Israel continues illegal practice of assassination

Al Jazeera reports: The Gaza government media office has denounced the killing of Al Jazeera journalist Ismail al-Ghoul and camera operator Rami al-Rifi.

Both journalists were killed together when Israeli forces targeted their car in Gaza City.

“We condemn the targeting and killing of Palestinian journalists, and hold Israel responsible for this heinous crime. We call on the international community and media groups to pressure Israel into stopping these continuing violations,” it said in a statement.

It also said that since October 7, Israel has killed more than 165 Palestinian journalists.

The attack also killed a teenage cyclist delivering food to the elderly.

Israeli military returns Palestinian sexual abuse victim back to army base where he was allegedly abused

Ha’aretz reports: The Hamas detainee who was allegedly sexually abused by Force 100 soldiers in Sde Teiman was returned to military detention center after he was discharged from the hospital where he was treated for his injuries, Haaretz has learned.

The detainee, who was admitted to a hospital immediately after the violence he suffered in the facility, was released to a field hospital at the Sde Teiman base. Soldiers from Force 100, some of whom took part, their faces covered, in the demonstrations Monday during which dozens of people broke into Sde Teiman and the Beit Lid base, still serve at Sde Teiman.

According to information obtained by Haaretz, the Palestinian detainee – an officer in the military arm of Hamas, against whom a permanent detention order was issued (due to alleged involvement in terror) and who was arrested during the Israeli ground operation in Gaza, had been transferred from the Ofer military prison to Sde Teiman

The detainee was transferred to a hospital in southern Israel for treatment, at the end of which he was returned to the hospital at Sde Teiman. He remains there, held in restraints.

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel released the following statement:

The return of the detainee to the clinic at Sde Teiman, the facility where he was subjected to torture, is a serious ethical and professional failure of the medical officials and hospital management who were involved in his medical care.

Through this decision, the medical teams exposed the detainee to the possibility that he would once again meet the soldiers suspected of raping him, thereby putting his life in danger.

If the medical authorities were meeting their obligation according to medical ethics, they would have insisted that he be moved to a safe place, where he could recover from his severe injury and recuperate from the severe trauma he experienced.

We call on the Israel Medical Association to immediately investigate the circumstances and the atmosphere in the medical community and the Health Ministry that led to the detainee’s release back to Sde Teiman.

Hezbollah Commander, Children Killed in Israeli Airstrike on Beirut

The Washington Post reports: Hezbollah on Wednesday confirmed the killing of one of its senior commanders in an Israeli airstrike a day earlier. The strike killed at least five other people, including three women and a small brother and sister — Hasan Fadallah, 10, and his sister Amira, 6.

The confirmation of the death of the commander, Fuad Shukr, was delayed as rescue workers searched through the rubble of the residential building in Haret Hreik, a heavily populated Beirut suburb. Shukr had been on one of the bottom floors.

Haret Hreik, where Hezbollah enjoys significant support, is predominantly Shiite Muslim but also has Christian residents.

It was rebuilt by Hezbollah with funds from Iran in 2006 after a previous Israeli onslaught in which Israeli forces had  killed at least 1,109 Lebanese, the vast majority of whom were civilians, and caused an estimated 1 million to be displaced. Hezbollah rocket attacks killed 43 Israeli civilians and 12 Israeli soldiers.

RECOMMENDED REPORT/VIDEO: Hundreds mourn children killed in Beirut blast as border violence threatens to spiral

Israel army says top Hamas chief Mohammed Deif assassinated in strike earlier in July

The New Arab reports: The Israeli military on Thursday announced that Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif had been killed in a strike it carried out last month in Gaza’s southern area of Khan Younis.

The military’s confirmation it had killed Deif comes a day after the killing of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, which was announced by Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Hamas.

There’s been no confirmation from Hamas on the matter.

Health authorities in Gaza said at the time of the July 13 strike that it killed more than 90 people.

---

Israel’s bloody history of assassinations

From The New Arab: In his book Rise and Kill First, Israeli journalist Ronan Bergman claims that, since World War II, Israel has assassinated more people than any other country in the Western world.

Up to 2019, the time of the book publishing, Israel carried out 2300 operations, killing several thousand people. There are no official figures to affirm the accuracy or lack thereof of Bergman’s claims.

However, no other nation has been more forthcoming, and openly comfortable, about assassination as a state policy and frequently executed practice as Israel.

Jewish terrorist group Lehi initiated the assassination policy in 1944 by killing British politician Walter Guinness, who opposed illegal Jewish immigration to Palestine.

After the Zionist state was established in 1948, assassination became an official state policy and went through three phases. The first phase came after the launch of the Palestinian armed struggle in 1965, where dozens of Palestinian key figures were eliminated. The second wave came after Oslo in the mid-1990s and targeted primarily Hamas operatives accused of masterminding suicide bombings in Israel. The Second Intifada in 2000 saw a third but particularly intense wave of assassinations that killed tens of resistance figures and, with them, more civilians.

Israel’s ‘targeted killing’ has repeatedly come under fire on legal and moral grounds; firstly because these assassinations are extrajudicial executions — and thus forbidden under international law — and secondly because of its sheer disregard for innocent lives.

However, Israeli decision-makers prioritize the perceived strategic value of these assassinations over the legal or moral costs, such as international criticism or excessive collateral damage.

(Read the full article here.)

RECOMMENDED READING: Are Gaza ceasefire talks doomed after Israel killed Ismail Haniyeh and struck Beirut?

Israeli forces, settlers, continue to wreak havoc on West Bank Palestinians

Some highlights of OCHA’s weekly report on the situation in the occupied West Bank:

• Between 23 and 29 July, Israeli settlers perpetrated 21 attacks against Palestinians, resulting in six injuries, including one child, and damage to property.
• Between 7 October 2023 and 29 July 2024, OCHA recorded 1,143 attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, of which 106 led to Palestinian fatalities and injuries, 905 incidents led to damage to Palestinian property, and 121 incidents led to both casualties and property damage.
• Between 23 and 29 July, the Israeli authorities demolished or forced the demolition of 30 Palestinian-owned structures, 28 of which were due to the lack of Israeli-issued building permits, which are almost impossible to obtain.
• Between 7 October and 29 July, Israeli authorities demolished, confiscated or forced the demolition of 1,311 Palestinian-owned structures across the West Bank, of which 39 per cent (515 structures) were inhabited homes. As a result, 2,996 people, including 1,310 children, were displaced.

Blinken urges ‘all parties in Middle East to stop escalations’

Congressional commission determines US ‘not prepared for global war,’ calls for more defense spending

The Cradle reports: The US Commission on the National Defense Strategy, a congressionally mandated group with members handpicked by bipartisan lawmakers, has determined that Washington is unprepared to face a possible global war and must significantly overhaul its national defense strategy.

In its 132-page report, published by the RAND Corporation, the commission recommends Washington boost its nearly $1 trillion yearly defense budget to “Cold War-era levels” and urges the government to “foster an alliance that could lead to global war.”

“The United States must spend more effectively and efficiently to build the future force, not perpetuate the existing one. Additional resources will be necessary. Congress should pass a supplemental appropriation to begin a multiyear investment in the national security innovation and industrial base,” the report says.

Increasing Washington’s defense spending would allegedly address recruiting shortcomings, a “grossly inadequate” industrial base, and “underfunded cyber and space domains.”

Boycotts against Israel are hurting Starbucks and McDonald’s sales worldwide

The Intercept reports: McDonald’s and Starbucks have both reported declines in sales and profits — and both corporations blame boycotts by supporters of Palestine amid Israel’s war in Gaza as a factor in their weak results.

McDonald’s yesterday reported that its global sales declined for the first time since 2020, with its net profit declining 12 percent compared to the same period last year. Starbucks announced Tuesday that sales in North American stores dipped 2 percent, and sales in the rest of the world dipped 7 percent. It also reported that its total international profits dropped by 23 percent.

Although the companies point to currency fluctuation, slowdown within the Chinese market, and consumer reaction to rising menu prices to account for the change, the chief executives of both corporations cited the conflict in Gaza when discussing problems the businesses face.

(Read the full article here.)

UN Report on Arbitrary Detention and Abhorrent Abuse of Palestinian Prisoners

A new report has been released from the UN Human Rights department detailing the arbitrary detention of thousands of Palestinians and subsequent abuse, humiliation, torture, and prolonged incommunicado sentences.

The 23-page report documents mass detentions of Palestinians by Israeli forces and their torture and mistreatment, including sexual abuse and the deaths of detainees while in Israeli custody. In addition, it includes information regarding hostages held by Palestinian armed groups, detentions by the Palestinian authority, and a legal analysis of the current situation.

Additionally, it explores the case of more than 10,000 permitted Gazan workers who were taken into Israeli custody in the days following October 7, 2023, despite their presence in Israel having been completely lawful. While many of these workers were released, although tagged with ID numbers, around 1,000 of them are still unaccounted for.

(Read the full report here.)