President Biden pretends to want to get more aid into the Strip. | President Biden ordered the military to construct the pier "for aid deliveries" [They're building a pier to carry out the genocide, let's face it.] instead of pressuring Israel to open more land border crossings, which is by far the most efficient way to get more aid into the Strip. Israel will impose a strict inspection regime on aid shipments coming through the pier, requiring inspections before they’re shipped from Cyprus and again when the aid reaches the shore of Gaza. ● According to a report from The Jerusalem Post, the idea to build the pier came from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who proposed it to Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides in October. A reporter for Israel’s Kan news said last month that during a meeting of the Knessett’s Foreign Affairs and Security Committee, Netanyahu suggested using the pier to remove Palestinians from Gaza. [It'll probably be Cyprus first, and then into the rest of Europe later.]

■ Temporary aid pier off Gaza to be operational in May: Pentagon (aNews)

Matt Kennard | After revealing nine Israeli Air Force planes landed in Britain in the four months after October 7, the Ministry of Defence changes policy and refuses to give any new information, possibly to protect UK ministers from prosecution. | The British government has imposed a block on all information about Israeli military planes landing in the UK. ● Amidst speculation that the International Criminal Court (ICC) is set to issue arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and his ministers, the new blackout could be intended to protect British ministers from possible prosecution for complicity in war crimes, including defence secretary Grant Shapps. [...] MacAskill told Declassified that the MoD had also now imposed a block on parliamentarians even asking questions about Israeli military operations involving UK territory.

Nicaragua has hauled Germany before the International Court of Justice to stop Berlin from providing Israel with weapons and other assistance. | The United Nations' top court will rule today on charges by Nicaragua that Germany is breaching the 1948 Genocide Convention by supplying arms to Israel for the Gaza war. ● Nicaragua has hauled Germany before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to demand that judges impose emergency measures to stop Berlin from providing Israel with weapons and other assistance. ● More than 34,000 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory since Israel's war on Gaza broke out in October. ● The ICJ in The Hague is scheduled to issue an order at 1300 GMT.

🔴 LIVE DAY 207 #Israel #Palestine

- ICJ to give orders on Nicaragua v. Germany
- Columbia University suspends student protesters
- US and UK urge Hamas to accept ceasefire deal

Follow our live coverage ⤵️https://t.co/1aIfFq6dcV

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) April 30, 2024

■ Mapping pro-Palestine college campus protests around the world (Al Jazeera)
■ French university students join US-led protests over Israel’s war in Gaza (Al Jazeera)
■ San Francisco State University begins encampment for Palestine (Anadolu)
■ Group of pro-Palestinian students enters Hamilton Hall building at Columbia University (Anadolu)
■ Pro-Palestine protesters arrested at Texas university (VIDEOS) (RT.com)
■ Columbia suspends encampment protesters; movement unfazed (Al Mayadeen)

■ 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)

At least three Israeli soldiers have been killed, and nearly a dozen others wounded in a war zone in the central part of the Gaza Strip, as Palestinian resistance forces continue to inflict losses on Israeli occupation forces across the war-ravaged coastal sliver. | Israeli media outlets reported that the three slain reserve soldiers were members of the 99th Division of the Israeli Army. They lost their lives in the vicinity of the Netzarim checkpoint, which separates northern and southern Gaza. Another eleven Israeli troops sustained injuries as well. ● There were reports that some of the Israeli troops were evacuated by helicopters, while others were still getting treated in the field. ● The al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, announced that it targeted the Israeli command center in Netzarim with heavy-caliber mortar shells. ● In a statement, the group said its fighters lured a mechanized Israeli force and struck it with unexploded ordnance and munitions, which the occupation troops had earlier used against Palestinians in al-Sikka Street of the al-Mughraqa neighborhood in central Gaza. ● The Israeli military has so far confirmed some 260 deaths among its troops since the launch of a ground invasion of Gaza.

■ Israel launches fresh attacks in southern Lebanon amid tension with Hezbollah (Anadolu)

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has vehemently slammed the heavy-handed crackdown against pro-Palestine student protests in Western universities, especially in the United States, saying it has laid bare the true nature of Western civilization. | The Iranian president described violent suppression of anti-Zionist student protests, and the beating and arrest of professors and students in Western universities, especially in the US, as “another scandal for self-proclaimed advocates of freedom of expression.”

💬 “Today, thanks to the blessed blood of the oppressed martyrs of Gaza, the true nature of Western civilization has been revealed to the people of the world more than any time before,” the Iranian president said. Raisi added, “It has become evident that those who claim to be advocating freedom of expression do not think about anything other than maintaining their own domination.”

Students and staff of Tehran University have held a rally in support of growing protests on US university campuses where students have erected encampments to demand action to end “Israel’s” aggression on Gaza. ● Elsewhere in his remarks, Iran's president said the current uprising of Western students, professors, and elites in support of the oppressed people of Gaza is a major development with vast ramifications.

■ Over 900 arrested at anti-war protests in US universities since April 18 (PressTV)
■ Hundreds of Pro-Palestine Protesters Arrested in US Universities (Alahed News)
■ US doesn’t want Gaza ceasefire: Iran (Iran Front Page)
■ Israeli embassies worldwide on alert over potential ICC arrest warrants for Gaza war crimes (Anadolu)
■ “Israel” Fears ICC Arrest Warrants against Bibi, other Officials over Gaza Genocide (Alahed News)

■ 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)

Media sources report that Palestinian detainee Kareem Abu Saleh died while detained in an Israeli occupation prison. | A Palestinian father of a newborn died on Saturday evening while being detained in Israeli occupation prisons. ● Media sources reported that Kareem Abu Saleh, from the city of Sakhnin in the Palestinian territories occupied in 1948, was martyred as a result of a surge in Israeli occupation attacks and human rights violations against Palestinian detainees. ● Abu Saleh was blessed with his firstborn two days before his martyrdom inside his cell in the occupation's prisons. Previously, Abu Saleh had spent six years in detention before the Israeli occupation forces re-arrested him 10 days ago.

■ 3,000+ Palestinians from Gaza detained, tortured in Israeli prisons (04/16/24)
■ Horrifying cases of torture and degrading treatment of Palestinian detainees, spike in arbitrary arrests (04/13/24)
■ Released Detainees From Israeli Prisons Showed Signs of Torture (03/18/24)
■ Torture, Executions, Babies Left to Die, Sexual Abuse… These Are Israel’s Crimes (03/18/24)

In a special interview with TASS, Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) provided insight into his visit to Russia, highlighted what support Moscow has provided to the agency, and addressed the motivations behind some countries' attempts to dismantle UNRWA and undermine the interests of Palestinians.

QUESTION: The UN has repeatedly drawn attention to the unprecedented scale of human suffering in the Gaza Strip. And according to the most recent statistics released by the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the death toll in Gaza has unfortunately surpassed 34,000 people in casualties. However, certain countries remain skeptical of those numbers. How much trust do you have in these statistics?

ANSWER: 💬 It's very difficult in a war situation to have precise figures. But I do believe that the amount being published gives a reasonably good idea of the scale of the number of people who have been killed in Gaza. And this is horrible. It's unprecedented when you think that in six months more than 30,000 people have been killed. We know that among them there are 13,000 children. We know that there were more children killed in Gaza in six months than in all the conflicts across the world in the last four years. So it's unprecedented in scale, as well as the level of destruction.

■ NBC News investigation reveals Israel strikes on Gaza areas it said were safe (NBC News)
■ 8 Palestinians killed in Israel strikes on Nuseirat refugee camp (Anadolu)
■ LONDON: 'Hundreds of thousands' of protestors at pro-Palestine march as police issue warning (The Mirror)

■ Live blog: Fresh Israeli strikes kill 8 Palestinian children in Gaza | Israel's war on besieged Gaza, now in its 204th day, has killed at least 34,388 Palestinians — 70 percent of them babies, children and women — and wounded over 77,437 while some 8,400 people are feared buried under the rubble of bombed buildings. | More than a dozen Palestinians were killed, including eight children, in Israeli bombings Saturday in Gaza, Palestinian media reported. A house was targeted in the Saudi neighborhood of the southern city of Rafah. At least six Palestinians, including four children, were killed in the attack, Wafa reported. Eight others were injured. Israel warplanes pounded the Jaradat area east of the Rafah crossing, wounding several people, eyewitnesses told Anadolu news agency. In central Gaza, an airstrike on the Nuseirat camp killed nine Palestinians, including four children, and injured 30 others, according to Palestinian medical sources.

■ 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)

Iran's permanent ambassador to the United Nations has denounced Israel’s destabilizing activities in West Asia, urging the UN Security Council to hold the Israeli regime accountable for its atrocities in Gaza and elsewhere. |

💬 “Israel's ongoing destabilized and irresponsible actions and atrocities against the nations in the region are a real threat to regional and international peace and security,” Amir Saeid Iravani said as he addressed a UN Security Council session in New York on Thursday. ● “It is time for the Security Council to shoulder its responsibility and address the real threat to international peace and security. The Security Council must promptly fulfill its duty under Chapter 7 of the Charter in response to Israel's reckless defiance. ● “It must take urgent and punitive measures to compel this regime to stop its genocide and massacre against the people of Gaza and uphold its obligations especially fully implement the UNSC resolutions and legally binding orders of the International Court of Justice.”

He noted that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeks to expand and escalate the conflict in the region to stay in power, emphasizing that the members of the Security Council must not allow the body to be held hostage to the ambitions of such a "belligerent regime." [...] The Iranian UN ambassador finally stated that the Islamic Republic has no intention of engaging in conflict with the US in the region; however, it will use its inherent right to respond proportionately if Washington initiates military operations against Iran, its citizens, or its security and interests.

■ Iran to launch missiles anywhere in Israel if necessary (Mehr News)

Andy Worthington | End Times for Humanity, With the West Fully Committed to Israel’s Genocide of the Palestinians and to Complete Climate Collapse | Over the last few weeks, I’ve been suffering from a state of exhaustion that made me wonder if I had some undiagnosed terminal illness. I’ve been unable to concentrate, and, as soon as I woke up, I was wondering when I could go back to bed again. ■ Yesterday, the fog finally lifted, and I realized that my exhaustion was almost certainly a result of the dire state of the world right now — primarily related to Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza (still, after the murder of over 37,000 civilians, largely supported by western politicians and the mainstream media), but also to the cascading climate collapse that these same politicians and media outlets don’t want to talk about. ■ On Gaza, I suspect that my exhaustion was primarily related to an overwhelming sense of futility and powerlessness regarding any hope that the relentless genocide might be stopped. For those, like myself, who have been watching this grotesque live-streamed genocide unfold for over six months — ever since Hamas militants and other Gaza-based militants broke out of the “open-air prison” of the Gaza Strip on October 7 and killed 695 Israeli civilians, 373 members of the military and the police, and 71 foreign nationals — there have only been a few moments when hope appeared to be in the ascendant, and on each occasion the aftermath, when that hope was crushed, has been difficult to negotiate.

■ 50 bodies found in mass grave in Gaza hospital days after Israeli withdrawal (04/21/24)

"According to the information and indications available to senior officials in Israel, there is a possibility that the International Court of Justice in The Hague will issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant and Halevi," Israel's Channel 13 reported on Wednesday. | The Israeli National Security Council held secret discussions on the possibility of issuing international arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, a local media outlet reported Wednesday. ● Israel's Channel 13 reported that the discussions took place "in anticipation of the possibility of international arrest warrants being issued in the coming days against senior officials in Israel."

"AP: Hamas willing to accept five-year truce, lay down weapons if Palestinian state is formed" | Khalil al-Hayya, a top Hamas political official, told the Associated Press that the group would be willing to agree to a five-year truce with Israel, lay down its arms and become a political party if a Palestinian state is formed based on the pre-1967 borders. ● Al-Hayya, who has represented Hamas in ceasefire and hostage exchange negotiations, expressed the group's willingness in joining the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), headed by rival party Fatah, to form a unified government in the West Bank and Gaza.

■ Palestinians dig up 51 more bodies from mass grave in Gaza’s Khan Younis (Anadolu)
■ Gaza Massacres Proceed on Day 201 of Israeli Aggression (Al Manar TV)
■ Calls grow for Gaza mass graves probe amid Rafah ground assault fears (The New Arab)
■ UN Expert’s Report Accuses Israel of Committing Genocide in Gaza (Sputnik News)
■ Hamas Signals Readiness for Truce and Disarmament (Novinite)

House Speaker Mike Johnson has threatened to use National Guard against students’ pro-Palestinian protests at US universities as he got booed and heckled at Columbia University. | Following a meeting with Columbia University President Minouche Shafik, the Republican speaker of the US House of Representatives along with a group of Republican House members urged Shafik to step down if she fails to control Gaza war demonstrations on campus during a press briefing at Low Library on Wednesday. Johnson was joined by GOP Reps. Mike Lawler, Nicole Malliotakis and Anthony D'Esposito, all from New York, and Virginia Foxx of North Carolina.

💬 “We just can’t allow this kind of hatred and anti-Semitism to flourish on our campuses. And it must be stopped in its tracks. Those who are perpetrating this violence should be arrested,” he said, accusing protesters of chasing down Jewish students and harassing them.

■ Students take legal action against Washington school's anti-Gaza censorship (TRT Wold)
■ U.S. House Speaker Johnson booed during speech at Columbia University (aNews)
■ 34 arrested during pro-Palestine protest at University of Texas camps (TRT Wold)
■ Pro-Palestinian protests surge at US colleges amid walkouts, crackdown (Al Mayadeen)
■ How Columbia University is the new face of the Intellectual Intifada (Al Mayadeen)

BREAKING | Multiple Palestinians killed and several injured in an Israeli airstrike on the Abu Hasanin family home in Yebna refugee camp, Rafah pic.twitter.com/1yLFJR9p54

— TIMES OF GAZA (@Timesofgaza) April 24, 2024

There you go: TWITTER Censorship: "Hmm...this page doesn’t exist. Try searching for something else."

President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran has issued a stern warning to the Israeli regime in the event of any act of aggression against Iranian territory.

President Raisi has sent a pointed warning to West Jerusalem | Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has threatened Israel with annihilation if it attempts to attack Iran again. ● Raisi arrived in Pakistan on Monday for a three-day visit. He addressed the recent tensions between Tehran and West Jerusalem at an event in Punjab on Tuesday.

💬 “If the Zionist regime once again makes a mistake and attacks the sacred land of Iran, the situation will be different, and it is not clear whether anything will remain of this regime,” the state news agency IRNA quoted Raisi as saying.

■ Nothing will remain of Israeli regime if it attacks Iran: Raisi (IRNA)

JOHN McEVOY | New court documents reveal that ministers David Cameron and Kemi Badenoch authorised UK arms sales to Israel right after an airstrike killed three British charity workers in Gaza. | On 1 April, Israeli forces launched a series of airstrikes on a convoy of aid workers in Gaza, killing three Britons, a Polish national, a Palestinian, an American-Canadian dual citizen, and an Australian. ● The Israeli Air Force carried out the bombing with a Hermes 450 drone. According to Campaign Against the Arms Trade, this drone may be powered by a R902(W) Wankel engine produced in Britain by UAV Engines Limited (UEL). ● New court documents show that the UK government decided to continue arms exports to Israel on 8 April, one week after the strike on the aid workers who were employed by the charity World Central Kitchen (WCK). ● The revelation will put additional pressure on the Foreign Office to justify its decision not to suspend arms sales to Israel.

"200 days into the war. What's left?"

This is what the Arabic text on the banner held by this Gazan guy reads. pic.twitter.com/oXkVYwiMTg

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) April 23, 2024

The genocidal Israeli war on the Gaza Strip has entered its 200th day, with occupation forces killing more Palestinians in defiance of widespread international outcry to end the carnage. | The aggression marked its 200th day on Tuesday with no end in sight to the Israeli war that has so far killed a shocking number of Palestinians and led to a humanitarian crisis in the besieged territory. ● The Gaza Health Ministry said Israeli forces have committed three "massacres" over the past 24 hours, killing at least 32 Palestinians and wounding 59 others. ● The numbers, it added, bring the Palestinian death toll to more than 34,183, with at least 77,143 injured and an estimated 7,000 missing and presumed dead since early October. ● More than 14,500 children and 9,500 women are among those killed, making up over 70 percent of the victims, according to health officials. [...] Despite all these atrocities, the regime has failed to achieve its declared objectives of “destroying Hamas” and finding Israeli captives held in Gaza.

■ 200 days of Israeli aggression, 34,183 killed, 77,143 injured in Gaza (Al Mayadeen)

■ Will have a serious update soon on the F-35/nuclear bomb/EMP over Iran mystery (Pepe Escobar/Telegram)

Robert Inlakesh | Iran’s retaliatory attack on Israel was framed in the West as a reckless attempt to spark a major regional war, but in reality, Israel has been attacking Iran for decades. | As is routinely the case with Western-backed wars, the corporate media’s timeline begins at the moment that suits their narrative. We have seen this play out recently, with the attempt to rob the Gaza war of all contexts before October 7, 2023. Similarly, when it comes to Israel’s conflict with Iran, the two have been embroiled in what is referred to as a “shadow war,” the details of which are pretty shocking. ■ While the international media’s attention was riveted on Iran’s retaliatory strikes against Israel, drawing great focus to some 300 drones and missiles used in the attack, no major deal was made of Israel’s strike on April 1 against the consular segment of Iran’s embassy in Damascus, Syria, that killed a dozen people, including seven Iranian officials of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). In this unprecedented act of aggression against Iranian soil, breaking international diplomatic norms, the Israelis were shielded by the U.S. government at the United Nations Security Council, blocking any condemnation of this act.

Did you know?

The encampment protest movement calling for campus divestment from Israeli companies has gained momentum across the U.S pic.twitter.com/SXyu40ZkBh

— TIMES OF GAZA (@Timesofgaza) April 23, 2024

Farah Hajj Hassan | How Jewish anti-Zionist movements are leading the fight for Palestine against the Israeli apartheid regime and how alternative media is playing a bigger role than ever in giving these voices a platform they never had. | On October 19, nearly two weeks after “Israel” began its onslaught on Gaza, more than a thousand protesters stood outside the US capitol demanding the US call for a ceasefire to the slaughter. ■ No traditional Palestinian chants or Keffiyehs in sight, rather scores of Jewish Americans sporting black t-shirts that read “not in our name.” ■ In recent months, history has seen many "firsts." Coordinated attacks from the Axis of Resistance, the penetration of the Israeli "border" by fearless Palestinian resistance members, and a global campaign for BDS and Palestinian rights awareness. ■ But perhaps most impressive of all, and most unprecedented, is the very support extended from the brotherly arm of the Jewish people opposing the occupation. An unlikely ally for the struggle of Palestine, but a crucial one in the last 6 months.

■ Another pro-Palestinian protest dispersed in New York (VIDEOS) (RT.com)
■ Scholars launch boycott of Columbia University as protests spread across US (MEE)