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welcome back to gaza under attack where we focus on the ongoing. us enabled israeli genocidal war on gaza and its regional and global repercussions. before i bring you our panel, here is a quick review of what's been happening lately. our region on the break. the israeli regime has assassinated hamas's political bureau chief ismail hania in the iranian capital, tehran. iran's leader ayatollah sayad ali khamani has promised to harsh response and revenge. the world has reacted to hania's killing from russia to

turkey to china, all have condemned the assassination. it all comes a day after israel carried out an air raid in the lebanese capital beirot, killing a woman and two children and injuring dozens more. meanwhile, in a new report, the un high commissioner for human rights says israel has detained thousands of palestinians during the ongoing genocidal war on gaza and stands accused of numerous cases of torture amid allegations of a prisoner being raped by iron bomb. meanwhile, after weeks of uncertainty, the new uk government has announced it'll not challenge the international criminal court's jurisdiction over seeking arrest warrants for israel's top leaders. 10 months of a us israeli genocide in gaza have killed more than at least 40,00 palestinians and wounded more than 91 thousand others. let's get some thoughts on those developments joining me for the discussion, british palestinian journalist and filmmaker. hello here in the

studio with me and on zoom from san francisco us veteran journalist and analyst rick sterling. rick contributes to the la progressive, anti-war, almayadin and others. welcome back to the program, gentlemen. let me start with you, yusuf. israel has obviously crossed two red lines here, one in lebanon, another in iran, as he just heard. tehran has promised uh revenge to avenge hania's killing. your reaction. and how you thinks things are going to pan out from here? netanyahu for the past 10 months have been struggling to achieve any illusional victory, so he sees the chance of hania visiting tehran to offer his congratulations to the new iranian president, and somehow the american intelligence, they uh passed of information to the israeli musad and they decided to carry out this assassination in order to break the moral of the palestinian resistance and also to appease the israeli society. he was looking for any kind of

victory just to say to the israeli society, look, you know, our hands can reach anybody who dares to attack the jewish people. i think it's a flagrant violation to to the iranian sovereignty and it's also sending message that israel can repeat such attacks because um to dare and attack a high profile uh palestinian figure inside tehran that was... that that is crossed all red lines and i think uh the palestinian resistance they will retaliate in some point and also there the the resistance in lebanon iraq and also the iranian leadership they vowed to seek revenge and we'll have to wait and see what shape or form that revenge that retaliation uh will take uh let's go to rick in san francisco it is early in morning in the u.s. of course uh we've already heard from loyd austin the defense secretary and the uh um

secretary of foreign affairs, secretary of state, anthony blincan, both of them overers uh feining ignorance really uh about what happened and how israel carried this assassination out? yes, secretary of state, blincon is uh is in the philippines and when asked about it, he he immediately said, well the us was not involved uh, which is kind of suggestive, maybe they were involved, maybe netanyahu gave them a heads up when he was here uh some days ago, but uh, whatever, whether they knew in advance or not, it's it's apparent that... israel is rogue state and the us is its main protector, anthony blincon went to say that the main thing is to is to have a is to achieve a cease fire, ignoring the fact that this assassination of

the lead negotiator for for hamas undermines the prospects for a cease fire, so they're torpedowing the possibility. of an end to the uh genocide in in gaza and pretending that nothing has happened, exactly, and and yusuf, this assassination carried out on wednesday, it lends further credence, does it not, to the argument that the fascist government in israel led by benjamin netanyahu seeks a regional war involving the islamic republic of iran? yes, previously he wanted to drag the american uh feet into the region when he had attacked southern lebanon when he attacked number of iranian um high profile figures. i think israel wants to uh crush any spirit of resistance in the region and israel lives on committing violence uh they are not

willing to become peaceful uh with their neighbors in the region they keep provoking um the palestinians other people um in the middle east region and "i think netanyahu doesn't want to leave the political scene without achieving something uh more obvious, i think it's up to the uh palestinians, up to the free people of the world to stop israel's ambitions, expansionist interest in the region. yeah, and on that, what kind of impact do you think this assassination uh will have on the resistance on hamas and its decision makings and and the direction of this genocidal war? first of all, it will delay and..." cancel any mediation efforts with the palestinan resistance, because killing the head of the delegation that israel was negotiating with through qatar and egypt, it's so stupid, like they are making things complicated uh, if it's going to affect the palestinan resistance, not at all, it will have zero impact, the palestinian resistance will continue, it will become more

stronger and they will find a replacement to haniah, so they killed already tens of palestinian leaders in the past since 1948 up to now, and the palestinians have not... have not have never given up, they did not raise the white flag, and more people, they will join the resistance on the country. uh, israel is so stupid when they commit these assassination, because it's useless. palestinians will will never give up the right of resistance. that is for sure, and they have proven that over the past 70 odd years. um, the world has reacted of course to this uh killing, reactions to the assassination of the hamas political leader uh, continue to roll in from across the politic. globe, condemnation from nations in west asia, from turkey and beyond with the respective spokespeople for the governments of russia and china addressing the press. let's listen in. we strongly condemn the assassination of the head of the polit bureau the palestinian hamas movement, ismael hania,

as a result of a missile attack on his residence in tehran. it is clear that the organizers of this political murder were aware of the dangerous consequences this action would have for the entire region. there is no doubt that the murder of ismail hania will have an extremely negative impact on the course of indirect contacts between hamas and israel within the framework of which mutually accepted terms of a cease fire in the gaza strip were being agreed upon. once again, we urge all parties involved to exercise restraint and refrain from steps that could lead to dramatic degradation of the security situation in the region and provoke a large-scale armed confrontation. we pay high attention to this incident, we firmly oppose and condemn the act of assassination. we're deeply concerned that this incident may lead to escalation and turbulence in the region. china has always advocated resolving regional disputes through negotiations and dialogues. the gaza strip

should achieve a comprehensive and permanent cease fire as soon as possible to avoid further escalation of conflicts and confrontations. all right, rick, in san francisco, you just... heard what the russian and chinese officials had to say, blincan again, as you as you mentioned, has also uh tried to draw everybody's uh focus to uh ce spire, biden said the remainder of his administration he would try to bring that about, the uk secretary of foreign affairs here, foreign secretary saying he agrees with the biting plan, so it was killing uh ismail hania, the man who was in those negotiations, part of that plan, whatever the case, um uh, it's not going to work, um, the the palestinian resistance is far too deep, ismael han is tremendously respected, so it's not only the the comments pouring in from

around the world, russia, china, turkey, all sorts of other countries, pakistan, the palestinian, all of the palestinian elements from the palestine national initiative, to the palestine popular front for the liberation of palestine, islamic jihad, they are all praising and expressing their deep admiration. for the slain uh ismael hania, i remember seeing him on tv in 2007 when i was in jericho and um uh he was a spellbinding order uh and uh the palestinians i was with just said he's a good man and he was a tremendous leader it'll be huge loss but um as uh as your other guest was indicating uh his place will be killed uh ismael han, three of his sons were killed some months ago, his

sister and all of her family were killed by the israelis, they just continue to make these attacks, but it's um, it's in the long run, it's not going to stop the the samood, the steadfastness of the of the palestinian people, he will be replaced, he sure will, and yusuf, of course we "the resistance group hamas is a proscribed organization uh here in the united kingdom, but how might the response from the uk under this new government and its allies impact the ongoing situation in your opinion? response to this attack, i think it's just diplomatic condemnations, it's not going to stop israel from shitting more palestinian blood, i mean these international condemnations, it just..." to say to save their faces, they are not serious when they say to israel, oh um,

we advocate force fire, where is the uk government, the new one or other recon palain as a state, yeah, and the mean the whole issue started from great britain here, and just liv service, unfortunately the war, the the world has been watching the palestinians being slaughtered for the past 10 months and israel is a spoiled brat, they are spoiled so much that they do not listen to anybody even to biden who supply them in 200 tons of bombs and the brag burning palestinian homes and killing and destroying everything is happening in gaza for fun and there is international apathy, there is international conspiracy of silence and hypocrisy, double standards, uh palestinian blood is being shit because you know we are not ukrainians, nobody is intervening and israel is sending message to the whole world to say you know we are, they are um rogue parias appertides. say it no one is going to stop us out of control killing machine ev so much evil happening here it so much indeed and rick um we're yet

to see as i mentioned earlier what chaven form the iranian response uh will will take but we heard lord austin uh the uk the us secretary of defense saying that if israel is attacked uh the us will help israel uh what is the us calculus here uh is there you think uh going to be a us involvement, handing netanyahu what he has been craving for decades now, yes, yes, you're absolutely right, uh, has been wanting to this, wanting to wanting to uh involve the us directly in a conflict with iran for uh, for uh, for decades uh, at least since 2003, and leading up to the us invasion of iraq, ariel sharone famously said, after the invasion. and real men go to tehran um and so uh netan has been trying to do this, the us, um, i don't think

the the us wants to do this, um, but on the other hand, they are tying their hands because they keep underscoring the fact that they will always defend israel, so um, the provocations from netanyahu just get more and more extreme, few months ago we had israel attacking uh the iran an embassy in downtown damascus and killing people, now we've got them assassinating the the head of the political bureau of hamas, the lead negotiator, and then pretending to uh to uh continue with negotiations, so the provocations just get more and more extreme, at what point will the us say enough is enough and stop the shipment of bombs and weapons to israel, also i note that we've got the olympics games going on in paris, this is

classic example of where the uh the international olympic committee should um... could expell israel, they are, they have violated the olympic uh truths every day of this uh of this conflict, yeah, excluded the russian athletes, but not the um, the israeli ones, as we've been discussing, ismael hanny's assassination is meant to draw iran into a regional conflict because israel has already lost the war in gaza, well that is according to fry hus, a journalist, author and anti-imperialist activist based in belfast, here's more. israel seems to uh carry out these uh atrocious acts uh, i think it's prepared to manage the response, it knows that there will be a response attacking uh uh ismael h and tehran brings iran to potentially onto the battlefield in response

along with hez bola and the iraqi pmu uh kadris uh i i i think this is... a calculated risk on behalf of the israel uh cabinet. i think they are losing the war in gaza, although they are destroying the habitation uh and leaving uh nothing standing uh for people to try and survive after this war on gaza eventually ceases. i think what they are doing is trying to provoke an emotional reaction. i also think it is a propaganda cue for an internal. uh israely politics and a boost to their fatigued army to say we can take out the leadersuh anywhere any time, but if uh ismel han was here, he would say that his death holds no more value than the death of any child or any mother or any non-combatant uh in gaza, that the struggle will continue, that his morderdom uh, he will

be replaced by someone who is just a steadfast uh, just as strategically aware of the geopolitical struggles for the palestinian people and that while israel claims to take the head of the snake, all they are doing is removing uh one leader for propaganda purposes and potentially to create a further conflict, but everyone who has been murdered uh, including general solomon have all been replaced by people who are of as great equality, strength and than is required for the battle, the access of resistance will continue, and all all they have done is murder more people in their blood lost for their supremacy in the region. meanwhile, the us israely genocide in gaza is ongoing, a senior un official has appeal for the reopening of the land crossings into the gaza strip and the removal of crippling

restrictions on the delivery of aid to avert a humanitarian catastrophe in the wartorn palestinian enclave. koren fleiser, director, regional director of the world food program, says her agency has become unable to provide food rations in the strip since it doesn't have enough inside gaza. the wfp has scaled up its operations providing 420,00 meals every day and helping 13 bakeries across the strip. have listen, we're operating in a war zone, there are military operations, so at times it's not safe to go and we cannot go. um, you know, it took me um, six. hours from the moment we were authorized to leave darbalak to go to zikim, that takes normally 30 to 40 minutes, because you're waiting uh at checkpoints, you're waiting at holding points, the roads are destroyed, so you drive very slowly, and then there are people on the road, so you have to be very careful, we're

not where we should be to sustain that and to scale that, actually we are not providing full rations because we don't... have enough food in the gaza's trip uh for our operations, to the people of gaza, we will never give up, we will be there and we will uh support with the food that they need and with the hope that a future is coming uh and to the authorities on both sides, it's not enough what we're able to do, we need more crossing points open to bring in the food, we need the... safe environment on the ground to move uh safely to the people and for the people to access uh the the food distribution points safely. okay let's get my guests to react to those stories, starting with yusuf and uh that soundwite there from the uh wfp, the world food program regional director,

yusuf, israel is obviously continuing its uh starvation policy, how do you explain all these obstacles that are being put in the way of getting this aid to uh the coastal cl? it's all means of pressure on the palestinan resistance to soften their demands um... collectively punishing an entire population of 2.3 million people, israel describes palestinians as human animals, our children uh described as children of darkness, and everybody celebrated the 7th of october, they elected hamas, so they deserve to die. it's a systematic uh, punitive measures, not only during this junidal war, but for the past 18 years, i lived through, yeah, through six devastating wars, i lived in gaza, i know how it feels to live in a big prison. a big concentration camp, the young generation, 16 year old person experienced six devastating wars and israel restricts what goes in, what goes out, they make the the work of

international staff very difficult, they are destroying unura and they are blocking blocking the delivery of aid through either the the sea or the the border crossings and the aid drop uh parachuting stopped uh the uh send some shipments but stopped i the uh israel is still controlling the gaza trip because they claim that they withdrew their forces back in 2005, i think from inside the prison to outside the prison, yeah, so to alleviate the the suffering of the densely populated area areas in gaza, all border commercial crossings must be open and gaza must be opened up to the international maritime uh borders, gazans they should have their own airport, we should have our own. on uh freedom of movement between gaza and the west bank uh people telling me my family they say we are dead already yeah there is no safe place in gaza they haven't drank clean

healthy water for months they haven't slept for four months no proper shower um the psychological impact is is really worsening their situation uh imagine for entire year there's no school university is destroyed entire you know generation lost uh so much yeah "and you don't have to be rocket scientist to realize that israel has been waging apartite system against people, palestinians in the west bank as well. yes, it's all designed to crush the palestinians resolve or moral and also to kill any dream of having a palestinian state and to drive as many palestinians as possible through this kind of uh uh voluntary migration, but it's not happening, palestinians go where in gaza, it's a big good prison, it sure is. um, and let me uh go." to rick and and discuss focus if we will on that un report that i mentioned at the top of the program on the severe abuse of palestinian prisoners, including medical staff, in places like the uh stay temon

prison in the negav desert in the south of the 1948 occupied territories. the report speaks of torture and other forms of cruel and inhuman and um degrading treatment including sexual abuse of men and women, another allegation of a man having been raped by an iron bar that... that sent twitter buzz over the past couple of days, and yet no accountability, rick, israel has card blunch to do as it pleases. yeah, it's it's horrendous and i think these are all examples of of um of the what the international court of justice called plausible genocide, well it's no, it's not plausible, now it's confirmed through these specific. incidence and through the the the overall situation where you know we have reports of 4000 confirmed deaths, but the the medical

publication the lanset indicated that the the true number is probably 186, or it may be 186,00 deaths and hundreds of thousands of wounded, so the plausible genocide is now a confirm. genocide and i think pressure needs to be escalated on the international court of justice to to conclude their their examination of this also germany needs to be, which is also the nicaragua has the case against germany at the international court of justice, that needs to be, that needs to be highlighted, and they need to stop supplying weapons to israel, of course in the... us, the majority of the population is against the supplying weapons and it's just the elites and the political establishment that continues this, so it really is incumbent on

people all over the world escalate and do everything we can. finally, i will say that israel, when israel was admitted to the united nations in 1948, they committed to be being and they promised to be a peace-loving nation. yeah, uh, what we've seen, for the 76 years since that happened is the exact opposite. i believe that the case needs to be, we need to put pressure to... uh suspend or remove israel from the united nations? um, that will be the day if it ever um comes, we're going to have to leave it there, gentlemen, and that is all for this gaza under attack, special thanks once again to yusuf elhalou and rick sterling, and of course to you for watching the show. catch our earlier episodes on pressv.co.uk, and until we meet again, continue to keep palestine in your hearts.

depressed coverage of this assassination of basemmani now entering its uh uh fourth day we're looking at some

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