[RD] War in Gaza News: Pas de Deux

Ordnael said:
They released them all the moment they had opportunity for it!?
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You have to admit, it’s pretty funny to get slaughtered in the hundreds of thousands for not releasing 200 prisoners. Civilians are legitimate targets of war, c’mahn! Admit it!
 
Not funny at all, but maybe release the hostages and prevent making more martyrs out of the people Hamas claims to represent and protect...unless the whole martyrdom is their real objective...Admit that this might even be more funny!
 

Palestinian co-director of Oscar-winning film No Other Land beaten by West Bank settlers, witnesses say​

Israeli military says it detained 3 Palestinians and 1 Israeli citizen​

Israeli settlers beat up one of the Palestinian co-directors of the Oscar-winning film No Other Land on Monday in the occupied West Bank before he was detained by the Israeli military, according to one of his fellow directors and other witnesses.

The filmmaker Hamdan Ballal was one of three Palestinians detained in the village of Susiya, according to attorney Leah Tsemmel. Police told her the Palestinians are being held at a military base for medical treatment, and she said she hasn't been able to speak with them.

Basel Adra, another co-director, witnessed the detention and said around two dozen settlers — some masked, some carrying guns, some in Israeli uniform — attacked the village. Soldiers who arrived pointed their guns at the Palestinians, while settlers continued throwing stones.

"We came back from the Oscars and every day since there is an attack on us," Adra told The Associated Press. "This might be their revenge on us for making the movie. It feels like a punishment."

The Israeli military said it detained three Palestinians suspected of hurling rocks at forces and one Israeli civilian involved in a "violent confrontation" between Israelis and Palestinians — a claim witnesses interviewed by the AP disputed. The military said it had transferred them to Israeli police for questioning and had evacuated an Israeli citizen from the area to receive medical treatment.

Film named best documentary at Oscars​

No Other Land, which won the Oscar this year for best documentary, chronicles the struggle by residents of Masafer Yatta in the Occupied West Bank to stop the Israeli military from demolishing their villages. Ballal and Adra, both from Masafar Yatta, made the joint Palestinian-Israeli production with Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor.

The film has won a string of international awards, starting at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2024. It has also drawn ire in Israel and abroad, as when Miami Beach briefly proposed ending the lease of a movie theatre that screened the documentary.

Adra said that settlers entered the village Monday evening shortly after residents broke the daily fast for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. A settler — who according to Adra frequently attacks the village — walked over to Ballal's home with the military, and soldiers shot in the air. Ballal's wife heard her husband being beaten outside and scream "I'm dying," according to Adra.

Adra then saw the soldiers lead Ballal, handcuffed and blindfolded, from his home into a military vehicle. Speaking to The Associated Press by phone, he said Ballal's blood was still splattered on the ground outside his own front door.

Some of the details of Adra's account were backed up by another eyewitness, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal.

A group of 10 to 20 masked settlers with stones and sticks also assaulted activists with the Center for Jewish Nonviolence, smashing their car windows and slashing tires to make them flee the area, one of the activists at the scene, Josh Kimelman, told the AP.

Video provided by the Center for Jewish Nonviolence showed a masked settler shoving and swinging his fists at two activists from the group in a dusty field at night. The activists rush back to their car as rocks can be heard thudding against the vehicle.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. The Palestinians want all three for their future state and view settlement growth as a major obstacle to a two-state solution.

The Israeli military designated Masafer Yatta as a live-fire training zone in the 1980s and ordered residents, mostly Arab Bedouin, to be expelled. Around 1,000 residents have largely remained in place, but soldiers regularly move in to demolish homes, tents, water tanks and olive orchards — and Palestinians fear outright expulsion could come at any time.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/director-ballal-beaten-up-west-bank-1.7492139
 

Hundreds stage Gaza protest against Hamas after conflict resumes​

CAIRO/RAMALLAH, March 26 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Palestinians have protested in northern Gaza to demand an end to war, chanting "Hamas out," social media posts showed, in a rare public show of opposition to the militant group that sparked the latest war with its October 7, 2023 raid on Israel.
Northern Gaza has been one of the most devastated areas of Gaza. Most buildings in the densely populated area have been reduced to rubble and much of the population has moved several times to escape the conflict.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quick to say the protest showed Israel's decision to renew its offensive was working in Gaza, where Hamas police - the group's enforcers - have once again disappeared after emerging during a ceasefire.
"Out, out, out, Hamas get out," chanted those seen in one of the posts published on X, apparently from the Beit Lahiya region of Gaza, on Tuesday. It showed people marching down a dusty street between war-damaged buildings.
"It was a spontaneous rally against the war because people are tired and they have no place to go," said one witness, who spoke on condition that his name not be used for fear of retribution.

"Many chanted slogans against Hamas, not all people but many, saying 'Out Hamas'. People are exhausted and no one should blame them," he said.
The posts began circulating widely late on Tuesday. Reuters was able to confirm the location of the video by buildings, utility poles and road layout that matches satellite imagery of the area. Reuters was not able to independently verify the date of the video. However, several videos and photographs shared on social media showed protests in the area on March 25.
Social media activists circulated a video they said was of a protest by hundreds of people in Shejaia, a suburb of Gaza City, on Wednesday calling for the dismissal of Hamas, indicating the anti-Hamas protests may be spreading. Reuters could not verify the authenticity of the video.
Senior Hamas official Basem Naim said people had the right to protest at the suffering inflicted by the war but he denounced what he said were "suspicious political agendas" exploiting the situation.

"Where are they from, what is happening in the West Bank?" he said. "Why don't they protest against the aggression there or allow people to take to the streets to denounce this aggression?"
The comments, reflecting tensions among Palestinian factions over the future of Gaza, came several hours after the rival Fatah movement called on Hamas to "respond to the call of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip". Fatah leads the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the occupied West Bank.

POLITICAL TENSIONS​


More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli campaign in Gaza, Palestinian officials say. It was launched after thousands of Hamas-led gunmen attacked communities in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and abducting 251 as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Much of the narrow coastal enclave has been reduced to rubble, leaving hundreds of thousands of people sheltering in tents or bombed-out buildings.
Hundreds of thousands of residents who had fled to the south of Gaza earlier in the war returned to their ruined homes in the north after a ceasefire took effect in January.
Now, Israel has issued new evacuation orders after relaunching its offensive on March 18.
"All Gaza is in ruins and now the occupation ordered us to leave the north again, where to go?" the witness at the protests said.
Since Israel resumed its strikes on Gaza, saying its goal was to completely dismantle Hamas, nearly 700 people, mostly women and children, have been killed, according to Palestinian health officials.
Hamas deployed thousands of police and security forces across Gaza after the ceasefire took effect in January, but its armed presence has sharply retracted since Israel's major attacks resumed. Fewer police were present in some areas, while members and leaders of the armed wing went off the radar to avoid Israeli airstrikes.
Palestinian analyst Akram Attallah said Hamas, which kept a lid on public opposition before the war, would have few options to clamp down on demonstrations if they gained momentum.
"The people are exhausted and paid with their lives and property, and the group is facing a devastating Israeli military offensive that makes it weaker to crack down on the protesters even if it wanted to," he said.
Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007 in elections that swept out the Fatah group of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. It has ruled the enclave since then, offering little space for opposition.
The two movements have been at odds for years and have failed to bridge differences over the postwar future of Gaza, which the PA says must come under its authority.
Hamas, while expressing readiness to step back from an active part in government, says it must be involved in selecting whatever administration comes next.
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'It became worse' after Oscar win, says Palestinian director Hamdan Ballal detained by Israel​

No Other Land won Oscar for best documentary amid rising tensions in occupied West Bank​

Oscar-winning Palestinian director Hamdan Ballal believes he is being deliberately targeted by Israeli settlers and soldiers in the occupied West Bank following the success of his film No Other Land, which won best documentary at the prestigious awards ceremony earlier this month.

"Because of that, they're attacking me," he said in a telephone interview with CBC News, a day after he was released from a police station in the Israeli settlement of Qiryat Arba, near Hebron.

"They punish me because I take this message [to the outside world]," he said from his home in Masafer Yatta, a cluster of Palestinian villages in the south Hebron hills.

The film, which Ballal co-directed with fellow Palestinian Basel Adra and Israelis Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, documents Palestinians in Masafer Yatta living under occupation and struggling to hold on to their land.

Israel captured East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan in 1967. Today, there are some 500,000 Jewish settlers living in the West Bank alone, even though they're considered illegal under international law by much of the world.

About three million Palestinians live in the West Bank, and tensions have escalated during the war in Gaza.

Ballal says he was detained after being badly beaten by a settler he identified as Shem Tov Luski and two soldiers after he'd been filming Israeli settlers harassing Palestinian villagers on Monday.

He says his ordeal began around 6 p.m., when a fellow resident in his home village of Susiya phoned to alert him to the Israelis' presence.

"When I got there, the settlers [were throwing] stones and destroyed the water tank, the cars there," he said.

When Ballal left to check on his own family he says he was followed by Luski and the two soldiers, all armed, who continued beating him even when he had fallen to the ground.

He says his requests for medical attention were ignored, and that he was eventually blindfolded and taken to a location where he was held overnight.

Director says he feared he would be killed​

The head of the local council in Susiya says the trouble began when settlers attacked a gathering taking place for Iftar, which marks the end of the daily fast during Ramadan.

Activists from a group called the Center for Jewish Nonviolence called by villagers to the scene said they were also attacked by settlers, showing video to various news agencies.

Luski, the settler identified by Ballal, lives in a nearby settlement outpost called ancient Susiya. The Israeli human rights group B'tselem documented him harassing Ballal and other Palestinians last summer.

Ballal says he has been threatened by Luski and other settlers before, but that this time he was genuinely afraid he would be killed.

"After the Oscar, it became worse," he said.

In response to a query by CBC News, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said its soldiers had transferred three Palestinian "detainees" to police "for questioning on suspicion of rock hurling, property damage and endangering regional security."

The statement also called claims that they had been beaten during the night at an IDF detention facility "entirely baseless" and said that IDF forces "facilitated medical treatment" for the detainees after their transfer to the Israel police.

'Why we made this movie'​

Palestinians living in the occupied territories have been faced with increasing levels of violence by hard-line Jewish settlers in recent years, according to human rights groups, especially those living in "outposts" linked to larger settlement blocks.

Palestinians, rights organizations and activist groups who send monitors to the West Bank say the Israeli army regularly fails to stop violent and intimidating behaviour by the settlers.

The war in Gaza has sparked a surge of violence in the West Bank, with the Israeli military carrying out military operations that have killed hundreds of Palestinians and displaced tens of thousands. There has been a rise in settler violence as well as Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

Asked if he thinks his film might change things, Ballal said he hopes so.

"Until now nothing changed on the ground," he said. "But that's why we made this movie."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/hamdan-ballal-1.7493922
 

Militants warn against helping Israel with Gaza protests​

  • Summary
  • First major rallies against war, Hamas spring up in Gaza
  • Militants warn against helping Israeli aims
  • More protests planned in shattered enclave
CAIRO, March 27 (Reuters) - Palestinian militant groups threatened punishment on Thursday for "collaborators" furthering Israeli goals after the first substantial protests against the war in Gaza and Hamas' rule.
Hundreds of Palestinians have rallied in recent days in north and central Gaza, some chanting "Hamas out", in a rare show of opposition to the group whose October 2023 raid on Israel triggered a devastating offensive in the enclave.

More demonstrations, which have been applauded by Israel's government, were planned for later on Thursday.
A statement by the "Factions of the Resistance", an umbrella group including Hamas, threatened punishment for leaders of the "suspicious movement", which Palestinians took to mean the street marches.
"They persist in blaming the resistance and absolving the occupation, ignoring that the Zionist extermination machine operates nonstop," it said.
"Therefore, these suspicious individuals are as responsible as the occupation for the bloodshed of our people and will be treated accordingly."

Hamas officials have said people have the right to protest but rallies should not be exploited for political ends or to exempt Israel from blame for decades of occupation, conflict and displacement in Palestinian territories.
Some protesters reached by Reuters said they took to the streets to voice rejection of continued war, adding that they were exhausted and lacked basics like food and water.
"We are not against the resistance. We are against war. Enough wars, we are tired," a resident of Gaza City's Shejaia neighbourhood, which saw protests on Wednesday, told Reuters.
"You can't call people collaborators for speaking up against wars, for wanting to live without bombardment and hunger," he added via a chat app.

PROTESTS SPREAD​

Videos on Wednesday, whose authenticity Reuters could not verify, showed protests in Shejaia in the north where the rallies began, but also in the central Gaza areas of Deir Al-Balah, indicating the protests were spreading.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has promised Hamas' total elimination, said the rallies showed its decision to renew the military offensive in Gaza after a ceasefire was working.
Hamas police, the group's enforcers, are again off the streets.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz urged Gaza residents to keep expressing their discontent.
"Learn from the residents of Beit Lahia," he wrote on X, referring to the first protest. "Just as they did, demand the removal of Hamas from Gaza and the immediate release of all Israeli hostages — this is the only way to stop the war."

A Palestinian official with a Hamas-allied militant group said protests were allowed - but not cooperation with Israel.
"Those suspicious figures try to exploit legitimate protests to demand an end to the resistance, which is the same goal as Israel's," he told Reuters via a chat app.
"We don't threaten our people, we adore their sacrifices, but there are some suspicious figures who cooperate with the goals of the occupation, they want to exempt the occupation of responsibility and disgrace the resistance."

More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli campaign in Gaza, Palestinian officials say.
It was launched after thousands of Hamas-led gunmen attacked communities in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and abducting 251 as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Much of the narrow coastal enclave has been reduced to rubble, leaving hundreds of thousands of people sheltering in tents or bombed-out buildings.
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I don't believe at face value everything Israel says like a mindless robot, so I think there is a different reason why they broke the ceasefire (as opposed to their stated reason).

the real reason is this: Hamas officials (soldiers, policemen etc) were blending into the civilian population to avoid being targeted by the IDF. When the ceasefire started those same Hamas officials put their uniforms back on. Now, Israel finally knew exactly who to target, so they did. Hamas officials should have waited until the ceasefire was fully completed before putting their uniforms back on, which doing it during the fragile ceasefire might as well be painting a target on their back. One thing Israel says that I DO actually believe is they sent they intend to completely destroy hamas, both politically and militarily. If that is the case, then that would be the real reason the ceasefire was broken. There are rumors that some palestiians in gaza are protesting against Hamas. I don't know if that is true or not, so I won't confirm or deny anything in that regard. What I will say instead, though, is even if that isn't the case, hamas could lose the ability to function as a political force if they lose too many government officials at once. Even if the majority of the population of Gaza supports Hamas, that is no guarantee that Hamas as a political entity won't fall. Think of it like this: the majority of Americans support the existence of its government and see the American government as the legitimate political force ruling them. But if hostile aliens paid us a visit and killed enough government officials, from the top down, the US government is not necessarily still going to function just because most Americans support their government. At some point enough damage to government officials, infrastructure etc would cause the government to collapse even if most American people support the idea of it.

Israel probably thinks even if they can't win the propaganda war against hamas in Gaza, they can do the next best thing which is to harm hamas so bad, both militarily and politically that they run out of the ability to govern effectively, thus turning gaza from hamas controlled to simply anarchy. People with far left politics view anarchy as freedom from oppression. It is now. Much of the country in Haiti has no government presence and they are not a paradise by any means. But a populace in anarchy, pretty much by definition, can't organize effectively as much as an organized political entity can. The population of gaza will lose the ability to launch meaningful attacks on Israel, which is obviously what they're really thinking about.

But Trump appointed Mike Huckabee to be the ambassador to Israel and Huckabee explicitly said there's no such thing as a Palestinian. He also thinks Isasel has a biblical claim to the land, from the river to the sea, and wants Palestinians in the area either killed or expelled.
 

Red Cross outraged over killing of eight medics in Gaza​

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has said it is "outraged" at the deaths of eight medics killed on duty in Rafah in southern Gaza.

The nine-person ambulance team came under heavy fire in al-Hashashin on 23 March, said the IFRC. Their bodies were retrieved on Sunday after access was denied for a week. One medic is still missing.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said their staff's bodies were discovered along with those of six members of Gaza's Hamas-run civil defence agency and one UN employee.

They did not say who opened fire on the convoy - but Hamas blamed the Israel Defense Forces for the attack. The BBC has sought comment from the IDF.
In Sunday's statement, the IFRC said the eight bodies of PRCS workers were retrieved "after seven days of silence and having access denied to the area of Rafah where they were last seen".

The organisation identified those killed as ambulance officers Mostafa Khufaga, Saleh Muamer and Ezzedine Shaath, and first responder volunteers Mohammad Bahloul, Mohammed al-Heila, Ashraf Abu Labda, Raed al-Sharif and Rifatt Radwan.

It added that ambulance officer Assad Al-Nassasra was "still missing".

"I am heartbroken. These dedicated ambulance workers were responding to wounded people. They were humanitarians," IFRC Secretary General Jagan Chapagain said.

"They wore emblems that should have protected them; their ambulances were clearly marked.

"Even in the most complex conflict zones, there are rules. These rules of International Humanitarian Law could not be clearer – civilians must be protected; humanitarians must be protected. Health services must be protected."

The IDF has publicly not commented on the Red Cross and Red Crescent statement.

The AFP news agency reported that on Saturday the Israeli military admitted it had fired on ambulances in southern Gaza last Sunday after identifying them as "suspicious vehicles".

Israeli troops had "opened fire toward Hamas vehicles and eliminated several Hamas terrorists", the military said in a statement to AFP.

"A few minutes afterward, additional vehicles advanced suspiciously toward the troops... The troops responded by firing toward the suspicious vehicles, eliminating a number of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists."

The military added that "after an initial inquiry, it was determined that some of the suspicious vehicles... were ambulances and fire trucks".

It also said there had been "repeated use" by "terrorist organisations in the Gaza Strip of ambulances for terrorist purposes".

Senior Hamas official Basem Naim condemned the attack.

"The targeted killing of rescue workers - who are protected under international humanitarian law - constitutes a flagrant violation of the Geneva Conventions and a war crime," he said.

Israel resumed its military offensive in Gaza on 18 March after the first phase of a ceasefire that began in January came to an end, and negotiations on a second phase of the deal stalled.

More than 900 people have since been killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza, the Hamas-run health ministry has said.

The war was triggered when Hamas attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 back to Gaza as captives.

Israel responded with a massive military offensive, which has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crkxm1rg6k1o
 
It is an extermination plan, plain and simple. Kill or terrorize away (the killings are meant to achieve the second) all medics because those if present would slowing off the rate of extermination.

They weren't simply killed by mistake. They were "detained and killed one by one".
“He informed us that he was injured and requested assistance, and that another person was also injured,” Murad said. “A few minutes later, during the call, we heard the sound of Israeli soldiers arriving at the location, speaking in Hebrew. The conversation was about gathering the team, with statements like: ‘Gather them at the wall and bring some restraints to tie them.’ This indicated that a large number of the medical staff were still alive.”
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I love how evangelical Christian’s are defending this as if there’s anything Christ or Jesus like about mass murder
 
I think there are many conservative Christians who believe that both Trump and the destruction of Gaza are part of God's plan as we move towards the second coming. Signs!
 
Even the BBC, generally nowhere near as harsh on Israel as other networks such as Al Jazeera, is strictly condemning them over what is happening now. What we are seeing is the worst genocide/human rights violations to have occurred in the 21st century, at least so far. If this doesn't count as ethnic cleansing than literally nothing does. Israel will no longer be able to have normalized relations with their neighbors over how outraged their people will be over this (and rightfully so). America or any other countries that are enabling Israel will also have the Muslim world hate them for generations to come, not that I blame them and I'm speaking as a non Muslim American. This breds resentment and makes terrorism more likely. There will be consequences for this. As far as I'm concerned this is a lose lose for everyone.

if I ever have children, one day I will have to explain to them why my country enabled this, and how nothing was done to prevent it. My politics are nowhere near as far to the left as most of CFC (and I'm generally much less critical of US Foreign Policy) and even I think this is heartbreaking.
 

Palestinian from West Bank first detainee under 18 to die in Israeli prison: officials​

Family says 17-year-old was healthy before arrest for allegedly throwing stones at Israeli soldiers​

A teenager from the West Bank who was held in an Israeli prison for six months without being charged died after collapsing in unclear circumstances, becoming the first Palestinian under 18 to die in Israeli detention, officials said.

Walid Ahmad, 17, was a healthy high schooler before his arrest in September for allegedly throwing stones at soldiers, his family said. Rights groups have documented widespread abuse in Israeli detention facilities holding thousands of Palestinians who were rounded up after the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, which ignited the war in the Gaza Strip.

Prison authorities deny any systematic abuse and say they investigate accusations of wrongdoing by prison staff. But the Israeli ministry overseeing prisons acknowledges conditions inside detention facilities have been reduced to the minimum level allowed under Israeli law.

Israel's prison service did not respond to questions about the cause of death. It said only that a 17-year-old from the West Bank had died in Megiddo Prison, a facility that's previously been accused of abusing Palestinian inmates, "with his medical condition being kept confidential." It said it investigates all deaths in detention.

Khalid Ahmad, Walid's father, said his son was a lively teen who enjoyed playing soccer before he was taken from his home in the occupied West Bank during a predawn arrest raid.

Six months later, after several brief court appearances, during which no trial date was set, Walid collapsed on March 23 in a prison yard and struck his head, dying soon after, Palestinians officials said, citing eyewitness accounts from other prisoners.

The family believes Walid contracted amoebic dysentery from the poor conditions in the prison, an infection that causes diarrhea, vomiting and dizziness — and can be fatal if left untreated.

The Western-backed Palestinian Authority says Walid is the first Palestinian under 18 to die in Israeli detention — and the 63rd Palestinian from the West Bank or Gaza since the start of the war.

Palestinian prisoner rights groups say that is about one-fifth of the roughly 300 Palestinians who have died in Israeli custody since the 1967 Mideast war, when Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. The Palestinians want all three territories for their future state.

The Palestinian Authority says Israel is holding the bodies of 72 Palestinian prisoners who died in Israeli jails, including 61 who died since the beginning of the war.

Conditions in Israeli prisons have worsened since the start of the war, former detainees told The Associated Press. They described beatings, severe overcrowding, insufficient medical care, scabies outbreaks and poor sanitary conditions.

Israel's National Security Ministry, which oversees the prison service and is run by ultra-nationalist cabinet minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, has boasted of reducing the conditions of Palestinian detainees "to the minimum required by law." It says the policy is aimed at deterring attacks.

'Don't worry about me,' father remembers him saying​

Israel has rounded up thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, saying it suspects them of militancy. Many have been held for months without charge or trial in what is known as administrative detention, which Israel justifies as a necessary security measure. Others are arrested on suspicion of aggression toward soldiers but have their trials continuously delayed, as the military and Israel's security services gather evidence.

Walid sat through at least four court appearances over video conference, his father said. Each session lasted about three minutes, and another hearing was scheduled for April 21, Walid's father said.

In a February session, four months after Walid was detained, his father noticed his son appeared to be in poor health.

"His body was weakened due to malnutrition in the prisons in general," Ahmad said. He said Walid told him he had gotten scabies — a contagious skin rash caused by mites that causes intense itching — but had been cured.

"Don't worry about me," his father remembers him saying.

Four days after Khalid Ahmad visited his son's friend, a former soccer teammate who had been held with Walid in the same prison, the family received the news of Walid's death.

"We felt the same way as all the parents of the prisoners and all the families and mothers of the prisoners," said Khalid Ahmad. "We can only say, 'Indeed, we belong to Allah, and indeed to him we shall return.'"

'Harshest prison for minors'​

Walid's lawyer, Firas al-Jabrini, said Israeli authorities denied his requests to visit his client in prison. But he says three prisoners held alongside Walid told him he was suffering from dysentery, saying it was widespread among young Palestinians held at the facility.

He said they suspected the disease was spreading because of dirty water, as well as cheese and yogurt that prison guards brought in the morning and that sat out all day while detainees were fasting for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Megiddo, in northern Israel, "is the harshest prison for minors," al-Jabrini said. He said he was told that rooms designed for six prisoners often held 16, with some sleeping on the floor. Many complained of scabies and eczema.

Thaer Shriteh, spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority's detainee commission, said Walid collapsed and hit his head on a metal rod, losing consciousness. "The prison administration did not respond to the prisoners' requests for urgent care to save his life," he said, citing witnesses who spoke to the commission.

The lawyer and the Palestinian official both said an autopsy is needed to determine the cause of death. Israel has agreed to perform one but a date has not been set.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/west-bank-teen-dead-israeli-prison-1.7498772
 

Fear of famine looms after all Gaza bakeries run out of flour amid month-long Israeli blockade​

World Food Program says supplies running out with no aid entering Gaza Strip, warning of severe hunger​

Bakeries in the Gaza Strip shuttered Tuesday after running out of flour and diesel to operate, as a month-long Israeli blockade on food and aid entering the territory remains in place.

Abdel Nasser Al-Ajrami, head of the Bakery Owners Association in the Gaza Strip, said the closure of remaining 19 bakeries — which relied on support from the World Food Program (WFP) — meant there were no more operating bakeries in the territory.

"We call on the world to pressure the [Israeli] occupation to open the crossings to prevent the famine from worsening in the Strip," Al-Ajrami said in a statement.

Amjad Al-Shawa, general manager of the Palestinian NGO network in Gaza, said the bakeries were forced to close Tuesday citing a lack of flour and diesel.

Al-Shawa said the territory has entered the "worst stage" of the war, as the suspension on aid and goods entering continues to worsen conditions for its population that has again been displaced and under Israeli bombardment.

"Gaza is entering the most critical stage of its humanitarian catastrophe," Al-Shawa told CBC News freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife on Tuesday.

"We are warning that this will affect the lives of Gazans — mainly children, women and elders."

Aid has not entered Gaza for four weeks​

Since March 2, Israel has not allowed humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, saying it is intended to pressure Palestinian militant group Hamas to release its remaining hostages — a tactic that rights groups say amounts to a war crime.

The four-week-long closure has effectively shut off all sources of food, fuel, medicine and other supplies from reaching civilians in Gaza — the longest total blockade yet of the 17-month war with Hamas, with no sign of it ending. A dire shortage of clean drinking water is also plaguing the war-torn enclave after the last water desalination plant was cut off from Israel's electricity supply, forcing it to rely on back-up generators and solar power.

For weeks, UN agencies have sounded the alarm, warning that food is running out and a potential famine is looming if the blockade is not lifted to reach roughly two million Palestinians across the enclave. Last month, six bakeries were forced to close due to the imposed blockade.

Officials are expecting further closures of community kitchens — which produce hundreds of thousands of meals to families in Gaza — in the next several days, Al-Shawa said.

The bakeries, which were forced to close, were serving hundreds of thousands of people, according to an internal memo circulated among aid groups on Monday.

The WFP said that due to the lack of humanitarian aid, its supplies are running out and it doesn't have enough wheat flour needed to make bread, adding that it's distributed all available food rations.

Aid groups warn of catastrophic surge in severe hunger​

The UN agency said that it was prioritizing its remaining stocks to provide emergency food aid and expand hot meal distribution. Aid workers have stretched supplies, but warned of a catastrophic surge in severe hunger and malnutrition.

Despite aid group warnings, Israel denies that there is a shortage in the territory, saying enough food entered the Gaza Strip during its six-week ceasefire with Hamas for "a long period of time."

COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, said Tuesday that more than 25,000 trucks entered Gaza during the ceasefire, carrying nearly 450,000 tons of aid. It said that amount represented around a third of what has entered during the entire war.

UN agencies and aid groups say that they struggled to bring in and distribute aid before the ceasefire took hold on Jan. 19. Their estimates for how much aid actually reached people in Gaza were consistently lower than COGAT's, which were based on how much entered through border crossings.

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip say it's even harder to find food as bakeries close due to a tightened Israeli blockade of the territory.

Markets largely emptied weeks ago, and UN agencies say the supplies they built up during the truce are running out. Gaza is heavily reliant on international aid, because the war has destroyed almost all of its food production capability.

Mohammed al-Kurd, a father of 12, said his children go to bed without dinner.

"We tell them to be patient and that we will bring flour in the morning," he told The Associated Press.

"We lie to them and to ourselves."

The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and capturing 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Hamas is still holding 59 captives — 24 of whom are believed to be alive — after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

Israel's offensive has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, including hundreds killed in strikes since the ceasefire ended, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Thousands more are believed to still be under rubble.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/bakeries-gaza-close-israel-aid-blockade-1.7498858
 
It seems it is all working out very much as I had feared; the Israeli government has failed to:

A) destroy Hamas
B) persuade Hamas to abandon its objectives of destroying Israel and eliminating the Jews
C) persuade the Palestinian population to reject Hamas.

It has therefore resorted to continuing with the underlying plan to

D) evict the Palestinian population by famine.
 
while Kamala Harris would have been pro Israel still not to the extent trump is so I think people who didn’t vote for her over the Gaza issue should be regretting it.
 
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