chemical warfare

Palestine

Hamas accepts ceasefire; Israel strikes Rafah

Hamas has announced that its leaders have told Egyptian and Qatari mediators that they accepted the most recent Gaza ceasefire proposal. Israel’s war cabinet responded by voting to continue the planned military operation in Rafah, and the IDF announced air-strikes on targets in the southern Gaza city. The strikes came as Palestinians in Gaza were celebrating Hamas’ announcement, and Israeli protestors joined families of the hostages to demand that Israel accept the deal. (Image: Workers set up tents donated by the Qatari Red Crescent in al-Mawasi, an Israeli-designated “safe zone” in Gaza. Credit: Mohamed Soulaimane/TNH)

Europe

Ukraine accuses Russia of using chemical weapons

The Public Relations Service of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine accused Russia of using chemical weapons in the ongoing conflict, with a staggering total of 815 recorded attacks since the commencement of the large-scale war. The report highlights the use of munitions equipped with poisonous chemical substances, particularly grenades such as the K-51, RGR, and RG-Vo, which contain the dangerous chemical compound CS. To gather evidence, Ukrainian radiation, chemical and bacteriological intelligence units have been carrying out sampling of soil, vegetation, and ammunition fragments, which are then sent for analysis. Documented cases of the use of dangerous chemicals are being submitted to investigative bodies as part of open criminal proceedings. (Photo: State Emergency Service of Ukraine via WikiMedia Commons)

Palestine

Gaza approaches ‘point of no return’

In the two months since Israel began bombarding and laying total siege to Gaza, around 85%of the 2.3 million people who live in the Strip have been displaced from their homes, according to the UN. More than 17,000 people have been killed—around 70% of them women and children—and many others are missing and presumed to be trapped under the rubble of destroyed buildings, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The enclave’s healthcare system is barely functional, and families are going entire days without food. The Israeli ground invasion is expanding into southern Gaza, squeezing hundreds of thousands of displaced into smaller and smaller areas. Relief efforts have essentially ground to a halt, and UN officials have repeatedly warned that nowhere is safe. The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, warns that civil order is breaking down, stating: “We are reaching the point of no return.” (Photo: Maan News Agency)

Palestine

Suit charges Biden administration with genocide complicity

Palestinian human rights organizations and others have sued President Joe Biden, Secretary of Defense Lloyd James Austin and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken for complicity in genocide and violating the duty to prevent genocide in relation to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. The Center for Constitutional Rights filed the case in US District Court in San Francisco on behalf of Defense for Children International-Palestine, Al-Haq and individual plaintiffs affected by the conflict, asserting violations of the 1948 Genocide Convention and the Genocide Convention Implementation Act. (Photo: The White House/Wikimedia Commons)

Syria

France issues warrant for Assad on war crimes

France issued arrest warrants for Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and his brother Maher al-Assad, chief of the regime’s elite 4th Armored division, as well as two high-ranking military generals. The warrants stem from an investigation into two chemical weapons attacks that occurred in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta in August 2013, resulting in the death of over 1,000 people. French officials launched the investigation in 2021 after the Syrian Center for Media & Freedom of Expression (SCM) and other nongovernmental organizations filed a complaint with the Specialized Unit for Crimes against Humanity & War Crimes of the Paris Judicial Court. The SCM argued that use of chemical weapons is a jus cogens crime, implying an absolute prohibition with no immunity based on state sovereignty. (Image: SCM)

Palestine

Palestine rights groups file ICC suit against Israel

Three Palestinian human rights groups, Al Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, filed a lawsuit with the International Criminal Court asking for an investigation into alleged crimes by Israel. The submission accuses Israel of war crimes, genocide and incitement to genocide, in the context of the bombardment of the Gaza Strip. This submission follows mounting allegations of Israeli war crimes by international human rights groups, including the use of toxic white phosphorous on civilians and attacks on medical services. (Photo: Maan News Agency)

Watching the Shadows

Podcast: ‘tankies,’ ‘false flags’ & the ‘gray zone’

A tankie agent carried out “false flag” vandalism of a synagogue and other Jewish targets in Detroit, attempting to blame it on the Azov Battalion and tar Ukrainians. She turns out to have been a member of the retro-Stalinist Workers World Party and a staff writer for openly dictator-shilling MintPress News—which has itself engaged in “false flag” disinformation, blaming the Syrian rebels for chemical attacks against their own strongholds by the Bashar Assad regime. MintPress has also received funding directly from the Assad Lobby. In Episode 176 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg examines this ultra-cynical propaganda nexus, and asks whether such agents are mere “useful idiots” for the Kremlin or actual conscious assets operating in the “gray zone“—the sphere of “hybrid warfare” in which the line between state and non-state actors is blurred. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Image: Bob from Brockley)

Iran

Iran: resistance grows as death toll tops 500

The independent Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) released statistics finding that 522 protestors, including 70 children and youths, have been killed in Iran since the start of the national uprising in September. Authorities have arrested 19,400, including 168 children and youths. Of those detained, 110 are “under impending threat” of a death sentence. Four protestors have already been executed. Thousands of Iranians from across Europe meanwhile gathered at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, to demand that the body officially designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization. A statement in support of the measure was issued by an underground alliance of protest groups, United Youth of Iran. The new underground network released a manifesto last month, calling for a unified front of protesters, labor unions and opposition forces to bring about a secular, democratic government in Iran. (Photo via Twitter)

Iraq

Turkey accused of chemical attacks in Iraqi territory

Kurdish communities in cities across Europe held protests demanding action on claims that the Turkish military has repeatedly used chemical weapons in its ongoing air-strikes against strongholds of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq. The Nobel-winning International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) said it found evidence of chlorine and other “improvised chemical agents” during an investigative mission to Iraq. The IPPNW urged international bodies including the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to launch formal investigations. The PKK has released the names of 17 guerrillas it says were killed by Turkish chemical attacks in Southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq) over the past year. Kurdish news outlets published a video that has been circulating on social media, showing two PKK fighters apparently suffering under influence of a chemical agent. The Turkish defense ministry dismissed the claims as “completely baseless and untrue.” Iraq’s parliament has established a commission to examine the charges. (Photo: ANF)

Watching the Shadows

Roger Waters: another brick in the war propaganda

In Episode 140 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg calls out former Pink Floyd creative genius Roger Waters as a propaganda agent for the criminal regimes of Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Bashar Assad. In his recent CNN interview, Waters blames Ukraine for getting invaded, falsely states that “Taiwan is part of China,” and dismisses as “bollocks” that there are human rights abuses in China. He has the unmitigated chutzpah to send an open letter on social media to Ukrainian First Lady Elena Zelenska urging her to influence her husband to “end the war”—to which she rightly responds: “If we give up, we will not exist tomorrow. If Russia gives up, war will be over.” We’ve noted before Roger’s spewing of genocide-abetting denialism about the Syria chemical attacks. And he disses his own fans who don’t go along with his war propaganda. Roger Waters has become the fascist rock starhe once satirized in The Wall. The public acrimony between Waters and his ex-bandmate David Gilmour has now become political, with Gimour’s release (under the banner of Pink Floyd) of the song “Hey Hey, Rise Up,” explicitly in support of Ukraine. David Gilmour is right, while Roger Waters is now just another brick in the wall. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Image via Wikipedia)

Syria

Russia conniving in Israeli strikes on Syria?

Satellite images show significant damage from an Israeli air-strike on the Assad regime’s main center for conventional and chemical weapons development. Nine buildings of the Scientific Studies & Research Center (SSRC) were destroyed or damaged, and a military captain was reportedly killed. The attack came as Russia removed the S-300 air defense system that it had positioned near the complex. The site, near Masyaf in northwest Syria, is also reportedly a base for Iranian forces and Iran-supported militias. (Photo via EA Worldview)

Watching the Shadows

Podcast: against pseudo-left disinformation on Ukraine and Syria

In Episode 138 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg is outraged that The Nation magazine marks the ninth anniversary of the Ghouta chemical massacre by engaging in glib “false flag” theorizing—the predictable response of the post-truth pseudo-left. This sinister spewing from writer David Bromwich is but the latest entry in a long and shameful litany of pro-Assad and pro-Putin propaganda to appear in The Nation. Similar chemical denialism has been dished out by James Cardenn, and loaned credence by Phyllis Bennis—despite the findings of bona fide human rights groups. The Nation’s Bob Dreyfuss has expressed open support for the genocidal dictatorship of Bashar Assad. The Nation’s late éminence griseStephen F. Cohen has spread dishonest Russian propaganda both on Syria and on Ukraine, his spewings eagerly lapped up by Tucker Carlson. Weinberg asserts that The Nation has become a vehicle of Kremlin foreign policy aims, and calls for a complete boycott. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Photo of Aleppo ruins from UNHCR)