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What ACTUAL Genocide Experts Say about Gaza
UN Warns 14,000 Babies in Gaza Could Die in 48 Hours Without True Lift of Israeli Blockade
Original article by Julia Conley republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
“The limited entry of aid into Gaza cannot be mistaken for meaningful progress,” said one humanitarian expert.
The United Nations estimated that the Netanyahu government’s continued starvation of more than 2 million Palestinians could kill up to 14,000 infants in the next two days without a serious influx of aid.
News outlets have reported since Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu allowed five aid trucks carrying baby food and other nutritional aid into the besieged enclave—but humanitarian experts and workers have decried the arrival of the aid as “a trickle among a sea of need.”
Tom Fletcher, under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs for the United Nations, said the tiny amount of aid was a “drop in the ocean” in a bombarded enclave where food security experts announced earlier this month that nearly a quarter of a million people are facing “extreme deprivation of food” and the entire population has “very high” levels of acute malnutrition and excess mortality.
While many medical workers have been killed in Israeli bombings, Fletcher told the BBC‘s Radio 4 “Today” program that teams have assessed that 14,000 infants are likely to die within 48 hours if food aid can’t reach them. The small amount of trucks allowed in through the Karem Abu Salem crossing Monday—a fraction of the 600 per day that provided food, medications, water, and other aid to Palestinians during the recent cease-fire—have yet to actually reach civilians.
On Tuesday, 100 more U.N. trucks were given clearance to enter Gaza. Fletcher said humanitarian workers fear potential looting of aid trucks due to the chaotic, desperate situation faced by Palestinians.
The current blockade began March 2, and international humanitarian groups operating in Gaza have exhausted their reserves of food aid over the past 79 days.
“For over 70 days Israel has been starving the people of Gaza, depriving them of food, water, medicine, and essential supplies while escalating its cruel and indiscriminate bombing campaign,” said Wassem Mushtaha, Gaza response lead for Oxfam. “Two million people are on the brink of famine, and they are not just starving, but also traumatized, sick, and displaced from their homes.”
“The limited entry of aid into Gaza cannot be mistaken for meaningful progress, especially alongside the expansion of Israel’s brutal bombing campaign across the Gaza Strip,” said Mushtaha. “It is not a turning point, but at best a narrow concession that seems to reflect mounting international pressure.”
The continued blockade on effectively all humanitarian aid prompted the United Kingdom, Canada, and France to issue a joint statement Monday saying that “the level of human suffering in Gaza is intolerable” and threatening “targeted sanctions.”
On Tuesday, U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy told Parliament that the government had suspended trade negotiations over Netanyahu’s blockade and plan to expand military operations across Gaza.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said Tuesday that the country also supports a review of the European Union’s trade relationship with Gaza.
“The blind violence and the blockade of humanitarian aid by the Israeli government have turned the enclave into a death trap, not to say a cemetery,” Barrot said. “This must stop… It is an absolute violation of all the rules of international law.”
The European leaders’ comments were a departure from many Western governments’ insistence since 2023 that Israel is operating in self-defense and that it is targeting Hamas in retaliation for the group’s attack on October 7, 2023. Humanitarian groups, rights experts, and progressive lawmakers have called on Western governments to end their support for Israel, which faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice.
Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam’s policy lead in the occupied Palestinian territory and Gaza, said Tuesday that “what is urgently needed is for all crossings to be opened to allow a full and proper humanitarian response that allows real access, with safe corridors and respect for international humanitarian law.”
“A token convoy does not equal progress, only sustained, accountable access through every crossing will end the impunity that keeps aid from flowing,” said Khalidi. “We must also see an end to the relentless bombing and attacks on Palestinian people, with an urgent and permanent cease-fire, alongside justice and accountability for all.”
Original article by Julia Conley republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
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‘They Are Now Planning on Annihilating Khan Younis’: New IDF Displacement Order Sparks Alarm
Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
(Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The United Nations human rights chief called Israel’s intensifying assault on Gaza “tantamount to ethnic cleansing.”
The Israeli military on Monday designated Gaza’s second-largest city a combat zone and ordered all residents to evacuate ahead of an “unprecedented attack,” the latest escalation of Israel’s U.S.-backed genocidal assault on the enclave’s besieged and starving population.
The forced displacement order came as Israeli tanks and troops pushed further into the Gaza Strip as part of a renewed ground assault on the territory, which has been decimated by relentless bombings that began in the aftermath of the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said Monday that the rate of Israeli killings in Gaza has intensified significantly in recent days, crushing any lingering hope of an imminent cease-fire and heightening alarm over the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian emergency on the ground.
The group estimated that more than 300,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced between May 12 and 18, with that number set to grow with the evacuation of Khan Younis.
“This surge in lethal attacks is part of a broader escalation by the Israeli military, marked by a scorched-earth policy and the systematic destruction of Gaza’s remaining residential areas and infrastructure,” said Euro-Med. “The ongoing campaign—now in its 19th month—has been characterised by mass killings, enforced starvation, and the deliberate dismantling of life-sustaining systems, with the explicit aim of eradicating the Palestinian population in Gaza and eliminating any possibility of return or reconstruction.”
Avichay Adraee, a spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), wrote in a social media post early Monday that “from this moment, Khan Younis governorate will be considered a dangerous combat zone.”
“The IDF will launch an unprecedented attack to destroy the capabilities of terrorist organizations in this area,” Adraee continued. “For your safety, evacuate immediately.”
Video footage posted to social media showed Israeli airstrikes pounding the area and residents scrambling to evacuate their families, many of whom have already been displaced multiple times since late 2023.
“They are literally forcing all of Gazans into a concentration camp in what used to be Rafah in southern Gaza, after destroying it. They are now planning on annihilating Khan Younis,” Elia Ayoub, a researcher based in the United Kingdom, wrote Monday. “There’s never been a genocide so thoroughly documented as it was live-streamed straight to our phones.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for war crimes in Gaza, said Monday that the IDF is moving to seize “full control” of the “entire strip” while allowing in “minimal” humanitarian aid—remarks that deepened concerns about Israeli plans to starve out Gaza’s population and annex the territory.
“If this means annexation, it violates international law,” Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said in response to Netanyahu’s comments. “Sweden maintains that the territory of Gaza must not be changed or reduced.”
“There needs to be a cease-fire and end to the fighting, and the hostages must be released,” she added. “No more statements or plans from the Israeli government that exacerbate the situation for civilians in Gaza.”
Over the past 24 hours, Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 130 people, bringing the official death toll since October 2023 to 53,486, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
In a statement late last week, United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk warned that Israel’s “latest barrage of bombs” and “methodical destruction of entire neighborhoods”—as well as the cut-off of humanitarian assistance—signals “a push for a permanent demographic shift in Gaza that is in defiance of international law and is tantamount to ethnic cleansing.”
“We must stop the clock on this madness,” said Türk.
Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).