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Biden Uses Hamas Casualty Figures, Calls for Ceasefire in Apparent U-Turn on Gaza War
US President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address at the US Capitol, March 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
US President Joe Biden used the Hamas terror group’s casualty figures for the war in Gaza and called for a six-week ceasefire during his State of the Union address on Thursday, reflecting an apparent shift in his approach to the conflict.
Biden spoke about the Israel-Hamas war briefly during his speech, which lasted just over an hour.
“I know the last five months have been gut-wrenching for so many people, for the Israeli people, for the Palestinian people and so many here in America,” Biden said, adding that the “crisis” was precipitated by Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel and that he pledged to bring home every one of the Americans still held hostage in Gaza.
Biden then shifted gears, explaining that “Israel also has a fundamental responsibility, though, to protect innocent civilians in Gaza.”
“This war has taken a greater toll on innocent civilians than all previous wars in Gaza combined. More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed, most of whom are not Hamas,” Biden said, echoing the statistics coming from the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.
In October, Biden expressed doubt about the accuracy of Hamas’ casualty statistics, which do not distinguish between terrorist combatants and civilians.
Some NGOs say Hamas’ numbers have historically been relatively accurate. However, a recent report from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy found that Hamas’ statistics are “inconsistent, imprecise, and systematically manipulated to downplay the number of men and militants killed.”
Additionally, a professor of statistics and data science at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania found a significant number of anomalies and almost impossible trends within the data released by the terror group, further throwing its credibility into question.
“Thousands and thousands of innocents, women, and children. Girls and boys also orphaned,” Biden said on Thursday.
“Nearly two million more Palestinians under bombardment or displacement. Homes destroyed, neighborhoods in rubble, cities in ruin. Families without food, water, medicine. It’s heartbreaking,” he added.
Biden also discussed his efforts to achieve a ceasefire.
“I’ve been working nonstop to establish an immediate ceasefire that would last for six weeks to get all the prisoners released — all the hostages released,” he said. “It would get the hostages home, and ease the intolerable humanitarian crisis, and build toward an enduring, something more enduring.”
This statement seemed to suggest a six-week ceasefire should be a jumping-off point for a permanent peace deal. The Biden administration has previously rejected multiple ceasefire proposals at the United Nations.
Israel has been opposed to a ceasefire deal that does not include the release of all remaining hostages kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, arguing such a truce would help the Palestinian terror group by allowing it to regroup and strengthen its position in Gaza.
During his speech to the US Congress, Biden did not mention the massive spike in antisemitism that took place since the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7, since which antisemitic incidents have reached record levels across the US.
Biden also did not say whether he believes Israel should remove Hamas as the governing authority in Gaza — which is one of the Jewish state’s war goals.
These omissions came amid growing pressure from Democratic allies to be tougher on Israel and even possibly cut off military aid to it.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) said the US should cut aid to Israel if it invades the city of Rafah, and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) said Israel “needs to understand that the casualties they’ve inflicted on the people of Gaza — the devastation they have caused — cannot continue.”
The post Biden Uses Hamas Casualty Figures, Calls for Ceasefire in Apparent U-Turn on Gaza War first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
The post Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
The post Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
The post Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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