[RD] War in Gaza News: Pas de Deux

[Zardnaar]

Trump solves the Gaza problem!!

Trump floats refugee plan to ‘just clean out’ Gaza
ASSOCIATED PRESS

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE — President Donald Trump said Saturday he’d like to see Jordan, Egypt and other Arab nations increase the number of Palestinian refugees they are accepting from the Gaza Strip — potentially moving out enough of the population to “just clean out” the war-torn area to create a virtual clean slate.

During a 20-minute question-and-answer session with reporters aboard Air Force One on Saturday, Trump also said he’s ended his predecessor’s hold on sending 2,000-pound bombs to Israel. That lifts a pressure point that had been meant to reduce civilian casualties during Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza that is now halted by a tenuous ceasefire.

“We released them today,” Trump said of the bombs. “They’ve been waiting for them for a long time.” Asked why he lifted the ban on those bombs, Trump responded, “Because they bought them.”

On his larger vision for Gaza, Trump said he had call earlier in the day with King Abdullah II of Jordan and would speak Sunday with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt.

“I’d like Egypt to take people,” Trump said. “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing and say, ‘You know, it’s over.’” Trump said he complimented Jordan for having successfully accepted Palestinian refugees and that he told the king, “I’d love for you to take on more, cause I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now, and it’s a mess. It’s a real mess.”

He said of such a mass movement of Palestinians, “it could be temporary or long term,” adding that the area of the world that encompasses Gaza, has “had many, many conflicts” over centuries.

“Something has to happen,” Trump said. “But it’s literally a demolition site right now. Almost everything’s demolished, and people are dying there.” He added: “So, I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations, and build housing in a different location, where they can maybe live in peace for a change.”


All that beach front for his hotels!!

Residents of Dearborn Michigan lol.

Just remember Genocide Joe. Not just far right that's vulnerable to online bots snd tankies.

 

[caketastydelish]

The majority of arab Americans voted for Trump. I bet they regret it now.

 

[Samson]

Satellite images show Star of David carved into Gaza

Zooming in on newly released satellite images of what used to be farmland in northern Gaza, the outline of what clearly appears to be a Star of David is carved into the ground.

The symbol of both the Jewish faith and the state of Israel can be seen in images of Beit Hanoon, an area of northern Gaza that has seen extensive fighting and losses for the Israeli military.

Next to the star appears the numbers 7979, a possible reference to the Israeli military’s 97th Netzah Yehuda Battalion.

The Netzah Yehuda Battalion, an all-male ultra-Orthodox unit, was reported to have deployed from the occupied West Bank to Gaza in January last year and has operated in Beit Hanoon.

Before its deployment, the battalion had been accused of numerous violent crimes, including what some United States officials said could amount to gross violations of human rights, including the killing of unarmed Palestinians and the torture and sexual abuse of prisoners in its custody.

Among the battalion’s alleged victims was a Palestinian American man in his 80s, Omar Abdulmajeed Asaad, who died during his arrest by the Netzah Yehuda Battalion in January 2022.

After pressure from the US government, Israel agreed to pay compensation to Asaad’s family later that year. However, as part of the payout, the Israeli government insisted that no one in Netzah Yehuda be held accountable for Asaad’s death.

 

[caketastydelish]

"the ceasefire in Gaza without Hamas being destroyed proves the IDF failed their mission" assumes that destroying Hamas in and of itself was important to Israel, or that it matters. It doesn't. Even if Hamas a political, military entity had been wiped off the face of the earth it wouldn't have mattered at all. Because the underlying reasons why Hamas has power in the first place, haven't changed. Hamas itself is simply a symptom of a larger, deeper issue. Even if Hamas was eliminated, another group would have popped up in its place that would be functionally the same thing. What matters is not whether hamas (or a similar group) is eliminated. It's buying time to eliminate Palestinian resistance to the occupation of the west bank. Palestnians, whether in hamas or not, are incapable of launching an attack anywhere near as October 7th for the next several years. The death of hamas soldiers, while significant is actually the least of their problems. It's the hammas infrausture (such as tunnels) being destroyed. They rely on those to attack Israel and while they will be rebuilt, it is going to take time. The point of the operation in gaza was to make them unable to resist Israeli occupation in any significant way for the next several years, which is all they need. It's not a coincidence that immediately after the ceasfire in gaza, the IDF went straight to the west bank. Because the west bank was always the point in the first place.

 

[aelf]

Residents of Dearborn Michigan lol.

Just remember Genocide Joe. Not just far right that's vulnerable to online bots snd talkies.

Not necessarily. Some people would defend their choices to the end, logical or not.

We'll see a lot of that among the MAGA faithful even as they're pummeled by Trump's policies.

 

[caketastydelish]

You say that, but you don't offer any support for it beyond "trust me he won't do it".
Nobody ever earned money by trusting the Crook.

Trump is much worse than a mere crook. He supports genocide and is a fascist, racist, transphobe, homophobe, rapist, and misogynist.

 

[Ajidica]

I'm borrowing from Hunter S Thompson's obituary of Nixon.

Hunter S Thompson's obituary of Richard Nixon

'He was a crook' (Rolling Stone, Jun 16, 1994) MEMO FROM THE NATIONAL AFFAIRS DESK DATE: MAY 1, 1994 FROM: DR. HUNTER S. THOMPSON SUBJECT: THE DEATH OF RICHARD NIXON: NOTES ON THE PASSING OF AN AMERICAN MONSTER....HE WAS A LIAR AND A QUITTER, AND HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN BURIED AT SEA. ...BUT HE…

nwhyte.livejournal.com

I have had my own bloody relationship with Nixon for many years, but I am not worried about it landing me in hell with him. I have already been there with that bastard, and I am a better person for it. Nixon had the unique ability to make his enemies seem honorable, and we developed a keen sense of fraternity. Some of my best friends have hated Nixon all their lives. My mother hates Nixon, my son hates Nixon, I hate Nixon, and this hatred has brought us together.
...
If the right people had been in charge of Nixon's funeral, his casket would have been launched into one of those open-sewage canals that empty into the ocean just south of Los Angeles. He was a swine of a man and a jabbering dupe of a president. Nixon was so crooked that he needed servants to help him screw his pants on every morning. Even his funeral was illegal. He was queer in the deepest way. His body should have been burned in a trash bin.
...
Let there be no mistake in the history books about that. Richard Nixon was an evil man--evil in a way that only those who believe in the physical reality of the Devil can understand it. He was utterly without ethics or morals or any bedrock sense of decency. Nobody trusted him--except maybe the Stalinist Chinese, and honest historians will remember him mainly as a rat who kept scrambling to get back on the ship.
...
It was all gibberish, of course. Nixon was no more a Saint than he was a Great President. He was more like Sammy Glick than Winston Churchill. He was a cheap crook and a merciless war criminal who bombed more people to death in Laos and Cambodia than the U.S. Army lost in all of World War II, and he denied it to the day of his death. When students at Kent State University, in Ohio, protested the bombing, he connived to have them attacked and slain by troops from the National Guard.

Some people will say that words like scum and rotten are wrong for Objective Journalism--which is true, but they miss the point. It was the built-in blind spots of the Objective rules and dogma that allowed Nixon to slither into the White House in the first place. He looked so good on paper that you could almost vote for him sight unseen. He seemed so all-American, so much like Horatio Alger, that he was able to slip through the cracks of Objective Journalism. You had to get Subjective to see Nixon clearly, and the shock of recognition was often painful.

Nixon's meteoric rise from the unemployment line to the vice presidency in six quick years would never have happened if TV had come along 10 years earlier. He got away with his sleazy "my dog Checkers" speech in 1952 because most voters heard it on the radio or read about it in the headlines of their local, Republican newspapers. When Nixon finally had to face the TV cameras for real in the 1960 presidential campaign debates, he got whipped like a red-headed mule. Even die-hard Republican voters were shocked by his cruel and incompetent persona. Interestingly, most people who heard those debates on the radio thought Nixon had won. But the mushrooming TV audience saw him as a truthless used-car salesman, and they voted accordingly. It was the first time in 14 years that Nixon lost an election.
...
That is Watergate, in a nut, for people with seriously diminished attention spans. The real story is a lot longer and reads like a textbook on human treachery. They were all scum, but only Nixon walked free and lived to clear his name. Or at least that's what Bill Clinton says--and he is, after all, the President of the United States.

Nixon liked to remind people of that. He believed it, and that was why he went down. He was not only a crook but a fool. Two years after he quit, he told a TV journalist that "if the president does it, it can't be illegal."

horsehockey. Not even Spiro Agnew was that dumb. He was a flat-out, knee-crawling thug with the morals of a weasel on speed. But he was Nixon's vice president for five years, and he only resigned when he was caught red-handed taking cash bribes across his desk in the White House.
...
He has poisoned our water forever. Nixon will be remembered as a classic case of a smart man horsehockeyting in his own nest. But he also horsehockey in our nests, and that was the crime that history will burn on his memory like a brand. By disgracing and degrading the Presidency of the United States, by fleeing the White House like a diseased cur, Richard Nixon broke the heart of the American Dream.

 

[caketastydelish]

Nixon was forced to resign over much less than the things trump has done. Not a Nixon fan but he wasn’t as bad as trump.

 

[Zardnaar]

Trump is much worse than a mere crook. He supports genocide and is a fascist, racist, transphobe, homophobe, rapist, and misogynist.

You missed a few words.

 

[caketastydelish]

Important distinction... not "clear out", but "CLEAN out", an explicit, perhaps subconscious implication/allusion to a view of the Gazans as dirty, unclean... the kind of attitude you might expect someone to have towards scum, vermin, and similar.

Calling it genocide is not simply political hyperbole, but an accurate description of what is taking place. I don't think it is "subconscious" in Trump's mind though, or those who agree with him It's simply an honest assessment of what they think.

 

[Broken_Erika]

Israel's looming Unrwa ban a catastrophe, UN Palestinian refugee agency warns​

As Israel prepares to outlaw the main UN agency for Palestinian refugees on Thursday, there are warnings that it could undermine vital aid delivery and long-term chances of peace.

Israeli officials have not spelt out how they will enforce the legislation passed last year by Israel's parliament, which accused Unrwa of being complicit with Hamas - an allegation the agency denied.

"It will be a catastrophe if this ban takes place," says Juliette Touma, communications director of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (Unrwa).

"It will deepen and further the suffering of the Palestinian people who rely on the agency for their survival, for their education and healthcare."

Even before 15 months of brutal war left the vast majority of the two million people in Gaza displaced and homeless, most were registered refugees.

Unrwa camps were first set up in Gaza to house Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their land in fighting before and after the state of Israel was created in 1948.

For seven decades, those original refugees and their descendants - as well as a new wave of refugees created by the 1967 Middle East War - have been cared for by Unrwa.

Across the Middle East - in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon as well as the occupied Palestinian territories - there are some six million Palestinian refugees.

They include the Naseer family, currently huddled in a tent in the courtyard of an Unrwa school-turned-shelter in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. They are from Beit Hanoun in the north but have decided to delay returning to the rubble of their home, even as a fragile ceasefire has taken hold.

"I have a disability, and I have a big family," says Ahmed Naseer, a father of nine who says he struggles to access food aid. "Right now, we get hot meals twice a week from Unrwa and people are still starving. What would it be like if it stops for good?"

Ahmed says his children - all formerly Unrwa students - have forgotten basics like their times tables, as their schools have been closed for so long. Now they worry their lessons will never resume.

"We just want to go back to school to make up the days we've lost," says 16-year-old Malak. "Every child in Gaza has a dream of what they want to do when they grow up - to be a doctor or engineer. If education is stopped, there will be no future for us."

The full implications of legislation passed by the Israeli parliament are not yet clear. In October, it voted overwhelmingly to ban Unrwa activity on Israeli soil and forbid contact between Israeli officials and Unrwa employees. The laws come into effect on 30 January.

However, the legal wording does not directly address the agency's operations in Gaza, or the occupied West Bank. UN workers say it will ultimately be impossible to function in either location without co-ordinating with Israel's military authorities.

Talking to the BBC, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel suggests that only Palestinian officials should deal with Unrwa in the West Bank.

She accuses the agency of being infiltrated by Hamas in Gaza and becoming a security threat.

"Israel actually gave more than a year to the international community to clean out this organisation, but it didn't. It tried to sweep it under the rug and turn a blind eye to breaching the law of neutrality," Haskell says. "This was the only logical step."

Israel has long accused Unrwa of perpetuating conflict by keeping alive Palestinian hopes of returning to their historic homeland.

However, tensions have risen dramatically since the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the war they triggered.

A year ago, Israel accused 18 Unrwa employees of taking part in the deadly assault. A UN investigation then found that nine employees may have been involved and the agency fired them. UN officials reject most of Israel's accusations against it and insist Unrwa is impartial.

Many international donors, including the UK and the European Union, have since resumed donations to the agency.

There is nervousness among tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees in occupied East Jerusalem, where Unrwa workers could be seen stacking boxes outside some offices this week.

Israel's government has ordered Unrwa to vacate its compound in this part of the city, which it has annexed in a move not recognised internationally.

"You can see in front of us the Unrwa Shufat health centre where I was director, and on the other side are the girls' school and separate boys' one," says Salim Anati, retired GP, as he shows me along the bustling main road of Shufat refugee camp where he grew up.

He tells me how his parents - who were expelled from their homes in what is now Lod in Israel - never believed that the refugee camp or Unrwa would become permanent fixtures.

The fate of refugees - a core issue in the Israel-Palestinian conflict - was meant to be worked out in peace talks. However, they stalled a decade ago. Now Palestinians feel Israel is using the opportunity to push its own political solution.

Dr Anati says Palestinians refuse to accept the abolition of Unrwa and its services.

"All people are shocked, because it's something fundamental for us as refugees and Unrwa represents the international agreements and our dream of the right of return to our villages and cities."

The UN has repeatedly said there is no alternative to Unrwa.

At a heated meeting in New York on Tuesday, senior UN officials and every member of the Security Council except the US - Israel's closest ally - described Israel's actions as a violation of international law and its obligations under the UN charter.

The deputy US ambassador to the UN, Dorothy Shea, accused the Unrwa head, Philippe Lazzarini, of being "irresponsible and dangerous" when he outlined the expected "disastrous" impact, particularly on aid in Gaza.

But Mr Lazzarini said the legislation would impose "massive constraints", particularly on the Gaza aid operation, and called on international powers to push back against it "in support of peace and stability".
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx257j4v0xpo

 

[Klaus Hergersheimer]

Israelis and Palestinians rejoice after more hostages and prisoners are freed

Two Israelis and five Thai nationals were released as part of a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel that began Jan. 19.

apnews.com

Scenes of chaos as hostages are released

The release of prisoners came hours after militants in Gaza held off thousands of boisterous Palestinian onlookers as they handed hostages over to the Red Cross.

Hamas released seven of the hostages in front of the destroyed home of its slain leader, Yahya Sinwar, as crowds pressed in. The militant group called it a “message of determination,” but it nearly derailed this month’s third swap of hostages for prisoners and triggered the latest in a series of disputes that have tested the durability of the truce.

The first hostage — female soldier Agam Berger, 20 — was released after Hamas paraded her in front of a smaller crowd in the heavily destroyed urban Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza.

Hours later, at a handover of the other seven in the southern city of Khan Younis, hundreds of militants from Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad group arrived with a convoy.

People surround the cars carrying Israeli Gadi Mozes and Arbel Yahoud, who have been held hostages by Hamas in Gaza since October 7, 2023, as they are escorted by Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters as they are handed over to the Red Cross in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Footage showed hostage Arbel Yehoud, 29, looked stunned as masked militants hustled her through the shouting crowd, pushing people back. Also released were Gadi Moses, an 80-year-old man, and the five Thai laborers. Both Yehoud and Moses are dual German-Israeli nationals.

The scenes of the hostages being marched through seemingly hostile crowds in Gaza was unnerving for Israelis who became vicarious participants in the hostages’ ordeals. Netanyahu condemned the “shocking scenes” and called on international mediators to ensure the safety of hostages in future releases — a commitment he said he later received.

Israel identified the Thai hostages released as: Watchara Sriaoun, 33; Pongsak Thaenna, 36; Sathian Suwannakham, 35; Surasak Rumnao, 32; and Bannawat Saethao, 27. Thai officials said they appeared to be in good health.

look at the pictures: now is there any particular reason Hamas allowed Gazans to surround the freed hostages while they were being released? Or am I right this is just Hamas milking their presence until the last possible moment?

 

[Lexicus]

Zionists crying about the concentration camp being crowded is just too much lmao

 

[Klaus Hergersheimer]

These individuals are being mobbed. I'm quite certain a safe passage corridor beyond arms-length was doable without pushing any Gazans into the Med.

 

[Lexicus]

The individuals were not being mobbed, they were released perfectly safe.

 

[Gorbles]

These individuals are being mobbed. I'm quite certain a safe passage corridor beyond arms-length was doable without pushing any Gazans into the Med.

What evidence do you have for them being mobbed? What links can you provide in support of this claim?

 

[Klaus Hergersheimer]

regardless of what we to quibble over about this release not possibly going any better that it did, looks like someone got the message about social distancing:

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01/30/world/israel-hamas-hostage-release-gaza

Here’s the latest on the hostage and prisoner exchange.​

Israel on Thursday released more than 100 Palestinian prisoners — including some convicted of deadly attacks against Israelis — in exchange for hostages held in Gaza after a chaotic Hamas-led hostage handover in Gaza cast doubt on whether it would go ahead.

Hamas released a total of eight Israeli and Thai hostages after a year in captivity, including one in a tightly choreographed ceremony in northern Gaza that went relatively smoothly. But in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, the handover devolved into tumult, with the hostages surrounded by crowds of people, including some chanting support for Hamas or other armed groups.

The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said after that tumult that he had suspended the prisoners’ release until cease-fire mediators — which included Qatar, Egypt and the United States — secured guarantees from Hamas of “the safe exit of our hostages in the next rounds.”

The government later said that mediators had guaranteed the hostages safe passage in future releases. Not long after, buses carrying 110 Palestinian prisoners were seen leaving the Ofer prison in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian prisoners were being freed as part of the third hostage-for-prisoner swap in the ongoing cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas. During the first 42 days of the agreement, Hamas pledged to free at least 33 hostages in exchange for over 1,500 Palestinians jailed by Israel.

On Thursday, large numbers of Palestinians gathered before the hostage release in Khan Younis near the home of Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s leader in Gaza who was killed by Israel in October. A small white van surrounded by armed gunmen slowly pushed its way through yelling crowds of people seeking any glimpse of the captives.

The militants later carved a path through the surging crowd as many pushed their way to the front with cameras. Photos and video showed hostages walking through the chaotic crowd. In one video, Arbel Yehud, 29, one of the last living female hostages, at times appeared afraid while surrounded by rifle-wielding militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad as they made their way toward the Red Cross convoy that would take her to Israeli soldiers.

but feel free to contact the AP and the NYT about a correction.
Me I simply can't possibly think of a synonym to go along with "chaotic crowd"...

 

[Lexicus]

Me I simply can't possibly think of a synonym to go along with "chaotic crowd"...

Do you know the difference between a noun and a verb?

 

[Broken_Erika]

Trump proposes 'permanently' displacing Palestinians so U.S. can take over Gaza​

U.S. president's comments come after his meeting with Israel's prime minister​

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday he wants his country to take ownership of the Gaza Strip and redevelop it after Palestinians are displaced elsewhere.

"We will own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site," Trump said at the start of a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"I do see a long-term ownership position," Trump said when asked about the U.S. controlling the territory for an extended period, adding that he is not ruling out sending U.S. troops in to secure Gaza.

He added the U.S. would level destroyed buildings and "create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area."

Trump suggested this would promote stability in the region and added: "This is not a decision made lightly."

"Everybody I've spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land."

The comments came after Trump earlier suggested that displaced Palestinians in Gaza be "permanently" resettled outside the war-torn territory.

• Analysis
  As Netanyahu and Trump meet in Washington, doubts remain about how much Israel's leader wants to end the war

"You can't live in Gaza right now. I think we need another location," Trump said earlier Tuesday.

"I think it should be a location that's going to make people happy. You look over the decades, it's all death in Gaza. This has been happening for years. It's all death. If we can get a beautiful area to resettle people, permanently, in nice homes where they can be happy and not be shot and not be killed and not be knifed to death like what's happening in Gaza."

Trump has previously called on Jordan, Egypt and other Arab countries to take in Palestinians temporarily while Gaza is reconstructed after the devastating war between Hamas and Israel, which was paused in January by a ceasefire. Tuesday was the first time he has publicly floated making that resettlement permanent.

His proposals echo the wishes of Israel's far right and contradict former president Joe Biden's commitment against mass displacement of Palestinians.

Arab states and the Palestinian Authority have rejected the idea, which some human rights advocates have likened to ethnic cleansing.

Palestinians claim Gaza as part of a future homeland, and many have indicated a desire to remain and rebuild.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri condemned Trump's calls for Gazans to leave as "expulsion from their land."

• Analysis
  Trump's comment to 'clean out' Gaza has thrilled Israel's far right and infuriated Palestinians

"The people of Gaza will not allow such plans to pass," he said.

The war was sparked after a Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, killed about 1,200 people and took some 250 others captive, according to Israeli tallies. Nearly 100 hostages remain in Gaza.

Israel responded with an offensive that has killed more than 46,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, and displaced the vast majority of Gaza's population.

Israel has faced accusations of genocide in Gaza because of the scale of death and destruction, which it rejects by saying it abides by international law and has a right to defend itself after the Hamas attack.

Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, the former Israeli defence minister, have been issued arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Threatens Iran with 'obliteration'​

Also on Tuesday, Trump threatened Iran with "obliteration" should he be assassinated by the country, adding he's told his advisers to retaliate if that happens.

"If they did that, they would be obliterated," he said while signing an executive order calling for the U.S. government to impose maximum pressure on Tehran. "There won't be anything left."

The Justice Department filed federal charges in November over an alleged Iranian plot to kill Trump before the presidential election.

The department alleged Iranian officials had instructed Farhad Shakeri, 51, in September to focus on surveilling and ultimately assassinating Trump. Shakeri is still at large in Iran.

Mulls deporting U.S. prisoners​

Trump also said he is studying the legality of sending dangerous convicts to prisons in other countries.

"If we had the legal right to do it, I'd do it in a heartbeat," he said. "I don't know that we do. We're looking at it right now."

• Trump's threat of mass deportations opens up old wounds for a Mississippi community

Trump didn't say which countries might take U.S. prisoners.

But his comments come after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said El Salvador had offered to jail some violent American criminals and that the offer was "very generous" — even though it raised some legal concerns.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/trump-iran-deport-prisoners-gaza-1.7450362

 

[Lexicus]

US troops in Gaza you say, Trump? Hmm...