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

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[🇧🇩] Israel and Hamas war in Gaza-----Can Bangladesh be a peace broker?
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Israeli strikes on southern Gaza city of Rafah kill 22, mostly children
AP
Published :
Apr 21, 2024 20:07
Updated :
Apr 21, 2024 20:07

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Palestinians look at damages following an Israeli raid at Nur Shams camp, in Tulkarm, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on April 21, 2024 — Reuters photo

Israeli strikes on the southern Gaza city of Rafah overnight killed 22 people, including 18 children, health officials said Sunday, as the United States was on track to approve billions of dollars of additional military aid to its close ally.

Israel has carried out near-daily air raids on Rafah, where more than half of Gaza's population of 2.3 million has sought refuge from fighting elsewhere. It has also vowed to expand its ground offensive to the city on the border with Egypt despite international calls for restraint, including from the US.

The House of Representatives approved a $26 billion aid package on Saturday that includes around $9 billion in humanitarian assistance for Gaza.

The first strike killed a man, his wife and their 3-year-old child, according to the nearby Kuwaiti Hospital, which received the bodies. The woman was pregnant and the doctors managed to save the baby, the hospital said.

The second strike killed 17 children and two women, all from the same extended family, according to hospital records. First responders were still searching the rubble. An airstrike in Rafah the night before killed nine people, including six children.

Mohammed al-Beheiri said his daughter, Rasha, and her six children, ranging in age from 18 months to 16 years, were among those killed overnight and into Sunday. Her husband's second wife and their three children were still under the rubble, al-Beheiri said.

The Israel-Hamas war has killed over 34,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, devastated Gaza's two largest cities and left a swath of destruction across the territory. Around 80% of the population have fled their homes to other parts of the besieged coastal enclave, which experts say is on the brink of famine.

The conflict, now in its seventh month, has sparked regional unrest pitting Israel and the U.S. against Iran and allied militant groups across the Middle East. Israel and Iran traded fire directly earlier this month, raising fears of all-out war between the longtime foes.

Tensions have also spiked in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli troops killed two Palestinians who the military says attacked a checkpoint with a knife and a gun near the southern West Bank town of Hebron early Sunday. The Palestinian Health Ministry said the two killed were 18 and 19 years old, from the same family. No Israeli forces were wounded, the army said.

The Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service meanwhile said it has recovered a total of 14 bodies from an Israeli raid in the Nur Shams urban refugee camp in the West Bank that began late Thursday. Those killed include three militants from the Islamic Jihad group and a 15-year-old boy. The military says it killed 10 militants in the camp and arrested eight suspects. Nine Israeli soldiers and officers were wounded.

In a separate incident in the West Bank, an Israeli man was wounded in an explosion Sunday, the Magen David Adom rescue service said. A video circulating online shows a man approaching a Palestinian flag that had been planted in a field. When he kicks it, it appears to trigger an explosive device.

At least 469 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Most have been killed during Israeli military arrest raids, which often trigger gunbattles, or in violent protests.

The war in Gaza was sparked by an unprecedented Oct. 7 raid into southern Israel in which Hamas and other militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 hostages. Israel says militants are still holding around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.

Thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets to call for new elections to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a deal with Hamas to release the hostages. Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until Hamas is destroyed and all the hostages are returned.

The war has killed at least 34,097 Palestinians and wounded another 76,980, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry does not differentiate between combatants and civilians in its count but says at least two-thirds have been children and women. It also says the real toll is likely higher as many bodies are stuck beneath the rubble left by airstrikes or are in areas that are unreachable for medics.

Israel blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the militants fight in dense, residential neighborhoods, but the military rarely comments on individual strikes, which often kill women and children. The military says it has killed over 13,000 Hamas fighters, without providing evidence.​
 

Hezbollah downs Israeli drone

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A wounded Palestinian woman is escorted to an ambulance before she is transported to hospital after an Israeli strike on al-Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip yesterday. Photo: AFP

Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah said on Sunday it downed an Israeli drone that was on a combat mission in southern Lebanon.

The drone that was brought down above the Al Aishiyeh area in southern Lebanon was "waging its attacks on our steadfast people," a statement said by the group said.

Israeli forces and Lebanon's armed group Hezbollah have been exchanging fire for over six months in parallel to the Gaza war, in the most serious hostilities since they fought a major war in 2006.

Hezbollah said the drone was an Israeli Hermes 450, a multi-payload drone made by Elbit Systems, an Israel-based weapons manufacturer. The fighting has fuelled concern about risk of further escalation.

At least 370 Lebanese, including more than 240 Hezbollah fighters and 68 civilians, have been killed in the fighting according to a Reuters tally. Eighteen Israelis, including soldiers and civilians, have been killed on the Israeli side of the border, according to Israeli tallies.​
 

Israeli military intelligence chief resigns as Gaza pounded
Agence France-Presse . Jerusalem 23 April, 2024, 00:26

Israel's military intelligence chief has resigned after taking responsibility for failures leading to the Hamas attack on October 7, the military said on Monday, as Israel carried out more shelling in war-battered Gaza overnight.

General Aharon Haliva is the first top Israeli official to step down for failing to prevent the Hamas attack, which triggered the war in Gaza and brought the government and military under intense scrutiny in Israel.

'The intelligence division under my command did not live up to the task we were entrusted with,' Haliva said in his resignation letter. 'I carry that black day with me ever since.'

Israel has meanwhile lashed out at reports that its top ally the United States was considering sanctioning the military's ultra-Orthodox Netzah Yehuda battalion over alleged human rights abuses in the West Bank from before the war.

'At a time when our soldiers are fighting the monsters of terror, the intention to impose a sanction on a unit in the IDF (army) is the height of absurdity and a moral low,' prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted on X.

Netanyahu said late Sunday that the Israeli military would increase military pressure to 'deliver additional and painful blows' to Hamas in the coming days, without elaborating further.

The prime minister has repeatedly said Israel will launch a ground assault on Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah, despite international concern about the majority of the territory's population who have taken refuge there.

The promise of more military pressure came amid growing global opposition to Israel's offensive in Gaza, which has turned vasts areas of the territory into rubble and sparked a dire humanitarian crisis including fears of famine.

Gaza was hit by heavy shelling overnight, with strikes reported in several areas in the centre and south of the besieged territory, an AFP correspondent said on Monday.

Doctors at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in the Gaza city of Deir El Balah said that six people were wounded in an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza, while three more were injured by a separate strike on the Al-Bureij refugee camp.

Israel's allies including Washington have warned against sending troops into Rafah, fearing huge civilian casualties in the only major Gaza city yet to be invaded during the offensive.

More than 1.5 million of the 2.4 million Palestinians in Gaza are estimated to have taken refuge in Rafah. However thousands are believed to have headed north since Israel withdrew most of its troops from Gaza earlier this month.

The Israeli army has said the city is Hamas's last major stronghold and that some of the hostages taken on October 7 were being held there.

This week, during the Jewish holiday of Passover which begins on Monday night, 'it will be 200 days of captivity for the hostages,' Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said.

'The chief of staff has approved the next steps for the war,' he added, without offering details.

At least 16 people, mostly children, were killed in Israeli strikes on two Rafah homes over the weekend, according to Gaza's civil defence agency.

Gaza's crossings and borders authority meanwhile said that 34 Palestinian detainees had been released from Israeli prison since Monday morning. Authority spokesman Hisham Adwan said some of the prisoners showed 'signs of torture'.

In the main southern city of Khan Yunis, Gaza's civil defence agency said on Sunday that its teams had discovered at least 50 bodies buried in the courtyard of a hospital previously raided by Israel.

Spokesman Mahmud Bassal said that the agency was 'waiting for all graves to be exhumed in order to give a final number' of bodies unearthed from the courtyard of the Nasser Medical Complex.

Israel's military said it was checking the reports.

In the occupied West Bank, where violence has surged since the Gaza war began, a funeral procession was held on Sunday for 13 Palestinians killed during an Israeli raid on the Nur Shams refugee camp.

The Israeli army said it had killed 10 militants in a three-day 'counterterrorism' raid on Nur Shams, but residents in the camp gave a different account.

Niaz Zandeq, 40, said his son Jehad was shot dead by an Israeli soldier on his 15th birthday.

Neighbours said troops told Jehad to leave his uncle's house.

'The minute he came out, they opened fire, hitting him directly in the head,' Zandeq said through tears. 'He was unarmed.'

The Israeli army has not responded to residents' allegations.

The army also said a suspect has been arrested over the death of Israeli teenager Benjamin Achimeir, whose disappearance sparked violent raids in the West Bank earlier this month.

In Jerusalem, two civilians received minor injuries in a car-ramming attack on Monday. Israeli police said they had arrested two suspects who fled the scene on foot.

Hamas's October 7 attack that triggered the Gaza war resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,151 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

Israel estimates that 129 captives remain in Gaza, including 34 who the military says are dead.

Some relatives of the hostages have urged families celebrating Passover to leave an empty chair at their seder table with a picture of a hostage.

'How can we celebrate such a holiday while people are still without their freedom, still waiting to be liberated?' asked Mai Albini, whose grandfather Chaim Peri was taken hostage on October 7.​
 

US aid to Israel: Twenty-three billion dollars to slaughter women and children
us aid to israel

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A medic holds a Palestinian newborn girl after she was pulled alive from the womb of her mother Sabreen Al-Sheikh (Al-Sakani), who was killed in an Israeli strike, along with her husband Shokri and her daughter Malak, at a hospital in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, in this still image taken from a video recorded April 20, 2024. PHOTO: REUTERS

After vetoing Palestinian statehood, the US, on Sunday, passed an aid package worth $23 billion to Israel, to strong-arm the Israeli machine of killing and destruction. In a twisted coincidence, on the same day, it was reported that around 23,000 women and children had been killed in Gaza so far since October 7, 2023. The US has decided to generously reward Israel $1 billion per thousand women and children that Israel has killed in the Gaza Strip. With this generosity, the US has proven that it is most aggressively against the human rights of women and children.

More than three decades ago, the US, the sponsor of the peace process in the Middle East, began injecting the Palestinians with morphine through false promises of a two-state solution, and in return, unlimited support for Israel, the occupying power, and its racist, expansionist, and fascist policies that it practices against the Palestinian people.

After the direct Iranian response to the Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, where the US rushed to rescue its spoiled son to avoid the expansion of the conflict in the Middle East, it presented a request to Israel to not drag the region into a war with dire consequences. In exchange for Israel accepting the US' request, the US handed out gifts to Netanyahu. But only billions of dollars was not sufficient. The US also had to wrap the gift with a veto in the United Nations to prevent the full membership of Palestinian Statehood in the United Nations. With such palatial blessings from the US, Netanyahu will now advance his planned operation in Rafah, where most of the displaced Palestinians of the Gaza Strip are taking refuge.

How could the US give this shameless, morally bankrupt "go-ahead," after the documented atrocities in the Gaza Strip?

Biden ostentatiously spoke about building a port to provide aid to Palestinians to project how much he cares. Since January, we have seen reports that the US has apparently set up a channel with Israel "to discuss concerns" over the large number of civilian deaths, and "seek answers." What came out of all these big words? Is this—the continued slaughter of civilians—the result of their moral investigations? How can we ever take a single word that the US says seriously when it is simply letting Israel do whatever it wants, at the cost of Palestinian lives—thousands and thousands of innocent Palestinian lives. Palestinians continue to pay the price. It appears as though Palestinian blood is just a liquid with no value.

When will the Muslim ummah wake up from its deep sleep, its helplessness, and its restraint? When will they rise to defend their sanctity and honour sacred places such as the Al-Aqsa mosque, our first Qibla? When will they step up to protect the Palestinian people? Why are we continuing to tolerate this utter humiliation?

— Yousef SY Ramadan, Palestinian Ambassador to Bangladesh

Joe Biden not only failed to live up to his promises to the Palestinians, but also to every Muslim in the US and every citizen who voted for him, because he had promised to take a stand against fascism and racism in his presidential campaign against Donald Trump. But then he presented the worst US initiative of the century to solve the Palestinian issue.

The US president, who claimed he is a "Zionist at heart," washed away every promise he ever made to uphold human rights with the worst policy. He not only disavowed all his promises to the Palestinians, and not only aided the genocide in Gaza, but he actively participated in it. As his own citizens protest against him, calling him "Genocide Joe," Biden shamelessly continues to provide Israeli aggressors with all the support on both material and diplomatic fronts. In the upcoming election, where he is projected to face Donald Trump again, voters have said in polls they consider Biden to be more evil. It's as though Biden is ready to lose his seat by supporting this genocide but he still cannot stop Israel's worst impulses. So how can we even believe that he truly even wants to stop Israel's genocide?

In February, one of Biden's top foreign policy officials acknowledged the administration's mistakes in Gaza and offered "clear notes of contrition" for its response to the Gaza war to Arab-American voters in Michigan. And even after all that, as Israel continued to kill more civilians and poked Iran to start a larger war, the US president took to The Wall Street Journal, writing a word salad plea to pass the aid, before it was successfully passed. In the opinion piece, Biden wrote, Israel is facing "brazen adversaries that seek their annihilation." So we ask, who are Israel's "brazen adversaries"? Is it the thousands of helpless, starving children who are being orphaned by the Israeli occupying forces? And what about the annihilation of Gaza?

After giving aid to Israel to kill Palestinians, the US is now reportedly considering placing sanctions on a unit of the Israeli "occupying" forces—Netzah Yehuda Battalion, the ultra-Orthodox Israeli military unit accused of documented human rights abuses against Palestinians. Netanyahu responded that, "At a time when our soldiers are fighting against the monsters of terror, the intention to impose a sanction on a unit in the IDF is the height of absurdity and a moral low." He added, "The government headed by me will act by all means against these moves."

So tell us, why is the Biden Administration rewarding this selfish, fascist man who has always been a renegade, out only for himself? Netanyahu has not expressed gratitude for the support it gets from the US, instead he keeps showing off that he doesn't need the US, each time there are any minor speculations of punitive actions against his murderous agenda to remove Palestinians from the map. All of humanity stands helpless before the tyranny of Netanyahu, the US' spoiled son, dragging the White House behind him. The US has pretended to stand with the oppressed when the reality is, it stands only and only with the oppressor, becoming the oppressor itself. Time and time again, the US has proven to the world, especially the Arab and Islamic world, that it simply does not care—not only about the aspirations of the Palestinian people, but also about the ongoing demands of many other countries. Shame on everyone who has claimed to be moral and stand by humanity, while silently watching double standards pave the path for unspeakable horrors to unfold, the likes of which history has never known.

Now, the question is, how long will the rest of the world remain hostage to the oppressor? Or rather, when will the Muslim ummah wake up from its deep sleep, its helplessness, and its restraint? When will they rise to defend their sanctity and honour sacred places such as the Al-Aqsa mosque, our first Qibla? When will they step up to protect the Palestinian people? Why are we continuing to tolerate this utter humiliation? Will we raise our heads high and say enough is enough? Or will we continue to live in this darkness?

I can answer on behalf of my Palestinian people because I breathe their air, drink their water, and live in their pain. So I say to every free person in this world that we Palestinians are a people who love life. We are human beings who continue to fight for our freedom even when the worst of mankind keeps killing us; we Palestinians resist, for the sake of our dignity. The Palestinians in Gaza, unlike anything seen before, refuse to leave, they have accepted martyrdom. If sacrificing our human lives is what it takes to protect our land, our sanctity and our dignity, then so be it.

No matter how strong the power of the oppressor is, we will not surrender. No matter how tyrannical the oppressor is, the strength of our people will continue on. We will fight until we obtain our rights as human beings. We believe in the power of truth. The oppressors will never attain victory, real victory, because the determination of Palestinians will continue to prevail.

His Excellency Youssef SY Ramadan is the ambassador of Palestine to Bangladesh.​
 

'Neutrality' issues found at UNRWA, review finds
Israel yet to provide evidence for incendiary allegations that UN agency's staff were members of terrorist organizations

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An independent review group on the UN agency for Palestinians found some "neutrality-related issues," its much-anticipated report said Monday, but noted Israel had yet to provide evidence for incendiary allegations that staff were members of terrorist organizations.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) remains "irreplaceable and indispensable to Palestinians' human and economic development" added the 54-page report, which was led by French diplomat Catherine Colonna.

The review group was created following allegations made by Israel in January that some UNRWA staff may have participated in the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks. In the weeks that followed, numerous donor states suspended or paused some $450 million in funding.

Many have since resumed funding, including Sweden, Canada, Japan, the EU and France -- while others, including the United States and Britain -- have not.

The review also found that the majority of neutrality breaches related to the social media posts.

Congress passed a bill signed into law by President Joe Biden last month that blocks US funding until March 2025.

The freezes to the main aid agency in Gaza come as months of Israeli military operations have turned the territory into a "humanitarian hellscape," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said recently, with its 2.3 million people in desperate need of food, water, shelter and medicine.

Colonna's team was tasked with assessing whether UNRWA was "doing everything within its power to ensure neutrality," while Guterres activated a second investigation to probe Israel's allegations.

Despite a framework for ensuring it upheld the humanitarian principle of neutrality, the review found that "neutrality-related issues persist," including staff sharing biased political posts on social media and the use of a small number of textbooks with "problematic content" in some UNRWA schools.

But it added "Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence" for its claim that UNRWA employs more than 400 "terrorists."

Israel responded by saying that "the Colonna report ignores the severity of the problem, and offers cosmetic solutions that do not deal with the enormous scope of Hamas' infiltration of UNRWA."

UNRWA itself welcomed the findings and Guterres said he accepted its recommendations.

The review found that the majority of neutrality breaches related to social media posts, often following incidents of violence affecting colleagues or relatives.

"One preventive action could be to ensure that personnel are given space to discuss these traumatic incidents," said the report, which was co-authored with three Nordic rights groups.
 

Hezbollah launches drones at Israel bases
Agence France-Presse . Beirut 23 April, 2024, 22:01

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The Israeli army had earlier on Tuesday claimed to have killed `two significant terrorists in Hezbollah's aerial unit' during the course of the previous day and night. | AFP photo

Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement said it launched drone attacks on two north Israel bases Tuesday in retaliation for the killing of a fighter Israel described as 'significant'.

Since Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel triggered war in Gaza, there have been near-daily cross-border exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and the Israeli army.

But Hezbollah has stepped up its rocket attacks on Israeli positions in recent days, with the latest assault targeting beyond the border area that the group usually strikes.

Hezbollah launched 'a combined air attack using decoy and explosive drones that targeted' two Israeli bases north of Acre, the group announced in a statement, while Israel said they did not hit their targets.

The Lebanese group added the attack was 'in response' to an Israeli drone strike that killed one of its members in south Lebanon earlier in the day.

Israel's army said it had 'successfully intercepted two suspicious aerial targets off the northern coast'.

On Tuesday morning, a source close to Hezbollah told AFP an Israeli drone strike deep into Lebanon killed an engineer working for the group's air defence forces as he was travelling in a vehicle.

The strike hit the Abu al-Aswad area near the coastal city of Tyre, some 35 kilometres from the border, an AFP journalist reported.

The fighter's vehicle was completely burnt out.

Hezbollah said one of its fighters had been killed by Israeli fire, adding he was a resident of the area where the vehicle was struck.

The group also said another fighter had been killed by Israel in a statement overnight.

Earlier Tuesday, the Israeli army had said it killed 'two significant terrorists in Hezbollah's aerial unit' on Tuesday morning and overnight.

The fighter killed Tuesday was 'heavily involved in the planning and execution of terrorist attacks against Israel,' it added.

On Sunday evening, Hezbollah shot down an Israeli drone, both sides said.

Since October 7, at least 378 people have been killed in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters but also 70 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

Israel says 11 soldiers and eight civilians have been killed on its side of the border.​
 

Gaza could surpass famine thresholds in 6 weeks: WFP


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A family flees Rafah putting the children in the trunk of a car in the southern Gaza Strip yesterday. Fears are rising that Israel will soon launch an assault on Rafah, but aid groups warn any invasion would create an "apocalyptic situation". Photo: REUTERS

The Gaza Strip could surpass famine thresholds of food insecurity, malnutrition and mortality in six weeks, an official from the World Food Programme said yesterday.

"We are getting closer by the day to a famine situation," said Gian Caro Cirri, Geneva director of the World Food Programme (WFP).

"There is reasonable evidence that all three famine thresholds -- food insecurity, malnutrition and mortality -- will be passed in the next six weeks."

A UN-backed report published in March said that famine was imminent and likely to occur by May in northern Gaza and could spread across the enclave by July. On Tuesday, a US official said the risk of famine in Gaza, especially in the north, was very high.

Cirri was speaking at the launch of a report by the Global Network Against Food Crises, an alliance of humanitarian and development actors including United Nations agencies, the World Bank, the European Union and the United States.

A US official said the risk of famine in Gaza, especially in the north, is very high.

In its report, the network described the 2024 outlook for the Middle East and Africa as extremely concerning due to the Gaza offensive and restricted humanitarian access, as well as the risk of the conflict spreading elsewhere in the region.

"As for Gaza, the conflict makes it difficult and sometimes impossible to reach affected people," Cirri said. "We need to scale up massively our assistance... But under the current conditions, I'm afraid the situation will further deteriorate."

The United Nations has long complained of obstacles to getting aid in and distributing it throughout Gaza in the six months since Israel began an aerial and ground offensive against Gaza's ruling group Hamas.

Israel has denied hindering supplies of humanitarian aid and blames aid agencies for inefficiencies in distribution.

Israel's military campaign has reduced much of the territory of 2.3 million people to a wasteland with a humanitarian disaster unfolding since October 7.

Cirri said that the only way to steer clear of famine in Gaza was to ensure immediate and daily deliveries of food supplies. "They've been selling off their belongings to buy food. They are most of the time destitute," he said. "And clearly some of them are dying of hunger."

Meanwhile, the Red Cross said the evacuation of displaced Palestinians from Gaza Strip's Rafah is not possible under current conditions.

The statement from the top humanitarian agency comes as Isarel has signalled that the invasion of Rafah is in the offing. The Israeli military considers Rafah in southern Gaza to be the last bastion of Hamas.​
 

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