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Hamas Says It Captured Israeli Soldiers in Gaza; Israel Denies

An Israeli military tank drives along the Israel-Gaza border as it returns from the Gaza strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian Islamist terrorist group Hamas, in southern Israel, February 29, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File photo

A spokesman for Hamas’ armed wing said on Sunday its fighters had captured Israeli soldiers during fighting in Jabalia in northern Gaza on Saturday, though the Israeli military denied the claim.

The Hamas armed wing spokesman did not say how many soldiers had been abducted and showed no proof of the claim.

“Our fighters lured a Zionist force into an ambush inside a tunnel … The fighters withdrew after they left all members of the force dead, wounded, and captured,” Abu Ubaida, the spokesman for Al Qassam Brigades, said in a recorded message broadcast by Al Jazeera early on Sunday.

The Israeli military on Sunday denied the claim by Hamas’ armed wing.

“The IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) clarifies that there is no incident in which a soldier was abducted,” the military said in a statement.

Hamas released a video that appeared to show a bloodied person being dragged along the ground in a tunnel and photos of military fatigue and rifle. Reuters could not independently verify the identity of the person shown in the video nor his or her condition.

The comments by Abu Ubaida came hours after prospects for a resumption of mediated Gaza ceasefire talks grew on Saturday.

An official with knowledge of the matter said a decision had been taken to resume the talks next week after the chief of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency met the head of the CIA and the prime minister of Qatar.

The source, who declined to be identified by name or nationality, said it had been decided that “in the coming week negotiations will open based on new proposals led by the mediators, Egypt and Qatar and with active U.S. involvement.”

A Hamas official later denied Israeli media reports the talks would resume in Cairo on Tuesday, telling Reuters: “There is no date.”

After more than seven months of war in Gaza, the mediators have struggled to secure a breakthrough, with Israel seeking the release of hostages held by Hamas and Hamas seeking an end to the war and a release of Palestinian prisoners in Israel.

Israel began its operations targeting Hamas in Gaza after the Palestinian terrorist group invaded southern Israel on Oct. 7, murdered 1,200 people, and abducted over 250 hostages.

The post Hamas Says It Captured Israeli Soldiers in Gaza; Israel Denies first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Renowned Figurative Painter Frank Auerbach, Jewish Refugee Who Fled Nazi Germany, Dies at Age 93

A painting by Frank Auerbach, J.Y.M. Seated II, 1992, estimate £600,000 – 800,000 during a photocall at Christie’s auction house showcasing the highlights of 20th/21st Century Evening Sale in London, United Kingdom on October 06, 2023. Photo: WIktor Szymanowicz via Reuters Connect

German-born British artist Frank Auerbach, who was sent to England as a child fleeing Nazi-occupied Germany and became a leading figurative painter, died on Monday at the age of 93.

The gallery Frankie Rossi Art Projects, which focuses on post-war artists like Auerbach, said the Jewish painter “died peacefully” early Monday at his home in London. “We have lost a dear friend and remarkable artist but take comfort knowing his voice will resonate for generations to come,” said Geoffrey Parton, the gallery’s director.

Auerbach was born in Berlin in April 1931 and came to England in 1939. He was an only child and arrived in London as a refugee from Nazi Germany as one of six children sponsored by the writer Iris Origo. Auerbach’s father, a patent lawyer, and mother, an artist, were both killed in a Nazi concentration camp in 1942.

“[I was] at no point shocked or overwhelmed [when] it was gradually leaked to me [that] they’d been killed, taken to a camp and killed,” Auerbach said years later about the murder of his parents, according to The Art Newspaper. “I don’t know which one, Auschwitz probably.”

Auerbach attended Bunce Court in Kent, a boarding school for Jewish refugee children, and then studied at London’s St Martin’s School of Art and the Royal College of Art from 1948-1955. He lived and worked in the same studio in North London from 1954 until his death. His career spanned seven decades, his work has been shown around the world, and he was awarded the prestigous Golden Lion prize at the 1986 Venice Biennale.

Auerbach’s signature style was having an excessive amount of paint on his works, which was created by him repeatedly scraping off paint from previous versions he was unhappy with, and then starting again until the finished work was loaded with layers of paint. He was known for his portraits and city scenes in North London. He once told The Guardian that he estimated that 95 percent of his paint ended up in the garbage. “I’m trying to find a new way to express something… So I rehearse all the other ways until I surprise myself with something I haven’t previously considered,” he explained.

Auerbach is survived by his son, filmmaker Jacob Auerbach.

The post Renowned Figurative Painter Frank Auerbach, Jewish Refugee Who Fled Nazi Germany, Dies at Age 93 first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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J Street Calls for Partial US Arms Embargo Against Israel

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a media conference after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers at the Czernin Palace, in Prague, Czech Republic, May 31, 2024. Photo: Peter David Josek/Pool via REUTERS

J Street, a self-described pro-Israel, pro-peace organization, is urging the Biden administration to withhold offensive weapons from the Jewish state, arguing that the United States needs to hold Israel accountable for alleged human rights “violations” before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.

On Monday, J Street posted a thread on X/Twitter arguing that the Biden administration has a legal obligation to “pause” arms transfers to Israel until the Jewish state abides by international “human rights standards.” The progressive organization suggested that, with “Trump’s presidency looming,” the White House should review Israel’s conduct over the course of its military campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza and “make immediate, clear, fair determinations on violations of US and international law.”

“This is the same standard for all recipients of US aid. Nothing more, nothing less. No new laws or new conditions specific to Israel are required, and this would not affect the Iron Dome or other defensive systems. We urge the admin. to swiftly comply with current domestic law,” J-Street wrote.

The organization recommended the Biden administration pressure Israel into resuming hostage and ceasefire negotiations by making clear “certain offensive weapons will be withheld” if the Jewish state does not make “good-faith” efforts to end the ongoing war in Hamas-ruled Gaza.

J Street’s comments came after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week that Hamas, which launched the war with its invasion of and massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7, rejected a proposal for a short-term ceasefire in exchange for the release of some Israeli hostages.

Israel has repeatedly underscored its efforts to accelerate humanitarian aid into Gaza, where Hamas has employed a military strategy of putting its command centers and weapons stockpiles in or underneath civilian sites such as schools, hospitals, and apartment buildings. According to experts and the Israeli military, the purpose of Hamas’s placement is to use civilians as human shields, forcing Israel to kill them in order to fight the terrorist group.

Israel says it has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties, noting its efforts to evacuate areas before it targets them and to warn residents of impending military operations with leaflets, text messages, and other forms of communication. However, Hamas has in many cases prevented people from leaving, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Last month, Blinken and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin sent a letter to then-Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, urging them to implement several humanitarian policy changes in Gaza within 30 days or risk “implications” for US policy, including an arms embargo.

Following the message, Israel has boosted the amount of humanitarian aid trucks entering Gaza. This week, the Israeli government approved a series of measures that will vastly expand the entry of aid into the war-torn enclave, including by reopening another border crossing.

“This week is the deadline set by Secretaries Austin and Blinken in their October letter raising serious concerns about the Netanyahu gov’t blocking humanitarian aid and violating human rights. We urge the admin. to take fair, consequential action, as foreshadowed in the letter,” J Street posted on X/Twitter.

Experts have chided the Biden administration for providing “no evidence” that Israel is deliberately denying humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza. Nonetheless, the US is set to judge Israel’s progress on Gaza aid by the end of this week. 

J-Street has attempted to balance maintaining a Zionist identity while calling for harsher treatment of the Jewish state. The group’s president, Jeremy Ben-Ami, issued a statement arguing that although the US should continue to support Israel, it should not give the Jewish state a “blank check.” The group has called for a “clear” and “consistent” approach to US military aid to Israel.

Many pro-Israel advocates have criticized J Street for being, in their view, insufficiently supportive of the Jewish state, noting the organization has previously defended Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), one of the most outspoken anti-Israel lawmakers in the US Congress, and often castigated the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the foremost pro-Israel lobbying group in the US.

The post J Street Calls for Partial US Arms Embargo Against Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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How Gaza Casualty Figures Are Being Wildly Distorted

Palestinians gather to receive aid, including food supplies provided by World Food Program (WFP), outside a United Nations distribution center, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, Aug. 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa

Nearly 70% of those killed are women and children” screams the headline of a Nov. 8th article in the Guardian by Sarah Johnson. [emphasis added]

The dramatic claim is then walked back in the opening sentence, which notes that the 70% figure relates narrowly to “verified deaths.”

Nearly 70% of the people killed in the war in Gaza are women and children, according to a UN analysis of verified deaths that highlights the heavy civilian toll of the conflict. [emphasis added]

By the second and third paragraphs, we see more evidence that the shocking 70% figure in the headline is not accurate, as it turns out that only 8,119 deaths (out of what Hamas claims is 43,000) have been verified.

In a new report, the most detailed analysis of its kind yet, the UN human rights office said it had verified 8,119 of those killed during the first six months of the war in Gaza. Of the fatalities, 3,588 were children and 2,036 were women.

The number marks deaths verified so far and is therefore lower than the figure of 43,000 deaths provided by Palestinian health authorities for the 13-month conflict, but backs the assertion that women and children represent a large proportion of those killed. [emphasis added]

So, the UN report is narrowly alleging that 18% of the total number of those killed in Gaza in the war following Hamas’s Oct. 7th massacre have been verified — with 69 percent of those reportedly being women and children.

Further, not even the UN report claims that all those considered “children” are non-combatants, which the international body defines as those 18 and under.

Since 16, 17, and 18 year olds are used by Hamas and other Gaza terror groups as fighters, the percentage of the 3,588 (which the UN lists as children) who are truly non-combatants is unknown.

This is an important distinction, as the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry doesn’t distinguish between fighters and civilians when they release their periodically updated death counts. Therefore, the number of women and children killed is often used (incorrectly) by the media as a stand-in for “civilians.”

Finally, as an Associated Press study demonstrated, the death rate for women and children in Gaza declined dramatically beginning in April — that is, at the end point of the UN’s six month report on verified casualties. So, it’s extremely likely that a study of war deaths in the territory in the seven months after April would produce a vastly lower ratio of fatalities for women and children.

We’ve complained to the Guardian asking that the headline be amended to more accurately reflect the actual data from the UN report.

Adam Levick serves as co-editor of CAMERA UK – an affiliate of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), where a version of this article first appeared.

The post How Gaza Casualty Figures Are Being Wildly Distorted first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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