‘We want the war criminals brought to justice’

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/we-want-war-criminals-brought-justice

 People on Westminster Bridge as they take part in a Palestine Solidarity Campaign march in central London, October 11, 2025

HUNDREDS of thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters took to the streets of central London on Saturday to mark two years since the start of the Israeli invasion of Gaza.

The march, assessed by organisers at over 600,000 people, came as preparations ramped up today to get desperately needed aid to Palestinians in the enclave following Friday’s ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas-led resistance groups.

The protest in London was the 32nd national demonstration and came after the government questioned the need for it given the truce in Gaza. Ministers say they intend to give greater powers to restrict protests by allowing the police to consider the “cumulative impact” of repeated demonstrations.

Zarah Sultana, the independent MP for Coventry South and a co-founder of “Your Party,” slammed Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood for switching sides on Palestine and for “locking up pensioners and priests for opposing the ban on Palestine Action.”

She told the huge rally outside Downing Street that the Home Secretary “doesn’t want to just ban demonstrations, she wants to criminalise dissent — she want to send a message that if you march for Palestine, if you speak out against genocide, if you demand justice, then the state considers you the problem. Shame on her.”

Independent MP for Islington North and “Your Party” co-founder Jeremy Corbyn told the huge rally in Whitehall that despite declaring the ceasefire in Gaza “the Israeli army killed 17 Palestinians and injured 71 over the previous 24 hours.”

He said: “Peace will only come to Gaza when Israel is forced to leave Gaza. We will be here as often and as long as it takes.”

He slapped down a scheme to install former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in a “board of peace” running Gaza.

“Viceroy Blair will not bring peace,” Mr Corbyn told the Morning Star.

Stop the War Coalition convener Lindsey German compared the demonstration to the far-right “hate march” a few weeks ago.

She said: “This is what a large demonstration looks like. This is a march of solidarity. We should hold our heads up high today.”

But Ms German insisted that “a ceasefire is not enough. We want the war criminals brought to justice.”

See the original article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/we-want-war-criminals-brought-justice

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
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object 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 object 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.
Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Continue Reading‘We want the war criminals brought to justice’

Israeli withdrawal, captive for prisoners swap, and entry of aid: What’s in the Gaza ceasefire deal?

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Original article by Aseel Saleh republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Palestinians return to their neighborhoods in Gaza amid the third ceasefire deal with Israel. Photo: screenshot

The entry of a minimum quantity of aid to besieged Gaza, the release of all Israeli captives in return for Palestinian prisoners, the return of displaced people to their home areas, and the IOF’s withdrawal to agreed-upon lines are the main points of the first phase.

Over two years after one of the most gruesome genocides in modern history began, claiming tens of thousands of lives in the besieged Gaza Strip and shaking hearts and minds across the world, a ceasefire deal was finally reached. The hope is that it will be permanent, ending the latest and intensified genocidal violence that the Palestinian people have endured.

The current ceasefire deal, which US President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday, October 8, finally went into effect at noon on Friday local time, according to the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF).

The agreement is the third reached during Israel’s merciless, two-year-long genocidal aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza. The first ceasefire took place in November, 2023, and lasted only 6 days before being violated by Netanyahu’s government. The second was reached in January 2025, before being annihilated by the Israeli occupation two months later.

The ceasefire begins with the IOF’s withdrawal to agreed-upon deployment lines

The ceasefire officially started after the IOF completed the withdrawal of its troops to certain agreed-upon deployment lines within the besieged Gaza Strip on Friday at noon.

The timeline for releasing Israeli captives by Hamas

Now that the ceasefire has taken effect, Hamas was given a 72-hour window to release all 48 Israeli captives held in Gaza (alive or deceased). The deadline for the whole process to be completed was set for Monday, October 13, at noon.

All the 20 living captives, and some of the deceased, should be released by the timeline. However, Hamas made it clear that it will not be able to determine the location of all the 28 dead captives by the established deadline. A fact which Israel has also been familiar with.

Israeli sources reported that the Israeli government has for months been aware of the fact that Hamas does not know the whereabouts of some deceased Israeli captives because a group of them were held by other Palestinian factions in Gaza. Thus their release or retrieval may be beyond Hamas’s control.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza have started to return to their home areas

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, forcibly displaced to southern Gaza, began to return to their devastated home areas in other parts of the besieged strip as soon the ceasefire went into effect on Friday at noon.

Videos went viral of a flood of Palestinian people walking towards Gaza city along the coastal road, weeks after fleeing Israel’s merciless offensive, which flattened the city into rubble.

The majority of the population is seen in the footage walking on foot for distances of about 20 kilometers, carrying shabby luggage sacks on their backs. Meanwhile, others hired donkey carts, a high-price service often unaffordable for many.

Although the IOF withdrew its troops from certain areas in the besieged strip, they informed the people of Gaza that Israeli soldiers are still deployed in other areas, warning them to avoid approaching them. The alarming message has added a level of panic to the already arduous and long return journey.

Aid to start entering Gaza under UN supervision on Sunday

Multiple international media outlets reported on Friday that Israel has finally given approval to the United Nations to begin large-scale aid deliveries to Gaza as of Sunday, October 12.

The prospective aid shipment will include 170,000 metric tons of supplies, which are already stationed in neighboring countries, including Jordan and Egypt. Humanitarian teams in charge of handling the delivery process had also been waiting for Israel’s authorization to resume their operations.

For his part, the spokesperson for the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Stéphane Dujarric, told reporters in New York on Friday that some essential life-saving materials have started to flow into Gaza through the Israel-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing, including fuel, medical supplies, and other critical materials.

The senior UN official further urged Israel to open more border crossings, and guarantee the safe movement of aid workers and civilians alike, especially in areas that were very recently subjected to heavy fire by the IOF during their return journey.

Israel publishes list of Palestinian prisoners to be released as part of the deal, Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office denies reaching an agreement on the list

The Israeli Ministry of Justice published on its website on Friday, a list of the Palestinian prisoners, who are allegedly intended to be freed as part of the current ceasefire deal.

The published list includes the names of 250 Palestinians sentenced to life imprisonment, and 1,700 other prisoners, including women and children, who were arrested from Gaza after October 7, 2023.

Nonetheless, the published list does not include the names of prominent figures in the Palestinian Prisoners’ movement, whose release Hamas has always held as a condition during every round of Gaza ceasefire negotiations. The eminent prisoners excluded from the list published by Israel are:

  • Marwan Barghouti
  • Ahmed Saadat
  • Abdullah Barghouti
  • Hassan Salama
  • Abbas al-Sayed
  • Ibrahim Hamed

Commenting on the list, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office issued a statement via its Telegram channel, denying that any final agreement has been reached regarding the Palestinian prisoners to be released.

“No official agreement has yet been reached regarding the lists of prisoners included in the exchange deal,” the statement reads.

“If a final agreement is reached, the official lists will be published on the Prisoners’ Media Office’s (social media) platforms,” the office added.

Reports say that Hamas is insisting on the release of the eminent prisoners, making that the most significant sticking point in current negotiations. The group has also affirmed their refusal to disarm. 

The ceasefire deal is a victory of Palestinian people and the masses who mobilized against Genocide, says IPA

The International Peoples’ Assembly (IPA) issued a statement on Thursday, October 9, unequivocally saluting “the unyielding resistance and resilience of the Palestinian people, who have bravely confronted unimaginable violence and devastation with steadfastness.”

“This agreement would not have been reached were it not for their strength and determination,” the IPA emphasized.

The IPA considered reaching the agreement a victory that “belongs to the Palestinian people and the masses who mobilized against Genocide, Imperialism, and Zionism.” A victory that was achieved despite Israel’s “widespread atrocities and destruction with the full support of US imperialism”.

The statement asserts that the “Zionist regime has failed in displacing the Palestinian people from their land.” The anti-imperialist assembly also called “on the people of the world to continue taking action, building pressure and mobilizing”.

“We must relentlessly work to isolate Zionism, ensuring that the terms of this agreement are fully upheld by the occupying power. This ceasefire is not an end, but a crucial juncture. We must intensify our efforts until the full demands of the Palestinian people are met, rooted in self-determination and the complete liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea.”

PYM hails Palestinians for remaining steadfast on their land after 732 days of genocide

The Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), in an Instagram post, reflected the IPA’s commendation of the steadfastness of the Palestinian people on their land after over two years of genocide, which in itself represents a victory:

“The streets of Gaza ring out tonight with the joyful cries of its people. While a ceasefire proposal is announced, Israel’s flagrant and repeated violations of previous agreements give us pause. Still, we find cause to celebrate. That despite the best efforts of Israel, the United States, Canada, Europe, and Arab regimes to conspire against them, 732 days of genocide later, the Palestinian people remain steadfast on their land. Gaza still rises, and with it, the people of the world rise. The joy of our people in Gaza is our joy, their relief is our relief, and their determination must also be our determination: to lift the siege, liberate all prisoners, end the occupation, and free our land. From the river to the sea.”

Original article by Aseel Saleh republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object 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 object 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.
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
Continue ReadingIsraeli withdrawal, captive for prisoners swap, and entry of aid: What’s in the Gaza ceasefire deal?

European leaders praise Gaza ceasefire deal, back neocolonial agenda

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Original article by Ana Vračar republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Source: EU – European Parliament/Denis Lomme

Reactions to the Gaza ceasefire deal signal that European leaders are more interested in advancing neocolonial projects than seeing peace in Palestine.

European government leaders were quick to comment on the recently announced ceasefire deal for Gaza – but their enthusiasm seemed directed less toward a possible respite for the people of Palestine after two years of genocide, and more toward a new opportunity to ingratiate themselves with US President Donald Trump. Early statements overflowed with compliments for the US administration, accompanied by brief acknowledgments of other participants in the negotiations, before moving to promises of what Europe intends to do next.

Read more: Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal met with cautious optimism

“The European Union will continue to support the swift and safe delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on social media. “And when the time comes, we will be ready to help with recovery and reconstruction.” In her remarks, von der Leyen made no mention of the fact that the EU had failed to take decisive action to ensure the delivery of food and medicine to Gaza throughout Israel’s genocide, or that EU member states continued to ship weapons to the occupation power, thus directly contributing to the destruction she now presumably wants to help Gaza recover from.

Similar statements could be found across communication channels of French, British, and other European officials. Some of the most remarkable reactions, however, came from Italy, whose government representatives had previously described President Trump’s plan for Gaza as the only achievable one and poured praise on his diplomatic skills. The same officials had criticized Italian activists who joined the Global Sumud Flotilla to break the sea blockade of the Strip and deliver essential supplies, failing to protect them from an Israeli terrorist attack and kidnapping in international waters.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced that Italy “is ready to contribute to the stabilization, reconstruction, and development of Gaza,” while Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani posted videos showing Gazans waving Italian flags alongside Palestinian ones, apparently mistaking their recognition of Italian workers and students – who organized two general strikes and mass demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine, bringing inspiration to the whole region – for gratitude toward the Meloni administration itself.

In reality, Italy’s far-right government has continuously backed Israel throughout the genocide and shipped substantial quantities of weapons to the occupation forces. For this reason, Meloni, Tajani, and Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, along with arms manufacturer Leonardo’s CEO Roberto Cingolani, were recently reported to the International Criminal Court for suspicion of complicity in crimes against humanity.

Read more: Workers shut down Italy again in solidarity with Palestine

Reactions from the left were more skeptical of what lies ahead. Jean-Luc Mélenchon of France Unbowed (La France Insoumise) commented: “After so many deaths and months of genocide, a ceasefire could take place in Gaza. How could one not rejoice at this? […] But once again, the Palestinians will have to endure a new foreign political order. And can one really believe Trump? From our continent, let us lend lucid and vigilant support to the ceasefire while remaining attentive and mobilized.”

Progressive politicians in Europe also criticized the EU’s enthusiasm to define Gaza’s political future. Marc Botenga, MEP for the Workers’ Party of Belgium (PTB-PVDA), warned: “The EU needs to pressure Israel to respect the ceasefire, lift the humanitarian blockade, withdraw from the Gaza Strip and other occupied Palestinian territory.” Reacting to EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas, who suggested that the bloc should have a seat at the table while the management of Gaza is discussed, Botenga added: “Europe should stand for Palestinian self-determination instead of fighting to be part of a neocolonial administration.”

Original article by Ana Vračar republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) 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

Continue ReadingEuropean leaders praise Gaza ceasefire deal, back neocolonial agenda

When María Corina Machado wins the Nobel Peace Prize, “peace” has lost its meaning

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Original article by Michelle Ellner republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

In 2002, former US President George W. Bush meets María Corina Machado, then director of Súmate, an "independent democratic civil society group" funded by the US government to "oversee the electoral process in Venezuela". Source: White House/Eric Draper
In 2002, former US President George W. Bush meets María Corina Machado, then director of Súmate, an “independent democratic civil society group” funded by the US government to “oversee the electoral process in Venezuela”. Source: White House/Eric Draper

Venezuelan opposition figure María Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, but there’s nothing peaceful about her politics

When I saw the headline María Corina Machado wins the Peace Prize, I almost laughed at the absurdity. But I didn’t, because there’s nothing funny about rewarding someone whose politics have brought so much suffering. Anyone who knows what she stands for knows there’s nothing remotely peaceful about her politics.

If this is what counts as “peace” in 2025, then the prize itself has lost every ounce of credibility. I’m Venezuelan-American, and I know exactly what Machado represents. She’s the smiling face of Washington’s regime-change machine, the polished spokesperson for sanctions, privatization, and foreign intervention dressed up as democracy.

Machado’s politics are steeped in violence. She has called for foreign intervention, even appealing directly to Benjamin Netanyahu, the architect of Gaza’s annihilation, to help “liberate” Venezuela with bombs under the banner of “freedom,” She has demanded sanctions, that silent form of warfare whose effects – as studies in The Lancet and other journals have shown – have killed more people than war, cutting off medicine, food, and energy to entire populations.

Machado has spent her entire political life promoting division, eroding Venezuela’s sovereignty, and denying its people the right to live with dignity.

This is who María Corina Machado really is:

  • She helped lead the 2002 coup that briefly overthrew a democratically elected president, and signed the Carmona Decree that erased the Constitution and dissolved every public institution overnight.
  • She worked hand in hand with Washington to justify regime change, using her platform to demand foreign military intervention to “liberate” Venezuela through force.
  • She cheered on Donald Trump’s threats of invasion and his naval deployments in the Caribbean, a show of force that risks igniting regional war under the pretext of “combating narcotrafficking.” While Trump sent warships and froze assets, Machado stood ready to serve as his local proxy, promising to deliver Venezuela’s sovereignty on a silver platter.
  • She pushed for the US sanctions that strangled the economy, knowing exactly who would pay the price: the poor, the sick, the working class.
  • She helped construct the so-called “interim government,” a Washington-backed puppet show run by a self-appointed “president” who looted Venezuela’s resources abroad while children at home went hungry.
  • She vows to reopen Venezuela’s embassy in Jerusalem, aligning herself openly with the same apartheid state that bombs hospitals and calls it self-defense.
  • Now she wants to hand over the country’s oil, water, and infrastructure to private corporations. This is the same recipe that made Latin America the laboratory of neoliberal misery in the 1990s.

Machado was also one of the political architects of “La Salida,” the 2014 opposition campaign that called for escalated protests, including guarimba tactics. Those weren’t “peaceful protests” as the foreign press claimed; they were organized barricades meant to paralyze the country and force the government’s fall. Streets were blocked with burning trash and barbed wire, buses carrying workers were torched, and people suspected of being Chavista were beaten or killed. Even ambulances and doctors were attacked. Some Cuban medical brigades were nearly burned alive. Public buildings, food trucks, and schools were destroyed. Entire neighborhoods were held hostage by fear while opposition leaders like Machado cheered from the sidelines and called it “resistance.”

She praises Trump’s “decisive action” against what she calls a “criminal enterprise,” aligning herself with the same man who cages migrant children and tears families apart under ICE’s watch, while Venezuelan mothers search for their children disappeared by US migration policies.

Machado isn’t a symbol of peace or progress. She is part of a global alliance between fascism, Zionism, and neoliberalism, an axis that justifies domination in the language of democracy and peace. In Venezuela, that alliance has meant coups, sanctions, and privatization. In Gaza, it means genocide and the erasure of a people. The ideology is the same: a belief that some lives are disposable, that sovereignty is negotiable, and that violence can be sold as order.

If Henry Kissinger could win a Peace Prize, why not María Corina Machado? Maybe next year they’ll give one to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation for “compassion under occupation.”

Every time this award is handed to an architect of violence disguised as diplomacy, it spits in the face of those who actually fight for peace: the Palestinian medics digging bodies from rubble, the journalists risking their lives in Gaza to document the truth and the humanitarian workers of the Flotilla sailing to break the siege and deliver aid to starving children in Gaza, with nothing but courage and conviction.

But real peace is not negotiated in boardrooms or awarded on stages. Real peace is built by women organizing food networks during blockades, by Indigenous communities defending rivers from extraction, by workers who refuse to be starved into obedience, by Venezuelan mothers mobilizing to demand the return of children seized under US ICE and migration policies and by nations that choose sovereignty over servitude. That’s the peace Venezuela, Cuba, Palestine, and every nation of the Global South deserves.

Michelle Ellner is a Latin America campaign coordinator of CODEPINK.


Original article by Michelle Ellner republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Continue ReadingWhen María Corina Machado wins the Nobel Peace Prize, “peace” has lost its meaning

‘We Must Keep the Pressure On’: Humanitarians Say Ceasefire Doesn’t Erase Gaza Genocide

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

A smoke plume billows following Israeli bombardment on the Gaza Strip as seen from northwest of Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza, on October 9, 2025. (Photo by Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“This much-needed and welcomed ceasefire does not change the simple fact that Israel has just committed a genocide in Gaza,” wrote the co-founder of European Jews for Palestine.

After two years of destruction in the Gaza Strip, Israel signed a ceasefire agreement with Hamas on Thursday that is expected to take effect within the next day. But even as the world reacts with jubilation that the nonstop death and destruction may soon abate, skepticism abounds about whether the agreement will result in a just and lasting peace.

Israel is expected to withdraw troops to an agreed-upon line and to allow an influx of aid into Gaza, along with releasing Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli hostages. Already, signs have emerged that the Israeli government may seek to collapse the fragile agreement, as happened earlier this year.

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, pointed out that within hours after the deal was announced by US President Donald Trump on Wednesday, Israeli tanks were filmed firing at civilians attempting to return to their homes in Gaza City.

Middle East Eye reported: “Heavy airstrikes and artillery shelling were reported in Gaza City and Khan Younis overnight, according to local media. Israeli quadcopters were also reported to have dropped bombs on civilians in Gaza City. At least nine people were killed in the attacks since dawn, health officials said.”

Albanese said: “Just hours after the deal—as in January—Israel shoots at Palestinians waiting to return home. Before any next step, member states must ensure that Israel honors the ceasefire.”

Whether the ceasefire will even be finalized remains an open question, as two leading far-right figures in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government—Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir—have come out in opposition to the deal’s ratification and suggested that their parties may defect from Netanyahu’s government if they don’t get their way, which could be enough to collaose his narrow governing majority.

In a video at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount on Wednesday, Ben-Gvir said Israel must pursue “full victory in Gaza,” a move seen as deeply provocative by the Arab world outside one of Islam’s holiest sites, made only more so by his declaration that “we [Jewish Israelis] are the owners of [the] Temple Mount.”

In recent months, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich have said this goal of “total victory” includes carrying out the forced expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza so they can be replaced with Israeli settlers.

Even if this ceasefire proves more durable than previous ones, human rights advocates say that simply halting the violence is not enough.

“We can breathe again, in relief for the end of the daily killing, the starvation, the human suffering beyond imagination, beyond words,” wrote Yoav Shemer-Kunz, the co-founder of European Jews for Palestine in EUObserver. “This much-needed and welcomed ceasefire does not change the simple fact that Israel has just committed a genocide in Gaza.”

Over the past two years, more than 10% of Gaza’s population has been the casualties of Israeli attacks: At least 67,000 people—including over 20,000 children—have been killed, while at least 169,000 people have been injured, many with life-altering wounds, according to official estimates from the Gaza Health Ministry. Other studies suggest the death toll may be even higher when the effects of disease and starvation are taken into account.

Craig Mokhiber, a former United Nations human rights official, said that while Israel and the US had agreed to end the “military component of [the] genocide… they have not yet ended the food and medical components of the genocide.”

Nearly 78% of the buildings, including over 9 in 10 homes, in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, leaving its medical, water, and sanitation infrastructure in ruins.

And as a result of Israel’s near-total blockade on humanitarian aid, Gaza is now the center of a historic famine. According to the United Nations-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), nearly a third of the population—641,000 people—is estimated to face catastrophic conditions of hunger, while 1 in 4 children suffers from acute malnutrition.

“A temporary pause or reduction in the scale of attacks and allowing a trickle of humanitarian aid into Gaza is not enough,” said Agnès Callamard, the secretary general of Amnesty International.

“There must be a full cessation of hostilities and a total lifting of the blockade,” she said. “Israel must allow the unhindered flow of basic supplies, including food, medicine, fuel, and reconstruction material, into all parts of the occupied Gaza Strip, as well as the restoration of essential services, to ensure the survival of a population reeling from starvation, repeated waves of mass forced displacement, and a campaign of annihilation.”

Though the deal signed Thursday calls for 400 aid trucks to begin entering the strip each day, marking a massive surge from previous levels, it is still fewer than the 600 per day that were allowed to enter during January’s ceasefire, which occurred when starvation was at a less critical point.

Though the ceasefire will require the withdrawal of some troops, Israel has said it will still control 53% of the Gaza Strip after it goes into effect and the prisoner exchange ends.

“This fragile ceasefire must be the beginning of a sustained and principled effort that leads to ending Israel’s unlawful occupation and blockade,” said Oxfam International. “It must be focused on restoring rights and rebuilding lives. Any political or reconstruction plan must not entrench the occupation or further undermine Palestinian sovereignty.”

Others emphasized the importance not just of remedies to the suffering of Palestinians, but legal accountability for those in Israel’s government, including Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, for whom the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for crimes against humanity.

“The current plan—the so-called ‘Trump peace plan’—falls woefully short in this,” said Callamard. “It fails to demand justice and reparations for victims of atrocity crimes or accountability for perpetrators. Stopping the cycle of suffering and atrocities requires an end to longstanding impunity at the heart of recurring violations in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. States must uphold their obligations under international law to bring to justice those responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide.”

Mokhiber said: “We must keep the pressure on until all perpetrators and complicit actors are held accountable for the genocide, the apartheid regime is dismantled, and Palestine is free.”

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

Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object 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 object 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.
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
Genocide denying UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspending 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government's support for Israel's Gaza genocide and the UK government and military's active participation in genocide.
Genocide denying UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspending 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide and the UK government and military’s active participation in genocide.

Continue Reading‘We Must Keep the Pressure On’: Humanitarians Say Ceasefire Doesn’t Erase Gaza Genocide