If the IDF has nothing to hide with its military and aid operation, it should allow international journalists into Gaza
No wonder Eyal Zamir, Israel's chief of staff, is reportedly reluctant to go down that route, however much of the messaging from the top has been that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) will follow whatever the political echelon decides.
No wonder, then, that IDF spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani was reluctant to flesh out the implications of an expanded operation or what a full military "occupation" - touted now as having entered Benjamin Netanyahu's lexicon - will look like.
As he pointed out, benefits from international outrage over the spectre of famine in Gaza.
It turns the tide of public opinion against Israel, taking the pressure off Hamas. That may be, in part, why the latest round of ceasefire talks collapsed.
The IDF refuses to accept responsibility for Gaza being on the brink of famine, instead accusing the UN of failing to do their part in an ongoing war of words, although Lt Col Shoshani acknowledged that distributing aid in a war zone is "not simple".
That is why it should have been left to experts in humanitarian aid distribution - the UN and its agencies, not to US military contractors.
Given the large number of aid-related deaths reported daily, not just by Gaza's health ministry but also by doctors who are treating the injured and tying up the body bags, there should be greater accountability.
Lt Col Shoshani said the missing link is the proof that it is IDF soldiers doing the shooting. He is right.
If international journalists were granted access to Gaza, to support Palestinian colleagues whose every day involves both the danger of operating in a war zone and the search for food and supplies for their families, then there might be greater accountability.
Read more about Gaza:
It is not sufficient to claim that the IDF operates "in accordance with our values, with our procedures and with international law", which is what Lt Col Shoshani told Sky News.
That may suffice for Israeli audiences who see very little on their screens of the reality on the ground, but it is not enough for the rest of us - not after 61,000 deaths.
If the IDF has nothing to hide, it should allow international journalists in.
That would alleviate the burden of reporting on Palestinian journalists, at least 175 of whom have lost their lives since the war began.
It would also allow a degree more clarity on what is happening and who is to blame for the hell inside Gaza now.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
40 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Netanyahu to seek approval for expanded Gaza military operations as 29 Palestinians are killed
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The Israeli security cabinet is set to meet Thursday evening to discuss a possible expansion of Israel's military operations in Gaza, a move that — if it happens — would come despite fierce opposition from many in Israel, including the families of hostages who remain in Hamas captivity. The meeting comes on a day when at least 29 Palestinians were killed in airstrikes and shootings across southern Gaza, according to local hospitals. Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis said 12 of the fatalities were from people attempting to access aid near a distribution site run by a U.S. and Israeli-backed private contractor. At least 50 people were wounded, many from gunshots, the hospital said. Neither the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation nor the Israeli military, which helps secure the group's sites, immediately commented on the strikes or shootings. The Israeli military has accused Hamas of operating in densely populated civilian areas. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been meeting this week with top advisers and security officials to discuss what his office said are ways to 'further achieve Israel's goals in Gaza' after the breakdown of ceasefire talks last month. An Israeli official familiar with the matter said the Security Cabinet is expected to hold a lengthy debate and approve an expanded military plan to conquer all or parts of Gaza not yet under Israeli control. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity pending a formal decision, said that whatever is approved would be implemented gradually and in stages with the idea of increasing pressure on Hamas. Such a step would trigger new international condemnation of Israel at a time when Gaza is plunging toward famine. It also has drawn opposition across Israel, with hostage families saying it could threaten their loved ones. Israel's army chief, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, has warned that the plan would endanger the hostages and further strain Israel's army, which has been stretched thin during a nearly two-year war, according to Israeli media. The comments appear to have exposed a rift between Netanyahu and his army. Opposition to expansion of the war Demonstrations were planned across Israel on Thursday evening to protest the expected Cabinet decision. On Thursday morning, almost two dozen relatives of hostages being held in Gaza set sail from southern Israel towards the maritime border with Gaza, where they broadcast messages from loudspeakers on boats to their relatives in Gaza. The families denounced Netanyahu's plan to expand military operations. Yehuda Cohen, the father of Nimrod Cohen, an Israeli soldier held hostage in Gaza, said from the boat that Netanyahu is prolonging the war to satisfy extremists in his government and to prevent it from collapsing. 'Netanyahu is working only for himself,' he said, pleading with the international community to put pressure on Netanyahu to stop the war and save his son. Israel returns body of Palestinian activist for burial Israeli authorities returned the body of a Palestinian activist allegedly killed by an Israeli settler last week, after female Bedouin relatives launched a hunger strike to protest the authority's decision to hold his body in custody. The hunger strike was a rare public call from Bedouin women who traditionally mourn in private. Witnesses said Awdah Al Hathaleen was shot and killed by a radical Israeli settler during a confrontation caught on video last month. Israeli authorities said they would only return the body if the family agrees to certain conditions that would 'prevent public disorder.' Despite dropping some of their demands, family members said Israel set up checkpoints and prevented many mourners from outside the village from attending. The plight of Palestinians in this area of the West Bank, known as Masafer Yatta, was featured in 'No Other Land,' an Oscar-winning documentary about settler violence and life under Israeli military rule. Al Hathaleen, a political activist and an English teacher, was a contributor to the film and close friend of its Palestinian co-directors. Aid organizations denounce Israeli policies Human Rights Watch called on governments worldwide to suspend their arms transfers to Israel in the wake of deadly airstrikes on two Palestinian schools last year. Human Rights Watch said an investigation did not find any evidence of a military target at either school. At least 49 people were killed in the airstrikes that hit the Khadija girls' school in Deir al-Balah on July 27, 2024, and the al-Zeitoun C school in Gaza City on Sept. 21, 2024. Doctors without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières or MSF, accused the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation food distribution sites of causing 'orchestrated killing' rather than handing out aid. According to the United Nations, more than 850 people have died near GHF sites in the past two months. MSF runs two medical clinics very close to the GHF sites and said it had treated nearly 1,400 people wounded near the sites between June 7 and July 20, including 28 people who were dead upon arrival. MSF also treated 41 children who were shot near GHF sites. The organization said it has also treated almost 200 patients with physical assault injuries from chaotic scrambles at GHF sites, including head injuries, suffocation, and multiple patients with severely aggravated eyes after being sprayed at close range with pepper spray. GHF did not immediately answer a request for comment. But it has said that its contractors have not shot anyone at its sites. Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war. They still hold 50 hostages, around 20 of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefires or other deals. Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. The ministry doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count but says around half the dead have been women and children. The ministry is part of the Hamas government but is staffed by medical professionals. The U.N. and other independent experts view its figures as the most reliable casualty count.
NBC News
41 minutes ago
- NBC News
New photos show scale of destruction in Gaza as Israel weighs expanded military operation
On Monday this week, officials from Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement that the Israeli leader had decided to 'occupy all of the Gaza Strip, including areas where hostages may be held.' The statement was shared in Hebrew and the term used can be translated to mean both 'occupy' and 'conquer." Netanyahu's office did not respond to a request for clarification on the intended definition. Recent research from Israel's Hebrew University, reported in Haaretz, estimates that about 70 percent of all structures in Gaza have been made uninhabitable. While Israel had fought numerous conflicts in Gaza since Hamas militants took over the enclave in 2007, the Oct. 7, 2023 terror attacks that left 1,200 dead and saw 250 taken hostage triggered a war of unprecedented ferocity in the territory. Israel's military operation has forced most of the territory's residents to be displaced multiple times, and killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, including thousands of children, according to local health officials. The world's leading body on hunger, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, has sounded the alarm that the 'worst-case scenario of famine' is now unfolding in the Palestinian enclave. With a ceasefire elusive and some dozens of hostages still being held by militant groups in Gaza, Israel is weighing an expansion of the military campaign. Netanyahu held a three-hour long 'limited security discussion' on Tuesday, according to his office, in which the Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff presented different options for continuing the offensive in Gaza. Netanyahu will convene his security cabinet at 6:30pm local time, or 11:30am ET, on Thursday to consider those different options, an Israeli official told NBC News. The Times of Israel reports that the cabinet is expected to sign off on a phased plan that would initially focus on seizing the central area of Gaza City, before expanding aid distribution centers in coordination with the United States. The operation could take place over up to five months, according to the report. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents the hostages in Gaza, says more than 80 percent of Israelis want a comprehensive deal for the return of the hostages and an immediate end to the war. 'Six hundred and seventy days, almost two years since October 7th, and we keep hearing only promises,' the group said in a statement on Wednesday. Einav Tsangauker, the mother of hostage Matan Tsangauker, called on people to gather outside the cabinet meeting Thursday to protest against expanding the military operation. "Anyone who talks about a comprehensive agreement doesn't go conquering the Strip while putting hostages and soldiers in danger," she wrote in a post on X. There are 50 hostages who remain captive in Gaza, with just over 20 believed to be alive as of late June, according to Netanyahu's office.
Associated Press
41 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Congress member says US will push Israel to withdraw from Lebanon if the army secures the country
BEIRUT (AP) — A U.S. congress member said Thursday that Washington will push Israel to withdraw from all of southern Lebanon if the Lebanese army asserts full control over the country. 'We will push hard to make sure that there is — and this is something that I will work with the Israelis on — a complete withdrawal in return for the Lebanese Armed Forces showing its ability to secure all Lebanon,' California Republican U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa said. He was speaking in Beirut, where he met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, ahead of a meeting where the Lebanese cabinet was set to discuss disarmament of the militant group Hezbollah. Issa did not specify whether the U.S. would ask Israel to begin withdrawing its forces from the territory it is occupying in southern Lebanon before or after Hezbollah gives up its arsenal, a point that has been in dispute. The Lebanese government asked the national army on Tuesday to prepare a plan in which only state institutions in the small nation will have weapons by the end of the year, a move that aims to disarm Hezbollah. After Tuesday's cabinet meeting, Hezbollah accused the government of caving to U.S. and Israeli pressure and said it would 'treat this decision as if it does not exist.' Hezbollah officials have said the group will not discuss giving up its remaining arsenal until Israel withdraws from five hills it is occupying inside Lebanon and stops almost daily airstrikes that have killed or wounded hundreds of people, most of them Hezbollah members, since the latest Israel-Hezbollah war ended in November with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire. Israel has accused Hezbollah of trying to rebuild its military capabilities and said it is protecting its border. Since the ceasefire, Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for one attack fired across the border. Issa, who is of Lebanese origin, said that the U.S. must 'help all the neighbors around understand that it is the exclusive right of the Lebanese Armed Forces to make decisions.' 'If there's something that goes wrong, the Lebanese Armed Forces will be asked to to be responsible,' he said.
