"As Gaza enters the bleakest period of winter, children are dying of hypothermia, drowning in flooded camps and burning to death as their families try to cook in flimsy tents. Israel destroyed nine out of 10 homes over more than two years of war. Camped amid the ruins, Palestinians struggle against strong winds, heavy rain and freezing temperatures."

~ The Guardian

#Gaza #Palestinians #Israel #Netanyahu #cruelty #winter #WarCrimes
/1

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/02/the-guardian-view-on-gazas-winter-the-world-must-take-heed-as-palestinian-suffering-deepens-again

"As Gaza enters the bleakest period of winter, children are dying of hypothermia, drowning in flooded camps and burning to death as their families try to cook in flimsy tents. Israel destroyed nine out of 10 homes over more than two years of war. Camped amid the ruins, Palestinians struggle against strong winds, heavy rain and freezing temperatures."

~ The Guardian

#Gaza #Palestinians #Israel #Netanyahu #cruelty #winter #WarCrimes
/1

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/02/the-guardian-view-on-gazas-winter-the-world-must-take-heed-as-palestinian-suffering-deepens-again

"For much of the world, the entirety of the Trump administration’s military campaign against alleged narcotics traffickers is a serious violation of international law. But even if one accepts every unorthodox element of the Trump administration’s international legal justification, the second strike pursued on Sept. 2 is still a problem."

~ Scott R. Anderson and Natalie K. Orpett

#Trump #Hegseth #WarCrimes #murder #DoubleTap
/17

https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-troubling-defense-of-the-second-strike

"Attention has focused on the United States’ shocking, illegal, and reprehensible action in murdering unarmed civilians whose ship our military had already destroyed. No justification exists for killing shipwrecked civilians. …

Throughout last weeks, even more disturbing facts emerged."

~ Jennifer Rubin

#Trump #Hegseth #WarCrimes #murder #DoubleTap
/6

https://contrarian.substack.com/p/the-second-strike-isnt-the-only-problem

"These men were shipwrecked. Our own rules prohibit killing shipwrecked men, even if we are at war. But we aren’t."

~ Joyce Vance

#Trump #Hegseth #WarCrimes #murder #DoubleTap
/2

https://joycevance.substack.com/p/the-week-ahead-b41

"Trump has rebooted the 'War on Terror' by essentially declaring war on Venezuela as a means to distract from his scandals, obtain oil, and enact Stephen Miller's white nationalist agenda at home."

~ Wajahat Ali

#Trump #Hegseth #WarCrimes #war #murder #Venezuela #CoverUp
/5

https://thelefthook.substack.com/p/breaking-trumps-declares-a-dumber

"I just came out of the briefing with Sec. Rubio and Sec. Hegseth on the military strikes in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. Here's what I learned.

Bottom line: there is no legal or national security justification for what they're doing. Not even close."

~ Sen. Chris Murphy

#Trump #Hegseth #WarCrimes #war #murder #Venezuela #CoverUp
/4

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:y77n77kdqzhbg647blkfypyr/post/3ma4z2ilaac2n

"Today, Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed the House and the Senate on the strikes but continued to refuse to show the lawmakers an unedited version of the video of a strike of September 2 that killed two survivors of a previous strike, an event that legal analysts suggest is a war crime or murder."

~ Heather Cox Richardson

#Trump #Hegseth #WarCrimes #war #murder #Venezuela #CoverUp
/1

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/december-16-2025

"If the evidence were as overwhelming as DoD claims, following established legislative, legal, and military protocol would not present a problem and would have been followed by SECDEF. His refusal to follow established protocols, code, and international law, as well as essentially redefining what constitutes 'hostile action', places our entire military in an extraordinarily compromised position."

#Trump #Hegseth #WarCrimes #murder
/6

"Although [Hegseth] has produced no evidence to Congress to justify these actions or the classification of these individuals, much less requesting and gaining approval for acts of hostility upon those individuals, he has then proceeded with lethal strikes on civilians in open international waters."

#Trump #Hegseth #WarCrimes #murder
/5

The classification of the prisoners as "unprivileged belligerents" means that they were "therefore deemed not worthy of the basic protections of photo and video footage of their treatment while in the care of the United States Navy and Marine Corps."

#Trump #Hegseth #WarCrimes #murder
/4

But in this case when shipboard personnel insisted on following this policy, the Marines staffing the Iwo Jima protested, saying that their commander had forbidden the documentation.

Video was taken, but less than two hours later was deleted. The prisoners were classified as unprivileged belligerents. Though the US is not at war, this classification allows circumvention of policies governing treatment of prisoners apprehended by the military.

#Trump #Hegseth #WarCrimes #murder
/3

(continued from /1)

"one in which video and photographic material is deleted, US military service members are asked to defy standing protocol and code, and human beings disappear from record as they are summarily and without trial returned to what is purported to be their native countries."

Official policy requires photo and video documentation of such prisoners.

#Trump #Hegseth #WarCrimes #murder
/2

Melissa Corrigan and David Shuster report on a US military strike on a boat on 17 October when two survivors were retrieved from wreckage and brought on board USS Iwo Jima:

"What transpired after those individuals were brought on board proves that we are in an entirely new paradigm within the US military," (continued in /2)

#Trump #Hegseth #WarCrimes #murder
/1

https://www.blueamp.co/p/exclusive-us-navy-deleted-video-of

"For much of the world, the entirety of the Trump administration’s military campaign against alleged narcotics traffickers is a serious violation of international law. But even if one accepts every unorthodox element of the Trump administration’s international legal justification, the second strike pursued on Sept. 2 is still a problem."

~ Scott R. Anderson and Natalie K. Orpett

#Trump #Hegseth #WarCrimes #murder #DoubleTap
/17

https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-troubling-defense-of-the-second-strike

"Donald Trump says that he never said that he would commit to releasing the video of the boat strikes."

Parnas then offers a video of Trump saying he had never committed to releasing this footage, and then Parnas offers another clip, noting

"This is him five days ago saying he would release the video."

#Trump #Hegseth #WarCrimes #murder #DoubleTap
/16

"Congress inserted language into the annual defense bill withholding a quarter of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget until the Pentagon hands over unedited videos of U.S. strikes on suspected drug-smuggling boats, escalating scrutiny of a controversial Sept. 2 follow-up strike that killed survivors and prompting calls for a full investigation as lawmakers dispute what the footage shows."

~ Aaron Parnas

#Trump #Hegseth #WarCrimes #murder #DoubleTap
/15

https://aaronparnas.substack.com/p/news-congress-moves-to-block-hegseths

"And the enlisted sailors and Marines on that ship knew immediately it was wrong. They fought it. They went to JAG. And they were overridden. ...

This is a top-down moral collapse under Pete Hegseth and whoever in the Trump orbit green-lit these illegal strikes. And let’s be clear: if a private citizen killed 85 people with no legal authority, we wouldn’t debate terminology — we’d call it murder."

#Trump #Hegseth #TomCotton #Arkansas #WarCrimes #murder
/14

"And the law — U.S. law, military law, international law — could not be clearer: you document everything. You collect biometrics. You record medical status. You keep chain-of-custody logs. You do not delete evidence. You do convene a competent tribunal. None of that happened.

Instead, someone — almost certainly above the Admiral level — ordered everything wiped."

#Trump #Hegseth #TomCotton #Arkansas #WarCrimes #murder
/13

"Nick [Paro]— Army sergeant, trained interrogator, expert on detainee procedures — breaks down just how profoundly illegal all of this is. The United States is not in a congressionally authorized armed conflict with Venezuela. No war declared, no authorization, no oversight, no nothing.

Which means every person seized at sea is legally a civilian until proven otherwise, not some magically self-justifying 'narco-terrorist.'”

#Trump #Hegseth #TomCotton #Arkansas #WarCrimes #murder
/12