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Gaza Death Toll Passes 30,000 as IDF Massacres Crowd of Starving Civilians

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

Injured Palestinians receive medical treatment in al-Shifa Hospital after Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid trucks at al-Rashid Street in Gaza City, Gaza on February 29, 2024. (Photo: Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“Israel deliberately targeting civilians after starving them is a gross violation of international humanitarian laws and our humanity,” said Oxfam. “The risk of genocide is real.”

Israeli forces on Thursday opened fire on a crowd of desperate and starving Gazans waiting for food aid in the enclave’s north, which Israel’s military has cut off from humanitarian assistance almost entirely for months.

The attack reportedly killed more than 100 Palestinians and wounded over 700, further straining Gaza City hospitals that are barely functioning after Israel’s monthlong bombing campaign and blockade, which has restricted the flow of fuel, medicine, and other necessities.

The massacre helped push the death toll from Israel’s nearly five-month war on Gaza above 30,000, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

“We are devastated by the 30,000 killed—and this is not just a number,” Melanie Ward, CEO of Medical Aid for Palestinians, said in a statement. “Every single life taken was a person with dreams and hopes for the future, left loved ones behind with no time to mourn their death. One in every 23 people has been killed or injured in Gaza. Everyone has been tragically affected in so many ways, including our own dear staff; their lives will never be the same again.”

One eyewitness who was wounded by Israeli fire in Gaza City on Thursday told The Associated Press that he and others went to Gaza City’s al-Rashid Street after hearing there would be a food delivery. The man, identified as Kamel Abu Nahel, told the outlet that “we’ve been eating animal feed for two months.”

“He said Israeli troops opened fire on the crowd, causing it to scatter, with some people hiding under cars,” AP reported. “After the shooting stopped, they went back to the trucks, and the soldiers opened fire again. He was shot in the leg and fell over, and then a truck ran over his leg as it sped off, he said.”

Medics who arrived on the scene described terrible carnage, with hundreds of people lying on the ground dead or wounded. Donkey carts were used to carry some of the wounded off to hospitals, as there weren’t enough ambulances available.

A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told Reuters in response to reports of the Gaza City massacre that “there is no knowledge of Israeli shelling in the area.” One unnamed Israeli source told the news agency that IDF soldiers shot at “several people” in the crowd who allegedly “posed a threat.”

The IDF also claimed in a statement that “dozens were killed and injured from pushing, trampling, and being run over by the trucks.”

B’tselem, an Israeli human rights group, said in response that “whether they were shot or trampled to death, intentionally opening fire at civilians is a severe violation of international law and constitutes a war crime. This is especially grave given a crowd of thousands begging for aid.

The humanitarian group Oxfam International said it was “appalled” by Israeli attacks on people waiting for aid, which has become almost impossible to deliver across much of the Gaza Strip amid relentless Israeli bombing and targeting of aid workers.

“Israel deliberately targeting civilians after starving them is a gross violation of international humanitarian laws and our humanity,” Oxfam added. “The risk of genocide is real.”

Malnutrition and infectious diseases are spreading rapidly across Gaza as Israel continues to impede aid shipments, blatantly violating the International Court of Justice’s binding interim order. Save the Children said last week that families across Gaza have been forced to “forage for scraps of food left by rats and eating leaves out of desperation to survive.”

“All 1.1 million children in Gaza are now facing death by starvation and disease as aid delivery is impossible to carry out safely,” said the humanitarian group.

Volker Türk, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, said in a speech Thursday that “there appear to be no bounds to—no words to capture—the horrors that are unfolding before our eyes in Gaza.”

“Since early October, over 100,000 people have been killed or wounded. Let me repeat that: about one in every 20 children, women, and men, are now dead or wounded,” said Türk. “At least 17,000 children are orphaned or separated from their families, while many more will carry the scars of physical and emotional trauma life-long.”

“This is carnage,” he added.

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

Continue ReadingGaza Death Toll Passes 30,000 as IDF Massacres Crowd of Starving Civilians

One Month Later, Israel Has ‘Simply Ignored’ ICJ Ruling and Continued to Starve Gazans

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

Palestinian children hold out their empty containers to be filled with food in Rafah, Gaza on February 25, 2024. (Photo by Abed Zagout/Anadolu via Getty Images)

A new report by Human Rights Watch accuses the Israeli government of defying the International Court of Justice’s order to ensure the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

In the month since the International Court of Justice handed down its interim ruling in the genocide case brought by South Africa, the Israeli government has continued to impede the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip in violation of the court’s order, Human Rights Watch said Monday.

The ICJ’s January 26 ruling, which is legally binding, requires Israel to do everything in its power to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza and ensure that basic assistance flows to the enclave’s population.

But according to Human Rights Watch (HRW), “the daily average number of trucks entering Gaza with food, aid, and medicine dropped by more than a third in the weeks following the ICJ ruling: 93 trucks between January 27 and February 21, 2024, compared to 147 trucks between January 1 and 26, and only 57 between February 9 and 21.”

HRW’s analysis comes on the day the Israeli government is set to deliver its own 30-day assessment of compliance with the ICJ decision, which stated that Israel is plausibly committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The Times of Israel reported late Sunday that the government report “is being drafted by the Justice Ministry and the Foreign Ministry but will not be released to the press or general public, and both ministries have been extremely tight-lipped about the information in the document.”

Observers don’t expect the government’s self-assessment to reflect the catastrophic reality on the ground in Gaza, where most people are starving and at growing risk of infectious disease due to the scarcity of clean water and adequate shelter. Israel has been accused of firing on aid convoys and targeting crowds of civilians gathering to receive food and other assistance.

In desperation, some Gazans have resorted to eating grass and animal feed and drinking contaminated water. A majority of Gaza’s population is currently crowded into the city of Rafah, which Israel plans to invade whether or not there’s a cease-fire deal with Hamas.

“The Israeli government is starving Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians, putting them in even more peril than before the World Court’s binding order,” Omar Shakir, HRW’s Israel and Palestine director, said in a statement Monday. “The Israeli government has simply ignored the court’s ruling, and in some ways even intensified its repression, including further blocking lifesaving aid.”

“Failure to ensure Israel’s compliance puts the lives of millions of Palestinians at risk.”

HRW’s analysis notes that in addition to blocking food aid and medicine shipments, Israeli authorities have also obstructed the delivery of fuel, the lack of which has forced many of Gaza’s hospitals to shut down.

“Between February 1 and 15, Israeli authorities only facilitated 2 of 21 planned missions to deliver fuel to the north of the Wadi Gaza area in central Gaza and none of the 16 planned fuel delivery or assessment missions to water and wastewater pumping stations in the north,” the group said. “Fewer than 20% of planned missions to deliver fuel and undertake assessments north of Wadi Gaza have been facilitated between January 1 and February 15, as compared with 86% of missions planned between October and December.”

Israel’s mass killing of Gazans has also not stopped in the wake of the ICJ order, HRW said Monday. Pointing to figures from Gaza’s health ministry, the group noted that Israeli forces killed more than 3,400 people in the Palestinian enclave between the day of the ICJ ruling and February 23.

“Israel’s blatant disregard for the World Court’s order poses a direct challenge to the rules-based international order,” Shakir said. “Failure to ensure Israel’s compliance puts the lives of millions of Palestinians at risk and threatens to undermine the institutions charged with ensuring respect for international law and the system that ensures civilian protection worldwide.”

The Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor similarly concluded in a report released over the weekend that Israel is in “flagrant violation” of the ICJ’s order.

The group implored the international community “to uphold its legal and moral duties to the people of the Gaza Strip, and to ensure that the ICJ ruling is carried out to prevent the crime of genocide in the Gaza Strip.”

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

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Continue ReadingOne Month Later, Israel Has ‘Simply Ignored’ ICJ Ruling and Continued to Starve Gazans

20+ NGOs Condemn ‘Reckless’ Decision to Cut Off UNRWA Aid

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

United Nations workers and volunteers unload aid from a truck at a school housing displaced Palestinians on the 29th day of fighting between Israel and the armed Palestinian factions in Khan Yunis on November 8, 2023.  (Photo: Ahmed Zakot/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

“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). 

Continue Reading20+ NGOs Condemn ‘Reckless’ Decision to Cut Off UNRWA Aid

Saudi aid campaign collects $160m for Gaza

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Original article republished from Middle East Monitor under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 

An aerial view of makeshift tents of Palestinian families, who left their homes and took refuge in Rafah city due to ongoing Israeli attacks in Rafah, Gaza on January 01, 2024 [Mohammed Fayq – Anadolu Agency]

A Saudi national fundraising campaign to provide aid for the people of Gaza has, so far, raised more than SR600 million ($160 million), organisers said on Monday, Arab News reports.

According to the report, the initiative was launched on 2 November, 2023 by Saudi aid agency, KSrelief, through the Sahem platform for charitable donations, in line with directives from King Salman and Crown Prince, Mohammed Bin Salman.

The report says the platform called Sahem, especially in the context of the Gaza war, stands as a remarkable example of how digital platforms can mobilise support and resources for humanitarian causes.

The delivery of the aid, which includes 24 tons of food, medical and shelter supplies, is being coordinated by KSrelief to help Palestinians affected by the conflict within the Gaza Strip, the report added.

READ: Gaza aid from Britain screened in Cyprus and sent via Egypt

Original article republished from Middle East Monitor under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 

Continue ReadingSaudi aid campaign collects $160m for Gaza