The Siege of Gaza and Israel’s Premeditated Murder of Premature Palestinian Babies
14.11.23
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For several days now, I’ve been haunted by a photo posted by doctors in Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City — the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip — of premature babies huddled together as doctors and medical staff attempt to keep them alive.
The babies were previously being kept alive in incubators, but as a result of Israel’s medieval-style “complete siege” of Gaza, imposed 38 long, blood-soaked days ago, on October 8, when Israel’s defense minister Yoav Gallant announced that there would be “no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed”, adding, “We are fighting human animals and we will act accordingly”, the fuel required to power the generators to provide electricity to the hospital has run out.
The plight of these premature babies — the death sentence to which Israel has subjected them, unless the siege is lifted — is particularly poignant for me, because my own son, now a healthy 23-year old man, was also born prematurely, at 30 weeks.
Weighing just 1lb 15oz. — less than a bag of sugar — he spent the first eight days of his life in an incubator in the neo-natal intensive care unit at King’s College Hospital in Camberwell, in south east London, and another week and a half in the high dependency unit, before finally being strong enough to survive in the general neo-natal ward, where he remained until seven weeks after his birth, when we were finally able to take him home.
The dedication of the doctors and nurses who looked after him in those earliest days of his life in the neo-natal intensive care unit will forever live with me, because, despite their best efforts, death was never far away. Babies born at 22 or 23 weeks emerge into the world with the shadow of death looming over them, and it is often nothing short of a miracle when they survive.
When the photo from Al-Shifa Hospital was posted, 39 premature babies were still alive, but as the days have gone on some have been unable to survive outside their incubators — three at the weekend, another three yesterday, and another today, all preventable deaths caused by Israel’s refusal to lift its “complete siege.”
In addition, other gravely ill patients in intensive care have also been subjected to a death sentence through the lack of fuel, and as of yesterday nine of these patients had also died, as well as 17 other patients, with three more also dying today.
The “complete siege” of Gaza
When we look at Israel’s monstrous catalogue of war crimes in Gaza over the last 38 days, it’s easy to overlook the effects of the “complete siege” because of the relentless intensity of its attacks on the civilian population in general, through indiscriminate bombing raids that, as of yesterday, have killed 11,240 people, including 4,630 children and 3,130 women, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza — figures that don’t include the thousands of people missing and presumed dead under the rubble of destroyed buildings.
Despite Israel’s best efforts to blind the world to the truth of its attacks — by targeting and killing 37 Palestinian journalists, and sometimes their entire families, through feeble and transparent propaganda, and, on several occasions, through complete media blackouts, taking down the mobile phone network — the slaughter of the civilian population has been well-documented, via photos and videos, often in graphic and gruesome detail that can do nothing but shock the conscience of everyone who sees it.
The effects of a “complete siege”, however, are rather less obvious from the outside looking in. Thirst and hunger stalk the Gaza Strip, but from the outside you have to go looking for them — via the footage of vast queues of people with empty water containers, for example, or reports by people living on two sips of water a day.
Further investigation reveals that most of Gaza’s water supplies are so degraded — and deliberately so by the occupying power, Israel — that they’re poisonous, polluted with sewage and/or seawater, and that, as a result, most drinking water is delivered to the Strip via aid lorries. Create a siege, and suddenly — as has happened from time immemorial when the most evil people on earth besiege cities, or, in this case, an entire Occupied Territory the size of east London — people have to drink polluted water, and diseases start to spread.
Just five days ago, the International Rescue Committee warned of “an imminent infectious disease outbreak in Gaza”, explaining that “waterborne illnesses like cholera and typhoid will inevitably spread”, with Gaza’s residents “relying on contaminated water sources and lacking access to proper sanitation and hygiene.” According to the UN, as the Guardian reported on November 4, “only 5% of Gaza’s water needs are now being met.”
Starving a captive population is also another key element of the siege mentality, and, as Oxfam reported on October 25, “just 2 percent of food that would have been delivered has entered Gaza since the total siege … was imposed.” Israel has also been deliberately bombing bakeries and shops, and although they made a big show of allowing some humanitarian aid into Gaza at the time, “no commercial food imports have been delivered”, and what has been let in is pitifully inadequate.
As Oxfam described it, “Prior to the hostilities, 104 trucks a day would deliver food to the besieged Gaza Strip”, but when an aid convoy of 64 trucks was finally allowed in, “only 30 contained food and in some cases, not exclusively so”, and adequate humanitarian supplies have not materialized since. Yesterday, the UN reported that, on Sunday (November 12), 76 trucks carrying “health supplies, bottled water, blankets, tents and hygiene products” had been allowed through the Rafah Crossing from Egypt, adding that, since October 21, 980 trucks in total have been allowed into Gaza.
Perhaps that sounds generous on Israel’s part, but please don’t think so. What it means is that less essential supplies have been delivered in the last 35 days than would have arrived in a single day before the siege began — and none of it food, or, even more crucially, fuel.
The deadly effects of the fuel blockade
The lack of fuel, which has now almost entirely run out in Gaza, is required not only for electricity, but also for water supplies and sewage. Another reason why water is so depleted in Gaza right now is because fuel is required to operate the desalination plants that have, over the years, become an important source of drinking water in Gaza, but which are now largely unable to function. As the Guardian explained in its article on November 4, “A lack of fuel has prevented desalination plants from operating at full capacity, and limits the ability to pump water to homes and transport it on trucks.”
Additionally, sewage systems cannot operate without fuel, as the Guardian also noted, stating, “Fuel shortages also mean sewage treatment plants have not been operating, leading to wastewater emptying into the sea, further polluting the coastal aquifer.”
While the lack of fuel also means that ovens no longer work, and people are scrabbling around looking for wood to create fires, it has also meant that, increasingly, cars and trucks can no longer operate, and while this has seen horses and carts return to the streets of Gaza, it also has more devastating effects, as the UN explained yesterday, noting that colleagues in Gaza had explained that, as of today, they can longer receive even the meagre amounts of aid coming through the Rafah Crossing, because they too have no fuel.
To return to the premature babies, however — who are never far from my mind — it is they and all the seriously ill people in Gaza’s hospitals who are bearing the brunt of Israel’s “complete siege.”
It would be bad enough if the hospitals, while running out of fuel, were unmolested, but — almost incredibly, it seems to me — they are actually being targeted by the Israel military, and besieged — sieges within a siege, alarmingly — because of either colossal stupidity or even more colossal, almost unthinkably colossal evil on the part of the Israeli government.
Ever since, weeks ago — in what now seems like an eternity of suffering — Israel first bombed Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, while claiming that they didn’t — it has been apparent that their justification for targeting hospitals (and, indeed, schools and places of worship) was because, as Hananya Naftali, a social media influencer who has worked as a social media adviser for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, tweeted in a post that he deleted shortly after, “Hamas is launching rockets from hospitals, Mosques [and] schools.” In that same post, Naftali also claimed that the Israel Air Force had “struck a Hamas terrorist base” inside the hospital.
No evidence has been found to justify Israel’s claims, but evidence is irrelevant to people who “believe” in whatever they want to believe in, and, it seems, the more prohibited their actions, the more it seems to excite them. Carpet bombing civilians in their homes to, allegedly, kill a handful of Hamas commanders is absolutely prohibited under international humanitarian law, but attacking hospitals is, if anything, even more profoundly prohibited — essentially, the ultimate war crime taboo.
The shameful targeting of all Gaza’s hospitals
Nevertheless, the targeting of hospitals has increased in intensity since the Al-Ahli attacks with Al Jazeera reporting yesterday that “[a]t least 21 of Gaza’s 35 hospitals have stopped functioning, either because of Israel’s siege on them, or because of a lack of fuel and medicines as a consequence of the total blockade imposed by Israel.”
Al-Shifa — Gaza’s largest hospital — is the latest hospital to be targeted in a wave of what ought to be unthinkable violence inflicted on medical facilities, but which is justified by Israel because of its unfounded insistence that they are all being used by Hamas operatives. Al Jazeera has the full list here, which, genuinely, makes for shocking reading, as hospital after hospital has been forced to shut down, and/or is besieged with no water, no food and no electricity.
Israel’s actions are profoundly shocking on a humanitarian level, although, as I alluded to above, they also seem to be profoundly stupid. Yesterday, for example, at one of the evacuated hospitals, the Al-Rantisi Children’s Hospital, which specialises in child cancers, Israeli forces, who entered the hospital and scoured the basement, alleged that they had found evidence that some of the hostages seized by Hamas militants on October 7 had been held there — claims that evaporated when a calendar on the wall, allegedly showing a rota for guarding hostages, was revealed to be a hospital rotation calendar showing staff shifts.
At Al-Shifa, meanwhile, the 650 patients and 500 medical staff still in the hospital also remain besieged, with the hospital’s cardiac wing bombed on Sunday, and snipers picking off medical staff inside.
As news of the premature babies’ plight reached the outside world, creating ripples of shock and disgust that finally washed up at the Israeli government’s feet, the IDF apparently made a gesture of support, delivering 300 litres of fuel “for urgent medical purposes” to the entrance of the hospital, which, they then claimed, Hamas operatives refused to accept.
As doctors themselves explained, however, there are no Hamas operatives in the hospital, and they didn’t accept the fuel because they feared being shot at or bombed if they went to get it, and also because 300 litres is only enough to provide electricity for 30 minutes, whereas what they need is 8,000 litres a day. Later, Israel added insult to injury in another PR stunt by claiming to initiate the delivery of incubators to the hospital, when it is adequate fuel supplies, not incubators, that is so desperately needed.
As the siege continues, doctors and medical staff today buried 179 people, “including babies and patients who died in the intensive care unit”, in a “mass grave” at the hospital complex, as The New Arab explained.
“We were forced to bury them in a mass grave”, the hospital’s director, Mohammad Abu Salmiyah, stated, adding that, in total, “seven babies and 29 intensive care patients were among those buried after the hospital’s fuel supplies ran out.”
As for the surviving premature babies, they have been moved to “one of the only areas of the hospital that still has electricity”, as Al Jazeera has just explained, but time is running out — not only for their tiny precious lives, but also for any pretence by Israel, or its still-committed allies in the west, that this “war” means anything other than the unfettered death of any and all Palestinians.
If Joe Biden cannot pick up a phone to save these babies, and if Israel doesn’t care, their deaths may well end up being the defining focal point for the true horror of what academics at the International State Crime Initiative (ISCI) at Queen Mary University of London recently called, in a powerful statement, “the annihilation phase” of Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people of the Gaza Strip.
* * * * *
Andy Worthington is a freelance investigative journalist, activist, author, photographer (of an ongoing photo-journalism project, ‘The State of London’), film-maker and singer-songwriter (the lead singer and main songwriter for the London-based band The Four Fathers, whose music is available via Bandcamp). He is the co-founder of the Close Guantánamo campaign (see the ongoing photo campaign here) and the successful We Stand With Shaker campaign of 2014-15, and the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison and of two other books: Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and The Battle of the Beanfield. He is also the co-director (with Polly Nash) of the documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (available on DVD here, or you can watch it online here, via the production company Spectacle, for £2.50).
In 2017, Andy became very involved in housing issues. He is the narrator of the documentary film, ‘Concrete Soldiers UK’, about the destruction of council estates, and the inspiring resistance of residents, he wrote a song ‘Grenfell’, in the aftermath of the entirely preventable fire in June 2017 that killed over 70 people, and, in 2018, he was part of the occupation of the Old Tidemill Wildlife Garden in Deptford, to try to prevent its destruction — and that of 16 structurally sound council flats next door — by Lewisham Council and Peabody.
Since 2019, Andy has become increasingly involved in environmental activism, recognizing that climate change poses an unprecedented threat to life on earth, and that the window for change — requiring a severe reduction in the emission of all greenhouse gases, and the dismantling of our suicidal global capitalist system — is rapidly shrinking, as tipping points are reached that are occurring much quicker than even pessimistic climate scientists expected. You can read his articles about the climate crisis here.
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33 Responses
Andy Worthington says...
When I posted this on Facebook, I wrote:
In my latest article, I look at the “complete siege” of Gaza — of water, food, fuel and medical supplies — focusing in particular on the truly alarming plight of the premature babies in Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, whose incubators no longer work because all fuel supplies for electricity have run out.
The siege was imposed 38 days ago, and has generally gained less attention than the relentless bombing, although its impact is truly devastating, and particularly with reference to Israel’s repeated attacks on hospitals, and the plight of the babies, which, as I describe it, “may well end up being the defining focal point for the true horror” of Israel’s attacks.
...on November 14th, 2023 at 8:33 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Mary MacGregor Green wrote:
thank you for this one … I got blasted on a FB thread by a dude who said that the needed fuel was offered and refused and that there was, in fact, a Hamas operation happening in the basement of the hospital. I feel for the human beings who are so attached to the idea of Israel that they will not see the facts on the ground. SO, I didn’t continue to engage him, but I did listen very carefully to the 5 o’clock news last night … no one said it was confirmed and now you’ve given me more info … THANKS. (real facts are so needed in such a horrific situation)
...on November 15th, 2023 at 12:15 am
Andy Worthington says...
I’ve been trying to pay close attention, Mary, particularly on X, via reports from those working in the hospitals. It seems such a transparent black propaganda operation on Israel’s part, to try and claim that hospitals are secret Hamas bases, and yet so many people seem to believe whatever the Israeli government tells them.
I stand by my assessment that, in general, the Israeli intelligence is either colossally stupid, or they’re using their claims for far, far darker reasons – to erase everything necessary to sustain life in Gaza, for which the destruction of hospitals has enormous significance.
...on November 15th, 2023 at 12:18 am
Andy Worthington says...
Dan Shea wrote:
Mary, I don’t care if Hamas has tunnels under a hospital, you don’t kill babies to get to them.
Israel lies, United States lies, in wars, in the bloodlust of a massacre every perpetrator lies and commits crimes against humanity.
...on November 15th, 2023 at 12:18 am
Andy Worthington says...
Of course, Dan, and Israel has been shamefully indulged by its allies in the west, and the US in particular, who, from the beginning of this carnage, on October 7, have completely brushed aside any of the respect they’re supposed to have for any sense of proportionality, according to international humanitarian law, emboldening Israel to believe that absolutely no constraints apply to its actions.
As the ICRC describes proportionality, “The principle of proportionality prohibits attacks against military objectives which are ‘expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a combination thereof, which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated.’ In other words, the principle of proportionality seeks to limit damage caused by military operations by requiring that the effects of the means and methods of warfare used must not be disproportionate to the military advantage sought.” https://casebook.icrc.org/a_to_z/glossary/proportionality
...on November 15th, 2023 at 12:19 am
Andy Worthington says...
And you are, of course, absolutely right, Dan, to state so powerfully, “I don’t care if Hamas has tunnels under a hospital, you don’t kill babies to get to them.” It should be the opening lyrics of a song, or a slogan on a T-shirt.
...on November 15th, 2023 at 12:20 am
Andy Worthington says...
Anna Giddings wrote:
I cannot understand how this can happen.
...on November 15th, 2023 at 12:20 am
Andy Worthington says...
I agree Anna. It seems somehow inexplicable that hospitals, already paralysed by a total siege, are all being attacked by the Israeli military, on the basis of lies, with premature babies and the seriously ill almost certainly consigned to death, and yet everyone with any power to do anything about it does nothing at all.
It as if whatever we may have previously thought about these people, about the fundamental untrustworthiness of most politicians, has been peeled away to show that they are all far, far, far worse than we thought.
...on November 15th, 2023 at 12:21 am
Andy Worthington says...
Jumah Abdel All wrote:
Andy 💯they are all far, far, far worse than we thought.👍
...on November 15th, 2023 at 12:22 am
Andy Worthington says...
Very evidently, Jumah. The masks have fallen, and the true horrors have been revealed. I do genuinely hope that, at the very least, it will have implications for all of these people politically, and that a significant number of people will treat them as pariahs, as happened with Tony Blair after his support for, and his crucial role in the shamefully murderous and illegal Iraq War.
...on November 15th, 2023 at 12:22 am
Andy Worthington says...
Judith Lienhard wrote:
Andy, yes, possible because of dehumanization.
...on November 15th, 2023 at 12:33 am
Andy Worthington says...
Yes, dehumanization on the one hand, and exceptionalism on the other, Judith. Suddenly it’s the aftermath of 9/11 again, but with the exceptionalism reserved not for ourselves, but for our colonizer friends in the Middle East, who are replaying the Native American genocide, but in the here and now (and for the last 75 years).
...on November 15th, 2023 at 12:33 am
Andy Worthington says...
Natalia Rivera Scott wrote:
I still cannot understand how these crimes against humanity go on and on and on and how people still try to defend this while others pretend it’s not happening! How can this be?!
...on November 15th, 2023 at 12:34 am
Andy Worthington says...
The faultlines that have opened up over the last decade or so between decent but fundamentally powerless people on the one hand and those who have given themselves over to dangerous hatred on the other just seem to be getting ever wider, Natalia, and on every front – via our politicians, and the normalizing of the far-right, via the mainstream media, which is either openly complicit, or which, dangerously and irresponsibly, keeps giving far too much prominence to people with intolerable views. And on an individual basis, of course, social media seems to be largely to blame, although on this front at least the two worlds are both evident.
My social media circles, for example, are full of genuinely decent people, but vast swathes of our online world are a moral sewer. The only hope is that so many of us have come together in opposition to what is happening that it really ought to mean something, but we definitely need to find a way to turn it into political power, and as swiftly as possible.
...on November 15th, 2023 at 12:34 am
Andy Worthington says...
Debbie Winters wrote:
Natalia, because the rulers of the world are zionists.
...on November 15th, 2023 at 12:35 am
Andy Worthington says...
Natalia Rivera Scott wrote:
Debbie, the people defending this and/or pretending this isn’t happening are the people around us.
...on November 15th, 2023 at 12:36 am
Andy Worthington says...
I think you and Debbie both have valid points, Natalia. The people defending this are indeed amongst us (which is genuinely alarming, because you never know when you might engage in conversation with someone who appears to be human, but is casually genocidal), but they’ve also been infected by Zionism, which, particularly in the US, I think, aligns with the equally dangerous military wing of American exceptionalism.
...on November 15th, 2023 at 12:36 am
Andy Worthington says...
Natalia Rivera Scott wrote:
Andy, we’re on the same side 💛
...on November 15th, 2023 at 12:37 am
Andy Worthington says...
We are, Natalia, and there are so many of us, but we need to be strong, we need to talk about love – incessantly – and we need to prepare for the next coming disaster, climate collapse, by making the bonds between those of us who have not gone to the “dark side” as strong as possible, because we’re going to need it. 💛
...on November 15th, 2023 at 12:37 am
Andy Worthington says...
Judith Lienhard wrote:
Andy, there is a video on today’s New York Times page that shows a tour that by a military person in front of a hospital, showing tunnels, claiming that the basement was used to hide the hostages, etc. etc. Great hasbara.
...on November 15th, 2023 at 12:48 am
Andy Worthington says...
They are pumping out so much ridiculous misinformation and getting caught out so often, Judith. Unfortunately, it all works on the susceptible – the “40 beheaded babies” lie, for example, which seems to be powering so much of the pro-Zionist anger – but for anyone perceptive their desperation and the moral vacuum at the height of their cherished Zionist project is being exposed like never before.
...on November 15th, 2023 at 12:49 am
Andy Worthington says...
Judith Lienhard wrote:
Thanks, Andy. Have you listened at all to electronic intifada? Lots of great information.
...on November 15th, 2023 at 12:49 am
Andy Worthington says...
Yes, they’re great, Judith. https://electronicintifada.net
I mainly keep an eye on what’s happening via X, where I sometimes come across them, but I’ll try and check in more regularly.
I’m on X here, where I try and amplify relevant voices: https://twitter.com/GuantanamoAndy
...on November 15th, 2023 at 12:50 am
Andy Worthington says...
Shahela Begum wrote:
Thank you for reporting about this, Andy, just heartbreaking. We need to have a ceasefire now.
...on November 15th, 2023 at 11:19 am
Andy Worthington says...
Good to hear from you, Shahela, and thanks for appreciating my efforts. I have barely been able to think about anything but Gaza for the last 40 days, and it’s truly shocking that, after so many completely unjustifiable civilian deaths, we don’t seem to be any closer to calling for a ceasefire.
Shamefully, the individual with the biggest influence on Israel, Joe Biden – or ‘Genocide Joe’, as he is being so aptly described – continues to be the main obstacle to demands for a ceasefire, even though, as was reported today, he is facing increasing criticism from within his own administration.
The Guardian, following up on a New York Times report, explains that, “In a letter presented to Biden and his cabinet on Tuesday, more than 500 political appointees and staff members from about 40 agencies across the administration criticised the extent of the president’s support for Israel in its war in Gaza.”
The letter states, “We call on President Biden to urgently demand a cease-fire; and to call for de-escalation of the current conflict by securing the immediate release of the Israeli hostages and arbitrarily detained Palestinians; the restoration of water, fuel, electricity and other basic services; and the passage of adequate humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.”
Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, said, “The trigger for much of the internal dissent was Biden’s public comments – initially his zero-sum approach to the issue and then his misinformed scepticism of casualty figures in Gaza.”
Lister suggested that Biden had to be “reined in by his own officials.” As he described it, “With time, it became increasingly clear that Biden himself was the sole driver of that initial zero-sum approach and it took weeks of concerted high-level effort – from state, Usaid, the intelligence community and even part of the national security council itself – to turn things around and shape a more holistic, strategic approach that prioritised support to Israel alongside a far greater emphasis on civilian protection, humanitarian access, and commitment to international humanitarian law and the laws of war.”
Imagine having to emphasize the need for a “commitment to international humanitarian law and the laws of war” after 40 days of the unfettered slaughter of Palestinian civilians by Israel. Biden will never cleanse himself of that innocent blood, but effecting a ceasefire, as he can, would at least allow him back into the realm of humanity, from which he’s currently, and voluntarily exiled himself.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/14/biden-letter-israel-gaza-war-ceasefire
...on November 15th, 2023 at 11:24 am
Andy Worthington says...
Aadila Boda wrote:
They are utterly deplorable! Sad thing is they have total impunity to kill indiscriminately.
...on November 15th, 2023 at 11:32 am
Andy Worthington says...
Absolutely, Aadila. Every western leader who insisted that Israel had the unconditional “right to defend itself” on October 7 has the blood of over 4,000 innocent Palestinian children on their hands, which they can never wash away. They gave free rein to an administration that they *knew* was more extreme than any previous government in Israeli history, and their complicity is unforgivable.
...on November 15th, 2023 at 11:33 am
Andy Worthington says...
Lesley Marshall posted:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3164272133717220&set=p.3164272133717220&type=3
...on November 15th, 2023 at 11:40 am
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks for posting that SNP amendment calling for a ceasefire that will be voted on by MPs later today, Lesley. Any MP who abdicates or votes against it should be subsequently and very publicly disowned by all decent people in the UK.
...on November 15th, 2023 at 11:40 am
Andy Worthington says...
After I published this article yesterday, Israeli forces crossed yet another red line by invading Al-Shifa Hospital, in their search for Hamas terrorists, which would be laughable if it wasn’t such a grave violation of international humanitarian law.
I’ll be following up on this story later, but for now I think it’s important to recognise that, whatever else it is intended to accomplish, it is, primarily, part of a concerted effort by Israel to shut down ALL the hospitals in northern Gaza, so that it becomes uninhabitable.
As Max Blumenthal of The Grayzone explained on X, in response to a shameful Pentagon press conference yesterday evening, in which the US endorsed spurious Israeli “intelligence” about Hamas militants operating within the hospital, “Israel’s attempt to brand Gaza’s hospitals as covert military bases is not only aimed at justifying its violent takeover of those facilities — a war crime that was once unthinkable. It is also designed to conceal its ulterior genocidal goal of eliminating the centers of life from northern Gaza, especially the hospitals which have provided sanctuary and medical care for tens of thousands of displaced people, thereby forcing the population to migrate south toward Egypt. Once northern Gaza is cleansed of its native population, Tel Aviv plans to pressure Egypt to accept displaced Palestinians in tent cities in the Sinai, where they can then be resettled in the region or permanently scattered across the West.”
https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1724670045538672934
...on November 15th, 2023 at 12:09 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Natalia Rivera Scott wrote:
Andy, what will stop these monsters?! Nothing?!!!
...on November 16th, 2023 at 1:23 am
Andy Worthington says...
I still don’t know, Natalia. The good news is that the UN has finally managed to pass a resolution – not for a ceasefire, but calling for “humanitarian pauses in the fighting in Gaza and the establishment of aid corridors to speed relief supplies to those in need”, as the Guardian described it, and there appear to be talks about a Qatari-brokered three-day ceasefire to accompany the release of about 50 hostages in Gaza.
I’m not a fan of “humanitarian pauses”, when a ceasefire is so desperately needed, but right now anything that would lead to significant amounts of aid getting into Gaza – and a pause in the fighting – would be welcome.
Philippe Lazzarini of UNRWA (the UN refugee agency in Gaza), said, “Our entire operation is now on the verge of collapse”, and that, “by the end of today, around 70% of the population in Gaza won’t have access to clean water”, while his colleague Thomas White “said that water pumps and sewage treatment in the south of the Gaza Strip have stopped due to lack of fuel.”
...on November 16th, 2023 at 1:24 am
Andy Worthington says...
What a difference a day makes. The Israelis have now largely withdrawn from Al-Shifa Hospital, having humiliated themselves by finding nothing of any significance, and having been ridiculed for videos and posts suggesting that they did.
However, the hospital is still without food, water, fuel (for electricity) and medical supplies, meaning that Israel’s main aim has still been achieved – keeping it unable to function, like all the other hospitals in northern Gaza, which have shut down, or been evacuated by staff and patients, with, in some cases, some patients having had to be abandoned.
Without functioning hospitals, northern Gaza becomes unlivable, which is clearly still Israel’s plan: moving the entire population of northern Gaza – over a million people – to the south, even though there is no capacity for them, prior to, it hopes, persuading Egypt and/or the international community to take them in.
It’s an idiotic, broken plan, and I can’t see it working, because there still seem to be many people in northern Gaza who haven’t availed themselves of the opportunity to undertake the ‘trail of tears’ to southern Gaza while trying not to get shot, and who are clearly quite determined not to abandon what they still call home.
But whatever else happens, pressure must still be exerted internationally to demand that the siege is lifted, and that food, water, fuel and medical supplies are allowed to enter in significant quantities. And for that to happen, there needs to be a ceasefire – or, at least, something more significant that just a humanitarian ‘pause’, as favoured by most western leaders.
...on November 16th, 2023 at 1:25 am