Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says five members killed by Hamas
The United States-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has accused militant group Hamas of attacking a bus carrying its staffers to an aid distribution centre, saying at least five people were killed and multiple others injured.
The group said in a statement that around 10 pm local time 'a bus carrying more
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Otago Daily Times
a day ago
- Otago Daily Times
It's a rerun, not to be seen again
"They lied," said Donald Trump in 2016, running for the Republican presidential nomination against the neo-cons in his own party who had started the "forever wars" in Afghanistan and Iraq. "They said there were weapons of mass destruction. There were none. And they knew there were none." Invading the wrong country is generally a big mistake, and everybody outside the United States knew it (except maybe Britain's Tony Blair). However, President George W. Bush had to believe in Saddam Hussein's alleged "weapons of mass destruction" so he could invade Iraq and expunge the blame for having let 9/11 happen on his watch. (Yes, I know Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11. Don't get tangled up in the details. The point is that Bush managed to persuade Americans of a link between Saddam and 9/11.) Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu is in a similar position. He not only failed to prevent Hamas from carrying out the massacre of October 7, 2023, he had previously allowed a flow of cash from Qatar into the Gaza Strip in order to ensure the Palestinians remained divided between Hamas and Fatah. Bibi must erase his guilt for that failure if he is to have a political future, and even the expulsion of the Palestinian population from Gaza (now being prepared) may not be enough. Whereas the destruction of the alleged Iranian nuclear weapons threat, and perhaps of the entire Iranian regime, could earn him full absolution within Israel. Netanyahu is genuinely obsessed about such weapons, but there is also always a tactical, political element in his warnings. He said Iran was "three to five years away from a bomb" in 1992. He said it again in 1995. It was allegedly only one year away in 2012, and it has always been "imminent" since 2019. Which brings us to the congressional testimony of Tulsi Gabard, Trump's own Director of National Intelligence, on March 26 of this year. She said that the US intelligence community continued to assess that Iran was "not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei [had] not authorised the nuclear weapons programme that he suspended in 2003." Finally, an American official who thinks she is working for her country, not for her party — but then, she is also a combat veteran (Iraq) and a lieutenant-colonel in the National Guard. She takes her job seriously, and does not fall for all that guff about an Iranian nuclear weapons programme. There once was such a programme. It began in the mid-1980s, when the fledgling Islamic Republic of Iran was invaded by Iraq (with US encouragement and support). It was cancelled after the US invaded Iraq and found no nuclear weapons there in 2003, and to the best of our knowledge it has not been restarted since then. All Middle Eastern governments know that they would face a pre-emptive Israeli nuclear strike if they ever sought nuclear weapons of their own. (Israel has had nuclear weapons since the late 1960s and now has a hundred or more, deliverable by planes, missiles and submarines.) The idea that Iran is working on such weapons now is frankly ridiculous. Iran first enriched uranium to 3.5% as part of its civil nuclear power programme in 2006. Suspicion that it was exceeding that level led to international trade sanctions, but those were eased when it signed a deal in 2015 that limited its enrichment to 3.67% (far below weapons grade) and opened all its facilities to inspection. It never violated that deal, but Donald Trump pulled the US out of the treaty in 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Tehran. After waiting a couple of years Iran began inching up its enrichment level as a kind of counter-pressure, and by last year it was enriching at 60%. (Weapons grade is 90%.) The whole show is performative nonsense. Even if Iran had weapons-grade uranium now, fabricating warheads, testing the weapons and devising a reliable means of delivery (it has nothing suitable now) would take years. Whereas if Israel really believed Tehran were close to success now, it would have nuked all of Iran's facilities six months ago. Donald Trump has long known that Bibi was trying to sucker him into a joint war against Iran, and never fell for it before. Why now? Probably because he just can't resist the opportunity to strut around emoting on the stage. Look at his recent tweets. "We know exactly where the so-called 'Supreme Leader' is hiding. He is an easy target, but is safe there — We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now." And a couple of minutes later: "UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!" They won't surrender. This will be Trump's own forever war. ■Gwynne Dyer is an independent London journalist.
NZ Herald
2 days ago
- NZ Herald
Opinion: Jewish communities facing increased threats
THE FACTS 'Child killer!' This is one of the slurs that media recently reported that a man yelled when he punched an Israeli visitor in Christchurch. Two days before that report, a man in Colorado attacked Jews marching for the hostages still held in Gaza by the terrorist group Hamas
Scoop
2 days ago
- Scoop
Shelling The Aid Seekers: Israel's 'Humanitarian' Project In Gaza
It's official. If not, it ought to be. Israeli forces freely butcher Palestinians in Gaza of all stripes, standing and states of desperation. They do so casually or indifferently or maliciously. True, they might get the odd militant here and there, but the supposedly professional Israeli Defense Forces is rather good at killing civilians. In what is becoming an almost daily occurrence, Israeli security personnel are slaughtering those seeking humanitarian aid from facilities that are obscenely restricted and appallingly located. What is unclear in the process is how devastating Palestinian militias armed and supported by the Israelis have been in pushing up the mortality count. In one incident on June 17, Israeli tanks – not exactly a light form of population control – fired into a crown scrounging for aid from trucks in Gaza. The resulting death toll was impressively outrageous: 59 killed. A further 14 were also killed by IDF gunfire and air strikes in the enclave, taking the death toll for June 17 to 73. On this occasion, Israel's normally mendacious publicity arm in the IDF seemed to concede that the firing had taken place. It followed that yet another cleansing review would take place. According to Reuters, a witness by the name of Alaa interviewed at Nasser Hospital saw the following spectacle of gore: 'All of a sudden, they let us move forward and made everyone gather, and then shells started falling, tank shells.' The IDF breezily stated that it was 'aware of reports regarding a number of injured individuals from IDF fire following the crowd's approach. The details of the incident are under view. The IDF regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and operates to minimise harm as much as possible to them while maintaining the safety of our troops.' The previous day, 34 people awaiting to collect food were killed by IDF personnel near an aid centre operated by the Israeli- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a body whose dubious credentials never cease to amaze. Eyewitnesses in the crowd, including Heba Jouda and Mohamed Abed, recall Israeli troops firing on Palestinians massed around 4 a.m. at the Flag Roundabout prior to the scheduled opening of the Rafah food centre. The roundabout is located some hundreds of metres from the GHF centre, and has been the site of numerous shootings. 'Fire was coming from everywhere,' stated Jouda, a worn figure who has made the harrowing journey to the aid centre a number of times. 'It's getting worse by the day.' The International Committee on the Red Cross (ICRC) confirmed receiving 200 people at its field hospital located in the Al-Mawasi area near Rafah. Up till that point, the ICRC stated that it had been 'the highest number received by the Red Cross Field Hospital in one mass casualty incident.' Carrie Garavan, a British Red Cross nurse working at the field hospital, notes the daily flow of casualties into the facility, most of whom have been queuing for food. 'We are having mass casualty incidents almost every day, sometimes twice a day.' The GHF, for its part, is lukewarm to the fattening butcher's bill. None of the shooting incidents, claimed a spokesperson to The Associated Press, 'have occurred at our sites or during operating hours.' Implying that those seeking aid were responsible for their own demise, the spokesperson went on to explain that they had moved 'during prohibited times … or trying to take a shortcut.' How irresponsible of them. In oral evidence given to the UK Foreign Affairs Committee on June 16, Anna Halford, the Médecins Sans Frontières emergency coordinator for Gaza, found it 'difficult to overstate at what point this is neither a humanitarian enterprise nor a system.' The entire Israeli aid effort in Gaza, as things stood, 'was basically lethal chaos.' Prior to the current lethal order of aid distribution, 400 to 500 community-level points were functioning for those seeking food. Kitchens cooking hot meals and bakeries supplying bread were plentiful. The numbers currently operating had plummeted to four. Halford's picture of what is being provided is grisly. The rations are only of the dry variety. There is an absence of clean water and cooking fuel, with no cooking gas entering the enclave since March 2. Substitute kerosene has proven woefully inadequate, causing those using it burns. Food is cooked on broken wooden pallets, salvaged plastic taken from piles of rubbish or turned up cardboard boxes. As for the justification given by Israel for the imposition of such onerous, cruel restrictions to the provision of aid – the deviation and theft of aid by Hamas or allied forces - Halford, speaking on behalf of MSF, was sharp in rebuke. While no aid system could ever guarantee against some deviation or theft of supplies, Israel had never offered any evidence to back its claims. 'It is a strawman; it is a specious and cynical position meant to undermine a humanitarian system that was actually functioning.' And that is precisely the point of the current, sanguinary exercise.
