ADAM SABES
November 15, 2023
Members of Parliament in the United Kingdom House of Commons voted against an amendment demanding its government call for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war.
The amendment was added to the government's legislative agenda for 2024 on Wednesday, but wasn't passed by Members of Parliament.
According to Reuters, the Scottish National Party introduced the amendment which reads, "(We) call on the government to join with the international community in urgently pressing all parties to agree to an immediate cease-fire."
Two-hundred-ninety Members of Parliament voted against the amendment, with 183 in favor of the call for a cease-fire.
Fifty-six members of the Labour Party voted for the amendment, in what's being considered a major blow to its leader Keir Starmer, who wanted to make his party appear united ahead of a national election next year.
"I regret that some colleagues felt unable to support the position tonight. But I wanted to be clear about where I stood, and where I will stand," Starmer said in a statement after the vote.
REP. JAMAAL BOWMAN TAKES HEAT FOR SAYING SUPPORTING A CEASE-FIRE IS 'WHAT IT ACTUALLY MEANS TO BE JEWISH'
Keir Starmer, leader of Britain's Labour Party, speaks during the Prime Minister's Questions, at the House of Commons in London, on Wednesday.
Similar to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Starmer has called for "humanitarian pauses" in order for aid to get to Gaza.
Eight members of a "shadow" ministerial team run by Starmer left their roles after the vote.
"On this occasion I must vote with my constituents, my head and my heart," Member of Parliament Jess Phillips wrote in a letter to Starmer.
Reuters contributed to this report.
US lets UN Security Council resolution calling for pauses in Gaza fighting pass without Hamas condemnation
ADAM SABES
November 15, 2023
The United States allowed a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for pauses in the fighting within Gaza to pass despite a lack of condemnation for Hamas.
Fifteen members of the security council passed the resolution Wednesday, which calls for a cease-fire for a "sufficient number of days" in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas. The resolution also calls for the "unconditional release" of hostages taken by Hamas during the Oct. 7 terrorist attack.
Twelve members of the council voted in favor of the resolution, while the U.S., Russia and Britain, who have veto power, abstained from the vote Wednesday.
The resolution doesn't include a condemnation of Hamas' actions. It attempted to pass a resolution four times before the council was successful.
UN FORMALLY CONDEMNS ISRAEL BUT STAYS MUM ON HAMAS TERRORIST ATTACKS: WATCHDOG
U.S. Rep. to the United Nations Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks during a UN Security Council meeting.
Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in her explanation of the vote that the U.S., "could not vote yes on a text that did not condemn Hamas or reaffirm the right of all Member States to protect their citizens from terrorist attacks."
"Although the United States is deeply disappointed by what is not in this text, we support many of the important provisions this Council has adopted," Thomas-Greenfield said. "For starters, while this text does not include a condemnation of Hamas, this is the first time we have ever adopted a resolution that even mentions the word ‘Hamas.’"
Anne Bayefsky, director for the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, criticized the vote in a comment to Fox News Digital.
The UN Security Council holds a meeting at UN Headquarters in New York, on March 7, 2023. (Photo by Yuki IWAMURA / AFP) (Photo by YUKI IWAMURA/AFP via Getty Images)
"In an outrageous display of moral chaos and diplomatic cowardice, the Biden administration threw Israel under the bus at the UN Security Council. Almost six weeks after the barbaric attacks of October 7th the Council has finally acted for the first time, and incredibly refused to condemn Hamas," Bayefsky said. "The Council resolution said the hostages were ‘held by Hamas and other groups’ — not that they were raped, mutilated and kidnapped by Hamas. It never mentioned Israel’s UN Charter right of self-defense. It refers only to civilians ‘in Gaza' and never in Israel. It never mentions ongoing rocket attacks against Israelis. And yet the Biden administration refused to veto it."
Civil defense teams and civilians conduct search-and-rescue operations after Israeli attacks in Gaza City, Gaza.
"The United States voted the same way as that moral stalwart Russia and merely abstained. It is shocking, morally bankrupt and bodes very badly for the future of humanity, since make no mistake: use of the United Nations to invert right and wrong is just as bad for Americans as it is for Israelis," Bayefsky added.
Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan called the resolution, "disconnected from reality and is meaningless."
A bombarded Gaza Strip on the border with southern Israel.
"Regardless of what the Council decides, Israel will continue acting according to international law while the Hamas terrorists will not even read the resolution at all, let alone abide by it. It is unfortunate that the Council continues to ignore, not condemn, or even mention the massacre that Hamas carried out on Oct. 7, which led to the war in Gaza. It is truly shameful!" Erdan said. "Hamas's strategy is to deliberately deteriorate the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and increase the number of Palestinian casualties in order to motivate the UN and the Security Council to stop Israel.
"It will not happen. Israel will continue to act until Hamas is destroyed and the hostages are returned."
Original article source:US lets UN Security Council resolution calling for pauses in Gaza fighting pass without Hamas condemnation
ADAM SABES
November 15, 2023
The United States allowed a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for pauses in the fighting within Gaza to pass despite a lack of condemnation for Hamas.
Fifteen members of the security council passed the resolution Wednesday, which calls for a cease-fire for a "sufficient number of days" in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas. The resolution also calls for the "unconditional release" of hostages taken by Hamas during the Oct. 7 terrorist attack.
Twelve members of the council voted in favor of the resolution, while the U.S., Russia and Britain, who have veto power, abstained from the vote Wednesday.
The resolution doesn't include a condemnation of Hamas' actions. It attempted to pass a resolution four times before the council was successful.
UN FORMALLY CONDEMNS ISRAEL BUT STAYS MUM ON HAMAS TERRORIST ATTACKS: WATCHDOG
U.S. Rep. to the United Nations Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks during a UN Security Council meeting.
Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in her explanation of the vote that the U.S., "could not vote yes on a text that did not condemn Hamas or reaffirm the right of all Member States to protect their citizens from terrorist attacks."
"Although the United States is deeply disappointed by what is not in this text, we support many of the important provisions this Council has adopted," Thomas-Greenfield said. "For starters, while this text does not include a condemnation of Hamas, this is the first time we have ever adopted a resolution that even mentions the word ‘Hamas.’"
Anne Bayefsky, director for the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, criticized the vote in a comment to Fox News Digital.
The UN Security Council holds a meeting at UN Headquarters in New York, on March 7, 2023. (Photo by Yuki IWAMURA / AFP) (Photo by YUKI IWAMURA/AFP via Getty Images)
"In an outrageous display of moral chaos and diplomatic cowardice, the Biden administration threw Israel under the bus at the UN Security Council. Almost six weeks after the barbaric attacks of October 7th the Council has finally acted for the first time, and incredibly refused to condemn Hamas," Bayefsky said. "The Council resolution said the hostages were ‘held by Hamas and other groups’ — not that they were raped, mutilated and kidnapped by Hamas. It never mentioned Israel’s UN Charter right of self-defense. It refers only to civilians ‘in Gaza' and never in Israel. It never mentions ongoing rocket attacks against Israelis. And yet the Biden administration refused to veto it."
Civil defense teams and civilians conduct search-and-rescue operations after Israeli attacks in Gaza City, Gaza.
"The United States voted the same way as that moral stalwart Russia and merely abstained. It is shocking, morally bankrupt and bodes very badly for the future of humanity, since make no mistake: use of the United Nations to invert right and wrong is just as bad for Americans as it is for Israelis," Bayefsky added.
Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan called the resolution, "disconnected from reality and is meaningless."
A bombarded Gaza Strip on the border with southern Israel.
"Regardless of what the Council decides, Israel will continue acting according to international law while the Hamas terrorists will not even read the resolution at all, let alone abide by it. It is unfortunate that the Council continues to ignore, not condemn, or even mention the massacre that Hamas carried out on Oct. 7, which led to the war in Gaza. It is truly shameful!" Erdan said. "Hamas's strategy is to deliberately deteriorate the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and increase the number of Palestinian casualties in order to motivate the UN and the Security Council to stop Israel.
"It will not happen. Israel will continue to act until Hamas is destroyed and the hostages are returned."
Original article source:US lets UN Security Council resolution calling for pauses in Gaza fighting pass without Hamas condemnation
White House denies US OK'd Israeli raid on Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza
SARAH KOLINOVSKY
November 15, 2023
The White House denied Wednesday that U.S. confirmation of intelligence that Hamas uses Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza as a control center had anything to do with the timing of the Israeli military operation there, which began just hours earlier.
"My delivery of some downgraded information yesterday, that, the timing of that really came after work by the intelligence community to prepare that information for downgrade. It has nothing to do with any operational timing or any decision making by the Israeli Defense Forces," White House spokesperson John Kirby insisted, referring to the declassification of information.
Kirby also denied the U.S. gave any "OK" for the Israeli operation at Al Shifa Hospital.
"We did not give an OK to the military operations around the hospital in similar fashion to the fact that we didn't, you know, we don't give OKs to their other tactical operations. These are Israeli military operations that they plan and they execute on, you know, in accordance with their own established procedures that the United States is not, was not involved in," Kirby said.
PHOTO: Men walk past patients at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Nov. 10, 2023. (AFP via Getty Images)
Kirby also said the operation was "not a focus" of President Joe Biden's conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday night, and wouldn't say if the U.S. got a heads up about the operation.
"I won't go into a great detail about the conversation that the president had with the prime minister. I can tell you that this was not a focus of that conversation. Again, we don't, we don't expect the Israelis to advise us or inform us when they are going to conduct operations. ... We talked to them routinely every day, and certainly we talked to them about our continued concerns over civilian casualties and sharing our perspectives on the best way to minimize, but these are their operations," Kirby said.
Kirby was asked about the evidence Israel and the IDF is providing to prove Hamas was using Al Shifa as a command center, but Kirby simply stuck to the U.S.'s own assessment.
"I would say we are comfortable with our own intelligence assessment about the degree to which Hamas was and is using Al Shifa Hospital as a commanding control node, as a storage facility underneath. We're, we're very comfortable with our own intelligence," he said.
PHOTO: Patients and internally displaced people are pictured at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on November 10, 2023. (Khader Al Zanoun/AFP via Getty Images)
Israel has been criticized for fighting near Gaza hospitals -- especially the Al Shifa Hospital.
Kirby did emphasize the care that needs to be taken when it comes to conducting military operations in hospitals in particular.
"We have been very consistent, very clear with our Israeli counterparts about how important it is to minimize civilian casualties. We have also been very clear about the special care that must be taken when you're talking about hospitals because there are patients and even pediatric patients and medical staff and that hospital is an active, legitimate hospital, and [it's] serving the legitimate medical needs of the people of Gaza," Kirby said.
SARAH KOLINOVSKY
November 15, 2023
The White House denied Wednesday that U.S. confirmation of intelligence that Hamas uses Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza as a control center had anything to do with the timing of the Israeli military operation there, which began just hours earlier.
"My delivery of some downgraded information yesterday, that, the timing of that really came after work by the intelligence community to prepare that information for downgrade. It has nothing to do with any operational timing or any decision making by the Israeli Defense Forces," White House spokesperson John Kirby insisted, referring to the declassification of information.
Kirby also denied the U.S. gave any "OK" for the Israeli operation at Al Shifa Hospital.
"We did not give an OK to the military operations around the hospital in similar fashion to the fact that we didn't, you know, we don't give OKs to their other tactical operations. These are Israeli military operations that they plan and they execute on, you know, in accordance with their own established procedures that the United States is not, was not involved in," Kirby said.
PHOTO: Men walk past patients at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Nov. 10, 2023. (AFP via Getty Images)
Kirby also said the operation was "not a focus" of President Joe Biden's conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday night, and wouldn't say if the U.S. got a heads up about the operation.
"I won't go into a great detail about the conversation that the president had with the prime minister. I can tell you that this was not a focus of that conversation. Again, we don't, we don't expect the Israelis to advise us or inform us when they are going to conduct operations. ... We talked to them routinely every day, and certainly we talked to them about our continued concerns over civilian casualties and sharing our perspectives on the best way to minimize, but these are their operations," Kirby said.
Kirby was asked about the evidence Israel and the IDF is providing to prove Hamas was using Al Shifa as a command center, but Kirby simply stuck to the U.S.'s own assessment.
"I would say we are comfortable with our own intelligence assessment about the degree to which Hamas was and is using Al Shifa Hospital as a commanding control node, as a storage facility underneath. We're, we're very comfortable with our own intelligence," he said.
PHOTO: Patients and internally displaced people are pictured at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on November 10, 2023. (Khader Al Zanoun/AFP via Getty Images)
Israel has been criticized for fighting near Gaza hospitals -- especially the Al Shifa Hospital.
Kirby did emphasize the care that needs to be taken when it comes to conducting military operations in hospitals in particular.
"We have been very consistent, very clear with our Israeli counterparts about how important it is to minimize civilian casualties. We have also been very clear about the special care that must be taken when you're talking about hospitals because there are patients and even pediatric patients and medical staff and that hospital is an active, legitimate hospital, and [it's] serving the legitimate medical needs of the people of Gaza," Kirby said.
Mark Alfred
Tue, November 14, 2023
via CNN
American teenager Farah Abuolba and her mother were left stranded at Al-Quds, a hospital in Gaza, after an Israeli airstrike upended their escape to Egypt and left them with horrific injuries, they said in an interview filmed last week and aired by CNN on Monday. “I want to feel like ‘oh I can move my fingers.’ My fingers are gone now,” Abuolba told CNN. She said she sustained her injuries while traveling south on a bus as her and her mom again tried to make it to the border crossing with Egypt. Abuolba said an Israeli strike hit the bus. Israeli officials denied to CNN that they struck that street at that time. “I walked from the beach—probably like three miles from the beach to the hospital. I could have given up … all my blood dripped all over me,” Abuolba said. In Pennsylvania, her father pleaded with State Department officials to stop the fighting. “I pay tax for United States of America to support Israel to shoot and to bomb my daughter and my wife,” he said. Operations at Al-Quds, Gaza’s second-largest hospital, have since ceased due to fuel shortages.
Read it at CNN
A Pennsylvania family waited weeks to be evacuated from Gaza. Then they were bombed
Richard Hall
Wed, November 15, 2023
Farah Abuolba, Noha Abuolba, Saja Abuolba and Karam Abuolba. (Courtesy)
Pennsylvania mother Noha Abuolba and her two teenage daughters were travelling south on a bus through Gaza on their way to the border. They didn’t know if they would be able to cross, since only a limited number of American citizens had permission to leave each day, but after weeks of being stranded in a warzone, they were desperate enough to try.
As the family made their way along the coastal road, what they believe to be an Israeli airstrike hit their vehicle, followed by gunfire. Multiple people died around them. Eighteen-year-old Saja Abuolba suffered shrapnel wounds in her shoulder and back. Her sister, 17-year-old Farah, lost two fingers on her left hand.
The family had to walk more than a mile to the nearest hospital. There, 51-year-old Noha was filmed by an Al Jazeera reporter on the floor, in tears, and brandishing their American passports in desperation.
Wed, November 15, 2023
Farah Abuolba, Noha Abuolba, Saja Abuolba and Karam Abuolba. (Courtesy)
Pennsylvania mother Noha Abuolba and her two teenage daughters were travelling south on a bus through Gaza on their way to the border. They didn’t know if they would be able to cross, since only a limited number of American citizens had permission to leave each day, but after weeks of being stranded in a warzone, they were desperate enough to try.
As the family made their way along the coastal road, what they believe to be an Israeli airstrike hit their vehicle, followed by gunfire. Multiple people died around them. Eighteen-year-old Saja Abuolba suffered shrapnel wounds in her shoulder and back. Her sister, 17-year-old Farah, lost two fingers on her left hand.
The family had to walk more than a mile to the nearest hospital. There, 51-year-old Noha was filmed by an Al Jazeera reporter on the floor, in tears, and brandishing their American passports in desperation.
Noha Abuolba holds up her American passport in a Gaza hospital after a car carrying her and her daughters is hit by an apparent airstrike (Al Jazeera)
“There they are, our American citizenships, look what they did to us!” she shouted, as medical staff treated her daughter’s wounds in the background. “May God take revenge for us, here, see for yourself.”
That moment encapsulated the frustrations felt by many Palestinian-Americans trapped in Gaza who feel abandoned by their government.
Ahmed Abuolba, Noha’s son, had been desperately trying to help his mother and siblings escape the warzone from their home in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. He and his father had repeatedly asked the State Department and the US consulates in the region for assistance, to no avail.
“It makes us so furious. We’re being treated like we are second-class citizens,” 26-year-old Ahmed told The Independent. “We have our citizenship, we have our papers, we have our passports, we work in this country, we pay our taxes just like everybody else, but they are treating us like we’re nothing. Other people’s lives matter more than ours.”
The Abuolbas are among dozens of American dual-citizen families still stuck in Gaza after more than a month of relentless Israeli bombardment that has killed more than 11,000 Palestinians, including more than 4,500 children.
Ahmed, a microbiologist, saw the video of his mother sobbing on television from the family home.
“I can’t bear watching my mother like that,” Ahmed said. “It completely breaks my heart. Anytime any of my siblings see it, they just break down crying.”
Since the war began, those wishing to escape it have been navigating a chaotic process to evacuate Gaza that came about as a result of negotiations between the US, Israel, Egypt and Qatar, which acted as a mediator with Hamas.
Americans must submit their names to the embassy in Jerusalem, which then passes it on to the other parties for approval. People must then check a Facebook page maintained by the Palestinian Authority every day to see if their names have made the approved list, published on a Google document, to cross the border. Who is approved and when is a murky and bureaucratic process, leaving US citizens in the dark.
The US State Department has insisted that it is doing all it can to assist its citizens and their families escape the war-torn territory, but Palestinian-Americans have recounted to The Independent weeks of confusing communications with the agency, and a chaotic process that left them stranded in the line of fire.
These delays almost cost the Abuolba family their lives.
The family hails from Gaza, and all of Noha and Karam’s six children were born there. But in 2010, after several successive wars, they came to the US as refugees in search of safety. This summer, Noha took Saja and Farah back to Gaza for the first time since they left as young children, to visit family and see their birthplace. Saja had just graduated from high school.
Israel launched its war in Gaza in response to a deadly massacre of some 1,200 people by Hamas, who also took more than 200 hostages. Israeli forces quickly imposed a total siege on the territory, blocking aid deliveries of food and medicine, in addition to cutting water and electricity to the 2.3 million who call it home.
Ahmed said they first sought help from the State Department, which is responsible for US citizens abroad, on 8 October, the day after war broke out.
The first dual-citizen Americans began to leave Gaza on 3 November, almost a month after the war began. US president Joe Biden told reporters in the Oval Office that 74 “American folks, dual citizens” had been able to leave the territory on that day, and that more would follow.
That same day, Noha received notice from the US consulate that her name would be on the list of names approved for evacuation at the Rafah crossing into Egypt. But when they checked the list, her daughter’s names were not there. She didn’t know whether they would all be able to cross, but with the situation in Gaza getting more dangerous, they decided to try, packing their bags and getting on a bus to the border. Then, disaster struck.
The IDF did not respond to a request for comment about the strike that hit the vehicle from The Independent. A video showing what appeared to be the aftermath of the attack that injured the Abuolba family, taken on al-Rashid street on the same day, showed at least seven bodies lying in the road. Israel ordered all civilians to leave northern Gaza last month and its forces have targeted vehicles and ambulances travelling along the main roads through the territory.
Israel has cut internet access for Gaza, so Ahmed didn’t receive news of the attack against his mother and sisters until the next day. He only knew that there had been a shooting and that they suffered severe injuries. It took many more hours to confirm they hadn’t been killed. “It was absolutely horrifying,” he said. “My older sisters were crying nonstop. We were very worried, constantly trying to find people to call, trying everything to make sure that they’re still alive.”
Ever since, Ahmed’s communication with his mother has been fleeting and sporadic. Most of Gaza is without power, and the internet is down most of the time. Noha has been staying in the hospital with her daughters.
In an interview with CNN from her bed in the Quds Hospital, broadcast on Tuesday, Farah recounted the attack on their vehicle and losing her fingers.
Ahmed said they first sought help from the State Department, which is responsible for US citizens abroad, on 8 October, the day after war broke out.
The first dual-citizen Americans began to leave Gaza on 3 November, almost a month after the war began. US president Joe Biden told reporters in the Oval Office that 74 “American folks, dual citizens” had been able to leave the territory on that day, and that more would follow.
That same day, Noha received notice from the US consulate that her name would be on the list of names approved for evacuation at the Rafah crossing into Egypt. But when they checked the list, her daughter’s names were not there. She didn’t know whether they would all be able to cross, but with the situation in Gaza getting more dangerous, they decided to try, packing their bags and getting on a bus to the border. Then, disaster struck.
The IDF did not respond to a request for comment about the strike that hit the vehicle from The Independent. A video showing what appeared to be the aftermath of the attack that injured the Abuolba family, taken on al-Rashid street on the same day, showed at least seven bodies lying in the road. Israel ordered all civilians to leave northern Gaza last month and its forces have targeted vehicles and ambulances travelling along the main roads through the territory.
Israel has cut internet access for Gaza, so Ahmed didn’t receive news of the attack against his mother and sisters until the next day. He only knew that there had been a shooting and that they suffered severe injuries. It took many more hours to confirm they hadn’t been killed. “It was absolutely horrifying,” he said. “My older sisters were crying nonstop. We were very worried, constantly trying to find people to call, trying everything to make sure that they’re still alive.”
Ever since, Ahmed’s communication with his mother has been fleeting and sporadic. Most of Gaza is without power, and the internet is down most of the time. Noha has been staying in the hospital with her daughters.
In an interview with CNN from her bed in the Quds Hospital, broadcast on Tuesday, Farah recounted the attack on their vehicle and losing her fingers.
Farah in hospital during a CNN interview (CNN)
“I could have given up. All my blood dripped all over me,” she says, as the sound of bombs can be heard from outside the hospital.
“When I sleep, I dream of what happened to me. I can hear the rockets when they hit me and my sister and my mum,” she tells the interviewer.
Since the attack, Farah’s father Karam has been in almost constant communication with the US consulate in Jerusalem and the State Department. He too believes their family is not being given the proper help by the US government.
“We are US citizens. We are loyal to this country. Send the Red Cross,” he told CNN.
A State Department spokesperson told The Independent that the US does not control the Rafah border crossing into Egypt and that the list is determined by a “series of negotiations and discussions about process, procedure, and security vetting.”
“The situation remains fluid, and there have been delays and periodic, unexpected closures. Nonetheless, we expect exits to continue, and we will not stop working to get U.S. citizens and their immediate family members out as safely as possible,” the spokesperson added.
Over the weekend, after weeks of waiting, Ahmed’s sisters’ names appeared on the list for evacuation — but the family was too afraid to make the journey after their last attempt, and there have since been further reports of ambulances being fired upon on the road to Rafah.
The hospital where they were being treated announced on Sunday that it was “no longer operational” because it didn’t have any fuel for its generators. Ahmed got word on Tuesday that his mother and sisters had been evacuated from the hospital and were attempting to make their way to the border again. He is now waiting to hear if they made it through.
— Additional reporting by Bel Trew
Their families wiped out, grieving Palestinians in Gaza ask why
SAMYA KULLAB AND NAJIB JOBAIN
November 15, 2023 at 11:20 PM
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — The night a blast struck his family's home in the Gaza Strip, Ahmed al-Naouq was more than 2,000 miles away but he still jolted awake, consumed with inexplicable panic.
He reached for his cellphone to find that a friend had written — and then deleted — a message. Al-Naouq called him from London. The words that spilled from the other end of the line landed like world-shattering blows: Airstrike. Everyone killed.
Four nights later, Ammar al-Butta was startled from sleep in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis when the wall of his bedroom collapsed over him. A missile had pierced his top-floor apartment and exploded one floor below.
He lurched over the rubble, shining the light of his cellphone into the wreckage, calling out to his 16 relatives.
“Anyone there?” he cried. There was only silence.
Entire generations of Palestinian families in the besieged Gaza Strip — from great-grandparents to infants only weeks old — have been killed in airstrikes in the Israel-Hamas war, in which the Israeli army says it aims to root out the militant group from the densely populated coastal territory.
Attacks are occurring at a scale never seen in years of Israel-Hamas conflict, hitting residential areas, schools, hospitals, mosques and churches, even striking areas in southern Gaza where Israeli forces ordered civilians to flee.
Israel says the goal of the war is to destroy Hamas following the militant group’s deadly Oct. 7 rampage in southern Israel that killed at least 1,200 people, and it maintains that the attacks target militant operatives and infrastructure.
It blames the high death toll — more than 11,000 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry — on Hamas, saying the group endangers civilians by operating among the population and in tunnels underneath civilian areas. Israel says the death toll includes Hamas fighters.
But the scope of the destruction and loss of life in Gaza, with entire families wiped out in a single strike, has raised troubling questions about Israeli military tactics.
GENERATIONS LOST
It would take many hours of horror and mayhem before the truth would settle like the ash from the Oct. 20 explosion that leveled al-Naouq’s family's home: 21 relatives killed.
They included his 75-year old father, two brothers, three sisters and their 13 children.
“I can’t believe this actually happened,” al-Naouq, a graduate student in London, told The Associated Press. “Because if I calculate what it means, I will be destroyed.”
His father, Nasri, had recently told him that his sister Aya’s home was destroyed in northern Gaza and she was staying with them in the central city of Deir al-Balah, south of the area Israel had ordered Palestinians to leave.
A home can be rebuilt, al-Naouq recalled replying, all that matters is that she and the children are alive.
But just hours later, they were all dead: Wala'a, the most accomplished of the al-Naouq children with a degree in engineering, and her four children; Alaa and her five children; Aya, known for her wry sense of humor, and her three children; older brother Muhammed; and younger brother Mahmoud, who was preparing to travel to Australia for graduate studies when the war broke out.
Nine of the 21 are still under the rubble; dire fuel shortages prevented civil defense crews from digging them out.
Identifying the dead was another traumatizing endeavor; many bodies were unrecognizable, most were in pieces.
Al-Naouq’s sister, Doaa, who was not in the house at the time of the strike, told him she couldn’t bear the smell of the rotting flesh of their loved ones under the rubble. Someone showed her body parts retrieved from the site and told her it was one of their sisters.
There were two survivors: Shimaa, al-Naouq’s sister-in-law, and Omar, his 3-year-old nephew. His 11-year old niece, Malaka, was taken to al-Aqsa hospital with severe burns but died after doctors gave her ICU bed to another patient with a better chance of survival, his sister Doaa said.
Doctors have to make extraordinarily difficult triage decisions, and severely wounded patients are being left to die because of shortages of beds, medical supplies and fuel, said Dr. Mohammed Qandeel, in Nasser Hospital, Gaza’s second-largest.
“We leave most as we don’t have ventilators or beds,” he said of patients in need of intensive care with complicated blast wounds. “We’ve reached full collapse.”
COMPETING CLAIMS
Israel doesn't say how it chooses targets in densely populated Gaza. But Israeli officials say many strikes on homes are based on intelligence assessments that wanted Hamas operatives are inside. Though it gives few details, Israel says every airstrike is reviewed by legal experts to ensure they comply with international law.
Many Gaza families deny any Hamas targets were operating from their homes.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but says a majority of Palestinians killed have been minors and women, about 4,500 and 2,200 respectively. At least 304 families have lost at least 10 relatives; about 31 families have lost over 30, according to a Nov. 6 health ministry report. That number is likely higher now as intense Israeli bombardment has continued.
Among the families with the highest number of casualties, many have been children.
The al-Astal family lost 89 relatives, 18 of them children under the age of 10, including three babies not yet a year old, according to an Oct. 26 ministry report. The Hassouna family had 74 killed, including 22 children ranging in age from 1 to 10 years old, it said. The Najjars lost 65 relatives: Nine were under 10 years old and 13 were under 4.
Ammar al-Butta says his relatives were all civilians with no links to Hamas.
The Saqallah family, his cousins known for their sweet shops in Gaza City, had taken shelter with al-Butta’s family in their four-story house in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, heeding Israeli evacuation orders.
The family arrived with trays of confections for their hosts. Joking with his cousins in the family’s living room was a rare moment of respite in the fog of war and displacement, the 29-year-old teacher said.
One cousin, Ahmed Saqallah, 42, spoke of rebuilding his family's bomb-damaged home and looked forward to fixing the plumbing and painting.
“Simple, sweet dreams,” al-Butta said.
Ten days later all 16 Saqallahs, from 69-year old Nadia to baby Asaad, not yet a year old, were killed in the Oct. 24 pre-dawn attack.
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
A question left by al-Naouq in his family's WhatsApp group the night the blast leveled their home — “Tell me, how are you guys?” — remains unanswered.
The distance has made the devastating news all the more surreal. Observing London’s peaceful nights, where sounds of mirth resonate from restaurants and bars, al-Naouq imagines the airstrikes lighting Gaza’s skies, the screams of panicked residents. His family, lying lifeless under the rubble.
He has no idea where his relatives' bodies are buried. There was no space in the hospital morgue to keep them. They could be in a mass grave, but al-Naouq has no way of knowing.
Al-Butta said the Saqallah family was buried in his family grave in Khan Younis. The entire neighborhood mourned when they were interred. “Our eyes are dry,” he said. “There are no tears left.”
In the chaos of the war, taking account of the dead is a rushed, heart-rending process.
It begins with relatives scribbling the names of the dead and missing. They dig into the rubble with their hands, calling out for survivors. Hospitals later issue death certificates.
Grieving relatives, who maintain no one in their households had links to Hamas, ask: Why them?
“Why would they kill children and an old man?” asked al-Naouq. “What is the military justification for bombing my house? They were all civilians.”
“I wish, one day, I can meet the one who pulled the trigger. I want to ask him: Why did you do it?”
SAMYA KULLAB AND NAJIB JOBAIN
November 15, 2023 at 11:20 PM
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — The night a blast struck his family's home in the Gaza Strip, Ahmed al-Naouq was more than 2,000 miles away but he still jolted awake, consumed with inexplicable panic.
He reached for his cellphone to find that a friend had written — and then deleted — a message. Al-Naouq called him from London. The words that spilled from the other end of the line landed like world-shattering blows: Airstrike. Everyone killed.
Four nights later, Ammar al-Butta was startled from sleep in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis when the wall of his bedroom collapsed over him. A missile had pierced his top-floor apartment and exploded one floor below.
He lurched over the rubble, shining the light of his cellphone into the wreckage, calling out to his 16 relatives.
“Anyone there?” he cried. There was only silence.
Entire generations of Palestinian families in the besieged Gaza Strip — from great-grandparents to infants only weeks old — have been killed in airstrikes in the Israel-Hamas war, in which the Israeli army says it aims to root out the militant group from the densely populated coastal territory.
Attacks are occurring at a scale never seen in years of Israel-Hamas conflict, hitting residential areas, schools, hospitals, mosques and churches, even striking areas in southern Gaza where Israeli forces ordered civilians to flee.
Israel says the goal of the war is to destroy Hamas following the militant group’s deadly Oct. 7 rampage in southern Israel that killed at least 1,200 people, and it maintains that the attacks target militant operatives and infrastructure.
It blames the high death toll — more than 11,000 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry — on Hamas, saying the group endangers civilians by operating among the population and in tunnels underneath civilian areas. Israel says the death toll includes Hamas fighters.
But the scope of the destruction and loss of life in Gaza, with entire families wiped out in a single strike, has raised troubling questions about Israeli military tactics.
GENERATIONS LOST
It would take many hours of horror and mayhem before the truth would settle like the ash from the Oct. 20 explosion that leveled al-Naouq’s family's home: 21 relatives killed.
They included his 75-year old father, two brothers, three sisters and their 13 children.
“I can’t believe this actually happened,” al-Naouq, a graduate student in London, told The Associated Press. “Because if I calculate what it means, I will be destroyed.”
His father, Nasri, had recently told him that his sister Aya’s home was destroyed in northern Gaza and she was staying with them in the central city of Deir al-Balah, south of the area Israel had ordered Palestinians to leave.
A home can be rebuilt, al-Naouq recalled replying, all that matters is that she and the children are alive.
But just hours later, they were all dead: Wala'a, the most accomplished of the al-Naouq children with a degree in engineering, and her four children; Alaa and her five children; Aya, known for her wry sense of humor, and her three children; older brother Muhammed; and younger brother Mahmoud, who was preparing to travel to Australia for graduate studies when the war broke out.
Nine of the 21 are still under the rubble; dire fuel shortages prevented civil defense crews from digging them out.
Identifying the dead was another traumatizing endeavor; many bodies were unrecognizable, most were in pieces.
Al-Naouq’s sister, Doaa, who was not in the house at the time of the strike, told him she couldn’t bear the smell of the rotting flesh of their loved ones under the rubble. Someone showed her body parts retrieved from the site and told her it was one of their sisters.
There were two survivors: Shimaa, al-Naouq’s sister-in-law, and Omar, his 3-year-old nephew. His 11-year old niece, Malaka, was taken to al-Aqsa hospital with severe burns but died after doctors gave her ICU bed to another patient with a better chance of survival, his sister Doaa said.
Doctors have to make extraordinarily difficult triage decisions, and severely wounded patients are being left to die because of shortages of beds, medical supplies and fuel, said Dr. Mohammed Qandeel, in Nasser Hospital, Gaza’s second-largest.
“We leave most as we don’t have ventilators or beds,” he said of patients in need of intensive care with complicated blast wounds. “We’ve reached full collapse.”
COMPETING CLAIMS
Israel doesn't say how it chooses targets in densely populated Gaza. But Israeli officials say many strikes on homes are based on intelligence assessments that wanted Hamas operatives are inside. Though it gives few details, Israel says every airstrike is reviewed by legal experts to ensure they comply with international law.
Many Gaza families deny any Hamas targets were operating from their homes.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but says a majority of Palestinians killed have been minors and women, about 4,500 and 2,200 respectively. At least 304 families have lost at least 10 relatives; about 31 families have lost over 30, according to a Nov. 6 health ministry report. That number is likely higher now as intense Israeli bombardment has continued.
Among the families with the highest number of casualties, many have been children.
The al-Astal family lost 89 relatives, 18 of them children under the age of 10, including three babies not yet a year old, according to an Oct. 26 ministry report. The Hassouna family had 74 killed, including 22 children ranging in age from 1 to 10 years old, it said. The Najjars lost 65 relatives: Nine were under 10 years old and 13 were under 4.
Ammar al-Butta says his relatives were all civilians with no links to Hamas.
The Saqallah family, his cousins known for their sweet shops in Gaza City, had taken shelter with al-Butta’s family in their four-story house in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, heeding Israeli evacuation orders.
The family arrived with trays of confections for their hosts. Joking with his cousins in the family’s living room was a rare moment of respite in the fog of war and displacement, the 29-year-old teacher said.
One cousin, Ahmed Saqallah, 42, spoke of rebuilding his family's bomb-damaged home and looked forward to fixing the plumbing and painting.
“Simple, sweet dreams,” al-Butta said.
Ten days later all 16 Saqallahs, from 69-year old Nadia to baby Asaad, not yet a year old, were killed in the Oct. 24 pre-dawn attack.
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
A question left by al-Naouq in his family's WhatsApp group the night the blast leveled their home — “Tell me, how are you guys?” — remains unanswered.
The distance has made the devastating news all the more surreal. Observing London’s peaceful nights, where sounds of mirth resonate from restaurants and bars, al-Naouq imagines the airstrikes lighting Gaza’s skies, the screams of panicked residents. His family, lying lifeless under the rubble.
He has no idea where his relatives' bodies are buried. There was no space in the hospital morgue to keep them. They could be in a mass grave, but al-Naouq has no way of knowing.
Al-Butta said the Saqallah family was buried in his family grave in Khan Younis. The entire neighborhood mourned when they were interred. “Our eyes are dry,” he said. “There are no tears left.”
In the chaos of the war, taking account of the dead is a rushed, heart-rending process.
It begins with relatives scribbling the names of the dead and missing. They dig into the rubble with their hands, calling out for survivors. Hospitals later issue death certificates.
Grieving relatives, who maintain no one in their households had links to Hamas, ask: Why them?
“Why would they kill children and an old man?” asked al-Naouq. “What is the military justification for bombing my house? They were all civilians.”
“I wish, one day, I can meet the one who pulled the trigger. I want to ask him: Why did you do it?”
No comments:
Post a Comment