Gaza

[phkrause]

Mahmoud Abbas Holocaust Controversy Spotlights Deep Disillusion With Palestinian Authority

Thirty years after the Oslo Accords, Palestinians question whether the pseudo-government born from the peace process can — and should — survive.

https://theintercept.com/2023/09/15/palestinian-authority-mahmoud-abbas-oslo-accords/?

[phkrause]

Gaza "fast becoming a hellhole"

Data: OpenStreetMap, WorldPop; Map: Will Chase/Axios The speed of the humanitarian crisis unfolding in densely-populated Gaza is "bone-chilling," the UN Palestinian agency said yesterday. The dire warning underscores the scale of the immense suffering of Palestinians in Gaza — home to more than 2 million people — as the Israeli military continues its heavy bombardment of the enclave in response to last Saturday's Hamas attack on Israel, Axios' Laurin-Whitney Gottbrath writes. It also comes after Israel ordered 1.1 million Palestinians to evacuate the northern part of the Strip to the south — an evacuation the UN has called "impossible" and a "death sentence" for many. Many are making their way to the south, but others have said they are staying put because there is nowhere to go in the small enclave, which is about the size of Detroit. "We do not have the means to evacuate the sick and the wounded in our hospitals, or the elderly and the disabled," the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said yesterday. "There are no safe areas in the whole of the Gaza Strip." Egyptian officials said the southern Rafah crossing would open later Saturday for the first time in days to allow foreigners out, AP notes. The toll: More than 2,200 Palestinians have been killed since the war began. At least 1,300 Israelis were killed in the Hamas attack. Read on.

[phkrause]

Jewish NYC lawmaker Inna Vernikov arrested after carrying gun to pro-Palestinian protest

(New York Jewish Week) — Jewish New York City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov was arrested on Friday after appearing with a handgun outside a pro-Palestinian protest, as tensions flared in the city following Hamas’ devastating attack on Israel, and Israel’s military response in Gaza.

https://www.jta.org/2023/10/13/ny/jewish-nyc-lawmaker-inna-vernikov-arrested-after-carrying-gun-to-pro-palestinian-protest?

[phkrause]

France bans pro-Palestinian rallies as antisemitic incidents spike

(JTA) — France’s interior minister instituted a ban on all pro-Palestinian demonstrations in response to the over 100 local antisemitic incidents recorded since Hamas’ attacks on Israel on Saturday.

https://www.jta.org/2023/10/12/global/france-bans-pro-palestinian-rallies-as-antisemitic-incidents-spike?

[phkrause]

📺 Biden warns Israel against occupying Gaza

Hamas must be eliminated but an Israeli occupation of Gaza would be "a big mistake," President Biden told CBS' Scott Pelley in an interview broadcast last night on "60 Minutes."

• Why it matters: Israel is preparing an "air, sea and land" invasion of Gaza that's aimed at destroying Hamas after the terrorist attack of Oct. 7, with street-by-street fighting expected to produce massive casualties.

Biden said "there needs to be a path to a Palestinian state," and that "Hamas and the extreme elements of Hamas don't represent all the Palestinian people," Axios' Rebecca Falconer writes.

• He said that "taking out the extremists" is "a necessary requirement." But he called for a humanitarian corridor that allows some Gazans out of the region, and for humanitarian supplies to be brought in.

Michael Herzog, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S., told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union" yesterday: "We have no desire to occupy or reoccupy Gaza. We have no desire to rule over the lives of over 2 million Palestinians. And, certainly, we want people to go back to their homes."

Pelley asked Biden whether the threat of terrorism in the U.S. had increased because of the Middle East fighting.

• "Yes," Biden replied, saying he had just held a meeting in the Situation Room with FBI and homeland security officials to discuss how to "make sure that we prevent a lone wolf and/or any coordinated effort to try to do what was done in synagogues before — do what was done to Jews in the street. We're making a major effort to make sure that doesn't happen."

Read the transcript ... Watch the video ...

Photo: Allen J. Schaben/L.A. Times via Getty Images

Above: Drone's-eye view of an Israel Solidarity March yesterday at the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.

[phkrause]

Gaza’s limited water supply raises concerns for human health

NEW YORK (AP) — A lack of clean water in the Gaza Strip is raising major concerns for human health.

https://apnews.com/article/gaza-israel-water-humanitarian-crisis-cfeabcda00fefdd03c2877495c4dcd09?

[phkrause]

🔎 Scoop: House GOP scrutinizes Biden's aid to Palestinians

The Republican-led House Oversight Committee is pressing the Biden administration on its plans to make sure humanitarian aid to Gaza and the West Bank isn't diverted to Hamas or other terrorist groups, Axios' Andrew Solender reports.

Why it matters: Investigations are one of the few ways in which House members can work around a speaker vacancy that otherwise has hamstrung their ability to respond to the escalating Israel-Hamas war.

• President Biden last week announced plans to send $100 million in humanitarian assistance — including clean water, food and medical care — to Palestinian civilians.
• The flow of aid to Gaza hit a snag today as 20 trucks were unable to enter the territory from Egypt. Asked about the delay, Biden said the deliveries of aid are "not fast enough."

Keep reading

[phkrause]

How To Talk About Gaza (w/ Naomi Klein & Omar Baddar)

David Sirota and guests explore the military onslaught and humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip.

https://www.levernews.com/lever-time-how-to-talk-about-gaza-w-naomi-klein-omar-baddar/

[phkrause]

Gaza and the Empathy Gap

How we Americans feel about Gazans living under Israeli bombs does matter, since we’re the ones financing it.

https://theintercept.com/2023/10/23/gaza-israel-hamas-war/?

[phkrause]

Hamas Attack Provides “Rare Opportunity” to Cleanse Gaza, Israeli Think Tank Says

Echoing George W. Bush on 9/11, a Misgav Institute report shows how political leaders find a chilling silver lining in the suffering of their own.

https://theintercept.com/2023/10/25/israel-hamas-opportunity/?

[phkrause]

Gaza looks like a wasteland from space in these before-and-after photos

BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip (AP) — Apartment buildings are crumpled. Neighborhoods lie in ruins. Terrain is transformed into moonscape.

https://apnews.com/article/satellite-images-israeli-airstrike-destruction-gaza-4477db1cfc39f38ac6cfff55330a7635?

[phkrause]

How Gaza’s Ministry of Health calculates the war’s death toll With Israel besieging and bombing the Palestinian territory at a scale never seen before, arriving at a death toll isn’t easy. Yet the Gaza-based Ministry of Health — an agency in the Hamas-controlled government — continues to tally casualty numbers. It released its first detailed report on the fatalities, the total being 7,028 Palestinians killed, including 2,913 minors. Read more.

Why this matters: The ministry is the only official source for Gaza casualties. Israel has sealed Gaza’s borders, barring foreign journalists and humanitarian workers. The AP is among a small number of international news organizations with teams in Gaza and while those journalists can’t do a comprehensive count, they’ve viewed large numbers of bodies at the sites of airstrikes, morgues and funerals.   The United Nations and other international institutions and experts, as well as Palestinian authorities in the West Bank — rivals of Hamas — say the Gaza ministry has long made a good-faith effort to account for the dead under the most difficult conditions. In previous wars, the ministry’s counts have held up to U.N. scrutiny, independent investigations and even Israel’s tallies.

Related coverage ➤ Israel strikes outskirts of Gaza City during second ground raid in as many days Palestinians plead ‘stop the bombs’ at UN meeting but Israel insists Hamas must be ‘obliterated’ Israel-Hamas war upends years of conventional wisdom. Leaders give few details on what comes next

[phkrause]

The Lights Are Off. Here’s What We Know About Life and Death Inside Gaza.

In a chilling interview on this week’s “Deconstructed,” Ryan Grim speaks with Maram Al-Dada, who has been in regular touch with his family in Gaza as they’ve been killed one after the other.

https://theintercept.com/2023/10/28/gaza-death-toll-interview/

[phkrause]

Gaza’s Long Jewish History

A Jewish rabbi in Gaza? The great Gaza Yeshiva? Ancient Jewish Gazan villages? Yes, they were all real. Here are 10 surprising facts about Jews’ long relationship with the region.

https://aish.com/gazas-long-jewish-history/?

[phkrause]

French President Macron hosts Gaza aid conference and appeals to Israel to protect civilians

PARIS (AP) — Western and Arab nations, international agencies and nongovernmental groups stressed the urgent need for aid for Gaza civilians at a Paris conference Thursday, held as the humanitarian crisis in the besieged territory worsens amid Israel’s massive air and ground campaign against Hamas.

https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-gaza-aid-conference-paris-ce36fc88cf99e69fc7d80ab421c44682?

[phkrause]

🔎 Gaza's tunnels

Graphic: The New York Times. Used by permission No one has seen an exact map of Hamas' network of tunnels beneath Gaza, and few Israeli soldiers have even gotten a look. But some photos and videos, and a smattering of firsthand accounts, paint a picture of the tunnel system which makes it so difficult to fight Hamas, The New York Times reports. Axios Explains: What to know about the tunnel network.

 

[phkrause]

Harvard Law Review Editors Vote to Kill Article About Genocide in Gaza

The article on the Gaza war and the Nakba was commissioned, edited, fact-checked, and prepared for publication — but was then blocked amid a climate of fear.

https://theintercept.com/2023/11/21/harvard-law-review-gaza-israel/?

[phkrause]

Palestinian diplomat appeals for Gaza truce to be extended as EU and Arab nations meet in Spain

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — The top Palestinian diplomat made a plea Monday to extend the fragile cease-fire in Gaza, hours ahead of its scheduled expiry, at a meeting of European Union members and Middle Eastern and north African countries that focused on diplomatic efforts to stop the Israel-Hamas war.

https://apnews.com/article/eu-gaza-israel-meeting-barcelona-hamas-207a7b579af27dbb2a58aac397358e35?

[phkrause]

Survivor’s Guilt

For Palestinians Who Just Left Gaza, Witnessing the War From Afar Evokes Helplessness and Grief

A 3 a.m. call startled Walaa AlAbssi awake. It was nearly a week into Israel’s retaliatory bombing of the occupied Gaza Strip. Just two months earlier, AlAbssi, 26, had left Gaza for the first time to attend graduate school in Dublin. When she picked up her phone and saw her sister’s name, her heart fell. A call at this hour could only mean tragedy.

https://theintercept.com/2023/12/09/palestinian-diaspora-gaza-trauma/?

[phkrause]

Israel pumping seawater into some Gaza tunnels

Israel has recently started to pump seawater into Hamas’ underground network of tunnels, two U.S. officials confirmed to ABC News. It seems the flooding has been limited as Israel evaluates the effectiveness of this strategy compared to its other techniques.

https://abcnews.go.com/International/live-updates/israel-gaza-hamas-health-catastrophe/israel-pumping-seawater-into-some-gaza-tunnels-105601916?id=105538785

[phkrause]

The debate over what should happen in Gaza after the war, explained

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israel and the United States agree on how the Israel-Hamas war started — with the terror group’s Oct. 7 massacre. They agree on how it should end — with the removal of Hamas from power in the Gaza Strip. 

https://www.jta.org/2023/12/13/politics/the-debate-over-what-should-happen-in-gaza-after-the-war-explained?

[phkrause]

U.S. pushes Palestinian Authority on post-war Gaza

The Biden administration is proposing the Palestinian Authority re-activate members of its forces in Gaza to prepare a local security and police force for the enclave after the conflict, U.S. officials tell Axios' Barak Ravid.

• Why it matters: The move is part of the administration's stated goal to revitalize the unpopular and weak Palestinian Authority so it could once again play a role in governing the Gaza Strip in the coming months.

⚡ The latest: White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan met on Friday in Ramallah with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and discussed with him how the Palestinian Authority could be involved in governing Gaza after the war ends.

• Sullivan and Abbas discussed the steps needed so the Palestinian Authority would be "more credible, more authentic, and more accountable," White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.

🔎 Behind the scenes: U.S. officials say the Biden administration wants the 87-year-old Abbas to conduct wide-ranging reforms, including injecting "new blood" into the Palestinian Authority's leadership. Abbas is in the 18th year of a four-year term and has continued to delay elections.

• The administration has been discussing with the Palestinian Authority re-activating some of the members of its security forces who live in Gaza and were on active duty until Hamas took over.

Reality check: Biden officials admit it'd be difficult to restart the Palestinian Authority's role in Gaza without Israel's consent.

• The Israeli government currently opposes any return of the Palestinian Authority.

Read on.

ps:I have my doubts about this really working!!

[8thdaypriest]

17 hours ago, phkrause said:

The move is part of the administration's stated goal to revitalize the unpopular and weak Palestinian Authority

You post said it all.  

Tom Nash Reports (see on You Tube) has posited another plan.  

To divide Gaza into several caliphates [powerful families ruling UNDER the IDF].   Could be that Egypt might take some Palestinians (for a very large payment).   But Gaza would never become an independent "nation."  

[phkrause]

Over 50% of Gaza buildings damaged or destroyed

Data: Damage analysis of Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite data by Corey Scher of CUNY Graduate Center and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University. Map: Will Chase/Axios The growing risk of famine, shortages of clean water and medicine, and unsanitary conditions in Gaza are increasing fears that hunger, disease and dehydration could begin to kill just as many — if not more — Palestinians than Israel's bombing, Axios' Laurin-Whitney Gottbrath writes. "Providing humanitarian assistance across Gaza is almost impossible," UN aid chief Martin Griffiths told the Security Council on Friday. Go deeper...

[phkrause]

Scoop: Arab officials held secret meeting to discuss plans for post-war Gaza

Senior national security officials from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority secretly met in Riyadh 10 days ago to coordinate plans for the day after the war in Gaza and discuss ways to involve a revitalized Palestinian Authority in governing there, three sources with knowledge of the meeting told Axios.

https://www.axios.com/2024/01/29/israel-gaza-saudi-egypt-jordan-palestine-meeting?