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War & Peace
Iran Condemns Deadly Israeli Bombing of Syria as 'Criminal Attack'
A spokesperson for Iran's Foreign Ministry called on Israel's allies to "stop supporting and arming it."
Sep 09, 2024
The Israeli military carried out a series of airstrikes on central Syria late Sunday, reportedly killing more than a dozen people and prompting a furious response from Syrian ally Iran.
"We strongly condemn this criminal attack," Nasser Kanaani, a spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said during a press conference in Tehran.
Kanaani went on to urge Israel's weapons suppliers, chiefly the United States and Germany, to "stop supporting and arming it" as its catastrophic assault on the Gaza Strip spills out across the region. Nearly 40 people were wounded in Israel's strikes on Sunday, according to a Syrian health official, and several are in critical condition.
Citing two unnamed regional intelligence sources, Reutersreported early Monday that the Israeli strikes hit a "major military research center for chemical arms production located near Misyaf."
The facility, according to Reuters, "is believed to house a team of Iranian military experts involved in weapons production."
Kanaani denied that the facility hit was connected to Iran.
"What official sources from the Syrian government have announced is that there were attacks on some Syrian facilities, including an attack on a research center affiliated with the Ministry of Defense and the Syrian army," he said.
Civilians were reportedly among those killed and wounded in Sunday's strikes, which came as the world awaited Iran's expected military response to Israel's assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in late July.
Israeli forces have carried out dozens of airstrikes in Syria—including one targeting Iran's consulate in Damascus—since the Hamas-led October 7 attack, which prompted Israel's large-scale assault on Gaza.
Al Jazeerareported that Israeli forces continued to pummel the Palestinian enclave on Monday, bombing "al-Amoudi street in the Sabra neighborhood, south of Gaza City." The outlet noted that "at least 10 people have been killed today in attacks across the Gaza Strip."
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Massive London March Demands Israeli Arms Embargo After Police Drop Restrictions
"We demand our government completely stop arming Israel and push for a cease-fire now," said the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
Sep 07, 2024
Thousands of people gathered at London's Picadilly Circus Saturday for the city's latest march against Israel's bombardment of Gaza and the United Kingdom's continued support for the Israel Defense Forces, following what organizers called "a major victory in defense of the democratic right to protest."
The Metropolitan Police on Friday dropped its restrictions on the march, which was the first pro-Palestinian protest since last October to proceed to the Israeli embassy in London.
The police had attempted to stop campaigners from gathering before 2:30 pm, conflicting with plans to begin the rally preceding the march at noon.
"They never provided any convincing explanation or evidence for this delay, and it has caused enormous, unnecessary difficulty to the organization of a large-scale demonstration," Ben Jamal, who leads the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, one of the groups organizing the march, toldMiddle East Eye on Friday.
"It has unfortunately been part of a pattern of obstruction, delay, and lack of communication on the part of the Met which we will press them to review and reflect on for future demonstrations," he added. "For tomorrow, we call on our supporters to turn out in their hundreds of thousands to show we will not be deterred from seeking an end to Israel's genocide and justice for Palestine!"
Jamal said the police "saw sense and abandoned their unjustified and impractical attempt to delay the start of the march by two hours on Saturday," allowing the march to begin at 1:30 pm.
During previous marches in which hundreds of thousands of people have demonstrated in solidarity with Palestinians since last October, police have blocked off the area surrounding the Israeli embassy in Kensington, threatening anyone who protested in the vicinity with arrest.
Marching to the embassy, demonstrators made a "renewed call to end the ongoing genocide in Gaza" and demanded an "immediate and full cessation of arms supplies to Israel."
Earlier this week, the U.K. government announced it was suspending approximately 30 of its 350 arms export licenses for Israel, saying that "there does exist a clear risk that they might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law."
Human rights advocates, medical professionals working in Gaza, and legal experts have for months demanded that Israel's top international funders, including the U.S. and U.K., stop providing military aid as Israel has blocked humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza and waged attacks on civilian infrastructure, killing more than 40,000 people.
The country has also been accused of carrying out genocide in a case led by South Africa at the International Court of Justice; the court has ordered Israel to end its blockade on humanitarian aid and to prevent genocide in Gaza.
"We demand our government completely stop arming Israel and push for a cease-fire now," said the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
As Londoners marched on Saturday, the Gaza Health Ministry announced that at least 61 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli forces in the last two days. Four people were killed in a strike on Halimah al-Saadiyah school in Jabaliya, where displaced Palestinians have been sheltering, and three were killed in a bombing at Amr Ibn al-As school in Gaza City.
Media outlets in Palestine reported that a baby named Yaqeen al-Astal had become the 37th child in Gaza to die of malnutrition since Israel began its near-total aid blockade.
International outrage also grew on Saturday regarding the killing of a Turkish American activist, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, in the West Bank on Friday. Local media and eyewitnesses said Eygi had been deliberately shot in the head by Israeli forces at a protest over the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements.
The U.S. called on Israel to investigate the killing on Friday, but Eygi's family said in a statement that such a probe would not be "adequate."
"We call on President [Joe] Biden, Vice President [Kamala] Harris, and Secretary of State [Antony] Blinken to order an independent investigation into the unlawful killing of a U.S. citizen and to ensure full accountability for the guilty parties," said the family.
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the United Nations, called for "a full investigation of the circumstances" and said that "people should be held accountable. And again, civilians must be protected at all times."
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Jayapal Slams Israeli Government After US Activist Killed in West Bank
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, she said, "has done nothing to stop settlement expansion and settler violence in the West Bank, often encouraged by right-wing ministers."
Sep 06, 2024
U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal blasted Israel's government on Friday after Israeli forces reportedly killed American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi while the 26-year-old was protesting the expansion of settlements in the illegally occupied West Bank.
"My heart goes out to Aysenur's family, friends, and loved ones," Jayapal (D-Wash.) said in a statement. "This is a terrible tragedy, and I extend my condolences to all those in mourning today. My office is actively working to gather more information on the events that led to her death."
Eygi, who had dual citizenship in the United States and Turkey, graduated from the University of Washington earlier this year.
"I am very troubled by the reports that she was killed by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers," said Jaypal, who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Citing witnesses, AJ+reported that Eygi was killed by a "deliberate shot to the head" in the town of Beita, near the settlement of Evyatar.
"The killing of an American citizen is a terrible proof point in this senseless war of rising tensions in the region."
The congresswoman charged that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government "has done nothing to stop settlement expansion and settler violence in the West Bank, often encouraged by right-wing ministers of the Netanyahu government."
"The killing of an American citizen is a terrible proof point in this senseless war of rising tensions in the region," added Jayapal, a critic of Israel's 11-month assault of the Gaza Strip, which has killed over 40,878 Palestinians and led to a genocide case at the International Court of Justice.
The U.S. government has provided Israel with diplomatic support and billions of dollars in military assistance since it launched the assault on Gaza in retaliation for the October 7 Hamas-led attack, in which more than 1,100 people were killed and over 240 others were taken hostage.
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), the only Palestinian American in Congress and a fierce critic of the Israeli government, responded to Eygi's killing by calling out American diplomats in a series of posts on social media Friday.
Matthew Miller, a spokesperson at the U.S. State Department, said that "we are aware of the tragic death of an American citizen, Aysenur Eygi, today in the West Bank. We offer our deepest condolences to her family and loved ones. We are urgently gathering more information about the circumstances of her death, and will have more to say as we learn more. We have no higher priority than the safety and security of American citizens."
Noting his statement, Tlaib said: "Hey how'd they die, Matt? Was it magic? Who or what killed Aysenur? Asking on behalf of Americans who want to know."
The congresswoman slammed U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken for his "complete and utter failure in keeping Americans safe," and urged him to "do something to save lives!"
Tlaib also reposted Zeteo News reporter Prem Thakker's list of Americans killed by Israeli forces. In addition to Eygi, they include teenagers Mohammad Khdour and Tawfic Abdel Jabbar; World Central Kitchen worker Jacob Flickinger; journalist Shireen Abu Akleh; and peace activist Rachel Corrie.
"Today, yet another U.S. citizen was shot dead in the West Bank, almost certainly by Israeli soldiers," said Win Without War executive director Sara Haghdoosti, urging President Joe Biden's administration to direct the Federal Bureau of Investigation to launch an immediate investigation.
"Today's tragedy is not a one-off," she stressed. "Violence in the occupied West Bank, driven by right-wing settlers and backed up by Israeli security services, has been increasing since the horrific attacks of October 7th and has spiked in recent weeks. In the last 10 days alone, Israeli security forces have killed 36 Palestinians in the West Bank, including eight children."
Haghdoosti noted that "in February, President Biden declared that settler violence in the West Bank constitutes 'an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States' and promised strict sanctions against those responsible for harming civilians there."
"Eygi's killing is both a confirmation of and a challenge to the president's declaration: A U.S. citizen has been slain, and now it is up to the Biden administration to use the many tools at its disposal to determine who is responsible and hold them accountable," she argued.
"The Justice Department announced indictments this week for Hamas leaders involved in killing U.S. citizens—an entirely appropriate action when Americans are killed abroad," she added. "We are horrified by Hamas' murders, including that of U.S. citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin last week. The Goldberg-Polin family deserves justice, and so do Aysenur Eygi's loved ones."
This post has been updated with comment from Win Without War.
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UN Expert Fears 'Almost the Entire Population' of Gaza Exterminated If Israel Not Stopped
"The range of presumable direct and indirect deaths could be between 15 and 20% of the population already by the end of this year," said U.N. Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese.
Sep 06, 2024
Reviewing a global public health expert's analysis of the probable ultimate death toll in Gaza from Israel's relentless assault, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories said Friday that without a cease-fire, the Israel Defense Forces "could end up exterminating almost the entire population in Gaza over the next couple of years."
"The range of presumable direct and indirect deaths could be between 15% and 20% of the population already by the end of this year," said Francesca Albanese, citing research by Devi Sridhar, chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh.
Sridhar wrote in The Guardian about the difficulty of counting the dead on Thursday, days after the first of three planned pauses in fighting began to allow families to get to medical clinics for polio vaccines. Israel agreed to the pauses after one child was diagnosed with paralysis resulting from polio, which was detected in wastewater in Gaza in July, alarming public health experts.
"The discovery of polio in Gaza reminds us that it's becoming increasingly difficult to assess the true cost of the war," wrote Sridhar. "We don't have a sense of how widespread disease and starvation are—so-called 'indirect deaths'—and we are in the dark in terms of total number of deaths. Usually, data is collected from hospitals and morgues, which certify each death and notify the health ministry. Yet these civil registration systems have broken down in Gaza, meaning there is no accurate data on how many deaths have occurred."
As Common Dreamsreported on Wednesday, despite Israel's agreement to pauses in fighting to allow children to be vaccinated, bombings by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) continued this week, with some targeting "locations near the vaccination centers."
Human rights advocates have said since Israel began its bombardment of Gaza last October that along with the threat of bombings and shelling, Palestinians face the ever-growing threat of starvation and disease due to Israel's near-total blockade on humanitarian aid.
"If deaths continue at this rate—about 23,000 a month—there would be an additional 149,500 deaths by the end of the year, some six and half months from the initial mid-June estimate. Using the method, the total deaths since the conflict began would be estimated at about 335,500 in total."
In its regular report on the humanitarian situation in Gaza on Friday, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Israeli evacuation orders in addition to blockades caused daily meals provided to families to drop 35% in July and August.
"The food security situation in the Gaza Strip is deteriorating due to the critical shortages of aid commodities as well as ongoing hostilities, insecurity, damaged roads, access limitation and breakdown of law and order," said the agency, noting that more than 1 million people in southern and central Gaza received no food rations in August.
United Nations experts warned in July that Israel's "targeted starvation campaign" has "resulted in famine across all of Gaza," with at least 34 Palestinians dying of malnutrition as hundreds of aid delivery trucks were stranded in Egypt, unable to cross into the enclave.
The spread of disease is also a continued threat due to "the staggering increase in the cost of basic hygiene items" and attacks on health centers, said OCHA on Friday. The price of soap increased 1,177% in July, compared to July 2023.
"The lack of affordable hygiene items, combined with limited access to clean water and sanitation facilities, poses a growing risk of severe health impacts," said the agency. "This is especially true for families who have been displaced, as they face extreme difficulties maintaining basic hygiene in overcrowded shelters and displacement sites, while critical facilities—such as health centers, community kitchens, child-protection spaces, nutrition centers, and schools—lack the necessary tools to ensure safe and sanitary conditions. These conditions are all likely to deteriorate further during the winter."
Sridhar noted that while at least 40,878 people are confirmed dead in Gaza, "it is estimated that there are more than 10,000 bodies buried under rubble still (meaning they can't be counted), as well as a rising number of unidentifiable bodies."
Israel faces a South Africa-led genocide case at the International Court of Justice.
Sridhar's report came two months after public health experts estimated in The Lancet that even if a cease-fire were agreed to immediately, the true death toll in Gaza could ultimately reach roughly 186,000—nearly 8% of the population.
"If deaths continue at this rate—about 23,000 a month—there would be an additional 149,500 deaths by the end of the year, some six and half months from the initial mid-June estimate," wrote Sridhar. "Using the method, the total deaths since the conflict began would be estimated at about 335,500 in total."
Sridhar urged advocates to not "get lost in these numbers and forget the name and the face behind each one," and to continue pushing for a cease-fire and public health measures like the polio vaccination campaign that could save thousands of children from paralysis.
"Attempts to access the strip by the U.N., like the one resulting in humanitarian pauses for polio vaccinations, save lives," wrote Sridhar. "They make a difference to hundreds of thousands of families, even within the abject horror of war."
Albanese suggested that eventually, the world will have to face the potentially hundreds of thousands of deaths that powerful countries including the United States—the largest funder of Israel's military—allowed to happen.
"Once the dust settles, I can't imagine how the world will go on after having allowed that," said Albanese. "Again."
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