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

SvennoJ on 04 March 2024

Another Israeli attack on aid seekers in Gaza City

An Al Jazeera live shot, featuring correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul, showed the moment when Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd of starving Palestinians attempting to access aid trucks.

Within the last hour, al-Ghoul and his crew were stationed at the Kuwaiti roundabout in Gaza City, when three aid trucks arrived to meet a crowd of thousands who had been waiting all day for humanitarian aid.

Just yesterday, the Kuwaiti roundabout saw an attack by Israeli forces that killed and injured dozens of aid seekers, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

As soon as the trucks arrived, the live shot shows, Israeli soldiers stationed nearby opened fire on the crowd, injuring some of them. Some people at the roundabout told Al Jazeera that they had been waiting since 8am (It is now 12:45am the next day) and that only a small fraction of those present were able to get an aid box, which included water, flour and a few other supplies.

These attacks are becoming a near-daily occurrence as Palestinians in northern Gaza continue to suffer from a lack of food and water.

Attack on health care facilities in Gaza ongoing: Canadian doctor

During a week-long mission in Gaza, Dijeng Peng says the attacks on healthcare institutions in the coastal enclave were ongoing.

“Only in the past two days, I had to check in to see if my colleagues at the Emirati Maternity Hospital were alive – because the gates of that hospital were struck by a drone strike,” the Canadian doctor told Al Jazeera.

“Many people do not feel safe to provide care, but they’re still doing essential care and looking after their patients and their community … it’s just horrendous.” Moreover, Peng said that a lack of food, water and housing has led to conditions of overcrowding and displacement, leading to the spread of infectious diseases.

“We are seeing so much communicable disease, such as respiratory infections and gastrointestinal disease, including a major outbreak of hepatitis A,” he said, adding that these are preventable diseases that can be vaccinated against.


It's clear who the real terrorists are, Israel backed by the US


The blame Hamas game has gotten old, Israel withheld their negotiation team

US VP Harris meets Gantz, calls on Hamas to accept truce deal

Kamala Harris in her meeting with Israeli War Cabinet member Benny Gantz has reiterated her support for Israel’s right to defend itself, a readout from the White House says.  “She reiterated US support for Israel’s right to defend itself in the face of ongoing Hamas terrorist threats, and underscored our unwavering commitment to Israel’s security.”

The vice president also expressed “deep concern” about the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Gaza, while urging Hamas to accept the latest six-week ceasefire proposal, which would allow a “surge of humanitarian assistance throughout Gaza”.

Harris’s comments come as President Biden is facing mounting pressure from voters over his support for Israel ahead of November’s presidential election. Democrats are increasingly concerned that Biden’s stance on the war could cost him votes, especially in Michigan, one of a handful of battleground states likely to decide the outcome of the election.

Kamala, just trying to cover her own hide like Biden, just as complicit in genocide. You need to call on Biden and Netanyahu to get a ceasefire.


Biden says will continue to push for six-week truce deal in Gaza

Biden says he is determined to continue advocating for a truce deal that would secure the release of Israeli captives held by Hamas and the establishment of a six-week ceasefire deal to allow a surge of aid.

The Biden administration has come under severe criticism for its unwavering support of Israel, with his administration vetoing a ceasefire resolution at the UN Security Council three times since the war in Gaza began.



Is Biden really that delusional that 6 weeks of aid can curb 5 months of malnutrition. And then what, get ready to be bombed again? It's said that it will take 4 years alone to clear the rubble (and people buried underneath the rubble). The surge of aid didn't happen last ceasefire. As long as Israel keeps blocking ('inspecting') aid trucks, it's not going to happen. Yet 6 weeks of limited killing (Israel didn't stop killing last ceasefire, West bank...) is better than just continuing shooting people waiting for aid.

Anyway after all that's happened, I doubt Biden is really pushing. Either he's the biggest incompetent idiot or a big fat liar.

https://unctad.org/news/gaza-unprecedented-destruction-will-take-tens-billions-dollars-and-decades-reverse


Pro-Palestinian Jewish group wants to see end of US funding for Israel

Jewish Voice for Peace is determined to see a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to US funding for Israel.






UN report finds sexual violence on October 7 and in West Bank

An anticipated report by the UN has found that instances of sexual violence were committed during the October 7 attacks inside Israel as well as against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Pramila Patten, the special representative on sexual violence in conflict, discussed with reporters the results of a mission to Israel and the occupied West Bank between January 29 to February 14, the parameters of which were pre-approved by Tel Aviv.

She said there were “reasonable grounds to believe conflict-related sexual violence, including rape and gang rape, occurred during the October 7 attacks in at least three locations”, including at the Nova music festival.

She added that her team did not interview any survivors of sexual violence during the attacks and: “In Kibbutz Be’eri … Some allegations of sexual violence, previously reported and highly publicised in the media, were determined by us to be unfounded”.

In the West Bank, her team found “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of Palestinians, men and women in detention” along with “disproportionate physical and sexual violence, including sexual harassment and threats of rape during house raids, including at night, and at checkpoints.”

UN says Gaza sexual violence does not ‘legitimise’ more violence

UN official Pramila Patten’s press conference on the body’s report on sexual violence also discussed captives previously and currently held in Gaza and emphasised a need for an immediate ceasefire in the besieged enclave.

She said her team “found clear and convincing information that sexual violence, including rape and sexualised torture” has been committed against captives released from Gaza and that there are “reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may still be ongoing against those still held in captivity”.

“This finding does not in any way legitimise further violence but actually reinforces the need for an urgent ceasefire, as continuing this war will not serve to protect hostages from the risk of further sexual violence. On the contrary, for the sake of hostages, a ceasefire should be a priority.”

She “called” on Hamas to release all captives unconditionally and “encouraged” the government of Israel to work more closely with her office.

 

Released Palestinian prisoners say they don’t feel free

Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith reports from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on how one young Palestinian woman recently released from Israeli prison is adapting to life back home.



Still stuck under occupation while Israel is rounding the previously released 'prisoners' back up.



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SvennoJ on 04 March 2024

Flour Massacre PROOF Debunks Israel Lies




Israeli Massacre Narrative Questioned By BBC




NYT In CHAOS After Oct 7 Report DEBUNKED



SvennoJ on 04 March 2024

Horrifying New Gaza Study Shows Worst To Come - Without Immediate Ceasefire w/ Zeina Jamaluddine



A new study exposes the horror still to come in Gaza unless the violence ends now.. It is worse than you think.




SvennoJ on 04 March 2024

Good on Australia! Canada lawyers next, get Trudeau on the list

Australia’s PM referred to ICC for ‘complicity in genocide’ over support for Israel

A group of Australian lawyers have accused Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of being an “accessory to genocide in Gaza” and asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to launch an investigation.

The request, endorsed by some 100 Australian lawyers, outlined five actions for the ICC to consider and investigate.

They include decisions by Albanese and his government to freeze $6m in aid to UNRWA, provide military aid to Israel, deploying Australian troops to the region, and permitting Australians to travel to Israel and join the country’s military offensive in Gaza.

Protesters rally in Chile calling on president to break ties with Israel


Protesters in the Chilean capital Santiago rallied outside the Israeli Embassy on Monday in solidarity with Palestine. They held signs with slogans calling on President Gabriel Boric to “break ties with the state of Israel” and saying, “Out with the Zionist embassy”.

Chile is home to the largest Palestinian community outside the Middle East, numbering as many as half a million people, as well as the third-largest Jewish community in South America after Argentina and Brazil.


Demonstrators block the street in front of the Israeli Embassy


A demonstrator holds a sign reading, ‘Israel embassy out

NGO slams shrinking civic space in Palestine amid war on Gaza

The CIVICUS Monitor has expressed concern over shrinking space for civic freedoms in Palestine, citing “alarming” restrictions on humanitarian aid services, cuts in funding for civil society, as well as the killing of aid workers and journalists.

“The devastating death toll in Gaza affecting unarmed civilians, aid workers, journalists and media workers paints a harrowing picture of the dire circumstances endured by countless innocent individuals trapped in the crossfire of Israel’s relentless bombardment, amidst what is fast becoming one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent global history,” said Sylvia Mbataru, Middle East and North Africa researcher for CIVICUS.

“At this juncture, the international community must be compelled to call for an immediate ceasefire, scale up humanitarian aid efforts, and firmly hold to account all parties responsible for human rights violations,” Mbataru said.

CIVICUS monitors civic freedoms across the world.

US says humanitarian situation in Gaza ‘simply intolerable’

US Department of State spokesman Matthew Miller says that the US is focused on increasing and sustaining aid in Gaza “through as many channels as possible”.

“People are desperate for food, for water, for medicine. Parents are facing impossible choices about how to feed their children. Many don’t know when there next meal will come or if it will come at all. The situation is simply intolerable,” he told reporters.

Miller also referenced the US military airdropping “38,000 ready-to-eat” meals in Gaza in cooperation with the Jordanian military on Saturday. He said the move was a “first in a series” of humanitarian air drops that the US will be conducting in Gaza. “But I want to be clear, these airdrops are intended to supplement, not replace, aid through other mechanisms,” he said, adding that the US was also hoping to establish a “maritime assistance corridor”.

Since October 7, the US has vetoed three UN Security Council resolutions calling for a humanitarian pause or immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza.



SvennoJ on 05 March 2024

Jewish-Palestinian group organising Gaza aid convoy to border crossing

“Standing Together” is organising a convoy of cars from Tel Aviv, Yafa and Haifa to Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) border crossing to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza.

The Jewish-Palestinian social justice group says, “The Israeli government does not allow sufficient basic humanitarian aid to get to the hungry millions in Gaza, and when a little aid does enter, battalions of settlers block it. We are not standing by anymore.”

“This coming Thursday, we are all mobilising to demand an end to starvation in Gaza,” the group says.



Translation: “Withholding basic humanitarian aid from millions of people, children, the elderly and the sick in Gaza, serves no one. It does not bring security; it only increases hatred and calls for revenge and also starves the Israeli abductees who are dying in captivity.”

‘The ball is in the Israeli court’: Report

Three days of negotiations over a ceasefire in Gaza held in the Egyptian capital Cairo have ended without a breakthrough, less than a week before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Jihad Taha, a Hamas spokesperson, said the negotiations were continuing, but “the ball is in the Israeli court.” He told The Associated Press news agency that Israel had refused Hamas’s demands for people who fled northern Gaza to be allowed to return and for guarantees of a ceasefire and full withdrawal.

“Hamas is open to proposals and initiatives that are consistent with its position calling for a ceasefire, withdrawal, the return of the displaced, the entry of relief convoys and reconstruction,” Taha said. Two Egyptian officials told the AP that Hamas presented a proposal that mediators would discuss with Israel in the coming days.

Hamas sources told Al Jazeera Arabic that the group is aiming to obtain a ceasefire and for humanitarian aid to enter without restrictions in exchange for the release of some Israeli and foreign captives held in Gaza.

Talks in Washington point to US frustration, post-war aims

The talks in Cairo between Hamas and the Israeli government represent the official negotiation, while the meeting between the US Vice President Kamala Harris and the Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz in Washington is of equal importance but is going in a different direction.

The US administration has become equally frustrated with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and we have seen this in the statement made by Harris in which she even used the word “immediate” ceasefire, which represents the most critical position taken by the US official.

One of the sticking points for the negotiations is that Hamas is spread in so many different places and it cannot give Israel the list of captives’ names that it has demanded. This has become logistically a nightmare because it takes Hamas weeks to confirm if captives have been killed or are still alive, and some are being kept by other groups including the Islamic Jihad.

It’s not clear whether Hamas is actually able to provide this list.

That's why Netamyahu is demanding it.... He doesn't want a ceasefire. The ongoing war is what's keeping him in power.




Not straight to the ICC like Australia, but it's a good start and worked in the Netherlands.

Rights lawyers, Palestinian Canadians to sue Canada’s foreign minister

Palestinian Canadians and human rights lawyers are suing Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly over exports of military equipment to Israel, which they argue violate Canada’s obligations under domestic and international law. The lawsuit, expected to be formally filed on Tuesday morning, asks a federal court to order the Canadian government to stop issuing export permits for military goods and technology destined for Israel.

It is also asking the court to deem the issuance of such permits unlawful.

“We are seeking to hold Canada to its own standards and to its international legal obligations,” Henry Off, board member of Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights, one of the groups involved in the case, told Al Jazeera. “We don’t want the Canadian government to be contributing to the mass starvation and bombardment of Gaza. One way of cutting off Canada’s contributions is by cutting off its military support [to Israel],” Off said.

Exchange of fire continues at Israel-Lebanon border

  • Rocket sirens sounded in Manara, northern Israel, the Times of Israel reported, in the fifth such incident in the past three hours.
  • Al Jazeera correspondents say Israel has bombed an area in proximity of the Wazzani village, southern Lebanon.
  • Residents of Khiam and Aita al-Shaab reported shelling in the outskirts of their towns, Lebanese media said.
  • The Israeli army targeted the vicinity of the road between Burj al-Muluk and Khaim, southern Lebanon.
  • A missile exploded midair above Lebanon’s southern town of Aita al-Shaab.
  • Hezbollah claimed responsibility for an attack on an Israeli military convoy at the Birket Riche site.
  • Sirens sounded in Snir, an Israeli town near the border with Lebanon.

The aftermath of Israeli attacks on the southern Lebanese village of Odaisseh

Hezbollah’s aggression brings us closer to military action: Israeli minister

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has told senior US official Amos Hochstein that his country is “committed to the political efforts to reach an agreement” with Lebanon, according to remarks reported by the Israeli army radio. Hochstein, an adviser to the US President Joe Biden, is visiting Israel to hold talks with senior politicians.

“Hezbollah’s aggression brings us closer to a decision point regarding military action in Lebanon,” Gallant said.

Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah group have traded fire often since the beginning of the war in Gaza. Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, says it is targeting Israeli forces in the north to back the Palestinian group.


Jordan says 8 planes carried out air drops into Gaza

According to Petra, Jordan’s official news agency, this marks the largest such operation to date. The agency says that three Jordanian planes, three US planes, and one each from France and Egypt air-dropped aid to various locations around the besieged coastal enclave.

The planes also dropped relief supplies, including food provided by the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), to areas in northern Gaza.

Jordan says that it has carried out 28 airdrop missions since the war on Gaza began – in addition to 15 others conducted in collaboration with allies.

Great supplemental help, yet 28 airdrops total is still far less than one avg day of trucks and that's still woefully inadequate. It would need to be 40-50 airdrops daily to compensate for the drop in avg truck entries in Februari.



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SvennoJ on 05 March 2024

Starbucks Middle East franchise to cut jobs after Gaza boycott: Report

Gulf retail giant Alshaya Group, which owns the rights to operate Starbucks in the Middle East, is planning to lay off over 2,000 people as the business takes a hit from consumer boycotts linked to the Gaza war, sources have told Reuters news agency. People familiar with the matter told the news agency that the cuts, which began on Sunday, amount to about 4 percent of Alshaya’s total workforce of almost 50,000 people.

They are mostly concentrated in its Starbucks franchises in the Middle East and North Africa. The brand has been hit by a grassroots boycott campaign over Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip. In October, Starbucks said it was a nonpolitical organisation and dismissed rumours that it had provided support to the Israeli government or army.

 

Israel uproots 400 olive seedlings in Palestinian village near Bethlehem

Israeli forces have bulldozed agricultural fields and uprooted 400 olive seedlings in the village of Wadi Fukin, west of Bethlehem. Ibrahim al-Haroub, the head of the Wadi Fukin village council, told Wafa news agency that the occupation forces stormed the village’s Abu Siaj area near the Israeli settlement of Tzur Hadassah – which is illegally built on stolen Palestinian land – and also bulldozed about 10 acres (four hectares) of land.

Israeli attacks on Palestinian land has escalated following October 7, with settlers and soldiers carrying out acts of vandalism, bulldozing, and uprooting Palestinian trees.

PRCS says Israel committed hundreds of violations against its medical teams in West Bank

The Palestine Red Crescent Society says that since October 7, Israeli occupation forces have committed 427 violations against its medical missions operating in the occupied West Bank. Under international law, Israel as an occupying power must facilitate the humanitarian mission of medical teams, the organisation said in a post on X.

The aftermath of Israeli army attacks in Rafah






SvennoJ on 05 March 2024

Israel drastically restricting movement in the occupied West Bank: B’Tselem

The Israeli rights group says that since the start of the Gaza war, Israeli authorities have disrupted the lives of two million Palestinians by tightening existing movement restrictions.

It has carried this out by using “its network of checkpoints to tighten supervision, setting up dozens of new checkpoints, blocking access from dozens of villages to main roads, and revoking all permits for Palestinians to enter Israel for work or other reasons,” B’Tselem says.

“These restrictions do not allow Palestinians in the West Bank to maintain a reasonable routine and disrupt every area of life. They cause major financial losses, limit access to medical care and studies, and harm family life and social activities.”



https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights

Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Israeli closures in Hebron Old City lead to economic paralysis: Official

According to Emad Hamdan, director of the Hebron Reconstruction Committee in the occupied West Bank, 80 percent of the shops in Hebron’s Old City have been shuttered because of military curfews and closures.  “Palestinians are unable to enter or leave Hebron easily or at all sometimes, as well as tourists and worshippers, due to the closure of entrances to the city and the rest of the adjacent Palestinian villages,” Hamdan tells Al Jazeera.

Since October 7, the Old City of Hebron has been particularly hard-hit by punitive action on the part of the Israelis, especially after authorities imposed a military curfew on large swaths of the area, he says. This also meant preventing residents from leaving their homes, imposing closures on shops and sealing off all entrances to the Old City.




Israeli jets hit southern Lebanon: Report

An Israeli raid has targeted the vicinity of the town of Kafra, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency is reporting. There were no reports of casualties at this time. The video below, verified by Al Jazeera, shows the aftermath of the attack. The account that posted the video says a tank of diesel fuel was ignited, bursting into flames.

Israeli bombing kills three civilians in southern Lebanon

A mother, father and their son have been killed in the town of Houla, Mayor Shakib Koteish told the Reuters news agency. “It was a three-floor house, now it’s all the way collapsed and the rescue workers are still working to see who is left under it,” he said.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency confirmed the reported deaths. The son was 25 years old, according to local media reports, which cited medical sources.



Bellingcat finds soldier’s images, videos of mistreated Palestinian detainees

The investigative journalism group says it has found soldiers’ social media accounts containing posts that raise concerns about the treatment of Palestinian detainees. “We found content showing men blindfolded and bound, draped in flags and soldiers appearing to throw US money at those being held,” the group says.

In multiple cases, Bellingcat documented soldiers draping detainees in Israeli flags and posing with them. “We found one such case on the ‘Hamas Hunting Club’ Instagram page, which appears to have been created in November 2023 by a group of US soldiers serving in the [Israeli military].”

The group adds, “The Hamas Hunting Club page isn’t limited to showcasing Palestinian detainees, either. The account posted a video on December 11 of an Israeli soldier writing ‘send nudes’ on an artillery shell in Gaza. The account set this video to the Drake song ‘Way 2 Sexy.'”

Bellingcat says the collection of images and videos showing soldiers engaging in acts that may amount to degrading treatment of detainees “raises serious concerns regarding the [Israeli military’s] conduct.”

US sanctions former Israeli official, his spyware company

The US Department of the Treasury says it has sanctioned two people and five entities associated with the Intellexa Consortium “for their role in developing, operating, and distributing commercial spyware technology used to target Americans, including US government officials, journalists, and policy experts”.

The Treasury identified one of the individuals as Tal Dilian, a retired Israeli military intelligence officer, who founded and co-owns Intellexa, the maker of Predator spyware. According to Reuters News Agency, Dillian launched the company in Israel but later moved abroad, establishing operations in Cyprus and Greece. In addition to acting as an individual company, Intellexa owns, invests in and also partners with other spyware firms under a consortium model, according to analysts.

“Once a device is infected by the Predator spyware, the spyware can be leveraged for a variety of information stealing and surveillance capabilities—this includes the unauthorized extraction of data, geolocation tracking, and access to a variety of applications and personal information on the compromised device,” Treasury Department officials said in a statement.

Israeli bombardment killed MSF UK board trustee, organisation says

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) says it believes Reem Abu Lebdeh, an associate trustee of the MSF UK board of directors and former staff member in Gaza, was killed sometime in December 2023. “Though the exact circumstances and date of Reem’s death remain unclear, we believe she was killed along with members of her family at their home in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, Palestine. Some members of her family remain unaccounted for,” the organisation says.

Reem worked as a physiotherapist for MSF in Gaza from 2018 until 2022, and last year was appointed as an associate trustee of the MSF UK Board. “Reem is the fifth MSF colleague killed in Gaza since the beginning of this war. Several members of our staff remain unaccounted for. We reiterate our urgent call for an immediate and sustained ceasefire to spare the lives of civilians and allow for substantial aid to enter Gaza.”





SvennoJ on 05 March 2024

UN experts condemn ‘massacre’ of Gaza aid seekers

UN special rapporteurs and working groups have condemned an attack by Israel against Palestinians awaiting bags of flour near Gaza City, calling it a “massacre”.

The group said in a statement that Israeli troops fired on the crowd that had gathered to collect flour on February 29, killing more than 100 people. “The attack came after Israel has denied humanitarian aid into Gaza City and northern Gaza for more than a month,” the experts said. “Israel has been intentionally starving the Palestinian people in Gaza since 8 October. Now it is targeting civilians seeking humanitarian aid and humanitarian convoys,” the UN experts, including Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Michael Fakhri, said in a statement.

They noted that 14 incidents have been recorded involving the shooting, shelling and targeting of groups of people gathered to receive urgently needed supplies from trucks or airdrops between mid-January and the end of February 2024. “Israel must end its campaign of starvation and targeting of civilians,” the statement said.

UNRWA: 17,000 children orphaned in Gaza

One in six children under two years is “acutely malnourished” in north Gaza, the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees added in a post on X. “These horrific deaths are entirely preventable,” the post went on to say.

Yesterday, we reported on comments from the UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini as he briefed the UN General Assembly and painted a grim picture of the conditions in the besieged Palestinian enclave, as well as the pressures on his agency.

UNRWA, widely accepted to be the only group equipped to organise aid delivery on a scale necessary to prevent mass death in Gaza, is facing a “deliberate and concerted campaign to undermine its operations and ultimately, end them”, he said.

 

Canadian doctor recounts effects of food crisis in Gaza

A Canadian physician has warned that every single person in Gaza is being touched by “the overlapping crises of food, water and housing insecurity”.

Dr Yipeng Ge, who spent a week treating patients in Gaza in February, added that a lack of water and food as well as unsanitary conditions in the besieged enclave had resulted in outbreaks of respiratory infections, gastrointestinal diseases and a major outbreak of Hepatitis A.

“One of the children I saw was the sickest child I had ever seen in my medical career,” he told Al Jazeera.

OCHA says starvation in Gaza ‘warning like no other’

The UN humanitarian agency says the death of children in Gaza due to starvation should be “a warning like no other” and called on the international community to “flood” the strip with aid. “If not now, when is the time to pull the stops, break the glass, flood Gaza with the aid that it needs?” Jens Laerke, spokesman for OCHA, asked reporters in Geneva.

The agency had previously said that famine is “almost inevitable” in the territory. The Health Ministry in Gaza has reported that 15 children have starved to death at the Kamal Adwan Hospital, the only paediatric hospital in northern Gaza, and one more child died of malnutrition at Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah.


More ‘misery’ as Israeli attacks continue in Gaza City, Jabalia, Khan Younis

The latest attack on aid seekers near Gaza City is furthering people’s misery. Not only are people in northern Gaza dying from dehydration and starvation, but their relatives are being killed just trying to get food for their families. Early this morning, a home was destroyed in an attack near Khan Younis. So far, 17 victims of the strike have arrived at the European Gaza Hospital, mostly women and children.

In a separate attack in Jabalia refugee camp in the north, a densely populated residential block came under heavy artillery shelling and air strikes. So far, eight people have been reported killed there and more are still under the rubble. There are efforts to find people who might still be alive, but as time goes by, those hopes become more and more slim.

In central Gaza, all the refugee camps — Nuseirat, Maghazi, and Bureij — have come under constant heavy artillery shelling since the early hours of this morning.



SvennoJ on 05 March 2024

Iran-aligned media: Air strikes hit Yemeni territory

Abdullah Alfarah, director of media outlet Al Mayadeen’s Yemen office, reports that three strikes hit the Al-Jabbana and Ras Issa areas, north of the city of Hodeidah.

The US and UK have been launching strikes on positions belonging to Yemen’s Houthis for weeks, in an attempt to get the group to end its attacks on commercial and military ships in the Red Sea.

The Houthis have said the attacks will end once a ceasefire is achieved in the war on Gaza.

Houthis target two US warships

Yemen’s Houthis carried out a “qualitative military operation in which they targeted two US warship destroyers in the Red Sea,” the group’s military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a televised speech on Tuesday.




Israeli jets hit Hezbollah military target: Israel army

Israeli fighter jets have carried out attacks on a military facility belonging to the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah in the Aita al-Shaab region, the Israeli army has said in a statement. The raid was in response to the launch of two anti-tank missiles towards the Birnit area, the army aded.

“Also, the IDF attacked the organization’s operational headquarters in the Jabal al-Batam area, launch positions in the Al Matmura area and military buildings in the Majdal Zon, Houla and Kafra areas,” the statement said.

Hezbollah responds to Israeli strike that killed three civilians

The Lebanese group says on X that it bombed a building in the Kiryat Shmona settlement in Israel, “causing confirmed injuries”. Hezbollah said this attack was in response to “the targeting of a civilian home and the martyrdom of a woman, her husband, and her son in the town of Hula”.

Earlier, we reported that the Israeli attacks on Houla killed three civilians. Israel’s army confirmed that it did indeed attack the Lebanese village, along with several others. ‏





WFP says latest aid delivery attempt to northern Gaza unsuccessful

The Israeli army has returned a convoy of 14 trucks after the vehicles waited for three hours at a checkpoint in Wadi Gaza, the UN’s World Food Program has said. The convoy is the first of its kind since deliveries to the northern Gaza Strip were suspended on February 20, the UN agency said.

“Although today’s convoy did not make it to the north to provide food to the people who are starving, WFP continues to explore every possible means to do so,” WFP Deputy Executive Director Carl Skau said.

Israel has been blocking the flow of aid into northern Gaza for most of 2024, and has frequently attacked aid seekers who attempt to receive what little aid does make it to the north of the Strip.


US looking at military, commercial options to move aid into Gaza by sea: White House

John Kirby, the White House national security spokesperson, told reporters the maritime route can move a higher volume of aid, but that it is more of a heavier lift logistically. Trucks are the best way, he said.

In recent weeks, the Biden administration has shifted its tone, pushing for more humanitarian assistance into Gaza. It recently air-dropped a limited number of meals to Palestinians there. But critics say those efforts will have scant effect if Washington does not exert pressure on Israel to stop the war.

No plans to send troops to Gaza: US

The United States has no plans to send US troops into Gaza to bolster efforts to distribute aid, Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder, the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson, has said at a press conference.

These remarks appear to play down the idea of a US military-run port or other landing site for maritime aid distribution, even as several US officials said the country was exploring a maritime option for aid distribution today.

“At this time there are no plans to put US forces on the ground in Gaza,” he said.

I thought they were already there, but on the planning genocide side err tunnel warfare.




Obstacles to ceasefire ‘not insurmountable’ says US

US Department of State spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters that, in Washington’s view, it is possible to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas that would see a pause in the fighting in the Gaza Strip and an exchange of prisoners.

Miller also gave some details of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s meeting with Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz, currently on a trip to the US to meet with American leaders.

He said the pair discussed the need to act urgently to enable the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, as well as ongoing negotiations to reach the above-mentioned ceasefire deal, specifically one that would last six weeks.

No prisoner exchange until after ceasefire: Hamas official

Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official, has given a press conference in Beirut.

Here are a few key things he said:

  • There will be no prisoner exchange until after the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. If the conditions of resistance are not met, the prisoners issue is not on the table. … It is Israel that is blocking the reaching of a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip.
  • We call on [United Nations chief Antonio] Guterres to dismiss the UN employee who submitted a false report alleging sexual violence committed by the resistance on October 7.
  • The US administration does not exert any pressure on the occupation during the negotiation process for a ceasefire in Gaza. It is a political farce for America to support Israel’s quest to stop the fighting for only a few weeks and then resume it.
  • The airdrop of aid meets only a small amount of the needs of the population. We tell Washington that the most important thing, rather than dropping aid, is to stop the supply of weapons to Israel.
  • Our Arab and Muslim countries must take serious action to stop the genocide.

 

Israelis’ ‘depravity’ on display as they rifle through Palestinian women’s undergarments

MIFTAH, the Palestinian Initiatives for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy, has said that the footage of Israeli soldiers rifling through women’s undergarments in Gaza is “an integral part of genocide”. It is “a key example of [soldiers’] depravity” and shows that they can carry out crimes with “impunity”, the Palestinian women-focused NGO says.

Several videos and images have surfaced in recent weeks on social media platforms of Israeli forces wearing or stealing women’s undergarments. These incidents, the non-profit says, are part of the “fetishisation” of Palestinian women by Israeli soldiers who often hold on to these pieces of clothing “like trophies”.

“These photos are one of the many components of Israel’s attempted psychological domination over Gaza, in which the Palestinian man is emasculated and the Palestinian woman is conquered,” MIFTAH said.






SvennoJ on 05 March 2024