Palestine

On Israel and comparisons with the Nazis

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Palestinians inspect the damage following an Israeli airstrike on the El-Remal aera in Gaza City on October 9, 2023. Israel continued to battle Hamas fighters on October 10 and massed tens of thousands of troops and heavy armour around the Gaza Strip after vowing a massive blow over the Palestinian militants' surprise attack. Photo by Naaman Omar apaimages. licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Palestinians inspect the damage following an Israeli airstrike on the El-Remal aera in Gaza City on October 9, 2023. Israel continued to battle Hamas fighters on October 10 and massed tens of thousands of troops and heavy armour around the Gaza Strip after vowing a massive blow over the Palestinian militants’ surprise attack. Photo by Naaman Omar apaimages. licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

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After Israel announces it’s building a concentration camp, condemning the few politicians speaking out is morally twisted

Israel has announced that it will drive Gaza’s survivors into a concentration camp, before they’re all expelled.

Those who refuse will be exterminated. In the words of Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom, “those outside these zones will later be identified as Hamas terrorists, providing legal justification for their elimination.”

Enter Dave Rich, a professed expert on antisemitism and the Director of Policy at the Community Security Trust (CST), whose stated mission is to protect Jewish security in Britain. They work closely with government and the police, but have been condemned by, amongst others, the Jewish peace movement Na’amod for their vilification of Jewish opponents of Israel’s genocide, alongside anti-genocide protests more broadly.

Confronted with Israel openly committing to a grave war crime, who does Rich reserve his ire for?

The few British politicians condemning the crime.

…

Those who engage in atrocity denial receive damning judgements from history, and rightly so. Israel is planning to concentrate the Palestinian population in a camp, where they will be forbidden from leaving. Those who do not oblige will be regarded as legitimate military targets. This is a concentration camp.

The claim that this is a “humanitarian zone” is a perverse, Orwellian upending of the English language. We already know how Israel interprets ‘humanitarian’ given the experience of the so-called ‘Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’. In this case, after Israel imposed a total siege on Gaza from 2nd March – an objective, incontrovertible war crime – this Israeli-American front brought in limited amounts of often unusable aid, focused in the south in an attempt to coerce the population into depopulating the north.

The Israeli army then repeatedly massacred hundreds of unarmed Palestinian civilians – who it had deliberately starved – at these aid points. The UN Human Rights Office yesterday reported that 798 Palestinians had been killed at aid points since the end of May – more than the total number of Israeli civilians (695) killed on 7th October. 798 is a hideous number – but represents only a tiny fraction of Palestinian civilians killed by Israel.

These are closed military zones where only the Israel “Defense” Forces operate. We know from the testimonies of Palestinians that they are being fired at by the Israeli army, but Palestinian testimonies are treated as worthless because they are barely considered human by Western media outlets and politicians.

…

Article by Owen Jones continues

Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone obect to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza's hospitals and universities,mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone obect to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities,mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Vote Labour for Genocide.
Vote Labour for Genocide.
UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel's Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don't do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.

Continue ReadingOn Israel and comparisons with the Nazis

UN says more than 737,000 newly displaced in Gaza since March amid Israeli strikes

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Palestinian families begin fleeing again from shelters near the Al-Mawasi area as the Israeli army expands its ground offensive and tanks reach southwestern Khan Yunis, Gaza, marking their first displacement in nearly a year and a half, on July 10, 2025. [Hani Alshaer - Anadolu Agency]
Palestinian families begin fleeing again from shelters near the Al-Mawasi area as the Israeli army expands its ground offensive and tanks reach southwestern Khan Yunis, Gaza, marking their first displacement in nearly a year and a half, on July 10, 2025. [Hani Alshaer – Anadolu Agency]

The UN said Thursday that more than 737,000 people have been displaced in the Gaza Strip since an escalation of Israeli attacks in March, underscoring the scale of the humanitarian crisis facing the population, Anadolu reports.

Citing the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), spokesperson Stephanie Tremblay reported at a news conference that “between the 8th and the 15th of July, more than 11,500 people were newly displaced.”

“That brings overall displacement since the latest escalation of hostilities on March 18th to over 737,000 people – that’s about 35% of Gaza’s population. And over the past 21 months, nearly everyone has been displaced, typically multiple times,” she noted.

Tremblay said Israeli strikes in the last 24 hours hit sites sheltering displaced Palestinians, with reports of injuries and fatalities.

Despite mounting needs, she said that only a limited amount of humanitarian aid is reaching the enclave.

Tremblay described the delivery of benzene for the first time in more than 135 days as a “small but important step forward,” noting that benzene is essential for powering ambulances and critical services.

“But it’s not enough,” she stressed.

READ: Israel refuses to renew visas for heads of 3 UN agencies in Gaza

On the Israeli strike against a church in Gaza, Tremblay said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres “strongly condemns today’s reports of an Israeli strike on the Holy Family Church in Gaza, a place of worship and a sanctuary for civilians.”

“Attacks on places of worship are unacceptable. People seeking shelter must be respected and protected, not hit by strikes,” she added, reiterating demands for an immediate ceasefire.

She reiterated Guterres’ call “on all parties to ensure that civilians are respected and protected at all times and allow humanitarian aid to flow into the Strip at scale.”

In response to a question by Anadolu on Israel’s reported reassignment of administrative control of the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron to a settler council, Tremblay said the UN had not seen the report, but emphasized: “We always call for the protection of all religious sites.”

On Tuesday, Israeli media reported that Tel Aviv removed the Hebron municipality’s administrative authority over the Ibrahimi Mosque and reassigned it to a settler council.

The Ibrahimi Mosque, also known as the Tomb of the Patriarchs, is a site sacred to Muslims and Jews. Tensions over control and access have long made the mosque a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Israeli move marks the first major shift in the status of the mosque since the 1994 recommendations of the Shamgar Commission, which divided access, allocating 63% of the site to Jewish worshippers and 37% to Muslims.

The division followed the 1994 massacre by extremist settler Baruch Goldstein, who killed 29 Palestinian worshippers during dawn prayers.

The mosque is located in the Old City in an area under full Israeli control where roughly 400 illegal settlers live under the protection of 1,500 Israeli soldiers.

READ: UNICEF: Israeli attacks killing 28 children daily in Gaza

Continue ReadingUN says more than 737,000 newly displaced in Gaza since March amid Israeli strikes

Israel refuses to renew visas for heads of 3 UN agencies in Gaza

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Daily life continues at Al-Shati refugee camp in the shadow of war in Gaza City, Gaza on June 19, 2025. [Mahmoud İssa - Anadolu Agency]
Daily life continues at Al-Shati refugee camp in the shadow of war in Gaza City, Gaza on June 19, 2025. [Mahmoud İssa – Anadolu Agency]

Israel has refused to renew the visas of the heads of at least three United Nations agencies operating in Gaza, a move linked by UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Tom Fletcher, to their efforts to protect Palestinian civilians in the war-torn Strip, according to Associated Press.

 “Visas are not renewed or reduced in duration by Israel, explicitly in response to our work on protection of civilians,” Fletcher said.

UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric confirmed in recent months that visa renewals had not been granted to the local heads of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

Speaking before the Security Council on Wednesday, Fletcher said the UN’s humanitarian role is not only to deliver aid and report what its staff witness, but also to advocate for international humanitarian law, “so that you, this Council, can take action.”

READ: UNICEF: Israeli attacks killing 28 children daily in Gaza

Continue ReadingIsrael refuses to renew visas for heads of 3 UN agencies in Gaza

Pope Leo calls for ‘immediate ceasefire’ in Gaza as Israeli warplanes strike Catholic church

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Pope Leo XIV attends general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, on May 21, 2025. [isabella Bonotto - Anadolu Agency ]
Pope Leo XIV attends general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, on May 21, 2025. [isabella Bonotto – Anadolu Agency ]

Pope Leo XIV on Thursday renewed his call for “an immediate ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip and expressed his “profound hope” for “dialogue, reconciliation and lasting peace in the region,” following an Israeli attack on a Catholic church sheltering civilians, Anadolu reports.

The appeal came in a telegram signed by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin after the Church of the Holy Family in Gaza was hit during an Israeli military raid.

The pope said he was “deeply saddened” by the assault on the parish, which has provided refuge to more than 500 people since the beginning of the war.

Among those injured was the parish priest, Father Gabriel Romanelli, who sustained a light leg wound and was treated at Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City.

The pontiff addressed Father Romanelli directly in the telegram, assuring him of his “spiritual closeness” and offering prayers to the entire parish community.

READ: UNICEF: Israeli attacks killing 28 children daily in Gaza

“Entrusting the souls of the deceased to the loving mercy of Almighty God,” the pope said he is praying “for the consolation of those who mourn and for the healing of the wounded.”

In the course of its deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army has bombed several worship places, including the Gaza Baptist Church and the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius, the oldest in the Gaza Strip and the third oldest in the world.

The Holy Family Church is the only Catholic church in the Gaza Strip, which has been sheltering many displaced Christian and Muslim Palestinians since October 2023.

The Israeli army, rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, has pursued a brutal offensive against Gaza since October 2023, killing nearly 58,600 Palestinians, most of them women and children.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.

READ: Several injured as Israeli warplanes strike Catholic church in Gaza City

Continue ReadingPope Leo calls for ‘immediate ceasefire’ in Gaza as Israeli warplanes strike Catholic church

UNICEF: Israeli attacks killing 28 children daily in Gaza

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Injured Palestinians, including children are brought to al-Ahli Baptist Hospital for medical treatment aftermath of Israeli attack on Gaza City, Gaza on July 16, 2025. [Dawoud Abo Alkas - Anadolu Agency]
Injured Palestinians, including children are brought to al-Ahli Baptist Hospital for medical treatment aftermath of Israeli attack on Gaza City, Gaza on July 16, 2025. [Dawoud Abo Alkas – Anadolu Agency]

During a session at the UN Security Council on Wednesday, the Executive Director of UNICEF, Catherine Russell, revealed alarming figures about the impact of the ongoing Israeli offensive on Gaza. 

She confirmed that more than 17,000 children have been killed since the beginning of the war, at an average rate of 28 children each day– the equivalent of an entire classroom.” It is as if we are losing an entire classroom of pupils every single day for two years.”

“Children are not political actors. They do not start conflicts, and they are powerless to stop them. But they suffer greatly, and they wonder why the world has failed them,” she added.

Meanwhile, the UN Under-Secretary-General Mr Tom Fletcher warned that the health situation in Gaza has reached catastrophic levels.

“Only 17 of 36 hospitals and 63 of 170 primary healthcare centres are functioning, all only partially, even as mass casualties arrive daily,” he highlighted.

Fletcher indicated that half of all medical equipment has been damaged, with the ongoing fuel crisis remaining critical, despite its vital role in powering ambulances and other essential services.

Expressing concern over the alarming rates of child starvation in June, he revealed that “more than 5,800 girls and boys have been diagnosed as acutely malnourished.”

“Last week, amid this hunger crisis, children and women were killed in a strike while waiting for the food supplements to keep them alive,” he warned.

READ: UNRWA: Israel kills the equivalent of a classroom full of children each day in Gaza

Continue ReadingUNICEF: Israeli attacks killing 28 children daily in Gaza