How serious is the situation in Gaza right now, for its innocent civilians? The report on All In (MSNBC last night) showed a cratered landscape and one lone guy shrieking in desperation: "No water, no food, no electricity, no escape!" Host Chris Hayes' correspondent Ali Velshi also reported that the sole remaining power plant is about to run out of fuel. See e.g.
Israeli strikes demolish entire Gaza neighborhoods as only power plant in territory runs out of fuel
Which means no electricity, or water or food. The hospitals, meanwhile, as reported by a doctor there - have virtually no supplies, medicines, bandages etc. left - having run through them with the nonstop bombardments. The victims, mostly kids. (More than 50 percent of Gaza residents are under 15 yrs. of age.)
“Without electricity, hospitals risk turning into morgues,” according to Dr. Fabrizio Carboni, regional director of the International Committee of the Red Cross
And there you have it in a nutshell - a hellish prison from which there can be no escape but death for the 2 million (most of whom are innocent civilians) stuck there. As host Chris Hayes also asked, why is there no plan for the civilians to flee - especially before the Israelis mount their ground war? The problem, as Hayes noted, is the residents-civilians have been conflated with the Hamas terrorists - who they detest for making their lives a hell on Earth.
If Israel is serious about doing everything to protect innocent civilians then some arrangement needs to be made for them to take refuge elsewhere. Egypt? Why not commence talks in that regard. Even the Russians enabled Ukrainians to flee westward at the start of that invasion, though they've been back to indiscriminate bombing lately. But there must be some way to avoid the impending humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza - even as Israel mounts an effective offensive action against the Hamas terrorists.
Look, some 2 million people inhabit Gaza - with an area of 141 square miles - or even smaller than the island of Barbados (166 square miles). These unfortunates are every bit the hapless hostages as those Israelis seized by force. But as Hayes noted - are receiving the horrific treatment meted out to the 2,000 or so Hamas terrorists who act in their name- but who are despised as inhuman monsters.
Right now, this conflation of unwilling civilian residents (especially young - 4-6 yr. old kids) with Hamas terrorists is going to be responsible for an even more massive slaughter of men, women and children - unless some corridor of refugee escape is enabled. (And that also implies Israel cease bombing the only existing - Rafah crossing corridor!) Let us hope to hell all responsible parties concerned (especially Israel) act before it's too late and a half million or more innocents are dead or dying! The optics for such a calamity will not redound to Israel's benefit.
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by Robert Reich | October 13, 2023 - 6:16am | permalink
— from Robert Reich's Substack
Friends,
Today, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stood next to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a military base in Tel Aviv and said, “Too often in the past, leaders have equivocated in the face of terrorist attacks against Israel and its people. This is — this must be — a moment for moral clarity.”
Blinken is correct. Moral clarity requires that the world condemn the atrocities committed by Hamas militants as unmitigated evil.
But this does not render morally justifiable retaliatory airstrikes on Gaza that have so far killed 1,417 Palestinians, including 447 children, and wounded 6,368, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Or the siege of a city of 2.1 million people who have gone days without electricity, water, or food.
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by Marjorie Cohn | December 11, 2023 - 6:15am | permalink
“Under international humanitarian law, the place where you evacuate people to must, by law have sufficient resources for their survival — medical facilities, food and water,” said United Nations Children’s Fund spokesman James Elder in an interview with the Times. “That is absolutely not the case. They are these patches of barren land, they are streets or corners or any space in a neighborhood, half-built buildings. The common thing they have is no water, no facilities, no shelter from cold and rain, and particularly no sanitation.”
UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths, said the Israeli military campaign has created “apocalyptic” conditions and ended meaningful humanitarian operations. “This is an apocalyptic situation now, because these are the remnants of a nation being driven into a pocket in the south,” Griffiths noted.
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by Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan | October 14, 2023 - 6:13am | permalink
As Israel intensifies its brutal response to Hamas’ brutal October 7th attack, it is important to hear from those at the target end of the weapons – from both sides of the conflict. The mainstream media in the United States consistently brings us the voices of Israelis who have suffered violence at the hands of Hamas gunmen. Let that be a model for coverage of Palestinian grief. We rarely hear from Palestinian civilians. Hearing people speak for themselves is the first step to breaking down barriers, to fostering understanding that can lead to a just peace.
Not long after the Hamas attack, Israel began its latest intense bombardment of the Gaza Strip. Bearing the full force of that retaliation are the 2.4 million Palestinians who Israel has blockaded in Gaza, almost half of whom are children. The Gaza Strip, roughly four miles wide and 25 miles long, is one of the most densely populated places on earth and has long been described as the world’s largest open-air prison. Under “normal” conditions, Gazans live under a severe military occupation. No one gets in or out without Israel’s permission. Israel controls Gaza’s water, food and fuel. Now, in the wake of the Hamas attack, the Israeli siege and bombardment of Gaza has become cataclysmic.
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This past weekend, Hamas launched a brutal, horrific attack against civilians in Israel. While there is a very real history that has led up to this, there is no justification for it. Even in a state of war, civilians must be protected.
This horror raises a couple of important questions.
First, did Hamas somehow get inside information about Israel’s defenses that helped them pull this off?
Second, how might this play out, how might it be resolved, and how can America and the world avoid the mistakes from previous but similar situations?
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by Dan La Botz | October 11, 2023 - 5:46am | permalink
— from Foreign Policy In Focus
The new war in the Middle East between Hamas and Israel is a disaster for all of the people of the region, both Israelis and Palestinians, and perhaps many more. For more than 50 years, Israel turned up the fire under the pressure cooker, and finally it exploded. Hamas’s shocking attack is the result.
Hamas’s attack, launching missiles targeting civilian areas, murdering and kidnapping civilians, men, women and children, is a horrifying violation of international humanitarian law. But Israel’s massive bombing of Gaza—claiming to focus on military targets but hitting residential buildings, hospitals, and mosques—is just as terrible. Israel’s government says it will impose a complete blockade of Gaza and the two million people who live there, an unconscionable act. Its minister of defense has called Palestinians “human animals”—genocidal language—and announced a plan to carry the war into Gaza, suggesting it will be devastated, which can only be catastrophic.
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