Archiv: scorched earth tactic / Taktik der Verbrannten Erde


14.11.2024 - 22:16 [ United Nations ]

Report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories

The present report contains information regarding the efforts of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories to implement its mandate and documents human rights concerns in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the occupied Syrian Golan from October 2023 to July 2024. The Special Committee was not able to conduct visits to the occupied territories, but did conduct its annual consultations in Geneva and undertook a visit to Amman, and met with government officials, United Nations organizations and mechanisms, representatives of civil society organizations, youth representatives, human rights defenders, and Palestinian families.

The report raises serious concerns of breaches of international humanitarian and human rights laws in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including starvation as a weapon of war, the possibility of genocide in Gaza and an apartheid system in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. It documents the impact of the conflict escalation since 7 October 2023 on Palestinians’ rights to food; to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment; to physical integrity, liberty and security of persons; as well as the disproportionate effects on the rights of women, children, and future generations more broadly. The report also highlights the ongoing attacks against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and refers to developments in the occupied Syrian Golan. The report provides recommendations to the General Assembly and Member States; to the State of Israel; and to businesses operating with Israel, that in any way contribute to maintaining Israel’s unlawful presence in the occupied territories.

(…)

IX. Conclusions

69. The developments in this report lead the Special Committee to conclude that the policies and practices of Israel during the reporting period are consistent with the characteristics of genocide. The targeting of Palestinians as a group; the life-threatening conditions imposed on Palestinians in Gaza through warfare and restrictions on humanitarian aid – resulting in physical destruction, increased miscarriages and stillbirths – and the killing of and serious bodily or mental harm caused to Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are violations under international law. Civilians have been indiscriminately and disproportionally killed en masse in Gaza, while in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Israeli colonial settlers, military and security personnel have continued to violate human rights and humanitarian law with impunity. Senior Israeli government and military officials must be held accountable, including for using dehumanizing language and inciting violence.

14.11.2024 - 22:04 [ Common Dreams ]

As US Keeps Arms Flowing, UN Panel Says Israeli Assault on Gaza ‚Consistent With Genocide‘

Less than 48 hours after the Biden administration said it does not believe Israel is unlawfully obstructing humanitarian assistance in Gaza, a United Nations special committee issued a report Thursday arguing that the Israeli military‘s actions in the Palestinian enclave bear „the characteristics of genocide.“

14.11.2024 - 21:01 [ Common Dreams ]

Global Fury After State Dept Claims Israel Not Violating US Law by Blocking Gaza Aid

(November 12, 2024)

Last month, the Biden administration—which has approved tens of billions of dollars in military aid for Israel and provided nearly unconditional diplomatic support since October 2023—sent a letter to the Israeli government threatening to cut off U.S. arms transfers if it failed to take „urgent and sustained actions“ to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza within 30 days.

Asked during a Tuesday press conference if the Israeli government has met the letter‘s demands, State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said that „we have not made an assessment that they are in violation of U.S. law.“

14.11.2024 - 19:55 [ Human Rights Watch ]

“Hopeless, Starving, and Besieged”: Israel’s Forced Displacement of Palestinians in Gaza

To All Governments

– Publicly condemn Israel’s forced displacement of the civilian population in Gaza as a war crime and crime against humanity, as well as other violations of international humanitarian law, international human rights law, and international criminal law by Israeli authorities, and urge them to immediately halt those crimes and cooperate with international judicial bodies and investigative mechanisms.

– Increase public and private pressure on the Israeli government to stop violating international humanitarian law in the conduct of hostilities, to fully comply with its obligations and the binding orders and advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice, and to ensure the entry and safe distribution throughout Gaza of adequate aid and provision of basic services. Consider, in that regard, the review and possible suspension of bilateral agreements with Israel, such as the EU-Israel Association Agreement, as proposed by the governments of Spain and Ireland, and the US-Israel Free Trade Agreement.

– Suspend military assistance and arms sales to Israel so long as its forces commit violations of international humanitarian law with impunity.

– Enforce domestic legislation limiting the transfer of arms and military assistance for violations of international human rights and humanitarian law.

– Publicly support the International Criminal Court, uphold the court’s independence, and publicly condemn efforts to intimidate or interfere with its work, officials, and those cooperating with the institution.

– Urge the Government of Israel to grant access to independent, international monitors, including from the UN Special Procedures.

– Impose targeted sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, against Israeli officials credibly implicated in ongoing serious violations, for the purpose of ending these violations.

– Address long-standing impunity by Israeli authorities and Palestinian armed groups for serious crimes under international law, and support reparations for all victims of gross human rights abuses.

– Support the creation of a register of damages, caused by unlawful Israeli action to persons in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, for the purposes of calculating reparations.

(…)

To the Prosecutor of the International Crimin19al Court

– Investigate Israeli authorities’ forced displacement and prevention of the right to return as a crime against humanity.

14.11.2024 - 19:22 [ LBCgroup.tv ]

Nearly 100,000 homes damaged in year of Hezbollah-Israel fighting in Lebanon: World Bank

More than a year of clashes that escalated into war in September have cost Lebanon more than $5 billion in economic losses and damaged nearly 100,000 housing units, the World Bank said Thursday.

The World Bank report provided estimates for damage between October 8, 2023, and October 27, 2024, saying „the conflict has caused $5.1 billion in economic losses“ and that it „damaged an estimated 99,209 housing units“ — mainly in Lebanon‘s war-torn south.

08.11.2024 - 21:44 [ ARTNews.com ]

UNESCO Calls Emergency Session for Lebanese Heritage Sites Imperiled by Israeli Bombing

UNESCO’s Special Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property will hold an emergency session on November 18 dedicated to heritage sites in Lebanon as Israel intensifies its bombing of Baalbek, a historic city in eastern Lebanon home to one of the world’s best-preserved Roman ruins.

07.11.2024 - 16:56 [ Tagesschau.de ]

Deutschland weitet Rüstungsexporte nach Israel aus

(October 24, 2024)

Laut Auswärtigem Amt wurden seit August Ausfuhren im Wert von 94,05 Millionen genehmigt. (…)

Die neue Zahl geht aus einer Antwort des Auswärtigen Amts auf eine Anfrage der BSW-Abgeordneten Sevim Dagdelen hervor, die der Nachrichtenagentur dpa vorliegt.

07.11.2024 - 16:25 [ Peter Beinart / New York Times ]

Democrats Ignored Gaza and Brought Down Their Party

Over the past year, Israel’s slaughter and starvation of Palestinians — funded by U.S. taxpayers and live-streamed on social media — has triggered one of the greatest surges in progressive activism in a generation. Many Americans roused to action by their government’s complicity in Gaza’s destruction have no personal connection to Palestine or Israel. Like many Americans who protested South African apartheid or the Vietnam War, their motive is not ethnic or religious. It is moral.

07.11.2024 - 15:51 [ Common Dreams ]

Israel Bombs Refugee Camps After Inking $5.2 Billion Deal for US F-15 Fighter Jets

The agreement, part of a broader military aid package approved by the Biden administration and the U.S. Congress earlier this year, was finalized hours after Vice President Kamala Harris lost the 2024 election to Republican nominee Donald Trump following a campaign in which she resisted calls to support an arms embargo against Israel.

07.11.2024 - 15:15 [ AmmonNews.net ]

85 thousand tons of bombs dropped by Israel on the Gaza Strip

(November 6, 2024)

According to a statement by the Palestinian Environment Quality Authority today, Wednesday, over 85,000 tons of bombs have been deployed by the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the conflict on October 7, 2023.

07.11.2024 - 15:10 [ Anadolu ]

Amount of Israeli bombs dropped on Gaza surpasses that of World War II

(June 4, 2024)

Israel dropped 70,000 tons of bombs on Gaza Strip since last October, exceeding World War II bombings in Dresden, Hamburg, London combined, according to rights monitor

06.11.2024 - 15:02 [ Common Dreams ]

Erasing ‚Any Sign of Life,‘ Israeli Demolition Teams Razing Entire Villages in Lebanon

Satellite photos examined by The Washington Post, Reuters, and the Financial Times showed vast destruction caused by Israeli bombing and controlled demolitions of towns and villages, many of whose residents are among the more than 1.2 million people forcibly displaced by the war. (…)

„We‘re a family of artists, my father is well-known, and our home was a known cultural home,“ Lebanon Philharmonic Orchestra conductor Lubnan Baalbaki told Reuters after viewing satellite images confirming the destruction of his family home.

„If you have such high-level intelligence that you can target specific military figures, then you know what‘s in that house,“ Baalbaki added. „It was an art house. We are all artists. The aim is to erase any sign of life.“

06.11.2024 - 13:31 [ United Nations ]

Strikes in Gaza, Lebanon, as aid teams support ‘overwhelmed’ burns centre

Victims from airstrikes in Lebanon “overwhelmed the hospital”, the WHO official explained, insisting that it was critical to continue supporting “the only burns centre that’s available in the country. Off the 40 burns patients treated so far “25 per cent of them are children”, he said.

Initially equipped with 10 beds, the Geitaoui Hospital burns centre has had to expand to 25 beds, providing critical care to severely injured patients.

There are enough new trauma kits to treat 50 patients twice; each kit has two modules, one containing medications and other supplies, the other specialist burns treatments and dressings.

Expressing solidarity with Lebanon’s health professionals, the top UN aid coordinator in the country condemned ongoing military targeting of medical personnel and infrastructure, including ambulances which are “very much under attack”.

“We need to be supporting them with supplies, we need to be supporting them also need with advocacy,” said Imran Riza, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon. “There have been great violations of international humanitarian law that we are seeing. So, we need to make sure these are not happening, that health care workers can do what they‘re there for, helping people and saving lives.”

06.11.2024 - 13:21 [ BBC / Youtube ]

Hospital remains open in evacuated Lebanese city amid Israeli attacks | BBC News

Lebanon’s Health Ministry says Israel’s attacks on Lebanon have killed more than 3,000 people since October last year.

As Israel continues its intense bombardment, one of Lebanon’s main cities in the south, Nabatieh, is now largely empty.

Israel ordered the entire city to evacuate in early October.

Despite this, the city’s main hospital remains open, and emergency services are still operating for the approximately 200 families who remain there.

05.11.2024 - 18:38 [ Yenisafak.com ]

Israel destroys 37 towns, over 40,000 houses in deadly onslaught on Lebanon

The Israeli army has erased 37 towns and destroyed more than 40,000 housing units since the start of its deadly offensive on Lebanon last year, local media said on Tuesday.

The state news agency NNA said the destruction is concentrated in an area extending three kilometers deep from Naqoura to the outskirts of Khiam in southern Lebanon.

05.11.2024 - 18:21 [ APNews.com ]

Israel’s path of destruction in southern Lebanon raises fears of an attempt to create a buffer zone

(November 1, 2024)

Israeli warplanes and ground forces have blasted a trail of destruction through southern Lebanon the past month. The aim, Israel says, is to debilitate the Hezbollah militant group, push it away from the border and end more than a year of Hezbollah fire into northern Israel.

Even United Nations peacekeepers and Lebanese troops in the south have come under fire from Israeli forces, raising questions over whether they can remain in place.

02.11.2024 - 19:25 [ Idan Landau ]

השמדה וטרנספר בצפון רצועת עזה: מעבר לתרמית תכנית האלופים

הביטו בשתי התמונות האלה. הן צולמו באותו יום, ה-21 באוקטובר 2024. מימין רואים שיירת עקורים, למעשה נשים וילדים, שצולמה במחנה ג‘בליה ההרוס. הגברים (מעל גיל 16) בנפרד, מרימים דגל לבן ואת תעודות הזהות שלהם. הם בדרך החוצה. משמאל רואים את מחנה הסוכות שהקימה תנועת „נחלה“ סמוך לקיבוץ בארי, כהכנה להתיישבות יהודית בעזה, אירוע שהתכבד ב-21 שרים וח“כים מן הימין. הם בדרך פנימה.

התמונות האלה מספרות חלק גדול מן הסיפור, בעיקר את סופו המסתמן והולך. סדרת אירועים מהירה מאד בשלושת השבועות האחרונים, שעדיין נמצאת בעיצומה ופרטיה מאיימים כבר להישכח, אם בכלל חדרו לתודעה, הובילה אל הנקודה המפחידה הזאת. את הסיפור אפשר להתחיל בכל נקודה לאורך ההיסטוריה, בנכבה, בנכסה, ב“אזור הסייג“ בנגב – הרי הן כל כך דומות. עקורים פלסטינים עם מיטלטליהם, רעבים ופצועים ותשושים, ולמולם – מתיישבים יהודים צוהלים, מתקדשים אל האדמה החדשה ששוטחה ופונתה עבורם. מתחטאים.

02.11.2024 - 19:20 [ Idan Landau / +972 Magazine ]

Exterminate, expel, resettle: Israel’s endgame in northern Gaza

The “Generals’ Plan,” published in early September, has a very simple goal: to empty the northern Gaza Strip of its Palestinian population. The plan itself estimated that about 300,000 people were still living north of the Netzarim Corridor — the Israeli-occupied zone that bisects Gaza — although the UN put the number closer to 400,000.

During the first phase of the plan, the Israeli army would inform all of those people that they have a week to evacuate to the south through two “humanitarian corridors.” In the second phase, at the end of that week, the army would declare the whole area a closed military zone. Anyone who remained would be considered an enemy combatant, and be killed if they didn’t surrender. A complete siege would be imposed on the territory, intensifying the hunger and health crisis — creating, as Prof. Uzi Rabi, a senior researcher at Tel Aviv University, put it, “a process of starvation or extermination.”

02.11.2024 - 19:04 [ Common Dreams ]

Israeli Scholar Lays Out ‚True Brutality‘ of Ethnic Cleansing Now Underway in Gaza

Much alarm has been raised over the so-called „Generals‘ Plan,“ an ethnic cleansing proposal for northern Gaza that has reportedly garnered attention in the highest reaches of the Israeli government.

But Israeli scholar Idan Landau argued in a column published in English by +972 Magazine on Friday that what the Israeli military is actually doing in northern Gaza „is even more appalling“ than the plan outlined by a group of retired generals. Landau argued that focus on the details of the Generals‘ Plan has served to obscure the „true brutality“ of Israel‘s deadly operations in northern Gaza, which has been rendered a hellscape of death and destruction by the military assault and siege.

Landau, a professor of linguistics at Tel Aviv University, opened his column—first published in Hebrew on his blog—by pointing to two photos: one showing a celebratory event at a camp built by an Israeli settler organization just outside of the Gaza Strip, and the other showing displaced Palestinians lined up at gunpoint amid the ruins of northern Gaza.

02.11.2024 - 18:48 [ Unicef ]

Stop the assault on Palestinians in Gaza and on those trying to help them

NEW YORK/GENEVA/ROME, 1 November 2024 – „We the leaders of 15 United Nations and humanitarian organizations urge, yet again, all parties fighting in Gaza to protect civilians, and call on the State of Israel to cease its assault on Gaza and on the humanitarians trying to help.

„The situation unfolding in North Gaza is apocalyptic. The area has been under siege for almost a month, denied basic aid and life-saving supplies while bombardment and other attacks continue. Just in the past few days, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed, most of them women and children, and thousands have once again been forcibly displaced. ……….

(…)

Signatories:

• Ms. Joyce Msuya, Acting Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)

• Ms. Nimo Hassan, MBE, Chair, International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA)

• Mr. Jamie Munn, Executive Director, International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA)

• Ms. Amy E. Pope, Director General, International Organization for Migration (IOM)

• Mr. Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)

• Ms. Abby Maxman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Oxfam 3

• Ms. Paula Gaviria Betancur, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons (SR on HR of IDPs)

• Mr. Achim Steiner, Administrator, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

• Ms. Anacláudia Rossbach, Executive Director, United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat)

• Mr. Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

• Dr. Natalia Kanem, Executive Director, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

• Ms. Catherine Russell, Executive Director, UN Children‘s Fund (UNICEF)

• Ms. Sima Bahous, Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director, UN Women

• Ms. Cindy McCain, Executive Director, World Food Programme (WFP)

• Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO)

02.11.2024 - 18:33 [ Washington Post ]

Israel strikes Beirut area; U.N. warns conditions in northern Gaza ‘apocalyptic’

The Israeli military on Friday carried out overnight strikes on the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital for the first time in days, while U.N. leaders warned that the conditions in northern Gaza are “apocalyptic.”

01.11.2024 - 08:11 [ Washington Post ]

Israel has damaged or destroyed nearly a quarter of buildings in Lebanon’s south

Nearly a quarter of all buildings in 25 Lebanese municipalities near the Israeli border had been damaged or destroyed as of Saturday, according to an analysis of satellite data by The Washington Post — illustrating the far-reaching toll of Israel’s land and air war against Hezbollah.

Across the borderlands, at least 5,868 buildings have been damaged or destroyed, including nearly half of structures in the two hardest-hit areas, Ayta al-Shab and Kfar Kila. The vast majority of the damage — almost 80 percent — has occurred since Oct. 2, the day after Israel launched its ground invasion.

29.10.2024 - 23:55 [ webtv.UN.org ]

(Continued) The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question – Security Council, 9763rd meeting

Continuation of the Security Council Open Debate.

29.10.2024 - 23:44 [ United Nations General Secretary ]

Statement of the Secretary-General on Israeli legislation on UNRWA

28 October 2024
Statement of the Secretary-General on Israeli legislation on UNRWA

I am deeply concerned by the adoption today by the Knesset of Israel of two laws concerning the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which, if implemented, would likely prevent UNRWA from continuing its essential work in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, as mandated by the UN General Assembly.

29.10.2024 - 23:15 [ CNN ]

Israel has banned the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. That could be devastating for millions

Israel’s parliament has voted to ban a nearly eight-decade-old United Nations agency that provides essential services for Palestinian refugees, a move that could have devastating consequences for millions of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.

On Monday, the Knesset passed two bills; one barring UNRWA from activity within Israel, and another banning Israeli authorities from any contact with UNRWA – revoking the 1967 treaty that allows UNRWA to provide services to Palestinian refugees in areas under Israel’s control.

28.10.2024 - 06:09 [ United Nations ]

‘Entire population of north Gaza at risk of dying,’ warns UN’s top humanitarian official

(October 27, 2024)

The UN’s top humanitarian official warned on Saturday that the entire population of northern Gaza is at risk of dying, calling for an immediate stop to “blatant disregard for basic humanity” by Israeli forces.

“What Israeli forces are doing in besieged north Gaza cannot be allowed to continue,” said Joyce Msuya, acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, in a statement posted on the social media platform X.

Hospitals have been hit, health workers detained and first responders prevented from rescuing people trapped under the rubble, she noted.

“Shelters have been emptied and burned down…families have been separated, and men and boys taken away by the truckload,” she added.

28.10.2024 - 06:04 [ Middle East Eye ]

Palestinian civilians forced out of Jabalia recall terror by Israeli army

Displaced residents of northern Gaza provide testimony on horrors along their ‚torturous journey‘ to the south as Israeli soldiers beat the wounded and quadcopters shot at everyone

27.10.2024 - 21:00 [ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) ]

Türk says world must act as darkest moment of Gaza conflict unfolds

(October 25, 2024)

“Under the Geneva Conventions, States have an obligation to act when a serious violation of international humanitarian law has been committed,” Türk said. “Under the Genocide Convention, State parties also have the responsibility to act to prevent such a crime, when risk becomes apparent.

“For months, I have pleaded with all parties to the conflict, as well as all States, particularly those with influence in the region, to act to stop the carnage and destruction, to ensure the prompt and unconditional release of all hostages, and to ensure international humanitarian and international human rights law are respected. But still this goes on and on and on.

“Now, the international rule of law is being progressively dismantled,” he added. “Either the world ashamedly fails those who so desperately need help, or we stand united and put a stop to this.

27.10.2024 - 20:44 [ TRTdeutsch.com ]

Gaza-Krieg: UN-Kommissar fordert Maßnahmen zur Verhinderung von Genozid

(October 25, 2024)

Türk erinnerte daran, dass Staaten nicht nur verpflichtet sind, gegen Kriegsverbrechen vorzugehen. „Nach der Völkermordkonvention sind die Vertragsstaaten auch dafür verantwortlich, Maßnahmen zu ergreifen, um ein solches Verbrechen zu verhindern, wenn eine Gefahr erkennbar wird“, sagte er. „Ich flehe Sie an, den Schutz der Zivilbevölkerung und die Menschenrechte an erste Stelle zu setzen und dieses Minimum an Menschlichkeit nicht aufzugeben“, appellierte er an Staats- und Regierungschefs.

27.10.2024 - 20:21 [ YeniSafak.com/ ]

At least 5 killed in new Israeli airstrike on UN-run school in Gaza City

At least five people were killed in another Israeli airstrike on a UN-run school sheltering displaced civilians west of Gaza City on Sunday, a medical source said.

Twenty other people were injured in the attack that targeted Asma School, run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in the Shati refugee camp, the source added.

The attack was the second to have targeted the same school within days.

27.10.2024 - 19:50 [ United Nations General Secretary ]

Statement attributable to the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General – on North Gaza

In the name of humanity, the Secretary-General reiterates his calls for an immediate ceasefire, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, and accountability for crimes under international law.

27.10.2024 - 19:44 [ United Nations ]

UN chief ‘shocked’ at harrowing death and destruction in north Gaza

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has expressed shock at the “harrowing levels of death, injury and destruction” in north Gaza amid an ongoing intense Israeli military operation, his Spokesperson said on Sunday.

25.10.2024 - 11:40 [ Middle East Eye ]

Israel attacks north Gaza‘s only working hospital, killing children in ICU

Israeli forces stormed the last operational hospital in besieged northern Gaza on Friday after bombing it and killing children inside, according to doctors and media reports.

The attack on the Kamal Adwan hospital, located in Beit Lahia northwest of Jabalia, was launched around 2am local time, shortly after a World Health Organisation delegation left the hospital.

24.10.2024 - 08:57 [ B’Tselem ]

The world must stop the ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza

For a year now, since the war began, the international community has shown utter impotence to stop the indiscriminate attack on civilians in the Gaza Strip. Now, when it is clearer than ever that Israel intends to forcibly displace northern Gaza’s residents by committing some of the gravest crimes under the laws of war, the world’s nations must take action.

Without immediate, decisive action from the international community, without using every tool available – political, legal, economic – the mass killings in the northern Gaza Strip will continue and the suffering of its besieged civilians will grow. All international bodies and institutions must act now to compel Israel to stop the war and end the carnage.

24.10.2024 - 08:33 [ Doctors without Borders ]

Update from North Gaza: “I just don’t have words”

Dr. Mohammed Obeid, MSF orthopedic surgeon at Kamal Adwan Hospital:

“There is death in all types and forms in Kamal Adwan Hospital and North Gaza. The bombardment does not stop. The artillery does not stop. The planes do not stop. There is heavy shelling, and the hospital is [being] targeted too. It just looks like a movie—it does not seem real.

“About five days ago, my house was hit. They completely blew up the roof and water tanks, but we were on the ground floor and only one person got injured, thank God. We left a few times, moving to different areas. My family and neighbors were terrified. I [took] shelter in Kamal Adwan Hospital with my wife and children, and I am now working here, where I can treat numerous patients.

“There are no words to describe the situation in Kamal Adwan Hospital: It is disastrous. The hospital is completely overwhelmed. There are injured people everywhere, outside and inside the hospital, and we do not have medical and surgical equipment to treat them.

“Ambulances cannot move. We cannot reach the bodies of the people killed and cannot save the injured ones who lie in the streets. Many of them died before reaching the hospital, and others died inside the hospital as we could not treat their wounds.

24.10.2024 - 08:25 [ Human Rights Watch ]

North Gaza: Between Death and Displacement

(October 18, 2024)

As it escalates its attacks on north Gaza, the Israeli army has ordered the entire civilian population to evacuate – and cut off food aid to all who remain.

24.10.2024 - 08:02 [ Middle East Eye ]

Half of Jabalia ethnically cleansed by Israeli army as schools burned and men kidnapped

Israeli troops are going school to school in Jabalia and nearby areas to forcibly remove unarmed, starved and besieged Palestinian civilians from their homes as the military campaign to ethnically cleanse north Gaza nears its third week, eyewitnesses have told Middle East Eye.

Under the cover of heavy air strikes and artillery shelling, large Israeli ground forces directly and systematically attack homes and buildings used as shelters by displaced families, forcing everyone out at gunpoint.

22.10.2024 - 13:42 [ Middle East Eye ]

‚The smell of death is everywhere‘ in northern Gaza: UN

In a post on X, Lazzarini stated that Unrwa staff are struggling to find food, water, or medicine in the war-torn region.

He remarked, “The smell of death is everywhere as bodies are left lying on the roads or under the rubble. Missions to clear the bodies or provide humanitarian assistance are denied.”

Lazzarini emphasised the need for an “immediate truce, even if only for a few hours,” to facilitate safe passage for families seeking refuge.

21.10.2024 - 21:22 [ Caitlin Johnstone ]

We Really Are The Bad Guys And This Really Is The Evil Empire

It’s like yes asshole, it’s very nice to be living in the imperial core that’s receiving the benefits of mass murder and imperialist extraction, and it’s less nice to live in the countries where the murder and extraction is happening. That’s the entire fucking point here.

It can be nice to live in the western world, but the western world is not nice. Ours is the most savage and thuggish civilization on this planet, and it’s not even close.

The Democratic Party really does look ready to lose yet another easily winnable election by running yet another awful, murderous candidate with awful, murderous policies, and then once again blame their loss on everyone in America who is a better person than they are.