Saturday, 28 December 2024

Almost a Spy-Story! ITALIAN JOURNALIST ARRESTED IN IRAN. She is coPartner of an Investor in US Govt Funds

Fabio G. C. CarisioDecember 28, 2024

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by Fabio Giuseppe Carlo Carisio

VERSIONE ORIGINALE IN ITALIANO

In Iran and Russia, international cases are breaking out over journalists arrested for alleged geopolitical propaganda activities in compliance with the democratic vision of NATO, which in Syria, through Turkey and Israel, has used jihadist terrorists who raped girls to overthrow the legitimately elected president Bashar Al Assad.

In Ukraine and Palestine, armed forces supported and backed by the European Union and the West are killing journalists by the handful every day. This is how the potential for a diplomatic incident is nipped in the bud…

“Five journalists were killed in an Israeli nighttime attack that hit their vehicle in Gaza, a hospital and its media outlet said in a statement Thursday,” CNN reported two days ago, confirming a well-known strategy of the Nazi-Zionist regimes of Zelensky and Netanyahu, as the Gonzalo Lira affair showed.

Gonzalo Lira Died for Pneumonia without Therapy in Prison for Months! How, Why Zelensky’s SBU Tormentors Tortured US Journalist

The parents of Andrea Rocchelli, the Italian photojournalist murdered by the Ukrainian National Guard on May 24, 2014, know this well. They asked for justice in Europe after not having it in Italy, where the Ukrainian paramilitary accused with overwhelming evidence of “target shooting” was acquitted.

We are truly sorry for the journalist Cecilia Sala, arrested on December 19 in Teheran, after having obtained a regular journalistic visa to carry out some reportages.

The Journalist’s Book on the “Democracy” of Soros’s Colored Revolutions

But at the same time, we would not have been so naive as to return to Iran after having written a book that, starting from the title, praises the color revolutions, financed by George Soros and NATO countries, in nations with a very delicate political balance precisely because they are persecuted by the USA and Western intelligence.

The real suspicion is that she returned there on purpose to get arrested and thus trigger an international diplomatic scandal, which has so far remained confined to national media attention only.

“The Fire. Reportage on a Generation between Iran, Ukraine and Afghanistan” is a manuscript of his that, starting from the title, stinks of narration of that shameful exportation of American democracy that caused the bloody coup of 2014 in Kiev, plotted by snipers hired by the counterespionage of the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), and the Arab Springs that recently culminated in the fall of the Syrian Government in the hands of murderous cutthroats: says a former Italian Interpol official!

“The NEW SYRIA of TERRORIST CALIPHATE”. Exclusive Analysis on HTS Leader Al Jolani by Former Italian INTERPOL Officer in Jordan

Here are the latest notes from Italian TV RAI News on the matter:

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announces that the Italian journalist Cecilia Sala, in Iran to carry out journalistic services, was stopped on December 19 by the Tehran police authorities. By order of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, the Italian embassy and consulate in Tehran have been following the case with the utmost attention since its beginning. In coordination with the Presidency of the Council, the Farnesina has worked with the Iranian authorities to clarify the legal situation of Cecilia Sala and to verify the conditions of her detention”. This was communicated by the Farnesina.

Defense Minister Guido Crosetto wrote on social media: “the entire Government, first and foremost President Giorgia Meloni and Minister Tajani, has moved to have her freed. Every person who could and can be useful to achieve this goal has started to work”, he added.

NATO-KIEV TERRORISM RAISES THE SHOT. Russia’s Chemical Defense Chief KILLED after Discovering Lethal Viruses Built in Ukraine by US. Pentagon’s Expert confirms

According to Crosetto, “unfortunately, negotiations with Iran cannot be resolved with the involvement of Western public opinion and with the strength of popular indignation, but only with high-level political and diplomatic action. Italy is working tirelessly to free her, pursuing every avenue”.

Neither of the two ministries recalls that Cecilia Sala is working for a media outlet co-owned by a financial speculator on US funds.

It is embarrassing that a reporter who should go to a foreign country to provide objective information is connected to such economic constraints.

This would have made it easy for any young journalist to make a career by reporting mainstream narratives against countries targeted by the US such as Iran and Ukraine…

The Reporter of ChoraMedia: Mainstream newspaper founded by the former director of newspaper Repubblica

Sala has been in an isolation cell in Evin for a week, “where dissidents are held.” This is reported by Choramedia, the Italian podcast company for which the journalist creates ‘Stories’, underlining that “the reason for her arrest has not yet been formalized.”

“Cecilia was there because she had wanted to return to Tehran for a long time, she had written a large part of her latest book ‘The Fire’ on the movement of young Iranian women. At the beginning of December she had been granted an 8-day visa, a visa that, I saw a correspondence, could be extended. She was followed by a fixer from the embassy for meetings and had done the first 3 episodes of Stories”: this is how Mario Calabresi, director of Chora Media, talks about the journalist Cecilia Sala arrested in Tehran

“She was supposed to return to Italy on Friday the 20th but her phone had been silent since the day before. We were worried that Cecilia, who has never delayed sending her podcast because she is very meticulous, hadn’t sent anything at around 2:30 pm and hadn’t checked in for the plane. The Farnesina crisis unit was immediately activated”.

Chora was born in 2020. It was founded by Guido Brera, Mario Gianani, Roberto Zanco and Mario Calabresi, who directs it. Chora wants to give voice to a wide range of authentic narratives, through an unconventional union of formats.

Among these is the WILL platform which is supported by the promotional activities on the main social networks of Mark Zuckerberg of the Meta group, known for having censored essential information on the laboratory origin of SARS-Cov-2 and on the ineffectiveness and dangerousness of Covid vaccines on the orders of the White House.

On the other hand, Calabresi was one of the most influential journalists of aminstream for 10 years as director of the daily newspaper La Stampa from 2009 to 2015 and of the daily newspaper La Repubblica from January 15, 2016 to February 18, 2019.

A few months ago, Cecilia Sala also became a shareholder of the Spa that controls Chora Media.

The newspaper founded by the Manger who speculates on US funds with KIS Pentagon

Be Content (90% controlled by Be Water spa and 10% by Mario Calabresi) active in the field of digital journalism and podcasting has revised its results positively with a turnover forecast of € 12 million for 2024.

Be Water, a production and distribution company of artistic, cultural and journalistic content founded in 2021, announced the entry of new partners in May 2024. Guido Brera (CEO), Filippo Sugar, Barbara Salabè, Mario Calabresi, Mattia Guerra and Saverio Costanzo, previously announced partners of Be Water, are now joined by Stefano Bises, Alessandro Borghi, Claudio Erba, Riccardo Haupt and Cecilia Sala.

Guido Maria Brera (Rome, 27 August 1969) is an Italian business executive and writer. He holds the role of Chief Investment Officer for asset management of Kairos Partners SGR S.p.A, and is co-founder and minority shareholder of the Kairos group.

In 2021 he published his third novel entitled Candido (homonymous with the philosophical work Candide by the revolutionary French Freemason Voltaire), written in collaboration with the collective i Diavoli founded by himself, in which the precarious reality in the world of riders involved in the home delivery service is told.

Kairos is an Italian company that operates in the private banking and asset management sector. The Group was founded in 1999 as an entrepreneurial initiative in the managed savings sector. It has approximately 5 billion euros of assets under management and offices in Milan, Rome, Turin and London. Since January 2018 it has been an independent company of the Julius Baer group.

In October 2020, Julius Baer decided to reduce its controlling stake to 70%, leaving 30% to some of the group’s historical partners and managers: Guido Brera, Rocco Bove and Massimo Trabattoni.

Among the main Kairos funds there is KIS Pentagon, a name that evokes the headquarters of the US Department of Defense and which speculates, obviously in a completely legal way, on US Treasures, the Treasury bonds of the American Government, in fact it has 5 predefined asset classes: US Treasuries; S&P 500; Real Estate; Oil; Gold.

Among the main investment titles of Kairos there is precisely this kind of American government products.

In light of the very tense relations between Rome and Washington with Tehran, hit by multiple American sanctions, it is not difficult to understand why Cecilia Sala, partner of this financial speculator, was considered a fomenter of Western propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran…

Fabio Giuseppe Carlo Carisio

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Fabio G. C. Carisio

Fabio is investigative journalist since 1991. Now geopolitics, intelligence, military, SARS-Cov-2 manmade, NWO expert and Director-founder of Gospa News: a Christian Information Journal.

His articles were published on many international media and website as SouthFront, Reseau International, Sputnik Italia, United Nation Association Westminster, Global Research, Kolozeg and more…

Most popolar investigation on VT is:

Rumsfeld Shady Heritage in Pandemic: GILEAD’s Intrigues with WHO & Wuhan Lab. Bio-Weapons’ Tests with CIA & Pentagon

Fabio Giuseppe Carlo Carisio, born on 24/2/1967 in Borgosesia, started working as a reporter when he was only 19 years old in the alpine area of Valsesia, Piedmont, his birth region in Italy. After studying literature and history at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, he became director of the local newspaper Notizia Oggi Vercelli and specialized in judicial reporting.

For about 15 years he is a correspondent from Northern Italy for the Italian newspapers Libero and Il Giornale, also writing important revelations on the Ustica massacre, a report on Freemasonry and organized crime.

With independent investigations, he collaborates with Carabinieri and Guardia di Finanza in important investigations that conclude with the arrest of Camorra entrepreneurs or corrupt politicians.

In July 2018 he found the counter-information web media Gospa News focused on geopolitics, terrorism, Middle East, and military intelligence.

In 2020 published the book, in Italian only, WUHAN-GATES – The New World Order Plot on SARS-Cov-2 manmade focused on the cycle of investigations Wuhan-Gates

His investigations was quoted also by The Gateway Pundit, Tasnim and others

He worked for many years for the magazine Art & Wine as an art critic and curator.

VETERANS TODAY OLD POSTS

www.gospanews.net/

VT Condemns the ETHNIC CLEANSING OF PALESTINIANS by USA/Israel
$280+ BILLION US TAXPAYER DOLLARS INVESTED since 1948 in US/Israeli Ethnic Cleansing and Occupation Operation
150B direct "aid" and $ 130B in "Offense" contracts
Source: Embassy of Israel, Washington, D.C. and US Department of State.

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Syria Left Alone by an Abandoning World. Russia’s Redline. The End Game Is “Greater Israel”?

Important article first published on December 19, 2024

The overthrow of Bashar al-Assad was long in the making and has nothing to do with a civil war. There has never been a fight of the Syrian people against Assad. But President al-Assad fought against foreign-infiltrated and paid mercenaries, terrorists, including US-created Al Qaeda and IS / ISIS.

The traditional allies like Russia, Iran, and Iraq, suddenly disappeared. Russia made a semblance of fighting alongside the already badly damaged Syrian Air Force – to no avail. Then the Russians left, or rather, became busy evacuating their air bases in Syria. In time, before they would fall into the eager hands of Israel and its allied terrorist bands.

The connection between the Zionist-Israeli war against Palestine, then Lebanon and now Syria, next possibly Iran and Saudi Arabia and the Ukraine war becomes ever clearer. Jordan is already in Israel’s back-pocket. Without a fight. It is all about the Big War for Greater Israel. “Greater Israel” is the hidden agenda in the Great Reset and especially the UN Agenda 2030.

Both of these “guiding documents” were created under control of the Zionist supremacists.

Greater Israel, driven by worldwide Zionism, is also behind the “normally” illegal agreement between the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the UN of 2019.

For years, NATO has been successful in provoking again and again Russia, with ever more aggressive advances surrounding Russia, but preparing Ukraine for a senseless and hopeless war against Russia. This war eventually happened, with President Putin falling for the bait in February 2022, invading the predominantly Russian Donbass area for salvaging them from the murderous Ukrainian Azov Nazi troops.

While adamantly opposing western weapon deliveries to Ukraine, hence supporting Russia, Mr. Erdogan was officially accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza. However, silently the Turkish PM supported the idea of a Greater Israel. Because, as part of a deal, Turkey was to incorporate northern Syria, which was long prepared as a 30-km wide “buffer zone,” under the pretext of preventing migration from Idlib to Turkey.

The buffer zone served Turkey for years to transport stolen petrol from Syrian wells to Turkey and sell it to European customers.

All the talk about a ceasefire, and the eventual truce agreement signed between Turkey and Russia in Moscow on March 5, 2020, was just a make-believe farce for Turkey, which, under Erdogan, has proven to be an unfaithful ally to just about any country to whom Turkey wanted to appear as trustworthy. Such betrayals include Russia as well as the US and NATO, of which Turkey is a prominent member.

The NATO-provoked Russia-Ukraine conflict was the beginning of a senseless war, fought with western weapons and with western advice, and eventually with western mercenaries, if not specialized western troops, that had no other purpose than keeping Russia busy with Ukraine, losing tens of thousands of soldiers to western weapons so that Greater Israel could now march on – literally undisturbed.

The over a million Ukrainians senselessly killed shall not even be mentioned. All for the establishment of Greater Israel. All life is sacred, but none is as sacred as that of the Chosen People.

Some very smart psychological research must have been carried out by CIA-DARPA (the Pentagon-linked semi-secret thinktank, “Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency”), Mossad and MI6 – on President Putin. They have carefully studied his hesitancy on self-imposed “red-lines”, his eagerness to belong to the “west”, and concluded, the west could do almost anything and Putin’s reactions would just be half-hearted.

The last one of those half-hearted warnings was the Russian launching of the world’s most advanced supersonic multi-warhead, multi-directional, ultra-state-of-the-art Oreshnik long-range missile, towards a relatively harmless weapon-depot in Dnipro, Ukraine, on November 21, 2024. And that after Russia having been attacked by western made ATACMS (US), and Storm Shadows (UK-France) – which were Mr. Putin’s latest Red Line.

Putin’s unimpressive reaction gave the signal that the final war on Syria could start and be finished in a few days. The end game was fast. It started on November 27, 2024 by Syrian “opposition forces”, meaning US, Israel, UK, and possibly also Turkey funded and created terrorist forces like ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and other mercenaries.

They advanced rapidly, led by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, leader of the “Levant Liberation Committee”, a Sunni Islamist political and paramilitary organization. Aleppo fell first, then Hama and almost instantly, Damascus.

Russia, China, Iran, and Iraq were disturbingly absent. Without Russia and China, Iran would have been fully exposed to US and possibly Israeli attack missiles – targeting Iran’s nuclear energy facilities, a “coup” prepared by the recent negative inspection report by the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), an agency dancing to the tunes of western commandos.

It was all planned, an almost perfect strategy, that started playing out with the US – Madame Victoria Nuland, Deputy Foreign Secretary-instigated Maidan Coup, in Kiev, on February 21, 2014. Mr. Jens Stoltenberg, former Secretary General of NATO, was right when he said the war started already in February 2014. And ten years later it was concluded – with a giant step forward by Zionist-Israel towards a Greater Israel for the “Chosen People”.

Strategically speaking, sadly, and for now, the west won and the east – Russia and her allies – lost. See also Paul Craig Robert’s excellent analysis.

What will happen next is a new ball-game. Was Russia prepared for this scenario? Being able to act now? For example, by using now the Oreshnik super-missile to strike Russia’s strategic targets in the west, in Israel and NATO countries, to – perhaps, reverse the trend?

Or is Russia just ready for internal damage control, leaving the world’s new globalist order, beginning with Greater Israel, play out?

Is the world experiencing planned chaos? Or a last-minute avoidance – and reversal – of a checkmate?

During the past weekend, President al-Assad transferred to the Syrian Prime Minister, Mohammed al-Bashir, the responsibility to hand over the country in a peaceful way to a new “government chosen by the people.” This new government is being established by foreign-funded terrorists.

President al-Assad left the country in a military jet. He is currently in Moscow, where President Putin greeted him and has granted him political asylum. Mr. Assad’s wife, Asma, has already been in Moscow for several months, where she is receiving cancer treatment.

According to a weak declaration describing the situation, Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s Foreign Minister, it is US policy in the Middle East and Syria that is responsible for the constant attacks on Syria, already during the times of Bashar al-Assad’s father, and it ceaselessly continued when his son, Bashar, took over.

Bashar al-Assad is an ophthalmologist, who had studied medicine in London. He is NOT the dictator made out to be by the west, and propagated by the western lie-media. Mr. Lavrov really does not bring any news on the table; he is just confirming the obvious.

President al-Assad wanted a free Syria for his people, pursued a liberal policy on religion – Christians were welcome – and gender equality for his highly educated people. Foreign funding for the usual “divide to conquer”, especially by the US, created religious divisions in Syria, and eventually some 50,000 Christians left the country.

Lavrov makes the US responsible for the rapid escalation and conquering of Aleppo, Homs, Hama and finally Damascus by foreign-funded terrorists, including by Turkey and Israel.

Israel occupied two-thirds of the Golan Heights area of Syria, following the 1967 Six-Day War, and then effectively annexed it in 1981. Except for the US, this action was never recognized by the UN and the international community. As part of the US-instigated escalation, in 2024 Israel occupied the remaining one third of the area. Israel has been launching missiles against and bombing Syria for most of 2024.

As it is clear today, Syria was then and is today part of the Zionist-Israel’s larger plan of a Greater Israel.

In hindsight, the so-called Arab Spring – a US-UK-Israel secret services organized Arab uprising that started in December 2010 in Tunisia, was also the signal for the US to intensify bombing of Syria, leading to the “Syrian Arab Spring” of March 2011. It converted to what is known as the “Syrian Civil War” – a misnomer for a US-led and paid for endless war of attrition, leaving Syria almost defenseless, up to the final assault, the end game of December 2024.

The more active precursor to the “endless war of attrition”, started already in 2000, when Qatar declared, they were going to build a US$ 10 billion, 1,500 km gas pipeline through Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria to Turkey, and from there to further distribution to Europe. Syria, an ally of Russia, rejected, since Russia was the main supplier of gas to Europe.

Strategic planners knew, of course, that Syra would not accept the pipeline through her country. Although expected, the rejection was not liked by the US. It gave Washington an argument to start a low-key “Syrian civil war” as a CIA operation, by regular, dispersed, and deadly attacks by western funded terrorist groups.

According to Seymour Hersh, already in 2006 – possibly earlier – the US Embassy in Damascus funded dissidents, Syrian, or terrorist “imports”, to the tune of five million dollars to systematically destabilize the country.

Today, in practical terms, Syria no longer exists.Since the western take-over of Syria, all the way to and including Damascus, Israel has launched several hundred attacks by war planes on Syria, the largest ever since the Israeli-Syria conflict began in 1967. And this after the fall of Damascus. Attacks against a helpless Syria.

The goal of these countless and ceaseless Israeli airstrikes is to destroy all remaining weapons and war potential. It is typical for a country that plans a full take-over with occupation.

The question remains: Is this the beginning of a new Middle Eastern status quo? A Greater Israel, absorbing roughly two-thirds of what today is called the Middle East – see map above – including the world’s largest pool of hydrocarbons – essentially controlling the world’s energy supply?

Click the share button below to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

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Peter Koenig is a geopolitical analyst and a former Senior Economist at the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), where he worked for over 30 years around the world. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed; and co-author of Cynthia McKinney’s book “When China Sneezes: From the Coronavirus Lockdown to the Global Politico-Economic Crisis” (Clarity Press – November 1, 2020).

Peter is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). He is also a non-resident Senior Fellow of the Chongyang Institute of Renmin University, Beijing.

Featured image: Syrians wave Russian and Syrian flags during a protest against US-led air strikes in Damascus, Syria on 14 April 2018. (Photo credit: VCG Photo)

Friday, 27 December 2024

At least 3 infants freeze to death in Gaza tents – Day 445

contact@ifamericansknew.org December 26, 2024 al jazeera ban, beachfront retreat gaza, children in gaza, famine, fews net, jack lew on gaza, west bank deaths

The lifeless body of Sile, who lost her life due to cold weather, is brought to Nasser Hospital for a funeral in Khan Younis, Gaza, on December 25, 2024 (Hani Alshaer/Anadolu)

Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

At least 38 Palestinians were killed in Gaza Wednesday.

At least 23 were killed Tuesday.

The Israeli army killed at least 14 Palestinians Monday morning, including five guards escorting aid trucks, and injured dozens in several airstrikes and shelling across the Gaza Strip. According to Palestinian figures, the Israeli army has killed over 720 Palestinian policemen and security personnel guarding aid trucks in Gaza since October last year.

At Least 3 Palestinian Babies Freeze to Death in Gaza Amid Israeli Blockade

At least three Palestinian infants have frozen to death in Gaza in recent days amid winter temperatures and inadequate shelter due to Israel’s 446-day U.S.-backed assault and blockade of the besieged coastal enclave, according to medical officials there.

Gaza Health Ministry Director Dr. Muneer Alboursh said that Sila Mahmoud Al-Faseeh, a 3-week-old baby girl, died Sunday “from the extreme cold” in a tent where her forcibly displaced family is sheltering on a beach in al-Mawasi, an Israeli-designated “safe zone” for displaced Palestinians.

Sila was rushed to a field hospital where doctors unsuccessfully tried to revive her. Ahmed al-Farra, director of the children’s ward at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, confirmed to the AP that the girl died of hypothermia and said that two other babies, ages 3 days and 1 month, were also brought to the hospital within the past 48 hours after freezing to death.

Hundreds of thousands of Gazans are packed into tent camps along the coast as the cold, wet winter sets in. Aid groups have struggled to deliver food and supplies and say there are shortages of blankets, warm clothing and firewood.

Palestinians, including children, live in makeshift tents in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, where the rain and cold weather add to their struggles ,November 24, 2024 — Palestinians, including children, live in makeshift tents in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, where the rain and cold weather add to their struggles, November 24, 2024 (Ali Jadallah – Anadolu Agency)

Gaza toddlers got the polio vaccine, then an Israeli bomb took their legs

On the morning of September 2, Shaima al-Daqqi got up early to take her two daughters – Hanan and 22-month-old Misk – to get the polio vaccine, which was being offered to people in the midst of Israel’s war on Gaza.

The following day, after the family had lunch, Israel bombed their home in Deir el-Balah.

It killed 25-year-old Shaima and injured the rest of the family, including her husband Mohammed al-Daqqi, and tore through the two little girls’ legs.

Hanan was severely injured, losing both her legs – one above the knee and one below – and sustaining wounds across her body, including her face and intestines. She had to undergo surgery to remove part of her bowels.

Meanwhile, little Misk had to have her left foot amputated.

Their father, Mohammed, 31, was in intensive care for two weeks with a brain hemorrhage and injuries to his chest.

“We’ve been trapped in a nightmare for four months now,” says the girls’ aunt Shefa as she tries to soothe Hanan, who has been fragile and volatile since the attack (continue reading here).

RELATED: Palestinians mourn Gaza artist killed by Israeli airstrike

Shefa holds a mobile showing Hanan before an Israeli bomb destroyed her legs. (Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera)

Famine? – or no famine due to ethnic cleansing?

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) – an initiative funded by USAID, the US government agency that oversees foreign aid – has taken down a report on its website that sounded the alarm about tens of thousands of Palestinians in northern Gaza at risk of death under Israeli siege.

The report was published on Monday and used figures provided by the United Nations.

According to the news outlet Jewish Insider, which initially reported on the report’s withdrawal, FEWS NET had described a “near-total blockade of humanitarian and commercial food supplies to besieged areas of North Gaza Governorate,” and stated that 65,000 to 75,000 civilians remained in the area, “including civilians who have been unable to or prevented from evacuating”.

The US ambassador to Israel, Jacob Lew, quickly reprimanded FEWS NET on social media.

The data, he said, “is outdated and inaccurate”.

“We have worked closely with the Government of Israel and the UN to provide greater access to the North Governorate, and it is now apparent that the civilian population in that part of Gaza is in the range of 7,000-15,000, not 65,000-75,000 which is the basis of this report,” he wrote.

The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories – better known as COGAT, which is the Israeli government’s regulatory body for Gaza – “estimates the population in this area is between 5,000 and 9,000”, Lew said.

UNRWA, the Palestinian refugee agency, “estimates the population is between 10,000 and 15,000”, he added.

“At a time when inaccurate information is causing confusion and accusations, it is irresponsible to issue a report like this.”

The backlash was swift.

In response to Lew, Yousef Munayyer, the head of the Israel/Palestine Program at the Arab Center Washington DC, said on X that what Lew meant to say was that “Israel can’t be starving these people in that area because they have already ethnically cleansed it”.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair), the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the US, condemned Lew’s remarks and demanded that FEWS NET make its report available to the public.

“Ambassador Lew’s callous dismissal of this shocking report by a US-backed agency exposing Israel’s campaign of forced starvation in Gaza reminds one of the old joke about a man who murdered his parents and then asked for mercy because he is now an ‘orphan’,” a statement by CAIR said.

“To reject a report on starvation in northern Gaza by appearing to boast about the fact that it has been successfully ethnically cleansed of its native population is just the latest example of Biden administration officials supporting, enabling and excusing Israel’s clear and open campaign of genocide in Gaza.”

Palestinians, including children, living in the Nuseirat refugee camp wait with empty pots to receive food distributed by an aid organization, in Gaza City, Gaza on November 08, 2024 (Moiz Salhi/Anadolu Agency)

‘Preventable deaths’ in Gaza due to Israeli blockade

Ayesha Khan, associate professor of emergency medicine and part of a medical mission in central Gaza, says they see “preventable deaths” due to the Israeli blockade.

“We have one bottle of antiseptic that we can use in a month. When we clean a wound to do a lifesaving intervention, even if we save the patient now, the antibiotic-resistant infections will take them later,” Khan told Al Jazeera.

“We see shrapnel wounds, [but] the wounds will never heal because there’s no protein in the market. We see children who have had diarrhoea for almost a year now because of the water filtration,” she said.

Khan added that Gaza has an “entire population that is not healing and that is not able to make a recovery.”

‘Larceny writ large’: UN says criminal groups systematically looting Gaza aid under Israel’s nose

Gaza aid deliveries are suffering “systematic, tactical, armed, crime-syndicate looting” by organized groups, said Georgios Petropoulos, a senior UN official based in the southern city of Rafah, in comments reported by the New York Times (NYT) on 23 December. “This is just larceny writ large.”

“There is continued tolerance by the Israel Defense Forces of unacceptable amounts of looting of areas that are ostensibly and de facto under their military control,” Petropoulos said.

Based on interviews with Israeli military officials, aid workers, and Palestinians in Gaza, the NYT concluded that the looting is taking place due to the vacuum left by the Israeli military in the besieged enclave by its targeting of Hamas, including its civilian police force.

The NYT reported the testimony of Hazem Isleem, a Palestinian truck driver whose aid convoy was ambushed by armed looters.

The armed men stole thousands of pounds of flour from about 100 UN trucks, an amount large enough to feed tens of thousands of people. Gangs then sell the stolen items to desperate Palestinians in Gaza for massively inflated prices – for example, a 55-pound sack of flour, normally costing $10, has risen to as much as $220.

The NYT notes that “Though Hamas has been routed in much of the territory, Israel has not put an alternative government in place. In parts of southern Gaza, armed gangs have filled the resulting power vacuum, leaving aid groups unwilling to risk delivering supplies.”

The looting has caused the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, to end aid deliveries through the Kerem Shalom crossing, which is now the main entry point for aid since the closing of the Rafah crossing from Egypt in May.

“Hundreds of truckloads of relief are piling up at the crossing in part because aid groups fear they will be looted,” the NYT added.

Israel has helped cause the security vacuum by repeatedly killing members of the Gaza police force in previous months as they accompanied aid trucks to their destinations, the NYT noted.

Israeli soldiers stand guard as trucks loaded with humanitarian aid delivered from Jordan wait to cross into Gaza, October 21, 2024. (Photo taken during a controlled tour by the Israeli military.) The Israeli military often allows gangs to loot aid trucks shortly after they enter Gaza. (Jack Guez / AFP via Getty Images)

Hamas says Gaza cease-fire deal delayed due to new Israeli conditions

Palestinian resistance group Hamas said Wednesday that a Gaza cease-fire and prisoner swap has been delayed due to new Israeli conditions.

In a brief statement, Hamas said it showed flexibility and responsibility during the cease-fire and prisoner exchange negotiations in Doha with Qatari and Egyptian mediation.

“The (Israeli) occupation set new issues and conditions related to withdrawal, cease-fire, prisoners, and the return of the displaced, which delayed reaching an agreement that was available,” it added.

There was no comment from the Israeli government on the Hamas statement.

RELATED: Netanyahu’s ceasefire bluff? Inside talks to end the Gaza war

Israel builds ‘beachfront retreat’ for soldiers committing genocide in Gaza

In the latest sign that Israel’s occupation of Gaza will continue for years to come, the military constructed a “beachfront retreat” in the strip to give its soldiers a break between ethnically cleansing the enclave.

“This unique respite, situated amid the devastation of enemy territory, offers soldiers a rare break from their grueling missions in the Gaza Strip,” the Ynet website reported on 23 December.

The facility provides soldiers access to mental health counselors, nurses, paramedics, massage therapists, and dentists. It also has a coffee bar, breakfasts reminiscent of a hotel buffet, grilled steaks from a barbeque station, and a dessert and candy station.

One corner of the retreat provides religious texts, tefillin sets, and prayer shawls for Jewish worship.

Sergeant Yaron Rabinovitch from the Nahal Brigade’s 50^th Battalion explained, “Each platoon gets a day here about every 10 days. It’s rejuvenating…This has been a game-changer.”

The Army has also built a desalination plant capable of producing 60,000 liters of drinking water daily. “This is unprecedented in a combat zone,” notes Colonel Michael Azulai, the Southern Command’s logistics officer. “The facility’s deployment reflects our readiness for prolonged operations, even if a ceasefire is reached in the context of a hostage exchange.”

Standing next to a popcorn machine, Israeli soldiers make cotton candy inside an army ‘resort’ for soldiers in north Gaza. (Via Ynet News)

Occupied West Bank: Israeli forces kill at least 10 in recent raids, drone strikes

Israeli troops and military aircraft killed at least eight Palestinians, including two women and a teenager, in attacks Tuesday on the Tulkarem and Nur Shams refugee camps in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

Seven people were killed in an Israeli drone attack and shooting by troops in the Tulkarem refugee camp, and one person was killed in the nearby Nur Shams camp, the Health Ministry said, following a bloody day of Israeli military raids.

A 17-year-old Palestinian died of injuries he sustained in a drone attack on a group of young men during an overnight Israeli raid in the town of Tammun in the occupied West Bank, Wafa reports.

A Palestinian man was shot and killed by Israeli forces Wednesday in the town of Qaffin, north of Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank. The victim was identified as 25-year-old Ahmed Mahmoud Khaled Amarneh.

A Palestinian youth, 17-year-old Rayan Hussam Bani Odeh, was killed and a young man was critically injured by an Israeli drone strike, on Wednesday, in the town of Tammun, south of Tubas in the northeastern part of the occupied West Bank.

In all, at least 834 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers in the West Bank since October, 2023.

The Israeli military operates with nearly full impunity in Gaza and the West Bank. (photo)

Palestinian ruling party Fatah bans Al Jazeera in West Bank

In addition to Israeli attacks, Palestinian Authority (PA) forces are waging a brutal Israeli-backed assault and siege against resistance fighters affiliated with the Quds Brigades in Jenin.

The Quds Brigades’ Jenin Brigade has vowed not to surrender.

The PA’s Fatah party announced on Tuesday that it is preventing Qatari media outlet Al Jazeera from operating in the West Bank, accusing it of incitement against Ramallah.

“To all Al Jazeera employees working in Palestinian territories, we hope you reflect on your actions and resign from this biased channel that has destroyed and continues to destroy the Arab world,” Fatah said.

“Al Jazeera floods the media with lies, especially in Palestine, siding with a group of hostile mercenaries in the Jenin camp and trying to present them as heroes resisting the occupation,” the party added.

NOTE: In May, Israel banned Al Jazeera from Israel, in a move that is considered to be suppression of free press and a violation of international and humanitarian law.

The Palestinian Authority is widely seen as a collaborator with, or subcontractor for the Israeli occupation.

Occupied West Bank: Israeli forces destroy park near Bethlehem

Israeli forces have demolished a park in the town of Nahalin, west of Bethlehem.

A resident said the Israeli army broke into the town, specifically the Khallet al-Daliya area to the south, and began demolishing a park containing a swimming pool, restaurant, cafe and other facilities under the pretext that they were built without a permit, the Wafa news agency reported.

The report also said Israeli forces closed the area and prevented the owner of the park from approaching and removing its contents while firing tear gas and sound bombs at any person who tried to approach the demolition site.

EU Officials Will Claim Ignorance of Israel’s War Crimes. This Leaked Document Shows What They Knew.

European Union foreign ministers rebuffed a call to end arms sales to Israel in November, despite mounting evidence of war crimes — and, potentially, genocide — presented to them in an internal assessment obtained by The Intercept.

The contents of the previously unknown 35-page assessment could sway future war crimes trials of EU politicians for complicity in Israel’s assault against Gaza, according to lawyers, experts, and political leaders.

The appraisal was written by the EU’s special representative for human rights Olof Skoog and sent to EU ministers ahead of a council meeting on November 18, as part of a proposal by the head of the EU’s foreign policy to suspend political dialogue with Israel. The proposal was rejected by the council of foreign ministers from EU member states.

Skoog’s analysis laid out evidence from United Nations sources of war crimes by Israel, Hamas, and Hezbollah since October 7, 2023, when around 1,200 people were killed during a Hamas-led attack that prompted Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip. The U.N. estimates some 45,000 people have died in Gaza since, with more than half estimated to be women and children.

“The world now knows that [EU leaders] knew they were in breach of international law because they were explicitly told so by the EU’s own special representative on human rights. History will judge them harshly. And perhaps so will the ICC,” said Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek finance minister and secretary-general of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (continue reading here).

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STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – DECEMBER 25, 2024:

Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – December 25, 2024: at least 46,233* – 45,399 in Gaza; in the West Bank, Israeli soldiers and/or settlers have killed at least 834 Palestinians (~170 of them children).

Thousands of those killed in Gaza have yet to be identified, and an estimated 11,000 more are still buried under rubble.

According to a report in the Lancet, by multiplying the reported deaths by five, it is possible to reach a conservative estimate of total deaths (including indirect causes like starvation and lack of medicine). Using the latest figure from AFP (45,399), it is reasonable to estimate at least 226,995 total deaths in Gaza since October 7th, 2023.

According to a recent report by the UN Human Rights Office of identified fatalities in Gaza, about 44% were children. It is reasonable to estimate that 19,976 of known direct deaths and 99,878 of the total deaths are children.

Since Israel launched an extermination campaign in northern Gaza in early October, over 4,000 Palestinians have been killed or are missing and another 12,000 wounded.

Palestinian injuries from October 7, 2023 – December 25, 2024: at least 114,440 (including at least 107,940 in Gaza and 6,500 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how many Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.]

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – December 25, 2024: ~1,595 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 417*** military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza (updated: Dec 17); 39 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel) and~10,000 injured.

NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.

ADDITIONAL STATISTICS: Since October 7th, 2023:

At least 49 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (at least 30 from Gaza).
At least 43 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition (at least 37 of them children)**.
About 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million population are currently displaced.
About 345,000 Gazans are currently experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.

*The Ministry’s figures have been contested by the Israeli authorities, although they have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN, and WHO. These data are supported by independent analyses, comparing changes in the number of deaths of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff with those reported by the Ministry, which found claims of data fabrication implausible.

Previously, IAK did not include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile was being disputed. However, given that much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, Israel had previously bombed the hospital and has attacked many others, Israel is prohibiting outside experts from investigating the scene, and since the UN and other agencies are including the deaths from the attack in their cumulative totals, if Americans knew is now also doing so.

**Euro-Med Monitor reports that Gaza’s elderly are dying at an alarmingly high rate. The majority die at home and are buried either close to their residences or in makeshift graves dispersed across the Strip. There are currently more than 140 such cemeteries. Additionally, according to Euromed, thousands have died from starvation, malnourishment, and inadequate medical care; these are considered indirect victims as they were not registered in hospitals.

***The figure does not include the reportedly 59 Israeli soldiers – nearly 17% of the total Israeli military deaths – killed due to friendly fire in Gaza and other military-related accidents.

† For most of the conflict, women and children accounted for about 70% of deaths in Gaza, with children making up a little over 40% of those killed, according to official statistics.

Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.

Hover over each bar for exact numbers. Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org