Norwegian Foreign Minister warns weapons-exporting states of complicity in Israeli genocide
UK, US and other supporters of Israeli apartheid and oppression are enabling slaughter of Palestinians
Eide said:
States exporting weapons to Israel should reassess whether they are effective partners in the genocide in Gaza Strip or not.
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UN envoy to Gaza calls out the ‘double standards’ of governments over UNRWA funding
A UNITED NATIONS envoy to Gaza today called out the “double standards” of governments that have suspended funds to the world body’s agency for Palestinian refugees.
About a dozen mostly global North countries have suspended funding to the UN’s Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), even though an investigation has yet to be completed into an allegation that 12 former staff members (of about 30,000) took part in the October 7 attacks on Israel.
UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese said that while the governments have suspended aid “the same governments have not suspended ties with the state whose army has killed 26,000 people in Gaza in 3.5 months, though the [International Court of Justice] said it may plausibly constitute genocide.”
She said: “Double standards? Yes, big time.”
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During a UN briefing in Geneva on Tuesday, UN humanitarian spokesman Jens Laerke said UNRWA is “irreplaceable in the humanitarian operation.”
Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said it was “telling” that UN bodies and non-governmental organisations agree that defunding UNRWA “means a collapse of humanitarian work among Palestinian women and children in their hour of greatest need — when they’re under this relentless, indiscriminate bombardment and when there is so little capacity for humanitarian relief.”
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dizz: We need to get rid of the complicit in genocide politicians …
Rule-of-Law Western Style’: Israeli Assassination Squad Kills Three in Jenin Hospital
Original article by JAKE JOHNSON republished from Common Dreams under under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
Ibn Sina hospital’s medical director said the Palestinian men were “executed in cold blood.”
A team of Israeli forces disguised as civilians and medical staff raided Ibn Sina hospital in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday and assassinated three Palestinians, claiming without providing evidence that they were using the facility as a hideout and planning an attack inspired by the Hamas-led October 7 assault.
Journalists on the ground report that there was no apparent attempt to arrest the three individuals, whom the Israeli military identified as Mohammed Jalamneh, Mohammed Ghazawi, and his brother Basel Ghazawi. Ibn Sina’s medical director said the three men were “executed in cold blood.”
Al Jazeera reported that “Hamas confirmed that Jalamneh was one of its members.”
“The Jenin Brigade, which includes a number of Palestinian armed resistance groups, said in a statement that two of the three men were members of Islamic Jihad,” the outlet added.
A hospital spokesperson told The Associated Press that 18-year-old Basel Ghazawi “had been a patient in the hospital since October with partial paralysis.”
Security footage from the hospital shows Israeli forces dressed as civilian women and medical workers moving through a facility hallway and waiting area with assault rifles drawn.
Citing Palestinian officials, AP reported that the Israeli forces “opened fire inside the wards” of the hospital, located in the West Bank city of Jenin.
Palestinian health officials “condemned the raid and called on the international community to pressure Israel’s military to halt such operations in hospitals,” AP added. “A hospital spokesperson said there was no exchange of fire, indicating that it was a targeted killing.”
Hospitals have special protections under international law, but Israel has treated them as legitimate targets for military operations since October 7, endangering wounded patients and medical personnel by raiding and shelling the facilities at will.
Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek finance minister and co-founder of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025, sardonically described the Israeli forces’ Jenin hospital raid as “rule-of-law Western style” and rejected the notion that “you can kill anyone you like on a land that you are illegally occupying, brand him/her terrorist, and then vilify as antisemites the ancestors of everyone who questions your right to kill anyone you like on a land that you are illegally occupying.”
Al Jazeera‘s Charles Stratford, reporting from Ramallah, said Tuesday that “the Israeli army often surrounds and in some instances has attacked the three Palestinian hospitals in Jenin during nightly raids on the city.”
“But this is the first time they have entered a civilian medical facility in what seems to have been a well-planned, targeted assassination operation that Palestinian authorities are calling another violation of international law,” said Stratford.
Original article by JAKE JOHNSON republished from Common Dreams under under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
20+ NGOs Condemn ‘Reckless’ Decision to Cut Off UNRWA Aid
Original article by BRETT WILKINS republished from Common Dreams under under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
“Countries must reverse these funding suspensions, uphold their duties towards the Palestinian people, and scale up humanitarian assistance for civilians in dire need in Gaza and the region.”
More than 20 humanitarian aid organizations on Monday condemned the decision by the United States and a growing list of nations to suspend funding for the United Nations agency that provides vital services to Palestinians suffering through a genocidal Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip.
Following Israeli claims—reportedly extracted from Palestinian prisoners in an interrogation regime rife with torture and abuse—that 12 of the more than 13,000 United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) workers in Gaza were involved in the October 7 Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel, the United States and nine other nations cut off funding to the largest humanitarian aid organization operating in the besieged coastal enclave.
UNRWA has fired several employees in the wake of the Israeli allegations, while the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services, the world body’s highest investigative authority, has launched a probe of the matter.
“We welcome UNRWA’s swift investigation into the alleged involvement of a small number of U.N. staff members in the October 7 attacks. We are shocked by the reckless decision to cut a lifeline for an entire population by some of the very countries that had called for aid in Gaza to be stepped up and for humanitarians to be protected while doing their job,” the 21 NGOs said in a statement.
“This decision comes as the International Court of Justice ordered immediate and effective action to ensure the provision of humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza,” the groups continued, referring to last week’s ICJ interim ruling in a South African-led case that found Israel is “plausibly” perpetrating genocide. “The countries suspending funds risk further depriving Palestinians in the region of essential food, water, medical assistance and supplies, education, and protection.”
“We urge donor states to reaffirm support for the vital work that UNRWA and its partners do to help Palestinians survive one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes of our times,” the statement added. “Countries must reverse these funding suspensions, uphold their duties towards the Palestinian people, and scale up humanitarian assistance for civilians in dire need in Gaza and the region.”
According to UNRWA chief Phillipe Lazzarini, more than 2 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million people depend upon UNRWA for their “sheer survival.” With more than 90% of Gazans displaced by Israel’s bombardment and invasion, over 1 million Palestinians are living in UNRWA-run shelters. As Gaza teeters on the brink of famine and hundreds of thousands of its residents suffer infectious diseases, the agency is providing critical food, medicine, and healthcare. It also runs hundreds of schools in the strip.
All this while working under relentless Israeli bombardment that’s sometimes targeted UNRWA convoys, schools, shelters, and other facilities. The agency says at least 152 of its employees have been killed by Israeli bombs and bullets since October 7. Overall, more than 26,600 Palestinians have been killed and over 65,300 others wounded during Israel’s 115-day onslaught, according to Gaza officials. Most of these casualties have been women and children.
“We urge donor states to reaffirm support for the vital work that UNRWA and its partners do to help Palestinians survive one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes of our times.”
This isn’t the first time the U.S. has suspended funding for UNRWA. The Trump administration did so in 2018, describing the agency as “irredeemably flawed.” In 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden restored funding for UNRWA as it reeled from a crisis caused largely by the loss of around $360 million in American financial contributions.
U.S. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Monday urged the Biden administration to “immediately” restore UNRWA funding, which came a day after U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said that while the alleged complicity of a few UNRWA employees in the October 7 attacks “must have consequences,” the “tens of thousands of men and women who work for UNRWA, many in some of the most dangerous situations for humanitarian workers, should not be penalized.”
“The dire needs of the desperate populations they serve must be met,” he added.
Helen Clark, a member of the Elders and a former prime minister of New Zealand, on Monday praised countries—including New Zealand, Norway, Spain, and Ireland—that “have shown a better approach” by continuing to financially support UNRWA.
“Gazans cannot suffer further collective punishment through suspension of UNRWA funding,” Clark said on social media.
Norway’s Representative Office to Palestine affirmed on social media that “the situation in Gaza is catastrophic, and UNRWA is the most important humanitarian organization there.”
“Norway continues our support for the Palestinian people through UNRWA,” the office added. “International support for Palestine is needed now more than ever.”
Original article by BRETT WILKINS republished from Common Dreams under under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).