Staff Alahed News

Dozens of protesters were arrested on Wednesday while participating in pro-Palestine demonstrations across US college campuses.

At least 34 protesters, including a member of the media from a local news station, were arrested during protests at the University of Texas in Austin, and at least 50 more were detained by police at the University of Southern California [USC].

The arrests come amid a wave of demonstrations at campuses across the US, which began last week after students at New York’s Columbia University set up encampments calling for the university to divest from weapons manufacturers with ties to “Israel”.

The crackdown led to mass suspensions and arrests of hundreds of students in New York and other cities.

House speaker, Mike Johnson, jumped into the fray on Wednesday with a visit to Columbia’s campus, where he faced jeers from the pro-Palestinian protesters and called for the resignation of the university’s president.

Flanked by several Republican members of Congress, Johnson denounced the demonstrations as “mob rule” and condemned what he called a “virus of antisemitism” at colleges nationwide.

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Staff, Alahed News

Severely damaged skin, signs of fatigue, unkempt hair and long beards - this was the state in which a number of Palestinian detainees emerged from “Israeli” prisons following six months of detention.

In the past few days, at the end of six months of renewable administrative detention, “Israel” released dozens of Palestinian detainees from several jails - people who had been arrested in the wake of the start of the aggression on Gaza on 7 October.

The evidence of mistreatment shown by the prisoners is indicative of what rights groups have warned is an unprecedented level of abuse taking place in “Israel's” jails.

Community activist Omar Assaf was among those released in recent days. Assaf, 74, was arrested on 24 October after his house in central Ramallah was stormed by the “Israeli” army. He was immediately transferred to administrative detention, which allows him to be held without trial or charge for as long as the Zionist authorities want.

He unveiled that the prison conditions were indescribably cruel, and that his appearance speaks volumes about the condition of Palestinian detainees.

💬 “They constantly assaulted the prisoners with severe beatings, using batons, rifles, and heavy shoes," he explained. "There were prisoners with broken ribs and limbs without providing them with any treatment."

Palestinian prisoner groups said that the “Israeli” occupation army has arrested more than 8,000 Palestinians from the West Bank alone since 7 October, including 280 women and at least 540 children.

Rights groups have documented widespread mistreatment, with the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees [UNRWA] last week releasing a report detailing - among other abuses - detainees being urinated on and made to act like animals, and children being attacked by dogs.

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Staff Alahed News,
Translation: Al-Akhbar

Iran and “Israel” presented two completely contradictory pictures of what happened at dawn on April 14. This is a rare occurrence when it comes to such developments, which are often interpreted with a degree of neutrality, even by these two parties.

“Israel”, which always claims to be a “credible” source for the reality on the ground, didn’t exactly come off as reliable this time around.

In this particular event, the relatively neutral reading – and the issues are all relative here – didn’t need much in the way of finger-pointing.

The battle took place live on television. Its military and technical details and political dimensions were analyzed in the mainstream and on social media like nothing else before.

It’s safe to assume that this is exactly what Iran wanted. In the days leading up to the attack, Iran informed everyone about it, as if it were inviting them to a “wedding”.

Anyone, who is impartial – most people are when they watch an event of this magnitude developing moment by moment, regardless of their previous positions – can only acknowledge that what Iran did was a bold, but calculated, act against an entity that enjoys complete immunity from some of the world’s most powerful and richest states because it wasn’t a reason for the expansion of the war, which is what Tehran said before and after the event.

Since everything was evaluated in a very broad way, it’s important to answer the following questions: Where did “Israel’s” claim of “victory” come from, and what evidence does it have to prove it?

Following the attack, “Israeli” channels celebrated, and still are, what they call a victory over Iran. The media outlets praised “Israel’s” supposed superior military capabilities and technology.

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Mohamed Hanipa Maidin

The legal issues surrounding the use of force, known to international lawyers as jus ad bellum, have once again been thrust into the legal limelight as a result of "Israel's" unprovoked attack against the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria as well as Iran's counter-attack against "Israel".

When "Israel" decided to launch a deadly strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, that took place on April 1, many would argue that the "Israeli" government should have expected a retaliatory attack by Iran.

As duly expected on April 13, Iran finally launched hundreds of drones and missiles at “Israel” in retaliation for such a deadly “Israeli” strike on its consulate in Syria. “Israel's” initial and unprovoked attack killed Iranian General Mohammad Reza Zahedi (Also known as Hassan Mahdawi). He was a senior commander in the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRG) Quds Force in Syria and Lebanon.

His death occurred while he was in a building adjacent to Iran’s consulate in Damascus – a location the Iranians claimed is still protected by international law. Apart from Hassan Mahdawi, the “Israeli” attack had also killed seven Iranians, including two veteran commanders.

Under international law, Iran consulates in Syria, and all the people therein are duly protected under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations 1963 as well as under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961.

Who violated these laws? Iran or "Israel"? The deafening silence on the part of many Western powers, especially "Israeli" allies on such a flagrant violation of international law has been mind-boggling.

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Alahed News, Live Coverage

Hezbollah Secretary General His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah delivered on Monday, April 8, 2024 a speech during commemorative event honoring the esteemed jihadi leader, martyr Mohammad Reza Zahedi, and his companions who were martyred in the assault on the Iranian consulate in Damascus.

Sayyed Nasrallah commenced his speech by stating, "In the wake of the martyrdom of our leaders, who linger in the shadows, we grapple with the paradox of unveiling their virtues and attributes, thereby enabling the enemy to celebrate its egregious crimes".

His Eminence emphasized, "The Islamic Revolutionary Guards have been stationed in Lebanon and Syria since 1982, fulfilling the directive of the late Imam Khomeini". He further noted, "The IRG's deployment in Syria and Lebanon traces back to 1982 following the 'Israeli' invasion of Lebanon".

The Secretary General further stated, "The presence of IRG forces in Syria and Lebanon persisted despite the global conflict imposed on Iran during that time". Additionally, he mentioned, "IRG officers and cadres arrived in Lebanon, notably in Janta, where the first training camp was held".

Explaining further, the Hezbollah chief emphasized that “the targeting of Iranian military advisors at the consulate in Damascus stands as the most prominent ‘Israeli’ attack in Syria in recent years”.

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Staff Alahed News

The international charity organization "Save the Children" has voiced concern over the high death toll of children in the Gaza Strip, saying the besieged territory is facing a “mass killing of children in slow motion” as the apartheid “Israeli” entity continues to block safe delivery of aid.

Jason Lee, Save the Children's country director in the occupied Palestinian territories, made the remarks on Wednesday, warning that time is running out for children in Gaza, particularly in northern areas, where they are at the highest risk of starvation due to a tight “Israeli” siege.

💬 “What we are witnessing in Gaza is a mass killing of children in slow motion because there is no food left and nothing getting to them. They are dying because the world has failed to protect them, and now families are fleeing to ‘Israel’s’ next military target to avoid starvation, caught in a death trap,” Lee said.

He went on to say that the international community must take serious action to prevent starvation in the blockaded territory:

💬 “Whenever we learn lessons from the past, we resolve to never again let “atrocity crimes” unfold. The test is now right in front of us. Children are being starved while trucks of food are denied access and continued fighting prevent delivery of the little aid coming into Gaza. We are failing that test.” ● “Unless action is taken by the international community, to uphold their responsibilities under the Geneva Conventions and prevent the most serious crimes of international concern – including the use of starvation as a method of warfare – history will and should judge us all,” he added.

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Dr Rida Al-Shab, Al-Akhbar Newspaper

"The day before October 7 is not the same as the day after. The Al-Aqsa Flood Operation killed the “Israeli” security doctrine. This prompted “Israel” to move from containment when dealing with the resistance in both Palestine and Lebanon to a battlefield approach under the slogan, “The War of No Choice.”

This is the narrative that the “Israeli” media is peddling both at home and abroad. The objective is to try and justify the genocidal behavior in Gaza and the mounting human and economic costs on the way to achieving the war’s declared goals: retrieving the captives, breaking the back of the resistance in Gaza and the West Bank, stifling the internal Arabs voices, changing the political reality in the post-war Gaza Strip, and imposing changes on the map to the military positions of the Lebanese resistance along the areas adjacent to the settlements surrounding the occupied Galilee.

The political and security establishment in Tel Aviv and “Israeli” elites have always linked their genocidal behavior to behavioral psychology and its American founder, John Watson.

They’ve attempted to justify acts of genocide in Gaza by citing the famous behavioral current theory – for every stimulus there is a response. The brutal response is the crazy war on Gaza, and the stimulus is October 7th, marked on the ground with the signature of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.

Here lies the crux of the matter. It is true that the behavioral trend in psychology says the following: “Every stimulus has a response.” But it links that response to a motive. Individuals can change abnormal responses or establish them through motives. For example, not every poor person (stimulus) is a legitimate thief (response). Responses to the stimulus itself vary among people with different motives.

Based on this, the inherent aggressive “Israeli” behaviors must be explained by linking them to the underlying motives, so that it is possible to understand the true motives driving the occupiers’ subconscious. Successive governments have worked, and are still working, to consolidate these motives in the process of creating a superior racist subconscious.

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Staff, Middle East Eye

The famine in northern Gaza, caused by “Israel’s” strangling siege, has reached extreme levels, Palestinian residents said. There have been several reports of people dying from malnutrition, including infants. ● Life for over half a million people there now revolves around a single task every day: finding something to eat. In this following account, a resident of Gaza City, who did not wish to be named, recounts to the struggle to survive in a war-torn city.

💬 “Things are difficult. Getting anything has become a difficult task, even simple things like sugar, salt and rice. We go on looking for them everywhere, even in old shops and abandoned homes. If and when we find them in shops, they are sold at crazy prices. About four days ago, around 800 bags of wheat flour came in. There are up to 700,000 people in northern Gaza. This means one bag for around every 1,000 people or so. My cousin was among those people who managed to get a bag. It's 25kg. He distributed it among our extended family and each of us got one kilo. Just like everyone else in Gaza, my sister and I mixed our share with corn and soy flour. We do this to increase the quantity. I spent three hours in the morning starting the fire and cooking it, and in the end, it wasn't good. It was hard, uncooked and tasted weird. My sister started crying and I tried to calm her by saying we could add thyme to it and eat it that way. Then I visited my aunt's house and they were struggling to get the fire started because the remaining wood in Gaza is not good. So, I spent the next three hours helping them. After that, I went to my uncle's house and they had the same problem, so I helped them. My uncle didn't seem right to me during the visit. I asked him what was wrong and he didn't answer.

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Maram Humaid, Al-Jazeera

Blood all over his face, and his eyes swollen, Ramadan Shamlakh arrived at a hospital after passersby found him struggling to walk southwards from northern Gaza.

The 21-year-old man said he had endured beatings, a stripping and a war crime – he was used as a human shield – by “Israeli “soldiers when they raided his family home in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City on Tuesday morning.

His story, and his desperate escape on foot to the south, came as the “Israeli” army renewed its ground military operations in the neighborhood in the east of Gaza City, prompting residents to flee again towards al-Shifa Hospital to the city’s west.

Shamlakh was at home with his mother, his injured brother, and his four sisters, when they were all surprised by tanks advancing and surrounding them in the area.

💬 “It was around 6:30 a.m. when the ‘Israeli’ soldiers blew up a wall in our house and then opened fire randomly at us.” “The soldiers brutally attacked me and my brother, who has been suffering from a foot injury since the 2014 war, and beat us extensively,” Shamlakh said. “We [told] them that we were civilians, and it was not our fault, but to no avail,” Shamlakh told Al Jazeera, while receiving treatment at Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Hospital in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

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Alahed News, Live Coverage

Hezbollah Secretary General His Eminence Sayyed Nasrallah delivered on Friday a speech at the festival commemorating the Martyr Leaders Day.

Sayyed Nasrallah started his speech by thanking the huge turnout participating in the festival Martyr Leaders Day festivities in different Lebanese cities.

“The martyr leaders are today greatly present and guiding us towards the stance and goals,” Hezbollah Secretary General said while asking, “If our leaders were among us, what stance would they have taken regarding the aggression on Gaza? Would it be neutrality or supporting the oppressed Palestinian people?”

His Eminence spoke of the strength of the Resistance and its people saying that victory is eminent saying, “Today, we are stronger and we have greater hope and certainty of the coming victory”.

“Everyone belonging to resistance is ready to sacrifice their lives for the Cause and the clear example is our martyred Leaders,” Sayyed Nasrallah explained.

In his speech, Sayyed Nasrallah spoke of the most important characteristic of the convoys of martyrs, wounded, detainees, fighters and good honorable people from the beginning of the “Israeli” entity’s existence until today is that no matter how great the sacrifices are, they won’t be weakened.

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