Palestine today
Don’t say you didn't know
An Israeli soldier was caught on camera stealing a carpet from a shop in the city of Jenin, in the West Bank, on Sunday, 01/09/2024. Soldiers have stolen hundreds of millions of dollars in cash, jewellery and valuable items from shops, homes and banks in Gaza and the West Bank.
Israel arrested a Palestinian. Two hours later soldiers returned with his body
Ayman Abed's family and medics say there are clear signs he had been tortured and badly beaten in Israeli custody. Israeli forces detained a 58-year-old Palestinian man on Monday morning, returning him to his family two hours later dead and covered in marks that indicated he had been tortured and badly beaten in custody. Soldiers raided the house of Ayman Abed in the northern occupied West Bank village of Kafr Dan at around 3.30am, his family told Middle East Eye. According to Isra Abed, Abed’s daughter, Israeli soldiers took him into custody at 6am, returning shortly after with his dead body.
“We believe they tortured him in a military jeep because it didn’t take a lot of time until they sent him back as a body,” Isra told MEE. “I saw his body and he had signs of torture on him on his nose, hair, hands and other areas. It’s obvious he went through severe torture, and it’s also clear that he was beaten.” The Palestinian Red Crescent Society also said Abed’s body displayed signs of torture, and that he had been transferred to a hospital in Jenin, 8km from Kafr Dan. “My father didn’t suffer from any health issues. He never complained about any health problems,” Isra said. “He has never been detained before or been summoned for interrogation.”
Biden accuses Netanyahu of not doing enough to secure ceasefire deal
US President Joe Biden on Monday accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of not doing enough to secure a deal with Hamas that would see the release of hostages held in Gaza.
Biden was commenting in response to a question posed by a reporter at the White House. When asked whether he thought Netanyahu was doing enough to reach a hostage deal, the president said "no" without elaborating. Biden spoke prior to a decisive meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris and the White House's national security team to determine the strategy to push for a final ceasefire deal.
Israel has continued its military attacks on the Gaza Strip during its polio vaccination campaign, ignoring all calls to implement a humanitarian truce or a temporary halt to attacks during the vaccination hours. Israeli aircraft and tanks continue to bomb the central Gaza Strip, the area where the polio vaccination campaign has begun. The campaign is a joint effort between the Palestinian Ministry of Health and the United Nations, including UNICEF, and non-governmental organisations, aiming to vaccinate about 640,000 Palestinian children under the age of 10. The campaign was launched in response to the confirmation of the first case of polio in Gaza in 25 years, contracted by a 10-month-old infant in Deir al-Balah, in the central part of the Strip. The virus was found in water samples taken in Khan Yunis and Deir al-Balah in late June.
Despite the World Health Organisation’s announcement last Thursday that Israel had consented to a series of “humanitarian truces” lasting three days each in the central, southern, and northern sections of the Strip in order to carry out a polio vaccination campaign that would benefit 640,000 children, Israel has continued its attacks. Palestinian Rami Rashad Nofal has been killed, and several other Palestinians injured, during an Israeli air strike on Al-Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip, which was also the target of artillery shelling and at least three raids. The injured survivors were transferred to the Shuhada Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah.
The Israeli occupation army’s recent killing of an elderly couple in the Gaza Strip and an elderly man in the West Bank constitute grave crimes against elderly Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory that require international investigation. During the 330-day Israeli genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, 2,122 elderly men and women have been killed. This represents roughly 2% of the 107,000 elderly people who live in the Strip and roughly 4% of all Palestinian deaths there since 7 October 2023. These crimes, which have been committed hundreds of times, are unjustified and particularly cruel to this defenseless civilian group, which Israel has been targeting ever since it launched its large-scale attack on the Gaza Strip.
Most of these elderly victims were crushed to death under the debris of their homes or shelter centres after Israeli aircraft bombed them on their heads, or during their forced evacuations in the streets or visits to markets to meet their basic needs. Shockingly, however, dozens of them were killed directly through field executions and liquidation operations. Following the withdrawal of the Israeli army from Khan Yunis on Friday 30 August, the discovery of the bodies of the elderly man Wajih Misbah Shaath (71 years old) and his wife Sabah Shaath (65 years old) was documented by the Euro-Med Monitor field team. The Israeli army shot the couple in their Khan Yunis home, in the south of the Gaza Strip.
China calls for ‘fully’ implementing UN resolutions on Gaza ceasefire
China, on Monday, called for “fully” implementing UN resolutions on the Gaza ceasefire that would create conditions for the early release of hostages, Anadolu Agency reports. “The pressing imperative is to fully implement relevant UN Security Council resolutions, bring about an immediate ceasefire, and create conditions for the early release of those held captive,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Mao Ning, at a regular news conference. She said China will continue to collaborate with the international community “to play a constructive role” in efforts to de-escalate tensions. Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since a 7 October, 2023 attack by Hamas. The Israeli onslaught has resulted in nearly 40,300 Palestinian deaths, mostly women and children, and more than 93,100 injuries, according to local health authorities.
An arms embargo on Israel is not a radical idea — it’s the law
Halting military aid to Israel is the bare minimum the U.S. can do to stop the Gaza genocide. An arms embargo is not only supported by 80% of Democratic Party voters, it is demanded by international and U.S. law. As Israel launches its largest military assault in the West Bank in twenty years, I cannot stop thinking about the people I met in the occupied territory. I think of the mother in Jenin who was on the phone with her two sons seconds before their house was burned in an Israeli raid. I think of the wife of a man who was being held in an Israeli prison without charge or trial asking me, “Is there anything you can do? My husband is dying.” I think of the farmer who gifted me a melon even though he could barely put food on his own table and I was there only for a short period of time, traveling and volunteering with Faz3a, an international protective presence organization.
While all eyes have been on Gaza, Palestinians in the West Bank are undergoing what many call a “slow genocide”. Every day, Israeli settlers attack Palestinian families to push them off their private land. They destroy water wells, burn houses, and assault families. Palestinians who remain on their land risk arrest. In the last 10 months, 9,000 Palestinians from the West Bank have been arrested and detained without charge or trial, many experiencing torture.
UK suspends 30 arms exports to Israel over Gaza war crimes concerns
Arms campaigners and human rights groups welcome ban, but say move does not go far enough. The UK has suspended 30 arms export licences to Israel following a review under the new Labour government which found that British-made weapons may have been used in the violation of international humanitarian law in Gaza. Arms campaigners and rights advocates who have pressed for a full suspension of arms sales to Israel for months welcomed the decision, but criticised the continued export of F-35 fighter jet components which one called "a workhorse of Israel’s brutal bombing campaign". The suspension, announced by Foreign Secretary David Lammy in parliament on Monday, covers components for other types of military aircraft, including fighter planes, helicopters and drones. Under its arms exporting criteria, the government is obligated to suspend licences for arms exports if it determines that there is a clear risk that British weapons might be used in serious violations of international humanitarian law.
“Facing a conflict such as this, it is this government’s legal duty to review export licences," Lammy told MPs. Lammy also said the government was "deeply concerned" about reports of mistreatment of Palestinian detainees, which the International Committee of the Red Cross has not been able to investigate after being denied access. "My predecessor and major allies have raised these concerns," he said of the detainees. "Regrettably, these have not been addressed satisfactorily." Chris Doyle, director of the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding, told MEE it was extraodinary that it had taken "11 months of carnage and atrocities" for the government to come to its conclusions, something he said was "unforgivable". But he also said the move was a welcome step to build on. "The most crucial element is that for the first time a British government has accepted that Israel was likely to have violated international law in Gaza," he said.
The six British prime ministers who have restricted arms sales to Israel
The UK’s Labour government has announced that it will suspend 30 arms exports to Israel over concerns they could be used by the Israeli military to violate international humanitarian law in Gaza. More than 100 UK export licences for the sale of weapons, military equipment and other controlled items to Israel have been approved since October 2023. The decision, announced by Foreign Secretary David Lammy in parliament on Monday, marks a major change to British foreign policy. But it is far from unprecedented. In fact, Keir Starmer has now become the sixth British prime minister to have restricted arms sales to Israel. The new policy, rather than taking the country into uncharted territory, brings the UK closer to its historical stance towards Israel. Three previous Conservative prime ministers have restricted arms exports to Israel. Now Keir Starmer is the third Labour prime minister to have done so.
Euro-Med Monitor expresses deep concern over Israel’s systematic and persistent targeting of humanitarian aid workers, relief organisations, and humanitarian missions in the Gaza Strip. This targeting jeopardises efforts to provide life-saving aid and tightens restrictions on efforts to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in the Strip, which may constitute war crimes. Israel has been methodically and continuously targeting humanitarian workers, including Palestinians and foreign citizens. Over 300 relief workers, most of whom are employed by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza, have been killed by Israel during its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, ongoing since 7 October 2023.
The Israeli army’s targeting of humanitarian aid workers and those ensuring the distribution of food and medical supplies in the Gaza Strip—individuals with no affiliation to any governmental or security structures—constitutes a compound crime. This may be related to the Israeli intentional use of starvation as a weapon against Palestinian civilians and its plans to destabilize the region and undermine security. Four members of a local protection team in the Gaza Strip have been killed as a result of an Israeli attack on an Anera (formerly American Near East Refugee Aid) organisation convoy. The international community must take strong positions and demand an investigation and accountability for this crime,
Under cover of Gaza war, Israel is seizing Palestinian land in the West Bank
In-depth: The Gaza war is serving as a cover for Israel to accelerate expansionist policies in the West Bank, with the ultimate aim of annexing the territory. While global attention remains fixed on the nearly 11-month-long conflict in Gaza, which has claimed the lives of more than 40,000 Palestinians, Israel continues to consolidate its political and territorial gains in the occupied West Bank.
In the wake of the 7 October Hamas-led attack, Israeli politicians have leveraged the situation to greenlight the largest land grab in the occupied West Bank in three decades, spanning almost 1,270 hectares in the Jordan Valley. Settlement monitors have reported that the land grab links Israeli settlements along a crucial corridor bordering Jordan, a move they warn jeopardises the viability of a future Palestinian state.
As a Gaza genocide survivor, I fear another Nakba in West Bank
For the last seven days, the occupied West Bank has been a living nightmare. From Jenin to Tulkarem and Tubas, Israeli soldiers, tanks and military vehicles have tramped over Palestinian life, killing at least 22 Palestinians and leaving scores more injured. Life itself has been slammed shut. Roads have been destroyed and entry routes into refugee camps have been blockaded, restricting the movement of rescue and defence crews — the injured must now fend for themselves. Just like us in Gaza, the people of the West Bank have been terrorised: essential living supplies such as food and medicine have been rationed and water, internet, electricity and telephone networks have been cut off. Israel claims a “counterterrorism” operation against Hamas; Palestinians have seen and heard it all before — this is the spiteful reflex of an occupier losing its grip.
Israel’s concurrent assault on Gaza and offensive in the West Bank are nonetheless revealing. They underscore a pattern of land confiscation and unrestrained violence against Palestinians, aimed at solidifying control over illegally occupied territories. When Israel is threatened it lashes out. Like many of its precedents, it appears to lack any justification beyond a broader agenda to displace Palestinians and accelerate its expansionary settler-colonial project — emboldened by fascistic habits —integral to the Zionist project since 1948.
Israel is committing genocide and Western media is helping hide the bodies
For over the last nearly 11 months, mainstream Western media has framed the ongoing onslaught in Gaza as a ‘classic’ conflict between two parties. The Gaza mass killing, is largely bloodless on televised screens. On social media platforms, another story is unfolding; a torrent of horrific accounts of Israel’s war crimes inflicted on civilians surpassing any surreal imaginary of violence, captured by the victims themselves as well as their perpetrators, the latter proudly celebrating their impunity. Navigating between my social media feeds and my TV screen, it is hard to believe I am following the same story. Gazans’ encounters with their “bare life” are beyond any hallucinations that our imagination can create, including our own living experiences of trauma.
Passive voices and soft wording that steers clear of terms like “massacre”, “crimes” or “killing”, are just a some of the countless examples of erasure used in mainstream Western reporting. For instance, a recent report by the BBC mentioned that the number of victims in Gaza surpassed 40,000, while adding, with much emphasis, that the figures don’t distinguish between civilians and combatants. This not only implies that some of the killings are justified as Israel peruses those it deems a “security threat”, but the lack of clarity on how many sit in this category could serve to justify such a high death toll and limit empathy amongst readers.
