Middle East Eye

📰 Israel bombed tents in Gaza’s al-Mawasi “humanitarian zone”, killing at least seven people overnight, the Wafa news agency reported. Tents were reportedly set ablaze following the strikes in what the Palestinian agency called a “massacre”. The strikes come as the US confirms it has continued to send weapons to Israel, save for the one shipment of 2,000-pound bombs it is currently reviewing.

🗞️ Two top Democrat holdouts in US Congress have put their support behind an $18bn sale of 50 F-15 fighter jets to Israel, lifting the last remaining hurdle for the sale to move forward, several major newspapers have reported. Congressman Gregory Meeks, a ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs committee, and Senator Ben Cardin, who currently chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, both announced that they signed off on the deal under pressure from President Joe Biden's administration after the lawmakers had held up supporting the deal over their concerns about Israel's conduct in the war on Gaza Read further ⤵️ https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/two-top-congressional-democrats-approve-18bn-sale-f-15-fighter-jets-israel?utm_source=telegram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social_traffic

🎥 On Tuesday, The White House responded to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s claims, which he made earlier today, that the US had been “withholding weapons and ammunition from Israel." White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “We generally do not know what he’s talking about. We just don’t.” She added that the U.S. is having “constructive discussions” with Israel about the paused shipment of heavy bombs, and that is the only transfer being delayed

🔴 RECAP #Israel #Palestine (as of 23:30 GMT, 18 April) - At least 25 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks on the enclave in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 37,372 people killed since the start of the war - 3,500 children in Gaza are at risk of dying due to malnourishment as a result of Israel's war and siege - A US presidential envoy landed in Lebanon on Tuesday - A senior doctor from Gaza died while under Shin Bet investigation in November, six days after Israeli forces arrested him from the Palestinian enclave - Israel's war on Gaza has created unprecedented soil, water and air pollution, destroyed sanitation systems and left tons of debris from explosive devices, according to a UN report - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned that there is "momentum potentially in the direction" toward war between Israel and Hezbollah - Editors on Wikipedia have voted to label the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as "generally unreliable" regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

🗞️ The number of US troops stationed in Jordan has soared to a two-decade high amid Israel's war on Gaza, according to a new congressional report. US President Joe Biden informed Congress on 7 June that the US had deployed 3,813 to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, a nearly 20 percent increase in troop numbers from December. The troop levels are higher than at any time since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, according to US troop levels reported at the time. Read further ⤵️ https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-troop-numbers-jordan-surge-record-high-amid-gaza-war?utm_source=telegram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social_traffic

Editors on Wikipedia have voted to label the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as "generally unreliable" regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported on Tuesday. As a result the ADL is being added to a list of sources that are either banned or partially restricted. A majority of editors also voted to deem the organisation unreliable on the topic of antisemitism because it acts primarily as a pro-Israel organisation tending to label legitimate criticism of Israel as antisemitism. 🔗 Tap the link for more on this story https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/wikipedia-votes-declare-adl-unreliable-israel-and-antisemitism-report?utm_source=telegram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social_traffic

🎥 “Children shot at. Hospitals bombed. Heavy artillery launched on entire communities. All along with hateful, divisive, and dehumanising rhetoric" Volker Turk, the High Commissioner for Human Rights stated his dismay with the war on Gaza during the UN Human rights council assembly in Geneva on Tuesday

“There is no respected scholar of the Middle East today in the western academy who would deny Israel’s massive expulsion of the Palestinians in 1948 and 1967. Equally, no academic expert could deny that Zionism was always a European settler-colonial movement allied with the imperialist countries or that Zionism had always espoused racist views of the Palestinians and cooperated with other settler colonies extending from South Africa to French Algeria and beyond." ✍️: MEE/Joseph Massad* *The views expressed in this column belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of MEE Read the full piece here ⤵️ https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/why-academic-scholarship-israel-palestine-threatens-western-elites?utm_source=telegram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social_traffic

🎥 “Where are we supposed to celebrate?” On Sunday, Palestinians in Gaza were asked about their Eid celebrations during the ongoing war. One father stated that it is "just a formality and a religious duty.” Palestinians in Gaza observed a sombre Eid al-Adha while the Israeli military continued its deadly attacks, more than eight months into the war

🎥 The Lebanese movement Hezbollah on Tuesday broadcast footage purportedly taken by a surveillance drone over the northern Israeli port city of Haifa, in an apparent warning to Israel. The nine-minute video, published by the Hezbollah-linked Al Mayadeen TV and Al Manar, pinpointed several locations, including military sites and civilian infrastructure, as tensions simmer between the group and Israel. The footage showed maximum-security Israeli locations such as military bases, weapons depots, missiles, maritime ports, and airports in the city of Haifa, located 27km from the Lebanese border