TV News LIES

Israeli soldiers said the army ordered troops to kill any man they encountered in Gaza during the genocide that began in 2023.

“A man, no matter what age, don’t play games with it; kill immediately,” one soldier said, describing the orders they received.

“They even told us that if it’s a woman or a child, use your judgment, because things happen,” he added, saying similar instructions were given regarding donkeys. 

His testimony was given to Iris Haim, the mother of an Israeli captive killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, and aired on Channel 13’s investigative programme on Thursday.

In December 2023, Israeli soldiers killed three Israeli captives in Gaza City’s Shujaiya neighbourhood despite them being shirtless, waving a white flag and posing no apparent threat.

The incident sparked widespread criticism of Israel’s rules of engagement in Gaza, which have led to indiscriminate killings of Palestinians near homes, aid sites and "buffer zones". 

In the Channel 13 investigation, the soldier, who spoke anonymously, said he was the one who shot one of the captives during the incident.

Describing his mindset at the time, he said: “I fire 500 bullets a minute. I blow things up. I don’t care. I’m here to kill terrorists.”

Recalling the shooting, the soldier said: “There are three terrorists, I’ll kill them. Then I realised two had already been killed, and one had escaped.”

That captive, he later understood, was Yotam Haim.

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Israel’s top commander in the occupied West Bank has said the army is killing Palestinians at levels “not seen since 1967”, according to Haaretz.

Avi Bluth, head of the Israeli army’s Central Command, made the remarks in a closed forum, where he also defended looser rules of engagement allowing troops to fire at unarmed Palestinians.

He acknowledged a discriminatory approach whereby Jewish Israeli stone-throwers are not targeted while Palestinians carrying out similar acts are fired at. 

"In three years, we have killed 1,500 terrorists," he said, referring to Palestinians. 

"So how is there no intifada? Why aren’t they taking to the streets? Why is the Palestinian public indifferent? Why are there no disturbances?" Bluth, a settler who has been the Israeli army commander in the West Bank since 2024, added.

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the appointment of Yehuda Eliyahu on Monday.

A long-time associate of Smotrich, Eliyahu previously headed the Settlement Administration within the defence ministry, where he oversaw the largest Israeli land grab in the West Bank in recent memory.

His selection was approved last week by a public appointments committee, though not unanimously. 

The committee’s legal adviser opposed the move, arguing that Eliyahu’s decades-long personal relationship with Smotrich posed a conflict of interest.

The Israel Land Authority oversees around 92 percent of state land - roughly 20 million dunams - and manages a budget worth billions of shekels. It plays a central role in land allocation for housing, infrastructure and development projects, and is also involved in administering land in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

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The United States has criticised its allies for failing to stop a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that was raided and seized by Israeli naval forces earlier this week.

US Department of State spokesperson Tommy Pigott on Thursday described the flotilla as a “baseless, counterproductive stunt”.

He said Washington expects allies to "take decisive action", including denying port access, docking, departure and refuelling to vessels involved in the mission.

"This flotilla circumvents mechanisms designed to ensure humanitarian assistance is received by civilians," Pigott said in a statement.

"The United States will explore using available tools to impose consequences on those who provide support to this pro-Hamas flotilla and supports our allies’ legal actions against."

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Once you picture schoolgirls, university students, mothers, aunts and grandmothers lying on their stomachs in prison pyjamas - their hands tied behind their backs, and soldiers looming over them, beating them if they move even slightly - you cannot forget the image. 

When you hear a female prisoner say she has "nothing but her heart", you immediately grasp how prison can dismantle lives. 

Palestinian Prisoners’ Day is marked every year on 17 April to spotlight ongoing human rights violations - and today, conditions are worse than ever. Since the launch of the Gaza genocide, starvation, isolation, humiliation, strip searches, torture and overwhelming fear have become constant realities for Palestinian women in Israeli prisons.

More than 700 Palestinian women have been arrested in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza since the genocide began in late 2023, according to rights groups. Enduring night raids on their homes or detention at military checkpoints, most have been subjected to physical and psychological abuse both during and after their arrest.

“Everything is different from the prisons of the 1990s. All changed with the genocide,” Ramallah-based lawyer Sahar Francis, who is also the former director of the prisoners’ rights group Addameer, told a recent webinar entitled Women, Prison Sumoud.

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A 68-year-old Palestinian woman was beaten to death by Israeli soldiers during a raid on her home in the town of Jayyous, in the northern occupied West Bank.

Soldiers stormed the house of Sabriya Shamasneh in the early hours of Tuesday morning, conducting an aggressive search and interrogating the family.

Her husband, Walid Shamasneh, told local media that shortly before the raid, his daughter-in-law had approached him in fear, believing there were “thieves” outside. She reported hearing unusual noises and noticed that the front garden gate had been forced open.

Israeli forces then broke down the front door, terrifying the family.

“The Israeli officer began asking me for the names of people I did not know. Then they forced us all into a corner of the room while they searched the other bedrooms,” Walid said.

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