• Trump muses on ethnically cleansing Palestinians from Gaza
    Michael F. Brown Power Suits 30 January 2025

    President Donald Trump with hands upraised at podium with man and American flag in background
    President Donald Trump frequently makes statements without sufficient facts or thinking through the consequences.
    Bonnie Cash UPI
    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been issued with an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity and war crimes, will likely visit President Donald Trump at the White House as soon as next week.

    Whether Netanyahu will discuss Trump’s recent musings on ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip or focus on Iran and expanding the Abraham Accords remains to be seen.

    On Saturday on board Air Force One, Trump was asked about a call he had earlier in the day with King Abdullah of Jordan.

    Trump emphasized that the subject of their discussion was Jordan taking more Palestinian refugees.

    “He really houses, you know, millions of Palestinians, and he does it in a very humane way. And I compliment him on that. But he really – Jordan has done an amazing job of housing largely Palestinians. And he’s done it in a very successful way.”

    Trump added, “I said to him, ‘I’d love you to take on more.’ Because I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now, and it’s a mess. It’s a real mess.”

    The president also noted he’d like “Egypt to take people” and would talk the following day with Egyptian President Abdulfattah al-Sisi. Egyptian media reported Tuesday there has not been a discussion between the two leaders.

    Trump then spoke specifics about removing some three quarters of Gaza’s population, though it wasn’t entirely clear if he thought he was talking about the entire population. “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing.”

    Winging it, he acknowledged ignorance. “And I don’t know. It’s something [that] has to happen, but it’s literally a demolition site right now. Almost everything is demolished, and people are dying there. So, I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing at a different location where they can maybe live in peace for a change.”

    Asked if this would be temporary, Trump responded, “It could be temporarily, could be long term.”

    Rather than asking the obvious question about ethnic cleansing, the next journalist then pivoted to artificial intelligence.

    Later, the conversation did return to Trump releasing to Israel 2,000-pound bombs paused by the Biden administration. Asked why, Trump said, “Because they bought them.”

    There was no discussion about how Israel had previously used those bombs against Palestinian men, women and children in their homes to deadly effect.

    This is not an adversarial press, but one that too readily concedes ground rather than challenges Trump on ethnic cleansing and American allies using American weaponry to commit serious human rights violations, including genocide.

    Trump’s casual talk of ethnic cleansing received quick support from former Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir who euphemistically refers to it as Palestinians leaving on a “voluntary” basis.

    Ben-Gvir tweeted: “I commend US President Trump for the initiative to transfer residents from Gaza to Jordan and Egypt. One of our demands from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to promote voluntary emigration. When the president of the world’s greatest superpower, Trump, personally brings up this idea, it is worth the Israeli government implementing it – promote emigration now!”

    Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich also took up the ethnic cleansing idea, though he did not mention Trump in his tweet. “After 76 years in which most of the population of Gaza was held by force under harsh conditions to maintain the ambition to destroy the state of Israel, the idea of ​​helping them find other places to start a new, good life is a great idea. After years of sanctifying terror, they will be able to establish a new, good life elsewhere.”

    Smotrich did cite Trump while speaking to journalists about developing an “operational plan” to turn the president’s words into reality.

    He claimed: “There is nothing to be excited about the weak opposition of Egypt and Jordan to the plan. We saw yesterday how Trump [imposed his will on] Colombia to deport immigrants despite its opposition. When he wants it, it happens.”

    Unsurprisingly, as Smotrich indicates, both Jordanian and Egyptian officials reject Trump’s rhetorical broadside. Alarmingly, CNN reports that “Amit Segal, an analyst with Israeli network Channel 12 News, cited Israeli officials and reported Trump’s move was ‘not a slip of the tongue but part of a much broader move than it seems, coordinated with Israel.’”

    If Segal’s claim is true, this is something to watch closely in the weeks ahead and at the Trump-Netanyahu meeting next week. Even before the inauguration, an official in the presidential transition also raised Indonesia as one of the locations to which Palestinians could be moved – meaning ethnically cleansed.

    In response to a question from The Electronic Intifada asking why Trump wants Palestinians to go to Jordan and Egypt rather than to homes and lands in Israel that they were expelled from in 1948, a State Department spokesperson in bold letters responded: “We aren’t going to comment on the president’s comments. We refer you to the White House.”

    It’s noteworthy the State Department is already so hollowed out by Trump that it can’t even reject ethnic cleansing. Of course, Biden’s State Department was similarly inept, even cruel, when questioned about its policies toward Israel and Palestinians in Gaza.

    Al Mezan, a human rights group in Gaza, also raised the right of return rather than ethnic cleansing. “Instead of advancing or supporting actions that blatantly breach international law, the international community must commit to its enforcement by ensuring the realization of the inalienable right of Palestinian refugees – who form over 70 percent of Gaza’s total population – to return to their ancestral homes and lands from which they were forcibly expelled in 1948 by Zionist militias and the Israeli military.”

    The human rights organization welcomed “the statements made by Jordan, Egypt, the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which firmly reject any proposals or calls for the forcible transfer of Palestinians from Gaza.”


    With Palestinians being denied movement north the day of Trump’s remarks, I harbored profound concerns about the plans of Trump and Netanyahu. But Palestinians moved north on Monday amid remarkable scenes of resilience and celebration, even as many knew they were likely to find ruins – courtesy of Netanyahu and President Joe Biden – where once their houses had stood.
    Mitchell Plitnick at Mondoweiss points out that Trump may view Gaza as a “massive real estate swindle.” Trump’s ambiguous words earlier in the month – “some beautiful things can be done with [Gaza]” – certainly hint at that possibility and the return of illegal settlements.

    Admittedly, this is reading the worst fears into his comments based on his settler-colonial inclinations as demonstrated in his first term with his colonizing actions on the Golan Heights and Jerusalem. Palestinians going north would seemingly allay those concerns, but Trump is anything but consistent, veering wildly from idea to idea.

    Trump, it bears repeating, often voices the views of those he’s most recently heard from on a subject. This raises the concern that Trump is getting wretched advice.

    For the moment, however, it seems Trump – who is now closely associated with the ceasefire – may make sickening comments, but still want to see at least the first stage of the ceasefire succeed.

    Indeed, Trump repeated his remarks on Monday, again aboard Air Force One. He maintained that he would “like to get [Palestinians from Gaza] living in an area where they can live without disruption and revolution and violence so much.”

    Trump also noted, “When you look at the Gaza Strip, it’s been hell for so many years.”

    Then, weakly attempting to demonstrate his grasp of Gaza’s history though without saying a word about the 1948 Nakba and dispossession of Palestinians to Gaza, he said: “There have been various civilizations on that strip. It didn’t start here. It started thousands of years before, and there’s always been violence associated with it. You could get people living in areas that are a lot safer and maybe a lot better and maybe a lot more comfortable.”

    Repeating standard American government racism about the region, Trump added: “I wish [al-Sisi] would take some. We helped them a lot, and I’m sure he’d help us. He’s a friend of mine. He’s in … a rough neighbourhood. But I think he would do it, and I think the king of Jordan would do it too.”

    Even as Palestinians continue to move north, Trump’s willingness to repeat the threat is alarming as other leaders have buckled to the president’s threats previously. Ethnic cleansing, however, is on a whole different scale.

    Senator Bernie Sanders did take the president to task and name Trump’s words appropriately. “There is a name for this – ethnic cleansing – and it’s a war crime,” Sanders tweeted.


    Unwinding the ceasefire, as Ben-Gvir and Smotrich want, and forcing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians south again – and perhaps into Egypt – might surpass the viciousness of the past 15 months. Yet Palestinian determination to remain rooted to the land and return to northern Gaza has, for now, carried the day.
    Déjà vu

    There was a lot of rightful teeth-gnashing over the callous way Trump engaged with the idea of ethnic cleansing against a people that already endured the 1948 Nakba, but it certainly has a recent precedent.

    The Biden administration also entertained the idea, just minus the rough edges of Trump. As Trump has, the Biden administration faced similar regional pushback.

    Less than a week into the onslaught, as Secretary of State Antony Blinken prepared to fly to Israel, a journalist questioned him on the tarmac about “civilian safe passage” to Egypt.

    That exchange is worth citing in full.

    Journalist: “Mr Secretary, yesterday, [Biden’s national security adviser] Jake Sullivan said that US officials were talking to the Israelis about getting civilian safe passage through Gaza into Egypt. Today, [White House spokesperson] John Kirby said they’re still talking to officials about this. What is the holdup? What’s the obstacle to getting civilian safe passage out of Gaza?”

    Blinken: “We are talking about that. We’re talking to Israel about that. We’re talking to Egypt about that. It’s an ongoing conversation. I can’t get into the details. Some of this is needless to say and understandably complicated, but we want to make sure to the best of our ability and I know Israel wants to make sure to the best of its ability that civilians are not harmed. But Israel has to take steps to defend itself. It has to make sure that any ongoing threat is dealt with and I believe it has to make sure that going forward what happened doesn’t happen again.”

    Journalist: “Is the issue more on the Israeli side?”

    Blinken: “I’m not going to get into the details, but it’s an ongoing conversation.”

    Blinken is more refined in his language than the crass Trump, but he’s talking ethnic cleansing – at the very least to Egypt – in his comments. He’s just far too diplomatic to spell it out in all its ugliness.

    With Blinken working this possibility, it’s clear that Biden was also giving initial support.


    Yes, the Biden administration did shift away from the idea. And Trump may do the same, effectively moving in that direction with the surge of Palestinian refugees north. Both leaders certainly heard from regional leaders that ethnic cleansing to their countries would be an exceptionally bad and unacceptable idea.
    What remains different for now is that Biden provided weaponry for a genocide. Trump is providing weapons, but in the midst of a ceasefire. The obvious danger is the 2,000-pound bombs will be employed later.

    For the moment, however, the president remains invested in a ceasefire that he has bragged about on social media.

    Trump adhering to the ceasefire remains a positive sign. His promotion of ethnic cleansing, however, even if just rhetoric at the moment, is extremely worrisome for the future, as are the champions of “Judea and Samaria” he is putting forward to represent the US at the United Nations and in Israel.

    These are warning signals of how quickly Trump could allow the situation in both Gaza and the West Bank to deteriorate.

    Donald Trump
    Benjamin Netanyahu
    International Criminal Court
    King Abdullah of Jordan
    ethnic cleansing
    Gaza genocide
    Gaza war crimes
    Abdulfattah al-Sisi
    Itamar Ben-Gvir
    Bezalel Smotrich
    Amit Segal
    CNN
    Biden administration
    Al Mezan Center for Human Rights
    Arab League
    Organization of Islamic Cooperation
    Mitchell Plitnick
    settler-colonialism
    Bernie Sanders
    right of return
    Antony Blinken
    Judea and Samaria

    https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/michael-f-brown/trump-muses-ethnically-cleansing-palestinians-gaza
    Trump muses on ethnically cleansing Palestinians from Gaza Michael F. Brown Power Suits 30 January 2025 President Donald Trump with hands upraised at podium with man and American flag in background President Donald Trump frequently makes statements without sufficient facts or thinking through the consequences. Bonnie Cash UPI Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been issued with an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity and war crimes, will likely visit President Donald Trump at the White House as soon as next week. Whether Netanyahu will discuss Trump’s recent musings on ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip or focus on Iran and expanding the Abraham Accords remains to be seen. On Saturday on board Air Force One, Trump was asked about a call he had earlier in the day with King Abdullah of Jordan. Trump emphasized that the subject of their discussion was Jordan taking more Palestinian refugees. “He really houses, you know, millions of Palestinians, and he does it in a very humane way. And I compliment him on that. But he really – Jordan has done an amazing job of housing largely Palestinians. And he’s done it in a very successful way.” Trump added, “I said to him, ‘I’d love you to take on more.’ Because I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now, and it’s a mess. It’s a real mess.” The president also noted he’d like “Egypt to take people” and would talk the following day with Egyptian President Abdulfattah al-Sisi. Egyptian media reported Tuesday there has not been a discussion between the two leaders. Trump then spoke specifics about removing some three quarters of Gaza’s population, though it wasn’t entirely clear if he thought he was talking about the entire population. “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing.” Winging it, he acknowledged ignorance. “And I don’t know. It’s something [that] has to happen, but it’s literally a demolition site right now. Almost everything is demolished, and people are dying there. So, I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing at a different location where they can maybe live in peace for a change.” Asked if this would be temporary, Trump responded, “It could be temporarily, could be long term.” Rather than asking the obvious question about ethnic cleansing, the next journalist then pivoted to artificial intelligence. Later, the conversation did return to Trump releasing to Israel 2,000-pound bombs paused by the Biden administration. Asked why, Trump said, “Because they bought them.” There was no discussion about how Israel had previously used those bombs against Palestinian men, women and children in their homes to deadly effect. This is not an adversarial press, but one that too readily concedes ground rather than challenges Trump on ethnic cleansing and American allies using American weaponry to commit serious human rights violations, including genocide. Trump’s casual talk of ethnic cleansing received quick support from former Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir who euphemistically refers to it as Palestinians leaving on a “voluntary” basis. Ben-Gvir tweeted: “I commend US President Trump for the initiative to transfer residents from Gaza to Jordan and Egypt. One of our demands from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to promote voluntary emigration. When the president of the world’s greatest superpower, Trump, personally brings up this idea, it is worth the Israeli government implementing it – promote emigration now!” Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich also took up the ethnic cleansing idea, though he did not mention Trump in his tweet. “After 76 years in which most of the population of Gaza was held by force under harsh conditions to maintain the ambition to destroy the state of Israel, the idea of ​​helping them find other places to start a new, good life is a great idea. After years of sanctifying terror, they will be able to establish a new, good life elsewhere.” Smotrich did cite Trump while speaking to journalists about developing an “operational plan” to turn the president’s words into reality. He claimed: “There is nothing to be excited about the weak opposition of Egypt and Jordan to the plan. We saw yesterday how Trump [imposed his will on] Colombia to deport immigrants despite its opposition. When he wants it, it happens.” Unsurprisingly, as Smotrich indicates, both Jordanian and Egyptian officials reject Trump’s rhetorical broadside. Alarmingly, CNN reports that “Amit Segal, an analyst with Israeli network Channel 12 News, cited Israeli officials and reported Trump’s move was ‘not a slip of the tongue but part of a much broader move than it seems, coordinated with Israel.’” If Segal’s claim is true, this is something to watch closely in the weeks ahead and at the Trump-Netanyahu meeting next week. Even before the inauguration, an official in the presidential transition also raised Indonesia as one of the locations to which Palestinians could be moved – meaning ethnically cleansed. In response to a question from The Electronic Intifada asking why Trump wants Palestinians to go to Jordan and Egypt rather than to homes and lands in Israel that they were expelled from in 1948, a State Department spokesperson in bold letters responded: “We aren’t going to comment on the president’s comments. We refer you to the White House.” It’s noteworthy the State Department is already so hollowed out by Trump that it can’t even reject ethnic cleansing. Of course, Biden’s State Department was similarly inept, even cruel, when questioned about its policies toward Israel and Palestinians in Gaza. Al Mezan, a human rights group in Gaza, also raised the right of return rather than ethnic cleansing. “Instead of advancing or supporting actions that blatantly breach international law, the international community must commit to its enforcement by ensuring the realization of the inalienable right of Palestinian refugees – who form over 70 percent of Gaza’s total population – to return to their ancestral homes and lands from which they were forcibly expelled in 1948 by Zionist militias and the Israeli military.” The human rights organization welcomed “the statements made by Jordan, Egypt, the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which firmly reject any proposals or calls for the forcible transfer of Palestinians from Gaza.” With Palestinians being denied movement north the day of Trump’s remarks, I harbored profound concerns about the plans of Trump and Netanyahu. But Palestinians moved north on Monday amid remarkable scenes of resilience and celebration, even as many knew they were likely to find ruins – courtesy of Netanyahu and President Joe Biden – where once their houses had stood. Mitchell Plitnick at Mondoweiss points out that Trump may view Gaza as a “massive real estate swindle.” Trump’s ambiguous words earlier in the month – “some beautiful things can be done with [Gaza]” – certainly hint at that possibility and the return of illegal settlements. Admittedly, this is reading the worst fears into his comments based on his settler-colonial inclinations as demonstrated in his first term with his colonizing actions on the Golan Heights and Jerusalem. Palestinians going north would seemingly allay those concerns, but Trump is anything but consistent, veering wildly from idea to idea. Trump, it bears repeating, often voices the views of those he’s most recently heard from on a subject. This raises the concern that Trump is getting wretched advice. For the moment, however, it seems Trump – who is now closely associated with the ceasefire – may make sickening comments, but still want to see at least the first stage of the ceasefire succeed. Indeed, Trump repeated his remarks on Monday, again aboard Air Force One. He maintained that he would “like to get [Palestinians from Gaza] living in an area where they can live without disruption and revolution and violence so much.” Trump also noted, “When you look at the Gaza Strip, it’s been hell for so many years.” Then, weakly attempting to demonstrate his grasp of Gaza’s history though without saying a word about the 1948 Nakba and dispossession of Palestinians to Gaza, he said: “There have been various civilizations on that strip. It didn’t start here. It started thousands of years before, and there’s always been violence associated with it. You could get people living in areas that are a lot safer and maybe a lot better and maybe a lot more comfortable.” Repeating standard American government racism about the region, Trump added: “I wish [al-Sisi] would take some. We helped them a lot, and I’m sure he’d help us. He’s a friend of mine. He’s in … a rough neighbourhood. But I think he would do it, and I think the king of Jordan would do it too.” Even as Palestinians continue to move north, Trump’s willingness to repeat the threat is alarming as other leaders have buckled to the president’s threats previously. Ethnic cleansing, however, is on a whole different scale. Senator Bernie Sanders did take the president to task and name Trump’s words appropriately. “There is a name for this – ethnic cleansing – and it’s a war crime,” Sanders tweeted. Unwinding the ceasefire, as Ben-Gvir and Smotrich want, and forcing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians south again – and perhaps into Egypt – might surpass the viciousness of the past 15 months. Yet Palestinian determination to remain rooted to the land and return to northern Gaza has, for now, carried the day. Déjà vu There was a lot of rightful teeth-gnashing over the callous way Trump engaged with the idea of ethnic cleansing against a people that already endured the 1948 Nakba, but it certainly has a recent precedent. The Biden administration also entertained the idea, just minus the rough edges of Trump. As Trump has, the Biden administration faced similar regional pushback. Less than a week into the onslaught, as Secretary of State Antony Blinken prepared to fly to Israel, a journalist questioned him on the tarmac about “civilian safe passage” to Egypt. That exchange is worth citing in full. Journalist: “Mr Secretary, yesterday, [Biden’s national security adviser] Jake Sullivan said that US officials were talking to the Israelis about getting civilian safe passage through Gaza into Egypt. Today, [White House spokesperson] John Kirby said they’re still talking to officials about this. What is the holdup? What’s the obstacle to getting civilian safe passage out of Gaza?” Blinken: “We are talking about that. We’re talking to Israel about that. We’re talking to Egypt about that. It’s an ongoing conversation. I can’t get into the details. Some of this is needless to say and understandably complicated, but we want to make sure to the best of our ability and I know Israel wants to make sure to the best of its ability that civilians are not harmed. But Israel has to take steps to defend itself. It has to make sure that any ongoing threat is dealt with and I believe it has to make sure that going forward what happened doesn’t happen again.” Journalist: “Is the issue more on the Israeli side?” Blinken: “I’m not going to get into the details, but it’s an ongoing conversation.” Blinken is more refined in his language than the crass Trump, but he’s talking ethnic cleansing – at the very least to Egypt – in his comments. He’s just far too diplomatic to spell it out in all its ugliness. With Blinken working this possibility, it’s clear that Biden was also giving initial support. Yes, the Biden administration did shift away from the idea. And Trump may do the same, effectively moving in that direction with the surge of Palestinian refugees north. Both leaders certainly heard from regional leaders that ethnic cleansing to their countries would be an exceptionally bad and unacceptable idea. What remains different for now is that Biden provided weaponry for a genocide. Trump is providing weapons, but in the midst of a ceasefire. The obvious danger is the 2,000-pound bombs will be employed later. For the moment, however, the president remains invested in a ceasefire that he has bragged about on social media. Trump adhering to the ceasefire remains a positive sign. His promotion of ethnic cleansing, however, even if just rhetoric at the moment, is extremely worrisome for the future, as are the champions of “Judea and Samaria” he is putting forward to represent the US at the United Nations and in Israel. These are warning signals of how quickly Trump could allow the situation in both Gaza and the West Bank to deteriorate. Donald Trump Benjamin Netanyahu International Criminal Court King Abdullah of Jordan ethnic cleansing Gaza genocide Gaza war crimes Abdulfattah al-Sisi Itamar Ben-Gvir Bezalel Smotrich Amit Segal CNN Biden administration Al Mezan Center for Human Rights Arab League Organization of Islamic Cooperation Mitchell Plitnick settler-colonialism Bernie Sanders right of return Antony Blinken Judea and Samaria https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/michael-f-brown/trump-muses-ethnically-cleansing-palestinians-gaza
    0 Comments 0 Shares 7092 Views
  • The bloodiest face of its genocide: Israel has killed 2,100 Palestinian infants and toddlers in Gaza
    The bloodiest face of its genocide: Israel has killed 2,100 Palestinian infants and toddlers in Gaza
    A Palestinian woman carries the shrouded body of her infant killed in an Israeli strike in Rafah, southern Gaza, 19 December. Abed Rahim Khatib (DPA)
    Palestinian Territory - The Israeli army has killed 2,100 Palestinian infants and toddlers under the age of two, out of the about 17,000 children it has killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of its genocide on 7 October 2023.

    The number of Palestinian children—whether infants or children in general—killed by the Israeli army is horrifying, and the rate of their killing is unprecedented in the history of modern wars. It also represents a dangerous trend based on the dehumanisation of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Israel’s military targets Palestinians and their children daily, methodically, and widely in the most heinous and brutal ways possible, and virtually without pause for 10 consecutive months.

    Due to the Israeli bombing of homes, buildings, residential neighbourhoods, shelter centres, and displacement tents, many children have lost their heads and limbs. This is a flagrant violation of the rules of distinction, proportionality, military necessity, i.e. the legal and moral obligation to take the necessary precautions to minimise the deaths of civilians and children.

    The Euro-Med Monitor field team documented today, Tuesday 13 August, the killing of four-day-old twins Aser and Aysal Muhammad Abu al-Qumsan. The twins were killed this morning, along with their mother Juman and their grandmother, in an Israeli bombing that targeted a residential flat in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

    After leaving the apartment to obtain a birth certificate for his two newborn children, the father of the infants returned to discover that all of his family members—including the twins’ grandmother—had been killed in an Israeli attack on the building.

    Despite its advanced technological capabilities, the Israeli army targets houses and shelter centres knowing full well that they house civilians, including women and children. Nevertheless, it bombs these targets with highly destructive bombs and missiles, aiming to cause as many civilian deaths and severe injuries as possible. This is demonstrated by the Israeli army’s systematic, widespread, and repeated targeting of civilians in the Gaza Strip, as well as its use of highly destructive and indiscriminate weapons, particularly against areas with dense populations of civilians.

    The case of the two babies Aser and Aysal are not unique; daily reports of child victims, including infants, are made in the Strip.

    One of the most notable testimonies has been from 42-year-old Abdul Hafez Al-Najjar, the father of a child named Ahmed, who was among the many victims of an Israeli massacre on 26 May. The massacre targeted displaced people living in tents in the Barksat area, west of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. Ahmed, along with three of his brothers and their mother, was among a host of other victims that were all beheaded and killed. Ahmed’s father told the Euro-Med team: “My child Ahmed was very beautiful. He was a year and a half old. He was beheaded in the Israeli bombing. His head was separated from his body. When I saw him, I felt distressed. He was buried without his head.”
    According to the Euro-Med Monitor team, an Israeli airstrike on Rafah’s Al-Salam neighbourhood, in the southern Gaza Strip, killed another set of twin infants on 3 March. Six-month-old Wissam and Naeem Abu Anza were killed by the strike, along with their father and 11 other family members.

    The mother of Wissam and Naeem, Rania Abu Anza, stated that she struggled for 10 years to become a mother before eventually giving birth to the two babies. “They implanted three embryos in me, two of them remained, and there they were,” she explained. “They bombed the house, killing my husband, my kids, and the rest of the family in the massacre." Ten days ago marked six months since the death of the twins.

    Shaimaa Al-Ghoul, meanwhile, was nine months pregnant when her home in the southern city of Rafah was bombed on 12 February. Her husband and two sons, Mohammed and Janan, were killed, and she suffered injuries from shrapnel that entered her abdomen, pierced her uterus, and ultimately lodged in the fetus.

    Al-Ghoul stated that prior to her husband and two children’s deaths, her husband, Abdullah Abu Jazar, had made her “dates, sweets, and a [gift] bag in celebration of his expected newborn”. She said that she did give birth to a child, whom she named Abdullah, after his father, but the boy only lived one day. Baby Abduallah died from the wound caused by the shrapnel that had entered his mother. Thus, Al-Ghoul lost her husband and three children.

    Euro-Med Monitor notes that numerous unborn children have died in hospitals over the past 10 months due to a lack of oxygen and electricity, inadequate care, and hospital targeting.

    Israel continues to kill thousands of Palestinian men and women in the Gaza Strip, most of them in their reproductive age, including pregnant women, and thousands of children, including infants and toddlers. According to the meaning contained in the description of genocidal acts under Article (2) of the Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide, there is no doubt that Israel’s systematic and widespread killings of Palestinian civilians, who make up at least 92% of the total number of deaths due to the genocide, will have a negative impact on the population growth rates and reproductive capacity of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip for generations to come. Approximately 50,000 Palestinians, including thousands trapped under the rubble for long enough periods of time that they are now presumed dead, have been killed by Israel since 7 October. In addition, 88,000 other Palestinians have been wounded by Israel since then. These deaths and injuries will undoubtedly affect the Palestinians as a national and ethnic group for several generations.

    Every day, infant deaths in the Gaza Strip are reported as a direct result of Israeli crimes that are legally classified as acts of genocide, including starvation, thirst, blocking the entry of basic supplies like milk, and deprivation of medical care. The majority of these infant deaths are not included in the official victim count released by the Palestinian Ministry of Health, as there is no specific system to identify such victims.

    Due to Israel’s crime of genocide, ongoing for the past 10 months, Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip are being denied their fundamental rights and are not being protected in any way by international law. They have become primary, direct, and deliberate targets of the Israeli army, and have even been subject to premeditated killings and direct executions.

    Aside from being arbitrarily detained, Palestinian children have also been the victims of crimes of sexual assault; forced disappearance; torture and other forms of inhumane treatment; starvation; siege; severe psychological harm; deprivation of education due to the widespread destruction of schools; and denial of access to healthcare and other necessities of life. Many Palestinian children are also victims of family dispersion, and have lost parental care.

    One of the main objectives of Israel’s genocide is to leave a lasting legacy of these crimes that will affect the victims for the rest of their lives. The majority of Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip have experienced psychological trauma that will likely be difficult to treat: Thousands of children have lost one or both parents; have had limbs amputated; have suffered severe burns or other serious injuries; and/or have suffered from hunger, malnutrition, and dehydration; all of which will have a detrimental impact on their physical and psychological development.

    Most children in the Gaza Strip have lost their homes, their financial security, and members of their families, in addition to being deprived of an education. This will have serious, far-reaching consequences on their futures and their ability to enjoy their other rights, making them more vulnerable to poverty, unemployment, and exploitation. The Israeli military attacks on the Strip have caused the widespread destruction of civilian objects, including homes, private property, livelihoods, production, and the economic and commercial system, forcing Palestinians to migrate, whether directly or indirectly.

    The international community must act swiftly and decisively to put an end to the crime of genocide, safeguard the lives of all Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip, prevent Israel from converting the Strip into the world’s largest cemetery for children in modern history, and end the egregious double standards that are applied to Israel and its powerful Western backers and allies.

    Israel and its backers must be held accountable for blatantly violating international humanitarian law by killing and targeting Palestinian children and denying them access to food, shelter, clothing, and medical assistance, including vaccinations, as specified in the Geneva Conventions and their two 1977 Protocols—protocols which should enable them to realise their rights.

    https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/6437/The-bloodiest-face-of-its-genocide:-Israel-has-killed-2,100-Palestinian-infants-and-toddlers-in-Gaza
    The bloodiest face of its genocide: Israel has killed 2,100 Palestinian infants and toddlers in Gaza The bloodiest face of its genocide: Israel has killed 2,100 Palestinian infants and toddlers in Gaza A Palestinian woman carries the shrouded body of her infant killed in an Israeli strike in Rafah, southern Gaza, 19 December. Abed Rahim Khatib (DPA) Palestinian Territory - The Israeli army has killed 2,100 Palestinian infants and toddlers under the age of two, out of the about 17,000 children it has killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of its genocide on 7 October 2023. The number of Palestinian children—whether infants or children in general—killed by the Israeli army is horrifying, and the rate of their killing is unprecedented in the history of modern wars. It also represents a dangerous trend based on the dehumanisation of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Israel’s military targets Palestinians and their children daily, methodically, and widely in the most heinous and brutal ways possible, and virtually without pause for 10 consecutive months. Due to the Israeli bombing of homes, buildings, residential neighbourhoods, shelter centres, and displacement tents, many children have lost their heads and limbs. This is a flagrant violation of the rules of distinction, proportionality, military necessity, i.e. the legal and moral obligation to take the necessary precautions to minimise the deaths of civilians and children. The Euro-Med Monitor field team documented today, Tuesday 13 August, the killing of four-day-old twins Aser and Aysal Muhammad Abu al-Qumsan. The twins were killed this morning, along with their mother Juman and their grandmother, in an Israeli bombing that targeted a residential flat in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. After leaving the apartment to obtain a birth certificate for his two newborn children, the father of the infants returned to discover that all of his family members—including the twins’ grandmother—had been killed in an Israeli attack on the building. Despite its advanced technological capabilities, the Israeli army targets houses and shelter centres knowing full well that they house civilians, including women and children. Nevertheless, it bombs these targets with highly destructive bombs and missiles, aiming to cause as many civilian deaths and severe injuries as possible. This is demonstrated by the Israeli army’s systematic, widespread, and repeated targeting of civilians in the Gaza Strip, as well as its use of highly destructive and indiscriminate weapons, particularly against areas with dense populations of civilians. The case of the two babies Aser and Aysal are not unique; daily reports of child victims, including infants, are made in the Strip. One of the most notable testimonies has been from 42-year-old Abdul Hafez Al-Najjar, the father of a child named Ahmed, who was among the many victims of an Israeli massacre on 26 May. The massacre targeted displaced people living in tents in the Barksat area, west of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. Ahmed, along with three of his brothers and their mother, was among a host of other victims that were all beheaded and killed. Ahmed’s father told the Euro-Med team: “My child Ahmed was very beautiful. He was a year and a half old. He was beheaded in the Israeli bombing. His head was separated from his body. When I saw him, I felt distressed. He was buried without his head.” According to the Euro-Med Monitor team, an Israeli airstrike on Rafah’s Al-Salam neighbourhood, in the southern Gaza Strip, killed another set of twin infants on 3 March. Six-month-old Wissam and Naeem Abu Anza were killed by the strike, along with their father and 11 other family members. The mother of Wissam and Naeem, Rania Abu Anza, stated that she struggled for 10 years to become a mother before eventually giving birth to the two babies. “They implanted three embryos in me, two of them remained, and there they were,” she explained. “They bombed the house, killing my husband, my kids, and the rest of the family in the massacre." Ten days ago marked six months since the death of the twins. Shaimaa Al-Ghoul, meanwhile, was nine months pregnant when her home in the southern city of Rafah was bombed on 12 February. Her husband and two sons, Mohammed and Janan, were killed, and she suffered injuries from shrapnel that entered her abdomen, pierced her uterus, and ultimately lodged in the fetus. Al-Ghoul stated that prior to her husband and two children’s deaths, her husband, Abdullah Abu Jazar, had made her “dates, sweets, and a [gift] bag in celebration of his expected newborn”. She said that she did give birth to a child, whom she named Abdullah, after his father, but the boy only lived one day. Baby Abduallah died from the wound caused by the shrapnel that had entered his mother. Thus, Al-Ghoul lost her husband and three children. Euro-Med Monitor notes that numerous unborn children have died in hospitals over the past 10 months due to a lack of oxygen and electricity, inadequate care, and hospital targeting. Israel continues to kill thousands of Palestinian men and women in the Gaza Strip, most of them in their reproductive age, including pregnant women, and thousands of children, including infants and toddlers. According to the meaning contained in the description of genocidal acts under Article (2) of the Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide, there is no doubt that Israel’s systematic and widespread killings of Palestinian civilians, who make up at least 92% of the total number of deaths due to the genocide, will have a negative impact on the population growth rates and reproductive capacity of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip for generations to come. Approximately 50,000 Palestinians, including thousands trapped under the rubble for long enough periods of time that they are now presumed dead, have been killed by Israel since 7 October. In addition, 88,000 other Palestinians have been wounded by Israel since then. These deaths and injuries will undoubtedly affect the Palestinians as a national and ethnic group for several generations. Every day, infant deaths in the Gaza Strip are reported as a direct result of Israeli crimes that are legally classified as acts of genocide, including starvation, thirst, blocking the entry of basic supplies like milk, and deprivation of medical care. The majority of these infant deaths are not included in the official victim count released by the Palestinian Ministry of Health, as there is no specific system to identify such victims. Due to Israel’s crime of genocide, ongoing for the past 10 months, Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip are being denied their fundamental rights and are not being protected in any way by international law. They have become primary, direct, and deliberate targets of the Israeli army, and have even been subject to premeditated killings and direct executions. Aside from being arbitrarily detained, Palestinian children have also been the victims of crimes of sexual assault; forced disappearance; torture and other forms of inhumane treatment; starvation; siege; severe psychological harm; deprivation of education due to the widespread destruction of schools; and denial of access to healthcare and other necessities of life. Many Palestinian children are also victims of family dispersion, and have lost parental care. One of the main objectives of Israel’s genocide is to leave a lasting legacy of these crimes that will affect the victims for the rest of their lives. The majority of Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip have experienced psychological trauma that will likely be difficult to treat: Thousands of children have lost one or both parents; have had limbs amputated; have suffered severe burns or other serious injuries; and/or have suffered from hunger, malnutrition, and dehydration; all of which will have a detrimental impact on their physical and psychological development. Most children in the Gaza Strip have lost their homes, their financial security, and members of their families, in addition to being deprived of an education. This will have serious, far-reaching consequences on their futures and their ability to enjoy their other rights, making them more vulnerable to poverty, unemployment, and exploitation. The Israeli military attacks on the Strip have caused the widespread destruction of civilian objects, including homes, private property, livelihoods, production, and the economic and commercial system, forcing Palestinians to migrate, whether directly or indirectly. The international community must act swiftly and decisively to put an end to the crime of genocide, safeguard the lives of all Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip, prevent Israel from converting the Strip into the world’s largest cemetery for children in modern history, and end the egregious double standards that are applied to Israel and its powerful Western backers and allies. Israel and its backers must be held accountable for blatantly violating international humanitarian law by killing and targeting Palestinian children and denying them access to food, shelter, clothing, and medical assistance, including vaccinations, as specified in the Geneva Conventions and their two 1977 Protocols—protocols which should enable them to realise their rights. https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/6437/The-bloodiest-face-of-its-genocide:-Israel-has-killed-2,100-Palestinian-infants-and-toddlers-in-Gaza
    EUROMEDMONITOR.ORG
    The bloodiest face of its genocide: Israel has killed 2,100 Palestinian infants and toddlers in Gaza
    The number of Palestinian children killed is horrifying, and the rate of their killing is unprecedented in the history of modern wars
    Sad
    1
    0 Comments 0 Shares 10219 Views
  • The WEF:

    “The Netherlands is building a neighbourhood where every car must be shared. There'll be one vehicle for every three homes, and no space for privately owned cars."

    This is bonkers. It goes against basic human nature.

    Read here
    12 Ways to Fight the New World Order!

    Join: @RevealedEye
    The WEF: “The Netherlands is building a neighbourhood where every car must be shared. There'll be one vehicle for every three homes, and no space for privately owned cars." This is bonkers. It goes against basic human nature. Read here 👇 12 Ways to Fight the New World Order! Join: @RevealedEye
    Like
    1
    0 Comments 0 Shares 2211 Views 0
  • History of Israeli War Crimes, “The Killing of Children has been Persistent”: “Surgical Strikes” against Palestinian Children in 2008-2009. Felicity Arbuthnot
    The “International Community” Also Lies Buried


    It was 15 years ago: Felicity Arbuthnot recalls the massacre of Palestinian children during the December 2008-January 2009 invasion of Gaza.

    It did not start in 2023.

    The killing of children by Israel has been persistent

    Veteran War Correspondent Felicity Arbuthnot in solidarity with the Children of Palestine describes the underlying and evolving criminality as well as the Anglo-American complicity.

    ***

    “Light the fire so I can see my tears, On the night of the massacre …” (Samih al-Qasim, b: 1939.)

    It was that “pinpoint accuracy”, “surgical strike” stuff again, there were “unavoidable tragic errors”, “mistakes”, “scrupulous efforts made to avoid” etc., blah. And as Britain’s Colonel Richard Kemp declared of the fourteen hundred dead of the Christmas and New year onslaught on Gaza in 2008-2009: “Mistakes are not war crimes.” (i)

    Colonel Kemp, with impeccable ties to British Intelligence Services, spoke to the BBC from Jerusalem in similar sanguine vein on 21st November(ii) of the then latest twenty four hour bombardment of the tiny, walled in Gaza Strip, where over half the population are children. But Colonel Kemp has seen a fair amount of carnage in his time, from Belfast to the Balkans, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Seemingly after a while the dead and dismembered are just part of the day job.

    The eight day blitz killed one hundred and sixty two Palestinians in what were merciless attacks on families with no where to hide. Nine hundred and ninety nine were injured. Eight hundred and sixty five houses are damaged or destroyed.

    Six health centres are damaged, thirty schools, two universities, fifteen NGO offices, twenty seven mosques, fourteen media offices, eleven industrial plants, eighty one commercial stores and a UNRWA food distribution Centre.

    In addition seven Ministry offices, fourteen police or security stations, five banks, and two youth clubs. The sports complex where the Palestinians athletes and paralympians trained for the 2012 London Olympics is reduced to rubble, as is the beautiful and most necessary Gaza Interior Ministry.

    On Universal Children’s Day, 20th November, an air strike destroyed the Oxfam-supported Al Bajan kindergarten school and damaged the Al Housna kindergarten. (iii) Oxfam’s Sara Almer commented that more than one hundred and fifty children attended these kindergartens. “The children are safe, but the places where they learned and played are now in ruins.” This in an area: “where they already suffer a high level of trauma …”

    The Oxfam project was as a result of the devastation caused by “Operation Cast Lead” between 27th December 2008-17th January 2009, when they also repaired the now re-fractured water and sanitation facilities.

    There is a shortage of two hundred and thirty schools in Gaza, the Agency points out – and a ban on importing construction materials, which means the further thirty two damaged, the two universities and all else may well stay that way.

    Ironically, on the day of the nurseries’ destruction, the UN Secretary General announced, that marking Universal Children’s Day, the launch of a major UN initiative: “Education First.” The day commemorates the adoption of the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child of 1959 and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989. The 1989 Convention entered in to force on September 2nd 1990, under a month after the UN embargo on Iraq, with even baby milk formula importation denied.

    “The child … needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection before as well as after birth” is included in the preamble to a fine document. (iv)

    Four year old twins, Suhaib and Muhammed Hijazi will never learn of the “protection” they are entitled to by the United Nations. They were killed when their home was bombed as the dawn of Universal Children’s Day approached. Their parents, Fouad and Amna died in hospital.

    Saraya, eighteen months, won’t grow to read the fine words either, she died of a heart attack, literally frightened to death by the bombardment.

    As the lights went off in Gaza’s hospitals, and their generator fuel hovered on empty, Gilad Sharon – youngest son of eighty four year old former Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, who has benefited from Israel’s fine health services and been on life support systems since 2006 – stated: “We need to flatten entire neighbourhoods in Gaza. Flatten all of Gaza. The Americans didn’t stop with Hiroshima – the Japanese weren’t surrendering fast enough, so they hit Nagasaki too.”

    Israel’s Interior Minister Eli Yishai stated that the goal of the attacks were to: “ … send Gaza back to the Middle Ages.”
    Palestine has no army, navy, air force, no heavy weaponry. Israel is an undeclared nuclear power, regarded as having the fourth strongest military on earth.

    Gaza was, of course being bombed by American supplied F-16s and a variety of American weaponry. But as Gaza grieved, America had parades across the land, ate turkey, prayed over their festive dinners on Thanksgiving Day, 22nd November.

    Reality would have had them burning, city to city, The UN Declaration and Convention on the Rights of the Child, The UN Declaration on Human Rights, The Geneva Convention, The Nuremberg Principles and making a pyre of all the fine, meaningless words which do not end or mask international lawlessness and inhumanity. A bonfire which might light the lie of the whole murderous hypocrisy of self proclaimed “democratic” nation states.

    Notes

    i. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Kemp
    ii. http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9771000/9771507.stm
    iii. http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m92857&hd=&size=1&l=e
    iv. http://un.by/en/hr/doc/child/

    Related Articles from our Archives

    https://www.globalresearch.ca/israeli-war-crimes-surgical-strikes-against-palestinian-children/5312787
    History of Israeli War Crimes, “The Killing of Children has been Persistent”: “Surgical Strikes” against Palestinian Children in 2008-2009. Felicity Arbuthnot The “International Community” Also Lies Buried It was 15 years ago: Felicity Arbuthnot recalls the massacre of Palestinian children during the December 2008-January 2009 invasion of Gaza. It did not start in 2023. The killing of children by Israel has been persistent Veteran War Correspondent Felicity Arbuthnot in solidarity with the Children of Palestine describes the underlying and evolving criminality as well as the Anglo-American complicity. *** “Light the fire so I can see my tears, On the night of the massacre …” (Samih al-Qasim, b: 1939.) It was that “pinpoint accuracy”, “surgical strike” stuff again, there were “unavoidable tragic errors”, “mistakes”, “scrupulous efforts made to avoid” etc., blah. And as Britain’s Colonel Richard Kemp declared of the fourteen hundred dead of the Christmas and New year onslaught on Gaza in 2008-2009: “Mistakes are not war crimes.” (i) Colonel Kemp, with impeccable ties to British Intelligence Services, spoke to the BBC from Jerusalem in similar sanguine vein on 21st November(ii) of the then latest twenty four hour bombardment of the tiny, walled in Gaza Strip, where over half the population are children. But Colonel Kemp has seen a fair amount of carnage in his time, from Belfast to the Balkans, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Seemingly after a while the dead and dismembered are just part of the day job. The eight day blitz killed one hundred and sixty two Palestinians in what were merciless attacks on families with no where to hide. Nine hundred and ninety nine were injured. Eight hundred and sixty five houses are damaged or destroyed. Six health centres are damaged, thirty schools, two universities, fifteen NGO offices, twenty seven mosques, fourteen media offices, eleven industrial plants, eighty one commercial stores and a UNRWA food distribution Centre. In addition seven Ministry offices, fourteen police or security stations, five banks, and two youth clubs. The sports complex where the Palestinians athletes and paralympians trained for the 2012 London Olympics is reduced to rubble, as is the beautiful and most necessary Gaza Interior Ministry. On Universal Children’s Day, 20th November, an air strike destroyed the Oxfam-supported Al Bajan kindergarten school and damaged the Al Housna kindergarten. (iii) Oxfam’s Sara Almer commented that more than one hundred and fifty children attended these kindergartens. “The children are safe, but the places where they learned and played are now in ruins.” This in an area: “where they already suffer a high level of trauma …” The Oxfam project was as a result of the devastation caused by “Operation Cast Lead” between 27th December 2008-17th January 2009, when they also repaired the now re-fractured water and sanitation facilities. There is a shortage of two hundred and thirty schools in Gaza, the Agency points out – and a ban on importing construction materials, which means the further thirty two damaged, the two universities and all else may well stay that way. Ironically, on the day of the nurseries’ destruction, the UN Secretary General announced, that marking Universal Children’s Day, the launch of a major UN initiative: “Education First.” The day commemorates the adoption of the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child of 1959 and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989. The 1989 Convention entered in to force on September 2nd 1990, under a month after the UN embargo on Iraq, with even baby milk formula importation denied. “The child … needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection before as well as after birth” is included in the preamble to a fine document. (iv) Four year old twins, Suhaib and Muhammed Hijazi will never learn of the “protection” they are entitled to by the United Nations. They were killed when their home was bombed as the dawn of Universal Children’s Day approached. Their parents, Fouad and Amna died in hospital. Saraya, eighteen months, won’t grow to read the fine words either, she died of a heart attack, literally frightened to death by the bombardment. As the lights went off in Gaza’s hospitals, and their generator fuel hovered on empty, Gilad Sharon – youngest son of eighty four year old former Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, who has benefited from Israel’s fine health services and been on life support systems since 2006 – stated: “We need to flatten entire neighbourhoods in Gaza. Flatten all of Gaza. The Americans didn’t stop with Hiroshima – the Japanese weren’t surrendering fast enough, so they hit Nagasaki too.” Israel’s Interior Minister Eli Yishai stated that the goal of the attacks were to: “ … send Gaza back to the Middle Ages.” Palestine has no army, navy, air force, no heavy weaponry. Israel is an undeclared nuclear power, regarded as having the fourth strongest military on earth. Gaza was, of course being bombed by American supplied F-16s and a variety of American weaponry. But as Gaza grieved, America had parades across the land, ate turkey, prayed over their festive dinners on Thanksgiving Day, 22nd November. Reality would have had them burning, city to city, The UN Declaration and Convention on the Rights of the Child, The UN Declaration on Human Rights, The Geneva Convention, The Nuremberg Principles and making a pyre of all the fine, meaningless words which do not end or mask international lawlessness and inhumanity. A bonfire which might light the lie of the whole murderous hypocrisy of self proclaimed “democratic” nation states. Notes i. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Kemp ii. http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9771000/9771507.stm iii. http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m92857&hd=&size=1&l=e iv. http://un.by/en/hr/doc/child/ Related Articles from our Archives https://www.globalresearch.ca/israeli-war-crimes-surgical-strikes-against-palestinian-children/5312787
    WWW.GLOBALRESEARCH.CA
    History of Israeli War Crimes, "The Killing of Children has been Persistent": "Surgical Strikes" against Palestinian Children in 2008-2009. Felicity Arbuthnot
    It was 15 years ago: Felicity Arbuthnot recalls the massacre of Palestinian children during the December 2008-January 2009 invasion of Gaza. It did not start in 2023. The killing of children by Israel has been persistent Veteran War Correspondent Felicity Arbuthnot in solidarity with the Children of Palestine describes the underlying and evolving criminality as well as the …
    0 Comments 0 Shares 11395 Views
  • Hostages of Israeli revenge in the Gaza Strip: Testimonies of 100 released Palestinian detainees reveal crimes of torture, cruel treatment
    Hostages of Israeli revenge in the Gaza Strip: Testimonies of 100 released Palestinian detainees reveal crimes of torture, cruel treatment
    Palestinian Territory - In a new report released on Tuesday, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor documents the testimonies of about 100 released Palestinian detainees. These testimonies confirm that the Israeli authorities and army committed horrific crimes of arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, torture, and inhuman and cruel treatment against thousands of Palestinian civilians who were arrested as part of Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip, ongoing since 7 October 2023.

    In a 50-plus-page report titled “Hostages of Israeli Revenge in the Gaza Strip”, Euro-Med Monitor brings to light the widespread practice of arbitrary collective and individual arrests by Israeli forces against civilians in the Strip. Those arrested during Israel’s military incursions and its ground attacks on cities, camps, and residential neighbourhoods throughout the Strip include women, children, the elderly, and displaced individuals.

    The report is based on statements, testimonies, and in-person interviews that the Euro-Med Monitor team conducted with 100 detainees who had been released from Israeli army custody following ground operations in different parts of the Gaza Strip. Approximately half of the recently-released detainees are men under 50, while the remaining 17 are elderly men; 22 are women and four are children. Additional information was also gathered from reports released by the relevant authorities, local and international media, and human rights organisations.

    The information gathered concludes that the Israeli army routinely commits widespread crimes of arbitrary arrest, enforced disappearance, premeditated murder, torture, inhuman treatment, sexual violence, and denial of a fair trial. It also confirms that the Israeli army used physical and psychological torture against Palestinian civilian detainees, including beatings with the intent to kill, sexual violence, electrocution, blindfolding, and long-term hand and foot shackles. Israel also denied them access to food and medical care, including critical and life-saving care, spat and urinated on detainees, and committed other cruel and degrading acts, in addition to psychological abuse including rape and death threats, verbal harassment, and other forms of sexual violence.
    Abdul Qader Jamal Tafesh, 33, spoke with the Euro-Med Monitor team after being taken into custody by the Israeli army from the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, where he had been sheltering as a displaced person. “On 12 December 2023, the soldiers arrested and detained me in one of their camps in the northern Gaza Strip,” he stated. “They interrogated me inside the Al-Barawi family villa on Beit Lahia Street, which the army had converted into a military barracks.”

    According to Tafesh, as soon as he and the other prisoners arrived in this home’s yard, they were inspected with tools including specific “eye fingerprint” scanners. “After being stripped of our clothes and placed in handcuffs, [one in five people] were told to line up in front of cameras, get down on their knees, and bow their head. I was among these people.”

    Once he was on the ground, continued Tafesh, “[O]ne of the soldiers blindfolded me, put a sticker with a number on my shoulder, and made me run for about 500 metres before throwing me to the ground.” He explained that one soldier beat and tortured him, switching his handcuffs from front to back even after he revealed that he was hurt and had previously had an operation during which platinum was inserted into his left shoulder, which the soldier could see because Tafesh was naked. “He also hit me with his shoe, which made the pain worse, and [specifically] at the operation site, which made me pass out multiple times. I asked them to bring a doctor or take me to a doctor, but they refused,” Tafesh stated.

    Added Tafesh: “I was approached by a soldier who asked, ‘Do you want to die?’ He lifted his own weapon, removed its components, and fired close to my head.”

    M.Q., a Gaza City resident and engineer employed by a local company, requested that his full name be withheld due to safety concerns. He stated that he was detained and severely tortured by the Israeli army in his home: “They severely beat me for more than half an hour continuously, then forced me to sit on a bathroom chair next to the room. One of the soldiers asked me to recite the Shahada (a Muslim prayer said when one believes he is about to die) and after I did, he shot straight into the wall beside me.”

    Continued M.Q., “After that, I was handcuffed and tied in place while the soldiers threw stones at me. About fifteen minutes later, they took me out [of the bathroom] and threw me on the floor of the room. They also stepped on my head, and four of them peed on me while insulting me.”

    Along with being detained and subjected to torture in Israeli military bases and detention facilities—including covert and unofficial detention centres, particularly those near the borders of the Gaza Strip—Palestinian detainees were also subjected to detention and prolonged detention without any due legal procedures or being brought before judicial authorities, in violation of pertinent international laws.

    The international community must uphold its legal obligations under international law to stop Israel from committing crimes against all Gaza Strip residents, including detainees. It must also activate effective pressure mechanisms to compel Israel to immediately cease these crimes and to adhere to international law and protect Palestinian civilians in the Strip.

    Under Articles 146, 147, and 148 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, the High Contracting Parties are obligated to stop Israel’s grave violations of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, including crimes of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment of Palestinian detainees.

    All nations must fulfill their international obligations and halt all military, political, and financial support for Israel in its crimes against the civilian population in the Gaza Strip; in particular, all arms transfers, export permits, and military aid to Israel must be halted. Otherwise, these nations will be complicit in all crimes committed in the Strip, including genocide.

    Pressures should be put on Israel to stop its practice of forcibly disappearing Palestinian prisoners and detainees from the Gaza Strip; to immediately reveal all secret detention facilities; to reveal the identities of all Palestinians Israel detains from the Strip, their whereabouts, and their fate; and to take full responsibility for their safety and preserving their lives.

    In order to conclude the investigation that was opened in 2021, the International Criminal Court must cooperate with all parties and take serious action in submitting specialised reports about the crimes which Palestinian prisoners and detainees have been exposed to in Israeli prisons and detention centres since 7 October. The Court must also issue arrest warrants for all those responsible for these crimes, including those crimes committed against prisoners and detainees, in order to bring them to justice and hold them accountable.

    Euro-Med Monitor was taken aback to learn that the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, disregarded the widespread and systematic crimes of torture committed by Israel against Palestinian prisoners and detainees, particularly those in the Gaza Strip, when he announced on Monday that he had submitted a request to the Pre-Trial Chamber to issue two arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galat for allegedly participating in war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in the Strip. These accusations include war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Palestinian people, but not torture, even though there is ample evidence to support such allegations.

    Pressure should be exerted on the Israeli authorities to release all Palestinian detainees who were arbitrarily arrested, and if they are brought to trial, ensure all fair trial procedures. In addition, Israel must return the remains of Palestinian prisoners and detainees who died in Israeli prisons and detention centres.


    Hostages of Israeli revenge in the Gaza Strip: Testimonies of 100 released Palestinian detainees reveal crimes of torture, cruel treatment
    https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/6342/Hostages-of-Israeli-revenge-in-the-Gaza-Strip:-Testimonies-of-100-released-Palestinian-detainees-reveal-crimes-of-torture,-cruel-treatment

    https://donshafi911iamthefaceoftruth.blogspot.com/2024/07/hostages-of-israeli-revenge-in-gaza.html
    Hostages of Israeli revenge in the Gaza Strip: Testimonies of 100 released Palestinian detainees reveal crimes of torture, cruel treatment Hostages of Israeli revenge in the Gaza Strip: Testimonies of 100 released Palestinian detainees reveal crimes of torture, cruel treatment Palestinian Territory - In a new report released on Tuesday, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor documents the testimonies of about 100 released Palestinian detainees. These testimonies confirm that the Israeli authorities and army committed horrific crimes of arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, torture, and inhuman and cruel treatment against thousands of Palestinian civilians who were arrested as part of Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip, ongoing since 7 October 2023. In a 50-plus-page report titled “Hostages of Israeli Revenge in the Gaza Strip”, Euro-Med Monitor brings to light the widespread practice of arbitrary collective and individual arrests by Israeli forces against civilians in the Strip. Those arrested during Israel’s military incursions and its ground attacks on cities, camps, and residential neighbourhoods throughout the Strip include women, children, the elderly, and displaced individuals. The report is based on statements, testimonies, and in-person interviews that the Euro-Med Monitor team conducted with 100 detainees who had been released from Israeli army custody following ground operations in different parts of the Gaza Strip. Approximately half of the recently-released detainees are men under 50, while the remaining 17 are elderly men; 22 are women and four are children. Additional information was also gathered from reports released by the relevant authorities, local and international media, and human rights organisations. The information gathered concludes that the Israeli army routinely commits widespread crimes of arbitrary arrest, enforced disappearance, premeditated murder, torture, inhuman treatment, sexual violence, and denial of a fair trial. It also confirms that the Israeli army used physical and psychological torture against Palestinian civilian detainees, including beatings with the intent to kill, sexual violence, electrocution, blindfolding, and long-term hand and foot shackles. Israel also denied them access to food and medical care, including critical and life-saving care, spat and urinated on detainees, and committed other cruel and degrading acts, in addition to psychological abuse including rape and death threats, verbal harassment, and other forms of sexual violence. Abdul Qader Jamal Tafesh, 33, spoke with the Euro-Med Monitor team after being taken into custody by the Israeli army from the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, where he had been sheltering as a displaced person. “On 12 December 2023, the soldiers arrested and detained me in one of their camps in the northern Gaza Strip,” he stated. “They interrogated me inside the Al-Barawi family villa on Beit Lahia Street, which the army had converted into a military barracks.” According to Tafesh, as soon as he and the other prisoners arrived in this home’s yard, they were inspected with tools including specific “eye fingerprint” scanners. “After being stripped of our clothes and placed in handcuffs, [one in five people] were told to line up in front of cameras, get down on their knees, and bow their head. I was among these people.” Once he was on the ground, continued Tafesh, “[O]ne of the soldiers blindfolded me, put a sticker with a number on my shoulder, and made me run for about 500 metres before throwing me to the ground.” He explained that one soldier beat and tortured him, switching his handcuffs from front to back even after he revealed that he was hurt and had previously had an operation during which platinum was inserted into his left shoulder, which the soldier could see because Tafesh was naked. “He also hit me with his shoe, which made the pain worse, and [specifically] at the operation site, which made me pass out multiple times. I asked them to bring a doctor or take me to a doctor, but they refused,” Tafesh stated. Added Tafesh: “I was approached by a soldier who asked, ‘Do you want to die?’ He lifted his own weapon, removed its components, and fired close to my head.” M.Q., a Gaza City resident and engineer employed by a local company, requested that his full name be withheld due to safety concerns. He stated that he was detained and severely tortured by the Israeli army in his home: “They severely beat me for more than half an hour continuously, then forced me to sit on a bathroom chair next to the room. One of the soldiers asked me to recite the Shahada (a Muslim prayer said when one believes he is about to die) and after I did, he shot straight into the wall beside me.” Continued M.Q., “After that, I was handcuffed and tied in place while the soldiers threw stones at me. About fifteen minutes later, they took me out [of the bathroom] and threw me on the floor of the room. They also stepped on my head, and four of them peed on me while insulting me.” Along with being detained and subjected to torture in Israeli military bases and detention facilities—including covert and unofficial detention centres, particularly those near the borders of the Gaza Strip—Palestinian detainees were also subjected to detention and prolonged detention without any due legal procedures or being brought before judicial authorities, in violation of pertinent international laws. The international community must uphold its legal obligations under international law to stop Israel from committing crimes against all Gaza Strip residents, including detainees. It must also activate effective pressure mechanisms to compel Israel to immediately cease these crimes and to adhere to international law and protect Palestinian civilians in the Strip. Under Articles 146, 147, and 148 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, the High Contracting Parties are obligated to stop Israel’s grave violations of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, including crimes of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment of Palestinian detainees. All nations must fulfill their international obligations and halt all military, political, and financial support for Israel in its crimes against the civilian population in the Gaza Strip; in particular, all arms transfers, export permits, and military aid to Israel must be halted. Otherwise, these nations will be complicit in all crimes committed in the Strip, including genocide. Pressures should be put on Israel to stop its practice of forcibly disappearing Palestinian prisoners and detainees from the Gaza Strip; to immediately reveal all secret detention facilities; to reveal the identities of all Palestinians Israel detains from the Strip, their whereabouts, and their fate; and to take full responsibility for their safety and preserving their lives. In order to conclude the investigation that was opened in 2021, the International Criminal Court must cooperate with all parties and take serious action in submitting specialised reports about the crimes which Palestinian prisoners and detainees have been exposed to in Israeli prisons and detention centres since 7 October. The Court must also issue arrest warrants for all those responsible for these crimes, including those crimes committed against prisoners and detainees, in order to bring them to justice and hold them accountable. Euro-Med Monitor was taken aback to learn that the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, disregarded the widespread and systematic crimes of torture committed by Israel against Palestinian prisoners and detainees, particularly those in the Gaza Strip, when he announced on Monday that he had submitted a request to the Pre-Trial Chamber to issue two arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galat for allegedly participating in war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in the Strip. These accusations include war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Palestinian people, but not torture, even though there is ample evidence to support such allegations. Pressure should be exerted on the Israeli authorities to release all Palestinian detainees who were arbitrarily arrested, and if they are brought to trial, ensure all fair trial procedures. In addition, Israel must return the remains of Palestinian prisoners and detainees who died in Israeli prisons and detention centres. Hostages of Israeli revenge in the Gaza Strip: Testimonies of 100 released Palestinian detainees reveal crimes of torture, cruel treatment https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/6342/Hostages-of-Israeli-revenge-in-the-Gaza-Strip:-Testimonies-of-100-released-Palestinian-detainees-reveal-crimes-of-torture,-cruel-treatment https://donshafi911iamthefaceoftruth.blogspot.com/2024/07/hostages-of-israeli-revenge-in-gaza.html
    Like
    1
    0 Comments 0 Shares 7372 Views
More Results