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Tag: Gaza

  • ‘If It Looks Like Ethnic Cleansing, It Probably Is,’ Says Israeli Newspaper of North Gaza Siege

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

    Forcibly displaced Palestinians flee after an evacuation order by the Israeli military in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on October 23, 2024.  (Photo: Rami Zohud/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

    “If this process doesn’t stop immediately, hundreds of thousands of people will become refugees, entire communities will be destroyed and the moral and legal stain of this crime will cling to and pursue every Israeli.”

    The editors of Israel’s oldest newspaper on Wednesday published an editorial decrying the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from northern Gaza amid a ferocious Israeli offensive there that’s killed more than 1,000 people over the past three weeks.

    “For three and a half weeks, Israeli forces have been besieging the northern Gaza Strip,” the editors of the left-wing newspaper Haaretz wrote in Wednesday’s lead editorial. “Israel has almost completely blocked the entry of humanitarian aid, thereby starving the hundreds of thousands of people who live there. Information emerging from the besieged area is only partial, because ever since the war began, Israel has barred journalists from entering Gaza.”

    “Israel says it told the residents that they needed to leave northern Gaza, and even now, they can still move southward on routes the army has designated for this purpose,” the editors noted. “Thus the residents, many of whom have already been uprooted two or three times or even more from the places to which they have fled the terrors of war, are now being asked to move again. Yet Israel has refrained from giving the displaced any guarantee that they will be able to return once the war ends.”

    “Given this,” they added, “it’s no wonder that grave suspicions have arisen that Israel is effectively perpetrating ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza and that this operation is intended to permanently empty this area of Palestinians.”

    https://twitter.com/elgindy_/status/1851606847360208935?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1851606847360208935%7Ctwgr%5Ee306635abb135697a899bc52bffeebdb474188cc%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Fisrael-ethnic-cleansing-northern-gaza

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    “This suspicion fits with both the principles of the ‘Generals’ Plan’ being pushed by Maj. Gen. (Res.) Giora Eiland—a plan Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has denied implementing—and the demands of the Jewish supremacist parties in the governing coalition that are openly pursuing a policy of mass expulsions and the renewal of Jewish settlement in northern Gaza,” the editorial states.

    Last week, senior Israeli officials including members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet and far-right Knesset lawmakers gathered near the Gaza border for a conference dedicated to the ethnic cleansing of Arabs and Jewish recolonization in the embattled Palestinian enclave.

    “We came here with one clear purpose: to settle the entire Gaza Strip… Every inch from north to south,” settler leader Daniella Weiss told attendees of the rally, which was backed by Netanyahu’s Likud party. “Each of you will witness how Jews go to Gaza and Arabs will disappear from Gaza.”

    https://twitter.com/pchrgaza/status/1847963308202025067?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1847963308202025067%7Ctwgr%5Ee306635abb135697a899bc52bffeebdb474188cc%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Fisrael-ethnic-cleansing-northern-gaza

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    As the Haaretz editors noted:

    Ethnic cleansing is both a moral crime and a legal one. Criminal law treats mass expulsions as both a war crime and a crime against humanity. Horrifyingly, some members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government want to commit these crimes. As soon as the war began, they began calling for “erasing Gaza” and for perpetrating a “second Nakba.” But many Israelis made light of such statements, and the law enforcement system, headed by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, refrained from dealing with this incitement to commit crimes.

    Now, we can see the results: Israel is sliding into ethnic cleansing; its soldiers are carrying out the criminal policies of the messianic, Kahanist right; and even the opposition on the center and center-left isn’t making a peep. This consensus behind ethnic cleansing is shameful, and every public leader who doesn’t demand an end to the de facto expulsion is supporting this crime and has become a party to it.

    “If this process doesn’t stop immediately,” the editors stressed, “hundreds of thousands of people will become refugees, entire communities will be destroyed and the moral and legal stain of this crime will cling to and pursue every Israeli.”

    Israel was founded in 1948, largely through the ethnic cleansing of more than 750,000 Arabs from Palestine during the Nakba, or “catastrophe.” Zionist militias—the two most violent of which were led by future Israeli prime ministers—utilized terror tactics including massacres and a death march to force the Indigenous Arabs from their homeland.

    Israeli ethnic cleansing continued over the following eight decades and, according to critics, currently involves home demolitions and expulsions in the illegally occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, systematic land theft, and pogroms and other violent attacks by Jewish settler colonists backed—and sometimes joined—by Israel Defense Forces troops.

    United Nations officials and international human rights groups said this week’s Knesset vote to ban the life-saving U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) will exacerbate Israeli crimes in Gaza, including ethnic cleansing.

    https://twitter.com/AJEnglish/status/1851331027924369655?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1851331027924369655%7Ctwgr%5Ee306635abb135697a899bc52bffeebdb474188cc%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Fisrael-ethnic-cleansing-northern-gaza

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    “Efforts to eliminate UNRWA are illegal under international law and will only amplify the genocide and ethnic cleansing Israel is enacting in Gaza while also undermining long-term prospects for peace,” the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group, said Tuesday. “The Israeli government is not only deliberately blocking humanitarian and medical aid to people who are starving and dying, it is undermining support for Palestine refugees and the international legal framework protecting their rights.”

    On Monday, Francesca Albanese, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on Palestine, published a report “contextualizing the situation within
    a decadeslong process of territorial expansion and ethnic cleansing aimed at liquidating the Palestinian presence in Palestine.”

    Albanese’s report was released a day after Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich—who supports the “total annihilation” of Gaza and said that killing 2 million Palestinians would be “justified and moral”—reiterated his call for Israeli annexation of the entire West Bank and the expulsion of the occupied territory’s Palestinians.

    Israel’s policies and practices in Gaza—where more than 150,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded by Israeli forces since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023—are the subject of an ongoing South Africa-led genocide case before the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

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

    Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that his active support and that of UK's air force 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
    Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that his active support and that of UK’s air force 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
    UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspeding 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.
    UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspeding 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.
    Vote For Genocide Vote Labour.
    Vote For Genocide Vote Labour.

  • “No treatment, no pain relief, no escape,” UN says on healthcare in Gaza

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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: Munir al-Bursh/X

    Intensified Israeli attacks have devastated hospitals and healthcare in Gaza, with patients left to suffer amid a blockade of medical resources and repeated denials of evacuation permits

    Conditions in Gaza’s healthcare system, already critical, have further deteriorated under Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) attacks on hospitals in the north. Following the forced closure of the Indonesian Hospital, only two hospitals, Al-Awda and Kamal Adwan, remain partially functional. Al-Awda is difficult to access due to damaged road infrastructure, while Kamal Adwan endured a violent raid on October 25-26.

    Both have in their care more patients than they can objectively provide care to. During the raid on Kamal Adwan, Israeli soldiers detained or disappeared 44 male staff members, with dozens still imprisoned. According to the UN, by October 29 only two doctors – the hospital director and a pediatrician – remained at Kamal Adwan to manage care for 150 patients without surgical, anesthesiology, or intensive care support. Despite appeals, Israel continues to block access for additional medical teams, supplies, and life-saving essentials.

    Read more: 100,000 Palestinians trapped in northern Gaza amid ongoing Israeli massacres and siege

    Medical evacuations remain practically non-existent. Since May, only 127 children have been permitted to leave Gaza for critical care. Thousands more injured children face indefinite waits for permits. UNICEF recently expressed what can only be described as desperation, calling out Israel’s bureaucratic “indifference” that leaves children suffering without relief or hope. And, while it is possible to know how few children were allowed to leave Gaza for medical care, Israel does not keep records of how many were denied. “When a patient is denied, there is nothing that can be done,” the agency said. “Trapped in the grip of an indifferent bureaucracy, children’s pain is brutally compounded.”

    The situation is far beyond agony for children like Elia, a four-year-old girl who suffered severe burns and multiple amputations after an Israeli rocket attack. Hospitalized for over 40 days, she was admitted along with her mother, Eslam, who sustained similar injuries. Eslam died as a result of the attack in which she and her daughter were hurt, and only then was Elia granted medical evacuation, but without a clear timeline.

    Children including infants with cancer and malnutrition, as well as 12-year-olds in need of bone surgery, have been repeatedly denied the right to be transferred to a place where they can access adequate care. “No treatment, no pain relief, no escape,” Elder said of the situation.

    Read more: Final phase of polio vaccination in Gaza suspended amid Israeli attacks

    There are no healthy people left in the Gaza Strip: those not suffering physical injury are either going hungry or struggling with mental health effects of trauma. Respiratory diseases, jaundice, and diarrhea are rampant due to destroyed sanitation infrastructure and chronic malnutrition. Without an immediate and lasting ceasefire, conditions are expected to worsen further.

    Concerns include missing the thresholds set for the polio vaccination campaign, after the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners were forced to suspend the final phase of a polio vaccination campaign in northern Gaza due to escalating IOF violence. While WHO has expressed hopes to resume vaccinations from November 2 to 4, it remains to be seen if Israeli authorities will guarantee the necessary safety assurances.

    People’s Health Dispatch is a fortnightly bulletin published by the People’s Health Movement and Peoples Dispatch. For more articles and to subscribe to People’s Health Dispatch, click here.

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

  • With Israel’s Move to Ban UNRWA, ‘A New Way Has Been Found to Kill Children’

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

    Palestinian children sit with pots near makeshift tents as they wait to receive food aid in Khan Younis, Gaza on October 28, 2024. (Photo: Doaa Albaz/Anadolu via Getty Images)

    “It’ll likely see the collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza,” warned a spokesperson for the U.N. Children’s Fund.

    Humanitarian groups and United Nations officials issued dire warnings Tuesday about the potentially catastrophic consequences of Israeli lawmakers’ vote to ban the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, the body primarily responsible for delivering lifesaving aid to the people of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

    James Elder, a spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said Tuesday that if the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is unable to operate due to the measures passed overwhelmingly by the Israeli Knesset on Monday, “it’ll likely see the collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza.”

    “So a decision such as this suddenly means that a new way has been found to kill children,” said Elder.

    The legislation that Israeli lawmakers passed in a 92-10 vote bars UNRWA—a frequent target of Israeli smear campaigns and military attacks—from operating or providing “any service” within “in the sovereign territory of the state of Israel.”

    Israeli lawmakers also passed a measure declaring UNRWA a “terror” group, barring Israeli officials from engaging in any contact with the agency.

    The Guardian noted that the newly passed measures—which are set to be implemented within 90 days—are “expected to lead to the closure of UNRWA’s East Jerusalem headquarters and would effectively block the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza via Rafah.”

    “The severing of diplomatic relations would preclude Israel from issuing entry and work permits to foreign UNRWA staff and prevent coordination with the Israeli military to permit aid shipments,” the newspaper added.

    “Humanitarian actors rely on coordination with UNWRA to deliver aid and alleviate suffering. UNWRA cannot be replaced by NGOs.”

    Agnès Callamard, the secretary-general of Amnesty International, warned in a statement Tuesday that the measures represent “an outright attack on the rights of Palestinian refugees.”

    “It is clearly designed to make it impossible for the agency to operate in the occupied Palestinian territory by forcing the closure of the UNRWA headquarters in East Jerusalem and ending visas for its staff,” said Callamard. “It amounts to the criminalization of humanitarian aid and will worsen an already catastrophic humanitarian crisis.”

    “This appalling, inhumane law will only exacerbate the suffering of Palestinians, who have endured unimaginable hardship since the horrific attacks by Hamas and other armed groups in southern Israel one year ago, and whose need for global support is greater than ever. The international community must be quick to condemn it in the strongest possible terms and exert any influence they have on the Israeli government to repeal it.”

    The U.N. General Assembly established UNRWA in the aftermath of the 1948 Nakba, and the agency is central to humanitarian operations in the famine-stricken Gaza Strip—a role that aid groups described as necessary and irreplaceable. According to a World Health Organization official, roughly a third of the healthcare workers assisting the polio vaccination campaign in Gaza work with UNRWA.

    “UNRWA plays a critical role in serving civilians in desperate need in Gaza,” the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said Tuesday. “Humanitarian actors rely on coordination with UNRWA to deliver aid and alleviate suffering. UNRWA cannot be replaced by NGOs like IRC.”

    “The bill passed in the Israeli parliament is an unprecedented attack on a U.N. agency and, if implemented, would only worsen the humanitarian catastrophe,” IRC added. “We strongly urge that this legislation is not applied. We continue to advocate for an immediate ceasefire to get aid in, to release the hostages, and to meet the growing and dire needs of the civilian population.”

    Sam Rose, deputy director of UNRWA affairs in Gaza, said in a CNN interview that “the entire humanitarian system” in the Palestinian enclave “relies every minute of every day on UNRWA to deliver services to 2 million people living in the worst possible conditions.”

    Implementation of the ban, Rose warned, “would be devastating for us, devastating for other aid agencies—but more importantly, for the population here that’s suffering so much.”

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

    Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that his active support and that of UK's air force has been essential in Israel's mass-murdering genocide.
    Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that his active support and that of UK’s air force has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide.

  • At Least 20 Children Among 93 Killed in Horrific Israeli Massacre in Northern Gaza

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

    People remove a body from the rubble of a building hit by an Israeli strike in Beit Lahiya, Gaza on October 29, 2024.
     (Photo: AFP via Getty Images)

    “Put simply, those children who have survived so far are running out of time,” said one aid group. “We are pleading with the international community to urgently intervene.”

    Israeli forces on Tuesday bombed a crowded residential building in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, killing around 93 people—including at least 20 children—in the latest atrocity in a region that has been under heavy military siege for weeks.

    Eyewitnesses described an appalling scene at the building decimated by the Israeli strike. One person who was helping to remove victims from the rubble told Reuters that there were “body parts hanging on the walls.” Another eyewitness said that “most of the victims are women and children.”

    The Israeli strike on the residential building—which was reportedly sheltering roughly 200 displaced people—also wounded dozens, but hospitals in the region are overwhelmed and barely functional after relentless Israeli raids and attacks, leaving them unable to handle an influx of bombing victims.

    Dr. Hussam Abu Safia, the director of nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital, told Al Jazeera that “more than 150 dead and wounded had arrived after the attack.”

    “However, he warned that many of those injured may die because of a lack of resources,” the outlet reported. “Israeli forces detained dozens of medical staff at the hospital last week, leaving only three doctors.”

    Israel’s attack in Beit Lahiya was one of a number of massacres committed in recent days in northern Gaza, where an estimated 100,000 Palestinians are trapped with virtually no access to food, medicine, and other essentials.

    “There is nothing. You are talking about tens of days that they are not receiving any supplies,” said Mahmoud Alsaqqa, Oxfam’s food security and livelihood lead in Gaza. Alsaqqa said people are “starving to death” in northern Gaza as Israel impedes humanitarian aid shipments and moves to ban the United Nations’ Palestinian refugee agency.

    Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs at the Center for International Policy, noted Tuesday that “in the last day, Israel passed bills that would block most aid delivery in Gaza and the West Bank and bombed a building sheltering displaced civilians, reportedly killing mostly women and children.”

    “Yet [U.S. President Joe] Biden keeps arming Israel counter to U.S. and international law,” Williams wrote on social media.

    “Every possible step must be taken to secure a definitive cease-fire and to ensure adherence to international law.”

    Internet blackouts in the region, meanwhile, have made it difficult for aid workers and reporters to relay news of northern Gaza’s dire conditions to the world.

    “Communication between hospitals, health workers, and aid agencies is becoming sporadic, and ground fighting has made travel increasingly dangerous, making it hard to coordinate care and treatment and accurately collect casualty data,” The Guardian reported Tuesday. “The civil defense service suspended activities last Wednesday after crews were attacked by Israeli forces and tank shelling destroyed their last fire engine.”

    Last week, Save the Children decried deadly Israeli attacks on 13 residential buildings in the Jabalia refugee camp and warned that “the threat of attacks and lack of fuel and supplies have left rescue services unable to operate” in the northern part of the Palestinian enclave.

    “Attacks by Israeli forces across the Gaza Strip have killed scores of people, including many children and an 11-month-old baby,” said Jeremy Stoner, Save the Children’s regional director. “The attacks have targeted a school-turned-shelter in Nuseirat, Kamal Adwan Hospital, and residential homes in Khan Younis—the very places where children are supposed to be safest, protected under international law.”

    “Put simply, those children who have survived so far are running out of time. We are pleading with the international community to urgently intervene,” Stoner added. “Every possible step must be taken to secure a definitive cease-fire and to ensure adherence to international law. Governments must stop fueling the conflict with a supply of weapons and ammunition.”

    Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) staffer Hasan Suboh was among those killed in the wave of Israeli attacks on residential homes in northern Gaza last week, the humanitarian group said in a statement Monday.

    “Hasan’s tattered MSF vest, which he wore all the time, was found under the rubble,” the group said. “This vest symbolizes Hasan’s commitment to helping people in distress, but more globally it also symbolizes healthcare and humanitarian assistance.”

    “To see it destroyed,” MSF added, “is representative of how in this war, Israel, the U.S. government, and the rest of Israel’s allies have disregarded the protection of healthcare workers, and ripped the rules of war to shreds. The claim that humanitarian workers are protected, that civilian lives are protected, has once again been exposed as a lie for all the world to see.”

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

    Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that his active support and that of UK's air force 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
    Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that his active support and that of UK’s air force 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
    UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspeding 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.
    UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspeding 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.
    Vote For Genocide Vote Labour.
    Vote For Genocide Vote Labour.

  • Palestine campaigners block Israeli-owned arms factory

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/palestine-campaigners-block-israeli-owned-arms-factory

    Palestine campaigners blockade an Israeli-owned Elbit factory at Shenstone in Staffordshire, October 29, 2024

    PALESTINE campaigners blockaded and closed an Israeli-owned British arms factory today.

    UAV Engines at Shenstone in Staffordshire is one of five British factories owned by Israel’s biggest arms manufacturer Elbit Systems.

    The factory makes engines for military drones used by Israel in its slaughter in Gaza.

    Weekly protests are mounted outside the factory by local Palestine campaigners supported by Greater Manchester Friends of Palestine (GMFP) activists.

    John Nicholson of GMFP told the Morning Star: “There are 200 people outside Elbit’s Shenstone factory accompanied, ridiculously, by dozens of police officers and police cars.

    …

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/palestine-campaigners-block-israeli-owned-arms-factory

    Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that his active support and that of UK's air force 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
    Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that his active support and that of UK’s air force 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
    UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspeding 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.
    UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspeding 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.
    Vote For Genocide Vote Labour.
    Vote For Genocide Vote Labour.