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Category: Human rights/civil liberties

Half of Gaza’s population is starving, warns UN

Half of Gaza’s population is starving, warns UN

The Independent reports: Half of Gaza’s population is now believed to be “starving” as Israel’s attack on the besieged strip continues to escalate, a senior UN official warned. Calling for an immediate “humanitarian ceasefire”, Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the UN World Food Programme, took to X saying: “There’s not enough food. People are starving. “WFP has reached over one million people, but the situation is untenable. We need to get our supplies in [and we need] a humanitarian…

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Humanitarian catastrophe is Israeli policy

Humanitarian catastrophe is Israeli policy

B’Tselem reports: The humanitarian crisis currently underway in the Gaza Strip is not a side effect of the war, but the direct intended result of the policy implemented by Israel. The people behind this policy see inflicting a humanitarian crisis on more than two million people as a legitimate way to put pressure on Hamas. Energy Minister Israel Katz, who signed an order to stop the supply of electricity to the Gaza Strip on the very first day of the…

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Civilians make up 61% of Gaza deaths from airstrikes, Israeli study finds

Civilians make up 61% of Gaza deaths from airstrikes, Israeli study finds

The Guardian reports: The aerial bombing campaign by Israel in Gaza is the most indiscriminate in terms of civilian casualties in recent years, a study published by an Israeli newspaper has found. The analysis by Haaretz came as Israeli forces fought to consolidate their control of northern Gaza on Saturday, bombing the Shejaiya district of Gaza City, while also conducting airstrikes on Rafah, a town on the southern border with Egypt where the Israeli army has told people in Gaza…

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Unexploded bombs, many U.S.-made, could make parts of Gaza uninhabitable

Unexploded bombs, many U.S.-made, could make parts of Gaza uninhabitable

The Washington Post reports: Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip has reduced entire neighborhoods to dust. The resumption of fighting and intensified airstrikes on southern Gaza after a week-long pause could mean that even more of the territory could meet the same fate. But the war, however long it continues, is only the beginning. Parts of a postwar Gaza could long be dangerous to inhabit, let alone rebuild. Riddled with hundreds if not thousands of unexploded ordnance, ranging from makeshift…

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The ‘darkest hour’ in the UN’s history as the U.S. vetoes a call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza

The ‘darkest hour’ in the UN’s history as the U.S. vetoes a call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza

This is how 'concerned' the USA is about Palestinians being killed in Gaza. They just vetoed a UN security council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire. pic.twitter.com/xBrORvQMJz — Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) December 8, 2023 The Guardian reports: The UN is at “breaking point” in Gaza, its most senior official has warned, as his colleagues described the “untenable” humanitarian catastrophe in the territory, with 700 people sharing a single toilet and people burning plastic to keep warm. One official said UN…

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Save the Children: We are failing the children of Gaza

Save the Children: We are failing the children of Gaza

Inger Ashing, Save the Children’s Chief Executive Officer,says: We are running out of words to describe the horror unfolding for Gaza’s children. Most of them have been forcibly displaced, squeezed into a tiny sliver of land that cannot accommodate them. Those who haven’t been forced from their homes are cut-off from the basics needed for survival, far away from the little amount of humanitarian assistance that can be delivered. Those who have survived the bombardment so far face the imminent…

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We won’t stop speaking out about Gaza’s suffering – there is no climate justice without human rights

We won’t stop speaking out about Gaza’s suffering – there is no climate justice without human rights

Greta Thunberg and Fridays for Future Sweden write: More than 15,000 people, of whom at least 6,000 were children. That’s how many people Israel has reportedly killed in the Gaza Strip in a matter of weeks – and those numbers are still rising. Israel has bombed basic societal infrastructure and civilian targets such as hospitals, schools, shelters and refugee camps. Israel has imposed a siege, preventing food, medicine, water and fuel from reaching the 2.3 million Palestinians trapped in the occupied Gaza…

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The scale of displacement in Gaza is unparalleled

The scale of displacement in Gaza is unparalleled

The New York Times reports: Up to 1.8 million Gazans — around 80 percent of the population — have been forced to leave their homes since Israel began its bombardment in response to Hamas’s attack on Oct. 7. That number is expected to rise after Israel issued a new evacuation order on Saturday for areas in the south. Gaza has never experienced so much internal displacement in such a short time. Earlier conflicts forced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from…

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Iran ‘using Gaza conflict as cover’ for execution of 127 people since war began

Iran ‘using Gaza conflict as cover’ for execution of 127 people since war began

The Guardian reports: The Iranian regime has executed more than 127 people, including women and children, since the Hamas attacks of 7 October, according to human rights groups. According to data collected by Iran Human Rights (IHR) and the Norway-based organisation Hengaw, which have been cross-referenced by the Observer, there has been an alarming rise in executions since the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas. A third group, Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRA), confirmed that there has…

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Why does Israel have so many Palestinians in detention and available to swap?

Why does Israel have so many Palestinians in detention and available to swap?

Omar Shakir writes: The last week has seen, as of Nov. 28, the release of 69 civilians held hostage in Gaza in exchange for 180 Palestinian prisoners as part of a short-term cease-fire agreement between Israeli authorities and Palestinian armed groups. While many have rightly hailed the release of civilians held hostage by Hamas after the killings of hundreds of Israelis and other civilians on Oct. 7 — hostage-taking is a war crime — less attention has been focused on…

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While the world has abandoned Gaza, its doctors have done the opposite. They are our heroes

While the world has abandoned Gaza, its doctors have done the opposite. They are our heroes

Ghada Ageel writes: In the movie Any Given Sunday, Al Pacino plays a highly strung football coach. In a key scene, he gives a speech about how “life is a game of inches” and how when “you add up all those inches that’s gonna make the difference between livin’ and dyin’”. For Pacino, the rousing words are a figure of speech. For the people of Gaza – particularly its doctors, nurses and medical staff – these words are a matter…

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Growing numbers of Chinese migrants are crossing the southern border

Growing numbers of Chinese migrants are crossing the southern border

The New York Times reports: The surge of migrants entering the United States across the southern border increasingly includes people from a surprising place: China. Despite the distances involved and the difficulties of the journey, more than 24,000 Chinese citizens have been apprehended crossing into the United States from Mexico in the past year. That is more than in the preceding 10 years combined, according to government data. They typically fly into Ecuador, where they do not need a visa….

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Pope Francis: ‘this is not war, it is terrorism’

Pope Francis: ‘this is not war, it is terrorism’

The Guardian reports:Pope Francis has faced criticism for allegedly drawing equivalence between Israel and Hamas. During a general audience after meeting with Israeli and Palestinian delegations at the Vatican, the pope reportedly remarked, “They suffer so much, I heard how they both suffer.” This statement referred to testimonies brought by the Israeli group, who shared their experiences of having relatives taken hostage by Hamas during the 7 October attacks, as well as the Palestinians with family members living in the…

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Gaza’s next tragedy: Disease risk spreads amid overcrowded shelters, dirty water and breakdown of basic sanitation

Gaza’s next tragedy: Disease risk spreads amid overcrowded shelters, dirty water and breakdown of basic sanitation

By Yara M. Asi, University of Central Florida After more than a month of being subjected to sustained bombing, the besieged people of the Gaza Strip are now confronted with another threat to life: disease. Overcrowding at shelters, a breakdown of basic sanitation, the rising number of unburied dead and a scarcity of clean drinking water have left the enclave “on the precipice of major disease outbreaks,” according to the World Health Organization. As an expert in Palestinian public health…

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Asylum in America, by the numbers

Asylum in America, by the numbers

The New York Times reports: Under President Biden, the Border Patrol has arrested more people for illegally crossing the southern border into the country than in any other period since the government started keeping count in 1960. His time in office coincides with a global migration movement driven by tens of millions of people displaced because of war, persecution, climate change, violence and human rights abuses, according to the United Nations. More Americans far from the border are witnessing the…

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