The Daily Psyop

De-facto Democratic nominee and Republican candidate now locked in a dead heat for the White House, polling shows.

A US official told Reuters that the US carried out a strike in Iraq on Tuesday just hours after Israel bombed Beirut.

The official didn’t share details about the attack, but earlier, a drone strike was reported in the Iraqi province of Babylon that hit a base housing Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a coalition of mostly Shia militias that’s part of Iraq’s security forces.

A PMF official told AFP that the base was hit by four or five missiles. An Iraqi security source confirmed that four people were killed and said the death toll was expected to rise.

The US has a history of targeting the PMF as retaliation for rocket attacks on US bases in the region. The US’s latest bombing came a few days after rockets were fired toward the Ain al-Asad airbase in western Iraq, which houses US troops. A US base in eastern Syria was also targeted in recent days.

From October 2023 until February, US bases in Iraq and Syria came under hundreds of rocket and drone attacks. Iraqi Shia militias, which include members of the PMF, began the attacks in response to US support for the Israeli onslaught in Gaza.

After three US troops were killed in an attack on Tower 22, a secretive base in Jordan on the Syrian border, Iran and the Iraqi government pressured the militias to stop, and there have only been a handful of attacks since February.

The Iraqi government strongly opposes unilateral US strikes on the PMF since the coalition is part of its military. US attacks on the PMF led to Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani calling for a US withdrawal.

The US and Iraq have entered talks about the future of the US military presence, but no concrete plans have been announced. Statements from the US suggest the plan is to leave troops in the country after formally ending the mission of the US-led anti-ISIS coalition. The lack of progress toward a withdrawal could be why rocket attacks on US bases started up again.

As the war enters its 867th day, these are the main developments.

Thousands of Palestinians returned to areas of the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis on Tuesday after Israeli forces withdrew from the city and left it in ruins.

Israel launched a new assault on eastern Khan Younis on July 22, marking at least the third time the Israeli military invaded the city. Gaza’s civil defense agency said about 300 bodies have been found in the area since the Israeli attack started.

“Since the beginning of the Israeli ground invasion of the eastern part of Khan Yunis province, the civil defense and medical teams have recovered approximately 300 bodies of martyrs, many of them decomposed,” civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

Rescue teams pulled 42 of the bodies out of Bani Suhaila, a town on the eastern outskirts of Khan Younis. According to Reuters, witnesses said Israeli forces destroyed a cemetery in the neighborhood, something the Israeli military has done throughout its genocidal campaign in Gaza.

Back in January, CNN reported that Israel had damaged or destroyed 16 cemeteries in Gaza. The Israeli military brought a CNN journalist to one of the cemeteries after the investigation, claiming a Hamas tunnel ran under it, but they failed to show any evidence for the claim.

Bhaker became India’s first-ever multi-medallist at an Olympics by winning her second bronze on a hot day in Paris.

The State Department on Tuesday refused to label Israeli soldiers raping Palestinian prisoners as a war crime.

Said Arikat, a reporter for Al Quds, asked State Department spokesman Vedant Patel about the Israeli soldiers who were detained for raping a Palestinian prisoner at the notorious Sde Teiman detention facility. The Palestinian was transferred to a hospital with damage to his rectum that was so severe he could not walk.

The condition of the prisoner confirms some of the worst allegations about conditions in Sde Teiman. Both Israeli whistleblowers and former Palestinian prisoners have detailed torture and widespread abuse carried out by Israeli soldiers at the facility.

“Apparently rape and killing and torture and all this thing – it happens regularly in Israeli detention camps. Does that constitute a war crime to you?” Arikat asked Patel.

Patel replied, “So the reports of abuse are deeply concerning, and we have been clear and consistent with Israel and the IDF that they need to treat all detainees humanely and with dignity in accordance with humanitarian law.” He added that the US was going to let “due process” play out in the case against the Israeli soldiers.

Arikat followed up, asking, “Now, if proven to be true, that does constitute a war crime, doesn’t it?”

Patel said, “I am not a legal expert, Said. Certainly I imagine it would be inconsistent with Israeli law.”

In contrast, the US government was quick to label Russian actions in Ukraine as war crimes, and President Biden even declared as early as March 2022, less than one month into the invasion, that Russian President Vladimir Putin was a “war criminal.”

The arrest of the Israeli soldiers suspected of rape sparked protests involving far-right activists and members of the Israeli Knesset, and one member of the coalition government. Protesters stormed Sde Teiman and one other military base in defense of the Israeli soldiers.

Daniel Wiffen becomes first Irishman to win swimming gold, Australia’s McKeown bags women’s 100-metre backstroke gold.

Bill was pushed by parents of children who died by suicide after online bullying or were harmed by online content.

The national organization Veterans For Peace has written an Open Letter to Vice President Kamala Harris, asking her to push for an immediate end to the siege of Gaza.  The letter begins:

“Dear Vice President Harris, we are reaching out to you as military veterans who have fought in multiple US wars, and who continue to uphold the US Constitution and international law, to organize for justice and equality in our home communities, and to advocate for a peaceful foreign policy. We are appalled by the ongoing Israeli slaughter of tens of thousands of Palestinian men, women and children and by the maiming of tens of thousands more. We are outraged by the systematic blocking of food, leading to malnutrition, starvation, disease and the deaths of many more, particularly babies and young children.  These are unbearable and unacceptable crimes that will go down in the history books as a terrible genocide – a holocaust.”

The veterans’ letter reminds Vice President Harris of her own words after her meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:

“What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating – the images of dead children and desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third, or fourth time.  We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies.  We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering.  And I will not be silent…  It is time for this war to end and end in a way where Israel is secure, all the hostages are released, the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can exercise their right to freedom, dignity, and self-determination… So, to everyone who has been calling for a ceasefire and to everyone who yearns for peace, I see you and I hear you.”

Veterans For Peace also reminded Vice President Harris of the growing danger of nuclear war:
“As you must know, Vice President Harris, continued US support for Israel amid the Gaza genocide also risks further regional and global escalation, with potentially irreversible consequences, even the unthinkable horror of nuclear war. We urge you to demonstrate the kind of leadership for which so many people are waiting – for which we are hoping and praying. Please use all your influence to end the unfathomable suffering in Gaza.”

Signed by Veterans For Peace president Susan Schnall, the letter encourages Vice President Harris to take immediate action:

“Don’t wait until January. Do the right thing NOW, even as you are campaigning for president. Please urge President Biden to change course in Gaza, to support an immediate, permanent ceasefire, the opening of Gaza’s borders for massive humanitarian and medical aid, and to stop sending weapons to Israel as long as this massacre continues.”

Veterans For Peace is sending the letter to Vice President Harris on Tuesday, July 30.  It can be read in its entirety here.

Gerry Condon is a Vietnam-era veteran who resisted the war while an active-duty soldier. He is a past president of Veterans For Peace, a current Board member, and a coordinator of its Nuclear Abolition Working Group.

On Monday, an Israeli strike hit a building in the compound of the St. Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church in Gaza City, marking the second time the church has been struck by Israeli forces since October 7.

According to a Facebook post from the church, three people were wounded in the attack. The church shared pictures that showed damage to a roof and what appeared to be a munition that didn’t detonate smashed into the floor.

“We thank our Lord, and through the intercession of Saint Porphyrius, everyone is fine. We have three moderate injuries. Thank God for everything,” the church said.

Foad Ayyad, a displaced Christian in the church, told the Anadolu Agency that a total of two missiles hit the building. “I was inside the church with my child when we heard a loud explosion and saw smoke rising,” Ayyad said. “Israel does not differentiate between mosques and churches in its attacks.”

Khalil Sayegh, a Palestinian Christian who was recently interviewed by Antiwar.com, said his aunt was among the injured. “My aunt is in ok condition; she only had an injury in the arm she will be ok,” Sayegh wrote on X.

Justin Amash, a former member of the US House of Representatives, who has relatives in Gaza, said he received a call from one of his cousins after the strike.

“I just received a panicked phone call from a cousin in Gaza. He told me that there has been another IDF strike against Saint Porphyrius Orthodox Church,” Amash, who is running for Senate as a Republican, wrote on X. “These horrific assaults against civilians in Gaza, including Christians like members of my family, must end immediately!”

Amash lost several relatives when Israel targeted the church back in October 2023. In an attack on October 18, Israeli strikes killed 18 Palestinian civilians who were sheltering at St. Porphyrius.

Israel has also targeted the only Catholic church in Gaza, the Holy Family Parish. In December 2023, the church’s compound came under siege, and two Palestinian Christian women were killed by Israeli sniper fire, and seven others were wounded.