CrossFireArabia
Diaa Al-Kahlout, a journalist from Gaza, was recently released from Israeli prisons. In the circulating IDF video, he identified the Israeli soldier who had tortured and terrorized Palestinians during his captivity.
CrossFireArabia
Montesano Devito, a software engineer, blogs:
The United States spent $38bn on military aid to Israel since 2023!
The U.S. has experienced a 30% increase in homelessness at the same time!
And then he asks:
Wouldn’t it be better to spend this money on American citizens instead of funding genocide?
CrossFireArabia
Australian singer-songwriter Iyah May garnered widespread attention after her latest track, “Karmageddon,” went viral on social media. She revealed that her management dropped her for refusing to change lyrics that branded Israel’s actions in Gaza as “genocide.”
In late 2024, the manager dropped May as she refused to change specific lyrics of the song. She revealed this on her Instagram in November.
In the song, May rails against “big pharma,” a “man-made virus,” “cancel culture,” and a war that she brands “genocide,” referring to Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Erasing any doubt about the lyrical targets, May’s website describes the track as “addressing the pandemic narrative, corruption within political, pharmaceutical, and health institutions, the Israel-Palestine conflict, violence against women and the social chaos that has swept through the world in the past few years.”
“While Karmageddon has sparked significant conversation and controversy, Iyah has stood her ground,” the website shares. “She refused to compromise her vision when asked to change a key lyric line, leading to the end of her contract with her manager. She chose to walk away from her record label and now, fully independent, Iyah continues to carve her own path as an artist.”
In the song, May says, “More than war, it’s genocide” and “Kids are killed from Israel’s actions.”
Despite losing her contract and manager, May’s Karmageddon has gone viral receiving support and likes from everywhere. On her Instagram, she expressed her gratitude to the people who supported her by saying:
“Thank you for getting behind this track with me. It’s been a journey to get this song out there and there were people who tried to stop this from happening.”
Raised in Far North Queensland in a tiny rainforest village in Australia, May pursued medicine in New York, where she met rapper Shaggy by coincidence and performed for him, accoridng to reports. Thus, setting the path for a music career as well. Before taking on the stage name ‘Iyah May’, she performed under the name, “Mayah”.
The track has caught the attention of those on the right, with Ryan Fournier, a political activist and chair of Students for Trump, sharing a clip of the song on X, formerly Twitter.
CrossFireArabia
As part of its ongoing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Israel is attempting to destroy the security and justice structures in the enclave by undermining public order. Israel’s inhumane strategy is designed to guarantee the Palestinians’ annihilation of one another without resorting to direct military action itself.
In order to spread chaos and insecurity as part of its genocidal war and create disastrous conditions that will result in the destruction of Palestinians in the Strip as a whole, the Israeli army has attempted to target members of the security and civil police forces as well as individuals working to coordinate the entry of humanitarian aid. Since the start of its genocide on 7 October 2023, Israel has been targeting members of these groups or teams while they are working and even while they are in their homes or shelters.
Chaos
The state of chaos brought about by the breakdown of the security system due to the Israeli army’s permitting of organized gangs to enter areas under its military control in order to steal humanitarian aid has resulted in the concerning rise of armed groups. These groups are composed of masked individuals who carry out coordinated attacks against civilians under a variety of pretexts, including “defending aid”, in egregious violation of civilians’ basic rights and dignity, which are guaranteed by international law.
Due to the chaos and the breakdown of the security system in the Gaza Strip, some families have started using weapons to settle disputes among themselves. This has resulted in the rise of individual retaliation and the spread of disputes and revenge through illegal means.
In addition to being a flagrant breach of international humanitarian law, Israel’s approach makes the population’s dire humanitarian situation worse. Israel’s 15-month-long genocide in Gaza has systematically destroyed civilian infrastructure, undermining political institutions and increasing the suffering of the civilian populace in ways never seen before in Gaza.
Masked Men
The Euro-Med Monitor field team has documented numerous instances in which anonymous masked men handcuffed individuals and physically assaulted or shot them—under the guise of these individuals’ involvement in thefts, attacks on private property and aid trucks, or trafficking in stolen goods—either by severely beating them or shooting them in the limbs. These actions are occurring outside of the legal system, i.e. without any legal processes to protect the rights of the accused, including their right to an investigation into accusations made against them. This is a blatant violation of fundamental rights and human dignity, and represents a grave lack of justice.
The systematic Israeli targeting of the police and security systems in the Gaza Strip makes it crucial to find effective mechanisms to control security and maintain community peace. However, any measures must be implemented within the approved legal frameworks, guaranteeing respect for people’s human dignity and the protection of their basic rights without any violations or transgressions.
Deliberate Destruction
The aforementioned violations are part of a deliberate Israeli strategy to destroy the Gaza Strip’s security and justice system by bombing official and makeshift police stations, judicial institutions, and police officers and staff, including local security personnel representing private companies or civil committees. The targeting of Palestinian courts and prisons by gangs backed by Israel in an effort to sow disarray and undermine stability is another example of the violations.
In addition to impairing the police’s capacity to maintain internal security, the Israeli occupation army’s frequent targeting of police officers or their makeshift checkpoints strikes fear in the hearts of the populace and keeps them from using these checkpoints to lodge complaints, which encourages the use of force and increases the tendency for people to take matters into their own hands, further destabilising the weakened security situation.
It is essential to uphold the values of justice and human dignity and to guarantee that those suspected of violating them are treated humanely and with discipline.
Regulating this situation and ensuring that any party tasked with upholding community security follows the law and respects human dignity are obligations of the Gaza Strip’s authorities and the relevant Palestinian factions, particularly Hamas. However, the international community must apply more pressure on Israel to cease attacking the Strip’s justice system and police, which are vital civil institutions. Ending Israel’s crime of genocide and all of its manifestations, including direct and indirect acts intended to systematically exterminate the Palestinian people, is the radical solution to all humanitarian crises in the enclave.
Euro-Med Monitor emphasizes that justice and dignity for the Palestinian people can only be attained by putting an end to Israel’s persistent crimes and violations.
CrossFireArabia
More than 1,000 mosques have been completely destroyed and/or damaged in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip last year, Palestinian authorities stated on Sunday.
The Palestinian Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs pointed out that 815 mosques were completely destroyed whilst 151 others partially damaged.
In addition to that the ministry stated that 19 cemeteries and three churches were also destroyed in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza that started on 7 October 2023 and followed the following year and goes on today.
In the occupied West Bank, the ministry recorded 256 settler intrusions into the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem last year according to Anadolu.
According to the ministry, some 2,567 illegal settlers forced their way into the mosque complex to celebrate the week-long Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, which was marked from Dec. 25 to Jan. 2.
The ministry also documented Israeli attacks on 20 mosques in the occupied West Bank.
Tension has been running high across the occupied Palestinian territories due to Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 45,800 people, mostly women and children, since Oct. 7, 2023.
In November, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its deadly war on Gaza.
