On October 31, Israel dropped six US-made bombs (each weighing one ton) on the most populated neighborhood of Jabayla refugee camp in Gaza, killing and injuring 400, reports the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The death toll is likely to increase as more information becomes known.
According to the Quds News Network, Jabalya is one of the most populated areas of Gaza, with 60,000 residents in only 1.4 square kilometers.
"My three children. I lost them all!"#Israel has bombarded an entire neighborhood in the heart of Jabalya refugee camp in #Gaza using American bombs. All residents were either killed or injured. pic.twitter.com/Z1nryNwVjy
The United States funds Israel to the tune of USD 4 billion each year. As Israel carries out its genocide in Gaza, the US Congress is set to approve USD 14.3 billion in emergency funds for Israel.
US activists have argued that Israel’s heavy funding and military support from the US is due to the state’s unique position as a Western military outpost in West Asia. As current US President Joe Biden himself said in 1986, “It’s the best three billion dollar investment we made. Were there not an Israel, the United States of America would have to invent an Israel to protect her interest in the region.”
Israel has intensified its bombings inside the besieged Palestinian territory, repeatedly targeting shelters for the displaced and hospitals which are crowded due to the large number of people injured
United Nations Security Council discusses war in Gaza
Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner General of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), stated that Israel is carrying out “collective punishment” against Palestinians across the occupied territories and asked the world to ensure that women and children do not become “collateral damage.”
Lazzarini was speaking at an emergency session of the UN Security Council on Monday, October 30, called by the UAE and China to yet again push for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.
Addressing the session, Catherine Russell, Executive Director of UNICEF, said that over 3,400 children had been killed and over 6,300 injured. “This means that more than 420 Palestinian children are being killed or injured in Gaza each day—a number which should shake each of us to our core,” she added.
Israeli forces have been indiscriminately bombing the Gaza strip for the last 25 days. Its forces also launched a ground offensive on Saturday.
The number of total Palestinians killed so far in the Israeli bombings in Gaza crossed 8,300 on Tuesday morning, with over 20,000 Palestinians injured. According to reports, Israel once again used banned white phosphorus on civilians in Gaza on Monday.
According to Lazzarini, more than 70% of all those killed are either children or women. He claimed that an “unprecedented human tragedy is unfolding under our watch” in Gaza which is “unbearable.”
He blamed Israel for forcing millions of Palestinians out of their homes which led to overcrowding in UNRWA shelters. Lazzarini claimed that over 67,0000 Palestinians are forcibly displaced and are now living in schools which have been converted into shelters.
More than half of the population of Gaza, over 1.4 million Palestinians, have been forced out of their homes due to the Israeli offensive since October 7. More and more Palestinians are under threat of losing their homes as Israel continues to target civilian residential areas.
Lazzarini claimed that over 65 staffers with the UNRWA have been killed in Israeli strikes inside the Gaza strip since October 7.
Several relief and rescue staff working with other humanitarian missions in the war-affected region have also been killed in the Israeli bombings which have targeted hospitals, schools, aid distribution centers, and even ambulances.
Israel has also blockaded the supply of food, fuel and medicines into the besieged Palestinian territories since October 9, which has intensified the humanitarian situation there as hundreds of thousands of people are being forced to live without adequate medicines and food. Due to lack of fuel, all essential services such as water supply, cleaning and transportation are blocked, leading to a very dangerous situation.
“No place is safe in Gaza”
The handful of aid allowed through the Rafah border is not enough for the over 2 million Palestinians trapped in Gaza. Basic necessities such as water, medicine, food and fuel are running out, adding to the panic among the people, Lazzarini said during his presentation to the UN Security Council.
He claimed that no place is safe from Israeli bombings in the small Palestinian enclave.
“My UNRWA colleagues are the only glimmer of hope for the entire Gaza strip, a ray of light as humanity sinks into its darkest hour,” Lazzarini stated.
Lazzarini added that the condition in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem is also getting worse everyday. He claimed that Palestinians fatalities in those territories are already highest since 2005, when the UN started recording them.
Over 115 Palestinians including 33 children have been killed by the occupation forces in these territories since October 7, Lazzarini said.
According to the latest figures provided by the Palestinian ministry of health, the total number of Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem crossed 124 on Tuesday with the Israeli forces shooting of a 70-year-old man in Tubas.
He claimed that the restrictions imposed on the movement of Palestinians and aid workers in the occupied Palestinian territories are impacting basic services such as education and health care.
UNICEF head Russell also noted that Gaza has reported 34 attacks on health facilities, including 21 hospitals, due to which 12 of them can no longer function. She underlined that the Israeli bombings have destroyed 221 schools and over 177,000 housing units so far.
She called for an immediate ceasefire, saying that we need to “put their [children] safety and security at the forefront of our efforts.”
Chinese ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun pointed out that Israel must implement the UN General Assembly resolution passed by over 120 countries on Friday demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.
Jun claimed that Israel has been holding around 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza under a blockade for over 16 years and asked it to fulfill its responsibilities as the occupying power. Jung warned that if the current war continues, it can spiral out of control and a greater catastrophe would be inevitable.
Russian ambassador Vasily Nebenzya also blamed Israel, saying that “despite unambiguous reaction around the world” Israel has begun its plan to clear the Palestinian enclave by launching ground offensive. He noted that because of the US position to shield Israel at any cost, “the council has been paralyzed.”
Other members of the UN Security Council and the Israeli ambassador also addressed the emergency meeting. Palestinian ambassador Riyad Mansour claimed that “Gaza is now hell on earth” and underlined that “saving humanity from hell today means the UN to save Palestinians in Gaza.”
Palestinians look for survivors following Israeli airstrike in Nusseirat refugee camp, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023.
ISRAELI air strikes on a refugee camp near Gaza City killed dozens of people, levelled apartment buildings and left huge craters behind today as ground troops continued to push through the Strip.
At least six strikes flattened the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza; footage by news agency AFP following the explosion shows at least 47 bodies recovered from the rubble.
Dozens of people were searching for survivors at the time of writing.
The camp is the largest of Gaza’s eight refugee camps and contains 26 schools, a food distribution centre, two health centres, a library and seven water wells.
Several images by a Reuters photographer show dead or seriously injured children.
Palestinians try to rescue a girl stuck under the rubble of a destroyed building following Israeli airstrikes in Nusseirat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023.
APUBLIC health catastrophe is imminent in Gaza, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned today as supplies of water, food and fuel reach critical lows.
Hospitals are also running out of medicine and power.
WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier called for fuel to be allowed into Gaza to allow a water desalination plant to operate.
He said: “It’s an imminent public health catastrophe that looms with the mass displacement, the overcrowding, the damage to water and sanitation infrastructure.”
It came after the head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said that an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza has become “a matter of life and death for millions of people.”
UN relief agency commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini accused Israel of exacting “collective punishment” on Palestinians and forcibly displacing civilians.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer delivers a speech on the situation in the Middle East at Chatham House in central London. Picture date: Tuesday October 31, 2023.
Labour leader refuses to back ceasefire despite revolt
FLOUNDERING Sir Keir Starmer declared that war is peace today in an Orwellian speech trying to retrieve Labour’s position on the Gaza crisis.
Defying mounting opposition within the party, the Labour leader asserted that a ceasefire in Gaza would encourage further violence and that only a “humanitarian pause” could be considered.
But his pose for peace was further undermined by the suspension of MP Andy McDonald from the Labour whip in the Commons.
Mr McDonald’s offence was to have told a ceasefire rally at the weekend that “we won’t rest until we have justice, until all people, Israelis and Palestinians, between the river and the sea can live in peaceful liberty.”
A Labour spokesperson called the remarks “deeply offensive” but the Labour Muslim Network attacked the suspension as “obscene.”
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Palestine Solidarity Campaign called the idea of a pause “a wholly inadequate response” to the “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza, where over 8,000 have already died in the latest Israeli attack.
PSC director Ben Jamal said Sir Keir’s “words and actions render him complicit in Israel’s ongoing commission of war crimes.
“Those who believe in the primacy of international law and respect for all civilian life should condemn his remarks and demand a reversal of the Labour Party position.”
A Momentum spokesperson argued that “Keir Starmer hasn’t shifted one inch: his speech today still backs Israel’s war on Gaza and opposes the ceasefire demanded by everyone from the UN to Save the Children.
