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Forums - Politics Discussion - Israel-Hamas war, Gaza genocide

SvennoJ on 13 May 2024

Fierce clashes in Jabalia as Israeli forces thrust deeper into refugee camp

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting intense fighting in Jabalia in northern Gaza, as Israeli troops try to penetrate into the centre of the refugee camp.

Al Jazeera Arabic reports that Israeli troops are clashing with Palestinian fighters on the ground, while Israeli jets are bombing block 2 and block 4 of the Jabalia refugee camp. The attacks have resulted in a number of casualties, although the exact toll was not immediately clear.

Israeli forces fire on ambulances in Jabalia

Al Jazeera Arabic says Israeli forces are firing on ambulances trying to reach the wounded as Israeli air strikes pound crowded residential areas within the refugee camp.

Israel reports at least 50 soldiers wounded in past 24 hours

There is a clear expansion of the fighting to the northern portion of Rafah city as ground battles are still raging between Hamas fighters and Israeli soldiers. There is notable advancement for Israeli military tanks into al-Jnaina and as-Salam neighbourhoods.

There is a gradual expansion of the fighting as the military tanks are pushing deeper. They have been confronted by the Palestinian armed groups in these areas with short-range missiles and antitank missiles are being used to attack these military tanks.

The Israeli army has announced that at least 50 of its soldiers had been wounded in operations in the past 24 hours.

We have been hearing from eyewitnesses that it seems Israel is expanding and paving the way for further escalation of attacks.


Child among four killed in Israeli attack on Rafah

An Israeli air attack on a house in the Brazil neighbourhood of Rafah has killed four people, including a young girl, according to the Wafa news agency.

Earlier, the Palestinian Civil Defence said Israeli drones fired on rescue workers trying to reach a building after it was bombed in the Brazil neighbourhood, which is located in southeast Rafah.


More civilian casualties in Rafah, Jabalia refugee camp

Israeli military operations are ongoing on the ground, in both Rafah and the Jabalia refugee camp.

In Jabalia, the Israeli tanks and troops are advancing deeper into the eastern and central parts of the camp with raging battles between the army and the Palestinian groups. The situation is becoming particularly dire with the Israeli military managing to encircle and besiege six evacuation centres in that densely populated area.

In Rafah, battles are ongoing and in high intensity in the eastern part of the district. There are also bombardments of the central and western parts of Rafah, where at least five Palestinians have been killed in overnight strikes.

We have been hearing from medical sources on the ground that injured people keep arriving at the hospital despite the difficulty of emergency workers’ operations on the ground because of the unprecedented scale of air strikes that Rafah district has witnessed over the past six days.


Israel expands Rafah offensive



Israeli forces issue evacuation orders for Kuwaiti hospital in Rafah

Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah in the Gaza Strip, says medical staff at the Kuwaiti Hospital in Rafah have received an evacuation order from Israeli forces.

He said although the situation in the area has been “dire”, until today, the Israeli forces had not placed a call to the hospital’s director. Medics based at the hospital fear that an attack on the hospital would mean a “complete collapse” of the limited medical system in Rafah, he added.



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SvennoJ on 13 May 2024

Netanyahu, his ministers face protests during Memorial Day commemoration

Israeli military cemeteries have witnessed a wave of protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ministers during the Memorial Day commemoration of soldiers killed in wars, according to photos and videos posted by journalists and activists on social media.

Protesters blamed ministers, who were in attendance, for shedding the blood of Israelis. Many families started to leave the Mount Herzl cemetery in West Jerusalem when Netanyahu started his speech on Monday.

At the Kiryat Shaul cemetery near Tel Aviv, Israelis staged a silent protest during Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s speech, demanding his resignation and holding banners such as “Your hands are stained with their blood”. Antigovernment protesters have been urging the Netanyahu government to strike a deal with Hamas to free captives held in Gaza.



War on Gaza will continue until captives return, rule of Hamas dismantled: Gallant

Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant says the war on Gaza will continue until the captives are freed and the rule of Hamas and its military capabilities are dismantled, local newspaper Haaretz reported.

Speaking at a ceremony on Mount Herzl, he added that the war will shape the lives of Israelis “for decades to come”.

Israeli public views Netanyahu as playing politics at the expense of the captives

Reporting from Amman, Jordan, because Israel's gov't has banned Al Jazeera

The Israeli public has, pretty much, unanimously been behind this war on Gaza. What has changed over time is growing resentment at the government, as they see Netanyahu as not bringing the captives home and pushing ahead with this war to prolong his political career.

You have Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, right-wing ministers also booed at another event in Israel today because people understand Netanyahu is playing a political game here.

Any ceasefire deal goes against what those right-wing ministers want and they ensure Netanyahu’s political survival as prime minister.

For a long time, you have had leaks from the cabinet and head of security over months saying it is Netanyahu who is reluctant to even make a plan for the day after the war, something they critically need.




Israeli army forces displaced Palestinians to evacuate schools

This morning, the Israeli army forced hundreds of displaced families to evacuate six UNRWA schools that were turned into shelters for displaced people in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip.

Al Jazeera filmed the displacement of families from the area of the schools towards the western areas of Jabalia camp.

In the footage, Palestinian families are seen fleeing amid near continuous shelling and gunfire from the areas where Israeli vehicles have entered east of Jabalia refugee camp.

No child should experience ‘absolutely terrifying’ journey out of Rafah

Nadine Abdullateef, a 13-year-old Palestinian, spoke to Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum in Deir el-Balah in the Gaza Strip after she was forced to flee Rafah.

The teenager said she has been displaced from “many places”, including Nuseirat, Gaza and Rafah – an experience that has left her traumatised. “My experience from Rafah to Deir el-Balah was absolutely terrifying,” she said.

Nadine said finding a car was difficult and expensive, and the group she was travelling with were forced to split into two and travel at different times. She said 10 people were packed into the car along with what little luggage they could fit.

“No child should experience that or see that,” she said. “I do not see a future in Palestine if this keeps going on… this has to stop.”

“Where are the papers that were signed by all the countries about human rights, where did those go?” she said.

Human rights only apply to white people.... and only as long as you don't protest or criticize Israel.



SvennoJ on 13 May 2024

Will Israel’s war on Gaza sway South Africa’s election?

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/5/13/will-free-palestine-issue-sway-voters-in-south-africa-election

Cape Town, South Africa – “We cannot allow supporters of baby killers to talk to us,” a furious resident of Surrey Estate in Cape Town shouted as he heckled the speaker at the podium.

The man was one of hundreds of residents of the mostly Muslim suburb who had gathered for a pre-election panel discussion early in May, where representatives from 10 political parties sought to lobby support.

When Riad Davids, the representative for the Democratic Alliance (DA) – South Africa’s liberal, centrist main opposition party that is considered a steadfast supporter of Israel – took to the podium to make his pitch to residents, he was booed.

The audience shouted and jeered, preventing him from delivering his message and seeking to force him off the stage.

The South African government’s support for Palestine has become a common theme in debates leading up to the May 29 general elections and expressions of solidarity with the people of Gaza have featured during the campaigns of various political parties.


‘We want Palestine to be free,’ South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, right, said at a May Day rally in Cape Town


Global Anti-Apartheid Conference condemns Israel’s settler-colonialism, genocide

https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/24659656/johannesburg-declaration-on-israels-settler-colonialism-apartheid-and-genocide-towards-a-global-anti-apartheid-movement-for-palestine-2.pdf

South Africa has hosted a Global Anti-Apartheid Conference for Palestine aimed at highlighting the continuing Israeli war on Gaza and the Israeli settlers’ illegal colonialism, among other issues.

The delegates from more than two dozen countries have now issued a statement in which they state they are “outraged by a century of colonialism; 75 years of ongoing Nakba; 75 years of Israeli genocide, colonialism, and apartheid”.

“We have witnessed seven months of ongoing genocide. The world has watched Israel brutally bombard Gaza from land, sea and air, turning it into an extermination camp,” the statement read. “Israel has destroyed the conditions for life of Gaza’s people, including medical care, nutrition, education, infrastructure”.

“Just as the Global Anti-Apartheid movement did not make concessions to the apartheid South African state until the complete dismantling of the apartheid system, we too refuse to concede until the total dismantling of Israel’s settler-colonial project,” the statement concluded.

The three-day conference, which began on Friday at the Sandton Convention Center in Johannesburg, attracted international speakers, including Declan Kearney, the chairperson of Sinn Fein, the Irish Republican and Democratic Socialist political party, and Mustafa Barghouti, a Palestinian human rights activist and politician.



SvennoJ on 13 May 2024

Satellite images show large displacement from Rafah to Khan Younis, Deir el-Balah

Satellite imagery taken between April 3 and May 8 has shown a decrease in the number of tents of displaced people in the city of Rafah and an increase in Khan Younis and Deir el-Balah in light of Israel’s expansion of military operations.

The following photos reveal a large case of displacement from the Shaboura area in the centre of Rafah.

In images taken on April 24, hundreds of tents sheltering displaced people are congregated in the extended area in Rafah, while images on May 5 reveal a drastic decrease in the number of tents of displaced people, meaning they have moved elsewhere during this period.


Satellite pictures show the Shaboura neighbourhood in Rafah before and after the mass displacement to other cities.




Satellite imagery also revealed a larger displacement situation from the Brazil neighbourhood and the Khirbet al-Adas neighbourhood in eastern Rafah, where the images show a noticeable decrease in the tents of the displaced people from the areas ordered by the Israeli army to evacuate.

Satellite images show the Khirbet al-Adas neighbourhood in eastern Rafah before and after the displacement





The images also showed a noticeable increase in different areas of Deir el-Balah, mainly in the west and south of the governorate, in addition to the appearance of a number of tents in the new market area in Nuseirat.

Satellite images before and after the appearance of a number of tents in the new market area in Nuseirat.





SvennoJ on 13 May 2024

Gaza solidarity encampments: We, as educators, need to protect our students

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/5/13/gaza-solidarity-encampments-we-as-educators-need-to-protect-our-students

“We educate future generations.”

“We strive to take humanity forward.”

“We want to create a great world.”

“We are committed to the betterment of our global society.”

In the past few months, such university mottos have proven to be nothing other than vapid slogans.

Student-led sit-ins have popped up across US college campuses. Protesting students are demanding that their institutions call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and divest from companies doing business with Israel.

But instead of engaging with their demands in good faith, university presidents set loose the notoriously unrestrained American law enforcement forces on students standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people, who are facing genocide.

The police have entered campuses in riot gear, violently dismantled encampments, brutalised protesters, and arrested hundreds.


Police make an arrest as they face off with pro-Palestinian students after destroying part of the encampment barricade on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in Los Angeles, California, early on May 2


University of Amsterdam staff join pro-Palestine protests

Professor of sociology at the University of Amsterdam, Sarah Bracke, spoke to Al Jazeera about the student and staff protests against Israel’s war on Gaza in the Netherlands.

She said the staff at three higher education institutions in Amsterdam witnessed police “violently” attempting to disperse a peaceful student encampment last Monday.

She said the staff today are protesting as they want to end the university’s complicity in “the ongoing genocide” in Gaza and call out the violent methods that police have used to suppress peaceful protests.

She noted that Jewish staff and student protesters were beaten by police despite the educational institutions’ claim that police were needed to protect the Jewish students on campus.


Police officers remove a pro-Palestinian protester outside the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, May 8

Israel protests Nobel laureate’s Vatican speech denouncing Gaza genocide

Israel’s Embassy to the Holy See has issued a protest after a Yemeni Nobel Prize winner accused Israel of “genocide” in Gaza during an event hosted by the Vatican.

The embassy expressed “indignation and shock” about the comments made by rights activist Tawakkol Karman on Saturday evening during a conference organised by the Fratelli Tutti Foundation, which Pope Francis created.

Karman, who won the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for her role in the Arab Spring protests, told an audience in the atrium of St Peter’s Basilica: “The world is silent in front of the genocide and the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people in Gaza.”

After mentioning Gaza, Karman received a loud round of applause from the audience, which included fellow Nobel prize laureates, politicians, and church officials. The pope was not present.

In an open letter posted on X on Monday, the Israeli embassy rejected Karman’s accusations as “lies”.

“The site was contaminated by a flagrantly anti-Semitic speech,” it said. “We regret that such a speech was pronounced without anyone feeling the moral duty to intervene to stop this disgrace,” it added.


Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkol Karman



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SvennoJ on 13 May 2024

Gaza’s death toll rises

At least 35,091 Palestinians have been killed and 78,827 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, its Health Ministry says. The ministry added that 57 people were killed and 82 injured in the latest 24-hour reporting period.

 

UN employee, Palestinian driver injured in Israeli shelling near Rafah

A foreign staff member of the World Health Organization (WHO) and a Palestinian driver have been injured by Israeli shelling that hit an UNRWA vehicle east of Rafah, according to local sources.

Medical teams transported the two to the European Gaza Hospital for treatment. Video footage obtained by Al Jazeera showed a rear right window of the UN car damaged by shrapnel.

PRCS says four members still detained by Israel

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) says two of their members have been released following 49 days of Israeli detention. They were arrested in March during the second Israeli raid on al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, PRCS said.

Israeli forces continue to detain four other PRCS members and “their fate remains unknown,” the organisation said on X.

Israeli military operations in Rafah have ‘grave security risks’: Egypt’s FM

Sameh Shoukry has told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that continued Israeli military operations in Gaza, and especially in Rafah, by the border with Egypt, have “grave security risks”.

He also stressed in a phone call with Blinken the need to restart aid deliveries to Gaza after they discussed the Israeli seizure of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing, the Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement.

 

Medical Aid for Palestinians shares an update from the ground

The NGO Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) has shared an update on the medical situation in Gaza:

  • Israeli forces have issued an evacuation order to medical staff at the Kuwaiti Hospital in Rafah – one of the last remaining hospitals in the area with only about 16 beds available.
  • The European Gaza Hospital, near Khan Younis has already run out of fuel and is in blackout.
  • Only 12 out of 36 hospitals are partially functioning across Gaza, according to the World Health Organization.
  • Five MAP-supported medical points, set up to provide basic healthcare services to displaced people, have been forced to suspend services and relocate due to insecurity.
  • There is a huge problem in transportation due to fuel access, so even medical points in other locations are not easily reachable as people are moving in waves away from Rafah.
  • The Rafah border crossing closure means that patients cannot be medically evacuated. “We expect this to result in more unnecessary patient deaths.”
  • There has been increased Israeli military attacks in the north of Gaza, where MAP’s team has been distributing vital medical aid and food to internally displaced families. Our colleague leading our work there has been forced to flee his home again, after being displaced multiple times.


SvennoJ on 13 May 2024

Jeremy Corbyn on Rafah: "We're live-streaming a Genocide"

Can the Israeli army really prevent Hamas from regrouping in Gaza?



SvennoJ on 13 May 2024

Israelis attack aid convoy headed to Gaza, show social media posts

A number of videos verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad verification unit have shown Israelis attacking food aid trucks at Tarqumiyah crossing in Hebron in the occupied West Bank, preventing them from reaching Gaza.

The Israeli “Ninth Order” movement activists were seen destroying food aid and unloading it from trucks on the ground.

Houthi-linked media reports alleged US-British attack on airport

Yemen’s Al Masirah TV Channel, a broadcaster affiliated with the Houthi rebels, has reported an alleged air attack carried out by the US and British military on the country’s Hodeidah International Airport.

The update shared on Telegram did not elaborate on the results of the air raid.

There was no information on the incident from the British and the US military. They have been targeting the Houthi positions in the country since the rebels started attacking vessels in the Red Sea in opposition to Israel’s war on Gaza.

More than 150,000 pregnant women face health hazards in Gaza: UNRWA

The UN agency for the Palestinians has said on X that “more than 150,000 pregnant women are facing terrible sanitary conditions and health hazards amid displacement and war” in Gaza.

It called for an immediate ceasefire.



Where is that pro-life movement now? Oh yeah, that's only about controlling women, not helping them nor infants.


Why Egypt joining ICJ case against Israel is ‘unprecedented’

Egypt says it will join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the ICJ.

Here’s why analysts say it’s a big deal:




SvennoJ on 13 May 2024

Hundreds of riot police arrive at peaceful university protest in Amsterdam

What started as a peaceful walkout this morning by hundreds of university staff, professors, lecturers in protest against police violence against students last week is now developing and escalating once again.

The riot police are here, hundreds of them are blocking the entrance to the university. After the university staff finished their rally, the students went in and they have built some tents right into the main hall.

The police are now coming in and [the students] are trying to block the police. They managed for a few minutes but now the police car van is driving towards the entrance and everyone here is very much hoping that the same scenario that happened last week is not repeated here.

The protests are against the war in Gaza and they’re also demanding the university to cut ties with Israeli universities but also to protest against police violence and what they say is a violation of their rights to demonstrate.

So far I’ve only seen peaceful protesters and the police is coming in and of course, there’s a lot of trauma after what happened last week so the situation is quite agitated.


Pro-Palestine protesters take over university buildings in Dutch cities

Demonstrators have taken over university buildings in the Dutch cities of Amsterdam, Groningen and Eindhoven, slamming Israel’s war in Gaza, the Dutch protest group behind the action says in a statement.

A spokesperson for the University of Amsterdam (UvA) confirmed the incident and said it advised people who are not affiliated with the protest to leave the building.

The Eindhoven University of Technology confirmed that there were “dozens of students peacefully protesting outside next to ten to 15 tents”.



SvennoJ on 13 May 2024

‘Pray for me, they are heavily shelling the area’

From the UK, Ibrahim Assalia was on the phone with his brother in Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp as Israeli forces were attacking.

“Pray for me, they are heavily shelling the area,” Assalia recalled his brother as saying.

His brother survived the Saturday attack, but the Israeli army bombed six houses to rubble and killed 26 members of Assalia’s family, he told Al Jazeera from the UK. “They were in their homes, no one told them to leave,” he said.

The Israeli attack came as a surprise, Assalia said, since life had slowly been returning to normal with the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the north of Gaza. Now, the surviving members of Assalia’s family in the enclave are trying to leave the Jabalia area, as Israeli forces continue attacking the north.


Residences shelled in Jabalia, northern Gaza [Courtesy of Ibrahim Assalia]

Israeli settlers attack Palestinians in occupied West Bank: Report

Israeli settlers are attacking Palestinians and setting their land on fire near the village of Madama south of Nablus, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reports.

Israeli forces are preventing other Palestinians from accessing the area to stop the settlers, the news agency said.

In the Bethlehem area, settlers also stole large quantities of wheat and barley crops from Palestinian farmers, Wafa reported.

The incident took place in the village of al-Minya southeast of Bethlehem, where settlers also attacked farmers and sheep herders, Wafa added.


Women, children among survivors rescued from rubble after Israeli shelling in Beit Lahiya

Palestinian activists have posted videos on Instagram documenting rescuers and civilians helping to evacuate survivors from the ruins of a building that was shelled by Israeli forces in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza.

Women and children were among the people rescued from the destroyed building. The video has been verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad verification agency.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C66S7c5tbyw

Three killed in Israeli air strike in central Gaza

The Palestinian Civil Defence in Gaza says its crews have recovered three bodies from the rubble of a building hit by an Israeli air strike in the central part of the enclave.

It said the attack, which also injured multiple people, targeted a family home near the al-Sharafa Roundabout in the northern Gaza Governorate.


Palestinian Civil Defence crews search for survivors and bodies under the rubble after an Israeli air strike on central Gaza on May 13