International Women’s Day
Codepink March/Rally for Gaza!
Saturday, March 9, 2024, 12:00 Noon
Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, CA
Gather at Welcome Center Plaza
Southeast end of GG Bridge at 11:30 A.M.
March begins on Eastern Walkway at 12:00 Noon
Rally at Welcome Center Plaza after the march at 1:30 P.M.
Optional: Bring food to share after the rally to celebrate International Women’s Day and our shared commitment for Global Peace Everywhere, from Gaza to Ukraine!
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
Art Against Imprisonment Presents
A Benefit for a New Oakland Mural-
Sumud: Resistance Until Liberation
A collaboration between artists and activists that explores and confronts the deep interconnections between the brutal systems of imprisonment in the U.S. and Palestine.
Caroline Davis on Saxophone
Satya Chima, CCWP
Opium Sabbah, Oakland Jericho Movement
Sunday, March 10, 2:00 P.M.
Eastside Cultural Center
2277 International Blvd., Oakland
For more information contact:
artagainstimprisonment@gmail.com
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
A March in Honor of International Women's Day
Women of the World Unite!
Saturday March 10, 2024, 3:00 P.M.
Federal Plaza (W Adams St & S Dearborn St, Chicago)
This International Women’s Day, we’re uniting to raise our demands on the federal government. From defending LGBTQ & Reproductive Rights to ending the occupation of Palestine, mass incarceration, U.S. intervention in the Philippines, the criminalization of immigrants, exploitation and discrimination in the workplace, the DNC has failed to deliver.
Time after time, the problems at the root of women’s and gender-based oppression go unaddressed. And from our unions to our struggles for liberation, women and their LGBTQ siblings frequently lead the charge against the powers that be. Join us at Federal Plaza, March 10th, 3 PM to raise these demands as we build up to the March on the DNC this August!
RSVP on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/events/371227325844463/?
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
See Gaza Strip Access Restrictions.pdf since 2007 at:
** This figure is released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.”
Source: mondoweiss.net
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
We are all Palestinian
Listen and view this beautiful, powerful, song by Mistahi Corkill on YouTube at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQwuhbLczgI
Greetings,
Here is my new song and music video, We are all Palestinian, linked below. If you find it inspiring, please feel free to share with others. All the best!
Mistahi
We are all Palestinian
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
Labor for Palestine
Thousands of labor representatives marched Saturday, December 16, in Oakland, California. —Photo by Leon Kunstenaar
Video of December 16th Labor rally for Palestine.
Bay Area Unions and Workers Rally and March For Palestine In Oakland
https://youtu.be/L9k79honqIA
For More Information:
bayarealabor4palestine@gmail.com
Production of Labor Video Project
www.labormedia.net
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
Just Like The Nazis Did
By David Rovics
After so many decades of patronage
By the world’s greatest empire
So many potential agreements
Were rejected by opening fire
After crushing so many uprisings
Now they’re making their ultimate bid
Pursuing their Final Solution
Just like the Nazis did
They forced refugees into ghettos
Then set the ghettos aflame
Murdering writers and poets
And so no one remember their names
Killing their entire families
The grandparents, women and kids
The uncles and cousins and babies
Just like the Nazis did
They’re bombing all means of sustaining
Human life at all
See the few shelters remaining
Watch as the tower blocks fall
They’re bombing museums and libraries
In order to get rid
Of any memory of the people who lived here
Just like the Nazis did
They’re saying these people are animals
And they should all end up dead
They’re sending soldiers into schools
And shooting children in the head
The rhetoric is identical
And with Gaza off the grid
They’ve already said what happens next
Just like the Nazis did
Words of war for domestic consumption
And lies for all the rest
To try to distract our attention
Among their enablers in the West
Because Israel needs their imports
To keep those pallets on the skids
They need fuel and they need missiles
Just like the Nazis did
They’re using food as a weapon
They’re using water that way, too
They’re trying to kill everyone in Gaza
Or make them flee, it’s true
As the pundits talk of “after the war”
Like with the Fall of Madrid
The victors are preparing for more
Just like the Nazis did
But it’s after the conquest’s complete
If history is any guide
When the occupying army
Is positioned to decide
When disease and famine kills
Whoever may have hid
Behind the ghetto walls
Just like the Nazis did
All around the world
People are trying to tell
There's a genocide unfolding
Ringing alarm bells
But with such a powerful axis
And so many lucrative bids
They know who wants their money
Just like the Nazis did
There's so many decades of patronage
For the world's greatest empire
So many potential agreements
Were rejected by opening fire
They're crushing so many uprisings
Now they're making their ultimate bid
Pursuing their final solution
Just like the Nazis did
Just like the Nazis did
Just like the Nazis did
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
Free Julian Assange
Immediate Repeated Action Needed to Free Assange
Please call your Congressional Representatives, the White House, and the DOJ. Calls are tallied—they do count. We are to believe we are represented in this country. This is a political case, so our efforts can change things politically as well. Please take this action as often as you can:
Find your representatives:
https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member
Leave each of your representatives a message individually to:
· Drop the charges against Julian Assange
· Speak out publicly against the indictment and
· Sign on to Rashida Tlaib's letter to the DOJ to drop the charges:
202-224-3121—Capitol Main Switchboard
Leave a message on the White House comment line to
Demand Julian Assange be pardoned:
202-456-1111
Tuesday–Thursday, 11:00 A.M.–3:00 P.M. EST
Call the DOJ and demand they drop the charges against Julian Assange:
202-353-1555—DOJ Comment Line
202-514-2000 Main Switchboard
Sign the petition:
https://dontextraditeassange.com/petition/
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
Mumia Abu-Jamal is Innocent!
FREE HIM NOW!
Write to Mumia at:
Smart Communications/PADOC
Mumia Abu-Jamal #AM-8335
SCI Mahanoy
P.O. Box 33028
St. Petersburg, FL 33733
Join the Fight for Mumia's Life
Since September, Mumia Abu-Jamal's health has been declining at a concerning rate. He has lost weight, is anemic, has high blood pressure and an extreme flair up of his psoriasis, and his hair has fallen out. In April 2021 Mumia underwent open heart surgery. Since then, he has been denied cardiac rehabilitation care including a healthy diet and exercise.
Donate to Mumia Abu-Jamal's Emergency Legal and Medical Defense Fund, Official 2024
Mumia has instructed PrisonRadio to set up this fund. Gifts donated here are designated for the Mumia Abu-Jamal Medical and Legal Defense Fund. If you are writing a check or making a donation in another way, note this in the memo line.
Send to:
Mumia Medical and Legal Fund c/o Prison Radio
P.O. Box 411074, San Francisco, CA 94103
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
Leonard Peltier Update - Not One More Year
Coleman 1 has gone on permanent lockdown.
The inmates are supposed to be allowed out two hours a day. I have not heard from Leonard since the 18th.
The last time I talked to Leonard, he asked where his supporters were. He asked me if anyone cared about these lockdowns.
Leonard lives in a filthy, cold cell 22 to 24 hours a day. He has not seen a dentist in ten years. I asked him, “On a scale of 1 to 10, is your pain level at 13?” He said, “Something like that.” Leonard is a relentless truth-teller. He does not like it when I say things that do not make sense mathematically.
That is why Leonard remains imprisoned. He will not lie. He will not beg, grovel, or denounce his beliefs.
Please raise your voice. Ask your representatives why they have abdicated their responsibility to oversee the Bureau of Prisons and ensure they adhere to Constitutional law.
Uhuru, The African People’s Socialist Party, has stepped up for Leonard. NOT ONE MORE YEAR.
Fight for Free Speech – YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM8GDeGv90E
Leonard should not have spent a day in prison. Click “LEARN” on our website to find out what really happened on that reservation:
www.freeleonardpeltiernow.org
Write to:
Leonard Peltier 89637-132
USP Coleman 1
P.O. Box 1033
Coleman, FL 33521
Note: Letters, address and return address must be in writing—no stickers—and on plain white paper.
Sign our petition urging President Biden to grant clemency to Leonard Peltier:
https://www.freeleonardpeltier.com/petition
Email: contact@whoisleonardpeltier.info
Address: 116 W. Osborne Ave. Tampa, Florida 33603
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
Updates From Kevin Cooper
A Never-ending Constitutional Violation
A summary of the current status of Kevin Cooper’s case by the Kevin Cooper Defense Committee
On October 26, 2023, the law firm of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP wrote a rebuttal in response to the Special Counsel's January 13, 2023 report upholding the conviction of their client Kevin Cooper. A focus of the rebuttal was that all law enforcement files were not turned over to the Special Counsel during their investigation, despite a request for them to the San Bernardino County District Attorney's office.
On October 29, 2023, Law Professors Lara Bazelon and Charlie Nelson Keever, who run the six member panel that reviews wrongful convictions for the San Francisco County District Attorney's office, published an OpEd in the San Francisco Chronicle calling the "Innocence Investigation” done by the Special Counsel in the Cooper case a “Sham Investigation” largely because Cooper has unsuccessfully fought for years to obtain the police and prosecutor files in his case. This is a Brady claim, named for the U.S. Supreme court’s 1963 case establishing the Constitutional rule that defendants are entitled to any information in police and prosecutor's possession that could weaken the state's case or point to innocence. Brady violations are a leading cause of wrongful convictions. The Special Counsel's report faults Cooper for not offering up evidence of his own despite the fact that the best evidence to prove or disprove Brady violations or other misconduct claims are in those files that the San Bernardino County District Attorney's office will not turn over to the Special Counsel or to Cooper's attorneys.
On December 14, 2023, the president of the American Bar Association (ABA), Mary Smith, sent Governor Gavin Newsom a three page letter on behalf of the ABA stating in part that Mr.Cooper's counsel objected to the state's failure to provide Special Counsel all documents in their possession relating to Mr.Cooper's conviction, and that concerns about missing information are not new. For nearly 40 years Mr.Cooper's attorneys have sought this same information from the state.
On December 19, 2023, Bob Egelko, a journalist for the San Francisco Chronicle wrote an article about the ABA letter to the Governor that the prosecutors apparently withheld evidence from the Governor's legal team in the Cooper case.
These are just a few recent examples concerning the ongoing failure of the San Bernardino County District Attorney to turn over to Cooper's attorney's the files that have been requested, even though under the law and especially the U.S. Constitution, the District Attorney of San Bernardino county is required to turn over to the defendant any and all material and or exculpatory evidence that they have in their files. Apparently, they must have something in their files because they refuse to turn them over to anyone.
The last time Cooper's attorney's received files from the state, in 2004, it wasn't from the D.A. but a Deputy Attorney General named Holly Wilkens in Judge Huff's courtroom. Cooper's attorneys discovered a never before revealed police report showing that a shirt was discovered that had blood on it and was connected to the murders for which Cooper was convicted, and that the shirt had disappeared. It had never been tested for blood. It was never turned over to Cooper's trial attorney, and no one knows where it is or what happened to it. Cooper's attorneys located the woman who found that shirt on the side of the road and reported it to the Sheriff's Department. She was called to Judge Huff's court to testify about finding and reporting that shirt to law enforcement. That shirt was the second shirt found that had blood on it that was not the victims’ blood. This was in 2004, 19 years after Cooper's conviction.
It appears that this ongoing constitutional violation that everyone—from the Special Counsel to the Governor's legal team to the Governor himself—seems to know about, but won't do anything about, is acceptable in order to uphold Cooper's conviction.
But this type of thing is supposed to be unacceptable in the United States of America where the Constitution is supposed to stand for something other than a piece of paper with writing on it. How can a Governor, his legal team, people who support and believe in him ignore a United States citizen’s Constitutional Rights being violated for 40 years in order to uphold a conviction?
This silence is betrayal of the Constitution. This permission and complicity by the Governor and his team is against everything that he and they claim to stand for as progressive politicians. They have accepted the Special Counsel's report even though the Special Counsel did not receive the files from the district attorney that may not only prove that Cooper is innocent, but that he was indeed framed by the Sheriff’s Department; and that evidence was purposely destroyed and tampered with, that certain witnesses were tampered with, or ignored if they had information that would have helped Cooper at trial, that evidence that the missing shirt was withheld from Cooper's trial attorney, and so much more.
Is the Governor going to get away with turning a blind eye to this injustice under his watch?
Are progressive people going to stay silent and turn their eyes blind in order to hopefully get him to end the death penalty for some while using Cooper as a sacrificial lamb?
An immediate act of solidarity we can all do right now is to write to Kevin and assure him of our continuing support in his fight for justice. Here’s his address:
Mr. Kevin Cooper
C-65304. 4-EB-82
San Quentin State Prison
San Quentin, CA 94974
Call California Governor Newsom:
1-(916) 445-2841
Press 1 for English or 2 for Spanish,
press 6 to speak with a representative and
wait for someone to answer
(Monday-Friday, 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. PST—12:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. EST)
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
The writers' organization PEN America is circulating this petition on behalf of Jason Renard Walker, a Texas prisoner whose life is being threatened because of his exposés of the Texas prison system.
See his book, Reports from within the Belly of the Beast; available on Amazon at:
https://www.amazon.com/Reports-Within-Belly-Beast-Department-ebook/dp/B084656JDZ/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8
Petition: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/protect-whistleblowers-in-carceral-settings
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
Tell Congress to Help #FreeDanielHale
|
|
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
Resources for Resisting Federal Repression
https://www.nlg.org/federalrepressionresources/
Since June of 2020, activists have been subjected to an increasingly aggressive crackdown on protests by federal law enforcement. The federal response to the movement for Black Lives has included federal criminal charges for activists, door knocks by federal law enforcement agents, and increased use of federal troops to violently police protests.
The NLG National Office is releasing this resource page for activists who are resisting federal repression. It includes a link to our emergency hotline numbers, as well as our library of Know-Your-Rights materials, our recent federal repression webinar, and a list of some of our recommended resources for activists. We will continue to update this page.
Please visit the NLG Mass Defense Program page for general protest-related legal support hotlines run by NLG chapters.
Emergency Hotlines
If you are contacted by federal law enforcement, you should exercise all of your rights. It is always advisable to speak to an attorney before responding to federal authorities.
State and Local Hotlines
If you have been contacted by the FBI or other federal law enforcement, in one of the following areas, you may be able to get help or information from one of these local NLG hotlines for:
Portland, Oregon: (833) 680-1312
San Francisco, California: (415) 285-1041 or fbi_hotline@nlgsf.org
Seattle, Washington: (206) 658-7963
National Hotline
If you are located in an area with no hotline, you can call the following number:
National NLG Federal Defense Hotline: (212) 679-2811
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
1) The U.S. has made its first airdrop of aid to Gaza.
By Michael Crowley and Eric Schmitt, Mar. 2, 2024
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/03/02/world/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news
The airdrop of humanitarian aid by the United States come a day after President Biden said the United States would find new ways to get aid to Palestinians. Credit...Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters
The United States made its first airdrop of humanitarian aid into Gaza on Saturday in partnership with Jordan, as the Biden administration tries to prevent a greater humanitarian disaster amid frustration with Israel.
U.S. planes conducted the airdrop along with the Jordanian Air Force, the U.S. Central Command said in a statement on Saturday.
The airdrops contribute “to ongoing U.S. government efforts to provide life-saving humanitarian assistance to the people in Gaza,” the statement said. “We are conducting planning for potential follow-on airborne aid delivery missions.”
Three U.S. Air Force cargo planes airdropped 66 pallets over southwest Gaza, according to a U.S. official. The pallets contained 38,000 ready-to-eat meals.
The drops come a day after President Biden said the United States would find new ways to get aid to Palestinians in desperate need because of Israel’s five-month military campaign to destroy Hamas. It also comes two days after more than 100 Palestinians were killed as Israeli forces opened fire around a convoy of aid trucks in northern Gaza.
U.S. officials said the incident showed the desperation Palestinians in Gaza face and that the ground convoys Israel has allowed into the territory are not providing sufficient relief. But they caution that airdrops cannot move supplies at the scale of convoys — even big military cargo planes, like the C-130s used on Saturday, can carry only a fraction of the supplies that a truck convoy can. In addition, aid dropped on the ground is difficult to secure and distribute in an orderly way.
Their top goal, the officials said, is to negotiate a pause in fighting that would allow far more truck traffic to enter.
It was not clear when the next airdrop might be, as poor weather was forecast for Gaza on Sunday.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
2) The U.S. should focus on stopping Israeli obstruction of aid, not on airdrops, aid group says.
By Vivian Nereim, Mar. 2, 2024
"Oxfam, said this past week that it also did not support American airdrops, 'which would mostly serve to relieve the guilty consciences of senior U.S. officials whose policies are contributing to the ongoing atrocities and risk of famine in Gaza.'"
”https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/03/02/world/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news
Packages of humanitarian aid were air-dropped over Gaza City on Friday. The United States says it plans to begin airdrops. Credit...Kosay Al Nemer/Reuters
International aid groups are criticizing a Biden administration plan to airdrop food to desperately hungry Gazans, saying that such a move would be ineffective and would distract from more meaningful measures like pushing Israel to lift its partial siege of Gaza.
“Airdrops do not and cannot substitute for humanitarian access,” the International Rescue Committee, a New York-based aid organization, said in a statement on Saturday. “Airdrops are not the solution to relieve this suffering, and distract time and effort from proven solutions to help at scale.”
Egypt, France, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates have participated in aid airdrops to Gaza, but experts say they are inefficient, expensive and provide woefully small amounts of aid compared with the level of need in Gaza, which aid groups warn is on the brink of famine.
Given those drawbacks, airdrops are typically a measure of last resort. In addition, there is the difficulty of ensuring that the aid is distributed safely and fairly. Governments often organize airdrops over territory controlled by hostile entities, rather than allies.
Robert Ford, a fellow at the Middle East Institute and a retired American ambassador to Syria and Algeria, said the decision to turn to airdrops in Gaza represented a “humiliation” of the U.S. by its ally Israel. American officials had repeatedly tried to get Israel to allow a greater flow of aid into the territory.
“There is an obvious absurdity that we have to use our own military to undertake airdrops to deliver humanitarian aid because the military of the top American aid recipient, and our special ally in the Middle East, is blocking this same humanitarian aid,” Mr. Ford said. “It gives the image of an American aid recipient that acts with impunity because there is no American pressure applied, beyond verbal pleading.”
The International Rescue Committee, in its statement, said the United States and other countries should instead focus their efforts on “ensuring Israel lifts its siege of Gaza” and getting Israel to reopen border crossings to allow the unimpeded movement of fuel, food and medical supplies.
The committee also stressed the urgency of pushing for a cease-fire in a war that has lasted nearly five months — since the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel by the Palestinian armed group Hamas — trapping more than two million Palestinians under Israeli bombardment with limited access to food, water and electricity.
Israel denies that it is blocking aid. On Saturday, Eylon Levy, an Israeli government spokesman, blamed distribution difficulties on the Gazan side and said that “Hamas is hijacking aid, and the U.N. is covering that up.”
President Biden said on Friday that the United States would begin airdropping relief supplies after dozens of Palestinians were killed a day earlier as Israeli forces opened fire near an aid convoy in Gaza City. The number of aid trucks entering Gaza dropped significantly in February, data shows, even as aid agencies said that some people had resorted to eating bird seed and leaves.
The decline reflects, in part, Israel’s insistence on inspecting every truck at the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Israel, which has acted as the main gateway since it was reopened in December. In addition, the World Food Program, a United Nations agency, has joined UNRWA, the U.N. agency that serves Palestinians in Gaza, in stopping aid shipments to the north, citing lawlessness in the area.
John F. Kirby, a senior National Security Council official, said that the first American airdrops would focus on food, followed by water and medicine. The United States has also asked Israel to open more border crossings and is examining ways to create a temporary port that would allow aid to be brought in by sea.
Mr. Kirby acknowledged that there were limits to what can be brought in by military cargo planes, saying it was a supplement, not a replacement, for aid trucks.
An official at another aid group, Oxfam, said this past week that it also did not support American airdrops, “which would mostly serve to relieve the guilty consciences of senior U.S. officials whose policies are contributing to the ongoing atrocities and risk of famine in Gaza.”
Not everyone agrees. Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a Palestinian-American political analyst who had previously called for airdrops, said that they were a necessary supplemental option amid dire conditions.
“The situation is so desperate — any food, any aid that makes it in, is incredibly helpful to the people on the ground,” said Mr. Alkhatib, who has family in Gaza and said he was frustrated by the aid groups’ critiques.
“As someone with skin in the game, I’ll take whatever we can get,” he said.
Adam Rasgon contributed reporting.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
3) The E.U. says it is sending more funding to U.N. agency for Gaza in the face of ‘terrible conditions.’
By Monika Pronczuk, Mar. 2, 2024
Displaced Palestinians in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, on Thursday. Credit...Haitham Imad/EPA, via Shutterstock
The European Union said on Friday that it planned to substantially increase its funding this year for UNRWA, the main U.N. agency providing aid to Palestinians in Gaza, and would disburse 50 million euros, or about $54 million, next week. The agency is fighting for its survival following Israel’s allegations that some members of the agency’s staff were involved in the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks.
“Innocent Palestinians should not have to pay the price for the crimes of terrorist group Hamas,” Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, the bloc’s executive body, said on Friday. “They face terrible conditions putting their lives at risk because of lack of access to sufficient food and other basic needs.”
Israeli accusations that emerged in January claimed that a dozen employees of the agency, formally the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, played an active role in the attacks on Israel or its aftermath, a number that Israeli officials later upped to 30. The accusations prompted nearly 20 countries and institutions to suspend their financing for the agency.
In total, around $450 million in this year’s funding has been withheld from the agency, Philippe Lazzarini, the leader of the agency said earlier this month. At the time, UNRWA, the largest aid agency on the ground in Gaza, said that, absent new funds, its reserves would be gone by March.
The 50 million euros from the E.U. will allow UNRWA to continue its operations until the end of March, the agency said.
The European Union, one of UNRWA’s largest donors, had been expected to provide 82 million euros, or $88 million, to the agency this year. The announcement on Friday said the financial support would be increased by 68 million euros, or about $73 million, with the first tranche to be paid out next week. The funds are to be channeled through international partners like the International Red Cross and the Palestinian Red Crescent, the commission added.
After the Israeli allegations emerged in January, the European Commission called for an independent audit at UNRWA, which would focus on screening and monitoring “the possible involvement of its staff in terrorist activities.” The United Nations began an internal investigation and has commissioned an outside review, which is being led by a former French foreign minister.
UNRWA also agreed to conduct an audit of its control systems to ensure that no staff members or assets would be involved in terrorist activities, the commission said, and to strengthen its department of internal investigations and its governance.
The decision of the commission “comes at a critical time,” Mr. Lazzarini said on X, the social media platform. “It will support the agency’s efforts to maintain lifesaving and essential services” for Palestinians across the region.
He added, “The full disbursement of the E.U. contribution is key to the agency’s ability to maintain its operations in a very volatile area.”
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
4) News leaders around the world pledge support for journalists covering the war in Gaza.
By Gaya Gupta, Mar. 2, 2024
"The signatories include leaders of The Associated Press, Reuters, The New York Times and regional outlets across Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Asia."
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/03/02/world/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news
Palestinian members of the press mourn the journalists Saeed Al-Taweel and Muhammad Sobh, who were killed in Gaza City while covering the war in October. Credit...Samar Abu Elouf for The New York Times
Nearly 60 leaders from international and regional news outlets signed a letter on Thursday and Friday committing their support for journalists covering the war in Gaza and calling for their safety and the freedom to do their work amid intense personal risk.
The letter, coordinated by the Committee to Protect Journalists with the support of the World Association of News Publishers, also called on Israeli authorities to protect journalists as noncombatants, as required by international law, adding that those responsible for violations of that protection should be held accountable.
“These journalists — on whom the international news media and the international community rely for information about the situation inside Gaza — continue to report despite grave personal risk,” the letter says of the Palestinian media workers doing the on-the-ground reporting. “They continue despite the loss of family, friends and colleagues, the destruction of homes and offices, constant displacement, communications blackouts and shortages of food and fuel.”
The signatories include leaders of The Associated Press, Reuters, The New York Times and regional outlets across Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Asia.
Palestinian journalists have faced grave risks or personal loss while trying to report on the war: Some have been injured while reporting; others have lost family members and colleagues. Several have quit amid the challenges. Since Oct. 7, at least 94 journalists have been killed in the war, making it the deadliest period for journalists since the Committee to Protect Journalists started collecting data in 1992, according to the organization. Israeli and Egyptian authorities have prohibited international media from entering Gaza, and journalists from other major news outlets have evacuated, making the true scale of the war impossible to grasp.
According to data from the Committee to Protect Journalists, most of the media workers killed in the war were Palestinian, and many of them were killed along with their families in airstrikes. Some human rights groups have said that Israel has targeted journalists, though Israel has repeatedly denied that accusation.
The letter prompted backlash from some journalists who said they or their colleagues were punished by their news organizations for affirming their support for Palestinian journalists and civilians in letters highly critical of Israel’s war tactics in Gaza.
When journalists have resigned or been fired for protesting the Israel-Hamas war, news organizations have said that voicing opinions that take sides violates their newsroom policies.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
5) Lack of Plan for Governing Gaza Formed Backdrop to Deadly Convoy Chaos
Israel has no clear plan for governing Gaza. That is a particular problem in the north, where the fighting has ebbed, and where a deadly stampede occurred on Thursday around an aid convoy.
By Patrick Kingsley, Reporting from Jerusalem, March 3, 2024
In northern Gaza, lawlessness, Israeli restrictions on convoys and poor roads have made it difficult for food to reach those still stranded there. Credit...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Israel’s reluctance to fill the current leadership vacuum in northern Gaza formed the backdrop to the chaos that led to the deaths on Thursday of dozens of Palestinians on the Gazan coast, analysts and aid workers have said.
More than 100 were killed and 700 injured, Gazan health officials said, after thousands of hungry civilians rushed at a convoy of aid trucks, leading to a stampede and prompting Israeli soldiers to fire at the crowd.
The immediate causes of the chaos were extreme hunger and desperation: The United Nations has warned of a looming famine in northern Gaza, where the episode occurred. Civilian attempts to ambush aid trucks, Israeli restrictions on convoys and the poor condition of roads damaged in the war have made it extremely difficult for food to reach the roughly 300,000 civilians still stranded in that region, leading the United States and others to airdrop aid instead.
But analysts say this dynamic has been exacerbated by Israel’s failure to set in motion a plan for how the north will be governed.
While southern Gaza is still an active conflict zone, fighting has mostly ebbed in the north of the enclave. The Israeli military defeated the bulk of Hamas’s fighting forces there by early January, leading Israeli soldiers to withdraw from parts of the north.
Now, those areas lack a centralized body to coordinate the provision of services, enforce law and order, and protect aid trucks. To prevent Hamas from rebuilding itself, Israel has prevented police officers from the Hamas-led prewar government from escorting the trucks. But Israel has also delayed the creation of any alternative Palestinian law enforcement.
Aid groups have only a limited presence, with the United Nations still assessing how to increase its operations there. And Israel has said it will retain indefinite military control over the territory, without specifying exactly what that will mean on a day-to-day basis.
“This tragic event reflects how Israel has no long-term, realistic strategy,” said Michael Milstein, an analyst and a former Israeli intelligence official. “You can’t just take over Gaza City, leave and then hope that something positive will grow there. Instead, there’s chaos.”
Since Israel invaded Gaza in October, following the Hamas-led attacks that devastated southern Israel earlier that month, Israeli politicians have debated and disagreed about how Gaza should be governed once the war winds down, a period that they describe as “the day after.”
In northern Gaza, that moment has essentially already arrived.
When U.N. officials toured the area last week to assess the damage there, they did not coordinate their visit with Hamas because it no longer exerts widespread influence in the north, according to Scott Anderson, the deputy Gaza director for UNRWA, the main U.N. aid agency in Gaza.
Reports have emerged of some Hamas members trying to reassert order in certain neighborhoods. But aside from limited services at several hospitals, Mr. Anderson said he saw no sign of civil servants or municipal officials. Uncollected trash and sewage lined the streets, he said.
“The leadership in Gaza is underground, literally or figuratively, and there is no structure in place to fill that void,” Mr. Anderson said in a phone interview from Gaza. “That creates a prevailing aura of desperation and fear,” which makes events like the disaster on Thursday more likely, he said, adding, “It’s very frustrating and difficult to coordinate things when there’s nobody to coordinate with.”
Video has emerged of armed groups attacking convoys, and diplomats say criminal gangs are beginning to fill the void left by Hamas’s absence.
Without any plan, “the vacuum will either be filled by chaos and lawless gangs and criminals,” said Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, an American commentator on Gazan affairs who was brought up in Gaza, “or by Hamas, which will manage to re-emerge and attempt to reconstitute.”
Power vacuums are inevitable after most wars. But critics of the Israeli government say the vacuum in northern Gaza is worse than it could have been because Israeli leaders don’t agree about what should happen next.
The country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, released a plan in late February that suggested that “the administration of civilian affairs and the enforcement of public order will be based on local stakeholders with managerial experience.” But beyond noting that these administrators could not be affiliated with “countries or entities that support terrorism,” Mr. Netanyahu gave no further details.
His plan was so vague that it was interpreted as an attempt to postpone a looming decision about whether to prioritize the goals of his domestic political base or those of Israel’s strongest foreign ally, the United States.
Vocal parts of Mr. Netanyahu’s right-wing base are pushing aggressively for the re-establishment of Jewish settlements in Gaza, nearly two decades after Israel removed them. Such a plan would necessitate long-term Israeli control over the territory, making it impossible to re-establish Palestinian governance there.
Conversely, the United States and other Western powers and Arab states are pushing for Palestinian leaders in the Israeli-occupied West Bank to be allowed to run Gaza, as part of a process toward creating a Palestinian state spread across both territories.
Pulled between those two contradictory paths, Mr. Netanyahu has opted for neither.
“He’s trying all kinds of maneuvers to keep his government calm,” said Mr. Milstein, the former intelligence official. “Because of all the tensions and all the problematic configurations in his government, he cannot take any real dramatic decision,” Mr. Milstein added.
The office of Mr. Netanyahu declined to comment for this article.
Nadav Shtrauchler, a former strategist for Mr. Netanyahu, dismissed concerns about Mr. Netanyahu’s strategy.
“If someone thinks he doesn’t have any plan in his head, they’re wrong: He has a plan,” Mr. Shtrauchler said. “I think he has two plans. But I’m not sure which one he will choose in the end, and I’m not sure he knows.”
For now, Mr. Netanyahu is using the ambiguity to postpone inevitable confrontations with both his right-wing coalition allies and the United States for as long as possible, Mr. Shtrauchler and other analysts said.
Israeli officials have spoken of empowering clans in different pockets of Gaza to keep the peace in their immediate neighborhoods and protect aid supplies. But the plan is unproven and enforced — and foreign diplomats are skeptical about its effectiveness.
Some Palestinians and foreign leaders say that several thousand former policemen from the Palestinian Authority, the body that ran Gaza until being pushed out by Hamas in 2007, could be retrained to fill the void. Others suggest that Arab countries like Egypt and Jordan could send a peacekeeping force to support the authority’s policemen.
In the meantime, “the Palestinians who stayed in the north of Gaza are starving to death,” said Mkhaimar Abusada, a political science professor from Gaza City. “And basically, they are trying to find food in any possible way.”
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
6) U.N. experts warn that Gaza is close to famine. What does that mean?
By Gaya Gupta, Mar. 3, 2024
Lining up for a meal in Rafah in southern Gaza in December. Credit...Fatima Shbair/Associated Press
The aid delivery that ended in bloodshed this week showed the extent of Gazans’ desperation, with dozens killed after many thousands converged on a rare convoy of aid trucks. As the number of aid deliveries into Gaza has rapidly dropped and Palestinians struggle to find food, humanitarians and United Nations officials are warning that famine is imminent in the enclave.
For aid groups and the U.N., officially determining that a famine exists is a technical process. It requires analysis by experts, and only government authorities and top U.N. officials can declare one.
So how is famine defined, and what do experts say about the severity of hunger in Gaza? Here’s a closer look.
What is a famine?
Food insecurity experts working on the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or I.P.C., an initiative controlled by U.N. bodies and major relief agencies, identify a famine in an area on the basis of three conditions:
At least 20 percent of households face an extreme lack of food.
At least 30 percent of children suffer from acute malnutrition.
At least two adults or four children for every 10,000 people die each day from starvation or disease linked to malnutrition.
Since the I.P.C. was developed in 2004, it has been used to identify only two famines: in Somalia in 2011, and in South Sudan in 2017. In Somalia, more than 100,000 people died before famine was officially declared.
I.P.C. analysts expressed grave concern about food insecurity in Yemen and Ethiopia, related to the civil wars in those countries, but said not enough information was available from governments to issue a formal assessment.
The classifications of famine in Somalia and South Sudan galvanized global action and spurred large donations. Aid workers and hunger experts point out that the hunger crisis in Gaza is already dire, with or without a famine classification, and aid is needed quickly.
“For me, what is important is to basically say that look, technically we haven’t met the conditions of a famine, and frankly we don’t want to meet those conditions,” said Arif Husain, the chief economist of the World Food Program. “So please help, and please help now.”
What is the situation in Gaza?
Palestinians, particularly in the north, have been fighting starvation and regularly converge on the relatively few aid trucks that enter the territory. Aid groups say people are so hungry they are resorting to eating leaves, donkey feed and food scraps.
The first I.P.C. report on Gaza, released in December, found that the enclave’s entire population was experiencing food insecurity at crisis or worse levels. Though the group said Gaza had not yet crossed the famine threshold, it warned that the risk of famine-level hunger would increase if the war did not stop.
A second food security analysis is now underway, the I.P.C. group said.
What are the complications?
The December I.P.C. analysis relied on publicly available data from international and local aid groups in Gaza that the group said met its methodology standards. But I.P.C. analysts said they lacked recent data on the prevalence of acute malnutrition. Getting that data is very difficult in a war zone and poses a burden on already overwhelmed health care workers, the group added.
The organization’s criteria were originally designed to address weather-related famine, not crises like the one in Gaza, Mr. Husain said. But most severe hunger crises in recent history have been driven by conflict rather than climate, he noted.
And while I.P.C. experts perform the analysis that can classify a famine, it is up to government authorities and the United Nations to formally declare one.
In some cases, countries have hesitated to do so. In 2022, Somalia’s president expressed reluctance to declare a famine during a severe hunger crisis brought on by a drought. And in 2021, Ethiopia blocked the declaration of famine in the Tigray region through heavy lobbying, according to a top U.N. official.
It is unclear exactly what authority could declare a famine in Gaza. The I.P.C. group said the process typically involves the government in a country and its top U.N. official. Determining who that authority would be in Gaza was beyond the organization’s scope, it said.
Stephanie Nolen contributed reporting.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
7) A Hamas delegation arrives in Cairo for cease-fire talks, though Israel opts out.
By Adam Rasgon reporting from Jerusalem, Mar. 3, 2024
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/03/03/world/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news
Palestinians looking through the rubble of destroyed houses in Rafah, Gaza, on Sunday. Credit...Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images
A Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo on Sunday for talks aimed at achieving a cease-fire in the war in Gaza and an exchange of hostages held by militants there for Palestinian prisoners, according to an official in the group, Basem Naim.
A breakthrough in the negotiations did not appear to be imminent, as no Israeli officials were present at the talks. Israel decided against sending a delegation to Cairo after Israeli officials learned Sunday morning that Hamas had refused an Israeli request to provide a list of the hostages who were still alive, said an Israeli official and a person familiar with the details of the talks.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said on Thursday that he had requested the names of hostages who would be freed in an agreement.
Another factor that figured into Israel’s decision was that Hamas declined to consent to the terms for swapping hostages for Palestinian prisoners that the United States presented in Paris about 10 days ago, the official and the person familiar with the details said.
The U.S. outline entailed Israel releasing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 40 hostages, with different numbers of prisoners being traded for different categories of hostages, according to two officials with knowledge of the negotiations.
Mr. Naim declined to respond to the claims about the Hamas refusals.
The United States has been pushing for a cease-fire ahead of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month that starts in about a week, but slow progress in the talks has made that challenging.
Khalil al-Hayya, a senior Hamas official, was leading the delegation in Cairo, Mr. Naim said in a text message.
Sticking points in the negotiations have been the number of Palestinian prisoners to be released, including the number of those serving life sentences, and whether a cease-fire will be permanent or temporary.
On Saturday, a senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic efforts, told reporters that Israel had “more or less accepted” a framework for the deal and that the ball was now in Hamas’s court.
But Mahmoud Mardawi, a Hamas official, suggested on Saturday that the talks were not advancing.
“We haven’t seen any change in the Israeli position at all,” Mr. Mardawi told Al Jazeera in a live interview. “It hasn’t offered us anything.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has said progress in the talks would require Hamas to soften its “ludicrous demands.”
President Biden said on Thursday that the bloodshed in northern Gaza earlier in the day, when scores of Palestinians were killed after Israeli forces opened fire around a convoy of aid trucks, would complicate negotiations for a cease-fire.
“I know it will,” he told reporters in Washington, as he backed away from his earlier prediction that an agreement could be in place by Monday. “Probably not by Monday, but I’m hopeful,” he said.
The Israeli military has said most of those who died in the chaotic scene on Thursday were killed in a crush around the vehicles. Palestinian witnesses and doctors have said Israeli forces fired extensively, wounding and killing many.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
8) An Israeli strike near a hospital in Rafah killed at least 11 people, Gaza health officials say.
By Anushka Patil, Mar. 3, 2024
Gazan health authorities said that at least 11 people were killed and dozens were injured after an Israeli strike outside a hospital in Rafah, Gaza. The Israeli military said it had carried out a “precision strike” against “Islamic Jihad terrorists” near the hospital. Credit...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
An Israeli strike outside a hospital in Rafah, in southern Gaza, on Saturday killed at least 11 people and injured dozens of other displaced Palestinians, including children, who were sheltering in tents nearby, the Gaza Health Ministry said.
At least two health care workers, including a paramedic, were among those killed after the strike near the gate of the Emirati maternity hospital, the health ministry said.
Photos taken by news agencies showed colleagues of the paramedic, whom the health ministry identified as Abdul Fattah Abu Marai, taking his body to the nearby Kuwaiti hospital, as well as injured children lying on stretchers, as other children looked on and cried.
The Israeli military said later Saturday that, with help from Israel’s domestic security agency, it had carried out a “precision strike” against “Islamic Jihad terrorists” near the hospital. The military declined to respond to reports that the strike had injured children.
The Israeli military had previously declared that Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, would be a safe zone for civilians, and more than half of the enclave’s entire population is now crammed into it, with many living in makeshift tents over nearly every inch of available space.
But airstrikes on Rafah have continued even as the number of people sheltering there has swelled to around 1.5 million. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has vowed that his forces will invade the city whether or not a temporary cease-fire deal is reached, despite dire warnings from humanitarian groups and many of Israel’s allies that any military operation in Rafah would have catastrophic consequences for civilians.
The news of Saturday’s strike was “outrageous and unspeakable,” the leader of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on social media, reiterating calls for a cease-fire and for the protection of health care workers and civilians.
The victims of the strike were sheltering near the Emirati maternity hospital, one of the last hospitals still functioning in Gaza. Despite having only five beds remaining for women giving birth, the hospital is managing more than half of the estimated 180 births happening daily in the enclave, said Dominic Allen, the State of Palestine representative for the United Nations Population Fund, a sexual and reproductive health agency known as U.N.F.P.A.
The Emirati hospital is essentially “the last hope for pregnant women in the whole of Gaza,” Mr. Allen said. A strike so close to the hospital poses a “terrifying” risk to pregnant women, newborns and the overloaded health care workers trying to care for them, he added.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
9) Living Slow Deaths Behind Bars
By Barbara Hanson Treen, March 3, 2024
Ms. Treen served as a New York State parole commissioner from 1984 to 1996 and is the author of “Geranium Justice: The Other Side of the Table.”
Hoi Chan
Scientists have found that most cells in our bodies regenerate every seven to 10 years on average. This includes certain cells in the heart and brain. Can we assume, then, that our moral and emotional compasses are also capable of transforming over time?
As a New York State parole commissioner for 12 years, I evaluated the readiness for release and risk to public safety of more than 75,000 incarcerated people. I saw these changes in people every day.
Yet in spite of those transformations, the number of aging long-termers warehoused in prisons has only increased in recent years.
Two bills in the New York State Legislature could challenge that trend. Both would give people in prison fairer shots at parole. Versions of this legislation have been introduced since 2018 but were never put to a vote. This year, lawmakers should pass them.
Many long-termers languish in cells or in substandard prison infirmaries, or even in so-called long-term care units. With labored breathing, they limp to the mess hall and miss their chance to eat, sink deeper into dementia, fall and get seriously injured, and navigate hearing and vision impairment. At the same time, they are under the supervision of guards who lack the training and often the empathy to properly manage the diminished capacity of many older people to follow often senseless prison rules.
When I was a commissioner, from 1984 to 1996, it was unusual for me to meet a parole candidate over the age of 50. Now there are more than 7,500 incarcerated people ages 50 and older in New York, or about 25 percent of the entire state prison population. In fact, between 2008 and 2021, the overall prison population declined by half, yet the population age 50 and older increased, with ballooning health care costs crowding out other budget priorities. The state spends between $100,000 and $240,000 on incarcerated people who are 55 or older, according to one of the reform measures before the State Legislature; for others, the figure is about $60,000.
Why are so many older people who have served their minimum sentences still in prison? Because of the unwillingness of my former colleagues on the parole board to release people who have served their minimum sentences, and often years and decades more. Sixty percent of those incarcerated are being denied parole, and in 90 percent of denial cases studied by the Vera Institute for Justice, the reason, at least in part, was the nature of the original crime.
Because many of these older adults received “life” as a maximum sentence (such as 15 years to life), commissioners who are unwilling to accept transformation in human behavior, or perhaps too cowardly to do their jobs in the face of public and political pressure, can hide behind endless denials of release. The parole board can simply decide that a parole applicant’s release would “so deprecate the seriousness of his crime as to undermine respect for the law.” Thus we have long-termers languishing through the years even though their risk of reoffending declines sharply as they age.
For older people in prison, “life” becomes just another word for a slow death sentence.
Indeed, deaths behind bars in New York State have mounted, with the average age of death by so-called natural causes in this wholly unnatural environment hovering around 60.6 years. The mental and physical stress of prison life can lead to “accelerated” aging; as a result, old age in prison typically begins at ages 50 to 55. If the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision were a country, life expectancy in its prisons would rank in the bottom 20 worldwide. In 2021, 96 of the 137 deaths in New York’s prisons were of people 55 and older. That’s 70 percent.
Who should be released on parole? The parole board is supposed to consider the transformation the applicant has undergone in prison, the risk he or she would pose if released, any statement made by the victim or the victim’s representative and the seriousness of the offense. As a commissioner, I considered applicants’ prison records, their truthfulness when answering difficult questions such as what insights they gained into why they committed their crimes and what they had done to address those underlying issues. I even assessed body language. Most of all, I looked for credibility. Could I be confident in this person’s intention to safely and successfully re-enter society? To be sure, I met people every day who were not ready to be released. Whether they would ever make the changes inside to become ready was up to them.
Most people in state prison today were convicted of crimes involving violence, often including murder. Even the harshest punishment can never undo the incredible harm they caused, but encouraging them to take accountability, to investigate and transform their own thinking and behavior, and to work toward repairing harm is the truest form of justice. It is one that, in my experience, delivers the most satisfaction to the greatest number of crime victims and survivors. Naturally, there are other survivors and relatives of victims who may strongly disagree.
For decades I have worked in and around our justice system — from helping to shepherd a support group for the families of incarcerated people to working in re-entry housing, alternatives-to-incarceration programs, jail conditions monitoring and more. One lesson has remained constant: Those demonized by society for their crimes in most cases were crime victims before they went on to cause harm, yet our legal system’s response to their pain did not heal them.
New York has a real chance to at least make progress in correcting such injustices. One bill before the State Legislature, the Fair and Timely Parole Act, would establish a presumption that applicants would be granted parole once their minimum sentences are served unless the record demonstrates an unreasonable risk to public safety. Another bill, the Elder Parole Act, would simply ensure that people in prison ages 55 and older who have served at least 15 years of their sentences would be interviewed by the parole board. Neither bill guarantees release, but they would offer hope and a fairer chance.
By passing these bills, the lawmakers would be voting to replace a system of permanent punishment rooted in insatiable vengeance with a system that allows for the possibility of redemption and repair. They would also save an estimated $522 million per year, according to Columbia University’s Center for Justice.
This is not just a matter of compassion. Communities benefit when their elders return to them from prison. Formerly incarcerated older adults can and have made important contributions to their communities, working to end gun violence, mentoring young people, serving as peer recovery counselors and promoting community safety.
The alternative is leaving people to die in a cell, at ever-increasing moral and fiscal cost.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
10) Most of the aid trucks bound for northern Gaza were stopped along the way.
By Hiba Yazbek and Adam Rasgon, Mar. 4, 2024
"Ms. Ikrayyem’s brother Muhammed, 30, who is deaf and mute, slept on the beach for three days awaiting the aid trucks, she said. But after dodging bullets on Thursday, he managed to come home with a 25-kilogram bag of flour that 50 relatives sheltering together were now rationing and mixing with animal feed to make it last as long as possible, she added."
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/03/04/world/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news
Palestinians carried the bodies of people who died in a chaotic scene surrounding aid trucks in Gaza City on Thursday. Credit...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Days after an aid delivery in Gaza turned into a deadly disaster, another convoy coordinated by the Israeli military failed to deliver most of its aid to desperate people in the north, Izzat Aqel, a Palestinian businessman involved in the initiative, said on Sunday.
Mr. Aqel, who was also involved in the aid delivery operation with the Israeli military that turned bloody last Thursday, said that 16 trucks carrying supplies were sent to the north on Saturday, but that only one made it to Gaza City. The rest, he said, had been swarmed and emptied in the Nuseirat neighborhood in central Gaza.
Fifteen more trucks set out for the north on Sunday evening and were slated to enter the area via an inland north-south road, he said.
The renewed missions — part of a newly hatched partnership with local businessmen — showed that Israel was pressing ahead with efforts to bring aid to northern Gaza, even after scores of hungry Palestinians were killed in the chaotic melee on Thursday.
It was not clear if the army was making significant changes to prevent a repeat of Thursday’s events. Representatives for the Israeli army referred questions about the effort to COGAT, the Israeli agency responsible for coordinating aid deliveries into Gaza.
COGAT did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The agency wrote on social media that 277 trucks entered Gaza on Sunday, which it said was the highest single-day total since the start of the war. But it was unclear how many of those trucks reached northern Gaza.
The convoy that arrived in Gaza City before dawn on Thursday ended in devastation. More than 100 Palestinians were killed after many thousands of people massed around trucks laden with food and supplies, Gazan health officials said.
Israeli and Palestinian officials and witnesses offered sharply divergent accounts of the chaos. Witnesses described extensive shooting by Israeli forces, and doctors at Gaza hospitals said that most of the casualties were from gunfire. Israeli officials said most of the victims were trampled in a crush of people trying to seize the cargo, although they acknowledged that troops had opened fire at members of the crowd who, the military said, had approached “in a manner that endangered them.”
The operation came as hunger and starvation continue to stalk the north of Gaza at extreme levels, prompting the United Nations to warn of a looming famine. The World Food Program and other U.N. agencies have said that they were no longer able to deliver aid to the north, citing civilian attempts to rush aid trucks, Israeli restrictions on convoys, and the poor condition of roads damaged during the war. On Saturday, the United States conducted its first airdrop of aid, although U.S. officials have said such operations cannot move supplies at the same scale as convoys.
The Gaza health ministry said on Sunday that 15 children have died in recent days from what it described as malnutrition and dehydration at Kamal Adwan Hospital in the north. The ministry did not provide further details about the deaths, but it said that the hospital had run out of oxygen and fuel to power generators and was barely operating with very limited supplies. The ministry added in a statement that the lives of six other children in the intensive care unit were in danger from malnutrition and dehydration.
Adele Khodr, UNICEF’s director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement on Sunday that one in six children under the age of 2 in Gaza was acutely malnourished.
“These tragic and horrific deaths are man-made, predictable and entirely preventable,” she said of the reported deaths at Kamal Adwan.
Driven by hunger, desperate Gazans were still gathering at the same spot where many deaths were reported on Thursday, in hopes that more aid would come.
“Even after the massacre people are still going to Al-Rashid Street every day and will continue to until they secure any aid,” Ghada Ikrayyem, a 23-year-old resident of northern Gaza, said. “We expected people to be scared after what happened on Thursday, but we were surprised to see that even more people were going there now.”
Ms. Ikrayyem’s brother Muhammed, 30, who is deaf and mute, slept on the beach for three days awaiting the aid trucks, she said. But after dodging bullets on Thursday, he managed to come home with a 25-kilogram bag of flour that 50 relatives sheltering together were now rationing and mixing with animal feed to make it last as long as possible, she added.
“He came home terrified, he saw dead bodies everywhere,” Ms. Ikrayyem said in a telephone interview on Sunday. But despite narrowly escaping death on Thursday, Muhammed has returned to the same spot every day since, hoping to secure another bag of flour, she added.
Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Beirut, Lebanon.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
11) U.N. aid agency researchers say Gazans were abused in Israeli detention.
By Monika Pronczuk and Patrick Kingsley, Mar. 4, 2024
Palestinian detainees [blindfolded] being transported by Israeli soldiers in November. Credit...Yossi Zeliger/Reuters
An unpublished investigation by the main United Nations agency for Palestinian affairs accuses Israel of abusing hundreds of Gazans captured during the war with Hamas, according to a copy of the report reviewed by The New York Times.
The report was compiled by UNRWA, the U.N. agency that is itself at the center of an investigation after accusations that at least 30 of its 13,000 employees participated in the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7. The authors of the report allege that the detainees, including at least 1,000 civilians later released without charge, were held at three military sites inside Israel.
The report said the detainees included males and females whose ages ranged from 6 to 82. Some, the report said, died in detention.
The document includes accounts from detainees who said they were beaten, stripped, robbed, blindfolded, sexually abused and denied access to lawyers and doctors, often for more than a month.
The draft document describes “a range of ill-treatment that Gazans of all ages, abilities and backgrounds have reported facing in makeshift detention facilities in Israel.” Such treatment, the report concluded, “was used to extract information or confessions, to intimidate and humiliate, and to punish.”
The report is based on interviews with more than 100 of the 1,002 detainees who were released back to Gaza by mid-February. The document estimates that 3,000 other Gazans remain in Israeli detention without access to lawyers. Its findings echo those of several Israeli and Palestinian rights groups, as well as separate investigations by two U.N. special rapporteurs, all of whom allege similar abuses inside Israeli detention centers.
The Times was unable to corroborate the entirety of the allegations in the report. But parts of it match the testimony of former Gazan detainees interviewed by The Times.
Israel has said that the detentions were necessary to find and interrogate Hamas members after the group’s attack on southern Israel, which killed roughly 1,200 people and led to the abduction of some 250 others, according to the Israeli authorities. Israel says that hundreds of Hamas members have been captured.
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
12) ‘We have reached a stage of hunger like never before.’
By Nader Ibrahim and Matthew Mpoke Bigg, Mar. 4, 2024
Some Gazan families were walking south on Sunday, saying it was too hard to get food aid in the north. Credit...Mohammed Saber/EPA, via Shutterstock
Some residents of northern Gaza have been walking toward the southern part of the enclave, saying they were trying to find food because they had nothing to eat, video shot by The Associated Press showed.
One father, Omar Ahmad, carried his daughter on his shoulders as he walked on the main coastal road on Sunday. “We have reached a stage of hunger like never before,” he said. “When my daughter wants to eat in the morning, I can’t provide her with food or drink.”
Aid officials say that the northern part of Gaza has been hardest hit by restrictions on food and other essential items imposed as part of Israel’s war against Hamas. Israeli officials say they are pressing ahead with efforts to get more aid to northern Gaza.
In one measure of the desperation in the north, more than 100 Palestinians were killed early on Thursday after many thousands of people massed around trucks laden with food and supplies, Gazan health officials said.
Israeli and Palestinian officials offered sharply divergent accounts of what had happened. Witnesses described extensive shooting by Israeli forces. The Israeli military said most of the victims were trampled in the crowd, although Israeli officials acknowledged that troops had opened fire at some who, the army said, had approached “in a manner that endangered them.”
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*..........*
