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

SvennoJ on 30 May 2024

Palestine Foreign Ministry welcomes China-Arab forum joint statement

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry says the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum in Beijing has agreed on a number of positions, including:

  • Calling for another UN Security Council resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza
  • Condemning starvation of Palestinians in the enclave
  • Supporting full membership of Palestine in the UN
  • Protecting UNRWA and maintaining its funding
  • Recognising the Palestinian Authority as the sole official representative of Palestinians
  • Calling for an international peace conference for Gaza




Hamas informs mediators of readiness to reach ‘full agreement’ with Israel

“We informed the mediators today of our clear position that if the occupation stops its war and aggression against our people in Gaza, we are ready to reach a full agreement that includes a comprehensive exchange deal”, a statement from the group, published on its Telegram channel, reads.

Hamas has long maintained that Israel ending its war on the Gaza Strip is a necessary condition for any further negotiation on an exchange of Israeli captives held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

“We showed flexibility and positivity with the efforts of the mediators over the previous rounds of negotiations, leading to the announcement of the approval of the mediators’ proposal on May 6,” the statement continues, referring to when, earlier this month, Hamas announced that it had agreed to a ceasefire proposal put forward by mediators Qatar and Egypt.

Israel promptly rejected this advance from Hamas, and then on May 7 began its long-feared offensive on the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

Israel “responded to our positive position by invading the city of Rafah and occupying the crossing, and provided remarks leading to the disruption of the mediators’ efforts”, Hamas alleges in its statement.


UNRWA has ‘not received’ letter from Israel to vacate East Jerusalem

A UN spokesperson says a letter allegedly sent by Israel to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees to vacate its headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem has yet to be received.

“Well, we’ve seen the media reports. I spoke to my colleagues at UNRWA who have not received anything, any official written communication. And I can tell you that they see this as the ongoing pattern of harassment of UNRWA, its workers and its facilities,” Stephane Dujarric told reporters.

He said nothing has been received “as of a half an hour ago”. His remarks came after the Israel Land Authority ordered UNRWA to evacuate its headquarters within 30 days.

According to The Times of Israel, the authority said the UN agency owes it “$7,326,711.19 for operating on land belonging to Israel without consent for the last seven years”.

 

‘World must act to hold the perpetrators accountable’

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini says at least 192 of the agency’s staff have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since the war began.

At least 450 Palestinians have been killed while seeking shelter at UN-operated facilities with more than 170 Israeli attacks on UN buildings, he said in an opinion in the New York Times.

“The war in Gaza has produced a blatant disregard for the mission of the United Nations, including outrageous attacks on the employees, facilities, and operations of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees,” Lazzarini wrote.

“These attacks must stop and the world must act to hold the perpetrators accountable.”

 

MSF closes another care facility, blames Israeli attacks

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) says that it has been “forced” to close another primary care facility in Gaza, this one in the al-Mawasi area, blaming Israel’s offensive on the southern city of Rafah.

“This is the second health facility we have been forced to close this week and another step in Israel’s systematic dismantling of Gaza’s health system. Since February, we have treated over 33,000 patients at the health centre,” MSF announced in a post on X.

Earlier this week, after Israeli attacks on Tal as-Sultan, near Rafah, killed many Palestinians, MSF also closed its care facility there, citing “extreme violence”.

“MSF has been forced to leave 14 medical facilities in Gaza since October,” it said.

 

Humanitarian needs at ‘unprecedented levels’ in Gaza: ICRC

The picture in southern Gaza’s Rafah is “devastating” as the Israeli army is expanding its ground invasion of the area, killing and displacing more civilians, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

William Schomburg, head organisation’s Gaza subdelegation, says “there’s an overwhelming sense of fear and panic”.

“The operation in Rafah intensified and there have been yet further displacement. I can look out now and see hordes of people scraping together everything they have and trying to get out of there, whether it’s on foot, donkey or car.”



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SvennoJ on 30 May 2024

Casualties after Israeli air strike on vehicle in central Gaza

The Israeli military targeted a vehicle east of Nuseirat a few hours ago, killing one Palestinian and injuring another.

Translation: The Israeli occupation bombed a civilian vehicle near the Central Camps Police Station, east of Camp Nuseirat in the middle of Gaza Strip, resulting in the death and injury of two Palestinians.


The mass destruction of Jabalia refugee camp


The torched UNRWA building after Israeli forces withdrew from parts of Jabalia refugee camp


Palestinians return to their destroyed homes after Israeli troops moved east in the Jabalia camp


Israeli forces directly hit paramedics, prevented rescue: PRCS

A paramedic with the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) described how the Israeli military targeted and killed two colleagues in Rafah. He said emergency responders found one of their ambulances on fire when they arrived at the scene to help PRCS members Haitham Tubasi and Suhail Hassouna, who were killed.

“My colleague and I attempted to extinguish the fire, but we were heavily targeted by the shooting of the occupation. Given the gravity of the situation, we were forced to withdraw from the area.”

Paramedics eventually managed to recover the charred bodies of their colleagues after several hours.



‘Unrelenting nightmare’: 18,500 pregnant women flee Israeli attacks on Rafah

The United Nations Population Fund says about 18,500 pregnant Palestinian women are among hundreds of thousands of Palestinians forced to flee the expanding Israeli military invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza.

“They’re exhausted, traumatised, dehydrated and malnourished,” the UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency said.



Israeli Knesset vote to label UNRWA a ‘terrorist’ group is ‘outrageous’: MSF

The medical charity denounced Israeli lawmakers after voting for a bill to designate the UN agency for Palestinian refugees as a “terrorist organisation”.

“The Israeli Knesset’s preliminary bill to designate UNRWA as a terrorist organisation is an outrageous attack on humanitarian assistance, and an act of collective punishment against the Palestinian people,” said Christopher Lockyear, secretary general of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) International.

He called the move “the culmination of the continuous, systematic obstruction of vital humanitarian aid, including into the Strip, effectively choking Gaza”.

“Israel’s allies, which are all members of the United Nations, must stand against this move to criminalise humanitarian assistance and ensure that UNRWA can continue its essential work,” Lockyear said.



SvennoJ on 30 May 2024

Israeli forces, settlers carry out raids across the occupied West Bank

The Ministry of Health says a 20-year-old Palestinian man died of wounds sustained by an Israeli bullet to the chest during an incursion into the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank that also left five others injured.

In a Bedouin community northwest of the West Bank city of Jericho, a local source was cited as saying by the Wafa news agency that Israeli settlers descended in vehicles to intimidate Palestinians for the second time in the past 24 hours.

Wafa also spoke to local sources west of the city of Nablus, who said a group of Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian vehicles with stones, damaging several cars.

In the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of al-Issawiya, Israeli authorities reportedly forced a Palestinian to demolish his own home and displace his family of nine, claiming he lacked a permit to live there.

He was forced to carry out the demolition himself since Israeli authorities charge exorbitant fees if the municipality razes the structure, Wafa reported.

Palestinians arrested as Israeli police disperse protesters in Haifa

Israeli police forcibly broke up a protest against the war on Gaza in the city of Haifa. Multiple Palestinians were arrested and put into police vehicles.

A reporter with Israeli newspaper Haaretz at the scene filmed herself confronting a police officer who violently arrested a demonstrator, with the officer trying to slap the phone out of her hand.


Tensions are boiling over

Palestinians hurl stones at attacking Israeli vehicles in West Bank

Video shows one of the many raids Israeli forces carried out in the occupied West Bank with this one taking place in the southern region.





SvennoJ on 30 May 2024

Sever trade: Houthi leader urges stronger Arab opposition to Israel

During his speech earlier – when Abdel-Malik al-Houthi promised to expand military operations to oppose the war on Gaza – the leader of the Iran-aligned group in Yemen also commented on Israel’s seizure of the Philadelphi Corridor.

The Houthi leader said Israel is committing “serious violations and posing a threat to Egyptian national security”, calling on Cairo to take more practical steps such as cutting diplomatic relations and trade with Israel.

“Egyptian ships that deliver goods to the Israeli enemy are still ahead of many countries, and this should not be.”

He also criticised unnamed Arab leaders from across the region, who, according to al-Houthi, pair any condemnation of Israel with words to appease the US.

“Palestine is the first trench and the battle the Palestinian people are facing is a battle for the entire Muslim nation.”



US backed proxy the British Army loves to bomb some as well.

Casualties after US, UK militaries launch 13 attacks on Yemen

The US military confirmed 13 air strikes on “Iranian-backed Houthi terrorist-controlled areas of Yemen in self-defence”.

CENTCOM said combined forces destroyed eight drones the Houthis were potentially preparing for attacks on ships in the Red Sea in a stated effort to oppose Israel’s war on Gaza.

The Houthis remained defiant stating earlier they will continue and strengthen military operations against Western cargo vessels.

Local news reports indicated the strikes hit areas in the capital Sanaa and the Hodeidah governorate. Two people were killed and 10 wounded.

Self-defense has become the new preemptive strike.

Hezbollah claims attack on Israeli military position

The armed Lebanese group says that its fifth attack of the day on Israeli positions targeted the Zarit barracks with artillery shells, achieving a direct hit.

Hezbollah’s attacks earlier today targeted Israeli forces in the occupied Shebaa Farms and Kfarchouba among other places, using rockets, missiles and mortar shells.

Israeli military claims air strikes on Hezbollah buildings

The Israeli military has released footage of its latest attacks on southern Lebanon, saying two military buildings used by Hezbollah were targeted by fighter jets. It confirmed an earlier attack by the armed Lebanese group on Zarit and multiple projectile launches but said that attack inflicted no casualties.

Hezbollah has exchanged fire with the Israeli military across Lebanon’s southern border in parallel with the Gaza assault that began on October 7. The fighting has displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border and prompted fears of a bigger war.


Hezbollah claims attack on Israeli soldiers, confirms fighters killed

Hezbollah said it carried out six attacks with the final strike targeting a building used by Israeli soldiers near al-Manara.

The armed Lebanese group also reported two more of its fighters were killed in border clashes with Israeli forces in the town of Hula in southern Lebanon.

Israeli attacks have killed more than 350 people in Lebanon, mostly fighters with Hezbollah and allied groups. In Israel, attacks from Lebanon have killed at least 10 civilians and 12 soldiers.



SvennoJ on 30 May 2024

Boy whose father burned to death in Rafah attack speaks

“My dad is gone. … Where will I go?” Nine-year-old Omar Hamad just lived through the worst day of his life when his father was burned alive in Israel’s attack on a tent camp in Rafah.

Dozens of Palestinians in Gaza were killed that day, and dozens more lost loved ones.

 

Biden should be forced to watch videos like this of all 25,000 orphaned children in Gaza. In your name.



Situation in Gaza ‘worse than ever before’

The head of the US government’s aid agency says the humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip is at its worst since the war began nearly eight months ago.

“Our humanitarian partners working in Gaza tell us that conditions are worse now than ever before. Israeli military operations and closed crossings are making it extremely difficult to distribute aid,” said Samantha Power, administrator of the US Agency for International Development.

She said the widely opposed Israeli ground assault on the southern city of Rafah has only exacerbated the situation. “The catastrophic consequences that we have long warned about are becoming a reality.”



Food and health centres close as aid supply grinds to a halt

The amount of humanitarian relief getting into Gaza has plummeted nearly 70 percent since Israeli launched its Rafah operation, the United Nations says.

“The flow of humanitarian aid supplies into Gaza – already insufficient to meet the soaring needs – has dropped by 67 percent since 7 May,” the UN aid coordination office OCHA said, noting food distribution centres, health clinics, and hospitals are shutting down.

According to World Food Programme, access to land crossings is so “constrained” to southern parts of Gaza it “risks causing the same catastrophic levels of hunger witnessed in the north”.

Israel, as the occupying power under international law, bears the responsibility of ensuring sufficient aid reaches the desperate people of Gaza.



State Department official quits in protest of US’s Gaza policy

Stacy Gilbert, a US State Department official with more than 20 years of experience around the world, quit her position in protest of the Biden administration’s “patently, demonstrably, quantifiably false” claim that Israel is not deliberately blocking humanitarian aid from Gaza.

In an interview with the Huffington Post, Gilbert said a report on Israeli conduct in Gaza released by the State Department earlier this month “is not informed by reality or context or the informed opinions of subject matter experts”.

That report found Israel has likely used US-provided weapons in a manner “inconsistent” with international law in Gaza and stopped short of identifying violations that would put an end to ongoing military aid.



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SvennoJ on 31 May 2024

Day 237 since Oct 7, 7 months of brutal genocidal war and still only getting worse.

Israeli strike on Bureij refugee camp kills 5: Report

The Israeli military has bombed a house in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, killing five people, according to local media.

Women and children were killed in the strike, which struck the al-Sous family home, the Wafa news agency reports. The injured have been transferred to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the city of Deir el-Balah.


Experts says Israel could have used smaller bombs to avoid civilian deaths in Rafah camp attack

Defence experts who have reviewed debris images from an Israeli air strike that ignited a deadly fire in a camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah have questioned why Israel did not use smaller, more precise weapons when so many civilians were nearby, The Associated Press news agency (AP) reports.

Two experts said the bombs used in the strike – which killed as many as 45 people sheltering in a temporary displacement camp – were likely US-made.

The experts told AP that even the smallest jet-launched munition may be too big when civilians are near because of how they explode and can send fragments far, and the bombs used were likely US-made 250-pound (113-kilogramme) GBU-39 small-diameter bombs.

“You essentially have two bombs they use that the fragments can travel 600 meters in a densely packed area. So that just doesn’t check out if they’re trying to limit casualties,” said Trevor Ball, a former US Army explosive ordnance demolition technician.

Ball and Mark Cancian, a retired Marine Corps Reserves colonel and senior adviser to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the debris field from the attack was indicative of the bombs possibly being set to detonate before impact, which would ensure their intended targets were killed but also risk unintended deaths.

They also could have used no bombs and not target a 'safe area' tent encampment full of civilians.

Another Israeli strike kills 4 in Bureij camp, death toll from earlier attack rises to 7

The Israeli military has killed at least four people in another strike on the Bureij refugee camp on the al-Hur family home, local media is reporting.

Earlier we reported that the Israeli military had bombed the al-Sous family home in the Bureij refugee camp, killing five people, including women and children. The death toll for that strike has now risen to seven, according to local media.

Jabalia reduced to rubble – Israel destroys most of Gaza’s largest camp

Three weeks of intensified Israeli attacks have all but destroyed what was the largest refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinians who used to live in Jabalia say they are shocked by the level of destruction, saying that Israeli forces have left the area of northern Gaza completely uninhabitable.



SvennoJ on 31 May 2024

Palestinian girl, 11, tells of surviving 2 days under rubble following Israeli attack

Palestinian child rights organisation Defense for Children has shared a video interview with 11-year-old Rimas, who speaks about surviving under the rubble of her house for two days following an Israeli attack.

Rimas recounts how an Israeli tank drove over the ruins of her destroyed home after it was bombed by Israeli forces, leaving her trapped underground with her family.

“We were sitting quietly in our house. Then the house was bombed. We found the wall above our heads. We stayed under the rubble for two days without food or water. We expected to die under the rubble,” Rimas said.

“We didn’t expect the tanks to come,” said the injured 11-year-old, who is now among the hundreds of thousands of displaced people in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.

“After they bombed our house, the tanks approached us. The soldiers started shooting over our house. The tank drove over the house rubble. We made a small hole in the wall and we barely got out. Soldiers laughed at us and told us to move forward, neither to the right or the left,” she added.



Israeli military announces deaths of 2 more soldiers in Gaza

In a statement, the Israeli military said the deceased are a 24-year-old major in the 6828th patrol battalion and a 20-year-old sergeant in the Givati ​​Patrol.

It said the two men were killed in combat in Gaza on Thursday, without providing further details. Another sergeant from the Givati ​​Patrol was also “seriously injured”.

Their deaths mean that at least 294 Israeli soldiers have now died during Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza, according to the latest data citied in Israeli media reports.

WHO mourns 2 Red Crescent paramedics slain in Rafah

The World Health Organization has expressed its condolences to the families of two Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) paramedics who were killed by Israeli forces in Rafah.

In a post on social media, the WHO said healthcare “is not a target”, adding that “health workers are protected under international humanitarian law and must always be able to safely perform their duties”.

The PRCS said its staff members, Haitham Tubasi and Suhail Hassouna, were deliberately targeted by Israeli warplanes as they were in their ambulance responding to the needs of people in Rafah’s Tal as-Sultan area.

Their deaths bring to 19 the number of PRCS killed in Gaza by Israeli forces since the start of the latest conflict in October.


Red Crescent paramedic says slain colleagues ‘directly targeted’ by Israeli forces

Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) paramedic Ashraf Abu Labda was first on the scene of the attack by an Israeli warplane on an ambulance that killed his two colleagues in Rafah’s Tal as-Sultan neighbourhood on Thursday.

Labda said PRCS ambulances were responding to reports of dead and wounded in the area when they were attacked.

“We received a signal about the presence of martyrs and wounded at the Abu Saeed Crossroads in Tal as-Sultan, Rafah,” Labda said in a video interview.

“Two PRCS ambulances were dispatched to the scene. One of the ambulances was directly targeted. Later, we received a signal from the other ambulance prompting us to head to the location to support them,” he said.

“We found the ambulance on fire. My colleague and I attempted to extinguish the fire, but we were heavily targeted by the shooting of the [Israeli forces]. Given the gravity of the situation, we were forced to withdraw from the area,” he said.

“Despite the immense difficulty and danger, we managed to evacuate the martyrs,” he added.


Members of Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) mourn two fellow paramedics, who according to medics, were killed when an ambulance on a mission to rescue people was hit in an Israeli strike in the Gaza Strip, on May 30



SvennoJ on 31 May 2024

MIT students walk out of commencement over university’s links to Israel

More than 100 graduates walked out of their commencement at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to protest the institution’s ongoing links to Israel.

MIT’s outdoor commencement ceremony in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was disrupted for 10 to 15 minutes on Thursday when some graduates wearing keffiyehs over their caps and gowns walked out while chanting “Free, free Palestine”, and held signs that said, “All eyes on Rafah”.

“There is going to be no business as usual as long as MIT holds research projects with the Israeli Ministry of Defence,” said David Berkinsky, 27, who earned a doctorate degree in chemistry and was part of the walk-out protest.

“There are no graduates in Gaza. There are no universities left in Gaza because Israel has bombed every single one,” Berkinsky told The Associated Press news agency.

Some people at the commencement swore at the protesters and yelled, “Good riddance to Hamas terror fans”.

A pro-Palestine encampment at MIT was cleared by the university on May 10.





The US is one sick place



SvennoJ on 31 May 2024

Israeli negotiator calls Hamas’s position ‘delusional’

A member of Israel’s negotiation team says a Hamas demand that Israel halt the war in Gaza in order to reach a ceasefire deal is “delusional”, according to a report by Israel’s Ynet news site.

“It won’t happen,” the unnamed official told Ynet. “Israel is fighting in Gaza, it will continue to fight in Gaza with all its strength, and if they [Hamas] want a truce for the benefit of Gaza’s residents, it must only be through negotiating the release of hostages.”

Yesterday, Hamas issued a statement saying it is ready to “reach a complete agreement that includes a comprehensive exchange deal”, but it cannot negotiate while Israel continues its “aggression, siege, starvation and genocide of our people”.

Mediated talks between Israel and Hamas to forge a ceasefire and prisoner-captive exchange have been stalled for weeks, with each side blaming the other for a lack of progress.


Hamas leader says group will not be replaced

Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas’s political bureau, has maintained that the group will keep its influence even after the war. “Those who speak of ‘the day after’ must understand, the Palestinian people won’t have Hamas replaced,” Haniyeh said in a statement.

“Faced with the prices we paid,” he continued, “a national Palestinian plan must be promoted based on a unified leadership under the framework of the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s institutions which will rule both Gaza and the West Bank.”

Haniyeh also said Hamas has not altered its position on a potential captive-exchange deal, insisting it must come with a full ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.



SvennoJ on 31 May 2024

Israeli forces shoot Palestinian man in Nablus

The Israeli military has shot a Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, the Wafa news agency reports. The Palestine Red Crescent Society said the man was shot in the foot during an Israeli military raid on the city, in which a second man was also arrested.

Israeli forces have also stormed the nearby Balata refugee camp.


‘Nonstop’ raids by Israeli military cause ‘desperation’ in occupied West Bank

The Israeli military’s violent raid on Ramallah yesterday, which left a vegetable market in flames, is “emblematic of the destruction” people experience regularly across the occupied West Bank, said Nour Odeh, a Ramallah-based political activist.

Israeli military raids, along with severe economic restrictions, are a part of a deliberate strategy by Israeli authorities to drive economic desperation and undermine the Palestinian Authority (PA), Odeh said.

Palestinians in the occupied West Bank must now also “see their countrymen and women slaughtered en masse in Gaza”, she said.

“They are prisoners to their own geography and subjected to these kind of nonstop onslaughts” Odeh told Al Jazeera.

“It’s now worse than ever before,” she said.


Palestinian emergency responders check fire damage in the central vegetable market after an Israeli raid in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank caused the blaze on May 30