Bereaved families in Rafah bidding farewell to their loved ones mass murdered by Israeli airstrikes late last night in Rafah, southern Gaza. pic.twitter.com/yYBCe7TvIA
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) March 19, 2024
The Israeli military has carried out new round of deadly attacks across the war-torn Gaza Strip, including in Rafah, where over a dozen Palestinians lost their lives. | Citing local sources, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported on Tuesday that at least 14 civilians, including women and children, were killed and many others injured in overnight Israeli strikes on residential buildings in the Musabeh, Khirbat al-Adas, and al-Janena neighborhoods of the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
■ Global Hunger Monitor: Gaza Suffers from Catastrophic Hunger (Alahed News)
■ In 165 days only: 31,819 killed, 73,934 injured in Gaza (Al Mayadeen)
The head of state thanked the people of Russia for their trust and support after the three-day elections. | President Vladimir Putin has addressed the people of Russia following a historic election victory with over 87% of the vote in his favor, amid a record-high turnout. Here are the key takeaways from his speech and a question-and-answer session at campaign headquarters in Moscow on Sunday night.
A senior Palestinian official says Marwan Barghouti, a prominent Palestinian detainee, is being isolated and tortured by Israeli authorities. | Hussein al-Sheikh, the secretary-general of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), in a Monday post on X said Israeli authorities were endangering Barghouti’s life. Sheikh said Barghouti was being exposed to “isolation, torture and attempts to coerce, humiliate and beat him, putting his life in danger.”
💬 “We call on the international community, institutions and international organizations to intervene immediately and urgently in order to stop the repressive measures against our prisoners and our leaders in the occupation prisons, protect them, and release them immediately,” Sheikh said.
Barghouti, 64, has reportedly been beaten by Israeli guards in recent days. Last month, Israel’s far-right minister Itamar Ben Gvir said Barghouti had been placed in solitary confinement. Barghouti was a prominent leader in the first and second Intifadas. He has been behind bars for over two decades.
]]>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)
Using bulldozers and controlled demolitions, Israel has destroyed some 1,100 buildings in the zone so far | Israeli forces are destroying farmland and demolishing hundreds of homes as well as schools in Gaza to create an 800-meter buffer zone alongside the border with Israel, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on 16 March. ● Palestinians would be barred from the zone, which Israeli officials claim is needed to allow Israelis to return to settlements surrounding Gaza, which were evacuated after the Hamas-led Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October. ● Some 1,200 Israeli soldiers and civilians were killed during the Hamas attack, including many by Israeli forces themselves using helicopters, drones, and tanks. Israeli forces wished to prevent Hamas from taking captives back to Gaza. ● The WSJ adds that plans for creating the buffer zone began in the first days of the war and would allow Israeli troops to see and stop anyone approaching the border.
■ 'Israel' eyes private military contractors for bizarre US pier in Gaza (Al Mayadeen)
]]>Israel continues its bombardment of besieged Gaza, which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians in the enclave, as ceasefire talks are expected to continue in Qatar.
🔴 Follow our LIVE coverage: https://t.co/BM93kj9apa pic.twitter.com/J8uuAB4xS0— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) March 17, 2024
"Beyond catastrophic" is the term many officials and staffers, be they medical or political, are using to describe the situation in Gaza. | The Israeli occupation committed 9 massacres against families in the Gaza Strip, killing 92 and injuring 130 in 24 hours only, the Ministry of Health in Gaza announced. ● This brings the total number of Palestinians killed in the Israeli aggression on Gaza since October 7 to 31,645, in addition to 73,676 injuries, it added. ● It is noteworthy that the numbers only account for martyrs officially registered with the Ministry, and there may be a significant number of martyrs whose bodies have not yet been accounted for or have not reached hospitals, especially since many victims remain under the rubble, presumed dead, as the IOF deliberately prevent ambulances and civil defense crews from reaching them.
■ Situation in Gaza ‘catastrophic,’ says Doctors Without Borders nurse (Anadolu)
■ 63 Palestinians killed in Gaza in last 24 hours, death toll climbs to 31,553 (Anadolu)
■ Gaza a 'nightmare' for mothers with no 'normal-sized babies' — UN official (TRT World)
■ Belgian PM slams Israeli starvation tactics in Gaza as 'inadmissible' (Al Mayadeen)
4,268,291 ballots were issued to voters in 28 Russian regions, who had applied for voting online | Online voter turnout in Russia’s presidential election on the federal platform has reached 90%, according to the portal on online vote monitoring. ● As of 9:27 p.m. Moscow time (6:27 p.m. GMT), as many as 4,268,291 ballots were issued to voters in 28 Russian regions, who had applied for voting online. Thus, voter turnout on the federal platform of electronic voting was 90%. ● Residents of Moscow can vote on Moscow’s own platform and were not required to apply for remote voting beforehand. ● The Federation Council, the upper house of Russia’s parliament, officially designated March 17, 2024 as the day of the presidential election. The Central Election Commission (CEC) then announced that voting would take place over three days on March 15-17. ● Four candidates are vying for the top office, namely New People party nominee Vladislav Davankov; self-nominated candidate and incumbent President Vladimir Putin; Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) nominee Leonid Slutsky; and Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) nominee Nikolay Kharitonov.
■ ‘This time the campaign has had a referendum-like nature’: Your guide to Russia’s 2024 Presidential Election
■ Putin to tighten grip on Russia as opponents pose election day challenge (aNews)
■ Protest call as Russian vote to confirm Putin wraps up (aNews)
■ LIVE UPDATES: Day Three of Russian Presidential Election (Sputnik News)
■ В России началось голосование на выборах президента. Как это будет (RG.ru)(03/15/24)
Several Ukrainian UAVs have been shot down outside the Russian capital, Sergey Sobyanin has said | At least four Ukrainian drones were downed while heading to Moscow in the early hours of Sunday, according to Mayor Sergey Sobyanin.The Defense Ministry said some 35 UAVs were intercepted overnight, as Kiev’s forces continue to target Russian infrastructure and border towns. ● “The Russian Defense Ministry’s air defenses in the Domodedovo district have repelled a drone attack on Moscow,” Mayor Sergey Sobyanin confirmed on Telegram around 4:40am Sunday morning, noting that two hostile targets were downed in the area. Two more UAVs weve intercepted in the Ramensky and Stupino districts, Sobyanin added an hour later. ● No damage was inflicted and no one was hurt in the areas where the debris fell, the official said, adding that the emergency services were responding to the incidents. Moscow’s Domodedovo airport, located to the south of the capital, also reported no irregularities in its operations. ● Around the same time, several Ukrainian drones attempted to strike an oil refinery in the town of Slavyansk in Russia’s Krasnodar Region, causing a fire that was quickly contained, according to local authorities. While there were no direct casualties in the strike, one person died in a suspected heart attack during the incident, emergency services said.
■ Russia thwarts Ukrainian incursion attempt (DISTURBING VIDEO) (RT.com)
■ Live blog: Drone strike on Russian refinery, one dead: regional authorities (TRT World)
■ 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)
Rights group advocates have warned that record numbers of Palestinian detainees are filling “Israeli” detention centers in light of the bloody onslaught on Gaza, stating that the inmates are subjected to “systemic abuse” and torture. 💬 “We are extremely, extremely concerned,” Tal Steiner, the executive director of the so-called “Public Committee Against Torture in ‘Israel’” [PCATI], told AFP news agency. ● “What we’re looking at is a crisis,” she said, adding that nine people have reportedly died behind bars since October 7 last year, when the “Israeli” military launched its unrelenting ground and aerial offensives against the besieged Gaza Strip. ● “There are almost 10,000 Palestinians in “Israeli” custody right now, ... a 200-percent increase from any normal year,” the activist pointed out, stressing that the situation has deteriorated dramatically since “Israel” waged the war on Gaza. ● “We’re seeing really widespread and systemic use of many, many tools in order to inflict torture and ill-treatment on Palestinians.
■ Iron bars, electric shocks, dogs and cigarette burns: How Palestinians are tortured in Israeli detention (03/12/24)
■ Israeli soldiers strip Palestinian woman naked in humiliating search (03/08/24)
■ Torture tactics 'Israel' uses to kill Palestinian prisoners: Report (02/21/24)
■ ‘Torture was severe’: Gaza doctor recounts ordeal in Israeli captivity (02/06/24)
The “hidden objective” revealed: A Middle Eastern expert says the “hidden objective” behind the U.S. building a seaport in Gaza is to facilitate the mass migration of Palestinians to Europe. | President Joe Biden announced during his State of the Union speech last week that the U.S. Military would establish an “emergency mission to establish a port in the Gaza Strip” to get humanitarian aid to the Palestinian enclave. However, according to Hisham Khreisat, a Jordanian military and strategic affairs expert, “the floating port off the shores of Gaza is a humanitarian facade hiding voluntary migration to Europe.”
💬 “This military tactical port will receive Israeli approval because Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been seeking this idea since the beginning of the war, aiming for the voluntary displacement of Gazans and their flee to Europe,” Khreisat told Anadolu Agency.
According to the news agency, the port is designed to encourage “voluntary Palestinian migration to Europe and eliminating the role of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, essentially placing Israel in control of all Gaza crossings and ending any Palestinian sovereignty over them.”
Maria Zakharova pointed out that the West has organized misinformation campaigns and influence in the cyber sphere: from spreading the corresponding content to blocking the apps of Russian organizations on digital platforms, which is also "a very serious element of influence" | Moscow’s Western opponents actively tried over the past year to disrupt the Russian presidential election, Russia’s Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told TASS on Saturday.
💬 "Our opponents stirred up not just a week or a month ago. It seems to me that over the past year they did everything to either disrupt the presidential election or prevent it from being held or distort the conception of the elections in different ways," the diplomat said. The West has organized misinformation campaigns and influence in the cyber sphere: from spreading the corresponding content to blocking the apps of Russian organizations on digital platforms, which is also "a very serious element of influence," she pointed out. The West also used paid opposition that turned out to be "agents of influence and simply hirelings," the diplomat explained. "That is, all methods were used," she pointed out.
■ LIVE UPDATES: Day Two of Russia's Presidential Election (Sputnik News)
■ Polls open for Russian Presidential election, projected turnout at 71% (03/15/24)
Berlin has so far refused to provide Kiev with Taurus cruise missiles | European countries intend to create yet another “capability coalition” to supply Ukrainian forces with long-range weapons, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Friday, echoing an initiative floated by French President Emmanuel Macron. ● During a joint press conference with Macron and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Berlin on Friday, the German chancellor stated that the countries have agreed to expand their own production of military equipment and “procure even more weapons for Ukraine, on the overall world market.” ● “We are establishing a new capability coalition for long-range rocket artillery,” Scholz told journalists. The German leader provided no specifics and took no questions, so it remains unclear whether he meant something new, or was referring to a “long-range” initiative announced by Macron last month.
■ Germany Supports Tapping Frozen Russian Assets for Ukrainian Arms - Scholz (Sputnik News)
■ New NATO member supports French position on troops in Ukraine (RT.com)
■ "Mercenaries" from the West inside Ukraine - Stunning Numbers (Hal Turner)