State Department officials, in a leaked memo, reportedly criticized the Biden administration's approach to the Palestine-Israel conflict, calling for a more public condemnation of Israeli actions.
A Monday US media report detailed that the memo outlines two requests: endorsing a ceasefire and adopting a more balanced approach in public and private communications regarding Israel, including the open discussion of concerns about Israeli military tactics and the treatment of Palestinians.
Authored by two mid-level staffers with Middle East experience, the memo also reportedly acknowledges Israel's legitimate right and obligation to seek justice against the Hamas militant group over the October 7 surprise attack while deeming the subsequent high number of Palestinian casualties - mostly civilians and many children - as unacceptable.
“We must publicly criticize Israel’s violations of international norms such as failure to limit offensive operations to legitimate military targets,” the message also states.
“When Israel supports settler violence and illegal land seizures or employs excessive use of force against Palestinians, we must communicate publicly that this goes against our American values so that Israel does not act with impunity.”
The memo, which was marked as "sensitive but unclassified," further highlighted that the US' messaging downfalls "contributes to regional public perceptions that the United States is a biased and dishonest actor, which at best does not advance, and at worst harms, US interests worldwide."
The State Department did not offer comment to the outlet in light of the leaked document, which was aired through the department's Dissent Channel, a platform where government employees are freely allowed to outline their disputes.
Palestinians evacuate the site of Israeli strikes on houses, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, November 6, 2023. REUTERS/Yasser Qudih Acquire Licensing Rights
Gaza is becoming a "graveyard for children", U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Monday, amplifying demands for a ceasefire in the enclave, where Palestinian health authorities said the death toll from Israeli strikes had exceeded 10,000.
Both Israel and the Hamas militants who control Gaza have rebuffed mounting international pressure for a ceasefire. Israel says hostages taken by Hamas during its rampage in southern Israel on Oct. 7 should be released first; Hamas says it will not free them or stop fighting while Gaza is under assault.
"Ground operations by the Israel Defense Forces and continued bombardment are hitting civilians, hospitals, refugee camps, mosques, churches and U.N. facilities – including shelters. No one is safe," Guterres told reporters.
"At the same time, Hamas and other militants use civilians as human shields and continue to launch rockets indiscriminately towards Israel," he said, calling for an immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.
Israel said 31 soldiers had been killed since it began expanded ground operations in Gaza on Oct. 27 and reiterated that Hamas was hiding with civilians and at hospitals. Hamas said the idea that Hamas was based in hospitals was a "false narrative that the U.N. should verify.
A Reuters journalist in Gaza said Israel's overnight bombardment by air, ground and sea was one of its most intense since the Oct. 7 attack in which Hamas killed 1,400 people in Israel and seized more than 240 hostages.
The health ministry in the Hamas-controlled enclave said at least 10,022 people in Gaza have since been killed, including 4,104 children.
"Gaza is becoming a graveyard for children. Hundreds of girls and boys are reportedly being killed or injured every day," Guterres said.
International organisations have said hospitals cannot cope with the wounded and food and clean water are running out with aid deliveries nowhere near enough.
Guterres said 89 people working with the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) were among the dead. UNRWA said five colleagues had been killed in the past 24 hours alone.
"We need an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. It's been 30 days. Enough is enough. This must stop now," an earlier statement by 18 U.N. organisations said.
The States is pushing hard to arrange pauses in the conflict to allow in aid rather than a full ceasefire, arguing, like Israel, that Hamas militants would just take advantage.
U.S. President Joe Biden discussed such pauses and possible hostage releases in a phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, reiterating his support for Israel while emphasising that it must protect civilians, the White House said.
The faces of hostages were projected onto the wall of Jerusalem's Old City on the eve of the one month anniversary of the attack.
ISRAEL SAYS IT IS CLOSING IN ON HAMAS
The Israeli military said its forces had taken a militant compound and were poised to attack Hamas fighters hiding in underground tunnels and bunkers in the northern Gaza Strip, having isolated the area with troops and tanks. It released video of tanks moving through bombed-out streets and groups of troops moving on foot.
"Now we are going to start closing in on them," Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Hecht told reporters.
The armed wing of Hamas, the Al-Qassam brigades, said it had damaged 27 Israeli military vehicles in 48 hours and inflicted significant losses in direct engagements with Israeli troops.
The health ministry in Gaza said dozens of people were killed by Israeli air strikes in the north and south, including on Gaza City's Rantissi cancer hospital, where eight people were killed. Israel's military said it was looking into the report.
Gaza's health ministry spokesman said an air strike had also hit a building belonging to Gaza's largest hospital, Al Shifa, where 170 people were being treated and hundreds of evacuees were sheltering. One person was killed and several were wounded, he said. Israel said it had not struck the hospital.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it had escorted a four-ambulance convoy of patients from Gaza City to the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. Evacuations had been suspended since an Israeli strike on an ambulance on Friday but three Egyptian security sources said dozens of foreign passport holders also left on Monday.
UN Chief ratchets up pressure as Security Council meets
The UN Security Council met on Monday afternoon for two hours, behind closed doors.
We’ve heard the Secretary General today warning that Gaza is becoming a “graveyard for children”. Even as the Council was meeting, he was tweeting that message. Repetitively tweeting about the need for a ceasefire today.
We’ve seen Guterres really ratchet up the pressure on the international community.
In 1 month Israel has killed more than 10,000 Palestinians in Gaza, incl more than 4,000 children. That is 1 in every 200 people, in Gaza alone. In 1 month. Let that sink in. https://t.co/XKd8DN6qqm
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) November 6, 2023
We’ve seen Guterres really ratchet up the pressure on the international community.
He said, “the parties to the conflict, and indeed, the international community, face an immediate and fundamental responsibility: to stop the inhuman collective suffering and dramatically expand humanitarian aid to Gaza.”
He said, “the parties to the conflict, and indeed, the international community, face an immediate and fundamental responsibility: to stop the inhuman collective suffering and dramatically expand humanitarian aid to Gaza.”
So council members discuss this behind closed doors. Many of them came out after the meeting, to speak to the media. Clearly they’re feeling pressure not just from the officials, but from their constituencies back home as well.
Teenager shot dead by Israeli forces in West Bank
A 19-year-old Palestinian was killed and another man wounded after Israeli forces opened fire on them near the town of Beit Anan in the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa identified the person killed as Musab Mujahid Kamel al-Matari.
Sources told Wafa that Matari and another unidentified Palestinian were shot by Israeli authorities before they were arrested.
The family was later informed of his death.
Even before Matari’s killing, at least four Palestinians had already been reported killed by Israeli forces during a rare daytime raid in Tulkarem.
At about the same time, Israeli forces also stormed the town of Beit Daqo, northwest of occupied East Jerusalem, destroying a monument dedicated to Palestinians killed by Israel.
Hamas said it had launched 16 missiles towards Nahariyya and Southern Haifa in Israel.
How Western leaders reacted after attacks on civilians in Gaza, Ukraine
Here’s how these Western leaders reacted after attacks on civilians in Gaza vs. Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/uNTuK7ybE1
Meanwhile, people searched for victims or survivors at the Maghazi refugee camp in Gaza, where the health ministry said Israeli forces had killed at least 47 people in strikes early on Sunday.
"All night I and the other men were trying to pick the dead from the rubble. We got children, dismembered, torn-apart flesh," said Saeed al-Nejma, 53. Asked for comment, the Israeli military said it was gathering details.
Israeli forces just arrested Ahed Tamimi in the village of Nabi Saleh in the occupied West Bank.
Over a week ago they arrested her father, Bassem Tamimi while he was trying to make his way to Jordan. The family still has no idea where he’s being held.
I continue to think about the serious situation in Palestine and in Israel where many, many people have lost their lives. In God’s name, I beg you to stop: cease using weapons! I hope that avenues will be pursued so that an escalation of the conflict might be absolutely avoided.
Moscow’s forces have stopped the Ukrainian counteroffensive dead in its tracks, Evgeny Balitsky, the governor of Zaporozhye Region, has said.
He further described what he called Kiev’s last-ditch attempts to breach Russian defenses as not particularly impressive. In recent months, Zaporozhye has emerged as a scene of some of the fiercest fighting.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Balitsky stated that “the enemy has been halted, as has been its much-hyped counteroffensive.” He said that the ongoing fighting near the settlements of Rabotino and Shcherbaki and on the Vremievsky Ridge was “almost an agony for the Ukrainian regime.”
The official declared that Ukrainian forces, which have been trying to storm Russian positions for months, have “completely run out of steam.”
“Now, when the enemy launches an attack, they deploy only small forces because their companies are understrength,” he added.
According to Balitsky, the plan to reach the Sea of Azov and cut Russia’s land bridge to Crimea – widely seen as the main objective of Kiev's summer campaign – has been thwarted. He also claimed that Ukrainian attacks are now largely unsupported by armor, as Russian forces have knocked out many vehicles.
The governor stated that the current “meat onslaught” had been organized by Kiev’s Western backers, suggesting that the latter would prefer to lose Ukrainian soldiers rather than their own expensive military equipment.
Ukraine began a large-scale offensive in early June, but has failed to make substantial progress. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said last week that “the Kiev regime is losing.” He has previously estimated Ukraine’s losses at more than 90,000 troops, nearly 600 tanks, and 2,000 armored vehicles since the start of the push.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials have admitted difficulties with the campaign, blaming a lack of progress on delays in Western support, strong Russian defenses, and extensive minefields as well as Moscow’s air superiority.
Last week, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Valery Zaluzhny, characterized the frontline situation as a “stalemate” due to the level of technological prowess of both sides. That assessment, however, was rejected by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, who insisted that while his country found itself in a “difficult” situation, it still had the initiative.
Russia's Lancet drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and loitering munition - which another name for a sophisticated kamikaze drone. It poses a significant threat to high-value equipment and has proven itself many times as an ideal weapon on the battlefield.
The Russian Defense Ministry has released video footage of the Lancet kamikaze drone destroying a Ukrainian communications station. Another UAV, observing the enemy position, guided the Lancet's attack on the target, also allowing a different point of view of the swift and deadly strike.
Since the beginning of the special military operation, Russia has broadly used drones in order to reduce unnecessary risks for troops and conduct surgical strikes on the enemy's infrastructure.
Since the beginning of the special military operation in Ukraine, the Russian Armed Forces have successfully used drones to complete tasks without suffering combat casualties.
The Russian Ministry of Defense has released footage of Russian reconnaissance and kamikaze drones tracking and destroying a Ukrainian infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) carrying large amounts of ammunition.
"Our drone reconnaissance team located a Ukrainian IFV and delivered the information to the drone strike team. The guys did a competent job on the enemy's armored vehicles. As a result of the precise hits the IFV received from the kamikaze drones, the ammunition it was carrying detonated," said the commander of the Yug battlegroup reconnaissance unit.
Thanks to the effective joint actions of Russian reconnaissance units and drone crews, most of the armored vehicles of the Kiev regime's forces were destroyed on the approaches to the contact line.
Cracks emerging within Ukrainian leadership – NYT
There are growing fissures within the Ukrainian leadership, the New York Times has claimed, citing recent public criticism of the country’s top military commander, Valery Zaluzhny, by President Vladimir Zelensky’s administration. The general claimed last week that the conflict with Russia had reached a stalemate, and that neither side was likely to make significant gains anytime soon.
In its article on Saturday, the NYT alleged that the public rebuke “signaled an emerging rift between the military and civilian leadership at an already challenging time for Ukraine.” According to the newspaper, rumors about tensions between Zelensky and Zaluzhny have been circulating in Ukraine for over a year now. However, the scolding on Saturday that presidential office deputy head Igor Zhovkva levelled at the commander over his recent piece for The Economist may have been the first time this rift had been exposed, the NYT suggested.
Zelensky’s administration publicly criticized Zaluzhny after he warned in his article for the British magazine that the belligerents were locked in a “stalemate,” comparing the situation to World War I.
The general went on to predict that the Ukrainian military was unlikely to pull off a “deep and beautiful breakthrough,” unless its backers provide it with more advanced weaponry.
Commenting on Zaluzhny’s piece, Zhovkva said that the “last thing I would do is comment for the press… about what is happening at the front [and] what could happen at the front.” The official went on to suggest that such revelations play into Russia’s hands.
He claimed to have received phone calls from unnamed Western officials who were in a panic and inquired if Kiev was “really at a dead end.”
Zelensky, too, made it clear during a press conference on Saturday that he does not see the front as being at a stalemate.
The public exchange came amid heavy casualties and modest gains that the Ukrainian counteroffensive, which began in early June, has yielded so far. According to Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu’s estimates, Kiev has lost as many as 90,000 military personnel since then.
The Ukrainian leadership has acknowledged that the operation is not proceeding as smoothly as planned, a circumstance that Zelensky has suggested is due to inadequate aid provided by the West.
