Israeli war cabinet approves ‘expansion’ of Rafah operation
The Cradle, May 10 2024
The Israeli war cabinet on May 9 approved the “expansion of the area of operation” of the Israeli army in the Palestinian city of Rafah, according to three unnamed sources who spoke with Axios. Two of the sources said the expansion, described as “measured,” would not cross Biden’s recently imposed “red line,” while the third told Axios the move “could be seen as crossing the line.” The war cabinet, led by Netanyahu, Gallant and Gantz, also instructed “Israeli negotiations to continue efforts to reach a captive deal.” Ultranationalist officials Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich voted against this decision but were reportedly outnumbered. Biden drew the ire of Israeli authorities earlier this week when he announced that his government would not support or provide weapons for an expanded Israeli assault on Rafah. Netanyahu said on Thursday:
If we have to stand alone, we will stand alone. If we need to, we will fight with our fingernails. But we have much more than fingernails.
Nevertheless, the Israeli premier left the door open for a reconciliation with his main ally:
We often had our agreements, but we’ve had our disagreements. We’ve been able to overcome them.
The Israeli military markedly intensified its operations in Rafah over the past week, carpet-bombing several areas in the critically overcrowded city and killing displaced Palestinians by the dozens. Over 100k people have already fled the southern city. Tel Aviv also violently took control of the Rafah border crossing in response to Hamas accepting a ceasefire deal that could have brought an end to the war. As of Friday, lines of trucks carrying humanitarian aid remained stuck outside the besieged enclave as the Israeli army has blocked the entry of all humanitarian assistance for over two million Palestinians on the verge of starvation. Trucker Ahmed al-Bayoumi told Reuters:
The closure of the border crossing is not good for all these trucks because these are fridges, which means machine failure doesn’t give a warning. If the fridge stops working, then all of the food inside will be ruined.
UN aid agencies warned on Friday that the dwindling food and fuel stocks could force aid operations to grind to a halt within days in Gaza. As Tel Aviv continues to perpetuate the measures fueling a dire humanitarian crisis inside Gaza, Washington is expected to deliver a report that “absolves” Israel of responsibility for any war crimes.
Shocking abuse of Gazans inside Israeli detention camp: Whistleblowers
The Cradle, May 10 2024
Israel is torturing Palestinian captives at a detention facility in the Negev desert, a new investigation published by CNN on May 10 revealed, including by strapping injured captives to beds in diapers, feeding them through tubes, and amputating limbs after constant handcuffing. CNN spoke to three Israeli whistleblowers who worked at the Sde Teiman desert camp, which holds Palestinians abducted in Gaza by the Israeli army during military operations. CNN writes:
They paint a picture of a facility where doctors sometimes amputated prisoners’ limbs due to injuries sustained from constant handcuffing; of medical procedures sometimes performed by underqualified medics earning it a reputation for being ‘a paradise for interns’; and where the air is filled with the smell of neglected wounds left to rot.
One of the whistleblowers provided a photo showing rows of blindfolded men in gray tracksuits sitting on paper-thin mattresses behind a fence and barbed wire. The military base turned detention facility has two parts. One holds 70 Palestinian detainees from Gaza under “extreme physical restraint,” while injured captives are held in a field hospital where they “are strapped to their beds, wearing diapers and fed through straws,” CNN writes. “They stripped them down of anything that resembles human beings,” said one whistleblower who worked as a medic at the field hospital. Another whistleblower said regarding the frequent beatings:
They were not done to gather intelligence. They were done out of revenge. It was punishment for what they did on Oct 7 and punishment for behavior in the camp.
One whistleblower who worked as a guard said he saw a man who was beaten until he had both broken teeth and bones. The detention camp is one of three holding an unknown number of Palestinians from Gaza, who are often swept up randomly en masse and accused of fighting with the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas. Under Israel’s recently passed Unlawful Combatant Law, the abducted Palestinians can be held for 45 days before they are either released or transferred to the formal Israeli prison system. Eighteen Palestinians, including leading Gaza surgeon Dr Adnan al-Bursh, have died in Israeli detention camps and prisons since the war began on Oct 7. Dr Mohammed al-Ran, who headed the surgical unit at northern Gaza’s Indonesian hospital, was held in a detention camp for 44 days. Both Ran and a whistleblower said the guards unleashed dogs on sleeping prisoners at night. Ran told CNN:
When they removed my blindfold, I could see the extent of the humiliation and abasement. I could see the extent to which they saw us not as human beings but as animals. While we were cabled, they unleashed the dogs that would move between us and trample over us. You’d be lying on your belly, your face pressed against the ground. You can’t move, and they’re moving above you.
Another whistleblower said:
I was asked to learn how to do things on the patients, performing minor medical procedures that are totally outside my expertise, including without anesthesia. If they complained about pain, they would be given paracetamol (acetaminophen). Just being there felt like being complicit in abuse.
The same whistleblower also said he witnessed an amputation performed on a man whose blood was cut off from the constant zip-tying of his wrists. CNN added that Sde Teiman and other military detention camps have been “shrouded in secrecy since their inception. Israel has repeatedly refused requests to disclose the number of detainees held at the facilities or to reveal the whereabouts of Gazan prisoners.”
UNRWA shutters Jerusalem HQ after Israeli terror attack
The Cradle, May 10 2024
UNRWA announced on May 9 that it is shutting down its headquarters in Jerusalem after Israeli settlers carried out an arson attack on its building in the occupied city. This was the second settler attack on the UNRWA building in less than a week, according to the agency’s general commissioner, Phillipe Lazzarini, who wrote:
Our director, with the help of other staff, had to put out the fire themselves as it took the Israeli fire extinguishers and police a while before they turned up. This is an outrageous development. Once again, the lives of UN staff were at serious risk. In light of this second appalling incident in less than a week, I have taken the decision to close down our compound until proper security is restored.
Video footage on social media showed the UNRWA building in flames as settlers were heard cheering in the background. There were no injuries, but the fires caused significant damage to property, according to WAFA.
Just two days earlier, settlers attacked the same headquarters, throwing stones at UN staff members “under the watch of the Israeli police.” Lazzarini added:
Israeli extremists have continuously attacked and harassed UNRWA staff for months. On several occasions, they have threatened our staff with guns. The perpetrators of these attacks must be investigated, and those responsible must be held accountable. Anything less will set a new dangerous standard.
Settlers have been staging violent and provocative protests outside UNRWA headquarters for the past two months. The UN agency has been operating in support of Palestinian refugees and internally displaced Palestinians since 1950. The organization provides education, health care, and other services. In recent years, it has suffered a severe lack of funding for its global operations. After Operation Al-Aqsa Flood in October, Israel accused UNRWA staff members of taking part in the attack. Tel Aviv has yet to provide any evidence of its claims, which were reportedly obtained through torture.
Nevertheless, the Israeli government has been pushing forward with a smear campaign that seeks to dismantle the organization. In late March, Israel put forth a proposal to the UN for the dismantlement of UNRWA in exchange for allowing more humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip. UN officials said the plan was not feasible and would hinder aid operations across Gaza. The Cradle columnist William Van Wagenen noted in February that Israel’s current campaign against UNRWA is part of a years-long Israeli campaign to undermine the organization and stifle its upholding of the Palestinian right of return. He wrote:
This concerted effort to undermine UNRWA is nothing short of a calculated strategy to exert control over the narrative surrounding Palestinian refugees and to once again reshape the demographics in Palestine.
Over 180 UNRWA staff members have been killed by Israel in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war in October.
Netanyahu wants ‘demilitarized, civilian’ rule in Gaza with UAE, Saudi help
The Cradle, May 10 2024
Netanyahu discussed his expectations for the future governance of Gaza after the war on May 10, saying that he wishes to see a demilitarized civilian government supported by the UAE and Saudi Arabia ruling the enclave. In an interview with US television talk show host Dr Phil, Netanyahu said:
I think we’ll have to assure continuous demilitarization because, even if you destroy the terrorist army, you can have individual terrorists left. We have to, uh, root them out constantly. We’ll probably have to have some kind of civilian government, civilian administration, by Gazans who are not committed to our destruction, possibly, I think, with the aid of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and other countries that I think want to see stability and peace.
In the seven months since the war began, Netanyahu has refused to clearly state his objective for Gaza beyond wishing to destroy Hamas. Right-wing Ministers in his government claim they want to see Gaza itself destroyed and depopulated to pave the way for Jewish colonization and settlement of the strip. US officials have claimed they wish to see Gaza ruled by the Palestinian Authority, which holds administrative control of the West Bank. Palestinians widely view the PA as a corrupt collaborator with Israel’s military occupation of the territory. Netanyahu’s comments came amid the ongoing Israeli assault on Rafah, which has caused over 100k already displaced Palestinians to flee the air force’s bombs. The prime minister added that Israel will continue to intervene militarily in Gaza moving forward. he stressed:
But we’re going to have Israel continually root out terrorists because I don’t see anyone coming in to do that right now. I’d love to see that, but I don’t see it, so we’ll continue to take action against the remnants of the terrorist army.
Biden has publicly cautioned Netanyahu against launching the assault on Rafah and has reportedly threatened to cut off some weapons shipments to Israel in response. In a video statement on Friday, Netanyahu claimed:
If we have to stand alone, we will stand alone. If we need to, we will fight with our fingernails. But we have much more than fingernails.
However, Israeli milspox Rear-Adm Daniel Hagari stated Thursday that Israel has all the weapons it needs for the assault on Rafah, suggesting Biden’s threats are only rhetorical. Hagari said, responding to a question at a press conference:
The IDF has armaments for the missions it is planning, including missions in Rafah. We have what we need.
US-built Gaza pier on shaky legs as operational concerns grow
The Cradle, May 10 2024
A US ship carrying aid for the Gaza Strip has left Cyprus, but Washington’s “floating pier” is not yet ready to unload the supplies, the Pentagon said on May 9. Pentagon spox Maj-Gen Patrick Ryder said on Thursday afternoon that while the pier’s construction has nearly been completed, weather conditions make unloading the aid “unsafe.” The aid on the US Sagamore vessel will eventually be loaded onto another US ship docked at Israel’s Ashdod port, which will then transport it to the pier system, known as Joint Logistics Over the Shore, as soon as it has been fully installed and the conditions are right, Ryder said. He added:
While I’m not going to provide a specific date, we expect these temporary piers to be put into position in the very near future, pending suitable security and weather conditions.
According to CNN, the pier’s effectiveness may continue to be hindered by weather and sea conditions even once fully operational. Israel’s Marine Data Center reported:
JLOTS operations, which must take both safety and throughput requirements into account, must often wait for favorable weather and sea state conditions.
The pier can only be safely operated with maximum 3-foot waves and winds less than 15 mph. A US defense official told CNN that such limitations of the pier system are “accurate.” The official said:
The bottom line, heavy seas do have an effect on the ability to execute the JLOTS mission. If winds or waves are stronger, loading and unloading using the JLOTS pier becomes dangerous.
US officials also expressed security concerns over the timing of the pier operation, which coincides with Israel’s operation in Rafah and relentless, indiscriminate bombardment of the city. The planned staging ground for the pier operation has been hit by the resistance’s mortars and rockets a number of times in past weeks, and a potential Israeli expansion of its operation in Rafah could make tensions worse.
Israeli intel ignored Hamas preparations for ground attack: Report
The Cradle, May 10 2024
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz published an investigation on May 9 providing further details of the alleged intelligence failures that allowed Hamas to launch Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on Oct 7 successfully. The investigation concluded that leaders in the army refused to consider or prepare for the possibility of a Hamas ground invasion of Israel and instead focused on the threat from Hamas missile attacks. As a result, the army ceased collecting intelligence on low and mid-level Hamas commanders and their activities, the investigation claimed. The decision to focus intelligence gathering on only a few top Hamas commanders was made in 2021 following a battle with Hamas called “Operation Guardian of the Walls.” an intelligence officer who at that time held a significant position in the Southern Command says:
From that moment, the army had no interest in gathering intelligence on Hamas forces and senior and prominent commanders in the organization, or on their training.
Though Hamas’ armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, was openly carrying out exercises to break through the Gaza border fence to attack Israeli settlements and military bases, Israel’s military leadership assumed any breach of the wall was impossible and therefore focused its resources on identifying Hamas rocket launch sites. Haaretz states that during the Hamas attack on Oct 7, the “border fence was revealed to be semi-imaginary” and that fighters from Hamas’ elite Nukhba brigade breached it at 44 different points. Less than two years earlier, Brigadier General Eran Ofir, head of the border administration, had declared, considering the border fence and accompanying surveillance and automatic machine gun turrets:
It is impossible to pass into the territory of the State of Israel.
According to the Haaretz report, the Israeli army held two exercises in previous years to prepare for the possibility of Hamas breaching the border before the fence’s completion. The first was in 2016 and involved responding to a Hamas raid that would use cars, motorcycles, and paragliders to breach the fence into Israel and then move toward the southern kibbutzim, around which army soldiers were deployed. However, a security source who participated in the exercise stated that it was soon stopped without any clear plan to prevent such an attack. The source said:
After a few hours, Edelstein decided to stop when the ‘enemy’ had already reached the Ad Halom junction in the north and others had reached Kiryat Gat in the south, without the Southern Command and the Gaza Division knowing how to respond.
Despite the failure of the exercise, the army leadership opposed holding a second training in 2019 and insisted on focusing on Hamas’ missile capabilities. Any officers warning of a possible Hamas ground invasion were either ignored or ridiculed. The dictum of “people – no, launchers – yes” was advanced by the entire line of the senior command, Haaretz writes. The Israeli newspaper reports as well that the army withheld resources from the Military Intelligence Directorate, the Southern Command, and the Gaza Division to prepare to defend against a ground invasion. One officer said:
The Southern Command and the General Staff simply emptied the targets and invasion departments of resources.
A month before Oct 7, analysts in the Gaza Division observed that a prominent Qassam Brigades commander, Ali al-Qadhi, “was behaving in a way that raised suspicion,” an intelligence source said.
The answer that came from the intelligence officer of the Southern Command was that the division had received resources to collect intelligence on the anti-tank squad in that area and that there’s no need to invest in that area again at such a low level, and that there’s no reason to ask to go after everyone in Hamas every month.
Analysts also observed suspicious behavior on the night of Oct 6, just hours before the attack, when Qadhi “began meeting with Nukhba activists without any reasonable explanation from the IDF and the command,” says the source. Shortly after 11 pm, a soldier from Military Intelligence burst into the Gaza Division’s operations room, shouting, “Ali Al Qadhi is behaving suspiciously!” Haaretz says the soldier was “calling out a name familiar to everybody there. Qadhi, a Hamas operative from the Jabalya area, with a rank equivalent to that of company commander. The female spotters recognized him from a distance.”
The warnings led top Israeli army and intelligence officials to hold emergency meetings early the next morning, including one at 3 am attended in person by Shin Bet chief Ronan Bar. However, the military leadership issued no warnings to the soldiers, including many female spotters manning military outposts along the Gaza border, nor to residents living in nearby kibbutzim. The army also issued no warnings to the organizers of the Nova festival, where thousands of partygoers were enjoying a rave at a location near the Gaza border and Re’im military base. Hours later, large numbers of soldiers, partygoers, and kibbutz residents were killed during the Oct 7 Hamas attack. Some were killed by Hamas fighters, while many were killed by Israeli helicopter, tank and drone fire, which the army used to respond to the attack and prevent Hamas from taking captives back to Gaza for a prisoner exchange.
Over 100k Gazans flee Rafah as UN warns ‘no aid in sight’
The Cradle, May 10 2024
UNRWA announced in a statement on May 10 that over 100k Palestinians have been forcibly displaced from Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah due to intense Israeli bombardment. The UNRWA statement read:
As Israeli Forces bombardment intensifies in Rafah, forced displacement continues. UNRWA estimates around 110k people have now fled Rafah looking for safety. But nowhere is safe in the Gaza Strip and living conditions are atrocious. The only hope is an immediate ceasefire.
Israeli helicopters and military vehicles opened fire at the central and eastern areas of Rafah concurrently with artillery shelling” on Friday, WAFA reported. On Thursday evening, several bodies were taken out of the rubble of a civilian home bombarded by Israeli artillery that day. Scores of people have attempted to flee the city since Israel’s operation began. The US State Dept confirmed recently that it did not receive any detailed Israeli plan to safely evacuate Rafah’s population. Biden warned this week that the flow of US weapons to Israel could be interrupted if Tel Aviv chooses to expand the Rafah operation into a full-blown assault, doubling down on repeated US warnings in recent months.
Despite the fact that a full-scale operation has yet to be launched, dozens of civilians, including children, have been killed in Rafah as a result of the increased bombardment. Israel has vowed to continue with the Rafah operation, hindering efforts for a truce and prisoner exchange agreement with Hamas. The resistance group recently accepted an updated Egyptian proposal, which Israel finds unacceptable given its calls for a cessation of hostilities and withdrawal of troops from the strip, the main terms which Hamas has refused to back down from. The UN warned of a severe lack of humanitarian aid coming into Gaza on Wednesday due to ongoing operations at the Rafah crossing. Scott Anderson from UNRWA said:
We’re not receiving any aid, the crossing area has ongoing military operations and is an active war zone.
Anderson’s statement came despite Israel’s announcement that it reopened the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza. According to the UN, it has been too dangerous for aid workers to cross to the other side of the Kerem Shalom crossing to process the deliveries. Israeli settlers have also blocked roads near Kerem Shalom in order to hinder aid efforts, a practice that has been ongoing since the start of the war. Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir was quoted by Hebrew media on Friday as saying that he will request a vote at an upcoming security cabinet meeting to completely cancel the entry of aid to Palestinians through all of Gaza’s border crossings.
‘Bushnell’s Men’ hack 30k western printers in protest of Gaza genocide
The Cradle, May 10 2024
A hacker group dedicated to the memory of Aaron Bushnell, who burned himself to death in February in protest of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, has hacked into printers worldwide, causing them to print flyers promoting Bushnell’s message. The hacker group, Bushnell’s Men, posted a message on its Telegram page on Mar 14 stating:
Due to the press boycott of the genocide in Gaza by countries profiting from the war, ‘The Bushnell’s Men’ as a hacker group is committed to exposing the reality via printing this paper through over 30k printers across the world. We ask all truth-seekers to join the #Bushnellmen campaign in this regard. Our ultimate goal is to convey Aaron’s message to stop the genocide. Aaron put an end to his life on behalf of the other American soldiers who are forced to kill the innocent people in Gaza. Aaron didn’t die in vain. He has already inspired so many to stand up for truth and justice.
On Feb 25, Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old USAF serviceman, died after setting himself on fire outside the front gate of the Israeli embassy in Washington. While live streaming on Twitch, Bushnell filmed himself walking to the embassy, saying that he was protesting against “what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers,” and declared:
I will no longer be complicit in genocide.
He then doused himself with a flammable liquid and set himself on fire. Footage of Bushnell’s radical act of protest against the US military’s provision of weapons to Israel amid its genocide in Gaza went viral and was met with an outpouring of solidarity from both Palestinians and people around the world. On Mar 17, the Bushnell’s Men group posted images of documents showing the successful hack, including on printers at the Goethe University in Frankfurt. The following day, the group posted photos of flyers printed with Bushnell’s image and statistics on the number of Palestinians killed, injured, and displaced by Israel’s bombing and ground campaign in Gaza. On May 1, the group posted images of flyers in Hebrew sent to printers in Israel highlighting the cost of the war to Israelis, including the number of soldiers killed in the war, the number taken captive to Gaza by Hamas, and the number of those displaced within Israel. The group stated on Telegram:
We have sent a message to the people of Israel through all printers. And in it, we have presented statistics to the bitter reality of the war for the people of Israel. This war is only beneficial for Netanyahu’s government. And all its difficulties and problems are for the people.
On the same day, the group posted a message stating that it had sent flyers to printers in the US and Europe, further highlighting Israeli crimes in Gaza and expressing support for students at many universities protesting the genocide under harsh oppression from police. On May 8, the group posted a CCTV video from an office at a university in Texas showing two female employees discovering the flyers being printed. Following Bushnell’s death and radical protest, Hamas expressed solidarity with his family, saying:
He immortalized his name as a defender of human values and the oppression of the suffering Palestinian people because of the American administration and its unjust policies. He paid with his life to highlight the massacres and Zionist genocide.
Dozens of Spanish universities cut ties with Israeli institutions
The Cradle, May 10 2024
The Confederation of Spanish Universities (CRUE), representing dozens of higher learning institutions in Spain, announced on May 9 that it will sever ties with certain Israeli universities and research centers. CRUE said on Thursday it will end relations with all Israeli institutions “that have not expressed a firm commitment to peace and compliance with international humanitarian law.” The decision came after students across the country set up encampments on their campuses in solidarity with Gaza and Palestine, inspired by the large-scale US student movement that began weeks ago and has since spread across the globe. CRUE has also promised to expand cooperation with Palestinian universities and research centers, including volunteer work and refugee aid programs. It has also vowed to take action against both antisemitism and Islamophobia on Spanish campuses.
The confederation represents 76 public and private higher learning institutions in Spain. Its announcement came one day after the University of Barcelona voted to sever all relations with Israel. Last month, the University of the Basque Country in Spain made a similar move. Ireland’s Trinity College announced on Wednesday it would divest from Israel following student demonstrations on campus. Recent weeks have seen a large-scale student movement unfurl across US campuses in support of the Palestinian cause and in condemnation of Washington’s support for Israel. Students have demanded that their institutions divest from investments linked to Israel. Since these protests began, hundreds of people in the US have been arrested, and police have cracked down violently on students. Dozens were detained this week in California after police thwarted a student attempt to occupy a campus building at UCLA. The student movement has continued to spread as more European college campuses have erupted in protest against Israel. This week, clashes with police and arrests took place as demonstrations in the Netherlands, Germany, France, and Austria broke out. Over 160 people were detained on Monday evening and early Tuesday at the University of Amsterdam following a massive police raid on the campus.
Blinken’s Gaza report ‘absolves’ Israel of war crimes
The Cradle, May 10 2024
A US State Dept report on Israel’s conduct in the Gaza Strip will be submitted to Congress on May 10 and stop short of concluding Tel Aviv has “violated terms for the use of US weapons,” according to US officials who spoke with Axios. The report, based on a months-long probe that assessed whether or not Israel has violated international law or stifled Gaza aid efforts, has triggered “contentious internal debate in the State Dept.” Biden agreed in February to issue a national security memorandum to examine the use of US weaponry by Israel in Gaza. The report will examine the use of weapons by Israel and six other states, according to Axios. Blinken has been pressured by the US ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew, and the outgoing US humanitarian envoy to Gaza, David Satterfield, to conclude that Israel is not hindering aid efforts, despite recommendations to do so by USAID and the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. The two told Blinken in a memo that while Israel restricted aid in the past, it has since changed its policy after pressure from Biden. Three US officials told Axios:
Blinken’s report is going to list a series of incidents that took place during the war in Gaza and note that they raised serious concerns about violations of international law by Israel. The report will be very critical. The State Dept is still investigating specific incidents. At the same time, Blinken will stop short of concluding that Israel has violated international law in the context of the national security memorandum.
Another official confirmed:
Blinken’s report also adopted the conclusions of Lew and Satterfield and certifies that Israel isn’t currently violating the national security memorandum when it comes to facilitating the delivery of US-supported humanitarian aid.
Some Republican lawmakers have criticized the national security memorandum and the upcoming report. Last week, 88 Democratic lawmakers wrote to Biden saying there is “sufficient evidence” of Israeli restriction of aid into Gaza. Politico reported earlier this week that the release of the State Dept report was delayed by several days at the last minute. Friday’s report comes a day after Biden warned that his government would not support or provide weapons for an expanded Israeli assault on Rafah. Israel seized control of the Rafah border crossing on Tuesday morning and has been relentlessly bombarding the east of the city, killing dozens of civilians, including children. A US arms shipment to Israel has already been delayed over concerns about Rafah. Had the report corroborated the overwhelming evidence of Israeli war crimes and hampering humanitarian aid efforts, US military aid for Tel Aviv was at risk of drying up. As a result, supporters of Israel in Washington have pressured the State Dept against such a conclusion.
Niqnaq 