Nasir Khan blog

Friday, August 14, 2026

Doctors Without Borders Accuses Israel of ‘Deliberate Effort to Make Existence Itself Impossible’ in Gaza

Hot meals distributed to Palestinians in Gaza

Displaced Palestinians, including many children, wait in long queues to receive hot meals distributed by a charitable organization in Gaza City, Gaza on June 7, 2026.

(Photo by Moiz Salhi/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“What we are witnessing in Gaza is not a series of isolated shortages, it is a policy of attrition by design.”

Jake Johnson, Common Dreams, Aug 13, 2026

The renowned humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders said Wednesday that the Israeli government is still restricting the entry of engine oil and generator parts to the Gaza Strip, imperiling life-saving hospital functions and other essential services in the decimated territory.

Doctors Without Borders, known internationally as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), noted that Gaza’s remaining healthcare system relies “almost entirely” on generators, “with most electricity cut by Israeli authorities and much of the electrical infrastructure destroyed.” The group said that in some Gaza facilities, its teams barely have sufficient engine oil to last a month and have been forced to “buy engine oil at the local market at exorbitant prices.”

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Filipe Ribeiro, MSF’s head of mission in Palestine, said that “what we are witnessing in Gaza is not a series of isolated shortages, it is a policy of attrition by design.”

“For more than two years, we have observed Israel’s policies restricting the entry of supplies,” said Ribeiro. “These policies do not merely delay aid; they dismantle the very systems people rely on to survive.”

Israel’s continued restriction of supplies comes as the country’s military, which is armed by the United States, keeps up its deadly bombing of the strip despite a purported ceasefire deal that took effect in October 2025. Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,200 people in Gaza since the start of the ceasefire agreement. The Israeli government, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has rejected a US-backed plan for Hamas disarmament in exchange for Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Earlier this week, a group of United Nations experts condemned Israel’s recent “strikes on hospitals and shelters, the killing of police officers and UN-contracted staff, attacks on fishers, and abductions and abuses by armed groups reportedly collaborating with the Israeli military, as well as the killing of humanitarian workers, who through their work protecting and promoting fundamental human rights, are human rights defenders.”

According to MSF, Israel’s sustained attacks and obstruction of supplies “extend far beyond hospitals.”

“Without engine oil, all transport services could stop, including much-needed water trucks during the peak of summer heat, ambulances, buses transporting medical staff to work, and trucks delivering humanitarian supplies,” the group said. “Bakeries and flour mills also rely on generators, meaning food production could also be affected.”

MSF characterized Israel’s continued obstruction of engine oil and spare generator parts as “one piece of a larger pattern of structural violence imposed by Israeli authorities to intentionally restrict access to vital services and supplies as part of the ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.”

“These restrictions have become increasingly far-reaching, also preventing the entry of routine items ranging from ointments for skin diseases to rubber seals needed for medical sterilization equipment,” the group said. “The shortages now impact virtually every aspect of life in Gaza, leaving hospitals and humanitarian organizations without basic supplies.”

Ribeiro said in a statement that “the items change, but the logic remains the same: reducing people to conditions in which life becomes untenable, and dignity is systematically stripped away through the denial of the most ordinary, most essential goods.”

“This is not bureaucracy,” he added. “It is a deliberate effort to make existence itself impossible.”

Thursday, August 13, 2026

Mutiny Aboard US Carrier Abraham Lincoln Off Iranian Coast

Scheer Post, August 13, 2026

Deployment Context

The USS Abraham Lincoln has been deployed for over 260 days, which is a modern-era record for a U.S. aircraft carrier. This prolonged deployment has led to significant stress and mental health challenges among the crew

Conditions and Morale

Reports from military families describe poor living conditions, including food shortages and inadequate facilities, contributing to the deteriorating morale.

Response and Claims

In addition to internal conflicts, there are external tensions, with Iran claiming to have attacked the carrier, although U.S. officials have denied these allegations.

Editor’s Note: At a moment when the once vaunted model of responsible journalism is overwhelmingly the play thing of self-serving billionaires and their corporate scribes, alternatives of integrity are desperately needed, and ScheerPost is one of them. Please support our independent journalism by contributing to our online donation platform, Network for Good, or send a check to our new PO Box. We can’t thank you enough, and promise to keep bringing you this kind of vital news.

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Israeli troops conducting ‘deliberate’ arson campaign in south Lebanon

Lebanese civil defense teams battling the flames say the fires caused by Israel have burned 30 to 40 percent of the land in Nabatieh

News Desk, The Cradle, AUG 13, 2026

(Photo credit: X) Large fires continued to burn and spread in south Lebanon on 13 August due to continuous strikes, artillery shelling, and deliberate arson operations carried out by Israeli occupation forces illegally positioned inside the country.

The Israeli arson operations in particular are targeting forests and greenery.

Israel has been damaging the environment in Lebanon for years, increasingly so over the past several months and specifically since the latest round of fighting began – including through the spraying of toxic chemicals.

Firefighters said, as they put out the blazes caused by Israel’s attacks and arson, that the fires were sparked “deliberately” by occupation forces.

The fires escalated overnight as Israel intensified attacks, but have been raging for weeks, environmental groups have said.

Israeli occupation troops used flares in a wooded area near the southern city of Khiam, sparking large blazes.

Hussein Fakih, head of the Lebanese Civil Defense in Nabatieh, said firefighters were targeted by an Israeli drone as they were heading to put out the flames.

“Most of our missions are now related to fires. There are enormous areas of woodland that have burned, I don’t have the exact figures, but in the areas close to the [frontline], around 30–40 percent of the land has been affected by fires,” he added.

Much of the agriculture in south Lebanon, including olive groves, has been affected by the fires, sparked by Israeli occupation troops and worsened by the hot summer weather.

The fires were seen in numerous videos posted across social media.

Meanwhile, Israeli infantry forces advanced into the area between the towns of Aita al-Jabal and Beit Yahoun in the Bint Jbeil district, as Tel Aviv carried out attacks in other areas on Thursday.

Occupation troops continued to detonate civilian infrastructure in multiple southern towns and villages, including Majdal Zoun, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA).

On 12 August, Israeli War Minister Israel Katz renewed his repeated vows that occupation forces “will not withdraw” from south Lebanon.

Israel’s escalation and expansion in Lebanon have escalated since Beirut violated its own laws and agreed to an unconstitutional framework deal with Israel in June, during direct talks with Tel Aviv.

The deal demands Hezbollah disarmament before any withdrawal and allows Israel to maintain its occupation.

Tel Aviv says it has established a “security zone” in the dozens of villages it has occupied since March, but Hezbollah resistance fighters remain entrenched across this area.

The Secret Marriage: How Arab States Betrayed Palestine While Denouncing Gaza

by Richard Edain, Antiwar. com, Aug 13, 2026

Someone had to organize the catering; that’s the detail that got me.

From the start of Israel’s assault on Gaza, Arab states have issued a steady stream of condemnation – labeling it genocide, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing – even as they’ve been secretly deepening their military ties with the very state carrying it out. The secrecy, however, hasn’t protected them.

That was the conclusion of a leak obtained by the Washington Post and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists – published in October 2025, months before the United States and Israel’s own war on Iran began: five CENTCOM PowerPoint presentations documenting an entity called the “Regional Security Construct” – a secretive network, operating since 2022, tying Israel to six Arab states: Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, with Kuwait and Oman standing by as “potential partners.” Every one of these governments has at some point in the last three years stood up and condemned the genocide in Gaza. Every one of them has also helped keep Israel’s military machine running. It’s a staggering betrayal.

The condemnations at the UN in September 2025 were strong: Qatar’s emir called it genocide; the Saudis said starvation and ethnic cleansing; Egypt and Jordan agreed.

Now look at what those same states were getting up to in private. In May 2024, high-level Arab and Israeli military officials met to coordinate – at Al Udeid Air Base, the US facility located inside Qatar. Traveling the usual way – the airport at Doha, passport and diplomatic controls – would leave a paper trail, hence the Israelis bypassed formalities and instead flew directly onto the base.

The internal planning document for the meeting contained a section with the heading “MUST NOT DO”, and strictly forbade photographs and any media contact. Beneath the itinerary, a note reminded staff they should observe culinary restrictions for both Muslim and Jewish delegates: “No pork / crustaceans.” Someone still had to sort the catering for this shadowy military alliance. Mirrors, Cocteau said, are the doors through which Death comes and goes. In this case, it was the catering memo.

Governments lie, everyone understands this. However, these documents are about a lot more than that. The slides state clearly that the partnership “does not form a new alliance” and that meetings are to be “held in confidence.” Concealment was part of the blueprint, and of course they all played along.

As Palestinians in Gaza were being bombed, the men whose governments claimed to speak for Palestine were coordinating regional air defenses with Israeli military officials down the hall – discussing radar coverage against Iran over lunch, while the genocide continued next door. By 2024, CENTCOM had linked most of the seven partners – the six Arab governments plus Israel – into a joint radar and air-defense picture focused on Iranian missiles and drones.

A detail in the slides that catches the eye: a 2025 meeting at which a Saudi representative and a US intelligence official jointly delivered an “intelligence overview” – Syria, the Houthis in Yemen, Islamic State – one of the two briefers from a kingdom with no formal diplomatic relations with Israel.

All of this elaborate scheming failed spectacularly when Doha was struck on 9 September 2025 in a sneak assassination job on Hamas officials. The complex air-defense system the Arab-Israeli network had just spent three years building amounted to nothing. The American radar was pointing in the wrong direction, since the attack didn’t come from Iran – but from Israel. Qatar’s separate air defense systems missed it too. The Trump administration reportedly leaned on Netanyahu, who apologized three weeks later.

The network’s failure wasn’t limited to Doha. On 28 February 2026, the day the US and Israel opened their war of aggression on Iran by killing its Supreme Leader, Iran’s retaliation went for the network’s jugular – ballistic missiles and drones struck the US Fifth Fleet’s headquarters in Bahrain, while simultaneous strikes smashed a THAAD missile-defense radar at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan and a phased-array radar in Qatar, with widespread damage reported across the UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Following a brief pause, hostilities resumed in early July, and on 23 July Iran’s military said it had destroyed a second radar and a Patriot system at another US base near Azraq, in Jordan. Every partner state named in the CENTCOM documents except Egypt has now had its radar coverage hit, disabled, or claimed destroyed.

On 29 July, Iran returned to Muwaffaq Salti – the same US/Jordanian base it struck earlier in February – launching ballistic missiles in what CENTCOM had the cheek to call a “surprise attack.” CENTCOM did not clarify whether it came before or after the US and Saudi Arabia struck Iran-backed militias in Iraq that same morning. Trump’s response was characteristically restrained: “We are going to beat the f**king sh*t out of them.”

Fresh strikes were hinted at for the first weekend in August but did not materialize – according to reports that came to light during the pause, Washington’s munitions stockpiles, both defensive and offensive, have been significantly depleted since the start of its war on Iran in February. The secret network that these Arab states built in collaboration with Israel and the US to guard the Gulf is in ruins. The global hegemon that built it with them is running low on ammunition.

The system is crumbling under the threat it was built to stop.

So why the secrecy? Emile Hokayem of the International Institute for Strategic Studies identified the answer: it allowed everyone involved to sidestep the bitter pill of the political argument. Working covertly with Israel’s generals is more palatable than being seen as direct collaborators. But, he said, the network masks how profoundly these states distrust each other and Israel – a distrust the Qatar strike exposed. “A key member of the American effort has attacked another,” he said, “with America seen as complacent, complicit, or blind.”

Mainstream media coverage has largely framed this as merely embarrassing – hypocritical Arab leaders caught out, business as usual. Except that is not what the documents are about, and it lets the governments involved off far too lightly. The same regimes that normalized ties with Israel have essentially reduced the Palestinian cause to lip service – and the CENTCOM documents show exactly how far that abandonment extends, as The Electronic Intifada has argued. This goes way beyond leaders occasionally crossing paths with their Israeli counterparts on the sidelines of a conference. Built by the United States, this three-year-old network has its own dedicated bureaucracy – a cyber center, an encrypted messaging network, information-operations planners, even special dietary instructions and a “MUST NOT DO” slide – all of it built to hide an alliance that Israel’s genocide in Gaza had already made politically toxic.

The Palestinians are not an incidental factor; they are the reason for all the secrecy. The Gaza genocide is built into this, with each government named in these documents consciously choosing to sustain it.

Richard Edain is a teacher and writer based in the UK and Vietnam. His long-form historical journalism appears on Substack as the Ulysses Files and has been published on Antiwar.com. Contact: edainrichard@gmail.com.

Wednesday, August 12, 2026

Israeli general who advocated starvation says Gaza should remain ‘destroyed for generations’

MEM, August 12, 2026

Palestinians are seen as the Israeli forces placed new yellow concrete blocks at the Sanfura junction continuing to expand the area known as the “Yellow Line” despite the ceasefire in western Gaza City, Gaza, Palestine, on July 27, 2026. [Ali Jadallah – Anadolu Agency]

Gaza should remain “destroyed for generations to come,” said former Israeli general Giora Eiland, who advocated using starvation as a weapon of war against Palestinians. Eliand also urged Israel not to relinquish the territory it has seized behind the so-called Yellow Line.

Eiland, a former head of Israel’s National Security Council and former chief of the Israeli army’s Planning and Operations directorates, made the remarks during an interview with Israeli radio station 103FM. His remarks were reported this week in Hebrew-language by Israeli newspaper Maariv under the headline: “Giora Eiland without filters: ‘It is better for Gaza to remain destroyed for generations to come’.”

Discussing the US-backed Board of Peace’s 15-point proposal for Gaza, Eiland described the plan as a “very pro-Hamas interpretation” of the earlier 20-point framework and argued that Israel should refuse to surrender its territorial gains inside the besieged enclave.

In further humiliation of President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu has rejected the plan. Hamas has reaffirmed commitment to completing 2nd phase of Trump’s Gaza plan.

Eiland was particularly adamant about Israel retaining the territory behind the so-called Yellow Line, territory which Israel has occupied inside the Gaza strip. “We must not give up [the Yellow Line] under any circumstances,” he declared.

In contravention of international law, which prohibits the annexation of territory by force, Eiland compared Gaza with Germany after the Second World War, arguing that “the enemy has lost and we need land”. He said that the Gaza strip needs not be used for Israeli settlements but should instead remain as a “security buffer” where the Israeli army can operate.

While Eiland did not explicitly use the word annexation, his demand that Israel permanently retain the territory would entrench Israeli control over most of the Gaza Strip.

READ: UN reports 33% increase in aid supplies entering Gaza, but major restrictions remain

Israel has progressively moved the Yellow Line deeper into Gaza since the October 2025 ceasefire arrangements. By late July, Israel controlled around 70 per cent of the enclave, with yellow concrete barriers pushed further west and thousands of Palestinians displaced from newly seized areas.

In his interview, Eiland explicitly opposed Gaza’s reconstruction.

“Israel has no interest in Gaza being rebuilt,” he told 103FM. “It is better for us that it be destroyed for generations to come.”

He claimed that Palestinian despair served Israel’s interests, arguing that the greater the devastation in Gaza and the longer it remains as a visible reminder of the events of 7 October, 2023, “the better”.

The comments are consistent with Eiland’s repeated calls since the beginning of Israel’s assault on Gaza to punish the Palestinian population through starvation and terror.

In November 2023, writing in the Hebrew-language Yedioth Ahronoth, Eiland urged Israel not to be deterred by warnings of humanitarian catastrophe and disease. “The international community warns us of a humanitarian disaster in Gaza and of severe epidemics. We must not shy away from this,” he argued, adding that severe epidemics would “bring victory closer”.

South Africa subsequently cited Eiland’s remarks in its application accusing Israel of genocide before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), presenting them among statements it said demonstrated genocidal intent.

Eiland is seen as the mastermind of the so-called Generals’ Plan, which proposed ordering Palestinians out of northern Gaza before imposing a complete siege on those who remained, cutting off food, water, fuel and medicine.

International humanitarian law prohibits the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare, including deliberately depriving civilians of food, water and other objects indispensable to survival.

Tuesday, August 11, 2026

𝐌𝐫 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐩’𝐬 𝐚𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐬

His deals and promises are more akin to dew drops on a fig leaf on a windy autumn morning!

When you look at the leaf again a few minutes later, the dew drops are no longer visible!

So are his agreements and promises to Iran’s government. What he says vanishes in the hazy air of Washington, and something else appears in the sky of Iran.

He never blames himself for his actions and wars. But he has a short and easy way to follow: He lays all the blame on Iran.

–Nasir Khan

EXPLAINER – How products from illegal Israeli settlements reach European markets

MEM, August 10, 2026 at 11:50 am

Israeli settlers, joined by far-right ministers and lawmakers, march from the Yad Mordehay area in southern Israel toward the Gaza border, calling for the establishment of new Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, which has been devastated by Israeli attacks in Yad Mordechai, located 10 km south of Ashkelon, Israel, on July 19, 2026. [Mostafa Alkharouf – Anadolu Agency]

Products linked to illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories continue to enter European markets, raising questions about how they are exported, labeled and distributed and whether existing European rules are effectively preventing settlement-linked trade.

A June 2026 report by the Global Echo Litigation Center, Importing Occupation, has drawn fresh attention to these supply chains.

It says that goods made in Israeli illegal settlements have entered European markets through systems that hide their actual place of origin.

Here is how the system works.

How widespread is the trade?

The report focuses on agricultural exports, including dates, citrus fruits, herbs, fruit and vegetables, which previous research has identified as among the most common settlement products reaching Europe.

To illustrate how the trade operates, Global Echo examined the supply chains of three major Israeli exporters: Hadiklaim, Mehadrin Ltd. and Yonatan Packing and Marketing.

It traced products from illegal settlement farms through packing facilities and Israeli ports before they entered European markets.

Because neither Israel nor the European Union publishes comprehensive data on settlement exports, the true scale of the trade has remained unclear for years.

The report says it analyzed more than 30,000 export documents accompanying more than 6,800 agricultural shipments between October 2017 and February 2026. Of the 5,900 shipments destined for Europe, 17.2% contained settlement products. For the EU specifically, the figure was 19.2%

The report says that farm products from Israeli settlements are not unusual or occasional, but are regularly part of Israel’s agricultural exports to Europe.

READ: Israel orders uprooting of trees on 316 dunums in West Bank for settlement expansion

How do settlement products enter Europe?

According to the report, exporters use what it calls a “supply chain of obfuscation” — a system designed to hide the fact that products come from Israeli settlements and make their actual origin harder to identify.

The report describes three main methods.

The first is what it calls “hiding in plain sight.” In this method, exporters may include the actual settlement location, including its postal code, but still list Israel as the country of origin, obscuring the fact that the goods were produced in a settlement.

The report says European customs authorities, rather than Israeli exporters, are responsible for checking whether a postal code belongs to a settlement. It argues that this creates gaps that allow settlement produce to enter European markets without being identified as such.

The second method involves what the report calls “sham addresses.” Exporters use addresses inside Israel instead of the actual production site, making settlement produce appear to have originated in Israel.

READ: Israeli dates allegedly being sold in European market under different labels

The third method is “mingling.”

Illegal settlement produce is mixed with goods grown inside Israel at shared packing or storage facilities before export. Once combined, the shipment carries Israeli origin documents, making it difficult for importers and customs officials to identify which products came from settlements.

What steps have European countries taken?

European countries have taken different approaches toward products originating from Israeli settlements, ranging from national import bans to calls for stronger EU-wide restrictions.

At the European Union level, there is still no bloc-wide ban on imports from Israeli settlements. But the issue has moved closer to EU-level action. In July, the European Commission presented member states with options including a full or partial import ban, prohibitive tariffs and an import-licensing system. EU foreign ministers discussed the proposals on July 13, with a full ban receiving the most support, but no agreement was reached and further work was ordered.

The Netherlands has adopted a national ban on the import, purchase and sale of goods from Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. The measure also prohibits circumvention and is due to take effect on Sept. 22, 2026.

READ: Netherlands to ban imports from illegal Israeli settlements starting in September

Ireland has also advanced legislation to prohibit imports of goods originating in Israeli settlements. The government approved the Israeli Settlements (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2026 in May, and the bill subsequently passed through the Irish parliament in July. Once enacted and commenced, importing settlement goods will be an offence.

Spain has already banned the import of products originating in Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory. Belgium has also approved a ban on imports from Israeli settlements, while supporting stronger EU-wide action.

France and Sweden have pushed for a common European approach rather than separate national measures. In an April 2026 letter to the European Commission, France and Sweden called for additional measures targeting settlement products, including tariffs and restrictions through export-licensing schemes.

Why does the system continue to function?

Global Echo argues that responsibility is divided between Israeli exporters and European authorities.

Researchers say they identified hundreds of origin certificates that appeared to relate to settlement products while claiming preferential treatment available under the EU-Israel Association Agreement.

The report also questions the validity of plant health certificates and organic certifications issued for products originating in occupied territory, arguing they may not comply with EU legal requirements.

The report argues that the current system places the burden of identifying settlement postal codes on European authorities rather than Israeli exporters, creating opportunities for settlement products to avoid detection.