Cavalier Zee

IDF soldier confirms ‘dog lines‘: shoot any Gazan who crosses, feed them to dogs

The Economist interviews Israeli troops who served in Gaza. Their testimony is chilling.

All men of military age were deemed legitimate targets. And military age is really open to interpretation: “It could be from 16 to 60 or even younger.”

“Most of the people that my unit killed were not armed. We had cases where we killed a lot of people, and we didn’t check if they had uniforms or weapons.”

Soldiers described the “dog line” – an invisible boundary around their positions. Any Palestinian who crossed was shot. Dogs gathered along the line to eat the corpses.

“Someone on guard duty sees someone, shoots him, kills him – we wouldn’t know what his story was or what he did.”

By Simon Speakman Cordall

Published On 6 Jun 20266 Jun 2026

When the European Union issued its latest tranche of sanctions against Israeli settler groups and their leaders, Regavim, founded in part by the country’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, these groups welcomed the measures as a “badge of honour.”

Another sanctioned figure, Daniella Weiss, whose movement, Nachala, has held conferences on the Gaza border to discuss plans for settlement expansion into the occupied Palestinian territory, likewise dismissed the European penalties as “ridiculous” and “banal”.

Overall, the nonchalant response from the targeted figures and entities suggests that none of the EU measures will do anything to stop settlement expansion or make individuals accountable for the growing wave of violence against Palestinians.

Ironically, the largely toothless measures might instead become a source of domestic prestige for their leaders, analysts say, as few would expect these hardline settler figures to spend their summers in Paris or London and thus be affected by the sanctions. Instead, a wave of terror in the occupied West Bank will likely continue, with the tacit support of the government.

In the eyes of many activists and observers who spoke to Al Jazeera, the EU’s focus on group and individual “violations” falls far short of articulating the scale of the highly coordinated settler attacks or the extent to which the state and society support them.

“It’s gotten much worse since October 2023. They now have the courage to attack into the heart of densely populated Palestinian villages. I see them, they came into the heart of my village outside Ramallah, they feel safe to do so,” Tahseen Alayan, deputy director of Al-Haq, told Al Jazeera.

“If you buy a sheep, they will steal it. If you build a house, they will destroy it. If you buy a car, they will burn it.”

Examples of Israeli government complicity in these settler raids are not hard to find, and the statistics indicate collective efforts to entrench Israeli control over the West Bank, which has been occupied since 1967.

Israeli forces and settlers are accused of killing an estimated 1,168 people in the occupied West Bank since October 2023 and injuring a further 12,666 Palestinians. Another 33,000 people have been displaced, while Israel has also detained nearly 23,000 Palestinians in the West Bank during this period, many without charge.

“The violence does not happen in a vacuum,” Alayan continued. “This is an extension of the Israeli government; settlement is at the core of their identity. They are protected by the government and by the occupying services, and they freely admit it.”

A tragic incident that comes to mind is settler Yinon Levi, who allegedly shot dead Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen in Masafer Yatta last year. Despite the murder being captured on video, Levi nevertheless remains at large.

“Even if they are ever prosecuted, the sentences rarely reflect the severity of the crime,” Alayan said. “These people return to their homes and are seen as heroes.”

‘Entitlement and Superiority’

This sense of impunity that settlers appear to be imbued with cannot be detached from the appointment to ministerial positions of leading figures or sympathisers of the settler movement – notably Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, the latter born in an illegal settlement in the occupied Golan Heights.

In a sign of state-settler cooperation to achieve direct control of the West Bank, in contravention of the Oslo Accords, Israel last year announced plans for the establishment of the E1 settlement that would link occupied East Jerusalem with its growing Maale Adumim bloc.

According to plans outlined by Smotrich, when established, this settlement would kill any hopes of the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza and fulfil a biblical prophecy that many in the movement have been working towards.

Daniel Bar-Tal, a professor of social-political psychology from the Department of Education at Tel Aviv University, interpreted the thinking behind the settlers leading this violence across the West Bank.

“It is divine order to settle West Bank. With divine order you do not argue but achieve it in the way Yehoshua carried it 3,000 years ago when he entered the promised land,” he explained. “He achieved it with sword, so we need to do the same.”

Shai Parnes of the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem told Al Jazeera that the absence of international pressure has bolstered the alliance between the state and settler movement.

“The Israeli regime is an apartheid regime based on Jewish supremacy and institutionalised discrimination against Palestinians,” Parnes told Al Jazeera.

“Any Israeli, civilian or soldier, who harms a Palestinian receives full immunity and support from the Israeli systems, and Israel itself receives this from the international community. These facts explain the Israelis’ sense of entitlement and superiority.”

June 5, 2026, 10:13 PM EDT

By Gordon Lubold, Courtney Kube and Dan De Luce

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is increasingly concerned about Israel ramping up its spying on the U.S., recently raising the counterintelligence threat level from America’s top ally in the Middle East to the highest level, according to two U.S. officials and one former U.S. official.

The Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency in recent weeks issued the new counterintelligence threat assessment amid rising tensions between Israel and the U.S. over the way forward in the war with Iran, the officials said. They said the DIA posted an internal message, viewed by one of the current officials, that raised the level for Israel to “critical.”

The designation stems from concerns within the Pentagon that Israel is making a particular effort to surveil top U.S. officials to get information on the Trump administration’s internal deliberations and decision-making on the conflicts in the Middle East, the officials said.

The DIA assessment includes a seven-page document and features a chart, according to one of the current U.S. officials. The document says the assessment of Israel is that its ability to conduct human espionage and technical collection is at a ”critical level,” according to the official.

It also identifies a series of specific incidents that heightened U.S. concerns, the official said.

The heightened alert comes as President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have clashed over the war with Iran and Israel’s military operations in Lebanon, including in a tense phone call this past week, NBC News reported. Trump acknowledged afterward to reporters that he called Netanyahu “crazy” during the call as questions mount about whether the two countries’ objectives in the Middle East are beginning to significantly diverge.

Since a ceasefire went into place in early April, Trump has been pursuing a diplomatic deal with Iran to end the war Israel and the U.S. launched on Feb. 28. Israel has publicly expressed skepticism that Iran would abide by any negotiated deal. Netanyahu has pushed for a resumption of bombing raids against Iran and disagreed with Trump, who has pressed him to scale back attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon, according to Western officials.

According to current and former diplomats and former national security officials, Israel for years has had a reputation for aggressive espionage even against the U.S., its closest ally. It’s a practice that has long raised concerns among national security and diplomatic officials, and U.S. intelligence officials closely monitor the issue, according to experts and the current and former U.S. officials.

Top U.S. officials often take extra care when traveling to Israel, sometimes using burner phones and computers and extreme caution when speaking in hotel rooms during official trips, the current and former U.S. officials and experts said.

Israel has “a hyper-aggressive intelligence service,” said Emily Harding, vice president of the Defense and Security Department and director of the intelligence, national security and technology program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington. “They are exceedingly interested in what we are up to,” Harding said of the Israelis.

In the 1980s, spying by Israel caused a rift with Washington, with U.S. Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard spending 30 years in prison after he was found to have sold suitcases of top-secret documents to Israel.

Absolutely unjust!

Medicine was meant to heal, not torture.

From amputations and deliberate pain to medical blackmail and covering up abuse, Israeli medical staff have been implicated in systematic violations against Palestinian detainees.

As of early 2026, Pete Hegseth, serving as U.S. Secretary of Defense, has faced severe criticism and allegations regarding war crimes, primarily stemming from his advocacy for “no quarter” (no survivors) rules of engagement and accusations that he ordered forces to “kill everybody” during military operations. His actions and rhetoric have triggered congressional scrutiny and warnings of potential legal liability, with critics alleging he has promoted a “Department of War” focused on “maximum lethality” rather than international law. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Key War Crimes Allegations and Controversies

“Kill Everybody” Order (2025): Reports emerged that Hegseth verbally ordered a “no quarter” policy during a Caribbean boat strike in September 2025, which allegedly led to the killing of survivors. [1, 2]

“No Quarter” Iran Policy (2026): During an April 2026 congressional hearing, Rep. Seth Moulton questioned Hegseth on his March 2026 statement regarding the war in Iran: “We will give them no quarter, no mercy”. Legal experts and lawmakers noted that ordering “no quarter” is a violation of the Geneva Conventions and U.S. military law. [1, 2]

Targeting Survivors: Critics accused Hegseth of authorizing a second strike to kill survivors of an initial boat strike in Venezuela. [1]

“Perfidy” Allegations: Reports suggested the U.S. used an aircraft disguised as a civilian plane in a strike, which could constitute a war crime known as “perfidy”. [1]

Advocacy for Accused Soldiers: Prior to becoming Secretary of Defense, Hegseth as a Fox News host campaigned for the pardon of U.S. service members accused or convicted of war crimes, including Clint Lorance, Mathew Golsteyn, and Eddie Gallagher, arguing they were “warriors” rather than criminals. [1, 2]

“Dammit Bibi, I’m In Charge!!!

“My name is Amos Goldberg. I am an Israeli Professor of Holocaust Studies. For nearly 30 years I have researched and taught the Holocaust, genocide and state violence.

And I want to tell whoever is willing to listen that what’s happening now in Gaza is a genocide.

A year ago when October 7th happened, like all Israelis I was in shock. It was a war crime and a crime against humanity. 1200 people – more than 800 of them civilians – were killed in one day. Children and the elderly were among those taken hostage. Communities were destroyed. It was outrageous, traumatizing, personal. Like most Israelis, I know people who were killed, who lost loved ones or whose loved ones were taken hostage.

But immediately afterwards came Israel’s response and within weeks thousands of civilians were killed in Gaza. It took me some time to digest what was unfolding before my eyes. It was agonizing to confront that reality. I was reluctant to call it a genocide.

But if you read Raphael Lemkin – the Jewish-Polish legal scholar who coined the term ‘genocide’ and was the major driving force behind the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention – what is happening in Gaza now is exactly what he had in mind when he spoke about genocide.

It does not need to look like the Holocaust to be a genocide. Each genocide looks different and not all involve killing of millions or the entire group. The United Nations Genocide Convention explicitly asserts that genocide is the act of deliberately destroying a group in whole or in part. Those are the words.

But there does need to be a clear intent.

And indeed, there are clear indications of intent to destroy Gaza: Israel’s leaders – including the prime minister and the minister of defence – and many high-ranking military officers, media personalities, rabbis, as well as ordinary soldiers were very open about what they wanted to achieve. There were countless documented incitements to turn the whole of Gaza into rubble and claims that there are no innocent people living there.

A radical atmosphere of dehumanization of the Palestinians prevails in Israeli society to an extent that I can’t remember in my 58 years of living here.

Now that vision has been enacted. Tens of thousands of innocent children, women and men have been killed. Over a hundred thousand were wounded. There is a near total destruction of infrastructure, intentional starvation and blocking of humanitarian aid. There are mass graves and reliable testimony of summary executions. Children that were shot by snipers. All the universities and almost all hospitals are gone. Almost all the population is displaced. There have been numerous bombings of civilians in so-called ‘safe zones’. Gaza does not exist anymore. It is completely destroyed. Thus, the outcome fits perfectly with the stated intentions of Israel’s leadership.

Lemkin – that scholar who coined the term ‘genocide’ – described two phases of a genocide. The first is the destruction of the annihilated group and the second is what he called ‘imposition of the national pattern’ of the perpetrator. We are now witnessing the second phase as Israel prepares ethnically cleansed areas for Israeli settlements.

And therefore, I have come to the conclusion that this is exactly what a genocide looks like. We don’t teach about genocides in order to realize it retrospectively. We teach about it in order to prevent it and to stop it.

But like in every other case of genocide in history right now we have mass denial. Both here in Israel and around the world.

But reality cannot be denied.

So yes, it is a genocide.

And once you come to this conclusion you cannot remain silent.”

Statement to Led By Donkeys, December 2024

A cluster bomb (or cluster munition) is a weapon that opens in mid-air and releases hundreds of smaller explosives, known as “bomblets” or “submunitions”. These bomblets scatter across a wide area—often the size of several football fields—to destroy enemy vehicles, runways, or personnel.

Due to these long-term dangers, more than 120 nations have signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which strictly prohibits the use, production, transfer, and stockpiling of these weapons.

Israel has used cluster munitions multiple times since the 1970s, most notably in Lebanon (1978, 1982, 2006, and reported in 2025) and Syria (1973). The most intensive use occurred in the final days of the 2006 Lebanon War, where an estimated 4 million submunitions were deployed.

The Lebanese resistance targeted Col. Meir Biderman, commander of the IDF’s 401st Armored Brigade, in south Lebanon.

Israeli media report that he is fighting for his life.

This is the same brigade that murdered Hind Rajab, stormed Al-Shifa Hospital and terrorised Rafah.

Dyab Abu Jahjah

At Wednesday's Cabinet meeting, President Lee called Israel's interception of a third-country vessel in international waters illegal and its treatment of Korean nationals "inhumane." He said the seizure had no valid legal basis — the ship was not in Israeli waters, and its passengers were on a humanitarian mission, not a military one.   "It gives a foreign military absolutely no legal right to abduct them," he said. "The fact that they violated a domestic travel ban is an internal matter for South Korea to handle."   He then raised the ICC.    The court issued an arrest warrant against Netanyahu in November 2024 — which remains in effect — citing alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including the use of starvation as a method of warfare.

When an aide confirmed the warrant's existence without going further, Lee said "Then he's a war criminal."

He ordered officials to review whether Seoul, as party to the Rome Statute, should be prepared to enforce it.  This was not his first criticism of Israel.     In April, Lee reposted a video alleging abuse by Israeli forces and compared Israeli wartime conduct to the Holocaust.

All the wants you waste All the things you’ve chased

And it all crashes down And you break your crown And you point your finger But there’s no one around

Just want one thing Just to play the king But the castle crumbled And you’ve left with just a name

Where’s your crown? King nothing!

Hindu Extremists persecute Muslims!

This is the state of "the world's largest deMOCKracy."

This is only happening under the stewardship of the EXTREMIST and FANATIC: Modi and His FUDAMENTALIST BJP Party.