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By Julia Conley

While the United Nations still has not formally declared a famine in Gaza after nine months of Israel’s near-total blockade on humanitarian aid, 10 top U.N. experts on Tuesday said they have seen enough.

“We declare that Israel’s intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people is a form of genocidal violence and has resulted in famine across all of Gaza,” said the experts.

Michael Fakhri, special rapporteur on the right to food, was joined in the statement by other experts including Francesca Albanese, special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, and Paula Gaviria Betancur, special rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons.

They said the recent deaths of three children in various parts of the enclave led the experts, who do not speak on behalf of the United Nations as a whole, to declare a famine has taken hold.

“Fayez Ataya, who was barely six months old, died on May 30, 2024 and 13-year-old Abdulqader Al-Serhi died on June 1, 2024 at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah,” said the experts. “Nine-year-old Ahmad Abu Reida died on June 3, 2024 in the tent sheltering his displaced family in Al-Mawasi, Khan Younis. All three children died from malnutrition and lack of access to adequate healthcare.”

“With the death of these children from starvation despite medical treatment in central Gaza, there is no doubt that famine has spread from northern Gaza into central and southern Gaza,” they continued.

[https://twitter.com/adequatehousing/status/1810685366858400092]

At least 34 Palestinians in Gaza—the majority being children—have now died from malnutrition since October, when Israel began its bombardment of the enclave in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced there would “be no electricity, no food, no fuel” allowed in to Gaza.

Israeli officials said in response to Tuesday’s statement that it has increased the aid allowed into Gaza recently, but hundreds of delivery trucks remain stranded in Egypt and a floating pier built by the U.S. has not significantly improved the humanitarian crisis.

The U.N. experts said that with the first death of a child from malnutrition and dehydration, it should have been considered “irrefutable that famine has taken hold.”

“When a two-month-old baby and 10-year-old Yazan Al Kafarneh died of hunger on February 24 and March 4, respectively, this confirmed that famine had struck northern Gaza,” they said. “The whole world should have intervened earlier to stop Israel’s genocidal starvation campaign and prevented these deaths… Inaction is complicity.”

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, which is backed by the U.N., said last month that Gaza is at high risk for famine and that nearly half a million people were facing “catastrophic” food insecurity, with an extreme lack of food.

In May, Human Rights Watch co-founder Aryeh Neier, who had previously hesitated to say Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, said Israel’s “sustained policy of obstructing the movement of humanitarian assistance into the territory” ultimately convinced him that Israeli officials are “engaged in genocide.”

In March, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to ensure its military refrain from violating the Genocide Convention by preventing humanitarian aid from reaching people in Gaza, saying that “the catastrophic living conditions of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have deteriorated further” and that “famine is setting in.”

A woman named Ghaneyma Joma told Reuters on Monday at a hospital in Khan Younis that she feared her son would soon die of starvation.

“It’s distressing to see my child… lying there dying from malnutrition because I cannot provide him with anything due to the war, the closing of crossings, and the contaminated water,” she told the outlet.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations called on the U.S. government, the biggest international funder of Israel’s military and a persistent defender of its actions in Gaza, to ensure that a cease-fire agreement is reached and that Palestinians receive necessary humanitarian aid.

“The intentional starvation of the Palestinian people in Gaza can only occur with the active complicity of the Biden administration in Israel’s campaign of genocide,” said Ibrahim Hooper, national communications director for the group. “This complicity must end, and the Palestinian people must be offered a future in which they are free of occupation and can live in dignity.”

Julia Conley is a staff writer for Common Dreams.

10 July 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

By Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor

Palestinian Territory – The international community must effectively pressure Israel to open the border crossings and allow sick and injured people to leave the Gaza Strip for treatment. Thousands of sick and injured people face certain death as they are unable to receive treatment in the Strip amid the destruction or travel elsewhere, due to Israel’s systematic targeting of the region’s health sector—which has rendered most of its components inoperable—and the strict Israeli siege.

Nine months into its genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Israel still besieges the sick and injured, preventing them from leaving the Strip to receive medical treatment, despite having destroyed or rendered most of the region’s hospitals inoperable. As a result, more than 26,000 sick and injured individuals who require immediate external referrals for life-saving care will die, and thousands more will have to wait to travel to finish their treatment or obtain critical medical and rehabilitation services that are unavailable in the Strip.

Travel by Palestinians, including sick and injured individuals seeking medical treatment abroad, has all but ceased since the Israeli army closed the Rafah border crossing on 7 May. A limited number of these individuals had previously been permitted to travel outside of the Strip after submitting their names to the Israeli army, which would then perform arbitrary security checks.

In cooperation with the World Health Organisation, Israel permitted 21 patients and several family members to pass through the Kerem Shalom crossing on 27 June, but over 12,000 wounded people trapped in the Gaza Strip still require urgent medical attention to survive. In addition, 14,000 patients, of whom 10,000 suffer from cancer or other serious diseases, are threatened with imminent death if they do not travel for treatment.

Other than the 21 aforementioned individuals, no injured or ill person has been permitted to leave the Gaza Strip since 7 May, even with the collapse of health system and the closure of 34 out 36 hospitals due to the systematic Israeli attacks. The two hospitals that are currently open are only partially operational,and are without access to medical supplies or medications; medical teams there are suffering from extreme fatigue after working nonstop for nine months.

The Euro-Med Monitor team has received complaints from a large number of ill and injured people pleading to be allowed to travel in order to save their lives.

Israa Jihad al-Jundi, 32, of Shujaiya, east of Gaza City, told the Euro-Med Monitor team: “On 3 July, an Israeli bombing targeted my house, resulting in the deaths of three of my children. As for me, all I saw was a mass of blackness and fire, and I no longer heard anything. I realised that I had been hit by a missile. I ended up in a neighbour’s house, my legs covered in concrete. I was taken out by my neighbours and brought to Baptist Hospital. My right leg was implanted with platinum. I sustained multiple fractures to my pelvis, chest, and limbs. I can’t move, my pelvis is not stabilised, I die every day. My only demand is to be treated abroad.”

Northern Gaza resident Bilal Munir Abu Sultan stated: “I have been a cancer patient since last April; the disease has advanced to a significant degree around my neck. I need to travel for treatment to save my life. I have to leave right away before the cancer takes over my entire body. There is no health care available here.”

Abdul Rahman Muhammad, 17, stated: “On 23 October 2023, Israeli planes bombed my family’s home, killing my mother, father, and four of my siblings, including three children. I was seriously injured as a result. I survived the attack but I suffered from burns and fractures. Although my burns have healed, I am still unable to walk. After they had fitted me with an external platinum insert, they took it off. I had surgery, but it did not work out. Because of the devastation to hospitals and the lack of treatment, […] there is also no chance to treat me here. I appeal to everyone to facilitate my travel for treatment.”

By tightening the ongoing siege, closing the GazaStrip’s crossings, and destroying hospitals and health facilities across the entire Strip, Israel has apparently decided to carry out a mass execution against the sick and injured people in the enclave.

As part of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people in the Strip, ongoing since 7 October 2023, hospitals, medical facilities, and means of transportation have been destroyed, and medical personnel have been arrested or killed. As a result, those who were not killed directly will perish from a lack of access to necessary medical care. This is all part of Israel’s systematic, organised, and wide-ranging plan to destroy the lives of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and turn it into an uninhabitable place that lacks basic services and the most fundamental components of life. One of the most criminal parts of the genocideis the systematic and widespread targeting of the health sector: forcing it out of service through destruction and siege, bringing it to the point of no return, and ultimately depriving the Palestinians of opportunities for survival, life, recovery, and even shelter.

Israel’s actions against hospitals and legally protected individuals in the Gaza Strip are not only crimes against humanity, but also complete war crimes,because they are part of a larger, systematic Israeli military campaign against the civilian population in the Strip.

In addition to flagrantly violating the principles of distinction, proportionality, military necessity, i.e. in its refusal to take necessary precautions to protect sick and injured individuals, the Israeli army is carrying out its crimes against hospitals in the Gaza Strip with the utmost disregard for international law, particularly international humanitarian law. This is a grave violation of the special protection afforded to civilians, civilian hospitals, and medical teams, whether due totheir capacity or because they are not directly participating in hostilities, along with the protection enjoyed by the wounded and sick, even if they are military personnel.

To ensure the safety of medical personnel and sick or injured patients, plus displaced individuals shelteringwithin hospitals, as well as to enable those who need it to receive life-saving treatment, an immediate international intervention is required to establish field hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip and exert pressure on Israel to cease its repeated attacks on hospitals. Thousands of emergency cases must also be referred for treatment abroad.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor is a youth-led independent, nonprofit organization that advocates for the human rights of all persons across Europe and the MENA region, particularly those who live under occupation, in the throes of war or political unrest and/ or have been displaced due to persecution or armed conflict.

8 July 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

By Dr Asmar

A new Palestinian exodus is being forced but to where? Nobody knows! Palestinians in different neighbourhoods of Gaza City are picking up what little is left of their belongings and are on the move again.

Thousands of Palestinian families are fleeing their homes in Gaza City amid relentless Israeli occupation bombardment and the threat of imminent invasion.

[https://twitter.com/Qxj9EpiXyt9sd0O/status/1810204980046901750]

The Israeli army threatened thousands of displaced Palestinians in Tuffah and Daraj neighborhoods to immediately evacuate and flee at the end of Israeli missiles and bombardment of already ruined homes that are in complete wreckage.

[https://twitter.com/UNRWA/status/1810233791945768981]

To make sure thousands started moving an Israeli occupation warcraft targeted the home of the Hallou family in the Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City. The home was previously targeted but no matter.

[https://twitter.com/WAFANewsEnglish/status/1810240989983879504]

This time the bodies of more family members did not make it. They join other members of the family who are under the rubble.

This is part of the intense attack the city is being subjected to with firebombings in the Tafah, Sabra and Al Daraj neighbourhoods, east of Gaza to force hundreds of families once more to move out of their homes.

Israeli shelling has also targeted the vicinity of the Bank of Palestine in Gaza City.

[https://twitter.com/QudsNen/status/1810242879521955891]

This is regarded as the biggest onslaught with Israeli warplanes launching massive airstrikes on the once-plush neighbourhood al-Remal in the city.

The Israeli military crackdown on civilians begun in the early hours of Monday morning. “Our forces are now operating in Gaza City, including at the UNRWA headquarters, after intelligence information” an Israeli army announced.

The announcement created panic. In addition to the fact that many people started moving, patients in their hospital beds were hurriedly being wheeled out for miles to find another hospital.

[https://twitter.com/trtworld/status/1810205464572903509]

[https://twitter.com/trtworld/status/1810242171464732867]

In addition to the heavy Israeli shelling, tens of martyrs and wounded have been trapped under the rubble of their homes in Al Daraj and Al Tufah.

Dr Asmar is an Amman-based writer and covers Middle East affairs.

8 July 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

By Latheef Farook

The day after Palestinian freedom fighters, Hamas, attacked occupied Southern Israel on 7 October 2023, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu  declared war on Gaza vowing to wipeout Hamas without a trace saying “No talks with Hamas”.

However from the very beginning many fair minded Jews, including journalist   Gideon Levy and Ilan Pappe , Professor of History at the University of Exeter,

Israeli historian and political scientist, warned that Hamas cannot be defeated.

However wisdom dawned on Netanyahu, ten months later today, when he  agreed to negotiate with Hamas after killing around 40,000   Palestinian civilians  -more than half of them children- injuring around 90,000 while 10,000 missing. Those who were buried alive in the rubble of destroyed buildings are yet to be known.  At least 370,000 housing units in Gaza have been damaged, including 79,000 destroyed completely.

Netanyahu agreed to talks with Hamas because Israel is collapsing.  According  to Times of Israel already more than half a million Israelis left occupied Palestine since October  7.    Highlighting the seriousness of the situation former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett urged Israeli citizens not to leave the country  as Israel is going through the most difficult period since its creation in 1948.

The head of the Israel Defence Forces said the army is facing troop shortages amid rising casualties in the war against Hamas in Gaza. Yet enlisting more troops is difficult due to rising public opposition to the war and an open conflict between Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his defence minister.

In a related development, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that dozens of reserve soldiers announced that they would not return to military service in Gaza, even if they were to be punished. Hundreds of reserve soldiers in the Israeli army have travelled abroad without informing their commanders due to the ongoing war on Gaza, where the occupation forces have suffered heavy losses over the past months.

One columnist pointed out that with military significantly weakened  Israel is struggling to survive. Oppressive Arab dictators who handed over the task of keeping the region stable  under Israel’s effective control, feel threatened.

In the economic front  predictions are that Israel may never recover from its post-October 7 economic collapse. The Palestinian resistance managed not only to destroy Israel’s internal security perception, but also to erect significant risk barriers for foreign investors. 

The economic toll of the war may cost Israel an estimated $400 billion in lost economic activity over the next decade – threatens Israel’s economic future. For Israel, 90% of the economic shock will come from indirect effects: reduced investment, slowing productivity growth and labor market disruption.

Since October, Israel’s government has subsidised the salaries of reportedly 360,000 mobilised reservists deployed to Gaza – many of whom are high-tech industry workers in finance, artificial intelligence, pharmaceuticals and agriculture. Israeli officials face the challenge of needing to restore confidence and a sense of security – which will not prove easy – to boost investments.

“Beyond a clear military and political outcome both in the Gaza Strip and along the Lebanese border, and a repatriation of the hostages, this requires a clear and goal-oriented economic policy. It is not yet clear how this will eventually be addressed,”

Tourism suffered the most .   Across Israel, restaurants and stores remain empty.  A long list of airlines cancelled or suspended the majority of their flights to Tel Aviv, and many tourists cancelled their plans to visit Israel.  Prior  to October 7  visitors to Israel numbered above 300,000 each month. In November, that figure reportedly sank to 39,000.  And  now it may be almost nil.

Construction, accounting for 14 percent of Israel’s GDP, has taken a huge hit  .  The Israel Builders Association said that Israel’s construction industry was operating at roughly 15 percent of its pre-October 7 capacity

The Gaza war’s ripple effects throughout the greater Middle East are also negatively impacting Israel’s economy.

Israel imports diamonds, cars, petroleum, and broadcasting equipment, among other things, goods that come via the Red Sea. The recent Houthi missile and drone attacks in this body of water in retaliation for Israel’s attack on Gaza have not only disrupted global trade but also impacted Israel’s imports. Many of Israel’s imports from Asia are now being rerouted around Africa, bumping up costs.

In a recent survey, aid organisation “Latet”   found that more than 45 percent of the public fear that economic hardship awaits them either later on in this war or after the war finishes. What is clear is that those Israeli families who were already living in poverty or who qualified as food insecure prior to October 7 will suffer the most from the economic problems stemming from this war.

Worldwide television footages of Israel’s   barbarity on Palestinians who were deprived of water, food, medicine  and electricity  and destruction unleashed  exposed its   savage nature. Today Israel and its blind supporter US remain the two most hated   countries in the world.

It was this situation which ,perhaps, forced Netanyahu to agree to peace talks.

The so called  peace talks are unlikely to succeed as US and Israel together with their Arab stooges wanted a corrupt and sellout Palestine Authority type authority to manage Gaza while Hamas , learnt from past experience, wants nothing but a self government run by Palestinians in Gaza.

The ultimate target of US-Europe and Israel is to create Greater Israel which include Gaza, West Bank, part of Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia . In fact US Secretary of State  Anthony Blinken who is more a messenger boy of Israel  than a secretary of state  of the   most  powerful country in the world-  are unlikely to agree to a Palestinian rule in Gaza .

As pointed by columnist As`ad AbuKhalil Israel’s military performance has not been impressive at all. Its forces have committed massacres and crimes of genocide but there are no military victories to speak of and no dismantling of Hamas’ structure.

According to Israeli journalist and author Gideon Levy, “Israel would be delighted to cleanse Gaza of the Palestinian people. The problem is that it is not ethical, not legal, and not practical at the same time.”

Latheef Farook, Senior journalist, is based in Colombo. Sri Lanka

8 July 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

By Andre Damon

The Lancet, the prestigious peer-reviewed British medical journal, has warned that the true death toll in the Gaza genocide could be 186,000 or more.

This staggering figure amounts to 8 percent of the population of Gaza. A similar percentage of the US population would be 26 million people.

It stands as an indictment of the United States and its imperialist allies, who have funded, armed and politically defended Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The massive death toll has been made possible by the 14,000 2,000-pound bombs provided by the US to Israel, which it has used not only to massacre tens of thousands but also to destroy all aspects of civilization in Gaza, contributing to the deaths of tens of thousands through malnutrition, communicable diseases and lack of healthcare.

The official death toll since the onset of the Israeli attack, according to Gazan government sources, is 37,396. But The Lancet noted that this figure reflects neither the thousands of people buried under the rubble nor the countless deaths caused by the deliberate destruction of Gaza’s food distribution, healthcare and sanitation systems.

In its report published Friday, titled “Counting the Dead in Gaza: Difficult but Essential,” The Lancet noted:

The number of reported deaths is likely an underestimate. The non-governmental organization Airwars undertakes detailed assessments of incidents in the Gaza Strip and often finds that not all names of identifiable victims are included in the Ministry’s list. Furthermore, the UN estimates that, by Feb. 29, 2024, 35% of buildings in the Gaza Strip had been destroyed, so the number of bodies still buried in the rubble is likely substantial, with estimates of more than 10,000.

The publication further pointed out that “Collecting data is becoming increasingly difficult for the Gaza Health Ministry due to the destruction of much of the infrastructure.”

The report warned:

The total death toll is expected to be large given the intensity of this conflict; destroyed health-care infrastructure; severe shortages of food, water, and shelter; the population’s inability to flee to safe places; and the loss of funding to UNRWA, one of the very few humanitarian organizations still active in the Gaza Strip.

The Lancet noted:

In recent conflicts, such indirect deaths range from three to 15 times the number of direct deaths. Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186,000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza. Using the 2022 Gaza Strip population estimate of 2,375,259, this would translate to 7.9% of the total population in the Gaza Strip.

The Lancet estimate of a death toll of 186,000 is thus based on two assumptions that would tend to lower the estimated death toll. First, it starts with the government’s reported death toll of 37,396, which does not include those buried under the rubble. Then, it uses a multiple of four to estimate the “indirect” deaths caused by the war, as opposed to the multiple of 15 times the number of “direct deaths” observed in other conflicts.

There are reasons to question the validity of these low assumptions, including the fact that Israeli officials have explicitly stated a goal of killing Palestinian civilians through starvation and disease.

In November, Giora Eiland, the former head of the Israeli National Security Council, published an article in which he urged the Israeli military to create medical conditions that would cause the deaths of as many Gazan civilians as possible from preventable disease.

He wrote:

Who are the “poor” women of Gaza? They are all the mothers, sisters, or wives of Hamas murderers. … The international community warns us of a humanitarian disaster in Gaza and of severe epidemics. We must not shy away from this, as difficult as that may be. After all, severe epidemics in the south of the Gaza Strip will bring victory closer and reduce casualties among IDF soldiers.

This genocidal rhetoric is consistent with the declaration by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant of “a complete siege … no electricity, no water, no food, no fuel. We are fighting human animals, and we act accordingly.”

In a report published last month, the United Nations commission investigating the Gaza genocide declared:

Israel has used starvation as a method of war, affecting the entire population of the Gaza Strip for decades to come, with particularly negative consequences for children.

The UN committee concluded:

At the time of writing this report, children have already died due to acute malnutrition and dehydration. Through the siege it imposed, Israel has weaponized the withholding of life-sustaining necessities, cutting off supplies of water, food, electricity, fuel, and other essential supplies, including humanitarian assistance. This constitutes collective punishment and reprisal against the civilian population, both of which are clear violations of [international humanitarian law].

The Biden administration, in covering up and defending the Gaza genocide, has claimed that the deaths of civilians are an unintended consequence of Israel’s “war against Hamas.” But these claims are belied by the statements of Israeli officials, who have made it clear that they are waging a war of extermination against the civilian population.

In October, Israeli President Isaac Herzog declared:

It’s an entire nation out there that is responsible. It’s not true this rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved … we will fight until we break their backbone.

That same month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated: “You must remember what Amalek has done to you,” referring to a biblical passage that states, “Go, attack Amalek. … Spare no one, but kill alike men and women, infants, and sucklings.”

The report by The Lancet makes it clear that the Gaza genocide is among the greatest acts of imperialist barbarism in modern history. In under one year, the United States and other imperialist powers have worked with Israel to wipe out close to a tenth of the population of one of the most densely populated urban areas in the world.

This crime is part of a global eruption of imperialist violence, aiming to subjugate the whole world under neo-colonial domination, targeting centrally Russia and China. The massive death toll in Gaza is a warning: Imperialism is prepared to carry out any crime in pursuit of its predatory interests.

The Gaza genocide must be stopped! On July 24, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to Washington D.C. to give a progress report to his imperialist paymasters. We call on workers and young people to join the demonstration and meeting in Washington called for that day by the Socialist Equality Party as a critical step in building a mass anti-war movement based on the working class.

8 July 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

By Ranjan Solomon

The Israeli occupation forces (IOF), during intense fighting in southern Gaza, acknowledged the injury of the commander of Battalion 52, noting that he holds the rank of colonel. With the officer’s death, the number of casualties in the Israeli army’s battles in Gaza rises to more than 680 officers and soldiers since October 7, 2023, in addition to around 4,100 others injured to varying degrees.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian resistance continues to defend the enclave against the invading forces, engaging in fierce clashes and carrying out a series of operations on multiple combat fronts, inflicting significant losses on the Israeli military. The Palestinian resistance said it is confronting the IOF and executing a series of operations across Gaza, increasing the number of casualties among the Israeli army since October 7, 2023. The armed wing of Hamas, the al-Qassam Brigades, targeted tanks and Israeli armored personnel carrier with shells.

The armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the al-Quds Brigades, is engaging in fierce battles with Israeli soldiers using appropriate anti-armor and anti-tank weapons in areas west of Rafah. The al-Quds Brigades also targeted Israeli soldiers stationed at the Rafah crossing gate with Egypt and its surroundings, as well as Israeli troops and vehicles advancing with mortar shells. In a joint operation with the al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, the armed wing of PIJ, targeted Israeli military formations with a rocket barrage. Aqsa Brigades declared it was engaged in fierce battles with Israeli forces and their military vehicles using appropriate weapons on the western outskirts of Rafah.

Reuters reported that the IOF is again attacking Gaza City since October 7, in yet another sign of the Israeli military’s ongoing failures in northern Gaza. This comes as the spokesman for the al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Ubaida, said the Israeli occupation will “emerge defeated and we will reveal later how we deceived it for years”. Abu Ubaida, emphasized that the people of Gaza continue to be subjected to genocide as “punishment for adherence to their land and their right to resist, without food or medicine”. The operation al-Aqsa Storm was not the beginning of history for the resistance or the occupation’s aggression, but rather represented a moment of explosion against its decades-old war crimes.

On the battleground, Abu Ubaida stressed that the 24 brigades affiliated with Hamas’s military wing fought from Beit Hanoun in the north to Rafah in the far south, presenting martyrs from soldiers and leaders from all levels, but the resistance will never surrender saying “the flag will not fall”. The ongoing battle in Rafah for two months and what is happening in northern Gaza and its center are the best evidence of the resistance’s strength and the failure of the occupation, which “continues to receive painful blows wherever it advances within the Strip.”

Gaza resistance has strengthened its defensive capabilities to confront the occupation everywhere in the besieged enclave. They promise that the conflict in the South of Gaza City will be “terrifying for the occupation, and its forces will emerge defeated from it”. When Netanyahu speaks of is a personal victory “at the expense of sacrificing your sons”. That the fate of the captives has become a toy in Netanyahu’s hands.

Hamas has offered a “salute of duty” to Hezbollah in Lebanon and to the resistance in Yemen and Iraq, affirming that these fronts united to support occupied al-Quds (Jerusalem) and “the collective conscience of our nation is aligned with this resistance”. The Palestinian people and their resistance are certain that the battle to defend Gaza will only lead to significant transformations, affirming that the inevitable outcome of resistance will be victory and the defeat of the occupation.

In solidarity

Ranjan Solomon
On behalf of MLN Palestine Updates

8 July 2024

By Jay Janson

Ever since October 7, 2023, NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, CNN, PBS, along with BBC, DW, NHK other Western entertainment/news conglomerates and wire services like AP, UPI, Reuters and Israeli media have sought to keep their viewers, readers and listeners attention on the hostages and away from any explanation, reason or justification of Palestinians seeking to exchange the hostages for some of the thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

This is of course consistent with underreporting the Palestinians suffering the illegal military occupation, subjugation and often murderous treatment from the Israeli military which operates largely with impunity within Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.

Western media focus on the hostages is even more important in justifying Israel’s wholesale annihilation of much of the population of Hamas governed Gaza, homes, apartment buildings, mosques, schools, stores, bakeries, playgrounds all claimed by Israel to be in defence of the Palestinian guerrilla attack of Israel on October 7, 2023.

However, since U.S. has built up the Israel military to be one of the most powerful in the world and perfectly capable of defending itself against any subsequent Hamas guerrilla attack, the Israeli obliteration of Gaza’s cities and its people is obviously not defensive, and after Israel’s generations of crimes against Palestinians, the October 7, invasion was hardly unexpected. UN Secretary General António Guterres  said as much right after the October 7, 2023 event. Guterres noted that “these attacks did not happen in a vacuum”—highlighting the impact of 56 years of occupation on the Palestinian people. (United Nations Press).

Israel’s Responsibilities as an Occupying Power Under International Humanitarian Law

Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories, regarding Israel’s right to self-defense in the context of Israel’s (illegal) military occupation of Palestinian lands and people:

“Israel has the right to defend itself, but it cannot invoke this right to perpetrate acts that violate international law against a people it is occupying.” 

In her report to the UN General Assembly in October 2022, Rapporteur Albanese noted,

“An occupying power has a duty to protect the occupied population and cannot invoke self-defense to justify the use of force against its own protected persons.”

Western news outlets refer to Palestinian freedom fighters as ‘terrorists’ constantly reporting that some Western governments list Hamas and other armed groups fighting the Israeli occupation as terrorist organisations, however, China, as a permanent member of the Security Council, has backed the right of the Palestinian people to use arms.

“The struggle waged by peoples for their liberation, right to self-determination, including armed struggle against colonialism, occupation, aggression, domination against foreign forces should not be considered terror acts”

– Zhang Jun, China’s UN ambassador

Addressing the ICJ on Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land, February 22, 2024,

Beijing’s envoy said there were “various people (who) freed themselves from colonial rule” and they could use “all available means, including armed struggle”.(seemed an indirect reference to the American War of Independence from Britain.)

As a conscientious peoples historian activist I have allowed myself to be subjected to anti-Chinese, anti-UN, anti-Hamas, pro-Israeli news slants in the interest of knowing just how the average mainstream media addict comes to accept genocide as an inevitable condition of modern warfare and wars as an unpreventable source of financial gain.

Therefore NBC’s very poignant, even painful to look at and read coverage of the Israeli Defence Force killing of 64 children during its freeing of 4 hostages on June 8, 2024, came as a surprise to this writer and life long sympathiser of the Palestinian inhuman predicament. This sorrowful coverage of the horrendous head wound and death of a lovely four year old boy and the sight of a seven year old girl alive but with more than half her face gone, is perhaps one indication that just perhaps even the racist inclined CIA overseen media of the hegemonic Western nations can no longer tolerate Israeli genocide in its ever more outrageously gruesome aspects.

Readers are invited to share some grief with Arab Palestinian families suffering soul crushing amount of anguish for the sheer numbers of the dead and dying children and the catatonic state of surviving kids. Just click on the hyperlink below:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/gaza-children-killed-israel-hostage-raid-idf-hamas-war-palestinians-rcna157777

NBC News June 8, 2024

Gazan families mourn children killed during IDF’s hostage rescue

WEB Gaza’s Health Ministry says at least 64 children were killed by Israeli fire during the June 8 raid to rescue four hostages being held by Hamas. 

The four hostages — Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Shlomi Ziv and Andrey Kozlov — were safely extracted from the Gaza Strip and cameras captured their emotional reunions with their families after eight months of captivity.

The joy experienced by both Palestinians and Israelis during the first hostage exchange as they fell into the loving arms of waiting family and friends could have been repeated instead of this horrific bloodbath of some 270 Palestinians, among them 64 precious children on June 8, 2024

Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Shlomi Ziv and Andrey Kozlov will most likely never forget that their homecoming was one sided. No Palestinian got to welcome home family members long imprisoned with or without having been charged as seems to the case for so many incarcerated and more being seized every day.

… and how shall the four Israelis back home with their families ever put out of their mind the unspeakable horror and indescribably intense suffering of the families of the 64 Arab children slain as the price of their release?

Actually, how shall any of us ever forget that Americans have been backing and supplying these abominations of using weapons of mass destruction upon fellow human beings and their children in full knowledge of the profits being made by U.S. corporations.

Post Script

https://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/2024/israel-war-on-gaza-10000-children-killed

Post Script

What of those buried beneath the ruble and the amputees ?

Post Script

,,, and those already starved to death and those starving to death and those who will starve to deathhttps://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/defense-minister-announces-complete-siege-of-gaza-no-power-food-or-fuel/

Jay Janson is an archival research peoples historian activist, musician and writer; has lived and worked on all continents; articles on media published in China, Italy, UK, India, in Germany & Sweden Einartysken,and in the US by Greanville Post, Dissident Voice; Global Research; Information Clearing House; Counter Currents; Minority Perspective, UK,and others; now resides in NYC; First effort was a series of articles on deadly cultural pollution endangering seven areas of life emanating from Western corporate owned commercial media published in Hong Kong’s Window Magazine 1993; Howard Zinn lent his name to various projects of his; Weekly column, South China Morning Post, 1986-87; reviews for Ta Kung Bao; article China Daily, 1989. I

7 July 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

By Jake Johnson

Former U.K. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn won reelection as an Independent on Thursday against a candidate from his erstwhile party as Labour—despite its unpopularity under incoming Prime Minister Keir Starmer—ended 14 years of disastrous Conservative rule at the national level with a landslide victory.

Corbyn, who last year was banned by Labour’s governing body from running as a party candidate in the 2024 elections, kept the Islington North seat he has held since 1983 with a 7,000-plus vote margin over local Labour councillor Praful Nargund.

Corbyn used his victory statement to send a message to Labour, calling his win “a warning to the incoming government that dissent cannot be crushed without consequences” and “that ideas of equality, justice, and peace are eternal.”

“Tonight, we celebrate. Tomorrow, we organize,” said Corbyn. “The energy we have unleashed will not go to waste. We are a movement made up of all ages, backgrounds, and faiths. A movement which can win with and for people all over the country.”

In 2020, Corbyn was suspended from the Labour Party following the publication of a government watchdog report alleging that, under his leadership, the party failed to adequately handle antisemitism complaints. Corbyn apologized for the failures while defending himself from relentless attacks, saying at the time that “the scale of the problem was dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media.”

Starmer was elected Labour leader in April 2020, and he has since moved to stifle the party’s left faction with what critics have described as “deeply anti-democratic” tactics.

Oliver Eagleton, an assistant editor at New Left Review, wrote in a New York Timesop-ed earlier this week that since the inception of his leadership, Starmer has engaged in a “merciless crackdown on the mildest forms of internal dissent.”

“He expelled his predecessor, blocked left-wing candidates from standing for Parliament, proscribed various socialist groups, barred politicians from joining picket lines and introduced antidemocratic rules for leadership elections. He has also demanded a stifling level of ideological conformity,” Eagleton wrote. “Lawmakers who criticize NATO face instant expulsion, and members who oppose Israel’s actions are cynically accused of antisemitism.”

“This purge has turned Labour into a mirror image of the Conservatives: obsequious toward big business, advocating austerity at home and militarism abroad,” he added. “It has also foreshadowed how Mr. Starmer would operate in Downing Street. He has said he intends to retain the Public Order Act, which places unprecedented restrictions on protests and makes it easier to lock up activists. He has described climate campaigners as ‘contemptible‘ and ‘pathetic,’ pledging to impose harsh sentences on them. He has even backed a proposal to punish protesters who vandalize monuments with 10 years in prison.”

Labour’s landslide victory Thursday was a reflection of widespread discontent with nearly a decade and a half of Tory rule and the deep unpopularity of Conservative leader Rishi Sunak.

“Fourteen years, five prime ministers, four election cycles, two U.K.-wide referendums, and a global pandemic: a lot has happened since the Conservative Party entered coalition in 2010,” The Guardiannoted Thursday. “But there are other, bigger figures on voters’ minds: 7.6 million people on waiting lists for hospital treatment in England (three times the 2010 figure); 3% of Britons having to use a food bank, all while the cost of a weekly shop, household bills, and mortgage repayments is rising.”

The advocacy group We Deserve Better said in a statement following Thursday’s election that “this is a hollow victory for Labour, which is taking power as the most unpopular incoming government in U.K. political history, with the lowest vote share won by any single-party majority government.”

“It’s unprecedented for an opposition party entering government to have several of its leading politicians unseated, and to actively be losing votes across the country. Labour has won by default because of the Tories’ implosion, not because of enthusiasm for Starmer or his Tory-lite policies,” the group said. “Nationwide, Labour’s vote share is lower under Starmer than it was under Jeremy in 2017 or even Blair in 2005. The Greens have triumphed by increasing their MPs from 1 to 4; Labour was trounced by Jeremy Corbyn in a historic victory; and several other independents have unseated Labour bigwigs or come close to doing so.

“Labour’s heartlands are rebelling against them before they’ve even taken office,” the statement continued. “Voters have sent them a clear message on Gaza, the climate, and austerity measures. Labour will continue to haemorrhage votes to pro-Palestine and socialist independent and Green candidates if they don’t listen to their base.”

Jake Johnson is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.

5 July 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

By Mark Taliano

1 Jul 2024 – Gazan journalist Bisan Owda, currently trapped in Gaza like so many others, reports that “there are no places for people… no places to go to”.

It is a game of “death and hunger” she says, and it has been so for nine months.

The terrorists, she explains, are wearing soldier uniforms. They behead children, they blow up homes with people in them.

She correctly blames ”silent spectators” to this Western/Zionist perpetrated genocide, and says “they will have their turn.”

Zionists have been committing genocide against Palestinian civilians, for 265 days, she says. The Israeli army has evacuated the northern part of the Gazan strip, using starvation, famine, and military operations to achieve their goals.

Zionists bomb homes, businesses, buildings and tents, killing and maiming untold numbers of civilians.

This is “genocide by design,” explains author and human rights lawyer Dan Kovalik, on a Telegram post.

“Reuters just reported exactly what kind of bombs the U.S. has been sending Israel.

Biden sent 14,000 two thousand pound bombs – more than all other types combined.

These bombs destroy whole city blocks.

The destruction of Gaza is intentional…”

Bisan Owda documents Western _ zionist genocide in real time – Rumble

Mark Taliano combines years of research with on-the-ground observations to present an informed and well-documented analysis that refutes the mainstream media narratives on Syria.

8 July 2024

Source: transcend.org

By Jeffrey D. Sachs

21 Jun 2024 – The world’s geopolitical system is not delivering what we want or need.  Sustainable development is our declared goal, meaning economic prosperity, social justice, environmental sustainability, and peace.  Yet our reality is continued poverty amidst plenty, widening inequalities, deepening environmental crises, and war.  To get back on track, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has wisely called for a Summit of the Future (SOTF) at the United Nations on September 22-23, a call that has been endorsed by the 193 UN Member states.

The core idea of the Summit of the Future is that humanity is facing a set of unprecedented challenges that can only be solved through global cooperation.  The crisis of human-induced climate change (especially the warming of the planet) cannot be solved by any one country alone.  Nor can the crises of wars (such as in Ukraine and Gaza) or the geopolitical tensions (between the US and China) be settled by one or two countries alone.  Each country, even the major powers including the US, China, Russia, India, and others are part of a complex global structure of power, economics, and politics that requires truly global solutions.

The Summit will revolve around 5 core topics, all of them related to multilateralism, meaning the system by which nations co-exist with the rest of the world.  These topics are: (1) the goal of sustainable development; (2) the goal of peace; (3) the control of new technologies such as artificial intelligence; (4) the empowerment of young people and future generations; and (5) reform of the UN architecture.

The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), which I direct on behalf of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, has issued a statement summarizing the view of leading academics around the world about the reform of the multilateral system.  The SDSN statement on the SOTF is Chapter 1 of the SDSN’s 2024 Sustainable Development Report.
On the goal of sustainable development, the core challenge is global finance.  Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – including the fight against poverty, hunger, disease, and environmental degradation – requires sizable public investments.  The main priority public investment areas including education, health care, zero-carbon energy, sustainable agriculture, urban infrastructure, and digital infrastructure.  The problem is that the poorer half of the world — the low-income countries and lower-middle-income countries – lack the access to financing they need to achieve the SDGs.  The most urgent reform of the global system these countries need is access to long-term, low-cost financing.

On the goal of peace, the core challenge today is great-power competition.  The US is in competition with Russia and China.  The US aims for primacy in Europe over Russia, and primacy in Asia over China.  Russia and China resist the US.  The result is war (in Ukraine) or risk of war (in East Asia).  We need a stronger UN-led system in which great-power competition is governed and restrained by the UN Charter rather than by militarism and power politics.  More generally, we are past the era when any single country can or should aspire to primacy or hegemony.  The major powers should live in peace and mutual respect under the UN Charter, without threatening each other’s security.

On the goal of technology, the main challenge is to ensure transparent and responsible governance of the new advanced technologies, including biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and geo-engineering.  Such powerful technologies cannot continue to be managed in secrecy by the militaries and powerful corporations.  They need to be governed by honesty, transparency, and responsibility to the public.

On the goal of youth and future generations, the major challenge is to ensure that every child can achieve his or her potential through a high-quality education.  Education is essential for a decent job and a life of dignity.  Yet hundreds of millions of children, especially in the poor countries, are either out of school or in sub-standard schools that are not teaching the skills needed for the 21st century.   Without a quality education, these children will face a lifetime of poverty and under-employment or unemployment.  We need a new global financial arrangement to ensure that every child, even in the poorest countries, is given the opportunity for a decent education.

On the goal of reforming the UN system, the key is to give more power to UN institutions and to make them more representative.  The UN today depends too much on a few powerful countries, most on notably the US.  When the US doesn’t pay its dues to the UN, for example, the whole UN system is weakened.  We need to strengthen the UN system by ensuring that it is properly and reliably financed through a new system of international taxes – for example, on CO2 emissions, shipping, aviation, and financial transactions – rather than the contributions of individual governments.

We also should make the UN institutions more representative of the world of 2024 rather than the world of 1945, when the UN was established.  India, for example, should become a permanent member of the UN Security Council.  India is the world’s most populous country, the third largest economy, and a nuclear power as well.  In 1945, India was still a British colony, and so was not given its proper place in the UN system at that time.

Another core recommendation of the SDSN is to introduce a UN Parliamentary Assembly as a new chamber alongside the UN General Assembly (UNGA).  The UNGA gives each member state one vote, with the power of that vote in the hands of the executive branch of each government.  A UN Parliament would represent the peoples of the world rather than the governments.

Most importantly, the Summit of the Future is an invitation to intensive global brainstorming on how to make our deeply interconnected world fit for sustainable development in the 21st century.  It is a great challenge that should be welcomed and joined by people all over the world.  A great debate will open in September and then continue for years to come.

Jeffrey D. Sachs, Professor of Sustainable Development and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University, is Director of Columbia’s Center for Sustainable Development and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

8 July 2024

Source: transcend.org