A Palestinian woman mourns over the bodies of her relatives who were killed in Israeli air strikes that hit a Greek Orthodox church in Gaza City, 20 October 2023 (AP)
As the war unfolded in Gaza and Israel on 7 October, Wala, a British-Palestinian pharmacist born and raised in Wales and whose extended family live in Gaza City, watched the news with horror from afar.
The Israeli military has been conducting an unrelenting bombing campaign on Gaza since 7 October, when Palestinian fighters launched a massive attack in southern Israel, killing 1,400 people and taking 200 hostage.
At least 4,200 Palestinians have been killed, and among them, Wala has come to know, 15 members of her family.
Early on 15 October, she received a call from a cousin with news the family had been dreading.
"'Your uncle's house has even bombed and they've all died,' he told me. Fifteen of them had been killed," Wala said, speaking to MEE using only her first name for fear of backlash.
"My uncle and his wife, three of their adult children, my cousin and her two babies, and the rest of them children."
With Gaza crippled by a renewed siege implemented by Israel in retaliation to the attacks, which has fully restricted any entry in and out of Gaza and includes power and water cuts, many Palestinians have been left with little to no resources to rescue loved ones trapped or lying dead under the rubble.
Wala's family are among more than 1,500 children and 1,000 women killed in Israel's relentless bombings.
"My cousin was postpartum, and her baby was 17 days old. She was under the rubble for two days. Eventually one of my uncles dug her out with his hands and nails," Wala said. "The baby was in pieces."
So far, 12 bodies have been recovered, and the bodies of three children remain under the rubble.
Burying a whole family
Dozens of Palestinian families have been wiped out entirely, among them Razan Shamallakh's relatives.
The British Palestinian has at least 150 close relations in Gaza, where her family home sits by the sea. A day into the bombing campaign, three generations of her family were killed in one Israeli bombing.
Israel-Palestine war: What it's like to be pregnant in Gaza
Her uncle, his wife, his five sons and his grandchildren were killed when their house was struck while they slept. The youngest grandchild was two months old, the other two years old.
"They weren't able to recover many of the bodies," Shamallakh said of the intensity of the blast.
"You can never really imagine this happening to your own family, but it did unfortunately. These were people who were living normal, basic lives."
Her relatives, she said, were not politically active. One cousin worked in a dessert shop, another worked in a phone shop, a third was a taxi driver.
"Just imagine having to bury a whole family of 10, but not even full bodies, just parts of the bodies. This has traumatised our whole family."
Until two days ago, other members of her family in Gaza had lived in the north, but they were forced to the south after a warning missile was fired by Israel on their area.
With no water access, Shamallakh said her surviving family had resorted to drinking sea water.
"I've heard one or two of my relatives say, 'If you ask us, are you OK, and we say yes we are,' what we really mean is we haven't been killed yet."
'We do not matter'
Since the beginning of the war, the United Kingdom has given Israel its full support to Israel and said it acknowledges its right to self-defence. Both the Conservative and opposition Labour Party have yet to call for a ceasefire.
The position of the UK government and the opposition has met with disappointment by British Palestinians.
"The ongoing rhetoric pacifying and excusing these horrific acts of terror on the people of Gaza once again is soul crushing," said one Palestinian woman living in the UK, who asked to remain anonymous.
The woman's pregnant cousin was killed along her two children and mother-in-law in a bombing on al-Rimal neighbourhood.
'She was under the rubble for two days. Eventually one of my uncles dug her out with his hands and nails. Her baby was in pieces'
- Wala, British Palestinian
"Never have I been ashamed of [my British identity] until this moment. Our government is a disgrace. The unshakeable support for this onslaught is astounding. No matter what Israel does to Palestinians, we do not matter," she said.
Hamas's unprecedented attacks and Israel's relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip have made Jewish and Muslim communities around the world vulnerable, causing spikes in incidents of antisemitism and Islamophobia to increase significantly in the UK, according to the Metropolitan police.
Between 29 September and 12 October, there were 105 reports of antisemitic incidents and 75 antisemitic offences, and 58 Islamophobic incidents and 54 Islamophobic offences, according to data published by the Metropolitan Police.
"I know that we have seen a rise in Islamophobia. It is deeply worrying and concerning that this is spilling onto the streets of the United Kingdom," Naz Shah, the member of parliament for Bradford West and vice chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for British Muslims, told MEE.
In the US, the murder of Wadea al-Fayoume, a six-year-old Palestinian-American boy who was stabbed 26 times, and the serious wounding of his mother, in an attack by their landlord in Chicago, were linked to the ongoing Israel-Palestine war, reopening the fears of Islamophobia faced by Muslim communities around the world following the 9/11 attacks.
"I'm so worried for my safety, for my children's safety, for my parents and the whole community's safety to be honest, whether they're Palestinian or not," Wala said.
'Protesting oppressive occupation'
In the United Kingdom, there has also been an increasing crackdown on those voicing support for Palestinians, not just Hamas, which was labelled as a terrorist organisation by the government in 2021.
In a letter last Tuesday, the UK's Home Secretary Suella Braverman urged police chiefs to consider whether waving a Palestinian flag could be a criminal offence.
In light of recent pro-Palestinian protests in London, the Metropolitan Police have since assured protesters that "expressions of support for the Palestinian people more broadly, including flying the Palestinian flag, does not, alone, constitute a criminal offence".
'Just imagine having to bury a whole family of 10, but not even full bodies, just parts of the bodies. This has traumatised our whole family'
- Razan Shamallakh, British Palestinian
But with reports emerging of pro-Palestinian protests being conflated with supporting terrorism by major news organisations and on social media platforms, and incidents of pro-Palestine supporters being stopped by police across Europe, there are fears that criticism of the most right-wing Israeli government in history could be mistaken for antisemitism.
"If we say anything about stopping the genocide of Palestinians, does that mean we want death for others? No," Wala said.
"If you go to any Palestinian protest or speak to any person who is pro-Palestine, they do not wish death on anybody because it's against our faith as Muslims. What people protest against is the oppressive occupation."
Even British Palestinians working on the front lines of Israel's bombardment of Gaza have faced undue scrutiny.
Professor Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a British-Palestinian plastic surgeon who has been working voluntarily in Gaza, said on X, formerly Twitter, that British counter-terrorism police turned up to his family home in the UK on 16 October to ask why he was in Gaza and who paid for his ticket.
"I think it's a kind of brutish attempt at harassment and silencing," Abu-Sittah told British broadcaster Victoria Derbyshire.
"I remain committed to speaking out on behalf of my patients, on behalf of the wounded here, on behalf of these families that are being destroyed. There are 50 families that have been wiped out [from] the civil registry, which means that the grandparents, the parents, and the grandchildren were all killed."
'We've become their voices'
With communications with Gaza almost entirely blacked out because of power cuts enforced by Israel's siege, social media has become a significant platform for Palestinians living in the diaspora to voice their grief and to share photos of loved ones killed by Israeli bombardments.
Wala described how she and her family every morning await news on their phones of whether other members of their family have made it alive through the night.
"We barely go to sleep to be honest," Wala said. "The problem is now, because of the reduced electricity and internet, Palestinians who are posting from [Gaza] are not able to post during the night. In the morning, we find out that actually there has been been bombing all night."
Among those sharing their grief online is Malaka Shwaikh, a Palestinian researcher with family in Gaza, who has lost seven members of her family, including her cousin and her cousin's three children, Ahmed, Yamin, and Maryam.
"We're not with them," Wala said of her own family in Gaza, "but what I've noticed is that we've become their voices."
A Palestinian civil defence worker carries a child killed in an Israeli bombardment from a building in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on 19 October 2023 (AFP
Gaza civil defence workers are sounding the alarm that they are operating to full capacity and are unable to rescue all the wounded or retrieve dead bodies from the rubble of bombed homes as the ferocious Israeli onslaught on the besieged enclave continued for the 15th day.
"The killed people now have to be left under the rubble in order to prioritise the wounded," Noah Lafi, a civil defence worker, told Middle East Eye.
Rescue teams in Gaza are not equipped to recover all dead bodies due to the large-scale nature of the Israeli campaign, which also targeted civil defence and ambulance staff, he said.
Six civil defence workers have been killed by Israeli warplanes, and more than 11 have been wounded over the past two weeks.
"Many of my colleagues lost their families and homes, but they are still carrying out their duty," he added.
Lafi is among those who have been wounded as he was hit by an iron skewer and has seven stitches on his hand, but he's still working.
"I have no option but to resist by doing my work," he said
The current Israeli military operation against the Gaza Strip started after the Hamas-led surprise attack on 7 October. At least 1,400 Israelis have been killed since the assault, with more than 200 others taken back to Gaza, including combatants and civilian hostages.
Since then, Israeli air strikes have killed at least 4,385 Palestinians, including 1,756 children, according to the latest tally by the Palestinian health ministry. The attacks have predominantly targeted civilian buildings, including homes, hospitals and places of worship.
Mohamed Fathi Sharir, head of the Safety and Prevention Department at the Civil Defence Directorate, said the situation in the Gaza Strip is worse than the images displayed on television and mobile screens.
"Amidst countless pleas for help in rescuing individuals trapped beneath the debris, our dedicated civil defence, ambulance and rescue teams are tirelessly striving to aid all victims, be they wounded or deceased," he told MEE.
However, Sharir pointed out that civil defence teams face significant limitations.
"Given the exponential rise in the number of individuals beneath the rubble, our current focus is on prioritising the rescue of the living wounded, even if this postpones the extraction of the deceased from the debris," he added.
Many remain trapped beneath the rubble, he said, necessitating the deployment of heavy machinery for their recovery. The Israeli military's targeting of entire neighbourhoods, leading to their obliteration, exacerbates the crisis, he said.
Sharir emphasised that the Gaza Strip is in urgent need of international aid and rescue teams to assist in recovering both the wounded and deceased.
"Despite the blatant targeting of our branches, our teams continue to operate at full capacity," he said, referring to Israeli air strikes that have hit several civil defence centres across the Gaza Strip.
Fuel crisis
Meanwhile, the shortage of fuel as a result of the Israeli blockade has severely complicated rescue efforts.
According to Major Mahmoud Basal, the official spokesman for the Gaza Civil Defence, Israel's latest total disruption of electricity and fuel supplies has taken a heavy toll on their work, as their essential equipment relies on these resources for operation.
"The critical shortage of fuel poses an imminent disaster as our operations heavily depend on it," he said.
Moreover, they do not have enough resources to cope with the scale of devastation caused by the air strikes.
"We are facing a shortage of equipment to manage the substantial volume of debris and rubble resulting from the bombing of entire residential areas," he told MEE.
"There will be a point when we won't have ambulances or civil defence vehicles available to respond to the areas affected by bombings," he said, adding that civil defence vehicles in Gaza are outdated models from 1988 and 1994, and themselves need replacement.
A Palestinian civil defence member works through a crack in a collapsed building, hit by an Israeli bombardment, while searching for victims and survivors, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on 19 October 19 2023 (AFP)
"Regrettably, we have been appealing to international organisations for years to come to our aid, but our pleas have largely gone unanswered," Basal said.
"We are committed to delivering the best possible services to our citizens, but the Civil Defence in the Gaza Strip needs another civil defence. It is in desperate need of support. All our vehicles and equipment are in a state of disrepair."
Amer Abu Saif belongs to one of of several Palestinian families whose homes were bombed in Israeli air strikes on the Jablia refugee camp in northern Gaza on Thursday.
Israel-Palestine war: The Gaza civilian buildings bombed by Israeli army
"Our house in Jabalia camp was targeted at 1am. There were more than 15 people in our house, including displaced individuals seeking safety," he told Middle East Eye.
While Abu Saif survived the air strikes, at least 18 Palestinians were killed in the attack.
Abu Saif said that while nine people have been found dead since the attack, eight more remain trapped under the rubble as rescue efforts by a local civil defence team have failed to recover their bodies due to the extensive destruction left by the bombing of four residential buildings.
"Even if they are in pieces beneath the rubble, we need to reach them for a proper burial," he said. "We have been deprived of the chance to bid them farewell."
Marching in the rain and torrential wind, the demonstration began in Marble Arch, where protesters gathered before heading to Downing Street - the official residence of Britain's prime minister.
While hundreds amassed in the courtyard of Marble Arch in central London holding Palestine flags and placards that called for "Sanctions on Israel" and an end to the bombing of Gaza, Barnaby Raine began the march a little earlier.
"I couldn't get on the train from like three stops away because the platform was so packed. So we just started walking up the street for two miles, walking up to Marble Arch where it was packed with people chanting 'Free, Free Palestine'," said Raine, who lives in London.
For Raine, this march is personal. He is Jewish and an outspoken advocate for the Palestine cause. Having marched for Palestine from a young age, Raine believes it is his duty as a Jew to protest for Palestine.
"It's very much because I am Jewish that I am out here today. I'm here because when I see the language of 'human animals' and 'children of darkness' and 'the law of the jungle', I know that the Israeli state didn't invent racism. They're merely deploying the language of racism that was developed over two millennia in Europe to harass and persecute Jews," said Raine.
"So my people were excluded and marginalised and eventually annihilated, and the same logic that motivated tsarist hatred and then colonialism all over the world is the same logic used by the Israeli state to paint Palestinians as savages to justify bombing Gaza."
'A genocide is being carried out in my name... and I'm here to say absolutely not'
- Esther Jones, Jewish American in London
Organised by Friends of Al-Aqsa, the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and other groups, pro-Palestine marchers could be seen waving Palestine flags as they moved through Piccadilly Circus, one of London's main iconic sites.
Organisers said at least 300,000 people marched on Saturday, dubbing the march the biggest pro-Palestine march in Europe in 20 years. Police put the figure at about 100,000 people.
While marchers headed down Park Lane, Aamira and her mum stood to the side, serving traditional Arab tea to protesters in little polystyrene cups as marchers bopped their heads to the song Dammi Falastini blasting from the balcony of a flat above them.
Refusing donations from people taking the cups of tea, Aamira said the pictures coming out of Gaza made her come out to protest in London.
"It's my first protest. I keep seeing the videos on social media and I keep thinking, how can we continue with our daily lives?" Aamira told Middle East Eye.
Amira handed out cups of tea to protesters in London during the pro-Palestine march (MEE/Areeb Ullah)
Organisers said that people from across the UK, including Birmingham and Leeds, had come on buses for the protest.
More than 1,000 police were deployed ahead of the march, with the Metropolitan Police warning that anyone showing support for Hamas, a group proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the UK, or deviating from the protest route could face arrest.
The Met also added that the chant "Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea" would not be deemed illegal in a protest setting. But protesters who use this chant outside a synagogue or Jewish school or directly at a Jewish person or group intended to intimidate would be deemed unlawful.
Esther Jones is an American national who works as a consultant in London and has family in Israel.
Holding a sign that reads "Jews against Genocide", Jones said that from a young age, Jews are often asked, "What would you do if you were there during the Holocaust?"
"And to be honest this is why I am here. Me being here today is because a genocide is being carried out in my name, in the name of the Jewish people, and I'm here to say absolutely not," said Jones.
Esther Jones holding a sign labelled “Jews against genocide” during the pro-Palestine march (MEE/Areeb Ullah)
When asked how her family in the US and Israel reacted to her marching today in London, Jones said: "I'd rather my family members not talk to me and be here today than choose silence to maintain relationships with people who are okay with what's happening."
Walking down Green Park, the rain intensified, but marchers continued to head towards Downing Street. Parents who brought their children carried them on their shoulders and covered themselves with jackets against the rain.
Thousands of marchers braved the rain and torrential weather to march for Palestine in central London (MEE/Areeb Ullah)
Some Muslim men and women prayed their afternoon prayers on side streets as marchers guarded them against potential reprisals in light of reports of growing Islamophobia and antisemitism since Hamas launched its assault into southern Israel and Israel's began its intense bombardment of Gaza.
'A genocide is happening'
For the last two weeks, Israel has been bombing the densely populated Gaza Strip, when Palestinian fighters launched a surprise attack in which around 1,400 Israelis were killed and hundreds of others were taken captive.
In two weeks, the Israeli bombardment of Gaza has killed at least 4,385 Palestinians, including 1,756 children.
Amid the crowds, six men dressed in lycra from head to toe slowly pushed their bikes. Shams, who leads the HK Cycle Club, has fundraised thousands of pounds for Gaza.
"We've actually raised money for a school bus to a local school in Gaza and funds for hospitals in Gaza with solar panels," said Shams.
"But to see what has happened in the last few weeks has been devastating. A genocide is happening."
Earlier on Saturday, Egyptian authorities confirmed that a small supply of medical equipment and canned food items entered Gaza from Egypt.
Crowds gathered in Downing Street to protest for Palestine (MEE/Areeb ULLAH)
But despite the growing humanitarian crisis, Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman, said that no fuel would enter Gaza, as hospitals run out of petrol and diesel to fuel their generators.
Ismail Patel, who heads the Friends of Al-Aqsa group and helped organise Saturday's march, said the "climate surrounding Palestine is shifting".
"Communities from across the UK have come together to send a clear message to the British government: the era of complicity in British war crimes must end," Patel said.
"As we stand united in our thousands on the streets of London, this marks a watershed moment, a turning point in the history of British solidarity with Palestine."
A mass burial takes place for 43 unidentified Palestinians killed in Israeli bombing (Palestinian Ministry of Health)
Unidentified mothers, still clutching onto their children, were among 43 Palestinians buried in a mass grave on Saturday in the besieged Gaza Strip.
According to the local government media office, authorities and citizens have had difficulty identifying many victims of Israeli bombings, forcing them to bury them in a mass grave.
The burial took place in the al-Tuffah neighbourhood in Gaza, with many of the bodies described as being "scattered pieces and limbs", according to the Ministry of Health.
Israel's intense bombing of Gaza over the past 15 days has killed more than 4,385 people, 70 percent of whom are children, women and elderly people. In the same period, 1,400 people in Israel were also killed.
Israel's bombardment has caused devastating damage to civilian infrastructure, levelling residential buildings atop their residents and leaving many corpses torn apart and dismembered, making them difficult to identify.
Authorities state that the remains of people have been mixed together and that some have been wounded so critically that they are no longer recognisable.
Unborn foetuses, who were in their mothers' bodies when they were torn apart from Israeli shelling, were among some of those buried on Saturday, according to Palestinian officials.
In Gaza, whether we flee or stay, each night may be our last
This is the second time Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to conduct a mass burial for unidentified people since 7 October.
Since Israel cut off all access to food, water, electricity, fuel and aid on 9 October, Palestinians in Gaza have not been able to store the bodies of the dead in mortuary freezers, which no longer function.
The overwhelming number of casualties, coupled with the lack of equipment, meant that bodies needed to be buried quickly, even if they had not been identified by family members yet.
In some parts of Gaza, ice-cream trucks have been used to store bodies of the dead as mortuary freezers stopped working. In other neighbourhoods, bodies have piled up on the streets.
Rubble from demolished buildings has also posed challenges, as family members are no longer able to visit hospitals to identify the dead due to blocked roads and ongoing bombardment.
'Honouring martyrs'
Salam Marouf, the head of the government media office, said that they have tried to group family members together during burials as much as possible.
"We took the step to honour the martyrs by burying them," Marouf said in a statement. "Their features began to change in [the morgue]," he added.
The first "emergency cemetery" was established on 15 October, with the Ministry of Health overseeing the dead who could be identified, while those who couldn't be identified were overseen by the Ministry of Endowments and forensic teams.
"The occupation does not respect human dignity, not the alive nor the dead. They have killed people in their homes without warning. Israel does not even respect people's rights after murdering them, with a burial befitting them and allowing their loved ones to bid them farewell and bury them," Maarouf said in a previous statement.
🎥 للمرة الثانية خلال العدوان .. دفن جماعي قرابة 43 شهيد مجهول الهوية في مقبرة الطوارئ. pic.twitter.com/3tTvC9trdu
— لكي الله يا امتى ( علي المواطن ) (@x4x6NvxwwqqK2Rt) October 21, 2023
Before burying the dead, the ministries take a photo of each person and document any distinguishing features on them, so that families may check the photos and contact the health ministry if they recognise the individuals at a later date.
Each person buried in the mass grave is also given a number and documented, allowing family members to come by and check if their loved ones are among the dead.
The white shrouds which are used to wrap the dead are also in short supply due to the number of those killed over the past 15 days.
Israel cutting off all water supplies to the besieged enclave also means that bodies cannot be washed and prepared for burial in accordance with Islamic law, as typically ghusl, which is a form of ablution or bath, is carried out to cleanse the body before burials.
The Israeli military dropped leaflets telling residents they would be identified as "a partner in a terrorist organisation" if they didn't follow forced displacement orders (Screenshot/X)
The Israeli military has informed Palestinians in Gaza that they would be identified as "a partner in a terrorist organisation" if they didn't follow forced displacement orders and move south.
The threatening leaflets, which were dropped by drones on Saturday, come after Israel ordered 1.1 million residents in the northern part of the Gaza Strip to move to the south, with no guarantee of safety or return.
The leaflets are addressed to residents of Gaza and read: "Urgent warning! To the residents of Gaza - your presence north of Wadi Gaza is putting your lives at risk. Anyone who chooses not to evacuate from the north of the Gaza Strip to the south of the Gaza Strip may be identified as a partner in a terrorist organisation."
Israel's bombardment along with the ejection orders, which have been decried as a crime against humanity and a blatant violation of international humanitarian law by a UN expert, have led to the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. However, many refuse to leave their homes despite the threat of bombing.
Israel's relentless campaign in Gaza over the past 15 days has killed more than 4,385 people, 70 percent of whom are children, women and elderly people. In the same period, 1,400 people in Israel were killed by Palestinian armed groups.
The latest Israeli warning comes as the military says it's preparing to launch a ground invasion of Gaza, while keeping water, food, fuel and electricity supplies completely cut off from the besieged strip for nearly two weeks.
This is not the first time Israel has used drones to drop leaflets demanding that residents in Gaza leave their homes.
Last week, leaflets were dropped in northern Gaza, warning citizens to leave their homes in the north and head south of Wadi Gaza.
"Gaza has been transformed into a battlefield," the leaflet read. "For your safety, you must not return to your homes until further notice."
Private homes a 'legitimate target'
On Saturday, a senior Israeli official also said that the definition of what constitutes a "legitimate target" has now changed and that private homes could be considered a legitimate target.
According to the official, civilian infrastructure that he claimed is being "used by Hamas" turns "a private home into a legitimate target".
"Anyone who supports that home is a legitimate target," he added, as reported in Israeli media.
The official also acknowledged that the Israeli army has attacked homes where civilians are living among alleged Hamas members.
The Euro-Med human rights monitor said that over a quarter of the area of Gaza City and northern Gaza has been affected by the destruction and that 20 percent of houses there are no longer fit for habitation.
The Beit Hanoun neighbourhood, located on the outskirts of the northern Gaza Strip, is the most severely affected, with approximately 60 percent of its buildings either destroyed or heavily damaged.
The rights monitor states that these figures are not final, with the numbers likely to grow as Israel continues its bombardment.
Amnesty International has documented several unlawful attacks carried out by Israel, including indiscriminate bombing, which have caused mass casualties that the organisation says must be investigated as war crimes.
The UN has also condemned Israel's bombing of civilian infrastructure and the shelling of densely populated areas.
A man checks the damage inside a building in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin after an Israeli air strike on 22 October 2023 (AFP)
The Israeli military killed five Palestinians in aerial and ground attacks across the occupied West Bank in the early hours of Sunday.
A reported Israeli fighter jet struck a mosque in Jenin around 3am local time, killing two people inside, the Palestinian ministry of health said.
Another three people were killed by Israeli troops during military raids in Tubas, Nablus and Qabatiya town south of Jenin.
At least 90 Palestinians, including 30 children, have been killed by Israeli troops and settlers in 16 days since the flare-up with Gaza started earlier this month.
The West Bank death toll is a large spike compared to previous years. An average of around 20 were killed per month in the Palestinian territory before October this year, which was already seeing the highest death toll in two decades.
Since 7 October, Israel has placed the West Bank under lockdown, closing checkpoints, fortifying the entrances to towns and villages, and imposing strict restrictions on travel in and out of the border with Jordan.
The army has also stepped up raid-and-arrest attacks in Palestinian towns and villages while settler violence has risen by more than 40 percent.
On Thursday, the military killed 13 Palestinians, including five children, in the Nour Shams refugee camp near Tulkarm during a 24-hour raid that left wide-scale destruction in its wake.
West Bank settlers run riot as Palestinians are shot and abducted
The air strike on Jenin refugee camp, a densely populated area, marks a major escalation by the Israeli military. Aerial attacks are not commonly used in the West Bank.
The Israeli military said they targeted an "underground tunnel" at the mosque. Middle East Eye could not independently verify the claim.
The military added that it used an "aircraft" without providing further details. According to Haaretz, a fighter jet carried out the air strike in a first in the West Bank since the Second Intifada between 2000-2005.
Shortly after the mosque was bombed, Israeli intelligence officers called many families of Palestinian fighters from Jenin who are on Israel's list of wanted people.
During the calls, some of which were heard by MEE, the Israeli officer threatened to assassinate the "wanted people" if their families didn't tell them to surrender themselves to the Israeli military before 7:00 am on Monday.
“If you want your son to live, tell him to surrender himself,” the officer is heard saying in on one call to the father of one the Palestinian fighters.
In July, the Israeli military carried out a large-scale assault in Jenin that lasted for 48 hours and included the use of drone attacks and ground troops. At least 12 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier were killed.
The escalation in the West Bank coincides with growing aerial attacks by Israel in Lebanon and Syria, while the air force has continued to pound Gaza round the clock for over two weeks.
On 7 October, Palestinian fighters carried out a deadly surprise attack in southern Israel, killing at least 1,400 people. Israel has responded by relentlessly bombing Gaza, killing more than 4,385 people, 70 percent of whom are children, women and elderly people.
Additional reporting by Fayha Shalash in Ramallah.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby in London, on 7 February 2023 (AFP)
In a break from official British policy, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby on Sunday issued an urgent call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and an end to Israel'sbombing of civilians.
The archbishop joined forces with other Christian leaders in Jerusalem to demand an "immediate humanitarian ceasefire so that food, water, and vital medical supplies can safely be delivered to the relief agencies ministering to the hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians in Gaza".
The statement from the leader of England's state church directly contradicts the policy of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who last week ordered Britain to abstain on a United Nations ceasefire resolution.
However, it aligns the Church of England with the estimated 100,000 demonstrators who marched through London on Saturday calling for an immediate end to the Israeli bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip.
On 7 October, hundreds of Palestinian fighters attacked Israeli communities near the boundary with Gaza, killing around 1,400 Israelis. More than 200 Israelis were taken captive and taken back to Gaza in the Hamas-led assault.
Since then, Israel has waged a relentless bombing campaign on the coastal enclave, killing more than 4,300 Palestinians. The majority of casualties on both sides have been civilians, many of them children.
The archbishop's strongly worded call for a ceasefire, issued jointly with the patriarchs and heads of several Jerusalem churches, opens an unprecedented rift between Britain's political and religious establishment over the Gaza war.
It comes after a strike on Thursday night on a 1,600-year-old church, where an Israeli bomb hit an annex sheltering Palestinians. Eighteen people, including nine children, were killed in the attack.
The church leaders' statement expressed "in the strongest possible terms, our condemnation of the Israeli air strikes that exploded without warning at the Orthodox church compound of Saint Porphyrios in Gaza".
"We cannot ignore that this is but the latest instance of innocent children being injured or killed as a result of missile strikes against other shelters of last resort," it added.
The statement continued: "Among these are schools and hospitals where refugees had fled because their homes were demolished in the relentless bombing campaign waged against residential areas in Gaza over the past two weeks.
"We call upon all warring parties to de-escalate the violence, cease from indiscriminately targeting civilians on all sides, and operate within the international rules of warfare."
Speaking to Middle East Eye after communion at the Sunday service at St George's Anglican Cathedral in occupied East Jerusalem, Welby said that "all bombings of civilians is wrong. We have already called for a ceasefire and safe humanitarian passage."
Israel-Palestine war: A quick history of Christianity in Gaza
He added: "Everyone knows how difficult and chaotic wars are. The essential is that the principals of just fighting a war and the discrimination principal between combatants and non-combatants is held to really, really strictly. In an urban environment it's hard to exaggerate how hard that is but also how necessary that is."
Asked if Israel should delay its planned ground offensive in Gaza to allow time to free more captives, the archbishop said it was not for him to say.
On Friday, Hamas released two US citizens, and claimed the next day it had been prevented from releasing two more by Israel, which the Israelis denied.
Earlier on Sunday, the archbishop had served communion to approximately 150 worshippers at St George's Anglican Cathedral.
During his sermon, he condemned deadly Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, as well as bombing in Gaza. The service was taken by the archbishop at the end of a three-day visit to Jerusalem.
Among the church leaders who supported the statement were Theophilos 111, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem; the Latin Patriarch Fuad Twai; and the Armenian and Coptic patriarchs.
Israel-Palestine war: 'Chemical weapons manual' shown by Israeli president is biography of a bomber
Document Isaac Herzog said showed Hamas intended to stage a chemical weapons attack is an al-Qaeda biography of World Trade Center attacker Ramzi Yousef
Israeli President Isaac Herzog produces a page from the al-Qaeda document on Sky News (screengrab)
A document presented by Israeli President Isaac Herzog as proof that Hamas intended to develop chemical weapons is actually an amateur biography of World Trade Center attacker Ramzi Yousef and contains no instructions on how to develop chemical weapons.
In an interview with Sky News, Herzog presented what he said was an "official" 2003 al-Qaeda manual that he claimed contained instructions on how to make chemical weapons.
He said the document was found on the body of one of the Hamas operatives who attacked southern Israel on 7 October and killed around 1,400 Israelis. Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed more than 5,000 Palestinians since. The majority of both tolls are civilians, many of them children.
"It's al-Qaeda material. Official al-Qaeda material. We are dealing with ISIS, al-Qaeda and Hamas. And in this material there were instructions on how to produce chemical weapons," Herzog said of the document.
"This is how shocking the situation is where we're looking at the instructions that are given on how to operate and how to create a kind of non-professional chemical weapon with cyanide."
The document he presented is attributed to the "Supreme Paradise Brigades, one of the battalions of the International Islamic Front for Jihad on Jews and Crusaders" and is adorned with a logo associated with the Islamic State group.
Readily available on the internet, the 30-page book contains no instructions on how to make chemical weapons but makes reference to the Kuwait-born Yousef's life working for al-Qaeda, especially his role in the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center.
The document, which is supportive of al-Qaeda and lauds Yousef as a hero, emphasises his "academic background in chemistry from Swansea University, which qualified him for his jihadist role later".
Another page from the document references the Bojinka Plan, which involved blowing up 11 planes en route from Asia to the United States in 1995, as well as assassinating the "crusader" Pope John Paul II.
At one point in the text, it states that "the use of phosgene gas was also studied, which is a chemical weapon twenty times more powerful than chlorine gas, which caused 70 percent of human casualties in the battles of World War I, and which kills its victim by paralysing the lungs".
However, no further information on the production of the gas is given.
Yousef, whose real name is Abdul Basit Mahmoud Abdul Karim, is currently serving multiple life sentences in a prison in the US over his involvement in the 1993 bombing, which killed seven people.
Relations between Hamas, IS, and al-Qaeda has been complicated over the years, though the latter two organisations' opposition to Palestinian nationalism has generally driven an ideological wedge between them and Hamas.
Israel's western allies reportedly want their hostages freed before Israel invades (AFP)
US officials are reportedly urging Israel to delay its planned ground invasion of Gaza to allow more time to negotiate the release of American hostages.
A New York Times report on Sunday said American diplomates wanted more time to allow aid into the besieged Palestinian enclave.
According to the paper, Biden administration officials also want more time to prepare for potential attacks on US interests in the region by the Iran-backed groups that are expected to retaliate in the event of a ground invasion.
US President Joe Biden called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday afternoon to discuss the latest developments in Gaza.
White House officials said that Biden had also spoken to the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany and Italy.
But despite their reservations and calls for aid deliveries into Gaza, US officials still support the idea of a ground invasion and Israeli plans to “eradicate” Hamas from Gaza.
Two US officials said the advice to the Israelis to hold off on the land war was being conveyed through US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin III.
An Israeli embassy official in Washington denied claims that the US was asking for a delay in the ground invasion and said: “We have a close dialogue and consultations with the US administration. The US is not pressing Israel in regards to the ground operation.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also refused to say whether Washington was calling for a delay in the ground invasion on Sunday, stating that Washington was advising on the ground invasion instead.
The reported caution regarding a ground invasion comes as Hamas said Israel was not “serious” about releasing hostages.
The group says Israel refused to accept the return of two elderly hostages from Gaza.
Israeli officials have dismissed the Hamas claim, calling it “propaganda”.
Hamas has also stated that other armed groups in Gaza are holding hostages, making it more difficult to negotiate the release of all of them at once.
Several Western countries with nationals who are being held hostage are also said to be putting pressure on Israel to delay any potential ground offensive until they get their nationals out of Gaza.
Protesters hold up a map along with Palestinian flags and placards during a demonstration near Downing Street in 2018 (AFP)
At demonstrations across the world in support of the Palestinians and in opposition to Israel's ongoing assault on Gaza, one refrain can regularly be heard: "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free."
The slogan has been around for decades among Palestinians and pro-Palestinian campaigners and refers to liberating the territory that exists between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean Sea in historic Palestine.
But many Israelis and supporters of Israel have claimed that the chant effectively calls for genocide and implies the destruction of Israel.
In mid-October, police in Vienna banned a pro-Palestine protest on the basis of the chant, claiming it was a call to violence.
And while London's Metropolitan Police said they would not be arresting protesters who chanted the slogan at a pro-Palestine protest over the weekend, the UK Home Secretary has publicly stated that she believes police should intervene, suggesting that the chant is an "expression of a violent desire to see Israel erased from the world".
The origins of the phrase date back to the original debate over partition in the 1940s.
As the British Empire ended its mandate controlling historic Palestine, the then-fledgling United Nations proposed partitioning the territory into Jewish and Palestinian states.
This plan, which would have seen 62 percent of the territory under Israeli control, was fiercely rejected by Arab leaders at the time. In the aftermath of the British withdrawal, war broke out, which saw more than 700,000 Palestinians driven from their homes in what became known as the Nakba, or "catastrophe".
Following the war, the State of Israel was declared, while the West Bank remained under Jordanian control and Egypt controlled the Gaza Strip. Following the 1967 war, these territories would come under Israeli occupation.
Since the creation of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) by diaspora Palestinians in 1964, the position on Palestinian nationhood - and Israel - has changed repeatedly.
Until 1988, the official position of the PLO was to call for the creation of a single state in historic Palestine that would encompass all its historic territories.
In its 1964 charter, the PLO said this state would be an "Arab homeland bound by strong national ties to the rest of the Arab countries and which together form the large Arab homeland". It also denounced Zionism as "a colonialist movement".
The charter also stated that "Jews of Palestinian origin are considered Palestinians if they are willing to live peacefully and loyally in Palestine."
By the 1970s, however, the PLO leadership gradually changed its stance, and by 1988 had officially adopted the principle of a two-state solution.
This stance has been rejected by other Palestinians factions, including the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) - who advocate a secular, socialist state for all residents of historic Palestine - and Islamist movement Hamas, which called for an Islamic state.
Since 1993, the official position of much of the international community has chimed with the PLO in calling for the creation of a Palestinian state on the territory occupied during the 1967 war, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Although supported by many Palestinians, the prospect of a Palestinian state on just 22 percent of historic Palestine has been seen by many as an historic injustice, with academic Edward Said describing it as "capitulation" by the PLO.
As Israeli settlements have been built in increasing numbers in the West Bank, and the prospects for the success of peace negotiations have retreated, increasingly the discussion has returned to the question of a single state in which Israelis and Palestinians share equal rights, "from the river to the sea".
Why is it controversial?
Supporters of Israel have, since its creation, argued that the maintenance of a Jewish-majority state is necessary for Jewish security after the Holocaust - and that the establishment of a secular state risks undermining this.
Writing for the Jewish outlet Forward in 2018, historian Maha Nassar pointed out that there had never been an "official Palestinian position calling for the forced removal of Jews from Palestine" and that the slogan had never meant this.
"It was part of a larger call to see a secular democratic state established in all of historic Palestine," she argued. "Palestinians hoped their state would be free from oppression of all sorts, from Israeli as well as from Arab regimes."
However, Nassar acknowledged that in such a state - one which did not privilege Jews over non-Jews and where they risked having minority status - many would no longer wish to remain.
"To be sure, a lot of Palestinians thought that in a single democratic state, many Jewish Israelis would voluntarily leave, like the French settlers in Algeria did when that country gained its independence from the French," she said.
"Their belief stemmed from the anti-colonial context in which the Palestinian liberation movement arose."
Labour leader Keir Starmer meeting members of the Muslim community in South Wales Islamic Centre (Supplied: Labour Party)
Keir Starmer has faced fresh criticism from the Muslim community in the UK after posting a tweet saying he had used a visit to a mosque in South Wales to reiterate Labour's call for Hamas to release hostages held in Gaza since its attack on southern Israel on 7 October.
Posting on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, following his visit to the South Wales Islamic Centre, Starmer said: "I repeated our calls for all hostages to be released, more humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, for the water and power to be switched back on, and a renewed focus on the two-state solution."
Since his post, the Cardiff mosque has faced a backlash over its decision to host Starmer, who has faced previous criticism over comments in which he appeared to defend Israel's decision to cut off electricity and water to the Gaza Strip.
In a statement posted after the visit, the mosque said it had told Starmer his comments were "totally wrong" and offensive to Muslims.
"Facing him is better than avoiding him. We raised all our complaints, and we criticised him for what he said," it said.
"It is best to face those whom we disagree with and show them the truth. What he mentioned recently is totally wrong and has offended us Muslims which is totally unacceptable.
"We asked him to put pressure on the government to allow humanitarian aid to enter the people of Gaza and to stop these massacres, which are happening in Gaza."
In further tweets posted on Monday, Starmer said he had been "questioned by members" about his stance on Gaza during the visit to the mosque.
"I made clear it is not and has never been my view that Israel had the right to cut off water, food, fuel or medicines. International law must be followed," he said.
Critics took to social media to condemn Starmer for the initial tweet and questioned why he would use a visit to a mosque to call for hostages held by Hamas to be released.
The Muslim Association of Britain said Starmer's visit to the South Wales Mosque was a: "Rather embarrassing photo opp for the Labour Party."
It added: "Keir Starmer visited a mosque and called for hostages to be released. Are the hostages being held in a South Wales Mosque?"
Frances Coppola said on X: "If you marched into a Jewish community demanding that Israel cease military actions in Gaza, you'd be rightly accused of antisemitism.
"So, why do you think it is okay to march into a Muslim community demanding that a terror group that [has] nothing to do with it release hostages."
While Faridah asked Kier Starmer: "What exactly can the Muslim community in the south of Wales do about [releasing hostages]? Or are you assuming that all Muslims are Hamas?"
Former Labour adviser Matt Zarb-Cousin also tweeted sarcastically: "Just off to the South Wales Islamic Centre to ask them to release the hostages."
One-month-old Khaled, Abdul-Khaleq, Mahmoud and Maha were killed in an Israeli attack on their home in Gaza City (X)
After 15 years of failing to conceive, Wafaa and Fadi al-Baba, a married couple from the Gaza Strip, thought they would need a miracle to have children.
Wafaa had long had a profile picture on her Facebook account featuring a woman in prayer with the caption: "God, give me what I wish to have."
And on 9 September, the miracle Wafaa and Fadi had prayed for happened when Maha, Khaled, Abdul-Khaleq, and Mahmoud - a quadruplet set of a girl and three boys - were born.
Despite over a decade of waiting, the couple had not given up hope and finally resorted to in vitro fertilisation treatment.
Their story became known among the people of Gaza, and many shared their congratulations to the happy couple on social media after the birth was reported on local news.
Tragically, however, the dream would prove to be short-lived. Exactly one month later, Wafaa and her four babies would be killed in an Israeli air strike on their home in Gaza City, leaving Fadi the sole survivor of his new family.
The 19 October attack also killed 10 more members of the al-Baba family. They are among the 5,087 people, the majority of whom are women and children, who have been killed in over two weeks of Israeli bombing.
The Israeli military has carried an unrelenting bombing campaign on the besieged Gaza Strip since Hamas launched a surprise land, air, and sea attack on Israel on 7 October. Around 1,400 people have been killed in Israel, the majority were civilians.
Fadi and Wafaa had chosen to name two of their children after their fathers, Khaled al-Baba and Abdul-Khaleq al-Swerki, a relative told Middle East Eye.
The tragic ending of Wafaa and Fadi’s story saw Palestinians and people around the world grieve the family on social media, with most highlighting the couple’s long journey to conceive children.
“Following a long life of trying, they finally had quadruplets. But after a month, Israel decided that this happiness must not continue, and killed Wafaa and her four children,” an X user wrote on the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Wafaa's sister, Duaa, also took to social media to express her grief over the loss of her sister and her babies.
She shared a photo of the family's home, now reduced to ruins, with the caption: "O’ visitor, be gentle when you knock, for there are no longer any people in the house."
The USS Gerald R. Ford, the world's largest aircraft carrier, is in the eastern Mediterranean (AFP)
The United States is preparing to wage war on three fronts in the expectation that Israel’s attack on Gaza will escalate into a regional conflict, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said.
In an interview with NBC on Sunday, Blinken said US military forces in the Middle East were ready for a possible conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and northern Israel, and for attacks on US forces in the Middle East by Iran-backed groups.
“We don’t want to see a second or third front develop. We don’t want to see our forces or our personnel come under fire. But if that happens, we’re ready for it,” said Blinken.
Blinken was speaking after US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Saturday that additional US troops were preparing to deploy to the region.
Austin also announced the deployment of more missile defence systems after US forces in Iraq last week said they had destroyed two drones and damaged another.
The US currently has 2,500 troops based in Iraq, and 900 in northeastern Syria as part of the international coalition against the Islamic State (IS) group. The largest US military base in the region is the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
He said a US aircraft carrier group which had previously been sent to the eastern Mediterranean would instead be "redirected to the Central Command area of responsibility".
Media reports in the US suggested the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, which departed from Norfolk, Virginia on 14 October, is now heading for the Gulf.
The US Navy's USS Gerald R. Ford, the largest aircraft carrier in the world, arrived in the eastern Mediterranean two weeks ago.
Asked about the deployment of more US forces and if he was concerned that Iran was trying to escalate the war in Gaza, Blinken said: “We are concerned. In fact, we expect that there’s a likelihood of escalation - escalation by Iranian proxies directed against our forces, directed against our personnel.
“We are taking steps to make sure that we can effectively defend our people and respond decisively if we need to.”
Speaking about the release of two US citizens held hostage by Hamas in Gaza since its 7 October attacks on southern Israel, Blinken said that efforts to secure the release of more hostages were ongoing.
He thanked the government of Qatar for its “important role” in securing the release of Judith and Natalie Raanan, and said: “We’re hopeful that more follow… This is something we’re engaged in virtually around the clock.”
The New York Times reported on Sunday that US President Joe Biden had called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday afternoon to ask him to delay a ground assault, to allow more time to negotiate further hostage releases and for more humanitarian aid to reach Gaza.
The White House said in a statement: “The leaders affirmed that there will now be continued flow of this critical assistance into Gaza. The president expressed appreciation for Israel’s support in helping to accommodate the release of two American hostages.
“The leaders discussed ongoing efforts to secure the release of all the remaining hostages taken by Hamas - including US citizens - and to provide for safe passage for US citizens and other civilians in Gaza who wish to depart.”
Asked whether the US had asked Israel to delay a ground operation in Gaza until more hostages can be freed, Blinken said: “We’re not in the business of second-guessing what they’re doing. We are talking to them on a regular basis about how they do it.
“But these are decisions that Israel has to make. We can give our best advice, our best judgment, again, about how they do it and also how best to achieve the results that they’re seeking.”
Saraj had lost close colleagues to Israeli fire before being killed in an air strike himself (Twitter)
Friends and colleagues are remembering the Palestinian photojournalist Rushdi al-Saraj, who was killed in his home by an Israeli air strike on 22 October, according to local media reports.
The director of Gaza’s Ain Media organisation, Saraj died days after his colleague Ibrahim Lafi was also killed in an Israeli air strike.
According to Radio France Internationale (RFI), a news outlet Saraj had been working for as a fixer for its Gaza coverage since 2021, the 31-year-old was killed in the Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood of Gaza City.
“Despite the dangers of wartime, he preferred to stay at home in the northern Gaza Strip, explaining that his family had fled Jaffa in 1948 and that he did not want to relive a second Nakba,” said the former RFI correspondent in Jerusalem, Frederic Metezeau in an interview with the station.
Saraj's wife and 11-month-old daughter were also injured in the strike, Radio France reported.
“He was the one who informed us first, the one who risked his life, at a time when no one can enter,” said RFI journalist Alice Froussard, on X, formerly Twitter.
During the course of his career, Saraj had built a reputation for reliability in his work with news outlets and international human rights organisations.
Also on X, Agnes Callamard, the secretary general of Amnesty International, wrote:
“We have lost a friend and colleague: Rushdi Saraj, who worked with @Amnesty on a short film, was murdered today in an Israeli air strike. Rushdi was a talented film maker and journalist - another victim of Israel bombing of Gaza.”
At least 23 journalists have been killed since 7 October, when Hamas launched an unprecedented attack in southern Israel, killing around 1,400 people and taking at least 200 people hostage.
Israel's response has killed at least 5,000 Palestinians in Gaza, the vast majority civilians.
Showing the 'other side' of Gaza
At least 19 Palestinian journalists have been killed so far in the conflict. Three Israeli journalists have also been killed, including photographer Yaniv Zohaf, who previously reported for AP.
Zohaf was killed during the attack on Kibbutz Nahal Oz in southern Israel on 7 October.
Saraj was interviewed days before his death by The Washington Post, about the killing of his Palestinian colleagues during the war.
“Rushdi spoke of his late Palestinian colleagues with pride,” Jennifer Hassan, a breaking news reporter for The Washington Post, wrote on X. “Today we discovered that Rushdi was killed in an Israeli airstrike on his home.”
We have lost a friend and colleague: Rushdi Saraj, who worked with @Amnesty on a short film, was murdered today in an Israeli air strike. Rushdi was a talented film maker and a journalist - another victim of Israel bombing of Gaza https://t.co/yHAmSL1Iwe
In a 2016 interview with UNRWA, Saraj spoke about how life in Gaza, though difficult under Israeli restrictions, was about much more than suffering, poverty, misery and destruction.
“I am a Palestinian refugee and I can reflect life in Gaza to the world because I am a part of it; but I also want to show the other side of Gaza, the hope, the happiness and the love,” Saraj said.
Palestinian journalists have been working in life-threatening conditions to share stories about the suffering of their community in Gaza, where an Israeli siege has severed access to water and power and there are no international journalists.
But the targeting of journalists in Gaza did not begin with the most recent Israeli siege, and Saraj had previously lost colleagues to Israeli army fire.
Five years ago, he was working with his friend and fellow Palestinian photojournalist Yaser Murtaja when 30-year-old Murtaja - who was wearing a clearly marked “PRESS” flak jacket - was shot and killed by Israeli forces.
Israel denied it had targeted Murtaja, who was covering a protest by Palestinians in Gaza who were demanding their return to lands lost to Israel during the Nakba.
Together, Saraj and Murtaja had founded a media company that liaised with international news organisations with the aim of providing coverage from Gaza.
Protection for journalists
The protection of journalists as civilians is a requirement under international law, including UN Security Council Resolution 2222/2015, which relates to the protection of journalists and associated media personnel in situations of conflict.
Israel has a history of killing Palestinian journalists, including veteran Palestinian-American Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot dead by an Israeli soldier in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on 11 May 2022 while covering an Israeli military operation.
Israel-Palestine war: Locals recount Israeli air strike that killed three journalists
Initially, Israel accused Palestinian gunmen of killing Abu Akleh but later accepted responsibility, claiming a bullet aimed at Palestinian gunmen “accidentally hit” Abu Akleh.
“In previous attacks and killings of journalists by the Israeli army, we saw no serious attempts to impartially investigate or hold those responsible accountable,” said Amr Magdi, a senior researcher for the Middle East and North Africa at Human Rights Watch.
“It speaks to the impunity Israeli soldiers enjoy, backed by unconditional western support that is largely based on interests rather than values,” Magdi added, in comments made after the recent Israeli attack on journalists in Lebanon, which killed Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah.
“The ongoing ICC investigation into crimes in Israel/Palestine by all parties should include a special focus on attacks against media workers and journalists," Magdi said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan meets with Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Ankara on 26 July (Reuters)
Turkey asked Hamas’ top leadership to leave the country on the day that hundreds of Palestinian fighters attacked Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip, several sources told Middle East Eye.
All of Hamas’ senior leaders in Turkey have since left the country after being asked to, two sources familiar with the issue said.
On Sunday, Al Monitor reported that Hamas' political leader Ismail Haniyeh and his entourage were “politely sent away” after footage circulated on social media of him giving prayers of thanks while watching the attack on TV in Istanbul.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether Khaled Meshaal is still in Turkey. Meshaal was head of Hamas’ political bureau until he was succeeded by Haniyeh in 2017, and is seen as a figurehead, not an official leader.
Last week he gave an in-person interview to Haberturk TV, apparently from within Turkey.
The presence of Hamas leaders in Turkey has long been a contentious issue and a target of Israeli anger.
However, many of them were sent to Turkey by Israel as part of the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange. Other senior Hamas leaders are based in Qatar, Lebanon and Gaza.
An Israeli source said they were trying to verify whether or not Hamas officials had left Turkey.
“If that is so, it will be seen as a very favourable act by Israel. Though officials in Israel would emphasise the need to do it long ago,” the source added.
One source told MEE that all Turkish engagements with the Hamas leadership were conducted over the phone, so senior officials weren't in Turkey in the first place.
A second source said that Hamas leaders did not stay in Turkey permanently, spending time in the country depending on talks, conferences and other events they attended there and abroad.
A third source with knowledge of the situation said Turkey may not have wanted to be seen hosting Hamas leaders on a day that the Palestinian movement led an attack that killed around 1,400 Israelis, the majority of them civilians, including children.
“The optics of it would have been damaging,” the source said.
However, a Palestinian source in Istanbul with knowledge about Hamas and its internal affairs told MEE: "There is a distortion. It is true that most of the Hamas officials went to Qatar. But they were not expelled from Turkey. Their purpose of leaving was to participate in the hostage negotiations in Qatar and Hamas meetings."
Shifting rhetoric
Since the Palestinian attack, Israel has relentlessly bombed the Gaza Strip, killing more than 5,000 Palestinians.
Though Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stuck with a balanced tone in the first days of the conflict, he later began to use much heavier rhetoric against Israel as the death toll rose sharply in Gaza.
Earlier this week, Erdogan called on Israel to stop its operations in Gaza, which he said amounted to “a genocide”.
The Turkish presidency denied in an Arabic post on X, formerly Twitter, that Turkey had asked Hamas leaders to leave the country.
Israel-Palestine war: Archbishop of Canterbury calls for Gaza ceasefire in break from UK policy
Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) also said that the president would attend a pro-Palestine rally in Istanbul on Sunday.
Turkey says it is actively involved in attempting to free the 222 Israelis taken captive by Palestinian fighters on 7 October. Hamas says they are being held across the Gaza Strip.
Last week, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said “many countries” had asked for Turkey’s help freeing the captives, many of whom are dual citizens of several western countries. Two US-Israeli captives have so far been freed by Hamas.
Relations between Israel and Turkey have been frosty for years, but improved late last year with the two exchanging ambassadors.
Ties between the two first soured in 2011 when Turkey expelled Israel's ambassador after a UN report into Israel's raid on the Mavi Marmara aid ship to Gaza in 2010, which killed nine Turkish citizens.
The rift was healed in 2016, when full diplomatic relations were restored and ambassadors were exchanged.
However, tensions were renewed in 2018 when Israeli forces killed scores of Palestinians taking part in the Great March of Return protests in Gaza. The protesters demanded the implementation of refugees' right of return and an end to the crippling siege on Gaza.
Last week, Israel withdrew all its diplomats from Turkey, citing security concerns.
Families and supporters of Israelis held captive in Gaza call for their release during a demonstration in Tel Aviv, 18 October 2023 (AP)
Two days after two US-Israeli women were released by Hamas, Israeli President Isaac Herzog invited representatives of the captives’ families to the presidential residency in Jerusalem.
Israel says Hamas took 222 people captive when it attacked communities near the Gaza Strip on 7 October, though that number may be higher, as the fate of several others is not yet known.
Though ostensibly the release of the women is a cause for celebration, the fact that the first of their number to be freed were citizens of a foreign country has caused mixed feelings among the Israeli public. There’s a fear that dual citizens are being prioritised while Israelis are being left to their fate.
Meanwhile, the arrival of humanitarian aid to Gaza after their release also caused disquiet, with some believing Israel had lost some leverage in allowing the aid’s passage and that it was a concession to US President Joe Biden.
Despite these feelings and many relatives’ dismay, the families’ representatives refused to raise the issue of dual nationals in their meeting with Herzog.
“We’ve come to hear. Just to hear, and hopefully it will be made clear to us that no one forgets our families who were kidnapped to Gaza,” the father of one captive, who arrived early, told Middle East Eye.
Among the representatives was Michal, the relative of three-year-old Abigail, who came holding her picture.
“Both of her parents and her two brothers were murdered. The neighbours noticed her, took her and then they too were kidnapped. I want the whole world to know that a three-year-old girl, who no longer has a father, mother and brothers, is there in Gaza and we don't know how she is doing,” Michal said.
“We feel like no one is listening to us. We want to raise public awareness everywhere; we want the world to at least listen to us.”
Supportive crowd
The meeting was scheduled for 6.30am and continued until 9am, while hundreds of Israelis, most of them residents of Jerusalem, stood on the pavement in front of the president's residence.
They held signs calling for the release of the abductees and Israeli flags, while Israeli and foreign media stood on the opposite side of the street.
As evening fell, the crowd began to sing softly and continuously - mainly familiar old songs from Israel’s early years, songs associated with the kibbutz movement, as well as those based on excerpts from Jewish sources.
Yellow ribbons, an international symbol for those awaiting the return of captives, were hung on trees and distributed to the crowd.
Hamas says its captives are being held across the Gaza Strip, which has been bombed relentlessly by Israel since the Palestinian attack that killed 1,400 Israelis.
More than 5,000 Palestinians have been killed in two weeks. Hamas has claimed some of its captives have been killed by Israeli strikes, without offering proof. It also accused Israel of refusing to receive two more captives on Saturday, which the Israelis denied.
Outside the presidential residency, Orian Hader told MEE about her 85-year-old grandmother Alma, who is among the captives.
“We sent the list of medicines she needed through the Red Cross, but unfortunately we did not receive any response, absolutely nothing. She is an old woman, she needs her medication, she cannot survive without them,” she said.
“I want them all back home before they all die. I want to hold my grandmother again and not bury her corpse. I'm here to make sure they get everyone back. There are old people there like my grandmother, there are babies, there are children... they must be brought home.”
'The only hope for us'
When the representatives emerged from their meeting, deep into the Israeli media’s evening news broadcasts, onlookers began to sing the national anthem.
Most of the families preferred not to stop in front of the television cameras and quickly escaped to their cars. But some agreed to say a few words.
One, the father of a young female soldier called Roni, spoke on behalf of the other families.
“This is the second meeting with the president. Tonight, we leave a little more encouraged, we hope that the situation will change. What we had tonight at the president's house was an inclusive meeting: the president listened to us and we left the meeting feeling a little bit better, with the understanding that our pain is being listened to,” he told journalists.
Israel-Palestine war: Captives’ families left wondering if war is the only priority
"The meeting was attended by President Herzog, his wife Michal, as well as Yossi Cohen, the former head of the Mossad. We did not receive any answers regarding the condition of our loved ones, but we felt that we were being listened to. It was an attentive meeting.”
No one was able to explain the presence of Cohen, long considered a close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. However, Roni’s father was informed that his daughter was one of seven abducted female soldiers and seven more missing from the military base at the Nahal Oz kibbutz.
A nine-month-old baby, its four-year-old brother and Abigail are also among the captives, they were told.
Roni’s father said, tearfully, that they had been promised that everything would be done to bring everyone home.
“This is the only hope for us, the parents and family members. It is a difficult and cruel event. We are still not talking about a deal or any plans for what will happen in the future. We don’t know if there are any such plans. Mostly they listened to us,” he said.
“I am currently addressing one person: the prime minister. I’m asking you personally: you recruited our girls, you sent them on a mission, so the demand is for you to bring back all the missing female soldiers.”
Students and teachers at CUNY have expressed outrage at the video from artist Tamy Ben-Tor (Screengrab from Youtube)
Students at the City University of New York (CUNY) are demanding the immediate termination of an adjunct faculty professor after she produced a parody video they say belittles and mocks Palestinians at a moment when tens of thousands of Gaza residents face annihilation at the hands of relentless Israeli aerial bombardment.
In their letter to the university, students with CUNY for Palestine, said the offensive video was not just racist, but that it had left Palestinian, Muslim and other Indigenous students feeling unsafe and unwelcome at a university that they say has been conspicuously silent about Israel's brutality in Gaza over the past 17 days.
As of Monday morning, more than 5,000 Palestinians have been killed, of which 2,000 have been children. At least 1,400 Israelis were killed during Hamas' attack on Israel on 7 October.
An estimated 15,273 Palestinians have been wounded in Israel's assault, with an additional 1,500 others, including 830 children, still unaccounted for, presumably trapped under rubble.
In the untitled video set to a relaxing piano score, Professor Tamy Ben-Tor, an Israeli performance artist and adjunct professor at Hunter College's MFA programme in CUNY, dresses up as what appears to be a brown, bearded academic mockingly showering praise on Hamas for their attacks on Israel.
"Dear Hamas, freedom fighters, hello. I'd like to start off by acknowledging I just had a cappuccino on the land of the Lenape people," Ben-Tor says, referring to the Native American group who lived on the northeastern coast of the US before European settlers arrived.
"I'd like to utter support for your freedom fight... I am still on the fence about the massacre of the babies," Ben-Tor continues.
"You are aware of the slaughter of innocent animals," the artist adds as she pretends to cry. "I am sorry. Cows can feel. You are a freedom fighter, we are freedom fighters. I am sure you will support our LGBTQ library with the women's rights movement," the artist added.
Double standards
A Palestinian student at CUNY, speaking on condition of anonymity due to fears of reprisals, told Middle East Eye that Ben-Tor's entire effort - from the mask to the make-up - is designed to vilify and discredit support for Palestinian resistance as detached from reality.
"The whole video uses racism in the name of art. She fully disrespects the Gazan kids murdered. It dehumanises Palestinians as a whole, mocks them in every way both physically and through words," the student said.
'The video was my emotional response to the odd affiliation of several intellectuals in our society, with a patriarchy of terrorists who wish to destroy everything we all stand for'
- Tamy Ben-Tor
"She says Hamas killed 'innocent babies' and raped the 'innocent women' referencing Palestinians who she believes stand by Hamas' doings. But as we all know, these doings have been rebutted by many fact-checkers that state Hamas has never beheaded babies nor raped women," the student added.
A professor at CUNY, also speaking to MEE on condition of anonymity, said the fact that an artist can casually put out a hateful and racist video like this shows how deep the dehumanisation of Palestinians and Indigenous peoples runs in Israeli society.
"From the hideous figure itself to the sheer glee with which it spews its vile racism, places this video within the genre of psychological horror. It is an open celebration of genocide," the professor said.
According to CUNY for Palestine's letter, the university's failure to speak plainly about Israel's bombardment of Gaza has "cultivated an environment where Zionists, like Tamy Ben-Tor, feel comfortable posting videos that contribute to the onslaught of anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab and Islamophobic violence around the United States and especially within New York City".
The letter adds that the issue is not limited to Ben-Tor alone. They say there have been concerns about other professors at Hunter College who express support for Israel's occupation "without acknowledging the tragic loss of 1,873 [now more than 2,000] Palestinian children".
"'Art' or 'satire' does not exist in a non-political vacuum and has been weaponized throughout the centuries to dehumanise marginalised people and to popularise oppressive and bigoted rhetoric."
The student from CUNY added that they expect the university to use "freedom of expression" as a means to defend the professor but say that's just an extension of double standards at both the university and American academia in general.
"Even a simple thing as pro-Israel flyers get to stay on university noticeboards but when Palestinians put up our own flyers, they are immediately removed. If we refuse, the 'safety officer' takes photos of our IDs and threatens us. And then they get to hide behind free speech when they attack us?"
A Hunter College spokesperson told MEE they were "aware of the post and it is under review.”
A question of art and satire
Following the publication of the video on 19 October on Ben-Tor's personal Instagram page, students say they have found other "outrageous" material from Ben-Tor.
"The Holocaust - what they call Shoah - is also photoshopped," Ben-Tor says, as the avatar Dr. Hammam to the camera, with a keffiyah hanging behind her.
"We are neither excited nor attracted by war. But the Jew craves war. He loves war and he needs war. This is why everything always happens to him," Ben-Tor adds.
Tamy Ben-Tor as Dr Hammam, Middle East expert and human rights activist, who spreads lies about Jewish people (Screengrab from Youtube)
Reacting to the criticism, Ben-Tor told MEE that 24 hours after the video was posted, she sent an apology to the university and student body.
Israel-Palestine war: Palestinian artist killed in Gaza air strike was a ‘one in a million talent’
In her letter, seen by MEE, Ben-Tor wrote that she "would like apologise to anyone who feels hurt or offended by this video".
"The video wasn't meant as a provocation. I am Israeli. However, I do not live in Israel, nor do I affiliate with its government's policies."
"The video was my emotional response to the odd affiliation of several intellectuals in our society, with a patriarchy of terrorists who wish to destroy everything we all stand for," Ben-Tor wrote.
Ben-Tor's video comes as several Israelis post videos on social media, in particular TikTok, where they can be seen ridiculing and mocking Palestinians narrating their experiences and struggles in Gaza.
Ben-Tor said that the outrage directed at her was driven by an edited version of the video which includes photos of the death and destruction in Gaza when her intention was to comment on the response to the attack on Israel.
"The video depicts a western academic who is too ignorant to know that Hamas is also against her," Ben-Tor said.
The 48-year-old from Jerusalem is an award-winning artist who describes her consciousness "as a sponge absorbing all of contemporary filth".
"The artistic process for me, in the form of a performance, is to solidify this sponge into a hard stamp tool and press it back onto the audience's consciousness for the duration of the performance," her bio on CUNY, reads.
"At the end, I hope they come out of it stained, impressed, as I am, by the ailments of this time which we live in."
Students said that her work wasn't merely reactionary; it encapsulated Zionist talking points and anti-Arab tropes.
Within the several hundred comments criticising her video on Instagram, Ben-Tor could be seen 'liking' comments saying things like "Do Arab countries even think freely?" and "Exposes the justifying of the biggest massacre of Jews after [the] holocaust", the students noted.
"We want to make it clear that we will not remain silent if accountability is not upheld, and we expect the college to adhere to its policies to protect its students," the student at CUNY added.
Israel-Palestine war: Jordan's US-allied king faces 'nightmare scenario' as Gaza invasion looms
King Abdullah II faces growing calls to cancel Jordan's peace treaty with Israel, as diplomats and experts warn of a 'combustible' situation in the Hashemite kingdom
Jordan's King Abdullah II (C), Crown Prince Hussein (2nd R) and Prince Hashem bin Abdullah (3rd R) visit the King Abdullah II Airbase and tour Prince Al Hussein bin Abdullah II Aerial Reconnaissance Wing on 24 July 2022 (AFP)
When Mossad agents poisoned a Hamas leader in Jordan in 1997, the country's king demanded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu provide the antidote to save the group's chief. If not, Israel and Jordan's 1994 peace treaty would be imperiled and the Mossad agents who botched the attempt would be put on trial.
Twenty-six years later, Khaled Meshaal, Hamas' former leader, is alive and based in Qatar calling for protests against Israel and the Israel-Jordan peace treaty still stands.
Netanyahu is in power again, this time huddling with Israeli generals, planning a ground invasion of Gaza, while protests denouncing Israel and the US have engulfed Jordan's capital, Amman.
Pressure is building on Jordan's current US-backed King Abdullah II to move against Israel, as his father, the late King Hussein, did in the spat known as the "Meshaal affair".
At least 1,400 Israelis were killed during Hamas' attack on Israel on 7 October. As of Monday morning, more than 5,000 Palestinians have been killed, of which 2,000 have been children, in Israel's bombing of Gaza.
An estimated 15,273 Palestinians have been wounded in Israel's assault, with an additional 1,500 others, including 830 children, still unaccounted for, presumably trapped under rubble.
"Israel is laying siege to Gaza and has their finger on the trigger to kick out all the Palestinians," a former senior Jordanian military commander told Middle East Eye. "What more does it take? Everyone wants to see the peace treaty ripped up."
Calls for King Abdullah II - from the streets and in government - to sever ties with Israel underscore the tightening vice the monarch is caught in as the Israel-Palestine war enters its third week and fears of a wider regional conflict intensify.
"I'm worried about what's going to happen in Jordan," Bruce Riedel, a former Middle East analyst for the CIA and the author of Jordan and America: An Enduring Friendship, told MEE.
"King Abdullah is under tremendous pressure and has no good options."
'In bed with the Americans'
Squeezed between Iraq, Syria, Israel, the occupied West Bank and Saudi Arabia, Jordan prides itself on being a bastion of stability in a volatile neighbourhood.
Amman is one of the most US-friendly capitals in the region, the de facto city of choice for Western NGOs and Arabic language students alike.
Jordan's Hashemite monarchy receives about $1.6bn per year in aid from the US. At least 3,000 US troops are stationed at bases throughout the country where they partner with the Jordanian armed forces in "counterterrorism" operations.
Now, the country's normally soft-spoken diplomats are lashing out publicly against Israel, warning it not to take steps that amount to "a declaration of war", while the king has accused Israel - his peace partner - of committing a "war crime" by laying siege to the Gaza Strip.
Jordanian officials are trying to keep up with their people's rage.
Jordanian security stand by during a protest outside the Israeli embassy in Amman on 18 October 2023 (AFP)
Thousands of protesters gathered in Amman and throughout the country - in front of the US embassy in the upmarket suburb of Abdoun, and Israel's evacuated embassy - denouncing both US President Joe Biden and Netanyahu.
Last week, demonstrators clashed with security forces as they tried to storm the Israeli embassy. Others have chanted for Hamas to hit Israel with more rockets, waving the banned-group's flag.
A former Jordanian official, briefed by multiple government ministers, told MEE that if Israel launched an invasion of the Gaza Strip, it would be "a nightmare scenario" for the king, who is "more pro-West than half the leaders of Europe".
'No matter what the outcome of the war in Gaza, Hamas has scored a huge victory for the Islamists'
-Tariq Tell, American University of Beirut
"The perception that the US is giving Israel carte blanche to carry out what are regarded as war crimes, directs huge public anger to any Arab leader who is viewed as in bed with the Americans," a former senior Western official who was based in Jordan told MEE.
Those fears crystalised last week after a deadly strike on a hospital in Gaza that the Arab world, including Abdullah, blamed on Israel.
Jordan had to cancel a summit between the king, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Biden.
Jordan announced the decision unilaterally, but current and former US officials tell MEE the decision was closely coordinated with Washington amid fears that Biden's stop in Amman after visiting Israel could tip protesters over the edge.
"It was extraordinary the summit was cancelled. These things don't happen in Jordan," Tariq Tell, a professor at the American University of Beirut, who hails from one of Jordan's most prominent political families, told MEE.
"You would have to go back to 1991 and the first Gulf War to find a case of the Jordanian king wrapping himself in Arab nationalism like this," Tell added.
Biden's 'loyal friend'
Biden's unconditional support for Israel during the war is bitter for Abdullah, who welcomed the US leader's election as a reprieve after his tempestuous relationship with Donald Trump.
Abdullah was the first Arab leader to visit Biden at the White House. Biden was also quick to call the king in 2021 when Jordan was rocked by a sedition scandal involving Abdullah's half-brother.
US President Joe Biden and Jordan's King Abdullah II, alongside Jordan's Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah II, hold a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington DC on 1 July (AFP)
But Jordan has been warning the US about the risks of violence in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip since Netanyahu returned to power.
In a December interview with CNN, Abdullah said he was concerned about a "new intifada" and the "complete breakdown of law and order" in Israel and Palestine.
'Jordan expected more understanding from this [American] administration'
- Amer Sabaileh, Jordanian analyst
"Jordan expected more understanding from this administration on its fears," Amer Sabaileh, a Jordanian political analyst, told MEE.
"It's obvious the Americans don't want to listen. The main focus today is the green light to the Israelis to lay siege to Gaza."
Merissa Khurma, director of the Middle East Program at the Wilson Center, said there was "frustration in Amman that its warnings about the explosive situation in the occupied territories went unheeded", but that the US-Jordanian relationship remains "strong and strategic".
For Tell, an expert on political science in the Arab world, recent events have underscored Jordan's lack of agency as its main ally, the US, backs Israel.
"The king is a 'taker' in this war," Tell said. "He has to receive whatever the outcome of the conflict is and hope to manipulate the situation at home the best he can."
'Gaza dry-run'
People across the Arab world have turned out against Israel. What makes Jordan unique is not just the close relationship between the US and the ruling Hashemite family - whose cash-strapped government is dependent on US aid - but Jordan's demographics.
At least half of Jordan's population is of Palestinian descent. The first Palestinians came in 1948 after the creation of the state of Israel when they were forcibly displaced in an event known as the Nakba.
The Hashemite monarchy then annexed what is today the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, holding them until its defeat by Israel in the 1967 war. That conflict saw an additional 440,000 Palestinians flee to Jordan. Along with newer arrivals, Jordan is also home to 175,000 forcibly displaced Palestinians from Gaza who do not have citizenship.
'The Jordanians are terrified the Israelis are using Gaza as a dry run for the occupied West Bank'
- Former senior Western official in Amman
Many live in squalid and underfunded refugee camps, but the majority of Palestinians are integrated into society. Palestinians dominate Amman's business elite. Queen Rania, the king's wife, is Palestinian.
Riedel, the former CIA analyst, said that managing the war's fallout among his population was "perhaps the most difficult challenge Abdullah has faced in his 20-some years in power".
"The driving forces for the conflict - Hamas, Israel, Hezbollah, Iran and the US - are all out of his control," he said.
Jordan renounced its claims to the occupied West Bank in 1988. Six years later, King Hussein signed a peace deal with Israel as he backed the formation of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
But Jordanian officials have long worried that Israel intends to annex the entire occupied West Bank and expel the Palestinians there across the Jordan River.
Those fears took on a dose of reality when Israel demanded the forcible displacement of 1.1 million Palestinians in northern Gaza last week, ahead of an expected ground invasion.
King Abdullah has said the forced displacement of Palestinians to either Egypt or Jordan is a "red line", while his foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, said it would be "an act of war".
"The Jordanians are terrified the Israelis are using Gaza as a dry run for what they can get away with in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem," the former senior Western official told MEE.
Jordan's embassy in Washington DC didn't respond to MEE's request for comment.
'No alternative to King Abdullah'
Besides Jordan's Palestinian population, Abdullah faces discontent with Israel among East Bankers, or descendants of the tribes that helped create Jordan after World War I.
'Everyone wants to see the peace treaty ripped up'
- Former Jordanian official
The Hashemite monarchy has historically sustained the tribes' support by a vast patronage network, doling out government jobs. Although that system is fraying amid an economic crisis, Jordan's security services and military are still dominated by East Bankers.
Solidarity with Palestine has now merged with worries that a new influx of refugees could stretch the government's creaking finances.
"The Transjordan section of the country has become even more radical against Israel than the Palestinians. They are more rejectionist," Tell said.
Palestinian fighters join mourners during the funerals of two Palestinian men killed during an Israeli attack on the village of Zawata in the occupied West Bank on 23 October 2023 (AFP)
"Both communities, Palestinian and Transjordanian, realize that the 1994 Peace treaty hasn't offered a solution to the refugee issue. The logical conclusion is that the Palestinians are going to be settled permanently in Jordan," Tell added.
The former Jordanian official, an East Banker, briefed by multiple ministers said "they were pissed at having to defend their position in government" as Israel bombs the Gaza Strip.
To be sure, current and former Western officials who spoke with MEE said they see no threat to Abdullah's rule.
"The wealthy Palestinian elite and East Bank security services want to hold the country together - that means supporting Abdullah," the former senior Western official said.
The officials believe Abdullah can withstand calls from the street and in government to suspend or cancel the peace treaty with Israel, which they say would be an extreme step, cratering relations with Israel and jeopardising the strong bipartisan support Jordan enjoys in Congress.
Abdullah's ability to withstand criticism was tested when his half-brother, Prince Hamzah bin al-Hussein released a scathing rebuke against his rule claiming he had neglected the tribes. Abdullah cracked down on what his government said was a plot to destabilise the country and arrested his half-brother, further consolidating his power.
But Tell, an expert on Jordanian politics, said that Abdullah's sidelining of the military and traditional East Bank tribes also makes him susceptible to pressure.
"The guys at the top of the security establishment are an annex of the US and Israeli intelligence. The problem for the king is the middle ranks. They are by no means keen on Israel and the West."
Despite its leaders' tough rhetoric, Jordan continues to cooperate on security issues with Israel. Its neighbour has also avoided air strikes in the area of Gaza where a Jordanian army-run hospital is located.
Spillover
A former senior US official said the decision to allow protests is being carefully calibrated.
"Abdullah is giving people space to blow off steam, but he's drawing a red line that protesters can't go to the border," he said.
Jordanian security officials have stopped protesters from going to the border with the occupied West Bank. MEE has reported that some protesters have demanded the border be open so they can fight Israel.
Israel-Palestine war: Jordanians try to storm Israeli embassy after Gaza hospital strike
Khurma, at the Wilson Center, said the strong security presence was intended to limit the potential for a clash between Israeli soldiers and Jordanian citizens.
"Knock on wood, the border isn't porous, but if there was an exchange of fire it would be a serious security threat," she said.
One of Jordan's main fears is that fighting in Gaza could spread to the occupied West Bank.
Jordanian and Western officials tell MEE those concerns revive memories of the country's short lived civil war, known as Black September, when the kingdom expelled Palestinian fighters to Lebanon.
Despite rising tensions, fighting remains a distant possibility, officials say.
Jordan has yet to even recall its ambassador to Israel or declare the Israeli ambassador to the kingdom persona non-grata, a symbolic step given that Israel evacuated its embassy shortly after the war broke out.
Abdullah worries about 'huge Hamas victory'
The complaints against Abdullah that emerged during the Prince Hamzah affair could resurface now, experts say.
The king, who is half British, scores well at think-tanks and receptions in the West, but less so among Jordan's conservative tribes.
"The king has to sit down, drink coffee with these people and explain the pressure he is under," the former senior Western official said.
"But he is likely to confer with the CIA, his preferred American mediators and dispatch other family members to the tribes," the former official added. The task of soothing over the Prince Hamzah affair fell on the king's uncle, Prince Hassan bin Talal.
Israel-Palestine war: In Jordan, young protesters want to ‘liberate Palestine’
Fighting in the Gaza Strip also raises challenges to the Hashemite kingdom's legitimacy, which rests in part on their role as custodians of the Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem.
The king's call for a peaceful settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict resulting in a two-state solution is now at risk of sounding hollow after Hamas' surprise attack penetrated an entire Israeli defensive line on 7 October.
Hamas led the attack that killed around 1,400 Israelis. Israel responded with a massive bombardment of the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 5,000 Palestinians, including 2,000 children.
"No matter what the outcome of the war in Gaza, Hamas has scored a huge victory for the Islamists," Tell told MEE. "In the context of a newly radicalised Middle East, that is what's really worrying Abdullah."
King Hussein was no friend of Hamas, but warily permitted some of the group's activities, as the Meshaal affair demonstrates. After ascending to the throne, one of his sons, Abdullah's, first acts was to enforce a ban on the group.
Israel would be doing Abdullah a favour by eliminating Hamas, the former senior US official said, but the backlash against a bloody invasion of Gaza could heap more pressure on the kingdom.
"Escalating social discontent, a massive gap in equality and an emboldened Islamic resistance is a combustible mixture for Jordan," Tell said.
Barack Obama speaks onstage during the 2022 Sandy Hook Promise Benefit at The Ziegfeld Ballroom on 6 December 2022 in New York City (AFP)
Former US President Barack Obama has weighed in on Israel's war on Gaza, publishing a statement on Monday in which he supported Israel's "right to defend itself", while also warning Israel and the US against ignoring the plight of Palestinians.
The statement, published on Medium, does not stray far from the Biden administration's current position of backing Israel's actions in Gaza, but makes some significant distinctions.
"But even as we support Israel, we should also be clear that how Israel prosecutes this fight against Hamas matters," Obama said.
The former president said that navigating the current conflict means "guarding against dehumanising language towards the people of Gaza, or downplaying Palestinian suffering - whether in Gaza or the West Bank - as irrelevant or illegitimate".
Obama also addressed some of the root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including the continued displacement of Palestinians since the creation of Israel in 1948.
"It means acknowledging that Palestinians have also lived in disputed territories for generations; that many of them were not only displaced when Israel was formed but continue to be forcibly displaced by a settler movement that too often has received tacit or explicit support from the Israeli government," Obama said.
Obama himself was president during Israel's war on Gaza in 2014 when the Israeli military launched a ground invasion of the besieged enclave.
At the time, he similarly backed Israel's action, while calling for a ceasefire. That war also revealed tensions in the US-Israel relationship, with Israel going behind Obama's back to restock American weapons.
"The world is watching closely as events in the region unfold, and any Israeli military strategy that ignores the human costs could ultimately backfire," Obama said in his statement.
In the statement published on Monday, the former US president also warned Israel against making the same mistakes Washington did after it launched a number of wars following the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
"America itself has at times fallen short of our higher values when engaged in war, and in the aftermath of 9/11, the US government wasn't interested in heeding the advice of even our allies when it came to the steps we took to protect ourselves against Al-Qaeda," he said.
After the 9/11 attacks in 2001, in which 3,000 people were killed when hijackers flew commercial planes into the Twin Towers in New York City, the US launched an invasion of Afghanistan, accusing the country of harbouring the al-Qaeda group responsible for the attacks.
Israel-Palestine war: US ready for escalation on three fronts, says Blinken
It also later launched an invasion of Iraq, and began rounding up men in CIA black sites and later in the then-newly formed Guantanamo Bay detention centre. The US ended up engaging in numerous human rights violations, including using torture against detainees at black sites, Guantanamo and the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
And when Obama came into office, he oversaw more air strikes in his first year than his predecessor George W. Bush carried out in his entire presidency.
A total of 563 air strikes, mostly by drones, targeted Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen during Obama's eight years in office, compared to 57 under Bush, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
Obama's administration also carried out hundreds of strikes in Libya and Syria. The Council of Foreign Relations estimates that 3,797 people were killed in drone strikes during Obama's tenure, including 324 civilians, a number that is disputed.
Those drone strikes also killed US citizen Anwar al-Awlaki and his 16-year-old son Abdulrahman.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomes Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Brussels, 25 January (Reuters)
The European Union's support for Israel's war on Gaza has seen the emergence of splits, confusion and seemingly the making of policy on-the-go.
Following Hamas' surprise attack on 7 October on southern Israel from the Gaza Strip - which resulted in the deaths of around 1,400 Israelis - Oliver Varhelyi, the European commissioner for neighbourhood and enlargement, said "there can be no business as usual".
Taking other EU member states by surprise, Varhelyi added that the scale of the Hamas attack meant that it was a "turning point" and that $729m in humanitarian aid for Palestinians would be suspended until further notice.
Several member states, including Ireland, Spain and the Netherlands, publicly chided the decision citing that the need for humanitarian aid was even more necessary given that Israel had announced a new "complete siege" of Gaza, cutting off water, power and food to the Palestinian enclave, already under a 16-year siege.
Ireland even said: "Our understanding is that there is no legal basis for a unilateral decision of this kind by an individual commissioner and we do not expect a suspension of aid."
The European commissioner for crisis management, Janez Lenarcic, contradicted Varhelyi and announced that "EU humanitarian aid to Palestinians in need will continue as long as needed".
The public back-and-forth between EU politicians and member states seemed to lay bare a lack of coordination or a clear policy towards Israel's war conduct or the humanitarian plight of Palestinians.
As it stands the Israeli military has killed at least 5,087 Palestinians since the conflict started, including more than 2,000 children, according to the latest tally provided by the Palestinian health ministry. Around 70 percent of those killed are children, women and elderly people.
'Failed leadership'
When European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who has increasingly put herself forward as the face of the EU on the global stage, offered her full-throttled support for Israel, EU parliamentarians condemned her lack of mandate to speak on foreign policy matters.
"President von der Leyen's approach has been entirely one-sided and she has entirely failed to show leadership and lead a coherent response to the crisis," Grace O'Sullivan, an Irish Green Party member of the European parliament, told Middle East Eye.
"It was clear from the beginning that the president's cabinet of commissioners were not communicating on the issue and were instead making unilateral statements," she added, referring to Varhelyi.
Since then, O'Sullivan has called for Varhelyi's immediate resignation.
'Why don't we have the same standard we have towards Russia with Israel?'
- Margrete Auken, Danish politician
In a rare show of protest, some 800 EU staff wrote a letter to von der Leyen objecting to what they said was unjustifiable bias towards Israel and a failure to even mention the need for Palestinian statehood, which is official EU policy.
Other EU politicians have been more vocal about their concerns that the EU has failed to grasp how damagaing its stance has been on the international stage.
The EU continues to neglect the central issue at stake, that "Israel is the occupying power and Palestinians are an occupied people", said Margrete Auken, a Danish politician in the European parliament.
Israel is committing "a genocide" in Gaza, according to Auken. "Where are the protests from our political leadership?"
"Why don't we have the same standard we have towards Russia with Israel?" she told MEE.
"If we want to promote democracy and human rights in the Global South and they can see how biased a big majority of Western countries are and how passive they are, it is very damaging."
Israel's war on Gaza also has the potential to impact Europe by further destabilising the region. The economic fallout and another migration crisis has the potential to significantly polarise politics within the bloc, as it has in the past, particularly in 2015 when 1.3 million people, the majority of whom were Syrians, entered Europe.
Israel's call for half of the Gaza Strip's population to leave their homes and head to the southern portion of the strip has also hightened fears in Egypt of a massive influx of refugees into Sinai.
The Egyptian government has refused attempts to accept the resettlement of Palestinian refugees in northern Sinai.
People help evacuate a Palestinian woman following Israeli air strikes that targeted her neighbourhood in Gaza City, 23 October 2023 (AP)
According to reports, the Egyptian government even went so far as to tell a European diplomat: "You want us to take one million people? Well, I am going to send them to Europe. You care about human rights so much – well, you take them."
"Overall the EU has failed to show compassionate leadership and I have been disheartened by the unwillingness of EU leaders and parties to call for a ceasefire and end the bloodshed in Gaza," said O'Sullivan.
"Rather than be cheerleaders for the siege of Gaza, we must bring our influence on Israel to bear and call for a ceasefire now," she said, adding that prolonging the war would only further damage the bloc's "international credibility".
However, restoring the EU's credibility might already be a losing battle.
'Western hypocrisy'
A senior G7 diplomat, speaking to the Financial Times, warned that "we have definitely lost the battle in the Global South", in reference to the West's full support of Israeli actions in Gaza.
"All the work we have done with the Global South [over Ukraine] has been lost . . . Forget about rules, forget about world order. They won't ever listen to us again," added the diplomat.
Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, speaking to MEE last week, slammed the EU's "double standard" with regards to Israel in comparison with past remarks the EU has made in support of Ukraine.
In October 2022, von der Leyen said Russia's attempts at cutting off men, women and children from water and electricity were "acts of pure terror".
When Israel did the same to Gaza two weeks ago, Von der Leyen said "Israel has the right to defend itself".
Marc Botenga, a Belgian politician in the European parliament told MEE that he has warned High Representative Josep Borrell, who deals with the bloc's foreign policy, about its double standards regarding the two conflicts.
"Countries all over the world that were pressured by the European Union to impose sanctions on Russia or deliver arms to Ukraine often pointed out that the EU defended the territorial integrity of Ukraine, but was not doing anything to defend the territorial integrity of the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel," said Botenga.
"Borrell being asked that question every day shows how strongly other countries feel about European and Western hypocrisy," said Botenga, adding that "the double standards of its [EU] foreign policy have become very blatant".
Pro-Palestine protests have erupted around the world in recent days, including in Bosnia (AFP)
Many non-Western countries have historically supported the Palestinian cause, seeing it as a fight against colonialism and affirming the right to self-determination.
Privately, some senior EU politicians are worried that the carte blanche support to Israel not only alienates many of these countries, but also undermines the effectiveness of the bloc's foreign policy.
A senior EU official speaking anonymously to Mujtaba Rahman, an EU analyst at the Eurasia Group, warned that the bloc's stance on Gaza risked "unleashing migratory flows" towards the EU.
"The EU doesn't have the highest credibility as a foreign policy actor, but this is a fiasco on a scale we have never witnessed," said the diplomat.
'Selective values'
'The bottom line is that European governments have lined up in full support of Israel'
- Julien Barnes-Dacey, Middle East analyst
When Borrell attended the G-20 meeting held in India in September, many of Europe's international partners told EU officials that they "defended values selectively", according to Botenga.
"Europe's unwillingness to hold Israel to account for its decades of illegal occupation and colonisation, or to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza today, sends the message that in the eyes of European governments, human rights obligations and international law are only valid for certain countries and people," Botenga added.
Despite the EU's lack of coordination and its inconsistency in its approach towards Israel, the "bottom line is that European governments have lined up in full support of Israel", said Julien Barnes-Dacey, director of the Middle East and North Africa programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
While EU politicians have in recent days made some references to the need for Israel to respect international law, "there has been very little willingness to put pressure on the Netanyahu government to act in accordance with humanitarian principles", Barnes-Dacey told MEE.
Despite dissenting voices in the European parliament, divisions within the bloc are "overstated", said Barnes-Dacey, and they largely reflect "internal political competition with von der Leyen rather than severe disagreement with her stance".
The EU's support towards Israel is "undoubtedly going to hurt Europe's relations with the Global South", he added.
"Not so much because non-Western countries are themselves hugely principled, but because it allows them to easily show European double standards regarding the centrality of the rules-based global order, which has been the West's central talking point for the last 20 months."
Abd Elhadi was in the 2013 action movie 'World War Z' (AFP/Patrick Baz)
Israeli police have arrested Palestinian actor Maisa Abd Elhadi on accusations of incitement relating to posts she made on social media in the aftermath of the assault by Palestinian fighters in southern Israel on 7 October.
Israeli officials accuse Abd Elhadi of "spreading incitement and support for terrorism" for a series of comments she made.
Purported screenshots of one post show laughing emojis over an image of an elderly Israeli captive being taken to Gaza, with the caption "She is going on the adventure of her life".
In another post, she commented on the breach of Israel's barrier surrounding Gaza with the caption: "Let's go Berlin style" - a reference to Germans tearing down the Berlin Wall during the collapse of communist East Germany and the reunification of the country in 1989.
Abd Elhadi was initially arrested last week but was released under a home detention order until her second arrest on Tuesday.
On Tuesday morning, the Magistrate Court in the northern city of Nazareth, where Abd Elhadi lives, ordered that the actor be detained for two more days.
Abd Elhadi, a Palestinian with Israeli citizenship, is the latest to be caught up in Israel's crackdown on dissent in the aftermath of the attack in early October.
Dozens of Palestinians have been detained on accusations of "incitement" over posts made in relation to the attack on Israel, which killed around 1,400 Israelis, and Israel's subsequent assault on Gaza, which has killed more than 5,000 people.
The majority of those killed on both sides are civilians, many of them children.
In addition to police scrutiny of social media activity and other forms of activism, far-right vigilantes are reporting students and employees considered "disloyal" to Israel to their faculties and companies, resulting in the expulsion of students and firing of workers.
Jewish Israelis who have expressed solidarity with Gaza or concern over Israel's actions have also been targeted.
The journalist Israel Frey went into hiding after being set upon by a mob at his home in Tel Aviv.
Egyptians protest in Tahrir Square in Cairo in support of Palestinians amid the ongoing Israeli onslaught on Gaza 20 October 2023 (MEE)
The protests that erupted across Egypt last week to denounce the Israeli onslaught on Gaza drew crowds that were reminiscent of the 2011 revolution, human rights campaigners say.
The demonstrators stayed in Tahrir for under an hour before they were evicted by the police, with over 100 people reportedly detained that day in connection with pro-Palestine protests in Cairo and Alexandria.
But briefly, the square resembled scenes from 25 January 2011.
“It felt as if a dead body came miraculously to life,” Mahienour El-Massry, a lawyer who had participated in the 2011 revolution, recalled.
The protests erupted after pro-government media figures called for demonstrations in designated areas to show solidarity with Palestine and support for President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s leadership amid the Israeli assault on the besieged Gaza Strip.
However, thousands defied this directive, instead descending on Al-Azhar mosque on Friday and storming Tahrir Square.
In the aftermath of Sisi’s military coup, which deposed democratically elected leader Mohamed Morsi in 2013, popular protests had largely been crushed by an anti-protest law and a wide-ranging crackdown on political dissidents.
In 2018, Sisi declared: “That which happened seven or eight years ago will never happen again in Egypt.” A message he reiterated in several other speeches.
Tahrir Square since underwent a makeover; buildings were whitewashed and security cameras were installed to demarcate a space that was no longer public.
They had no fear
According to activists in Cairo, public displays of solidarity with Palestinians had, until recently, been limited to posts on social media, amid fears of arrest stoked by crackdowns on supporters of opposition hopeful Ahmed el-Tantawi.
But on Wednesday 11 October, a small protest gathered outside the Journalist's Syndicate.
Two days later, worshippers at the Al-Azhar mosque erupted in protest after the Friday prayers.
“Security forces surrounded us in every direction and closed the doors,” Aisha** an Egyptian campaigner and former revolutionary activist said.
“They took people out in batches, and anyone who objected was beaten.”
The following week, protests continued to escalate, swelling in numbers. On 18 October, another protest was held outside the Journalist's Syndicate, with hundreds attending.
“I was shocked by the number of people,” Aisha told MEE. “I hadn’t seen anything like it since the revolution.”
“There were lots of people there… they had no fear,” Aisha said.
Following Sisi’s warning that “millions” of Egyptians would protest the forced displacement of Palestinian civilians from Gaza to Sinai, the Egyptian parliament granted the president and military a “mandate” to “defend the integrity of Egyptian lands in the face of Israeli conspiracies".
'I was shocked by the number of people, I hadn’t seen anything like it since the revolution'
-Aisha, Egyptian activist
State-owned media outlets called for protests in solidarity with Palestine in designated squares across the country, including the Rafah crossing, the one route out of the enclave not controlled by Israel that has been repeatedly targeted by airstrikes.
For el-Massry, the calls eerily echoed those that preceded the Rabaa Massacre in July 2013, when Sisi urged Egyptians to take to public squares to “to give [him’ the mandate to face violence and terrorism".
“People want to support the Palestinians [separately] from the government [as] many are doubting its intentions,” el-Massry said.
“I felt like it’s a sort of show,” Mohammed ** a Palestinian business owner based in Cairo told MEE. “The regime is giving people permission to protest about us, but they cannot protest about their own country.”
Bread, freedom, dignity
The week of protests culminated in a renewed demonstration that started from the Al-Azhar mosque on Friday 20 October. Protesters then burst onto the streets and marched towards Tahrir Square, where they vaulted security barriers.
Aisha was among them. “This was a [rare] opportunity for me, “ she said. “I hadn’t been able to even touch the square for 10 years."
El-Massry reported that the square was “full” and resounded with chants entwining the demands of the revolution - “bread, freedom, dignity" - coupled with calls for Palestinian solidarity.
“It deepened in my mind that Palestine will always be the answer and the cause of all causes,” El-Massry said.
For El-Massry, the Palestinian cause was the catalyst of the long process of activism that culminated in the 2011 uprisings.
“I am part of a generation whose eyes were opened by the Second Intifada,” El-Massry said. “We owe our politicisation to the Palestinians.”
"The word Tahrir means liberation,” El-Massry said, “this is what we want for Palestine.”
'The word Tahrir means liberation,this is what we want for Palestine'
-Mahienour El-Massry, Egyptian lawyer
“When the revolution broke out, people were also [calling for solidarity] with Palestinians and Syrians,” Mohammed recalled. “Flags were hung in the square."
In 2011, thousands occupied the square for 18 days. But on Friday 20 October 2023, they lasted for about 30 minutes before the police began violently dispersing the crowd.
According to Egyptian news outlet Mada Masr, 114 people have been arrested for participating in the protests nationwide.
“A number of my friends were arrested in the square, and also from their homes after,” Aisha said. “I am extremely worried about them.”
Despite long positioning itself as a mediator between Hamas and Israel, in the immediate aftermath of the 2013 military coup, intensifying relations between Israel and Egypt saw the tightening of the siege of Gaza with repeated closures of the Rafah crossing.
State media highlighted the shared origins of Hamas and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, alleging that the group was responsible for attacks against soldiers in the Sinai.
After a prolonged closure in the aftermath of Israeli air strikes that targeted the crossing, the Rafah border has briefly reopened to allow a small amount of aid to flow into Gaza.
The crossing is the only exit for Palestinians in Gaza that is not controlled by Israel. It is a vital humanitarian aid corridor for the besieged civilians of Gaza.
Yocheved Lifshitz (left) with fellow captive Nurit Yitzhak during their release (Screenshot)
Israeli officials are reportedly unhappy with an interview given by an elderly former captive of Hamas in Gaza because she had not been well prepared for the statement.
In a press meeting on Tuesday, 85-year-old Yocheved Lifshitz, an Israeli captive released from Gaza on Monday evening, said she was beaten on 7 October, the day Palestinian fighters stormed southern Israel, but later treated "gently".
Sources told Israel's state-owned Kan News that the interview was a "mistake", adding that a "preliminary meeting" may not have been held with Lifshitz prior to her press statement and that if one had been held, not "all questions" to do with the preparation were asked.
Lifshitz is one of four Israelis who have been released after Hamas-led Palestinian fighters stormed Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip in an attack that killed around 1,400 Israelis, mostly civilians. Israel believes 220 captives are being held in Gaza.
The former Israeli hostage was one of the oldest held by Hamas in Gaza, and spent more than two weeks in captivity.
She was released alongside another captive, 79-year-old Nurit Yitzhak.
Lifshitz told reporters: "I've been through hell, I never thought that I would reach such a state. They [Palestinian fighters] went berserk in our kibbutz [and] put me on a motorcycle."
She went on to describe how children and the elderly were among those taken, calling the scenes "extremely painful".
Lifshitz added that she was hit by a stick en route to Gaza and made to walk several kilometres after reaching the area.
'Needs met'
According to the former hostage, a medic and later a doctor visited her while she was held by Hamas, to check on her condition. "They took care of every detail," she said.
Lifshitz said her captors "took care" of her needs. "They ensured that they eat the same food as we eat, white cheese and cucumbers," she added.
Retelling her mother's story, Lifshitz' daughter Sharone said: "When she first arrived, they [fighters] told them that they are Muslims and they won't hurt them."
Israel-Palestine war: Israeli police arrest Palestinian actor Maisa Abd Elhadi for 'incitement'
When Lifshitz was asked why she shook hands with the Hamas fighter before her release, she replied: "They were gentle with us, our needs were supplied."
During the press statement, Lifshitz also condemned the Israeli army's lack of preparedness for the attack on 7 October, saying that "two billion" shekels had been spent on security systems that did not work.
She also attacked the government for its failures in the lead-up to the attack. "We were the government's scapegoat, we were abandoned. We went through hell," she said.
Family members had earlier told media outlets that the grandmother had previously worked to get medical aid to Palestinians in Gaza.
Oded Lifshitz, Yocheved's husband, is still missing and presumed to be held by Palestinian armed groups in Gaza, although his whereabouts or condition are not known.
Israel says that Hamas holds 220 of its citizens as prisoners, some of whom hold citizenship of different countries, but that number may in fact be higher, as dozens of people are still missing.
Hamas says 22 captives have been killed in Israel's bombardment of Gaza, which has killed at least 5,000 Palestinians, the vast majority of whom are civilians.
In an interview with Sky News broadcast on Tuesday, senior Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said the group would release all of its hostages in exchange for an end to the bombardment of Gaza.
Families of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails attend a demonstration in Ramallah demanding their release and to express their solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, 22 October 2023 (AFP)
For weeks, Iman Hermas had been enthusiastically preparing to visit her imprisoned husband, Saeed, in the Israeli Negev Desert Prison.
For Iman, 15 October could not come sooner because, like hundreds of Palestinian families, she is not allowed regular visits to the prison.
However, since Hamas launched a surprise attack on southern Israel on 7 October - which resulted in the death of 1,400 Israelis - Israel has taken extreme punitive measures against Palestinian detainees across its prisons.
The families of prisoners have since received notifications from the International Committee of the Red Cross cancelling prison visits until further notice.
The new measure has left prisoners completely isolated, and their families in a constant state of anxiety amid an almost total absence of news about their loved ones.
Hermas, from Bethlehem, was arrested in 2016 and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
He and Iman have three children, the eldest of whom is 12 years old.
Iman said that after enduring several months of absence and finally receiving a permit to see her husband, the cancellation of the visit was crushing.
"It didn't stop there," she said. "Suddenly, the prison sections were closed to prisoners and all electrical devices were taken from their rooms, including the TV and the cooking plate.
"Their rooms were stormed and searched thoroughly, and many of their belongings were confiscated."
Iman has been trying to find out some news about her husband, but information has been difficult to obtain. She has learned from the families of other prisoners that the prison administration has closed the store they relied on to buy food, and is now providing them with only two meals during the day.
“They are being subjected to a starvation policy, and we learned that they have been fasting for two weeks because they don’t have enough food, so they are rationing the small quantities that the prison administration gives them,” she said.
Since 7 October, Israeli authorities have also gathered prisoners from the Gaza Strip in all prisons and placed them in one prison without declaring a reason.
The Israeli military has carried out a relentless bombing campaign on Gaza, killing at least 5,791 people, the majority of whom are children, women, and elderly.
Iman said that she hasn't been able to eat or sleep since the crackdown on prisoners started out of deep concern for her husband.
'Suffering is real'
Repression units in Israeli prisons have been raiding cells, intimidating prisoners with dogs, and confiscating their belongings, according to the Palestinian Prisoner's Club.
The association told MEE that these units are also beating prisoners, which has led to cases of fractured bones and bruises.
Israel-Palestine war: In Gaza, whether we flee or stay, each night may be our last
“The situation is tragic and very difficult. There’s oppression, vengeance, and daily beatings in the prison,” Salah Fateen Salah, who was released from prison on Tuesday, told local Palestinian media.
“The degree of the beating suffered by prisoners is indescribable, and there’s no access to the medical clinic. The suffering is very real.”
The Prisoners' Club spokesperson, Amani Sarhana, said Palestinian prisoners are currently going through one of the most "difficult and cruel periods" as they endure isolation, oppression, starvation, and deprivation of visits from families or lawyers.
"All legal procedures have been halted. There are almost no releases of prisoners even if their sentences have ended, and almost no court sessions," Sarhana said.
"Medical treatment has also been halted. We are no longer talking about prisoners being subjected to medical negligence, but rather about cutting off their treatment completely."
On Monday, Omar Daraghmeh, a Palestinian who was arrested on 9 October, died in detention under unclear circumstances, raising further tensions in Israeli prisons.
The Prisoners' Club and the Palestinian Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission have rejected Israeli claims that he died due to a deterioration in his health.
They said in a joint statement that Daraghmeh had appeared in good health when he attended his court session on the same day he died, according to his lawyer.
Hamas accused Israel of assassinating Daraghmeh, who it said was a senior member of the movement.
Severe Penalties
Female prisoners have also suffered unprecedented repression, with a complete ban on visits by lawyers and their families, and a complete denial of what is happening to them.
A director of the Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Authority, Ibrahim Najajra, said that on 19 October, the Israeli prison authorities stormed Damoun Prison, where around 50 Palestinian prisoners are detained, turned the cells upside down, and emptied them of all objects, including tables, chairs, and kitchen utensils.
Israel-Palestine war: Surge in Israeli arrests and killings of Palestinians in West Bank
When the female prisoners objected, the prison forces beat them, isolated a number of them in solitary confinement, and flooded their rooms with tear gas without taking into consideration the presence of underage prisoners, elderly women, and the injured and sick.
Najajra said that female prisoners have been subjected to severe punishments for over two weeks, including being prevented from leaving their sections to the courtyard, closing their store, confiscation of electrical devices, reducing the duration of showering to 15 minutes a day for each cell, repeated break-ins into cells, death threats, and constant insults.
Since the start of the war, the Israeli army has launched a widespread arrest campaign in the occupied West Bank, targeting nearly 1,200 Palestinians so far from various cities, including journalists, researchers, university students, and former prisoners.
The arrest campaign has been brutal, with Israeli soldiers forcing detainees to the ground, and holding them there handcuffed and blindfolded for long hours. The detainees are photographed, while soldiers hurl insults at them.
Ibrahim Khalaf told MEE that his brother Fakhr was arrested from his home at dawn on 21 October in the village of Rantis, west of Ramallah, as part of a massive arrest campaign that night.
“Dozens of soldiers stormed the house after surrounding it. They asked for my brother by name, then confiscated his phone and arrested him. All the detainees from the village that day were beaten. We recently learned that he was transferred to Ofer Prison,” he said.
According to the Prisoners' Club, the majority of new detainees have been beaten and gathered in the open in inhumane conditions, and a large number of them have been transferred to administrative detention without charge or court session.
Salah, the newly released detainee, said the wave of arrests has resulted in severe overcrowding in the Gilboa prison, where he had been detained for five years.
“I have been sleeping on the floor because there is no space. The prison authorities have also confiscated pillows, blankets, and mattress covers.”
An image grab from Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV on 2 October shows Hassan Nasrallah delivering a speech to commemorate the birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammad (AFP)
In Lebanon and other parts of the Arab world, it has become almost a tradition to tune into the speeches of Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s secretary general, particularly when there are major developments in the region.
Observers try to anticipate what decisions he might announce for the party - whether that be in Lebanon, Syria or elsewhere.
Yet while the Lebanese movement’s fighters have been clashing with Israeli troops along the border, Nasrallah himself is noticeably absent, with no speech forthcoming, much to people’s surprise.
For now, Hezbollah-Israel skirmishes have been contained to targets just over either side of the border. Hezbollah says at least 36 of its fighters have been killed in combat, along with an unclear number of Israeli casualties.
The Lebanese movement began attacking Israel soon after a Hamas-led assault struck Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip on 7 October, killing around 1,400 Israelis. A relentless Israeli bombing campaign on Gaza has since killed more than 5,700 Palestinians.
Many fear these clashes on the Lebanese-Israeli border will evolve into a regional war that could be more destructive than the month-long conflict Hezbollah fought against Israel, to a stalemate, in 2006.
Hezbollah has organised rallies, held funerals for its fallen fighters, and had senior officials threaten to escalate, should the current situation call for it.
The border clashes alone have caused Israel to evacuate areas near Lebanon, and over 19,000 Lebanese have been internally displaced.
Nasrallah’s silence has only added to the uncertainty, with experts believing an expected Israeli ground invasion of Gaza could trigger a public reaction from the Hezbollah leader.
“The issue is about what will be the nature of the land invasion,” Joseph Daher, academic and author of a book on Hezbollah, told Middle East Eye.
Daher believes the scale of violence, and how much Israel will be able to harm Hamas, will be the determining factors.
'It confuses the enemy'
In an interview with pro-Hezbollah pan-Arab outlet Al Mayadeen, Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah said that Nasrallah has been overseeing the group’s battles from behind the scenes, and that his absence from the public eye is part of this strategy.
“It also confuses the enemy more,” he said. “As it is said, ‘If you are absent, he will tremble; if you speak, he will be defeated.'”
A Hezbollah spokesperson told MEE that the group is not releasing statements on the matter at the moment. But on Tuesday, a journalist with Hezbollah's al-Manar shared what appeared to be a teaser for a Nasrallah speech, with the caption "wait for him".
Qassim Qassir, a political analyst close to the movement, told MEE that Hezbollah’s officials are “keeping pace” with developments on the political and media scenes, and haven’t yet found the need for Nasrallah to appear.
“He will appear when necessary,” Qassir said, claiming that a ceasefire or a declaration of “total war” might be the catalyst.
Nasrallah’s silence can also be interpreted as a sign of Hezbollah’s own surprise at the scale of Hamas’s attack, according to Mohanad Hage Ali, senior fellow at the Beirut-based Carnegie Middle East Center.
“Nasrallah’s messaging is always forceful, forcing and threatening red lines against Israelis,” he said. “Given that the organisation has not prepared for this new level of escalation, I suppose it is trying to keep all options open.”
During a visit to Israel’s northern border on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Hezbollah would be making “the mistake of its life” if it chooses to formally join the war.
“The consequences for Hezbollah and for the state of Lebanon will be devastating,” he told troops there.
Potential backlash
Hezbollah’s powerful arsenal, which strongly outweighs that of Hamas, along with the group’s proven ability to fight Israel to a standstill in the past, leads experts to be less certain about the outcome of a wide confrontation.
It also has recent combat experience in the Syrian war, where it has fought successfully alongside President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.
The backlash Hezbollah could face internally over a potential war could, however, be severe.
“The conflict will define the Lebanese political debates and polarisation for much time to come after this,” said Hage Ali. “I don’t see Hezbollah getting away with it, politically, after the conflict is done.”
Israel-Palestine war: Assault on Gaza reignites suppressed activism in Egypt
Daher says many in Lebanon, including political groups sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, do not wish to see their economic crisis-hit country involved in the current conflict.
Yet the continued Israeli bombing of Gaza, the sharply rising death toll there and the prolonged clashes on the border have increased the anger and frustration among Lebanon’s population.
After the reported Israeli strike on al-Ahli Arab Hospital on 17 October, Lebanese streets were filled with protesters condemning Israel. In one area, Hezbollah supporters could be heard begging Nasrallah to declare war.
In a pro-Palestine rally in Egypt, some protesters were seen cheering on Nasrallah, telling him to “bomb Tel Aviv” and “listen to the voice of the free people”.
According to Qassir, “the return to raising slogans demanding a role for Hezbollah and Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah” confirms Hezbollah’s status as a symbol of Arab resistance against Israel, as well as the part it may play in the event of an escalation.
On a regional scale, Hage Ali sees this as a chance for Hezbollah and its backer, Iran, to regain the significant appeal among the Arab public they enjoyed following the 2006 war and the liberation of south Lebanon from Israeli occupation in 2000.
“All of this will be a defining moment for the Iranians, if they succeed in this,” he said.
Palestinians demonstrate in front of Israel's Ofer prison near the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, on 12 July 2021 (AFP)
A 25-year-old Palestinian detainee died in Israel's Ofer prison on Tuesday, the prison authority said. He was the second prisoner to die in detention since Monday.
The Palestinian Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission identified the prisoner as Arafat Hamdan from the town of Beit Sira, in the northern occupied West Bank. Hamdan was arrested on Sunday.
Israelhas conducted a mass arrest campaign across the West Bank since 7 October, when Palestinian fighters launched a surprise land, air and sea attack on southern Israel, killing around 1,400 Israelis.
Israeli authorities earlier said that the prisoner had felt unwell and was transferred to the prison's clinic for tests, "where the doctor declared his death".
"The occupation has begun a systematic assassination operation against prisoners amid a total aggression campaign against our people," the Commission said.
A day earlier, Palestinian prisoner Omar Darghmeh, who Hamas claimed as a member, died in prison under unclear circumstances.
Israel said Darghmeh had died due to health reasons, but Palestinians have rejected the claim, saying he died due to torture.
Daraghmeh was detained with his son in the West Bank on 9 October.
The prisoners' deaths come as Israel has increased its crackdown on Palestinian prisoners since the start of the war.
Prison authorities have implemented a series of punitive measures that have seen detainees confined to their cells, with no access to courtyards, electronic devices, and family and lawyer visits.
The Palestinian Prisoners' Club and prisoners' testimonies reported that detainees are also being subjected to daily severe beatings, intimidation, raids, and the damaging or confiscation of belongings.
Prison authorities have closed down the food store, and inmates are limited to two meals a day, with decreased portions.
The Prisoners' Club spokesperson, Amani Sarhana, told Middle East Eye that the prisoners are currently going through one of the most "difficult and cruel periods" as they endure isolation, oppression, and starvation.
"Medical treatment has also been halted. We are no longer talking about prisoners being subjected to medical negligence, but rather about cutting off their treatment completely," Sarhana said.
Heba Abu Nada was killed on 20 October 2023 in Israeli air strike on Khan Yunis, where she had been sheltering at a family house (Social media)
A week after Israel launched its brutal bombing campaign on the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military warned more than one million Palestinians in the enclave's north to leave their homes and head south "for their own safety".
Hundreds of thousands of people did, and among them was Palestinian novelist and poet Heba Abu Nada, who had sought refuge at the house of her relatives in Khan Yunis.
But Gaza's south was no safer than its north, and a week later, the 32-year-old poet was killed in an Israeli strike.
"To God, we in Gaza are either martyrs or witnesses to liberation, and we all wait to see where we will be. We are all awaiting, oh God, your true promise," Abu Nada wrote on 20 October, the day she was killed.
Abu Nada co-authored three poetry collections, and in 2017 she won second place in the Sharjah Award for Creativity in the novel category for her debut Oxygen isn't for the dead.
She had also won first place in the short stories category in a competition named after Palestinian author Nahid al-Rayyes.
In addition to her literary journey, Abu Nada had a background in biochemistry and education, and was working on her master's thesis in clinical nutrition.
Abu Nada was the leader of the Science Club at the Rasel Centre for Gifted Children, and often posted about her work with the children, their skills and her special relationship with them.
Many people wrote fond tributes to her on social media, with some calling her "Gaza's daughter", "warrior of hope" and "a special writer".
Yasser Shahin, one of her professors, mourned the loss of a "great student" and a writer with whom he had been collaborating with on a new film called Ayla.
One of her friends, Aya, shared a screenshot of a conversation they had had in the past. In her messages, Abu Nada had expressed her happiness that her friend was getting married and leaving Gaza, saying: "I wish I can travel and get out of this prison soon."
A day before she was killed, Abu Nada mourned her own friends who had been killed one after the other in Israeli strikes.
"My list of friends is shrinking, and transforming into small coffins, scattered here and there. I can't catch my friends as they fly after the missiles… These are not just names, these are us, with different faces and names," she wrote.
Faith leaders and activists gather in Rep. Hakeem Jeffries' office for a 'pray-in' on Tuesday (Zaina Alsous)
A group of Muslim, Jewish and Christian faith leaders and activists gathered in House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries' office on Tuesday morning in Washington DC, conducting a prayer session and advocating for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, emphasising it as an ethical decision.
In a poignant gesture, activists held up mirrors inscribed with the words "The world is watching" on the reverse side, with the intention of prompting Congress to confront their potential involvement in Israeli war crimes.
"Every Democrat in Congress who is allowing Israel to carry out mass atrocities in Gaza should know that the world is watching. The only moral choice is ceasefire," Sandra Tamari, the executive director of the Adalah Justice Project, said.
"We will continue disrupting business as usual until Hakeem Jeffries and the Democratic party stops this genocide."
The event began with prayers mourning the thousands of Palestinians who were killed since 7 October. It included payers by Imam Suhaib Webb, Reverend Andre Greene and Rabbi Alissa Wise, along with others.
At least 1,400 Israelis were killed during an unprecedented surprise attack on Israel on 7 October by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups. Israel says 222 were also taken back to Gaza as captives. Four of them have since been released. Israel responded with a bombing campaign that has taken thousands of Palestinian lives and counting.
At least 5,791 Palestinians have been killed, including 2,360 children and 1,292 women. At least 1,200, including 500 children, are missing and believed to be under rubble.
Faith leaders and activists leave notes on Rep. Hakeem Jeffries' door with the names of those killed (Zaina Alsous)
Religious leaders and advocates underscored the tragic consequences of each explosion and every life lost. They did this by reciting close to 200 names of individuals who were killed due to "American-made weapons".
"Representative Jeffries and fellow progressives should reevaluate their commitment to justice if they continue to oppose a ceasefire in Palestine. Failure to support it undermines their dedication to racial, economic and environmental justice," Webb said.
"History may remember them as the establishment's enablers rather than genuine voices for truth, as allies of plutocracy instead of champions of democracy."
Although there's widespread backing for a ceasefire among the Democratic base, only 18 Democratic representatives have voiced their support by endorsing Rep. Cori Bush's "Ceasefire NOW" resolution presented last week.
At the same time, US President Joe Biden's administration is urging Congress to approve a financial package, proposing $14bn in military aid that would support Israel's military.
"Democratic leadership has failed to stand on the side of what is right. Leadership should be ashamed of its complicity in supporting the genocide of the Palestinian people," Iman Abid, the director of organising and advocacy at the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, said.
"Their choices are not only against what the majority of Americans are demanding - an immediate ceasefire - but also immoral. We cannot unconditionally fund Israel through this atrocity."
Gaza hospital strike: NY Times investigation casts doubt on Israel's account
Analysis finds key footage repeatedly cited by Israeli officials as errant Palestinian rocket that hit hospital was 'never near' the site and was fired from Israel
The detailed analysis, based on footage from a variety of angles and other sources of evidence relating to events on the evening of 17 October, concludes that the projectile that hit the hospital was fired at Gaza from the Israeli town of Nahal Oz.
The findings stand in stark contrast to the Israeli explanation, supported by official statements from the US, the UK, Canada, and Italy, that the hospital was bombed by an errant rocket fired by Palestinian Islamic Jihad from Gaza.
The source of the projectile that hit the hospital being used both to treat patients wounded in Israeli bombings and as a shelter for displaced residents has become a divisive topic since the strike.
Hamas has maintained that the projectile came from Israel, saying that the footage of it resembled previous Israeli bombings and that the group's "homemade rockets" are incapable of inflicting that level of destruction.
One key source of evidence cited by the Israelis is Al Jazeera video footage showing a projectile flying over Gaza and exploding in the air, followed seconds later by an explosion on the ground.
Israeli officials have said that the clip shows a misfired Palestinian rocket falling and causing the explosion at the hospital.
But the NYT says its investigation has found that the missile in the video "was never near the hospital" and was launched from near the Israeli town of Nahal Oz.
It appears to have detonated in the sky, above the Israeli-Gaza border, at least two miles away from the site.
The Times said it could not say what caused the blast or who was responsible and that it was still possible that a failed Palestinian rocket was behind the attack.
"But the [NYT] analysis does cast doubt on one of the most-publicized pieces of evidence that Israeli officials have used to make their case and complicates the straightforward narrative they have put forth," the investigation concludes.
'Different interpretations'
US intelligence officials told the NYT on Tuesday that, based on publicly available video and Israeli intercepts of Palestinian fighters, they had assessed that the attack was caused by a Palestinian rocket that broke up in midair.
A spokesperson for the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence told the NYT investigators that US intelligence agencies had "different interpretations" of the key footage.
The NYT further found that the projectile in the Al Jazeera footage was launched from Israel after a barrage of Palestinian rockets that Israeli officials have said were responsible for the hospital strike.
The newspaper said it could not identify what type of projectile it was, but that it was launched from an area known to have an Iron Dome defense system.
The investigation also found evidence that continues to raise questions about who was responsible.
Israel-Palestine: Siege and shelling pushes Gaza back to the ‘stone age’
It says analysed footage shows that Israel's bombardment took place at the time of the attack and that two explosions could be seen within two minutes of the hospital being hit.
The videos also show that Palestinian fighters were shooting off rockets southwest of the hospital minutes before the blast and that the explosion at the hospital is “consistent with a failed rocket falling well short of its target with unspent fuel”.
Israel has said it used 6,000 bombs in the first six days of the war, more than the US used in a year in Afghanistan and double the amount the US-led coalition used against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria in a month.
Palestinian fighters have continued to target Israel with rockets from hidden launch sites within Gaza.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health told Middle East Eye the Israeli army told all hospitals in northern Gaza and the central Gaza City, including the al-Ahli hospital, to clear out or face air strikes a week before the explosion.
The ministry said it rejected the threats and refused to leave vulnerable patients.
At least 6,546 Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip and 1,400 Israelis have been killed since fighting started on 7 October.
A woman looks on from behind a gate next to the bodies of Palestinians killed by Israeli strikes in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, 26 October 2023 (Reuters)
Crowds of men patiently stand outside the Al-Sunbula bakery in the Deir al-Balah refugee camp in central Gaza waiting to buy bread after its machines broke down.
It has been two weeks since Israel cut electricity and fuel supplies to Gaza and most bakeries have closed their doors, leaving two million people at risk of starvation and malnutrition.
With the war now in its third week, the few bakeries that are still running are becoming well-known names among residents of the besieged region.
“I have a family of nine and around 15 other relatives are staying with us,” says Abu Bakr Zinati, a resident of Deir al-Balah.
“This usually means we need at least a bag of 50 loaves every day,” he tells Middle East Eye.
“But since the start of the [Israeli] attack, we’ve only been able to get 20 loaves a day because bakery owners are trying to make sure they can cover the needs of as many households as they can.”
For Zinati and other Palestinians in Gaza, survival means not only avoiding Israeli bombardment but also making sure they are able to get a hold of basic staples like bread.
Men wait for bread outside a bakery in Rafah in southern Gaza on 22 October (AFP/Mohammed Abed)
“In the past week, we have been struggling to find bakeries that are still open and operating,” Zinati says.
“Now the owner of this one just told us that the fuel running the power generator has gone.
“I don't know what we'll do now, more bakeries are closing their doors every day.”
One crisis amongst many
Lack of fuel affects not only the bakeries in Gaza’s refugee camp but also means supermarkets have no way of refrigerating produce and desalination plants cannot operate.
Food, generator-produced electricity, and water are now at extremely low levels following the Israeli bombing campaign in Gaza, which began in response to an attack by Hamas-led Palestinian fighters on 7 October.
Israel imposed a complete siege on the already-blockaded strip after the attack.
In practice, that means no food, water, fuel, medicine, or electricity can enter Gaza.
Israel has also bombed and continues to threaten to bomb the Rafah crossing that Gaza shares with Egypt.
That means aid sent by the international community cannot enter the area without hard-fought negotiation.
The most recent exception was for around 20 trucks loaded with medical supplies and food assistance, which entered Gaza from Egypt for the first time on Saturday.
“We used to receive around one to four hours of electricity a day during the first week of the assault,” says Zinati.
“Now we do not receive any electricity supply. We cannot recharge our phones to call each other nor can we watch TV to see what is going on around us.
“We just hear bombing around us all day but we don't know where it is coming from,” he adds.
While the vast majority of Gaza residents do not have access to power, many rely on FM radios to listen to the news and find alternatives to TV and the internet.
But even radio can be interrupted as local stations are subject to frequent Israeli hacking attacks.
“We keep the radio on almost all day long because it is our only source of information,” Zinati explains.
“But every now and then Israeli forces hack local stations and broadcast recorded messages telling residents not to support Hamas, and threatening retaliation against anyone who does.
“They also regularly ask residents to evacuate their homes and move to the south of the Gaza Strip,” Zinati continued.
‘Stone age’
Information is secondary to the immediate needs of life and access to the basics remains the main concern for Gaza’s people.
More than 1.5 million Palestinians in the region face water shortages. Local authorities have been unable to supply the area with water after Israel cut water supplies.
Many residents are now pumping water from wells but that comes with risks and supplies can be contaminated with seawater and wastewater.
The desperation is evident in the al-Zawaida area of Gaza, where many have fled, seeking refuge with relatives and friends.
With so many new arrivals, supplies do not last long.
'If there are five boxes of bottled water in a supermarket, we take one and leave the rest for other families'
- Rabha Saqer, Gaza resident
“We fill two water tankers every couple of days when the man distributing drinking water comes to our neighbourhood, and we pay around three Shekels ($0.76) for each tanker,” Rabha Saqer, a displaced mother of five, told MEE.
“But the water runs out a few hours later because we are an extended family of around 30 individuals staying at our in-laws' home,” she adds.
“When there is no water, we cannot even cook, we are relying on canned food that is gradually running out in the supermarkets.
“My kids are asking for homemade food, my heart is aching for them, especially for the young ones who need to eat healthy at this age.”
With the increasing demand for drinking water and the complete closure of Gaza's borders, shop owners are also unable to restock empty shelves with bottled water.
“We are able to buy small amounts of water and food day by day, but we cannot stock up on food or water because even the markets cannot provide much,” Saqer continues.
“If there are five boxes of bottled water in a supermarket, we take one and leave the rest for other families.
“We are left without food, water, electricity, fuel, or internet. They [Israelis] want to return Gaza to the stone age.”
Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan addresses the 78th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York City 19 September 2023 (Reuters)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed Israel and its backers in a fiery speech on Wednesday, urging world leaders to stop the attack against Palestinians in Gaza.
Speaking in parliament, Erdogan said Turkey “owes nothing” to Israel and announced he would no longer visit the country as previously planned.
He also said Hamas was not a terrorist group, as many of Turkey's Nato allies have proscribed the movement, labelling them instead as a liberation movement fighting to “protect their land and citizens”.
Israel's brutal bombing campaign on Gaza has been ongoing since 7 October, when Hamas launched a massive attack on southern Israel.
Israeli strikes have killed at least 6,546 people, including more than 2,704 children and 1,584 women, according to Palestinian officials. An additional 1,600 people, including 900 children, are missing and presumed to be trapped under rubble.
According to Israeli officials, around 1,400 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attack, the majority of them believed to be civilians.
At least another 220 people have been taken as prisoners in Gaza, including soldiers and civilians.
"Approximately half of those killed in Israel's attacks on Gaza are children. Even these figures demonstrate that the aim is an atrocity to commit premeditated crimes against humanity," Erdogan said in his speech.
"Israel's attacks on Gaza are a situation that attests to both murder and a state of mental illness, both for those who carry them out and for those who support them," he added.
In the first days of the war, the Turkish president had been more measured in his remarks regarding the hostilities, condemning all attacks on civilians, but urging Israel to react with restraint.
However, as the bombing campaign on Gaza increased in intensity, leading the daily death toll to grow exponentially, he became more vocal against Israel's actions.
Erdogan called for an immediate ceasefire and negotiations for the release of hostages and said Muslim countries must work together to secure a lasting peace in the region.
"We will continue to shout the truth and take political and, if necessary, military measures," Erdogan said, without elaborating.
The president also slammed Western powers for their "unlimited" support to Israel, saying it has led to the massacres in Gaza.
Erdogan further reiterated Turkey's proposal of a guarantorship system to resolve the conflict, saying that Turkey is ready to be one of the guarantors for the Palestinian side, with a humanitarian, political, and military presence.
Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini described Erdogan's comments as "grave and disgusting and did not help with de-escalation".
Salvini said in a note that he would suggest to Italy's foreign minister to send a formal protest and summon the Turkish ambassador to Italy.
Starmer has faced heavy criticism from the UK's Muslim community after making comments that appeared to show him defending Israel's decision to cut electricity and water to the Gaza Strip (AFP)
Pressure is mounting on Labour leader Keir Starmer to call for a ceasefire in Gaza as dozens of Muslim Labour councillors sign an open letter demanding an end to the humanitarian disaster unfolding in the besieged enclave.
The letter, organised by the Labour Muslim Councillors Network, has been signed by approximately 150 councillors, with many coming from areas with a sizeable Muslim electorate.
"As Labour councillors elected to serve our constituents, this message we have been repeatedly hearing over the past two weeks is simple. People just want an end to the bloodshed and loss of innocent life," the letter said.
Israel launched a brutal bombing campaign on Gaza on 7 October, when Hamas conducted a massive attack on southern Israel, killing around 1,400 people, mostly civilians.
Ongoing Israeli strikes have since killed at least 6,546 people, including more than 2,704 children and 1,584 women, according to Palestinian officials. An additional 1,600 people, including 900 children, are missing and presumed to be trapped under rubble.
"No nation, no people or community should have to endure collective punishment, and the same should be the case for the Palestinian people. We are also clear that hostages held captive must also be returned to their families safely."
Israel-Palestine war: British Palestinians mourn their loved ones from afar
Starmer on Wednesday met with Labour's Muslim MPs in a bid to ease tension over the party's stance on the situation in Gaza.
Alia Khan, a councillor from Luton, said she signed the letter as an act of solidarity with the Palestinian people as Israel continues its bombardment of Gaza.
"I don't agree with the party leadership and how it's handled this situation since the crisis has begun," Khan told Middle East Eye.
"Our leader must do the right thing and demand a ceasefire in Gaza to end the bloodshed that has killed so many children in the last two weeks.
"Calling for an immediate ceasefire is not difficult, and the Labour Party has avoided doing that for no reason, and the tacit support it is giving to Israel is essentially giving a green light to what the Israeli army is doing in Gaza, and that needs to stop."
Resignations
Over the past two weeks, Starmer has faced heavy criticism from the UK's Muslim community after making comments that appeared to show him supporting Israel's decision to cut electricity and water to the Gaza Strip.
Several Labour councillors have also resigned in protest against Starmer's comments after the party advised councillors and MPs to not attend pro-Palestine rallies.
The resignations have led to Labour losing its majority and control of Oxford City Council. Among the councillors who have left the Labour Party is Amna Latif, the first Arab Muslim woman to be elected to Manchester City Council.
Starmer has since rowed back on his remarks, calling for the "water and power to be switched back on", without naming Israel in his clarification tweet.
Starmer has also faced criticised from the Muslim community in Wales after he visited a mosque in Cardiff on Sunday and later said that he had used his visit to call for Hamas to release the hostages it captured during its attack on southern Israel.
Since then, the centre has received criticism from the Muslim community for allowing the visit, forcing the mosque to release a statement reaffirming its commitment to a "free Palestine".
Israel-Palestine war: Starmer's Gaza betrayal shows he is failing as a leader
In the statement, the centre expressed "dismay" at Starmer's comments, saying he "gravely misrepresented our congregants and the nature of the visit.
"We apologise for the hurt and confusion that our hosting of this visit has caused," it said.
Meanwhile, in Leicester, the entire city council's Labour group on Tuesday unanimously called on all political party leaders, including Starmer, to call for an "immediate and permanent ceasefire" in Gaza.
The statement comes after Peter Soulsby, who has served as the mayor of Leicester since 2011 and was formerly a Labour MP, said that while Starmer was right to condemn the attacks in southern Israel by Palestinian fighters on 7 October, he was concerned about Starmer's stance on Israel's subsequent response.
"The impression that has been given is that this condemnation of recent events extends to approving uncritically the Israeli government's response and of ignoring the decades of injustice and the oppression of Palestinians and the violations of their human rights," Soulsby wrote in a letter obtained by Middle East Eye.
The mayor also said that he had visited the occupied Palestinian territories and believed that Israeli settlement activity, as well as Israel's treatment of Palestinians, had created a "breeding ground for despair and terrorism".
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi at a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron in Cairo, Egypt, 25 October 2023 (Reuters)
Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi on Wednesday warned his armed forces and the general public to rein in their anger and enthusiasm, in an apparent reference to the outrage felt in Egypt at the Israeli military onslaught on neighbouring Gaza.
Speaking during an inspection of the Fourth Armoured Division of the Third Field Army in the Suez Governorate, some 15 km from Egypt’s border with the Gaza Strip, Sisi said the role of his army is to protect his country’s borders and national security “without aggression”.
Meanwhile, he warned against acts resulting from “anger”, “enthusiasm", and “illusions of power,” as thousands of Egyptians took to the streets on Friday to denounce Israel's attacks and demand action from Sisi and Arab leaders.
The president’s speech comes as the ferocious Israeli military operation on Gaza enters its 19th day, with the death toll among Palestinians estimated to be at least 8,000, including the dead and people missing under the rubble of bombarded buildings.
Most of the casualties are women and children, according to Gaza health officials.
Egypt’s Rafah border crossing is the only gateway in and out of Gaza that is not controlled by Israel and is currently the only corridor for humanitarian aid.
Israel has bombarded the border crossing, both on the Palestinian and Egyptian sides, five times since the hostilities began between Israel and Gaza on 7 October following the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel.
The attack by Hamas and other Palestinian armed factions has killed around 1,400 Israelis, mostly civilians, and resulted in the captivity of at least 200 people.
Since the assault, Israel has imposed a complete siege on the already-blockaded strip, cutting off water, electricity, and fuel supplies.
These measures have been denounced by UN agencies and international human rights groups as unlawful "collective punishment" under international humanitarian law.
In his Wednesday speech, Sisi told members of the armed forces that Egypt should use its military powers wisely in the conflict.
"It's very important when you have this sort of power that you use it reasonably... and you don't overstep and have illusions about your own strength," and stressed that Egypt is playing a “very positive role” in cooperation with “brothers, friends and partners” in an attempt to reach a ceasefire.
“Over the past 20 years, there have been approximately five rounds of conflict between Israel and the Gaza Strip, or Hamas, or Islamic Jihad, or the groups present in the Gaza Strip. Five times. And Egypt’s role has always been positive in containing and calming the escalation and mitigating the effects of the conflict.”
Sisi added that the solution to the Palestinian issue will be a diplomatic solution, which is the two-state solution, stressing that the establishment of a Palestinian state on the territories occupied in 1967 with Jerusalem as its capital “gives hope to the Palestinians and at the same time takes into account security for both the Palestinian people and the Israeli people".
Sisi also met with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in Cairo later on Wednesday, and said in a press conference that both leaders agreed that the forced displacement of Gaza civilians to Egypt's Sinai peninsula would be "extremely dangerous".
Wednesday's military exercise, Sisi said, had been planned to be held two weeks ago to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1973 war against Israel, but had been adjourned due to the latest hostilities.
Starvation as a method of war
The Israeli attacks on the Rafah border crossing have exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, as aid trucks continue to be stranded outside the crossing waiting for Israeli permission and assurances that the convoys would not be targeted.
Only 62 aid trucks loaded with medical supplies and food assistance have been allowed to enter in the past 19 days.
Oxfam warned in a statement Wednesday that Israel is using “starvation as a weapon of war" against Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
The organisation has also found that just two percent of the food that would have been normally delivered has entered Gaza since the total siege.
Before the war, an average of 500 trucks used to enter Gaza daily. In total, Gaza should have received 9,500 trucks since 7 October - not including additional aid to compensate for losses from the air strikes.
"Despite 62 trucks of aid being allowed to enter southern Gaza via the Rafah crossing since the weekend, only 30 contained food and in some cases, not exclusively so. This amounts to just one truck every three hours and 12 minutes since Saturday," Oxfam said.
"Millions of civilians are being collectively punished in full view of the world, there can be no justification for using starvation as a weapon of war," Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfam’s Mena director, said.
"World leaders cannot continue to sit back and watch, they have an obligation to act and to act now."
American soldiers patrol the Hasakeh district of northern Syria in this picture taken in 2020 (AFP/Delil Souleiman)
As Israel, backed by the US, prepares for a ground invasion of Gaza, the security of US bases and interests in the Middle East is increasingly under scrutiny due to the threat of attacks originating from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen.
The Pentagon confirmed on Tuesday that US troops have been attacked 10 times in Iraq and three times in Syria since 17 October.
A day earlier, US officials said they had not received any indication that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had issued a directive to attack its forces in the region.
This uncertainty adds to the complexity of the situation and will determine how the US goes forward.
The US has been the biggest backer of Israel in the conflict so far and has dispatched military advisors including senior officers, as well as expedited the delivery of advanced air defence systems, not only to Israel but elsewhere in the region.
This move aligns with reports of US pressure on Israel to delay its planned ground invasion of Gaza, so that Washington can be ready for any expansion of the conflict.
Another key element that could determine whether the US is dragged into war is the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza and the heavy civilian death toll.
The situation has even garnered the attention of former US President Barack Obama, who cautioned against downplaying Palestinian suffering and warned about further repercussions.
As of Tuesday morning, more than 5,700 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's bombing of Gaza, of which more than 2,000 have been children.
At least 1,400 Israelis were killed on 7 October, when Hamas-led Palestinian fighters broke through the perimeter separating Gaza from Israel.
With thousands of casualties on both sides, a ground invasion of Gaza could potentially lead to intervention by US adversaries and a strain on relations with key allies.
Jordan, in particular, faces a "worst-case scenario" in anticipation of a Gaza incursion, amid mounting calls to cancel its peace treaty with Israel.
This presents not only a challenge for Israel but a dilemma for Washington also
Regional conflagration
US officials are preparing for potential escalations on multiple fronts, particularly in relation to Iran and the groups it backs in Lebanon and Iraq. Recent attacks on US troops in Iraq and Syria illustrate the volatile situation.
Currently, the US maintains a military presence of 2,500 troops in Iraq, and an additional 900 troops are positioned in northeastern Syria as part of their participation in the global coalition against Islamic State (IS).
Israel-Palestine war: Assault on Gaza reignites suppressed activism in Egypt
The most significant US military facility in the region is al-Udeid Air Base, situated in Qatar.
Experts and analysts specialising in the Middle East contend that Washington has made substantial mistakes since the 7 October attack in Israel.
These strategic errors have brought the region closer to the potential of a large-scale war.
“Given the high emotion, it would not be unforeseeable for individuals to turn a blind eye to abuse or even retribution for grievances held against Israel,” Matthew Hedges, Middle East security expert, told Middle East Eye
“Considering the near complete array of US military bases across the MENA, the potential threat is enormous."
Arab officials aware of the risk of regional escalation are calling for an immediate ceasefire.
When questioned at the UN Security Council briefing on Tuesday regarding the potential for regional escalation, Jordan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ayman Safadi acknowledged it as a significant concern.
"It is indeed a real threat," he emphasised.
Safadi along with his Saudi and Egyptian counterparts at the briefing called for an immediate ceasefire and urged the international community to intervene and prevent a larger conflict.
Anti-Israel sentiment has been on the rise, not only in the Muslim world but also globally.
Arab and Muslim communities increasingly perceive themselves as being at odds with the West.
Safadi warned that "the ongoing war in Gaza is contributing to a perilous perception in the Arab and Muslim world that they are in conflict with the West," emphasising the need for those supporting Israel's actions to recognise this growing danger.
Iranian involvement
Hezbollah, based in Lebanon, has engaged in retaliatory skirmishes with Israel. Their willingness to engage in the ongoing conflict highlights the severity of the situation, although resource limitations remain a concern.
“Iranian allied proxies such as Hezbollah in Lebanon are far better equipped and organised. They are also seen as a far greater threat to Israel than Hamas, and this is why Tel Aviv has not immediately invaded Gaza,” Hedges said.
Iran has been involved in diplomatic efforts to end the conflict, keeping away from direct military involvement. This is despite claims from some in the US and Israel regarding Iran's involvement in the surprise attack on Israel.
On Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian warned the US and Israel that the situation in the region could quickly deteriorate “at any moment” if the US persists in what he termed a “proxy war” on Gaza.
Israel-Palestine war: When will Lebanon's Hezbollah enter the battle?
The White House disclosed on Monday instances where Iran is allegedly supporting rocket and drone attacks on US military installations in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed proxies.
This has prompted US President Joe Biden to instruct the Department of Defense to prepare for further assaults to safeguard their interests in the region, the White House said.
“It is unlikely that the Iranian state will formally get involved in the conflict. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) however will nearly certainly get involved through the sustained delivery of arms, personnel, and ideological support. There could also be instances whereby IRGC soldiers are directly attributed for attacks,” Hedges said.
The Iran-backed Houthi group in Yemen has also threatened hostilities against Israel if Washington got directly involved in the Israeli military campaign in Gaza.
Recent incidents involving missile and drone attacks originating from Yemen further highlight the severity of the situation.
The Pentagon confirmed last week that a US Navy ship in the Red Sea intercepted missiles and drones fired by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, with targets potentially including Israel.
'Iranian allied proxies such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, are far better equipped and organised. They are also seen as a far greater threat to Israel than Hamas'
- Matthew Hedges, Middle East security expert
The Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack, with Abdulaziz bin Habtour, the head of its government in Sanaa, stating: "We launched these missiles as a form of solidarity with the people of Gaza."
Habtour also issued a warning, threatening to target Israeli ships in the Red Sea if military operations continued in Gaza.
In Yemen, there are calls to close the Bab al Mandab Strait, controlled by Aden-based government forces, backed by the Saudi-led coalition.
Maintaining control over Hodeidah's Red Sea shoreline gives the Houthis the ability to threaten international shipping and potentially shut down the Bab Al Mandab strait, resulting in extended travel times and higher shipping expenses, as it would shut off access to the Suez Canal.
“Given the IRGC’s previous hijacking of ships throughout the Straits of Hormuz and Bab al Mandeb, it is likely this would happen again,” Hedges said.
The Houthis in Yemen are reported to have the capacity to engage in the conflict from various locations within Yemen, posing a potential threat to US interests both inside and outside Yemen.
The exact presence of the US forces in or near Yemen is uncertain. However, Hedges explained that there have been reports of US troops being located in areas such as Mokha on Yemen's Red Sea coast, Mukalla in Hadramout, and on the Islands of Socotra.
Additionally, there are two US ships in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen. Hadhramout is considered a “serious vulnerability as [Al Qaeda] are highly operational in this vicinity”, according to Hedges.
Given all these considerations, the region has become a tinderbox.
Israel's relentless bombardment of Gaza continues to cause immense suffering to Palestinian civilians and the likelihood of a broader conflict remains a significant concern for those who live in it and further afield.
American interests are a top target for anti-Israel powers in the region, further heightening the importance of diplomatic efforts and a swift resolution to the crisis.
Wael al-Dahdouh is considered to be the face of Al Jazeera’s Gaza coverage, according to many across the Arab world (X social media)
The wife, daughter, son and grandson of Al Jazeera Arabic’s Gaza bureau chief were killed in an Israeli air strike on Wednesday.
Wael al-Dahdouh, considered by many across the Arab world to be the face of Al Jazeera’s Gaza coverage, received the news while on air covering a different Israeli attack elsewhere in Gaza.
The veteran journalist was seen in footage published online tearfully saying his goodbyes to his son, Mahmoud, after his body arrived at the hospital.
"You wanted to be a journalist," Dahdouh said while kneeling on the floor next to Mahmoud's dead body.
"They take revenge on us with our children?" he added, referring to the Israeli army. "It's okay. To God we belong and to him we return."
He later said his tears were not out of "fear or cowardice" but rather of humanity.
"This is the occupation’s policy, and this is our destiny and our choice, and we will not deviate," Dahdouh told Al Jazeera.
In addition to Mahmoud, Dahdouh's daughter Sham, his wife Umm Hamza and several others were killed in the strike. Dozens of others were wounded, including other members of the reporter's family.
The family had been sheltering in a relative's home in southern Gaza when they were hit.
Al Jazeera's coverage of the relentless Israeli assault on Palestinians in Gaza has drawn the ire of many Israeli officials who are seeking its closure.
Earlier this week, the Israeli government approved "emergency regulations" that would shutter broadcasters deemed to be acting against the "security of the state".
Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said earlier that the emergency legislation was aimed at closing Al Jazeera.
Before the ban on the Qatari-based international news channel is enacted, it will need approval from Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who is expected to sign the regulation.
Translation: Al Jazeera correspondent Wael al-Dahdouh from inside the hospital after members of his family, including his wife, son, and daughter, were martyred in an Israeli bombing in Gaza.
Al Jazeera is the biggest Arabic language news outlet providing televised and online updates on the situation in Gaza, within Israel and in other occupied Palestinian territories.
It is one of the few global media channels that has a physical presence in Gaza and Israel, which has barred anyone from leaving or entering the coastal enclave that is now under complete siege with no electricity, fuel and other supplies allowed to enter.
International coverage of the Israeli bombardment, therefore, has fallen to media organisations already on the ground, such as Al Jazeera.
The shelling has so far killed more than 6,500 Palestinians with more than 1,500 missing and presumed trapped under rubble with no means of resucing them, according to the health ministry. More than 70 percent of those killed are children, women and elderly people.
The bombing campaign has killed dozens of journalists, doctors, first responders, writers, artists, and footballers - among others.
The violence erupted on 7 October after Hamas led a Palestinian attack into southern Israel. According to Israeli officials, around 1,400 people were killed in Israel during the assault, the majority of them believed to be civilians. At least another 220 people have been taken as prisoners in Gaza, including soldiers and civilians.
Al Jazeera has a frosty relationship with Israel despite being one of the first in the region to interview Israeli figures on-air.
In 2022, Palestinian-American Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead by an Israeli soldier while reporting in Jenin.
The network most recently condemned Israel for a missile attack in Lebanon on a group of journalists, which included its own reporters.
"Israel has once again attempted to silence the media by targeting journalists, as Israeli forces fired a guided missile at Al Jazeera crew in southern Lebanon, wounding two and killing a Reuters journalist," the network said in a statement.
Palestinian footballer Nazir Atta al-Nashash was killed in an Israeli air strike over the weekend (Nazir Atta al-Nashash, Facebook)
Nazir al-Nashash, a young aspiring Palestinian footballer, was killed along with his father and uncle after an Israeli missile struck their home over the weekend.
The al-Nashnash family had fled their home in the Jabalia refugee camp in the north after Israel started a relentless bombing campaign in response to a surprise attack by Hamas on 7 October, which killed around 1,400 Israelis.
On Saturday, 20-year-old Nazir, his father Atta, 43, and his uncle Nael had returned to their six-storey building in the camp to retrieve some belongings and necessities, Emad al-Nashash, a family relative, told Middle East Eye.
"Upon their entry, an Israeli aircraft targeted the house with a first missile and then another, resulting in the complete destruction of the house and the tragic loss of their lives," said Emad, who works as a senior anchor at Jordan's Radio and Television Corporation.
Hammad al-Nashash, a cousin based in Jordan, confirmed to MEE that other members of the family were also wounded while standing outside the building.
"Nazir was a young man like any young person, ambitious and optimistic about the future," Hammad said of the footballer and university student. "He loved life and loved playing football."
Nazir is survived by his mother and two sisters, who were also wounded in the air strike. "They are in a very dire situation," Emad said of the surviving family.
Nazir's sister Yusra, 18, wrote touching tributes to her brother, father, and uncle on Atta's Facebook page, which they have had access to since his death.
Describing her brother as a "piece of her heart", she wrote: "You enrolled me in university with you just so that I could be with you, so we would never separate, go together and do everything together to become engineers."
Nazir and his father Atta pose for a photo (social media)
To her father, Yusra wrote: "Dad, you are the crown of my head...We wanted to die together so that none of us would feel sorry for the other. Where did you go to Dad?"
"Khadamat al-Bureij's football star Nazir Ata al-Nashnash has been martyred in the ongoing brutal Israeli aggression on Gaza," the Palestine Olympic Committee said in a statement published on Facebook Sunday.
The al-Nashash family - who originally came from the town of al-Faluja, located some 20 kilometres east of the Gaza Strip - sought refuge in Jabalia after the Nakba in 1948, which saw almost a million Palestinians displaced from their homeland after the inception of Israel that same year.
Athletes among victims
At least 6,546 Palestinians, including 2,360 children and 1,292 women, have been killed in Israeli strikes since the war started.
Several prominent sports figures in the Gaza Strip have been among the victims. Almost a week into Israel's bombardment of Gaza, Basem al-Nabahin, a player with the Bureij Services Basketball Club, was killed in an air strike.
Nabahin initially began playing basketball through the club's youth team, eventually going on to win a basketball league championship, the committee said in a statement on 13 October.
Mohammad Matar, who worked for the Jiu-Jitsu Federation’s media committee; Abdul Hafeez al-Mabhouh, a member of the Palestinian national Judo team; Omar Abu Shawish, a member of the executive office of the Palestinian Sports Culture Union; and Arif al-Nabahin, described by the committee as a "pillar" of the Bureij Services Basketball Club, were also killed in Israeli bombing according to the committee.
Rashid Dabour, a football player for al-Ahly Beit Hanoun Club and the Palestinian national football team, was also killed days after the Israeli bombing of Gaza began.
In the world of football, several prominent former and current football players have voiced their support for the Palestinians, prompting some backlash.
"All our prayers for the inhabitants of Gaza who are once again victims of these unjust bombings which spare no women or children," wrote Karim Benzema, the fifth all-time top scorer for the French national team, on the social media platform X, on 15 October.
Benzama, who currently plays as a centre-forward for the Saudi club al-Ittihad, was criticised by French right-wing politicians for his comments in support of the Palestinians.
In a post titled "Free Palestine," Eric Cantona, a former French footballer known for his social activism, spoke out on Instagram on 17 October, and called for "freedom for Palestinians from Israeli occupation".
In a statement published on Facebook on 18 October, responding to the rising civilian death toll in Gaza, the Arab Sports Culture Association urged national and international sporting institutions to call for a ceasefire and extend their solidarity with the Palestinian people.
The association further announced that Arab athletes will not participate in any future championship hosting Israeli athletes in protest against the civilian death toll.
Israeli military armoured vehicles and tanks deploy along Israel's boundary with Gaza, on 24 October 2023 (AFP)
The Biden administration is stuck threading the needle between unconditional support for Israel’s war on Gaza, preventing a wider regional conflict, and its discomfort over Israel's endgame.
On Tuesday, White House spokesman John Kirby sought to put to bed rumors that US unconditional support might be wobbling. The comments suggested that a delay in a ground invasion would not lead to a respite in fighting and would benefit Hamas.
A former senior US official familiar with the Biden administration’s thinking told Middle East Eye that as the war enters its next stage, Washington believes it is seeing the benefits of its unconditional support for Israel.
“Our engagements with the Israelis are helping them to think carefully about what they are about to do, to put up guardrails, and to check rash impulses,” said the former official familiar with the administration’s thinking.
On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Israel had agreed to delay its expected ground invasion to allow the US more time to place air defence systems in the region. Netanyahu said later on Wednesday that Israel is preparing a ground invasion but gave no indication of timing or other details.
Meanwhile, the US has sent a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) battery and Patriot surface-to-air missiles to the region to bolster its defences, as its forces come under attack by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria. It hopes the deployment of additional firepower, along with two naval carrier strike groups in the Mediterranean, can also deter Lebanon's Hezbollah.
Besides surging military hardware to its bases and Israel, the Biden administration has taken an unprecedented hands-on approach to the war.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin has held near-daily phone calls with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, to discuss operations. During his visit to Israel last week, Biden took the rare step of attending an Israeli war cabinet meeting. The White House has called for an additional $14bn in military aid to Israel.
Meanwhile, the US has sent military advisors to Israel, including Marine Corps Lt. Gen. James Glynn, who was involved in fighting against the Islamic State group in Iraq, according to Axios.
No day-after plan
Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has killed at least 6,546 Palestinians and there are more than 1,500 missing, according to the Palestinian health ministry. More than 70 percent of those killed are children, women and the elderly.
The war erupted on 7 October after Hamas led an attack in southern Israel. According to Israeli officials, around 1,400 people were killed in Israel during the assault, the majority believed to be civilians. At least another 220 people were taken as prisoners in Gaza, including soldiers and civilians.
The delay of the ground invasion buys the US more time as it works to extract hostages and nearly 600 American citizens who are trapped in Gaza. There are 10 Americans among the roughly 22o hostages Hamas is holding, according to US officials. Two were released on Friday.
But the strategy of closely linking itself to Israel's expected ground invasion also poses risks to the US.
“US strength and standing in the region is going to be directly linked to Israel’s performance in the war,” David Schenker, a former State Department official, told MEE. “Even worse than what happened on 7 October for the US, would be Israel getting bogged down in Gaza.”
'What Israel stated as gut-reflex response to the brutal Hamas attack isn’t an achievable objective'
- Liam Collins, former US special forces colonel
But any tactical delay to the ground invasion still fails to address the elephant in the room: Who will govern the Gaza Strip if Israel achieves its stated objective of eliminating Hamas?
MEE reported previously that US officials have asked Israel what its plans for the Gaza Strip would be after a potential ground invasion.
Israeli officials have said they have no plan for the impoverished Mediterranean enclave - home to more than 2.1 million Palestinians - once they are done waging war there.
Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East negotiator at the State Department, said the Biden administration “clearly isn’t happy with what the Israelis have in mind".
“They have all but said publicly it lacks clarity and consistency and doesn’t have a day-after plan,” he said.
And that could be bad news for the US, which has tethered itself so closely to Israel's military operations but is also attempting to portray itself as a broker in the region.
“The US is telling Israel they inherit the reality on the ground after a land invasion,” a former senior US official familiar with the Biden administration’s thinking, told MEE. “And it’s not in anyone’s interest to be caught in a quagmire.”
US lacks bandwidth
The day before Biden's wartime visit to Israel, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy published an analysis of a "Post-Hamas Gaza", which MEE understands some US officials shared with their Israeli counterparts as a roadmap to consider once the group is removed. The paper wasn’t presented as an official request but as one of several options.
The paper recommends an interim administration governing Gaza, with civilian affairs controlled by local Palestinians and security managed by a peacekeeping force of neighbouring Arab states until the Palestinian Authority (PA) can take over. The international community would assist in reconstruction.
Israel-Palestine war: Gaza hospital strike haunts Biden's visit to Israel
The authors said the plan would require "substantive reform" of the PA, which has limited governing power in the occupied West Bank, is widely viewed by Palestinians as a corrupt collaborator with Israel, and whose popularity is at an all-time low.
The plan would require serious buy-in from the US, and there is no indication Washington is actively pursuing it.
Talks with Arab leaders in Jordan and Egypt have focused on the immediate impact of the war, with Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi drawing red lines against the forced displacement of Palestinians.
Washington’s Arab allies have seen mass demonstrations in support of Palestinians, with some of their citizens even calling for Hamas to hit Israel with more rockets. Cooperating publicly with Israel now to administer Gaza could endanger their rule, experts said.
“The US is asking Israel a question they don’t have the answer to either,” Miller said, adding that Washington “lacked the bandwidth” to meaningfully engage with its Arab partners on a post-Hamas Gaza.
'Israel makes its own decisions'
Meanwhile, the Biden administration continues to publicly back Hamas’s removal. In an NBC interview over the weekend, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Israel can’t “go back to the status quo” with Hamas governing the enclave.
Biden says he is opposed to Israel occupying Gaza, but has side-stepped questions about whether he backs an immediate full-scale invasion of the enclave. “The Israelis are making their own decisions,” he said, when asked on Tuesday.
Liam Collins, a retired US special forces colonel and professor at the United States Military Academy at West Point, told MEE that the Biden administration was stuck backing the war aims of an ally and it would likely have to be scaled back.
“What Israel stated as gut-reflex response to the brutal Hamas attack isn’t an achievable objective,” he told MEE.
“Degrading Hamas can be done, but it’s not realistic to eliminate Hamas, militarily or politically. You can’t do that unless you address the underlying roots of the conflict,” he said.
Columbia students at a rally at the university in support of Palestine on 12 October in New York City. They also walked out of their classrooms on 25 October (AFP)
Thousands of students across schools and universities in the US walked out of their classrooms on Wednesday, calling for an end to the US-backed assault on Gaza and US military funding to Israel.
The National Student Walkout Day took place at 1pm local time EST and was organised by the National Students for Justice in Palestine, and the Dissenters, a new movement focused on reclaiming resources from the war industry and “reinvesting in life-giving institutions, and repairing collaborative relationships with the earth and people around the world”.
Students from over 100 universities and high schools all throughout the country took part in the walkout, including Princeton University, Columbia University, and UCLA.
At least 1,400 Israelis were killed during an unprecedented surprise attack on Israel on 7 October by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups. Israel says 222 were also taken back to Gaza as captives. Four of them have since been released. Israel responded with a bombing campaign that has taken thousands of Palestinian lives.
Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has killed more than 6,500 Palestinians and more than 1,500 are missing, according to the Palestinian health ministry. More than 70 percent of those killed are children, women and elderly people.
Cornel West, a presidential candidate, took to X to say that he would be joining the walkout at UCLA.
“I’m on my way to UCLA to be in deep solidarity with all students who are in solidarity with our precious Palestinian brothers and sisters against the genocidal and barbaric attack on Gaza!” he said.
“We want freedom across the board, we want equal dignity, equal rights, and equal status for Palestinians and Israelis!"
Happening now: about 140 students at Lowell High School in San Francisco participating in national student walkout for Gaza. pic.twitter.com/68ck1xGWTz
At New York University (NYU), hundreds of students took to the street holding posters and chanting, “Free Palestine”.
“Our institutions are investing in the genocidal siege of Palestine. Their money, their words, and programs make Israel's occupation and violence possible. They try to silence us, because they need us to be afraid, confused, and divided,” the NYU SJP said in a statement.
“But we, as a united movement for Palestinian liberation, choose to dissent. We have the power and duty to force our institutions to end support for Israeli occupation.”
Some were holding posters that said, “Shut Down NYU Tel Aviv”, in reference to the campus located in Israel.
In 2022, just a few weeks after a landmark report by Amnesty International labelled Israel an apartheid state, students and activists at NYU started demanding that the university suspend its Tel Aviv programme, citing the Amnesty report.
"NYU cannot, in good conscience, operate an academic centre in an apartheid state while claiming in its non-discrimination and anti-harassment policy to be committed to creating an environment free of harassment and discrimination based on race, colour, creed, religion, national origin, ethnicity or citizenship status," wrote Trace Miller, managing editor of the Washington Square News, NYU's independent student newspaper.
An Israeli mobile artillery unit fires a shell from southern Israel towards Gaza, in a position near the Israel-Gaza border on 25 October 2023 (AP)
Palestinian groups expect Israel to flood Hamas tunnels with a type of nerve gas or chemical weapon under the surveillance of US Delta Force commandos as part of a surprise attack on the Gaza Strip, a senior Arab source familiar with the Palestinian groups told Middle East Eye.
Israel and the US hope to achieve the element of surprise in order to penetrate Hamas tunnels, rescue an estimated 220 hostages, and kill thousands of soldiers belonging to Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigades, the source said, noting that the information they received came from a leak originating in the US.
Middle East Eye cannot independently verify the information in the leak.
"The plan hinges on the element of surprise so as to decisively win the battle, using internationally forbidden gases, particularly nerve gas, and chemical weapons. Large quantities of nerve gas would be pumped into the tunnels," the source said.
The source added that the US Delta Force will oversee "large quantities of nerve gas being pumped into Hamas tunnels, capable of paralysing the bodily movement for a period of time between six and 12 hours.
"Inhaled or absorbed through the skin, most nerve gases can kill in anywhere between one to 10 minutes by crippling the respiratory centre of the central nervous system and paralysing the muscles around the lungs.
Symptoms of exposure to the agent include nausea and violent headaches, blurred vision, drooling, muscle convulsions, respiratory arrest and loss of consciousness.
"During this period, the tunnels would be penetrated, the hostages rescued and thousands of al-Qassam soldiers killed," the source added.
US Department of Defense Spokesperson Sabrina Singh commented on the leak saying, “This is not true and this reporting is inaccurate.”
MEE reached out to the White House for comment but did not receive a response by time of publication.
The US is coordinating with Israel ahead of its expected invasion of Gaza, with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin holding near-daily phone calls with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, to discuss operations.
Senior US military officials with knowledge of urban warfare have also been dispatched to Israel.
Deception campaign
The source said that Israel's delay in its ground invasion was misinformation aimed at gaining the element of surprise in a multifaceted attack that will include Israeli commandos landing in northern Gaza and along the coast.
The operational details of the attack have already been agreed upon, according to the source.
On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Israel had agreed to delay its expected ground invasion to allow the US more time to place air defence systems in the region.
Netanyahu said later on Wednesday that Israel is preparing a ground invasion but gave no indication of timing or other details.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken listens to the statements of Qatar's prime minister and foreign minister in Doha, on 13 October 2023 (AFP)
US State Department staff are preparing urgent dissent cables over Washington's support for Israel's relentless bombing campaign of Gaza, Middle East Eye can reveal.
Several sources told MEE that tensions are at fever-pitch within the department, as officials are growing increasingly frustrated with the Biden administration's open backing of what human rights activists are calling war crimes against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.
'There's a lot of people who disagree with the current policy that the top folks have set'
- US official
MEE understands that several diplomats are torn between staying in their jobs to try and influence policy or leave in protest over Biden's unconditional support for Israel's bombardment and looming ground invasion.
More than 6,000 Palestinians have been killed, including 2,000 children, since Israel began its aerial bombardment of Gaza, following an attack by Palestinian fighters from Gaza on 7 October.
Around 1,400 Israelis have been killed since the Hamas-led fighters broke through the barrier separating the besieged Gaza Strip from Israel.
In one draft dissent cable, seen by MEE, diplomats write that Hamas's attack on Israel cannot be used as a justification for Israel to carry out the indiscriminate killing of innocent people in Gaza.
The draft calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities in Israel, Gaza, and the occupied West Bank and implores Washington to promote truthful and balanced public messaging towards resolving the crisis that is slowly spiralling out of control.
"When Israeli officials no longer differentiate between Hamas and civilians of Gaza - when strikes target or threaten civilian institutions such as places of worship, schools, or medical facilities - Israel must work double to rejoin adherence to international norms we so proudly, and rightly preach to other nations," the cable says.
The dissent cable is a document submitted through an internal channelthat allows diplomats to raise concerns or issues against damaging US foreign policy decisions and follows rumours that "a mutiny" is brewing inside the State Department over Biden's unflinching public support of Israel's actions in Gaza.
When reached for comment, a State Department spokesperson told MEE: "As a general practice, we do no comment on reports of internal Department communications."
"As a general matter, the dissent channel has been available to employees since the Vietnam War, and we are proud that the Department has an established procedure for employees to articulate policy disagreements directly to the attention of senior Department principals without fear of retribution."
'Last resort short of resigning'
A diplomat in the State Department told MEE that there was a sense that the normal methods of policymaking in the department had failed.
"Despite the outcries from our own officials, reporting from the ground, international groups, and the American public, there has been no change in US foreign policy with Israel other than increasing support and funding to continue killing innocent Palestinian civilians," the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"A dissent cable is one of our last resorts short of resigning to inform the Secretary of the gravity of this situation and let the State Department and White House leadership know that we vehemently demand an immediate ceasefire.
Israel-Palestine war: Israel delays ground invasion as US presses for post-Hamas plan
"At the very least, it will officially put on record that there are and were attempts by State Department officials to stop the genocide so that future generations can make sure this is never repeated," the source added.
Last week, several officials told HuffPost that there was widespread frustration over US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's refusal to listen to critiques and concerns.
Another official in the Biden administration, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said there were several different cables being considered rather than one large uniform message of dissent.
"It does seem like there are multiple efforts, it's very kind of sporadic, all over the place. From what I can tell, there's not one single organising force going around," the official said.
"There's a lot of people who disagree with the current policy that the top folks have set."
Just token voices
Days after the attack on Israel, Blinken flew to offer his condolences to the people of Israel. During his visit, he equated Hamas with the Islamic State (IS) group, a move observers said was seen as a green light to Israel to retaliate by any means necessary.
On Monday, Blinken held a listening session with representatives of Palestinian and Arab-American groups, during which they discussed rising anger with Biden over his handling of the Israel-Gaza war, a source told The National.
A report by Politico published on Tuesday said that the administration also held a listening session with Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian staffers.
'I know people are looking for different jobs because they don't feel comfortable representing the administration currently'
- US official
One official told MEE that in recent days there has been more engagement between the top levels of the administration and other officials, including with the Muslim appointees, of which there are more than 100 in the current administration.
Biden previously touted his administration to be the most diverse in US history. But so far, the administration has done little to shift its full-fledged support for Israel's war efforts. It has called for a humanitarian pause to allow aid to enter Gaza but has said it won't support a ceasefire.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Tuesday that Washington would not support a ceasefire, and that "innocent civilians are going to be hurt going forward" in Gaza.
"What a lot of me and my colleagues are running up against is, you bring these people in to hear their diverse voices. And if you're not going to listen, they're just tokens," the official said.
The official added that resignations are on the minds of many staffers in the administration.
"I know people are looking for different jobs because they don't feel comfortable representing the administration currently," the official said.
Dissenting voices are the majority
The official also said one of the reasons for this is the fact that some individuals who disagree with the administration's policy and are trying to voice their opposition "are not being taken into account".
Only one official so far has resigned, citing he could not morally support Washington's unconditional backing of Israel's military actions.
Israel-Palestine war: Thousands call for end to Israel's Gaza assault during National Student Walkout Day
"Let me be clear: Hamas' attack on Israel was not just a monstrosity; it was a monstrosity of monstrosities," Josh Paul, who worked for more than a decade in the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, wrote in a statement.
"But I believe to the core of my soul that the response Israel is taking, and with it the American support both for that response and for the status quo of the occupation, will only lead to more and deeper suffering for both the Israeli and the Palestinian people - and is not in the long term American interest."
The Biden administration's approach also doesn't appear to match the American public's view of the war. According to a recent poll by the progressive organisation, Data for Progress, 66 percent of all likely voters support a ceasefire and de-escalation of the conflict.
"I think that shows of dissent are important in these times, especially for those folks that are serving this administration," Ahmad Abuznaid, executive director of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, told MEE.
"I think what sticks out to me though, is that this time it feels like the dissent is actually the majority and the president is operating on a position that a small minority of folks actually support," he added.
A medical worker assists a premature Palestinian baby who lies in an incubator at the maternity ward of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, 22 October 2023 (Reuters)
Doctors in northern Gaza are sounding the alarm about a humanitarian "catastrophe" as Israel continues its ferocious air strikes and siege on the coastal enclave for a third week.
Since Israel cut off all electricity, fuel and water to Gaza on 9 October, hospitals have been overwhelmed, with a lack of life-saving resources and a high volume of critically wounded patients.
Patients who have been wounded in air strikes, pregnant women, children and people with kidney failure are some of the worst affected. The hospitals that are still working are running on generators, which health officials say won't last long.
In Gaza's biggest hospital, al-Shifa, doctors are faced with a massive influx of casualties, added to the thousands of displaced civilians taking shelter there.
Bassel Amr, a volunteer ICU physician, highlighted that the number of the wounded brought in all at once is bigger than the hospital’s capacity. This applies to the space in both the urgent care and operation rooms.
"We have 17 operation rooms that are prepared at the same time during massacres and ready to be used. But that is not enough. Most of the wounded need operations," he told Middle East Eye.
"But we only have the capacity to deal with 17 people at a time, while the rest wait for their turn, and some die in front of your eyes and you cannot help them because the operation rooms are full," he added.
"The wounded keep dying in front of your eyes but there’s nothing we can do."
The most traumatising situation faced by Amr and his colleagues is the fact that they have to prioritise some cases over others.
"We are left in a situation where we have to make the difficult decision to risk the life of one patient in order to save the life of another," he told MEE.
Amr also pointed out that the hospital has no space for post-operative care, and many patients have to sleep in the intensive care units, which he says hinders the work of intensive care doctors. This forces doctors to treat patients on the floor.
"The hospital won't be able to deal with any other crisis in the coming days as its equipment and necessary tools are already running out," he warned.
A Palestinian woman holds her children, who were wounded along with her in an Israeli strike, at Shifa hospital in Gaza City, 23 October 2023 (Reuters)
On Wednesday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that at least 12 out of the 35 hospitals in Gaza are now out of service because of damage from Israeli bombardment and Israel's decision to cut off fuel supplies to the besieged enclave.
OCHA added that 46 out of 72 healthcare clinics have also shut down, leaving thousands of people without any form of medical aid amid ongoing heavy bombardment.
The remaining clinics and hospitals are running on generators and have few resources to treat patients who have been critically wounded or are in intensive care.
Doctors and health officials have been warning for days that fuel is set to run out completely by Thursday.
They say this will lead to the instant death of thousands of people, including newborn babies in incubators, wounded people in intensive care units, and kidney dialysis patients, among others.
As Israel prepares for its planned ground invasion of Gaza, it has warned residents in the north to flee south to avoid being targeted. That includes hospitals. But health officials at Gaza's biggest hospitals have insisted the evacuation of the wounded and displaced would be impossible.
As almost 1.4 million people in Gaza are now internally displaced, thousands have taken shelter in hospitals.
Al-Shifa hospital alone is now home to 62,000 displaced people, according to Amr, and viruses are spreading rapidly. This compounds the lack of sterilisation in the hospital for patients, which makes them vulnerable to infections, he added.
International organisations have warned about the spread of water-borne diseases and scabies because of a lack of clean water in the territory.
Amr added that the type of wounds received by his hospital, mainly scarring and disfigurations, indicates another health crisis after the end of hostilities.
"Many of the wounded will live but will have to be on medication for a long time to manage the pain, which may lead to addiction. Others will live with disabilities."
No shrouds for burial
Hussam al-Madhoun, another doctor, highlighted a similar situation at al-Awda hospital in northern Gaza. He said the hospital "has no space to walk" as thousands of civilians have also taken refuge there from the Israeli bombing.
Similar to al-Shifa, al-Awda doesn't have enough room for casualties and is suffering a severe shortage of supplies.
“In the beginning, there was a scarcity of medical supplies, now there is a scarcity of available beds at the intensive care unit, and of oxygen, medical and sterilisation materials," he told MEE.
"I referred a girl with a nerve injury to the neurosurgery department, but was told there was no capacity to take her," he said.
He added that Gaza is now suffering from a shortage of shrouds.
"There is nothing worse than not finding enough shrouds to cover the martyrs, so you wrap them with garbage bags and old pieces of cloth," he said.
Al-Madhoun, however, is undeterred.
"I am physically and emotionally exhausted, but this is my duty and I must carry it," he said.
Meanwhile, at Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in central Gaza, the obstetrics department has been converted from delivery rooms and clinics into operating rooms for treating the wounded.
One doctor working in the obstetrics and neonatology department told MEE that the hospital staff are operating "in a state of panic, fear and shock" as Israel has warned them to flee and already bombed a building adjacent to the hospital.
"One night, I was working in my department caring for sick newborns when the Israeli occupation shelled a house next to the hospital. My colleagues and I tried to secure the children," she said, on condition of anonymity.
Electricity cut off
"Our department suffered damage because of the shelling, and the electricity was cut off for a short time."
The doctor added that the hospital is now a place of refuge for thousands of displaced people who are fleeing the north of Gaza to the central region seeking safety, on top of the overwhelming number of patients arriving for treatment.
"The sound of ambulances carrying casualties from Israeli air strikes has never ceased over the past couple of weeks; it's around the clock," she said.
"The number of casualties is so great that the hospital can no longer accommodate them and is unable to cope," she added.
"Now, with the ongoing siege and the fuel running out soon, a humanitarian catastrophe is imminent, and we will lose patients in our department and possibly thousands of patients in the entire hospital."
Israel-Palestine: Labour Party sees massive drop in Muslim support
Keir Starmer's endorsement of the deadly war and siege on Gaza has resulted in 66 percent drop in the Muslim community's support for Labour, according to a recent poll
Labour Party leader Keir Starmer speaking during the weekly Prime Minister's Questions at the House of Commons, in London, on 25 October 2023 (AFP)
New polling has shown a massive drop in support for the British Labour Party by the country's Muslim community, as anger over the party's pro-war stance on the Israeli onslaught on Gaza continues to mount.
According to the survey by Muslim Census of 30,000 British Muslims, support for the party has dropped by 66 percent compared to 2019.
In 2019, 71 percent of Muslims said they would be supporting the party, but now only 5 percent said they would. The largest bloc, 40 percent, now said they will not vote at all at the next election.
In a statement on Thursday, Muslim Census said the new polling, which also put support for the ruling Conservative Party on 0.5 percent, showed widespread concern among British Muslims about the political consensus on the Gaza conflict.
"There has been a consistent and unsettling message shared by our political leaders which is that Israel has the right to defend itself with impunity, despite contravening international law," said the statement.
"Sir Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour Party, emphasised this speaking on LBC Radio when he stated Israel had the 'right' to cut off water, electricity and aid to Gaza – violating international humanitarian law and the Geneva conventions."
On Wednesday, a letter organised by the Labour Muslim Councillors Network, signed by approximately 150 councillors, called on Labour leader Keir Starmer to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
"As Labour councillors elected to serve our constituents, this message we have been repeatedly hearing over the past two weeks is simple. People just want an end to the bloodshed and loss of innocent life," the letter said.
Starmer on Wednesday met with Labour's Muslim MPs in a bid to ease tension over the party's stance on the situation in Gaza.
Israel launched a brutal bombing campaign on Gaza on 7 October, after Hamas conducted a massive surprise attack on southern Israel, killing around 1,400 people, including civilians and combatants.
Ongoing Israeli strikes have since killed at least 7,000 people, including more than 2,704 children and 1,584 women, according to Palestinian officials.
An additional 1,600 people, including 900 children, are missing and presumed to be trapped under rubble.
People hold a poster of hostage Karina Ariev as they gather at a spot overlooking the Western Wall Plaza in Jerusalem as they attend the Global Day of Unity and Prayer with Israel’s Hostages and Missing Families Forum (AFP)
Footage showing people in London tearing down posters of Israeli captives held in Gaza by Hamas has sparked outcry in the UK.
One recent video, which was posted by Jewish News editor Richard Ferrer, appears to show a number of people removing the posters in Leicester Square.
The person filming can heard asking one woman why they're tearing off "posters of kidnapped people by terrorists" while another voice can be heard saying to her "you don't love human life" to which she retorts that she does.
None of the people in the video have so far been identified and while a number of British outlets described them as "activists" it is not known if they were involved with any political activity.
The "Kidnapped from Israel" posters were originally produced by Israel’s Hostages and Missing Families Forum in the wake of the kidnappings on 7 October, and have been distributed to numerous cities around the world.
A number of Jewish organisations called the incident hateful and questioned why the police took no action.
Yachad UK described the tearing down of posters as a "display of hatred towards Israelis which will harden hearts and drive further division", according to the i newspaper.
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police told the outlet that it was aware of the video, but that "at this time, no offences have been identified".
However, in a post on X in response to the video, the police said "extra officers are on patrol in this area to provide reassurance".
Israel-Palestine war: UK medical staff forced to 'hide their grief' over Gaza assault
On Wednesday the Metropolitan Police also said it was investigating the vandalism of a poster on Finchley Road after someone drew Hitler-style moustaches on the faces of two captive Israeli children featured.
Hundreds of Palestinian fighters attacked Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip on 7 October, killing around 1,400 Israelis, the majority of them civilians, including children.
At least 222 people were believed to have been taken captive during the assault, including soldiers and civilians. Four women have been released in recent days.
Israel’s subsequent bombardment of Gaza has killed at least 6,546 Palestinians, with more than 70 percent of those killed being children, women and the elderly.
Israel-Palestine war: UK medical staff forced to 'hide their grief' over Gaza assault
Doctors and medical staff in the NHS say they are fearful of expressing solidarity with Gaza over reports they could face backlash or be struck off entirely
A rally in support of Britain's National Health Service calling for improved pay for its staff, London, 11 March 2023 (AFP)
The last two weeks have been difficult for Mohamed Amir.
Between working 12-hour shifts as a doctor, Amir has spent the rest of his time worrying about friends and family trapped in Gaza.
"Growing up, we spent long summers in Gaza, playing with cousins, visiting aunties, eating musakhan, hearing stories from our elders," Amir told Middle East Eye.
Ancestrally Palestinian, his parents emigrated to Northern Ireland from Egypt in the 1980s so they could study medicine and train further as doctors. The move was meant to be temporary but soon became permanent, he said.
Determined to follow in the family tradition by becoming a doctor himself, Amir also saw the profession as a way to give back to the local community.
But since Israel launched its bombing campaign on Gaza after an attack on southern Israel by Palestinian fighters, the 35-year-old says debate around the conflict is being stifled by cancellations, threats and government rhetoric.
'I've been reluctant to speak out because the thought of getting referred to the GMC does cross your mind'
- Omar, medical doctor
Amir told MEE that his parents advised him not to speak out in support of the Palestinians in the event he was reprimanded by his workplace or faced accusations of antisemitism.
"There is a culture of fear within the NHS, and people are afraid to speak up and raise awareness of the situation in Gaza," he told MEE.
"The government is unapologetic in its support for Israel and I want to speak up because it’s my moral duty, but I am scared that it would come at the cost of my career and ability to help people."
Over the past fortnight, MEE has spoken to a number of doctors and medical staff from across the United Kingdom who are afraid of speaking up about the situation in Gaza.
As of Thursday, Israeli forces have killed at least 7,028 Palestinians in Gaza, including 2,913 children and 18,484 wounded. Several hospitals have also been attacked by Israeli air strikes.
Some medical workers who spoke to MEE said threats of being referred to the General Medical Council, guidelines set out by the Prevent anti-terrorism strategy, intimidation from the media, and statements made by the British government made them hesitant to speak up.
MEE has changed the names of individuals quoted in this story to protect their identity.
Many of those who spoke to MEE say the intimidation began when a social media account called @NHSWATCH1948 emerged and began urging people to report any healthcare workers who posted anything pro-Palestine.
Israel-Palestine war: 'Dear Hamas' parody video from college professor draws outrage
Other accounts along the same lines also appeared online, including an account that encourages the public to report anyone posting pro-Israeli messages on social media.
While these accounts have now been deleted, the chilling effect lives on, said Jasmine Hijab, a doctor from the south of England.
"The minute you speak out on Palestine, there are people who will come on social media and say you should be referred to the General Medical Council which is a serious issue," said Hijab.
"They try to imply that you'll handle Jewish patients differently, but no one would ever do that. Saving lives is just part of what we do, and when you see innocent children dying it's mentally draining.
"Doctors are too afraid of the repercussions and mental stress because getting referred to the GMC is stressful, and I don't know how unbiased it is towards doctors with different ethnicities."
The General Medical Council is Britain's regulatory body responsible for ensuring the quality and safety of medical practitioners and medical education. Its purpose is to protect the public by setting medical practice and professionalism standards.
A referral to the GMC could mean a doctor is suspended or struck off. GMC investigations can last for months and during that time, depending on the type of investigation carried out, doctors can be suspended temporarily from working without pay, said Hijab.
'We should be addressing this head-on'
In recent years the GMC has been accused of racial bias. British judges in 2021 said the medical body was "infected" with racism when a court found it had discriminated against a doctor of Muslim and African heritage.
The GMC disputed the tribunal's claims with its chair, Clare Max, describing the outcome as "a flawed tribunal judgment [that] will not help achieve the aims we and others share to tackle inequalities".
Omar, a doctor from the Midlands, explained the potential ramifications that come from a referral to the GMC.
"When they threaten to refer you to the GMC, it's effectively saying that they are threatening your livelihood and all the work you do to help patients," said Omar.
"I've been reluctant to speak out because the thought of getting referred to the GMC does cross your mind.
'There is a genuine fear that exists within the medical community, and the hesitancy to talk about Palestine precedes Hamas'
- Ayo Moiett, junior doctor
"How much can you say without getting yourself in hot water? There are so many people who work in a hospital and the last thing you need is someone misconstruing your words and actions."
Five days after the Hamas attacks on 7 October and the Israeli government's decision to cut off water and electricity to Gaza, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said it stood "in solidarity with the people of Israel" and flew the Israeli flag on top of the department's building.
Some hospital trusts also sent letters to their staff acknowledging the unrest in Israel and Gaza without naming Palestine.
For Palestinian medics like Hana al-Nour, the fear of being reprimanded by the GMC and letters sent by her hospital trust have made her feel like she has had to "hide" her grief for the past two weeks.
"It definitely hurt when I received a letter from the chief executive of my hospital trust when it said they 'mourned the loss of civilian life in Israel and surrounding areas' like we don't exist," noted Al Nour.
"That phrase 'surrounding areas' really hit me, and at the time, I was hesitant to say anything, but given the hospital bombing, the killing of doctors, and everything that's transpired since, as healthcare workers who work in this space, surely we should be addressing this head-on."
Pro-Palestine versus pro-Ukraine
Amir echoed Nour's disappointment and said many doctors felt "hopeless", especially since many hospitals hosted fundraisers for Ukraine when the war broke out.
"If you look at it relative to the Ukraine war, it makes you wonder why Palestine is seen as so controversial because we've had fundraisers at the front of the hospital raising money for Ukraine, our screensavers had a pro-Ukraine image," said Amir.
"That kind of contrast makes you question the difference between that conflict and this one."
For other medics like Usman Gani, he believes that doctors and the NHS should keep out of politics to ensure it maintains its neutrality.
"We are doctors first and foremost, and politics can complicate and create false impressions on how you operate as a doctor or healthcare worker in the NHS," said Gani.
"That means keeping opinions, irrespective of whether they are about the Israel-Palestine conflict or Russia's invasion of Ukraine, to yourself."
But despite these concerns, 24 health professional groups within the UK have written to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak demanding "urgent action to halt the catastrophic humanitarian and medical crisis" unfolding in Gaza.
Thousands of doctors from across the UK have signed an open letter criticising the Department of Health and Social Care for its pro-Israel stance, calling on the department to recognise and condemn Israel's "war crimes".
🇮🇱 We are flying the flag of Israel at the Department of Health & Social Care in London.
We stand in solidarity with the people of @Israel.
— Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) October 13, 2023
Ayo Moiett, a junior doctor, was one of the more than 8,000 signatories of the letter. Moiett believes that "strength in numbers" and the scale of the "dire humanitarian crisis" are some of the reasons driving medical workers from various backgrounds to sign the letter.
"No doubt there is a genuine fear that exists within the medical community, and the hesitancy to talk about Palestine precedes Hamas, and many people are talking about that within the medical community," noted Moiett.
"But what we see with the open letter is that the sheer number of people signing up to it shows that strength in numbers has motivated many who have felt lost and sad about the situation in Gaza to speak up against these atrocities."
Refer thousands to the GMC?
Organisers of the open letter who spoke to MEE said they had received thousands of additional requests to sign it. They said it was taking time to add all the names because of checks to ensure everybody added works within the NHS.
Both Amir and Nour also signed the open letter and joined protests in central London while wearing masks to protect their identities.
"For me it's the sheer numbers of people who are signing the letter that made me sign it, even if it's just about changing public opinion then it's good enough. Because I can't imagine the government and NHS referring thousands of us to the GMC," said Amir.
"If they do, then the NHS will be struggling more than they already are right now."
Israel-Palestine war: Gaza's doctors refuse to abandon patients as Israel pounds hospitals
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson did not respond to the aims of the open letter but said: "We stand in solidarity with the people of Israel following the horrific terrorist attacks by Hamas."
They added: "Like many government departments, we flew the Israeli flag as a show of support for the Israeli people and the Jewish community here in the United Kingdom."
A spokesperson for the GMC told MEE late on Thursday that doctors are entitled to "their own political opinions" and that the organisation's focus is "on the effect that expressions of political or other personal beliefs may have on patients’ or public confidence in the profession.
"In sharing opinions and raising awareness around certain issues doctors must consider how doing so may affect the public’s trust and perception of doctors. This means doctors do not treat patients unfairly, do not deny patients access to appropriate medical treatment or services, and do not cause patients distress," the spokesperson said.
"Fitness-to-practice processes exist to fulfil our legal duty to assess whether there is any current and ongoing risk to patient safety. As with all complaints, we would make our decision on a case-by-case basis considering the specific facts of the individual concerned.
"Not every departure from the standards will be considered serious, and we always take context into account."
Wael al-Dahdouh kneels next to the dead body of his teenage son, 25 October 2023 (AFP)
Mahmoud al-Dahdouh was proud of his father’s work, and wanted to follow in his footsteps.
The son of Wael al-Dahdouh, Al Jazeera's chief correspondent in Gaza, was inspired by his father’s coverage, which had earned him the title of “the voice of Palestinians in Gaza”.
Mahmoud was in his final year of high school and working hard to become a journalist.
However, the dreams of the teenager were cut short when he was killed on Wednesday evening in an Israeli bombing in Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp, which had been designated a safe zone by the Israeli army.
Mahmoud, along with his sister, mother and nephew, were killed despite Wael’s efforts to separate them in case of a bombing, so he wouldn’t lose them all in one go if the worst was to happen - a tactic employed by many Palestinians during times of war.
Wael was informed live on air of the loss of his family members during his coverage of air strikes on residential neighbourhoods in Gaza.
Video footage shared online later shows Wael kneeling over his children's bodies in tears, and saying that Israel was “taking revenge by killing children”.
"You wanted to be a journalist," Dahdouh said while kneeling on the floor next to Mahmoud's dead body.
A dream
Often mimicking his father’s sign-off during live broadcasts and accompanying him during days off to help on their land, Mahmoud had often been dubbed “young Wael”' by loved ones.
Since the hostilities started on 7 October, Mahmoud and his sister Sham had started making videos covering Israel’s bombings of Gaza.
In one video, Mahmoud and his sister describe what it’s like living under bombardment.
“For the fifth day, Gaza is living under complete violence and a siege, with electricity, internet, water being cut off and the targeting of safe houses,” he says.
“Whole neighbourhoods have been destroyed, of which there is only rubble and ash left,” his sister adds.
Mahoud was described by an Al Jazeera journalist in Gaza as “a friend of everyone in the bureau; he was close to all of the camera people.”
The journalist explained that Mahmoud always “dreamed and spoke of being a journalist", inspired by his father. "He undertook a great deal of training and courses to help him fulfil his dream," he explained.
“He spoke in English, and posted a range of videos depicting what was going on to try and change the narrative that Israel was giving about Gaza,” he added.
🎞️ Watch the video The sons of our colleague Wael Al Dahdouh, director of the Al Jazeera channel in Gaza, his son Mahmoud was martyred today, while his sister who appears with him survived. A few days ago, they conveyed to the world a picture of killing and destruction. pic.twitter.com/TdYY3JFNoJ
During Wael’s time off, he often spent time with his family, sharing meals and tending to their land.
His wife, Amna, was supportive of Wael’s career, despite the fact that he was often away from home and reporting from the front lines.
“The 2014 war was something different, I was worried about Wael and my son Hamza, I didn’t know who to worry about, there was so much going on,” she said in an Al Jazeera documentary.
“The worst thing about journalism is that there’s no set routine…I got used to Wael being away at work,” she added, joking that she “did not ask to be on camera, Wael is enough”.
Wael has previously described being targeted for his journalism by Israel.
“We understood the message [from Israel] that it is intentional, they’re saying calm down with the coverage, your work is exposing what is happening, but after minutes we would be on camera outside of our offices describing what is happening, even though we knew that in a matter of seconds we could be the focus of the news,” he said about his coverage of the 2014 war on Gaza.
'A kind person'
Since the killing of his loved ones, tributes have poured in, with many of al-Dahdouh’s colleagues giving their condolences to him live on air.
Tamer al-Mashal, a presenter who worked closely with al-Dahdouh, said it was difficult to report on the killing of his family.
“I am proud to have worked with Wael...he was close to the heart, a friend, a brother. Wael insisted on covering what was happening, and stayed in Gaza despite the threats and the bombs, and made sure to relay what was happening with a sense of responsibility,” he said.
Israel-Palestine: Israel kills family of Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief
Al-Mashal also described how Wael, in the midst of war, would visit correspondents’ to give his condolences when they lost loved ones and would stay with journalists’ families in the hospital, ensuring their needs were met, before returning to the front lines.
“He is a journalist, but behind that, he is a kind person, from a generous, well known, resilient Palestinian family…during the first Intifada he covered events diligently. He is self built, he is a mountain that does not waver, falter or get weaker, he has stayed in Gaza despite threats,” al-Mashal added.
In a documentary aired on Al Jazeera, Wael previously said that one of the most difficult times in a journalist's life is reporting during conflicts, only to learn some of those killed are family members.
While he originally wanted to study medicine, Wael was arrested arbitrarily by Israeli forces days before a scholarship to Iraq, later inspiring him to undertake journalism as a career.
"While buildings are destroyed, the memories and the voice remains, and we remain steadfast," he said in the documentary, first aired last year.
"The more they want to silence us, the more I want to tell the story, to document the daily lives of people under occupation, and to cover the war, one of which I'm not sure how we survive or how it will end."
At least 24 journalists have been killed in Israeli air strikes since the start of the war on 7 October, which has ravaged large parts of Gaza.
Palestinians walk by the buildings destroyed in the Israeli bombardment on al-Zahra, on the outskirts of Gaza City (AP)
Two Israeli proposals to move Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip and into Egypt have stoked fears of a second Nakba, as the Israeli military pummels the coastal enclave with air strikes.
Since the 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israeli communities near Gaza, which killed around 1,400 people, mainly civilians, anti-Palestinian rhetoric and sentiment has been at an all-time high.
Israel has responded by waging a relentless bombing campaign on Gaza, warning everyone in the coastal enclave's north to move south towards the Egyptian border.
Various Israeli officials and prominent figures have talked up the idea of ridding Gaza of the 2.3 million Palestinians there, provoking Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi and Jordan's King Abdullah II to warn against such plans.
Though such a move has not been promoted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government as actual policy, people within or close to it have nonetheless apparently drawn up detailed plans to consider.
Israeli daily Calcalist reported on one proposal drawn up by Israel’s Minister of Intelligence Gila Gamliel, where she recommended to the cabinet the transfer of Gaza residents to the Sinai in Egypt after the war.
The document seen by Calcalist reportedly includes the intelligence ministry's logo and was passed around ministries for consultation. It was leaked to a settler movement known as Settlement Headquarters - Gaza Strip, which campaigns for settlements to be re-established in the territory. Israel removed its settlers from Gaza in 2005.
The Israeli daily noted that ultimately it may not affect government policy but that it was possible that it had been drafted to “give support” to the “extreme settler movement”.
‘Tent cities in the Sinai’
Gamliel’s report says the best possible outcome following Israel’s war "that will yield positive and long-term strategic results" is the transfer of Gaza's Palestinians to the Sinai Peninsula.
The move would be in three stages. The establishment of tent cities in Sinai southwest of the Gaza Strip, establishing a so-called humanitarian corridor through which Palestinians would be allowed to flee, followed by the construction of cities in northern Sinai.
Finally, Israel would then establish a no-man's land several kilometres deep within Egyptian territory to ensure that Palestinians would not be able to return.
The paper also calls for cooperation between Israel, Arab and European countries to also take in displaced Palestinians.
In a separate report released by the Misgav Institute for National Security & Zionist Strategy, an Israeli think tank, looks at the economic viability of transferring Gaza’s population to the Sinai.
Titled “A plan for resettlement and final rehabilitation in Egypt of the entire population of Gaza: economic aspects” the report initially circulated on X, formerly known as Twitter, has since been taken down.
“There is currently a unique and rare opportunity to evacuate the entire Gaza Strip in coordination with the Egyptian government,” said the report written by Amir Weitmann, a researcher at the Misgav Institute.
'There is currently a unique and rare opportunity to evacuate the entire Gaza Strip in coordination with the Egyptian government'
- Amir Weitmann, Misgav Institute
The Misgav Institute is headed by the former Israeli national security adviser, Meir Ben-Shabbat, who is also considered one of the architects of the normalisation deals Israel signed with the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco in recent years.
Ben-Shabbat is also believed to be close to Israel’s intelligence community and worked for 30 years in the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security services.
The document argues that it has devised a “sustainable and economically feasible” plan to expel Gaza’s population that also aligns with the “geo-political interests” of Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the US.
The paper suggests that Palestinians could be housed in the two largest satellite cities of Cairo, 6 October and 10 Ramadan. Both locations are named after the 1973 war against Israel, whose 30-year anniversary was the day before the Palestinian attack.
According to the report, there are enough apartments to house six million people, which are largely empty because ordinary Egyptians are unable to afford the units.
Many apartments in the new 6th of October City in Egypt remain empty (Egyptian Presidency promotional literature)
With each housing unit costing around $19,000, the report estimates that the cost of housing Gaza's Palestinians in the Cairo suburbs would be as much as $8bn.
The value represents as much as 1.5 percent of Israeli GDP, which can “easily be financed” by the state, the report added.
The report argues that the dire state of the Egyptian economy could convince Cairo to consider the offer. If needed, Israel could even consider raising as much as $32bn to convince Egypt to acquiesce to the project, it added.
'Gaza would provide high-quality housing for many Israeli citizens'
- Misgav Institute paper
“This is an innovative, cheap and sustainable solution,” said the report, adding: “Over time this is actually a very worthwhile investment for Israel" and that "Gaza would provide high-quality housing for many Israeli citizens”.
Israel’s “investment” in Egypt would serve Europe also by stabilising the country’s economy and helping to stem the migration tide, it argued.
Saudi Arabia could also benefit from the proposal, adds the report.
Firstly, since Israeli actions in Gaza regularly inflame tensions in the Arab world, removing Palestinians would allow “the promotion of peace with Israel without the incessant interference of local public opinion”.
Secondly, the report noted Gaza’s population could be hired by Saudi Arabia as cheap labour to work on construction projects throughout the country, including the building of the flagship Neom project.
The report concluded that it’s not clear when the next opportunity to ethnically rid Palestinians from Gaza would arise and therefore the “time to act is now”.
Treat with caution
An Israeli analyst, who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons, told Middle East Eye that such plans should be treated with extreme caution.
“Despite the natural instinct to treat such papers with extreme concern in times of such a crisis, I would not,” the analyst said.
“They represent the fantasies of extremely marginal groups, I would almost say sects, and the Israeli government now is focusing exclusively on military strategy and is more compliant than ever with US demands and constraints.”
Tents for Palestinians seeking refuge are set up on the grounds of a UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees centre in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on 19 October 2023
The Israeli war cabinet includes centrist figures like Benny Gantz and Gadi Eizenkot “who have no illusions about the madness of plans such as these vis-a-vis Egypt,” added the analyst.
Israel's call for half of the Gaza Strip's population to leave their homes and head to the southern portion of the strip has also heightened fears in Egypt of a massive influx of refugees into Sinai.
According to reports, the Egyptian government told a European diplomat: "You want us to take one million people? Well, I am going to send them to Europe. You care about human rights so much - well, you take them."
According to the Israeli analyst, there's more concern to be had over Palestinians being expelled from their homes in the occupied West Bank by settlers than "something like this, which cannot be done without Egyptian consent and international legitimacy, of which there will be none”.
MEE has asked the US State Department, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and the office of Josep Borrell, the EU's head of foreign affairs, for comment on the proposals.
A Palestinian man next to the bodies of his wife and daughter who were killed by Israeli strikes, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, 26 October 2023 (Reuters)
Mohammed al-Hajjar is a freelance photojournalist and longtime contributor to Middle East Eye. Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip and its relentless bombing campaign has plunged its 2.2 million people into severe food insecurity. Most of Gaza's bakeries closed their doors after Israel cut electricity and fuel, and others have been bombed. The few bakeries that are still open see hours-long queues of people waiting to secure bread, as the supplies of other foods and water dwindle. From Gaza, Mohammed describes the moment dozens of Palestinians standing in line outside a bakery escaped death as Israel struck the area around it:
Today, 25 October, at around 2.10pm, I took two of my nephews and headed to the bakery to get bread for the family.
We had been standing in line for two hours, when, at precisely 4.15pm, the first missile struck only 100 metres from the bakery, located on al-Jalaa street.
Perhaps that bombing on the nearby al-Yarmouk street is what saved us from certain death - thanks to God’s grace.
It was miraculous that we didn't die. We were around 180 people waiting in line at the bakery. Had the Israelis targeted al-Jalaa street first, we could have all been killed.
The bombing was so close that residents were able to determine its location and run in the opposite direction. We saw people running our way from all directions.
At that moment, less than a minute after residential towers on al-Yarmouk street were targeted, Israeli jets attacked al-Jalaa street itself - right where we were standing in line for bread.
Since Israel imposed a total blockade on the Gaza Strip early in the war, most bakeries have been forced to close.
And now people have to queue up for up to 10 hours, for one pack of bread, in front of the few bakeries that are still running.
Several bakeries have been bombed since the war started, and yesterday, the exact spot where people just moments ago had been waiting for bread was hit by six to eight missiles.
An Israeli strike hit the street in front of a bakery where moments earlier tens of people were queuing for bread, al-Jalaa street, Gaza (MEE/Mohammed al-Hajjar)
Almost everyone who was standing in line managed to escape. But 120 people were killed in their homes as Israel bombed those buildings, and 300 are still missing under the rubble.
I had two children with me, but one of them was no longer beside me when the bombing started; he had run away, and I lost sight of him.
I grabbed the other child and sought shelter inside a building and hid behind a concrete pillar, thinking it was the safest place for us.
As the bombing shifted from al-Yarmouk to al-Jalaa, I was about to leave my hiding spot to search for my other newphew.
But just as I moved, al-Jalaa street was hit right in front of my eyes. I saw death staring me in the face; fire and debris from the street flew towards me.
God saved me and granted me a new lease of life.
I went back to hiding behind the concrete pillar, holding tightly onto my nephew. I hugged him, prayed, and recited the shahada, the Islamic declaration of faith, until the bombing stopped, after four long minutes.
I then took the child and exited through a side street to look for my lost nephew. I found him hiding in a building far away. I took them both and tried to head home.
On our way, al-Labedidi street was targeted. The attack took place in front of us, and I didn't know where to go, so we once again hid inside a building.
People transport a dead body after retrieving it from the rubble of a building hit by an Israeli strike in al-Jalal street a day earlier, 26 October 2023 (MEE/Mohammed al-Hajjar)
We stayed inside for around 15 minutes until the bombing stopped.
When we left, the street looked completely different from how it was just five minutes earlier; it was entirely destroyed.
Three or four residential buildings had been flattened - people’s homes were in ruins.
There were wounded people everywhere. That's all I could discern in those moments because my main concern was to bring these two children home safely.
People were rushing around, and ambulances were arriving at the scene.
Moments like these are an opportunity for any photographer to capture the event as they experience it.
But yesterday, despite being a photographer, I wasn't thinking about taking photos at all.
After getting home and recovering from the shock, I thought to myself that sometimes, as a photojournalist, there come moments when you don't think about your job as much as you think about survival.
I wasn't thinking about capturing the event as it happened; I was thinking about surviving and saving the children who were with me.
Thank God. He saved us from certain death that day, and I pray to him - the only one capable of stopping the war on us - to end the war and the bloodshed against our people.
Today, we speak of 7,028 victims, a massive majority of whom are children and women.
This Israeli aggression is against us - its victims are only civilians. The infrastructure is destroyed - streets, buildings, towers, everything is ruined.
Israel-Palestine war: 'The terrifying sound of bombs makes children scream. It's pure suffering'
You enter a neighbourhood today, and when you enter it again the next day, you cannot recognise it. The features of the neighbourhoods have changed, the features of the houses have changed.
Everything in Gaza has changed.
We pray to God to have mercy on us and to get us out of this war without loss or damage. Me, my family, and all the people of Gaza.
I pray to God that the war stops right now, as I record this voice note.
Pray for us. I know that most of the people in the world can't do much but pray, so please, pray for us.
A mourner reacts amidst the bodies as people attend funeral for Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on 24 October 2023 (Reuters)
The Palestinian health ministry on Thursday released the names of 7,028 people killed by Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip, a day after US President Joe Biden questioned the death toll since the war began on 7 October.
Biden told reporters at the White House that he has "no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth" about the number of people killed by Israel so far. "I'm sure innocents have been killed, and it’s the price of waging a war," he added.
In response, the health ministry published a210-page report, detailing the names, ages, genders, and ID numbers of every person killed in the enclave. The ministry said an English version of the report will be published soon.
Health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra said the US administration was "devoid of human standards, morals and basic human rights values" for "shamelessly" questioning the validity of the death toll.
"We decided to go out and announce, with details and names, and in front of the entire world, the truth about the genocidal war committed by the Israeli occupation against our people," he said.
Between 7 October and 3pm local time on 26 October, 7,028 Palestinians were killed, including 2,913 children, the report stated.
A total of 3,129 females and 3,899 males were killed. The number of unidentified people killed stands at 218, but they are not included in the final death toll.
The report also excludes those buried without being brought to hospital, those for whom hospitals were unable to complete registration procedures, and people missing under the rubble, who number around 1,600, with many of them feared dead.
As such, the ministry said the actual death toll is likely to be much higher than the report stated.
"We confirm that the doors of the Ministry of Health are open for all institutions to have access," Qudra said in a statement.
"Let the world know that behind every number is the story of a person whose name and identity are known. Our people are not nobodies who can be ignored."
Despite Biden questioning the accuracy of the death toll, the HuffPost revealed that the State Department recently cited the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza in nearly 20 "situation reports".
'Biden should watch some of these videos and ask himself if the crushed children being dragged out of the ruins of their family homes are a fabrication'
- Nihad Awad, CAIR's executive director
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said Biden's remarks were “shocking and dehumanising” and urged him to apologise.
"Countless videos coming out of Gaza every day show mangled bodies of Palestinian women and children – and entire city blocks levelled to the ground," Nihad Awad, CAIR's executive director, said.
"President Biden should watch some of these videos and ask himself if the crushed children being dragged out of the ruins of their family homes are a fabrication or an acceptable price of war. They are neither."
Many experts consider figures provided by the Palestinian ministry reliable, given its access, sources, and accuracy in past statements.
Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, told the Washington Post earlier this week the ministry's figures are "generally proven to be reliable".
“Everyone uses the figures from the Gaza Health Ministry because those are generally proven to be reliable,” he said. “In the times in which we have done our own verification of numbers for particular strikes, I’m not aware of any time in which there’s been some major discrepancy.”
The ongoing Israeli war on Gaza erupted on 7 October after Hamas led a Palestinian attack into southern Israel. According to Israeli officials, around 1,400 people were killed in Israel during the assault, the majority of them believed to be civilians.
At least another 220 people have been taken as prisoners in Gaza, including soldiers and civilians. Hamas has released four prisoners so far and said 50 others have been killed in Israeli air strikes.
Israel responded to the Hamas-led assault by waging a relentless bombing campaign on Gaza, and a complete siege of the territory.
The bombardement has killed dozens of journalists, doctors, first responders, writers, artists, and footballers - among others.
It has targeted residential buildings, hospitals, ambulances, schools, universities, media offices, mosques, a church, and banks - among other civilian infrastructure.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan, pictured in April 2016 attending a Jewish faith event at the Alyth Synagogue in northwest London (Facebook)
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has joined a chorus of voices from the UK's main opposition Labour Party backing calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.
More than 1.4 million of Gaza's 2.1 million population have been displaced by hostilities that erupted following the deadly 7 October attack by Palestinian groups on Israeli cities and towns.
Since then, Israel has been relentlessly bombing the tiny enclave and placed the entire territory under complete siege, with more than 7,000 people killed.
After two weeks of international negotiations, limited water, food and medical supplies were allowed into Gaza on Saturday.
Speaking on Friday, Khan, a former Labour MP for the district of Tooting, said he was joining ranks with much of the international community in calling for a ceasefire.
"It would stop the killing and allow vital aid supplies to reach those who need it in Gaza. It would also allow the international community more time to prevent a protracted conflict in the region and further devastating loss of life," he said in a video posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Thousands of innocent civilians have already been killed in Israel and Gaza.
With the humanitarian crisis set to deteriorate even further, I’m calling for a ceasefire.pic.twitter.com/9HPau9X9jP
Khan's comments came hours after the Guardian reported that nearly a quarter of Labour MPs had called for a ceasefire in Gaza, contrary to the party's official line.
According to the newspaper, 49 Labour MPs out of 199 had either said they wanted a ceasefire or signed a Commons motion calling for one.
Discontent is also growing in the shadow cabinet, with Sarah Owen, the shadow minister for faith, and Rachel Hopkins, shadow Cabinet Office minister, reported to be considering whether to quit, according to The Times.
Two weeks ago, Labour leader Keir Starmer garnered controversy when he put his weight behind Israel's bombing campaign in Gaza.
Starmer had seemingly backed Israel's "right" to collectively punish Palestinians in the besieged territory before saying that his comments were wrongly interpreted.
Starmer has faced discontent within the party from both Muslim MPs and backers of the Palestinian cause.
On Wednesday, a letter organised by the Labour Muslim Councillors Network called on Starmer to call for an immediate ceasefire to end the “humanitarian disaster” in Gaza.
"As Labour councillors elected to serve our constituents, this message we have been repeatedly hearing over the past two weeks is simple. People just want an end to the bloodshed and loss of innocent life," the letter said.
That message came after at least 20 Labour councillors across the country resigned over Starmer’s response to the war.
Israel-Palestine war: Labour Friends of Palestine says Israel is committing 'war crimes'
Starmer and Labour’s troubles with the Muslim community were further compounded this week when the party leader used his visit to a mosque to call for the release of Israeli hostages held by Palestinian groups in Gaza.
After visiting the South Wales Islamic Centre, Starmer posted a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, which clarified he had never backed Israel’s collective punishment tactics but also said:
"I made clear it is not and has never been my view that Israel had the right to cut off water, food, fuel or medicines. International law must be followed.”
Many Muslims took issue with that statement, as they said it implied that the Muslim community as a whole was responsible for the captives’ fate.
Last week, Leicester Mayor Peter Soulsby criticised Starmer for giving the impression that the party was “ignoring” the suffering of Palestinians.
"The impression that has been given is that this condemnation of recent events extends to approving uncritically the Israeli government's response and of ignoring the decades of injustice and the oppression of Palestinians and the violations of their human rights," Soulsby wrote.
Arafat Hamdan, 25, had not been suffering from any serious health conditions before he died, his family say (Social media)
Two Palestinian families in the occupied West Bank are in shock after news that their relatives, who were arrested by Israeli forces, died in custody after suspected severe beatings during detention.
The deaths were reported as detainees told Middle East Eye that since war broke out in Gaza and Israel on 7 October, prisoners have been subject to widespread abuse, violations and beatings by Israeli prison staff.
At midnight on 22 October, a large number of Israeli forces stormed the town of Beit Sira, west of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
The soldiers raided a number of houses, including the home of 25-year-old Arafat Hamdan.
The soldiers swiftly moved around the house, breaking the furniture, and beat family members. First they attacked the father, tied his hands, then put a black bag over his head and made him sit in one of the rooms. A soldier then asked about Arafat and for his ID to confirm.
Other soldiers handcuffed him, beat him, and covered his head with a foul-smelling burlap bag. This was the first time he had been arrested.
His younger brother, Mohammed, 16, had recently been released from prison, where he spent five months, after he was shot in the leg by soldiers who claimed he was throwing stones at them near a checkpoint by the town's entrance.
The family had barely started trying to find out information about Arafat and the circumstances of his detention when the news of his death in detention struck down like a thunderbolt.
Arafat died in the Israeli Ofer prison on 24 October, only two days after his arrest.
Mahmoud, his cousin, said Arafat was in excellent health. He had only suffered from diabetes but wasn’t taking medication for it, just following a diet to keep it under control.
According to testimonies by prisoners, Hamdan was severely beaten in prison after his arrest, and his family hold Israeli prison authorities fully responsible for his death.
"According to some of the detainees who were released, the soldiers severely beat the prisoners while taking them to trial or to the clinic, and Arafat was among them. He was never in bad health and worked in construction," Mahmoud added.
The news of his death has left Arafat's mother and wife in a state of complete nervous breakdown. He had a six-month-old daughter and his wife was pregnant.
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“The Israeli police transported his body to the Institute of Forensic Medicine to conduct a CT scan. We filed a complaint to demand accountability, but we know with certainty that this is an occupation whose goal is to kill us and won’t do us justice,” Mahmoud said.
In addition to the relentless bombing campaign that Israel has been carrying on Gaza since Hamas led a massive attack into its southern towns on 7 October, the Israeli army has also launched a widespread arrest campaign in the occupied West Bank.
Some 1,530 Palestinians from various cities, including journalists, researchers, university students, and former prisoners have since been arrested.
The number of Palestinians in Israeli prisons has reached more than 6,600, including more than 50 women, in addition to thousands of Gazan workers who were in Israel on 7 October, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club.
Israel has increased its crackdown on Palestinian prisoners since the start of the war with a series of punitive measures that have seen detainees confined to their cells, with no access to courtyards, electronic devices, personal belongings, or visits from family and lawyers.
They have also closed the food store, and inmates are limited to two meals a day, with decreased portions.
'We almost went crazy'
Elsewhere in the West Bank, another house was filled with people in mourning.
The family of Omar Daraghmeh, 58, did not know that the night of 9 October would be his last in his home in Tubas city.
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Daraghmeh, who Hamas claimed as a member, was arrested several times previously by the Israeli army and the Palestinian Authority. This time, soldiers stormed his house two days after the start of the war and detained him with his son Hamza.
His eldest son, Nimr, said that his father was not suffering from any health problem prior to his arrest. Daraghmeh was transferred to Megiddo prison and attended a court session on 23 October, the same day his death was announced.
"We almost went crazy. He didn’t suffer from anything and sat with his lawyer that day and told him that he had been beaten. Most likely, he was fatally beaten while being transferred from court to prison," Nimr told MEE.
Hamza was transferred to solitary confinement immediately after his father’s death, and his family does not know if he was given the news.
According to Nimr, the Palestinian Prisoners Club had received an initial medical report indicating that his father died of a stomach bleed, sustained during the beatings, and was left untreated.
"In the house, during his arrest, they treated him inhumanely, pushing him forcefully against the wall and hitting his body several times against the furniture and walls under the pretext of trying to restrain him," Nimr said.
'All my ribs were broken'
Louay Ghaith, 30, was arrested at his home in the Old City of Jerusalem on 17 October.
Ghaith wasn't beaten during his arrest, but the abuse started in al-Mascobiya prison, where authorities had began separating security detainees from criminal prisoners.
Ghaith said that at least five prison guards would gather around anyone classified as a security prisoner and severely beat him.
“They would assault us with iron sticks on the back, knees, neck, and hands. They would throw us to the ground, stomp on our faces with their shoes, and force us to curse Hamas," Ghaith told MEE.
Former Palestinian prisoner Louay Ghaith suffered severe beating in al-Mascobiya prison (supplied)
Ghaith said he was subjected to violent beatings over four consecutive days, several times per day. Just when he thought the abuse had stopped, he added, he was attacked two days later.
"One of the detainees was urinated on by the guards, and another had his limbs broken. The prisoners have developed severe anxiety.
"They feel afraid at the sound of the guards’ keys as they approach and crowd themselves into the cell's corner and turn their faces to the wall for fear of being beaten,” he added.
The violence in al-Mascobiya prison has not spared anyone, young or old. In addition to the continuous beating, the crackdown has also included hurling insults at prisoners, spitting in their faces, forcing them to sleep on the floor without mattresses, and keeping the bright light on in the cells all night.
'They would throw us to the ground, stomp on our faces with their shoe'
- Louay Ghaith, former prisoner
Ghaith was arrested for no reason other than that he was a former prisoner. After nine days of detention, he was released into house arrest for a week with a fine.
"The first thing I did was go to the hospital. All my ribs were broken and the bruises were deep and needed time to heal," he said.
"I appeal to any human rights organisation to visit the detainees because the situation is unbearable and can’t be fully explained."
Helmi al-Araj, the director of the Hurriyat Centre for Civil and Social Rights, said that before the death of the two prisoners, he had warned of the danger to the lives of prisoners amid reported cases of medical negligence, the lack of treatment, the prevention of medical examinations, and the unprecedented violence inside prisons.
“There is severe psychological and physical torture. All of these reasons combined with the occupation's racism against Palestinians indicate an imminent danger to the lives of the prisoners,” he said.
In the face of what he said was mistreatment that "amounts to war crime", Araj said that several appeals have been made to the international community, especially to the secretary-general of the United Nations and the Red Cross, to assume their responsibilities and condemn Israel's actions against Palestinian prisoners.
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