The Israel Defense Forces criticized the far-right Channel 14 TV network for a clip the station broadcasted on Tuesday that made fun of IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi. The military accused the channel of “inflammatory and defamatory content that harms the IDF.”

The video made fun of an incident in which Halevi, while visiting Golani Brigade troops in southern Lebanon, removed a velcro patch from a soldier’s sleeve on which was written “Messiah.” These have become popular among some religious soldiers during the war.

The patches are associated with Messianic fundamentalist Jewish beliefs, and Halevi told the soldier that, while he was free to keep the patch in his shirt pocket, only official IDF insignia could be presented externally.

News of Halevi reprimanding a soldier for the badge, reportedly not for the first time, angered some in right-wing circles — despite the fact that soldiers are generally bound by strict uniform regulations and have long been prohibited from displaying messages on their fatigues.

The Channel 14 animated clip portrayed Halevi seeing the patch, causing his eyes to engorge and for him to start screaming in agony. Halevi has been the object of much criticism from some Netanyahu supporters since the war broke out on October 7 last year, with certain voices accusing him of weakness and a lack of resolve in the face of the Hamas and Hezbollah threats.

Some commenters on social media criticized the clip, saying Channel 14 was serving enemy interests by portraying Halevi in such a manner.

“I am contacting you following the video published last night on Channel 14, which included inflammatory and defamatory content that harms the IDF. It is inconceivable that a media channel in the State of Israel platforms inflammatory content against the IDF during war,” read a letter addressed to the network by IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari.

Hagari wrote that the military “does not fear criticism and even encourages an open and sharp public discourse” on the IDF amid the war.

“However, the content that was broadcast yesterday on Channel 14 crosses a red line. This is deliberate incitement and humiliation of the IDF and its commanders during war. Unfortunately, this is not the first time Channel 14 has taken such actions toward the IDF,” the letter continued.

The IDF said it expects the network to delete the content.

The letter was also sent to the Second Authority for Television and Radio, a key regulatory and licensing body for commercial broadcasting in Israel, as well as Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi.

Karhi, a hardliner from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, wrote a post on X aimed at Hagari, calling on him to rescind the letter.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-censures-right-wing-tv-network-for-mockery-of-military-chief/

Hours before Israel struck Iran over the weekend, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant sent a harshly-worded missive to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning that Israel’s war efforts had become aimless and needed to be refocused given regional developments in the past year, Hebrew media reported Sunday.

News of the letter, reportedly also sent to most cabinet ministers and top officials from the military, Mossad spy agency and Shin Bet security service, came as a report emerged that Netanyahu had promised political allies he would jettison Gallant once Israel attacked Iran.

In the communique, Gallant argued that Israel was fighting according to an “outdated compass” and that Jerusalem needed to revise its official war aims initially set following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, according to Channel 13 news.

“Significant developments in the war, especially Israel and Iran trading direct blows, raise the necessity of holding a discussion and updating the war’s goals with a comprehensive look” at the areas of fighting and the interconnections between them, Gallant reportedly wrote.

While Israel initially set its war goals as the destruction of the Hamas terror group and the return of hostages taken during the onslaught of southern Israel over a year ago, the fighting has since expanded significantly due to attacks by Iranian proxies and Iran itself, with Israel saying it is actually fighting a seven-front war.

Israel updated its goals to include the return of northern residents to their homes before sharply intensifying attacks on the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon last month.

Gallant was said to advocate adding the following war aims: in the West Bank, “preventing an outbreak of violence by thwarting terrorism”; in Iran, “deterrence and keeping Iran out of the war”; and in Gaza, “establishing a reality with no military threat, preventing the growth of terror capabilities, return of all the hostages and promotion of an alternative to the Hamas government.”

Israel’s current war aims call for the destruction of Hamas’s governing capability, but not for active promotion of any alternative. Gallant has publicly assailed Netanyahu on that point, urging the premier to rule out Israeli governance of Gaza after the war. By contrast, the government’s far-right flank has advocated for Israeli resettlement of the Strip.

Netanyahu’s office called Gallant’s letter “bizarre” in a response to Channel 13.

“There is a single compass, and that is the war aims as determined by the cabinet,” said the office.

“They are examined all the time, and have even been recently expanded,” it added.

Gallant’s opposition to Israeli rule of Gaza, and his support for a hostage-ceasefire deal there, have put him at odds with the coalition’s far-right flank, further stressing already frayed ties within the cabinet.

According to a Sunday report by the Kan public broadcaster, Netanyahu had told ultra-Orthodox party leaders that he would fire Gallant after Israel attacked Iran.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/gallant-said-to-tell-netanyahu-management-of-war-directionless-goals-need-updating/

ERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli lawmakers passed two laws on Monday that could threaten the work of the main U.N. agency providing aid to people in Gaza by barring it from operating on Israeli soil, severing ties with it.

The laws, which do not immediately take effect, signal a new low for a long-troubled relationship between Israel and the U.N. Israel’s international allies said they were deeply worried about their potential impact on Palestinians as the Gaza war’s humanitarian toll worsens.

Under the first law, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, would be banned from conducting “any activity” or providing any service inside Israel. The second law would sever Israel’s diplomatic ties with the agency.

The laws risk collapsing the already fragile process for distributing aid in Gaza at a moment when Israel is under increased U.S. pressure to ramp up aid. UNRWA’s chief called them “a dangerous precedent.”

https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-war-lebanon-hezbollah-iran-news-10-28-2024-6894ad0ffa997d49742908a0e8c952b9

At least 93 people are dead or missing after an Israeli air strike on the town of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, the Hamas-run health ministry says, in an attack that the United States called "horrifying".

Rescuers said a five-storey residential building was hit, and videos on social media showed bodies covered in blankets on the floor.

The Israeli military said it was "aware of reports that civilians were harmed today [Tuesday] in the Beit Lahia area". It added that the details of the incident were being looked into.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been operating in northern Gaza during the past two weeks, particularly in the areas of Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun.

The director of the nearby Kamal Adwan hospital in Jabalia, Hussam Abu Safia, told the AFP news agency that children were being treated at the hospital, which is struggling to treat patients due to a lack of staff and medicines. 

"There is nothing left in the Kamal Adwan Hospital except first aid materials after the army arrested our medical team and workers," Abu Safia said.

The IDF raided the hospital last week, saying it was being used by Hamas fighters.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the US was "deeply concerned by the loss of civilian life in this incident. This was a horrifying incident with a horrifying result".

He pointed to "reports of two dozen children killed" in the attack.

The "tragic cost to civilians" in the latest strike "is another reminder of why we need to see an end to this war", Miller said.

Israel says its operations in northern Gaza are designed to prevent Hamas from regrouping and accuses them of embedding among the civilian population, which Hamas denies. 

In a statement on Tuesday, it said it killed 40 “terrorists” in Jabalia, and in central Gaza it said it “eliminated many terrorists" over the past 24 hours including some who "attempted to plant explosives near the troops".

The northern Gaza Strip faces a deepening humanitarian crisis, with hundreds of thousands of people living in desperate conditions.

UN human rights chief Volker Türk said on Friday that "the Israeli military is subjecting an entire population to bombing, siege and risk of starvation".

He also said it was unacceptable that Palestinian armed groups were reportedly operating among civilians, including inside shelters for the displaced, and putting them in harm’s way.

On Monday, Israel's parliament voted through legislation to ban the UN's Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa, from operating in the country, sparking warnings the delivery of aid to Gaza could be severely impacted.. 

Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group's unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 42,924 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and fighters in its figures. 

Israel is not allowing international journalists from media organisations, including the BBC, independent access to Gaza, making it hard to verify facts on the ground.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clydngkv3xko

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