Netanyahu to convene security cabinet, reportedly weighing full Gaza occupation
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CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
'I am ashamed of what we are doing in Gaza,' says ex-chief of Israeli security agency
Ami Ayalon says his desire to end the war in Gaza is both professional and personal. Ayalon — the former head of Shin Bet, Israel's internal security agency — has signed an open letter on behalf of 550 former Israeli security officials calling for an end to Israel's military campaign in the besieged Palestinian enclave. Speaking on behalf of the signatories, Ayalon says Israel long ago achieved its stated military goal of dismantling Hamas, and must now strike a deal to bring its remaining hostages home. Speaking on behalf of himself, he says his country also has a moral imperative to end the suffering of Gazans. "We wrote the letter as a result of the way we understand the war, and not because of the moral point of view," Ayalon, a former Labor Party lawmaker and Israeli navy commander-in-chief, told As It Happens guest host Rebecca Zandbergen. "But I'm telling you the truth. Personally, I am ashamed of what we are doing in Gaza." 'Hamas no longer poses a strategic threat to Israel' The letter, shared on social media and addressed to the U.S. President Donald Trump, is from an organization called Commanders for Israel's Security. "It is our professional judgment that Hamas no longer poses a strategic threat to Israel, and our experience tells us Israel has all it takes to deal with its residual terror capabilities, remotely or otherwise," it reads. It was signed by Ayalon, former chief of the Mossad intelligence agency Tamir Pardo, former Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) chief Matan Vilnai, former Israeli ambassador Jeremy Issacharoff and former Israeli police commissioner Assaf Hefetz. Ayalon says the only path to security for Israel now is to pursue a two-state solution with Palestinians. "You cannot destroy an ideology by the use of military power," he said. "If we really want to defeat Hamas, we have to defeat its ideology and the only way is to present a better ideology. And the only better ideology is to present the political horizon, which is a state alongside Israel." Netanyahu digs his heels in The letter comes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces increased pressure, both at home and abroad, to cease hostilities in Gaza. Netanyahu's office did not respond to a request for comment from CBC, but the prime minister is reportedly pushing for a full takeover of the Gaza Strip against the urging of his own military chief, according to a Reuters report that cites three confidential Israeli officials. WATCH | UN warns against expanding into Gaza: Israel expanding Gaza operations risks 'catastrophic consequences,' UN official says 7 hours ago In a recent social media video alongside Ayalon, Yoram Cohen, also a former head of Shin Bet, called Netanyahu's objectives "a fantasy." "If anyone imagines that we can reach every terrorist and every pit and every weapon and in parallel bring our hostages home, I think it is impossible," he said. Ayalon says he believes Netanyahu, who heads a right-wing coalition government, is motivated by solely by a desire to cling to power. "The idea is to maintain his coalition and to make sure that this war will not end because the moment that this war will end, he is losing his coalition," Ayalon said. Why Trump? But the letter is not addressed to Netanyahu; it's addressed to Trump. "It is a regional crisis with an impact on the international community, and we believe that the international community should interfere," Ayalon said. "I'm not a psychologist and I don't want to pretend to understand the behaviour of Donald Trump. But the way I understand it, he was elected in order to end wars and not to start wars." Pressed by reporters earlier this week, Trump declined to say whether the U.S., Israel's closest military ally, supported Netanyahu's plans to occupy Gaza. "I know that we are there now trying to get people fed," Trump said. As far as the rest of it, I really can't say. That's going to be pretty much up to Israel." The U.S. State Department did not respond to a request for comment. Israel has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians over the last two years, according to Palestinian health authorities, and razed huge swaths of Gaza to the ground. The military campaign in Gaza is retaliation for Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 251. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals. Of the 50 still held in Gaza, around 20 are believed to be alive. Human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel, have accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, something Israel fiercely International Court of Justice is pursuing a genocide case against the country, brought forward by South Africa. Gazans dying of starvation and malnutrition More recently, aid groups, including Human Rights Watch, have accused Israel of intentionally starving Gazans by blocking aid and shooting Palestinians who are lining up for food. Late last month, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, which monitors hunger around the world, issued a famine alert for the Palestinian enclave. Some 188 Palestinians, including 94 children, have died from hunger since the war began, according to Gaza authorities, many of them in recent weeks. Israel denies using forced starvation against Gazans and has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that Hamas is stealing food. Last month, Salma Altaweel, a mother of four in Gaza, told CBC she doesn't have "even one gram of flour" in her home, and her children keep asking why kids in other parts of the world can have all the food they want while they starve. Still, she said she considers herself lucky. "I know parents that are not able to feed their kids for many days. One lady told me that she ties the stomachs of her kids at night to make them sleep. Others are trying to eat anything, things that we were not able to eat, like the leaves of the trees," she said. "Other people are falling, literally, they are falling in the streets."
CBC
6 hours ago
- CBC
Pressure on Netanyahu intensifies as Israeli military chief opposes Gaza war expansion
Social Sharing Israel's military chief has pushed back against Benjamin Netanyahu's plans to seize areas of Gaza it doesn't already control, three Israeli officials said, as the prime minister faces increasing pressure over the war both at home and abroad. During a tense, three-hour meeting on Tuesday, military chief of staff Eyal Zamir warned the prime minister that taking the rest of Gaza could trap the military in the territory, which it withdrew from two decades ago, and could lead to harm to the hostages being held there, according to sources briefed on the meeting. The Israeli military says it already controls 75 per cent of Gaza after nearly two years of war, which began when militant group Hamas attacked southern Israeli communities in October 2023. It has repeatedly opposed imposing military rule, annexing the territory and rebuilding Jewish settlements there — policies advocated by some government members. Netanyahu is under intense international pressure to reach a ceasefire in the coastal enclave, which has been reduced to rubble in the fighting. Most of its two million people have been displaced multiple times, and aid groups say residents are on the verge of famine. WATCH | UN official says full occupation would be 'catastrophic': Israel expanding Gaza operations risks 'catastrophic consequences,' UN official says 3 hours ago The UN has called reports about a possible expansion of Israel's military operations in Gaza "deeply alarming" if true. The military, which accuses Hamas of operating among civilians, has at times avoided areas where intelligence suggested hostages were held. Former captives have said their captors threatened to kill them if Israeli forces approached. Netanyahu told Zamir that so far the military had failed to bring about the release of the hostages, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Most of those freed so far came about as a result of diplomatic negotiations. Defence Minister Israel Katz wrote on X Wednesday that the military chief has both the right and the duty to voice his opinion, but said that the military would carry out the government's decisions until all war objectives are achieved. The prime minister's office confirmed the meeting with Zamir on Tuesday but declined to comment further. The military did not respond to a request for comment. The prime minister is scheduled to discuss military plans for Gaza with other ministers on Thursday. A fourth source said Netanyahu wants to expand military operations in Gaza to put pressure on Hamas. Netanyahu, who in May said that Israel would control all of Gaza, leads the most right-wing coalition government in Israel's history. Some of his key partners have in the past threatened to quit if the government ended the war. Following a 40-minute meeting with the prime minister on Wednesday, opposition leader Yair Lapid told reporters he had advised Netanyahu that the public was not interested in continuing the war and that a full military takeover would be a bad idea. Emaciated hostages There are 50 hostages still being held in Gaza, of whom at least 20 are believed to be alive. Videos released last week by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another militant group in Gaza, showed two extremely emaciated captives and triggered international condemnation. Nearly 200 Palestinians have died of starvation in Gaza since the war began, about half of them children, according to Gaza's health ministry. More than 20 died on Wednesday when a truck believed to be carrying food overturned as it was swarmed by a desperate crowd, according to local health authorities. Salim Asfour, 85, said he's lost upward of 50 pounds due to a lack of food in the enclave. He said he's too weak to walk the 20-kilometre round trip from Khan Younis to Rafah for aid. "I can't even walk a metre. I lean on my son to go to the bathroom," he told CBC News freelance journalist Mohamed El Saife in Khan Younis. "Even if I got to the aid, how am I supposed to carry it? How can I carry a bag of flour?" WATCH | Aid drops into Gaza on Monday: Military plane drops food aid into Gaza 2 days ago A freelance videographer working for CBC News was on the ground in central Gaza Monday at the same time as a Canadian military plane was dropping aid from above. Mohamed El Saife ran with his camera alongside Palestinians trying to reach the falling parachutes, witnessing the chaos as people rushed to grab whatever they could get. The latest ceasefire talks in Qatar broke down last month. Hamas insists any deal must lead to a permanent end to the war, while Israel accuses the group of lacking sincerity about giving up power afterward and must be defeated. An expansion of the military offensive in heavily populated areas would likely be devastating. "I wish I could get treatment and go back to normal like I was before, and we end this war that destroyed our families, destroyed our lives and left us without any desire to live," said Asfour. "We just want to be done with it." The war in Gaza has also overextended Israel's military, which has a small standing army and has had to repeatedly mobilize reservists. It is not clear if more reservists would be needed to expand operations and take more territory. The military continued to carry out air strikes across Gaza on Wednesday, killing at least 135 people in the past 24 hours, the Gaza health ministry said, with the death toll since the beginning of the conflict now at more than 61,000, mostly civilians, it says. About 1,200 people were killed, including more than 700 civilians, and 251 hostages taken to Gaza after the Hamas-led attack on Israel, according to Israeli tallies.
Edmonton Journal
7 hours ago
- Edmonton Journal
Israeli President decries Hamas 'manipulation' after German media exposes 'staged' Gaza photography
Article content A historian and visual documentation expert interviewed by Süddeutsche Zeitung added that while not all such images are outright fakes, they are often 'positioned a certain way or paired with misleading captions that tap into our visual memory and emotions.' Article content Herzog urged the international community to resist falling for such distortions. 'We do not deny the humanitarian need in Gaza,' he said, 'but we ask the world not to fall for Hamas' lies. Condemn Hamas and tell them: You want to move forward? Release the hostages.' Article content He emphasized that Israel has drastically increased its humanitarian aid efforts, saying: 'In the last week alone, we've brought in 30,000 tons of aid — 30 tons by air yesterday alone. The UN has almost 800 trucks they could distribute — and failed to do so. So a lot could have been done.' Article content A special report by The Press Service of Israel on Thursday found that according to the UN's own numbers, a staggering 85 per cent of the aid entering the Gaza Strip by truck since May 19 has been stolen. The investigation found that a combination of black market profiteers and inflation have made much of the aid in Gaza markets unaffordable for most Palestinians. Article content Article content Palestinian sources inside Gaza told TPS-IL that much of the food in the markets originated from international aid for months — including American shipments — but is resold at inflated prices, sometimes 300 per cent. Basic staples like flour and rice, originally meant for free distribution, are reportedly diverted to private vendors. Article content One Palestinian in Gaza City told TPS-IL: 'The flour — when it enters Gaza, they steal it. And now they're going to raise the price from 30 to 60 shekels ($8.80 to $17.70). It's unbelievable.' Article content Professor Eytan Gilboa, an expert in international relations and media at Reichman University in Herzliya, told TPS-IL, 'There is some hunger in Gaza, and it exists only in places Hamas is pursuing it, not in other areas.' Article content In 2024, experts told TPS-IL that two Gaza-based Palestinian freelance journalists committed war crimes by entering Israel during Hamas's October 7 massacres.
