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Tag: Israel-Palestine conflict

  • Prisoner exchange? Israeli captive families demand answers from Netanyahu

    Prisoner exchange? Israeli captive families demand answers from Netanyahu

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    The families of more than 220 captives seized by Hamas demanded answers from the Israeli government with many fearing a military onslaught on the Gaza Strip is putting the captives’ lives at risk.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu broke off from war planning for a hastily arranged meeting on Saturday with captive families after they threatened to start street protests to highlight their desperation.

    As the meeting went ahead, Hamas said Israel would have to release all Palestinian prisoners from its jails to secure freedom for the hostages seized by Hamas fighters on October 7.

    Netanyahu made no commitment to any deal but told the families, “We will exhaust every possibility to bring them home”, according to a video released by his office. Finding the hostages – whose ages range from a few months to more than 80 – was an “integral part” of the military operation, he added.

    At a later press conference alongside Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Hamas had to be forced to the negotiating table but that it was “very complex”.

    “The more military pressure, the more firepower and the more we strike Hamas – the greater our chances are to bring it to a place where it will agree to a solution that will allow the return of your loved ones,” he said.

    ‘Every minute an eternity’

    The government says it confirmed 229 captives from more than 20 countries were taken on October 7. The Hamas military wing says that “almost 50” hostages have died in the daily Israeli air raids on Gaza.

    “We are ready to conduct an immediate prisoner exchange deal that includes the release of all Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails in exchange for all prisoners held by the Palestinian resistance,” Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s leader in the Gaza Strip, said in a statement.

    Thousands of Palestinians are held in 19 prisons in Israel and one inside the occupied West Bank.

    A representative for the families told Netanyahu they support a full prisoner swap.

    “As far as the families are concerned, a deal of a return of our family members immediately in the framework of ‘all for all’ is feasible, and there will be wide national support for this,” said MeIrav Gonen, the representative. Her daughter, Romi, is one of the captives.

    Israeli families are increasingly angry over the “absolute uncertainty” they face over the fate of the captives, particularly in the heavy bombings, said Haim Rubinstein, a spokesperson for the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

    Hundreds of relatives of the Israeli captives held a rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday, threatening to hold street more protests if a government minister did not meet them the same day. Demonstrations in support of the captives’ families also occurred in Haifa, Atlit, Caesarea, Be’er Sheva and Eilat.

    “The families don’t sleep, they want answers, they deserve answers,” Rubinstein said.

    Hostage families say they have had barely any contact with the government.

    “We don’t know anything about what happened to them. We don’t know if they were shot, if they saw a doctor, if they have food,” said Inbal Zach, 38, whose cousin Tal Shoham was kidnapped from the Beeri kibbutz near the Gaza fence with six other family members.

    “We are just so worried about them.”

    ‘Waiting for an explanation’

    The families are divided over what action to take. Some believe a tough line on Hamas is justified, others say a deal should be made.

    When asked about the Hamas demands for a Palestinian prisoner release, Ifat Kalderon, whose cousin is a hostage, said: “Take them, we don’t need them here. I want my family and all the hostages to come back home, they are citizens, they are not soldiers.”

    The Tel Aviv rally followed one of the most violent nights of the war with the military hammering Gaza.

    “None of the war cabinet bothered to meet with the families to explain one thing: whether the ground operation endangers the wellbeing of the 229 hostages,” the Forum said in a statement.

    “The families are worried about the fate of their loved ones and are waiting for an explanation. Every minute feels like an eternity.”

    Sources told Al Jazeera on Friday that negotiations, mediated by Qatar, on a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas had been “progressing and at an advanced stage”.

    But Israel’s increased air and artillery attacks, severing of communications and ground incursion appear to have stymied the truce discussions.

    Israel says Hamas killed 1,400 people, mainly civilians, when fighters stormed across the border on October 7.

    More than 7,700 people have been killed in retaliatory Israeli strikes on Gaza, including about 3,500 children, according to its health ministry.

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  • Israel secretly detaining thousands of missing Gaza workers: Rights groups

    Israel secretly detaining thousands of missing Gaza workers: Rights groups

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    Thousands of workers from Gaza, who were employed in Israel when the war started, have gone missing since then amid a campaign of mass arrests.

    Human rights groups and trade unions believe some of the workers have been illegally detained in military facilities in the occupied West Bank, following the revocation of their permits to work in Israel. Authorities in Israel have so far refused to release the names of those they are holding.

    When the Palestinian armed group, Hamas, launched an unprecedented assault on the south of Israel on October 7, about 18,500 residents of Gaza held permits to work outside the besieged strip. The exact number of workers present in Israel as hostilities began remains unknown, but thousands are thought to have been rounded up by the Israeli army and transferred to undisclosed locations.

    Walid*, a Palestinian worker born in Gaza, had lived in the occupied West Bank for more than 25 years when Israel launched its relentless bombardment of Gaza which has so far killed more than 7,000 people and has lasted for three weeks. On October 8, he was arrested as he headed for work and detained in a facility in the Almon area, also known as Anatot, built on the ruins of the Palestinian town of Anata that Israel confiscated in occupied East Jerusalem.

    The facility, human rights organisations say, is among those repurposed by the Israeli government to hold hundreds of workers in arbitrary detention, in breach of international law.

    Walid, whose real name and personal details are being withheld to avoid reprisals, described being kept in a “cage” without a roof, under the sun and without food, water or access to the toilet for three days, according to a written testimony given to the Israel-based human rights organisation HaMoked and seen by Al Jazeera.

    He was then moved to an area of about 300 square metres where hundreds of labourers shared a chemical toilet cubicle. When he asked to contact the Red Cross, he was cursed and beaten up by soldiers.

    Walid was released after Israeli officers ascertained that, although he was born in Gaza, he is a resident of the West Bank. His testimony is among the few accounts to have so far emerged from the detention centres where Gaza workers have been held incommunicado and without legal representation since October 7.

    “We have been receiving hundreds and hundreds of phone calls from family members of people who were working in Israel prior to the [October 7] attacks,” Jessica Montell, executive director of HaMoked, told Al Jazeera.

    So far, Montell says, more than 400 families and friends of missing people have got in touch with the organisation, trying to trace their loved ones as they simultaneously struggle to survive Israel’s bombardments and “total” siege. Those calls have been dwindling in the past week as residents of Gaza are increasingly cut off from communications.

    As part of its work, HaMoked regularly submits the names of detainees to the Israeli authorities to find out where they may be held.

    “The Israeli military is supposed to inform us within 24 hours of who they are holding, which location they are being held in,” Montell said. “But for all those Gazans, they told us [they]’re not the right [authority to] address.”

    “It can’t be the case that it’s not clear where they’re being held, how many are being held, under what conditions, under what legal status,” she added.

    A group of six local organisations, including HaMoked, have petitioned Israel’s High Court to disclose the names and locations of the detainees and to ensure humane holding conditions.

    According to the petitioners, some of the Palestinians have been detained in the Almon area – where Walid was detained – as well as in Ofer, near Ramallah, and in Sde Teyman, near Beer al-Sabe (Be’er Sheva), in the southern Naqab or Negev desert.

    Once the hostilities began and the Beit Hanoun crossing (known as Erez to Israelis) into northern Gaza was shut, workers attempted to make their way to the West Bank to find shelter among Palestinian residents.

    But on October 10, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) revoked all work permits it had previously issued to Gaza residents, instantly turning permit-holders into “illegal aliens”.

    Al Jazeera contacted the Israeli army, as well as COGAT, the body that controls the permit system in the occupied territories. Both declined to comment or provide further information on the number of workers whose permits were revoked, as well as how many have been imprisoned and on what grounds.

    ‘Unparalleled’

    Miriam Marmur, advocacy director of Gisha, an Israeli human rights organisation which calls for the freedom of movement of Palestinians, said the situation was “unparalleled”.

    “Of course, at any given point, there are thousands of Palestinians that are being held in administrative detention by Israel,” she told Al Jazeera. “But these are the first Palestinians to be held en masse. The nature of their detention, the revocation of people’s permits and the fact that Israel is so far refusing to divulge any information about where they are … that is not something I have seen before,” she said.

    Marmur added that the arrests were “illegal and appear to be acts of vengeance which stand in violation of international law”.

    Hamas seized at least 224 people as hostages as it waged its attack on southern Israel on October 7, according to Israeli officials. Four have since been released.

    According to Walid’s testimony, one of the officers at a detention camp told detainees there would be no chance of them being released as long as there were Israeli hostages in Gaza.

    “This isn’t an official statement, but certainly it’s an indication that, at least to some of the people involved in this, there is a kind of desire to use these workers as bargaining chips,” Marmur said.

    Under Israel’s permit system, very few Palestinians from the Gaza Strip can leave the territory, as all border crossings have been under Israeli or Egyptian control since Hamas took power in 2007.

    Permits can be issued for work, health and humanitarian reasons after careful vetting by the Israeli authorities. Most of the workers from Gaza – where the overall unemployment rate is 45 percent and youth unemployment has soared to 70 percent – take up manual jobs in Israel, where the pay is several times higher.

    Human rights groups are concerned about further arrests amid continuing raids in the West Bank, including in areas nominally under the full control of the Palestinian Authority.

    “We never had a situation like that, where people are trapped and can’t go home, and are put in a sort of camp,” said Hassan Jabareen, the director of Adalah, the legal centre for Arab minority rights in Israel. “These were just workers. The only comparison is perhaps with [undocumented] refugees.”

    Mass arrests

    The Minister of Labour for the Palestinian Authority estimated that about 4,500 workers are unaccounted for and are believed to have been detained by Israeli forces. Israeli media outlet N12 reported that 4,000 Palestinians from Gaza were being interrogated in Israeli holding facilities over their possible involvement in the attack.

    Alongside Gaza workers, Israeli forces have detained more than 1,450 Palestinian residents of the West Bank since October 7, according to estimates by the Palestinian Prisoners Society.

    The arrests have taken place against a backdrop of laws and amendments that human rights organisations say amount to punitive measures.

    On October 18, the Israeli parliament, known as the Knesset, approved a temporary plan that strips Palestinian prisoners of the right to at least 4.5 square metres of space, enabling cells that used to hold five people to hold more than twice as many.

    According to Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI), authorities also disconnected access to power and water supplies, limited the number of meals per day, restricted prisoners to their cells and prevented access to medical clinics and visits by legal representatives and other officials. At least two prisoners have died while in custody since the beginning of the latest round of hostilities.

    “We are calling on the Israeli authorities to abide by international law and allow food, water and visitations,” Naji Abbas, case manager at PHRI, told Al Jazeera. “And to stop taking revenge on Palestinian prisoners.”

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  • UNGA calls for humanitarian truce in Israel-Hamas war: How countries voted?

    UNGA calls for humanitarian truce in Israel-Hamas war: How countries voted?

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    The United Nations General Assembly has passed a resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian truce between Israel and Hamas and demanding aid access to Gaza.

    A total of 120 countries voted in favour of the resolution, 14 countries voted against including Israel and the United States, while 45 others abstained. Among the abstentions was Canada, which had introduced an amendment that would have more explicitly condemned Hamas for its October 7 “terrorist” attack on Israel and demanded the immediate release of hostages seized by the group.

    Here is a breakdown of how each country voted in the UNGA in New York City on Friday:

    For (120):

    A: Afghanistan, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan

    B: Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei

    C: Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Costa Rica, Cote d’Ivoire, Cuba

    D: Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), Democratic Republic of the Congo,  Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic

    E: Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea

    F: France

    G: Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana

    H: Honduras

    I:  Indonesia, Iran, Ireland

    J: Jordan

    K: Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan

    L: Laos, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg

    M: Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar

    N: Namibia, Nepal, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway

    O: Oman

    P: Pakistan, Peru, Portugal

    Q: Qatar

    R: Russia

    S: Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Switzerland, Syria

    T: Tajikistan, Thailand, East Timor,  Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey

    U: Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Uzbekistan

    V: Vietnam

    Y: Yemen

    Z: Zimbabwe

    UN resolution calling for humanitarian truce passes [Al Jazeera]

    Against (14):

    A: Austria

    C: Croatia, Czechia

    F: Fiji

    G: Guatemala

    H: Hungary

    I: Israel

    M: Marshall Islands, Micronesia

    N: Nauru

    P: Papua New Guinea, Paraguay

    T: Tonga

    U: United States

    Abstained (45):

    A: Albania, Australia

    B: Bulgaria

    C: Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Canada, Cyprus

    D: Denmark

    E: Estonia, Ethiopia

    F: Finland

    G: Georgia, Germany, Greece

    H: Haiti

    I: Iceland, India, Iraq, Italy

    J: Japan

    K: Kiribati

    L: Latvia, Lithuania

    M: Monaco

    N: Netherlands, North Macedonia

    P: Palau, Panama, Philippines, Poland

    R: Republic of Korea (South Korea), Republic of Moldova, Romania

    S: San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, South Sudan, Sweden

    T: Tunisia, Tuvalu

    U: Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Vanuatu

    Z: Zambia

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  • My student Yehia Dahdouh survived a bombing but his pain is immense

    My student Yehia Dahdouh survived a bombing but his pain is immense

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    Fukhari, Gaza – Everyone at our school knows that Yehia Dahdouh is the son of Al Jazeera correspondent Wael Dahdouh.

    He was in my fifth-grade science class at the Rosary Sisters School in Tel el-Hawa and the first time I called his name for attendance, he stood up promptly with a: “Yes, miss.” I remember being relieved that he seemed a kind child who laughed a lot.

    He is also an imp who cannot sit still and waits for break time impatiently so he can run off to the playground.

    And he moves around fast, so fast that I would not be surprised to find him appearing in front of me, as if out of thin air, at any time.

    Now Yehia, who is only 12, is much slower, his head bandaged and his heart heavy, and the last time I saw him was in a news video on Thursday as he wept over the dead bodies of his mother, brother, sister and nephew.

    Then he stood awkwardly to perform the funeral prayer for them, standing tiny next to his father and doing his best to complete the motions with his bandaged elbow.

    On Wednesday, Israeli forces shelled the Nuseirat area where Yehia and his family had sought refuge in Gaza. Yehia survived, but his pain must be immense.

    ‘I’m comfortable here’

    Yehia and I formed a bond, as teachers do with the kids in their class, and he made me laugh. When he would call out “Miss!”, he would stretch it out in a way everyone in class chuckled at and got used to hearing.

    He is kind of special, I love hearing him laugh and joke around. He had a “nickname” for me, where he would call me by the type of phone I have.

    I laughed at that and it made me happy because I know that when a child loves someone and is not afraid of them, they can be themselves.

    His father Wael was very involved in how his son was doing in school and always answered my calls and messages about Yehia.

    When I told him that Yehia was doing great but could be a bit calmer, he laughed and said, “Yehia is wearing you out! I’ll talk to him and will come visit you at school.”

    Yehia loves and respects his father, and I saw that after Wael’s visit, in how calm he became, but of course, I started to miss hearing him call me “Miss” the way he used to.

    Yehia stood tiny next to his father Wael to perform the funeral prayer for his mother, brother, sister and nephew [Atia Darwish/Al Jazeera]

    Fifth grade ended and imagine my surprise on the first day of the next academic year when I walked into my sixth-grade class and found Yehia there, even though he was meant to be in a different class.

    “Welcome,” I said. “Why’d you move to this class?”

    He told me, “I’m comfortable here, you’re my teacher, I’m used to you.”

    Targeting families

    The children of Gaza do not like wars.

    The children of Gaza love their childhood and want to live it.

    My students are like brothers and sisters, not just classmates, and it is such a beautiful thing to experience. They talk after school ends. They always know why a classmate is absent from school.

    The gentle, strong communication between them makes me so happy.

    When the news of Wael Dahdouh’s family being targeted came out, I was so anxious, searching frantically for Yehia in all the photos being circulated.

    Was he OK or not?

    I found out that his mother, brother and sister had been killed, and that there were members of his family missing under the rubble.

    Teachers at the school began to exchange worried messages. Then we found a video of him in the hospital with a head injury.

    Yehia looked so worn out and scared in that video of him being treated at al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the doctors had to treat him in the corridor, with no sterilisation, and using the wrong thread to suture his head – all because the hospital was so overstretched they had run out of everything.

    This is the recurring scene in every home in Gaza: Residents stay home to be safe but, suddenly, missiles fall on them, hurting their bodies with firepower and their hearts with the burning agony of separation.

    I don’t know if Yehia will ever be able to get over being separated from his mother like this. I don’t think so.

    The scene of him bidding farewell to his mother and crying bitterly for her soul made me cry along with him.

    Is there anything worse than losing a mother and the beautiful memories you had with her, losing that kind of love and care?

    And here was this child bidding farewell to his mother, brother, and sister, three of the closest people to his heart.

    Yehia is alive, hopefully, his head will heal soon. He was able to say goodbye to his mother and pray for his family.

    But I don’t know the extent of his pain, I can only imagine it.

    Yehia weeps over the body of his mother with his father Wael beside him
    Yehia, right, weeps over the bodies of his mother, brother, sister and nephew as his father Wael Dahdouh keeps his arm on his shoulder [Ali Mahmoud/AP Photo]

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  • Analysis: What does Israel’s Gaza incursion propaganda video reveal?

    Analysis: What does Israel’s Gaza incursion propaganda video reveal?

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    On Thursday, October 26, Israel released footage of a nighttime incursion into Gaza Strip. The Israeli military accompanied the heavily edited video with a statement claiming that “in preparation for the next stages of combat, the [Israeli military] operated in northern Gaza. [Israeli army] tanks & infantry struck numerous terrorist cells, infrastructure and anti-tank missile launch posts. The soldiers have since exited the area and returned to Israeli territory.”

    The video is obviously intended as propaganda, to send a message both to Israeli society and to the outside world.

    It attempts to tell Israel and the Israelis “we are not just sitting and waiting, we are doing something”. That is very important, as the Israeli military tries to counter doubts and uncertainties among the country’s population about why Israel hasn’t launched a full-fledged ground invasion of Gaza yet — despite saying it will go in soon — almost three weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks that killed 1,400 people in Israel.

    Rather than openly confirm or deny hints that the civilian leadership and the military command may not exactly be seeing eye to eye, the Israeli military counters the doubts by the video. The Israeli army hopes that it will be read as “our military is preparing, doing something, trying and testing in real conditions”. If that message is well received and accepted, as Israeli propaganda masters intended, it would ease internal tensions. No citizen – no society – wants to be in a position where he or she asks whether their leadership is lying to them or concealing something?

    Unlike in most other countries, majority of Israelis serve in the armed forces and undergo regular refresher training where they are introduced to the latest tactics and technologies.

    They are well prepared to judge military matters themselves. Most will immediately recognise that the force filmed consists of a tank company, with 12-15 formidable Merkava tanks, reinforced by armoured bulldozers and supported by long-range artillery from the rear. There are just glimpses of heavy armoured personnel carriers, but it is to be assumed that they would carry a company of infantry. Forces on the ground are assisted and monitored by aerial assets, from drones filming the action to successive layers of unmanned aerial vehicles, helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft that are not shown but are certainly deployed.

    Israelis will see the video as well produced and timely. It surely eases tension and doubt, and tells them that their military forces can go in, and out, at will.

    Palestinian fighters in Gaza, and the rest of the world are looking at it with different eyes and for different reasons. Hamas armed wing is undoubtedly reading into the release from a tactical point of view, to judge what it can expect from its enemy and prepare for it.

    While I cannot rule out the possibility that the video is a total deception, intended to mislead the enemy into believing that Israel will attack in a way different from the one it demonstrates in its own propaganda, I believe that, at this stage, of preparations that would be too far-fetched. It would be confusing for units to fight in one way for the cameras and then radically change operational methods in a matter of days for the real battle.

    Despite its primary intention to convey a targeted message, it reveals much more – possibly even what the Israeli military never intended to divulge at this stage.

    Firstly, it confirms what I predicted almost a week ago: Israelis will breech their own concrete barriers using the ubiquitous armed bulldozers that will lead the armoured column through the gap. The video shows one bulldozer digging up the mines with its powerful shovel, the second sweeping them to the sides, widening the advance lane, allowing the follow-on vehicles to bypass any tank or armoured personnel carrier that is unable to advance. A recovery tank is, expectedly, included in the force, to tow back any armour incapacitated either by landmines or Hamas ground teams, rockets from multiple launchers or anti-tank missiles.

    The most revealing details from the video concern the tactics of deployment of tanks and accompanying infantry. Usually, tanks in contact with the enemy extend and advance in parallel over a wide front, with tanks side-by-side, spaced 20-50 metres (66-164 feet) apart.

    They are accompanied and closely followed by dismounted infantry whose task is to deal with hidden opposing forces. Defenders who have had plenty of time to prepare could be lying in wait to hit the advancing armour from the close range of 100 metres (328 feet) or less. Only dismounted infantry offers a field of vision over a wide front to engage such opposition quickly and efficiently.

    But the Israeli military forces are shown advancing in a line — a riskier way to approach determined defences. When tanks, and accompanying infantry, are spread wide, defenders have to cover very wide angles to re-aim from one target to another. The attacker has the advantage that several tanks can concentrate fire on any point in front of them. An attacker advancing in a column can engage enemy bunkers straight ahead of it with one gun only. If it is taken out of action the next in line must bypass it, risking uncleared minefields or non-discovered resistance points.

    The video also shows infantry staying inside armoured vehicles during the advance. So, the Israeli military does not think it would encounter significant resistance in the first two to three kilometres (1.2-1.9 miles) of open desert and fields. A clear sign that Israel expects significant resistance only when forces reach the first buildings at the outskirts of Gaza City.

    Finally, the video suggests that the units will be commanded from the ground, at battalion level, covering the three or four companies involved in each line of advance. It also confirms that Israeli commanders will have a clear tactical overview of the battlefield from numerous drones like the one that filmed the video. Higher commands might only monitor and coordinate but crucial real-time decisions on the ground will be made by experienced operational lieutenant colonels.

    The video does not help answer the biggest question: Will there be a ground offensive? But the world — and Hamas, no doubt — will have taken note.

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  • Analysis: Why hasn’t Israel launched a ground invasion of Gaza yet?

    Analysis: Why hasn’t Israel launched a ground invasion of Gaza yet?

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    Nearly three weeks after the Hamas attacks in southern Israel, Israel has not yet responded with its promised ground invasion.

    Initial moves after the October 7 attacks conformed to political and military logic. A national unity government was formed to demonstrate that the country is operating as one. More than 350,000 reservists were called to arms. Relentless bombing of Gaza started immediately although to this day it is hard to discern any military justification or pattern in the pounding of Palestinian infrastructure and killing of thousands of civilians.

    Despite angry demands from Israeli society, especially its radical factions, for a massive response and total annihilation of Hamas, analysts, myself included, warned that preparations for a ground war take time. Realistic calculations were that Israel would be ready in 10 to 15 days. Nothing happened.

    Half a million armed men and women remain positioned all over Israel and the occupied West Bank, but the momentum of war seems to have diminished, almost stopped. What happened? Why has the Israeli war machine not advanced into the Gaza Strip?

    There may be many explanations, and only the Israeli cabinet and the army General Staff know them and keep them top secret. Outsiders can only guess based on scant open sources. We scrutinise bits of seemingly unconnected information for a pattern, subtle nuances in official statements, even body language between civilian chiefs and top military officers.

    Reasons for the delay could be international or domestic, could be caused by civilian or military considerations.

    Map of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Israel [Al Jazeera]

    The first possibility would be the quest for a peaceful solution. Israel could be holding out to give informal and poorly coordinated international initiatives a chance to at least secure the release of some or all captives, if not to negotiate and secure a ceasefire.

    That line of thought has as little credibility as do the efforts of the international community. This is the most unlikely scenario. The determination to avenge the victims of October 7 seems so unwavering that even the pleas of the hostages’ families for them to be freed without fighting are being disregarded. Any armed hostage rescue situation could end in heavy collateral damage and captives dying rather than being freed.

    If the reasons keeping Israel from launching its wrath are military, could that be an indication that the high command, known as Matkal, fears that the current forces it has at its disposal are insufficient? No, that cannot be because it could easily raise hundreds of thousands of additional trained reservists and arm them from its warehouses.

    Another obstacle could be the realisation that the brigades poised around Gaza are not trained for bloody urban warfare and especially for what would certainly be the most difficult part of such a battle: subterranean fighting in the network of Hamas tunnels. That too cannot be the reason because the General Staff would have known how (un)prepared its forces are for that task on October 7 and would not have unleashed the fast mobilisation but would have first raised those units that needed specialised training.

    Ominous lull

    Yoav Gallant speaks with a soldier
    There might be discord between Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant (centre) and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on one side and the military commanders on the other [Handout: Israeli Ministry of Defence via Anadolu Agency]

    General Herzi Halevi, chief of the Israeli General Staff, and his associates must be uneasy. They have half a million soldiers getting nervous, not knowing what their task is or when and how they will roll into action.

    Every sergeant in every army knows that the worst thing for military morale is uncertainty, indecision, waiting, loitering and expecting the unknown. In peacetime, grunts are made to do menial tasks just to prevent that poisonous uneasiness, but in war, it sets in and erodes fighting capabilities rapidly.

    So why are the Israelis allowing their armed forces to start doubting their purpose? Everything points to discord between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Galant on one side and Halevi and his commanders on the other.

    Since time immemorial, officers obeying higher orders, imperial, royal or civilian, want those to be clear, well defined, without doubts and uncertainties. When civilian authorities order the army into action, they must outline the strategic goals and the fallback options if the primary goals prove elusive. Generals want their orders in writing so that after the battle, responsibility for eventual shortcomings or failures can be honestly apportioned.

    In the case of Israel, the generals certainly want the cabinet to tell them what it expects the forces to do and what the politically acceptable level of losses and casualties is. It is Matkal’s job to plan for all eventualities, but it needs to be told what the policy is.

    If, hypothetically, the cabinet were to say: “We want to expel all Palestinians from Gaza, kick them into Egypt,” or “We want to get into Shujaieya Park, into the centre of Gaza City, raise the Israeli flag there, stay for a month and withdraw into Israel,” the military command would calculate the force levels and composition of forces needed and get them ready and deployed. It would plan for various eventualities, from easy victory to bloody deadlock or unacceptable losses and defeat.

    The current ominous lull might be an indication of a standoff between the civilians and the military. I am only guessing, but it would be consistent with Netanyahu’s cowboy style and bully mentality to try to pressure the army into action with muddled orders, something along the lines of: “Just move in, kick Hamas fighters as much as you can and then we will see how it develops.”

    It would also be consistent with the mentality of generals who feel a responsibility to their junior officers and troops to resist acting on vague instructions that the military sees as irresponsible.

    For all of the above reasons, these uncertainties probably cannot be allowed to go on much longer. Israel must either launch the big offensive soon or say it is postponed, possibly indefinitely.

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  • Pro-Israel rallies allowed in India but Palestine solidarity sees crackdown

    Pro-Israel rallies allowed in India but Palestine solidarity sees crackdown

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    New Delhi, India – Israel’s relentless bombing of the besieged Gaza Strip and killing of nearly 6,000 people – a third of them children – in two weeks has outraged people across the world, triggering mass protests and a call for an immediate ceasefire.

    However, in India – the first non-Arab country to recognise the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), but now seen closer to Israel and its biggest benefactor, the United States – some pro-Palestine protesters reported being targeted by the government.

    Less than a week after the Gaza assault began, police in Hamirpur district of India’s most populous Uttar Pradesh state were looking for Muslim scholars Atif Chaudhary and Suhail Ansari. Their alleged crime: putting a WhatsApp display photo that said: “I stand with Palestine.”

    The two men were charged with promoting enmity between social groups. Ansari is under arrest, while Chaudhary is on the run, according to the police.

    Messages written on the hand of a protester near Embassy of Israel in New Delhi [Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters]

    In the same state, governed by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), four students of the Aligarh Muslim University were booked by the police after they took out a pro-Palestine march on the campus a day after the Gaza assault began on October 7.

    However, when the Hindu far-right group Bajrang Dal took out a pro-Israel march in the same Aligarh city, raising slogans such as “Down with Palestine, Down with Hamas”, no action was taken against them by the authorities.

    ‘As if I have committed some crime’

    In the national capital, New Delhi, there have been several examples of people being detained during rallies organised by student groups, activists and citizens for solidarity with the Palestinians since October 7.

    In the western state of Maharashtra, also governed by the BJP in alliance with a regional party, two protesters, Ruchir Lad and Supreeth Ravish, were arrested on October 13 for holding a march against the war on Gaza and charged with unlawful assembly.

    Pooja Chinchole, member of the Revolutionary Workers Party of India and one of the organisers of the protest held in state capital Mumbai, told Al Jazeera the police “created many hurdles before us when they got to know that we are organising a pro-Palestine protest”.

    “They detained one of the organisers a day before the protest and three organisers on the morning of the protest. When we still gathered to protest, they snatched our microphone, placards, and after a while, started using force on some of us,” she said.

    India Israel-Palestine protest
    Police detain a women at a protest in support of Palestinians in New Delhi [Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters]

    The crackdown, however, was not limited to the BJP-ruled states only.

    In the southern Karnataka state, governed by the main opposition Congress party, police charged 10 activists with creating a public nuisance after they organised a silent march in support of the Palestinians on October 16 in Bengaluru, the capital of the state.

    The Karnataka police also arrested a 58-year-old Muslim man for allegedly posting a video in support of Hamas on WhatsApp. Police also briefly detained Alam Nawaz, a Muslim government employee, for updating his WhatsApp status with a Palestinian flag and “Long Live Palestine” message.

    “People started seeing me with suspicion as if I have committed some crime by expressing my solidarity with Palestinian people,” Nawaz, 20, told Al Jazeera.

    All this despite the Congress expressing its support for the “rights of the Palestinian people to land, self-government and to live with dignity” as the party called for an immediate ceasefire in a resolution passed by its working committee on October 9.

    ‘Israel fighting proxy war on behalf of Hindus’

    Meanwhile, pro-Israel rallies, organised mainly by Hindu right-wing groups, were seen across India, while many on social media offered their services to the Israeli forces.

    On Saturday, dozens of supporters of a retired Indian army soldier travelled 182km (113 miles) to reach the Israeli embassy in New Delhi where they offered to go to Israel to fight against the Palestinians in Gaza.

    Last week, one of India’s most influential Hindu nationalists, Yati Narsinghanand, released a video in which he said Hindus and Jews “have the same enemy: Muhammad and his satanic book” as he urged the Israeli government to allow 1,000 Hindus to settle in Israel in order to “take on those Muslims”.

    Israel’s ambassador to India, Naor Gilon, on October 8 said he had received several requests from Indians wanting to voluntarily fight for Israel.

    Apoorvanand, professor of Hindi language at Delhi University, told Al Jazeera he was not surprised that the Hindu far right, which openly admires Adolf Hitler for his action against the Jews, is now supporting the Zionists in Israel.

    “Hindu far-right organisations in India have always supported those who dominate by violence. Hitler did once, so they supported him. Now Israel is doing this, so they are supporting it,” he said.

    India Israel march
    People hold placards in solidarity with Israel in Ahmedabad, Gujarat [File: Ajit Solanki/AP Photo]

    Apoorvanand said the Hindu right in India thinks there are ideological linkages between them and the Zionists in Israel.

    “It looks like Israel is fighting a proxy war on behalf of the Hindu far right. They think Israel is fighting and decimating Muslims on their behalf. The way they want to establish Akhand Bharat [Unified India] by joining Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal together with India, they think Israel is following the same expansionist ideology,” he said.

    This was not always the case.

    India-Israel ties and Palestine struggle

    India’s foreign policy has historically supported the Palestinian cause, which began with India voting against the United Nations resolution to create the state of Israel in 1947 and then recognising the PLO as a representative of the Palestinian people in 1974.

    India’s pro-Palestine stand was guided by the shared history of colonisation by the British, Zikrur Rahman, former Indian ambassador to Palestine, told Al Jazeera.

    “In the postcolonial era, we identified that this is a colonial attempt to divide the country and to create another country. We were not in favour of the creation of a country on the basis of religion,” he said.

    Rahman, however, added that while India’s position on Palestine has not changed, it is not as strong as it used to be.

    India recognised the creation of Israel in 1950, but did not establish diplomatic relations until 1992, when the details of the first Oslo Accord were being finalised. Since then, India has tried to strike a balance between its strategic relations with Israel and sympathising with the Palestinian struggle.

    Today, India is the largest buyer of Israeli-made weapons, while strategic and security cooperation between them has grown manifold. Comparisons have also been made between Israel demolishing homes of Palestinians in the occupied territories and a similar policy adopted by some BJP state governments mainly against Muslims as forms of “collective punishment” of the community.

    Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, he has made public statements, calling his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu a “good friend” on several occasions.

    Modi was one of the first global leaders to post his solidarity with Israel after Hamas’s unprecedented incursion on October 7. “Deeply shocked by the news of terrorist attacks in Israel,” said his post on X, which came four hours before US President Joe Biden reacted to the event.

    Modi also condemned the Israeli attack on al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza on October 18, in which nearly 500 Palestinians were killed, though his message on X appeared nearly eight hours after Biden’s post.

    Meanwhile, India’s Ministry of External Affairs issued a statement on October 12, reiterating New Delhi’s position of establishing a “sovereign, independent, and viable state of Palestine, living within secure and recognised borders, side by side at peace with Israel”.

    Last week, Modi posted on X about his phone call with the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, in which he repeated India’s “longstanding principled position on the Israel-Palestine issue”. He said his government is sending humanitarian assistance for the besieged residents of Gaza.

    Journalist Anand K Sahay, however, thinks India’s response to the unfolding humanitarian disaster in Gaza has not been adequate.

    “What India didn’t say is important. India didn’t demand a ceasefire. Historically, India has always demanded a ceasefire in case of a [foreign] war. In this case also we should have strongly said: stop the war,” he told Al Jazeera.

    Sahay said Modi’s flaunting of closeness with Israel is also aimed at appeasing his core vote bank: the Hindus.

    “Suppose there was another religion in majority in Palestine. Then our stand may have been different. During the Russia-Ukraine war, we said ‘this is not an age of war’. Why couldn’t we say this in case of Israel-Palestine war?” asked Sahay.

    “By not asking for a ceasefire, India was also indirectly signalling the US that the Indian position was very close to the US line.”

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  • More than 700 killed in overnight Israeli attacks, Gaza officials say

    More than 700 killed in overnight Israeli attacks, Gaza officials say

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    Health ministy says it was the highest number of deaths in Gaza in a 24-hour period since Israeli assault began.

    More than 700 Palestinians were killed in overnight Israeli air raids on Gaza, according to Palestinian officials, the highest 24-hour death toll since Israel began bombarding the the besieged territory earlier this month.

    The Israeli military said on Tuesday it hit more than 400 “Hamas targets” and killed dozens of Hamas fighters in the attacks, and warned that it would take time to achieve its aim of destroying the Palestinian group.

    Israel launched an assault on Gaza after Hamas fighters killed at least 1,400 people in a surprise attack on southern Israel on October 7.

    The health ministry in Gaza, which is governed by Hamas, has said at least 5,791 Palestinians, including 2,360 children, have been killed in the Israeli assault.

    A total of 704 people were killed in the previous 24 hours alone, the ministry said on Tuesday.

    Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra said it was the highest 24-hour number of deaths in the two weeks of Israeli bombing.

    Palestinians rescue a survivor of Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip in Nuseirat refugee camp [Ali Mohmoud/AP Photo]

    “Thousands of families have been instantly displaced; its just full of rubble and debris everywhere,” said Al Jazeera’s Youmna ElSayed, reporting from Gaza.

    “You can hear the sound of drones and Israeli jets in the sky. Everyone says, everyone feels that there is no safe place in the Strip to be in anymore”.

    The Israeli military said it killed three Hamas deputy commanders in the attacks.

    Witnesses and health officials said many of the air raids hit residential buildings, some of them in southern Gaza where Israel had told civilians to take shelter.

    One overnight attack levelled a four-storey residential building in the southern city of Khan Younis, killing at least 32 people and wounding dozens of others, survivors told The Associated Press news agency.

    In Gaza City, at least 19 people were killed when an air raid hit the house of the Bahloul family, according to survivors, who said dozens more people remained buried. Workers pulled at least two children out of the collapsed building.

    INTERACTIVE_INFRASTRUCTURE_DAMAGE_GAZA_OCT23_2023-2-1698040482
    [Al Jazeera]

    Aid trucks

    In addition to bombarding the territory, Israel has cut access to food, water, medicine and fuel in a “complete siege”.

    More than 40 medical centres have stopped operations due to the shortages and the damage caused by the bombing, the health ministry spokesperson said.

    Several aid trucks have crossed from Egypt to Gaza since Sunday, but the United Nations has warned of a “humanitarian catastrophe” if aid shipments were not ramped up significantly.

    Jeremey Laurence, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said, “The aid which resumed from Egypt over the weekend is a mere drop in the ocean of what is needed.”

    Fuel, which has been left out of the deliveries due to the agreement with Israel, was crucial, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said.

    “Fuel is extremely urgent because, without fuel, the trucks themselves cannot move,” UNRWA spokesperson Tamara Alrifai said. “Without fuel, the generators cannot produce electricity for hospitals, for bakeries and for the water desalination plant”.

    UN humanitarian agencies said on Tuesday they were on their “knees” pleading for unimpeded aid to enter Gaza.

     

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  • France’s Macron the latest Western leader to visit Israel

    France’s Macron the latest Western leader to visit Israel

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    French president to express ‘full solidarity’ with Israel but also emphasise ‘true peace process’ with the Palestinians.

    French President Emmanuel Macron has landed in Tel Aviv for a “solidarity” visit to Israel amid its continued bombardment of the Gaza Strip, weeks after deadly attacks launched by the Palestinian group Hamas.

    Macron is the latest Western leader to visit Israel, following counterparts from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and others.

    He is set to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog on Tuesday to express his country’s “full solidarity” with Israel, according to AFP.

    The French news agency, which was briefed by Macron’s office ahead of the visit, reported on Monday that the president will also call for the “preservation of the civilian population” in Gaza amid Israel’s relentless bombardment of the besieged enclave, and the “resumption of a genuine peace process” for the creation of a Palestinian state.

    Macron will also call for a “humanitarian truce” to allow desperately needed aid into Gaza, whose some 2.3 million people have been largely deprived of water, food, electricity, fuel and other basic supplies after an Israeli blockade, the Elysee Palace told AFP.

    Macron’s visit comes more than two weeks after Hamas members stormed into Israel, killing at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians, including about 30 French citizens.

    Israel has since relentlessly bombed Gaza, so far killing more than 5,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, while it prepares for a ground invasion of the blockaded area.

    During the October 7 attack, Hamas also took more than 200 people hostage.

    The French foreign ministry said seven of its citizens are still missing and that it has confirmed that “some of them are hostages of Hamas”.

    In Tel Aviv on Tuesday, Macron will also meet the families of French and French-Israeli nationals killed or being held hostage.

    The French president also aims to continue efforts “to avoid a dangerous escalation in the region”, the Elysee told AFP, amid growing alarm over swelling cross-border exchanges between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

    He will propose relaunching a “true peace process”, with the aim of creating a viable Palestinian state in exchange for guarantees from regional powers towards “Israel’s security”.

    Macron will most likely also travel to Lebanon and Egypt, the French newspaper Le Parisien reported, citing diplomatic circles.

    Elsewhere on Tuesday, Qatar’s emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani warned that the dangerous escalation of the war on Gaza threatened the region and the world. He urged that the fighting should stop and said “Israel shouldn’t be given a green light for unconditional killing”.

    In Rome on Tuesday, Italian President Sergio Mattarella emphasised the need to avoid the escalation of violence, and commit to a common and peaceful solution in the region.

    On Sunday, leaders of the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Britain underscored their support for Israel and its right to defend itself, but also urged it to adhere to international humanitarian law and protect civilians.

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  • How Israeli bombing turned Gaza’s desperate situation into a ‘catastrophe’

    How Israeli bombing turned Gaza’s desperate situation into a ‘catastrophe’

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    Two weeks of intense Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip has killed more than 5,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, and those who have escaped death are facing hunger and struggling to get basic necessities, such as clean water and medicines.

    More than 60 percent of Gaza residents needed food aid even before the latest Israeli bombing campaign started on October 7 in the wake of deadly Hamas attacks inside Israel.

    Gaza, which is 10km (6 miles) wide and 41km (25 miles) long, is home to 2.3 million people who have been under an Israeli land, sea and air blockade since 2007. They have faced five military offensives since Israeli soldiers and settlers withdrew from the enclave in 2005.

    The humanitarian situation in Gaza has become “catastrophic”, UN agencies say, because Israel has cut off supplies of food, water, fuel and electricity.

    What is the food situation like in Gaza now?

    Gaza’s entire population faces food shortages, according to a joint report by the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

    “The destruction [by the Israeli strikes] has severely disrupted the food supply chains in Gaza,” it said.

     

    Israel has allowed three convoys of aid trucks to cross from Egypt into Gaza, but up to 100 trucks carrying essential aid are waiting in Egypt for approval to leave.

    With several bakeries bombed and others shutting down because there isn’t enough water or power, UN agencies, including the WFP, are able to provide bread for just one meal a day.

    Kifah Qudeh is staying at a shelter run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) at the Ahmed Abdelaziz School in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. He told Al Jazeera that every two to three days, he is given three pieces of flat bread and is allowed to fill up four bottles of water to sustain his wife and three children.

    “We cut one piece of bread in half, and if we have access to jam or something else, we put that inside and give it to the children. If not, it’s plain bread. It’s not enough to sustain us, but it’s all we have,” he said.

    Is food scarcity now worse than before?

    The situation is dire with no one aware how much longer their limited food supplies will last. Shops that have so far survived air strikes have empty shelves and no way to restock. Many people left their homes in a rush without money after Israel started air strikes on October 7. Not everyone can afford to buy what little is still available.

    Food supplies were already limited under Israel’s 16-year blockade of Gaza although Qudeh says at least he was able to pick up a bag of six or seven fresh flatbreads every day from Gaza’s bakeries. It was enough to feed his family. “We’d eat this with some canned cheese or hummus if we could get it.”

    Even before the current war, food entering Gaza was mainly canned goods and processed foods like “tinned cheese, potato chips and instant noodles – ultraprocessed foods that are known to cause health issues”, Iman Farajallah, a Palestinian psychotherapist based in California, told Al Jazeera.

    As a result, Gaza residents suffer from malnourishment, said Yusra Eshaq, a nutritionist based in the United Kingdom.

    “Palestinians in Gaza have already been malnourished for years, and for their bodies to now further endure food rationing, it will take a real toll,” she said.

    With a dramatic drop in calories, the body will start to break down fat and then later muscle mass. This is the danger zone when organs can start to fail, Eshaq explained.

    How has 16 years of the Israeli blockade impacted Gaza?

    Farajallah, who grew up in Gaza in the 1990s, said: “We’d eat a breakfast of locally grown tomatoes and cucumbers, homemade cheese that my mother would make from fresh milk and eggs from the chickens that many homes once kept. It honestly feels like another lifetime.”

    She left Gaza for California about 20 years ago to continue her studies and become a psychotherapist, but she knows all too well the realities on the ground from her trips back to visit family and from the regular calls in between.

    “Palestinians like to eat together as a family and not just dinner but three times a day. We’d have dishes of maqlouba [a layered dish of meat, vegetables and rice] and mansaf [lamb cooked in fermented yogurt] and warak anab [stuffed grape leaves], but later under the Israeli blockade, meat became a rarity only to be consumed on Eid al-Adha, and that was if there was a way for the livestock to enter Gaza,” she said by phone.

    Her family who remained in Gaza started to eat less because the processed foods came at a price and the Gaza economy had begun to suffer from limited trade and travel.

    “My sister in Gaza started to change her dishes because of a lack of food. Whereas she may have roasted stuffed chicken with nuts and raisins, under the blockade if she was able to get chicken, she’d boil it to make a simple soup for her kids, a treat for her family, and they’d eat this with bread,” Farajallah said.

    Does Gaza still have water?

    Gaza has water for now, but it’s limited and often contaminated and tastes salty.

    Gaza’s only subterranean aquifer is exhausted, meaning water is unsanitary to drink and can’t be used to water plants.

    The UN says 97 percent of Gaza’s water does not meet World Health Organization (WHO) standards.

    Palestinians living in the enclave have became reliant on private water tanks and small desalination plants for their drinking water.

    Children queue to fill bottles of water to last them until their next refill, possibly days later
    Children queue to fill bottles of water [Mohammed Abed/AFP]

    The last desalination station stopped working on Tuesday when its fuel ran out. Israel said it has renewed its water supplies to southern Gaza, but Palestinians said many water pipes have been damaged in the recent Israeli shelling. And without electricity, water pumps to fill the tanks are not working.

    Qudeh said: “We are among the lucky ones. … We have some water.” Every two days he is able to fill four plastic bottles of water from UNRWA supplies.

    But he’s careful to ration for himself and his family.

    “We try to stick to a glassful a day. It’s difficult not to gulp it down, but we are aware of the situation and have to be careful with what we have to make it last,” he said.

    Other Palestinians have described on social media how they are rationing food and making sure children eat and drink first.

    If water runs out, how long can one survive?

    A WFP nutrition specialist based in Jerusalem told Al Jazeera a healthy adult can live up to 10 days without water and a child up to five days.

    Our bodies are made up of 75 percent water, and adults should drink about 2.5 to 3 litres of water a day for their bodies to function at optimum health. But shortages mean people are drinking less water.

    Bread and water are keeping Palestinians going, but it's uncertain for how much longer
    Bread and water are keeping Palestinians going, but it’s uncertain for how much longer [Dawood Nemer/AFP]

    “Yes, we need water for our body to work, from our brains to our kidneys to our hearts. It runs through our blood, our digestive juices, our sweat. And if we don’t have it, we die,” Eshaq said.

    The first effects of dehydration can start on the first day with too little water. “So someone may feel dizzy and light-headed and will have a dry mouth,” she said, adding that such a condition can quickly cause reduced cognitive functions.

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  • ‘Beautiful solidarity’: Cooking for displaced Palestinians in southern Gaza

    ‘Beautiful solidarity’: Cooking for displaced Palestinians in southern Gaza

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    Khan Younis, Gaza – On the pavement outside Jamil Abu Assi’s home in the southern Gaza town of Bani Suhaila east of Khan Younis, the 31-year-old and his cousins are busy cooking large cauldrons of food.

    Abu Assi once cooked home meals based on requests from people. But after an Israeli air raid destroyed his kitchen during the 2014 Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, he shifted gears.

    His family still cooks, but now specifically with the aim of helping those who have been displaced by Israel’s attacks and siege on Gaza. It’s a mission that’s being tested like never before.

    According to the United Nations, one million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been internally displaced since Israel began bombarding the territory on October 7. The blockaded enclave’s total population is 2.3 million. Many have moved to the south of the Strip following repeated warnings from the Israeli military to leave the north.

    Every day, the family cooks 2,000 meals that feed some of those who have arrived in Khan Younis, swelling the southern city’s population to more than half a million from about 220,000 in 2021.

    “I start my morning searching for wood because we do not have cooking gas,” he told Al Jazeera, referring to the complete blockade on fuel supplies to Gaza enforced by Israel since October 7. But some days, fetching wood is risky, he said, given the town’s proximity to the Israel border. On Sunday, the Palestinian armed group Hamas — which governs the Gaza Strip — said it had pushed back an attempted Israeli raid into the Khan Younis area, in which an Israeli soldier was killed.

    “I don’t want to put myself in danger,” Abu Assi said.

    Yaser Abu Assi cooks rice mainly with lentils and freekeh as meat has become scarce due to butcher shops being closed [Yaser Qudeih/Al Jazeera]

    ‘We try to do our part’

    Abu Assi and his cousins have divided up their roles to be more efficient. One person is tasked with chopping onions, another with adding ingredients and stirring the pot, and a third with wrapping and packaging the meals.

    Most of the meals include rice, lentils and freekeh, a cereal prepared by roasting green grain. Meat was previously a staple, but is now harder to get as many butchers have closed their shops after being damaged by Israeli bombs and amid a lack of supplies.

    Many Palestinians who have moved to southern Gaza have taken shelter at schools run by the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) — the UN agency for Palestinian refugees — believing those to be relatively safer spaces. Others are staying in cramped conditions with host families and communities. Some left the north with only the clothes on their backs, others with small backpacks.

    “The schools are hardly places of refuge,” he said. “They are cemeteries for the living, without the basic necessities of life. We try to do our part, however small, in alleviating this crisis for the people.”

    Israel’s devastating bombing campaign followed a surprise Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, leading to 1,400 people’s deaths. The Israeli bombardment of Gaza has since flattened entire neighbourhoods, and killed more than 4,600 Palestinians in 16 days, including 1,873 children and 1,023 women.

    Yet, to Abu Assi — as to Palestinians across Gaza, Israel and the occupied West Bank — the latest aggression is only a reminder of a personal history.

     

    Palestinian volunteer cook in Gaza
    At least 2,000 meals are cooked every day [Yaser Qudeih/Al Jazeera]

    ‘Beautiful social solidarity’

    Abu Assi is a third-generation refugee originally from Jaffa, where his grandparents were displaced in 1948 during what Palestinians refer to as the Nakba. More than 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly evicted from their lands and homes, some 500 towns and villages were destroyed, and thousands were killed in a process of ethnic cleansing carried out by Jewish militias and the military of the then-nascent Israeli state.

    “Our grandfather told us that being a refugee is very hard to take, and that this bitterness will never be forgotten and is handed down to each generation,” Abu Assi recalled. “The pain in our hearts will never make us forgive Israel for what it has done and continues to do to us.”

    The children affected by the war this time around will never be able to forget surviving without food, water or electricity, he said.

    But amid the terror and trauma of missiles and the siege, a community has come together. Some people have approached the Abu Assi family to see if they too could also donate food to displaced Palestinians.

    “There is a beautiful social solidarity in the city of Khan Younis,” Abu Assi said. “We cannot accept hungry people not being able to find food, so there has been this organic cooperation to make sure that initiative continues to operate.”

    Palestinian volunteer cook in Gaza
    The Abu Assi family begin meal and cooking prep at 7am and finish at 2pm [Yaser Qudeih/Al Jazeera]

    ‘Feel safe among the people’

    To accommodate the food needs of the rising displaced population that Khan Younis is hosting, Abu Assi has increased the number of cooking burners and divided the work among two teams.

    Meal preparation starts at seven in the morning, and the cooking goes on until 2pm.

    “We cannot leave our workplaces, but we told those who need food to come from two in the afternoon until 5pm,” Abu Assi said.

    “Some citizens volunteer to distribute meals in their cars to the displaced, which is a nice gesture as many of the displaced do not have means of transportation nor know the area very well.”

    Some families are grateful even just for rice — often for their only meal of the day.

    Karama Musallam, a 40-year-old mother of five, was looking for food when she came upon the Abu Assi family.

    Her family, including her 80-year-old mother-in-law, fled their home in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoon at the start of the war. They are staying at UNRWA school in Bani Suhaila.

    Musallam does not know anyone or have relatives in and around Khan Younis.

    “When I went out to look for food, I found these young men cooking and they gave me two meals so that it would be enough for my children,” she said.

    “They told me that I could come every day and take whatever meals available,” she added. “That is why I felt safe among the people.”

    “We are all one community.”

    Palestinian volunteer cook in Gaza
    Palestinian volunteers help distribute the meals to the displaced living in the UNRWA schools in Khan Younis [Yaser Qudeih/Al Jazeera]

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  • Israeli air attacks kill 30 in Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp: Civil defence

    Israeli air attacks kill 30 in Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp: Civil defence

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    The bodies were recovered from under bombed buildings, most of them women and children, civil defence in Gaza said.

    Thirty bodies, most of them women and children, have been recovered from underneath the ruins of bombed buildings in Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, the civil defence unit there told Al Jazeera.

    Gaza’s Ministry of Interior said there were many casualties following an Israeli air attack late on Sunday on a residential building in the largest of eight refugee camps in the strip.

    At least 27 people were also injured, with hospitals saying they are struggling to treat the wounded.

    “We are suffering from an acute shortage of medicines and medical equipment,” the director of the Indonesian Hospital in North Gaza told Al Jazeera.

    Israel has continued to bomb the Gaza Strip for more than two weeks in response to an incursion by Hamas on Israeli soil on October 7. The strike on the camp comes as the death toll in Gaza climbed to 4,651 and the number of injured to 14,245 since the Hamas attack, according to the besieged enclave’s health ministry.

    ‘We will never be safe’

    The densely populated Jabalia camp is also home to three schools run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

    Some of these schools have been converted into shelters for hundreds of displaced families.

    There were also earlier bombardments of the camp by Israel. Amnesty International reports that on October 9, Israeli air attacks hit a market in the camp, one of the busiest areas in Gaza with a yet-unknown number of people killed in the attacks.

    One resident of the camp who survived them says the events of the last two weeks have changed everything.

    “For me,” Asmaa Tayeh, a young writer told Al Jazeera, “I believe we will never be safe even after the war is over. In fact, I will never feel free as long as Palestine is occupied and its people terrorised.”

    The first shipments of aid arrived in the Gaza Strip on Saturday and Sunday but aid groups say it is a fraction of what is needed as thousands remain trapped.

    Before October 7, several hundred aid trucks arrived in Gaza each day.

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  • Second aid convoy enters Gaza as Israel steps up bombardments

    Second aid convoy enters Gaza as Israel steps up bombardments

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    A second humanitarian convoy has crossed from Egypt into the Gaza Strip as Israel continues its non-stop bombardment of the besieged enclave, killing 55 people overnight.

    A total of 17 trucks entered Gaza on Sunday, a day after the first convoy comprising 20 trucks carried medical aid, food and water into the area. The strip has been under intense Israeli bombing since October 7 in the wake of deadly Hamas attack that claimed the lives of more than 1,400 Israelis.

    Reporting from Khan Younis in Gaza, journalist Hani Abu Isheba told Al Jazeera that the trucks are said to contain mostly much-needed medical aid.

    “Doctors are telling us that the aid is meant for hospitals in the Gaza Strip which are in dire need of medical supplies. No fuel has been reported on these trucks,” he said, adding that hospitals are very concerned about the lack of fuel.

    Speaking to Al Jazeera from Gaza, Thomas White of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said that the visuals of aid trucks on television which appear to look like fuel trucks do contain fuel that UNRWA is moving internally between depots.

    “No fuel is coming into Gaza. Fuel is really critical now, we need it coming in to keep aid operations going,” he said.

    Aid agencies are also warning that the delivery of supplies should remain consistent since it is currently “only a drop in the ocean”, and cannot cover the immense needs of Gaza’s 2.3 million people.

    The humanitarian situation in the densely populated enclave is dire. There is not only a shortage of medical supplies, but food and drinking water are also scarce as Israel has cut off electricity, fuel and water supplies in the wake of the deadliest attacks in decades.

    According to the UN, sanitation facilities, water wells, reservoirs and pumping stations have suffered damage due to the incessant air strikes.

    The international agency estimates that about 100 trucks per day are needed to meet the needs of Gaza.

    Cindy McCain, the executive director of the World Food Programme, told Al Jazeera: “We’ve got to get more trucks in.” She added that it is also important to ensure aid reaches the hands of the right beneficiaries, in a safe and sustained manner.

    Bombardments continue

    Meanwhile, aid deliveries have come as the Israeli military continued bombing Gaza and Rafah overnight.

    Israel’s overnight air raids have killed at least 55 people and destroyed 30 homes in Gaza, according to local authorities.

    After Rafah was bombed by the Israeli army on Saturday, journalist Isheba told Al Jazeera that the scene near the crossing was one of “humanitarian aid delivery under mass bombardment”.

    The UN has stepped up its pressure on both Israel and Hamas and has begun calling for “a humanitarian ceasefire” to determine where aid can safely be delivered.

    “What that means is very simple: We need to have clarity about places which will not be bombed or attacked by anyone – by either side,” UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Martin Griffiths told Al Jazeera.

    “Typically, civilian infrastructure, hospitals, schools, and so forth are actually exempt from any attack in war, by the rules of war by international humanitarian law,” said Griffiths, without directly referencing reported Israeli strikes on hospitals and schools hosting displaced residents of Gaza.

    The UN aid chief added that he wanted negotiations to yield a formalised “inspection regime” of aid delivered into Gaza – as has been established in other conflicts – as well as a mechanism for establishing an “up-to-date” picture of the needs of Gaza residents to better raise funding and deliver relief.

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  • Israel-Gaza: Genocidal rhetoric and the fog of war

    Israel-Gaza: Genocidal rhetoric and the fog of war

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    We’ve seen the language of extermination, incessant bombardment and hellish scenes on TV. And as the war intensifies, the chaos of misinformation deepens.

    Two weeks into Israel’s war on Gaza, what the world is witnessing – from Israeli leaders’ racist and genocidal rhetoric to the mass killing of Palestinian civilians – bears the hallmarks of a historic crime. This episode looks at how the media are responding – in Israel and beyond.

    Contributors:
    Neve Gordon – professor of international law and human rights, Queen Mary University
    Tariq Kenney-Shawa – US policy fellow, Al-Shabaka
    Antony Loewenstein – Author of books such as The Palestine Laboratory
    Yousef Munayyer – senior fellow, Arab Center Washington, DC
    Sherine Tadros – deputy director of advocacy & UN representative, Amnesty International

    From disinformation to ‘shadow banning’: Marwa Fatafta on the digital front line

    With journalists locked out of the Gaza Strip, social platforms have become a vital means of finding and sharing information as well as another front in the propaganda war. Marwa Fatafta, a Palestinian digital rights analyst, talks us through the online dimension of this conflict – including disinformation, hate speech and the censorship of Palestinian voices.

    Contributor:
    Marwa Fatafta – MENA policy manager, Access Now

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  • Hamas says Israel refused to receive 2 hostages; Israel calls it propaganda

    Hamas says Israel refused to receive 2 hostages; Israel calls it propaganda

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    Hamas captured about 210 people during its deadly assault in southern Israel on October 7 and they are being held in unknown locations inside Gaza.

    Hamas says it offered to release two Israelis captured during its deadly raid but Israel’s government refused to take them. Israel described the claim as “mendacious propaganda”.

    Abu Obeida, a spokesman for the al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, said that the mediator Qatar was told of the group’s intention to release the Israelis on Friday, the same day it freed Americans Judith Tai Ranaan and her daughter Natalie.

    “We informed our Qatari brothers yesterday evening that we would be releasing Nourit Yitshaq and Yokhefed Lifshitz for humanitarian reasons and without expecting anything in return. However, the Israeli occupation government refused to accept them,” Obeida said on Telegram on Saturday.

    Hamas captured about 210 people during its deadly assault in southern Israel on October 7 and they are being held in unknown locations inside Gaza.

    In a brief statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said: “We will not refer to false propaganda by Hamas. We will continue to act in every way to return all the kidnapped and missing people home.”

    Qatar, which helped mediate Friday’s release, had no immediate comment.

    In a later statement, Obeida said Hamas was still ready to free the two people on Sunday “using the same procedures” involved in the release of the Americans.

    ‘Refused to take them’

    Hamas spokesman Khaled al-Qaddoumi told Al Jazeera the Israeli government “was not serious” about the release of the captives.

    “We have offered to hand over those captives who are in severe humanitarian condition for solely humanitarian reasons. We wanted to hand them over to their families but the government is not serious. Unfortunately, the government of Israel refused to take them.”

    Al-Qaddoumi said Israel provided no reason for not accepting the offer.

    Those held by Hamas include women, children, the elderly, people from other countries – who have been working for their release – and Israeli soldiers.

    Akiva Eldar, an Israeli political analyst, author and journalist, said if Hamas wants to release hostages, it can hand them over to groups such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, or let them cross into Egypt.

    “If it’s not part of a quid pro quo or anything that Israel has to give in return, then it’s very simple – just like they allowed the two American citizens to cross the border with the assistance of the Red Cross,” he noted.

    ‘Very soon’ hostages will be free

    A spokesperson for Qatar’s foreign ministry said the release of the American hostages on Friday came after “many days of continuous communication with all parties”.

    Majed al-Ansari, a foreign ministry spokesman, told the German Welt am Sonntag newspaper Qatar is hopeful that all the captives will soon be freed.

    “I can’t promise you this will happen today or tomorrow or after tomorrow. But we are taking a path that will very soon lead to release of the hostages, especially civilians,” said al-Ansari.

    “We are currently working on an agreement under which all civilian hostages will be initially released.”

    The multi-pronged Hamas attack on Israel, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and wounded about 3,500 others on October 7.

    Israel responded with intense air attacks on Gaza, levelling once-densely populated neighbourhoods and imposing a total blockade on the enclave. Nearly 4,400 people in Gaza have been killed and 13,500 wounded in two weeks of fighting.

    With forces massed on the barrier with Gaza, Israel has threatened a ground invasion to “destroy Hamas”.

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  • Israel tells citizens to leave Egypt, Jordan ‘as soon as possible’

    Israel tells citizens to leave Egypt, Jordan ‘as soon as possible’

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    National Security Council raises threat levels for Middle Eastern countries as Israel continues its bombardment of Gaza.

    Israel has called on its citizens to immediately leave Egypt and Jordan, and to try and avoid travelling to other regional countries, as tensions flare over its war in Gaza.

    “Israel’s National Security Council raises its travel warnings for Egypt (including Sinai) and Jordan to level 4 (high threat): recommendation not to travel to these countries and for those staying there to leave … as soon as possible,” the country’s National Security Council said in a statement on Saturday.

    It also raised the threat level for Morocco to a “3” and advised Israelis to avoid non-essential travel.

    Local media said the council’s announcement was due to fears that Israeli travellers would be targets of those angry at the continuing war on Gaza that began after a Hamas onslaught on October 7.

    Israel is readying for a ground assault on Gaza, after two weeks of aerial attacks on the besieged Strip that have killed more than 4,100 Palestinians. About 1,400 people have also been killed in Israel.

    “Due to the continuation of the war, further significant aggravation has been detected in protests against Israel in recent days in various countries of the world, with an emphasis on Arab countries in the Middle East, alongside displays of hostility and violence against Israeli and Jewish symbols,” the statement said.

    The notice comes just days after Israel recalled its diplomats from Turkey as a security precaution following an earlier request for its citizens to leave as well.

    The statement also recommended Israelis avoid staying in other Arab countries, including Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. And it suggested Israelis also not travel to countries including Malaysia, Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Maldives.

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  • As Gaza is bombed, EU staff decry chief’s ‘uncontrolled’ support of Israel

    As Gaza is bombed, EU staff decry chief’s ‘uncontrolled’ support of Israel

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    Brussels, Belgium – As Gaza is relentlessly bombed by Israel, more than 800 EU officials have written to the bloc’s chief, Ursula von der Leyen, criticising her “uncontrolled” support of Israel.

    The signatories of the letter, which Al Jazeera has seen, say they “hardly recognise the values of the EU”, claiming there is a “seeming indifference demonstrated over the past few days by our institution towards the ongoing massacre of civilians in the Gaza Strip, in disregard for human rights and international humanitarian law”.

    They say they are saddened by the Commission’s “double standards”, since it considers the blockade of Ukraine by Russia as an act of terror, while Israel’s blockade of Gaza is “completely ignored”.

    “If Israel does not stop immediately, the whole Gaza Strip and its inhabitants will be erased from the planet,” the letter read.

    “We urge you [von der Leyen] to call, together with the leaders of the whole Union, for a ceasefire and for the protection of civilian life. This is at the core of the EU existence,” they said, warning “the EU risks losing all credibility”.

    The letter represents deep divisions within the bloc on how to approach the Israel-Gaza war, which in less than two weeks has killed thousands of people.

    The European Commission’s “recent unfortunate actions or positions seem to give a free hand to the acceleration and the legitimacy of a war crime in the Gaza Strip”, the letter said.

    In Gaza, more than 4,000 Palestinians have been killed, many of them children.

    “We would have been proud if the European Union … had called for an immediate cessation of hostilities and indiscriminate violence against civilians,” the letter read.

    The call on von der Leyen follows other signs of political friction in the West, with reports that US diplomats are preparing a “dissent cable” on the Middle East war, a document criticising Washington’s policy that goes to State Department leaders.

    The European Commission said it was aware of the letter and is ready to engage with staff members and European citizens to understand their views.

    “The President has said on several occasions that ‘there is no contradiction in standing in solidarity with Israel and acting on the humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people,’” a Commission spokesperson told Al Jazeera.

    “She has also said, ‘There can be no hesitation on our [EU] side: Europe will always be on the side of humanity and of human rights.’”

    An EU source, who requested anonymity, told Al Jazeera that the letter was unlikely to change EU policy, “but it shows the growing divide between many staff members who want to see international law applied across the globe”.

    Von der Leyen, the European Commission president, is currently in the United States for an EU-US Summit.

    “We stand for peace and prosperity. Supporting Ukraine in its fight for freedom. Standing by Israel and addressing humanitarian needs in the region,” she said on Thursday.

    ‘They thought it would be a Ukraine moment’

    A second EU source told Al Jazeera that dissent is rising because von der Leyen’s team “appears to have completely misread the situation”.

    “They – her and her closest advisers – thought that this [Israel-Hamas war] would be a Ukraine moment, and so they need to condemn the terrorists and win the moral argument. But I think they’ve just been purely ignorant of the scale of oppression Palestinians have experienced, and the widespread understanding of the conflict as this being a violent reaction to occupation,” the official told Al Jazeera.

    Von der Leyen is “still morally struggling with how to take a stance”, the official said, adding that her position from now is likely to depend on diplomatic efforts “on the global scale and what US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says”.

    “[Her] team are trying to adjust their line and acknowledge that they misread the situation. They are trying to write a narrative where they can still be seen as staunch allies of Israel, but also as a diplomatic force in the region, while trying to maintain some level of credibility vis a vis the war Ukraine,” the official said.

    “But in this case, it looks like the Americans will be the adults in the room,” the official added.

    A few streets away from the European Commission, a similar sense of anger has been brewing among some staffers at the European Parliament, led by Roberta Metsola.

    “To see two of the three presidents [von der Leyen and Metsola] suddenly in Israel, standing shoulder to shoulder with a regime which is killing civilians was pretty shocking,” a Parliament official, who requested anonymity, told Al Jazeera.

    “How has Macklemore taken a more humane stance than the European Commission?” they said, referring to the American rapper and singer who has called for a “ceasefire in Israel” and also a “Free Palestine”.

    Meanwhile, the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, has won praise among some staffers who think he has a more nuanced stance towards the current situation in Gaza; throughout the latest war, he has regularly called for both the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza and for aid to be hurried into the besieged strip on brink of collapse.

    Kristina Kausch, a Madrid-based senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, said “inconsistencies” provide a glimpse into the “deep splits within the EU on this conflict”.

    Over the past decade, she added, on the Israel-Palestine crises, the 27 nations of the bloc “have barely managed to put out any common statements”.

    As a result, EU policy on the Israel-Palestine dossier, a key benchmark for the EU’s effectiveness as a global actor, “has been helplessly stalled”, she said.

    On Thursday, at the European Parliament headquarters in Strasbourg, members adopted a resolution calling for a “humanitarian pause” in the latest Israel-Gaza war.

    But officials told Al Jazeera of more divisions – such as debates over whether “ceasefire” or “pause” should be used for the resolution.

    One official pointed out that the resolution made no mention of the Israeli occupation or the blockade on Gaza.

    A fourth EU official Al Jazeera spoke to described a tense atmosphere across the institution, with many feeling ashamed to work for the bloc.

    “For my generation of workers, ‘Never Again’ actually means something,” they said. “We remember 9/11 and many of us protested the war in Iraq. So I think a lot of people were horrified when von der Leyen and Metsola seemed to offer a carte blanche to Israel, apparently in our name. It feels like the space to express solidarity with Palestinians is shrinking.

    “The conflation of Jewish people and the state of Israel is also a problem … The lack of diversity of both Jewish and Muslim people working for the EU doesn’t help.”

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  • Biden says US ‘holds world together’ as he condemns Putin and Hamas

    Biden says US ‘holds world together’ as he condemns Putin and Hamas

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    President addresses US in rare Oval Office speech and explains why country should back Ukraine and Israel.

    United States President Joe Biden has said he will ask Congress for more money to support Israel and Ukraine, asserting in an impassioned speech that both nations were fighting enemies of democracy.

    Speaking to  Americans from the Oval Office, Biden sought to make a link between the actions of Hamas in Israel and those of Russian president Vladimir Putin who sent his troops into Ukraine for a full-scale invasion in February 2022.

    Biden said stopping such aggression was crucial not only for the security of the US but also for the wider world.

    “Hamas and Putin represent different threats but they share this in common; they both want to annihilate a neighbouring democracy,” he said.

    He said if the US walked away and aggressors succeeded, others might be “emboldened to try the same” spreading the risk of conflict to other parts of the world.

    “American leadership is what holds the world together,” the president said during the 10-minute speech, only the second he has made from the Oval Office during his administration. “American alliances are what keep us, America, safe. American values are what make us a partner that other nations want to work with.”

    Biden was speaking hours after returning from a whirlwind trip to Tel Aviv, where he reiterated US support for Israel even amid its total blockade of Gaza and relentless bombardment of the Palestinian enclave of 2.3 million people.

    The visit had been meant to include a meeting with Arab leaders but the talks were cancelled after Gaza’s Al-Ahli Arab Hospital was hit hours before, killing some 500 people.

    Amid calls for a ceasefire, Biden was able to secure a commitment from Israel and Egypt to open the Rafah crossing for desperately needed humanitarian aid.

    Biden said he would be lodging an urgent request to Congress to support Israel and Ukraine on Friday.  He did not put a value to the security package but previous reports have suggested it could be as much as $100bn.

    Biden’s address comes amid paralysis in Congress where Republicans, who control the lower house, have struggled to appoint a new House of Representatives Speaker after removing Kevin McCarthy earlier this month.

    He said the US needed to rise above “petty, partisan, angry politics” and meet its responsibilities.

    “It’s a smart investment that will pay dividends for American security for generations,” he stressed.

    ‘Tragic loss’

    The conflict in Gaza erupted on October 7, when Hamas launched a surprise attack against Israel, killing more than 1,400 people and taking dozens captive.

    At least 3,785 Palestinians have been killed in the bombing campaign.

    Biden accused Hamas of unleashing “pure, unadulterated evil” on the world, and stressed that there was “‘no higher priority” for him as president than bringing home the US citizens being held by the armed group.

    While making clear his support for Israel, Biden said he was “heartbroken” by the “tragic loss” of Palestinian lives and that he had spoken with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to reiterate that the US remains “committed to the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and right to self-determination”.

    He stressed the urgent need for humanitarian assistance to the enclave and noted the agreement secured to get food, water and medicine into Gaza.

    “We cannot give up on peace,” he said. “We cannot give up on the two-state solution. Israel and the Palestinians equally deserve to live in safety, dignity and peace.”

    Biden’s speech at the Oval Office came after he again reassured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of US support for Kyiv in its bid to push Russian forces from Ukrainian territory.

    He noted that the US was an “essential” part of a group of about 50 countries that have backed Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

    Will make sure Ukraine has the “weapons they need to defend themselves”, he said, stressing to his domestic audience that there were no plans to send US troops to Eastern Europe.

    “When Putin invaded Ukraine he thought he could take Kyiv and the whole of Ukraine in a matter of days, but Putin has failed, and he will continue to fail,” Biden said. “Kyiv still stands because of the bravery of the Ukrainian people. Ukraine has regained more than 50 percent of the territory Russian troops once occupied.”

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  • Several Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank

    Several Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank

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    The Palestinian health ministry reports that five people were killed by Israeli forces in Nur Al Shams refugee camp.

    At least nine Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry, as violence soars amid Israel’s continuing assault on the besieged Gaza Strip.

    At least 75 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops or settlers in the West Bank since the Gaza war erupted on October 7, according to ministry figures.

    The Palestinian health ministry said Israeli forces killed seven Palestinian during raids on the Nur Al Shams refugee camp in the town of Tulkarem on Thursday.

    Health officials said one of the victims was a 16-year-old boy.

    The Israeli military said in a statement that it was “continuing to operate in the [Nur Al Shams] camp to thwart terror activity”.

    The Palestinian Red Crescent said its medics treated 25 people in Nur Shams, the majority for gunshot wounds.

    “Ambulances are being detained by occupying forces with injured people inside,” the organisation said in a statement.

    Two other Palestinians were killed in separate incidents in the Dheisheh refugee camp and the town of Budrus, the ministry said.

    Israeli forces have escalated raids on Palestinian towns and villages and carried out a sweeping campaign of arrests in the occupied West Bank, where Palestinians have held protests in solidarity with Gaza.

    Israel began its assault on Gaza after the Palestinian group Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, launched a brutal attack on southern Israel, killing at least 1,400 people and taking more than 200 others captive.

    Israel has since imposed a “complete siege” on Gaza, cutting off access to water, food, electricity and fuel for the strip’s 2.3 million inhabitants and relentlessly bombarding the territory. At least 3,785 people have been killed in the assault, according to Palestinian health authorities.

    Protests across the West Bank — which grew more intense following reports of an explosion at a hospital in Gaza that Palestinian authorities say killed hundreds of people on Tuesday — have also targeted the Palestinian Authority (PA), which has long faced criticism for its policy of security coordination with Israel.

    PA security forces used tear gas and stun grenades to dispel protestors who chanted for the ouster of President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday.

    Israeli authorities in the occupied West Bank have arrested more than 600 people since the fighting began. Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem have also warned about increasing harassment by Israeli settlers and security forces.

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  • ‘Free world, where are you?’ Gaza hospital chief pleads after babies killed

    ‘Free world, where are you?’ Gaza hospital chief pleads after babies killed

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    Footage of dead bodies lined up side by side on a hospital stretcher stir outrage in bombarded Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

    The head of a hospital in the Gaza Strip has issued an emotional appeal calling for an end to Israel’s bombardment following an air raid that doctors said killed several infants.

    “Look at these children. Who is killing these children,” asked Yousef al-Akkad, director of European Gaza Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, standing behind the bandaged and bloodied bodies of the toddlers.

    “Free world, where are you regarding these massacres committed against this bereaved and oppressed people?” al-Akkad continued, in a video released by the besieged enclave’s Ministry of Health on Wednesday.

    At least nine people were killed, including seven children, in an Israeli air attack that struck the al-Bakri family house south of Khan Younis, Palestinian news agency WAFA said. Many were trapped under the rubble, it added.

    The news of the attack spread quickly on social media as images of children’s bodies lined up side by side on a hospital stretcher stirred outrage in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

    Photographers swarmed the operation room of the European Gaza Hospital as women covered their eyes and doctors wept.

    “This is a massacre,” al-Akkad said, his voice choking with emotion. “Let the world see, these are just children.”

    Doctors and residents also confirmed that the children were killed in the attack and said the al-Bakri family was just one of many such cases on Wednesday, according to The Associated Press news agency.

    There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which started a devastating air campaign on Gaza after an October 7 attack of Hamas, the group that rules the enclave, in southern Israel.

    So far, at least 1,400 people have been killed in Israel and nearly 3,500 in Gaza, including 1,030 children.

    Interactive_Number of children in Gaza

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