Hamas to Arab nations: We don’t need your military support; can’t you at least send humanitarian aid to Gaza?

News Network
October 29, 2023

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The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has warned Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu against any plans to expand the regime’s ground invasion of the Gaza Strip after more than three weeks of incessant bombardments in the besieged area.

Abu Ubaida, spokesman for the Gaza-based movement's military wing, al-Qassam Brigades, issued the warning after Netanyahu announced what he claimed to be the “second stage” of a ground incursion by the Israeli occupation army into Gaza.

"We are still waiting for him,” Abu Ubaida said in a video statement. "We will make him taste, by the strength of God, a defeat greater than what he expects or fears.”

The al-Qassam spokesman also hit out at Arab countries for a lack of humanitarian assistance to the besieged Gaza Strip and said the occupying regime was to blame for the failure to achieve an agreement over a prisoner swap with Palestinians.

"To the leaders of our Arab nations...We do not ask you to mobilize your armies and tanks, God forbid, to defend the children of Arabs and Islam in Gaza," Abu Ubaida said. "But have you reached the point where you cannot send relief and humanitarian aid?"

The spokesman stressed that there were "numerous contacts regarding the prisoner issue," and a chance to strike a deal; however, Israel was not willing to agree to the terms of the agreement, which focused on the release of 200 Israeli captives being held by the brigades, as well the rest who were kept by other Palestinian resistance factions.

The al-Qassam Brigades previously announced that around 50 of the captives had been killed in the Israeli war on Gaza.

Israel has been waging a barbaric war against Gaza since October 7, when Hamas-led Palestinian resistance groups launched their biggest operation against Israel in years. The sneak attack, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, came in response to the regime’s intensified crimes against the Palestinian people.

The Israeli war has so far claimed the lives of over 8,000 innocent Palestinians, including more than 3,000 children, and left upwards of 20,500 others wounded.

The United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a resolution on Friday, calling for the implementation of an immediate "humanitarian truce" in Gaza.

The vote at the General Assembly came after the United Nations Security Council failed four times in the past two weeks to take action due to the US's recurrently casting its veto against relevant resolutions.

The assembly stressed the "importance of preventing further destabilization and escalation of violence in the region," calling on "all parties to exercise maximum restraint and upon all those with influence on them to work toward this objective."

Israel has rejected all calls for a ceasefire, claiming it would benefit Hamas.

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News Network
November 21,2024

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The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former minister of military affairs Yoav Gallant over war crimes against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The court’s Pre-Trial Chamber I issued warrants of arrest for Netanyahu and Gallant "for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024, the day the Prosecution filed the applications for warrants of arrest”, it confirmed in a statement Thursday.

It is the first instance in the court's 22-year history it has issued arrest warrants for Western-allied senior officials.

In its statement, the ICC's Pre-Trial Chamber I, a panel of three judges, said it has rejected appeals by Israel challenging its jurisdiction. 

The chamber said it has decided to release the arrest warrants because "conduct similar to that addressed in the warrant of arrest appears to be ongoing", referring to Israel's ongoing onslaught on Gaza.

Netanyahu and Gallant, it said, “each bear criminal responsibility” for “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts,” as well as “intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population.”

All 124 states that signed the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the court, are now under an obligation to arrest the wanted individuals and hand them over to the ICC in the Hague. 

The court relies on the cooperation of member states to arrest and surrender suspects. The Netherlands' foreign minister quickly said his country was prepared to enforce the warrants while 93 nations earlier reiterated their support for the ICC.

Triestino Mariniello, a lawyer representing Palestinian victims at the ICC, called the warrants "a historic decision".

He noted that the court had endured "pressure and threats of sanctions" from the US government, but acted nonetheless.

As expected, the Tel Aviv regime rejected the rulings, with its security minister Itamar Ben Gvir calling the warrants “anti-Semitic through and through.”

The ICC said Israel’s acceptance of the court’s jurisdiction was not required.

Israel and its major ally, the United States, are not members of the court. 

Israel unleashed its bloody Gaza onslaught on October 7, 2023. So far, it has killed at least 43,985 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 104,092 others, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Israel faces an ongoing South Africa-led genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

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