The United States, Israel’s top ally, says it is still working with mediators Egypt and Qatar to try to broker another cease-fire and hostage release agreement. But those efforts appear to have stalled in recent days, and Netanyahu angered Qatar by calling on it to pressure Hamas and suggesting it funds the militant group.
israel doing everything in its power to keep the slaughter going and not get the hostages back safely.
I've been trying to wrap my head around the unconditional support that the US has shown to Israel during this crisis. I understand why we must stand with our friends and allies. I understand that Israel has immense strategic value as an "unsinkable aircraft carrier" in the Middle East. I understand our desire to support democracies in the region. I understand that they have a right to defend their people. I understand that our support is necessary to keep things from cascading further out of hand. But what I don't understand is how we can provide all this support and still have no leverage to ease the suffering of innocent Palestinians. Are we even capable of applying diplomatic pressure on Israel, or has our support become something more akin to an entitlement?
Ask yourself - is it in the US interest to do something about this genocide? The answer is "nope" other than a tiny bit of unrest in the country (and by that I mean someone complaining at Biden on twitter). There is no point for them to do anything. Geopolitics is never about morality.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 men, women and children hostage.
The Israeli military released a video Monday showing what is believed to be the youngest hostage, his brother and mother being led through the streets of the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis soon after their kidnapping on Oct. 7.
It said there were credible reports that at least two were raped, and others “subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault,” including being stripped naked and searched by male officers and being photographed “in degrading circumstances.”
On Sunday, Benny Gantz, a member of Netanyahu’s three-man War Cabinet, warned that the offensive would expand to Rafah if the hostages are not freed by the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, expected around March 10.
In a speech before American Jewish leaders on Sunday, he said pressure should be applied on Qatar, which played a key role in mediating last year’s cease-fire and hostage release deal.
Majed al-Ansari, Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson, dismissed Netanyahu’s remarks as “a new attempt to stall and prolong the war for reasons that have become obvious to everyone,” alluding to the Israeli leader’s domestic political troubles.
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But then can you answer me why aren't Israel letting independent investigators and journalists enter Gaza?
If you are so sure that Israel is doing everything possible to prevent civilian deaths and they respect all international laws why is Israel not signatory of the ICC? What are they afraid of?
For full context, Israel says 10,000 are Hamas soldiers. It's super disingenuous for the Gaza health ministry (Hamas) to lump military and civilian deaths together like they do. And I know, you're literally frothing at the mouth to inform me how all Israeli's are liars and all Palestinians are angels. I'm not going to read any responses.
Lmao, what an answer, you haven't even came back with an answer
Also HAMAS admitted it have lost at least 6 000, while IDF talks about 12 000, and you know that HAMAS obviously wants everyone to think that their losses as a low as possible, so 10k seems realistic to me
Your comment sounds like it's justifying killing 2 civilians for everyone 1 soldier. Even assuming your number is correct, it doesn't really matter. It's just as bad.
Hamas is partly to blame for the following reasons:
They use human shield tactics
They haven't built bomb shelters (edit: for civilians)
They have no civilian evacuation plans
They appear to actively stop people from evacuating
Also, the population density in Gaza is one of the highest ones in the world. Which is really nobody's fault I guess, but makes the number of civilian deaths worse, especially given the above 4 points.
As a point of reference, according to the UN, civilians usually make up around 90 percent of casualties in war. That's a 1:9 ratio (one combatant for every nine civilians).
It shows that it's low, and Israel does care about civilians, a shame that civilians die in the first place, but that what war is, especially considering HAMAS fighters a lot of times wear civilian clothing and don't follow the laws of war
That's literally one of the "best" ratios for urban warfare in modern conflicts tho? It's a shame that the war is even there, but the numbers are "in Israel favor", Gaza is densely populated, and this is a full scale war.
It's super disingenuous for the Gaza health ministry (Hamas) to lump military and civilian deaths together like they do
So you think it is disingenuous of Israel to have lumped the more than half military and police deaths, let alone the civilians they killed themselves, in the list of deaths on October 7th? At least those death were, according to international law, actually legal.
If those data were minimally credible, we would still be talking about 2/3 civilian casualties, about ~10k children killed instead of ~15k. Your context doesn't change the tone, it's still genocide, indiscriminate massacres, endless war crimes, etc.