BEIRUT – A journalist was killed and another injured by Israeli gunfire in a southern Lebanon border area, the Lebanese army said early on Friday.
The Lebanese army said that “a media team of seven people was covering the events near the Israeli enemy’s Al-Abbad site in the outskirts of Hula town when Israeli forces opened their machine gun fire at them, killing a journalist and injuring another.”
An official for the United Nations peacekeeping troops in the region, UNIFIL, stated a civilian was killed in an exchange of fire.
“The Lebanese Army requested UNIFIL’s help for seven people stranded near the Blue Line during an exchange of fire across the Blue Line,” UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti stated. He said one person lost his life while the others were successfully rescued,” the spokesperson confirmed.
The Lebanese army described the seven people as media personnel, saying that Israeli forces targeted them with machine guns, killing one and wounding another. It did not provide their identities.
The incident came nearly a week after a Reuters journalist was killed, and other journalists injured, in an Israeli bombing in southern Lebanon.
Israel targeted and destroyed the 7th century Al-Omari Mosque in Gaza on 20 October, coming just hours after its targeting of the third oldest church in the world in Gaza’s Old City.
Originally a 5th century Byzantine church, it was converted to a mosque during the early years of the Rashidun Caliphate.
The 1,400-year-old structure was among the largest mosques in Palestine. This is one of many mosques targeted by Israel.
The night before, Israeli warplanes bombed the centuries-old Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrios in Gaza, leaving several people dead and injured, officials said.
The Ministry of Interior in Gaza announced that Israel launched an airstrike on the church, where hundreds of displaced Gazans, both Christians and Muslims, were seeking shelter, resulting in a “large number of martyrs and injured.” The number of dead and wounded has yet to be confirmed.
Director General of Al-Shifa Hospital, Mohammad Abu Selmia, said that dozens have been wounded, but could not give an exact toll.
“We have just received confirmation from multiple sources in Gaza that Saint Porphyrios Orthodox Church has been bombed today. Archbishop Alexios appears to have been located and is alive, but we don’t know if he is injured,” the Foreign Relations Office of the Order of Saint George said in a statement.
“We have no word on the condition of any other of the more than 500 people being housed at the church and monastery, including the person who has been our source for most of our information,” the statement added.
The Greek Orthodox Patriarchy of Jerusalem also released a statement vowing to “not abandon its religious and humanitarian duty.”
The attack came without warning, a survivor told Al-Jazeera’s Arabic service. Witnesses told AFP that Israeli jets struck a target close to the medieval structure.
The Israeli army said in a statement: “As a result of the IDF [Israeli army] strike, a wall of a church in the area was damaged … we are aware of reports on casualties. The incident is under review.”
The Church of Saint Porphyrius was built by the Crusaders in the 12th century, although the original site dates back to the 5th century.
These atrocities come just three days after Israel’s bombing of the Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital in Gaza, which killed hundreds of innocent civilians in a matter of seconds.
Israel continues to blatantly carry out war crimes in Gaza. With its incessant targeting of civilian infrastructure and the shocking language used by Israeli officials regarding the population of Gaza, Israel is openly carrying out genocide.
Israeli Knesset Member Zvika Vogel said on 19 October that “there is no such thing as innocents in Gaza.” His comments were the latest of a series of murderous statements made recently by Israeli officials, including Israel’s defense minister, who referred to Gazans as “human animals.”
During a live interview on Russia’s state-run broadcaster RT, Israeli lawmaker Amir Weitmann threatened to make Moscow “pay the price” for allegedly supporting the Palestinian resistance in Gaza.
“We’re going to finish this war. We’re going to win because we’re stronger. After this, Russia will pay the price. Believe me, Russia will pay the price,” Weitmann, the head of the libertarian caucus in Israel’s ruling Likud Party, told the RT news anchor.
“Russia is supporting the enemies of Israel, Russia is supporting Nazi people who want to commit genocide on us, and Russia will pay the price […]. We are going to finish with these Nazis, we’re going to win this war […] we’re not forgetting what you are doing […] we will come, we will make sure that Ukraine wins, we will make sure that you pay the price for what you have done,” the close ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continued.
Since the start of the Gaza-Israel war, the Russian government has continuously called for a peaceful resolution. This week, the nation drafted a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire. However, Israel’s western allies struck it down.
As the campaign of genocide carried out by Tel Aviv against millions of Palestinian civilians escalates, Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that the siege of Gaza is reminiscent of the Leningrad siege by Nazi Germany.
Weitmann’s unhinged accusations follow in the footsteps of other wild claims made by current and former Israeli officials.
When asked last week during a TV interview about the suffering faced by Palestinians in Gaza, former prime minister Naftali Bennett lashed out at the interviewer and repeated the claim that Palestinian resistance fighters are “Nazis.”
“Are you seriously going to keep asking me about Palestinian civilians? What is wrong with you? Have you not seen what’s happened? We’re fighting Nazis,” the former premier shouted.
“Shame on you,” Bennett continued, interrupting and accusing the anchor of “spinning a narrative” in favor of the Palestinians.
A few days after Bennett’s tirade, Israeli President Isaac Herzog claimed during a news conference that “there are no innocent civilians in Gaza.”
“It is an entire nation out there that is responsible […] It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not being aware, not involved. It’s absolutely not true. They could have risen up. They could have fought against that evil regime which took over Gaza in a coup d’etat,” Herzog claimed about the 2.3 million Palestinians – half of whom are children – who live under a brutal military blockade and are the constant targets of Israeli air raids.
While international law is clear that belligerents who fail to distinguish between combatants and civilians are guilty of war crimes, Israeli officials have been working overtime to spin the narrative that the entire population of Gaza are “terrorists” or “Nazis.”
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant last week went even further, saying Gazans are “human animals” who must be eradicated, while National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said that Gaza doesn’t need humanitarian aid, only “tons of bombs.”
Ben Gvir’s comments came a few hours after an Israeli jet bombed the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, killing hundreds of wounded civilians, most of them women and children.
France’s President, Emmanuel Macron, has condemned the reported deadly Israeli strike on a hospital in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday night, urging for humanitarian aid to be allowed into the besieged Territory.
On Tuesday night, a missile struck the compound of the Al-Ahli Arabi hospital in Gaza City, with a massive explosion being seen and heard, killing at least 300. Other reports put the number at over 500, and some at over 800 or 1,000.
Following the strike, French President, Emmanuel Macron, stated on X that “Nothing can justify striking a hospital. Nothing can justify targeting civilians. France condemns the attack on the Al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza, which made so many Palestinian victims. Our thoughts are with them. All the light must be shed on the circumstances.”
He then stated in a following post that “Humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip must be opened without delay”, acknowledging the necessity for Israel and Egypt to allow the massive inflow of humanitarian aid and convoys – which are awaiting access – to enter the besieged Territory.
A statement by France’s Foreign Ministry also stressed that “International humanitarian law is binding on all and must allow for the protection of civilian populations. Humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip must be opened without delay.”
Following the strike, Israel denied its responsibility and instead blamed the Palestinian Resistance group, Hamas, for a rocket misfire, which the group rejected, in turn. There also ensued fierce debate online regarding whether an Israeli-fired American JDAM munition struck the hospital or a rocket fired by Hamas or Islamic Jihad.
Tel Aviv’s claim has been debunked by weapons expert and US Army veteran, Dylan Griffith, who toldMiddle East Monitor that the footage and sound of the hospital strike bear the markers of a US JDAM munitions strike – the likes of which have been seen in strikes on Afghanistan and which have been provided to Israeli forces – in comparison to the smaller munitions generally used by Hamas and other Gazan groups.
Attempts by the US and its allies to “paint Moscow as a global pariah” have been “poisoned” by their rush to support Israeli retaliation against Hamas in Gaza, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing more than a dozen officials.
Western nations have long framed the Ukraine conflict as an act of “unprovoked aggression” and blasted Moscow for the suffering of civilians.
However, the same nations have appeared reluctant to condition their support for Israel on exercising restraint in the wake of the deadly incursion by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, earlier this month. Israel has cut off essential supplies to the enclave and subjected it to intense bombardment.
“We have definitely lost the battle in the Global South,” one senior G7 diplomat was quoted as saying. “All the work we have done with the Global South [over Ukraine] has been lost… Forget about rules, forget about world order. They won’t ever listen to us again.”
“What we said about Ukraine has to apply to Gaza. Otherwise we lose all our credibility,” the official added. “The Brazilians, the South Africans, the Indonesians: why should they ever believe what we say about human rights?”
Meanwhile, an Arab official noted an apparent lack of consistency: “if you describe cutting off water, food and electricity in Ukraine as a war crime, then you should say the same thing about Gaza.”
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan was confronted over the issue on CNN. Host Jack Tapper stressed that “civilians are civilians” regardless of where they reside. The official declined to say whether Washington was putting pressure on Israel to let supplies into Gaza.
According to The Huffington Post, the US State Department last week instructed high-level diplomats working in the Middle East not to use three specific phrases regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: “de-escalation/ceasefire,” “end to violence/bloodshed,” and “restoring calm.”
This week, a Russian-proposed draft resolution denouncing violence against civilians and urging a ceasefire was rejected by the UN Security Council. Another one submitted by Brazil was later vetoed by the US, after 12 members voted for it.
Russia abstained on the second proposal, after its amendment to include a call for a truce was rejected.
“You, colleagues, will certainly come up with some formal justification citing ‘unbalanced language,’ but at this point they would sound pathetic. You have made your choice,” Moscow’s envoy, Vassily Nebenzia, said about the non-inclusion of the wording.
Let’s say it again: The BIGGEST fake news comes from the establishment media. When the stakes are high, it barely bothers to hide its role as mouthpiece for Western propaganda.
This is another Iraqi WMD moment. We are being gaslit. Believe your eyes and ears, and the laws of physics, not the lies being peddled by our leaders and media about last night’s missile strike on the Baptist hospital in Gaza:
1. No Palestinian group has a rocket that can hit a hospital, killing hundreds. What they have are glorified fireworks that can cause minor damage and the occasional death or two. If Hamas or Islamic Jihad could cause the kind of damage that happened last night, you would hear about it happening in Tel Aviv or Ashkelon too. You don’t, because they can’t.
2. Israel’s apologists (and there are lots of them) are sharing all sorts of videos unrelated to the hospital strike. But the video of the strike itself shows that an incredibly large and powerful weapon is used. Listen to the noise the missile makes just before the hit – that whooshing noise is caused by its phenomenal velocity as it cuts through the air. That is not the noise of a falling Palestinian rocket.
If you watch videos being shared of Palestinian rockets being fired, notice how slowly they travel. Almost at a snail’s pace. If they fail, they drop at free-fall speed, not the near-supersonic speed of the missile that hit the hospital. To think otherwise is to misunderstand the laws of physics.
3. Israel’s apologists are trying to further muddy the waters by suggesting that either a Palestinian rocket fell, or was intercepted, and the rocket or fragments of it hit a very large ammo dump in the hospital. Let’s just accept the racist premise that hundreds of families were quite happy to seek safety next to a huge stash of explosives in the middle of a relentless Israeli bombing campaign. Let’s also accept the fantastical idea that a falling glorified firework or fragment of it could penetrate the hospital’s strong walls and set off such an explosion. If all this was true, you would still see a series of secondary explosions as the arms were detonated by the initial explosion. You don’t because there is only one explosion – from an enormous missile.
4. It’s a desperate psyop, so Israel has now released a recording of two Hamas militants conveniently having a chat after the missile strike, discussing whether they or Islamic Jihad did it. This is the same Israel that did not detect months of planning by Hamas that was needed to organise its breakout 10 days ago. But Israel got lucky this time, it seems, and just happened to be listening in when Huey and Louie decided to self-incriminate.
Remember Israel has a whole unit of ‘mistaravim’, Israeli Jewish undercover agents trained to pose as Palestinians and secretly operate among Palestinians. Israel produced a highly popular TV series about such people, set in Gaza, called Fauda. You have to be beyond credulous to think that Israel couldn’t, and wouldn’t, rig up a call like this to fool us, just as it regularly fools Palestinians in Gaza.
Most of the people spreading these lies know they are lies, including the media, and most especially the Middle East and defence correspondents. At least a few, like the BBC’s Jeremy Bowen and Jon Donnison, are trying cautiously to suggest it’s unlikely a Hamas rocket could cause damage on the scale seen at the Gaza hospital. But it’s not unlikely. It’s impossible, and they know it. They just don’t dare say it.
Israel’s propaganda machine has begun to work overtime to convince the world of the occupation state’s innocence in the bombing of Al-Ahli Arab Hospital yesterday. Complicit in the destruction of Gaza, Western leaders aided by the media have also started to work round the clock to dutifully parrot the lies, amplifying the fog of war. US President Joe Biden, who was the first Western leader to repeat the gruesome Israeli lie about 40 beheaded babies, dutifully trumpeted the Israeli narrative that a misfired Hamas rocket killed 500 people.
The playbook is all too familiar. First blanket denial. Then blame militants. As the truth emerges, Israelis cry “mistake”, “just an accident”. When that fails to quell public outrage and people demand accountability, Israel shouts anti-Semitism. And when all else fails, critics are denounced as Nazis and fascists in their twisted narrative. This course has been charted before. The same smokescreens used to obscure the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh are being deployed once again.
We don’t require a forensic investigation – though one should be carried out by an independent body – to hold Israel responsible for the bombing of Al-Ahli Arab Hospital. Israel has been openly pre-justifying hospital bombing and school bombing before launching its military campaign. It’s been pre-justifying war crimes, declaring with no fear of accountability that it will impose collective punishment by denying Gazans electricity, water and food.
Israel’s denial is not credible, because the occupation state has a long history of committing atrocities and massacres against Palestinians. For decades, the brutal realities of massacres were suppressed, details buried. But slowly they came to light – stories of indiscriminate slaughter, rape, torture and exile, of defenceless civilians. The brutal details of these killings have been revealed over the course of time. Fortunately, in the world of social media, lies and propaganda are harder to conceal. While Israel still tries desperately to control the narrative, Palestinian voices now ring out louder. Their stories and images expose Israeli lies in real-time.
A cursory glance at history shows how mass killing of Palestinians was a strategy employed by Zionist military groups to ethnically cleanse Palestinians. Israel’s potential ground offensive in Gaza raises a chilling prospect – mass slaughter and ethnic cleansing, repeating the dark tactics of the past.
One of the earliest and most notorious was the massacre at the Palestinian village Deir Yassin in 1948. As many as 250 people including men, women, children and the elderly are said to have been killed. The aim of the atrocity was to sow terror and fear to force Palestinians to flee. Some 750,000 Palestinian, three-quarters of the population, fled because of the terror campaign unleashed by the Israelis.
A month after Deir Yassin, Israeli forces slaughtered up to 200 Palestinians in the coastal village of Tantura. It was part of a ruthless ethnic cleansing campaign – Plan Dalet – to seize territory for a future Jewish state. Tantura was one of 64 Palestinian villages lining the road between Tel Aviv and Haifa. Once thriving coastal communities, all were wiped off the map – except two. The inhabitants were expelled en masse, joining the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians ethnically cleansed from their ancestral lands in 1948.
Israel’s seemingly never-ending drive to uproot Palestinians from their homes by force of arms and threat of imminent slaughter resulted in another massacre on 29 October 1956 in the village of Kafr Qasem, on the Israeli side of the 1949 Armistice (“Green”) Line. Soldiers went door-to-door, spraying homes with gunfire. Forty-nine residents were massacred in under an hour – men, women, children gunned down in cold blood. The violence was calculated, intended to stoke terror, make Palestinians flee for their lives.
According to Palestinian historians, the massacre at Kafr Qasem mirrored the typical Israeli blueprint of terrorising Palestinians into fleeing. In his book Atlas of Palestine (1917-1966), Dr Salman Abu Sitta lists at least 232 places where atrocities, massacres, destruction, plunder and looting were carried out by the Zionists between 1947 and 1956. Almost every one of 30 military operations were accompanied by one or two massacres of civilians. There were at least 77 reported massacres, half of which took place before any Arab regular soldier set foot in Palestine during the 1948 Israeli-Arab war.
Decades of Israeli occupation birthed countless atrocities against Palestinians, including horrors beyond their borders. In 1982, the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon became a brutal killing field. Christian militia, unleashed into the camps under Israeli protection, went on a 38-hour rampage. They slaughtered over 3,000 Palestinian civilians in cold blood. Rape, mutilation and torture preceded endless executions. Parents saw their children die before facing the same fate.
Israel denied direct blame, but its fingerprints were everywhere. They lit up the camps at night to aid the killers. They prevented desperate victims from fleeing. UN resolutions declared Israel complicit in an act of genocide. Then Defence Minister Ariel Sharon, found personally responsible for enabling the bloodbath, faced no real consequences. The victims saw no justice. It was one of countless episodes of Israeli leaders incubating anti-Palestinian violence with impunity.
Israel’s violence against Palestinians extends far beyond isolated massacres. Thousands have been killed over decades to maintain Israel’s illegal occupation.
Past Gaza assaults bear names now synonymous with death – Operation Cast Lead in 2008-2009 left 1,400 Palestinians dead. Operation Protective Edge in 2014 killed 2,251 more. These attacks came on the heels of countless other operations, each leaving hundreds dead and thousands more wounded.
The onslaught did not cease. During the 2019 Great March of Return, Israeli snipers gunned down 267 unarmed protesters. Over 30,000 more suffered critical injuries. Children and medics were not spared.
With the fog of war descending once more as Israel’s propaganda machine lurches into motion, fabricating myths to shield the truth, following the bombing of Al-Ahli Hospital, while Western leaders and media obediently amplify Israel’s distortions, muddying reality, let’s not forget Israel’s legacy of killing and massacres.
Just as in the past the truth will not be buried under this avalanche of deception. People around the world see through the web of lies, and recognise the regime’s brutality laid bare. The stories of those shelled while seeking care at Al-Ahli cannot be erased.
Israel’s desperate myths may multiply, but the blood-drenched reality remains. The propaganda will not whisk away the war crimes, nor inoculate Israel from accountability.
The Palestinian Ministry of Interior in Gaza said that the occupation forces committed a new massacre in the northern Gaza Strip, killing 37 Palestinians.
The ministry said that occupation forces bombed Palestinian homes in the areas of Al-Qasasib and Halima Al-Saadia in the town of Jabaliya, north of the Gaza Strip.
In Khan Yunis, the occupation targeted a flat in the Japanese neighbourhood with missiles. There were families who fled bombing from several areas in the flat, with three people killed, including a child.
This new massacre comes hours after the Baptist Hospital massacre, in which more than 500 martyrs were killed and more than 1,000 were seriously wounded. The occupation bombed the hospital where hundreds of Palestinian families had sought refuge.
The Israeli occupation has committed 394 massacres against Palestinian families since the start of the aggression against the Gaza Strip on 7 October, with the death toll reaching about 3,000, with 12,500 Palestinians wounded. The number of martyred children rose to over 1,000, and female martyrs to 1,032.
The Israeli regime’s “deliberate, indiscriminate and disproportionate” targeting of civilians in the besieged Gaza Strip goes against all norms of civility and violates international law, says Pakistani ambassador to Tehran.
In an interview with the Press TV website on Tuesday, hours before an Israeli air raid on a Gaza hospital killed more than 700 Palestinians, Muhammad Mudassir Tipu said the “conscience of humanity has been shaken” by the unrelenting massacre of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.
“The conscience of humanity has been shaken by watching innocent civilians, children, older people, pregnant woman being killed; buildings being razed to ground; water and electricity being cut off; massive blockades; and the use of massive ammunition by the Israeli military forces,” he stated.
“That is why people are showing solidarity with the Palestinians, who are symbolizing their struggle for justice, all over the world.”
Demonstrations have been held worldwide in recent days in solidarity with the oppressed people of Palestine amid the new wave of Israeli genocidal bombardment of the besieged coastal strip.
One of the biggest demonstrations was held in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi, where tens of thousands took to the streets following a call given by a local political party with the support of trade unions.
Tipu said the “sense of righteousness is deeply ingrained in the minds” of the people in Pakistan.
“We stand for those principles that are morally justified and right rather than the ones propagated for political and hegemonic ambitions. Pakistanis also believe in the equal application of international law and norms rather than using one set of laws for one country and another set of laws for another country,” he remarked in a conversation with the Press TV website.
“We can’t have double standards and false moral equivalences to justify unjustifiable and illegitimate positions,” the Pakistani envoy hastened to add.
The death toll in the Israeli aerial bombardment in the Gaza Strip has risen to 3,000, including at least 700 children, with tens of thousands of others displaced after the Israeli evacuation orders.
The Pakistani ambassador said massive pro-Palestine demonstrations must be seen in the context of years of forced and illegal occupation of Palestinian territory and repressive policies against its people.
“Our cause resonates with the cause of the hapless Palestinians who are facing unspeakable brutality and massive use of force on the civilians as well as an overwhelming use of military might over its innocent people,” he asserted.
Tipu also “appreciated” the role of the Iranian leadership in “standing up for the oppressed people of Palestine and making resolute efforts to halt and reverse the conflict in Gaza consistent with international norms.”
“The great Iranian leadership has also unambiguously urged for a just resolution of this historic injustice,” he remarked, adding that the foreign ministers of Pakistan and Iran had a phone conversation on Monday in which they “discussed this grave situation” in Palestine.
On Pakistan’s interim Prime Minister Anwaar ul Haq Kakar’s statement on Saturday that the Israeli aggression in the Gaza strip should be seen in the context of years of illegal Israeli occupation, the Pakistani envoy said he “clearly and unambiguously outlined Pakistan’s position on this crisis.”
He also dismissed any speculation about Pakistan mulling normalization with the Israeli regime.
“Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, Mr. Jalil Abbas Jilani has categorically articulated that “there is absolutely no move to recognize Israel. Our position is very clear. We take decisions based on our interests and the interests of the Palestinians,” he told the Press TV website.
“I must emphasize that Pakistan is a sovereign country, with enormous capabilities, and would always take decisions of vital importance independently.”
He hastened to note that Islamabad “wishes to seek a just resolution” of the issue of Palestine so that “regional peace, development, and growth can take place and a sense of equity and justice prevails.”
US President Joe Biden landed in Israel on the morning of 18 October and held talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just hours after the Israeli army massacred hundreds of civilians in Gaza during an airstrike on the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital.
“I was deeply saddened and outraged by the explosion at the hospital in Gaza yesterday. Based on what I’ve seen, it appears it was done by the other team, and not you,” Biden told Netanyahu, promoting the Israeli narrative that the hospital was demolished by an “errant rocket strike” from a resistance faction.
Biden did not provide any evidence to support his assessment and followed up his comment: “There are a lot of people out there who are not sure.”
“Israel has a value set like the United States does and other democracies, and they’re looking to see what we’re going to do. I am looking forward to having a thorough discussion about where everyone goes from here,” the US president added.
For his part, Netanyahu said the “civilized world must unite to defeat Hamas.” The forces of civilization will prevail for our sake, for your sake…and for the sake of peace and security,” he added.
The two western leaders did not answer any questions from the press. Biden is set to meet with the Israeli war cabinet to “seek a sense of Israel’s plans and objectives in the days and weeks ahead,” a White House official highlighted on Tuesday.
The US president also expected to meet with the Jordanian, Egyptian, and Palestinian heads of state in Amman, but Jordan canceled the summit at the last minute following the massacre committed at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital.
“There is no point in doing anything at this time other than stopping this war. There is no benefit to anyone in holding a summit at this time,” Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said.
“This was the most advertised crime in history. It was a massacre by appointment. The Israeli government has been openly saying it was going to target hospitals for the last week, and the world just stood by and did nothing,” Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Abu Sitta, who was working in Al-Ahli Arab Hospital when Israel attacked it, told Al Jazeera.
Palestinian media reported that the hospital housed over a thousand people. The Palestine Red Crescent Society said women, children, medical staff, and “internally displaced people seeking safe shelter” were all killed during the attack.
At least 500 bodies have been identified so far, all of them civilians.
As Biden throws his full support behind Israel, the death toll in Gaza has surpassed 3,300. The besieged enclave has also lost all access to drinking water, food, fuel, and electricity as Israel is blocking humanitarian aid deliveries.
His first trip to Israel this year comes as the Pentagon has deployed multiple warships and thousands of troops to Israeli waters in anticipation of a regional war. Resistance factions in the region called for a “day of rage” against the US and Israel on Wednesday.
UNITED NATIONS – The United States showed its true intentions when it vetoed the UN Security Council resolution seeking a humanitarian pause in the Israel-Hamas war, Russian Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyanskiy said on Wednesday.
“The masks are off. No matter how hard the Americans tried to appear as peacekeepers, they ultimately failed. A huge foreign policy failure for Washington,” Polyanskiy stressed.
Earlier in the day, the US vetoed a Brazilian-drafted UN Security Council resolution that calls on Israel to rescind its evacuation order for Gazans.
Russia and the United Kingdom abstained.
Russia sought to amend the draft resolution to include a condemnation of “indiscriminate attacks” against civilians in Gaza, “in particular heinous strike against al-Ahli hospital,” and also to include a call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. The UN Security Council rejected both proposed amendments.
On Monday, the UN Security Council rejected a Russian-drafted resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in the Palestine-Israel conflict.
Since Al-Ahli Baptist Church was struck yesterday evening and over 500 people were killed, social media has been abuzz with claims of who carried out this war crime. For Palestinians and reporters with knowledge of Israel’s rules of law – or lack there of – the answer was obvious; Israel hit the hospital. While officials in Tel Aviv first acknowledged the strike as an Israeli attack, they then backtracked and blamed the Palestinian resistance. However reporters covering the ongoing assault on Gaza and the resistance’s rocket fire into Israel have made it clear; the resistance’s rockets cause damage, they have been known to kill people, but they are not powerful enough to cause the amount of death and destruction caused by this one strike.
Looking through social media after the strike, a number of facts were clear to see. If Israel didn’t bomb the Gaza Baptist Hospital, why did the occupation army warn the Gaza Baptist Hospital to evacuate the premises before the bombing occurred?
Israel claims it didn’t hit the hospital, claiming a rocket being shot by Islamic Jihad misfired and caused the damage. To “prove” this, occupation forces have used a video which aired an hour before the strike – at 18:59 local time – when the strike took place around 19:50.
Israel’s newly appointed Digital Spokesperson Hananya Naftali then admitted that occupation forces bombed the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital. The post has since been deleted.
Israel also deleted a video posted as “evidence” that the Palestinian resistance struck the hospital.
Meanwhile, the Western media prepared the world for the strike. With the BBC posting a question ‘Does Hamas build tunnels under hospitals and schools?’ a day earlier, in a manner that almost justifies Israel’s targeting of innocent civilians receiving treatment.
While the reporting of events following the massacre simply claimed that an “Israeli air strike killed hundreds of people at a Gaza hospital”, without condemnation of the obvious violations of international law and the possible war crimes once again committed by the occupation and it’s forces.
Millions of people suffer and die from the effects of radiation exposure from decades of nuclear weapons testing. Their experience should give serious pause to those who continue to embrace the viability of a nuclear deterrent. … continue
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