Palestinians fight for their lives and their stolen lands

[Anthea]

Thousands in pro-Palestinian march

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators have marched through central London, with protesters calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the escalating conflict in the Middle East

Tens of thousands walked from Russell Square to Whitehall, where speeches took place outside Downing Street.

The event was organised by groups including the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, with people travelling from around the country to take part.

Seventeen people were arrested, the Metropolitan Police said.

The largely peaceful protest comes one year after the 7 October attacks in Israel.

The Metropolitan Police said it was hard to accurately estimate turnout but the protest "appears to be greater than other recent protests".

The crowd stretched from Downing Street to Trafalgar Square while speakers, including ex-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, were addressing demonstrators.

People could be seen carrying Palestinian flags and placards with messages such as "ceasefire now" and "hands off Lebanon", and chanting "stop the bombing now".

A counter-protest also took place, with police forming a cordon between the two marches. But a small group broke away from the pro-Palestinian protest and were stopped trying to approach the counter-protest at Aldwych. Three people were arrested after officers intervened.

Conditions were imposed to move the counter-protest group back to Trafalgar Square as it got "too close to the main march and well away from the agreed area", police said.

Of the 17 arrests, police said three people had been arrested for assaulting an emergency worker, three for assault, eight for public order offences (four racially aggravated), one for a breach of Public Order Act conditions and two for supporting a proscribed organisation.

The force said one of those arrested for supporting a proscribed organisation was seen wearing what appeared to be a parachute.

It added it was aware of social media posts showing people holding placards with messages of support for Hezbollah - proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the UK government and others - and it was working to find those involved.

Separately, pro-Palestinian supporters walked through the centre of Edinburgh during a silent march on Saturday afternoon.

Organisers called for a ceasefire and for the UK and Scottish governments to impose sanctions on Israel.

The fighting began when Hamas gunmen attacked Israeli settlers on on Palestinian land last October last year, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 others as hostages.

Israel responded with a military campaign in Gaza that has now killed at least 41,825 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce3wzpjj770o

In my valued opinion, Israeli occupation forces should be proscribed as a terrorist organisation

[Anthea]

I beg you all to watch this:

https://youtu.be/jvrIjqI_rIo?feature=shared

It is a video made by highly respected Jon Snow about the horrors inflicted on Palestinians by Israelis

10 YEARS AGO

[Anthea]

IOF commits massacres in mosque

and school in Gaza

The government media office in Gaza reports two massacres carried out by the Israeli occupation, demanding the international community to hold the US and Israel accountable for the crimes

Gaza's Government Media Office announced on Sunday that the Israeli occupation army committed two brutal massacres in the Central Governorate (Deir al-Balah) by bombing a mosque and a school sheltering displaced persons, resulting in 24 martyrs and 93 injured in a preliminary toll.

"The occupation army carried out two horrific massacres in the Central Governorate by shelling the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Mosque, adjacent to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, and Ibn Rushd School, both of which are housing hundreds of displaced people. As a result of these massacres, there are currently 24 martyrs and 93 injuries."

According to the statement, these two brutal massacres come after a series of attacks carried out by the occupation army, which bombed 27 houses, schools, and displacement centers across various governorates of the Gaza Strip in the past 48 hours. This ongoing bombardment has resulted in dozens of martyrs and injuries, coinciding with the dire health situation in Gaza, which is home to over 2.4 million people.

The statement detailed that the remaining hospitals are unable to provide adequate medical services to the increasing number of wounded and sick individuals, which is growing daily. Additionally, there are significant challenges facing humanitarian and medical work in Gaza due to the ongoing genocide, amid a shocking silence and paralysis from the international, Arab, and regional communities.

"We condemn the ongoing and brutal massacres committed by the Israeli occupation against civilians, children, and women. We call on all countries around the world to denounce these continuous crimes against the displaced and civilians."

The Government Media Office held the Israeli occupation and the US administration fully responsible for the ongoing acts of genocide and the continued perpetration of these massacres against civilians in the Gaza Strip, demanding that the international community and all UN and international organizations exert pressure on the occupation to stop the acts of genocide and halt the flowing bloodshed in Gaza.
365 days of genocide

Yesterday was the 365th day of genocide on the Gaza Strip, and the Israeli occupation committed three massacres against Palestinians and their families, murdering 23 and injuring 66 more over the preceding 24 hours.

A number of the victims were transported to the few semi-operational hospitals and others are still stuck under the rubble as Israeli occupation forces continue to block their path and obstruct all rescue efforts. For 365 days, the Israeli occupation massacred Palestinian civilians and wreaked havoc in Gaza, raising the death toll to 41,825 civilians killed, and 96,910 more injured.

Israel has murdered around 17,000 children since it launched its genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023

Ismail al-Thawabta, the head of Gaza’s Government Media Office, told Anadolu that at least 16,859 children, including 171 infants, have been killed by the Israeli war machine since October 7. He further added that "around 25,973 Palestinian children now live in Gaza without one or both parents due to the Israeli aggression."

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/pol ... ol-in-gaza

Israel has murdered around 17,000 children since it launched its genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023 - remember Israel's genocidal attacks against the Palestinians have been going on for at least 50 years

[Anthea]

40 Palestinians martyred

in occupation prisons

In the last year dozens of prisoners and detainees have been martyred in the occupation's prisons and detention camps

A year into the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, a special statement was issued on Sunday by institutions concerned with Palestinian prisoners’ affairs, regarding the prisoners of Gaza, the martyred prisoners, and the prisoners in the Israeli occupation’s prisons and camps since the beginning of the Israeli genocide, and the circumstances of the martyrdom of dozens of prisoners and detainees.

The statement by the institutions stated that there were 40 prisoners and detainees who had been martyred in the occupation's camps after October 7, adding that "the occupation has never stopped targeting prisoners and detainees in its prisons and camps."

The war of genocide was an extension of long decades in which the occupation practiced systematic crimes, most notably torture and medical crimes, leading to the martyrdom of hundreds of prisoners over the years of the occupation

Since the onset of the war, dozens of prisoners and detainees have been martyred in the occupation's prisons and camps from various Palestinian areas, and the issue of the martyred detainees from Gaza has posed the most prominent challenge to human rights institutions, particularly in light of their enforced disappearance.

In addition, the occupation refused to disclose the data or the circumstances surrounding their martyrdom; the statement indicated that in recent times, various human rights institutions have followed up on this issue, which was "accompanied by horrific crimes of torture, medical crimes, rape, and sexual assaults reflected in the testimonies of released prisoners and detainees, and prisoners in occupation prisons and camps."

However, some institutions were able to shed light on the fate of hundreds of Gazan prisoners and conduct limited visits to some prisons and camps, noting that there were still hundreds of detainees subjected to enforced disappearance.

Based on the follow-up of several Palestinian human rights institutions and human rights institutions inside the country, according to what was stated in the statement, the prisoners’ institutions confirmed a number of important facts, the most important of which is that “there is no clear data on the number of detainees from Gaza among the total number of prisoners and detainees in the occupation’s prisons other than what was announced by the occupation’s prison administration at the beginning of October.”

According to the statement, the number of detainees classified as “illegal combatants” reached about 1,618, noting that, according to the prisoners’ affairs institutions, “the number of detainees in Gaza is estimated to be in the thousands.”

Action needed to protect Palestinian detainees

In mid-September, a group of human rights organizations underlined that UN member states must take immediate action to protect detainees across the occupied Palestinian territories.

In a joint statement, 31 organizations, including Save the Children, Human Rights Watch, and Oxfam, urged the international community to implement measures that would establish a critical protective presence and ensure that both children and adults in detention are treated with dignity and in accordance with international humanitarian and human rights law.

"This includes demanding that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is granted immediate and unfettered access to all detainees and hostages, to the full extent required by international humanitarian law," the statement stressed.

The organizations also demanded the immediate and unconditional release of Palestinian children arbitrarily detained by the Israeli occupation military.

The statement underscored that Palestinian children held in Israeli military custody are subjected to systematic abuse and mistreatment, including degrading practices such as strip searches and forced imitation of animals.

"No child should ever come into contact with a military court, or any court that lacks comprehensive fair trial rights and basic safeguards. No child should ever be abducted," the organizations asserted.

Save the Children highlighted that Palestinian children in Israeli occupation prisons are subject to increasing hunger, physical abuse, and outbreaks of infectious diseases. Some detainees have even disclosed experiences of sexual assault and severe beatings, according to the report.

Elsewhere, the joint statement indicated that Israeli prisons have severely restricted access for human rights monitors, legal representatives, and the families of detainees from the occupied West Bank, while access for detainees from the Gaza Strip remains almost entirely denied.

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/pol ... on-prisons

[Anthea]

In 1948 the creation of the State of Israel was proclaimed.

Three years after Nazism, Jews can settle in the land of their ancestors. But for the Arab populations living there, it is a disaster.

Below is a link to an excellent video on the Israel - Palestine conflict:

https://youtu.be/x_isZHaZjcU?feature=shared

[Anthea]

War crimes in Gaza
Al Jazeera Investigations

Shocking video footage:

https://www.aljazeera.com/program/inves ... stigations

[Anthea]

US record amount of military aid

The US has supplied Israel with at least $17.9bn in military aid since its war on Gaza began last year, according to a report for Brown University’s Costs of War project

The report, released on the anniversary of the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel, says expenditure includes $4bn towards replenishing Israel’s Iron Dome and David’s Sling missile defence systems, as well as cash for guns and jet fuel.

The report states that an additional $4.86bn in funding was supplied to US military operations in the Middle East during that timeframe.

This figure includes the costs associated with the US military’s campaign to quell Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, which the Yemen-based group says it’s carrying out in solidarity with the people of Gaza.

The calculations were made by Linda J Bilmes, a professor at Harvard’s John F Kennedy School of Government, who assessed the cost of US wars since the September 11 attacks, along with researchers William D Hartung and Stephen Semler

[Anthea]

How Israel destroyed Gaza

Gaza, home to some 2.3 million people, bears little resemblance to what it was a year ago.

Israeli attacks on Gaza have reduced entire neighbourhoods to rubble, erased centuries-old mosques and churches and destroyed vital agricultural lands.

The scale of destruction in this small area of just 365sq km (141sq miles) is so immense that many residents cannot return home – and likely won’t be able to for the foreseeable future.

Satellite images from Al Jazeera’s digital investigation team, Sanad, reveal cratered terrain, scorched farmlands and the grey ruins of flattened buildings.

[Anthea]

From the eldest to the youngest

Gaza’s heartbreaking toll

The Guardian traces the families of a 101-year-old great-great-grandfather and a two-hour old baby girl killed by Israel

Blood can still be seen in the aftermath of the Israeli occupation airstrike on a UN-run school that killed dozens of Palestinians in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, on July 6, 2024.

Around September 17, Gaza's Health Ministry identified 34,344 Palestinians killed by Israeli and released a detailed list with names, ages, genders, and ID numbers, covering over 80% of the victims thus far.

The Guardian used this list to trace the families of two of the victims: the oldest, a 101-year-old man, and one of the youngest, a newborn baby girl who lived for two hours only.

A century of resilience under the Israeli occupation

Ahmed al-Tahrawi, born in 1922 in al-Masmiyya—a village now reduced to ruins and marked only by an Israeli road junction—had his life profoundly changed by the Nakba of 1948. At the age of 26, he and his family were forcibly displaced during the catastrophe, which forced around 700,000 Palestinians from their homes.

“They left on foot, carrying little more than the key to the village home they would never see again,” said his grandson, Abd al-Rahman al-Tahrawi. Tragically, his two young sons did not survive the flight into exile. Ahmed and his wife rebuilt their lives from scratch in the al-Bureij refugee camp in Gaza, always keeping the key to their old home as a symbol of their lost life.

Tahrawi worked as a tailor and eventually opened a small shop, raising generations of his family. He lived long enough to meet his great-great-grandchildren and remained sharp until his final days. In a family video recorded just months before the war, at the age of 100, he is seen trying to say “I love you” in English to his wife. As he repeats the unfamiliar words with a smile, laughter fills the room. Behind him, the key to their lost home still hangs on the wall.

“He was going to leave us soon, but he did not go the normal way,” his grandson reflected.

Tahrawi lived in a modest single-storey home in al-Bureij, with a corrugated asbestos roof. When the Israeli war on Gaza began, he sought refuge at his daughter’s house, believing its concrete roof would offer better protection from Israeli airstrikes. However, on 23 October, "Israel" bombed her home, killing 12 people instantly and injuiring eight others, including Tahrawi. He was taken to the hospital with internal bleeding, but due to the overwhelming number of patients and scarce medical supplies, doctors prioritized treating the young.

He passed away a week later, leaving his family devastated. “My grandfather did not belong to any military organisation, and he wasn’t guilty of any crime,” his grandson said. “He was just an old man who couldn’t harm anybody.”

At the start of the brutal Israeli war, Tahrawi had 126 living descendants, but only 90 remain alive this year. When he died, his oldest grandchild was 53 and his eldest great-great-grandchild was five.

Abd al-Rahman al-Tahrawi, the 26-year-old grandson, is in the middle of the large family, the same age his grandfather was when he was forcibly displaced to Gaza. The horrors his grandfather spoke of in old stories have now become Abd al-Rahman’s reality. The family has been displaced six times within Gaza, and he no longer has his grandfather for comfort or guidance.

“When I lost my grandfather, I felt very sad, an extreme emptiness,” he said. “I was his favourite. I’ll miss him and his stories of adventures, his gatherings, and the sound of his laughter.”

A mother's final embrace and her daughter's brief life

Waad had not yet been born when an Israeli airstrike struck, burying her mother, Salam al-Sabah, beneath a mountain of debris. On February 15, Israel bombed a neighbor’s home, but the blast was so powerful that it also destroyed parts of the Sabah family house.

Rescue teams hurried to the scene, but without heavy machinery, it took over an hour to free Salam, who was nine months pregnant. Already a mother to four boys, she had been eagerly awaiting the arrival of her first daughter in just a few days.

Eid Sabah, her uncle by marriage and the director of nursing at Kamal Adwan hospital, was on duty when the injured family members arrived, so caked in dust and ash from the explosion that he didn’t initially recognize them.

“I only realized who they were when some of them began screaming my name. I froze in shock for a moment, but then gathered myself enough to start checking on them,” he recalled.

It was too late for Salam, but her unborn daughter, Waad, was still holding on. Doctors performed an emergency caesarean and rushed Waad to intensive care, where she survived for only two hours.

“What saddened me the most was receiving both Waad's birth certificate and her death certificate at the same time,” Eid Sabah said. He added that both mother and daughter might have survived if they had received medical attention sooner.

They were laid to rest together, wrapped in a single shroud, with Salam cradling Waad, and buried in a shared grave beside Salam’s 11-year-old son, Asid.

The family had initially forcibly displaced from their home in northern Tal al-Zaatar. They spent months moving between relatives' homes and shelters for displaced people, a struggle that mirrored the stories Salam heard from her grandparents, who had been forcibly displaced from the village of Burayr in 1948 and settled in Jabaliya refugee camp.

Salam was five months pregnant with Waad when the Israeli war broke out, and the constant moving became increasingly difficult. After Israeli invading forces pulled out of their area, the family returned to their damaged home, believing it would be safer to stay.

Then, on 15 February, an Israeli bomb struck a nearby property without warning. "The house they hit was empty," Eid said. "They could have warned the neighboring homes to evacuate. If they had, my relatives would still be alive, and Waad would have been filling the house with the sounds of her laughter and crying."

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/pol ... aking-toll

[Anthea]

Gaza graveyard for tens of thousands

The Commissioner General of UNRWA has emphasized that a year of brutal warfare has turned the Gaza Strip into an "unrecognizable sea of rubble."

On the occasion of one year of the war on Gaza, the Commissioner General of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, posted a lengthy statement on X, condemning the ongoing war on the Strip.

"Twelve months of brutal war have transformed the Gaza Strip into an unrecognizable sea of rubble, and a graveyard for tens of thousands of people, among them far too many children," he said.

Lazzarini stressed that one year later, "not a day goes by without families in Gaza being subjected to unspeakable suffering, forced displacement, disease, hunger, and death," emphasizing that it has become a daily norm for the two million people being bombed in the besieged enclave.

"A year of profound loss, grief, and suffering. A year of dehumanization and disregard of international law; a free fall descent into barbarism. In Gaza, civilians continue to bear the brunt of the war."

Lazzarini touched on the record number of UNRWA members being killed, saying that as of now, more than 220 UNRWA team members have been killed, detailing that it is "the highest death toll in the history of the United Nations."

He added, "Children have been the first and most to suffer. Beyond the killing and injury, every child in Gaza is traumatized many with life-long invisible scars."

Moreover, Lazzarini said, "More than 650,000 children are losing another year of learning. Instead of being in classrooms, they are sifting through the rubble in despair and fear. The destruction of essential infrastructure has reached catastrophic levels."

According to the statistics, he revealed that more than two-thirds of UNRWA buildings have been hit and deemed unusable, the vast majority while sheltering displaced people under the UN flag

Concerning the West Bank, he stressed that civilians "continued to endure destruction, fear, and anxiety amid an escalation and increase in operations by the Israeli military and clashes with Palestinian armed groups."

Lazzarini warned that poverty is deepening as people lose income and as movement restrictions are reinforced, adding that "the expansion of the war into Lebanon is wreaking havoc on civilians, many forced to relive traumas of the past. It is time for courage: a deal that would finally bring a ceasefire and respite to people in Gaza, Lebanon, Israel, and the wider region."

"It is time to put the guns down after decades of killing and immense pain. It is time to release all hostages safely to their families, who are living through unbearable uncertainty."

As Israel continues to obstruct humanitarian aid to the Strip, he stressed that "it is time to bring a standard flow of basic humanitarian supplies including to the hungry and sick in Gaza. There are no winners in wars. The only way out is through a diplomatic and peaceful solution."

"It’s time to heal the wounds. It’s time to choose peace!"

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/pol ... ople---laz

Time for the Jews to leave Palestinian land

[Anthea]

UN Denounces Crisis
After New Israeli Offensive

With almost no basic supplies available, hunger is spreading and deepening

On Wednesday, a UN official said at least 400,000 Palestinians are now trapped in the northern Gaza Strip amid growing famine and increased Israeli attacks.

There is no end to the hell in northern Gaza, the commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East (Unrwa), Philippe Lazzarini, wrote on his social media account.

‘Recent evacuation orders by the Israeli authorities are forcing people to flee again and again, especially from Jabalia (refugee) camp,’ he stressed.

Lazzarini stressed that many refuse because nowhere in the coastal enclave is safe.

“With almost no basic supplies available, hunger is spreading and deepening again,” he warned.

The Unrwa chief warned that the recent operation launched by the army against the northern region also threatens the implementation of the second phase of the polio vaccination campaign.

‘The children are, as always, the first and the worst affected. They deserve much more, they deserve a ceasefire now, they deserve a future,’ he said

Over the past 12 months Lazzarini has repeatedly called for an end to the attacks on Gaza, where around 42,000 people are reported dead and 96,000 wounded in the past year.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/gaza-str ... offensive/

[Anthea]

400,000 Palestinians Remain Under Siege

Israeli evacuation orders are forcing Palestinians to flee continuously without offering any safe refuge in Gaza

Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), denounced that at least 400,000 Palestinians remain trapped in northern Gaza under a severe Israeli siege.

In a press conference, Lazzarini stated that Israeli evacuation orders are forcing the population to flee continuously without offering any safe refuge in the territory.

The situation has reached critical levels as famine spreads and basic supplies like food and medicine are lacking. Israeli attacks on the areas of Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia, and Jabalia have been particularly intense in recent days.

The Palestinian Civil Defense reported that these military operations have caused “massacres against civilians,” leaving dozens dead and injured. Rescue teams have been unable to reach victims due to direct attacks on ambulances and first responders

Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported that the Israeli army has ordered the evacuation of several key hospitals, including Kamal Adwan Hospital, the Indonesian Hospital, and Al-Awda Hospital. Threats of destruction and retaliation against medical centers reflect the magnitude of the Israeli offensive, which continues despite international calls for a ceasefire.

The evacuation orders issued by Israel for the civilian population have been described as “deception and lies” by Gaza’s Interior Ministry, which warned that there is no safe corridor guaranteeing civilian protection. The population continues to suffer the effects of a blockade that prevents access to food, clean water, and medicine, as the conflict intensifies.

This siege has even interrupted the operation of several UNRWA shelters, which have been forced to close their doors for the first time since October 2023. Since then, Israeli occupation forces have injured over 97,000 people and killed at least 42,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/400000-p ... aza-unrwa/

[Anthea]

Israel accused of extermination

in Gaza by UN inquiry

A UN inquiry has accused Israel of carrying out a concerted policy to destroy Gaza's healthcare system in actions that amount to war crimes and extermination

Navi Pillay, a former UN high commissioner for human rights who is chairing the inquiry, said Israel has carried out "relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities" in the past year.

Ms Pillay will present a full report on the matter to the UN General Assembly on 30 October.

In a statement ahead of its release, she said: "Children in particular have borne the brunt of these attacks, suffering both directly and indirectly from the collapse of the health system."

The UN inquiry's statement also accused Israeli forces of targeting medical vehicles, deliberately killing and torturing medical personnel, and restricting permits for patients to leave the Gaza Strip.

As an example, it cited the death of Hind Rajab, a five-year-old Palestinian girl who died in February along with six members of her family as they tried to flee fighting in Gaza

Two medics were also killed as they tried to rescue them

Sky News investigates Hind Rajab's death

https://news.sky.com/story/israel-accus ... y-13231586

[Anthea]

Are you not glad to know that the US is happily protecting Israel while it slaughters innocent Palestinians, at US tax payers expense

US to operate missile system to protect Israel

The United States is set to deploy the THAAD anti-ballistic missile system in Israel, according to reports from Channel 12 News and Army Radio

The advanced missile defense system, designed to intercept ballistic missile threats, will be operated by US troops stationed in Israel.

Channel 12 pointed out that the THAAD system is expected to enhance Israel's defense capabilities, particularly against long-range missile threats from Iran, at a time when both nations are on high alert.

In a detailed report titled "A Year of US Military and Intelligence Support for Israel," Al Jazeera revealed that following Israel's attack on Gaza on October 7, 2023, the United States immediately committed to providing Israel with all necessary military assistance.

Support for Israel's defense has long been a rare unifying issue for both Democrats and Republicans, receiving broad bipartisan backing in the US Congress.

Experts estimate that cumulative US aid to Israel since its founding in 1948 has reached approximately $310 billion, with military aid constituting the largest share at $218 billion, followed by $76 billion in economic aid, and $16 billion for missile defense systems like the Iron Dome.

Further research by Al Jazeera, based on reports from the Congressional Research Service, highlights that the Biden administration accelerated the delivery of military and security aid to Israel after October 7.

This aid includes key items such as small-diameter bombs (250 pounds), interceptors for Israel’s Iron Dome, Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) kits that convert unguided bombs into precision-guided munitions, and large quantities of 155mm artillery shells.

Israel has also received 14,000 MK-84 bombs (2,000 pounds each), 6,500 bombs of the same type weighing 500 pounds, 3,000 precision-guided Hellfire missiles, 1,000 bunker-busting bombs, and 2,600 small-diameter bombs.

Additionally, a Bloomberg report noted that Israel has received 36,000 rounds of 30mm ammunition, artillery shells, 1,800 M141 bunker-buster munitions, and at least 3,500 night-vision devices, alongside a request for 200 Switchblade 600 anti-armor drones.

https://shafaq.com/en/World/US-troops-t ... -in-Israel

I expect this news really cheers up the US taxpayers who are paying for this, especially those in US southern states who are recovering from the damage caused by 2 life altering hurricanes

[Anthea]

Israeli attack on northern Gaza hints at

surrender or starve plan for war

Palestinians and aid groups suspect Israel is gradually adopting a new tactic in northern Gaza

On Saturday morning, a message was posted on social media by the Israeli military’s Arabic spokesman warning people living in the ‘D5’ area of northern Gaza to move south. D5 is a square on the grid superimposed over maps of Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). It is a block that is split into several dozen smaller areas.

The message, external, the latest in a series, said: "The IDF is operating with great force against the terrorist organisations and will continue to do so for a long time. The designated area, including the shelters located there, is considered a dangerous combat zone. The area must be evacuated immediately via Salah al-Din Road to the humanitarian area."

A map is attached with a large yellow arrow pointing from block D5 down to the south of Gaza. Salah al-Din Road is the main north-south route. The message is not promising a swift return to the places people have been living in, an area that has been pulverised by a year of repeated Israeli attacks.

The heart of the message is that the IDF will be using "great force… for a long time". In other words, don’t expect to come back any time soon.

The humanitarian area designated by Israel in the message is al-Mawasi, previously an agricultural area on the coast near Rafah. It is overcrowded and no safer than many other parts of Gaza. BBC Verify has tracked at least 18 airstrikes on the area.

Hamas has sent out its own messages to the 400,000 people left in northern Gaza, an area that was once the urban heartland of the Strip with a population of 1.4m. Hamas is telling them not to move. The south, they are told, is just as dangerous. As well as that, Hamas is warning them that they will not be allowed back.

Many people appear to be staying put, despite Israeli airstrikes and artillery bombardments. When I went down to an area overlooking northern Gaza I could hear explosions and see columns of smoke rising. The intensity reminded me of the first months of the war.

Some of the people who have stayed in northern Gaza when so many others have already fled south are doing so to remain with vulnerable relatives. Others are from families with connections to Hamas. Under the laws of war, that does not automatically make them belligerents.

One tactic that has been used over the last year by civilians who want to avoid IDF operations without taking their chances in the overcrowded and dangerous south of Gaza is to move elsewhere in the north, for example from Beit Hanoun to Gaza City, while the IDF is operating near their homes or shelters. When the army moves on, they return.

The IDF is trying to stop that happening, according to BBC colleagues who are daily contact with Palestinians in Gaza. It is channelling families who are moving in one direction only, down Salah al-Din, the main road to the south.

Israel does not allow journalists to enter Gaza to report the war, except for brief, rare and closely supervised trips with the IDF. Palestinian journalists who were there on 7 October still do brave work.

The Committee to Protect Journalists says at least 128 Palestinian media workers in Gaza have been killed since the war began. In northern Gaza, since Israel went back on the offensive, they have been filming panic-stricken families as they flee, often with small children helping out by carrying oversized backpacks.

One of them sent out a brief interview with a woman called Manar al-Bayar who was rushing down the street carrying a toddler. She was saying as she half-walked, half-ran on the way out of Jabalia refugee camp that "they told us we had five minutes to leave the Fallujah school.

Where do we go? In southern Gaza there are assassinations. In western Gaza they’re shelling people. Where do we go, oh God? God is our only chance.”

The journey is hard. Sometimes, Palestinians in Gaza say, people on the move are fired on by the IDF. It insists that Israeli soldiers observe strict rules of engagement that respect international humanitarian law.

But Medical Aid for Palestinians’ head of protection, Liz Allcock, says the evidence presented by wounded civilians suggest that they have been targeted.

“When we’re receiving patients in hospitals, a large number of those women and children and people of, if you like, non-combatant age are receiving direct shots to the head, to the spine, to the limbs, very indicative of the direct targeted attack.”

Once again, the UN and aid agencies who work in Gaza are saying that Israeli military pressure is deepening what is already a humanitarian catastrophe.

Desperate messages are being relayed from the remaining hospitals in northern Gaza, saying that they are running low on fuel to power the generators that keep the hospitals going, and keep badly wounded patients alive. Some hospitals report that their buildings have been attacked by the Israelis.

The suspicion among Palestinians, the UN and relief agencies is that the IDF is gradually adopting some or all of a new tactic to clear northern Gaza known as the "Generals’ Plan". It was proposed by a group of retired senior officers led by Maj-Gen (ret) Giora Eiland, who is a former national security adviser.

Like most Israelis they are frustrated and angry that a year into the war Israel still has not achieved its war aims of destroying Hamas and freeing the hostages. The Generals’ Plan is a new idea that its instigators believe can, from Israel’s perspective, break the deadlock.

At its heart is the idea that Israel can force the surrender of Hamas and its leader Yahya Sinwar by increasing the pressure on the entire population of the north. The first step is to order civilians to leave along evacuation corridors that will take them south of Wadi Gaza, an east-west stream that has become a dividing line in Gaza since the Israeli invasion last October.

Giora Eiland believes Israel should have done a deal straight away to get the hostages back, even if it meant pulling out of Gaza entirely. A year later, other methods, he says, are necessary.

In his office in central Israel, he laid out the heart of the plan.

Major-General (ret) Giora Eiland leads the group proposing a tactic to clear northern Gaza

“Since we already encircled the northern part of Gaza in the past nine or 10 months, what we should do is the following thing to tell all the 300,000 residents [that the UN estimates is 400,000] who still live in the northern part of Gaza that they have to leave this area and they should be given 10 days to leave through safe corridors that Israel will provide.

"And after that time, all this area will become to be a military zone. And all the Hamas people will still, though, whether some of them are fighters, some of them are civilians… will have two choices either to surrender or to starve."

Eiland wants Israel to seal the areas once the evacuation corridors are closed. Anyone left behind would be treated as an enemy combatant.

The area would be under siege, with the army blocking all supplies of food, water or other necessities of life from going in. He believes the pressure would become unbearable and what is left of Hamas would rapidly crumble, freeing the surviving hostages and giving Israel the victory it craves.

The UN World Food Programme says that the current offensive in Gaza is having a "disastrous impact on food security for thousands of Palestinian families". The main crossings into northern Gaza, it says, have been closed and no food aid has entered the strip since 1 October.

Mobile kitchens and bakeries have been forced to stop work because of air strikes. The only functioning bakery in the north, which is supported by WFP, caught fire after it was hit by an explosive munition. The position in the south is almost as dire.

It is not clear whether the IDF has adopted the Generals' Plan in part or in full, but the circumstantial evidence of what is being done in Gaza suggests it is at the very least a strong influence on the tactics being used against the population. The BBC submitted a list of questions to the IDF, which were not answered.

The ultra-nationalist extremists in Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet want to replace Palestinians in northern Gaza with Jewish settlers. Among many statements he’s made on the subject, the finance minister Bezalel Smotrich has said “Our heroic fighters and soldiers are destroying the evil of Hamas, and we will occupy the Gaza Strip… to tell the truth, where there is no settlement, there is no security.”

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1e82yy0wxno