Israel plans using mass-killing new bombs in Gaza: Seymour Hersh

American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has revealed that the Israeli military plans to use a new version of Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) bombs capable of killing all people within “one-half mile” from the dropping site during the ongoing aggression against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

According to Hersh, the attack is scheduled between Sunday and Monday.

“The current Israeli war planners are convinced, the insider told me, that the upgraded version of JDAMs with larger warheads would penetrate deep enough underground before detonating – thirty to fifty meters – with the blast and resulting sound wave ‘killing all within one-half mile’ …depending on the efficacy the forced expulsion of Gazi City and south proceeds, with a ground invasion to follow immediately,” Hersh said on his Substack column.

Earlier this week, Hersh warned in another report that an Israeli “national security veteran” said that the occupation is pondering whether to use a “Leningrad approach” to starve out “Hamas forces” in Gaza and avoid an invasion, something the source said may lead to the murder of nearly 100,000 civilians.

“The big debate today… is whether to starve Hamas out or kill as many as 100,000 people in Gaza,” adding that,  “Hamas now only has a two or three-day supply of purified water and that, along with a lack of food … may be enough to flush all the Hamas [forces] out,” he said then citing the source.

The Israeli regime keeps pounding the densely-populated Gaza Strip relentlessly for the 9th day in a row, killing civilians and reducing buildings in the besieged Palestinian territory to rubble.

In one of the latest strikes, the regime killed 27 Palestinians in Jabaliya, north of the Gaza Strip.

Over 2,300 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 10,000 wounded. Over 700 children are among the dead.

At least 15 hospitals have been damaged by Israeli shelling and air raids.

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas says at least 21 Israelis and foreigners held by the group were also killed in airstrikes.

Now more than one million Palestinians in northern Gaza face an Israeli deadline on Saturday to flee south. The territory remains under Israel’s complete siege with no access to electricity, water, food, and medicines.

Raising the alarm on the Israeli atrocities, the Civil Defense spokesperson in Gaza has confirmed that 90% of the Israeli bombings targeted homes and residential buildings.

The United Nations recently stated that the ongoing aggression on the Strip had destroyed over 5,540 housing units and 3,750 were damaged and rendered uninhabitable.

The developments come as water and medical supplies are running out across Gaza, and the health sector is on the brink of collapse due to the blockade.

Palestine will not leave their land despite barbaric Israeli crimes: Hamas chief

Head of Hamas political Bureau, Ismail Haniyeh says Palestinian people will never leave their land despite the recent Israeli bloodshed in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Haniyeh said Palestinians have a country and their country is Palestine.

The Hamas official said the people of Palestine will not emigrate from their land despite the Israeli regime’s barbaric crimes to eliminate the roots of Palestinian people.

Haniyeh said the return of Palestinian people to their ancestral land is close given that the regime’s plan which is assisted by the US is doomed to fail.

The remarks come as the European Union, the United States and the United Kingdom have shown strong support for Israeli aggression. 

l Haniyeh has accused Israel of committing war crimes and preventing humanitarian aid from entering Gaza.

Elsewhere in his remarks,  Haniyeh praised the military wing of Hamas, the al-Qassam Brigades for carrying out the operation against the Israeli regime.

Israel dropped equivalent to a quarter of a nuclear bomb

Meanwhile, the Euro-Med Monitor has documented the killing of at least 14 Palestinians every hour on the eighth day of Israel’s aggression on Gaza. So far,

According to the Geneva-based organization,  the Tel Aviv regime’s aggression has included the dropping of more than 6,000 bombs on the densely populated area with over two million residents.

The non-profit organization stated that Israel’s relentless aerial and artillery attacks on the Gaza Strip had turned it into a hellhole where death and destruction prevail in extremely complex humanitarian conditions.

Basic services such as electricity, water, communications, and the internet are in short supply, posing unprecedented and serious threats to food security.

Civilian residents in Gaza find themselves with no shelter, fleeing from one form of death to another in an inhumane reality.

The Israeli army has executed thousands of airstrikes and artillery strikes around the clock, targeting residential neighborhoods and multi-story buildings housing the population in the Gaza Strip.

The Euro-Med Monitor emphasized that Israel continues to intensify its airstrikes and artillery attacks all over the Gaza Strip, including the complete destruction of residential neighborhoods, resulting in the annihilation of at least 82 families in horrific collective killings.

The international human rights monitor documented that Israel’s attacks have destroyed 2,650 residential buildings and severely damaged approximately 70,000 residential units. In addition, 65 government buildings were destroyed.

Israel’s attacks also caused destruction to at least 71 schools, the destruction of 145 industrial facilities, 61 media headquarters, the demolition of 18 mosques, and the damage to dozens of ancient churches and mosques.

The Gaza Strip was already experiencing a wide-scale displacement as a result of Israel’s attacks.

The Euro-Med Monitor ocumented the displacement of over 820,000 individuals to UN-affiliated schools, governmental schools, and the homes of relatives and neighbors.

In the absence of a safe haven, tens of thousands of civilians sought refuge in hospitals to protect themselves from Israel’s attacks.

In addition to this, the Israeli army has been intimidating the residents of the Gaza and northern regions by warning them of collective evacuations from their residential areas.

The Euro-Med Monitor ighlighted that the evacuation warnings for civilians in Gaza were made without any announcement of halting air raids and aerial attacks and without any safety or return guarantees, amounting to a war crime in the form of forced transfer.

In light of the current events, Euro-Med questioned the position of the The Hague -based International Criminal Court, which initiated in recent years an investigation into the occurrence of crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories without any tangible results so far.

 

 

EU voices strong support for Zionist regime invasion of Gaza

In a joint statement on Sunday, the leaders of the 27 countries of the European Union threw their support behind the invasion of the Palestinian Gaza Strip and vowed their support for the alleged “Israel’s right to defend itself,” Euronews reported.

“We reaffirm the importance of providing emergency humanitarian assistance and stand ready to continue supporting civilians most in need in Gaza, in coordination with our partners… It is essential to prevent regional escalation,” they further claimed.

Some European countries have taken action to prevent pro-Palestinian rallies in European cities. 

Israel’s invasion of Gaza ‘could lead to genocide’: Arab League, African Union

The ground offensive that the Israeli army have been promising against the Gaza Strip “could lead to a genocide of unprecedented proportions”, the heads of the Arab League and the African Union Commission have warned in Cairo, the Euronews report added.

Ahmed Aboul Gheit and Moussa Faki also called on “the United Nations and the international community to stop a catastrophe”. 

Israeli regime forces launched a sustained and forceful military attack against the Gaza Strip in response to a military operation last Saturday by the Palestinian group Hamas in Israel dubbed Al-Aqsa Storm Operation. 

In its latest updated figures released by the Zionist regime’s army on Sunday morning, it said that the number of soldiers killed during the Palestinian operation increased to 286.

Meanwhile, the occupying regime’s prime minister’s office said on Sunday afternoon that a total of 1,400 people were killed and more than 3,500 others (soldiers and settlers) were injured as a result of Hamas attacks on occupied territories.

MNA

2,670 Palestinians martyred, 9,600 wounded in Gaza: ministry

At least 2,670 Palestinians have been killed and 9,600 wounded since Israel launched its attack on the Gaza strip on the ninth day of conflict, the enclave’s health ministry said on Sunday, according to Reuters.

Israeli regime forces launched a sustained and forceful military attack against the Gaza Strip in response to a military operation last Saturday by the Palestinian group Hamas in Israel.

In its latest updated figures released by the Zionist regime’s army, on Sunday morning it said that the number of soldiers killed during the Al-Aqsa Storm operation increased to 286.

A total of more than 1400 Zionist settlers and soldiers have been killed in the occupying regime prime minister’s office said on Sunday afternoon.

MNA

Iran will not be bystander unless Israel stops aggression on Gaza: FM

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has warned that the Islamic Republic will not be a bystander if the Israeli occupying regime presses ahead with its savagery against the Palestinian people in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Amir-Abdollahian made the warning in an interview with the Qatar-based Al Jazeera network’s Arabic service on Sunday, on the 9th day of the barbaric Israeli shelling of the coastal area that has so far killed over 2,450 people and left thousands of others injured.

The Israeli occupation army are also preparing to launch a large-scale ground offensive in Gaza after forcing its millions-strong population to relocate south.

“If the Zionist entity decides to enter Gaza, the resistance leaders will turn it into a cemetery for its soldiers,” Amir-Abdollahian said, adding that the continuation of Israeli aggression against Gaza would expand the war fronts across the whole region.

Expressing optimism about political efforts aimed at ending the conflict, the top Iranian diplomat, however, warned that Tehran would not sit idly by if the Israeli regime failed to stop its brutal onslaught on Gazans.

“We hope that political efforts will prevent the war from expanding, otherwise no one knows what will happen in the next hour; Iran cannot remain as a spectator to this situation,” Amir-Abdollahian said.

The Iranian foreign minister also underlined that the resistance front had expressed its readiness for all possible scenarios.

“The United States has come forward to preserve the statue and puppet of Israel,” Amir-Abdollahian told Al Jazeera network. “If the scope of the war expands, heavy losses will befall the US as well.”

Iran warns Israel through UN against ground offensive in Gaza

Meanwhile, the American news website Axios reported that Iran sent a message to Israel through the United Nations on Saturday stressing that it does not want further escalation in Gaza, but that it will have to intervene if the Israeli aggression on the coastal area continued.

Citing two diplomatic sources with knowledge of the situation, Axios said Amir-Abdollahian had met with UN envoy to the Middle East Tor Wennesland in the Lebanese capital of Beirut and conveyed the message to the Israeli regime.

“Iran has its red lines,” Amir-Abdollahian was quoted as saying. “If the Israeli military operation continues — and especially if Israel follows through on its promise of a ground offensive in Gaza — Iran will have to respond.”

Palestinian resistance movement Hamas launched Operation Al-Aqsa Storm last Saturday, penetrating deep into the territories occupied by the Israeli regime, by carrying out large-scale air, land, and sea strikes.

The group said the operation was a reaction to the recurring desecration of the al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied al-Quds as well as intensified Israeli atrocities against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Israel responded with intensive air strikes on civilian targets in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 2,450 Palestinians in Gaza and wounding some 10,000 others, according to the territory’s health ministry.

The regime has also intensified the siege of Gaza, leaving the city, home to more than 2.3 million Palestinians, without water, electricity, fuel and internet.

One million Palestinians displaced in Gaza: UN

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) says more than one million people had already been displaced in the Gaza Strip, following the Israeli bombardment of the besieged enclave last week.

Juliette Touma, UNRWA Director of Communications made the remarks on Sunday, saying “the number is likely to be higher as people continue to leave their homes” amid warnings of a ground invasion by the Israeli regime.

On Friday, Israel ordered residents of Gaza City to evacuate the area within 24 hours, in what is viewed as a precursor of a ground invasion by the occupying entity after suffering a serious setback by the Palestinian resistance groups over the past few days.

Israel has amassed troops around the strip in preparation for a potential ground offensive after warning people in northern Gaza to evacuate and move toward the southern part of Gaza.

Millions of Palestinian people in the besieged Gaza have been forced to flee ahead of the expected assault, an exodus that aid groups said would set off a humanitarian disaster.

The Israeli regime has also cut off food, water, medicine, internet and electricity to Gaza’s 2.3 million people.

Officials have warned a humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding there due to a lack of medicine and medical equipment.

Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of UNRWA, the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, has also warned that water has now become a “matter of life and death” for civilians across the Gaza Strip, adding that “more than two million people are now at risk as water runs out.”

Pope Francis has called for humanitarian corridors in Gaza, urging that “children, the sick, the elderly, women and all civilians should not fall victim to the conflict”.

“There have already been so many deaths, please let’s not shed any more innocent blood,” he said, castigating “the diabolical force of hatred, terrorism and war”.

Israel launched the deadly strikes on Gaza last Saturday after the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement waged a surprise attack, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, against the occupying regime.

Hamas said that its operation came in response to Israel’s violations at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East al-Quds and growing Israeli settler violence.

The death toll of Palestinians killed since Israel began the bombing campaign in Gaza on October 7 has risen to 2,450, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the territory. At least 10,000 Palestinians were also injured.

Raeisi: Israeli actions in Gaza reminiscent of Nazi crimes

Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi says Israel’s actions against Palestinians echo the crimes perpetrated by the Nazis during the Second World War, warning that the dimensions of the war will broaden if the Israeli regime persists with its attacks.

“If the Zionist regime seeks to pay for its defeat through the continuation of these crimes [against Palestinians], the dimensions of the developments will expand,” Raeisi said in a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday.

He added that Western countries and international organizations shoulder a responsibility in addressing the ongoing crimes of the Israeli regime against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Raeisi stressed the necessity of an immediate halt to the bombardment of residential areas in Gaza, lifting the blockade, and providing essential supplies like water, electricity, fuel, and basic items to the besieged city, in addition to respecting the absolute rights of the Palestinian people.

The president emphasized that those measures are necessary to prevent the spread of the crisis in the region.

Raeisi strongly condemned Israel’s criminal attacks and expressed deep concern for the people of Gaza, citing seven decades of oppression, discrimination, injustice, and occupation of Palestinian territories by the regime.

The Palestinian resistance groups’ operation was a reaction to Israel’s crimes and a protest against seven decades of killing, cruelty and injustice towards the Palestinian people, he added.

On October 7, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas launched multi-pronged strikes on Israel and penetrated deep into the territories occupied by the regime for decades. Operation Al-Aqsa Storm took Israel by surprise. It was a response to the regime’s recurrent desecration of al-Aqsa Mosque and decade-long atrocities against the Palestinians.

Israel responded by indiscriminate bombardment of civilian buildings and infrastructure and imposing a total siege on the Strip. Gaza, home to more than 2.3 million Palestinians, has been running vitally low on fuel, electricity, water and food.

So far, Israel has killed more than 2,450 Palestinians, including women and children, in Gaza.

The Iranian president further emphasized that the Tel Aviv regime has repeatedly violated international rules and conventions and the so-called peace agreements against the Palestinians.

“This time, the regime has also committed war crimes by violating all international rules and regulations as it imposed a blockade [on Gaza] and cut off supplies of water, electricity, fuel, food and medicine to the people of Gaza,” Raeisi said.

He added that Israel has also carried out “extensive and indiscriminate bombardment against civilian targets and even used phosphorous bombs.”

The Iranian president stressed the importance of putting an immediate end to the bombing of residential areas in Gaza, saying, “The forced displacement of Gaza residents from their hometowns is neither practical nor compatible with international principles and laws.”

He added that the Palestinian resistance groups and all free nations of the world will stand against such crimes against Palestinians.

Raeisi also slammed the incorrect and incomplete narratives of the Western media about the events taking place against the oppressed and defenseless people of Gaza and once again called for exerting pressure on Israel to stop its crimes against civilians and lift the blockade of Gaza.

He highlighted the importance of every single moment and seconds to force the Israeli regime to stop its crimes and prevent the spread of the crisis to other parts of the region.

“Western countries and international organizations should immediately fulfill their responsibility in this regard,” he stated.

The Iranian president also criticized the French government for preventing a rally in support of the Palestinian people and called on his French counterpart not to allow “the name of France be mentioned in the history as a country that supports the child-killing Zionist regime.”

Raeisi reiterated Iran’s principled stance on support for the Palestinian people’s rights and said, “We believe that defending the Palestinian resistance movement is defending an oppressed nation.”

For his part, the French president expressed concern over the escalation of the crisis in the Gaza Strip and called on Iran to play its influential role to control the situation in the region.

However, Macron was told by his Iranian counterpart that resistance groups can decide for themselves.

As Gaza death toll rises, bodies are stored in ice cream trucks

Health officials in the Gaza Strip have resorted to storing the bodies of Palestinians killed by Israeli air strikes in ice cream freezer trucks because moving them to hospitals is too risky and cemeteries are short of space.

The freezer trucks, whose sides still show advertising images of smiling children enjoying ice cream cones, are normally used to make deliveries to supermarkets. Now they are makeshifting morgues for victims of the Tel Aviv regime’s crimes and aggressions, according to Reuters

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas launched Operation Al-Aqsa Storm last Saturday, penetrating deep into the territories occupied by the Israel regime, by carrying out large-scale air, land, and sea strikes.

The group said the operation was a reaction to the recurring desecration of the al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied al-Quds as well as intensified Israeli atrocities against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Israel launched air strikes on civilian targets in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 2,450 Palestinians in Gaza and wounding more than 10,000 others, according to the territory’s health ministry.

 

 

Operation al-Aqsa storm

Hamas’ Operation Al-Aqsa Storm has already shattered the Israeli regime’s invincibility myth. The regime, desperately, tries to restore the myth but launching an indiscriminate bloody campaign against innocent civilians has never been considered as a sign of power. Is the writing on the wall for the regime? We have to wait and see.