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

SvennoJ on 03 December 2024

Some Palestinians in north Gaza have ‘completely run out of food, water’

A new report by UN agencies in Gaza has laid out the extent of the food crisis in the Palestinian enclave.

In besieged northern Gaza, it said:

  • Vulnerable people trapped in homes and shelters are reporting completely running out of food and water.
  • There are no functioning bakeries, and Israeli authorities have obstructed or impeded all attempts to deliver food.
  • There’s a strong likelihood that famine is imminent, while the number of people facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity (not having enough to eat) is expected to triple in the coming months.

In southern Gaza, it said:

  • All bakeries have shut down due to a lack of food.
  • An average of 36 humanitarian trucks per day have been allowed in, although at least 200 are needed daily.
  • Negative coping strategies are emerging, including skipping meals, child labour, early marriage and searching through rubbish for food.


Slain chef of Gaza Soup Kitchen fed thousands of Palestinians everyday

We reported on Israel’s killing of Mahmoud Almadhoun on Sunday. Almadhoun, who founded the Gaza Soup Kitchen with his brother Hani, cooked and distributed countless meals to try to combat the hunger caused by Israel’s siege on the north of the Gaza Strip.

In an interview with AJ+ six months before he died, Almadhoun described how starvation led some people to shrink “to skeletons”.

“I swear, what I wish from the bottom of my heart is to feed the entire north [of the Gaza Strip],” he said.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DDFXcUBxAGQ (page doesn't load for me, blocked)


At least 341 aid workers killed in Gaza since October 7 last year

The number of humanitarian workers killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war has reached 341, Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says, citing figures from the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

“Israeli air strikes killed four humanitarian workers, three from World Central Kitchen and one from Save the Children, raising the total number of aid workers killed since October of last year to 341,” Dujarric said during a media briefing.

He added that “our humanitarian partners are also warning that local food systems have been devastated by military ground operations, the bombardment of civilian areas and the presence of unexploded ordnance”.



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SvennoJ on 03 December 2024

Jewish-Canadian activists occupy parliament building over Gaza war

The activists are calling on Canada to stop sending weapons to Israel as it continues to bomb the Palestinian enclave.

Videos shared on social media showed dozens of people sitting at the entrance of a parliament building in Ottawa, singing songs and chanting, “Arms embargo now!”

“Every bomb Israel drops on Gaza and every missile they fire into Lebanon carries a grim truth: the warplanes and attack helicopters raining destruction on civilians could not fly without hundreds of Canadian-made components,” Niall Ricardo of Independent Jewish Voices Canada, one of the organisers of the protest, said in a statement.

“Canada’s ongoing arms exports and diplomatic support make it complicit in these atrocities.”


Macron, MBS call for a ‘ceasefire without further delay’ in Gaza

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and France’s President Emmanuel Macron met in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, and agreed to “make every effort to contribute to de-escalation” in the Middle East, according to a statement from the French presidency.

The leaders said their “priority… is to establish a ceasefire without further delay in Gaza” in order to free all the captives held by Hamas and protect Palestinian civilians through the delivery of humanitarian aid, the statement said.

They also pledged to “continue diplomatic efforts to consolidate the ceasefire” between Israel and Hezbollah and called for the holding of a presidential election in Lebanon to ensure stability in the country.

Macron visit to Saudi Arabia is the first state visit by a French president to the country since 2006.


Momentum in Hamas-Fatah talks ‘offers a hint of hope'

The talks taking place between Hamas and Fatah in Cairo are significant. They offer a hint of hope of movement and a breakthrough in the absence of such movement for many months.

Egypt has been a prominent player in inter-Palestinian dialogue, and what Cairo has recently done is to tie these talks to forming some sort of an administrative body. This body would be loosely connected to the Palestinian Authority and administer day-to-day life in Gaza.

These efforts are also tied to the efforts of the mediators – Egypt, Qatar and others – towards a Gaza ceasefire. And suddenly we see momentum: Hamas is being flexible, according to reports, and Fatah is offering to cooperate.


‘Ball is in Israel’s court'

The talks between Hamas and Fatah are over for now, and the Fatah delegation has gone back to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for his final authorisation.

So, not everything seems to have been agreed on, but basically, the ball is in Israel’s court. If Israel allows and facilitates this inter-Palestinian agreement and considers enough to move forward on reaching a ceasefire, then we have a different momentum.

If Israel vetoes or torpedoes these talks, then they are almost inconsequential as Israel occupies the Gaza Strip and has total control over it. Without some sort of movement in the inter-Palestinian track, it is difficult for the mediators to see any way of moving forward in talking ceasefire.



SvennoJ on 03 December 2024

UN’s Lazzarini puts spotlight on Gaza’s ‘pandemic of disabilities’

Gaza counts the highest number of child amputees per capita in the world, according to the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

One in four people injured during the war sustained life-changing injuries and will need rehabilitation services, including care for amputations and spinal cord injuries, Philippe Lazzarini said, citing the World Health Organization.

Lazzarini also shed light on the people needing special care “who have suffered in silence” during this conflict, noting that one in five families surveyed before October 7 had at least one person with disabilities.


‘How many days, Mum, until my hand grows back?’

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, has highlighted the plight of Gaza’s child amputees.

One of many children, who have lost limbs in the 14 months of Israeli attacks in the Palestinian enclave, is six-year-old Sidra. “How many days, Mum, until my hand grows back?” she keeps asking her mother at a shelter in the Nuseirat refugee camp, according to UNRWA.

We have reported earlier that Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA chief, said Gaza counts the highest number of child amputees per capita in the world.


The plight of disabled Palestinians in Gaza

Ahmed Al Toha is a disabled Palestinian child.

He says he is hungry and has been on the move since he fled from his home in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City. “Having to move with disability is extremely difficult. One night, we were surprised by advancing tanks near the house where we were staying in Khan Younis. We ran under fire in utter darkness,” he told Al Jazeera.

“My uncle carried me through the streets and fields until we reached a safer area. It was a terrifying night.”



SvennoJ on 03 December 2024

Four Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting that Israeli forces have killed three people in an attack on northern Beit Lahiya and one person in an attack on southern Rafah.


Four Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks on northern Gaza

Israel forces killed two Palestinians in another attack on Beit Lahiya and killed two more in a bomb attack on a four-storey building in Gaza City.


Dozens feared trapped under rubble in Gaza City, 8 reported killed in Beit Lahiya

It has been a rocky day across Gaza. Many areas came under Israeli attacks not just in central areas, but also in the north of the Gaza Strip.

In Gaza City, a four-storey building was destroyed. Dozens of civilians are feared trapped under the rubble. Civil Defence forces, with the help of civilians, are trying to find survivors from the debris.

In the northern town of Beit Lahiya, a group of civilians was targeted, according to witness reports. They said at least eight civilians were killed and 20 others wounded in a series of Israeli air strikes that took place a short while ago.


Volunteer doctors arrive at Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital

The hospital in northern Gaza is barely able to function because of continuous Israeli attacks targeting it. Last week, the director of the hospital’s intensive care unit was killed in an Israeli strike. The facility is now being supported by volunteer doctors.


Israeli drones cause casualties in southern Gaza’s Rafah city: Civil defence

Gaza’s civil defence says the rescue agency’s crews have transported “a number of injured people” to a hospital following Israeli drone attacks in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah.

A brief statement said the drone strikes took place in the areas of al-Geneina and Khirbet al-Adas in Rafah.

Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, said that four “critically injured” Palestinians were taken from Rafah to the Nasser Hospital in the nearby city, Khan Younis.

The agency’s spokesperson says an Israeli artillery bombardment targeted its crew when they attempted to rescue and transport injured Palestinians in the city in southern Gaza.

Death toll in Israeli strike on Beit Lahiya residential building rises

More deaths and more destruction across the northern part of the strip. We have a confirmed report that the number of people who were killed in the residential building in Beit Lahiya this morning has gone up to 12.

And it’s all because of the lack of proper medical care inside the hospitals. Many of the wounded were transferred on foot or by civilian vehicles or carts pulled by animals.


Three bodies retrieved after drone strikes in Rafah: Civil Defence

We are receiving updates on the reported drone attacks in Rafah. Three people killed by drones have been retrieved in northern Rafah in the south of the Strip, the Civil Defence said in a brief update.

Earlier, the Civil Defence reported that multiple drone attacks injured “a number of” Palestinians in the areas of al-Geneina and Khirbet al-Adas in Rafah.


Israeli forces strike home in Gaza City

Gaza’s civil defence says its teams have rushed to the site of an explosion in Gaza City. It said an Israeli attack struck a home in al-Moghrabi Street in the Sabra neighbourhood.



SvennoJ on 03 December 2024

Israel appoints pro-settler activist to oversee Palestinian property in East Jerusalem

Israel’s Finance Ministry has named Henanel Gurfinkel, a right-wing activist who claimed that East Jerusalem is under “Arab occupation”, to head an agency overseeing Palestinian property in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, according to Israel’s Haaretz newspaper.

The news drew immediate concern from Ir Amim, a Jerusalem-focused Israeli rights group.

It said the move was a “portent of wide-scale Palestinian dispossession and displacement in Jerusalem on a magnitude not seen since 1967“.

Ir Amim said that Israeli authorities were “placing countless individuals at risk of losing their homes” in the remaining Palestinian neighbourhoods after already “expropriating one third of East Jerusalem for Israeli settlements and declaring another one third as Israeli National Parks”.

Israeli forces launch extensive crackdown in West Bank refugee camp

Israeli soldiers are carrying out a large-scale campaign of arrests in the Aida refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, according to our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic. We’ll bring you more on this when we hear more.


Israeli soldiers arrest seven in West Bank’s Salfit

Israeli forces have arrested seven Palestinians from the town of az-Zawiya, in the Salfit governorate of the occupied West Bank, the Wafa news agency reports.

The soldiers first raided the men’s homes, searching and tampering with their belongings, Wafa added. As we reported earlier, Israeli forces also carried out a large-scale campaign of arrests in the Aida refugee camp in the Bethlehem governorate overnight.

More than 11,900 Palestinians have been arrested in the occupied West Bank since October 2023, according to the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.


Israeli army carries out raids, arrests across West Bank

Israel has carried out several military operations across the occupied West Bank in the past few hours, according to the Wafa news agency. Here’s a rundown of the activities:

  • Three people were arrested in the Hebron governorate.
  • Several military checkpoints were set up and roads closed in and around Hebron, hindering civilian movements.
  • Two men were severely beaten and arrested north of Bethlehem.
  • The Association of Freed Prisoners said Majdi Abu Akar, the deputy secretary of the Fatah movement, was arrested. It said 50 other Palestinians were detained and later released following a raid in the Aida and al-Azza refugee camps near Bethlehem.
  • One man was arrested in the village of Salem, east of Nablus.
  • The Sebastia town, northwest of Nablus, was raided and ransacked.
  • One man was injured in firing and two minors were arrested near Ramallah.

At least 730 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, according to the figures from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, since Israel’s war on Gaza started last year.


Israel attacks ‘terrorist’ cell in occupied West Bank

Israel’s military says it attacked a “terrorist” cell in the occupied West Bank’s Aqqaba village.


Two killed in Israeli attack near West Bank village: Palestinian ministry

Another person has been lightly injured “in lower extremities” after the Israeli army bombed a car near the village of Aqqaba in the northeastern occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry says.

The brief statement said the bodies and the injured person were transferred to the Tubas Governmental Hospital.


Israeli army arrests 18 Palestinians in occupied West Bank: Prisoners’ groups

Israeli forces have arrested at least 18 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since yesterday, according to a statement by prisoners’ groups.

The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said the arrests took place across the governorates of Salfit, Hebron, Ramallah, Bethlehem and Nablus as well as in occupied East Jerusalem.


Israeli army arrests doctor, nurse in West Bank’s Tubas

Israeli forces have arrested a doctor and a nurse at the Tubas government hospital in the centre of the occupied West Bank’s Tubas city. That’s according to videos broadcast by Palestinian platforms and activists and verified by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency Sanad.

We have reported earlier that two bodies and an injured person were transferred to the same hospital after an Israeli air attack on a car near the village of Aqqaba in the northeastern West Bank.


Qassam Brigades says it is clashing with Israeli troops in Tubas

The armed wing of Hamas says fighters armed with machineguns have engaged in clashes with the Israeli forces. The fighting is taking place near the Tubas Turkish Government Hospital and the Salhab area north of the occupied West Bank city.



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SvennoJ on 03 December 2024

Security source says Israeli strike near Damascus killed Hezbollah liaison with Syrian army: Report

An Israeli air strike on a car near Syria’s capital, Damascus, killed a senior Hezbollah figure responsible for liaising with the Syrian army, a Lebanese security source told Reuters.

Syria’s state news agency had reported the strike on the airport road but did not offer details on casualties.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Israel rarely acknowledges its strikes in Syria, where it has carried out a years-long air campaign against Iranian military assets and those of its allies, including Hezbollah.

Netanyahu has warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that he was “playing with fire” by allowing Iran to transfer weapons to its allies via Syria.

Al-Assad is losing grip on the country anyway. Maybe it will get better in Syria with less Russian and Iranian influence, maybe worse :/


Israel confirms killing Hezbollah liaison

Israeli forces has confirmed on Telegram that they killed a killed a senior Hezbollah figure responsible for liaising with the Syrian army.

“The Syrian regime supports Hezbollah and allows the organisation to exploit it for transfers of weapons to the Lebanese arena, thereby endangering the citizens of Syria and Lebanon,” a Israeli army spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added that the killed individual “was a significant and active figure in Syria, and his elimination constitutes an injury to the connection and establishment of the terrorist organisation Hezbollah in Syria and the prevention of the strengthening of Hezbollah.”

 

The illusion of Assad’s grip on Syria shatters, as Russia, Iran and Hezbollah let their guard down

https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/30/middleeast/analysis-syria-assad-rebels-intl-latam/index.html

It all depends on what happens with this new coalition after (if) they succeed taking over the country.



SvennoJ on 03 December 2024

US ‘outraged’ at Israel’s killing of Gaza aid workers

The US urges Israel to investigate allegations that its air strikes have killed aid workers in Gaza, State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel says, expressing outrage over the recent killing of a Save the Children staffer.

This week, Israeli strikes killed staff of the NGOs Save the Children and World Central Kitchen.

Asked about the killing of 39-year-old Ahmad Faisal Isleem Al-Qadi in an air strike on Saturday in Khan Younis, Patel said Washington was seeking more information about the death.

“We are outraged, and we are wanting more information about this incident,” Patel said. “The [Israeli army] needs to provide additional information about this incident,” he added.

US officials have had similar words for past Israeli killings of aid workers and attacks on UN personnel and have also urged Israel to investigate or provide more information. Public follow-up is rarely done, and consequences for Israel are scarcely offered.

Fake outrage as is the norm.



France, Saudi Arabia to host conference on Palestinian statehood

French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Tuesday that he and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman would co-chair a conference on the establishment of a Palestinian state in June.

“We have decided to co-chair a conference for the two states in June next year,” Macron said, referring to Israel and a potential Palestinian state.

“In the coming months, together we will multiply and combine our diplomatic initiatives to bring everyone along this path,” he added.

While the European Union does not recognise the state of Palestine, several European nations made moves this year to do so, including Ireland, Spain and Norway.

Saudi Arabia recognised Palestinian statehood in 1988.



Qatar rejects any attempt to reduce role of UNRWA

The words came in a statement from Abdulaziz Mohammed Al Mansoori, a Qatari official in Geneva, during the annual pledging conference of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva.

“The State of Qatar expressed its rejection of any attempts to either terminate or reduce the role of UNRWA, strip Palestinians of their refugee status, or liquidate their cause”, QNA news agency reports.

Just days ago, the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees halted the delivery of aid through the Karem Abu Salem (known as Kerem Shalom to Israelis) crossing between Israel and Gaza because of security concerns.

Israeli lawmakers are also moving to ban the organisation from operating within the country, a move that has drawn widespread international criticism.



SvennoJ on 03 December 2024

Civil Defence: Life for those who remain in Beit Lahiya ‘catastrophic’

A spokesperson tells our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic that Palestinians in the northern Gaza area face extreme difficulty and danger. Earlier, we reported that Israel had bombed Kamal Adwan Hospital and laid siege to a school-turned-shelter in Beit Lahiya.

Here is a summary of the spokesman’s comments:

  • Sixty thousand citizens in the northern Gaza Strip are at risk of death.
  • We cannot provide any medical or ambulance service in the northern Gaza Strip.
  • It has been 60 days since the siege began, and the people of the north have not had good food or clean drinking water.
  • Houses in the northern Gaza Strip are uninhabitable.


Several people killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza City

At least five people have been killed in an Israeli strike on a home in Gaza City’s Sabra neighbourhood, Palestine’s Wafa news agency reports, adding that others have been wounded.

Wafa said several other people were killed in a separate strike on the Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City.

Israeli forces encircle school-turned-shelter in Beit Lahiya

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting that Israeli forces have surrounded a school-turned-shelter in the besieged northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya, launching gunfire towards the building.

The Abu Tamam school is currently home to internally displaced families who have been unable to move southwards amid a renewed Israeli ground offensive in Gaza’s northern region, where famine looms due to a crippling siege.

Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked school shelters across Gaza, often killing and wounding many displaced Palestinians, including women and children.


Israeli army attacks north Gaza hospital

Al Jazeera Arabic’s correspondent on the ground in the Strip reports that Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya was subjected to artillery shelling and gunfire by Israeli forces.

The correspondent adds that added that the Israeli forces are besieging Abu Tamam schools, which shelter displaced people in the centre of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, noting that the besieged residents of Beit Lahiya are facing severe danger due to the intensification of the shelling.


Kamal Adwan Hospital confirms Israeli bombing

The director has told Al Jazeera that for the fifth time in recent weeks, the Israeli army has bombed the hospital. He said the army used quadcopter drones to drop bombs on the medical centre.

Last week, an Israeli drone killed Dr Ahmed al-Kahlout, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit, as he was reportedly passing through the gate of the besieged facility in northern Gaza.



SvennoJ on 03 December 2024

Palestinian Health Ministry condemns Israeli raid on West Bank hospital

The Palestinian Health Ministry has decried a raid by Israeli forces on the government hospital in the centre of the occupied West Bank’s Tubas city.

Earlier, we reported that a doctor and nurse were detained at the facility, where two bodies and an injured person were taken after an Israeli air attack on a car in a nearby village. The Health Ministry condemned the arrests and the firing of live bullets and “bombs” inside the hospital, according to a statement carried by Wafa news agency.

The ministry called on international institutions and the International Committee of the Red Cross to “intervene and immediately stop the assault on the hospital, its staff, and patients”. It said Israeli forces stormed the hospital and “took over” the first floor before severely beating the head of the emergency department.


Israeli army arrests two Palestinians near Nablus

The two have been identified as Ahmed Shatara and Mohammed al-Baz, who were taken from their homes in Qalqilya in the north of the occupied West Bank. The Palestinian news agency Wafa, quoting local sources, said the pair were detained when Israeli forces raided their homes in the town.


Israeli forces raid towns in occupied West Bank

Israeli forces have raided several towns and villages in the West Bank, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reports.

In the village of al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah, confrontations broke out between Israeli soldiers and residents. Soldiers fired live bullets and tear gas canisters upon entering the town, Wafa said, adding that several homes were raided, without reporting any detentions.

In Nablus, Israeli forces stormed the eastern part of the city, leading to confrontations, during which soldiers fired tear gas canisters and sound bombs towards residents.


Palestinian shot, then arrested in occupied East Jerusalem

Israeli forces fired live bullets, wounding a man and then arresting him in the Silwan neighbourhood, south of the Old City of Jerusalem, the Wafa news agency reports. The detention came as Israeli forces stormed Hizma, a town northeast of the city, Wafa said, citing local sources.


Israeli army vehicle runs over teenager near Nablus in occupied West Bank

An Israeli military vehicle ran over a 17-year-old boy in the West Bank town of Beita, south of Nablus, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reports.

Wafa cited the Palestinian Red Crescent as saying the teenager was moved to a nearby hospital after being run over when Israeli forces were raiding the town, sparking confrontations with residents.

It said Israeli soldiers fired tear gas canisters during confrontations.



SvennoJ on 03 December 2024

Main points on December 3rd

  • Israeli forces have bombed north Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital for the fifth time in recent weeks, as well as besieged a school sheltering hundreds of displaced people in Beit Lahiya.
  • Health Ministry officials in the Palestinian enclave have said that Israeli strikes have killed 36 people and wounded 96 more in the latest 24-hour reporting period.
  • The US has urged Israel to investigate allegations its air strikes have killed aid workers in Gaza, a State Department spokesperson has said, expressing outrage over the recent killing of a Save the Children staffer.
  • The UN says that “food availability is at an all-time low across” Gaza as Israel’s blockade of the territory continues, with some in the besieged north saying they are running out of all supplies.
  • An Israeli air strike on a car near Syria’s capital, Damascus, has killed a senior Hezbollah figure responsible for liaising with the Syrian army.
  • The UN peacekeeping force has said it is monitoring “violations” of a fragile US-brokered ceasefire in Lebanon after Israel carried out several deadly air strikes on the country’s south this week.

ICC seeks external probe into misconduct claims against chief prosecutor

The International Criminal Court’s (ICC’s) governing body has confirmed it is seeking an “external probe” into allegations of sexual misconduct by the court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan.

“After having consulted the Bureau of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP), I am seeking on behalf of the ASP Presidency an external investigation into the matters related to alleged misconduct by the ICC Prosecutor,” Paivi Kaukoranta, president of the ASP, the body overseeing the court, said in a statement on Monday.

Calling upon all parties to cooperate fully, the statement said the external investigation was “being pursued in order to ensure a fully independent, impartial and fair process”.

Khan, who had previously denied the allegations, said on Monday he would press ahead with his duties while the investigation is ongoing. “I welcome the opportunity to engage in this process,” Khan, 54, said in a statement, adding that he “will be continuing all other functions as prosecutor”.

Kaukoranta had issued a statement last month confirming the ASP was looking into the allegations against Khan “on the basis of a third-party report”.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/11/11/icc-seeks-external-probe-into-misconduct-claims-against-chief-prosecutor