Wednesday, 30 April 2025

Pakistan Warns It Has 'Credible Intelligence' India Will Attack Within 36 Hours

It is impossible to know the degree to which this is typical conflict propaganda, but Pakistan is claiming that India is planning a military strike on its territory, and that this is coming within less than one to two days.

"Pakistan has credible intelligence that India intends to launch a military strike within the next 24 to 36 hours, using the Pahalgam incident as a false pretext," Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah Tarar wrote on X Tuesday evening.

"Any act of aggression will be met with a decisive response. India will be fully responsible for any serious consequences in the region," Tarar added.

India has charged that Pakistan harbored the terrorists responsible for the attack on Indian-administered Kashmir which came one week ago and left 26 dead. They were mostly tourists from India visiting the popular and picturesque spot, and the gunmen chose them for execution on the spot because they were Hindu.

Gunfire has already been exchanged between the nuclear-armed rivals over the last several days, with neither side reporting any casualties or major incidents.

The last time there was a major terror attack targeting Indians in Kashmir, the Indian Air Force did respond:

The worst attack in recent years in Indian-run Kashmir was at Pulwama in 2019, when an insurgent rammed a car packed with explosives into a security forces convoy, killing 40 and wounding 35.
Indian fighter jets carried out air strikes on Pakistani territory 12 days later.

Pakistan has meanwhile welcomed China and Russia's efforts to mediate de-escalation, also as the United Nations has urged restraint.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said he is holding dialogue with officials from both sides. "We are reaching out to both parties, and telling, of course, them to not escalate the situation," a statement from the State Dept said.

The only significant military action so far is that Pakistan's military said Tuesday it shot down an Indian spy drone over Kashmir, alleging that the UAV breached Pakistani-administered territory.

The drone reportedly breached the Line of Control (LOC), Pakistani state-run media said, and it was subsequently shot down amid the air space incursion. Pakistani defense officials described to The Associated Press that the drone flew hundreds of feet into Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

And alarmingly, a Pakistani minister, Hanif Abbasi (though he's not in defense or security) days ago warned that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal of more than 130 missiles was "not kept as models" and was aimed “only for India … these ballistic missiles, all of them are targeted at you" - as cited in The Guardian.

Going to Kashmir…just to find Alice in Wonderland

Welcome to “Ruler of the World” does Wonderland – to the sound of that hypnotic ‘Kashmir’ riff.

By Pepe Escobar at Strategic Culture Foundation.

Two overarching taboos reign on the – now shattered – collective West:

Can’t define the Ukraine regime as Nazi.
Can’t condemn the psychopathological Israeli genocide in Gaza.

The taboos happen to be inextricably linked to the Forever Wars deployed non-stop by the Empire of Chaos/Zionist axis.

Lesser Hybrid Wars though – even carrying the horrifying prospect of turning nuclear – are allowed to come and go. Especially if they are part of the current war on BRICS, a sub-section of the war of factions of the West against the Global Majority.

So let’s go to Kashmir – to the sound of Jimmy Page’s hypnotic riff. Both India and Pakistan are escalating the war of decibels. Turkey is offering weapons – to Pakistan. Iran offered a mediator role: no takers.

The motive for the war is as dodgy as they come. An all-male tourist bus packing a bunch of merry tourists is roaming around Indian-held Kashmir. Passengers include a just married 26-year-old lieutenant of the Indian Navy – but without his wife (what kind of honeymoon is that?) Another passenger is Nepalese. The bus is attacked by shady splinter goons loosely affiliated with the Salafi-jihadi Lashkar-e-Taiba outfit.

The Empire has been all over the Indian front. The current US Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard was previously fully funded by Prime Minister Modi’s circles. Eyeliner-loaded VP J.D. Vance recently visited India – complete with family Taj Mahal photo op. Then Modi went to visit Saudi Arabia – invited by MbS. After the Kashmir bus terror attack, Hindutva fanatics went on a cyber-attack spree.

The crude tactics spell out classic Divide and Rule. Double whammy: revamped weaponization of India, and destabilization of a key Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) China front: the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). A thing of beauty: splitting BRICS from the inside.

None of that, of course, legitimizes the ghastly Pakistani military, which have thrown in jail, on spurious charges, the man who was trying to bring Pakistan to respectability: Imran Khan.

It’s up, once again, to the adults in the room, any room – Russia – to de-escalate. This could be ideally performed inside the SCO – where both India and Pakistan are members, side by side with Iran. Moscow chose to take the initiative, by itself.

Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko met with both India’s Ambassador to Russia, Vinay Kumar, and Pakistan’s Ambassador to Russia, Muhammad Khalid Jamali.

Russian terminology is essential: not only there was a call for both parties to “engage in constructive dialogue”. Moscow stressed, “we are ready to counter the global terrorist threat together.” The operative word is “global”. Delhi and Islamabad don’t seem to be getting the message – yet.

Kashmir as a volatile war lab

An infernal machine is predictably on. It’s as if the Anglo-Zionist axis is using Kashmir as a volatile lab for a series of live tests – including pushing nuclear powers to the brink of confrontation. And all that dealt with casual insouciance – practically as a sideshow.

Nothing coming from Sültan Erdogan and his intel apparatus could possibly be seen as trustworthy. In Syria, the MIT’s assets – the Headchopper Inc. congregated in Greater Idlibistan – ended up being installed in power in Damascus with their Zionist-friendly gang leader now posing as President.

The comprador Yankee junta in Islamabad, for its part, may be facing the abyss – which in itself qualifies as auspicious news. In parallel, suspense accrues on whether Modi will show up for the Victory Day parade on May 9 in Moscow – and what he will tell his Russian hosts.

BRICS members Russia and Iran want the International North South Transportation Corridor (INSTC) running smoothly to India sooner rather than later. The game gets even more complex when we see that the Iranian investigation is finally starting to consider that the horrendous explosion at the Shahid Rajaee port may have been an act of sabotage or an FPV strike.

Extra pressure on China is a real motivator for setting up this war lab. Now Beijing not only needs to start worrying about an explosively renewed India-Pakistan front but also extra CIA/MI6 mischief pushing the Pak connection to Uighur Salafi-jihadis.

There’s no chance in hell Delhi will really understand Beijing’s geopolitical predicaments. A perfect scenario for the Hybrid War gang.

Meanwhile, at the BRICS front, at least there are some signs of rationality – coming, once again, from Grandmaster Lavrov.

Even before the BRICS Foreign Ministers meeting early this week in Rio, Lavrov cut to the chase on the financial and geoeconomic front. He stressed that BRICS are working hard on the 2024 Kazan summit-approved “Trans-Border Payment Initiative”; a “payment and clearing infrastructure”; “a re-insurance company”; and a new investment platform.

He had to once again explain to Western media – from the US to Brazil – that “it would be premature to discuss a transition to a single currency for BRICS. We are working together to create a payment and settlement infrastructure for carrying out cross-border settlements among BRICS countries. In particular, as I have already said, this includes increasing the share of national currencies in our transactions.”

A BRICS common currency – a specter hovering over Trump 2.0 – will only come back to the table “once the necessary financial and economic conditions are in place.” Until then, the war on BRICS, hybrid and otherwise, will be relentless.

Trumpty Dumpty

Switching from reality to fantasy, it was such a blast to find the connection between Kashmir and Alice in Wonderland… in a Chinese essay.

It takes supreme Chinese finesse – quite like subverting Taoist wisdom with a touch of post-modernism – to identify the “ruler of the world” (his own terminology) throwing everyone, virtually the whole planet, into the rabbit hole.

So in this wilderness of narrative mirrors, Trump should be perceived as all characters combined: the White Rabbit, Humpty Dumpty (“When I use a word, it means what I choose to mean, no more and no less”), the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts (“Off with their heads!”)

That certainly illustrates the intersection of the trade war (launched by the “ruler of the world”) and the genocide war (fully legitimized by the “ruler of the world”). With an extra twist: reality has a knack to out-Carroll even Lewis Carroll himself.

Enter the curious case of the USS Truman, a giant aircraft carrier, being possessed by the spirit of Ayrton Senna and deciding to pull out an ultra-sharp curve as if it was a Maserati Gran Turismo Stradale in the middle of the Red Sea – just for a F-18E Super Hornet to protest about the maneuver plunging head on to the bottom of the ocean.

At least that was the narrative CENTCOM sold to global public opinion. Blame that damned Houthi missile fire!

Well, CENTCOM has been relentlessly humiliated by the Yemeni Armed Forces – 21 MQ9-Reapers smashed, and counting – as it has accomplished zero military objectives; the Pentagon has not subdued the Houthis; and has not secured “freedom of navigation” in the Red Sea for Israeli-bound ships. Their revenge: to bomb Yemeni civilian targets non-stop.

All that because the “ruler of the world” launched an illegal war – against people guided by moral and spiritual clarity – to protect the genocide perpetrated by his psychopathological regime buddies. Welcome to “Ruler of the World” does Wonderland – to the sound of that hypnotic ‘Kashmir’ riff.

Not the slightest bit surprised: Syria

From Marwa Osman on her TG channel:

The very same Julani-led terrorists armed, trained, and funded by Turkey, Qatar, and the West, who carried out massacres against Syrian Alawites on the coast, are now committing yet another slaughter, this time against the Druze in the south. It’s the same takfiri playbook. Only the targets change.

And also unsurprising? Israel’s silence. Despite Syrian Druze attempts to curry favor, sell loyalty, and present themselves as allies of the Zionist entity, Israel will do absolutely nothing to stop this.

It will wait… wait until the takfiri proxies weaken the Druze beyond recovery, until the demographic fabric of the south unravels, until resistance is no longer a viable option. Then, and only then, it will strike a few symbolic targets, parade itself as the savior, and “relocate” what’s left of the Druze population into the Golan… cementing its hold over land it has illegally occupied since 1967. A calculated, colonial move. One that’s been in motion for years.

The entire Syrian theater is folding neatly into Israel’s long-term strategic plan. Julani, for his part, is merely playing his role… dangling promises of normalization to the Americans in exchange for loosening sanctions, consolidating power, and ensuring he remains the West’s man in Damascus. But the Americans never intended to lift a single sanction, whether Assad remained or was replaced. The goal was never democracy. It was always dismemberment.

What we’re witnessing now is the final stage of a carefully orchestrated plan to bring down the last standing Arab state that dared to champion pan-Arabism and resist the Zionist project. And all of it, tragically, enabled by regional actors who believed they could outplay imperial design.

Had Syria responded with resistance from the very first Israeli strike during the global war on its land, the cost—though high—would have been far less than the disintegration we’re seeing today.

Remaining on the sidelines, putting faith in shifting alliances, and trusting gulf actors with colonial agendas has led to exactly what was intended from the start: a fragmented Syria, kneeling at Israel’s doorstep.

End of the game.
What a true shame.

Pepe Escobar: Yemen Hits Back, China’s Response, Iran’s Resolve, Russia’s Strategy — U.S. on Alert

With Nima, Dialogue Works

On the Yemen issue, we have reasonable suspicion that the US is using amateur open-source intelligence (OSINT) data shared by social media users. Read from PressTV:

By Yousef Ramazani

Speculation is rife that the US military has been using amateur open-source intelligence (OSINT) data shared by social media users on virtual platforms to attack civilian facilities in Yemen, falsely identifying them as military targets.

Following a US strike on Monday near the Yemeni capital that killed eight civilians, social media posts have emerged suggesting that the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) relied on dubious assessments to select targets in Yemen.

Specifically, just days before the attack, some self-proclaimed OSINT “experts” posted satellite imagery of various civilian locations in Yemen, calling them underground military bases.

Among the so-called “suspicious locations” was a quarry at the foot of Mount Yajurah, near the Thaqban settlement in the Bani Al-Harith district, northwest of the capital, Sana’a.

The quarry was falsely described as the entrance to an underground missile base.

In a US strike on the site on April 28, three civilian houses were destroyed, and eight civilians, including women and children, were killed.

The individuals behind these and other false assessments have been sharing such content on the X platform, formerly Twitter, for years. One is reportedly based in Houston, Texas, and the other is a woman from the Netherlands.

Generally, OSINT is an intelligence-gathering discipline focused on collecting and analyzing publicly available information, typically conducted by professionals.

In contrast, amateur OSINT is a hobby for unaffiliated individuals, mostly imposters, who present themselves as intelligence or military experts to gain attention.

The civilian target bombed by US warplanes in Yemen last week.

Similar to amateur astronomers, these individuals scour publicly available high-resolution satellite imagery in search of “suspicious” locations, hoping to gain recognition and popularity.

Their limited acclaim on social media so far stems from identifying the geolocation of photographs showing US attacks on Yemeni cities.

In recent years, serious OSINT analysts have independently discovered new military bases in China and Russia, findings that have received coverage in major media outlets.

By contrast, in the case of Yemen and the aforementioned social media users, their efforts amount to mass random guessing, comparable to “surebets,” a betting strategy involving wagers on all possible outcomes.

The US strike on one of their presumed locations may be a coincidence of time and place, though strong arguments suggest otherwise.

Unlike these amateur OSINT analysts who rely on public satellite maps, the US military possesses advanced spy satellites offering real-time imagery, along with reconnaissance drones used for imagery intelligence (IMINT), field informants, and other assets.

Theoretically, one could conclude that it is unlikely amateur claims would be used for target selection. However, the reality indicates that recent targeting decisions fall far short of the standards expected of serious military intelligence.

Civilian houses near a quarry that killed at least 8 people in the Bani Al-Harith district, northwest of the capital, Sana’a.

In recent weeks, several sites have been struck, resulting in dozens of civilian casualties, including an African refugee camp and a rural tribal gathering, misrepresented by the Donald Trump administration as a “military meeting.”

Meanwhile, not a single Yemeni underground base, bunker, or major military equipment depot has been destroyed, as acknowledged by both US military experts and congressional briefings.

Both sources warn of limited available intelligence and inadequate capabilities in the region. The frequent downing of advanced MQ-9 reconnaissance drones by Yemeni forces further complicates intelligence efforts.

Under such conditions, the selection of random targets based on unreliable sources is not unthinkable. It is also plausible that military intelligence officers, like their amateur OSINT counterparts, could suspect every outcrop in Yemen of concealing an underground base.

The Dutch individual who misidentified a “military base” in a quarry has faced criticism on social media, where users accuse her of contributing to the deaths of three Yemeni families.

“It is widely known that the US is repurposing the target bank the Saudis used for the past 10 years, but those very specific coordinates were NOT part of that bank. They were first posted to Twitter a month ago, and then bombed a few days ago,” wrote a social media user, Aldanmarki.

She has distanced herself from the incident, expressing doubt that CENTCOM used her information for target selection, but added that she would no longer publish imagery suggesting “potential” underground bases.

In recent months, since Trump assumed office, US warplanes have frequently carried out attacks on civilian targets across the Arab country after Yemen refused to end its support for Gaza.

In response, the Yemeni military has carried out operations against the US warships in Red Sea as well as missile strikes deep inside the occupied Palestinian territories.

Israel on trial (again) in Int’l Court of Justice – War on Gaza Day 570

contact@ifamericansknew.org April 29, 2025 60 minutes, bill owens, Gideon Saar, international court of justice, Yemen

As International Court of Justice debates Israel's responsibilities toward the people of Gaza, Palestinians in Jabaliya refugee camp walk amid the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli attacks, in Gaza City, Gaza. (Mahmoud İssa – Anadolu Agency)

Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

At least 71 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza in the last 24 hours, the Health Ministry said on Monday.

Among the dead were at least nine Palestinians – four of whom were children – killed in an Israeli drone attack at the al-Ghafari Junction in central Gaza City.

NOTE: The Gaza Health Ministry’s daily casualty figures are based on the number of dead and wounded Palestinians brought to hospitals, and does not include victims that are under the rubble or elsewhere, where ambulance and civil defense crews can not reach them.

In Yemen, a US attack on 27 struck a detention center housing undocumented migrants, killing at least 68 (more below).

Public hearings on Israel’s obligations in occupied Palestinian territory begin at ICJ

Public hearings started on Monday at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague to examine Israel’s obligations in connection with its activities in the occupied Palestinian territory.

The hearings will address a request for an advisory opinion on “the obligations of Israel in relation to the presence and activities of the United Nations, other international organizations, and third states in and in relation to the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” the court said earlier.

Representatives from 40 countries and four international organizations are expected to present oral submissions during the proceedings. Among the participating countries are Türkiye, Malaysia, South Africa, China, Russia, Spain, Ireland, Brazil, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.

Ambassador Ammar Hijazi, Palestinian Assistant Minister of Multilateral Affairs (Nikos Oikonomou – Anadolu Agency)

Key organizations, including the UN, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the Arab League, will also contribute.

Following are some highlights from Monday’s proceedings.

Ammar Hijazi, the state of Palestine’s ambassador to international organizations in the Netherlands, said Israeli forces had killed over 408 UN workers, including almost 300 staff of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), as well as dozens of paramedics and first responders. “These killings are deliberate, not accidental,” he said, citing attacks in which Israeli forces ambushed and killed humanitarian workers before burying them in mass graves.

“Israel is starving, killing, and displacing Palestinians, while also targeting and blocking humanitarian organizations trying to save their lives,” he said, adding that the siege has created conditions “incompatible with sustaining life or the continued existence of Palestinians in Gaza.”

Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh, the counsel for the Palestinian state, described Israel’s actions as “antithetical to a peace-loving state,” and said the restrictions on “the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people, [Israel’s] attacks on the United Nations and on UN officials, property and premises, its deliberate obstruction of the organization’s work and its attempt to destroy an entire UN subsidiary organ” were “unprecedented in the history of the organization”.

Malaysian envoy Azalina Othman Said on Monday told the International Court of Justice (ICJ), “In last few weeks we have witnessed not only a renewed war against the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, but also statements by senior Israeli officials that leave no doubt (that) Israel’s intention is to bring about the ultimate denial of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination to their eventual displacement and elimination.”

Egypt’s Assistant Foreign Minister Hatem Kamaleldin Abdelkader accused Israel of imposing a “brutal siege” on civilians, calling it “the most recent chapter in Israel’s systematic weaponization of humanitarian assistance,” amid what he called a “vicious assault” on the Gaza Strip. “There is no doubt that these practices are part of a widespread, systematic and comprehensive state policy to depopulate the OPT (Occupied Palestinian Territories) and effect its de facto annexation,” he added.

Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar said on Monday that the “UN has become a rotten, anti-Israel, and anti-Semitic body.”

To continue the Gaza genocide, Israel and the US must destroy the laws of war.

Synopsis of ICJ’s decision on Israeli genocide, reactions, and take-aways

Israeli minister: Encouraging Gaza emigration ‘most moral and humane thing’

Encouraging voluntary emigration from Gaza is the “most moral and humane thing to do,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said in an interview at the JNS International Policy Summit on Sunday night.

This is true of anyone who thinks Palestinians “are human beings and not just as a weapon against Israel,” Sa’ar declared in a conversation with summit chairman Richard D. Heideman.

Arab nations “are trying to deny the rights of the Gazans, their free will or free choice to immigrate,” continued Jerusalem’s top diplomat.

NOTE: “Voluntary emigration” is a misnomer here. Israel has been aggressively pushing Gazans to leave, making life unbearable. Forced population transfer is a crime against humanity, and a form of ethnic cleansing.

If Gideon Sa’ar and world leaders truly want to offer Gazans a good life outside Gaza, the just solution would be to return them to their homes in historic Palestine.

RELATED: Why Arab leaders aren’t helping the Palestinians in Gaza

Israel army faces crisis in morale among its troops

The Israeli occupation army is grappling with a crisis in morale, which has been described as a “ticking time bomb” by local media, following the decision to extend compulsory military service by four months. This comes amidst ongoing operations in Gaza and rising tensions with Lebanon.

According to media reports, the order has sparked widespread discontent among soldiers who have been engaged in combat for over a year and a half. Many express feelings of exhaustion, exploitation and a loss of trust in both the state and military leadership. “Morale is at rock bottom… fighters are trying to escape combat positions for other roles,” an officer stated.

Soldiers reported being taken by surprise when informed of the extension of their service without prior notice. Sergeant Major Rishon A. from the Nahal Brigade, who was scheduled to be discharged last week, said he was notified the day before his discharge about an additional four-month service extension. He added: “The state is exploiting us mercilessly… I feel my personal life means nothing to them.”

Israeli tanks and soldiers move through a muddy street during a raid at Jenin Refugee Camp in Jenin, West Bank, on February 24, 2025 (Nedal Eshtayah/Anadolu Agency)

At least 68 killed in US strikes on African migrant shelter in northern Yemen, Houthis say

At least 68 people were killed and 47 others injured in US airstrikes on a shelter for African migrants in Yemen’s northern Saada province, the Houthi group said on Monday.

The Houthi-run Interior Ministry said that the attacks targeted a shelter center housing 115 migrants from African nationalities.

It said the targeted shelter is supervised by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), calling the US strikes “a full-fledged war crime.”

There was no immediate US comment on the report.

The US has carried out more than 1,200 airstrikes in Yemen since March 15, killing more than 225 civilians and injuring over 430, mostly women and children, according to Houthi data that excludes losses among their forces.

Thousands of people gather in Al-Sabeen Square in the Yemeni capital Sana’a, led by the Houthis, to protest against the attacks on the country, on March 17, 2025 in Yemen. (Mohammed Hamoud – Anadolu Agency)

$67m fighter jet rolls off US carrier as it turns to avoid Houthi fire, sinks

On Monday the US Navy lost a F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet — worth at least $67 million — when it fell off the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier as it took a hard turn to avoid Houthi fire.

The USS Truman is stationed in the Red Sea as part of the U.S.’ ongoing anti-Houthi campaign, also known as Operation Rough Rider.

“The F/A-18E was actively under tow in the hangar bay when the move crew lost control of the aircraft. The aircraft and tow tractor were lost overboard,” a statement from the Navy read. “Sailors towing the aircraft took immediate action to move clear of the aircraft before it fell overboard. An investigation is underway.”

To date, the U.S. has spent about $3 billion in its recent anti-Houthi campaign since it began in mid-March, hitting over 800 targets in Yemen, and killing hundreds of civilians, in the process. And now, the accidental loss of a fighter jet instantaneously adds tens of millions to that total.

NOTE: The Houthis are an Iran-aligned group based in Yemen and have said their attacks are a response to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, and the international community’s failure to put an end to it.

They say their attacks on commercial and military ships with potential Israeli links are primarily aimed at pressuring Tel Aviv to end its war on Gaza.

Paramount under fire for meddling in Gaza coverage after ’60 Minutes’ producer resigns

Paramount has come under fire following the resignation of veteran 60 Minutes producer Bill Owens, who reportedly quit the CBS news show last week after the parent company, Paramount, began to interfere with its coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza and the Trump administration.

On Sunday night’s episode of 60 Minutes, Scott Pelley read a statement about the departure of the executive producer, who was with the show for over 25 years.

“Stories we have covered for the last 57 years are often controversial, lately the Israeli-Gaza war and the Trump administration. Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways. None of our stories have been blocked, but Bill felt he lost the independence that honest journalism required.”

Midwife who worked in Gaza punished in California for watermelon pin

(NOTE: This is part of a longer article and video in which professional midwife Bridget Rochios talks about healthcare in Gaza, and Israel’s destruction of the largest fertility clinic in Gaza. More than 4,000 frozen embryos and 1,000 sperm samples and unfertilized eggs were destroyed in the attack. A UN commission stated that the attack was intentional.)

As the health system in Gaza plunges deeper into catastrophe, there are growing political attacks against doctors and professional health providers in the US who speak out against the genocide.

Bridget Rochios, certified nurse midwife and reproductive health nurse practitioner (screenshot)

Rochios worked at the University of California at San Francisco medical center and was targeted for suspension after she returned from Gaza last year.

After nine months of administrative leave, UCSF recently issued a notice of intent to fire her for refusing to remove a watermelon pin on her badge. The watermelon symbol has become a popular way to show solidarity with Palestinians.

A petition has gathered more than 6,700 signatures demanding Rochios’ reinstatement at the hospital and an end to the repressive actions against her and other healthcare professionals who stand against Israel’s genocide.

Rochios says that she’s worn pins in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and LGBTQ pride, like many of her colleagues. But for expressing solidarity with Palestinians who are being subjected to the US-supported genocide in Gaza by wearing a watermelon pin, she was charged with creating an unsafe working environment.

“It boggles my mind, because I work in a fertility clinic – and for somebody to say that they feel unsafe because I’m wearing a piece of seasonal fruit, essentially, on my badge, while the largest fertility clinic in Gaza is specifically targeted, and all of those embryos are gone, it’s absurd,” she says.

Rochios explains that the mobilization has been fierce in her defense within the community of healthcare professionals who took an oath to defend human rights and advocate for oppressed and marginalized communities.

“I think it’s really important to realize that we are not alone, and that in speaking out, your community will come,” she says.

“We need to continue this fight. I think that being a bystander, saying no, backing down now, is only going to lead to bigger and scarier things ahead. And they can fire me, but they can’t fire everybody. And they can silence me, but they can’t silence the larger voice of this movement and the really clear intention that we have around securing the dignity, health and humanity of every human being on this earth.”

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IMEMC Daily Reports

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – APRIL 28, 2025:

At least 53,280 Palestinians killed, 126,185 injured – including:
at least 52,314 killed in Gaza (~15,600 children)
at least 966 killed in the West Bank (~187 children)
at least 117,792 injured in Gaza
at least 8,393 injured in the West Bank

According to Palestinian authorities, during the ceasefire Jan. 19- March 18 2025, Israeli attacks killed at least 150 Gazans, and Israel committed at least 962 ceasefire violations.

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

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – April 28, 2025: ~1,595 – including ~1,139 on October 7, 2023 (~36 children), 410 military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza, 46 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel.

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

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