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Post by Webster on Oct 13, 2023 2:59:48 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Melanie Ward, the chief executive of Medical Aid for Palestinians, said the Palestinian history of displacement made it reasonable to fear that the displacement will be permanent and not temporary, in which case it will amount to ethnic cleansing and the expulsion of Palestinians into Sinai. She said she had warned two days ago that Israel was likely to undertake a mass evacuation, and she was told by British diplomats on Thursday that she was being dramatic. Ward said: “What is happening are events that are of a terrifying and historic proportion. Given the Palestinian history of displacement, the fear is that any such movement will end up being permanent and not temporary.” She said she had 15 staff working in the north of Gaza and they were terrified, adding: “There is a lot of confusion, chaos and panic. Even if they wanted to go, how are they supposed to move? The roads have been bombed and destroyed. The bombing is continuing. Fuel has been blocked or is under siege so vehicles do not have fuel. Where are they supposed to go and how are they supposed to move? What about elderly people, and the disabled? “The hospitals are overflowing, the health system is collapsing. The hospitals have so many injured people they are lying on the floor. Even if people do not move they remain civilians and they are not legitimate military targets. The international community has no choice but to make an urgent intervention and to stop this.”
The Philippines has confirmed the death of a third of its citizens in the conflict between Hamas and Israel. The victim was a 49-year-old woman from Negros Occidental, who was working as a carer, according to the department of foreign affairs undersecretary Eduardo de Vega. She was killed on Saturday, the first day of the Hamas attack, he said. A further four Filipinos are believed missing. There are about 30,000 Filipinos living in Israel, mostly working as carers. Earlier this week, the deputy mayor of Jerusalem, Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, paid tribute to a Filipina nurse called Angelyn, who was caring for her elderly patient, Nira, on the kibbutz Kfar Gaza. Despite having a chance to flee the Hamas attacks, Angeline stayed by Nira’s side; both were killed, Hassan-Nahoum said.
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Post by Webster on Oct 13, 2023 3:00:44 GMT -5
(The Guardian) The US secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, has landed in Israel. Earlier this week, he was in Brussels for two days of Nato meetings.
Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, met the head of Hezbollah in Lebanon on Friday, local Lebanese media outlets reported. Reuters cited Al-Mayadeen television reports that Amirabdollahian, who arrived in Beirut late on Thursday, met Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
Reuters has a quick snap that Hamas has claimed that 13 captives have been killed by Israeli strikes on Gaza in the last 24 hours.
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Post by Webster on Oct 13, 2023 14:42:21 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer to lead bipartisan visit to IsraelChuck Schumer is set to visit Israel alongside a bipartisan group of US lawmakers to “show the United States’ unwavering support for Israel.” Schumer, the US’s highest-ranking Jewish elected official, will meet with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli president Isaac Herzog and senior opposition figure Benny Gantz, the Associated Press reports. Earlier this week, Schumer met with China’s president Xi Jinping in a visit to Beijing where he and five other senators raised concerns surrounding trade and the fentanyl pipeline. During the visit, Schumer said that he was “disappointed” that Beijing showed “no sympathy” for Israel and called on addiitonal support from China towards Israel.
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Post by Webster on Oct 13, 2023 14:52:33 GMT -5
(The Guardian) President Biden to speak with families of American hostages believed to be held by HamasJoe Biden is set to speak virtually with the families of American hostages that are believed to be currently held by Hamas. In an a clip of an interview with CBS that is set to air on Sunday, Biden said: “I think they have to know that the president of the United States of America cares deeply about what’s happening, deeply. We have to communicate to the world this is critical. This is not human behavior. It’s pure barbarism. And we’re going to do everything in our power to get them home.”The White House has not disclosed when Biden’s call is to take place. On Wednesday, National Security Council John Kirby said that there are a “very small” number of Americans believed to be held as hostages by Hamas.
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Post by Webster on Oct 13, 2023 14:57:02 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Joe Biden held one hour and fifteen minute-long phone call with families of American hostages taken by HamasWhile in Philadelphia to deliver remarks on Bidenomics, Joe Biden revealed that he held a Zoom call for an hour and fifteen minutes with the families members of “all those Americans who are still unaccounted for” in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. -- “It’s gut-wrenching. I assured them my personal commitment to do everything possible to return every missing American to their families,” said Biden. “We’re working around the clock to secure their release of Americans held by Hamas in close cooperation with Israel and our partners in the region and we’re not going to stop until we bring them home,” he added.
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Post by Webster on Oct 13, 2023 16:42:49 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Oct 13, 2023 16:43:51 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Oct 13, 2023 16:47:07 GMT -5
(The Guardian) 1:37pm Summary--Israeli troops carried out local raids over the past day in the Gaza Strip, searching for hostages and collecting evidence to find people taken by Hamas, the Israel Defence Forces said on Friday. --Thousands of Palestinians have begun fleeing their homes and moving south after Israel’s military delivered sweeping evacuation orders for almost half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people earlier on Friday ahead of a feared ground offensive. The UN said it was told by the Israeli military that about 1.1 million Palestinians in northern Gaza should relocate to the enclave’s south within the next 24 hours. Hamas urged people to stay put and defy the Israeli military order to evacuate homes. --The World Health Organization (WHO) said asking vulnerable patients to evacuate hospitals in Gaza amounted to a “death sentence”, and its director general of the agency called upon Israel to reverse its decision to order an evacuation. --The UN humanitarian office (OCHA) said early on Friday that more than 400,000 people had fled their homes in the Gaza Strip. It said 23 aid workers had been killed since the start of Israeli retaliatory strikes in response to the Hamas attack on Saturday. --At least 1,799 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza from Israeli strikes, including 583 children and 351 women, according to Gaza’s health ministry on Friday. Eleven Palestinians were shot and killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces on Friday, the Palestinian health ministry said. --Hamas’s armed wing, Al Qassam Brigades, said in a statement that 13 captives were killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza in the last 24 hours. The statement said six of the hostages were killed in strikes on two separate locations in the northern district and a further seven died in strikes on three locations in the Gaza district. --It remains unclear how many Israeli hostages Hamas took when it carried out its incursion into Israel’s territory on Saturday. Israel’s military spokesperson said the government has been able to confirm the identities of 97 people taken hostage into Gaza during the attack by Hamas, but more than 100 are believed to have been taken. The most recent official death toll from Israel stands at 1,300. --Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said Israel needs to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip through Egypt’s Rafah crossing after a first plane carrying Turkish aid arrived in Egypt. --Israel Defense Forces ruled out a suspected armed infiltration near the Lebanese border, after warning residents of the village of Hanita earlier on Friday to hole up at home and lock doors. --A journalist has been killed and six others injured after an Israeli shell landed in a gathering of international journalists covering clashes on the border in south Lebanon on Friday. Reuters confirmed that its videographer Issam Abdallah was killed. --The European parliament president, Roberta Metsola, and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, arrived in Israel on Friday. The Italian foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, also confirmed that he arrived in Israel. The US secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, has also arrived in the country for high-level meetings. --Israel’s military denied a report by Human Rights Watch saying that it had used white phosphorus munitions in its military operations in Gaza and Lebanon this week. HRW said the use of such weapons put civilians at risk of serious and long-term injury. --The UK defence secretary, Grant Shapps, said the UK supported the decision of the IDF to give advance notice that it is intended to mount an attack. Pressed to say whether the UK government supported the specific order giving more than 1 million people in Gaza 24 hours to leave their homes, Shapps said: “The UK government supports both the right of Israel to defend itself in this way, and that Israel is providing advance warning of military action so people can move themselves out of the way. It’s absolutely right that happens.” --A crackdown on pro-Palestinian rallies in France and Germany has prompted concerns that officials are curtailing freedom of expression in a bid to contain the spillover of tensions from the conflict.
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Post by Webster on Oct 13, 2023 16:48:20 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Violence between Palestinian protesters and Israeli security forces has erupted in several areas of occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank. In the West Bank there were calls for marches across several big towns and cities, but in the chaos across the region, details on what under other circumstances would be described as major incidents were hard to follow. At least 11 Palestinians were shot and killed in the West Bank over the course of the day, the Palestinian health ministry said. Khaled Mashal, the former leader of Hamas, called for a “global day of rage” in support of Palestinians, demanding governments and people across the Middle East to protest. “Tribes of Jordan, sons of Jordan, brothers and sisters of Jordan … This is a moment of truth and the borders are close to you, you all know your responsibility,” he said. The Turkish news agency Anadolu reported that thousands gathered in the Jordanian capital, Amman, but did not spread further after a ban on protest near the border areas with the West Bank.
Violent exchanges between Palestinians and Israel Defence Forces (IDF), as well as Israeli settlers living in the West Bank, were reported near Hebron, Nablus and Ramallah by early Friday afternoon. It was not immediately clear how many people were involved, whether live fire had been used, and whether anyone had been injured or killed. Jerusalem, often a flashpoint for violence on Fridays, the Muslim holy day, had expected an influx of worshippers for this week’s most important prayer session at the flashpoint al-Aqsa mosque compound following six days of punishing airstrikes on Gaza, a tiny Palestinian enclave home to 2.3 million people. Turnout was low, however, after the Jordanian Waqf, that administers the complex’s Muslim holy sites, said that Israel had banned access to Palestinians under the age of 60, and the Beyadenu Temple Mount Movement, an extremist Jewish group, threatened to prevent Muslim worshippers from entering the area. Israeli media reported that more than 2,500 officers and volunteers were patrolling the Old City and its vicinity. Clashes between Palestinians and Israeli border police were also reported inside the Old City’s Muslim Quarter, and in Wadi Joz, a Palestinian neighbourhood just to the north of the dense 1 sq km maze of narrow streets and alleyways.
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Post by Webster on Oct 13, 2023 16:50:33 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has said Hamas has “taken the entire population of Gaza hostage” during a visit to Israel for talks with her Israeli counterpart, Eli Cohen. “Hamas is now barricading itself behind more innocent people and is using them as a shield in Gaza,” Baerbock said during a news conference. -- Their tunnels, their weapons depots and command centres are deliberately located in residential buildings, supermarkets and universities. Maybe even in hospitals.
The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, is in constant contact with Israeli authorities, urging them to “avert a humanitarian catastrophe”, a UN spokesperson said on Friday. Stéphane Dujarric, in a briefing, said it was vital that Israeli authorities protect all civilians, including in UN shelters in Gaza. No aid is currently getting into Gaza as border crossings remain closed, he added. Dujarric added that the UN considers it “impossible” for 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza to follow Israel’s orders to evacuate to the enclave’s south within 24 hours. The UN strongly appealed for the order to be rescinded to avoid turning “a tragedy into a calamitous situation”, he said. Israel’s UN ambassador, Gilad Erdan, said the UN response to Israel’s early warning was “shameful”. The UN spokesperson’s remarks came after the Palestinian UN envoy, Riyad Mansour, appealed to Guterres to do more to stop a “crime against humanity” by Israel. He told reporters on Friday: He has to do more. Whatever was done is not sufficient. We need all of us to do more to stop this crime against humanity.
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Post by Webster on Oct 13, 2023 16:51:53 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Médecins Sans Frontières said Israel has given Al Awda hospital in the northern Gaza Strip just two hours to evacuate. A statement from the organisation reads: Israel has given Al Awda Hospital just two hours to evacuate. Our staff are still treating patients.
We unequivocally condemn this action, the continued indiscriminate bloodshed and attacks on health care in Gaza. We are trying to protect our staff and patients.
The first charter flight organised by the US government to get its citizens out of Israel has departed, the White House said. The flight “is en route right now into Europe”, spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Friday. He declined to provide an exact destination for the flight. More flights are planned in coming days, he said.
Israel did not consult with the US before it issued an evacuation warning to more than a million Palestinian civilians in northern Gaza, the White House said. Spokesperson John Kirby said: There was no prior consultation that I’m aware of before the IDF issued that evacuation warning.The US is working “aggressively” with Israeli and Egyptian officials to try to find safe passage out of southern Gaza, he added. He told reporters that Joe Biden has spoken with family members of 14 Americans unaccounted for after attacks by Hamas militants on Israel. He said US authorities were still working to get more information on how many Americans were among the hostages taken by Hamas. “We still believe it’s a very small number,” he said. “I think I described it as less than a handful.” The White House has confirmed the deaths of 22 Americans in the Hamas attacks on Israel.
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Post by Webster on Oct 13, 2023 16:54:05 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Netanyahu: Israel's counteroffensive in Gaza 'is just the beginning'Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “eradicate” Hamas and said Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza “is just the beginning”. Netanyahu, in televised remarks on Friday, said Israel was striking at its enemies “with unprecedented might”. -- I would like to emphasise: this is just the beginning. Our enemies have only started paying the price I will not detail now what is yet to come, but I would like to tell you this is just the beginning.He said he had spoken with Joe Biden and other world leaders, and had rallied “tremendous” international support for Israel. -- We’re going to eradicate Hamas and we’re going to bring victory. It’s going to take time, but we’re going to come out of this war stronger than ever.
70 people killed in Israeli strikes while fleeing Gaza City, says HamasIsraeli airstrikes on convoys fleeing Gaza City killed 70 people, mostly women and children, the press office of Hamas said. Hamas said the cars were struck in three places as they headed south from Gaza City. It was not immediately clear who the target of the airstrikes was, or whether militants were among the passengers. The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza corroborated Hamas’s statement. NBC reported meeting people in hospitals who lost family members from air strikes while fleeing from the north to the south.
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Post by Webster on Oct 13, 2023 16:54:46 GMT -5
 A Yemeni boy shouts slogans while holding up a traditional dagger and a Palestinian flag during an anti-Israel protest in Sana’a, Yemen. Photograph: Yahya Arhab/EPA  People gather for a ‘Stand With Israel Rally’ in Freedom Plaza in Washington DC. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images |
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Post by Webster on Oct 13, 2023 16:55:47 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Amnesty International urges that Israel’s ‘appalling’ Gaza evacuation order be rescinded immediatelyAmnesty International said Israel’s order for Palestinian civilians to leave the northern Gaza Strip within 24 hours “cannot be considered an effective warning” and called for it to be rescinded immediately. The order is an “an impossible demand” that “may amount to forced displacement of the civilian population, a violation of international humanitarian law”, the rights group said in a statement on Friday. -- Regardless of timeframe, Israel cannot treat northern Gaza as an open-fire zone based on having issued this order.Israeli forces must “take all feasible precautions” to minimise harm to civilians wherever they are in Gaza, it said. Agnès Callamard, Amnesty’s secretary general, said: With this order, Israeli forces are setting in motion the mass forced displacement of more than 1.1 million people from Gaza City and the entire northern part of the Gaza Strip. It has sowed panic among the population and left thousands of internally displaced Palestinians now sleeping on the streets, not knowing where to flee to or where they can find safety amid a relentless bombing campaign by Israel and merciless collective punishment measures.She urged Israel’s allies to call for international humanitarian law to be respected and civilians to be protected. -- Civilians in Gaza must not be used as political pawns and their lives cannot be devalued. The international community must also refrain from further legitimizing Israel’s 16-year-long illegal blockade and immediately halt the transfer of arms that could be used to commit unlawful attacks.
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Post by Webster on Oct 13, 2023 17:02:18 GMT -5
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