Sunday, May 12, 2024

Over 35,000 killed in the continued assault on Gaza

John Lyons (Australia's ABC NEWS) offers an analysis which includes: 


The latest tensions result from Washington's anger that Israel continues to attack Rafah, even though the small city is now crowded with people who have been told by the Israeli army for the past seven months that this would be a safe zone.

With 1.3 million people packed into Rafah, the US is saying enough is enough.

Biden had earlier said Israel's bombing of Gaza was "indiscriminate".

This week he paused a shipment of 3,500 bombs to Israel: "Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centres."

The description of Israel "going after population centres" was the strongest rhetoric the president has used so far.

For Palestinians, though, Biden's tougher words come too late.

With at least half of Gaza's buildings damaged or destroyed the pausing of one shipment will make little difference.

Well before this war Gaza was one of the most miserable places on earth.

David Cameron, when he was Britain's prime minister, said in 2010: "Gaza cannot and must not be allowed to remain a prison camp."

It was allowed to remain a prison camp, and the world is now seeing the consequences. 

When this war finishes what will be left will be a Gaza that is not functional.


US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made the rounds on two Sunday chat and chews today.  Josh Boak (AP) reports, "Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday delivered some of the Biden administration’s strongest public criticism yet of Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza, saying Israeli tactics have meant  'a horrible loss of life of innocent civilians' but failed to neutralize Hamas leaders and fighters and could drive a lasting insurgency."   As Israel continues to order residents out of Rafah, ABC NEWS notes, "The U.N. Agency for Palestine Refugees called the evacuation 'forced and inhumane'."  CNN reports, "There is growing alarm over the humanitarian situation in Rafah, with the UN saying its agencies have likely run out of food aid in southern Gaza. "The World Food Programme and UNRWA will run out of food for distribution in the south by tomorrow," the head of the UN humanitarian agency (OCHA) in Gaza said in a video filmed Friday. As of Monday morning, the situation remains unclear."  DAWN reports:


International outrage mounted at Israel’s operations in Rafah.

EU chief Charles Michel said on social media that Rafah civilians were being ordered to “unsafe zones”, denouncing it as “unacceptable”.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said it had started transferring 22 patients from a field hospital in Rafah, saying Israel’s operations in the city were “making it impossible to provide lifesaving medical assistance”.

Israel’s offensive has so far killed at least 34,971 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to Palestinian health ministry.


War Criminal Benjamin Netanyahu continues his spree of War Crimes and the Israelis continue to protest him.  Jason Burke (THE GUARDIAN) reports:

Thousands of Israelis joined protests over the weekend calling for a deal to bring home hostages still held in Gaza by Hamas, early elections and the immediate resignation of Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister.

The large protests came amid renewed fighting in Gaza, where Israeli troops have advanced for the first time towards the centre of Rafah, the territory’s southernmost city, and launched operations in several northern areas where fierce clashes have previously taken place.


Friday, the US State Dept used the Friday news dump to finally release a report which downplayed the likely use of US supplied weapons to commit War Crimes.  Christopher Boccia (ABC NEWS) reports:


An independent, self-formed task force of former State Department officials and international law experts say the U.S. "shirked" its legal obligations with Friday's National Security Memorandum-mandated report that examined Israel's use of U.S.-supplied arms.

"The Administration must come to terms with the fact that what it faces in its lethal military assistance to Israel's operations in Gaza - and beyond - is not a policy problem: it is a legal problem," the officials said Friday, adding, "The Administration’s report is at best incomplete, and at worst intentionally misleading in defense of acts and behaviors that likely violate international humanitarian law and may amount to war crimes. Once again, the Biden Administration has stared the facts in the face - and then pulled the curtains shut."


Also calling out the report is US House Rep Pramila Jayapal in an MSNBC appearance. 



Gaza remains under assault. Day 219 of  the assault in the wave that began in October.  Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion.  The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction.  But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets:  How to justify it?  Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence."   CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund."  ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them."  NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza."  The slaughter continues.  It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service.  Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide."   The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher.  United Nations Women noted, "More than 1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza -- have been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse."  THE NATIONAL notes, "Gaza's Health Ministry said at least 63 people were killed over the previous 24 hours, bringing the overall death toll from Israel's bombardment and offensive in Gaza to at least 35,034 people, mostly women and children."  Months ago,  AP  noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing."  February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home."  February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:

 



April 11th, Sharon Zhang (TRUTHOUT) reported, "In addition to the over 34,000 Palestinians who have been counted as killed in Israel’s genocidal assault so far, there are 13,000 Palestinians in Gaza who are missing, a humanitarian aid group has estimated, either buried in rubble or mass graves or disappeared into Israeli prisons.  In a report released Thursday, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that the estimate is based on initial reports and that the actual number of people missing is likely even higher."
 

As for the area itself?  Isabele Debre (AP) reveals, "Israel’s military offensive has turned much of northern Gaza into an uninhabitable moonscape. Whole neighborhoods have been erased. Homes, schools and hospitals have been blasted by airstrikes and scorched by tank fire. Some buildings are still standing, but most are battered shells."  Kieron Monks (I NEWS) reports, "More than 40 per cent of the buildings in northern Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, according to a new study of satellite imagery by US researchers Jamon Van Den Hoek from Oregon State University and Corey Scher at the City University of New York. The UN gave a figure of 45 per cent of housing destroyed or damaged across the strip in less than six weeks. The rate of destruction is among the highest of any conflict since the Second World War."


The following sites updated:





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