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FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA - FREE PALESTINE
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Special reports: TRIBUTES TO MOTHERS AND CHILDREN Shoroughs' family August 7, 2024: 'My children cry all day from the heat': Life in Gaza’s tent camps... and August 5, 2024: Shorough 'We have nothing left in this world, except our daughter': a young mother on life in Gaza... Alaa al-Nimer  and daughter Nimah July 28, 2024 "My baby girl was born on the street": A traumatic birth in Gaza

July 22, 2024 Ms. Maram Humaid: "A letter to my son: As you turn one today in Gaza, I feel joy and sorrow"  July 12, 2024 Noor Alyacoubi - "I'm fighting to keep my baby alive" and other stories Mothers and children: Boom-And again Boom Special report: July 12, 2024: Scorched Hospitals - Schools -  Housing - Bodies -- fake or fact?

August 13 - 12, 2024 <<Exclusive: Al-Tabin attack 'deliberately timed to cause maximum casualties' Food for thought: which proves more than enough how animalistic the israelis interprete their view on warfare and more actual news

August 12 - 10, 2024 <<AIPAC is growing desperate... and Food for thought: netanyahu following the footsteps of hitler with using the 'scorched earth' tecnique he's feeling his more and more 'walking on hot coals' and more actual news

August 10 - 8, 2024 Opinion by Gino d'Artali: Smotrich should be hung high and more actual news proving why  Click here to go throughout July and earler, 2024

June 14, 2024 Palestinian-Jordanian journalist Hiba Abu Taha sentenced to one year in prison

Related news: August 2 - July 21, 2024 Is Western journalism as envisioned dead and other stories July 11, 2024: Media organizations demand access to Gaza July 2 2024: Arrests of Palestinian journalists since start of Israel-Gaza war   Click here for earlier stories/news

May 23, 2024 In commemoration of Roshdi Sarraj and tribute to Shrouq Al Aila

 
When one hurts or kills a women
one hurts or kills hummanity and is an antrocitie.
Gino d'Artali
and: My mother (1931-1997) always said to me <Mi figlio, non esistono notizie <vecchie> perche puoi imparare qualcosa da qualsiasi notizia.> Translated: <My son, there is no such thing as so called 'old' news because you can learn something from any news.>
Gianna d'Artali.

Al Jazeera - August 13, 2024
<<Israeli crowds storm Al-Aqsa Mosque, West Bank villages on Jewish holiday
Raid in at-Tawani is part of broader settler violence in the occupied West Bank on Jewish anniversary of temple destruction.
Israeli crowds have stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem, as well as villages in the occupied West Bank, as they marked a Jewish holiday. Far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir led a crowd of thousands into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem on Tuesday and performed prayers. Despite Jewish religious rites being banned at the location, Israeli police reportedly offered protection, as well as to illegal settlers involved in violence in the West Bank. Ben-Gvir promised to <defeat Hamas> in Gaza in a video he filmed during his visit and prayers. Al-Aqsa is Islam's third holiest site and a symbol of Palestinian national identity but it is also Judaism's holiest place. Tisha B'Av is a Jewish day of mourning for the destruction of the site of an ancient temple by the Romans in 70 AD. Ben-Gvir, who heads a hardline political party on which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government depends, led more than 2,000 Israelis through the compound singing Jewish hymns under the protection of Israeli police, an official from the Waqf, the Jordanian body that is custodian of the site, told AFP. <Minister Ben-Gvir, instead of maintaining the status quo at the mosque is supervising the Judaisation operation and trying to change the situation inside Al-Aqsa Mosque,> the official said. Israeli police also <imposed restrictions> on Muslim worshippers trying to enter the mosque, he added. Minister of Negev and Galilee Affairs Yitzhak Wasserlauf and other members of the Israeli Knesset reportedly joined the march. The US criticised Ben-Gvir, saying he had hurt efforts for talks toward a Gaza ceasefire. "Not only is it unacceptable, it detracts from what we think is a vital time, as we are working to get this ceasefire deal across the finish line," State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement: "These provocative actions only exacerbate tensions at a pivotal moment when all focus should be on the ongoing diplomatic efforts to achieve a ceasefire agreement and secure the release of all hostages and create the conditions for broader regional stability." The United Nations also denounced Ben-Gvir for leading prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, calling the move "unduly provocative". "We are against any efforts to change the status quo within the holy sites," deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said. "Al-Aqsa mosque, like the other holy sites in Jerusalem, should be left to themselves and should be controlled by the existing religious authorities for the sites. This sort of behaviour is unhelpful and it is unduly provocative."
West Bank tension
In the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers mounted a series of marches to mark the day, according to local media. "[The settlers] are using the fact that there is a religious holiday and religious commemoration to ... lay claim to more Palestinian land," Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim reported from Ramallah. She said that people in one village, at-Tawani, had told her that it was the largest settler invasion that the community has seen thus far, in what has become a regular occurrence. "We've seen it before. Settlers use the fact that they have a religious ceremony and they try and conduct those ceremonies in occupied territory," Ibrahim continued, noting that village compounds are often invaded during such events. Tension and violence between Isreal settlers, police and the military on one side, and Palestinian armed groups and civilians on the other, has spiked since Israel's war on Gaza began in October.
The Palestinian Authority that administers parts of the West Bank says that more than 624 Palestinians, including 145 children, have been killed. Thousands have been arrested or forced from their homes due to demolitions and land confiscations, over the past 10 months.
At least 18 Israelis, including 12 security forces personnel, have also been killed in the occupied territory.
Early on Tuesday, Israeli forces killed a young Palestinian man and injured at least four others when they raided the homes of Palestinian prisoners and demolished two apartments in the cities of Ramallah and el-Bireh, local media reported. Moataz Sarsour, a resident of the al-Am'ari refugee camp in the Ramallah and el-Bireh area, died of his injuries at the Palestine Medical Complex, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa. Wafa did not provide further details on the condition of three other gunshot victims or a young man hit by an Israeli army vehicle during the predawn raids.
Impunity
Israel is intensifying its violent raids in the occupied West Bank and attempting to shift the "status quo" of East Jerusalem, including Al-Aqsa Mosque, as the world's focus remains on the Gaza war, said Hassan Barari, a professor of international affairs at Qatar University. "[Settlers] think that is a kind of a golden opportunity, that the region is in turmoil and the government is the [most] extremist in history ... and they want to exploit this in order to change the status quo [of] the mosque," Barari told Al Jazeera. "The international community is either complicit or indifferent to what is happening in the West Bank and East Jerusalem," he added, noting that Western leaders issue empty condemnations with little action.
"Israel feels it has impunity to do whatever it wants in the West Bank."
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES>>
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/13/israeli-settlers-raid-palestinian-areas-on-temple-destruction-anniversary

Al Jazeera - August 13, 2024
<<UK charges pro-Palestine group members under terrorism law
Palestine Action members are accused of burglary, violent disorder at building belonging to Israeli defence firm Elbit.
British counterterrorism police have charged seven people with violent disorder over a break-in at a building belonging to Israeli defence firm Elbit in southwest England. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said on Tuesday that seven people, aged between 20 and 51, have been charged with criminal damage, violent disorder and aggravated burglary over an incident at the Elbit Systems premises in South Gloucestershire on August 6.
<On the facts of this case, the CPS will be submitting to the court that these offences have a terrorist connection,> the CPS said in a statement.
Members of Palestine Action were due to appear at London's Westminster Magistrates' Court later on Tuesday. Avon and Somerset Police said the group forced its way into the building and <seriously assaulted> staff after smashing the gate with a vehicle and driving into the compound.
Palestine Action rejected allegations of violence against police and security staff and said the authorities had launched a "smear campaign" to prejudice the outcome of the trial and "lay the groundwork for the police unjust use of authoritarian powers". "We refuse to be intimidated into allowing a genocide to happen," it said in a statement. On its website, the group describes itself as aimed at "dismantling British complicity with Israeli apartheid". It adds that "direct action against Elbit aims to disrupt this: targeting the source of colonial violence and genocide against the Palestinian people, undermining Elbit's profiteering from Israel's daily massacres".
Israel's largest arms manufacturer is known to supply some 85 percent of the land and air munitions used by its military. Elbit says on its website that its United Kingdom subsidiary employs 680 people at 16 sites, working on multiple programmes for the British military. Since its formation in 2020, Palestine Action has forced the permanent closure of Elbit's Oldham factory and pushed the company to abandon its London headquarters.
In 2022, the group's protest action led to the dissolution of contracts worth 280 million pounds ($358m) between the UK Ministry of Defence and Elbit Systems and prompted several British and European companies to cut ties with Elbit permanently.>>
Source:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/13/uk-charges-pro-palestine-group-members-under-terrorism-law

Al Jazeera - August 13, 2024
<<Gaza Evactuations: No place left to go
Since October of last year, 90 percent of Gaza's population has been displaced, even as so-called 'safe zones' continue to be bombed.>>
Source incl. video 25 min.:
https://www.aljazeera.com/program/the-stream/2024/8/13/gaza-evactuations-no-place-left-to-go

Al Jazeera - August 13, 2024
<<Exclusive: Al-Tabin attack 'deliberately timed to cause maximum casualties'
The Israeli attack on the school in Gaza City that killed more than 100 displaced Palestinians was 'calculated' to cause widespread loss of life, Al Jazeera probe finds. Al Jazeera's Sanad verification agency has probed the details of Israel's Saturday morning attack on Gaza City's al-Tabin School, which killed more than 100 people, including women and children. The investigation determined the attack was "deliberately timed to cause maximum casualties", with a "large number of displaced people deliberately targeted," it said in a statement on Tuesday.
To reach its findings, Sanad examined survivors’ testimonies, photos of the remnants of bombs used in the attack, images showing how the bombs penetrated the ceilings of the mosque attached to the school, and documentation of the explosion’s immediate aftermath. Based on the evidence, Sanad said Israel's military fired the two guided missiles used in the attack to coincide with dawn prayers. The missiles "penetrated the mosque's roof, passed through the first floor, where the women’s chapel is located, and exploded on the ground floor, where the men's chapel is situated", Sanad said in its report. The agency added that fragments of at least two shells used in this targeting were of the American GBU-39 SDB type, confirmed by weapons expert Trevor Ball. These type of shells are manufactured and exported to the Israeli army by the American company, Boeing.
Regarding the location and time of impact of the two guided missiles, Sanad said, "It is clear that the choice was not random." "The southern missile landed at the beginning of the chapel area as prayer was beginning, while the northern missile landed in the sleeping area and near the ablutions and bathrooms where the displaced people were preparing for prayer," the agency said. Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked schools used as shelters in Gaza, claiming they are command centres for Hamas, the Palestinian group that governs the territory, to hide fighters and manufacture weapons. At least five such attacks have been reported this month. Sanad challenged the Israeli military's claims that the al-Tabin School attack targeted Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters it said were in the men’s prayer hall at the time. The Al Jazeera agency pointed out that the attacks occurred during prayer time in a mosque serving displaced civilians. It also cited photos and survivor testimonies showing that, contrary to the Israeli military's claims, fire broke out in areas outside the floor Israel said it had exclusively targeted, killing and maiming civilians. "The evidence strongly suggests a deliberate and calculated attack aimed at causing widespread loss of life," Sanad said. The attack has led to renewed calls for the United States to stop providing staunch support for Israel, including weapons transfers that rights advocates say are fuelling atrocities in the Palestinian enclave. The school "massacre" also came amid fears of the Gaza war escalating into a regional conflict following the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31. Haniyeh's killing came hours after another Israeli strike in Beirut killed a senior Hezbollah commander of Hezbollah, the Iran-backed group in Lebanon.
Iran and its allies have blamed Israel for the killings and have promised revenge.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA>>
Source:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/13/exclusive-al-tabin-attack-deliberately-timed-to-cause-maximum-casualties

France 25 - August 12, 2024 - OP-ED Julia Grignon | Samer Moussa
<<'In 75 years, the Geneva Conventions have proved the difference they make to the victims of armed conflict'
Faced with those who predict the death of international humanitarian law, law experts Julia Grignon and Samer Moussa argue that it's essential in places like Ukraine and Gaza, even if parties involved in the conflicts misuse it to justify their violations.Published yesterday at 5:56 pm (Paris) 3 International humanitarian law has faced so many violations and distortions that it has been declared dead. Gaza is often cited as its graveyard. On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions, adopted on August 12, 1949, and which form its fundamental basis, we wish to celebrate them, underline their relevance and reaffirm their absolute necessity in Gaza and everywhere else affected by armed conflict.
Never before has international humanitarian law been the subject of such public debate and media exposure. This is a positive development. This body of law, designed to protect people affected by armed conflict by offering guarantees to those who are no longer fighting and by limiting the methods and means of warfare, must be widely disseminated.
Recent conflicts show that no one is immune to their effects and that it is essential to understand the rules designed to limit these effects. But this also has a downside. Given the suffering caused by conflict, the expectations placed on this body of law are sometimes unrealistic, leading to disappointment.
Contemporary international humanitarian law was created to respond to situations of extreme urgency: war. The fact that states decided to introduce the law into chaos was, and remains, a bold move. As a result, these rules are necessarily limited, exceptional in relation to ordinary law, and sometimes morally difficult to accept.
An insult
This starting point should always be kept in mind when assessing their relevance and effectiveness. In this respect, the vitality of the Geneva Conventions should now be underlined by the states that are party to them (all the states of the world) by means of voluntary periodic reports detailing how they are complying with them. This process could begin informally, along the lines of human rights protection mechanisms, and eventually lead to a formal, comprehensive and permanent review process.
To declare the Geneva Conventions dead, and thus deny their effectiveness, would be an insult to the people who benefit from their protection and to those who, in the midst of conflict, continue their efforts to uphold them.
Humanitarian advocates, lawyers, government representatives, teachers and students in the field continue to believe that these conventions remain valid and can mitigate the harmful effects of armed conflict. This conviction fuels their efforts to publish, document and analyze the violations and crimes committed in these situations and then make recommendations to the competent authorities to transform them into concrete action plans.>>
Read more here:
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2024/08/13/in-75-years-the-geneva-conventions-have-proved-the-difference-they-make-to-the-victims-of-armed-conflict_6714637_23.html

Al Jazeera - August 12, 2024 - by By Justin Salhani
<<Israel, civilian deaths and the question of proportionality
Israel's deadly al-Tabin School attack raises the question of how many civilians Israel will kill to execute Hamas fighters.
On Saturday, Israel justified the killing of more than 100 Palestinians sheltering at a school in Gaza City by claiming the attack was targeted at 20 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters. Last month, the killing of at least 90 Palestinians in al-Mawasi was also justified by the Israelis, who said that the attack targeted two Hamas commanders, including Mohammed Deif, the longtime leader of the Qassam Brigades.
Zooming out, since the beginning of its war, Israel has killed almost 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, wounding tens of thousands more. While occasionally disputing the death toll, Israel has made it clear that it views its destruction of Gaza, and the civilians killed, as being warranted in return for the destruction of Hamas, following the group’s attack on Israel, which killed an estimated 1,139 people. Leaving aside whether these Palestinian fighters were present at the sites Israel attacks (and Hamas denies that it operates from civilian facilities, and that Deif is even dead), the mass killings raise the question of proportionality, and how many civilians Israel is prepared to kill in order to assassinate one Hamas figure.
There is no formula for proportionality under international humanitarian law (IHL). The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), however, says that under the principle of proportionality, an attack that may cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury or damage to civilian objects that is "excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated, is prohibited".
Israel's military strategically uses disproportionate violence, analysts told Al Jazeera.
"Israel's military has failed both to secure the release of the hostages and to deal a 'death blow' to Hamas," Tariq Kenney-Shawa, a policy fellow at Al-Shabaka, a Palestinian policy network, said. "Massive attacks ... give the Israeli government and military something to point to as a 'win' if they result in the death of Hamas leaders and large numbers of civilians because it fits into Israel’s wider strategy of deterrence through unparalleled destruction.>
The 'Dahiyeh doctrine'
In Israel's 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Israeli military deployed a strategy of disproportionate retaliation by targeting neighbourhoods and destroying civilian infrastructure as a means of putting pressure on their enemies. This strategy came to be called the "Dahiyeh doctrine".
But can it work?
"All natives will resist colonists as long as they have the slightest hope of ridding themselves of the colonisers," Hani Awad, a researcher at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, told Al Jazeera. That steadfastness means the Israeli military believes it is "necessary to respond to any act of resistance with formidable, deadly, and devastating power until the natives lose hope and accept the settler colonial claims and will."
Since the war on Gaza began, the Israeli military has flattened homes, schools, universities, hospitals and cultural landmarks in what has been termed "genocide" and "domicide". More than 55 percent of buildings were destroyed by Israel between October 7 and May 31, according to a United Nations report. Israel's military claims the destruction since has been necessary to target Hamas figures in Gaza. "Regardless of Israel's claims about Hamas leaders being present in targeted areas, it is unacceptable to kill civilians, target ambulances, and target civil defence personnel," Ihab Maharmeh, a researcher at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies in Doha, told Al Jazeera. The concept of proportionality in conducting warfare has also changed for Israel since October 7. Israeli military sources told +972 Magazine in April that soldiers were permitted to kill as many as 20 civilians in order to kill a junior Palestinian fighter. That number could be in the hundreds for a Hamas commander, the sources said, adding that as an official policy, it was unprecedented in Israel or recent US military history. "I'd find it hard for any international humanitarian lawyer to say that’s an acceptable application of proportionality," said Shane Darcy, a professor at the Irish Centre for Human Rights at the University of Galway, when asked about the numbers reported by +972. "Those are possible war crimes."
ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan
'Driven by impunity'
When Israeli attacks on areas housing large numbers of civilians are condemned by international actors, analysts say there has been little material action from Israel’s allies or the international community to change the Israeli military's tactics. The International Criminal Court's Prosecutor Karim Khan is currently seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. That has done little to alter Israel’s war strategy, as the attacks on civilians continued with similar intensity in the days following Khan's announcement back in May. "Israel's repeated ethnic massacres suggest they feel immune from repercussions for violating international and humanitarian laws, partly due to the unwavering support from the United States, which includes the provision of advanced lethal weapons," Maharmeh said. Analysts believe that until Israel is held to account, most notably by its ally the US, the high civilian death counts in attacks will likely continue.
"Israel is driven by impunity," Kenney-Shawa said. "Israel has faced zero consequences for the mass murder of Palestinian civilians, so they have been completely emboldened to carry out the most brutal attacks at will, knowing that no one will hold them accountable."
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA>>
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/12/israel-civilian-deaths-and-the-question-of-proportionality

Al Jazeera - August 12, 2024
<<US orders submarine to Middle East, carrier strike group to sail faster
The move comes amid concerns of Iran's response following the killings of senior Hamas and Hezbollah leaders.
United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has ordered a guided missile submarine to the Middle East and the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group to sail more quickly to the area. The order on Sunday evening followed a telephone call between Austin and Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Galant amid mounting tensions following the killing of senior members of Hamas and the Iran-backed Hezbollah. Austin <reiterated the United States' commitment to take every possible step to defend Israel and noted the strengthening of U.S. military force posture and capabilities throughout the Middle East in light of escalating regional tensions", the Pentagon said in a statement. The USS Georgia, a nuclear-powered submarine, was already in the Mediterranean Sea in July, according to a US military post on social media, but it is rare for the US to publicly announce the deployment of a submarine. The Abraham Lincoln has been in the Asia Pacific, and had already been ordered to the Middle East to replace the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier strike group, which is scheduled to begin heading home. Last week, Austin said it was expected to arrive in the area by the end of the month. The carrier has F-35 and F/A-18 fighter jets on board. The US military had already said it will deploy additional fighter aircraft and warships to the Middle East as Washington seeks to reinforce Israeli defences from possible attack by Iran. Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, the group that rules Gaza and is backed by Iran, was assassinated in Tehran on July 31, with Iran blaming Israel and promising to retaliate. Israel has not claimed responsibility. The killing of Haniyeh came in the same week that Fuad Shukr, the senior military commander of the Iran-backed group Hezbollah, was killed in an Israeli attack on Beirut, leading to concerns that the conflict in Gaza might expand into a regional war. The US announcement came a day after at least 90 people were killed and nearly 50 injured in an Israeli attack on a school-turned-shelter in Gaza, Palestinian health authorities said. The Pentagon added that Austin and Gallant had also discussed "the importance of mitigating civilian harm, progress towards securing a ceasefire and the release of hostages held in Gaza".
Nearly 40,000 people have been killed since Israel began its war on Gaza last October after Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel. An estimated 1,139 people were killed during the attack on Israel with more than 200 people taken captive by Hamas.
Washington and other allies have renewed efforts for a ceasefire.
Hamas on Sunday said the US, Qatar and Egypt should submit a plan to implement the ceasefire proposal put forward in May by US President Joe Biden, rather than holding "more rounds of negotiations" and discussing new proposals for Gaza.
SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES>>
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/12/us-orders-submarine-to-middle-east-carrier-strike-group-to-sail-faster

BBC - August 12, 2024
<<Hamas says ceasefire must be based on group's July response
Israel issued a relocation order for southern Gaza's Khan Younis residents on Sunday, following a deadly air strike on a school in Gaza City
Hamas has said a ceasefire plan for Gaza must be based on where talks were a month and a half ago rather than any new rounds of negotiations.
In a statement on Sunday night, the group called on mediators "to present a plan to implement what was agreed upon by the movement on July 2, 2024, based on [President Joe] Biden's vision and the UN Security Council resolution". On 2 July, Hamas issued its response to the outline ceasefire plan announced by Mr Biden on 30 May. The details of Hamas's response have not been made public but the group is understood to have dropped a demand for a full ceasefire at the outset rather than an initial six-week pause put forward by the president. Israel accepts proposal to attend 'urgent' new ceasefire talks. Negotiations resumed a week later, with Hamas accusing Israel of introducing new conditions. Hamas sources told the BBC that the introduction of the new conditions - that displaced Palestinians should be screened as they return to the north of Gaza, as well as the question of control of the Philadelphi corridor that borders Egypt - have been sticking points. It has also been widely reported in the Israeli press that these new demands were made by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and that they have caused friction with his negotiating team.
Last week, international mediators from Qatar, Egypt and the US urged Israel and Hamas to resume urgent discussions on the ceasefire and hostage release deal on 15 August. The mediators said they were prepared to offer a bridging proposal to overcome differences on the implementation of Mr Biden's framework agreement. Israel responded on Thursday, saying it would send a team of negotiators to take part in the meeting. Hamas rejected any new proposals, but the BBC understands that the group is open to resuming talks at the point prior to which the new conditions were introduced.
On Monday, the leaders of the UK, France and Germany issued a joint call for talks to resume, saying there "can be no further delay".
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz echoed the mediators' call for ceasefire talks to resume in a joint statement.
"We agree that there can be no further delay," the statement said.
"We have been working with all parties to prevent escalation and will spare no effort to reduce tensions and find a path to stability."
The countries also called for the de-escalation of tensions in the Middle East - which have risen since the assassination of senior members of Hamas and Lebanese group Hezbollah. US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed on Sunday night that he had ordered the deployment of a guided missile submarine to the Middle East which will join the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which is heading to the region. Iran previously said it will respond to the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh at the “right time” in the <appropriate> manner and that the US bears responsibility for his death because of its support of Israel. Iran has blamed Israel for the assassination, though Israel has not commented directly.
Aftermath of Israeli strike on Gaza City school
Meanwhile on Sunday, the Israeli military ordered thousands of Palestinians in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, to relocate to what it has designated <humanitarian zones>. The relocation order followed an Israeli air strike against a school building in Gaza on Saturday, which killed more than 70 people according to a local hospital director. Fadl Naeem, head of al-Ahli Hospital where many of the casualties were taken, said around 70 victims were identified in the hours after the strike - with the remains of many others so badly disfigured that identification was difficult. A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the school <served as an active Hamas and Islamic Jihad military facility>, which Hamas denies. IDF spokesman Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said <various intelligence indications> suggest a <high probability> that the commander of Islamic Jihad's Central Camps Brigade, Ashraf Juda, was at al-Taba’een school school when it was struck. He said it is not yet clear whether the commander was killed in the attack.
The BBC cannot independently verify casualty figures from either side.
Israel claims that Hamas is using civilian infrastructure to plan and carry out attacks, and that is why it has been targeting hospitals and schools - sites protected under international law. Hamas has consistently denied the accusations.
Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 people in an attack on Israel on 7 October, taking 251 others back to Gaza as hostages.
That attack triggered a massive Israeli military offensive against Gaza and the current war.
At least 39,897 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli campaign, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.>>
Source:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gex1rl6q5o

Le Monde - August 12, 2024 - by By Jean-Philippe Rémy (Jerusalem (Israel) correspondent)
<<Israel-Hamas war: Last-chance negotiations for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip
More than 80 people died on Saturday in strikes targeting a Gaza school that had been turned into a refuge. A summit organized by the mediators in the conflict (US, Egypt, Qatar) is scheduled for August 15 in a regional capital.
The three missiles fired by the Israeli army, at dawn on Saturday, August 10, at the Tabeen school building in the al-Daraj neighborhood, left no chance for those who had taken refuge there during their long wanderings through Gaza. Some of the displaced had gathered in the adjoining mosque to perform the dawn prayer (Fajr), while others were sleeping in the overcrowded school. Given the state of some of the bodies, crushed and fragmented by the blast, it was still difficult on Monday to know the exact number of people killed, estimated at over 80.
In the hours following the strikes, as international outrage mounted, the Israeli army built up its argument to justify the attack. The Israeli army first put out a hesitant statement on Saturday: "We have intelligence indications that the terrorist Ashraf Judah, Islamic Jihad's [a Palestinian organization engaged in armed struggle against Israel] brigade commander of the Central Camps Brigade was at the camp." They added that it is unclear whether he was hit during the strike.
Palestinians pray before the bodies of those killed in an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced persons, part of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City, August 10, 2024.
Palestinians pray before the bodies of those killed in an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced persons, part of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City, August 10, 2024. ABAED SABAH/REUTERS
The Israeli army also listed 19 names of members of Hamas or its ally, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, including commanders, who they said had taken up residence in the school and were eliminated in the series of strikes. "Increasingly in recent months Hamas has focused on exploiting school buildings, often where civilians are sheltering inside, to use them as military facilities, command and control centers, for storing weapons, and to execute terrorist attacks," claimed the Israeli forces in a statement.
Read more Subscribers only Israeli strike on school turned shelter dampens ceasefire hopes
The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned a policy of "systematic attacks on schools," counting at least 21 establishments hit since July 4. It estimates that the army strikes that have taken place there have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people, many of them women and children. "Another day of horror in Gaza, another school hit with reports of dozens of Palestinians killed among them women, children and older people," said Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, on social media. "It's time for these horrors unfolding under our watch to end. We cannot let the unbearable become a new norm. The more recurrent, the more we lose our collective humanity."
Dreaded tip-over
Will this latest deadly strike and atrocious images earn a place in history? Tamer Kirolos, regional director of the NGO Save the Children, took issue with the possibility of people becoming used to horror, denouncing in a statement the "deadliest attack on a school since October 2023." He demanded, "All parties must respect the protected status of schools and not use schools as battlegrounds." >>
Read more here:
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/08/12/israel-hamas-war-last-chance-negotiations-for-a-ceasefire-in-the-gaza-strip_6713700_4.html


312th day
Jinha - Womens News Agency - August 13, 2024
<<312th day of Israeli attacks on Gaza
At least 39,929 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since October 7,2023, the Gaza’s health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
News Center- At least 39,929 Palestinians have been killed and 92,240 others injured in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, the Gaza’s health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
At least 32 Palestinians were killed and 88 others injured in Israeli attacks on different parts of the Gaza Strip in the last 24 hours, the ministry added. According to the statement, there are many bodies under rubble and the civil defense crews cannot reach them due to ongoing Israeli attacks.>>
Source:
https://jinhaagency.com/en/actual/312th-day-of-israeli-attacks-on-gaza-35524?page=1

France 25 - August 12, 2024 - Video by: Kethevane GORJESTANI
<<'Sense of urgency': US accelerates military deployment to MidEast
The Pentagon said Sunday that US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered a guided missile submarine to the Middle East and is telling the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group to sail more quickly to the area. The moves come as tensions soar in the region following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut. "It has to be noted, it's pretty rare for the Pentagon, for the US, to actually publicly state submarine movements, so that in itself is pretty significant," FRANCE 24's Kethevane Gorjestani said in an analysis, adding that the US aircraft carrier being ordered to sail more quickly to the region also conveys a "sense of urgency".>>
Source incl. video:
https://www.france24.com/en/video/20240812-sense-of-urgency-us-sends-missile-submarine-to-mideast-amid-rising-tensions


More than 10,000 people still missing
Jinha - Womens News Agency - August 12, 2024
<<10,000 people still missing in Gaza
34 people have died from severe malnutrition, over 3,500 children are at risk of death due to malnutrition and food shortages and 10,000 people are still missing under the rubble across Gaza.
News Center- Israel has intensified its attacks on the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023. At least 39,897 Palestinians have been killed and 92,152 others injured in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since October 7,2023, the Gaza's health ministry said in a statement on Monday.
At least 142 Palestinians were killed and 150 others injured in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip in the last 48 hours, the ministry added.
1.8 percent of Gaza's population killed
Israeli forces have killed more than 39,000 people in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics said in a statement on Sunday. "This constitutes around 1.8% of the total population in the territory."
Around 24% of the Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza were young people, it said, adding that34 people have died from severe malnutrition, over 3,500 children are at risk of death due to malnutrition and food shortages and 10,000 people are still missing under the rubble across Gaza.>>
Source:
https://jinhaagency.com/en/actual/10-000-people-still-missing-in-gaza-35516

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