Algerian Army Accuses Hirak Activists of ‘Implementing Zionist Scheme’

Students demonstrate in Algiers to call for change on Tuesday, March 9, 2021. (AFP)
Students demonstrate in Algiers to call for change on Tuesday, March 9, 2021. (AFP)
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Algerian Army Accuses Hirak Activists of ‘Implementing Zionist Scheme’

Students demonstrate in Algiers to call for change on Tuesday, March 9, 2021. (AFP)
Students demonstrate in Algiers to call for change on Tuesday, March 9, 2021. (AFP)

Tension in Algeria between protesters and the army has peaked, especially after the military leadership accused activists of “implementing a Zionist scheme against Algeria.”

Observers expect tight security measures on Friday, three weeks after the resumption of demonstrations after a halt caused by a coronavirus lockdown imposed by the government in March 2020.

In its March edition, the military magazine published an article in which it expressed strong indignation and opposition to slogans raised in the latest protest movement, known as Hirak.

It highlighted the slogans demanding a civil state and rejecting a military state, stressing that the country’s rivals, whether individuals, organizations, or countries, take every chance to assault the country, in an attempt to undermine the bond between Algerians and the army.

The Djeich magazine recalled pro-army chants during mass protests that forced Abdelaziz Bouteflika to resign in 2019 after two decades in power.

However, this relation soon turned into rage after the former army Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Ahmed Gaid Salah, insisted to hold presidential elections, which faced popular rejection.

According to the magazine, the state’s enemies have been preparing to invest maliciously in the Hirak through an electronic war.

There are more than 500 web pages run from abroad, and at least 20 Zionist-run pages, that promote publications against the authority and the army and spread false news and rumors.

In this fiery speech, the military bulletin meant other slogans against the army and intelligence generals, who are facing charges of torturing demonstrators.

Salah said Chengriha supervises this military bulletin, which tackles political events and responds to “enemies” without providing any proof that a party is involved in “conspiracies against Algeria.”

The magazine further accuses Hirak activists of adopting slogans formerly raised by the local Islamic Front and its terrorist arms, in an attempt to harm the People's National Armed Forces and affect the historical bond with Algerians.

Meanwhile, Algerian President Abelmadjid Tebboune has set June 12 for early legislative elections, the presidency said on Thursday.

The upcoming election of the lower house of the national assembly would be held on the basis of a new electoral law, which Tebboune also ratified on Thursday, the statement added.



Amnesty Accuses Israel of 'Live-streamed Genocide' against Gaza Palestinians

TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
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Amnesty Accuses Israel of 'Live-streamed Genocide' against Gaza Palestinians

TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

Amnesty International on Tuesday accused Israel of committing a "live-streamed genocide" against Palestinians in Gaza by forcibly displacing most of the population and deliberately creating a humanitarian catastrophe.

In its annual report, Amnesty charged that Israel had acted with "specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, thus committing genocide".

Israel has rejected accusations of "genocide" from Amnesty, other rights groups and some states in its war in Gaza.

The conflict erupted after the Palestinian group Hamas's deadly October 7, 2023 attacks inside Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Hamas also abducted 251 people, 58 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel in response launched a relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip and a ground operation that according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory has left at least 52,243 dead.

"Since 7 October 2023, when Hamas perpetrated horrific crimes against Israeli citizens and others and captured more than 250 hostages, the world has been made audience to a live-streamed genocide," Amnesty's secretary general Agnes Callamard said in the introduction to the report.

"States watched on as if powerless, as Israel killed thousands upon thousands of Palestinians, wiping out entire multigenerational families, destroying homes, livelihoods, hospitals and schools," she added.

'Extreme levels of suffering'

Gaza's civil defense agency said early Tuesday that four people were killed and others injured in an Israeli air strike on displaced persons' tents near the Al-Iqleem area in Southern Gaza.

The agency earlier warned fuel shortages meant it had been forced to suspend eight out of 12 emergency vehicles in Southern Gaza, including ambulances.

The lack of fuel "threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands of citizens and displaced persons in shelter centers," it said in a statement.

Amnesty's report said the Israeli campaign had left most of the Palestinians of Gaza "displaced, homeless, hungry, at risk of life-threatening diseases and unable to access medical care, power or clean water".

Amnesty said that throughout 2024 it had "documented multiple war crimes by Israel, including direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects, and indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks".

It said Israel's actions forcibly displaced 1.9 million Palestinians, around 90 percent of Gaza's population, and "deliberately engineered an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe".

Even as protesters hit the streets in Western capitals, "the world's governments individually and multilaterally failed repeatedly to take meaningful action to end the atrocities and were slow even in calling for a ceasefire".

Meanwhile, Amnesty also sounded alarm over Israeli actions in the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank, and repeated an accusation that Israel was employing a system of "apartheid".

"Israel's system of apartheid became increasingly violent in the occupied West Bank, marked by a sharp increase in unlawful killings and state-backed attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian civilians," it said.

Heba Morayef, Amnesty director for the Middle East and North Africa region, denounced "the extreme levels of suffering that Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to endure on a daily basis over the past year" as well as "the world's complete inability or lack of political will to put a stop to it".