Yeni Safak – December 13, 2023
Gaza death toll tops 18,600 as Israeli attacks continue
Health Ministry says 50,594 people injured in Israeli onslaught since Oct. 7
At least 18,608 Palestinians have been killed in the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, the Health Ministry said Wednesday.
Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said as many as 50,594 others were also injured in the onslaught.
“A large number of victims remain under the rubble and on the roads,” he said during a press conference.
Israel has bombarded the Gaza Strip from the air and land, imposed a siege and mounted a ground offensive in retaliation for a cross-border attack by Palestinian group Hamas two months ago.
The Israeli death toll in the Hamas attack stood at 1,200, according to official figures.
https://www.yenisafak.com/en/news/gaza-death-toll-tops-18600-as-israeli-attacks-continue-3674748
Yeni Safak – December 13, 2023
Israeli media extensively covers Hamas ambush in Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City
Israeli newspaper Maariv describes Wednesday morning Hamas ambush in Shejaiya neighborhood as "Shejaiya catastrophe," referring to killing of nearly a dozen Israeli elite soldiers
Israeli media on Wednesday extensively covered the ambush by fighters of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas that left nearly a dozen Israeli elite soldiers killed in the Shejaiya neighborhood of eastern Gaza City.
Early on Wednesday, the Israeli army announced the names of nine troops from the Israeli army's elite Golani Brigade who were killed, as well as four others who were seriously injured.
The Israeli newspaper Maariv described what happened in the Shejaiya neighborhood as "the Shejaiya catastrophe."
The Israeli troops were killed in a well-planned ambush in the Shejaiya neighborhood, the daily said.
It said an Israeli force clashed with Palestinian fighters during which an explosive device was detonated in the face of the Israeli forces, causing casualties among them.
When a Golani Brigade rescue unit was dispatched to support the troops and evacuate the wounded, they entered a building that Hamas gunmen ambushed, resulting in additional casualties among Israeli troops, it added.
Another rescue team was sent to the scene, where more gunfire erupted, followed by explosive charges and grenades.
The Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper also described the incident in the Shejaiya neighborhood as "dangerous," which also resulted in the deaths of members of the Golani's 669 Search and Rescue Unit.
It added that the deadly incident lasted more than two and a half hours.
The latest fatalities bring the Israeli army's death toll in the ground offensive since late Oct. to 115.
Hamas said the increasing number of Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza confirms the scale of loss and failure on the part of Israeli leaders and the army.
"Prolonged presence therein will only exacerbate the toll of casualties and losses, casting the occupiers as bearers of the ignominious tail of failure and defeat," the Palestinian resistance group added.
Israel has bombarded the Gaza Strip from the air and land, imposed a siege, and mounted a ground offensive in retaliation for a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7.
At least 18,412 Palestinians have been killed and 50,100 injured in the Israeli onslaught since then, according to Gaza's health authorities.
The Israeli death toll in the Hamas attack stands at 1,200, while around 139 hostages remain in captivity, according to official figures.
Countercurrent – December 13, 2023
As UN calls for Gaza ceasefire, Israel begins flooding Gaza with seawater
By Andre Damon
The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, with the United States, the leading global enabler of Israel’s genocide, voting against the resolution.
The vote totals saw 153 member states vote in favor of a ceasefire, while 10, including the United States, Israel and a handful of smaller countries—Austria, Czechia, Guatemala, Liberia, Micronesia, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay—vote against it. The United Kingdom, Germany and Italy abstained.
Speaking in support of the resolution, UN General Assembly President Dennis Francis of Trinidad and Tobago said, “Right now, what we are seeing is an onslaught on civilians, the breakdown of humanitarian assistance, and profound disrespect for international law.” He added, “Even war has rules, and it is imperative we prevent any deviation from these principles and values.”
He noted that thousands of women and children have been killed, and “even more have been forcibly displaced by the incessant violence, with nowhere—I repeat, nowhere—safe to go.”
In a statement on the vote, Avril Benoît, executive director of Doctors Without Borders, said, “Today the majority of the world stood together to demand an end to this bloodshed and suffering in Gaza. The United States has once again voted to allow the carnage against civilians in Gaza to continue.” She added, “The US is increasingly isolated in its steadfast support of a war that seems to have no rules and no limits.”
The resolution, however, is non-binding, enabling Israel to continue to murder hundreds of Palestinians each day, and the United States to fund, arm and logistically support the genocide. In a show of open defiance, Israel added to its war crimes on Monday, blowing up a United Nations UNRWA school in Northern Gaza.
With potentially even more catastrophic effects, Israel has begun pumping seawater into Gaza with the stated aim of flooding underground tunnels and structures. The Netanyahu government has said the hostages are being held in underground tunnels, but President Joe Biden said on Tuesday he has been told Israel is not flooding tunnels where hostages are being kept.
Besides potentially drowning its own citizens being held hostage, Israel’s pumping of vast quantities of salt water into Gaza will have catastrophic health and economic consequences for the enclave and its inhabitants.
A substantial portion of the water is likely to make its way into Gaza’s underground aquifer, potentially poisoning the water supply. The salt water could also have a massive impact on Gaza’s agriculture, as a high salt content in soil is poisonous to plant life.
In a meeting with families of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said of the hostages, “currently it’s not possible to bring all of them back.” In response, the families told Netanyahu they believed flooding the tunnels would lead to the hostages’ deaths.
On Tuesday, when he was asked to comment on reports that the tunnels were being flooded, Biden replied that “assertions [are] being made that … there’s no hostages in any of these tunnels. But I don’t know that for a fact.” In his remarks, Biden referred to “the indiscriminate bombing that takes place” on the part of Israel, contradicting the repeated false assertions of his administration that Israel is taking measures to protect the lives of civilians in Gaza.
Biden also for the first time admitted that elements within Israel’s government are calling for the deliberate targeting of the entire civilian population of Gaza. He said, “Ben-Gvir and company and the new folks, they… They not only want to have re—retribution, which they should for what the Palestinian—Hamas did, but against all Palestinians.”
Despite these admissions, Biden was categorical that the United States would support Israel regardless, declaring that “in the meantime, none of it is going to walk away from providing Israel what they need to defend themselves and to finish the job.”
In announcing that the US would vote against a ceasefire in Gaza, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said, “Any ceasefire right now would be temporary at best and dangerous at worst.” She added, “Israel, like every single country on earth, has the right and the responsibility to defend its people from acts of terrorism.”
On Monday, the death toll in Gaza surged to 18,205, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said, with another 7,000 people missing. Some 70 percent of the dead are reported to be women and children.
The United Nations warned that disease is running rampant:
The spread of diseases in Gaza has reportedly intensified, especially due to overcrowded living conditions; which adds to the strain on an increasingly overwhelmed health system and an increased risk of people dying. On 12 December, the [Ministry of Health] spokesperson in Gaza said that the ministry had documented 360,000 cases of infectious diseases in shelters, noting that the actual number is believed to be higher.
The UN added that “cases of meningitis, jaundice, impetigo, chickenpox and other upper respiratory tract infections had been recorded.” It continued: “Additionally, the director of the Abu Youssef An Najjar Hospital in Rafah announced that… diarrhea and influenza were spreading amongst internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Rafah.”
On Tuesday, footage emerged on social media showing Israeli troops using Gazan civilians—stripped to their underwear—as human shields as they advanced into urban areas.
Meanwhile, Israel’s minister of communications wrote in a statement on Twitter that “we will never allow another state to be established between the Jordan and the sea,” making it clear that Israel is seeking the total annexation of Palestinian lands, with the unstated premise that its current inhabitants will either be killed or expelled.
Despite the overwhelming vote in the United Nations, Israel and the United States are bent on continuing their genocide in Gaza. All of the imperialist powers, including France, Germany and the UK, have declared their support for Israel’s “right to defend itself,” providing critical military, logistical and political support for Israel.
Stopping the massacre requires the deepening and expansion of the mass protest movement that has emerged against the genocide by turning to the working class and fighting for a socialist perspective. As the World Socialist Web Site wrote in its most recent editorial board statement:
Stopping the genocide in Gaza is the task of the working class. Workers should support the call by the Palestinian trade unions not to handle war materiel destined for Israel. The global demonstrations by millions of people against the genocide must be expanded and armed with a socialist perspective.
The struggle to put an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza must be waged as a struggle against the imperialist governments that are responsible for it and the capitalist system whose barbarism is being put on hideous display before the world.
Al Jazeerah – December 13, 2023
Is the Houthi threat to world order worse than the war on Gaza?
In economic and security calcualtions, the world is pragmatically less concerned with war on Gaza than it is with shipping.
By Zoran Kusovac
War in Gaza is not a major threat to world peace and international security. This statement may sound cynical, cold, possibly even ill-informed, but it is true. Except for one party outside Gaza that can make it matter to people’s pockets.
On the security level, despite its intensity, cruelty and the number of civilian victims, the war in Gaza is at best a narrow regional affair with just two parties fighting seriously, mainly in the Gaza Strip. It could be argued that the occupied West Bank is increasingly becoming a battlefield but it is still a step below full escalation.
Countries bordering Israel and the Palestinian territory: Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt, are balancing their rhetoric to show they support the Palestinians and their cause, but intend to stay out of the conflict.
That said, Lebanon’s Hezbollah is sparring with Israel on a carefully weighed and limited scale, as are several much smaller groups in Syria, but all of them are demonstrating restraint and unwillingness to allow the fighting in Gaza to flash into a wider regional war. Jordan and Egypt are staying put and it would take a very major escalation to draw them into any kind of armed action.
More distant powers that have interests and influence in the region, from Saudi Arabia and Turkey to Iran and the United States and a disunited Europe, are also threading cautiously, disinclined to spread the fighting either in intensity or in scope.
On an economic level, the war in Gaza itself doesn’t impact the world economy. Brutal bombing, indiscriminate targeting of unarmed citizens and civilian infrastructure, human suffering, misery, displacement, hunger and disease generate international compassion but, even if it gets worse, it is almost certain that fighting would remain contained to Gaza because business would continue as usual elsewhere.
Small but determined
This precarious informal balance of interests might be upset by the actions of a small but determined group: Yemen’s Houthis who endanger shipping through the strategic Bab el-Mandeb between the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean – a narrow passage that is the world’s third-largest choke point for oil shipments after the Straits of Hormuz and Malacca. More than six million barrels pass through it every day, mainly on their way to Europe.
For an average ship travelling at 16 knots (30km/h), passing through Bab el-Mandeb and Suez takes nine days less than going around Africa. It is also cheaper: Maritime experts estimate that the shorter route saves at least 15 percent on transport.
But there are indirect costs: Attacks on maritime traffic increase insurance rates, danger compensations to the crews and other costs.
Thus, while the war in Gaza does not cost citizens of neutral countries anything, the Houthis’ stance in the Red Sea could make prices soar, first that of oil but then almost everything else would follow.
Can the Houthi attacks be stopped? The first step is always diplomacy, but almost no power recognizes the Houthis or talks to them, let alone has any sway. The only exception is Iran, which supports the Houthis in principle but it does not control them. Nobody knows their current relations but if Iran indeed does not want the conflict to escalate, then the Houthis might be acting against its better advice. So even Iran may not be able to do much.
Sanctions would not work as various sanctions imposed on Yemen failed to stop the fighting there for the past decade or so.
Attacks on international shipping that escalated with the kidnapping of the Galaxy Leader in November and then culminated in rocket and drone attacks against unarmed commercial cargo ships and heavily armed naval vessels of several countries are nothing new for the Houthis.
They have a history of attacking ships in the Red Sea. During their conflict with an Arab, Saudi-led coalition, in January 2017, they attacked the frigate Al Madinah using three remote-controlled unmanned explosive boats, forcing the Royal Saudi Navy to withdraw from Yemeni waters.
Encouraged by their success, in May and July 2018, they attacked two huge Saudi oil tankers with (Iranian-built) cruise missiles, similar to those used in recent attacks. Neutral-flagged ships were also attacked in the same period. To complicate matters further, in 2021, Iran and Israel engaged in an undeclared naval conflict in the Red Sea alongside Yemeni shores.
Following the seizure of the Galaxy Leader, the US was reported to be considering designating the Ansar Allah, the official name of the Houthi movement, a “terror group” for involvement in “piracy of a ship in international waters”. But the US trod carefully, reportedly consulting with other countries and deciding to not (yet) make the designation official. There were no reports of any talks with Tehran but they cannot be excluded as Washington certainly did not want to risk pushing the Houthis’ big brother or its proxies like Hezbollah into a full war around Gaza.
Yet, after the latest missile attacks against commercial ships, Washington is reportedly trying to put together a coalition of 12 nations to counter the Houthi threat to shipping. Warships from at least four nations’ navies: US, France, United Kingdom and Israel are already active in the Red Sea and some have successfully thwarted attacks against themselves and against land targets in Israel.
With a coalition, the number of warships would increase and they could attack targets inside Yemen like launch sites, command facilities and missile storage sites.
Besides ships in the Red Sea, the Houthis continued targeting Israel, undeterred by the lack of tangible results. Israel intercepted a number of long-range missiles, some by land-based antimissile defences, others over the Red Sea south of Eilat by Israeli fighter jets. On at least one occasion, Israel’s most modern plane, the F-35 was used.
Fully aware of the coalition brewing, the Houthis want to prevent it from becoming active and functional. Earlier this month, Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, member of the Houthi political bureau, warned Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that if they joined such a coalition, the Houthis would target their oil rigs and storage facilities. The threat is realistic, both countries’ oil infrastructure is well within range of Houthi missiles.
Any major attack on oil facilities on the Arabian Peninsula would be a clear escalation and a global one at that, as it would push oil prices up and raise insurance rates for international tankers loading along the shores of Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
It would be both paradoxical and cynical if the conflict with so much suffering and destruction that failed to move the world were to escalate through attacks on neutral ships.
Zoran Kusovac is a geopolitical and security analyst, war correspondent and producer who has been covering conflicts in Europe, Middle East, North Africa & Central Asia for nearly 4 decades.
Asia Times – December 13, 2023
Houthis attack tanker & French warship in Red Sea
Officials warn that if the international community fails to act to stop the Houthi attacks, Israel will do so
By STEPHEN BRYEN
Houthi rebels using a drone hit a Norwegian tanker ship for the second time in the Red Sea on Monday, December 11.
The ship had first been hit on Sunday by a Houthi cruise missile, most likely a Quds-1, a copy of the Iranian Soumar cruise missile or the Russian Kh-55.
The first attack was reported by the UK Marine Trade Operations (UKMTO) office which reported the attack took place at 2100 UTC (or midnight local time) in the vicinity of the Bab El Mandeb strait, about 15 nautical miles west of port Mocha, Yemen.
The French FREMM frigate Languedoc destroyed two drones on Sunday that were aimed at the warship, and shot down another drone on Monday that apparently had been aimed at the Norwegian tanker.
The Languedoc also blocked a Houthi assault team trying to hijack the Norwegian ship, which explains why the warship was targeted by the Houthis. The Languedoc is working with the US Central Command in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea.
It is costly to shoot down cheap Houthi drones. The French frigate fired Astra 15 missiles that downed the three drones, at a cost of $2 million per missile.
The USS Carney destroyed three Houthi “land attack missiles” in October using SM-2 missiles. These cost around $2.1 million each.
There is no official information on the types of drones or the cruise missiles used in these attacks. The best candidate for the drones is probably the Houthi “copy” of the Iranian Shahed 136 drone, the same model that was sold by Iran to Russia and used in the Ukraine war. The Shahed costs around $20,000 per copy.
https://asiatimes.com/2023/12/houthis-attack-tanker-french-warship-in-red-sea/?mc_cid=25f2fd27cb
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