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

[Saif]

Israeli strike kills 93 in north Gaza town

At least 93 Palestinians were killed and missing and dozens wounded in an Israeli strike on a residential building in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya yesterday, the Gaza health ministry said.

www.thedailystar.net

Israeli strike kills 93 in north Gaza town
20 children among dead; dozens injured; fears grow over Israel’s ban on UN aid agency
​

• Doctors forced to evacuate Kamal Adwan Hospital​
• Healthcare system in north Gaza collapsed​
• Death toll in enclave rises to 43,061​

At least 93 Palestinians were killed and missing and dozens wounded in an Israeli strike on a residential building in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya yesterday, the Gaza health ministry said.

Medics said at least 20 children were among the dead.

"A number of victims are still under the rubble and on the roads, and ambulance and civil defense crews cannot reach them," the territory's health ministry said.

Later yesterday, Ismail Al-Thawabta, the director of the government media office, put the number of fatalities at 93.

There was no immediate Israeli comment. The Israeli military has frequently questioned figures on death toll published by the Hamas media office, saying they were often exaggerated.

Video footage obtained by Reuters showed several bodies wrapped in blankets on the ground outside a bombed four-storey building. More bodies and survivors were being retrieved from under the wreckage as neighbours rushed to help with rescue.

"There are tens of martyrs (dead) - tens of displaced people were living in this house. The house was bombed without prior warning. As you can see, martyrs are here and there, with body parts hanging on the walls," Ismail Ouaida, a witness who was helping to recover bodies, said in the video.

The health ministry said yesterday those wounded in the strike could not receive care as doctors had been forced to evacuate the nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital.

The death toll from Israel's retaliatory air and ground onslaught in Gaza has risen to 43,061, the Gaza health ministry said.

Yesterday's strike came a day after Israel's parliament passed a law to ban the UN relief agency UNRWA from operating inside the country, alarming some of Israel's Western allies who fear it will worsen the already dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli forces strike deadly bombing in Gaza

Israeli forces carried out new deadly bombings targeting Hamas in Gaza on Wednesday, as international mediators prepared to propose a short-term truce to free hostages and avert a humanitarian catastrophe...

www.newagebd.net

Israeli forces strike deadly bombing in Gaza
Agence France-Presse . Palestinian Territories 31 October, 2024, 00:21

Israeli forces carried out new deadly bombings targeting Hamas in Gaza on Wednesday, as international mediators prepared to propose a short-term truce to free hostages and avert a humanitarian catastrophe.

News of the potential breakthrough in truce talks came a day after an Israeli strike on a single Gaza residential block killed nearly 100 people and triggered international revulsion.

US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators have for months been trying to negotiate a truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza to allow a prisoner swap, humanitarian access and talks on a longer-term peace.

Israel’s Mossad spy chief David Barnea, CIA director Bill Burns and Qatari prime minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani held their latest round of secretive talks on Sunday and Monday in Doha.

On Wednesday, a source close to the talks said that the senior officials discussed proposing to the parties a ‘short-term’ truce of ‘less than a month’.

The proposal included the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, and an increase in aid to Gaza, the source added.

‘US officials believe that if a short-term deal can be reached, it could lead to a more permanent agreement,’ the source said.

A strike Tuesday in the northern Gaza district of Beit Lahia collapsed a building and left at least 93 dead, including a large number of children, according to the territory’s civil defence agency.

The US State Department described the bombing was ‘a horrifying incident with a horrifying result’ and a spokesman said Washington had asked Israel for an explanation.

The United Nations aid coordination agency UNOCHA said the strike was only one of at least seven mass casualty incidents over the past week in the Palestinian territory.

‘Only two out of 20 health service points and two hospitals, Kamal Adwan and Al Awda, remain functional, although partially, hampering the delivery of life-saving health services,’ UNOCHA said.

‘Across the Gaza Strip, October has seen very limited food distribution due to severe supply shortages,’ it warned, adding that 1.7 million people, 80 per cent of the population, did not receive rations.

Israel launched a renewed offensive to root out Palestinian fighters in northern Gaza in recent weeks, one year after the October 7, 2023 cross-border Hamas attack that left 1,206 Israelis dead.

Israel’s response has led to the deaths of 43,061 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which the United Nations considers reliable.

The violence continued on Wednesday.

The Israeli military said it had conducted a precision strike on Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters ‘conducting terrorist activity’ in Khan Yunis, the south of Gaza.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said three people, including a girl and a woman, were killed in a strike on a house in Khan Yunis and two more died when a tent was hit in Deir el-Balah.

Fighting also continued in Lebanon, where Israel has launched an air and ground campaign to destroy the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia, which has launched cross-border strikes and expressed solidarity with Hamas.

The Israeli military, which in recent days has hit targets in several southern Lebanese cities, issued a new evacuation call on Wednesday, warning Lebanese residents to flee the Baalbek region.

Military spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a social media post that included a map of the eastern Bekaa valley that the army would ‘act forcefully against Hezbollah interests within your city and villages.’

Meanwhile, a Lebanese security official said that an Israeli strike on a Hezbollah van carrying munitions near Beirut killed the driver.

An AFP correspondent saw a vehicle on fire and said the Kahhale road, which links Beirut to Damascus, had been blocked in both directions.

Israel targets key routes between Syria and Lebanon to disrupt Hezbollah’s supply lines for weapons and munitions from Iran.

Hezbollah said it launched a ‘squadron of attack drones’ against an Israeli naval base new Haifa, and the Lebanese state news agency NNA said Israeli ground forces were assaulting the southern village of Khiam.

The NNA also said Israeli airstrikes had hit several villages in the south of the country.

The war has killed at least 1,754 people in Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP tally of health ministry figures, though the real number is likely to be higher due to gaps in the data.​

 

[Saif]

Before I answer, what exactly is the 'Palestine question'?

In this Land of the Free and Home of the Brave, money is Supreme Court-sanctioned free speech, but criticism of Israel isn’t.

www.thedailystar.net

Before I answer, what exactly is the 'Palestine question'?

There is no room for nuance when framed by images of children with headshot wounds from snipers, amputees in wheelchairs shot at peaceful rallies, young men with IVs in their wrists burning to death. PHOTO: REUTERS

As personally invested as I am in the Palestinian people's struggle for autonomy and freedom, there most definitely exists wide gaps within the disconnected pools of my knowledge (read: not understanding) regarding the history of the conflict. But, as far as I am aware, when generally referring to "The Palestine Question," it is done so with inherently problematic assumptions, none of which I believe apply to most people reading this.

As far as most have likely come to understand, the question may roughly be paraphrased as such: "What do we do with these Palestinians we've forcefully displaced and continue to subjugate without completely losing our moral standing on the global stage?"

As such, "our" answer to the so-called "Question of Palestine" is, in fact, neither required nor desired; it is a question exclusive to the coloniser class, whose impressive resumés spanning centuries have provided them with significant experience on the matter, having answered the same question for ethnicities and nationalities as diverse as the very non-Western world itself (a coincidence, I'm sure). In some way or form, they have "successfully" answered the Question, forced to confront the dilemma of how to "settle" (pun very much intended) the issue of some group of people that they are struggling to oppress.

As an individual who has not tasted the intoxicating aftertaste of such extreme levels of power imbalance with other human beings)—something most of us practice an amateur version of in our homes (not to minimise those struggles, of course)— I remain fortunate to not have had to answer a question as difficult.

I can with some conviction assert there, in fact, is no "Question of Palestine" in any form that the West and most of its inherently undemocratic and flaccid globalist appendages would have us believe, in the same way there is no "Question of Israel." There may exist a "Problem of Palestine," which should really be "The Problem for Palestinians," but the question itself is audacious in its insensitivity. A good analogy would be the way an older person might blame the current state of affairs on current or newer generations.

The response, in both cases, can simply look something like this: "You created this mess. We didn't."

Israel's existence as a settler-colonial-genocidal-apartheid-ethno-state (Western ideals funding the only democracy in the Middle East, ladies and gentlemen is an inherent injustice that must be assigned labels that are worthy of its continued supremacist behaviour: There is no "understanding" it, or "question" that must be answered in order to figure out what is one of the simplest moral conundrums most of us will ever have the privilege to face.

And if there are any questions at all to be answered, it would be the Palestinians asking and answering them. A few examples: "Should we generously allow the Israelis to remain? How should those who stole our land and treated us like 'human animals' be punished? And to what extent?"

In a just world, the Palestinians would be debating the moral grey areas that exist within these questions. But asking the West's version of the Palestinian question, or worse, attempting to answer it, is starting from a position of defeat. It is a question that must be outright dismissed as illegitimate.

What I hope to achieve, both for myself and individuals who may not have been exposed to this particular approach to the subject, is to put forth a stance that refuses to cower in the face of colonisrs old and new, from the Bengal famine Brits to the American imperialists modernised by hypocrisy, toppling democratically elected leaders—this year, an in-house coup—and providing weapons and cover to a genocidal foreign regime while ignoring its own citizens in the midst of a natural disaster.

In this Land of the Free and Home of the Brave, money is Supreme Court-sanctioned free speech, but criticism of Israel isn't. Even in our worst forms, as our ugliest selves, when the most toxic and harmful of our traits are revealed, most of us can rest certain in the knowledge of our moral adequacy compared to those who have carried out, supported, defended, armed, and excused the widespread displacement and annihilation of the Palestinians (with methods and logic that proactively serve a blatant narrative of dehumanisation).

Due to structures and systems which enforce dependence on powerful economies on whose "generosity" we relyfor purposes of whatever our respective nationalistic visions of self-actualisation may be, these are mere instruments of control that work towards contributing to further the narrative that erases our confidence, and allows me to circle back and explain, first of all, what personally pushes me towards answering my own version of the Palestine Question, and one that I think all of us would benefit from answering as well.

It is the unfathomably cruel narrative erasure and villainisation that the Palestinians have had to suffer through in addition to everything else, and this experience, no matter how small our individual traumas may be in comparison, makes the Palestinian struggle a universal one, and one that I believe all of us should achieve clarity on before embarking upon any other moral viewpoint or stance. Physician Gabor Maté elaborates on how traumatic experiences don't necessarily lead to trauma, but is manifested "when we are not seen and known."

The Palestinians have neither been seen nor known for decades. To truly see them would be to arrive effortlessly and without apology to a position where Palestinian resistance is beyond the manipulative avenues of discussion we see perpetrated on mainstream Western media outlets.Like Norman Finklestein, we refuse to condemn the actions of the oppressed, for there is nothing to condemn. There is no room for nuance when framed by images of children with headshot wounds from snipers, amputees in wheelchairs shot at peaceful rallies, young men with IVs in their wrists burning to death.

And, thus, the only question, which I believe I have already answered, is this: Do you see the Palestinian people? And, I hope, so do you.

SN Rasul is a writer.​

 

[Dogun18]

 

[Sharma Ji]

A small section of mostly online yahoos and extremists maybe

I could throw about a dozen such rhetorical questions at her too.

 

[Sharma Ji]

This whole Gaza thing, terrible tragedy.. I've yet to meet a single person "celebrating deaths of children"

It is Indian Muslims who have been taking out rallies and fundraising and all sorts for their pro Palestinian cause, the rest don't care much.. there's no strong pro Israel sentiment here, just a reaction by the ultra-nats in response to it.

its all pretty silly if you ask me.

my position is that IDGAF, just watching the shitshow.. even if they get a cease fire going and end hostilities, they'll be back at it in a few years from now.. 100%

what does amaze and shock me about the whole thing is just how MUTE the proper rich Gulfies and Arabs have been about it all.

If they must, then go protest Gen Sisi and MBS' inaction, Musalmans of the world.

in the end only Iran dared confront the Jew, a brave, but an ill-thought-out strategy.

vuld's onlee lonlee aatmi muslamic mulk, Pakistan.. kuch nahi kiya, say for some platitudes and milquetoast "condemnations" ..

"kadi ninda" .. bhai wah !

achar daal lo apni "kadi ninda" ka, in the strongest possible terms..

 

[Dogun18]

This whole Gaza thing, terrible tragedy.. I've yet to meet a single person "celebrating deaths of children"

It is Indian Muslims who have been taking out rallies and fundraising and all sorts for their pro Palestinian cause, the rest don't care much.. there's no strong pro Israel sentiment here, just a reaction by the ultra-nats in response to it.

its all pretty silly if you ask me.

my position is that IDGAF, just watching the shitshow.. even if they get a cease fire going and end hostilities, they'll be back at it in a few years from now.. 100%

what does amaze and shock me about the whole thing is just how MUTE the proper rich Gulfies and Arabs have been about it all.

If they must, then go protest Gen Sisi and MBS' inaction, Musalmans of the world.

in the end only Iran dared confront the Jew, a brave, but an ill-thought-out strategy.

vuld's onlee lonlee aatmi muslamic mulk, Pakistan.. kuch nahi kiya, say for some platitudes and milquetoast "condemnations" ..

"kadi ninda" .. bhai wah !

achar daal lo apni "kadi ninda" ka, in the strongest possible terms..

View attachment 10248

 

[Sharma Ji]

war, jung

both are belligerent

everything is fair

 

[Saif]

Israel issues new evacuation orders

Israel’s military issued new evacuation orders in the north of the Gaza Strip yesterday after carrying out strikes across the enclave which Palestinian media and medics said had killed at least 35 people.

www.thedailystar.net

Israel issues new evacuation orders
Kills 35 more Palestinians in fresh strikes in Beit Lahiya
​

• Over 100 patients to be evacuated: WHO official​
• 4 Palestinians killed in Israeli raid in West Bank​
• Death toll in Gaza rises to 43,391​

Israel's military issued new evacuation orders in the north of the Gaza Strip yesterday after carrying out strikes across the enclave which Palestinian media and medics said had killed at least 35 people.

An air strike damaged two houses in the town of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, where the army has carried out new operations since October 5, and killed at least 20 people late on Monday, the Palestinian official news agency WAFA and Hamas media said.

Four other people were killed in the central Gazan town of Al-Zawayda around midnight on Monday, medics said.

Palestinian health officials said six people had also been killed in two separate Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City and Deir Al-Balah in the central area of the narrow enclave.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said without giving details, that its forces had "eliminated terrorists" in the central Gaza Strip and Jabalia area. Israeli troops had also located weapons and explosives over the past day in the southern Rafah area, where "terrorist infrastructure sites" had been eliminated, it said.

Later yesterday, Israeli planes dropped leaflets over Beit Lahiya ordering residents who have not yet left their homes and shelters housing displaced families to quit the town completely.

At least 43,391 Palestinians have been killed in more than a year of offensive in Gaza, the authorities in Gaza said yesterday, and much of the territory has been reduced to ruins.

Announcing a rare transfer of patients out of Gaza, a World Health Organization official said more than 100 people would be evacuated from Gaza today, including children suffering from trauma injuries and chronic diseases.

They will travel via the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel before flying to the United Arab Emirates, said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Some will then go on to Romania, he said, adding that 12,000 people were awaiting transfer.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said at least four people were killed yesterday during an Israeli military raid and airstrikes.

The Israeli military said its aircraft had targeted a group of gunmen and that its forces had "arrested 60 militants".

Violence has surged in the West Bank since the start of the offensive in Gaza, with almost daily sweeps by Israeli forces that have involved thousands of arrests and regular gun battles between security forces and Palestinian fighters.​

 

[Saif]

Displaced Palestinians among 13 killed in Israel strikes

Gaza civil defence agency said on Tuesday that at least 13 people, including some living in tents for displaced Palestinians, were killed in Israeli air strikes overnight.

www.newagebd.net

Displaced Palestinians among 13 killed in Israel strikes
Agence France-Presse . Palestinian Territories 06 November, 2024, 01:20

Displaced Palestinians flee Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, through the main Salah al-Din road on the outskirts of Gaza City, on Tuesday amid the on-going war between Israel and Hamas. | AFP photo

Gaza civil defence agency said on Tuesday that at least 13 people, including some living in tents for displaced Palestinians, were killed in Israeli air strikes overnight.

Four people were killed when an Israeli missile hit the home of the Shurafa family in eastern Gaza City, civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said.

Three people were killed and several wounded when a tent housing Palestinians displaced by the war was hit by an Israeli missile in the east of Khan Yunis city, Bassal said.

Another tent housing displaced people in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza was also hit by an Israeli air strike overnight, killing at least four people, he added.

Two other people were killed in separate incidents, Bassal said.

The Israeli military, meanwhile, said its forces were continuing their land and air assault in northern Gaza, where the civil defence says hundreds have been killed since October 6, when the military launched the offensive.

‘Over the past day, IDF military troops in the area of Jabalia eliminated dozens of terrorists during close-quarters encounters and aerial strikes,’ the military said in a statement.

Several militants were also killed in central Gaza and in the area of Rafa in the south of the territory, the military added.

Israel has been waging a month-long military offensive in northern Gaza, which it says is aimed at preventing Hamas militants from regrouping.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation said a large-scale medical evacuation was planned from Gaza this week, with more than 100 seriously ill and injured patients due to leave the war-ravaged territory.

The WHO said that alongside its partners it would evacuate as many as 113 patients on Wednesday, with most going to the United Arab Emirates and some heading to Romania for specialised care.

If it goes ahead, it would be the largest evacuation from Gaza since October 2023, according to data from the UN health agency.

Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO’s representative in the Palestinian territories, said he was hopeful the evacuation would go ahead.

He said efforts were currently under way to bring patients from various hospitals across the Gaza Strip to the Gaza European Hospital near Khan Yunis in the south.

They will be transported to the Kerem Shalom crossing early Wednesday and then flown on to the UAE and Romania, Peeperkorn told reporters in Geneva, via video link from Gaza.

Those on the list figure among up to 14,000 people currently waiting in Gaza to be evacuated out of the territory for medical reasons.

Around half of them have sustained trauma injuries in the war and the others are suffering from serious illnesses such as cancer, he said.​

 

[Saif]

Gazans want Trump to end war with Israel

Palestinians in Gaza on Wednesday want Donald Trump, who won the US election, to end the war between Israel and Hamas that has devastated their territory.

www.newagebd.net

Gazans want Trump to end war with Israel
Agence France-Presse . Palestinian Territories 06 November, 2024, 21:57

A displaced Palestinian child fleeing Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, walks on Gaza's main Salah al-Din road on the outskirts of Gaza City, on November 5, 2024. | AFP photo

Palestinians in Gaza on Wednesday want Donald Trump, who won the US election, to end the war between Israel and Hamas that has devastated their territory.

The conflict sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack has taken an appalling human toll in the Gaza Strip, displacing most of its residents, causing widespread hunger and death, and leaving hospitals struggling to cope.

‘We were displaced, killed there’s nothing left for us, we want peace,’ Mamdouh al-Jadba, who was displaced to Gaza City from Jabalia, said.

‘I hope Trump finds a solution, we need someone strong like Trump to end the war and save us, enough, God, this is enough,’ said the 60-year-old.

‘I was displaced three times, my house was destroyed, my children are homeless in the south there’s nothing left, Gaza is finished.’

Umm Ahmed Harb, from the Al-Shaaf area east of Gaza City, was also counting on Trump to ‘stand by our side’ and end the territory’s suffering.

‘God willing the war will end, not for our sake but for the sake of our young children who are innocent, they were martyred and are dying of hunger,’ she said.

‘We cannot buy anything with the high prices of food. We are here in fear, terror and death.’

For Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, where violence has also surged since October last year, Trump’s victory was reason to fear for the future.

‘Trump is firm in some decisions, but these decisions could serve Israel’s interests politically more than they serve the Palestinian cause,’ said Samir Abu Jundi, a 60-year-old in the city of Ramallah.

Another man who identified himself only by his nickname, Abu Mohammed, said he also saw no reason to believe Trump’s victory would be in favour of the Palestinians, saying ‘nothing will change except more decline’.

He said all US presidents ‘are in favour of the State of Israel’, the Palestinian from east Jerusalem said.

The United States is Israel’s main political and military backer and despite pressure from President Joe Biden’s administration for a ceasefire, the support has not wavered.

Imad Fakhida, a school principal in the main West Bank city of Ramallah, said ‘Trump’s return to power will lead us to hell and there will be a greater and more difficult escalation.’

‘He is known for his complete and greatest support for Israel,’ he added.

During his first term in office, Trump moved the US embassy to Jerusalem, recognised Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights and helped normalise ties between Israel and several Arab states under the so-called Abraham Accords.

The Accords were condemned as ‘treason’ by Palestinian leaders who feared they undercut their aspirations for a homeland, and led to disgruntlement in Hamas.

The war erupted on October 7, 2023 after Hamas militants attacked Israel, resulting in 1,206 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed 43,391 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry the United Nations considers reliable.

During his campaign for a return to the White House, Trump said Gaza, which is located on the eastern Mediterranean, could be ‘better than Monaco’.

He also said he would have responded the same way as Israel did following the October 7 attack, while urging the US ally to ‘get the job done’ because it was ‘losing a lot of support’.

More broadly he has promised to bring an end to raging international crises, even saying he could ‘stop wars with a telephone call’.

In Gaza, such statements gave reason for hope.

‘We expect peace to come and the war to end with Trump because in his election campaign he said that he wants peace and calls for stopping the wars on Gaza and the Middle East,’ said Ibrahim Alian, 33, from Gaza City.

Like many of the territory’s residents, Alian has been displaced several times by the fighting. He said he also lost his father to the war.

‘God willing the war on the Gaza Strip will end and the situation will change,’ he said.​

 

[Saif]

Dhaka reaffirms support for Palestine, two-state solution

Palestinian Ambassador to Bangladesh Yousef S.Y. Ramadan paid a courtesy call on Foreign Secretary Md. Jashim Uddin on Wednesday, reports UNB. During the meeting, the foreign secretary reiterated Bangladesh's strong and ongoing support for the cause of Palestine, particularly its commitment

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Dhaka reaffirms support for Palestine, two-state solution
Published :
Nov 06, 2024 23:30
Updated :
Nov 06, 2024 23:30

Palestinian Ambassador to Bangladesh Yousef S.Y. Ramadan paid a courtesy call on Foreign Secretary Md. Jashim Uddin on Wednesday, reports UNB.

During the meeting, the foreign secretary reiterated Bangladesh's strong and ongoing support for the cause of Palestine, particularly its commitment to a two-state solution to independent Palestinian statehood.

Both sides reviewed the growing collaboration in various fields, including culture, education, exchange of training, and mutual cooperation in the multilateral fora, including the OIC and other organisations.

They also emphasised the importance of continued engagement and cooperation to promote peace, stability, and prosperity in the region and beyond, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.​

 

[Saif]

‘End the war, save us’

Palestinians in Gaza want Donald Trump, who won the US election, to end the Israeli offensive that has devastated their territory.

www.thedailystar.net

‘End the war, save us’
Palestinians urge Trump as the year-long Israeli offensive takes an appalling human toll in Gaza

A man carries the dead body of a Palestinian at the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip yesterday. Photo: REUTERS

Palestinians in Gaza want Donald Trump, who won the US election, to end the Israeli offensive that has devastated their territory.

The offensive that began on October 7 last year attack has taken an appalling human toll in the Gaza Strip, displacing most of its residents, causing widespread hunger and death, and leaving hospitals struggling to cope.

"We were displaced, killed... there's nothing left for us, we want peace," Mamdouh al-Jadba, who was displaced to Gaza City from Jabalia, told AFP on Wednesday.

"I hope Trump finds a solution, we need someone strong like Trump to end the war and save us, enough, God, this is enough," said the 60-year-old. "I was displaced three times, my house was destroyed, my children are homeless in the south... There's nothing left, Gaza is finished."

Abu Mohammed said he saw no reason to believe Trump's victory would be in favour of the Palestinians

Umm Ahmed Harb, from the Al-Shaaf area east of Gaza City, was also counting on Trump to "stand by our side" and end the territory's suffering.

"God willing the war will end, not for our sake but for the sake of our young children who are innocent, they were martyred and are dying of hunger," she told AFP. "We cannot buy anything with the high prices (of food). We are here in fear, terror and death."

For Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, where violence has also surged since October last year, Trump's victory was reason to fear for the future.

"Trump is firm in some decisions, but these decisions could serve Israel's interests politically more than they serve the Palestinian cause," said Samir Abu Jundi of Ramallah.

Another man who identified himself only by his nickname, Abu Mohammed, said he also saw no reason to believe Trump's victory would be in favour of the Palestinians, saying "nothing will change except more decline".​

 

[Saif]

US must stop supporting Israel’s genocide

Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed mostly women and children

www.thedailystar.net

US must stop supporting Israel’s genocide
Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed mostly women and children

Though we are witnessing the catastrophic impact of the Israeli offensive in Gaza live, the fact that 70 percent of the dead are women and children, as stated by the UN Human Rights Office, continues to shock and horrify us. Overall, 44 percent of the victims were children—the youngest was a one-day-old boy, and the oldest was a 97-year-old woman. This also goes to show that despite many countries condemning Israel's genocidal campaign, the mindless violence on civilian populations continues unabated.

Following his office's latest report, United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk has censured Israel's "wanton disregard" for the "rules of war," which are aimed at limiting and preventing human suffering during conflicts. He has urged Israel to comply with its international obligations. The report warns that the attack on civilians could amount to "crimes against humanity." In fact, Israel's siege of northern Gaza, its decision to sever ties with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) should be labelled as such because it effectively starves people by cutting off essential food and medical aid to Gaza.

Israel's military has deliberately targeted densely populated areas, sparing neither women, children, nor even babies. This demonstrates an attempt to ethnically cleanse Gaza, which constitutes genocide. How can Israel justify killing such a staggering number of women and children in the name of "self-defence"? Meanwhile, an independent Famine Review Committee (FRC) has warned of famine in northern Gaza. The FRC has urged those directly involved in the conflict (Israel), as well as those who can influence them, to take immediate action within days to stop or alleviate this catastrophic situation. The US has warned of restrictions on military aid to Israel if it does not "improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza."

Though this is too little too late, and comes after over 43,500 people have been killed in Gaza during the 13 months of war (according to Palestinian health authorities), if the US actually follows through on its warning, there may be some hope. It is up to the US to force Israel to stop its genocidal war, agree to a ceasefire, and enter into negotiations for a two-state solution. For this to happen, the first step would be for the US to refrain from sending any more military aid to Israel.

The question is, does it have the moral courage to do so? Since the Biden administration does not have to worry about elections anymore, this could be its chance to show that it does. Donald Trump, the next president of the US, has said that he will end all wars but that he will continue to support Israel. We hope in the interest of humanity and to honour international law, the Trump administration will change this stance and aim for a ceasefire.​

 

[Saif]

US warplanes attack Houthi targets

US warplanes staged multiple strikes Saturday night on Iran-backed Houthi advanced weapons storage facilities in Yemen, the Pentagon said.

www.thedailystar.net

US warplanes attack Houthi targets

US warplanes staged multiple strikes Saturday night on Iran-backed Houthi advanced weapons storage facilities in Yemen, the Pentagon said.

The facilities contained various weapons used to target military and civilian vessels navigating international waters throughout the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, according to information provided to AFP by the Pentagon.

The Houthi-run Al Masirah television network reported three American and British raids that targeted the capital Sanaa's southern Al Sabeen district.

"Eyewitnesses said they heard intense flying, along with explosions in different parts of the capital Sanaa," Al Masirah said.

The United States and Britain have repeatedly struck Houthi targets in Yemen since January in response to attacks by the rebels on shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The rebels say the strikes, which have disrupted maritime traffic in a globally important waterway, target vessels linked to Israel and are intended to signal solidarity with Palestinians during the Gaza offensive.

The attacks have seriously disrupted the Red Sea route which carries 12 percent of global trade.

In more than 100 Houthi attacks over nearly a year, four sailors have been killed and two ships have sunk, while one vessel and its crew remain detained since being hijacked last November.​

 

[Saif]

Famine looming in north Gaza

Famine is looming in the northern Gaza Strip amid increased hostilities and a near-halt in food aid, a UN-backed assessment said on Saturday.

www.newagebd.net

Famine looming in north Gaza
Agence France-Presse . Rome 10 November, 2024, 22:26

Displaced Palestinian children eat bread dipped in lentil soup in front of a tent at the al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday, amid the on-going war between Israel and the Hamas group. | AFP photo

Famine is looming in the northern Gaza Strip amid increased hostilities and a near-halt in food aid, a UN-backed assessment said on Saturday.

Israeli forces have intensified their operations in large swathes of devastated northern Gaza since early October, where evacuation orders are in place.

Aid shipments allowed to enter the Gaza Strip were now lower than at any time since October 2023, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification report.

The alert from the Famine Review Committee warned of ‘an imminent and substantial likelihood of famine occurring, due to the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip’.

On October 17, the body projected that the number of people in Gaza facing ‘catastrophic’ food insecurity between November and April 2025 would reach 3,45,000, or 16 per cent of the population.

The IPC report classified that figure as Phase 5 — a situation when ‘starvation, death, destitution and extremely critical acute malnutrition levels are evident’.

Since that report, conditions have worsened in the north of Gaza, with a collapse of food systems, a drop in humanitarian aid and critical water, sanitation and hygiene conditions, the committee said.

‘It can therefore be assumed that starvation, malnutrition, and excess mortality due to malnutrition and disease, are rapidly increasing in these areas,’ it read.

The Israeli military on Saturday questioned the UN-back report’s credibility.

‘To date, all assessments by the IPC have proven incorrect and inconsistent with the situation on the ground,’ the army said in a statement, denouncing ‘partial, biased data and superficial sources with vested interests’.

Access to food continues to deteriorate, with prices of essentials on the black market soaring. Cooking gas rose by 2,612 per cent, diesel by 1,315 per cent and wood by 250 per cent, it said.

‘Concurrent with the extremely high and increasing prices of essential items has been the total collapse of livelihoods to be able to purchase or barter for food and other basic needs,’ said the alert.

The body expressed concern over Israel’s cutting ties last month with the UN aid agency for Palestinians, warning of ‘extremely serious consequences for humanitarian operations’ in Gaza.

The United States — Israel’s biggest supporter — has given Israel until November 13 to improve the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip or risk the withholding of some American military assistance.​

 

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Gaza aid far from enough, UN warns

The UN warned yesterday that already low levels of aid trickling into Gaza had dwindled further, with the situation in the besieged north especially “catastrophic”.

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Gaza aid far from enough, UN warns
14 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes

Palestinians displaced from shelters in Beit Hanoun cross the main Salaheddine road into Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip following Israeli army evacuation orders yesterday. Photo: AFP

The UN warned yesterday that already low levels of aid trickling into Gaza had dwindled further, with the situation in the besieged north especially "catastrophic".

The warning from UNRWA, the United Nations agency supporting Palestinian refugees, came as Israel said it was opening an additional aid crossing into Gaza on the eve of a US-imposed deadline to improve humanitarian conditions in the war-ravaged territory.

Asked about whether there were signs the situation had improved ahead of yesterday's deadline, Louise Wateridge, an UNRWA emergencies officer, highlighted that "aid entering the Gaza Strip is at its lowest level in months".

Speaking to a Geneva media briefing via video-link from Gaza, Wateridge said that "the average for October was 37 trucks a day into the entire Gaza Strip... That is for 2.2 million people".

Death toll in Palestinian enclave rises to 43,665

"Children are dying. People are dying every day," she said, stressing that "people here need everything".

Meanwhile, Gaza's civil defence agency said yesterday that at least 14 people were killed in Israeli strikes on the Palestinian territory.

Israel's military campaign has levelled much of Gaza and killed at least 43,665 Palestinians since the offensive began in October last year, Gaza health officials said.

Wateridge also said that testimonies from the north painted "an endlessly horrific" picture that was becoming "more critical" by the hour.

"Hospitals have been bombed, the doctors inform us that they have run out of blood supplies, they have run out of medicine... there are bodies in the streets," she added. No food was permitted to enter besieged northern Gaza for an entire month, Wateridge said, adding that UN requests to access the area have been repeatedly denied.​

 

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Mideast peace requires end to Israeli occupation

Arab and Muslim leaders demanded on Monday that Israel withdraw from occupied Palestinian territories as a precondition for regional peace, while denouncing ‘shocking’ Israeli crimes in war-ravaged Gaza.

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Mideast peace requires end to Israeli occupation
Agence France-Presse . Riyadh 12 November, 2024, 22:29

AFP photo

Arab and Muslim leaders demanded on Monday that Israel withdraw from occupied Palestinian territories as a precondition for regional peace, while denouncing ‘shocking’ Israeli crimes in war-ravaged Gaza.

A summit meeting in the Saudi capital Riyadh gave the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s 57 nations a chance to speak with one voice on turmoil engulfing the region, more than a year into the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

It came less than a week after Donald Trump secured a second term as president of the United States, Israel’s top military backer.

The summit’s closing statement said that ‘a just and comprehensive peace in the region cannot be achieved without ending the Israeli occupation of all occupied Arab territories to the line of June 4, 1967,’ referring to the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem as well as Gaza and the Golan Heights.

The statement mentioned UN resolutions which have called on Israel to withdraw from these areas, and the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, in which Arab nations offered Israel normalised ties in return for a two-state agreement with the Palestinians along the 1967 lines.

The international community should ‘launch a plan with specific steps and timing under international sponsorship’ to make a sovereign Palestinian state a reality, the statement said.

Hamas later urged Arab and Muslim nations to back up those pledges with action.

‘The establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital would require more immediate efforts and practical solutions to force (Israel) to stop its aggression and genocide against our people,’ Hamas said in a statement.

The hard-right Israeli government of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains opposed to Palestinian statehood and Israel’s new foreign minister, Gideon Saar, dismissed the prospect as not ‘realistic’.

Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich later Monday vowed to push for annexation of parts of the West Bank in 2025.

The Riyadh summit reiterated regional leaders’ call for Palestinian territories — including Gaza, which is separated from the West Bank by Israeli territory — to be grouped together in a future state.

The leaders also condemned ‘horrific and shocking crimes’ by Israel’s army, saying they occurred ‘in the context of the crime of genocide’.

The war began with Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 last year, which resulted in 1,206 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed more than 43,600 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.

Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, which like Hamas is backed by Iran, began firing on Israel after the October 7 attack, in stated support of its Palestinian ally.

The regular cross-border exchanges escalated in late September. Israel has intensified its air strikes and later sent ground troops into southern Lebanon.

Addressing Monday’s summit, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said the world must ‘immediately halt the Israeli actions against our brothers in Palestine and Lebanon’ and condemned Israel’s campaign in Gaza as ‘genocide’.

Prince Mohammed, the Gulf kingdom’s de facto ruler, also called on Israel not to attack Iran, highlighting improving ties between Riyadh and its regional rival Tehran.

Lebanon’s prime minister Najib Mikati warned that his country was suffering an ‘existential’ crisis and hit out at countries meddling in its internal affairs — a thinly veiled swipe at Iran.

Trump’s election last week for a second term in the White House was likely on leaders’ minds, said Anna Jacobs, senior Gulf analyst for the International Crisis Group think tank.

‘This summit is very much an opportunity for regional leaders to signal to the incoming Trump administration what they want in terms of US engagement,’ she said.

Iranian first vice president Mohammad Reza Aref said in his remarks that ‘the world is waiting’ for Trump ‘to immediately stop the war against the innocent people of Gaza and Lebanon’.

The final statement included a call for a ban on the export and transfer of weapons to Israel.

Despite criticism of the impact Israel’s military campaign has had on Gaza civilians, outgoing US president Joe Biden has ensured that Washington remains Israel’s most important military backer during more than a year of fighting.

In his first term, Trump defied international consensus with a series of moves praised by the Israeli government but condemned by Palestinians.

He recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, moving the US embassy there, and endorsed Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are illegal under international law.​

 

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Destruction in north Gaza widespread

Palestinians displaced from northern Gaza said Israeli forces had inflicted widespread destruction on their home districts in their latest six-week-old offensive and a rights group raised concerns Israel might put some areas permanently off-limits.

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Destruction in north Gaza widespread
Say displaced Palestinians as rights group warns some may never return

Palestinians displaced from northern Gaza said Israeli forces had inflicted widespread destruction on their home districts in their latest six-week-old offensive and a rights group raised concerns Israel might put some areas permanently off-limits.

Jabalia, one of the largest of Gaza's eight historic refugee camps, as well as the towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun and nearby villages, were among the first targets of Israel's ground offensive in October 2023 after Hamas members attacked Israel.

Tanks have gone in several more times in what Israel says are necessary operations against Hamas fighters there who still pose a threat. Yesterday, it said its troops had killed dozens of "terrorists" and found a large quantity of weapons.

Former construction contractor Abu Raed, who was displaced from Jabalia, said Israeli forces were blowing buildings up remotely after booby-trapping them or sending in robots.

Palestinian health ministry officials said Israel's latest airstrikes killed at least 15 people across the enclave, including four at Gaza City's Salahudeen School, which shelters displaced families. At least 43,736 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's offensive on Gaza since Oct 7, 2023.

The Human Rights Watch report was the latest to warn about the dire humanitarian situation. "Forced displacement has been widespread, and the evidence shows it has been systematic and part of a state policy. Such acts also constitute crimes against humanity," it said.

It said the displacement "is likely planned to be permanent in the buffer zones and security corridors".​

 

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Hamas says ‘ready for ceasefire’ as Israel presses Gaza campaign

A senior Hamas official on Friday said the group is ‘ready for a ceasefire’ in Gaza, urging US president-elect Donald Trump to ‘pressure’ Israel as it continued to pound the Palestinian territory.

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Hamas says ‘ready for ceasefire’ as Israel presses Gaza campaign
Agence France-Presse . Jerusalem 16 November, 2024, 00:54

A man reacts as he sits in a heavily damaged building following an Israeli strike in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on Friday. | AFP photo

A senior Hamas official on Friday said the group is ‘ready for a ceasefire’ in Gaza, urging US president-elect Donald Trump to ‘pressure’ Israel as it continued to pound the Palestinian territory.

It comes nearly a week after Qatar, which hosts much of the Palestinian group’s political bureau, announced it was suspending its role as a mediator in the war and urging all parties to show ‘seriousness’.

‘Hamas is ready to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip if a ceasefire proposal is presented and on the condition that it is respected’ by Israel, Doha-based Hamas political bureau member Bassem Naim said.

‘We call on the US administration and Trump to pressure the Israeli government to end the aggression.’

On Saturday, Qatar announced it was suspending its role as a mediator in indirect talks towards a ceasefire and hostage release deal in the Gaza war that has ground on for more than a year.

‘Qatar would resume those efforts when the parties show their willingness and seriousness,’ Doha’s foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari said in a statement.

Friday’s announcement by Hamas came as Israel continued to strike Gaza, with residents of the central city of Deir el-Balah searching through the rubble of their destroyed homes after overnight strikes.

‘I woke up to the bombing at 2:30am and was surprised by the rubble and glass falling on me and my children,’ said Mohamed Baraka, one of the residents, adding that the strike ‘resulted in three martyrs and 15 injuries’.

‘Put an end to this war because there are innocent people who are losing defenceless children who have nothing to do with this,’ he said.

The war erupted with Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel which resulted in 1,206 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed 43,764 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.

Militants also kidnapped 251 hostages during the attack, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 34 whom the Israeli military says are dead.

Earlier Friday, the Hamas-allied militant group Islamic Jihad released a new clip of Israeli hostage Sasha Trupanov, after issuing a first video earlier this week.

Trupanov, 29, is a dual Russian-Israeli citizen who was abducted with his girlfriend, Sapir Cohen, from the Nir Oz kibbutz near the Gaza border.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called for the release of Trupanov and another hostage, Maxim Herkin, in comments made before the release of the latest clip.

Fears surged over the fate of the hostages after Qatar announced its withdrawal from mediating talks — the latest blow in a protracted negotiation process that has hit repeated impasses.

Israel on Friday also continued to strike Lebanon, where it intensified in September its air offensive and later sent in ground troops following a year of low-intensity cross-border exchanges with the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.

A building in Beirut’s southern suburbs collapsed in a gigantic cloud of smoke and dust, an AFP photographer reported, as two strikes attributed to Israel hit the Hezbollah bastion.

A series of images from the strike captures a falling projectile slamming into the lower floors of the building, which erupt in a huge fireball, causing the structure to collapse.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported a ‘heavy raid carried out by aircraft of the Israeli enemy’ in the Ghobeiri area of southern Beirut.

It said the raid had been preceded by two missile strikes on the same target by an Israeli drone.

The strikes followed a call by the Israeli military to evacuate the area. The evacuation call posted on X by Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee told residents to leave, warning of imminent strikes.

‘All residents in the southern suburbs, specifically in the Ghobeiri area, you are located near facilities and interests affiliated with Hezbollah,’ Adraee said in an Arabic-language post on X.

‘For your safety and the safety of your family members, you must evacuate these buildings and those adjacent to them immediately.’

Later in the morning, a second strike hit the Bourj al-Barajneh area of the southern suburbs, an AFP journalist reported.

NNA said two missiles had been fired by an ‘enemy aircraft’.

Lebanese authorities say more than 3,380 people have been killed since October last year, when Hezbollah and Israel began trading fire.​