A smaller group of anti-government protesters defied a crackdown on anti-war voices and demanded a ceasefire.
Thousands of people have rallied in Tel Aviv, asking for the release of Israeli and foreign captives being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip and criticising the Israeli government for the way it is dealing with the crisis.
Many of the protesters on Saturday were friends and family members of the captives and demanded their immediate return.
“Mr Prime Minister, cabinet members, do not talk to me about conquering, do not talk to me about flattening [Gaza]. Do not talk at all. Just take action … bring them home now,” Noam Perry, whose father was abducted from the town of Nir Oz, told the crowd at the protest, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.
“They ask us who our rage is directed at and it is all of humanity … but mainly, those who are responsible for us, those who have a contract with us,” said Jack Levy, another protester.
More than 240 people, including Israeli soldiers and civilians as well as foreigners, were abducted during an attack on southern Israel on October 7 that authorities say killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
Israeli left-wing activists hold a demonstration near the Ministry of Defence in Tel Aviv on November 11, 2023, calling for a ceasefire amid ongoing battles between Israel and Hamas [AHMAD GHARABLI AFP]
A few hundred Israeli left-wing activists, both Arab and Jewish, held a separate demonstration near the Ministry of Defence in Tel Aviv, calling for a ceasefire despite an ongoing crackdown on anti-war voices and protests.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the idea of any ceasefire “without the return of our hostages”. The United States has advocated instead for “humanitarian pauses” to allow civilians to flee and for aid delivery.
More than 11,000 Palestinians, including more than 4,500 children, have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched a campaign of air strikes on October 7, followed by a devastating ground offensive that has brought the fighting to some of Gaza City’s main hospitals.
In remarks on Saturday, Netanyahu ruled out a role for the Palestinian Authority (PA) government in Gaza once the war against Hamas is over.
“There will have to be something else there,” he said when asked whether the PA, which has partial administrative control in the occupied West Bank, may govern Gaza after the war.
“There won’t be a civilian authority that educates their children to hate Israel, to kill Israelis, to wipe out the state of Israel,” Netanyahu said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last month that the PA should retake control of the Gaza Strip from Hamas, with international players potentially filling a role in the interim.
East Java, Indonesia – Umar Patek was released from prison last December after serving just over half of a 20-year jail sentence for the Bali holiday island bombings in 2002, which killed 202 people. He was also convicted for a series of bomb attacks on Christian churches on Christmas Eve, 2000, that left 18 dead.
Patek’s early prison release for good behaviour in 2022 was sharply criticised by Australian officials and the relatives of the hundreds of victims of the Bali bombing.
Al Jazeera recently interviewed Patek at his home in East Java where he spoke about his role in Bali and revealed that the horrific bomb attack two decades ago was an act of revenge for the violence inflicted on Palestinian people by Israeli forces.
Umar Patek at his home in East Java, Indonesia, on October 14, 2023 [Al Jazeera]
Al Jazeera: How did you become involved with Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the armed group behind the Bali Bombings?
Umar Patek: In 1991, I was working in Malaysia and met Mukhlas [a senior JI figure who was sentenced to death and executed in 2008 for masterminding the Bali bombings] in Johor Bahru at the Lukman Hakim Islamic Boarding School.
I worked on a plantation in Malaysia, and would go to religious classes in the evening at the school. Then Mukhlas asked me to work at the school, so I moved in. After three months at the school, he offered me the chance to go to Pakistan. I wanted to study and he said I could study religion there.
I first went to Peshawar and then to Sadda, a tribal area in Pakistan which is close to the border with Afghanistan, where there was a military academy that trained people to be mujahideen [Islamic fighters]. From there I moved to a military academy in Torkham in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, I was in the same class as [Bali bomber] Ali Imron. In total, I was away for five years from 1991 to 1995.
We learned everything at the military academy to train us to be mujahideen, such as how to use weapons, map reading and bomb making. We practised blowing up bombs in areas where there were no people, like in caves or on hillsides, so that there would not be any fatalities.
We also wanted to make sure that no goats were accidentally killed because lots of people tend goats in Afghanistan.
When I finished my military training in 1995, I went to the Philippines to join the Moro Islamic Liberation Front because I supported their cause as a Muslim.
From 1995 to 2000, I lived at Camp Abubakar in the Bangsamoro region in the Philippines, but the camp was captured by the Philippine Army in July 2000 and I was told to leave because I looked like I came from the Middle East.
My family is originally from Yemen, although I am the fourth generation of my family to be born in Indonesia. My face didn’t look like the people in Moro.
In December 2000, I went back to Indonesia and stayed with Dulmatin [a JI member and one of the most wanted men in Southeast Asia who was nicknamed “the Genius” because of his expertise in electronics for bombs]. Dulmatin asked me to go to Jakarta for work. He had a job selling cars and he said I could also look for work there, which is how I became involved in the Christmas Eve church bombings.
Indonesian police officers provide security outside Jakarta’s main cathedral during morning mass on Christmas Day, December 25, 2000, following a spate of deadly Christmas Eve bomb attacks against Christian churches [File: Reuters]
AJ: You admitted to mixing the chemicals for the bombs used in the Bali bombing in 2002 and the Christmas Eve church bombings in 2000. But you also said you didn’t know what the bombs would be used for. Where did you think the bombs would be planted?
Patek: I did not mix the bombs for the church bombings, I only knew about the bombs at the time of delivery. It was Eid al-Fitr [the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan] and Dulmatin said, “Let’s go home to Pemalang for the holiday and drop off some things along the way.”
We kept stopping at churches, although I did not get out of the car. Every time we stopped at a church, I grew more suspicious that we were dropping off bombs because the packages were packed in laptop bags.
I was sentenced for the bombings even though I did not make the bombs or get out of the car because I was there and I didn’t do anything to stop it. Dulmatin then asked me to go on a trip to Bali in October 2002. We went into a house which was already full of bomb making equipment.
A general view of the scene of a bomb blast at Kuta, on the Indonesian island of Bali, in this October 17, 2002 photo, taken five days after explosions in a popular night spot killed 202 people [File: Reuters]
I met with [JI members] Imam Samudra, Mukhlas, Idris and Dr Azahari. Imam Samudra said that they wanted revenge for the occupation of Palestine and the attack on Jenin [by Israeli forces in 2002 which killed more than 50 Palestinians as well as 23 Israeli soldiers], so they wanted to bomb Westerners in nightclubs in Bali. He ushered me into one of the rooms in the house where all the ingredients to make the bombs had been prepared.
I told them, if we wanted to get revenge for the atrocities committed against Muslims in Palestine, we should go to Palestine and not kill Westerners in Indonesia. I asked them, “What is the relationship between these people who will be victims and your motive of revenge for Muslims in Palestine?”
I told them that if they wanted to kill Westerners in large numbers using a one-tonne bomb, it would not just kill the people in front of it. It would explode everywhere. I told them that it would kill lots of other people who were not their target.
A Palestinian woman gestures on top of her house in the destroyed Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, following what became known as the Battle of Jenin in April 2002 [File: Reuters]
I said that a bomb would also likely cause Muslim casualties. I asked them, “Who will take responsibility in the next world [paradise] if there are Muslim victims because of this bomb?”
Imam Samudra said that, on the day of judgement, everyone would be judged individually for their actions based on their intentions.
I felt that there was no way I could refuse. Imam Samudra had locked the front door of the house so that no one could leave.
So I did it, and made the last 50kg [110lbs] of the bomb.
AJ: More than 200 people died in Bali as a result of the bomb you helped to make. How do you feel about killing so many people?
Patek: I felt guilty when I mixed the materials for the bomb and I felt I was sinning. I felt I was breaking Indonesian law but, more than that, I felt it was a sin against God.
A Balinese mother and son mourn in front of the Bali Bombing Memorial during commemorative services in Kuta, Bali, Indonesia in 2004 [File: Bea Beawiharta/CP/Reuters]
AJ: Do you consider yourself to be a mass murderer?
Patek: Yes. I feel that I am a murderer and a sinner.
I have apologised to the victims of the Bali bombing several times and met with the families of the victims of the bombing, too. I told them I was sorry. Everyone who has met with me in person has forgiven me. When I meet victims, I say, “I am Umar Patek and I was involved in the Bali bombing,” then I explain why I was there, and apologise.
Some people don’t want to meet me and don’t want to forgive me, like people from Australia. That is their right, but my responsibility as a Muslim, and someone who has done wrong, is to apologise. I don’t know if I will be forgiven, only God knows that.
I did not say sorry to get out of prison early, but everything is always wrong in other people’s eyes. If I say sorry, people say I am pretending and it is a strategic choice. If I didn’t apologise, people would say I was arrogant.
AJ: Did you agree with the 20-year prison sentence that you were given?
Patek: I accepted it at the time. There is nothing fair in this life on Earth, justice will only come in the hereafter.
Umar Patek sits in the courtroom during his trial in Jakarta in February 2012 [File: Enny Nuraheni/Reuters]
AJ: Your release from prison was highly controversial, particularly in Australia, as you only served 11 years of your 20-year sentence. Should you have been freed?
Patek: I fulfilled all the criteria according to Indonesian law to qualify for release in 2022. I had also been very opposed to the idea of the Bali bombing from the beginning. The witnesses at my trial all said the same, which is why I was sentenced to 20 years in prison [only]. The central people in the Bali bombing were sentenced to death or died in other ways like Dulmatin, who was shot by the police.
From left to right: Convicted Bali bombers Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Mukhlas, also known as Ali Ghufron, as seen in Nusakambangan prison in October 2008. The three were executed on November 9, 2008, for their role in the bombings [File: Reuters]
I last saw him in June 2009, when I came home from the Philippines to Jakarta. He asked me to go to a JI military academy in Aceh, but I said I didn’t want to. I had had enough. I told him I was just transiting in Indonesia to get my passport and visa to go to Afghanistan. I wanted to live there for the rest of my life and I asked him to come with me, but he refused.
He [Dulmatin] was shot in Pemulang in Tangerang [a city on the outskirts of Jakarta]. I wondered if he had repented for his sins before he died. I never heard him say he felt remorse or sadness about the victims of the Bali bombing and about people who were not the target of the bombing. He never said anything about that and never asked for forgiveness.
So I was sad for him.
The four sons of accused Bali bombing mastermind Dulmatin, alias Joko Pitono, mourn during his funeral in Petarukan village in Indonesia’s central Java province in 2010 [File: Reuters]
AJ: Is the killing of civilians ever justified?
Patek: When I was in the Philippines with the [Moro front], I lived with [the chairman] Salamat Hashim and he would often preach to us. He strongly forbade mujahideen from attacking civilians, not just Muslims but also Christians. He said that that was not allowed, and that only members of the army, or civilians who were fighting with the army, and who were also carrying weapons, were allowed to be attacked.
He once said to me, “Why do you want to wage jihad in Indonesia, who do you want to fight there? The president is Muslim, the government is Muslim, the People’s Representative Council is mainly Muslim, lots of police are Muslim, the army is full of Muslims. It is haram [forbidden] to attack them because attacking Muslims is not allowed.”
He felt that it was not right to attack people in Indonesia, and I said that at the time of the Bali bombing, but no one wanted to listen to me.
AJ: What are your thoughts on the Israel-Gaza war?
Patek: In the opening section of the 1945 Indonesian Constitution, it says that “all colonialism must be abolished in this world”.
Occupation anywhere, not just in Palestine, is not allowed.
It is Hamas’s right to take back their land. The news that they are killing babies and children is a hoax perpetrated by the Western media. Indonesia used to be occupied by the Dutch colonialists. Would you call Indonesian heroes, who fought for their independence, terrorists? The Dutch would call them terrorists, but they were just taking back their land.
A man holds a poster during a rally in support of the Palestinians in Gaza, at the National Monument in Jakarta, Indonesia, on November 5, 2023 [Dita Alangkara/AP Photo]
AJ: Are you deradicalised now?
Patek: What is radicalised? If a Christian wants to follow their religion according to the teachings of the Bible, would we call them radicalised?
I feel that the media has a false image of me as someone who is frightening and cruel. They always paint me as someone who is dangerous.
People often ask me why I don’t want to be a terrorist any more and why I am so cooperative. I also say that it is from my family. They are the ones who melted my heart and set me back to the right path.
I am the oldest of three brothers. All my family members are moderate Muslims, none of them have ever followed the same ideology I used to follow, and they have often confronted me about it over the years.
If my family had said they did not want to have anything more to do with me because of my old ideology, perhaps I would still be radical in my thinking, but fortunately they embraced me and that allowed me to change.
AJ: How do you feel about non-Muslims?
Patek: When I was a child growing up, all my neighbours were Chinese Christians. I always used to play with them. Since I was young, I have always been around non-Muslims.
I don’t hate Christians. My wife’s extended family are Christians and, when we got married, we had no problems and took photos together on our wedding day.
When I married my wife, I invited all of her family to the wedding at Camp Abubakar. In the beginning, they didn’t want to come because they were worried we would cut their heads off. I told them that the mujahideen did not harm civilians, and that we only attacked the police and the army. I said that I guaranteed their safety.
In the Moro tradition, when someone got married, mujahideen would shoot their weapons in the air to celebrate. But because my wife’s Christian family was there, I told my fellow mujahideen, “Don’t do the traditional celebration because we have Christians coming and it will scare them.
As the conflict between Israel and Gaza enters its 35th day, these are the main developments.
Here is the situation on Friday, November 10, 2023:
The latest developments
Israel has agreed to four-hour daily pauses in its war on Gaza, the White House said on Thursday.
On Thursday, 695 foreign passport holders and dependents were able to leave Gaza for Egypt through the Rafah crossing, according to the Red Cross.
Thousands of Palestinians are continuing to escape to the south of Gaza through a “corridor” announced by the Israeli military. On November 9, more than 50,000 people left areas in the north, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Top diplomats and defence chiefs of India and the United States discussed the Israel-Hamas war at a meeting in New Delhi, the Associated Press news agency reported on Friday.
Human impact and fighting
At least 243 Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were killed in Gaza between Wednesday and Thursday afternoon, according to the UN. In all, 10,812 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel’s military campaign started on October 7, including 4,412 children.
Gaza’s hospitals have been under fire during the past day. On Thursday, Israeli raids hit Gaza’s largest hospital, al-Shifa, killing six and injuring four according to the hospital’s director. The vicinity of the Indonesian Hospital was hit by 11 missiles, according to its director. Al-Awda Hospital, which already warned of fuel depletion and a shutdown on Thursday has also been struck overnight, according to Al Jazeera Arabic. Early on Friday, strikes were reported by Al Jazeera Arabic in the vicinity of Gaza Patient’s Friends Hospital, while the Red Crescent reported a “violent bombardment” near al-Quds Hospital.
Israel continuing its war for another month could push an additional half a million people in Gaza into poverty, the United Nations reported on Thursday.
Israel’s military said it launched strikes on Syria early on Friday in response to a drone that hit a school building in Eilat.
On Thursday, Yemen’s Houthi group targeted Israel with drones and missiles, including sites in Eilat. The attacks also disrupted internet service in Yemen, according to the AP.
Diplomacy
More than 500 former campaign staffers who helped Joe Biden secure his election as United States president are pushing for him to call for a ceasefire.
In the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak is being put under pressure to sack British Home Secretary Suella Braverman for her comments against pro-Palestine demonstrations.
In a push for international action, three Palestinian rights groups have filed a lawsuit with the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the body to investigate Israel’s “apartheid”.
In the Middle East, Iran’s foreign minister said on Friday that expansion of the Israel-Gaza war has now become “inevitable”.
Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim is travelling to Egypt, according to a statement from the Qatari government’s website. The talks are expected to focus on the crisis in Gaza and the release of captives held by Hamas.
On Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he discussed the possibility of allowing 500 humanitarian aid trucks into Gaza daily when US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Ankara. He added that Blinken took a “positive approach” to the passage of more aid, and that Turkey is ready to take Palestinian patients into its hospitals, Reuters is reporting.
Arrests and attacks in the occupied West Bank
At least 19 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank over the past 24 hours, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa. In all, at least 183 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 7.
Israeli arrests and raids were under way early on Friday and involved fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters, according to Al Jazeera Arabic.
Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City has shut down “most operations” after running out of fuel and withstanding daily Israeli bombardments around the medical complex since Sunday.
The hospital, located in the Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood and run by the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), said it was forced to stop most services “to ration fuel use and ensure a minimum level of services in the coming days”.
It has turned off its main generator and is now operating only a smaller generator to provide essential services and two hours of electricity a day to patients and 14,000 internally displaced people who are sheltering there. Its surgical ward and oxygen generation plant have been closed.
PRCS spokeswoman Nebal Farsakh told Al Jazeera: “We’re talking about shelling about 15 metres [16 yards] from the hospital building. Most of the buildings around [the] hospital have been almost completely destroyed. The bombings are getting closer and closer to the hospital, and we fear a direct hit to the hospital.”
Most of the roads that lead to Al-Quds Hospital have been closed, forcing medics in ambulances to take a single, rugged, unpaved route to reach the injured.
“We have about 500 patients inside the hospital. We have 15 patients in the ICU. They are wounded and on respirators. We have newborns in incubators. We have 14,000 displaced people, the majority of whom are women and children,” Farsakh said.
The PRCS “has run out of options”, it said, adding that it has been repeatedly warning for two weeks that “fuel supplies would run out if Israeli occupation forces continue to refuse to allow fuel to enter the Gaza Strip”.
Israel imposed a total siege on Gaza two days after the war began on October 7, tightening the existing blockade that has been in place since 2007 and severely curtailing the entry of aid, food, water, electricity and fuel.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 18 hospitals have been put out of service since the war began, either because they ran out of fuel or due to bombardments.
❌Israeli bombardment has been ongoing since last night in the vicinity of Al-Quds Hospital from the western side.
Bashar Murad, emergency medical services director at the PRCS, who works at Al-Quds Hospital, described the situation at the facility “as the most catastrophic” in the organisation’s history.
“On Sunday, Israeli air strikes bombed the entrance of our hospital, resulting in the killing of four people at the entrance and the injury of 35 people, 12 of whom were inside the hospital,” Murad said.
He added that half of its ambulances are out of service while its central storage area has been hit and partially destroyed.
“We lost all medications and equipment in the storage worth around $5m,” said Murad, whose family has fled to Khan Younis.
“I stayed in Gaza [City] as I cannot leave work in these circumstances.”
Shelling near hospitals
Israel has been shelling near several hospitals in the past few days, killing and injuring patients and displaced people and further curtailing the provision of services.
Earlier on Wednesday, a mosque was hit near the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, where many displaced Palestinians had moved after heeding Israel’s calls to evacuate the north.
“Just 100 metres [110 yards] away from the [Nasser] Hospital, a mosque – the largest mosque in the area – was completely destroyed in an air strike,” Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reported from Khan Younis.
“What’s troubling about this air strike is it’s in the middle of a busy road – a main road leading to the side gate of the hospital and also a busy market with so many people out there shopping for daily essentials,” he explained.
“There’s also a bakery next to the mosque where hundreds of people at least were waiting for bread,” he said. The number of casualties wasn’t immediately known.
The Israeli military has accused the Palestinian group Hamas of using hospitals in their military campaign against Israel.
“Hamas places forces and weapons inside, under and around schools, mosques, homes and UN facilities,” Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters on Sunday. “Among the worst of Hamas war crimes is the use of hospitals to hide their terror infrastructure.”
Hamas has repeatedly rejected the charge.
The chairman of the Qatari Committee for the Reconstruction of Gaza, Mohammed al-Emadi, said Israel’s allegation was a “blatant attempt to justify the occupation’s targeting of civilian facilities, including hospitals, schools, gatherings of population and shelters of displaced people”.
A recent Al Jazeera investigation has found that there are no grounds to support Israel’s contention that a Hamas tunnel is under the Qatari-funded Sheikh Hamad Hospital in northern Gaza.
An Al Jazeera digital investigation found no grounds to the Israeli forces claim that there is a Hamas tunnel under Gaza’s Sheikh Hamad Hospital ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/4640OprGwk
Hospitals and ambulances have been hit several times. The World Health Organization said at least 39 health facilities, including 22 hospitals, have been damaged since the war began.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said 193 health workers have been killed since the start of the war while 45 ambulances have been destroyed.
At least 10,569 Palestinians, including 4,324 children, have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the conflict erupted while entire neighbourhoods have been reduced to rubble. About 1.5 million people are now internally displaced in Gaza, according to the United Nations.
More than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, were killed in an attack by Hamas on southern Israel on October 7, which started the latest Gaza war.
House votes 234-188 to reprimand Tlaib, the only Palestinian American in Congress, who said she would not be silenced.
The United States House of Representatives has voted to censure Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian American in Congress, over her comments on the Israel-Hamas war.
The House voted 234 to 188 on Tuesday night to censure the three-term Democratic congresswoman from Michigan.
Some 22 members of her own party joined the Republicans in backing a resolution that claimed Tlaib had been “promoting false narratives regarding the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and for calling for the destruction of the state of Israel”.
The punishment is one step below expulsion and follows a failed censure resolution last week.
More than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began its bombardment of Gaza a month ago after the armed group Hamas killed at least 1,400 people and took more than 200 captive in an attack on Israel.
The US, long Israel’s most fervent supporter, has resisted calls for a ceasefire, despite growing global anger over the humanitarian crisis in the densely-populated territory of 2.3 million people.
While criticising the Israeli response and US support for it, Tlaib has also repeatedly condemned Hamas’s assault.
Ahead of the vote, defended her position saying she would “not be silenced” or allow her words to be distorted.
With some progressive Democrat colleagues by her side, she stressed her criticism had always been directed towards the Israeli government and its leadership under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“It is important to separate people and government,” she said. “The idea that criticising the government of Israel is anti-Semitic sets a very dangerous precedent. And it’s been used to silence diverse voices speaking up for human rights across our nation.”
The debate on the censure resolution, introduced by Rich McCormick, a Republican from Georgia, was emotional and intense, with some representatives focusing on the slogan “from the river to the sea“, which Tlaib has used frequently, calling it an “aspirational call for freedom, human rights and peaceful coexistence”.
As she defended her position, Tlaib was overcome.
“Palestinian people are not disposable,” she said, taking a long pause. Her grandmother lives in a village in the occupied West Bank.
A number of Democrats joined the vote to censure Tlaib [House Television via AP Photo]
Brad Schneider, a Jewish Democrat from Illinois, said he believed it was important to debate what the words meant.
“It is nothing else but the call for the destruction of Israel and murder of Jews,” he said. “I will always defend the right to free speech. Tlaib has the right to say whatever she wants.”
He added, “But it cannot go unanswered.”
It was unclear if Schneider supported the resolution’s final passage.
Other Democrats warned of the risks to free speech from the censure and the precedent it would set.
“This resolution not only degrades our constitution, but it cheapens the meaning of discipline in this body for people who actually commit wrongful actions like bribery, fraud, violent assault and so on,” said Jamie Raskin, who defended Tlaib against the resolution.
Lawmakers who are censured are asked to stand on the floor of the House as the censure resolution is read aloud to them.
With the vote, Tlaib will become the second Muslim-American woman in Congress after Ilhan Omar to be formally admonished this year over criticism of Israel.
Republicans voted in February to remove Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Israel’s intense bombardment of the Gaza Strip, one of the world’s most densely populated areas, has caused the deaths of 10,328 Palestinians, including 4,237 children, since the war started on October 7. More than 1,400 people have been killed in Israel in the same period.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza said the number of people wounded has increased to 25,965.
On October 9, the Israeli military announced a total blockade of the already besieged enclave, including a ban on water and food. Two days later, it cut off the power and restricted the entry of aid and fuel.
An estimated 1.5 million people have been displaced, their condition ever more precarious because of the lack of essential supplies.
Severe water shortage
Rights groups have warned for years about the deteriorating water situation in the Gaza Strip. In 2021, the Global Institute for Water, Environment and Health and the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor described Gaza’s water as “undrinkable”, with 97 percent of its water unfit for consumption.
Now, the lack of electricity means that desalination and wastewater treatment plants can’t run, further compromising access to safe drinking water.
On November 4, Israel destroyed a water reservoir in northern Gaza as well as a public water tank that supplied several neighbourhoods in the south.
Many people are drinking polluted, salty water and queue for hours in the hope of obtaining potable water.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says that between 50 and 100 litres of water per person per day are needed – but it has put the average daily allocation in Gaza at a mere three litres for all daily needs, including drinking and hygiene.
(Al Jazeera)
What is the impact of not drinking enough water?
A lack of water affects the body by first impacting the kidneys, and eventually the heart. Dehydration sets in fast for children and can often be deadly. A person can experience light-headedness and a racing pulse as the heart has to pump faster to maintain oxygen.
Water makes up about 60 percent of the human body. Dehydration can kill an infant in a stressful environment within hours, and a healthy adult in two to four days.
(Al Jazeera)
Is there enough to eat?
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) says that 80 percent of the population in the Gaza Strip was already food insecure prior to the start of the attacks on October 7. Nearly half the population of 2.3 million people relied on food assistance from the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
Before October 7, about 500 trucks on average were allowed into Gaza each day.
According to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), since October 21, at least 451 trucks have entered Gaza, of which 158 carried food, including canned fish, pasta, wheat flour, canned tomato paste and canned beans; 102 carried health supplies; 44 had water or hygiene products; 32 ferried non-food items; and eight had nutrition supplies.
The remaining trucks carried mixed cargo. Fuel supplies are still not allowed to enter Gaza, which is seriously affecting the hospitals still functioning and risking the lives of thousands.
(Al Jazeera)
The World Food Programme (WFP) says food stocks in Gaza are running out, with barely five days of supplies left. For every person who has received WFP food assistance, at least six more are in need.
The bakeries that are still operational have to produce at six times their normal capacity, with residents waiting in line for 4-6 hours to get loaves of bread, and also leaving themselves vulnerable to Israeli attacks.
Only one of the bakeries contracted by WFP, and eight other bakeries in the southern and central areas, have been intermittently providing bread to shelters, depending on the availability of flour and fuel.
How does lack of nutrition harm a child?
Every human body needs a balanced diet enriched with vitamins to retain optimal function. In children, food deprivation can be felt quicker, as their growth and brain development hinge on the nutrition they are receiving.
According to the WHO, food deprivation or undernutrition in children results in the stunting of growth, wasting, and problems related to being underweight. Undernutrition prevents children from reaching their physical and cognitive potential and makes them much more vulnerable to disease and death.
Inadequate nutrition during pregnancy can also increase the risk of giving birth to a stunted infant.
(Al Jazeera)
Lack of access to healthcare
The WHO says that women and children are bearing the burden of the bombardment on Gaza’s health facilities and the lack of supplies. Women are delivering babies wherever they can, unable to access healthcare facilities to deliver in a sanitary environment, and doctors are having to perform Caesarean sections without anesthesia.
At least 180 women are giving birth each day. Maternal and neonatal deaths have escalated due to the lack of critical care.
Overcrowded UNRWA shelters are reporting cases of acute respiratory infections, diarrhoea and chickenpox. With facilities exceeding capacity, people are now living on the streets. The WHO has reported at least 22,500 cases of acute respiratory infections and 12,000 cases of diarrhoea, which can be deadly in children suffering from dehydration and lack of food.
Doctors have had to use vinegar as disinfectants – and screws and sewing needles for surgeries.
Vinegar from the corner shop to treat pseuodomonas bacterial wound infections. Its come to that. pic.twitter.com/mEE4haHMyj
Dr Ahmed Mokhallalati from al-Shifa Hospital says the systems are collapsing and treatment in a sterile setting is limited: “Flies are filling the hospital, you will see worms coming out of people’s wounds.”
The only cancer hospital in Gaza was forced to shutter due to the lack of fuel, and patients with critical needs like dialysis and infants needing intensive care equipment are severely affected.
Since November 3, the main power generators at al-Shifa Hospital and the Indonesian Hospital have stopped working. Israeli warplanes have continued to attack hospitals and the areas around them, where patients, health workers and hundreds fleeing the conflict have found shelter.
The sub’s deployment is the latest major US military build-up amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
The US Navy has dispatched a guided-missile submarine to the Middle East.
The posting was revealed by the military in an announcement late on Sunday. The unusual revelation regarding the location of the ship, which can launch nuclear missiles, suggests a show of force intended to try to contain regional tensions amid the Israel-Hamas war.
“On November 5, 2023, an Ohio-class submarine arrived in the US Central Command area of responsibility”, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter. The Central Command area includes the Middle East.
The post by the Department of Defence unit appeared to show an image of the submarine moving through the Suez Canal.
On November 5, 2023, an Ohio-class submarine arrived in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. pic.twitter.com/iDgUFp4enp
Since the war broke out on October 7 between Hamas and Israel, the United States’ closest regional ally, Washington has moved significant military assets to the region, including two aircraft carriers and extensive fighter aircraft.
It has also announced the deployment of around 1,000 American soldiers, and the engagement of an unspecified number of special operations commandos, who are “advising” the Israeli military in their Gaza operations.
In addition, Washington has taken steps to beef up the defences of its Gulf allies, with a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defence system destined for Saudi Arabia and Patriot surface-to-air missile systems to be sent to Kuwait, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Pentagon spokesperson Brigadier General Pat Ryder said the build-up was aimed at deterring regional escalation and protecting the US and its partners.
“Since that Hamas terrorist attack we’ve also been crystal clear that we do not want to see the situation in Israel widen into a broader regional conflict,” said Ryder in an October 24 press briefing. “And as you’ve heard President Biden, Secretary Austin and other senior US leaders say, our message to any country or group thinking about trying to take advantage of this situation to widen the conflict is don’t.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken travelled on Sunday for talks with regional leaders, including Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank and Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani in Baghdad.
US military assets have come under heavy fire from Iran-allied militias in Syria and Iraq, since October 7. During this time, such groups have waged dozens of attacks at US bases, with the most severe wounding 21 US military personnel in al-Tanf garrison in Syria and Al Asad Air Base in Iraq on October 17 and 18.
Washington, DC – Tens of thousands of people have gathered in the United States capital to demand a ceasefire in Gaza as Washington continues to resist calls for an end to the war despite the mounting death toll.
The demonstrators in Washington, DC on Saturday directed their anger towards US President Joe Biden, accusing him of enabling genocide against Palestinians.
“Biden, Biden, you can’t hide; we charge you with genocide,” the protesters chanted.
United Nations experts have warned of a growing risk of genocide in Gaza amid Israel’s relentless bombardment of the enclave, which was launched in response to Hamas’s October 7 attacks on southern Israeli communities.
The UN’s Genocide Convention defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”, including killings and measures to prevent births.
The Biden administration has urged Israel to “minimise” civilian casualties, but also insisted that it is not drawing any “red lines” for how the US ally conducts its military operations.
Thousands of protesters have rallied in support of Palestinians in Washington, DC [Ali Harb/Al Jazeera]
Biden has also requested more than $14bn in aid for Israel from Congress to help fund the current war in Gaza, which has killed at least 9,488 Palestinians, according to health authorities in the Hamas-governed enclave.
Many protesters at Saturday’s rally called for an end to US assistance to Israel. The demonstration stretched several blocks from Freedom Plaza, near the White House, eastward towards the US Capitol.
Al Jazeera spoke to many of the protesters. Here’s what they had to say:
Nidaa, demonstrator from Gaza
Nidaa, who chose to be identified by her first name only, said her family in Gaza is experiencing constant bombardment with no safe place in the entire territory.
“Stop the war. Stop the bombing. Stop this genocide in Gaza – that’s the number one message we are sending today, and I hope our government will listen to us. I hope our people in Gaza, in Palestine in general, know that we are here. Hopefully, they will hear our voices to at least to cheer them up a little bit – that they are not alone.”
Pro-Palestinian protesters have called for an end to US aid to Israel [Ali Harb/Al Jazeera]
Huda Alkuraey, Yemeni-American advocate
Alkuraey, who travelled to Washington, DC from South Florida to join the protest, voiced anger at the US and international reaction to the conflict.
“Palestinians haven’t had freedom for over 70 years. And it’s time that we make our voice heard, and we start telling the world that this is not right.”
David Horowitz, Jewish-American activist
Horowitz stressed the need for a ceasefire, calling the carnage in Gaza an “abomination”. He also slammed the Biden administration’s call for humanitarian pauses as insufficient.
“We should be calling for a ceasefire, and instead they’re talking about a ‘pause’, which isn’t really a stoppage of anything. They’re going to let the supply trucks through, and then they’re going to continue to fight. It’s a euphemism and the public doesn’t understand that. It really is not a ceasefire.”
Pro-Palestinian activists have warned that the population of Gaza is at risk of genocide [Ali Harb/Al Jazeera]
Ayan Yusuf, Somali-American protester
Yusuf came to Washington, DC from Boston to attend the rally. She said the Biden administration is not seeing Palestinians’ humanity.
“We are here to speak for the innocent people. We are here to let the world know that what Israel and the United States are doing is not self-defence; it’s a genocide. And we’re not supporting that regardless of religion, regardless of our ways, regardless of agenda. We are all human beings.”
Eisha Raja, Pakistani-American activist
Raja dismissed a newly announced push by the Biden administration to battle Islamophobia in the US as a “despicable” effort to distract from Washington’s policies in Gaza.
“We want to 100 percent support a ceasefire. We need this to end. We don’t want to send any of our tax dollars to Israel anymore. We don’t want to be supporting genocide – blood on our hands.”
Some pro-Palestinian voters in the US say they will no longer vote for US President Joe Biden due to his support for Israel [Ali Harb/Al Jazeera]
Maria Habib, Lebanese-American demonstrator
Habib, who was dressed in a traditional Palestinian dress known as thobe, said she is having a difficult time coping with the war and the graphic images of the atrocities in Gaza. She added that she will not vote for Biden and other Democratic candidates next year.
“They have no more votes – from me or my family or anybody. It’s done. I did vote for them in the past because basically, we don’t have a better choice. Now, it’s not even a choice.”
Pro-Palestinian protesters say the Biden administration is not recognising Palestinians’ humanity [Ali Harb/Al Jazeera]
Siham Alfred, Nakba survivor
Siham Alfred, who was forced out of her home as a child during the establishment of Israel in 1948, expressed fear over the potential of displacement of Palestinians out of Gaza, denouncing Biden and other Western leaders.
“Shame, they are racist. They do not believe that Palestinians are equal to Israelis. I will never vote for Biden. He’s a coward and a criminal.”
As bombs rain down upon neighbourhoods and refugee camps in Gaza, hundreds of Palestinian families are setting up temporary homes in an unlikely place: hospital common areas.
Tents are popping up in hospital corridors, parking lots and courtyards, as families seek safety in and around medical facilities — places that should be protected under international humanitarian law.
It is only the latest sign of the new reality as the Israel-Hamas war reaches its 29th day on Saturday, with growing fears of medical supply shortages and explosions disrupting the vital health services unfolding at hospitals and clinics.
With only cloth walls for privacy, families inside the tents are going about their daily routines, sleeping, eating and trying to reestablish a sense of normalcy.
These tents began to appear only days after the war broke out on October 7. Not only do they serve as temporary shelter for those escaping death and destruction in residential areas, but some also act as makeshift surgeries and emergency rooms as the Palestinian death toll soars past 9,000.
Injured Palestinians rest in a tent set up outside a hospital in the Deir el-Balah area of the central Gaza Strip on October 16 [Adel Hana/AP Photo]
Women and children comprise a mass majority of the hospital inhabitants. Privacy is a distant memory, and the challenges of living in a hospital are manifold. Food, clean water and toilet facilities are severely rationed and available only sporadically: once or twice a day.
A seven-member family sheltering in a tent spoke anonymously to Al Jazeera about their hardship. They mentioned that they lack protection from the nearby shelling and the debris it raises, as well as from the biting cold at night.
“Overnight, from having everything, we now have nothing,” one of the family members said.
Families like theirs also face the heightened possibilities of infection and contact with toxic chemicals, as medical treatment continues in other tents nearby.
At the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, displaced families take shelter on benches and tile floors to escape the bombing, on October 29 [Mohammed Salem/Reuters]
A lack of medical supplies
Health facilities across Gaza have reported shortages of medical supplies. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the scarcity has become a grave problem for both medical personnel and patients, causing the quality of healthcare to deteriorate rapidly.
The shortage of anaesthesia has become glaringly apparent at the Al-Shifa Hospital, the biggest health facility in Gaza, established in 1946. Doctors there are reportedly forced to perform surgery on patients without medicine to dull their pain, causing them indescribable agony.
Intensive care units or ICUs, meanwhile, have too few beds to accommodate the hundreds of patients with severe injuries. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, spaces for such cases have been exhausted since mid-October.
The Indonesian Hospital, serving over 150,000 residents in northern Gaza, is on the brink of ceasing its operations, raising alarm among health officials.
The Al-Shifa Hospital is also on the verge of a complete shutdown. The hospital, which provides critical health services to central Gaza, may soon be unable to admit more patients or treat injuries.
With only 546 beds, it is now treating over 1,000 injured people. The hospital has even resorted to conducting surgery in its yards, using the sun to light the medical procedures due to the lack of electricity and fuel.
“The hospital is expected to go completely dark within hours,” Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesperson for the Health Ministry, warned on Wednesday.
An additional 50,000 to 60,000 people are taking shelter in the hospital’s yards.
Al-Qudra said that Gaza’s health sector faces catastrophe unless fuel and medical supplies reach the besieged enclave. He called on Egypt to facilitate the urgent delivery of medical aid to Gaza.
On October 21, 20 trucks with health supplies and other necessary goods crossed into Gaza from Egypt for the first time, beginning the flow of humanitarian assistance.
But aid has been slow to arrive, in part due to ongoing Israeli bombing in the border area.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health has said as well that the international aid allocated for Gaza’s health sector barely covers its essential operations and falls short of its most dire needs.
Palestinians gather at the site of a blast after a convoy of ambulances was struck outside the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on November 3 [Mohammed al-Masri/Reuters]
Health facilities facing bomb blasts
Attacks on or near medical facilities and workers have also dealt a severe blow to Gaza’s healthcare system since the war began.
Palestinian officials have blamed Israeli air strikes for explosions at several healthcare centres, including the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital in the south and the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in central Gaza City, resulting in hundreds of deaths.
Israel’s military has also acknowledged striking ambulances, alleging that one of the vehicles in a medical convoy on Friday was “being used by a Hamas terrorist cell”. Al-Qudra said “a big number” of health workers were killed in the blast.
An estimated 25 ambulances have been hit, and 136 healthcare workers killed, since the start of the war.
The Health Ministry and Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) have called for medical facilities and first responders to be protected from the violence, in accordance with international law.
Article 18 of the Geneva Convention specifies that civilian hospitals should “in no circumstances be the object of attack”. Medical transport is likewise protected under humanitarian law.
Nevertheless, medical institutions in Gaza have continued to face fire. On October 29, PRCS said it received a notification from Israeli forces to evacuate the Al-Quds Hospital in the Tal al-Hawa area of Gaza City, ahead of a planned bombing there.
The hospital housed hundreds of patients and an estimated 12,000 displaced Palestinians.
The Government Media Office in Gaza and the Health Ministry have characterised such attacks as “war crimes”, calling for accountability.
Exhaustion among health workers
The continued violence has also increased concerns for the mental and physical wellbeing of healthcare workers, including doctors, nurses, administrative staff and rescue crews.
Working around the clock, some are facing extreme exhaustion. Others are suffering psychological fatigue from treating gruesome injuries or the frustration of lacking resources.
“Before the war, we would be responsible for alleviating the stress and trauma of the sick and injured, but now it is us who need an outlet for our exhausted bodies and spirits,” said nurse Huda Shokry from the Al-Daraj Medical Complex.
Still, Dr Ahmed Ghoul, an emergency room supervisor at Al-Daraj, told Al Jazeera that the professionals he works with are dedicated to caring for their patients.
“Despite the shortage of nearly everything necessary to effectively do our jobs, we do not leave our rooms, day or night, except for quick toilet breaks,” he said.
“We have lost track of the days of the week because we are more concerned with the thousands of injured individuals than over time.”
Doctors like Ghoul have no place to sleep even if they have the chance to. Their personal rooms have been converted into patient treatment areas, and their beds are used for surgery and emergency care.
Hospital kitchens, meanwhile, have largely stopped functioning. They lack the basic resources to prepare meals for staff or patients.
“We have grown weary of what we have been witnessing,” Shokry told Al Jazeera. “Being a doctor in the war in Gaza means losing one’s sense of fear and exhaustion.”
“It is impossible to maintain a normal psyche or even emotions.”
The first response by Israel to the Hamas attacks of October 7 was to send in the air force to bomb Gaza. The air force was given a long list of potential targets, related to the attacks or not. The logic was to show to Israelis and Palestinians alike that Israel was not down but could muster a quick, resolute and brutal response.
Israel initially released reports of the number of air strikes it was conducting, but probably realising that admitting having bombed Gaza thousands of times was bad public relations, it switched instead to reporting the number of “targets” it was hitting. The last figure was released about a week ago claiming 12,000 targets attacked. Without the specifics of how they were hit and with what means, the number doesn’t say much.
But a lot can be deduced from the total number of bombs used. This week, Palestinian officials reported that 18,000 tonnes of bombs have been dropped on Gaza. The destruction on the ground is consistent with this figure.
Almost all bombs dropped belong to the United States-designed Mk80 family, which has been in service since the Vietnam War. Originally designed as conventional free-fall weapons or “dumb bombs”, they have been constantly modernised with sophisticated targeting devices that have converted them into “smart bombs”. These bombs are made in various sizes, classified by total weight of the weapon: 120kg (265lb), 250kg (551lb), 500kg (1,102lb)and 1,000kg (2,204lb).
The Israeli air force uses three main types of fixed-wing aircraft, all US-made. The F-15 fighter jet’s main role is to secure aerial superiority although some also can be used as bombers. Israel ordered 75 of the latest F-35 fighter-bombers and has received about 40 so far. These jets are probably not being used to bomb Gaza, but they patrol the skies against any threats. This week, a video was released of an F-35 shooting down a Houthi cruise missile launched at Israel from Yemen.
The workhorse of the Gaza bombing campaign is the F-16, an old and proven aeroplane. Israel built a modified version of the fighter jet to suit its tactics with a second crew member whose main task is to control precision weapons. About 100 are in service. Although each can carry 7 tonnes, for practical purposes, it can be assumed that every F-16 takes off with four bombs.
If all of the four bombs were 1,000kg versions, 4,500 flights would be required to deliver 18,000 tonnes of bombs. But not all bombs used are of the heaviest type, so the number of bombing flights over Gaza might be closer to 6,000.
The air force has about 170 F-16s of all versions. In any air force, about 20 percent of aircraft are at any time out of service for regular maintenance, upgrades or repairs. Israel is known for professional and speedy support, so about 150 F-16s probably are usable at any time. As the campaign continues, this number will start to decrease as continuous use will require additional maintenance and replacement of parts that get worn out. But that will happen gradually, and Israel will be able to keep more than 100 F-16s in flying condition at any time.
Thus F-16s apparently fly an average of 1.5 combat missions per day. Given the specifics of the battlefield with no fewer than seven Israeli airbases within a 50km to 100km (31- to 62-mile) range from Gaza, flight times are short, so pilots can sustain flying at the current rate without worrying about long-term fatigue setting in. All air forces try to have at least two, preferably three, crews per aircraft. Although exact numbers are always one of the most guarded secrets, the Israeli air force has enough active pilots and reservists with updated training to keep regular rotations.
While Israel does not need to worry about a possible shortage of soldiers for the aerial battles, it might have to consider the logistics and finances of the bombing campaign.
Six hundred tonnes of bombs per day is a considerable amount: About 30 articulated lorries are needed just to transport them. Costs are also mounting: a 1,000kg bomb costs the US air force a reported $16,000. A much smaller foreign customer like Israel would probably have to pay a higher price of $25,000 per tonne just for the dumb version without the cost of adding the sophisticated and often much more expensive targeting electronics and hardware.
That makes for a daily price tag of well over $15m just for the basic bomb. With the add-ons, it’s fair to assume that the figure rises to at least $25m per day. At that rate, the bombing campaign has so far cost Israel a minimum of $750m just in bombs.
What about additional costs? The F-16 is claimed to have a “very low” cost in flight, “only” $8,000 per hour. Assuming a minimum of 300 flight hours per day gives a figure of $2.5m per day, or $75m so far.
Adding to the calculation all additional aerial assets needed to sustain the bombing like surveillance, reconnaissance, electronic warfare, airborne early warning, command and control, and the like, the cost of the entire aerial campaign skyrockets.
Israel has probably spent at least $2bn so far to bomb Gaza, and the figure could be even higher. This is without the cost of mobilizing and keeping under arms 360,000 reservists and waging the ground war that Israel began last week.
All that for very dubious military value. It is obvious that at the receiving ends of Israeli bombs are predominantly civilians and civilian infrastructure. There is little reason to believe that the figure of more than 9,000 people killed in Gaza, among which nearly 4,000 are children, includes more than a few hundred Hamas fighters.
Battles are won by men; wars are won by resources, according to an old military adage. But as the war drags on with little clarity by way of results from the Israeli perspective, Israel’s leaders will also be fighting this war with a calculator in their hands.
At Lebanon’s border with Israel, residents of a Christian village are hoping war can be avoided even as they prepare for the possibility of worsening hostilities between the Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah and Israel.
Located just a couple of kilometres from the frontier, the village of Rmeich has already suffered fallout from three weeks of clashes along the border between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, the dominant force in southern Lebanon.
The village, along with the rest of Lebanon, is feeling the turbulence unleashed by the conflict raging some 200km (124 miles) away between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, an ally of the heavily armed Hezbollah.
Those who remain in Rmeich appear reluctant to discuss the politics of the crisis that has brought conflict to their doorstep, trying to preserve some normalcy in the village whose 18th-century church still holds a mass three times a day.
“I won’t say we’re feeling safe but the situation is stable,” village priest Toni Elias, 40, said as a military drone buzzed overhead.
“If we don’t hear the drone, we think something odd is going on. We’re used to it every day, 24/7,” Elias said.
Washington, DC – A prominent civil rights group in the United States has urged colleges and universities to respect free speech and resist calls to investigate or disband student organisations rallying on behalf of Palestinian rights.
In an open letter to academic institutions on Wednesday, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) warned against politically motivated efforts to police speech on campus, which could “destroy the foundation on which academic communities are built”.
The letter comes amid heightened tensions in US academia, as the Israel-Hamas war enters its 26th day. Some campuses are reporting pressure to crack down on critics of Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza, where an estimated 8,796 Palestinians have been killed.
“A college or university, whether public or private, cannot fulfill its mission as a forum for vigorous debate if its leaders initiate baseless investigations into those who express disfavored or even loathsome views,” the ACLU letter reads.
“Such investigations chill speech, foster an atmosphere of mutual suspicion, and betray the spirit of free inquiry, which is based on the power to persuade rather than the power to punish.”
Threats to university funding
Since the outbreak of war on October 7, debates about the conflict have intensified on college campuses.
Republican politicians have targeted Israel’s critics at universities, going as far as threatening to withhold federal funds if campus administrators do not contain Palestinian rights activism.
Senator Tim Scott, a Republican candidate in the 2024 presidential race, has introduced legislation to “rescind federal education funding for colleges and universities that peddle antisemitism”, citing a Palestinian literature festival at the University of Pennsylvania as an example.
And the State University System of Florida called for the public institutions under its control to dismantle chapters of the advocacy group Students for Justice in Palestine (SPJ), citing alleged links to “terrorist groups”.
The decision, the state university system said, was made in consultation with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, another Republican presidential contender.
The Anti-Defamation League and the Brandeis Center, two pro-Israel groups, also issued a joint letter to universities this week, calling for probes into Students for Justice in Palestine.
“We call on university leaders to immediately investigate their campus SJP chapters regarding whether they have improper funding sources, have violated the school code of conduct, have violated state or federal laws, and/or are providing material support to Hamas, a Foreign Terrorist Organization,” the ADL letter said.
It also warned that if universities fail to “check the activities of their SJP chapters, they may be violating their Jewish students’ legal rights to be free of harassment and discrimination on campus”.
Protesters gather at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts to show support for Palestinians facing bombardment in Gaza on October 14 [File: Brian Snyder/Reuters]
ACLU denounces call for probes
On Wednesday, the ACLU specifically rejected the ADL’s call for “sweeping investigations” into student organisations.
The group acknowledged that the war in Gaza has “roiled campuses across the country” and led to a rise in threats and concerns about personal safety.
Many Palestinian rights advocates have complained of intimidation tactics, public shaming and being doxxed, a practice by which their personal information is disseminated publicly, often online.
Some students also fear their career prospects could be threatened if they speak out. For example, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, published a Wall Street Journal op-ed last month titled Don’t Hire My Anti-Semitic Law Students, referring to student activists who oppose Zionism.
Jewish students have also reported anti-Semitic incidents, including violent online threats at Cornell University, a prestigious Ivy League school. On Wednesday, police arrested 21-year-old Cornell student Patrick Dai over posts that threatened to kill and rape Jewish people.
The ACLU said that while it does not take sides in overseas conflicts, it does “strongly oppose efforts to stifle free speech, free association, and academic freedom here at home”.
“In the name of those principles, we urge you to reject calls to investigate, disband, or penalize student groups on the basis of their exercise of free speech rights,” the letter said.
The ACLU also decried the Florida university system’s decision to deactivate its SPJ chapters.
“In the absence of any indication that these student organizations have themselves engaged in unlawful activity, or violated valid university policies, both the First Amendment and bedrock principles of academic freedom stand firmly against any attempts to punish them for their protected speech and associations,” the ACLU said.
“We urge you to hold fast to our country’s best traditions and reject baseless calls to investigate or punish student groups for exercising their free speech rights.”
Israeli air raids on the refugee camp has killed dozens and injured hundreds drawing condemnation from Arab nations.
Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp has been bombed again a day after Israel attacked the densely populated camp triggering global condemnation. Here is what we know so far:
What happened, how many killed?
At least 50 people were killed after six Israeli air raids hit a residential area of the camp on Tuesday. A Hamas statement said there were 400 dead and injured in the attack. Casualty figures for Wednesday’s attacks are still not known.
At least 11 Israeli soldiers were killed during its incursion in northern Gaza on Tuesday, the Israeli military said.
Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, said seven civilian hostages were killed in the Jabalia attack, including three foreign passport holders. There was no comment from Israel on the claim.
The air raid came amid Israel’s bombing of the Gaza Strip which has killed 8,525 people, including more than 3,500 children, since fighting began on October 7, Palestinian authorities have said.
Where in Gaza did the attack take place?
Jabalia is located in the north of the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli army has carried out one of the deadliest bombings.
What has Israel said?
An Israeli military statement said that the attacks on Jabalia had killed Hamas commander Ibrahim Biari. The military believes Biari played a pivotal role in the planning and execution of the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7.
“There was a very senior Hamas commander in that area,” Israeli army spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht told CNN.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday that Hamas fighters had two options – “either be killed or surrender without conditions”.
“That is the war [for] the future of Israel – nothing less,” he said.
What has Hamas said?
Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem has denied that any senior commander was present in the refugee camp and deemed the claim an Israeli excuse for killing civilians.
How have other countries reacted?
Several Arab countries have issued statements condemning Israel for its attack on the Gaza refugee camp. These include Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Yemen and Jordan. Qatar also warned that the attacks undermine mediation in the region.
Condemnations also came from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, as well as Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit.
The European Union Commissioner for Foreign Affairs wrote on social media platform X, “I am appalled by the high number of casualties following the bombing by Israel of the Jabalia refugee camp.”
The attack amidst Gaza’s total blockade
The attack happened amid Israel’s continued total blockade on Gaza, which severely restricts access to water, electricity, food, and fuel for the strip’s more than 2.3 million residents.
Gaza’s medical workers are now struggling with dwindling supplies of medicines and power cuts.
Two of Gaza’s main hospitals – al-Shifa Medical and the Indonesian Hospital – faced a power outage as their generators rapidly ran out of fuel.
Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesperson for the Gaza health ministry, called on petrol station owners in the enclave to urgently provide fuel as doctors worked around the clock to treat casualties with whatever supplies they have at hand.
Dozens of people have been killed in an Israeli air raid on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, according to a medical official and Palestinian authorities in the besieged territory.
The health ministry in Gaza said more than 50 people were killed in the attack on Tuesday and 150 others were wounded. The director of the Indonesian Hospital confirmed that more than 50 people were killed.
Images and video from the scene of the strike show buildings heavily damaged as rescuers and volunteers use their bare hands to search for survivors in huge amounts of concrete debris.
People can be seen frantically trying to pull people from the rubble – many of the victims women and children. Others are seen standing and crying, fearing family members and friends may be among the dead.
Washington, DC – In a stunning moment during the 2016 United States presidential race, Senator Bernie Sanders called out his then-rival Hillary Clinton for failing to mention Palestinian rights in a speech she delivered to a pro-Israel lobby group.
Standing on stage in a nationally televised primary debate, Sanders highlighted the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza and criticised the unconditional support that the Israeli government — under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — receives from Washington.
“There comes a time when, if we pursue justice and peace, we are going to have to say that Netanyahu is not right all of the time,” he said.
It was a rare statement to come from a Washington politician. Few, even among left-leaning Democrats, have questioned whether the United States should reconsider its “unwavering” support for Israel.
But flash forward seven years, and Sanders is now drawing ire from many of his supporters who feel let down by his current stance towards the Israel-Hamas war.
As the Israeli military offensive in Gaza intensifies, killing thousands of children and levelling entire neighbourhoods, Sanders has not called for a ceasefire. Because of his reputation as an anti-war voice, critics say he is uniquely positioned to amplify demands for ending the hostilities in Gaza.
“At a time when Washington is lining up behind those, including the president, who are beating the drums of war, we need leaders with the courage and the legacy of anti-war activism to break that consensus and say all human life is precious by demanding a ceasefire,” said Eva Borgwardt, political director at IfNotNow, a progressive Jewish group.
“If anyone can do that in the Senate, it is Senator Sanders.”
Sanders’s position
Last week, activists held a protest at Sanders’s Senate office to call on him to back a ceasefire.
“We went to his office to say we — and his colleagues in the House who are bravely speaking out, at great personal and political risk — need him now,” Borgwardt told Al Jazeera in a statement.
Democratic House members introduced a ceasefire resolution on October 16, but on the Senate side, there have been no calls for ending the war.
Earlier this month, almost 300 former staffers who worked on Sanders’s presidential campaigns signed a letter calling on him to introduce a similar resolution.
“President [Joe] Biden clearly values your counsel, as is shown by the ways you’ve managed to shape the outcomes of his presidency,” the letter, first reported by The Intercept, said. “We urge you to make it clear what is at stake in this crisis politically, morally, and strategically.”
Sanders called for a “humanitarian pause” to the fighting last week, but only after Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a similar demand.
The senator voiced his strongest criticism of the Israeli offensive on Monday, but he stopped short of calling for a ceasefire.
“The US provides $3.8 billion a year to Israel,” Sanders wrote in a social media post.
“The Biden administration and Congress must make it clear. Israel has the right to defend itself and destroy Hamas terrorism, but it does not have the right to use US dollars to kill thousands of innocent men, women, and children in Gaza.”
In 2016, Sanders — an independent senator from Vermont who caucuses with Democrats — defied the odds and mounted a competitive primary challenge against Clinton. Four years later, he led the race for the Democratic nomination until several candidates dropped out and threw their support behind Biden, who would go on to win the presidency.
Throughout his two presidential campaigns, Sanders led a surging progressive movement in US politics that adopted the Palestinian issue as a core tenet of its agenda.
Questioning US backing for Israel on the presidential campaign trail — where candidates often compete to show their pro-Israel bona fides — remains rare. It showed Sanders to be a candidate willing to defy the political consensus, a quality that appealed to many younger voters.
Domestically, Sanders centred his platform on combatting economic inequality. But his outsider approach to politics extended to foreign policy as well. He said he would impose human rights conditions on US aid to Israel, a proposal Biden dismissed as “bizarre” during the 2020 race.
Sanders, who is Jewish, has also long decried the humanitarian crisis in the besieged Gaza Strip, describing it as “unsustainable” and “unacceptable”. He has also referred to Netanyahu as a “reactionary racist”.
Arab communities
Sanders’s message at the time resonated deeply with Arab and Muslim American communities, who rallied around his campaign and helped him win the Michigan Democratic primary in 2016, in one of the race’s largest upsets.
But the senator’s current unwillingness to call for a ceasefire has left many of his Palestinian, Arab and Muslim supporters with a sense of disappointment if not betrayal.
Omar Baddar, a Palestinian American analyst who supported Sanders’s 2020 presidential campaign, said it is “hard to convey the depth of the disappointment” he feels over the senator’s failure to back a ceasefire.
“I know the political climate in the US at the moment is scary, anti-Palestinian and intolerant of dissent, but that’s precisely why Sanders’s voice would be so valuable,” Baddar told Al Jazeera. If Sanders speaks out, Baddar believes his actions will “create the political space” for others to do the same.
Baddar also played down Sanders’s call for a “pause” in the fighting. Pausing “the slaughter of civilians in Gaza is not a moral position”, he said, stressing that the fighting must end.
“Those who oppose a full ceasefire are under the delusional impression that Israel can achieve peace or stability through mass violence, ignoring the fact that Israeli brutality towards Palestinians is precisely why we’re in a situation where no one is safe,” Baddar told Al Jazeera.
“Even in the unlikely scenario that Israel is able to eliminate Hamas, the sheer horror it is inflicting on the people of Gaza will undoubtedly produce the next generation of militants who will want to seek vengeance against Israel.”
Amer Zahr, a Palestinian American comedian and activist who campaigned for Sanders in Arab communities across the country, also voiced dismay at the senator’s stance.
“After the massive support Bernie received from Arab, Muslim and Palestinian Americans in 2016 and 2020, we would have expected he would have been one of the first to urge an immediate ceasefire,” Zahr told Al Jazeera.
“His failure to do so is an affront. His voice could open the door for many others to say the same. To call his actions, or lack thereof, a massive disappointment would be understating the hurt.”
Sanders’s Senate office did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment by the time of publication.
Suehaila Amen, an Arab American advocate in Michigan, said she was “flabbergasted” by Sanders’s position, adding that the Arab community at large is “extremely disappointed” in the senator.
“The community is truly shaken to its core that no one has actually stood up from the administration — or those who we have supported in the past on their presidential runs — and said: This must come to an end. This must stop,” Amen told Al Jazeera.
“That you can’t even ask for a ceasefire is absolutely disgusting and beyond me – when you’re watching in real time children being pulled out of the rubble.”
Nour Ali, a Michigan activist, also recalled the excitement Sanders’s presidential campaigns sparked in the state’s Arab and Muslim communities, where many Arabic speakers called him “Ammo” or “Uncle” Bernie.
“This has left many of us to reckon with who we have decided to support politically in the past. While the Republican Party is outright in their Islamophobia, many Arab and Muslim Americans are realising that the Democratic Party — both moderates and progressives — have used us as a talking point,” Ali told Al Jazeera.
Israel continued its ground action inside the Gaza Strip on Sunday, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called “the second phase”.
Semantics aside, the not-quite-big and not-quite-rapid move that has been going on for three days is a step up from the previous two quick in-and-out night-time incursions. But not an all-out invasion.
Soldiers call this reconnaissance-in-force. In preparation for an offensive, smaller units attack to probe the positions, strength, tactics and operational readiness of their foes. Initial battle plans are then adapted using the knowledge obtained.
Even so, Israel’s ground advance looks timid: it is smaller and slower than the big push the ministers and generals boasted about.
Some pundits may see it as a sign that the Israeli army lacks sufficient weapons reserves. But that cannot be, because it is continuing relentless aerial bombing and long-distance shelling of Gaza that has not abated for more than three weeks now, causing massive indiscriminate casualties.
Hamas casualties are unknown, but it is likely that the ratio of those killed in Gaza is hundreds of Palestinian civilians for each Hamas fighter killed.
Israel’s sluggish advance may be deliberate, to allow for diplomacy, secret talks and clandestine deals. Its neighbours – Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria – do not want the conflict to escalate and are taking care not to fuel it in any way. Qatar is leading diplomatic efforts for the release of captives held by Hamas and to avoid further escalation.
The position of two big regional powers with strong armies, Turkey and Iran, is quite peculiar.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sharply criticised Israel on Saturday, calling it an occupier in his address to a massive rally in support of Palestine a day ahead of the 100th anniversary of the Turkish republic.
Turkey’s criticism of Israel is almost certain to remain political, but Iran’s position is more complex, and what it might do remains an enigma.
Iran is a sworn enemy of Israel. It set up, trained, organised, armed and continues to support a series of sub-state armed groups in the region. The biggest and best-known among them is Lebanon-based Hezbollah, but Iran has also been present through proxies in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, lands where bloody conflicts were or are being fought.
The big question is whether Iran will – directly – join a war over Gaza.
Analysis suggests that Tehran would lose more than it would gain by getting involved in a major war. There are only two ways in which Iran could take the fight to Israel: overland and ballistically.
Overland, it would have to cross through Iraq and Syria. Both are Iranian allies but neither would willingly allow the use of its territory, even if the move was militarily plausible. The United States, which still maintains a security presence and has interests in Iraq, would be less than happy. The government in Damascus, which controls the areas Iran would need to go through, knows that even a temporary presence of the Iranian army could easily reignite the Syrian conflict.
Such an adventurous march through the deserts is not militarily plausible – it would mean crossing 1,000km (620 miles) from Iran to Israel, under the skies in which the US and its allies have unquestioned aerial supremacy.
Iran’s other option could be to launch its formidable long-range ballistic arsenal against Israel, whose Iron Dome is already struggling to counter crude but deadly Hamas missiles.
But Tehran’s generals have for decades been trying to predict possible responses to their use of missiles – and apparently, they concluded most would be unfavourable for Iran.
If any among Tehran decision-makers thought that their missiles could somehow overwhelm their enemies’ defences, they were cruelly brought to reality on October 19, when a US Navy destroyer deployed in the Red Sea intercepted and shot down no less than four cruise missiles launched against Israel from Yemen by Iran-backed Houthi fighters. The USS Carney also downed 14 drones. It is not known if the Houthis independently decided to take on Israel, or if Tehran had a say in it, but the fate of those missiles was a message to both.
The US Navy demonstrated a 100 percent success rate against missiles en route; in Israel, the Iron Dome is believed to consistently intercept more than 90 percent of incoming projectiles. Faced with that, it would make military sense for Iran to pass on the missile war.
So how will the situation develop? As hard and risky as it is to make such a bold claim, I think the US has reason to believe that no state actor will join in the fighting in Gaza. Unless there is a major escalation of force or a move for total expulsion of the Palestinians from the Strip.
The current, geographically limited “war” should thus not turn into a wider regional conflagration, a message that will have been made clear to all countries through diplomatic channels and intermediaries who have contacts with both sides. US President Joe Biden has reiterated American support for Israel, but also made several statements asking for de-escalation and that hostage release talks be given a chance. But if there are talks, wouldn’t at least some participants try to take them further?
The real reason for the unprecedented level of deployment of US forces in the region – with an aircraft carrier battle group in the Mediterranean and another in the Gulf and the strengthening of reconnaissance, surveillance and electronic intelligence assets as well as a small ground force – is to discourage any foolish moves by rogue generals or non-state armed groups like Hezbollah.
For the plan to stand a chance, every avenue towards defusing the conflict must be explored – including asking US ally Israel to slow down enough to keep face domestically, but nevertheless give time for negotiations that may secure the release of some or all hostages.
Whatever the numbers involved and the timeline, it would be an encouraging step.
Reporters Without Borders says ‘unlikely’ that Issam Abdallah and six other journalists were mistaken for combatants.
A Reuters journalist killed in strikes near the Israel-Lebanon border was deliberately targeted along with six other media workers injured in the attacks, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has said.
Video journalist Issam Abdallah, 37, was killed in southern Lebanon on October 13 while covering fighting between Israel’s military and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
Six other journalists, including Al Jazeera cameraperson Elie Brakhia and reporter Carmen Joukhadar, were wounded when two rounds of munitions hit the village of Alma al-Shaab in quick succession.
“Two strikes in the same place in such a short space of time (just over 30 seconds), from the same direction, clearly indicate precise targeting,” RSF said on Sunday, citing the preliminary results of an investigation based on video footage and ballistic analysis.
“It is unlikely that the journalists were mistaken for combatants, especially as they were not hiding: in order to have a clear field of vision, they had been in the open for more than an hour, on the top of a hill. They were wearing helmets and bullet-proof waistcoats marked ‘press’. Their car was also identified as ‘press’ thanks to a marking on the roof, according to witnesses.”
While RSF did not directly attribute responsibility to Israel, the press freedom advocacy organisation said journalists had witnessed Israeli military helicopters near the scene and the strikes had come “from the direction of the Israeli border”.
The Al Jazeera Media Network has accused Israel’s military of deliberately targeting the journalists to silence the media, condemning the attacks as part of a pattern of “repeated atrocities” against journalists.
The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Israel’s military has not acknowledged responsibility for the attacks but a spokesperson previously said officials were “very sorry” for Abdallah’s death and were “looking into it”.
Last week, the wife, son, daughter and grandson of Wael Dahdouh, Al Jazeera Arabic’s bureau chief in Gaza, were killed in an Israeli air strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
Al Jazeera Media Network said in a statement that it condemned the “indiscriminate targeting and killing of innocent civilians in Gaza, which has led to the loss of Wael Al-Dahdouh’s family and countless others.”
Israeli officials earlier this year apologised for killing Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh after admitting there was a “high possibility” she had been struck by an Israeli soldier’s bullet. Israel has declined to pursue charges against any individual over the veteran Palestinian-American reporter’s death.
At least 34 Palestinian journalists have been killed in Israeli air attacks since Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip.
At least four Israeli journalists were killed and one retired journalist captured in Hamas’s surprise attack on communities in southern Israel, according to the International Federation of Journalists.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says the death toll among Palestinians in the Hamas-Israel conflict has crossed 8,000 – most of them women and minors – as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces a “second stage” in the war after tanks and infantry pushed into Gaza over the weekend.
The weekend’s bombardment – described by Gaza residents as the most intense of the three-week war – knocked out communications in Gaza late on Friday, cutting off most of its 2.3 million people from contact with the world. Communications were restored to parts of Gaza early on Sunday.
Rights organisations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch had warned that the lack of communications in the enclave was hampering efforts to document war crimes and other abuses.
Israel imposed a total siege – no food, water or electricity – on the Palestinian enclave of 2.3 million people in the wake of the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7. Israel has allowed limited supplies of basic necessities and medicines to reach Gaza. Efforts are under way to get more food, water, fuel and medicine in the enclave, which has been under intense bombardment by Israeli forces.
“The situation in Gaza is growing more desperate by the hour. I regret that instead of a critically needed humanitarian pause, supported by the international community, Israel has intensified its military operations,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said during a visit to Nepal’s capital Kathmandu.
