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Day 184: ‘Israel’ Withdraws Most Troops from Southern Gaza

Al-Manar | April 7, 2024

The 184th day of the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza witnessed a dramatic development represented by the Zionist military withdrawal from southern Gaza.

In this context, the Israeli military radio said that the army withdrew Division 98 with its 3 brigades from Khan Younis, adding that only Nahal Brigade remained in the Strip, specifically at Natsarim crossing, which separates the Gaza’s north and south.

Reuters news agency quoted the Zionist military spokesperson as saying that the Israeli army has withdrawn all ground troops from South Gaza, except one brigade.

The Israeli occupation army announced the death of 4 soldiers during battles in southern Gaza.

Meanwhile, the Zionist occupation forces continued bombarding the innocent civilians in the various areas of Gaza, claiming more martyrs.

The Israeli warplanes and artillery struck civilian targets in Khan Younis, Rafah, and Gaza city.

The Palestinian health ministry reported that the Israeli occupation forces committed four massacres during the past 24 hours in Gaza, killing 38 civilians and injuring 71 others.

Thus, the latest toll of the Zionist genocidal war in Gaza has become 33,175 martyrs and 75,886 injuries.

April 7, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , | Leave a comment

New Report: Killing starving Palestinians, targeting aid trucks is deliberate Israeli policy to reinforce famine

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor | April 3, 2024

Palestinian Territory – A new Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor report titled “Killing starving Palestinians and targeting aid trucks: A deliberate Israeli policy to reinforce famine in the Gaza Strip” reveals the killing of 563 Palestinians and the injury of 1,523 more due to Israel’s targeting of people waiting for aid, distribution centres, and workers responsible for organising, protecting, and distributing aid.

According to the report, between 11 January and 23 March 2024, 256 people were killed in the Kuwait Roundabout area, in the southeast of Gaza City, 230 on Al-Rashid Street, in the southwest of the city, and 21 due to the targeting of aid distribution centres. Documentation also shows that 41 police officers and People’s Protection Committee members who were in charge of overseeing aid distribution were killed, along with 12 aid distribution workers, two of whom were from UNRWA.

The report concludes that Israel’s policies, and the collective punishments it imposes on the Gaza Strip, directly and explicitly aim to starve the Strip’s entire Palestinian population. Israel’s policy of deliberate starvation is not only an attempt to ethnically cleanse the enclave and apparent weapon of war—a war crime in itself—but is intended to expose Palestinian civilians to the risk of actual death. These actions are a crucial component of the genocide that Israel has been committing against the people of the Gaza Strip since 7 October 2023.

The use of starvation as a weapon has been an official political decision from the first day of the war, as declared by the Israeli Minister of Defense, and was implemented in integrated stages, which have included tightening the siege and closing the border crossings; preventing the entry of commercial goods; destroying all components of local production and food sources; increasing the Gaza Strip population’s reliance on humanitarian aid; and turning it into their main source of food.

Israel has been a major obstacle to humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip, targeting aid in storage and distribution facilities as well as on trucks. It has also targeted people waiting for the aid and those in charge of distributing it. All of these actions have been taken on a regular and severe basis.

This has prevented the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip from receiving aid, even just to the extent necessary to satiate their hunger or reduce their risk of dying from it.

Additionally, Israel’s targeting of personnel involved in overseeing and securing aid distribution, along with its refusal to cooperate with international organizations, has led to a persistent state of chaos and internal conflict. These actions, coupled with Israel’s attempts to dissolve UNRWA, the primary international organization responsible for introducing and distributing humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip, have exacerbated the situation, further deepening the famine in the Strip.

The report states that while Israel has permitted some aid to enter the Strip, it has placed restrictions on the amount of aid, kind of aid, and locations of entry, and has targeted starving civilians waiting for humanitarian aid and those working to distribute, secure, and protect it.

According to the report, Israel also uses starvation, aid restrictions, and the killing of hungry individuals as part of its forced displacement crime against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, especially the northern Gaza Strip. As a result, famine has spread throughout northern Gaza, where nearly all food supplies have run out in the markets, resulting in a rise in the number of fatalities from starvation, malnourishment, dehydration, and related illnesses, particularly among children and infants.

In the midst of intense attacks, raids, and bombardment across the air, land, and sea—during which Israel’s army has used thousands of tons of explosives—the Israeli army methodically started targeting every aspect of life in the Gaza Strip and has not stopped. This includes bombing mills, bakeries, grocery stores, shops, and markets; destroying crops and agricultural lands; killing livestock; and targeting boats and fishing equipment, water tanks, and their extensions; i.e. completely denying access to food resources and potable water to all 2.3 million residents of the Strip, half of whom are children, and depriving them of their already limited ability to produce food locally. This comes amid a complete closure of the border crossings, which were closed for weeks before being partially reopened under harsh Israeli conditions on 21 October following the application of international pressure.

The report includes seven parts: The first deals with the number of humanitarian aid convoy victims, while the second reviews the most prominent crimes involving the targeting of starving civilians waiting for humanitarian aid. The third examines the Israeli targeting of humanitarian aid distribution centres, while the fourth sheds light on crimes related to targeting humanitarian aid convoys. The fifth deals with the targeting of workers distributing humanitarian aid, the sixth sheds light on the targeting of those responsible for securing and protecting humanitarian aid, and the seventh deals with Israel’s attempts to evade responsibility for the massacres. The report also presents a set of conclusions and recommendations.

Euro-Med Monitor’s report concludes by highlighting the significance of facilitating the entry of necessary humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip without delay in order to stop the famine from spreading there. It stresses that Israel, as the occupying power, bears the primary responsibility for supplying food, medical supplies, and other necessities to the Strip’s residents in accordance with international law.

The report also urges the international community to fulfill its legal and moral obligations to the people residing in the Gaza Strip, ensuring that international law, as well as the rulings of the International Court of Justice, are respected and implemented, and to halt the genocide that the Court declared likely to have occurred in Gaza in January, which has been ongoing for nearly six months. It calls for immediate international pressure to be put on Israel to stop its starvation campaign against the people of the Strip, the complete lifting of the siege on the Strip, and the establishment of appropriate mechanisms to ensure the safe, effective, and rapid arrival of humanitarian supplies.

The report also demands the opening of an independent investigation into the killing of starving people, especially the horrifying massacres which Israel has tried to evade responsibility for.

​Full report here

April 5, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Understanding Washington’s Dirty Game Of Toying With Gaza Aid And Ceasefire

By Robert Inlakesh | Al Mayadeen | April 3, 2024

The US government can end the war in Gaza if it chooses and with a single phone call allow all the humanitarian aid that will prevent famine from gripping the starving Palestinian population living there. Instead, Washington has opted to play a dirty game of teasing the delivery of aid, leaking stories of tensions and an imminent ceasefire to the press, while only seeking to buy more time for the Zionists to carry out their ongoing genocide.

On November 10, last year, US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, issued a statement in which he stressed that “Far too many Palestinians have been killed. Far too many who have suffered these past weeks, and we want to do everything possible to prevent harm to them and to maximize the assistance that gets to them,” as he praised the temporary pause reached between the Palestinian resistance and the Zionist Entity. Following the end of the pause and prisoner swap, Blinken again appeared on the scene inside occupied Palestine. This time, giving the impression that the US government would force an end to the war, by the beginning of the New Year.

Then, on January 9, after failing to stop the Israeli onslaught in Gaza, the US Secretary of State issued another speech, this time from inside the Zionist Entity, declaring again that the Palestinian death toll was “far too high”. Both in November and January, these declarations by Antony Blinken, were widely interpreted to have been critical of the Israelis and indicated some level of frustration, or rhetoric change, when it comes to their Zionist allies.

When we also look at US President, Joe Biden, we have heard for months about the “frustration” of the American leader with his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu. Reports have frequently been leaked to US media regarding unconfirmed events, which include Joe Biden hanging up a phone call with the Israeli Prime Minister in mid-January and the allegation that the US President called Netanyahu a “bad f***ing guy” in February. Events like the Israeli war cabinet member, Benny Gantz, traveling to Washington, allegedly without Netanyahu knowing, have also been held up as examples of the US-Israeli “strained relationship”.

Joe Biden said in late February that it looks like there’ll be a ceasefire the next Monday, causing false hope in the Gaza Strip at the time. Then, Axios released an article in which they made the claim that the US government was going to cut off arms supplies to the Zionist regime if they did not reach a temporary ceasefire in Gaza by mid-March. Then at the end of March, after having failed to place any pressure on the Israeli regime to even deliver sufficient food aid into Gaza, the Biden administration decided to quietly approve a multi-billion dollar weapons and fighter jet supply deal.

Another important point to note is the way the US government reacted to the Israeli threat to invade the southernmost city of Gaza, Rafah, claiming to set it as a hypothetical redline. Although the Biden administration would ultimately come forth and affirm that it would support an invasion of Rafah and wouldn’t set any red lines, the idea that Washington was holding the Zionist regime back from the invasion it had threatened – over the period of two months – was heavily pushed throughout Western media.

Then there is the US abstention from the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution, that called for a two-week ceasefire. Again, the reaction to this was to interpret it as a “change”, or “shift”, in the US position on the war in Gaza, yet, when pressed on the issue the Biden administration claimed that the Security Council resolution – all of which are considered binding – was in fact the first UNSC resolution ever to be non-binding.

Even when it came to the shift in the rhetoric of American policy makers, to begin calling for a “ceasefire”, they did not “shift” their policy position in any way at all. In fact, they just shifted from using words like “temporary truce” and “pause”, to asking for a “six-week ceasefire”, so, in other words, a temporary truce or pause still. Then, when confronted with growing calls from the United Nations and the World Bank, regarding the issue of looming famine that is set to take hold over roughly half of Gaza’s population, the Biden administration began announcing its intention to build a port to transport aid. The details of such a port’s construction are still unclear and whether it will ever be implemented for the purpose of delivering vital aid or not is an open question.

It is high time that we call the US Biden administration out on its dirty games. Washington is in control of this war and has made the active decision to allow mass starvation in Gaza, clearly an Israeli tactic of war, it is only buying time for this policy of inflicting famine to take place. It is evident that the Zionist entity has no plan to dismantle Hamas in Gaza, in fact, it hasn’t even been able to dismantle any of the smaller groups belonging to the Palestinian resistance front in the besieged territory. So, instead, it inflicted the worst possible humanitarian crisis, a famine, along with the assassination of all security figures, members of popular committees set up locally to guard, collect and distribute aid, while attempting to make it impossible for the former civil administration to continue working in a post-war Gaza. This is also why the US has implemented a ban on funding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

Why is the US playing this dirty game you may ask? There are two primary reasons: To quell domestic pressure to end the war and to deceive the axis of resistance into thinking that they are on the cusp of reaching a ceasefire. With the language change and by blaming Netanyahu for all the problems at hand, the US government has made the calculation that they can give the impression of an administration that is standing up to the Israeli regime. On the other hand, the US fears a regional war, which could explode in the event that no ceasefire is reached in Gaza, so they give the impression that there is some kind of in-fighting between them and the Zionist leadership. This is all theater and the US must be forced into a position where it is given an ultimatum: either you force an end to this war in Gaza, or there is a major escalation in the region. Nobody wants regional war, but regional war is inevitable if there is no ceasefire reached and the people of Gaza are gripped by one of the worst famines in recorded history.

April 3, 2024 Posted by | Deception, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , | 1 Comment

Freedom Flotilla Coalition to bring aid, international observers to Gaza this month

MEMO | April 3, 2024

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FCC) will sail several ships carrying 5,500 tonnes of humanitarian aid and hundreds of international observers to the besieged Gaza Strip in mid-April, its Spanish chapter Rumbo a Gaza said in a statement today.

Rejecting Israel’s control over the entrance of humanitarian aid, Rumbo a Gaza said it will not allow Israel to inspect the shipments.

“For everyone’s safety and to ensure that aid reaches those who need it, the FFC will be bringing hundreds of international humanitarian observers from many countries and different backgrounds,” the statement said.

The voyage aims to “challenge the current illegal Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip.”

Rumbo a Gaza said it is also sending an emergency mission to help alleviate the “famine in northern Gaza and catastrophic hunger across the Strip as a result of the Israeli government’s deliberate policy to starve the Palestinian people to death.”

The NGO blamed the international community for allowing Israel to control the aid that reaches Gaza, saying it’s like “letting a fox manage a henhouse.” It called for sanctions against Israel and more challenges to its “genocidal policies.”

Rumbo a Gaza said Israel is not complying with the rulings of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which ordered it to stop blocking the entry of humanitarian aid. Israel has long failed to comply “with its responsibilities as an occupying power to ensure the health and well-being of Palestinians,” it added.

“The court’s judgment demands that everyone do their part to stop the ongoing genocide in Gaza … Until our governments take the lead in the urgently needed humanitarian responses, people of conscience and our grassroots organizations must act to stop the genocide in Gaza. When our governments fail, we sail!” said Ismail Moola from a South African organisation that forms part of the FFC.

The organisation’s announcement comes in the wake of Israeli forces killing seven aid workers after striking a World Central Kitchen convoy.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition was formed after the 2010 Freedom Flotilla mission, in which Israeli forces killed ten Turkish civilians and injured 30 others while raiding the flotilla ships in international waters.

The coalition brings together organisations working to end the Israeli blockade of Gaza from countries around the world, including Turkiye, Canada, the US and South Africa.

Israel has killed nearly 33,000 people since it launched its brutal bombing campaign on Gaza in October 2023. The military campaign has led to mass destruction, displacement and man-made famine in Gaza.​​​​​​​

April 3, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism, War Crimes | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Al-Shifa Hospital completely destroyed after Israeli forces withdraw

MEMO | April 1, 2024

The Israeli army withdrew from inside the Al-Shifa Hospital and the surrounding areas west of Gaza City early Monday, leaving scores of casualties and extensive destruction in the hospital and its vicinity, Anadolu news agency reported.

The army fully withdrew from inside the hospital and the surrounding neighbourhoods towards areas south of Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood, southwest of Gaza City, witnesses told Anadolu.

The Israeli forces burned all buildings in the hospital resulting in complete cessation of services, the witnesses added.

They also noted that the army destroyed the specialised surgery building and burned the main reception and emergency building.

Israeli forces also burned the buildings of the kidney and maternity wards, mortuary refrigerators, and cancer and burn facilities, and destroyed the outpatient clinic building, according to the witnesses.

According to Palestinian medical sources, the hospital is now completely out of service and the army destroyed all medical equipment in the complex, operation rooms, and intensive care units.

The witnesses reported that scores of scattered bodies were found in the hospital and in the streets surrounding it.

They explained that the army destroyed the makeshift cemetery established by Palestinians in the facility and removed the corpses from it, scattering them in various areas of the hospital.

They further noted that Israeli forces burned and destroyed many homes and residential buildings in the vicinity of the hospital.

The Israeli army raided the hospital, the largest medical facility in the Gaza Strip that houses thousands of patients and displaced people, on 18 March.

April 1, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Israeli officers admit that most Gaza fatalities classified as ‘terrorists’ are civilians

MEMO | April 1, 2024

Israeli officers and soldiers have admitted that most of the fatalities classified by the army as “terrorists” during its war on the Gaza Strip are actually civilians, a report said Sunday.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz collected testimonies from officers and soldiers who have fought in Gaza during the war, which has been ongoing since Oct. 7, 2023.

“The Israeli army says 9,000 terrorists have been killed since the Gaza war began,” the report said.

Israeli officials and soldiers, however, told Haaretz that “these are often civilians whose only crime was to cross an invisible line drawn by the Israeli army.”

“We were explicitly told that even if a suspect runs into a building with people in it, we should fire at the building and kill the terrorist, even if other people are hurt,” one soldier told the newspaper.

According to the testimonies of the officers and soldiers, the Israeli army fires at anyone entering the “kill zone” it has defined, whether armed or civilians.

A reserve officer said that “in practice, a terrorist is anyone the army has killed in the areas in which its forces operate.”

“They ask you how many, and I give a number based on what we see and understand on the ground, and we move on. It’s not that we invent bodies, but no one can determine with certainty who is a terrorist and who was hit after entering the combat zone of an Israeli force,” he added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing severe criticism within Israel for failing to achieve the goals of the war on Gaza, particularly in eliminating the Palestinian group Hamas and returning Israeli hostages.

April 1, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

PA forces covertly entered Gaza to ‘sow chaos’ in coordination with Shin Bet: Report

The Cradle | April 1, 2024

Gaza security officials have accused the West Bank-ruling Palestinian Authority (PA) of deploying covert operatives to the besieged enclave with the goal of “sowing chaos” within the resistance in a scheme coordinated with Israel’s internal spy agency, the Shin Bet.

According to a senior official who spoke with Arabic media, the covert mission took place on the night of 30 March and saw several PA forces sneak into Gaza via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt by escorting trucks carrying humanitarian aid from the Egyptian Red Crescent.

“The suspicious security force that entered yesterday with Egyptian Crescent trucks coordinated its operations entirely with the occupation forces,” an official from the Gaza interior ministry told Al-Aqsa TV on Sunday.

The plan reportedly called to “create a state of confusion and chaos among the ranks of the [Gaza] home front” in an arrangement reached between Tel Aviv and Ramallah “in their meeting in one of the Arab capitals last week.”

Gaza security forces managed to detain 10 of the operatives and are on the hunt for an unknown number of others who evaded capture. Officials also say Cairo informed the border crossing authority that it was “unaware” of the covert force.

The PA forces are reportedly affiliated with the General Intelligence Service in Ramallah and were deployed on an “official mission under direct orders” from the head of the Palestinian General Intelligence Service, Major General Majid Faraj.

Faraj’s name made headlines last month when Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant put his name forward as a possible candidate to “temporarily manage” the Gaza Strip after the genocide of Palestinians comes to an end.

“The 61-year-old Faraj is a close associate of [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas and has close working ties with Israel’s defense establishment … He is responsible for coordinating between Israel’s Shin Bet security agency, American CIA, and other international intelligence organizations,” a report by Israel’s i24NEWS details.

For its part, the PA denied all accusations to Palestinian news agency WAFA, calling them “baseless.” “We will continue to provide everything necessary to provide relief to our people, and we will not be drawn into frenzied media campaigns that cover up the suffering of our people in the Gaza Strip and the killing, displacement, and starvation they are subjected to,” an unnamed PA official told WAFA.

Saturday’s operation came just hours before a new PA government was officially sworn into office as part of a US-drafted plan that calls for a “reformed PA” to control the occupied Palestinian territories.

Popular acceptance for the PA reached rock bottom long before the events of 7 October and the ensuing genocidal war in Gaza, as Palestinians increasingly expressed discontent over the group’s long history of corruption scandals, brutal repression of critics, and deep security coordination with Israel.

April 1, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , | Leave a comment

Europe is not serious about stopping the genocide in Gaza

By Hossam Shaker | MEMO | March 31, 2024

Has Europe really stopped supporting the genocide, ethnic cleansing and starvation war taking place in Gaza? It is clear that changes have occurred in European positions recently, compared to previous months.

European officials have begun to express increasing “concern” about the humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip and have recently mentioned the word “international law” in their statements regarding the brutal Israeli war after they had previously ignored it. Then, the European Union (EU) called for a ceasefire for the first time at the European Council summit on 21 March, finally after the Israeli army killed 32,000 Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.

European positions have budged, but very slowly and with great caution and the result is that they have not yet left the trenches of supporting the ongoing genocide, with scattered exceptions issued by Belgium, Ireland, Spain, Malta and Norway.

It seems clear that the criticism directed at the Israeli side from most European platforms is still cautious, with great care being taken to choose expressions carefully. Most importantly, Europe ignores the fact that its influence gives it the ability to stop war and genocide immediately if it has the political will through a package of sanctions, for example, but it simply does not want to.

Instead, European politicians are currently trying to give the impression that they disagree with the horrors committed by the Israeli government and its forces against 2.3 million people in the Gaza Strip, but without doing anything to deter them. Because the invasion of Rafah will bring back the most horrific scenes of World War II to the world of colours, Europe clearly opposes the invasion of this narrow area crowded with displaced persons, as do the allies in Washington as well. However, most European platforms do not declare opposition to the ongoing war, despite all the atrocities that have accompanied it. Indeed, the Israeli war leadership still enjoys generous military supplies from European countries, in addition to the continuation of mutual partnership and cooperation agreements without prejudice or even the threat of being suspended.

Instead of taking serious action to curb the horrific massacre, Europe’s political leadership is deluding its people and the world that it is really acting by talking a lot about providing humanitarian aid and showing concern about the worsening famine in the Gaza Strip, without this changing anything in reality, which is, in fact, worsening. There are also renewed declarations of support for the political vision of the two-state solution, readiness to discuss recognition of a Palestinian state and denounce the attacks of extremist settlers in the West Bank and perhaps impose sanctions on them. Regrettably, none of these relate to the essence of the ongoing war on Gaza, which includes genocide, even though the EU and most European capitals have avoided pronouncing this forbidden word when it comes to Israeli behaviour.

Even if Europe imposes sanctions on a few settlers who attack Palestinian citizens, it ignores what is being done by the Israeli army and its soldiers, who do not stop killing, terrorising and abusing Palestinians in the West Bank, in addition to their atrocities in Gaza. Europe grants immunity to the Israeli army, its officers and its soldiers from any sanctions or even any explicit criticism. The focus of criticism on the behaviour of the settlers is always accompanied by a clear insistence on exempting the army from blame and accountability for war crimes.

History will forever recall that Europe’s political establishment supported genocide against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip from day one in multiple forms through military support, political encouragement, propaganda and financial aid. Moreover, they have remained indifferent to the ongoing public objections against this shameful involvement. The war leadership with clear fascist tendencies would not have been able to wage this terrible massacre without this unwavering European cover, in addition to US and Western support in general.

Political Europe supported the atrocities through a rhetorical plot that included prior justification for everything that any army could commit against civilians. They did this despite knowing that the matter is related to an occupying army whose record is replete with war crimes committed in the Gaza Strip and elsewhere. In fact, the Benjamin Netanyahu government, which is the most extreme and racist Israeli government since its creation, had from the very first days declared its intentions to commit genocide, ethnic cleansing, starvation, war and total destruction. The evidence in this regard is well-documented in the case file South Africa submitted to the International Court of Justice. Yet the EU and most European capitals stuck to a unified narrative, providing excuses for all the atrocities that this army committed in the Gaza Strip, the majority of whose residents are refugee children and women.

European positions did not budge partially until after months of horrific massacres that reached a record level of Palestinian civilian casualties. Their partial change only came months after the brutal Israeli bombing campaign destroyed most homes, hospitals and civilian facilities with ammunition supplied by US and European industries and after starvation in Gaza reached a terrifying and visible peak before the entire world.

Still, European politicians behave as if they are incapable of acting. They continue to make feeble statements and diplomatic appeals to the Israeli side without telling their people and the world that they can take immediate, deterrent and effective steps to stop the genocide, ethnic cleansing and brutal starvation. Alas, they simply do not want to.

The easiest test of the seriousness of European positions is to compare their stand toward the Israeli occupier with the punitive steps taken after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The EU and other European countries have imposed strict, extensive and unprecedented sanctions on Russia since 24 February, 2022, in addition to the sanctions that were previously imposed after the annexation of Crimea in 2014. The EU also imposed sanctions on Belarus and Iran due to their roles in supporting the Russian war effort.

On the other hand, the EU and other European countries did not take any clear punitive steps towards Israel, except for the imposition of sanctions against a few settlers. The strangest thing, however, is that Europe rushed to punish the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and the Palestinian citizens served by the UN agency by hastily cutting off its funding as soon as uncorroborated Israeli allegations were received regarding some of its employees.

In contrast, Europe’s politicians still exempt the Israeli occupation army from even verbal censure. They choose carefully worded phrases when commenting on the terrible atrocities that the world sees, such as the mass killings at aid distribution points, so that these atrocities are not explicitly linked to the Israeli army.

One of the taboos of political discourse in the EU and the capitals of the continent is the use of specific vocabulary to describe what is happening. During half a year of horrors, expressions such as “genocide”, “ethnic cleansing”, “atrocities” and “war crimes” did not appear in European official comments, except in rare exceptions from non-conformist politicians in blog posts. The logical question that has been repeated for months in the words of demonstrators in European squares is: How many more victims would make you consider what is happening to be genocide?

Political Europe is now trying to disavow the image of the party supporting Israel’s war on the Palestinian people with all its atrocities. It is covering up its involvement in justifying this war and encouraging the genocide campaign that has been ongoing for months, including providing multiple forms of military, political, financial and propaganda support from several European countries. Ending the policy of supporting genocide, starvation, war and brutal war crimes has a clear title: ending the partnership and cooperation agreements, imposing strict sanctions, banning the supply of weapons and ammunition and launching a serious humanitarian operation to end the programmed starvation policy. The question remains: How many victims are needed in order to do something like this?

March 31, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Israel kills over 400 during Al-Shifa Hospital siege

The Cradle | March 31, 2024

Israeli forces have killed more than 400 people, including patients, the displaced, and medical workers during their 13-day siege of Al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s government media office reported on 31 March.

The ministry added that during the siege on Gaza’s largest medical facility, where thousands of patients and displaced people are sheltering, Israeli troops have detained and tortured hundreds while destroying and or setting fire to 1,050 nearby houses.

On 27 March, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reported that Israeli forces had killed 13 children between the ages of 4 and 16 during operations in and around Al-Shifa in the previous week.

“Some of the fatal shootings occurred during an Israeli army siege while the victims’ families were inside their homes; others occurred when the victims attempted to escape via routes that the Israeli army had designated as ‘safe’ after forcibly evacuating them from their homes and places of residence,” the report stated.

Islam Ali Salouha, who lives close to Al-Shifa, told Euro-Med that Israeli forces killed his sons Ali, nine, and Saeed Muhammad Sheikha, six, while the family fled the area after being expelled from their home. Israeli forces specifically targeted the children with live bullets, he said.

Euro-Med reports that according to Salouha, on the afternoon of Sunday, 24 March, the Israeli army ordered everyone in the vicinity, through loudspeakers, to leave their homes or their homes would be bombed. He and his family fled on a corpse-strewn road that the Israeli army had designated for travel.

After walking only 10s of meters, Israeli forces opened fire on the family, killing the two children.

Salouha said that as they attempted to pull his two children off the ground, Israeli forces opened fire on them again, forcing them to leave Ali and Saeed on the ground and flee.

Safa Hassouna, a Palestinian woman living near Al-Shifa, told The National how she was forced to leave her home near the hospital when Israeli forces “broke in and forced them to leave.”

When Israeli forces began launching repeated raids on Al Shifa almost two weeks ago, Ms. Hassouna had decided to remain in her home to avoid shelling. However, Israeli forces later raided her home.

“They bombed the door and forced us out,” she said.

Hassouna said Israeli forces abducted her husband and two sons and told her to flee south with her daughter.

“They forced my husband and my sons to take off their clothes. They took them, and me and my daughter left,” she said.

Hassouna said her husband and one son have been released, but the fate of her other son is unknown. As he was escorted away, Israeli troops used him as a human shield for their tank.

“I don’t know anything about him, and I am worried,” she told The National from southern Gaza, where she is now staying.

“We are experiencing all the sorrow and sadness. Enough is enough.”

March 31, 2024 Posted by | Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Palestinian Political Groups Reject Israel’s Proposal to Send Arab Troops to Gaza – Hamas

Sputnik – 30.03.2024

TUNIS – Political groups making up the Alliance of Palestinian Forces have rejected Israel’s proposal to send Arab troops to the Gaza Strip, Palestinian movement Hamas said on Saturday.

On Friday, Axios reported, citing two senior Israeli officials, that Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, during his recent visit to the United States, suggested forming a multinational contingent with Arab troops to bolster Gaza’s law and order and ensure safe humanitarian aid delivery.

“The factions of the Alliance of Palestinian Forces reject the Israeli proposal to send Arab forces to govern Gaza and warn against its consequences,” Hamas said in a statement.
The statement also claimed that the Israeli proposal was “a new Zionist trap and a lie.”

“Turning to certain Arab countries for help, it [Israel], together with the US, seeks to avoid a horrible defeat they have suffered … to get the occupation army out of the huge moor it finds itself trapped in the Gaza Strip,” the statement read.

Aside from Hamas, the Alliance includes Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and several other organizations that have their own military wings.

On Thursday, the International Court of Justice said that Israel must ensure the unhindered access of humanitarian aid and all necessary services to the Gaza Strip.

March 30, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | , , , , | 1 Comment

October 7 | Al Jazeera Investigations

Al Jazeera | March 20, 2024

Hamas’s incursion into Israel on October 7 transformed the politics of the Middle East. Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit (I-Unit) has carried out a forensic analysis of the events of that day – examining seven hours of footage from CCTV, dashcams, personal phones and headcams of dead Hamas fighters, and drawing up a comprehensive list of those killed.

In October 7, the I-Unit reveals widespread human rights abuses by Hamas fighters and others who followed them through the fence from Gaza into Israel.

But the investigation also found that many of the worst stories that came out in the days following the attack were false. This was especially true of atrocities that were used repeatedly by politicians in Israel and the West to justify the ferocity of the bombardment of the Gaza Strip, such as the mass killing of babies and allegations of widespread and systematic rape.

In particular the I-Unit reveals that claims by the Israel Defence Force that it found 8 burned babies at a house in Kibbutz Be’eri were entirely untrue. There were no babies in the house and the 12 civilians inside were killed by Israeli forces when they stormed the house.

This was one of a number of incidents where the police and army appear to have killed Israeli citizens.

October 7 is a deep dive into the events that led to the deaths of tens of thousands of people, the significance of which will reverberate for decades.

March 29, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Fake News, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Timeless or most popular, Video | , , , | Leave a comment

Israel executed 13 children in Gaza in front of their families, says human rights NGO

MEMO | March 27, 2024

Documented testimonies have been collected regarding the execution of Palestinian children in Gaza by the Israeli occupation forces in and around Al-Shifa Hospital, at a time when a UN expert has confirmed her belief that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor confirmed that it has “documented the execution of 13 children by the Israeli occupation forces in Al-Shifa Hospital and its surroundings.”

The NGO also confirmed that it had received “identical statements and testimonies regarding the crimes of executing Gaza children between the ages of 4 and 16.” Two of the children, named as Ali Islam Salouha. 9, and Saeed Mohammad Sheikha, 6, are said to have been killed “in cold blood in front of their families and residents of the area having been targeted deliberately using live bullets.”

Some of the children were killed while surrounded by the occupation army inside their homes with their families, said Euro-Med. Others were displaced and following routes that the occupation army had specified as “safe” for them to use.

“The documented cases of the execution of Gazan children embody a flagrant violation of international law, including international humanitarian law, and constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity in and of themselves,” the NGO pointed out, “and have been committed in the context of the crime of genocide to which the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip have been subjected for six months.”

It also emphasised that the occupation army has committed and continues to commit horrific crimes systematically during its military operations lasting for more than a week inside and around Al-Shifa Hospital. “These crimes include premeditated killings and extrajudicial executions of Palestinian civilians.”

March 27, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

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