Gaza

Israel kills five journalists in a clearly marked press van in Gaza

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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.

5 journalists were killed in an Israeli air strike on their vehicle near Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, on December 26, 2024. Photo: Mohammed Asad/Middle East Monitor.

Instead of condemning the massacre of the Palestinian journalists, western media outlets have attempted to whitewash Israel’s flagrant crime by adopting its narrative.

Five Palestinian journalists from Al-Quds Today TV channel were killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit their broadcasting van as they were covering events near Al-Awda Hospital, in Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza strip on Thursday, December 26.

The slain journalists were identified as Faisal Abu al-Qumsan, Ayman al-Jadi, Ibrahim al-Sheikh Ali, Mohammad al-Ladah, and Fadi Hassouna.

Just hours before their van, which was marked with the word “Press” in large red letters, was hit, Ayman al-Jadi recorded a video with his slain colleagues. The video showed Ayman celebrating with them as he was awaiting the birth of his first child, who was born around the same time as he was killed in the airstrike.

Press van that was hit with an Israeli airstrike. Photo: Mohammed Asad/Middle East Monitor

Ayman’s brother Omar al-Jadi recorded and later shared a video of the moment Ayman and his colleagues were killed. In the video, a grief-stricken Omar sobs as the van carrying his brother is set ablaze.

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS) condemned the Israeli massacre of the five journalists on Thursday, pointing out that the deadly attack took the death toll of Palestinian journalists and media workers killed by Israel since the beginning of the Israeli genocidal aggression in Gaza to more than 190.

PJS called the murder of the journalists “an attempt to obscure the truth and stifle freedom of expression,” adding that it reflects the extent of the systematic targeting of Palestinian journalists. The syndicate also urged the international community and all human rights organizations to provide urgent protection for Palestinian journalists and take practical steps to stop the crimes committed by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) against them.

For its part, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) denounced the crime on Thursday. CPJ’s program director in New York, Carlos Martinez de la Serna, clarified in a statement that with the assassination of Al-Quds Today journalists “nine Gazan journalists have been killed in less than two weeks”, urging the international community to act immediately “to protect Palestinian journalists in Gaza and end Israel’s impunity for these killings.”

On December 11, Palestinian broadcaster of local Al-Aqsa Radio Eman al-Shanti was killed alongside her three children and husband in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a residential building in Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, in Gaza City. Four days later, Al-Mashhad News correspondent Mohammad Baalousha was killed after an Israeli quadcopter dropped a bomb on a street within the same neighborhood.

On the same day, Palestinian journalist and editor at a local news agency, Mohammad al-Qrinawi, his wife and children were killed in an Israeli aerial attack that struck their home in Al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

One day after Baalousha and al-Qrinawi were murdered, Al Jazeera cameraman Ahmad Baker al-Louh was killed in an Israeli airstrike, which targeted a Palestinian Civil Defense post in Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

While the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have been systematically targeting Palestinian journalists and media workers in a bid to cover Israel’s war crimes in Gaza, it has also blocked foreign media outlets from entering the besieged enclave.

According to a report published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) last October, Israel has implemented diverse methods to orchestrate a media blackout in Gaza. In addition to the targeted killing of journalists, and prohibiting foreign journalists from accessing Gaza, IOF sought to destroy newsrooms and cut off internet and electricity, annihilating the Palestinian media infrastructure.

Meanwhile, western media has continued to whitewash Israel’s war crimes and the slaughtering of journalists by adopting the IOF’s narrative. Echoing Israeli media, The New York Times reported on Thursday, that the five murdered journalists from Al-Quds Today were associated with a militant group.

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

Continue ReadingIsrael kills five journalists in a clearly marked press van in Gaza

WHO Chief OK But Others Killed in Israeli Strike on Yemen Airport

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Original article by Jessica Corbett republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks during a press briefing at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on December 10, 2024. (Photo: Lian Yi/Xinhua via Getty Images)

State media reports at least four people were killed and 21 others injured.

As part of Israel’s assault on various countries across the Middle East, Israeli fighter jets on Thursday bombed multiple sites in Yemen, including Sanaa International Airport, killing multiple people and threatening the life of a leading United Nations official.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and colleagues were at the airport, wrapping up a trip “to negotiate the release of U.N. staff detainees and to assess the health and humanitarian situation in Yemen,” when the attack occurred, the agency leader said on social media. “We continue to call for the detainees’ immediate release.”

“As we were about to board our flight from Sanaa, about two hours ago, the airport came under aerial bombardment. One of our plane’s crew members was injured,” Tedros explained, noting the reported deaths. “The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge—just a few meters from where we were—and the runway were damaged. We will need to wait for the damage to the airport to be repaired before we can leave. My U.N. and WHO colleagues and I are safe. Our heartfelt condolences to the families whose loved ones lost their lives in the attack.”

According to The New York Times: “At least four people were killed and 21 others injured in the attack on Thursday after Israel struck the international airport in Sana and the city of al Hodeida, the Saba state news agency said, citing Yemen’s Health Ministry. The report could not be independently verified.”

A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, told the Times that Israel had no prior knowledge that the WHO leader would be at the airport during the attack. “We didn’t know,” he said. “We wish him well.”

The IDF said in a statement posted on social media that “fighter jets conducted intelligence-based strikes” with approval from Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi, Defense Minister Israel Katz, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“The targets that were struck by the IDF include military infrastructure used by the Houthi terrorist regime for its military activities in both the Sanaa International Airport and the Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib power stations,” the military continued. “In addition, the IDF struck military infrastructure in the al Hodeida, Salif, and Ras Kanatib ports on the western coast. These military targets were used by the Houthi terrorist regime to smuggle Iranian weapons into the region and for the entry of senior Iranian officials.”

Since the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, the U.S.-armed IDF has not only decimated the Gaza Strip and killed over 45,000 Palestinians there but also ramped up strikes on other groups tied to Iran, including the Houthis in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Additionally, Israel has exploited the recent collapse of Syrian former President Bashar al-Assad’s government, seizing more territory in that country.

“The targeting of Sanaa International Airport and other civilian infrastructure is a Zionist crime against the entire Yemeni people,” a Houthi spokesperson, Mohammed Abdulsalam, said in a statement. “If the Zionist enemy thinks that its crimes will deter Yemen from supporting Gaza, it is delusional.”

The strikes on Yemen came a day after Netanyahu said that “the Houthis, too, will learn what Hamas, Hezbollah, the Assad regime, and others have learned, and even if it takes time, this lesson will be understood across the Middle East.”

Israel’s ongoing destruction of Gaza has led to a genocide case at the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, as well as a Hamas leader.

Original article by Jessica Corbett republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

Continue ReadingWHO Chief OK But Others Killed in Israeli Strike on Yemen Airport

Families of Israeli hostages threaten legal action against Netanyahu over blocked Gaza deal

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https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20241226-families-of-israeli-hostages-threaten-legal-action-against-netanyahu-over-blocked-gaza-deal

Thousands of Israelis gather in front of the Israel’s Ministry of Defense building, holding banners and Israeli flags to protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government for not signing the ceasefire agreement with Gaza and to demand hostage swap deal with Palestinians in Tel Aviv, Israel on November 16, 2024 [Mostafa Alkharouf – Anadolu Agency]

Families of Israeli hostages in Gaza threatened legal action on Thursday against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of blocking a prisoner swap deal with Palestinians, Anadolu Agency reports.

“We will petition the High Court if you persist in abandoning our loved ones in Hamas captivity,” the families said in a letter to Netanyahu cited by Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth.

The letter accused the Israeli premier of hindering efforts to reach a prisoner exchange agreement with Hamas.

“Refusing to end the war sacrifices the hostages and diminishes their chances of returning alive,” it reads.

On Wednesday, Hamas said that a Gaza cease-fire and prisoner swap has been delayed due to new Israeli conditions.

“The (Israeli) occupation set new issues and conditions related to withdrawal, ceasefire, prisoners, and the return of the displaced, which delayed reaching an agreement that was available,” it added in a statement.

On Tuesday, Netanyahu said that an Israeli negotiating team would return from Qatar for consultations on a potential prisoner exchange deal with Hamas.

Observers, however, view Netanyahu’s announcement as part of a pattern of delays in negotiations.

Since the lone ceasefire in late November 2023, the Israeli premier has hinted at progress in talks for a prisoner swap and a potential cease-fire, only to later insist on continuing military operations in the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu told The Wall Street Journal last week that the Gaza war will continue “until Hamas is entirely eradicated,” emphasizing Israel’s rejection of Hamas’ presence near its borders.

His Defense Minister Israel Katz also said that Israel will maintain security control in Gaza and establish buffer zones along the border.

Their remarks drew fire from officials in Israel’s negotiating team for jeopardizing talks to reach a Gaza cease-fire and prisoner swap deal with Hamas.

Israel is believed to hold more than 10,300 Palestinian prisoners, while approximately 100 Israeli captives are in Gaza. Hamas has said that dozens of the captives were killed in indiscriminate Israeli airstrikes.

Israel has continued a genocidal war on Gaza that has killed nearly 45,400 people, most of them women and children, since a Hamas attack on 7 October, 2023.

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

Israel is also facing a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.

READ: 3 babies freeze to death in Gaza amid Israel’s genocidal war [since increased to 4]

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Continue ReadingFamilies of Israeli hostages threaten legal action against Netanyahu over blocked Gaza deal

‘We Are Being Attacked in Plain Sight’: Israeli Forces Besiege Three Gaza Hospitals

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Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

Relatives of Palestinians killed in an Israeli attack mourn after their bodies were brought to al-Awda Hospital in Gaza City, Gaza on December 23, 2024. (Photo: Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“It is unacceptable for the world to remain silent and unable to protect the healthcare system,” said Gaza’s Ministry of Health.

Israeli forces have encircled and attacked three barely functioning hospitals in northern Gaza with growing intensity over the past week, endangering the lives of patients receiving treatment inside the facilities—including premature babies—and medical workers.

Dr. Husam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, said in a video statement over the weekend that the Israeli military had surrounded the facility and that “bullets had penetrated the intensive care unit, the maternity department, and the specialized surgery department.”

“The nursery, maternity, and all departments of the hospital are being targeted by the occupation forces with all types of weapons, including sniper fire, tank shells, and quadcopters,” said Abu Safiya, who noted that the hospital was still treating more than 80 patients.

Al Jazeera reported late Monday that a video recorded by eyewitnesses “shows robots in the vicinity of the hospital leaving behind an explosive device.”

“We were told by the person who filmed that video that there were at least four other robots in the vicinity of the hospital,” the outlet added. “Another video shows everyone in one corridor of the hospital, in the middle of the building, away from the windows and balconies and the rooms that are looking over the streets where these explosive devices are planted.”

Israeli authorities have ordered the evacuation of Kamal Adwan as well as Indonesian Hospital and al-Awda Hospital, but medical personnel and patients inside the facilities fear for their lives as there’s nowhere safe to go.

Gaza’s Ministry of Health said in a Telegram post that Israel’s military has targeted Kamal Adwan in recent days with “explosives and tank fire.”

“We hold the world accountable for what is happening to us and demand that they take responsibility for our suffering,” the ministry said. “It is unacceptable for the world to remain silent and unable to protect the healthcare system. We are being attacked in plain sight, with the entire world watching, yet no one intervenes in the face of this barbarity.”

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Since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack, Israeli forces have waged what one United Nations expert described as an “unrelenting war” on Gaza’s already-strained healthcare system, invading and destroying hospitals and other medical infrastructure while choking off necessary supplies.

An Oxfam report published Monday found that just 12 trucks were able to distribute aid in northern Gaza over the past two and a half months due to Israel’s siege and incessant military attacks. Oxfam noted that between early October and mid-December, only 11 medical evacuation and assessment missions were approved for Kamal Adwan, and “one could not reach the hospital due to military activity and the rest all faced impediments along the way.”

“The situation in Gaza is apocalyptic and people are trapped, unable to find any kind of safety,” said Sally Abi-Khalil, Oxfam’s Middle East and North Africa director. “The absolute desperation of having no food or shelter for your family in the biting cold of winter. It is abhorrent that despite international law being so publicly violated by Israel and starvation being used relentlessly as a weapon of war, world leaders continue to do nothing.”

“Every day that passes without a cease-fire,” Abi-Khalil added, “is a death sentence for hundreds more civilians.”

Efforts to evacuate the three hospitals in northern Gaza have been hindered by ongoing Israeli military attacks as well as a lack of ambulances, according to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR). The group said it lost contact with Kamal Adwan Hospital early Sunday “following a harrowing night of relentless shelling, gunfire, and explosive robots targeting nearby buildings.”

“PCHR stresses the urgent need for immediate action to protect patients and medical personnel and to ensure the ongoing operation of the hospital in an area where thousands of residents and IDPs face bombardment, starvation, and deprivation of healthcare and humanitarian services,” the organization said in a statement.

The group added that “Israel’s ongoing military assault and atrocities and its disregard for calls to end the genocide in Gaza are emboldened by the perpetual impunity granted by the U.S. and some Western allies, alongside these nations’ complicity in the serious violations committed against the Palestinian people through continuously arming Israel with weapons, ammunition, and political support.”

Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

Continue Reading‘We Are Being Attacked in Plain Sight’: Israeli Forces Besiege Three Gaza Hospitals

Another Somber Christmas in Palestine as Gaza Genocide Continues

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Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

Palestinian Catholics attend Christmas mass at Holy Family Church in Gaza City, Gaza, Palestine on December 24, 2024. (Photo: Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“I wish the war would end and we could return to our homes in peace,” said one little girl whose grandmother was killed by an Israeli sniper.


Palestinian Catholics attend Christmas mass at Holy Family Church in Gaza City, Gaza, Palestine on December 24, 2024.

 (Photo: Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Another Somber Christmas in Palestine as Gaza Genocide Continues

“I wish the war would end and we could return to our homes in peace,” said one little girl whose grandmother was killed by an Israeli sniper.

Brett Wilkins

From the illegally occupied “little town of Bethlehem” in the West Bank to a pair of churches in Gaza where Israel’s bombs and bullets have killed clerics and congregants alike, Palestinian Christians marked another somber Christmas amid a relentless Israeli assault whose victims on Wednesday included refugees sheltering in tents and medical staff and patients at a besieged hospital.

For the second year in a row, public Christmas celebrations were canceled at the Nativity Church in Bethlehem, which is built over the spot where Christians believe Jesus Christ was born.

“This should be a time of joy and celebration. But Bethlehem is a sad town in solidarity with our siblings in Gaza,” Lutheran Pastor Munther Isaac said during his Christmas sermon at a church whose nativity display again had baby Jesus lying in a pile of rubble.

“It’s hard to believe that another Christmas has come upon us and the genocide has not stopped,” Isaac added. “Decision-makers are content to let this continue. To them, Palestinians are dispensable.”

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In Gaza, hundreds of Palestinian Christians huddled in two churches amid ongoing attacks by Israeli forces.

“This year, we will conduct our religious rites and that’s it,” Ramez Souri told The New York Times at the St. Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church in Gaza City. “We’re still in mourning and far too sad to celebrate, or do anything except to pray for peace.”

Hundreds of Palestinians were sheltering on the grounds of the 12th century church—Gaza’s oldest—when Israeli forces bombed it in October 2023, killing 18 people including Souri’s three children and relatives of former Republican U.S. Congressman Justin Amash of Michigan.

In a pre-Christmas homily at Holy Family Church in Gaza City—Gaza’s only Catholic church— Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, told congregants, “You have become the light of our church in the entire world.”

“At Christmas, we celebrate the light and ask: Where is this light?” Pizzaballa continued. “The light is here, in this church.”

“I don’t know when or how this war will end, and every time we approach the end, it seems like we start anew,” he added. “But sooner or later, the war will end, and we must not lose hope. When the war ends, we will rebuild everything: our schools, our hospitals, and our homes. We must remain resilient and full of strength.”

Like St. Porphyrius, Holy Family has suffered a deadly Israeli attack. Last December, an Israeli sniper shot Nahida Khalil Anton, the elderly matriarch of the largest Catholic family in Gaza, as she crossed a courtyard in the church compound on her way to the bathroom. Her daughter Samar was shot in the head when she rushed out to try and help her mother.

Both women died. Seven other people were shot and wounded. Israeli soldiers and veterans have said that they were given permission and even orders to shoot anyone who moves in parts of Gaza.

"I wish the war would end and we could return to our homes in peace." A Christian Palestinian girl in Gaza wishes for peace on Christmas Day amid Israel's war, at the Holy Family Church in Gaza City.

— (@aljazeera.com) 2024-12-25T13:52:21.908Z

On Sunday, Pope Francis—who in a new book called for a genocide investigation of Israel’s war on Gaza—said: “Yesterday, children have been bombed. This is cruelty; this is not war.”

The cruelty continued on Christmas as Israeli attacks throughout Gaza killed at least 13 people, according to officials. The dead include people sheltering in a tent northwest of Khan Younis, Palestine Red Crescent Society volunteer Alaa al-Derawi—who was shot in the chest while at work transporting patients—and Walaa al-Faranji, a well-known fashion designer, author, and photographer who was killed along with her husband Ahmed Salama in an airstrike on their home in the Nuseirat refugee camp.

Local media also reported continued Israeli shelling and attacks on Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, where staff and scores of patients including premature babies have endured weeks of siege conditions.

All told, Gaza and international agencies say that at least 45,361 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and more than 107,800 others wounded by Israeli forces since the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023. At least 11,000 other Gazans are missing and believed to be dead and buried beneath the rubble of hundreds of thousands of bombed buildings. Millions more Palestinians have been forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened.

Thousands more people have been killed or wounded by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.

Israel is currently on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Last month, the International Criminal Court, also based in The Hague, issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his former defense minister, as well as for Hamas leader Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Back at St. Porphyrius, parishioners pooled what little food they could find to prepare a communal Christmas Eve meal. Although many Gazan Christians have expressed fears that their community—one of the oldest Christian communities in the world—could be wiped out by Israel’s genocidal onslaught, the holiday meal represented a faint glimmer of hope.

“We wanted to do something to show that we’re still here,” Souri explained, “despite it all.”

Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

Continue ReadingAnother Somber Christmas in Palestine as Gaza Genocide Continues