SPECIAL REPORTS PALESTINE

FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA - FREE PALESTINE
with special thanks to citizen-reporter 'Biba' (Algeria)
June wk4 -- June wk3 P2 -- June wk3 -- June wk2 part3 --June wk2 part2 -- June wk2 -- Click here for an overview by week in 2024
 

June 24 - 22, 2024 <<Israeli soldiers strapped injured Palestinian to jeep after West Bank arrest raid... Inhumanity does have a face... i.e. Tyrants and killers are of all times. And always thinking the highest of themselves. But in the the end they always fall. Mahatma Ghandi and more news but most with a 'give way or go away' yell! Next update Thursday June 27, 20.00 hours GMT June 22 - 20, 2024 Food for thought on the below headlines: "Hamas |or the Palestinians| cannot be eliminated |nor genocided|

June 19 - 17, 2024 <<'A slow death': Gazans live alongside rotting rubbish and rodents... and <<Live: Israel's actions in Gaza may have violated laws of war, UN rights office says... and <<Live: UN says unable to deliver aid to Gaza despite Israel's military 'pause'... and <<Israel-Lebanon: A funeral for two women shows how furious fighting is ratcheting up the risk of all-out war... and <<Israeli protesters demand new elections after war cabinet dissolution... and <<'Judging Putin and Netanyahu necessarily implies a fair and adversarial trial'... and more news but most with a 'give way or go away' yell! Next update Sunday June 22, 20.00 hours GMT

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! Click here to go throughout June 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.

BBC - June 19, 2024 - By Yolande Knell
<<'A slow death': Gazans live alongside rotting rubbish and rodents
Across the Gaza Strip, in a landscape newly transformed by war, mountains of stinking rubbish pose severe dangers to health and the environment.
<We've never lived next to rubbish before,> says Asmahan al-Masri, a displaced woman, originally from Beit Hanoun in the north, whose home is now a wasteland in Khan Younis. <I cry just like any other grandmother would over her grandchildren being sick and having scabies. This is like a slow death. There is no dignity.> In eight months, more than 330,400 tonnes of solid waste are estimated to have built up in the Palestinian territory, according to the UN and humanitarian agencies working on sanitation. Sixteen members of the Masri family share a tent in a camp near al-Aqsa University with clouds of flies and sometimes snakes. Stray dogs can roam menacingly nearby. All the residents complain of the constant stench. <The smell is very disturbing. I keep my tent door open so that I can get some air, but there is no air,> Asmahan says. <Just the smell of rubbish.> Some of the more than one million people who recently fled Israel's military offensive in the southern city of Rafah have been forced to live in open areas that had already been turned into temporary refuse tips.

Children die every day
<We searched everywhere for a suitable place, but we are 18 people with our children and grandchildren, and we couldn’t find anywhere else where we could stay together,> says Ali Nasser, who recently moved to the al-Aqsa University campsite from his home in Rafah. <The journey here cost us over 1,000 shekels ($268; £212) and now our finances are destroyed. We have no jobs, no income, and so we are forced to live in this dire situation. We suffer from vomiting, diarrhoea, and constantly itchy skin.>
Before the war, years of blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt on Gaza, which was governed by Hamas, had put a severe strain on basic services, such as waste disposal. The tight restrictions for what Israel said were security reasons on what could enter the territory meant there were insufficient rubbish trucks, a lack of equipment for sorting and recycling household waste and for disposing of it correctly. Since the deadly 7 October Hamas-led attacks, Israel’s military has blocked access to the border area, which is where Gaza's two main landfill sites are located. One in Juhr al-Dik previously served the north, and another, in al-Fukhari, served the central and southern areas. <We're seeing a waste management crisis in Gaza, and one that has got a lot worse over the past few months,> says Sam Rose, director of planning for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa. Gazans face the risk of disease with sewage water accumulating close to makeshift shelters Social media footage compiled by BBC Verify shows temporary waste dumps have grown as people have fled in waves to different towns and cities. BBC Verify has authenticated these locations in Gaza City, Khan Younis and Rafah from February to June this year. Satellite analysis by BBC Verify has previously shed a light on another aspect of sanitation problems, showing half of Gaza's water and sewage treatment sites have been damaged or destroyed since Israel began its military action against Hamas. <You see massive pools of grey-brown sludge around which people are living because they have no choice, and you see large piles of garbage. Either this is just left outside people’s homes or in some places, people have been forced to move near the temporary landfills that have been set up,> Mr Rose says.
<People are literally living amongst the garbage.>
The mass displacement of people has overwhelmed local authorities often dealing with damaged facilities because of the ongoing Israeli bombardment. They complain of a lack of staff, equipment, and rubbish trucks as well as fuel to run them.>>
Source:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy66w5ppnp7o

France 24 - June 19, 2024 - By THE DEBATE - Rebecca GNIGNATI|François PICARD|Alessandro XENOS|Melissa KALAYDJIAN
<<Netanyahu on all fronts: Can Israel keep up war in Gaza while taking on Hezbollah?
There has been no ceasefire in Gaza since November. And just as tensions were subsiding a little, fears are now growing over Lebanon. We ask, in light of the latest border incidents, whether initial fears of an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah could still prove true.
In hindsight, Iran's first-ever direct missile attacks on Israel back in April seemed like a symbolic gesture, but it certainly got Binyamin Netanyahu's top brass's attention. The same top brass is at loggerheads with the prime minister over the lack of an exit strategy in Gaza. Netanyahu has managed to steady his political ship despite foreign and domestic pressure to resign, to the point where he can do without the opposition in a unity war cabinet. By dissolving that war cabinet, he's stared down his own far-right coalition partners. But for how long? And how long can the rest of the world feel the spillover? In France, eight months of war in the Middle East have strained political alliances to the point where divisions could prove a factor in crucial snap legislative elections where every vote counts.>>
Read more here and video:
https://www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/the-debate/20240618-netanyahu-on-all-fronts-can-israel-keep-up-war-in-gaza-while-taking-on-hezbollah

France 24 - June 19, 2024
<<Live: Israel's actions in Gaza may have violated laws of war, UN rights office says
Israeli forces may have violated fundamental principles of the laws of war on repeated occasions and failed to distinguish between civilians and fighters in their Gaza military campaign, the UN human rights office said Wednesday. The same office said last week that the killing of civilians during an Israeli operation to free four hostages could amount to war crimes, but so might Palestinian militants' holding of captives in densely populated areas.
Summary
Israeli forces may have repeatedly violated fundamental principles of the laws of war and failed to distinguish between civilians and fighters in their Gaza Strip military campaign, the United Nations human rights office said on Wednesday.
Israel's military on Tuesday said it had <approved and validated> operational plans for a Lebanon offensive amid escalating cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah.
The US does not want to see a wider regional war in the Middle East, said a Pentagon spokesperson shortly after the Israeli army said it had approved operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon.>>
Read more and video here:
https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20240619-%F0%9F%94%B4-live-un-says-unable-to-deliver-aid-to-gaza-despite-israel-s-military-pause

France 24 - June 19, 2024
<<Live: UN says unable to deliver aid to Gaza despite Israel's military 'pause'
The United Nations said on Tuesday it has been unable to distribute aid in the Gaza Strip from the Israel-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing because of lawlessness and panic among hungry people in the area, despite Israel's daytime pause in military activity. Israel's military said on Sunday there would be a daily pause in its attacks from 0500 GMT until 1600 GMT until further notice along the road that leads from Israel via the Kerem Shalom crossing to the Salah al-Din Road and northwards in Gaza.
Summary
Israel's military on Tuesday said it had <approved and validated> operational plans for a Lebanon offensive amid escalating cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah.
The US does not want to see a wider regional war in the Middle East, said a Pentagon spokesperson shortly after the Israeli army said it had approved operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon.
Yemen's Houthi militants are believed to have sunk a second ship, the Tutor, in the Red Sea, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said on Tuesday.>>
Read more and view video here:
https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20240619-%F0%9F%94%B4-live-un-says-unable-to-deliver-aid-to-gaza-despite-israel-s-military-pause

France 24 - June 18, 2024 - By: NEWS WIRES
<<Live: French court rules against 'discriminatory' Israeli ban from arms expo, says lawyer
A French court on Tuesday ordered organisers of a defence trade show to suspend a ban on Israeli firms, according to a lawyer for the Franco-Israeli Chamber of Commerce. Organisers of the Eurosatory trade show near Paris said French authorities had banned Israeli firms, with the French defence ministry attributing the decision to Israel's military operations in the Gaza Strip's Rafah city.
Summary
Israeli strikes on Tuesday killed at least 13 people in central Gaza, the civil defence agency in the Hamas-run territory said. Witnesses reported gunfire and artillery shelling near Nuseirat refugee camp where separate deadly strikes on a family home and a commercial building were also reported. A French court on Tuesday ordered organisers of the Eurosatory defence trade show to suspend a ban on Israeli firms, according to a lawyer for the Franco-Israeli Chamber of Commerce.>>
Source and read more incl. video:
https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20240618-%F0%9F%94%B4-live-gaza-fighting-slows-during-pause-but-israel-operations-continue-as-planned

Sky News - June 17, 2024 - by Alex Crawford | Special correspondent
<<Israel-Lebanon: A funeral for two women shows how furious fighting is ratcheting up the risk of all-out war
The increasingly furious and dangerous skirmishes on the Lebanese-Israeli border are reaching deeper into rival territories - with the odds of all-out war in the region shortening. The gunfire rang long and loud. We watched as angry and tearful men fired into the air chanting death threats against Israel and America in Deir Qanoun En Nahr in southern Lebanon. Ambulance sirens wailed and crowds of young Lebanese female medics stood holding pictures of their colleague, their faces creased in pain and sorrow. We've been to many funerals recently. This was the ceremony for two civilians, both women - one a mother, the other an emergency medic in her twenties. They are the latest civilian victims to be killed in Israeli border attacks.
There's terror on the other side of the border too, in Israel, with a marked escalation in the quantity and range of attacks from the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group, Hezbollah. The increasingly furious and dangerous skirmishes on the Lebanese-Israeli border are becoming deeper in territory and longer in range and the odds of all-out war in the region have correspondingly shortened. The situation has become so alarming that the two top United Nations officials in Lebanon have warned they are deeply concerned about the recent clashes along the southern border. The weekend statement from the UN Special Co-ordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, and Aroldo Lazaro, the head of the UN peacekeeping forces in Lebanon, warned: <The danger of miscalculation leading to a sudden and wider conflict is very real.> And they urged <all actors to cease their fire and commit to working toward a political and diplomatic solution>. Right now, though, neither side seems willing to back down while reiterating they don't want war but they're ready for it. And it seems the communities suffering on both sides are encouraging this approach. Around 90,000 people have had to flee their homes in northern Israel while Lebanese authorities say 100,000 have been displaced from the southern border.
They're angry, homeless and they want their lives back. They want to return.
'She was my only daughter'

Grieving relatives hold a photo of killed medic Sally Skeiky
The Lebanese father of 25-year-old medic Sally Skeiky told us by his daughter's grave in Deir Qanoun En Nahr that he wanted revenge, too. <I believe her death is a necessary sacrifice,> Hussein Skeiky told us. <She was my only daughter. But everyone thinks about this... what can we do? My country needs us now.> He went on to voice what many Lebanese people feel. <I want to remove our enemy [Israel] from this country. This enemy beside us is very dangerous...we need to remove him from here. There are people now making the fight with our enemy and we want to help them.> <Do you mean revenge?> I asked him. <Yes,> he replied. In Israel too, those forced out of their homes - after Hezbollah opened up a second front following the Hamas attacks last October - are pressurising the authorities to secure the border. The cross-border escalation prompted senior Israel Defence Forces (IDF) spokesman Daniel Hagari to say on Sunday: <Since deciding to join the war that Hamas started on 7 October Hezbollah has fired over 5,000 rockets; anti-tank missiles and explosive UAVs from Lebanon at Israeli families, homes, and communities.> And he went on to warn: <Hezbollah's increasing aggression is bringing us to the brink of what could be a wider escalation - one that could have devastating consequences for Lebanon and the entire region.> And that is what the US envoy Amos Hochstein is flying into. Mr Hochstein is an experienced negotiator and has been working behind the scenes for months now - trying to de-escalate tensions. But he has his work cut out for him. He flew into the region as news emerged of another Hezbollah commander killed in an IDF strike on a car near the southern Lebanese town of Tyre on Monday.
It comes on the heels of the worst week of skirmishes on the Israeli-Lebanon border since the start of the Gaza war in October. The IDF killing of the most senior Hezbollah commander since October led to furious retaliation by Hezbollah who fired hundreds of rockets and drones into Israeli villages and towns - the most in a single day since October. Analysts and experts have until now banked on both Hezbollah and the Israelis fearing they had far more to lose than to gain by all-out war.
Now they're not so sure.>>
Source incl. video:
https://news.sky.com/story/israel-lebanon-a-funeral-for-two-women-shows-how-furious-fighting-is-ratcheting-up-the-risk-of-all-out-war-13154509

France 24 - June 18, 2024
<<Israeli protesters demand new elections after war cabinet dissolution
Thousands of Israelis on Monday protested against Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's government, demanding new elections at the start of a <week of disturbance> call by activists. The protests came hours after Netanyahu dissolved the war cabinet that was tasked with steering the war in Gaza.
Summary:
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday dissolved the war cabinet and is now expected to hold consultations about the Gaza war with a small group of advisers, including Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
Thousands of Israelis protesting outside parliament and Prime Minister Netanyahu's residence in Jerusalem on Monday called for new elections at the start of a <week of disturbance> call by activists.
US presidential special envoy Amos Hochstein on Monday held talks with top Israeli leaders to press for a de-escalation on the Lebanese border.>>
Source, video and read more here:
https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20240617-%F0%9F%94%B4-live-senior-joe-biden-advisor-due-in-israel-to-avoid-escalation-with-hezbollah-lebanon-hamas-war-palestinian-territories

Le Monde - June 17, 2024 - by Sandrine de Sena | Legal consultant before the ICC
<<'Judging Putin and Netanyahu necessarily implies a fair and adversarial trial'
While the two leaders do not recognize the authority of the International Criminal Court, Sandrine de Sena, legal consultant before the ICC, analyzes the options that would enable them to be judged fairly, even in their absence.Published today at 10:45 am (Paris), updated at 12:28 pm 3 min read
On May 20, 2024, Karim Khan, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), filed applications for warrants of arrest before Pre-Trial Chamber I in the Situation in the State of Palestine. At first, many thought that the arrest warrants had been issued, before realizing that it is now up to the judges to accede, in whole or in part, to Karim Khan's request.
The task is not a simple one, and the responsibility resting on the shoulders of the judges is a heavy one. They now have little room for maneuver in rejecting the request made public by the prosecutor. In principle, it is rare at this stage to communicate on the mere filing of motions. But this is clearly an unprecedented situation, one on which the Court is particularly eager to act, and where the future of international criminal justice is at stake more than ever.
Read more Subscribers only Israel's shadow war against the ICC, between threats and surveillance
Assuming that the arrest warrants are issued, we will have to rely on the cooperation of the ICC's 124 States Parties to arrest the suspects if they happen to be in one of their territories. Everything will depend on the goodwill of the States.
Opening 'the door to everything'
In the most likely event that the suspects are not arrested (as can be seen from the difficulty the Court is still having in apprehending Omar Al-Bashir), how will they be tried? A number of voices are calling for trials in absentia. A group of practitioners, led by Catherine Mabille, Bruno Cotte and François Roux, proposes to amend the Rome Statute [the treaty that created the ICC] to include the possibility of judging in absentia. According to Julian Fernandez and Serge Sur, the inability of the ICC to judge in absentia condemns it "to the role of an engaged spectator” [in an op-ed in French published in Le Monde]. In the end, many agreed on the need to do something.
In practice, however, the mere mention of amending the Rome Statute has always frightened the majority of those involved in international criminal justice. Amending the Statute would open "the door to everything," and above all the exit door: Many States would prefer to withdraw from the legal instrument. These arguments were justified when the Court fell into disuse and disappointment.
Renewed interest in international criminal justice and the ICC has never been greater, and dashed hopes have been rekindled. Assuming that the Rome Statute is amended, how would then be judged Putin or Netanyahu, two leaders who are both firmly opposed to the Court and do not recognize its authority? Judging them necessarily implies a fair and adversarial trial. How, then, can such a trial be envisaged, and how can its legitimacy be ensured, without the presence and support of the accused?>>
Source and read more here:
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2024/06/17/judging-putin-and-netanyahu-necessarily-implies-a-fair-and-adversarial-trial_6674979_23.html

BBC - June 17, 2024 - By Yolande Knell - BBC Middle East correspondent
<<Israeli PM scraps war cabinet after key departures
Benjamin Netanyahu had faced demands from far-right ministers to join the war cabinet
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dissolved his six-member war cabinet, a widely expected decision that follows the departure of centrist opposition leader Benny Gantz and his ally Gadi Eisenkot. Israeli media report that sensitive issues about the war with Hamas in Gaza will now be decided by a smaller forum. Since Mr Gantz quit eight days ago over what he said was the lack of strategy for the war, there have been calls from far-right ministers to take his place. By dissolving the war cabinet, Mr Netanyahu avoids a tricky situation with his coalition partners and international allies. A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that, as far as it was concerned, it would not affect the chain of command.
Mr Gantz and Mr Eisenkot joined a national unity government with Mr Netanyahu's right-wing coalition days after the start of the war in October.
The two former IDF chiefs of staff announced their resignations on 9 June, with Mr Gantz saying that the prime minister’s leadership was <preventing us from approaching true victory>. Immediately afterwards, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said he had written to Mr Netanyahu to demand that he be added to the war cabinet. On Sunday night, Mr Netanyahu reportedly informed ministers that he had decided to dissolve the decision-making body rather than bring in new members. <The [war] cabinet was in the coalition agreement with Gantz at his request. As soon as Gantz left - there is no need for a cabinet anymore,> he said, according to the Jerusalem Post. Haaretz reported that some of the issues previously discussed by the war cabinet would be transferred for discussion in the 14-member security cabinet, which includes Mr Ben-Gvir and fellow far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. It said sensitive decisions would be addressed in a <smaller consultation forum>, which was expected to include Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and the chairman of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, Aryeh Deri. The three men were in the war cabinet along with the prime minister, Mr Gantz and Mr Eisenkot. The IDF's chief spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, insisted on Monday that such moves would not affect its operations. <Cabinet members are being changed and the method is being changed. We have the echelon, we know the chain of command. We're working according to the chain of command. This is a democracy,> he told reporters.
The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
More than 37,340 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.
There have been further signs of strain in the Israeli government in the past day, with Mr Netanyahu and his far-right ministers criticising a decision by the IDF to introduce daytime <tactical pauses in military activity> near the southern Gaza city of Rafah to allow more deliveries of humanitarian aid. The pauses are meant to allow lorries to collect aid from the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom border crossing, south-east of Rafah, and then travel safely to reach the main north-south road inside Gaza. Supplies have been held back at the crossing point since Israel began an operation in Rafah last month. But Mr Ben-Gvir decried the policy as foolish, while Israeli media quoted Mr Netanyahu as saying: <We have a country with an army, not an army with a country.> The IDF responded by saying that the pauses did not mean the fighting in southern Gaza would stop, which created confusion over what exactly was happening on the ground.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), which is the largest humanitarian organisation in Gaza, reported that fighting was continuing in Rafah and elsewhere in the south on Monday and that <operationally nothing has changed yet>. The IDF meanwhile said that its troops were <continuing intelligence-based, targeted operations in the area of Rafah>. It added that they had located weapons, struck structures rigged with explosives and eliminated <several terrorists> in the Tal al-Sultan area. With little sign of progress towards a full ceasefire in Gaza, there have been new warnings from the Israeli military that the lower-level conflict with the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah is now threatening to spiral into a wider war. Following a recent intensification in exchanges of fire, a key US diplomat is returning to the region to try to reduce tensions on the Israel-Lebanon border.>>
Source and read more here:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce99m0n99z0o

'Food for thought': Strong (Hamas) soldiers move in silence. Gino d'Artali

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