Is the tide starting to change in Europe?
European Parliament votes on ceasefire resolution in Gaza
The European Parliament has voted for a ceasefire resolution in the Gaza Strip and to accelerate the delivery of humanitarian aid to the territory. The resolution, which is purely symbolic and carries no legal weight, was approved with 312 votes in favour, 131 against and 72 abstentions.
The bloc’s 27 leaders have not yet unanimously agreed to call for a ceasefire, despite pleas from member countries such as Belgium, Ireland and Spain. So far, their official line remains focused on “humanitarian pauses and corridors”.
Arab states stepping up the diplomatic efforts
Arab leaders plan to end war and create state of Palestine: Report
Arab states have consulted US and European governments on a plan to halt Israel’s attack on Gaza and achieve lasting peace, suggesting the creation of an independent Palestinian state in exchange for the normalisation of relations. The Financial Times, quoting an unnamed “senior Arab official”, reports the proposal includes Saudi Arabia normalising ties with Israel, and Palestine being given full membership at the United Nations. The Arab states will present the plan internationally in a few weeks.
“The real issue is you need hope for Palestinians, it can’t just be economic benefits or removal of symbols of occupation,” the FT quoted the official as saying. “Given the Israeli body politic today, normalisation is maybe what can bring Israelis off the cliff.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may be a stumbling block to the proposal, the report noted, as he recently said he is “proud” of not bowing to international pressure for Palestinian statehood.
Not looking good for Yemen
US actions against Yemen threaten Houthi-Saudi peace agreement
Nothing says empire like controlling the seas. And nothing says demise of empire more than losing control over the seas. We’ve known that since the British and now the Americans. Clearly, the United States wants to send a very strong message to the Houthis that it really doesn’t want disruption of the freedom of navigation in the Red Sea.
Four attacks in a week against Yemen – that’s going to create a lot of problems between Yemen and Saudi Arabia who have been trying to reach a peace agreement. Between 2015 and 2022, this war was one of the worst disasters of the 21st century. Some 200,000 to 300,000 Yemenis died in that US-backed war. Now the US is bombing Yemen and designating it a terrorist organisation just when the Saudis want to make a peace deal.
Nor Lebanon
Israel attacks Lebanon’s Meiss el-Jabal with white phosphorus: Report
The Israeli army bombarded Meiss el-Jabal town in southern Lebanon with white phosphorus shells, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency. White phosphorus bombs are internationally banned under the 1980 Geneva Convention, which explicitly forbids their use as incendiary weapons against both humans and the environment.
Elsewhere, an Israeli drone struck a house in the border town of Kawkaba causing damage but no injuries were reported, the NNA said. Artillery shelling was also reported on the outskirts of al-Dahaira and Yarin towns.
Blackouts mustn’t be used as ‘weapons of war’: Rights group
The weeklong telecommunications blackout in Gaza has become a “matter of life and death” and should end immediately, says digital civil rights group Access Now. Gaza’s ongoing internet shutdown has hampered critical aid coordination and made it “increasingly difficult, if not outright impossible”, to document and share events on the ground, it said.
“It is unconscionable to toy with connectivity amidst unprecedented violence and unfathomable human suffering,” said Marwa Fatafta, the group’s policy and advocacy director for the Middle East and North Africa, in a statement. “Internet shutdowns must not be used as weapons of war. Access Now continues to call for an immediate physical and digital ceasefire and for the full restoration of telecommunications services in the Gaza Strip.”
‘Endless chaos and growing despair’: UNRWA chief
After making his fourth trip to Gaza since the war broke out, the head of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees says the enclave has sunk even “further into despair” and renewed calls for an immediate ceasefire.
“Everyone I met had a personal story of fear, death, loss, trauma to share,” said UNRWA Commissioner Philippe Lazzarini. “The people of Gaza have moved from the sheer shock of losing everything – in some cases every member of their family – to a debilitating struggle to stay alive and protect their loved ones. “This has gone on for far too long. There are no winners in these wars. There is endless chaos and growing despair. I call once again for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire to bring some respite.”
#Gaza This has gone on for far too long. There are no winners in these wars. There is endless chaos and growing despair.
I call once again for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire that can bring some respite and enable a much needed and significant increase in the flow of basic… pic.twitter.com/SkbcZWyJsf
— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) January 18, 2024
‘Children dying on the floor’: Gaza hospitals can’t keep up with the injured
With more than 61,000 people wounded from the Israeli attacks on Gaza, healthcare workers and humanitarian staff at the enclave’s overwhelmed and undersupplied hospitals are witnessing people die in front of them every day.
“I’ve seen children full of shrapnel dying on the floor because there are not the supplies in the emergency department, and the healthcare workers … to care for them,” Sean Casey, of the World Health Organization, said after a visit to several Gaza hospitals.
‘Critical point’: Doctors putting salt in wounds without antiseptic
As a trickle of medical supplies is distributed among Gaza’s desperate hospitals, with more than 61,500 people wounded it’s clear its far from what is needed. Hospital shelves have been bare for weeks with some with patients undergoing amputations without anaesthetic.
“Doctors can’t find anything to treat their patients, now they just use salt. Even salt is $13 per kilogramme. Can you imagine putting salt on people’s wounds to disinfect them?” displaced Palestinian Ibrahim Baraikat told Al Jazeera. “We’ve reached a critical point. People are dying and they don’t even have painkillers.”
Bosnia’s Srebrenica genocide survivors urge UN court to protect Gaza
Bosnian genocide and war survivors have written an open letter to the International Court of Justice urging it to “implement necessary provisional measures swiftly to protect Palestinians in Gaza”. The international community failed in the past to protect the Bosniak population during the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, and the court should not repeat “this grievous mistake today”, the letter said.
More than 100,000 people were killed during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war, 8,000 of them Bosniak men and boys in a massacre in what was pronounced a “safe zone” in Srebrenica. More than 2.2 million people were forcibly displaced.
