Israel - Palestinian militants launch massive attack, 7 Oct 2023 #6

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  • #681
10:12 pm

Qatari official says he’s optimistic all hostages will be released soon

Senior Qatari official Majed Al-Ansari says he is optimistic that all hostages held by Hamas will be released soon, indicating that the release of two American-Israelis Friday was a first step toward the release of more civilian hostages.

“The release took place within a framework that confirms the positive intention to release the hostages,” he tells German newspaper Die Welt. “We are optimistic that the hostages, especially the civilians, will be released very soon.”

Al-Ansari, an adviser to Qatar’s foreign ministry, says Doha is one of several parties involved in negotiations for their release, but unique in that it is talking to both Israel and Hamas.

He also seems to give way when pressed on Doha’s decision to blame Israel for Hamas’s attacks on October 7, in which the terror group rampaged through Israeli communities, slaughtering families.

“Yes, it was particularly serious,” he says. “It was certainly worse than anything we’ve seen before. But when Israel bombs homes knowing that there are children in them, then innocent people are also at stake. And no human life is more important than another.”
And....:rolleyes: How does he know?
 
  • #682
2h ago

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society has issued a statement on the entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza, saying, “Today’s entry…is a welcomed glimpse of hope but this minuscule aid represents a drop in the ocean.”




As a humanitarian organization, they should really revise their hashtags to something more like:

#Release the hostages NOW
#Release the bodies of the innocent men, women, and children slaughtered by HAMAS
#Stop firing rockets and missiles!

MOO
 
  • #683
Does anyone here remember the 1985 terrorist events in the Middle East? They held my fellow H.S. classmate, Rob Stethem hostage, along with many others, and brutally beat and killed him aboard a TWA flight in Beirut Lebanon. He was truly a fine and honorable young man in the prime of his life who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country . I remember him well and will never forget him. His family is truly amazing and probably the most patriotic family I’ve ever known. They have kept his name alive all these years and remain active to persevere his legacy.

I pray that every single hostage comes home safely. No one should ever have to endure being held hostage, and the families of those taken suffer beyond imaginable pain. Praying they all come home.
am sorry I don't recall that one clearly but do remember the 70s as being full of hostage crises on planes

My memory is clearer on the more recent ones who were hostages for so many years. Terry Waite was held for 4 years and his family were told that he was likely dead.

This situation is horrific, setting up a thread for them is the very least we can do.
 
  • #684
1hr 8 min ago

Egypt says Israel-Hamas war revealed "shortcoming" in international approach to crises​

From CNN's Radina Gigova and Caroline Faraj

After a peace summit in Cairo aimed at de-escalating the war between Israel and Hamas, Egypt criticized the international community for not doing enough to address the root causes of the conflict.

"The international scene over the past decades has revealed a serious deficiency in finding a just and lasting solution to the Palestinian issue, because it sought to manage the conflict, and not end it permanently," reads a statement issued by the Egyptian presidency on Saturday.

"The ongoing war has also disclosed a shortcoming in the values of the international community in addressing crises," it said. "While we see one place rushing and competing to promptly condemn the killing of innocent people, we find incomprehensible hesitation in denouncing the same act in another place. We even see attempts to justify this killing, as if the life of the Palestinian human being is less important than that of other people."

Egypt hopes that in light of the current crisis "a new political spirit and will" will emerge that "pave the way for unlocking a real and serious peace process," reads the statement.

"This shall lead, in a short period of time, to the establishment of an independent Palestinian State, along the June 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital," it said.

 
  • #685

How many people have moved to southern Gaza?​

Israeli officials have repeatedly told all residents in the northern Gaza Strip to leave and move south of Wadi Gaza - a river valley in the centre of the territory. The evacuation order impacts around 1.1 million people.

Earlier, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said 700,000 people in Gaza had so far made the move south.

The northern part of the Gaza strip, including Gaza City - which was home to around 775,000 people before the conflict began - is the most densely populated part of the region, as shown in the below graphic.

1697918290018.jpeg


In a press conference earlier, translated by Sky News, the IDF spokesman added that some 307 Israeli soldiers had been killed in total since the attack by Hamas on 7 October.

As supplies of food, water and medication began to move across the Rafah crossing from Egypt, he claimed the humanitarian situation in Gaza was “under control”. But, as we've been reporting, humanitarian groups and the UN say the situation is desperate and much more aid is urgently needed.

 
  • #686

Leaflets dropped over Gaza come with a sinister warning​


Paul Adams
Diplomatic correspondent, in Jerusalem

For a moment this morning, celebrations broke out on either side of the Rafah crossing as trucks - stuck for more than two weeks on the Egyptian side - finally crossed into the Gaza Strip with their precious cargoes: food, water and medical supplies.

But with more than two million Palestinians facing increasingly dreadful conditions and Israeli warplanes obliterating whole neighbourhoods of the Gaza Strip in relentless, round-the-clock airstrikes, today’s aid delivery barely scrapes the surface of what’s needed.

And there are signs the situation could soon get worse.

Leaflets, dropped over Gaza City, come with a sinister warning: anyone who does not move south may end up being seen as what is described as an accomplice to a terrorist organisation.

In his daily press briefing, Daniel Hagari, Israel’s chief military spokesman, once again attempted to persuade those who remain in the north to move.

Humanitarian conditions are anything but under control, though. Aid agencies say vastly more help is needed - including fuel.

 
  • #687
2m ago

Russia plans to hold another UN Security Council meeting regarding the ongoing humanitarian situation in Gaza, Russia’s deputy UN envoy said on Saturday.

“We will definitely convene a new meeting of the Security Council. As practice has shown, no one but us dares to do so,” Dmitry Polyansky, Russia’s UN deputy permanent representative said, Agence France-Presse reports.

Polyansky did not mention when Russia would hold the meeting.

“Regarding a resolution, I don’t know how fast we’ll get to the next state of trying to pass a resolution,” he said.

Earlier this week, Russia’s resolution on a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas failed due to opposition from four council members including the US, which criticized the draft for not mentioning Hamas.

:rolleyes: (Not directed at you, @JennieM - I'm just sooooooooooo tired of Russia...)
 
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  • #688
And....:rolleyes: How does he know?
Indeed

Anyway, I don't believe a word he says in any case.They're going to release all the hostages?

'Senior Qatari official Majed Al-Ansari says he is optimistic that all hostages held by Hamas will be released soon,'

sounds like a CYA for Qatar because they shelter & fund Hamas ( among others)
 
  • #689
  • #690
And....:rolleyes: How does he know?
I don't know but I would like to hear more about this:

“The release took place within a framework that confirms the positive intention to release the hostages,” he tells German newspaper Die Welt.
 
  • #691
9m ago

A Hamas spokesperson said on Saturday that the group had planned to release two more hostages “for humanitarian reasons” but Israel refused, Reuters reports.

Abu Ubaida, spokesperson for the Izz el Deen al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement that it had informed Qatar on Friday of Hamas’s intention to release the two hostages, Reuters adds.

Let me add to that: I'm sure Israel refused to meet their demands
MOO MOO
 
  • #692
Leaflets, dropped over Gaza City, come with a sinister warning: anyone who does not move south may end up being seen as what is described as an accomplice to a terrorist organisation.


be interesting to see Biden ( or another) asked about the legality of that

I am expecting the US State Dept who monitor the IDF have already been in contact with them about that sentence in these leaflets
 
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  • #693
  • #694

Israel denies aid went into Gaza without being checked​



“All of the equipment was checked before going into Gaza,” it says in a statement, noting that the shipment included “only water, food and medical equipment.”


 
  • #695
be interesting to see Biden ( or another) asked about the legality of that
Yeah, but maybe something was lost in translation too.
I think there is another translation too. Something of the sort, "If they are among terrorists, they will assumed to be terrorists".
Basically, they are putting themselves in harms' way.
 
  • #696
I'm behind on news but has this been reported elsewhere? (Axios was previously allowed as a source IIRC)


https://x.com/axios/status/1715790582809870556?s=20


SCOOP: Israel says it found Hamas files with instructions for making cyanide-based weapon

More here:

The Israeli military found a USB key with instructions for the production of a "cyanide dispersion device" on the body of a Hamas operative who participated in the Oct. 7 terrorist attack, according to two Israeli officials and a copy of a classified Israeli Foreign Ministry cable obtained by Axios.

The big picture: It is not clear from the file whether Hamas had any serious or operational plan for using makeshift chemical weapons or whether the group had attempted to produce them.

 
  • #697

Shock, rage, increasing unease: UK’s Jewish community wrestles with response to war​

British Jews came together to condemn Hamas, but concerns over Israel’s actions are being voiced.

People attending the vigil outside Downing Street for victims and hostages of Hamas attacks, on 9 October 2023.

People attending the vigil outside Downing Street for victims and hostages of Hamas attacks, on 9 October 2023. Photograph: Lucy North/PA

Two days after Hamas unleashed a terrorist attack on Israeli civilians in southern Israel, hundreds of British Jews waved Israeli flags and sang the Israeli national anthem, Hatikvah, at a vigil outside Downing Street.

The event, organised by the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council, and attended by the chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, was a powerful show of communal solidarity as the enormity of Hamas’s atrocities was still becoming clear.

Now, two weeks after the terror of 7 October, unease is creeping in, amid the grief and shock. “It still looks like the community is united, but there are incipient tensions,” said Keith Kahn-Harris, an academic and author of several books about British Jews. “And the longer it goes on, the more fragile Jewish unity will become.”

“It”, of course, refers to the war between Israel and Hamas. As images of dead Palestinian children, devastation and an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe have largely superseded images of dead Israeli children, shattered communities and grief-stricken relatives, some British Jews have begun to voice disquiet about what is happening and what is yet to come.

One expression of this was a letter signed by eight eminent British Jewish lawyers, including Lord Neuberger, a former president of the supreme court, reminding the Israeli government of its obligations under international law.

[…]

In the US, there have also been signs of discomfort about the unfolding war among American Jews. Protesters – including 400 Jews and 25 rabbis, according to Jewish Voice for Peace – gathered to demand a ceasefire near the Capitol. “We are here to say, ‘Not in our name’,” Jay Saper told the Washington Post. “We are here as Jews – many descendants of survivors of genocide – to stop a genocide from unfolding in real time.”

[…]


 
  • #698
  • #699
be interesting to see Biden ( or another) asked about the legality of that

I am expecting the US State Dept who monitor the IDF have already been in contact with them about that sentence in these leaflets
This morning's translation did not use the word "accomplice," but "partner." May not make any difference, but just saying... MOO
 
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  • #700
Yeah, but maybe something was lost in translation too.
I think there is another translation too. Something of the sort, "If they are among terrorists, they will assumed to be terrorists".
Basically, they are putting themselves in harms' way.
From this morning:

The Israeli Air Force once again dropped Leaflets over the Northern Gaza Strip today with them stating:

- Urgent Warning! -

To the Residents of Gaza, Your Presence to the North of Wadi Gaza is putting your Lives at Risk. Anyone who chooses not to Evacuate from the North of the Gaza Strip to the South of the Gaza Strip may be Identified as a Partner in a Terrorist Organization.”

leaflet 1.jpg leaflet 2.jpg

 
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