Palestine Linkerbaan • Now • 92%

Grief and shock as Israeli strike leaves Gaza-like destruction in West Bank

www.middleeasteye.net

For the first time in more than 20 years, Israeli fighter jets bombed a West Bank city on Thursday night. Eighteen people were killed and many others wounded, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Fayed, who lost his brother in the attack, was in a nearby building when the Israeli missile hit his cafe. It was a normal night, he told Middle East Eye, with people gathered to eat and smoke as usual. Within seconds, the bombing changed the scene completely, he added. “There were bodies strewn on the fences, the utility poles, the roads and under the rubble,” he recalled.

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US believes it can use Hezbollah's disarray to elect new president

www.middleeasteye.net

US officials believe they can exploit the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Hezbollah's disarray to push for the election of a president in Lebanon, according to Axios. The report echoes the belief among some Lebanese opposition leaders who spoke to Middle East Eye that there is an opportunity to push for the election of a president after the post has been vacant since October 2022. Under Lebanon's de facto confessional system, the president of Lebanon must be a Christian.

The Pentagon will spend about $1.2 billion to maintain ships deployed as part of operations in the Red Sea and to replenish stocks of missiles fired to repel attacks by Iran and its proxies, according to new budget documents. About $190 million will be spent on the restock of the sea-launched RTX Corp. Standard Missile-3 Block 1B and about $8.5 million will go for more heat-seeking air-to-air AIM-X Sidewinder missiles, according to the documents. Each advance model Standard Missile-3 Block IB costs between $9 million and $10 million. Two Navy destroyers this week fired about 12 Standard Missiles in defending Israel from another wave of Iranian assaults on Tuesday, according to a Navy official who declined to disclose the exact models and asked not to be identified discussing non-public information. That means this week’s US assistance likely cost about $120 million. The documents also reveal requests for $276 million to buy additional Standard Missile, SM-6 model weapons as well as by $57.3 million for Tomahawks cruise missiles. Another $6.7 million is earmarked Enhanced Sea Sparrow self-defense missile. All those weapons are made by RTX. The Pentagon will also spend $25 million for Boeing Co. Jdam-GPS guidance kits and $7.4 million for its Small Diameter Bomb. Another $25 million will go to “increase manufacturing sources” for the Standard Missile to support the Pentagon response to what it calls “the situation in Israel.”

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US-UK strikes target Yemen, Houthi Al Masirah TV says

Airstrikes were launched on Friday at several parts of Yemen including its capital Sanaa and Hodeidah airport, Al Masirah TV, the main television news outlet run by the Houthi movement controlling much of Yemen, and residents said. Strikes also targeted the south of Dhamar city, Al Masirah TV added. Al Masirah TV reported that the strikes had been carried out by US and British forces, but a British government source said Britain was not involved.

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Kabul Drone Strike Survivors Give First Interview in the U.S

www.dropsitenews.com

Romal Ahmadi’s voice trembles when he recalls the day of the drone strike. “All my three children ran out of the house to welcome my older brother as he returned from work. I was sitting in the living room. They ran in the courtyard and the next thing I heard was a loud explosion.” His children were Arwin, 7, Benyamin, 6, and Aayat, 2. All of them were killed on August 29, 2021 when an American hellfire missile struck the car in their courtyard. In total, seven children and three adults were killed. The target of the U.S. strike was the oldest Ahmadi brother, Zemarai. The U.S. military tracked him for several hours that day via a drone after they observed him filling some containers. Ahmadi was employed with an American aid organization, distributing food in Afghanistan. Every now and then he brought containers to his office to fill them up with potable water and bring them home. Then he made his way from his office back home, which was in the same direction as the Kabul Airport. **When he reached his home, the drone operator fired the missile.**

Progressive Politics Linkerbaan • Now • 94%

Emails show early US concerns over Gaza offensive, risk of Israeli war crimes

As Israel pounded northern Gaza with air strikes last October and ordered the evacuation of more than a million Palestinians from the area, a senior Pentagon official delivered a blunt warning to the White House. The mass evacuation would be a humanitarian disaster and could violate international law, leading to war crime charges against Israel, Dana Stroul, then the deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, wrote in an Oct. 13 email to senior aides to President Joe Biden. Stroul was relaying an assessment by the International Committee of the Red Cross that had left her “chilled to the bone,” she wrote. The emails reviewed by Reuters show a scramble inside the Biden administration to warn the White House of the impending crisis – and the White House’s initial resistance to a ceasefire in the early, chaotic days of war. The three sets of email exchanges began on Oct. 11, during Israel’s fifth day of air strikes after the Hamas incursion. After Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza’s hospitals, schools and mosques, the U.S. State Department’s top public diplomacy official, Bill Russo, told senior State officials that Washington was “losing credibility among Arab-speaking audiences” by not directly addressing the humanitarian crisis, according to an Oct. 11 email. Gaza’s health authorities reported that day a death toll of about 1,200. As Israel defended the strikes, saying Hamas was using civilian buildings for military purposes, Russo wrote that U.S. diplomats in the Middle East were monitoring Arab media reports that accused Israel of waging a “genocide” and Washington of complicity in war crimes. “The U.S.’s lack of response on the humanitarian conditions for Palestinians is not only ineffective and counterproductive, but we are also being accused of being complicit to potential war crimes by remaining silent on Israel’s actions against civilians,” Russo wrote Biden’s public comments on Gaza had largely given Netanyahu a free hand against Hamas. At the time, Biden faced only scattered protests from the left wing of the Democratic Party over his support for Israel’s counterattack. Israel’s likening of the Hamas assault to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington resonated widely in the U.S.

As Israel pounded northern Gaza with air strikes last October and ordered the evacuation of more than a million Palestinians from the area, a senior Pentagon official delivered a blunt warning to the White House. The mass evacuation would be a humanitarian disaster and could violate international law, leading to war crime charges against Israel, Dana Stroul, then the deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, wrote in an Oct. 13 email to senior aides to President Joe Biden. Stroul was relaying an assessment by the International Committee of the Red Cross that had left her “chilled to the bone,” she wrote. The emails reviewed by Reuters show a scramble inside the Biden administration to warn the White House of the impending crisis – and the White House’s initial resistance to a ceasefire in the early, chaotic days of war. The three sets of email exchanges began on Oct. 11, during Israel’s fifth day of air strikes after the Hamas incursion. After Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza’s hospitals, schools and mosques, the U.S. State Department’s top public diplomacy official, Bill Russo, told senior State officials that Washington was “losing credibility among Arab-speaking audiences” by not directly addressing the humanitarian crisis, according to an Oct. 11 email. Gaza’s health authorities reported that day a death toll of about 1,200. As Israel defended the strikes, saying Hamas was using civilian buildings for military purposes, Russo wrote that U.S. diplomats in the Middle East were monitoring Arab media reports that accused Israel of waging a “genocide” and Washington of complicity in war crimes. “The U.S.’s lack of response on the humanitarian conditions for Palestinians is not only ineffective and counterproductive, but we are also being accused of being complicit to potential war crimes by remaining silent on Israel’s actions against civilians,” Russo wrote Biden’s public comments on Gaza had largely given Netanyahu a free hand against Hamas. At the time, Biden faced only scattered protests from the left wing of the Democratic Party over his support for Israel's counterattack. Israel's likening of the Hamas assault to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington resonated widely in the U.S.

Interesting Global News Linkerbaan • Now • 100%

Food aid to Gaza falls as Israel sets new rule

The new customs rule applies to truck convoys chartered by the United Nations to take aid from Jordan to Gaza via Israel, seven people familiar with the matter said. Under the rule, individuals from relief organizations sending aid must complete a form providing passport details, and accept liability for any false information on a shipment, the people said. They said relief agencies are disputing that requirement, which was announced mid-August, because they fear signing the form could expose staff to legal problems if aid fell into the hands of Hamas or other enemies of Israel. In a parallel move, Israeli authorities have restricted commercial food shipments to Gaza amid concerns that Hamas was benefiting from that trade, the people familiar with the matter and industry sources said. U.N. and Israeli government data show that in September, deliveries of food and aid sank to their lowest in seven months. Israeli's military humanitarian unit, Cogat, which oversees aid and commercial shipments to Gaza, confirmed that no U.N.-chartered convoy has moved from Jordan to Gaza since Sept. 19, but a spokesperson said Israel was not blocking goods.

Palestine Linkerbaan • Now • 95%

More women and children killed in Gaza by Israeli military than any other recent conflict

aoav.org.uk

New analysis by Oxfam reveals that more women and children have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli military in the past year than in any recent conflict over a single year. Oxfam’s study looked at conflict deaths data over nearly two decades from the UN and Small Arms Survey, with data from AOAV, which shows that Israeli explosive weapons struck civilian infrastructure in Gaza once every three hours on average since the war began. Conservative data shows that over the past year, more than 6,000 women and 11,000 children were killed in Gaza by the Israeli military. By comparison, the Small Arms Survey estimates that previously the highest number of women killed in a single year was over 2,600 in Iraq in 2016. A report from Every Casualty Counts revealed that over the first 2.5 years of the Syrian conflict, an average of 4,700 children were killed annually. UN reports on Children and Armed Conflict over the last 18 years indicate that no other conflict has resulted in a higher number of child deaths in a single year. - Homes were hit every four hours, on avergae - Temporary shelters every 17 hours, on average - Schools and hospitals every four days, on average - Aid distribution points and warehouses every 15 days, on average.

Football (Soccer fútbol fußball 足球 ) Linkerbaan • Now • 100%

FIFA again defers decision on Palestinian request to suspend Israel from world soccer

The Palestinian soccer federation has consistently asked FIFA for more than a decade to take action against the Israeli soccer body for incorporating teams from West Bank settlements in its leagues. The Palestinians have also recently accused the Israel Football Association of what it said was complicity in violations of international law by the Israeli government, discrimination against Arab players. The request to FIFA’s congress in May also cited “international law violations” in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas conflict and directed the soccer body to its statutory commitments on human rights and against discrimination. The PFA has said dozens of Palestinian players have been killed in the war, football infrastructure has been destroyed, its leagues suspended and its national team required to play World Cup qualifiers abroad. Israel has also been playing international fixtures abroad. FIFA delayed making a decision in May until after a legal review scheduled for July, then pushed back the issue two more times until the meeting Thursday.

World News Linkerbaan • Now • 95%

Israeli strike closes off road used to flee Lebanon, transport minister says

WASHINGTON/BEIRUT/JERUSALEM, Oct 4 (Reuters) - An Israeli strike on Friday near Lebanon's Masnaa border crossing with Syria cut off a road used by hundreds of thousands of people to flee Israeli bombardments in recent days, Lebanon Transport Minister Ali Hamieh told Reuters. Hamieh said the strike hit inside Lebanese territory near the border crossing, creating a four-metre (12 feet) wide crater. An Israel Defence Forces (IDF) military spokesman had accused Iran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah on Thursday of using the crossing to transport military equipment into Lebanon. "The IDF will not allow the smuggling of these weapons and will not hesitate to act if forced to do so, as it has done throughout this war," IDF spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X. According to Lebanese government statistics, more than 300,000 people - a vast majority of them Syrian - had crossed from Lebanon into Syria over the last 10 days to escape escalating Israeli bombardment.

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‘Dahiyeh Doctrine’ returns to Dahiyeh

www.aljazeera.com

Experts have asserted that this tactic is a gross violation of international law and that targeting civilian infrastructure, no matter the justification offered, is a war crime. Yet, Israeli authorities insist that it’s a legitimate tactic of war and helps deter future attacks on Israel by its enemies.rms and mosques. Two years after the devastating 2006 campaign on Lebanon, the head of Israel’s northern command, Gadi Eisenkot, asserted that Israel will continue to use the strategy in future conflicts. “What happened in [Dahiyeh]… will happen in every village from which Israel is fired on,” he said. “We will apply disproportionate force on it and cause great damage and destruction there. From our standpoint, these are not civilian villages, they are military bases.” Of course, the most severe display of the Dahiyeh Doctrine has been during Israeli’s ongoing genocidal campaign in Gaza. Since October 7, Israel’s apparent strategy of targeting Gaza’s civilian population and infrastructure with the full force of the military to try and deter Hamas has brought a catastrophe comparable only to the Nakba of 1948. In just a year, Israel’s military completely devastated all infrastructural and institutional bases of Palestinian civilian life in Gaza. The global majority is of course deeply critical of Israel’s assaults on civilian infrastructure in Gaza and Lebanon. Yet, Israel’s partners in the West continue to support these efforts both materially and ideologically. Even when Israeli authorities outrageously claim that they are “escalating” their war efforts – meaning killing and maiming civilians and making their environments inhabitable – to “de-escalate”, they nod in approval.

www.cnbc.com

Oil markets are being too complacent given the risk of major supply disruptions in the Middle East, analysts told CNBC on Thursday, with one warning that crude futures could rally to more than $200 a barrel. It comes amid speculation that Israel could be planning to launch a retaliatory attack on Iran targeting its oil infrastructure — a prospect which would likely deliver a rude awakening to bearish energy market participants. Iran, which is a member of OPEC, is a major player in the global oil market. So much so, it is estimated that as much as 4% of the world’s supply could be at risk if Iran’s oil infrastructure becomes a target for Israel. Speaking to CNBC’s “Street Signs Europe” on Thursday, Bjarne Schieldrop, chief commodities analyst at Swedish bank SEB, said escalating tensions in the Middle East could have dramatic consequences for the market. “If ... you really took out the oil installations in Iran, force down the exports by 2 million barrels, then the next question in the market will be what will happen now in the Strait of Hormuz? That, of course, would add a significant risk premium to oil,” Schieldrop said.