Israel asks US to reschedule scrapped meeting on Rafah ground offensive
Israel has asked to reschedule a meeting with US officials to discuss its military plans in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, a US official told a number of media outlets, days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu abruptly scrapped the planned talks.
Netanyahu called off a planned visit to Washington by a senior Israeli delegation after the US allowed passage of a Gaza ceasefire resolution at the United Nations on Monday. US officials said the Biden administration was perplexed by the Israeli cancellation and considered it an overreaction to the UN Security Council resolution, insisting there had been no change in policy.
On Wednesday, a US official said Netanyahu’s office “has said they’d like to reschedule the meeting dedicated to Rafah. We are now working with them to set a convenient date.”
I guess the UNSC immediate ceasefire resolution doesn't apply to US/Israel. Let's talk more about invading Rafah.
Ceasefire hopes fade after non-stop Israeli attacks: UNICEF
James Elder says the hopes of people in Gaza have been dashed over the past two nights as Israel continues its attacks despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire.
“There was so much hope in Gaza after Monday’s call for a ceasefire. That hope, night after night, is being drowned out by bombs,” he said in a video posted on Instagram. Pointing his camera towards a wounded boy in a hospital bed, Elder said, “This is a seven-year-old Mohammed and this is the face and result of the ceasefire in Gaza.”
The UN resolution passed on Monday called for an immediate truce for the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which ends in two weeks, and demands the release of all captives seized in the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel in October.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5BnATggQBt/
Prominent US senator demands ‘time and space’ for Israel in Gaza
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham wants the Biden administration and US Congress to allow Israel to militarily defeat all remaining Hamas fighters in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
The invasion plan has drawn controversy because the area is overflowing with 1.5 million displaced civilians. Israel says there are thousands of Hamas fighters there.
Defeating Hamas in Rafah is “non-negotiable”, Graham told reporters in West Jerusalem. “I urge the Biden administration, the Congress to make sure that Israel has the time and space to achieve victory over Hamas militarily.”
Senator Lindsay Graham on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, the United States
There goes my last ounce of respect for the US, United states of terror.
‘A nightmare’: MSF warns against looming Israeli operation in Rafah
Leo Kanz, head of the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) mission in Gaza, says “any attack on Rafah would be catastrophic, inhumane and would lead to mass human casualties”.
"If the attack occurs in Rafah, we just don’t know where to put the patients. There is no place for the patients to go,” he added in a video posted on X. “The situation in the Gaza Strip as a whole is a nightmare, to say the least.”
“If there is an attack on Rafah, we just don't know where to put the patients. There is no place for the patients to go.”
Léo Cans, our head of mission in #Gaza, says any attack on Rafah would be catastrophic and describes the conditions for people in the southern Gaza town. pic.twitter.com/V0t11pXm3D
— MSF International (@MSF) March 27, 2024
US raises issue of incarcerated Palestinian leader with Israel: Report
The US highlighted the mistreatment of Marwan Barghouti, one of the most prominent Palestinian political figures imprisoned by Israel, with the Israeli government, the Washington Post reports.
This comes after Barghouti’s family and prisoners’ rights groups alleged he’s been physically and psychologically abused since October 7.
Barghouti, 64, received five life sentences for his role in the second Intifada and is being incarcerated in Megiddo, a maximum-security prison.
According to Barghouti’s son, Arab, who was interviewed by the Post, Barghouti “was physically assaulted, placed in solitary confinement in darkness for 12 days, and the Israeli national anthem was pumped into his cell ‘at a very high volume from around 5am until midnight, for many days'”.
Palestinians, and some Israelis, see Marwan Barghouti as key to peace. They need him out of prison first
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/marwan-barghouti-peace-1.7154912
After more than 2 decades in jail, the man Israel brands a terrorist remains most popular Palestinian leader
Palestinians wave banners bearing the image of jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti during a celebration marking the 57th anniversary of Fatah movement's foundation, in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, in December 2021. Calls are growing for Barghouti's release from those who believe he could have an important role to play in the peace process.
The graffitied image of Marwan Barghouti's face on the huge concrete slabs of Israel's separation barrier, or wall, at the main Israeli checkpoint between Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah has darkened with the smoke and tear gas of countless demonstrations against an occupation now in its 57th year.
But his name hasn't faded.
After more than two decades in an Israeli jail, Barghouti remains the most popular Palestinian leader there is, consistently leading opinion polls ahead of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
For Palestinians, he is a political prisoner. For Israelis, he is a terrorist accused of leading a militant offshoot of the Fatah movement known as the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and convicted of ordering killings and suicide bombings during the second intifada, or uprising.
An Israeli prison guard escorts Marwan Barghouti in 2012
With the decimation of Gaza in an Israeli bombing campaign now in its sixth month, and uncertainty over "the day after," calls are growing for Barghouti's release from those who believe he could have an important role to play.
....
Israel and Hamas are trying to negotiate a second exchange. Even though Barghouti has long been a member of the rival Fatah faction that leads the Palestinian Authority, Hamas has put Barghouti's name on its list, as it did last fall.
Aarab says it's a testament to his father's unifying appeal among Palestinians, and why Israel would be wise to release him.
"If any Israeli leader really wants an end for this and peace for the region on the long term, they would see that my father is someone that would bring that, who still believes in the tiny chance left for the two-state solution."
That would be a hard ask for Israelis who see Barghouti as a terrorist with blood on his hands. He was convicted by an Israeli court for his role in the second intifada violence and sentenced to five life terms in 2004.
Barghouti refused to present a defence to a court whose authority he doesn't recognize but has denied the allegations.
He's backed popular peaceful resistance and said he doesn't condone attacks on civilians, but has not renounced violence as a means of resisting the occupation.
Palestinians walk past graffiti depicting Barghouti on Israel's controversial separation barrier in the occupied West Bank city of Abu Dis. Barghouti remains the most popular Palestinian leader there is, consistently leading opinion polls ahead of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
