Palestine

Nineteen former Israeli military, intelligence and police chiefs warned that the Jewish state is “on the precipice of defeat” in Gaza, calling for an end to the war to save the hostages.

The retired Israeli leaders, including former prime minister and IDF chief Ehud Barak, said in a video released Sunday that Israel has accumulated too many losses in Gaza with no clear end in sight, with the officials accusing Netanyahu of keeping the war alive for the sole purpose of preserving the fragile right-wing coalition that controls his government.

“We are on the precipice of defeat,” said former Mossad director Tamir Pardo, referencing the mass backlash against Israel over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

TEL AVIV/CAIRO, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu favours a complete military takeover of Gaza for the first time in two decades, media reported, and was to meet senior security officials on Tuesday to finalise a new strategy in the 22-month war.

Mediation between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas has collapsed despite intense international pressure for a ceasefire to ease hunger and appalling conditions in the besieged Palestinian enclave.

Eight more people died of starvation or malnutrition in the past 24 hours, Gaza's health ministry said, while another 79 died in the latest Israeli fire. Netanyahu was to meet Defence Minister Israel Katz and military Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir to decide on a strategy to take to cabinet later this week, an Israeli official told Reuters. Strategic Affairs Minister Rob Dermer, a confidant of Netanyahu, would also be present.

A Palestinian medic was killed on Monday after an airdropped aid box fell directly on his head in the Al-Zawayda area in the central Gaza Strip.

Odai Nafez Quraan, a nurse at the Al-Aqsa Hospital, was seen in a video recently condemning the aid drops.

“This is a humiliation,” he said, adding that “if you able to fly in by air and drop aid by air, you are able to break the siege … by way of the land crossing.”

Ritchie Torres is threading a needle after emphatic defense of Israel for most of the war.

from Politico
08/04/2025 05:55 AM EDT

[It's disgusting how feeble and late this is, but it is an indication of how popular sentiment continues to shift against Israel. 👍 ]

In recent days, a majority of Democratic senators voted for a resolution to bar the sale of assault rifles to Israeli police, a marked change in the party since the start of the military conflict. Their unprecedented rebuke comes as polling shows slipping support for Israel among Democratic voters, signaling the prolonged war has potentially caused permanent damage to the country’s relationship with the Democratic Party.

Hundreds rally in Tunis to support starving Palestinians in Gaza | Africanews (2025-08-04)

https://www.africanews.com/2025/08/04/hundreds-rally-in-tunis-to-support-starving-palestinians-in-gaza/
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>> Hundreds of demonstrators marched through the streets of the Tunisian capital on Sunday, in a powerful display of solidarity with the Palestinian people, as anger grows over the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

>> Protesters waved Palestinian flags, held signs, and chanted slogans condemning both the Israeli blockade and the silence of Arab governments.

#StopGenocide #ArabComplicity #Tunis @[email protected] @israel

Jordyn Beazley and Caitlin Cassidy
Sun 3 Aug 2025 08.17 EDT

At least 100,000 pro-Palestine marchers, including Julian Assange, the former foreign minister Bob Carr and the government MP Ed Husic, have marched across Sydney Harbour Bridge in the rain to protest against Israel’s conduct in Gaza and to speak out about the children starving there.

The world-famous landmark was closed to traffic at 11.30am on Sunday, with protesters gathering in Lang Park in the city centre before enduring heavy rain as they walked across the bridge.

The march began at 1pm, with demonstrators eventually stretching the entire length of the 1.2km Harbour Bridge.

“It’s even bigger than my wildest dreams,” one of the main protest organisers, Josh Lees, told Guardian Australia while at the front of the march. “It’s a mass march for humanity to stop a genocide, our politicians have to now listen to the will of the people and sanction Israel.”

International recognition of a Palestinian state rewards Israel, which should be thanking each and every country doing so, since such recognition serves as a misleading alternative to what must actually be done – imposing sanctions.

Recognizing a Palestinian state, which does not and will not exist in the near future, if ever, is shameful silence. People are being starved in Gaza, and Europe's reaction is to recognize a Palestinian state. Will this save starving Gazans? Israel can ignore these declarations with the U.S.' support.

There's talk of a diplomatic "tsunami" in Israel, in the knowledge that it won't reach Israel's shores, as long as recognition isn't accompanied by the imposition of a price tag for genocide.

Palestinian-American dies of smoke inhalation in West Bank after settlers set fires to cars, homes - CBS News (2025-08-03)

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/palestinian-american-dies-smoke-inhalation-west-bank-confrontation-settlers-us-officials/
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>> A Palestinian American died in the Israeli-occupied West Bank last week after a confrontation with settlers, U.S. officials confirmed.

>> Khamis Ayyad, ... died Thursday from smoke inhalation in Silwad, a village in the central #WestBank near several Israeli settlements, a U.S. official told CBS News. The Palestinian health ministry said on Friday that the fires were set by settlers on homes and vehicles in Silwad, according to the Agence France-Presse.

>> The Palestinian Authority, ... told AFP that some villages around Silwad also came under attack by settlers, in which vehicles, homes and farmlands were set ablaze...

#WestBank #StopIsrael #EndOccupation #NeverStopTalkingAboutPalestine @[email protected] @israel

Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir led hundreds of settlers in storming Al-Aqsa Mosque complex on Sunday, were they loudly performed Jewish Talmudic prayer, under a heavy police guard, and attempted to antagonise Muslim worshippers.

Videos seen by Middle East Eye showed hundreds of settlers storming the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque where some could be seen dancing and shouting, disrupting the sanctity of the Muslim place of worship.

The status quo in Jerusalem has long maintained that Jewish prayer is forbidden on the raised plateau in occupied East Jerusalem's Old City, where Al-Aqsa Mosque stands.

However, over the past century, Zionist groups have repeatedly violated the fragile arrangement, launching unprecedented attacks on one of Islam's holiest sites.

97 per cent of Gaza’s animal wealth destroyed by Israeli bombing, starvation, and looting (Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, 2025-08-03)

https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/6811/97-per-cent-of-Gaza%E2%80%99s-animal-wealth-destroyed-by-Israeli-bombing,-starvation,-and-looting
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>> Israell has destroyed nearly all animal wealth in the Gaza Strip, approximately 97 per cent, through bombing and systematic starvation, including working animals that served as the last means of transport amid fuel shortages and limited public mobility.

Assumed numbers up to October 2023:

• around 6,500 poultry farms that supplied about three million chickens to the local market each month
• approximately 15,000 cows
• around 60,000 sheep and 10,000 goats
• approximately 20,000 donkeys, along with several horses and mules used as working animals

>> Israel’ss extermination of livestock is part of a systematic policy to enforce starvation and dismantle the foundations of survival.

#StopIsrael #StopGenocide @[email protected] @israel

GAZA, August 2, 2025 (WAFA) – British surgeon Graeme Groom, who returned from a volunteer mission in the Gaza Strip, which is facing Israeli genocide and starvation, said that children there are "trying to sleep with stomachs full of water and salt," amid a "man-made" humanitarian crisis he described as "barbaric, harking back to the Middle Ages."

Groom referred to "shocking scenes he witnessed while working with a volunteer medical team" in Gaza, where Palestinians are suffering from famine and malnutrition, which have caused the deaths of dozens of infants and the deterioration of the condition of wounded civilians.

Sydney Harbour Bridge: Tens of thousands turn out for pro-Palestine march (BBC, 2025-08-03)

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clydnvw1dg5o
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w/ a short aerial footage.

>> WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was spotted among the protesters, with other notable attendees including federal MP Ed Husic and former NSW Premier Bob Carr.

>> Sydney-based activist organisation Palestine Action Group lodged a notice of intention for the march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge last Sunday, ...

>> The police … made an application to the NSW Supreme Court for a prohibition order for the event, which was declined just 24 hours before the protest was due to go ahead.

>> … Justice Belinda Rigg said safety concerns regarding the march were "well founded", but march organiser Josh Lees … had "compellingly" explained the reasons why he believed there is an urgency for a response to the humanitarian situation in Gaza…

#PalestineActionGroup #JulianAssange @[email protected]

Nearly 9 out of 10 Israeli military investigations into allegations of war crimes or abuses by its soldiers since the start of the war in Gaza have been closed without finding fault or left without resolution

Unresolved investigations include the killing of at least 112 Palestinians queueing for flour in Gaza City in Feb. 2024, Action on Armed Violence said & an airstrike that killed 45 in an inferno at a tented camp in Rafah in May 2024.

if one of these is your particular Senator, and you can spare energy for a call, free fax (send with FaxZero), or email telling them exactly what you think of them supporting & enabling a genocidal apartheid state... please do.

these people have names and addresses. it's time for some accountability.

Pro-Palestine protesters will be legally protected while marching across the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Sunday after a New South Wales supreme court decision.

The bridge is expected to be closed for about five hours, from 11.30am, and additional police are being mobilised to observe a march that could include up to 50,000 people.

In her judgment, Justice Belinda Rigg said “the march at this location is motivated by the belief that the horror and urgency of the situation in Gaza demands an urgent and extraordinary response from the people of the world”.

“The evidence indicates there is significant support for the march.”

50,000 seems a bit on the small side for a Sydney Harbour Bridge march. Hopefully there will be many many more than that.