Palestinian prisoner dies in Israeli custody: Monitor
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office (ASRA) says a Palestinian prisoner, Sayel Abu Nasr, has died in an Israeli jail.
The ASRA statement said his death brings the total number of prisoners and detainees who have been died in Israeli custody since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza to 75, including 46 from the Gaza Strip.
It said 312 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli prisons since 1967.
Israel must face consequences for betraying ‘fundamental values’: Ex-Knesset speaker
The international community must implement “severe, personal and maybe even governmental measures” that will make it clear that killing and starving Palestinians the way Israel is in Gaza cannot happen, Avraham Burg, the former speaker of the Knesset and former head of the Jewish Agency for Israel, has told Al Jazeera.
He is one of dozens of high-profile Israelis who signed a petition calling for sanctions on Israel to stop the starvation of Palestinians in Gaza and stop Israel’s plans to expel them from their homeland.
Burg said he has reached a “collision between two value systems; the first is my loyalty to place, my patriotism, and on the other hand, it is our patriotism to humanity [in] general, at times when my country betrays its fundamental values and divorces from the very basic humanitarian, ethical system, one has to take a position”.
“In times in which our country is that wrong, we have to help to stop it from continuing … and every measure is legitimate; internal opposition, demonstrations, rallies, vigils, hunger strike and invitation to cooperate with the international community,” he said.
Belgium to start Gaza aid air drops, ‘pleads’ for reopening of land crossings
Belgium has announced it will take part in a multi-country operation to airdrop aid to Gaza as starvation seizes the Palestinian enclave.
A Belgian plane carrying medical supplies and food worth about 600,000 euros ($690,000) will fly to Jordan “soon” and remain on standby to conduct further drops in coordination with Amman, the defence and foreign ministries said in a statement.
“These airdrops are a first step, but they can in no way be a cover for the urgent need to facilitate access by land,” Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said.
“I will continue to plead with the Israeli authorities to allow these deliveries to enter Gaza by road as quickly as possible.”
Belgium joins France, Spain, and Britain in announcing aid drops to Gaza as more people in the territory die from malnutrition.
Instead of wasting tax payer money on ridiculously expensive inefficient, and likely to fall in Israeli controlled death zones, air drops, arms embargo and sanctions. Pleading does nothing.
But it's easier to waste tax payer money and join the PR bandwagon than applying real pressure.
