Before and after Israel’s war of genocide. FP
A new report based on research from three countries shows Israel ‘consistently and groundlessly’ blocks aid operations for Gaza, and has generated ‘famine-like conditions’. Israel has generated “famine-like conditions” in the Gaza Strip “while obstructing and undermining the humanitarian response”, according to a new report by humanitarian group Refugees International. The group’s research in Egypt, Jordan and Israel revealed that Tel Aviv “consistently and groundlessly impeded aid operations within Gaza, blocked legitimate relief operations and resisted implementing measures that would genuinely enhance the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza”.
US President, Joe Biden, will announce during his State of the Union address that he directed the military on an emergency mission to establish a port in the Gaza Strip to get humanitarian aid to the Palestinian enclave, according to US officials, Anadolu Agency reports. The port on the coast can receive large ships carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelters, said a senior official during a briefing. “This is an initiative that will get underway here when the President makes the announcement and issues the orders,” the official said on the condition of anonymity.
Biden administration did not publicly disclose or notify Congress of the sales, as scrutiny over US military aid to Israel grows. The Biden administration has delivered more than 100 different sales of military aid to Israel since its war on Gaza began last October, according to several US news outlets citing a classified briefing given to members of Congress by administration officials. The aid delivered to Israel includes thousands of precision-guided munitions, small-diameter bombs and bunker-buster bombs, among other types of lethal aid.
· In Gaza, babies have no more nappies, or milk, as Israeli bombing continues
A shortage of nappies because of Israel’s blockade has led to prices skyrocketing and mothers looking for alternatives. “My baby daughter gets awful skin infections because I can’t get nappies,” she said. “There’s no baby formula even.” “Providing milk and nappies has become hell for us. “This war is a war on our children and their lives. What did they do to have to endure such conditions?”
A Palestinian boy has been talking about living on his own in Gaza after his mother had to leave with his injured sister. UNICEF says there are thousands of unaccompanied children in Gaza after five months of Israel’s war.
· Achieving the Two-State Solution in the Wake of Gaza War
Peace can come through the immediate implementation of the two-state solution, making the admission of Palestine to the United Nations the starting point, not the ending point. The correct approach is therefore the opposite, starting with the establishment of two states on globally agreed boundaries, notably the boundaries of June 4, 1967 as enshrined in UN Security Council and UN General Assembly resolutions. The UN member states will have to impose the two-state solution, instead of waiting for yet another Palestinian-Israeli failed negotiation.
· Israel’s illegal West Bank settlement plans face global condemnation
The 3,500 illegal housing units in the occupied West Bank add to nearly 20,000 approved in the past year. Israeli settlements have long been viewed as a violation of international law, and a hindrance to Palestinian statehood by the international community.
New York Times report alleging sexual abuse against two sisters during Hamas attack denied by kibbutz spokesperson. An Israeli kibbutz spokesperson has denied allegations made by a New York Times article of sexual assault committed against women members during Hamas-led attacks on 7 October. In a report published by The Intercept earlier this week, a spokesperson for Kibbutz Be’eri denied claims made in a Times piece on 28 December. The Times article mainly relied on the testimony of an unnamed Israeli special forces paramedic. Last month, UN experts decried reports of rape and sexual assault of Palestinian women and girls held in Israeli detention. The independent experts, part of the UN’s fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms of the Human Rights Council, confirmed in a statement receiving reports of Palestinian female detainees being subjected to “multiple forms of sexual assault,” with at least two detainees reportedly raped, while others were allegedly threatened with rape and sexual violence.
Earlier this week, Australian lawyers made history by referring Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, to the International Criminal Court (ICC) “as an accessory to genocide in Gaza”. The communication by more than 100 lawyers made him “the first leader of a Western nation to be referred to the ICC under Article 15 of the Rome Statute”, according to a statement from Birchgrove Legal, the Sydney-based firm that filed the case. “The purpose … is to ask (ICC) Prosecutor (Karim) Khan to investigate the named individuals, which include the Australian Prime Minister, Foreign Affairs Minister, some other ministers and the Opposition Leader Peter Dutton for alleged complicity in genocide,” she said. “In this case, we are providing evidence which we say provides a reasonable basis for the claim that there may have been complicity in terms of aiding and abetting the commission of genocide, or contributing to the crime of genocide,” she explained.
NSW and Victorian governments had issued a response to Muslim leaders intending to decline government Iftars during the fasting month of Ramadan, incorrectly citing a nonsensical assertion that the reason is to “allow the Muslim community to grieve”. This however has been seen as a deceptive tactic by these governments to divert attention from the real issues, ultimately resulting in deepening distrust by Australian Muslims of their respective Australian governments. It’s a reminder that if our Federal and State governments ignore their concerns, Australian Muslims will express their discontent at the polls. It’s crucial to understand however that the boycott initiated by Muslim organisations is not merely about grief; it’s a firm stand against the Australian government’s complicity in the violence and oppression faced by Palestinians. It’s an indicator that the governments have not understood the point; that Muslims are not grieving, but rather seething with anger over government’s complicity in the killing of Palestinians by supplying military hardware to Israel, and in obstructing legitimate funding to UNRWA, despite the lack of evidence supporting the accusations made against it.
As we reel from the latest atrocity committed by Israeli forces in Gaza when they opened fire on a crowd around aid trucks, killing 104 people, campaigners in Australia are shining a light on a highly secretive Australian web of complicity with Israeli war crimes. A group of Palestinian rights groups is bringing a case, the first of its kind, to the Australian Federal Court to make public arms export licences granted to Israel, and Green Senator David Shoebridge has been calling on the government for transparency in parliament. The Australian government may be denying its involvement in Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza, but publicly available information indicates that many Australian companies are implicated in Israel’s war effort.
An Australian man was charged by police, Thursday, for threatening a family in Sydney that one of the country’s senators said had “openly supported” Palestine, Anadolu Agency reports. According to Theo, the member of the family who was threatened, “the investigating officer cPeace can come through the immediate implementation of the two-state solution, making the admission of Palestine to the United Nations the starting point, not the ending point. The correct approach is therefore the opposite, starting with the establishment of two states on globally agreed boundaries, notably the boundaries of June 4, 1967 as enshrined in UN Security Council and UN General Assembly resolutions. The UN member states will have to impose the two-state solution, instead of waiting for yet another Palestinian-Israeli failed negotiation.onfirmed the item was an improvised explosive device without the ability to detonate remotely,” the Michael West Media independent news website reported. Instead, it added, police allegedly “downplayed” the incident and handed the probe “to a junior constable at the local police station who went on leave, rather than Counter-Terrorism police.” The website identified the suspect as David Wise. Since Israel’s offensive on the Gaza Strip began five months ago, widespread support for Palestine has erupted in Australia, with calls on the government of Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, to halt arms supplies to Tel Aviv.
Zionist propaganda in justifying the slaughter of Palestinians displays a level of absurdity underlying the tragedy of genocide. In short, Israel declares: We didn’t do it; but if it happened it was Hamas, who did it. Okay, we did it, but Hamas made us. It may have happened, but we didn’t mean to do it. If there is no evidence, we can make some up. We are permanently off the hook because of the Holocaust. All criticism is invalid because it is anti-Semitic.