Israeli Airstrikes Kill Five Journalists in Gaza

July 6, 2024
in News, Gaza

Five Palestinian journalists were killed in the past 12 hours due to intensive Israeli airstrikes targeting various areas in the Gaza Strip, including Gaza City and the Nuseirat refugee camp.

The massacred journalists included:

• Saadi Madoukh, Director of Deep Shot Media Production CompanyA
• Adeeb Sukkar, Media Specialist at Deep Shot Media Production Company
• Amjad Jahjoh, Journalist at Palestine Media Agency
• Wafaa Abu Dhabaan, wife of Amjad, Program Host at Islamic University Radio in Gaza
•  Rizq Abu IShkiyan, Journalist at Palestine Media Agency

Journalist Amjad Jahjoh, his wife Wafaa Abu Dhabaan, and their child were killed on Saturday morning in an airstrike on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, sources told Days of Palestine. Journalist Rizq was killed in the same raid too.

On Friday, journalists Saadi Madoukh and Adeeb Sukkar were killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted the Madoukh family home in the Al-Sahaba neighborhood of Gaza City.

With the murder of these five journalists, the total number of Palestinian journalists killed since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza on October 7 has risen to 158, according to the Government Media Office.

Deadliest War for Gaza Journalists

The Center for the Protection of Palestinian Journalists condemned the killing of journalists Saadi Madoukh and Adeeb Sukkar in the Al-Daraj neighborhood of Gaza. The center noted that their deaths occurred just one day after the killing of Al-Quds TV journalist Mohammed Al-Sakani in a similar airstrike on his family home in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City.

The center emphasized that the current conflict has become the most deadly for Palestinian journalists in modern history. It called for an independent and comprehensive international investigation into Israeli crimes against journalists.

Data from the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) indicates that the war on Gaza is now the deadliest for journalists since the organization began documenting journalist killings worldwide in 1992.

Shortlink for this post: https://daysofpalestine.ps/?p=54864

Five journalists killed as Israel steps up bombardment across Gaza

Journalist couple Amjad Jahjouh and Wafa Abu Dabaan and their children were killed in a strike on the Nuseirat camp.


Video Duration 04 minutes 43 seconds04:43
Published On 6 Jul 20246 Jul 2024

At least five journalists were killed in attacks by Israeli forces in the last 24 hours in Gaza as bombings and air strikes across the besieged enclave intensified.

On Saturday, Gaza’s Government Media Office said separate Israeli strikes killed three journalists in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the centre of the territory and two in Gaza City, raising to at least 158 the number of media workers killed since the current war erupted on October 7.

Those who were killed in Nuseirat were identified as Amjad Jahjouh and Rizq Abu Ashkian, both from the Palestine Media Agency, and Wafa Abu Dabaan from the Islamic University Radio in Gaza.

Abu Dabaan was married to Jahjouh. Their children were also killed during the strike, according to Al Jazeera’s team on the ground. At least 10 people were killed in that attack on Nuseirat.

Palestinian journalists Saadi Madoukh and Ahmed Sukkar were killed on Friday following an Israeli raid that targeted a home of the Madoukh family in the Daraj neighbourhood of Gaza City.

Before the latest deadly attacks, Israel’s war on Gaza was already considered the deadliest conflict for journalists and media workers in the world.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, which has a separate database on Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza, put the number of media workers killed as of July 5 at 108 since the war began, also making it the deadliest period since the group began gathering data in 1992.

Al Jazeera journalist, Hamza Dahdouh, the eldest son of Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief, Wael Dahdouh, was among those killed by an Israeli missile strike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, in January.

Hamza was in a vehicle near al-Mawasi, an Israel-designated “safe zone” that its forces have repeatedly attacked. He was with another journalist, Mustafa Thuraya, who was also killed in the attack.

An earlier Israeli attack had wounded Wael and killed his cameraperson Samer Abudaqa during a reporting assignment in southern Gaza in December.

The Guardian newspaper reported in June that at least 23 members of the Al-Aqsa network, a media channel linked to Hamas, were killed by Israeli strikes since October.
Death toll tops 38,000

Gaza’s Ministry of Health said on Saturday that 87 people were killed across the enclave over the last 48 hours, including the five journalists, bringing to at least 38,098 the number of people killed in the last nine months.

More than 87,700 people have been injured in Israel’s military offensive during the same period, the ministry said.

Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud noted the “surge in air attacks across the central area, the southern part of the Gaza Strip, and also in Gaza City’s Shujayea neighbourhood in the north”.

In eastern Khan Younis and Rafah city, at the southern edge of the Strip, bodies were being taken out of the hospital morgue for burials.

“It’s a scene that we’ve been seeing over and over for the past nine months, crying parents over the bodies of their children,” Mahmoud said. “It’s heartbreaking and it’s becoming the daily norm for people here.”

Among the victims in the recent assaults was a worker for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) after an Israeli strike hit the organisation’s warehouses north of the Maghazi camp in central Gaza, according to Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency Sanad.

Another person was also killed in that attack on the UNRWA facilities.
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Video footage verified by Sanad showed the arrival of their bodies, as well as those injured, at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah.

The UNRWA employee was wearing his jacket clearly identifying him as UN staff while working in the agency’s warehouses.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Information Center reported on Saturday at least six policemen were killed in an Israeli bombardment that hit their car in the Saudi neighbourhood of western Rafah.

One person was also killed as a result of an Israeli bombing of a police car in Gaza’s al-Shakoush area, northwest of Rafah.

Why there is no uprising in the West Bank – yet

The West Bank remains unusually calm as Israel carries out its genocide in Gaza. But while Israeli repression has dissuaded an uprising in the streets, the tectonic plates underneath continue to shift.

BY QASSAM MUADDI

JULY 5, 2024 

MONDOWEISS

PALESTINIAN PROTESTERS CARRYING TIRES FOR BARRICADES AT THE NORTHERN ENTRANCE TO RAMALLAH/AL-BIREH, MAY 18, 2021. 

(PHOTO: QASSAM MUADDI/MONDOWEISS)

As war rages on in Gaza and along the Lebanese border, the West Bank has taken a backseat in the news in the wake of Israel’s unrelenting genocide. Absent the proliferation of small pockets of armed resistance in refugee camps and urban centers in the north, the West Bank has maintained an uneasy sense of calm.

This silence is uncharacteristic. In previous years, Palestinians in the West Bank have reacted to the occupation’s crimes through a series of mass mobilizations, daily clashes with Israeli troops, general strikes, and campaigns of civil disobedience. The First Intifada of 1987, although beginning in Gaza, was mobilized into a united and organized movement in the West Bank, a role which it has continued to play in the thirty-odd years since.

This includes the “Unity Intifada” in May 2021, when Palestinians in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and ‘48 Palestine rose up in a collective reaction to Israeli attempts to expel Palestinian families from their homes in Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. The wave of mass protests across the West Bank’s cities was larger than it had ever been, reaching its peak on May 18 when a general strike was observed in all of historic Palestine, from the river to the sea.

This all changed after October 7. Over the past nine months, mass mobilization has been virtually absent, despite the unprecedented horrors of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, which has claimed the lives of over 37,000 Palestinians.

Yet with the memories of past events of popular revolt still fresh in people’s minds, the current lack of mobilization in the West Bank has led many to conclude that Israel has effectively neutralized it as an arena of struggle.

Before October: anything but neutralized

To look at the news in the months and years before October 7, any observer would have thought that the West Bank would be an active front in the war. Daily Israeli raids on Palestinian cities and refugee camps were met with confrontation by Palestinians, who increasingly began to use arms instead of stones to face off against the troops invading their homes. Locally-based armed resistance groups began to spread across different cities, from Jenin, to Nablus, Tulkarem, Tubas, and Jericho.

The phenomenon attracted analysts and journalists, who spoke of a “new generation of Palestinian resistance.” Western news outlets reported on the armed rebellion of “the West Bank’s Gen Z fighters” in outlets like The Economist, the Wall Street Journal, and Vice. Many were left wondering whether what was happening in the West Bank could be called a Third Intifada.

Read also: Inside the “Wasps’ Nest”: the rise of the Jenin Brigade

This situation of upheaval was at least two years in the making. In 2021, the escape of six Palestinian prisoners from the Gilboa maximum security prison sparked a wave of armed resistance in Jenin, where two of the escapees had taken shelter. Israeli forces recaptured them after clashing with a small group of gunmen. After the recapture, more youth began to join the group, until the Jenin Brigade came into existence. It was followed by the Lions’ Den in Nablus, the Tulkarem Brigade in Tulkarem, and the Tubas Brigade in Tubas. These cities and their adjacent refugee camps became havens for armed resistance groups

.

PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE FIGHTERS FROM THE LIONS’ DEN AT MARTYRS’ FUNERAL CEREMONY IN NABLUS, FEBRUARY 10, 2023. (PHOTO: NASSER ISHTAYEH/SOPA IMAGES VIA ZUMA PRESS WIRE/APA IMAGES)

Simultaneously, local civil resistance movements increased in several locations where lands were threatened by settler expansion, like in Kufr Qaddoum, Salfit, and Nabi Saleh. In some places, civil resistance had been ongoing for over a decade. In others, it had been absent since the First Intifada — but now sprang back to life. One of the most famous cases is the village of Beita, south of Nablus, where residents have been protesting the Israeli settler outpost of Evyatar on Mount Sabih for three years. Israeli forces imposed and continue to impose repetitive closures on the village, patrolling its entrance, raiding it regularly, revoking working permits of its thousands of breadwinners who work in Israel, arresting and wounding hundreds of residents, and killing at least ten of Beita’s youth to date.

After October: new levels of repression

While all pales in comparison to Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza, the Israeli crackdown on resistance in the West Bank took on an entirely different meaning after October 7. Israel revoked tens of thousands of work permits for Palestinians, blocked dozens of roads that Palestinians used to move around between cities and villages in the West Bank, and dramatically intensified its arrest campaign against Palestinians.

In the first two months after October 7, Israel doubled the already existing Palestinian prison population, at one point reaching over 10,000 prisoners. The number of administrative detainees — those detained without charge or trial — has reached 3,600, whereas the number was 1,300 before the war.

The scope of arrests also increased, widening to include Palestinians from all walks of life, including many who are not politically active. Many of the arrestees are community leaders, journalists, and civil society activists with little to no tenuous ties to politics. Inside the prisons, human rights reports and testimonies of released Palestinians all revealed unprecedented levels of humiliation, abuse, and torture, effectively extending the genocide of Palestinians to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody.

According to a spokesperson of the Addameer Prisoner Support Association, who asked not to be quoted by name, “Israeli arrests systematically target active members of the community who have the capacity of mobilizing it, especially those who have a past in doing so,” adding that “this is clearly seen in the arrests of individuals who work in civil society, in academia, in the media, and in human rights.”

Read also: Gaza is showing the rest of Palestine the truth of struggle

Outside cities, the violence of Israeli settlers rampaged exponentially, effectively expelling some 20 rural communities in the West Bank through violent attacks and death threats. Israeli settlers also increased their attacks against Palestinians traveling on West Bank roads, adding to the risk of beatings and arrests at Israeli military checkpoints.

These Israeli measures have resulted in the killing of 554 Palestinians and the arrest of 9,400 in the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, over the past nine months.

The reason for the intensity of the Israeli crackdown is no mystery. It is preemptive, designed to shock and dissuade Palestinians in the West Bank from opening up a second front in the “al-Aqsa Flood” battle

.

MARCH IN RAMALLAH CITY CENTER, FEBRUARY 20, 2024. (PHOTO: QASSAM MUADDI/MONDOWEISS)

The impact on the streets

In the northern cities of Jenin and Tulkarem, the meteoric escalation of Israeli raids in both number and scope of violence and destruction resulted in an increase in the intensity of armed confrontations with Palestinian resistance fighters. At least seven Israeli soldiers, including two officers, have been killed since October 7 in West Bank raids, including the death of an officer and the injury of 17 soldiers in Jenin just last week.

Yet as the armed groups in the West Bank have managed to so far weather the onslaught, civil mobilization in its traditional form in the West Bank has remained largely absent.

On October 17, ten days into the genocide in Gaza, Palestinians in several West Bank cities took to the streets following the news of Israel’s bombing of the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza, which killed 500 people. In Jenin and Ramallah, some protesters chanted slogans against what they saw as the PA’s inaction. Protests turned into clashes with the Palestinian police, and five protesters were killed. In the following weeks, protesters avoided clashing with the PA, as their numbers grew smaller, and more leading figures of the protests were arrested by Israel.

On March 30, which marked Palestinian Land Day, the city of Ramallah had a special moment of revival. Thousands marched through the streets of the city, including people of all ages, for around two hours, chanting in support of Palestinians in Gaza and denouncing the genocide. Then it was all over.

Read also: ‘Army and Arabs’: truth, play, and illusions in the West Bank

One protester told Mondoweiss after the march that “people saw it as an opportunity to express themselves after months of being silenced, which is why the number of participants was higher than other marches since the beginning of the war, and also why it lasted for so long.”

“Traditionally, the march would head to the city entrance [near the Beit El settlement] and end with some protesters clashing with occupation soldiers, but this time, everybody knew that it was not going to happen, which is why the march roamed the city center for so long,” the protester said.

PART OF THE LAND DAY MARCH IN RAMALLAH CITY CENTER, MARCH 30, 2024. (PHOTO: QASSAM MUADDI/MONDOWEISS)

On May 15, which marked Nakba Day, dozens of Palestinians, mostly young people, took their chances and headed to the northern entrance of Ramallah and al-Bireh, demonstrating in front of the Beit El checkpoint. Several were wounded, and one Palestinian protester was killed.

Aysar Safi, 20 years old, was a second-year student of physical education at Birzeit University from the Jalazone refugee camp north of Ramallah. He was the sixth Palestinian from Jalazone to be killed by Israeli forces since October 7.

Aysar’s older brother and his father are both detainees in Israel’s jails. Since their arrest, Aysar had been taking care of his father’s aluminum shop, working and studying at the same time. His uncle described him as “his mother’s right hand.” His mother, meanwhile, was too deep in grief to speak.

“Aysar was very affected by the genocide in Gaza and said that we had to do more here in the West Bank to help our people there,” a friend of Aysar told Mondoweiss. “He was always present at the reception of released prisoners and funerals of martyrs.”

“His killing wasn’t random. The occupation soldiers aimed at his stomach,” the friend pointed out. “They were using live fire, not rubber-coated bullets. They were sending a message that they will not tolerate any protests, because they want to keep people scared and keep the West Bank passive.”

But for Palestinian historian Bilal Shalash, who studies the history of Palestinian resistance, “the West Bank is anything but passive.”

“Historically, there is a pattern in Palestine, where high waves of resistance start in one region, then when it calms down, it is picked up by another,” Shalash tells Mondoweiss. “The occupation is afraid of the West Bank picking up from Gaza, especially in the north, and this is why it intensifies its crackdown on it in such a brutal way.”

As for civil mobilization, Shalash believes it has been highly dependent on geography. “It is not completely absent,” he notes. “In the villages close to the annexation wall or to Israeli settler roads, mass mobilization can vary. Some villages have developed their local mass movement in the past years or decades and continue to protest weekly, while in other villages, a few young men clash with occupation forces and settlers when they raid.”

In the cities, people often protest within their urban centers without confronting the occupation, a product of the Oslo regime’s spatial separation of Palestinians from the occupier. This has led many to refrain from participating in such actions, Shalash notes. “They don’t see the point of it,” he explains. “Some do still participate because they want to send a message to the PA concerning internal Palestinian politics.”

The PA has shown its intent to suppress a mass upheaval in the West Bank, but Shalash believes that there are limits to how much the PA can ban protests without risking a larger backlash. “That’s why these protests can still happen,” he says.
Read also: Oslo lives. Death to Oslo.

Additionally, mass mobilization in Palestine has been partly dependent on the involvement of the middle class, which formed a part of the political intelligentsia and popular movement. That same middle class has now been drawn into a consumerist and depoliticized lifestyle, which is only maintained by the continuous flow of money from outside the country — both to the PA and to the NGO sector.

Yet that very stability is now being undermined by Israel.

As Israel refuses to end its war on Gaza and tensions rise across the region, all previous signs of stability in the West Bank have disappeared, one after the other. Israel has only responded with even greater repression, hoping to prevent a major shake-off, at least at surface level. The trouble is that underneath, the tectonic plates have not stopped shifting.

Qassam Muaddi
Qassam Muaddi is the Palestine Staff Writer for Mondoweiss. Follow him on Twitter/X at @QassaMMuaddi.

A hollow Palestinian state

Spain, Ireland, and Norway recently made headlines for recognizing the State of Palestine. But the only effective policy for any state recognizing Palestine is also the diplomatic and economic isolation of the Israeli state. There is no other way.

BY MUHANNAD AYYASH

JULY 6, 2024 

MONDOWEIS

DESTRUCTION IN THE VICINITY OF AL-SHIFA HOSPITAL, GAZA CITY, APRIL 2, 2024. (PHOTO: © OMAR ISHAQ/DPA VIA ZUMA PRESS/APA IMAGES)


When Spain, Ireland, and Norway joined the majority of the world’s states to recognize the State of Palestine, attention immediately turned to what such a recognition will mean on the ground. Is this purely or primarily a symbolic move? What does it mean in a practical sense for Palestinians? Will it in fact create material pressure on the Israeli state and advance the Palestinian aspiration for freedom and liberation? Is it a first step towards creating that pressure? Can this help the Palestinians at the United Nations and/or in international criminal courts? Among others.

In the recently passed United Nations Security Council Resolution 2735, we find a reaffirmation of the international commitment to the “two-State solution where two democratic States, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace within secure and recognized borders.” The same questions apply here as well.

It is clear to honest observers that what is required in the current comment is more than these types of recognitions and statements. What is required is a severing of diplomatic and economic ties with the Israeli state. Without this substantial and immediate material pressure, the Israeli state will continue to calculate that is has little to lose and everything to gain by continuing the genocide of the Palestinian people, not just in this genocidal operation but over the long term as well.

Therefore, any state action that does not take a policy position of severing all ties with Israel or genuinely building towards such a policy position is, in the last analysis, state inaction in the face of Israeli settler colonialism.

Recognition of a Palestinian state is only meaningful if it is understood as the recognition of the Palestinians’ inalienable right to live a sovereign life on all their lands, and is part of a larger strategy to place material pressure on the Israeli state.

Recognition of a Palestinian state is only meaningful if it is understood as the recognition of the Palestinians’ inalienable right to live a sovereign life on all their lands, and is part of a larger strategy to place material pressure on the Israeli state. Indeed, only if politicians around the world, not just from Europe, but from the Global South as well, including the Arab states, begin to openly speak about adopting such a strategy, and taking practical steps towards it, can we be assured that such diplomatic statements and moves are not going to remain purely symbolic and entirely ineffectual.

I want to suggest that the only logical conclusion to the path taken by every state that has recognized the State of Palestine is in fact this diplomatic and economic isolation of the Israeli state. There is no other way.

Why do I say that? Let’s first pull back and ask: what exactly is being recognized? What is a Palestinian state? According to the majority of the world’s states, a Palestinian state would be fully sovereign. That is, it would enjoy full rights of self-determination which include developing a military, an independent foreign policy, and an independent economy; it would have contiguous territories along the 1967 borders with a corridor connecting the West Bank with the Gaza Strip; and East Jerusalem would be its capital. Most remain silent on the Palestinian right of return to their lands across all of Palestine from which they have been expelled since 1948. But let’s put this last critical point to the side for now, and come back to it at the end.

Taking the position of full sovereignty and 67 borders at face value, this means that states around the world are suggesting that all the Israeli settlements across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, should they remain there, would be under Palestinian sovereignty. In effect, Israeli Jews would have to submit to the authority of the Palestinian state, which, among other things, means that these settlements would cease to be exclusive to Israelis Jews.

Not only has every Israeli government in history outrightly rejected this idea of Israeli Jews living under Palestinian sovereignty, they in fact have always rejected the very notion of Palestinian sovereignty. Throughout history, including the years of the “peace process,” Israel never agreed or offered the kind of sovereignty that states around the world recognize as the right of the Palestinian people. Never, not once.

So, we have a situation where Israel along with its main backer, the United States, are refusing the very idea of the State of Palestine as that idea is understood around the world. Instead, the U.S. continues to say that the core issues of borders, Jerusalem, sovereignty, etc., “should be resolved in negotiations.” Why would they say that? Why do they not want to openly support the recognition of the State of Palestine in line with the rest of the world? For a simple reason: they know that Israel does not want that particular kind of the Palestinian state. So, what kind of Palestinian “state” does Israel want? The U.S. empire understands very well that Israel (1) will never accept Palestinian sovereignty; (2) believes that all of Jerusalem belongs to Israel; (3) that Palestine cannot have a military, an independent foreign policy, or an independent economy; (4) that Palestinian territories will be discontiguous; (5) that the Palestinian right of return is not on the table; and (6) that Israel will officially annex large chunks of the West Bank and now perhaps the Gaza Strip. In essence, when the US says, “these are negotiations issues,” which it is saying again in its promoted ceasefire plan in regards to Gaza, what it is really saying is that Israel, after subduing the Palestinians into servitude and obedience, will force the Palestinians to accept something that is not a real state, but where the Palestinians will agree to publicly and officially end all their claims against Israel.

Unfortunately, it is not impossible to find corrupt Palestinian leaders who have sold out the people’s struggle for freedom in order to accept such crumbs for the benefit of themselves. In other words, this outlandish, brutal, colonial plan is not only achievable but its success is probable as far as the US and Israel are concerned.

But thus far, Palestinian resistance, as a people’s resistance, has withstood the effort to subdue it once and for all. And I believe that this will continue to be the case. The Palestinian people have refused the fate of elimination for over 100 years, and will continue for another 100 years or more if necessary.

And so, this is where things stand today. The U.S.’s version of the “new Middle East” is one where Arab states have accepted the idea that a “Palestinian state” exists and the issue resolved once and for all, but in reality, it will exist in name only. In line with Israeli aspirations, the so-called Palestinian state will be restricted to approximately 18% of the West Bank, Jerusalem will be under exclusive Israeli Jewish sovereignty, and perhaps something around 70% of the Gaza Strip will remain under Palestinian self-administration. When you calculate what’s left of the land of historic Palestine for this fake hollow state, you are talking about approximately 5% to 8% of discontiguous territories of historic Palestine being left for limited Palestinian self-administration, not self-determination.


Here is the gauntlet that is being presented to the whole world: if you do mean what you say about 67 borders, East Jerusalem as the capital, contiguity, and self-determination, then you have to do something to make that a reality because the enemies of that State do not want it.

If recognizing the State of Palestine is going to mean anything, it cannot mean this. So here is the gauntlet that is being presented to the whole world: if you do mean what you say about 67 borders, East Jerusalem as the capital, contiguity, and self-determination, then you have to do something to make that a reality because the enemies of that State do not want it. They are looking at this idea and are responding with: only 5% to 8% of historic Palestine will be under limited Palestinian self-administration, which will moreover always be under the ultimate authority of Israeli sovereignty. This is not a gap that can be resolved in negotiations. What we have here is the continuation of settler colonial conquest or its ending and undoing through boycotts, sanctions, and divestments.

Here we come back to the Palestinian right of return. Ignoring the Palestinian right of return in state discourse worldwide, in addition to being unjust, is defeatist and inconsistent with the idea of Palestinian sovereign rights. When states and Palestinian leaderships give up the Palestinian right of return to all the lands of Palestine, they are not practicing a politics of the possible as they claim, but rather they have already given away the whole farm to the Euro-American imperial world order, of which Israeli settler colonialism is a critical part. That is defeatism. That is itself a hollow conception of the State of Palestine, and therefore only encourages Israel to pursue an even more hollow version of it.

The Israelis are now accustomed to impunity from the international community, which is secured for them by the US. In order to actually bring the Israeli state into a position where it will undertake genuine negotiations with the Palestinians about the core issues, and about how best to move forward and find a just solution that works for all of the people on the land, the indigenous Palestinians and the Israeli settlers, then pressure must be brought to bear on them. If the Israelis begin to see that the international community is determined to turn into reality the Palestinian right of return, and begins to feel economic pain from its ongoing settler colonial project, then Israelis will have to start to accept the idea of a one state solution and shared sovereignty. Only then, can we seriously move towards stability, peace, and justice.

Moments of great volatility, chaos, and violence require, not the careful politics of the possible, but the daring politics of the just. A new world is waiting to be created, but it is being obstructed by the politics of the possible. Who will be daring enough to activate the politics of the just and properly enter history as the inaugurator of the new?

Two-thirds of Israelis back hostage deal over continuing war in Gaza – poll

Respondents prefer former prime minister Naftali Bennett (by 11%) or National Unity leader Benny Gantz (by 6%) to Netanyahu as PM

By TOI STAFF

6 July 2024

Protesters led by the mothers of Hamas-held hostages demonstrate in support of a hostage deal in Tel Aviv on July 5, 2024. The banner reads: A mother never gives up. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Two-thirds of the Israeli public believe returning the hostages is more important than continuing the war in Gaza, according to a poll published by Channel 12 News on Friday.

Asked what is most important at this time, 67 percent of respondents said returning the hostages, compared to 26% who said continuing the war in Gaza, and 7% who said they didn’t know.

Israel sent a delegation of negotiators headed by Mossad chief David Barnea to Doha on Friday after Hamas submitted its latest response to the hostage deal proposal. Negotiations are expected to continue in the coming week.
Jerusalem’s marathon ‘sleep-in’ protestKeep Watching

Responding to the question of why they think the war hasn’t ended yet, 54% said it was because of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political considerations, 34% said it was due to substantive and operational considerations and 12% weren’t sure.

Sixty-eight percent of respondents said Israel is far from the “total victory” pledged by Netanyahu, compared to 23% who said Israel is close and 9% who were unsure.

Recently, multiple officials, including Israel Air Force commander Tomer Bar and IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, have said that Hamas’s military wing is close to being defeated in Gaza.

IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi speaks at a graduation ceremony for pilots, June 27, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

Netanyahu has repeatedly insisted that the war will continue until all Israel’s goals are achieved, specifying that Hamas must be destroyed, all hostages returned, and the threat of a future major security threat to Israel from Gaza neutered.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s approval ratings on his handling of the war were significantly low. While their approval ratings were not high either, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s and Halevi’s scores were far better than the prime minister’s.

More than two-thirds (68%) of respondents said Netanyahu’s performance was not good, as opposed to only 28% who said it was. Four percent said they didn’t know.

Meanwhile, almost half (49%) said Gallant’s performance was not good, as opposed to 43% who said it was. The remaining eight percent said they didn’t know.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads a cabinet meeting at the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv, January 7, 2024. (Yariv Katz/Pool)

Halevi was the only prominent figure in the poll to have more people say his handling of the war was good (46%) than not good (44%); the other 10% said they didn’t know.

With the country’s leaders’ approval ratings low and constant protests calling for new elections, respondents were asked when elections should be held. Forty-three percent said as soon as possible, 29% said when the war is over, 23% said when the current coalition’s term expires in October 2026, and 5% said they were unsure.

Asked who is most suited to serve as premier, Netanyahu or opposition chair Yair Lapid, 31% of respondents said Netanyahu, compared to 30% who said Lapid. A further 35% said neither and 4% were unsure.

When the choice was between National Unity leader Benny Gantz and Netanyahu, 35% said Gantz and 29% said Netanyahu. An additional 31% said neither and 5% were unsure.

When the choice was between former prime minister Naftali Bennett and Netanyahu, 37% said Bennett, 26% said Netanyahu, 33% said neither of them and 4% said they were unsure.

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett arrives at the scene of a terror attack in Ra’anana on January 15, 2024. (Itai Ron/Flash90)

When the choice was between Bennett and Gantz, 27% said Bennett, 26% said Gantz, 42% said neither of them and 5% said they were unsure.

Finally, as United States President Joe Biden tries to convince the American people that he is fit to run for the presidency after his disastrous debate with Republican candidate Donald Trump last week, 48% of respondents said they preferred Trump to win, 27% said Biden and 25% said they were unsure.

The network did not say how many people took part in the poll, which was conducted by the Midgam research firm along with online polling firm iPanel. They did not provide a margin of error.

ISRAEL

Protesters call ‘shut down’ on Sunday, demanding elections on 9-month war milestone

Major companies announce workers may partake in rallies; anti-government activists say they will block throughways, call on Histadrut (UNION) leaders to strike in solidarity

By TOI STAFF

Today, 

Anti-government protests demand immediate elections at the Amiad Junction in northern Israel, July 6, 2024. (Shay Zeltzer/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)


Anti-government groups have announced a “day of disruption” on Sunday to demand new elections as Israel enters its tenth month since October 7, with 116 people kidnapped in the shock Hamas attack still languishing in captivity in Gaza.

Sunday’s demonstrations will form part of the “week of resistance” protest groups kicked off at their weekly protests on Saturday evening. The protesters said they would block major throughways on Sunday, including Routes 2, 4 and 6, and hold rallies across the country, culminating in a mass demonstration outside the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv.

The Kirya demonstration will follow a rally outside the Histadrut’s Tel Aviv offices to call on Israel’s largest labor federation to strike in solidarity with the protest groups’ demand for the government to step down. A demonstration is also planned for Sunday morning outside the Kiryat Ono home of Histadrut chief Arnon Bar-David, who has previously indicated his support for the anti-government protests.

Some of Israel’s leading companies, mainly from the tech and finance sectors, said they would let their workers take time off to join in the protests, which anti-government groups announced in late June.

The protests will mark exactly nine months since Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages, mostly civilians, many amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.

Protest groups had rallied weekly since early 2023, when the government introduced its plan to weaken the judiciary. The demonstrations were paused for a few weeks after October 7 before returning full force to call for new elections, claiming the government has a moral imperative to regain the public’s trust after failing to avert the largest massacre in the country’s history.

Anti-government protesters block Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv as police use water cannons against them on July 6, 2024. (Lior Segev/Israeli Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)

In recent months, the central anti-government protest in Tel Aviv has taken place in conjunction with the Hostages and Missing Families Forum rally calling for the release of their loved ones. Amid the war, protest groups have also doubled down on their opposition to legislation exempting yeshiva students from military service, which critics describe as a power-grab by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox coalition partners.

“Nine months have passed since the October 7 disaster, and we still have the same government on whose shift the inconceivable failure happened,” Eran Schwartz, the executive director of the “Free in our Land” coalition of protest groups, said in a statement, claiming ministers were abandoning the hostages, engaging in discrimination and “hanging on to their chairs at any price.”

“On Sunday we will ask the public to shut down the country, because this reality must change,” he added. “We won’t stop until a date is set for elections, and the country is back on track toward recuperation, unity and hope.”

It is believed that 116 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — not all of them alive — after 105 civilians were released from Hamas captivity during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released prior to that. Seven hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 19 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military.

The IDF has confirmed the deaths of 42 of those still held by Hamas, citing new intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza.

One more person is listed as missing since October 7, and their fate is still unknown.

Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.

Anti-government protesters start ‘week of resistance’ with Saturday rallies

Sunday will be ‘day of disruption’ with protests and rallies across the country demanding hostage deal and new elections, culminating outside Netanyahu’s Jerusalem home

By TOI STAFF

6 July 2024

Anti-government protesters march to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's house in Jerusalem, July 4, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Anti-government protesters were set to flock to Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square and to events throughout the country Saturday in weekly protests calling for a hostage deal and new elections.

The main Tel Aviv rally was set to begin at 8 p.m. and would be dedicated to the mothers of hostages being held in Gaza.

Protests groups have said Saturday’s rally will kick off a “week of resistance,” with Sunday, July 7 being a day of protests and disruptions to mark nine months since the October 7 attacks and the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

According to a schedule sent out by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the protest would begin with a featured video of Almog Meir Jan, who was rescued from Gaza by special forces last month.

The video would be followed by various speakers including released hostage Danielle Aloni, Meir Jan’s mother Orit, the mother of Tal Haimi who was killed by Hamas and whose body is held in Gaza, and the mothers of four other hostages still being held in Gaza.

Saturday night protests have in recent weeks been marked by violent clashes between demonstrators and police, with protesters injured by police water canons and arrests made.

Protesters demonstrate for a hostage deal and end to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, in Jerusalem’s Paris Square on June 29, 2024. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)

Beginning with a protest in the southern Kibbutz Or HaNer at 6 a.m., Sunday’s protest schedule features rallies and protests at key intersections and major highways across the country.

The day was set to culminate with a march from Jerusalem’s Sacher Park to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home, where a rally would be held demanding he step down and set new elections.

Sunday will mark nine months since October 7, when Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, murdering some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages, sparking a war with Israel.

It is believed that 116 remain in Gaza — not all of them alive. Recent days have seen Israeli officials express cautious optimism that indirect negotiations with Hamas for the release of hostages may be making progress.

Humanoid robots powered by AI turn heads at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference

Jul 5, 2024

The World Artificial Intelligence Conference in China is showcasing hundreds of AI-related products and innovations. Around 25 robots are catching the eye of visitors, including some humanoid models that have never been seen before.

 

UK's new PM Starmer says controversial Rwanda deportation plan is 'dead and buried'

• an hour ago

Keir Starmer holds a press conference at the end of his cabinet's first meeting in Downing Street in London on Saturday. AFP

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Saturday on his first full day in office that he is scrapping a controversial Conservative policy to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda as he vowed to get change in motion, though he warned it will take time.

"The Rwanda scheme was dead and buried before it started,” Starmer said in his first news conference. "It’s never acted as a deterrent. Almost the opposite.”

The announcement was widely expected because Starmer said he would ditch the plan that has cost hundreds of millions of dollars but never taken flight.

The news conference followed his first Cabinet meeting as the new government takes on the massive challenge of fixing a heap of domestic woes and winning over a public weary from years of austerity, political chaos and a battered economy.

Starmer welcomed the new ministers around the table at 10 Downing St., saying it had been the honor of his life to be asked by King Charles III to form a government in a ceremony that officially elevated him to prime minister.

"We have a huge amount of work to do, so now we get on with our work,” he said.

Starmer’s Labour Party delivered the biggest blow to the Conservatives in their two-century history Friday in a landslide victory on a platform of change.

Among a raft of problems they face are boosting a sluggish economy, fixing a broken health care system, and restoring trust in government.

"Just because Labour won a big landslide doesn’t mean all the problems that the Conservative government has faced has gone away,” said Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London.

In his first remarks as prime minister Friday after the "kissing of hands” ceremony with Charles at Buckingham Palace, Starmer said he would get to work immediately, though he cautioned it would take some time to show results.,

"Changing a country is not like flicking a switch,” he said as enthusiastic supporters cheered him outside his new official residence at 10 Downing. "This will take a while. But have no doubt that the work of change begins - immediately.”

He will have a busy schedule following the six-week campaign crossing the four nations of the U.K.

He will travel to Washington next week for a NATO meeting and will host the European Political Community summit July 18, the day after the state opening of Parliament and the King's Speech, which sets out the new government's agenda.

Starmer singled out several of the big items Friday, such as fixing the revered but hobbled National Health Service and securing its borders, a reference a larger global problem across Europe and the U.S. of absorbing an influx of migrants fleeing war, poverty as well as drought, heat waves and floods attributed to climate change.

Conservatives struggled to stem the flow of migrants arriving across the English Channel, failing to live up to ex-Prime Minister’s Rishi Sunak’s pledge to "stop the boats” that led to the controversial plan to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda.

"Labour is going to need to find a solution to the small boats coming across the channel,” Bale said. "It’s going to ditch the Rwanda scheme, but it’s going to have to come up with other solutions to deal with that particular problem.”

Suella Braverman, a Conservative hard liner on immigration who is a possible contender to replace Sunak as party leader, criticized Starmer's plan to end the Rwanda pact.

"Years of hard work, acts of Parliament, millions of pounds been spent on a scheme which had it been delivered properly would have worked," she said Saturday. "There are big problems on the horizon which will be I’m afraid caused by Keir Starmer.”

Foreign Secretary David Lammy was to begin his first international trip on Saturday to meet counterparts in Germany, Poland and Sweden to reinforce the importance of their relationship.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said he would open new negotiations next week with NHS doctors at the start of their career who have staged a series of multi-day strikes. The pay dispute has exacerbated the long wait for appointments that have become a hallmark of the NHS's problems.

Associated Press

Kansas Supreme Court Strikes Down GOP-Backed Abortion Regulations

Published Jul 05, 2024 


By Mandy Taheri
Weekend Reporter

On Friday, the Kansas Supreme Court struck down a Republican-backed abortion second-trimester ban and affirmed that the state's constitution protects abortion access, with one justice dissenting.

In two separate decisions released on Friday, the court ruled, "The Kansas Constitution Bill of Rights protects a fundamental right to personal autonomy, which includes a pregnant person's right to terminate a pregnancy." The Court also ruled against several state licensing requirements for abortion providers.

The decisions blocked enforcement of a 2015 law supported by Republican legislators that banned the common second-trimester abortion procedure of dilation and evacuation. The Court found that S.B. 95, known as Unborn Protection from Dismemberment Act, violates the Kansas Constitution Bill of Rights and "impairs the right to abortion."

Newsweek reached out to the Kansas Republican Party for comment via email Friday afternoon. Newsweek reached out via text message to the Party's chair, Mike Brown, on Friday afternoon.

Allie Utley, left, and Jae Moyer, center, of Overland Park, react during a primary watch party Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2022, at the Overland Park, Kansas Convention Center. Kansas’ highest court on Friday, July 5, 2024,

TAMMY LJUNGBLAD/THE KANSAS CITY STAR VIA AP


Kansas, a reliably conservative state for decades, has been at the center of national abortion debates in the past few years. In August 2022, just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs decision which eliminated the federal right to abortion, Kansans overwhelmingly rejected an amendment that sought to remove abortion protections from the state constitution. It was the first vote in the nation of its kind since Dobbs. The majority referenced the 2022 vote in their opinion, stating, "The people spoke with their votes."

Abortion care advocates have applauded the decisions, such as the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), which filed one of the cases on behalf of an abortion care provider. Nancy Northup, CRR's president and chief executive officer called the ruling an "immense victory for the health, safety, and dignity of people in Kansas and the entire Midwestern region, where millions have been cut off from abortion access."

The statement highlighted that "The number of abortions provided in Kansas increased by 57% in 2022, with over two-thirds of patients traveling from out of state," as reported by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. This reflects a broader trend of patients from states with more restrictive abortion laws seeking medical services in Kansas.

Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Kansas has experienced a significant uptick in abortions, largely due to out-of-state patients, presumably from neighboring states with more restrictive abortion policies such as Oklahoma, Missouri, and Texas.

The Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization that supports abortion rights, released a report last month that found abortion clinics increase by 50 percent between 2020 and 2023 in Kansas.

Newsweek reached out to the Americans United for Life for comment via email on Friday.

More than 10,000 sea turtle eggs were rescued from Mexico’s beach ahead of Hurricane Beryl

Hurricane conditions can sweep turtle eggs out to sea, where they can’t hatch

Katie Hawkinson

Mexican officials evacuated sea turtle eggs ahead of Beryl

As Hurricane Beryl approached Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula this week, officials scrambled to evacuate an especially vulnerable group - sea turtle eggs.

Mexican officials moved to save the eggs on Wednesday ahead of the storm, which made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane near Tulum early Friday.


Officials relocated the eggs using sand-filled coolers and helped insulate their nests along the beach, the Associated Press reported. Storm surge and rises in sea level — conditions which Beryl and other storms cause — pose significant threats to sea turtle eggs, because they can’t hatch if they’re swept out to sea.

Graciela Tiburcio, a biologist and sea turtle expert, told the AP that moving the eggs would cause many to die — but the number would be higher if they did nothing.

Two state officials transfer turtle eggs to a safe location ahead of Hurricane Beryl in Cancun, Mexico on Wednesday (AP)

“Look, it’s not the best thing to do, but we are facing an emergency in which if they don’t take them out, they all could be lost,” Tiburcio said.

It is still unclear where the eggs are or how many are safe. However, by the time Beryl made landfall in Tulum, state officials had protected more than 10,000 eggs from nearly 100 nests, the AP reported.

State employees evacuate turtle eggs from the beach to protect them from Hurricane Beryl, in Cancun, Mexico, on Wednesday (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

“In a normal situation this would not be right, because this will surely cause mortality,” Tiburcio said. “There will be a lower rate of hatched eggs, that is the reality. But it’s also a reality that if the nests are left there, they’ll all be lost.”


Five of the world’s seven sea turtle species live on Mexico’s gulf coast — and they are all threatened or endangered. One of these species, Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, lives primarily on Mexico’s western gulf coast.

Kemp’s ridley sea turtles are the smallest in the world and heavily protected.

To protect these species, each Mexican state has a hotline for passersby to report stranded sea turtles, dead or alive, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.

Kemp’s ridley sea turtles (pictured) are the smallest sea turtle species in the world (AFP via Getty Images)

Beryl, which weakened to a tropical storm on Friday, is expected to move into the Gulf of Mexico this weekend. There, it is expected to re-strengthen into to a hurricane, according to the National Weather Service.


The Yucatan Peninsula is now reeling from the dangerous storm. More than half of Tulum has no power, according to Laura Velázquez, national coordinator of Mexican Civil Protection. Hurricane-strength conditions downed trees and powerlines throughout the region.

However, no deaths have been reported in Mexico as of Friday afternoon.

Beryl’s death toll is now at eleven after sweeping through the eastern Caribbean. The death toll includes three dead in Grenada, three dead in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, three dead in Venezuela and two dead in Jamaica.

Survival story as Hurricane Beryl razes smallest inhabited island of St. Vincent and the Grenadines

AP |
Jul 06, 2024 


Survival story as Hurricane Beryl razes smallest inhabited island of St. Vincent and the Grenadines


MAYREAU, St. Vincent and the Grenadines — Mayreu is one of the smallest inhabited islands of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. It's so small that it's barely visible — a dot on the map of the Caribbean. Hurricane Beryl nearly erased it from the map.

Survival story as Hurricane Beryl razes smallest inhabited island of St. Vincent and the Grenadines

Beryl pummeled everything along its path, ripping up roofs of schools, crumbling homes and stripping trees of almost every leaf on the 0.46 square miles of this island of about 360 people.

“Everything was flying all over the place," Mayreau resident James Alexander said recalling the storm, “I saw a tank full of water lifted up and swirl in the air."

Beryl made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane Monday on the Caribbean island of Carriacou in Barbados and close to St. Vincent and the Grenadines, leaving a swath of destruction as it kept moving west and strengthening later into a Category 5.

The storm is the earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic. On Friday, it moved over Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula after battering the resort of Tulum and reemerged in the Gulf of Mexico, prompting Texas officials to urge coastal residents to prepare as the storm headed their way. Beryl has caused at least 11 deaths as it passed through the Caribbean islands.

Other islands in the Grenadines archipelago, like Canouan, also suffered extensive damage. But tiny Mayreau has been mostly ignored in its pleas for help.

Most lost it all: 98% of the island’s structures were severely damaged, according to the latest report from the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Agency.

When the storm hit, some of the people of Mayreau sought refuge in The Immaculate Conception Church. But the sturdy building built more than 100 years ago with local stone did not have a chance against the wrath of the Category 4 hurricane.

People sheltered in the church barely made it out. Almost miraculously, they escaped unharmed but for a few minor injuries. With only one small clinic, which has also been damaged, and one nurse, that the injuries were minor was the only good news for the people of Mayreau.

The storm ripped every roof off every home on the island. Many were left as piles of dust and rubble.

“This church suffered an awful fate as a result of the passage of Hurricane Beryl and it's an indication of what has happened throughout this island,” Luke Browne, St. Vincent and the Grenadines' former minister of health, said as he stood in front of the rubble of The Immaculate Conception Church.

Browne said he had been visiting Mayreau since he was a child and had seen the congregation “grow and thrive.” He made a plea for help to rebuild his native island.

Mayreau residents are now stranded without electricity or shelter — not even a roof — to protect them from the sun and rain.


Islanders are badly in need of everything, from food and water to tents and baby formula for its 14 youngest inhabitants.

Mayreau is far from the mainland, accessible only by a four-hour boat trip from St. Vincent.

Although some aid is expected to trickle in from nearby islands, the need is enormous, and the aid is only guaranteed for a short-term. There are no vehicles on Mayreau, so residents form human chains, passing vital bottles of water hand-to-hand to the improvised shelter.

The small population depends on tourism and fishing, both of which were disrupted by the storm.

“I’m just happy,” Alexander said, "to be alive.”

__

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the ’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The is solely responsible for this content.

 

After hitting Yucatan Peninsula, Beryl churns in Gulf of Mexico as Texas braces for potential hit

Residents of Union Island, one of the small islands that make up St. Vincent and the Grenadines, were facing a disastrous scenario after Hurricane Beryl devastated the island’s buildings and infrastructure. The storm, which affected over 2,000 people, has left homes completely destroyed, schools with torn-off roofs, and trees stripped of leaves. 

BY MARTÍN SILVA AND JIM VERTUNO
July 5, 2024


TULUM, Mexico (AP) — After battering Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, Beryl moved back into the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico where it was expected to regain hurricane strength Saturday before taking aim at the Texas coast, where officials urged residents to brace for a potential hit.

The earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic, Beryl caused at least 11 deaths as it passed through the Caribbean islands earlier in the week. It then battered Mexico as a Category 2 hurricane, toppling trees but causing no injuries or deaths before weakening to a tropical storm as it moved across the peninsula.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center predicted late Friday that Beryl would intensify on Saturday before making landfall, prompting expanded hurricane and storm surge watches.

“There is an increasing risk of damaging hurricane-force winds and life-threatening storm surge in portions of northeastern Mexico and the lower and middle Texas coast late Sunday and Monday,” the center warned.

Texas officials warned the state’s entire coastline to brace for possible flooding, heavy rain and wind as they wait for a more defined path of the storm. On Friday, the hurricane center issued hurricane and storm surge watches for the Texas coast from the mouth of the Rio Grande north to San Luis Pass, less than 80 miles (128.75 kilometers) south of Houston.


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Hurricane Beryl roars by Jamaica after killing at least 7 people in the southeast Caribbean

Hurricane season 2024 is here. Here’s how to stay prepared

Beryl heads toward Jamaica as a major hurricane after ripping through southeast Caribbean

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the acting governor while Gov. Greg Abbott is traveling in Taiwan, issued a pre-emptive disaster declaration for 40 counties.

“Everyone along the (Texas) coast should be paying attention this storm,” Patrick said. “We hope and we pray for nothing more than a rain event.”

Some Texas coastal cities called for voluntary evacuations in low-lying areas prone to flooding, banned beach camping and urged tourists traveling on the July 4 holiday weekend to move recreational vehicles from coastal parks. In Corpus Christi, city officials announced it had distributed 10,000 sandbags in less than two hours Friday, exhausting its supply.


Beryl already spread destruction in Jamaica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Barbados this week. Three people have been reported dead in Grenada, three in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, three in Venezuela and two in Jamaica, officials said.

Mexican authorities had moved some tourists and residents out of low-lying areas around the Yucatan Peninsula before landfall, but tens of thousands remained to tough out the strong winds and storm surge. Much of the area around Tulum is just a few yards (meters) above sea level.

The city was plunged into darkness when the storm knocked out power as it came ashore. Screeching winds set off car alarms across the town. Wind and rain continued to whip the seaside city and surrounding areas Friday morning. Army brigades roved the streets of the tourist city, clearing fallen trees and power lines.

After seeing Beryl tear through the Caribbean, 37-year-old Lucía Nagera Balcaza was among those who stocked up on food and hid away in their homes.
“Thank god, we woke up this morning and everything was all right,” she said. “The streets are a disaster, but we’re out here cleaning up.”

Although no dead or wounded have been reported, nearly half of Tulum continued to be without electricity, said Laura Velázquez, national coordinator of Mexican Civil Protection.

While many in the Yucatan Peninsula took a deep breath, Jamaica and other islands ravaged by the hurricane were still reeling. Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness promised swift relief for residents after visiting one of the worst-affected areas of the island, the southern parish of St Elizabeth on Thursday.

Before the storm hit Mexico, officials had set up shelters in schools and hotels. When the wind began gusting over Tulum’s beaches Thursday, officials on four-wheelers with megaphones rolled along the sand telling people to leave and authorities evacuated beachside hotels. Sea turtle eggs were even moved off beaches threatened by storm surge.

Tourists also took precautions. Lara Marsters, 54, a therapist visiting Tulum from Boise, Idaho, said she had filled up empty water bottles from the tap.

“We’re going to hunker down and stay safe,” she said.
___

Vertuno reported from Austin, Texas. Associated Press writers John Myers Jr. and Renloy Trail in Kingston, Jamaica; Mark Stevenson and Megan Janetsky in Mexico City; Coral Murphy Marcos in San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Lucanus Ollivierre on Union Island, St. Vincent and Grenadines also contributed to this report.

Smashing records
Hurricane Beryl, seen here making landfall in Barbados, is the first dangerous hurricane of the season. Fueled by record warm waters, it strengthened into a top-level Category 5 storm late on Monday — the earliest Category 5 storm in the Atlantic on record, according to the National Hurricane Center in the US and the World Meteorological Organization. It has since weakened to a Category 4.Image: CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP/Getty Images

'Potentially catastrophic'
Barbados appeared to have been spared the worst of the storm but was still hit with high winds and pelting rain. The storm has developed into a "potentially catastrophic" hurricane with wind speeds of up to 240 kilometers per hour (150 miles per hour), the National Hurricane Center said Tuesday evening.Image: CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP/Getty Images

State of emergency
In just over 24 hours, Beryl developed from a tropical storm on Sunday into a Category 5 hurricane. Authorities have declared a state of emergency in Tobago, the smaller of the two islands that make up Trinidad and Tobago (seen above), with schools ordered closed and flights canceled.Image: Andrea De Silva/REUTERS

Island of Carriacou 'flattened'
Already as a Category 4 hurricane, Beryl lay waste to the port of Bridgetown on Barbados. Grenada's Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said the island of Carriacou was "flattened" in half an hour, with water, food and baby formula now in short supply. An emergency team was expected to arrive in Carriacou on Tuesday morning.Image: Ricardo Mazalan/AP Photo/picture alliance

Flooding in Venezuela
In Venezuela's northern state of Sucre, Beryl brought heavy rain and flooding. Venezuela's vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, was injured after a gust of wind knocked down tree during her visit to the disaster area. "She was hit hard, but she is conscious," President Nicolas Maduro said in a speech to supporters.Image: VICTOR GONZALEZ/AFP/Getty Image

Devastating force
Union Island, one of the southernmost islands in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, was hit especially hard. Around 90% of the island's homes were heavily damaged or destroyed, said Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves on Tuesday, who has promised to rebuild. The full extent of the storm damage is still unknown.Image: The Agency For Public Information St. Vincent and the Grenadines/Reuters

Escaping with their lives
These residents of Union Island were able to find refuge in Kingstown, on the northern island of St. Vincent. But the situation remains tense: throughout the southeast Caribbean, streets are littered with trees and other debris. Electricity was disrupted everywhere on Tuesday, and communication between the islands remains difficult.Image: Lucanus Ollivierre/AP Photo/picture alliance

Deadly path
As the cleanup begins on Barbados, the storm continues to move. Beryl is expected to remain an extremely dangerous hurricane as it continues its path across the Caribbean. According to forecasts, it will pass just south of Jamaica and reach Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula by Thursday, where it could hit the popular beach resorts of Cancun and Playa del Carmen.Image: RANDY BROOKS/AFP/Getty Images
Getting ready in Jamaica
Ahead of the storm in Kingston, Jamaica, these shoppers rushed to stock up on essential supplies. "I urge all Jamaicans to stock up on food, batteries, candles, and water," said Prime Minister Andrew Holness on X. The hurricane is expected to hit the island on Wednesday, he added, declaring a state of emergency and 12-hour curfew from 6 a.m. local time.Image: Gilbert Bellamy/REUTERS

Empty shelves
In Cancun, Mexico, meanwhile, some stores were already almost completely cleared out of non-perishable food.Image: Paola Chiomante/Reuters

Historic hurricane season?
Weather experts are already talking about a historic hurricane season. Beryl has already broken several records, including marking the farthest east that a hurricane has formed in the Atlantic in June, said hurricane researcher Philip Klotzbach of Colorado State University.Image: Lucanus Ollivierre/AP Photo/picture alliance

More storms expected
In addition to the high water temperatures in the Atlantic, the hurricane season could be fueled by the expected onset of the climate phenomenon La Nina, a phase of cooler water in the Pacific. Climate change also plays a role: global warming increases the likelihood of more destructive storms.Image: Ricardo Mazalan/AP Photo/picture alliance