Israeli rights groups call the war on Gaza genocide for first time
Two Israeli human rights organisations have released reports that call Israel's war on Gaza a genocide for the first time. They warn that Palestinians in the occupied West Bank may face the same fate.
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Al Jazeera
8 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
New poll shows plunging US public support for Israel's war on Gaza
Washington, DC – A new poll from the research firm Gallup suggests that only 32 percent of Americans approve of Israel's military action in Gaza, a 10-point drop from September 2024, as anger over atrocities against Palestinians continues to rise. The survey, released on Tuesday, also showed an enormous partisan divide over the issue. Seventy-one percent of respondents who identified as members of the Republican Party said they approve of Israel's conduct, compared with 8 percent of Democrats. Overall, 60 percent of respondents said they disapprove of Israel's military action in Gaza. Shibley Telhami, a professor at the University of Maryland and the director of the Critical Issues Poll, said the latest survey shows a trend of growing discontent with Israel that goes beyond the war on Gaza. 'What we're seeing here is an entrenchment of a generational paradigm among particularly young Americans – mostly Democrats and independents, but even some young Republicans – who now perceive the horror in Gaza in a way of describing the character of Israel itself,' Telhami told Al Jazeera. In Tuesday's survey, only 9 percent of respondents under the age of 35 said they approve of Israel's military action in Gaza, and 6 percent said they have a favourable opinion of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The study follows an April poll from the Pew Research Center, which found a majority of respondents – including 50 percent of Republicans under 50 years old – said they had unfavourable views of Israel. But even as public opinion in the US continues to shift, Washington's policy of unconditional support for Israel has been unwavering. Since the start of the war on Gaza, the US has provided Israel with billions of dollars in military aid, as well as diplomatic backing at the United Nations. Both President Donald Trump and his predecessor, Joe Biden, have been uncompromising backers of the Israeli assault on Gaza, which human rights groups have described as a genocide. Israel has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians in Gaza, imposed a suffocating siege and flattened most of the enclave, reducing its buildings to rubble. The siege is credited with prompting deadly hunger: The UN on Tuesday said there was 'mounting evidence of famine and widespread starvation'. Nevertheless, the US Congress also remains staunchly pro-Israel on a bipartisan basis. Earlier this month, a legislative push to block $500m in missile defence support for Israel failed in a 422-to-six vote in the House of Representatives. So, what explains the schism between the views of average Americans and the policies of their elected representatives? Telhami cited voter 'priorities'. He explained that foreign policy traditionally has not been a driving factor in elections. For example, domestic issues like abortion, the economy and gun control usually dominate the electoral agenda for Democrats. He also noted the influence of pro-Israel groups, like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which have spent millions of dollars to defeat critics of the Israeli government, particularly progressives in Democratic primaries. But things are changing, according to the professor. Palestine is rising in public importance, he said, with US voters looking at the issue through the lens of 'soul-searching', as a way of questioning what they stand for. 'It's not just Gaza. It's that we are enabling the horror in Gaza as a country – in terms of our aid or support or, even in some cases, direct collaboration,' Telhami said. 'That it is actually creating a paradigmatic shift about who we are, not just about: 'Do we support Israel? Do we support the Palestinians?'' He said the victory of Palestinian rights advocate Zohran Mamdani in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary last month underscores that movement. 'The rise of Zohran Mamdani in New York is giving people pause because he's been able to generate excitement, not, as some people thought, despite his views on Israel-Palestine, but actually because of his views on Israel-Palestine.'
Al Jazeera
10 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Calls for US to sanction Israeli settlers after Palestinian activist killed
Washington, DC – A spokesperson for the State Department in the United States has been questioned about the killing of Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen, allegedly at the hands of an Israeli settler previously sanctioned by the US government. At a news briefing on Tuesday, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce demurred when asked whether the suspect in Hathaleen's death, Yinon Levi, would be held accountable. 'Israel has investigations that it's implementing regarding situations of this sort,' Bruce said. 'I don't know the end result of what that's going to be, nor will I comment or speculate on what should happen.' Bruce's tense exchange with reporters came one day after video circulated showing Levi opening fire on Hathaleen in the village of Umm al-Kheir in the occupied West Bank. The 31-year-old Palestinian activist later died from a gunshot wound to his chest. Levi is among several Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank who were previously sanctioned under the administration of US President Joe Biden for perpetrating violence against Palestinians. But President Donald Trump reversed those sanctions in an executive order shortly after taking office for a second term in January. The United Kingdom and the European Union, however, maintain sanctions against Levi. Hathaleen, a resident of Masafer Yatta, had helped create the Academy Award-winning documentary No Other Land, which captured the effects of illegal Israeli settlements and attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank. In Tuesday's news briefing, Bruce appeared to suggest Hathaleen's shooting happened in the 'war zone' of Gaza, before being corrected. Still, she maintained the Trump administration sought to address violence wherever it occurred. 'It's the same argument. We see this in the West Bank. We know when there's violence in general. We saw something unfold in New York City as well, with a shooting in New York City yesterday,' she said, in an apparent reference to an unrelated shooting in a Manhattan skyscraper. The State Department did not respond to a subsequent request from Al Jazeera about whether the Trump administration would revisit its sanctions policy in light of the killing. On Tuesday, Israeli media reported that Levi had been placed on house arrest after being charged with manslaughter and unlawful firearm use. Illegal settlements and Trump Hathaleen was a father of three who coordinated with several influential advocacy and lobbying groups in the US, and his death has renewed scrutiny on Trump's policies towards illegal Israeli settlements in occupied territories like the West Bank. During his first term, Trump reversed longstanding policy recognising such settlements as illegal. Such settlements are widely considered to be in violation of international law, as a means of displacing Palestinians and seizing their lands. But Israeli settlements have continued to spread rapidly in recent years and are seen as a major roadblock to future peace agreements with Palestinian leaders. Upon taking office earlier this year, Trump then revoked a raft of Biden-era executive orders, including the sanctions against Israeli settlers. The move reportedly came amid pressure from the Israeli government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. During his term, Biden had been criticised for continuing to funnel aid to Israel amid its war in Gaza, but his administration showed a willingness to take a harder line when it came to settlements in the occupied West Bank. 'The situation in the West Bank — in particular high levels of extremist settler violence, forced displacement of people and villages, and property destruction — has reached intolerable levels,' Biden's executive order, dated February 2024, said. It added that Israeli actions in the West Bank constitute 'a serious threat to the peace, security, and stability of the West Bank and Gaza, Israel, and the broader Middle East region'. Violence on the parts of Israeli settlers and military forces has surged since Israel's war in Gaza began in October 7, 2023, with at least 1,000 Palestinians killed in the West Bank. Rights observers say violent settlers are often protected by the military as they attack Palestinians. Those killed have included US citizens, most recently Sayfollah Musallet, a 20-year-old resident of Florida beaten to death while visiting his family's land in the village of Sinjil. In a rare statement condemning Musallet's killing, US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, a vocal supporter of Israeli settlements, called on the country to 'aggressively investigate' what he called a 'criminal and terrorist act'. To date, no one has been arrested or charged in the killing. In a statement following Monday's attack, J Street, a left-leaning pro-Israel lobbying group, called on US lawmakers to support legislation that would codify the Biden-era sanctions against settlers like Levi. The group explained its members had 'deep, personal ties' to Hathaleen and said they were 'heartbroken and horrified' by his killing. In a post on the social media platform X on Tuesday, Congress member Delia Ramirez called Hathaleen's killing 'a painful reminder that our government and Israel continue to enable and condone violence in the West Bank'. 'We must reinstate the sanctions on West Bank settlers perpetrating violence and hold accountable all those whose extreme and escalating violence continues to rob us of our neighbors — including Trump and Netanyahu,' she wrote.
Al Jazeera
11 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Trump says Israel will ‘preside over' US aid distribution in Gaza
United States President Donald Trump has suggested that Israel will run food distribution centres in Gaza, a move that critics say would further entrench the Israeli occupation and endanger the safety of aid seekers. Speaking to reporters onboard his presidential jet on Tuesday, Trump stressed the Israeli talking point that Hamas steals food assistance distributed in Gaza — a claim that has been denied by aid groups and United Nations officials. Even Israeli officials have anonymously told news outlets like The New York Times that there is no evidence food is being diverted to Hamas. Still, Trump suggested otherwise. 'A lot of things have been stolen. They send money. They send food. And Hamas steals it,' Trump told reporters on Air Force One. 'So it's a tricky little game.' He added that he trusted Israel to handle the distribution of US aid, in spite of chaotic operations that have resulted in Israeli troops firing on hungry Palestinians. 'We're going to be dealing with Israel. And we think they can do a good job of it,' Trump said. 'They want to preside over the food centres to make sure the distribution is proper.' It is not clear where and when the sites would be set up, and whether Israel would run them directly or through the GHF, a controversial US-backed aid foundation accused of unsafe practices. Trump's comments suggest that the US is not ready to support the resumption of aid distribution in Gaza through the UN and its partners on the ground. Israel has tightened its blockade in Gaza since May, allowing food into the territory almost exclusively through GHF, which has four sites set up in the south of the enclave. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire while attempting to reach or leave GHF centres. The siege has sparked an Israeli-imposed hunger crisis in the territory, and dozens of people have died of malnutrition. Whistleblowers from the Israeli military and GHF have shared testimonies detailing the abuses committed at the foundation's sites in recent weeks. Anthony Aguilar, a US army veteran who worked with GHF, said that the group has failed to adequately deliver food in Gaza. Nevertheless, he said, it has served as a vehicle for displacement, forcing Palestinians to the south of the territory. 'What I saw on numerous occasions are the Israeli [military] firing into the crowds of the Palestinians, firing over their head, firing at their feet … not just with rifles or machine guns, but tanks, tank rounds, artillery, mortars, missiles,' Aguilar told Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen in an interview posted on social media. He stressed that the aid seekers were targeted 'not because they were combatants or because they were hostile or because they were Hamas but simply as a means to control the crowd'. As starvation worsens by the day in Gaza, the Netanyahu govt has been using food as a weapon of war — with complicity from Trump & U.S. taxpayer dollars. This is painful to listen to but here's what a U.S. Army veteran & Green Beret who witnessed it first-hand recounted to me: — Senator Chris Van Hollen (@ChrisVanHollen) July 29, 2025 Critics say that putting Israeli troops in charge of food distribution sites risks further atrocities against aid seekers. Israel has maintained that there is no actual hunger in Gaza, dismissing the well-documented spread of starvation in the territory as Hamas propaganda. On Monday, Trump acknowledged that there is 'real starvation' in the territory, but he stopped short of criticising Israel. Instead, on Tuesday, he stressed that Israel should be the side delivering the aid. 'I think Israel wants to do it, and they'll be good at doing it,' Trump told reporters. 'If they do it — and if they really want to do it, and I think they do — they'll do a good job. The food will be properly distributed.' He also likened any pressure on Israel to a 'reward' for Hamas. 'If you do that, you really are rewarding Hamas, and I'm not about to do that,' he told a reporter who asked about the possibility of the US pushing Israel towards a long-term solution to end the conflict. Last year, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on the basis of alleged war crimes, including using starvation as a weapon of war. UN-backed food security experts announced on Tuesday that the 'worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in Gaza'.
