SPECIAL REPORTS PALESTINE

FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA - FREE PALESTINE
with special thanks to citizen-reporter 'Biba' (Algeria)
May week3 part2 -- May week3 -- May week2 part3 --  May week2 part2 --  May week2 -- Click here for an overview by week in 2024

May 14 - 11, 2024 <<Palestinians fleeing Rafah as Israel expands its offensive... and <<'Hamas is going to survive', warns former US State Department Middle East negotiator... and <<EU top diplomat sees US 'fatigue' in Mideast... and <<68.3 million displaced by conflict and violence in 2023... and <<More than 150,000 pregnant women face health hazards in Gaza... and <<Egypt to support South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at ICJ... and more news but most with a 'give way or go away' yell! NEXT update May 18 20.00 hours GMT

May 11 - 9, 2024 <<Ex-NHS doctor stuck in Gaza during hospital placement says family are 'terrified' but he 'has to keep going'... and <<Heavy fighting in Gaza's Rafah keeps aid crossings closed, sends 100,000 civilians fleeing... and <<Thousands join Gaza war protest against Israel's Eurovision participation...incl. a 'Food for thought'... and <<FOCUS: On board a humanitarian flight: Injured Gazan children flown to UAE for treatment... and <<60 Palestinians killed in Israel's attack on Gaza in last 24 hours... and more news but most with a 'give way or go away' yell!

Overview social-media posts edited by citizen-reporter 'Biba'  Next update May 17, 2024  May 9 - 4, 2024 May 3 - 1 - April 30 - 23,2024 Click here to go throughout April and earler, 2024

 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.


Palestinians fleeing Rafah
Jinha - Womens News Agency - May 13, 2024
<<Palestinians fleeing Rafah as Israel expands its offensive
As Israel expands its offensive into Rafah, Palestinians fleeing from the southern city seek shelter in central areas of Gaza.
News Center- The Israel army ordered new evacuations in Gaza's southern city of Rafah on Saturday. According to the reports, the Israeli army conducted heavy bombardments overnight in the Jabaliya refugee camp and other areas in northern Gaza and Israeli warplanes and artillery also struck the Zeitoun area east of Gaza City. At least 37 Palestinians, 24 of them from central Gaza areas, were killed in overnight airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, including in Rafah, the Palestinian health ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
'There is no safe place in Gaza'
Thousands attended the funerals held in Deir al-Balah on Saturday for victims of Israeli airstrikes. <They threw fliers on Rafah and said, from Rafah to al-Zawayda is safe, people should evacuate there, and they did, and what has become of them? Dismembered bodies? There is no safe place in Gaza,> Khitam Al-Khatib, who said she had lost at least 10 of her relatives in an airstrike on a family house earlier on Saturday, told Reuters.>>
Source:
https://jinhaagency.com/en/actual/palestinians-fleeing-rafah-as-israel-expands-its-offensive-35038?page=1

France 24 - May 14, 2024 - by Marc Perelman | Video by Marc Perelman
<<'Hamas is going to survive', warns former US State Department Middle East negotiator
Former US State Department Middle East Negotiator Aaron Miller, who served under six US secretaries of state on Arab-Israel affairs, told FRANCE 24 on Tuesday that Israel's strategy in Gaza has essentially <broken down> despite its army's progress in the enclave. <Hamas is going to survive in some form>, and is <likely to continue to play a critical role in the formation of Palestinian politics, both in Gaza and perhaps even beyond that given the weakness of the Palestinian Authority>, said Miller, now senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.
Israel's increasingly fraught relationship with the US
In halting a shipment of thousands of bombs on May 8, US President Joe Biden sent his most serious signal yet both to Israel and his domestic critics. However, the pause in arms is not <an embargo> and the situation is not <unprecedented> Miller said, pointing to previous moments in history where American presidents had acted more forcefully towards Israel. While the past few weeks may represent <the most fraught and stressful period in the US-Israeli relationship>, the Biden administration is unlikely to <adopt steps that would create a sustained public breach> between the two countries, Miller said. <If the [US] administration is to have any hope of extricating itself from Gaza anytime soon, it will have to do so in conjunction with, not over the opposition of, the current Israeli government,> Miller added.>>
Click here to watch the full interview:
https://www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/t%C3%AAte-%C3%A0-t%C3%AAte/20240514-hamas-is-going-to-survive-warns-former-us-state-department-middle-east-negotiator

France 24 - May 14, 2024
<<EU top diplomat sees US 'fatigue' in Mideast
San Francisco - The European Union's top diplomat has said that the United States is showing <fatigue> in its Middle East diplomacy and called for greater EU efforts toward a Palestinian state. On a visit to California, the bloc's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell again strongly criticized Israel's war campaign, saying Gazans were <dying and starving and suffering in unimaginable proportions> and that it was a <man-made disaster.> I see a certain fatigue from the US side to continue engaging in looking for a solution,> Borrell said in a speech Monday at Stanford University that was publicly released on Tuesday. <We are trying to push with the Arab people in order to build together, the Arabs and Europeans, to make this two-state solution a reality,> he said in English. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has made seven trips to the Middle East since the unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas which prompted a relentless Israeli military campaign in Hamas-ruled Gaza. He has nudged Israel to allow in more aid, pushed against a regional escalation and pleaded for Israel to accept a two-state solution as part of a broader eventual deal that includes normalization with Saudi Arabia. But the United States vetoed a Security Council bid to give Palestine full UN membership, arguing that statehood can only come though negotiations that address Israel's security concerns. The General Assembly last week passed a symbolic vote for Palestinian membership with the United States one of only nine countries to vote against. The others opposed included two European Union members -- the Czech Republic and Hungary. Among EU heavyweights, France voted in favor and Germany abstained. Borrell acknowledged that the vote showed the European Union was <very much divided> over Gaza, unlike on the Ukraine war, and cited <historical reasons.> <But it doesn't mean that we don't have to take a stronger part of responsibility because we have delegated (to) the US looking for a solution,> he said. Borrell, a former Spanish foreign minister, in February sharply criticized the US arms flow for Israel, pointing to President Joe Biden's own words that too many people were dying in Gaza. Biden last week for the first time threatened to cut military aid to Israel, with one shipment of bombs already halted, if Israel defies US warnings and assaults the packed city of Rafah.
AFP>>
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240514-eu-top-diplomat-sees-us-fatigue-in-mideast


68.3 million displaced by conflict and violence
Jinha - Womens News Agency - May 14, 2024
<<68.3 million displaced by conflict and violence in 2023
7.7 million people were displaced by disasters and 68.3 million by conflict and violence in 2023, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) said in a report on Tuesday.
News Center- Number of internally displaced people (IDPs) has kept growing around the world. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) has published its annual Global Report on Internal Displacement on Tuesday. Conflict and violence in Sudan, Palestine and elsewhere drove the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) around the world to 75.9 million at the end of 2023, according to the report. <Of the total, 68.3 million were displaced by conflict and violence and 7.7 million by disasters. Almost half, 46 per cent, of all IDPs live in sub-Saharan Africa,> the report said.
In Sudan, the 9.1m people displaced at the end of the year was the most ever recorded in a single country since records began in 2008. Sudan's 6 million internal displacements, or forced movements, by conflict during 2023 were more than its previous 14 years combined and the second most ever recorded in one country after Ukraine's 16.9 million in 2022. In the Gaza Strip, IDMC calculated 3.4 million displacements in the last three months of 2023, which was 17 per cent of total conflict displacements worldwide during the year.
<Number of internally displaced people (IDPs) has grown 50% in the last five years,> the report said.
The millions of people forced to flee in 2023 were just the <tip of the iceberg>, said IDMC director Alexandra Bilak, adding to the tens of millions of IDPs already displaced from previous and ongoing conflicts, violence and disasters. <Over the past two years, we've seen alarming new levels of people having to flee their homes due to conflict and violence, even in regions where the trend had been improving,> said Alexandra Bilak. <Conflict, and the devastation it leaves behind, is keeping millions from rebuilding their lives, often for years on end.> In the past five years, the number of people living in internal displacement as a result of conflict and violence has increased by 22.6 million, or 49 per cent, with the two biggest increases in 2022 and 2023, according to the report. Floods, storms, earthquakes, wildfires and other disasters triggered 26.4 million displacements in 2023, the third highest annual total in the past ten years. The 7.7 million IDPs at the end of 2023 displaced by disasters is the second most since IDMC began recording this metric in 2019.>>
Source:
https://jinhaagency.com/en/actual/68-3-million-displaced-by-conflict-and-violence-in-2023-35048?page=1

France 24 - May 14, 2024 - Video by Antonia KERRIGAN
<<Nearly half a million people forced to flee as Israel pushes ahead with fighting in Gaza
Nearly half a million Palestinians have been displaced over the last few days amid escalating Israeli military operations in southern and northern Gaza. The UN estimates that many more remain sheltering in Rafah unsure of where to do.>>
Source/video:
https://www.france24.com/en/video/20240514-nearly-half-a-million-people-forced-to-flee-as-israel-pushes-ahead-with-fighting-in-gaza


Pregnant women face health hazards
Jinha - Womens News Agency - May 14, 2024
<<More than 150,000 pregnant women face health hazards in Gaza
<More than 150,000 pregnant women are facing terrible sanitary conditions and health hazards amid displacement and war,> the UNRWA said on X on Monday.
News Center- At least 35,173 Palestinians have been killed and 79,061 injured in the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023. Nearly 450,000 people have been forcibly displaced from Rafah since 6 May due to Israeli military operation in Rafah, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
'Habiba was born in a small tent'
In a post on X, the UNRWA drew attention to pregnant women and babies in the Gaza Strip. Sharing a photo of a newborn baby, the UNRWA has said, <Habiba was born in a small tent. She’s 2 weeks old and less than 2 kg of weight.>
More than 150,000 pregnant women face health hazards in Gaza
<More than 150,000 pregnant women are facing terrible sanitary conditions and health hazards amid displacement and war,> the UNRWA has said on X. <No child in the world should suffer like this. We need a ceasefire now.> >>
Source:
https://jinhaagency.com/en/actual/more-than-150-000-pregnant-women-face-health-hazards-in-gaza-35046

France 24 - May 14, 2024 - by NEWS WIRES
<<Live: Civilians flee Rafah as Israeli offensive continues across Gaza
Fighting continued in Gaza's north and south Tuesday as witnesses reported Israeli air strikes across the besieged enclave. The United Nations' agency for Palestinian refugees has said that 360,000 Palestinians have fled the southern city of Rafah over the past week out of 1.3 million who were sheltering there before the operation began. Most had already fled fighting elsewhere during the seven-month war between Israel and Hamas. Read our liveblog for all the latest developments.
Summary:
Fighting continued in Gaza's north and south Tuesday as witnesses reported Israeli air strikes across the besieged enclave.
President Joe Biden's administration does not view the killings of Palestinians in Gaza by Israel in its war with Hamas as genocide, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Monday.
Israeli protesters blocked aid trucks headed for Gaza on Monday, strewing food packages on the road in the latest in a series of incidents amid pledges from Israel to allow uninterrupted humanitarian supplies into the besieged enclave.
A UN security services member was killed in an attack on a vehicle in Rafah, Gaza on Monday, a spokesperson said, adding that the death was the first international UN employee killed in the Palestinian territory since the war began.
At least 35,173 Palestinians have been killed and 79,061 wounded in Israel's military offensive in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Some 1,170 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks and 250 people were taken hostage, according to Israeli figures, with 132 still missing.>>
Read more and watch video here:
https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20240514-%F0%9F%94%B4-live-white-house-sees-no-genocide-in-gaza-condemns-aid-convoy-attacks

France 24 - May 13, 2024 - By Catalina Marchant de Abreu | Video by Catalina Marchant de Abreu
<<No, the King of Denmark did not wave Palestinian flag during protests
The King of Denmark waving the Palestinian flag? Muslims violently protesting in Malmo? These are some of the fake claims circulating online after thousands protested in the streets of Malmo, against Israel's participation in the 2024 Eurovision song contest. We debunk these claims in this edition of Truth or Fake.>>
Read more and watch video here:
https://www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/truth-or-fake/20240513-no-the-king-of-denmark-did-not-participate-in-eurovision-pro-palestinian-protests

France 24 - May 13, 2024 - by NEWS WIRES
<<First international UN staff member killed in Gaza strike
A UN security services member was killed in an attack on a vehicle in Gaza on Monday, a spokesperson said, adding the death was the first international UN employee killed in the Palestinian territory since the war began.
.....
Summary:
An international UN security employee was killed on Monday after their vehicle was struck in Rafah, southern Gaza. UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said it was the first international UN employee to be killed in the enclave since October 7.
Israeli tanks, under cover from heavy fire from air and ground, pushed further into Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday, residents and Hamas media said, while air strikes hammered Rafah in the south.
An all-out Israeli offensive on the Gaza city of Rafah would provoke <anarchy> without eliminating Hamas, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday, as Washington stepped up a pressure campaign against such an assault.
Israel's leaders commemorated Memorial Day on Monday, a usually sombre holiday that this year was almost entirely absorbed by the ongoing war in Gaza.
At least 35,091 Palestinians have been killed and 78,827 wounded in Israel's military offensive in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Some 1,170 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks and 250 people were taken hostage, according to Israeli figures, with 132 still missing.>>
Read more and watch video here:
https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20240513-%F0%9F%94%B4israel-offensive-rafah-hamas-blinken

France 24 - May 13, 2024 - by NEWS WIRES
<<Live: Israel steps up Gaza offensive on Rafah and Jabalia
Israeli forces pushed deep into the ruins of Gaza's northern edge on Monday to recapture an area where they had claimed to have defeated Hamas months ago, while tanks and troops pushed across a highway into Rafah in the enclave's south. An all-out Israeli offensive on Rafah would provoke <anarchy> without eliminating Hamas, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday.
.....
Summary:
Israeli tanks, under cover from heavy fire from air and ground, pushed further into Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday, residents and Hamas media said, while air strikes hammered Rafah in the south. An all-out Israeli offensive on the Gaza city of Rafah would provoke <anarchy> without eliminating Hamas, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday, as Washington stepped up a pressure campaign against such an assault.
Israel's leaders commemorated Memorial Day on Monday, a usually sombre holiday that this year was almost entirely absorbed by the ongoing war in Gaza.
At least 35,091 Palestinians have been killed and 78,827 wounded in Israel's military offensive in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Some 1,170 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks and 250 people were taken hostage, according to Israeli figures, with 132 still missing.>>
Read more and watch video here:
https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20240513-%F0%9F%94%B4israel-offensive-rafah-hamas-blinken

France 24 - May 12, 2024 - by NEWS WIRES
<<Israel moves deeper into Rafah, fights Hamas regrouping in northern Gaza
The exodus of Palestinians from Gaza's last refuge accelerated Sunday as Israeli forces pushed deeper into the southern city of Rafah. Israel also pounded the territory's devastated north, where some Hamas militants have regrouped in areas the military said it had cleared months ago.
Rafah is considered Hamas' last stronghold. Some 300,000 of the more than 1 million civilians sheltering there have fled the city following evacuation orders from Israel, which says it must invade to dismantle Hamas and return scores of hostages taken from Israel in the Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war. Neighboring Egypt issued its strongest objection yet to the Rafah offensive, saying it intends to formally join South Africa's case at the International Court of Justice alleging Israel is committing genocide in Gaza — an accusation Israel rejects. The foreign ministry statement cited <the worsening severity and scope of the Israeli attacks against Palestinian civilians.> United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement that he cannot see how a full-scale invasion of Rafah can be reconciled with international humanitarian law. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated opposition to a major military assault on Rafah, and told CBS that Israel would <be left holding the bag on an enduring insurgency> without an exit from Gaza and postwar governance plan. Gaza has been left without a functioning government, leading to a breakdown in public order and allowing Hamas' armed wing to reconstitute itself even in the hardest-hit areas. On Sunday, Hamas touted attacks against Israeli soldiers in Rafah and near Gaza City. Israel has yet to offer a detailed plan for postwar governance in Gaza, saying only that it will maintain open-ended security control over the enclave of about 2.3 million Palestinians.
Internationally mediated talks over a cease-fire and hostage release appeared to be at a standstill.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a Memorial Day speech vowed to continue fighting until victory in memory of those killed in the war. But in Tel Aviv, hundreds of protesters stood outside military headquarters and raised candles during a minute-long siren marking the day's start, demanding an immediate cease-fire deal to return the hostages. Netanyahu has rejected postwar plans proposed by the United States for the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to govern Gaza with support from Arab and Muslim countries. Those plans depend on progress toward the creation of a Palestinian state, which Israel's government opposes. The Oct. 7 attack killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took another 250 hostage. Militants still hold about 100 captives and the remains of more than 30. Israel's offensive has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures. Israel says it has killed over 13,000 militants, without providing evidence. Palestinians reported heavy Israeli bombardment overnight in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp and other areas in northern Gaza, which has been largely isolated by Israeli forces for months. U.N. officials say there is a <full-blown famine> there. Residents said Israeli warplanes and artillery also struck the Zeitoun area east of Gaza City, where troops have battled militants for over a week. They have called on tens of thousands of people to relocate to nearby areas. <It was a very difficult night,> said Abdel-Kareem Radwan, a 48-year-old from Jabaliya. He said they could hear intense and constant bombing since midday Saturday. This is madness.> First responders with the Palestinian Civil Defense said they were unable to respond to multiple calls for help from both areas, as well as from Rafah. In central Gaza, staff at the Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah said an Israeli strike killed four people. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the top Israeli military spokesman, said forces were also operating in the northern towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, which were heavily bombed in the war's opening days. Hamas' military wing said it shelled Israeli special forces east of Jabaliya and fired mortar shells at troops and vehicles entering the Rafah border crossing area. <Hamas' regime cannot be toppled without preparing an alternative to that regime,> columnist Ben Caspit wrote in Israel's Maariv daily, channeling the growing frustration felt by many Israelis more than seven months into the war. <The only people who can govern Gaza after the war are Gazans, with a lot of support and help from the outside.> Rafah had been sheltering 1.3 million Palestinians, most of whom had fled fighting elsewhere. But Israel has now evacuated the eastern third of the city. Most people are heading to the heavily damaged nearby city of Khan Younis or Muwasi, a coastal tent camp where some 450,000 people are already living in squalid conditions. The U.N. has warned that a planned full-scale invasion would further cripple humanitarian operations and cause a surge in civilian deaths. The main aid entry points near Rafah are already affected. Israeli troops have captured the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing, forcing it to shut down. A senior Egyptian official told The Associated Press that Cairo has lodged protests with Israel, the United States and European governments, saying the offensive has put its decades-old peace treaty with Israel - a cornerstone of regional stability - at high risk. The official was not authorized to brief media and spoke on condition of anonymity. U.S. President Joe Biden has said he won't provide offensive weapons to Israel for Rafah, and his administration says there is <reasonable> evidence that Israel had breached international law protecting civilians. Israel rejects those allegations, saying it tries to avoid harming civilians. It blames Hamas for the high toll because the militants fight in dense, residential areas. In the West Bank, where deadly violence has increased since the war began, the Palestinian Health Ministry said a man was shot dead by Israeli forces in Balata refugee camp in Nablus. The army said its forces responded with live fire after being shot at by militants in the camp.
(AP)>>
Source:
https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20240512-israel-moves-deeper-into-rafah-fights-hamas-regrouping-in-northern-gaza

France 24 - May 11, 2024
<<Egypt to support South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at ICJ
Egypt on Sunday announced its intention to formally support South Africa's case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Israel, alleging genocide in its war against Hamas in Gaza. Meanwhile Israel sent tanks into the Jabalia area of northern Gaza Sunday to try to stop Hamas from re-establishing its military presence in a zone the Israeli army claimed to have cleared months ago. The redeployment in the north came as Israel pushed deeper into the southern Gazan city of Rafah. Read our blog to see how the day's events unfolded.>>
Source:
https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20240512-%F0%9F%94%B4-live-israel-steps-up-strikes-in-gaza-after-issuing-new-rafah-evacuation-order

France 24 - May 11, 2024
<<Hamas says another hostage held in Gaza died after Israeli air strike
Palestinian militant group Hamas said on Saturday that another one of the hostages abducted during its Oct. 7 attack on Israel has died. Hamas released a video saying that Nadav Popplewell, who was taken hostage from the southern Israeli community of Kibbutz Nirim, died after being wounded in an Israeli strike in Gaza. According to a hostages support group, Popplewell's brother was killed during the Oct. 7 attack, his mother was freed during a brief truce in November. Israeli officials say 128 of them are still held captive in the Palestinian territory, including 36 who are dead. FRANCE 24's Irris Makler reports.>>
Source/video:
https://www.france24.com/en/video/20240511-another-hostage-dead-after-israeli-airstrike-hamas-says

Women's Liberation Front 2019/cryfreedom.net 2024