Iran sets up new defence council in wake of war with Israel
"The new defence body will review defence plans and enhance the capabilities of Iran's armed forces in a centralised manner," the Supreme National Security Council's Secretariat was quoted as saying by state media.
The defence council will be chaired by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, and consists of the heads of the three government branches, senior armed forces commanders, and relevant ministries.
On Sunday, the commander-in-chief of Iran's military, Amir Hatami, warned that threats from Israel persist and should not be underestimated.
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The Independent
39 minutes ago
- The Independent
Nearly 600 Israeli ex-security officials appeal to Trump to end war
Nearly 600 retired Israeli security officials and former intelligence agency heads have written to Donald Trump urging him to put pressure on Israel to end the war in Gaza immediately. The Commanders For Israel's Security (CIS) group sent a letter to the US President with 550 signatories, including fomer Mossad director Tamir Pardo, ex-Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon, and former deputy Israeli army chief Matan Vilnai. The CIS movement is made up of retired senior defence and foreign service officials, who support a two-state solution to secure Israel's future as 'the strong democratic home of the Jewish people via separation from the Palestinians '. 'It is our professional judgement that Hamas no longer poses a strategic threat to Israel,' reads the open letter, which was sent on Friday and shared with the media later. 'You did it in Lebanon. Time to do it in Gaza as well.' 'Chasing remaining senior Hamas operatives can be done later. Our hostages can't wait.' The appeal comes as videos of two emaciated Israeli hostages in Gaza were released, sparking international condemnation and protests over the weekend. Evyatar David, 24, and Rom Braslavski, 21, were abducted from the Nova music festival on 7 October 2023 and recorded in fragile condition. They are among the 49 hostages believed still in Gaza, of whom 27 are believed to be dead. French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz were among the leaders condemning the videos. Protests also erupted in Tel Aviv on Sunday and in front of the prime minister's office in Jerusalem on Monday, calling to end the war and release the hostages. Indirect ceasefire talks have stalled and Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly pushing to expand military operations in Gaza. The letter argued that the IDF has achieved its military objectives - dismantling Hamas' governance and military formations - and that securing the hostages now requires a deal. The letter continued: 'Your credibility with the vast majority of Israelis augments your ability to steer Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government in the right direction: End the war, return the hostages, stop the suffering, and forge a regional-international coalition that helps the Palestinian Authority (once reformed) to offer Gazans and all Palestinians an alternative to Hamas and its vicious ideology.' A UN-backed food security agency warned that a 'worst-case scenario of famine' is unfolding in the besieged enclave.
The Independent
39 minutes ago
- The Independent
Hamas is using images of starving Jewish hostages to destroy ceasefire hopes - and that suits Netanyahu
The Hamas images of starving Jews, held hostage in tunnels below Gaza, digging their own graves or unable to even stand, provoked the condemnation that the militant group must surely have expected. Along with its ally Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Hamas is now trying to trade food and medical help for Evyatar David, 24, and 22-year-old Rom Braslavski - along with 18 other living hostages - for an end to Israeli air strikes, and the opening of humanitarian corridors for Gaza 's 2.2 million people facing starvation. They will not get what they want – and neither will Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister - because both are locked into mutually destructive strategies that punish the innocent while they pursue the conflict neither really wants to end. David is 24, he's had two birthdays since he was abducted from the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023. A musician who planned to tour internationally, he was filmed in a Hamas tunnel digging a hole in the sand at his feet. 'Every day that passes, my body gets weaker and thinner,' he is recorded saying in the second of two videos released by Hamas. 'It seems to me I am on the way to my own death. I am digging the grave in which I will be buried.' He then collapses, holding the shovel, his head bowed. Braslavski, a soldier working at the Nova festival close to the border with Gaza when Hamas led an operation that killed nearly 1,200 and in which over 250 people were kidnapped, was being held by Palestinian Islamic Jihad. A video was also released of him at the weekend. 'I can't stand I can't walk to the bathroom, I've run out of food and water,' he is filmed saying through tears. After this latest video, Hamas said it had lost contact with the PIJ. In the footage which has been widely condemned, both men are clearly badly emaciated. An assement by expert doctors from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum led by professor Ronit Endervelt said: 'Evyatar's current weight is estimated at approximately 40-45kg, a decrease of about 41 per cent from his original body weight of around 76kg, defined by the World Health Organization as severe thinness. 'Rom began captivity with a body mass at the lower limit and a weight of about 65kg and is therefore at high risk from weight loss. His current weight is estimated at around 37-47 kg, a decrease of approximately 31 per cent.' The hostages' supporters have long been critical of the Israeli government and Netanyahu for what they say has been the pursuit of the war with Hamas rather than focus on the release of hostages. 'I pray that Rom hasn't given up and still believes he's coming home. I pray that Rom hasn't accepted the devastating reality that maybe no one will come to rescue him and that he might die there,' his mother, Tami, said in a statement sent to The Independent. Both men speak of how little they have been able to eat and drink. It is assumed that Hamas is highlighting the starvation of Jewish Israelis held in Gaza to show the wider plight of the whole enclave, where aid organizations and the United Nations have said Israel is starving the population. In its latest assessment of Gaza's population, the UN's World Food Programme said that more than one in three people in Gaza are now 'going days at a time without eating'. It added: 'More than 500,000 people – nearly a quarter of Gaza's population – are enduring famine-like conditions, while the remaining population is facing emergency levels of hunger.' On Sunday, some 80 Gazans were killed, many trying to reach 'aid hubs' run by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Five more people died of starvation or malnutrition over the past 24 hours, Gaza's health ministry said on Monday. The new deaths raised the toll of those dying from hunger to 180, including 93 children, since the war began, according to Reuters. But Hamas is more likely to have calculated that it has no real interest in a ceasefire with Israel. While the conflict rages it has meaning and does not have to face a reckoning for the crimes of October 7 and for the inevitable Israeli response that the murder spree caused. Israel had faced international condemnation for the humanitarian horrors it has caused in Gaza and its leaders, including Netanyahu, face indictments on war crimes by the Internation Criminal Court. Even staunch ally Donald Trump had been struck by the images of starving Palestinian children that emerged from the largely razed Mediterranean ghetto. Netanyahu came under increasing pressure to end Israel's campaign and open the gates of Gaza to food and other aid. That would have been a relief for Gazans but terrible for Hamas. Historically, the group has favoured terror attacks over diplomacy - literally blowing up any signs of rapprochement between other Palestinian groups and Israel with bus bombs and market attacks. A ceasefire and, worse still for Hamas, a commitment (as called for by Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia) for renewed focus on a two-state solution, dividing the land from the river Jordan to the sea between Israel and Palestinians, would have been a disaster. Hamas wants the end of Israel – not a share of the land. So releasing images of starving Jews that recall Belsen was sure to scupper any attempts at dragging Netanyahu towards a ceasefire. On Monday he said he would call his security cabinet to meet to 'continue to stand together and fight together to achieve all our war objectives: the defeat of the enemy, the release of our hostages, and the assurance that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel'. He has pledged to - one day - annex the Israeli occupied West Bank. Several of his cabinet colleagues have called for the mass evacuation of Gaza's population and its resettlement by Israelis. He is facing bribery charges in court. The Israeli prime minister doesn't want peace now because he would soon face an inquiry into how, or why, he ignored the intelligence warnings of Hamas preparations for the October 7 attack. A ceasefire in Gaza now would expose Netanyahu, and Hamas, to political and personal risks they don't ever want to ever face.
The Guardian
39 minutes ago
- The Guardian
John Oliver: ‘Gaza is being starved by Israel'
John Oliver opened his latest episode of Last Week Tonight with a look at the dire famine in Gaza, which Israeli leaders and American supporters continue to deny. Oliver honed in on former Fox News host Megyn Kelly, who denied the credibility of images from Gaza of emaciated children. 'I kind of hoped we were done with Megyn Kelly as a society,' said Oliver to cheers, 'and collectively, you actually don't have to litigate this case one photo at a time. He cited reports from the United Nations, aid organizations and Israeli human rights groups all confirming the same thing: 'What's happening in Gaza right now is a famine,' he said. 'All the information we have points to that, except for this fucking guy [Netanyahu] and a few adult junior detectives squinting at each photo of a skeletal child to figure out if they're the right kind of dying.' Oliver also referred to a 2024 CNN article in which Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said 'it may be just and moral' to starve 2 million Palestinians, but 'no one in the world would let us'. Oliver concluded that Smotrich is 'basically complaining that the world is cock-blocking him from committing genocide better. And that is the argument for sustained international pressure here, and that country best positioned to apply it is this one.' The US is 'the one that gave Israel nearly $18bn in military aid during the first year of this war alone'. 'Look, 'Gaza is starving' is a sentence that's objectively true, but it's also slightly misleading because it's too passive,' he added. 'Gaza is being starved by Israel.' Oliver then pivoted to his main segment on corporate crime, which is booming under the Trump administration. Trump, Oliver reminded, was convicted on 33 counts of falsifying business records; since retaking office, his administration has halted or dropped 109 enforcement actions against corporate misconduct, and even issued the first ever pardon of a corporation, for crypto exchange BitMex. 'It is frankly no wonder experts have called this moment 'the ripest environment for corruption by public officials and business executives in a generation',' said Oliver. 'Though to be unfair, it's not like the environment was unripe before Trump took office. Republican and Democratic administrations have both taken a pretty lax approach to corporate crime for a while now. You might have noticed that stories about corporate malfeasance rarely end with executives going to jail or the companies getting shutting down.' Oliver focused on one key reason why: deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs), which are 'basically out-of-court settlements for companies to avoid being prosecuted', he explained. 'Essentially, the government will come to a company and say 'hi, company. Government here. You did a crime, and we have enough evidence to prosecute you.' But instead of then doing that, they then strike a deal where if the company behaves itself for a certain amount of time, the criminal charges eventually disappear.' Unfortunately, DPAs also 'don't really do much', Oliver continued. 'And sometimes, companies that have done massive harm have used them to literally get away with murder.' Oliver first looked at the history of DPAs, which were never supposed to apply to corporations. The concept arose out of a 1974 law that was supposed to help juvenile and first-time offenders avoid prosecution in favor of rehabilitation. DPAs for corporations flourished in the wake of the Enron scandal, when many employees of the fraudulent company's embattled accounting firm Andersen blamed the government for shutting down the company and putting them out of work. The argument for DPAs is that they prevent innocent employees from getting hurt, dissuade future wrongdoing, and still allow the Department of Justice to prosecute individuals. 'But there are problems with literally all that,' said Oliver. For one, nearly half of companies receiving DPAs end up paying no fine at all, and no employees were prosecuted in two-thirds of cases. Oliver used three high-profile examples to illustrate the point, starting with automotive giant GM, which was held liable for knowingly producing cars with a faulty 'off' switch resulting in crashes that killed 124 people over several years. The government ordered GM to pay $900m fines, during a year in which they made close to $10bn in profit. 'I'm not saying it's nothing, but 9% of one year's profits just doesn't seem enough for essentially marketing the automotive equivalent of the Titan submersible,' Oliver quipped. No individuals were held responsible, but because the company withheld information, at one least one woman was convicted of negligent homicide for a crash involving her boyfriend that later determined to be caused by the faulty switch. (Her conviction has since been overturned.) 'Thankfully, GM hasn't killed any more people with its cars since then, as of taping,' said Oliver. 'But other companies with DPAs have shown a much greater propensity for recidivism,' such as HSBC. In the early 2010s, the company got in trouble for allowing Mexican cartels to launder $880m in drug trafficking proceeds and facilitating $660m in transactions by sanctioned regimes. The company paid a fine of around $2bn, during a year in which they made over $13bn in profit, and no individuals were prosecuted. When the deal expired in 2017, the government dropped all charges … and a month later, the government charged them with rigging currency rates, and offered them another DPA. 'That is ridiculous,' said Oliver. 'At this point, it's not even a deferred prosecution agreement. It's more like prosecutorial edging. I'll say it before and I'll say it again: let the government come.' Finally, there's Boeing, which entered into a DPA in 2021 following the catastrophic crashes of two 737 Max planes the company knew were poorly designed. Boeing agreed to a fine and three years of demonstrating good behavior to avoid prosecution. 'It's an agreement that many felt was toothless,' said Oliver, 'especially given that one judge involved with the case later called what Boeing had done 'the deadliest corporate crime in US history'.' At the start of 2024, just two days before their probationary period was set to end, Alaska Airlines passengers filed a class-action suit against the company after a door broke off a 737 Max mid-flight. Though the incident demonstrated Boeing was not in compliance with the DPA, the government offered them a plea deal and another fine. This year, the Trump administration downgraded Boeing's punishment to a non-prosecution agreement, removing the possibility of prosecuting them over the 737 Max in the future. 'Which is completely infuriating,' Oliver fumed, as it is 'clearly great news for stockholders and not for anyone else.' 'This is not sustainable,' said Oliver of a cycle where corporate misbehavior leads to harm to government fine on repeat. 'And unfortunately, I wouldn't expect any of that to change for at least, say, three-and-a-half years But it is worth asking for a hypothetical future, when we have a government that isn't run by a pro-corruption felon, what could we be doing better to hold corporations accountable?' Oliver recommended making DPAs more of a deterrent by dramatically increasing fines and actually prosecuting executives, and more transparency of corporate compliance records. 'But the hard truth here is, if we want more accountability, the government is going to have to show more willingness to prosecute repeat offenders, even if it affects a large company's ability to do business.'
