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SvennoJ on 25 February 2024
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Renowned artist dies in Gaza after being denied treatment abroad

The Palestinian Authority (PA) Ministry of Culture has said that Gaza’s iconic artist Fathi Ghabin died today after Israeli authorities prevented him from leaving the besieged coastal enclave for treatment abroad. “Ghabin was at Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al Balah waiting to exit to Egypt to be treated there. All his paperwork was in order and he waited for two weeks but never received a permit to leave,” the ministry said in a statement.

Hundreds of patients in need of dialysis and others with similar chronic illnesses have been unable to leave the Strip for treatment and have not been able to seek treatment in Gaza itself due to a lack of medical supplies, the ministry added.



Aerial photos show over 2,000 aid trucks on Egyptian side of Rafah crossing

Aerial photos obtained by Al Jazeera show more than 2,000 aid trucks piled up on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip.

Enough food is waiting across Gaza’s borders to feed entire population: UN official

Samer Abdeljaber, the World Food Programme’s (WFP’s) director for emergencies, says there is enough food stocked up across Gaza’s borders to feed the entire population, but it cannot safely reach the war-torn population due to the ongoing violence and extensive security checks.

“We have enough food across the borders, even from Jordan and Egypt, to be able to support 2.2 million people,” said Abdeljaber. “But we need to make sure we have the right access to Gaza from different crossings so that we can actually reach the people – whether they are in the north or the south or in the central areas.”

He noted that the WFP hoped to specifically resume operations in the north of Gaza, where it has had to suspend work due to the unsafe conditions but where there are “lots of people in need”. “Safe routes is one of our requirements to continue assistance to the north and that can only be guaranteed if that is a speedy process,” Abdeljaber said. “Delays at the checkpoints are making it impossible for us to reach deeper into the north.”

His comments come amid reports that people in Gaza, particularly in the north, have been facing starvation as Israel has continued relentless bombardment and blocked delivery of much-needed humanitarian aid.


Trucks carrying humanitarian aid line up at the Rafah Border Crossing, Egypt, on the way to Gaza

Netanyahu says military operation in Rafah ‘will happen’

In an interview with CBS News, the Israeli prime minister says that a deal between Israel and Hamas will delay a military operation in Rafah but stresses that Israel will have to invade at a certain point later. “If we have a deal, it will be delayed somewhat, but it will happen. If we don’t have a deal, we’ll do it anyway,” he told CBS.

He says it’s necessary in order to achieve a total victory.

Additionally, they’re going to be talking about a potential deal to bring back the captives. Again, there is no indication that we are heading in a direction that sees a deal within sight.

Israel’s allies in Europe have warned against the Rafah offensive while the US has called on Netanyahu’s government to present a “credible” plan for protecting civilians crammed into the city before launching the assault.


Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli attack on a house in Rafah, February 24, 2024

Israel to advance construction of more than 3,300 housing units in occupied West Bank

The Israeli government plans to move forward with the building of 3,344 new housing units – 2,350 units in the settlement of Maale Adumim, 694 in Efrat, and 300 in Kedar, according to non-profit Peace Now. “They are significant and expansive projects that will greatly impact the possibility of reaching a two-state solution, especially the plans in Efrat and Kedar,” the Israeli settlement watchdog said.

“The decision to promote thousands of unnecessary and harmful housing units in settlements is a hasty and irresponsible decision by an extremist government that has long lost the trust of the people,” it added.

 

Orthodox Jews take over Muslim shrine, vandalise graves in West Jerusalem

This to according to Emek Shaveh, an Israeli NGO dedicated to archeology in the context of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. In a post on X, the organisation said that Orthodox Jews took over a Muslim shrine constructed at a site linked to a religious figure and vandalised Muslim graves before declaring it the “Tomb of Binyamin”.




Palestinians in occupied West Bank protest in solidarity with Gaza

Protesters lift placards and national flags at a rally supporting Palestinians in Gaza, in Hebron’s city centre

The protest commemorated 30 years since an Israeli settler killed dozens of Palestinian worshippers at the Ibrahimi Mosque


Thirty years ago, Baruch Goldstein carried out a massacre in Hebron

Breaking The Silence, an Israeli veterans organisation, says 30 years ago today, the settler from Kiryat Arba entered the Ibrahimi Mosque and massacred 29 Muslim worshippers. “They told us to ‘let it go, it’s just a few stray weeds’, and in the meantime continued to cultivate violence and terrorism,” the group says.

In a video it published on X, BTS says: “A handful of settlers turned the murderer into a hero. They’ve turned a cowardly terrorist into the poster boy for Jewish terrorism,” including National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

‘Goldstein’s deep racist spirit dominates Israel these days’

Mistaclim, a group of anti-occupation activists in Israel, says that although the Hebron massacre perpetrated by Baruch Goldstein was thirty years ago, “the concept did not change”. “It just became the Israeli mainstream. His spiritual disciples control the cabinet meetings and run the government, the police, the army, the West Bank, and within the state,” the group said in a statement.

“Shuhada Street and its surroundings, a central area of Hebron, which was partially closed immediately after the massacre, has become over the years, a ‘sterile’ area where Palestinians cannot go, through endless circles of hatred, bereavement, death and blood.”

The NewYork-born Goldstein killed 29 Palestinians when he opened fire at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron. While rising through politics, Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, displayed a photo of Goldstein on his wall.

Israeli settlers storm Bedouin community in occupied West Bank: Report

A group of illegal Israeli settlers have stormed the Bedouin community of Arab al-Malehat, located northwest of Jericho in the occupied West Bank, stealing sheep owned by a local resident.

Hassan Malehat, supervisor of Al-Baidar organisation defending Bedouin rights, told the Wafa news agency that a group of settlers forcefully entered the community and stole nearly 30 sheep belonging to Suleiman Atallah Malehat.

According to Wafa, in the past year, Israeli occupation forces and settlers seized 43 agricultural tractors, 293 vehicles and 296 sheep in similar attacks against Bedouin communities in the region.

15 Palestinians arrested overnight in West Bank

The latest detainees include a journalist and several former detainees, reports the Quds News Network, citing the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society. The arrests add to more than 7,200 Palestinians detained by Israeli forces since October 7, 2023.

Travellers paralysed in West Bank after Israel closed key checkpoint: Wafa

Israeli forces have shut down a military checkpoint in the occupied West Bank that patrols the only road connecting the southern part of the territory with the central and northern parts, leading to a massive traffic jam, the Wafa news agency reports. Israeli checkpoints and unanticipated travel barriers are a familiar feature of life for residents of the occupied West Bank, but they have intensified since the Gaza war broke out.

The movement restrictions often add hours to Palestinians’ trips within the territory or stop them from travelling altogether.