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SvennoJ on 23 February 2024
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Daily (or nightly) West bank raids and clashes

Israeli forces demolish homes in the occupied West Bank while settlers attack village

Israel forces have demolished two homes, a water well and an electricity network in the Khallet al-Farra community, south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, the Wafa news agency reports. Israeli settlers have also opened fire on a shop and an electricity network in the village of Naqoura, northwest of Nablus, Wafa also reports.

Meanwhile, Palestinian fighters have shot at Israeli forces at the Dotan checkpoint near Jenin. Raids and arrests have been reported elsewhere in the occupied West Bank in the following locations:

  • The village of al-Ramadin and the towns of as-Samu and Idhna in the Hebron governorate
  • The villages of al-Jalama, Jalboun, Arana, Arbouna, Faqoua, and Deir Ghazala northeast of Jenin
  • The town of Tuqu, southeast of Bethlehem
  • The village of Kafr Nima, west of Ramallah
  • The al-Arroub camp, north of Hebron
  • A man has been arrested in the town of Beit Fajjar, south of Bethlehem
  • A man has been arrested east of the city of Hebron
  • Israeli forces have shot a man in the Jalazoun camp, north of Ramallah

I guess it has to be stated since Israeli politicians and some US congressmen all state the opposite...

Joe Biden: ‘The overwhelming majority of Palestinians are not Hamas’

US President Joe Biden has said that he won’t “mince words” by declaring that the “overwhelming majority of Palestinians are not Hamas”. “Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people. In fact, they’re also suffering as a result of Hamas’ terrorism. We need to be clear-eyed about that reality,” he wrote on X.

There are reports of growing friction between the US president and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over mounting civilian casualties in Gaza, Israeli restrictions on humanitarian aid entering the besieged enclave, and Netanyahu’s public opposition to the creation of a Palestinian state. Despite these apparent policy differences, US weapons have continued to flow to the Israeli military, while Biden is also pushing to secure $14bn in additional aid for Tel Aviv.

Israeli defence minister meets with Biden’s top Middle East adviser

Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant meeting with Brett McGurk, Biden’s top Middle East adviser, and after that, Gallant released a statement saying that Israel will now expand the negotiators for the captives and what they are allowed to do.

All the while, Israel and the military will be planning for more intense ground operations in Gaza.

The Israelis have been under a lot of pressure from the Biden administration for how they’ve been conducting themselves throughout this war. And it is actually the Israelis, specifically Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who declined to send an Israeli delegation for a second day of meetings in Cairo just about a week ago. This is something that did not bode well with the Israeli public and the families of the captives.

It’s yet to be seen what exactly is going to come of these talks – if there are any sort of advancements in these negotiations. But the Israeli delegation will now be present at them to argue their case and perhaps what concessions they are willing to give up in order to secure a deal.

I doubt anything will come from that, just more pretense of helping / covering on the US side. The bottleneck are the far right ministers in the war cabinet threatening to sack the government if any ceasefire happens...



Bombing continues

At least six killed by Israeli air attack on home in Rafah

At least six people have been killed and more injured by an Israeli air strike on a home in Rafah in southern Gaza, the Palestinian state news agency Wafa reports. The strike happened in the Zalata area east of Rafah, and the injured have been transferred to the Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital. Wafa also reports that Israeli forces have bombed a house in the Yabna camp in central Rafah, but there have been no fatalities.

MSF says Gaza medical teams have created new term: ‘Wounded child, no surviving family’

Speaking before the United Nations Security Council, Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) director Chris Lockyear said that medical teams in Gaza have come up with a new acronym to reflect the dire situation on the ground: WCNSF – “wounded child, no surviving family”.

“There is a repeated displacement, constant fear and witnessing family members literally dismembered before their eyes,” he said of children in Gaza. “These psychological injuries have led children as young as five to tell us that they would prefer to die.”

We previously reported that Lockyear had described Israel’s war on Gaza as a “war of collective punishment” to the 15-member council, also accusing Israel of dismantling “hospital after hospital” as it destroyed the besieged enclave’s healthcare infrastructure.

Pro-Palestine protesters rally at New York offices of pro-Israeli lobby group, US senators

Thousands of protesters have marched to the New York City office of the pro-Israel lobby group American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. The Jewish Voice for Peace activist group said thousands participated in the rally at the AIPAC offices while 18 Jewish activists were arrested for “shutting down” the New York offices of Democratic Party senators, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand.

Unfurling a banner with the words “Stop funding genocide”, the protesters called on the senators to support a ceasefire in Gaza and “dump” the AIPAC lobby, which is a major force in US politics. The antiwar, pro-Palestine activists marched through downtown New York chanting, “Free Palestine”, “Let Gaza live”, “Stop the genocide” and “Ceasefire now”. Participants held a banner declaring “AIPAC funds genocide”.

Report warns that deaths could spiral by tens of thousands if Gaza war continues

Almost 100 more Palestinians were killed and 132 injured by Israeli attacks on Gaza between Wednesday afternoon and Thursday night, according to the Palestinian territory’s Health Ministry. The daily death toll, reported by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in its latest assessment, comes as a new report warned of mounting civilian deaths if the war on Gaza continues.

Even if a ceasefire were declared immediately, a further 6,550 deaths could result due to the time required to “improve water, sanitation and shelter conditions, reduce malnutrition, and restore functioning healthcare services”, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Johns Hopkins Centre for Humanitarian Health said in the report.

“Under the ‘current status quo’ and ‘escalation of the conflict’ scenarios, the projections rise sharply to 58,260 and 74,290 excess deaths, with traumatic injuries followed by infectious diseases being the main causes of additional fatalities in both cases,” their report warns.