The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Gaza

  • Gaza evacuations suspended as Abbas presses U.S. for ceasefire

    Gaza evacuations suspended as Abbas presses U.S. for ceasefire

    Efforts were under way yesterday to resume evacuations of injured Gazans and foreign nationals through the Rafah crossing to Egypt, suspended since Saturday after a deadly attack on an ambulance, Egyptian, United States and Qatari officials said.

    Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas demanded an immediate Israeli ceasefire at a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Ramallah, while Gaza’s health ministry said dozens died in a strike on a refugee camp overnight.

    Blinken, who has dismissed the idea of a ceasefire by Israel for fear it would benefit Hamas, was making an unannounced visit to the occupied West Bank as part of efforts to prevent the Israel-Hamas war spreading.

    The Rafah crossing to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula is the only exit point from Gaza not controlled by Israel. Aid trucks were still able to travel into Gaza, two Egyptian sources said.

    Evacuations began on Wednesday under an internationally brokered deal.

    More than 300 Americans have left Gaza, but some still remain, Jonathan Finer, deputy national security adviser, said.

    “We believe it will (reopen) this afternoon,” a senior U.S. State Department official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Don’t hold me to it,” the official added.

    Read Also: The butchery in Gaza

    At the Maghazi refugee camp refugee camp in Gaza, people searched for victims or survivors.

    “All night, I and the other men were trying to pick the dead from the rubble. We got children, dismembered, torn apart flesh,” said Saeed al-Nejma, 53, adding that he had been asleep with his family when the blast hit his neighbourhood.

    A spokesman for the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said Israeli forces had struck the camp overnight, killing at least 47 people. Asked for comment, the Israeli military said they were gathering details.

    In a separate attack, 21 Palestinians from one family, including women and children, were killed in strikes overnight, the health ministry said.

    “We demand that you stop them from committing these crimes immediately,” Abbas told Blinken, urging an “immediate ceasefire” from Israel.

    “There are no words to describe the war of genocide and destruction to which our Palestinian people are being subjected in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli war machine, without regard to the rules of international law,” Palestinian news agency WAFA quoted Abbas as telling Blinken.

    Foreign ministers from Qatar, Saudi, Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates met Blinken in Amman on Saturday and also urged him to persuade Israel to agree to a ceasefire.

    But Blinken said a ceasefire would benefit Hamas, allowing it to regroup and attack again. Instead, the U.S. wants localised pauses in fighting to allow in humanitarian aid and for people to leave Gaza.

    “The Secretary reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to the delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance and resumption of essential services in Gaza,” spokesperson Matthew Miller said.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again rejected calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.

    Gaza health officials said yesterday more than 9,770 Palestinians have been killed in the war.

    Israel continued to strike the Gaza Strip by air, sea, and ground overnight.

    The Palestinian Red Crescent said there was also intense bombardment, artillery explosions and air strikes in the vicinity of the Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza’s Tal Al-Hawa area.

    U.S. special envoy David Satterfield said in Amman on Saturday that 800,000 to a million people had moved south, while 350,000 to 400,000 remained in and around Gaza City.

    Living conditions in Gaza, already dire before the war, have deteriorated. Food is scarce, residents are drinking salty water and medical services are collapsing.

    The UN humanitarian office estimates that nearly 1.5 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are internally displaced.

  • The butchery in Gaza

    The butchery in Gaza

    How can any sane person enjoy or derive satisfaction from the slaughter that is now taking place in Gaza? It is indefensible. It is unacceptable.

    It is nothing but state-sponsored terror in its most savage and primitive form.

    It is ethnic cleansing. It is genocide. It is mass murder. It is wickedness. It is barbaric. It is evil.

    It is the most notorious and graphic example of man’s inhumanity to man.

    It is unconciable and it is unjustifiable.

    All my life I have loved the State of Israel and defended her right to exist.

    This is especially so given the fact that I am a Pentecostal Christian who wholeheartedly believes the biblical scripture that says “He who blesses Israel is blessed and he who curses Israel is cursed”.

    I acknowledge the fact that the Jews have suffered and been persecuted more than any other race in the history of the world and I was one of the first in my country Nigeria to wholeheartedly condemn the frightful massacre carried out by Hamas on October 7th.

    Despite that I cannot possibly rationalise what is going on in Gaza in the name of retaliation or the desire to destroy and wipe out Hamas.

    When you kill innocent and defenceless Palestinian women and children you are not wiping out Hamas but strengthening their cause and giving millions of people all over the world a reason to support their cause and join their ranks.

    Israel is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.

    It is an irrational, unreasonable, emotional and disproportionate response to what was undoubtedly a terrible and unconciable wrong which may win the battle for the Jewish state but will also inevitably cost them support in much of the civilised world.

    There is no doubt that Israel has the right to defend herself especially from those who claim she does not have the right to exist but no sane person can applaud the butchering of women and children, the targetting and bombing of hospitals, churches, schools, mosques, universities, homes and ambulances and the wholesale slaughter of 10,000 civilians (and still counting) all in the space of 3 weeks.

    Israel is being guided and led by rage and the spirit of vengeance. She has lost all reason and those with a level head are no where near the levers of power. She is now like a wild, wounded lion devouring everything and everyone in its path.

    What was once a reasonable, rational, equitable, just, fair-minded, strong, confident and flourishing nation which was the shining light of the Middle East and our collective pride and joy as Christians has now become a rogue killer state which is as bloodthirsty and bloodlusting as the Nazis of Hitler’s Germany, ISIS, Hamas, Boko Haram, Daesh and Al Qaeda all rolled into one.

    We must have the decency and prescence of mind to condemn the slaughter of ALL human beings whether they be Christians, Muslims, Jews or anything else.

    Israel has a right to defend herself but not the right to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity or to wipe out an entire race and displace and relocate an entire people.

    Any Christian that believes otherwise in the name of “blessing or loving Israel” is not a real Christian and is not a true friend of the Jewish state.

    Why? Because real friends tell one another the bitter truth and real Christians do not support injustice and the massacre of defenceless women and children.

    Only demons do that!

    If you really want to bless and love Israel then tell Israeli leaders the bitter truth and pray that the lord will deliver them from the madness and unrestrained rage that has seized their minds.

    Blessing and loving Israel does not involve encouraging them to wipe out a whole race.

    Blessing and loving Israel does not involve supporting them to kill every Palestinian in the Gaza strip in the name of eliminating Hamas.

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    Blessing and loving Israel does not mean we should support them to target and kill every Muslim and Christian man, woman and child in Gaza.

    Blessing and loving Israel does not mean we should sit by silently and watch them turn into worse monsters than the German Nazis that murdered 6 million of their people in gas chambers during World War II.

    Blessing and loving Israel does not mean supporting their every action even when it is wrong.

    Blessing and loving Israel does not mean saying no to a humanitarian pause in the ground offensive and bombing or a ceasefire in order to get the wounded out and send in much needed food and medical supplies.

    Blessing and loving Israel does not mean that we should lose our humanity, our compassion, our decency and our sense of reasoning.

    Blessing and loving Israel does not mean supporting those in the Israeli Knesset that have said the the 2.5 million Palestinians that live in Gaza should be either killed or relocated to 100 different countries at the rate of 25,000 Palestinians per country.

    Blessing and loving Israel does not mean that we should espouse the hateful philosophy and satanic spirit of apartheid which we as Africans spent so many decades opposing and resisting in South Africa.

    Blessing and loving Israel means admonishing them to be accomodating, flexible, kind, calm, compassionate, restrained, rational, reasonable, level- headed and loving even where and when they have been badly hurt and gravely wounded as they were on October 7th.

    Blessing and loving Israel means encouraging them to fight their enemies and defend themselves in a dignified and civilised way by abiding by the laws of war and armed conflict, by honoring the rules of engagement and by working within the strictures and framework of international law whilst in the field of battle.

    Blessing and loving Isreal means encouraging the Jews and giving them hope and support in their time of need, reminding them to have faith in God and admonishing them to be righteous in all their ways.

    That is what we are expected to do as believers and not to celebrate and rejoice when they slaughter innocent women and children and when they indulge in what can best be described as the second holocaust.

  • Terrorists holding at least 200 hostages in Gaza, says U.S.

    Terrorists holding at least 200 hostages in Gaza, says U.S.

    United States Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken has said terrorists are holding at least 200 hostages in Gaza.

    He spoke on Tuesday at the UN Security Council Ministerial Meeting on the Situation in the Middle East.

    “We’re grateful to Qatar, to Egypt, to the ICRC, for helping secure the release of four of Hamas’ hostages.  But at least 200 more – and again, from many of our nations – are still in the grip of Hamas.  So again, I implore every member here:  Use your voice, use your influence, use your leverage to secure their unconditional and immediate release,” he said.

    Blinken said the United States believes the United Nations has a crucial role to play in addressing this crisis. 

    America, he added,  recognises the right of states to defend themselves against terrorism.

    “That’s why we must unequivocally condemn Hamas’s barbaric terrorist attack against Israel – babies riddled with bullets; young people hunted down and gunned down with glee; people, young people beheaded; families burned alive in a final embrace; parents executed in front of their children; children executed in front of their parents; and so many taken hostage in Gaza. 

    “We have to ask – indeed it must be asked – where is the outrage?  Where is the revulsion?  Where is the rejection?  Where is the explicit condemnation of these horrors?

    “We must affirm the right of any nation to defend itself and to prevent such horror from repeating itself.  No member of this council – no nation in this entire body – could or would tolerate the slaughter of its people,” he said.

    He continued: “As this council and the UN General Assembly have repeatedly affirmed, all acts of terrorism are unlawful and unjustifiable.  They’re unlawful and unjustifiable whether they target people in Nairobi or Bali, in Luxor, Istanbul, or Mumbai, in New York or Kibbutz Be’eri.  They’re unlawful and unjustifiable whether they are carried out by ISIS, by Boko Haram, by al-Shabaab, by Lashkar-e Tayyiba, or by Hamas. They’re unlawful and unjustifiable whether victims are targeted for their faith, their ethnicity, their nationality, or any other reason.”

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    Blinken said among the more than 1,400 people Hamas killed on October 7 were citizens from more than 30 UN member states. 

    “The victims included at least 33 American citizens.  Every one of us has a stake, every one of us has a responsibility, in defeating terrorism,” he said.

    Hamas, he said, does not represent the Palestinian people, and Palestinian civilians are not to blame for the carnage committed by Hamas. 

     Hamas, he added, must avoid using the Palestinians as human shields. 

    “It means Israel must take all possible precautions to avoid harm to civilians.  It means food, water, medicine, and other essential humanitarian assistance must be able to flow into Gaza and to the people who need them.  It means civilians must be able to get out of harm’s way.  It means humanitarian pauses must be considered for these purposes.

    “The United States has worked relentlessly to make real these principles.  We continue to coordinate closely with Egypt, Israel, and partners across the region as well as with the United Nations to build mechanisms that will enable sustained humanitarian assistance to flow to civilians in Gaza without benefiting Hamas or any other terrorist group.  President Biden appointed one of our most senior diplomats, Ambassador David Satterfield, to lead our humanitarian efforts, which he is currently doing on the ground.

    He said: “The United States has committed an additional $100 million in humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, bringing the total aid that we provided to the Palestinian people over the past two and a half years to more than $1.6 billion.  That makes the United States the largest single-country donor by far to the Palestinian people.  We call on all countries, particularly those with the greatest capacity to give, to join us in meeting the UN’s appeal for the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

    “At the heart of our efforts to save innocent lives in this conflict and in every conflict, for that matter, is our core belief that every civilian life is equally valuable.  There is no hierarchy when it comes to protecting civilian lives.  A civilian is a civilian is a civilian, no matter his or her nationality, ethnicity, age, gender, faith.

    “That’s why America mourns the loss of every single innocent life in this crisis, including innocent Israeli and Palestinian men, women, children, elderly people, Muslim, Jews, Christians, people of all nationalities and faiths, including at least 35 UN staff members.  That’s why it’s imperative that we work to protect all civilians in this conflict, to prevent more deaths atop the many that have already occurred.”

  • War in Gaza: Hand of Esau and voice of Jacob

    War in Gaza: Hand of Esau and voice of Jacob

    • By Mike Kebonkwu

    It is difficult to make sense of the mindless siege first, to the Israeli villages by Hamas militants, and the reprisal and relentless bombardment by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) of the Gaza Strip.  The barbaric savagery and unprovoked slaughtering of innocent Israeli civilians, women, children and the elderly in their numbers by Hamas triggered off the current mayhem. Young people partying at concert were rounded up and brutally shot and murdered at point blank like a scene in the recast of the holocaust tragedy.  The world watched with outrage, the horrifying death and injuries on both sides.  The attack was orchestrated, well planned and executed with ruthless ferocity and precision. It was a holiday weekend on October 7 when Hamas fighters invaded and overran some Israeli villages. The State of Israel was caught napping and disorientated at the audacity of the brazen invasion and especially the apparent intelligence failure. There can never be a justification for that vicious attack directed not at military objectives or targets of the enemy, but on vulnerable defenceless civilians. 

    The Israelis response was equally measured and expectedly iron-fisted causing death, injuries, displacements and mass exodus of innocent Palestinian residents in the Gaza Strip.  There is unimaginable human suffering the like the world has never witnessed since the end of the Second World War with huge casualties on both sides as if the gate of hell has been opened. Our sympathies are with the innocent victims and vulnerable people in the conflict whether they are Israelis or Palestinians. 

    Hamas is a militant Palestinian group with a pseudo government in the Gaza strip.  They may have been designated as a terrorist organization by the West but to the Arab Palestinians, they are freedom fighters engaged in the liberation struggle for the Palestinians’ homeland.  The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a larger Arab Jewish conflict which is as old as human recorded history.  It is not a religious war by any means as understood or perceived by some naive pedantic clerics, especially bigoted Nigerian religious fanatics who jump into the fray in partisan stands for either Christianity or Islam.  For crying out loud, as Africans, we are neither Arabs nor Jews; these two racial groups treat Africans with disdain and at best like indentured slaves.

    Read Also: Six more UN staff killed in Gaza

    In the whole of this, it is instructive to understand that the Jews and Arabs have about the two most dominant religions in the world with each superintending over the holiest religious sites of the two received religion of Christianity and Islam where people from all over the world come on yearly pilgrimage to worship.  With all the religious pretensions and grandstanding, these two distant cousins are in a duel of fight to finish in an all-out war fought with the fiercest weapons at their disposal showing neither love nor humanity.

    There have been partisan solidarity marches and protests across the globe while the carnage continues and casualties rising by the day.  Common sense dictates that taking sides in this conflict would be infantile and puerile as that will not be addressing the larger conflict in the Middle East between the State of Israel and the Arab nations.  Israel practices Judaism that does not share much in common with Christianity.  The percentage of Christians in Israel as at my last check in 2022 was about 1.9% which is quite insignificant number of their population.  Islam is the second largest religion in Israel – about 18.1% of the population who are Israeli Arabs.  As you read this piece we may probably be inching towards Arab-Israeli war that would be fought with the same bitter hatred and animosity that will reshape the demography of the entire region. 

    The Arabs and Jews have common paternal ancestry through the loin of the patriarch Abraham, their forebear. The war in Gaza clearly showed that we have lost our common humanity. There is a collapse of the global system and very weak United Nations that has lost the capacity to deal effectively with current global crises; whether it is Syria, Yemen, Libya, Ukraine and now Gaza.  Hamas invasion of Israeli villages and the butchery of civilians, women, children and elderly are beyond human comprehension.  It can never be equated with the revolutionary act of freedom fighters engaged in liberation struggle; it is evil of unimaginable proportion. The decisive response from Israel was therefore not unexpected but appears excessive in a context. Indeed, there can never be justification for the sheer human tragedy that the actions of both parties to the conflict have caused. 

    Opinion appears to weigh against the Israelis who have clear military superiority over Hamas but Israel did not start the war.  We have a saying in my local Ika language that, ‘when you blame the hawk for preying on the chick, you must also blame the hen that exposes its chick to the predator’. 

    It was bad miscalculation for Hamas to have underestimated the probable response from Israel; it was indeed a misadventure.  Hamas is still hauling and launching missiles on Israel from civilian infrastructure and built-up areas and would not allow the civilians to leave for safety.  Here lies the dilemma in this present all-out war; even under international law, when civilian infrastructure or protected objects are used for military purpose, they lose their legitimacy of the protection of the law from attack.  As it is, Israel is not willing to turn the other cheek no matter the world opinion if missiles keep raining from Hamas.  The prospect for peace in that enclave is slipping away as the belligerents fight one another like savages. 

    Palestinians have a right to their homeland just as the State of Israel has the right to live in safety and co-exist with its Arab cousins.  The conflict may snowball into a global conflict of epic proportion that may just as well trigger a Third World War. 

    Hamas is only a proxy in the war sponsored and funded by Tehran and countries with its variant of Shiite credo of Islam with sympathy and solidarity of other Arab nations in the region; Syria, Lebanon etc.   This is just the same way that Israel, although a strong military country with small population has the back and unwavering support of the West.  The Hamas leaders fuelling the inferno do not live in Gaza but in capital cities of the rich Arab states in safety with their families.  They incite their followers with inflammatory rhetoric and ignore the suffering of the victims while supervising the carnage. This is the nature of the crises in the Gaza Strip fuelled, financed and controlled from outside; it is hand of Esau and the voice of Jacob, a proxy war.

    The lesson for the poor Africans is not to take side.  And for the brainwashed Nigerian religious bigots and fanatics who follow their pedantic clerics sheepishly to their own misfortune; we should be concerned about the mass poverty and ignorance amongst our people.  Our professionals and youths are leaving the country in droves; you are not protesting.  People cannot get a good and decent meal in a day; it does not matter to you.  The rising unemployment does not worry us; we are waiting for palliatives.  Our elected representatives in the National Assembly are buying exotic SUVs when the masses cannot feed themselves and live in safety; it does not call for engagement and protest by our religious leaders. Instead we are carrying placards chanting down to Israel, down to America and down to Gaza!

    You are neither Arab nor Jew; the battle is not your own; fight your own battle which is poverty, ignorance, unemployment, insecurity, disease and bad governance.   Nigerians have no business fighting one another over religion; we have no reason to kill one another because of language and ethnicity.  We should project common humanity and show love without discrimination; that is religion that the Bible and Quran preach. 

    • Kebonkwu Esq is an Abuja-based attorney.
  • Six more UN staff killed in Gaza

    Six more UN staff killed in Gaza

    No fewer than six United Nations staff were reportedly killed in Gaza on Monday.

    This brings to 35 the number of UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) killed since the beginning of conflict.

    According to BBC report, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres confirmed their death in a tweet on Monday night.

    He tweeted: “Six more United Nations staff have been killed in Gaza, according to the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA).

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    “It brings the total number of UNRWA workers killed in Gaza since the conflict began to 35.

    “We mourn their loss and stand with colleagues doing all they can to assist those in need.”

    No fewer than 5000 people have died in Gaza following Israeli airstrike in retaliation for the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel killing more than 1400 people amd taking over 200 hostage.

    It’s been another night of intense airstrikes in Gaza. The Israeli military says 400 targets were hit over the past 24 hours.

    Israeli Prime Minister Bejamin Netanyahu said Israel is taking an “iron fist” in order “to eliminate Hamas”

  • Gaza: cost of mutual lunacy

    Gaza: cost of mutual lunacy

    How about this for “divine” propaganda, courtesy of Amos 1:6, now viral in the social media?

    “The Lord says,” says the quote, ‘Gaza has sinned again and again, and I will not forget it.  I will not leave her unpunished any more.  For she sent my people into exile, selling them as slaves in Edom.’ “

    “‘So I will set fire to the walls of Gaza, and all her forts shall be destroyed, and destroy Ekron and the King of Ashkelon; all Philistines left will perish. The Lord has spoken.’ ” — thunderous, chilling, sweeping and final!

    The simple-minded, especially among faith zealots, may well be wowed: 21st century Gaza’s fate had long been sealed in BC Israel!  

    So, let the Gazans pay for their latest catastrophe, triggered by the October 7 terror raid of Hamas inside Israel; and massacre of defenceless Isrealis in their Kibbutzes?

    The snag, however, is that Ashkelon today sits in Israel, and also wilts under Hamas’s barrage of retaliatory rockets, even as Israel bombs Gaza to ashes.

    Sure — thanks to the Israeli Iron Dome and Iron Beam defence systems — Ashkelon may well escape the ashen treatment that appears the terrible fate of Gaza. 

    Still, is Ashkelon, part of present-day Israel, also doomed by the Biblical decree in the Book of Amos?  Is Hamas part of the “divine” rod to doom Ashkelon, for its BC crimes? 

    The limit of spin, “divine” or earthly! Every propaganda is spin, woven to scam! 

    So Amos, as literature or as “prophecy”, has nothing to do with present-day Gaza and Ashkelon. 

    Rather, Israel and Gaza are man-made cauldrons, stoked by mutual lunatics, scalding their respective peoples — by the way, ancestral cousins, offspring of Jewish Father Abraham; or Ibrahim, the Arab equivalent.

    In a way though, by their electoral choices, present-day Gazans (Palestinians) and Israelis — the ultimate victims in this conflict — bear ultimate responsibilities. 

    You don’t elect Hamas terrorists and Benjamin ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition extremists, and feign surprise you are hugging naked grenades!

    Still, the Amos account shows the danger of tracking Palestine’s explosive history from the 1948 founding of the modern State of Israel.

    The trouble in that region dated way back.  It’s sweet fiction therefore, peddled by faith zealots, that Palestine belonged to Arabs. 

    Indeed, both can claim the area: both being one-time happy and harsh conquerors; other times sorry and torrid victims of ruthless conquests, both spanning centuries.

    Unless you build from these fundaments, you will flare on rabid emotions but wilt on cold logic.  Only a clinical mind can be fair to both sides, sworn to mutual annihilation.

    Still, how about this PM Netanyahu pitch to Israelis — cant at its most sublime — after the Hamas massacre?  It’s a study in crass emotions, trapping grieving minds.

    “Let us remember,” Bibi the orator thundered, “all nations, empires or cultures who once tried to destroy us, no longer exist today while we still live!  Egypt?  Babylon?  The Greeks?  Alexander of Macedonia? The Romans — does anyone still speak Latin these days?  The Third Reich?”

    This brilliant demagoguery more or less paints Israel’s grim odyssey through the ages: the AD 70 Roman crushing of a Jewish revolt and the sacking of Jerusalem; plus a more ruthless putdown in AD 135, when imperial Rome renamed Judea as Palestine.

    AD 638: Muslim Arabs toppled imperial Rome, and seized the area. Jerusalem became Al-Quds (meaning “The Holy Sanctuary”). Al-Aqsa Mosque, with its famous dome, nestles on the Temple Mount, sacred to the Jews, bang inside Jerusalem’s old city, now in East Jerusalem! 

    AD 1099, Christian Crusaders “briefly” seized the area — for a century or two — before the Muslim Saracens recaptured it, for more than a millennium.  Of course, Crusaders and Saracens were war thugs, grappling at loud faith for moral life.

    So, same shrines. Three faiths.  Untrammeled cross-faith sacredness.  A peep into how Jews-Arab Muslims-Christians are yoked in faith, yet scattered by politics!

    Palestine — and its umpteenth troubles — is living proof of that boiling cauldron!

    Still on Hamas’s barbarism of October 7, Bibi even managed a crow: “Sixty years ago, no country.  No army. [But] today, we have a state (country), an army, a powerful Air Force, a state-of-the-art economy with exports worth billions of dollars …”

    But Bibi blissfully forgot it was same hubris, from felt invincibility, that drove him to strike a desperate deal with ultra-right lunatics (never before tolerated in Israel since 1948), just to return as Prime Minister.

    One, Bazalel Smotrich, Israel’s Finance minister, in March blithely blabbed “there is no such thing as a Palestinian nation.  There is no Palestinian history.  There is no Palestinian language”!, provoking a fire storm in the Arab world.

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    Another, Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s National Security minister, went marching on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, with some Israeli settlers, and Israeli Police in tow!  How can a “national security” minister be so insensate, without courting needless danger?

    But that’s the lunacy on the Israeli side.  The lunacy on the Palestinian side is no less berserk.

    No matter its grouse, Hamas just damned itself as a terrorist cell, with its premeditated massacre of Israelis in their homes, and killing of 260 partying youths in cold blood.  

    Indeed, if you heehaw over October 7, but howl in a pity-party over the Gaza bombing, you are a closet terrorist — no matter your faith, racial or ethnic cant or camouflage.

    You can’t glorify Hamas’s butchery, yet wax hysterical over Gaza and its tragic fate.

    Israeli children, as Gaza’s, have a right to breathe and live!  So, the Israelis are right to insist Hamas started this present cauldron.  It is what it is — the grim logic of it all!

    Still, Gaza’s fate ought to capture the humanity in us all, sans pride, bias or prejudice. 

    Which is why the lasting solution must be to shun the loonies on both sides — bury Hamas, in Gaza; bury Bibi and his ultra-right coalition, after the guns had fallen quiet.

    But sadly, that path — of moderation — had hardly been taken, on both sides.  1981: Islamist extremists despatched Egypt President Anwar Sadat. 1995: a Jewish fanatic assassinated dovish PM, Yitzhak Rabin.

    Their crimes?  The temerity of both to push for peace and accommodation.

    Still, a flicker: Abu Dawud (1937-2010), who plotted the Black September terrorist attack that massacred 11 Israeli athletes, at the 1972 Munich Olympics, died unbowed. 

    Yet in 1996, the same Israel guaranteed his safe passage to and fro Gaza, to attend the PLO meeting that rescinded Fatah’s old protocol that called for Israel’s eradication. 

    Bitter Dawud was displaced from Jerusalem, following its Israeli capture, after the 1967 Six-Day War — just as the ancient Israelites must have felt, in AD 70 and AD 135, when Rome cracked down and scattered them from their Promised Land.

    Israel’s fearsome war machine cannot win the peace.  The Palestinian impotent rage cannot win the war. 

    Both must settle for moderation: a fair two-state solution that guarantees peace and mutual existence.  It’s a much safer path than mutual lunacy.

  • Red Cross confirms release of two more hostages from Gaza

    Red Cross confirms release of two more hostages from Gaza

    The International Red Cross has confirmed the release of two more hostages held by Hamas.

    This brings to four the number of hostages released since Friday.

    Red Cross also confirmed that the released hostages have been transported out of Gaza.

    “We’ve now had confirmation from the International Red Cross that they helped to facilitate the release of two more hostages held by Hamas and transported them out of Gaza this evening.

    In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the humanitarian group add that their “role as a neutral intermediary makes this work possible and we are ready to facilitate any future release”.

    “We hope that they will soon be back with their loved ones.”

    Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades, had announced on its Telegram channel the release of two more hostages, Nurit Yitzhak and Yocheved Lifshitz, through Egyptian-Qatari mediation.

    At the moment these reports remain unconfirmed, but Hamas also accuses “the enemy” – in other words Israel – of refusing since Friday to receive them.

    “We decided to release them on humanitarian and health grounds,” it adds.

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    On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the offer “Hamas propaganda lies”.

    This latest announcement, if confirmed, brings the total number of freed hostages so far to four out of the current known total of 222. Two American-Israelis, mother and daughter Judith and Natalie Raanan, were released from captivity on Friday.

    Earlier, there were reports that as many as 50 foreign and dual nationals could be freed through Qatari mediation.

    A source briefed on the talks denied that leak but said the “talks are ongoing about a full civilian release but no breakthrough yet”. Hamas has spoken of releasing more hostages in exchange for a ceasefire and the entry of more aid into Gaza. Israel has ruled out any ceasefire as it intensifies its military operations.

    More than 1,400 Israelis were killed when Hamas attacked communities near Gaza on 7 October, shooting civilians dead in their homes, in the streets and at a music festival

    Gaza’s health ministry says more than 5,000 people have been killed since Israel began bombing the territory in response, flattening entire neighbourhoods.

    The Hamas-run health ministry said the blast killed 471 people while Israel put the figure at “several dozen”

  • Third aid convoy enters Gaza from Egypt – reports

    Third aid convoy enters Gaza from Egypt – reports

    A third aid convoy has entered Gaza from Egypt, The Nation learnt.

    Gaza has been under siege since 7th October 2023 when Hamas attacked Israel, killing over 3,000 people and taking over 200 hostage.

    Reports by both Reuters and AFP news agencies confirmed that more trucks have just entered Gaza via the Rafah crossing.

    This follows a first convoy of 20 trucks on Saturday and a second convoy on Sunday of around 14.

    Though the number of convoys that entered on Monday was yet to be ascertained.

    The International Committee of the Red Cross has welcomed the delivery of the first two convoys of aid to Gaza – but says it’s just a “drop” of what the population needs.

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    Speaking to BBC Breakfast, charity spokeswoman Imene Trabelsi, said there needs to be an ongoing and sustainable plan to deliver supplies – and pointed out that the vast majority of those in Gaza were relying on aid before the latest conflict even broke out.

    Trabelsi adds that families forced from their homes are sleeping on the streets without essential items such as blankets because shelters are already full.

    “It’s not an exaggeration to say it’s catastrophic in Gaza.” Last week, an IDF spokesman suggested to the BBC there was no humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

  • 222 confirmed hostage in Gaza – Israeli military

    222 confirmed hostage in Gaza – Israeli military

    The number of people held hostages in Gaza is now 222, the Israeli military has said.

    The Israeli military has given a new update on the number of hostages held in Gaza – saying 222 people are now confirmed to be held captive.

    Consequently, the Israeli military have been engaging in cross- border raids to “find information” on hostages, it claimed.

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    Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari, confirmed that Israeli soldiers have been carrying out raids inside Gaza.

    Hagari also said the number of hostages in Gaza – now 222 – took time to confirm because there are a “quite a lot” of foreign citizens among them.

    He told journalists that raids “by armoured and infantry forces” were intended “to kill terrorist cells that are preparing for next phases of war”.

    He also said the Israeli forces were trying to find information on missing hostages.

    On Sunday an Israeli soldier was reportedly killed and three others hurt by a missile in Gaza.

  • Israel hits 320 more targets in Gaza

    Israel hits 320 more targets in Gaza

    Not less than 320 more targets have been hit in the Gaza Strip, according to a latest report.

    This, the Israel’s Defence Minister, according to a BBC report will continue for to while.

    The Defence Minister was quoted as saying the campaign could take “one month, two months, three months… at the end there will be no more Hamas”.

    He also hinted at a ground attack – but saying, before Hamas “meets our tanks and our infantry, they will know the shells from our air force”

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    The Israeli military however said a soldier was killed inside the Gaza Strip while carrying out a raid.

    Meanwhile, Palestinian authorities said homes in the Gaza Strip were hit “without warning”.

    But trucks carrying aid have continued to come in as another 14 arrived on Sunday.

    This notwithstanding, the United Nations warned that “more, much more” is needed.

    The trucks entered with essential medicine, some food – but more importantly four trucks of drinking water.

    About 35 trucks have entered Gaza in last two days, which is considered less than 8% of the daily need of the Palestinians. We used to receive 400 to 500 trucks every day.

    Water is a real problem in Gaza Strip currently. People in the hospital are giving every patient just one litre of water every day.