Sorry, this administration cannot be trusted. They'd most likely nuke Jerusalem and claim it was because their dress got caught on the bomb release handles.

There aren't any, All of the muslim nations view them as terrorists wanting to take over their "host". They placated them because of their religion and because Israel. Now that the World sees them as useful idiots/shields for Hamas...


https://www.youtube.com/shorts/PYL0AHjejS8


That well has been poisoned forever. They will willingly let Hamas use their homes, schools, hospitals, nurserys anything they own to put mortars and rockets on knowing that the IDF will look bad for returning fire. I say after Oct.7th...let the IDF rain down holy hell upon them. Take out the trash. Do it quickly.

Doc, my statement was very sardonic in nature. Historically no mid-eastern country has taken them.

.

That was already my opinion @29.
I wouldn't be surprised if some are "chomping at the bit" to go.

With this administration...more like Mogadishu 2.0.

I wish there was happier news.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/idf-recovers-three-deceased-hostages-including-22-year-old-shani-louk

Hamas is slow walking the bodies so the leadership can dress like women and GTFO the region.

Sadly, I don't believe there are a lot of hostages left alive.

I pray I'm wrong.

America belongs making sure the best, most effective effort is made to extract any Americans kidnapped brought back from Israel into Hamas. Our forces should be in position for a "GO" call. They can coordinate with Israeli forces and intel as needed.

It’s pretty clear that the US government does not care about any Americans being held hostage by Hamas.

On a brighter note, we just finished a floating pier so we can provide food and supplies to Hamas.

In every way shape and form.

related news
Irans' President Ebrahim "The Tehran Butcher" Raisi's
helicopter has crashed in the mountains and is feared dead.
Israel is denying any involvement. Hmmmm

I heard he yelled “KOBE” after takeoff….

Just as we sat and discussed. I have no doubt we have boots on the ground in Ukraine, I am not surprised that the same is occurring in Hamas too. Does does this surprise you? Not me. We some times too interventionistic.

Or, they likely could receive better trauma healthcare in Israel, than on a nearby U.S. ship or base.

The U.S. Built a $320 Million Pier to Get Aid to Gazans. Little of It Has Reached Them.
Challenges to distributing food, water and other supplies continue; good alternatives to ground crossings prove elusive


WSJ
An ambitious U.S. effort to get aid into Gaza via a floating pier in the Mediterranean Sea has gotten off to a sluggish start, facing many of the same logistical challenges that have throttled broader attempts to ease the humanitarian crisis in the besieged Palestinian enclave.

The Pentagon spent $320 million and engaged 1,000 soldiers and sailors to open a major maritime corridor last week, delivering on President Biden’s promise in March that the U.S. military would install a temporary dock off the Gaza coast for cargo ships to unload food, water and other supplies. Fourteen ships from the U.S. and other countries are involved in a mission supported by humanitarian groups and several nations including Israel.

But in the first week of operations, only 820 tons of aid was delivered through the pier, of which around two-thirds reached distribution points within Gaza, the Pentagon said Thursday. That is roughly equivalent to 71 truckloads—far below the initial target of 90 truckloads a day, and about 15% of the estimated minimum daily need for a population of more than two million people facing crisis-level acute food insecurity.

The dock suffered another setback Saturday, when four boats attached to the pier detached during heavy seas, according to the U.S. military. Two were recovered and anchored nearby, and two floated northward toward the Israeli coastal city of Ashdod, the military said. The Israeli military is helping the U.S. recover the vessels, according to the U.S. military and an Israeli military official.

Around a dozen trucks from the pier never made it to their destinations inside Gaza, according to United Nations officials, who said that desperate Gazans commandeered the aid and that the trucks couldn’t use alternative routes due to Israeli restrictions—familiar problems plaguing aid operations in the strip.

“It is not flowing at the rate that any of us would be happy with, because we always want more,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Wednesday, adding that the U.S. was working to get “necessary security arrangements in place” to prevent looting.

One step to improving aid to Gaza came Friday when Biden secured a commitment from Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi to resume shipments of U.N.-provided assistance for civilians in the southern part of the strip.

That aid is funneled through Egyptian territory to the Kerem Shalom crossing in Israel. Egypt had been holding back that assistance to try to pressure Israel to end its Rafah operation. Another border crossing at Rafah remains closed.

U.S. officials have said that the floating pier, soon after achieving its initial target, would expand capacity to enable 150 trucks a day to enter Gaza, assisting at least 500,000 people a month. Sullivan denied that the current lower levels indicated poor planning, blaming it instead on “a dynamic environment.”

The pier has begun operating at a critical time in the nearly eight-month war, with Israeli military advances in Rafah obstructing passage through the two southern border crossings, which were the conduits for most of the aid entering the Gaza Strip. The maritime corridor—and a continuing air-drop campaign—was meant to supplement ground deliveries, which are cheaper and more efficient. If the sea route is able to ramp up and the Rafah campaign drags on, though, the pier could potentially provide a vital lifeline to a population facing famine.

Humanitarian aid from donors arrives in Cyprus by air or sea. At Larnaca port, it is screened and packaged onto shipping pallets. The pallets are then loaded onto large military or commercial vessels which transport them some 200 miles across the Mediterranean Sea.

The large vessels arrive one at a time at a large floating platform constructed by the U.S. military that is anchored a few miles off the coast of Gaza. Here, the pallets are placed on trucks which drive onto smaller U.S. military vessels that can reach closer to the shore.

The smaller vessels shuttle between five and 15 trucks at a time to a smaller floating pier, which the U.S. military constructed and the Israeli military affixed to the Gaza coast. The trucks drive several hundred feet down a causeway onto the beach, where the pallets they are carrying are transferred onto a separate set of trucks for onward delivery.

In a marshaling zone on the beach that is protected by the Israeli military, aid workers coordinate the deployment of the second set of trucks to warehouses and distribution points across Gaza.

The maritime corridor is a cumbersome system with multiple potential bottlenecks. Food, medical supplies and other goods from around the world are sent by air or sea to the island nation of Cyprus, where the aid is screened and packaged onto shipping pallets in the small port of Larnaca. A large military or commercial ship then transports the pallets some 200 miles across the Mediterranean Sea to a floating platform built by the U.S.

There, the pallets are put into trucks, which are driven onto smaller military vessels that carry them about 6 miles to a floating U.S.-built causeway secured to the beach by Israeli army engineers. The trucks drive a few hundred feet down the causeway and onto the beach. In a zone protected by Israeli soldiers, aid workers transfer the pallets onto a separate fleet of trucks that are used by aid groups to complete the final leg to warehouses and distribution points inside Gaza.

Weather poses a particular threat. Choppy waters in the Mediterranean Sea could damage the pier and make it unsafe for people to be on it, military officials have warned. Storms delayed installation of the pier for several days and could interrupt operations again. The summer is expected to be mostly calm, but if the pier survives until September it will likely have to stop operations around then and be dismantled.

The pier is an “extraordinary measure” by the U.S. government, said Michelle Strucke, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for global partnerships including humanitarian affairs and disaster response. But she said it was rendered ineffective by distribution issues on the ground and Israel’s lack of an effective deconfliction system to protect aid operations from military activities. Israel says it doesn’t target aid workers, and after a deadly incident last month the defense minister said the military would coordinate directly with aid groups.

The complex pier operation also adds a dangerous new dimension to Washington’s involvement in the Gaza war, which includes supplying Israel with billions of dollars of weapons. While U.S. officials say American forces won’t step foot in Gaza, the pier pushes them to the edge of a chaotic battlefield. Engineering work on the pier came under mortar fire a month ago by “various terrorist organizations,” according to the Israeli military.

Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group, has said it would treat U.S. forces at the pier as an occupying force. Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who are hostile to the U.S. and have launched drones and missiles at ships in the Red Sea in response to the war in Gaza, say air-defense systems make the pier a military base. Both are implicit threats to attack.

Three U.S. troops have been injured at sea already, said Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, deputy head of U.S. Central Command. Two of them have returned to duty, and one is being treated at an Israeli facility, he said without providing details. A U.S. defense official described the third troop as seriously wounded.

The danger to aid workers—more than 260 of whom have been killed over the course of the war, according to the U.N.—was highlighted last month when seven workers from World Central Kitchen, a charity founded by celebrity chef José Andrés, were killed in Israeli airstrikes on their convoy as it was delivering aid from a makeshift pier the group had built to receive sea deliveries.

The Israeli military controls the major ground arteries, and aid groups say their convoys often get held up at checkpoints for hours despite having pre-cleared the route. Israel says it is doing everything it can to ensure aid reaches Gaza.

The lack of a clear authority on the ground to secure aid distribution poses other problems. In a February incident, more than 100 people were killed when Israeli forces opened fire during a stampede of people rushing to get aid from a convoy. Aid groups assess that a surge of aid providing consistent supply for many days is the only way to reassure desperate people and convince them to allow trucks to transit safely.

Months of insufficient aid deliveries to Gaza, following Israel’s launch of the war in response to the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack, have pushed parts of Gaza into famine. More aid began entering in April after the U.S. and other foreign governments pressured Israel to open new ground crossings and ease restrictions on existing ones.

But after Israel launched military operations in Rafah this month, the level of aid deliveries collapsed, and southern Gaza is now at increased risk of famine. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees suspended food distribution in Rafah on Wednesday because of inadequate supplies and insecurity.

BAWHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAFUCKINGHAAHHAHAAAAAAAAA!!!!



https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/bidens-320m-gaza-pier-has-detached-drifted-israeli-beach


OMG, the level of retardation you have to be to still support any Biden is astounding!

Hamas Fires Rockets at Central Israel for First Time in Months

NYT
Israel’s military says the rockets came from Rafah, where its troops have been advancing.

Hamas launched a barrage of rockets at central Israel on Sunday afternoon, setting off air-raid sirens in the Tel Aviv area for the first time since at least late January, and showing that the group retains some long-range missile capabilities more than seven months into Israel’s war against the militant group in Gaza.

The Israeli military said at least eight rockets were fired from the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where Israeli forces have been advancing in an operation against Hamas that has drawn global scrutiny. Over 800,000 Palestinians have fled Rafah in the face of the Israeli offensive, deepening the humanitarian crisis in the enclave, according to the United Nations.

Air defenses shot down “a number” of rockets, according to the Israeli military, and there were no immediate reports of major damage.

Magen David Adom, Israel’s emergency service, said two women were lightly wounded as they fled to a bomb shelter. Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, took responsibility for the rocket fire, saying it came “in response to massacres against civilians.”

Israeli leaders have insisted for months that a large-scale ground operation in Rafah was necessary to root out the brigades of Hamas militants that remain in the city. The Biden administration, the United Nations and human rights groups have all expressed serious concern over the offensive, which they said threatened the safety of civilians sheltering there.

On Friday, the International Court of Justice appeared to order Israel to halt its military offensive in Rafah, although at least some of the court’s judges said limited operations could continue despite the decision.

The Israeli military said its troops continued to fight in and around Rafah over the weekend, engaging in firefights. And on Sunday, Israel’s defense minister visited the city, indicating that the military had no intention of stopping. Mr. Gallant received a situational assessment from troops there and was briefed on the “deepening of operations,” according to a statement from his office.

“Our goals in Gaza are emphasized here in Rafah — to destroy Hamas, return the hostages, and maintain freedom of operation,” he told troops, according to the statement.

Israeli politicians also said the rocket fire demonstrated the necessity of the Rafah offensive. Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, called the incident proof that “wherever Hamas is, the Israeli military must act.”

The rocket barrage briefly disrupted daily life in central Israel, where many people have settled into a kind of wartime routine. Thousands of Israelis called up for the military’s reserves in the aftermath of the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks have returned home, and rocket attacks have been largely aimed at communities close to the border with Gaza and with Lebanon.

Israel’s war cabinet will meet on Sunday night to discuss continuing efforts to reach a cease-fire deal and free hostages held in Gaza, according to an Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the talks. Diplomats are aiming to restart negotiations for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas at some point in the next week, according to three officials briefed on the process. According to the officials, preliminary discussions were held this weekend in Paris.

At least seven people were arrested in Tel Aviv on Saturday night as demonstrators protested against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. Featuring a large banner that read “Crime Minister,” the demonstration added to the growing pressure on Mr. Netanyahu over his handling of the war in Gaza. Many in Israel are angry that he has not done more to bring home the more than 100 hostages believed to still be held in the enclave.

Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet who recently threatened to quit the government, said he was seeking to establish an independent commission to investigate Israel’s failure to stop the Hamas-led surprise attack on Oct. 7, as well as its conduct in the war. Under Mr. Gantz’s proposal, the commission would also probe whether Israeli military and political officials had acted in accordance with international law. Mr. Gantz said he had submitted his proposal for cabinet approval; it was unclear whether Mr. Netanyahu and his allies would back the move. A rival of Mr. Netanyahu, Mr. Gantz has said he would leave Israel’s emergency wartime government unless the prime minister answered major questions about the future of the war.

Four U.S. Army vessels broke free of their moorings off the coast of Gaza on Saturday amid rough seas, the Pentagon said in a statement. Two of them were beached on the coast of Israel, near Ashkelon, and were being recovered with the help of the Israeli military. The other two were anchored on the beach near the temporary pier built by the U.S. military to help deliver aid to Palestinians in the war-torn enclave. The pier was still fully functional, the Pentagon said. The episode was the latest hiccup in the U.S. effort, which has struggled to increase the amount of aid getting into Gaza.

Egyptian trucks carrying humanitarian aid bound for the Gaza Strip waiting on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing on Sunday.Credit...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Aid trucks from Egypt were expected to enter the devastated Gaza Strip on Sunday under a new U.S.-brokered agreement to reopen a vital conduit for humanitarian relief.

Egypt has blocked aid from entering the enclave via its territory since Israel’s seizure of the Rafah crossing — which provides access to southern Gaza — in early May. The two sides have traded blame over the crossing’s closure, even as aid has piled up on the Egyptian side. After U.S. pressure, Egypt announced on Friday that it had agreed to divert trucks through the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing, which is roughly two miles from the Rafah crossing, as a temporary measure.

Roughly 200 trucks carrying food and other aid from Egypt were set to enter Gaza on Sunday via Kerem Shalom, according to Ahmad Ezzat, an Egyptian Red Crescent official. COGAT, an Israeli military agency that oversees Palestinian civilian affairs, could not be reached for comment.

The quantity of food, water and medicines reaching Gazans has plummeted since the war began nearly eight months ago. As a result, the United Nations and aid groups have been warning of widespread hunger in the enclave and urging Israel to open more routes for aid to enter. But in recent weeks, aid shipments into Gaza through the two main land conduits have been interrupted.

One of those crossings is Kerem Shalom, which sits at the intersection of Gaza, Israel and Egypt. Israel temporarily closed Kerem Shalom a few weeks ago after a Hamas rocket attack there killed four of its soldiers. Since then Israel has allowed some aid into Gaza though Kerem Shalom, but its distribution has been a point of contention. Israel says that aid agencies must distribute the aid. But the agencies say that the Israeli military’s activity in southern Gaza has made their job nearly impossible.

The other major gateway for aid is between Gaza and Egypt, at Rafah. Israeli forces captured the crossing as part of their initial advance toward the city overnight on May 6. Since then, Israeli, Egyptian and Palestinian officials have been unable to strike a deal to resume aid shipments there.

When the Rafah crossing closed, the Egyptian government also initially held out on sending aid trucks toward Kerem Shalom, in what American and Israeli officials called an attempt to pressure Israel to back down from its operation in Rafah.

On Friday, Egypt and the United States announced that Cairo had agreed to temporarily allow food, basic supplies and fuel to move from its territory into Gaza though Kerem Shalom. Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the Egyptian president, emphasized that the measure was a stopgap until “a new legal mechanism” could be found on the Gazan side of the Rafah crossing.

It remains unclear when the Rafah crossing will reopen for aid. U.S. officials are expected to head to Cairo this week to “support efforts to reopen the Rafah crossing,” according to the White House.

Two children stand on the back of a truck receiving bags from a man. Nearby a tent camp is visible.
Palestinians preparing to flee Rafah, in southern Gaza, earlier this month.Credit...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Gazans have been uprooted time and again during the more than seven months of Israel’s invasion and bombardment. Facing the prospect of having to pack up and flee once more, some in Rafah are putting off leaving, at least for now.

More than 800,000 Palestinians have already fled the southern city of Rafah and its surrounding areas over the past three weeks as Israel presses a military offensive there, according to the United Nations. But many are holding on in what was once considered the safest place in the Gaza Strip, where more than a million had come to find shelter.

They are exhausted, hungry and know that the next place they flee to likely won’t be safe either. Israel has continued to bombard Gaza, even in areas previously designated as safe.

Israeli forces dropped leaflets ordering people to evacuate and launched a military offensive this month in the eastern part of Rafah, and they have been advancing yard-by-yard deeper into the city. The U.N.’s top court appears to have ordered Israel to stop its offensive, but Israel, so far, has signaled that it will continue.

Some in western Rafah are waiting to see what comes before getting out. Others have even fled and returned, having found neither safety nor the essentials of life elsewhere.

“The most despicable word I don’t like to say or hear is ‘displacement,’” 30-year-old Randa Naser Samoud, a math teacher from northern Gaza, said on Thursday as the Israeli military pushed toward the center of the city. “Evacuation means loss of value in life, so much suffering and pain.”

Along with her husband — a dentist — and their three children, Ms. Samoud has already been displaced four times. They are now living in a tent near a U.N. warehouse, and though their area has not received orders to evacuate, about three-quarters of the people around them have already fled.

As Ms. Samoud walked with one of her young sons on Thursday, she saw trucks on the street being loaded with the belongings of families preparing to flee.

“The topic of evacuation is not an easy thing to talk about or decide on,” she said. “I am always talking with my husband about the plans if needed but it’s still hard to decide.”

Her father suggested they move to a school building in one of the cities where many people had fled for shelter. But Ms. Samoud says that the schools-turned-shelters are not good options because of a lack of sanitation and garbage piling everywhere. She worries her children will get sick.

With each displacement, Gazans must start anew, as they often can’t take much with them. Transportation costs can be hundreds of dollars.

“The ultimate horrible thought on my mind is the moment that I have to escape my tent and leave everything I have collected or bought behind me,” she said, pointing to the clothes, dishes and food they have in their tent.

Ahlam Saeed Abu Riyala, 40, said that concerns about access to water have kept her and her family of eight in western Rafah after they were displaced four times.

For months, they have been living in a tent steps away from the Egyptian border — close enough to speak to the Egyptian soldiers on the other side. As Ms. Abu Riyala stood outside her tent speaking to a neighbor, a water truck nearby pumped out clean drinking water for the displaced people in the camp.

“We are now of two minds; I say we should evacuate Rafah before it is too late, but my husband says ‘no,’” she said. “But we cannot leave for many reasons, and water is the top priority.”

The sounds of Israel’s air and ground invasion keep them on edge. They can hear tanks and, at times, Israeli armed drones that play the message “security” in Arabic or the sound of dogs barking, she said.

Even if they choose to leave, the cost of such a trek might be beyond their means.

“Mentally, physically and financially, I’m exhausted and fed up with the word ‘evacuation,’” she said. “I hate my life and all of this suffering.”


GREAT WAY TO NEGOTIATE A CEASEFIRE, HUH?

Read up on the how the Japanese soldiers treated the civilians on Okinawa during the war... they literally used them as human shields and forced some women and children to be suicide bombers because they knew US troops would get closer to them and want to help.

Another Anti-Israel Ruling in The Hague
The International Court of Justice is detached from reality on Rafah.


WSJ Editorial Board
Is the International Court of Justice paying attention? On Friday the ICJ ruled that Israel “must immediately halt its military offensive,” and other actions in Rafah, “which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.” Such was the dire prediction of Israel’s enemies before the Rafah operation began, but it isn’t reflected on the ground.

The only group Israel aims to destroy in Rafah is Hamas. Since the invasion of the city began nearly three weeks ago, Israel has expertly evacuated about a million Gazans. Because Hamas isn’t party to the ICJ trial, the ruling demands nothing of it, while seeming to tell Israel unilaterally to stop fighting in the terrorists’ last stronghold.

What about the Israelis held hostage in Rafah? The ICJ knows that Hamas refuses to release them, which the ruling calls “deeply troubling.” Well, thanks, but the judges effectively ask Israel to abandon the hostages.

Like most rulings from The Hague, this one will be ignored. Israel rightly says it is already in compliance with the court’s wishes—its Rafah offensive isn’t genocidal, so it need not be halted. No state in Israel’s place could do otherwise.

The ICJ also orders Israel to open the Rafah border crossing from Egypt. For weeks Israel has been begging Egypt to open that crossing. But since Israel, not Hamas, now controls Gaza’s side of the border, Egypt had refused, holding up 2,000 aid trucks. Only after President Biden called Egypt’s President on Friday did Cairo agree to reopen the crossing. But why was the ICJ blaming Israel?

A dissent on the court is notable. “The Court’s jurisdiction is limited to the Genocide Convention,” writes Julia Sebutinde of Uganda, and “there are no indicators of a genocidal intent on the part of Israel.” The ICJ case brought by South Africa includes examples of allegedly genocidal rhetoric from Israel, but her rejoinder is highly effective.

“The vast majority of the statements referred to the destruction of Hamas and not the Palestinian people,” she says. A few “renegade statements” by uninvolved officials were “highly criticized by the Israeli Government itself.” She finds that “South Africa has either placed the quotations out of context or simply misunderstood,” but also suggests another motive: “South Africa, and in particular certain organs of government, have enjoyed and continue to enjoy a cordial relationship with the leadership of Hamas.”

The inversion of international law is something to behold: Hamas slaughters Israeli civilians and hides behind its own so that Israel stands accused. The ICJ’s presiding judge is Lebanon’s Nawaf Salam, whose bias is outrageous. He has denounced Israel for decades and is active in Lebanese politics, having twice been a candidate for prime minister since joining the bench in The Hague.

The transparent nature of the ICJ ruling has the benefit of making it easier to dismiss. Israel is advancing in Rafah and intends to halt in a few weeks when the job is done. Only when Hamas is defeated in Rafah can war in Gaza ebb.

Better than the cut and run from Afghanistan? Or is that yet to be seen?

Well, Biden is clearly funding the foes for the IDF and slow-walking ammo to Israel. At this point we could've told the Ukrainian neo-nazis to go to Afghanistan and pick up what we were going to leave! Ooops, that ended up in Taliban hands and they sold the bulk to Iran...which is using it against the IDF...Soooo...


LET'S GO BRANDON!!!