… on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing

Category: human rights violations

  • Gaza’s Dr Hussam Abu Safiya tortured in Israeli detention

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    This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 

    The head of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya [QudsNen/X]

    The Palestinian Ministry of Health has called for the immediate release of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza, along with all detained medical personnel held in Israeli custody.

    In an urgent appeal, the ministry urged international health and humanitarian organisations, as well as human rights institutions, to intervene and secure the release of Palestinian medics.

    It highlighted the harsh conditions suffered by Abu Safiya and his colleagues in Israeli detention.

    According to Wafa news agency, a lawyer from the Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights visited him at Ofer Prison yesterday and reported that detainees are subjected to brutal and repressive treatment.

    “During the visit, Dr. Abu Safiya detailed the various forms of torture and abuse to which he has been subjected both during his unlawful arrest and throughout his arbitrary detention by Israeli forces and authorities,” Al-Mezan said in a statement.

    Highlighting what Abu Safiya was subjected to, his son, Ilyas, said: “My father was subjected to severe mistreatment and torture by the army in the early days of his arrest and was held in solitary confinement for 24 days. After that, he was transferred to Ofer Prison, Room 24, Section 2.”

    Abu Safiya said that he has lost approximately 15 kilogrammes, suffers from an enlarged heart muscle and has been denied access to a specialist doctor or proper medical care despite repeated requests to the Israeli prison administration. His son added that he suffers from chronic high blood pressure and is only receiving minimal treatment.

    “He is only provided with one meal a day, which is insufficient and of very poor quality,” Ilyas added.

    The statement further revealed that upon his initial detention and transfer from Gaza, Abu Safiay was forced to strip, had his hands tied, and he was made to sit on sharp pebbles for nearly five hours.

    He also suffered electric shocks and severe beatings to the chest while in Israeli custody, according to his testimony. He spent 25 days in detention at Ofer Prison, including ten days of continuous interrogation, during which he fainted due to suffocation.

    The Palestinian Ministry of Health strongly condemned these repeated attacks on medical personnel, calling them grave violations of international law and the protective measures outlined in the Second Protocol of the Fourth Geneva Convention. It urged the international community to intervene immediately to secure the release of detained Palestinian healthcare workers.

    Ilyas emphasised that there are no formal charges against Abu Safiya and that all accusations have been dismissed due to a lack of evidence. He expressed hope that his father could be released soon, calling for global pressure to ensure the freedom of all detained healthcare workers.

    READ: Turkiye, Indonesia to cooperate on rebuilding Gaza, says Erdogan

    This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 

    Experiencing issues with this image not appearing. I suspect because it's so critical of Zionist Keir Starmer's support of and complicity in Israel's genocides.
    Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA
    UK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE
    UK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE

  • 100+ Groups ‘Decry and Oppose’ Trump Push to Ethnically Cleanse Gaza

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    Original article by Jessica Corbett republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

    Displaced Palestinian children sit on a sand mound overlooking tents set up amid destroyed buildings in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on February 6, 2025.
     (Photo: Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images)

    “Palestine is not just an idea—it is a place. It is a homeland to the Palestinian people,” the coalition wrote.

    A coalition of over 100 organizations on Monday forcefully denounced U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip of Palestinians and take over the coastal enclave recently decimated by an Israeli military campaign conducted with American weapons.

    Led by A New Policy—a group founded by Biden administration officials who resigned in protest—and the Quaker organization Friends Committee on National Legislation, the coalition said that “we are deeply alarmed by President Trump’s recent statements, tracing them back to January 25, just days after the Republican returned to power.

    “We, the undersigned organizations, decry and oppose any effort or initiative, and any calls for, the forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, and support the joint statement of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, the Palestinian Authority, and the Arab League that similarly rejected any such steps, the coalition wrote, citing the Fourth Geneva Convention.

    The letter highlights the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in the 1940s during the formation of the modern state of Israel, which Palestinians call the Nakba, Arabic for catastrophe; that since 2006, Gaza “has been in a state of siege,” with residents enduring repeated bombardment and restrictions on necessities; and that since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, they have faced what various experts have found to be a plausible case of genocide, with over 48,000 people killed.

    “Through this all, the Palestinians in Gaza have stood with remarkable dignity and perseverance, insisting throughout the immense suffering and loss that they will never abandon their homeland,” the letter continues, echoing recent remarks from residents. “We are deeply concerned by clear statements of intent from Israeli government officials over the past year concerning the creation of new Israeli settlements within the Gaza Strip, which further reinforce the intent of ethnic cleansing.”

    “The United States has no right to dictate to the Palestinian people in Gaza to leave, and direct other countries to participate in their displacement. We are also aware that even a temporary external displacement could be used by Israel to enact permanent exile,” the letter says. “While we agree that the short and medium-term humanitarian needs of the people of Gaza may be difficult to meet given the nearly complete destruction that Israel has wrought, if the necessary services cannot be provided in Gaza, the people of Gaza must be able to access them elsewhere within the historic borders of Palestine and must be able to return.”

    The coalition also expressed alarm over “an uptick in settler violence” and deadly Israel Defense Forces operations in the illegally occupied West Bank, writing that “these actions are part and parcel of a strategy that seeks to make not just Gaza, but all Palestinian areas across historic Palestine, unlivable for the Palestinian people, and are thus contributory to a process of ethnic cleansing.”

    “Palestine is not just an idea—it is a place. It is a homeland to the Palestinian people,” the groups stressed. “To participate in, facilitate, or endorse their removal from it would violate every precept of international law, devastate the rules-based international order that protects us all, do irreversible harm to America’s global influence, and be an act of unconscionable immorality.”

    The letter concludes with a poem from Palestinian Mahmoud Darwish, who wrote:

    My country is not a suitcase
    I am not a traveler
    I am the lover and the land is the beloved.
    The archaeologist is busy analyzing stones.
    In the rubble of legends he searches for his own eyes
    to show
    that I am a sightless vagrant on the road
    with not one letter in civilization’s alphabet.
    Meanwhile in my own time I plant my trees.
    I sing of my love.

    In addition to the coalition leaders, signatories to the letter include ActionAid USA, CodePink, Democracy for the Arab World Now, Demand Progress Education Fund, Democratic Socialists of America, IfNotNow Movement, Just Foreign Policy, Madre, National Iranian American Council, Oil Change International, Peace Action, Progressive Democrats of America, and September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, and U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights.

    The letter came amid a fresh wave of alarm over Trump’s latest comments about Gaza and Palestinians, which aired Monday morning on “Fox & Friends.” He said: “We’ll build safe communities a little bit away from where they are, where all of this danger is. In the meantime, I would own this—think of it as a real estate development for the future. It would be a beautiful piece of land.”

    Asked by Fox News‘ Bret Baier whether Palestinians would have the right to return to Gaza, the president said, “No, they wouldn’t.”

    The letter also came as Hamas on Monday suspended its next planned release of hostages taken in October 2023, citing Israel’s deadly violations of a fragile cease-fire deal that took effect last month.

    Original article by Jessica Corbett republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

    Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
    Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.

  • Hamas Halts Hostage Release, Citing Deadly Israeli Cease-Fire Violations

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    Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

    The mother of 5-year-old Neda Muhammed al-Amudi, who was killed in the Israeli army’s January 27, 2025 attack on a horse carriage in the Nuseirat Refugee Camp—a violation of the cease-fire with Hamas—mourns over her body at Awda Hospital in Gaza City, Palestine. (Photo: Fadel A. A. Almaghari/Anadolu via Getty Images.

    One group says that Israeli forces have killed at least 110 Palestinians since the cease-fire took effect last month. Among the victims are multiple children, including a 5-year-old girl.

    Hamas on Monday announced the suspension of its next planned release of hostages kidnapped during the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, accusing that country of violating the fragile cease-fire agreement it signed last month.

    Abu Obeida, the spokesperson for the Qassam Brigades—Hamas’ armed wing— said in a statement that hostages will “remain in place until the occupying entity complies with past obligations and compensates retroactively.”

    “Over the past three weeks, the resistance leadership monitored the enemy’s violations and their noncompliance with the terms of the agreement,” Obeida explained. “These violations include delaying the return of displaced persons to northern Gaza, targeting them with shelling and gunfire in various areas of the Gaza Strip, and failing to allow the entry of relief materials in all forms as agreed upon. Meanwhile, the resistance has fulfilled all its obligations.”

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    Since the cease-fire took effect on January 19, Israeli forces have bombed and shot civilians in Gaza, killing at least 110 Palestinians, according to the Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor. Palestinian civilians killed over the past few weeks reportedly include multiple children—one of them a 5-year-old girl—and an elderly woman.

    “Israel continues to commit genocide in the Gaza Strip by denying Palestinians the basic necessities for survival and imposing conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction,” the group alleged on Friday.

    Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor continued:

    Since the cease-fire, only a handful of injured and ill Palestinians from Gaza have been permitted to travel abroad for treatment, leaving thousands at risk of death due to Israel’s ongoing denial of their right to receive treatment. In addition to ensuring a severe shortage of specialized medical personnel, generators, fuel, and oxygen stations, Israel has obstructed the rehabilitation of destroyed hospitals and blocked the entry of medical supplies, medications, and equipment.

    Further, in addition to blocking equipment needed for maintenance and restoration, the ongoing and illegal restrictions by Israel are preventing the entry of temporary shelters, tents, and basic supplies for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians whose homes it has destroyed…

    Israel is deliberately obstructing the restoration of essential infrastructure, including water and sewage systems, endangering civilian lives and worsening environmental and health crises.

    This, after over 15 months of Israeli bombardment and invasion of Gaza left more than 170,000 Palestinians dead, wounded, or missing in Gaza and around 2 million others forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and international humanitarian agencies.

    U.S. President Donald Trump—whose proposal for an American takeover and redevelopment of the Gaza Strip into the “Riviera of the Middle East” has sparked international condemnation—said Monday that the cease-fire should end, letting “all hell break loose,” if all the remaining 40 or so Israeli and international hostages are not released by noon on Saturday.

    The Qassam Brigades on Monday reaffirmed Hamas’ “commitment to the terms of the agreement as long as the occupation adheres to them.”

    Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

  • NHS staff barred from workplace for considering Palestine demonstration

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    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/feb/09/nhs-staff-barred-from-workplace-for-considering-palestine-demonstration

    An investigation found the pair had no case to answer and that the trust had breached its own disciplinary policy

    Two NHS professionals were investigated and barred from their workplace for expressing interest in organising a peaceful protest in support of Palestine during their lunch break.

    The therapist and nurse were accused of posing a threat to the “personal safety” of the staff at Kensington and Chelsea child and adolescent mental health service, and of “bringing the trust into disrepute” for considering the demonstration.

    The pair, who the Guardian is calling Layla and Maya, were told they were to be investigated and could not enter the building they worked at before being redeployed to new NHS workplaces in London.

    A three-month investigation into the pair’s conduct found they had no case to answer and that the trust had breached its own disciplinary policy in its treatment of them.

    The investigator noted that, though there was no intent from the pair to bully other staff members, two staff members did feel unsafe to come into work “as an indirect result” of their intent to organise the protest.

    The two professionals filed an internal grievance against the Central and North West London NHS foundation, which upheld their claim of policy breaches in their treatment.

    …

    Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/feb/09/nhs-staff-barred-from-workplace-for-considering-palestine-demonstration

    UK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE
    UK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE
    Experiencing issues with this image not appearing. I suspect because it's so critical of Zionist Keir Starmer's support of and complicity in Israel's genocides.
    Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA

  • Pension pots funding Gaza genocide – to tune of £16bn

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/pension-pots-funding-gaza-genocide-to-tune-of-ps16bn

    Children play at a tent camp for displaced Palestinians in Gaza City’s Jabalya refugee camp, February 6, 2025, after collecting donated food

    Urgent divestment call for local authority schemes

    THE Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) has invested over £12 billion in firms complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide, new research by campaigners revealed today.

    Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s (PSC) freedom of information requests have found that LGPS funds, administered by local councils across Britain, invest more than £450 million in BAE Systems, which manufactures components used by Israel’s F-16 fighter jets.

    More than £80m is invested in Caterpillar, which produces bulldozers used by Israel to demolish Palestinian homes, schools and hospitals.

    And more than £90m is invested in RTX Corporation, formerly Raytheon, which produces bombs used by the Israeli military.

    Investments in Amazon and Google’s parent company Alphabet, purveyors of cloud computing infrastructure to Israel’s intelligence-gathering Project Nimbus, totals £4.7bn.

    The research also shows that LGPS funds hold more than £28m in Israeli government bonds.

    …

    Continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/pension-pots-funding-gaza-genocide-to-tune-of-ps16bn