News reports this evening of #Israel's intention to permanently acquire parts of occupied #Gaza following current hostilities. Details remain unknown, but this is what we can glean from former National Security Advisor Meir Ben-Shabbat:

1. Annexation of the 'Northern Bloc', once housing the settlements of Dugit, Elei Sinai and Nisanit.

BREAKING: #Israel parcels #Gaza in order to force the movement of the civilian population. The persistent question is whether this is done to gain a military advantage or in some way offer a "safe zone" excluding the wrongfulness of forcible transfer. I will try to answer: 1/3 Safe zones, as provided for in the First and Fourth Geneva Conventions, need to be established to shelter the wounded, the sick and civilians from the effects of hostilities, and must not be attacked.

BREAKING: Tomorrow, #Israel's government - even more radicalized by hostilities in and around #Gaza - will proceed with special budget allocations to the maintenance and expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank, and the dispossession of #Palestinians, including 153 million ILS (43 million USD):
* 94.3 million ILS for settlement construction
* 39.5 million ILS for a "search and destroy" ops of humanitarian aid in Area C of the West Bank
* 19.53 million ILS for West Bank military prep academies

https://twitter.com/EpshtainItay/status/1655419408934731776

Humanitarian relief and protection offered to #Palestinians will be subject to an operation to "detect in real-time unlawful [Palestinian owned or inhabited construction]... to improve the effectiveness of enforcement. Funds allocated to settlement local and regional councils allow for the purchase of off-road vehicles, body armor, camera-quipped UAVs, and other electronic surveillance equipment, and the employment of "reconnaissance personnel."

1. Medical personnel, transports, and hospitals in #Gaza and elsewhere that are exclusively assigned to medical duties must be respected and protected in all circumstances, unless they are used to commit, outside their humanitarian function, acts harmful to the enemy.
2. Acts that would remove protection include the use of a hospital as a shelter for able-bodied combatants or fugitives, as an arms or ammunition store, as a military observation post, or as a center for liaison with fighting troops.

@eu_eeas: "The upsurge of settler terrorism in the West Bank has led to very high numbers of civilian casualties and #Palestinian communities being forced out of their homes. The situation could get out of control and is causing unspeakable suffering to local communities. (...) Urgent measures are needed.

#Israel has the duty to protect civilians in the West Bank from extremist settler violence, to hold perpetrators accountable and ensure that the IDF intervenes. It is a legal obligation that must be fulfilled."

Three weeks of #Israel-#Gaza hostilities, a few legal observations can and should be made. Some capture serious violations that have been perpetrated, and continue to occur, others relate to premeditated atrocities that should be prevented by all means. Ten points: 1. All parties to the conflict - #Palestinian armed groups and #Israel - have shown reckless disregard to peremptory norms of international law, including the basic rules of international humanitarian law. The very rules they must comply with - in all circumstances - breached.

From the people that orchestrated #Israel annexation of the West Bank and the ancillary "judicial overhaul" come these two position papers, which will likely determine the position on #Gaza. Premeditated grave breaches of international law in two steps:

Step 1: "#Hamas enjoys broad civilian support in Gaza. Despite claims that the majority of the public in #Gaza wants peace and is captured by Hamas, data from the last two decades consistently proves the opposite."

This is Avihai Shorshan, Civilian Security Coordinator (CSC) of the Gush Adumim (Jerusalem periphery) settlement bloc, who yesterday tormented a #Palestinian child from #KhanalAhmar. The responsibility for this instance of settler violence - perpetrated by a person exercising governmental authority - rests with the state of #Israel. CSC's, like Shorshan, are on the payroll of the Israeli Ministry of Defense (since February 2023, answerable to Minister Smotrich) and together with settlement civilian guarding squads are invested with far-reaching powers to "guard" settlements, outposts (both formal and informal), and their environ, and arm their fellow settlement inhabitants with military-issued weapons. @Yesh_Din explains:

BREAKING: ahead of the school year, #Israel destroyed this morning the donor-funded school of #EinSamiya, a #Palestinain community northeast of Ramallah. The community was subjected to settler violence, and forcibly displaced as a result. To preclude the return of the community to its locale, Israel complemented settler violence with the wanton destruction of the school. Since 2022, seven communities in Area C of the West Bank have been forcibly transferred due to an increasingly coercive environment, which binds together wanton and extensive destruction of property - including humanitarian relief in the form of schools - settlement expansion, and settler violent extremism.

These communities include Ein Samiya (132 displaced), Wadi As-Seeq (35 displaced), Wedadie (21 displaced), Lifjim (46 displaced), Ras At-Tin (99 displaced in 2022, 89 displaced in 2023), Al Baqa’a (54 displaced), and Khirbet Bir Al-‘Idd (12 displaced).

Today is the deadline for submissions to the @CIJ_ICJ in connection with the request for an advisory opinion on the question of #Palestine. Yesterday, @pmofa submitted to the Court, citing #Israeli breach of peremptory norms of general international law (#juscogens). A short… https://t.co/cdNss2RPaqtwitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Last year, the @UN International Law Commission adopted - following eight years of deliberation - draft conclusions identifying peremptory norms of international law, and ascribing legal consequences of a breach. These include, as noted by #Palestine, the prohibition of… https://t.co/lO3lY000w6twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Five #Israeli Major-Generals, who served as military commanders of occupied #Palestinian territory, reflect on Israel's annexation of occupied territory and the link to the judicial overhaul. I bring their words because, more than others, they have directly participated in… https://t.co/BrG9XJNJK6twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
In short: Israel's current government has subordinated the "Civil Adminstration" of Central Command (the military government of occupied Palestinian territory) to Minister Smotrich (Religious Zionism) and the Gendarmerie to Minister Ben Gvir (Jewish Power), and intends to expand… https://t.co/HiqsKU7KJXtwitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Appearing before the #Israeli parliament, the military commander of occupied #Palestinian territory -since February 2023 subordinated to Minister Smotrich - confirms that 95% of Palestinian construction permit applications in Area C of the West Bank (home to 350K Palestinians) are rejected by Israeli authorities for political reasons, while given a spatial planning rationale. At the same time, 70% of settlers construction permit applications are approved, for similarly political reasons. The annual budget allocation to the military government "civil apparatus" stands at 415 million ILS (116 million USD), of which 40 million ILS (11 million USD) are spent on detecting and destroying #Palestinian-built homes and livelihoods, and humanitarian aid, in Area C.

#Israel - in keeping with the recent proscribed annexation of occupied #Palestinian territory - formalizes its rejection of the law of belligerent occupation, and the right of Palestinians to self-determination. The Cabinet Secretary, in a letter to @AdalahEnglish regarding the… https://t.co/8M2yQeexEktwitter.com/i/web/status/1…


Citing the universally rejected (including by the @CIJ_ICJ 2004 Advisory Opinion) “missing reversioner doctrine,” #Israel claims that “Judea and Samaria were not occupied from a recognized sovereign according to international law. The State of Israel has the right to apply its… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

In July 1967, weeks after it occupied the West Bank and Gaza, #Israel considered - in a top secret memo (*with utmost thanks to @Akevot for exposing) - two primary options for the recently occupied territory. Annexation or the establishment of a #Palestinian state. Israeli officials write with a sense of urgency, cautioning that Israel will be perceived by the international community as "maintaining colonial rule in these occupied territory," while considering the options for an example of occupied Palestinian territory.

On this day, 56 years ago, #Israel invaded - in a premeditated attack - Gaza and the West Bank. Despite subduing its Egyptian and Jordanian adversaries by the 10th of June, it had since occupied #Palestinian territory with no military exigency justifying it's prolongation. Two weeks after #Israel occupied #Palestinian territory, a group of Israelies took out an ad, reading:

"Occupation leads to alien rule.
Alien rule leads to resistance.
Resistance leads to oppression.
Oppression leads to terror and counter terror.
Victims of terror are for the… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

BREAKING: On Sunday 28 May, the #Israeli Ministerial Committee on Legislation chaired by Yariv Levin (MoJ, Likud) and Itamar Ben Gvir (Jewish Power) will consider - for endorsement - the draft bill tabled by Ariel Kallner (Likud) imposing a 65% tax on foreign aid to Israeli and… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… In February, Kallner tabled a draft bill to amend the income tax ordinance to impose a tax of 65 percent on financial support from third-states and intergovernmental organizations (@EUCouncil @EU_Commission) to #Israeli and #Palestinian humanitarians and human rights defenders.

Yesterday, the people of Ein Samiya (on the outskirts of Ramallah), following severe and repeated settler attacks had to leave their homes. The entire community consisting of 37 households (roughly 172 people, including 78 children) were forcibly transferred through coercion. Violence, directed at #Palestinian persons and property, is inherent to #Israeli settlements. From their establishment to their expansion through outposts, settlements exteriorize harassment and violence against Palestinians in their path, as the heat map shows.

This morning #Gaza - and its two million inhabitants - remains isolated from the world through #Israel's siege on land, at sea and air.
In 2019 @NRC_Norway requested the expert opinion of @MarcoLongobardo on the legality of Israel's closure on land and obligation to allow safe… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… He concluded that the #Gaza Strip is under #Israeli occupation, notwithstanding the 2005
Disengagement. Israel still exercises sufficient actual authority over the
maritime territory and airspace of the area, over its borders, and its fundamental
supplies, so that the test… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

In analyzing the Israeli attack overnight, a few questions come up. Let me try and unpack those in the following thread:

First, Are there ongoing hostilities in occupied #Palestinian territory and specifically in Gaza (beyond the ongoing belligerent occupation)?
Situations… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… Second, in the event of hostilities, who is considered a civilian for the purposes of the principle of distinction? and what conduct amounts to direct participation in hostilities?

For the purposes of the principle of distinction in international armed conflict (including… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

This morning #Israel's defense forces convened an international conference on the law of armed conflict. This glimpse into the program reveals that "property destruction" is high on the agenda. I was not invited, but nonetheless, let me share my thoughts: Going back to the Hague Regulations of 1907, Article 23(g) provides that it is especially forbidden “to destroy or seize the enemy’s property, unless such destruction or seizure be imperatively demanded by the necessities of war”

BREAKING: #Israel's 2023 (top up)-2024 "special budget allocation" (beyond the regular state budget): 75 million ILS (20 million USD) to forcibly transfer #Palestinians from Area C of the West Bank (e.g., by destroying humanitarian aid), and 404 million ILS (111 million USD)… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… Furthering the annexation of occupied #Palestinian territory on February 23' with the transfer of powers to Israel's civil government, the allocations are to the Ministry of National Missions, headed by Orit Strook (Religion Zionism - Jewish Power).