Saturday, July 20, 2024

Another journalist killed in Gaza

 Gaza remains under assault.  Oxfam notes:


A new Oxfam report reveals how Israel has been systematically weaponizing water against Palestinians in Gaza.

The report, Water War Crimes, finds that Israel’s cutting of external water supply, systematic destruction of water facilities and deliberate aid obstruction have reduced the amount of water available in Gaza by 94% to 4.74 liters a day per person – just under a third of the recommended minimum in emergencies and less than a single toilet flush.

Oxfam analysis also found: 

  • Israeli military attacks have damaged or destroyed five water and sanitation infrastructure sites every three days since the start of the war. 
  • The destruction of water and electricity infrastructure and restrictions on entry of spare parts and fuel (on average a fifth of the required amount is allowed in) saw water production drop by 84% in Gaza. External supply from Israel’s national water company Mekorot fell by 78%. 
  • Israel has destroyed 70% of all sewage pumps and 100% of all wastewater treatment plants, as well as the main water quality testing laboratories in Gaza, and restricted the entry of Oxfam water testing equipment. 
  • Gaza City has lost nearly all its water production capacity, with 88% of its water wells and 100% of its desalination plants damaged or destroyed. 

The report also highlighted the dire impact of this extreme lack of clean water and sanitation on Palestinians’ health, with more than a quarter (26%) of Gaza’s population falling severely ill from easily preventable diseases.  In January, the International Court of Justice demanded that Israel immediately improve humanitarian access upon finding that South Africa had brought plausible claims under the Genocide Convention. Since then, Oxfam has witnessed firsthand Israel’s obstruction of a meaningful humanitarian response, which is killing Palestinian civilians. 

Scott Paul, Oxfam America’s Associate Director of Peace and Security, said, “Oxfam’s new analysis leaves little doubt that Prime Minister Netanyahu's government has systemically obliterated Gaza’s clean water supply and infrastructure.

“Today, Palestinians in Gaza have almost no water to drink, let alone to bathe, cook, or clean. Prime Minister Netanyahu must restore sufficient water, food, electricity, and other vital assistance for all people in Gaza. Instead of granting him the platform to double down on his deadly offensive to Congress, US leaders must cut off the supply of bombs that are being used to kill civilians and destroy Gaza and with it, any hope for peace.”

Oxfam Water and Sanitation Specialist Lama Abdul Samad said it was clear that Israel had created a devastating humanitarian emergency resulting in Palestinian civilian deaths:

“The deliberate restriction of access to water is not a new tactic. The Israeli Government has been depriving Palestinians across the West Bank and Gaza of safe and sufficient water for many years,” she said. 

“The widespread destruction and significant restrictions on aid delivery in Gaza impacting access to water and other essentials for survival, underscores the urgent need for the international community to take decisive action to prevent further suffering by upholding justice and human rights, including those enshrined in the Geneva and Genocide Conventions.” 

Monther Shoblak, General Manager of the Gaza Strip’s water utility CMWU, said:

“My colleagues and I have been living through a nightmare these past nine months, but we still feel it’s our responsibility and duty to ensure everybody in Gaza is getting their minimum right of clean drinking water. It’s been very difficult, but we are determined to keep trying – even when we witness our colleagues being targeted and killed by Israel while undertaking their work.”  

Oxfam is calling for urgent action including an immediate and permanent ceasefire; for Israel to allow a full and unfettered humanitarian response; and for Israel to foot the reconstruction bill for water and sanitation infrastructure.


Benjamin Netanyahu is a War Criminal.  Next week, he'll address Congress because that's how whorish this country is.  We've invited a War Criminal to stand before our branch of government that makes laws.  What's Netanyahu planning to do?  Stick out his tongue and say nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-han?


Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) reports:


 As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to visit Washington, D.C. next week, an American legal group on Friday pressured the U.S. Department of Justice to open a criminal investigation into him and other officials for committing or authorizing genocide, war crimes, and torture targeting Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Since Israel launched its retaliation for a Hamas-led attack on October 7, Israeli forces partly armed by the U.S. government have killed at least 38,848 people and wounded another 89,459—according to Gaza officials—while destroying civilian infrastructure and restricting the flow of humanitarian aid into the Palestinian enclave.

"We believe ample credible evidence exists to sufficiently establish that serious crimes falling within U.S. criminal jurisdiction are systematically being perpetrated in Gaza," says the Center for Constitutional Rights' (CCR) 23-page letter to Hope Olds, who leads the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section (HRSP) of the DOJ's Criminal Division.

"Given the frequent travel of Israeli officials and citizens to the United States resulting in their presence within U.S. jurisdiction, and recalling that HRSP is part of a coordinated, interagency effort to deny safe haven in the United States to human rights violators," the letter states, "the Department of Justice must urgently investigate and hold accountable those responsible for war crimes and other serious crimes being committed on a wide-scale basis in the occupied Gaza Strip, including potentially U.S. and U.S.-dual citizens."


As the violence continues, the deaths pile up.  Today's deaths include a journalist.  THE NEW ARAB notes:


An Israeli air strike in north Gaza has killed the journalist Mohammed Abu Jasser and his family, Palestinian medical officials announced on Saturday.

The journalist’s home in the Jabalia area was targeted at dawn, making him the latest of 161 journalists to be killed in the enclave since the start of Israel’s latest war on Gaza on 7 October.

Local Palestinian media reported his two children and wife were also killed in the strike.









Another Israeli attack on Gaza today resulted in a journalist being injured. 


AP notes, "At least 13 people were killed in three Israeli airstrikes that hit refugee camps in central Gaza overnight into Saturday, according to Palestinian health officials, as cease-fire talks in Cairo appeared to make progress.  Among the dead in Nuseirat Refugee Camp and Bureij Refugee Camp were three children and one woman, according to Palestinian ambulance teams that transported the bodies to the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital. The 13 corpses were counted by AP journalists at the hospital."  This as a potential health crisis lurks.  Edward Carver (COMMON DREAMS) reports, "Poliovirus has been detected in sewage samples at six locations in the Gaza Strip, the World Health Organization said on Friday, following announcements from both the Israel and Gaza health ministries."  ALJAZEERA reminds, "Health advocates have also warned of the spread of diseases because of sewage spills around displaced people’s encampments."


Meanwhile, Jake Johnson (COMMON DREAMS) reports on a court ruling:


The International Court of Justice said Friday that Israel's decadeslong occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is unlawful and must end "as rapidly as possible."

The court's nonbinding advisory opinion was read aloud by ICJ President Nawaf Salam, a Lebanese judge and academic. Salam said the court determined based on "extensive evidence" that Israel is guilty of confiscating "large areas" of Palestinian land for use by Israeli settlers, exploiting natural resources, and undermining the local population's right to self-determination under international law.

The court pointed to "Israel's systematic failure to prevent or punish" settler violence and "demolition of Palestinian property" in the West Bank as part of its case that the Israeli government's actions in the occupied territories are indicative of an attempt to permanently annex land and forcibly transfer Palestinians from their homes.

"Israel is not entitled to sovereignty in any part of the occupied Palestinian territory on account of its occupation, nor can security concerns override the prohibition on acquisition of territory by force," said Salam.

The ICJ vote against Israel's occupation was 11-4. The court also voted to call on Israel to evacuate all settlers from the West Bank.

In a 12-3 vote, the ICJ said that all nations "are under an obligation not to recognize as legal the situation arising from the unlawful presence of the state of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory and not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by the continued presence of the state of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory."


THE GUARDIAN reports, "Iceland’s foreign ministry has said Israel should 'cease all activity that violates international law' after the international court of justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories was against international law."  THE NATIONAL notes:


The UAE has welcomed an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that regards Israeli policies including the expansion of settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as a violation of international law.

In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed the UAE’s rejection of all measures aimed at altering the historical and legal status of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and all practices in contravention of resolutions on international legitimacy, which threaten further escalation and instability in the region, and impede endeavours to achieve peace and stability.

The ministry stressed the need to support all regional and international efforts to advance the peace process in the Middle East, as well as end illegal practices that undermine the two-state solution, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.


ALJAZEERA observes,  "Friday’s ICJ ruling was groundbreaking – but it has not changed the violent reality on the ground."  

In the US, Dr Ahmad Yousaf speaks with Gary Burton Jr. (FOX 16) after returning to the US from Gaza on Thursday:


Yousaf said he’s “been on many other medical missions but never one where the population we were treating was trapped.”

In Gaza, Yousaf said he was faced with the constant sound of bombs, and drones and the sight of injured and lifeless people, describing it as a “zombie apocalypse.”

“We saw exposed brain matter. I saw eviscerated children. I saw kids without limbs and their parents all had the same look on their face like, ‘Help me fix this problem.’”



Gaza remains under assault. Day 288 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, "The Israeli offensive in Gaza has killed 38,919 Palestinians and wounded 89,622 since October 7, the enclave's Health Ministry said on Saturday.  The toll includes 37 people killed and 54 injured in the 24-hour reporting period, the ministry added." 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."


Turning to Iraq . . .





In other Iraq news, people grow further alarmed by the Turkish government's continued attacks on the Kurdistan.  Amberin Zaman (AL-MONITOR) reports:


Iraq’s first lady sharply condemned Turkey’s ongoing military operations against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in the Kurdish- administered north of the country. Shanaz Ibrahim Ahmed, wife of Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid, took to Twitter on Wednesday to spout her anger amid reports that Turkish troops had penetrated 15 kilometers (about 9 miles) into Iraqi territory, in a fresh offensive that was mounted in early July to encircle PKK fighters holed up in the mountainous Metina and Gare region lying south of the Turkish border.

Ahmed echoed claims that some 20 square kilometers (7.7 square miles) of agricultural land had been burned and thousands of civilians had been forced to flee their homes as a result of the Turkish airstrikes, with some 602 villages, including those populated by Assyrian Christians, under threat. The Iraqi public is entitled to know whether “there is any agreement between Ankara and Baghdad, or Ankara and Erbil, which permits a neighboring country to treat Iraq as its own territory,” she said. "If there is such an agreement, then public outrage should be directed at Iraqi or Kurdish authorities."

Fun fact, Shanaz may be the world's only First Lady who has a sister that was also a First Lady.  Jalal Talabani's wife Hero was First Lady of Iraq from 2005 to 2014.  Hero is Shanaz's sister.


The following sites updated:

 

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