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SvennoJ on 26 February 2024
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Newborns dying in Gaza: UN Population Fund

The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) has reported that newborn babies are dying in Gaza because their mothers are unable to access appropriate care. UNFPA also reported that bombings and anxiety are leading many mothers to give birth prematurely.

As one example, the UNFPA said that the Al Helal Al Emirati maternity hospital in Rafah only has five beds available for deliveries. “Despite the lack of such basic supplies as sheets, the facility recently coped with 78 deliveries in one night alone,” the UNFPA said.


A Palestinian mother carries her baby as she travels from the northern Gaza Strip to the south along Al Rashid Road while smoke can be seen in the distance

Violent clashes as Israeli forces raid Al-Far’a refugee camp in West Bank

Our Al Jazeera Arabic colleagues and local media are reporting that Israeli forces have raided the Al-Far’a camp, south of Tubas in the occupied West Bank, resulting in intense fighting with Palestinian resistance groups including explosions. Raids and arrests have been reported elsewhere in the occupied West Bank in the following locations:

  • The city of Nablus, where a man has also been arrested
  • The Jalazoun camp, north of Ramallah
  • The city of Yatta, south of Hebron
  • The town of Beit Furik, east of Nablus
  • The town of Azzun, east of Qalqilya
  • The village of Jalboun, east of Jenin

 

Ceasefire talks said to include prisoner swap, return of displaced ‘women and children’ to north Gaza

In the last couple of days, since those talks in Paris ended, Israeli media has been ferociously trying to dissect some of the potential parameters for this framework of a deal. They’ve included issues around prisoner swaps. They’ve included issues around the positioning of the Israeli military inside Gaza.

And, just tonight, Al Jazeera Arabic is reporting that it had talked to sources about some of the initial terms, in particular, a gradual return of the displaced to the northern part of the Gaza Strip. That would be women and children. Not men of military age.

Sources are telling Al Jazeera Arabic that Israel had accepted Hamas’s request to increase the entry of aid [to Gaza] – something the US and many Western allies, in particular, had been pushing for for quite some time.


Palestinians gather to collect food aid in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip, on February 26, 2024

Footage shows Gaza City residents scrambling for bags of flour

Footage authenticated by Al Jazeera’s Sanad verification unit shows a large crowd of hungry and desperate Palestinians in Gaza City scrambling for bags of flour. On Sunday, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said that the last time food and humanitarian aid was delivered to northern Gaza was on January 23.

“We have warned against looming famine, appealed for regular humanitarian access, and stated that famine can be averted if more food convoys are allowed into northern Gaza on a regular basis,” he said.





Biden says ‘hopes to see’ Gaza ‘ceasefire’ by Monday

Biden was in New York. He was at a meeting for his campaign, then he popped into an ice cream store, which he tends to do, and a reporter shouted, “What can you tell us about the ceasefire?” and he said:

“I hope to see a ceasefire by the beginning of this weekend or the end of this weekend. I hope to see a ceasefire by Monday. It’s not a done deal but my national security adviser says we could have a ceasefire on Monday.”

Now there [are] a couple of ways you could take this. This is Joe Biden. He often says things [and] then his advisers come out later and say that he didn’t mean what he said. The other thing is, if they don’t do that, this could very much be President Joe Biden sending a message to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he expects to see a ceasefire.

His wording is very important. He didn’t say a temporary ceasefire. He didn’t say a truce. The United States has tried very hard, gone out of their way to not call for a ceasefire. He said “ceasefire”.

Now is that going be something that his aides later say he meant “temporary ceasefire”? We don’t know.

This is the president very clearly for the first time saying that – while it’s not done – they are close and he expects to see an end to the violence by Monday. So seven days from now. It will be interesting to see if his aides try to walk it back.


Biden was eating an ice-cream when he said, ‘My hope is by next Monday, we’ll have a ceasefire’

Biden’s ‘ceasefire’ comments come hours before Michigan primary

Just hours from now, on Tuesday, voters in Michigan are going to start casting their votes in the primary. And there’s a huge movement in Michigan for the Democrats to write in “not committed”.

I was in Michigan when Joe Biden went there to campaign and the anger is actually palpable. They said Trump basically never said that he cared about the Palestinians. Biden said he did, so they feel a very deep sense of betrayal.

We’ll have a lot better idea at the end of the day as to just how many people are going to take that anger out on the president, Joe Biden. So, it does seem… his campaign is starting to wake up to the fact that there’s a very real chance, because of this, to lose Michigan.

If he loses Michigan, because of the electoral college, it’s a really really hard path to keep him in the White House.

Analyst: Biden’s Gaza position less popular among young Americans than Nixon in Vietnam

Joe Biden is likely concerned about whether he is “going to still be president by this time next year” due to his handling of Israel’s war on Gaza, according to Stephen Zunes, a professor of politics and international studies at the University of San Francisco.

“What’s striking is that his position on Gaza is even more unpopular among young Americans than these other presidents including [Richard] Nixon and Vietnam. And so he has to be concerned about his legacy,” Zunes told Al Jazeera.

Zunes said that while he believes Biden is still unwilling to “publicly threaten Netanyahu”, he believes he will be “quietly” making threats. “Giving Netanyahu essentially everything he wants in the hopes that he will see reason is simply not working. He has to exercise at least some of the enormous leverage the United States actually has,” he said.

He is the president of the most powerful nation in the world, all he can do is hope ??? All he needs to do is stop support for Israel, military aid, political cover, monetary aid and designate the Settler movement as a terrorist group which is what they are.

It's Monday, let's wait another week... so depressing.

Yeah Biden is out of the loop

US supports ‘temporary ceasefire’ negotiations in draft Security Council resolution

The US Mission to the United Nations has circulated a draft resolution to members of the UN Security Council (UNSC) that expresses support for diplomatic efforts to “urgently” reach a “temporary ceasefire” agreement, according to a copy seen by Al Jazeera’s Rami Ayari.

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in an interview on Monday that she believed the US “alternative resolution” is “more relevant to supporting the efforts on the ground to get us to that temporary ceasefire”.

The new proposed text comes after the US vetoed a UNSC resolution put forward by Algeria last week. Thomas-Greenfield claimed at the time that Algeria’s resolution could interfere with the ongoing truce talks.

Last edited by SvennoJ - on 26 February 2024