40 Killed In Hamas Attacks In Israel

[Gofer Blue]

Re: 40 Killed In Hamas Attacks In Israel

I have started a thread specifically about the Syrian uprising as I am conscious that I am hi-jacking the Hamas vs IDF thread!

[jeepster]

Re: 40 Killed In Hamas Attacks In Israel

Assad gone, and so suddenly. A classic case of unexpected consequences. Sadly it could all end up as a case of Iraq Mk.2 with all the different factions battling for power.

A very big worry.

[chrisp_1927]

Re: 40 Killed In Hamas Attacks In Israel

It's possibly the best opportunity for the Kurds to have their own state.

Fingers crossed. Did read that there has started to be a bit of infighting between Kurdish leaders. Hopefully they get themselves sorted

[jon1959]

Re: 40 Killed In Hamas Attacks In Israel

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/11/death-feels-imminent-for-96-of-children-in-gaza-study-finds

A new study of children living through the war in Gaza has found that 96% of them feel that their death is imminent and almost half want to die as a result of the trauma they have been through.

A needs assessment, carried out by a Gaza-based NGO sponsored by the War Child Alliance charity, also found that 92% of the children in the survey were “not accepting of reality”, 79% suffer from nightmares and 73% exhibit symptoms of aggression.

“This report lays bare that Gaza is one of the most horrifying places in the world to be a child,” Helen Pattinson, chief executive of War Child UK, said. “Alongside the levelling of hospitals, schools and homes, a trail of psychological destruction has caused wounds unseen but no less destructive on children who hold no responsibility for this war.”

....

The estimated death toll in Gaza is more than 44,000 and a recent assessment by the UN Human Rights Office found that 44% of the fatalities it was able to verify were children.

....

About 1.9 million Palestinians in Gaza, approximately 90% of the territory’s total population, have been displaced, many several times. Half of that number are children who have lost their home and been forced to flee their neighbourhoods.

More than 60% of the surveyed children reported having experienced traumatic events during the war and some had been exposed to multiple traumatic events.

An estimated 17,000 children in Gaza are unaccompanied, separated from their parents, although the study notes the real number may be much higher.

....

The sense of being doomed has become pervasive. Almost all the children (96%) felt their death was imminent, and 49% actually wished to die, a feeling that was much more prevalent among boys (72%) than girls (26%).

[Gofer Blue]

Re: 40 Killed In Hamas Attacks In Israel

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...za-study-finds


A new study of children living through the war in Gaza has found that 96% of them feel that their death is imminent and almost half want to die as a result of the trauma they have been through.......................

.....................The sense of being doomed has become pervasive. Almost all the children (96%) felt their death was imminent, and 49% actually wished to die, a feeling that was much more prevalent among boys (72%) than girls (26%).

What a heartbreaking report. The survivors will form Hamas Mk.II for sure.

[jon1959]

Re: 40 Killed In Hamas Attacks In Israel

‘Everything is gone’: how Israeli forces destroyed Jabaliya refugee camp

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/dec/18/jabaliya-refugee-camp-gaza-destruction-idf

[jon1959]

Re: 40 Killed In Hamas Attacks In Israel

https://www.hrw.org/report/2024/12/19/extermination-and-acts-genocide/israel-deliberately-depriving-palestinians-gaza

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/19/israel-accused-of-act-of-genocide-over-restriction-of-gaza-water-supply-human-rights-watch

Israel’s restriction of Gaza’s water supply to levels below minimum needs amounts to an act of genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity, a human rights report has alleged.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) investigated Israeli attacks on the water supply infrastructure in Gaza over the course of its 14-month war there.

It has accused Israeli forces of deliberate actions intended to cut the availability of clean water so drastically that the population has been forced to resort to contaminated sources, leading to the outbreak of lethal diseases, especially among children.

Israel’s actions have killed many thousands of Palestinians and constitute an act of genocide, HRW argues, citing declarations by ministers in the country’s ruling coalition that Gaza’s water supply would be cut off as evidence of intent.

....

The allegations put forward by HRW are not as broad as Amnesty’s, focusing specifically on the Gaza water supply, but the organisation claims the evidence is overwhelming that Israel has used water as a weapon against the Palestinian population collectively, with lethal results.

“Human Rights Watch finds that these Israeli policies have amounted to the crime against humanity of extermination and acts of genocide,” Lama Fakih, the director of HRW’s Middle East and North Africa division, said.

She said the report showed: “Israeli authorities at the most senior level were responsible for the destruction, including the deliberate destruction, of water and sanitation infrastructure, the prevention of repairs to damaged water and sanitation infrastructure and the cutting off or severe restrictions on water, electricity and fuel.

“These acts have likely caused thousands of deaths and will likely continue to cause deaths into the future, including after the cessation of hostilities.”

There have been nearly 670,000 recorded cases of acute watery diarrhoea since the war began, and more than 132,000 cases of jaundice, a sign of hepatitis. Survivable childhood diseases have also become significantly more lethal because of the destruction of Gaza’s hospitals and health clinics.

....

Most of Gaza’s drinkable water came from three pipelines controlled by the Israeli water authority and desalination plants.

Those pipelines were cut at the start of the war and only partially reopened. The United Arab Emirates built a water pipeline across the border from Egypt in February, but that supply was cut by damage to the pipeline caused during the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) assault on Rafah.

Gaza’s three main desalination plants halted operations soon after the start of the war and were only able to restart on a partial basis after Israel allowed the UN and other aid agencies to bring in limited quantities of fuel.

Satellite imagery that HRW examined showed that the solar panel arrays powering four of Gaza’s six wastewater treatment plants were razed by Israeli military bulldozers – in northern Gaza, the al-Bureij camp and the Sheikh Ejleen plants in central Gaza and Khan Younis in the south.

Satellite images also showed that 11 of Gaza’s 54 water reservoirs had been completely or largely destroyed, and 20 more showed signs of damage.

A video that appeared on social media in July 2024 showed IDF combat engineers filming themselves blowing up a reservoir in the Tal Sultan district of Rafah.

....

As evidence of intent, the HRW report points to declarations by Israeli ministers at the onset of the war. On 9 October 2023, the then defence minister, Yoav Gallant, ordered a “complete siege” of Gaza.

“There will be no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything is closed,” he stated. Gallant is the subject of an international criminal court arrest warrant for alleged war crimes.

Israel Katz, then energy minister and now defence minister, echoed the call for water, electricity and fuel supplies to Gaza to be cut off two days after Gallant’s comments.

[jon1959]

Re: 40 Killed In Hamas Attacks In Israel

New Médecins Sans Frontières report and press release 19 December 2024

https://www.msf.org/msf-report-exposes-israel’s-campaign-total-destruction

- A new report from MSF highlights how repeated Israeli military attacks on civilians in Gaza, and the systematic denial of humanitarian assistance are destroying the conditions of life.

- Our teams in the north of Gaza are seeing clear signs of ethnic cleansing as Palestinians are forcibly displaced, trapped, and bombed.

- The health care system lies in ruins and medical staff - including MSF's - have been detained or killed.

- We call for an immediate ceasefire and for states to leverage their influence to alleviate the suffering of people and enable a massive scale-up of aid in Gaza.

[jon1959]

Re: 40 Killed In Hamas Attacks In Israel

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/dec/23/israel-gaza-war-genocide-where-is-the-action

A consensus is building. On 5 December, Amnesty International concluded after an investigation that “Israel has committed and is continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip”. A few days later, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) stated that after research and analysis, it concluded that “there is a legally sound argument that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza”.

A few days after that, Human Rights Watch (HRW) declared that “Israeli authorities are responsible for the crime against humanity of extermination and for acts of genocide”, and Médecins Sans Frontières reported that its medical “teams in the north of Gaza are seeing clear signs of ethnic cleansing”. Earlier in November, HRW also concluded that Israel’s actions in Gaza amounted to “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity”, and appeared to “also meet the definition of ethnic cleansing”.

Following the issuing of arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant by the international criminal court (ICC), also in November, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, all these recent judgments end the year with an emphatic categorisation of the assault in Gaza as a violation of international law. They join the International Commission of Jurists and the UN in condemning Israel’s war. The country, and its head of state, are now, according to the courts and human rights organisations that make up the world’s legal and moral authorities, outlaws.

But the judgments, strong language and suggested measures echo in a vacuum: there is no enforcement. The US continues to defend Israel against an emerging global consensus and to arm it. Other supporters use the language of loopholes and riddles that we have become so accustomed to since the start of the war. The UK suspended a small portion of its arms exports, but insists that it remains a “staunch ally” of the country and would still engage with Netanyahu, but also would somehow still comply with its legal obligations. France came up with an impressive legal reading, stating that Netanyahu in fact enjoyed immunity as Israel was not a signatory to the ICC (a reading that would also extend immunity to Vladimir Putin and Omar al-Bashir).

But nothing happens. The bombs keep being delivered, and the diplomatic cover remains. IDF soldiers boast of their murders on social media. Doctors, journalists, aid workers and children continue to be dismembered, burned and crushed to death.

Some people are not people. Some crimes are not crimes. Some hypocrisy (including from our government) is off the scale!

[jon1959]

Re: 40 Killed In Hamas Attacks In Israel

https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/6581

[Gofer Blue]

Re: 40 Killed In Hamas Attacks In Israel

https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/6581

Yet another harrowing report. However I don't know what you or I, as individuals, can do anymore, jon1959?

[jon1959]

Re: 40 Killed In Hamas Attacks In Israel

Yet another harrowing report. However I don't know what you or I, as individuals, can do anymore, jon1959?

Whatever any of us do it will not be enough.

I think there have been two shifts in recent months. One - a recognition in most of the world, including 'the west' and amongst a large proportion of the Jewish community outside Israel, that Israel is guilty of daily war crimes, genocide and a contempt for international law. Two - that the situation has become almost normalised as the world fails to react and in some instances encourages that situation.

To my mind the minimum that should be done is to provide whatever practical aid we can to the victims, to support whatever actions we can to condemn the atrocities and to demand that our governments act in whatever way they can to stop it on the basis of political and social justice, and finally 'to bear witness'. In a very small way this thread contributes to the last one - I hope.

[truthpaste]

Re: 40 Killed In Hamas Attacks In Israel

Mother Teresa said, “We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love, and together, we can do something wonderful”.

[Gofer Blue]

Re: 40 Killed In Hamas Attacks In Israel

At last a ceasefire deal it seems. Sadly I don't feel very optimistic as the level of trust between the two sides must be virtually zero. I wonder which side will claim that the other side has broken the ceasefire first.

I see Trump is taking credit already, conveniently forgetting all the effort that Blinken and others have put in over these many months.

[Heathblue]

Re: 40 Killed In Hamas Attacks In Israel

At last a ceasefire deal it seems. Sadly I don't feel very optimistic as the level of trust between the two sides must be virtually zero. I wonder which side will claim that the other side has broken the ceasefire first.

I see Trump is taking credit already, conveniently forgetting all the effort that Blinken and others have put in over these many months.

Peace through strength, it was Trumps special envoy who brokered the deal but let's not split hairs, here's hoping peace is maintained and bollox to the politicians claiming the victory lap.