• Slovakia will not be entering into any international pandemic agreements with WHO, Prime Minister says
    Rhoda WilsonNovember 25, 2023
    During a SMER party conference, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico declared that his government will not sign the World Health Organisation’s Pandemic Treaty and SMER Members of Parliament will not ratify in parliament the Pandemic Treaty with the WHO because it is a project of greedy pharmaceutical companies.

    Let’s not lose touch…Your Government and Big Tech are actively trying to censor the information reported by The Exposé to serve their own needs. Subscribe now to make sure you receive the latest uncensored news in your inbox…

    Robert Fico was appointed as Slovakia’s Prime Minister for the fourth time on 25 October 2023 after his SMER – Slovenská Sociálna Demokracia (“SMER”) party won the election on 30 September and formed a coalition with the centre-left HLAS – Sociálna Demokracia (“HLAS”) and nationalist Slovenská Národná Strana (“SNS”) parties.

    A week ago, during an hour-long speech at the SMER party conference, of which he is chairman, Prime Minister Fico stated that he will not support strengthening the powers of the World Health Organisation (“WHO”) at the expense of sovereign states in the fight against pandemics. “Only insane pharmaceutical companies could come up with such nonsense,” he told the more than 400 guests, ambassadors, delegates and party members present.

    His speech is on YouTube in Slovak. There is no autogenerated translation available so we turn to alternative sources for translations into English. Door to Freedom has published the clip below from Fico’s speech with English subtitles.

    Door to Freedom: Slovakia – Will not sign the WHO amendments,
    23 November 2023 (3 mins)
    Writing about his speech alternative media outlet InfoVojna wrote (Czech to English translation using Google Translate):

    [The Pandemic Treaty] would transfer health powers in times of a pandemic from the national ministries of health of the signatory countries to the World Health Organisation. The WHO would then acquire draconian decision-making powers, which the signatory countries would have to follow, not only in the area of ​​the obligation to purchase vaccines and medicines ordered by the WHO, but it could also happen with compulsory vaccinations ordered by this multinational organisation. And it was Robert Fico who unequivocally rejected this and declared that SMER MPs would not raise their hands for such a proposal.

    Fico called the entire agreement with the WHO a plan of greedy pharmaceutical companies, which began to worry about their business, when it now appears that many countries of the world are ceasing to purchase vaccines, cancelling vaccination mandates and the entire business of the pharmaceutical companies is going down the drain. The Pandemic Treaty is supposed to change this and ensure that, through the WHO, the collection of vaccines will be mandated and authoritatively prescribed to all member countries that sign the Pandemic Treaty and then ratify in the parliaments.

    Robert Fico declared at the ceremonial assembly at Bratislava Castle that Slovakia under his government will not sign the Pandemic Agreement with the WHO, because it is a project of greedy pharmaceutical companies, InfoVojna, 20 November 2023none
    Martin Demirov who describes himself as someone who likes to “post translations of censored press articles and search for various interesting facts” has written about Fico’s speech in a post on Twitter. His post is in Polish, which we’ve reproduced below in English using the translation generated by Twitter.

    Fico Delivered a Speech at the Party Congress “The Previous Government Killed 20,000 People During Covid!”

    By Martin Demirov

    Fico outlined his priorities: If they arrested me, change would not be possible.

    One of the longest-existing parties, which will celebrate its 25th anniversary next year, held its annual congress.

    SMER won the elections in September, and party chairman Robert Fico immediately reminded more than 400 guests, ambassadors, delegates and party members not to be so serious. “For God’s sake, we won.” In his introductory speech, he presented a vision of change for the coming year. Remembering the “covid madness” and the need to change the law protecting criminal groups associated with the previous government, he did not hide his joy at reuniting with the HLAS party.

    In the first half of his speech, Fico criticised the former government and its leadership (for covid madness, for warmongering), in the second half he talked about the party’s goals, and less than two hours later he ended the speech with the words: “we are here, we move on, they did not break us.”

    According to party vice president Juraj Blanar, Fico’s leadership is important for SMER. Long live the Slovak Republic,” he concluded his speech. What was the direction of change?

    The guests included representatives of Bulgaria, ambassadors of Great Britain, China, the United States of America, as well as Cuba, the Czech Republic and Hungary.

    The Polish ambassador also confirmed his presence. The guests also included the president of the Pensioners’ Union, MichaÅ‚ Kocjan, the president of the Association of Slovak Towns and Villages, Józef Bożek, and the president of the Association of Anti-fascist Fighters, Viliam Longauer. Representatives of employers were also present.

    Among the Ministers present were Defence Minister Robert Kalinak, Finance Minister Ladislav Kamenicki and Agriculture Minister Ryszard Takacz. Zuzana Plewikova, deputy chairman of the party and member of the youth organisation, also attended the meeting.

    Thanks to over 20 years of experience, Fico knows how to energise his people and focus on proven electoral topics, thanks to which, although he won electoral votes, he was among politicians leaning towards the alternative scene. “It’s a party convention, it’s not a cabinet meeting, so stop being so serious, we won the election, for God’s sake.”

    Blanard welcomed Fico, the national anthem was played and a minute of silence honoured the memory of the dead

    In his speech, he wanted to present a vision for the next year, but he didn’t get there until the second half of the speech. “We won the parliamentary elections for the fifth time,” he said.

    “We are absolutely the best, and I emphasise this a thousand times, political party in the history of modern Slovakia and we want to remain that way,” he said.

    We naturally reconnected with HLAS.

    At the beginning of his speech, he also touched on the illegal actions of the former government during the Covid-19 pandemic, praised the media alternative to the mainstream and attacked the previous government for repression and compulsory vaccinations. Four Media – Denník N, denník Sme, Markízu and Aktuality – did not receive accreditation. Since last week, they have also been unwanted guests in the government building.

    “Slovakia is talking more and more openly about the 20,000 victims of mismanagement in the country and the government’s senseless decisions,” continued the four-time Prime Minister. He wants to support the efforts of politicians who want to hold the previous government to account and has no plans to support the work of the World Health Organisation to the detriment of sovereign states when it comes to managing the fight against the pandemic. “Such nonsense could only have been invented by greedy pharmaceutical companies,” he said.

    He called SMER a “write-off” party after the 2020 elections, whose opponents were delighted that social democracy split into two groups when Peter Pellegrini left the party to gain the right to vote. “But it is natural that we met again to co-operate in the government. It is no coincidence that we kept emphasising before the early elections that the basis for forming a new government should be the merger of SMER and HLAS,” he said.

    “The shock of our opponents after SMER’s election victory and subsequent decisive steps to quickly form a government was so great that they created an atmosphere as if we had stolen the electoral victory and had to hand it over to the opposition liberal “progressive Slovakia,” he said. In addition to PS, he again criticised President Zuzana Caputova.

    In response to the suspension of membership in the European Socialist Party, Fico said he did not know why they intervened, because it was the same party as in the past. “SMER is not a pennant that turns wherever the wind blows,” he said, adding that Portugal was behind the suspension. Party membership has never served them well, and Fico only remembers a lot of criticism. “When did the party of European Socialists help us over the last 20 years? When? I don’t remember,” he added.

    Andrei Danko’s party, coalition partner SNS, was criticised abroad mainly for choosing a more radical path. Before the elections, SNS merged with three smaller far-right organisations, and several of its members were candidates for the Our Slovakia People’s Party, whose leader, Marian Kotleba, was convicted of extremism and also lost his seat.

    Robert Fico blamed the politicians who led Slovakia in the last parliamentary term for the state of the country it is in. “We were not destroyed because we had a different opinion about covid, we were not destroyed because we had a different opinion about Ukraine and we were not destroyed because of an attempt to arrest us for political activities,” he said.

    “I don’t know if there is an opposition politician in the EU who has been accused four times in three years for his political views. Not because of corruption, but because of his political views,” he told foreign guests. Fico, along with Tibor Gashpar and Robert Kalinak, were accused by the previous authorities of many “crimes.”

    “I was lucky that I didn’t go to prison, because if they had put me in jail for my political views after two press conferences where we told the truth, neither you nor I would be sitting here today because the party would have been destroyed,” he said.

    Fico also touched on the presidential and European elections. “The party’s vice-chairman Lubosz Blaha also expressed interest in the elections, the European Parliament is certainly waiting for you, Lubosz,” Fico said. Recently, the opposition wanted to fire him for hanging a portrait of revolutionary Che Guevara instead of a portrait of President Zuzana Caputova after taking over as deputy speaker of Parliament, but the coalition blocked the session. A few days ago, he also published his book “CHE”

    In addition, he also talked about the need for changes in the Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure, and the need for changes in the special prosecutor’s office. He called, among other things, for an urgent change to the whistle-blower law, which currently protects investigators around Jan Churilla and Lubomir Danek.

    The party’s goal is to stabilise the country and finances and win again. Later, Fico also reached the main political goals of the SMER party. In particular, the most important of them is a successful government that will end in 2027 with victory in the parliamentary elections. In his speech, he outlined what the government should focus on in the coming months. “I don’t see a successful government as a set of numbers, indicators or charts. We will only be successful in 2027 when people realise that it is better, more peaceful and safer,” he said.

    Fico stressed the need for political stability and efforts to minimise conflicts within the coalition. He also called for quick policy solutions to show interest in “stabilising disrupted public finances at a reasonable and sustainable pace.” Sufficient financial reserves must also be created to compensate for high energy prices, especially for households.

    He also wants to reduce the impact of high interest rates on mortgages and subsequent refinancing in 2023, while announcing direct mortgage assistance in 2024. He also confirmed the aim of creating the financial conditions for the payment of the full 13th pension. He also stressed the need to have all the necessary regulatory tools and resources to intervene in the event of significant fluctuations in food prices.

    According to Fico, the government should also immediately decide how to transfer as many European Funds as possible to regions, cities and municipalities and simplify the administrative burden of obtaining them as much as possible. He also called for changes to regulations governing licensing procedures and procurement conditions to be approved “in record time.” According to the Prime Minister, the best proposal for the Education System for practical purposes should also be agreed upon so that the changes come into force at the beginning of the 2024/2025 school year.

    He also confirmed that the government had started negotiations on new foreign investments. “We have something to consider, we are currently reviewing projects. It is always a question of the scale of state aid,” he said. He also considers it his duty to support every Slovak company that wants to operate in foreign markets.

    Within two to three months, the coalition will have to develop a mechanism and regulations to shorten the period during which legal migrants with the qualifications necessary to run a business in Slovakia will be able to obtain all permits. He said the proposed measures are the minimum the government must take. He emphasised that all actions should be undertaken within the framework of broad social dialogue. He also confirmed that talks on the government’s withdrawal will take place in Trenčín in December and in Prešov at the end of January. In addition to Fico, the party’s vice presidents, Lubosz Blaha, Ladislav Kamienicki and Ryszard Takacz, also appeared.


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    Slovakia will not be entering into any international pandemic agreements with WHO, Prime Minister says
    During a SMER party conference, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico declared that his government will not sign the World Health Organisation’s Pandemic Treaty and SMER Members of Parliament will not ratify in parliament the Pandemic Treaty with the WHO because it is a project of greedy pharmaceutical companies...
    https://expose-news.com/2023/11/25/slovakia-will-not-be-entering-into/
    Slovakia will not be entering into any international pandemic agreements with WHO, Prime Minister says Rhoda WilsonNovember 25, 2023 During a SMER party conference, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico declared that his government will not sign the World Health Organisation’s Pandemic Treaty and SMER Members of Parliament will not ratify in parliament the Pandemic Treaty with the WHO because it is a project of greedy pharmaceutical companies. Let’s not lose touch…Your Government and Big Tech are actively trying to censor the information reported by The Exposé to serve their own needs. Subscribe now to make sure you receive the latest uncensored news in your inbox… Robert Fico was appointed as Slovakia’s Prime Minister for the fourth time on 25 October 2023 after his SMER – Slovenská Sociálna Demokracia (“SMER”) party won the election on 30 September and formed a coalition with the centre-left HLAS – Sociálna Demokracia (“HLAS”) and nationalist Slovenská Národná Strana (“SNS”) parties. A week ago, during an hour-long speech at the SMER party conference, of which he is chairman, Prime Minister Fico stated that he will not support strengthening the powers of the World Health Organisation (“WHO”) at the expense of sovereign states in the fight against pandemics. “Only insane pharmaceutical companies could come up with such nonsense,” he told the more than 400 guests, ambassadors, delegates and party members present. His speech is on YouTube in Slovak. There is no autogenerated translation available so we turn to alternative sources for translations into English. Door to Freedom has published the clip below from Fico’s speech with English subtitles. Door to Freedom: Slovakia – Will not sign the WHO amendments, 23 November 2023 (3 mins) Writing about his speech alternative media outlet InfoVojna wrote (Czech to English translation using Google Translate): [The Pandemic Treaty] would transfer health powers in times of a pandemic from the national ministries of health of the signatory countries to the World Health Organisation. The WHO would then acquire draconian decision-making powers, which the signatory countries would have to follow, not only in the area of ​​the obligation to purchase vaccines and medicines ordered by the WHO, but it could also happen with compulsory vaccinations ordered by this multinational organisation. And it was Robert Fico who unequivocally rejected this and declared that SMER MPs would not raise their hands for such a proposal. Fico called the entire agreement with the WHO a plan of greedy pharmaceutical companies, which began to worry about their business, when it now appears that many countries of the world are ceasing to purchase vaccines, cancelling vaccination mandates and the entire business of the pharmaceutical companies is going down the drain. The Pandemic Treaty is supposed to change this and ensure that, through the WHO, the collection of vaccines will be mandated and authoritatively prescribed to all member countries that sign the Pandemic Treaty and then ratify in the parliaments. Robert Fico declared at the ceremonial assembly at Bratislava Castle that Slovakia under his government will not sign the Pandemic Agreement with the WHO, because it is a project of greedy pharmaceutical companies, InfoVojna, 20 November 2023none Martin Demirov who describes himself as someone who likes to “post translations of censored press articles and search for various interesting facts” has written about Fico’s speech in a post on Twitter. His post is in Polish, which we’ve reproduced below in English using the translation generated by Twitter. Fico Delivered a Speech at the Party Congress “The Previous Government Killed 20,000 People During Covid!” By Martin Demirov Fico outlined his priorities: If they arrested me, change would not be possible. One of the longest-existing parties, which will celebrate its 25th anniversary next year, held its annual congress. SMER won the elections in September, and party chairman Robert Fico immediately reminded more than 400 guests, ambassadors, delegates and party members not to be so serious. “For God’s sake, we won.” In his introductory speech, he presented a vision of change for the coming year. Remembering the “covid madness” and the need to change the law protecting criminal groups associated with the previous government, he did not hide his joy at reuniting with the HLAS party. In the first half of his speech, Fico criticised the former government and its leadership (for covid madness, for warmongering), in the second half he talked about the party’s goals, and less than two hours later he ended the speech with the words: “we are here, we move on, they did not break us.” According to party vice president Juraj Blanar, Fico’s leadership is important for SMER. Long live the Slovak Republic,” he concluded his speech. What was the direction of change? The guests included representatives of Bulgaria, ambassadors of Great Britain, China, the United States of America, as well as Cuba, the Czech Republic and Hungary. The Polish ambassador also confirmed his presence. The guests also included the president of the Pensioners’ Union, MichaÅ‚ Kocjan, the president of the Association of Slovak Towns and Villages, Józef Bożek, and the president of the Association of Anti-fascist Fighters, Viliam Longauer. Representatives of employers were also present. Among the Ministers present were Defence Minister Robert Kalinak, Finance Minister Ladislav Kamenicki and Agriculture Minister Ryszard Takacz. Zuzana Plewikova, deputy chairman of the party and member of the youth organisation, also attended the meeting. Thanks to over 20 years of experience, Fico knows how to energise his people and focus on proven electoral topics, thanks to which, although he won electoral votes, he was among politicians leaning towards the alternative scene. “It’s a party convention, it’s not a cabinet meeting, so stop being so serious, we won the election, for God’s sake.” Blanard welcomed Fico, the national anthem was played and a minute of silence honoured the memory of the dead In his speech, he wanted to present a vision for the next year, but he didn’t get there until the second half of the speech. “We won the parliamentary elections for the fifth time,” he said. “We are absolutely the best, and I emphasise this a thousand times, political party in the history of modern Slovakia and we want to remain that way,” he said. We naturally reconnected with HLAS. At the beginning of his speech, he also touched on the illegal actions of the former government during the Covid-19 pandemic, praised the media alternative to the mainstream and attacked the previous government for repression and compulsory vaccinations. Four Media – Denník N, denník Sme, Markízu and Aktuality – did not receive accreditation. Since last week, they have also been unwanted guests in the government building. “Slovakia is talking more and more openly about the 20,000 victims of mismanagement in the country and the government’s senseless decisions,” continued the four-time Prime Minister. He wants to support the efforts of politicians who want to hold the previous government to account and has no plans to support the work of the World Health Organisation to the detriment of sovereign states when it comes to managing the fight against the pandemic. “Such nonsense could only have been invented by greedy pharmaceutical companies,” he said. He called SMER a “write-off” party after the 2020 elections, whose opponents were delighted that social democracy split into two groups when Peter Pellegrini left the party to gain the right to vote. “But it is natural that we met again to co-operate in the government. It is no coincidence that we kept emphasising before the early elections that the basis for forming a new government should be the merger of SMER and HLAS,” he said. “The shock of our opponents after SMER’s election victory and subsequent decisive steps to quickly form a government was so great that they created an atmosphere as if we had stolen the electoral victory and had to hand it over to the opposition liberal “progressive Slovakia,” he said. In addition to PS, he again criticised President Zuzana Caputova. In response to the suspension of membership in the European Socialist Party, Fico said he did not know why they intervened, because it was the same party as in the past. “SMER is not a pennant that turns wherever the wind blows,” he said, adding that Portugal was behind the suspension. Party membership has never served them well, and Fico only remembers a lot of criticism. “When did the party of European Socialists help us over the last 20 years? When? I don’t remember,” he added. Andrei Danko’s party, coalition partner SNS, was criticised abroad mainly for choosing a more radical path. Before the elections, SNS merged with three smaller far-right organisations, and several of its members were candidates for the Our Slovakia People’s Party, whose leader, Marian Kotleba, was convicted of extremism and also lost his seat. Robert Fico blamed the politicians who led Slovakia in the last parliamentary term for the state of the country it is in. “We were not destroyed because we had a different opinion about covid, we were not destroyed because we had a different opinion about Ukraine and we were not destroyed because of an attempt to arrest us for political activities,” he said. “I don’t know if there is an opposition politician in the EU who has been accused four times in three years for his political views. Not because of corruption, but because of his political views,” he told foreign guests. Fico, along with Tibor Gashpar and Robert Kalinak, were accused by the previous authorities of many “crimes.” “I was lucky that I didn’t go to prison, because if they had put me in jail for my political views after two press conferences where we told the truth, neither you nor I would be sitting here today because the party would have been destroyed,” he said. Fico also touched on the presidential and European elections. “The party’s vice-chairman Lubosz Blaha also expressed interest in the elections, the European Parliament is certainly waiting for you, Lubosz,” Fico said. Recently, the opposition wanted to fire him for hanging a portrait of revolutionary Che Guevara instead of a portrait of President Zuzana Caputova after taking over as deputy speaker of Parliament, but the coalition blocked the session. A few days ago, he also published his book “CHE” In addition, he also talked about the need for changes in the Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure, and the need for changes in the special prosecutor’s office. He called, among other things, for an urgent change to the whistle-blower law, which currently protects investigators around Jan Churilla and Lubomir Danek. The party’s goal is to stabilise the country and finances and win again. Later, Fico also reached the main political goals of the SMER party. In particular, the most important of them is a successful government that will end in 2027 with victory in the parliamentary elections. In his speech, he outlined what the government should focus on in the coming months. “I don’t see a successful government as a set of numbers, indicators or charts. We will only be successful in 2027 when people realise that it is better, more peaceful and safer,” he said. Fico stressed the need for political stability and efforts to minimise conflicts within the coalition. He also called for quick policy solutions to show interest in “stabilising disrupted public finances at a reasonable and sustainable pace.” Sufficient financial reserves must also be created to compensate for high energy prices, especially for households. He also wants to reduce the impact of high interest rates on mortgages and subsequent refinancing in 2023, while announcing direct mortgage assistance in 2024. He also confirmed the aim of creating the financial conditions for the payment of the full 13th pension. He also stressed the need to have all the necessary regulatory tools and resources to intervene in the event of significant fluctuations in food prices. According to Fico, the government should also immediately decide how to transfer as many European Funds as possible to regions, cities and municipalities and simplify the administrative burden of obtaining them as much as possible. He also called for changes to regulations governing licensing procedures and procurement conditions to be approved “in record time.” According to the Prime Minister, the best proposal for the Education System for practical purposes should also be agreed upon so that the changes come into force at the beginning of the 2024/2025 school year. He also confirmed that the government had started negotiations on new foreign investments. “We have something to consider, we are currently reviewing projects. It is always a question of the scale of state aid,” he said. He also considers it his duty to support every Slovak company that wants to operate in foreign markets. Within two to three months, the coalition will have to develop a mechanism and regulations to shorten the period during which legal migrants with the qualifications necessary to run a business in Slovakia will be able to obtain all permits. He said the proposed measures are the minimum the government must take. He emphasised that all actions should be undertaken within the framework of broad social dialogue. He also confirmed that talks on the government’s withdrawal will take place in Trenčín in December and in Prešov at the end of January. In addition to Fico, the party’s vice presidents, Lubosz Blaha, Ladislav Kamienicki and Ryszard Takacz, also appeared. The Expose Urgently Needs Your Help.. Subscribe now to make sure you receive the latest uncensored news in your inbox… . Can you please help power The Expose’s honest, reliable, powerful journalism for the years to come… Your Government & Big Tech organisations such as Google, Facebook, Twitter & PayPal are trying to silence & shut down The Expose. So we need your help to ensure we can continue to bring you the facts the mainstream refuse to… We’re not funded by the Government to publish lies & propaganda on their behalf like the mainstream media. Instead, we rely solely on our support. So please support us in our efforts to bring you honest, reliable, investigative journalism today. It’s secure, quick and easy… Just choose your preferred method to show your support belowV support James Rickards: When the next financial crisis hits the elites are planning to freeze the financial system, worldwide US, China, Israel and others are developing AI killer drones; this poses significant risks The latest trends in healthcare and other observations DEADLY SECRETS: Unvaccinated account for just 5% of COVID-19 Deaths since beginning of 2023 but 3 & 4x Vaccinated account for Shocking 95% Slovakia will not be entering into any international pandemic agreements with WHO, Prime Minister says During a SMER party conference, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico declared that his government will not sign the World Health Organisation’s Pandemic Treaty and SMER Members of Parliament will not ratify in parliament the Pandemic Treaty with the WHO because it is a project of greedy pharmaceutical companies... https://expose-news.com/2023/11/25/slovakia-will-not-be-entering-into/
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    Slovakia will not be entering into any international pandemic agreements with WHO, Prime Minister says
    During a SMER party conference, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico declared that his government will not sign the World Health Organisation’s Pandemic Treaty and SMER Members of Parliament will n…
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  • Office Hours: Are you in favor of a ceasefire in Gaza?
    As Palestinian deaths in Gaza mount, so do demands for a ceasefire. But many fear that Hamas would only use it to regroup and rearm.

    Robert Reich

    Friends,

    I don’t recall an issue that has as sharply divided the left in America in recent years as whether the U.S. should support a ceasefire in Gaza.

    More than 11,100 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7, including more than 4,500 children — surpassing the number of children killed in conflict zones around the world each year since 2019, according to Save the Children.

    The World Health Organization says that Gaza’s large Al-Shifa Hospital can no longer function because of a lack of electricity, fuel, and water. Other Gaza hospitals have shut down. Hamas accuses Israel of targeting health facilities to cut off a lifeline for residents. Israel alleges that Hamas uses hospitals to conceal their bases, while the injured and displaced living on the grounds act as human shields.

    Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), have joined 15 other House Democrats in calling for an immediate ceasefire. In recent days, demonstrations demanding a ceasefire have occurred in Chicago, Oakland, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Manhattan.

    But is a ceasefire possible with Hamas — an organization committed to the destruction of Israel?

    Bernie Sanders says a ceasefire with Hamas is impossible because Hamas wants “permanent war and the destruction of Israel” and would not abide by a ceasefire. He believes that instead of a ceasefire, Israel should stop bombing and allow for an “extended” humanitarian pause to allow the United Nations to rush in humanitarian aid and for hostage negotiations to continue.

    President Biden similarly argues against a ceasefire but favors a pause to make time for more Palestinians to move out of harm’s way and for more food, water, fuel, and medical supplies to enter into Gaza.

    Both a ceasefire and a humanitarian pause would involve a cessation of hostilities, but a humanitarian pause is temporary, with the specific purpose of improving the humanitarian situation. A ceasefire is meant to last for a more extended time, to encourage the start of peace talks or other arrangements that deal with an underlying conflict. Much more than a pause, a ceasefire cements the situation on the ground until it is violated.

    So, today’s Office Hours question: Are you in favor of a ceasefire in Gaza?

    Are you in favor of a ceasefire in Gaza?

    3326 VOTES · POLL CLOSED

    Leave a comment

    Share


    https://open.substack.com/pub/robertreich/p/office-hours-are-you-in-favor-of?r=29hg4d&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
    Office Hours: Are you in favor of a ceasefire in Gaza? As Palestinian deaths in Gaza mount, so do demands for a ceasefire. But many fear that Hamas would only use it to regroup and rearm. Robert Reich Friends, I don’t recall an issue that has as sharply divided the left in America in recent years as whether the U.S. should support a ceasefire in Gaza. More than 11,100 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7, including more than 4,500 children — surpassing the number of children killed in conflict zones around the world each year since 2019, according to Save the Children. The World Health Organization says that Gaza’s large Al-Shifa Hospital can no longer function because of a lack of electricity, fuel, and water. Other Gaza hospitals have shut down. Hamas accuses Israel of targeting health facilities to cut off a lifeline for residents. Israel alleges that Hamas uses hospitals to conceal their bases, while the injured and displaced living on the grounds act as human shields. Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), have joined 15 other House Democrats in calling for an immediate ceasefire. In recent days, demonstrations demanding a ceasefire have occurred in Chicago, Oakland, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Manhattan. But is a ceasefire possible with Hamas — an organization committed to the destruction of Israel? Bernie Sanders says a ceasefire with Hamas is impossible because Hamas wants “permanent war and the destruction of Israel” and would not abide by a ceasefire. He believes that instead of a ceasefire, Israel should stop bombing and allow for an “extended” humanitarian pause to allow the United Nations to rush in humanitarian aid and for hostage negotiations to continue. President Biden similarly argues against a ceasefire but favors a pause to make time for more Palestinians to move out of harm’s way and for more food, water, fuel, and medical supplies to enter into Gaza. Both a ceasefire and a humanitarian pause would involve a cessation of hostilities, but a humanitarian pause is temporary, with the specific purpose of improving the humanitarian situation. A ceasefire is meant to last for a more extended time, to encourage the start of peace talks or other arrangements that deal with an underlying conflict. Much more than a pause, a ceasefire cements the situation on the ground until it is violated. So, today’s Office Hours question: Are you in favor of a ceasefire in Gaza? Are you in favor of a ceasefire in Gaza? 3326 VOTES · POLL CLOSED Leave a comment Share https://open.substack.com/pub/robertreich/p/office-hours-are-you-in-favor-of?r=29hg4d&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
    OPEN.SUBSTACK.COM
    Office Hours: Are you in favor of a ceasefire in Gaza?
    As Palestinian deaths in Gaza mount, so do demands for a ceasefire. But many fear that Hamas would only use it to regroup and rearm.
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  • November 16: Today’s news on Palestine & Israel – Day 41
    Humanitarian & fuel updates, hospital crises, evacuation update, West Bank & Israel news, international community actions, and more

    Kathryn Shihadah November 16, 2023
    November 16: Today’s news on Palestine & Israel – Day 41
    Palestinians walk through the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City (photo)
    Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here. For more news, go here and here. Live broadcast news from the region is here.

    Some people are led to be skeptical of the Al Jazeera news network. However, the network has won several Emmys, a Peabody and the Overseas Press Association’s Edward R. Murrow award, among many other honors. The New York Times reports that “its reporting hews to international journalistic standards and provides a unique view on events in the Middle East.” it’s important to remember that all news sources may potentially have bias. For example, CNN uses anchors who used to work for the Israel Lobby, who have lifelong attachment to Israel, and who often exhibit pro-Israel spin and omission in their broadcasts. Similarly, Fox News is strongly influenced by Rupert Murdoch, who has a similarly strong attachment to Israel, and who may have fired Tucker Carlson, the network’s most popular host, in part due to the host’s opposition to war and his pattern of failing to exhibit sufficient devotion to Israel).

    Latest statistics:

    Palestinian death toll: 11,196* (10,999 in Gaza** (including at least 4,707 children and 3,155 women), and at least 197 in the West Bank). *IAK does not yet include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile is being disputed; although much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, experts are still looking into the incident. Israel is blocking an international investigation.

    Palestinian injuries: 30,076** (including at least 29,000 in Gaza** and 2,750 in the West Bank). **NOTE: it is impossible to offer an accurate number of injuries in Gaza due to the ongoing bombardment and communication disruption. The Associated Press has reported ~32,000 in Gaza, while the UN number is somewhat lower. Our total for Gaza and the West Bank is based on the conservative figure.

    It remains unknown how many Americans are among the casualties. About 1.6 million people have been displaced; 3,640 are missing (1,770 children) and presumed to be under rubble.

    Israel has now killed more Palestinians in a little over a month than in all the previous 22 years combined.

    Reported Israeli death toll has been reduced to ~1,200*** (The Israeli spokesman said the original figure of deaths on March 7 was an “initial estimate” – killed in West Bank, 53 in Gaza), including 32 Americans, and ~5,400 injured). The names of the 1,175 identified (about 33 of them children) are here.

    ***NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries in Israel may have been caused by Israeli soldiers; additionally, since Israel has a policy of universal conscription, it is unknown how many of those attending the outdoor rave a few miles from Gaza on stolen Palestinian land were Israeli soldiers.

    Hover over each bar for exact numbers.
    Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org

    Humanitarian aid: Since 21 October, 1,139 trucks carrying mainly medicines, food and water have entered Gaza via the Rafah crossing with Egypt, representing a fraction of the needs. Due to the absence of fuel, on 14 November, UNRWA’s solid waste removal services began shutting down, posing an environmental hazard, with about 400 tons of rubbish per day accumulating in overcrowded camps and IDP shelters.

    Fuel to Gaza: On 15 November, some 23,000 litres of fuel entered Gaza from Egypt, the first such delivery since 7 October. The Israeli authorities have restricted the use of this fuel only to use for UNRWA trucks distributing aid. The entry of fuel for all other purposes remains banned including for hospital generators and water and sanitation facilities. Given UNRWA requires about 160,000 litres of fuel per day to run basic humanitarian operations, it has had to halt key services. The small amount that entered Gaza was too late in the day to refuel the trucks for aid delivery.

    Deadly attacks over the past 24 hours included: on 14 November, in the afternoon, airstrikes reportedly hit Al Mohophin School, in Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, Gaza city, killing 17 people; the same day, at about 20:30, airstrikes reportedly hit a residential building in As Saftawi area, north of Gaza city, killing 13 people, including six women; on midday 14 November, airstrikes reportedly hit a building in Al Qarara, east of Khan Yunis, killing nine people; on 15 November, at around midday, airstrikes reportedly hit As Salhi Towers area, in Nuseirat, killing 14 people.

    Propaganda photo, then a bullet to the head: The Israeli army released a propaganda photo of one of its soldiers helping an elderly Palestinian man with a walking stick in an attempt to showcase its “safe corridor” for civilians fleeing northern Gaza. Shortly afterwards, 79-year-old Bashir Hajji was executed in cold blood by Israeli soldiers, according to Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor.

    Hajji’s granddaughter, Hala Hajji, told the Euro-Med Monitor team that he was executed after the photo was taken with one bullet to the head and back. “He died tired, cold, thirsty & hungry,” she wrote in a post on Instagram, confirming her grandfather’s death.

    OCHA reports arrests, beatings on evacuation route: Those fleeing to southern Gaza along the so-called safe “corridors” established by Israeli forces face arrest and the UN has received reports of beatings and people being stripped of their clothes by Israeli soldiers. (02:57 GMT) Palestinians fleeing south are “reporting the presence of dead bodies in the streets”.

    New evacuation orders in southern Gaza: The Israeli army dropped leaflets last night and in the early hours of this morning ordering residents on the eastern side of Khan Younis, close to the Israel border, to move to the western side because it is “safe.”

    Khan Younis is located in the southern half of the Gaza Strip. Tens of thousands of people displaced from the north have already sought refuge there in schools and tents, causing severe overcrowding amid shortages of food and water.

    RECOMMENDED READING: South Africa: World must urge Israel to stop ‘crime against humanity’ in Gaza

    Israeli troops brought boxes with them into Al Shifa Hospital, produced a weapons cache: When Israeli troops entered the hospital, they brought in boxes marked “baby food” and “medical supplies,” then later released a video it said showed some of the materials it allegedly recovered inside the hospital, including automatic weapons, grenades, ammunition and flak jackets.
    In one hospital department, “the soldiers [allegedly] located an operational command centre and technological assets belonging to Hamas, indicating that the terrorist organization uses the hospital for terrorist purposes,” an Israeli military statement said. According to a video released on X (see below), they found a laptop.
    There is no indication that Israeli troops’ boxes were inspected before they entered the hospital, or that any third party accompanied them on their inspection.
    Israeli army deletes, reposts video allegedly inside al-Shifa Hospital: According to the Israeli publication Haaretz, the Israeli military had taken down a social media post uploaded on X on Thursday, which showed what Israel claimed was proof of weapons being kept inside Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital. The Israeli military did not publish any explanation for the deletion of the post.
    The video, showing Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, was later reposted by the Israeli army with some parts being blurred out, raising questions about the authenticity of the evidence being presented in the clip.
    RECOMMENDED READING: Israel fails to show evidence of Hamas command center at al-Shifa hospital

    Another raid at Al Shifa, including ‘strip searches’ of Palestinians: Israeli forces launched another raid at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City in the early hours of Thursday. The Israeli army has confirmed that it is conducting a military operation in the hospital.

    There are reports of some 200 people being blindfolded and interrogated and taken to unknown areas; their fate is unknown.

    An entire building at al-Shifa Hospital – the specialized surgeries building – has been completely damaged from the inside, in addition to Israeli forces blowing up a warehouse for medicine and medical equipment inside the hospital. Israeli bulldozers and vehicles also reportedly completely destroyed the southern entrance to al-Shifa Hospital and all vehicles in its courtyard.

    Medical sources told Wafa that the Israeli army installed facial recognition cameras and electronic gates in the hospital courtyard while strip-searching Palestinians in the medical complex. Israeli forces also reportedly arrested a number of displaced people and the families of those who were killed and wounded, who were seeking shelter there.

    The Red Cross and UNRWA are calling for the evacuation of the 650 patients at al-Shifa Hospital to other facilities. The patients would be put in tents or in a school near the European [Gaza] Hospital. The director-general of Gaza hospitals is demanding that patients be transferred to Egypt.

    Al Ahli Hospital targeted: Journalist Ismael al-Ghoul reported from near the Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City that Israeli air strikes have targeted the perimeter of the hospital. The attacks could be seen as an indicator of preparations for raiding the medical facility. Ahli Arab Hospital is only providing basic medical services, as it was targeted earlier in the war. This video shows the intensity of the bombing.

    Out of 24 hospitals with in-patient capacity in the north, only one, Al Ahli in Gaza city, is presently operational and admitting patients. Eighteen hospitals have shut down and evacuated since the start of hostilities, including three – An Nasr, Ar Rantisi and Al Quds – over the past three days.

    RECOMMENDED READING: What we know about the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital blast

    Gaza City will soon be “uninhabitable”: Ha’aretz reports on what Israeli troops are doing besides ransacking Al Shifa hospitals:

    [D]ozens of battalion combat teams…are going from house to house [in Gaza City]…They’re taking no risks, and as nearly all of the million-plus population who lived in the area just six weeks ago have now fled south [NOTE: sources like Al Jazeera report that “hundreds of thousands” still remain in Gaza City]…this means that any building that is any way suspected of harboring weapons or tunnel entrances is bombed or bulldozed, or both.

    We may be very near the point where there are more Israeli soldiers in Gaza City than Gazans, and the issue of trying to avoid more civilian casualties will no longer exist because all those who can will have left.

    Wide swaths of the city and its surroundings have already been destroyed, and it’s only a matter of weeks before the largest Palestinian city is rendered totally uninhabitable.

    The article does not say what will happen to those Gazans who have been unable or unwilling to leave their homes.

    3 Palestinians killed in West Bank in alleged shooting attack: Three suspected Palestinian assailants allegedly opened fire at a checkpoint on a road between Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Wednesday, wounding six security force members before the assailants were shot dead. The suspects arrived in a vehicle from the direction of Bethlehem, Shabtai told reporters at the scene, and opened fire when the Israeli forces there began questioning them. They were killed when the Israeli forces shot back, he said. One of the soldiers has died of his wounds.

    RECOMMENDED READING: Reports of harsh conditions and abuse in Israeli security prisons where Palestinians are being held for social media posts

    Palestinian lawmaker in Israel sanctioned: The Israeli Knesset’s Ethics Committee has temporarily sanctioned two Palestinian lawmakers, citing “inflammatory remarks” made after the 7 October Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel. MK Aida Touma-Suleiman of the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality and MK Iman Khatib Yassin of the United Arab List were banned from taking part in Knesset hearings and votes for two months. They also face salary deductions.

    “Knesset Ethics Committee suspended me for 2 months for criticising the Israeli army’s action in Gaza,” Touma-Suleiman wrote on X. “Silencing of critical voices of Palestinian citizens and anti-war activists is rampant these days. The war must cease, persecution must end.”

    “Wake up. This is genocide”: Countries must “wake up” to the massive violations that Israel is committing in Gaza, a Palestinian ambassador told UN member states Thursday, insisting it was a “genocide.” “You should wake up in this room. This is a massacre, this is genocide, and we’re seeing it on TV. It cannot continue,” Palestinian ambassador Ibrahim Khraishi told a gathering of UN member states in Geneva.

    US doesn’t use its veto: The UN Security Council has passed a resolution calling for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout the Gaza Strip” to allow for aid delivery and medical evacuations, after four failed attempts to respond to the Israel-Hamas war. It was adopted by 12 votes in favor, zero against and three abstentions – Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom. It additionally asked for the unconditional release of captives held in Gaza.

    “It is binding international law, but we know that there are many Security Council resolutions that are binding international law that Israel does not comply with. But I think it will add added pressure on Israel, particularly as the US allowed this resolution to go through – it could’ve used its veto,” said Al Jazeera’s diplomatic editor James Bays.

    Int’l civil society answers call to challenge Israel: An international delegation of writers, lawyers, journalists, and activists arrived in Cairo, Egypt this week to exert pressure to secure the safe passage of food, water, fuel, & medical aid to 2.3 million Palestinians facing starvation and death as genocidal Israeli airstrikes continuously pound defenseless civilians. They have submitted a request to Egypt for permission to travel to Rafah. Their effort is in response to the Palestinian and Arab calls for civil society to challenge Israel’s “deadly occupation.” They add,

    We urge all peoples and governments to act urgently to end this horror. There are hundreds of aid trucks currently parked in the desert waiting to enter the Rafah Crossing. We demand they be allowed to reach Palestinians whose needs are dire and desperate.

    The Washington Post reports: Israel has killed more than 11,100 Gazans. That’s one out of every 200 people, 0.5% of the population.

    US distances itself from Al Shifa raid: The United States has denied giving Israel a green light for a raid on al-Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip after backing Israeli claims that the medical facility was being used for military purposes. Speaking on Wednesday, US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby countered accusations from Hamas that President Joe Biden’s administration was complicit in the raid.

    The US had previously stated that an intelligence assessment backed up Israel’s claims that al-Shifa Hospital, the largest in Gaza, sat atop a large Hamas command center.

    Americans’ support for Israel, war reaches a new low: A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday shows that 32 percent of respondents said “the US should support Israel” when asked what role Washington should take in the war. This is down from the 41 percent who shared this opinion in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in October. Meanwhile, 68 percent of respondents in the poll said they agreed with a statement that “Israel should call a ceasefire and try to negotiate.”

    RECOMMENDED READING: How Israel and the West smear the Palestinians as antisemitic

    Many groups urge Biden administration to change Israel policy: More than 500 political appointees and staff members representing some 40 government agencies sent a letter to President Biden on Tuesday protesting his support of Israel in its war in Gaza. A group of more than two dozen Democratic members of US Congress has signed a letter urging the Biden administration to agree to a ceasefire and an end to Israel’s assault on Gaza.

    In the past 24 hours, two Israeli soldiers were reportedly killed in Gaza, bringing the total number of soldiers killed since the start of ground operations to 53, according to official Israeli sources.

    The firing of rockets by Palestinian armed groups towards Israeli population centres has continued over the past 24 hours, with no reported fatalities. (Information on rocket attacks is here.) It appears that the last time a rocket killed an Israeli was October 7, as reported by Ha’aretz. Ten Israelis were killed – 4 of them Palestinian Israelis.




    https://israelpalestinenews.org/november-16-todays-news-palestine-israel-day-41/
    November 16: Today’s news on Palestine & Israel – Day 41 Humanitarian & fuel updates, hospital crises, evacuation update, West Bank & Israel news, international community actions, and more Kathryn Shihadah November 16, 2023 November 16: Today’s news on Palestine & Israel – Day 41 Palestinians walk through the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City (photo) Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here. For more news, go here and here. Live broadcast news from the region is here. Some people are led to be skeptical of the Al Jazeera news network. However, the network has won several Emmys, a Peabody and the Overseas Press Association’s Edward R. Murrow award, among many other honors. The New York Times reports that “its reporting hews to international journalistic standards and provides a unique view on events in the Middle East.” it’s important to remember that all news sources may potentially have bias. For example, CNN uses anchors who used to work for the Israel Lobby, who have lifelong attachment to Israel, and who often exhibit pro-Israel spin and omission in their broadcasts. Similarly, Fox News is strongly influenced by Rupert Murdoch, who has a similarly strong attachment to Israel, and who may have fired Tucker Carlson, the network’s most popular host, in part due to the host’s opposition to war and his pattern of failing to exhibit sufficient devotion to Israel). Latest statistics: Palestinian death toll: 11,196* (10,999 in Gaza** (including at least 4,707 children and 3,155 women), and at least 197 in the West Bank). *IAK does not yet include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile is being disputed; although much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, experts are still looking into the incident. Israel is blocking an international investigation. Palestinian injuries: 30,076** (including at least 29,000 in Gaza** and 2,750 in the West Bank). **NOTE: it is impossible to offer an accurate number of injuries in Gaza due to the ongoing bombardment and communication disruption. The Associated Press has reported ~32,000 in Gaza, while the UN number is somewhat lower. Our total for Gaza and the West Bank is based on the conservative figure. It remains unknown how many Americans are among the casualties. About 1.6 million people have been displaced; 3,640 are missing (1,770 children) and presumed to be under rubble. Israel has now killed more Palestinians in a little over a month than in all the previous 22 years combined. Reported Israeli death toll has been reduced to ~1,200*** (The Israeli spokesman said the original figure of deaths on March 7 was an “initial estimate” – killed in West Bank, 53 in Gaza), including 32 Americans, and ~5,400 injured). The names of the 1,175 identified (about 33 of them children) are here. ***NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries in Israel may have been caused by Israeli soldiers; additionally, since Israel has a policy of universal conscription, it is unknown how many of those attending the outdoor rave a few miles from Gaza on stolen Palestinian land were Israeli soldiers. Hover over each bar for exact numbers. Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org Humanitarian aid: Since 21 October, 1,139 trucks carrying mainly medicines, food and water have entered Gaza via the Rafah crossing with Egypt, representing a fraction of the needs. Due to the absence of fuel, on 14 November, UNRWA’s solid waste removal services began shutting down, posing an environmental hazard, with about 400 tons of rubbish per day accumulating in overcrowded camps and IDP shelters. Fuel to Gaza: On 15 November, some 23,000 litres of fuel entered Gaza from Egypt, the first such delivery since 7 October. The Israeli authorities have restricted the use of this fuel only to use for UNRWA trucks distributing aid. The entry of fuel for all other purposes remains banned including for hospital generators and water and sanitation facilities. Given UNRWA requires about 160,000 litres of fuel per day to run basic humanitarian operations, it has had to halt key services. The small amount that entered Gaza was too late in the day to refuel the trucks for aid delivery. Deadly attacks over the past 24 hours included: on 14 November, in the afternoon, airstrikes reportedly hit Al Mohophin School, in Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, Gaza city, killing 17 people; the same day, at about 20:30, airstrikes reportedly hit a residential building in As Saftawi area, north of Gaza city, killing 13 people, including six women; on midday 14 November, airstrikes reportedly hit a building in Al Qarara, east of Khan Yunis, killing nine people; on 15 November, at around midday, airstrikes reportedly hit As Salhi Towers area, in Nuseirat, killing 14 people. Propaganda photo, then a bullet to the head: The Israeli army released a propaganda photo of one of its soldiers helping an elderly Palestinian man with a walking stick in an attempt to showcase its “safe corridor” for civilians fleeing northern Gaza. Shortly afterwards, 79-year-old Bashir Hajji was executed in cold blood by Israeli soldiers, according to Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor. Hajji’s granddaughter, Hala Hajji, told the Euro-Med Monitor team that he was executed after the photo was taken with one bullet to the head and back. “He died tired, cold, thirsty & hungry,” she wrote in a post on Instagram, confirming her grandfather’s death. OCHA reports arrests, beatings on evacuation route: Those fleeing to southern Gaza along the so-called safe “corridors” established by Israeli forces face arrest and the UN has received reports of beatings and people being stripped of their clothes by Israeli soldiers. (02:57 GMT) Palestinians fleeing south are “reporting the presence of dead bodies in the streets”. New evacuation orders in southern Gaza: The Israeli army dropped leaflets last night and in the early hours of this morning ordering residents on the eastern side of Khan Younis, close to the Israel border, to move to the western side because it is “safe.” Khan Younis is located in the southern half of the Gaza Strip. Tens of thousands of people displaced from the north have already sought refuge there in schools and tents, causing severe overcrowding amid shortages of food and water. RECOMMENDED READING: South Africa: World must urge Israel to stop ‘crime against humanity’ in Gaza Israeli troops brought boxes with them into Al Shifa Hospital, produced a weapons cache: When Israeli troops entered the hospital, they brought in boxes marked “baby food” and “medical supplies,” then later released a video it said showed some of the materials it allegedly recovered inside the hospital, including automatic weapons, grenades, ammunition and flak jackets. In one hospital department, “the soldiers [allegedly] located an operational command centre and technological assets belonging to Hamas, indicating that the terrorist organization uses the hospital for terrorist purposes,” an Israeli military statement said. According to a video released on X (see below), they found a laptop. There is no indication that Israeli troops’ boxes were inspected before they entered the hospital, or that any third party accompanied them on their inspection. Israeli army deletes, reposts video allegedly inside al-Shifa Hospital: According to the Israeli publication Haaretz, the Israeli military had taken down a social media post uploaded on X on Thursday, which showed what Israel claimed was proof of weapons being kept inside Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital. The Israeli military did not publish any explanation for the deletion of the post. The video, showing Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, was later reposted by the Israeli army with some parts being blurred out, raising questions about the authenticity of the evidence being presented in the clip. RECOMMENDED READING: Israel fails to show evidence of Hamas command center at al-Shifa hospital Another raid at Al Shifa, including ‘strip searches’ of Palestinians: Israeli forces launched another raid at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City in the early hours of Thursday. The Israeli army has confirmed that it is conducting a military operation in the hospital. There are reports of some 200 people being blindfolded and interrogated and taken to unknown areas; their fate is unknown. An entire building at al-Shifa Hospital – the specialized surgeries building – has been completely damaged from the inside, in addition to Israeli forces blowing up a warehouse for medicine and medical equipment inside the hospital. Israeli bulldozers and vehicles also reportedly completely destroyed the southern entrance to al-Shifa Hospital and all vehicles in its courtyard. Medical sources told Wafa that the Israeli army installed facial recognition cameras and electronic gates in the hospital courtyard while strip-searching Palestinians in the medical complex. Israeli forces also reportedly arrested a number of displaced people and the families of those who were killed and wounded, who were seeking shelter there. The Red Cross and UNRWA are calling for the evacuation of the 650 patients at al-Shifa Hospital to other facilities. The patients would be put in tents or in a school near the European [Gaza] Hospital. The director-general of Gaza hospitals is demanding that patients be transferred to Egypt. Al Ahli Hospital targeted: Journalist Ismael al-Ghoul reported from near the Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City that Israeli air strikes have targeted the perimeter of the hospital. The attacks could be seen as an indicator of preparations for raiding the medical facility. Ahli Arab Hospital is only providing basic medical services, as it was targeted earlier in the war. This video shows the intensity of the bombing. Out of 24 hospitals with in-patient capacity in the north, only one, Al Ahli in Gaza city, is presently operational and admitting patients. Eighteen hospitals have shut down and evacuated since the start of hostilities, including three – An Nasr, Ar Rantisi and Al Quds – over the past three days. RECOMMENDED READING: What we know about the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital blast Gaza City will soon be “uninhabitable”: Ha’aretz reports on what Israeli troops are doing besides ransacking Al Shifa hospitals: [D]ozens of battalion combat teams…are going from house to house [in Gaza City]…They’re taking no risks, and as nearly all of the million-plus population who lived in the area just six weeks ago have now fled south [NOTE: sources like Al Jazeera report that “hundreds of thousands” still remain in Gaza City]…this means that any building that is any way suspected of harboring weapons or tunnel entrances is bombed or bulldozed, or both. We may be very near the point where there are more Israeli soldiers in Gaza City than Gazans, and the issue of trying to avoid more civilian casualties will no longer exist because all those who can will have left. Wide swaths of the city and its surroundings have already been destroyed, and it’s only a matter of weeks before the largest Palestinian city is rendered totally uninhabitable. The article does not say what will happen to those Gazans who have been unable or unwilling to leave their homes. 3 Palestinians killed in West Bank in alleged shooting attack: Three suspected Palestinian assailants allegedly opened fire at a checkpoint on a road between Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Wednesday, wounding six security force members before the assailants were shot dead. The suspects arrived in a vehicle from the direction of Bethlehem, Shabtai told reporters at the scene, and opened fire when the Israeli forces there began questioning them. They were killed when the Israeli forces shot back, he said. One of the soldiers has died of his wounds. RECOMMENDED READING: Reports of harsh conditions and abuse in Israeli security prisons where Palestinians are being held for social media posts Palestinian lawmaker in Israel sanctioned: The Israeli Knesset’s Ethics Committee has temporarily sanctioned two Palestinian lawmakers, citing “inflammatory remarks” made after the 7 October Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel. MK Aida Touma-Suleiman of the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality and MK Iman Khatib Yassin of the United Arab List were banned from taking part in Knesset hearings and votes for two months. They also face salary deductions. “Knesset Ethics Committee suspended me for 2 months for criticising the Israeli army’s action in Gaza,” Touma-Suleiman wrote on X. “Silencing of critical voices of Palestinian citizens and anti-war activists is rampant these days. The war must cease, persecution must end.” “Wake up. This is genocide”: Countries must “wake up” to the massive violations that Israel is committing in Gaza, a Palestinian ambassador told UN member states Thursday, insisting it was a “genocide.” “You should wake up in this room. This is a massacre, this is genocide, and we’re seeing it on TV. It cannot continue,” Palestinian ambassador Ibrahim Khraishi told a gathering of UN member states in Geneva. US doesn’t use its veto: The UN Security Council has passed a resolution calling for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout the Gaza Strip” to allow for aid delivery and medical evacuations, after four failed attempts to respond to the Israel-Hamas war. It was adopted by 12 votes in favor, zero against and three abstentions – Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom. It additionally asked for the unconditional release of captives held in Gaza. “It is binding international law, but we know that there are many Security Council resolutions that are binding international law that Israel does not comply with. But I think it will add added pressure on Israel, particularly as the US allowed this resolution to go through – it could’ve used its veto,” said Al Jazeera’s diplomatic editor James Bays. Int’l civil society answers call to challenge Israel: An international delegation of writers, lawyers, journalists, and activists arrived in Cairo, Egypt this week to exert pressure to secure the safe passage of food, water, fuel, & medical aid to 2.3 million Palestinians facing starvation and death as genocidal Israeli airstrikes continuously pound defenseless civilians. They have submitted a request to Egypt for permission to travel to Rafah. Their effort is in response to the Palestinian and Arab calls for civil society to challenge Israel’s “deadly occupation.” They add, We urge all peoples and governments to act urgently to end this horror. There are hundreds of aid trucks currently parked in the desert waiting to enter the Rafah Crossing. We demand they be allowed to reach Palestinians whose needs are dire and desperate. The Washington Post reports: Israel has killed more than 11,100 Gazans. That’s one out of every 200 people, 0.5% of the population. US distances itself from Al Shifa raid: The United States has denied giving Israel a green light for a raid on al-Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip after backing Israeli claims that the medical facility was being used for military purposes. Speaking on Wednesday, US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby countered accusations from Hamas that President Joe Biden’s administration was complicit in the raid. The US had previously stated that an intelligence assessment backed up Israel’s claims that al-Shifa Hospital, the largest in Gaza, sat atop a large Hamas command center. Americans’ support for Israel, war reaches a new low: A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday shows that 32 percent of respondents said “the US should support Israel” when asked what role Washington should take in the war. This is down from the 41 percent who shared this opinion in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in October. Meanwhile, 68 percent of respondents in the poll said they agreed with a statement that “Israel should call a ceasefire and try to negotiate.” RECOMMENDED READING: How Israel and the West smear the Palestinians as antisemitic Many groups urge Biden administration to change Israel policy: More than 500 political appointees and staff members representing some 40 government agencies sent a letter to President Biden on Tuesday protesting his support of Israel in its war in Gaza. A group of more than two dozen Democratic members of US Congress has signed a letter urging the Biden administration to agree to a ceasefire and an end to Israel’s assault on Gaza. In the past 24 hours, two Israeli soldiers were reportedly killed in Gaza, bringing the total number of soldiers killed since the start of ground operations to 53, according to official Israeli sources. The firing of rockets by Palestinian armed groups towards Israeli population centres has continued over the past 24 hours, with no reported fatalities. (Information on rocket attacks is here.) It appears that the last time a rocket killed an Israeli was October 7, as reported by Ha’aretz. Ten Israelis were killed – 4 of them Palestinian Israelis. https://israelpalestinenews.org/november-16-todays-news-palestine-israel-day-41/
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    November 16: Today’s news on Palestine & Israel – Day 41
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  • ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 41: Israel ignores legally binding UNSC resolution, saying ‘it will not happen.’
    Leila WarahNovember 16, 2023
    Displaced Palestinians near Nasser Hospital and UNRWA schools in Khan Yunis, November 14, 2023. (Photo: © Mohammed Talatene/dpa via ZUMA Press APA Images)
    Displaced Palestinians near Nasser Hospital and UNRWA schools in Khan Yunis, November 14, 2023. (Photo: © Mohammed Talatene/dpa via ZUMA Press APA Images)
    Casualties

    11,255 killed*, including 4,630 children, and 29,000 wounded in Gaza

    196 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem

    Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,200

    *This figure covers the casualties from October 7 to November 14.

    Key Developments

    Israeli airstrikes have targeted the perimeter of the Ahli Arab Hospital on Thursday afternoon, reports Al Jazeera, who believes the attacks could be seen as an indicator of preparation to storm the hospital.
    Israeli forces violently stormed Al-Shifa Hospital twice within 24 hours, destroying the inside of the medical complex despite finding no Palestinian fighters inside.
    The UN Security Council passed a legally binding resolution calling for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses,” unrestricted aid delivery, including fuel and medical evacuations, and the release of captives inside Gaza; however, Israel says “it will not happen.”
    UNOCHA: Those fleeing to the South using the Israeli force’s “so-called safe corridors” face arrest, and the UN has received reports of “beatings and people being stripped of their clothes by Israeli soldiers.”
    According to a police statement, Israeli security forces killed three people who arrived in a “suspicious vehicle and opened fire towards our forces,” shooting and injuring four people at a checkpoint near Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank on Thursday morning, according to Israeli media.
    Israeli forces have detained 69 Palestinians during overnight military raids on Palestinian homes across the occupied West Bank, including four siblings in Kufr Rai village near Jenin in an effort to force their brother to turn himself in, reported Wafa,
    UNOCHA: The Palestinian Red Cross is no longer able to respond to the hundreds of calls from people seeking assistance in evacuating people wounded or trapped under the rubble.
    As of November 10, about 2,700 people, including some 1,500 children, remain missing and presumed to be trapped or dead under the rubble, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza
    The Red Cross and UNRWA are calling for the evacuation of the 650 patients trapped by the Israeli military in al-Shifa Hospital to other facilities, including in Egypt, as the patients are beyond the capability of Gaza’s already collapsed healthcare system, reports Al Jazeera.
    On Wednesday, Palestinian telecommunications company Paltel warned that Gaza is expected to enter a communications blackout as the company’s data centers and equipment will shut down due to the lack of fuel.
    At least seven staff members at the Jordanian field hospital in Gaza were injured at the ER entrance as they tried “to tend to Palestinians who themselves had been injured in Israeli air strikes,” said a spokesperson for the Jordanian army, adding that Jordan is investigating the incident and holds Israel responsible for the protection of their faculty and staff.
    The Palestine Red Crescent Society has shared a distressing video showing Israeli forces targeting the organization’s paramedics as they shell the vicinity of Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza last Friday.
    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s opposition leader, Yair Lapid, is publicly calling on the Prime Minister to resign because the public has lost trust in him.
    Bombing, shooting, detaining, and strip searching Palestinains

    Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip, has been stormed twice by Israeli forces in the last 24 hours, even though they have only found civilians, including medical staff, patients, and displaced persons. Evidence of an alleged Hamas command center is also absent.

    The first military incursion started at dawn on Wednesday before soldiers withdrew in the evening, maintaining their siege on the medical complex as “the smell of death wafts everywhere,” Al-Shifa Hospital director Muhammad Abu Salmiya told Al Jazeera.

    According to the Gaza government’s media office, Israeli forces expelled several children and patients, “depriving them of treatment and leaving them to face the threats of bombings, snipers and deadly drones” and even attacked several medical staff inside al-Shifa hospital during the incursion.

    “They forced them to take off their clothes, insulted and cursed at them. They asked medical staff to leave their stations so they could interrogate them under the threat of weapons,” the office said.

    Similarly, Wafa news reported that eyewitnesses saw Israeli forces forcing displaced people to strip naked and detaining and interrogating doctors, patients, and civilians.

    The Palestinian news outlet added that Israeli forces were also seen installing facial recognition cameras and electronic gates in the courtyard of the medical complex.

    As Israeli forces stormed Al Shifa hospital on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said on X, “There is no place in Gaza that we cannot reach.”

    “We will arrive, we will eliminate Hamas, and we will return the hostages. These two goals are sacred…Yesterday, I spoke with President Biden again. We will be relentless. We will eliminate Hamas, achieve victory, and return the hostages,” he continued.

    After finding little to no verifiable evidence of al-Shifa Hospital being used as the central operations headquarters for Hamas, Israeli forces launched a second raid on the hospital in the early hours of Thursday, less than 24 hours later.

    Al Jazeera reported that the entire building had been damaged from the inside, stating that the Israeli military tore apart the walls and partitions between rooms and destroyed all the medical equipment.

    Israeli bombardment has also caused “material damage to the specialized surgeries department at the hospital,” the Palestinian Ministry of Health said on Telegram.

    The World Health Organization described Israel’s assault on Al-Shifa hospital as “totally unacceptable.”

    “Hospitals are not battlegrounds,” the statement said.

    “Health workers have endured weeks of bombardment and siege and yet continue doing all they can to save lives. The international community must act now to end Israel’s systematic dismantling of Gaza’s health system and secure an immediate ceasefire,” Melanie Ward, the CEO of Medical Aid for Palestinians, said in a statement.

    “Apparently, no crime, no matter how grave, is enough for the international community, including the Security Council, to say to Israel: Stop,” said Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN observer.

    “Calls for restraint are clearly not working,” he added. “The demands for respect of international law must be backed by immediate, serious, collective efforts to enforce the law.”

    According to Al Jazeera, Israeli forces have complete control of the medical complex, and civilians are trapped inside the hospital and detained under Israeli custody. Israeli forces have taken some Palestinians to unknown locations, and their fate is still unknown.

    It is becoming increasingly difficult for anybody to reach any of the medical staff, patients, and displaced people still stuck inside the hospital.

    “I cannot even imagine … the panic among the patients, the panic among doctors and nurses. What they’re [going] through is really something that is unbelievable,” Tommaso Della Longa, spokesperson for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), told Al Jazeera on Wednesday evening.

    Longa added that hospitals being forced to shut down due to the lack of fuel, among other essentials, is “something that is not acceptable” as thousands of Palestinians trapped in the besieged enclave no longer have access to healthcare.

    In a publicity stunt on Thursday, Israel gave UNRWA just over 23,000 liters of fuel to be used inside the Gaza Strip, which is about 9% of what the agency needs to provide support to Palestinians in the besieged enclave.

    “Much more fuel is needed. We need 160,000 liters of fuel every day for basic humanitarian operations,” he said, calling on Israel to “immediately authorize the delivery of the needed amount of fuel as is required under international humanitarian law.”

    Even worse, Commissioner General of UNRWA Philippe Lazzarini says Israeli Authorities “restricted the use of this fuel “only to transport the little aid coming via Egypt,” meaning it cannot be used in hospitals or for water purification.

    “It is appalling that fuel continues to be used as a weapon of war,” he added in a statement on X.

    Meanwhile, Israeli politicians continue pushing back on allowing basic humanitarian aid into the besieged enclave, collectively punishing the 2.3 million people living in Gaza because of the possibility that Hamas will use the fuel.

    National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir declared that “Diesel = weapon,” on Wednesday.

    Similarly, transportation Minister Miri Regev said that “fuel for UNRWA is fuel for Hamas.”

    However, the UN reiterated that “Fuel underpins access to and provision of all humanitarian services in Gaza. Without it, access by the people of Gaza to life-saving humanitarian assistance will all but cease.”

    “We are already seeing a cascading collapse in water, sewage, and sanitation services, telecoms, food shortages, and healthcare,” they added.

    Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, highlighted that “Gaza is ‘occupied’ given Israel’s effective control, regardless of Hamas’ existence,” and that Israel “has a right to protect itself but not to wage war” on the Palestinian people who have been kept under Israel’s “belligerent occupation” since 1967.

    Meanwhile, in the South of Gaza, the Israeli army is once again demanding Palestinians to evacuate “immediately,” this time from eastern Khan Younis, including Al-Qarara, Khuza’a, Bani Suhaila, and Abasan.

    It is crucial to note that Israel has been gradually pushing Gaza’s inhabitants farther south, claiming it is for their safety, despite every area being as deadly as the other.

    Notches were dropped from the sky asking people to go to “known shelters,” Yousef Hammash, who works with the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), tweeted. “Can someone tell me where these known shelters are?” Hammash stated.

    While most civilians have evacuated from Gaza City, those left in homes surrounding the al-Shifa hospital have been told by the Israeli military to leave, reported al Jazeera.

    However, there have been reports of families being targeted by snipers if they try to evacuate and are not being afforded safe passage.

    Questionable evidence

    As Israel’s operation in the hospital expands, the military has been releasing unverified claims about what its forces found within the medical complex.

    “The army is in the hospital and no one knows what they’re doing or what weapons they brought with them to claim they found them inside the complex,” the Palestinian foreign ministry said on Wednesday evening as Israel released videos claiming they have confirmed that Hamas used al-Shifa Hospital as an operational command center.

    Similarly, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, Marwan Bishara, questioned Israel’s “evidence.”

    “It’s kind of baffling. Why would Hamas leave the guns and not anything else?” said Bishara.

    The Israeli military “doesn’t have anything to show as justification for the genocide that they’ve carried out against Gaza and for the bombings of the hospitals and other facilities and for the collective punishments,” he added.

    Hamas official Bassem Naim also told Al Jazeera the evidence presented by the army is “ridiculous” and “worthless.”

    Israel has previously claimed to uncover a Hamas tunnel underneath another medical facility in Gaza, which Al Jazeera quickly debunked.

    On Thursday, Israeli media reported the military taking down a video of Israeli spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus claiming to show proof of weapons being held inside al-Shifa Hospital.

    While the army has not commented on the deleted post, online commentators have pointed out various consistencies in the images posted by the military with reports from Fox News, who had a correspondent with them during the raid.

    The Israeli army later reposted the video with parts being blurred out, leading to even more public speculation on the authenticity of the clips.

    Calls for Netanyahu to resign

    As these military operations take place, captives are still being held in Gaza and subject to Israel’s ruthless bombardment of the area, which has led to an outcry among Israelis as Netanyahu puts off negotiations with Hamas.

    While Qatar has reportedly continued mediating negotiation efforts for a deal between Hamas and Israel, nothing has been agreed upon.

    “Israel is still delaying the release of 50 women and children from the captives in exchange for a humanitarian truce, the release of a number of women and children detainees in prisons, and the entry of relief aid to all areas in the Gaza Strip,” Izzat al-Risheq, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, said on Telegram.

    Israel is not serious about reaching an agreement “but is stalling to continue its aggression and war against defenseless civilians,” Izzat al-Risheq continued.

    As Israel’s poorly woven narrative about Hamas unravels, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s opposition leader, Yair Lapid, is calling on the Prime Minister to resign because the public has lost trust in him.

    “We need a government that can be trusted,” said Lapid, suggesting that his own party could form a government with Netanyahu’s Likud and other political parties.

    The Times of Israel reported that Likud, Israel’s major right-wing political party, accused Lapid of “play[ing] politics in a time of war.”

    Lapid said, “This government isn’t functioning, we need change, Netanyahu cannot continue to be prime minister, we cannot allow ourselves to conduct a prolonged [military] campaign with a prime minister that the public has no faith in,” reported Al Jazeera, commenting that this is a significant shift in Israeli politics and the first time the opposition has publicly called for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign.

    According to Israeli media, Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, believes that replacing the prime minister at this time is “nothing less than crazy.”

    “I hear the voices saying this is not the time. We waited 40 days, there is no more time. What we need right now is a government that will deal with nothing but security and the economy. We cannot afford another election in the coming year,” Lapid continued.

    UN Security Council Resolution passed: Israel does not care

    On Wednesday evening, the UN Security Council finally passed a resolution after four failed attempts to respond to Israel’s war on Gaza.

    Drafted by Malta, the resolution calling for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses,” unrestricted aid delivery, including fuel and medical evacuations, and the release of captives inside Gaza passed with 12 votes in favor and 0 against.

    Three countries abstained from voting: Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

    The text also stressed the need to safeguard civilians, especially children, and called for “corridors throughout the Gaza Strip for a sufficient number of days,” yet it made no mention of a ceasefire.

    Malta’s ambassador to the UN said the resolution “aims to ensure respite from the current nightmare in Gaza and give hope to the families of all victims.”

    The fact that Washington “finally stopped paralyzing the Security Council on Israel and Palestine” demonstrates to Israel that “global concern, even among its allies, is strong,” said the UN director at Human Rights Watch, Louis Charbonneau.

    In response, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, said the resolution is “disconnected from reality” and has “no meaning.”

    Erdan said point blank, “It will not happen.”

    “Israel will continue to act until Hamas is destroyed and the hostages are returned,” he continued, maintaining that Israel’s assault on Gaza is in keeping with international law despite the repudiation of several experts.

    Although Al Jazeera’s diplomatic editor James Bays says the resolution is “binding under international law,” there have been “many” other binding Security Council resolutions “that Israel does not comply with.”

    “Israeli authorities, who have already lost their legitimacy in the conscience of humanity, will not be able to conceal the crimes they committed by bombing hospitals and killing women and children in front of the whole world,” the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

    Before you go – we need your support

    At Mondoweiss, we understand the power of telling Palestinian stories. For 17 years, we have pushed back when the mainstream media published lies or echoed politicians’ hateful rhetoric. Now, Palestinian voices are more important than ever.

    Our traffic has increased ten times since October 7, and we need your help to cover our increased expenses.

    Support our journalists with a donation today.


    https://mondoweiss.net/2023/11/operation-al-aqsa-flood-day-41-israel-ignores-legally-binding-unsc-resolution-saying-it-will-not-happen/
    ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 41: Israel ignores legally binding UNSC resolution, saying ‘it will not happen.’ Leila WarahNovember 16, 2023 Displaced Palestinians near Nasser Hospital and UNRWA schools in Khan Yunis, November 14, 2023. (Photo: © Mohammed Talatene/dpa via ZUMA Press APA Images) Displaced Palestinians near Nasser Hospital and UNRWA schools in Khan Yunis, November 14, 2023. (Photo: © Mohammed Talatene/dpa via ZUMA Press APA Images) Casualties 11,255 killed*, including 4,630 children, and 29,000 wounded in Gaza 196 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,200 *This figure covers the casualties from October 7 to November 14. Key Developments Israeli airstrikes have targeted the perimeter of the Ahli Arab Hospital on Thursday afternoon, reports Al Jazeera, who believes the attacks could be seen as an indicator of preparation to storm the hospital. Israeli forces violently stormed Al-Shifa Hospital twice within 24 hours, destroying the inside of the medical complex despite finding no Palestinian fighters inside. The UN Security Council passed a legally binding resolution calling for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses,” unrestricted aid delivery, including fuel and medical evacuations, and the release of captives inside Gaza; however, Israel says “it will not happen.” UNOCHA: Those fleeing to the South using the Israeli force’s “so-called safe corridors” face arrest, and the UN has received reports of “beatings and people being stripped of their clothes by Israeli soldiers.” According to a police statement, Israeli security forces killed three people who arrived in a “suspicious vehicle and opened fire towards our forces,” shooting and injuring four people at a checkpoint near Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank on Thursday morning, according to Israeli media. Israeli forces have detained 69 Palestinians during overnight military raids on Palestinian homes across the occupied West Bank, including four siblings in Kufr Rai village near Jenin in an effort to force their brother to turn himself in, reported Wafa, UNOCHA: The Palestinian Red Cross is no longer able to respond to the hundreds of calls from people seeking assistance in evacuating people wounded or trapped under the rubble. As of November 10, about 2,700 people, including some 1,500 children, remain missing and presumed to be trapped or dead under the rubble, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza The Red Cross and UNRWA are calling for the evacuation of the 650 patients trapped by the Israeli military in al-Shifa Hospital to other facilities, including in Egypt, as the patients are beyond the capability of Gaza’s already collapsed healthcare system, reports Al Jazeera. On Wednesday, Palestinian telecommunications company Paltel warned that Gaza is expected to enter a communications blackout as the company’s data centers and equipment will shut down due to the lack of fuel. At least seven staff members at the Jordanian field hospital in Gaza were injured at the ER entrance as they tried “to tend to Palestinians who themselves had been injured in Israeli air strikes,” said a spokesperson for the Jordanian army, adding that Jordan is investigating the incident and holds Israel responsible for the protection of their faculty and staff. The Palestine Red Crescent Society has shared a distressing video showing Israeli forces targeting the organization’s paramedics as they shell the vicinity of Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza last Friday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s opposition leader, Yair Lapid, is publicly calling on the Prime Minister to resign because the public has lost trust in him. Bombing, shooting, detaining, and strip searching Palestinains Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip, has been stormed twice by Israeli forces in the last 24 hours, even though they have only found civilians, including medical staff, patients, and displaced persons. Evidence of an alleged Hamas command center is also absent. The first military incursion started at dawn on Wednesday before soldiers withdrew in the evening, maintaining their siege on the medical complex as “the smell of death wafts everywhere,” Al-Shifa Hospital director Muhammad Abu Salmiya told Al Jazeera. According to the Gaza government’s media office, Israeli forces expelled several children and patients, “depriving them of treatment and leaving them to face the threats of bombings, snipers and deadly drones” and even attacked several medical staff inside al-Shifa hospital during the incursion. “They forced them to take off their clothes, insulted and cursed at them. They asked medical staff to leave their stations so they could interrogate them under the threat of weapons,” the office said. Similarly, Wafa news reported that eyewitnesses saw Israeli forces forcing displaced people to strip naked and detaining and interrogating doctors, patients, and civilians. The Palestinian news outlet added that Israeli forces were also seen installing facial recognition cameras and electronic gates in the courtyard of the medical complex. As Israeli forces stormed Al Shifa hospital on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said on X, “There is no place in Gaza that we cannot reach.” “We will arrive, we will eliminate Hamas, and we will return the hostages. These two goals are sacred…Yesterday, I spoke with President Biden again. We will be relentless. We will eliminate Hamas, achieve victory, and return the hostages,” he continued. After finding little to no verifiable evidence of al-Shifa Hospital being used as the central operations headquarters for Hamas, Israeli forces launched a second raid on the hospital in the early hours of Thursday, less than 24 hours later. Al Jazeera reported that the entire building had been damaged from the inside, stating that the Israeli military tore apart the walls and partitions between rooms and destroyed all the medical equipment. Israeli bombardment has also caused “material damage to the specialized surgeries department at the hospital,” the Palestinian Ministry of Health said on Telegram. The World Health Organization described Israel’s assault on Al-Shifa hospital as “totally unacceptable.” “Hospitals are not battlegrounds,” the statement said. “Health workers have endured weeks of bombardment and siege and yet continue doing all they can to save lives. The international community must act now to end Israel’s systematic dismantling of Gaza’s health system and secure an immediate ceasefire,” Melanie Ward, the CEO of Medical Aid for Palestinians, said in a statement. “Apparently, no crime, no matter how grave, is enough for the international community, including the Security Council, to say to Israel: Stop,” said Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN observer. “Calls for restraint are clearly not working,” he added. “The demands for respect of international law must be backed by immediate, serious, collective efforts to enforce the law.” According to Al Jazeera, Israeli forces have complete control of the medical complex, and civilians are trapped inside the hospital and detained under Israeli custody. Israeli forces have taken some Palestinians to unknown locations, and their fate is still unknown. It is becoming increasingly difficult for anybody to reach any of the medical staff, patients, and displaced people still stuck inside the hospital. “I cannot even imagine … the panic among the patients, the panic among doctors and nurses. What they’re [going] through is really something that is unbelievable,” Tommaso Della Longa, spokesperson for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), told Al Jazeera on Wednesday evening. Longa added that hospitals being forced to shut down due to the lack of fuel, among other essentials, is “something that is not acceptable” as thousands of Palestinians trapped in the besieged enclave no longer have access to healthcare. In a publicity stunt on Thursday, Israel gave UNRWA just over 23,000 liters of fuel to be used inside the Gaza Strip, which is about 9% of what the agency needs to provide support to Palestinians in the besieged enclave. “Much more fuel is needed. We need 160,000 liters of fuel every day for basic humanitarian operations,” he said, calling on Israel to “immediately authorize the delivery of the needed amount of fuel as is required under international humanitarian law.” Even worse, Commissioner General of UNRWA Philippe Lazzarini says Israeli Authorities “restricted the use of this fuel “only to transport the little aid coming via Egypt,” meaning it cannot be used in hospitals or for water purification. “It is appalling that fuel continues to be used as a weapon of war,” he added in a statement on X. Meanwhile, Israeli politicians continue pushing back on allowing basic humanitarian aid into the besieged enclave, collectively punishing the 2.3 million people living in Gaza because of the possibility that Hamas will use the fuel. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir declared that “Diesel = weapon,” on Wednesday. Similarly, transportation Minister Miri Regev said that “fuel for UNRWA is fuel for Hamas.” However, the UN reiterated that “Fuel underpins access to and provision of all humanitarian services in Gaza. Without it, access by the people of Gaza to life-saving humanitarian assistance will all but cease.” “We are already seeing a cascading collapse in water, sewage, and sanitation services, telecoms, food shortages, and healthcare,” they added. Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, highlighted that “Gaza is ‘occupied’ given Israel’s effective control, regardless of Hamas’ existence,” and that Israel “has a right to protect itself but not to wage war” on the Palestinian people who have been kept under Israel’s “belligerent occupation” since 1967. Meanwhile, in the South of Gaza, the Israeli army is once again demanding Palestinians to evacuate “immediately,” this time from eastern Khan Younis, including Al-Qarara, Khuza’a, Bani Suhaila, and Abasan. It is crucial to note that Israel has been gradually pushing Gaza’s inhabitants farther south, claiming it is for their safety, despite every area being as deadly as the other. Notches were dropped from the sky asking people to go to “known shelters,” Yousef Hammash, who works with the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), tweeted. “Can someone tell me where these known shelters are?” Hammash stated. While most civilians have evacuated from Gaza City, those left in homes surrounding the al-Shifa hospital have been told by the Israeli military to leave, reported al Jazeera. However, there have been reports of families being targeted by snipers if they try to evacuate and are not being afforded safe passage. Questionable evidence As Israel’s operation in the hospital expands, the military has been releasing unverified claims about what its forces found within the medical complex. “The army is in the hospital and no one knows what they’re doing or what weapons they brought with them to claim they found them inside the complex,” the Palestinian foreign ministry said on Wednesday evening as Israel released videos claiming they have confirmed that Hamas used al-Shifa Hospital as an operational command center. Similarly, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, Marwan Bishara, questioned Israel’s “evidence.” “It’s kind of baffling. Why would Hamas leave the guns and not anything else?” said Bishara. The Israeli military “doesn’t have anything to show as justification for the genocide that they’ve carried out against Gaza and for the bombings of the hospitals and other facilities and for the collective punishments,” he added. Hamas official Bassem Naim also told Al Jazeera the evidence presented by the army is “ridiculous” and “worthless.” Israel has previously claimed to uncover a Hamas tunnel underneath another medical facility in Gaza, which Al Jazeera quickly debunked. On Thursday, Israeli media reported the military taking down a video of Israeli spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus claiming to show proof of weapons being held inside al-Shifa Hospital. While the army has not commented on the deleted post, online commentators have pointed out various consistencies in the images posted by the military with reports from Fox News, who had a correspondent with them during the raid. The Israeli army later reposted the video with parts being blurred out, leading to even more public speculation on the authenticity of the clips. Calls for Netanyahu to resign As these military operations take place, captives are still being held in Gaza and subject to Israel’s ruthless bombardment of the area, which has led to an outcry among Israelis as Netanyahu puts off negotiations with Hamas. While Qatar has reportedly continued mediating negotiation efforts for a deal between Hamas and Israel, nothing has been agreed upon. “Israel is still delaying the release of 50 women and children from the captives in exchange for a humanitarian truce, the release of a number of women and children detainees in prisons, and the entry of relief aid to all areas in the Gaza Strip,” Izzat al-Risheq, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, said on Telegram. Israel is not serious about reaching an agreement “but is stalling to continue its aggression and war against defenseless civilians,” Izzat al-Risheq continued. As Israel’s poorly woven narrative about Hamas unravels, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s opposition leader, Yair Lapid, is calling on the Prime Minister to resign because the public has lost trust in him. “We need a government that can be trusted,” said Lapid, suggesting that his own party could form a government with Netanyahu’s Likud and other political parties. The Times of Israel reported that Likud, Israel’s major right-wing political party, accused Lapid of “play[ing] politics in a time of war.” Lapid said, “This government isn’t functioning, we need change, Netanyahu cannot continue to be prime minister, we cannot allow ourselves to conduct a prolonged [military] campaign with a prime minister that the public has no faith in,” reported Al Jazeera, commenting that this is a significant shift in Israeli politics and the first time the opposition has publicly called for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign. According to Israeli media, Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, believes that replacing the prime minister at this time is “nothing less than crazy.” “I hear the voices saying this is not the time. We waited 40 days, there is no more time. What we need right now is a government that will deal with nothing but security and the economy. We cannot afford another election in the coming year,” Lapid continued. UN Security Council Resolution passed: Israel does not care On Wednesday evening, the UN Security Council finally passed a resolution after four failed attempts to respond to Israel’s war on Gaza. Drafted by Malta, the resolution calling for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses,” unrestricted aid delivery, including fuel and medical evacuations, and the release of captives inside Gaza passed with 12 votes in favor and 0 against. Three countries abstained from voting: Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The text also stressed the need to safeguard civilians, especially children, and called for “corridors throughout the Gaza Strip for a sufficient number of days,” yet it made no mention of a ceasefire. Malta’s ambassador to the UN said the resolution “aims to ensure respite from the current nightmare in Gaza and give hope to the families of all victims.” The fact that Washington “finally stopped paralyzing the Security Council on Israel and Palestine” demonstrates to Israel that “global concern, even among its allies, is strong,” said the UN director at Human Rights Watch, Louis Charbonneau. In response, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, said the resolution is “disconnected from reality” and has “no meaning.” Erdan said point blank, “It will not happen.” “Israel will continue to act until Hamas is destroyed and the hostages are returned,” he continued, maintaining that Israel’s assault on Gaza is in keeping with international law despite the repudiation of several experts. Although Al Jazeera’s diplomatic editor James Bays says the resolution is “binding under international law,” there have been “many” other binding Security Council resolutions “that Israel does not comply with.” “Israeli authorities, who have already lost their legitimacy in the conscience of humanity, will not be able to conceal the crimes they committed by bombing hospitals and killing women and children in front of the whole world,” the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. Before you go – we need your support At Mondoweiss, we understand the power of telling Palestinian stories. For 17 years, we have pushed back when the mainstream media published lies or echoed politicians’ hateful rhetoric. Now, Palestinian voices are more important than ever. Our traffic has increased ten times since October 7, and we need your help to cover our increased expenses. Support our journalists with a donation today. https://mondoweiss.net/2023/11/operation-al-aqsa-flood-day-41-israel-ignores-legally-binding-unsc-resolution-saying-it-will-not-happen/
    MONDOWEISS.NET
    ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 41: Israel ignores legally binding UNSC resolution, saying ‘it will not happen.’
    Following Israel’s refusal to comply with a new UNSC resolution, the Israeli military stormed Al-Shifa Hospital for the second time, terrorizing civilians and finding no evidence of a Hamas command center.
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  • Things are heating up. To think, Biden got more votes than any president in history, why?
    Things are heating up. To think, Biden got more votes than any president in history, why?
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  • Wow!! I got 400 upvotes! Thanks to all to every one of you. Ill keep you updated to every voyage I will have . Thank you again I feel great and flattered.

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    Wow!! I got 400 upvotes! Thanks to all to every one of you. Ill keep you updated to every voyage I will have . Thank you again I feel great and flattered. Heres the link ???? https://somee.social/posts/727590
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  • New #somee proposal to enable additional pool for SME token on TribalDex between SWAP.ETH this pool will enable ethereum holders on hive engine to swap $ETH for $SME by providing more liquidity pool.

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    New #somee proposal to enable additional pool for SME token on TribalDex between SWAP.ETH this pool will enable ethereum holders on hive engine to swap $ETH for $SME by providing more liquidity pool. So far votes have been in favour for the liquidity to continue the proposal is open from 15th may to 31 may here is the link to read more about the new proposal. https://snapshot.org/#/someeofficial.eth/proposal/0xfe2225172247802c6687d664d21b04f139bfa93aaf76b8ab42ff2f10db5fbf15 #awesme #proposal #pool #liquidity
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  • 6000 upvotes for my beautiful SoMee community. On my way to 7k ????????
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    6000 upvotes for my beautiful SoMee community. On my way to 7k ???????? Spread love ❤️ #someeofficial #hive #spreadlove #upvotes #Ecency
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  • ![The reign of Gladiatress.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/rzc24-nftbbg/23tbiXLMDGrtiXkvgEt5G9wMx4YKZTgDtvt6NXxaZzfM9Mf1RnvtCn8Vi4xH1MKrXMVmr.jpg)
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    A blessed day to all gamers and fans of Splinterlands!
    Too many new things are happening in our favorite blockchain-based game that I have difficulty catching up with all the updates. I have been absent from writing for more than three months. Hopefully, I could restart again by sharing a brief story about five powerful “Queens” and a few setbacks that I experienced as a result of my inactivity
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    In the world of Gladiators, women cannot be confined to the four corners of a typical house. They love to fight on the battlefield and they excel in their skills that surpassed most men.
    Our short story is about these powerful women: Fina Voxom, Katrelba Gobson, Captain Katie, Larissa Kerato, and most especially, Quora Towershead. These are now my favorite cards. They are all very powerful!
    The Queen of Opportunity Attack
    In the regular Ranked Battle, I consider Dragon Jumper the king. Now he has a rival, and if I am not mistaken this rival is more powerful than him. Her name is Fina Voxom!
    ![Fina and Dragon Jumper.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/rzc24-nftbbg/23xyriGbKRoQAwypQTBahNtaoEybsm6APzrbyxG56KVV7172ZVwhd9rnnTJv5LbMDzsAi.png)
    See one of her most impressive battles. She singlehandedly slaughtered all her enemies. She ended up the fight with 12 Melee attacks, 14 speed, and 10 health. Dragon Jumper cannot match that.
    The Queen of Sneak Attackers
    The second Gladiatress is Katrelba Gobson. Combining all her three abilities such as Bloodlust, Double Strike, and Sneak, this fighter is extremely lethal. Her mastery is in annihilating enemies in the back position.
    ![Katrelba Gobson_lv1.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/rzc24-nftbbg/23tvVrBcSMwu8BTNBJuNDTSsVg8BvSdVJJ4kRXmr7w33suzZKNDDjpCWD36joQLhjjYnu.png)
    The Queen of Snipers
    If the fire splinters have their Fina Voxom specializing in attacking the enemy with the lowest health, the life splinters have their own powerful Gladiatress in the person of Captain Katie that focuses on crushing the enemy in the second position.
    ![Captain Katie.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/rzc24-nftbbg/23y8wp13GftUhmGSwMWu6kdowm3MTk99kwohnRFogkmt19A3bHoB4sFPpj5yNp2XVGDqD.png)
    Such three magic attacks that target the enemy in the second position are extraordinary. No sniper in the regular cards possesses such an ability.
    Introducing Larissa Kerato
    Katrelba Gobson has a Double Strike ability against an enemy in the last position. Larissa Kerato on the other hand possesses the same ability to use magic attacks. This made her very deadly against the enemies’ tanks.
    ![Larissa Kerato.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/rzc24-nftbbg/23vhyvqhtsMHPjBWCoM84sPqDQyDmHEz5AZUPakJVqVi86iL8h7xeViRgsog5hFpYtesM.png)
    A Gladiatress More Powerful than Kron the Undying
    ![Kron and Quora.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/rzc24-nftbbg/EpEMjEfj4fM3WrpA7siVMbj8jsDWa7w6ZpXwBrKKryFbBVzSQ5PAjV1PRfiuw5s91Hr.png)
    Last but not least, Quora Towershead.
    I hate Quora when I still didn’t have the card because she is such a stubborn and very strong card; I think more powerful than Kron the Undying. Now, that I have a gold level 2 Quora, my hate turns to love. Many of my battle victories can be accredited to her.
    The Entry of Gladius Cards
    The inclusion of Gladius cards is now changing the landscape of the game. I consider myself blessed for joining the Brawl I think sometime in September of last year. I never expect my deck would have such an edge with the presence of the identified fighters above.
    A Few Setbacks
    Since I joined the Brawl, I got excited playing the game that I no longer concern myself with what I used to do before such as writing for the two weekly challenges. Moreover, I also struggle to keep pace with the many developments that are happening in the game as well as the many changes I experience since the day I joined the Brawl.
    As a result of my non-participation in the regular weekly challenges since 11 January, I missed sharing a lot of great battle stories that I played particularly about Gladius cards. And not only that, but I also missed tracking the exact number of seasons that I am playing the game. I am not sure whether the current season is my 36th or my 37th.
    The biggest setback of non-participation is on my Hive account. I only received bigger votes on Splinterlands-related content. Failing to submit a weekly post, takes away the potential HIVE and HBD that can be added to the growth of my account. This explains why my HIVE accumulation slows down since 11 January. I just rely on my savings to buy HIVE for power-up and other Hive engine tokens.
    And so that’s the story of my journey in playing Splinterlands. I wish that I could return to writing again for the weekly challenges.
    Thanks for your time and attention!
    For those who want to explore Splinterlands, check this link.
    Grace and peace!
    What is Splinterlands?
    What is Hive?
    ![The reign of Gladiatress.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/rzc24-nftbbg/23tbiXLMDGrtiXkvgEt5G9wMx4YKZTgDtvt6NXxaZzfM9Mf1RnvtCn8Vi4xH1MKrXMVmr.jpg) [Photo Credit](https://www.canva.com/join/stq-lnk-qhz) A blessed day to all gamers and fans of Splinterlands! Too many new things are happening in our favorite blockchain-based game that I have difficulty catching up with all the updates. I have been absent from writing for more than three months. Hopefully, I could restart again by sharing a brief story about five powerful “Queens” and a few setbacks that I experienced as a result of my inactivity -0-0-0- In the world of Gladiators, women cannot be confined to the four corners of a typical house. They love to fight on the battlefield and they excel in their skills that surpassed most men. Our short story is about these powerful women: Fina Voxom, Katrelba Gobson, Captain Katie, Larissa Kerato, and most especially, Quora Towershead. These are now my favorite cards. They are all very powerful! The Queen of Opportunity Attack In the regular Ranked Battle, I consider Dragon Jumper the king. Now he has a rival, and if I am not mistaken this rival is more powerful than him. Her name is Fina Voxom! ![Fina and Dragon Jumper.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/rzc24-nftbbg/23xyriGbKRoQAwypQTBahNtaoEybsm6APzrbyxG56KVV7172ZVwhd9rnnTJv5LbMDzsAi.png) See one of her most impressive battles. She singlehandedly slaughtered all her enemies. She ended up the fight with 12 Melee attacks, 14 speed, and 10 health. Dragon Jumper cannot match that. The Queen of Sneak Attackers The second Gladiatress is Katrelba Gobson. Combining all her three abilities such as Bloodlust, Double Strike, and Sneak, this fighter is extremely lethal. Her mastery is in annihilating enemies in the back position. ![Katrelba Gobson_lv1.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/rzc24-nftbbg/23tvVrBcSMwu8BTNBJuNDTSsVg8BvSdVJJ4kRXmr7w33suzZKNDDjpCWD36joQLhjjYnu.png) The Queen of Snipers If the fire splinters have their Fina Voxom specializing in attacking the enemy with the lowest health, the life splinters have their own powerful Gladiatress in the person of Captain Katie that focuses on crushing the enemy in the second position. ![Captain Katie.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/rzc24-nftbbg/23y8wp13GftUhmGSwMWu6kdowm3MTk99kwohnRFogkmt19A3bHoB4sFPpj5yNp2XVGDqD.png) Such three magic attacks that target the enemy in the second position are extraordinary. No sniper in the regular cards possesses such an ability. Introducing Larissa Kerato Katrelba Gobson has a Double Strike ability against an enemy in the last position. Larissa Kerato on the other hand possesses the same ability to use magic attacks. This made her very deadly against the enemies’ tanks. ![Larissa Kerato.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/rzc24-nftbbg/23vhyvqhtsMHPjBWCoM84sPqDQyDmHEz5AZUPakJVqVi86iL8h7xeViRgsog5hFpYtesM.png) A Gladiatress More Powerful than Kron the Undying ![Kron and Quora.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/rzc24-nftbbg/EpEMjEfj4fM3WrpA7siVMbj8jsDWa7w6ZpXwBrKKryFbBVzSQ5PAjV1PRfiuw5s91Hr.png) Last but not least, Quora Towershead. I hate Quora when I still didn’t have the card because she is such a stubborn and very strong card; I think more powerful than Kron the Undying. Now, that I have a gold level 2 Quora, my hate turns to love. Many of my battle victories can be accredited to her. The Entry of Gladius Cards The inclusion of Gladius cards is now changing the landscape of the game. I consider myself blessed for joining the Brawl I think sometime in September of last year. I never expect my deck would have such an edge with the presence of the identified fighters above. A Few Setbacks Since I joined the Brawl, I got excited playing the game that I no longer concern myself with what I used to do before such as writing for the two weekly challenges. Moreover, I also struggle to keep pace with the many developments that are happening in the game as well as the many changes I experience since the day I joined the Brawl. As a result of my non-participation in the regular weekly challenges since 11 January, I missed sharing a lot of great battle stories that I played particularly about Gladius cards. And not only that, but I also missed tracking the exact number of seasons that I am playing the game. I am not sure whether the current season is my 36th or my 37th. The biggest setback of non-participation is on my Hive account. I only received bigger votes on Splinterlands-related content. Failing to submit a weekly post, takes away the potential HIVE and HBD that can be added to the growth of my account. This explains why my HIVE accumulation slows down since 11 January. I just rely on my savings to buy HIVE for power-up and other Hive engine tokens. And so that’s the story of my journey in playing Splinterlands. I wish that I could return to writing again for the weekly challenges. Thanks for your time and attention! For those who want to explore Splinterlands, check this link. Grace and peace! What is Splinterlands? What is Hive?
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  • Thank all of you in the Cent Community for the warm welcome, the detailed responses and all of the upvotes. Rzc24-nftbbg was right about this Community. Keep up the great work!
    Thank all of you in the Cent Community for the warm welcome, the detailed responses and all of the upvotes. Rzc24-nftbbg was right about this Community. Keep up the great work!
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  • ![05-pexels-daniel-torobekov-4886378-Dolphin.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/rzc24-nftbbg/241QGmkyQF1N2foof3Es76McihbTVJNnYQx5DkDm8ViV3CLp2Km2QNfvYLEttVMgA9G5q.jpg)
    [Photo Credit](Photo%20by%20Daniel%20Torobekov:%20https:/www.pexels.com/photo/lonely-dolphin-in-blue-water-4886378/)
    On my 56th birthday, I decided to write a post about my Dolphin goal. This birthday post is an article aimed at small players, particularly Hivers from developing nations. Specifically, this is for Minnows out there just like me who decided to reach Dolphin status in years to come.
    My current HP is 2,103. A Dolphin has a minimum HP of 5,616. I need 3,513 more HP for my account to grow from a Minnow into a Dolphin.
    How long will it take for a $35.70 monthly savings to accomplish such a goal? And besides, that savings do not only go to HIVE power, but also to LEO and other Hive Engine tokens like SPS, WOO, and GLX. Though relying on such an amount will take a longer period, that’s one of the ways for me to hit my target.
    Insights from @arcange’s Graph
    Yesterday, I saw the graph below:
    ![Hive Accounts-24 April 2023.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/rzc24-nftbbg/23xf6xYsu3YEcgPe6N81Q4RaNVarUdh2kchcBFSjBigNWr7AtYqsFH62tmEzZHFcHesTX.png)
    [Source](https://peakd.com/hive-133987/@arcange/hive-statistics-20230422-en)
    As you can observe, out of 8,957 Minnows, 4,328 have been active so far for the last thirty days. That’s less than 50%. It shows that for the whole month, more Minnows are not posting, commenting, or upvoting.
    Turning our attention to Dolphins, the data shows a more encouraging result. The number of active accounts is more than twice the size of inactive accounts. Simply observing the different fish categories based on the size of HP, we can say that the higher the status, the more activity we can see.
    To make the data above more comprehensible, I transferred them into a table:



    Account Level
    Total Number of Accounts
    Inactive
    Active




    Plankton
    2.43M
    2.16M
    279,060


    Minnow
    8,957
    4,629
    4,328


    Dolphin
    1,666
    514
    1,152


    Orca
    260
    55
    205


    Whale
    36
    9
    27



    I am glad to be included among the 4,329 Minnows that remain active on the chain for the whole month. That is a very small number. There is still a huge space for growth in the Hive network in terms of HIVE Power (HP). How I wish to see myself transition into the Dolphin category and be included in that 1,152 active accounts.
    If the current rate of the growth of my account will be my reference, it means that it will take more or less three years for me to complete my Dolphin goal. Of course, I do not include other variables that might affect the direction of my account such as the volatility of HIVE’s market price and other unexpected incidents and threats.
    To reach 2,103 HP, took me one year and eight months. 1,440 of them are author rewards and 114 are curation rewards. The remaining 549, I used my savings to buy from the market.
    Unfortunately, I observe that due to changes in the schedule of my work, my author rewards started to decline these past few months for a lack of time to create content. And not only that, an Hiver particularly a small account owner has to accept the fact that big votes are beyond our control. Since this is the case, I am now thinking of focusing my attention on curation rewards. But for them to become significant, I need to find a way to boost my HIVE Power (HP) and I think except for my monthly savings and curation activity, I can utilize the Hive Engine tokens I own to focus on increasing my HIVE Power (HP).
    Hive Engine Tokens Update
    Checking my current token list, I am thinking about how can my Hive Engine tokens help me achieve my Dolphin goal. I think I have to make some adjustments.
    About CTP, I am having second thoughts. My original goal was to achieve 30,000 staked CTP on listnerds.com. However, after experiencing some difficulty both in staking CTP and in receiving staking rewards on listnerds.com, I decided to shift my attention to HIVE. I think I will stop with the 26,350 CTP Power.



    As for other Hive Engine tokens, you can see the progress in the table below. I made my last report more than a month ago.

    Names
    Previous
    Current
    Token Increase
    % Growth
    2023 Goal




    HP
    1,901
    2,103
    202
    10.62%
    5,000


    SPS
    4,047
    5,146
    1,099
    27.15%
    10,000


    LEO
    2,006
    2,606
    600
    29.91%
    5,000


    SME
    420,092
    529,427
    109,335
    26.02%
    2,000,000


    CTP
    26,302
    32,601
    6,299
    23.94%
    60,000


    WOO
    32,081
    45,730
    13,649
    42.54%
    100,000


    GLX
    624.94
    1,180
    555.06
    88.81%
    10,000



    I achieve more than 50% of my SPS goal. Once the 10,000 goal has been achieved, all SPS staking rewards will go to HIVE.
    The same thing to LEO, once I achieve the CUB status with 5,000 LEO Power, all LEO that I will earn will go to HIVE.
    Same as SPS, I am more than halfway through my 1M SME goal. Once I reach that, all SME rewards will go to HIVE.
    As already mentioned, my CTP stake is enough. All CTP rewards from now on will go to HIVE.
    As for WOO, my goal is 100,000. Once done, all WOO will be converted to HIVE.
    Lastly, I am impressed with GLX's performance. It grew by 88.81%. Once I achieve that 10,000 goal, all GLX rewards will go to HIVE.
    And so that's my plan to achieve my Dolphin status. I will use my monthly savings; will focus on curation activity, and, I will utilize Hive Engine tokens to grow my HIVE Power (HP).
    Thanks for your time!
    Grace and peace!
    What is Hive
    What is LeoFinance?
    ![05-pexels-daniel-torobekov-4886378-Dolphin.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/rzc24-nftbbg/241QGmkyQF1N2foof3Es76McihbTVJNnYQx5DkDm8ViV3CLp2Km2QNfvYLEttVMgA9G5q.jpg) [Photo Credit](Photo%20by%20Daniel%20Torobekov:%20https:/www.pexels.com/photo/lonely-dolphin-in-blue-water-4886378/) On my 56th birthday, I decided to write a post about my Dolphin goal. This birthday post is an article aimed at small players, particularly Hivers from developing nations. Specifically, this is for Minnows out there just like me who decided to reach Dolphin status in years to come. My current HP is 2,103. A Dolphin has a minimum HP of 5,616. I need 3,513 more HP for my account to grow from a Minnow into a Dolphin. How long will it take for a $35.70 monthly savings to accomplish such a goal? And besides, that savings do not only go to HIVE power, but also to LEO and other Hive Engine tokens like SPS, WOO, and GLX. Though relying on such an amount will take a longer period, that’s one of the ways for me to hit my target. Insights from @arcange’s Graph Yesterday, I saw the graph below: ![Hive Accounts-24 April 2023.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/rzc24-nftbbg/23xf6xYsu3YEcgPe6N81Q4RaNVarUdh2kchcBFSjBigNWr7AtYqsFH62tmEzZHFcHesTX.png) [Source](https://peakd.com/hive-133987/@arcange/hive-statistics-20230422-en) As you can observe, out of 8,957 Minnows, 4,328 have been active so far for the last thirty days. That’s less than 50%. It shows that for the whole month, more Minnows are not posting, commenting, or upvoting. Turning our attention to Dolphins, the data shows a more encouraging result. The number of active accounts is more than twice the size of inactive accounts. Simply observing the different fish categories based on the size of HP, we can say that the higher the status, the more activity we can see. To make the data above more comprehensible, I transferred them into a table: Account Level Total Number of Accounts Inactive Active Plankton 2.43M 2.16M 279,060 Minnow 8,957 4,629 4,328 Dolphin 1,666 514 1,152 Orca 260 55 205 Whale 36 9 27 I am glad to be included among the 4,329 Minnows that remain active on the chain for the whole month. That is a very small number. There is still a huge space for growth in the Hive network in terms of HIVE Power (HP). How I wish to see myself transition into the Dolphin category and be included in that 1,152 active accounts. If the current rate of the growth of my account will be my reference, it means that it will take more or less three years for me to complete my Dolphin goal. Of course, I do not include other variables that might affect the direction of my account such as the volatility of HIVE’s market price and other unexpected incidents and threats. To reach 2,103 HP, took me one year and eight months. 1,440 of them are author rewards and 114 are curation rewards. The remaining 549, I used my savings to buy from the market. Unfortunately, I observe that due to changes in the schedule of my work, my author rewards started to decline these past few months for a lack of time to create content. And not only that, an Hiver particularly a small account owner has to accept the fact that big votes are beyond our control. Since this is the case, I am now thinking of focusing my attention on curation rewards. But for them to become significant, I need to find a way to boost my HIVE Power (HP) and I think except for my monthly savings and curation activity, I can utilize the Hive Engine tokens I own to focus on increasing my HIVE Power (HP). Hive Engine Tokens Update Checking my current token list, I am thinking about how can my Hive Engine tokens help me achieve my Dolphin goal. I think I have to make some adjustments. About CTP, I am having second thoughts. My original goal was to achieve 30,000 staked CTP on listnerds.com. However, after experiencing some difficulty both in staking CTP and in receiving staking rewards on listnerds.com, I decided to shift my attention to HIVE. I think I will stop with the 26,350 CTP Power. As for other Hive Engine tokens, you can see the progress in the table below. I made my last report more than a month ago. Names Previous Current Token Increase % Growth 2023 Goal HP 1,901 2,103 202 10.62% 5,000 SPS 4,047 5,146 1,099 27.15% 10,000 LEO 2,006 2,606 600 29.91% 5,000 SME 420,092 529,427 109,335 26.02% 2,000,000 CTP 26,302 32,601 6,299 23.94% 60,000 WOO 32,081 45,730 13,649 42.54% 100,000 GLX 624.94 1,180 555.06 88.81% 10,000 I achieve more than 50% of my SPS goal. Once the 10,000 goal has been achieved, all SPS staking rewards will go to HIVE. The same thing to LEO, once I achieve the CUB status with 5,000 LEO Power, all LEO that I will earn will go to HIVE. Same as SPS, I am more than halfway through my 1M SME goal. Once I reach that, all SME rewards will go to HIVE. As already mentioned, my CTP stake is enough. All CTP rewards from now on will go to HIVE. As for WOO, my goal is 100,000. Once done, all WOO will be converted to HIVE. Lastly, I am impressed with GLX's performance. It grew by 88.81%. Once I achieve that 10,000 goal, all GLX rewards will go to HIVE. And so that's my plan to achieve my Dolphin status. I will use my monthly savings; will focus on curation activity, and, I will utilize Hive Engine tokens to grow my HIVE Power (HP). Thanks for your time! Grace and peace! What is Hive What is LeoFinance?
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  • ![PUD-April.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/rzc24-nftbbg/23uFHFfkCuikwV2tm7KuQj3FZF4WGU4XfWVjS6BX4wgNcsZTcryK2YnEkA4xMQsUT8u2L.png)
    Today, I powered up 10 HIVE eight hours earlier than last month. Thanks to my brother-in-law for fixing the time zone on my laptop.
    The month of April is also my birth month. I consider today's HIVE PUD significant for this will mark my 56th birthday.
    As I shared in my last post, my HIVE accumulation dropped significantly starting the month of February due to my failure to participate in Splinterlands' two weekly posting activities. Missing these activities, I estimate that I am missing at least 150 additional HIVE. Because of such failure, achieving my 2,000 HP goal has been delayed. I thought it will take me until today to reach the 2,000 mark.
    11th January was the last entry I made for Splinterlands. I hope that before reaching the third month on the 11th of April, I could find time to write just even one post. That will add at least 10 more HIVE to my wallet.
    And so despite the decline in my HIVE accumulation, I was able to reach 2,000 HIVE Power last 29 March. That to me was a milestone. I am wondering now how long will it take for me to reach the third thousand.
    Earlier, while checking Hive Now, it was my first time observing this graph:
    ![HIVE Now.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/rzc24-nftbbg/23wMstermr3fYg17Hfjb4YhBPd7Rnhb2U67eVUqC1AsQj13eyLwzXDjhzMNkR7j4G9PCG.png)
    Though my curation rewards are small, I find this tool very helpful in monitoring my HP growth. Through this app, I could see the value of my voting power and at what time of the day. This made me curious to check which votes of mine gave me the higher HP. And to my surprise, it was my upvoting of micro-posts published by a few members of the SoMee tribe.
    Another tool I find helpful to monitor my HP growth is hivestats.io:
    ![Hive Stats.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/rzc24-nftbbg/Eo1xJxVZfxCGQLPcHQEXJybDe71X83iAmfsuwS5FbAMDVe2Ap5d4nQ6VVX9QER8A6kj.png)
    By just checking the graph, you can immediately see if you have done your part in powering up HIVE both in PUM and PUD. So the above chart is my current status as a result of powering up 10 HIVE earlier.
    And then I received a notification from @hivebuzz:
    ![PUD Notification.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/rzc24-nftbbg/EoeLkh219GKJXesbwtK4z1KkbRgjaqM193qaAFwRj4jLxNXATGrB8N59jM4KdH1pxcp.png)
    As for the outcome of my participation in HIVE Power Up Month (PUM), I am still waiting for confirmation. I am not sure if I hit all the days in March or if there is any day that I missed powering up HIVE.
    Anyhow, as for the update of my account, the chart below shows my slow but steady growth in HIVE Power:



    Date
    Starting HP
    Ending HP
    HP Growth
    % Growth
    Cumulative % Growth




    01 January
    1,240
    1,518
    278
    22.41%
    22.41%


    01 February
    1,518
    1,732
    214
    14.09%
    39.67%


    01 March
    1,732
    1,841
    109
    6.29%
    48.46%


    01 April
    1,841
    2,016
    175
    9.50%
    62.58%



    So in today's PUD, my HP growth in terms of percentage is a little bit higher than last month from 6.29% to 9.50%. My cumulative growth so far for this year is now at 62.58% starting with 1,240 HP last 01 January and ending with 2,016 today.
    My short-term goal now is to reach 3,000 HIVE Power onward to that Dolphin goal.
    Wishing all Hivers a bullish 2023 and more HIVE Power to all who are participating in today's HIVE PUD!
    Grace and peace!
    What is Hive?
    What is LeoFinance?
    ![PUD-April.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/rzc24-nftbbg/23uFHFfkCuikwV2tm7KuQj3FZF4WGU4XfWVjS6BX4wgNcsZTcryK2YnEkA4xMQsUT8u2L.png) Today, I powered up 10 HIVE eight hours earlier than last month. Thanks to my brother-in-law for fixing the time zone on my laptop. The month of April is also my birth month. I consider today's HIVE PUD significant for this will mark my 56th birthday. As I shared in my last post, my HIVE accumulation dropped significantly starting the month of February due to my failure to participate in Splinterlands' two weekly posting activities. Missing these activities, I estimate that I am missing at least 150 additional HIVE. Because of such failure, achieving my 2,000 HP goal has been delayed. I thought it will take me until today to reach the 2,000 mark. 11th January was the last entry I made for Splinterlands. I hope that before reaching the third month on the 11th of April, I could find time to write just even one post. That will add at least 10 more HIVE to my wallet. And so despite the decline in my HIVE accumulation, I was able to reach 2,000 HIVE Power last 29 March. That to me was a milestone. I am wondering now how long will it take for me to reach the third thousand. Earlier, while checking Hive Now, it was my first time observing this graph: ![HIVE Now.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/rzc24-nftbbg/23wMstermr3fYg17Hfjb4YhBPd7Rnhb2U67eVUqC1AsQj13eyLwzXDjhzMNkR7j4G9PCG.png) Though my curation rewards are small, I find this tool very helpful in monitoring my HP growth. Through this app, I could see the value of my voting power and at what time of the day. This made me curious to check which votes of mine gave me the higher HP. And to my surprise, it was my upvoting of micro-posts published by a few members of the SoMee tribe. Another tool I find helpful to monitor my HP growth is hivestats.io: ![Hive Stats.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/rzc24-nftbbg/Eo1xJxVZfxCGQLPcHQEXJybDe71X83iAmfsuwS5FbAMDVe2Ap5d4nQ6VVX9QER8A6kj.png) By just checking the graph, you can immediately see if you have done your part in powering up HIVE both in PUM and PUD. So the above chart is my current status as a result of powering up 10 HIVE earlier. And then I received a notification from @hivebuzz: ![PUD Notification.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/rzc24-nftbbg/EoeLkh219GKJXesbwtK4z1KkbRgjaqM193qaAFwRj4jLxNXATGrB8N59jM4KdH1pxcp.png) As for the outcome of my participation in HIVE Power Up Month (PUM), I am still waiting for confirmation. I am not sure if I hit all the days in March or if there is any day that I missed powering up HIVE. Anyhow, as for the update of my account, the chart below shows my slow but steady growth in HIVE Power: Date Starting HP Ending HP HP Growth % Growth Cumulative % Growth 01 January 1,240 1,518 278 22.41% 22.41% 01 February 1,518 1,732 214 14.09% 39.67% 01 March 1,732 1,841 109 6.29% 48.46% 01 April 1,841 2,016 175 9.50% 62.58% So in today's PUD, my HP growth in terms of percentage is a little bit higher than last month from 6.29% to 9.50%. My cumulative growth so far for this year is now at 62.58% starting with 1,240 HP last 01 January and ending with 2,016 today. My short-term goal now is to reach 3,000 HIVE Power onward to that Dolphin goal. Wishing all Hivers a bullish 2023 and more HIVE Power to all who are participating in today's HIVE PUD! Grace and peace! What is Hive? What is LeoFinance?
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  • I love Upvoting my SoMee community. ???? Keep the Good content coming in ✨️✨️
    5000 upvotes given so far, my next target is to get to 6000 soon.


    #someeofficial
    #hive
    #Upvote
    #SoMeeLove
    #Community
    I love Upvoting my SoMee community. ???? Keep the Good content coming in ✨️✨️ 5000 upvotes given so far, my next target is to get to 6000 soon. #someeofficial #hive #Upvote #SoMeeLove #Community
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