Gaza

Israel kills over 400 Palestinians in a single day of airstrikes

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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.

Original article republished from Peoples Dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

It has been 15 days since Israeli Occupation Forces started their continuous bombings of Gaza following Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, threatening a complete genocide of Palestinians living there

In what has been described as the most intensive bombing of the besieged Palestinian territory since October 7, at least 400 more people were killed in Israel’s indiscriminate strikes in Gaza strip on Sunday October 22.

Israel bombings inside Gaza continued on Monday as well with over 60 people killed in overnight attacks alone.

The Israeli military claimed on Monday that it bombed over 300 targets in Gaza on Sunday. Their aircrafts continued to target residential areas in Khan Younis, Al-Fallujah, and other localities killing civilians including children, on the 15th day since the Palestinian resistance movements launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.

Israeli warplanes targeted densely populated Jabalia refugee camp where at least 30 people were killed, as well as other localities close to the Al-Shifa and Al-Quds hospitals.

Footage released by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) on Monday clearly shows Israeli bombing in the vicinity of the Al-Quds hospital. 

These hospitals are overcrowded with wounded and in danger of being bombed like Al-Ahli Arab hospital last week. Close to 500 Palestinians were killed when Israel bombed it on October 17. 

According to the Gaza Ministry of Health more than 5,000 Gazans have been killed in the Israeli bombings so far, of those over 2,000 were children. More than 15,000 people have been wounded in these attacks and over a million have been displaced. 

Israel has also killed over 95 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and wounded over 1,600 of them in the last 15 days. Israeli occupation forces arrested hundreds of Palestinians in different raids in the occupied West Bank on Sunday as well. 

The Israeli blockade on food, fuel and medicine supplies to Gaza continued on its 15th day and despite the small number of humanitarian aid trucks reaching the territory through Egypt’s Rafah border since Saturday there is an urgent need for the full resumption of the free transit of these supplies. 

Lack of fuel and medical supplies have made around 10 hospitals in Gaza go out of service, increasing pressures on the remaining hospitals and endangering hundreds of lives including newborn babies.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) warned on Monday that, “in three days UNRWA will run out of fuel, critical for our humanitarian response across the Gaza strip.” 

Lazzarini stated that without fuel it will be difficult to run the hospitals and supply basic amenities including food to the affected people. UNRWA runs several hospitals and also shelters over 500,000 Palestinians displaced due to Israeli bombings in Gaza.

51 health workers have also been killed in airstrikes since October 7 and over 87 others have been injured.

Meanwhile, China’s special envoy to the Middle East, who is currently touring the region, said on Monday that his country is willing to do whatever it takes to start a dialogue to explore an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. He stated that the situation in Gaza is very serious and if no steps were taken to achieve a ceasefire now there is a possibility of a region-wide escalation.

In the meanwhile, Israel is already bombing Lebanon targeting Hezbollah, which has supported the actions of the Palestinian resistance during Al-Aqsa Flood and targeted positions of the Israeli army near the Lebanese border. 

Original article republished from Peoples Dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Continue ReadingIsrael kills over 400 Palestinians in a single day of airstrikes

A human catastrophe is unfolding in real time in the Middle East

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Palestinians inspect the ruins of Watan Tower destroyed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza city, on October 8, 2023. Image by Wafa (Q2915969) in contract with a local company (APAimages) licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/human-catastrophe-unfolding-real-time-middle-east

…

On October 7, we witnessed the horror of the killing of 1,400 people in southern Israel, with almost 200 survivors taken hostage.

This deplorable attack has caused unimaginable agony for those who have lost loved ones, and enduring anguish for those longing to be reunited.

In response, the Israeli government and army swung into action and announced they would destroy Gaza, couched as a war against Hamas.

As it stands, over 3,000 Palestinians have been killed. This is on top of the thousands of Palestinians who have been killed over the past decade. Not only in Gaza but in the West Bank too. Total war seems to be the only policy in town.

Pleas for a ceasefire by neighbouring countries, the UN, and political leaders from the global South have been resolutely rejected by Israel.

…

Millions around the world are appalled by the killings of young Jewish people and the hostage taking in Negev, and are equally appalled by the bombs raining down on Gaza.

A human catastrophe is unfolding in real time on television, bodies strewn from hospitals and schools that innocent people assumed may provide at least a temporary haven from horror.

We will keep demonstrating as long as it takes to bring about an end to the indiscriminate killings. To bring about an end to the occupation. To bring about a just and lasting peace.

Jeremy Corbyn is MP for Islington North.

https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/human-catastrophe-unfolding-real-time-middle-east

Continue ReadingA human catastrophe is unfolding in real time in the Middle East

Gaza protest: Braverman to quiz police boss over Met response to incidents at pro-Palestinian demo

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Image quoting Suella 'Sue-Ellen' Braverman reads ‘Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati’.
Image quoting Suella ‘Sue-Ellen’ Braverman reads ‘Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati’.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67190812

Home Secretary Suella Braverman is to question the Metropolitan Police commissioner about the force’s response to incidents during a pro-Palestinian protest in London.

A video posted online appeared to show a man chanting “jihad” during a rally by an Islamist group on Saturday.

The Met said no offences were identified in the clip of the protest, which was separate to the main march.

But the home secretary wants an explanation from Sir Mark Rowley.

The meeting between Ms Braverman and the Met Police chief was already in the diary to discuss the ongoing protests and combating anti-Semitism.

But a source close to the home secretary said she would use it to question Sir Mark for his views on his force’s response to Saturday’s incident.

…

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67190812

They can only address crime Sue-Ellen …

Continue ReadingGaza protest: Braverman to quiz police boss over Met response to incidents at pro-Palestinian demo

‘Totally Insufficient’: Groups Say Trickle of Gaza Aid No Match for Ongoing ‘Mass Atrocities’

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

Injured child is taken to Suheda al-Aqsa Hospital (Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital) in Deir al-Balah, Gaza as Israeli attacks on Gaza continue on the 15th day on October 21, 2023. (Photo by Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“Collective punishment of two million people is a war crime and a moral outrage,” said one head of a medical relief group. “The siege must end, a ceasefire must be secured, and aid must be allowed to reach any who need it.”

Emergency aid groups and relief experts denounced the tiny “trickle” of humanitarian supplies that were finally allowed to pass through the Rafah crossing into Gaza on Saturday, especially as what was described by human rights watchdogs as a “loss of civilian life at a scale we have not seen in the modern history of Israel and Palestine” continues inside the besieged territory.

The 20 trucks authorized to deliver aid into Gaza through border with Egypt, said Médecins Sans Frontières/MSF in a statement, is “totally insufficient compared to the desperate needs of the people, who have been under complete siege and relentless bombing for two weeks.”

“Prior to the siege,” the group said, “hundreds of trucks with supplies entered Gaza every day as the Strip is crucially reliant on external aid. Food, water, and medicine are still desperately needed.”

“Gaza was a desperate humanitarian situation before the most recent hostilities. It is now catastrophic. The world must do more.” —UN Agencies

Guillemette Thomas, MSF’s medical coordinator for Gaza, said Saturday that inside Gaza “we have an extremely high number of injured people arriving in hospitals, very serious patients requiring complex care. According to our colleagues who still work at Shifa hospital, the hospital will soon run out of fuel and therefore electricity. This means that all the patients currently in intensive care units connected to ventilators and babies in incubators will die because of the lack of electricity. Operating theaters will no longer be able to function, patients will no longer be able to be operated on and the number of victims will increase significantly in the coming hours.”

Thomas warned that those in the intensive care were “just the tip of the iceberg,” warning that all injured and sick people Gaza remain at severe risk.

Human Rights Watch was among those who suggested that the refusal to allow fuel into Gaza—and the absence of efforts to restore or repair devastated the electricity grid or water systems—makes the paltry level stand out as intentionally inadequate.

“While aid agencies struggle to squeeze a few trucks of humanitarian aid into southern Gaza via Egypt, the Israeli authorities are keeping their crossings with Gaza closed and refusing to flick the switch for the water and electricity supply,” said Tirana Hassan, HRW’s executive director. “There is no excuse for denying water, food, and medicine to Gaza’s civilian population. It is cruel and contrary to international law.”

Melanie Ward, chief Eexecutive of the U.K.-based group Medical Aid for Palestinians said 20 trucks of supplies “does not even scratch the surface” of what’s needed in Gaza.

“It is appalling that fuel will not be allowed in, making the distribution of aid to the people who need it across Gaza impossible,” Ward said. “Without electricity, the lights will go out in hospitals, desalination and sewage plants will not function, and many more people will die.”

“Political leaders should remember that collective punishment of two million people is a war crime and a moral outrage,” she added. “The siege must end, a ceasefire must be secured, and aid must be allowed to reach any who need it.”

Ward’s group was also part of a Saturday effort to bring attention to 130 premature babies currently in hospitals throughout Gaza at risk of death if those facilities run out of power:

In a joint Saturday statement, UN agencies—namely the UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF, WFP, and WHO—said while the “limited, shipment of life-saving humanitarian supplies” provided by the United Nations and Egyptian Red Crescent would “provide an urgently needed lifeline to some of the hundreds of thousands of civilians, mostly women and children, who have been cut off from water, food, medicine, and other essentials,” it was “only a small beginning and far from enough” to address the depth of the crisis.

Citing the overwhelmed hospitals and acute shortages of power, food, and water, the agencies’ statement included a slate of demands, including a pause of Israel’s bombing campaign:

We call for a humanitarian ceasefire, along with immediate, unrestricted humanitarian access throughout Gaza to allow humanitarian actors to reach civilians in need, save lives and prevent further human suffering. Flows of humanitarian aid must be at scale and sustained, and allow all Gazans to preserve their dignity.

We call for safe and sustained access to water, food, health – including sexual and reproductive health, and fuel, which is necessary to enable essential services. “We call for the protection of all civilians and civilian infrastructure in Gaza, including healthcare facilities.

We call for the protection of humanitarian workers in Gaza who are risking their lives for the service of others.
And we call for the utmost respect of international humanitarian law by all parties.

Gaza was a desperate humanitarian situation before the most recent hostilities. It is now catastrophic. The world must do more.

In a joint statement on Friday, top Human Rights Watch program directors—Omar Shakir, Yasmine Ahmed, and Akshaya Kumar—said that the world is “witnessing loss of civilian life at a scale we have not seen in the modern history of Israel and Palestine. With deadlock paralyzing international institutions, leaders should rise to the moment and act to prevent further mass atrocities before it’s far too late.”

HRW said Saturday that as the occupying power in Gaza it has the legal duty under international humanitarian law to “ensure that the basic needs of the civilian population are provided for” and that it is obligated to facilitate, not prevent, the flow of humanitarian aid.

“Israeli authorities need to act immediately,” said Hassan in her statement. “Lives are hanging in the balance.”

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

Continue Reading‘Totally Insufficient’: Groups Say Trickle of Gaza Aid No Match for Ongoing ‘Mass Atrocities’

Hundreds of Thousands March in London Demanding ‘End to War on Gaza’

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

People take part in a ‘March For Palestine,’ in London on October 21, 2023, to “demand an end to the war on Gaza.” (Photo by Henry Nicholls / AFP via Getty Images)

The large-scale demonstration in the U.K. occurred as paltry levels of humanitarian aide were finally allowed through the southern border of Gaza, but nowhere near enough given the scale of death and destruction.

Organizers and participants said hundreds of thousands of people were in the streets of central London on Saturday to demand an immediate cease-fire in Gaza as the Israeli military continued its bombardment of the besieged enclave a full two weeks after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.

Organized by a coalition that includes the Solidarity Campaign, Friends of Al-Aqsa, Stop the War Coalition, Muslim Association of Britain, Palestinian Forum in Britain, and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the march also called for Israel to “end its occupation of Palestinian land and apartheid rule over the Palestinian people.”

The demonstration began at Marble Arch, weaving its way through central parts of the city before ending at Downing Street, where a mass rally was held.

While many in the streets put the number of demonstrators in the hundreds of thousands, other outlets put the number closer to 100,000.

“As a Palestinian who’d like to return home one day, as a Palestinian who has brothers and sisters in Gaza, and family, I wish we can do more but protest is what we can do at the minute,” one marcher toldReuters.

At a smaller protest in Cardiff, Maggie Morgan, from the local affiliate of the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, explained to the BBC that demonstrators in the UK were “taking to the streets as a show of solidarity to the people of Gaza, to show our support for them, but also to make the government listen, and say ‘not in our name,’ we’re not having this.”

On Friday, protests against the assault on Gaza—which has already claimed over 4,000 lives and thousands more injured—were seen across the Middle East, from Cairo in Egypt, with specific demands to open the Rafah Border to allow refugees out and humanitarian supplies, to Iraq, Yemen, Jordan, Indonesia, and beyond.

“We want the border to be opened immediately so aid can reach people in Gaza,” one protester in Cairo’s Tahrir Square told a correspondent with the Middle East Eye.

The Rafah crossing was finally opened on Saturday, but only 20 trucks of supplies were allowed to enter Gaza, an amount described by the Associated Press as “a trickle” compared to what aid experts say is necessary.

Cindy McCain, the executive director of the World Food Programme, toldAl Jazeera in an interview that 20 trucks were simply inadequate given the scale of the humanitarian disaster Palestinians and others trapped in Gaza now face.

“The situation inside Gaza is dire. Not only is there no food, there is no water, electricity, or fuel. And that combination is not only catastrophic but can lead to more starvation and disease as well,” McCain explained. “We’ve got to get more trucks in.”

Medical agencies and other relief workers on the ground have said that the absence of fuel in Saturday’s convoy means that hospitals remain on the verge of collapse.

“Without fuel entering the Gaza Strip to support generating electricity, thousands of Palestinian lives are at risk of death in hospitals, ” said the Palestine Red Crescent Society in a statement. “Ambulance will no long be able to save lives. Bakeries will no longer be able to provide bread. It shall leave the population without potable water, and risk outbreak of diseases.”

In a dispatch on Saturday, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini, who heads the UN agency mandated with administering humanitarian assistance and protection in Gaza, said the ongoing assault by Israel has put the lives of everyone inside the territory at great risk.

“For the past two weeks, the war has continued unabated,” said Lazzarini. “In the Gaza Strip, relentless air strikes and bombardments, coupled with evacuation orders issued by the Israeli Forces, have displaced nearly 1 million people and caused the death and injuries of far too many civilians.”

He continued: “Civilians—wherever they are—must be protected. The life of all civilians, the integrity of all UN facilities and premises, as well as civilian infrastructures, including hospitals, must be shielded from harm and protected at all times under international humanitarian law.”

With global condemnation directed at Israel for what international legal scholars have warned may be overt acts of genocide and collective punishment in response to Hamas’ attack, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres on Saturday, speaking from Cairo, said, “The people of Gaza need a commitment for much, much more—a continuous delivery of aid to Gaza at the scale that is needed.”

Guterres further demanded a humanitarian cease-fire to rescue Gaza from what he called “a godawful nightmare.”

And Lazzarini added, “Let me be clear: protecting civilians in times of conflict is not an aspiration or an ideal; it is an obligation and a commitment to our shared humanity. I echo the calls from the UN Secretary-General on all parties to reach an urgent humanitarian ceasefire. This is the only way out of this mayhem; any other way will plunge Gaza—and the world—deeper into fathomless, dark depths.”

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

Continue ReadingHundreds of Thousands March in London Demanding ‘End to War on Gaza’