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Rashida Tlaib Fumes Over US House Vote to Prohibit State Department From Citing Hamas Casualty Figures

US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) addresses attendees as she takes part in a protest calling for a ceasefire in Gaza outside the US Capitol, in Washington, DC, US, Oct. 18, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis

The US House of Representatives on Thursday passed a measure that would prohibit the US State Department from using funds from the international affairs budget to cite casualty figures from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Ministry of Health, sparking backlash from Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).

A bipartisan group of lawmakers — Reps. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Joe Wilson (R-SC), Mike Lawler (D-NY), and Carol Miller (R-WV) — spearheaded the amendment to the annual State Department appropriations bill. The measure ultimately passed the House by a vote of 269-144. It’s unclear whether the amendment will survive a vote on the Senate floor.

Tlaib lambasted her peers in the House for the vote, suggesting that they harbor deeply-ingrained “racism” against Palestinians. She dismissed the amendment as an effort to “dehumanize” Palestinian people.

“Since 1948, there has been a coordinated effort, especially in this chamber, to dehumanize Palestinians and erase Palestinians from existence,” Tlaib said before the vote. “My colleagues want to prohibit our own US officials from even citing the Palestinian death toll.”

The Gaza Health Ministry — which is run by the Hamas terrorist group in control of the Palestinian enclave — manages the health care and medical services in the Gaza Strip. Experts have cast doubt on the reliability of their figures for systematically overcounting the number of casualties and not distinguishing between civilians and terrorists as part of a strategy to tarnish Israel’s public image.

“Six children, six are killed in Gaza every single hour,” Tlaib said. “But Palestinians are not just numbers. Behind these numbers are real people — mothers, fathers, sons, daughters who have had their lives stolen from them and their families torn apart, and we should not be trying to hide it.”

Tlaib apparently sourced the claim that six children in Gaza are killed hourly from the World Health Organization (WHO), which has long been criticized for allegedly having an anti-Israel bias. The WHO made these claims in November, roughly a month into the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. Earlier this month, however, the Associated Press published an analysis showing that the proportion of children killed in the war in Gaza has nosedived, falling to below 40 percent of all casualties in April from above 60 percent in October.

“There is so much anti-Palestinian racism in this chamber that my colleagues don’t even want to acknowledge that Palestinians exist at all,” Tlaib continued. “Not when they’re alive, and now, not even when they’re dead. It’s absolutely disgusting. This is genocide denial.”

Israel’s ongoing defensive war against Hamas in Gaza has not been legally recognized as a genocide by any major international organization. South Africa has attempted, so far unsuccessfully, to get the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to rule that Israel is committing “state-led genocide” as part of an ongoing case. Israeli officials have strongly condemned the ICJ proceedings, noting that the Jewish state is targeting terrorists who use civilians as human shields in its military campaign.

According to John Spencer, the chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, Israel has “followed the laws of war, legal obligations, best practices in civilian harm mitigation, and still found a way to reduce civilian casualties to historically low levels.” When taking into account casualty figures from both Hamas and Israel, the latter’s war effort has led to 1.5 civilian deaths for every combatant death — a far lower proportion of civilian deaths compared to the US-led effort to eliminate ISIS from the Iraqi city of Mosul.

Tlaib, the first Palestinian American woman to serve in Congress, has received widespread bipartisan backlash for her fierce opposition to Israel. She also possesses a map of the Middle East in her office which omits the existence of the Jewish state.

In the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre throughout southern Israel, Tlaib defended the chant “from the river to to the sea, Palestine will be free” as an “aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence.” The chant is widely acknowledged as a call to eliminate the state of Israel, which is located between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

In April, Tlaib received a wave of criticism for refusing to condemn anti-Israel protesters who chanted “death to America” and “death to Israel” during a rally in her district.

Two months earlier, the House passed a resolution condemning Hamas’ use of sexual assault as a weapon of war during its Oct. 7 attack on Israel. It was a near-unanimous vote, with a single exception: Tlaib, who only voted “present,” arguing she could not support the measure because it did not also accuse Israel of using sexual assault as a weapon of war. Mounting evidence has documented Hamas’ systematic use of torture and sexual violence, including mass rape, against the Israeli people during the onslaught.

Last month, Tlaib gave a keynote speech at a conference in which many speakers celebrated the Oct. 7 attacks and called for the eradication of Israel.

The post Rashida Tlaib Fumes Over US House Vote to Prohibit State Department From Citing Hamas Casualty Figures first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Major Brush Fire Erupts Near Jerusalem, Evacuations Underway

A view of the new Tel Aviv-Jerusalem fast train seen over the HaArazim Valley (“Valley of Cedars”) just outside of Jerusalem, Sept. 25, 2018. Photo: Yossi Zamir/Flash90.

i24 NewsA large brush fire broke out Sunday in the Cedars Valley area, near Route 1 and the Motza interchange, prompting an emergency response from Jerusalem district fire services. Several water-bombing planes were dispatched, and authorities have declared a “fire emergency.”

As a precaution, residents of Mevaseret Zion are being evacuated. Access to the town from Route 1 has already been blocked, and officials are weighing a full closure of the major highway.

Fire crews from the Ha’uma station are on site working to contain the flames, while motorists in the area are urged to heed traffic updates and follow instructions from emergency services.

Eight firefighting aircraft are currently operating above the blaze in support of ground teams. The fire comes amid one of the hottest, driest summers on record, with conditions fueling a series of destructive wildfires across the country.

Officials warn the situation remains critical, as the blaze threatens a vital transportation corridor leading into Jerusalem.

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Egyptian Army Reinforces Its Eastern Border Ahead of Israel’s Gaza City Takeover

A man sits against a wall with a graffiti of a heart with the word “Gaza”, near the Rafah border crossing, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, Egypt, Feb. 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

i24 News – The Egyptian army has reinforced its presence on the eastern border, fearing the humanitarian and military repercussions of the IDF’s takeover of Gaza City as authorities remain on high alert, Qatari media outlet Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported Sunday.

According to the report, Egyptian authorities estimate that Israeli military operations will force roughly one million Gazans to flee Gaza City toward the southern part of the Strip, creating the opportunity for Israel to attempt to deliberately push these refugees toward the Egyptian border.

Cairo fears that Israel will force Gazans south — only as a temporary stop — before taking advantage of the chaos of the operation to push them further towards the Rafah crossing, bordering Egypt’s North Sinai.

According to the report, Egypt intends to send two messages with its reinforced military presence on the border: the first a stand against an attempted crossing breach, and the second against the idea of a humanitarian solution at the expense of its territory.

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Widespread Protests Held in Australia to Support Palestinians

Demonstrators hold placards as they take part in the ‘Nationwide March for Palestine’ protest in Sydney, Australia, August 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hollie Adams

Thousands of Australians joined pro-Palestinian rallies on Sunday, organizers said, amid strained relations between Israel and Australia following the center-left government’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state.

More than 40 protests took place across Australia on Sunday, Palestine Action Group said, including large turnouts in state capitals Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. The group said around 350,000 attended the rallies nationwide, including around 50,000 in Brisbane, though police estimated the numbers there at closer to 10,000. Police did not have estimates for crowd sizes in Sydney and Melbourne.

In Sydney, organizer Josh Lees said Australians were out in force to “demand an end to this genocide in Gaza and to demand that our government sanction Israel” as rallygoers, many with Palestinian flags, chanted “free, free Palestine.”

Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the umbrella group for Australia’s Jews, told Sky New television that the rallies created “an unsafe environment and shouldn’t be happening.”

The protests follow Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week stepping up his personal attacks on his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese over his government’s decision this month to recognize a Palestinian state.

Diplomatic ties between Australia and Israel soured after Albanese’s Labor government said it would conditionally recognize Palestinian statehood, following similar moves by France, Britain and Canada.

The August 11 announcement came days after tens of thousands of people marched across Sydney’s iconic Harbour Bridge, calling for peace and aid deliveries to Gaza, where Israel began an offensive nearly two years ago after the Hamas militant group launched a deadly cross-border attack.

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