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

SvennoJ on 29 January 2024

Gaza destruction will ‘take lifetimes to rebuild’: Palestine mission

Israel’s war on Gaza still rages with no immediate prospects of an end in sight. But even if it ended today, countless Palestinians would have nowhere to go. “There is no place inhabitable in Gaza. Destruction is even happening in the south. It will take lifetimes to rebuild,” said Palestine’s UN mission in a post on X.

It shows a video taken by journalist Bisan Owda, who films the ruins of what used to be a home in southern Gaza. Khan Younis and other southern parts of the Gaza Strip are now under siege by Israeli forces after they left much of the northern and central parts in ruin.

“We won’t have any place to go, we won’t have any place to live, and we will be in another fight, another war, to rebuild,” says Bisan on what Palestinians will face after the war.

Knesset considers removing politician who supported South Africa’s ICJ case: Report

Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports the Knesset began to debate a request to remove Ofer Cassif, a politician from the left-wing, Arab-majority party after he supported South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

More than 70 members of Knesset across the political spectrum signed the petition for his removal.

Israeli conference’s plan for 21 illegal settlements in Gaza Strip

Despite protests from the Biden administration, Israeli politicians are still calling for reducing Gaza’s population, a policy that rights advocates say would amount to ethnic cleansing. Several members of the Israeli government joined a far-right conference in occupied East Jerusalem calling for the resettlement of the Gaza Strip.

Sunday’s conference, organised by the right-wing Nahala organisation and called “Settlement Brings Security and Victory,” called for new Jewish settlements to be built in the Palestinian territories.

Then on Monday, Ben-Gvir reiterated calls for the “voluntary emigration” of Palestinians out of Gaza. “We will put up [army] bases, and in the first stage, we will encourage emigration – hundreds of thousands through a pilot, and we’ll just transfer them to safer countries,” he was quoted by Israeli media as telling a Knesset faction meeting.

Hamas reiterates Israel attack must end for any captive release

Hamas says releasing captives it holds will require a guaranteed end to Israel’s invasion of Gaza and withdrawal of all forces, reiterating its position after Israel held a meeting with Qatari and Egyptian mediators. “The success of the Paris meeting is dependent on the occupation [Israel] agreeing to end the comprehensive aggression on Gaza Strip,” senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters news agency.

Hamas holds an estimated 132 captives. The group says a full release would require Israel to free all of the thousands of Palestinians held in its prisons. Qatar, Egypt and the United States sent senior officials to discuss the Gaza captive crisis with Israeli intelligence figures on Sunday in France.



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SvennoJ on 29 January 2024

‘Egregious violations’: Israel keeps killing Palestinians despite ICJ ruling

In the 48 hours after interim rulings by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Israel continues to kill as many Palestinians in Gaza as it did before the verdicts, a human rights group says. Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor reports the Israeli army killed at least 373 Palestinians – including 345 civilians – and wounded 643 others in the two days after the rulings on alleged genocidal acts.

“Israel has also ramped up its efforts to starve [Palestinians] as well as forcibly displace them from their homes in the Strip,” the group said. “In defiance of the ruling of the world’s highest court and in violation of its own international obligations, including to international law and principles, Israel persists in committing egregious violations that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide against the Palestinian people.”

‘Target Tehran’: US senators call for direct strikes on Iran

Several US senators, who say they don’t want war, have called for direct strikes on Iran after the attack claimed by an Iran-backed group in Iraq killed three US soldiers on the Syria-Jordan border. “Target Tehran,” wrote John Cornyn of Texas on X. He later clarified he meant attacks on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and this would be “about deterrence, not war”.

Lindsey Graham of South Carolina called on President Biden to “strike targets of significance inside Iran” – also for “deterrence” purposes. Tom Cotton of Arkansas said he wants to see “devastating military retaliation against Iran’s terrorist forces, both in Iran and across the Middle East”.

Roger Wicker of Mississippi also called for “striking directly against Iranian targets and its leadership”, while Iowa’s Chuck Grassley said on X: “Will President Biden finally take decisive action against Iran?”

Iran denies involvement in drone strike on US troops

Iran has no connection to the drone strike on US troops at a military base near the Jordan-Syria border, says Iran’s representative to the United Nations, Saeed Iravani. The state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reports that Iravani blamed “conflict between US forces and resistance groups in the region” for the attack, in a statement to the UN. He also said “hawkish Republicans” were linking Iran to the drone strike.

Israel’s ambassador to US says Iran ‘main destabilizing actor’ in region

The Iranian government is “stoking fire” in the Middle East, says Israel’s ambassador to Washington Michael Herzog. “This attack, yet again, shows that Iran is the main destabilizing actor in the Middle East, and highlights the need to hold the regime accountable,” he wrote on X.

Three US troops were killed in a drone strike on Sunday near the barracks of the US Tower 22 military outpost base near the Jordan-Syria border. The Iran-backed group the Islamic Resistance in Iraq has claimed responsibility.

Iraq calls for regional de-escalation

The Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs has expressed concern over the recent “security developments” in the region and called for de-escalation to support “international efforts towards stability”. The ministry said it rejects the escalation near the Jordan-Syria border, referring to the drone attack that killed three US soldiers, which Washington has blamed on Iran-linked Iraqi groups.

Baghdad has been in talks with Washington over the future of US forces in Iraq. The Iraqi Foreign Ministry stressed “the need to allow space for the ongoing negotiations with the American side … to reach positive agreements that serve Iraq and the region”.



zeldaring on 29 January 2024

Feels hopeless and things just keep getting worse, these people really did infiltrate most of the super powers to control the world it's insane.



SvennoJ on 29 January 2024

More countries hopped on the UNWRA smear campaign bandwagon, Austria, Iceland, Romania and Estonia joined the USA, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, Finland, Australia, Japan and the European Union is awaiting further details. (No funding until end of Februari for now)

https://unwatch.org/updated-list-of-countries-suspending-unwra-funding/


Here’s why Israel wants to dismantle the UN’s Palestinian agency

https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/29/middleeast/unrwa-funding-israel-war-mime-intl

Israel has alleged that some of the staff of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) were involved in Hamas’ October 7 attack. The main aid agency in Gaza fired several employees in response. But beyond the allegations of recent days, Israel has longstanding issues with UNRWA, accusing it of aiding Hamas and calling for it to be entirely dismantled.

In 2017, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to dissolve UNRWA and merge it with the main UN refugee agency, the UNHCR. More recently, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz has suggested that Israel will seek to stop the UN agency from operating in post-war Gaza, saying it “will not be a part of the day after." "We have been warning for years,” Katz said. “UNRWA perpetuates the refugee issue, obstructs peace, and serves as a civilian arm of Hamas in Gaza.”

UNRWA has repeatedly denied Israeli allegations that its aid is being diverted to Hamas, and that it teaches hatred in its schools, and has questioned “the motivation of those who make such claims, through large advocacy campaigns.” It has condemned the October 7 attack as “abhorrent.” The threat to remove UNRWA from the besieged Gaza Strip has caused UN officials and those who rely on the agency to sound the alarm.

“Israel doesn’t see UNRWA as something which is conducive to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” said Yuval Shany, a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s faculty of law. Israel instead views the agency as “a mechanism that perpetuates the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” he told CNN, “And specifically perpetuates the conflict with regards to the right to return, by designating refugees and their descendants from 1948… as refugees.”

The right of return refers to the right of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to their ancestral homes in what is now Israel, which was recognized by the 1948 UN General Assembly Resolution 194. The fate of refugees is one of the most contentious issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.


The only way Israel sees as ending the conflict is with ethnic cleansing or genocide, leave or die.



I watched "Born in Gaza" last night on Netflix https://www.netflix.com/title/81077863



That was filmed shortly after the 2014 war

https://www.unrwa.org/2014-gaza-conflict
"During the 50 days of hostilities lasting from 8 July until 26 August 2014, 2,251 Palestinians were killed; 1,462 of them are believed to be civilians, including 551 children and 299 women.66 Israeli soldiers and five civilians, including one child, were also killed."

The reason the refugees are stuck in UNWRA shelters is because Israel keeps bombing Gaza.



It's a shame Bernie Sanders is 82 already, he's one of the few voices of reason in US politics

‘What’s happening in Gaza is unspeakable’: Bernie Sanders

The progressive US senator says Washington is “complicit” in the “nightmare” unfolding in Gaza. “It’s time for the US to stop ASKING Israel to do the right thing. We must TELL them: unless they change course, they will lose our support,” Sanders wrote in a social media post.

The  administration of US President Joe Biden has argued that it is urging the Israeli government to minimise civilian casualties and to allow more aid into Gaza, but US officials have ruled out halting or conditioning aid to Israel.

In contrast, Washington was quick to suspend aid to UNRWA after unconfirmed allegations that some individuals who work for the UN agency participated in Hamas’s October 7 attack.



UNRWA funding cuts threaten Palestinian lives in Gaza and region: NGOs

Twenty NGOs have expressed “concern and outrage” that some of the largest donors have “united to suspend funding for UNRWA, the main aid provider for millions of Palestinians in Gaza and the region”. The NGOs include the Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam, Save the Children and War Child Alliance.

“With approximately over one million displaced Palestinians taking shelter in or around 154 UNRWA shelters, the agency and aid organisations have continued to work in near impossible circumstances to provide food, vaccinations, and freshwater,” the groups said in a statement. “The countries suspending funds risk further depriving Palestinians in the region of essential food, water, medical assistance and supplies, education and protection.”




Israeli forces arrest Palestinians after storming UN-run shelter in Gaza City

In the past few hours, we’ve been hearing that Israeli military forces had stormed one of the UN-run shelters in Gaza City in the central neighbourhood of Remal. They surrounded the vicinity and then stormed it, arresting a number of Palestinian evacuees who were taking shelter inside.

There’s no official confirmation of any killings of Palestinians in these ongoing raids. Previously in similar occasions, Israeli forces have stormed a number of UN shelters, taken a number of men for investigation in different areas across the Gaza Strip. Some of them have been killed, others released after long weeks of torture. The situation is completely chaotic as Israeli forces have been targeting the central areas of Gaza City within the past few hours. The groups urged donor states to reaffirm support for the work that UNRWA and its partners do to help Palestinians survive what they called one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes of our times.



I doubt anything will come from this

Broad framework for a potential hostage release and ceasefire is being presented to Hamas, official says

A broad framework for a hostage release and potential ceasefire was agreed to among negotiators in Paris this weekend, according to an official familiar with the talks. While there is a basic framework that negotiators feel they can move forward with, the “details are going to be very difficult” to work out, the official said. Even though negotiators came to terms on the broad strokes, the office of Israel’s prime minister indicated Monday that there are concerns about “conditions that are not acceptable.” It denied reports that Israel had agreed to a new hostage deal.

Egyptian intelligence today delivered the framework to Hamas in Rafah, the official said. The framework would call for the first phase of civilian hostage releases to take place over a 6-week pause with three Palestinian prisoners held by Israel released for each civilian hostage returned from Gaza. That ratio would be expected to go up for IDF soldiers and a longer pause is possible beyond the six weeks for the later phases. 

The framework is a melding of different proposals from Israel, Hamas, Qatar and Egypt, along with additional ideas from the United States. The proposals differed on the length of the pause and ratios for swapping prisoners and hostages. 


Hamas has repeatedly rejected a pause and wants a full ceasefire, the Israeli government has also rejected a pause and wants to finish off Gaza. Adjusting the length of the pause or ratios of hostages vs prisoners isn't going to move either side on the fundamental differences. There's still communication at least.



SvennoJ on 29 January 2024

Video recap of the past couple days.

He makes a good point, why are Arab countries not stepping up. Although imagine the push back from Israel if Iran started funding UNWRA... Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi-Arabia are major donors already, but could help out more as well.



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SvennoJ on 29 January 2024

Dozens reported killed as Israeli military renews strikes on Gaza City

Dozens of Palestinians have been reported killed in Gaza City over the past 24 hours, with the Israeli military issuing a new evacuation order for parts of the city on Monday as it renews assaults on areas from which it had previously withdrawn forces.

At least 20 Palestinians were killed by an Israeli air attack on a home in the Al-Sabra neighbourhood in Gaza City in northern Gaza, the Wafa news agency reports. The majority of the victims are women and children.

Earlier, we reported that at least 25 civilians were killed by Israeli shelling of a home in Gaza City’s Tuffah neighbourhood.

At least five Palestinians were killed by an Israeli air attack on the al-Awda Hospital compound in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza. Sections of the hospital are out of service and several ambulances have been damaged.



The Palestine Red Crescent Society also said that it was trying to rescue a six-year-old girl trapped in a car after six members of her family were killed by an Israeli strike on the vehicle – also in Gaza City. The PRCS said after hours of coordination, its rescuers arrived in the area where the girl was. “Since then, we lost contact with the team, and as of now, we are uncertain if our teams successfully reached the girl,” it said.

Women, children flee UNRWA shelter amid Israeli strikes, shelling, raids: Wafa

The Palestinian state news agency, Wafa, is reporting that dozens of women and children have fled a UNRWA shelter in Gaza City after it was raided by Israeli forces. Israeli forces arrested dozens of men sheltering at the UNRWA facility, with women and children reportedly held inside by soldiers while the men were taken away, according to witness reports told to Wafa.

The displaced women and children have sought shelter at the Baptist Hospital amid continued Israeli strikes and artillery shelling of western areas of the city, Wafa reports.

Home, mosque bombed in Israeli bombardments in south and central Gaza

Our Al Jazeera Arabic colleagues are reporting Israeli bombardments and fighting in south and central Gaza tonight:

  • A house was bombed in the Al-Jeneina neighbourhood in central Rafah
  • An unspecified target was bombed in the Nuseirat camp, with artillery shelling continuing
  • The Al-Farouq Mosque in Khan Younis refugee camp was bombed, with heavy gunfire ongoing
  • Clashes and bombings have been reported in the Batn al-Sameen area and the Al-Amal neighbourhood of Khan Younis.

The scale of possible casualties is not known at this stage.




Replace Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory with “protection” force: UN envoy

UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese has again called for Israel’s military occupation of Palestinian territory to be replaced by a “protection presence”, in a post on social media highlighting the daily abuses inflicted by Israeli forces on people under their control.

Accompanying a video clip showing an Israeli soldier physically assaulting a young Palestinian boy in Hebron for no apparent reason, Albanese said: “This is what Apartheid enforced through military rule looks like”. Describing the assault on the boy as “an unchilding experience”, the UN envoy on the human rights situation in occupied Palestinian territories said Israel’s military needs to be replaced as it had “proven unwilling and unable to act as a good faith occupier for decades” and for “generations of Palestinians”.

Five Palestinians arrested by Israeli forces in Jenin allege torture

Five Palestinians arrested by the Israeli military during a raid on the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank on Monday say that they were tortured in custody, Wafa reports. The men were taken to an Israeli settlement called Mabu Dothan south of Jenin, where they say soldiers handcuffed, blindfolded and beat them over the course of 10 hours. Israeli soldiers also submerged them in cold water, the men said.

The men were transferred to the Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin on their release.

Israeli forces destroy power and water lines in refugee camps

Local media reports ongoing raids by Israeli forces in the Nur Shams refugee camp and the Tulkarem refugee camp near the city of Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli military is restricting movement in the camps while its bulldozers damage infrastructure including roads, water, internet and electricity lines, the Wafa news agency reports. Footage published by local media shows water flowing from a large storage tank in the Nur Shams camp.

Elsewhere in the occupied West Bank, raids and arrests have been reported in the following locations:

  • The town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah
  • The town of Ya’bad in Jenin
  • The town of Burqa, northwest of Nablus
  • A man was arrested in the Al-Arroub camp in Hebron
  • A man was arrested in the village of Umm Safa, northwest of Ramallah
  • The Israeli military fired tear gas at Palestinian men walking in the street in Bethlehem



SvennoJ on 29 January 2024

Middle East is now as dangerous as it's been in decades, US secretary of state says

The environment in the Middle East is as dangerous as it’s been in the region “since at least 1973, and arguably even before that," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said while emphasizing the US effort to prevent escalation. Blinken, who was speaking at a news conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, said that the US response to Iran-backed militias allegedly killing three US Army reservists in Jordan “could be multileveled, come in stages and be sustained over time.”

“We want to prevent this conflict from spreading, so we are intent on doing both, that is standing up for our people when they're attacked, while at the same time working every single day to prevent the conflict from growing and spreading,” said Blinken.

On the war in Gaza, the US top diplomat also said that he discussed the “ongoing efforts” to free Israeli hostages and create an “extended pause” in fighting in the enclave during his meeting with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Monday.

Maybe stop escalating the situation by providing weapons and diplomatic cover for genocide?

(In 1973, the war known to Israelis as Yom Kippur and to Arabs as the October War started when Egypt and Syria launched a two-front attack on Israel to regain their territories lost in the 1967 Six Day War, when Israel captured the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt and Syria’s Golan Heights. Egypt regained control of Sinai but Syria’s Golan Heights remains occupied by Israel)


Israeli forces will ‘go into action’ soon at Lebanon border: Minister

Israeli soldiers will be moved from Israel’s frontier with Gaza and redeployed to its northern border with Lebanon amid soaring tensions with Hezbollah, the country’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said. "They will very soon go into action… so the forces in the north are reinforced,” Gallant told soldiers on Monday night. “The forces close to you… are leaving the field and moving towards the north, and preparing for what comes next.”

Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged almost daily fire over the Lebanon border since October 7, with fears growing over the potential for a new front to the conflict opening up. On Monday, the Iran-backed group claimed at least 12 attacks on Israeli military positions, while Israel said it had carried out air strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. Earlier this month, Israel’s army chief of staff Herzi Halevi said the likelihood of a war breaking out in the north in the coming months was “much higher than it was in the past”.



New Zealand on Tuesday became the latest country to suspend funding for the UN Palestinian refugee agency.

UNRWA ‘cannot be replaced’, say 21 humanitarian aid organisations

Twenty-one aid organisations – including ActionAid, Oxfam and Save the Children – have issued a joint statement in support of the UN Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA. 

“We are outraged that some donors have united to suspend funding for UNRWA … amid a rapidly worsening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza,” the organisations said. “UNRWA is the largest humanitarian agency in Gaza and their delivery of humanitarian assistance cannot be replaced by other agencies working in Gaza,” the organisations, many of which also provide humanitarian assistance in the besieged Palestinian enclave, wrote.

Some “152 UNRWA staff have already been killed and 145 UNRWA facilities damaged by bombardment”, since October, the organisations also noted.




SvennoJ on 30 January 2024

UNWRA aid crisis

The gap between what Palestinian civilians need and what's been given is enormous

After the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, the United Nations has estimated Palestinians need more than $1.2 billion in urgent humanitarian relief, with more than 90% of that for Gaza residents. So far, just over half of the required emergency funding has been provided.


Bizarre

Gaza authorities say 100 unidentified bodies have been returned from Israel

The Gaza Crossings Authority says that 100 unidentified bodies have been returned to Gaza from Israel.

Hisham Adwan, a spokesperson for the Crossings Authority, told CNN that “100 unidentified bodies were delivered from the Israeli side through the Kerem Shalom crossing on Tuesday morning in a container.” He said the bodies had been taken from the Gaza Strip, and it was possible that some of them were taken from cemeteries in Gaza. CNN has previously reported that the Israeli military desecrated at least 16 cemeteries in its ground offensive in Gaza, leaving gravestones ruined, soil upturned, and, in some cases, bodies unearthed.

In Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, where fighting escalated recently, Israeli forces destroyed a cemetery, removing bodies in what the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told CNN was part of a search for the remains of hostages seized by Hamas during the October 7 terror attacks. The bodies returned on Tuesday were later buried in an open space in Rafah in southern Gaza.

In response to a question from CNN, the IDF said the bodies of about 100 Palestinians had been returned to Gaza once it was established they were not those of Israeli hostages. The IDF said it “is committed to fulfilling its urgent mission to rescue the hostages, and find and return the bodies of hostages that are held in Gaza.”

Israeli protesters again block Gaza-bound aid trucks


Demonstrators gather by the border fence with Egypt at the Nitzana border crossing in southern Israel on January 30.

Israeli protesters have again blocked trucks carrying aid for Gaza, demanding that humanitarian aid only be delivered in exchange for the release of the hostages. Activists with the "Tsav 9’" movement evaded police roadblocks to reach the Nitzana crossing, where aid trucks are inspected before being sent to Rafah to cross into Gaza.

Rafah crossing, where aid travels from Egypt into Gaza, and Kerem Shalom crossing, where aid travels into Gaza directly from Israel

Israel increasingly ‘impeding life-saving aid’ into Gaza: UN

More and more Israel is denying or restricting the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, according to the United Nations. In the second half of January, “humanitarian partners continue to observe an increasing trend in denied and restricted access to the northern and central areas of Gaza”, said the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

It cited excessive delays for aid convoys before or at Israeli checkpoints and heightened military attacks in central Gaza. “Threats to the safety of humanitarian personnel and sites are also frequent, not only impeding the delivery of time-sensitive and life-saving aid, but also posing serious risks to those involved in humanitarian efforts.”

 

Biden says he has decided how to respond to drone attack in Jordan

President Joe Biden told reporters Tuesday he has made a decision about the US response to the drone strike that killed three US service members and injured dozens in Jordan. Asked by CNN’s Arlette Saenz whether he has decided how to respond, Biden said, “Yes,” but declined to provide further details.

Biden had warned in a statement Sunday that the US will respond in a “time and manner of our choosing” as he weighs how to deter future attacks without escalating the conflict. US officials said on Monday that the American response was likely to be more powerful than previous US strikes in Iraq and Syria against Iranian interests, but they have suggested it is unlikely the US will strike within Iran. 

Biden said Tuesday as he prepared to depart for a fundraising swing in south Florida that he holds Iran responsible for the attack, which CNN has reported was carried out by suspected Iranian proxy forces. 

“I do hold them responsible in the sense that they're supplying the weapons to the people who did it,” he said. 

But, he reiterated that he is hoping to deter a broader conflict in the Middle East.  “I don't think we need a wider war in the Middle East. That's not what I'm looking for.”

Says the main supplier of bombs that kill women and children on a daily basis in Gaza...

Also next time there is a school shooting, bomb some gun stores as response ;)

Key to Israel’s security is dealing with Iran: CIA chief

CIA director William Burns believes that the key to the security of Israel and the entire region is “dealing with Iran”. Burns, who was just in Paris for multilateral negotiations on Israel’s war on Gaza, writes this in a lengthy article for US outlet Foreign Affairs. “The Iranian regime has been emboldened by the crisis and seems ready to fight to its last regional proxy, all while expanding its nuclear program and enabling Russian aggression,” he said.

Burns does not specifically say how he believes the US should act on Iran – with the comments coming shortly after the Tehran-supported Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed a drone attack that killed three US soldiers. The CIA director also says “none” of the problems across the Middle East can be managed or resolved without “active US leadership”.

Just wow.

Last edited by SvennoJ - on 30 January 2024

SvennoJ on 30 January 2024

41% of the Gaza Strip has been put under evacuation orders since December, UN office says

The Israeli military has ordered 41% of Gaza to evacuate since it started dividing the strip into numbered blocks in December, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Tuesday. Since December 1,158 square kilometers (447 square miles) of the Gaza Strip, which 1.38 million people called home before October 7, was put under the orders, OHCA said. That area contained 161 shelters hosting an estimated 700,750 internally displaced persons (IDPs), it added.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it has been instructing people to leave particular areas of Gaza to avoid fighting in its war against Hamas. On Monday, the Israeli military ”urged” residents of Al-Nassar, Al-Sheikh Radwan, Al-Shati Refugee Camp, northern and southern Rimal, Sabra, Al-Sheikh Ajlin, and Tel Al-Hawa in western Gaza City to evacuate “for your safety” towards “designated shelters” to the south. The new order covered an area of 12.43 square kilometers, which amounts to 3.4% of the Gaza Strip. This area was home to almost 300,000 Palestinians before October 7, containing 59 shelters with about 88,000 IDPs sheltered there, OCHA said. 

Some background: As of January 26, there were an estimated 1.7 million internally displaced people in Gaza, OCHA said, citing UNRWA, adding that the ongoing fighting and subsequent evacuation orders have forced some households to move away from the shelters where they were initially registered. 


IDF tells civilians to evacuate northern Gaza for the south as fighting rages around southern cities

While much of the fighting in Gaza is focused on the southern city of Khan Younis, Israeli officials acknowledge that pockets of resistance by Hamas fighters endure in the north of the territory. Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Lt Col Richard Hecht Monday told CNN: “We’re acting now in the north of Gaza again. We always said there would be more pockets. There will always be insurgents.”




Palestinians are eating grass and drinking polluted water as famine looms across Gaza

https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/30/middleeast/famine-looms-in-gaza-israel-war-intl/index.html


Palestinians wait to receive food at a donation center in a refugee camp in Rafah, Gaza, on January 27.

“They are weak now, they always have diarrhea, their faces are yellow,” Hanadi Gamal Saed El Jamara, 38, whose family was displaced from northern Gaza, told CNN on January 9. “My 17-year-old daughter tells me she feels dizziness, my husband is not eating.” She tries to feed her kids at least once a day, she says, while tending to her husband, a cancer and diabetes patient.

As Gaza spirals toward full-scale famine, displaced civilians and health workers told CNN they go hungry so their children can eat what little is available. If Palestinians find water, it is likely undrinkable. When relief trucks trickle into the strip, people clamber over each other to grab aid. Children living on the streets, after being forced from their homes by Israel’s bombardment, cry and fight over stale bread. Others reportedly walk for hours in the cold searching for food, risking exposure to Israeli strikes.

Even before the war, two out of three people in Gaza relied on food support, Arif Husain, the chief economist at the World Food Programme (WFP), told CNN. Palestinians have lived through 17 years of partial blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt.



West Bank hospital raid draws praise from Israeli cabinet minister and condemnation from Palestinian officials

An attack on a hospital in the occupied West Bank by Israeli special forces on Tuesday has sparked a split reaction among Israeli and Palestinian officials. Disguised special forces killed three militant Palestinian men in a targeted infiltration on Ibn Sina hospital in Jenin, according to Hamas and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

What Israeli officials say: Israel's far-right National Security Minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, posted on social media surveillance video from inside the hospital appearing to show Israeli forces carrying assault rifles and dressed as medical staff, nurses, women in hijabs, and with one carrying a wheelchair and another carrying a baby car seat. "I congratulate and strengthen the naval commando forces of the Israeli police on their impressive operation last night, " Ben Gvir said alongside the video on X. 

What Palestinian officials say: The Palestinian Ministry of Health condemned the attack and the targeting of a health center. They called on the UN General Assembly and NGOs to provide the necessary protection for medical treatment centers and emergency crews. "This crime comes after dozens of crimes committed by the occupation forces against treatment centers and crews. International law provides general and special protection for civilian sites, including hospitals," the ministry said on Tuesday.

Hamas’s military wing, the Al Qassam Brigades, claimed one of the casualties, Mohammed Jalamneh, as a member. The Ibn Sina hospital said another casualty, Basil Al-Ghazawi, was receiving treatment when he was killed. The hospital said the three men were sleeping at the time of the attack. 


A bullet hole is pictured on a blood-spattered pillow at the Ibn Sina hospital in Jenin, West Bank, on January 30

Gallant wants Israel to ‘operate’ in Gaza like West Bank: Report

Israeli war cabinet minister Yoav Gallant has reportedly told lawmakers that Israel will maintain control of the Gaza Strip after the war is over so it can “operate” there as it does in the occupied West Bank. “After the war, when it’s over, I think it’s completely clear that Hamas won’t control Gaza. Israel will control [it] militarily but won’t control it in a civilian sense,” Gallant was quoted as saying by The Times of Israel.

“When we’re talking about military freedom of operation, look what happened tonight in Jenin,” he added in reference to the Israeli raid inside the Ibn Sina Hospital, in which three Palestinian fighters were killed in their sleep. “This is military freedom of operation at the highest level, and yet we don’t control the area in a civilian sense,” Gallant said. “This is achievable [in Gaza as well], and it will take time.”

International silence allowed ‘Israeli terrorism’ inside Jenin hospital: Barghouti

Mustafa Barghouti, the secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, has told Al Jazeera from Ramallah that the killings in Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin were an example of “Israeli terrorism”. “They violated every international law, every international humanitarian law that speaks about protection of hospitals, protection of patients, protection of civil structures,” he said.

“The first crime was to invade the hospital disguised as doctors, nurses and a disabled man in a wheelchair. Second, they entered the hospital and executed people in hospital beds,” Barghouti added. He also said the Israelis “would not have dared” to commit these crimes “if it was not for the silence of the international community”.

Last edited by SvennoJ - on 30 January 2024

SvennoJ on 30 January 2024

Israeli tanks are stationed in Khan Younis hospital complex and are "firing live ammunition," aid group says

After surrounding the Al Amal hospital in Khan Younis for more than a week, Israeli military vehicles have entered its compound, and they are stationed in the hospital front yard, which is crowded with thousands of displaced people, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said. The tanks are “firing live ammunition and smoke grenades,” the aid agency said in a series of messages between 10 a.m. ET and 11 a.m. ET.

CNN is unable to verify the situation independently and has asked the Israel Defense Forces for comment.

Earlier, Israeli forces were asking the crews and displaced people to “evacuate the building at gunpoint,” Muhammad Abu Musabih, director of Ambulance and Emergency Services at the hospital, told CNN in an audio message. This comes after PRCS had earlier reported gunfire from Israeli tanks on Tuesday in the area, killing one displaced woman and injuring nine others. Some 8,000 displaced people and 100 staff are at the hospital and the PRCS headquarters that is adjacent to the hospital, a PRCS official told CNN.

Israeli forces “demolished the outer wall of the building and fired … smoke bombs at the displaced people and the association’s staff,” the PRCS said. “The situation is becoming more dangerous. We are extremely concerned for the safety of our crews, the wounded, the sick, and the thousands of displaced people in the building.”

What's the situation like at two key hospitals in Khan Younis: Despite frequent shelling and strikes in the area, efforts have continued to sustain minimal operations at both Al Amal and Nasser hospitals. CNN received photographs of a tanker truck organized by the World Health Organization reaching the Nasser Medical Complex Tuesday with 24,000 liters of diesel fuel.

The situation in the larger Khan Younis city of Gaza has also worsened: The southern city was originally the place that residents of northern Gaza were asked to evacuate to. But now, with Israeli operations focused on Khan Younis, things are worsening for the already displaced people. As Israeli military issues instructions for people to leave neighborhoods in the area, journalists have told CNN there may be as many as 100,000 displaced people in UN shelters and other facilities in the area. Many are afraid to move to supposedly safer areas. Very little aid has reached these facilities in recent days because of the fighting.

Displaced Palestinians ‘terrified’ as Israeli forces take al-Amal Hospital

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) says that Israeli forces have stormed Al-Amal Hospital and are demanding that displaced people taking refuge there evacuate at gunpoint. Israeli forces have stormed al-Amal Hospital, where thousands of Palestinians are taking refuge. Israeli forces had destroyed the back wall of the hospital along with setting fire to the majority of makeshift tents that were set in the facility of this medical complex.

The majority of evacuees there are completely terrified as the Israeli forces are recommending them to flee and to get out of the medical complex. This is one of the last two remaining hospitals that are still operating in the city of Khan Younis, and this will add extra pressure on the ability of medical teams and the medical sector to keep operating amid the ongoing Israeli military offensive … on Khan Younis.

Israel denies storming Al-Amal Hospital

An Israeli military spokesperson has denied PRCS reports that Israeli forces stormed Al-Amal Hospital, according to the news outlet Reuters. “There’s no storming of the hospital, entry into it or any ordering of people to leave at gunpoint,” the spokesperson said.



Health minister warns of rapid spread of epidemics in Gaza

Mai al-Kaila, health minister for the Palestinian Authority, warns of the rapid spread of epidemics in Gaza, describing health conditions as “catastrophic” as a result of severe shortages of health personnel, equipment, medicine and shelters. “There are 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip, 14 of which are partially operating, nine in the south and five in the north,” al-Kaila said in an interview with Palestine TV.

More than 1,100 medical personnel in the Gaza Strip have been killed or wounded, she said. “There are 325 shelter centres, 150 of which have one health point, and the remaining 175 centres do not.”

Israel’s aggression on Gaza ‘destroying’ environment

The Palestinian Environment Quality Authority says that the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip not only constitutes a humanitarian catastrophe but is also destroying all components of biological diversity, including plants and microorganisms. In a statement, the environmental body said that components of wildlife, including plant and animal diversity on land and offshore the Gaza Strip, have been subjected to the strongest forms of destruction as a result of the use of explosives and weapons.

“This has led to the destruction of the habitats of wild animals, their killing, and the burning of all forms of plant life, including trees, shrubs, and grasses – some of which are endemic to coastal and semi-coastal environmental conditions,” the statement said. The result has been the loss of certain species and even their permanent disappearance or extinction, the body added.


My two faced country

Canada to provide $28.9m for humanitarian aid to Gaza

Canada has announced $29.8m in funding to provide food, water supplies and other humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip.

Global Affairs Canada said in a statement that the funds will be allocated to international agencies, including the World Food Programme, UNICEF, and the World Health Organization. The announcement comes days after Canada and several other countries paused funding to the UN refugee agency for Palestinians following allegations by Israel that some of its staff were involved in the October 7 Hamas attacks.

UNWRA has the distribution centers, shelters and workforce in Gaza. Not that WFP, Unicef and the WHO can chip in, but they'll be sending the aid in through UNWRA anyway... Really seems like there is a concerted political effort to get rid of UNWRA.

Last edited by SvennoJ - on 30 January 2024