A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, onboard the RNLI Dungeness Lifeboat following a small boat incident in the Channel, September 3, 2024
AT LEAST 12 people trying to cross into Britain from France have died after their boat sank in the English Channel.
The deaths were confirmed today by the French coastguard after a rescue operation near the coast of Cap Gris-Nez, off Wimereux, took place.
Up to 65 people were rescued and two were still missing as the Morning Star went to print.
According to the mayor of Le Portel – where the surviving refugees were being treated – the bottom of the boat “ripped open.”
The people on board the dinghy ended up in the water and several of them needed emergency medical care, the French coastguard said.
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The International Organisation for Migration, which records Channel crossing deaths as part of its Missing Migrant Project, estimates 226 people including 35 children are missing or have died after attempting the crossing as of January this year.
According to the French coastguard, there have been at least 19 deaths in 2024 prior to Tuesday’s incident, including nine since the start of July.
Last week, France and Britain agreed to deepen co-operation on so-called illegal migration in the Channel.
At least 2,109 people have tried to cross since – the highest number of the year.
Responding to David Lammy’s statement to the Commons in which he said that the UK is to suspend 30 arms export licences to Israel after a review found a “clear risk” that UK arms may be used in serious violation of humanitarian law, Ellie Chowns MP said:
Ellie Chowns, Green Party MP for North Herefordshire. CC image Wikipedia.
“Green MPs have long called for a suspension of arms exports to Israel. The Foreign Secretary’s announcement today is therefore a welcome and significant step, but leaves vital questions unanswered.
“Primarily, why are so many licences exempt from this suspension? I am very concerned that the Government is not consistently applying the principle that there is a clear risk of UK licensed weapons being used in breach of international humanitarian law. The justification for continuing to licence F-35s is no justification at all. There is an ongoing and clear risk and we urge the Foreign Secretary to look again and suspend these licenses.
“If, as he says, the Foreign Secretary takes seriously the risk of UK licensed weapons being used in breach of international humanitarian law, he must go further and suspend all export licences.”
Israeli forces are pictured moving the body of a Palestinian man during a raid in the West Bank city of Hebron on September 1, 2024. (Photo: Hazem Bader/AFP via Getty Images)
“Apartheid Israel is targeting Gaza and the West Bank simultaneously, as part of an overall process of elimination, replacement, and territorial expansion,” said United Nations special rapporteur Francesca Albanese.
An independent United Nations expert warned Monday that “Israel’s genocidal violence risks leaking out of Gaza and into the occupied Palestinian territory as a whole” as Western governments, corporations, and other institutions keep up their support for the Israeli military, which stands accused of grave war crimes in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories, said in a statement that “there is mounting evidence that no Palestinian is safe under Israel’s unfettered control.”
“The writing is on the wall, and we cannot continue to ignore it,” said Albanese, who released a detailed report in May concluding that there are “reasonable grounds to believe” Israel is guilty of genocide in Gaza.
“Apartheid Israel is targeting Gaza and the West Bank simultaneously, as part of an overall process of elimination, replacement, and territorial expansion,” Albanese said Tuesday. “The longstanding impunity granted to Israel is enabling the de-Palestinization of the occupied territory, leaving Palestinians at the mercy of the forces pursuing their elimination as a national group.”
“The international community, made of both states and non-state actors, including companies and financial institutions, must do everything it can to immediately end the risk of genocide against the Palestinian people under Israel’s occupation, ensure accountability, and ultimately end Israel’s colonization of Palestinian territory,” Albanese added.
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) September 2, 2024
Defense for Children International–Palestine noted Monday that “dozens of Israeli military vehicles” have “stormed” the West Bank city of Jenin over the past week as “Israeli forces deployed across the targeted refugee camps, seizing Palestinian homes to use as military bases and stationing snipers on the roofs of buildings, subjecting their residents to field investigations.”
“The military bulldozers began destroying the civil infrastructure in Jenin city and camp, which led to the destruction of the main water networks and power outage in several neighborhoods in Jenin and surrounding villages,” the group said. “Israeli forces besieged several hospitals in Jenin and impeded the movement of ambulances and paramedics.”
Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed more than 620 people in the occupied West Bank since October 7, on top of the roughly 40,800 killed by the Israeli military in Gaza.
Unlawful Israeli land seizures have also surged in the West Bank as settlers and soldiers wipe out entire Palestinian communities. The BBC reported Monday that, according to its own analysis, there are “currently at least 196 across the West Bank, and 29 were set up last year—more than in any previous year.”
Israel’s multi-day attack on the West Bank that began last week has intensified fears that unless there’s a permanent cease-fire, the assault on Gaza could expand to the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories and throughout the Middle East.
David Hearst, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Middle East Eye, wrote Monday that “even with the obvious reluctance of Hezbollah and Iran to get involved, all the ingredients are there for a much larger conflagration.”
“An Israel in the grip of an ultra-nationalist, religious, settler insurgency; a U.S. president who allows his signature policy to be flouted by his chief ally, even at the risk of losing a crucial election; resistance that will not surrender; Palestinians in Gaza who will not flee; Palestinians in the West Bank who are now stepping up to the front line; Jordan, the second country to recognize Israel, feeling under existential threat,” Hearst wrote.
For U.S. President Joe Biden or Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, he added, “the message is so clear, it is flashing in neon lights: The regional costs of not standing up to Netanyahu could rapidly outweigh the domestic benefits of being dragged along by him.”
James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, similarly argued Tuesday that “the U.S. must reverse course—and do so dramatically.”
“A long-overdue cut-off of U.S. arms to Israel and recognition of the Palestinian right to self-determination would provide exactly the shock to the system that is needed,” Zogby wrote. “It would force an internal debate in Israel, empowering those who want peace. It might also serve to send a message to the Palestinian people that their plight and rights are understood.”
These actions, especially if followed up with determination and concrete steps, won’t end the conflict tomorrow,” Zogby continued, “but they would surely put the region on a more productive path towards peace than the one it is on now.”
Zionist Keir Starmer is quoted “I support Zionism without qualification.” He’s asked whether that means that he supports Zionism under all circumstances, whatever Zionists do.
Israeli occupation forces use diggers to prevent journalists from covering the destruction in Jenin amid ongoing raids in the occupied West Bank. At least 4 journalists have been injured as they came under direct attacks by Israeli snipers, despite them wearing their press vests.
