terrorists there; 700 civilians were evacuated and none was killed. Some of the terror operatives, said the IDF, posed as medical staff and patients. Some tried to leave on stretchers and in ambulances; of a first group of 21 patients leaving the hospital, 13 turned out to be terrorist suspects.

The IDF also said that before the raid, 350 patients as well as caregivers and medical personnel were evacuated to other hospitals. The Israelis delivered thousands of litres of fuel, food, and medical supplies for the essential functioning of the hospital. Once operations began 95 patients, caregivers, and medical personnel were evacuated to Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital, to which the IDF delivered 5,000 litres of fuel, two generators and medical equipment. Additionally, hundreds of civilians were able to move away from the area for their own safety via defined evacuation routes.

In video footage taken by Hamas itself and released by the IDF, Hamas operatives were filmed planting explosives about 45 metres away from the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, to where patients from Kamal Adwan were moved.

Using a hospital for military purposes is a war crime. It turns such a hospital from a protected space into a legitimate military target under international law. In Britain and America, however, the media did not report the hijack of Kamal Adwan hospital as a war crime. There was no outcry over the gross abuse of medical facilities that had turned a place of healing into an active war front and put patients at risk. Instead, media outlets faithfully parroted Hamas propaganda and accused Israel of burning the hospital down.
Kassy Akiva: Suspected Hamas Operative Hailed As A Humanitarian After Arrest
A Gaza doctor who has been published twice by The New York Times and profiled by CNN is actively detained and being interrogated by Israel, which believes he is a terrorist operative. But despite evidence suggesting close ties to Hamas, international organizations are hailing him as a humanitarian.

Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, was arrested on Friday along with 240 others during a raid on the hospital, Reuters reported.

In the wake of his arrest, organizations including the World Health Organization, Amnesty International, and the Council on America-Islamic Relations (CAIR), have called for his release. But as the global campaign to free Abu Safiya from Israeli detention takes off, revelations have come to light about his alleged dual role as a Hamas colonel.

In a statement, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) reported that the hospital was being used as a terrorist command, where they recovered grenades, guns, ammunition, and other military equipment. Patients and medical staff were reportedly relocated to the Indonesian Hospital, with additional fuel and medical supplies provided. About 15 of those arrested are believed to have infiltrated Israel on the October 7 attack.

The statement adds that Abu Safiya was taken for questioning due to being suspected of being a Hamas terrorist operative. The IDF confirmed to The Daily Wire that Abu Safiya is still currently detained and being interrogated.

Media outlets including CNN have profiled Abu Safiya without investigating his ties to Hamas. The New York Times published two op-eds authored by Abu Safiya where he begged for help for his hospital. Abu Safiya’s family issued a statement demanding his release and urging the media to apply pressure for his freedom.

Abu Safiya, a pediatrician who has cultivated an image as a defender of human rights to mask his terrorist ties, was exposed first by Israeli activist Eitan Fischberger. In multiple Arab media reports or social media posts, Abu Safiya is referred to as a Colonel.

In five Arabic news articles, from four different articles, spanning from 2017 to 2021, Abu Safiya was referred to with his Hamas terrorist military rank of Colonel. These articles are published in Quds Net News Agency, Alray, Pal Times, and twice in Al Watan.


Hamas said willing to free only 22 of 34 living hostages demanded by Israel in deal
Palestinian terror group Hamas has partially rejected a list of hostages that Israel insists must be released in the first phase of any ceasefire deal, according to a Monday report.

Kan news, citing an unnamed Palestinian source, said Hamas is willing to release 22 of the 34 hostages on the list, but is refusing to agree to the release of the other 12. Instead, the report stated, the group offered to release 22 living hostages and 12 bodies during the first phase of a potential deal.

Israel turned down the notion and made it clear that it would only accept living hostages during the initial stage of a deal, the report added.

The report did not provide further details on the hostages Hamas is reportedly refusing to release. Earlier this month, Egypt’s Al-Ghad outlet reported that Israel requested that 11 men considered by Hamas to be soldiers be included on the list of hostages to be released in the first phase of a potential deal.

The terror group classifies all Israeli men of fighting age to be soldiers.

Another stumbling block reported by Hebrew media is Hamas’s insistence that a proposed deal include the terms for an end to the war. The terror group was reportedly balking at recent remarks by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel would resume fighting after the captives have been released.

Israel and the terror group have traded blame for the latest failure to reach an agreement after a burst of renewed negotiations, nearly 15 months after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 people hostage during its October 7, 2023 attack, of whom 96 remain in captivity in the Gaza Strip — including 34 confirmed dead.

Meanwhile, Hamas is insisting on guarantees from mediators that Israel will end the war as a condition for an overall hostage deal, Ynet reported. Though the terror group is not demanding such assurances for the first stage of the envisioned three-phase deal, it does want an end to the war written into the agreement in light of recent remarks by Netanyahu that he intends to continue the fight after a hostage deal is completed, making any truce a temporary one.


Caroline Glick: BOMBSHELL REPORT: US is Unprepared for War With Its Enemies
As 2025 is nearly here, the US finds itself wholly unprepared for new and old threats. A bombshell report reveals that the US would lose in a war with China, Blinken reveals his own delusional thinking about Afghanistan and we go through what Trump needs to do to turn the course back in America's favor.

Chapters
00:00 Resetting US Foreign Policy
05:53 US Military Readiness and the China Threat
12:03 The Taliban's Return and Women's Rights
18:08 The Jihadist Threat in France
23:47 The Gaza Conflict: Misunderstandings and Missteps
29:58 The Future of US Foreign Policy


How Israel Became Dependent on US Military Aid | Caroline Glick Show
The current Israel/Hamas/Hezbollah war and the Biden administration’s slow-walking of crucial arms to Israel has reignited the debate on US military aid to Israel on both the right and the left. Is it time to rethink Israel’s dependence of US military aid? Can Israel be militarily and technologically independent? Has the relationship always been this way?

To answer these questions, Caroline Glick sits down with the Director of the Churchill Program for Strategy, Statecraft, and Security at the Argaman Institute and an Expert at the Misgav Institute Dr. Raphael BenLevi.

Chapters
00:00 Reassessing U.S. Military Assistance to Israel
05:43 Historical Context of Military Aid
11:51 The Dynamics of Aid and Peace Negotiations
20:47 Current Challenges and Future Considerations
33:04 Understanding Israel's Budget Dynamics
39:03 The Future of Military Aid and Independence
45:29 Shifting from Aid to Self-Sufficiency
51:48 Reassessing Security Strategies
57:55 The Path to a Stronger Israel




INSIDE GAZA: A Soldier’s Experience Fighting Hamas | Quad Interviews
Foreign Ministry Special Envoy Fleur Hassan-Nahoum interviews commando soldier Elkana Cohen who details his experience in Gaza in his new book “OCT 7: The War Against Hamas Through the Eyes of an Israeli Commando Officer”. The book starts as a letter to his wife when he couldn’t be in touch with her and details what he saw firsthand and how the IDF conducted itself when face-to-face with the enemy.


Danon to ‘Post’: Guterres’s attitude towards Israel ‘unacceptable’
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s attitude toward Israel’s actions against the Houthis is repugnant, Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.

“I always hope that something will change,” he said. “I hoped that on this issue he would be able to make the distinction between black and white and evil and good. He wasn’t capable of doing that.”

Danon said he is still shocked by Guterres’s tweet this weekend in which the UN leader called Israel’s airstrikes in Yemen “especially alarming.”

“The fact that the secretary-general equates Israel – a democracy – with a terrorist organization basically creates a moral equation that puts the victim and the aggressor on the same side. That’s unacceptable,” Danon said.

“Israel is 2,500 km., 1,600 miles away from Yemen. We have been attacked by 300 rockets and UAVs. There is no reason to equate us. We expect the UN to... condemn only the Houthis, who are the ones who started this conflict.”

UNSC meeting on Houthi attacks
After Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Danon worked behind the scenes on Monday night, a special UN Security Council meeting was convened on the Houthi attacks.

“Right before the US will end its term as president of the Security Council on January 1, we coordinated the meeting and it was very important for us,” Danon said. “After that, we might have a council that I’m not sure they would have accepted our request to discuss this issue.”

In the meeting, Danon said his message was first to the Iranians, that they needed to see what happened to their other proxies in the region. The second was that it’s not only Israel’s war; it’s about world stability, regional stability, and the Suez Canal.

The Chinese and Russians, both permanent members of the Security Council and interested in stability, should be just as concerned as Israel, but unfortunately, said Danon, that is not the case.

“I was very disappointed by their comments,” he told the Post. “They continue to give the support and [scope] to Iranian aggression and they couldn’t distinguish themselves from their position of supporting Iran, so they condemned both sides.”


Shin Bet reports 40% drop in terrorist successes during 2024
The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) thwarted 1,040 significant terrorist attacks in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem in 2024, according to the agency’s annual report published on Tuesday.

This represents a 40% reduction in successful terrorist attacks compared to the previous year.

Most of the foiled attacks involved firearms (689) and explosive devices (326), with the others being stabbings, car-rammings, suicide bombings and abductions.

In the Gaza Strip, 2,500 suspects were evaluated, with 650 eventually interrogated, leading to actionable intelligence. A total of 1,350 individuals were detained, including 40 senior commanders, 165 close associates of top officials and 45 participants in the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel.

Three hostage-rescue missions and several body-recovery operations were conducted during the course of the war in Gaza. The Shin Bet shared audio recordings from the extraction of Ori Megidish on Oct. 30, 2023 and the rescue of Louis Har and Fernando Marman on Feb. 12, 2024.

Inside Israel’s pre-1967 borders, 20 terror cells involving Arab Israelis were uncovered, with five planning attacks using car bombs or other explosives. The “Tequila” rapid intervention counter-terror force was dispatched 32 times to prevent imminent attacks.

In Lebanon, 25 senior commanders from Palestinian terror groups were eliminated, including members of Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

In countering the Iranian threat, there was a 400% rise in espionage-related arrests, 13 plots foiled and 27 indictments.

On the cyber-defense front, there were 700 major cyberattacks thwarted, a five-fold increase from 2023.


‘Don’t call for de-escalation when we defend ourselves,’ Israel tells UN of Houthis
Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, held up a map at the U.N. Security Council meeting, which Israel called, on Monday to demonstrate that Yemen shares no border with the Jewish state. Yet the Houthis, an Iranian proxy, have attacked Israel from Yemen purportedly in solidarity with Hamas and have disturbed international shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

“We have no dispute with them, yet they send their missiles and drones to murder our people, and why?” Danon said. “Pure, radical, jihadist hatred for Jews.”

Danon, who told the global body that the attacks are personal for him after the Houthis fired missiles at the school he attended as a child, said that Israel has had enough.

“If you didn’t speak up when our schools were hit, don’t speak up when we respond,” he said. “Don’t call for de-escalation when we defend ourselves.”

The Israeli envoy slammed the United Nations for failing to enforce the Security Council’s arms embargo against the Houthis and said that Israel is aware of several ships that have evaded U.N. verification and inspection and have delivered Iranian weapons through Houthi-controlled Red Sea ports.

“It is time the world wakes up. A terror group attacking trade routes, collaborating with global terror networks and armed by Iran is not just a regional threat,” Danon said. “It is a grim warning for the world order. They have been given a green light for terror.”

He warned the Houthis to learn from the downfall of Hamas, Hezbollah and Bashar Assad, the deposed Syrian president. “You will share their miserable fate,” Danon said.
Israel downs Houthi missile fired from Yemen
The Israeli Air Force on Monday night intercepted a ballistic missile launched by Houthi terrorists in Yemen at central Israel, in the seventh such nighttime attack over the past two weeks.

The missile was downed before crossing into Israeli territory, according to the military.

Sirens were nevertheless activated due to fears of falling fragments from the interception.

Israeli media reported that missile debris caused minor damage in the Ramat Beit Shemesh Alef neighborhood of Beit Shemesh, close to Jerusalem.

In the central city of Yavne, an 18-year-old girl was hit by a vehicle while running to a bomb shelter, according to the Magen David Adom emergency medical service. She sustained light injuries to her chest and limbs and was evacuated to the hospital in stable condition.

There were no other immediate reports of injuries, although several people were treated for acute anxiety, said MDA.

The Iran-backed rebels claimed in a statement on Tuesday morning that they launched two missiles—one targeting Ben-Gurion Airport and the other aiming at a power station south of Jerusalem. During the Houthi attack, takeoffs and landings at the airport were briefly delayed, but operations resumed within an hour.

The terrorist group also said that it targeted the aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman. There was no immediate comment from the U.S. military.

Overnight Friday, the Israel Defense Forces intercepted a Houthi missile that triggered air-raid sirens across the Jerusalem, Judea and Dead Sea areas. It was the first time sirens sounded in the capital since the Iranian attack on Oct. 1.

The previous night, sirens blared in the greater Tel Aviv area as the IDF intercepted another Houthi missile fired from Yemen. A U.S.-made THAAD anti-missile battery assisted in the interception, in the first such instance since the system was deployed to Israel in October.


US Central Command releases video of its strikes on Houthis
U.S. Central Command released video footage on Tuesday of U.S. “precision airstrikes” earlier this month against a missile storage site and a command-and-control center which Iran-backed Houthi terrorists operate in Sanaa, Yemen.

“CENTCOM forces conducted the deliberate strikes to disrupt and degrade Houthi operations, such as attacks against U.S. Navy warships and merchant vessels in the Southern Red Sea, Bab al-Mandeb and Gulf of Aden,” the Pentagon stated.

The Defense Department added that U.S. Air Force and Navy forces, including F/A-18 fighter jets, shot down several Houthi drones and an anti-ship cruise missile over the Red Sea.

“The strike reflects CENTCOM’s ongoing commitment to protect U.S. and coalition personnel, regional partners and international shipping,” the Pentagon said.
'Day 61 will be different': Hezbollah official states group will not tolerate IDF in Lebanon
The IDF and Hezbollah traded threats on Tuesday over whether the military must complete its withdrawal from southern Lebanon on the 60th day exactly from the November 27 ceasefire, or whether there is wiggle room depending on conditions and violations on the ground.

Israeli military and government officials started making noises last week about the 60-day number not being “holy” and that if either the Lebanese military was moving slower than expected in exerting control over southern Lebanon or if Hezbollah carried out too many ceasefire violations, that the withdrawal could be drawn out past the deadline for days, weeks, and possibly even months.

Hezbollah is committed to its 60-day ceasefire with Israel but “day 61 will be different,” Political Council Deputy Chief Mahmoud Komati told Lebanon’s Al Manar TV late Monday, adding that Hezbollah would return to action against the IDF if Israel does not withdraw from southern Lebanon, while not giving further details.

In the interview, the former minister of state for parliamentary affairs said Hezbollah will not allow any local or foreign party to interfere with its weapons rebuilding program.

The stockpile of rockets, missiles, and drones is still there, Komati said, stating it was Hezbollah’s firing at Tel Aviv that brought Israel to the negotiating table.

The official also warned that certain political parties in Lebanon were aiding and abetting Israel to the detriment of the country and called on the Lebanese to desist from doing so.

“Some of them provided the enemy with data about certain institutions, like Al-Qard Al-Hasan Association,” Komati said. “Is this the proper way to build the nation?”

Komati said Hezbollah backs the selection of a new president in Lebanon, noting the shift in stance of those who once insisted on convening parliament but are now advocating for a delay in the voting session.

The Hezbollah representative further said the party still seeks respectful relations with Arab nations, aiming to avoid any political provocations.


Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket chief killed in Israeli strike
The commander of Palestinian Islamic Jihad‘s rocket unit in the northern Gaza Strip was killed in an Israeli airstrike at the start of December, the Israel Defense Forces revealed on Tuesday.

Anas Muhammad Saadi Masri was responsible for commanding and executing many attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers, including rocket launches at communities in southern Israel during and after the Hamas-led massacre on Oct. 7, 2023.

The IDF emphasized that numerous steps were taken before the strike on Sasdi to minimize harm to civilians.

“The IDF and ISA (Shin Bet) will continue to target anyone who carried out terror activities against Israeli civilians and operate in order to achieve the goals of the war,” the statement said.

IDF destroys Hamas tunnel network hidden in Rafah mosque

The IDF’s Nahal Brigade, operating in the Rafah area of southern Gaza over the last few months, uncovered and destroyed significant Hamas underground infrastructure, including tunnels hidden in a mosque.

Throughout its operations, the brigade encountered Hamas’s use of civilian structures for terrorism.
IAF eliminates Nukhba commander who infiltrated Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7
The Israel Air Force (IAF) eliminated Nukhba Platoon Commander Abd al-Hadi Sabah of the Western Khan Yunis Brigade, the military said on Tuesday.

The strike was conducted based on intelligence from the IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency).

Abd al-Hadi Sabah was one of the terrorist leaders who infiltrated Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7 and, throughout the war, led numerous terror attacks against IDF soldiers, the IDF noted.

Nukhba, PIJ terrorists eliminated on Tuesday
Earlier on Tuesday, the IDF and Shin Bet killed Anas Muhammad Saadi Masri, the commander of the northern sector of the rocket unit of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the IDF confirmed.

Masri was described as "a significant figure responsible for executing numerous terrorist operations, managing and directing actions by the organization that targeted Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers."

Since October 7, Masri had been actively commanding rocket fire from northern Gaza into Israeli border communities. He also oversaw several operatives involved in launching rockets into Israeli territory.


Hamas uses hospitals to exploit Israel's warfare tactics, expert says
"From the first day of the Israel-Hamas War, Hamas left no hospital untouched for terrorist purposes," Maj. (ret.) John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, told Maariv in an interview published on Monday. "Hospitals receive special protection under international law as places of refuge. However, the law explicitly prohibits the use of hospitals to shield military objectives from attack."

"Under the laws of war in international law, if a hospital is found to be used for warfare by the enemy, one of the primary requirements is to notify the enemy in advance that if they do not vacate the hospital, the military will attack. The main problem is that after notifying the enemy of an impending attack, the enemy naturally exploits this to escape or prepare for the attack."

"In almost every hospital the IDF entered, there was evidence of Hamas's military use of the facility, which the army revealed and publicized. At Shifa Hospital, evidence was found of hostages being held, weapons and ammunition stored, and an extensive tunnel with command and control infrastructure. In other cases, Hamas operatives were documented firing from within Sheikh Hamad Hospital, while others fired rockets near Al-Quds Hospital before running inside."

To address this challenge, "the IDF often surrounds the hospital and calls on the terrorists to come out while simultaneously using advanced facial recognition techniques to identify Hamas operatives attempting to 'blend in' with civilians....Hamas operatives often try to appear as the most vulnerable patients - using wheelchairs, crutches, or carrying a sick baby."
UN body issues damning report on Israeli attacks on Gaza hospitals
Israel has in the past few days conducted operations against hospitals in Gaza that drew criticism from the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) among others.

Hamas has used hospitals as command centers for military operations and said people Israel has detained at the facilities were suspected terrorists, the IDF has repeatedly accused.

The UN report alluded to such arguments but said not enough information had been made public to substantiate them.

The report said deliberately directing attacks against hospitals and places where the sick and wounded are, provided they are not military objectives, would be war crimes.

It also warned that an alleged systemic pattern of rights abuses against civilians could constitute crimes against humanity.



Israel has consistently rejected such suggestions.

The UN said that responding to its report, the Israeli government said its military had taken extensive measures to mitigate civilian harm and minimize disruption, including providing aid and evacuation routes, and setting up field hospitals.

Still, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, said the report's findings pointed to "blatant disregard for international humanitarian and human rights law."

"As if the relentless bombing and the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza were not enough, the one sanctuary where Palestinians should have felt safe in fact became a death trap," Türk said in a statement.

The war was triggered by a Hamas attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken to Gaza as hostages.


Two killed in shooting attack on aid convoy in northern Gaza
Two people were killed in northern Gaza after gunmen attacked an aid convoy, the World Food Programme reported on Monday.

Following the incident, Hamas accused the U.N. agency of failing to coordinate security measures properly, according to AFP.

The WFP, in its statement, described the attack as occurring during “a coordinated movement to bring in 40 trucks on behalf of humanitarian partners” on Sunday, which was disrupted by “violent, armed looting, resulting in the deaths of two people.”

“Amidst the armed looting, five trucks carrying essential supplies were lost,” the agency added.

Hamas, which governs Gaza, condemned the WFP in a statement, calling the incident “a catastrophic mistake” that “claimed the lives of two citizens and injured dozens with bullets.”

The group demanded accountability, stating, “We hold [the WFP] fully responsible and demand that it adhere to established protocols for coordinating the security of aid convoys.”

The WFP highlighted that over the past two weeks, “nearly every aid movement through crossings in southern and central Gaza has been marred by violence, looting and tragic deaths due to attacks and the absence of law and order along convoy routes inside Gaza.”

The United Nations said that 23 trucks were “lost to looting” on Dec. 22, after the Israel Defense Forces overhauled its efforts to secure humanitarian aid delivery routes in Gaza and, reportedly, saw some short-term success.

Looting by armed gangs, many reportedly with terror ties, has been on the rise and has created a major obstacle to aid delivery and safety.


Call Me Back Podcast: The Brutality of War – with Yossi Klein Halevi
Hosted by Dan Senor
Last Thursday, The New York Times published a long investigative piece titled “Israel Loosened Its Rules to Bomb Hamas Fighters, Killing Many More Civilians”. The article tries to identify an unprecedented shift in the IDF’s military strategy and rules of engagement during its response to Hamas’s October 7 invasion, and reports on the impact on Palestinian civilians, including a substantial increase in risk to Palestinian civilians.

To discuss the ethics of Israel fighting a just war justly, to help us unpack and respond to the key charges in the Times investigation, and to briefly reflect on the (post-presidential) legacy of President Jimmy Carter, we welcome back to the podcast, Yossi Klein Halevi, who is a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. Yossi has written a number of books, including his latest, “Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor,” which was a New York Times bestseller. He has written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Times of Israel. He is co-host of “For Heaven’s Sake” podcast.
Yossi Klein Halevi’s books
Articles discussed in this episode:
“Israel Loosened Its Rules to Bomb Hamas Fighters, Killing Many More Civilians”
“Teens forced to perform sexual acts on each other: Report to UN details Hamas torture”
“Jimmy Carter, friend of dictators and champion of terrorists”

Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
07:10 Reactions to Houthi attacks in recent days
09:10 Immediate response to the NYT investigative article
16:15 Why the rules of engagement have changed in this war
19:41 The NYT article as a refutation of the "genocide" accusation
21:25 Factoring in the hostages
23:55 Could Israel achieve its military goals without loosening some restrictions it adhered to in the past?
25:28 Fighting according to international law when the enemy is not obliged by it
32:48 Is Israel David or Goliath?
36:30 Observations on the report to the UN by the Israeli Ministry of Health regarding the hostages
42:28 The hold-up in the current hostages' negotiations
43:54 Does the way Israel has fought this war inflame antisemitism?
51:13 Why did the list of genocide accusations start before the war?




Congregation pleads with Met Police to route Palestine march away from central London Shul
Community leaders and one of the country’s most senior barristers have urged the police to move a major Gaza march away from a London synagogue amid concerns that the Met is failing to protect Jewish life in the city.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC)-organised rally on January 18 – a Shabbat – is planned to begin at the BBC headquarters in Portland Place, just 500 metres from Central Synagogue.

The shul’s Rabbi Lerer told the JC that the Gaza protests had been damaging his synagogue’s ability to function, with events cancelled and congregants being intimidated on their way to worship.

He said that had reported to the police hearing chants for “genocide of Jews” from his synagogue, but that the information had been met with a “shrug”.

Previous marches sanctioned by the police have affected other London synagogues, including Western Marble Arch and Westminster, disrupting their services and forcing Jews to stay away.

Rabbis and congregants told the JC about police cordons protecting shul entrances from baying protesters and of the difficulty in “doing Judaism” on march days.

The Chief Rabbi, Sir Ephraim Mirvis, said this was a “critical moment” for the Met to demonstrate its commitment to protecting the community, having recently criticised the force for failing in its duty to ensure Jewish Londoners feel safe when attending shul.

However, one source who has advised activists in their police negotiations said that previous legal victories by litigious protest groups had cowed the police from taking a more robust stance when dealing with the marches.

In 2019, Extinction Rebellion won a High Court challenge against the Met after the force banned its London protests, leading to hundreds of protesters being able to claim compensation for wrongful imprisonment.

This view of the police was reinforced by comments from senior barrister Lord Pannick KC, who said: “That the marches should not be forming up near or passing near synagogues is clearly a power the police have the ability to impose via conditions under the Public Order Act.
Leader of pro-Palestine bike gang that ‘shut down’ London was once saved from jail by Jews
The leader of a pro-Palestine motorbike gang that he claimed “shut down” central London ahead of Christmas was once saved from jail by Jews – but now believes they are “greedy”, the JC can reveal.

Yusef Bouattoura, a fitness influencer with 100,000 followers on Instagram, led dozens of loudly revving motorcyclists along Bond Street, where he tried to hang a Palestinian flag on a lamppost.

A video of the “protest” shared by Bouattoura shows him sprinting between two lines of motorbikes and is captioned: “Last night we shut down London with the superbikes”.

Speaking on a business podcast two weeks ago, Bouattoura said: “With Jewish people, they are very greedy as well. When one person has you, everyone wants you. If you’re the best at something, everyone wants you.

“For them, money isn’t valuable in a way that they can afford anything. It gets to a point where if they can afford it, they have full control over you. But I never allowed that to happen.

When discussing his views on investment and business practices, he told Kazi Shafiqur Rahman, who hosts the Side by Side Podcast, that “there are no rules” for Jewish people when it comes to financial dealings, contrasting this with the “loads of rules” that Muslims must follow.

However, six years ago, Bouattoura - who grew up as a Muslim in Stamford Hill – appeared to be a vocal supporter of the Jewish community.

Bouattoura told the JC in a 2018 interview how he had turned his life around with the help of his Jewish clients.

He credited his “loyal Jewish clientele” with helping him stay out of prison and rebuild his life after spending time in a Young Offenders Institution.

“Without them, I believe I would still be in prison,” he said.




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2019 Nobel Peace Prize nominee

Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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