October 10, 2024
An unprecedented
humanitarian catastrophe is imminent as the Israeli occupation tightens its
siege on the Jabalia camp and Beit Lahia project in the northern Gaza Strip for
the fourth consecutive day. Israel is accelerating the pace of its genocide
against the Palestinians there by carrying out mass and planned killings, as
well as widespread forced displacements. The international community, led by
the United Nations, must act swiftly and decisively to save 10s of thousands of
residents who are being subjected to one of the most violent campaigns of
genocide the Strip has ever witnessed.
Israeli
occupation forces have intensified their siege of the Jabalia camp and the
surrounding neighborhoods, including Tal al-Zaatar, al-Sikka, Beit Hanoun, and
Beit Lahia. The Israeli forces have also taken up positions in the western
region of the Gaza Strip, advancing as far as the Jaffa Cemetery and the Tawam
Junction.
With airstrikes,
fire belts, and artillery shelling—including bombing homes over the heads of
their occupants—the Israeli occupation forces have been occupying large
portions of northern Gaza since Saturday evening, 5 October. Dozens of people
have been killed and injured as a result of this ongoing invasion.
Initial reports
confirmed that five citizens—including a woman, a man, and his son—were
executed by the occupation forces for trying to escape the Jabalia camp while
waving white flags.
In an extremely
dangerous development, Israeli army forces ordered the complete evacuation of
Kamal Adwan Hospital, located in the Beit Lahia project, north of Gaza. Kamal
Adwan Hospital’s director, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, reported that he received a
call from the occupation forces telling him that if he did not get the patients
and medical staff out of the hospital within a day, they would be put in
danger.
Along with two
other hospitals in northern Gaza, Al-Awda Hospital and the Indonesian Hospital
in Jabalia, Kamal Adwan Hospital is partially operational after being raided
and destroyed in the Israeli military’s first invasion of northern Gaza last
December, during which the hospital’s medical staff, patients, and displaced
persons were severely mistreated by the occupation forces. Kamal Adwan Hospital
is currently being besieged by Israeli quadcopter aircraft for the second day
in a row, with smoke bombs being detonated at its gate and dozens of raids on
nearby buildings.
The sole road
that ambulances used to move dozens of seriously injured patients from Kamal
Adwan Hospital to the Baptist Hospital has been cut off, following an Israeli
bombing of a building in the vicinity. This was followed by the occupation
forces’ tightening of the siege on the hospital, and the blocking of ambulances
and any other methods of victim transport.
Earlier today,
the occupation forces arrested a paramedic who was transporting patients from
the Kamal Awdan Hospital to the Baptist Hospital, despite prior coordination
with Israeli authorities.
The Euro-Med
Monitor field team received testimonies from citizens, who were able to reach
Gaza City, about witnessing dead bodies lying in the streets. The citizens also
stated that they saw victims trapped beneath the debris of bombed-out houses,
and that ambulance and civil defense crews were unable to reach the area as at
least 20 houses were targeted by Israeli forces in a four-day period.
Thousands of
people trapped in the Jabalia and Beit Lahia camps are suffering from a
near-total shortage of food supplies, which were already scarce due to Israel’s
closure of the border crossings. The limited amount of goods and other aid that
had previously been allowed to enter the area was blocked by Israel for more
than a week prior to the new invasion.
Numerous
families remain stuck in their homes, enduring harsh living conditions under
the intensified and brutal Israeli bombing. Citizens are not even able to leave
their homes in order to obtain water, and municipal crews and local committees
are unable to assist them. As a result, thousands of residents face the threat
of starvation, dehydration, or death, knowing full well that they are all
victims of the catastrophic effects of malnutrition brought on by Israel’s
year-long starvation policy.
The Israeli army
is systematically working to empty northern Gaza of its residents and force
them to move to the south, recently issuing several evacuation orders and
dropping leaflets demanding their evacuation.
It is clear that
the Israeli army’s latest operation has no military objective or necessity;
rather, it is intended to finish the destructive operations that, during three
prior incursions, have affected over 85% of the buildings in northern Gaza.
Additionally, it is intended to target civilians and force them to flee the
area, converting it into a full military zone.
Salah al-Din
Road is now blocked from the Civil Administration side by an Israeli military
checkpoint, and anyone attempting to use it to leave the camp is being
searched. This afternoon, a paramedic was arrested despite prior coordination
with the Red Cross, which belies Israel’s claims about the existence of “safe
routes” for displaced people heading south.
The forcible
deportation of a population is defined as a crime against humanity under the
statute of the International Criminal Court, and the United Nations and the
international community must intervene immediately to save 10s of thousands of
Palestinian residents in northern Gaza who face ethnic cleansing by Israel.
Furthermore, the UN and international community have a legal and moral
obligation to put an end to the horrific crime of genocide being committed by
the Israeli occupation for the second year in a row now.
Jake
Johnson
With
the high-stakes U.S. presidential election less than a month away, warnings
about the possible political consequences of Democratic nominee Kamala Harris'
refusal to break with President Joe Biden on supporting Israel's assault on
Gaza and beyond are taking on fresh urgency amid new survey data showing the
vice president narrowly trailing GOP nominee Donald Trump in Michigan—a
critical battleground state.
A
Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday found that Harris is trailing
Trump by three percentage points in Michigan—a reversal of the university's
survey last month, which showed the vice president with a slight lead over her
Republican opponent. The new survey showed Harris leading in Pennsylvania and
Trump leading in Wisconsin.
While
Trump's polling lead in Michigan was within the margin of error, the results
amplified preexisting concerns about Harris' chances in the state, which has a
large Arab and Muslim population—many of whom have lost family members in
Israel's yearlong assault on the Gaza Strip, a relentless military campaign
that has intensified in recent days as the prospects of a cease-fire agreement
appear nonexistent.
The
Quinnipiac poll found that by a margin of 53% to 43%, Michigan respondents said
they think Trump—who has expressed support for Israel's devastating bombardment
of Gaza—would do a better job "handling the conflict in the Middle
East" than Harris.
James
Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, toldRolling Stone earlier this
week that he has expressed to the Harris team that "if you want people to
vote for you, you gotta give them a reason."
"They
don't seem to care enough about the Arab American vote to do something to get
it," said Zogby.
Last
month, Zogby's organization released a poll of its own showing that support for
Harris would climb nationally if she endorsed an arms embargo against
Israel—something she has openly opposed despite pressure from advocacy groups
who say it's essential to end Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's
obstruction of cease-fire talks.
Zogby
noted in his interview with Rolling Stone that Michigan's Lebanese American
population is the largest in the United States—potentially compounding Harris'
political vulnerability in the state as Israel ramps up its assault on Lebanon
with the support of the Biden administration.
"Many
of the constituents are Lebanese who have deep attachments to
Palestinians," said Zogby, arguing that Israel's escalation in Lebanon
"will either put an exclamation point on the outrage or depression—causing
them either not to vote or to flip and vote elsewhere."
"The
reaction I'm getting, when I go around the country and talk to people, is they
want to punish Democrats," Zogby added. "That's not a smart political
move, but that's what people are feeling. And I don't have an argument to make
because [members of the Harris campaign] haven't given us arguments to
make."
Harris
has repeatedly acknowledged, including during her speech at the Democratic
National Convention in August, the "immense suffering of innocent
Palestinians in Gaza who have experienced so much pain and loss over the
year."
But
Harris has rebuffed calls to create distance between herself and the Biden
administration's unwavering support for Israel's assault on Gaza and Lebanon.
"No,"
the vice president responded when asked during a recent televised interview
whether she would support withholding U.S. arms shipments to Israel, whose
forces have used American weaponry to commit war crimes in Gaza and Lebanon.
Harris
has also declined to meet with Americans with family members in Lebanon and
Gaza, according to the co-founder of the Uncommitted National Movement.
Speaking
to Mother Jones earlier this week, Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud—who is
Lebanese American—said Trump "is a threat" to Arab Americans and
hardly an advocate of peaceful resolution in the Middle East.
But
Hammoud said the Harris campaign is not helping its case with voters when it
fails to support an arms embargo against Israel, a position that—according to
one recent poll—is backed by a majority of the American electorate.
"What
I keep pushing back on is it's not this community that has to move in its
values and principles and any issues that it's taken a stance on. It's the
candidates who have to move," said Hammoud. "And don't move because
of Dearborn, by all means. I'm not telling you to move because this small city
in the Midwest is telling you to move on these issues. Move because the general
American populace has said these issues matter to them."
"And
this idea that people will forget?" he continued. "Remember we heard
this nine months ago: 'People will forget come November.' People are not
forgetting... Genocide is not something you can cast aside."
On
Thursday, Emerson College released survey data it collected with The Hill
showing that Trump and Harris are in a dead heat in Michigan—further indicating
that a small swing in favor of either candidate could tip the scales and
potentially decide who takes the White House.
Moira
Donegan, a columnist for The Guardian, argued Wednesday that "Harris
should give a speech in Michigan where she breaks with the Biden administration
on Israel."
"This
is very obviously in her self-interest to do," Donegan wrote on social
media, adding that she doubts the vice president will take her advice.
If
she did, wrote IfNotNow co-founder Yonah Lieberman, it "would be a seminal
political moment that would win Michigan, stop a second Trump administration,
and help end a genocide."
Jaisal
Noor
On
Oct. 7, thousands of American Jews with the organization If Not Now held vigils
around the US to grieve the tens of thousands of Palestinian, Lebanese, and
Israeli lives collectively lost over the past year. For many anti-Zionist Jews,
the past year has been a time when their political commitments and principles
have been put to the test. While the Biden and Netanyahu governments continue
to weaponize antisemitism to justify the genocide in Gaza, many Jewish people
are instead taking up the banner of justice and equality for Palestinians. The
Real News reports from DC, speaking directly with organizers working with the
Jewish American community to demand an arms embargo of Israel.
Transcript
The following is a
rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made
available as soon as possible.
Eliana
Golding:
Our
tears are abundant enough and our hearts are big enough to grieve for every
life taken, every universe destroyed, whether Palestinian, Lebanese, or
Israeli. It is not either or. We need one another. Jews cannot be safe if
Palestinians are not safe and free.
Jaisal
Noor (Narrator):
On
October 7th, hundreds of American Jews held a vigil in Washington D.C to
solemnly commemorate the one-year mark since the Hamas attack that killed 1,100
Israelis, and to condemn Israel’s continued genocide in Gaza that’s killed tens
of thousands of Palestinians, though one study estimated in June that up to
186,000 or even more deaths could be attributed to the current conflict.
Lauren
Maunus:
We
grieve the continuing genocide in Gaza, which we as Jews, many of whom had
ancestors killed in the Holocaust, recognize as an attempt to wipe a people
out.
Jaisal
Noor (Narrator):
Speakers
also condemn the ongoing attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Eliana
Golding:
We
grieve for the hundreds of Palestinians killed in the West Bank by the Israeli
military and settlers, many of them in violent pogroms, reminiscent of those
unleashed against our ancestors. We grieve for Palestinians continually
displaced through occupation and apartheid.
Jaisal
Noor (Narrator):
And
Israel’s escalating attacks in Lebanon.
Lauren
Maunus:
It
is unimaginable that a full year later we are seeing similar scenes in Lebanon
to those we saw in Gaza. Residential buildings bombed to rubble, Israeli and
American officials using dehumanizing rhetoric to justify massacres of
civilians and no ends to the violence in sight.
Jaisal
Noor (Narrator):
The
action was organized by If Not Now, a Jewish organization dedicated to fighting
for Palestinian equality. Organizers said 4,000 turned out for vigils across
Boston, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia. While they mourned
each Jewish life lost over the past year, their message contrasted sharply with
mainstream Jewish organizations. Speakers demanded an immediate ceasefire and
an end to US weapon shipments to Israel.
Ethan
Miller:
While
we grieve today, we also are taking action to ensure that there’s not another
sent to Israel to be used to kill any number of more innocent people, and that
as American Jews, our voices need to be heard.
Jaisal
Noor (Narrator):
Among
the speakers was Lily Greenberg-Call, the first Jewish Biden administration
appointee to resign over the U.S.’s ongoing support of Israel’s war on Gaza.
Lily
Greenberg-Call:
I
felt that, one, I needed to leave to be in integrity with myself, that I could
not represent the President as he is making Jewish people the face of the
American War machine, and using our trauma and our pain to justify slaughter of
another people, and that I would actually potentially have more power to change
this and to end what’s happening if I stepped out and if I resigned.
Jaisal
Noor (Narrator):
Organizers
emphasized that criticizing Israeli policy is not inherently anti-Semitic, and
highlighted the challenge of speaking out for Palestinian rights in Jewish
spaces.
Lily
Greenberg-Call:
And
I think the greatest threat for Jews remains white supremacy and white
nationalism. And it’s very convenient for those people, especially to conflate
anti-Semitism with critique of the state of Israel, because it distracts from
the real threat. The only thing that will keep Jews safe is a multiracial
democracy. And there’s a lot of people in this country, especially who are
invested in fighting against that.
Jaisal
Noor (Narrator):
Speakers
emphasized Jewish safety will not be achieved through what they repeatedly
named as Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Lily
Greenberg-Call:
We
are here to really emphasize that the only way out of this is a new politics
that values every single human life as equal, as dignified. And the only way to
get to a thriving future for Palestinians and Israelis is a ceasefire and an
end to the occupation and apartheid.
Jaisal
Noor (Narrator):
For
the Real News, this is Jaisal Noor reporting from Washington.
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