Original article republished from MEMO under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Israeli security forces demolish buildings and mosque in the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran, where an evacuation and demolition order has been issued for the construction of Israeli settlements, in Negev Region, Israel on November 14, 2024 [Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu Agency]
Israeli occupation forces have demolished more than 1,500 Palestinian structures in the occupied West Bank since the start of the year, resulting in the displacement of over 3,600 Palestinians and affecting nearly 164,000 others, according to the United Nations.
Data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reveals that between 1 January and 29 November, Israeli forces destroyed 1,528 structures, including 700 inhabited homes, 118 uninhabited homes and 398 agricultural facilities.
The demolitions have primarily targeted vulnerable Palestinian communities, displacing 3,637 people and severely impacting 163,769 others. The most affected area was the Tulkarm Refugee Camp in the northern occupied West Bank where 171 structures were destroyed, followed by the Nur Shams Refugee Camp which witnessed 118 demolitions, Jenin Refugee Camp, Jericho and other parts of the West Bank.
The Israeli government justifies these demolitions by claiming the structures were built without permits, although obtaining such permits is nearly impossible for Palestinians under the occupation’s restrictive policies.
Israeli demolition policies have escalated recently in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem. They are intended to displace the Palestinians and expand illegal Jewish-only settlements amid the ongoing genocidal war against the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territories.
It comes despite a landmark opinion by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on 19 July, which declared Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land unlawful and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
People take part in a Palestine Solidarity Campaign rally in central London, November 30, 2024
‘We gather at the gravest of times’
AT LEAST 150,000 Palestine solidarity protesters took to the streets of central London on Saturday to repeat their call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and an end to arms sales to Israel.
This was the 22nd national protest organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), CND, the Stop the War Coalition, the Muslim Association of Britain, Friends of Al Aqsa and the Palestine Forum in Britain.
Israel invaded Gaza after Hamas staged an attack on October 7 2023, during which 1,139 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage.
Israel’s invasion has now killed over 44,000 people, more than half of them women and children, with aid groups warning that the death toll is likely to be far higher.
The war has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced around 90 per cent of the population of 2.3 million, often multiple times.
Opening the rally outside Downing Street, PSC chair Louise Regan reminded protesters that “we gather at the gravest of times,” as the death toll in Gaza continued to rise with women and children making up the majority of those killed.
“British complicity and its refusal to end all arms sales to the Israelis is a disgrace.”
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Ambassador Zomlot welcomed the International Criminal Court arrest warrants issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence chief Yoav Gallant.
“These war criminals must be arrested. Their place is behind bars. Arrest them!”
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support 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/O74hZCKKdpAUK Labour Party Shadow Foreign Secretary repeatedly heckled at a speech to the Fabian Society over his and the Labour Party’s support for and complicity in Israel’s genocide of Gaza.
Genocide denying UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspending 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.
Journalists around the world condemn the British foreign secretary for erasing the work and suffering of Palestinian journalists
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy has been blasted for saying “there are no journalists in Gaza” at a meeting in parliament on Wednesday.
Lammy was asked by fellow Labour MP Matthew Patrick at a House of Commons foreign affairs committee meeting about his assessment “of the nature of the conflict” in Gaza and “how that impinges on getting aid in”.
“As I said, there is now widespread looting,” Lammy said in his reply.
“There are no journalists in Gaza and there are no politicians such as me who are able to go to Gaza, so I am unable to verify who is behind the looting,” he added.
Journalists from around the world condemned the British foreign secretary for appearing to erase the work and suffering of Palestinian journalists – at least 127 of whom have been killed during the course of Israel’s war on Gaza, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
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Despite Lammy’s suggestion that the British government does not know who is looting aid because “there are no journalists” in Gaza, both reporters and the United Nations have established that gangs are looting aid with “protection” from Israel’s military.
There have even been numerous reports that Israel has actively armed gangs in Gaza. Israel has also blocked aid from reaching the besieged enclave throughout much of the war.
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UK Labour Party Shadow Foreign Secretary repeatedly heckled at a speech to the Fabian Society over his and the Labour Party’s support for and complicity in Israel’s genocide of Gaza.Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support 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
dizzy: Israel’s genocides should be regarded as a shared venture involving the United States, United Kingdom and Israel.
Displaced Palestinian children are pictured at a flooded makeshift camp in Nuseirat, Gaza on November 26, 2024. (Photo: Moiz Salhi/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“For many children, all they have is ruined bits of tent material swimming in swamp water in the camp they fled to for safety.”
Flooding induced by heavy rainstorms in recent days has compounded the humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, intensifying the already-high threat of disease as nearly two million displaced people struggle to survive Israel’s U.S.-backed assault.
Save the Children, a humanitarian group working on the ground in Gaza, said Friday that torrential rainfall has transformed makeshift camps into swamps, impacting roughly 235,000 children who have been forced from their homes by Israeli attacks and displacement orders.
A Save the Children nutrition consultant who works in Gaza’s flood-affected camps said that most of the tents “are uninhabitable” and wholly inadequate to withstand harsh winter weather. Makeshift tents that now run for miles along Gaza’s coast have been badly damaged or completely destroyed in recent days by rising seawater.
“The tents are made of cloth and similar materials, and the ground is dust and mud, so tents get flooded within five minutes of rain,” said the Save the Children consultant, identified as Mariam. “People’s situation is miserable. A dire situation in terms of health, mental health, and immunity.”
“A mother came in today and apologized for being late. Why? Because it was raining through the night and their tent was flooded,” said Mariam. “The family had to go outside, and she had to carry the children until the rain stopped. Then they swept the water out and went back inside. Some people had to flee because big ponds were formed due to rain. It’s a tragic situation.”
(Photo: Moiz Salhi/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Reuters reported earlier this week that downpours “inundated tents and in some places washed away the plastic and cloth shelters used by displaced Gazans.” The United Nations estimates that around 1.6 million people live in makeshift shelters across Gaza.
“Some placed water buckets on the ground to protect mats from leaks and dug trenches to drain water away from their tents,” according to Reuters. “Many tents used early in the war have now worn out and no longer offer protection, but the price of new tents and plastic sheeting has shot up beyond the means of displaced families.”
Aid workers have warned for months of the threat stagnant water poses to public health in Gaza, whose sanitation infrastructure has been decimated by Israel’s large-scale bombing campaign. One Oxfam campaigner recently described the bomb-ravaged enclave as “a nightmarish landscape of insect and disease-ridden swamps and poisoned wells.”
In a report issued in September, the U.N. Children’s Fund and other organizations noted that “flooding creates stagnant water pools which can become breeding sites for mosquitoes, increasing the risk of diseases such as West Nile Fever.”
Jeremy Stoner, regional director for Save the Children, said Friday that “children in Gaza are not only losing their lives, their limbs, and their loved ones—they are also fleeing their bombed-out homes for camps with conditions less and less fit for human life, as we see more and more restrictions on aid.”
“As this deadly war has shattered the lives and futures of children for over a year now, we have seen access to critical things like food, healthcare, and sanitation stripped away,” Stoner added. “Now for many children, all they have is ruined bits of tent material swimming in swamp water in the camp they fled to for safety.”
Gaza’s health ministry said Friday that the official death toll in the enclave has risen to 44,363 following a series of Israeli attacks across the territory over the past 24 hours.
Since Thursday morning, as Al Jazeera reported Friday, Israeli attacks in central Gaza have killed dozens of people.
“Israeli fighter jets have carried out an intense bombing campaign in the Nuseirat area over the past day, targeting residential buildings and homes, as well as mosques and other public facilities,” the outlet observed. “One Israeli attack on Thursday struck a home sheltering displaced Palestinians, resulting in nine members from one family being killed. Israeli fighter jets also bombed a house in the camp belonging to the Dahdouh family on Friday, killing at least five people.”
Al Jazeera‘s Hani Mahmoud said Friday that as Israeli tanks and armored vehicles withdrew from areas of central Gaza that they attacked in the preceding 24 hours, “many displaced people made their way back to Nuseirat refugee camp to check on family members still inside.”
“Many were shocked to find out that their family members were not able to leave due to quadcopters constantly shooting at them,” Mahmoud said. “Many people have been killed either inside their homes or as they were making their way out of their residential buildings into the streets, they said. They are literally collecting bodies right now from the streets.”
