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

SvennoJ on 14 February 2024

Biden WEAKLY ADMITS He Won't Do ANYTHING To Stop Civilian Deaths Despite BLANK CHECK To IDF

REPORT: Israeli Snipers SHOOT Civilians Entering, Leaving Gaza Hospital

US Media's Gaza Coverage Hits Dismal New Low

 

Last edited by SvennoJ - on 14 February 2024

Around the Network
SvennoJ on 15 February 2024

Just more nonsense. Zionist movement doesn't want to share, isn't interested in a solution.

Israeli politicians reject purported plan for pathway to Palestinian state

Israeli politicians, including far-right ministers in government, have publicly rejected a purported plan to provide a pathway for a Palestinian state, taking to social media to argue against a two-state solution.

The Washington Post on Wednesday reported that the Biden Administration and “a small group of Middle East partners” are working to formulate a “comprehensive plan” for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, which would include a pathway to a Palestinian state. CNN cannot confirm The Washington Post’s reporting.

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called it “a reward for the terrible massacre they [Hamas] did to us” on October 7. “The message is that it pays very well to massacre Israeli citizens,” Smotrich – who also holds a position within the Defense Ministry – said on X.  Additionally, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right Israeli Security Minister, expressed his rejection of the plan on X, saying “1,400 are murdered and the world wants to give them a state. Not going to happen!”

But, it is not only far-right ministers rejecting the purported plan. Gideon Sa'ar, a center-right politician who left Likud and is now part of Benny Gantz’s National Unity party, said that the reported plan would “not only not resolve the conflict but will make it intractable." “The Palestinians will receive recognition in the state without paying the price of compromise and will continue the conflict from an upgraded position that will harm Israel's right to self-defense,” Saar said on X.

Ze'ev Elkin, who is also a member of National Unity, said it was “not going to happen!” and that creating the state would lead to the "risk of a repeat of the events of 7.10 for the entire country" on X.

Not ending the occupation, oppression and apartheid will guarantee more future resistance.


Suger coating on CNN

Israel says special forces entered Nasser Hospital and apprehended suspects

Israeli special forces have entered Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, according to both the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The IDF said they "apprehended a number of suspects" in the hospital, adding that the operation was ongoing. IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said they had “credible intelligence from a number of sources, including from released hostages,” that Hamas had previously held hostages at the hospital, and that the bodies of deceased hostages may be present at the hospital. The military did not publicly release that evidence.

He claimed that "Hamas terrorists are likely hiding behind injured civilians inside Nasser hospital right now," and said the operation would be "precise and limited." But Hamas has denied to CNN that it is operating at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. “Hamas has no business in the hospital,” Muhammad Nazzal, a member of the Hamas Political Bureau, told CNN on Thursday.

Dr. Ashraf Al-Qidra, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, said: “The Israeli occupation storms the Nasser Medical Complex and turns it into a military barracks after demolishing the southern wall and entering from it.”  Israeli military bulldozers are digging up the mass graves that had been dug inside the complex walls, Dr. Al-Qidra said.

It comes a day after hundreds of civilians were forced by Israeli forces to leave the hospital, which they had been using as a shelter. 


Palestinian patients arrive in Rafah, Gaza, after they were evacuated from Nasser hospital in Khan Younis due to the Israeli ground operation, on February 15.

Video filmed on Tuesday at the hospital shows columns of smoke at its perimeter, an Israeli bulldozer destroying a hospital perimeter wall, and an armored vehicle entering the hospital grounds. The sound of gunfire can be heard throughout.

Doctors and medical officials say that Israeli snipers have shot dead several people as they tried to leave the hospital complex over recent days.

At least 1 person killed in Israeli strike on Nasser Medical Complex, Gaza health ministry says

An Israeli strike killed at least one person and wounded “many” others after hitting the orthopedic department at the Nasser Medical Complex in southern Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. “The oxygen tube was damaged and oxygen leaked, which led to a decrease in oxygen pressure in the Nasser Medical Complex, especially in the intensive care department,” the ministry said.

Footage shared with CNN by Dr. Ahmad Moghrabi from inside the hospital showed bloodied patients, covered in dust, being wheeled through a corridor while the hissing sound of compressed air could be heard. In another video, a man with his face covered in blood is carried through a darkened hallway.

In a video filmed by journalist Mohammad Salama, hospital staff can be seen helping move patients out of a damaged area in the facility. Sections of the roof have collapsed and there is thick dust in the air. In some hallways, the lights have gone out.

A separate statement from the health minister in Ramallah, Mai Al-Kailah, said Israeli soldiers had also stormed the courtyard of the complex and fired on the building. "The displaced people took refuge in the Nasser Medical Complex to escape the brutal occupation aggression, and there is no safe place in the Gaza Strip, and international humanitarian law guarantees the right of every safe person in civil institutions protected under the Geneva Conventions," she said.

The Nasser complex is the largest remaining functioning medical facility in Gaza. More than 1,500 displaced people are still inside, according to the health ministry. The IDF said Wednesday that its soldiers had “opened a secure route to evacuate the civilian population taking shelter in the area of the Nasser Hospital toward the humanitarian zone.” Doctors and medical officials in Gaza have said Israeli snipers shot dead multiple people as they tried to leave the complex in recent days.

Storming of Nasser Hospital continuation of ‘war of extermination’: Hamas

The storming of the Nasser Medical Complex is “a continuation of the war of extermination” launched by Israel, Hamas has said in a statement. “The occupation continues to challenge international laws that see hospitals as protected places,” the group said. “The whole world is watching without taking any serious and effective action to stop it, despite all calls and appeals.”

Israel’s actions “will not succeed in breaking the will of our Palestinian people,” it said, adding that it will carry on its resistance until “the establishment of the Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.”

Vatican editorial: Israel ‘cannot justify this carnage’ in Gaza

In a front-page editorial in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano headlined “Stop the Carnage”, editorial director Andrea Tornielli challenged Israeli leaders on the ongoing Gaza attack. Tornielli quoted a Rome-based Holocaust survivor, Edith Bruck, who has been highly critical of the Israeli government’s war, which she blames for the rise in anti-Semitic acts against Jews around the world.

“No one can define what is happening in the Strip as ‘collateral damage’ from the fight against terrorism,” Tornielli wrote. “The right of defence, the right of Israel to ensure justice for those responsible for the October massacre, cannot justify this carnage.” Pope Francis speaks daily via videoconference to a Gaza parish housing Palestinian war-displaced civilians.

Israel complains after Vatican official denounces Gaza ‘carnage’

Israel has formally complained after a senior Vatican official denounced the “carnage” in Gaza and what he called a “disproportionate” Israeli response following the October 7 Hamas attack. The Israeli embassy to the Holy See called the comments by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, “regrettable”.

Speaking at a reception on Tuesday, Parolin condemned the Hamas attacks and all forms of anti-Semitism. But he questioned Israel’s claim to be acting in self-defence by inflicting “carnage” on Gaza. “Israel’s right to self-defence has been invoked to justify that this operation is proportional, but with 30,000 dead, it’s not,” he said.

The embassy said Israeli forces were acting according to international law, adding the proportion of Palestinian civilians to “terrorists” killed was less than in other conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

That's easy to say when you consider all Palestinians terrorists. If not, then it's just lies, since they claim they have killed more fighters (20,000) than there are male deaths reported. Taking the numbers from Euro-med monitor that includes missing as dead


That leaves 14,000 non women and children, so all men plus 6,000 women are terrorists according to the IDF.

According to Euro med monitor only 8% non civilians, a ratio much much worse than previous wars.



EnricoPallazzo on 15 February 2024

Thanks for all these updates. I get so much hate, anger and disgust when following what the media says about this conflict that I almost dont like to hear/read about it. But I need to, cant turn away from what/way is being done/reported.



SvennoJ on 15 February 2024
EnricoPallazzo said:

Thanks for all these updates. I get so much hate, anger and disgust when following what the media says about this conflict that I almost dont like to hear/read about it. But I need to, cant turn away from what/way is being done/reported.

Yeah I can't watch Fox News nor most mainstream media, CNN updates already give me rage the way they downplay and question everything from the "Hamas-run" anything. Eylon Levy is a piece of work just like that 'Guillermo' dude doing the press answers for the White House.

I've lost all respect for the Western 'civilized' world, nothing civil about it anymore. The slow reluctant help for Ukraine was already getting under my skin, sending mostly old stuff just enough to turn the Ukrainian genocide into a stale mate. The UN is crippled by the veto holders and just used as a tool to keep non white countries in line. The world is far more racist than I gave it credit for.

The only thing giving me any faith in humanity nowadays is the heroic efforts of those actually trying to help on the ground, first responders dodging sniper bullets to rescue wounded people, doctors refusing to leave patients behind, journalists risking their lives to expose the truth in hopes it will finally wake up people to what's been happening. And all the grass roots internet journalists that actually bother to do research to expose all the lies.

This type of 'conflict' is not new of course, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Myanmar, Russo-Ukraine wars, yet the scale, speed and coverage are new. And the continuous white washing of Israeli crimes by Western powers. The US got scrutinized more for Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay than anything the IDF and ISF are doing live on social media. It's disgusting.

Mainstream media is dead, international justice is dead, US as a defender of 'the world' is now completely dead, Europe lost all it's moral values (for as little as they had left), Canada, Australia no better. All countries established through colonialism have not learned anything from their pasts, except eventually winner takes all if you kill enough people.


This conflict is a turning point in history with the unprecedented scale and shameful support for genocide, right when we need unity more than ever to tackle the problems ahead, energy crisis, water crises, climate change, inequality and economic crisis. It angers me that people are so stupid they'll elect extremists into government to blame all their problems on immigrants. It feels people are destined not to be able to ever live together.



EnricoPallazzo on 15 February 2024
SvennoJ said:


The only thing giving me any faith in humanity nowadays is the heroic efforts of those actually trying to help on the ground, first responders dodging sniper bullets to rescue wounded people, doctors refusing to leave patients behind, journalists risking their lives to expose the truth in hopes it will finally wake up people to what's been happening. And all the grass roots internet journalists that actually bother to do research to expose all the lies.


Not all heroes wear capes. There are still a few around. The only silver lining is that today it is possible for the average Joe to get all information necessary to understand what is going on, you basically become brainwashed only if you want or if you allow it. 20 years it would be much harder to understand the "conflict", the causes and it's history. 

I used to be one of these people that got my info about the middle east mainly from western media. It all changed when I learned about the death road in the desert storm war and when I learned about the archipelago of the west bank. Fuck western mainstream media.  

Unfortunately the Palestines have a very low chance of winning the information war on this conflict as the other side has much more influence on media. I dont know what will happen to them, its a really sad situation and I see no end in sight. Only more suffering for them.

As for you, keep on doing the good work.



Around the Network
SvennoJ on 15 February 2024

We're down to wishing now....

White House ‘wishes’ flour was entering Gaza

Kirby, the White House spokesperson, has confirmed that Israel is preventing flour from reaching Gaza, where people are facing an imminent risk of famine.

“I wish I could tell you that that flour was moving in, but I can’t do that right now. And all I can tell you is that it is absolutely critical as a staple for the Palestinian people,” Kirby told reporters.

He added that Washington will continue to work with Israeli officials to get the aid into the besieged territory. The Biden administration has faced mounting criticism for refusing to use its leverage over Israel to pressure it to adhere to Washington’s stated demands of increasing the humanitarian assistance flowing into Gaza and protecting civilians. The White House is working with Congress to provide $14bn in more aid to Israel.

UNRWA chief highlights toll of war on Gaza’s children

Philippe Lazzarini has said that 17,000 children in Gaza have been separated from their parents since the war began. Israel’s assault on Gaza has been the deadliest for children in modern history.

“Four months into a brutal war. The toll on civilians is unimaginable. Already 5 percent of Gaza’s population has suffered death, injury, or separation,” Lazzarini said in a social media post. “17,000 children torn from their parents. Starvation looms. Desperately needed aid is not going into Gaza. There’s no sanctuary. Urgent action is crucial to halt this deepening humanitarian disaster.”



Why is the solution to problems to make an 'independent' organization just to ignore that organization's recommendations and findings. It's just a convenient way not to have to deal with the problem. Let someone else look at it so we can ignore it.


‘War crime’: Gaza authorities say Israeli attack on Nasser Hospital shameful

Gaza’s Government Media Office says the storming of the medical centre and turning it into a military base by Israel is a “blatant war crime” that violates all international treaties and standards. “We hold the Israeli occupation and the international community and the United States fully responsible for the lives and safety of hundreds of medics and patients and wounded and displaced people still inside [the hospital],” the office said in a statement.

It also rejected Israeli claims that the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis was used by Hamas to house Israeli captives, calling the allegations “well-worn” and known to be false in the eyes of the world. Israel has been attacking hospitals throughout Gaza, claiming Hamas connections. However, critics say the systematic targeting of medical centres aims to render the territory unlivable while robbing civilians of safe places to shelter.

Yet CNN just regurgitates it as truth:

Israel says it has "apprehended a number of suspects" in Nasser Hospital. The Israel Defense Forces said it had "apprehended a number of suspects," with spokesperson Daniel Hagari saying there was “credible intelligence from a number of sources, including from released hostages,” that Hamas had previously held hostages at the hospital. The military did not publicly release that evidence. 

Doesn't matter how many times the lies of the IDF and Israel get exposed and debunked.


Israel confining hundreds of people at Nasser Hospital to one building: Official

Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra says Israeli troops are forcing 95 medics, 191 patients and 165 displaced people into an old building at the medical centre under “harsh conditions” without food or milk for the children.

“The Nasser Medical Complex is witnessing a catastrophic, worrying situation because of the dwindling medical capacity as fuel is set to run out in the next 24 hours, which directly threatens the lives of patients, including six on respirators in intensive care and three children in incubators,” al-Qudra said in a statement.

Palestinians expelled from Nasser Hospital recount hardship

Israel’s raid on Nasser Hospital has displaced patients and medical workers, who speak of terrifying and strenuous conditions. “I left with my husband, who is blind. I was doing kidney dialysis. They destroyed the walls surrounding us as well as the doctor’s room. They ordered us to leave and fired at us, fired bombs and rockets on our heads from the top,” patient Rasmeya Saleem Abu Jamoos told Al Jazeera.

“They demolished the building. We left from the door, and we walked through sewage along with my husband. The Israelis then took my husband, and I lost my two bags. I cannot find them.”

Israeli attack drones terrorise women, children evacuating from Nasser Hospital

There is a devastating situation inside the Nasser Hospital. All the people inside the health facility, including patients and displaced people, are forced to leave the hospital through a narrow path that can fit one person at a time.

Mass arrests are going on. Women and children are terrorised with attack drones which follow them and fire at them. There have been bodies in the courtyard of the hospital since early morning when the Israeli military stormed the hospital.

Israeli occupation aircraft target displaced people after they were forcibly removed from Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. (graphic footage)

UNRWA says facility for visually impaired children has been totally destroyed

“Nothing remains of UNRWA ‘s Rehabilitation Centre for Visually Impaired,” the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency says in a social media post. “This centre was available to all visually impaired children across the Gaza Strip and provided braille machines, canes, visual aids + access to recreational activities including arts, sports & music.”

Footage from before the war shared by the organisation shows children in the facility learning how to type using braille.

Lebanon lays to rest victims of Israeli raids

Five children were among those killed on Wednesday in the deadliest day for Lebanese civilians in four months of hostilities across the Lebanon-Israel border



I felt sorry for the WHO when the world didn't want to take them serious on Covid and tried to discredit the WHO instead, favoring the economy over lives. Covid deaths are nearing 7 million, with over 700K active cases although testing is hardly being done anymore. My wife barely got through / is getting through a 3rd round of Covid. She broke her ribs from having to cough so bad and is now dealing with acute Bronchitus and at risk of pneumonia. She's been sick since before Christmas when 1 in 12 people here had Covid again, kids brought it home from school. (They never tested her for Covid, just assumed by similar symptoms).

Now the WHO pleads for help daily, yet everyone is too addicted to their arms trade with Israel to do anything meaningful.

Palestinians face famine imposed by Israel’s blocking of crucial aid

As Israel’s assault on Gaza continues to strain food supplies and Israeli authorities continue to block large portions of humanitarian aid, some Palestinians are going days at a time without adequate meals. “People in the south of Gaza are depending completely on humanitarian supplies being delivered through Rafah,” Al Jazeera correspondent Tareq Abu Azzoum reported from Rafah.

“The situation is critical for people who are still trapped in the north. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are living there and we’re being told by some of the residents there that they’ve been going for days and even weeks without sufficient food to survive. Parents are trying to get up early morning, trying to find food for their children,” he added.

Last edited by SvennoJ - on 15 February 2024

SvennoJ on 15 February 2024

Blinken says ‘very hard’ obstacles remain for Israel-Hamas deal

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says a deal between Israel and Hamas that would include a pause in the fighting and the release of Israeli captives and Palestinian prisoners is still possible but “very hard” points of disagreement have yet to be resolved.

“We are very committed to do everything we can to move forward and see if we can reach an agreement,” he added. Talks involving Egypt, Qatar, Israel and the US ended in Cairo this week without a breakthrough.

You are the obstacle, keeping on green lighting the ongoing genocide. No red lines even for Rafah, just please limit the 'bad stories' coming out of Gaza, which the IDF has been doing by eliminating journalists...

Al Jazeera rejects Israel’s justification for ‘heinous crimes’ against journalists

Al Jazeera Media Network has issued a statement rebuking Israel for claiming that it targeted and severely injured the network’s journalist Ismail Abu Omar because he is a Hamas deputy commander.

“The Network condemns the accusations against its journalists and recalls Israel’s long record of lies and fabrication of evidence through which it seeks to hide its heinous crimes,” Al Jazeera said in a statement. 

Abu Omar was wounded on Tuesday in an Israeli drone attack along with Al Jazeera cameraman Ahmad Matar. “At a time when its correspondents and field crews are making great sacrifices to cover what is happening in Gaza, Al Jazeera’s employment policies stipulate that employees are not to engage in any political affiliations that may affect their professionalism and to adhere to the controls and directives contained in the Network’s code of ethics and code of conduct,” Al Jazeera said. “Al Jazeera ensures that all its journalists and correspondents adhere to the editorial standards.”

Throughout the war, Israel has justified attacks in Gaza – including on civilian infrastructure, journalists, hospitals, aid groups and medics – by claiming its targets are associated with Hamas but without providing credible evidence.

PRCS rejects Israel’s ‘terrorist’ accusations

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) says Israeli claims that 20 “terrorists disguised as medical personnel” where arrested from al-Amal Hospital on Friday were “fabricated”. The Israeli army raided the Khan Younis hospital last week after it had come under heavy bombardment for weeks. Thousands of displaced people had taken shelter there.

“The PRCS believes that these accusations are only part of a series of excuses fabricated by the occupation forces to justify the siege, bombing, storming of hospitals, and killing of PRCS medical staff and others in the Gaza Strip,” the group said in a post on X. The aid organisation added that Israeli forces arrested nine of its medical and administrative staff as well as nine elderly patients and their companions.

Video shows bodies of infants decomposing at al-Nasr Hospital

Footage has emerged showing the decomposing bodies of premature infants at Al Nassr Pediatric Hospital in Gaza City, which was besieged earlier in the war. Al Jazeera’s verification unit, Sanad, confirmed the video shows the infants’ remains left unattended in one of the hospital’s wards.

“On November 10, the Israeli army besieged Al Nassr Children’s Hospital and then instructed the medical staff to evacuate the hospital along with the displaced persons,” Mohammed Hamouda, a doctor at the hospital, told Al Jazeera in a voice message. “In this situation, we were forced to merge the nursery with the intensive care unit for critical cases requiring artificial respiration,” he said. “We operated a generator to keep the equipment running. We left the hospital under the Israeli siege with the understanding that the Red Cross would follow up on these cases.”

“However, all of them passed away and were left to decompose,” he concluded.

UNRWA says 84 percent of health facilities impacted by attacks

The UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA has said that 84 percent of Gaza’s health facilities have been affected by attacks since the war began. Israeli forces have targeted and raided health facilities throughout the conflict.

“Shocking footage shows unimaginable destruction in Gaza City, including our health centre. +70 percent of civilian infrastructure- including homes, hospitals & schools- have been destroyed or severely damaged,” the group said in a social media post. “84 percent of health facilities have been affected by attacks. Nowhere is safe.”

‘Everyone is hungry in Gaza today’: Aid group

Joyce Ajlouny – the general secretary of the American Friends Service Committee, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning Quaker organisation working in Gaza since 1949 – tells Al Jazeera starvation in Gaza is at a “just enormous and truly catastrophic” level.

“Our staff who despite being displaced many times have continued to distribute some aid, [which is a] drop in the ocean. They told us on the call yesterday that they are having a hard time finding fresh food. Some of the [aid] trucks have spoiled food because of the bureaucracy. … The trucks have been held for far too long [by Israel],” she said from Bethesda in the US state of Maryland.

“We have purchased a few trucks of aid in Egypt, but we are not able to get them in [Gaza]. I think we have got only one truck in since the beginning of this war,” Ajlouny added.

“[Our staff] are telling us that they are seeing people hungry. Everyone is hungry in Gaza today. That is just enormous and truly catastrophic, and we’ve never seen anything like that before.” She also said her organisation is “worried that if an attack on Rafah takes place, then this is going to exacerbate the situation, and we are going to see our ability to provide humanitarian assistance, including food, crippled even more”.



SvennoJ on 15 February 2024

Speed of deterioration of humanitarian conditions in Gaza ‘absolutely terrifying’

A big obstacle to getting humanitarian aid into Gaza are the border checks Israel insists on making before trucks are allowed to enter.

Supplies arrive in Egypt on cargo ships at Port Said, or by plane at El Arish airport. Trucks due to enter Gaza are then checked by Israeli authorities at Nitzana, then cross back into Egypt where they head to the Rafah crossing – the last time any truck was allowed to pass through Rafah was February 4 – or they go to the Israeli-controlled Karem Abu Salem crossing for inspection and enter there.

Before the war began, about 500 trucks a day crossed into Gaza through Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom); only a handful are getting through now.

We’ve spoken to Alex de Waal, executive director at World Peace Foundation and the author of, Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine, about the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in besieged and bombarded Gaza.

Al Jazeera: You recently wrote a piece in which you said there’s no instance since World War II in which an entire population has been reduced to extreme hunger and destitution with such speed. Can you elaborate and tell us what you are basing it on?

Alex de Waal: I’ve been studying famine, and particularly man-made famine, the use of starvation as a war crime, for 40 years.

I’ve looked at cases around the world – Yemen, Ethiopia, Sudan, Syria – and the cases that are the most obviously comparable in recent history are the sieges of Syrian cities by the Assad regime. But nothing is comparable in terms of the speed and the concentrated effort at destroying what is essential to sustain the life of people – nothing compares to Gaza over the last 75 years.

The speed of deterioration of humanitarian conditions is absolutely terrifying.

Al Jazeera: Would you say the deterioration of humanitarian conditions is a byproduct or a direct result of Israel’s declared policy?

De Waal: Certainly, there’s no doubt that certain senior members of the Israel government and certain groups within Israeli society have the intent of starving Gaza.

What is absolutely clear also is that the military actions undertaken by the Israeli forces have that predictable and knowable effect. And really at this stage, it doesn’t really matter what is the ultimate intent, whether the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will find that Israel is responsible for the crime of genocide or not. What we know now is that they are knowingly pursuing military actions in the full knowledge that this will be the outcome.

The Famine Review Committee and the highest international humanitarian assessment body made that determination back in December, that if the military tactics did not change, unless there was a full spectrum of relief operations, Gaza would be in famine. The ICJ three weeks ago gave instructions to Israel that it had to do certain things. It has done nothing of that, so it is knowingly creating these conditions and undoubtedly that is unlawful.

Al Jazeera: As an occupying power, what are the Israeli government’s duties in ensuring that civilians have access to food and water, and what should the US and the UK do to avoid their complicity?

De Waal: Israel is under an absolute obligation, regardless of whether it’s an occupying power or not, of complying with what the ICJ said. And the particular provision there is that it is inflicting on the group – that is Palestinians in Gaza – conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction and that it had to desist from doing that. It has had three weeks to begin to do that, and on the contrary, it has intensified its activity.

Now, next week, Israel has to report to the ICJ on the actions that it has taken. Clearly, the report will not be satisfactory, and then it will be in breach of additional obligations that it has under international law. And then that brings the United States, in particular, into a very uncertain legal position because it may find, as the United States, that it has been complicit in crimes, possibly the crime of genocide, and certainly in enabling Israel to violate the instructions of the ICJ.

Quite apart from the absolute horrors of the destruction of the people of Gaza and everything that sustains life there, this brings us into very perilous unchartered legal and political territory.

‘Fear, hunger, despair, pain, death’ in Gaza: WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) has published a series of quotes from Palestinians describing the harrowing situation in Gaza.

“We ate a mouldy potato. We literally had to take worms out of it,” a man said.

“I have a shrapnel in my head, and it’s affecting my eyes. I have another shrapnel in my spine, and I cannot move at all,” a hospital patient said.

The UN health body has long called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, where the health system has collapsed.



US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller has been questioned about investigations into the killings of Al Jazeera cameraperson Samer Abudaqa and six-year-old Hind Rajab and her family in Gaza.



No updates, but we keep 'pressing' them and do nothing.



SvennoJ on 15 February 2024

Looks like the original plans of Netanyahu's government are going forward regardless

Egypt appears to be preparing space in Sinai for displaced Palestinians: Report

The Washington Post reports that the Egyptian government appears to be preparing for the possibility of an influx of Palestinians pushed out of Gaza into the Sinai Peninsula if an anticipated Israeli assault on Rafah moves forward. Some Israeli officials have promoted expelling Gaza’s population since the beginning of the war, but Israel’s allies, including the US, have warned that they would not support the forced displacement of Palestinians out of Gaza.

“Egyptian officials have threatened to suspend the countries’ 40-year peace accord if an attack on Rafah forces refugees across the border; new footage obtained by The Washington Post suggests Egypt is preparing for such a scenario,” the Post reported. This week, the UK-based group Sinai Foundation for Human Rights, which has a monitoring team in Sinai, reported that Egypt was constructing a large concrete barrier to contain Palestinian refugees who could be displaced to Egypt.

The Post reported that it has verified video footage and other data showing that Egypt is “clearing debris from a rectangular plot of land measuring about eight square miles [21sq km] adjacent to the Gaza border, with a concrete wall being built around the perimeter”. An unidentified Egyptian official also suggested to the US newspaper that the move is likely a contingency plan for what Egypt sees as a “worst-case scenario”.

Egypt has vehemently rejected the forced displacement of Palestinians into its territory.

The Sinai Foundation shared with the Washington Post its findings regarding Egyptian efforts to secretly clear a large area near the Gaza border, possibly to accommodate Palestinian refugees fleeing from a likely upcoming Israeli invasion of Rafah. The footage and satellite images we shared with the Washington Post showed that construction was already underway.



SvennoJ on 15 February 2024



Some of today's videos.