SPECIAL REPORTS PALESTINE

FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA - FREE PALESTINE
with special thanks to citizen-reporter 'Biba' (Algeria)
June wk2 part3 --June wk2 part2 -- June wk2 -- June wk1 part3 --  June wk1 part2 -- June wk1 -- May wk5 part2  --   Click here for an overview by week in 2024
 

June 16 - 12, 2024 <<Israeli army says eight soldiers killed in armoured vehicle in southern Gaza... and <<Two women killed in Israeli airstrike on South Lebanon... and <<UNICEF's James Elder says Gaza a 'horror show' for children... and <<Gaza is in dire need of women's health services... and <<American brands in Middle East under pressure from Israel boycotts... and <<Hamas rebuffs Blinken blame for elusive ceasefire... and <<In the chaos of Gaza, merchants take up arms to deliver food... and <<Three Jordanian doctors' account of Gaza's descent into hell... and more news but most with a 'give way or go away' yell!

June 14 - 11, 2024 <<'Without a ceasefire in Gaza, children will become a lost generation' and <<Battles rage in Rafah as Biden called Hamas the 'biggest hang-up' to Gaza truce... and <<Live: More than half of hunger-struck Gaza's cropland is damaged, UN says... and <<Death toll in Israeli attacks on Gaza rises to 37,232... and <<Israel and Hamas included on UN blacklist for violence against children for first time over 'unprecedented' spike in 'grave violations'... and <<Eight months and counting: How to get Israel and Hamas to seal ceasefire deal?... and <<Hamas demands 'complete halt' to war in response to Gaza truce plan... and more news but most with a 'give way or go away' yell!

June 11 - 5, 2024 <<Live: Hamas praise for UN ceasefire resolution a 'hopeful sign', Blinken says... and <<Barclays branches targeted by pro-Palestine activists... and <<Death toll in Israeli attacks on Gaza rises to 37,124... and <<3 more journalists killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza... and <<Putin, Netanyahu and the instrumentalization of World War II... and <<Gaza hostage rescue latest: Top EU diplomat's tweet sparks outrage in Israel; How much was US involved in Gaza raid?... and <<Israeli universities brace for growing threat of boycotts... and <<War in Gaza: The European Union's diplomatic failure... and <<'Young people rallying for Gaza is not revolutionary, it is moral'... and more news but most with a 'give way or go away' yell!   Click here to go throughout June - May and earler, 2024

June 6, 2024 Abu Bakr Bashir "I was a journalist in Gaza. The place I call home is gone now".

Related news: June 11, 2024 "Journalist casualties in the Israel-Gaza war" https://cpj.org/2024/06/journalist-casualties-in-the-israel-gaza-conflict/ and "Attacks, arrests, threats, censorship: The high risks of reporting the Israel-Gaza war" https://cpj.org/2024/06/attacks-arrests-threats-censorship-the-high-risks-of-reporting-the-israel-hamas-war/

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.

France 24 - June 16, 2024 - By: NEWS WIRES
<<Israeli army announces daily 'tactical pause' in south Gaza to boost incoming aid
Israel's military announced on Sunday that it would pause fighting throughout daytime hours along a route in southern Gaza to free up a backlog of humanitarian aid deliveries destined for desperate Palestinians enduring a humanitarian crisis sparked by the war, now in its ninth month. The <tactical pause> announced by the military, which applies to about 12 kilometers (7.4 miles) of road in the Rafah area, falls far short of a complete cease-fire in the beleaguered territory that has been sought by the international community, including Israel's top ally, the United States. If it holds, the limited halt in fighting could help address some of the overwhelming needs of Palestinians that have surged even more in recent weeks with Israel's incursion into Rafah. The army said the pause would begin at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) and remain in effect until 7 p.m. (1600 GMT). It said the pauses would take place every day until further notice. The pause is aimed at allowing aid trucks to reach the nearby Israel-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing, the main entry point for incoming aid, and travel safely to the Salah a-Din highway, a main north-south road, the military said. The crossing has suffered from a bottleneck since Israeli ground troops moved into Rafah in early May. COGAT, the Israeli military body that oversees aid distribution in Gaza, said the route would increase the flow of aid to other parts of Gaza, including Khan Younis, Muwasi and central Gaza. Hard-hit northern Gaza, which was an early target in the war, is being served by goods entering from a crossing in the north. The military said the pause came after discussions with the United Nations and international aid agencies. Aid agencies, including the U.N., did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The pause along the southern route comes as Israel and Hamas are weighing the latest proposal for a cease-fire, a plan that was detailed by President Joe Biden in the administration’s most concentrated diplomatic push for a halt to the fighting and the release of hostages taken by the militant group. While Biden described the proposal as an Israeli one, Israel has not fully embraced it and Hamas has demanded changes that appear unacceptable to Israel.
Number of aid trucks dropped in May
Israel's eight-month military offensive against the Hamas militant group, sparked by the group's Oct. 7 attack, has plunged Gaza into a humanitarian crisis, with the U.N. reporting widespread hunger and hundreds of thousands of people on the brink of famine. The international community has urged Israel to do more to ease the crunch and has said the ongoing fighting, including in Rafah, has complicated aid deliveries throughout the war. From May 6 until June 6, the U.N. received an average of 68 trucks of aid a day, according to figures from the U.N. humanitarian office, known as OCHA. That was down from 168 a day in April and far below the 500 trucks a day that aid groups say are needed. The flow of aid in southern Gaza declined just as the humanitarian need grew. More than 1 million Palestinians, many of whom had already been displaced, fled Rafah after the invasion, crowding into other parts of southern and central Gaza. Most now languish in ramshackle tent camps, using trenches as latrines, with open sewage in the streets. COGAT says there are no restrictions on the entry of trucks. It says more than 8,600 trucks of all kinds, both aid and commercial, entered Gaza from all crossings from May 2 to June 13, an average of 201 a day. But much of that aid has piled up at the crossings and not reached its final destination. A spokesman for COGAT, Shimon Freedman, said it was the U.N.’s fault that its cargos stacked up on the Gaza side of Kerem Shalom. He said the agencies have <fundamental logistical problems that they have not fixed,> especially a lack of trucks. The U.N. denies such allegations. It says the fighting between Israel and Hamas often makes it too dangerous for U.N. trucks inside Gaza to travel to Kerem Shalom, which is right next to Israel's border. It also says the pace of deliveries has been slowed because the Israeli military must authorize drivers to travel to the site, a system Israel says was designed for the drivers’ safety. Due to a lack of security, aid trucks in some cases have also been looted by crowds as they moved along Gaza's roads. The new arrangement aims to reduce the need for coordinating deliveries by providing an 11-hour uninterrupted window each day for trucks to move in and out of the crossing. It was not immediately clear whether the army would provide security to protect the aid trucks as they moved along the highway.
(AP)>>
Source incl. video:
https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20240616-israeli-army-announces-daily-tactical-pause-southern-gaza-to-boost-incoming-humanitarian-aid-israel-hamas-war-kerem-shalom

France 24 - June 15, 2024 - By: NEWS WIRES
<<Israeli army says eight soldiers killed in armoured vehicle in southern Gaza
Eight Israeli soldiers were killed in a blast in southern Gaza Saturday, the military said, in one of its heaviest losses of the war, as witnesses reported street battles between troops and Palestinian militants. The military said the soldiers were killed when the Namer armoured vehicle they were travelling in exploded near Gaza's far-southern city of Rafah, where troops are engaged in fierce street battles. <There was a very serious damage to the vehicle and those in it, and a large explosion making it difficult to identify and locate the bodies,> it said. Military spokesman Daniel Hagari told a televised briefing that the blast was <apparently from an explosive device planted in the area or from the firing of an anti-tank missile>. Saturday's losses were among the heaviest for the military since it began its ground offensive in Gaza on October 27 and took its overall toll since then to 306 deaths. In the single largest loss of life for the army, 21 soldiers were killed on January 22 when rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) fire hit a tank near two buildings they were preparing to blow up. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid tribute to the soldiers who had lost their lives. <Our hearts are shattered before this terrible loss,> he said in a statement. <Despite the heavy and unsettling price, we must cling to the goals of the war.> At the weekly protest in Tel Aviv against his government's handling of the war, protester Graciela Barchilon, 68, said she felt <a lot of anger and disappointment>. <I believe this government is not working and we have to go to elections now,> she said. In Rafah, witnesses reported clashes between militants and Israeli troops in the city's west, and artillery fire towards a refugee camp in the city centre. AFPTV images showed streets largely deserted. The United Nations says about one million people have fled Rafah since early May, when Israel began ground operations in the city in pursuit of Hamas militants. In Gaza City, in the north of the territory, the civil defence agency reported recovering 10 bodies from three separate homes hit by Israeli strikes.
Lebanon border flare-up
The Gaza war began after Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures. The militants also seized 251 hostages. Of these, 116 remain in Gaza, although the army says 41 are dead. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,296 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. Fears of the war spilling over into a broader Middle East conflict have been rekindled in recent days by an escalation of tit-for-tat violence between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, a Hamas ally. Hezbollah said intense strikes since Wednesday were retaliation for Israel's killing of one of its commanders. Israeli forces responded with shelling, the military said, also announcing air strikes on Hezbollah infrastructure across the border. The two top UN officials in Lebanon called on all sides to cease fire. <The danger of miscalculation leading to a sudden and wider conflict is very real,> they said in a joint statement.
Ceasefire plan
During a Middle East trip this week to push a Gaza truce plan, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said <the best way> to help resolve the Hezbollah-Israel violence was <a resolution of the conflict in Gaza and getting a ceasefire>.
That has not happened.
Hamas has insisted on the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and a permanent ceasefire -- demands Israel has repeatedly rejected.
Blinken has said Israel backs the latest plan, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose far-right coalition partners are strongly opposed to a ceasefire, has not publicly endorsed it. The Gaza war's only truce, one week in November, saw more than 100 hostages released, the Israelis among them in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. World Food Programme deputy executive director Carl Skau said that <with lawlessness inside the Strip... and active conflict>, it has become <close to impossible to deliver the level of aid that meets the growing demands on the ground>. <More than anything, people want this war to end,> he said after a two-day visit to Gaza. The US military said a pier it built to help bring aid into Gaza would be temporarily moved to an Israeli port to protect it from expected high seas. The platform had only been reattached to Gaza's shore a week before, after storm damage.
Leaders of the G7 group of advanced economies called at a summit in Italy Friday for the <rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief for civilians in need>.
(AFP)>>
Source incl. video:
https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20240615-israeli-army-says-eight-soldiers-killed-in-armoured-vehicle-in-southern-gaza


Two women killed
Jinha - Womens News Agency - June 14, 2024
<<Two women killed in Israeli airstrike on South Lebanon
Two women were killed and 14 people were wounded in an Israeli airstrike targeting a building in the town of Jennata near Tyre city, southern Lebanon, on Thursday.
News Center- Since the outbreak of war between Israeli forces and Hamas in the Gaza Strip on October 7, Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire on a near-daily basis. Two women were killed and at least nine people were injured in an Israeli airstrike targeting a building in the town of Jennata near the city of Tyre, southern Lebanon, Lebanon's official National News Agency reported on Thursday. A source from a local ambulance service indicated that at least nine injured people, including three children, were transferred to Tyre Hospital for treatment.>>
Source:
https://jinhaagency.com/en/actual/two-women-killed-in-israeli-airstrike-on-south-lebanon-35231?page=1

BBC - June 14, 2024 - By Robert Greenall
<<Aid convoy denied entry to northern Gaza, UN says
UNICEF's James Elder says Gaza a 'horror show' for children
The UN children's agency Unicef has told the BBC a convoy carrying aid was denied entry to northern Gaza, despite having all the necessary documents, adding that this is a common occurrence. Unicef spokesman James Elder, who was on a lorry in the convoy, also said that while waiting at a checkpoint he witnessed the fatal shooting of two Gazan fishermen. In their response, the Israel Defense Forces said documentation for the Unicef vehicle in the convoy was not filled out correctly and accused Mr Elder of presenting a <partial picture>. Mr Elder said people had told him they would be <happy if there is an air strike> on their homes, to end their suffering. In an interview with the BBC's Today programme, Mr Elder said: <They're so despairing, they're so broken, they've lost so many family members, they have nothing left.> He said the areas of Gaza being denied aid were suffering from levels of severe malnutrition unprecedented in Gaza. He added that doctors in Gaza had needed to be trained to deal with the most serious cases as they had not experienced them in the past. His remarks came after World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday that a significant proportion of Gaza's population were facing <catastrophic hunger and famine-like conditions>. More than 8,000 children under five years old had been diagnosed and treated for acute malnutrition, of whom more than 1,500 had a more severe form, Dr Tedros added. More than 37,000 people have been killed, and many hundreds of thousands more injured or displaced in Israel's offensive against Hamas in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
The war began after Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 others back to Gaza as hostages.
Mr Elder described how on Wednesday he was travelling on a Unicef lorry in an aid convoy trying to get from southern to northern Gaza. He said that despite having all the necessary paperwork it took them 13 hours to travel about 40km (30 miles). After spending eight hours at checkpoints they were finally denied entry, he said, <so 10,000 children who were going to benefit from nutritional supplies, medical supplies, did not>.
Mr Elder said he did not know why the convoy was denied entry, but said such denials were <consistent and relentless> and that there were hundreds of examples. The IDF said in a statement that a problem arose because Unicef had used a lorry with a rear closed cabin which required prior coordination with the authorities, adding that Hamas frequently exploited closed cabins to smuggle weapons and terrorists into northern Gaza. It said Unicef had initially claimed the lorry did not include a closed cabin but this claim turned out to be false. <Once the situation was clarified, [Unicef] was offered to continue its movement northward without the mentioned truck or to submit appropriate coordination for the following day,> the IDF added. <As long as the coordination process is properly conducted, passage will be allowed,> the statement continued. Mr Elder also said that during the checkpoint wait he saw about eight fishermen trying to catch fish with a single net. <Suddenly we heard a tank coming down, we heard... automatic fire,> he said. <We saw two men on the beach, two fishermen fleeing, one was shot in the back, one in the neck.> The Unicef spokesman said the WHO, who had paramedics in the convoy, called through to the IDF to be allowed to give the men medical support, but that support was denied. He said he was later able to see the fishermen's wounds when their colleagues were allowed to retrieve the bodies. The IDF said it was looking into what it described as the <incident on the beach which was mentioned in the interview>. Mr Elder, who was last in Gaza six weeks ago, said things were much worse now. <It's the first time I've seen a real level of despondency,> he said. It's very unsettling to see a child when their parent can't protect them, it's heartbreaking when a parent can't protect their child, so increasingly I'm hearing people say I just want this over, I'm happy if there's an air strike on me tonight.> Speaking again to the BBC on Saturday, Mr Elder warned against the normalisation of this <horror show on children>. <There is nothing normal about walking through this hospital, speaking to a mother as I did 10 minutes ago, who was asleep in her family home when a rocket hit. Next thing she's in the rubble three floors below, two of her children are killed and the third... has serious head injuries.> >>
Source:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czvv92g550xo

Le Monde - June 13, 2024 - By Laure Stephan (Amman, special correspondent)
<<Gaza is in dire need of women's health services
Jordanian gynecologist Acil Jallad has treated women suffering from hemorrhage, infection, or lack of medical follow-up for their pregnancies.
Outraged, like her fellow Jordanians, by the brutality of the operations carried out by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip since the bloody attack by Hamas on October 7, Acil Jallad, a 40-year-old gynecologist, refused to remain powerless. From March to April, she spent a month in the Palestinian territory, treating women and delivering babies. What she saw hasn't left her since she returned to Amman. She described <the incessant noise of the drones, the bombings in the distance, the stench of garbage that is no longer collected, the destroyed roads where children walk barefoot.> But also, <the resilience of Gazans.> <Women express their exhaustion with the conflict. But they project themselves into the future, talk about their plans for when the war will end.> Less visible than the wounds caused by the strikes, women's health needs <are huge,> she said. <Some women suffered from hemorrhage, and in some cases, we had to remove their uterus, a procedure that could have been avoided in another context. Others had infections that we couldn't always diagnose, due to the lack of tests available. Women who were several months pregnant had not had ultrasounds because of the conflict and repeated displacements,> explained the practitioner, who worked in the field hospital of the US NGO International Medical Corps, in the so-called <humanitarian> zone of Al-Mawasi, on the seafront west of Rafah. This was shortly before the Israeli invasion on May 6 of this town on the border with Egypt, to which civilians had been encouraged to flock, believing they would find refuge there, before having to flee again. Jallad has kept in touch with Gazans: <It sometimes takes several days to get news, via messages.> When she was there, around 10 deliveries were carried out every day. <Vaginal deliveries are carried out without painkillers. To ward off the pain, during labor some women pray, for their dead, for family members scattered across the enclave.>
'No rest'
The usual advice given to pregnant women, such as a healthy and varied diet, is incongruous: <People have been surviving for months on canned food and without drinking water. Women who already have children feed them first. Anemia is common. There's no rest after giving birth, back in a tent shared with the extended family or in an overcrowded shelter.> Two Gazans particularly moved her: A 17-year-old girl who came to give birth, <pregnant when she was still a child and already a widow because of the war. This mother, alone with her baby, was returning to her family. Yet she was determined, saying: <'I'll make it, I'll raise my son and I'll tell him about his father.'> And Youssef, an 11-year-old boy, among the children with whom she spent time in the evenings: <He was wounded twice, at home and then in the hospital where he was being treated. With one leg amputated, he needed surgery but refused, paralyzed by fear.> The gynecologist helped calm him down.>>
Read more here:
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/06/14/gaza-is-in-dire-need-of-women-s-health-services_6674786_4.html

Le Monde - June 13, 2024 - By Helene Sallon (Beirut, Lebanon, correspondent)
<<American brands in Middle East under pressure from Israel boycotts
Starbucks and McDonald's reported lower earnings for the first quarter of 2024. Accused of supporting Israel, these groups are suffering the effects of a campaign encouraging consumers to turn away from their products. Starbucks cafes and McDonald's restaurants in the Middle East have not been totally deserted. Supermarket shelves are still stocked with bottles of Coca-Cola and Pepsi. But when the time came to take stock, some international companies had to face the facts: As the war in the Gaza Strip entered its ninth month, the boycott campaign against companies accused of supporting Israel was far from painless. Extremely popular in the region, thanks to the viral powers of social media, the boycott initiative concerns many brands marked by pro-Palestinian activists as being linked to Israel or associated with <American imperialism.> Washington's unconditional support for Israel in its war against Hamas is generating a wave of anger and indignation. On Tuesday, June 11, the Hamas Ministry of Health counted more than 37,000 deaths in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war in October 2023. American coffee chain Starbucks has been paying the price since it sued the Workers United Union confederation – representing unions at 370 Starbucks outlets in the US - in October 2023, for posting a message of solidarity with Palestine on social media. In March, the Kuwaiti group Alshaya, which manages Starbucks franchises in the Middle East and North Africa, announced the layoff of 2,000 employees in the region, or 4% of its payroll, as a result of falling sales. The following month, the Seattle-based parent company reported a 15% drop in second-quarter net income. Starbucks director general Laxman Narasimhan acknowledged that this poor performance, due to a significant drop in sales in the US and the Middle East, was the result of a <misperception around its brand, tied... to the Israel-Hamas war.>
Changing consumer behavior
However much the company may reiterate that it has no <political agenda> or defend itself from using <our profits to fund any government or military operations anywhere,> the reputational damage is likely to be long-lasting. In an attempt to repair their image, in April the Starbucks Charitable Foundation and the Alshaya Group announced a $3 million donation to the non-governmental organization World Central Kitchen to provide one million meals in the Gaza Strip. Other international companies have also reported sluggish first-quarter results. Americana Restaurants, which runs the Middle East franchises of fast-food chains such as Hardee's, KFC and Pizza Hut, reported a near 50% drop in profits due to <persistent geopolitical tensions> in the Middle East and the month of Ramadan.>>
Read more here:
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/06/13/american-brands-in-middle-east-under-pressure-from-israel-boycotts_6674736_4.html

BBC - June 13, 2024 - By Raffi Berg
<<Hamas rebuffs Blinken blame for elusive ceasefire
Mediators presented the latest ceasefire proposal more than two weeks ago
Hamas has pushed back after being criticised by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for not yet accepting a ceasefire proposal, saying it had shown <positivity> towards the negotiations. The group said it had <dealt positively... with the latest proposal and all proposals to reach a ceasefire agreement>. It said, in contrast, <while Blinken continues to talk about 'Israel’s' approval of the latest proposal, we have not heard any Israeli official voicing approval>. Mr Blinken has repeatedly said that Israel has accepted a ceasefire proposal outlined by President Biden on 31 May. Israel's government has not officially said so, though an Israeli plan formed the basis for Mr Biden's declaration. Speaking in Qatar on Wednesday, Mr Blinken expressed frustration with Hamas's response to the Israeli ceasefire proposal, which the group delivered on Tuesday. The details of the response have not been made public, though Mr Blinken said Hamas had proposed changes, some of which, he said, were unworkable.
<At some point in a negotiation - and this has gone back and forth for a long time - you get to a point where if one side continues to change its demands, including making demands and insisting on changes for things that it already accepted, you have to question whether they're proceeding in good faith or not.> But in a series of statements on Wednesday night, Hamas questioned whether Israel had actually accepted either the plan or a UN Security Council resolution endorsing it. <The world did not hear any welcome or approval from [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu> and his government to the resolution, it said. <Rather they continued to emphasise the rejection of any permanent ceasefire, in clear contradiction with the Security Council resolution and President Biden's initiative.> Hamas said that on the other hand, it had <clearly expressed its positive position on what was included in US President Joe Biden's speech> and on <what was included> in the resolution. It also said it had confirmed its <readiness to co-operate> with the mediators involved in the ceasefire negotiations. After a meeting with Mr Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday, Mr Blinken said the prime minister had <reaffirmed his commitment> to the ceasefire proposal. Mr Netanyahu has not publicly endorsed the plan, although the war cabinet which he leads authorised the proposal which was delivered to Hamas on 27 May. That proposal - reportedly lengthier than the summary presented by Mr Biden - has not been made public and it is unclear whether it varies from what the president conveyed in his televised statement at the end of last month. One of the main sticking points between the two sides appears to be their visions for ending the war. Reports say Hamas is insisting first on written guarantees that Israel will end the war before it will sign up to the plan. Mr Netanyahu has said the war will not end until Hamas's <governing and military capabilities> have been destroyed and the hostages returned.>>
Read more here:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czrrw93g9xyo

Le Monde - June 13, 2024
<<Hamas urges US to put 'pressure' on Israel for permanent Gaza ceasefire
In a statement on Thursday, the Palestinian group urged Antony Blinken to put 'direct pressure' on the Israeli government. The American secretary of state said Wednesday that a truce and hostage release deal to end the Gaza war was still possible. The Hamas militant group in Gaza called on Washington on Thursday, June 13, to <pressure> Israel to accept a permanent ceasefire in the territory, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken wraps up a Mideast tour. <He continues to talk about Israel's agreement of the latest [ceasefire] proposal, but we have not heard any Israeli official speak out on this,> Hamas said in a statement, urging Blinken to put <direct pressure> on Israel.
The American secretary of state said Wednesday that a truce and hostage release deal to end the Gaza war was still possible, as deadly fighting rocked the Palestinian territory. Blinken, in Doha for the last stop of a tour to promote President Joe Biden's Gaza ceasefire roadmap, said the United States would work with regional partners to <close the deal.> Hamas submitted late Tuesday its response to mediators Qatar and Egypt, and Blinken said some of the proposed amendments <are workable and some are not.> A senior Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, said it sought <a permanent ceasefire and complete withdrawal> of Israeli troops from Gaza, demands rejected by Israel. The three-stage plan, endorsed by the UN Security Council and Arab powers, includes a six-week ceasefire, a hostage-prisoner exchange and Gaza's internationally-backed reconstruction. US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said <many> of Hamas's demands were <minor and not unanticipated,> while <others differ more substantively from what was outlined in the UN Security Council resolution.> Blinken said Israel was behind the plan, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government has far-right members strongly opposed to the deal, has yet to formally endorse it. Blinken expressed hopes that gaps could be closed. <We have to see (...) over the course of the coming days whether those gaps are bridgeable,> he said.
Hezbollah rockets
As the bloody Gaza war rages into its ninth month, deadly violence has intensified along Israel's northern border with Lebanon. An Israeli strike on Tuesday killed a Hezbollah commander described by a Lebanese military source as the Shiite Muslim group's <most important> fighter killed in near-daily exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah since the Gaza war erupted.
On Wednesday, three waves of around 150 rockets and missiles filled the sky over northern Israel, according to the military, reporting fires but no casualties. Hezbollah also claimed more than 10 other attacks on the Israeli military, including one with drones. Senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine threatened to <increase the intensity, strength, quantity and quality of our attacks.> Netanyahu warned last week that the army was <prepared for a very intense operation> to <restore security to the north.>
Le Monde with AFP>>
Source and read more here:
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/06/13/hamas-urges-us-to-put-pressure-on-israel-for-permanent-gaza-ceasefire_6674616_4.html 

Le Monde - June 12, 2024 - By Louis Imbert (Ramallah, special correspondent)
<<In the chaos of Gaza, merchants take up arms to deliver food
Since the Rafah invasion on May 6, Israel has erratically resumed imports directly with traders, risking the proliferation of armed gangs.
On Thursday, June 6, 30 trucks transporting United Nations humanitarian aid to Gaza were attacked shortly after crossing the Israeli border at Kerem Shalom. <Armed men shot at the wheels to stop them and wounded several drivers,> said Nahed Shuheibar, the trucks' owner. <They threw out the shipments of flour and tin cans to find contraband cigarettes hidden inside.> Shuheibar is a well-established transporter in Gaza. He has worked for UNRWA, the main UN agency in the enclave, for several decades. These cigarettes, which fetch a high price in Gaza, had been hidden in his trucks from Egypt, without his knowledge, he claimed. They were coveted by <mafia families> in Gaza, explained Shuheibar, who was contacted by telephone since the Israeli army forbids Le Monde and all foreign press to enter Gaza. These types of incidents have increased since the Israeli army invaded the border town of Rafah on May 6, displacing a million people. Israel aims to dismantle the last Hamas battalions in the southern part of the enclave. The army is also destroying the few government structures that remain in the hands of the Palestinian movement.
Family militia
On June 2, Shuheibar had to pay a courtesy visit to mafia clans from Rafah, who had stormed one of his convoys the day before. <These gangs demand that we pay for their 'protection.' They don't care if Gazan society falls apart, they only care about their money,> he said. Since the beginning of the war, Shuheibar has been transporting part of the United Nations aid from the borders with his fleet of 60 trucks, which comprise about a third of those still operating in Gaza. In Rafah, Gazan police escorted his convoys until February. Then, Israel began bombing these uniformed men, remnants of a governmental authority held by Hamas since 2007. Two senior UN sources confirmed that, after careful consideration, these policemen resumed escorting the convoys, in plainclothes and unmarked cars. As such, <Hamas escorted and secured all aid until Israel seized the Rafah crossing point,> said the courier. Those days are over. On May 6, Israel closed the main border crossing for food deliveries to the enclave at Rafah. It is partially redirecting these supply routes through its own borders, in a state of great disarray. The major new development is that it has authorized the resumption of the food trade between Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to any private importer willing to take the risk. Fewer than 100 trucks have been passing daily through the Israeli terminal at Kerem Shalom (to the south).>>
Read more here:
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/06/12/in-the-chaos-of-gaza-merchants-take-up-arms-to-deliver-food_6674603_4.html

Le Monde - June 12, 2024 - By Laure Stephan (Beirut (Lebanon) correspondent)
<<Three Jordanian doctors' account of Gaza's descent into hell
The kingdom runs two hospitals in the Palestinian territory. Military doctors, who spent over three months there since the war began, described the extremely harsh conditions under which the sick and wounded are treated. During their three-month missions in the Gaza Strip, Jordanian military doctors Talal Al-Jalabneh, a surgeon, Mohamed Ismaïl, an anesthetist, and Moath Al-Qawaqenah, a pediatrician, witnessed the bombardment of the people of Gaza in the war waged since October 7, 2023, by Israel, which claims to want to eradicate Hamas. These men are experienced in treating severe trauma victims at the King Hussein Medical Center in Amman, a huge military hospital complex renowned throughout the kingdom. All three have also already served in conflict situations. <But there's no comparison between Gaza today and other war zones, such as Iraq or Afghanistan. What's happening in Gaza, we've never seen it anywhere else,> said Lieutenant-Colonel Al-Jalabneh, pointing to unbearable photographs of wounded victims in an office at the medical facility. His colleagues nodded in agreement. The doctors served in two hospitals run by the Jordanian army in the Palestinian territory, including a field hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis, since the start of the war. Medical facilities have been operating discreetly and receiving tens of thousands of wounded or sick individuals since October 2023. The doctors, who swapped their lab coats for uniforms for their meeting with Le Monde, recounted their account of Gaza's descent into hell: they witnessed wounded victims with multiple traumas, children suffering from acute malnutrition and families devastated. <At the start of our mission [in December 2023], when a child was being cared for, I would ask him, 'Is this your father next to you?' I stopped asking that question: So many children would reply, 'My father is dead,'> said Dr. Al-Jalabneh before adding, <If you were in our shoes, you'd be praying for this war to end as soon as possible.>
Relentless bombing
<When we left for Gaza, we expected to treat a lot of patients, but not to the extent we did,> concurred Lieutenant Colonel Ismail <We sometimes had to add beds on the floor.> When these two officers served in Khan Yunis, the town was a <hot spot> due to Israel's winter offensive. After their first week, the bombings became relentless all around them. The field hospital was hit twice. Once in November 2023 - medical staff were wounded and evacuated - and again in January. Inside King Hussein Hospital, Amman, on May 21, 2024, anesthetist Lieutenant-Colonel Mohamed Ismail showing a photo of his team operating at the Jordanian Khan Yunis Hospital in Gaza. In the wake of the first Gaza war in 2008-2009, Jordan opened its first hospital in 2009 in Tel Al-Hawa, a district of Gaza City, which people still call a <field hospital> despite being a permanent structure in a rehabilitated building. Wounded patients were treated there during the wars of 2014 and 2021; patients were also received in peacetime.>>
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https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/06/12/three-jordanian-doctors-account-of-gaza-s-descent-into-hell_6674584_4.html
 

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