Gaza

Israeli Military Has Killed 500 Gaza Healthcare Workers—Two a Day Since Assault Began

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Original article by JAKE JOHNSON republished from Common Dreams under a CC licence.

Mourners carry the body of Palestinian doctor Hani al-Jaafarawi, Gaza’s ambulance and emergency teams chief, during his funeral in Gaza City, Gaza on June 24, 2024. (Photo: Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP via Getty Images)

“This cannot be allowed to continue any longer,” said one advocate. “Every potential serious violation must be independently investigated and those responsible brought to justice.”

Doctors and humanitarian organizations demanded international investigations and action on Wednesday after the United Nations announced that Israel’s military has now killed 500 healthcare workers in Gaza—roughly two per day on average—during its nearly nine-month assault on the besieged Palestinian enclave.

The U.N. Human Rights Office said in a statement Tuesday that Israeli forces’ killing of hundreds of healthcare workers has “occurred against the backdrop of systematic attacks on hospitals and other medical facilities in violation of the laws of war.” The World Health Organization has documented more than 460 attacks on healthcare workers and infrastructure in Gaza since October 7.

“The latest health worker reportedly killed was Mr. Hani Al Ja’afarwi, head of Emergency and Ambulance Services at a health clinic in Gaza City on 23 June 2024,” said the U.N. Human Rights Office. “Many health workers have also died with their family members when residential buildings were struck by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).”

The U.N.’s latest tally did not include Fadi Al-Wadiya, a 33-year-old Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) staffer who was killed along with five other people Tuesday in an attack in Gaza City. MSF did not explicitly assign blame for the attack, which the group described as “yet another brutal example of the senseless killing of Palestinian civilians and healthcare workers in Gaza.”

Rohan Talbot, director of advocacy and campaigns at Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), said Wednesday that “hospitals, medical staff, and civilians all have protected status under international law, law that the Israel military has flagrantly ignored every day through its repeated targeting of healthcare facilities and staff.”

“Though now happening at an unprecedented rate in Gaza, attacks on Palestinian healthcare by the Israeli military have recurred over many years, ever-worsening because of chronic impunity,” said Talbot. “This cannot be allowed to continue any longer. Every potential serious violation must be independently investigated and those responsible brought to justice.”

Not a single hospital is fully functioning in the Gaza Strip after months of relentless Israeli bombing, and medical workers have been forced to treat airstrike victims and other patients in overwhelmed facilities without necessary equipment and medications, including anesthesia.

As Israel’s blockade leaves the occupied territory’s population without sufficient access to clean water and other essentials, infectious diseases have been spreading rapidly as the health crisis spirals out of control, starvation proliferates, and the death toll mounts.

“Systematic attacks on healthcare by Israeli forces are exacerbating the worst humanitarian crisis ever seen in Gaza,” MAP said Wednesday. “More than 37,000 Palestinians have been killed and at least 86,000 injured since Israel’s assault began, with an estimated 10,000 still trapped under rubble, most presumed dead. Instead of being able to safely provide medical care for those in urgent need, Palestinian healthcare workers have themselves come under both indiscriminate and apparent targeted attack by the Israeli military.”

Tanya Haj-Hassan, a doctor who volunteered in a hospital with MAP earlier this year, said that “Palestinian healthcare workers have told me that when they leave the hospital, civilians give them civilian clothing because wearing scrubs is putting a target sticker on their back.”

“This is how systematically healthcare has been targeted in Gaza,” Haj-Hassan added.

Haider Al-Qudra, executive director of the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) in Gaza, told MAP that “as long as the international community does not take any measures against Israeli forces that continue to violate international humanitarian law, we will lose more personnel working to meet the health and humanitarian needs of citizens on the frontline.”

“Because of this systematic targeting from Israeli forces,” said Al-Qudra, “34 PRCS staff have lost their lives, most of them emergency medical services staff, including 19 while they tried to respond to emergency calls from citizens.”

Original article by JAKE JOHNSON republished from Common Dreams under a CC licence.

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Zionist Keir Starmes is quoted "I support Zionism without qualification." He's asked whether that means that he supports Zionism under all circumstances, whatever Zionists do.
Zionist Keir Starmes is quoted “I support Zionism without qualification.” He’s asked whether that means that he supports Zionism under all circumstances, whatever Zionists do.

Continue ReadingIsraeli Military Has Killed 500 Gaza Healthcare Workers—Two a Day Since Assault Began

HOW ISRAEL FUNDS UK PARLIAMENTARY STAFF

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Aides to Rachel Reeves and Wes Streeting took Israel lobby funding. (Photo: Stefan Rousseau via Alamy)

Israel is quietly financing assistants of British MPs, Declassified has found.

Israel has paid for at least a dozen UK parliamentary staff to visit the country on special delegations in the last five years.

A further 18 staffers have accepted funding or hospitality from pro-Israel lobby organisations in Britain such as Labour Friends of Israel and We Believe in Israel.

Several worked for MPs in Keir Starmer’s front bench team, including shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, shadow health secretary Wes Streeting and shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson.

Our investigation found how the Israeli embassy in London, its ministry of foreign affairs and associated lobby groups seek to influence not only MPs but also their assistants.

Declassified previously revealed that one in four British MPs in the last parliament accepted funding from pro-Israel lobby groups or individuals. 

…

Israel lobby organisations have also sought to gain backdoor influence by funding, meeting, and providing hospitality to ministers’ special advisers, known as SPADs.

Special advisers are exempt from the Civil Service Code’s requirement of political impartiality. 

Governmental departments are therefore [not?] required to publish the gifts and hospitality that they receive.

Deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden accepted funding from CFI when he was David Cameron’s SPAD in 2014. 

Dowden was a prospective parliamentary candidate for Hertsmere at that time.

CFI paid for a special adviser to Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude to travel to Israel that same year, while in 2015 another four Downing Street special advisers received hospitality from CFI.

The group has continued to lobby SPADs in the prime minister’s and deputy PM’s office, as well as the leader of the House of Lords.

…

Zionist Keir Starmes is quoted "I support Zionism without qualification." He's asked whether that means that he supports Zionism under all circumstances, whatever Zionists do.
Zionist Keir Starmes is quoted “I support Zionism without qualification.” He’s asked whether that means that he supports Zionism under all circumstances, whatever Zionists do.

Continue ReadingHOW ISRAEL FUNDS UK PARLIAMENTARY STAFF

As she is arrested, a Youth Demand Activist explains “the Labour Party is complicit in Genocide.”

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As she was arrested following a flash sit down Gaza ceasefire now protest at Oxford Circus earlier this afternoon (Saturday 22 June 2024), a Youth Demand Activist declared that “the Labour Party is complicit in genocide. They refuse to call for a ceasefire. They refuse to stop buy and selling weapons with Israel. These weapons are creating tens of thousands of deaths. Our government is able to do something about this but they refuse to;” adding “We can not vote Tory. We can not vote Labour. We must act. We must take to the streets. We must civilly resist. Join us at YouthDemand.org.” My own comment – Although some Labour Party MPs have made some fairly empty and vague declarations in support of a “sustainable” ceasefire, it’s clear they are not willing to declare that Israel must commit to one immediately, let alone to exert any real pressure on the Israeli government.

As of 11 June 2024, at least 37,702 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October, including more than 15,000 children. An estimated 10,000 are missing, of whom most are probably dead.

There is also an unknown number of additional deaths due to excess mortality from food shortages, disease and difficulties in obtaining essential medical care and medicines, while more than 84,000 Palestinians have been injured, many of them with life-changing injuries including many amputations.

According to the United Nations, as of 9 June, more than half of all residential buildings have been destroyed or damaged but with some key infrastructure the destruction is even more devastating – including 130 ambulances, 267 places of worship, 80% of commercial facilities and 88% of school buildings damaged or destroyed. Additionally some 83% of groundwater wells are no longer operational.

Zionist Keir Starmes is quoted "I support Zionism without qualification." He's asked whether that means that he supports Zionism under all circumstances, whatever Zionists do.
Zionist Keir Starmes is quoted “I support Zionism without qualification.” He’s asked whether that means that he supports Zionism under all circumstances, whatever Zionists do.

Continue ReadingAs she is arrested, a Youth Demand Activist explains “the Labour Party is complicit in Genocide.”

Youth Demand shit in Rishi Sunak’s private lake

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Youth Demand shit in Rishi Sunak's private lake 25/6/24
Youth Demand shit in Rishi Sunak’s private lake 25/6/24

As a thankyou and a parting gift to Rishi Sunak and the Tories for the last 14 years of service, a Youth Demand supporter has ‘sunk the Bismarck’ in Rishi Sunak’s lake. Youth Demand is a campaign calling for a two-way arms embargo on Israel and for the incoming UK government to revoke all new oil and gas licences granted since 2021.

At around 12:50 pm, Oliver, 21, a student from Manchester visited Rishi Sunak’s North Yorkshire mansion and ‘murdered a brown snake’ in the multi-millionaires’ lake, whilst wearing a shirt emblazoned with ‘Eat Shit Rishi’. Police arrived on the scene almost immediately and detained four people, including a press photographer, which may lead to their arrest.

Before shitting in the lake, Oliver said: 

“We have so much to thank the Tories for: from crumbling schools, shit in the rivers and a collapsing NHS; to creating a nation with more food banks than McDonalds and 4.3 million UK children living in poverty. From allowing their mates to get filthy rich from selling weapons to battle-test on toddlers in Gaza, or by drilling for more oil as the world burns – it’s quite a legacy!” 

“Yet this shit-show is set to continue with yet another party led by a pathological liar who will be taking office next. Both Labour and the Tories are content to keep shitting on Gaza, and on every future generation, by continuing weapons trading with Israel and by not revoking all oil and gas licences granted since 2021. The two party system is just two cheeks of the same arse. We deserve better! Take action at youthdemand.org.”

Youth Demand shit in Rishi Sunak's private lake 25/6/24
Youth Demand shit in Rishi Sunak’s private lake 25/6/24

A Youth Demand spokesperson said:

“From Number 10 to Number 2, let’s face it: he’s done a shit job, and the Tories are facing an electoral wipe-out. As a final goodbye, we’re issuing a ‘code-brown’ to Mr Sunak and his colleagues in government for 14 years of total failure, by delivering them some much needed moral fibre. They’ve landed us all up shit-creek and so we hope they accept these ‘gorilla fingers’ as a heartfelt gesture of our feelings towards them.” 

“But although we’ve unloaded some timber, we’re not out of the woods yet. Our political system is broken. Labour has to lose the policies from the bottom-drawer and convince floating voters by putting the skids on arms trading with Israel and flushing all oil and gas projects licensed since 2021- policies which stain the UK’s reputation. It’s a big job, but it’s time to sort shit out. Join us for a week of action in London from the 13th July, sign up at youth demand.org.” 

This mansion is one of several properties owned by Mr Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty. Murty owns a reported £400 million stake in her billionaire father’s company Infosys, which  signed a $1.5 billion deal with BP in May 2023. Sunak and Murty bought the £2 million Grade-II listed Georgian manor house in the picturesque village of Kirby Sigston, before Mr Sunak became MP for Richmond in 2015. However, this isn’t the only property in the couple’s extensive repertoire, which include a £6.6 million mansion in Kensington, London, and a vacation home in California. The couple have an estimated combined net worth of £730 million.

Last year 16 Just Stop Oil supporters were arrested outside Sunak’s London Mansion, after Louise Harris sang her chart-topping track ‘We Tried’.

Young people are sick of the shit-show. We deserve better. People from all over the country are coming together to resist. Youth Demand will be taking action in Central London from the 13th-20th July. 

Continue ReadingYouth Demand shit in Rishi Sunak’s private lake

Netanyahu refuses to end Gaza war

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/netanyahu-refuses-to-end-gaza-war

A Palestinian family mourns a loved one killed by Israeli bombardment, as they take a last look before their funeral in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, June 21, 2024

Israeli air strike kills director of Gaza’s Ambulance and Emergency Department

ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today said that he would not agree to a deal to end his war in Gaza but only to a “partial” ceasefire agreement.

In an interview with Israeli Channel 14, Mr Netanyahu said that he was “prepared to make a partial deal — this is no secret — that will return to us some of the people,” referring to the roughly 120 hostages still held in the Gaza Strip.

“But we are committed to continuing the war after a pause, in order to complete the goal of eliminating Hamas,” he said.

“I’m not willing to give up on that.”

Hamas has insisted it will not release the remaining hostages unless there is a permanent ceasefire and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

When US President Joe Biden announced the latest proposal last month, he said it included both.

In the interview, Mr Netanyahu said that the current phase of fighting is ending, setting the stage for Israel to send more troops to its northern border to confront the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

But he said that did not mean the war in Gaza was over.

Hamas said Mr Netanyahu’s comment was “in contrast” to what the US administration said Israel had approved.

…

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/netanyahu-refuses-to-end-gaza-war

Continue ReadingNetanyahu refuses to end Gaza war