Israeli attacks cause $210m worth of damage to Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure More from Oxfam: The aid agency said assessments from the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility (CMWU) show that Israeli attacks since October 7 have caused damage worth at least $210m to Gaza’s water and sanitation systems. The utility came up with the estimate based on field surveys and data collected from its staff in 25 municipal areas. “The entire water supply and sewage management systems are nearing total collapse because the damage is so extensive,” Monther Shoblaq, the CEO of CMWU, was quoted German ambassador to Israel slams ‘disgraceful’ attacks on aid convoys Germany’s Ambassador to Israel Steffen Seibert has condemned attacks by right-wing Israeli activists on convoys delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza. “To raid aid trucks and prevent food from reaching the needy is disgraceful. And it certainly won‘t help the Israeli cause of freeing the hostages and securing the country against the terror of Hamas,” he wrote in a post on X. On Sunday, Israeli far-right activist group Tzav 9, which seeks to stop all humanitarian aid going into Gaza, blocked a shipment as it went through the Tarqumiyah checkpoint near Hebron in the occupied West Bank. US National Security adviser Jake Sullivan said the attack was “completely and utterly unacceptable behaviour”. 1h ago (03:05 GMT) Photos: Israelis ransack trucks, destroy food bound for starving in Gaza A worker clears up humanitarian aid supplies from Jordan that were destroyed in an attack by Israelis – described as right-wing activists working to prevent aid from entering Gaza – at the Tarqumiyah crossing with the occupied West Bank on May 13, 2024 [Oren Ziv/AFP] Damaged trailer trucks and their relief supplies that were carrying humanitarian aid destined for Gaza on the Israeli side of the Tarqumiyah crossing with the occupied West Bank on May 13, 2024 [Oren Ziv/AFP] Israeli right-wing activists look at damaged trailer trucks that were carrying humanitarian aid supplies to Gaza [Oren Ziv/AFP] A man films with his phone truck trailers that were attacked while carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza on the Israeli side of Israel’s controversial separation barrier with the occupied West Bank near the village of Shekef on May 13, 2024 [Oren Ziv/AFP] [Oren Ziv/AFP]
Israeli activists ransack aid trucks bound for Gaza From CNN's Lauren Izso, Kareem Khadder, Tara John and Eugenia Yosef A screengrab of a video shows Israeli activists blocking the path of the aid trucks and throwing aid packages on the ground. KAN2COME/Reuters
Palestinians mark 76 years of dispossession as a potentially even larger catastrophe unfolds in Gaza Palestinians on Wednesday will mark the 76th year of their mass expulsion from what is now Israel, an event that is at the core of their national struggle but in many ways pales in comparison to the calamity now unfolding in Gaza. (AP video/Mohammad Jahjouh and Production/Wafaa Shurafa) By JOSEPH KRAUSS May 14, 2024 https://apnews.com/article/israel-p...akba-history-b5cea9556e516655c25598d5dbe54192 JERUSALEM (AP) — Palestinians on Wednesday will mark the 76th year of their mass expulsion from what is now Israel, an event that is at the core of their national struggle. But in many ways, that experience pales in comparison to the calamity now unfolding in Gaza. Palestinians refer to it as the Nakba, Arabic for catastrophe. Some 700,000 Palestinians — a majority of the prewar population — fled or were driven from their homes before and during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that followed Israel’s establishment. After the war, Israel refused to allow them to return because it would have resulted in a Palestinian majority within its borders. Instead, they became a seemingly permanent refugee community that now numbers some 6 million, with most living in slum-like urban refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. In Gaza, the refugees and their descendants make up around three-quarters of the population. Israel’s rejection of what Palestinians say is their right of return has been a core grievance in the conflict and was one of the thorniest issues in peace talks that last collapsed 15 years ago. The refugee camps have always been the main bastions of Palestinian militancy. Displaced Palestinians arrive in central Gaza after fleeing from the southern Gaza city of Rafah in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, on Thursday, May 9, 2024.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana, File) Now, many Palestinians fear a repeat of their painful history on an even more cataclysmic scale. All across Gaza, Palestinians in recent days have been loading up cars and donkey carts or setting out on foot to already overcrowded tent camps as Israel expands its offensive. The images from several rounds of mass evacuations throughout the seven-month war are strikingly similar to black-and-white photographs from 1948. Mustafa al-Gazzar, now 81, still recalls his family’s monthslong flight from their village in what is now central Israel to the southern city of Rafah, when he was 5. At one point they were bombed from the air, at another, they dug holes under a tree to sleep in for warmth. Al-Gazzar, now a great-grandfather, was forced to flee again over the weekend, this time to a tent in Muwasi, a barren coastal area where some 450,000 Palestinians live in a squalid camp. He says the conditions are worse than in 1948, when the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees was able to regularly provide food and other essentials. “My hope in 1948 was to return, but my hope today is to survive,” he said. “I live in such fear,” he added, breaking into tears. “I cannot provide for my children and grandchildren.” The war in Gaza, which was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into Israel, has killed over 35,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, making it by far the deadliest round of fighting in the history of the conflict. The initial Hamas attack killed some 1,200 Israelis. The war has forced some 1.7 million Palestinians — around three quarters of the territory’s population — to flee their homes, often multiple times. That is well over twice the number that fled before and during the 1948 war. Israel has sealed its border. Egypt has only allowed a small number of Palestinians to leave, in part because it fears a mass influx of Palestinians could generate another long-term refugee crisis. The international community is strongly opposed to any mass expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza — an idea embraced by far-right members of the Israeli government, who refer to it as “voluntary emigration.” Israel has long called for the refugees of 1948 to be absorbed into host countries, saying that calls for their return are unrealistic and would endanger its existence as a Jewish-majority state. It points to the hundreds of thousands of Jews who came to Israel from Arab countries during the turmoil following its establishment, though few of them want to return. Displaced Palestinians arrive in central Gaza after fleeing from the southern Gaza city of Rafah in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, on Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana, File) Even if Palestinians are not expelled from Gaza en masse, many fear that they will never be able to return to their homes or that the destruction wreaked on the territory will make it impossible to live there. A recent U.N. estimate said it would take until 2040 to rebuild destroyed homes. The Jewish militias in the 1948 war with the armies of neighboring Arab nations were mainly armed with lighter weapons like rifles, machine guns and mortars. Hundreds of depopulated Palestinian villages were demolished after the war, while Israelis moved into Palestinian homes in Jerusalem, Jaffa and other cities. In Gaza, Israel has unleashed one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history, at times dropping 2,000-pound (900-kilogram) bombs on dense, residential areas. Entire neighborhoods have been reduced to wastelands of rubble and plowed-up roads, many littered with unexploded bombs. The World Bank estimates that $18.5 billion in damage has been inflicted on Gaza, roughly equivalent to the gross domestic product of the entire Palestinian territories in 2022. And that was in January, in the early days of Israel’s devastating ground operations in Khan Younis and before it went into Rafah. Yara Asi, a Palestinian assistant professor at the University of Central Florida who has done research on the damage to civilian infrastructure in the war, says it’s “extremely difficult” to imagine the kind of international effort that would be necessary to rebuild Gaza. Even before the war, many Palestinians spoke of an ongoing Nakba, in which Israel gradually forces them out of Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories it captured during the 1967 war that the Palestinians want for a future state. They point to home demolitions, settlement construction and other discriminatory policies that long predate the war, and which major rights groups say amount to apartheid, allegations Israel denies. Asi and others fear that if another genuine Nakba occurs, it will be in the form of a gradual departure. “It won’t be called forcible displacement in some cases. It will be called emigration, it will be called something else,” Asi said. “But in essence, it is people who wish to stay, who have done everything in their power to stay for generations in impossible conditions, finally reaching a point where life is just not livable.” ___ Associated Press journalists Wafaa Shurafa and Mohammad Jahjouh in Rafah, Gaza Strip, contributed.
Biden repeats US commitment to Israel’s security is ‘ironclad’ Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that “on the occasion of Israel’s 76th Independence Day”, US President Joe Biden has reiterated in a message to his Israeli counterpart, Isaac Herzog, that the “US’s commitment to Israel’s security is ironclad”. In the message, Biden described himself as a lifelong supporter of Israel and stated that he was the “only American president to visit Israel in wartime”. “The United States is proud of its enduring relationship with Israel,” Biden was quoted as saying. US President Joe Biden speaks with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington [File: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters] https://www.aljazeera.com/
Israeli government doing little to stop looting of Gaza-bound aid convoys Stefanie Dekker Reporting from Amman, Jordan Al Jazeera is reporting from outside Israel because it has been banned by the Israeli government. The latest to be attacked was a Jordanian convoy. It had to go through the occupied West Bank to reach the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing in the south of the Gaza Strip. The right-wing Israeli protesters blocked it and set it on fire after looting it. It’s not the first time this has happened. We’ve been seeing this for months. The protesters simply don’t want any aid going to the Palestinians. They don’t make a distinction between the Hamas and civilians. Little is being done on the part of the Israeli government to stop this. Israel has an incredibly powerful security force, particularly when it comes to looking at Palestinian protesters. But they’re not doing the same when it comes to these protests. According to media reports, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right-wing security minister, told the police not to get involved because his ideology is the same as that of protesters. He wants settlements to start again in Gaza, he doesn’t want aid to get in and doesn’t want a ceasefire.
When you have zionists running the American government, Israel will continue with its 'god given right to aggresion' with impunity. Biden & Blinken & co are just making a pretense at seeking peace. Just a sham even a blind man can see.
Biden administration is sending $1 billion more in weapons, ammo to Israel, congressional aides say By SEUNG MIN KIM, ELLEN KNICKMEYER and ZEKE MILLER May 15, 2024 https://apnews.com/article/us-israel-arms-gaza-ebe971ca8878ff430ce6458c04151585 WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration has told key lawmakers it would send more than $1 billion in additional arms and ammunition to Israel, three congressional aides said Tuesday. But it was not immediately known how soon the weapons would be delivered. It’s the first arms shipment to Israel to be revealed since the administration put another arms transfer, consisting of 3,500 bombs of up to 2,000 pounds each, on hold this month. The Biden administration, citing concern for civilian casualties in Gaza, has said it paused that bomb transfer to keep Israel from using those particular munitions in its offensive in the crowded southern Gaza city of Rafah. The package disclosed Tuesday includes about $700 million for tank ammunition, $500 million in tactical vehicles and $60 million in mortar rounds, the congressional aides said. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an arms transfer that has not yet been made public. There was no immediate indication when the arms would be sent. Two congressional aides said the shipment is not part of the long-delayed foreign aid package that Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed last month. It wasn’t known if the shipment was the latest tranche from an existing arms sale or something new. The Biden administration has come under criticism from both sides of the political spectrum over its military support for Israel’s now seven-month-old war against Hamas in Gaza — at a time when Biden is battling for reelection against former President Donald Trump. Some of Biden’s fellow Democrats have pushed him to limit transfers of offensive weapons to Israel to pressure the U.S. ally to do more to protect Palestinian civilians. Protests on college campuses around the U.S. have driven home the message this spring. Republican lawmakers have seized on the administration’s pause on the bomb transfers, saying any lessening of U.S. support for Israel — its closest ally in the Middle East — weakens that country as it fights Hamas and other Iran-backed groups. In the House, they are planning to advance a bill this week to mandate the delivery of offensive weaponry for Israel. Despite the onetime suspension of a bomb shipment, Biden and administration officials have made clear they will continue other weapons deliveries and overall military support to Israel, which is the largest recipient of U.S. military aid. Biden will see to it that “Israel has all of the military means it needs to defend itself against all of its enemies, including Hamas,” national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters Monday. “For him, this is very straightforward: He’s going to continue to provide Israel with all of capabilities it needs, but he does not want certain categories of American weapons used in a particular type of operation in a particular place. And again, he has been clear and consistent with that.” The Wall Street Journal first reported the plans for the $1 billion weapons package to Israel. In response to House Republicans’ plan to move forward with a bill to mandate the delivery of offensive weapons for Israel, the White House said Tuesday that Biden would veto the bill if it were to pass Congress. The bill has practically no chance in the Democratic-controlled Senate. But House Democrats are somewhat divided on the issue, and roughly two dozen have signed onto a letter to the Biden administration saying they were “deeply concerned about the message” sent by pausing the bomb shipment. One of the letter’s signers, New York Rep. Ritchie Torres, said he would likely vote for the bill, despite the White House’s opposition. “I have a general rule of supporting pro-Israel legislation unless it includes a poison pill — like cuts to domestic policy,” he said. In addition to the written veto threat, the White House has been in touch with various lawmakers and congressional aides about the legislation, according to an administration official. “We strongly, strongly oppose attempts to constrain the President’s ability to deploy U.S. security assistance consistent with U.S. foreign policy and national security objectives,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said this week, adding that the administration plans to spend “every last cent” appropriated by Congress in the national security supplemental package that was signed into law by Biden last month.
Palestinian life under Israeli occupation An illustrated guide Every year on May 15, Palestinians mark the Nakba - the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948 by Zionist militias. In the 76 years since the Nakba, Israel’s control over the Palestinian people has affected every aspect of life, from services they can access and where they can travel, to what resources they can use and where on their own land they can build homes. In this illustrated guide, Al Jazeera takes you through some of the daily struggles under Israeli occupation. 1. Control of land and natural resources There is a physical separation between Palestinians living in Gaza and those in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israel essentially bars any movement between these areas. In 1995, the occupied West Bank was divided into Areas A, B and C as part of the Oslo Accords. Area C - 60 percent of the West Bank and home to about 300,000 Palestinians - was supposed to be handed over to the Palestinian Authority. But Israel still controls it completely and has built more than 290 illegal Jewish settlements and outposts on it, where some 700,000 settlers now live. Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. 2. Control of housing What would you do if you knew you needed a permit to build a home, but it is nearly impossible to get one because you are Palestinian? Many Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem are forced to build homes without permits because Israel refuses to grant them. “All my memories were in that house,” Fakhri Abu Diab, 62, told Al Jazeera after Israeli authorities bulldozed his home in occupied East Jerusalem in February. Israeli authorities typically require Palestinian residents to pay for the bulldozing of their own homes, leaving Abu Diab concerned that he may not be able to afford the demolition. Fakhri Abu Diab is a human rights activist and the elected spokesperson of Silwan, a district that represents about 60,000 Palestinians in East Jerusalem [Mat Nashed/Al Jazeera] At least 10,700 Palestinian-owned structures in the occupied West Bank have been demolished, displacing more than 16,000 people, since 2009, the UN said. 3. Control of human resources Every morning, before dawn, tens of thousands of Palestinian workers squeeze into cage-like lanes to wait to pass Israeli military checkpoints on their way to work. Israel, with its heavy restrictions on Palestinian movement and resources, has driven Palestinian unemployment rates to the third highest in the world. Some Palestinian labourers have been crushed to death due to extreme confinement in overcrowded checkpoints [Activestills] Making matters worse, as of January 2024, about 507,000 jobs have been lost across Palestine due to Israel’s war on Gaza, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. The ILO predicts that if the war on Gaza continues until June, unemployment in Palestine will rise above 45 percent compared with 25 percent for the same period last year. Unemployment rates across Palestine, Q2 2023 vs Q2 2024 (projected) [International Labour Organization] 4. Control of financial resources Israel has significant influence over Palestine's financial resources through mechanisms like the taxes it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA), which has overseen parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank since the mid-1990s. Israel collects about $188m a month in taxes on behalf of the PA - 64 percent of the PA’s total revenue. Israel has regularly suspended these payments, hampering the PA’s ability to pay salaries to its estimated 150,000 employees working in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. The Palestinian economy operates on the Israeli shekel, and its financial interactions with the rest of the world must go through the Israeli banking system [Reuters] 5. Control of trade Since 1967, when Israel occupied all of historic Palestine and expelled 300,000 Palestinians from their homes, Palestinian trade relations with the Arab world have been all but cut off. Israel controls the movement of goods that Palestinians can import and export. In 2001, Israeli forces destroyed Yasser Arafat International Airport in Rafah, southern Gaza, the territory’s only Palestinian-operated airport. The remains of the Yasser Arafat International Airport that was meant to facilitate both international trade and tourism, shown on March 12, 2018 [Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters] Palestine has a high trade deficit because of Israeli restrictions on its borders and resources. Its dependency on the Israeli economy means some 80 percent of its exports go to Israel. Palestine’s main exports partners, 2022 [oec.world] 6. Control of technology Palestine is digitally occupied too. Israel restricts imports of information and communications technology (ICT) equipment, claiming it is “dual use”, or has both civilian and military applications. While Israel is rolling out high-speed 5G mobile internet, Palestinian network operators are only allowed to use 3G in the occupied West Bank (since 2018) and 2G in Gaza. These restrictions stifle Palestine’s ICT sector, which relies mostly on Israeli software and infrastructure. Israeli networks can also monitor and censor online Palestinian content. 7. Control of infrastructure Israel controls most water resources in the region, including the occupied West Bank's main underground aquifers. Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank and Gaza often face restrictions on access and usage. The World Health Organization recommends a minimum safe water consumption of 100 litres per capita per day. In 2023, Israelis on average consumed 247 litres a day, while Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza got 82 litres. Average daily water consumption per person in 2023 [WHO] 8. Control of cultural heritage Palestine’s rich cultural heritage is constantly in danger under Israeli occupation. Since October 7, Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has destroyed more than 200 cultural heritage sites, including museums, libraries and mosques. Gaza City's Great Omari Mosque, Gaza's oldest mosque, was heavily damaged by Israeli bombardment on January 5, 2024 [AFP] Israel has also destroyed more than 390 educational institutions, including every university in Gaza. On January 17, the Israeli military used explosives to destroy Israa University in Gaza City. Israa University, located in the south of Gaza City, was demolished by Israeli forces, as is evident from a video released by Israeli media on January 17, 2024 [Video screenshot, Al Jazeera] These are just some of the ways daily life in Palestine is restricted under Israeli occupation. Israel’s control and domination violate international laws and deprive Palestinians of their right to self-determination. They have also diminished Palestine’s economy, making it dependent on Israel, according to a report by the UN’s Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia. “We’re traumatised,” Abu Diab, who was forced to pay for the demolition of his own home earlier this year, said. Palestinians say Israel’s continuing system of oppression has meant that the Nakba has never really ended. Produced by: Mohammed Hussein and Hanna Duggal for @AJLabs Published: May 15, 2024
...... in the meantime Biden promises ironclad support of Israel. Something doesn't compute about Biden's religous beliefs. But I'm no longer surprised with religious hypocrisy, it's an hourly event. Mind you it appears most American politicians feel the same way, pro Israel, pro hypocrisy, they don't give a rats ass what Israel does, and Netanyahu likes it that way. America is Israel's little bitch to be fucked at its pleasing. America asks "How far shall I bend over?"
News a week ago: Joe Biden’s ‘red line’ is an invasion of Rafah. So what happens if Israel attacks?...... Suddenly, magically, unsurprisingly, Israel attacks and the red line disappeared. But Netanyahu already knew that beforehand, because Biden is owned and Bibi's Bitch.