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SvennoJ on 02 February 2024
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Daily calls for ceasefire

WHO chief decries reports of civilians, medical staff killed at al-Amal Hospital

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has condemned the reported killing of civilians and PRCS workers at al-Amal Hospital by Israeli forces, which have placed the facility under what PRCS describes as a siege for 12 days.

“Horrified by the reports about killing of civilians, including @PalestineRCS staff, at the Al Amal hospital compound today and in the past two days in Khan Younis, #Gaza,” Ghebreyesus said in a social media post. “We cannot say it louder: hospitals MUST be protected, not attacked nor militarised. Ceasefire!”

Gallant comments on Rafah ‘sets off alarm bells’

UN human rights high commissioner Volker Turk has expressed concern about recent comments by Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who said on Thursday that Israeli forces will push on to Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought refuge.

In a social media post on Friday, UN Human Rights said Turk is “deeply worried by Israel defence minister’s remarks on military push to Rafah. This sets off alarm bells for massive civilian casualties and further displacement to unknown location for over 1.5m already vulnerable Palestinians ordered into Rafah,” by the Israeli military.

WFP says food deliveries consistently blocked

The World Food Programme has said that convoys delivering food assistance have been barred from reaching northern Gaza throughout the week, even as the prospect of famine stalks the strip. Humanitarian officials have consistently reported that Israeli authorities are overwhelmingly rejecting aid delivery efforts, especially to northern Gaza.

“In Gaza, where WFP has been working hard everyday to deliver food to over a million people who are hungry, desperate, just surviving,” Matthew Hollingworth, WFP director for Palestine, said in a social media post on Friday. “For the third time this week, convoys meant for northern Gaza haven’t been able to reach. We need faster and sustained access to prevent famine.”

Algeria’s UNSC draft resolution could jeopardise Gaza talks: US

The resolution presented by Algeria to the 15-member Security Council on Wednesday demands an immediate humanitarian ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, says the draft could jeopardise negotiations aimed at brokering a pause in fighting in Gaza. “This draft resolution could put sensitive negotiations in jeopardy – derailing the exhaustive, ongoing diplomatic efforts to secure the release of hostages, and secure an extended pause that Palestinian civilians and aid workers so desperately need,” she told reporters.

There is not going to be a pause, it's all delay tactics. Palestinians and aid workers desperately need a ceasefire, achieved by sanctions on Israel.

Palestinians detained in Gaza accuse Israelis of torture

More accounts are emerging from Palestinians from Gaza held in Israeli detention, where they say they were subjected to brutal torture and dehumanising treatment. One 70-year-old man told us his story. “I spent 10 days in Israel, where they hit me, insulted me and humiliated me every day,” Mahmoud al-Nabulsi told Al Jazeera. “I feel pain everywhere on my body,” he said.


Families struggling to take care of additional children orphaned in Gaza

As Israel’s assault on Gaza wipes out entire families and leaves thousands of children without their parents, relatives and other family members are trying to take care of orphaned children even as they struggle to care for their own immediate family members.

“One of the things I learned when I was in Gaza two weeks ago, is that for these extended families, they really consider these children part of their family once they lose their parents,” Tess Ingram, a spokesperson for UNICEF. “I spoke to a woman named Isra who had three children of her own and had recently taken in her five nieces and nephews who had lost both of their parents. She said, ‘I will look after them as if they were my own children until they’re married. I understand I can’t replace their parents, but I’m their aunt and I’ll do everything I can.'”

Some light

Israeli Jews and Palestinians hold antiwar rally in Haifa

The Israeli group Standing Together has said that more than 1,000 Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel convened in Haifa for a conference calling for an end to the war in Gaza. The Israeli publication Haaretz reported that messages of support from Democratic US lawmakers Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, members of President Joe Biden’s party, were played at the event.

“We are the camp of life against the camp of death … against those who say that there are no innocent people in Gaza … We are calling to release all hostages now, leave Gaza, and end the war and the occupation immediately. Israelis and Palestinians are here to stay. We support every agreement to release hostages and end the killing of innocent civilians in Gaza,” the group’s co-leader Alon-Lee Green said.

Protesters in Australia block access to arms factory supplying Israeli military

Protesters in Melbourne have blocked access to a factory belonging to the Australian manufacturer HTA, which produces parts for F-35 military jets used by Israel in its air offensive on Gaza. Weekly protests have been held in Melbourne since the war in Gaza began.