[🇧🇩] Israel and Hamas war in Gaza-----Can Bangladesh be a peace broker?

[Saif]

The world must do more to stop Israel

Its unjust war on Gaza risks causing an all-out regional conflict

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The world must do more to stop Israel
Its unjust war on Gaza risks causing an all-out regional conflict

VISUAL: STAR

As we mark one year since the start of Israel's devastating war on Gaza, which erupted after the attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7, 2023, it is staggering to think of the massive humanitarian toll and suffering that have since ensued. Over the past 12 months, Gaza has endured relentless ground invasions and airstrikes that have flattened entire neighbourhoods, destroyed vital infrastructure, and driven millions of Gazans from their homes. Even as we write this, reports have emerged of yet another deadly air strikes on a mosque and school housing displaced Palestinians, taking the total death toll to 41,870 with more than 97,000 injured.

All this to achieve what end? Could any end whatsoever justify the use of means that have long passed into the realm of genocide? To this day, Israel stands by its narrative: that its mission in Gaza is to neutralise Hamas. It does not matter that no one is buying into this narrative anymore. Emboldened by the support of its Western allies, Israel is now using the same excuse to ravage Lebanon. This time, its so-called target is Hezbollah, the Iran-backed group that supported Hamas from the beginning. In the end, however, it is the innocent civilians who are having to pay for this, often with their lives. The fast-escalating conflict has now drawn in Syria and Iran through proxy forces, with the latter launching more than 180 missiles towards Israel last week.

At this rate, fears of an all-out regional conflict in the Middle East look increasingly likely. Many have even begun to wonder if World War III is on the horizon, with the US presidential candidate Donald Trump also joining the bandwagon recently, despite himself being a supporter/enabler of Israel's war efforts. This, in other words, only underscores the duplicity of the US and other Western countries. Had they not blindly supported Israel, both militarily and diplomatically, throughout the past year, the Israeli government would not have been so emboldened to act with impunity and cause so much tragedy and destruction. As a BBC expert recently said, there are no "off-ramps" or deterrents convincing enough for Israel "unless the US and other major Western governments make it their business to change the direction of events on the ground."

That being the case, and with Israel showing no signs of heeding the countless warnings by the United Nations or the International Court of Justice, the onus really lies on Israel's Western allies to stop its forever war. They have delayed action for too long. They have consistently ignored calls for halting deliveries of arms feeding Israel's forces of death. That has to stop. One year on from the beginning of Israel's military campaign, they must do something decisive to force it to accept ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon before more territories are pulled into this meaningless conflict, and before it results in more unnecessary casualties.​

 

[Saif]

Erdogan says Israel will pay price for ‘genocide’

Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday vowed that Israel would pay a price for the ‘genocide’ in Gaza as he marked the first anniversary of the war in response to the...

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Erdogan says Israel will pay price for ‘genocide’
Agence France-Presse . Istanbul 07 October, 2024, 21:58

Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday vowed that Israel would pay a price for the ‘genocide’ in Gaza as he marked the first anniversary of the war in response to the October 7 attack by Hamas.

‘It should not be forgotten that Israel will sooner or later pay the price for this genocide that it has been carrying out for a year and is still continuing,’ he said on X, formerly Twitter.

A vocal advocate of the Palestinian cause, including Hamas, Erdogan has often attacked Israel, branding prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu the ‘butcher of Gaza’ and comparing him to Nazi Germany’s Adolf Hitler.

‘Just as Hitler was stopped by an alliance of humanity, Netanyahu and his murder network will be stopped in the same way,’ Erdogan said.

‘A world in which no account is held for the Gaza genocide will never find peace.’

The Turkish leader, who often lauded Hamas as freedom fighters, said what has been massacred before the eyes of the entire world for exactly one year ‘is actually all of humanity, and all of humanity’s hopes for the future’.

Erdogan also criticised the international system’s failure to stop the conflict in Gaza and now in Lebanon and said: ‘Israel’s long-standing policy of genocide, occupation and invasion must now come to an end.’​

 

[Saif]

Israeli tanks push deeper into Gaza

Israel sent tanks deeper into Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip yesterday and advised people to leave as it pounded the historic Palestinian refugee camp from the air, residents said.

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Israeli tanks push deeper into Gaza
17 more Palestinians killed in 24 hours

Israel sent tanks deeper into Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip yesterday and advised people to leave as it pounded the historic Palestinian refugee camp from the air, residents said.

Palestinian medics said casualties had been reported in Jabalia but that they were unable to reach areas under fire.

"Jabalia is being wiped out," was repeated in many messages posted on social media by residents of Gaza.

Palestinian health officials did not immediately provide new casualty figures but said 17 civilians had been killed in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours. Israel's military said one soldier had been killed in combat in northern Gaza.

The Israeli army issued new evacuation orders to residents of Jabalia and nearby Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya, telling them to head to a humanitarian-designated zone in Al-Mawasi in southern Gaza Strip.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli strike in Gaza refugee camp kills 17

Gaza’s civil defence agency on Tuesday said an Israeli strike killed at least 17 people at a refugee camp in the centre of the territory, as Israel’s military targets Hamas positions.

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Israeli strike in Gaza refugee camp kills 17
Agence France-Presse . Jerusalem 08 October, 2024, 22:35

AFP file photo

Gaza’s civil defence agency on Tuesday said an Israeli strike killed at least 17 people at a refugee camp in the centre of the territory, as Israel’s military targets Hamas positions.

‘The civil defence teams recovered 17 martyrs, including children, and several others who were wounded from the three-story home of the Abdul Hadi family, which was bombed by a missile from an (Israeli) warplane in Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza,’ agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said in a statement.

Bassal said the bodies of those killed and the wounded were taken to Al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat camp and to Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in the city of Deir el-Balah.

Medics at Al-Awda confirmed the toll.

Bassal earlier said that several air strikes rocked central and northern Gaza since the early hours of Tuesday.

Witnesses and rescuers also said Israeli military operations continued in Jabaliya, where troops launched a ground assault in recent days.

Over the past day, Israeli forces killed ‘approximately 20 terrorists’ in air strikes in Jabaliya, the military said in a statement, adding troops also dismantled a weapons storage facility in the area.

On Sunday, the military said troops had encircled Jabaliya in response to indications Hamas was regrouping there despite a year of strikes and fierce fighting.

In recent months, troops have returned to several areas across the Palestinian territory where they had previously conducted operations against Hamas, only to find militants rebuilding.

Many residents of Jabaliya fled from their homes or tents as Israeli warplanes bombarded the area.

Iman Abu Najm, 33, left her home as the latest Israeli attack began in Jabaliya. ‘The shelling was relentless, children were screaming, people were panicking in the streets, and gunfire was targeting houses and people,’ she told AFP, describing the chaos that unfolded during the air strikes.

She said many people were ‘trapped in their homes, unable to leave as intense gunfire continued’.

In a separate statement, the military announced it had killed three Hamas militants who had participated in the October 7 attack.

They were killed in an air strike on September 30 that struck a school in Daraj Tuffah area.​

 

[Saif]

বাংলাদেশের মিলিটারি একাডেমিতে কমিশন হলো ৭ ফিলিস্তিনি তরুণের (Seven Palestinians got commission from Bangladesh Military Academy)

 

[Saif]

Nothing new on the Middle Eastern front

The tragedy is that Israel, which resulted from Europe’s guilt over the Holocaust, is becoming a symbol of European oppression and colonisation.

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One year of Israel’s genocide in Gaza
Nothing new on the Middle Eastern front

Israeli soldiers stand by a truck packed with shirtless Palestinian detainees in the Gaza Strip on December 8, 2023. PHOTO: REUTERS

A twist on the title of Erich Maria Remarque's famous 1929 novel about everyday life in the trenches of World War I seems fitting for the first anniversary of Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel. While the media covers each new and surprising development—the killing of Hamas's leader, Ismail Haniyeh, and Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah; Israel's invasion of southern Lebanon; Iran's ballistic-missile attack on Israel—the fact is that things are becoming what they always were. Potentialities that were present from the beginning are being realised.

From a broader historical and philosophical perspective, Israel's critics miss the point when they claim that it is failing in its mission to destroy Hamas, and is merely killing Palestinians and razing Gaza. Recall Israel's strategy before October 7. For years, it ensured that foreign financing reached Hamas in order to keep the Palestinians divided, thus preventing any progress toward a two-state solution.

Of course, Israel is acting in self-defence in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon. But much depends on how one defines "self." If Russia occupies part of Ukraine and proclaims it part of Russia, can it then claim self-defence when it crushes those who resist? When Germany invaded Belgium at the start of World War I, a Belgian minister supposedly observed that, "Whatever historians will say later about this war, nobody will able to say that Belgium attacked Germany." Yet since Russia's invasion, respect for settled facts no longer holds. The Kremlin and its allies have become increasingly effective at claiming that Ukraine started the conflict.

Israel's rhetoric is not dissimilar. When the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) launched its "limited ground operation" in Lebanon on October 1, one was reminded of Russia's euphemistic description of its invasion as a "special military operation." In both cases, we can paraphrase Groucho Marx: it may look like war, and it may hurt like war; but don't let that fool you. This really is war.

Again, things are becoming what they always were. In late July, a coterie of Israeli ministers, MPs, journalists, and TV commentators decried an IDF military police raid on the Sde Teiman base in southern Israel, following reports of Israeli reservists abusing Palestinian detainees. The raid and arrests triggered large public protests, even though it was other Israeli reservists who had blown the whistle. Horrified by what they had witnessed, they heroically came forward with allegations that security personnel on the base were torturing Palestinian prisoners by sodomising them with metal rods. Some of the prisoners then bled to death.

Yet rather than being outraged by such atrocities, some Israeli officials were outraged at those prosecuting the case. Consider the following transcript from a debate in the Knesset (parliament), aired by the British journalist Peter Oborne:

Unidentified Israeli MP: "This is insanity, someone in the prosecutor's office thinks it's possible to arrest soldiers for things they do to Nukhba (Hamas Elite Unit) terrorists. We can't continue as usual…"

[Interjection]: "To insert a stick in a person's rectum, is this legitimate?"

MP: "Shut up! Yes, if he is Nukhba, everything is legitimate to do. Everything."

Or consider this clip from a panel discussion on Israeli TV (also shared by Oborne):

First panellist: "Soldiers are suspected of raping a shackled prisoner—this doesn't concern you?"

Second panellist: "I don't give a rat's ass what they do to that Hamas man. The only problem I see is that it's not state policy to abuse detainees. First, they deserve it and it's a great form of revenge. Second, maybe it will act as a deterrent."

Imagine our reaction if all this had happened in Russia. Crazy as it may sound, the best way to account for our moral predicament may be to entertain a conspiracy theory. Almost a year ago, I imagined a phone call between Israeli and Hamas hardliners:

Israeli hardliner: "Hi, do you remember how we discreetly supported you against the Palestine Liberation Organization? Now you owe us a favour: why don't you attack and slaughter some Jews close to Gaza? They're friends to Arabs, peaceniks, so we don't need them. What we need is something to end the civil protests against us, and to distract from the slow ethnic cleansing of the West Bank. The world will be shocked at your brutality, and we will be able to play the victim, achieve national unity, and accelerate ethnic cleansing in the West Bank!"

Hamas hardliner: "Okay, but we need a favour: to avenge our slaughter, you must bomb civilians in Gaza, killing thousands, especially children. That will foment anti-Semitism around the world, which is our true goal!"

Israeli hardliner: "No problem, we also need a resurgence of anti-Semitism, which allows us to keep playing the role of the victim and do whatever we want in self-defence!"

This imaginary scenario is obscene, of course. But recall Robert Harris's novel The Ghost (later a film by Roman Polanski). A ghostwriter for Adam Lang, a former UK prime minister modelled on Tony Blair, discovers that his client has been planted in the Labour Party and manipulated by the CIA all along. Commenting on the book's "shock-horror revelation," a critic for The Observer wrote that it was "so shocking it simply can't be true, though if it were it would certainly explain pretty much everything about the recent history of Great Britain."

Like Harris's invention, my own abhorrent scenario teases out the logic of today's perverse tango: It isn't true, but if it was, it would explain everything. My imaginary phone call is not part of reality, but it is real. Since victims are in principle permitted to strike back, the war gives Israel a chance to pursue ethnic cleansing in Greater Israel. According to Israel's far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, the "voluntary migration" of Palestinians in Gaza is the "right humanitarian solution" for the besieged enclave and for the region.

The parallel between Ukraine and Palestine has grown stronger as some key distinctions have become blurred. The pro-Israel West (especially the United States) now frames its support for Ukraine and its support for Israel as two initiatives in the same global war, as if Israel is no different from Ukraine. Meanwhile, on the pseudo-left, many claim that the initial attacks by Russia and Hamas were both justified defensive measures in response to historical provocations and oppression, as if Donetsk is the Russian West Bank.

In the new world order that is emerging, the Gaza war is a nodal point that condenses all the defining antagonisms of the modern era. It is where everything will be decided. "Palestine" today is a universal symbol—a stand-in for all European sins and a font of anti-Semitism.

The tragedy is that Israel, which resulted from Europe's guilt over the Holocaust, is becoming a symbol of European oppression and colonisation. Europeans gave the survivors of that genocide land that other people had inhabited for centuries. It is that original sin which, unexpiated, is once again preventing peace and quiet on the Middle Eastern front.

Slavoj Žižek, professor of philosophy at the European Graduate School, is international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London and the author, most recently, of Christian Atheism: How to Be a Real Materialist.​

 

[Saif]

400,000 trapped in northern Gaza

An Israeli military operation in northern Gaza is leaving at least 400,000 Palestinians trapped in the area, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said yesterday.

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400,000 trapped in northern Gaza
Warns head of UNRWA as Israel carries out new strikes; 60 Palestinians killed in 24 hrs

An Israeli military operation in northern Gaza is leaving at least 400,000 Palestinians trapped in the area, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said yesterday.

"Recent evacuation orders from the Israeli Authorities are forcing people to flee again & again, especially from Jabalia Camp. Many are refusing because they know too well that no place anywhere in #Gaza is safe," Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, posted on X.

Lazzarini said some UNRWA shelters and services were being forced to shut down for the first time since the offensive began and that with almost no basic supplies available, hunger was spreading again in northern Gaza.

"This recent military operation also threatens the implementation of the second phase of the #polio vaccination campaign for children," he said.

At least 60 people were killed in Israeli military strikes in the past 24 hours, Palestinian medics said yesterday, as Israeli forces pressed on with a raid on the Jabalia refugee camp in the enclave's north.

The Israeli military says the raid, now in its fifth day, is intended to stop Hamas fighters staging further attacks from Jabalia and to prevent them regrouping.​

 

[Saif]

Israel ramps up Gaza shelling, blocks aid routes

The Israeli army intensified shelling of northern Gaza and closed roads, preventing the delivery of aid, the war-torn Palestinian territory’s civil defence agency said Wednesday.

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Israel ramps up Gaza shelling, blocks aid routes
Agence France-Presse . Jerusalem 10 October, 2024, 00:08

A man carries a child while evacuating in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday amid the on-going war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. | AFP photo

The Israeli army intensified shelling of northern Gaza and closed roads, preventing the delivery of aid, the war-torn Palestinian territory’s civil defence agency said Wednesday.

The army, which said it surrounded Jabalia in northern Gaza at the weekend, issued new evacuation demands on Tuesday, as analysts suggested Hamas was regrouping, despite a year of strikes and fierce fighting.

‘The shelling is intensifying, targeting civilians and their homes, causing significant fear and terror among the residents,’ said Ahmad al-Kahlut, the agency’s director in north Gaza.

The director said the Israeli army also was targeting the northern towns of Beit Lahia and Beit Hanun along with Jabalia.

‘Roads have been closed, and there has been a continuous siege for the fourth consecutive day, with no supplies entering the North Gaza Governorate,’ Kahlut said.

According to the director, ‘a large number’ of people died in northern Gaza during the fighting.

But he said counting the casualties had been complicated by the ‘difficulty of recovery and access to all areas’.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said its teams had transported three dead and 15 injured from the al-Rafai school in Jabalia, where displaced Gazans had sought shelter.

The civil defence’s Kahlut said his agency had been receiving calls for help from various parts of northern Gaza, but staff had been unable to enter these areas for security reasons.

‘So far, Kamal Adwan Hospital is still operational and is dealing with the injuries that the teams can recover,’ he said, referring to a hospital in Beit Lahia.

Hisham Abu Aoun, head of the intensive care unit for the Friends of the Patient Hospital, said at least six children were evacuated to his hospital in Gaza City.

Amal Nasr, a resident of Jabalia, said her daughter Dana and husband Rami were both injured by gunfire while fleeing the area.

‘My daughter Dana was shot in the neck, and my husband was shot in his leg by the occupation forces’, she said, adding her daughter was taken to a Gaza City hospital and was now in stable condition.

‘I was injured while we were leaving our house. I was shot in the neck and started to bleed’, Dana Nasr said from the Al-Ahli Hospital.

‘There were many injured people in the streets of Jabalia,’ she added.

Gaza’s hospitals are struggling with limited supplies.

The health ministry appealed Tuesday for international help, warning fuel shortages could force hospitals to close.

The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said ‘intensified military operations’ in northern Gaza forced it to halt services.

This included the evacuation of seven UNRWA schools used as shelters by displaced Gazans.

The Israeli army on Wednesday said operations were on-going ‘throughout Gaza’.

It said Israeli troops had ‘eliminated’ 20 Palestinian combatants in the Jabalia area and had dismantled a weapons storage facility a day earlier.

The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures, which include hostages killed in captivity.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed 42,010 people in Gaza, most them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the United Nations has described as reliable.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli strike on Gaza school kills 28

Rescuers in Gaza said Israel conducted a deadly air strike Thursday on a school housing families displaced by the war, though the Israeli military said it was a Hamas command centre.

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Israeli strike on Gaza school kills 28
Agence France-Presse . Jerusalem 11 October, 2024, 00:25

Palestinians react outside the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital after an Israeli strike hit a school housing displaced people in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, on Thursday, amid the on-going war between Israel and Hamas. | AFP photo

Rescuers in Gaza said Israel conducted a deadly air strike Thursday on a school housing families displaced by the war, though the Israeli military said it was a Hamas command centre.

While Israel has widened its military operations to Lebanon since last month, pounding Hezbollah strongholds around the country and battling militants near the border, it has also escalated in recent days its strikes on Gaza.

The strike on Rafida School in central Gaza, which according to the Palestinian Red Crescent killed 28 people and wounded 54 others, follows the widening of Israeli operations in the north of the territory.

The Israeli army said the strike targeted Palestinian militants operating from a command and control centre ‘embedded inside a compound that previously served as the (Rafida) School’.

Israel accuses Hamas of hiding in school buildings and other civilian infrastructure where thousands of Gazans have sought shelter — a charge the Palestinian militants deny.

The Gaza war began on October 7 last year, when Hamas militants stormed across the border and carried out the worst attack in Israeli history.

The militants took 251 people hostage in an attack that resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

According to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, 42,065 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, a majority civilians, figures the UN has described as reliable.

While Israel received international support in its bid to crush Hamas and bring the hostages home, it has faced criticism over its conduct of the war.

Speaking to reporters about the humanitarian situation in northern Gaza, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Washington was ‘incredibly concerned’ as Israel tightens its siege.

‘We have been making clear to the government of Israel that they have an obligation under international humanitarian law to allow food and water and other needed humanitarian assistance to make it into all parts of Gaza,’ he said.

Israel expanded a military operation around Jabalia in northern Gaza, where about 400,000 people are trapped, according to Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

Lazzarini said on X there was ‘no end to hell’ in the area and that ‘recent evacuation orders from the Israeli authorities are forcing people to flee again & again’.

The army surrounded Jabalia and its refugee camp at the weekend and shelled it on Wednesday, preventing the delivery of aid, Gaza’s civil defence agency said.

The United States has also urged Israel to avoid Gaza-like military action in Lebanon, after prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it could face ‘destruction’ like the Palestinian territory.

The comments came after a phone call between Netanyahu and US president Joe Biden, their first in seven weeks.

The White House said Biden told Netanyahu to ‘minimise harm’ to civilians in Lebanon, particularly in ‘densely populated areas of Beirut’.

‘There should be no kind of military action in Lebanon that looks anything like Gaza and leaves a result anything like Gaza,’ Miller said.

Israel has since September 23 pounded Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon in a campaign that, according to an AFP tally of health ministry figures, has killed more than 1,200 people and displaced more than a million others.

On Thursday, the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon accused Israel of firing on an observation tower at its headquarters and wounding two of its members.

The Israel-Hezbollah war was sparked by Hezbollah’s cross-border fire in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas, following the October 7 attack.

The Hezbollah attacks forced tens of thousands of Israelis to flee their homes over the past year, and Netanyahu has promised to fight until they can return.

On Tuesday, he said in a video address to the people of Lebanon: ‘You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza.’

‘Free your country from Hezbollah so that this war can end.’

In Beirut, many people are sleeping out in the streets after Israeli air strikes.

Ahmad, a 77-year-old who did not want to give his family name for fear of reprisals, said he had a message for Hezbollah.

‘If you can’t continue to fight, announce you are withdrawing and that you have lost. There is no shame in losing,’ he said.

But Raed Ayyash, a displaced man from the south of the country, said he hoped Hezbollah would keep fighting.

‘We hope for victory, and we will never give up.’

Biden and Netanyahu’s call had been expected to focus on Israel’s response to last week’s missile barrage by Iran, which backs both Hezbollah and Hamas.

Iran fired about 200 missiles at Israel in what it said was retaliation for the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. Most were intercepted by Israel or its allies.

Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant said: ‘Our attack on Iran will be deadly, precise and surprising. They will not understand what happened and how it happened.’

Biden has cautioned Israel against attempting to target Iran’s nuclear facilities, which would risk major retaliation, and opposes striking oil installations.

With Hezbollah militants locked in clashes with Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, the group said it destroyed an Israeli tank advancing on the border on Thursday.

A day earlier, two people were killed by suspected Hezbollah rocket fire in the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona, while Israel intercepted two projectiles fired towards the coastal town of Caesarea, officials said.

Lebanon’s health ministry said at least four people were killed in an Israeli strike on a village southeast of Beirut, an area so far largely spared from Israeli bombing.​

 

[Saif]

Costs of enabling Israel’s Gaza war

THE US government often claims to stand for the rule of law, but this past year has made it painfully clear that this does not apply to Palestinians. The moral, financial, and security costs of US support for Israel’s rapidly expanding wars are adding up for Americans, too...

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Costs of enabling Israel’s Gaza war
Farrah Hassen 11 October, 2024, 00:00

THE US government often claims to stand for the rule of law, but this past year has made it painfully clear that this does not apply to Palestinians. The moral, financial, and security costs of US support for Israel’s rapidly expanding wars are adding up for Americans, too.

Since October 7, 2023, around 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, plus over 700 more in the West Bank. Over 1,100 Israelis have been killed, too. These tragedies are a direct consequence of Israel’s illegal, US-backed occupation of Palestinian territory and its war on Gaza, which must both end immediately.

From the mass killing and maiming of Palestinian civilians to the forced starvation and deliberate destruction of Gaza’s health infrastructure, Palestinians and international experts have warned from the start that Israel is committing a ‘textbook case of genocide’ in Gaza.

Despite the International Court of Justice finding genocide ‘plausible’ and calling on Israel to prevent it and ensure the delivery of lifesaving aid, Israel — like the US — has ignored all of the court’s orders.

The US has enabled this ongoing genocide and other crimes by providing unconditional support for Israel despite mounting atrocities. This has emboldened Israel to expand its assault to Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen as it threatens to drag the US into a wider war with Iran.

None of this is inevitable.

As Israel’s chief supplier of arms, the US has sent billions worth of high-powered explosives since October 7, which have turned up at massacre after massacre committed by Israel’s military. That’s a violation of our own laws barring assistance to forces that commit human rights abuses or block delivery of humanitarian aid, as Israel has done.

‘Our democracy is at stake’ has been an ongoing refrain this election season. But it’s also a threat to our democracy when elected officials ignore the vast majority of their constituents who have rightly demanded a permanent ceasefire and arms embargo on Israel. Instead of listening to voters, our leaders have backed violent crackdowns on protests, which threatens our First Amendment rights.

The costs of war always reverberate at home. Our policymakers have expressed support for the war using racist, dehumanizing rhetoric, which has directly contributed to rising anti-Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim hate crimes, harassment, and discrimination.

And even though most Americans oppose Israel’s war on Gaza, we’re still paying for it.

Brown University’s Costs of War Project estimates that over the past year, the US has spent at least $22.76 billion and counting on Israel’s onslaught in Gaza and other US military operations in the surrounding region. In August, the Biden administration approved an additional $20 billion in arms sales to Israel.

All this comes on top of the $3.8 billion the US already sends Israel in military aid each year. That same $3.8 billion a year could fund 29,915 registered nurses, 394,738 public housing units, or 39,158 elementary school teachers, according to the National Priorities Project.

As our post-Covid safety net continues to crumble, more people are left unable to afford housing, health care, groceries, education, and other basic necessities. Compounding these challenges, more states are battling climate disasters. We desperately need those funds at home, not funding wars and lawlessness abroad.

Nevertheless, many of our elected officials would rather support the military-industrial complex than their own constituents. In a particularly flagrant example, Republican senator Lindsey Graham recently appeared on Fox News to plead for more US weapons for Israel in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which had ravaged his home state of South Carolina.

More than statistics, law, and politics, our nation’s role in the Palestinian genocide should shake our conscience and cause us to question its morality. Are human rights and justice good for some but not others? And can we recognize our complicity in this genocide and not take action to end it?

However one answers these questions, our shared humanity hangs in the balance.

CounterPunch.org, October 10. Farrah Hassen, JD, is a writer, policy analyst, and adjunct professor political science at Cal Poly Pomona.​

 

[Saif]

Gaza shame of humanity, calls for permanent ceasefire: Erdogan

Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan renewed his attacks on Israel as he arrived in Tirana Thursday, the first stop of a Balkans tour that will also take him to Serbia.

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Gaza shame of humanity, calls for permanent ceasefire: Erdogan
Agence France-Presse . Tirana, Albania 11 October, 2024, 22:02

Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan renewed his attacks on Israel as he arrived in Tirana Thursday, the first stop of a Balkans tour that will also take him to Serbia.

Repeating his claim that Israel’s actions in Gaza constituted ‘genocide’, he branded it the ‘shame of humanity’, at a joint press conference with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.

‘The international community, we must do our best to urgently guarantee a permanent ceasefire and exert the necessary pressure on Israel,’ he added.

‘The genocide that has been going on in Gaza for the past year is the common shame of all humanity,’ he added.

The Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

According to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, 42,065 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, mostly civilians. The UN has said the figures are reliable.

Erdogan has branded Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu the ‘butcher of Gaza’ and compared him to Nazi Germany’s Adolf Hitler.

‘The aggression led by the Netanyahu government now threatens the world order beyond the region,’ Erdogan said.

Later Thursday Erdogan, accompanied by Prime Minister Edi Rama, inaugurated the Great Mosque of Tirana.

The largest Muslim place of worship in the Balkans, it has a capacity of up to 10,000 people. The project, funded by Turkey, cost 30 million euros.

Turkey is also a major employer in Albania. As Erdogan said in February, over 600 Turkish companies operate in the country, providing jobs to more than 15,000 workers.

It is also one of the five biggest foreign investors in Albania, he said, with $3.5 billion (3.2 billion euros) committed.

The two NATO member countries also have close military ties, with Turkey supplying Tirana with its Bayraktar TB2 drones.

For the second stage of his tour Erdogan travelled from Albania to Serbia, where he was greeted at Belgrade airport by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

Turkey made a diplomatic comeback here in 2017 when Erdogan made a landmark visit to Belgrade.

The five century Ottoman presence in Serbia has traditionally weighed heavily on Belgrade-Ankara relations.

Another source of tension has been Turkey’s historic ties with Serbia’s former breakaway province of Kosovo. Kosovo declared independence in 2008, a move Belgrade still refuses to recognise.

Erdogan’s 2017 visit repaired the relationship with Serbia, Belgrade analyst Vuk Vuksanovic said.

But Belgrade was furious last year when Turkey sold drones to Kosovo, something Serbia said was ‘unacceptable’.

The row could however still be patched up, Vuksanovic insisted.

‘I would not be surprised if we see a military deal at the end of this visit,’ he said.

He expected talks in Belgrade on Friday to focus on ‘military cooperation, the position of Turkish companies — and attempts by Belgrade to persuade Ankara to tone down support for Kosovo’.

While the rapprochement is relatively new, economic ties between the two countries are already significant.

Turkish investment in Serbia has rocketed from $1 million to $400 million over the past decade, the Turkey-Serbia business council told Turkey’s Anadolu news agency.

Turkish exports to Serbia hit $2.13 billion in 2022, up from $1.14 billion in 2020, according to official Serbian figures.

Turkish tourists are also important for Serbia, second only to visitor numbers from Bosnia.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli strikes on Jabalia refugee camps kill 19

Israeli military strikes on Gaza overnight killed at least 19 Palestinians, medics said yesterday, while forces continued to push deeper into the Jabalia area, where international relief agencies say thousands of people are trapped.

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Israeli strikes on Jabalia refugee camps kill 19
Say medics as tanks push deeper into the north; Palestinian health officials report around 150 killed in Jabalia over past week officials report around 150 killed in Jabalia over past week.

Displaced Palestinians make their way as they flee areas in the northern Gaza Strip, following an Israeli evacuation order in Gaza City yesterday. Photo: REUTERS

Israeli military strikes on Gaza overnight killed at least 19 Palestinians, medics said yesterday, while forces continued to push deeper into the Jabalia area, where international relief agencies say thousands of people are trapped.

Residents said Israeli forces continued to pound Jabalia, which is in the north of the enclave and is the largest of the enclave's historic refugee camps, from the air and ground.

The Israeli military published new evacuation orders yesterday to two neighbourhoods on the northern edge of Gaza City, which also lies in the north of the enclave, saying the area was a "dangerous combat zone".

In a statement, Gaza's Hamas-run interior ministry urged residents not to relocate within northern areas of the enclave and also to avoid heading south "where the occupation is conducting continued bombing and killing every day in the areas it claims to be safe".

There has been no fresh Israeli comment on deaths but the military said in past days that forces operating in Jabalia and nearby areas killed dozens of militants, located weapons and dismantled military infrastructure.

The operation in this area began a week ago and the military said then it aimed to fight against militants waging attacks and to prevent Hamas from regrouping.

Palestinian health officials put the number of people killed in Jabalia over the past week at around 150.

On Friday, Israeli strikes hit four houses in Jabalia, killing around 20 people and wounding dozens, medics said. The Israeli military has sent troops into the nearby towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya as well as Jabalia and ordered residents to evacuate their homes and head to safe areas south of the enclave.

Palestinian and United Nations officials say there are no safe areas in Gaza. They have also voiced concerns over severe shortages of food, fuel, and medical supplies in northern Gaza, and said there is a risk of famine there.

Israeli offensive in Gaza, aimed at eliminating Hamas fighters, has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians since it began a year ago, according to Gaza's health ministry, and has laid waste to the enclave.

The war began after a Hamas-led assault on Oct 7, 2023, on southern Israeli communities in which 1,200 people were killed and about 250 were taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

In a statement yesterday, Hamas said Israel's "massacre against the civilians" aimed to punish the residents of Jabalia for refusing to leave their homes. It also said it was a sign of Israel's military failure to defeat the group.

Israel has denied it targets civilians.

The armed wings of Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, and smaller other factions said their fighters attacked Israeli forces in Jabalia and nearby areas with anti-tank rockets, and mortar fire.

POLIO VACCINATIONS

United Nations officials said on Friday an Israeli offensive and evacuation orders in northern Gaza might affect the second phase of its polio vaccination campaign set to start next week.

The territory's health ministry announced yesterday that the campaign would begin on Monday in central Gaza Strip areas and would last three days before moving to other territories.

Aid groups carried out an initial round of vaccinations last month after a baby was partially paralysed by the type 2 poliovirus in August, the first such case in the territory in 25 years.

As in the first phase, humanitarian pauses in the fighting in Gaza are planned, in order to reach hundreds of thousands of children.​

 

[Saif]

Turkey urges ‘sanctions’ against Israel over Gaza conflict

Turkey’s foreign minister on Tuesday called for sanctions against Israel, urging the international community to cut support over the conflict in the Middle East.

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Turkey urges ‘sanctions’ against Israel over Gaza conflict
Agence France-Presse . Ankara 15 October, 2024, 22:02

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkey’s foreign minister on Tuesday called for sanctions against Israel, urging the international community to cut support over the conflict in the Middle East.

‘We have reached the limit of words, diplomacy and international politics. We must start with sanctions,’ foreign minister Hakan Fidan told ruling party delegates at a meeting about the future of Palestine.

Turkey has long been a fierce critic of Israel’s now year-long military campaign in Gaza and its recent deadly push into Lebanon, accusing the United Nations of failing to sanction Israel over the conflicts.

Fidan said Israel had not so far responded to calls to halt the Gaza war, meaning ‘the international community must now resort to legal action. Israel needs to be boycotted,’ he said.

Israel was ‘not paying any price economically, politically, or militarily’ for its actions in Gaza, and the only way that would change was if the world ‘cut off support’.

‘If we cannot, Israel will continue the genocide and massacre in Gaza,’ he said.

Last week, president Recep Tayyip Erdogan again described the Gaza bloodshed as ‘genocide’, saying that the 12 months of conflict was ‘the common shame of all humanity’.

The Gaza war began with Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 that resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

According to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, more than 42,300 people have been killed in Gaza since then, mostly civilians. The UN has said the figures are reliable.

Erdogan has branded Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the ‘butcher of Gaza’ and compared him to Nazi Germany’s Adolf Hitler.​

 

[Saif]

‘One state solution is the only long-term solution’

What we're witnessing now in the Middle East is a zero-sum game.

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‘One state solution is the only long-term solution’

People inspect the site of an Israeli air strike, amid ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Beirut, Lebanon on October 11, 2024. PHOTO: REUTERS

As Israel's expansion of the conflict in Gaza to Lebanon creates havoc in the Middle East, Dr Bashir Saade, Lecturer of Politics and Religion at University of Stirling and author of ''Hizbullah and the Politics of Remembrance,' speaks to Ramisa Rob of The Daily Star in an exclusive interview about what lies ahead and the solution to the geopolitical wildfire in the region.

How would you analyse the escalation of the conflict so far?

This war between Israel and Hezbollah so to speak is largely an information war, similar to 2006 but what has changed now is that Israel has really upped its game in that regard. However, since the 1990s Israel has not been "militarily" able to grab any territories. The last time this happened was in 1982 in Lebanon, and before that, 1967, in Palestine, all of which led to the creation of this axis of resistance such as Hezbollah and Hamas. The killing of Hezbollah General Secretary Hassan Nasrallah was of course related to the pager attacks earlier which created a shock in the system of the organisation. It's definitely all connected and it's definitely a big escalation, but not in the sense of an all-out war yet. Rather, it's the surprise events that have occurred as we were not expecting that Israelis would go that far to kill Nasrallah because that decision to kill such a leader is a large political decision where there must be a greenlight from the powers that be, and a concerted effort to kill such a leader. The political implications of Israel's actions by killing the head of the organisations they're in combat with is essentially shooting down the possibilities of negotiation talks and ceasefires. So Israel has declared their aim to eliminate Hezbollah, the way they did to eliminate Hamas but they largely destroyed infrastructure and killed civilians. What emboldened Israel is the information edge it has and the possibility of killing leaders and getting to Hezbollah through the pager attacks. This emboldened stance had led Israel to move forward with ground invasion. But this is difficult to achieve so that's why Israel tries to win by spreading terror, destroying infrastructure—not just ones where weapons are located—and killing civilians so as to provoke a change in confidence in Lebanon towards Hezbollah and pressure the group to surrender.

I also think Israel is doing what they're doing because Hezbollah and Iran act in a measured and restrained manner and escalate gradually, and in a way they deem appropriate by calculating their military objectives. There's something quite dark about this though: Israel can go to lengths disregarding international law and killing civilians and be immune from accountability in the international stage whereas the resistance has to go to many lengths to ensure they don't kill civilians—not that they want to—or commit any massacres similar to Israel. I didn't think Israel would be so audacious in doing what they did, and in the pace that they've set off, but that being said, I still think on the military ground level not much has changed. Hezbollah is shooting way more targeted rockets, and Israelis are not being able to do much about securing the northern front. The point I am trying to make is that despite what Israel has done much of how Hezbollah is functioning at the military ground level has not drastically changed. Israel is losing soldiers so they're trying to pressurise in different ways like striking civilian areas to force Hezbollah to budge and give up.

Can you unpack the strategies and the games underlying the tit-for-tat exchanges between Iran, its proxies and Israel and the US?

So for Iran, I do think the strikes have been effective as they have been able to show they can destroy important military structures in Israel and their main goal to the opponent, especially the US, is to send a message: Israel should not make it bigger than it is. In terms of their own strategy, since the current regime is fortified by the US from all directions, they do everything to not be attacked. On the other hand, the sole goal of Hezbollah, a guerilla organisation—which is obviously a lot weaker than Israel—is to disrupt Israel's security and make Israel accept a ceasefire in Gaza. Israel is playing a completely different game though. They killed Haniyeh, who was the negotiator for Hamas, and Nasrallah, a moderate and pragmatic person for the resistance, which means Israel is aiming to eliminate the resistance completely because they're not willing to negotiate at all. The Palestinian cause and sovereignty of Lebanon for example does not exist to Israel. If there is a Palestinian cause, Israel wants to decide how it's going to be. The sovereignty of Lebanon, for Israel, is something they can decide the terms of. So for example if Israel takes down Hezbollah—which they can't but let's just hypothetically say they do—then they will take over the south of Lebanon to just colonise the place and that way, they don't lose this opportunity. But if Hezbollah stays, then Israel has to recognise that Lebanon has a national interest, the people have rights and Israel would have to compromise. We are very far from that scenario now because Israel's strategy is to completely eliminate the opponent and force Iran to stop funding the resistance to Israel. But the Iranian strategy on the other hand is to continue funding the axis of resistance, because it's Iran's only way of having power in the region and fending off threats to its national security from a political pragmatic point of view. After the US invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, and Arab states' normalising with Israel, the only option that Iran really has is to keep pursuing these bridges and make allies in order to survive. But Iran's position in the region is defensive to protect its position.

Israel's strategy at the moment is really not sustainable and there's also the internal politics of Netanyahu dragging this on to continue being the Prime Minister and not go to prison. The US, on the other hand, has quietly profited off of this situation because they've always locked heads with Iran. In many ways, it's not in the US interest to directly confront Iran but if a major retaliatory strike happens from the US and Israel, it would be because the US has weighed that a confrontation will not be as damaging but rather draw a theatrical strike from Iran to save face. In other words, this is a zero-sum game. In the long term Israel's elimination strategy will not work because resistance will happen again—someone else will come and they may well be a lot angrier. What Israel and the US have to accept at some point is that in the long term this Zionist project, and apartheid regime cannot continue—which is really what the conflict is all about.

What do you think is the solution to this ongoing conflict in the long term but also, what is the short term solution to achieve that long term solution?

In the long term, I think the only solution is the one state solution—one state that is pluralistic where Muslims, Jews, Christians and just people from all religions live together and there's no stolen land or settlements and where everyone can strive for equality. In the short term, we are obviously very far from this because Israel has the whole world behind them, supporting them, and powerful countries like the US unilaterally funding them to do the opposite. They have the full power and license to defend itself as a Jewish state so as long as that's the rationale, this conflict will continue. The resistance, a force that comes from within to challenge the colonial power to stop it from killing and killing thinking that they can just eliminate the opponent, will continue to just get bigger and bigger. This is exactly what happened in South Africa and Vietnam. You can kill people, but there will always be another generation that's what they will have to get. So say Israel destroys Hamas—which they can't—but there will always be another Hamas or Islamic Jihad and so on. Let's not forget, first it was the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and now it's Hamas, so the cycle has continued and it will continue as long as this structural problem continues. Zionism is the satellite of imperialism, the last experiment of modern day colonialism—first it was by the British and then now it's in the hands of the US—and there will be a time that it will just have to end.​

 

[Saif]

The perfect victim

A FEW weeks ago, I had a meeting with a group of scholars and activists, among whom a few were Palestinians. In the middle of our conversation, someone pointed out that the Palestinians within...

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The perfect victim
by Raudah Yunus 17 October, 2024, 00:00

An aerial photo show heavily damaged buildings after Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City in October 2023. | Agence France-Presse/Belal al Sabbagh

A FEW weeks ago, I had a meeting with a group of scholars and activists, among whom a few were Palestinians. In the middle of our conversation, someone pointed out that the Palestinians within the circle had caused great discomfort among some people. They were perceived as too loud and combative, and that their aggressive approach would damage the relationships within the institution instead of bridging them.

One Palestinian activist quickly seized the opportunity and bravely announced:

‘I am tired of having to be polite when speaking about the pain and suffering of my people. I am tired of being told not to be rude, or speak too loudly, when making demands that are completely reasonable for my people. We Palestinians are always expected to behave in a certain way that is deemed appropriate; I have decided that it’s okay NOT to be the perfect victim.’

In another encounter, a pro-Palestinian activist friend had his language corrected because the word he used to describe the Zionist movement was regarded as too harsh. Interestingly, the discussion then quickly shifted to linguistic issues and what certain words could mean — and how and why they should or should not be used — when talking about the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

I could certainly say it was a waste of time and opportunity, and perhaps a deliberate attempt to distract the public attention from the real issue of Israeli occupation and genocide in Palestine to petty issues of language and terminology.

To put it differently, we the victims need to be extremely careful when describing the aggressor; our language must be one that appeases them, is soothing to their ear, and does not cause them discomfort. After all, the big bully has a sensitive heart! Alas, the same rule does not apply to the victim!

The term ‘perfect victim’ refers to an idealised portrayal of a victim who embodies traits that elicit maximum sympathy from others, often characterised by innocence, passivity, and a lack of flaws or aggressive responses. In this framework, victims are expected to respond to their suffering with the utmost restraint, dignity, and forgiveness. Only then can their pain and cause gain legitimacy. A perfect (Palestinian) victim is one that is always patient, smiling, polite, grateful, and optimistic of a better future. They don’t scream, swear, or yell in anger. Nor do they demand retribution or rally on the street.

When they (Palestinians) speak — if they are ever allowed to — they must first start with ‘condemning Hamas’. Ah, the magic words! Only by condemning Hamas can their plight and grievances be validated. This norm places an unfair burden on Palestinians because their legitimacy as victims hinges on their disavowal of any resistance. Such a demand simplifies the complex political landscape and reduces their narratives to mere compliance with external expectations.

The ‘perfect victim’ oddity reinforces the idea that the Palestinian suffering is only valid if they conform to specific viewpoints that align with dominant narratives, effectively silencing their calls for justice and self-determination. This pressure to condemn Hamas diverts public attention from the systemic issues they face, making it difficult for them to advocate for their rights without being judged or dismissed based on their relationship to other political entities.

Other than that, the expectation for Palestinians to embody the ‘perfect victim’ creates a simplistic and one-dimensional narrative. This archetype demands that they respond to violence and oppression with composure, dignity, and calmness, thereby erasing the complexity of their emotions and distorting the reality of their experiences. It simplifies their struggles, framing them in a way that fits into a predetermined narrative of victimhood to be easily and comfortably consumed by outside audiences. This not only invalidates their diverse perspectives but also undermines the urgency of their calls for justice and self-determination. The pressure to conform to this standard suppresses genuine expressions of anger and resistance, which are essential components of their fight for freedom.

The ‘perfect victim’ phenomenon is a form of bias that is often not imposed on other groups facing similar circumstances. For instance, in conflicts around the world, marginalised populations are frequently recognised for their resilience and right to voice dissent, while their struggles are framed within a broader context of justice and self-determination. In contrast, Palestinians are held to a standard that demands unrealistic composure and silence in the face of violence and oppression.

This double standard not only perpetuates harmful stereotypes but also delegitimises their experiences, suggesting that their grievances are less valid or less worthy of empathy. In addition, it reinforces a narrative that undermines their humanity, while other groups are afforded the complexity and nuance of their struggles.

For instance, many indigenous groups around the world, such as Native Americans in the United States or First Nations in Canada, have historically faced violence, displacement, and cultural erasure. Their movements for land rights, sovereignty, and cultural preservation are often supported, and their anger and resistance are celebrated and recognised as a sign of pain and trauma inflicted upon them.

Similarly, in our contemporary time, pro-Ukraine activists are encouraged to voice their grievances passionately, demand the cessation of war, and speak out against the Russian invasion. There is no need for sugarcoating, nor are they required to condemn any party among themselves first and foremost. Their expressions of anger are often seen as justified responses to oppression that deserve instant solidarity and support.

This stands in stark contrast to the way Palestinian expressions of dissent are received; Palestinian advocates are often times labelled as hostile or confrontational at best and extremist at worst. They are frequently viewed only through the lens of victimhood.

Harkening back to the two anecdotes I shared earlier, it is our duty to dismantle the ‘perfect victim’ mentality wherever it manifests. When someone tells you or a pro-Palestinian friend to tone down, behave better, or adopt greater diplomacy, know that it is mostly likely just another ploy to silence legitimate voices by patronising the nature of response ‘allowed’ for the victim. What it does is shift the focus to the victim’s demeanour instead of centring the conversation on the actual issue.

Likewise, the next time someone tells you or a pro-Palestinian friend to use more polite expressions — or start criticising your choice of words — know that this is another lame tactic of distraction. Fearing to address the elephant in the room, they want to drag you into arguments on language use and terminologies that will eventually drain your energy and time.

If someone asks you to ‘condemn Hamas’ before anything else, know that this is a form of bullying and intimidation. The aim is to discredit you and ‘change the agenda’ by imposing the unacceptability of any forms of resistance before the victim is considered worth listening to.

It is completely okay not to be the perfect victim. In fact, there is no such thing.

Raudah M Yunus is a writer, researcher and social activist. She is pursuing a postdoctoral fellowship at the Medical College of Wisconsin, USA.​

 

[Saif]

Israel military confirms killing of Hamas chief Sinwar

The Israeli military on Thursday announced the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar by its forces in southern Gaza the previous day

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Israel military confirms killing of Hamas chief Sinwar

Yahya Sinwar. Photo: AFP/File

The Israeli military on Thursday announced the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar by its forces in southern Gaza the previous day.

The Israeli military "confirms that after a year-long pursuit, yesterday (Wednesday), October 16, 2024, IDF (military) soldiers from the Southern Command eliminated Yahya Sinwar, the leader of the Hamas terrorist organisation, in an operation in the southern Gaza Strip," it said in a statement.

"The dozens of operations carried out by the IDF and the ISA (Shin Bet internal security agency) over the last year, and in recent weeks in the area where he was eliminated, restricted Yahya Sinwar's operational movement as he was pursued by the forces and led to his elimination," the military added.

"IDF soldiers of the 828th Brigade (Bislach) operating in the area identified and eliminated three terrorists. After completing the process of identifying the body, it can be confirmed that Yahya Sinwar was eliminated".

Israel accuses Sinwar, 61, of being the mastermind of the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the ongoing war, along with Hamas's military chief Mohammed Deif.

The Israeli military has said Deif was killed in a strike earlier this year though the Palestinian group has not confirmed it.

Sinwar in August replaced Hamas's former chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in Iran on July 31. Israel has not commented on Haniyeh's death.

The Hamas attack last year resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people on Israeli soil, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures that include hostages killed in captivity.

Israel's retaliatory military offensive in Gaza has killed 42,438 people, a majority of them civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. The UN acknowledges the figures to be reliable.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli strike on Jabalia shelter kills at least 28

At least 28 Palestinians including children were killed yesterday in an Israeli strike on a shelter in the northern Gaza Strip, a Gaza health ministry official said, while Israel said the attack targeted tens of militants at the site.

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Israeli strike on Jabalia shelter kills at least 28

At least 28 Palestinians including children were killed yesterday in an Israeli strike on a shelter in the northern Gaza Strip, a Gaza health ministry official said, while Israel said the attack targeted tens of militants at the site.

Dozens were also injured in the strike, said the official, Medhat Abbas, adding: "There is no water to extinguish the fire. There is nothing. This is a massacre."

"Civilians and children are being killed, burned under fire," said Abbas.

The Israeli military said in a statement the strike targeted militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups, who operated from within the Abu Hussein School in Jabalia that had been serving as a shelter for displaced people.

It said dozens of militants were present inside the compound when the strike took place, and provided the names of at least 12 of them, which Reuters could not immediately verify.

The military said it took precautions to mitigate harm to civilians and accused Hamas of using them as human shields - a practice Hamas denies.

Hamas said in a statement that allegations there were fighters at the school were "nothing but lies", adding this was "a systematic policy of the enemy to justify its crime."

The Hamas-run Gaza government media office put the number of dead at the school at 28. It said 160 people were wounded in the attack.

Earlier, Palestinian health officials said at least 11 Palestinians were killed in two separate Israeli strikes in Gaza City, while several others were killed in central and southern Gaza areas.

Footage circulated by Palestinian media of the Abu Hussein School and which Reuters couldn't immediately verify, showed smoke coming from tents that caught fire, as many displaced people evacuated casualties including children to ambulances.

Residents of Jabalia, in northern Gaza, said Israeli forces blew up clusters of houses firing from the air, from tanks and by placing bombs in buildings then detonating them remotely.

The area has been a focus for the Israeli military for the past two weeks, which says it is trying to stop Hamas fighters from regrouping for more attacks.

Residents said Israeli forces had effectively isolated Beit Hanoun, Jabalia, and Beit Lahiya in the far north of the enclave from Gaza City, blocking movement except for those families heeding evacuation orders and leaving the three towns.

"We have written our death notes, and we are not leaving Jabalia," one resident told Reuters via a chat app.

"The occupation (Israel) is punishing us for not leaving our houses in the early days of the war, and we are not going now either. They are blowing up houses, and roads, and are starving us but we die once and we don't lose our pride," the father of four said, refusing to give his name, fearing Israeli reprisal.

The Israeli military said on Thursday that it seized many weapons in the area, some of which were stashed in a school, and that its forces have killed dozens of militants in airstrikes and combat at close quarters, as troops try to root out Hamas forces operating in the rubble.

Northern Gaza, which had been home to well over half the territory's 2.3 million people, was bombed to rubble in the first phase of Israel's assault on the territory a year ago, after the Oct. 7 attacks on southern Israel by Hamas-led fighters, who killed 1,200 people and captured 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

More than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israel's offensive so far, according to Gaza's health authorities.

The United States has told Israel that it must take steps to improve the humanitarian situation in northern Gaza in 30 days or face potential restrictions on military aid.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened an emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss expanding humanitarian aid to Gaza, officials said, with aid likely to increase soon.

ACCESS FOR AID

The U.N. has long complained of obstacles to getting aid into Gaza and distributing it throughout the war zone, blaming impediments on Israel and lawlessness. The U.N. said no food aid entered northern Gaza between Oct. 2 and Oct. 15.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military unit that oversees aid and commercial shipments said 50 trucks entered northern Gaza.

Ismail Al-Thawabta, the director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, said Israeli comments about allowing aid into the enclave were misleading.

He said the Israeli military has maintained a comprehensive siege on the far north of Gaza for 170 consecutive days, closing all humanitarian access points. He said 342 people had been killed in the Israeli assault over the last 10 days.

Israel says that its evacuation orders have been issued to ensure people's safety and separate them from militants and denies they are part of a systematic clearance plan.​

 

[Saif]

3,45,000 Gazans face ‘catastrophic’ hunger this winter

Some 3,45,000 Gazans face ‘catastrophic’ levels of hunger this winter after aid deliveries fell, a UN-backed assessment said Thursday, warning of the persistent risk of...

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3,45,000 Gazans face ‘catastrophic’ hunger this winter
Agence France-Presse . Rome 17 October, 2024, 22:22

A displaced Palestinian boy carries a pot full of food, offered by a charity, in Gaza’s Al-Shati refugee camp on Thursday, amid the on-going war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the besieged Palestinian territory. | AFP photo

Some 3,45,000 Gazans face ‘catastrophic’ levels of hunger this winter after aid deliveries fell, a UN-backed assessment said Thursday, warning of the persistent risk of famine across the Palestinian territory.

This is up from the 1,33,000 people currently categorised as experiencing ‘catastrophic food insecurity’, according to a classification compiled by UN agencies and NGOs.

A surge in humanitarian assistance this summer had brought some relief to Gazans, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification report said, but September saw the lowest volume of commercial and humanitarian supplies entering Gaza since March.

As a result, it projected that the number of people experiencing catastrophic food insecurity — IPC Phase 5 — between November 2024 and April 2025 to reach 345,000, or 16 per cent of the population.

The recent ‘sharp decline’ in aid ‘will profoundly limit the ability of families to feed themselves and access essential goods and services in the coming months, unless reversed’, the report said.

The United States warned Israel on Tuesday that it could withhold some of its billions of dollars in military assistance unless it improves aid delivery to the Gaza Strip within 30 days.

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, also warned Wednesday of the risk of famine in the territory, where vast areas have been devastated by Israel’s retaliatory assault launched after the October 7 attack last year by Hamas.

‘The risk of famine between November 2024 and April 2025 persists as long as conflict continues, and humanitarian access is restricted,’ the IPC report said.

‘The extreme concentration of population in an ever-shrinking area, living in improvised shelters with intermittent access to humanitarian supplies and services, elevates the risk of epidemic outbreaks and deterioration into a catastrophe of unprecedented magnitude.

Intensified Israeli attacks and fresh evacuation orders were ‘already increasing the likelihood of this worst-case scenario occurring’, the report added.

An estimated 60,000 cases of acute malnutrition among children aged between six months and four years old are expected between November and April.

‘To curb acute hunger and malnutrition, we must act now,’ said Beth Bechdol, deputy director-general of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization.

She said it was necessary to ‘immediately cease hostilities, restore humanitarian access to deliver critical and essential food aid and agricultural inputs in time for the upcoming winter crop planting season... to allow them to grow food’.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, had said Wednesday that a lack of aid was not the problem, blaming Hamas for hijacking and stealing deliveries.​

 

[Saif]

Gaza ‘hell on Earth’ for one million children

The one million children in Gaza are living a ‘hell on Earth’, the UN said on Friday, with around 40 children having been killed there every day over the past year.

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Gaza ‘hell on Earth’ for one million children
Agence France-Presse . Geneva 18 October, 2024, 22:19

| AFP file photo

The one million children in Gaza are living a ‘hell on Earth’, the UN said on Friday, with around 40 children having been killed there every day over the past year.

More than a year into Israel’s war against Hamas in the besieged Palestinian territory ‘children continue to suffer unspeakable daily harm’, said James Elder, spokesman for the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF.

‘Gaza is the real-world embodiment of hell on Earth for its one million children,’ he told reporters in Geneva. ‘And it’s getting worse, day by day.’

Since Hamas’s deadly October 7 attack inside Israel, which sparked the war, ‘conservative’ estimates put the death toll among children in Gaza at over 14,100, Elder said.

That means that ‘on a conservative measure, around 35 to 40 girls and boys are killed every day in Gaza, since October 7’, he said.

Elder said the numbers — provided by authorities in Hamas-run Gaza, who put the total death toll at over 42,400 — were unfortunately trustworthy.

‘There are many, many more under the rubble,’ he added.

And those who have survived the daily airstrikes and military operations have often faced harrowing conditions, he said. Children were being repeatedly displaced by violence and frequent evacuation orders even as ‘deprivation grips all of Gaza’.

‘Where would children and their families go? They are not safe in schools and shelters. They are not safe in hospitals. And they are certainly not safe in overcrowded camp sites,’ he said.

Elder described the experience of a seven-year-old girl named Qamar, who was struck in the foot during an attack on Jabaliya camp in northern Gaza.

Taken to a hospital that was then placed under a 20-day siege, she could not be moved or get the treatment she needed for her growing infection, and her leg was amputated.

‘In any vaguely normal situation, this little girl’s leg would never have needed to be amputated,’ said Elder.

Faced with fresh evacuation orders from Israel, the girl, her mother and her sister, who was also injured, were forced to move south, on foot.

‘They now live in a ripped tent, surrounded by stagnant water,’ Elder said, adding that Qamar was ‘of course deeply traumatised’, and without access to prosthetics.

UNICEF had already warned that Gaza had become ‘a graveyard for thousands of children’ a year ago, he said.

Last December, the agency had declared Gaza ‘the most dangerous place in the world to be a child’.

‘Day after day, for more than a year now, that brutal evidence-based reality is reinforced,’ Elder added, describing a feeling of ‘deja vu, but with even darker shadows’.

‘If this level of horror doesn’t stir our humanity and drive us to act, then whatever will?’​

 

[Saif]

Sinwar death brings no respite for Gazans

The killing of Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar brought no respite for Palestinians in Gaza, as Israeli air strikes and shelling continued unabated in the territory already devastated by...

www.newagebd.net

Sinwar death brings no respite for Gazans
Agence France-Presse . Jerusalem 18 October, 2024, 22:25

A young Palestinian girl holds up a portrait of slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar during a rally in Ramallah, in the occupied-West Bank on Friday. | AFP photo

The killing of Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar brought no respite for Palestinians in Gaza, as Israeli air strikes and shelling continued unabated in the territory already devastated by more than a year of war.

Despite repeated vows that eliminating Sinwar was a key war aim for Israel, raids continued in the besieged enclave in the hours after Israel announced the death of the militant leader they have long accused of masterminding the October 7 attacks last year.

Following a strike at dawn, Gaza’s civil defence agency said rescuers recovered the bodies of three Palestinian children from the rubble of their home in the north of the territory.

‘We always thought that when this moment arrived the war would end and our lives would return to normal,’ Jemaa Abou Mendi, a 21-year-old Gaza resident, said.

‘But unfortunately, the reality on the ground is quite the opposite. The war has not stopped, and the killings continue unabated.’

Large swathes of northern Gaza remained under siege by Israeli forces, with road closures preventing the delivery of supplies to the area — despite warnings from the United States that failure to end the blockade could trigger a reduction in arms deliveries to Israel.

‘While we hear that delivery of aid will increase, people in Gaza are not feeling any difference,’ Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, wrote on X.

‘They continue to be trapped, hungry and sick often under heavy bombardment.’

As news of the death of Sinwar sunk in, many in Gaza saw little reason for the Israeli army to press on with its war in the territory.

‘If Sinwar’s assassination was one of the objectives of this war, well, today they have killed Yahya Sinwar,’ said Mustafa Al-Zaeem, a 47-year-old resident from the Rimal neighbourhood in western Gaza City.

‘Enough death, enough hunger, enough siege. Enough thirst and starvation, enough bodies and blood.’

Hamas’s October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures that includes hostages killed in captivity.

Militants also took 251 people hostage during the attack. Ninety-seven remain in Gaza, including 34 who Israeli officials say are dead.

Israel’s campaign to crush Hamas and bring back the hostages has killed 42,500 people in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures which the UN considers reliable.

US president Joe Biden said on Friday he impressed on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a conversation to ‘also make this moment an opportunity to seek a path to peace, a better future in Gaza without Hamas’.

Pressure has also been mounting in Israel to leverage the killing of Sinwar into a tangible plan to secure the release of the remaining hostages held captive in Gaza.

Israeli president Isaac Herzog and Netanyahu met on Friday to discuss the aftermath of Sinwar’s death, including the hostages.

A statement released by the presidency said that ‘a significant window of opportunity opened — including the promotion of the return of the hostages and the elimination of Hamas’.

Late Thursday, Netanyahu vowed that those who helped free the hostage in Gaza would be spared.

‘Whoever lays down his weapon and returns our hostages — we will allow him to go on living,’ he said.

But in Gaza, some remained sceptical over the fate of the hostages and what any deal would entail for their future.

‘Today, Israel is lost and will be searching for the hostages,’ said Zaeem.

Others saw little reason to trust Netanyahu and only feared more war.

‘What we see is that Netanyahu’s focus is on Gaza — on killing, destruction, and eradication, as the bombings and massacres continue across Gaza,’ said Mohammad Al-Omari, a 32-year-old from Al-Fakhura in northern Gaza.

‘What we fear most is the continuation of this cursed war.’​

 

[Saif]

Hamas mourns Sinwar, vows no hostage release

Hamas vowed on Friday it would not release the hostages it seized during its October 7 attack on Israel until the Gaza war ends, as it mourned the death of its leader, Yahya Sinwar.

www.newagebd.net

Hamas mourns Sinwar, vows no hostage release
Agence France-Presse . Jerusalem 19 October, 2024, 00:55

A young Palestinian boy holds up a portrait of slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar during a rally in Ramallah, in the Occupied-West Bank on Friday. | AFP photo

Hamas vowed on Friday it would not release the hostages it seized during its October 7 attack on Israel until the Gaza war ends, as it mourned the death of its leader, Yahya Sinwar.

‘We mourn the great leader, the martyred brother, Yahya Sinwar, Abu Ibrahim,’ Qatar-based Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya said in a recorded video statement.

The hostages ‘will not return unless the aggression against our people in Gaza stops, there is a complete withdrawal from it, and our heroic prisoners are released from the occupation’s prisons,’ he added.

Hamas’s confirmation of the death of Sinwar, the mastermind of the deadliest attack in Israeli history, came a day after Israel dealt a massive blow to the group with the announcement of his death.

Hamas sparked the year-long war in Gaza by staging the deadliest-ever attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, resulting in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

During the attack, militants took 251 people hostage back into Gaza. Ninety-seven remain there, including 34 who Israeli officials say are dead.

Chief of Hamas in Gaza at the time of the attack, Sinwar became the militant group’s overall leader after the killing in July of its political chief, Ismail Haniyeh.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Sinwar’s killing an ‘important landmark in the decline of the evil rule of Hamas’, adding that while it did not spell the end of the war, it was ‘the beginning of the end’.

In Gaza, there was little hope Sinwar’s killing would bring an end to the war.

‘We always thought that when this moment arrived the war would end and our lives would return to

normal,’ Jemaa Abou Mendi, a 21-year-old Gaza resident, said.

‘But unfortunately, the reality on the ground is quite the opposite. The war has not stopped, and the killings continue unabated.’

Israel conducted air strikes on Gaza on Friday, with several raids overnight and early morning pummelling the territory, according to an AFP journalist on the ground.

According to Gaza’s civil defence agency, rescuers recovered the bodies of three Palestinian children from the rubble of their home in the north of the territory after it was hit at dawn.

The Israeli military said it was pressing its operation in Jabalia, one of the focuses of the fighting in recent weeks, and where strikes on Thursday killed at least 14 people, according to two hospitals.

A UN-backed assessment has found some 3,45,000 Gazans face ‘catastrophic’ levels of hunger this winter.

Israel’s campaign to crush Hamas and bring back the hostages seized by militants has killed 42,500 people in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures which the UN considers reliable.

With the civilian toll in Gaza mounting, Israel has faced criticism over its conduct of the war, including from the United States.

Israeli military chief Herzi Halevi vowed to keep fighting ‘until we capture all the terrorists involved in the October 7 massacre and bring all the hostages home’.

Some Israelis hailed the news of Sinwar’s death as a sign of better things to come.

Attending a Tel Aviv rally demanding the hostages’ release, 60-year-old Sisil, who gave only her first name, said his killing presented a ‘once in a lifetime opportunity’ for ‘a hostage deal to end the war’.

US president Joe Biden, whose government is Israel’s top arms provider, said Sinwar’s death was a ‘moment of justice’ and ‘an opportunity to seek a path to peace, a better future in Gaza without Hamas’.

Campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum urged the Israeli government and international mediators to leverage ‘this major achievement to secure hostages’ return’.

According to a statement from Netanyahu’s office, Biden called to congratulate him on Sinwar’s killing, with the two leaders vowing to seize ‘an opportunity to promote the release of the hostages’.

With Hamas already weakened more than a year into the Gaza war, Sinwar’s death deals an immense blow to the organisation, but whether it will trigger a shift in its own strategy is unclear.

It is also unclear whether his successor will be named in Qatar, where Hamas’s political leadership has long been based, or in Gaza, the focus of the fighting.

The Israeli military said Sinwar was killed in a firefight in southern Gaza’s Rafah, near the Egyptian border, while being tracked by a drone.

It released drone footage of what it said was Sinwar’s final moments, with the video showing a wounded militant throwing an object at the drone.

Israel is also fighting a war in Lebanon, where Hamas ally Hezbollah opened a front by launching cross-border strikes that forced tens of thousands of Israelis to flee their homes.

Hezbollah said Thursday it was launching a new phase in its war against Israel, and that it had used precision-guided missiles against troops for the first time.

The war since late September has left at least 1,418 people dead in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures, though the real toll is likely higher.

The Israeli military has announced the deaths of 19 soldiers in combat in southern Lebanon.

The war has also drawn in other Iran-aligned armed groups, including in Yemen, Iraq and Syria.

Iran on October 1 conducted a missile strike on Israel, for which Israel has vowed to retaliate.

Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi on Friday said Sinwar will remain an inspiration for militants fighting Israel across the region.

‘His fate — beautifully pictured in his last image — is not a deterrent but a source of inspiration for resistance fighters across the region, Palestinian and non-Palestinian,’ Araghchi said on X.

Hezbollah and Yemen’s Huthi rebels both mourned the death of Sinwar, vowing continued support for their Palestinian ally Hamas.​

 

[Saif]

UN expert accuses West of gagging speech over Gaza

Protest crackdowns, banned marches, media workers at risk -- a UN expert on Friday accused Western nations and Israel of freedom of speech violations in the year since the Gaza war broke out.

www.newagebd.net

UN expert accuses West of gagging speech over Gaza
Agence France-Presse . United Nations 19 October, 2024, 22:44

Protest crackdowns, banned marches, media workers at risk -- a UN expert on Friday accused Western nations and Israel of freedom of speech violations in the year since the Gaza war broke out.

‘No conflict in recent times has threatened freedom of expression so seriously or so far beyond its borders than Gaza,’ UN special rapporteur Irene Khan told reporters as she presented her report, ‘Global threats to freedom of expression arising from the conflict in Gaza.’

The Bangladeshi human rights lawyer, who has been the special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression since 2020, notably cited crackdowns on pro-Palestinian protests in Western democracies in the early months of the war.

On US university campuses, protests were ‘harshly’ repressed, she said, alluding to the use of riot police to dislodge encampments.

In Europe, she noted that Germany had imposed a ban on pro-Palestinian demonstrations last October, with some restrictions still in place on such protests in various Germans regions, but ‘never on any pro-Israeli’ rallies.

‘There have been all sorts of other restrictions also made in terms of slogans or scarves and so on,’ she said.

France attempted a similar blanket ban last year but was stymied by courts, and now makes assessments on a case-by-case basis, she said, noting Belgium and Canada have similar approaches.

She also pointed to ‘targeted assassinations of journalists’ in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

‘We all know the deliberate killing of a journalist is a war crime,’ she said, lamenting the ‘impunity’ with which such deaths have been met in the recent conflict and years prior.

The killing of journalists, destruction of press facilities, denying access to international media, banning Al Jazeera, and other actions by Israel, ‘seem to indicate the strategy of the Israeli authorities to silence critical journalism and obstruct documentation of possible international crimes,’ she said.

Hamas sparked the war in Gaza by staging the deadliest-ever attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, resulting in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

During the attack, militants took 251 hostages back into Gaza. Ninety-seven remain there, including 34 who Israeli officials say are dead.

Israel’s campaign to crush Hamas and bring back the hostages has killed 42,500 people in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures which the UN considers reliable.​

 

[Saif]

Israel drops leaflets over Gaza showing Sinwar's body and message to Hamas

Israeli planes dropped leaflets over southern Gaza on Saturday showing a picture of the dead Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar with the message that "Hamas will no longer rule Gaza", echoing language used by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The move came as Israeli military strikes killed at leas

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Israel drops leaflets over Gaza showing Sinwar's body and message to Hamas
REUTERS
Published :
Oct 19, 2024 22:32
Updated :
Oct 19, 2024 22:32

Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, in Al Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, October 19, 2024. Photo : REUTERS/Ramadan Abed

Israeli planes dropped leaflets over southern Gaza on Saturday showing a picture of the dead Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar with the message that "Hamas will no longer rule Gaza", echoing language used by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The move came as Israeli military strikes killed at least 32 people across the Gaza Strip and tightened a siege around hospitals in Jabalia in the north of the enclave, Palestinian health officials said.

“Whoever drops the weapon and hands over the hostages will be allowed to leave and live in peace," the leaflet, written in Arabic, read, according to residents of the southern city of Khan Younis and images circulating online.

The leaflet's wording was from a statement by Netanyahu on Thursday after Sinwar was killed by Israeli soldiers operating in Rafah, in the south near the Egyptian border, on Wednesday.

The Oct 7 attack Sinwar planned on Israeli communities a year ago killed around 1,200 people, with another 253 dragged back to Gaza as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's subsequent war has devastated Gaza, killing more than 42,500 Palestinians, with another 10,000 uncounted dead thought to lie under the rubble, Gaza health authorities say.

In the central Gaza Strip camp of Al-Maghzai, an Israeli strike on a house killed 11 people, while another strike at the nearby camp of Nuseirat killed four others.

Five other people were killed in two separate strikes in the south Gaza cities of Khan Younis and Rafah, medics said, while seven Palestinians were killed in the Shati camp in the northern Gaza Strip.

Late on Friday, medics said 33 people, mostly women and children, were killed and 85 others were wounded in Israeli strikes that destroyed at least three houses in Jabalia.

The Israeli military said it was unaware of that incident.

It said forces were continuing operations against Hamas across the enclave, killing several gunmen in Rafah and Jabalia and dismantling military infrastructure. Palestinian medics said five people were killed in Jabalia on Saturday.

EVACUATION ORDERS

Residents and medics said Israeli forces had tightened their siege on Jabalia, the largest of the enclave's eight historic camps, which it encircled by also sending tanks to nearby towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya and issuing evacuation orders to residents.

Israeli officials said evacuation orders were aimed at separating Hamas fighters from civilians and denied that there was any systematic plan to clear civilians out of Jabalia or other northern areas.

Residents and medical officials said Israeli forces were bombing houses and besieging hospitals, preventing medical and food supplies from entering to force them to leave the camp.

Health officials said they refused orders by the Israeli army to evacuate the hospital or leave the patients, many in a critical condition, unattended.

"The Israeli occupation is intensifying its targeting of the health system in the northern Gaza Strip, by besieging and directly targeting the Indonesian Hospital, Kamal Adwan Hospital, and Al-Awda Hospital during the past hours and its insistence on putting them out of service," the Gaza health ministry said.

It said two patients in intensive care at the Indonesian Hospital died "as a result of the hospital's siege and the power outage and medical supplies".

Israel's military said the troops operating in the area had been "briefed on the importance of mitigating harm to civilians and medical infrastructure".

"It is emphasized that the hospital continues to operate without disruption and in full capacity, and there was no intentional fire directed at it," it said.​

 

[Saif]

At least 73 killed in Israel strike in Gaza

An Israeli air strike on a residential area killed at least 73 Palestinians in Beit Lahia in the territory's north. Israel said it struck a "Hamas terror target".

en.prothomalo.com

At least 73 killed in Israel strike in Gaza
AFP
Gaza Strip, Palestine
Published: 20 Oct 2024, 09: 03

Displaced Palestinians, ordered by the Israeli army to leave the school in Beit Lahia where they were sheltered, arrive in Gaza City on 19 October, 2024. AFP

Gaza's civil defence agency said Sunday that an Israeli air strike on a residential area killed at least 73 Palestinians in Beit Lahia in the territory's north. Israel said it struck a "Hamas terror target".

"Our civil defence crews recovered 73 martyrs and a large number of wounded as a result of the Israeli air force targeting a residential area... in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza," Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defence agency told AFP.

"There are still martyrs under the rubble," he added.

Bassal said residences of several families had been hit in the strike, which happened late on Saturday.

Gaza government media office confirmed the toll, saying the dead included women and children as the strike had hit a "densely populated residential area".

Israel's military disputed the toll figure given by Gaza authorities.

It said its initial examination indicated that the numbers "do not align with the information held by the IDF (army), the precise munitions used, and the accuracy of the strike on a Hamas terror target".

It did not offer other details as to who the target of the strike was.

Israel, vowing to stop Hamas militants from regrouping in northern Gaza, launched a major air and ground assault on October 6, tightening its siege on the war-battered area and sending tens of thousands of people fleeing.

Prior to the latest strike, the operation had already killed more than 400 people in north Gaza, Bassal told AFP earlier on Saturday.​

 

[Saif]

WHO to evacuate 1,000 Gazan women, children

Up to 1,000 women and children needing medical care will shortly be evacuated from Gaza to Europe, the head of the World Health Organization’s Europe branch said in comments published yesterday.

www.thedailystar.net

WHO to evacuate 1,000 Gazan women, children

Up to 1,000 women and children needing medical care will shortly be evacuated from Gaza to Europe, the head of the World Health Organization's Europe branch said in comments published yesterday.

Israel, which is besieging the war-devastated Palestinian territory, "is committed to 1,000 more medical evacuations within the next months to the European Union," Hans Kluge said in an interview with AFP.

He said the evacuations would be facilitated by the WHO -- the United Nations' health agency -- and the European countries involved.

On Thursday, UN investigators said Israel was deliberately targeting health facilities in Gaza, and killing and torturing medical personnel there, accusing the country of "crimes against humanity".

Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative in the occupied Palestinian territories, said in May that around 10,000 people needed evacuating from Gaza for urgent medical care.

The WHO Europe has already facilitated 600 medical evacuations from Gaza to seven European countries since the latest war began there in October 2023.

"This would never have happened if we did not keep the dialogue (open)," Kluge said.

"The same (is true) for Ukraine," he added. "I keep the dialogue (open) with all partners.

"Now, 15,000 HIV-AIDS patients in Donbas, the occupied territories (of Ukraine), are getting HIV-AIDS medications," the 55-year-old Belgian said in English, stressing the importance of "not politicising health".

"The most important medicine is peace," he said, noting that healthcare workers had to be allowed to do their jobs in conflict zones.

'OUTRAGE EVERY TIME'

Around 2,000 attacks have been registered on health centres in Ukraine since Russia's invasion in February 2022, according to the WHO

"There may be a kind of acceptance almost but this should cause outrage every single time," he said.

"We will always continue to condemn this in the strongest possible terms."

Kluge expressed concern ahead of Ukraine's third winter of war.

"Eighty percent of the civilian energy grid is damaged or destroyed. We saw it in the hospitals, surgeons operating with a lamp on their heads," he said.

"It will be a very, very tough" winter.

Despite strains on Europe's healthcare systems, he said the 53 countries that make up the WHO European region -- which includes central Asian countries -- were able to come together to prepare for future pandemics.

"In Europe, we did our homework," he said.

GLOBAL PANDEMIC TREATY?

"What we need is a pandemic treaty globally, because even if we do our share, we're never going to stop bugs entering our continent."

A European strategy for pandemics is due to be presented on October 31.

At the same time, the WHO is urging its members to "manage and prepare for the next crisis, while ensuring continuation of essential basic health services" in order to avoid another "rupture" like that which occurred during the Covid pandemic.

Ensuring the security of national health care systems is crucial and should be a priority, he said.

"A minimum of 25 out of 53 countries during the past five years had at least one big health emergency event big enough to test the country's security," he said.

The pandemic has left its mark on Europeans, which Kluge hopes to erase during his next mandate.

"The Covid-19 pandemic set us back two years on non-communicable diseases," he said, requiring countries to double down on diagnosing and treating multidrug resistant tuberculosis, testing for uterus and cervical cancer, and vaccinations.

In addition, Kluge said he also wanted to address worrying trends, such as the health of young people and growing inequalities between men and women.

"It's very clear. We see that the lockdowns during Covid-19 led to a 25-percent increase in anxiety and depression orders," he lamented.

"Twenty-six percent of the women between 15 and 49 years in my region report, at least one time in their lifetime experienced intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence," he said.

Kluge has headed the WHO Europe since February 2020 and is expected to be re-elected at the end of October.​