Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday that Israel’s attack on the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis is intensifying.
One purpose of Blinken’s visit was to push Israeli officials to reduce the intensity of the onslaught on Gaza. Israel has said it’s scaling down operations in north Gaza but focusing on central and southern portions of the Strip, where most of Gaza’s Palestinian population is located.
According to The Times of Israel, Gallant briefed Blinken on the “changes in combat tactics” in the north and “emphasized that operations in the region of Khan Younis will intensify and continue until Hamas leadership is detected, and Israeli hostages return home safely.”
Israeli officials have publicly rebuffed concerns from the Biden administration since October 7, but the US has continued to provide unconditional military support for the slaughter in Gaza anyway, giving Israel little incentive to change what it’s doing. US officials have repeatedly affirmed that the administration is not considering leveraging aid or cutting Israel off.
Axios later reported that the only tangible thing Blinken achieved while in Israel was an agreement from Israel to allow UN officials to visit north Gaza to evaluate conditions for a future return of the around one million Palestinians who were forced to leave the area. But Israeli officials are saying Palestinians cannot return to the north until a new hostage deal is reached, and Israel recently killed one of Hamas’s negotiators who was based in Beirut, making that prospect much less likely.
Israeli airstrikes continued to pound Gaza while Blinken was in Israel, and according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, 126 Palestinians were killed in the Strip on Tuesday. Over 23,000 Palestinians have been killed in the US-backed Israeli slaughter so far, including over 9,000 children.
So Israel has corralled the Palestinians to the south, making it easier for them to slaughter? Israel LIES, they have no intention of sparing one Palestinian. As this Genocide continues, the USA continues to help Israel, we get closer to WW111. What is to be gained from this?
Carlton Meyer Comment:
Expanded empire:
https://news.antiwar.com/2024/01/07/officials-warn-biden-is-leading-the-us-into-a-major-middle-east-war/#comment-6361490059
Right on Ginah, right on!
ICJ Genocide lawsuit first hearings Jan11 and 12.
Bear Witness Thursday and Friday – The Judges should feel the whole world is watching
ICJ hearing live streamed
10am, The Hague; 4am, NYC; 5pm, Kuala Lumpur; 8pm, Sydney; etc.
Link to live stream
http://webtv.un.org/en/schedule
Thank you, Peace. Since you mentioned, “Bear Witness” and “the whole world is watching,” may I suggest a split live screen of the ICJ hearing and Israelis butchering/genociding Palestinians in real time? I hate to miss all the action. That would be a nice touch, don’t you think?
The other day someone on MoA linked to video of a woman waving a white flag and being assassinated on the street by a sniper. Obviously posing no danger whatsoever. It’s all so monsterous.
https://twitter.com/MiddleEastEye/status/1744351540435935525
Yes. Only monsters can do that.
Oh,you must meanHamas,Hezbollah, and their backers.
Sadly the Israeli government and IDF celebrate these type of monstrous actions. Goebbles would be most proud of Bibi and his crew
The ICJ never once prosecuted Arafat,or any Arab terror group. no moral weight.
Deflect and blame..that is all that you have. Why would the PLO who has resisted blatant terror land theft and premeditated murder be in the ICJ?? Sure the suicide bombings were abhorrent, but Israel has always been the insitigator pushing the buttons..period
If you added up all this so called Arab terror against Israel, it would be dwarfed by Israel’s genocidal butchery in Gaza since 10-7 alone!
If ICJ is not on US payroll and not influenced by US by any means, there is a hope…!
It seems US can control Israel afar better than visiting the country with the face to face dialog…!
Neither far nor near, the US controls Israel not at all, not that it can’t – it doesn’t. Any impression to the contrary is just that, an impression formed by the purposeful “narrative” construction of facts not in evidence, like 40 headless babies.
Take Blinken’s ME trip, his states he’s there to “raise the imperative of doing more to prevent civilian casualties” but addressing South Africa’s ICJ suit makes one of the most ridiculous arguments of modern FP with his “meritless” claim. The documentation of genocidal intent in Israeli officials public statements runs to 6 or more pages in SA’s 84-page ICJ application – and that’s a mere fraction of what Law for Palestine has detailed in it’s public database.
Not only is it not “meritless,” it’s not in question by the near-unanimous WW international law experts weighting in.
Near or far the US could end this war tomorrow with a single call from Biden to Netenyaghu. Israel has no weapons production industry and given it’s made itself an international pariah, shut down the US pipeline – the war ends within days.
Release Israeli hostages stop firing missiles at Israel–the war stops then and there.Meanwhile,Israel is a weapons exporter.
Jake, Bibi and his coalition wanted what is now happening way before October 7th, and they knew about October 7th beforehand. They want the complete removal of the Palestinian population from Gaza and the West Bank. I do not condone what Hamas did, but regardless of what happened the Israeli government wanted this..they killed hundreds of their own on October 7th, and hostages in Gaza. They do not care about ANY human life.
Israel has been killing Palestinians for 75 years.
Freeing the hostages won’t end the war and Israel has never offered that in negotiations. Instead it killed the chief negotiator!
Jake is a fake…!
Not ONE MORE DIME FOR ISRAEL. NOT ONE!
Blinken is a damn joke and an embarrassment to decent people everywhere.
He’s blinkered.
Not a good quality in a diplomat.
Common Israel, bloody well SNAP OUT OF IT! Wake up and smell the toast burning. After experiencing the horrors of the Holocaust?! You seem happy to perpetuate the same thing?!
I’m smoking a lot of weed…
GENOCIDE
[gen·o·cide]
/ˈjenəˌsīd/
noun
the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group.
Genocide is a crime under international law with a singular legal definition defined by Article 2 of the Genocide Convention. Page 4: https://bit.ly/3Se69dg
What is the Convention of the Punishment Against genocide?
The Genocide Convention was the first human rights treaty adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 9 December 1948 and signified the international community’s commitment to ‘never again’ after the atrocities committed during the Second World War.
ETHNIC CLEANSING
eth·nic cleans·ing
/ˌeTHnik ˈklenziNG/
noun
the mass expulsion or killing of members of an unwanted ethnic or religious group in a society.
https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-184801/
45/130.
Importance of the universal realization of the right of peoples
to self-determination and of the speedy granting of independence
to colonial countries and peoples for the effective guarantee and
observance of human rights
WAR CRIME
war crime
/ˈwôr ˌkrīm/
noun
an action carried out during the conduct of a war that violates accepted international rules of war.
Israel is so off the rails with bloodlust that they THINK they can get away with anything and no consequences will be enacted. This is not the case. Israel had better right its ship, or it will go down in utter flames.
What are the crimes against humanity under the Geneva Convention?
” (c) Crimes against Humanity: namely, murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population, before or during the war, or persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds in execution of or in connection with any crime within the jurisdiction of the …
WTF US taxpayers say what?