While the world calls for a cease-fire, the Israeli government wants more war, more death, more destruction. DW notes:
The Israeli army has presented a plan to evacuate civilians in the Gaza Strip, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday.
"The [Israeli army] presented the War Cabinet with a plan for evacuating the population from the areas of fighting in the Gaza Strip, with the upcoming operational plan," it said in a statement.
[. . .]
The announcement comes as highly criticized plans continue for a new military offensive in the Gaza Strip's southernmost city of Rafah, where around 1.4 million Palestinians have sought refuge from the fighting.
The Israeli government announcing yet another plan to evacuate an area they're attacking? How many times is the world supposed to fall for that one. As for plans to continue this assault? LE MONDE notes, "Jordan's King Abdullah II warned fighting during the holy month 'will increase the threat of expanding the conflict', according to a royal statement. Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, whose country hosts Hamas leaders and had helped broker a one-week truce in November, is due in Paris this week, the French presidency said." Singapore's THE STRAITS TIMES adds:
Former president Halimah Yacob on Feb 26 called for the world to “stand on the side of humanity”, questioning the morality of the ongoing situation in Gaza as the Palestinian death toll reaches almost 30,000.
In a Facebook post, Madam Halimah highlighted the dithering on efforts to reach a ceasefire, stating that “international laws and international bodies are rendered irrelevant”.
“The consensus built after the horrors of WW 2 (World War II), to protect the innocents during wars, has been severely compromised. The world is forever changed,” she said.
Stand on the side of humanity? In the US, one person has taken a stand on the side of humanity. Jordan Freiman (CBS NEWS) reports, "An active-duty U.S. Air Force member is in critical condition after he set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, officials said. The man set himself on fire around 1 p.m. ET and both the U.S. Secret Service and Metropolitan Police Department responded, the agencies said." Didi Tang and Michael Balsamo (AP) add, "Law enforcement officials believe the man started a livestream, set his phone down and then doused himself in accelerant and ignited the flames. At one point, he said he 'will no longer be complicit in genocide,' the person said. " And ALJAZEERA notes, "In December, a protester set herself on fire outside the Israeli Consulate in Atlanta. A Palestinian flag was found at the scene, and the act was believed to be one of 'extreme political protest'." Chad De Guzman (TIME) reports, "The burn victim, who identified himself in video of the incident as 25-year-old Aaron Bushnell, reportedly succumbed to his injuries on Sunday night, according to independent journalist Talia Jane, who posted on social media that she is in contact with Bushnell’s family and friends."
Fergal Keane (BBC NEWS) reports:
In certain places at certain times, just staying alive is something for a boy to be proud of - let alone going out every day to find the food that keeps your family from starving.
Every morning, Mohammed Zo'rab, 11, goes out into the southern Gaza city of Rafah on a mission.
He takes a big plastic bowl and heads to schools that have become refugee centres, and to makeshift camps on the roadside where people suffer like his own family but might still find something to feed the child of strangers.
Mohammed also goes to hospitals where the wounded arrive at all hours, and anywhere else where there might be a pot boiling over an open fire.
"When I go back to my family with this food, they get happy and we all eat together," he says.
"Sometimes I go empty handed and I feel sad."
Mohammed is the eldest of four children and lives with his mother, father and his siblings in a flimsy shelter made of plastic and tarpaulin.
Tonight on CBS, 60 MINUTES addressed the humanitarian crisis:
When the terrorist group Hamas unleashed its barbaric attack inside Israel last October, the response by the Israeli government was swift.
Israel launched thousands of troops, tanks and more than 45,000 bombs into Gaza, decimating entire cities.
The Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health says more than 29,000 people have been killed and nearly 2 million displaced - numbers many in the Israeli press and the United Nations are reporting.
Israel has barred journalists from independently accessing the Gaza strip, defying the long-standing precedent of allowing reporters into war zones.
Aid workers say a "catastrophic" humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Gaza, but reporting on it has been challenging.
So we asked aid workers, including two Americans – to share their view from inside Gaza over the last 142 days.
A warning -- it is difficult to watch.
This was the scene at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza in late January.
From
ALJAZEERA notes some of today's violence:
The Israeli military shelled and fired on crowds of Palestinians waiting for food aid trucks to arrive in Gaza City, killing 10 people, the Wafa news agency reports.
At least 15 people were injured in the attack, which occurred on the coastal road in northern Gaza City on Sunday evening, and they have been transferred to the nearby al-Shifa Hospital.
Elsewhere in Gaza City on Sunday, the Israeli military killed at least 15 people and wounded dozens after bombing a three-storey home in the Zeitoun neighbourhood. Ambulances were unable to reach the injured, Wafa reports.
Also on Sunday, Wafa reports that three people were killed, including a woman and a child, when the Israeli military bombed a home in Rafah in southern Gaza
Kat's "Kat's Korner: Melissa Manchester's back" went up today. The following sites updated:
