[RD] War in Gaza: News Thread

[Birdjaguar]

Welcome back to our next attempt to have an orderly discussion of the sad situation in Gaza

This is an emotional situation and topic about which many of you feel strongly about. In spite of that we want to have an orderly discussion that is tied to the current news. To help with that we are making the thread a News thread and not a free for all of opinions and accusations.

We want posts to bring new news to the conversation or to respond to those news articles. Please include links or quotes with sources. You may add your comments about your news. This is a change from previous threads. If you feel someone's post is out of line, please report and the move on. There is no need to respond.

We need to lower the levels of animosity towards all posters. Enough harm has already been done in Israel and is being done in Gaza and we do not need to bring additional animosity here. Remember, our focus is on current news related to the conflict. We have all seen the pictures read the stories and heard the body count. There is no need to rehash the past or argue about which side is worse. Agreement is unlikely.

We will thread ban those who cannot abide with civility or posting guidelines. These threads move fast enough that posts can be be quickly buried so don't feel the need to respond to every slight or disagreeable thought that is posted. Those too shall pass. Pontificating "truth" without sources is frowned upon. Don't stray in that direction, please.

Keep in mind that the Do not do list includes insulting others, name calling, accusing other members of supporting genocide, war crimes or being Nazis in any of their forms or derivatives; bickering over stupid stuff; bringing up old news and whataboutism. Those will all be considered trolling and get you infracted or thread banned.

Repeated failure to follow the rules and be civil will get you thread banned.

What we want is for this thread to be a source of information for those of any persuasion and an orderly presentation of the ongoing situation. You are all a great source of both knowledge and information from all over the world. Contribute without rancor or anger.

Please do not copy or quote any posts from the previous thread into this one. Start fresh!

 

[Birdjaguar]

Devastation in Gaza as Israel wages war on Hamas​

US has seen civilians approach and distribute airdropped aid in Gaza, according to official
From CNN’s Samantha Waldenberg

The US is monitoring the location where aid was airdropped into Gaza earlier Saturday, and officials have seen civilians approach the aid, according to a senior official in President Joe Biden's administration. The official also said the US has seen the civilians distribute the aid among themselves.
Another senior administration official told reporters that the specific site in Gaza was chosen for Saturday’s drops because they believed that people were sheltering nearby and "in need."
US Central Command said in a statement Saturday that the combined operation by the US and Royal Jordanian Air Force saw US C-130 aircraft dropping 38,000 meals along the Gaza coastline. There were 66 total bundles dropped – 22 from each of the three aircraft — a US official said. There was no water or medical supplies in the bundles.
Another senior administration official said the US and Jordanian forces were not coordinating with any group on the ground.


7 min ago

US is planning more Gaza airdrops in the coming days after first one was "successful," White House says​

From CNN's Camila DeChalus

A White House official described its first airdrop of humanitarian aid into Gaza as "successful."

"(It) is an important test case to show that we can do this again in the coming days and weeks successfully," said a senior administration official during a call with reporters on Saturday.

The official added that the Defense Department is planning on conducting additional airdrops in Gaza in the days ahead. The official said they could not provide any further details at this time about what the additional airdrops would entail.
For context: Aid agencies have criticized US plans to drop food aid into Gaza as ineffective, as the United Nations warns hundreds of thousands in the enclave are on the brink of famine and US ally Israel continues to obstruct the bulk of aid deliveries. Some humanitarian officials have labeled it "a Band-Aid measure" and said the aid drops "mostly serve to relieve the guilty consciences of senior US officials."


24 min ago

The US has started dropping aid in Gaza as it faces criticism from humanitarian groups. Here's what to know​

From CNN staff

[IMG width="395px" alt="Humanitarian aid for Gaza is seen in this photo shared by the US Central Command on March 2. "]https://dynaimage.cdn.cnn.com/cnn/digital-images/org/dd7e9c71-c66b-4aeb-8edb-d133063f1f95.JPG[/IMG]

Humanitarian aid for Gaza is seen in this photo shared by the US Central Command on March 2. United States Central Command


The United States has begun dropping humanitarian aid into Gaza by air, according to US Central Command. The combined operation by the US Air Force and the Royal Jordanian Air Force saw three US C-130 transport planes drop 38,000 meals along the Gaza coastline on Saturday, CENTCOM said in a statement. There was no water or medical supplies.

US President Joe Biden announced the move Friday, saying more aid is desperately needed in the enclave, and that Israel must also allow for more trucks and routes for aid in Gaza. Officials from several aid agencies, including the International Crisis Group and Oxfam, criticized the US plan as ineffective. “Humanitarian workers always complain that airdrops are good photo opportunities but a lousy way to deliver aid,” the ICG's United Nations director, Richard Gowan, said on X. Oxfam's Scott Paul wrote that the aid drops only "serve to relieve the guilty consciences of senior US officials," who should instead cut military aid to Israel and push for an immediate ceasefire. CNN has documented how US ally Israel obstructs the bulk of aid deliveries to the enclave.

 

[Arwon]

UN Rapporteur on the right to food says Israeli state is deliberately starving Palestinians

Exclusive: UN special rapporteur on the right to food Michael Fakhri says denial of food is war crime and constitutes ‘a situation of genocide’

Israel is intentionally starving Palestinians and should be held accountable for war crimes – and genocide, according to the UN’s leading expert on the right to food.

Hunger and severe malnutrition are widespread in the Gaza Strip, where about 2.2 million Palestinians are facing severe shortages resulting from Israel destroying food supplies and severely restricting the flow of food, medicines and other humanitarian supplies. Aid trucks and Palestinians waiting for humanitarian relief have come under Israeli fire.

“There is no reason to intentionally block the passage of humanitarian aid or intentionally obliterate small-scale fishing vessels, greenhouses and orchards in Gaza – other than to deny people access to food,” Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, told the Guardian.

The weaponisation of food is a pretty serious war crime. Denying even minimal aid then opening fire on people rushing to get a trickle of supplies that does make it in is pretty ghastly, and that's a situation created by the Israeli government.

This would also all be directly in defiance of the ICJ order to stop engaging in such genocidal behaviours.

Israel has failed to comply with an order by the United Nations' top court to provide urgently needed aid to desperate people in the Gaza Strip, Human Rights Watch said Monday, a month after a landmark ruling in The Hague ordered Israel to moderate its war.

In a preliminary response to a South African petition accusing Israel of genocide, the U.N.'s top court ordered Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in Gaza.

The intent to deny food to ppl is pretty explicitly being articulated and justified by Israeli government ministers, per national security Itamar Ben-Gvir (who of course has form on being explicitly pro ethnic cleansing and settlement):

The crazy thing is even private citizens are getting involved in the effort to use food denial as a weapon via protests and blockades. Between this and the state backed and private militias using violence to gradually expand the colonial project in the West Bank, it's a real bootstrap sort of collective effort in service of forced expulsion, population destruction and land seizure:

“You cannot expect the country to fight its enemy and feed it at the same time,” Rachel Touitou of Tzav 9, an Israeli movement formed in December to block aid to Gaza, told The New Arab. Tzav 8 refers to the alert code sent to Israeli army reservists when a draft is initiated.

Over the last two months, Israelis have gathered at Nitzana and Kerem Shalom - which borders Gaza and is roughly eight kilometres from Rafah - crossings to prevent supplies like food, fuel, water, and medicine, largely administered by the United Nations, from entering the besieged enclave.

 

[Arwon]

Also: the Palestinian death toll is now well over 30,000. That number has been reached as just the confirmed and documented deaths of specific individuals recorded against the population database, so it doesn't account for everyone still under the rubble, informally buried, or just rotting somewhere that can't be reached.

https://www.npr.org/2024/02/29/1234159514/gaza-death-toll-30000-palestinians-israel-hamas-war

The sorts of numbers that seemed immediately likely and obvious back when this campaign started, but which to be honest I don't think many of the initial apologists and defenders had really grasped as what they were signing up for.

 

[Estebonrober]

'Israeli violence is legitimized and Palestinian counter-violence is delegitimized' - FAIR

"This has really real implications for...the people living in Palestine, but also for how the issue is presented and understood in even just factual reporting."

fair.org

A rundown of why ignorance on the topic along with a dismissive attitude from media elite has brought us to the point where anyone on earth considers Israeli action here as jsut and Hamas action as terrorist.

Fwiw, I'm against Israel completely now, there is no redemption from this. They ran an open-air prison after a violent colonization project and after what amount to a prison riot they decided to go full genocide mode. Babies and vulnerable children are now dying from starvation, they are shooting at people trying to get food aid and literally rolling tanks over them, their plan in the long term will only ever make Israel more vulnerable. They have signed their own demise.

Unions over here in certain places calling for a strike to focus attention of the public and force Biden administration to act... I'll believe it when I see it.

 

[Estebonrober]

Initial investigations by Euro-Med Monitor confirm Israeli army gunfire killed, wounded dozens of starving civilians in Gaza

Israeli tanks opened heavy fire on groups of Palestinian civilians attempting to receive humanitarian aid west and south of Gaza City. As a result, 112 civilians were killed and 760 were injured, while many victims are thought to remain in the targeted area.

euromedmonitor.org

it's not really up for debate btw

 

[Estebonrober]

Spoiler not for the weak of stomach (seriously ****** be carfeul here pls) :

Moderator Action: Image removed. by Birdjaguar. No need for that here.

Israel massacres Palestinians seeking flour: A war crime made in Washington

Thursday’s massacre of 112 starving Palestinians by the fascistic Netanyahu regime is part of a systematic campaign to kill as many Gazans as possible and drive the rest from their land.

www.wsws.org

Images from the scene showed bags of flour drenched in blood, leading many to refer to the killings as the “flour massacre.” The hundreds of victims overwhelmed local hospitals, which were already without medical supplies and power and were only able to provide first aid.

This was a deliberate and premeditated massacre by the fascistic Netanyahu regime, as part of a systematic campaign to kill as many Gazans as possible and drive the rest from their land.

Thursday’s massacre is just a foretaste of what Israel has in store as it prepares its full-scale assault on Rafah, where over 1 million people are seeking shelter after being displaced from northern Gaza.

While Israeli troops pulled the trigger, they were using bullets and tank rounds paid for and supplied by the United States.

Nothing. There is nothing to be said except Israel deserves to go bye bye.

 

[Estebonrober]

Gaza: Worst famine fears realised as 10th child reportedly ‘starves to death’

Repeated warnings from humanitarians over desperate food insecurity and imminent famine in Gaza came into focus on Friday amid reports from the enclave’s authorities that a tenth child had died from malnutrition and dehydration.

news.un.org

Nothing but evil. Oh, I have so much more, but I will give some space for more to join.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Moderator Action: We do not need to see more videos of people in pain. If you want to watch them, go elsewhere. Please do not post them here.

 

[innonimatu]

Let's talk insteand about how the initial support for this war was manufactured, and still stands in teh way of forcing a cease-fice upon Israel?

A sample, the propaganda in the NYT:

The Israeli filmmaker and former air force intelligence official had been assigned by the New York Times to work with her partner’s nephew Adam Sella and veteran Times reporter Jeffrey Gettleman on an investigation into sexual violence by Hamas on October 7 that could reshape the way the world understood Israel’s ongoing war in the Gaza Strip. By November, global opposition was mounting against Israel’s military campaign, which had already killed thousands of children, women, and the elderly. On her social media feed, which the Times has since said it is reviewing, Schwartz liked a tweet saying that Israel needed to “turn the strip into a slaughterhouse.”

“Violate any norm, on the way to victory,” read the post. “Those in front of us are human animals who do not hesitate to violate minimal rules.”
[...]
The resulting report, published in late December, was headlined “‘Screams Without Words’: How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7.” It was a bombshell and galvanized the Israeli war effort at a time when even some of Israel’s allies were expressing concern over its large-scale killing of civilians in Gaza. Inside the newsroom, the article was met with praise from editorial leaders but skepticism from other Times journalists. The paper’s flagship podcast “The Daily” attempted to turn the article into an episode, but it didn’t manage to get through a fact check, as The Intercept previously reported.
[...]
[her single source] Shari Mendes, an American architect who serves in a rabbinical unit of the Israel Defense Forces. [...] claimed to have seen voluminous evidence of sexual assaults. Mendes has been a ubiquitous figure in the Israeli government and major media narratives on sexual violence on October 7, despite the fact that she has no medical or forensic credentials to legally determine rape. . Mendes had also spoken about other violence on October 7, telling the Daily Mail in October, “A baby was cut out of a pregnant woman and beheaded and then the mother was beheaded.” No pregnant woman died that day, according to the official Israeli list of those killed in the attacks, and the independent research collective October 7 Fact Check said Mendes’s story was false.
[...]
By the time Schwartz interviewed Mendes, the IDF reservist’s story had ricocheted around the world and been conclusively debunked: No baby was cut from a mother and beheaded. Yet Schwartz and the New York Times would go on to rely on Mendes’s testimony, as well as those of other witnesses with track records of making unreliable claims and lacking forensic credentials. No mention was made of questions about Mendes’s credibility

It matters little that this propaganda gets debunked later. People are persuaded in day one, make statements, to friends and colleagues, in day one, "take a side" in public. And that sticks. Palestinians are bloothirsty terrorists, people were made to believe. Hamas is evil and cannot be negotiated with, they were told. In total oppostion to the reality in the field, where Hamas had been negotiated with for decades. That propaganda keeps paying off now when the US&Israeli government present a phony "cease fire" (a pause for reamment and for the development of the hunger stategy, not a pause for negotiations) and blame Hamas for rejecting it.

People can't easily admit they were deceived. Believed lies, were wrong. They can recognize it but they won't admit it. So they may cool their enthusiasm for vengeance, for supporting vengeance. But they do not act against those doing it. Won't widraw support from those supporting it.

Accuse no one of supporting genocide indeed. I simply accuse people of being fools falling for the same type of warmongering propaganda again and again. Please learn something from that experience.

 

[Narz]

There is nothing to be said except Israel deserves to go bye bye.

And send Israelis where?

And replaced by what? An Islamic state controlled by Hamas? Sounds like a great place to visit with the children

Maybe something more should be said then a nation deserves to be destroyed...

 

[Cloud_Strife]

And send Israelis where?

And replaced by what? An Islamic state controlled by Hamas? Sounds like a great place to visit with the children

Maybe something more should be said then a nation deserves to be destroyed...

For context, said nation is currently comitting a genocide and had instituted apartheid for decades before hand

But i understand that the hypothetical palestinian Islamic state that exists only in your mind angers and upsets you more

 

[Narz]

It's whataboutism.

No. It's a legit question.

Este said Israel needs to be destroyed. And replaced by what?

Does US and it's Nato allies also need to be destroyed for what they've done to Iraq (who didn't even attack us)? No of course not, even though we caused 50x the causalities, because 99% of posters live there.

I don't like the phoniness around Palestine. No one really cares about them, not their Arab neighbors who are simply using them, not their spokespeople in the west who just enjoy their daily dose of victim-porn.

And almost all these people would choose to live in an Israeli state more than a hamas-run one if they had a choice (not that Hamas will ever win as the constant state of war is too profitable and no one actually wants Hamas to win)

 

[Cloud_Strife]

I don't like the phoniness around Palestine. No one really cares about them, not their Arab neighbors who are simply using them, not their spokespeople in the west who just enjoy their daily dose of victim-porn.

You speak only for yourself.

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

And replaced by what? An Islamic state controlled by Hamas? Sounds like a great place to visit with the children

The portrayal of the Other as uncouth uncivilised savages has ever been a justification for imperialism and ethnic cleansing and apartheid, all three of which we can see in abundance in Israel's treatment of the Palestinians. This sort of rhetoric should have died in the 19th century, but nice to see it's still alive and kicking

 

[Narz]

The portrayal of the Other as uncouth uncivilised savages has ever been a justification for imperialism and ethnic cleansing and apartheid, all three of which we can see in abundance in Israel's treatment of the Palestinians. This sort of rhetoric should have died in the 19th century, but nice to see it's still alive and kicking

Perhaps you misquoting as I'm not the one saying a state or its people should be eliminated, I'm replying to such a statement.

Also not sure what you're on about re : ethnic cleansing as Hamas is not an ethnicity.

You're just emotionally copy pasting a story onto a nuanced situation.

If white people a world away want to feel guilty about genocide and it's consequences go help some native American communities.

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

Eliminating apartheid states is good, actually.

Anyway, more news, less propaganda

 

[H4run]

And send Israelis where?

And replaced by what? An Islamic state controlled by Hamas? Sounds like a great place to visit with the children

Maybe something more should be said then a nation deserves to be destroyed...

The genocide that happening in Gaza currently is a fact, food and water deprivation that results to peoples dying from thirst and hunger are facts, Israel is an ethno-state that promote hatred toward ethnic Arabs is a fact, or even in broader sense and limitation to others Goyim as well. We can keep on adding factual, non hypothetical facts that validate the argument the need to eliminate Israel as humanitarian threat.

So many peoples equating Hamas with ISIS, I mean I believe that this is not coming from malice in your case but the one who create this trend of argument did it from malice. The ideas that Hamas will pose a genocidal threat to Jews is hypothetical and mostly created from false propaganda, even AI generated that's posted by Sapiro and their others mouthpiece to create this kind of "belief", yes it is a belief because so far the treatment of Palestinian freedom fighters to Israeli both in Uniform or not, are way better than US POW, forget Israel treatment.

Think if you are in their position, and your baby deprived from water and food, rely solely on medical fluid for consumption and slowly shrinking and die due to starvation, will you have the same sentiment? I'm sorry, but I don't think so, putting ourselves in both parties is a good way to reach a more objective perspective regarding the conflict.

 

[Arwon]

ould choose to live in an Israeli state more than a hamas-run one if they had a choic

This strikes me as rather like suggesting someone would rather live in the 19th century United States than the remnant First Nations reservations, without reference to how things got to be that way

 

[Birdjaguar]

Moderator Action: More news please.