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Tag: arms embargo

  • Israel’s siege now blocks 83% of food aid reaching Gaza, new data reveals

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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.

    15 aid organisations demand international pressure for an immediate ceasefire, arms embargo, and end to Israel’s systematic aid obstruction

    New data has revealed the scale of aid obstruction, and the consequential drastic fall in aid entering Gaza. This is driving a humanitarian disaster, with the entire population of Gaza facing hunger and disease, and almost half a million at risk of starvation. 

    While Israeli military attacks on Gaza intensify, lifesaving food, medicine, medical supplies, fuel, and tents have been systematically blocked from entering for almost a year. 

    Data analysis by organisations working in Gaza has found that as a consequence of the Israeli government’s obstruction of aid: 

    • 83% of required food aid does not make it into Gaza, up from 34% in 2023.This reduction means people in Gaza have gone from having an average of two meals a day to just one meal every other day. An estimated 50,000 children aged between 6-59 months urgently require treatment for malnutrition by the end of the year.
    • 65% of the insulin required and half of the required blood supply are not available in Gaza. 
    • Availability of hygiene items has dropped to 15% of the amount available in September 2023. One million women are now going without the hygiene supplies they need. 
    • Only around 1,500 hospital beds in Gaza remain operational, compared to around 3,500 beds in 2023 which was already well below sufficient to meet the needs of a population of more than 2 million people. By comparison, cities of similar size, such as Chicago and Paris average 5 to 8 times more beds than in Gaza. 
    • 1.87 million people are in need of shelter with at least 60% of homes destroyed or damaged (January 2024). Yet tents for around just 25,000 people have entered Gaza since May 2024.

    A record low average of 69 aid trucks per day entered Gaza in August 2024, compared to 500 per working day last year; which was already not enough to meet people’s needs. In August more than 1 million people did not receive any food rations in southern and central Gaza. 

    Now, only 17 out of 36 hospitals remain partially functional. Critical infrastructure such as water networks, sanitation facilities and bread mills have been razed to the ground. 

    While humanitarian needs are ever increasing, agencies have detailed six main ways their life-saving aid is systematically obstructed on a daily basis.

    These include the denial of safety, with more than 40,000 Palestinians and nearly 300 aid workers killed since last October; the sharp tightening of a 17-year blockade to a full siege, which prevents aid from entering Gaza; delays and denials which restrict the movement of aid around Gaza; tightly restrictive and unpredictable control of imports; the destruction of public infrastructure such as schools and hospitals; and the displacement of civilians and humanitarian workers (witnessed again in recent displacement orders from the so-called “humanitarian zone” in Deir el-Balah.)

    Ahead of the UN General Assembly in New York this week, aid agencies are calling on governments to demand Israel end aid obstruction and to:

    • Secure an immediate and lasting ceasefire in Gaza. 
    • Implement an arms embargo and end the export of weapons and military equipment that risk being used in violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law. 
    • Demand compliance with the International Court of Justice’s findings and recommendations, an end to the Israeli government’s siege of Gaza, and heed the call of the ICJ in its advisory opinion to end the occupation of Palestinian territory. 

    Jolien Veldwijik, CARE Country Director in the West Bank and Gaza, said:

    “The situation was intolerable long before last October’s escalation and is beyond catastrophic now. Over 11 months, we have reached shocking levels of conflict, displacement, disease and hunger. Yet, aid is still not getting in, and humanitarian workers are risking their lives to do their jobs while attacks and violations of international law intensify. Aid, which is urgently required for 2.2 million people at risk of dying in the coming weeks and months, should never be politicised. We demand an immediate and sustained ceasefire, and the free flow of humanitarian aid into and throughout Gaza.” 

    Amjad Al Shawa, the director of the Palestinian NGOs Network (PNGO), an umbrella organisation of 30 Palestinian NGOs and a partner of ActionAid, said:

     “There is a shortage of all humanitarian items. We are overwhelmed [with] these needs and [these] urgent requirements…People [are] starving due to the shortage of aid…100% of the population depend on humanitarian aid…It’s the worst situation that we [witnessed] during …. the Israel war in Gaza.”

    1. CARE International
    2. Save the Children
    3. ActionAid
    4. Christian Aid
    5. War Child
    6. Islamic Relief
    7. HelpAge International 
    8. American Friends Service Committee
    9. Oxfam
    10. DanChurchAid
    11. Norwegian Church Aid
    12. Mennonite Central Committee
    13. Danish Refugee Council
    14. Norwegian Refugee Council
    15. KinderUSA

  • UK announces partial suspension of arms exports to Israel

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    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/2/uk-announces-partial-suspension-of-arms-exports-to-israel

    An Israeli soldier holds a weapon atop an armoured personnel carrier [File: Baz Ratner/Reuters]

    Thirty out of 350 licences to be suspended, citing ‘clear risk’ they could be used in breach of international humanitarian law.

    The United Kingdom says it would suspend 30 out of 350 arms exports licences to Israel, citing a “clear risk” they could be used in a serious breach of international humanitarian law.

    Foreign Secretary David Lammy told parliament on Monday the partial ban covered items “which could be used in the current conflict in Gaza” against Hamas but did not include parts for the F-35 fighter jets.

    He said the decision to suspend the licences did not amount to a blanket ban or an arms embargo, adding that the UK continues to support Israel’s right to self defence in accordance with international law.

    …

    “It is with regret that I inform the House [of Commons, lower house of parliament] today the assessment I have received leaves me unable to conclude anything other than that for certain UK arms exports to Israel, there does exist a clear risk that they might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law,” Lammy said.

    …

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/2/uk-announces-partial-suspension-of-arms-exports-to-israel

    UK Labour Party Shadow Foreign Secretary repeatedly heckled at a speech to the Fabian Society over his and the Labour Party's support for and complicity in Israel's genocide of Gaza.
    UK Labour Party Shadow Foreign Secretary repeatedly heckled at a speech to the Fabian Society over his and the Labour Party’s support for and complicity in Israel’s genocide of Gaza.

  • Israeli military raid through West Bank provokes urgent calls for arms embargo

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/israeli-military-raid-through-west-bank-provokes-urgent-calls-for-arms-embargo

    Members of Israeli forces prepare to enter in an armoured vehicle during a military operation in the West Bank refugee camp of Nur Shams, Tulkarem, August 29, 2024

    CAMPAIGNERS are demanding that Britain stops arming Israel’s genocide against Palestinians amid Tel Aviv’s largest military assault on the West Bank in more than two decades.

    Hundreds of ground troops, supported by fighter planes and drones, began targeting Jenin, Tulkarem, Nablus, and Tubas early on Wednesday.

    Soldiers have besieged hospitals in Jenin and Tulkarm, while bulldozers have destroyed roads and razed critical infrastructure, including water and electricity networks.

    Several refugee camps have also been targeted.

    …

    Ministers have so far rejected calls to suspend arms, instead issuing 108 licences to Israel since it escalated its attacks in October.

    Foreign Secretary David Lammy has refrained from publishing legal advice on whether the exports are being used to facilitate international war crimes.

    Deputy director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign Simon Foster said: “This is the largest Israeli invasion of the Palestinian territories in the West Bank since 2002.

    “Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs has openly called for the forcible displacement of Palestinians.

    …

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/israeli-military-raid-through-west-bank-provokes-urgent-calls-for-arms-embargo

    UK Labour Party Shadow Foreign Secretary repeatedly heckled at a speech to the Fabian Society over his and the Labour Party's support for and complicity in Israel's genocide of Gaza.
    UK Labour Party Shadow Foreign Secretary repeatedly heckled at a speech to the Fabian Society over his and the Labour Party’s support for and complicity in Israel’s genocide of Gaza.

  • Thousands Kick Off DNC With Protest in Chicago Over Gaza

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    Original article by JULIA CONLEY republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

    Police and demonstrators are seen at a march during the Democratic National Convention on August 19, 2024 in Chicago.
     (Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

    “For Palestinian Americans, this is a fundamental issue,” said one marcher.

    What’s expected to be the biggest protest march during this week’s Democratic National Convention kicked off in Chicago Monday afternoon, with demonstrators demanding that Vice President Kamala Harris support an end to unconditional U.S. military support for Israel amid its assault on Gaza, now in its tenth month.

    Thousands gathered in Union Park before beginning their march to the United Center, where the convention is taking place.

    Protesters carried signs and banners reading, “End State Violence From Chicago to Gaza” and “Dems’ Silence = Israel’s Violence.”

    Organizers—who hoped to see 15,000 people in the streets—have expressed alarm in recent months over the Chicago Police Department’s aggressive response to pro-Palestinian protests, with a legal coalition last week expressing concern about Police Superintendent Larry Snelling’s intimidating comments about arresting protesters and other issues, and city officials have clashed with organizers about the route the march will take.

    But threats of arrest did not deter groups including Jewish Voice for Peace from joining the march, with the local chapter saying its members would “make clear our commitment to freedom and safety for all people, from Chicago to Gaza” and as they demanded an “arms embargo now.”

    Organizers of the Uncommitted movement, which emerged during the Democratic primary season to pressure President Joe Biden to end his support for Israel’s assault on Gaza, continue to press the Harris-Walz campaign to break with the administration’s position.

    While Harris initially indicated to the group a willingness to discuss support for an arms embargo earlier this month, a top adviser for the Democratic nominee said soon after that the vice president does not support ending weapons transfers to Israel.

    “For Palestinian Americans, this is a fundamental issue,” sociologist Eman Abdelhadi told Democracy Now! at the march. “We have spent 10 months watching our people die every day, and to ask us to simply just wait and hope that some change will happen… It’s just offensive and it’s completely insensitive.”

    As the protesters assembled on Monday, journalist Mehdi Hasan warned in a column in The Guardian that Harris should see agreeing to the demand for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and an arms embargo not as a risk, but as “a moral, geopolitical, and—for the Democrats—electoral no-brainer.”

    “Biden may want to continue sending more and more weapons to an Israeli government accused of war crimes at the international criminal court and of genocide at the international court of justice,” wrote Hasan, “but Harris should take a different stance—a bolder stance, a stance that is more in line with her party’s base, as well as with the American public at large.”

    Original article by JULIA CONLEY republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

    ‘Tell Kamala Harris – stop supporting genocide!’ Code Pink and other peace campaigners descend on Democrat National Convention in Chicago

  • As Gaza Death Toll Tops 40,000, Congress Urged to Block New Weapons to Israel

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

    Activists demand an end to U.S. arms transfers to Israel during a May 2, 2024 protest outside the White House in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Amnesty International USA)

    “U.S. arms transfers to Israel have fueled unimaginable suffering in Gaza, including staggering levels of civilian harm,” said one embargo advocate.

    As the Palestinian death toll from Israel’s 314-day assault on Gaza passed 40,000—a figure experts say is likely a vast undercount—human rights groups this week decried the Biden administration’s approval of $20 billion worth of new weapons for Israel and renewed pleas for Congress to block further arms transfers to the nation on trial for genocide at the World Court.

    On Tuesday—just days after Israeli forces used at least one U.S.-supplied bomb in an airstrike on a Gaza City school that killed scores of forcibly displaced Palestinian civilians sheltering there—the Biden administration notified Congress of the pending sale of a new weapons package that includes dozens of F-15 fighter jets, tens of thousands of 120mm mortar shells, over 32,700 tank shells, and 30 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles.

    Since October, Congress and the Biden administration have approved more than $14 billion in unconditional military aid to Israel. President Joe Biden has signed off on more than 100 arms transfers to Israel during that period. This, atop the $3.8 billion in annual armed aid the U.S. already gives to the key Middle Eastern ally.

    “Israel used U.S.-made weapons in May when it slaughtered Palestinian families sheltering in tent camps in Rafah,” Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) said Wednesday. “Israel used U.S.-made weapons when it bombed the al-Mutanabbi school in Khan Younis in early July, killing over two dozen displaced Palestinians seeking refuge there. And it used U.S.-made weapons on Saturday to murder over 100 Palestinians while they prayed.”

    “Biden continues to send weapons to Israel, and both political parties—Republicans and Democrats—have cheered on the Israeli government’s slaughter and genocide of Palestinians in Gaza,” JVP continued. “This is a U.S.-perpetrated genocide as much as it is an Israeli one.”

    “But the Democratic voting base is calling for something different, and we have seen the progressive and increasingly mainstream wing of the party begin to echo this need,” the group said. “We are playing a critical role in driving the Democratic Party to finally catch up to the demands of its own base.”

    “Right now, we have an opportunity to re-center Gaza in the national conversation and continue building pressure on the Biden administration, on [Vice President] Kamala Harris, and on Democratic members of Congress to support an immediate arms embargo,” JVP added.

    While Harris has expressed sympathy for Palestinians suffering what she called a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza, the vice president and Democratic presidential nominee, like Biden, has proclaimed her “unwavering” support for Israel. One aide said last week that Harris does not support an arms embargo.

    “The decision to approve yet another massive sale of arms to Israel is appalling and a blatant violation of U.S. and international law and policy,” Annie Shiel, the U.S. advocacy director at the Center for Civilians in Conflict, said on Thursday.

    “U.S. arms transfers to Israel have fueled unimaginable suffering in Gaza, including staggering levels of civilian harm, the destruction of civilian infrastructure, and an ever-growing humanitarian catastrophe,” Shiel continued. “The U.S. is complicit in this devastation.”

    “Congress must block these sales, including through the introduction of joint resolutions of disapproval,” she added, “and the Biden-Harris administration must finally end U.S. arms transfers and use its leverage to bring about an immediate cease-fire.”

    The international anti-poverty NGO ActionAid said Thursday: “We are outraged and heartbroken by the staggering loss of 40,000 lives in Gaza. It is a number that is incomprehensible—every life lost is an individual tragedy.”

    “But this is not an inevitable one, it is an ongoing atrocity, and it could have been prevented,” the group continued. “Most governments across the world have refused to do the bare minimum to protect civilian life and it is to our collective shame. We are losing confidence each day in the concept of justice.”

    “We reiterate our calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities and urge all governments to meet their obligations under international law and use all available means to take immediate and decisive action to ensure the safety and security of all civilians,” ActionAid said.

    “We call for the imposition of sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, on Israeli officials linked to alleged violations of international humanitarian law,” the NGO added. “Every day that you choose to avoid this as a reality, this death toll will keep rising until there is nobody left in Gaza alive.”

    In addition to the South Africa-led genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Khan has applied for warrants to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and for three Hamas leaders, at least one of whom has been assassinated by Israeli forces.

    The Biden administration and numerous members of Congress have condemned the courts’ pursuit of justice for Israel and its leaders. In June, 42 Democrats joined nearly every Republican in the House of Representatives in passing a bill that would sanction ICC officials over Khan’s application for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant.

    In addition to rights groups, a coalition of journalists, news outlets, and press freedom organizations on Thursday implored the Biden administration to immediately halt arms transfers to Israel.

    As the tight 2024 presidential race between Harris and former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, heads toward the home stretch, a survey commissioned by the Institute for Middle Eastern Understanding Policy Project and conducted by YouGov revealed this week that Democratic and Independent voters in the key swing states of Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania would be more willing to vote for Harris if she backed an arms embargo on Israel.

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