Al Mayadeen – November 25, 2024
Day 416 of Israeli genocide in Gaza: 44,235 killed, 104,638 injured
On the 416th day of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation military intensifies its attacks on the northern and central regions of the Strip.
"Israel" continues its war of genocide against the Gaza Strip, now ongoing for the 416th day, with the Gaza Health Ministry announcing that in 24 hours, the Israeli military committed two massacres, killing 24 and injuring 71 others, with many victims still trapped under rubble or out of reach due to Israeli bombardment.
Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli occupation has killed 44,235 Palestinians and injured 104,638 others, the Ministry confirmed Monday in its daily report.
The Israeli genocide is ongoing unabated
Al Mayadeen's correspondent reported that an Israeli drone strike had killed one Palestinian north of the al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.
In another development, Israeli artillery shelled the eastern part of Deir al-Balah city in central Gaza, according to local reports.
Al-Awda Hospital has confirmed receiving six people who were injured when invading Israeli forces targeted civilians in the Beit Lahia area and the nearby Beit Lahia Project in northern Gaza.
Our correspondent reported that two people were martyred and several others were injured in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a group of citizens in front of the Indonesian Hospital gate in northern Gaza.
He also confirmed that five people were killed and several others injured in an Israeli airstrike that struck a group of civilians in the Jabalia al-Nazla area in northern Gaza.
Further reports indicated that Israeli artillery also shelled the Tal al-Zaatar area in the Jabalia refugee camp, located in northern Gaza.
In a separate incident, Israeli military vehicles fired randomly at forcibly displaced persons’ tents in the al-Mawasi area of Rafah, located in the southern Gaza Strip.
Seven Palestinians were killed and dozens more injured as a result of Israeli bombings across various areas in the Gaza Strip.
Two additional civilians were killed and others were injured in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a group of people near the gate of the Indonesian Hospital, also in the northern Gaza Strip.
Israeli artillery also shelled forcibly displaced people in the al-Manshiya neighborhood and the surrounding areas of shelters in Beit Lahia, as well as the Tal al-Zaatar area in the Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern Strip.
Gaza faces risk of drought, disease due to lack of fuel to operate water wells: UNRWA
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) warned on Monday that the risk of drought and disease threatens the residents of Gaza due to the lack of fuel to operate water wells, especially in the north of the Strip, which has been subjected to an escalation in the genocide for about 50 days.
The agency said in a post on X, "People in Gaza face a constant risk of drought and disease as a result of the water wells stopping working due to the lack of fuel that prevents them from working."
It added, "In the besieged north of Gaza alone, about 70,000 people struggle to obtain clean water," indicating that "this basic human right remains out of reach for many."
"A ceasefire must be reached now," it stressed.
130,000 Gaza children under 10 deprived of food, medicine amid siege
Meanwhile, Save the Children reported that around 130,000 children under 10 in northern Gaza have been besieged for 50 days without access to food, water, or medical supplies, following "Israel's" declaration of the area as a "closed military zone" on October 6, 2024.
These children, as per the children's advocacy group, are also facing the looming threat of famine, with the independent Famine Review Committee warning that the situation could be dire.
Humanitarian efforts have been hindered by the refusal of Israeli forces to allow aid groups access to northern Gaza, leaving Save the Children unable to deliver essential supplies like food parcels, hygiene kits, and other aid materials for thousands of families.
The advocacy group had previously supported 15,000 children and families in the area, providing food, hygiene kits, and psychosocial support before the blockade.
Hezbollah breaks record of anti-Israel ops; four million settlers run for their lives
Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement has conducted a record number of anti-Israeli operations in a single day since last October, when it began defending the Lebanese soil against escalated deadly aggression by the Israeli regime
.
"Fifty-one operations were executed, a record number, surpassing the record of 48 a month ago,” various resistance media outlets said of the strikes that the movement had carried out on Sunday.
The movement’s projectiles “reached a record depth of 150 kilometers (93 miles) with the bombing of the Asdod Naval Base with drones and the Palmachim Base south of Tel Aviv with missiles,” they wrote.
“Sirens went off 543 times from over 350 rockets, sending four million settlers into shelter and inflicting significant damage and casualties.”
Hezbollah also announced striking a military target in Tel Aviv with missiles and drones, besides targeting the Haifa Naval Base, the Glilot Base, the Shraga Base in the city of Akka, the Dado Base in the city of Safad, and many other sites.
Also on Monday, the group hit the regime’s illegal settlements across the northern part of the occupied Palestinian territories, including Kiryat Shmona, Metulla, Manara, Safad, Maalot-Tarshiha, Meron, and Avivim.
In southern Lebanon, the movement fended off Israeli attacks and advancements on the cities of Bayyada, Deir Mimas, Aita al-Shaab, and Khiam. In the latter, six advanced Israeli Merkava tanks were destroyed, three in one operation. The Israeli military was also forced to retreat from Bayyada and Khiam.
“Lastly, an Israeli drone was confronted over the Western Bekaa [likewise located in southern Lebanon],” the group concluded.
The movement has been conducting hundreds of successful retaliatory operations against the occupied territories since October 7, 2023, when the regime began a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip and intensified its deadly attacks against Lebanon.
The war has claimed the lives of at least 44,211 Palestinians, mostly women and children, while the escalation has killed at least 3,754 people in Lebanon.
Recently, Hezbollah announced having killed more than 100 Israeli troops and wounded over 1,000 others as part of its reprisal.
It has vowed to sustain its strikes as long as the regime keeps up the war on Gaza and aggression against Lebanon.
Israeli prime minister approves Lebanon ceasefire deal ‘in principle,’ source says
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the emerging ceasefire deal with Hezbollah “in principle” during a security consultation with Israeli officials Sunday night, a source familiar with the matter said.
Israel still has reservations over some details of the agreement, which were expected to be transmitted to the Lebanese government on Monday, the source said.
Those and other details are still being negotiated and multiple sources stressed that the agreement will not be final until all issues are resolved.
A ceasefire agreement will also need to be approved by the Israeli cabinet, which has not yet occurred.
Sources familiar with the negotiations said talks appear to be moving positively toward an agreement, but acknowledged that as Israel and Hezbollah continue to trade fire, one misstep could upend the talks.
United States envoy Amos Hochstein said in Beirut last week that a ceasefire deal between Israel and Lebanon was “within our grasp,” but that it was ultimately “the decision of the parties.”
He met Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and parliament speaker Nabih Berri, the interlocutor with Hezbollah in the talks and said there had been “constructive” and “very good discussions to narrow the gaps.”……
Common Dreams – November 25, 2024
Israel Has Killed Over 1,000 Doctors and Nurses in Gaza
by Jessica Corbett
More than 1,000 doctors and nurses are among at least 44,211 people killed in Israel’s 13-month assault on the Gaza Strip, officials in the Hamas-governed Palestinian enclave said Sunday.
“Over 310 other medical personnel were arrested, tortured, and executed in prisons,” Gaza’s Government Media Office also said in a statement, according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency. “The Israeli army also prevented the entry of medical supplies, health delegations, and hundreds of surgeons into Gaza.”
“Hospitals have been a declared target for the Israeli army, which bombed, besieged, and stormed them, killing doctors and nurses, injuring others after directly targeting them,” the office said. The statement came after the director of the main partially functioning hospital in northern Gaza was injured in an Israeli strike.
Hussam Abu Safiyeh is the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital—which, according toAl Jazeera, Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked, damaging “the facility’s generators, fuel tanks, and main oxygen station.”
The wounded director said: “These people, they target everyone, but I swear, this will not stop us from continuing our humanitarian work. We will keep on providing this service no matter what it costs us.”
Since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, in addition to killing tens of thousands of Palestinians, Israeli forces have injured at least 104,567 others. Along with attacking hospitals, they have destroyed many homes, schools, and religious sites, and displaced most of the enclave’s 2.3 million people.
Israel—which has been armed by the Biden administration and bipartisan U.S. Congress—faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice over its conduct in Gaza. Additionally, the International Criminal Court earlier this week issued arrest warrants for Israel’s current prime minister and former defense minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas leader Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri.
Last month, 99 U.S. healthcare providers who have volunteered in Gaza since last fall sent U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris a letter detailing “the massive human toll from Israel’s attack” and urging them to “end this madness now!”
“It is likely that the death toll from this conflict is already greater than 118,908, an astonishing 5.4% of Gaza’s population,” the Americans wrote. “With only marginal exceptions, everyone in Gaza is sick, injured, or both. This includes every national aid worker, every international volunteer, and probably every Israeli hostage: every man, woman, and child.”
“We quickly learned that our Palestinian healthcare colleagues were among the most traumatized people in Gaza, and perhaps in the entire world,” they continued. “All were acutely aware that their work as healthcare providers had marked them as targets for Israel. This makes a mockery of the protected status hospitals and healthcare providers are granted under the oldest and most widely accepted provisions of international humanitarian law.”
They added that “we wish to be absolutely clear: Not once did any of us see any type of Palestinian militant activity in any of Gaza’s hospitals or other healthcare facilities. We urge you to see that Israel has systematically and deliberately devastated Gaza’s entire healthcare system, and that Israel has targeted our colleagues in Gaza for torture, disappearance, and murder.”
Despite such appeals and accounts, the outgoing Biden-Harris administration has declined to cut off weapons to the Israeli government and earlier this week most U.S. senators from both major parties rejected a trio of resolutions from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that would have blocked some American arms sales to Israel.
Jessica Corbett is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-has-killed-over-1000-doctors-and-nurses-in-gaza
Countercurrent – November 25, 2024
Pakistan: A revolution that’s not being televised
by Junaid S Ahmad
November 24th was designated as the global day of protest for the release of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, who has been imprisoned by the Pakistani military and political elites since August of 2023. It was a day of solidarity with the brutalized, tortured, and imprisoned tens of thousands of Pakistanis associated with Khan’s Movement for Justice (PTI) and those who opposed the current military-with-a-civilian-facade regime. Despite a complete lockdown, with roadblocks being ubiquitous, as well as trigger-happy militarized security forces, there have been massive demonstrations against the regime across Pakistan, culminating in marching towards the capital, Islamabad. Rallies and protests of Pakistanis and human rights activists are taking place in Washington, New York, London, Paris, Barcelona, Istanbul, and many other cities across the world.
The demands of the Movement for Justice are the following:
1) Immediate release of Imran Khan and the end of farcical and politically-motivated charges and cases.
2) Immediate release of the tens of thousands of PTI activists imprisoned.
3) A recognition of the election results of February of this year, wherein Khan’s PTI handily won the most seats in Parliament – so that PTI would get its rightful place of governing the country.
4) The end of interference from the military establishment in the political life of the country.
Over the past twenty-four hours, there is a lot to be said and celebrated. Despite severe repression, Pakistanis have exploded in revolt throughout the country. From all corners of the nation, people are all marching towards here in Islamabad. The capital has been converted into an outright fortress with the regime having imported thousands upon thousands of containers and buses to be used as roadblocks. The courage of ordinary Pakistanis in confronting a fascist state with trigger-happy militarized security forces is simply awe-inspiring. We are seeing the only real enemy our pathetic military establishment is willing to confront: its own people.
There is much more to say. But for now, three things:
1) Whether one likes former Prime Minister Imran Khan or not, it’s difficult to think of a contemporary political leader who could mobilize such massive demonstrations in literally every corner of the world. From Tokyo to Kuala Lumpur to Johannesburg to Istanbul to Athens to Barcelona to Manchester to Dublin to New York to Atlanta to Chicago to Houston and to roughly sixty-five other cities in the world (the latest count) – this has really been surreal. When thinking of individual political leaders who would be able to attract such unrelenting global protests of solidarity and support, one thinks of Mandela, Castro, Nasser. Perhaps I’m missing something because of getting caught up in the sheer magnitude of the worldwide scale these protests have assumed
.
2) What happened in Pakistan in April of 2022 will go down as one of the most reckless and ill-conceived regime change operations in history. As I’ve stated before in interviews and writings below, it’s probably not a good idea to target the most popular and beloved – for at least the past three decades – national icon. The Biden Administration and the generals in Islamabad have made a martyr out of Khan, have miraculously transformed him from arguably just a moderate reformer to a full-blown revolutionary in the eyes of the people!
3) Can we imagine what the response would be if these were both nationwide and worldwide demonstrations, on this scale, against totalitarian repression of political prisoners and dissidents in Iran, Russia, China, Cuba, Venezuela, etc.? We would be seeing 24-7 coverage on ALL of the major media outlets, probably not even taking a pause to cover an inauguration of a new US President. Here we have the beginnings of a revolution in a country with the fifth largest population in the world, fifth largest military, nuclear-armed, and virtual silence. It can barely elicit a paragraph in Reuters or the AP. If ever there was an example of the skewed – to put it mildly – imperial ideology of the media and the intelligentsia, this is it. Just as with the Zionist genocide in Gaza, they are also complicit in enabling now over two years of one of the most fascistic totalitarian phases in Pakistan’s history.
Below are useful links to some of the scenes over the past 24 hours, to recent (Western media) interviews (on Breakthrough News, Useful Idiots, Flashpoints, etc.), some of my recent articles (for context), and images of the uprising. I’m indebted to my students who are also bravely participating in, and covering, this popular revolt. I had also sent something briefly below to give some context to Nov. 24th being global Khan/Movement for Justice mobilization and solidarity day.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/watch-former-pakistan-pm-imran-khans-supporters-protest-in-over-60-locations-worldwide/amp_articleshow/115643984.cms
https://apnews.com/article/pakistan-imran-khan-rally-cellphone suspension-415227ef93b710798dedbc6c9f8ac2a5
https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2022/11/08/assassination-imran-khan-pakistan-us-coup/
https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/03/15/pakistan-coup-regime-arrest-imran-khan/
https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/05/22/arrest-imran-khan-pakistan-regime/
https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/pakistan-imran-khan-shooting-tipping-point-reached
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240202-bidens-generals-in-pakistan/
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240213-khan-v-the-generals/
https://countercurrents.org/2024/09/unworthy-victims-pakistani-women-confronting-state-terror/
https://countercurrents.org/2024/11/antagonistic-and-irreconcilable-contradictions-and-the-future-of-imran-khans-movement-for-justice/
https://muslimviews.co.za/antagonistic-and-irreconcilable-contradictions-within-imran-khans-movement-for-justice/
Junaid S Ahmad, Professor of Law, Religion, and Global Politics. Director, Center for the Study of Islam and Decolonization (CSID), Islamabad, Pakistan
https://countercurrents.org/2024/11/pakistan-a-revolution-thats-not-being-televised/
