Ziofascist Israel’s 2023 to 2024 Genocide of Palestinians, Part 10 — January 11 to 31
A documentation of Ziofascist Israel’s genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians from January 11 to 31, 2024. [part 9 / part 11]
January 11 (the first day of the ICJ hearings about Ziofascist Israel’s genocide of Palestinians)
One of the remarkable things about the Ziofascist Israeli regime is that it keeps committing its atrocities essentially unabated even during and after the January 11–12, 2024 UN International Court of Justice case and its January 26 orders against that terrorist state in its usual impunity and disregard for international law:
Journalists murdered by Israhell:
The General Role of the US Empire in Conflicts
Instead of documenting the Ziofascist Israeli atrocities against Palestinians from January 12 to 20 which consist of the exact same mass murder and destruction as before (and due to having covered the ICJ case during that time), I want to underline the extremely harmful role that the US empire plays in this and in other conflicts around the globe. To begin with the following data from East Asian countries:
The US empire’s role is no different in Africa where they, perhaps most infamously, turned the Muammar Gaddafi-led wealthy state of Libya into a failed state in 2011:
From this February 2024 article by Nick Turse:
Deaths from terrorism in Africa have skyrocketed more than 100,000 percent during the U.S. war on terror according to a new study by Africa Center for Strategic Studies, a Pentagon research institution. These findings contradict claims by U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) that it is thwarting terrorist threats on the continent and promoting security and stability.
Throughout all of Africa, the State Department counted a total of just nine terrorist attacks in 2002 and 2003, resulting in a combined 23 casualties. At that time, the U.S. was just beginning a decades-long effort to provide billions of dollars in security assistance, train many thousands of African military personnel, set up dozens of outposts, dispatch its own commandos on a wide range of missions, create proxy forces, launch drone strikes, and even engage in ground combat with militants in Africa.
Most Americans, including members of Congress, are unaware of the extent of these operations — or how little they have done to protect African lives.
Last year, fatalities from militant Islamist violence in Africa rose by 20 percent — from 19,412 in 2022 to 23,322 — reaching “a record level of lethal violence,” according to the Africa Center. This represents almost a doubling in deaths since 2021 and a 101,300 percent jump since 2002–2003.
For decades, U.S. counter-terrorism efforts in Africa have been centered on two main fronts: Somalia and the West African Sahel. Each saw significant spikes in terrorism last year.
U.S. Special Operations forces were first dispatched to Somalia in 2002, followed by military aid, advisers, and private contractors. More than 20 years later, U.S. troops are still conducting counterterrorism operations there, primarily against the Islamist militant group al-Shabaab. To this end, Washington has provided billions of dollars in counterterrorism assistance, according to a 2023 report by the Costs of War Project at Brown University. Americans have also conducted more than 280 air strikes and commando raids there and created numerous proxy forces to conduct low-profile military operations.
Somalia saw, according to the Africa Center, “a 22-percent increase in fatalities in 2023 — reaching a record high of 7,643 deaths.” This represents a tripling of fatalities since 2020.
The findings are even more damning for the Sahel. In 2002 and 2003, the State Department counted a total of just nine terrorist attacks in Africa. Today, the nations of the West African Sahel are plagued by terrorist groups that have grown, evolved, splintered, and reconstituted themselves. Under the black banners of jihadist militancy, men on motorcycles — wearing sunglasses and turbans and armed with AK-47s — rumble into villages to impose their harsh brand of Sharia law and terrorize, assault, and kill civilians. Relentless attacks by these jihadis have destabilized Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger.
“Fatalities in the Sahel represent a near threefold increase from the levels seen in 2020,” according to the Africa Center report. “Fatalities in the Sahel amounted to 50 percent of all militant Islamist-linked fatalities reported on the continent in 2023.”
On the US empire supporting coupists:
At least 15 officers who benefited from U.S. security assistance have been involved in 12 coups in West Africa and the greater Sahel during the war on terror. The list includes officers from Burkina Faso (2014, 2015, and twice in 2022); Chad (2021); Gambia (2014); Guinea (2021); Mali (2012, 2020, and 2021); Mauritania (2008); and Niger (2023). At least five leaders of the Nigerien junta, for example, received American assistance, according to a U.S. official. They, in turn, appointed five U.S.-trained members of the Nigerien security forces to serve as that country’s governors.
Such military coups have undermined American aims of providing stability and security to Africans, yet the United States has been hesitant to cut ties with these rogue regimes. Despite the Nigerien coup, for example, the United States continues to garrison troops at, and conduct missions from, its large drone base there.
Juntas have also amped up atrocities.
On Mali:
Take Colonel Assimi Goïta, who worked with U.S. Special Operations forces, participated in U.S. training exercises, and attended the Joint Special Operations University in Florida before overthrowing Mali’s government in 2020. Goïta then took the job of vice president in a transitional government officially charged with returning the country to civilian rule, only to seize power again in 2021.
That same year, Goita’s junta reportedly authorized the deployment of Russia-linked Wagner mercenary forces to fight Islamist militants after close to two decades of failed Western-backed counterterrorism efforts. Wagner — a paramilitary group founded by the late Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former hot-dog vendor turned warlord — went on to be implicated in hundreds of human rights abuses alongside the longtime U.S.-backed Malian military, including a 2022 massacre that killed 500 civilians.
U.S. law generally restricts countries from receiving military aid following military coups, but the U.S. has continued to provide assistance to Sahelian juntas. While Goïta’s 2020 and 2021 coups triggered prohibitions on some forms of U.S. security assistance, American tax dollars have continued to fund his forces. According to the State Department, the U.S. provided more than $16 million in security aid to Mali in 2020 and almost $5 million in 2021. As of July 2023, the department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism was waiting on congressional approval to transfer an additional $2 million to Mali. (The State Department did not reply to Responsible Statecraft’s request for an update on the status of that funding.)
On Burkina Faso:
Similarly, Burkina Faso’s military killed scores of civilians in drone strikes last year, according to a recent report released by Human Rights Watch. The attacks, targeting Islamist militants in crowded marketplaces and at a funeral, left at least 60 civilians dead and dozens more injured.
For more than a decade, the U.S. poured tens of millions of dollars into security aid to Burkina Faso. U.S. Africa Command or AFRICOM is, according to spokesperson Kelly Cahalan, “not currently providing assistance to Burkina Faso.” But she did not respond to questions clarifying what, exactly, that means.
Last year, in fact, AFRICOM commander Gen. Michael Langley admitted that the U.S. has continued to provide military training to Burkinabè forces. Those troops, for example, took part in Flintlock 2023, an annual training exercise sponsored by U.S. Special Operations Command Africa. Still, Burkina Faso suffered 67 percent of the militant Islamist-related fatalities in the Sahel (7,762) in 2023, according to the Africa Center.
On US AFRICOM
U.S. Africa Command touts that it “counters transnational threats and malign actors” and promotes “regional security, stability and prosperity” helping its African partners to ensure the “security and safety” of their people. The fact that civilian deaths from militant Islamist violence have reached record levels, according to the Africa Center, and spiked 101,300 percent during the war on terror demonstrates the opposite.
AFRICOM directed queries on the findings of the Africa Center’s new report to the Office of the Secretary of Defense. The Pentagon did not respond to the questions prior to publication.
Also from the USA:
Erik Prince has been many things in his 54 years on Earth: the wealthy heir to an auto supply company; a Navy SEAL; the founder of the mercenary firm Blackwater, which conducted a notorious 2007 massacre in the middle of Baghdad; the brother of Betsy DeVos, Donald Trump’s secretary of education; a shadow adviser to Trump; and the plaintiff in a lawsuit against The Intercept.
Last November, Prince started a podcast called “Off LeashOpens in a new tab,” which in its promotional copy says he “brings a unique and invaluable perspective to today’s increasingly volatile world.” On an episode last Tuesday, his unique and invaluable perspective turned out to be that the U.S. should “put the imperial hat back on” and take over and directly run huge swaths of the globe.
Here’s are Prince’s exact words:
If so many of these countries around the world are incapable of governing themselves, it’s time for us to just put the imperial hat back on, to say, we’re going to govern those countries … ’cause enough is enough, we’re done being invaded. …
You can say that about pretty much all of Africa, they’re incapable of governing themselves.
Prince’s co-host Mark Serrano then warned him that listeners might hear his words and believe he means them: “People on the left are going to watch this,” said Serrano, “and they’re going to say, wait a minute, Erik Prince is talking about being a colonialist again.”
Prince responded: “Absolutely, yes.” He then added that he thought this was a great concept not just for Africa but also for Latin America.
Prince and Serrano either do not know or do not care that previous bouts of the European flavor of colonialism led to the deaths of tens of millions of people around the world. Then in the 20th century, the ideology of colonialism gave birth to Nazism.
Like the previous enthusiasts of imperialism, Prince is completely blind to his own motivations and where they inevitably lead. He doesn’t want to do this for America’s benefit, you see. No, it’s because “if you go to these countries and you see how they suffer, under absolutely corrupt governments that are just criminal syndicates, a lot of them deserve better.”
This was the rationale for Britain’s white man’s burden, France’s mission civilisatrice, Spain’s misión civilizadora, Portugal’s missão civilizadora, and even imperial Japan’s Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, which aimed to conquer every nearby country for the benefit of allOpens in a new tab. Imperialists have always told themselves that they are subduing other lands to help their benighted inhabitants. This beneficence somehow always leads to mass death.
This also illustrates the more general point that whoever is allied with the US empire such as Israel and of course also Britain is part of the actual “axis of evil” and, in this case, the “axis of genocide.” To continue with a lighter than usual coverage of the US-supported Ziofascist Israeli genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians:
January 21
The Israeli army has killed 94 university professors, along with hundreds of teachers and thousands of students, as part of its genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, ongoing since 7 October 2023, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said in a statement issued on Saturday
According to Euro-Med Monitor, the Israeli army has targeted academic, scientific, and intellectual figures in the Strip in deliberate and specific air raids on their homes without prior notice. Those targeted have been crushed to death beneath the rubble, along with members of their families and other displaced families.
Initial data indicates that there is no justification or clear reason behind the targeting of these people, said the Geneva-based human rights organisation.
Those targeted include 17 individuals who held professor degrees, 59 who held doctoral degrees, and 18 who held master’s degrees, the rights group stated. Due to challenges with documentation brought on by movement difficulties, the disruption of communications and the Internet, and the existence of thousands of unaccounted-for/missing individuals, Euro-Med Monitor estimates suggest that there are additional numbers of targeted academics, including those with advanced degrees, whose deaths have not been tallied.
The targeted academics studied and taught across a variety of academic disciplines, and many of their ideas served as cornerstones of academic research in the Gaza Strip’s universities. The rights group added that given the systematic and widespread destruction by Israeli forces of cultural buildings, including institutions of great historical significance, it is highly likely that Israel is intentionally targeting every aspect of life in Gaza.
Israel systematically destroyed every university in the Gaza Strip in stages over the course of the more than 100-day attack. The first stage included the bombing of the Islamic and Al-Azhar universities. The other universities suffered similar assaults; some, like Al-Israa University in southern Gaza, were totally destroyed after initially being used as military barracks. The Israeli media released a video clip on Wednesday 17 January, capturing Al-Israa’s explosion. The explosion occurred 70 days after the Israeli military transformed the school into barracks and, later, into a temporary detention facility.
According to preliminary estimates, the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of university students, reported Euro-Med Monitor. The rights group pointed out that destroying universities and killing academics and students will make it more difficult to resume university and academic life when the genocide ends, saying it may take years for studies to be resumed in an environment that has been completely destroyed.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Education, 4,327 students have been killed and 7,819 others injured, while 231 teachers and administrators have been killed and 756 injured during the ongoing attacks. Meanwhile, 281 state-run schools and 65 UNRWA-run schools in the Gaza Strip have been completely or partially destroyed.
Ninety per cent of state-run schools have been subjected to direct or indirect damage, and about 29% of school buildings remain out of service as a result of their being completely demolished or severely damaged.
January 22
January 23
Euro-Med Monitor documented the Israeli army’s use of artillery shells against hundreds of starving civilians who gathered on Salah al-Din Road near the Kuwait roundabout, southeast of Gaza City, to wait for UN trucks carrying limited aid supplies, killing and injuring a number of them. The Israeli army used artillery shells, live ammunition, and quadcopter drones to attack hundreds of starving civilians who had gathered in the hopes of receiving the meagre aid, as reported by Euro-Med Monitor field teams.
The human rights group further pointed out that Israel has not only used starvation as a tool of war against Palestinians in the northern Gaza Valley for more than three consecutive months now, but has targeted Gazans trying to secure some of the limited aid supplies that began arriving about 10 days ago — killing and injuring many of them as part of its genocidal war against civilians in the Strip.
“My five children have been starving for more than a month, and we do not have any flour,” stated 46-year-old M.F., who requested anonymity due to safety concerns. “We eat a small amount of rice each day, so when I learned that flour aid was available, I walked for 13 kilometres before the Israeli army opened their machine gunfire. We were hit by shells fired, resulting in several casualties. I managed to survive, without receiving any flour.”
Approximately 400,000 Palestinians remain in the northern Gaza Valley, according to Euro-Med Monitor, suffering from a man-made famine as a result of Israel’s oppressive siege and refusal to allow any relief aid to enter the area since 1 December 2023. Some people have even been forced to grind animal feed and mix it with corn to knead and eat it, while others have been forced to eat tree leaves.
Euro-Med Monitor emphasised that the information gathered by its field team verifies Israel’s use of starvation as a weapon of war and form of political pressure against civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. This is akin to genocide, and immediate action is needed to ensure that Palestinians can access food, water, and other necessities without hindrance, intimidation, or targeting.
Settlers:
Hamas managed to deliver justice to war crimes-committing Israeli occupation forces:
January 24
Ramzi Abu Sahlool: “I have my mother and brother in there, with around 50 or 70 displaced people in another house. The Israelis came to us and told us to evacuate, but they didn’t let my brother out. We want to go and try to get them, God willing.”
ITV narrator: “The interview complete, our cameraman walked away. And then this happened” [shots being fired, the five Palestinians duck and turn back]
ITV narrator: “The interviewee had been shot and fatally wounded. You can see them place their flag on his chest. As he was carried away, the white flag was turning red.”
USA:
From this Decensored News article:
As a follow-up, Moore asked whether the State Department would urge and support an “Israeli investigation of what happened in that video.”
“That is for the IDF to undertake and determine based on the circumstances of that situation,” said Patel.
He went on to say moments later that “this footage just arised (sic) earlier this morning, so I don’t have any specifics of our diplomatic conversations around it.”
“Well how about the footage that arose last week, and the week before, and the week before, and the week before, and the week before, where there have been [similar] instances,” asked AP reporter Matt Lee. “Have you EVER gotten a response from the Israelis?”
“I’m not gonna speak to private diplomatic conversations, Matt.”
Patel was also asked about Israel’s tank attack on a UN refugee shelter in Khan Yunis on Wednesday, which reportedly killed at least nine people and injured 75 more.
While he said that the State Department finds the attack “incredibly concerning” and that they “deplore” it, he refused to give a direct answer to questions about whether they’ve “asked the Israelis to look into this,” or plan to do so.
“I’m not gonna read at every single conversation that we have with the Israelis,” Patel said.
“I don’t think that you’re being asked about every single [one],” said AP reporter Matt Lee. “You’ve been asked twice here in the last three minutes about two specific incidents.”
January 25
One day before the ICJ ruling:
USA:
Palestinian human rights organizations, together with Palestinians in Gaza and the U.S., filed a lawsuit in U.S. federal court against President Biden, Secretary of State Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Austin for the U.S. officials’ failure to prevent and complicity in the Israeli government’s unfolding genocide against them, their families, and the 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza.
Among the plaintiffs, Defense for Children International–Palestine (DCIP) and Al-Haq are leading Palestinian human rights organizations dedicated to preserving and promoting the human rights of Palestinian people across the Occupied Palestinian Territory, consisting of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza. In Gaza, the lawsuit is also brought by Ahmed Abu Artema, founder of the 2018 Great March of Return, Dr. Omar Al-Najjar, a 24-year-old intern physician at Nasser Medical Complex, and Mohammed Ahmed Abu Rokbeh, a field researcher with DCIP.
January 26
January 27
January 28
January 29
January 30
But apparently this is all part of Netanyahu’s and Ziofascist Israel’s “total victory” strategy which is ever so slightly reminiscent of the German Nazi propaganda minister Josef Goebbels’ February 18, 1943 “total war” speech shortly after Nazi Germany had lost the decisive Battle of Stalingrad and was beginning to lose World War 2 in general:
Britain dangles a Palestinian state, most likely as a lip-service distraction from the ongoing genocide:
January 31
