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The government of Nicaragua has stated that it is breaking off diplomatic relations with Israel over the ongoing genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which has killed over 42,000 people, more than half of them women and children.

Nicaraguan Vice President Rosario Murillo announced the move to state media on Friday.

The Central American nation’s Congress had, earlier in the day, passed a resolution requesting Nicaragua take action to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the Gaza war.

The conflict, the Nicaraguan government said, now also “extends against Lebanon and gravely threatens Syria, Yemen and Iran.”

Murillo, who is President Daniel Ortega’s wife, said her husband instructed the government to sever diplomatic relations with the “fascist” and “genocidal” Tel Aviv regime.

İsmail Beheşti was on his way to check on his ship, the Conscience, at the Port of Istanbul. It was the end of August, and he hoped the 220-foot passenger yacht would soon be loaded with aid and volunteers, sailing for Gaza to break Israel’s illegal blockade. But as he entered the port, where the ship had been moored for months, he was physically stopped.

“The security forces did not allow me to enter the port. They kicked me out by force,” recalled Beheşti. To his great surprise, he said, the security officers told him “‘No, you are on the blacklist. We will not let you go and see your ship.’”

It was the latest roadblock for Beheşti and his fellow activists from an international coalition that has been trying since April to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. They had already struggled to find countries that would lend their flags to the ships in the flotilla, as such a move could be seen as antagonistic to Israel. Once they did obtain flags, the flotilla planned to depart from Turkey, which famously supported a 2010 effort to break Israel’s siege of Gaza. But now, even though the Conscience has secured a flag and the support of U.N. rapporteurs, Turkish authorities are continually blocking its departure.

Two decades ago, Shahawar Matin Siraj started to feel uneasy about a plan to bomb a subway station in Manhattan. Osama Eldawoody, a New York City Police Department informant recruited after 9/11, had established himself as a father figure to Siraj, who was 21 when they met. Eldawoody was almost twice his age. He had shown Siraj graphic visuals of Muslims being tortured and told him that suicide bombings were forbidden but “killing the killers” was not.

Siraj eventually introduced Eldawoody to a friend, James Elshafay, who was 19 at the time. Elshafay started suggesting actual targets, such as bridges and police precincts. Siraj offered an alternative: the Herald Square subway station. Eldawoody told Siraj that the “Brotherhood” wanted to support his plan.

But as it started to feel real, Siraj tried to back out — insisting about 18 times that he was not willing to place bombs in the station. “I have to, you know, ask my mom’s permission,” he had said — suggesting that the most he would be comfortable with would be acting as a lookout. Siraj and Elshafay were arrested a week later.

Elshafay pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years in prison and three of supervised release. Siraj decided to fight the charges, went to trial, and was sentenced in 2007 to 30 years in prison after three years of pretrial detention.

Amos Hochstein is one of the most influential members of Joe Biden's foreign policy team. He has been shuttling between Tel Aviv, Beirut, and Washington, DC, for the past year, as a top diplomatic envoy for the president. He is one of the two White House officials, according to Politico, who "privately told Israel that the US would support its decision to ramp up military pressure against Hezbollah."

He is also a former member of the Israeli military.

“I think [Hochstein’s appointment] tells you all you need to know about US ‘mediation’ in the Middle East,” said Karim Makdisi, an international politics professor at the American University of Beirut.

“From ‘Israel’s lawyer’ in Oslo to a literal IDF soldier today, it’s consistent and tells you clearly that Israel is the only real concern for US policy, and then it's a question of using the carrot (Hochstein) or stick.”

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society on Friday said that all its ambulances in northern Gaza were forced to stop over the lack of fuel due to the Israeli army’s incursion and siege for the sixth consecutive day.

“Six ambulances are completely put out of service due to lack of fuel, as the Israeli occupation prevents the entry of fuel into northern Gaza,” Raed Al-Nems, Red Crescent Society’s spokesman in Gaza, told Anadolu.

He added that the halt of the ambulances paralyzed providing the ambulance service to patients and wounded people in northern Gaza.

Commenting on the situation in northern Gaza, Al-Nems said the humanitarian situation is “quickly deteriorating with the continuation of the Israeli siege. The siege is preventing the arrival of basic humanitarian, medical and relief supplies to northern Gaza,” he added.

A United Nations inquiry said Thursday it found Israel carried out a concerted policy of destroying Gaza's health care system in the Gaza war, actions amounting to both war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination.

"Children, in particular, have borne the brunt of these attacks, suffering both directly and indirectly from the collapse of the health system," said Pillay, whose report will be presented to the U.N. General Assembly on Oct. 30.

Israel says that Gaza's militants operate from the cover of built-up populated areas including private homes, schools and hospitals and that it will strike them wherever they emerge, while also trying to avoid harming civilians.

Hamas denies hiding militants, weapons and command posts among civilians.

Sky News investigators obtained satellite images and examined Israeli army press materials, concluding that multiple military vehicles were operating in the immediate vicinity at the time of the incident, contradicting the Israeli military’s claims that no forces were present.

The channel examined satellite imagery taken on January 29, the day of the attack.

“It shows at least 15 military vehicles in the Tel al Hawa neighbourhood – where the family’s car was found. The closest military vehicle is just 300m away. One satellite image was taken at 4.31pm local time – just over an hour before the PRCS said it received approval to send an ambulance,” the report said.

“Satellite imagery taken in the days following the attack show how heavy the military presence remained, with at least 13 military vehicles seen on 7 February. A day later, on 8 February, at least nine military vehicles were seen in the area near the Islamic University in Gaza City,” the report continued.

Slightly deep-fried but the reaction guy did the translations

In a landmark legal action, a coalition of Palestinian and Dutch civil society organisations has filed a lawsuit against the government of the Netherlands, accusing it of failing to prevent genocide in Gaza and other Israeli violations of international law. The case, brought before a Dutch civil court today, seeks to compel the Netherlands to take decisive action against Israel’s ongoing military operations and the illegal occupation of Palestinian territories.

At the heart of the legal case are two primary demands: a ban on the export and transit of weapons, weapon parts and dual-use items to Israel, and a prohibition on all Dutch trade and investment relations that support Israel’s unlawful occupation of Palestinian territory.

The lawsuit comes in the wake of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) January 2024 ruling, which found that Israel is committing plausible genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Despite this ruling and numerous international warnings, the Dutch government has failed to take substantive action to prevent further atrocities.