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By Andre Damon

US President Donald Trump received Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a formal dinner on Monday, during which both men reiterated their plans to forcibly remove the Palestinian population from Gaza in preparation for the enclave’s annexation.

When asked, “Is your Palestinian relocation plan still on the table?” Netanyahu praised Trump’s “brilliant vision” to expel the Palestinians from Gaza. “I think President Trump had a brilliant vision. It’s called free choice,” Netanyahu said.

He continued, “We’re working closely with the United States to find countries that will accept” the forcibly displaced Palestinians. Trump added, “And we’ve had great cooperation from surrounding countries. So something good will happen.”

By giving the Palestinians in Gaza a “free choice” to leave, Netanyahu means that he intends to starve and kill them by the thousands, so that those who remain alive will “choose” to leave.

When Trump first proposed his plan to “own” Gaza and expel the Palestinian people to other countries earlier this year, it was dismissed by the US media as a flight of fancy with no connection to actual US and Israeli plans.

In reality, the ethnic cleansing of Gaza has been a long-term aim of the Netanyahu government, which used the events of October 7, 2023 as a pretext to carry out this plan. Trump, in contrast to his predecessor Biden, openly stated the actual Israeli policy the US was supporting.

Now, six months after it was first proposed, the Israeli government is making far-reaching plans to carry out this ethnic cleansing policy, using its takeover of the provision of starvation rations as a means to lure the population of Gaza to the enclave’s south, where they will be herded into concentration camps and then expelled from the country.

The plan by Trump and Netanyahu to displace the people of Gaza is a flagrant violation of the prohibition of the forcible transfer of civilians during armed conflicts under the Fourth Geneva Convention. Their plan to steal the Palestinians’ land also violates the 1970 United Nations treaty, ratified by the United States, which stipulates that “The territory of a State shall not be the object of acquisition by another State resulting from the threat or use of force.”

As a result of the war crimes committed by Israel in the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Gaza, Netanyahu faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court.

When asked about the statement made five months ago by Democratic New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani that he would enforce the ICC’s arrest warrant against Netanyahu were he to be elected mayor, Trump and Netanyahu launched into a tirade against Mamdani, calling him a communist. Netanyahu dismissed the war crimes charges against him as “silly” and “not serious.”

The blood-curdling remarks by the two men turned into a farce when Netanyahu presented Trump with a letter he sent to the Nobel Prize Committee nominating Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize, declaring, “He’s forging peace, as we speak, in one country, in one region after the other.”

After Netanyahu called for the American president to be given the Nobel Peace Prize, Trump could not resist boasting about dropping “the biggest bombs ever, the biggest bombs that we’ve ever dropped on anybody, when you think non-nuclear” on Iran just last month.

Despite the grotesque and farcical nature of the event, the homicidal plans the two men were discussing are very real and very serious.

On Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced plans to construct what he called a “humanitarian city” on the ruins of the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, which would hold the entire Palestinian population.

Katz stated that once inside, residents would not be allowed to leave by the Israeli military, which would patrol the camp.

He also said that the building of the camp would be coordinated with “the emigration plan, which will happen.”

Meanwhile, Reuters reported that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF)—a US- and Israeli-backed aid organization—has drawn up a proposal for establishing camps, which it calls “Humanitarian Transit Areas,” both inside and outside Gaza.

At least 600 Palestinians have been killed over the past five weeks at food distributions operated by the GHF, according to Gaza’s government media office.

These killings have taken place in over 20 separate massacres, which have become an almost daily occurrence as a critical component of the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Last week, the Financial Times reported on a secret strategy document drawn up by the Boston Consulting Group, a major US corporate consulting firm, for “relocating” Palestinians from Gaza. The FT reported that the Boston Consulting Group estimated a “23k savings on every Palestinian relocating.” In a front-page article on Sunday, the Financial Times revealed that the plan was created with the involvement of staffers from former UK Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Condemning the US-Israeli ethnic cleansing plans, Michael Sfard, one of Israel’s leading human rights lawyers, declared, “While the government still calls the deportation ‘voluntary,’ people in Gaza are under so many coercive measures that no departure from the strip can be seen in legal terms as consensual.”

He added, “When you drive someone out of their homeland, that would be a war crime in the context of a war. If it’s done on a massive scale like he plans, it becomes a crime against humanity.”

Last week, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz published an investigation featuring interviews with Israeli troops, who said they were repeatedly ordered to open fire on unarmed crowds of aid seekers.

To date, Israel has killed 57,000 people in Gaza, while the entire enclave is on the brink of starvation, with thousands of cases of acute malnutrition diagnosed last month alone.

8 July 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Chase Lawrence and Patrick Martin

The death toll has climbed past 80 in the flash flood disaster in central Texas, as rescue and recovery workers continued their search for survivors and victims into Sunday night. The vast majority of the deaths, 68, are in Kerr County, northwest of San Antonio, where the Guadalupe River overflowed its banks in a wall of water as much as 30 feet high.

Those who died in Kerr County included 40 adults and 28 children, many of them from the Mystic Camp, a sleepaway Christian girls camp on the edge of the river which was inundated in the early morning hours of Friday, July 4. Eleven girls and one adult are still missing from the camp, which housed 750 people, including children as young as eight.

Heavy rains Sunday obstructed the rescue and recovery efforts. By the evening, officials in Kerr County urged journalists and the few remaining local residents in the flood zone to get to higher ground, as a new surge of river water was considered likely.

Torrential rains stemming at least in part from the breakup of Tropical Storm Barry over the Gulf of Mexico were the immediate cause of the flooding, but both climate change and the impact of Trump administration budget cuts certainly played a role in the massive human toll.

The Texas “Hill Country” is a vast arc of rough and broken ground, crisscrossed by gullies, extending from the Dallas-Ft. Worth metropolitan area west and south around Austin and San Antonio. The rivers that drain the relatively dry region can collect massive amounts of water runoff in a heavy storm, particularly one that lingers for several days, as was the case last week.

There is a long history of flooding on the Guadalupe River, but this is by far the worst of the dozen or so such disasters in the past century. The worst previous flood took the lives of ten girls at another sleepover camp along the river in 1987.

Despite this, Kerr County officials have rebuffed calls to set up an early warning system against flash floods, similar to that used in tornado-prone regions of the US, claiming it would be too costly. While largely rural, the county is not without resources, with a middle-income population of more than 50,000 on the outskirts of the San Antonio metropolitan area.

The area is dominated politically by extreme right Republicans who oppose nearly all forms of public spending. Trump carried Kerr County with 77 percent of the vote last November. The local congressman is Republican Chip Roy, one of the most right-wing members of the fascist House Freedom Caucus.

Residents reported receiving little to no warning before the flood started. Many were awakened to the floods themselves, with National Weather Service warnings only arriving via phone alerts at 1 a.m. Friday, when most people were already asleep. Only a flood watch was previously issued on Thursday, which cautioned the region to prepare for ‘excessive runoff’ with rainfall expected to be “5 to 7 inches.” Instead, from 10 to 12 inches fell in a matter of hours, and there were isolated readings of up to 16 inches of rain.

The Guadalupe River rose 26 feet within 45 minutes according to state officials, leaving those awakened to the flooding little if any time to respond.

Christopher Flowers, who was quoted in the Associated Press, noted that nothing in the forecast alarmed him, and he only learned about the flood when he woke up in the middle of the night in ankle-deep water. “What they need is some kind of external system, like a tornado warning that tells people to get out now,” Flowers, 44, said.

On Wednesday, the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) was activated saying there was ‘increased threats of flooding in parts of West and Central Texas.’ Swift-water rescue teams and other types of rescue equipment were moved into the area because some models predicted high levels of rainfall.

In Texas and around the world, floods have become worse and more frequent as a result of ongoing global warming. So too have other varieties of severe weather events. The Trump administration, as part of its rampage against science, has effectively forbidden any discussion of climate change by disaster management agencies, while also inflicting severe cuts on the National Weather Service (NWS) and its parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

During the budget-cutting spree initiated by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), some 2,300 jobs were eliminated at NOAA, as well as 600 at the NWS. Both of the NWS offices near the flood zone, in San Antonio and San Angelo, were understaffed. The meteorologist at the San Antonio office in charge of liaison with local disaster management agencies took early retirement in April as a result of the DOGE purge.

These cuts led to a situation in which offices for predicting tornadoes were above the 20 percent vacancy levels experts say is critical. The number of weather balloons, necessary for timely and accurate prediction of a number of weather phenomena including floods, decreased by around 15 to 17 percent. Some local NWS offices reduced their twice-daily balloon launches or even suspended them altogether due to a lack of staffing.

The Democrats are also directly implicated in the disaster, offering only the most perfunctory opposition to the DOGE rampage, then passing a continuing resolution backed by Trump to avoid a federal shutdown. As Trump’s $4 trillion tax and spending bill passed Congress last week, the Democrats did nothing but wring their hands, refusing to call a single protest.

They claim to oppose the cuts in NOAA, Department of Health and Human Services and other agencies responsible for the well-being of hundreds of millions of Americans. But the funds cut from these agencies are going towards the buildup of the military-intelligence apparatus, which the Democrats fully support, as well as the enormous deportation machine that Trump is constructing.

Trump has dismissed suggestions that these cuts played any role in the central Texas tragedy.

“If you look at that, what a situation that all is, and that was really the Biden setup. That was not our setup, but I wouldn’t blame Biden for it either,” he said, after a weekend at his New Jersey golf club. He claimed that given the scale of the flooding, no amount of preparation would have made a difference. Instead he resorted to the usual reassurances of capitalist politicians in the face of disaster, hailing the patriotism of first responders and offering his prayers “for all of the families impacted by this horrible tragedy.”

Meanwhile, Trump’s fascist allies in Congress raised yet another conspiracy theory to explain the disaster, with Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) saying she would introduce a bill forbidding “weather modification” by government agencies or private individuals.

The catastrophe in central Texas is a crime of capitalism. Dozens are dead not because such events are unpredictable, but because society is organized around the profit interests of the financial oligarchy, not human need.

7 July 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor

Palestinian Territory – The evidence surrounding the Nuseirat Massacre committed by the Israeli army on 8 June 2024 is now supported by a growing body of documented data, most notably the Al Jazeera documentary Nuseirat 274: The Hostage Massacre. The film offers a significant contribution to reconstructing the sequence of events and exposing the nature of the force used against the civilian population.

The testimonies and visual material presented in the film closely align with the findings of Euro-Med Monitor’s field investigation and reinforce evidence of Israel’s use of indiscriminate and disproportionate firepower in a densely populated civilian area, in clear violation of international humanitarian law.

This level of documentation, combining professional journalism with human rights investigation, underscores the need to launch an independent investigation with international criminal jurisdiction to uncover the truth, hold those responsible for the massacre accountable, and prevent the recurrence of such violations against the civilian population in the Gaza Strip.

Al Jazeera’s investigative film provides evidence-based documentation and detailed field analysis of one of the deadliest massacres committed by the Israeli army during the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip, which left 274 Palestinians dead and 814 injured in a single day.

The data presented in the film, consistent with Euro-Med Monitor’s field documentation, constitutes conclusive evidence that the Israeli army committed a full-fledged war crime on 8 June 2024 in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. The military operation, ostensibly aimed at “liberating hostages,” in fact resulted in hundreds of civilian casualties due to the excessive use of force and the deliberate targeting of civilians without military necessity, including in areas far from the site of the Israeli special operation.

At the time, Euro-Med Monitor’s field team documented the Israeli army carrying out intense and concentrated aerial, land, and sea attacks lasting approximately two hours on the Central Market area of the Nuseirat refugee camp, which is densely populated with tens of thousands of civilians daily. The attacks later expanded to much of central Gaza, resulting in a high number of casualties.

The investigation, aired by Al Jazeera on its digital platform Al Jazeera 360, employed a rigorous methodology that combined open-source analysis, satellite imagery, and air navigation data with exclusive testimonies, photographs, and never-before-published footage. It accurately reconstructed the scene of the massacre and systematically refuted the Israeli army’s narrative of the incident.

The film also exposes precise details of the deliberate targeting of civilian objects during the Israeli operation, including multiple airstrikes on residential homes, such as the Shalat family home where over 30 civilians were killed, and the intentional targeting of women and children in densely populated areas, indicating a premeditated intent to maximise civilian casualties.

Following the massacre, the Israeli army announced that its forces, in coordination with the General Security Service (Shin Bet) and the Israeli police (Yamam), had recovered four Israeli detainees in an operation conducted by special forces in the Nuseirat refugee camp.

The Israeli special operation involved intensive, indiscriminate air and artillery attacks used to cover the withdrawal of Israeli forces, resulting in extensive civilian casualties and widespread destruction of civilian objects. These actions violated international humanitarian law, including the principles of humanity, distinction, military necessity, proportionality, and precaution.

At the time, a young man named Faisal, who requested anonymity for his surname, told the Euro-Med Monitor team that Israeli fighter jets and drones launched intensive attacks, initially targeting the northwest area of Nuseirat camp before expanding to broader areas. This included indiscriminate shelling from Israeli vehicles positioned at the entrance to al-Bureij camp and in the al-Awda Street area, northeast of Nuseirat.

He added that the intense Israeli bombardment forced thousands of civilians to flee Nuseirat camp, but they were pursued by Quadcopter drone fire and artillery shells, resulting in dozens of deaths and injuries. Numerous bodies were seen in the Julis Street area in the centre of the camp.

The killing of Palestinian journalist Ahmed Elshayyah, a field contributor to the documentary, in an Israeli airstrike carried out after the investigation was completed, underscores Israel’s policy of targeting journalists and those documenting its actions, as part of a broader effort to conceal evidence and eliminate witnesses.

The Nuseirat Massacre cannot be dismissed as a military error or an isolated incident, as it was neither accidental in execution nor exceptional in context. The operation involved the use of heavy, indiscriminate firepower in a densely populated civilian area, despite prior knowledge of the presence of hundreds of civilians. This reflects a deliberate policy of targeting the civilian population collectively and inflicting the highest possible number of deaths among a besieged, starving, and forcibly displaced population.

It constitutes both a war crime and a crime against humanity, as part of a widespread and systematic attack against civilians, as well as an act of genocide, given the clear intent to destroy a portion of the Palestinian population. This occurs within a broader context of public incitement, mass killings, the infliction of severe suffering, forced displacement, siege, starvation, deprivation of necessities, and the systematic destruction of civilian areas.

Immediate, independent, and impartial international investigations into the targeting of civilians in the Nuseirat Massacre are essential. Pressure must be exerted on Israel to allow international and UN fact-finding missions into the Gaza Strip, as per international law and the rulings of the International Court of Justice.

The International Criminal Court must investigate all crimes committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip, including the Nuseirat Massacre and the thousands of other atrocities perpetrated by the Israeli army in the enclave. The Court should also broaden the scope of its investigation into individual criminal responsibility to include all those involved, issue arrest warrants, and prosecute them in accordance with international law and the Rome Statute. Furthermore, the Court must acknowledge the reality of the situation in Gaza and address Israel’s actions seriously and objectively, recognising them as constituting genocide.

All states, both individually and collectively, must fulfil their legal responsibilities by taking urgent action to stop the genocide in the Gaza Strip, through implementing effective measures to protect Palestinian civilians; ensuring Israel’s compliance with international law and the decisions of the International Court of Justice; and holding Israel accountable for all crimes against the Palestinians in the Strip. The International Criminal Court must implement the arrest warrants for the Israeli Prime Minister and Minister of Defence at the earliest opportunity, in accordance with the principle that there is no immunity for international crimes.

The international community must also impose economic, diplomatic, and military sanctions on Israel for its systematic and grave violations of international law. These sanctions should include an arms embargo; an end to all political, financial, and military support; freezing the assets of officials involved in crimes against Palestinians; imposing travel ban on these officials; suspending the operations of Israeli military and security industries companies in international markets; banning involved companies’ access to banking services; and suspending trade privileges and bilateral agreements that provide Israel with economic benefits that enable its continued crimes.

Countries with universal jurisdiction courts must issue arrest warrants for Israeli political and military leaders involved in the ongoing genocide and initiate legal proceedings, even with the accused in absentia, to fulfil their international legal obligation to prosecute serious crimes and combat impunity.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor is a Geneva-based independent organization with regional offices across the MENA region and Europe

7 July 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Quds News Network

Gaza (Quds News Network)- Over 288 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces over the past 100 hours in 59 massacres across the Gaza Strip, including 99 aid seekers, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office.

In a statement issued last night, the Office said that over the past 100 hours, the Israeli military committed 59 massacres targeting civilians in the Gaza Strip, killing 288 people and injuring 1,088 others.

99 aid seekers were killed by Israeli forces and 394 others injured while waiting for food near the so-called “death traps”, near US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid sites.

Here are some of what Israel has targeted over the past 100 hours across Gaza, according to the Office:

• Public rest areas
• Palestinian families inside their homes
• Markets and civilian gathering spots
• Starving civilians while searching for food
• Medical clinics, health centers, and vital infrastructure
• The Al-Mawasi area, which the Israeli occupation falsely designates as a “safe zone”
• Overcrowded shelters housing tens of thousands of displaced people

The majority of those killed are children, women, and the elderly. All unarmed civilians, the Office noted.

Israel has escalated its attacks in Gaza amid ceasefire, in one of the deadliest and most intense bombardments in the devastated Palestinian territory for many months.

7 July 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

In five years, from 2020 to 2024, private firms received $2.4 trillion in contracts from the Pentagon, approximately 54% of the department’s discretionary spending of $4.4 trillion over that period. 

During these five years, the U.S. government invested over twice as much money in five weapons companies as in diplomacy and international assistance. Between 2020 and 2024, $771 billion in Pentagon contracts went to just five firms: Lockheed Martin ($313 billion), RTX (formerly Raytheon, $145 billion), Boeing ($115 billion), General Dynamics ($116 billion), and Northrop Grumman ($81 billion). By comparison, the total diplomacy, development, and humanitarian aid budget, excluding military aid, was $356 billion.

Annual U.S. military spending has grown significantly this century, as has the portion of the budget that goes to contractors: While 54% of the Pentagon’s average annual spending has gone to military contractors since 2020, during the 1990s, only 41% went to contractors. 

U.S. military spending, including funding for the Pentagon and military activities funded by other agencies, had risen from $531 billion in 2000 to $899 billion in 2025, in constant 2025 dollars. However, legislation approved in July 2025 adds $156 billion to this total, pushing annual U.S. military spending to $1.06 trillion. Taking these supplemental funds into account, the U.S. military budget has nearly doubled this century, increasing 99% since 2000.

The report also analyzes the tools of influence used by the arms industry — lobbying, millions in campaign donations, the revolving door, and others — that are expanding.  As of 2024, there were 950 lobbyists hired by the arms industry — 220 more than in 2020 – helping to shape policy and increase military spending. 

READ FULL PAPER >

Thomas J. Watson Jr. School of International and Public Affairs

8 July 2025

Source: watson.brown.edu

By Sally Dugman

In that the world’s international court is largely toothless, let’s use all legally available sources configured in our own lands to stop our murderous monsters who purposefully break laws (like Trump authorizing bombs away in Iran). Surely,  we can devise another, actually useful way to stop these purposefully violent and vicious killers.

Yes, let’s firmly hold all of these rabid bloodlusting monsters legally and morally accountable, inc. Trump, Netanyahu, European heads of state, etc., who provide bombs and other supports while they heartily condone an ongoing, atrocious and widespread civilian slaughter in addition to their decimating surroundings — a complete ruination of the land and water bodied, themselves.

In fact, it’s way past time to ask for accountability and atonement for their gravely unacceptable wrongs, obviously. Indeed, our government representatives except for the few that are honorable for some of us constituents utterly sicken and revolt across the world us all, for the most part. Not only are they contemptible murderers, they’re thoroughly nauseating, most of my family members and closest friends think.

Who, after all, gave anyone the legal right to buy up munition stocks on Wall Street and use our hard earned tax dollars for support of their greed and this vicious monstrosity of selling or giving off weapons used for murdering thousands upon thousands of families? It’s not even legally authorized when our main government beasts send our dollars and weapons abroad to be part of an obvious genocide.

One of my friends sent me this moving article,

[https://www.globalresearch.ca/liable-of-arrest-and-punishment-heads-of-state-heads-of-government-supportive-of-genocide-against-the-people-of-palestine-articles-i-ii-iii-and-iv/5893665]

, and all that one can hope is that some irate and determined legal teams around the world pick up the gauntlet to move forward to stop the bloodthirsty beasts running our governments from doing even more destruction to groups of civilians and their surrounding lands.

So, a good place to start with such a plan involves for starters looking at our individual country’s governing laws and seeing the ways that those amongst the main criminally oriented leaders legally deviate from the hard-fast guiding rules.

Indeed, a fine place to start for my nation is, indeed, here as this report cites many illegal actions being carried out on the federal level by Trump and pals:

[https://www.freepress.org/article/july-4-2025-desecration-declaration-independence-and-call-renewal]

As I. F.Stone reminded us, “The only kinds of fights worth fighting are those you’re going to lose, because somebody has to fight them and lose and lose and lose until someday, somebody who believes as you do wins.” 

So let’s please get along with making our murderous leaders accountable to prove Stone is right. It’s clearly so justifiable and way past the time that we should altogether stop their unrelenting atrocious horrors.

Sally Dugman writes from and lives in MA, USA.

5 July 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Quds News Network

Gaza (Quds News Network)- Over 740 starving civilians have been killed by Israeli forces while seeking aid near distribution sites run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in Gaza since the controversial foundation began operations in late May.

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry on Saturday, 743 have been killed and 4,891 other injured by Israeli forces across Gaza while searching for food near or at GHF sites.

More than 39 others are still missing after heading to these sites, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office.

On March 2, Israel announced the closure of Gaza’s main crossings, cutting off food, medical and humanitarian supplies, worsening a humanitarian crisis for 2.3 million Palestinians, according to reports by human rights organizations who have accused it of using starvation as a weapon of war against Palestinians.

An Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report in May warned that almost a quarter of the civilian population would face catastrophic levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase Five) in the coming months.

After more than 80 days of total blockade, starvation, and growing international outrage, limited aid has allegedly been distributed by the GHF, a scandal-plagued organization backed by the US and Israel, created to bypass the UN’s established aid delivery infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.

Most humanitarian organizations, including the UN, have distanced themselves from GHF, arguing that the group violates humanitarian principles by restricting aid to south and central Gaza, requiring Palestinians to walk long distances to collect aid, and only providing limited aid, among other critiques.

The UN also confirmed that Israel is still blocking food from reaching starving Palestinians with only a few trucks of aid having reached Gaza.

According to a Haaretz report last week, conversations with officers and soldiers reveal that commanders ordered forces to shoot at crowds waiting for food near or at the US-backed GHF aid sites to drive them away or disperse them, despite posing no threat.

“It’s a killing field,” one soldier said. “Where I was stationed, between one and five people were killed every day. They’re treated like a hostile force – no crowd-control measures, no tear gas – just live fire with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars. Then, once the center opens, the shooting stops, and they know they can approach. Our form of communication is gunfire.”

On Monday, the Israeli military admitted that its forces “harmed” Palestinian civilians at US-Israeli aid distribution centers in Gaza. The army claimed new field instructions were issued based on “lessons learned.”

More than 130 charities and NGOs called last week for the closure of the controversial Israeli and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

“Today, Palestinians in Gaza face an impossible choice: starve or risk being shot while trying desperately to reach food to feed their families,” their statement said.

“Orphaned children and caregivers are among the dead, with children harmed in over half of the attacks on civilians at these sites.”

The aid organizations said GHF “is not a humanitarian response” for the Gazans.
“Amidst severe hunger and famine-like conditions, many families tell us they are now too weak to compete for food rations,” the groups said.

Palestinians in Gaza and the UN described these sites as “mass death traps” and “slaughterhouses”.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned that “weaponizing aid in this manner may constitute crimes against humanity.”

“Every day Palestinians are met with carnage in their attempts to receive supplies from the insufficient amount of aid trickling into Gaza,” MSF said.

The commissioner-general of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, condemned the “lethal” US-Israel aid distribution mechanism in Gaza. In a post on X, Lazzarini indicated that Palestinian lives “have been so devalued”.

“It is now the routine to shoot & kill desperate & starving people while they try to collect little food from a company made of mercenaries,” he said.

“Inviting starving people to their death is a war crime. Those responsible of this system must be held accountable. This is a disgrace & a stain on our collective consciousness.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the US-backed aid distribution mechanism is “inherently unsafe” and “it is killing people.”

“Any operation that channels desperate civilians into militarized zones is inherently unsafe. It is killing people,” Guterres told reporters.

Guterres said UN-led humanitarian efforts are being “strangled,” aid workers themselves are starving and Israel, as the occupying power, is required to agree to and facilitate aid deliveries into and throughout the Palestinian enclave.

“People are being killed simply trying to feed themselves and their families. The search for food must never be a death sentence,” Guterres told reporters.

On Wednesday, an investigation by the Associated Press confirmed that American security contractors guarding Gaza aid sites are using live ammunition, stun grenades, and pepper spray against starved Palestinians. It also revealed that Israel is using the so-called aid centers to collect intelligence and that security personnel deployed in Gaza appear to have an open license to do whatever they want.

Amnesty International has described the group’s operations as an “inhumane and deadly militarized scheme”.

“All the evidence gathered, including testimonies which Amnesty International is receiving from victims and witnesses, suggest that the GHF was designed so as to placate international concerns while constituting another tool of Israel’s genocide,” Amnesty said.

6 July 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Quds News Network

Gaza (Quds News Network)- Doctors in Gaza are sounding the alarm over a growing crisis threatening hundreds of babies, reported the Guardian. The strip is running out of infant formula as Israel continues to restrict aid access.

Dr. Ahmad al-Farra, head of paediatrics at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, said he only has enough baby formula to last one week. He has already run out of special formula for premature babies. Now, he is forced to ration standard formula among several infants.

“I can’t begin to describe how bad things are,” al-Farra told The Guardian. “We have babies outside the hospital who have no milk at all. It’s catastrophic.”

The shortage is worsening as Israel allows only a fraction of the needed aid into Gaza. The infamous Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), founded by Israel and the US, does not distribute baby formula, according to local doctors.

Hanaa al-Taweel, a 27-year-old mother of five in al-Nuseirat camp, said she stopped breastfeeding due to malnutrition. She cannot find formula for her 13-month-old baby.

“My baby wakes up crying for food. I keep a piece of bread by his side at night. I fear my children will die from hunger,” she said.

Doctors diagnosed her baby with stunting due to severe malnutrition. “He’s not walking or speaking like my other children did,” she added.

Nourhan Barakat, another mother displaced to Khan Younis, had to stop breastfeeding after one month. “I know breastfeeding builds the bond with my child. But what can I do if I have no food?”

At least 66 Palestinian children have already died from hunger since the genocide began in October 2023.

The World Health Organization says about 112 children are being admitted daily for malnutrition treatment. Doctors fear permanent developmental damage among babies under three.

“This generation is being targeted,” said Dr. al-Farra. “Even if nutrition returns later, the damage is permanent.”

Dr. Thaer Ahmad, part of an international medical team, warned: “When babies begin to die, that’s the final alarm. Children die first in starvation crises.”

Some doctors smuggle formula cans in their luggage. Israeli authorities recently confiscated 10 cans of preemie formula from an American doctor’s bag.

Dr. Diana Nazzal, a Palestinian-German surgeon, said, “What is baby formula going to do to Israel’s security? We’re being blocked from feeding babies.”

Medical teams now bring food instead of medicine, filling bags with protein bars and nuts. Formula on the black market sells for $50 per can; 10 times the normal price.

The Israeli genocide in Gaza has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians since October 7. Israel has rejected every ceasefire proposal that would have ended the genocide.

Meanwhile, doctors in Gaza say time is running out. “Children arrive looking like skeletons,” said al-Farra. “It’s horrifying. The only real solution is to end the war, open the crossings, and let baby formula in.”

6 July 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Ranjan Solomon

In one of his final gestures of compassion, Pope Francis requested that the Popemobile he used in Bethlehem in 2014 be repurposed into a mobile health clinic for Gaza’s children. The refitted vehicle—now equipped for frontline medical care—is ready, waiting for humanitarian access to Gaza to be restored.

Francis has long spoken against the cruelty of war, especially in occupied Palestine. At a May audience in St. Peter’s Square, he called for “dignified humanitarian aid and an end to hostilities, whose heartbreaking price is paid by children, the elderly and the sick.” His words urge the world not to forget Gaza—even as other wars dominate headlines.

But what hope can there be for Gaza, reduced to rubble? An article in Mondoweiss gives insight: “Our resilience isn’t a choice.” Palestinians did not choose war. But war was forced on them—and so they survive, and they resist. In Palestine, one often hears the word ‘aadi’—Arabic for “it’s fine” or “normal.” It’s not acceptance. It’s a survival code, a refusal to be broken.

This spirit of resilience—sumūd—is central to the theology of Munther Isaac, a Palestinian Christian pastor. In his book Christ in the Rubble, Isaac rejects passive hope. True hope, he writes, is defiant. It refuses to cede the future to violence and injustice. Isaac asserts that God is not absent from the ruins of Gaza, but present in the suffering of its people. He calls on the global church to renounce Christian Zionism and instead side with justice, peace, and nonviolence.

Meanwhile, Israel continues its assault on morality and legality. With each passing month, its economy falters. According to Le Monde, growth has collapsed—from 6.5% in 2022 to 2% in 2023, and is expected to fall further to just 1.1% in 2024. Labour shortages, inflation, and stagnation are taking root. The cost of occupation is being felt at home—even as bombs fall on Gaza.

Yet Israel continues its deadly apartheid regime. It kills and destroys with impunity, showing utter disregard for international law. Successive Israeli leaders—from Netanyahu to his so-called critics—have built settlements, razed institutions, and buried peace under rubble. They have made Israel a pariah.

Palestine Updates has always maintained: Israel understands only isolation. The international community must act with moral courage. That means:

• Suspending trade and investments
• Ending arms transfers
• Enforcing UN resolutions
• Demanding Israel’s suspension from the United Nations

To do less is to be complicit. Words are not enough. Condemnation is not enough. The blood of Gaza’s children demands more.The Zionist project is crumbling. Netanyahu may shoulder the blame, but this is a collective failure of international accountability. Still, Palestinians persist—with hope not as fantasy, but as rebellion.

In the words of Elie Wiesel: “There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”

Ranjan Solomon has been engaged in the Palestinian liberation struggle since the First Intifada in 1987. Over the decades, he has witnessed the crisis unfold firsthand through multiple visits to Gaza, the West Bank, and within Israel, where he has stood in solidarity with peace movements.

5 July 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Kumar Sanjay Singh

At the conclusion of the10th Quad Foreign Ministers in Washington, D.C., on 1 July 2025, the Secretary of State of the United States and the Foreign Ministers of Australia, India, and Japan released a joint statement, which has been widely reported in the Indian print and electronic media as the reaffirmation India’s status as a strategic partner of the US led west to check the growing influence of China in the Indo-Pacific region. The statement on Pahalgam has been highlighted as the coming of age of Indian diplomacy. Reportage on the 10^th meeting of Quad foreign ministers is, however, silent on the unique geopolitical context of the meeting; that the Quad meeting was held in the backdrop of increasing pressure on India, both by Russia and USA to firm up its relation with their respective block. The joint statement gives the first decisive indication of India preferring the Western alliance over the Russia proposed Russia-India-China troika.

The pressure on India from the rival block gathered momentum since Russian army entered Ukraine on 24 February 2022, it reached a crescendo in 2025. In June 2025, US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said that certain Indian policies rubbed US the wrong way. “For instance, you generally buy your military gear from Russia. That’s a way to kind of get under the skin of America… Being a part of BRICS, which is, oh, let’s move to not support the dollar and dollar hegemony — that’s not really the way to make friends and influence people in America.” In contrast Russia was insisting on Indian participation in Russia-India-China troika and critiqued the western policies, including Quad, as an attempt to drive a wedge in this troika. Sergey Lavrov stated during a summit,”What is happening right now in Asia-Pacific region, the West has begun to call it the Indo-Pacific region in order to give its policy a clear anti-Chinese direction. Hoping to thereby additionally gain the opportunity to pit the great friends and neighbors India and China against each other.” He further added, “Recently, President (Vladimir) Putin said it’s simply a divide and rule policy.”

Indian signature on the joint statement that included a substantial paragraph critical of North Korea and its allies, comes in the wake of its stand on de-dollarization and BRICS currency. Since December 2024, i.e., shortly after Trump’s threat to the BRICS members to refrain from creating a new BRICS currency or back any other currency to replace “the mighty Dollar”, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has repeatedly stated Indian opposition on de-dollarization and a common BRICS currency. In this light Indian signature on a statement criticizing North Korea and its allies underscores Indian preference for western alliance on significant economic and political concerns.

Paragraph on N Korea states, “We condemn North Korea’s destabilizing launches using ballistic missile technology and its continued pursuit of nuclear weapons in violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions (UNSCRs). We reaffirm our commitment to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula consistent with relevant UNSCRs, and we urge North Korea to abide by all its obligations under the UNSCRs. We also express grave concern over North Korea’s malicious cyber activity, including cryptocurrency theft and use of workers abroad to fund North Korea’s unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs.” India has consistently criticised Korean nuclear programme as it is beyond the oversight of IAEA, yet it has never become a party to the US led effort to diplomatically isolate North Korea. In spite of its reservations on North Korean nuclear programme India and North Korea have had a full diplomatic relationship stretching over half a century. Both the countries are members of NAM. They have embassies in Delhi and Pyongyang. The two countries have had science and technology co-operation agreements. North Korean diplomats have attended courses for foreign diplomats in Delhi. India has sent food supplies to Pyongyang and North Korea donated $30,000 when the tsunami struck India in 2004. In the aftermath of North Korean nuclear test in September 2017, India resisted the pressure by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to diplomatically isolate North Korea by withdrawing staff from Indian embassy. This is a far cry from the current identification of Indian foreign policy to the American interest of bolstering its allies South Korea and Japan, who are in conflict with North Korea.

Identification with American diplomatic goals reacts on the Russia proposed Russia-India-China troika. The paragraph on North Korea also targets its allies, stating, “We urge all UN Member States to abide by their international obligations under the UNSCRs to implement sanctions, including the prohibition on the transfer to North Korea or procurement from North Korea of all arms and related materiel. We express deep concern about countries that are deepening military cooperation with North Korea…” This is an obvious reference to China and Russia. That China has been the principal benefactor of North Korea is well known and need not detain us here. Importantly, economic and military alliance between North Korea and Russia have been witnessing a significant upswing. The warming of ties can be traced back to 1996 under President Boris Yeltsin. However, Ukraine conflict boosted their political and military alliance. Media has been rife on supply of missiles, artillery shells and troops to aid Russian military operations in Ukraine. However, US led collective west is most concerned at what North Korea will get in return. It is being speculated that North Korea may acquire military technology, ranging from surveillance satellites to submarines, plus possible security guarantees from Moscow. This concern is singled out for criticism in the joint statement of Quad. Evidently, India has forsaken its ‘strategic neutrality’ on North Korea and its allies (esp., Russia), that it cherished as recently as the Ukraine crisis and purchase of Russian oil despite sanctions.

Reaffirmation of India’s status as a strategic ally of the west against a strident China has been a significant talking point. Interestingly, China is not mentioned even once in the text, yet the concerns highlighted in the statement are clearly aimed at China. A close reading of the joint statement makes it abundantly clear that India has been recruited to bolster US strategic goals, even as none of Indian concerns vis-à-vis China have been mentioned. The joint statement states, “We remain seriously concerned about the situation in the East China Sea and South China Sea. We reiterate our strong opposition to any unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo by force or coercion. We express our serious concerns regarding dangerous and provocative actions, including interference with offshore resource development, the repeated obstruction of the freedoms of navigation and overflight, and the dangerous manoeuvres by military aircraft and coast guard and maritime militia vessels, especially the unsafe use of water cannons and ramming or blocking actions in the South China Sea. These actions threaten peace and stability in the region.” Evidently, these are issues of Sino-US rivalry in the Pacific region that also impinge on American allies such as Taiwan, Philippines, etc. Indo-Chinese land dispute along the LAC has not been mentioned. Nor is increased Chinese presence in Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal and the Arabian sea that has led to security concerns in India.

Interestingly, India has gained nothing substantial in return of diluting it ‘strategic neutrality’ and its recruitment to bolster US agenda in the Pacific region. There are two issues that are being touted as recognition of Indian concerns; Pahalgam and rare earth elements.  On Pahalgam, the joint statement states, “The Quad unequivocally condemns all acts of terrorism and violent extremism in all its forms and manifestations, including cross-border terrorism, and renews our commitment to counterterrorism cooperation. We condemn in the strongest terms the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir on April 22, 2025, which claimed the lives of 25 Indian nationals and one Nepali citizen, while injuring several others.” It does not mention the role of Pakistan, which was the claim that resulted in ‘Operation Sindoor’ in retaliation to the Pahalgam attack. Interestingly the phrase cross-border terrorism in used in a generic sense and not to describe the Pahalgam attack. While condemning the terrorist attack in Pahalgam the phrase cross-border terrorism is curiously absent. This statement, therefore, falls short of adequately supporting Indian position on the Pahalgam attack.

Given the near monopoly of China on supply of processed Rare Earth Elements (REE), the recent control on its trade, as a fall out of Trump’s tariff war, has created shortages for electronic, automobile and defence industry. All members of Quad are suffering from this global shortage. The joint statement criticises the imposition on control of exports on processed REE, stating, “We are deeply concerned about the abrupt constriction and future reliability of key supply chains, specifically for critical minerals. This includes the use of non-market policies and practices for critical minerals, certain derivative products, and mineral processing technology.” It seeks to remedy it by, “We underscore the importance of diversified and reliable global supply chains… We are launching today the Quad Critical Minerals Initiative, an ambitious expansion of our partnership to strengthen economic security and collective resilience by collaborating to secure and diversify critical minerals supply chains.” The statement is woefully short on details.

It needs to be emphasised that Chinese monopoly over global supplies of processed rare earth components is not because of its monopoly over the mining of Rare Earth Elements. Despite its nomenclature Rare Earth Elements are not exactly rare, several countries such as Vietnam have vast reserves of rare earth, ranking third globally in terms of potential. However, its sole REE processing facility, Vietnam Rare Earth JSC has been closed since 2024. This has given a near monopoly to China over global supplies of REE. China mines 60% of world’s REE and processes almost 90% of the REE. Chinese advantage in processing is a result of technological developments in electrokinetic mining which revolutionized both the extraction and processing of REE. This technology achieves almost 95% recovery of REE, while reducing mining time by 70% and electricity by 60%. Chinese dominance is a result of these cost cutting innovations which has enabled them to lower the price of REE and outcompeting other producers. Out competing China will, therefore, require much more than ensuring diversified supply chains. The joint statement, however, spells nothing on the technological aspects of processing of REE. Evidently, it will require years of investments in improving mining and processing technologies to catch up with China, thus questioning the wisdom of signing this statement even as India and China are involved in trade negotiations.

In sum by signing on this joint statement India has sacrificed much more by diluting its ‘strategic neutrality’ while gaining nothing tangible in return. By identifying with the US led global west, India faces the possibility of isolation in the global south. This may militate against Indian interests, as an isolated India will be prey to US tariff threats etc. Senator Lindsey Graham’s proposed bill to impose 500% tariff on countries that purchase sanctioned Russian oil, is a case in point. Even the events of 2024 and 2025 suggest the unpredictability of US as an ally. In August 2024 the pro-India government of Sheikh Hasina was toppled in Bangladesh, increasing Indian vulnerability around the Siliguri corridor. Subsequent to the toppling of her government Sheikh Hasina’s statement leaked to certain segments of media accused US for the toppling of her government. More recently, subsequent to ‘Operation Sindoor’ US pivoted towards Pakistan much to chagrin of Indian policy formulators. Indian diplomacy is in a very choppy sea, forcing us to recall Henry Kissinger’s aphorism, “It may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal.”

Kumar Sanjay Singh, Associate Professor, Department of History, Swami Shraddhanand College, Delhi University.

4 July 2025

Source: countercurrents.org