Trump administration is actively involved in ethnic cleansing plans – War on Gaza Day 672
Kathryn Shihadah August 9, 2025 palestinian state, somaliland, starvation in gaza, UCLA settlement
(Get familiar with the charges against Israel: genocide, ethnic cleansing, forced transfer, starvation as a weapon of war, use of human shields, indiscriminate shooting at civilians, and more.)
Seven-month-old Hasan Ahmed Felfel, whose condition is worsening by the day due to severe malnutrition, putting his life at serious risk, receives treatment under limited conditions at Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi Hospital in the Nasser neighborhood of Gaza City, Gaza, on August 3, 2025. (Mohammad Yasir – Anadolu Agency)
NOTABLE QUOTES:
Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, on Israel’s plan to take control of Gaza City (full statement here):
It is utterly outrageous and revolting that the Israeli cabinet has approved plans for the military to scale up their ground presence in the occupied Gaza Strip and completely take over Gaza City.
Just as we thought we had already seen the cruelest, most painful chapters of this genocide unfold – through Israel’s continued and escalating use of starvation as a method of warfare – plans to escalate the military operations in Gaza City indicate that indeed the worst is yet to come.
Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, on Israel’s plan:
In reality, the goal of this war has been the same since the very first day: it is the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population of Gaza, the whole population.
In reality, what I have to say [and] what many Western leaders don’t want to listen to, is that this is the beginning of a terrible second Holocaust – caused by the same people whose ancestors suffered from another Holocaust in the second world war.
[Netanyahu’s] goal is the annihilation of the Palestinian people. His goal is a Second Nakba. Now he wants to push them out of Palestine completely. That’s the reality: They’re trying to repeat what they have done in 1948.
OCCUPIED WEST BANK/EAST JERUSALEM NEWS & HEADLINES:
(For background on the West Bank, read this and this. For information on the significance of Israeli settlers in the West Bank, read this and this.)
Israeli Authorities Force Palestinian To Demolish His Home In Jerusalem
The Israeli army carries out evictions and demolitions for the fifth month at the Tulkarem Refugee Camp in the West Bank on May 26, 2025. (İssam Rimawi – Anadolu Agency)
ISRAEL NEWS & HEADLINES:
(Get a glimpse inside Israel and the turmoil within its government. Many of the below news items and headlines are taken from Israeli media.)
ISRAEL WARNS: UK HAS “A LOT TO LOSE” IF IT RECOGNIZES PALESTINIAN STATE: Israel is considering taking punitive action against the UK for its anticipated recognition of Palestinian statehood, which may include stopping intelligence sharing, The Times reported on 8 August. A diplomatic source reportedly threatened that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “had many cards to play too.” Israel denounced UK Prime Minister Starmer’s anticipated move as “rewarding terrorism.”
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MORE HEADLINES ON ISRAEL (a quick skim of headlines can be very informative!):
Israel replaces term ‘occupation’ with ‘control’ to avoid legal responsibility in Gaza
Israeli army chief says Gaza occupation to require 200,000 reservists
World condemnations mount over Israeli plans to take Gaza City; UN Security Council to meet
United States President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold a joint press conference in the East Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., United States on February 04, 2025. (Celal Güneş – Anadolu Agency)
OTHER NEWS AND HEADLINES:
Trump says ‘looking into’ reports Somaliland open to taking in Palestinians
Trump has been asked to comment on reports that Somaliland expressed an openness to taking in Palestinians displaced* from Gaza in exchange for US recognition of the area’s independence. “We’re looking into that right now. Good question, actually, and another complex one, as you know. But we’re working on that right now – Somaliland,” the US president said during a news conference at the White House.
Recall that Trump said in February that he wants Palestinians to leave Gaza so that the US can “own” the territory and turn it into the “riviera of the Middle East”.
*NOTE: There is nothing “voluntary” about this scheme for removal of Gazans from their homeland. Forced population transfer is a crime against humanity, and a form of ethnic cleansing. If world leaders truly want to offer Gazans a good life outside Gaza, the just solution would be toreturn them to their homes in historic Palestine.
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Trump offers UCLA $1B settlement amid pro-Palestine protest standoff
The Trump administration has requested that UCLA submit to a $1B settlement to resolve accusations stemming from the school’s handling of pro-Palestine protests. This week Trump also suspended $584M in federal grants to the school.
According to the DOJ Civil Rights Division, the school had acted “with deliberate indifference in creating a hostile educational environment for Jewish and Israeli students” – in what free speech advocates describe as willfully conflating pro-Palestine and antiwar advocacy with antisemitism* in order to silence protesters.
*NOTE: Actual antisemitism is not as prevalent as Israel partisans would like us to think. A large portion of what they call antisemitism is simply criticism of Israel, the self-proclaimed “Jewish State.” Most of the animosity Israel experiences is opposition to Zionism. Zionism is not a benign philosophy, but a racist ideology – the ideology under which Israel dispossessed 750,000 Palestinian people and exiled them to Gaza and other locations. The so-called “demonization” of Israel is in most cases a legitimate criticism of Israel’s policies of occupation, apartheid, andgenocide, and other illegal practices.
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Even Republicans have questions about Israel’s plan to occupy Gaza City
Some congressional Republicans are raising questions about Israel’s planned occupation of Gaza City as pro-Israel Democrats push back on the operation with unusual ferocity.
Israel’s coalition of political allies in the U.S. has become scrambled in recent weeks amid a growing humanitarian crisis is Gaza — and a coinciding drop in U.S. public opinion toward Israel.
Lawmakers sympathetic to Israel are warning that the plan could be a logistical nightmare and warning the country to tread carefully and avoid further alienating the international community (continue reading here).
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MORE HEADLINES (a quick skim of headlines can be very informative!):
A medical team treats a wounded child at Nasser Medical Complex following an Israeli airstrike targeting a residential home in the Khan Younis refugee camp in southern Gaza on April 19, 2025 (Hani Alshaer/Anadolu Agency)
ICYMI (IN CASE YOU MISSED IT) – A SELECTION OF YESTERDAY’S HEADLINES:
US-made bombs used in deadly Israeli strikes on Gaza schools, HRW says
MSF calls GHF aid hubs “orchestrated killing”
Netanyahu claims Hamas is destroying every building
Israeli security cabinet chose starvation policy in Gaza over deal to free captives: Report
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – AUGUST 8, 2025*:
At least 62,288 Palestinians killed, 161,275 injured – including:
at least 152,850 injured in Gaza
at least 9,230 injured in the West Bank
at least 193 have died from malnutrition in Gaza, including 96 children
According to Palestinian authorities, during the ceasefire Jan. 19 – March 18 2025, Israeli attacks killed at least 170 Gazans, and Israel committed at least 962 ceasefire violations.
At least 1,743 Palestinians have been killed while trying to access aid parcels from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which started operating on May 26, 2025.
Since the Israeli army resumed its assaults on Gaza on March 18, 2025 it has killed at least 9,862 people. 50 Israeli soldiers (most recent July 26) have been killed during the same time period.
*NOTE: Thousands of those killed in Gaza have yet to be identified, and an estimated 14,000 moreare still buried under rubble. Additionally, the numbers of injured and starved are very conservative estimates.
Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – August 8, 2025: ~1,629 – including ~1,139 on October 7, 2023 (~36 children), 454 military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza, 46 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel. (72 soldiers have reportedly died due to “operational incidents.”)
By one count, Israeli attacks have killed approximately 229 Palestinian journalists and media workers; Palestinians have killed 4 Israeli journalists (other groups have tallied between 186 and 298 Palestinian journalists killed – depending on the criteria used).
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
Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
Israel’s military is taking over Gaza City, and you’ll be paying for it.
Israel has always used food as a weapon against Palestinians
Blaming the Israeli ‘far right’ lets a genocidal society off the hook
Netanyahu Hosts 20 AIPAC-Sponsored House Republicans in Israel
Egypt’s Sisi calls Israel’s war, starvation campaign in Gaza a ‘systematic genocide’
A war crimes net is tightening around Israeli soldiers abroad
We Must Oppose a Definition of Antisemitism That Bolsters Genocide
Mainstream media largely sidelined Gaza starvation story, until it couldn’t
The Cruelty and Speciousness of Bret Stephens’ Denial of Genocide
Israel abducted starving children at Gaza “aid” sites, then tortured them
Israel Is Imprisoning Florida-Born Cousin of American Slain by Settlers
Billionaire Jeff Yass linked to $16m in donations to anti-Muslim and pro-Israel groups
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