Israel

08 June 2024; MEMO: Israeli opposition leader Avigdor Lieberman said Friday that Israel’s government faced “complete humiliation” in Gaza, while “losing the north and continuing to surrender” to Hezbollah, Anadolu Agency reports.

“The Israeli government lost the north and continues to surrender to Hezbollah, which does everything it can,” the head of Yisrael Beiteinu party wrote on X.

08 June 2024; MEMO: A senior Israeli official recommended Friday that the government classify the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) as “a terrorist organization,” according to a media report, Anadolu Agency reports.

Israeli public broadcaster KAN said Gilad Erdan, Israel’s envoy to the UN, said the recommendation was in response to the UN blacklisting Israel as an entity that violates children’s rights in conflict zones.

09 June 2024; MEMO: Israel’s leadership is pushing the allegations that Hamas fighters raped Israeli women during the October 7 attacks for its own political objectives while the government’s ongoing refusal to allow the United Nations to conduct a full investigation into the matter threatens to hinder any evidence, advocates have warned.

30 May 2024; MEMO: The military wing of the Islamic Jihad, Al-Quds Brigades, released a video, Thursday, that features an Israeli hostage who accuses the government of Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, of preferring to recover prisoners in the Gaza Strip as corpses, Anadolu Agency reports.

“I am in good condition, despite the Israeli army trying to kill me several times,” Alexander Turfanov said in the video.

31 May 2024; MEMO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was “surprised and disappointed” by the Biden administration’s recent announcement that it wouldn’t support sanctions being imposed against the International Criminal Court (ICC) after its top prosecutor asked the tribunal to issue arrest warrants against senior Israeli officials including the PM.

03 June 2024; MEMO: Israeli opposition leader, Yair Lapid, renewed his offer on Monday to provide a “safety net” in the Knesset for Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to pass a Gaza ceasefire and hostage swap deal with Hamas, Anadolu Agency reports.

“The Israeli government should agree to Netanyahu’s proposal, and send a delegation to Cairo today to finalise the details and bring home the men, the young women, the elderly, the soldiers and the female soldiers imprisoned in the tunnels,” Lapid wrote on X .

03 June 2024; MEMO: A far-right Israeli coalition partner accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday of trying to “whitewash” a deal to wind down the Gaza war that is being advanced by US President Joe Biden, and repeated a threat to quit the government, Reuters reported.

04 June 2024; MEMO: A former chief of the Israeli Foreign Intelligence Service (Mossad) confirmed yesterday that Tel Aviv cannot defeat Hamas and Islamic Jihad militarily.

Since 7 October, Israel has waged a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, leaving more than 118,000 Palestinians killed or injured, over 70 per cent children and women, and about 10,000 missing amid massive destruction and famine.

26 May 2024; MEMO: Palestinian resistance group Hamas said Sunday that it had fired a salvo of rockets into Israel’s coastal city of Tel Aviv, Anadolu Agency reports.

The group’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, said the attack “was in response to the Israeli massacres against civilians.”

Israeli Army Radio said that sirens had sounded in the greater Tel Aviv area in central Israel.

Sunday’s rocket fire was the first in four months on the Israeli city since Jan. 29.

29 May 2024; MEMO: The number of Israelis who sought mental health assistance has tripled since the beginning of Israel’s ruthless war on the besieged Gaza Strip on 7 October until the end of 2023, reaching about 18,000 people, Israel’s KAN broadcaster reported.

At the beginning of this year, the Eurasia journal published a joint study by the Ruppin Academic Centre in Israel and Columbia University which examined the impact of 7 October on mental health in Israel.