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Israel’s hospital bombing claims not credible – analysts

RT | October 21, 2023

Independent analysis of video and audio footage has revealed major inconsistencies with Israel’s claim that Palestinian militants were responsible for the deadly bombing of the al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza this week.

The Christian-run hospital, also known as the Baptist Hospital, was destroyed in an explosion on Tuesday. Around 500 people were killed in the blast, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Th Israeli authorities have released two pieces of evidence that they say prove the building was hit by a Palestinian rocket: A video showing a salvo of Palestinian rockets flying from east to west, with one apparently breaking apart with a flash and falling on the hospital; and an intercepted telephone call in which Hamas militants purportedly discuss how rockets fired by the Islamic Jihad group had fallen short and landed in Gaza.

“The entire world should know: It was barbaric terrorists in Gaza that attacked the hospital in Gaza, and not the [Israel Defense Forces],” Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu wrote on social media on Tuesday night.

However, analysts at Al Jazeera and Channel 4 studied the video and concluded that the flash could not be linked with the subsequent explosion at the hospital. Al Jazeera noted that the flash “was in fact consistent with Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system intercepting a missile fired from the Gaza Strip and destroying it in midair.”

In a second video shot near the blast site, an incoming rocket or missile can be heard screeching through the air before impacting the hospital. Earshot, an NGO specializing in audio analysis of footage from conflict zones and human rights cases, studied this video and found that the frequency of the incoming projectile indicates that it “approached the hospital from north-east, east or south-east,” while Israel claimed it approached from the west.

Forensic Architecture, a research agency based at the University of London, backed up Earshot’s findings, stating that the projectile likely came from the direction of Israel. Further analysis of the crater left at the hospital pointed to an approach from the north-east, the agency said.

Earshot also studied the telephone recording and found that unlike most calls, in which both parties’ voices are transmitted on the same audio channel, the recording consists of two separately-recorded voices stitched together. While Earshot said it “cannot categorically state that the audible dialogue is fake… the level of manipulation required to edit these two voices together disqualifies it as a source of credible evidence.”

In the immediate aftermath of the blast, Israeli government adviser Hananya Naftali wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that the “Israeli Air Force struck a Hamas terrorist base inside a hospital in Gaza,” before deleting the tweet minutes later.

Nevertheless, US President Joe Biden has sided with the Israeli telling of events, while Israel remains the culprit throughout the Arab world. “Everybody here believes that Israel is responsible for it,” Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told CNN on Wednesday. “The Israeli army is saying it’s not but… try and find anybody who’s going to believe it in this part of the world.”

October 21, 2023 Posted by | Deception, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Israel must be internationally designated as terrorist entity: Iran FM spokesman

Press TV – October 21, 2023

The spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry has censured the ongoing Israeli onslaught in the besieged Gaza Strip, stating that the international community must designate the occupying Tel Aviv regime as a “terrorist entity” and put its leaders on trial over war crimes against Palestinians.

In a post published on his X account on Saturday, Nasser Kan’ani denounced the appalling Israeli atrocities against Palestinians and threats of bombardment of hospitals in the Gaza Strip.

“Following the catastrophic attacks on the al-Ahli Arab Hospital, mosques, schools and the Greek Orthodox church in Gaza, the Zionist regime has threatened to pound other hospitals in Gaza!” he wrote.

“Such horrendous crimes mean that the Zionist regime has crossed the limits of insanity,” said Kan’ani, adding that they amount to a morally shameful scandal for the governments that have long provided unconditional support to the Zionist regime while preaching to others about human rights.

Kan’ani stated that occupation, aggression, war, misdeeds, assassination, genocide, infanticide, attacks on mosques, churches, hospitals, ambulances and rescue vehicles, schools, houses and residential complexes, refugee camps and journalists, etc. are all crimes collectively manifested in the contemporary world by a bogus and terrorist regime entity called “Israel” with a 75-year-long record of relentless atrocities.

“Nowadays, all these crimes are being committed simultaneously and on a daily basis in Gaza just in front of the international community,” he said.

“All people advocating freedom, justice and fairness across the world demand that the Israeli regime be designated internationally as a terrorist entity, and that Zionist leaders be prosecuted and punished as war criminals,” Kan’ani asserted.

The United Nations says about half of Palestinians in Gaza have been made homeless, still trapped inside the enclave, which is known to be one of the most densely populated places on earth.

Health officials in Gaza say the Israeli bombardment has killed at least 4,137 people since October 7, when fighters from the Hamas resistance movement launched an unprecedented large-scale attack against the occupying Israeli regime. Another 13,162 individuals have also been injured.

Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesman for Gaza’s health ministry, confirmed that nearly 1,400 people, including 720 children, are still missing under the rubble.

Qudra also noted that 352 Palestinians were killed and 669 others wounded over the past 24 hours, including 16 victims who lost their lives in the aerial strike on the Greek Orthodox Church.

Seven general hospitals and 21 health centers are now out of service, he added, calling for international protection of hospitals and health facilities in Gaza in light of intensified Israeli aggression.

The Palestinian health official noted that 46 medical personnel were killed, and 85 others injured during Israeli airstrikes. At least 23 ambulances were destroyed as well.

October 21, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

More Palestinians killed in early morning Israeli strikes across Gaza Strip

Press TV – October 21, 2023

At least 53 Palestinians have been killed and several others injured after Israeli military aircraft carried out a fresh round of airstrikes against various residential neighborhoods across the besieged Gaza Strip.

The official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that the warplanes bombarded several buildings in the town of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip early on Saturday, killing at least 14 people and wounding others.

The aerial raids also left several people missing beneath the rubble, according to the news agency.

At least 14 people were also killed in Jabalia town in the north of the Gaza Strip.

Moreover, Israeli fighter jets struck the eastern flank of the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, killing and wounding several people.

Israeli warplanes also pounded a number of residential buildings in the northwestern Sheikh Radwan district of Gaza City, as well as the eastern and northern parts of Beit Lahiya, WAFA reported.

Houses were hit in Khan Yunis city as Israeli aircraft pounded the southern Gaza Strip with more air raids.

There were no immediate reports about the exact number of casualties and the extent of damage caused.

The United Nations says about half of Palestinians in Gaza have been rendered homeless while still trapped inside the enclave, which is known to be one of the most densely populated places on earth.

Health officials in Gaza say the Israeli bombardment has killed at least 4,137 people since October 7, when fighters from the Hamas resistance movement launched an unprecedented large-scale attack against the occupying Israeli regime. Another 13,162 individuals have also been injured.

Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesman for Gaza’s health ministry, confirmed that nearly 1,400 people, including 720 children, are still missing under the rubble.

Qudra also noted that 352 Palestinians were killed and 669 others wounded over the past 24 hours, including 16 victims who lost their lives in the aerial strike on the Greek Orthodox Church.

Seven general hospitals and 21 health centers are now out of service, he explained, calling for international protection of hospitals and health facilities in Gaza in light of the intensified Israeli aggression.

The senior Palestinian health official further said that 46 medical personnel were killed and 85 others injured during Israeli airstrikes. At least 23 ambulances were destroyed as well.

Rights bodies denounce West’s double standards

Meanwhile, international human rights organizations have slammed Western governments over their hypocrisy and double standards in the face of Israeli atrocities in the Gaza Strip.

Tom Porteous, the deputy program director at an international rights agency, said in a statement that while the United States and European countries denounced Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine, there was no clear condemnation of Israel’s actions in Gaza.

“Where is the clear condemnation of the cruel tightening of the 16-year closure of Gaza that amounts to collective punishment, a war crime? Where is the outrage at statements by Israeli political leaders that seek to blur the all-important distinction between civilians and combatants in Gaza even as they order ever more intense bombardment of this densely populated territory, reducing city blocks and neighborhoods to rubble? Where are the clear and unequivocal calls for Israel to respect international norms in its attack on Gaza, let alone for accountability?” he said.

He further described the West’s hypocrisy and double standards as “flagrant and obvious.”

October 21, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Progressive Hypocrite, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Israel threatens to bomb Gaza hospital housing 12,000 Palestinians

Press TV – October 20, 2023

A few days after killing hundreds of people by bombing a hospital in the Gaza Strip, Israel has threatened to attack yet another such facility in the coastal sliver, which has come to house thousands of Palestinians.

On Friday, Reuters cited the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) as saying that the Israeli military had warned it to “immediately evacuate” Gaza’s al-Quds hospital.

The facility is currently rendering services to more than 400 patients. It has also turned into a refuge for around 12,000 Palestinians, who have fled there amid a relentless Israeli war that has been pounding the Palestinian territory since October 7. The war has so far claimed more than 4,000 people.

The PRCS described “70%” of the displaced Palestinians inside the hospital as “children and women,” saying they “are in imminent danger.”

“This place could turn to ashes if those threats are carried out,” it said, asking, “Is there a world power capable of stopping the threats of the Israeli occupation army to bomb hospitals with innocent civilians inside?”

The Palestinian Red Crescent issued an urgent appeal to the international community, saying, “We call on the world to take immediate and urgent action to prevent a new massacre like the one that occurred on the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital.”

More than 500 people lost their lives in an Israeli airstrike against al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday. Thousands of Palestinians were present at the facility when the attack took place.

Numerous world leaders have vehemently denounced the massacre. Major cities across the world have also turned into the scene of angry demonstrations against Tel Aviv’s indiscriminate campaign of bloodshed and destruction against the Palestinian territory.

The regime has been responsible for numerous deadly offensives against hospitals and other healthcare facilities across Gaza through both its near-daily attacks against the coastal sliver and several wars that it has waged against the territory in the past.

October 20, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

France’s Macron condemns Israel strike on Gaza hospital, calls for humanitarian access to Strip

MEMO | October 19, 2023

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 told Middle 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.

October 19, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

This is another Iraqi WMD moment. We are being gaslit

By Jonathan Cook | October 18, 2023

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.

October 18, 2023 Posted by | Deception, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Russia and China Lead Multipolar Development as US Pours Fuel on Israeli Fire

By James Tweedie – Sputnik – 18.10.2023

The US is fuelling wars and massacres, while the BRICS nations’ quest for mutual peace and prosperity, peace activist and writer KJ Noh said.

Visiting Israel on Wedneday, US President Joe Biden pledged unqualified support to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s operation in the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians, in revenge for attacks launched by the Hamas movement and others on October 7.

Biden even endorsed Netanyahu’s claim that Palestinian guerrillas were to blame for the bombing of the al-Ahli Baptist Baptist hospital in Gaza on Wednesday evening that killed some 500 men, women and children.

Peace activist and writer KJ Noh told Sputnik that the “optics are very, very striking” — comparing Washington’s handouts of arms to its client states to China’s building of its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) tri-continental transport and trade network.

“Right at the very moment that China is building infrastructure and saving lives all over the world through the BRI, the US is planning to assist Israel in destroying infrastructure and cause death,” Noh said. “The contrast could not be more clear.”

“[Russian President Valdimir] Putin goes to the BRI and Biden goes to Israel. I think that it’s very, very clear,” he added.

The activist said “the writing is on the wall” for the West’s vision of a unipolar world — and had been for a long time.

“All you had to do was just look at the correlation of forces to see that this was not going to shift or change,” Noh said. “And clearly Russia is now on the offensive.”

He also drew a sharp contrast between the “lack of civilian casualties” in Russia’s 20-month military operation to de-nazify Ukraine and the 3,500 Palestinians killed in Israel’s “massive shelling, bombing, murder of children that has happened in recent days in Gaza.”

“That, too, is another contrast, just the kind of the difference between [a special military operation] and wanton slaughter of people who are encaged in the world’s largest open air prison.”

The US shows hits hypocrisy by painting Russia and China as authoritarian dictatorships and threats to its self-defined “rules-based international order” while giving free reign to Israel to flout the United Nations charter, he said.

“International law says that the occupation is illegal, and certainly international law says that war of aggression against civilians is illegal,” Noh said. “Turning Gaza into a free fire zone is a crime against humanity… and the fact that China is coming out against that somehow goes against global norms, that it’s authoritarian — this is the world upside down.”

“Gaza is a real mask-off moment where you see the ‘rules-based international order’ for the unmitigated and naked violence and injustice that it really is,” he added.

October 18, 2023 Posted by | Illegal Occupation, Progressive Hypocrite | , , , , , | Leave a comment

From Deir Yassin to Al-Ahli Hospital: Israel’s legacy of killing Palestinians

By Nasim Ahmed | MEMO | October 18, 2023

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.

Nasimbythedocks

October 18, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

40 Palestinians massacred in Jabaliya, Khan Yunis

MEMO | October 18, 2023

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.

October 18, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Conscience of humanity shaken by targeting of civilians in Gaza: Pakistani envoy

Press TV | October 18, 2023

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.”

October 18, 2023 Posted by | Progressive Hypocrite, Solidarity and Activism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Biden whitewashes Israel’s slaughter of Gazans during Netanyahu meeting

(Photo Credit: REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein)
The Cradle | October 18, 2023

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.

October 18, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Who’s to blame for the massacre at Gaza’s Baptist Hospital?

MEMO | October 18, 2023

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.

October 18, 2023 Posted by | Deception, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , , , | Leave a comment

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