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Category: War

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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State Department bypasses Congress to approve Israel’s order for tank ammunition

State Department bypasses Congress to approve Israel’s order for tank ammunition

The New York Times reports: The State Department is pushing through a government sale to Israel of 13,000 rounds of tank ammunition, bypassing a congressional review process that is generally required for arms sales to foreign nations, according to a State Department official and an online post by the Defense Department on Saturday. The State Department notified congressional committees at 11 p.m. on Friday that it was moving ahead with the sale, valued at more than $106 million, even though…

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Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are openly talking about conditioning U.S. aid to Israel

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are openly talking about conditioning U.S. aid to Israel

Business Insider reports: Over the last several weeks, members of Congress have openly discussed the idea of conditioning US aid to Israel. The conversation has been driven by the climbing death toll and worsening conditions for Palestinian civilians in Gaza, far-right policies pursued by the Netanyahu government, and a sense that Israel has not been interested in pursuing a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in recent years. Conditions aren’t likely to happen, at least in the near term. The…

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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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Israel is getting away with murder — with American support

Israel is getting away with murder — with American support

Avi Shlaim writes: On 7th January 2009, while Operation Cast Lead was in full swing, I wrote an article in the Guardian. “How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian catastrophe”. This was Israel’s first major assault on the Gaza Strip after its unilateral withdrawal in 2005. Further major military offensives followed in 2012, 2014, 2021 and 2022, not counting minor flare-ups and nearly 200 dead during the border protests in 2018 known as the March of Return. By…

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UN Secretary-General invokes Article 99 in letter to Security Council on Gaza

UN Secretary-General invokes Article 99 in letter to Security Council on Gaza

Just Security reports: On Dec. 6, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sent an urgent letter to the Security Council on the desperate humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, using the seldom invoked authority in Article 99 of the UN Charter. In his letter, the Secretary-General reiterates his previous appeals for a humanitarian ceasefire and warns that public order in Gaza will “completely break down soon due to the desperate conditions.” A rarely used diplomatic tool, Article 99 allows the head…

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Republicans block aid to Ukraine, jeopardizing its fight against Russia

Republicans block aid to Ukraine, jeopardizing its fight against Russia

The New York Times reports: Republicans on Wednesday blocked an emergency spending bill to fund the war in Ukraine, demanding strict new border restrictions in exchange and severely jeopardizing President Biden’s push to replenish the war chests of American allies before the end of the year. The failed vote highlighted waning support in the United States for continuing to fund Ukraine’s war effort at a perilous time in the conflict, with Kyiv’s counteroffensive failing to meet its objectives and Russia’s…

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Israel’s failed bombing campaign in Gaza

Israel’s failed bombing campaign in Gaza

Robert A. Pape writes: Since October 7, Israel has invaded northern Gaza with some 40,000 combat troops and pummeled the small area with one of the most intense bombing campaigns in history. Nearly two million people have fled their homes as a result. More than 15,000 civilians (including some 6,000 children and 5,000 women) have been killed in the attacks, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health, and the U.S. State Department has suggested that the true toll may be…

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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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Over 60 journalists have been killed in the Israel-Gaza war. My friend was one

Over 60 journalists have been killed in the Israel-Gaza war. My friend was one

Lama Al-Arian writes: I was sitting in my apartment in Beirut on the evening of Oct. 13 when I read that journalists had been struck by a missile attack in southern Lebanon. My close friend, Issam Abdallah, was working in the area as a cameraman for Reuters to cover the border clashes between Israel and Hezbollah after the war in Gaza began just days earlier. I called him immediately. It was a ritual we had developed over the years: Whether…

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Israel investigates possible trading knowledge ahead of Oct 7 Hamas attack

Israel investigates possible trading knowledge ahead of Oct 7 Hamas attack

Reuters reports: Israeli authorities are investigating claims by U.S. researchers that some investors may have known in advance of a Hamas plan to attack Israel on Oct. 7 and used that information to profit from Israeli securities. Research by law professors Robert Jackson Jr from New York University and Joshua Mitts of Columbia University found significant short-selling of shares leading up to the attacks, which triggered a war nearly two months old. “Days before the attack, traders appeared to anticipate…

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White House’s stark warning: We are running out of money for Ukraine

White House’s stark warning: We are running out of money for Ukraine

The Daily Beast reports: The White House told party leaders in the House and Senate on Monday that they are running out of time to reach an agreement on sending more aide to Ukraine in its war against Russia. The director of the Office of Management and Budget, Shalanda Young, explained that a lack of funding would “kneecap Ukraine on the battlefield.” “I want to be clear: Without congressional action, by the end of the year we will run out…

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