Has Israel received any military aid since December? Last I heard they were facing a pause in weapon transfers from the US until they could confirm the weapons were being used in accordance with international law.
So far it’s passed the Senate, but is being refused a vote in the house. Republicans are attempting to pass an Israel only bill, but Biden has vowed to veto it.
There was a sale that Biden bypassed Congress on Dec 29th or 30th. It still takes time to deliver so probably they still received stuff in February but definitely January so within the last month or so for sure.
That was noted as it was above the billions in military aide given annually that are already budgeted. We can still give them that close to 4 billion in aide without announcing as it is already in the budget so yes, we are probably still in February and March giving them aide as it is in our budget (I don’t like it, but say our as I am a US citizens).
The mowing down of 700 people and killing 100 who were trying to get food and water is the last straw. Bibi is toast now. You’ll see a speech in the Knesset soon calling for his ouster and an end to the veto coverage Israel had in the UN.
Is it too little too late to save his presidential run?
We’ll see. He has to get the ceasefire first.
(There was another time Israel bombed and aid convoy (waiting till the aid was in a position to be destroyed), back in October, so its not like the first time they’ve done this even in this conflict.)
Honestly if he stops this mess now he should get enough lesser evil votes. Gotta also revert his position on the border and other things, but he still has time to save his campaign.
Or he could do what most of the county wants, and give us meaningful change. That’s what has been drawing voters since Obama, that’s why Trump won in the first place - Hillary is the status quo incarnate
But we’ve been strung along for way too long, he needs to take a stand and make some enemies
Bibi is now Hitler Lite in my opinion. The number of deaths aren’t quite there or the level of cruelty, but the intent and mindset is exactly the same and he could easily get to that cruelty and deathcount if not stopped.
I don’t think there are enough Palestinians on the planet to hit the body count of the holocaust… but that doesn’t mean that Israel’s actions are a lesser evil. Genocide is genocide
Yeah which is why they said the scale is different. They're talking about the mindset because let's face it, Israel wants to turn Gaza into Lebensraum. They've been pretty clear about that.
What world do you live in lol. They had Bidens support since 1970. Pelosi too. They were completely on board until like yesterday, due to pressure from the voter base.
Sadly, this headline seems to be misleading. Checking for additional sources, I can find none that confirm that he actually called for a ceasefire.
According to the Associated Press, he did decry the loss of life in Gaza and announce that the US are about to commence airdrops of humanitarian aid, but at no point did he seem to do what this headline implies.
A Reuters article covering the same conference mentions the possibility of a ceasefire, but this apparently referred to a previous conversation a few days ago.
Unless anyone can find evidence to the contrary, I have to assume that this Newshub article is clickbait.
I’m personally not sure that saying “We’re trying to work out … an immediate ceasefire” has nearly the same urgency as as calling for one, but hey at least it’s something.
Well, especially considering he has the leverage to just go “you stop that now or no more arms” and Israel would have no choice but stop that instant, “trying to negotiate a deal” is a particularly weak choice of words.
That’s why I did a double take when I saw the above headline. Biden finally putting his foot down and strong-arming Israel into a ceasefire would be huge.
I'm not sure that Israel actually would have to stop in that circumstance. It's a wealthy country with one of the world's biggest arms industries, and it's not like this is a peer conflict
Egypt and Qatar promised Israel that if it sent a delegation to Doha this week for talks on the humanitarian aspects of the proposed deal, they would bring answers from Hamas on which hostages are still alive and put pressure on the group to be flexible on the number of Palestinians prisoners it demands to be released as part of any agreement.
From an article that came out today. Hamas won’t even attempt to confirm the hostages it has.
Congratulations “Uncommitted” voters and other protesters, it looks like you are at least part of making Biden’s “blank check” support of Israel too politically expensive to continue. It will be interesting to see how this plays out as Biden tries to balance actions around an angry electorate vs. pro-Israel factions and money (which non-profit watchdog Open Secrets says he’s the largest recipient of). Especially with the unofficial cease-fire deadline of Ramadan only 10 days away which is expected to be the launch of an Israeli offensive in Rafah barring a temporary cease-fire agreement. I say temporary because Netanyahu is cited in that article as saying, “If we have a deal, it will be delayed somewhat, but it will happen. If we don’t have a deal, we’ll do it anyway”.
I hope this “no excuses” change in tone will yield meaningful results and most importantly relief for the civilians in Gaza.
I know you’re making a joke, but it really is a crazy year to be an American voter. I laughed at Bill Burr’s take in December when he said (among other funny things) “I want someone in their 40’s. Someone who is going to have to live with their decisions”. I’m biased though because I’ve enjoyed Bill’s brutal comedy for years.
Trump would be a disaster in all respects, so I guess that decides things. Biden’s domestic policies don’t feature destroying checks and balances on power and revenge/witch hunts as key features. Democracy is supposed to be rule of the people via elected officials who genuinely represent them, so I’m happy to see the beginnings of a change in tone at least (and I dearly hope policy) from Biden. I’m definitely not cheering for another 2016.
Man that audio/video of Bibi saying genocide would continue and they were gonna level Gaza because the American people have given them a blank check and full support …yea …that was everything I expected from that fascist.
And as fascists (and corporatists; tho any difference is arguable) always do, he said the quiet part out loud, insinusting Israel’s stretched past their compacity while invigorating the anti-genocide (which I would hope is all of us, but clearly isn’t. I don’t see how a moral person rationalizes killing 20000 children) center/left to bolder action against Biden.
The news getting out of Bibi’s forces beating down the Orthodox in Jerusalem for protesting is indicative of a few things, mainly that dissent at home is greater than his propaganda machine can keep the lid on. His propaganda machine has been busch league, AT BEST. Obviously lying with AI generated photos. Idk about you, but I can’t believe a single thing that comes out of a zionists mouth. If the world didn’t stop their aggression, I think we all know full well they would’ve killed every single Palestinian down to the last.
Zionist has become as negative a word to me as Nazi. The only difference being pro-jew or anti-jew. I spit at them both.
Yes, please give us the video link. B.N. and members of his government have said home very bad things, but I’ve not heard that quote. We would join your sentiment if you could be more factual.
Unfortunately it’s been a few days so I’m not sure we’re going to get it. I looked but couldn’t find any quote like this. I suspect this is a distorted version of something he did say but without knowing his exact words I would take the above comment with a large grain of salt.
I feel like it was that gunning down incident with the humanitarian aid that ultimately tipped the scales.
I know I’ve been going on defense for Israel a lot recently, but I am kinda playing messenger boy as a neutral for being both here and some pro-Israel groups. The Michigan vote didn’t really phase them, that incident did. Seen them even sharing more info about how ridiculously strict Bibi is with aid in general.
I think the Michigan vote and subsequent media coverage was meaningful, but I agree there’s no denying the shooting had a big impact. Thank you for adding that perspective. My guess is having both happen so close to each other increased the total effect. Regardless, it’s going to be an important 10 days coming up.
Realistically it’s probably both in some sort of confluence, the campaign hears the uncommitted vote news and then the massacre happens and they see it as an opportunity to about face without making it look like they are back tracking previous moves. It’s cynical as hell but I think it’s probably likely
Nah israel did shootings like that every week. Biden doesn’t care about brown people dying. I’d argue that the hospital massacre israel committed was far worse optically
Michigan did this. All the people that refused to bend the knee and vote for Biden in December if he continues the Genocide.
And Aaron Bushnell. His sacrifice was a huge turning point.
You’d think that, but humans can be weird with what actually causes introspection.
The hospital thing they just took the official line for. They actually mocked Aaron, or were actually grateful he took his own life thinking he was a disturbed individual.
Edit: If you want to understand the logic: they’re willing to turn a blind eye if they can “both sides” incidents so they can simply keep their position of “Israel has a right to defend itself, regardless if they’re not saints about it”.
The humanitarian aid story is getting them because Bibi won’t even let them do that! Hence why I mentioned the story sharing, since they know Bibi had made it clear he wants to starve Palestinians.
Oh it’s absolutely from the mass shooting and terror incident at the humanitarian aid delivery.
The optics on that are awful and being repressed pretty hard since there really ain’t going to be a good look for that.
“The IDF soldiers were scared” oh grow up.
But Biden was insistent that he was heading towards a cease fire that probably got massively pushed back because of that incident crushing even more of the little remaining trust in Israel by citizens of Palestine.
Air dropping food in away from soldiers makes it so it’s an obvious sign that it’s not a trap from IDF shows they understand there is starvation and tries to claw back the trust at least in the US of being helpful. Probably expect a lot more aid and some heavy pushing from the US to look trustworthy to start talks through.
This is what pisses me off about “moderates”. All they give a damn about is optics and winning the next election. The rest of us understand that the only power we have is our vote, and if we don’t use that power to its full extent, which means threatening to withhold it, we’ll never get any concession from any politician.
The rest of you are quite literally shills who simply don’t give a shit about what’s happening in Palestine. You just do what you’re told to and act like that makes you a good person. You weren’t even willing to do the bare minimum of using your voice, because you dummy actually care.
Yes, we have to respect the right of a non-state actor to put terrorists in charge and cancel all future elections so they can continue living in a rich culture of stoning infidels to death? No thanks.
Immediate but not permanent. Stop giving them bombs and ammo if you are sincere Joe. Oooooooh nooooes you’re not.
Also where does it say in the article that he calls for an immediate ceasefire besides the title ??It is all about dropping humanitarian aid, which in fact is to allow IDF continue the massacre. It is nowhere in other news outlets that he calls for a ceasefire. Also also also, I would expect he is the only one who could enforce it, rather than ask it. Nice distraction attempt. .
Anyway damage is done, good luck with Donut T fellow Americans. The not
They haven’t sent them either of those things since last year. Only aide for Gazans recently.
If you were sincere in caring for gazans you’d be aware that when you say good luck with trump, you’re saying good luck with him to Palestinians, who will definitely suffer much worse under him. He will encourage bibi to finish them off. He’s very vocal about this.
I am well aware of that thank you. But I am not able to show any satisfaction for Biden’s less than bare minimum action. It’s genocide we are talking about and his “call” for a ceasefire is a discussion with Italian PM that started with “we are trying to work out a deal that…”. Is that the best he can do?? Bibi’s gonna say fuck you again. I really don’t see where the enthusiasm for that “news” comes from
Because they will never get rid of Hamas, because maimed kids that lost their families are not hamas, but will be in 15 years. Because diplomacy towards a two state solution has more chances of bringing back the hostages. IDF are just killing them slowly as casualties right now
America has 9/11s of covid deaths monthly, long after Biden “ended covid” with Trump’s strategy of “just stop reporting the numbers”. That’s what our journalists also do with all of the people murdered by Israel. Keep them out of sight, out of mind.
I’m sure that it is, but it’s not just elderly dying, plenty of kids and their parents are suffering. I just read a NPR puff piece about a landlord who finally got their investment property ‘back’ by evicting their tenant… a recently widowed healthcare worker with a child. It’s almost like we shouldn’t be trying to just return to ‘normal’ with an uncontrolled pandemic raging.
As many people die from covid as do from influenza or RSV at this point. I’m not saying it’s not a serious illness but I am saying it’s very far from “an uncontrolled pandemic” and saying it is is hyperbolic to the point of disregarding any other point you made.
We’ve given up on all testing, masking, vaccination and even quarantining at this point. 9/11s of people are dying monthly from all manner of respiratory diseases (after getting wrecked by covid). What exactly would uncontrolled look like to you then?
Uncontrolled would be the very start of the pandemic, with neither masking nor immune people. It’s not a wildfire any more, not even in the US with their proclivity to shoot themselves in the foot. It’s better controlled than influenza simply because more people got shots against it.
That’s all I’m saying. Yes it’s a dangerous illness, but ERs aren’t overwhelmed by patients like they were late 2020. I think part of the issue is semantics and a lot of people not realizing just how dangerous full-on influenza is, it’s absolutely a deadly virus and 10s of thousands of people die from it every year right here in the first world; much less in the 3rd world.
edit: get mad about it but I guess you don’t remember lockdowns and toilet paper shortages. I never got to work from home (medical-related field yay), I know exactly what uncontrolled looks like. If you want to panic about something start reading into microplastics, way more long term damage we’re only beginning to understand. Plastics are everywhere.
I think part of the issue is semantics: People think that “controlled” is as much as an absolute as “uncontrolled”. Control over such things will never be absolute as medicine isn’t omnipotent.
And then they’re mardy, thinking “if not for those anti-maskers we would have that absolute control” – nah. They can’t take from the rest of us power that we never had. And even over here in my state with like 85% immunisation and noone griping at masks (wat mutt dat mutt) there’s still cases. That failing (because people don’t become noticeably symptomatic), there’s measurable viral load in wastewater: The bug is still around, just not really an issue any more. We’ve basically forgotten about it at this point, people over 80 or otherwise susceptible get refresher shots, but they’re getting shots against a fuckton of things so it’s not special, any more.
The pandemic got brought into control even with covidiots around. And if it hadn’t been for medicine saving a gazillion lives, our collective immune system would’ve done it in a decade or two.
Not denying covid is more deadly than influenza or RSV, but you still have to account for the fact that covid might kill an old person that would otherwise die to influenza in a month or two (or something else, they are old and their bodies are degrading inevitably). That is why sustained increased death rates in corrolation to covid numbers is a better qualifier for the argument that we have to take precautions to limit people dying. I have been of the understanding that after the major initial waves, death rates are not higher than usual and hence unsustained.
that’s a few years out of date and assume the total deaths settled back down into the old pattern?
I’m not finding a more up-to-date data source for deaths per month, but it’s not like you’re providing any kind of data that covid isn’t still killing a lot of extra people per year.
I am not from the US, but here are the statistics from Norway where no covid measurements have been in place since the start of 2022. The table below is official statistics on mortality nationwide:
This new table is from here, and you can click “Choose variables” at the top if you want to see different data. But even just the graph you provided shows that total deaths for both sexes jumped up dramatically in 2022, the year you say covid restrictions were lifted. What are you trying to prove here exactly?
The population is slowly increasing but for the purposes of calculating the mean mortality can be treated as a constant, which is why I did not care about the weird cut off caused by me using my mobile phone and the table not adjusting for it. The increase of 2022 and 2021 was expected due to general decline of normal viruses (caused by covid measurements), which in turn made the general populace more susceptible to being sick later through decline in antibodies (due to smaller contagion, not some collective breakthrough in immune systems) through large parts of the pandemic. Either way, the point that I am making is that vaccines and effective health care to those sick with covid provides a highly effective measurement against it. This so much to the point that there is not, by Norwegian consitutional law, enough reason to keep the temporary measurements going any longer.
It was right to stop social contact. It was right to vaccinate everyone that could and wanted to (should have made it mandatory for all that could in my opinion). Then, afterwards, it was right to open schools and other parts of society gradually.
What are you trying to prove here exactly?
That it was right to open up after a critical percentage of the populace had been vaccinated with what has proven to be highly effective vaccines (better than we could have hoped, to be honest). Also I want to discredit the point that there is a raging pandemic. Even if it was raging in the US, which is not strictly true either, it would be more correct to call it an epidemic at this point caused by ineffective vaccination rates and shitty access to public health care for way too many people.
So if I’m understanding you correctly, you went from
you still have to account for the fact that covid might kill an old person that would otherwise die to influenza in a month or two
thinking covid wasn’t causing any/many additional deaths per year, just speeding them up a little
to providing a graph that shows thousands of extra people are dying each year
The increase of 2022 and 2021 was expected due to general decline of normal viruses (caused by covid measurements)
to saying all those extra deaths were because people weren’t getting sick from normal diseases, despite us not seeing much of a drop in 2020 from people not getting those diseases during the covid restrictions. But now that the restrictions are lifted and they’re being exposed to those normal diseases (and covid) again, all/most of theses extra deaths are from the normal diseases and have nothing to do with covid.
Norway absolutely did a better job at handling covid than the US, but the US’s death rate seems to just be permanently higher now as a direct result of covid. Maybe removing all restrictions was the right thing to do, but we shouldn’t ignore the fact that it comes at the cost of several thousand more people dying each year, just in Norway.
From that we can conclude that after an initial burst in death numbers, as covid and other viruses passes through the populace (which is bound to happen without indefinite restrictions), death rates return to normal. Also, with respect to uncontrolled spread in unnvaccinated populace, the increase was very minor. Actually comparable to a few high normal years earlier. Hence we can conclude reopening of society and the vaccines enabling it to be a major success, all things concidered, yeah.
You are very much wrong in saying stuff like each year and so on. There is no data to back your claim.
From that we can conclude that after an initial burst in death numbers, as covid and other viruses passes through the populace, death rates return to normal.
I mean, no, we really can’t. There’s not enough data available (that I’m willing to search for) to say for absolutely sure that excess deaths has increased and will stay high, but even just the snapshot you provided here shows that it’s slightly lower in January, and massively higher the rest of the year. Maybe the May 2023 data shows that the numbers are evening out compared to 2016-2019, but the one year we actually get to see shows way more excess deaths over the course of a year compared to before. You can’t just look at the most recent month, that’s not how yearly trends and averages work.
You won’t have much of an argument that the numbers are going back to “normal” until you’ve got closer to a full year’s worth of data with that excess deaths line being close to zero.
Yea, “totally absolute for sure” was the standard you applied to yourself, I assume, when you talked about how thousands will die for sure in the coming years in perpetuity? The numbers for 2023 are no higher than normal either, and this time I won’t bother to dig them up for you just so you can make a shitty accusation about me cropping a screenshot to not include info or something. There is no data that backs the claims you have made. I have provided more than sufficient for mine.
Edit: I guess next time I see a fucking “mOVInG tHe GOOalPoSt!!!” I will take the clue and not fucking bother.
and see that based on the data we have in the US, deaths per year has stayed above the previous yearly patterns. We don’t have all the data over a long period of time because covid hasn’t been around for all that long. But from what we can see so far, it kills people. The exact number per year remains to be seen, but from the data we have it’s been in the thousands, just in Norway.
Edit: I guess next time I see a fucking “mOVInG tHe GOOalPoSt!!!” I will take the clue and not fucking bother.
Half of the sources you posted actively worked against your own arguments. Maybe you shouldn’t bother.
EDIT of my own: After looking at one of your sources (Eurostat)
you can see that January-March was lower than 2016-2019, but it’s been on the rise again across the EU, and especially in Norway. Again, you can’t just look at one single month and decide that it’s representative of everything, everywhere, across all time going forward.
It’s sometimes hard to say an individual death was for sure caused by COVID, but it’s easy to compare the number of deaths to the historical average and see how many more happened. It’s really the only way to get a good count of COVID related deaths, because looking at excess deaths will also reveal how many people are being killed indirectly, such as dying due to lack of medical care because COVID was overwhelming the hospitals.
I agree with you and actually argued for this further down some comment chain. However, mortality increase was temporary in Norway where I am from (and AFAIK mostwhere in Europe), hence indicate that there is no uncontrolled pandemic here.
How many non-Americans died as a result of 9/11? How many in Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries in the global war on terror? I’m guessing a shit ton more than 30,000.
It’s only going to increase every day the hostages aren’t returned.
What a stunning fucking number, it isn’t just murder on a mass scale, it is the denial of an entire future reality for a country because of the massive empty spaces all that destruction and death cause.
Bunch of children died due to a reduction in quality of diet, healthcare, education. A lot of it was sanction related. Believe it or not, didn’t pull the number out of my arse.
So you’re using the study that adds in assumed deaths in the ten years before the Iraq war as a misleading figure for the Iraq war. Just so we’re clear that isn’t an apples to apples comparison. Unless you want to put the work in to check those numbers for Gaza since the mid 2000’s when Israel began it’s blockade.
But that would require acknowledging the last 15 to 20 years of Israeli fuckery. So instead you went and found the biggest possible number to tag the US with as some kind of perverse shield for Israeli war crimes.
Biden gave material support to Israel’s genocidal campaign which has killed over 30,000 people. You’re delusional if you think paying lip service to a ceasefire while still actively supporting the genocide is going to satisfy anyone.
I know this is way later than I or anyone whose been screaming for ceasefire wished for, but I’m so glad something has changed. I hope this is the just a start.
In all likelihood, Biden is starting to pay lip service to the call for a ceasefire as the people around him realize his support for Israel’s genocide may hurt his chances of reelection. I’m not holding my breath for him to actually do anything about it. Words are cheap.
He’s doing the thing where he calls a temporary pause a “ceasefire” with the only leverage getting handed over.,. So the genocidal ethnostate can continue the slaughter at its leasure.
The only leverage Hamas has is to keep being terrorists? No. Hamas can either surrender and give up or keep being bombed until they are gone. It is the only thing still killing people in Gaza at this point.
Not really. Israel didn’t build the terror tunnels under everyone’s houses and then tell everyone not to evacuate. Maybe your thinking of Hamas, and it’s regressive and religio-authoritarian genocidal violence?
And maybe you’ve run the numbers to realize that those “terrors tunnels” would cost too much to be real. It’s a good excuse to ethnically cleanse a region you have no right to.
You have zero understanding of cause and effect or you are looking at this conflict through a pinhole. Stop supporting and lapping up the propaganda of genocidal settler-colonialists like an useful idiot. Learn history and have some morals.
“Genocidal settler-colonialists” sounds like you’ve been lapping enough propoganda for the both of us.
I’m aware of the long history of two way violence. I’m aware that even if Israel stopped the violence now and forever, Hamas is still an ideology that exists as antithetical to democracy and peace. They’ll still be stoning people to death. They’ll still have zero elections. And whatever, that’s wildly popular in Gaza. But when they leave Gaza and start doing international terrorism, accepting money and weapons from Iran and North Korea, that’s not being very neighborly and I’m sorry but Hamas needs to go. They have no right to be terrorists. They can practice nok violent resistance if their lives are important to them. If not…
The first paper you linked to basically makes the argument and it’s not an apartheid system because Gazans are not citizens of Israel… never stopping for a moment to wonder how they ended up refugees in Gaza instead of citizens of Palestine…
Do you not understand that Israel stole land from Palestinians using law, using force, and using ethnic cleansing? Do you not understand that Gazans SHOULD be citizens and have full rights and tjat denying them this while also building a gisnt siege wall around a little strip is the apartheid part, right?
That paper sounds like it was written by a stinky slithering lying lawyer who thinks this “loophole” cancels human rights for Palestinians. It ignores how the West Bank is made to shrink under zones.
And also, Palestinian citizens of Israel do have it shit.
The second link you posted is a study by a Zionist think tank lobbyist called Robbie Sabel
Prof. Robbie Sabel is the former legal advisor to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Director General for Arms Control of the Ministry, and former Israeli counselor in Washington
Yes… totally unbiased and free of emotion!
Is any article you read not written by some propaganda arm of the Israeli government?
Both those ‘papers’ on apartheid don’t consider any of the overwhelming evidence brought forth by the Reports by three Major Human Rights Organizations, and completely ignore the International Law of the Crimes of Apartheid laid out by International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (Apartheid Convention) and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (Rome Statute).
This “Lawfare” argument requires being unaware of the history of Zionism as Settler Colonialism, The History of Israeli Occupation, and the abhorrent material conditions Palestinians as subject to on a daily basis due to the Apartheid. It hinges on the premise of human shields. In bad faith of course, as it ignores all IDF use of Human shields and assumes all Hamas as a given despite any verified evidence. It’s a way for US State Department Propaganda to justify its military and international support of Israel’s ethnic cleansing campaign and genocide.
Okay I’m obviously not going to read all this and click all these links, but what the hell do you mean by this:
The only independent verification of Hamas using human Shields was in 2014.
Look at your television right now and you can see with your own eyes Hamas using entire cities as human shields.
Plenty of recent evidence of tunnels under cities and of Hamas directing people to ignore evacuating warnings.
How can you explain your double standard on this if it’s not anti-semitism?
I’ll start giving a shit what happens to Hamas when they reinstate elections, release all the hostages, and stop taking money from Iran and North Korea to kill Jews. Or maybe if they start following any international law: they can start by wearing uniforms and not purposefully targeting civilians, at a minimum. Until then, they are enemy combatants and not entitled to equal rights under the law.
And that’s another reason why it’s not apartheid, as cited by the authors of my first two links. If you want to say Israel is Apartheid, your argument is limited to its statutory laws that apply to Israeli citizens, not to non citizens; every country discriminates against non citizens and it’s not a war crime. But suddenly with Israel it’s a war crime? How do you explain your double standard on this if it’s not anti-semitism?
Children always make up a huge chunk of civilian casualties in war. Why is it any surprise it’s absurdly high when Hamas is using entire cities as human shields?
A lack of food, water, shelter and sanitation continues to put children’s lives at risk as they suffer under relentless airstrikes with no safe place to go, said UNICEF spokesperson James Elder, who recently returned from the enclave.
The UNICEF spokesperson explained that the “safe zones” were “anything but safe” because they had been designated unilaterally by Israel alone and lacked “sufficient resources for survival”: food, water, medicine, protection.
Mr. Elder added that more than 130,000 of children under two are not receiving “critical life-saving breastfeeding and age-appropriate complementary feeding” such as micronutrient supplementation.
Compared to previous Israeli assaults on Gaza, the current war — which Israel has named “Operation Iron Swords,” and which began in the wake of the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel on October 7 — has seen the army significantly expand its bombing of targets that are not distinctly military in nature. These include private residences as well as public buildings, infrastructure, and high-rise blocks, which sources say the army defines as “power targets” (“matarot otzem”).
The massive attacks on power targets and private residences came at the same time as the Israeli army, on Oct. 13, called on the 1.1 million residents of the northern Gaza Strip — most of them residing in Gaza City — to leave their homes and move to the south of the Strip. By that date, a record number of power targets had already been bombed, and more than 1,000 Palestinians had already been killed, including hundreds of children.
Although it is unprecedented for the Israeli army to attack more than 1,000 power targets in five days, the idea of causing mass devastation to civilian areas for strategic purposes was formulated in previous military operations in Gaza, honed by the so-called “Dahiya Doctrine” from the Second Lebanon War of 2006.
Not only has the current war seen Israel attack an unprecedented number of power targets, it has also seen the army abandon prior policies that aimed at avoiding harm to civilians. Whereas previously the army’s official procedure was that it was possible to attack power targets only after all civilians had been evacuated from them, testimonies from Palestinian residents in Gaza indicate that, since October 7, Israel has attacked high-rises with their residents still inside, or without having taken significant steps to evacuate them, leading to many civilian deaths.
Such attacks very often result in the killing of entire families, as experienced in previous offensives; according to an investigation by AP conducted after the 2014 war, about 89 percent of those killed in the aerial bombings of family homes were unarmed residents, and most of them were children and women.
Yeah the people in Gaza lie constantly about what happens. None of them are ever members of Hamas. Nobody ever saw anyone using tunnels. Nobody knows who is launching the rockets.
Yeah the unarmed families and the houses, it’s horrible. Unfortunately, digging tunnels under your house and using them to launch terror attacks for decades on end is as good as packing your family into the car and driving them right into a war zone. Who would do that? Hamas members and loyalists. They call it martyrdom. They literally stand on the roof of buildings after being warning of an incoming airstrike, trying to get a pension.
Palestinians have been terrorized for generations by Israel under occupation and apartheid. Armed resistance groups don’t pop into existence for no reason. You don’t understand the history or meaning of a Martyr in Palestine. Literally anyone who dies at the hands of the Israeli Occupying Force is considered a Martyr. You are being delusional and racist if you think Palestinian people including women and children want to die. They have hopes and dreams like anyone else, you’re doing dehumanizing rhetoric. Palestinians are being exterminated in Gaza every day, and people like you are defending it without a second guess.
Their hopes and dreams of putting terrorists in charge, ending all elections, killing all Jews, and stoning all infidels to death. Real cool stuff you’re defending!
“I hope for a ceasefire and I dream of a future where I can return to school much sooner,” said Maryam.
“My dream is to become a nurse, and I hope the war will end soon," said 8-year-old Salwa.
Eight-year-old Mohammed lost all his toys when his home was destroyed in an airstrike. “I wish for a ceasefire,” he said.
“I lost my house and my two brothers,” said Wafaa. “I want to return to our house, even though the chances are that we will never get back, and we will never be whole again, as everyone is losing their loved ones.”
“I want this war to reach an end,” said 14-year-old Ahmad. “I hate waiting in lines all day — water, bread, drinking water. My dream was to become a doctor but now I’m dreaming of staying alive.”
“I never imagined that I would be sitting at my school desk as a displaced boy," said 10-year-old Ahmad. "I used to love my school and my classes … I don’t know if I would still love my school again after all of this.”
Outside a Gaza City bakery, 10-year-old Kenan said, “I’ve been waiting in this endless line since 6 a.m. just to bring some bread home for the day. Sometimes, I don’t get back to my family until five or six hours later. I miss my school the most — my only dream now is to put an end to this war and for the world to send us bread.”
“The only thing I want to share is love to the entire world,” said 11-year-old Amal. "I want them to know and to understand that we are kids like any other kid on this earth.”
That was months ago. How many of these children do you think have died while you’ve been dehumanizing them and defending Israel?
Yeah. It’s honestly sad. It can be difficult to break through the propaganda if you don’t have a starting point, but to willfully ignore all these sources in favor of dehumanization…
I’m glad more people are failing to fall for it, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine can’t be ignored any longer
Don’t you see how killing 30,000 is not acceptable just because more died in a bigger genocide? Don’t you see how hypocritical it is to believe in “Never again” but fall short of applying it?
“Rule 5: Keep it civil. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (perjorative, perjorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (perjorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect!”
It’s a national liberation struggle against a settler ethnostate with mandatory military service. Obviously the settlers stealing their land are valid targets.
Netanyahu won’t agree to a permanent ceasefire. The hope seems to be to get any sort of long pause then push to extend and extend it so it is de facto permanent (and hope Netanyahu gets kicked out of power somewhere in there).
newshub.co.nz
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