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

SvennoJ on 01 March 2024

Injuries in Israeli tank attack, air raids on Deir el-Balah

Israeli tanks have attacked al-Qastal towers, east of Deir el-Balah, where thousands of Palestinians have been taking shelter.

The continuous bombing hasn’t stopped for three days, and this time an apartment was hit, leading to three injuries. “This is causing us panic,” Hassan al-Omari, a 21-year-old resident of the towers, told Al Jazeera. “It’s not the first time the towers have been hit. I was injured before in a previous attack before the ground operations in Deir el-Balah. We evacuated to the west as a result and then returned.”

“Even the sound of the tanks during the night is terrifying. We can’t sleep at all, and now they’re attacking us. We simply may have to leave again.”

Separately, an air raid has hit a family house in central Deir el-Balah, leaving many injured, who have been taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

Bombing ongoing in Khan Younis

We have been hearing more loud explosions in the southern part of Khan Younis. From Rafah, we can see plumes of smoke rising on the horizon from the continuing bombardment. In addition, Israeli forces have surrounded a school housing evacuees in Khan Younis and opened fire in its vicinity.

Air raids are also going on in the north of the territory, with three reportedly carried out in the vicinity of the Indonesian Hospital.

Child in Rafah among victims of latest Israeli strikes

The latest round of Israeli strikes this evening have caused dozens of casualties, reports the Palestinian Wafa news agency. They include:

  • One child killed and others injured from Israeli bombardment on the Yibna refugee camp in Rafah, southern Gaza.
  • Numerous killed and injured from Israeli bombardment on a home in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza.
  • One man killed by Israeli drone fire in the village of Maghraqa in central Gaza.
  • Several injured by Israeli artillery fire in eastern Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.




Moving goalposts again. Israel knows damn well Hamas is no longer able to keep track of all the hostages, definitely not without a ceasefire.

Israel says no more ceasefire talks until Hamas sends list of live captives

Israel has told mediators Egypt and Qatar that it will not proceed with ceasefire negotiations until Hamas sends it a list of Israeli captives who remain alive in Gaza, Israel’s Walla news site reports, citing a senior Israeli official. The official said Israel is also seeking a “serious answer” from Hamas on the number of Palestinian prisoners it is requesting be released as part of a potential deal, Walla reported.

Deaths of seven Israeli captives show Israel’s war strategy ‘not working’

The deaths of the captives, whom Hamas says were killed in the Israeli bombardment of Gaza, show that Israel’s government considers them a “secondary priority”, says Omar Ashour, professor of security and military studies at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. “The [Israeli military’s] first priority is to destroy the armed wing of Hamas and the other Palestinian factions, to undermine them in any way, even if it costs the lives of some of the hostages,” Ashour told Al Jazeera.

The latest reported deaths of captives also indicate that Israel’s war strategy is not achieving its objectives after more than 140 days of fighting, he said. “We are in the 147th day of war and there are more and more hostages dying, the majority of them by Israeli fire,” Ashour said. “The only way to release the hostages safely is the way it was done before – through some sort of negotiations. The Israeli government knows that. … They just don’t want to admit it.”



Preparing for the next massacre

Israeli general warns of mass protests in West Bank during Ramadan

Yehuda Fox, who heads the Israeli military’s Central Command, has warned troops to be prepared for the possibility that “hundreds of thousands” of Palestinians will stage protests during the holy month in the occupied West Bank, Israeli media is reporting.

“Readiness for escalation is fundamental,” Fox said at a training session for the military’s Central Command, according to the Times of Israel. “We must improve our [readiness] every day. There may be an event [whether Israel is to blame or not] that will cause hundreds of thousands to take to the streets. This needs to be imagined and prepared for in all respects.”

Israeli settlers build symbolic house on Gaza border

The settlers are calling for Israel to take permanent control of the enclave and build Israeli settlements in it after the war.

“We must settle. We must spread Jewish towns all over the Gaza Strip,” one Israeli woman told Al Jazeera.

The call to permanently displace Palestinians in the enclave comes as Israeli settlers grow emboldened during the war in Gaza, waging at least 561 attacks on Palestinians since October 7, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Chief of US government’s top aid agency: Israeli settler violence ‘must stop’

Samantha Power, head of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), has shared footage of a visit she made to a Palestinian youth center in the occupied West Bank that has been shuttered due to frequent attacks from Israeli settlers.

“Repeated attacks by extremist Israeli settlers have forced its doors to close and sent shock waves of fear through the community, Power wrote on X. “This violence is intolerable and must stop.”



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SvennoJ on 01 March 2024

Belgian MP says more needs to be done after international parliamentarians sign Israel arms embargo letter

Simon Moutquin, a member of the Belgian parliament and one of the signatories to the letter, told Al Jazeera that his own country had to act to stop Israel.

“As a signatory country of the Convention Against Genocide, [Belgium has] a legal and moral obligation to act and prevent the risk of genocide, so I think this letter … is a good first step, but we need to go further,” Moutquin said.

Speaking about European divisions on Gaza, Moutquin said that Europe risked its credibility to speak on Russia’s actions in Ukraine if it remained silent on Gaza.

“We need to really speak about international law,” he said. “We are so hypocritical in Europe to speak about international law when we speak about Ukraine and Russia, [but] if we don’t have the same [views] when we speak about the Palestinians, we will not have any credit in the future to speak about [it].”

WHO provides fuel, medical supplies to al-Shifa Hospital

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), said the body and other aid groups have managed to reach al-Shifa Hospital to supply it with aid for the first time in more than a month.

The teams delivered 19,000 litres (about 5,000 gallons) of fuel to the north Gaza facility, as well as “lifesaving medical supplies for 150 patients and treatment for 50 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition”, Tedros said in a post on X.

However, he noted that the facility’s capacity remains “very limited” due to scarce “supplies, fuel, water, and food” and that it was relying on volunteers to treat more than 240 patients.

“The level of destruction around the hospital is beyond words,” he said.

Dearborn mayor criticises Biden administration for not holding Israel accountable

A Democratic mayor in the US state of Michigan has reacted to the Biden administration’s plans to airdrop humanitarian supplies into Gaza by accusing it of failing to hold Israel accountable for blocking aid in the first place.

“To be clear: The US is dropping humanitarian aid because the Israeli government will NOT allow it into Gaza and our government refuses to hold Benjamin Netanyahu accountable,” Abdullah Hammoud, the mayor of the city of Dearborn, said on X.

Michigan is one of a handful of swing states that are likely to determine the outcome of the 2024 presidential election. The midwestern state has a significant population of Arab and Muslim Americans, many of whom are opposed to the war in Gaza and have expressed anger with Biden over his support for Israel.



Of course the air drops are coordinated with Israel as well, and fit in the starvation plan. Only 1 or 2 trucks of goods can be air dropped at a time, a negligible amount of which part fell in the sea last attempt. It's just a media smoke screen, photo op, providing aid theater. It's impractical and a huge waste of tax payer money.

White House responds to questions on US airdrop plan: ‘Why are we still so supportive of Israel?’

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby has been pointedly asked why the US continues to support Israel when its restrictions on aid into Gaza are the reason the US has to airdrop supplies into the Palestinian territory.

“The reason those risks now fall to the United States is because Israel is starving those people. So why are we still so supportive of Israel when it is the one that is creating the problem that the United States now has to try to alleviate?” Niall Stanage, a columnist for The Hill, asked Kirby during a White House briefing.

“Israel itself has tried to help with the delivery of humanitarian assistance, as I said, they tried airdrops themselves just a week or so ago on their own accord,” Kirby said in response. “It’s a war zone and there’s nowhere else for them to go. It’s not like in some other conflicts where they can easily flee,” Kirby said, blaming Hamas for creating the current circumstances in Gaza.

“There’d be no need for airdrops if Hamas hadn’t chosen to break what was a ceasefire in place on the 6th of October,” Kirby continued.

That's all the US says nowadays, Hamas Oct 7 Hamas Oct 7 Hamas Oct 7 Hamas Oct 7 Hamas Oct 7 Hamas Oct 7 Hamas Oct 7.

Ceasefire before October 7th? Even before Hamas' attack on October 7, Israeli forces had already killed 234 Palestinians in the West Bank this year, while settlers were responsible for nine more killings.
But yes technically there was a ceasefire after Operation Shield and Arrow in May
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_2023_Gaza%E2%80%93Israel_clashes

There would be no need for airdrops if you didn't cover Israel's atrocities all the way while providing the weapons to carry them out. Plus it's just another distraction to buy time, unless you have 300 daily air drop runs planned.... 



SvennoJ on 01 March 2024

UN calls for probe of Israeli forces, documents ‘at least 14’ attacks on Palestinians seeking aid in Gaza

The UN’s human rights office for the occupied Palestinian territories has called for a “prompt … impartial and effective investigation” into the killing of at least 112 Palestinians and the injuring of an estimated 760 when Israeli forces attacked people seeking food assistance on Thursday.

“Effective investigations are urgent and essential, to ensure accountability for any violations as well as with a view to reviewing rules of engagement for forces operating in populated areas,” the UN office said in a statement.

Between mid-January and the end of February, the UN office said it had “recorded at least 14 incidents involving shooting and shelling of people gathered to receive desperately needed supplies” at the Kuwait Roundabout on Salah al-Din Street and Al Nabulsi Roundabout.

“A majority of these incidents” resulted in casualties, the UN said.

“Israel’s choices of methods and means of warfare have caused a humanitarian catastrophe,” it added.

UN witness: Injured from aid-seekers attack by Israeli forces suffered ‘gunshot wounds’

Georgios Petropoulos of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that he had seen people with gunshot wounds sustained during the deadly attack by Israeli forces on thousands of Palestinians wanting to receive food aid in Gaza City on Thursday.

“It is one day after the tragic events at the Beach Road checkpoint, where hundreds of people lost their life and were injured,” Petropoulos said in a video report shared on social media. “As I speak to you, this hospital is treating more than 200 people that were injured yesterday. We have seen people with gunshot wounds. We have seen amputees, and we have seen children as young as 12 that were injured yesterday,” he said.

“These events cannot be allowed to go on,” he added. “We need to have safe, secure passage throughout Gaza to reach the people that need humanitarian aid. We need every single crossing into Gaza opening and these people need to have not just food and water, but the hospitals need equipment.”

WHO: ‘Sad threshold’ as 10 children confirmed starved to death in Gaza

The World Health Organization has said that at least 10 children are confirmed to have starved to death in hospitals in Gaza.

WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier described the number as a “sad threshold”. “These are official records and as you all point out, exactly, the unofficial numbers can unfortunately be expected to be higher,” Lindmeier said in a video posted on X.

“And once we see them, once we see them registered in hospitals, once we see them registered officially, it’s already further down the line.”



According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the ministry confirmed four more deaths of children, which brought the total so far to 10, while a further 193 Palestinians were killed and 920 injured between Thursday afternoon and midday on Friday.

The majority of those reported killed during the period covered in the latest OCHA report were victims of an Israeli military attack on aid-seekers in Gaza City.

OCHA reported that several countries have now called for an independent investigation into the actions of Israeli forces and the circumstances surrounding what has been branded the “flour massacre”.



SvennoJ on 01 March 2024

At least 17 killed as Israeli warplanes bomb three houses in Gaza: Reports

The Palestinian state news agency, Wafa, is reporting that at least 17 people have been killed in Israeli jet fighter attacks on three residential buildings in the Gaza Strip’s Deir el-Balah area and the Jabalia refugee camp.

According to Wafa and our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic, 15 people were reported killed and dozens wounded in attacks on two houses located east of Deir el-Balah. Another two people were reported killed in the bombing of a house in Jabalia, where at least 70 people were sheltering, Wafa reports.

Wafa also said that rescue crews will try to determine by tomorrow how many of the residents of the house in Jabalia are trapped beneath the rubble.

Martyrs and the injured in an Israeli bombing that targeted two homes and a mosque in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip

Teenager shot dead as Israeli forces continue night raids in occupied West Bank: Report

Israel forces have killed a Palestinian teenager in a village west of Ramallah during night raids and house searches across the occupied West Bank. The slain 16-year-old was identified as Muhammad Murad al-Deek, according to the Wafa news agency, who was reportedly shot dead when the Israeli military stormed Kafr Nima village in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Palestine’s Red Crescent Society said an emergency crew attempted to save the life of a victim who sustained gunshot wounds to the head in Kafr Nima.

Israeli military raids were also reported in the following villages, towns and cities:

  • A young man was arrested during raids on Qalqilya city and the town of Azzun to the east – it was the sixth consecutive night that the town has been raided by the Israeli military.
  • Hebron city and the towns of Bani Naim, Yatta and Tarqumiyah in Hebron’s governorate, and as-Samu south of Hebron where a vehicle was also seized.
  • Sanur town, south of Jenin city, where Israeli soldiers seized the contents of a printing plant.
  • Live bullets and sound bombs were used by Israeli forces when confronted by Palestinian youths resisting a raid on the town of Jaba, south of Jenin. Raids were also carried out on the towns of Arraba and Silat ad-Dhahr, also south of Jenin, and Israeli forces entered the villages of al-Jalama, Arbouna, Faqqua, and Deir Ghazala.





Biden, Italy’s Meloni reiterate support for Israel’s right to ‘self-defence’

US President Joe Biden and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni have reiterated their support for Israel’s right to ‘self-defence’ and discussed the urgent need for more aid in Gaza during a meeting at the White House.


Palestinians gather in a street destroyed by Israeli bombardments as humanitarian aid supplies are airdropped in Gaza City on March 1

“The leaders discussed developments in the Middle East, including the importance of preventing regional escalation. They reaffirmed their commitment to Israel’s right to self-defence consistent with international law and underscored the urgent need to increase deliveries of life-saving humanitarian assistance throughout Gaza,” the White House said in a statement on Friday.

Biden and Meloni also talked about the ongoing war in Ukraine and the G7, which Italy is leading as the current chair.



SvennoJ on 01 March 2024

Rishi Sunak's CHILLING Speech Denouncing Gaza Protesters Exposes Sinister Plan




Host FED UP With Israel's Gaza Massacre Spin



POWERFUL Silent Protest For Gaza At EU Parliament

There are no more words to speak about what's going on in Gaza Mr President of this session
There are no more laws to break
There are no more appeals that we can do to what's going on

The hypocrisy is obvious

Our Collective Humane has failed
We said that we won't fail but we're failing again
Human rights have a skin color and the darker you are the less human rights you have

We have been tried to be silenced
They have tried to make us look like anti-semites
They have tried to make us look like we don't care about the safety of the Israeli people
All of that still to make it possible to kill more Palestinians unfortunately



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SvennoJ on 01 March 2024

Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem condemn killing of Gaza aid seekers

The Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem, an ecumenical group of Christian leaders, condemned the “wanton attack” on Thursday during which more than 100 people were killed in Gaza as they were collecting aid supplies.

“Although government spokesmen initially tried to deny the soldiers’ involvement in this incident, later that day Israel’s Minister of National Security not only praised [Israeli] fighters for acting ‘excellently’, but also attempted to blame the victims for their own demise, charging that they had sought to harm heavily armed soldiers,” the church leaders said in a statement posted on X.

“He went on to assail the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza, auguring that it should cease. That stated desire has already become a harsh reality for the half-million remaining in Gaza City, where aid deliveries have nearly halted because of heavy entry restrictions and lack of security escort for the delivery convoys,” they said in their statement.

CNN tactics at work



SvennoJ on 02 March 2024

Settler attacks reported across occupied West Bank

The Palestinian Wafa news agency has reported several setter attacks taking place across the West Bank.

  • Settlers seized a park in the village of Qaryout, south of Nablus, taking control of a building under construction in the middle of the park and raising an Israeli flag above it. They also took control of a water spring on the outskirts of Qaryout.
  • Palestinian farmers have been attacked in the town of Qarawat Bani Hassan, west of Salfit, in the central West Bank. Settlers attempted to stab Muhammad Yaqoub Rayan, a resident, with a sharp object and fired live ammunition at other farmers.
  • Settlers stormed the homes of Palestinian residents in Arab al-Malihat, northwest of Jericho, beating and wounding several of them.



International community not putting ‘enough effort’ into Gaza aid delivery

Mahjoob Zweiri, director of the Gulf Study Centre in Doha, has told Al Jazeera that he believes the international community is not putting enough pressure on Israel to allow trucks to enter Gaza, opting instead for airdrops that are far less efficient.

“Why not send food in through Karem Abu Salem?” Zweiri said. “There are 2,000 trucks waiting to get into Gaza” at border crossings, he said, while food and medicines pile up for months past their expiry dates.

“Why isn’t the international community not putting enough effort into delivering aid in an organised manner?” he asked.

The analyst added that airdropped aid may land in the sea or in areas under bombardment, making it impossible for people to consume or retrieve it.

US confirms aid airdrop with Jordan

Here’s the statement from the US Central Command, confirming earlier widespread reports that the US had conducted humanitarian aid airdrops in Gaza:

“U.S. Central Command and the Royal Jordanian Air Force conducted a combined humanitarian assistance airdrop into Gaza on March 2, 2024, between 3:00 and 5:00 p.m. (Gaza time) to provide essential relief to civilians affected by the ongoing conflict.

The combined operation included U.S. Air Force and RJAF C-130 aircraft and respective Army Soldiers specialized in aerial delivery of supplies, built bundles and ensured the safe drop of food aid.

U.S. C-130s dropped over 38,000 meals along the coastline of Gaza allowing for civilian access to the critical aid.

The DoD humanitarian airdrops contributes to ongoing U.S. government efforts to provide life-saving humanitarian assistance to the people in Gaza. We are conducting planning for potential follow-on airborne aid delivery missions.

These airdrops are part of a sustained effort to get more aid into Gaza, including by expanding the flow of aid through land corridors and routes.”



There are 576,000 people one step away from famine, and 2.2 million overall in urgent need of food.
You need 58 of these flights a day just to provide one meal per person.

One drop with potential follow-on is just a photo op, one meal for 1.7% of the people in need, or one meal for 6.6% of those one step away from famine.

This is downscaling aid delivery, not upscaling. It's a desperate solution for impossible to reach areas, like the North of Gaza as long as Israel keeps the other crossings closed and delivery from the sea blocked. Yet that's all under Israel's control. Israel being fine with air drops says enough about how effective they think they are.

Over 2,000 trucks are stuck at Rafah waiting to enter Gaza, 60K tons of aid are waiting at the border. (Food makes up 40% of that)
Food trucks can carry 30 metric tons each.

A C-130 can airlift as much as 19,000 kilograms of cargo or 19 metric tons. (less than 1 truck) To air lift the aid waiting on 2,000 trucks, you need 3,158 flights. For the food alone you need 1270 flights. Just to make up the daily deficit to maintain Januari levels of aid (dropped from avg 100 to 46 a day), you need 85 flights a day. And that was too little leading everyone into famine.

Also the cost

Airdropping food costs about $16,000 per ton, as opposed to $180 per ton on average to move food aid by truck, according to a U.S. Air Force study from 2016. That's $300,000 per flight. The 60K tons of aid waiting cost 10.8 million to transport in on trucks, per plane about 1 billion dollars.


It's another delay tactic, see we're doing something. Totally impractical solution to a dire situation which couldn't wait any longer weeks ago. Yet the propaganda media will go with it while the people in Gaza keep on being starved to death.



SvennoJ on 02 March 2024

US airdrop of aid ‘grossly ineffective PR move’

Mohamad Elmasry, an analyst at the Doha Institute for Graduate studies, has told Al Jazeera that the US decision to airdrop aid inside the Gaza Strip is a “PR move” that is “grossly ineffective.”

“They’re going to be airdropping the equivalent of two trucks of aid, and Biden just said that hundreds of trucks are needed every day,” Elmasry said. Additionally, “the US has been supplying weapons to Israel and even bypassed Congress twice to send more.”

He said the Biden administration is conscious of the optics and is aware that Israel may be convicted of genocide a few years from now. “They want to be able to be able to say: We told Israel not enough aid was going in and we even did these air drops – so we weren’t complicit in this genocide,” he added.

While the US has leverage on Israel and could “pick up the phone and end all this right now,” it choses not to do so because of political calculations. “They have a strategic interest in supporting Israel and are terrified of what AIPAC, the Israeli lobby, may do inside the US and wreak havoc on the upcoming election,” Elmasry said.

“Unfortunately for Palestinians, Palestinian life isn’t particularly high on that priority list.”


Palestinians gather in a street as humanitarian aid is airdropped in Gaza City on Friday

Aid groups unconvinced by humanitarian aid drops

Aid agencies are saying that the US government’s efforts would be much better spent putting more pressure on Israel to open more land crossings and to provide security so that the aid that crosses at those land border locations can actually be distributed. They say that much more aid can be delivered that way.

They are also calling on the US to not put planes in the air to drop material, because they say that is dangerous for those on the ground.

The aid groups also believe that the US is not using its leverage to convince Israel to agree to a temporary ceasefire or pause in the fighting, something the Biden administration has said that it wants to achieve.

Aid airdrops ‘symbolic’ gesture to ‘appease’ US electorate

Dave Harden, former USAID director to the West Bank, has told Al Jazeera that airdrop deliveries planned by the US are a “symbolic” and ineffective way of delivering aid to the Gaza Strip. “The airdrops are symbolic and designed in ways to appease the domestic base,” he said. “Really what needs to happen is more crossings [opening] and more trucks going in every day.”

Airdrops recently delivered by the Jordanian air force ended up in the sea and in Israeli territory due to strong winds. Footage showed large crowds on the shore in Deir el-Balah scrambling into the sea to fetch the aid, which had been spoiled by the salty water.

Harden said high-altitude airdrops are conducted to minimise the danger of flying at lower altitudes, making this an inefficient and risky way of delivering aid.

“I think the United States is weak and that’s really disappointing to me,” he added. “The US has the ability to compel Israel to open up more aid and by not doing that we’re putting our assets and our people at risks and potentially creating more chaos in Gaza.”



SvennoJ on 02 March 2024

Death toll from aid-seekers attack rises to 118

The death toll from Thursday’s deadly attack on aid-seekers near Gaza City has risen to 118, the Ministry of Health has said in a statement. The ministry said two more people had died of their wounds at the Al-Shifa Medical Complex.

The number of victims may still rise as dozens have life-threatening injuries amid a severe lack of medical supplies, the statement said. It added that 760 people have been injured.


Palestinians who were wounded in Israeli fire while waiting for aid, according to health officials, lie on beds at al-Shifa Hospital, Friday

Overnight attacks ‘horrifying’ for Deir el-Balah residents

Last night was extremely hard for people in Deir el-Balah with unrelenting attacks by tanks and jets throughout the night.

There were at least 10 explosions, mostly in the western and eastern parts of the city. Three people were killed and three injured just 20 meters (66 feet) from where we are. Missiles flattened two of the houses and badly damaged eight others. This square – which has already been hit seven times before – is now just a pile of rubble.

“We thought [the square] wouldn’t be targeted again, but we got up to the horror late at night.” Hamza el-Outy, who lives in the square and was previously injured in a strike that damaged his home, told Al Jazeera. “Three rockets damaged the area, killing 10 of my neighbours. The death toll in our neighbourhood has now risen to around 40. It’s horrifying.”

Father’s video reveals plight of starving child

Yazan al-Kafarneh is struggling to survive as he suffers from severe malnutrition. His condition has worsened since his family was displaced from northern Gaza to Rafah City and is hanging by a thread due to the lack of food and medical care.

In a video posted on Instagram, Yazan’s father shows a picture of a round-faced child – a far cry from the barely surviving skeleton that lies on a hospital bed next to him. “This picture was taken a week before the war,” the father says in the video, without specifying the age of the child.

“His condition has changed to this because of malnutrition, as his whole life has changed.”

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4AUIokMDke/

Three Palestinians killed while ‘picking herbs’ in northern Gaza

Israeli forces shelled a group of people trying to pick herbs in Beit Hanoon in northern Gaza, where extreme food shortages have driven many residents to the brink of starvation, according to the Palestinian Wafa news agency.

The attack killed three civilians and injured seven, the news agency said.

Also in northern Gaza City, Wafa reported that the latest round of Israeli air strikes killed at least 10 civilians and wounded five.

Eleven killed, 50 injured in Rafah strike on tent: Health Ministry

Eleven people have been killed and at least 50 injured after an Israeli army air attack “targeting displaced persons’ tents” next to the entrance of the Emirati Maternity Hospital in Tal as-Sultan, Rafah City, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said in a statement.

Abdel Fattah Abu Marhi, the head of the paramedic unit at the hospital, was killed. The ministry added that children were among the injured.


Injured treated at Rafah’s al-Helal Hospital after Israeli attack on tents

People’s sense of safety ‘shattered’ after Rafah strike

The narrative that Rafah is a safe zone has once again been proven false. Back in December, people were literally told to go this particular area of Rafah – Tal as-Sultan – to avoid being bombed.

But now a tent filled with displaced evacuees in the area, including an entire family, has been directly hit by a drone attack. At least 11 have been killed and numerous injured, including a paramedic.

While this is not the first time that the Tal as-Sultan area has been targeted, it is probably the worst.

Within the last few minutes, eight of the bodies have been taken to the Kuwaiti Hospital, where the scene is very chaotic. It is a small hospital, unprepared for the large number of injuries that are arriving. Soon, the wounded will be transferred to al-Najjar Hospital in central Rafah City, according to doctors.

People’s sense of safety in Rafah is completely shattered.


Crowded hospital looks like refugee camp in Rafah

Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah, where victims of a car attack have been taken for treatment, was unprepared to deal with the large number of injuries it is receiving. The hospital has also turned into a refugee camp, with displaced people crowding inside its corridors and courtyards, leaving no space for paramedics or doctors to move freely. The pressure continues to increase on Rafah’s health facilities.

In Gaza City, the situation remains terrible. More people, including children, are dying from starvation and dehydration. People there are also continuing to reel from the aftermath of Thursday’s “flour tragedy”, as is it is being called.

Photos show steady ‘destruction’ of Khan Younis

Aerial photos posted by the Palestinian Foreign Ministry show the extensive damage inflicted on Khan Younis by months of Israeli military strikes.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud has described the city, which is the largest urban area in southern Gaza, as transforming into a “maze of rubble”.

Everything is a target here in Gaza

People across Gaza are living in the aftermath of what they are referring to as the “flour atrocity” where a large group of aid seekers were targeted on Thursday morning near Gaza City. At least 115 people were killed in that massacre and more risk losing their lives at al-Shifa Hospital, which is not equipped to deal with the injuries.

At the same time, Palestinians are enduring an intense bombing campaign across Gaza. The largest attack overnight happened in Deir el-Balah, where three homes were destroyed by massive air strikes. At least four of the victims were sheltering in tents when they were killed. More buildings and farmland have also been targeted near the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central area.

Khan Younis has turned into a maze of rubble, particularly around Nasser Hospital, which is still under military siege. Snipers are still set up in surrounding buildings, continuing to shoot at anything that moves and blocking aid convoys from reaching the facility.

It seems like everything across the Gaza Strip right now is a target.


Palestinians transport casualties following what Palestinian health officials said was Israeli fire on people waiting for aid, in Gaza City



SvennoJ on 02 March 2024

Israeli families of captives growing more concerned

There are going to be several demonstrations throughout Israel. The first will take place tonight in Tel Aviv, in what has become known as Hostage Square. Families of Israeli captives will gather here for a rally to call on the government to do everything they can to bring about the release of their loved ones.

These families have grown frustrated with the government. One of their major concerns is that their loved ones are going to die in the relentless bombardment that is besieging Gaza.

Hamas releasing a statement yesterday saying that seven of the captives have died from Israeli bombardment, along with a video, has been met with a lot of frustration. And that frustration is being directed at the Israeli government – which they believe has simply not done enough to bring back the captives.

Israeli opposition leader: Government not doing enough to return captives

Yair Lapid has joined thousands of Israelis marching for the return of captives still held in Gaza.

“You ask us whether we are doing enough to return the hostages, and the answer is no,” Lapid, a former prime minister, told the marchers, according to the Times of Israel. “If we were doing enough, then they would already be returning home.”

The crowd plans to rally in Jerusalem this evening at the conclusion of their four-day march, which began Wednesday at Re’im, the site of Hamas’s October 7 attack.


Family and supporters of the hostages held captive by Hamas in Gaza complete the final leg of a four-day march from the Israel-Gaza border to Jerusalem, to demand the immediate release of all hostages, near Jerusalem, Saturday

Thousands march in Kafr Kana to denounce Israeli attacks on Palestinians

Thousands are marching in Kafr Kana, an Arab town in northern Israel, to demand an end to Israel’s attacks against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

The demonstration took place after several attempts were thwarted by the Israeli police.

Protesters demanded a ceasefire in Gaza, the halting of plans by the Israeli army to invade the southern city of Rafah and an end to the attacks on Palestinian residents in the West Bank.

In Lydd, Palestinians fear tinderbox of Israel’s war, threat of expulsion

Since Israel launched its war on Gaza following Hamas’s deadly attack on October 7, tensions in mixed Palestinian and Israeli cities have approached boiling point. But few places are as tense as Lydd, a city run by far-right Mayor Yair Revivo and where relations between Palestinians and Israeli Jews have been fraught for years.

Palestinian activists say they fear for their lives, living in the shadow of the Israeli authorities and heavily armed Jewish Israeli citizens, many of whom belong to supremacist movements. They are warning that the city could “explode” into conflict and lead to the persecution and even expulsion of Palestinian residents.

“Palestinians know that Israelis are looking for any situation to kill us or arrest us, because right now it is war time,” human rights activist Ghassan Mounayer told Al Jazeera.


Palestinians in Israel rally with Palestinian flags in the mixed city of Lydd near Tel Aviv on May 13, 2022, a year after a member of the community was killed during inter-communal violence

Israel to seize additional territory to add to Maale Adumim settlement

Palestinians have lived for generations in al-Issawaya – a town located to the east of occupied East Jerusalem – which is now under threat from an expanding Israeli settlement that plans to push the local communities off their land.

Khalil Abu Al Reesh, mayor of al-Issawaya, said that land is very important to a Palestinian.

“If you take his land, you take his soul,” the mayor said. “They will kill Issawaya if they do it. They will kill Issawaya if they take the land here and then build a wall,” he said.

 

EU’s Borrell says responsibility for aid massacre lays on Israeli policies

The office of EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has requested an “impartial international investigation on this tragic event” following the killing of more than 100 Palestinians waiting for aid deliveries near Gaza City.

“In any case, it is Israel’s responsibility to comply with the rules of international law and to protect the distribution of humanitarian aid to civilian populations,” his office said in a statement. “The responsibility for this incident lays on the restrictions imposed by the Israeli army and obstructions by violent extremists to the supply of humanitarian aid,” the statement added.

“This very serious incident reveals that the restrictions on the entry of humanitarian assistance contribute to create scarcity, hunger and disease, but also a level of desperation that brings about violence.”

Israel responsible for ‘indefensible conditions’ in Gaza

France’s Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne says Israel is to blame for the desperate conditions leading up to the aid convoy attack near Gaza City on Thursday.

“The humanitarian situation in Gaza has been catastrophic for several weeks, if not several months. And this is creating indefensible and unjustifiable situations for which the Israelis are accountable,” Sejourne said in an interview with French newspaper Le Monde.

“Our efforts with the Israeli authorities to increase the number of crossing points and humanitarian trucks have gone unanswered. Starvation is adding to the horror. People are attacking the few convoys that do get through; the responsibility for blocking this aid clearly lies with Israeli.”

Palestinian Foreign Ministry blasts US for failing to deliver aid to Gaza

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry says the US is acting as a “weak, marginal state” that is unable to secure aid access to starving Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

In a statement posted on X, the ministry said “the behaviour of the United States does not conform to that of a great state able to pressure Israel into protecting Palestinian citizens and catering to their needs”.

“The ministry sees no excuse for the behaviour of the United States, who is behaving as a marginal, weak state in the face of its ally’s arrogance, tyranny and extremism, especially when it comes to delivering aid to Gaza.”



Head of Palestinian church committee appeals to global Christians

Ramzi Khoury, the head of the Palestinian Committee for Church Affairs, has issued a plea to international institutions and churches to raise their voices against Israel’s “massacres” in Gaza, Wafa reports. Khoury said the recent attack on aid-seekers in Gaza was “unprecedented in the history of war crimes” and should compel international institutions to mobilise to push for an “immediate ceasefire”.

The Palestinian territories are home to tens of thousands of Christians, including some 47,000 in the occupied West Bank and 1,000 in Gaza. However, Palestinian Christian leaders have said they are ignored by Western church leaders while Israeli military attacks put them in peril.

In an open letter by Palestinian Christians back in October, they wrote, “We are disturbed by the silence of many church leaders and theologians when it is Palestinian civilians who are killed.”


Palestinian official Dr. Ramzi Khoury, Head of the Presidential Higher Committee for Churches Affairs, right, stands with clerics

The unravelling of the New York Times’s ‘Hamas rape’ story

In December 2023, The New York Times published an explosive article – now widely discredited – that detailed Hamas’s agenda to weaponise rape and sexual violence on October 7.

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/the-unravelling-of-the-new-york-times-hamas-rape-story/video/54bceaf6e5137f9117f49b7e15a449ce




Freighter Rubymar has sunk in Red Sea: Gov’t

The cargo ship Rubymar, which was abandoned in the southern Red Sea after being targeted by Yemen’s Houthis on February 18, has sunk, a statement by the internationally recognised Yemeni government says.