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You can see them across the Gaza Strip, almost everywhere. Teams of people operating heavy equipment for one purpose: demolition
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They aren't part of a regular military unit, but rather small groups that form through independent initiatives. They are civilians, many of them settlers, who are mobilized into the reserves through contracting companies
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Israel's opposition leader Yair Lapid got a phone call this week from an Egyptian official close to President al-Sissi.

"Can you explain to me what's going on over there?" the official asked. "What are you talking about?" Lapid asked
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"What you call the 'Witkoff plan' and what we call the 'Netanyahu plan,' because it was his idea from the very start – the whole idea of a partial deal was all dictated by Netanyahu," the Egyptian answered
haaretz.com/israel-news/20…

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Israel is providing weapons to a Jihadist group in Gaza affiliated with ISIS, says right-wing opposition lawmaker and former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman
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In an interview with Israel's public broadcaster, Lieberman says that, similar to how Netanyahu propped up Hamas as a counterweight to the Palestinian Authority, he is now helping establish a new armed force as a counterweight to Hamas
haaretz.com/israel-news/20…

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Palestinian-American analyst Fouad Alkhatib's criticism of pro-Palestinian activism extends to a related, highly sensitive problem in the region itself
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Targeting the NGOs that have literally kept Gaza fed and clothed throughout the years of Israel's closure since Hamas wrested control in 2007
haaretz.com/israel-news/20…

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Israeli police had conditioned approval for an anti-war protest this coming Thursday in Tel Aviv on the requirement that "no images of children or babies from Gaza" be displayed, then later backtracked on the move
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According to a document sent on Sunday by police to the Arab-Jewish movement @omdimbeyachad – which is organizing the protest – demonstrators were prohibited from displaying signs, posters or flags that "incite to violent or illegal activity"
haaretz.com/israel-news/20…

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Netanyahu's spokesperson, Omer Dostri, said in an interview with Israel's Channel 12 News on Saturday night that a deal to return all hostages in one stage cannot be achieved
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"I keep hearing things like 'One deal, bring them back.' At the moment, there can't be one deal since Hamas isn't saying: 'Come get your hostages and that's that,' it's demanding an end to the war," Dostri said in the interview
haaretz.com/israel-news/20…

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Dismissed Shin Bet security service chief Ronen Bar told the High Court of Justice on Friday that Netanyahu repeatedly demanded that he issue an opinion that the PM could not testify continuously in his corruption trial due to security reasons
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In a letter sent to the High Court, Bar said his refusal led to Netanyahu's "lack of trust" in him
haaretz.com/israel-news/20…

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The autopsy of a Palestinian minor who died in Israel's Megiddo Prison last week revealed signs of starvation and medical neglect, with the report noting severe muscle and fat loss, as well as colitis and scabies
haaretz.com/israel-news/20… 🧵2/4
According to the family 17-year-old Waleed Ahmad, he was healthy, athletic, and had no preexisting medical conditions before his arrest in September
haaretz.com/israel-news/20…

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Alice Wairimu Nderitu, the UN special adviser on the prevention of genocide, suggested that her contract was not renewed by UN chief Antonio Guterres due to her declining to label Israel's military offensive in Gaza against Hamas as genocide
haaretz.com/world-news/202… 🧵2/6
Last November, an editorial in The Wall Street Journal claimed that Nderitu's removal was part of an "unofficial UN campaign against the Jewish state," describing her "refusal to endorse a lie for political gain" as a "profile in courage"
haaretz.com/world-news/202…

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Dyab Abou Jahjah, head of the Hind Rajab Foundation, which has filed complaints against Israeli soldiers in courts around the world, submitted in Brussels a formal criminal complaint on behalf of the organization against Israel's Diaspora minister
haaretz.com/world-news/eur… 🧵2/6
The complaint says the minister, Amichai Chikli, threatened Abou Jahjah "with death or at least with the intentional infliction of blows and injuries resulting in mutilation" when he wrote, during an exchange of messages on X, "Watch your pager"
haaretz.com/world-news/eur…

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"There's a substantial difference between this operation and the others," Col. A., the commander of the Menashe Brigade whose full name cannot be disclosed according to new IDF regulations, told Haaretz about the current operation in Jenin
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"In all the operations up to now, we carried out raids, but this time we want to neutralize the Jenin battalion," he said
haaretz.com/israel-news/20…

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Netanyahu has rushed to shield tech billionaire Elon Musk, saying he was being "falsely smeared" for an apparent fascist salute during Trump's inauguration
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Elon Musk is not the first (and probably not the last) peddler of antisemitic conspiracy theories to be defended and excused by Mr. Netanyahu.

For more on how Musk made X a safer place for antisemites, see the links in the next tweets
haaretz.com/israel-news/20…

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Israel is blocking the United Nations from investigating sexual crimes committed by Hamas during its October 7 attack, fearing it would require granting access to probe allegations of sexual violence against Palestinians in Israeli detention
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A thorough investigation could have led to Hamas being added to the UN's blacklist of entities suspected of sexual violence in conflicts
haaretz.com/israel-news/20…

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A commander in the IDF's Nahal Brigade shot and killed a Palestinian who was assisting IDF troops in the southern Gazan city of Rafah, according to a report by the Hebrew-language independent investigative journalism site "The Hottest Place in Hell"
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According to the report, the Palestinian – who was forced to serve as a human shield and search buildings in the Khan Yunis area – had received the Israeli army's permission to be present in the building
haaretz.com/israel-news/20…

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Israelis view the IDF as a moral army. The discussion of atrocities evokes emotional resistance even though it's intellectually understood that crimes exist in every civilized society and that war crimes have been committed by soldiers in every army
haaretz.com/opinion/2024-1… 🧵2/6
Developmental psychologists have identified callous traits in young children while social psychologists have demonstrated that authoritative directives and social pressure lead ordinary people to harmful behavior
haaretz.com/opinion/2024-1…

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The human rights organization B'Tselem released a new report on Tuesday on Israel Defense Forces soldiers routinely abusing Palestinian residents in the West Bank city of Hebron
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According to the report, which includes testimony from 25 people, the abuse follows a systematic pattern
haaretz.com/israel-news/20…

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Israel's Knesset advances bill to limit Arab participation in local elections
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Israel's Knesset approved in a preliminary reading on Wednesday an amendment to a law that would make it easier to disqualify Arab candidates from running in municipal elections
haaretz.com/israel-news/20…

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West Bank settlers are recruiting IDF reservists to protect illegal farm outposts and even help establish them, with military positions already set up for reservists as part of the army's so-called regional defense battalions
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In these battalions, also known by the Hebrew acronym hagmar, soldiers who are mostly settlers themselves are recruited to guard settlements in the West Bank
haaretz.com/israel-news/20…

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Hamas militants kidnap regime opponents and torture them. My friend Amin Abed's limbs were broken with steel bars, after he criticized Hamas on the media, writes an anonymous Palestinian from Gaza
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My friends in the southern Gaza Strip tell me that Hamas no longer operates freely in the area, but it's rebuilding itself under the moniker "popular committees," so it can protect its assets and monitor marketplaces
haaretz.com/opinion/2024-1…

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Settlers in the West Bank are talking about what has been going on in recent years in farming and shepherding outposts, almost all of which are illegal, as no less than a revolution
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Its spirit embodies the "miracle" that National Missions Minister Orit Strock described in the context of the events triggered by the October 7 massacre
haaretz.com/israel-news/20…

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This isn't the first time I've written that PM Netanyahu, Defense Minister Gallant and Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Herzl Halevi are gambling with Israel's very existence
haaretz.com/opinion/2024-1… 🧵2/7
With one unwise decision, they might well ignite a multifront conflagration that would extend throughout the Middle East
haaretz.com/opinion/2024-1…