" More than one million hungry, cold, and sick displaced Palestinians await Israelâs planned attack on Rafah city with children roaming the streets âlooking for scraps of foodâ.
âHamas began deploying police and making partial salary payments to some civil servants in Gaza City in recent days, resurfacing in areas where Israel withdrew the bulk of its troops a month ago.â
This is not only evidence of Israelâs failure to achieve its military aim of eliminating Hamas, but it touches on an important but rarely mentioned aspect of this conflict: since Hamas runs the government in Gaza, many people who could be considered to be âHamasâ are really just responsible for basic civil governance, and are not involved in any militant activity. Totally innocent people weâre meant to accept violence against because of the propagandistic characterisation of Hamas as an entirely terrorist entity, and of anyone even remotely involved with them as terrorists.
Switch the nationalities of the victims and perpetrators and this would be headline news all over the world. As far as I can tell not a single western media outlet has picked this up.
âThe term âantisemiticâ is used a lot these days. Often justifiably, but sometimes to try to shut down any legitimate criticism of Israel by making people fearful that if they dare to criticise the Israeli government or its army they will be branded as antisemitic â in other words, haters of Jews.â
After almost four months of war, some 90 percent of Gazans have been displaced from their homes, including many who moved south to Rafah to escape Israeli bombing and heavy fighting in north and central Gaza.
But Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowed last week to expand Israeli military operations in Rafah.
The head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Jan Egeland, told the BBC that such an operation in Rafah - which he called âthe worldâs biggest displacement campâ - would be a catastrophe.
âThere are people on their flimsy plastic sheeting. They are fighting for food. There is no drinking water. There is epidemic disease and then they [the IDF] want to bring a war to this place. You canât make it up really,â he said.
On Saturday night (local time), three air strikes on homes in the Rafah area killed 28 people, including a total of 10 children, the youngest 3 months old, according to a health official and Associated Press journalists who saw bodies arriving at hospitals.
Later on Saturday, an Israeli air strike on a home in Rafah killed at least 11 people, including three children, according to Ahmed al-Soufi, head of Rafah municipality.
Two other strikes in Rafah killed two policemen and three senior officers in the civil police, according to city officials
This is flooding twitter too, the total inhumanity of the IDF and the cruel murder of poor little Hind.
How can any decent person try to justify the continual slaying of children.
Israel are truly the most evil barbaric nation on earth.
While the producer conceded that âthere is currently no evidence (at least, of which we are aware) that 40 babies had been beheaded,â he claimed to have âgathered evidenceâ of other crimes.
Tellingâs equivocal wording comes despite the fact that the â40 babiesâ claim has been definitively proven to be a total fabrication, and not simply an unproven claim.
Despite Telling trying to give the impression of new evidence, the claims he makes in the letters about Hamas fightersâ alleged behavior on 7 October strongly resembles already discredited and debunked Israeli claims about the alleged killing of babies and alleged sexual violence.
âBabies were shot in the head at very close range,â âwomen were raped and sexually molestedâ and âbreasts were cut from womenâ the producer claimed.
But even official Israeli government figures do not support such claims.
The Foreign Office says some residents in settlements and unauthorised outposts have used harassment, intimidation and violence to put pressure on Palestinian communities to leave their land
The Foreign Office announced financial and travel restrictions against the four who it says have committed human rights abuses against Palestinians.
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Meanwhile Palestinians elsewhere are actually getting killed with the approval of The Foreign Office.
The US Senate has passed a bill that contains another $14.1 billion dollars worth of weapons for Israel.
Although the Speaker of the Republican-controlled House has signalled opposition to it (because the bill also includes money for Ukraine, as well as Taiwan), to the point where heâs said he might even refuse to put it to a vote.
The Senate bill also enshrines into law the suspension of funding for UNRWA
Israel can harm civilians in Rafah without âconsequencesâ from US: Report
The US media outlet Politico has reported that the Biden administration will not pursue consequences for Israel if the country proceeds with an anticipated assault on Rafah, despite Washingtonâs demands that Israel develop a plan to avoid civilian casualties before launching the operation.
The report, which cites three anonymous officials in the Biden administration, states that âno reprimand plans are in the works, meaning Israeli forces could enter the city and harm civilians without facing American consequencesâ.
While the US has said that an Israeli assault on the city, whose population has increased five times as Israel instructed displaced Palestinians to seek refuge there, would be a âdisasterâ, the Biden administration has pushed back against suggestions that an Israeli incursion there could jeopardise continued US arms transfers.
So there you have it.Selling arms to Israel is what itâs all about.
13 Feb 2024
South Africa makes urgent request to International Court of Justice on Rafah offensive
The South African Government has made an urgent request to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to consider whether the decision announced by Israel to extend its military operations in Rafah, which is the last refuge for surviving people in Gaza, requires that the court uses its power to prevent further imminent breach of the rights of Palestinians in Gaza.
Under Article 75(1) of the Rules of Court, âThe Court may at any time decide to examine proprio motu whether the circumstances of the case require the indication of provisional measures which ought to be taken or complied with by any or all of the parties.â
In a request submitted to the court yesterday (12 February 2024), the South African government said it was gravely concerned that the unprecedented military offensive against Rafah, as announced by the State of Israel, has already led to and will result in further large scale killing, harm and destruction. This would be in serious and irreparable breach both of the Genocide Convention and of the Courtâs Order of 26 January 2024.
South Africa trusts this matter will receive the necessary urgency in light of the daily death toll in Gaza.
