Palestinian detainees released from two Israel coolers told the human rights group that they were stripped naked, beaten with metal batons and electric sticks, and verbally brutalized under the watch of civilian visitors.
The Jewish 'visitors' came to enjoy the torture sessions in groups of “ten to twenty”, organized by the Jewish IDF. In many cases, they were allowed to film the torture sessions on their phones so they could enjoy the video later.
NOTE: Israeli torture of Palestinians has been widespread and well-documented since October 7th and long before – including torture of children. Torture is a war crime.
Al Jazeera journalist Tareq Abu Azzoum reports from Rafah: The Israeli forces used excessive firepower in the captive rescue operation that took place in the beating heart of Rafah overnight.
People were terrified; they didn’t know where to go. Families were running in the middle of the streets, looking for a place safe from the Israeli bombardment.
This attack was beyond comprehension. The sound of Israeli fighter jets and surveillance drones was heard all over the region, with explosions shaking all residential buildings in the Rafah district.
People here are fearful that this might be repeated tonight, with some families looking for a new place to seek refuge away from the unrelenting Israeli bombardments.
Al Jazeera contributor Ahmed Abdullah Mohsen described the moments Israeli forces launched strikes on Rafah overnight.
“The screaming and wailing nearly drowned out the warplanes that covered the sky, dropping barrages in a fiery belt that crushed the bodies of the displaced in their tents. About 20 minutes of explosions lit the night like something from an artificial Hollywood film,” he said.
Times of Israel reports: Footage released Monday evening showed parts of the rescue of two Israeli hostages from a building in Gaza, though Israel’s defense minister cautioned that such daring extractions should not be counted on to free the 134 captives still held in the Strip.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called the rescue a “turning point in the campaign” against Hamas. “Hamas is vulnerable, Hamas is penetrable, and it is possible to go anywhere and do anything,” Gallant said.
Netanyahu reportedly congratulated the troops on “a perfectly executed operation.”
During the rescue, the air force carried out massive airstrikes in Rafah against Hamas terrorists* to provide the special forces cover, the IDF said.
*NOTE: These massive airstrikes were not against “Hamas terrorists,” but against Gazan civilians: at least 67 Palestinians were killed in Israel’s operation to provide “cover” for the rescue of 2 prisoners. Previously, 110 prisoners were released in exchange for a temporary ceasefire.
Meanwhile, Reuters reports, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Monday the US was “pleased” to have learned about the rescue, while noting reports that dozens of Palestinian civilians were killed in IDF bombings during the operation.
“[A]s we have said many times, the proper number of civilian casualties is zero,” Kirby said.
Hamas’ armed wing said on Monday that three of eight Israeli prisoners who had been seriously injured following Israeli airstrikes Sunday had died from their wounds. Two others died Sunday.
In total, then, Israel killed at least 67 Palestinians and 5 Israelis in order to rescue 2 Israelis.
Middle East Eye reports: Congressmen John James and Jared Moskowitz introduced a bill last week in the US House of Representatives that seeks to undergo a review of the bilateral relationship between the United States and South Africa.
The US-South Africa Bilateral Relations Review Act would require a full review of the bilateral relationship between the United States and South Africa, “given South Africa’s recent positioning and coordination with America’s adversaries”.
“South Africa has been building ties to countries and actors that undermine America’s national security and threaten our way of life through its military and political cooperation with China and Russia and its support of US.-designated terrorist organization Hamas,” James said in a statement.
“Under this current administration, America has been put last, leaving our allies and partners beholden to dictators and despots in Beijing and Moscow for critical needs like energy.”
He added that to ensure the security of the US, “we must examine our alliances and disentangle from those who remain willing to work with our adversaries”.
NOTE: South Africa has accused Israel of genocide and in January took it to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, which held hearings in response to the accusation. By an overwhelming majority, the ICJ found a “plausible” case for genocide, and that provisional measures were needed to avoid “irreparable prejudice” to Palestinian rights under the Genocide Convention arising from any further Israeli massacres in Gaza.
NOTE: Members of Congress have reportedly been ignoring their constituents’ opinions on Israel, and overwhelmingly support it in many ways – even though Israel spies on the US, steals our technology, sabotages our economy, tried to sink a Navy ship, and has a long record of violent human rights abuses.
Francesca Albanese says Israel has banned all special rapporteurs from the occupied Palestinian territories since 2008.
Israeli authorities recently said they banned Albanese from entering the country.
“This must not become a distraction from Israel’s atrocities in Gaza, which are taking a new level of horror with the bombing of people in ‘safe areas’ in Rafah,” Albanese said.
Times of Israel adds: Israel officially banned the UN’s special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza and moved to evict the UN agency for Palestinian refugees from offices on state-owned land, stepping up a campaign against elements of the world body it alleges are sympathetic to Hamas.
Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese had already been refused entry into Israel for months, but on Monday was officially banned, the Foreign Ministry and the Interior Ministry announced.
The open-ended move came in reaction to comments from the Italian lawyer that appeared to justify Hamas’s October 7 massacre.
“The ‘greatest anti-Semitic massacre of our century’?” Albanese wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter, responding to a Le Monde post reporting on French President Emmanuel Macron honoring the victims of Hamas’s onslaught. “The victims of 7/10 were not killed because of their Judaism, but in response to Israel’s oppression. France & the international community did nothing to prevent it. My respects to the victims.”
NOTE: Albanese is correct. There is no indication that the events of October 7th were antisemitic. In fact, Hamas has explained in no uncertain terms why it carried out its attack.
Palestine Chronicle reports: Two more Palestinian journalists have been killed in Israeli airstrikes in the besieged Gaza Strip, increasing the death toll to 126 since October 7, according to the government media office.
The two reporters have been identified as Alaa Hassan Al-Hams and Angham Ahmed Adwan of the local SND News Agency and Libya’s February channel, respectively.
They were killed in an Israeli bombardment in Rafah and Jabalia cities on Monday.
According to a statement from the International Criminal Court, “Journalists are protected by international humanitarian law and the Rome Statute and must not under any circumstances be targeted in the exercise of their important mission.”
RECOMMENDED READING (Middle East Eye): War on Gaza: Israel’s deadliest weapon is time
OCHA reports: On 11 February, PRCS reported that Israeli forces had raided Al Amal Hospital in Khan Younis detained 18 people, including nine medical and volunteer staff, four wounded persons and five companions, and caused significant damage to medical and logistical equipment.
PRCS further alleges that money was taken from the hospital safe as well as from patients and IDPs, and that the operation entailed physical abuse and denial of access to sanitation facilities.
Al Amal Hospital continues to contend with acute shortages of fuel and medical supplies and currently has only one operating room functional. Separately on 11 February, PRCS reported that structural damage had been caused to the main gate of the hospital due to Israeli strikes and that the hospital’s remaining vehicle had been rendered out of service.
On 12 February, PRCS released video footage reportedly showing damage inflicted on its ambulance fleet due to Israeli fire.
NOTE: Targeting hospitals is a war crime.
Statement: Al-Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) warn the international community that Israel’s plans to expand its ground assault on Rafah would result in yet another mass forcible transfer over 1.4 million Palestinians currently sheltering in Rafah, and potentially in their mass deportation into Egypt.
The announced plans to forcibly displace Palestinians from the last designated “safe zone” in the Gaza Strip, through severe acts of military violence, amounts to a continuing Nakba, and a genocidal act of forcible transfer causing bodily and mental harm…
[T]he forced displacement of Palestinians in Rafah whether internally into smaller pockets of Gaza or into Egypt, with no basic necessities for survival, is further evidence of Israel’s genocidal intent.
The forced mass displacement of Palestinians from Rafah is a continuing Nakba of the Palestinian people.
In just four months, Israel’s genocidal acts of killing and displacement have surpassed that of the Nakba between 1947 and 1949, when around 15,000 Palestinians were killed and 800,000 Palestinians were expelled.
Read the full statement, including recommendations for action by the international community, here.
WEST BANK: Middle East Monitor reports: Settlers launched terrorist attacks in the occupied West Bank yesterday evening, wounding two people, including a young boy, and burning a house and at least three vehicles in the village of Asira Al-Qibliya, south of Nablus.
A 20-year-old Palestinian man was shot with live bullets in his stomach, and a 16-year-old boy was hit in his hand.
Settlers also burned a vehicle, then targeted a home with Molotov cocktails, causing the house to catch fire.
Other settler attacks took place in Huwwara, Masafer Yatta, Susiya, and Madama.
NOTE: Israel has illegally built around 280 settlements on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, which are home to more than 700,000 illegal settlers. Israeli settlements and settlers on Palestinian land are a violation of international law. Settlers, moreover, have a history of violence against Palestinians, often with the assistance of Israeli military forces. Since 7 October 2023 and as of 9 February 2024, OCHA has recorded 516 Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians
The US-based Institute for Social Policy and Understanding has found that the majority of Muslim, Catholic, and Protestant Americans – among them white Evangelical and non-affiliated Americans – favor a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
Though just shy of a majority, Jewish Americans are more likely to favor (50 percent) than oppose (34 percent) a cessation in violence.
However, views on where to lay the blame are divided.
A majority of Jews (65 percent) and white Evangelicals (51 percent) blame Hamas for the ongoing violence, and a plurality of Catholics (47 percent) agree. Muslims are roughly four times as likely to blame the Israeli government (40 percent) for the war.
The survey also found that:
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- Jewish and Muslim Democrats, like Democrats in the general public, favor an end to the war on Gaza.
- The majority of young Americans favor a cessation in the violence.
Prominent conservatives indicate support for ceasefire and oppose war against Iran.
Jewish Insider reports: “Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host and right-wing media personality, suggested on Monday that the U.S. had lost its “moral authority” because it has refused to call for a cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas.” See full Carlson talk here and here.
Col. Dougas MacGregor, former top Pentagonofficial said in an interview with Daniel Davis about attacks on US troops in the Middlec East:
“If you want what’s happening to stop, stop what’s going on in Gaza. It’s that simple…”
…Syria and Iraq want to get rid of us. I predict that we will soon witness a break in relations with both Egypt and Jordan. Both of those countries are sick of what’s happening in Gaza, and they are frustrated with our failure to reign in the Israelis.” See interview here.
Associated Press reports: The Senate early Tuesday passed a $95.3 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, pushing ahead after months of difficult negotiations and growing political divisions in the Republican Party over the role of the United States abroad.
Yet the package faces a deeply uncertain future in the House, where hardline Republicans aligned with former President Donald Trump — the front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination, and a critic of support for Ukraine — oppose the legislation.
Speaker Mike Johnson cast new doubt on the package in a statement Monday evening, making clear that it could be weeks or months before Congress sends the legislation to President Joe Biden’s desk — if at all.
Biden in a statement urged the House to urgently act: “We cannot afford to wait any longer. The costs of inaction are rising every day, especially in Ukraine.”
In addition, the legislation would provide $14 billion for Israel’s war with Hamas, $8 billion for Taiwan and partners in the Indo-Pacific to counter China, and $9.2 billion in humanitarian assistance for Gaza.
Times of Israel adds: Former US president Donald Trump calls for military aid to Israel, Ukraine and elsewhere to be structured as a loan, with Washington able to demand repayment in case of insufficient support.
New York Times reports: The United States opposes an Israeli ground offensive into Rafah unless Israel provides for the safety of more than a million people now crammed into the city, a State Department spokesman said on Monday, adding to the Biden administration’s repudiations of the expected military action.
At the same time, officials of the United Nations and the International Criminal Court took a more absolute stand against the expected Israeli invasion of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, warning of catastrophic consequences.
So far, however, the escalating international pressure on Israel to restrain its military campaign appears to have had little effect; the Israeli government has said repeatedly that it will send ground forces into Rafah to defeat Hamas. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for the military to draft a plan to evacuate civilians from the overcrowded city in order to minimize casualties, but international aid groups have said the evacuation of so many people is unrealistic.
Omar Shakir, the Israel-Palestine director for Human Rights Watch, has welcomed a decision by families of those taken captive by Hamas to submit a claim against the group at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“Great to see families of hostages turning to the [ICC] for accountability,” Shakir said in a social media post.
“The ICC plays an essential role in upholding the rules-based int’l order & holding all perpetrators of serious crimes to account. Impartial and independent justice badly needed in Israel/Palestine.”
NOTE: The United States has more than once used threats against. the International Criminal Court to drop charges against Israeli leaders; the US has also used its veto powers in the United Nations many times.
RECOMMENDED READING (Middle East Eye): Israeli NGO refers Israel to Int’l Criminal Court for torture of Palestinians
In a statement, the National Executive Director Nihad Awad of CAIR, the Council on American Islamic Relations, said,
The Biden administration has repeatedly failed to hold the far-right Israeli government accountable for attacks like last night’s Rafah massacre and even attacks on American citizens, like the assassination of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and the murder of another American teenager, Tawfiq Hijazi, last month. These failures embolden the Israeli government to kill more innocent people with impunity.
President Biden must fulfill his legal and moral duty to protect Americans around the world, and he must stop enabling genocidal war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza. He should start by condemning the Israeli government’s latest atrocities and using the power of his office to secure an immediate ceasefire and then pursue a just, lasting peace by ending the occupation.
Al Jazeera reports: White House national security spokesperson John Kirby says Washington has told Israel “loud and clear” about its concerns over civilians in Rafah.
“We hope and expect our Israeli counterparts will factor in the safety of those civilians appropriately as they consider future operations down in Rafah,” he said.
Kirby also reiterated that while the United States had never asked Israel not to enter Rafah, the White House believes it’s not “advisable” to take such action without an “executable and effective” plan for the safety of people there.
“Israel has an obligation to protect them,” he added.
Al Jazeera reports: US Department of State spokesperson Matthew Miller has dodged questions on whether the United States would freeze assistance to Israel if the country moves forward with an all-out attack on Rafah.
While the administration of US President Joe Biden has said an Israeli incursion into the packed city near the border with Egypt would be a “disaster”, Miller said that it is not clear that cutting US military assistance is a “step that would be more impactful than the steps we have already taken”.
Middle East Eye reports: After US President Joe Biden said Israel’s conduct in Gaza was “over the top” last week, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell hinted that the American leader ought to do something to rein in that conduct.
“Well, if you believe that too many people are being killed, maybe you should provide less arms in order to prevent so many people being killed,” Borrell told reporters on Monday.
“If the international community believes that this is a slaughter, that too many people are being killed, maybe we have to think about the provision of arms.”
The EU’s foreign policy chief said that countries were contradicting themselves when saying Israel was killing too many civilians in Gaza, but not using their leverage to prevent those killings.
PALESTINIAN MEDIA: Israeli occupation forces launched 4 raids east of the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, and also began artillery shelling southeast of Rafah.
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) February 13, 2024
FOLLOW OUR NEW BLOG: https://t.co/1T18OxlpvB pic.twitter.com/xXwpXEUf7t
No one in Congress should vote to send $10 billion in military aid to Netanyahu’s war machine when they are responsible for an unprecedented humanitarian disaster. pic.twitter.com/shaKllzCDI
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) February 12, 2024
"I have no idea what a safe place means in the📍#GazaStrip"@UNLazzarini: "People have been moved from one place to another. Each time they were told to go to a given place, being told it will be a safer place, it has been proven the place was not safe." pic.twitter.com/KmBz1iae1r
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) February 12, 2024
SourceBy all accounts, the situation in Gaza has gone from a nightmare to pure hell.
— Senator Chris Van Hollen (@ChrisVanHollen) February 12, 2024
I'm on the Senate floor NOW to discuss the urgent need for the Biden Admin to hold the Netanyahu government accountable & get critical humanitarian assistance into Gaza: https://t.co/6MYb5nnhm9
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