Hezbollah hits back after Israeli strike injures children in south Lebanon
The Cradle, May 23 2024
Hezbollah launched dozens of rockets and missiles at an Israeli military site on Apr 23, hours after Israel’s assassination of one of the resistance group’s members in a strike that injured several children in the south of Lebanon. Hezbollah said in a statement:
In response to the assassination carried out by the Zionist enemy in Kfar Dajjal and the injury and terrorization of children, the Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance bombed on Thursday May 23 2024 the headquarters of the Sahel Battalion of the 769th Brigade at the Beit Hillal base, with dozens of Katyusha and Falaq rockets.
The group announced several other attacks on Israeli sites earlier that day, including an operation targeting spy equipment at the Al-Raheb site and the Metulla site. Hezbollah announced on Thursday morning the killing of its fighter, Muhammad Ali Nasser Farran, in a strike on the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Dajjal. Farran was also a school teacher and was killed while on his way to work early on Apr 23. The strike injured children in a nearby school bus after its windows were shattered due to the Israeli attack.
The hostile aggression carried out by a done in the morning, on the Kfar Dajjal-Nabatiyeh road, led to the injury of three students who were inside a school bus heading to their school at the time of the attack.
The attack came a day after the anniversary of Israel’s withdrawal from several Lebanese villages in the south, including Mays al-Jabal, Odaisseh and others. The day of May 25 marks the complete liberation of south Lebanon from 18 years of Israeli occupation. Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah is set to speak on the anniversary of Liberation Day. Hezbollah has stepped up its operations recently, increasing its use of drone warfare and sophisticated, intelligence-based operations. Hezbollah launched the first-ever Lebanese airstrike on an Israeli target on 17 May, using a never-before-seen drone for the operation.
Israel green lights autopsy of Gazan doctor tortured to death in detention
The Cradle, May 23 2024
Israeli authorities on May 23 authorized an autopsy on the body of Dr Adnan al-Bursh, who served as the head of orthopedic surgery at Al-Shifa Hospital before being arrested and tortured to death in Israeli detention. The autopsy will be performed in the presence of a doctor representing the family. A request submitted last week by Bursh’s wife, Yasmin al-Bursh, for the investigation of her husband’s death, was approved by Judge Gad Arenberg, who gave Tel Aviv seven days to respond. According to the autopsy request, the doctor’s health was good at the time of his arrest.
A statement from the Palestinian Prisoners Society released earlier this month said that Bursh, 50, was tortured to death on Apr 19 in Ofer Prison, an Israeli-run incarceration facility in the occupied West Bank. The group characterized his murder as a “deliberate assassination.” Israeli media reports have claimed that the circumstances of Bursh’s death “remain unknown and that Israeli authorities had not informed his family about them.” Palestinians who met with the late surgeon in prison said he was in a “deplorable medical condition.” An unnamed Palestinian doctor told Haaretz:
We barely recognized him. It was clear he had gone through hell, torture, humiliation, and a lack of sleep. He suffered from pains and a severe lack of food. We tried to talk to him and calm him down, but he was shocked and sounded like he was scared and in pain. This was not the person we knew, but a shadow.
Bursh was arrested last December along with 10 other medical workers during the Israeli military ground assault on Jabalia refugee camp as he was treating patients at Al-Awada Hospital in northern Gaza. After patients, health workers, and hundreds of forcibly displaced Palestinians were violently evicted from Al-Shifa by the invading troops, he moved to the Indonesian Hospital, where he was injured in an attack. He later relocated to Al-Awada Hospital before his capture. According to security sources who spoke with Haaretz, Bursh was arrested “on suspicion of involvement in terrorism.” More than a month after his death, the Palestinian Prisoners Administration says his body has yet to be handed over to his family.
Top IRGC officials meet Resistance Axis leaders in Tehran
The Cradle, May 23 2024
The heads of several regional resistance factions met with top officials from Iran’s IRGC in Tehran on Apr 23 on the sidelines of the funeral ceremony for Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. Ismail Haniyeh of the Hamas political bureau, Deputy-Secretary General of Hezbollah Naim Qassam, Ansarallah’s Muhammad Abd’ul-Salam, Jamil Mezher of the PFLP, head of the IRGC Quds Force Esmail Qaani and IRGC Major General Hossein Salami were present at the meeting. Al Mayadeen reported:
The political, social, and military conditions in Gaza, Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, and the role of the Axis of Resistance amid the ongoing Israeli genocide in the Strip were discussed. They stressed the importance of the continuation of freedom fighting and struggle in cooperation between all the Resistance factions in the region until the Palestinian Resistance emerges victorious.
The officials were there to pay tribute to Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and other top officials who were killed in a helicopter crash northwest of Iran on May 19. Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei led the funeral prayers on May 22. Khamenei held a separate meeting with Haniyeh that day, during which the supreme leader expressed gratitude for the sympathy of the Palestinian people and factions following the sudden deaths of the top Iranian leaders. The funeral ceremonies began on Apr 21 in the Iranian cities of Qom and Tabriz.
The following day, ceremonies were held in Tehran. Amir-Abdollahian was buried in the capital on Apr 23, the same day that Raisi’s body arrived in the city of Mashhad for burial.
Millions took to the streets across the four cities to mourn their president and his team, who were killed in the crash on Sunday.
Under pressure from prisoners’ families, Israel to resume truce talks
The Cradle, May 23 2024
Israel’s war cabinet approved a resumption of indirect prisoner talks with the Palestinian resistance on May 23, coming after the release of a video showing female captives being held by Hamas’ armed wing on Oct 7. A source told Hebrew media that Tel Aviv’s negotiating team was given new directives to try to make a breakthrough in the prisoner talks. The source was briefed on the details of a high-level Israeli meeting on the matter but did not elaborate on the specific guidelines for resuming the talks. Meanwhile, the PMO said in a statement:
The war cabinet has ordered Israel’s negotiating team to continue negotiations for the return of the hostages.
At the high-level meeting, Maj-Gen Nitzan Alon, one of the Israeli negotiators, presented an updated plan. This came after a previous plan for resuming talks was rejected by Netanyahu on May 18. A source told public radio that the Israeli negotiating team did not receive everything it asked for but that “at least progress can be made.” Talks have recently stalled over Hamas’ insistence that a prisoner exchange be linked to an Israeli commitment for a permanent ceasefire, withdrawal of troops, and an end to the war, among the resistance group’s main terms, which it has refused to back down from. Israel’s refusal has been among the leading obstacles to reaching an agreement. The approval for renewed talks came a day after the families of Israeli prisoners released footage of a group of female soldiers being held captive by fighters of Hamas’ Qassam Brigades at the Nahal Oz military site on Oct 7, one of the bases stormed by resistance fighters during Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. All five of the female soldiers remain captive in Gaza.
Hebrew media’s translation of the video claims that Hamas fighters described the prisoners as “women who can get pregnant,” implying that the fighters had intentions to rape the women. However, the Arabic word used by the fighters to describe the soldiers is sabaya, which translates to ‘female captives’ and bears no relation to pregnancy.The soldiers in question belong to the surveillance unit at Nahal Oz, which was responsible for the deaths of unarmed Palestinians during the 2018 March of Return.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum released the video to pressure the Israeli government toward a deal that returns their relatives to Israel. Representatives of the prisoners’ families have repeatedly accused Netanyahu’s government of deliberately sabotaging talks.
Israeli officials sweat looming ICJ order to stop Gaza blitz: Report
The Cradle, May 23 2024
Authorities in Israel “anticipate” that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will rule on May 24 that the country needs to stop its genocidal war in Gaza and are scrambling to find the “next steps,” according to officials who spoke with Israel Hayom. A diplomatic source told the Israeli daily:
Legal experts assessed there was a high probability the court would rule to issue injunctions following a petition filed by South Africa against Israel’s military actions.
Tel Aviv is particularly concerned that the World Court will “order a cessation of Israeli operations in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, or further, that it could seek to halt the broader war in Gaza entirely through court injunctions.” The main fear among authorities is that an unfavorable ruling from the ICJ would “precipitate a similar resolution by the UNSC,” where the US would once again have to issue a veto as part of its continued campaign of covering up Israeli war crimes. The ICJ has announced it will deliver its order on the additional measures requested by South Africa against Israel on Friday afternoon.
A ruling against Israel would significantly increase international legal pressure after the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced on Monday the application of arrest warrants for top Israeli and Hamas leaders. During an emergency hearing at The Hague last week, South Africa charged that what it described as Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza had hit a “new and horrific stage” after Tel Aviv launched its offensive in Rafah. Vaughan Lowe, a lawyer representing Pretoria, argued:
The Rafah campaign is the last step in the destruction of Gaza and its Palestinian people. It was Rafah that brought South Africa to the court. But it is all Palestinians as a national, ethnic, and racial group who need the protection from genocide that the court can order.
Around one million Palestinians have fled Rafah over recent weeks to escape the Israeli onslaught. Nevertheless, violent clashes are raging across the besieged enclave as the Palestinian resistance remains far from defeated.
Colombia to open embassy in occupied West Bank
The Cradle, May 23 2024
The Colombian government announced on May 22 plans to open an embassy in the Palestinian city of Ramallah, the de facto capital of the occupied West Bank, under the orders of President Gustavo Petro. Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo told reporters on Wednesday:
President Petro has given the order that we open the Colombian embassy in Ramallah, the representation of Colombia in Ramallah, that is the next step we are going to take. President Petro recently led a meeting of Latin American leaders in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, where they agreed to implement strategies to recognize Palestine as a full UN member state. We are sure that more and more countries will recognize Palestine, and this is nothing against Israel or the Jews. The UN agreed in the context of the Oslo agreements that a two-state solution will be created, and if two states are needed, Palestine needs to be recognized as a full state.
At the start of this month, Petro officially cut ties with Israel over the genocide being perpetrated in Gaza. The Colombian president declared on May 2:
The world could be summed up in one word that vindicates the necessity of life: Gaza. It is called Palestine; it is called the boys, girls, and babies who have died dismembered by the bombs. If Palestine dies, humanity dies, and we are not going to let it die any more than we are going to let humanity die.
As Colombia’s first-ever leftist leader, Petro has been a vocal critic of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza. Days after Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on Oct 7, Petro accused Gallant of using language similar to what the “Nazis said of the Jews,” which prompted Tel Aviv to halt security exports to Colombia. Bogota’s latest announcement came on May 28, the same day that Spain, Ireland, and Norway announced they would jointly recognize the State of Palestine. Colombia officially recognized Palestine as a state on Aug 3 2018, during the government of Juan Manuel Santos.
Israeli army extorts Gazans to turn against Hamas: Report
The Cradle, May 23 2024
The Israeli military has begun publishing pictures and details of Palestinians in Gaza who it says “spied” on other Gazans for Hamas’ security apparatus. An Israeli military source is cited as saying in a Haaretz investigation released on May 22:
The army has received legal permission to awaken the public in Gaza and show them that Hamas is following them, and highlight what it is inflicting on them.
The source says that Israel’s Shin Bet is involved. The details published are said to be part of intelligence that the Israeli army has gained during its ground operations in the Gaza Strip, according to Haaretz. The Israeli army began airdropping leaflets revealing the photos and ID numbers of 130 men last Friday. The source told Haaretz:
These men were recruited by Hamas’ General Security apparatus in order to spy on Gazan residents.
The source goes on to claim that those allegedly recruited gave Hamas personal information on “rank-and-file” people in Gaza, including details on their “sexual proclivities” and or their extramarital relations. It says on the last page of the leaflet, which includes rows of photos, names, and ID numbers:
Call us if you don’t want your photo appearing here. Hundreds of thousands of reports on you, the people of Gaza, have been collected. Do you want to know if you were spied on and reported? Go to the website, enter your ID number and find out who reported you. Collaborator with the General Security! Have you found out if your ID number is on the website? We will soon reveal your details to everyone. You can still save yourself – call us.
It also includes a barcode linked to a website where the details of specific people can be revealed. The website lists names of people it claims to belong to other groups, such as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, who according to the Israeli army provided information about their organizations to Hamas’ security apparatus. It lists people who it claims have head dealings or affiliations with members of the Palestinian Authority or the Fatah party. It also includes dozens of photos of people described as “collaborators” or “informants.” Some of them include children under ten.
The website went online by May 16, and the army airdropped the leaflets a day later. The NYT had revealed days earlier the existence of these documents, which the report’s authors seem to have been given access to, according to Haaretz. Many of these documents reportedly came from Hamas’ security apparatus. According to the military source:
Its purpose was to spy on anyone living in the Gaza Strip, including simple people cheating on their wives. It wasn’t just military or security information. They exploit this information in order to recruit people, working this way in order to maintain their rule.
A man cited in the report, who had redacted and published pictures of the leaflet on the internet, said that the Israeli army’s claims are false and that since Israel controls the Palestinian population registry in both Gaza and the occupied West Bank, it has the names and ID numbers of all citizens. The man is quoted as saying:
After the army’s attempts to push Gazans into collaborating with it failed, this new move is intended to evoke internal conflicts among the general public and within families.
Gazans are cited as telling Haaretz:
People don’t know whether they’ll be killed the next day or not and are busy looking for water and food, there is little chance that the exposure of the names of alleged informants will evoke much furor, or that Israel’s psychological warfare will work.
Israel has long been known to use personal information to extort and blackmail Palestinians, particularly in the occupied West Bank.
Niqnaq 