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‘The Blood of Our Sons Should Not Be Wasted’: IDF Mothers Gather Outside Military HQ, Urge Israel to Resist US Pressure
Israeli soldiers operate at the Shajaiya district of Gaza city amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian terror group Hamas, in the Gaza Strip, Dec. 8, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Yossi Zeliger
More than 100 parents of Israeli soldiers currently fighting in Gaza against Hamas gathered outside the headquarters of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Tel Aviv over the weekend to protest what they described as the government caving to American pressure at the expense of their children’s safety.
“It is a right for us to fight; we are behind the commanders until victory,” said one mother, Tamar Amar, who has three sons fighting in Gaza, including one who was injured. “As mothers, we want to be sure that no foreign consideration and no non-Jewish morality interferes. The lives of our soldiers come first.”
Another mother, Sima Hasson, called out what she characterized as the Israeli government’s recent acquiescence to the US pushing Jerusalem to try to limit civilian casualties, leading the IDF to conduct fewer aerial bombings prior to sending in ground troops for an operation.
“Buildings stand and soldiers fall. Buildings fall and soldiers stand … the blood of our sons should not be wasted,” Hasson said. “Every fighter who is currently in Gaza is with all his heart and soul … They must not be put at risk for nothing. We as parents demand not to give into US pressure.”
Hasson also criticized the decision to allow aid such as fuel into Gaza, saying it “goes to the enemy and endangers the soldiers who fight day and night.”
Several press reports, citing Arab and Western officials, have corroborated Israeli claims that Hamas has been hoarding hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel for rockets and electricity used to power its network of underground tunnels as Gaza hospitals struggle to maintain power.
Nonetheless, Israel has, in response to Western pressure, eased its blockade on Gaza since Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israeli communities, allowing in certain humanitarian aid.
One mother of five soldiers currently fighting in Gaza told the crowd in Tel Aviv through tears that “it is either us or them,” seemingly referring to Israel and the Hamas terror group, which rules the neighboring Palestinian enclave. She added she was shocked by the “great pressure being exerted by the US and Europe to destroy fewer buildings. I am crying from here. Enough of the weakness of spirit and submission to [US President Joe] Biden’s dictates. Enough of the supply of fuel and food to the enemy that endangers my sons.”
Top US officials have recently been pushing Israel to scale down its military offensive of air strikes and ground operations in Gaza and focus more on precise targeting of Hamas leaders.
Despite expressing concerns about civilian deaths in Gaza, the US has vetoed calls for a ceasefire at the United Nations and sent munitions to Israel. After talks with Israeli officials on Monday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said, “This is Israel’s operation. I’m not here to dictate timelines or terms.”
Critics of a ceasefire, including Israeli officials, have argued it would allow Hamas to regroup and recover while the Palestinian terror group is on its heels.
Hamas launched the current war with its Oct. 7 invasion, in which Palestinian terrorists rampaged across southern Israel, murdering 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 240 others as hostages to Gaza.
Hamas-controlled health authorities in Gaza claim about 20,000 people have been killed in the enclave during Israel’s ensuing military offensive. However, experts have cast doubt on the reliability of casualty figures coming out of Gaza, whose health ministry does not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths or note when deaths are caused by errant Palestinian rocket fire. The IDF says it has killed more than 8,000 terrorists in its current campaign.
The post ‘The Blood of Our Sons Should Not Be Wasted’: IDF Mothers Gather Outside Military HQ, Urge Israel to Resist US Pressure first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Smotrich Says Defense Ministry to Spur Voluntary Emigration from Gaza
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends an inauguration event for Israel’s new light rail line for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, in Petah Tikva, Israel, Aug. 17, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
i24 News – Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Sunday that the government would establish an administration to encourage the voluntary migration of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
“We are establishing a migration administration, we are preparing for this under the leadership of the Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] and Defense Minister [Israel Katz],” he said at a Land of Israel Caucus at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. “The budget will not be an obstacle.”
Referring to the plan championed by US President Donald Trump, Smotrich noted the “profound and deep hatred towards Israel” in Gaza, adding that “sources in the American government” agreed “that it’s impossible for two million people with hatred towards Israel to remain at a stone’s throw from the border.”
The administration would be under the Defense Ministry, with the goal of facilitating Trump’s plan to build a “Riviera of the Middle East” and the relocation of hundreds of thousands of Gazans for rebuilding efforts.
“If we remove 5,000 a day, it will take a year,” Smotrich said. “The logistics are complex because you need to know who is going to which country. It’s a potential for historical change.”
The post Smotrich Says Defense Ministry to Spur Voluntary Emigration from Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Defense Ministry: 16,000 Wounded in War, About Half Under 30
A general view shows the plenum at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – The Knesset’s (Israeli parliament’s) Special Committee for Foreign Workers held a discussion on Sunday to examine the needs of wounded and disabled IDF soldiers and the response foreign caregivers could provide.
During the discussion, data from the Defense Minister revealed that the number of registered IDF wounded and disabled veterans rose from 62,000 to 78,000 since the war began on October 7, 2023. “Most of them are reservists and 51 percent of the wounded are up to 30 years old,” the ministry’s report said. The number will increase, the ministry assesses, as post-trauma cases emerge.
The committee chairwoman, Knesset member Etty Atiya (Likud), emphasized the need to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy for the wounded and to remove obstacles. “There is no dispute that the IDF disabled have sacrificed their bodies and souls for the people of Israel, for the state of Israel,” she said. Addressing the veterans, she continued: “And we, as public representatives and public servants alike, must do everything, but everything, to improve your lives in any way possible, to alleviate your pain and the distress of your family members who are no less affected than you.”
Currently, extensions are being given to the IDF veterans on a three-month basis, which Atiya said creates uncertainty and fear among the patients.
“The committee calls on the Interior Minister [Moshe Arbel] to approve as soon as possible the temporary order on our table, so that it will reach the approval of the Knesset,” she said, adding that she “intends to personally approach the Director General of the Population Authority [Shlomo Mor-Yosef] on the matter in order to promote a quick and stable solution.”
The post Defense Ministry: 16,000 Wounded in War, About Half Under 30 first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Over 1,300 Killed in Syria as New Regime Accused of Massacring Civilians
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad speaks during an interview with Sky News Arabia in Damascus, Syria in this handout picture released by the Syrian Presidency on August 8, 2023. Syrian Presidency/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – Over 1,300 people were killed in two days of fighting in Syria between security forces under the new Syrian Islamist leaders and fighters from ousted president Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite sect on the other hand, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Sunday.
Since Thursday, 1,311 people had been killed, according to the Observatory, including 830 civilians, mainly Alawites, 231 Syrian government security personnel, and 250 Assad loyalists.
The intense fighting broke out late last week as the Alawite militias launched an offensive against the new government’s fighters in the coastal region of the country, prompting a massive deployment ordered by new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.
“We must preserve national unity and civil peace as much as possible and… we will be able to live together in this country,” al-Sharaa said, as quoted in the BBC.
The death toll represents the most severe escalations since Assad was ousted late last year, and is one of the most costly in terms of human lives since the civil war began in 2011.
The counter-offensive launched by al-Sharaa’s forces was marked by reported revenge killings and atrocities in the Latakia region, a stronghold of the Alawite minority in the country.
The post Over 1,300 Killed in Syria as New Regime Accused of Massacring Civilians first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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