TV News LIES

Two Israeli soldiers accused of raping a Palestinian detainee were met with cheers as they arrived at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem on Monday.

Supporters in the courtroom shouted “We are all Unit 100,” referring to the military unit to which the suspects belong, according to Israel’s Channel 14.

Footage shared on social media showed the two men, their faces concealed by hats, sunglasses and masks, embracing each other as some in the room applauded.

The hearing concerned a dispute over who would lead the investigation into the leak of a video showing their assault on a Palestinian detainee last year.

The case follows last month’s revelations implicating the army’s former chief legal adviser, Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, in the leak of the footage to Channel 12 - a scandal that caused uproar in Israel.

Right-wing politicians, journalists and activists accused Tomer-Yerushalmi of persecuting Israeli soldiers and damaging Israel’s image internationally. She resigned shortly after the revelations and was subsequently arrested by Israeli police.

A rift has since emerged between Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara over who should head the probe into the leak. Levin has sought to appoint his own legal adviser, while Baharav-Miara insists the case should remain under the state prosecution’s authority.

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The UN humanitarian relief chief, Tom Fletcher, has sounded the alarm over rising violence in the occupied West Bank, where attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians and their property continue to escalate.

“Many of these attacks are linked to Palestinians’ attempts to harvest their olive crops,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Palestinians have been killed and injured. Their homes and property damaged. Their livestock attacked.”

Mr. Fletcher said that more trees have been damaged, and more communities affected this year than in the previous six years combined.

“The failure to prevent or punish such attacks is inconsistent with international law,” he warned. “Palestinians must be protected. Impunity cannot prevail. Perpetrators must be held accountable.”

His remarks follow warnings from the UN Spokesperson’s Office last week that violence by Israeli settlers has surged across the West Bank, often under the watch of Israeli security forces.

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Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said that the Higher Planning Council will approve the construction of 1,973 new settlement units in the occupied West Bank during its next session.

He did not specify when the council will meet, Israeli Channel 12 reported.

The announcement came a day after Israel approved the building of 1,300 settler homes in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc south of occupied East Jerusalem.

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said that the Higher Planning Council will approve the construction of 1,973 new settlement units in the occupied West Bank during its next session.

Smotrich said Israeli authorities have approved nearly 30,000 new settlement units in the occupied West Bank this year, describing it as an "unprecedented achievement" for his government.

The Palestinian group Hamas denounced the Israeli move as a "dangerous escalation in the policy of Judaisation and settlement expansion targeting Palestinian land deep inside the West Bank."

"These settlement plans constitute a blatant violation of international law and United Nations resolutions that criminalise settlement construction," it said in a statement.

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Brooklyn-based writer and reporter Jasper Nathaniel was going through the Turmus Ayya olive fields in the West Bank when he captured the spine-chilling footage showing masked Israeli settlers beating Palestinian settlers senseless, armed with crude melee weapons.

In the video, Nathaniel is heard screaming at the Israeli settlers to stop attacking the Palestinian farmers, but his calls fall on deaf ears as a masked Israeli settler clubs an elderly woman and other farmers.

A  brutal attack by Israeli settlers on Palestinian olive farmers was captured on video by an American journalist, with the video going viral on social media.

In the video, Nathaniel is heard screaming at the Israeli settlers to stop attacking the Palestinian farmers, but his calls fall on deaf ears as a masked Israeli settler clubs an elderly woman and other farmers.

The American is also seen offering injured Palestinian farmers a ride on the vehicle he was using, before the video cuts off.

Prior to uploading the now-viral clip, Nathaniel posted, "Brutal settler attack in Turmus’ayya olive fields. Many injuries, including a woman knocked unconscious with a club and beaten repeatedly."

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The most popular and potentially unifying Palestinian leader — Marwan Barghouti — is not among the prisoners Israel intends to free in exchange for hostages held by Hamas under the new Gaza ceasefire deal.

Israel has also rejected freeing other high-profile prisoners whose release Hamas has long sought, though it was not immediately clear if a list of around 250 prisoners issued Friday on the Israeli government’s official website was final.

Senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk told the Al Jazeera TV network that the group insists on the release of Barghouti and other high-profile figures and that it was in discussions with mediators.

Israel views Barghouti as a terrorist leader. He is serving multiple life sentences after being convicted in 2004 in connection with attacks in Israel that killed five people.

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