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CRY FREEDOM.net
formerly known as
Women's Liberation Front
MORE INSIGHT MORE LIFE
Welcome to cryfreedom.net,
formerly known as Womens
Liberation Front.
A website
that hopes to draw and keeps your attention for both the global 21th. century 3rd. feminist revolution as well
as especially for the Zan, Zendegi, Azadi uprising in Iran and the
struggles of our sisters in other parts of the Middle East. This online magazine
that started December 2019 will
be published every week. Thank you for your time and interest.
Gino d'Artali
indept investigative
journalist
radical feminist and women's rights activist
'WOMEN, LIFE, FREEDOM'
You are now at the section on what is happening in the rest of the Middle
east
(Updates
Sept. 26, 2024)
For the
Iran 'Woman, Life, Freedom' Iran news
Updated
Sept 24, 2024
For the 'Women's Arab Spring 1.2' Revolt
news
Updated Sept. 24, 2024
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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 - September 26, 2024
<<Author Jhumpa Lahiri declines NYC’s Noguchi Museum award after
keffiyeh ban
The Pulitzer Prize winner refuses to accept her award next month from
the New York museum that fired three employees for wearing an emblem of
Palestinian solidarity. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri has
declined to accept an award from New York City’s Noguchi Museum after it
fired three employees for wearing keffiyeh head scarves, an emblem of
Palestinian solidarity. The museum, founded nearly 40 years ago by
Japanese-American designer and sculptor Isamu Noguchi, announced in
August that employees could not wear clothing or accessories that
expressed <political messages, slogans or symbols> during their working
hours. <Jhumpa Lahiri has chosen to withdraw her acceptance of the 2024
Isamu Noguchi Award in response to our updated dress code policy,> the
museum said in a statement on Wednesday. <We respect her perspective and
understand that this policy may or may not align with everyone's views.>
The New York Times first reported the news.
Amy Hau, the director of the museum, said in a separate statement
published on its website that the policy <is intended to prevent any
unintentional alienation of our diverse visitorship, while allowing us
to remain focused on our core mission of advancing the understanding and
appreciation of Isamu Noguchi's art and legacy>. Across the world,
protesters demanding an end to Israel's war on Gaza have worn the
black-and-white keffiyeh head scarf, a symbol of Palestinian
self-determination. Anti-apartheid South African leader Nelson Mandela
was also seen wearing the scarf on many occasions.
Israel's supporters say it signals backing extremism.
Attacked for wearing the keffiyeh
In November, three students of Palestinian descent in the US state of
Vermont were shot in an attack. Two were wearing the keffiyeh. In May, a
New York City hospital fired a Palestinian-American nurse after she
called Israel's actions in Gaza a "genocide" during an acceptance speech
for an award. Israel denies genocide charges brought by South Africa at
the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. According to the
NYT, Lahiri and Lee Ufan, a Korean-born minimalist painter, sculptor and
poet, were to have received the Isamu Noguchi Award at the museum's
autumn benefit gala next month. Ufan is still scheduled to receive the
award, the museum said. Lahiri, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for
her book, Interpreter of Maladies, was one of thousands of scholars who
signed a letter in May to university presidents in the US, expressing
solidarity with campus protests against Israel's war in Gaza, calling it
"unspeakable destruction".
SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES>>
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/26/author-jhumpa-lahiri-declines-nycs-noguchi-museum-award-after-keffiyeh-ban
Al Jazeera - September 26, 2024
<<Israeli attacks against journalists, media freedom decried at UNSC
Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu says attacks are meant to prevent the
world from knowing what is happening in Gaza.
The United Nations Security Council has been urged to not turn a blind
eye to Israel's attacks on press freedom, including the targeting of
journalists and closure of Al Jazeera's bureaus, during its war on Gaza.
"[There are] journalists from Palestine, Lebanon and Al Jazeera who
Israel has killed or closed their offices while they risk everything to
ensure we don't all return to a world where children and babies die in
silence, perish in darkness," Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu told the
15-member body on Wednesday.
More than 110 journalists and media workers - including four Al Jazeera
reporters - have been killed in Israeli attacks since the war began in
October last year, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ),
while authorities in Gaza have put the figure at 173. Israel denies
targeting journalists. In addition to destroying Gaza's media
infrastructure, Israeli authorities in recent months have also shut down
Al Jazeera's bureaus in Israel and the occupied West Bank. The closures
have drawn condemnation from press freedom groups and rights activists,
with the CPJ saying "Israel's efforts to censor Al Jazeera severely
undermine the public's right to information on a war that has upended so
many lives in the region".
In his speech at the UN Security Council, Muizzu decried the attacks
against journalists as he reminded members that it was this body that
had established the architecture of a "world order based on justice.
That architecture is now crumbling under the rubble of destroyed homes,
hospitals and schools, disintegrating under the weight of the bodies of
innocent civilians in Gaza and Lebanon," he said, referring to Israel's
massive bombing campaign this week on Lebanese villages, towns and
cities. "An architecture decaying, stained with the blood of those whose
very existence is supposed to be a symbol of a civilised world order -
from aid workers, to UN staff, to journalists," he added, calling for
the abolition of veto powers of the council's five permanent members:
Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States. "The veto
continues to paralyse the council from stopping Israel's genocidal war
against the Palestinian people," Muizzu said. "The veto has allowed
Israel to continue with impunity, in practicing brutal occupation and
risking regional security. The veto continues to enable the massacre of
innocent people."
Calls for accountability
Muizzu's speech echoed his address at the UN General Assembly the
previous day, during which he said Israel was attempting to cover up its
crimes by targeting Palestinian and Lebanese journalists, including by
closing Al Jazeera offices. "How can we interpret this as anything other
than brutal attempts to prevent the world from knowing the crimes taking
place?" he asked on Tuesday. "Israel must be held accountable for these
acts of terrorism, for these violations of international law and UN
resolutions."
Al Jazeera has been providing extensive coverage of Israel's nearly
year-long war on Gaza, which has killed more than 41,400 Palestinians,
and of a parallel surge in violence against Palestinians in the West
Bank. On Sunday, Israeli soldiers raided the bureau of the Qatar-based
network's bureau in Ramallah and ordered its closure for 45 days. The
order came from the Israeli military authority despite the bureau being
in Area A, an area delineated as being under Palestinian control in the
Oslo Accords. The Israeli army accused Al Jazeera of incitement and
supporting <terrorism> and claimed <the channel's broadcasts endanger
the security and public order in both the area and the State of Israel
as a whole>. Al Jazeera rejected the "unfounded" accusations as a
"dangerous and ridiculous lie" that puts its journalists at risk. "The
raid on the office and seizure of our equipment is not only an attack on
Al Jazeera, but an affront to press freedom and the very principles of
journalism," it said.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA>>
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/26/israeli-attacks-against-journalists-media-freedom-decried-at-unsc
Al Jazeera - September 26, 2024- By Stephen Quillen and Federica Marsi
<<Israel attacks Lebanon live: No ceasefire with Hezbollah, Netanyahu
says
A man walks past destruction caused by Israeli airstrikes in the Masaken
neighbourhood on the outskirts of Tyre
This video may contain light patterns or images that could trigger
seizures or cause discomfort for people with visual sensitivities.
The Israeli PM's office has released a statement on Netanyahu's X page
saying the <news about a ceasefire is not true> and he vows to carry on
attacks on Lebanon.
On Wednesday, 72 people were killed in the attack across Lebanon as the
death toll from Israel's bombings surpassed 620.>>
View video here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/9/26/israel-attacks-lebanon-live-72-killed-in-latest-wave-of-israeli-attacks
Al Jazeera - September 25, 2024
<<Palestinian confronts Israeli armoured vehicle in occupied West Bank
A Palestinian man was filmed confronting an armoured vehicle as Israeli
forces were conducting a raid on Jenin in the occupied West Bank.>>
View video here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2024/9/25/palestinian-confronts-israeli-armoured-vehicle-in-occupied-west-bank
Al Jazeera - September 25, 2024 - By Simon Speakman Cordall
<<Israel is repeating its Gaza assault in Lebanon. Why?
There's an eerie similarity in how Israel is approaching both its
assaults. The question is, will that work?
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has been clear,
telling a press conference that the world "cannot afford Lebanon to
become another Gaza". Many prominent Israeli figures seem to want
exactly that, however, drawing straight lines between Hamas in Gaza and
Hezbollah in Lebanon to underscore the threat they pose and justify
assaults on Gaza and Lebanon.
So, are Hamas and Hezbollah the same?
Not even a bit.
In Lebanon, Hezbollah is part of a wider tapestry of the political and
military mosaic. While it plays a prominent role in the country, it does
not have control over the presidency or parliament. Unlike Gaza, Lebanon
is present in international systems of governance and finance. Gaza and
Hamas's links with the international order are primarily via aid
provided by organisations like the UN. Hamas, which has an effective
military wing like Hezbollah, governs Gaza completely and has to
maintain a functioning society and governing structure.
Aren't they both 'Iranian proxies'?
They're allies, yes.
Israel has portrayed them as equal extensions of what is typically cast
as Israel's ultimate foe: Iran.
Addressing the United States Congress in July, Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran was behind everything and that its <proxy>
forces - Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen - pose an equal
threat to Israel and, by extension, the West. Both groups maintain
strong alliances with Iran, but they are distinct from each other, and
their relationship with Iran changes. Hezbollah is more aligned with
Iran’s regional goals, while Hamas utilises Iranian support but is more
independent. Hamas broke with Iran for three years in 2011 over its
support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and it does not seem to
have forewarned Iran of its October 7 attack on Israel.
But they said both groups use human shields?
To justify its widespread targeting of civilian areas, Israel has
accused both Hamas and Hezbollah of <hiding> their military hardware
there. Israel claims Hamas hides in or near schools, hospitals and homes
as it tries to justify the destruction of Gaza. It also claims Hamas
uses UN facilities in Gaza as military fronts <in contravention of the
Geneva Convention>. Israel has also targeted the United Nations Relief
and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) - the only support for
Palestinian refugee populations displaced in the ethnic cleansing of
1948's Nakba by Zionist gangs. Recently, Israel made similar claims
about homes in southern Israel - that they are being used by Hezbollah.
On Monday, Israel released images of what it said was a Hezbollah
missile concealed in an attic in southern Lebanon, appearing to be
trying to pre-empt criticism of its ongoing strikes. Pointing to an
image, an Israeli military spokesperson said, <It's ready to launch from
an opening in the roof. Under the attic, on the first floor, a Lebanese
family lives, serving as a human shield.> At the time of writing, Israel
has carried out thousands of strikes on homes across Lebanon.
But what about civilians?
In Gaza, Israel has shown little concern for fatalities - bombing homes,
displacement camps, hospitals and schools. In Lebanon, Israel sent
opaque <evacuation notices> to the citizens of a foreign country ahead
of strikes on targets the people may not know are nearby. The paper
notices, text messages and recorded phone calls were cited by Israel as
<evidence> that it is trying to avoid civilian casualties. During a
visit to a military base on Tuesday, Netanyahu told the people of
Lebanon <our war is not with you; our war is with Hezbollah>, urging the
Lebanese people to rise up against the group. At the time of writing,
more than 600 people in Lebanon have been killed in the ongoing Israeli
strikes and more than 2,000 injured.
Are people in Lebanon displaced as in Gaza?
Yes.
In an echo of the attack on Gaza, thousands of terrified Lebanese
families have fled southern Lebanon, joining an estimated 110,000 people
who fled earlier, seeking shelter wherever possible. The total number of
displaced is about 500,000 now, Lebanon's Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou
Habib said on Tuesday. Some are seeking shelter in Palestinian refugee
camps in southern Beirut like Shatila - camps that have housed
Palestinians fleeing Israeli attacks since the 1940s. Others are
cramming into bomb shelters, sleeping in cars, or crowding into Beirut's
schools, which, unlike the UNRWA-operated schools in Gaza, were never
designed to double as shelters.
If they're so different, why are Israel’s tactics the same?
Because Israel needs a quick end and thinks this will work, said Yousef
Munayyer from the Arab Center Washington DC. In Gaza, Hamas survived a
year of Israeli attacks by relying on its tunnel network. Hezbollah says
it has an expansive network of tunnels in Lebanon with extensive
munitions in them, as shown in video it released in August. Israel would
struggle more in Lebanon, not least because Hezbollah is stronger. "And
so they're using the same sort of tactics that they used in Gaza,"
Munayyer said. "This is part of an Israeli strategy aimed at bringing
great pressure on Hezbollah."
He said Israel hoped to "get out of the situation without a ground
invasion, without a long drawn-out battle" - and to avoid getting bogged
down in Lebanon just as it has in Gaza.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA>>
Source:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/25/israel-is-repeating-its-gaza-assault-in-lebanon-why
BBC - Sept 25, 2024
<<Bowen: Israel is gambling Hezbollah will crumple but it faces a
well-armed, angry enemy. Israel has launched more than 1,000 air strikes
on Lebanon over the past two days Israel's leaders are jubilant about
the progress of the offensive against Hezbollah that started with the
detonation of weaponised pagers and radios and moved on to intense and
deadly airstrikes. Defence Minister Yoav Gallant did not hold back his
praise after Monday's air strikes. <Today was a masterpiece... This was
the worst week Hezbollah has had since its establishment, and the
results speak for themselves.> Gallant said airstrikes destroyed
thousands of rockets that could have killed Israeli citizens. In the
process Lebanon says Israel killed more than 550 of its citizens,
including 50 children. That is almost half Lebanon’s dead in a month of
war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.
Israel believes that a ferocious offensive will coerce Hezbollah into
doing what it wants, inflicting so much pain that its leader Hassan
Nasrallah and his allies and backers in Iran decide that the price of
resistance is too high. Israel's politicians and generals need a
victory. After almost a year of war Gaza has become a quagmire. Hamas
fighters still emerge out of tunnels and ruins to kill and wound Israeli
soldiers and are still holding Israeli hostages. Hamas caught Israel by
surprise last October. The Israelis did not see Hamas as a significant
threat, with devastating consequences. Lebanon is different. The Israel
Defense Forces (IDF) and the Mossad spy agency have been planning the
next war against Hezbollah since the last war ended in a stalemate in
2006. Israel's leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, believes the
current offensive is making big progress towards his declared objective
of tipping the balance of power away from Hezbollah. He wants to stop
Hezbollah firing rockets over the border into Israel. At the same time,
the Israeli military says the plan is to force Hezbollah back from the
border and to destroy military facilities that threaten Israel.
Another Gaza?
The last week in Lebanon brings back echoes of the last year of war in
Gaza. Israel issued warnings to civilians, as it did in Gaza, to move
out of areas about to be attacked. It blames Hezbollah, as it blames
Hamas, for using civilians as human shields. Some critics as well as
enemies of Israel said the warnings were too vague and did not give
enough time for families to evacuate. The laws of war demand that
civilians be protected, and forbid indiscriminate, disproportionate use
of force. Some of Hezbollah's attacks on Israel have hit civilian areas,
breaking laws designed to protect civilians. They have also targeted the
Israeli military. Israel and key Western allies, including the US and
UK, classify Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation. Israel insists it
has a moral army that respects the rules. But much of the world has
condemned its conduct in Gaza. The ignition of a wider border war will
deepen the gap at the centre of a highly polarised argument. Take the
pager attack. Israel says it was aimed at Hezbollah operatives who had
been issued with the pagers. But Israel could not know where they would
be when the bombs inside the pagers were triggered, which was why
civilians and children in homes, shops and other public places were
wounded and killed. That, some leading lawyers say, proves that Israel
was using deadly force without distinguishing between combatants and
civilians; a violation of the rules of war. The fight between Israel and
Hezbollah started in the 1980s. But this border war began the day after
Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, when Hassan Nasrallah ordered his
men to begin a limited, but almost daily barrage over the border to
support Hamas. It tied up Israeli troops and forced around 60,000 people
in border towns to leave their homes.
Shadows of invasions past
A few voices in the Israeli media have compared the impact of the air
strikes on Hezbollah's capacity to wage war to Operation Focus, Israel's
surprise attack on Egypt in June 1967. It was a famous raid that
destroyed the Egyptian air force when its aircraft were lined up on the
ground. Over the next six days Israel defeated Egypt, Syria and Jordan.
The victory created the shape of the current conflict as Israel captured
the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the Golan
Heights. It is not a good comparison. Lebanon, and war with Hezbollah,
is different. Israel has inflicted heavy blows. But so far it has not
stopped Hezbollah's capacity or will to fire into Israel. Israel's
earlier wars with Hezbollah were grinding, attritional and never
produced a decisive victory for either side. This one might go the same
way, however satisfying the last week of offensive action has been for
Israel, its intelligence services and its military. Israel's offensive
rests on an assumption - a gamble - that a point will come when
Hezbollah will crumple, retreat from the border and stop firing into
Israel. Most observers of Hezbollah believe it will not stop. Fighting
Israel is the main reason why Hezbollah exists. That means Israel, just
as reluctant to admit defeat, would have to escalate the war further. If
Hezbollah continued to make northern Israel too dangerous for Israeli
civilians to return home, Israel would have to decide whether to launch
a ground offensive, probably to capture a strip of land to act as a
buffer zone. An Israeli jet flies over northern Israel on Tuesday - the
country's defence minister has called this week's air strikes on Lebanon
a <masterpiece> Israel has invaded Lebanon before. In 1982 its forces
swept up to Beirut to try to stop Palestinian raids into Israel. They
were forced into an ignominious retreat in the face of fury at home and
abroad, after Israeli troops held the perimeter as their Lebanese
Christian allies massacred Palestinian civilians in the Sabra and
Shatila refugee camps in Beirut.
By the 1990s Israel still occupied a broad band of Lebanese land along
the border. Today's Israeli generals were then young officers, who
fought in endless skirmishes and firefights against Hezbollah, which was
growing stronger as it fought to drive Israel out. Ehud Barak, then
Israel's prime minister and a former chief of staff of the IDF, withdrew
from the so-called <security zone> in 2000. He decided that it did not
make Israel any safer and was costing Israel the lives of too many
soldiers. In 2006 an ill-judged raid by Hezbollah across the tense and
highly militarised border killed and captured Israeli soldiers. After
the war ended Hassan Nasrallah said he would not have allowed the raid
had he realised what Israel would do in return. Ehud Olmert, by then
Israel’s prime minister, went to war. At first Israel hoped air power
would stop rocket attacks into Israel. When it did not, ground troops
and tanks once again rolled back over the border. The war was a disaster
for Lebanese civilians. But on the last day of the war, Hezbollah was
still launching salvoes of rockets into Israel.
Wars present and yet to come
Israel's commanders know that entering Lebanon under fire would be much
more formidable military challenge than fighting Hamas in Gaza.
Hezbollah has also been making plans since the end of the 2006 war, and
would be fighting on home ground, in south Lebanon which has plenty of
rugged, hilly terrain that suits guerrilla tactics. Israel has not been
able to destroy all the tunnels Hamas dug through sand in Gaza. In the
borderlands of south Lebanon, Hezbollah has spent the last 18 years
preparing tunnels and positions in solid rock. It has a formidable
arsenal, supplied by Iran. Unlike Hamas in Gaza, it can be resupplied by
land through Syria. The Center for Strategic and International Studies,
a think tank in Washington DC, estimates that Hezbollah has around
30,000 active fighters and up to 20,000 reserves, mostly trained as
mobile small units of light infantry. Many of its men have combat
experience fighting in support of the Assad regime in Syria. Most
estimates say that Hezbollah has something between 120,000 and 200,000
missiles and rockets, ranging from unguided weapons to longer-range
weapons that could hit Israel’s cities.
Hezbollah has been trading fire with Israel since last October and has
forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people from northern
Israeli towns such as Kiryat Shmona. Israel may be gambling that
Hezbollah will not use all of them, fearful that the Israeli air force
will do to Lebanon what it did to Gaza, turning entire towns to rubble
and killing thousands of civilians. Iran might not want Hezbollah to use
weapons it would like to reserve as insurance against an Israeli attack
on Iran’s nuclear facilities. That’s another gamble. Hezbollah might
decide to use more of its arsenal before Israel destroys it. With the
war continuing in Gaza, and rising levels of violence on the occupied
West Bank, Israel would also have to contemplate a third front if it
invaded Lebanon. Its soldiers are motivated, well trained and equipped,
but the reserve units that provide much of Israel's fighting power are
already feeling the strain after a year of war.
A diplomatic dead end
Israel’s allies, led by the United States, did not want Israel to
escalate the war with Hezbollah and do not want it to invade Lebanon.
They insist that only diplomacy can make the border safe enough for
civilians to return to their homes on either side of it. An American
envoy has worked out an agreement, partly based on UN Security
resolution 1701 that ended the 2006 war. But diplomats have their hands
tied without a ceasefire in Gaza. Hasan Nasrallah has said Hezbollah
will stop attacking Israel only when the Gaza war stops. At the moment
neither Hamas nor the Israelis are prepared to make the necessary
concessions that would produce a ceasefire agreement in Gaza and a swap
of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners. As Israeli air strikes
continue to pound Lebanon, civilians who were already struggling to
provide for their families in a broken economy face terrible pain and
uncertainty. Fear crosses front lines. Israelis know that Hezbollah
could do them much worse damage than they have in the last year. Israel
believes the time has come to be aggressive and audacious, to blast
Hezbollah away from its borders. But it faces an obdurate, well-armed
and angry enemy. This is the most dangerous crisis in the long year of
war since Hamas attacked Israel and at the moment nothing is stopping it
spiralling towards something much worse.>>
Source:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c93pg1qpxxzo
A drawing by eight-year-old Joody about the birthday of her father
courtesy of Asem Alnabih
Al Jazeera - September 25, 2024 - Asem Alnabih PhD researcher from Gaza
<<Celebrating a martyr's birthday in Gaza
My niece asked us to celebrate the birthday of her father, killed in an
Israeli massacre. And we did.
A child's drawing that says I [heart] you dad in English and I love you
dad in Arabic, from Joudy. It has a drawing of a child and an adult on a
table with a cake and presents. On the morning of September 4, my
eight-year-old niece Joody woke up bright-eyed and excited and suggested
we celebrate her father's birthday. It had been 25 days since we lost
her father Moataz Rajab in the massacre the Israeli army carried out at
the al-Tabin School in Gaza City. He was one of more than 100 civilian
victims who had sought shelter at the school along with his family.
While Joody knew her baba was gone, it was clear she was trying to
process a date in the calendar that had always been special to her and
her siblings. As the family - including my sister, Joody's mom - was
still very much in mourning, no one knew for sure how to manage the
situation. We exchanged glances, hoping one of us would step in and
handle the matter. Everyone deals with shock differently, and each of us
knew this was Joody's way of coping with her father's death. Her
grandparents gave her a hug and a kiss on her forehead and tried
explaining that it is awkward to celebrate the birthday of someone who
has passed away so recently. Other members of the family also told her
it would be odd to sing a birthday song for someone who is sadly no
longer among us. There was also no birthday cake to be found; bakeries
in Gaza were struggling to make bread let alone produce such "luxury"
items. We knew the best way to handle this was not to get emotional, but
be calm and try to reason with Joody. Disappointed, my niece nodded her
head in agreement and went about her day. But an hour later, she came
back running to her mother with a counterproposal. "What if we celebrate
baba's birthday not by singing him a birthday song, but instead by
reading the Quran?" a determined Joody asked. We find refuge in the
Quran in good times and in bad times, so we all thought it made sense to
remember Moataz by reading holy verses. We also managed to find a
solution to the "birthday cake problem". We found a lady who had some
flour and was willing to bake seven pieces of a cake for the 14 of us. A
few hours later, we gathered in what was left of our home in the
Shujayea neighbourhood. We sat down in a circle between walls strewn
with bullet holes, damaged by artillery tank shells, and decorated with
the drawings the children had made since the start of the war. Joody
began by reading Al-Fatihah, or the opening chapter of the Quran,
standing under the damaged roof her grandfather had patched up with
metal sheets to make our home a bit more habitable. As she recited the
verses, both her mother and grandmother wept while everyone else sat
solemnly, each of us trying hard to manage the profound feeling of loss.
As she read the verses aloud, I thought about the toll this war has
taken on children. The Israeli army has killed more than 17,000
children, including more than 700 newborns. It has injured tens of
thousands, including an estimated 3,000 who have lost one or more limbs.
It has orphaned more than 19,000 children, condemning them to live the
rest of their lives with the trauma of losing one or both parents at a
young age. Our Joody is one of them. Time heals all wounds, they say,
but how do we, the adults around her, hold her hand and get her past the
enormity of pain she feels while a genocide is still unfolding around
us? How do we help children like her cope with psychological trauma that
keeps growing with every Israeli air strike, every family massacred,
every mama or baba lost? Hundreds of thousands of childhoods have been
stolen as Gaza's children have been forced from their homes into lives
of misery, with no education, no proper shelter and no feeling of
safety. They roam streets filled with rubble, garbage and sewage,
searching for food or water to survive, collecting firewood, and
witnessing death and despair at every corner. This genocidal war has
revealed the cruel world we live in - a world that is more worried about
ship container traffic in the Red Sea than the lives of 41,000 human
beings. But hopelessness is not part of the vocabulary of the
Palestinian people. Resilience is. After Joody finished reading the
Quran, we took out the cake. Being so generous just like her father, she
had insisted on paying the exorbitant price for it with her own savings.
We savoured each bite of the cake to make it last as long as we could -
just as we cherished our memories of Moataz. Looking at Joody, I
realised he lives on in the kind and bright children he left behind.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not
necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.>>
Source:
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/9/25/celebrating-a-martyrs-birthday-in-gaza
Al Jazeera - September 25, 2024
<<Israel has been bombing Gaza and Lebanon at the same time
Hundreds of Israeli air strikes hit areas across Lebanon this week but
Israel’s attacks on Gaza haven’t stopped either.>>
View video here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2024/9/25/israel-has-been-bombing-gaza-and-lebanon-at-the-same-time
Al Jazeera - September 25, 2024
<<Can Israel afford another war in Lebanon?
Israel's war on Gaza has ground its vital economic sectors to a halt.>>
View video and read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/program/counting-the-cost/2024/9/25/can-israel-afford-another-war-in-lebanon
Death toll rises to 41,495
Jinha - September 25, 2024
<<Death toll in Israeli attacks on Gaza rises to 41,495
At least 41,495 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 Wednesday.
News Center- At least 41,485 Palestinians have been killed, 96,006
others injured in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since October 7,
2023, the Gaza's health ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. At
least 28 Palestinians were killed and 85 others injured in the last 24
hours, the ministry added. Thousands of bodies are believed buried under
the rubble in Gaza and the civil defense crews cannot retrieve them due
to ongoing Israeli attacks.>>
Source:
https://jinhaagency.com/en/actual/death-toll-in-israeli-attacks-on-gaza-rises-to-41-495-35722?page=1
Al Jazeera - September 25, 2024
<<Protesters demand US ends support for Israel's war on Gaza, Lebanon
Activists demand an arms embargo against Israel as it switches focus of
its firepower from Gaza to Lebanon. Protesters have demonstrated across
the United States against Washington’s military support for Israel, as
the risk of a full-fledged conflict in the Middle East grows. Dozens of
protesters gathered in Herald Square in New York City on Tuesday evening
carrying banners and chanting. Antiwar activists have demanded an arms
embargo against Israel as it has switched the focus of its firepower
from Gaza to Lebanon. The banners read: "Hands off Lebanon now" and "No
US-Israeli war on Lebanon," according to the ANSWER coalition, an
acronym for Act Now to Stop War and End Racism. Chants included "Hands
off the Middle East," "Free Palestine" and "Biden, Harris, Trump and
Bibi; none are welcome in our city". A smaller protest with similar
slogans and banners was seen near the White House in Washington on a
rainy Tuesday evening. "Israel's attacks in Lebanon and the ongoing
siege and genocide in Gaza are made possible by the huge amount of
bombs, missiles and warplanes provided by the US government," the ANSWER
coalition said in a statement. Protests were also being organised in
other cities including San Francisco, Seattle, San Antonio and Phoenix,
it added. The US has seen months of protests over Israel's war in Gaza
that has killed almost 41,500 people, according to the local health
ministry, caused a hunger crisis, displaced the entire 2.3 million
population of the enclave and led to genocide allegations - which
Israeli denies - at the International Court of Justice. Israel's
offensive in Lebanon since Monday morning has killed at least 560
people, including 50 children, and wounded 1,800. Israel says it has
struck positions held by Hezbollah, while the the Iran-backed group has
fired rockets and missiles at Israeli military posts. The violence has
raised concerns of a widened regional war that could destabilise the
Middle East. Leaders of United Nations member states met this week in
New York with the situation in the region at the top of the agenda.>>
Source and view demontrating photos here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2024/9/25/protesters-demand-us-ends-support-for-israels-war-on-gaza
Al Jazeera - September 24, 2024
<<Israel slammed for sending 88 unidentifiable bodies of Palestinians to
Gaza
Gaza authorities refuse to accept 'inhumane' shipment of bodies, saying
Israel must provide data about their identities.
Gaza's Ministry of Health has refused to receive a container carrying
the bodies of 88 Palestinians sent from Israel without prior
coordination or information about their identities. The procedures for
receiving the container were suspended until Israel provides full data
with the victims’ names, time of death and the location they were taken
from, the ministry said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app on
Wednesday. This is "the minimum rights of these people and their
families", it said. Gaza's Government Media Office called the shipment
of unidentifiable bodies an "inhumane and criminal move", in a separate
statement. Reporting from central Gaza's Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera's
Tareq Abu Azzoum said "the bodies are unidentifiable because they are
mostly decomposed. There are signs that those bodies have been in Israel
for a long time," he said. "The Palestinian Health Ministry said that
the Israeli military has deliberately concealed the identity of those
Palestinian people. There is no information about their names, genders
and the location they have been kidnapped from. The circumstances of
their abduction from the Gaza Strip are also unclear," he added.
Recent killings
The Palestinian Civil Defence said on Wednesday that at least 53
Palestinians have been killed across the Gaza Strip in Israeli attacks
on their homes and shelters in the past 24 hours. One person was killed
overnight on Wednesday after a house was targeted in Beit Lahiya in the
north of the enclave, and in the Nuseirat refugee camp, two Palestinians
were killed when their tent was hit by an Israeli air strike. Those
killed in central Gaza's Nuseirat were from the al-Ejla family who lost
11 relatives in August. On Wednesday morning, one body was recovered
from the Khirbet al-Adas area north of Rafah. The man found was
70-year-old Khalil Salim al-Nahl, the enclave’s civil defence said.
Earlier, our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic reported that a woman and
her five children were killed in an Israeli bombing of a house in the
town of Hay al-Nasr, northeast of Rafah.
At least three people were also killed in Gaza City's Zinjo
neighbourhood where the Jundi family home was bombed, according to the
Palestinian Civil Defence. Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera's
Hani Mahmoud said there was a continuous surge in attacks across Gaza,
mainly in the central area and the southern city of Khan Younis. "The
eastern area of Khan Younis, all the way to the coastal road, has been
destroyed and there is nothing left there," he said. "In the past few
hours, there have been attacks on the Nuseirat refugee camp, which has
been relentlessly targeted by multiple air strikes. Entire families have
been killed and are arriving at hospitals in pieces or soaked in blood,"
he added. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday
said that "nothing can justify" the atrocities committed by Hamas on
October 7 or the "collective punishment of the Palestinian people" by
Israel that followed as he called for an end to hostilities. "The
international community must mobilize for an immediate ceasefire, the
immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, and the beginning
of an irreversible process towards a two-state solution," he wrote on
social media platform X.
At least 41,495 people have been killed and 96,006 wounded in Israel's
war on Gaza. In Israel, the number of those killed in the Hamas-led
attacks on October 7 was at least 1,139, while more than 200 people were
taken captive.
West Bank arrests
Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces on Wednesday raided
Hebron, and arrested six residents, security sources told the
Palestinian news agency Wafa. The military also arrested one man from
Idhna, west of Hebron. Six more Palestinians were arrested in the towns
of Kafel Haris, Iskaka and Burqin in the Salfit governorate, Wafa
reported. Earlier, Israeli forces stormed the villages of Beit Furik and
Salem to the east of the city of Nablus, as well as Asira ash-Shamaliya
to the north of Nablus, and arrested five Palestinian men, the agency
said. Israeli forces have also arrested nine Palestinians from the
Dheisheh refugee camp, south of Bethlehem, according to Wafa.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES>>
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/25/israeli-attacks-in-gaza-strip-arrests-in-occupied-west-bank
Al Jazeera - September 24, 2024 - By Al Jazeera Staff
<<Blinken ignored US assessments that Israel blocked aid to Gaza: Report
Acknowledging Israel blocked US aid to Palestinians would have triggered
a ban on arms transfers to Israel.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken ignored assessments by United
States government agencies and officials indicating that Israel blocked
US aid to Gaza earlier this year, a new report has revealed, with the
top US diplomat presenting a different conclusion to Congress.
Investigative news outlet ProPublica reported on Tuesday that the US
Agency for International Development (USAID) told the State Department
in a late April report that Israel was subjecting US humanitarian aid
destined for Gaza to "arbitrary denial, restriction and impediments".
ProPublica said that officials in the State Department's refugee bureau
also found in April that "facts on the ground indicate US humanitarian
assistance is being restricted". But in May, Blinken delivered a State
Department report to Congress with a different conclusion. <We do not
currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise
restricting the transport or delivery of US humanitarian assistance,>
the State Department said in its May 10 assessment.
The leaked memos would have had major implications on US policy had they
been adopted by Blinken, including on US weapons shipments to Israel.
That's because US law bans security assistance to a country that
<prohibits or otherwise restricts, directly or indirectly, the transport
or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance>. The US provides
Israel with at least $3.8bn in military aid annually, and this year,
Biden approved an additional $14bn in assistance to help fund the
Israeli government's Gaza war efforts. That support has drawn widespread
condemnation and scrutiny as the Gaza war drags on. The State
Department's May report, which ultimately concluded that Israel was not
blocking US aid to Gaza, at the same time outlined how Israeli officials
had encouraged protests to block the assistance from reaching
Palestinians. The document also said that Israel implemented <extensive
bureaucratic delays> on the delivery of aid and launched military
strikes on <coordinated humanitarian movements and deconflicted
humanitarian sites>.
The Israeli military has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians in Gaza
while enforcing a strict siege on the territory that has brought its
population to the verge of famine.
At least 34 Palestinian children have died of malnutrition this year,
according to the Gaza Government Media Office.
In March, CIA Director Bill Burns recognised that Palestinians in Gaza
are starving. "The reality is that there are children who are starving,"
Burns told US senators during a briefing. "They're malnourished as a
result of the fact that humanitarian assistance can’t get to them."
Earlier this year, the White House acknowledged Israeli efforts to block
US aid to Gaza, as well. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich had
publicly stated that he was blocking US-provided flour for Gaza,
prompting a White House response. "I wish I could tell you that flour
was moving in, but I can't do that right now," White House spokesperson
John Kirby told reporters on February 15. ProPublica reported on Tuesday
that US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew urged Blinken to accept Israeli
assurances that Israel was not blocking aid to Gaza. <No other nation
has ever provided so much humanitarian assistance to their enemies,> Lew
told subordinates, according to the report.
The International Court of Justice has ruled that Gaza is under Israeli
occupation.
Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, an occupying power has the "duty of
ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population" in the
territory it occupies.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a US Muslim civil
rights and advocacy organisation, called on Tuesday for Blinken to
resign.
"When a senior American official lies to Congress in the middle of
genocide so that the government can keep funding that genocide, he is
deliberately flouting the law and prolonging the suffering of millions
of innocent people who desperately need our government to stop funding
their slaughter," CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a
statement.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA>>
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/24/blinken-ignored-us-assessments-that-israel-blocked-aid-to-gaza-report
Al Jazeera - September 24, 2024
<<'Unimaginable consequences': World reacts to Israel's strikes on
Lebanon
Israel launches more attacks as Lebanon reels from air strikes that
killed more than 550 people, including children.
People fleeing areas of southern Lebanon. World leaders are sounding the
alarm about a "full-fledged" war, calling for de-escalation after
devastating Israeli air strikes in Lebanon ratcheted regional tensions
amid Israel's ongoing war on Gaza. The attacks, which started on Monday
and continued into Tuesday, were Israel's fiercest against its northern
neighbour and have led to Lebanon's highest single-day death toll since
the end of the 1975-90 civil war.
On Tuesday, Lebanon's Ministry of Public Health said the Israeli strikes
killed 558 people, including 50 children and 94 women. Health Minister
Firass Abiad told a press conference in Beirut that at least 1,835
people were wounded, and 54 hospitals are treating patients.
Here are some reactions:...>>
Read it here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/24/unimaginable-consequences-world-reacts-to-israels-strikes-on-lebanon
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