Weaponizing Food in Gaza

• CrossFireArabia
• July 2, 2025

More than 130 international governmental agencies have issued a demand for the immediate end of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the deadly US-Israeli mechanism for delivering food to starving Gaza. They called for a return to the Israel disrupted United Nations-led system which, combined international aid agencies with commercial supplies to serve the strip’s families who are struggling to survive Israel’s bombs, military ground offensive, and forced displacement.

It is impossible to see why an anti-humanitarian enterprise such as the GHF should, instead, attract $30 million in funding from the US which claims to be the global exemplar of morality and integrity. The GHF demonstrates, once again, that this is far from the truth. Since May 27, when GHF began operations, more than 550 people have been killed and over 4,000 wounded among the desperate thousands waiting for the delivery of food parcels at one or other of the four hubs, three in the south and one near the centre. UN relief agency UNRWA condemns GHF for being a vehicle for “weaponising” food aid.

GHF officials deny this accusation and dismiss reports of Israeli shootings and drone and tank attacks against Palestinians approaching militarised GHF hub zones. While killings of Palestinians have been reliably reported since day one, the US and Israel, which co-sponsor GHF, had shrugged off these reports until last week.

Israeli liberal daily Haaretz published statements from anonymous Israeli soldiers deployed near the hubs. According to Haaretz, Israeli officers and soldiers were ordered to fire on Palestinians “when no threat was present.” One soldier told Haaretz, “It’s a killing field. Where I was stationed between one and five people were killed every day. They’re treated like a hostile force – no crowd control measures, no tear gas – just live fire with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars. .. Our form of communication is gunfire.” He added, “I’m not aware if a single instance of return fire. There is no enemy, no weapons.” There have been no Israeli casualties during distributions is proof positive of what he said.

Until Haaretz published its interviews, the Israeli military claimed falsely that troops fired in the air when Palestinians approached them. In response to the Haaretz reports, the military prosecutor demanded an investigation into possible war crimes. Israeli human rights organisations Yesh Din and B’Tselem have pointed out for decades that military investigations are rarely launched and even more rarely result in prosecutions of Israeli officers or soldiers. Consequently, the military enjoys impunity and continues to act with impunity.

The modus operandi of GHF centres also contributes to chaos and Palestinian deaths. Aid seekers are not informed which of the centres will open. Times vary for distributions which can last one hour or until all the prepacked parcels disappear. Palestinians have to turn up many hours early – usually in the dead of night – to reach the distribution centres. Those who succeed have been on the scene first. Most are fit young men who can survive the wait and the scrum which always eventuates the minute the distributions begin. Women, children and the elderly face exclusion, bullets or trampling.

The parcels, which contain rations, hygiene kits, and simple medicines, can weigh 40 kilograms and cannot be easily transported by one person. The bulky cardboard boxes often break, spilling their contents onto the ground. Fights ensue. Palestinians carry plastic bags when going to collect aid in order to return home with something if not an entire package. When a distribution ends, grenades emitting red smoke are fired by the Israeli army to order Palestinians to evacuate the area immediately.

Medecins San Frontiers/Doctors Without Borders has said GHF “must be dismantled.” It is “forcing Palestinians “to choose between starvation or risking their lives for minimal supplies.” MSF said, “Every day [its] teams see patients who been killed or wounded trying to get food at one of these sites.” MSF called on Israel to “lift the siege on food, fuel, medical and humanitarian supplies.”

The UN has refused to cooperate with GHF, after expressing doubts about its neutrality, accusing it of militarising relief and of contributing to the displacement of civilians, particularly those from the north who must travel long distances in the sweltering heat to access existential aid.

Before Israel imposed its March 2nd blockade on Gaza, the UNRWA, the UN children’s fund, and the World Food Programme had provided Gaza’s 2.3 million residents with their needs via 400 (not 4) distribution mechanisms where Palestinians had registered. They were notified by text or call when to collect their aid. There were no desperate crowds forming hours before aid distributions, no scrambles to receive parcels, and no Israeli shooters or tank commanders to fire on recipients. Food was treated as a right and its distribution did not cost lives or involve the Israeli military.

Michael Jansen contributed this piece to The Jordan Times

Gaza: A Death Trap For Israeli Soldiers

• CrossFireArabia
• July 2, 2025

One Israeli soldier was killed and five others were wounded in three resistance operations in the Gaza Strip, Wednesday. The Israeli army later confirmed the death of another soldier, the Hebrew media reported.

The soldier, a member of the Egoz Unit was killed in a sniper attack in the Gaza Strip while four soldiers were seriously wounded when an explosive device exploded targeting a tank in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army also confirmed that another soldier, a sergeant from the 82nd Armored Battalion, was killed in battles north of the Gaza Strip. A tank commander and an armored corps soldier were also seriously wounded in the same operation.

An Egoz soldier was seriously wounded in a separate operation north of the Gaza Strip.

Some Israeli news outlets reported that several soldiers were wounded by RPG rockets, while military censorship still prevents publication and disclosure of the other two locations.

Earlier, the Israeli media reported the killing and wounding of soldiers today in “two difficult security incidents” in Gaza. Meanwhile, the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, announced it had carried out a complex operation Wednesday morning targeting dozens of soldiers in the Shuja’iyya neighborhood.

Complex Ambush

According to the details provided by the Brigades, dozens of soldiers and a convoy of occupation vehicles were targeted in the “Al-Huda Square,” east of the Shuja’iyya neighborhood in the Gaza Strip. The Brigades explained that the complex operation began with the detonation of a minefield by the invading vehicles, forcing soldiers and officers to frantically enter nearby houses.

It indicated that its fighters targeted the forces entrenched inside the houses with a guided missile, followed by an anti-fortification “TPG” shell. They then engaged them at very close range with light and medium weapons, killing and wounding the crews of the vehicles, as well as the targeted officers and soldiers.

In the same context, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), announced it had targeted a Merkava tank, Tuesday, with an explosive device on an enemy supply line in the al-Zana area east of Khan Yunis.

Regarding the resistance’s operational mechanism and the heavy losses inflicted on the occupation over the past period, the Hadashot Bezaman news website reported that the resistance “penetrated the modus operandi” and movements of the occupation army in Gaza, enabling it to “violently strike soldiers and armored forces on the firing range.”

According to military analysts, the resistance is carrying out precise attrition operations against occupation forces at their positions inside the Gaza Strip, contributing to the fragmentation of the occupation’s combat capabilities and maintaining a constant state of depletion without a clear line of contact.

More Than 8000 Israelis Evacuated Because of Iranian Missiles

• CrossFireArabia
• June 20, 2025

Since the onset of the war on Tehran, and which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu begun on 13 June, 2025, more than 8000 Israelis were evacuated from their and sleeping in make-up shelters.

This was according to the Jewish daily Yedioth Ahronoth, Friday, citing the Property Tax Compensation Fund. It also noted that 30,000 claims have been submitted to the Fund for damages to buildings, vehicles, personal contents, or equipment caused by missile attacks, the daily said as the war enters its eight day.

The Israeli authorities have maintained that at least 25 people were killed and hundreds injured since then in Iranian missile attacks begun falling on different parts of the country.

Meanwhile, in Iran, 639 people have been killed and more than 1,300 wounded in the Israeli assault, according to Iranian media reports.

Israel Waits For The US to Enter The War

• CrossFireArabia
• June 20, 2025

Everyone one is waiting for US president Donald Trump to make up his mind to enter the war with Iran on the side of the Israelis.

Analysts suggest clearly that Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is playing a great pressuring role to force the USA to enter the war, and especially to destroy its nuclear infrastructure and ballistic missiles. But for Trump, this is easier said than done for the president, seen as one of the most pro-Israelis in America’s modern history is in still in deep doubt and contemplation.

Aside from the fact that Trump is generally know for shying away from wars because it disrupts his economic vision of “making America great again”, he is trying to distance America from global conflicts.

And today, he is backed by global pollsters which are suggesting that 60 percent of Americans oppose sending US troops to take part in a war to fight the Iranian government. For Americans, the Iraqi experience of removing Saddam Hussein from power and seeking to rule the country was a devastating experience that dominated most of the first decade of the millennium.

Trump and his team at the White House are watching the war unfold between Iran and Israel very carefully but it doesn’t mean he will enter the war despite the conflicting vibes coming from Washington. Trump wants to keep the diplomatic door open on Iran. Yet he has clear objectives. He wants Iran to unconditionally “surrender” its nuclear weapons come what may. For this is a principled stand, with him arguing that Iran must not be allowed enrichment and prohibited from obtaining nuclear weapons. 

But this is clearly not acceptable to the Iranians who say enrichment is a sovereign decision which they will not break away from regardless of what Trump do by way of arms-twisting them to steer away from their nuclear programs long deemed for useful uses which Trump refuses to believe in. 

Deadlock may be! But Trump has also said he wouldn’t commit the American army to fighting Iran simply because Israel is doing the trick of fighting Iran under the pretext of wanting to destroy its nuclear weapons and different missiles including its ballistic missiles. Israeli warplanes, in a disconcerting fashion have dominated the Iran skyline since it’s started its war on Iran.

But this is also easier said than done for Israel – especially its central areas including Tel Aviv – has also been getting a hammering in the first six days of the war that started on 13 June 2025 with destruction of infrastructure and debris of buildings much the same witnessed in Gaza created by the Israeli war machine since 7th October 2023. 

Rather than just Israel Trump may have other considerations. It is not that simple to commit Washington to what tantamount to a global war where other global nuclear powers are likely to take part in. Countries like Russia, China, Pakistan and even North Korea are not likely standby and let American have a free-hand in possibly crushing Iran. For that would upset the global political relations and today these powers are watching the coming moves very carefully.

That’s is why Trump is taking a long time to make a decision on entering the war on Iran to the dismay of Netanyahu and his extremist government who feel that if they are to win the war, America must help but Washington has other global considerations including the sneaking suspicion of not allowing Israel to become top dog in the Middle East whilst at the same time seeking to clip its wings for their special interests.