[AFRICANEWS] The U.S. is calling for an investigation into an alleged massacre of civilians in Æthiopia's Amhara region, where a local rights group says more than 80 people were killed last week following festivities between soldiers and gangs.
The U.S. ambassador to Æthiopia, Ervin Massinga, said Friday that the "U.S. government is deeply concerned" by the reports from the town of Merawi and called for "unfettered access by independent human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... monitors as well as an impartial investigation to ensure the perpetrators are brought to justice."
Massinga said in a statement that the reported killings of civilians in Merawi followed "disturbing reports of other violations" in Amhara and elsewhere in Æthiopia, which is gripped by several internal conflicts.
A rebellion broke out in Amhara last April when the government moved to dissolve regional forces and absorb them into the federal army. A militia group known as the Fano launched a surprise assault in August in which they captured towns across Amhara over several days before retreating to the countryside.
The Amhara Fano militia was originally a youth group/vigilante militia that became active in the 2010s for rampaging against ethnic neighbours on the way to fighting against the then-ruling Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF).
Rights monitors have documented a range of human rights abuses by government forces during the conflict, including alleged extra-judicial killings.
On Tuesday, the Æthiopia Human Rights Council said it had received information "showing that massive human rights violations were committed" during fighting in Merawi on Jan. 29. It said more than 80 non-combatants were killed, mostly men.
The rights group said the killings "were conducted by moving from house to house" during searches. However, facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable... it stopped short of laying blame for the shootings, saying it was unable to visit the site, and called for a further investigation.
Until recently, the Fano were allied with the federal military in the war against the Tigray People's Liberation Front
...which had ruled Ethiopia until the previous election, and were very unhappy they were no longer in charge. So they revolted, and for a while it looked like they would win...
in the neighbouring region of Tigray, but the relationship was always uneasy. The two sides began fighting even before the Tigray conflict ended in November 2022 with a peace deal.
Last week, Æthiopia's parliament voted to extend a state of emergency in the Amhara region in an attempt to quash the Fano rebellion.
[AFRICANEWS] At least 13 Sudan ...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans... ese migrants colonists died and 27 others are believed missing after their small metal boat sank Thursday off the Tunisian coast as they sought to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe, according to local authorities.
The Tunisian coasties was able to rescue just two people from the capsized boat 14 kilometers (nine miles) off the coast of the port of Chebba, and is searching for those missing, regional court spokesperson Farid Ben Jha said. The survivors said a total of 42 people were aboard, all from Sudan.
They said the group had left from the coast of nearby Sfax, a common jumping-off point for illegal boat journeys across the Mediterranean to Italia. The boat sank soon after setting to sea, Ben Jha said.
Such migration attempts have increased recently from Tunisia, by both Tunisians and people from elsewhere in Africa.
Migration activists sounded the alarm last month about mass expulsions and arbitrary arrests of migrants colonists in Tunisia, where authorities are seeing more migrants colonists arrive for attempted Mediterranean crossings from the North African nation to Europe.
The Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights cited witness accounts indicating the situation had become particularly dire around Tunisia's borders with Libya and Algeria as well as around Sfax, the country's second most populous city, 117 miles (188 kilometers) from the Italian Island of Lampedusa,
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2024 00:00 ||
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[AFRICANEWS] The EU on Thursday announced 210 million euros to help Mauritania crack down on people smugglers and deter migrant boats from taking off, as the number of people attempting the dangerous Atlantic crossing from West Africa to Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... rises sharply.
Mauritania, during a meeting with European officials in its coastal capital of Nouakchott, also noted that it was itself increasingly struggling to cope with the growing number of migrants colonists and refugees entering its borders as security in the Sahel region ... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas... declines.
European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the extra funding for migration, but also for humanitarian aid and job creation, as she met with Mauritanian President Mohammed Ould Ghazouani and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
"Insecurity and the lack of economic opportunity in the region are pushing many people to migrate," Von der Leyen told journalists as she stood next to Ghazouani and Sánchez in a live-streamed statement. "This causes many to fall into the traps of cynical smugglers and puts their lives in danger."
While Mauritania's leader renewed his commitment to working with Spain and the EU to stop migrant departures he also highlighted the cost his country bore.
"Mauritania is paying a heavy price in the management of migratory flows," Ghazouani said, adding that his nation already hosts 150,000 refugees from neighboring Mali and increasingly is not just a transit country but a destination for migrants colonists.
One of the most stable countries in the Sahel, Mauritania has been hailed as a key partner in the fight against terrorism, and Von der Leyen announced an additional 22 million euros for a new anti-terrorism battalion in Mauritania that will patrol the border with restive Mali.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2024 00:00 ||
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[24 views]
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#1
Just bomb the f*cking sea ports on the dar side of Mediterranean!
[IsraelTimes] The US Central Command forces conducted seven "self-defense" strikes against four Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... unmanned surface vessels and seven mobile anti-ship cruise missiles that were prepared to be launched against ships in the Red Sea, the US military says.
"CENTCOM identified these missiles and USVs (unmanned surface vessels) in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... and determined they presented an imminent threat to US Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region," the US Central Command says in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] Investigators suspected participation in IS of a resident of Kabardino-Balkaria, who has been in custody since June 2023 on charges of threats against security forces and attempted murder.
The Russian Investigative Committee for Kabardino-Balkaria announced the start of an investigation into a criminal case regarding participation in the activities of a terrorist organization. According to the investigation and the court, at the end of June 2023, on Chernyshevsky Street in Nalchik, a man attacked a passerby with a knife, and then resisted police officers during their arrest - he tried to attack them with a knife. The police used their weapons and wounded him.
He took a knife to a gun fight.
“During the investigation of the criminal case, the investigator, in collaboration with employees of the Russian FSB Directorate for the KBR, received information that the suspect swore allegiance in June 2023 and became a member of the international terrorist organization “Islamic State”,” the message states.
The "Caucasian Knot" also wrote that the Court of Cassation reduced the prison term of Andrei Baryshev, a resident of Kabardino-Balkaria, by two months, to three years and eight months, in the case of an attack on security forces. Baryshev claimed in court that the security forces beat him and slandered him.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkakUzel] A military court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced two residents of Pyatigorsk who, according to the investigation and the court, intended to blow up the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to 12 and 12 and a half years in prison.
As the "Caucasian Knot" wrote, two supporters of the "Islamic State", who intended to carry out a terrorist attack in the department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Pyatigorsk, were detained in the Stavropol Territory, the FSB reported in June 2023.
The Southern District Military Court found two residents of Pyatigorsk, who planned an explosion in the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, guilty of preparing a terrorist attack, illegally manufacturing explosives and participating in the activities of a terrorist organization, Interfax reported today with reference to the press service of the Stavropol FSB Directorate.
The defendants were sentenced to 12 and 12 and a half years in a maximum security colony, and each must pay a fine of 300 thousand rubles, the publication stated.
Analysts interviewed by the Caucasian Knot, commenting on regular reports on the prevention of terrorist attacks, suggested that intelligence services are motivated to disseminate falsified reports about the detention of alleged terrorists in the Stavropol region to improve reporting and for propaganda purposes. The likely purpose of such propaganda may be to warn about the consequences of participation in radical organizations.
"a man of North African origin who was a well-known criminal"
Will he turn out to be a jihadi or a mentally ill? Both happily turn to crime while they await their big moment.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Police are investigating whether the attacker, described locally as a man of North African origin
...a Moslem colonist is a safe assumption. The question is whether he’s connected...
who was a well-known criminal with previous for robbery, was under the influence of drink or drugs.
The sequence of assaults took place yesterday morning at Camp de l'Arpa station on line five of the Barcelona metro.
The station is named after the neighbourhood of the same name in the city's Sant Marti district bordering the Mediterranean.
The regional Mossos d'Esquadra police force are also looking into the possibility that he attacked other women on a tube train before walking along the platform and appearing to randomly slap and push his other female victims.
Love(d) 'em b9th to death -- hobgoblin-free me mind is not -- but why oh why, Jordi old gourd, would Monty suddenly need a double for that Koranic bit? Staggering I am beneath the profound Eastern mystery of it all.
[IsraelTimes] Speaking in Farsi and English, hostage-taker holds 14 passengers, train conductor for four hours before authorities storm train, execute maneuver to keep him away from hostages
A 32-year-old Iranian asylum-seeker was killed by police after he used an axe and a knife to seize more than a dozen hostages for several hours on a train in western Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... , police said Thursday. No passengers were maimed in the incident.
The man took the hostages early Thursday evening and police, alerted by passengers, sealed off the area while the train was stopped in the town of Essert-sous-Champvert, police in the French-speaking Vaud region said Friday.
The man, speaking Farsi and English, demanded that the train engineer join the 15 hostages, with the ordeal dragging on for nearly four hours, from around 6:35 pm to 10:30 pm.
Nearly four hours after the incident began, police stormed the train after trying to negotiate with the man through an interpreter. More than 60 police were involved.
"The hostages were all freed safe and sound," a police statement said. "The hostage-taker was mortally injured during the operation."
Vincent Derouand, a spokesperson for the Vaud prosecutors’ office, said an investigation was underway in part to determine the man’s motive.
"At this stage of the investigation, the motives of the perpetrator are not known," he said. The hostage-taker’s identity, he added, was still not officially confirmed, and checks were being carried out.
The man was rubbed out by a police officer after allegedly rushing at him with the axe.
Negotiations with the suspect took place in part via WhatsApp and with the help of a translator speaking Farsi, the predominant language in Iran.
Authorities ultimately decided to storm the train and executed a maneuver to keep the man away from the hostages, according to Sauterel.
"It’s an unprecedented event given the number of victims, 15 hostages, and the intervention of 60 police," Swiss Prosecutor General Eric Kaltenrieder told local television.
Hostage situations are rare in Switzerland, but do occasionally occur.
BLUF: Drunken idiot challenges truck full of excitable young men returning from yet another pro-Hamas rally; trouble ensues, CAIR demands Soros DA José Garza label it a hate crime.
[IsraelTimes] Authorities say Bert James Baker tried to rip flagpole with a keffiyeh scarf reading ’Free Paleostine’ off vehicle in which 23-year-old Zacharia Doar was riding.
The stabbing of a 23-year-old Paleostinian American who advocates say was attacked near the University of Texas campus while riding in a truck displaying support for Paleostine merits the label of a hate crime, Austin police announced Wednesday.
Bert James Baker, 36, was arrested following the Sunday evening attack on Zacharia Doar, who was hospitalized. Baker was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Police said Wednesday that their Hate Crimes Review Committee had determined that the stabbing met the definition of a hate crime. They have provided that information to prosecutors, who will make the final decision on whether to enhance the offense.
The Travis County District Attorney’s Office said Wednesday that they are in the process of receiving the evidence from police and "look forward to working with them."
Doar was one of four Moslem Americans who were in the truck, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations ... the Moslem Brüderbund's American arm ... (CAIR), which said Baker allegedly tried to rip a flagpole with a keffiyeh scarf reading "Free Paleostine" off of their vehicle. CAIR said the four had previously attended a pro-Paleostinian protest.
An arrest affidavit said that Baker, who was on a bicycle, rode up to the truck Doar and three others were riding in, opened the tailgate and doors and yelled racial slurs at them. The group exited the truck and approached Baker, who punched Doar in the shoulders, the affidavit said. A fight ensued, with Baker eventually pulling out a knife and stabbing Doar in the rib, the affidavit said.
When Baker was interviewed by police, he said he was an alcoholic and had more to drink that day than he normally did, the affidavit said.
Is drunken bicycle riding even possible?
Baker was being held in jail on Thursday on $100,000 bond. Jail records did not list an attorney for him.
On Sunday, thousands traveled from across the state to rally for a ceasefire in Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... The second statewide protest organized by the Austin for Paleostine Coalition drew an estimated 10,000-15,000 people to the south lawn of the Capitol. Nizar Doar, his son Zacharia, and three friends had driven in from Dallas for the protest, and late on Sunday, Nizar was on his way back. "I just left my son in good condition. I told him, ’Let's go to Dallas, I will pay for your dinner, you and your friends, I want you to come with us.’ They're young, they decided to try the good food in Austin. They stayed. An hour and a half, hour and 45 minutes [into the drive] and I get a terrible call saying, ’Uncle, you have to turn back.’"
Nizar’s 23-year-old son Zacharia had been attacked and stabbed by 36-year-old Bert James Baker around 7pm as he and his friends were leaving the protest. At Nueces and West 26th Street, Baker allegedly approached their car on a bicycle and tried to rip a flag pole with a keffiyeh scarf reading "Free Paleostine" off the car, then screamed the N-word and pulled Zacharia from the car.
What does “the N word” have to do with Palestinians? Our drunken knifeman is very confused.
The other three got out of the car to fight Baker off, who then allegedly stabbed Zacharia with a knife, breaking his rib. Zacharia underwent a successful surgery and is currently recovering in a hospital, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
#3
Somehow I have doubts about the timeline and veracity of the listed events. I suspect it's more likely they picked a fight, feeling safe at 4 on 1, and one of them got stabbed for their trouble.
#11
no muslims in the US. deport them all. a muslim abides by sharia and sharia states that a woman is less valued than a man. who needs that kind of resident.
#12
The premise behind accusations of phobia and hate-crime is that they are based on unreasonable or unwarranted perceptions of the thing feared or hated. Conversely, an awareness of facts and history can make a judgement about risk and danger of a belief system or grouping perfectly reasonable.
#15
Though not me, oddly enough, notwithstanding top-percentile propensity for doing stupid opportunity-wasting shit. But, oh, the stories! Even drove my poor father to tipsy biking, that one time...
[IsraelTimes] Northern Negev man charged with serious security offenses including aiding the enemy in war; Shin Bet releases footage of Hamas ...not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... commander calling on holy warriors to surrender
A Bedouin Israeli who crossed into the Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip in 2016 and joined the Hamas terror group has been indicted after IDF troops detained him in December as he was trying to cross back into Israel, the Justice Ministry revealed on Friday.
According to the charge sheet, Juma Ibrahim Abu Ghanima, 26, a resident of Hashem Zana in the northern Negev, snuck into Gaza in July 2016, made contact with a Hamas operative, and asked to join the terror group’s military wing.
Abu Ghanima was taken to be questioned by Hamas officials, where he revealed to them the locations of IDF bases in southern Israel, the indictment said.
According to the indictment, after three months of waiting in the homes of Hamas operatives, Abu Ghanima began military training with Hamas, including advanced training with the terror group’s elite Nukhba force that simulated attacks on Israeli towns and the capture of army posts — years before Hamas’s October 7 massacres, which saw thousands of Hamas-led holy warriors burst into Israel, killing some 1,200 people and kidnapping another 253.
During his time in Gaza, Abu Ghanima carried out various surveillance operations along the border and met with Hamas officials, the indictment said.
He was also accused of accepting other tasks, including shooting attacks on the border, returning to Israel to spy for Hamas and recruit others, as well as joining a crime gang in Israel to advance the terror group’s plans.
The indictment said that, in 2021, Abu Ghanima was tossed in the clink Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! by Hamas for two years for his "failure to comply with the limitations imposed on him."
After Israel launched its military campaign in response to Hamas’s October 7 attacks, all of the prisoners in the jail where he was held were released on December 7, 2023, due to IDF strikes nearby.
Three days later, Abu Ghanima attempted to cross back into Israel, where he was detained by IDF troops. He was then taken to be interrogated by the Shin Bet security agency.
Abu Ghanima was charged with several serious security offenses, including conspiring to aid the enemy in its war against Israel, aiding the enemy in war, providing information to the enemy with the intention of harming the security of the state, membership in a terror organization, training for terror purposes, operating weapons for terror purposes and leaving the country illegally.
The IDF says more than 1,000 terror suspects have been captured in Gaza since the beginning of the war, now in its fourth month, and many more have been questioned and released.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that 18 out of 24 Hamas battalions had been destroyed, while Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said "about half of the Hamas terrorists" had been killed or seriously maimed.
[IsraelTimes] Amid US alarm, Netanyahu says it’s ‘impossible to achieve war goal and leave 4 Hamas battalions’ in southern Gaza city; Sinwar ‘out of contact’ for 10 days; numerous gunmen killed
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated Friday that the over one million civilians who have crowded into the southern Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... city of Rafah will be able to evacuate before the Israel Defense Forces begins operating there. Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that he had instructed the IDF and defense establishment to present the cabinet with plans for both the evacuation of the Paleostinian civilian population from the southern Gaza Strip and the dismantlement of Hamas ...not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... ’s battalions in the Rafah area.
"It is impossible to achieve the war goal of eliminating Hamas and leave four Hamas battalions in Rafah," the statement said.
"On the other hand, it is clear that a massive operation in Rafah requires the evacuation of the civilian population from the combat zones," it added.
The statement came amid US statements that Israel has not conducted the pre-operational planning necessary to ensure that civilians will be kept out of harm’s way and that failure to do so risks "disaster."
Netanyahu this week rejected a ceasefire proposal from Hamas, saying its demands were "delusional," after the terror group proposed a truce plan that would see a four-and-a-half-month ceasefire during which hostages would be freed in three stages, and which would lead to an end to the war. The Hamas proposal would have seen Israeli troops withdraw from Gaza with the terror group still intact ruling the Strip, as well as the release of 1,500 prisoners from Israeli jails, a third of whom are serving life sentences. It made other various demands of Israel.
An Israeli official told The Times of Israel on Thursday that Jerusalem was working to pressure Hamas to withdraw its terms and was not about to offer new terms. "The main target now is to create pressure from the Americans and other countries on Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... , and from there on Hamas, in addition to the military pressure, to bring them down from their delusional demands," said the official.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken ...71st United States secretary of state and a leading light of the corrupt and inept Biden administration. He previously served as deputy national security advisor from 2013 to 2015 and deputy secretary of state from 2015 to 2017 under the corrupt and inept Obama administration. He advocated for the 2003 invasion of Iraq while serving as the Democratic staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2002 to 2008. He was a foreign policy advisor for the Biden 2008 presidential campaign. During his tenure in the Obama administration, Blinken helped craft B.O.'s policy on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the nuclear program of Iran. We all saw how well each of those worked. After leaving government service, Blinken moved into the private sector, co-founding WestExec Advisors, a lobbying firm... said that while some parts of the Hamas proposal were non-starters, it did create space for further negotiation.
NUMEROUS GUNMEN KILLED BY TROOPS IN GAZA
Fighting continued across the Gaza Strip Friday, with the IDF saying it carried out several Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s against Hamas cells attempting to attack troops.
In the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, the IDF said the Commando Brigade operated in the western part of the city, raiding Hamas sites. An IDF drone spotted a Hamas cell placing bombs near the commando troops, and an aircraft struck and killed the operatives, the military said.
Also in Khan Younis, the IDF said troops of the Border Defense Corps’ 414th Combat Intelligence Collection Unit spotted two armed Hamas operatives and directed an airstrike on them.
The Paratroopers Brigade, also in western Khan Younis, killed some 15 Hamas operatives during raids on the terror group’s sites over the past day, the IDF said.
In another area of Khan Younis, the 646th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade directed airstrikes on several booby-trapped buildings, raided several Hamas sites and seized weapons and equipment.
The brigade also located a Hamas rocket launcher adjacent to a children’s daycare and a mosque. The rocket launchers, armed with projectiles and aimed at Israel, were later destroyed, the IDF said. The reservists also discovered a Hamas tunnel under a water facility in Khan Younis.
Israel also reportedly conducted airstrikes in the city of Rafah on Gaza’s southern border, killing at least 13 people, including two women and five children, according to a hospital that received the remains. The military did not immediately comment on those strikes.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Hubba Hubba Club, Big Shirley was still trying to snatch Nunzio bald-headed. She was already halfway there... in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya, the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade spotted a group of button men near a Hamas position, the IDF said. Airstrikes were carried out against the cell and against two other button men spotted in the area.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres ...Portuguese politician and diplomat, ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations. Previously, he was the UN High Commissioner for Refugees between 2005 and 2015. He was the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002 and was the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party from 1992 to 2002. He served as President of the Socialist International from 1999 to 2005. In both a 2012 and 2014 poll, the Portuguese public ranked him as the best Prime Minister of the previous 30 years... on Friday called for an immediate ceasefire in the war and the release of all hostages, condemning Hamas’s October 7 massacre and "the violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza," in apparent reference to Israel.
SINWAR ’OUT OF CONTACT’
Efforts are continuing for a truce agreement between Israel and Hamas that will see more hostages in Gaza be freed. However, the man who has no enemies isn't anybody and has never done anything... the security establishment reportedly believes that Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s leader in the Gaza Strip, has been "out of contact" for the past 10 days, not passing any messages to Qatari and Egyptian mediators during that period.
According to Channel 12, the reason for the disconnect is not clear and could be because he is on the run, engaged in a tactical ruse or simply unable to make contact due to the ongoing communications problems in Gaza.
Several decisions were made by Hamas in the past few days without him, though not necessarily ones relating to the hostages deal, Channel 12 said.
According to Kan news, the Israeli security establishment’s assessment is that Sinwar was not involved in issuing Hamas’s response to the Qatari hostage deal framework earlier this week.
The Hamas response included a clause stating that the deal would be "subject to the approval of the Hamas leadership in Gaza," seemingly making Sinwar’s approval necessary. Reportedly, Hamas’s leadership in Qatar is seeking a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, while Sinwar would suffice with a temporary pause of six weeks so that the terror organization can regroup.
#1
To me, the biggest problem in letting "civilians" free is determining who is a civilian.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
02/10/2024 9:25 Comments ||
Top||
#2
^Obviously Israel operates under a handicap - always was, always will. The important thing is most Israelis seem to grasp that peace with Arabs is impossible.
[IsraelTimes] Paleostinian health officials say a 17-year-old boy has been shot and killed by Israeli soldiers in the central West Bank.
The boy, whom health officials identified as Moaz Shamsa, was shot in the chest in the village of Beita, just south of the city of Nablus, the officials said.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The shooting was the latest in the volatile territory, where Paleostinian officials say 387 Paleostinians have been killed by Israeli fire since October 7, mostly in festivities with troops.
After the attack, Israel clamped down on the cities and towns of the West Bank in what it says is a campaign against hard boys. It has staged near-nightly raids that arrest dozens of Paleostinians and often result in deadly shootings.
Whining because in the middle of a war they are surrounded by warfare, even though they are not the target:
🚨Urgent: Now, very close artillery shelling to PRCS Al-Amal Hospital, with shrapnel hitting the hospital building amidst continued heavy gunfire, posing a danger to the safety of staff and patients. #NotATarget❌ #IHL#Gaza#AlAmalHospital
[GEO.TV] Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister claims to have given the Israeli military instructions to devise a strategy for driving out the last few Hamas ...not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... battalions in addition to evacuating people from Rafah.
At least 21 individuals were killed by Israeli snipers in Khan Younis outside Nasser Hospital, with medical personnel being among those targeted. 107 Paleostinians have bit the dust and 142 have been injured in the last 24 hours.
[AFRICANEWS] United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... Human Rights Chief, Volker Turk, on Thursday voiced deep concern about widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure in Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... by Israeli Defence Forces.
"The IDF are reportedly destroying all buildings in the Gaza Strip that are within a kilometre of the Israel-Gaza fence, clearing the area with the objective of creating a 'buffer zone'," Turk said.
He added that destruction carried out to create a buffer zone for general security purposes did not appear to be consistent narrow "military operations" exceptions set out in international humanitarian law.
"Extensive destruction of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly, amounts to a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and a war crime," he said.
"Since October, my office has recorded widespread destruction and demolition by the IDF of civilian and other infrastructure, including residential buildings, schools, and universities in areas in which fighting is not, or no longer taking place," the High Commissioner said.
Turk added that Israel had not provided clear reasons for "such extensive destruction of civilian infrastructure".
Netanyahu has ordered the Israeli Army to start preparing the evacuations of 1.2 million civilians from the city of Rafa near the border between Egypt and Gaza.
A ground invasion of the city is imminent as the IDF is preparing to liquidate 4 Hamas battalions there. pic.twitter.com/SXOUiwptUG
The Egyptian Army has reportedly Deployed several Elements of 4th Armoured Division of the 3rd Field Army, consisting of upwards of 40 M1A1 “Abrams” and M60A3 “Patton” Main Battle Tanks as well as YPR-765 Infantry Fighting Vehicles recently towards the Border between Egypt and… pic.twitter.com/UOXU7Suqht
...the Border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip; this Deployment is likely to provide Extra Border Security for the eventual Israeli Ground Operation into the Southern Gaza Strip and the City of Rafah, which could cause a Surge in Palestinian Refugees towards Egypt.
Since the war between Israel and Hamas ...the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... erupted on October 7 with the terror group’s deadly onslaught, Egypt constructed a concrete border wall that reaches six meters into the ground and is topped with barbed wire. It has also built berms and enhanced surveillance at border posts, the security sources said.
Last month, Egypt’s state information service detailed some of the measures it had taken on its border in response to Israeli suggestions that Hamas had obtained weapons smuggled from Egypt. Three lines of barriers made any overground or underground smuggling impossible, it said.
Images shared with Rooters by the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights, an independent group, appear to show the installation of the wall in December, with several berms running behind it.
Later pictures, which the group said were taken in early February, appear to show three vertical layers of coiled barbed wire being installed on top of the wall. Rooters was not able to independently verify the images.
Satellite images from January and December also show some new constructions along the 13-kilometer (8-mile) border close to Rafah and the extension of a wall to the sea’s edge at its northern end.
The new measures come after an expansion of security in northern Sinai as Egypt’s military consolidated its grip against an Islamist insurgency that escalated a decade ago.
Well before the current war in Gazoo broke out, Egypt said it had destroyed tunnels through which smuggling to Gaza had previously flourished, and had cleared a buffer zone close to the border.
On the approach to the Rafah Crossing with Gaza, the remains of razed houses can be seen along with miles of concrete walls that have been built parallel to the sea and near roads close to the border. Talk to Egypt about opening their brotherly border, dudes.
1.4 million Palestinians are currently in #Rafah without safe place to go, facing starvation.
Reports of an Israeli military offensive on Rafah are alarming. It would have catastrophic consequences worsening the already dire humanitarian situation & the unbearable civilian toll.
[IsraelTimes] Syrian air defenses shot down some Israeli missiles launched at the Damascus countryside in the early hours of Saturday, Syrian state media says.
Citing a military source, Syria’s official news agency, SANA, says the Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s were launched from the Golan Heights and caused "some material losses."
— roi kais • روعي كايس • רועי קייס (@kaisos1987) February 9, 2024
Translated from Hebrew by Google
The Syrian newspaper al-Watan, which is affiliated with the regime, says that preliminary information indicates that it was an Israeli attack in the Dimas area, northwest of the capital Damascus.
Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said on Saturday that three people were killed in early morning strikes that targeted a building in an upscale area near the Syrian capital.The war monitor said that the strikes may have killed “figures of non-Syrian nationalities” though it could not immediately confirm whether the dead were fighters.
Rahman added that many other people were injured in the strikes on a neighborhood hosting “villas for top military and officials.”
[An Nahar] Hezbollah said it fired dozens of rockets at an army position in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Friday, hours after launching a salvo at northern Israel.
Friday's attack came as Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian visited Beirut, and hours after Syria said it downed two drones near Damascus that it said entered its airspace from the Golan.
Hezbollah fighters targeted an Israeli army barracks "in the occupied Syrian Golan with dozens of Katyusha rockets," the group said in a statement.
It had already claimed a number of other attacks on Friday on Israeli targets including "spy equipment" and a tank.
Since the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas ...a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... on October 7, the Leb ...an Iranian satrapy currently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... -Israel border has seen near-daily exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah, a Hamas ally.
The latest salvo came after Hezbollah said it fired dozens of Katyusha rockets at northern Israel late Thursday in reponse to an Israeli dronezap which seriously maimed a Hezbollah commander in the south Lebanon city of Nabatiyeh.
The Israeli military said that fighter jets struck a "military site" where Hezbollah fighters were operating in Maroun al-Ras and "military compounds" in two other south Lebanon towns.
Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported Israeli bombardment of multiple locations in the south.
Recent weeks have seen a flurry of diplomatic activity in the Lebanese capital, as Britannia, La Belle France and Germany have all sent their foreign minister to appeal for a return to calm on the border.
Concerns have been growing that the Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... conflict might trigger a full-blown war between Israel and Hezbollah like that of 2006.
During four months of cross-border fire, at least 228 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also including 27 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, 15 people have been killed, six of them civilians, according to the Israeli army.
Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognized by the international community.
The Hezbollah terror group fired a barrage of over 30 rockets at northern Israel Friday evening, the second day in a row that such a large barrage has been fired from Leb into Israel.
The rockets triggered rocket sirens in northern communities including Kiryat Shmona.
Most of the rockets were either shot down by the Iron Dome missile defense system or were allowed to land in open areas.
There were no reports of injuries or damage.
Hezbollah grabbed credit for the barrage, saying it fired dozens of Katyusha rockets. In a statement, the terror group claimed to have targeted the IDF’s Kela base in the Golan Heights, although the sirens sounded in communities some 15 kilometers (9 miles) away.
The IDF said it later struck a launcher used in the rocket barrage, in the south Lebanon village of Qalaat Debba. Fighter jets also hit another Hezbollah building in Khiam, the IDF added.
Earlier in the day, Israeli fighter jets carried out strikes against Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon, including a complex where the terror group’s operatives were gathered in Maroun al-Ras. The IDF said it also hit three more buildings used by Hezbollah in Yohmor and Naqoura.
On Thursday, Israeli Air Force commander Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar warned Hezbollah that Israel was prepared to significantly ratchet up its strikes against the terror group.
“Hezbollah will continue to pay with the loss of its systems. Dozens of aircraft are now operating in the skies of southern Lebanon, and as soon as the order is given, the dozens will turn into hundreds that will perform the missions within minutes of being scrambled,” Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar said at an internal IAF conference, according to a transcript published by the IDF.
Top Israeli officials have repeatedly threatened to go to war in Lebanon following the campaign to root out Hamas in Gaza, with the aim of driving Hezbollah away from the border in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the Second Lebanon War in 2006.
An apparent Israeli drone strike Thursday in southern Lebanon targeted two Hezbollah operatives, reportedly including a senior commander in the Lebanese terror group, following repeated missile attacks that left three IDF soldiers wounded — one seriously — and damaged a house near the border.
Video from the Lebanese town of Nabatieh, some 11 kilometers (7 miles) from Israel’s northern border, showed a car in flames after it was apparently struck from the air.
There was conflicting information about the Hezbollah members’ condition after the apparent strike, with some reports saying one or both of them were killed. But a Lebanese security source told AFP that a senior operative was “seriously wounded and a companion was also injured.”
Sky News Arabic identified the high-ranking Hezbollah member as Abbas Al-Debes, while the other was not immediately named.
#2
When we visited Israel in 2011, we visited the Golan Heights. There were signs in Hebrew, English and Arabic saying"Warning - Mines".
I suggested to the Israeli tour guide that they should change the Arabic to read "Come - pick the flowers".
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
02/10/2024 9:33 Comments ||
Top||
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans...
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the 
...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell...
...not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
...71st United States secretary of state and a leading light of the corrupt and inept Biden administration. He previously served as deputy national security advisor from 2013 to 2015 and deputy secretary of state from 2015 to 2017 under the corrupt and inept Obama administration. He advocated for the 2003 invasion of Iraq while serving as the Democratic staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2002 to 2008. He was a foreign policy advisor for the Biden 2008 presidential campaign. During his tenure in the Obama administration, Blinken helped craft B.O.'s policy on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the nuclear program of Iran. We all saw how well each of those worked. After leaving government service, Blinken moved into the private sector, co-founding WestExec Advisors, a lobbying firm...
...not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
...the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
...
