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SvennoJ on 13 May 2024

Israeli military says UN workers were in ‘active combat zone’: Report

The Israeli military has responded to an attack by its forces near Rafah which killed one UN employee and injured another, saying the pair were killed “amid fighting in an area defined as an active combat zone”, the Times of Israel reports.

Earlier, we reported that the pair were driving to the European Hospital in southern Gaza in a UN-marked vehicle on Sunday when their vehicle came under Israeli fire. The UN has said that they worked for the Department of Safety and Security, and confirmed that the attack killed the organisation’s first foreign staff member in Gaza since October 7.

The UN usually makes Israeli forces aware of the routes its vehicles are taking, but it did not on this occasion, the Israeli military told the Times of Israel. It did not confirm whether its forces had fired at the vehicle and said “all of the details of the incident are under review”.

The vehicle is clearly marked, flag and all... Or is the IDF insinuating they don't look where they shoot.



Israel: Either (claim to) be the victim or blame the victim

Israel subjecting Palestinians to ‘geographical terror’ tactics, says aid worker

Mahmoud Shalabi, who works for the UK-based Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), described having to flee his home in north Gaza again, after having been displaced multiple times.

“We have been displaced again in the north of Gaza, from Beit Lahiya to Gaza City this time. We are experiencing a new type of war tactic, which can be described as geographical terror,” he said.

“The Israeli army has been asking us for more than seven months to keep moving from one place to another. I have left my house several times now, along with my parents, who are both older than 70 years old, my three children and my wife. The journey of terror and displacement is beyond words.”

Earlier, MAP reported that Israeli forces had ordered medical staff at the Kuwaiti Hospital in Rafah to evacuate and warned that if the hospital is forced out of action, it could result in the “complete collapse of the limited healthcare system” in the southern city.

Israeli forces firing on Palestinians trapped at UNRWA school in north Gaza

As Israeli forces step up their attacks in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, many civilians remain trapped at a UNRWA school in the centre of the camp.

Israeli forces are stationed behind the school and, along with helicopters and quadcopter, are firing on civilians stuck there. The Kamal Adwan Hospital in north Gaza is reporting receiving casualties from that area.



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SvennoJ on 13 May 2024

Night of Israeli air strikes, artillery fire and helicopter attacks

In addition to the air strike on a residential building to the south of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, where it was reported that 14 people have been killed, Israeli fighter jets also attacked a school in the refugee camp where a fire is now burning, according to reports.

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic also report that Gaza Civil Defence rescue workers were unable to reach the wounded and those trapped under the rubble from the Nuseirat camp attack due to continuous Israeli bombing.

Israeli helicopter gunships have fired on the Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City and air strikes hit the eastern area of ​​Rafah city overnight.

The Wafa news agency also reports artillery attacks on Beit Lahiya city, in the northwest of the Gaza Strip, and on the Jabalia refugee camp also located in the north of the territory.

Entire population in north Gaza ‘on the run, all fearing for their children’

Displaced Palestinians say the situation in northern Gaza – where Israeli forces have launched a new ground offensive – is “disastrous”, with Israeli forces firing on UNRWA shelters and forcing large numbers of people to go on the run again.

“Since the beginning of war, we have taken shelter in UN-run schools. Since then, the Israeli soldiers have repeatedly raided schools. Enough with it; together with our children we have been homeless for months. And, we are showered with missiles and shells,” said Suad Albiss, a resident of the Jabalia refugee camp. “Now, we are forced to keep moving; just like nomads.”

Another woman who was evacuating Jabalia along with her belongings and children appealed to the world to act.

“We are living in misery. The situation in northern Gaza is disastrous. We are forced to move from one place to another. We cannot find any shelter or a place to settle in; needless to mention the daily killing, the absence of food, water or medicine,” she said.

“If our children are not killed under bombardment, they will die of hunger or diseases. We appeal to the whole world to act; to have a ceasefire; to end the war.”

More mass displacement of Gaza’s population as Israeli attacks escalate: UN

About 20 percent of Gaza’s population of more than 2 million people have been displaced yet again in the past week due to intensified Israeli military operations which have seen the territory pounded from the air, land and sea, resulting in more civilians killed and infrastructure destroyed, according to the UN.

It its latest flash assessment of conditions in Gaza, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) also reports that “acute malnutrition” has increased amid the forced relocation of Gaza’s population by Israeli forces and the risk of infectious disease is growing.

While some fuel and humanitarian food trucks have entered the Gaza Strip since Sunday, “the aid supplies remain largely insufficient”, the UN said in its assessment.

“Already catastrophic levels of hunger faced by the population” could worsen, the UN warns.



SvennoJ on 13 May 2024

Biden Team’s Changing Position On Israel’s Assault On Gaza



SvennoJ on 14 May 2024

Israelis ransack trucks, destroy food bound for starving in Gaza



A worker clears up humanitarian aid supplies from Jordan that were destroyed in an attack by Israelis – described as right-wing activists working to prevent aid from entering Gaza – at the Tarqumiyah crossing with the occupied West Bank on May 13

Damaged trailer trucks and their relief supplies that were carrying humanitarian aid destined for Gaza on the Israeli side of the Tarqumiyah crossing with the occupied West Bank on May 13

Israeli right-wing activists look at damaged trailer trucks that were carrying humanitarian aid supplies to Gaza

And here is how you teach your kids to hate

 

German ambassador to Israel slams ‘disgraceful’ attacks on aid convoys

Germany’s Ambassador to Israel Steffen Seibert has condemned attacks by right-wing Israeli activists on convoys delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza.

“To raid aid trucks and prevent food from reaching the needy is disgraceful. And it certainly won‘t help the Israeli cause of freeing the hostages and securing the country against the terror of Hamas,” he wrote in a post on X.

On Sunday, Israeli far-right activist group Tzav 9, which seeks to stop all humanitarian aid going into Gaza, blocked a shipment as it went through the Tarqumiyah checkpoint near Hebron in the occupied West Bank.

US National Security adviser Jake Sullivan said the attack was “completely and utterly unacceptable behaviour”.



SvennoJ on 14 May 2024

Gaza on ‘brink of deadly epidemic outbreak’, says Oxfam

The global charity is sounding the alarm over the risk of deadly diseases spreading in Gaza, saying that the Israeli invasion of Rafah is compounding a “lethal cocktail of over-crowding, sewage and hunger”.

Oxfam’s staff in Gaza are describing piles of human waste and rivers of sewage in the streets. They said people are also drinking dirty water while children are being bitten by insects swarming around the sewage. All of this makes conditions ripe for the outbreak of epidemics, including Hepatitis A and cholera, the charity warned.

The situation is further worsened by Israel’s invasion of Rafah, it said.

“Israel’s military assault on Rafah could be devastating, not only because of the risk of mass civilian casualties, but also the repercussions of vast numbers of people being forced to move,” Oxfam’s Middle East Director Sally Abi Khalil said.


Rubbish accumulates along a non-functioning sewage dump, attracting mosquitos and other insects, causing a health hazard in Gaza City, on May 3

Israeli attacks cause $210m worth of damage to Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure

More from Oxfam:

The aid agency said assessments from the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility (CMWU) show that Israeli attacks since October 7 have caused damage worth at least $210m to Gaza’s water and sanitation systems. The utility came up with the estimate based on field surveys and data collected from its staff in 25 municipal areas.

“The entire water supply and sewage management systems are nearing total collapse because the damage is so extensive,” Monther Shoblaq, the CEO of CMWU, was quoted as saying.

“There is no power to operate the water wells, desalination plants and the remaining wastewater treatment plants and the sewage is overflowing. We are doing all we can, but the situation is desperate.”


Palestinians face the risk of epidemics due to uncollected rubbish and accumulated sewage water in Rafah, Gaza on April 26


Israeli orders to flee displace 100,000 people in north Gaza, UN says

Farhan Haq, the UN’s deputy spokesman, told reporters that evacuation orders issued by Israel for northern Gaza have “resulted in the displacement of some 100,000 people so far”.

Haq said those fleeing the north are in addition to the nearly 360,000 people that have left the southern city of Rafah.

“We remain deeply concerned about the lack of protection for civilians – and the lack of safety for humanitarian operations,” the UN spokesman said. Under international humanitarian law, he stressed, “civilians must be protected and have their basic needs met, whether they move or stay” and “those who leave must have enough time to do so, as well as a safe route and a safe place to go”.

Earlier, we brought you an update from the UN’s humanitarian agency OCHA, which said some 20 percent of Gaza’s population of more than 2 million people have been displaced yet again in the past week due to intensified Israeli military operations.



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SvennoJ on 14 May 2024

Frantic search for survivors after Israeli attack on home in Nuseirat refugee camp


A Palestinian Civil Defence team member and others search for survivors after an Israeli air strike on the residential home of the Karaja family in the Nuseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza, in the early hours of Tuesday morning


Dozens of Palestinians search for survivors after an Israeli air strike on a residential building in the Nuseirat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, that reportedly killed 14 people and left many more injured

Palestinian fighters claim most attacks on Israeli forces in a single day since start of year

Palestinian armed groups claimed to have launched 33 attacks against Israeli forces in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, the most attacks claimed by Palestinian fighters in a single day of the war in 2024.

Washington, DC-based think tanks the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP) said the “unusually high number of attacks” reported on Monday demonstrate that Palestinian armed groups remain “combat effective and retain a significant force presence” beyond just Rafah in Gaza’s south.

“Hamas has exploited Israeli withdrawals from the northern Gaza Strip to begin reconstituting there, which has in turn led Israeli forces to return to areas to re-clear them,” the ISW and CTP said in their latest battlefield assessment.

“Hamas and the other Palestinian militias will almost certainly resume their reconstitution efforts in these neighbourhoods after Israeli forces complete their current clearing operations,” the think tanks said.



Gaza death toll hits 35,173, more than 79,000 injured

A total of 35,173 people have been killed and 79,061 injured in Israel’s war on Gaza since October 7, the Palestinian territory’s Health Ministry says in its latest casualty update. The ministry said that 82 Palestinians were killed and 234 injured in the past 24 hours alone.


Jabalia evacuation centres besieged

The Israeli military says it is continuing to operate with extreme force in Jabalia city, Jabalia refugee camp and surrounding areas.

Israeli tanks, bulldozers and armoured vehicles are all surrounding evacuation zones and evacuation centres, which are the UNRWA schools that have been turned into shelters for hundreds of displaced families from northern Gaza who are fleeing the horrors of the attacks.

There are at least three evacuation centres surrounded by military vehicles and tanks. People inside these centres have sent appeals for help to the Civil Defence department.

This ongoing evacuation and forced displacement has started to feed into what people think of more as permanent displacement, bringing back memories of the Nakba in 1948, when their grandfathers and their fathers were forced out of their homes.



SvennoJ on 14 May 2024

UN calls for ‘full investigation’ after Israeli military fired on a car in Rafah, killing staffer

A United Nations staff member has been killed in an attack in eastern Rafah, after the vehicle they were travelling in came under fire. The Israeli military is believed to have carried out the attack, but it is yet to confirm whether its forces were responsible for the killing.

The UN has confirmed that this is their first international staff casualty in Gaza since Israel’s war on Gaza began, while UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned the attack and called for a full investigation.

Israel is attacking known aid worker locations in Gaza, says HRW

Israel’s military has carried out at least eight attacks on aid workers’ convoys and premises in Gaza since October last year, even though the aid groups had provided their coordinates to Israeli authorities, according to a prominent rights group.

Human Rights Watch, in a new report, said Israeli authorities did not issue advance warnings to any of the aid organisations before the attacks, which have killed or wounded at least 31 humanitarian workers and those with them.

It said aid groups allege that a bomb used in one Israeli attack in January was US-made and was delivered by an F-16 aircraft that reportedly uses British-made components.

“Israel’s allies need to recognize that these attacks that have killed aid workers have happened over and over again, and they need to stop,” said Belkis Wille, associate director at HRW.

US-built floating pier for Gaza could start operating this week: Report

The Associated Press news agency is reporting that a floating pier built by the US military to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza could be operational in the coming days.

The US plan envisions aid ships travelling from Cyprus to a platform built off the coast of Gaza, where the cargo will be offloaded onto trucks. Smaller US Army vehicles will then transport the aid trucks to a pier built onshore. From there, third-party contractors will drive the trucks onto the beach and hand over the aid to humanitarian agencies.

The construction of the offshore floating platform was completed earlier this month.

Sabrina Singh, a spokeswoman for the Pentagon, said the pier and causeway – which have been assembled at the Israeli port of Ashdod – are “just waiting to be affixed to the coastline of Gaza”.

An anonymous US official told AP that the US army expects to finish anchoring the causeway onto the beach in Gaza by Wednesday or Thursday.


And that all for maybe 90 to 150 trucks a day, weather permitting.



Aid from Rafah and Kerem Shalom have stopped since May 5th. Avg was just creeping up to 280 a day. Note the jump in date on the bottom, last confirmed entry was 6 trucks from Kerem Shalom on May 11th.

The aid pier can only replace half of this, but it's desperately needed now. It won't be efficient either since all the distribution systems have been set up from Rafah which is now blocked. And military operations are ongoing in the North again.

The deterioration of International law at work

Nearly 76 million people displaced by war, disasters worldwide: Monitor

Wars in Sudan and Gaza have pushed the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) worldwide to a record 75.9 million at the end of 2023, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).

The new high figure is an increase on the 71.1 million people displaced by the end of 2022, the IDMC said in its annual global report which noted that 68.3 million people worldwide were displaced by conflict and violence, and 7.7 million by natural disasters.

At 9.1 million, Sudan has the highest number of IDPs recorded for a single country, the monitor said.

In the Gaza Strip, 1.7 million Palestinians were internally displaced by the end of 2023 amid Israel’s war on the besieged territory.

“We have never, ever recorded so many people forced away from their homes and communities. It is a damning verdict on the failures of conflict prevention and peace-making,” Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) chief Jan Egeland said.

The IDMC was created by the NRC in 1998.



SvennoJ on 14 May 2024

Gaza ceasefire talks at impasse, Qatar PM says

Qatar’s PM Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani is speaking at the Qatar Economic Forum that has kicked off in Doha today.

He says Qatar has not stopped negotiating between Israel and Hamas, despite challenges, and will continue to do so.

“Unfortunately things didn’t move in the right direction and right now we are on a status of almost a stalemate. Of course, what happened with Rafah has set us backward,” he said, before adding that if the war continues, Hamas’s office in Doha will remain open.

He adds that there should be one Palestinian government in the occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip based on a Palestinian consensus.

‘No commonality’ in ceasefire talks: Qatar’s PM

Qatar’s PM has concluded his speech at Qatar’s Economic Forum. Here is what he said regarding the ceasefire talks which Qatar is mediating.

“When there are two parties who want to agree on something, you need to agree on the baseline first of all. I believe that what we are seeing is a fundamental difference between the two.

“There is one party who wants to end the war and then talk about the hostages. There is another party who wants the hostages and wants to continue the war, and as long as there is no commonality between those two things, it won’t get us to a result,” he said.

US officials say Israel amassed enough troops in Rafah to launch full-scale invasion

Two senior Biden administration officials say the Israeli military has gathered enough troops at the edge of Rafah city to launch a full-scale invasion in the coming days.

However, US officials are unsure if the Israeli military will proceed with a ground invasion after Biden warned that he would withhold arms shipments to Israel if they were to take that step, CNN reports.

The unnamed officials quoted by CNN added that Israel has “not come anywhere close” to making adequate preparations for evacuating Rafah’s population before any invasion, such as “building infrastructure related to food, hygiene and shelter”.



SvennoJ on 14 May 2024

No hospitals operating in northern Gaza

Gaza’s Government Media Office says hospitals are no longer operating in the north of the besieged enclave.

The Israeli military has issued evacuation orders and stepped up attacks in recent days as they’ve launched a new ground operation in northern Gaza, displacing about 100,000 people, according to the UN.

The Jabalia refugee camp has seen intense fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian groups. Displaced civilians say the situation on the ground is “disastrous”, with Israeli forces firing on UNRWA shelters and forcing large numbers of people to flee again.

 

Overcrowded Al-Aqsa Hospital is barely walkable as more patients stream in

Over the past two days, wounded patients have been transferred from various hospitals and field hospitals into the central area, particularly to Al-Aqsa Hospital.

An hour ago, we walked inside the hospital’s corridor. It is so overcrowded that we could barely walk. The rooms are packed with people. Every patient has at least one or two family members with them, literally staying on the floor.

The situation is getting dire by the hour. The overcrowded conditions are putting more pressure on medical staff and medical supplies, which are already barely enough due to the ongoing closure of the crossings.

This is the sixth day in a row of no entry of supplies, including fuel. We have been told by hospital officials that we are hours away from the hospital having to shut down major departments.

 

Red Cross sets up emergency field hospital in Rafah

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and partners are opening a field hospital in southern Gaza to try to meet what they described as an “overwhelming” demand for health services since Israel’s military operation on Rafah began last week.

“People in Gaza are struggling to access the medical care they urgently need due, in part, to the overwhelming demands for health services and the reduced number of functioning health facilities,” the ICRC said.

On Monday, medical staff at the Kuwaiti Hospital in Rafah received an evacuation order from Israeli forces. According to the WHO, only a third of Gaza’s 36 hospitals and 30 percent of primary healthcare centres are functional in some capacity.

Gaza rescue efforts may stop due to lack of fuel, heavy equipment

Gaza’s civil defence crew is struggling to reach victims trapped under the rubble of bombed buildings, said a spokesperson for the agency, putting the lives of hundreds of injured Palestinians at risk.

Israeli forces “continue to target and destroy the heavy equipment that helps us recover the victims”, said the spokesperson at a press confernece outside Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah.

A severe fuel shortage is further straining rescue efforts, which may soon come to “a total halt”, added the spokesperson. “As we speak, hundreds of victims remain buried under the rubble and our teams are not able to recover them. These numbers are continuing to rise.”



SvennoJ on 14 May 2024

Israeli jets bomb houses in Jabalia camp

Israeli jets have bombed a number of homes on al-Ternis Street in the Jabalia refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, our Al Jazeera Arabic colleagues on the ground are reporting.

They added that Israeli artillery shelling in the middle of the Zeitoun neighborhood, south of Gaza City, left one person dead and many wounded.

 

Search for survivors after Israeli strikes on Nuseirat refugee camp


Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip


A Palestinian man reacts as he searches for casualties at the site


Palestinians gather near the remains of a car at the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Nuseirat refugee camp

Twenty killed in Israeli attack on Nuseirat refugee camp

We are receiving reports from our Al Jazeera Arabic colleagues that Israeli attacks on a house and a school in the Nuseirat refugee camp have killed 20 Palestinians.


Israeli military says it has ‘expanded activity’ in Jabalia refugee camp

Here’s a summary of what the military has said in its latest update, posted on social media:

  • It carried out more than 100 air raids across Gaza in the last day.
  • It expanded operations in the Jabalia refugee camp.
  • It “eliminated” groups of Palestinian fighters in eastern Rafah and the Zeitoun area of Gaza City, as well as a “war room” in the centre of the Gaza Strip.