NB: 21,600 people have been killed in Gaza, the majority women and children, and thousands more buried under the rubble, if this is not state terrorism and genocide, what is? How much more butchery do Messrs Netanyahu and Biden need to satiate their blood lust? DS
Israeli planes bombed refugee camps in Gaza on Saturday as its troops expanded ground operations and tens of thousands of Palestinians fled their homes…The intense attacks on the urban refugee camps of Nuseirat and Bureij, killed 165 people in 24 hours… Steadfast support from Washington has helped Israeli leaders shrug off international concern about the humanitarian crisis to focus on the military campaign.
GAZA casualties live statistics
Rescuers hunt for survivors after an Israeli attack on the Nuseirat camp on Saturday. Photograph: APAImages/Rex/Shutterstock
The threat of wider escalation also looms large over the region, as skirmishes on the northern boundary with Lebanon intensify, and Israeli officials have hinted that the “diplomatic hourglass” is running out to reach a negotiated solution. For now there seems little hope of even a temporary break in attacks, even after Egypt hosted leaders for talks last week and pushed plans for a staged break in the war.
A senior Hamas official told AP on Saturday the militant group is firm in its position that there will be no hostage releases without a permanent ceasefire. Israel will not accept ending a war its leaders describe as existential and “without limit”. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, says Hamas must be destroyed after the brutal attacks of 7 October, when gunmen broke into Israel and murdered 1,200 people, the majority civilians.
The scale of death and suffering inside Gaza has isolated Israel internationally, with even allies such as the UK now calling for a “sustainable ceasefire”. More than 21,600 people have been killed in Gaza, the majority women and children, and thousands more buried under the rubble, health authorities in the Hamas-run strip say.
The intense attacks over Friday and Saturday , including on the urban refugee camps of Nuseirat and Bureij, killed 165 people in 24 hours, authorities said. Steadfast support from Washington has helped Israeli leaders shrug off international concern about the humanitarian crisis to focus on the military campaign.
On Friday the administration of President Joe Biden approved a $150m (£118m) sale of military equipment to Israel, bypassing Congress to do so for the second time in a month. The state department cited the “urgency of Israel’s defensive need”. Across Israeli society there is broad support for the war, despite widespread anger at the military and intelligence failures that left Israelis so vulnerable on 7 October, said Dahlia Scheindlin, a political strategist and a fellow at the US foreign policy thinktank the Century Foundation.
Families of those held hostage have been powerful critics of the government, and loud voices calling for a ceasefire, but even they “are not really calling to end the war”, she said. American officials in recent weeks have called for more “targeted” attacks on Hamas leaders, amid daily warnings from the UN and other aid agencies about the devastating scale of human suffering.
“Gaza is grappling with catastrophic hunger. 40% of the population are now at risk of famine,” UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said on Saturday . “Every day is a struggle for survival.” Gazans have almost all fled their homes, clustering in tents and overcrowded parts of the south and central strip that Israeli military officials say are safer, though they are still regularly bombed.
There are shortages of food, clean water and medical supplies, after weeks of tight Israeli blockade. When supplies are allowed in, active fighting and logistics challenges in an area devastated by war mean they do not reach many desperate inhabitants.
Thomas White, director of Gaza affairs at UNRWA, said Israeli troops opened fire on UN workers on an aid mission on Friday. “Israeli soldiers fired at an aid convoy as it returned from northern Gaza along a route designated by the Israeli army,” White said on X, formerly Twitter. “Our international convoy leader and his team were not injured but one vehicle sustained damage.”…
*******************************************
United Nations Documentation on the Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem
Manifesto of the One Democratic State Campaign for Israel-Palestine
Israel wants to slay the monster next door, but with this lethal bombardment, it is feeding it
The Harvard Law Review Refused to Run This Piece About Genocide in Gaza
How long will Palestinians go on being scapegoats for the West’s Atrocities in World War 2?
Disappointed, disenchanted, defiant: inside the world of the West Bank’s angry armed youths
Juan Cole: Palestine’s Obituary
Decades of U.S. war crimes led to what Israel is doing in Gaza
After the truth-shower 