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Category: War

UN demand for Gaza cease-fire provokes strongest clash between U.S. and Israel since war began

UN demand for Gaza cease-fire provokes strongest clash between U.S. and Israel since war began

The Associated Press reports: The United Nations Security Council on Monday issued its first demand for a cease-fire in Gaza, with the U.S. angering Israel by abstaining from the vote. Israel responded by canceling a visit to Washington by a high-level delegation in the strongest public clash between the allies since the war began. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the U.S. of “retreating” from a “principled position” by allowing the vote to pass without conditioning the cease-fire on the release…

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UN rights expert report to call for Israel arms embargo over ‘acts of genocide’

UN rights expert report to call for Israel arms embargo over ‘acts of genocide’

The Guardian reports: A UN human rights expert will deliver a report on Tuesday saying that Israel has carried out acts of genocide in Gaza and should be placed under an arms embargo. Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, said in her report there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that Israel was carrying out three of the five acts defined as genocide: killing Palestinians, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, and “deliberately…

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Budget deal slashes U.S. funding for Palestinians’ U.N. lifeline

Budget deal slashes U.S. funding for Palestinians’ U.N. lifeline

The Washington Post reports: Congress voted early Saturday to strip hundreds of millions of dollars from the United Nations agency that distributes most of the food, medicine and basic services to Palestinians in Gaza and across the Middle East, marking what critics say is a devastating blow to a region in crisis. The United States, along with several other countries, suspended funding for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in January after Israel alleged that 12 of the agency’s…

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The UN Security Council is set to vote on a resolution demanding a Ramadan ceasefire

The UN Security Council is set to vote on a resolution demanding a Ramadan ceasefire

The Associated Press reports: The U.N. Security Council is set to vote on a resolution demanding a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, but the United States warned the measure could hurt negotiations to halt Israeli-Hamas hostilities. The resolution, put forward by the 10 elected council members, is backed by Russia and China, who vetoed a U.S.-sponsored resolution Friday that supported “an immediate and sustained cease-fire” in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The 22-nation Arab…

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Does Israel need to be forced by the U.S. to end the war in Gaza?

Does Israel need to be forced by the U.S. to end the war in Gaza?

  All of Israel’s modern wars have ended with US intervention, but the current war in Gaza has gone on for half a year because “Biden is a slow learner”, argues University of Pennsylvania political scientist Ian Lustick. Israel needs an outside power to blame when it cannot achieve its aims. “That’s because the war aims are fundamentally political, and the military cannot achieve them,” says Lustick. Lustick and Palestinian politician Mustafa Barghouti talk to host Steve Clemons about the…

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U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops calls for ceasefire ahead of Easter

U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops calls for ceasefire ahead of Easter

Middle East Eye reports: The US Conference of Catholic Bishops has called for a ceasefire in Gaza ahead of the Christian Easter holidays. “Thousands of innocent people have died in this conflict, and thousands more have been displaced and face tremendous suffering. This must stop,” the group said in a statement. “To move forward, a cease fire and a permanent cessation of war and violence is absolutely necessary. To move forward, those held hostage must be released and civilians must…

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Hundreds more rabbis demand ceasefire as call gains mainstream traction

Hundreds more rabbis demand ceasefire as call gains mainstream traction

The Forward reports: More than 450 rabbis called on President Joe Biden Friday to end the war in Gaza, adding momentum to growing calls for a ceasefire among liberal American Jews who have become deeply uncomfortable with Israel’s military operation. “There is no military solution to this conflict,” the rabbis, including leaders of large synagogues, stated in a letter organized by T’ruah, a rabbinic human rights group. “A ceasefire is the only reliable, proven means for securing the release of…

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‘Biden dramatically misread the Israeli political dynamic.’ Daniel Levy on how Biden hitched himself to Netanyahu

‘Biden dramatically misread the Israeli political dynamic.’ Daniel Levy on how Biden hitched himself to Netanyahu

Omid Memarian writes: In the 1990s and again in the early 2000s, Daniel Levy worked as a peace negotiator in Israel’s talks with the Palestinians, under Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak. He saw firsthand the promise of the Oslo peace process—and its ultimate failure, “eventually just becoming another way of managing the occupation,” he tells Democracy in Exile. With the Biden administration reviving vague talk of a two-state solution—even as it has vetoed three U.N. Security Council resolutions…

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UNICEF official tells of ‘utter annihilation’ after travelling length of Gaza

UNICEF official tells of ‘utter annihilation’ after travelling length of Gaza

The Guardian reports: An aid official who travelled the length of Gaza this week has described scenes of “utter annihilation”, with “nothing left” of what were once thriving and crowded cities in the territory. “The depth of the horror surpasses our ability to describe it,” said James Elder, a spokesperson with the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef). “As soon as you drive through the north, you get that universal gesture of hunger of people putting their hands to their mouths….

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What did U.S. Gaza ‘ceasefire’ resolution say and why did Russia and China veto it?

What did U.S. Gaza ‘ceasefire’ resolution say and why did Russia and China veto it?

Patrick Wintour writes: After months of vetoing other UN security council resolutions in an effort to defend Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, the US has in recent weeks gone on to the diplomatic front foot in New York, drafting and tabling its own resolution that was put to a vote on Friday before being vetoed by Russia and China. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said the resolution would send “a strong signal”. But what was that signal precisely?…

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Doctors, back from Gaza hospitals, tell Washington of horrors and press for immediate ceasefire

Doctors, back from Gaza hospitals, tell Washington of horrors and press for immediate ceasefire

The New York Times reports: The memories are indelible. Screaming families carrying bloodied loved ones through the doors of an overcrowded hospital. A boy trying to resuscitate a child who looked not much older than himself. A 12-year-old with shrapnel wounds to his head and abdomen being intubated on the ground. What he saw that January day at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza — after a missile strike on an aid distribution site — has haunted…

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More young Americans favor Palestinians than Israelis, while half of Americans are ignorant about the death toll in Gaza

More young Americans favor Palestinians than Israelis, while half of Americans are ignorant about the death toll in Gaza

Middle East Eye reports: More young Americans have favourable views of Palestinians than they do of Israelis in the current war in Gaza, while about half of the US population doesn’t know which side has a higher death toll, according to a new poll by Pew Research Center. The poll is the latest research conducted on American attitudes toward Israel’s war, which began in October. It found that 60 percent of Americans between the ages of 18-29 expressed favourable views…

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‘Man-made famine’ charge against Israel is backed by mounting body of evidence

‘Man-made famine’ charge against Israel is backed by mounting body of evidence

Peter Beaumont writes: The accusation by the UN and other humanitarians that Israel may be committing a war crime by deliberately starving Gaza’s population is likely to significantly increase the prospect of legal culpability for the country, including at the international court of justice. Amid reports that the Israel Defense Forces are hiring dozens of lawyers to defend against anticipated cases and legal challenges, the charge that Israel has triggered a “man-made famine” by deliberately obstructing the entry of aid…

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U.S. calls for immediate Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal in draft UN resolution

U.S. calls for immediate Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal in draft UN resolution

The Guardian reports: The US has drafted a new UN security council resolution calling for an “immediate ceasefire” and hostage deal in Gaza, amid mounting pressure on Israel to halt its military campaign and allow the delivery of substantial amounts of humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory. The CIA and Mossad spy chiefs, William Burns and David Barnea, were expected to arrive in Qatar on Friday in the hope of clinching an elusive truce-for-hostages deal between Israel and Hamas. Speaking…

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We are about to witness in Gaza the most intense famine since World War Two

We are about to witness in Gaza the most intense famine since World War Two

Alex de Waal writes: Gaza is already the most intense starvation catastrophe of recent decades. The death toll from hunger and disease may soon surpass the body count from bombs and bullets. The Famine Review Committee reported this week that Gaza is facing “imminent famine”. The Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) system, set up 20 years ago, provides the most authoritative assessments of humanitarian crises. Its figures for Gaza are the worst ever by any metric. It estimates that 677,000 people,…

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