■ APPLICATION OF THE CONVENTION ON THE PREVENTION AND PUNISHMENT OF THE CRIME OF GENOCIDE IN THE GAZA STRIP (ORDER OF 26 JANUARY 2024) (.pdf) + APPLICATION INSTITUTING PROCEEDINGS (.pdf)
■ THE EXPRESSION OF HATRED FOR GENTILES (Richard Edmondson/Nahida Izzat) (10/04/14)

An official from the Hamas resistance movement has held the United States responsible for Israel’s recent massacre of desperate Palestinians seeking food aid in the Gaza Strip. | The unnamed official made the remarks on Saturday, two days after Israeli forces opened fire on the Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid trucks in Gaza City’s al-Rashid Street, killing at least 118 people and injuring 760 others. ● “The occupation’s massacre on al-Rashid Street in Gaza during the distribution of aid was met with a green light from the US,” he said in an interview with the London-based New Arab news website. ● The bloodshed, he added, was meant to “pressure the Resistance to make concessions at the negotiation table that would strip the Palestinian people, residents of the [Gaza] Strip, and the Resistance of the gains achieved on October 7.” On October 7, 2023, Hamas carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against Israel in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

■ Death toll from Israeli army's ‘flour massacre’ in Gaza rises to 116, as another Palestinian dies (Anadolu)
■ BBC investigation reveals IOF edited aerial footage of Flour Massacre (Al Mayadeen)
■ 'Israel' killing 63 Palestinian women a day, half being mothers: UN (Al Mayadeen)

War cabinet member Benny Gantz scheduled to meet US VP Harris, other senior officials nd reportedly seeks Biden meeting; Netanyahu refuses government funding for trip, says Gantz violating regulations | Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed Israel's ambassador to the United States Michael Herzog not to provide any assistance to the visit to Washington of war cabinet member Benny Gantz, which he claims violates government regulations. Netanyahu also refused government funding for the trip. ● Gantz will travel to Washington on Sunday for an "unofficial" visit and will meet with senior American officials, including Vice President Kamala Harris and White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. According to sources familiar with the visit, Biden might unexpectedly join one of Gantz's meetings in the White House. ● Netanyahu was reportedly angered by the visit. "The State of Israel has only one Prime Minister," he said. The Prime Minister's Office does not recognize the visit as an official one because it was not approved by the prime minister.

After being attacked by Houthi forces on Feb. 18, the United States military announced on Saturday that the British-registered cargo ship had sunk in the Red Sea. | "On Mar. 2 at approximately 2:15 a.m., MV Rubymar, a Belize-flagged, UK-owned bulk carrier, sank in the Red Sea after being struck by an Iranian-backed Houthi terrorist anti-ship ballistic missile on Feb. 18," CENTCOM wrote on X (formerly Twitter) attaching the post with a photo of the ship. ● The US military also warned of an environmental risk in the Red Sea stressing that the ship was carrying out approximately 21,000 metric tons of ammonium phosphate sulfate fertilizer. "As the ship sinks it also presents a subsurface impact risk to other ships transiting the busy shipping lanes of the waterway."

■ Freight rates on notice after Rubymar sinks, first ship casualty of Red Sea crisis (S&P Global) [archive.is]
■ British PM Sunak ‘responsible’ for sinking of cargo ship in Red Sea: Yemen (PressTV)
■ Yemen confirms Rubimar ship sinking with 22K tons hazardous fertilizers (albawaba.com)

The German military could instigate a conflict, the former president has warned, commenting on a leaked conversation about a possible attack on the Crimean Bridge | Medvedev, who is currently deputy head of the Russian Security Council, was commenting on audio that surfaced earlier this week. The story was broken on Friday by RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan, who said she had received the recording from Russian security officials. ● The 38-minute-long recording, reportedly from February 19, contained a conversation between four officers of the German Air Force, including its commander, Lt. Gen. Ingo Gerhartz. They were discussing operational and targeting details of Taurus long-range missiles which Berlin was considering supplying to Kiev. The officers particularly explored the option of the missiles being used against the Crimean Bridge and spoke about maintaining plausible deniability in the event of such an attack. ● On Sunday, Medvedev assumed that Berlin would now try to claim it had known nothing of the military discussions taking place. He also stated that the German authorities could call the leaked conversation a purely hypothetical one and say that the military was “obsessed with playing mock battles.”

💬 “Any attempts to present the Bundeswehr officers’ conversation as just a ‘game’ with missiles and tanks would be a malicious lie,” the former president warned. “Germany is preparing for a war with Russia.”

■ German army discussed strike on Crimean Bridge, leaked audio purportedly indicates (03/02/24)
■ German healthcare system should prepare for war – minister (03/03/24)

Berlin must be ready for “major disasters,” Karl Lauterbach has said | Germany must improve its healthcare system to be able to swiftly respond to crisis situations, such as a new pandemic or a military conflict, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has said. ● Legislation for reforms expected to be presented this summer will be “a turning point for the healthcare system,” the Social Democratic Party (SPD) politician told the newspaper Neue Osnabrucker Zeitung in an interview published on Saturday. ● Though the ruling ‘traffic light coalition’ has already pushed for reforms following the Covid-19 pandemic, the health minister said that with the Ukraine conflict, the challenges have become even more important.

■ German Health Minister says health system must prepare for 'conflict' (Al Mayadeen)

Alexander Stubb has vowed to maintain a close relationship with Washington and the West | Finnish President Alexander Stubb has boasted that NATO membership gives his country a “real nuclear deterrent” in the form of American missiles. At his inauguration on Friday, Stubb promised to lead the Nordic nation into a “new era” of military partnership with the West. ● Stubb, who was nominated by the center-right National Coalition Party, defeated Pekka Haavisto, an independent candidate backed by the center-left Green League, by 51.6% of the vote to 48.4% last month. On Friday he officially took over the presidency from Sauli Niinisto, who held the position since 2012 and oversaw the country’s accession to NATO last year. ● During his election campaign, Stubb said that he would be open to allowing American nuclear weapons to be transported through – but not stored on – Finnish territory, calling these weapons of mass destruction “a guarantee of peace.” Speaking to reporters after his inauguration ceremony, he doubled down on his enthusiasm for NATO and for nuclear weapons.

💬 “Finland must have a real nuclear deterrent, and that’s what we have, because NATO practically gives us three deterrences through our membership,” he said. “The first is military, i.e. soldiers, the second is missiles, i.e. ammunition, and the third is a nuclear deterrent, which comes from the United States.”