Prime Minister Rishi Sunak departs 10 Downing Street, London, to attend Prime Minister’s Questions at the Houses of Parliament, March 20, 2024
‘Morally bankrupt’ Sunak doubles down on Israel arms sales
THE GOVERNMENT is “making a mockery” of international law, campaigners charged after Rishi Sunak doubled down on continuing arms sales to Israel.
Mr Sunak was ridiculed today after he said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “needs to do more” to alleviate suffering in Gaza while dodging calls to suspend arms sales to Israel.
Speaking to LBC, the British Prime Minister admitted that the humanitarian situation in Palestine is “dire” but that there had been “no change” in continuing arms sales.
When asked if the government had received fresh advice on arming Israel, after air strikes murdered three British aid workers earlier this month, Mr Sunak said assessments had been “carried out periodically.”
Lindsey German from Stop the War Coalition said that the decision to continue the exports while providing “weak criticism of Israel” demonstrates nothing but “moral bankruptcy and cowardice.”
TARGETING AID: World Central Kitchen vehicle hit in an Israeli airstrike in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, on Tuesday, April 2 2024
RAMZY BAROUD explains that Israel isn’t making mistakes, even due to callous carelessness — killing aid workers is part of a wider plan to make life in northern Gaza impossible, to facilitate ethnic cleansing
ISRAEL described its clearly deliberate killing of seven humanitarian aid workers on April 1 as a “grave mistake,” a “tragic event” that “happens in war.”
Israel is, obviously, lying. This entire so-called war — actually genocide — in Gaza has been based on a series of lies, some of which Israel continues to peddle.
For some, in the mainstream media, it took months to accept the obvious fact that Israel has been lying about the events that led to the war and the military objectives of its constant targeting of hospitals, schools, shelters and other civilian facilities.
So, it was only logical for Israel to lie about killing the six internationals, and their Palestinian driver, of the World Central Kitchen (WCK). Notwithstanding an event as atrocious as this, it is implausible for Israel to start telling the truth now.
Luckily, few seem to believe Israel’s version regarding WCK, or its continued massacres elsewhere in Gaza. Israel “cannot credibly investigate its own failure in Gaza,” the US-based NGO said in a statement on April 5.
The issue of targeting these internationals, however, has to be placed within a larger context.
Israel was hardly secretive about its intention to deny Palestinians even the most basic necessities of survival in Gaza, epitomised in the words of Israeli Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant on October 9: “There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed.”
Initially, this statement, and many others, were understood at the time to be an outcome of Israel’s desire to punish Palestinians for the October 7 al-Aqsa Flood operation, by resorting to its typical tactic of collective punishment.
With time, however, and based on statements made by other Israeli officials, it became clear that Israel wanted to ethnically cleanse Palestinians altogether.
Ismail Haniyeh speaks in Gaza in 2012 (Photo: Joe Catron/CC)
Israel continues to carry out targeted assassinations against non-combatants, this time murdering three sons and four grandchildren of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh
On April 10, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh announced that Israel murdered three of his sons in a targeted airstrike. The killing of Haniyeh’s children coincides with the Muslim Holy Day of Eid al-Fitr.
Hamas, as well as various other Palestinian resistance groups, released statements decrying the killings of Hazem, Amir, and Mohammad, as well as four of Haniyeh’s grandchildren who were also killed in the attack. Haniyeh’s three sons and three grandchildren were making family visits in Gaza City for Eid, when Israel bombed the car they were traveling in.
These killings took place as Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders are involved in pushing Israel for a ceasefire at the negotiating table. Haniyeh himself is among the chief negotiators on the side of the resistance. According to a Hamas statement from April 8, “While Hamas appreciates the significant efforts made by the mediators, and while the movement is keen to reach an agreement that ends the aggression against our people, the Israeli position remains obstinate and has not responded to any of the demands of our people and our resistance.”
An unnamed Palestinian official who spoke to the Lebanese Al Mayadeen news network said that all attempts and efforts by mediators to reach an agreement have encountered Israeli inflexibility and at present, there is no progress in negotiations. The official stated that any progress will be announced through official channels and emphasized that Hamas adheres to its demands, which include a ceasefire, Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the entry of aid, the return of displaced Gazans, and a prisoner exchange.
Aljazeera is reporting that the genocidal Zionist enemy has murdered three of the sons and a number of the grandchildren of Ismail Haniyeh, the politburo chief of Hamas. This cowardly Nazi enemy, whose days usurping Palestine are numbered, always takes it revenge on children. https://t.co/gBeu3uYZS0
“The blood of my sons is not more precious than the blood of our martyred people in Gaza, for they are all my sons.,” said Haniyeh. “The occupation’s threats to invade Rafah do not frighten our people or our resistance. We will not submit to the blackmail practiced by the occupation, for those who surrender will not be spared. We will not compromise and we will not neglect, no matter how great our sacrifices are.”
The murders of Ismail Haniyeh's children and grandchildren in targeted strikes in Gaza is part of a pattern of the IDF sabotaging negotiations.
In the last Gaza war, Israel struck apartment buildings housing 3 PIJ commanders who were to go to ceasefire talks *that morning*. pic.twitter.com/HmB94aPtEZ
Condemnations were issued by various Axis of Resistance forces, including the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Mujahideen Movement, and Ansar Allah.
“We extend our condolences to the head of the Political Bureau of Hamas for the martyrdom of three of his sons and several of his grandchildren due to an aggressive Israeli airstrike that reveals the extent of the Israeli failure in the field,” said Ansar Allah, which has been waging a struggle in solidarity with the Palestinian people through its Red Sea blockade. “These great sacrifices, alongside the rest of the sons of Gaza and the occupied West Bank, indeed strengthen the steadfastness of the Palestinian people in the face of this Israeli arrogance.”
“We condemn, in the strongest terms, the barbaric massacre committed by the criminal Nazi entity, which targeted a number of the children of the head of the Political Bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), the fighter brother Ismail Haniyeh, and his grandchildren,” stated the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which has been fighting Israeli forces in Gaza alongside Hamas. “We come forth from the sons of our Palestinian people everywhere, from the brothers in the Hamas Movement, and from the fighter brother Ismail Haniyeh, with the highest blessings for this martyrdom, asking Allah to cover the martyrs with His vast mercy.”
A crowd of starving Palestinians, including children, waits to receive food distributed by charity organizations amid Israel’s blockade at the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza on March 27, 2024. (Photo by Mahmoud Issa/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“The Israeli government’s use of starvation as a weapon of war has proven deadly for children in Gaza.”
The Israeli government is starving children to death in the Gaza Strip with its deliberate and systematic obstruction of food aid, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Tuesday, citing firsthand accounts from doctors and families in the besieged enclave.
At least 32 people, including 28 children, have died of malnutrition and dehydration so far in northern Gaza, which is facing famine conditions due to Israel’s illegal blockade.
HRW’s new report builds on its December assessment that Israel was “using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare” in Gaza, with disastrous consequences for the territory’s civilian population.
“The Israeli government’s use of starvation as a weapon of war has proven deadly for children in Gaza,” said Omar Shakir, HRW’s Israel and Palestine director. “Israel needs to end this war crime, stop this suffering, and allow humanitarian aid to reach all of Gaza unhindered.”
For its new report, HRW interviewed doctors who have treated malnourished patients and family members of children who have starved to death in recent weeks. The group also reviewed photographs and video footage showing emaciated children who have died of malnutrition.
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the head of the pediatrics unit of a northern Gaza hospital targeted by Israeli forces, said that 26 children in his facility alone have died from starvation-related health complications. Safiya told HRW that at least 16 of the children were under five months old, and one of them was just two days old.
The mother, he said, “had no milk to give him.”
“Israel’s allies like the U.S., U.K., France, and Germany need to press for full-throttle aid delivery by immediately suspending their arms transfers.”
Already badly hindered by Israel’s siege, aid deliveries to Gaza have been further disrupted by Israeli attacks on humanitarian workers and convoys. Israeli forces’ killing of seven World Central Kitchen workers last week led several aid groups to suspend their operations in Gaza.
While Israel agreed in the wake of the deadly attack—and in the face of massive international pressure—to reopen a key border crossing in northern Gaza, aid groups say far more is needed to prevent mass starvation.
“Governments outraged by the Israeli government starving civilians in Gaza should not be looking for band-aid solutions to this humanitarian crisis,” Shakir said Tuesday. “Israel’s announcement that it will increase aid shows that outside pressure works. Israel’s allies like the U.S., U.K., France, and Germany need to press for full-throttle aid delivery by immediately suspending their arms transfers.”
Israel’s six-month war on Gaza has been catastrophic for the territory’s children. According to one recent analysis, over 2% of Gaza’s child population—nearly 26,000 kids—has been killed or wounded during the assault, with at least 1,000 children losing one or both of their legs.
The war has also taken a devastating psychological toll on Gaza’s kids, many of whom have been displaced repeatedly and seen family members maimed or killed by Israeli bombs.
“The emotional distress of dodging bombs and bullets, losing loved ones, being forced to flee through streets littered with debris and corpses, and waking up every morning not knowing if they will be able to eat has also left parents and caregivers increasingly unable to cope,” Save the Children said last month.
Speaking to HRW, the father of newborn twin girls said that one of his babies died of malnutrition at northern Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital eight days after she was born.
“He said that he struggled to feed his family prior to the girls’ birth, but that they only had bread to eat, without meat or protein,” the human rights organization noted in its new report. “He said that after the twins’ birth, his wife could not produce milk to breastfeed the girls and that store-bought milk was scarce.”
One mother of a 6-year-old boy with cystic fibrosis told HRW that “because of the Israeli blockade, she struggled to obtain the necessary medication and provide adequate nourishment.”
“By mid-January, Fadi’s health had deteriorated to the point where he could no longer walk, prompting his hospitalization,” HRW said. Late last month, the boy was evacuated from Kamal Adwan Hospital to receive treatment at a facility in Cairo.
Lama Fakih, HRW’s Middle East and North Africa director, said Tuesday that Israeli officials upholding the blockade that is starving children in Gaza “are committing war crimes.”
“Governments should impose targeted sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, against responsible officials,” said Fakih.
But the U.S., Israel’s top ally and arms supplier, is refusing to take concrete action even as damning evidence of Israeli war crimes mounts.
Asked during a Monday press briefing “how many Palestinian citizens should be killed, whether by fire or starvation, so you can seriously intervene,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that “we do not want to see a single Palestinian killed.”
“And that is why we have made clear that Israel needs to do more to improve its deconfliction and coordination measures,” Miller said, brushing off the idea of imposing strict conditions on U.S. military aid. The Biden administration is currently pressing Congress to sign off on an $18 billion sale of F-15 fighter jets to Israel.
Earlier in Monday’s briefing, Miller said the U.S. has “not yet at this time concluded that Israel has violated international humanitarian law.”
Pro-Palestine protesters have staged a demonstration outside Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer‘s home, in a move which has been condemned by the Prime Minister.
The group, known as Youth Demand, describe themselves as a ‘new youth resistance campaign fighting for an end to genocide’.
The demonstrators hung a banner outside Sir Keir’s house that read: ‘Starmer stop the killing’ surrounded by red hand prints.
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Protesters then laid rows of children’s shoes in front of the Labour leader’s door, a tactic that has been utilised at a number of pro-Palestine protests to signify children killed in Gaza.
Rishi Sunak, who’s own home in North Yorkshire was the target of climate protesters in 2023, said such incidents would not be tolerated.
In a post to X the Prime Minister said: ‘I don’t care what your politics are, no MP should be harassed at their own home.
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Well feck you Rishi “no MP should be harassed at their own home” Sunak. These people are responding to you and similar politician cnuts aiding and abetting genocide. You should reflect on your own and your mate Keir Starmer’s actions supporting Israel’s genocide.
