There's no defense for what Selma Blair said. Early today, we noted CAIR's statement and Marcia blogged about Selman's hate in "The hateful people who destroy our world." Otherwise? Ava and I writing about it for THIRD.
Now let's note this:
Ayat Khadoura posted a video online in November. The text written across her recording reads: “My last message to the world.” For the freelancer, posting from northern Gaza about the search for food and basic needs, it wasn’t the first time she’d thought she might be filming her final moments. But this time she was right.
“We had very big dreams, but unfortunately, today our dreams are that if we are killed, we are killed in one piece,” she said.
An Israeli strike hit Khadoura’s home in northern Gaza, killing her and some of her siblings, her sister Yasmin said. She said relatives couldn’t bury Ayat because her body was blown to pieces.
“Ayat aspired to become a big journalist, to study further, to get filming equipment. So many things,” her sister said. But in her last days, Yasmin recalled, “she told me, ‘I no longer want anything. I just want the war to end.’”
The death toll continues to climb. At least 85 journalists have been killed in Gaza. Ayat Khadoura was killed on November 20th and THE WASHINGTON POST notes her and others killed.
At least 85 journalists and media workers, such as interpreters and support staff, have been killed over four months of war in the Middle East, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) February 10, 2024
The rate is the highest since the CPJ began keeping global records over 30 years… pic.twitter.com/zMVAG6iIDm
Radio Free Amanda notes, "85 was the number two months ago -- CPJ tends to be slow at processing and releasing these figures. According to UN reports and Gaza's own Government Media office, the number is at least 122 journalists killed by Israel at this point." Reporters Without Borders notes:
The toll of four months of war in Gaza on journalism is nothing short of horrifying: Palestinian journalists killed, wounded, and prevented from working without any possibility of safe refuge. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) strongly condemns the eradication of journalism and the right to information in Gaza by the Israeli army, and calls on States and international organisations to increase pressure on Israel to immediately cease this carnage.
In 124 days of conflict, at least 84 journalists have been killed in Gaza, including at least 20 in the course of their journalistic work or in connection with it, according to RSF’s data. Journalists are being decimated as the days of this interminable war go by, through incessant Israeli strikes from the north to the south of the Gaza Strip. Journalists who have survived these four months are living a daily hell: In inhumane conditions, they suffer shortages of all kinds, particularly of equipment, as well as regular media blackouts.
CBS NEWS reports, "Israeli airstrikes killed at least 44 Palestinians — including more than a dozen children — in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Saturday, hours after Israel's prime minister said he had asked the military to plan for the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people there ahead of a ground invasion." CNN’s Abel Alvarado notes, "Another Israeli airstrike in Rafah hit a house and killed at least 12 civilians, according to information provided to CNN by the Abu Yousuf Al-Najjar hospital in Gaza. More people are believed to still be caught under the rubble."
Among the many children who have been killed or gone missing (or both) is Hind Rajab. For some time, people have been asking where she is after the car she was traveling in with her cousins and her aunt and uncle was shot up and an ambulance arrived to take her for medical treatment. AP explains:
The sound of gunfire crackled over the phone as the teenage girl hid in the car and spoke. An Israeli tank was near the vehicle as she and her family were trying to heed Israel’s call to evacuate their home in Gaza.
Something had gone horribly wrong. Everyone in the vehicle was dead, the teen said. Everyone but her and her 5-year-old female cousin, Hind.
“They are shooting at us,” 15-year-old Layan told the Palestinian Red Crescent. “The tank is next to me.”
Emine Sinmaz (GUARDIAN) picks up there:
But the aid agency lost contact with the ambulance dispatched to her aid on 29 January and its crew and Hind remained missing.
Now Hind’s family has said that she was found dead inside the car in the Tel al-Hawa area of Gaza City on Saturday morning.
“Hind and everyone else in the car is martyred,” her grandfather, Baha Hamada, told Agence France-Presse. “[Family members] were able to reach the area because Israeli forces withdrew early at dawn today.”
Hind’s
mother, Wissam Hamada, added: “I will question before God on Judgment
Day those who heard my daughter’s cries for help and did not save her.”
The
Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said that it had located its
bombed-out ambulance just metres away, and that its two paramedics,
Yusuf Al-Zeino and Ahmed Al-Madhoun, had also been killed.
As we noted at the top, journalists have been killed. Children are being killed. And The Red Cross - Red Crescent and other aid workers are being killed. AP notes, "Palestinian Red Crescent spokesperson Raed al-Nims said Israel has killed 20 of its staffers and wounded about 30 others since the war began."
Our statement on the killing of dedicated @PalestineRCS staff in #Gaza, who lost their lives trying to rescue six-year-old Hind.
— ICRC in Israel & OT (@ICRC_ilot) February 10, 2024
We mourn alongside our PRCS colleagues. pic.twitter.com/0EXkfVP9BX
More killing is planned. BBC reports:
Israel is facing growing international warnings over its planned offensive in Rafah - the city in southern Gaza crammed with Palestinian refugees.
UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron said "over half of Gaza's population are sheltering in the area", while Dutch FM Hanke Bruins Slot said there could be "many civilian casualties".
Saudi Arabia warned of "very serious repercussions" if Rafah was stormed.
Gaza's Hamas rulers said there could "tens of thousands" of casualties.
THE NATIONAL adds that over a million people are packed into Rafah currently and:
Israel's main backer, the United States, has said it does not support a ground offensive in Rafah, warning that, if not properly planned, such an operation risks "disaster."
The UAE also expressed deep concern for the humanitarian repercussions. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned against military action that could cause the loss of more innocent life and exacerbate the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip.
Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf said such action by Israel would be “indefensible”, and urged the international community to demand an immediate ceasefire.
ALJAZEERA notes that Netanyahu is insisting a "safe passage" would be offered to those in Rafah:
However, it remains unclear how this would be achieved, considering it is now home to 1.4 million people in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli forces have also routinely bombed designated safe zones after telling Palestinians to evacuate to them since the start of the war on October 7.
The war continues to spread throughout the region. Zeina Khodr (ALJAZEERA) reports:
This was deep inside Lebanon about 60km (37 miles) from the border with Israel, where the two sides, Hezbollah and Israel, have been exchanging fire triggered by the war on Gaza.
This is the not first attack of its kind. On Thursday an Israeli drone targeted a vehicle in the southern city of Nabaitieh targeting members of Hezbollah.
This is really becoming strategy on the part of the Israelis, and what is clear that there is no longer a front line. Back in January Hamas number two [Saleh al-Arouri] was assassinated in the heart of the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
Israel is using this opportunity to really target officials from Hezbollah and Hamas as well as try to degrade the capabilities of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
ALJAZEERA adds, "The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that any widening of the war in Gaza would aggravate the economic harm caused by the conflict."
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The hateful people who destroy our world20 hours ago
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