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

SvennoJ on 19 May 2024

Desperate scenes in Gaza as aid trucks arrive via US-built floating pier

Desperate Palestinians were filmed clambering onto aid trucks carrying supplies that were delivered via the floating pier built by the US military.



Palestinians rush to aid delivered to Gaza via US-built floating pier



Aid shortages could have ‘apocalyptic’ consequences on Gaza Strip: UN official

The UN’s under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, Martin Griffiths, says the stranglehold on aid reaching Gaza threatens an “apocalyptic” outcome as he warned of famine in the besieged enclave.

“If fuel runs out, aid doesn’t get to the people where they need it, that famine, which we have talked about for so long, and which is looming, will not be looming any more. It will be present,” Griffiths told AFP on the sidelines of meetings with Qatari officials in Doha.

An Israeli incursion into Rafah, launched in the face of international outcry, has deepened an already perilous humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

Griffith said about 50 trucks of aid per day could reach the hardest-hit north of Gaza through the reopened Beit Hanoon (Erez) crossing.

But battles near the Rafah crossing and the Karem Abu Salem crossing, which Israel calls the Kerem Shalom, in Gaza’s south, meant the vital routes were “effectively blocked”, he explained. “So aid getting in through land routes to the south and for Rafah, and the people dislodged by Rafah is almost nil,” Griffiths added.



Verified videos show Israeli settlers attacking Gaza aid trucks in West Bank

Videos verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad news agency show illegal Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank attacking aid trucks heading to the Gaza Strip near the town of Tarqumiyah, west of Hebron.

The footage shared on Telegram by Palestinian media platforms showed destroyed boxes of food scattered on the asphalt surface and a number of trucks surrounded by a group of people.

The aid sent from Jordan passes through the West Bank to reach Gaza.



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SvennoJ on 19 May 2024

Palestinians queue at Rafah’s last remaining food distribution centre






Situation in Gaza ‘traumatising’ for humanitarian aid workers: UN coordinator

Martin Griffiths, UN humanitarian affairs coordinator, has told Al Jazeera that the situation in Gaza is unlike anything he has ever seen during his career.

“When very, very experienced humanitarian aid workers, who have been in all kinds of places around the world for decades, when they go to Gaza – to help, to serve, to work – it is traumatising for them. So, God help what it must be for the people of Gaza. It is really difficult and it’s getting worse daily,” he said.

He added that the Americans were not succeeding in their advocacy with the Israelis to open the land crossings, which are crucial to aid delivery.

“We meet with Israelis daily through COGAT, the committee set up for this purpose. We have many detailed discussions with them about security, about the movement of our trucks and convoys, about the priorities for fuel, but the fact of the matter is, we are not in a position to provide proper aid to the people of Gaza. Right now, it’s not ever been quite as difficult as it is today,” Griffiths said.

“Much more can be done and ideally, obviously and hopefully this [Israeli military] operation needs to stop.”

‘Safe, sustained access’ into and across Gaza needed to prevent famine: WFP

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has said it is concerned that recent evacuation orders by the Israeli military, which it called a sign of expected escalation in fighting, will jeopardise access to Western Erez crossing and risk progress made to get more aid into northern Gaza.

“We need safe, sustained access into and across Gaza to prevent famine,” WFP said in a post on X.

Palestinians gather by Gaza coast in the hope of obtaining aid

Palestinians gather in the hope of obtaining humanitarian aid delivered into the besieged enclave through the US-built pier, as seen from central Gaza Strip.








SvennoJ on 19 May 2024

Gaza’s interior ministry condemns Israel’s killing of police official

Gaza’s interior ministry has released a statement denouncing Israel’s “assassination of the director of police investigations for central Gaza and his escort while they were carrying out their police duty this morning”.

The ministry identified the official as Colonel Zaher al-Houli. Four other police officers were killed by Israeli troops in Nuseirat refugee camp last night as well, the ministry said.

“The repeated targeting of police officers and members of the police service aims to spread chaos within Palestinian society,” it said. “We reiterate that the police is a civilian body protected under international law and the assassination of police officers is unjustified.”

In February, Israel targeted a vehicle carrying six Palestinian police officers in the Khirbat al-Adas neighbourhood in Rafah, killing them instantly. Witnesses said the officers had been securing the passage of a flour truck when Israeli aircraft hit their car, ripping the passengers to pieces.


Rescue teams pull bodies from under the rubble of Nuseirat refugee camp



Israeli soldier succumbs to injuries received in northern Gaza: Israeli military

The Israeli military has said that a soldier who was injured on May 15 during fighting in northern Gaza had died. The military said the 24-year-old soldier was a company commander in the Paratroopers Brigade’s 202nd Battalion.

This brings the death toll of soldiers killed in the Israeli military ground offensive in Gaza to 283.


Al-Quds, Qassam Brigades claim joint attack in Jabalia

The armed wings of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas have announced on Telegram that they destroyed a unit of Israeli special forces in the north Gaza refugee camp. They said that the attack took place on al-Albani Street in Jabalia.

Fierce fighting has been ongoing in Jabailia for the past several days after Israeli ground forces re-entered the area earlier in the week.



SvennoJ on 19 May 2024

Hezbollah claims shelling Israeli military site in Jal al-Allam

Lebanon’s Hezbollah armed group has claimed to have hit an Israeli military site with artillery shells in Jal al-Allam near the border with Israel. The attack came in support of Gaza at 1:25pm (10:25 GMT), the statement on Telegram said.

Earlier today, the group also claimed to have destroyed Israel’s “spy equipment” in southern Lebanon’s Ramyah “with appropriate weapons”.

Hezbollah targets Israeli soldiers

The Lebanese group says in a statement that it targeted a border outpost belonging to the Israeli army near the town of Metulla with a “guided missile”, hitting a group of three soldiers directly.

It said that its fighters monitored the entry of the three soldiers into the border outpost, and that they fired at them upon arrival. Hezbollah claims that its attack killed at least one of the soldiers.

Israel claims hitting Hezbollah operatives in southern Lebanon’s Maroun al-Ras

The Israeli military has said that its fighter jets hit a building in Maroun al-Ras where Hezbollah operatives were identified.

Earlier, about 10 rockets were fired from Lebanon at the Malkia and Mount Dov areas in northern Israel. The military said no injuries were reported and that it shelled the sources of fire.

 

Israeli settlers carry out series of attacks in occupied West Bank

Israeli settlers have attacked Palestinians’ vehicles on the Marajat road, northwest of the city of Jericho, according to the Wafa news agency.

Eyewitnesses reported that they threw stones at vehicles passing through the road connecting the cities of Ramallah and Jericho, causing damage and impeding movement. Earlier today, settlers – protected by soldiers – raided the archaeological site of al-Mas’udiyya in the village of Burqa, northwest of Nablus.

According to Wafa, 15 Palestinian families live in the al-Mas’udiyya area and are constantly subject to settler attacks and harassment. Al-Mas’udiyya is an archaeological area that includes parts of the Hejaz railway, which was built during Ottoman rule.

Israeli settlers attack occupied West Bank town

Local Palestinian media reports that illegal Israeli settlers have attacked the agricultural community of Yatma, south of Nablus in the West Bank, setting fire to the property of those Palestinians living there.

Video verified by Al Jazeera shows several cars on fire after the attack.



SvennoJ on 19 May 2024

Graduates turn their backs to Biden during commencement speech

US President Joe Biden’s commencement address at Morehouse College has spurred some students to turn their backs to him over his support for Israel and its war on Gaza.

“It’s a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, that’s why I’ve called for an immediate ceasefire,” Biden said. “I know it angers and frustrates many of you including in my family,” he said.

One graduate appeared to hold up a Palestinian flag briefly and an audience member stood and turned their back with their fist raised.

Some graduates wore keffiyehs – the black-and-white headscarves that have become an emblem of solidarity with the Palestinian cause – tied around their gowns, while the valedictorian called for a permanent and immediate ceasefire in Gaza.


A Morehouse College graduate with his back turned holds a Palestinian flag while US President Joe Biden speaks during a commencement ceremony in Atlanta, Georgia, May 19






Any Israel-approved group ruling post-war Gaza to face opposition: Report

Locals in Gaza say no Israel-approved group could take control in the war-torn coastal enclave, according to sources cited by Israeli media outlet Haaretz.

One unnamed prominent personality in Gaza told Haaretz: “Anyone who dares to take on the task is at best an executive contractor who has no ability to withstand pressure, and at worst will be under the auspices of Israel, and therefore will not receive cooperation from the Palestinian factions, including from the Palestinian Authority for its mechanisms, certainly not from Hamas.”

Moreover, political factions in Gaza and senior officials in Ramallah are unanimous regarding what they deem to be the “ultimate solution to the situation” – the introduction of a “multinational force into Gaza that will operate under the auspices of the United Nations”, Haaretz reported.

This arrangement would be for a limited time period, Haaretz noted, until a political process is undertaken to reach a two-state solution, the media outlet said.


Israel seeks US support against establishment of Palestinian state

Israel has called for bipartisan support from the United States against the establishment of a Palestinian state.

European Union members including Ireland, Spain, Slovenia and Malta have said they could recognise a Palestinian state this month, seeing a two-state solution as essential for lasting peace.

Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, who met top US House of Representatives Republican Elise Stefanik earlier, said if a Palestinian state was established, Iran would use it as a base to “work towards the destruction of Israel”. He did not explain his logic.

He told Stefanik the US must lead a resolution at the International Energy Agency’s council next month to promote further sanctions against Iran to stop it obtaining nuclear weapons and supporting groups like Hamas.


Smotrich slams Gantz for post-war plan demand

Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has taken to X to speak out about war cabined minister Benny Gantz, calling his actions “far beyond irresponsible” and even bordering on “crime”.

Yesterday, Benny Gantz threatened to quit the government of Benjamin Netanyahu should the prime minister fail to present a post-war plan for Gaza by June 8.

“When our best warriors and commanders sacrifice themselves and some are killed in the war, he stabs them in the back, weakens them and the war and basically tells them that they are just dying because the war has been lost,” Smotrich said in his post.

He added that Israel will “eliminate Hamas and control Gaza as much as is necessary to ensure the security of the residents of the south and the return of the abductees”.


Stefanik calls for wiping Hamas ‘off the face of the Earth’ and touts Trump policies in speech to Israeli Knesset

https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/19/politics/stefanik-israel-speech-biden-trump/index.html

House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik delivered remarks at the Israeli Knesset Sunday, saying victory for Israel in the war against Hamas starts with “wiping” those responsible for the October 7 terrorist attacks “off the face of the Earth” and calling for a return to former President Donald Trump’s policies.

“Total victory starts, but only starts, with wiping those responsible for October 7 off the face of the Earth. There can be no retrievable dignity for Hamas and its backers,” she said in her speech in which she called herself a “leading proponent and partner” to Trump and sharply criticized the Biden administration.

.....

“When the enemy is inside the gates of the United Nations, America must be the one to call it by its name and destroy it. President Trump understood that,” Stefanik said.

“But you know as well as I that the enemy is inside more than just the gates of the United Nations. It is also in powerful Western institutions in my country and beyond, where the virus, the vile virus of antisemitism is spreading. This is why total victory means not just physical self-defense but ideological self-defense,” added Stefanik, who claimed that pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses who are calling for a ceasefire in the conflict are “cosplaying Hamas.”

In a rare instance of a member of Congress publicly criticizing the American president to a foreign government, Stefanik went after Biden, saying there is “no excuse” for his administration blocking military aid to Israel.



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SvennoJ on 19 May 2024

Israeli activists protect Gaza-bound aid convoy

A group travelled with a Gaza-bound humanitarian aid convoy in an effort to protect it from settlers and other right-wing extremists, AFP reports.

About 30 people from Standing Together, a grassroots group, made the journey to the border with the Palestinian territory.

Sunday’s aid convoy was comprised of about 30 trucks, and one was attacked. At least seven aid trucks from Jordan were stopped and ransacked last week by Israelis.


Moroccans rally against Israel ties in pro-Palestine march

Thousands of Moroccans demonstrated on Sunday in Casablanca in support of the Palestinian people and against their country’s ties with Israel, the AFP reports. Protesters in Morocco’s commercial capital chanted, “Freedom for Palestine”, “If we don’t speak out, who will?”, and, “No to normalisation”. Many wore keffiyeh scarves or waved Palestinian flags.

The North African kingdom established diplomatic ties with Israel in late 2020 under the US-brokered Abraham Accords, which saw similar moves by the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

Since October 7, large-scale demonstrations in Morocco have called for the abrogation of the normalisation accord. Rabat has officially denounced “flagrant violations of the provisions of international law” by Israel in its war on Gaza, but has not given any indication that normalisation with Israel would be undone.


Rights group calls for international intervention to reopen Rafah crossing

The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor says Israel’s closure of the Rafah crossing in Gaza has made it impossible for more than 11,000 wounded people and 10,000 cancer patients to get the medical care they need outside the Palestinian enclave.

“By blocking the Rafah crossing, Israel has tightened its grip and imposed a crippling siege on the Gaza Strip, cutting it off from the outside world and resulting in the deaths of scores of injured and ill people,” the group said on X.

“Given the deficiency of medical services in Gaza as a result of Israel’s genocide, which has destroyed most hospitals and resulted in the deaths & incarceration of numerous doctors, an immediate international intervention is required to reopen the Rafah crossing.”



New encampment at Drexel University in Philadelphia

Pro-Palestinian protesters in the US have set up a new encampment at Drexel University in the city of Philadelphia, a day after authorities thwarted an attempted occupation of a school building at the neighbouring University of Pennsylvania campus.

Up to 60 protesters were at the encampment on the campus’s Korman Quad on Sunday, Drexel President John Fry said in a statement, adding that the university was speaking with demonstrators to end the protest.



SvennoJ on 19 May 2024

Israeli army continues attacks on Jabalia

Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Gaza is reporting multiple attacks on the refugee camp in north Gaza, as fighting continues to rage after Israeli army ground forces reentered the area earlier this week.

They reported that Israeli warplanes bombed the al-Qasaib neighbourhood in the Jabalia refugee camp, and said that artillery shelling and fire from helicopter gunships has been ongoing.

Casualties from these attacks are unknown at this time, but we will continue to update you on the fighting in Jabalia as information comes in.


Al-Awda Hospital has run out of drinking water: MSF

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, has said that after a strike on the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza yesterday, 34 patients were admitted to the nearby al-Awda Hospital, and now, patients and medics inside have no drinking water.

“According to our colleagues in Al Awda hospital, and other locations in northern Gaza, the hospital is surrounded by tanks,” the organisation said in a post on X. Some MSF staff decided to stay in the hospital to provide care in what the organisation described as extremely difficult circumstances.

“This is one of the last functional hospitals in northern Gaza and some staff and patients are sheltering inside amid the fighting. All warring parties must ensure their protection and that of health infrastructure including hospitals,” it said.



Palestinians killed in Israeli bombing of Rafah

Gaza’s Civil Defence says that three Palestinians were killed and eight others wounded when Israeli army bombs hit a home in the Tal as-Sultan neighbourhood of the southern Gaza city.

It said that the attack hit an apartment belonging to the Khafaja family and that the survivors were taken to the Kuwaiti Hospital.

Palestinians killed and wounded in Israeli strike on Gaza City

Al Jazeera’s correspondent reports that there are several casualties, including at least one dead, from the bombing of a residential home in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza City, in the north of the Strip.

The exact death toll is not known at this time.


Journalist recounts deadly Israeli attack on Nuseirat camp

Doaa Shaheen, a Palestinian journalist, spoke to Al Jazeera of her experience being buried beneath the rubble of a building at the Nuseirat refugee camp after an Israeli attack.

The bombing on Sunday killed at least 31 people.

“I constantly hear stories from survivors who were pulled from under the rubble – but this is the first time in my life that I came so close to death. My sister was lying next to me under the debris. She was crying, I was totally helpless,” Shaheen said.

“My grandmother, she’s a very old lady. She’s also deaf. She was asking me what was happening around her. She didn’t understand, the house was full of my relatives. The entire neighbourhood was levelled to the ground.”


Devastation in Nuseirat after deadly Israeli strike

Israel has intensified its air and ground attacks across the Gaza Strip – killing dozens of Palestinians in the last 24 hours. The worst strike was on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, where at least 31 people were killed.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reports from the scene of the attack.


Israeli air strikes hit Gaza’s Khan Younis, Nuseirat, Jabalia

Israeli air strikes have hit a number of areas across the Gaza Strip tonight, including multiple sites in Khan Younis, in the south of the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian news agency Wafa is reporting.

Israeli air strikes also targeted Nuseirat refugee camp and Zawaida in the central Gaza Strip, as well as the Jabalia refugee camp in the north, Wafa reports. No immediate details on the number of people killed and injured in the attacks were available.

Hospitals and other emergency services that usually report on deaths and injuries have been struggling to continue operations after Israel last week blocked land routes used to deliver fuel to run generators, months after cutting off all electricity supply.


Smoke billows after an Israeli strike on Jabalia, as seen from Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday



SvennoJ on 19 May 2024

Israeli soldiers shoot at firefighters near Nablus

Wafa news agency reports that soldiers fired live ammunition at Palestinian crews working to extinguish fires south of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, on Mount Gerzim. Citing a Palestinian security source, it said that Israeli soldiers stationed at a military post on the mountain targeted the firefighters with gunfire, and that no injuries were reported.


Freed Palestinian detainee Farouk al-Khatib dies

Dozens of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have taken part in a funeral for 30-year-old Farouk al-Khatib, who died from cancer on Monday, months after his release from Israeli prison, according to media reports.

The Wafa news agency said al-Khatib was subjected to medical negligence while being held in Israeli administrative detention for four months last year.

Al-Khatib lost 25kg (55 pounds) during his time in detention, his family told the Middle East Eye, and was diagnosed with stage-five stomach cancer shortly before his release in December last year.

https:/twitter.com/Palestinecapti1/status/1792319930236625069


Hezbollah again attacks near Metulla, Israel

On its official Telegram channel, the armed Lebanese group claims to have carried out a strike on the headquarters of a reconnaissance company of the Israeli army’s 551st Reserve Paratroopers Brigade in the Israeli town of Metulla, near the border of Lebanon.

Hezbollah noted that this is an elite force of the Israeli army, and said that its attack caused “confirmed casualties” that include deaths among the soldiers’ ranks. Earlier, Hezbollah claimed an attack on a border outpost near Metulla that it says killed at least one soldier. This was the seventh attack Hezbollah announced today.



SvennoJ on 19 May 2024

John Mearsheimer Exposes REAL REASON Why US Don't Stop Israel INVASION In Gaza


AIPAC Meltdown Underway As Power Slips From Their Grasp

 

US official’s desperate clarification reveals America’s real motive in Gaza pier | Janta Ka Reporter



SvennoJ on 20 May 2024

Protesters rally in US cities, call for ceasefire in Gaza


ro-Palestinian activists carry a Palestinian flag during a Nakba Day demonstration outside the state capitol in Austin, Texas, US, May 19


Israelis and others hold banners and placards calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and the return of Israeli captives at an antiwar rally in Union Square in New York City, US, May 19


Pro-Palestinian protesters rally for a ceasefire in Gaza in Dearborn, Michigan, US, May 19


Large demonstration in Peshawar in support of Gaza

Thousands of protesters marched in the Pakistani city of Peshawar late on Sunday in support of the people of Gaza, demanding an end to Israel’s war on the enclave. The march was led by supporters of Pakistan’s Jamaat-e-Islami party and people chanted slogans in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

The demonstrators were led by the party’s leader, Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman.