🇧🇩 Israel and Hamas war in Gaza-----Can Bangladesh be a peace broker? (1 Viewer)

[Saif]

Israeli strikes kill at least 42 in Gaza

At least 42 people were killed in Israeli attacks on districts of Gaza City in the north of the Palestinian enclave on Saturday, the director of the Hamas-run government media office said. One Israeli strike on houses in Al-Shati, one of the Gaza Strip's eight historic refugee camps, killed 24 peo

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Israeli strikes kill at least 42 in Gaza
Published :
Jun 22, 2024 21:30
Updated :
Jun 22, 2024 21:30

At least 42 people were killed in Israeli attacks on districts of Gaza City in the north of the Palestinian enclave on Saturday, the director of the Hamas-run government media office said.
One Israeli strike on houses in Al-Shati, one of the Gaza Strip's eight historic refugee camps, killed 24 people, Ismail Al-Thawabta told Reuters. Another 18 Palestinians were killed in a strike on houses in the Al-Tuffah neighbourhood.

The Israeli military released a brief statement saying: "A short while ago, IDF fighter jets struck two Hamas military infrastructure sites in the area of Gaza City."

It said more details would be released soon.

Hamas did not comment on the Israeli claim to have hit its military infrastructure. It said in a statement the attacks targeted the civilian population and vowed in a statement "the occupation and its Nazi leaders will pay the price for their violations against our people."

Footage obtained by Reuters showed dozens of Palestinians rushing out to search for victims amid the destroyed houses. The footage showed wrecked homes, blasted walls, and debris and dust filling the street in Shati refugee camp.

Israel's ground and air campaign in Gaza was triggered when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct 7, killing around 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

The offensive has left Gaza in ruins, killed more than 37,400 people, of whom 101 were killed in the past 24 hours, according to Palestinian health authorities, and left nearly the entire population homeless and destitute.

More than eight months into the war, Israel's advance is now focused on the two last areas its forces had yet to seize: Rafah on Gaza's southern edge and the area surrounding Deir al-Balah in the centre.

Residents said Israeli tanks deepened their incursion into western and northern Rafah areas in recent days. On Saturday Israeli forces bombed several areas from air and the ground, forcing many families living in areas described as humanitarian-designated zones to leave northwards.

The Israeli military said forces continued "precise, intelligence-based" targeted operations in Rafah, killing many Palestinian gunmen and dismantling military infrastructure.

On Friday, the Gaza health ministry said at least 25 Palestinians were killed in Mawasi in western Rafah and 50 wounded. Palestinians said a tank shell hit a tent housing displaced families.

The Israeli military said that the incident was under review. "An initial inquiry conducted suggests that there is no indication that a strike was carried out by the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) in the Humanitarian Area in Al-Mawasi," it said.​

 

[Saif]

Food piles up at Gaza crossing in south

Days after Israel announced a daily pause in fighting on a key route to allow more aid into Gaza, chaos in the besieged Palestinian territory has left vital supplies piled up and undistributed in the searing summer heat.

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Food piles up at Gaza crossing in south
Aid agencies say they are unable to work due to continued Israeli strikes, breakdown of public order

Palestinians carry a casualty outside the headquarters of UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) following an Israeli strike in Gaza City yesterday. Israel's offensive since October 7 has left Gaza in ruins, killed almost 37,600 people, according to Palestinian health authorities, and left nearly the entire population homeless and destitute. Photo: REUTERS

Days after Israel announced a daily pause in fighting on a key route to allow more aid into Gaza, chaos in the besieged Palestinian territory has left vital supplies piled up and undistributed in the searing summer heat.

More than eight months of offensive have led to dire humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip and repeated UN warnings of famine.

Desperation among Gaza's 2.4 million population has increased as fighting rages, sparking warnings from agencies that they are unable to deliver aid.

Israel says it has let supplies in and called on agencies to step up deliveries.

"The breakdown of public order and safety is increasingly endangering humanitarian workers and operations in Gaza," the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, said in a briefing later on Friday.

"Alongside the fighting, criminal activities and the risk of theft and robbery has effectively prevented humanitarian access to critical locations."

But Israel says it has allowed hundreds of trucks of aid into southern Gaza, trading blame with the United Nations over why the aid is stacking up.


It shared aerial footage of containers lined up on the Gazan side of the Kerem Shalom crossing and more trucks arriving to add to the stockpile.

With civil order breaking down in Gaza, the UN says it has been unable to pick up any supplies from Kerem Shalom since Tuesday, leaving crucial aid in limbo.

A deputy UN spokesman this week said the crossing "is operating with limited functionality, including because of fighting in the area".

William Schomburg, International Committee of the Red Cross chief in Rafah, said arranging lorries from the Egyptian side in particular was complicated.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli forces tie injured Palestinian to jeep in raid

Israeli army forces strapped a wounded Palestinian man to the hood of a military jeep during an arrest raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on Saturday.

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Israeli forces tie injured Palestinian to jeep in raid

Israeli army forces strapped a wounded Palestinian man to the hood of a military jeep during an arrest raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on Saturday.

A video circulating on social media and verified by Reuters showed a Palestinian resident of Jenin, Mujahed Azmi, on the jeep that passes through two ambulances.

The Israeli military in a statement said Israeli forces were fired at and exchanged fire, wounding a suspect and apprehending him.

Soldiers then violated military protocol, the statement said. "The suspect was taken by the forces while tied on top of a vehicle," it said.

The military said the "conduct of the forces in the video of the incident does not conform to the values" of the Israeli military and that the incident will be investigated and dealt with.

The individual was transferred to medics for treatment, the military said. Reuters was able to match the location from corroborating and verified footage shared on social media that shows a vehicle transporting an individual tied on top of a vehicle in Jenin. The date was confirmed by an eyewitness interviewed by Reuters.

According to the family of Azmi, there was an arrest raid, and he was injured during the raid, and when the family asked for an ambulance, the army took Mujahed, strapped him on the hood and drove off.​

 

[SamaK]

'Your Lord has proclaimed, 'Call upon Me, I will respond to you',' Allah says in Surah Ghafir, verse 60.

 

[Saif]

Israel’s offensive shatters Palestinian pupils’ dream

Teenagers across the Gaza Strip should have been taking their final exams this month, a last hurdle before university and lifelong dreams, but the Israeli offensive in the Palestinian territory has crushed those hopes.

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Israel's offensive shatters Palestinian pupils' dream
85pc of educational facilities are out of service in Gaza

Children look on from a damaged building at al-Bureij refugee camp in the Gaza Strip yesterday. Photo: AFP

Teenagers across the Gaza Strip should have been taking their final exams this month, a last hurdle before university and lifelong dreams, but the Israeli offensive in the Palestinian territory has crushed those hopes.

According to the education ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, 85 percent of educational facilities in the territory are out of service because of the offensive.

"I was eagerly awaiting the exams, but the offensive prevented that and destroyed that joy", said Baraa al-Farra, an 18-year-old student displaced from Khan Yunis in southern Gaza.

"At first we were waiting in the hope that the offensive would end and we would catch up," he said.

But "we don't know how long it will last or how many years it will deprive us of our educational lives."

The Education Cluster, a UN-backed organisation, estimated in a report this month that more than 75 percent of Gaza's schools would need full reconstruction or major rehabilitation to reopen.

Many have been turned into shelters for Gaza's displaced and others have been damaged in bombardment.

Liliane Nihad, an 18-year-old displaced to Khan Yunis from Gaza City, in the territory's north, said she and her fellow students had "been waiting 12 years to take these exams and pass and feel happy and enter university... but we have been deprived of all that by this damned offensive".

Nihad said she had been hoping to study English and to get a doctorate, "but all of that has evaporated".

Displaying their anger at the situation, dozens of students and teachers held a protest in Gaza City's Al-Rimal neighbourhood on Saturday. "We demand our right to take high school exams" and "We want books, not bombs" they chanted, while empty chairs were laid out to symbolise those students killed in the offensive.

In the West Bank, violence has further escalated since the start of the Gaza offensive. According to the Palestinian official news agency Wafa, 20 high school students are among the hundreds of Palestinians killed there.

Wafa reported that 89,000 students from Gaza and the West Bank had been expected to take high school exams this year. Back in Gaza, however, there will be no exams at all.

The UN, citing the Palestinian ministry of education, said about 39,000 high school students in Gaza are unable to take their tests.

Sulaf Mousa, an 18-year-old from Al-Shati Camp west of Gaza City, hit by a deadly air strike on Saturday, said he had hoped to study medicine and become a doctor.

"Now, we hope we will survive the offensive and not lose more than we have already lost," Mousa said.​

 

[Saif]

‘There are no safe centimetres left in Gaza’

A UN humanitarian worker described the suffering she witnessed first-hand in Gaza, where she saw children mutilated and families bombed out of their homes, in an emotional testimony Tuesday.

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'There are no safe centimetres left in Gaza'
UN aid worker narrates trauma of desperate civilians

Palestinian children gather to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, amid food scarcity, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip yesterday. Photo: REUTERS

A UN humanitarian worker described the suffering she witnessed first-hand in Gaza, where she saw children mutilated and families bombed out of their homes, in an emotional testimony Tuesday.

Speaking to journalists in Geneva following a three-month stint in the territory, Yasmina Guerda of the UN humanitarian agency OCHA described the desperation from the viewpoint of civilians under the Israeli military's assault.

"You have 10-15 minutes to evacuate your building because it's going to be bombed. Your little kids are sleeping... You wake them up," she said. "You take one last look at your room and say a permanent goodbye, because you know it will be dust."

As horrifying as that sounds, she stressed that this is the "best-case scenario", since many others are not warned before an attack.

Guerda met people whose homes were destroyed by Israel's operation in the Nuseirat refugee camp to secure the release of four hostages earlier this month. Gaza's health ministry said at least 274 Palestinians were killed during the operation.

The next day at a hospital, Guerda met children who lost limbs in the attack. "Many of whom reminded me of my own two little toddlers. They were staring into the void, too shell-shocked to produce a sound or a tear," she said.

For Guerda, there are no "living conditions" there. "What they have... are survival conditions, and barely. They are holding on by a thread."

She said aid workers were trying to "quantify the suffering with figures", looking at the total number of displaced people, the litres of water they get per day, or the truckloads of aid that make it across the border.

"But it doesn't matter," she said. "Those numbers, they're never near enough ... (for) a population that has lost nearly everything."

The fighting has displaced much of Gaza's 2.4 million population. "There are no safe centimetres left in Gaza," Guerda added.​

 

[Saif]

Battles in Rafah as US warns Israel over Lebanon

Fighting raged on Wednesday between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, witnesses said, as fears grow of a wider regional war drawing in Lebanese Hamas ally Hezbollah...

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Battles in Rafah as US warns Israel over Lebanon
Agence France-Presse . Palestinian Territories 27 June, 2024, 01:00

Fighting raged on Wednesday between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants in Gaza's southern city of Rafah, witnesses said, as fears grow of a wider regional war drawing in Lebanese Hamas ally Hezbollah.

Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip however appeared to ease days after prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested the 'intense phase' of the war was nearing its end, and as his defence minister visited Washington for crisis talks.

As the war in Gaza nears its 10th month, Israel's top ally the United States warned it of the risk of a major conflict against Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon following an escalation in cross-border fire.

'Another war between Israel and Hezbollah could easily become a regional war, with terrible consequences for the Middle East,' US defence secretary Lloyd Austin told his visiting Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant.

'Diplomacy is by far the best way to prevent more escalation,' Austin said.

Top Israeli officials including Netanyahu have suggested they were open to a diplomatic resolution of the border tensions, though Gallant said Israel should be ready for 'every possible scenario'.

Israel's military said last week plans for an offensive in Lebanon were 'approved and validated', prompting fresh threats from Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.

In Beirut on Tuesday, German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock warned that any 'miscalculation' could trigger all-out war and urged 'extreme restraint'.

Canada's foreign minister Melanie Joly meanwhile told her country's citizens in Lebanon to protectively leave 'while they can'.

On the ground in Rafah, on Gaza's border with Egypt, witnesses reported clashes during the night, and the Israeli military said its air force struck a rocket launch site.

UN agencies said 10 Gazan children a day are losing one or both legs and half a million Palestinians in the besieged territory suffer 'catastrophic' hunger.

The civil defence agency in Hamas-run Gaza and hospital medics said at least four people, including three children, were killed in a strike early on Wednesday targeting a house in Beit Lahia, in the north.

Aside from that strike, agency spokesman Mahmud Basal said, 'there have been almost no attacks' and 'the rest of the areas in the Gaza Strip are calm compared to yesterday'.

An air raid on Tuesday killed Fadi al-Wadiya, an employee of medical charity Doctors Without Borders who the Israeli military said was a 'significant operative' for Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian militant group which has fought alongside Hamas.

MSF said on social media platform X that it was 'outraged' by Wadiya's killing in a strike in Gaza City.

'The attack killed Fadi, along with five other people including three children while he was cycling to work near the MSF clinic where he was providing care,' the charity said.

The military said the slain man had 'developed and advanced the terrorist organisation's rocket array'.

'He is just another case of terrorists in Gaza exploiting the civilian population as human shields,' it said in response to MSF's post.

UN and humanitarian agencies have repeatedly warned that aid workers are not safe in Gaza, impeding their desperately needed efforts delivering aid for Gaza's 2.4 million people.

Earlier in the war, Israel accused about a dozen workers of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, of links to 'terrorist' activity and of involvement in Hamas's October 7 attack.

The Israeli claims have led several major donors to suspend funding for UNRWA, which has been key to humanitarian efforts, though most have since resumed it. An independent review said Israel failed to provide evidence to support its accusations.

The bloodiest ever Gaza war started with Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

The militants also seized about 250 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza although the army says 42 are dead.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,658 people, also mostly civilians, Gaza's health ministry said.

The deaths include 10 members of Qatar-based Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh's family, including his sister, who Palestinian officials said were killed in a Tuesday strike.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini warned of the war's dire impact on children.

'We have every day 10 children who are losing one leg or two legs on average,' Lazzarini told reporters, with amputations often taking place 'in quite horrible conditions' and sometimes without anaesthesia.

'Ten per day, that means around 2,000 children after the more than 260 days of this brutal war.'

Meanwhile the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification partnership said its March warning of imminent famine in north Gaza had not materialised, but around 4,95,000 people still face 'catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity'.

'The situation in Gaza remains catastrophic and there is a high and sustained risk of famine across the whole Gaza Strip,' it said in a report.

Netanyahu on Sunday said 'the war in its intense phase is about to end in Rafah', which the Israeli military sees as Hamas's last stronghold, with some troops to be redeployed to the northern border with Lebanon.

Mairav Zonszein, an analyst for the International Crisis Group, said the military would likely 'move to rolling operations' in Gaza and 'always keep some troops on the ground' in strategic areas of the territory.​

 

[Saif]

US health workers sound alarm on Gaza medical crisis

Patients in Gaza’s few standing hospitals are dying in droves from infections resulting from a lack of protective gear and soap, even when they survive their horrific blast injuries.

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US health workers sound alarm on Gaza medical crisis

Palestinian families flee the Tuffah neighbourhood in the east of Gaza City following an Israeli military operation yesterday. Heavy fighting, artillery shelling and helicopter fire were also reported around northern Gaza's Shujayia market. Photo: AFP

Patients in Gaza's few standing hospitals are dying in droves from infections resulting from a lack of protective gear and soap, even when they survive their horrific blast injuries.

And health workers are facing agonising decisions, like giving up on a seven-year-old boy with extensive burns because bandages are in short supply and he'd have probably died anyway.

These are just some of the horrors witnessed by American doctors and nurses returning from the besieged Palestinian territory, who are now on a mission to spread the word about what they saw and apply pressure on Israel to allow in more life-saving supplies.

"Whether or not a ceasefire happens, we have to get humanitarian aid. And we have to get it in sufficient volumes to meet the demands," Adam Hamawy, a former US army combat surgeon, tells AFP in an interview after a medical mission to Gaza's European Hospital last month.

"You could give all you want, you can donate," says the reconstructive plastic surgeon from New Jersey. "But if these borders don't open up to allow that aid to get in, then it's just useless."

Hamawy has volunteered in war-torn and natural disaster-hit countries for the past 30 years, from the siege of Sarajevo to the Haiti earthquake.

"But the level of civilian casualties that I experienced was beyond anything I'd seen before," says the 54-year-old, who helped save the life of Senator Tammy Duckworth when she lost both of her legs to a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) attack on the helicopter she was flying in Iraq.

"Most of our patients were children under the age of 14," he stressed. "This has nothing to do with your political views."

Hamawy and other medics told AFP they are convinced that for now their energy is better spent lobbying the halls of power to stop the offensive and require Israel to comply with international law by letting in more aid.

Israel denies allegations of international law violations during its invasion.

On a hot June afternoon in the capital Washington, Monica Johnston, a 44-year-old ICU nurse from Portland, Oregon said she conveyed specific lists of what was needed in meetings she had held with White House officials and lawmakers on Capitol Hill.​

 

[Saif]

Israel’s stated goals are an epic lie

WHEN you’re in Gaza and see the destruction firsthand, the clearest conclusion is that Israel’s stated goals are an epic lie, on a par with ‘a people without a land for a land without a people’, packaged and sold to the world...

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Israel's stated goals are an epic lie
Susan Abulhawa 30 June, 2024, 00:00

Twelve buildings are destroyed every hour in Gaza. | Dissident Voice/APA/Hadi Daoud

WHEN you're in Gaza and see the destruction firsthand, the clearest conclusion is that Israel's stated goals are an epic lie, on a par with 'a people without a land for a land without a people', packaged and sold to the world.

The Israelis are not targeting Hamas, nor are they interested in returning their captives, who pose tremendous liability upon their release, as they often have good things to say about their captors.

Math is useful to prove what I'm saying. So, here are some numbers to start.

Destroyed buildings

AS OF April 2024, approximately 360,000 buildings have been destroyed, of which are 405 schools and universities, 700 hospitals and health facilities, 290 mosques and three churches. Given the estimation by the United Nations monitoring group OCHA that 12 buildings are destroyed every hour in Gaza, the adjusted number to account for May and June is 377,280 buildings.

Death and injuries from direct fire

THE reported number of martyrs on Wednesday this week was 37,718. It's important to note that this number only includes martyrs who have been identified by name and civil ID number through the beleaguered health ministry in Gaza. Given the breakdown of reporting systems due to heavy destruction of infrastructure and personnel, this number, even with its limited parameters, is a gross underestimation. Based on more accurate figures of approximately 370 people killed daily, multiplied by 264 days of genocide, the actual number is closer to 97,680 martyred. (Per OCHA estimate of 15 martyrs per hour: Over the course of 264 days, which amounts to 6,336 hours, this number would roughly be 95,040).

The adjusted estimate of martyrs is 260 per cent more than the stagnant reported number. It is reasonable to adjust the number of injured (currently 86,377) by the same percentage, bringing that value to 224,580. (Per OCHA estimate of 35 injured per hour, this number comes to 221,760).

Death from lack of medications, chronic conditions

IMPORTANTLY, the number above does not include the thousands of unidentified martyrs, some of whom were uncovered from mass graves; those who arrived headless or in impossible pieces; those who were buried by their loved ones without going through the hospital system; those who have died of starvation; those who have died from lack of access to critical medications; those who have died from infections or communicable diseases.

Taking into account 1,100 dialysis patients, 2,000 cancer patients and 341,000 individuals who depend on medication to manage chronic illnesses (45,000 cardiovascular disease, 71,000 diabetes, 225,000 hypertension), the extreme shortage of life-saving medication has and will continue to lead to deaths from Israel's withholding of supplies. If a very conservative estimate of 5 per cent of these patients die as a result (if they have not already), that's an additional 17,050 people.

However, a more accurate all-cause mortality rate for unmanaged diabetes is 13.6 per cent (putting mortality at 9,869 people); 37 per cent for uncontrolled hypertension (translating to 83,250 people); untreated dialysis and cancer patients will have a high mortality rate. A conservative estimate for this group is 30 per cent or 930 patients.

Taken together, this is 94,049 people (I didn't consider cardiovascular disease alone, since patients tend to have co-morbidities and there would be natural overlap in these numbers).

Dead or dying from starvation

ACCORDING to a recent UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification report, approximately 495,000 Palestinians in Gaza are facing 'catastrophic' hunger, which means they suffer extreme lack of food leading to acute malnutrition in young children, imminent risk of starvation and death. If we make a conservative 5 per cent estimate of death from starvation among this population, that's 24,750 people dead or dying from starvation.

Data-driven mortality for acute malnutrition is approximately 20 per cent. However, the current classification has not yet reached full-blown famine levels, making the current estimate reasonable.

Missing, presumed dead or kidnapped

APPROXIMATELY 21,000 children are missing and unaccounted for. Some are trapped under the rubble, some have been kidnapped by Israeli soldiers, while others are simply lost in the chaos. Given the relative equal ratio of adults to children in Gaza, it is safe to assume the same number of adults are likewise unaccounted for, doubling this number to 42,000 people missing overall.

Death from disease

DUE to the destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure, coupled with restrictions on aid entering Gaza, Israel's assault has led to the spread of communicable and water-borne diseases such as acute jaundice (due mostly to hepatitis A), acute diarrhea (with bloody stool), scabies and lice, skin rashes, smallpox and acute respiratory infections, which totaled 1,440,805 cases as of 10 June. If only 1 per cent of these patients succumb to these serious conditions, that's 14,408 people likewise killed indirectly by Israel's bombing and siege of Gaza.

Mortality for acute jaundice or hepatitis A is low (2.5 per cent in adults and less than 1 per cent in children; thus a 1 per cent mortality estimate is appropriate for this category, or 817 people); mortality for diarrhea ranges from 4.27 per cent to 12 pe rcent (20,722-58,238 people); smallpox mortality is 1-30 per cent, depending on strain (854-2,561 people); mortality rates for acute respiratory disease range from 27 per cent to 45 per cent depending on severity (or 233,592-389,320 people). Taken together, adjusted for scientific data, the range for this category of martyrs is 255,985-450,936 people.

Estimate summaries

BASED on these estimates, both conservative and data-driven, respectively, the actual figures are likely as follows:

— 377,280 buildings destroyed completely or partially

— 95,040-97,680 martyred

— 221,760 injured

— 24,750 dead or dying from starvation

— 42,000 missing (presumed dead, kidnapped by Israel's occupying forces or possibly trafficked).

The following ranges represent conservative estimate or lower range of data-driven population estimates:

— 17,050-94,049 with chronic illnesses dead from lack of medication

— 14,408-255,985 dead from epidemics resulting from Israel's assault

This means the actual number of dead is closer to 194,768-511,824 people, with 221,760 injured. And counting.

This does not include the thousands who have been kidnapped and are being tortured in Israel's gulags, at least three dozen of whom have been tortured to death or died from harsh conditions.

Some lives matter

THE estimates here are reasonable but on-the-ground studies must be conducted immediately. International institutions must urgently assess the actual all-cause mortality resulting directly and indirectly from Israel's assault on Gaza.

Thus far, of the 240 Israeli captives in Gaza, Israel has allegedly killed 50 of their own, both directly (shooting them) and indirectly (bombing the buildings they are in) and secured the release of 112 captives, 105 through negotiated agreements with Hamas, and seven via "rescue" missions.

The most recent direct 'rescue' mission resulted in the release of four captives in Nuseirat refugee camp, central Gaza. A total of 274 Palestinians and several Israeli captives were killed in the same operation.

At least one US lawmaker believes sacrificing hundreds of Palestinians for four Israelis is worth it, because, it seems, only some lives matter.

I'll leave it to readers to do the math to see the level of death and destruction inflicted on Gaza per captive or per Hamas fighter.

There can be only one of two conclusions. Either the Israeli military is the most incompetent force to ever walk this planet — and has no reliable intelligence gathering capability — or Israel is a sadistic nation intent on genocide of the indigenous population, much as all settler colonial projects have been throughout history.

DissidentVoice.org, June 28. Susan Abulhawa is a writer and activist. Her most recent novel is Against the Loveless World.​

 

[Saif]

Hospital generators to run out of fuel in 48 hrs

Gaza’s few functional hospitals and health facilities could lose power in 48 hours if they don’t receive fuel, causing life-saving medical equipment to stop working.

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Hospital generators to run out of fuel in 48 hrs
Warns Gaza health ministry as much of electricity infrastructure decimated by Israeli attacks

A Palestinian woman bakes unleavened bread in a makeshift oven while sitting on the rubble of buildings destroyed in the Israeli bombardment, as some residents return to the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip yesterday. Photo: AFP

Gaza's few functional hospitals and health facilities could lose power in 48 hours if they don't receive fuel, causing life-saving medical equipment to stop working.

"We appeal to all relevant, international and humanitarian institutions to intervene quickly to bring in the necessary fuel," the Hamas-run health ministry said in a statement.

With much of Gaza's electricity infrastructure decimated by Israeli attacks, hospitals are largely dependent on generators, powered by fuel, for life-saving operations.

Recurring fuel shortages have frequently caused hospitals to go dark, putting patients' lives at serious risk.

Meanwhile, explosions, air strikes and gunfire rattled northern and southern Gaza yesterday, the fourth day of an Israeli military operation that has uprooted tens of thousands of Palestinians.

Mohammed Harara, 30, said he and his family fled their home in Shujaiya with nothing, "due to the bombardment by Israeli planes, tanks and drones", reports AFP.

The United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA estimated that "about 60,000 to 80,000 people were displaced" from the area this week.

At least 1,15,000 Palestinians from Gaza have fled to Egypt during the Israeli bombardment.

The number includes several thousand sick and wounded Palestinians who were medically evacuated, Al Jazeera reports according to The Washington Post, who cited the Palestinian embassy in Cairo.

The rest reached Egypt with assistance from foreign embassies or through a private Egyptian travel agency, which charges large sums to coordinate their exit, The Post added.

"Most remain in limbo, with no legal status and nowhere else to go," it reports. "They are members of a new diaspora of Palestinians, a people already haunted by memories of displacement."

In a separate development, Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry has issued a statement expressing the kingdom's condemnation and denunciation of the Israeli decision to "expand blatant settlement activity in the West Bank", Al Jazeera reports.

The ministry said Saudi Arabia "firmly rejects the continuous Israeli violations of international law and resolutions of international legitimacy".

The Israeli action poses "severe consequences", given the "lack of international accountability mechanisms," the statement said, adding that "these transgressions undercut the prospects for peace and exacerbate conflicts, destabilising regional and international security and stability".

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's plans to recognise five illegal settler outposts in the occupied West Bank.

In addition to recognising the outposts, Smotrich's plan removes civilian powers related to construction and zoning in one-fifth of the occupied West Bank, in what is known as "Area B".​

 

[Saif]

Palestinian prisoners face ‘all kinds of torture’

The head of the Gaza Strip’s biggest hospital said yesterday after being freed from more than seven months of detention that he had been “tortured” by Israel.

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Palestinian prisoners face 'all kinds of torture'
Says Gaza hospital chief after release from Israeli detention centre

A man throws a bucket of water to dowse a fire in a building that was heavily damaged during an Israeli army raid on the Nur Shams camp for Palestinian refugees, east of Tulkarm in the occupied West Bank yesterday. Photo: AFP

The head of the Gaza Strip's biggest hospital said yesterday after being freed from more than seven months of detention that he had been "tortured" by Israel.

Al-Shifa hospital director Mohammed Abu Salmiya was among more than 50 Palestinians released and returned to Gaza for treatment, according to an Israeli minister and a medical source in the besieged territory.

Salmiya said he was put through "severe torture" during his detention, which left him with a broken thumb.

"Prisoners are subjected to all kinds of torture," he told a press conference. "Several inmates died in interrogation centres and were deprived of food and medicine."

"For two months no prisoner ate more than a loaf of bread a day," said Salmiya.

"Detainees were subjected to physical and psychological humiliation."

The medical chief said no charge had ever been made against him. Israeli forces detained Salmiya during one of a number of raids on Al-Shifa.

The hospital has largely been reduced to rubble by successive raids since Israel launched its assault on Gaza.

Salmiya and the other freed detainees crossed back into Gaza from Israel just east of Khan Yunis, a medical source at the Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah told AFP.​

 

[Saif]

Israel strikes Gaza as militants claim rocket barrage

Israeli forces struck southern Gaza’s main city on Monday after a rocket barrage claimed by militant group Islamic Jihad, and as shelling and fighting raged on across the...

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Israel strikes Gaza as militants claim rocket barrage
Agence France-Presse . Palestinian Territories 02 July, 2024, 00:36

Israeli forces struck southern Gaza's main city on Monday after a rocket barrage claimed by militant group Islamic Jihad, and as shelling and fighting raged on across the besieged Palestinian territory.

A group of Palestinian detainees meanwhile returned to the Gaza Strip, including the director of its biggest hospital who recounted 'severe torture' in Israeli custody.

The Israeli military said that about '20 projectiles were identified crossing from the area of Khan Yunis' in a rare salvo after nearly nine months of devastating conflict.

The rockets were aimed at Israeli communities near the Gaza border and were fired in retaliation for Israeli 'crimes... against our Palestinian people', said Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad which has fought alongside Hamas. Most launches were intercepted, the Israeli military said, reporting no casualties and saying artillery was 'striking the sources of the fire'.

Elsewhere in Gaza, witnesses and the civil defence agency reported Israeli air strikes including in the southern Rafah area and the central Nuseirat refugee camp.

Witnesses reported constant Israeli tank fire in Gaza City's Shujaiya district where battles raged for a fifth day, after prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged Israeli forces were engaged in a 'difficult fight'.

The military said troops 'eliminated numerous terrorists' in raids in Shujaiya, where air strikes also killed 'approximately 20' militants.

Israeli forces were also operating in Rafah and in central Gaza, a statement added.

Netanyahu, who recently declared that the 'intense phase' of the war was winding down, said on Sunday troops were 'operating in Rafah, Shujaiya, everywhere in the Gaza Strip'.

'This is a difficult fight that is being waged above ground and below ground' in tunnels.

The war started with Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

The militants also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza including 42 the army says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,900 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

Months of on-and-off talks towards a truce and hostage release deal have made little progress, with Hamas saying Saturday there was 'nothing new' in a revised plan US mediators presented late last month.

Israel has released Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of Gaza City's Al-Shifa hospital, along with dozens of other detainees returned Monday to Gaza for treatment, according to a hospital source in central Gaza's Deir al-Balah.

Successive Israeli raids have reduced parts of Al-Shifa, the territory's largest medical complex, to rubble.

Israel has accused Hamas of using Al-Shifa and other hospitals in Gaza as a cover for military operations and infrastructure, claims the militants have rejected.

Speaking after his release, Abu Salmiya said he had suffered 'severe torture' during his detention since November.

'Prisoners are subjected to all kinds of torture,' he told reporters in Khan Yunis.

'Detainees were subjected to physical and psychological humiliation' and 'several inmates died in interrogation centres and were deprived of food and medicine', he said.

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military did not confirm the detainees' release and would not comment on the torture allegations.

According to Abu Salmiya, no charges were ever brought against him.

The European hospital in Khan Yunis said the head of its orthopaedic unit, Bassam Miqdad, was also among those freed.

The United Nations and relief agencies have voiced alarm over the dire humanitarian crisis and threat of starvation the war and Israeli siege have brought for Gaza's 2.4 million people.

Israel's ground operation in Rafah since early May has led to the closure of a key aid crossing, and a US-built temporary pier meant to facilitate humanitarian shipments was again removed from the Gaza coast over the weekend because of high seas.

The war has also led to soaring tensions on Israel's northern border with Lebanon, where the army has traded fire with the Hezbollah movement, an Iran-backed Hamas ally.

In a displacement camp in Gaza's Deir al-Balah, pharmacist Sami Hamid said skin infections were on the rise, particularly among children, 'because of the hot weather and lack of clean water'.

'The number of skin infections has increased, especially scabies and chickenpox,' as have hepatitis cases probably linked to untreated sewage flowing right beside tents, said Hamid.

Wafaa Elwan, displaced from Gaza City, said 'no clean water' or basic hygiene products were available at the tent city.

'We no longer wash our children as before' and 'treatment is not widely available', Elwan said.

'My son can't stop scratching.'​

 

[Saif]

Israel pounds Gaza after evacuation order

Israeli forces carried out deadly strikes Tuesday on southern Gaza and battled militants after issuing an evacuation order which a UN agency said would impact 2,50,000 Palestinians...

www.newagebd.net

Israel pounds Gaza after evacuation order
Agence France-Presse . Palestinian Territories 03 July, 2024, 00:23

Displaced Palestinians from areas in east Khan Yunis arrive to the city as they flee after the Israeli army issued a new evacuation order for parts of the city and Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, amid the on-going conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group. | AFP photo

Israeli forces carried out deadly strikes Tuesday on southern Gaza and battled militants after issuing an evacuation order which a UN agency said would impact 2,50,000 Palestinians.

Witnesses reported intense bombing and shelling around Khan Yunis, southern Gaza's main city, from which Israeli troops withdrew in early April after a devastating months-long battle.

A hospital source in the city said shelling killed eight people and wounded more than 30 others.

The bombardment came after a rocket barrage at southern Israel on Monday morning claimed by the militant group Islamic Jihad, which has fought alongside Hamas.

This was followed by an order to evacuate most areas east of Khan Yunis and in Rafah along the borders with Israel and Egypt.

An AFP photographer saw Palestinians leave eastern Khan Yunis on foot, in cars and on horse or donkey carts, carrying their belongings with them.

Some displaced people with nowhere to go were sleeping on the streets, witnesses said.

Ahmad Najjar, a resident of the town of Bani Suhaila, said the Israeli evacuation order had caused 'a large displacement of residents' and spurred 'fear and extreme anxiety'.

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees estimates that 'around 2,50,000 people have been impacted by these orders', said UNRWA spokeswoman Louise Wateridge.

'We expect that almost all of these people will move from this area,' she said.

The UN humanitarian coordinator for Gaza said that 1.9 million people were now displaced in the territory, adding she was 'deeply concerned' by reports of new evacuation orders for Khan Yunis.

'Over 1 million people have been displaced once again, desperately seeking shelter and safety and 1.9 million people are now displaced across Gaza. I'm deeply concerned about reports of new evacuation orders issued in the area of Khan Yunis,' Sigrid Kaag told the UN Security Council.

Six consecutive days of intense battles followed a similar evacuation order issued last week for the Gaza City district of Shujaiya.

An AFP correspondent reported artillery shelling in the northern area on Tuesday, and witnesses said gun battles raged on.

The military said its forces were operating in Shujaiya, central Gaza and Rafah, where aircraft carried out strikes and troops 'ambushed an armed terrorist squad' in a car and killed them.

Over the past day, the Israeli air force 'struck approximately 30 terror targets' across Gaza, said a military statement.

In Shujaiya, Palestinian militants 'were eliminated and dozens of terrorist infrastructure sites above and below ground were dismantled, including tunnel shafts', it added.

In central Gaza, witnesses said strikes hit the Nuseirat refugee camp where the Palestinian Red Crescent reported at least one dead, a child.

Mohamed al-Jalees, displaced from Shujaiya to Nuseirat, helped clear the rubble and search for survivors.

'A missile struck our neighbours' house,' he said. 'We rushed to check on them, and some were rescued alive (but) we found a martyred child.'

'I have been displaced here for nine months. This is our daily routine.'

Other parts of the Gaza Strip were reeling from continued fighting nearly nine months into the war, which was sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel and has led to a dire humanitarian crisis.

Months of on-and-off talks towards a truce and hostage release deal have made little progress, even after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared more than a week ago that the 'intense phase' of the war was winding down.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Monday that 'we've heard the Israelis talk about a significant downshift in their operations in Gaza'.

'It remains to be seen.'

The latest order to leave parts of southern Gaza follows an evacuation of Rafah nearly two months ago which had signalled the start of a long-feared Israeli offensive that has uprooted many Palestinians and blocked a key aid route.

Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

The militants also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza including 42 the army says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory offensive aimed at eradicating the Palestinians militants in Gaza has killed at least 37,925 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

The military announced two soldiers were killed in central Gaza, taking to 319 its death toll since ground operations began in late October.

Israeli authorities on Monday released Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of Gaza City's Al-Shifa hospital — the territory's largest medical complex, ravaged by Israeli raids — along with dozens of other detainees returned to Gaza for treatment.

Abu Salmiya said he had suffered 'severe torture' during his detention.

'Several inmates died in interrogation centres and were deprived of food and medicine,' he said after his release.

Israel has accused Hamas of using Al-Shifa and other hospitals as a cover for military operations, claims Gaza militants have rejected.

Netanyahu said the release had been made without his knowledge, and that Abu Salmiya belongs 'in prison' because Israeli hostages were 'murdered and held' in the hospital.

The director's return to Gaza was 'a serious mistake and a moral failure', Netanyahu said.

According to Abu Salmiya, Israel brought no charges against him during his seven-month detention.​

 

[Saif]

Heavy fighting rocks Gaza as thousands on move again

Israeli forces bombed and battled Hamas in Gaza City on Wednesday as tens of thousands of Palestinians scrambled for a safe haven after the army issued an evacuation order for a vast swathe in the territory’s south...

www.newagebd.net

Heavy fighting rocks Gaza as thousands on move again
Agence France-Presse . Palestinian Territories 04 July, 2024, 00:30

Israeli forces bombed and battled Hamas in Gaza City on Wednesday as tens of thousands of Palestinians scrambled for a safe haven after the army issued an evacuation order for a vast swathe in the territory's south.

Apache helicopters and Israeli quadcopter drones flew above Gaza City's Shujaiya district as heavy gunfire echoed through the streets, said AFP reporters.

Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a US media report saying his generals were urging a Gaza truce even with Hamas undefeated, stressing on Tuesday that 'this will not happen'.

Military chief Herzi Halevi meanwhile said Israel is engaged in 'a long campaign' to destroy Hamas over the October 7 attack and to bring home the hostages held by Palestinian militants.

The United Nations warned that the almost nine-months-old war had 'unleashed a maelstrom of human misery' and that the latest evacuation order had plunged yet more Palestinians into 'an abyss of suffering'.

Ten days after Netanyahu said the war's 'intense phase' was winding down, the Israeli military again rained down air strikes and artillery fire on militants in the Shujaiya district.

The air force struck 'over 50 terror infrastructure sites' across Gaza in 24 hours while ground troops 'eliminated terrorists', located tunnels and found weapons including AK-47 assault rifles, the military said.

The Israeli army — which issued an evacuation order for Shujaiya a week ago — on Sunday did the same for a larger area near Khan Yunis and Rafah in the south, raising fears of renewed heavy battles there.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians have again taken to the road there, many bundling their scant belongings on top of cars or donkey carts as they sought safety elsewhere in the bombed-out wasteland.

The UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said 2,50,000 people had been impacted by the latest evacuation order that covers southern areas bordering Israel and Egypt.

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the order covers 117 square kilometres, or 'about a third of the Gaza Strip, making it the largest such order since October'.

The UN humanitarian coordinator for Gaza, Sigrid Kaag, told the UN Security Council in New York on Tuesday that the war had now displaced 80 per cent of Gaza's population.

She also said not enough aid was reaching the besieged territory and that crossings must be reopened, particularly to southern Gaza, to avert a humanitarian disaster.

'Palestinian civilians in Gaza have been plunged into an abyss of suffering, their home lives shattered, their lives upended,' she said. 'The war has not merely created the most profound of humanitarian crises. It has unleashed a maelstrom of human misery.'

Amid the war, siege and mass displacement, more than 1,50,000 people have contracted skin diseases in the squalid conditions, said the World Health Organization.

Wafaa Elwan, a Palestinian mother of seven who now lives in a tent city by the sea, said: 'We sleep on the ground, on sand where worms come out underneath us.'

She said her five-year-old son, much of whose body was covered in rashes and welts, 'can't sleep through the night because he can't stop scratching his body'.

The bloodiest ever Gaza war broke out after Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

The militants also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza including 42 the army says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory offensive since then has killed at least 37,925 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

The Israeli military said Wednesday that 'operational activities continue throughout the Gaza Strip'.

The Gaza civil defence agency said seven people were killed when a strike hit a family house north of Gaza City.

Another strike killed three people in a car at Al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Deir al-Balah area, said an AFP reporter.

Air strikes also hit homes in Rafah, according to Gaza's government media office.

The New York Times has quoted Israeli security officials as saying top generals see a truce as the best way to secure the release of the remaining hostages, even if that meant not achieving all of the war goals.

Netanyahu, who heads a government including hardline right-wing parties, strongly rejected this on Tuesday and vowed Israel would not give in to the 'winds of defeatism'.

'The war will end once Israel achieves all of its objectives, including the destruction of Hamas and the release of all of our hostages,' he said.​

 

[Saif]

Hezbollah launches big attack on Israel

Lebanon's Hezbollah launched a big rocket and drone attack at Israel on Thursday and threatened to hit new targets in retaliation for the killing of a top commander, in the latest surge of violence in the steadily worsening conflict across the border. Sparked by the Gaza war, the conflict between

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Hezbollah launches big attack on Israel
REUTERS
Published :
Jul 04, 2024 20:06
Updated :
Jul 04, 2024 20:06

Rockets launched from Lebanon to Israel over the border are intercepted, amid the ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Israel, near the border with Lebanon, July 3, 2024. REUTERS
Lebanon's Hezbollah launched a big rocket and drone attack at Israel on Thursday and threatened to hit new targets in retaliation for the killing of a top commander, in the latest surge of violence in the steadily worsening conflict across the border.

Sparked by the Gaza war, the conflict between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel has been gradually intensifying for months, raising fears of a full-scale war, which both sides have indicated they want to avoid and diplomats are working to prevent.

As the latest violence played out in areas at or near the frontier - in keeping with the pattern of the last nine months - the sound of sonic booms rattled nerves for the second successive day in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon.

Israeli jets broke the sound barrier over several areas of the country, Lebanon's National News Agency reported.

Hezbollah said it launched more than 200 rockets and a swarm of drones at 10 Israeli military sites in retaliation for Israel's killing of Hezbollah commander Mohammed Nasser in the south on Wednesday. Nasser is one of the most senior Hezbollah commanders to be killed by Israel during the conflict.

The Israeli military said around "200 projectiles and over 20 suspicious aerial targets were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory", a number of which were intercepted by Israeli air defences and fighter jets.

Israel's ambulance service said no casualties were reported. The Israeli military said some of the drones and interceptor shrapnel set off fires.

The Israeli air force "struck Hezbollah military structures" in the areas of Ramyeh and Houla", it said, referring to two villages in south Lebanon.

Senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine, speaking at an event in Beirut commemorating Nasser, indicated his group would widen its targeting.

"The series of responses continues in succession, and this series will continue to target new sites that the enemy did not imagine would be hit," Safieddine said.

DIPLOMATIC PUSH

The United States has been leading diplomatic efforts to deescalate the fighting. Hezbollah has said it will not cease fire as long as Israel continues its offensive in the Gaza Strip.

The hostilities have inflicted a heavy toll on both sides of the frontier, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.

Amos Hochstein, a senior US official at the heart of the diplomacy, discussed French and American efforts to restore calm in meetings with French officials on Wednesday, a White House official said.

"France and the United States share the goal of resolving the current conflict across the Blue Line by diplomatic means, allowing Israeli and Lebanese civilians to return home with long-term assurances of safety and security," the official said, referring to the demarcation line between the two neighbours.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday Israeli forces were hitting Hezbollah "very hard every day" and will be ready to take any action necessary against the group, though the preference is to reach a negotiated arrangement.

Hezbollah also launched rockets at Israel on Wednesday in retaliation for Nasser's killing.

Hezbollah began firing at Israeli targets along the border with Lebanon after its Palestinian ally Hams launched an attack on Israel on Oct 7, declaring its support for the Palestinians.

Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed more than 300 Hezbollah fighters and some 90 civilians, according to Reuters tallies. Israel says fire from Lebanon has killed 18 soldiers and 10 civilians.​