Juliette Touma, UNRWA's communications director, reports that released detainees from Israeli prisons showed signs of torture, expressing concern that some staff may have been coerced into making false confessions about the agency's alleged ties to Hamas ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/M4F10e3OOw

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) March 18, 2024

Jonathan Cook | Why is the same western media obsessively reheating five-month-old allegations against Hamas so reluctant to focus on Israel’s current, horrifying atrocities? | Hostages tortured to death. Parents executed in front of their children. Doctors beaten. Babies murdered. Sexual assault weaponised. No, not Hamas crimes. This is part of an ever-growing list of documented atrocities committed by Israel in the five months since 7 October – quite separate from the carpet bombing of 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza and a famine induced by Israel’s obstruction of aid. ● Last week, an investigation by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz disclosed that some 27 Palestinians seized off Gaza’s streets over the past five months are known to have died during interrogations inside Israel. Some were denied medical treatment. But most are likely to have been tortured to death. ● Three months ago, a Haaretz editorial warned that Israeli jails “must not become execution facilities for Palestinians”. Israeli TV channels have been excitedly taking viewers on tours of detention centres, showing the appalling conditions Palestinians are kept in, as well as the psychological and physical abuse they are subjected to. An Israeli judge recently called the makeshift cages in which Palestinians are held “unsuitable for humans”.

■ A Palestinian Boy Was Shot by Israeli Troops in Front of His Father, and Died in His Brother's Arms (Ha'Aretz)
■ UNICEF: ‘Israel’ Killed more than 13000 Children in Gaza (Alahed News)
■ Israeli forces raid Gaza al-Shifa hospital, open fire inside complex (PressTV)
■ New Crime against Health Institutions: “Israel” Raids Al-Shifa Hospital (Alahed News)
■ Several killed, wounded in IOF raid on al-Shifa hospital (Al Mayadeen)

The European Union announced a 7.4 billion euro ($8.1 billion) funding package and an upgraded relationship with Egypt on Sunday. | The agreement lifts the EU's relationship with Egypt to a "strategic partnership" and was unveiled as a delegation of leaders visited Cairo. It is designed to boost cooperation in areas including renewable energy, trade and security, while delivering grants, loans and other funding over the next three years to support Egypt's faltering economy. ● The proposed funding includes 5 billion euros in concessional loans and 1.8 billion euros of investments, according to a summary published by the EU. Another 600 million euros would be provided in grants, including 200 million euros for managing migration. ● Such deals were "the best way to address migratory flows", said Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who travelled to Cairo alongside EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the Greek, Austrian and Belgian prime ministers, and the Cypriot president.

■ Any forced displacement of Palestinians into Egypt ‘unacceptable,’ Greek premier says (Anadolu)

Many leaders express how the high voter turnout proved "global stability" and "Russian sovereignty". | Following the reelection win of Russian President Vladimir Putin, leaders rushed to congratulate him as the voting numbers showed a high turnout. ● Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi congratulated Putin on his victory in the presidential election, the Iranian Embassy in Moscow said on Monday. ● After extending congratulations, China expressed confidence that relations between Moscow and Beijing will continue to develop, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said on Monday.

■ Putin Has Won: What to Expect From His Next Six-Year Term? (Sputnik News)
■ Russian Presidential Election Results (Sputnik News)
■ People are the power in Russia – Putin (RT.com)
■ IN BRIEF: Olympic truce, Navalny and buffer zone: what Putin told reporters after polls (TASS)
■ US is not a democracy – Putin (RT.com)
■ Russia says statements on ‘illegitimacy’ of presidential election ‘absurd’ (Anadolu)
■ Moscow responds to West’s election criticism (RT.com)

Ted Snider | European discussions about sending troops obscures the fact that several NATO countries already have boots on the ground. | The transcript of an intercepted February 19 conversation between senior German air force officials discussing the possible transfer of German Taurus long-range missiles to Ukraine says that the Germans “know how the English do it....They have several people on-site.” The revelation that the UK has troops on the ground has now been confirmed by the British Prime Minister’s office: “Beyond the small number of personnel we do have in the country supporting the armed forces of Ukraine, we haven't got any plans for large-scale deployment.” ● The transcript says that “the French don’t do it that way,” but Scholz has hinted that they do. On February 26, the German Chancellor defended his decision not to send Taurus missiles to Ukraine by saying that it would require the presence of Germans in Ukraine to match their British and French counterparts. He explained, “What is being done in the way of target control and accompanying target control on the part of the British and the French can’t be done in Germany.” He worried that “a participation in the war could emerge from what we do.” ● The transcript also cryptically alludes to an American presence on the ground. Wondering whether Ukraine would be able to do targeting on their own, one of the officials says, “It's known that there are numerous people there in civilian attire who speak with an American accent.”

■ Mercenaries from the West inside Ukraine - Stunning Numbers (Hal Turner)

Rachel Marsden | The act, like most of the bloc’s virtue signaling, is the opposite of what its name ought to herald | The EU’s new Media Freedom Act has now been voted into law, with 464 votes for, 92 against, and 65 abstentions. ● There are some news outlets whose coverage of the vote I’d like to see. Like RT’s, where you’re reading this right now. But anyone who’s viewing this from inside the European Union’s bastion of democracy and freedom is likely doing so via a VPN connection routed through somewhere outside the bloc, to circumvent its press censorship. ● Nothing in this new law suggests that this will change, or that there will be increased access to information and analysis for the average person. Such improved freedoms might lead to people making up their own minds rather than having various flavors of a similar narrative served up for mass consumption. As has become par for the course in so-called Western democracies, inconvenient facts and analysis will still be dismissed as “disinformation” and criticism of the establishment still qualified as an effort to sow division – as though dissent itself wasn’t supposed to be proof of a healthy and vibrant democracy. ● So, now that we’ve gotten out of the way any hope of lifting the EU’s top-down censorship in the absence of due process, exactly what kind of lip service does this new law pay to the lofty notion of media freedom?

The travel advice was due to the “continuing deterioration of the situation in the country,” according to Berlin | The German Foreign Ministry has updated its travel advice for Russia, “and now strongly” discourages German citizens and persons with dual citizenship from visiting the country. Previously, Berlin had only advised against traveling to Russia. According to a ministry press release, issued on Thursday, the change was due to the continuing deterioration of the situation in Russia, including “arbitrary arrests being observed more and more frequently.” The new notice also warns against travel to Russia’s regions bordering Ukraine, which along with Moscow, have been the target of repeated drone attacks in recent months. “Further attacks cannot be ruled out,” including on the public transport network, the press release warned.

■ Ukraine to spend millions of dollars blocking Russian TV (RT.com)